Tag: praise

Ephesians 5:11-21 Christ Will Shine on You

Ephesians 5:11-21

Christ Will Shine on You

 

Kids are dismissed for Childrens church.

 

Please turn with me to Ephesians chapter 5. In Paul’s letter on unity within the church, he has been focusing on what our lives should practically look like, on Gods immeasurable riches and the change that he has caused inside of us.

The big, recent idea is that there is right and wrong, there is darkness and light, there is sin and holiness. And we were once in one camp, we were on one side. We were in the darkness. Now, through Christ, we are changed. We are now in the light.

We are putting off the old, putting on the new. We are to stop sinning and to pursue holiness. We are to be imitators of God and to walk in Christ. We are to discern what is pleasing to the LORD, to do what is good and right and true.

Paul is going to continue the light and dark illustration as we get into this week’s scriptures. Though here he will focus on the light, and the goodness of the pouring out of Gods grace and mercy and His light shining out on us.

So, let’s go ahead and read this morning’s passage, Ephesians chapter 5 verses 11 through 21. Ill be reading out of the English Standard Version. Please grab your preferred translation and follow along as we read the very Words of God.  Ephesians 5:11-21, Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, writes:

 

11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. 13 But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, 14 for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,

“Awake, O sleeper,
and arise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”

15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

 

 

May God Bless the Reading of His Holy Word.

 

 

Paul continues from the previous verses, what we looked at last week, he says to take no partners with the unfruitful works of darkness. Scriptures are clear throughout that we are to be careful and discerning who we partner with and who we yoke with.

We see this warning about not marrying into a relationship that is unequally yoked. We see this here with light and darkness. We see this with who and how we look to, who we hitch ourselves too politically or nationally.

When a person, when a group, when a movement or a party share a purpose, or a goal, or an ideal, but they compromise on the Gospel, and more specifically, the fruit and the commands of scripture, then they are not to be partnered with.

Just as the wrong thing done for the right reason is wrong, so too is the right thing done for the wrong reason. We are not to fight fire with fire. We are not to do whatever it takes if the cause is just. The ends do not justify the means. That is 100% unbiblical.

Scripture is clear that what is done in the dark will be brought to the light. We do not ignore evil and wrongdoing in others.

 

We do not gossip about them or slander them, but we do need to be able to say, “This is Wrong.”

And one of the reasons is because evil and wrong will become known at some point, whether in this world or the next.

And what happens to the church’s credibility, or to our individual credibility when it becomes known that someone, something, some organizations, some group we partnered with was steeped in darkness, when it or they were actually opposed to the Gospel, and it comes out that we knew about this wrongdoing and did nothing about it? Or knew they were opposed to the Gospel, and we decided that wasn’t as important as whatever the reason we partnered with them?

Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

 

It will become visible. All will be revealed. God knows all and sees all. And he won’t be fooled.

 

We also see in verse 13, that God will redeem all things for his glory. What light illuminates, it will also transform. We were dead in our sins, but he has brought us out of death into life. He has made us alive. We were asleep to the truth but now the Holy Spirit has awakened us to our sins and to the darkness.

And when we are awoken from the darkness, we are then in the light. And when we are in the light, the light of Christ will shine on us.

We are called to, and we will reflect that light that Christ is shining on us like the moon reflects the light of the sun to shine in the night. That is to be us reflecting the light of Christ and the good news of the Gospel to the dark in the world around us.

Paul tells us to be conscious and purposeful, we are to be active in choosing how you walk, how you live, how you act. Not as the unwise, but as the wise.

We cannot just stumble blindfolded through life and expect to do the things that God has called us to do.  We are to be wise as serpents but gentle as doves. We are to discern what is pleasing to the LORD, what is good and right and true.  And to do all that means we are to seek wisdom. Wisdom not of this world, but wisdom from above, the wisdom of God.

James writes in his letter, chapter 3, verses 13 through 18:

 Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. 15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

 

We need the wisdom of God in order to do what he calls us to do, to be light in a dark world. To pursue righteousness, to give all the glory of all the world directly to God.

The wisdom of God reminds us to make the best use of the day because the days are evil. No one knows the time or the hour, but we do know that the days of this world do have a limit. There is an expiration date to these evil days. And so, we are to use the wisdom God has given us to, as one commentator says, “actively take advantage of every opportunity to do good.”

Essentially, the days are evil and dark and so we are to shine as much light as possible, every day, by the wisdom given to us by God.

Therefore, because of this, do not be foolish. Use the Wisdom given by God but understand what the will of God is. This is not a secret. God has not hidden his will from us. Instead, he has revealed his will to us through his word.

This is emphasizing to us that the Bible is absolutely vital to our walk with God and to us knowing him, knowing his will and being able to shine His light in this world.

Reading his word, knowing his word, seeing his wisdom, knowing his will.

His word, the Word of God, and the only perfect rule for faith, creed and conduct.

His word is where we find his will. And when we know his will, and act according to his wisdom, we will see within us what Paul describes next.

He says in verse 18, do not get drunk on wine. This is not a blanket prohibition, but Paul is addressing the effects that wine, or alcohol can have, controlling one’s mind. It affects your judgment and thought processes. It leads to foolish decisions and to living and acting in darkness.

And so, instead of letting that control you and your mind and your spirit and your judgment and your decision making, instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit.

When you are filled with the spirit, Paul says this is what happens, you address one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. In other words, being filled with the Spirit results in joyful praise.

