The Sermon on the Mount XII

Subtitle:  Correcting the Righteousness of the Hypocrites III

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

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

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

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

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

Let’s look at our passage.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Prayer audio

The Acts of the Apostles 55

Subtitle: Tested by the Gospel

Acts 13:42-52.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on September 17, 2023.

Paul has just finished sharing the Gospel, the good news that Messiah had come and all that goes with that.  It would have been amazing to hear that Messiah had come, and it would have been even more amazing to hear that he had been put to death.  Yet, on top of this, God had raised him up from the dead!  This had to floor the assembly.

The resurrection of Jesus had obtained forgiveness of sins, and justification before God, for everyone who put their faith in Jesus.  This was not just for Israel, but for the Gentiles as well.

Our passage picks up right at the point where the synagogue service is over.

There are several layers to the testing of God's Word.  It is good to accept the Bible as God's proven, written word.  You could say that this is itself a test.  Will you accept it on those terms?  However, having accepted the Bible as God's word, you are not done with being tested by God's Word.  It is not enough to merely state that they are God's word, and even religiously so.  You will be tested in life on whether you really know them, and believe them.  You will also be tested on whether or not you have come to know the heart of the God who gave them to us.

In this sense, the written word of God gets the ball of belief and repentance rolling.  It even helps as a kind of guardrail, so we don't drive off the cliff of life.  However, the Bible is spiritual, and we need to have a spiritual relationship with the One who has given it to us.  We should pray, and wrestle through the word and our life before God, seeking His leading, opening ourselves up to Him.  All kinds of tests will come our way to see if we are going to continue trusting God.

Let's get into our passage.

Paul and Barnabas leave the synagogue (v. 42-43)

There are two textual issues with verse 42 that I want to deal with up front.

The first has to do with who is leaving the synagogue.  The New King James Version (and KJV) describes it as the Jews leaving.  Yet, it also has a note explaining that it could also be translated as "When they left the synagogue of the Jews."  In case you think this has to do with the modern translations, let me just let you know that the Wycliffe English translation of the 1300s (nearly 300 years before the KJV) does not translate it as the Jews leaving.  This makes sense when you are told by verse 43 that "many of the Jews" had followed Paul and Barnabas.

The second textual issue has to do with whether Luke actually wrote that the "Gentiles" were the ones asking Paul and Barnabas to come back the next Sabbath, or whether it was the general "they."  It is most likely a large part of the whole group, both Jews and Gentiles, in light of verse 43.  Of course, these variant readings do not affect doctrine in any way.

The amazing things taught by Paul would have been shocking, and so it makes sense that a large group is asking them to come back at the next Sabbath meeting and tell them more about these happenings.  The initial response to Paul and Barnabas seems to be positive.  There is no hint that there is a problem at this point.

I do think we need to be careful of seeing this as a Christian versus Jew issue.  This was simply some Jewish brothers telling the synagogue something very strange.

We are not given an idea of the size of this synagogue, or of Antioch's population.  Yet, many Jews and devout proselytes (Gentiles) followed Paul and Barnabas.  They questioned them further.  Luke ends with Paul persuading them all to continue in the grace of God.

Though grace is a general term, in this context, it no doubt refers to the good news about Jesus that they had received.  There is the grace of God fulfilling HIs promises to Israel, but there is the greater grace of them receiving word about it so that they could believe and take advantage of its benefits.

As a republic, we are very spoiled when it comes to the grace of God.  We have received both natural and spiritual grace from Him.  Yet, when God supplies grace, He does it for a reason, and it has a responsibility to it.  We are a nation that loves to talk about rights, but we don't like talking about the responsibilities that go along with those rights.  Similarly, we love to talk about grace, but not the responsibility that goes along with God's grace.  Why does God give grace into our lives?  Is it because he loves us more than others?  Is it because we are better than others?  It is always a mistake to think this way.

God has blessed us, and there are many people in these united States who are not serving Jesus, but they are living off the blessings that have been won by others (so to speak).  Yet, this is just how God is.  He allows it to rain upon the just and the unjust.  There is a certain amount of grace that is made available to all, or all who are in a particular place.  It is called general grace. 

