April 10th - Our Personal God

Prayer Requests

Summit Sanctification

Whoever’s Preaching

Jerusalem Project Results

Braves Outreach Results

Swift Cantrel Witnessing

Todd Love Homecoming

Barton's Grandmother's Health

Jennifer's Aunt's Health

Jennifer Swim Team and Play, Dad's Job

Praise-Greyson's Dad's Job

Text – Nehemiah 7

Today we come to the only chapter in Nehemiah that made me almost not teach Nehemiah. This could be the most boring lesson ever taught if I just went name by name and tried to tell you something about each of these guys, but I think there is actually much to be learned here. This is going to be more of a topical lesson today than an expositional lesson.

Let’s talk about topical versus expositional real quick. Expositional preaching is where you “expose” the meaning of a text, to let the text speak on the topic or topics it is going to speak on. This is the preferred preaching method and the reason I go verse by verse through various books of the Bible, because then I don’t choose what you should learn, God has already written it out. A topical lesson on the other hand, is where we look at topics in the Bible instead of a single passage. It’s like if we wanted to look at God’s love or wrath, or one of Dave Snyder’s better jokes was his upcoming book, “Birds of the Bible.” Topical sermons can be very edifying, but their danger is that the preacher may be cheating you out of topics that you might never look at in topical sermons, like last week we looked at an imprecatory prayer, something no topical preacher would ever choose, or what has gotten me into more trouble than any other topic, how to confront false teachers.

There is a new phrase that has been coined called, “Topositional”, a topical lesson based on chapter by chapter preaching of the Bible. This lesson will be a topositional sermon, we’ll be looking at three topics pulled from Nehemiah 7. The first will be that God cares for us individually; the second will be how people before Jesus were saved; and third will be an apologetic look at God’s order and the historicity of the Bible, and maybe even talk about some numerology. These three won't necessarily go in order.

I had a terrible time deciding if we should read the whole chapter, let’s start by reading the part I know we should read,

Nehemiah 7:1-4 Now when the wall had been built and I had set up the doors, and the gatekeepers, the singers, and the Levites had been appointed, I gave my brother Hanani and Hananiah the governor of the castle charge over Jerusalem, for he was a more faithful and God-fearing man than many. And I said to them, “Let not the gates ofJerusalem be opened until the sun is hot. And while they are still standing guard, let them shut and bar the doors. Appoint guards from among the inhabitants of Jerusalem, some at their guard posts and some in front of their own homes.” The city was wide and large, but the people within it were few, and no houses had been rebuilt.

Remember that in the last chapter the walls were finished, but the doors were not installed yet. Here in the beginning of chapter 7 the doors are put in place, and we see a ceremony to open and shut them for the first time. During this time, Nehemiah officially turns the city over to two godly men, his brother, whose petition had started the rebuilding process, and a man we know very little about named Hananiah (an especially popular name in the Old Testament) who though Nehemiah chose for being an exceptionally godly man. Our first application is that we ought to strive to have someone be able to say the same about us!

So they wait until the sun is up and it is hot out, partly so they can see any enemies approaching, and also so any enemies would be dissuaded to fight due to the heat. It was an ingenious way to avoid a fight. It reminds me of one of my favorite verses,

Hebrews 12:14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

Nehemiah looks around the city, which was quite large, a little more than six miles around, and sees that for the most part it is very sparsely populated. So that brings us to the rest of chapter 7, I decided we should read it, except we’re going to skip the numbers.

Nehemiah 7:5 Then my God put it into my heart to assemble the nobles and the officials and the people to be enrolled by genealogy. And I found the book of the genealogy of those who came up at the first, and I found written in it:

Wait, stop there for a moment. Look who put it into Nehemiah’s heart, not just God, but “my God”, we’re going to see in this chapter that God cares for his church as well as the individuals in his church.