And we make melody to the LORD in our heart, giving thanks and for everything to God the Father in the name of our LORD Jesus Christ.

We are to have joyful praise and gratitude and thanksgiving at all times.

This week is thanksgiving and so, hopefully, our hearts and mind are already attuned to the things in our life that we are to be thankful for.

And we have so much to be thankful for. Friends, family, homes, jobs, food, shelter, transportation, freedom, so much.

But we need to remember the source of all that is good and right and true and where it comes from.

James 1:17 & 18:

 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.[d] 18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

 

God our Father is a good and merciful God. He created us to be in perfect and eternal communion with him back in Genesis 1 & 2. Sin came into the world in Genesis 3 and separated us from that perfect and eternal communion with God. God immediately told Adam and Eve that he had a plan, a solution to this very bad problem. That solution, we now know, was Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, God himself.

? Jesus was a real live historical person. There is more historical evidence for him than for Julius Caesar.

Jesus was the Son of God who came to redeem mankind. He came to reconcile us back to God. He came to bridge the divide that sin causes between us and God. And he did it by taking our justice, our punishment for the sins we have committed.

Each and every one of us here. Each and every person born, with Jesus being the only exception, each and every person has sinned and been separated from God. Each and every person who has sinned deserves to pay the consequences of that sin, which is eternity in Hell, having the full, perfect, holy wrath of God poured out on them. The wages, meaning the payment for sin is death. That is what each and every single person here deserves, especially me.

And yet, God loved us in that while we were yet sinners, he sent his son to take that penalty, that that wrath, to substitute himself, in our place. He who knew no sin became sin so that we could become the righteousness of God. He died the death that we deserved. He took and absorbed the wrath that was justly and rightfully due to us. He paid our debt and bridged that gap for us, on our behalf.

And Jesus did this, not because we obeyed well enough. Not because we did the right thing. Not because our good outweighed our bad. Because none of that is true.

For it is by grace we have been saved, through faith. God’s grace poured out on us, through the vehicle of our faith in his son. And this is a gift, not because of us, but because of God and through God alone so that none of us may boast. And there is no name except Jesus by which we are saved. There is one mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ.

Those who are saved are saved by the grace of God alone, through Faith alone in his Son Jesus Christ alone. All of this is revealed in Scripture Alone and all of it done for the Glory of God alone.

As Jonathon Edwards famously said, we contribute nothing to our salvation except the sin that made it necessary.

Here’s the deal. If you have believed in the Son, then you get the Father. If you reject the Son, you reject the Father. That’s it. Nothing else you do matters.

And so, when we know this, when we truly know this, it is nothing to let the joy and gratitude flow out of us.

Last night at the Father/Son dinner, we sang the Doxology, letting praise for God the Father, God the son and God the Holy Spirit flow out of us.

That’s what Paul is calling us to, let the praise of God flow out of you. Bible commentator Dunnam writes:

The early church, Spirit filled, was a singing church, the dominant theme was joy. It was a thankful church. Knowing who God was, and what he had done, keeping at the surface of their awareness the fact that they were recipients if unmerited mercy and grace, gratitude was the keynote of their life.

 

How many of us can say the same? How many of us can say that our lives are marked by joy and thankfulness and gratitude? How many of us can say that others see that as our dominant theme?

Paul calls us to be filled with the Spirit and when we are, this is what flows from us. Wisdom and light, joy and gratefulness, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

That last verse is what’s called a tease for where we will go next week in the next passage.

In the meantime, let’s pray.

 

Luke 17:11-19 Jesus is the Son of Man The Ten Lepers

Luke 17:11-19

Jesus is the Son of Man

The Ten Lepers

All right! Let’s go ahead and grab your Bibles and turn to Luke chapter 17. As always, if you do not have a Bible, or if you have need of a Bible, please see me after the service and we can get one into your hands.

Jesus has been teaching, and addressing his disciples, new believers and followers and the traditional church folk who were opposing him. And the reason they were opposing him is that he was teaching that it is not our actions, our obedience, or our adherence to the law that saves us.

Instead, our salvation is by faith alone. Christianity, true religion as taught by God the Father, God, Jesus the Son and God the Holy Spirit, is not Do and be saved. But instead is You are Saved, Now Do.

Paul tells us in Ephesians 2 that Jesus has prepared beforehand good works that we are to do. But that obedience and service are not pleasing to God just in and of themselves. But they are only pleasing to God if and when they are done in faith.

And now, Jesus continues on his journey. That’s where we will pick up, in Luke 17, verses 11-19. Ill, as usual, be reading out of the English Standard Version. I encourage you to grab your Bible, which ever translation it is, and follow along as we read the word of God.

Luke 17:11-19, inspired by the Holy Spirit, written by Luke the Physician:

On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. 12 And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers,[f] who stood at a distance 13 and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” 14 When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; 16 and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”[g]

 

May God Bless the reading of his Word.

 

So, we see that Jesus is once again on the move. He is still and again on the way to Jerusalem. He first set his eye upon Jerusalem as we saw back in Luke 9:51. And on this part of the trip, he was travelling between Samaria and Galilee.

Now, we have talked before about the hatred between the Jews and Samarians. Most would go out of their way and add a significant amount of time to their travel in order to avoid going through Samaria. The fact that Jesus would even travel close to it would have been scandalous.

And outside one of the villages, on this section of travel, Jesus encounters 10 lepers. The lepers were set apart, and not in the way that means Holy. They were removed from the towns and villages, placed outside them, and were not allowed near people. In fact, if they saw people that might come near them, they were to yell out a continual warning, “Unclean! Unclean! Unclean!”