However, God can send specific grace, and it can come out of the blue, like we see in our passage today.  Those who came to synagogue that day received the grace that God was delivering that day.  You never know what grace God is going to distribute through somebody on any given day.  Yet, some Gentiles who don't even go to synagogue are also going to be blessed.  The ambassadors of Jesus had come to this town and everyone would receive the grace of hearing the Gospel of Jesus! 

This is a test.  Maybe some of the people in that town deserved to hear the Gospel, and, no doubt, a lot of them didn't deserve the Gospel.  However, God did a work that caused the whole town to hear the Gospel.

Whether we have smooth sailing or turbulent waters, we are called to be filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.  This is how verse 43 ends.  The key to both is fully embracing Jesus in faith.

Let' move forward in the text.

The next sabbath does not go well (v. 44-52)

Paul and Barnabas have continued to speak with whomever they can, but now we come to the next sabbath meeting.  What a difference a week, or a day, or a second, can make.  This is true even in just our own decision making.  How much more is it true when God begins to do a new thing?  We can be guilty of having an attitude that complains, "It will never change!"  But, when God steps on the scene, the question is not about whether it will change or not.  It will!  The question will be about where you are going to end up in relation to what God is doing.  Are you going to be on God's side, or are you going to be resisting, even fighting against, what God is doing?

Though this day didn't "go well," a good thing still happened that day.  It is better to find out that you haven't been trusting in God nearly as much as you put on, than to continue in empty religiosity that doesn't please God.  If you are trying to keep the boat from rocking because you tell yourself that this good boat should not rock, you had better be careful.  One day God is going to come along and rock your boat.  The problem will be that you have spent so much time trying to keep the boat from rocking that you will be unprepared for a rocking boat.  You may be pitched over the side on that day because your faith is in everything, but the Lord Jesus.  

What am I living for?  I can say it is Jesus, but when God moves, I will be tested on just how much I am living for Jesus.  We are such an entertained and amused society, but God is not entertained, and God is not amused.

We live in a time where it is getting harder and harder to live for Jesus.  The devil doesn't want you living for Jesus.  This world, our culture, sure doesn't want you living for Jesus.  It is not very efficient having a large group of people following a "2,000 year old idea."  "You people are not helping us build the Utopia that we could build if everyone did the same thing!"  Of course, efficiency sounds good-much like unity.  We can be efficiently rebelling against God, and unifying in resisting the leading of the Holy Spirit.  God help us to be led by the Spirit of God, and not religious programmers in the Church, or social programmers in the world.

It is not hard to picture the scene that Luke paints.  Though this is not a metropolis, almost the whole city shows up for the synagogue service, really to hear the Gospel from Paul and Barnabas.  It goes without saying that the synagogue would not be big enough for them all, so the following interaction may or may not have taken place outside.

Now, let's be real.  Not everyone who showed up had the desire to repent and be saved.  Some were there to hear the interesting message from the "horses mouth."  Yet, some of them are being drawn by the Holy Spirit.

Working for the Lord has some interesting dynamics to it.  There are long periods of being faithful, and yet seeing only a small response.  Is it worth it?  We can become hung up on the fact that no Red Sea was parted today.  Yet, on most days of the world, God has not parted the Red Sea, or even something close to that.  In fact, Jesus warned his generation (a generation that saw more than their fair share of miracles) that it is a wicked and perverse generation that seeks for signs.

Yet, there are those days when God moves spectacularly.  From time to time, God can move upon an individual, a town, an area, even a nation, in powerful ways.  It is similar to Israel in the wilderness.  Most days, they were simply going about their business: forage for manna, tend to the goats, correct the children, etc.  However, one day that cloud would start moving.  On this day in Antioch, the God of Israel was beginning to move in a big way.  Who would follow the cloud?  We call such times revival.

The things that are happening in our society, I think, are God trying to make us hungry for Him.  He is trying to make us realize that some of the things that we have been living for are not good enough as replacements for Him.  Our flesh is grasping at certain things that we don't want to lose and be lash out at others because of it.  And yet, the Spirit may be saying to you, "Let it go, and come into the secret place with your Lord, Jesus."

God has a timing for when He moves, a season.  It is our job to be faithful, and ready to move.  We wait upon the Lord, as we keep faithful working for harvest.  God was moving in Antioch of Pisidia.  Who would follow Him?

