Sermon for August 21: "Desperate Faith" Part 2 (Luke 5:17-26)

Please be in prayer for our service Sunday as we look at another person (and his friends) who are desperate for the Lord Jesus Christ. To be sure, Luke is setting us up for Jesus' statement in 5:32: I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

In other words, Jesus will not save the "self-righteous," and self-sufficent. He only saves those who come to terms with their sin and desperate situation before a holy God.

Interestingly, situated between the accounts of the desperate leper (5:12-16) and the desperate paralytic (and his desperate friends) (5:18-26) stands the Pharisees and the teachers of the law (5:17). This group has it together. They aren't desperate; why should they be? All their "i's" are dotted and all their "t's" are crossed theologically and morally.

No one was more religious, moral, or zealous for the Law of God than the Pharisees. And yet, Luke wants us to see that it's only the desperate who can benefit from the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Pharisees are left out in the cold. Their righteousness will not deliver.

Indeed, Jesus says elsewhere, For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:20).

He tells Nicodemus, a Pharisee, (and ruler of the Jews), unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3).

No wonder we are desperate. If the Pharisees can't make it with their religious commitment, who can? Only those who understand this and come desperate to the Lord Jesus Christ in repentant faith.

Sermon for August 14: "Desperate Faith" (Luke 5:12-16)

Please be in prayer for our service on Sunday as we consider the desperate plight of the leper. Of course, Luke is proving the claims that Jesus made when he preached his sermon in Nazareth (Luke 4:16-27). That is, Jesus, the anointed one, has to come usher in the Lord's favor to the poor, captive, blind, and oppressed (4:18).

At this point in the narrative, Jesus has delivered the possessed, healed the sick, preached the kingdom to the crowds (4:31-44), and called out Peter (and James and John) from his idolatrous life to follow him (5:1-11).

Now a desperate man with the desperate condition of leprosy comes urgently, humbly, and boldly to Jesus for healing and cleansing.

Indeed, Jesus has demonstrated his authority and glory as the Son of God (3:38).

In light of this, the leper recognizes two things: 1. Jesus' authority and glory; 2. the leper's own desperate condition.

It's in knowing these two truths that precipitates desperate faith for the leper. It wasn't a comfortable place for the leper; but it was the safest place.

Truth be known, we are no less desperate than the leper. Prosperity, health, and creature comforts mask this condition for us. Let's learn from the leper.

Sermon for August 7: "The Making of a Disciple" (Luke 5:1-11)

Please be in prayer for our service Sunday as we consider the process Jesus took Peter through to teach him about true discipleship.

Of course, the key to all true discipleship is beholding the glory and majesty of the Lord Jesus.

This is exactly what Peter experienced after Jesus led Peter to the greatest catch of fish of his life in the middle of the day, no less--which was virtually impossible from the human perspective. As Norval Geldenhuys comments:

This miracle spoke to Peter in a very special manner. For he was a fisherman by trade and knew how humanly impossible it was to catch fish successfully in the lake in the early morning hours. The Lord's revelation of power in the field of Peter's own particular calling--the trade of a fisherman--consequently made a very powerful impression on him. That is why it was precisely after this event that he fell down before the Saviour with an overwhelming sense of His superhuman, divine glory and with a deep realization of his own utter sinfulness (The Gospel of Luke, 182).

Mark this down: all discipleship begins this way. It begins with seeing the glory of Christ and being stirred to respond to him in repentance and faith.

Sermon for July 31: "3 Portraits of Jesus: A Deliverer, a Healer, and a Preacher" (Luke 4:31-44)

Please be in prayer for our service Sunday as we consider a day in the life of Jesus Christ, the Anointed One, the Son of God. We will see that this narrative in Luke 4:31-44 directly follows Jesus' sermon where he promises that he is ushering in the "year of the Lord's favor" (4:19). This is nothing less than the Day of Salvation promised by Isaiah (49:8).

What Jesus is doing is making all things new (Rev 21:5). Luke begins to evidence this by describing 3 aspects of Jesus' earthly ministry: he came as a deliverer, a healer, and a preacher of the kingdom.

Today as I write this, it has special significance for me because on this day, 34 years ago, Jesus made me new by forgiving me of my sins as I repented and believed in his finished work for my salvation. I was a 9 year old boy.

All of Jesus' miracles in the physical world reflect in their own way what will happen, not only cosmically, but also spiritually to a sinner when he/she repents and believes.

