It's Me Standing in the Need

2 Samuel 12:1-14.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on the Sunday preceding Dependence on King Jesus Day, July 2, 2023.

The story of David's sin with Bathsheba can be found in 2 Samuel 11.  It is a dark stain upon the otherwise righteous life and impeccable character of David.  I mean a stain so dark that it causes many to balk at how he could have done these things without having been like this all the time before it.  Chapter 11 ends with the statement that is translated in many versions as saying that David was "displeasing to the Lord."  It literally says that "it was evil in the eyes of the Lord."

Temptation is a powerful thing.  It started with David walking on his rooftop in the cool of the evening.  From his vantage point, he happened to see a woman bathing who was a striking beauty.  He should have walked away at that point.  One cannot control that first moment of seeing something that you were not attempting to see.  However, lust took root in David's heart.  He had "beheld" her too long with his eyes.

The Bible speaks of  making provision for the flesh.  In this case, David did not know who this woman was.  He could have left it at that, but his desire pushed him to inquire about the identity of this woman.  It was then that he found out that it was Bathsheba, the wife of one of his elite warriors, Uriah the Hittite.  He should have immediately walked away.  She was the wife of another man, and thus, not a potential prospect for him (even though he had plenty of wives at this point). 

Now that he knew her identity, David's lust pushed him further.  He sends for Bathsheba to come to the palace.  It is not clear how she is talked into coming to the palace, but it appears she was as willing as he to commit adultery. 

It is not clear if David intended to continue meeting with her, but she later sends back word to David that she was pregnant.  During this story, her husband Uriah has been with the army of Israel across the Jordan.  They were battling against the Ammonite city, Rabbah (the modern city of Amman).  We don't know how long they had been away, but Uriah's absence made it easier to commit the adultery.

David had a problem.  Uriah would know that the baby could not be his.  David had no doubt made some promises to Bathsheba.  To solve his problem, David calls for Uriah to come back to Jerusalem under the guise of quizzing him about how the war was going.  After this debriefing, David tells him to go home, even sending food to his house as a reward for all his faithful service.  Of course, David believes that a man who has been away to war for months would immediately jump on a chance to be intimate with his wife.  Thus, Uriah would never know that the child was not really his.

However, Uriah did not comply.  He was too noble to sleep with his wife while his brothers in arms were still at war and perhaps dying on the field.  They couldn't sleep with their wives, and neither would he take advantage of his trip home. 

David finds out the next day that Uriah did not go home, but slept in the servants quarters of the palace.  He tried one more trick by having Uriah eat with him and attempting to make him drunk so that he would lose his inhibitions and go home.  Still, Uriah exercised restraint (unlike David) and again slept in the servants quarters of the palace.

David had to send him back, and so he sends him back to the battle with a letter for Joab the General.  It basically told Joab to put Uriah in the front of the battle and then have the men pull back so that Uriah would die.  Joab complied, and Uriah died at the hands of the Ammonites.

How could David have done such a horrible thing to anyone, much less a man who had been faithful to him during the many years of running from Saul?  David had chosen to act like the very man he had replaced, abusing his power, and unrighteously seeking the life of a just man.  He did all of this to satisfy his lust.

This brings us to our passage today.

Nathans story (v. 1-6)

One has to believe that the Spirit of God had been convicting David all along the sordid path of his sin.  At the moment of seeing her, it would have been there.  "Walk away!"  But, David didn't listen and pressed on.  "Don't ask who she is!"  However, David did it anyway.  "Don't send that servant to fetch her!"  Yet, he did.  "Don't take her into your bedroom!"  "Don't call for Uriah!"  "Don't send him home."  "Don't get him drunk."  "Don't write that letter!"  "Don't give it to him!"  All along the way, David trampled the warnings of his conscience and of the Spirit of God, letting his lusts drag him away.

Sin often creates problems and we see David scrambling to cover up his sin.  However, he reached a point where he was no longer scrambling and it appeared that he had gotten away with it.  Yet, when we refuse to listen to God, He has ways of getting our attention.

Let's recognize that David did not just commit two sins, adultery and murder.  He was daily sinning against the Lord who had loved him, protected him, and raised him up to be king of Israel.  He was sinning against God every day he hardened his heart.  David was trapped in his sin.

However, God cared about Uriah's family.  He cared about Israel, and about what David would become if he was allowed to get away with this sin.  God cared how David's actions would affect the strategic position that he had within God's plan of redemption for Israel and the nations.

In 2 Samuel, God had promised David that the Messiah would come through his line, and that he would sit upon the throne of David forever.  This sin was an obstacle to the work of God through David and so God steps in by sending Nathan the prophet to David.

Speaking truth to power can be a dicey prospect even when God sends you.  God can protect you, but He can also be testing the authority to see if they will abuse his servant.  Think about it.  What happened to most of the prophets?  They were killed by the powers to whom they spoke the truth. 

Today, in America, people are slobbering at becoming a prophet.  They are going to schools, and studying the lives of "prophets," so that they can learn to be one.  However, becoming a true prophet of God is akin to receiving a death sentence in this world.  It is heartaches and humiliations galore, not a giddy event.

Telling David a story allows Nathan to slip the truth in before David spits it out.  You remember the song.  "Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down..."  There is a lot of medicine that we need, but we don't want to swallow it.  We don't want to hear it.  We are sick and tired of hearing it.  We put our fingers in our ears and then angrily go away so that we won't have to hear it.  Of course, in doing so, we have just testified against ourselves.  On the day that we stand before God, He will ask us why we didn't listen.  We may then reply that we couldn't have known.  Yet, God will play that moment back to us, and we will be silenced.

Nathan's story is a classic rich man versus poor man plot.  David would quickly empathize with the powerless poor man, having been the youngest of a lot of brothers.  Also, he had been falsely accused by Saul who was the previous king.  Saul had hunted him like a deer throughout Israel, seeking to put him to death unjustly.

The story is very straight forward.  A rich man who has plenty of lambs to slaughter, and plenty of money with which to buy a lamb if he needed, is contrasted with a poor man who had nothing but a ewe lamb that he had purchased.  It was a family pet, much like we would keep a pet dog.  Like any pet, this lamb had become very dear to the poor man and his children.

One day a traveler came and stayed with the rich man.  Instead of feeding him from his own flock, or buying a lamb from the market, he takes the lamb of the poor man and feeds it to his visitor.  Though nothing is mentioned, the poor man would have never agreed to this.  So, we are left to imagine what the rich man did to take the lamb, no doubt a group of his hired hands roughed the poor man up.  Of course, such details are irrelevant.  How does a person come to a point of such gross sin?

Of course, this is an analogy.  The traveler represents the temptation and the lust of David being stirred up.  Like a traveler from afar, lust shows up and asks for lodging for the night.  He should have told it to go lodge somewhere else.  However, David wished to entertain this traveler.

Though Nathan did not ask for a decision, David explodes with great anger.  He is quite passionate in declaring judgment against the rich man.  He calls upon the Lord as a witness, "As the Lord lives!"  He then declares that the man will die.

Now theft was not a capital crime in Israel, just as it isn't in our Republic.  His statement that the lamb will be paid back four times shows that David is quite aware of Exodus 22:1 and its prescription.  However, because the rich man did this thing "without pity," David wants him to die.

Mitigating factors are things that lessen the gravity of a crime.  Perhaps a man was an orphan, very poor, and had no food.  Such a person who steals a lamb in order to keep from starving is not going to be judged so harshly.  However, the rich man has aggravating factors.  David thinks that his riches and insensibility requires death.

It is an interesting dynamic that people who are overly harsh in their judgments are often hiding sin of their own.  They refuse to repent, and thereby punish themselves, so they take it out on others.  David himself is guilty of several capital crimes.  You might think he would be adverse to capital punishment.  Instead, he insulates himself by becoming overly righteous.  Sometimes people can become so bad that they lie to themselves.  "I'm okay, and it is everyone else who is wrong!"

Jesus alludes to this in Matthew 7:5 when he talks about judging.  "Hypocrite!  First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."  When you have fought against sin in your own heart and mind, you tend to be more compassionate without excusing the sin.  You know that fighting sin is hard, so you work hard to help your brother come clean before God without crushing him with harsh words.

Every son is disciplined by their fathers.  As earthly fathers, none of us are perfect in our discipline.  If you have any kind of heart for them at all, you try to do your best.  Of course, no kid likes the discipline they receive at the time.  However, discipline doesn't have to be perfect to do a good work in us.  By its very nature, being disciplined to do anything in life builds strength and tempers a person.  It can be directed in better paths latter, but the foundational skill is there.

This is why many in our society enter the work force and cannot keep a job.  They were never disciplined, and taught how to discipline themselves at home.  Parents know that life is tough, and if a person is not disciplined, it is even tougher.

The same thing is true spiritually.  Let's get real.  The effects of sin are devastating, and harsh.  If you are not disciplined, get ready for a lot of lumps.  Of course, there isn't a one of us who hasn't received their fair share of lumps from sin.  However, God is gracious to keep reaching out to us.

