A Christian Spiritual Culture, Part II

Text: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31

Focus: The Unity the Holy Spirit brings.

Function: To help people embrace the importance of their own significance in our church.

Form: Bible Study

Intro:

Sermon mistakes I have committed or heard.

• Brother Earl Coates was going through some medical problems and was losing weight quickly when his pants fell down during the sermon.
• Will the board please stay after the sermon? Everyone stayed (they were bored). It took one lady almost the whole message to get the joke.
• I was speaking at Bible College and I introduced my wife who had about 10 kids with her –kids she was babysitting- so when she stood up, all the kids stood up and people started to laugh, and in an effort to clear it up, I said: “some of those kids are mine.”
• It actually took 15 minutes to calm down the laughter. The dean of men was standing behind the curtain, and when I started laughing, he got a stern look on his face, but when I regained my composure he started laughing.
• And maybe the worse one I have committed: I was preaching on this passage of scripture, explaining the importance of how the body needs each other and it needs all of its parts and somehow I said, “some of you are suffering from being the armpit.”

I really don’t know where that came from; it might have been the Devil; it just came out.

Anyway, that introduces our message this morning about what it means to have the Holy Spirit inside of us, creating the Christian Spiritual Culture.

The emphasis on this passage, as we mentioned last week is that (SHOW): The Holy Spirit is here to bring us AS ONE BODY so that we can bring glory to Jesus.

Now remember, the problem that the Church in Corinth was experiencing was division about these gifts and the way that some believers thought that their gifts were more important than others.

Consider this paraphrase of part of the passage, (SHOW): ^14-18I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn't just a single part blown up into something huge. It's all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, "I'm not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don't belong to this body," would that make it so? If Ear said, "I'm not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don't deserve a place on the head," would you want to remove it from the body?

Being a part of the body of Christ makes you more important, significant, not less.

You are desperately needed. We can’t compare ourselves to each other or be jealous of each other’s gifts or think that we are the only ones who are important.

A body can survive without the sense of hearing, smelling, seeing, walking or talking, but its capacity is greatly diminished.

If we think that because we do not have some other function, we are less important, not needed or insignificant, and therefore we don’t commit to the health and the welfare of the body, we do the body harm.

If the foot decided to separate itself from the body, the body could bleed out and die.

(SHOW) Your participation in the body and your spiritual health are vital to the survival of the body.

Now, I am not going to shame you with the thought of Spiritual health. This whole passage is talking about spiritual health in the body specifically by not being proud, or arrogant about yourself.

That also applies to your level, or understanding of holiness.

God is asking us to look at ourselves, and not others about how we are growing, developing and working spiritually.

Different parts of the body have different functions.

The mouth speaks, the ears listen, the feet take the body where it needs to go, the hands are crafted for work, and the arms are there to give embrace.

(SHOW) Holiness means different things to different parts of the body.

The feet, may be passionate about missions. The mouth may be passionate about singing, rejoicing and proclaiming God’s love. The hands may be passionate about doing service. The eyes may be passionate about visualizing beautiful works of art, or reading God’s word. The ears may be passionate about being a kind, comforting friend who listens to people who are having problems.

All of those passions are important for everyone to have. But the specific use and gifting of those, the significance of the individual passion is placed in each one of us by Grand Design through the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, the mouth can’t say to the ear, the preacher cannot say to the listener, because you don’t preach the truth to the person you are listening to, you aren’t holy. The ear can’t say to the mouth, the listener to the preacher, because you don’t give space for people to be individual unless they think and believe exactly like you, you are a hypocrite.

Holiness is different for each one of us.

The passage is a teaching about not being proud or arrogant about what fuels our passion, but to dwell together in unity.

Of course, it is much easier to talk about metaphorically, but a good application, one that is personal to this body would be the decision to make up our minds to respect diversity between the two different kinds of worship we have here as reflected in both services. Neither service is better, or more spiritual, or more biblical, or more sincere, than the other. Both worship services are growing. God is blessing both services for His purpose.