The list we’re going to see was compiled by Ezra, you can find almost the exact list in Ezra 2, but they are not exactly the same, sometimes the numbers are quite a bit different. You can find this is various other lists of names in the Bible, usually there is a logical answer as to why they are different, like look at verse 10, it says in Nehemiah’s list there are 652, but in Ezra’s list there were 775, and verse 11, Nehemiah’s list says 2818, but in Ezra’s list there are 2812. The logical answer is that in one case more said they would leave Babylon than made it to Jerusalem, some may have died, others may have changed their mind and stayed back. The cooler example is when there are more in Nehemiah’s list, because that means they originally didn’t return to Jerusalem, but later did decide to return. We don’t have time to look at the parable, but Jesus makes it abundantly clear that it is better to be obedient after saying you’ll be disobedient than to be disobedient after you say you will obey. (cf. Matthew 21:28-31)

Another option, which seems right in a few places, though I’m not sure, but is likely not true for this example, is what is called “copyist errors”, where someone was supposed to write 3000 but only wrote 300. Whether these are errors or not, and I believe they are not errors but have good explanations for appearing to be errors, it actually shows us something amazing about the Bible, that for more than two-thousand years the Bible has not been edited. Sometimes people claim that the Bible has been changed year after year and it’s no longer a reliable copy of the original. But if the Bible were being edited, the first thing people would have done is tried to take out the supposed errors, but we see that they haven’t, and the Old Testament we read today is the same Old Testament that Jesus read, is the same Old Testament that Nehemiah and others wrote down.

Confusing enough? In the early 1900’s, the oldest copy of the Old Testament we had was from about AD1100, more than a millennia after the New Testament was written. Some people doubted the age of the Old Testament, and this hurt the prophecies of the Old Testament, because people thought, of course the prophecies are perfect if the Old Testament was written after the New Testament. Well, this drove an effort to do what is called “Biblical Archaeology”, or to find some of the sites the Old Testament describes, like the old city of Jericho, which they found in ruins just like Joshua describes it. In 1946 they found what has since been called the “Qumran” or “Dead Sea Scrolls”, which were copies of the Old Testament dating from ~150BC. These copies were identical to the copies that were much later, showing that no editing had been done, even on supposed “errors”.

So, there are logical reasons why the numbers don’t match up, but also let this strengthen your faith in the transmission of the Bible that the Old Testament we are reading today is exactly the same Old Testament that Jesus read 2000 years ago.

So then, let’s read Nehemiah 7, sans numbers,

Nehemiah 7:6-73

These are a lot of names, and beloved, I can tell you less than a sentence about most of them. But check out:

Luke 12:6-7 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.

It doesn’t matter if you are super famous or totally unknown, God knows you, even infinitely tiny details about you, and he cares for you. None of these people who are utterly forgotten to us are forgotten to him. This list would have made way more sense to us if we were living in Jerusalem in 445BC, but now even the places are foreign to us, for example, he says, “The other Nebo”, we don’t know where either Nebo is, but the original audience did. It’s likely, if the world lasts another thousand years, that nobody will have a clue that there was a Summit Baptist Church or a Canyon Shearer or (insert your name), but God will, and you know who else will? Anybody who you preached Christ to, whether they are in Heaven because they repented, or whether they are in Hell because they held to their sin.

So what do you think happened to these Jews here who were trusting in the faithfulness of God (we’ll see in chapter 8 and 9 that they were), did they die and go to Hell because they didn’t believe that Jesus died on a cross and rose again? How could they possibly believe in something that had yet to happen? Throughout the Old Testament there are references to people going to be with God, having their sins forgiven, and having an eternal happiness. How can that be?

Romans 4:3 For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness."

These Jews were saved by believing that someday, in some way, God would rescue them and put their sins away.

Ephesians 4:7-8 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says, "When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men."

These Old Testament saints were not allowed into Heaven, but neither were they forsaken, and when Christ defeated death, ascended to Heaven, and opened the gates, they were allowed into glory. They were saved not because they believed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but because they trusted that God would save them. The gospel is that God saves those who trust in him, Jesus Christ is the way he made that effectual. I often tell atheists, "I don't believe in God, I know there is a God, I believe he will save me from death when I step out of this world." Then I explain to them how I know that he is able to do that, having forgiven my sins, nailing them to a cross, and by raising Christ from the dead.

