Christ Church

How to Grow in Christ (Practical Christianity #10) (King’s Cross)

Christ Church on

INTRODUCTION

When anyone confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord and they believe that God raised Him from the dead, they are saved (Rom. 10:9). This offer is made to all freely and to their children (Acts 2:39, 16:31). And this is why all who believe and their households are offered baptism (Acts 16:33). This is what God calls becoming a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17) and the new birth (1 Pet. 1:23). This is all pure grace, received by faith, not by works, lest any man should boast, but it is the kind of work that God does in us that causes us to begin working and growing (Eph. 2:8-10). We are not saved by good works, but we are saved for good works. We are saved in order to grow up as trees that bear good fruit (Lk. 6:43).

Therefore, after becoming a Christian, the task before us is growing up into Christ, growing into maturity, becoming fruitful in every way. So this message is about that.

The Text: “And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil… And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God” (Lk. 4:1-4).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

We might be tempted to think that being full of the Holy Spirit might mean everything going easy in our lives, but here we see that it was when Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit, right after His baptism in the Jordan River, that the Spirit led Him into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Lk. 4:1). Not only was He being tempted by the devil, He ate nothing and was incredibly hungry (Lk. 4:2). Now God had just proclaimed that Jesus was His beloved Son at His baptism (Lk. 3:22), but forty days in a desert and severe hunger can make anyone doubt or forget and the devil started there, tempting Jesus to doubt God’s Word and double check “if you’re really the son of God…”, suggesting Jesus turn a stone into bread (Lk. 4:3). But Jesus knew to doubt His Father would be sin, and refused, quoting from Deuteronomy, that His life was upheld and strengthened, not merely by bread, but by the Word of God (Lk. 4:4, cf. Dt. 8:3).

SIX STEPS FOR GROWING IN CHRIST

Growing in Christ is a lot like growing up. So how do you grow up? Eat well, get enough sleep, exercise, go to school, learn from your mistakes, work hard, etc. Then it just happens. Plants and trees grow this way also: sunshine, water, good soil, fertilizer, pruning, etc. So here are six steps for growing in Christ.

1. Read your Bible: Many folks in our community do the Bible Reading Challenge, and it’s a bit like cross-fit for Bible reading. If you want to get in Spiritual shape, it really is a great blessing, and I commend it to you. But if you’re not in great shape, and you don’t have regular Bible reading habits, just start reading a chapter a day. If you’ve never read the Bible before, read the New Testament first and then start over in Genesis and read the whole thing. The key thing is regularity not quantity, but as you grow, you’ll want more. “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby” (1 Pet. 2:2).

2. Pray: God is real. He created the Heavens and the Earth, and He made us in His image for communion with Him. Pray the Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father…” Pray the Psalms– they are 150 inspired prayers that God loves to hear and answer. To be a Christian is to receive the Holy Spirit of adoption that means you have been granted the same sonship as Jesus Christ, and you are invited to cry out to God as your Abba Father (Rom. 8:15). What do you tell your father? What do you ask from your father? God is your perfect Father.

3. Read the Bible, pray, and sing as a family: Men, you are called to be the spiritual leaders of your home. Husbands, wash your wife in the water of the word (Eph. 5:26). This is how you love your wife like Christ loves the church (Eph. 5:25). Fathers, you are specifically required to raise your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4). Dedicate a regular time to this and lead your family before the Lord. This can be very simple: read a little bit of Scripture, pray, and sing a song. When the kids are little, this can take less than 5 minutes; when the kids are older, it can grow.

4. Repent of your sins: This is the invitation of the gospel that Jesus Himself preached: “the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel” (Mk. 1:15). To “repent” means to turn around, to stop going one way and go the other way. The Bible describes this as putting off the old man and putting on the new man (Eph. 5:22-24). Stop lying and tell the truth (Eph. 5:25, cf. 5:28). Stop looking at porn and lusting, pursuing a wife and be faithful to one woman and the children she bears you (Prov. 5). Do not be drunk with wine/pot/drugs, but be filled with the Spirit, singing Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to the Lord (Eph. 5:18-19). Stop cursing and using filthy language, but let your mouth be full of thanksgiving, praise to God, and edification (Eph. 4:29, 5:3-4). Be anxious for nothing, but with thanksgiving, let your requests be made to God (Phil. 4:6).

5. Forgive those who have sinned against you: this is perhaps one of the central acts of repentance. The old, natural man is full of hatred, bitterness, and resentment (Tit. 3:3). And this part of the old man dies hard. This is why Jesus taught us to pray that God would “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” The warning of Christ is clear: “But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses” (Mk. 11:26). Bitterness is a root that will cause much trouble, and it defiles many families, churches, and communities (Heb. 12:15). We forgive for the sake of Christ (Eph. 4:32).

