Acts 1-3: Impressions

Last Sunday, I finished the third chapter in Acts. It is now time to pass the torch to Stan as he looks to pick up again in Matthew 5.

As I look back upon my studies, my sermons, and the wonderful dialog that has taken place in our midst as we have all focused upon the Word, there are a few thoughts that I wanted to share.

1. I have become convinced that we will never learn of the power of the Holy Spirit and the Lordship of Jesus as he is reigning from the right hand of God from studying systematic theologies and doctrinal statements with proof-texts. Our study in Acts shows a depth of sovereign power and the active nature of our Lord in his reign in this age. The Church must regain our focus upon the priority of the Gospel as it goes forth by the power of the Spirit by the will of the risen Lord. At Heritage, we must learn to long for this work and pray for this power.

2. A study in Acts shows condemns the self-centered focus of many influences in our churches today. Our best life now is not found in big houses, fancy cars, and sound financial investments. The Spirit did not bring these things when He came in power. The Spirit brings boldness to proclaim the Gospel, self-sacrificing love among the brethren, and redemption to those who will repent and return to the Lord.

3. My prayer is that we each will fall in love with the beauty displayed in these three chapters of Acts. May it consume us. May we see the Lordship of Christ in the Gospel and may we forsake all things that draw attention elsewhere. Let us not allow any other teaching take us away from the simple truth that the Church is to grow by proclaiming the Gospel in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.

Overdue

For the last eight years, it has been our intention to get a photo of Stan and I together. Finally, at Tim and Christy's wedding, that moment happened...

Stan (Left) and Steve
Co-Pastors at Heritage

I am incredibly grateful for Stan as a friend, a brother, and as a partner in ministry.

I would also be remiss if I did not not post another rare photo moment.


The Lord brought Jaime and I together almost 14 years ago now and He has blessed us in every way imaginable...

Proclaiming the Doctrine of Sin

Mark Dever writes the following on page 148 of the book "Telling the Truth" edited by D.A. Carson...

"Sometimes we share the Gospel with people while secretly only half-believing it's true, wondering what they will concede to us, and not wanting to say much more than that lest we look ridiculous...Don't be put off by the current fad of the times. People need to grasp not only the theoretical concept of evil and wrong, but also the fact that they are evil and wrong. They need to experience their own consciences. This is difficult in postmodernism, because the self tends to dissolve away, to disappear. in many ways, that may be the biggest problem we have when we try to communicate the idea of sin today. Postmodernism encourages the evacuation of the responsible self.

But the real reason people don't acknowledge the legitimate moral claims of God is not because of any philosophy; it is simply because it is not in their self-interest to do so."

Sin and evil are two of the most difficult topics to discuss, especially when sin and evil become personal. But if there are certain things that we as Christians are absolutely convinced of, it is that sin is real and that the heart of sin is unrighteousness and ungodliness. Sin is opposition to God. This leads us to the reason for our evangelism; namely that as certain as we are that sin is real, we are certain that there is Good News and redemption from the power of the slavemaster of sin and reconciliation with God through Jesus, the Messiah.

So far in our study in Acts, we have seen Peter bring the charge of sin against Israel for crucifying the Prince of Life. Let us prayerfully consider how we may effectively communicate the depths of sin to those whom are around us today.

Acts 3: His Lips with Grace O’erflow

Over the past two weeks we have looked at the third chapter of Acts. Here we have seen the continued work of the powerful Holy Spirit as the Kingdom continues to be proclaimed in Jerusalem.

At the gate of the Temple, known as "Beautiful", we see the graphic work of the Spirit and the power of the Gospel through the name of Jesus, as Peter heals the lame man. Here is proof of the impotence of the Old Covenant. This man sits here, wrecked by sin and he becomes the object of Israel's self-vindicating works. He would beg of alms. His cry would be to those passing by into the Temple something such as "Oh tenderhearted one, by me gain merit, to thine own benefit". The apocryphal book of Tobit (Tobit 4:8-10) expresses the Jewish belief "If thou hast abundance give alms accordingly: if thou have but a little, be not afraid to give according to that little: For thou layest up a good treasure for thyself against the day of necessity. Because that alms do deliver from death, and suffereth not to come into darkness. "

Oh how this picture is a stark contrast from the end of chapter 2. There, the New Covenant people of God are shown with great love and compassion for all in their midst, selling all of their possession if necessary, not for deliverance from judgment, but by the power of the Holy Spirit!