Does that make sense on how God saved people before Jesus? Think about this point as well, that many people in the Old Testament are currently in Hell. In 1 Peter 3 it says that Jesus preached through Noah to people who are now in Hell.

Alright, so we've seen that God cares for us individually as well as corporately, we've seen how Old Testament saints were saved by their faith in God, just as we're saved by our faith in God, accomplished through the redeeming work of Jesus Christ, proven by an empty cross and an empty grave. Now we're going to look briefly at the order of God and a quick look into numerology, or a study of biblical numbers.

1 Corinthians 14:33,40 For God is not a God of confusion but of peace...all things should be done decently and in order.

There are a surprising number of people today, even within Christianity, who think that there is power in certain numbers and evil in others. For example, what is an unlucky number? 13, right? No! There are no unlucky numbers, there are no lucky numbers! Numbers are neutral.

There are preachers today who say that 40 is a special number, that if you do 40 days of something, you'll be blessed. Another preacher says that Satan hates the number 7 and by speaking in 7's you can hide your intentions from the Devil. Others play with the years, saying that 2011 is the beginning of a new decade and that you need to give them even more money so the rest of your decade will be blessed. None of these is true, the universe is put together very mathematically, but that doesn't tell us that God can be manipulated through numbers, it says that God is very orderly and the operating principles of the universe show that he is faithful. Every time science does an experiment they affirm God's faithfulness, expecting the outcome to be measureable and repeatable.

A quote that I like is "Science is thinking God's after him." Remember, it's not science versus God or the Bible, it is God and science versus sin. I'd love to camp out on this idea, but we're running out of time and that was sort of a rabbit trail.

There is a present day antichrist leading people away via radio named Harold Camping, he is basically a present day Joseph Smith (who started the Mormon cult) and the major way he is leading people astray is by messing with some numbers in the Bible and determining that the end of the world is for sure going to happen on May 21st, 2011. We have a little more than a month left, if he's right. Do you think he's right? We talked about this a bit when we looked at the 2012 end-time date. No, they are obviously not right,

Matthew 24:36 But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

So, here is our final application, we sort of got off track, but I wanted you to know the things we got off track on, which is the beauty of a topical lesson. God is a God of order, he knows both the number of people in his church, as well as each individual personally. We see this list that Nehemiah has as a precursor to a much more important list in the New Testament. Nehemiah's roll is just the membership of Jerusalem, and none of our names were on it, what we are much more concerned about is the membership roll of Heaven,

Revelation 21:26-27 They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

So, cast your cares on Christ, know that he cares for you. Know that your Bible is trustworthy, know that there will be a great number of saints in Heaven from both before Christ and after Christ, and be hastening his return by preaching the gospel calling people to flee to the Lamb who was slain, who is alive forevermore. Know that no-one knows the day or the hour of his return, so don't fixate on any given date, just know that this present evil age will not last forever. In everything, know that God is not a God of confusion, but of peace, so let everything you do be done decently and in order.

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)

February 14th - Honor Christ as Holy

Prayer Requests
Middle School Bible Study
Superbowl Preaching Results

Baby Eden

Sonya and Amy feeling better

James' friend Aaron

Bethany's friend

Announcement - Saturday the 27th from 2pm-7pm we will have a marathon session to move through First Peter and try to get caught up so we finish before the end of the summer. Pizza will be served at 5pm.

Text – 1 Peter 3:13-17

Beloved, I really didn't know where to go with this lesson today. I want to give you a debrief of the Superbowl, but I also want to keep moving through First Peter. Unfortunately I couldn't find a way to do both with the verse or passage we should be on today, we still need to look at verse 7 and verses 8-12, but if we go to verse 13 through 17, I don't think we'll be too far out of Peter's intention.