You think a COVID quarantine was bad? It was nothing compared to Biblical leprosy.

So, Jesus comes along this village and these lepers are outside it and they see him and shout out to him. Master! Have mercy on us! They knew, at least in part, who he was. They, despite being removed from everyone, still had heard of this Jesus guy and what he could do.

He had already healed lepers. They knew he could heal, that he could perform miracles. They knew he was able to do things and they cried out for him to have mercy on them.

In verse 14, it says that Jesus saw them. This is a key part to this text. He actually saw them. Not saw that they were there and make sure not to get too close but saw them and who they were. Let’s not blow past this and gloss over this.

I don’t know if there is someone in here who needs to hear this, but a lot of people do. For many, this is the greatest way to show love to them, to see them. These lepers were ignored by the masses, but society. They were not acknowledged. They were not talked to. They were not helped. They were not ministered to. In the eyes and life of the people of the did, these lepers practically did not exist.

There are many groups that fall into this category today; the homeless, widows and orphans, the poor and forgotten, refugees, prisoners, abuse victims, the depressed and suicidal. So many of whom we can see very day of our lives, in pain, lonely, crying out, begging to be heard and be seen. And so many more individuals that don’t fit into these categories either.

We are to love people. We are to love them as Jesus loves them. We are to love them even if nobody else loves them. And Jesus shows us right here how to love them. He sees them. HE hears them. He acknowledges them. They are not just there, but they are people. That’s love that many people do not receive.

Jesus sees them and he responds to there cries. He tells them to go and show themselves to the priests. Why would he tell them that? They asked for mercy, hoped to be healed and he tells them to go to the priests?

The reason they would go to the priests is to show him that they were healed, and he could pronounce them clean. We see back in Leviticus 13 & 14 that God the priests the ability and the authority to confirm that the lepers were cured and to declare them clean. The priest could not heal them, he could only affirm that they were healed.

So, there was no physical reason for these lepers to go and show themselves to the priests. They were not yet healed and so there was nothing for the priests to confirm. They had to take Jesus at his word and had to show some kind of faith, some trust in Jesus in order to go and head over to the priest.

And they did. They started on their way. They showed some faith. They showed obedience. They obeyed the word of God and as they went on their way to the priest, they were healed.

As always with Jesus, this was a miraculous healing. A complete and full healing. An instantaneous healing. An event that would not and could not be missed. Its not like the lepers would not have noticed this instant and complete, all of a sudden lack of leprosy.   They were still supposed to the priests so that they could be public and legally declared clean and brought back into the community.

So, we do see that all 10 lepers had to realize that they were just instantly & completely healed. Presumably, 9 of them continued on their journey to the priest. Understandably. They would have been super excited. Once the priest declared them clean, and they went through the very brief 8 day waiting period, they would be able to be reunited with family, friends, and society.

But one of the ten, one of them noticed and stopped his journey. He turned around and went back to praise and give thanks to Jesus.

10 lepers professed Jesus as Master. 10 lepers acted like they had faith. 10 lepers were healed. Now, this text is not intended to be a mathematical equation. This is not here to tell us that 9 out of 10 people are not saved. This is a story that reveals God goodness, Jesus’ goodness, general people’s ungratefulness and that it is often the unexpected who receive and respond to God’s grace.

1 of the 10 had what we call saving faith. 1 out of 10 recognized what Jesus Christ did. 1 out of 10 came back and acknowledged what he did. 1 out of 10 fell down and praised God.

Here is the scandalous part.

IT was a Samaritan.

 

An outsider. A mixed breed. A non-Jew. Someone who didn’t deserve gods grace and salvation. The last one who anyone would ever expect to praise and worship the true God. The unexpected who received and responded to God’s grace.

And we see this here in the text and we can also see the opposite. Granted, we are reading into the test with this next part. But another part we see here is that if 1 of these ten was a Samaritan, it is very likely that 9 of them were Jewish. They thought that they were entitled. They thought that God owed them healing. They thought that they did something to earn the healing and so there was no need to go back and thank Jesus for what he may or may not have done. Their faith was less in Jesus than it was in themselves, in their heritage, their righteousness.

This Samaritan came back, he allowed his spiritual obligation to override his ceremonial needs. He dropped down and praised God and gave thanks to Jesus. He was essentially acknowledging that Jesus was God. Jesus accepted this and asked, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”

Jesus was pointing out the other 9 lepers lack of true faith. Who came back and gave thanks? Who was grateful and appreciative? Only this Samaritan. He came back.

Did none who thought they deserved it?

Did none who thought they earned it?

Did none of them, not one give thanks and praise God?

Only the one who everyone thought would be rejected. Only the one who nobody thought deserved it. Only the one who nobody thought was good enough. Only the one who nobody thought was the right “kind.” Only the foreigner.

Only the one who knew that he couldn’t do it himself. Only the one who knew he couldn’t earn it. Only the one who knew he didn’t deserve it. Only the one who knew it could only be the work of a graceful and merciful God. Only He came back and praise God and gave thanks.

Jesus recognized the faith in the Samaritan, and he told him “Rise and Go, Your faith has made you well.” In the Greek it is literally, “Your faith has brought you salvation.”

Jesus is not talking only about physically healing. He was healed earlier and now he was made well. Jesus hear was referring to the man’s salvation.