The passage is about pride, love and unity, that is why the last verse is there to introduce Chapter 13, the great chapter on love. Look at it (SHOW): And yet some of you keep competing for so-called "important" parts. But now I want to lay out a far better way for you.

The “far better way” he speaks of is to focus the proof of our salvation, our membership in the family of God through the way we love each other instead of the power we experience from God. I think, that focusing on the gifts is a focus on ourselves, while focusing on love is an outward focus.

And again, that comes back to personal significance. In verses 14-18, he speaks of how the (SHOW) Holy Spirit is in each of us; everyone is necessary. Everyone is significant.

Then he goes into a teaching about the importance of the members that don’t appear important because they are not as visible, they are not in the forefront, they are hidden.

The problem was that everyone was competing for the positions that made them look more spiritual than others.

Remember, the Charis gifts were the gifts that were visible; that are seen; that have been falsely taught as the proof of a person’s relationship with Christ.

The apostle puts that into perspective in order to facilitate a Christian Spiritual culture.

He goes back to the human body as a metaphor for understanding it. He talks about parts that are seen and parts that are hidden and that the hidden parts are the most important.

A body can survive without a hand, without vision, without a sense of smell, without the ability to speak, without the ability to hear, without the ability to see, without the ability to walk.

But the body, for example, cannot survive without a stomach, a liver, a brain, lungs, or a heart.

If the whole body were a hand, then it would be a monster, kind of like that creepy (SHOW) Halloween hand.

The parts that we cannot see are the ones that we cannot live without.

So that I am not picking on anyone else, I will talk about what that means for the preacher.

In one sense, it may appear that the pastor seems to be the one driving force that holds the church together, the one force that makes things happen. When Jesus commissioned Peter he implied that Jesus is the Shepherd of the Church and the pastor is the under-shepherd.

And the role of the pastor is important for the health and welfare of the Church.

But, it is an obvious member, and the body can survive without it. When I was in Bible College, I was asked to fill the pulpit at a church in Saint Mary’s Ohio that had been without a pastor for 3 years and for some reason had experienced great growth because the rest of the members felt, sensed the Power of the Holy Spirit, using their individual gifts and the body grew.

The body grows when every part of the body takes responsibility for its own area of ministry. If one member becomes sick and diseased, it can hamper or even kill the body.

To use the body metaphor, a healthy church is not a body that never has to ward off infection, but one with an effective immune system. Just like a vaccine, the more an immune system is used, the stronger it becomes.

If I am an obvious member, then I am a member that we can do without.

In that sense, it is an upside down kingdom. Jesus said it like this (SHOW): “The rulers of earthly kingdoms dominate their subjects and make them serve the rulers, but not in the Kingdom of God. If you want to be great in God’s kingdom, then become the servant of others.”

This Christian Spiritual Culture is a culture that is hallmarked by humble and faithful service of one another for the common good.

You can live without me, but there are other offices, gifts and members that we cannot live without. Did you know that the great evangelist, Billy Sunday had a couple of physically weak older women who would travel ahead of him into the city where he was next to preach and spend days praying and fasting for the city, the preacher and the congregation? I believe that they were members that the body could not live without.

So what about you? (SHOW) Are you participating according to the passion and gifts that the Holy Spirit has given you?

A Christian Spiritual Culture, part I

Text: 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Focus: The Holy Spirit

Function: To help people discern the working of God’s Spirit in their lives.

Form: Bible Study

Intro:

So, this is now the third installment in a short series about the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church.

The first Sunday of the month we saw that the Holy Spirit is in us to seal us, protect us, and guarantee us our place in God’s family.

(SHOW) The Holy Spirit guarantees our place in God’s family.

Then the week before last we saw how the Holy Spirit works inside of us to give us power, grace, love and forgiveness beyond human ability.

(SHOW -add) The Holy Spirit gives us power beyond human ability.

