July 4th - The Coming of the Son of Man

Prayer Requests
Summit

Builders for Christ
Cauble Witnessing
Swift Cantrel Witnessing
VBS Preparation

Mark's broken finger

Kyle's friend Jamie

James open-air preaching at the Braves Game
Lucas in Indonesia

Text – Topical (2 Peter 3:1-15, Acts 1:1-11)

For a number of reasons I want to give you more application this week than just a lesson, although usually the way I give applications is through a lesson, so this might just end up being a more now-driven lesson than the others which are building a foundation for the rest of your life.

I want to first show you a somewhat funny (if it weren’t so convicting) event in the Bible. Real quick, before we get there, I want to fix my stupid archer analogy from last week. It did turn into a pretty good illustration on the other side though, I came up with that analogy in the shower before church last week, and for a split second I thought, “I wonder if the Holy Spirit gave me that?” But then I remembered Peter’s lesson in chapter 1 about paying attention to the Bible because that’s how God the Spirit speaks, and so I didn’t blame my lame analogy on him, fortunately.

I had a friend, who no longer likes me at all, who went all goofy really quick and started reading poetry that God “gave him.” My answer was; first of all, God doesn’t speak outside of his Bible, second of all, if he did then we should staple your poem to the end of Revelation, and third of all, this poem is both grammatically and theologically horrendous. So to blame the Holy Spirit for such bad poetry or analogies is very dangerous and ought not to be done.

But I think I’ve fixed my analogy! If it gives glory to God then I thank him for giving me this itty bitty brain and his awesome book, especially of Second Peter. Peter wants us to learn four big things from this letter, first to know we have faith, second that the Bible is God’s plenary revelation to us, third that false teachers abound, and fourth that Christ will win and we will partake in his victory. So enter archer-dude; if Peter just wanted to tell us those four things he’d just shoot a straight shot into the target, but he gives it to us in a memorable way, so picture this arcing shot. We have four major things, we’ve got our bow-and-arrow, which represents our faith, without faith in our Resurrected Redeemer we’ll never hit our target. Second is our trajectory and velocity, which we learn from the Bible, if we shoot backwards we’ll never hit our target, we’ve gotta be dead on. Third is our stabilization system, the fletching which keeps the arrow from wobbling under varying air conditions. Fourth is the surety of a bulls-eye when Christ returns and saves his saints.

So knowing Christ is going to win what should we do? Sit back and watch the victory? No, let’s check it out. Which is Christ’s last command before he ascended? I bet you miss it, because 99% of the church misses this point, and catching it is vitally important.

Matthew 28:19-20 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

But where was that command given? Look at verse 16:

Matthew 28:16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.

This command was given in Galilee, where did Christ ascend from? The Mount of Olives in Jerusalem; so we’ve got a time disparity goin’ on here that Christ gives another, later, command.

Acts 1:1-5 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, "you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

He told them to stay in Jerusalem and this happened, according to Luke 24, right before he ascended, so this was his last command, to stay until they received the Holy Spirit. That would happen at Pentecost in ten days.

How could they have been disobedient to this command? They could have run off preaching and teaching and forgot to wait for the Holy Spirit. There are no lack of false teachers who do just that, Jehovah’s Witnesses come to mind most readily that they are totally about going into all the world and preaching their false gospel, when they’ve never noticed or even cared that the Person of the Holy Spirit is utterly missing from their ministry. Others are those like Mother Teresa and her ilk who went to India to be nice to people and condemn them to Hell through failing to preach the gospel. (http://www.challies.com/articles/the-myth-of-mother-teresa)

But on the other end of the spectrum are the people who sit around and don’t do anything, even if they believe the right thing, which the church at Jerusalem was so good at doing.

Acts 1:6-11 So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."

It doesn’t give us the time frame, but I don’t expect it was very long from when Jesus was taken from view and the angel asked them why they were standing there gazing into Heaven. His question is the equivalent of, “Didn’t he give you a direct command? Why then are you standing here failing to do what he said?” Afterwards they went into Jerusalem, received the Holy Spirit, and sat around some more, until God sent a great persecution on Jerusalem which scattered them out into the nations.

But here is the modern church, we’re sitting here gazing into Heaven looking for Christ when we’ve got a job to do which we are, for the most part, failing to do. We’re not going to miss him when he returns.

Zechariah 14:3-4 Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward.

He’s not going to be born in a stable the next time he comes, we’re not going to overlook him or miss him, or have to ask him like John the Baptist did, “Are you the Messiah, or do we seek another?” Jesus gave us explicit warning as to listening to “christs” who don’t come in flaming fire:

Matthew 24:5, 23-27 For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and they will lead many astray… Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There he is!' do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. So, if they say to you, 'Look, he is in the wilderness,' do not go out. If they say, 'Look, he is in the inner rooms,' do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

So then, here is our application, we need to put his Great Commission into action, making disciples and teaching them to obey Christ’s commands, and we have this wonderful promise, that although God the Son has ascended to Heaven, God the Spirit is with us to the end of the age.

So how do we do this? First of all, we need to open our mouths, for faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of Christ. You’ve all heard the unchristian adage, “Preach the gospel at all times and when necessary use words,” well it’s much more biblical to say it, “Preach the gospel at all times and when necessary use an amplifier,” because the gospel spreads through preaching, and who do we preach it to? To ourselves? We need to preach it to unbelievers, and in doing so we have to expect that they will be offended. One of my favorite verses in the Bible is in Mark 6,

Mark 6:3 And they took offense at him.

We need to remember that they crucified Christ for being Christlike, we must go into spiritual warfare expecting this gospel to anger many and cause them to manifest their hatred of the Living God.

Luke 7:23 Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.

I think I’ve shown most of you the video of Kirk Cameron witnessing to the gang members…if I haven’t then I’ve loaded it on the webpage, but just a real quick summary is Kirk walks up to a group of five or six guys, several of which are quite inebriated, he witnesses to them and afterwards one of them gives him a hug.



Two or three years later, they run into one of the guys, let’s watch the follow-up video. (Reader, this video is not yet on youtube revealing that this man got saved, if you’d like to watch it and live close to me, contact me and I will loan you the video) That is a radical change and one of the reasons we go out and preach Christ’s gospel, this guy looked impossible to reach, yet Christ reached him anyways. And we remember that our job is not to make converts, ours is to preach this gospel, and Christ will build his church. Remember from last week that we are hastening the day, and we do so by preaching the gospel.