What saved this man? His faith in the one who saves. He was not saved by his ethnicity, not his race, not his heritage. He was not saved by his goodness, his righteousness, or his deservedness. He was not saved by his culture, his morals, or his upbringing. He was not saved by his words, as in professing faith, by his church attendance, or his studiousness, his bible knowledge and he was not saved by his religious tradition and background.

He was saved by the grace of God alone, through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone as revealed by the scriptures alone and all to the glory of God alone.

10 were healed, but only one was made well.

We need to remember who we are in this story. WE are all born spiritually dead. We are all spiritually lepers. We are unclean. And that uncleanness shouts loud and clear to the one who is clean and can do something about it. Jesus, Lord have mercy on us!

He is the one who can have mercy on us. He is the one who can make us well. He is the one who can heal our souls. He is the one who can makes us clean. He is the one who fulfill the demands of the law and impart his righteousness onto us. He is the one who can save our souls. And he is the only one.

And our appropriate response when we have been made clean and made well, when we have been saved is to fall at his feet to praise God and thank Jesus for his work. Our appropriate response is praise and worship and most of all gratefulness, thanksgiving.

So, I’m going to leave us with some verses regarding giving thanks to God.

 

1 Corinthians 15:57: But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

2 Corinthians 2:14:  But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.

2 Corinthians 9:15:

Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!

Colossians 3:17:

 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

 

And Finally

Colossians 1:9-14:

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; 12 giving thanks[d] to the Father, who has qualified you[e] to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

 

Let’s Pray and give thanks.

Luke 1:39-56 Jesus is the Son of God: Mary and Elizabeth

Luke 1:39-56

Jesus is the Son of God

Mary and Elizabeth

 

          Good Morning! Please grab with me, if you will, your Bibles and turn to Luke Chapter 1. So, as we are going through Luke, you can see that we are going to be taking awhile to get through. We are in the fourth sermon and still in Chapter 1, with at least a little longer as we move forward. Now, as I always mention, if you do not have or own a Bible, please grab one from the back or see me after the service for a Bible that is our gift to you.

Now, we have seen a lot in the previous three sermons as we start the Gospel of Luke. Remember First, we saw the purpose. Luke wrote this Gospel so that we may be convinced and assured of the things we have heard about Jesus who is the Christ. To ensure this, Luke did massive amounts of research, interviews with the main characters and eyewitnesses and went to the places these things happened.

And as he recounts this story, this truth of who Jesus is and what he has done, he spends a lot of time leading up to the birth of Jesus. And we are not there yet. First, the angel, Gabriel visited Zechariah, whose wife is Elizabeth. They were old, barren and righteous before the LORD. By the Word of the LORD, they would become pregnant. Their son would become John the Baptist.

6 months later, Gabriel would appear to Mary, who was betrothed to Joseph. She was young, a virgin, unmarried and childless. She was a cousin of Elizabeth she too would become pregnant. Her son would be Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of the World.

When she didn’t understand how this would take place, Gabriel gave her a sign by telling her that her older, barren cousin Elizabeth was pregnant. With God, anything is possible. And in that, Mary submitted her will to Gods will.

And we are going to pick up right there, starting in verse 39. This morning we will read Luke chapter 1, verse 39-56. I’ll be reading out of the English Standard Version. I exhort you to read for yourself, in your preferred translation as I read the passage out loud. Luke 1:39-56.

Luke, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit records:

In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, 40 and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be[g] a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

46 And Mary said,

“My soul magnifies the Lord,
47     and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
50 And his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
55 as he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

56 And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.

 

May God Bless the Reading of His Holy Word.

 

 

So, after Gabriel left Mary, she likely wasn’t sure what to do next. Gabriel had told her that her cousin Elizabeth was pregnant. So, Mary hightailed it to Elizabeth’s. She likely left within a few days, at most. All the commentators I’ve seen estimate this journey at around 100 miles, a trip that would have taken her 3-4 days.

Mary would have been so excited for Elizabeth and she knew that Liz would be excited for her. I mean, this is big, this is physically impossible. Liz is really pregnant? After how long she has been waiting and trying and praying? Mary had to go see for herself. So, she went to another small, out of the way, nowhere, rural town.

And while Mary wanted to see and be excited for Liz, she also wanted to share with someone what had just happened to her. She wanted to tell others of her experience with God. Because those experiences change us. They will have an effect and they will make us want to spread it around.

And when God does something great in out lives, we want to share it, not just with everyone, but especially with those who will understand. We want to share it with those who will be genuinely happy and excited for us. For those who will support. In other words, with our church family.

Mary knew that Elizabeth was a righteous woman, that she believed in and worshiped the one, true God. The joy and encouragement that Elizabeth would be sharing with Mary would help confirm what just happened. It would give Mary the encouragement and strength to stay faithful and strong during those weak moments that always seem to pop up.

I know, for me, this last month has had some tough moment. During and around Daniels birth, I wasn’t down here as much. Two weeks ago, we didn’t have service due to the smoke and evacuations and those weeks, I felt it. I missed being around you all. I felt like I wasn’t doing my job as well. And then last week and this week, is getting together and worshipping, meeting Wednesday mornings. Talking to some of you throughout the week, I feel that weightlifting off my shoulders as we move forward. The need to be around and to share with other believers who will hold us accountable, yes, but to build us up and to encourage us and to genuinely pray for us, it is absolutely vital for our Christian walk in this world.

You know, especially during this pandemic, these last 6 months, Christians have been quick to point out that the church is the people not the building. And that’s very true. But it leaves something out. The word in the New Testament for the church, ecclesia, literally means gathering. So, we can’t be the church, the people are not the church without gathering as the church.

