The Acts of the Apostles 66

Subtitle: Those Who Turn The World Upside Down

Acts 17:1-15.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on May 26, 2024.

We have made it back to the book of Acts.  We are in the middle of Paul’s 2^nd Missionary Journey.  It began at the end of chapter 15 following the Jerusalem Council.  This was a gathering of the apostles and elders of the early Church to make sure they were all on the same page regarding what Gentiles needed to do in order to be saved.  Thus, Paul’s 2^nd missionary trip serves to visit churches that he had started on the first missionary trip and share the findings of the Jerusalem Council.

This would be important because, up to that point, there were individuals that were telling the Gentiles that they needed to follow the Old Testament, i.e., become Jews through circumcision, and obedience to the stipulations of the Law of Moses.  Essentially, they were teaching Gentiles to first become Jews, and then, they could become a follower of Jesus.

After Paul had worked through these towns in central Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey, or Türkiye), the Holy Spirit leads him and his company to travel westward until they ended up in Greece.  In Chapter 16, Paul and company minister in Philippi where they are whipped and put in the jail.  However, an earthquake leads to them being freed and the Philippian jailor and household becoming Christians.  Paul then reveals that they have beaten him against the law of Rome because he has Roman citizenship.  This causes the magistrates to apologize and beg Paul to leave the city.  They then met with the believers, encouraged them and then, headed westward towards Thessalonica, which is where we join them in Acts 17:1.

The Gospel comes to Thessalonica (v. 1-9)

They travel west through two cities, Amphipolis and Apollonia, which roughly divide the 100 miles to Thessalonica into thirds (around 33 miles between).  Paul may or may not have preached in these cities.  It is not mentioned.  However, Luke focuses on what happened at Thessalonica next.

We have two letters (epistles) written by Paul to the Thessalonians in the New Testament.  Here is something that Paul later said of the church that would be started there.  1 Thessalonians 1:8, “For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place the news of your faith toward God has gone out.”

From this, we can see that Paul doesn’t have to preach in every city (whether he did or didn’t).  The churches that he started would become hubs of shining the Gospel into the region.  May our church be a church with such a strong faith that the area knows it, and they will have hear the “Word of the Lord.”

Now, Thessalonica was the main city of that region.  It had a synagogue and that is where Paul began.  We are told that he preached for three Sabbaths (weeks), reasoning with them from the Scriptures.

There are two verbs that are used to describe this.  In the NKJV, they are interpreted as “explaining” and “demonstrating.”  The first one has the sense of opening the Scriptures up for them, but also opening their understanding of the Scriptures that they no doubt knew.  The second word has the sense of setting something before the people.  In food contexts, it is used of a hostess placing food before guests.  In this setting, we are talking about teachings regarding Christ that are set before them, i.e., demonstrated to them from Scripture.

The two main teaching mentioned here are that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and to rise again from the dead.  We are not told the Scriptures that Paul used, but Isaiah 53 could easily have been one, also Psalm 16:10-11.  The second teaching is that Jesus of Nazareth is that Messiah and fulfilled these things.  Notice the logic of this.  If you don’t recognize or accept the first teaching, then you will not be able to see Jesus as the Messiah because he did suffer, die, and yet, rose again from the dead.

The response is good, but it is split up into three parts:  “some of them were persuaded,” “a great multitude of devout Greeks,” and “not a few of the leading women.”  In light of the mention of Gentiles in the second part, we can safely assume that the first part is speaking about the Jews who attended the synagogue.  So, it appears that there was a better reception among the Gentiles than among the Jews.  We are told that those who believed “joined” Paul and Silas.  It is most likely that they were connecting with them throughout the week in order to learn more, and unknowingly laying the foundation for the first church of Thessalonica.

We are told in verse 5 that those who were not persuaded by the Gospel preaching became “envious.”  This envy leads to them stirring up a crowd, a mob, from the marketplace in order to apprehend Paul, Silas, and Timothy. 

The source of the trouble is envy, and would, no doubt, be led by the religious leaders of the synagogue.  The problem was not Jews.  Paul is a Jew as well as Silas.  Some Jews were persuaded by Paul.  The problem is envy, and envy plagues every ethnic group under the sun.

You can imagine that they had worked hard to share the Law of Moses in Thessalonica and had even drawn many devout Greeks to attach themselves to the teaching of the synagogue as God-fearers.  When someone else comes into town and begins to persuade people in a new teaching, it would be natural to be defensive.  This is the same dynamic that led to Jesus being rejected by the leaders of Jerusalem.  Yet, the problem is not that their lack of being persuaded.  It could have stayed at the level of arguing your case from Scripture and rejecting Paul’s teaching.  They might even stipulate continued synagogue attendance on the rejection of this new teaching.  However, something darker comes forth because envy is a dark vice.  You may not even know you are being envious as it happens.  Envy is never good, and only leads to overt sin and pain.

A mob is stirred up, and we should take a moment to remind ourselves about the spirit that affects a crowd.  A crowd takes on a nature that is larger than any one person within the group, even those who started it.  For example, when you push against a large rock that is on a hillside, you will notice that there is much resistance at first.  You are choosing to keep pushing, or get help from more people, etc.  In a way, you are still in control.  However, there is that moment in time in which gravity takes over, and you are no one is in control.  Dangerous things can happen, especially if there are unwitting people down the hill.  The same is true spiritually, for good or for bad.  People within crowds will often do things that they would never do on their own.  In fact, contrary to the analogy, there are often spiritual dynamics at work even in “pushing the rock” in the first place. 

There is a theme in Scripture: don’t focus only on what you can see because you will miss the spiritual things that are happening.  This can be the good work of God, the evil work of the devil and his angels, or the spiritual condition of a person we are dealing with.

We do not want to be a people who are easily motivated to riot and attack others (even metaphorically).  We must understand what spirit is motivating us in our decisions and actions.  Is it the Holy Spirit, or the spirit of this world?  Believers in God, in Jesus, are those who are led by the Holy Spirit, rather than the ill-winds of this world.

We cannot fault the Jews of Thessalonica for not having a relationship with Jesus, but we can see that they had not been tuned to the Spirit of God.  Otherwise, they would have responded with joy.  Yet, they respond with envy and seeking to banish or jail Paul and company.

This is the battle between a desire for truth and the envy of our ego.  We all have ego that gets hurt from time to time, but believers are called to purify their hearts through repentance and works that are worthy of such.

The group ends up at the house of a man named Jason.  He most likely had been persuaded and was housing them.  However, when they arrive, Paul is not there.  Then, they drag Jason and the “brothers” (i.e., believers in Jesus) before the city rulers to make accusation against them.