Nathan waits until David's response is made, and then, he masterfully reveals that the story was a picture of his actions with Bathsheba.

The meaning of Nathan's story (v. 7-14)

"You are the man!"  With this simple sentence, David quickly sees that Nathan knows everything, and that God is not going to let him get away with it.  You are the man in this story David.  And, this time, you are not the poor, persecuted man.  You are the abusive, rich man.

Nathan quickly moves to the judgment that God has given.  Notice that God is not as harsh in His judgment as David was in his.  You could say that God didn't keep the Law of Moses.  I remember a Jewish man asking me a gotcha question.  "Is there grace in the Law of Moses?"  I told him that there was grace all through the Law of Moses.  He was surprised that this would be my answer as a Christian.

The prophets of Israel understood that the Law could not save them in and of itself.  David himself got it.  In Psalm 51, which he wrote following this event, he writes that if God really wanted the blood of bulls and goats that he would give it.  Instead, what God really wanted was a broken and contrite heart.  Such a man God would not turn away.

Have you noticed that our society seems to be exalting a principle of not having to pay the consequences of sin.  However, mercy is not mercy unless sin is sin.  What I mean is this.  If we detach sin from its natural consequences, then we are no longer being merciful.  We diminish sin to something that isn't your fault, poor you.  We enlist the taxes of the rest of society to mitigate, and even erase as much of the consequences as we can.  This is not mercy; it is insanity.  It creates a society of thankless, entitled brats who have lost connection with reality.  It also creates an elitist class that grifts off of the tax pools that are enlisted to "help these poor people."  Yes, they are poor, and yes they need help.  But, this is the last thing these grifters would ever hope to happen.  Thus, every year the helpless and hopeless pool grows larger, and the pot of money needed to "help them" grows larger, and the amount of money that ends up in the pockets of the elite and their cronies grows exponentially. 

This is why God designed homes to be a protected environment for kids to learn about the consequences of sin.  Parents are not perfect, but they have the greatest interest in this child maturing into a man or woman that is able to discipline themselves for their good, and the good of society.  Believe me, when you leave home and go out into the world, the stakes become much higher, and the consequences of a poor choice can mean your life, and much more, your eternity.

We should see consequences as the grace of God that tell us that we can't ignore and run from sin.  It tells us that it is better to nip it in the bud because the effects of sin grow exponentially the longer we cling to it.

David was running from his sins, and it needed to be nipped in the bud.  God had staked a lot on David, but he doesn't hide his sin.  He makes him face it publicly.  In fact, God knew what David would do when He removed Saul and placed David in his place.

It is important to recognize that the Bible does not present King Saul as all wicked, and King David as all righteous.  They both are raised to power as good men, and they both end up in a place of abusing their power and being rebuked by God.  So, what is the difference between Saul and David?

The difference is this.  When confronted with their sin by the Lord, David repented, but Saul blamed it on everyone but himself (including God).  David turned away from a heart that is hardened against the ways of God with a broken and contrite heart, but Saul hardened his heart and persisted in his ways of wickedness.

This has always been the difference between the righteous and the wicked.  It is not that the righteous have never sinned, or haven't sinned as much as the wicked.  It is that they repent when God sends the message, "You are the man!"  Of course, we need to walk repentance daily.  It is a trap to think that you no longer have to worry about repentance because you did it already.

Two thousand years ago, Jesus identified with His Church knowing what a mess we would make of it.  Jesus is not for our sin as a Church.  He despises what it does to us and to a fallen world.  Don't be deceived.  He will always rebuke and discipline the ones He loves.  He will not walk arm and arm with us and pretend like our sin is no big deal.

However, God is not afraid to be connected to us and our sin.  We are His Church. He is faithful to do the work of purifying His children, and His Church as a whole.  Ultimately, the end times will bring forth a polarization of the external Church into a false church vs. a True Church.  Christ will allow the Beast to destroy one and will stand in defense of the other.

An aggravating factor is that David sinned in the face of great blessing from God.  David had difficult times during the years of King Saul.  Yet, God protected him, and sent men to rally around him.  God gave him victory over Goliath when no one else had the faith to stand against him.  God blessed him as a victorious general in Saul's army.  God blessed him with a family, and ultimately that his dynasty would last forever.  Verse 8 shows us God's heart.  "If that had been too little, I also would have given you much more!"

We should note that it was normal for kings throughout the world to have whatever women they desired under their rule.  In fact, it is even still normal for presidents today to send word to a woman, married or not, that the president is interested.  Power goes to people's heads, and people will protect and feed the lust of an individual simply to stay close to the levers of power.  No one would have batted an eye at what David did if he were in a nation other than Israel.  However, this was Yahweh's land.  The God of Truth, who raised up kings and put them down at His leisure, made this a different story.  The God of Israel would not countenance such a thing without repercussions.

However, I am talking about America today!  We have been so blessed, and we have been gobbling up blessing after blessing, to the left and to the right, just shoving it into our mouths like a bunch of porky pigs.  Still, we just don't have enough.  We have to go out and straddle the planet with our military and global corporations, taking as we please and cloaking it in a deceptive cloak of morality.

We do similar things in our cities and towns.  Family members do it to family members.  In so many ways, we are gobbling up the grace of God, and we are taking it for granted.  You can't do that for very long and survive the wrath of God.

Yet, God in His great grace is faithful to send voices out of the wilderness to tell us a story, to try and get our attention.  I believe that God is greatly displeased with these united States of America.  I think that He is trying to get some Nathan's to rise up and confront the people of this Republic.  Yes, truth must be spoken to our government officials, but the President, Congress, and the Supreme Court are not the highest human authorities in this land.  No.  The highest human authority in this land is We the People who ordained and set in order the highest human law of this Republic, the Constitution of these united States.  The rebuke must first be heard by We the People, and a response of repentance must first be walked out by We the People before God will hold our criminal servants in government accountable.

Ours is not a message of destruction.  God gives grace to David.  He deserved a death sentence, but God actually wanted a repentant heart that would quite the lawlessness.  There is hope in repentance.  God hasn't cast you off yet.  He is not calling for your death!

David  is told that he has despised God's commands (v. 9), and then later that he has despised God Himself (v. 10).  David knew the truth of God, but in this moment he wanted to sin.

It is a great blessing to know the heart and commands of God.  Many people in this world don't know their right hand from their left hand.  It doesn't excuse their sin, but it does mitigate their guilt before God in comparison to ours.  Some might say that no sin can be mitigated, but our sin can be done with aggravating factors that make it even worse.

Yet, over the top of this, David did his sin anyways.  He then continued to sin in order to cover up his previous sin.  Temptation and sin is precisely a trap.  The bait may be delicious, but now Satan has you in his hands.  He will manipulate you into more and more sin, worse and worse sin, in order to defeat the work of God in your life and sphere of influence.  Sin knows no boundaries, and there is no "bottom of the barrel."  There is only a descent into the abyss, into the bottomless pit of degradation and wickedness.

The word "despised" has the sense of lifting your head disdainfully against God and His Word.  Is this not a picture of our Republic today?  Is this not a picture of many Christians who give lip service to God, but despise His Words in their hearts and actions?  Let not a man bound by sin think that he can have freedom.  God will be faithful to send gracious rebukes, but if we do not repent, we will continue in slavery to sin and the powers that He places over us.

Nathan tells David that his actions had given the enemies of the LORD occasion to blaspheme (v. 14).  There were those in Israel who refused to serve Yahweh in their hearts.  There were also some who refused to believe that God had removed Saul and placed David on the throne.  They hated the ways and decisions of Yahweh.  To blaspheme is to declare things as true that are not true of Yahweh and His work. 

This is happening all across our land today.  Some of it is the fault of the Church.  We give ammunition to the enemies of God when we hide sin and refuse to deal with it.  This also gives ammunition to the spiritual powers to keep them from coming to see the truth of God and switching allegiance.

In this case, it is most likely that the blasphemy would not be centered on the idea that there is no Yahweh, or that He is not really about righteousness.  They would speak out against the decisions of Yahweh that were pronounced by prophets like Samuel and Nathan.  They could even reject the idea that a Messiah figure would come from the line of David.  How can a righteous man come from such a line?  One can't in the flesh, but by the Spirit of God, all things are possible!

It is one thing for people to despise God and His ways when Christians do what is righteous.  Jesus said in Matthew 11:6, "Blessed is he who does not stumble because of me."  Jesus had done nothing wrong, but he knew many people would not understand what He was doing.  However, the American Church is not pure.  We have become like David in many ways.  Have we also insulated ourselves so that we don't have to hear the voice of the Nathan's in our land?

Let me end with talking about God's mercy on David.  David would not be executed, and God would not cancel the covenant promise that He had made concerning Messiah.  Furthermore, God would remove David's sin from him. 