Today we will look at specifics of the Spiritual gifts, how they work and whether or not they are for today.

(SHOW -add) The Holy Spirit creates a Christian culture inside of us.

This will be done in two parts, this week and next.

We are looking today at the specifics of gifts and how to tell if they are genuine.

The first 3 verses deal with the subject of being led by false spirituality.

• Genuine spirituality focuses on the Lordship of Christ and will always honor Him.
• It will never dishonor him.
• But Peterson, in the message says something important: “Use your heads, it is obvious that when the Holy Spirit is speaking the person will never curse Christ and it is His Spirit that gives people the power to proclaim Him as Master and Savior.
• 1 John 4:1-3 relate to this problem.
• (show) Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; and this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
• The Holy Spirit leads people to proclaim His Lordship.
• The spirits that do not acknowledge Jesus are not from God’s Holy Spirit.

So what is the point?

Is it the mere confessing, or reciting a certain statement, or creed that proves a person is from God?

Does every idea, every thought in our head come from God?

Are there other things that have an emotional impact on us, that move us in our spirits that are not the Holy Spirit?

Does the criteria: “It feels good,” “or, it is easier to believe,” or “it seems this way to me” proof that the thought or idea is from God?

Here is the problem, both here and the Church that the Apostle John is writing to were having a problem with false doctrine that was taking away from Christ.

Christianity was being mixed with other religion.

Now those here on Christmas eve may remember the message: “The Wise Men Were a Long Way Off” about how God left a witness to Christ in whatever other religion these wise men practiced and they came to see the Lord’s Messiah, the deliverer of all the nations.

And the point is not a type of faith where all religions really are one, but a faith where God calls people to Christ from every race, religion, and place on the entire planet.

So again, what is the point? (SHOW) The Holy Spirit points people to Jesus Christ.

The people in Corinth were confusing emotion, and other spiritual forces with the moving of the Holy Spirit.

When the Holy Spirit moves, I always have an emotional, as well as spiritual and sometimes physical response.

But that doesn’t mean that every time I have an emotional, physical or spiritual feeling it is the Holy Spirit leading.

Paul is telling us to use our heads, check things out with scripture, and exercise caution, especially when the preacher is merely using emotion, or satire, or criticism or anger to gain a following.

I said: (SHOW): Not every emotional, physical or spiritual feeling comes from the Holy Spirit.

• Our physical health can certainly effect our demeanor and our ability to have faith, a sense of well-being and our perspective.
• A friend of mine cried every time he stood up to give a testimony, he finally asked his doctor who told him that it was a side effect of one of his heart medicines.
• Initially, he thought it was God.
• It was an emotional reaction to a physical problem, but it was so intense he thought it was God.
• I really don’t have to explain the emotional part, everyone knows that we cannot base our faith solely on our feelings.
• But the warning from the scripture is to be careful about being led away by false teachers.
• Brothers and sisters, we live in culture of fear and anger.
• And the fear rhetoric is not from God. But it is certainly emotional, and it is intense. It is intense enough to confuse it with the moving of the Holy Spirit.
• When my son John starred as captain of his High School basketball team, we had some real high times.
• One time, behind by one point, with 7 seconds to go in the game, he stole the ball, ran it back for a lay-up and the extra point. It was exciting.
• And then this man tried to shame me. He said: “I wish people would get this excited for Jesus.”
• I found that statement shaming.
• That reduces Jesus to the level of human emotion.
• Jesus isn’t merely a basketball contest, He is much more. And He is holy, deserving much more that the hype and hysteria of the adrenalin where feel when watching or participating in an athletic and competitive event.
• It is a physical and emotional reaction to the circumstances around us.
• Fear, shame and anger are emotions that can be confused with the genuine work of God.
• Remember, we feel emotions, spirituality and sometimes physical sensation when the Holy Spirit moves, but that doesn’t mean those feelings are the Holy Spirit.
• Anger and fear especially are used by false preachers today to simulate the moving of God. If the preacher is passionate about something he can get you angry about, or afraid of, then he can control you.
• We are in a culture of fear.
• Just look at the political climate and see how so many people are resorting to scare tactics and anger and calling it truth.
• A death squad will show up at your door and decide if your life is worth living if there is universal healthcare. –Be afraid!
• Or, if you are not for it, then you don’t care about the poor, or justice.
• Anger, fear and rhetoric are not the ways of God.
• If you are a deer, and you see Eric, Tim or Gary show up with camouflage, a bright orange cap and some sort of weapon, then be afraid, run away. The fear/flight response in nature is a healthy defense.
• So, protect yourselves, and your pocketbooks from those who merely use those tricks under the guise of Christianity.
• Remember, Brother Paul and Brother John, wrote these words to Christians to help them see how the Holy Spirit works.
• Above all, use your head and compare things to scripture.