The accusation is that they are breaking the decrees of Caesar by saying Jesus is “another king.”  In some ways, Jesus is not a threat to Caesar.  He did not instruct his followers to defeat the Roman empire.  Instead, he told them to love their enemies and preach the Gospel to them.  Yet, Jesus is a threat to Caesars in general.  The kingdoms of this world are destined to belong to him.  The kings of the earth are warned to “Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little.  Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.” Psalm 2:12.  Still, Jesus is not a threat in the way that they are presenting. 

They stir the pot through this aspersion, “these who have turned the world upside down have come here too!”  This is intended to be a negative, but it shows the powerful effectiveness of the early Church.  Actually, they were not turning the world upside down.  The world was already upside down from the way that God had created it due to human sin and spiritual interference.  Jesus Messiah was sent to begin righting the ship.  That righting of things begins in the heart of the individual.  He has come to set our hearts right side up before God. 

Yet, this creates a polarization in families, towns, nations, even the world.  Jesus said in Matthew 10:34, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth.  I did not come to bring peace but a sword.  For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’” He is quoting Micah 7:6.  This is the polarization that we see happening in this synagogue and the city as a whole.  Some are embracing Christ, but others who were their friends were not.  This situation has continued throughout the earth to this day.

The rulers of the city take security (money) from Jason and send them away.  This security is probably not a bond for showing up to court.  Rather, it is most likely so that they won’t cause another riot.

The Gospel comes to Berea (v. 10-15)

“The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea.”  The label of “brethren” means that these are people who believe that Jesus is the Messiah.  A good group of believers has been started, and the hot tempers among the town calls for Paul to move on.  However, the Gospel has not left the town.  It has been sown and taken root in many hearts.  Berea is a town that is about 45 miles west of Thessalonica.

Luke notes that there was a very different mind-set, or attitude, within the Berean synagogue.  Different versions describe them as “more noble,” “more fair-minded,” and “of more noble character.” The word literally means “well born.”  It pictures a person who has been born into a good family, has been taught good morals, and lives these out in society (aka Not the kind of people who riot).

What won them this descriptor? First, they were ready to hear what Paul had to say.  Yet second, they searched the Scriptures to check the veracity of his claims.  They were not ego-driven, but instead, desired to know the truth.  We can be a slave to passions that drive us.  In such cases, we can be blind to the truth.  However, what makes a person reject the Gospel one day, but accept it later?  There is a mystery to the way that the Gospel impacts people. 

We are told that many of them believed.  There is no distinction between Jew and Gentile this time.  Of course, Jesus and his apostles were not creating another religion by twisting Judaism.  The teaching and the work of Jesus flowed directly from the Law and the Prophets.  He is the fulfillment of all it points toward, which was there for anyone who would honestly seek out the truth.

Without any meddlers, there would not have been any problems in Berea.  However, the Jewish leaders from Thessalonica showed up and caused trouble for Paul and Silas in Berea.  No doubt, word had traveled back to them that Paul was in Berea and that many people were listening to him.  Again, the men from Thessalonica stirred up a crowd from the marketplace.

Note to self: don’t be the kind of person who is sitting around looking for a cause and a crowd to join.  Fleshly people, who are only focused on the lusts of their flesh, are easily stirred up.  If you are busy doing the work of the God, the Lord Jesus, then you will not be easily stirred up by others.

Again, the “brethren” send Paul away.  However, this time Paul goes by himself and leaves Silas and Timothy behind.  The heat seems to focus on Paul.  Silas and Timothy could stay under the radar and help the believing community of Berea grow in their understanding of the Scriptures and the work of Jesus.

Thus, Paul ends up on a ship to Athens, which is 300 miles away.  Most likely, they believe this will settle down the crowds rioting against Paul.

In some ways, we should recognize that, in order to turn your life right-side up before the LORD, it is going to feel like you are turning it upside down.  At salvation, a person senses the Holy Spirit calling them to put their faith in Jesus, but the flesh is generally scared at the thought of this.  Yet, for those who follow the Spirit, they enter into a life-transforming relationship with Jesus, the Spirit, and the Word.

When you feel that emotion of fear, or apprehension, towards something that the Holy Spirit is leading you to do or stop doing, take time to pray for clarity about the direction and courage to obey.

Paul could have focused on the negative.  Everywhere he went, people were causing trouble and mistreating him.  In 2 Corinthians 11, Paul lists all of the things he has endured in taking the Gospel to the nations.  Yet, these things were not enough to persuade him to quit.  He saw himself as a slave of Christ, even wishing that he could be cursed so that his countrymen could be saved.  The Holy Spirit had led Paul to these places to preach the Gospel.  Many wonderful people were saved through his ministry.

May God help us to see the need of a lost world and God’s love for them.  Yes, we will run into resistance and difficult things, but we will also see wonderful things.  Some will believe, and we will have fellowship with them.

How does a person turn the world upside down?  They do it by not focusing on trying to turn the world upside down.  Instead, they listen to the Holy Spirit and give themselves to the work that He gives them, no matter what the scope.  The Apostle Paul started by turning his own little world upside down on the road to Damascus when he believed in Jesus.  That became the foundation for what came later.  You can trust the Holy Spirit in you.  Just remain faithful to Jesus in your work.

Upside Down audio

Led By the Spirit

Romans 8:1-30.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on May 19, 2024, Pentecost Sunday.

Our passage today does not focus on the gifts of the Spirit, but on the leading and help of the Holy Spirit.

As we were walking through the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 to 7, we recognized that it begs certain questions.  How can a person do these things?  How can I love my enemies?  How can I be perfect even as my Father in heaven is perfect?

The short answer to these questions is that it will take a miracle of God.  Similar to Abram and Sarah wondering how they were going to have a child, we wonder how God will do the impossible things that He says He will do in us.  Like Abram and Sarah did, we can try to accomplish it in our flesh, but this is not God’s way.  In the end, it would be Isaac who would receive the promises of God to Abraham and carry them into the next generation.  Thus, we must not look at ourselves, our abilities, and our strength to find hope.  Rather, we look to Jesus, the one who is doing this powerful work within us.

We are told that God gives His Holy Spirit to those who put their faith in Jesus so that we can then do the impossible.  I do not mean things like jumping over a tall building in a single bound.  These are the kinds of things our flesh dreams up when it thinks of doing the impossible.  No, I mean those impossible things that God has promised to do in us and through us.

So, let’s look at our passage today and see the hope that we have in the help of the Holy Spirit for us.

The Spirit helps us to fulfill the righteousness of the Law (v. 1-4)

This first point is one of the main points that Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount.  Those who follow him will be enabled to fulfill the righteousness of the Law.  Paul sees this as the result of walking with the Holy Spirit.

