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

Do not Test the Lord Your God

Matthew 4:5-7.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on December 04, 2016.

Today we continue our study of the temptation of Christ that we see in Matthew 4, and look at the second one presented to our Lord.  If the first temptation was to satisfy and sustain yourself with material things, then the second temptation is to promote yourself and make things happen by your own wisdom.  Another way to categorize these three temptation is to use the phrases that are given in 1 John 2:16, “For all that is in the world- the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life- is not of the Father, but is of the world.”  The first temptation appealed to the lust of the flesh (make bread for your stomach).  This second one seems to be more about the pride of life.

All of us deal with issues of significance and often desire situations in which we are exalted above our fellow man.  Satan loves to play off of these desires and mislead us into a path of destruction.  For some this path leads them towards religion, but twists it with human pride.  For others the path may lead them away from religion out of a wounded pride.  Either way he wins because there is no other solution for the hearts of mankind than the Creator Himself.  So the first are walled off to Him by the self-delusion that they are acceptable, and the second wall themselves off to Him out of their pain.  May we all learn to lay our pride at the foot of the cross of Jesus and thereby remove from Satan’s arsenal a very powerful, spiritual lever that he loves to employ against us.

 We are tempted by pride

It is often said that Satan fell through pride in his own wisdom and beauty.  Thus it would stand to reason that he would seek to enamor us with his own prideful reasoning.  The Bible does not make it completely clear whether Satan knows he was wrong and is operating out of sheer spite, or whether he still thinks there is a play here where he actually “proves his case” and wins.  Regardless we must expect to be tempted in this area of pride.

We see in verse 5 that the devil takes Jesus up to the highest point of the temple.  It is not really important the mode of this travel, though many can speculate.  The setting is a place that no one may see immediately (while he is being tempted).  But if he listens to the devil there will be a very public spectacle.  How could jumping from of a height that was as much as several hundred feet be tempting?

It starts with being reminded of his relationship with the Father.  The first temptation tries to paint the Father as not taking care of Jesus.  “God doesn’t care about you as much as you think.  Make your own bread.”  However, this temptation does the opposite.  It plays on the pride of such a close relationship with the Father.  “Since you are the Son of God make a public show of God’s love for you.  There is no way He would let you die.”  Of course the devil makes no mention or shows no regard for what the Father’s plan might be.  Jesus loves the Father and has been in a relationship of unity with Him since the beginning.  So He is not only concerned with what the Father wants, but already knows that what Satan suggests is not the plan. 

So what does Satan hope to accomplish?  It is tough to say.  Perhaps he hopes to try and thwart any spiritual help that would come with his own angels, so that Jesus would die.  Clearly he seeks to kill Jesus because of the cross later.  Let’s get one thing clear.  Satan is not interested in promoting Jesus and he could care less about promoting you.  In the end his only aim is to destroy your life.  If he can do that by inflating your pride in your relationship with God, then he will.

Notice that this time Satan backs up his temptation by quoting Scripture.  His first temptation was pushed aside by Jesus reminding him of Scripture.  So he tries to reverse this tactic back on Jesus by quoting some Scripture himself.  One thing is clear in the Bible; the devil always twists the meaning of God’s Word.  He is only capable of abusing Scripture for his own ends, which are contrary to God’s.  An illustration of this can be seen in politics.  Every word of an opponent is generally twisted out of context and used against them by the other side.  Finding a truly, objective treatment of the person is rare.  As Christians we must flee this kind of activity in our own life.  2 Timothy 2:15 says that we must “rightly divide [handle] the word of truth.”  We can see that the devil does not do such a thing but twists the meaning of Psalm 91 by skipping phrases and leaving out the context.  So let’s look at this section of Psalm 91.