(SHOW) The Holy Spirit points people to Jesus Christ.

Now onto verses 4-11, a list of some of the gifts given by the Holy Spirit.

This list is called the Charismatic gifts. It is a list of gifts that is different from the next list that he gives at the end of the chapter and the list in Ephesians 4 and Romans 12. It is not a comprehensive list.

But it is called Charismatic gifts, not after the movement of the 70’s, but from the Greek word Charis which means “Grace.”

(SHOW) Charis = Grace

The Charismatic movement took its name from this word and it went like this.

This specific list is the list of the “grace gifts.” If you have received grace, then the proof of it will be that you have the ability to demonstrate one of these gifts.

That was really unfortunate, because there were a lot of people who knew that they were saved and did not experience these specific gifts.

It led to a lot of fighting. Many churches split; I saw families torn about by this doctrine.

If that was the move of God, then either the Devil is more powerful that God and turned it into something bad, or believers didn’t comprehend this passage.

Brother Paul writes this list because this specific list was causing problems in the church. The church was separating into the group of “haves” and “have nots.”

And he tells them, if these gifts cause division, then you have the wrong idea about them. Remember: (SHOW) The Holy Spirit points people to Jesus.

So what about these gifts? Are they bad? Are they real?

The ensuing argument that divided many churches rallied together with more and more ammunition to prove the other side wrong.

Those who disagreed with their reality say that this specific list of gifts was given only in the time of the apostles, and was used mainly by the apostles, to establish their authority because the New Testament was not yet finished. And, they say, the NT has silenced these gifts, they aren’t genuine, they may even be demonic.

Well, they aren’t reading this passage correctly either. It is obvious that Paul is talking about the believers there in Corinth, and not just the apostles. And although at the end of Chapter 13 he says, prophecies and tongues will someday cease, he never says when.

These gifts are great, when used in the right context and for the right purpose.

These gifts by the Holy Spirit are given to point people to Jesus Christ.

If a person uses the gift to point to himself/herself, then it isn’t at all what God intended.

But they are real, and they are not to be feared.

I was newly back to Christ in 1978. And I was trying to figure out just how much of the Bible was true. I came to this passage, and others like it and thought to myself, “If the bible is true, then this is ought to be real.”

I asked my dad, a pastor, about it and he said that he had seen times when people broke into ecstatic utterances and God did some miraculous things, but he was concerned that people were more interested in the power the gifts give than in bringing glory to Christ.

His first pastorate was in a small town with one other preacher, a Pentecostal preacher. One morning, early, my dad was on the roof repairing it when he slipped, went over the side and started to head for the ground, really fast.

He grabbed the rain gutter and luckily, or miraculously, the gutter broke off slowly as each nail, at 4 foot intervals came loose and it broke his fall.

The Pentecostal minister saw it, came running up to dad to see if he was okay and when he found out that my dad was okay, he exclaimed, “Glory be, I heard you calling out in tongues as you were falling.”

My dad told me, it wasn’t tongues he was saying!