First of all, there have been a few evangelists killed recently, two in Miami right before the Superbowl, Tite Sufra and Stephen Ocean, and a young woman named Nelly Pelts was murdered last week by someone she witnessed to at a Walmart. So while Peter's audience wasn't as persecuted as say Paul's audience at Thessalonica, they definitely had some obstructions as the passage we are going to look at today attests to, and we can see it as applicable to us, not just in terms of being killed, but just being persecuted for sharing our faith:

1 Peter 3:13-17 Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.

This is my favorite passage, my favorite verse is the one that says, "Honor Christ the Lord as holy," other translations say, "Hallow Christ," "Sanctify Christ," "Set apart Christ," and the whole rest of the passage revolves around that. So it is important that we understand what this means before we go any farther.

What do you think it means to honor someone or set-them apart as special? Does it mean that Christ needs you to make him holy or is he holy already? Peter has already answered that question for us in the first chapter, that we are to be holy since Christ is holy. So when we honor Christ as holy, we declare his excellencies, we show that his holiness affects us through our actions, both how we relate to other Christians and how we react to unholiness.

At the Superbowl the big emphasis was on showing people not only how sinful they were, but also showing how perfect and righteous and worthy God is. I was really surprised how many people didn't already know that was the way we're supposed to evangelize. This is one of Peter's main themes, as well as Paul's, as well as John's, as well at all four gospels, as well as the whole Bible. Our main purpose in evangelism is to make the name of Christ known and famous, both to see sinners come to Christ and him be glorified through their conversion and his graciousness, but also to heap condemnation on those who won't repent so Christ will be glorified through his justice and hatred of wickedness. Never compromise the message, name, or person of Jesus Christ.

So knowing that our priority is to keep Christ holy in our hearts, now the rest of the passage will make sense. I can also give a lot of personal examples. For context, the only thing we miss from jumping ahead is that the context we're coming out of Christian love, so the question comes to who it is that gets angry for doing good:

v.13 Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?

Not everyone will be against you for doing good, many pagans are very good at doing good, at least temporily in this world. If you come to our Middle School Bible study next Friday you'll see that Jonah was hanging out with some pagans who wanted to spare Jonah's life. But in the context, Peter is pointing at people who do want to harm you for being zealous, or devoted and on fire, some of which may claim to be Christians. My friend Keith was preaching at the Superbowl and a woman who claimed to be a Christian came up and was cursing at him and telling him he was evangelizing all wrong, then she left and came back a few minutes later and poured a beer over his head.

This question of "who is there to harm you?" is largely rhetorical, obviously there are people that want to harm you just because you're doing good. The reasons are myriad, some don't like being convicted that there is no fruit of regeneration in their life, others don't like Christ's name being mentioned even through things that help people, others don't want to be reminded that there is a judgment to come and if you are doing good things that they may not be good enough.

Why do we do good? Is it to earn our place in Heaven? Or is it to honor Christ as holy in our hearts?

Ephesians 2:8-10 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

v.14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed.

This is a recurring theme in the Bible; for the sake of time we're not going to look at any other verses about this, but only a quick review. When we are persecuted for righteousness sake we prove both the goodness of God and the debase-ness of man. Who was the most Christlike person ever to live? Christ. What happened to him? He got crucified. We should expect no less.
This next verse is my favorite verse,

v.14-15 Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy,

We are not to fear those who persecute us, whether they are inside the church building or out of the church; not only are we not to fear them, we're not even supposed to be troubled by them.

Luke 12:4-5 I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!

This is one of the ways that we honor Christ in our hearts, trusting that he has defeated death, that death has lost its victory, that to live is Christ and to die is gain. Multitudes of people have been saved in history by Christians who would not deny Christ even to death. I heard a story of a Chinese soldier who got saved, the translation I heard of what he said is a bit iffy, but he said, "Whoa dude, he's prayin' for us." right before the other guard shot the Christian in the head.

When we went to the Superbowl we knew that two preachers had just been shot in Miami, but that didn't stop us, we stepped in knowing that people needed Christ and that Christ has earned the right to be magnified, for as the old Moravian motto goes, "May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of his suffering."

v.15-16 in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you;

When are you supposed to be prepared to give a defense?