The preposition that is translated as “with” has an added sense of something else that is in opposition.  We walk with the Holy Spirit as opposed to what we were walking with before.  In this case, Paul sees our flesh as the problem.  This shows the choice that is before everyone who hears the Gospel of Jesus and then responds in faith.  It is a choice between continuing to follow our flesh, or turning away from it in order to walk with the Holy Spirit.

This was always the weak point in the Law of Moses.  When verse three talks about the weakness of the Law, it is not pointing to a problem in the words themselves.  It is our tendency to follow our flesh.  The Law was perfect, but we are not.  Thus, we end up only condemned by those words.

Jesus boiled the whole purpose of the Law down to loving God with our whole being and loving our neighbor as ourself (even when that neighbor is our enemy).  When our flesh leads, we fail this all the time, but when the Spirit leads us, then we are enabled to accomplish what God was wanting.  Now remember, we wouldn’t have the Holy Spirit if Jesus hadn’t gone to the cross for us and won the authority and right to pour out this Holy Spirit upon his followers.

So, let’s delve a little deeper into walking with the Holy Spirit.  Walking has to do with how we live our life, the directions we go in, and the purpose behind what we do.  We are not intended to do this alone, but instead, to do it with the Spirit of Christ in us.  It is not up to my wisdom and my strength.  Like Adam and Eve talking with God in the cool of the day in the Garden of Eden, so too, we can pray and receive the wisdom, the leading, of the Holy Spirit for what we face.

It is the Holy Spirit that teaches us to fulfill the purpose of God.  It is the Holy Spirit that teaches us how to love God and other humans in the way that Christ has loved us.  These things are not in contention.  To love God is to be helped by Him to know how to love others.  The world may try to put them in contention.  However, you do not help (love) people by bending God’s word or twisting it.

The Spirit helps us to focus on the things of God (v. 5-8)

When we follow the flesh, we are generally doing stupid things that we will need to repent over later.  Just like parents teach their kids to focus on a task, or teachers help students to focus while in class, we too are enabled to focus on the right things by the Spirit of God.

The power of technology is not helping us in this area of focus.  People may focus on a screen for long periods of time, but we are almost completely disabled in our ability to get our heads out of it and into what God is trying to accomplish.  Of course, focus has always been a problem, even before such technology.  It has been a problem because the flesh in in competition with the Spirit of God.  When a person is saved, they are given the Spirit of God; He dwells within them.  Yet, they still have a mind of the flesh that is hostile to the things of God.  If left to our own devices, each of us would become focused on the things of the flesh, not the things of God.

In this area of God’s things, i.e., things of the Spirit, versus things of my flesh, there are things that I need to get rid of, and there are things that I need to start doing.  Maybe, I didn’t read the Bible before, or I didn’t pray and gather together with Christians, but now I start doing those things.  Maybe, I used to be involved in sexual immorality in certain ways, but now I stop doing those things that are contrary to God’s design in my life.

However, sometimes it is not about the thing I am doing so much as it is about the reasons why I do it.  Helping poor people is a good thing.  However, I can do it for fleshly reasons.  I can do it because it makes me feel good about myself.  Perhaps, I do it because it makes me feel like I am better than others.  I might do it because I want to use it as leverage for manipulating them.  The Holy Spirit teaches us how to take those impure, fleshly motivations, and cleanse them from our heart.  Then, we can be enabled to do a good thing for the right reasons, reasons that are made clean by the Holy Spirit.  Jesus addressed this in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:1-4.  Sometimes, we simply want people to think that we are better than we really are, image control, branding. 

The flesh will do religious and virtuous things for fleshly reasons, but the Spirit of God is given to teach us to say no to our flesh.  The Spirit is the grace of God helping us to break free from the hold that the flesh has upon our mind and life.  The flesh will be hostile to losing its grip on your life.  It is used to getting its way.  Paul points to this hostility in verse seven.  The flesh cannot be submitted to the Holy Spirit.  We can only quit listening to it and start listening to the Holy Spirit.

Even now, we see this fleshly hostility surfacing within our society.  People will complain about the “horrible, vengeful God of the Old Testament.”  Yet, at the same time, they will complain about the evil in the world as if it is God’s fault.  What they refuse to see is the tension between the love of God, that withholds judgment for a time so that we may take hold of the solution He has given us in Jesus, and the justice of God, which will (even must) judge wickedness eventually.  In its hostility, the flesh makes many self-serving arguments as to why it should lead in your life.  To cooperate with it is to cooperate with what is destroying your life, but to cooperate with the Spirit of God is to cooperate with that which is giving you Life.

The Spirit gives life to us in these mortal bodies (v. 9-11)

This issue of cooperation is key to our spiritual walk.  Though Paul does not emphasize the baptism of the Holy Spirit here, let me simply say this.  When you believe in Jesus, the Spirit comes to live within you.  He comes to help us in all the ways we need help.  Yet, we are also instructed to pray and ask for the baptism, or infilling, of the Holy Spirit.  These are two different pictures of the same thing. 

Being baptized in the Spirit is an external picture of immersion into the Spirit.  Yes, I have the Spirit, but does the Spirit have me?  Being totally surrounded by the Spirit is a powerful picture of a person surrendered to His work in their life. 

Being filled with the Holy Spirit uses an internal image.  You are a container that has the Holy Spirit within.  However, the nature of the Spirit allows Him to increase in measure to the point of filling us up and overflowing our life into the world around us.  This is something that occurs as we cooperate and seek His filling of us.

When you became a Christian, a follower of Jesus, it wasn’t your flesh saying yes on that day.  It was that moment at which you heard the Holy Spirit pointing you towards Jesus, and you began to cooperate with the Holy Spirit’s leading.  The only question now is this.  Will I continue cooperating with, walking with, the Holy Spirit?  The Christian walk is one of daily walking with the Spirit, daily thanking God for His Spirit and inviting Him to fill you to overflowing for the purposes of God for that day.

This is that life which Paul is talking about.  The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is able to give life to us in these mortal bodies.  Notice that he uses a different term from the word “flesh” that he has been using up to this point.  The flesh refers to the more sinister aspect of our bodies.  “Mortal” sees our bodies in the fact that they are dying and we will surrender them one day.  These mortal, earthly bodies are impacted by sins that we have done in them and to them.  We can sometimes lose hope in the life of God because of these very weaknesses in our mortal bodies.  Yet, we can have life even now because of the work of the Holy Spirit within us.  My flesh might be slowly wasting away and slipping ever closer to death, but my spirit is growing in relationship and closeness by the Spirit.  I am no longer ruled by the flesh’s fear of death and sickness.  I am more than a conqueror in Jesus Christ who leads me forth into victory, even through the valley of the shadow of death itself! 