This is not favoritism.  This is about God's love for all sinners of the earth, and grace for those who will turn from their sin, repent, and turn towards Him and His righteousness.  Messiah would not come from a perfect family of a perfect tribe of a perfect nation.  God's work within all of us is at its best mercy upon a sinner who deserves death.  Even the people that He uses in our lives are merely sinners saved by the grace of God.

In the midst of God's grace is also chastisement.  The child would die, and David would continually have trouble with "the sword" among his family.  On top of this, God would raise up one who would sleep with David's wives in the full view of all of Jerusalem.  This was done during the rebellion of his son Absolom.  God sends a signal to Israel and to the nations that no man, no matter how much authority God has given him, is above the Word of God and the call to repentance by anyone in society.

America has been sinning for a very long time, but the greatest problem is those who claim to know Jesus who are refusing to repent.  They don't want to give up their authority and will not be held accountable to any religious notions.  Do you remember the phrase, "No king, but King Jesus!"?  Just like God knew Israel would fail from the beginning, so God was quite aware of the faithlessness of this nation that would grow through the centuries.  Yet, He decided in our favor during the War for Independence.

We must quit looking at the nations when God is saying, "You are the people!"  We must quit looking at the sin of others when God is saying "You are the person!"  We must once again become a repenting people, even as we pay a chastising price for past sin.

I believe that God can and will give mercy to this Republic if we will humble ourselves and turn away from our wicked ways.  We have to quit excusing sexual immorality in the Church.  We have to quit excusing the sacrifice of our children for a better life.  We have to quit eating, drinking, and being merry in our own houses while the rest of the Republic goes to hell in a hand basket.

Let me close by reminding us of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  Eric Metaxas talks about this in his book, Letter to the American Church.  Adolph Hitler became chancellor of Germany in January of 1933.  November 6, 1932, on Reformation Sunday, Dietrich was preaching from Revelation 2 in the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin.  All the bigwigs of society were there with many pastors in attendance.  This prophetic message focused on the message to the Ephesian Church.  "I have this against you, that you have left your first love."  They were celebrating the work of Martin Luther and that they were the spiritual descendants of him, the Lutherans.  Yet, the harsh pill, the medicine, you are not at all like Martin Luther.  He stood against every demon of hell in order to follow the Spirit of God in obedience to Jesus.  Yet, this group would not take a stand against the Nazi Party's racist policies.  The Church of Jesus could never compromise with such ideologies.

Dietrich was pushed off as a young man who was just looking for a fight.  Years of experience would tame him.  This is often true, but Dietrich was not looking for a fight.  He was simply seeing that they were already in a fight that precious few could see, a fight for the soul of Germany.

Metaxas says that there were 18,000 pastors in Germany at the time.  Three thousand were like Dietrich and stood steadfast against the Nazis from the beginning.  Another three thousand were Nazi lovers who had no problem with the invectives and signaled threats against the Jews.  That left twelve thousand (2/3rds) in the middle.  The problem for Germany was not the 3,000 Nazi-loving pastors, but the impotent two-thirds in the middle.  Some of the 12,000 eventually woke up, but after it was far too late to save their society from the great evil that was threatening it and the world.

Metaxas mentions that Hitler took power in January of 1933.  Bonhoeffer was already scheduled to make a speech via radio address in February 1933.  His topic was servant leadership.  As Bonhoeffer described the kind of leadership that Christians must exhibit and require of their leaders, the power to the whole radio station was shut down.  It had become to late to make a difference as Hitler quickly began to flex his power and take control of the media in Germany.

We can point to lost people who are doing lost things as the problem in our society.  They are a problem, but they are not the problem.  The problem is not even those lost pastors, bishops, and denominations that embrace wickedness in the name of love and tolerance.  No. The problem in these united States of America is the two-thirds of pastors, elders, and Christians who are on the fence about how to move forward.  The enemy does not care if you don't embrace wickedness, as long as you are feckless and afraid to take a stand exactly where the Holy Spirit is calling us to take a stand today (like Dietrich against Hitler, and David against Goliath).  God is looking for people in His Church who love truth more than their reputation, or a nice cushy position.  Martin Luther lost his place in the Roman Catholic Church.  He was hunted by the powers that be.

God will be gracious if enough of us wake up, and say yes to the Spirit of God.  Our actions right now actually say that we are just here for the American Dream.  But, have you ever considered what Jesus' Dream for America is?  We can stiff arm the Spirit and try to get back to "normal," having a good Church service with wonderful music, happy family, happy BBQ in the afternoon while watching sports.  It is not that these things are wrong and bad, but that they become all that we are living for while people are dying in a lost state, going to hell, and  we are losing our Republic.

Perhaps you are of the ilk to simply give up.  Yes, that's what happens when people sin.  Que sera, sera.  O, friend, you don't want to go through what can be next, and how bad things can get. God is removing the middle ground because it always belonged to Satan in the first place.  We must choose this day whose side we are on.  And, the only way to stop it is to repent and follow Jesus. 

Pick up your cross and let's follow him!

It's Me audio

The Acts of the Apostles 45

Subtitle: The Holy Spirit Falls upon Gentiles

Acts 10:44-48.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, June 25, 2023.

Today we are going to talk about the first time that Gentiles were filled with the Holy Spirit in the New Testament.

It is one thing to think of God filling Israelites and sending them out into the nations with power to be a witness.  They were in the position close to God, and the Gentiles were far from God.  If there was going to be any powerful witness, then surely it must be through Israel alone.

Thus, it was harder for some in the early Church to grasp the full magnitude to what Jesus had done at the cross, and what He was now doing through the Holy Spirit.  In fact, the way to draw ourselves back to the truth is to understand Jesus as a servant (Matthew 20:28).  We are not just putting on a powerful display.  We are powerfully serving lost people by serving God's heart for them.

Israel was not called of God like some kind of teacher's pet, an act of favoritism.  Just read the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32 (and the multitude of passages throughout the prophets).  God told them up front that they would not be any different than the Gentiles in their faithfulness.  Isaiah depicted Israel as a blind and deaf servant.  Fat lot of good that will do God.  However, Christ rises up as the ultimate Son of David, the ultimate Israel, who serves both Israel and the Gentiles.

The heart of God was in redeeming Israel and the Gentiles all at the same time.  In eternity, we will dwell with Him as the Sons of God without the distinctions of Jew and Gentile.

So, the early Church had to come to grips with God cleansing the Gentiles so that they could directly approach His throne of grace through Jesus, instead of the Law of Moses.  And, they had to come to grips with God filling and empowering Gentiles by the Holy Spirit filling them.  This was hammered out in Acts chapter 15.

Over the years, the Church has almost inverted this issue.  We have come to the point that some almost doubt that a Jewish person can be saved and filled with the Holy Spirit.  Some label them as "Christ Killers" as if they have done the unpardonable sin.  Yet, this is not the case.  God is breaking down this dividing wall of hostility by His Holy Spirit.  Can God fill a Jewish person?  Of course, He can and does, all around this world!

Let's look at our passage.

The Holy Spirit falls upon Gentiles (v. 44-46)

As Peter is preaching to Cornelius, his family, and his friends, they are baptized in the Holy Spirit by the Lord Jesus.  Yes, this passage doesn't exactly use this phrase here.  However, in Acts 11:15-17, Peter clearly testifies that this is the same thing regardless of what words are used to describe it.

With that said, let's take a few moments to look at some of the variety of terminology used of the Holy Spirit's work in believers.

Baptism in the Holy Spirit uses the imagery of water baptism to depict a person completely immersed and doused with the Spirit.  It is an external image that is comparable to another image that pictures a person being "clothed with power" from on high.  The Holy Spirit comes upon the believer for a particular work and empowers them for it.

However, there is also internal imagery that is used, such as being filled with the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit resides within a person at salvation, but it is clear that we need to be filled with the Spirit.  Jesus employed the analogy of a spring of living water that comes up out of our heart, overflowing our life, and touching others (John 7:38-39).

In this passage, we have the phrase, "the Holy Spirit fell upon [them]."  This is another external image that highlights the vertical aspect of God and man.  It is a common way of speaking of the Spirit in the Old Testament.  It gives the sense of suddenness.  The Spirit falls upon them suddenly.  However, it also emphasizes that the person on the earth is receiving empowerment from heaven.  The Spirit falls upon them from heaven.  This implies that something powerful will then follow.

All of these phrases are not so much different things as they are different ways of talking about the same thing.

I love that they are baptized in the Holy Spirit, "while Peter was still speaking these words."  Peter hadn't had a chance to give an altar call.  He hadn't even mentioned that the promise of the Holy Spirit yet.  In fact, this reminds me of the event in Acts 8 where Peter lays his hands upon the Samaritans and prays for them to receive the Holy Spirit.  He also had not done this.

This does not mean Peter was doing something wrong, or he was taking to long to get to the point, and Jesus was becoming anxious.  I believe that it happened this way because Jesus was trying to teach Peter something, and by extension, to teach us.