The miracles also signal a day when our mortal, dishonorable, natural, weak bodies will be raised from the grave by the power of the Spirit and Word of Christ; and these perishable bodies will "put on the imperishable" (15:35-54).

"Then shall come to pass the saying that is writeen: 'Death is swallowed up in victory."' 'O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?'" (15:54b-55).

In short: come Lord Jesus!

Sermon for July 24: "Salvation: Only for the Poor, Captive, Blind, and Oppressed" (Luke 4:14-30)

Please be in prayer for our worship service as we consider this crucial and strategic passage on the sermon Jesus preaches in Nazareth, which comes off the heals of his successful victory over the devil in the wilderness.

What Luke wants us to see here is that until a sinner comes to terms with his/her sin condition, he/she isn't ready to respond rightly to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Indeed, if truth be known, we are all poor, captive, blind, and oppressed due to the guilt and corruption of sin.

But in coming to terms with this, we see the glory and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ who comes to liberate us through his life, death, and resurrection from the grave. His victory becomes our record, by repentance and faith.

Sermon for July 17: “The Son of God: Tempted and Tried ‘For Us’” (Luke 4:1-13)

Please be in prayer for our service Sunday as we consider the temptations of Jesus. The immediate result of Jesus' reception of the Spirit (3:22) was that he was sent into the desert to face on his own the attacks of the devil.

Keep in mind, Luke has traced Jesus' lineage back to Adam (3:38). In other words, the wilderness temptations are depicted as a rerun of the Garden. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into this wilderness. In that sense, Jesus does not simply suffer temptation, he marches into temptation. He frontally attacks it. As one 16th century writer asserts: He appears in the wilderness as a divine champion; entering into enemy occupied territory under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

It is nothing short than a declaration of war; an attack on one who claims to be the ruler of the world. Rather than overcome Jesus, Satan is defeated and dismissed by his conqueror.

This is the first step in binding the Strong Man in order that Jesus may spoil him of his goods. It is a foreshadow of what Christ came to do.

This isn’t the devil coming to Jesus. It’s the King coming into the enemy occupied territory ready to do battle with the evil one (1 Jn 3:8). Its an act of advancement on the kingdom of darkness.

So, the temptations aren't simply a narrative showing us how to overcome temptation. That's a secondary application, to be sure. These temptations are "one of a kind." Our covenant representative, Jesus Christ, is coming to crush the serpent's head and deliver a people from the serpent's dominion.

One of the issues that arises in the discussion of Jesus' temptations is whether Jesus could have really sinned. I will not address that issue in the sermon but I would like to discuss it here a moment.

There are two views in regards to this question: (a) Impeccability of Christ, i.e. Jesus was not able to sin; (b) Peccability of Christ, i.e. in order for Jesus’ temptations to have been real, it must have been possible for Jesus to sin, even though he did not sin.

Its a tough issue, but here are the biblical givens:
(1) Christ never actually sinned.
(2) Jesus was tempted & they were real temptations (Luke 4:2; Heb 4:15).
(3) Scripture says that God cannot be tempted with evil (James 1:13).

Here we are encountering one of the great mysteries of the faith, Jesus’ two natures. However, it is important to assert that while he could have sinned, it was certain that he would not. There were genuine struggles and temptations, but the outcome was always certain.

I think writer Wayne Grudem offers some convincing insight to this discussion:

A. If Jesus’ human nature had existed by itself, independent of his divine nature, then it would have been a human nature just like that which God gave Adam & Eve. It would have been free from sin but nevertheless able to sin.
B. However, Jesus’ human nature never existed apart from union with his divine nature. From the moment of his conception, he existed as truly God and truly man as well. Both his human and divine natures existed united in one person.
C. Although there were some things that Jesus experienced in his human nature alone and were not experienced in his divine nature, nevertheless, an act of sin would have been a moral act that would have apparently involved the whole person of Christ. Hence, if he had sinned, it would have involved both his human and divine natures.
D. However if Jesus as a person sinned, involving both his human and divine natures in sin, then God himself would have sinned, and he would have ceased to be God. That is impossible because of the infinite holiness of God’s nature.
E. Hence, it seems that we must conclude that it was not possible for Jesus to have sinned. The union of his natures in one person prevented it.

Sermon for July 10: "Jesus Our ‘Well Pleasing’ Substitute” (Luke 3:22-38)

Please be in prayer for our worship service Sunday as we consider the glorious truth of Jesus, the Son of God, who descends to us "for us and our salvation."