Kent Hughes writes:

Like Mary, we must fly to the church because we find people like Zechariah and Elizabeth who share a mutual faith, believing the same things. Mary’s faith, as great as it was, would very likely have faltered had it not been for the fellowship of Elizabeth. Therefore, we must purposely place ourselves deep within the fellowship of those who also believe God’s Word. Christians will naturally experience a mutual elevation of faith in the credo, the “I believes,” of the Church.

Like Mary, we must make a priority of being with those who share the mutual experience of miraculous new life within. The resonance of soul that comes from such mutually experience universally empowers all believers.

And like Mary, we must hurry to the community of faith because there we experience elevation through our mutual hope in the ultimate fulfillment our own new birth, as the Apostle John so memorably explained: Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears[a] we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. (1 John 3:2-3)

 

You know, one of my favorite scriptures speak to this very same thing as well. Paul, when writing to the Romans, explained early on, one of his goals and desires for wanting to go and see them in person. He says in chapter 1, verses 11 & 12: For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.

 

 

          So, Mary gets to the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth and what a meet up it was! One commentator makes the point that this was even more of a meeting that we see on the surface. John the Baptist was the last of the Old Testament prophets. He was there to pave the way and to announce the coming of the messiah, the coming of Jesus Christ, the son of God, the lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. And Jesus was and is the Christ. He is the LORD of the covenant, instituting the New Covenant. This is was literally the meeting of the two covenants. And it was John beginning the fulfillment of his calling.

 

 

 

We see here that Mary, who would have left Nazareth almost immediately, was already pregnant when she got to Elizabeth. She already had fruit in her womb. When she showed up to Elizabeth, John leapt in her womb. Moms, you know this feeling. Dads, we can know a fraction of this, but Moms, you know exactly what Liz felt here. Luke already told us that John would be filled with the Holy Spirit, even in the womb.

And again, John, in the womb, a fetus, was already a person here. He was reacting to who was around him and he was being influenced by the Holy Spirit. Person hood exists before birth occurs.

And Liz was of course, super happy for Mary and what was happening. And this is key. It would be easy for Liz to focus on herself or to demand preferential treatment. But we see that both Mary and Elizabeth can be happy for each other, can encourage each other, can build each other up without it taking away from the other. It reminds me of Paul in Philippians 2:3, writing: Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

 

          Elizabeth says to Mary that she is blessed. Again, as we emphasized last week, we are not lifting Mary up too high to a position of worship or to be prayed to. But we are careful no to swing the pendulum too far the other way and diminish the call and the faith of Mary. Mary is blessed by God, to be chosen for this honor to give birth to the second member of the trinity, God the Son, Jesus Christ.

Liz was also blessed because she gets to see Mary, the Mother of her LORD and gets to worship Christ before he is even born. We remember too that Mary is blessed because of her faith. She believed what the Angel Gabriel told her and submitted her will to the Gods Will.

One commentator brings up a great question. Elizabeth says in verse 45,  And blessed is she who believed that there would be[g] a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” And the question becomes, was Zechariah standing there hearing this. If so, did he take it as a rebuke? Remember his problem was that he did not believe what Gabriel said that God was going to do. But Mary was blessed because she did believe what Gabriel said God was going to do.

Now, Mary had a number of reasons to be worried. She was away from home. She was super young. She was a pregnant virgin whose reputation was going to be dragged through the mud in the next 9 months, let alone for the rest of her life. Even the pregnancy itself. She had never been pregnant. This was going to be all new to her. Moms, how much do you worry about the pregnancy and about the baby’s health as you go through those 9 months? And to do it for the first time, so young? And carrying the son of God? Fuhgeddaboudit.

And so, with so much to worry about, to stress over, Mary instead chooses to worship. And she lays out this song, it is widely held up as one of the greatest songs of worship ever. Its is called the Magnificat.

Song is such an important part of worship. We worship in all we do. Worship is more than singing, but Singin is one of the ways that God instructs us to worship.

Some people may ask why, a few months ago, we never stopped singing when the Governor told us we shouldn’t. It would be easy to answer and for it to be true that we sang in protest, or to prove a point. However, if we weren’t singing for the sole purpose of praising and worshipping God, then our hearts were wrong.

Mary here, pours out her heart and lifts it up to God. There’s a lot here that we don’t have time to get into this morning, but we will touch on some of the main themes and points. Alistair Begg says that this song announces that God is Mindful, He is Mighty, and He is Merciful.

HE is mindful of us all as individuals. He does not save or condemn nations or groups, but each individual has the opportunity to put our faith and trust in Christ, to repent of our sins and to worship and follow God. When God made a promise to bless the world through the seed of Abraham, that individual seed would come through the individual of Mary giving birth to the individual who was Jesus, the Savior. He saves us individually. We can not be saved because of our parents, or our children or our friends or whoever. We cannot save our children, our parents or anyone else. God saves each of us, is mindful of us individually.

God is mighty. He keeps his promises. He blesses the humble, the contrite. He takes down and he humbles the proud. This point is also a common refrain throughout the Gospel of Luke. A right heart and a right spirit are required for us to submit and turn our lives over to God.

IT takes a Mighty God to make that change in someone. Alistair Begg points out that nobody except someone who has had their heart changed by the Holy Spirit would want to know a Jesus who humbles you, who casts you down, who shows you you are blind before he opens your eyes.    A Mighty God changes those who encounter him and only God can change us that way.