Peter's last words were, "To Him all the prophets witnessed that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins."  Remember that these people are the exact opposite of a hard audience.  They were ready to believe whatever Peter told them.  At this point, they have heard the Gospel and are no doubt believing that this Jesus was the Messiah promised by God through His prophets.

This is a key moment.  It shows us that there is not a ritual, or procedure, or a particular prayer that must be prayed in order to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.  Jesus does the work as we believe the word of God.

It is a human tendency to reduce things to a "way that it is done."  We tend to reduce the powerful work of God's salvation to a list of three things you must do. 

Don't get me wrong.  There are absolutes that never change.  Jesus is the only one upon whom we must believe in order to be at peace with God.  That will never change.  However, we can accrete all manner of ideas, doctrines, and theologies that are not absolute upon the absolute truth about Jesus.

When we do this, we make all kinds of boxes that we believe God will stay in.  Our mortal flesh is uncomfortable with  an omnipotent, omniscient Sovereign who is the Creator and Lord of the universe.  We must be careful of creating boxes in our mind that attempt to define what God can do because we He may choose to come in a way that doesn't fit in your boxes.  We might even crucify the Lord of Glory, resisting the Holy Spirit, because He isn't doing it "right."

Peter did not have to coach these Gentiles that day.  The Spirit of God sovereignly came upon them and moved in them to do what He wanted.  They were filled with the Holy Spirit in the middle of Peter's sermon.

Luke describes the group of people who came with Peter as believers of "the Circumcision."  This phrase was used by Jews of themselves, and it referred to biological Israelites who observed the Law of Moses.  For a male, circumcision came to be the most important sign of the covenant.  This was a general use within Israel. 

However, in the New Testament, we find a narrower use of this term for circumcised Israelites who had believed upon Jesus, but also believed that Gentiles should conform to the Law of Moses, i.e., be circumcised, before they could embrace Jesus- more likely that they would embrace the Law of Moses at the time of embracing Jesus (they both went hand in hand).  Paul dealt with this especially in the book of Galatians.

This will be the main issue in Acts 15.  It will be a council to determine if the theology of The Circumcision was correct.  I believe these believers that had come with Peter were part of this group.  Peter himself leans this way, but is clearly being taught by the Holy Spirit that this is a wrong-headed way of seeing the work of Jesus.

Jesus is building a case for Peter (as a master teacher) that has three main components in this passage.  First, Peter could not deny his vision and the things that he saw and heard in it.  Second, Peter could not deny that the Holy Spirit told him to go with the men to meet Cornelius.  Third, Peter could not deny that God had sovereignly poured out His Spirit upon these Gentiles in the same way He had done at Pentecost back in Acts chapter 2. 

We are told that those believers of The Circumcision were astonished.  They can't believe what they are seeing, not because they have never seen it before, but because it is messing with their theology, their precious little boxes.  If we improperly develop limitations to God that are not right, He will be faithful to mess with our theology and show us the truth (if we have eyes to see).  Hold fast to God's word, but don't hold rigidly to your ideas about God's word that go beyond what it says, or "makes sense of what it says."  Don't do so especially in the face of God's sovereign actions.  Learn to love the Holy Spirit's work more than your limitations of what that can be.

It is easy to look at the Pharisees, people whose theology caused them to resist what God was doing, and thank God that you are not like them.  Roman Catholics can look at Eastern Orthodox and be glad that they are not like them.  "Too bad that they didn't understand.  Thank God that we have the truth!"  Protestants can do the same thing to Roman Catholics.  "They didn't get it and fought the Holy Spirit, but we've got it!"

On and on, we can go, always looking back at what we believe justifies us and condemns others.  The problem is that, as we look back, we build little restrictive boxes of human reasoning, and mentalities, that somehow believe that we now understand completely how God does things.  We who think that we are on the cutting edge of following the Spirit of God can be stuck in rigid thinking that causes us to resist what God wants to do in our day.

This is precisely what Dietrich Bonhoeffer dealt with in pre-Nazi Germany.  The fall before Hitler became Chancellor and the Nazi party quickly took power, the Lutherans were looking back to Martin Luther and celebrating that they had the truth!  Yet, Bonhoeffer warned them that they were not doing what Martin Luther did.  Martin Luther stood against every demon of hell to be faithful to what the Holy Spirit was saying in his day.  This is not what the German Lutheran pastors of 1932 were doing.  They were resisting the prophetic voices of men like Dietrich and allowing Hitler to take power.  Many of them did not wake up to the threat until it was too late.

It doesn't matter what group you are in and what they did for God in the past.  We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit right now, and go forth as He sovereignly leads us!

So, how did they know that the Gentiles had been filled with the Holy Spirit?  Verse 46 tells us that they heard them speaking with tongues, and magnifying God.  This most likely means that some of the onlookers understood some of their language.  Yet, it was quite clear that they were all speaking in different languages.

There were three recognizable things in Acts 2 at the Day of Pentecost.  There was a loud sound like a wind, there were tongues like fire above every head, and they began speaking in tongues.  We never see the first two signs again, though God can do them at any time.  Similarly, John the Baptist saw a dove descend upon Jesus at His water baptism to signify that He was also filled with the Holy Spirit.  This is not seen again as well (though God is sovereign and can do so at any time).  It appears that speaking in tongues is the main, immediate evidence that a person has been filled with the Holy Spirit.

A person may say that we are not told that the Samaritans spoke in tongues in Acts 8 when they were filled with the Holy Spirit.  However, there was something that happened that was obvious to onlookers.  This is why Simon the Sorcerer was amazed.  Though it doesn't mention what he saw, the most likely is that they spoke in tongues.

That said, the main purpose for the baptism of the Holy Spirit is not speaking in tongues.  Rather, it is about empowerment to witness to the world around us.  Thus, the long-lasting evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a life that is transformed into a powerful witness to others.  This doesn't mean that everyone you witness to becomes a believer.  However, it does create a tension for us as Christians.  My job is not to make people believe.  Rather, my job is to make sure that I am filled with the Spirit, listening to Him and following Him.  My job is making sure that I am not standing in the way of what He wants to do through me, but rather, being a channel of the Spirit.

Let's not be guilty of honoring Spirit-led people of the past, all the while resisting the Holy Spirit today.

The Gentiles are water baptized (v. 47-48)

So, when were these people actually saved?  As God-fearers, they had been accepted by God, but only under the grace that would later come through Jesus.  Once Jesus had come and paid the price for sin on the cross, they would need to obey the Holy Spirit and believe upon Jesus.  We are saved when we put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Thus, these people were saved and filled with the Holy Spirit all at the same time!  On top of this, they weren't even water baptized yet.

Do we really need to water baptize someone if they are already baptized in the Spirit?  Peter believed so.  After the initial coming of the Spirit upon them had subsided, Peter continues to teach them what they must do.  They need to obey the Lord by being baptized in water in the name of Jesus Christ.  It is a command of the Lord not just to the believer, but especially to those who bring them to Christ.

This is a problematic passage for any who try to make water baptism necessary for salvation (or Spirit baptism for that matter).  We are not water baptized so that we can be saved, or filled with the Spirit.  A person is water baptized because they have believed and been saved by the Lord Jesus.

Peter asks if anyone can forbid them from being water baptized.  The obvious candidates for forbidding would be The Circumcision group.  I don't think Peter is asking their permission, but rather stating that they should speak now, or forever hold their peace.   Who can argue with God? 

If Peter had laid his hands upon them and prayed for them to receive the Holy Spirit, then they would probably have protested (as if, Peter is actually the one baptizing people in the Spirit).  They were clearly check-mated by the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  No one could object.

Peter also reminds them that these Gentiles have received the Holy Spirit "just as we have."  How did they receive the Holy Spirit?  It was a gift that came sovereignly by faith in Jesus, the Lord's Anointed One, and at the Lord's timing.  They did not receive the Holy Spirit because of their circumcision, or great ability to keep the Law of Moses.  This doesn't mean the Law is bad, but that it could not be the means of salvation and being filled with God's Spirit.  The New Covenant was a greater covenant than the Old covenant.  Thus, the older work of the Spirit can sometimes become a stumbling block when God calls us into new territory.

Thus, they baptized these new Gentile believers.

I want to take a few moments to point out things that are normative versus things that are necessary.  It is normal for people to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and then be water baptized.  This might happen the same day, or weeks later.  We might even have a class teaching on what water baptism is all about.  A person then may pray for weeks, or longer, asking for God to baptize them in the Holy Spirit.  When we say something is normative, we mean that it is the common way that things happen.  Most people experience a sequence to these things.  However, it is not necessary that it always happens that way.  Sometimes there are extraordinary circumstances and activity.