I want you to think on the two responses that Christ’s return will garner, first from the believer,

2 Timothy 4:8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

We will LOVE his appearing, we will be glad that Christ has returned to call his church home, that he is about to stamp wickedness out from the earth, that our days of sinning have ended, and that every saint has come to repentance.

But look at it from the other side,

Revelation 6:12-17 When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?"

Elsewhere it tells us that their hearts will fail them for fear, some will be so terrified that they die where they stand. For this reason we must not only deliver a message of a fulfilled life or a great eternity in Heaven, but we must preach the whole counsel of God, warning people to flee from the wrath to come, imploring them to flee to the Christ who is mighty and still willing to save, snatching them in pity from the flames, hating even their garments stained by their sin, teaching them that on that final day they will face their Creator as either an enemy or as a judge, and that their sins will cease and they will either be resurrected to life eternal or torture forevermore.

In doing this we present a high and holy God who judges, but who is also loving, who sent his Son to absorb his just wrath so that we may be adopted into his family. In everything our effort is to make him known so that he receives the glory as a gracious God for saving many, and he receives the glory as a just God for punishing many, for in everything he will receive the glory.

Acts 17:30-31 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.

A failure to repent and believe will be just two more sins which will be added to the books of their consciences.

So how do we do it? (Latter part of class dedicated to discussion and “Way of the Master” style evangelism

May 2nd - Testimony Evangelism

Prayer Requests
Dave Sloan Preaching

Dave and Brooke New Ministry

Ben and Holly New Ministry

James' motivation to find how to contact his friend Aaron

James' band concert

Jonathan Feeling Better

Amy's safe travels

Daniel's finals

Bethany's family's health

Canyon's Chaplain Interview

Mark's soccer coach's mission trip

Text – Acts 26

Matthew 10:18 You will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles.

Since we have so many students out today we’re going to take a week off from First Peter to look at something I’ve wanted to teach for a while; That is the importance of a good Christian testimony and how to give one.

Sometimes a testimony is your best weapon against a person who is not interested in evidence or research or hearing the Bible, but will listen to you. Basically a testimony is a real-life story of your spiritual transformation. Before we start, I want to give a caveat, that testimonies are becoming a popular debating technique of the Mormon church, and so a testimony is not foolproof but it is an awesome way to bear witness to the work that God has done in you. The major difference between a Mormon testimony and a Christian testimony is that a Christian testimony should be a radical change and not just a feeling, which the Mormon testimony is.

One of the most simple testimonies is in the Bible, a man blind from birth who Jesus healed, the man had no idea who the Messiah was and didn’t have a theological basis for what happened to him, so this is how he gave testimony,

John 9:25 One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.

Such is the radical difference in the Christians’ life when they go from lost to found. The song, Amazing Grace, is very simple and is also a good example of a testimony, “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.” These are some simple examples, but probably the most comprehensive example is in Acts 26 and there is a huge amount to learn from it. (Handout - http://trustobey.blogspot.com/2008/04/testimony-evangelism.html)

Acts 26 takes place in about AD 61, Paul has been a Christian for about twenty years at this point, but he’s still going to go back to that very first encounter with the grace of God which saved him. The context to Acts 26 is that he has been arrested for inciting a riot, they were ready to let him go but a plot was put together by the Jews to kill him, so to protect him the government kept him in prison. This caused some confusion and a king, two governors, and several law enforcement officials tried to figure out what to do with him, and so we come today to Acts 26 with Paul in front of King Agrippa, King of Judea, in order for Agrippa to understand why Paul is being held and what to do with him.

Acts 26:1 So Agrippa said to Paul, "You have permission to speak for yourself." Then Paul stretched out his hand and made his defense:

Agrippa tells Paul to tell why he is in prison and what should be done with him, basically to be his own lawyer. The word for defense is apologia, where we get apologetics, which is to defend the faith. Paul seizes the opportunity to preach; he is ready in season and out of season to proclaim Christ. This is your first lesson, to take every opportunity to speak to others about your Saviour.

Acts 26:2-8 I consider myself fortunate that it is before you, King Agrippa, I am going to make my defense today against all the accusations of the Jews, especially because you are familiar with all the customs and controversies of the Jews. Therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently. "My manner of life from my youth, spent from the beginning among my own nation and in Jerusalem, is known by all the Jews. They have known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that according to the strictest party of our religion I have lived as a Pharisee. And now I stand here on trial because of my hope in the promise made by God to our fathers, to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship night and day. And for this hope I am accused by Jews, O king! Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?

Paul introduces himself to the king, he is very respectful and finds common ground with Agrippa, who is the reigning king of Judea and so obviously knows the customs of the Jews. As far as we know Agrippa was not a Jew, although his family had a long line of ruling over the Jews.

After his introduction, Paul explains who he was before he became a Christian, he was a Pharisee raised in that school of thought, in other places Paul gives his testimony as his growth in the faith, he was not lacking in anything. If your testimony includes something like, “I felt lost without God,” then by all means include it, but look at Paul, he had no such “God-shaped hole” in his heart. He was fulfilled and exceeding greatly in his promotion; I believe that he would have exceeded Gamaliel, his teacher, as the greatest Rabbi every to live, you may even say that he eventually did (after Jesus), albeit in the true faith of Israel. Instead of elevating himself, Paul opts in the next passage to outline what he needed saving from.

Before we get there, the second step is to introduce yourself and outline your motives. Paul here points his hearers at Heaven, saying that he has hope in the God of Israel, the God who raises the dead. I often introduce myself as a Christian or pastor and that I want to see the person I’m talking to in Heaven someday. People greatly appreciate it when I am straight-forward instead of trying to sneak into a religious conversation.

Acts 26:9-12 I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme, and in raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities. In this connection I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests.

Paul’s sins included murder, reviling, and standing against Jesus Christ. This is the third step in giving your testimony, to share the sins which you are saved from. Notice that Paul is specific enough that his hearers know what he did, but he doesn’t boast in them or get too specific. He could have mentioned James or Stephen by name as saints he murdered, but he is just showing that he is a sinner. Remember two verses,

Romans 3:19-20 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

Romans 7:7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet."

We want our hearers to know that not only are we sinners, but the same law applies to them and that they too are sinners. Paul is very familiar with Agrippa’s ancestors and their persecution of Christ and Christians, and so he tailors his list of sins to apply closer to the king. Two of his grandfathers had tried to kill Jesus Christ. For a practical example of tailoring the message; if I were going to give my testimony to scientists I would mention my one-time adherence to the religion of evolution, or if I was going to talk to people in the Air Force I’d talk about my self-centeredness, alcoholism, and womanizing. But, making sure it applies to your audience is not hugely important, the Holy Spirit will convict of sin, righteousness, and judgment based on whichever parts of God’s law you share.