He went to a revival service at his friends church, and half-way through the preaching, this lady ran forward screaming: “I want it, I want it!”

The evangelist had the woman start to say: “praise Jesus Christ” faster and faster until she stumbled over the words and then pronounced that she was now filled with the Holy Spirit.

My dad experienced the abuse and misuse of this gift: the same misuse and abuse that Brother Paul is writing about.

And that was a real problem for me. Because I knew that God had given me this gift, but I was afraid that it wasn’t genuine, afraid that it might even be demonic.

But every time I read the scripture, I would come to a passage like: (SHOW) Luke 11:11-13: "You men who are fathers--if your boy asks for bread, do you give him a stone? If he asks for fish, do you give him a snake? If he asks for an egg, do you give him a scorpion? Of course not! "And if even sinful persons like yourselves give children what they need, don't you realize that your heavenly Father will do at least as much, and give the Holy Spirit to those who ask for him?"

So, I was afraid, but the Holy Spirit was showing me the reality that the Holy Spirit does indeed dwell within believers.

So, I prayed and allowed my tongue to be taken over by God and this spiritual language came out. I doubted at first, so I went to a Full Gospel Business men’s meeting and prayed out loud before this guy who seemed very spiritual. I prayed in my language, and just as soon as I started praying, he started praying in my language. I recognized it. And he started hollerin’ “I just got a new language!”

(SHOW) The Holy Spirit to EACH ONE is given to each one for the common good (of all).

It doesn’t have to be from this list. But listen, because we are saved, God is in us. He dwells right here inside of us. He does this to bring glory to Jesus Christ.

Unfulfilled Dreams

Text: Matthew 12:10-20, Isaiah 42:1-7

Focus: Peacemaking

Function: To help people keep Jesus Vision alive.

Form: Storytelling

Intro:

I was at Westminster Abbey a few years ago and inside it is filled with graves and monuments that praise the heroes of England’s power and success all over the world.

But there is a recent addition to the Abbey (SHOW PICTURE) that was placed there last century, a whole new group of statues of that depict men and women of faith who were martyred in the 20^th Century. One was a Catholic priest who volunteered to die in place of a total stranger in a Nazi camp, a Lutheran minister, Dietrich Bonheoffer who was one of the last men to be executed by Hitler, to people martyred in Japan, China, San Salvador, South Africa, New Guinea and the United States.

The man from the US whose statue is there, right in the center, is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Blue like Jazz author Don Miller' was interviewed where he says, “MLK never bowed to politicians, they came to him, not he to them.” His battle was spiritual, not political. He had a dream. In 1958 He preached a sermon “Unfulfilled Dreams.”

• Based on David not being able to build the temple, but his son did.
• Or Moses who wanted to take the Israelites into the Promised Land.
• But it took the hard work and sacrifice of the next generation to do it.

I love this commentary on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I specifically love the way he illustrates that the preacher didn’t go to the politicians, they came to him.

He loved Jesus and recognized that the battle for justice is a spiritual, not political battle.

Politicians think/believe, perhaps even know that siding up to great spiritual leaders boosts their credibility.

I am not talking about the popular preachers, but significant leaders like Mother Theresa, Billy Graham and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

They are the leaders who didn’t care about popularity, but they spoke God’s truth against injustice.

The Bible says that the Old Testament prophets spoke by the power of the Spirit of Christ Himself. (SHOW) Speaking the truth about justice (and injustice) brings the power of the Holy Spirit with to heal a land. (From Zachariah 8:14-16)

So, what does it mean to speak the truth, to speak up for the truth of justice?

I saw the video of a group of clergy in San Francisco who were trying to establish a house to shelter women coming out of the sex trade and had faced months of delays by the zoning officials who didn’t want that kind of establishment around.