We might even think about the concept of averages.  If we took the length of childbirth for women and plotted it, we would most likely see a Bell Curve graph.  We could even determine the average length of time for a woman to give birth of a child from the onset of labor pains.  I am not sure who the woman is who has set the all-time record for speed of delivery.  However, the average length of time for a woman to give birth would have meant very little to her and any midwife at the time.  The attendant would not be yelling at her to quit pushing because she is having it too soon.  If she is dilated and the baby is coming, who cares what the average is.  Similarly, the poor woman on the other end of the spectrum is not encouraged by the knowledge that "she is taking too long."  Imagine a doctor walking out because she isn't "doing it right."

There are somethings that are necessary for childbirth, but there are also many things that are normative, and yet not necessary.  They are just common, the average experience of most women.  Is not salvation a spiritual birth into God's kingdom?  Should we not simply deal with what is happening instead of critiquing on things that are not necessary, though perhaps normative?  I think so, but more importantly, I think this is what Scripture shows us.

I believe that these passages exist to give us caution.  We can tend to build rigid ideas around what normally happens to the point that we are to accept God when He steps outside of our box.  In fact, the idea that people can be filled with the Holy Spirit and speak in other tongues today has become something that is outside of the box of many Christians.

Of course, we can do the same thing with the order, or the laying on of hands, etc.  God may normally use these things, but it doesn't make them necessary.  Only one thing is needful.  It is sitting at the feet of Jesus and learning of Him by His Holy Spirit.  It is relationship with God by the Spirit.  Jesus wants us to be filled with the Holy Spirit.  When I am in a loving relationship with Him, I will want that too.

I want to encourage us to be a people who are seeking, praying, and asking God for the Promise of the Father, His Holy Spirit.  Let us be a people who are being baptized in the Spirit, and daily filled with power for the task at hand.  This is not just a one time thing that is simply "one and done."  It is a daily walking with the Lord, seeking His will, and His empowerment for that will.  Let us make a powerful difference in the life of the Church, and in the lives of the Lost.

Spirit Falls audio

Turning Our Hearts

Malachi 4:5-6.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Father’s Day, June 18, 2023.

Happy Father’s Day!  Today we want to encourage fathers. 

In order to do that, I want to remind us of Deuteronomy 6:4-9.  This is called the Shema Israel (“Listen, Israel).  Moses reminds Israel that the whole purpose of the words that he was giving them was to help them love God with all their heart, soul, and strength.  Yes, the heart of the Law of Moses was about loving God.

Yet, loving God would display itself in keeping the words of God.  Those who kept the word of God in their heart would then walk it out in loyal obedience.  On top of living it out, they would simultaneously be diligent in teaching their children these things.  This is not focused on transmitting words and history, but about igniting a love for God in the heart of the next generation.

We are not under the Law of Moses, but the principles found in Deuteronomy 6 are the same under the New Covenant.  In fact, they are still operative even if you are not a Christian.  We perish as a people and as an individual when we ignore, and then forget, the Word of God to us.

People come to ignore and forget the Word of God when their hearts have grown cold towards Him, whether that is done with a life that looks religious, or one that does not look religious.  Maybe you were born into a family where a heart for God had gone cold many generations ago.  Regardless, you end up in the same place, indifferent to the truth of God.  When our hearts are cold towards God, it affects what and how we teach our children.  It even affects our heart towards them.

Let me just tell you today.  God cares about you and your family.  No matter how much water is under the bridge in those relationships (and believe me there is plenty of water under the bridge for us all), God still has a heart for helping you with your family.  The question now is this.  Do you still have a heart for loving your family?

Let’s look at our passage.

God’s grace sends messengers to warn us (v. 5)

These are the last verses in the Old Testament.  Some have noticed that the last words of the Old Testament threaten a curse, but the last words of the New Testament end with the blessing of the Lord Jesus Christ upon all who follow him.  This represents the true heart of God, and we will actually find it in these verses of Malachi as well.

God in His grace is always faithful to warn us; He sends messengers to do so.  No one loves discipline when it is happening.  Kids do not thank their parents for disciplining them when it is happening.  Let’s get real; we don’t like it even more as adults.  Yet, God will always be faithful to warn us through messengers because He made us for a particular purpose.  He made us to take on His image, and to be His children.  He made us to dwell with Him throughout eternity in a loving relationship.

Your parents are the first messengers that God sends your way, whether they are good or bad.  Let’s dispense with the idea that parents need to be perfect.  However, some can become quite abusive.  Of course, God will be faithful to send other messengers throughout your life.  We need to learn to recognize God’s voice through others and listen to it.

In fact, it is never about the messenger.  They only represent God.  Therefore, what is important is the message that God has for us through them.  God can even use people who are not even trying to live or work for Him.  He one time used a donkey to speak to Balaam.  He used wicked nations around Israel to rebuke them.  Even Caiaphas was used of God to speak truth in the assembly gathered to wickedly crucify Jesus.

We can play the game of finding something wrong in a person, and use that to insulate ourselves from having to listen to them.  Maybe you found a speck in their eye, a little blemish somewhere, so now you don’t have to listen to them.  The problem is that you can also reject what God is trying to say to you through them.

Do parents have to be perfect for their kids to listen to them?  God put them in a child’s life, not because they were perfect, but because He could use it to teach you good things.  So, we can respect their place in our life, while looking to God to help us understand what it is that He wants us to learn.  “God, what are you trying to say to me through this?”  Of course, you will not figure that all out at three years of age, or at eighteen.

God’s messages are like that though.  There is the initial impact of the message, but it generally takes time to absorb the message, and even longer to work it out into our life.

From the Shema Israel in Deuteronomy 6 to Malachi the prophet, there is roughly 1,000 years of God dealing with Israel.  During that time, God was faithful to send prophets to remind them of their covenant with Him and His purposes for them as a people.

Malachi would be part of the last wave of prophets in the 400’s BC (425-400 BC).  Israel then went 400 years without a true prophet.  Don’t get me wrong.  There were people who were false prophets, but none that proved themselves like the true prophets.  Malachi had prophesied that the prophet Elijah would show up before the Day of the Lord.  However, it was John the Baptist who came from God to end this drought of messages through prophets.  “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”  Who was John?  Was he from heaven or not?  Israel was caught off guard by this man from God.

It is important for us to recognize that, though God is gracious to send messengers to us, He sometimes will go silent in order to see what we will do with His words.  Over time, Israel began to adopt Greek customs and compromise with the world around them.  Some were worse than others.  We know of the issue between the Sadducees and the Pharisees.  However, you may not be aware that in the way the Pharisees saw the Sadducees as sell outs and compromisers so the people in Qumran looked at the Pharisees.

John came forth because it was time for Messiah, and Israel as a nation was not ready.  God’s grace sent a man who proclaimed a message, “Get ready for Messiah!”

There is some conjecture that Malachi may not actually be the prophet’s name.  Malachi means “my messenger.”  The book does open with a classic statement telling us who the author is.  “The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.”  However, it doesn’t use the “son of so-and-so” formula along with it.  This isn’t necessary.  Regardless, both would tell us the same thing.  This is God’s messenger.

We should also note that this is the word that is used for angel, and could be translated “My angel.”  It seems quite clear that this is a human messenger and thus it is translated as my messenger.  Hebrew did not use a separate word for a human “angel” or a heavenly “angel.”  They were both messengers.  However, English has always reserved the term angel for heavenly messengers.

The book of Malachi opens with two chapters from Malachi to the people of Israel regarding rebuilding true spiritual worship of Yahweh.  They had rebuilt the temple, but their worship of God was lacking.

In Malachi 3:1, the word messenger is used twice of two different characters.  It first refers to one who would come as a messenger to prepare the way for another.  It is then used of the one who would come (“whom you seek”) who is called the Lord, and the Messenger of the Covenant.  This is clearly Jesus and his forerunner John the Baptist.

The last chapter is a warning to Israel regarding the ministry of Messiah.  The proud and the wicked would not survive his ministry.  They would be like stubble in a fire and be destroyed.  However, those who fear God will “go out like stall-fed calves.”  This is a good picture of Israel going from the first century AD into the second century AD.  Many of Israel were destroyed, but those who put their faith in Jesus went forth like well-fed calves who didn’t have to work hard for their food.

It is here that John mentions Elijah coming to warn Israel before the Day of the Lord.  So, let’s talk about Elijah and John the Baptist.

Many religious Jews still look for Elijah the prophet to this day.  However, in Matthew 11:14-15 Jesus says this about John the Baptist.

“14 and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. 15 He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”  (ESV)

It is interesting that Jesus uses the conditional “if.”  It would be hard for them as a society to accept that John “is Elijah” because it would be hard for them to accept that Jesus was Messiah (especially after his death and resurrection). 

The angel that speaks to Zechariah (John’s soon to be father) in Luke 1:13-17 tells him that he is going to have a son.  Notice that the angel quotes from Malachi 4:6.  The angel says this of John.  “[H]e will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”

The angel uses this passage, but gives two critical clues.  First, John would minister in “the spirit and power of Elijah,” rather than actually being Elijah.  Second, the hearts of the fathers to the children, can be literal, but is clearly intended to be taken metaphorically also (fathers to children…disobedient to the wisdom of the just).