So now we’ve shared our sins, the next step is how we were convicted of our sins, how we became aware that we were against God. Up until this point in Paul’s testimony, he thought he was serving God, doing him a favor by persecuting a seemingly new religion, but Paul was shown his error in a major way.

Acts 26:13-15 In this connection I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, that shone around me and those who journeyed with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.' And I said, 'Who are you, Lord?' And the Lord said, 'I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.’

Paul to this point was stubborn and disobedient to the law, yet he thought that by keeping it as well as he could, he was in good favor with God. But, on the Damascus road the light of conviction shown on him, he fell to the ground, and a voice from Heaven asked him why he was kicking against the goads. This is language of driving cattle or livestock, you goad them by poking them in the side with a sharp stick. An animal that doesn’t want to go will kick at the one driving him. The law was that goad, driving everyone towards Christ, and it was magnified by the testimonies of the Christians which Saul was persecuting.

Galatians 3:24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

And who was Paul persecuting? Christians, but Jesus asked, “Why are you persecuting me?” It became more than apparent to Paul that he was not a friend of God, but an enemy, his sins weren’t just against people, but against Heaven.

So before we see what he did about it, this is the fourth step, to explain how you became aware that you were in need of a Saviour. The most common way you learn about this is that someone confronts you of your sin, for Paul it was Jesus, for me it was a street preacher, for you it might be a pastor; then the Word of God speaks to you, a Bible verse or passage, for me it was 1 Timothy 3:16, God manifest in the flesh, and quite often it can be a paraphrase of a Bible verse; then is the conviction of your conscience, letting you know that you are wrong and God is right. This point came to Paul when he realized that Jesus Christ is the God of the Hebrews; the very God that Paul meant to serve he was persecuting.

The next step is left out in Acts 26 because Paul must have known that Agrippa already knew that Jesus was purported to have been crucified for sins and raised by his Father; knowing why there is forgiveness of sins available is a vital part of a testimony and one that Paul shares in Acts 22, so lets read that:

Acts 22:10-15 And I said, 'What shall I do, Lord?' And the Lord said to me, 'Rise, and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do.' And since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me, and came into Damascus. "And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, came to me, and standing by me said to me, 'Brother Saul, receive your sight.' And at that very hour I received my sight and saw him. And he said, 'The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear a voice from his mouth; for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard.

Sometimes the person who confronts of sin is not the same one who reveals grace. Jesus and the Holy Spirit convicted Paul of his sins, but Ananias was the one who had the privilege of seeing Paul saved. This is an aside to the testimony lesson, but often you may just plant a seed and someone else gets to see the person saved, or it might be the opposite way; however it happens Christ receives the glory and so we rejoice. I witnessed to a young man who later got saved and joined Northstar. Anytime we do anything with Northstar and I see him I think, “He’s mine! I confronted him with his sin and introduced him to Christ, he should have joined Summit!” But it’s ultimately far more important that he was saved than which church he goes to.

This step is to explain how you came to the knowledge that Jesus is the Saviour and that you repented and trusted in him.

Acts 22:16 And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.

Acts 26:16 But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you,

This step is when you reveal that you’ve received grace. Paul is brief in his testimony on this point, but that doesn’t lessen it’s impact. Paul goes from being an enemy of Christ to being his minister, he is wholly justified and forgiven. It is truly amazing grace that can turn a man’s affections from himself and his idols to Heaven and the Living Christ. Recount when you repented and believed and how huge an event it was.

But your testimony doesn’t stop here, now you go to your fruit, how God has used you since your conversion.

Acts 26:17-20 ‘delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles— to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.' "Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.

Paul is very humble and brief here, but in talking about his preaching, he reveals that Christ had used him powerfully up to that point. When you share this you can include, “I used to hate going to church, but now I love it,” Or, “I’ve been on missions trips and have shared the gospel,” Or, “Now I volunteer at VBS and love discipling people,” or whatever is true for you in how God has radically changed your life. Paul went from killing people who preached the Christian message to preaching the Christian message with people wanting to kill him!

Acts 26:21-23 For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me. To this day I have had the help that comes from God, and so I stand here testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass: that the Christ must suffer and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles."

Press through with your message, know that people will stand against you, and when they do, include it in your testimony. If your message is not offensive to the world, then it probably isn’t the same message Jesus and Paul preached. This may not be people trying to kill you, but it may be friends you’ve lost or people that don’t like you because you’re a Christian.

Acts 26:24-26 And as he was saying these things in his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, "Paul, you are out of your mind; your great learning is driving you out of your mind." But Paul said, "I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking true and rational words. For the king knows about these things, and to him I speak boldly. For I am persuaded that none of these things has escaped his notice, for this has not been done in a corner.

Festus, governor, stands up and tries to get Paul to stop preaching; I’m sure Festus didn’t want Paul to offend the king and/or to get himself killed, but Paul presses through. When people try to get you to stop talking about Jesus and the mighty work he has done in your life, press through and make sure they hear this message of forgiveness of sins, because it’s the most important message in the world.

And finally, your testimony is just a beautiful story if it doesn’t impact your unbelieving audience. Paul at the end of his testimony turns it towards the king,

Acts 26:27-29 “King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe." And Agrippa said to Paul, "In a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian?" And Paul said, "Whether short or long, I would to God that not only you but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am—except for these chains."

Paul calls the king to repentance and trust in Jesus Christ, but Agrippa brushes him off. But in doing this Paul has fulfilled his duty to his audience to preach Christ. Paul preaches in order that everyone may be reconciled to God, to receive the awesome gift of salvation, to have gone from lost to found, to go from enemy to friend, to go from blind to seeing, and he calls everyone to it. This is the point of your testimony to unbelievers, to call them to repentance. If you share your testimony to believers then it is for edification, for building up by declaring the awesome works of God, and it is great, but in that setting you wouldn’t need to include a call to repentance.

Finally, two things that aren’t in Paul’s testimony are Heaven and Hell. He is pointing his testimony at Jesus Christ, not at a final destination. Paul believed fully in a Heaven and Hell, yet he doesn’t mention either because what he is trying to do is get people reconciled to God, not just to save them from Hell or get them to Heaven. Be fully aware that Eternal Life begins at the moment of regeneration and that a life reconciled to God through Christ is your goal.