Mother Theresa happened to be in the town for some event and a politician wanted to been seen with her. She didn’t mess around with the schmooze of the political arena, as soon as the cameras were on the two of them; she quietly, lovingly and directly asked them if they were concerned for the plight of these young women. In one day’s time, she cut through the red tape of city hall that had been holding up the project by asking sincere, loving and direct questions about showing mercy to these women.

It was the way she exposed the importance of mercy on behalf of these women who had been victimized their entire lives that cut through all of the manipulation, politicking and greed of those opposing the project.

If she had been charismatic or political, the opposition could have dismissed her words. But her argument was so simple and direct that the leaders hearts were changed as to the value of this group home for these women.

Let us go back to our scripture: (SHOW)16: and he ordered them not to make him known in order to fulfill what Isaiah said about him… …20: He will not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick until he brings justice to victory.

He was not political; He was sincere in His faith. He refused to be political; He even told His followers not to talk about the miracles He was doing, not to build Him up into some sort of super-hero. He was more concerned about His mission than His popularity. He was convinced that He was doing what God wants Him to do.

Jesus was interested in advancing God’s kingdom by giving God’s justice the victory.

To be clear, I am not saying that believers who influence politics are wrong, but it is important to remember that we are called first to God’s kingdom, not mans’.

And God has used great politicians to advance His Kingdom. Abraham Lincoln and William Wilberforce are two good examples.

I love the movie “Amazing Grace.” It is the story of how William Wilberforce, with divine inspiration from God, ended the slave trade in England.

At the beginning of his career, he wrestled with becoming either a politician or a Clergyman. God used him, with all of the political manipulation that politics entails to stop the English slave trade.

But the great spiritual leaders followed closely in the footsteps and pattern of Jesus. They had a vision, a dream, a purpose about their lives that was so simple, straightforward, convicting and just that people, even politicians, couldn’t stand against them.

But that doesn’t mean that these leaders don’t get opposition.

Look at the beginning of this passage and the reason why Jesus said: “don’t brag Me up!” (SHOW): 10. A man was there with a withered hand, and they asked him, "Is it lawful to cure on the Sabbath?" so that they might accuse him…. …14. But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.”

I left out the middle verses where Jesus healed the man and spoke to the opposition sincerely, lovingly and directly.

And these great leaders have learned to be confrontational with the same Spirit Jesus had: He is sincere, loving and direct. Look at verses 11,12: (SHOW): 11. He said to them, "Suppose one of you has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath; will you not lay hold of it and lift it out? 12. How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."

Jesus spoke the truth about their injustice. They eventually killed Him for exposing their attitudes. His motivation was/is to give Justice the ultimate victory.

He wasn’t afraid to stand up for what was right. Jesus wasn’t looking at the politics of the situation; He was looking at the man.

Sadly, this message is not preached in many Bible believing churches as strongly as we preach it.

I am not trying to puff ourselves up as better, because to preach “why we are special” is not preaching Christ. But I do want to emphasize its importance.

Years ago, Pat Robertson was doing a show on capital punishment. He interviewed 2 Christian leaders, one of them was a friend of mine from our Denomination who was against the death penalty and the other was a prominent theologian who was in favor of it.

The man in favor of it gave a good case for the rule of criminal law. Many scriptures prove the sickness of a society by the way that injustice is permitted. His argument was and is believed by many people.

But the woman who spoke the other side was the daughter of the pastor of the Miami First, Church of the Brethren. She, her father and brother were stabbed in a home invasion. She was the only one who survived and she spoke simply, quoting Jesus’ words and her testimony was so powerful that Pat Robertson just cut her off and concluded with “there is a lot to think about.”

Some people wonder if I am a liberal because I speak about this justice so much, but I do it because of this example of Jesus. We believe it is an important biblical stand.

Remember, I mentioned this last summer, but I want to reiterate it. Remember Jesus had one mission: (SHOW) Jesus said: I come to seek and save the lost. (Luke 19:10)

He is the Savior and He is the Savior of all of humanity.