This sets up a parallel.  Both the angel and Jesus connect John to this passage, which also connects to Isaiah 40 and the voice crying in the wilderness.  God knew that Israel would reject Messiah and, therefore, He did not send Elijah, but an Elijah like prophet.  Just as John was the forerunner for the First Coming of Jesus, so the book of Revelation chapter 11 pictures two prophets who exercise the power of Moses and Elijah before the Second Coming of Jesus.  The whole point is God helping His people to have the best opportunity possible to be ready for the coming of Messiah Jesus.

It is also interesting that Moses and Elijah both show up on the Mount of the Transfiguration.  Yet, they only spoke to Jesus.  They were not ready to hear from Elijah yet.  It appears to be a nod, and a hint, that it could have happened, but would happen later.  A pause is placed on operation Elijah.

Let me say this.  Israel is right to be expecting the prophet Elijah because God’s word says he will come.  However there is a problem.  When you are in the habit of rejecting true prophets, you tend to embrace false ones. 

What about the Church of Jesus?  It has become vogue among some to talk about prophets, seeking them out to receive a word, taking classes to learn how to become one, etc.  However, please listen to me.  There are real prophets today, but there are even more false prophets.  There are prophets who have been made by the Lord, and there are prophets who have made themselves.

You and I are responsible before Christ to know the difference.  If you are a true believer, then the Holy Spirit of God resides in you.  If you have a solid relationship with the Lord where you are in the Word and wrestling with God over it in prayer, if you have come to know the heart of Christ, then his Spirit will help you to avoid such false prophets.  Don’t look to a prophet to help you know Jesus.  You are to go directly to Jesus in response to his Holy Spirit.

I hope you see through all of this that it was God’s Father-heart that caused these messages of warning to be sent to Israel through His messengers.  A father speaks up when they see their son or daughter heading in the wrong direction and doing that which isn’t good.

I remember as a kid that my dad was always prepared.  If something was needed, he would generally go to his truck and pull out what was needed.  However, there are some things for which the only preparation is to know Jesus for yourself, and really well.

The whole purpose in these prophets is to affect not just our family experience, but to demonstrate the Father-heart of God.  He knows what is coming if we don’t turn around.

Yet, hardness of heart had separated them from God and from one another.  What do you do when your children become so hard towards you that they won’t listen to a word of wisdom from you?  In our humanity, we often sulk, lash out in anger, or simply write them off.  If you have never done this, it wasn’t because you didn’t feel it.  It was because you took hold of those feelings and said, “No! This is my kid and I am not giving up on them!  God give me strength and wisdom to reach them.”

I’m sure this is what the Prodigal Son’s father was thinking when his son asked for his inheritance early.  He knew the son was not thinking or living rightly.  He knew it would be wasted.  However, how could he reach the heart of his son?  Withholding the money would end up being one more grievance and one more barrier to the son seeing the error of his ways.  The father laid down his ego and let his money be wasted for the hope of a son who would come to his senses one day.

God knows what it feels like to have obstinate children.  He sometimes goes silent in order to give us space to discover the end results of the false wisdom that we have been embracing.  The 400 years of silence for Israel was to see what they would do with the powerful message of the prophets pointing back to the Torah.  Even then, God is always faithful to come back around and speak the words of loving truth to us again, i.e., “Repent before it is too late!”

God’s purpose is to change our hearts so that He can bless us (v. 6)

I know that this verse does not use the word blessing, but that is what it is all about.  God does not want to strike the earth, the land, with a curse.  He wants to do the opposite of that, which is why He is warning them.

The opposite of a curse is a blessing.  We see this in Deuteronomy 28.  There Israel has listed for them the blessings that will come upon them for loyal obedience to God, and yet, the curses that would come upon them for disloyal disobedience.

This promise of sending Elijah is all about changing hearts so that blessing will come rather than cursing.  Some of that blessing is the natural result of doing what is good and right.  God has hard-wired the universe in such a way that the things that He calls good will bring blessing, but the things that He calls bad will bring a curse. 

If you fight how God has wired you as a human being, and if you do things that He calls sin, then you bring a curse upon yourself that comes right out of your own nature.  You weren’t designed for sexual immorality.  When you fight against God’s instructions by giving yourself to those things, you are actually harming yourself psychologically, physically, and emotionally.  Your own nature and body will manifest rebukes to your way of life.  That’s how God designed it.

What about doing drugs?  God did not design humans to be using drugs all of the time, whether to relax, be more creative, or to cope with life.  When you fight against that nature, problems will rise in your life.  You can call them curses, but if you will listen to what they are saying, you will recognize them as the grace of discipline.  You choose whether these things are a curse or a discipline in your life.

Yet, some blessings and curses are directly from God.  They are more than an outflow of the natural processes of good and evil.  They really are a supernatural touch from our heavenly Father.  We should desire both of these, and it isn’t important whether we can distinguish between them or not.

Verse 5 says that the prophet would “turn” the hearts of the fathers to the children.  It actually has a sense of causation.  The ministry of Elijah would cause them to turn their hearts.  That is God’s intention, to wake them up to action.  This idea of turning is part of the greater concept of repentance.  It is focused on the heart, but can also be used of the direction in which we are walking.  I have been following my desires and dreams, which have a particular direction that is generally away from God.  This is not an external show, but the truth of the arrow of our heart.  God knows if we are going towards or away from Him.  In short, we go away from God towards satisfying self and away from His good towards “our good.”

The other side of repentance that is not mentioned here is the mind.  It is implied, however.  To affect our heart, we have to also have a change of mind about God’s wisdom versus ours.  When we come to our senses, have a change of heart, and a turning of our heart’s desires, we will then have a change of how we live.

How do you get hold of a child’s heart so that they will know that you love them and want what is best for them?  I’ll tell you what God did. He sent His only Son to die on a cross that you would know His intention towards you is true, faithful, and loving.  Will not this even now turn your heart back towards Him?

The hardest part of being a parent is to discover from God through prayer all the ways that you need to die to yourself in order to reach your son, your daughter.  This is generally a metaphor.  Part of it is letting go of our ego and dying to self.   Instead of trying to hide their problems or deny them, we say, “Yes, that’s my child.  Will you pray with me for them?  I need your help because I am fighting for their soul!”

Only God can orchestrate those moments of laying our life down for our children.  You should also prepare yourself.  This does not generally result in them waking up.  It is usually later that something gets their attention, and then they see it.  They see your sacrificial love trying to help them.  It will be a witness to them in that day that God grants repentance.

When I change my mind about the way in which I am living, and turn my hearts toward God, He will be faithful to speak to us about our actions towards others.  Thus, to turn towards God is by definition to be turned towards people, and to turn towards them for the right reasons.

This world will turn towards people in an attempt to plug into them and suck life out of them.  God is left out of their thought process, and the desires of their heart.  God is calling us to a loving connection with others that is done in a right way, in a good and healthy way that He intended.  It won’t be perfect, but it will be good.

Did you notice that Deuteronomy 6 gives the Greatest Commandment, “Love God with all your heart, soul, and strength”?  It then mentions a father living a life that cares about what his kids take to heart, which is the Second Commandment.  Yes, your kids are your closest neighbors.

In the first century AD, the message and life of Jesus raised up a remnant of repenting people whose hearts were toward God.  This then turned their hearts towards their own people.  They did things that brought persecution, jail, and even death, upon themselves.  Yet, they did it because they had God’s heart for their people. 

How do you get a heart for people who are dragging you off to jail and trying to kill you?  You can only do it out of a loving relationship with God that is surrendered to the leading of the Holy Spirit.  You have to get in touch with God in a deep and intimate way.

Perhaps you are not sure that you want to be that intimate with God.  Of course, not all Christians were and are killed to show God’s love to the lost.  However, this is the heart of God.  Peter wanted desperately to protect Jesus or die with him trying to do so.  Yet, his flesh was too weak to do it.  Just as God helped Peter to get to the place where he could lay his life down, God can get you there.  The martyrs are not the cursed of God, but the more blessed of God because they enter into the most intimate knowledge of what it took for Jesus to pay the price for our sins.

I believe that, just as Jesus spoke of the Gospel rippling out from Jerusalem because of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the effect of repentance is to ripple out from our soul.  My family is my Jerusalem, and it is to ripple out from there.  To the ends of the earth becomes a picture of the scope and sphere of God’s work through me.  Our primary ministry to others is within our family, but it scopes out from there.

To wrap this up, let’s focus on those last words.  If their hearts didn’t (our hearts don’t) turn, then God would strike their land with a curse.  There would be difficult times ahead if they didn’t listen.  This is not just true for Israel, but for every individual, family, nation, and even the world.

Like Moses telling Israel that he had put life before them and that they should choose life (Deuteronomy 30:19) so the word of God comes to us as fathers and as children.  What is true spiritually for all humanity is also true in our homes.  You can’t ignore God and have a blessed life too.  God, life, and blessing go hand in hand.  I can’t cancel God and then still find life and blessing.  Instead, I will find death, and cursing because I won’t respect the reality that He isn’t going anywhere.

