Christ Church

What Grace Looks Like (The Continuing Adventures of Jesus #25) (KC)

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INTRODUCTION

The decision of the Jerusalem Council illustrates a principle that Christians have always struggled with: grace has a backbone. True grace really is radically free, and because it is so free, it is potent and transformative. Grace welcomes and instructs. Grace rests and works. 

The Text: “And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me: Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles…” (Acts 15:13-35)

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

After Peter, Barnabas, and Paul had given their testimonies, James speaks as the leader of the council and affirms Peter’s account (Acts 15:13-14). James says that this agrees with the prophecy of Amos that the tabernacle of David will be rebuilt so that the Gentiles may worship the Lord with the Jews – which was God’s plan from the beginning (Acts 15:15-18). 

So James proposes that a letter be written to the Gentiles in Antioch not to be troubled with obligation to the whole Mosaic law but only be asked to abstain from idols, fornication, and from strangled meat and blood (Acts 15:19-21). This decision was pleasing to the whole council, two men were chosen to accompany Paul and Barnabas and the letter back to Antioch, and the letter clarified that the Jerusalem church had not sent the men who had stirred up the trouble (Acts 15:22-29). They returned to Antioch, read the letter, and everything was explained, and it was all very encouraging to everyone (Acts 15:30-35).  

THE TABERNACLE OF DAVID

James appeals to the “prophets” (plural) but cites Amos who foretold the restoration of David’s tabernacle (Amos 9:11-12). Remember, this was the temporary tent that David erected where the ark was kept on Mount Zion (1 Chron. 15:1, cf. 11:5). Later, Solomon moved the ark from that tent to the temple (2 Chron. 5:2). So why does David’s tabernacle become the symbol of the salvation of the Gentiles? 

First, David’s tent was particularly marked by an explosion of musical instruments and choirs, and they were described like sacrifices and priestly service (1 Chron. 16:5-6, 23:5ff, 25:1ff). In the New Covenant, bloody sacrifice that in part pointed to the division of Jews and Gentiles, was replaced by sacrifices of praise for all the nations. 

Second, David’s tent had an unusual number of Gentiles associated with it: the ark had resided for about a hundred years in Abinadab’s house (who was most likely a Gentile) and then in Obed-Edom’s house (another Gentile) who was likely adopted into the Levites to minister before the Lord in David’s tent (cf. 1 Chron. 13:7-14, 15:15-24, 16:5). 

Finally, there may be some allusion to the Feast of Tabernacles, an annual Israelite feast in tents commemorating how God brought them out of Egypt through the wilderness in tents (Lev. 23:34-43). And that fear specifically included widows, orphans, and strangers, so that they would remember God’s grace (Dt. 16:12-15). Tents reminded Israel of hospitality. 

THE DECREE ITSELF

It might seem strange for Peter and James to emphasize the fact that Gentiles need not keep the Jewish laws to be saved but then to issue some instructions. This is admittedly a heavily debated passage, but it seems best to see these instructions as helpful training wheels for learning to walk in the liberty of Christ. The eternal law of God is not burdensome at all; it is the perfect expression of His love (1 Jn. 5:3). For those who are led by the Spirit, it is as though there is no law – not because they are lawless, but because the Spirit makes righteousness a perfectly natural joy (Gal. 5:22-23). Remember the preamble of the Ten Commandments is all grace: “I am the Lord your God who bought you out of Egypt…” (Ex. 20:2). 

The basic injunctions are to keep away from all idolatry, sexual immorality, and food offered to idols, and remember, in the ancient world these things tended to be all tangled together (cf. 1 Cor. 6, 8). As Paul says elsewhere, idols are not real and the food offered to them is not inherently unclean, but people who fear them are weak and should be protected (1 Cor. 8) and those still enslaved to them should not be encouraged in idolatry (1 Cor. 10:27-28). In that fear, it’s possible to have fellowship with demons (1 Cor. 10:20). Putting all of this together, the idolatry and sexual immorality are permanent instructions aimed at the particular temptations of Gentiles, while the food instructions are particular applications aimed at the practical challenges of practicing hospitality in mixed (Jew/Gentile) churches. 