We are told that they were filled with envy when they saw the multitudes.  We know that this wasn't every single Jew.  It would have been led by the synagogue leaders, and rabbis.  Perhaps, they were angered that they had worked in that town for so many years and never saw such a crowd gather to hear the Word of God.  Regardless, something came out of them that day that wasn't good.

The word translated envy here is actually a neutral term that needs context to help us know exactly what it is.  It has at its root the sense of zeal, passion, that is aroused by someone or something that is excelling.

The noble sense is that we see someone else excel in serving God, and a passion is stirred up for us to want to be like them.  It recognizes a lack in self, and that fuels a determination to seek God.  In such a case, it would probably be translated as zeal.

The bad, or ignoble, sense refuses to accept a lack in self, and instead seeks to tear down the one who is excelling.  Thus, it is called envy.  Their hearts had not been in the right place.  There was stuff lurking in their heart that wasn't good, and on that day, the move of God brought it crashing out into the light of day.

Can I handle God moving through someone else when I have been working in the field for years with much less to show for it?  Many of the synagogue attendees failed the test that day.  Perhaps, they had not been working for God all along.  Or, they may be caught up in following the leaders. 

Everyone who teaches the Gospel is also tested by the very words they preach.  In many ways, God will bring situations around to test you on whether or not you truly believe what you preach.  These leaders stubbornly contradicted Paul as he spoke.  They even blasphemed.  This is not detailed, but blasphemy is basically saying anything that is untrue of God.  We can only imagine that they rejected what Paul was saying about Jesus, thinking this was safe territory.  However, it was blasphemy.  They were lying about God.

Imagine this.  They could have helped God that day.  They could have worked to get all of these Gentiles saved and starting their discipleship.  Instead, they rebelled.  It didn't have to be contention.

Who gets the glory anyways?  There is too much struggling to get the glory in the Church today.  Does the planter get the glory?  How about the one who waters?  Maybe, it is the one who leads them in the sinner's prayer who gets the glory.  No.  It is Jesus who gets all the glory.  Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord!

This causes Paul and Barnabas to rebuke them for resisting God.  They were becoming a stumbling block to Gentiles who were coming to Christ, and most likely a stumbling block to Jews who wanted to believe, but were too easily persuaded by what the leaders choose, the experts.  Many foolish things are done in the name of following experts, or the majority.  God in His grace gives us men and women with gifts and abilities that we do not.  However, they can never supplant the place of God in our hearts.  In the end, you are to be following God.  He is the only true leader of the Church.  At the most, authorities and positions in the Church can only be helpers to Jesus.  And, those helpers need help themselves.  This is why God distributes His spiritual gifts variously throughout the body. 

It was necessary for Paul and Barnabas to share the Gospel with the Jews first.  The people of Israel had taught and looked for the promise of God for over 1,500  years!  Yet, God wanted to bless the Gentiles too.  Paul quotes Isaiah 49:6, which is in the second Servant Song of Isaiah.  These Servant Songs are pictures of Messiah that culminate in chapter 53.  A common theme throughout all of these passages is that Messiah will be a light to the Gentiles and a cause for their salvation!

Paul says that they will now turn to the Gentiles.  He is not saying that he will never share the Gospel with another Jew again.  He is a Jew!  Rather, we will see him going to the synagogue first in each new town he visits.  He knows that he will find resisters there, but he will also find hungry hearts.  Listen, there are also many resisters, even rebels, in the Church of God today.  But, do not become discouraged.  God is moving, and He is not done yet!  Just make sure that you are moving with Him.

We are told that the Gentiles believed, glorified the word of God, and spread the Gospel in the region.  The mention of the Gentiles most likely means those who were not proselytes, or God-fearers.  A group of believers in Jesus, some Jews and some Gentiles, was launched that day in Antioch of Pisidia!  They clearly went to work spreading the Gospel in the days ahead.

Though we are at the ends of the earth, there are still many who have not had a hearing of the Gospel.  It is not just about geography6.  In fact, the ancient city of Antioch is in the interior of a staunchly Muslim country today.  It is safe to say that there are people there who need the Gospel, just as there are here in Washington State.  May we be a people believing Jesus, and glorifying the Word of God by taking the Gospel to whomever will listen.