I may never do anything to help make a difference for the world, but that is God’s business.  There are many today trying to fix, to save, the world, and yet, they are losing themselves, their families, and those closest to them.  The leaders of this world will sacrifice hundreds of millions of humans for the sake of “saving humanity.”

Yet, they problem is that God cares about each and every human.  He will require an accounting of us.  And, that is why He has put you in the life of some humans.  He cares about them.  That’s why He became human Himself in Jesus.

We can all make a difference, but the number of people is not what is important.  It is not the scope that is important, but the stakes.  The stakes are just as great for one human as they are for all humans.  To save one person is an infinite thing upon which no price can be affixed.

Do we want life or death?  Do we desire blessing from God or cursing?  In Jesus, God speaks a word of blessing to the world, but we too are like a prophetic voice calling to wayward children (literal and metaphorical).

Let us honor the fathers in our lives, and let us be good fathers that represent and live out the Father-heart of God to our own biological children, but also to those with whom He has given us influence.  May our hearts be turned to Him today so that we might have an impact that turns the hearts of others.

Let me just recognize those who have not married, or are unable to have children.  It is a wonderful thing to raise a biological child.  It is even more wonderful to lead them to faith in Jesus.  However, the beauty of the Lord is that he enables us to become spiritual parents to children and adults alike who are not our biological children.  Paul spoke of himself as a spiritual father to many Christians of his time.  His ministry was marked by the Father-heart of God, rather than by a power-hungry, tyrannical authority.  So, take heart.  God has a purpose, and a work, for you that is even more important than raising a biological family.  Let’s turn our hearts towards Him and towards one another!

Turning Our Hearts audio

The Acts of the Apostles 44

Subtitle: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles

Acts 10:34-43.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on June 11, 2023.

Today we are going to see the emphasis that God will save "whosoever" will come to Him and believe on Jesus as Lord and Savior.

This idea, that God wanted Gentiles to come directly to Jesus for salvation without first becoming a Jew, and that He would make no distinction between them as Gentiles or Jews, is historically an unthinkable thing for most Jews of that day.  To them, everything in the Old Testament pointed towards the Gentiles need to come under the Law of Moses and then be joined to Israel.

Lest we treat this as some kind of special Jewish prejudice, we should recognize that all nations think and speak of themselves in terms that can be boiled down to this.  We are "The People" and all other nations are something less.  We should not be so quick to accept that this is what the Jewish Scriptures were promoting.

We also have a tendency to promote that all ethnic groups are good and it is wrong to critique them.  However, this is simply refusing to face the truth of history.  Even by modern man's ever changing definition of what is good, there is a tendency to cherry pick certain ethnic groups for castigation, and turn a blind eye to other groups. It is the result of the mentality that the end justifies the means.

We will talk more about this, but for today, we see that God's heart was never operating out of favoritism.  He is going to save and fill with His Holy Spirit a group of Gentiles without making them fulfill the Law of Moses.

Let's look at our passage.

God shows no partiality (v. 34-35)

As Peter walks into the living space of Cornelius' quarters, there is a whole group of Gentiles gathered to hear him.  These are the friends and family of Cornelius.  It is here that Peter makes a powerful statement up front.  God shows no partiality, or favoritism.  This phrase is also translated as "no respecter of persons."  The underlying meaning comes from a word that literally states that He does not receive the face.  God is not looking at the face of the person and accepting them for external reasons.  God looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).

Humans easily fall into this pattern and are sometimes blind to how much we do it.  However, God's judgments are not based upon superficial things.  He does not have a grid of things like: ethnic group, skin color, pedigree, gender, etc., by which He filters out people that He will receive.

You may remember seeing an image or picture of Lady Justice holding scales in her hand and wearing a blindfold.  The idea is that justice should be meted out purely upon the facts of a case and not upon whom is coming before us.   This is a good reminder for us as humans because we generally have to be blindfolded in order to make a just decision.  I wonder how different our halls of injustice would be if our judges and juries were actually "blind" to the superficial identities of the defendant and the plaintiff.  However, even this would not fix everything.

Yet, God does not need a blindfold.  We are all His creation.  He is not a part of our group.  He was not a god created by the Israelites to reflect themselves as the ideal back to themselves.  He holds them accountable to Truth.

The closest thing we have to this in our world is when two children cannot get along and seek a judgment from their parents.  Yes, parents can have a favorite, but a good parent will recognize that both kids generally need to grow up and that both generally need to be disciplined.

God is not just better than parents.  He is perfect in His judgments.  He created us all and is not willing for any of us to perish, but that all should come to repentance.  Yet, some will still refuse to repent.

Lest you think I am making the Old Testament sound better than it is, you should look at Deuteronomy 10 (particularly verse 17) [also 2 Chronicles 19:7].  Moses reminds Israel that God's choice of them was not an act of favoritism.  They were not His pet nation.  No, He called Abram before He was a nation, and not because He foresaw that a perfect nation would come from his offspring.  In fact, the existence of different ethnic groups, nations, is directly connected to a judgment from God against a global rebellion against Him.

God does not call Israel to take their place, but to be a blessing to all the nations (Genesis 12:3).  In the Deuteronomy 10 chapter, we also see God warning them to love the "stranger" in their midst.  There judgments were supposed to render "the judgment of the Lord."  Don't read that as God will stamp His approval on your judgments.  Rather, when we give a judgment, we are certifying that we believe this is what God's judgment is in heaven.  If we can't say that, then we should not make the judgment.

If you are still not convinced, then read Deuteronomy 32.  This chapter lays out that God knew they would be an obstinate and rebellious people (overall).  Of course, this would be true of any human people that He could have chosen.  An honest reading of the Old Testament will come to the conclusion that Israel was not treated with favoritism.  Rather, God was teaching them and doing a work through them that would help all nations (who were all in rebellion against Him by the way).

Peter also states that he "perceives" that God shows no partiality.  This word can be the result of my effort to look into something like a scientist.  I might perceive something, i.e., the light bulb of understanding turns on in my mind.  However, it can also be the result of a process where I am the student and another is teaching me, be it simply life, or God.  Peter is experiencing this second aspect.  God has been teaching and showing him that He is not showing favoritism with Israel simply because the Messiah was from their nation, and his apostles are from Israel.

This is a theme in the Old Testament.  God is a teacher, but humans generally hear Him, and yet, do not hear Him; they see and don't see.  Only the Holy Spirit of God can help us to hear and see what God is trying to teach us.  Even then, the Spirit of God will not override our choices.  The resistant and rebellious will go on over the top of God's teaching and be deaf and blind to it.

By the time we finally "perceive" what He is saying, God has been knocking on our door for a long time (at least when it comes to issues of repentance).  We must be careful as Christians (like Peter) that we do not harden our heart to what His Spirit is trying to teach us.

Have you ever taken any heat for doing what God put on your heart to do?  If not, then get ready.  If you follow Him, there will be plenty of people who will line up and take pop shots at your decision.  It is important for you to have done the hard work in prayer and in studying the Scriptures, so that you can have confidence that God is leading you.

In verse 35, Peter restates the point that God shows no partiality.  They are "accepted by Him."  There is a direct access to Jesus, or better yet, to God the Father through Jesus the Son.  It doesn't matter how much idolatry the person is coming out of, or how wicked their society has been.  A person from any nation can approach Jesus for salvation.

We should praise God for people who are hungry to hear the Word of God.  Some are like pouring water on a duck's back, whereas others soak it up.  However, we must not adopt the attitude that we only speak to "receptive people."  Jeremiah would have never spoke in obedience to God, if he had adopted that attitude.  We might be a voice crying in the wilderness, but we are a voice that belongs to God and is pleasing Him.  There are many people who have turned to the Lord after the deaths of their godly parents.  The parents did not get to see the fruit of their labor in this life, but they will in the life to come.

Peter mentions two things that are the hallmarks of a blameless man in the Old Testament.  The first is a person who fears God.  It is our tendency today to shrink away from this phrase, but in the battle with sin, it is an important, necessary issue.  Instead of ignoring God and His decrees, instead of pushing the teaching of the Holy Spirit away, this person halts and takes God seriously.  Something within them warns them that they had better not rush on and ignore this warning.  They pay attention to God and come after Him with a heart of loyal obedience (don't read that as perfection).  They do this while others ignore, mock, scoff, and continue on in sin.

It is not that God wants us to be afraid of Him all the time, as if He is going to smash us at any time everyday.  The fear of the Lord is that warning signal that rises up in our heart when we are tempted to sin, or stepping off the path of righteousness.  It is a warning that reminds us that we are in danger of making ourselves an enemy of God, the good and just God in Whom there is no partiality.