In conclusion, your steps to sharing your testimony are:

1. Take every opportunity to share
2. Introduce yourself and find common ground if possible with your audience
3. Share your sins through the law
4. Explain how you were convicted of your sins
5. Describe how you heard that Jesus died for your sins and lived again
6. Express the grace you received the hour you first believed
7. Summarize the fruit that your life has borne since conversion
8. Recount the persecution you’ve faced for Christ’s sake
9. Defend your Saviour and the work he’s done in your life
10. Call your audience to repentance and reconciliation

Finally, your testimony may not be as dramatic as Paul’s, but there is an important quip to remember, that if you don’t have a conversion story, then you probably don’t have a conversion. You should be able to point to a day or a season in which your sins became very real to you, you went from loving the world to loving Christ, and your life started to bear fruit.

My testimony is posted on the website, please be sure to watch it; I hold pretty closely to this template, but of course this reference guide is just a suggestion and is not set in stone, as evidenced by other places Paul shares his testimony and emphasizes some points and excludes others, but this is a great place to witness for your Saviour, and one which will break through strongholds when others are blocked.

Canyon's Testimony (1 Part, 10 minutes)

David Berkowitz's Testimony (3 Parts, 22 minutes)

August 16th - The Lord of the Sabbath

Prayer Requests
Pastor Aaron Preaching
Summit in General
Preaching KSU
Seven People who heard the Gospel yesterday

Geil's Safe Travels
Deeper Conference

Text – Acts 1:15-26, Exodus 20

Today we’re going to look at an oft misunderstood Commandment. In the Old Testament there are 613 laws, and they are all hard to keep, if not impossible. A somewhat strange, yet beautiful allegory sums it up and introduces us to this Commandment and how we should approach it.

Acts 1:15-22 In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said, "Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry." (Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) "For it is written in the Book of Psalms, "'May his camp become desolate, and let there be no one to dwell in it'; And "'Let another take his office.' So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection."

The background is that there are twelve thrones in Heaven for twelve Apostles, but Judas Iscariot forfeited his position and his office of Apostle now needs to be fulfilled. Two people are put forth, lets look at them.

Acts 1:23-25 And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus, and Matthias. And they prayed and said, "You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place."

We’ve got two people put forth, what is the name of the first? Joseph, Barsabbas, and Justus, he’s got three names, and they’re all powerful names.

Joseph is a Old Testament name, it has a lot of tradition behind it, he’s a Jew of Jews, a Hebrew of Hebrews.
Justus is a very good title, it means he is an upright dude, he knows the law and keeps the law and is able to be a judge of matters of the law.
Barsabbas is the combination of two words, Bar – Son, and Sabbath – The Day of Rest.

This guy is a great keeper of the law, he is known among his friends as the Joseph the Just, he keeps the law as well as anybody possibly can while still being a sinner, and he keeps the Sabbath so religiously that they’ve named him the Son of the Sabbath.

And the other guy just has one name, Matthias. It’s just one name, but it’s a big name, it means the Gift of God.

Which one do you think God would choose?

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We can either try to work our way to Heaven, keeping the Sabbath, keeping 612 other laws, or we can trust in the Living Christ, who has given us eternal life.

Let’s look into this Sabbath to see if we need to be Sons of the Sabbath to be chosen by God, or why there is something far more glorious here. Lets do a real quick summary of the Law, which is summed up beautifully in the Ten Commandments. They are found in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5.

1. Love the Lord your God

2. You shalt not bow down to idols

These can be as plain as little buddhas or totem-poles, but it also includes loving yourself more than God, or loving money.

3. You shalt not take the name of the Lord your God in vain

This is taking any name of God and using it without reverence. It can be as bad as the GD word, or as obscure as “Jumpin’ Jehoshephat (God the Judge)”, or maybe Geez…which is clearly the beginning of Jesus, or maybe Crikey which is the Australization of Christ. The Brits like to say “Bloody”, this references the precious blood that poured out. The French say, “Sacre Bleu” which means Sacred Heavens. Oh my Word, Man Alive, Goodness Gracious, OMG…you get the idea. It is also misrepresenting God through your life.

4. Honor the Sabbath Day, let’s read this one:

Exodus 20:8-11 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

We’re going to look at this one more in a little bit. Let me point out real quick though that the Bible reaffirms here that God created the world in six literal days.

5. Honor your Father and Mother, the first commandment with a promise, that you may live long on the earth.

6. Thou Shalt not Murder

Matthew 5:21-22 You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire.

7. Thou Shalt not Commit Adultery

Matthew 5:27-28 You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

8. Thou Shalt not Steal

9. Thou Shalt not Bear False Witness

Revelation 21:8 says that all liars will have their place in the Lake of Fire. Every one of these is deadly to your soul, whether you’re named something like Justus and you’ve sinned, for we know that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, or if you’re a serial killer. If you’ve sinned against God, his wrath abides on you.

10. Thou Shalt not Covet

This is saying that what God has given you isn’t enough. It was when Adam and Eve wanted to be God and took the only avenue available to try to become Gods.

James 2:10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.

There are huge cults today who think that by keeping the Sabbath, they will go to Heaven. The Sabbath is Saturday, lets look real quick at Creation History. God created the world on Sunday, the atmosphere on Monday, the land and plants on Tuesday, the Sun and Moon on Wednesday, the fish and the fowl on Thursday, the land animals on Friday, and the very last thing he created was man late on Friday. On Saturday, God rested, and man rested with him.

Adam and Eve couldn’t take any credit at all for what God had done, because they weren’t even there. That is the old creation. All that Adam and Eve contributed was sin and death. The old creation is busted. (see Romans 8:20-22)

So God sent his Son to bear the reproach for our sins, to redeem us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for as one of the 613 laws said, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree. He has made us what? New creations.

2 Corinthians 5:17 If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

What day did Christ raise from the dead? Sunday, the day after the Sabbath, Sunday represents the new creation, it’s not the first day of the week, it is the eighth day of the week.

Ezekiel 20:11-12 I gave them my statutes and made known to them my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live. Moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths, as a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them.

The Sabbath was a sign, a day of rest to point to something way farther down in history.

Matthew 12:8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.

Hebrews 4:9-10 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.

Jesus Christ is our Sabbath rest, not a day, but we rest in him, having ceased our attempted works for salvation, trusting fully on him that his works of obedience and then his death and resurrection have purchased for us an eternal rest. So now when we honor the Sabbath, we honor Jesus Christ, not just on Saturday or Sunday, but on every day.