The Jewish leadership goes on to instigate the leaders of the town against Paul and Barnabas.  They essentially frog-march them to the end of town and expel them from their town.  We don't know how long this took.  Maybe it was in one day, maybe several weeks.  Regardless, the clock was ticking from day one on how much of the Gospel Paul and Barnabas could preach, and how much they could disciple the new believers.  The clock is always ticking on our endeavors.  We are not guaranteed tomorrow in the work, so we are to do what God gives us to do each day.

Paul and Barnabas kick the dust off of their shoes as a witness against the rebels of this town.  However, a church would remain behind.  It is easier to expel outsiders.  However, the people who lived in town and had become believers would now have to serve Jesus in spite of persecution themselves.  Yes, they too would be further tested, even thought they had accepted the Gospel.

May God help us to pass the tests that He has for us this week.

Tested audio

The Acts of the Apostles 18

Subtitle: Lying to the Holy Spirit II

Acts 5:7-11.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on September 18, 2022.

Last week, we dealt with the death of Ananias, and today we will deal with the death of his wife, Sapphira.

Ananias is a Greek form of the Hebrew name Hananiah.  It means ‘the favor of Yahweh,” or “the grace of Yahweh.”  Sapphira’s name is a reference to the sapphire gem.

Though one could think of their names as ironic in this story, it is more likely that they serve to emphasize the tragedy of their lives and their fall into judgment.  God was pouring out the greatest grace and favor that the world had ever seen in the work of Jesus.  He followed this up with the amazing gift of pouring out the Holy Spirit upon those who believed in Jesus.  How tragic to fall short of the grace of God.

Similarly, Sapphira’s name should remind us of God’s ultimate goal for believers, which is spoken of in the Old Testament.  Daniel 12:2-3 says that the righteous who are resurrected will “shine like the brightness of the firmament,” and “like the stars forever and ever.”  This imagery of shining stars is used in the Bible for spiritual beings.  It also is connected to gems.  Read Malachi 3:15-18.  God speaks of a day in which He declares that the righteous will become His.  “’They shall be Mine,’ says the LORD of Hosts, ‘on the day that I make them My jewels.  And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.’”

This story is a tragedy of the highest level.  May God hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

Let’s get into our passage.

His wife follows him in his sin

It might seem strange to us that Ananias is buried without his wife’s knowledge, but it would have been similar to her husband being in the morgue.  In those days, a family would typically have a tomb that had a platform in the middle.  The dead body would be laid on the platform and allowed to decompose over the course of a year.  Later the bones would be gathered up into a bone box called an ossuary and deposited within one of several niches that would be in the walls.  Whole families would be buried in the same tomb this way.  Also, It would be necessary to deal with a body right away due to the heat.

Verse 2 tells us that Sapphira knew what her husband was doing.  We should pause and discuss the difficulty of having a spouse who is pursuing sin.  Many Christians have had to deal with being married to unbelieving spouses.  In fact, the Apostle Paul encourages such to stay married as long as the unbelieving spouse is open to it because you never know how God may use it to save their soul.  It can be more nuanced if you have a “believing” spouse who is serving their flesh rather than Jesus.  Regardless, Sapphira had a choice to make.  She could refuse to stand with her husband in this sin, or she could join him in it.  Sadly, she chooses to join him in his sin.

Don’t get me wrong.  There is no reason to make Sapphira to be the instigator, or innocent bystander.  Perhaps she was like Jezebel goading Ahab on in worship of Baal.  Maybe she was not.  All spouses should recognize that their life deeply affects their spouse for good or for bad.

It is three hours after the death of Ananias that Sapphira shows up.  It would stand to reason that she is looking for him, wondering why he is taking so long.  She gets there minutes before the men who have buried her husband make it back to the place where Peter is. 

It is at this point that Peter questions Sapphira about the value of the property sold.  It would be easy to blame Peter here.  Couldn’t he have led with the fact that her husband had lied and had been struck dead by God?  Yes, he could have.  However, Peter questions her to see if she is in on it.  I mentioned last week that I don’t believe Peter knew up front that Ananias was going to die.  Otherwise, we would expect him to pronounce something so, like he does here with Sapphira.  God had made it shockingly clear to Peter that this was to be taken seriously, and Peter is only taking this seriously.  How bad has this wickedness spread?