Of course, the Spirit of God will give life to our mortal bodies at the resurrection too!  However, I believe Paul’s point here is about the life we can receive and live out now, even while we are in sinful flesh, and sin-impacted, mortal bodies.

The Spirit makes us to be sons of God, and thus, His heirs (v. 12-17)

The phrase “sons of God” is important.  It is sometimes translated as “children of God.”  The point is not that we are not, or cannot become, mature.  There is a certain spiritual maturity that is possible within these mortal bodies.  However, it pales in comparison to the status of the mature sons of God that we will have following the resurrection.  The resurrection is an instantaneous change, but our spiritual maturity in these mortal bodies is progressive.  We come to faith in Christ as spiritual babies, but we are not intended to remain babies.  The Spirit works in us first to be the evidence that we are the “babies” of God, but then to also help us grow up into the adult sons of God (as far as it is attainable in this life).  Spiritually mature believers have learned to fight and win the battle against their flesh in order to follow the Holy Spirit.  That doesn’t mean it is no longer a battle, and they are no longer tested.  However, it does mean that they have experience and spiritual skills that they didn’t have as babies. 

We have been adopted into the family of God, and we have become joint-heirs with Jesus in the eternal life that God is even now giving to those who put their faith in Jesus.  Technically, Jesus inherits it all, but we inherit because of our close relationship with him (his bride, his disciples, his family).

Thus, our calling is not that of slaves, but that of His family.  In this passage, Paul is focused upon the motivation and hop that the believer will need to fight the flesh and follow the Spirit.  You are His family in Christ.  He is not going to jerk the rug out from underneath of you.  You were made to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, even the New Heavens and the New Earth. You will be glorified with Christ one of these days.  It is the Spirit of God that witnesses with your spirit that these things are true.

Yet, in other places (Romans 1:1, Philippians 1:1), Paul calls himself a slave of Jesus Christ.  He is not contradicting this point.  Rather, Paul is referencing the fact that he volunteers to be a slave serving the purposes of Christ precisely because he is so convinced of the call of God for us as His children.  Now is the day of battle for the souls of men trapped in darkness.  Now is the time of laboring in the field of humanity in order to draw all men into faith in Christ, and therefore, adoption into the family of God.  We can be sons working long hours (the hours that a slave would work) because it is the work of our Father, our Savior, our LORD!  This is not a contradiction, but a powerful understanding of what it means to be adopted into the family of God and how that frees us to completely offer our mortal lives to His glorious work of redemption. 

We will share in his glory.  We share in the glory of his humanity right now, but after the resurrection, we will share in his glory as the Highest One, the Anointed of God, the King of Kings and the Lord of lords.

The Spirit helps us in our weakness (v. 25-30)

In verses 18-24, Paul talks about how the creation was subjected to the futility, the emptiness, of the curse because of the hope of its undoing in Christ.  We are a part of that great restoring of all things back to a condition of being very good (Genesis 1:31).  When God’s earthly imagers have been restored, then too, the curse shall be lifted off of the earth.

In our weak, mortal flesh, it may seem hard to believe that these things shall be true.  To follow the Spirit is not to walk by sight (what you see), but to walk by faith.  Ask yourself, when you look at the world today, are you filled with a great hope that we are on the cusp of 1,000 years of peace, and the corrupt governments of the world being removed?  No.  Our hope is place upon Jesus himself.  The Apostle Paul even warned in 1 Thessalonians 5:3, “For when they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.”  Similarly, if it one day looks like this world will create peace on earth, then don’t believe it!  It will be short-lived because they mean to do it without the One-True, Anointed Son of God at its helm.

The weakness we have in these mortal frames to put faith in what we see is helped by the Holy Spirit.  He helps us to keep our hope in Christ when all is failing around us, or when the wicked pretend that they have fixed all things.

We trust that God is working all things to our good (vs. 28) because we have put our faith in Jesus Christ and are being led by His Spirit.  We have too many testimonies from the Bible to doubt that He is doing such.

Ultimately, Paul describes God’s will for each of us, for all of us together: predestined, called, justified and glorified (vs. 30).  “Glorified” is put in the past tense, but it is a verb that technically has no tense.  The emphasis is not on when these things happen, but that they are the sure purpose of God for us.  He has predestined (put a destiny before us) those who follow the Spirit of God to be conformed into the image of His Son, Jesus.  To do that, He is faithful to call out to those trapped in darkness.  “Look upon Jesus and be healed!”  “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men!”  Those who answer this call by faith are justified by God (made to be right before Him).  This grace is made available because of the free-will offering of Christ upon the cross.  Those He has justified, He will glorify.  Though there is a certain glory that we have in following Christ in his humility, this points to the resurrection and our coming with Jesus when He returns to earth in His glory!  This glorification though future is yet guaranteed because of Jesus himself.  God will not deny His Son.  All who have put their faith in Jesus and have become his will be made to be like Him completely at the resurrection.  This is God’s purpose in you, and this is why we follow the Spirit of God rather than our flesh.  All who follow the flesh are destined to miss out on all of those good things that God has planned (those things we know about, and those things that we don’t know about). 

You have too much to lose to give up now.  Yes, the devil, the world, and even your flesh will tell you to quit believing in Jesus and start putting your faith in the ability of man to save himself.  Right now we are given the choice.  What will I do with Jesus?  However, one day we will stand before Jesus and the choice will be his.  What will he do with me?  Choose Life today! (John 14:6).

Led by the Spirit Audio

The Lies We Come To Believe

Genesis 3:1-13; 18:1-2, 9-15; Ruth 1:3-5, 8-13, 19-21.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Mother’s Day, May 12, 2024.

We are going to focus on three different women in order to see a dynamic that exists between hurts and wounds that we experience in life and the lies we come to believe because of them.

How have I let wounds be a source of entrenching lies in my heart and mind?  Much of the Christian walk involves a person letting the Word of God and the Spirit of God help us to discover and remove the lies that we have been living by.

Let’s look at our passages.

Eve (Genesis 3:1-13)

In verse 13, we see that Eve realizes that she was deceived by the serpent, the devil.  She believed him and then did what seemed right.  The moment when a person realizes that they have been duped, or deceived, is a horrible moment.  That sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach can occurs moments after you realize that you have just been scammed a lot of money by someone.  It is the same realization that Pinocchio had on the Island of Pleasure when he laughed at the other boy, who was turning into a donkey, and heard his own laughter turn into the bray of a donkey.

Eve’s wound is that she was deceived and then did something that brought harm to her husband and future children.  Of course, the results of being deceived are manifold, and they are not the only wounds a person experiences in life.  However, we will focus on this one.