APPLICATIONS

The gospel is an open invitation to all men to come and worship the Lord Jesus. He is the Son of David, and He was crucified for our sins and rose from the dead and ascended the heavenly Mt. Zion, where His grace is available to all who believe. As the nations come, we want to hold both of these things together: all is grace and grace loves holiness. But it loves holiness with grace and not with a snarl.

One way we can illustrate this is the distinction we sometimes make between refugees from the world and evangelists for the world. The former are most welcome, the latter are not. Unbelievers are most welcome to come hungry for grace, complete with pink hair and tattoos and Biden bumper stickers. But we don’t want them coming as evangelists for their paganism. And the same thing goes for the folks who think Trump is Jesus.  

Grace wants to walk in the light. Grace is not apathetic. Grace wants to obey. Grace wants to help others grow in grace. And grace is wise. Grace starts in the heart but doesn’t stop there. This is what grace looks like.

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Man As He Ought to Be (The Inescapable Story of Jesus #6b) (CCD)

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INTRODUCTION

Mark has just told us of a king serving the head of a righteous man on a feasting dish at a royal banquet. Now he contrasts that king with a King who brings His people into green pastures and beside still waters to give them an abundant feast. The contrast could not be more stark.

THE TEXT

And the people saw them departing, and many knew him, and ran afoot thither out of all cities, and outwent them, and came together unto him.And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things. […]

Mark 6:33ff

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The disciples have returned from their mission, and Jesus takes them across the Galilee waters for reprieve in a private (literally wilderness) place (vv30-32). But the multitudes will not be left behind, and race to the other side, meeting Jesus as He arrives (vv33-34); He takes compassion upon them as a shepherd-less flock, and His compassion is demonstrated in His teaching them (v34). Dusk begins to descend and the disciples advise Jesus to send the multitudes away to get their own food (vv35-36). But Jesus has come to feast (2:15-19), and so He tells His disciples to get bread for the multitude, but they demonstrate the smallness of their faith by missing the point; they imagined that they must produce a vast sum of money to purchase enough bread (v37). Jesus is not deterred by the amount needed, for He is the Sower of the Word, and where the soil is fertile it will be a 30, 60, and 100-fold harvest. He asks how much bread they have, and they have 5 loaves and 2 fish, a loaf for each thousand (vs38, 44). Jesus commands the disciples to arrange the multitude into ranks of hundreds and fifties upon the green springtime grass (vv39-40). Mark gives us a prefiguring of the events of Christ’s Last Supper (Mk. 14:22): blessing, breaking, and giving the bread (v41). The multitude of five thousand men feast until filled, while the leftovers fill twelve baskets (vv42-44).

Mark doesn’t tarry at this scene but whisks us off once more, and straightway Jesus instructs the disciples to cross the Sea, dismisses the multitude, and heads off to pray alone––another hint at the events of His passion (vv45-46). But while still on the land He sees the disciples battling the choppy Galilee sea at the darkest hour of the night (according to Roman reckoning), and walks out to their rescue (vv47-48); but instead of His coming being a reassurance, they are terrified that He is a death angel. So He comes into their ship with tidings of good cheer which dispels fear, and at His coming the adversarial winds cease (vv49-51a). The disciples are in slack-jawed awe once more, and Mark tells us it is because they still hadn’t learned the lesson Jesus has been patiently teaching them in the parable of the Sower and now in the feeding of the five thousand (vv51b-52).

As they come ashore once more, this time in the area of Gennesaret, Jesus’ identity is straightway recognized. Like wildfire, people rush to bring their sick unto Him for healing, setting up healing stations in the marketplace in the towns and villages where they heard Jesus was heading. What had happened to the woman with 12 years of internal bleeding had clearly become widely known, and the sick were given hope that merely touching the tassel of Christ’s garment would bring healing; this, in fact, is precisely what Jesus allows: all who touched Him were, in Mark’s words, made whole (vv53-56).

