Scripture Reflections

Beyond Saving? A Look at the Foremost of Sinners

/ bmoore121 / Leave a comment

After the founding of the church on the day of Pentecost, the church begins to provide a vibrant witness to Christ. Unfortunately, with that witness comes a great deal of persecution. Stephen becomes the first martyr due to the leadership of a Pharisee named Saul. Ironically, it’s just this guy who Jesus has picked to be the leader of his mission to the Gentiles, and even though a murderous persecutor of the church, Saul finds himself being overwhelmed by the grace of Jesus.

In Acts 9, Jesus stops Saul in his tracks on the Damascus road with a light so bright that he is immediately blinded bringing his spiritual reality to physical manifestation. Brought to a blubbering mess before Jesus (and who wouldn’t be after persecuting the guy that now has total power over you), Saul recognizes and embraces him as Lord. He humbling submits himself to Jesus, receives the Holy Spirit, and follows in faithful obedience through baptism.

Later, after taking the new name “Paul,” he writes about his salvation in 1 Timothy 1:12-17. He explains that as a blasphemer and persecutor of God and his people, he was the foremost of sinners. He highlights this to draw attention to the amazing, incomprehensible, and unending grace of Jesus. Essentially, Paul is saying, if I can be saved, anyone can!

In his grace, Jesus not only pursues us but he saves us while we are still sinners, no matter how great or small our sins. We all desperately need a Savior, and Jesus died in our place so we could live. So whether you are an axe murderer or a teller of white lies, we all can find our hope and life in Jesus Christ. We must simply repent and trust in Him.

The glorious thing about God’s grace though is that it doesn’t end there. He doesn’t just save Paul on the Damascus road and then leave him there to figure the rest out. Instead, Jesus continued to pour out his grace upon Paul. He gave him a mission, and he produced great results through Paul as a result. What we see in the story of Acts 9 is this:

We are saved by grace, we obey in grace, and we experience fruitful results because of grace.

Gospel Community

/ bmoore121 / Leave a comment

Last week, we read of the Holy Spirit coming in power on Pentecost and essentially creating the church. What happened to all those people after they were saved? Did they just go on living the same lives they always lived? No, something changed. In fact, there whole lives were turned upside down.

Here’s what happened:

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the templetogether and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
-Acts 2:42-47

Luke explains that the church was devoting themselves to four things: apostles’ teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers. Some of these are more obvious than others. The apostles teaching is both Old Testament Scriptures and much of what would become our New Testament. The fellowship is the living out of the “one another’s” that we often talk about: love, care for, rejoice with, rebuke… one another. The breaking of bread is gathering for the taking of the Lord’s supper, and of course, prayers meant… praying together.

Essentially, the church can be summed up as devoting themselves to: Scripture, Fellowship, Worship, and Prayer.

Every church will do these things to one degree or another. Some are strong in areas that others are weak. The key is that a healthy church will be pursuing faithfulness in each of these. Certainly, it may look different than the context of Acts 2, but all these things serve as the foundations of a healthy church.

So take some time to reflect on your church or small group community.

How are you living out a devotion to Scripture, fellowship, worship and prayer? How can you begin pursuing these things and leading others to do the same?

Pentecost: The Holy Spirit & His Purpose

/ bmoore121 / Leave a comment

The Holy Spirit is too often left on the sidelines in the circles of the church that I run in. Unlike Jesus, who we can picture in our mind’s eye as he walked the earth in a physical human body, the Holy Spirit is a mysterious being that makes us feel a little uneasy and leaves us confused—kinda like the smoke monster from Lost.

OK, so maybe you don’t picture the smoke monster when you think of the Holy Spirit, but I’m sure each of us has had moments of confusion and unease as people talk about the Holy Spirit. There is a lot of confusion and passion swirling around discussions on the Holy Spirit. Spiritual gifts, tongues, and baptism in the Spirit each incite passionate debate, but if we jump to these topics, we’ll miss what is absolutely clear concerning the Spirit in Scripture.

He’s the third person of the Trinity, and we certainly shouldn’t ignore Him. In fact, Jesus actually said it was better for him to go away so we could live with the Holy Spirit. So while we may not be able to describe some aspects of the Spirit, God has revealed why the Spirit has come to the earth to fill His people. We can be sure of His purpose, and His mission is incredibly good news for us.