A Mighty God is also a Merciful God. Because God is the one that changes us, it is his mercy through which he decides to change us. Gods mercy is powerful, it is mighty, it is worthy of our praise.

We are all recipients of that Mercy. Some people choose only to receive mercy in this world and this life. For them, Gods mercy runs out when the die and is not extended into eternity.

But, for everyone who enters in Jesus eternal kingdom, for everyone who worships God forever and ever, the story will be the same. Everyone who responds through faith, everyone we will meet in heaven every Christian, then, now, forever, we will all have the same story. Gods mercy was extended to me.

That’s what makes Christianity so different. It is Gods mercy, God’s grace that grants us salvation. Nothing we do. We live in a world full of pride, full of hubris. Look at all the politicians we see in the news on every side.  Look at the world leaders today and throughout history. All of them believe that either they don’t need any salvation, or that they can provide salvation. The truth is that God is Mightier that the Mighty and Greater than the Great.

Martin Lloyd Jones writes:

When the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords came into this world, he came into a stable. If you do not feel a sense of holy laughter within you, I do not see that you have the right to think that you are a Christian. Thank God, this is the Gospel, this is salvation. God turning upside down, reversing everything we have ever thought, everything we have taken pride in. The mighty? Why, he will pull them down from their seats. He has been doing so. He is still doing so. Let many arise and say he is going to govern, to be the god of the whole world; you need not be afraid- he will be put down. Every dictator has gone down; they all do. Finally, the devil and all that belongs to him will go down to the lake of fire and will be destroyed forever. The son of God has come into the world to do that.

 

 

It is easy to see the mercies and the grace of God when things are going smooth and easy. Its harder in times like we have seen in this country over the last 9 months or so. But his mercies are new every morning. And when we gather together for mutual edification, for the building up of each other’s faith, for God ordained fellowship, we are to sing those mercies.

 

I will sing of the mercy of the Lord forever.

I will sing of the mercies of the Lord.

With my mouth will I make known,

thy faithfulness, thy faithfulness.

With my mouth will I make known,

thy faithfulness through all generations.

I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever,

I will sing of the mercies of the Lord.[20]

 

 

Let’s Pray.

Romans 11:33-12:2 How we Should Respond To God

 

Romans 11:33-12:2

Our Reaction to God

Good Morning. Go ahead and turn in your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 11. As always, if you do not have a Bible, if you do not own one, please grab one from the table in the back as our gift to you. If you forgot yours at home or in the car, you can grab one as well, to follow along, though we do ask that you leave it here for us to gift to those who do not have one.

We will be looking at the last couple of verses of Romans chapter 11 this morning and the first two verses of Chapter 12. We started touching on these verses last week and I wanted to expand on that as we start off this morning.

We talked last week, and many other weeks as well, that these letters we have in the bible were not written with verse numbers nor were they written with chapter breaks. They were written as a continuing flow of thoughts, connected and meant to be in context. However, we also know that, as when you or I write a letter, do any of us still write letters?, we touch on numerous subjects and we wrap up one line of thought and start another one. Thats what is happening here.

Paul does this often in his letters. Often he talks and writes about theology in the first part of a letter and then changes directions, which is a poor way of wording it because they are necessarily related, but he changes directions and talks about application and how to live a christian life in the second part of the letter. Thats what Paul does here in Romans.

The first 11 chapters have been called a systematic theology by Paul, and there are many things to focus on and take away from it. Often people think of Romans and what they see and read is conviction and repentance. And thats in there for sure. Some read Romans and what they see and read is God sovereignty, and praise, God, thats is there too. There is sin, total depravity, hope for the future, the work of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. There is justification, sanctification and salvation. All of that is in there, so what are we supposed to pull out all that? Thats what pull uses to transition to his practical instructions going from Chapter 12 on through the end of the letter.

SO thats why we are looking at the last few verses of chapter 11 and the first two verses of chapter 12 this morning. So lets see what Paul has to say, reading from chapter 11, verse 33 through chapter 12, verse 2. I’ll be reading out of the English Standard Version.

Paul writes:

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord,
    or who has been his counselor?”
35 “Or who has given a gift to him
    that he might be repaid?”

36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

 I appeal to you therefore, brothers,[a] by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.[b] 2 Do not be conformed to this world,[c] but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Heres the important thing. This is Paul’s response to all he has written in the previous 11 chapters. Praise and Awe of God, worship and joy. These are the marks of understanding who God is. because when we see God for who he truly is, it shines off us in a way that is impossible to not see.

The Bible shows us the darkest sides of our selves. It does so, not only because it is true, the heart is deceitful above all things, as Jeremiah says (17:9) but also to show us how great God is. Lets break both of those things down for a quick moment.

God is God. As such he is holy and perfect. His standard is the same. He created us to commune with him in perfect paradise. But we sinned, now we cannot meet that standard. God cannot abide any unholiness and so our communion, our perfect fellowship with him is broken.

Tell that to people today on the street. Their response would be to talk about how incredibly unfair that is. Why would God take issue with the occasional sin? Or our sin isn’t really that bad. Or any other myriad of thoughts that don’t allow them to realize how serious their sin is.

And so the Bible has to make clear just how serious it is. Because our eternal souls literally depend on it. We die without having made atonement for our sins, no matter how small WE think they are, and we get to spend eternity in Hell, Gods perfect and holy wrath being poured out onto ou for all of eternity. However, we deal with our sins before we die, and we get to spend eternity with God in perfect paradise, sinless, perfect bodies, worshipping and serving Christ our King, just as we were created to do. No more death, no more sickness, no more tears, no more hurt.