6. Go to church, keep Sabbath, and tithe: “Going to church” means worshiping the Lord, and “worship” means complete surrender. When you become a Christian, you surrender in principle. This is what it means to confess that “Jesus Christ is Lord.” This means beginning to obey Him in everything. But two particular ways you demonstrate that complete surrender is by keeping Sabbath and tithing. From the beginning, God’s people have imitated God’s own rest, when He finished His work of Creation. Christians rest on the first day of the week because that is when Jesus finished His work of New Creation (Heb. 4:9). And we tithe, giving God ten percent of our first fruits, confessing that all that we have is from His hand, all that we have belongs to Him (Gen. 14:20, 28:22, Mal. 3:10).

Read Full Article

Envy Rises (Acts of the Apostles #30) (Christ Church)

Christ Church on

INTRODUCTION

We know that the Lord Jesus was turned over to the Romans by the Jewish leaders because of envy. Pilate had been around political posturing long enough to be able to detect it when he saw it. Pilate wanted to release Jesus, in part because he could see what was going on. “For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him for envy” (Mark 15:10).

We have come to the point in the story of the expansion of Christianity where the Spirit-blessed kingdom was starting to provoke the same kind of response. This is as it should be.

THE TEXT

“And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath. Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming . . .” (Acts 13:42–52).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

We have just concluded the sermon preached in the synagogue at Pisidian Antioch. Remember that the congregation included both Jews and God-fearing Gentiles. When the Jews left the building, the Gentiles clustered around and asked for more on the following sabbath (v. 42). As the congregation was dispersing, Paul and Barnabas also spoke to two other groups—Jews and proselytes, urging them to walk in the grace of God (v. 43). The proselytes would have been Gentiles who had converted to Judaism. So when the next sabbath came around, almost the whole town turned out (v. 44). When the Jews saw the crowds, envy took them by the throat, and they began opposing and blaspheming (v. 45). Paul and Barnabas then “waxed bold” and said that going to the Jews first was necessary, but because they decided to thrust grace away from them, counting themselves unworthy, Paul and Barnabas were going to turn and go to the Gentiles (v. 46). The Lord had commanded them to do this—seven centuries earlier—when He said this: Restoring Israel would be far too easy. “I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth” (v. 47; Isaiah 49:6). The Gentiles were glad when they heard this, and glorified God’s Word. And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed (v. 48). The Word of the Lord spread through that whole region (v. 49). But the envious Jews stirred up some of the God-fearing aristocratic women, along with some leading men, and ginned up a persecution. They succeeded in running Paul and Barnabas out (v. 50). Paul and Barnabas then shook off the dust of their feet, and came to Iconium (v. 51). But the disciples left behind in Antioch were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit (v. 52).

PISIDIAN ANTIOCH AND ICONIUM

Iconium was about 100 miles from Antioch, and both cities were in the region of Galatians. If you recall what we covered with regard to provincial Galatia versus ethnic Galatia, we have now been introduced to the people that Paul was writing to in the book of Galatians. We are in south central Turkey.

Note that in the face of settled persecution, the disciples there responded the way Jesus instructed us to (Matt. 5:12). They rejoiced with great joy (v. 52).

ORDAINED TO LIFE

When the gospel was preached, who responded in faith (v. 48)? The passage is very clear. The cause of their faith was the fact that they had been ordained to life. It did not go the other way around. They were not ordained to life because God had looked down the corridors of time, saw them believing, and then decided to ordain them to life. No. Our response of faith is because God set His electing love on us, by name, before time began.

“Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (2 Tim. 1:9).

ENVY AND THE GOSPEL

Before outlining the biblical treatment of the relationship of envy and the gospel, we have to be sure to mortify something in our own hearts first. There are two carnal lusts that must be absolutely mortified. The first is our tendency to envy others. “Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another” (Galatians 5:26). The flip side of this is to strive for the vainglory of wanting to be the envy of others (Phil. 2:3)—wanting to be the richest, or the prettiest, or the smartest. When you notice anything like that stirring in your heart, show no mercy.

But having said this, the apostle Paul tells us that the conversion of the Jews is the linchpin for world evangelization (Rom. 11:12,15). Not only so, but the linchpin of the conversion of the Jews is them watching Deuteronomic blessings come down upon Gentiles—which is what is barely starting to happen in our text. “I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy” (Romans 11:11).

CHRIST IN ALL

When we draw the ire of envious attacks, this is not a sign that something has gone terribly wrong. This is God’s appointed strategy. Those who live in hot pursuit of this world find that it is a bauble that constantly recedes from them. Those who give themselves away, and worship someone outside the world, and who set their minds on things above (Col. 3:1-4) . . . find all these things added to them (Matt. 6:33). You lose what you worship, and you are given what you refuse to worship. And why? Because Christ is all.

Read Full Article