2 Timothy 4:1-2 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

The word here for "defense" is apologia, it is where we get the word apology from. When you normally apologize, what do you say? "I'm sorry." That's not exactly what this word means, it is rightly translated as defense. When the New Testament was written if you were going to make an apology, you could either be wrong or right, but the right side has fallen off from this word since. Say you're accused of stealing your brother or sister's dessert, if you did it, you'd say, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that." But if you didn't do it, you'd make apology by saying, "I didn't do it, and I have proof that it wasn't me but dad or the dog or aliens, so hear me out." An apology can go both ways, either as an admission of guilt or of a defense of the truth.

Peter here clearly means an apology of the truth, giving a reason for the hope of glory in Christ, of his righteousness, of his resurrection, of our future resurrection, and the reason that we hold fast to the confession of hope in him.

There are lots of ways to do what is called apologetics. There are three major categories but many types in each, they are "foundational", "evidential", and "presuppositional." Foundational believes that you have to prove God apart from the Bible, evidential believes that the evidence points to God, and presuppositional believes that people know there is a God, they just suppress the truth in unrighteousness and therefore we need only to confront them with biblical truths and let the Holy Spirit do the rest.

One of the most famous apologetics alive today is Ravi Zacharias, he is an evidential apologetist and all he really does is entertain Christians. Everyonce in a while he makes a really great point, but even a blind squirrel finds a nut occasionally. Most of the time he wastes his time and his audiences time. You do infinitely better knowing your Bible and using it as your sword of truth. Does someone have to believe in swords for you to cut their head off with one? No, neither does someone have to believe the Bible is God's Word for it to be God's Word. At the Superbowl we did very little towards trying to prove that God exists and much more going for the conscience and showing that people had sinned against Heaven.

My friend Ben was preaching and I was handing out tracts when a Cuban guy named Irwin came up and yelled at Ben for a couple of seconds asking why he was out there and stuff, Ben asked him why he was so hostile towards God and took him through the good person test. This rocked Irwin to the core and he came up to talk to Ben off the microphone. He told Ben that he was about to lose his wife, his son, his house, and his job because he was addicted to cocaine. He asked if he did the Jesus thing would he get his family back. Ben told him that he didn't know, but if Irwin kept going the way he was going he would definintely lose his family, and also his soul. I have a picture of Irwin crying pretty good on facebook; and all of this was done without a single bit of science or apologetics other than the Bible and Christ's death and resurrection to seek and save the lost and set the captive free.

The hope we have in us is the empty tomb and our Saviour interceding for us in Heaven, and we must always be prepared to speak to others about this. The next verse is my least favorite in the whole Bible.

v. 15 yet do it with gentleness and respect,

I'm so bad at this, it's something I try to do better. We must not just go out and bash people over the head with the Bible. In Miami there were two other groups who most people call the "Hellfire and Brimstone Preachers." That isn't exactly who they are, I think they're better labeled the "Graceless Preachers" or the "Waterless Springs Preachers" because all they do is judge people and tell them they are going to Hell and they never tell them how to go to Heaven or how to be reconciled to God and never tell what Christ did on the cross.

Where we were standing we had a palm frond fall out of the tree behind us, it missed us by about five feet, but it made a lot of noise. I prayed that a palm frond would fall out of a tree and hit one of the graceless preachers. A little while later I got the news that a preacher got hit by a palm frond a little ways down the beach...but he was ok. I guess I should have been more specific that I wanted the frond to cause him to stop preaching his ungentle and non-respectful message of condemnation.

That night I was preaching about a block from a group of our guys and a young lady came storming up to me. I was fairly certain she was going to hit me. She stopped a few feet away and demanded, "Why is he," pointing towards the other preachers, "so mean?!" The person she was referring to is my friend Rich who is a fantastic preacher and I suspect he wasn't so mean as she thought he was, but still she sought me out.