Peter also adds to this a person who works righteousness.  They do what is righteous, not in their own opinion, but as directed (defined) by God.  Peter is not saying that Gentiles can be saved by their own righteousness.  This is clear by what is said next, "accepted by Him."  This is about being locked out of approaching God's throne and asking for grace.

The Church must never teach a self-righteousness for acceptance and salvation before God.  We are acceptable and forgiven on the foundation of the righteousness of Jesus.  However, one who accepts the righteousness of Jesus will go after him and live out the righteousness of Jesus by the help of the Holy Spirit.  We can end up in the opposite ditch by steering too hard out of the ditch we are in.

The movie Jesus Revolution depicted the clash that occurred when hippies of the late 60's and early 70's tried to come to church.  They didn't have a suit on, a tie, or even shoes sometimes.  Yet, where in the Bible does it say such a person cannot approach God with the rest of us?  Anyone who comes to Jesus for salvation has only just begun to be cleaned up by his teaching and the help of his Holy Spirit.  Cleaning fish is dirty business, but God gets down in the muck and the mire with us, and by His Holy Spirit, He gets His hands dirty.  Will you join Him in that work?

What He wants from you is patient faith.  By your patient faith in His work, you will take possession of your soul and then make a difference in your part of the world.

Peter breaks down the Gospel (v. 36-43)

Peter then tells them exactly what he told the people of Israel on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2) and ever since.  Gospel simply means good news.  So, what is the Good News?  It all centers on Jesus.  He is the good news:  who he is, what he did on this earth, his death and resurrection, God the Father's decision, and now our opportunity to have peace with Him.

Another way of thinking about the Gospel is to look at the action and reaction.  God the Father sent Jesus to be the Anointed King.  Israel rejected him and put him to death (with Roman help of course).  God responded by resurrecting Jesus from the dead in a heavenly, glorified body.  He also makes him to be the king of heaven and earth.  God's wrath will be poured out on humanity, but first He allows all men everywhere to believe on Jesus (his work and position) and have peace with Him.  So, God has put the "ball" of choice in your court.  What are you going to do?

We may not feel comfortable with being put in the pinch, but the truth was that we were already enemies of God.  We were already living for sin and not for righteousness.  It is not easy to be set free from sin, and to be clear, it is not "fun" for our flesh to be freed from sins, but it is a joy for our spirit and soul.  There are some things that you may not want to let go of.  Sometimes we can become very hard to the nudging and correction of the Holy Spirit.

I see this when we deal with one another.  We can be in an argument or debate with people and find ourselves playing this game where we are not wanting the truth.  We are only trying to win.  We become nit-picky towards every little thing that is said and ignore any overall truth that is not dependent upon nit-picking grammar, and other irrelevant details.  There are too many people "winning" arguments in this world (in their mind at least).  Two people walk away from a debate and are completely convinced that they won. 

In fact, we are getting to the place where we define winning as not even listening to an argument that is not congruent with our thoughts.  We cancel the other side and call it a win.  We stick our fingers in our ears and refuse to talk with one another because we have become so afraid.  Do you know what we are afraid of?  We are afraid of the Truth.  We are afraid of God breaking through that shell and into our hearts.  We are afraid of finding out that we fall short.  But, please hear me.  The day on which you realize the truth that you completely fall short is a wonderful day.  It is a wonderful day because now you can find Jesus and He will become your foundation of righteousness. 

I tell you.  Every good thing that I have done in my life is really worthless in the end, if it wasn't for Jesus helping me to do it.  Preaching the Gospel is good, but if you are doing it to get the approval of parents and grandparents, if you are doing it to become famous and influential, if you are doing it for any reason other than Jesus has told you to do it, then it is as if it were filthy rags. 

God in His mercy sent Jesus because He knew we could not do it alone.  Take His hand and live!

When you think about the Gospel, it is mind boggling that God offers peace right after they have executed His Son.  It is not what you would expect.  This does not mean God was pleased with what they did.  In fact, they could not have crucified Jesus without His cooperation.  Jesus laid down His own life.  He knew that His willing sacrifice would open the door for Israel and the Gentiles to have terms of peace with God.

Let us be clear.  Peace with God is only available through putting your faith in His solution, which is Jesus.  Christians are those who have entered peace with God through Jesus, and then have become ambassadors to others on how they can have peace with God too.

Cornelius is a God-fearer, but he needed to learn about the Messiah and put his faith in him, just like the Jews of Jerusalem needed to do.

We can compare this to Noah's family in the ark.  As long as they remained in the ark, they would be safe.  It was God's designated place of protection.  If they jumped off the ark in the midst of the flood, their fate would be the same as those who never entered in the first place.  Jesus is our ark, and we enter him by putting our faith in him and following him.  We have a safe place to fight sin and become like Jesus.

In verse 36, the interjection, "Jesus is Lord of all," might sound like an abrupt insertion.  However, it is key to the point.  God in Deuteronomy 10:17 is described as, "the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome."

This highlights that Jesus has received a position that is higher than all authorities, like that of God the Father. He is not confusing them, but recognizing that the Father has put Jesus over all things.  Yes, it is a statement of divinity, but it is also a statement that helps us understand why his death brings Gentiles, all people, to the table.  Even in the Old Testament, God made it clear to Israel that He had not abdicated His throne over all powers in heaven or on earth.  Similarly, Jesus is not only receiving authority over Jews, or Europeans, or light-brown skinned people of the Near East.  He is lord of all, and so his terms of peace are to go out to all peoples.

In verse 37, Peter relates that they are quite aware of what Jesus had done, and how he had been executed.  Such a story would have affected anyone in the area, and especially those tasked with "keeping the Roman peace" in Judea and its surrounds.  Yet, Peter mentions the important points of what had happened.  Starting from the beginning of the ministry of Jesus, he points out that: Jesus was baptized by John, Anointed by the Holy Spirit at that time (i.e., began his Messianic ministry), and He did good and healed those oppressed by the devil.  Yet, "they" killed him by hanging him on a tree (crucifixion).  Yet, God raised Jesus up on the third day, and showed him openly to the disciples.

Thus, Peter points out in verse 39 and 41 that he and the disciples were witnesses of all of this, especially the resurrection.  Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 15:6 that over 500 people saw the resurrected Jesus and many were still alive decades later.

Peter is recognizing that the message is first for the Jewish people.  They were the ones among whom God had done this work, so they should hear the truth of it first.  However, it is also for Gentiles who also had rebelled against God in Genesis 11 at the Tower of Babel.  Paul teaches the same thing in Romans 1:16:17.

"I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, "The just shall live by faith." (NKJV)

The point is not one of partiality, but one of God's call and purpose.  Even in its disobedience, God would save the remnant of Israel and use them to send the Gospel to the Gentiles.  God's calling is without repentance because He called them knowing full well how they would act and what they would do.

Today a person can step into that place where they hear the truth and respond to the Spirit of God that is within the words of the Gospel.  We become witnesses of those who received the message from witnesses all the way back to the eye-witnesses.

They ultimately testify that God has made Jesus the judge of all humanity (the dead and the living, past and present, Jew and Gentile).  You can't bribe him, nor can you ignore him.  Hebrews 9:27 says, "it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment."  This means that you will come before him to receive judgment.

At that point, you will not be accepted or rejected based on your genealogy, church attendance record, etc.  He will simply judge you in righteousness, according to the truth. 

This would be devastating news if the second part of Peter's statement were not present.  Those who believe in him will receive "remission of sins," that is forgiveness.  This means that your sins will be removed from you legally and immediately upon faith in Jesus.  From that point on, your faith in Jesus and obedience to the Holy Spirit will practically remove sin from your life in a process that is lifelong.  We should not use this as an excuse to be lazy because God knows our heart.  Sometimes laziness is an excuse for despising the chores given to you by the one in authority, and that is equivalent to despising the authority.  Jesus is able to discern the truth behind such matters in our life.

It is sad that barriers  have been continually lifted up by Christians that God does not intend to be a barrier.  Our love of sin is a big enough barrier.  Our pride is a big enough barrier, that we do not need to add more.  Jesus laid down his life to remove the barriers to people coming to him.  At least, we can say that he did everything for us, but repent in faith over the top of our protesting flesh.

I will never "finish" myself in becoming like Jesus.  It is God who completes the work.  It is best to see yourself working with Him in your heart and mind.  You do what you can, and He does what you can't.  Jesus has an immortal body, so none of us will be in his image until we too are in resurrected bodies.  You cannot do that in yourself.  God must do this for you.  He has promised to do this for all who have put their faith in Jesus Christ.

Our problem today is not the Jew versus Gentile issue.  I will admit that there are some that have reversed this and despise the Jewish people.  This is sin, of course.  In the 1970s of the United States of America, the problem was those hippies.  Further back, it would have been those black people, those Indians, etc.  God helps us to see that we are all simply sinners in need of the grace of Jesus.  We should bar no one who wants to do so from coming to Jesus in repentance.  If we do so, we may find that the Lord's judgment of us in the coming day is not as favorable as we thought.

Peter Preaches audio