Can you imagine later when Eve hears that her eldest son, Cain, had killed her next son, Abel?  Yes, there is that horrible realization of the unthinkable happening, but quick on its heels would be the realization that this is just another fruit of that prior deception and fatal action.

At this point, it is instructive to just recognize how the serpent, the devil (see Revelation 12:9), operates.  Her first mistake was listening to what that liar had to say.  This is subtly pointed out by God when He questions Adam, “Who told you that you were naked?”  The implication is more about the being with whom they have been talking, and not specifically what he said.  It doesn’t matter what the devil says.  It will always be a deceptive lie.

The devil’s first question completely overstates God’s command.  “Did God really say that you can’t eat from the trees of the garden?”  He first gets her to defend God by stating they can eat from all the trees but one.  Then, he directly contradicts God with a lie.  “You will not surely die!”  Thirdly, he accuses God’s motive for holding out this one tree from them.  “God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  The implication is that God doesn’t want any competition, and so, He is holding you back from something good.

Now, there are lies that we are told, but there are also lies that we come to believe as a result of them.  The first lie may be recognized and then rejected.  I do not believe Adam and Eve were deceived by the devil again.  They knew that he had tricked them, and they would not be listening to his lie that they can do something to become like God.  It is here that the wounding affects our heart and mind.  Because of the hurtful situation, our heart and mind will gravitate towards ideas and thoughts that rise up within us.  The wounding process itself can embed a subtle lie into our soul.  These lies are harder to remove.

Take a young child who is abused for example.  They may be yelled at, and or beaten, while being told that they are stupid, dumb, and a pain in the backside by a parent who is consumed with their own pain.  As an adult, the child may come to realize that their parent was simply messed up.  They were not speaking truth, but emoting in the midst of pain, venting their frustrations on the easiest thing near them, you.  This does not guarantee an instantaneous freedom from the inner lie that you are not worthy of love because something is drastically wrong with you.  By the time an adult comes to realize the wound, they have lived with a lie for a very long time. Even when we know it is untrue, those lies are often our default response, almost instinctual.

Satan doesn’t appear to us as a serpent anymore.  But, he is still a liar and our enemy.  There is a lot of water under the bridge of humanity’s history of listening to the serpent.  He has raised up lies in the form of wise-sounding statements, ideas, philosophies, and even wise-sounding false religions.  This sea of sophistry crosspollinates in a young person’s life as they grow up.  The wounds we experience will take hold of those things that are close at hand, which are often lies.

What were some of the things that may have stuck in Eve’s heart and mind following the eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?  We don’t know for sure, but here are some lies that we would tend to believe.

“I am so stupid!”  We can beat ourselves up for being innocent, but that wasn’t Eve’s true problem.  Her true problem is that she didn’t trust God, no matter what.  She isn’t stupid; she was just played.

“I messed it up and so I am not worthy of love!”  This can be between Eve and Adam, between Eve and her children, and between Eve and God.  No matter how many times another person tells us that they love us, we can internally rebuff the idea because we know that we are not worthy of love.  “If they only knew the truth about me!”  Or, “They are just saying that to be nice, but the truth is…” 

At this point, let me remind us that God shows up and speaks into the situation.  God never curses Adam and Eve.  He curses the serpent (you will crawl on your belly and eat the dust!), and He curses the earth.  When God finally addresses Eve, He points to one thing that He will do to her, “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children…”  However, the second part points to something that will be more of a consequence of her sin, rather than a direct action of God.  “Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.”  Verse 15 is somewhat vague and that may be on purpose.  It can have a perfectly good interpretation.  Eve will have a desire towards her husband, and he will protectively shelter her.  It is the imagery of how their relationship will be affected by living in a sinful world.  The woman’s weaker frame now becomes a liability and she will desire a husband to help protect her in this world, to which a good husband would give himself fully.  Yet, it also has some sinister connotations.  This is most likely because God is not just talking about Eve.  By extension, all the daughters of Eve will have individual experiences of life and with husbands.  It cannot be by accident that God warns Cain with these same words in Genesis 4.  He warns Cain that sin’s “desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”  This leaves room for a more sinister experience to happen between husband and wife.  A friction involving desire and power can infect the relationship in sinful ways.

Another lie that Eve could come to believe is this.  “I am no match for my enemy, so there is no hope.”  We should notice in Genesis 3:15, after placing a curse on the serpent, that God also promises help to mankind.  God sees that Satan has attacked humanity through the woman, and so, God states that He will put a hostility between the woman and the serpent, between her offspring and the serpent’s offspring.  He then promises that the woman will give birth to a particular offspring, and “He will crush [the serpent’s] head, and you will crush his heel.”  It clearly pictures a man, but a man who comes from a woman.  God could have spoke about Adam’s offspring, but it seems clear that God is signaling that the woman will be uniquely instrumental in the bringing forth of the head crusher.  This makes sense when we see the miraculous birth of Messiah Jesus.  No man was involved in the conception of Jesus.  Thus, God gives Eve and Adam hope, a promise.

It is easier to believe the lies of the wounds we receive than to believe God’s promises to us in His word.  There is always a hurt, cynical part of our heart that almost refuses to believe.  God let me be hurt, so how can I trust Him?  Thus, Eve may give herself fully to having children at first.  Hey, if I am going to give birth to the head crusher of my enemy, then let’s do this!  Yet, when Cain kill Abel, Eve realizes that this is more complicated than she may have thought.  Centuries later, they would understand that this will not be a quick turn around.  Thus, the long plan of God can be hard to trust even when it promises hope.

By the way, we must understand that Satan hated, and still hates, this power of humans to create offspring.  God had fit Adam and Eve against their enemy even before he struck.  The Satan tricked Eve, but she would have children.  For his plan to work, he is stuck tricking a new generation over and over again.  Talk about a drudgery.  Yet, in this, he would never know when one of those kids would raise up to crush his head.  Talk about fear.  Every time a man and woman put their trust in God and give birth to the next generation- now not to bring forth Messiah, but because we have a promise that He is helping us against our enemy- he hates it.  This is behind all the attacks against gender, marriage, birth, etc.  Satan hates us because God is using us to crush him in the dust.

God’s Word to us is intended to be a firehose that blasts the crud of lies that has caked itself on our hearts and minds.  It enables us to have faith and believe the Truth over the top of the lies that our heart wants to hang on to.

Sarah (Genesis 18:1-2, 9-15)

Let’s talk about Sarah, the wife of Abraham.  At the point of our passage, Abraham is 99 years old and Sarah is 89.  We might recognize that the ages of humans have been dropping ever since the flood.  Abraham lives to 175 years old, and Sarah lives to 127.  But, even with that in mind, the text tells us that Sarah has passed the age of bearing children.