In this section Luke is reaffirming the description of Jesus given in 1:31-35; 2:11. To Mary, Gabriel said 1:32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the LORD God will give to him the throne of his father David. 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there will be no end. 34 and Mary said to the angel, “How will be this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.

Later in Luke's narrative, the angel appeared to the shepherds in the field: 2:11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

For the rest of the Gospel of Luke, Dr. Luke will take great pains to demonstrate that Christ our Lord will save a people via substitution.

In our passage for Sunday, Luke shows this in 2 ways: 1st, by Jesus' baptism where he comes in solidarity with sinners (3:21-22); 2nd, by Jesus' genealogy where he is traced back to Adam, "the Son of God" (3:23-38).

Sermon for July 3: "The Winnowing Fork" (Luke 3:15-20)

Please be in prayer for our service on Sunday as we consider the difficult doctrine of eternal judgment. To be sure, our culture dislikes being motivated by fear. After all, fear seems too instinctual to be a reasonable guide. It opens the door to being manipulated.

Having said that, we've known from the beginning of time that fear is useful. Even Aesop's fables warned of the fates of those who were lazy. And parents use fear tactics with their children in warning them: "don't do 'this' or 'that' because it will hurt you."

To be sure, it's good to teach our children not to be scared of certain things: shadows, for instance.

But what if fear is a divinely given motivation for avoiding certain potential realities? What if our actions do have consequences and not all of these consequences end up being good?

Consider the fact that Jesus, himself, knew there was something to fear: eternal hell (Mark 9:43-48; Luke 12:4-5). Jesus warns us to fear hell, the day of judgment (Matt 11:24; 25:31-46), spoke of condemnation (Matt 12:37; John 3:18), and portrayed hell in shocking terms (Matt 13:49-50; 18:9; Luke 16:24). And so does his forerunner, John the Baptist (Luke 3:1-18).

In other words, the doctrine of hell is crucial for faithful Christian witness. As Kevin DeYoung and others have written, the belief that there is something worse than death is the "ballast for our ministry boats."

As DeYoung argues, Hell is not our guiding light; it doesn't set the direction for everything in the Christian faith. No, the gospel of Jesus Christ does. Neither is hell the faith-wheel which steers the ship, nor the wind that powers us along, nor the sails that captures the Spirit's breeze. However, hell isn't unimportant to this vessel called the church. Its our ballast (weights, usually put underneath in the middle of the boat, which are used to keep the ship stable in the water). Without ballast, the boat will not sit correctly. It will veer off course or be tossed from side to side. Ballast keeps the boat balanced.

So if we lose the doctrine of hell (through neglect, shame, or unbelief), we can count on this: the ship (church) will drift. The cross will be stripped of propitiation, our preaching will lose its urgency, and our evangelism to the world will no longer center on calling people to repentance and faith.

No wonder John the Baptist was so urgent in warning the multitudes and Herod of the one who would come with the "winnowing fork" in his hand. Eternity hangs in the balance. Are we chaff or wheat?

Sermon for June 26: "The 'Voice' to Break the Silence" (Luke 3:1-14)

Please pray for our service on Sunday as we resume our study of Dr. Luke’s Gospel, which we began during Christmas season. In our last time in Luke (12/26/10) we saw the 12 year old Jesus being gradually prepared for the task which the Father had assigned. His divine nature didn’t need preparation but his human nature was in need. This period of preparation is now at its end. As we pick up in Luke 3, its been some 18 years since we last heard from Jesus.

But before Luke even gets to Jesus’ public ministry, he turns to the forerunner for 2 reasons: (1) John must introduce Messiah (3:15-17). The "voice" crying in the wilderness was the prophetic hope (Isa 40:1-5). 2nd, John was the divine instrument in preparing hearts for the Messiah (3:1-14). The principal way to prepare for Messiah was to call people to repentance.

What is repentance? Repentance is a saving grace (Acts 11:28), where a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin (Acts 2:37, 38), and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ (Joel 2:12; Jer 3:22), does, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God (Jer 31:18, 19; Ez. 36:3 1), with full purpose of and endeavour after new obedience (Baptist Catechism).

As we consider this passage, please pray that God the Spirit will bring about this necessary repentance so that we can behold "the horn of salvation" (Luke 1:69) and so that we "might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days" (Luke 1:74b-75).

