bible study

Beyond Saving? A Look at the Foremost of Sinners

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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

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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?

The Cross: Our Hope for Reconciliation

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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

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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

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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

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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 Preps for Mission

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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!

The Gospel & Helplessness

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The story of Ruth is an incredible story of God’s grace and redemptive love in his care for the helpless. Ruth and her mother-in-law have just lost their entire hope of survival: their husband’s provision. In the ancient world, that was practically an automatic sentence to poverty. And to top it all off, Ruth was heading back to Israel as a Moabite, a people who were long time enemies of God’s chosen nation. She was completely helpless apart from the grace of God.

But God, like so many instances throughout all of Scripture, had a beautiful providential plan to provide for Ruth and her mother-in-law. Through Boaz, a distant relative of Ruth’s mother-in-law, God would care for these ladies, and even more remarkable, use Ruth has a link in the family lineage of Jesus!

Boaz could have sat back and allowed others to do their duty. But instead, he saw the helplessness of Ruth and went to work, showing grace and compassion in abundance. Reflecting on this story, we can learn a great deal about how God wants us to view and respond to helplessness.

In NYC, the helpless or the oppressed are all around us. Whether one considers the rampant human trafficking or the overwhelming homelessness in our city, one can’t help but see need all around. So how should we respond?

When we see the helpless, we should be reminded of our helplessness apart from Christ. This should lead us to two things: Gratitude for Grace and Grace for Others

Gratitude for Grace – We should be rejoice that God looked upon us with compassion, sent Jesus to die for us, and made a way for us to experience freedom and life in Him. We should be led to praise our Savior who helped us when we were utterly helpless.

Grace toward Others – Then, with the same compassion of Jesus, we should be moved to action that we might show the same uninhibited grace that Jesus showed us to the helpless we encounter in our city. And just as God the Father planned how he would meet our needs, we should strategically plan to meet the needs of those around us as well.

May we be a people who see the helpless around us and are moved to radical acts of gracious compassion for the fame of Jesus.

God’s Presence in Mission

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The final stage in the Old Testament storyline is the return from exile and the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple. In Haggai, we zero in on God’s call to rebuild the temple.

Clearly, we recognize that God is not bound to some physical structure. So why does he want his people to rebuild a building for him to dwell in?

In the Old Testament, the temple was the special dwelling place of God. Certainly, his omnipresence is affirmed, that is, he is present everywhere. But the temple was to be the place that nations looked at and could see the glory of God dwelling in a special way. It was the pinnacle of God’s witness to the watching world. At the start of Haggai, the temple is destroyed, thus God’s primary witness to his glory is in shambles. So he calls his people to rebuild it for his glory.

But why does that matter to us?

What’s incredible is that we as the church are called the temple of God (see 2 Corinthians 6:16-18). Now, we are the special dwelling place of God—not confined to one place, but spread throughout the earth for the glory of God.

We are called to build the church—God’s temple in our day—for his glory. When Jesus calls us to make disciples, we aren’t simply to evangelize the lost but to teach them to follow God’s commands: essentially, build the church. Paul, the greatest missionary that ever lived, didn’t simply reach the lost, but he led people to live as local churches. And he returned later to strengthen them. Paul built the church, and we’re called to follow his example.

But that is an overwhelming thought. Every church, new or old, struggles with sin and temptation: our flesh. Satan wages war against God’s people, and the world is constantly pressuring us to conform. What hope is there for building the church?

The promise God gives the Israelites through Haggai is the same promise he gives to us to prepare us for the task ahead:

Twice in the short book of Haggai, God declares: “I am with you!” Jesus encourages us with the same thing in the Great Commission.

May we rest in his presence and trust in his authority to live out our mission: to build the church for his fame.

Dry Bones Live

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In the midst of Israel’s exile, God uses Ezekiel to provide his people a message of hope, and he does this through some amazing events. One instance paints a powerful picture of several Gospel truths. Check out the story of the dry bones from Ezekiel 37:1-14 below:

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.

What an incredible picture of God’s life-giving power!

God is teaching us three primary truths through this passage:

  1. We are dead.
    -We aren’t simply broken or weak spiritually. We are dead, deader than a doornail, and there’s no doubt that we are dead because all we consist of are dry bones. We are beyond even the slightest signs of life.
    -Spiritually, we are dead. Sin has destroyed our ability to pursue God apart from a miraculous intervention, but that is just what God provides…
  2. God must act & sustain.
    -God is our only hope. Dry bones can’t move on their own, so God must act to give us new flesh, a new life, a resurrection. He must breathe into us the breath of life: this is the resurrection life we experience in salvation. God is the actor in our salvation. We simply receive and respond to the life he gives with faith and repentance. It’s totally and completely a gift from him (see Ephesians 2:1-10 as well).
    -Also, he must continue to sustain that life through his breath. He not only resurrects us but he sanctifies us as we see at the end of the chapter when God identifies himself as “the Lord who sanctifies.” He enables us to grow and continue in the holiness that he has given to us when he saved us from our sin.
    -We can’t resurrect or sanctify ourselves. God must act first and continue to sustain us.
  3. We must preach these truths.
    -God used Ezekiel as his means for raising the dry bones to life, and he has called each of us to share the gospel as the means for raising our friends, our neighbors, and strangers throughout the world.
    -If we don’t preach these truths that have the power to raise people from the dead, then no one will experience the eternal life that we have come to experience in Jesus (Romans 10:13-17).

We’ve been given a huge stewardship. May we be a people that carry this life-giving message to everyone we meet for Jesus’ fame.