The healing of this lame man shows the efficacy of the New Covenant. The Gospel holds the power of deliverance and this leads to Peter's explanation in the rest of chapter 3. There we see Peter lay out the testimony of judgment against the nation of Israel for rejecting Jesus, the Messiah. Note the force of his words in 3:13-15. But even in this testimony of their guilt, what stands out is the grace that overflows from the Gospel. Consider the following:

• The Lord used Peter to heal this lame man as an appeal to Israel that the Gospel is true. In spite of their continued rejection of the Gospel, the Lord continues to appeal to them to repent and come to Him for rest and deliverance.
• Peter states that he knows that they have acted in ignorance, as their rulers did also (Acts 3.17). In light of the weight of being responsible for the death of the promised Messiah, the words of the Gospel still appeal with loving gentleness and mercy.
• The Gospel calls them to repent and return so that their record of sins my be blotted out (Acts 3.19). In the ancient world, the ink would not bleed into the papyrus below, but it remained on the surface. The ink on top could be purposefully removed, leaving no trace that it had existed on the surface below. The Gospel indeed offers grace! By the righteousness of Jesus Christ, our sins may be washed away as if they never existed...for He has paid the price for them!

There is much more to this text that we will continue to explore, but the call now comes to us. Will we be faithful witnesses in our generation for the Lord Jesus? It will only be done if we seek it through the power of the Holy Spirit. Let us be quick to leave our worldly concerns, knowing that He has promised to provide all things if we first and primarily seek the Kingdom of God. My we be testimonies of His grace. And may we learn by this text that grace is persistent. May we never stop proclaiming the Gospel to those who have rejected it, just as Peter continued to preach it to these people of his day.

More love from Spurgeon

This one just might make the ceremony tomorrow...

Let it really be so with us now! Let our love embrace the Well-Beloved! Let this be a time of love with us! Look up at His blessed face and then ask, “Was there ever any other so fair as He is?” Then look into His heart and enquire, “Was there ever another heart so tender, so true, so kind, as His?” Then count His royal and Divine honors and see whether any other lover ever wooed with such bejeweled hands and such a crown of Glory as He wears upon His blessed brow! Yes, look Him all over and see if there ever was such Incarnate Love in any other as you behold in Him. Did any other man ever love so intensely, or did any woman ever expend such a wealth of love as He has bestowed on us in stooping from the highest heavens to the lowest depths of misery and shame, and even to the grave, itself, that He might lift us up to sit forever with Him on His Throne?

O Heart! Heart! Heart! You ought to be smitten till you break into a thousand fragments if you do not love the Well-Beloved! What is wrong with you, cold Soul, lukewarm Soul, that you do not burn and glow with such good matter as this when you are speaking of the things which concern the King! Come, Beloved, let us love our Lord, or die! If we really are Christians, our hearts would sooner cease to beat than cease to love our blessed Savior!

Christ and His Bride

As we draw near to Tim and Christy's wedding this Saturday, these words from Spurgeon ought to draw us near to Christ...

"What I am driving at, and what I want every Christian here to get at, is this thought. Whatever Jesus Christ is—and you do not know half of what He is, even you who know most of Him—whatever Christ is in any relationship, or from any point of view, He has given Himself to us! Not merely has He given His thoughts, His actions, His wisdom, His power and His wealth but He has given Himself to us. Oh, I like to think of this! All that I can imagine Christ to be must still fall far short of Himself! It is Himself that we love and I would sooner have Christ than have Heaven! It is Himself we love and I would sooner have Christ than His crown! It is Himself we love and I would sooner have Christ than all the golden streets! It is Himself that we love and it is Himself that belongs to us—not merely the sight of His eyes, but His eyes themselves! Not only the love of His heart, but His heart itself! Himself, His Godhead and His Manhood, the complex Person of the Christ of God is given to His Church!