A FEAST IN GREEN PASTURES

Mark’s narrative is like an incoming tide. Each new wave brings the water level higher. In our text, there is a repetition and expansion of earlier events and anticipation of greater––yet to be revealed––glories. Mark has told us a number of times of people responding to Jesus with awe, wonder, fear, bafflement, and even terror. Mark doesn’t want you to get comfortable with a Jesus that can fit in the palm of your hand. He is leading up to the crescendo, where Jesus will send out His disciples into all the world, and He would ascend as Lord to the Father’s right hand. But His ascension would not mean the termination of His work in the world. Mark tells us that as the disciples went forth, and preached every where, Jesus the Lord worked with them (Mk. 16:20).

Jesus told us that He was a Sower of the Word, and that where the seed of his Word lands in good, receptive soil, it produces a graciously abundant harvest of bread in seed form. That story was followed by Jesus crossing the waters to cast a demon army into the sea (a callback to the Hebrews’ Red Sea crossing under Moses). Here Jesus takes His disciples through the sea again, but this time a multitude of Israelites follow him, and Mark uses martial language to describe their seating. Once more, Mark wants the Exodus story on our mind. One commentary notes that when God led Israel out of Egypt by the way of the Red Sea they “went up harnessed” (Ex. 13:18), literally “by rows of five.” At Jethro’s counsel, Moses constituted the twelve tribes into representative divisions of thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens (Ex. 18:25). When Israel was in the wilderness, Yahweh fed them bread from heaven.

The disciples struggled with the Parable of the Sower, and now Jesus retells it with a visual demonstration of it. He is the Son of God revealing God unto the sons of Men. In Him is abundant life. Jesus sows five loaf-seeds and it becomes a thousandfold harvest of bread. In Him is bread and plenty for a cleansed Israel. Notice that the first few chapters of Mark have focused on Jesus calling and cleansing Israel. Now, a theme that started almost imperceptibly (Simon’s mother is healed in order to prepare a meal) is too big to ignore. The twelve leftover baskets make the same point as the Parable of the Sower, but the disciples still don’t quite see it. Jesus came to feast with a cleansed Israel.

UPON THE WATERS ONCE MORE

Jesus walking upon the water is often taken as a demonstration of His divine power. But God has always been revealing His power and Godhead in both the created order and by the writings of the Holy Prophets. But, Jesus in this wondrous act of walking upon water demonstrates Himself to be Israel’s long-awaited Messiah.

God put Adam in a Garden to dress and keep it and gave him the entire earth as the domain for him to subdue. Jesus compresses an entire agricultural season into an evening, and then tames the windswept sea (Ps. 8:6-8). Jesus is what Adam ought to have been. The earth is Lord’s and the fullness thereof. Therefore, Jesus is making way for man to be restored to our high office of lords of the earth under God our Creator, with Him as the High King over all other kings. But we must not miss the pathway. The way to this new life which Jesus is bringing into the world is found in the words He speaks to the disciples: “Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid.”

MADE WHOLE

Jesus safely brings the disciples through the sea once more, for He is the true Man, exercising dominion over land and sea. Mark gives us one last wonderful parallel with the Red Sea crossing. As Moses led them toward Sinai they came to the bitter waters of Marah, and many fell ill. Moses healed those foul waters with a tree. Now, this Greater Moses is revealed to be Jehovah Rapha, the Lord our healer. All who come to Him He makes whole.

Why? Because He came to cleanse and came to feast. Jesus calls you to come to Him in faith, and be clothed in His righteousness. This is what your baptism is. And then He invites all the earth to this table. And lest you think there won’t be enough for you, Jesus, in His Word, makes a point to tell you: there were twelve baskets of leftovers.