Tragically, Sapphira lies to Peter, and therefore, lies to the Holy Spirit as well.  Peter rebukes her for her sin, and adds some further light to why this is taken so seriously.  Sapphira will fall down dead and breathe her last as her husband did.

The first part of this rebuke is in reference to the Holy Spirit.  Sapphira had agreed with Ananias to “test” the Holy Spirit.  The Greek term it translates is often used of the devil tempting us.  It typically means to test so as to make someone fail.  A test can be a good thing that measures your progress and helps you to see where you need to improve.  In general, teachers are not actually trying to fail their students, but they do have a duty to make sure that the kids are learning the material.  This will ensure that the student is able to get more work on the failed problems.

The plot of Ananias and Sapphira is not devised to strengthen the Church, Peter, or God.  They hope to get the social reputation of donating all the proceeds of their sale without having to do it.  Their lie is selfish, and somehow, they believe that God won’t do anything about it.  This begs a lot of questions.  Were they actually saved, or only going along with the group because amazing things were happening?  Did they actually believe God was behind these things, or did they somehow believe it was more like magic, the involvement of an impersonal force?  Of course, we cannot know.

I believe that America is testing the Holy Spirit today, and has been for a long time.  We have been coasting on the grace that prior generations have won for us, but now, the judgment of God is in our land.  Everywhere around us, we see the crumbling culture.  The principle of death is being breathed into the land through every action of sin.  Yet, there is still hope.  We can see the turmoil and repent. 

In fact, God generally sends his judgment in increasing waves.  This makes me wonder if Ananias and Sapphira hadn’t had some warnings from God earlier.

Peter tells Sapphira that the same men who were coming in the door from burying her husband will now bury her.  She then dies as Peter has prophesied.  No leader should ever dare to utter this kind of statement unless it is really from God.  As I said, God had made it clear that He wasn’t letting this pass.

Whether I am judged by God on the spot or after 80 years of this life, the testimony of Scripture is that Jesus is a righteous judge.  He knows the thoughts and intents of our hearts.  You cannot fool God.

Yet, none of us can be good enough to merit grace in that hour.  I don’t believe that God wants us to be unsure of that day.  1 John 5:13 states that we can know that we have eternal life.  Still, there is a tension between being confident of our salvation, and yet not letting that become an excuse for sin.  The saved person will fight their own sin.  There will be losses and wins in that battle, but the Lord will deliver them from them all.  This tension can be described as a tension between being afraid of God and having a healthy fear of the Lord.

Luke mentions twice that fear came upon everyone who heard about the story (vs 5, 11).  For Christians, it would be the fear of the Lord that wisely fights against sin in their life.  For unbelievers, it is more than likely a fear of the unknown.  It would be a fear of not knowing what is really going on among those people.

Just because this is the Age of Grace does not mean that God is no longer making judgments.  If we eat up His grace and spend it on our lusts, instead of putting our faith upon Jesus, working to become like him, then we will pay with our life.  We will receive eternal life or eternal death, eternal glory or eternal shame.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  It teaches us to stop asking how close to the cliff we can hang out without falling.  The whole point is to want to be close to Jesus, to have intimate communion with him.  I fear the holiness of God too much to try and lie to Him.

Of course, any time we tell Jesus that we love him, we are somewhat like Peter was in John 21.  My words may be greater than my flesh can back up right now, but Lord you know my heart.  You know that my spirit is willing, but my flesh is weak.  God is gracious and is not looking for an excuse to take you out.  That tells me something drastically wrong was going on inside of Ananias and Sapphira.  I should not try to look like anything more than a sinner being set free from my sins as Jesus helps me.

Now, let’s come full circle on God’s love for us.  Remember, God is not willing that anyone perish, but that all come to repentance and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.  More than that, God wants for you to be the recipient of His grace and favor.  He wants you to be at His side shining like the stars.  In fact, a beautiful thing about gems is that they don’t have internal light.  At His side, we will not only be gems, but the most dazzling light of God will be shining through us.  What a day that will be!

Lying to the Holy Spirit II audio

Jesus Offers Himself as King

Mark 11:1-11.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on April 14, 2019.