Now, Abraham had been promised a multitude of offspring by God back when he was 75 (24 years before).  At some point, Sarah realizes that she is not going to have any children so she has Abraham bear a child in her name through her maid servant, Hagar.  This was a cultural mechanism that existed at the time.  Hagar would be considered a second-class wife of Abraham with particular privileges that would not be as great of those of Sarah.  This had happened about 13 years earlier.  Yet,  God had told Abraham that Ishmael would not be the one through whom the Promise would be fulfilled.  It would not be a child that came about by sheer will of man and work of the flesh.  Rather, it would be a miracle of God.

This helps us to see the wound that Sarah had.  She had been unable to bear a child for her husband to whom God had promised many offspring.  She had to live with the social stigma that her husband had no heir because she was fruitless.  She also had to live with the personal feelings of worthlessness.  No matter how much Abraham told her that he loved her, it would not be enough to fill the hurt of the wound in her soul.  He loved her and she loved him.

Let me take a few minutes to address polygamy at this time.  We should recognize that God gave Adam one wife.  The first time we see polygamy mentioned in the Bible, it is Lamech from the line of Cain.  Secondly, the polygamy we see with the patriarchs is itself instructive.  Abraham only “marries” Hagar because Sarah wants a baby so badly that she insists upon it.  Neither of them see it as good, but as an answer for a bad situation.  Of course, Isaac and Rebekah are a single couple with no polygamy.  Yet, with Jacob we see it again.

Notice that Jacob only has eyes for Rachel.  If it had been up to him, he would have only married Rachel and moved on.  Yet, Rachel’s dad tricked him into sleeping with Leah and consummating a tricked marriage.  Of course, he is not leaving without the woman he loves so he ends up married to two sisters.  Yet, these sisters are envious of one another and use the number of babies they have as a club against one another.  This causes Rachel to insist that Jacob have children through her maid servant (as Abraham had done with Hagar).  Then, Leah insists on the same with her maid servant.  None of this presents polygamy as an acceptable thing.  In fact, it begs the wisdom of relying upon it to answer a physical problem.  It only brought trouble to those who practiced it.

No husband (or wife) can fill the wound of their spouse with their love because there are lies that are entrenched within the wound.  Yet, God can use a godly spouse to help the other to heal.

Sarah came to believe that she would never have a child.  When did she become convinced of that?  Probably right before she suggested that Abraham marry her maid servant.  Even prophetic words from God to Abraham were not enough for her to trust and wait.  She may have had a little hope when Hagar had Ishmael, but it is clear that this dissipated.  She had given up on ever having a child as God had promised her husband.  She was the weak point of this plan.  God may love her husband, but He clearly doesn’t love her.  He would be better off to get rid of her.

I can’t know that all of these things went through her mind, but similar things did.  She had come to believe that she would not  be blessed of God and that she was worthless to her husband.

Yet, she would one day have a child as this passage explains.  The thought was ridiculous and caused her to laugh in her heart.  How many times do we give lip service to God, and yet laugh in our heart that anything will change in our life?  Of course, when we persist in idolizing lies in our heart, we will continue to chafe under God’s promises.  Sarah would laugh on the day she realized she was pregnant.  She names her baby “laughter,” Isaac.  However, that alone does not heal the wound.  How many other ways has the ideas of worthlessness and being unloved, not blessed, affected her life (our lives)?

Naomi (Ruth 1:3-5, 8-13, 19-21)

Of the three women, we know the most about what was going through Naomi’s mind.  If you pause and think about what is said by each of her statements, you will see that bitterness had taken hold of her heart.  She was wounded deeply.  Of course, we could say it is for good reason.  What human wouldn’t be bitter and sorrowful, if their spouse and children died and they were left alone and old in a world that was not particularly kind to old and alone people.

This is similar to Job.  He wrestled with how God could bring these things upon him.  What had he done? In his mind, he could only wonder why God was so against him.  Naomi probably said a lot of the same things as Job.

We see Naomi deciding to leave Moab and go back to Israel.  She sends her daughters-in-law back to their families because they will have nothing with her.  In short, she does so because she believes that she is cursed and they need to cut ties with her to get out from under the curse.

Naomi gives voice to several lies.  She states that the LORD is against her, and thus, she has no hope.  It is true that you have no hope if God is against you.  However, she was misreading the situation.  Yes, God let these things happen, but it was not because He was against her.

She also says that the LORD has dealt very bitterly with her.  She further describes this as the LORD testifying against her and afflicting her.  Thus, she is taking it personal.  God has done this to her, and by so doing, He has testified that there is something wrong with her.  These afflictions are taken as being from God to her.  We should be careful of thinking that every bad thing that happens is done by God particularly to us. 

In the story of Job, we see that it is primarily the Devil who is bringing these things upon Job.  Yes, God is allowing it, and so, He is secondarily responsible.  It begs the question.  Can you still trust God when He let’s bad things happen to you?  Will I cling to my hurts and stay stuck in unbelief towards the promises of God?

We need to be proactive in this and fill our minds with the Word of God, His promises.  Don’t laugh at it in your heart.  Or rather, I should say, remind yourself of these things when you feel a cynical chuckle rise in your heart.  Is there anything too hard for God?  No, of course not.  If it is not a question of God’s power, then it is a question of His heart for me.  In my woundedness, I am tempted to see God as trying to harm me and destroy me.  Yet, this can’t be farther from the truth.

When you doubt God’s love for you, you must take time to look back at the cross.  While [you] were yet a sinner, Christ died for [you].  Jesus went to the cross because He loves you and wants to redeem you back from the Fall of humanity, and he wants to deliver us from our enemy, the devil.

Both Sarah and Naomi saw God’s amazing answer in their life.  However, it doesn’t always come as a natural answer.  Some women will never have a child.  Yet, we can recognize that God has purpose in it that is good.  If I can’t have babies in the natural, then I can have spiritual offspring.  How many kids are growing up in this world without the knowledge of God’s love for them?  They will need spiritual moms and dads who come along side of them and help them to heal.

Take time this week to look back through your own life.  What were the ways that you were hurt?  What lies were embedded at that time in your heart and mind?  We are not talking about thinking positive thoughts so that we can attract positive things towards us.  This is about coming into conformity with the truth about what God says.  God loved Jesus.  Yet, he would have to die on a cross.  Everything would tell the human side that God has forsaken him, but God is not a liar.  Jesus pressed on because He trusted the heart of the Father and brought about a greater good than him becoming king of Israel in the first century AD.

Historically, I am a very bad judge of what is “good” in my life.  How many times has God shown me that things of my past, that I spent decades complaining about, were actually a blessing from Him.  They were producing something in me that would be invaluable later.