The Holy Spirit reveals Christ to us through the Word and empowers our witness for Christ.

Throughout the book of Acts, but especially in this week’s small group passage [Acts 2 – Pentecost], one finds that the Holy Spirit isn’t into doing crazy miraculous things for the WOW factor. Instead, each and every time, His actions are meant to point back to Jesus.

In Acts 2, Peter makes that incredibly clear when he explains in his sermon that the Old Testament told about the day that the Holy Spirit would come upon and save “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord.” Who is that Lord? Peter quickly transitions from a focus on the Holy Spirit’s work of tongues to WHO that miracle was meant to lead people to call upon: Jesus, the Savior the Jews had been waiting for.

Ultimately, it’s the work of Christ that the Holy Spirit brings attention to and the people find themselves embracing. Sure, they were still amazed by what happened there that day, but they were changed by the good news of Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit revealed Christ through the sharing of Scripture, and without His work in the sharing of the Gospel, people will not be “cut to the heart” (Acts 2:37), people will not see Jesus for who He really is, and they will not call upon the Lord and be saved.

Paul makes this very clear in the following passage:

For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.
-1 Thessalonians 1:4-5

We can share the Gospel all we want, but unless the Holy Spirit is with us, we have no hope of anyone responding. The good news is that the Holy Spirit is with every single believer in Jesus Christ. We can share the Gospel confidently, knowing that He is the one that will do the work on people’s hearts. We don’t get people into the Kingdom of God through our charisma or tightly wound intellectual arguments, but rather by simply witnessing to the Gospel of Jesus Christ by the power of the Spirit. For, this is the very reason He has come to be with us: empowering us for mission.

So may we go with confidence and witness to our Savior, knowing that we’re united in purpose with the Spirit of the Almighty God.

From Fear to Peace

/ bmoore121 / Leave a comment

Can you imagine what it must have been like? Pouring everything you have for three whole years into one single endeavor and suddenly it all seems to be a wash. Everything you have been working for has just been swept right out from underneath your feet.

Overwhelming angst—emotional numbness—excruciating anxiety—debilitating depression—paralyzing fear.

Right now, I’m working on a PhD, and I don’t say that to brag in any way… I’ve barely hung on most of the way. In fact, exhaustion and many of the above feelings have come and gone through this process, but the reason I bring it up is that if I were to suddenly flunk out, or even worse, if I were to get to the end—defending my dissertation—and I lost the whole thing, I’d be utterly devastated. Every single one of those would crash over me one after another. I wish I could say that wasn’t the case, but after all the work and effort that has gone into this degree, failure would be devastating.

In the whole scheme of things though, a PhD is relatively meaningless compared with what the disciples had been pursuing with Jesus for about three years. They were under the impression—rightfully so—that they were witnessing first hand the setting up of God’s kingdom on earth and the Messiah accomplishing our salvation.

Maybe, you would have been like John sitting at the foot of the cross with some last bit of hope that Jesus would break loose of the nails and finally set up his kingdom in the way you imagined it. But no one, not even John, had a hint of hope after Jesus was shut up in that tomb. Fear overwhelmed each and every one of Jesus’ followers.

All this effort, all this excitement, and all this suffering… for nothing!

BUT THE STORY DOESN’T END THERE!

Praise God, there is more to this story! Jesus defeated death. He overcame the evil one. And He defeated sin once and for all. Jesus rose from the dead, and it’s in the hope of Jesus’ resurrection that we find both the disciples’ fears and ours turned upside down.

In John 20, the fear of the disciples is evident. Peace is nowhere to be found, that is, until Jesus arrives on the scene. Each encounter he has with his followers (Mary, the eleven minus Thomas, and Thomas) comes with profound joy and peace. Jesus proclaims peace over His disciples that is firmly grounded in the clear power of the resurrection.

As we read this story, we find our hope for salvation secure and we can look forward to the day when our bodies are restored to perfection like Jesus’.

But on top of all that, as we face chaos in this world, situations that seem hopeless, adversity that strikes overwhelming fear in our heart, we can look to the resurrection to remind us that Jesus brings us ultimate peace. He has overcome the greatest of obstacles, and we can count on his omnipotent presence with us from now until eternity.