Sermon for June 19: "A Gospel Mandate to Fathers" (Eph 6:4)

Please pray for our service on Sunday as we consider the crucial role that fathers (and mothers, to be sure) have in God's purpose to sum up all things in Christ (Eph 1:9-10).
Christ's victory has been achieved, no doubt, in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension to the right hand of God. However, God's people take part in the mop-up operation of this progressive triumph (the Great Commission) as we communicate the Good-News of this victory to a sin-fractured world.
This operation begins at home.
Parents, our highest goal in parenting (and to be sure we are mere instruments; this goal can only be effectually achieved by God the Spirit) is to "open their (our children) 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 the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 26:18).

Sermon for June 12: "Behold the Priest-King" (Zechariah 6:9-15)

Please be in prayer for our worship service on Sunday as we consider this crucial Christological passage from Zechariah. One of the reasons we are looking at this passage is that we are preparing ourselves for the Gospel of Luke. The hope of Messiah doesn't come out of nowhere. We saw in Ruth and we see in Zechariah that the hope of Messiah was Israel's and the world's hope.

The problem with Judah (Israel) and the whole world since the Fall is that humanity has revolted against the reign of God and each of us prefers his own will to the will of God.

Furthermore, we are utterly incapable in and of ourselves of changing. Only the God-man, the last Adam, the true Davidic King, can rescue any of us from our revolt against the kingdom.

When we gaze and muse on what God has achieved in and thru his Son (and Zechariah and the Old Testament saints looked forward), we are gradually transformed and transferred from our pointless scripts and inserted into ultimate reality.

We fundamentally need this because this age of sin and death seduces us into thinking that this is the real world so that our pursuits, affections, and concerns are foolishly centered on earthly things that are transient, temporal, and vain.

Zechariah reminds us that the human condition hasn’t changed since Genesis 3. Hence, we have the same need: a messianic priest-king who will represent us as Mediator to God as God takes humans and creation to their intended divine goal.

In face, this is what all of the writing prophets are doing--setting forth the eschatological realities of God’s plan to encourage, warn, comfort, and exhort the people so that they will persevere with a “God’s story” mentality; a story that presses towards and culminates in a person, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Priest-King.

Sermon for May 22: "The Story We Find Ourselves In" (Ruth 3:1-4:22)

Please pray for our service on Sunday as we complete our time in Ruth. We will be discussing the STORY of all stories. We as Christians need to embed ourselves in the midst of the redemptive-historical story and our text for Sunday plays a major factor in this story.
The average Christian sees himself/herself outside of the redemptive-historical story of the Old Testament. That is, he/she sees himself as living after the Bible. But actually they're still living in the midst of that story because of the person and work of Jesus, the fulfillment of all the Old Testament types, shadows, and promises (2 Cor 1:20). By virtue of what Jesus the true Israel has inaugurated through his doing and dying, rising and ruling, we need to know that we are true Israel by virtue of our union in Jesus, the covenant keeping Israel of God. Thus, we're beginning to fulfill the restoration promises. We're a new creation. We're resurrected beings. We're temples.
And the book of Ruth shows how this Moabite woman plays a major part in this glorious plan.

Sermon for May 15: "Under the Lord's Wings" (Ruth 1:22-2:23)

Please pray for our worship service on Sunday as we consider God's marvelous providence in the lives of Ruth and Naomi. One of the many reasons the book of Ruth is important is that we learn from Ruth what kind of God the LORD is. So when we're in a dark place not able to interpret his purposes, we still know what kind of things he does and what kind of God he is.

So in Scripture, God the LORD writes in bold italics the principles of providence so that when he rewrites them in our lives, we see that he is the same God. He displays the same care for our lives in he does in the lives of those in Scripture.

Sermon for May 8: "Naomi: Matron, Mother, Mother-in-Law, and Model of Repentance" (Ruth 1:6-22)

Please pray for our worship service on Sunday as we consider one of the most compelling passages in Scripture on the nature of repentance and conversion. Naomi was many things: a wife who had lost her husband, a mother who had lost her sons, a mother-in-law to two women; but the most important thing about Naomi was that she was a woman of repentance and faith.

Why do I say that? For one thing, the word shubh is repeatedly emphasized in this passage, occurring eleven times. That is the central Hebrew word for repentance. In fact, shubh occurs more than 1,050 times in the Old Testament— It means to turn back, to go in the opposite direction.

It highlights the fact that repentance means a change of direction, from the wrong way to the right way. It means a turning away from sin (1 Kgs 8:35), from iniquity (Job 36:10), from transgression (Isa 59:20), from wickedness (Ezek 3:19) and from evil ways (Neh 9:35). Positively shubh means turning to the Lord (Ps 51:13; Isa 10:21; Jer 4:1; Hos 14:1; Amos 4:8; Mal 3:7).