I feel as if I do not know how to talk at all about this great Truth of God. Some Brother cried out this morning when I was speaking, and I noticed that somebody else immediately followed him. But oh, if ever there is a time for crying out—and yet, on the other hand, if ever there is a time for being struck with silence—it is when we get on this topic of Christ’s love to His people! I feel as if I need to run from this platform and go home—and shut the door and sit down—and weep to the praise of this mighty love! And then I should want to get up and run back, again, and say, “What a fool I was not to tell you all I could about it!” May God the Holy Spirit help you to realize it! That you are loved by anyone is a joy, for love is a precious thing, whoever gives it. But you, Believer, are loved by Christ! You are so loved by Christ as not merely to be espoused to Him, but united to Him in eternal wedlock! You are joined to Him in such a way that you must, by-and-by, be with Him in all the Glory of His royal estate, for the King will bring His queen home and He will bring you home to dwell with Him forever and ever!"

PTTS: Ephesians 1:15-19a

Praying Through the Scriptures: Ephesians 1:15-19a

For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. (NASB)

My loving and gracious God,

I have heard of wonderful things! I have seen it with my own eyes! You have blessed many whom I know and love with faith in the Gospel and granted us sincere and genuine Christian love for one another. Who am I, that I should be blessed with the fellowship of the Body of Christ? Thank you for your mercy, and for blessing me richly with this knowledge and this fellowship.

Help me, my God, to never cease from enjoying the faith and the love of my brethren. May I always praise You and thank You for this, and be faithful to pray for their strength. It is a joy and it is beautiful.

May you now give us each wisdom. We need this wisdom so that we may shine as lights in the darkness. We need wisdom so that we do not fall into the snares of sin. We need this wisdom so that we honor You, and bring glory to your Son, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Open our eyes, and let us realize that we have been called to the highest of callings! We have been called to serve the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! Nothing can compare to this. Nothing should take our affections away from this calling. We are to building up one another in the Body of Christ, which is the inheritance of Christ. As such, we ought to be the most diligent of stewards, protecting one another, sheltering one another, and encouraging one another to be faithful witnesses, holy and sanctified vessels. Your Church is a treasure, filled with riches beyond all of the gold in this world. Let us value it as You do.

Please grant us the surpassing greatness of this power! We need it. We cry out to You to grant it. And we trust that You will pour out this power and transform us.

PTTS: Ephesians 1:11-14

Praying Through the Scriptures: Ephesians 1:11-14

1:11 In Christ we too have been claimed as God’s own possession, since we were predestined according to the one purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will 1:12 so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, may be to the praise of his glory. 1:13 And when you heard the word of truth (the gospel of your salvation)—when you believed in Christ—you were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit, 1:14 who is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of God’s own possession to the praise of his glory. (NET Bible)

I ask You, my God, to remove my pessimism and the things that have happened in my life that have made me cynical towards your possession, the Body of Christ. Let me not forget that the King of Kings has promised that the gates of Hades will not overtake the Church. It will remain strong and it will persevere until the end of all time. You have set Your sovereign affections upon it and eternally purposed it to be Your choice possession, to the praise of Your glory!

Thank you for allotting the corporate Body of believers as Your inheritance. It doesn’t even seem right in our feeble minds that You should be pleased to possess us! We seem so frail and depraved. By the Word we know that we were not chosen because of our wisdom, our fame, or our beauty. Yet You have sovereignly treasured us and You take pleasure in us. Help me to grasp that truth!

Selah.

With this truth upon my mind, let me then also treasure the Body of Christ. Let me do nothing to harm my brethren. Let me never promote divisiveness or slander, but let me seek to build up one another in the Body. Grant me a relentless love towards my brothers and sisters in Christ that is according to Your love.

Thank you for predestining this to occur. Thank you for letting nothing stand in the way of Your love toward each of us as the faithful ones in the Gospel. You indeed work all things according to the counsel of your will. Forgive the terrible inventions of man’s theology that asserts the opposite; namely that your will is worked by the counsel of all things. You are sovereign. Nothing happens apart from Your decree. Let our minds trust that, as Your Word tells us clearly in this passage.