God tells us that we shall be perfect even as He is perfect (Matthew 5:48).  Can I believe Him?  By the Holy Spirit, with that life-force of God Himself, can I cooperate with God to bring about a good that I can’t even imagine?  Or, perhaps at which I would simply laugh because of all the lies entrenched in my heart?  Let us be those who drop off the lies, and grasp hold of the Truth of God’s love for us!

Lies audio

The Sermon on the Mount XX

Subtitle:  Conclusion-Build on the Rock

Matthew 7:24-27.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, May 5, 2024.

Today, we will finish the Sermon on the Mount, particularly the concluding warnings that Jesus gives.

He first warned us about the difficulty of following him into the Kingdom of Heaven.  It is difficult to follow Jesus, and they would be tempted (we are tempted) to quit the way of life and go down the easy road that leads to destruction.

He then warned about deceivers that we would have to avoid in order to remain with him in the Kingdom.  They may have a powerful appearance, but they can be known by the fruit of their life.  This is one of the difficulties that we will face on this path to eternal life.

This last warning has to do with how we live our life.  This will be tested and proven, one way or another.

Let’s look at our passage.

The person who does what Jesus says (v. 24-25)

We must be careful how we live our life because decisions and actions have consequences.  Jesus has put a way of life in front of us through this sermon, but we have a decision to make.  He calls us to join him in being salt, light, and a city on a hill that is visible to all in our communities.  Believers in Jesus are meant to be visible to all.

This sermon had three main points.  First, he tells us that we can join him in fulfilling the law.  He would teach us to see and live out the Father’s heart that is behind all that the law says.  Second, he tells us that we can live out true righteousness, instead of the false piety of the hypocrites.  They look good on the outward, but the do not care for the Father’s heart, nor do they seek to please Him.  Third, he showed us how we could avoid the pitfalls of becoming hypocrites ourselves.

Verse 24 gives us the final “therefore” of this sermon.  It ends with a tension that we find in the book of Proverbs.  Who is the wise man, and who is the foolish man?  Who is on the path of wisdom and who is on the path of folly?  You may remember wisdom and folly personified as a woman on a hill calling for people to enter their houses (Proverbs 8 and 9).  The emphasis is that wisdom leads to life and folly leads to death.   They same is presented here.

Every person had a decision before them that day.  The choice involved wisdom versus folly, but another way to view it is that is involved following the Spirit of God versus following your own fleshly desires.  The Bible tells us that our flesh is hostile to the Spirit of God and the Word of God because it too is spiritual (of the Spirit).  This is important because it means that our flesh is hostile to the things that lead to eternal life, but like the things that lead to destruction.  The choice in the moment is always this.  What will you do about Jesus now?

However, even when we choose to follow Jesus, we have an ongoing choice, day by day, that continues to ask.  Will you continue to live by the wisdom and commands of the LORD Jesus?  Thus, it is not enough to begin well, enter the narrow gate, but then fall away. 

Regardless of where you are today, you are able to turn towards Christ and believe.  We can’t change the past, but we can change the power that the past has upon our present.  In fact, if you know God, you will understand that you don’t need to change the past.  The bad things in your life that you have complained and grumbled about can all become blessings in disguise when you put your hand in the hand of Jesus.

The devil uses hurts, wounds, fear, anger, and anything else to keep us stuck in a decision to neglect the words of Jesus.  He wants to discourage you.  But always remember this.  If it was easy to become like God, then everyone would be doing it.  It is precisely because it is hard that most walk away.  Yet, God is committed to you.  Jesus told us in Matthew 5:48, “You shall be perfect , just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”  Yes, this is a challenge, but it is just as much a promise.  He who has begun a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.  Do not lose faith because He will make sure that you are perfect before Him before it is all done.

Jesus first state the positive side, i.e., what we should do.  He emphasizes that it is not enough to only hear his words (or read them on a page).  One must also do them. Hearing must be followed up with exercising our faith in Christ by doing the things that he says.  Just think of all the bright, enlightened men and women who have read the words of Jesus.  Many of them felt that there was a little bit of good in his teachings, but that they were mired in first century Judaism.  They hear, but then walk on by.

Here are some scriptures to ponder.

Romans 10:17.  “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  If people have never heard the Gospel of Jesus, then they don’t know what they should believe in.  Therefore, people need us to tell them the good news about Jesus.  Yet, that hearing in and of itself is not enough.  It must lead to actions of faith. 

James 1:22.  “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”  He pictures a person looking in the mirror, recognizing that they need to make some improvements (comb your hair, wash your face) and yet, continuing on without doing anything.  This is not God’s intention for us.

I should mention dead works here.  Dead works are the actions of the religious who are hypocrites.  They are merely actions of the flesh trying to obtain fleshly things.  God is opposed to dead works, but not the works of faith, works that are born out of a desire to please God.  The works of true righteousness are those who put their faith completely in Jesus and learn to obey his commands by the help of the Holy Spirit.

Though we can use the term commands because Jesus did, the picture of a Father that we were made to image is not so much about commands and obedience.  These are the things for children.  But, as we grow in spiritual maturity, our hearts change and begin to desire the same things that God desires.  We begin to see the wisdom behind His instructions to us.

Always remember that two people can do the exact same thing (give money to the poor, pray, and fast), but for one it may be a dead work, and for the other, it may be an act of faith, true righteousness.  It all comes down to the motivation of our heart.

Jesus gives us a metaphor of a man who is building a house.  Those who hear the words of Jesus and do them are like a wise man who builds on a rock.  You will notice that this picture has nothing to do with people thinking you are wise.  Let me tell you a secret.  The truly wise are not generally recognized by those who are not wise.  Without the Holy Spirit, it would be impossible to find wisdom, and then become wise by learning from it.  Who are the wise of this age?  It is those who are bringing their gifts and laying them at the feet of Jesus in worship.  Many people sound wise, but they will not stand with the wise at the side of Jesus in eternity.  That is what this is about.

The rock is using foundation terminology.  It represents a sturdy, trustworthy surface that will not allow the building to sink.  The rock represents Jesus himself, and the teaching that he has given to us.  If you live your life by the wisdom of Jesus and by the help of the Holy Spirit, then your life will be upheld by the Truth, by reality itself.  Those who follow a different “wisdom” are actually building on a false truth.  It has no true substance.  Though it may have an outward form of truth, it is incapable of really, truly, holding up the weight a person’s choices place on it.

Jesus is the rock; He is the very Word of God.  He is the First Light that dawned in the void and brought forth all that has been created.  Yet, he has laid himself down as a sacrifice, as a foundation for us.  He is the absolute unifying Truth that lays at the foundation of all that you see.  Nothing has any being or substance, but through him.  Thus, even millions of people in the wilderness could not overcome the Truth that God wanted Israel to live and not die.  The waters that came out of the Rock to keep them alive are a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.  His being struck at the cross produces for life for all who will drink.