So, back to Acts: the Apostles cast lots, that is tossed dice, so that God would pick and they wouldn’t be the ones that chose, either Barsabbas, who was trying to work his way to Heaven, or Matthias, trusting in the grace of God. (Casting lots is a pretty rare thing, and something we don’t need to do today because God has revealed his will to us through his Word)

Acts 1:26 And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

God chose the Gift of God over the works of the flesh. We are saved by grace, by the gift of God, not of works, so that we can’t boast.

Galatians 5:4-5 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.

If you think you’re going to Heaven because you go to church on Saturday instead of Sunday, Paul says that you’re severed from Christ, which means you’re severed from salvation.

The Pharisees came up with some pretty wild laws that you needed to keep to go to Heaven, included in these were laws about the Sabbath.

Acts 1:12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away.

A Sabbath day’s journey was a made-up law that said you couldn’t walk more than about 2/5ths of a mile on Saturdays. How many of you live farther than 2/5ths of a mile from church? You couldn’t even come to church if this law was true, but it’s a made up law. We see throughout Acts people worshipping on Saturday and/or Sunday, the actual day we worship isn’t particularly important, as Paul says,

Colossians 2:16-17 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

Romans 14:5-9 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

So honor Christ every day, enter into his rest, trust in his work, receive his gift of salvation, and when you honor Christ, don’t do it to win salvation, but do it in thanks for his exceeding great promises and salvation.

Homework

Write a paragraph or two describing what sort of things Orthodox Jews cannot do on the Sabbath. Find at least five. Consider whether they are honoring the Lord of the Sabbath with their restrictions.

One good example is that they are not allowed to cook on Saturday, so they have special stoves that they can set on Friday to cook for them on Saturday…

December 21st - Timothy's False Conversion

Prayer Requests
Pastor Aaron Preaching
Daniel's Friend's Wisdom Teeth
Kari - Friend Moving
Gift Wrapping Outreach
Christmas Travel
Those that only come on Christmas and Easter

Text – 1 Thessalonians 3:6-13

As I was praying over this lesson, I wasn’t seeing anything especially ground-breaking that we haven’t already covered or aren’t going to cover later in the examination. Then Dave called me and asked if I could accommodate the High School class. What I was preparing to teach would have left the High School confused, it would have been like if they came in in the middle of a novel without knowing the beginning or the end.

Then something JUMPED out at me, something we talked about two weeks ago, about true and false converts to Christianity. Paul was anxious that those in Thessalonica would be false converts and fall away from the faith…he had seen this happen before…and fortunately when it happened before, it had turned out very well, with Timothy, and that is integrated into this chapter. As we do this lesson, I need you all to step up your maturity, because we’re going to talk about some sensitive stuff and if we’re immature, we’ll never get through it.

So lets read this passage quickly, not because it’s not important, it is vitally important to this book, but for our High Schoolers only sitting in for one class, there is a more important lesson here.

1 Thessalonians 3:6-13 But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you— for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith. For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord. For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?

Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

Timothy went to Thessalonica to check on their progress in the faith, and came back with a very encouraging report of their salvation, as well as their spreading of the faith. They wanted to see Paul and Silas again, and Paul and Silas wanted to see them, but it would be six years before they would have opportunity to be back in Thessalonica.

Until then, Paul prays constantly that God will increase them in love, as well as growing them in holiness.

So, while that’s not all we can learn directly from this passage, I think there is a more important issue at stake here, and that is the issue of false conversion. It is very possible to think you’re a Christian and not be. The Bible is replete with these examples, Wheat and Tares, Good Fish and Bad Fish, Wise Virgins and Foolish Virgins, Sheep and Goats…etc.

First John is the best place to look to make sure you’re a Christian, but it is far from the only place. Romans, Ephesians, Galatians, John…all of these have great tests, as well as pretty much every other book in the New Testament. But I want to give you a practical example, and that example is Timothy.

First of all, you need some history. Timothy is from the little town of Lystra, in Galatia. Paul was converted around AD 32, he spent three years in the desert, probably pouring over his Bible, finding out how Jesus fulfilled the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings, in other words, the whole Old Testament. He returned to Jerusalem and started preaching, but they tried to kill him so he departed via Caesarea for Tarsus. He spent nine-years in Tarsus, so when you look at Paul and think that he just magically knew his Bible, he didn’t, he’d been studying it from birth, taught at the feet of Gamaliel, one of the wisest Rabbi’s ever to live, then he continued to learn his Bible and preach it.

In AD 46 he was summonsed to Antioch, where he taught for a year, and decided to go on his first missions trip. He traveled through Cyprus, then Phrygia, and into Galatia via Antioch and Iconium. Paul's first missionary journey put him in the region of Lystra in AD 47, this was Paul's first harsh persecution and he was driven out of town, and nearly killed by Jews from Antioch and Iconium. They had done their best, and thinking him dead, left him. Of this event, he later wrote to Lystra, "Let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." (Galatians 1:17)

Having introduced the Gospel to Lystra, Paul returned to Antioch in Syria debriefing his missionary stories for "no short time" especially about all of the Gentiles who were believing. In AD 49, he was called to a tribunal in Jerusalem. A group was going around saying that Gentiles had to be circumcised to be saved.

Acts 15:5 "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved."

Circumcision is the sign of the covenant of the Abrahamic and Mosaic Covenants, here is where you have to be mature, it is the removal of the foreskin from a boy’s penis, it is normally done on the eighth day during a ceremony called a bris, but can be done after, such as Joshua’s whole Army after reaching the promised land. It is not painful as a baby, but I’ve been told it is painful as an adult. It was vitally important to set apart Israel from other nations, but now that Salvation had been made available to others, it was determined that it was no longer necessary. If you want to really know a lot more, because it’s important, read Galatians and Romans 4.

The council in Jerusalem was to combat a works-based teaching, who were referred to as Judaizers or the Circumcision Party. Paul delivered the death blow to this works-based Judaizer heresy with the statement,

Acts 15:11 We believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as [the Gentiles] will.

Letters were sent out to the churches mentioning nothing about the works-righteousness requirement of circumcision, only exhorting every believer to abstain from sexual impurity, pagan practices, and idol worship.

Acts 15:28-29 For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.

Paul returned to Antioch, just in time to receive word that the churches in Galatia, which were Lystra, Derbe, Iconium, and others, had abandoned the Gospel that he had preached to them. They had been led astray by those that say that circumcision was a necessity for salvation. Paul immediately wrote a long letter to these churches defending salvation by grace through faith in Christ's giving himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age. Who knows what letter that is? Galatians. This occurred at the end of AD 49.