Thank you for the work of Your Spirit. It is His work that gives us assurance that we are the inheritance of God, for the Spirit has sealed us as the pledge that we will be redeemed forevermore. Teach us, as the Body of Christ, to treasure the riches of grace that we already possess, as we also long for the day that we are corporately redeemed as Your possession and we will spend eternity together praising Your mighty and holy name.

Wanton Wickedness

Spurgeon says...

"Further, among the chief of sinners we must of course reckon those who are guilty of the coarser and grosser sins. I will not occupy a moment in mentioning what they are, for it is a shame even to speak of them...I must, however, mention blasphemy and lewd speaking, because these are unhappily far too common. Does a man think that he can go on damning his own body and soul in so many words, and never provoke the Lord to anger? Does he dream that he can use foul and filthy words, and wicked oaths, without incurring sin? I believe that these things bring the blackest guilt on the conscience; for God has expressly said that he will by no means hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. It is true of every sin that God will not hold a man guiltless who does it; but it is especially said about this sin, because men are apt to fancy that words are of no great importance, or that God takes no notice thereof. Even the thoughtless or trifling repetition of the name of the Lord involves great sin, for thus a man taketh the sacred name in vain. Yet men trifle with that name in common conversation, and that with fearful frequency. There is no excuse for this wanton wickedness, because it brings neither profit nor pleasure to the person who so offends. "

May God cleanse us from profaning His name. May we be burdened when we hear ourselves or others around us use His name with no presentation or thought of His glory.

Acts 2: Community

This past Sunday, our text in Acts 2:44-47 called us to consider the beauty of the Spirit's work in the Body of Christ. This earliest church demonstrated that the Spirit's power brings unity, love and provision. Darrel Bock indicates in his commentary that the early church's preaching (just as Peter had finished preaching earlier in Acts 2) was matched by its community.

By God's providence, we discussed this text on the first Sunday of the month, and at Heritage we enjoy partaking of the Lord's Table together and then we have a meal together after the services. So, we recognized that the Lord has blessed us, and thousands of years after Acts 2 was written, the Spirit still causes us to enjoy one another in Christian fellowship.

Let us always find ways to increase in this sort of fellowship. May we enjoy hospitality and provision. Acts 2 displays the splendor of love demonstrated in the selling of individual goods for the needs of one another and the good of the whole Christian community. May God grant us wisdom to be stewards of what we have been given so that we are quick to meet the needs of others. Let us always be empathetic, always be loving, and always be seeking the Spirit's power to display Christ-like love for our brothers and sisters in Christ.

A New Light Shone In Their Eyes

I found this excerpt on another blog (Andrew Osenga) from a book about the Underground Railroad called “Bound for Canaan” by Fergus M Bordewich:

Conductors who were in a hurry, or desperate, sometimes literally flung fugitives onto a passing ship, and hoped for the best. In one such instance, a steamboat captain named Chapman, en route from Cleveland to Buffalo, was hailed about three miles offshore by four men in a small boat, two of them merchants with whom he had done business the day before, and the others black strangers.

One of the whites threw on board a purse containing fifteen dollars in silver, and asked Chapman to land the black men in Canada, telling him to take his pay out of it, and to give the passengers what was left. The sight of the new passengers didn’t please the captain, who, imbued with the racial prejudices of his time and place, found them “very black, coarse in feature and build, stupid in expression, and apparently incapable of any mental excitement except fear.”

Fortunately, however, Chapman was a man with a heart, and he ran in near the Canadian shore, and landed the men on a beach, where they were met by the agents of the underground… …Chapman handed the men the entire fifteen dollars, and told them they were free.

What he then witnessed startled the captain.

“They seemed to be transformed; a new light shone in their eyes, their tongues were loosed, they laughed and cried, prayed and sang praises, fell upon the ground and kissed it over and over. I thought to myself...‘Is it possible that human beings are kept in such a condition that they are made perfectly happy by being landed and left alone in a strange land with no human beings or habitations in sight, with the prospect of never seeing a friend or relative?’ ”

“Before I stepped upon my deck I had determined to never again be identified with any party that sustained the system of slavery.”

I think we often read through the slavery language in the Scriptures and we have no idea of the depth of meaning. If you have been freed from the slave master of sin, do your eyes now have a new light in them? Do you laugh, do you cry, do you sing, do you pray?