Thus, building here represents the way that you live: the principles you use to determine the actions you will take.  This leads to consequences.  Jesus is saying that the consequences of living your life by his words is eternal life, not just quantity, but even more, quality.

This should teach us to be humble.  Have you ever heard of unintended consequences?  Almost nobody says that they want to fall and fall greatly.  Instead, they believe they are wise.  Jesus warns us to live our lives by following him, if we want to have life.

All buildings are tested by the world around them.  It would be nice if our building, our life, was never tested.  Jesus points to the threat to natural buildings, storms.  Storms bring wind and excessive rains, which bring floods.  Of course, Jesus is making a spiritual point.  The storms are all the ways in which our faith in Jesus (or whatever else we put our faith in) is tested.  The floods represent the sea of people around us who are tossed to and fro by the winds and by the lusts of their own flesh.  These same lusts can seep into our house and life if we are not careful.  The winds represent the ideas, false religions, false teachings and philosophies of this world.  Ephesians 4:15 puts it this way.  “We should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine [teaching], by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.

False teaching is not the only storm.  The disciples were tested in the garden when they let sleepiness get in the way of prayer (lust of the flesh versus spiritual preparation).  They were all tested when they were threatened with imprisonment, beatings and death.  We are tested when people say all manner of evil things about us.  We can cave in under the pressure and seek an easier way.

We should also recognize that there are teachings of demons that promote false teachings through other willing humans.  Without Jesus, you will be tossed about like little children by the winds of life.

Jesus then tells us that the wise man’s house will not fall during the test.  It was tough and difficult, but the house was on a strong foundation, so it did not fall.  Those who put their faith in Jesus will not be taken out by these storms of life that test us along the way.  Yet, the greatest test will be the test of death.

The approach of death proves the foundation of many a person.  When we stand before God and give account for our life, it won’t matter how good things looked.  Christ will know exactly the motivations of your heart and what you were building upon.  We do not want to fall in that judgment, but instead, we want Jesus to welcome us and enable us to stand.  And, he will!  We don’t have to live in fear because He can be trusted.  Yet, we must not fool ourselves that He knows the truth.

The person who does not do what Jesus says (v. 26-27)

Of course, many who hear his words will not build on them.  They do not do what he says.  This can be in an irreligious way.  They can completely walk away from God and live for themselves and a different “wisdom.”  Or, we can reject Jesus in a religious way.  Many would follow the religious leaders of Jesus day and use the fact that he was executed as proof that they were right.  We can also live a religious looking life, but internally be as atheistic as the irreligious man.

The man who hears and doesn’t do what Jesus says is being foolish and walking down a path of folly.  Proverbs 12:15 says, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise.”  Whose wise counsel do we need to heed?  The counsel of Jesus! 

Jesus pictures this as building upon the sand.  Sand is simply disintegrated rock.  We can use our human wisdom to cherry pick the words of Jesus, those we like versus those we don’t.  Yet, the wisdom of Christ is not disintegrated.  It is an absolute whole.  If you reject his wisdom in one place, then you are also rejecting the parts that you think you accept.  An eclectic picking and choosing may feel like you are gaining wisdom.  However, think about who is doing the choosing.  How can I be obtaining wisdom by being the one to pick and choose?  Have I not made my foolish self a wisdom unto myself?  Like crossing a creek on stepping stones, we can do quite well for a while.  We can develop principles like never using wet rocks.  Yet, you will eventually reach that large rock that is dry and looks substantial, but when you jump to it, it wobbles and you fall into the water.  Not all such falls lead to the end of our life.  In such a case, we have the grace of recognizing that our wisdom can’t always determine the best course forward.  We need One who has gone there before us, and that is Jesus.

Notice that the foolish man’s house is tested by the same tests of life as the wise man’s house.  The blessing of the storms of life along the way is that we have rebukes that warn us that we are not building on the rock.  We can then choose wisdom.  Of course, it will not be a download of all wisdom in an instant.  The situation may have been bad, but it will bring forth good, if I will place my failure on the altar of God and ask for His help.

We can move from the storm imagery to the imagery of melting down ore.  When the heat is turned up on our lives, we may pray for God to take it away.  Then, we see ourselves melting and falling apart.  We then desperate cry for God to save us from melting.  Yet, God uses it to bring impurities to the surface.  If we will listen to Him, He will help us to scrape them off and be cast into a new mold.

Regardless, all lives are tested, both in the now, and later at the throne of God.  This is what makes the foolish man foolish.  Somehow, he believes that he can cut corners and that his building will be good enough.  He believes that he can disregard God’s Word and still build something substantial.  That is the folly of it.  You were warned and have countless examples around you everyday.  Yet, you persist in following the lusts of your flesh, the lusts of your eyes and the pride of life.

Sometimes the tests of life come in the form of a loved one who dies early.  God why did you let that happen?  It can come through persecution, deception, even a loved one who walks away from Christ.  Regardless, we will all be tested.  Have you built your life on the words of Jesus, or followed the hypocrites and only made it look like you were following him?

A fool’s life may even look like it has held together quite nicely all the way to death.  Yet, God is not mocked, and He is never fooled.  Do you remember the story of the Rich Man and Poor Lazarus?  The rich man looked righteous, but he ended up in torments in the grave.  Lazarus looked abandoned by God in this life, but when he died, he ended up in the paradise of Abraham’s Bosom.  The greatest test of death is faced by all.  A foolish man goes into eternity betting that he will not be held accountable to these words of Jesus, but he will.

We cannot imagine the magnitude of stepping into eternity and being found as wise or foolish.  The best thing that can happen to a person building on sand is that their house can collapse before death.  At least then, they have a wake up call and can choose to build properly.  The thief on the cross was in such a moment.  He didn’t have much time to build, but he took his stand upon the Rock, the Lord Jesus, and it was enough. 

Jesus says that the foolish man’s house will fall, and great will be its fall.  The fall of national Israel in the first century was a great fall because the leadership refused to build upon Messiah, Jesus, the Rock.  Down through history, individuals, empires and nations have continued to walk this same path of choices.

America also faces this today.  We have been building on sand for a very long time, and we are seeing our building fall apart all around us.  This is the grace of God.  Even now, God is pleading with us.  Why will you die?  Choose life!  May God help us to be a witness, a light, salt and a city on the hill to our own people.  Forget about America being a city on a hill for the world.  We need Christians who will stand up and be a city on the hill to our own republic!  This is the only truly wise thing that we can do.  May the Lord Jesus help us to build on the Rock!

Build on the Rock audio