The Cross: Our Hope for Reconciliation

/ bmoore121 / Leave a comment

After three years of teaching and ministry, Jesus heads to the climax of the story: the cross. It’s toward this point that the entire story and most every promise has pointed, and it’s from this point that every blessing flows.

Jesus’ entire life and ministry have headed toward this single work. He would die to bear our sins and God’s just wrath toward us. The gifts that he offers us as a result of his sacrificial death on the cross are beyond compare. Possibly the greatest blessing he provides for us through faith in his work on the cross is a reconciled relationship with God.

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
-Romans 5:1-2

Jesus overcame the greatest injustice there ever was: our sin against a holy God. We deserved to be the who experienced God’s punishment for our sins, but instead, Jesus took that on and brought peace to our relationship with God.

Not only does this radically change the way we relate to God, but it also shifts the way we approach relationships. Certainly, we have all been wronged by someone else in our lives. Whether its a simple insult or a significant betrayal, we’ve all experienced this kind of relational pain, and to varying degrees, those relationships are broken once we experience that pain. But this incredible blessing of the Gospel reminds us that there is hope for reconciliation.

If Jesus and his work on the cross can bring us peace between us and God, then certainly He can do the same between two broken human beings. Sure, it will be painful. And it will definitely take time, but the reconciling power of the cross gives us hope for every broken relationship in our lives.

May we seek reconciliation and approach our relationships with the same grace, love, and forgiveness that Jesus did toward us.

Jesus’ Example & Call to Prayer

/ bmoore121 / Leave a comment

After three years of teaching and ministry, Jesus begins the final preparations for the ultimate stage of his life and ministry: his death on the cross. This week we are looking at two evenings that lead up to cross, for these are significant turns in the story.

The focus here, though, will be on Jesus’ interaction with Peter in Matthew 26:30-46.

In the first six verses of this passage, Jesus once again explains what is about to happen: He is going to die and they are going to scatter for a time. But Peter in all his audacity declares, “I will never fall away.”

Unfortunately, Jesus gives Peter a harsh reality check when he explains that Peter will deny Him three times before the night is over.

Peter would have none of it. He adamantly responds, “I will not deny you!”

Jesus knew differently, but he continued with his disciples to Gethsemane where an important moment happens that gives us great insight into why Peter fell to the pressure of the hour as well.

Jesus invites Peter and two others to pray with him in the garden, but instead, they fall asleep. Jesus exhorts the disciples to “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing; but the flesh is weak.”

Coming on the heels of the previous conversation with Peter, Jesus is clearly pointing to the Peter’s one hope of actually remaining true to Christ through the upcoming trials: prayer.

Jesus recognizes Peters passionate desire to be faithful to his Lord, but He also recognizes the immense power of the flesh. While he knows Peter won’t embrace the gift of prayer at this moment, He offers him this gracious gift anyway and shows him a perfect example of what this kind of prayer looks like. In doing so, He points us all to how we can prepare for sufferings, trials, and persecutions.

We are all going to face many of the same kinds of temptations to abandon our Lord. Whether it’s due to persecution from outside of us or desires from within, we will be faced with the temptation to place Christ aside. Apart from his grace and a constant dependence upon him in prayer, we will fall just as Peter did. Thankfully, just as Peter was joyfully welcomed back, we can be confident that Jesus will do the same for us as well. Though we may let go of Him, He will never let go of us!

May we pursue faithfulness at all times by being a people who rely upon the Spirit of God through prayer.

Jesus’ Stories

/ bmoore121 / Leave a comment

I really love a good story, and I’d venture to guess that you do, too. Whether it’s on Netflix or Youtube, our culture loves to binge watch stories. Long before the digital age, Jesus was the master storyteller. He told tons of stories called parables in order to teach his followers about himself, his Father, and the kingdom of heaven. A focus on Jesus’ teaching would not be complete without at least a short look at his parables.

We’re going to focus on one parable today: The Parable of the Sower – Matthew 13:1-23.

In this story, Jesus helps us visualize a farmer that is throwing seed out on his field. This guys field isn’t the best, and so there are lots of different kinds of soil that the seeds are falling on. Some land on the path the farmer is walking on, others on rocks, still some land in the midst of thorns and weeds, but some do end up falling on good, tilled soil.

So why does a story about a farmer have anything relevant for us today?