But here once again, the Bible has to be crystal clear because our human assumptions, thoughts and beliefs are not accurate and will lead us astray. We can’t atone for our sins. We, despite what our friends and family will say, we are not good enough. God does take sin seriously and we cannot not sin. We cannot pay the cost to make up for our sin and wipe our slate clean.

And so the Bible shows us our darkest sides so that we can see and appreciate what God did. In a plan from before time, God the Father sent his son, His only begotten son, God the Son, Jesus. God became man. He was born a human being. He didn’t stop being God, but made himself man. And he lived the life we couldn’t live, died the death we should have died, to pay the price for sin, and through the grace of God, through our faith in Jesus Christ, we become are no longer seen as unholy or unrighteous by God, but we are seen through the lens that we are clothed in Christs righteousness and no longer seen as unholy or as sinner, but seen as a saint, and our relationship with Him is restored.

So the Bible shows us our bad, to show us how in need of His good we are. And then we get to see the good of God and we get to marvel at it. How big, how great, how loving is God! He chose to do those things, to save us from our sins. He chose to love us, while we were unlovable. He chose to redeem his people, to bring them out of this broken, sin nature and change us from sinner to saint. To change us from goats to sheep. We cant chose Him without him first choosing us.

Paul is looking back at the grand picture of Gods entire plan. He is looking back at the entirety of what he has written in Romans. And he is looking above some of the details and specifics, which, as we looked at last week, are not always the clearest and most important parts. But he is looking at gods entire character, his entire redemptive plan, the entirety of his love and goodness and he looks back and is just amazed by God.

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever.

I said this last week too, but I think it bears repeating, If we are reading the Bible and it doesn’t not lead us into worship and awe of God, we are reading it wrong. Yes, it should convict us, yes, it should teach us, yes it should inspire us, yes it should do all those things and more. But if it isn’t leading us into worship, we have completely missed the point. We have lost the forest for the tress. And Paul is reminding us of that here, as we finish up the systematic theology of the letter and we move into application. One commentary say this about Paul, “From a mountain height the apostle surveys the sublime plan of God, and his soul breaks out in a transport of delight.”

When you look at Gods plan, at his Word, does your soul break out in a transport of delight? Meaning, is it well with your soul? Do you have joy, joy, joy down deep in your heart? Do you Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.

We talked last month about giving thanks in all circumstances to God. And the benefits of a joyful, a thankful heart. And what that does for us. And one of the things that Paul is showing here is that this joyful heart, this praise and worship of God in all things is what allows us to live for God. Joy is one of the fruit of the Spirit that Paul mentions in Galatians 5. These are the evidences that the Holy Spirit is working through you, that Jesus Christ has justified you and you are being sanctified.

Of course, Joy does not always mean happiness. It certainly does not mean “Grin and Bear it.” But it means that through the various trials that we experience, as James puts it, that we can consider it joy. That when we have Christ, he gives us peace of God, which surpasses all understanding.

And it is that peace, that joy and the rest of the fruit of the spirit that allows us to lead the lives that God has set before us. We can’t do it on our own. We cant have true, lasting peace or joy, we cant have true, meaningful worship without the work of the Holy spirit inside of us.

Paul shows us what a true understanding of God is. He ends what we have as Chapter 11 with  For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

All Glory, all Honor, all praise and worship, all things are to be given to God. He is great and worthy to be praised. To God be the glory, great things he has done. Paul also writes at the end of Ephesians 3, verses 20 & 21:  Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

When we look at God and the more we look at Him, the true Him, the more we learn about Him, the more we see him all around us and learn from his Word, his revelation to us, the more we should praise him. Paul said back in Romans 8 that one of Gods purposes for us is to conform us to the image of his Son Jesus Christ.

And to do that, he gives us rules, principles, advice and laws to live by. True worship is loving God. Jesus says if you love me you will keep my commandments. John writes that we show love by keeping his commandments. Paul says that obedience is not for obedience sake, but for worship sake, to show love to God. He says in 1 Corinthians 10:31:  So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

And Paul is going to get into the practical nitty-gritty of that starting in Chapter 12. I want to say one more thing before we move on. We come together on Sunday morning here, the purpose of the church, the purpose of our gathering, the number 1 main thing is to worship God. This is a worship service. There are other reasons as well, to edify and build each other up. To learn more about the Bible and what God says. Even too much lesser extents, for fellowship and to be fed. I’m not going to say those things are not important. But the reason God calls us to gather together is to gather in worship of him.

This is a part of that unity thing that has been coming up lately. We have differences in a number of things. Backgrounds, ethnicity, gifting, musical preferences, order of service preferences, minor, secondary doctrinal issues, as we saw last week, we can disagree on a great many things. But when we gather together as a church body, we come together united in the Gospel to lift us glory and praise to the One True God. For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

And so, one of the main ways we worship God is how we grow in him and how we live according to him, and so turns his attention from theology, or more specifically, why we need salvation, what salvation is, who provides salvation and how we receive salvation. The application part of this letter is Paul explaining what do we do AFTER we salvation.