Pray that God would teach us some things about the nature of true repentance. Also, pray that the Lord would bear witness to the word of his grace (Acts 14:3).

Sermon for May 1: "The Emptiness of Compromise" (Ruth 1:1-5)

Please pray for the worship service on Sunday as we begin a short, five week series in the book of Ruth. This week we look at the introductory paragraph as we consider the futility and vanity that comes from failing to trust the Living God in times of testing.

Keep in mind, at the moment of trial we do the habits of our hearts. When the moment of testing comes, no person becomes different than his/her habits and cherished thoughts. If those habits and cherished thoughts are not Godward in orientation, compromise will always be present.

Here's the good news for believers, our standing before God is not contingent upon whether we have compromised or not. That's good news because rest assured, we have. We compromise every day.

Rather, our standing is rooted in the doing and the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ who lived the life we could not--indeed--would not live and died the death we all deserve.

What should that good news do "to us?" It should chasten our compromise.

Sermon for April 24: The Answer to the Ultimate Question (John 11:1-44)

Please pray for our service on Sunday, (Resurrection Day) as we reflect on one of the signs and miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ: the raising of Lazarus. Here we see in this miracle a coming attraction of what God is going to accomplish in the cross and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ: the reordering of chaos brought on by sin and death. That is, when Christ was raised, the new creation age was inaugurated and Christ is the first-fruits of that new creation (1 Cor 15:20-49).

Lazarus's walking out of the tomb points to that reality--the reality of Christ's resurrection; and the reality of the blessed resurrection of those who who are in Christ by faith.

As is typical in a Resurrection Day service, several people may be there who are not yet Christians. Pray that even as we seek to edify God's people on the gospel, the Spirit will convict sinners of their sin and their need to repentantly embrace Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Sermon for April 10: "Paul's Co-workers: People Like Us" (Col 4:7-18)

Please be in prayer for our worship service on Sunday as we conclude our study in Colossians. At face value, it may seem that there is little to glean from a list of names. However, that’s how Paul normally closes his letters and what we are going to see is that we can draw great encouragement and instruction from Paul's conclusions to his letters. After all, all Scripture is profitable (2 Tim 3:16-17). In this case, we are going to see and be reminded that God uses normal people in normal tasks to carry out his extraordinary plan.

This list of names remind/teach us that we don’t have to have some major public platform to be used mightily of God. Neither do we have to have unique, extraordinary gifts. God’s glory is magnified when God’s people are faithful in the mundane, obscure issues of life. In other words, our place in life isn't the central issue; however, our faithfulness in our place in life is crucial.

But this is often where we fall short. As Os Guinness points out: The problem is not that most Christians aren’t where they should be, but that they aren’t what they should be where they are.

So please pray that the Living God will reveal his glory in this text as he continues to form Christ in his people at Fisherville.

Sermon for April 3: The Church's Responsibility to the World (Col 4:2-6)

Please pray for our worship service on Sunday as we consider the church's responsibility to the world. Paul has been laying out, since Colossians 3:1-4, what life, raised with Christ (3:1-2) and hidden with Christ (3:3-4) should look like in the various spheres. First, he considers church life (3:5-17); second, he considers the family (3:18-4:1). Now, finally, he considers the church's responsiblity to the world.

In other words, if we are signaling the triumph of the gospel by letting the "Word of Christ dwell in us richly" (3:16) so that we are jealous for Christ's name/glory (3:17), this will reflect itself in how we pray for and evangelize the world (4:2-6).

Sermon for March 27: Motivation Matters

Please be in prayer for our service on Sunday. This week we will discuss a particularly difficult passage that deals with a Christian slave's responsibility to his/her master and a Christian master's responsibility to his/her slave.

Of course, we know that the institution of slavery is a sinful, post-fall reality. I will argue in the sermon that slavery was NOT biblically sanctioned. So the Apostle Paul isn't endorsing slavery.

However, in the providence of God, even a sinful institution can teach us a great deal about the Christian life. Paul takes the most horrendous of human situtations to make the case that no matter your circumstances, the expectation is that if your life is now hidden in Christ (Col 3:3) where he is your life (Col 3:4), and the word of Christ richly indwells you (Col 3:16), you should, indeed can, respond gladly in your circumstances, no matter what they are because you aren't ultimate, Christ and his name/glory is (Col 3:17, 23).

Sermon for March 20: The Gospel-Renewed Home (Colossians 3:20-21)

Please pray for our service Sunday as we look at what a family looks like when it is living by the gospel for the gospel.