Jesus explains that the seed is like God’s Word, and the soils like our hearts as we are receiving it. The results of the seed on the first three soils aren’t so great, but the fruit of the final soil is massive. So Jesus is teaching us not only why some people don’t receive the Gospel, but also ways in which we allow obstacles to get in the way of embracing God’s Word and experiencing the blessings He longs to produce within us.

Three specific obstacles to receiving God’s Word:

1. Confusion or Hardness of Heart (v. 19)

The first unfruitful soil is connected to a lack of understanding that Satan takes advantage of. This could certainly come from poor teaching, but it also comes from a hardness of heart and mind resulting from sin. Paul explains that this is a consequence of sin in Romans 1, so we should not be surprised that our sin can get in the way of us receiving the Word of God.

2. Persecution (v. 21)

The second unfruitful soil is connected to persecution. The one who hears the Word initially enjoys it and embraces it, but they have not counted the cost and have not grounded themselves in God’s Word deeply enough to be able to overcome the fear of man that so many of us struggle with.

3. The Distractions & Allure of the World (v. 22)

Finally, lacking long term fruitfulness is directly connected to the distractions and allure of the world around us. Jesus says that the things around us that are constantly calling for our time and desires will “choke the word.” Living in a world full of distractions, we must be careful to cultivate focus and desire upon the things God’s Word points us to.

Let’s fight to avoid these obstacles and allow God’s Word to take deep root in our lives, for the results will be beyond our wildest imaginations.

The Beatitudes: Promises Received & Experienced in Christ

/ bmoore121 / Leave a comment

Last week, Jesus kicked off his ministry in Matthew 4, and in Matthew 5 we find his most famous teaching: the Sermon on the Mount. We’ll be checking out the promises of blessing that Jesus gives in the first section of that sermon.

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
-Matthew 5:1-12

The Beatitudes, maybe the most famous of all of Jesus’ teachings, are eight incredible promises. Anyone who reads this text longs for these to be true in his life. Yet, simultaneously, we get the gut-wrenching feeling that we don’t measure up to most, if not all, of these. I don’t know about you, but I’m certainly not pure in heart, more often than not I’m not hungering for righteousness, and humility and meekness are often hard to come by. I’m certainly not the poster child for these things, and I’d venture to guess that neither are you.

Even the one that is a bit more passive—those who mourn shall be comforted—I have a hard time believing at times. I’ve mourned a good bit in my lifetime, but sometimes comfort is hard to come by.

So what’s the deal with these promises?

First, these promises are fulfilled in Jesus.

Jesus is perfectly humble, meek, pure, and merciful. He embodies each of these promises and has fully experienced their fulfillment through his death, resurrection, and ascension. He did what we couldn’t do so that we might experience these blessings that he longs to give us. He has inherited the kingdom of heaven and the entire earth. He now reigns over all. He alone can see God because of his own holiness, and it’s truly an amazing grace that he invites us to experience these things through faith in Him.

Thus the second point: we experience these promises through Jesus.

One day we will be perfect and complete in Christ, and it’s at that moment that we will finally experience the fullness of these promises. But we can experience the fruit of these promises now as we grow in Christlikeness.

These promises are ours now and forever. The question is: will we cultivate these characteristics of Christ in our lives or will we avoid these things that the world often scoffs at?

So how do we cultivate Christlikeness?

We look at Christ over and over and over again. We do this through reading His Word to see who He is, hearing His Word preached, taking the Lord’s Supper, and living in close community with the Church and recognizing Christ in one another. Each of these shapes us little by little into the image of Christ. We need them all.

May the promises in the Beatitudes spur us on to pursue Christlikeness in this way.

Jesus’ Ministry & Our Call to Follow

/ bmoore121 / Leave a comment

After preparing for ministry through his baptism and time in the desert being tempted, Jesus begins his ministry.

In Matthew 4:12-25, He prioritizes three things in his ministry that should be present in ours and we learn what it looks like to follow him in that.

1. Jesus preached the Gospel (12-17)

Jesus verbally proclaimed the good news of the Gospel. That’s not all He did, but it was an essential part of His ministry from the very beginning. He didn’t simply expect people to view His life and be transformed. Certainly, if anyone had a life that exhibited what true love was, it was Jesus. But He knew that showing others true love required the powerful, life transforming words of the Gospel. We should learn from Jesus’ example that our lives must include sharing the message of the Gospel, for even the one with the perfect life still proclaimed a clear message to be received.