Galatians 1:6-9 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

He called those who would require circumcision or any works, anathema, which means accursed. These churches were near and dear to Paul's heart, since he had spent much time with the peoples and they were his first mass converts, so he decided to visit them in order to set them straight and check on their progress.

The letter preceded him by about a year, and he arrived in Lystra in early AD 50. Here is where we meet Timothy.

Acts 16:1-3 Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.

Sounds innocent enough right…but what did Paul just get done saying? Let’s read it in the letter to Lystra,

Galatians 5:2-6 Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

Paul gave Timothy a little test to see just how much he understood grace and that Christ did all of the work on the cross. Timothy got caught not reading his Bible, and received circumcision. What are the two ways to Heaven?

1. Jesus said, Be Perfect. Paul said, “If you would be justified by the law, you are obligated to keep the whole law.” Jesus was the only one ever to deserve Heaven by keeping the Law, even circumcised on the eighth day.
2. Receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ, your sins forgiven in his payment on Calvary’s cross.

Galatians 3:10,13-14 For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them." Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"—so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

Timothy was in trouble! Not with Paul, but with God, he was unforgiven, still dead in his sins, not redeemed by Christ nor justified in his blood! Timothy was very fortunate that Paul was discerning and did not just take Timothy’s parent’s or pastor’s word for it.

Now how do I know this stuff? I admit just reading the Acts 16 passage about Timothy getting circumcised doesn’t reveal all of these things, but there is lots of evidence for Timothy later getting saved, especially 1 Timothy 1:2 and 2 Timothy 1:5, where Paul says that Timothy was raised by godly Christian women, his mother Eunice and grandmother Lois, but that Timothy was ultimately Paul’s child in the faith…meaning that Paul converted Timothy.

The main reason I found this is because Paul and Silas went to Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea, and Timothy was not in Philippi or Thessalonica, he didn’t join them until Berea. That is one of the reasons by Paul sent him to Thessalonica to check on them, because remember, Jason in Thessalonica had promised on a sum of money that Paul and Silas would not come back…and they wouldn’t for six years.

This is six months later…so what do you think Timothy did for those months? I think he read Galatians over and over and over again, reading the letter from Jerusalem, working out his salvation with fear and trembling, counting the cost of following the Risen Saviour, and finally he got saved, through faith, not through works! Then he ran off and was able to catch Paul and Silas. At first I thought this would be impossible, but now I think it’d probably be easy, you just ask, “Which way did those Christians go?” They were the first Christians in Macedonia, so catching up with them was probably easy, especially since they had, as Acts says, “Turned the world upside-down.”

Paul gave Timothy this incredible job to go make sure the Thessalonians are really saved, and Timothy, knowing Galatians cover to cover, would be more than equipped for this task.

Application

Without application, this is just a cool story of Timothy’s false conversion and redemption.

How does it relate to you? The first thing we have to see is that salvation is NOT by works, nobody is running around today telling you to get circumcised to be saved…but what about people that say you have to be baptized in water to be saved? Just as communion doesn’t save you, it is a remembrance of Christ’s work on the cross, baptism doesn’t save us, it is a remembrance of our washing in the blood of Christ. Martin Luther said he used to take the opportunity during every bath to remember that Christ had washed him of all of his sins.

The same way, if you want into Heaven because you think you’re a good person, you have to keep the whole law perfectly, and Jesus said there is none good but God.

How important is it to know this Bible? For Timothy, not knowing it would have cost him his soul if Paul hadn't preached to him, but it did result in the unnecessary and painful removal of a sensitive part of his body. If you don’t know this Book, then people can talk you into doing anything. The cult leader Jim Jones talked his congregation into moving to French Guiana in South America where they committed mass suicide, and afterwards during the clean up there wasn't a single copy of the Bible to be found.

If I had to make a guess at when Timothy got saved, I would say it while reading Galatians 2:19-20,

Galatians 2:19-20 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

I think this is the song Bethany told us about, the lyrics are pretty good. The theology of Philips, Craig, and Dean is reprehensible, but they sure can sing:


In conclusion, it is more than possible for you to think you are a Christian and not be, Timothy thought he was a Christian.

Growing up in a Christian family doesn’t make you a Christian, Timothy was raised by two ladies who Paul considered godly.

Just because someone high up says you are a Christian doesn’t make you a Christian, Timothy came well recommended by churches in Galatia.

Only God justifying you through the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and granting you his righteousness can save you. This justification is solely through faith, and this faith, if genuine, will bring forth repentance, works of love, and growing in holiness.

We finished early and so took the opportunity to look at Matthew 22:1-14

And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying, 'Tell those who are invited, See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.' But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.' And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.

"But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?' And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' For many are called, but few are chosen."

If you attend church and believe in God only for the good things, like this man was attending only for the party and the food, then you will be cast out of God's kingdom on the Day of Judgment. If you have not put on the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, the robe of righteousness freely offered, by repenting and believing in the Gospel, then you will get neither the party nor Eternal Life.

Seek first the kingdom of Heaven and Christ's righteousness and everything else will be added unto you.

Merry Christmas!

November 9th - Paul's Indictment Against the Jews

Prayer Requests
-Pastor Barry Barnett in Wisconsin who is facing prison time for spanking his son.
-Pastor Aaron preaching on Romans 5-6
-Jessica's Dog
-Disciple Now
-Leon's Back

Text - 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16

When was 1 Thessalonians written? AD51
Where was it written from? Corinth
Who made up the church at Thessalonica? Gentiles, probably no Jews; they were either run out of town or killed.

Acts 18:5-8 When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles." And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue. Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized.

Paul quoted or alluded to eight different Old Testament Books in this brief event, he wanted to let the Jews he was speaking to know that he was abandoning them in accordance with scripture. He was MAD, I don't think that can be stressed enough...he was so mad that this anger showed up in his letter to Thessalonica at the same time.

He shook the dust from his garments, which was a Jewish custom of saying, "Not only am I through with you and your synagogue, I don't even want the dust from your synagogue to touch me."

The big passage he was quoting was from Ezekiel.

Ezekiel 33:1-6 The word of the LORD came to me: "Son of man, speak to your people and say to them, If I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them, and make him their watchman, and if he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people, then if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But if he had taken warning, he would have saved his life. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.

This is called a sin of omission, when you commanded to do somehting, and you don't. In this case, it is preaching the truth if you know the truth, otherwise, if you know the truth, and don't preach it, then God will require an account for why you didn't preach. Paul did preach, and they didn't listen, and according to this passage, his duty was fulfilled and he was clean of the blood of the Jews. He began preaching to the Gentiles, which was his primary calling.