Today we are celebrating Palm Sunday and so I will skip ahead in the Gospel of Mark to the passage that deals with the Sunday before the crucifixion of Jesus.  On this day, Jesus came into Jerusalem riding on a donkey’s colt.  What is he doing?  Jesus is offering himself to them as the Son of David for whom they had waited, and of whom the prophet Zechariah had prophesied in chapter 9:9.  It is not just because he is on a donkey’s colt, but also because of the powerful things Jesus had done before this.  Their constant question to him of whether or not he was the Messiah seems to receive a clear answer in his action here.  Yes, Jesus is offering himself to them as their king and it appears as if they are receiving him.

As we walk through this story today, I want us to take two images from this.  Here we have the lowly Jesus riding on a donkey’s colt.  On the other hand, Scripture gives the picture in the book of Revelation of the Mother of Prostitutes riding on a seven-headed beast.  Who will you choose to be king?  Jesus did not come to build a beastly system in order to crush the world under his authority.  Rather, he came as a humble man, a little lamb, offering citizenship in a coming kingdom to whosoever will.  He came to offer adoption into the family of God to whosoever will.  He came to offer his hand in marriage to whosoever will.  So, what will you choose?  Will you choose citizenship in a beastly kingdom ruled by harlots, adoption into a family of wickedness, marriage to the man of sin who will one day rule the world?  As for me and my house, we will choose the Lord Jesus!

The king asks us to help

This is an important picture of the character of God.  Though He has all power and doesn’t need us, He does want us to have a part in what He is doing.  Thus, Jesus gives his disciples some instructions to go get a certain donkey at a certain place.  Now, before we get into these specific instructions from the master, it would be good to recognize another aspect of his instructions or commands.

We have general instructions from Jesus that are to all who want to follow Him at all times.  We find them in the Word of God in commands like, “Love your enemies and do good to those that hate you.”  Matthew 5:44. It is interesting that in our modern society we are beginning to redefine love and hate to the point that something that is actually loving is declared as hatred.  For example, if these things about Jesus are true then no other religion on earth, or lack thereof, can save someone.  If I truly cared about a person, I would lovingly tell that they are following a false religion that cannot save them.  No, I wouldn’t ridicule them and abuse them in anyway, but I just might end up hurting their feelings by telling them the truth regardless of the fact that it was not my intent.  Yet, such is increasingly labeled as “hate-speech.”  Regardless of all that, if you are a believer in Jesus then you have received general instructions from Christ with which you are expected to wrestle with your context in order to obey.  We constantly ask ourselves and the Lord what it means in this specific situation.  Instead of listing all possible situations and legislating what the loving thing to do is, Christ expects us to grapple with these issues ourselves and with the help of the Holy Spirit.  This often leads to times of prayer and seeking God for specific direction.

Yet, there are times when we receive specific instructions from the Lord by the Holy Spirit.  Christ is not physically on the earth to give a specific word.  The disciples that day did not ask themselves, “Is this really the will of the master?”  They knew for sure because Jesus was right in front of them.  However, we take the general command into our prayer life and seek the specific instruction of the Lord for each context.  Sometimes he speaks to us by his Spirit and sometimes he lets us struggle to work it out.  Always, he is watching over us and helping us.

Now, our flesh can interfere in this process of receiving specific instruction from the Lord.  It can try to talk us out of doing what God is asking because it doesn’t make sense to us, or will make us look silly.  On the other hand, it can also dream up things in order to stroke the ego.  We must humbly and prayerfully consider what we believe God is telling us.  We should have godly Christians around us that we are comfortable sharing the things with which we are wrestling.  In the end, we should step out in faith and trust the directions of the Lord.  We are choosing in those moments to help him in the endeavor that he is doing.

So, Jesus was planning to enter Jerusalem in a spectacular way and he gave his disciples specific instructions.  However, those instructions did not explain everything.  Have you ever noticed this about God?  He tells us enough so that we can do what He wants, but He doesn’t tell us everything.  This is a hard thing for our flesh to take.  What if they think we are stealing the colt?  What if they call for the police and take us to jail?

The answer is that Jesus always has others who belong to him that we do not know.  This is worth remembering in life.  Though Jesus had 12 disciples, everything was not on their shoulders.  Jesus had other disciples that were wrestling with following his instructions too.  They didn’t travel around with him like the 12, but they were real disciples nonetheless.  We need to trust the small part that God has given us to do and know that it will be magnified by all the many small tasks of the other disciples around us.  Some will be people that we know, but most will be people we don’t.  The key point is that the Spirit of God is able to orchestrate these things as we simply learn to trust him.  May God help us to learn always to be ready to do the work that will show the world the truth of who God is.