2. Jesus made disciples (18-22)

Jesus intentionally poured into others that they might follow in His way. Though He had a ministry that engaged the crowds, had a wide, inclusive audience, and certainly made a significant impact, Jesus focused his time and attention on a few select relationships that he might reproduce himself in their lives. Are we satisfied with a scatter shot approach that may or may not have a significant impact on particular individual lives, or are we intentionally making disciples of specific people? Let’s follow Jesus’ example that we might not allow our lives and ministries end with us.

3. Jesus cared for the sick and oppressed (23-25)

While Jesus knew words were required, he also exhibited that true holistic ministry involved tangible acts of love that manifest the love and grace of the Gospel message. They cannot be divorced from one another. We should be careful to minister the Gospel in both Word and Deed rather than swinging to either extreme of Word only or Deed only (Let’s be real, we’ve all been on one end of that pendulum or the other at some point in our lives.).

**Following Him Involved Immediate & Drastic Priority Change**

The reaction of the disciples in this passage always hits home for me. Their immediate response to follow Jesus humbles me as I recognize the slowness of my heart to heed Jesus’ call on me. Jesus is calling every single one of us in specific ways to follow him, to emulate his ministry, to show and share His love and message with others, and to multiply disciples. Are we responding immediately? Are we realigning our priorities with His that we see in the passage above? Or are we holding onto our current, comfortable, and safe status quo?

Jesus wants to use each one of us in significant ways. The question is: will we follow Him?

Jesus Preps for Mission

/ bmoore121 / Leave a comment

As we’ve been working through the story of Scripture over this past year, we now come to the New Testament. Since we last left off with prophets foretelling the coming of a Savior, the first chapters of Matthew share the miraculous birth story of the one they were foretelling: Jesus Christ. Now, we’re jumping ahead a few chapters into Jesus’ preparation for his mission.

In Matthew 3:13-4:11, we see Jesus baptized and tempted in the wilderness, and there’s a ton to learn from these passages. But three things stick out here that not only characterize Jesus’ life and ministry but should characterize ours as well.

1. Jesus gets his identity from the Father (3:17)

As Jesus emerges from being dunked the Jordan river, the Father declares His approval and His Sonship. We often read right past this as a simple truth about who Jesus is, but it’s this identity affirmed by the Father that gives Jesus the security to fight temptation, suffer persecution, undergo the torture of the cross, and ultimately die on that tree. Knowing he is God’s Son gives him the confidence to go wherever He leads, for he knows the Father will always work for the good of His children, especially His Son with whom he is well pleased.

The incredible thing is that in Jesus, we have the same identity and security. Unfortunately, the culture around us calls us to find our identity in so many other things: careers, relationships, success, etc. As a result, we experience fear, anxiety, anger, or insecurity. We need to follow our Savior and trust in the identity that he has given us through the Gospel by reminding ourselves of our adoption as children of God.

2. Jesus follows the direction of the Spirit (4:1)

Not only is finding our identity in God essential to life in this world, but Jesus also exhibits how we must be led by the Spirit. Jesus, as God himself, could have very well sought to do it all on his own, but instead, he followed the loving, gentle guidance of the Holy Spirit. And clearly, following the Spirit doesn’t mean we will always be led from one joyous, comfortable situation to the next. Jesus was led right into battle. But the Holy Spirit always leads to the good. In this case, Jesus was led to overcome temptation in the wilderness in contrast to the failure of our oldest parents: Adam and Eve.

Jesus sent us this same Spirit for our good, and it’s as we follow him into the difficult places that we will find life and victory just as Christ did. How do we do this? Primarily through the Word, prayer, and community, and it’s to the first of these that we now turn.

3. Jesus fights temptation with the Word (4:4, 7, 10)

The Holy Spirit led Jesus into battle, but it was a battle he was prepared for. Satan attacked with a variety of temptation that we all encounter in various forms throughout our lives: fame, success, power, etc. But Jesus overcame these strongest attacks even while at his weakest physically (He had just fasted 40 DAYS!!!), and he did this through the power of God’s Word.

If we hope to overcome temptation in our life and experience the fullness of abundant life that Jesus offers us right now, we must emulate him and know God’s Word so when we are faced with temptation, we have the means to overcome Satan’s lies with God’s truth.

May we be a people that emulate Christ for His fame and our good!