Galatians 1:15-17 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone; nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.

Jesus Christ is ingenious in this, that he sent the smartest Rabbi that ever lived not to the Jews whom he could have done a little good with, but to the Gentiles so they would understand the Old Testament in relation to the New Covenant as explained by a Rabbi who had been studying it his whole life.

So Paul went next door, right next door, according to Acts.

Then what happened? Crispus got saved, the highest Jew in Corinth, the person Paul had likely been seeking to convert since arriving in Corinth. This was probably God's way of saying, "See Paul, I'm in control, if you're obedient, then I will take care of my church, because, after all, I'm the one building the church using you as a tool."

First Thessalonians 2:14-16 was written at the same time as the preaching we just heard about in Corinth, and the anger expressed there carries over into Paul's letter.

1 Thessalonians 2:14-16 For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But God’s wrath has come upon them at last!

Now, first of all, who are these Jews? Another name for Jews is Semites, and that name comes from the very first chapters of the Bible.

- Adam
- Seth - Yes, Seth married his sister...before the Gene pool was corrupted by sin there was nothing wrong with this and it was not socially weird at the time.
- Enosh
- Kenan
- Mahalalel
- Jarod
- Enoch - Extra righteous and was raptured...and no, I did not know Enoch, I'm not quite that old.
- Methusaleh - The oldest man ever to live, most likely died in the flood.
- Lamech - Not the Lamech who had two wives.
- Noah - Righteous in God's eyes, had three sons whom had three wives. More than likely if we search Genesis 4 we could find out a lot about the wives, but I didn't have time when preparing this lesson. (See the next lesson)

Noah had three sons.
Shem
- Shem's descendents are known as the Semites, they are Jews and Samarians
- These are your spiritual people in history.

Ham
- Ham's descendents are known as Hamites, they were the most prolific inhabitors and make up the regions of Africa, Southern Asia, America (Native Americans), and Canaan.
- They are known mostly for their inventions and servant attitudes, including being slaves to both the Semites and Japhethites.

Japheth
- Japheth's descendents are known as Japhethites, and they are those that inhabited Europe and Northern Asia.
- They are known for being Artsy and Philosophical.

Every people group today can be traced back to these peoples, as was prophecized in Genesis.

Genesis 9:19, 25-27 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the people of the whole earth were dispersed. "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers." He also said, "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant."

What happened was Ham started to sink back into the old sinful ways of pre-flood, and they couldn't have that. So Noah cursed Ham, and not only Ham, but his grandson Canaan to show that this curse was genetic and not just against Ham. God ordained slavery and has used it to teach us valuable lessons in history.

How many races are there? ONE, there are many ethnicities, but only one race, all men are created in the image of God and none are to be esteemed above others.

Does God love any people group because of the color of their skin? NO!

In fact, Simon Peter was fairly certain that Jesus had only come to the Jews, then he saw a Samarian saved, and so he figured Christ came only for the Semites, but he was called to preach to some Gentiles, Greeks who were of the Japheth line. Before he preached this, Philip got an Ethiopian Eunich saved, which is a Hamite.

Acts 10:34-44 So Peter opened his mouth and said: "Truly I understand that God is no respector of persons, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ ( he is Lord of all), you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name." While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word.

God saves from each of these people groups, but we see just how in control God is from start to finish of History. For example, Abraham first married Sarah, a Semite, then he married Hagar from Egypt, a Hamite, and finally he married Ketureh, who tradition tells us was a Japhethite.

Who helped Jesus carry his cross? Simon of Cyrene. Cyrene is in North Africa, Simon was a Hamite, this fits perfectly into the prophecy of Genesis 9 that Hamites will serve Semites (Jesus) and Japhethites (Roman Soldiers). A beautiful redemption story in this, is that while Simon carried the cross, there was never an indictment against him for it, and later he likely became a deacon in the church at Antioch, and his father Rufus became a respected member of the church at Rome.

So that's who the Jew's are, Semites. (We'll talk a bit more about this next week, I realized afterwards that I missed a lot of neat and useful things)

Remember, Paul was a Jew. So to jump back into First Thessalonians, the word of God is at work in believers, imitating the church at Judea. Being called imitators of Judea is a compliment, it means that Thessalonica was seeing people saved and being faithful. But, also this was a reminder that persecution was not just limited to Thessalonica, but that Judea had been thoroughly persecuted by non-Messianic Jews.

Jews killed Jesus, but remember that this was a plan of God. We ought not hate Jewish people because of what their ancestors did, but we also must not overlook their sins of continuing to blaspheme the name of Jesus Christ. We know this was a plan of God because we are told so in Acts 2, but we can also see God's hand at work at the trial of Jesus, when there is a murderous thief on stage named Barabbas with Jesus. His name is not a coincidence at all, Barabbas means "Son of Fathers" or to interpret a little, the sons of men stood against Bartheo, the "Son of God". The Son of God was holy, righteous, and pure, the sons of men are unholy, wicked, and defiled. The crowd chose themselves over God, as every people group would have done; this Sunday School class, given the chance in 1st Century Jerusalem, would have cried out for the crucifixion of Christ and the release of ourselves, it is our nature, and yet Christ died for us anyways.

The Jews have gotten the brunt of the blame because they were the ones who were actually there and actually did it.

Paul indicted them on killing Jesus and the prophets. Included in this indictment was John the Baptist, James the Lesser, and who else? Stephen. Who killed Stephen? Paul was instrumental in his murder and yet Paul was so angry he didn't realize he was indicting himself in this letter with the Jews. I think he realized this soon enough and we'll look at why shortly.

They displeased God and opposed mankind by hindering the preaching of the Gospel.

1 Timothy 2:1-7 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

God desires all men to be saved, and yet the Jews were standing against this. (This passage also has good context with the election, don't forget to pray for Obama and his cabinet for wisdom and salvation; and George Bush in his last days in the White House, give him the boldness and wisdom to set-up godly stumbling blocks to oppose Obama's godless actions)

The Jews sinned and sinned and sinned and sinned some more; and the wrath of God has come upon them at last, according to Paul. This is manifested most frighteningly in their being cut-off from salvation.