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A Train of Moral Excellence (Troy)

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SERMON TEXT

2 Peter 1:3-7

INTRODUCTION

In 1996, Dr. Michael Behe wrote a book called Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution. In the book, he coined a new phrase to describe the complex inner workings of the bacteria flagellum; he called it Irreducible Complexity. The flagellum is a slender thread-like structure, a spinning appendage which propels the bacteria through liquid. It works similar to an outboard motor on a boat. But instead of a gearbox, an engine, and a propeller—these large objects that we can physically manipulate with a socket wrench—the flagellum is composed of proteins, tiny building blocks so small that we need an electron microscope to look at them. When the proteins combine in the flagellum, they make a driveshaft, a universal joint, a rotor, bushings, a stater, and even a clutch and braking system. Our God is an exquisite miniaturist, engineering on a scale that is truly hard to comprehend. In his book, Dr. Behe uses some analogies to explain the concept of irreducible complexity.

OUR DESTINATION

Our destination is conformity to Jesus Christ. Verse 3 says, “As we know Jesus better, his divine power gives us everything we need for living a godly life. He has called us to receive his own glory and goodness!” Ephesians 2, puts it this way, “…we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” John 15, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” And from Titus 2, “Jesus gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

CAR #1: THE LOCOMOTIVE OF FAITH

And so we’ve come to our first train car, the most important one. It is the car on which all the others depend for movement. It stands proud at the front of the train, with its fire box and smoke stack. Pure white steam billows out of the top. The turbine generator is the powerhouse strong enough to pull all the other cars. It is the locomotive of faith.

CAR #2: A LIFE OF MORAL EXCELLENCE

(To be addressed later in the sermon)

CAR #3: KNOWING GOD

Would you like to know God better? If you are a Christian and you are hesitant to answer that question in the affirmative, then it is likely that you have an idol in your tent. There is something hidden—gold, silver, a robe from Babylon—that is preventing you from growing closer to God. Isaiah 59 says, “…your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” Proverbs 28, “If anyone turns a deaf ear to my instruction, even their prayers are detestable.” Micah 3, “Then they will cry out to the Lord, but he will not answer them. At that time he will hide his face from them because of the evil they have done. So the double-minded Christian lives in conflict within himself. He wants to know God, but on his own terms. He doesn’t like the exclusivity clause.

CAR #4: SELF-CONTROL

The command is: keep control of yourself. Putting it that way is a reminder to us all; there is something wild within us. Usually when we say, “Keep control,” it is in a certain context. “Keep control of your dog.” “Keep control of your troops.” “Keep control of your team.” The idea being that if you do not keep control, things will start to decay on their own.

CAR #5: PATIENT ENDURANCE

How many different aspects of our lives can we connect to the virtue of patient endurance? It is at the forefront of parenting, our constant witness to non-believers, beside us in suffering, sustaining us through trials. We need it in marriage, we need it to study. We need it to plant a church, to grow a church. It is our tool of great precision when people hate us, exclude us, insult us, and reject us as evil. It is our shield to block mistreatment and slander. It’s one thing to simply endure affliction. Prisoners in the penitentiary are doing that now. It is a completely different thing to endure patiently.

CAR #6: GODLINESS

To be godly is to be like Him. Hebrews 1 says, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.” We have many examples of godly men in the scriptures.

CAR #7: LOVING THE SAINTS

The cargo of the train of moral excellence is love. And we are to deliver this love at various stops en route to the kingdom of heaven. Romans 12 says, “Honor one another above yourselves.”

CABOOSE: LOVING EVERYONE

The caboose is genuine love for everyone. There are different tiers of difficulty when it comes to loving non-believers. Loving your non-Christian mom is not going to be the same thing as loving the person who flips you off, ignores you, or cusses you out. So let’s jump straight to the difficult part, how do we love our enemies?

THE TRACK OF GOD’S PROMISES

The train of moral excellence is a comprehensive system that is irreducibly complex. The cars of knowing God, self-control, patient endurance, and Godliness need the locomotive of faith to pull them forward. They also are inextricably linked together, each car is dependent on the next. And the train as a whole rests upon a track, without which, it cannot move. What is this foundation that the whole train rests upon? The train finds its direction, its stability, and its understructure in the promises of God.

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God the Heart-Knower (The Continuing Adventures of Jesus #24) (King’s Cross)

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INTRODUCTION

Christian warfare always consists of multiple fronts: external, domestic, and internal. The fact that we see this in the first century should give us hope and reassurance that we are not facing something profoundly new or different. This dynamic is also part of the ‘continuing adventures of Jesus.’ Our task is to walk by faith before God, the ‘Knower of Hearts, in obedience, trusting His grace. 