She told me that she grew up a Baptist but like believed in like Buddism and reincarnation and stuff. She also couldn't fathom how there could possibly be such a place as Hell. Normally I think I would have flipped out on someone expositing those beliefs, but gentleness and patience took over and I was surprisingly really nice and respectful towards this girl. At the end she understood why we were out there, why Christ is the only way to God, and why Hell not only exists but is reasonable. Her name was Kayla and she took a Mark Cahill book and my e-mail address; hopefully she'll get saved.

Later I talked to Rich and he called it the "Bad Cop/Good Cop" scenario where one person is harsh and the other is gentle and the person listens because the second person is so respectful. There is a lot to this verse that we must be gentle and respectful; I just wish it wasn't so hard.

v.16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.

Before we go too far into this, what does slander mean? It means to make something up about someone and present it as true. Libel means basically the same thing, except it's written down or in print. One of my friends was preaching on Southbeach and a dude came up screaming, "The God I worship wouldn't judge, why are you being so judgmental!!!" All my friend had done was read John chapter 3 out loud; I responded to the guy, "Sir, how do you know he's being judgmental unless you've judged him?" My friend asked for an example of when he judged. If we hold to Christ and the Bible then when people slander us they will ultimately be put to shame, hopefully before judgment day.

The words humble and humiliate share the same root word. Humiliate is a synonym for shame, we want people to be humiliated, shamed, caught in their sin so they look to Christ who died for their sins, for if you humble yourself before the Lord, then he will lift you up. So it is hugely important that we do our best to be gentle, respectful, and have a good conscience so that others see our good behavior and it points them to Christ. If they don't repent before judgment day then our good behavior will still glorify Christ as those that reviled us and him will stand naked and without excuse before the judgment seat of Christ and his holy angels will cast them into fire eternal.

v.17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.

Peter has talked about this once before, that if we're going to suffer, it is better to suffer for righteousness rather than for doing evil. You should suffer for doing evil, it is the normal consequence. So it is better to suffer for doing good because this points people to Christ, shows the sinfulness of mankind, that Christ's death for living for God was not an anomaly, and that he is worthy for us both to live for and to die for.

So with the time we have left I want to share two sermons I preached at the Superbowl. The first was pretty shady in my tactic, but it worked and people heard the Word. I preached at the Port-a-Potties with about fifteen people waiting in line. I started out by saying, "I couldn't help but notice that I have a captive audience here, I apologize for taking advantage of your captivity, but I hope that you find it providential that you are here to hear what I'm about to tell you." I then went through about a five minute message. Last year I preached at the Port-a-Potties and the only thing that kept me from getting killed was that the really angry people would have lost their place in line if they had come and murdered me. This year was a lot better.

Then I preached several times a "Who-Dat" sermon which kept changing, but here is basically what it said,

I keep hearing, "Who Dat? Who Dat? Who Dat?" and I know what it means, it means "Who dat say they gonna beat them Saints?" Or we could ask, "What dat gonna win this game? Saints. Who dat gonna lose this game? Colts." But more importantly, "Who dat out there sure they gonna go to Heaven when they die? Who dat think they good enough to go to Heaven when they die? Who dat gonna judge you on that day? God the Father. Who that can save you on that day? God the Son. What dat you need saving from? Who dat can say they never told a lie? Who dat can say they never stole nothin'? Who dat can say they always obeyed they mother and father? Who dat can say they never looked with lust? Who dat can say they perfect? Who dat gonna judge you? God the Father. Who dat can save you? God the Son. How dat? Jesus Christ died on a cross bearing your condemnation. How dat? Jesus Christ rose from the grave for your justification. What you gotta do about that? Repent towards Heaven and put your trust in the Risen Christ. Who dat gonna get the glory? God the Father. Who dat gonna get the glory also? Jesus Christ. So beloved I implore you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, be reconciled to God! Jesus Christ! He dat!

So in conclusion, honor Christ in your heart as holy, don't fear men, always be ready to tell people about your Saviour. Be holy as he is holy, so that your good behavior humiliates those who see it and it drives them to the foot of a blood stained cross and the arms of the only person who can save them.