Now, running out of time, when was First Thessalonians written? AD 51, when was Romans written? AD 60. So 9 years later Paul had changed his tune slightly;

Romans 9:1-3 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit—that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

If Paul could have given up his salvation so that Israel would have been saved, he would have done it. That is true love! I believe Paul wrote Hebrews as a last ditch effort to see Jews saved, he didn't sign it because if he had, then they wouldn't have read it because it was from someone they considered totally apostate and their enemy.

We're out of time, we will jump back into this next week and probably go through chapter 3 verse 5.

September 14th - Introduction to 1st and 2nd Thessalonians

Prayer Requests
Dave, Brooke, and Jimmy in Mexico
Pastor Aaron and Denise
Kari's Dad's Job-situation
Our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world

Paul’s Epistle to Thessalonica

To listen to Darlene Deibler Rose's story, visit Way of the Master Radio - September 3, 2007 and start listening at 14 minutes 55 seconds.

History
Thessalonica is in a strategic position in Macedonia, which is now part of Greece, it was a major harbor as well as being located on the Egnatian Way, a major road across this part of the world. The cross-roads of Thessalonica made it especially useful for spreading the Gospel. This was a theme for spreading the Gospel, first in Jerusalem, then in Thessalonica, then Corinth, then Ephesus, and finally Rome.

Us, in Acworth, are sort of off the beaten path, we have a major thru-way called I75, but nobody stops in Acworth to talk to the locals and find out about news of the world. But we do have something very close, we have Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, the busiest airport in the world. I’ve talked to people from Armenia, Italy, California, and Wisconsin there, probably someone from every country in the world passes through that airport every day. The next time you go on a flight or to pick someone up, make sure you take some tracts and spread the Gospel in our major crossroad.

Thessalonica has a name which no-one knows for sure what it means. Thessaly is the name of the province that the town is in. Thessaly may come from two words, Therma and Salos which mean warmth and waves, and since Thessaly is on the Thermaic Gulf, the name may mean “Warm Waves” it is hard to say for sure though because these words have to be stretched to match the name.

We know for sure that the name of Thessalonica means, “Place where Thessaly was conquered.” Who in this class knows what nike means? Nike is Greek for victory.
Thessaly – Nike.

If you went to Greece today and tried to buy a train or ferry ticket to Thessalonica, they’ll probably look at you like you are crazy, because the name has been changed to Salonica, but the town is still in the same place it was in when Paul visited and when he wrote this letter.

Paul founded this church with Silas.

Acts 17:1-10 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ." And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, "These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus." And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue.

Paul, as a devout Jew, always wanted to declare the Messiah to his kinsmen first, but Christ had specifically sent Paul to the Gentiles, to the non-Jews, who ranged from refined Greeks to outright barbarians. He was following the Egnatian Way through Greece, stopping to preach in the Synagogues, and so far he had been stoned to the point that those stoning him thought he was dead, as well as chased out of town, and beaten. Yet he continued going to the Jews, finally in Corinth he abandoned the Jews to preach solely to the Gentiles.

Many believe, and I am among them, that the letter to the Hebrews was written by Paul, but left unsigned in order that he could still reach out to the Jews without them rejecting the letter because he wrote it. Though he finally heeded Christ’s command to go to the Gentiles, he never lost his desire to see Israel saved.

He arrived in Thessalonica at the end of AD 50, and spent about five months there before the Jews ran him out of town for converting so many people. They went to Berea, where the Jews compared what Paul was saying to the Old Testament, and they believed that Jesus was the Messiah, but Paul’s preaching had made the Thessalonian Jews so mad that they found them in Berea and chased them out of the region all together.

Paul was worried that the new churches in Thessalonica and Berea would succumb to persecution and so first sent Timothy to be their interim pastor, then wrote them this letter in order to strengthen their resolve and provide them with information they needed to know in order to maintain the church and see the souls saved that were passing through the important cross-roads of Thessalonica.

The letter points to the church being made up of almost entirely Gentiles, both by references to their old gods, and through a total lack of old-testament quotations. The letter begins by telling the Thessalonian church who they are now that they’ve been saved, then goes on to tell them how to live as Christians and what to expect from this life. Many think that First and Second Thessalonians are only eschatological epistles, in other words, that they only deal with end-times theology and the return of Christ. Dr. John MacArthur rightly points out that these epistles are pastoral first, and eschatological second.

Verse 1:1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.

This is a standard greeting, identifying who it is from, who it is to, and a greeting.

Paul and Silas started the church, Silas was a Jew, but here Paul wrote his name as Silvanus, which is the Greek rendering of his name. Timothy is included since he lived amongst them and reported their progress back to Paul.

The church of the Thessalonians is referring to the body of believers, and not the church building. We’ve lost an important element in language by saying, “I’m going to church…” because you are the church, Christ is the head, we are the body, and the church at Summit will go to Heaven, where-as the building will not. Some churches have gone so far as to call their buildings “assemblies” or “meeting places” in order to try to alleviate the issue of mistaking the church building for the church body. I don’t think it’s particularly important to make this distinction as long as you remember, like we said last week, that going to church doesn’t make you a Christian in the same way that going to the garage doesn’t make you a car. Only the redeeming work of the Spirit in your soul based on the payment of Christ on the cross can make you a Christian.

After Peter preached in Jerusalem on Pentecost, “when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’ And Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins…’” (Acts 2:37-38) Paul writes to the church of the Thessalonians in God and Jesus. When Peter said, “Repent and be baptized…” he didn’t mean, “repent and get wet…” he meant, “repent and be immersed in the name of Jesus Christ…” Baptism is first and foremost an immersion, it is not just a dunking in water, and we have to realize that we aren’t Christians because we’ve been baptized in water, we’re Christians because we’ve been immersed into God and our Lord Jesus Christ. This epistle to Thessalonica states that well by Paul calling them “in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace to you and peace was a common greeting in the early church. It is kind of blocky for us to say, which is why I think it has lost its use in English, but it was common to say, "Grace to you, and peace", which in Greek is charis humin kai eirene. What it means is reminding the Christian of the unmerited favor in which they have been saved by Jesus Christ and the peace that we've attained with God through the cross of Christ.

Remember that:
Justice is when you get what you deserve, which in this case is Hell for transgressing God's laws.
Mercy is when you don't get what you deserve, which would be if God gave you a reprieve from Hell but wouldn't let you into Heaven.
Grace is when you get what you don't deserve, not only did Christ pay your fine on the cross, he gave you his righteousness so that you can go to Heaven.



Questions Afterward

- Why do some people in the Bible have their names changed?

Short answer, because out of time: names are changed in order to show an outward sign of the inward work of Grace in our lives. I'll try to research a good write-up on this in order to share here and in class.