The Text: “And certain men which came down from Judea taught the brethren and said, except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved…” (Acts 15:1-12)

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Certain men came to Antioch from Judea teaching the necessity of circumcision for salvation (Acts 15:1). It is likely that some of their clout was related to being from the region near Jerusalem. And this led to a significant dispute, the opposition being led by Paul and Barnabas, and so the church sent them to Jerusalem to have the matter settled by the apostles and elders (Acts 15:2-4). 

It was Christian Pharisees who were arguing that Gentiles needed to be circumcised and aim to keep the whole Jewish law, and a council was called to hear the matter (Acts 15:5-6). In the midst of the dispute, Peter testified about his experience with Cornelius and how God the “heart-knower” gave them the Holy Spirit, making no difference between Jews and Gentiles, making all clean by faith (Acts 15:7-9). Peter says that Jews of all people know the heavy yoke of the law, but they are saved by grace, just like the Gentiles (Acts 15:10-11). While this quieted down the assembly, Barnabas and Paul continued giving testimony of God’s work among the Gentiles (Acts 15:12). 

CHURCH COUNCILS & CONTROVERSY

This controversy occasioned what has come to be called the Jerusalem Council which likely occurred around A.D. 48-50. Galatians 2 addresses very similar themes and is often assumed to be describing the same event, although I lean towards thinking Galatians 2 happened before the Jerusalem Council, since Peter seems to understand everything clearly by this point. This moment is helpful for illustrating that while Christians and Christian leaders in particular must not be belligerent, there are some matters worth fighting for (cf. 2 Tim. 2:24-26, 2 Corinthians). Christian unity is in the truth, not lowest common denominator compromise (Eph. 4:3-15). At the same time, wisdom understands that there are weightier matters of the law (Mt. 23:23, Rom. 14).

This is also an example of early church government at work, where we see elders and pastors seeking wisdom and accountability beyond the local church. Because “in the multitude of counselors is safety” (Prov. 11:14, 15:22, 24:6). At the same time, the Word of God remains supreme. We do not decide truth by democratic vote. Church councils can and have erred, but that doesn’t negate the usefulness of striving for truth and unity. 

JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH ALONE

At the center of this controversy is the doctrine of justification by faith alone. The question was whether Gentiles needed to do anything more than believe in Jesus to make themselves acceptable to God. Peter flatly denied this: God saves by giving His Holy Spirit and the gift of faith that purifies our hearts (Acts 15:8-9). Salvation is by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 15:10). God does it all (cf. Acts 15:4, 7, 8, 12). Justification is the judicial act by which God freely pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous solely because of the righteousness of Christ reckoned to us, and all received by faith alone. 

The reason this is so crucial is because any works smuggled into the equation only smuggle in with them fear and anxiety because if even 1% of your salvation (God accepting you) depends on you, how can you know if it’s enough? The answer is that you can’t know and it never is. So this is the only way to have complete peace with God: resting in the grace of God from beginning to end. He chose you in His grace before the foundation of the world, sent His Son in His grace to die and rise again, sent His Spirit into your heart to hear and believe, and He is the One who will finish that work that He has begun (Eph. 1, Rom. 5).

APPLICATIONS

We are not only justified by faith, we are also purified by faith (Acts 15:9). Cleansing is more visceral. The feelings of shame and uncleanness often haunt people. But this is often because some part of you still thinks that God accepts you on the basis of what you’ve done or not done. But this is precisely what you must repent of: “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb. 9:14). 

God knows your heart. And there are only two possible things He sees there. He either sees sin or righteousness. It’s pure and clean or else it isn’t. But the only purity that God accepts is perfect purity, His own purity, the Holiness of the Holy God. And that is why it must be the Holy Spirit that offers Christ for you without spot to the Father. And the first thing God pardons and purges are all the things you thought would help. And He purges those things first so that you can actually begin to serve the living God. 

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