So, the disciples go and find the colt that Jesus told them about and, sure enough, someone asks them what they think they are doing.  When they give the response that Jesus told them to give, the guys let them go.  Imagine that!  No problems.  Now why did Jesus want a donkey anyways?

The king doesn’t always do what we expect him to do

Jesus is often an enigma to us because we are so used to analyzing things with our fleshly minds and don’t fully comprehend the ways of God.  So, following him can often throw us some curve balls.  If you want to follow Jesus then you are going to be tested.  In fact, walking with Jesus tests everyone, even those that look like this Christianity is easy stuff.  The curve balls of life will test our ability to keep listening to Jesus.  On this day, Israel was being tested as a whole, but each individual person was being tested as well.  The crowds seem to be ready to accept Jesus as king.  Clearly the disciples have already accepted Jesus and are on board.  It is interesting that Mark doesn’t mention the Chief Priests, Scribes, and the Pharisees, as in the other gospels.  Most of them have made up their minds to reject Jesus and in fact have been plotting a way to execute him.

It might be helpful to analyze our response to Jesus with a logic grid.  On one axis we will mark their initial response to Jesus as Yes or No.  On the other axis we will mark their faith in Jesus at the end of their life as a Yes or No. 

Thus, we end up with 4 possible outcomes, YY, YN, NY, NN.  Those who quickly said yes to Jesus and stayed with him to the end would be those first disciples like James, John, Peter and Andrew, etc.  Judas would represent the one who said yes up front, but fell away from Jesus in the end.  The apostle Paul would represent the one who rejected Jesus at first, but then later had a change of heart and stuck with Jesus to the end.  Lastly, we have those who went to their grave, never having put their faith in Jesus at all.  What is the real difference between a YY person and a NY?  How about a YN and a NN?  We should quickly realize that it doesn’t really matter how quickly I responded to Jesus.  What really matters is where I am in the end.  In fact, there is a world of trials that happen between our initial acquaintance with Jesus and the end of our life.  Every day tests whether or not we will stay with Jesus.  The apostle Peter himself publicly denied the Lord for a time, but he was granted repentance and was restored.  Forget about what your score is along the way, and choose to follow Jesus today.

Faith is not about how perfect we look, but where we end up.  Today, if you hear his voice, don’t harden your heart, but rather say, “Speak, Lord.  Your servant is listening.”  Keep your eye upon the heavenly prize.  Keep your allegiance with Christ and trust that he will pull you through in the end, regardless of how many times you fail.  Go to war against those things within you that seek to pull you away from Jesus, and to give up in the end.

The crowds began to shout as they see what Jesus is doing.  They are ready for Jesus to raise up the fallen kingdom of David, which the prophets had promised.  They wanted the Kingdom of David, but it was too late for that.  When he gets to Jerusalem and goes to the temple it says this.  “So, when he had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.”  Jesus knew that he was going to get their late.  Why not wait until the next morning?  It is as if the “too late” here is a metaphor for the desires of the people.  He had done it on purpose.  Why?  He knew that he would ultimately be rejected by the people because he wasn’t going to do what they expected.  He really hadn’t come to late, but their hearts had given up on God and would not believe unless he jumped through all the hoops that they wanted him to jump through.  Sin was choking their hearts and blinding their eyes.  This is the same heart that is throughout the whole world today.  If there is room for God at all, we will allow him to come in and sweep our sin under the rug and bless us as if we had been righteous all along.  However, for an increasing number of people, there is no room for God in our world.  The attitude is this.  Just leave us alone and we will find Utopia ourselves.  To this attitude, believers who remain faithful to Christ represent a problem.  You may be following Christ today, but will you follow him to the end?  When people are losing their minds and thinking that sacrificing you will save humanity or mother earth, will you stick with him then?  I pray that, regardless of how many times you fall and scrape your knees spiritually, you will cling to Jesus and trust Him to pull you through.

Will you trust this king?  No, he doesn’t always make sense to us, but of all beings who have walked this planet, He is the only one who even comes close to looking like God.  Accept Him today and join the Kingdom of God.

Jesus as King audio