Romans 12:1&2:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers,[a] by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.[b] 2 Do not be conformed to this world,[c] but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Therefore. You know what comes next. When you read in the text, the word therefore, you should ask, whats it there for? It’s a connective phrase. Paul changes direction, changes his line of thought, but he doesn’t change subjects completely. What he starts writing here in Chapter 12 is directly connected with what he has already written. “Because of what I have just written, because of that, I say to you…”

Therefore, because of Chapters 1-11. Because you are sinners who have been saved by the mercy and grace of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, because he is conforming you to His image, we praise him and glorify him above all things. Because of all that, present your bodies as a living sacrifice.

Live your life for him. Do all things for him and through him. Theres a meme going around Facebook right now, I picture with a caption. It’s a person holding up their heart to God and saying, “Its all I have.” Gods response in this picture is “Its all I ever wanted.”

And if he truly has our heart, if we have truly given it to Him, that is true. But so many people think that this is all they have to do. They just have to profess faith. They can say I love God, while using the American word love, not the biblical word love. They can redefine who God is, who Jesus is and what love means and they can say that God has their heart and they dont have to change a thing.

And yet, that is the very thing we see happen in the bible. We are changed. WE go from people who have an inherent sin nature, who cannot not sin, and we are made into new creations in Christ. We have been changed by the Holy Spirit from the inside out.

And that change requires action. If all there is, are words, then there has been no heart change. How many of us who have kids can attest to this? Your kid does something wrong, maybe they hit one of their siblings. You do whatever correction or discipline is required and then what do you say to them? Go say your sorry. How do they say it. Most of the time, you can tell they don’t mean it. They say the words, but there is not a heart change. And that means that often, only moments later, they do the same thing again.

And so, if God has a hold of our heart, we will worship him and one of our methods of spiritual worship, as Paul says is to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. That is that all we do, we do to the glory of God.

And that should cause us to ask some pretty tough questions to ourselves. Are we presenting ourselves to him? Or are we living life as functional atheists? Are we living a life of sacrifice? Or are we taking, looking for what makes us comfortable and what makes us feel good? Are we living a life that is holy and acceptable to God? Or are we living a life, doing what is good and right in our own eyes. And I want to add another question that the scriptures are clear on; If we answer yes to those questions, that’s good, but, then the hardest question to answer, Are you trusting in those answers to save you? Because we can fake our actions, outwardly, for a while.

And Paul is saying that we cannot continue our old ways, we cannot remain unchanged as followers of Christ. Henry Blackaby says “It is impossible to worship and remain unchanged.” Worship changes us. And so, when Paul says that our lives are to our spiritual worship, he then tells us this same thing.

Do not be conformed to this world. We do not do what is right in the eyes of the world. We do not do what is right in our own eyes. We do the will of God. Proverbs writes, Lean not on our own understanding. Do not be conformed to the world. If the public at large, if society as a whole is on our side, then we are conformed to the world. Remember that Paul says that the gospel, the cross is foolish to those who don’t believe. It doesn’t and it wont make sense until and unless God reveals the truth to them.

Do not be conformed, but be transformed. Be changed by God. Change your life to live according to what you know God is saying. Do not call yourself a Christian and continue to live the same way you were before. Do not call yourself a christian and continue to live the same lifestyle. Transform. Repent. Grow.

C S Lewis says We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; Martin Luther says that The life of a Christian is one of repentance.”

Now, brand new Christians, or those who have not been taught, those who are still feeding on milk, may not know what God is calling them to change in their life. How will they know? The Word of God. The Bible is Gods word to us. It is not only inerrant, but all-sufficient. If you want to know what God says, read your Bible. If you want to know what God wants, read your Bible. If you want to know what God expects, read your Bible. And if you want to know Gods will, read your Bible.

That is the biggest, most important, and really the only advice to give a new believer who is looking to learn about God. Books are good. Solid theological books are great. We are giving some away both this morning and tonight. But I go back to one of the first pastors that I listened to after coming to church.

He was sharing his mentors advice, and after this pastor came to Christ, he asked his mentor, what should I do now? He said read your bible.

Ok, Did that. What should I read next?

Read your Bible again.

Ok, read the Bible again, there’s all these awesome looking books in the library and in the book store, what do you recommend I read next?

Read your bible again.

He read through the Bible more than six times before his mentor told him he could read something else. This book is foundational and is the only foundation we have to our faith, to know what is right and what is wrong. To know what the bible and therefore, what God says. That way, if a book says something else, or a friend or loved one says something else. Or if, heaven forbid, a human pastor says something wrong, we have a foundation to look back and knowing the truth.

But this is not just for new believers. This is for all believers. It’s easy to think we know what God says and what god wants. It’s easy to think that we know what the Bible says. Here’s the problem. James makes it clear that even the demons believe. Luke’s Gospel shows us during his recounting of Satan tempting Jesus in the wilderness that Satan knows the scriptures as well as anyone. I guarantee you that he knows the scripture better than you and I.

We have to keep reading, keep learning, keep seeking and chasing after God. Otherwise we will become reconformed to the world. We will not be able to discern Gods Will, what is good and acceptable. We are going to talk more specifically about gods will coming up, not next week which is our Christmas service, but likely the week after, when we continue through Romans 12.

But right now, we need to see that is through the reading of the Bible that allows us to know God better. The more we know him, the closer we get to him, the easier it is to discern his will. The easier it is to discern between God and the world. There is no substitute. It’s the only way to grow closer and to stay closer.

And only by reading the bible and growing closer to God that we can see how he expects us to act and live. And it is only through the heart changing gospel and the work of the Holy Spirit that gives us the ability to see it in the Bible and gives us the want and the heart to actually act and live that way.

Lets Pray.