Satan quotes from verse 11, skips the second part of it, quotes verse 12, and leaves off verse 13.  It is always important to pay attention to what is left out.  Notice that God’s angels would be commanded to watch over the righteous “to keep you in all your ways.”  The way of a person is a huge theme in the Bible.  In fact the righteous are known by their determination to walk in the “way of the Lord.”  Thus the passage is about a person who is in a trusting relationship with God and living as God has taught us.  When God’s ways are our ways then the devil will find little within us that he can manipulate.  Now verse 12 points out that God’s protection is upon the righteous.  But verse 13 shows why.  We are protected in order to tread upon the lion and the cobra.  Now this is not a passage about handling literal lions and cobras, although God is more than capable of delivering the righteous from such.  There is never a case of people “treading” on lions and cobras in the Bible so that should be your first clue that something deeper is going on here.  The lion and cobra are metaphors for our spiritual enemy, the devil.   1 Peter 5:8 says, “Your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.”  God doesn’t necessarily protect us from ever falling down literally.  But He does offer constant protection so that we may never fall to the schemes of the devil and be devoured by Him.  Similarly, in Revelation 12:9 it says, “So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world.”  The “serpent of old” is an allusion to Genesis 3 and the Fall of Adam and Eve.  Adam and Eve fell before the Serpent (Satan) because they were tricked into distrusting God.  Clearly Satan doesn’t want to quote this part of the passage and highlight that angelic protection is so that we can tread on the devil, not cooperate with his plans.

However, Jesus does not go into Psalm 91 and point these things out to Satan because there is an even greater context to these verses.  All Scripture is context to any one verse.  A very powerful thing about Scripture is that its proper understanding will not contradict any other part.  If it seems to then you know there is an error in your understanding.  So, dig deeper.  Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:16.  Yes, God will protect you along your way.  But we also, must not test Him in this.  Now, God is gracious and many of us have been in times of weak faith and have asked God to give us a sign of his love.  If we do so without the threat of walking away from Him then He sometimes graciously responds.  But, if you lay down something as a test that God must pass or you are walking away, then beware.  Such actions are not born out of a loving relationship with God, but out of selfish love for yourself.  Beware of those who trumpet on Scripture to the detriment of the rest of Scripture.  This is classic cult leader stuff.

We must not put God to the test

So let’s develop that last point that Jesus makes to the devil.  The Holy Spirit had not led Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple; the devil had.  In our own lives it is not always so clear who is leading us.  Thus we must be careful to recognize anything that smacks of trying to force God’s hand, or trying to speed up things.  This is manipulation of the relationship that God wants with us.  Now, a parent loves a child, but would be foolish to allow the child to fall into the habit of trying to manipulate them.  Of course, kids are learning how to love.  They don’t understand such deeper concepts.  It takes a parent who loves them too much to let them get away with it, a parent who disciplines them in such times, in order to help a child grow in love.  Just as your flesh desires material things, so it desires the pride of life: public success, and the accolades of those around us.  Satan plays off of these things.  Yet, Jesus did not operate in such a way as to lift himself up, or try to out think the plan of God.  In fact, Jesus often did the opposite of what self-promoters would do.  Jesus pointed us to the Father and for such a blessing he was crucified.  That was to be his public moment of demonstrating the love of the Father.

But it goes deeper than just crass manipulation.  We cannot force God to demonstrate His love as we dictate.  When a person lays down an ultimatum to God, “either you do this or I walk,” we step out onto shaky ground.  God in His grace does work with our weakness.  Gideon was given a sign by God.  Yet, we must always have as our foundation, “Nevertheless, Thy will be done.”  In fact, God gave the greatest demonstration of love possible when He gave His One and Only Son to become a man and do for us what we could not do for ourselves.  All this is so that whosoever would believe on Jesus would have everlasting life instead of perishing.  It is easy for us to do this to one another.  We can be angry and made that someone didn’t show their love in a particular way.  We can even do the politician thing and twist everything that they do or say into “not love.”  But when we act this way we actually destroy the very love that is being given to us.  Too many people say, “If God would only do such and such, then I would know that He exists and that He cares about me.”  The problem is that you are trying to control God and refusing to deal with the countless ways that He has demonstrated His love for you.  So we can push aside 1,000 ways of love and complain that we did not receive a particular 1.  This is folly and not the path of love.  Love is a discovery of the uniqueness of another and how we can uniquely love them back.  How can we demand more than that?  Love doesn’t dictate how another person loves.  Rather, it receives it freely and with Joy.

Do not Test audio