Too often, we conclude that Jesus’ mission of salvation is merely to provide for us a fire escape from hell. But that is only part of what Jesus life was about. When we take our clues from His life, we see Him over and over working to bless the people in the here-and-now, and also giving them eternal life.

I have heard some missionaries say: “what good does it do to help someone who doesn’t know Christ if it only prolongs the time before they are sent to hell?”

Well, it must be good because that is what Jesus did. These things cannot be separated and remain consistency with Jesus’ life.

The scripture points to this dual purpose. In John 17:4, Jesus is praying to the Father for all Christians everywhere and He reminds God: (SHOW) “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.”

When He prayed this prayer, He had a long night, a terrible tomorrow and a rough couple of days ahead of Him.

But it is an odd prayer if all He wanted for was for people to ensure that they were going to heaven. Right before He was crucified He said: “I have completed the work YOU gave me to do.”

What work was finished?

Well we know He wasn’t done, that sacrifice, that terrible day had not yet been accomplished.

Because of it, we have eternal life. Because of it, we have peace with God. Because of it, we have the Holy Spirit inside of us. Because of it, we have the forgiveness of our sins. The wonder of that is too hard to describe.

But how can He say: “I have finished?”

He says, I have finished the work YOU wanted me to do. That work was showing us how to live, how to love, how to be just. Jesus is God’s personal letter of endorsement upon the way He wants mankind to treat each other. That was His work on behalf of God.

The last three days, He did another job, not on behalf of God, that was finished; He did a work on behalf of humanity.

He still had the purchase of our salvation to do.

But to fulfill the mission of seeking and saving the lost, Jesus spoke the truth on behalf of doing justice and redeeming us from our sins.

How can we not do the same? How can we be true to Him and not do both?

Well we have. God is still changing the world through the followers of Christ.

And that is why I preach the importance of continuing Jesus work in this way.

We can’t become the sacrifice for anyone’s sins, but we can share our faith for the Holy Spirit to convince them and draw then into this great adventure, relationship and cause of redemption both in heaven and on earth.

(SHOW) We are called to preach good news, not just for the afterlife, but for the here-and-now.

The mission doesn’t stop with signing names on the Church role because they have trusted Christ and have been baptized.

We are left here to continue His work.

Actually the title: “Unfulfilled Dreams” is not original with me. Dr. MLK preached, I am sure a much better sermon in 1958 with the same title.

It was a challenge to the next generation, to everyone who would follow his ministry. It was a challenge not to stop what God started.

Just like David wanted to build a temple and God called the next generation to finish that work. Just like Moses wanted to bring the people into the Promised Land. That work was to be carried on by the next generation.

MLK called it unfulfilled dreams because the work of Christ will never be finished until people know Him as Lord and Savior and pick up His cross and follow Him.

MLK, Mother Theresa, Abraham Lincoln were Christians who were not only saved for eternity, but embraced their Christian calling to bring a victory to Justice.

We, where we live right here in Southern Ohio as Brethren and other Anabaptist groups took part in a great accomplishment of that by facilitating the Underground Railroad. Believers lost lives and property for that conviction, but their witness lives on today.

In one way, we have seen MLK’s dream fulfilled but we sill have a long way to go.

It starts here, in a relationship with Christ by making Him our Lord and Savior. By taking up His charge, His call, His passion and continuing His work.

I love the mission statement of our denomination: (SHOW) “Continuing the Work of Jesus, simply, peaceably and together.”

And I am not preaching denomination, or any person in the form of the great spiritual leaders I mentioned in this sermon, I am preaching Jesus Christ and what He gave His life to convey to humanity.

We don’t want to be accused of merely using Jesus as a fire escape from hell. We want to be His witnesses to the things He taught us and was passionate about while we live here underneath this sun.

But if we truly honor Jesus Christ, then this passion will continue to this and the next generation.

Living Beyond Our Means

Text: Ephesians 3:1-13 (The Message)

Focus: How the Holy Spirit draws us to Christ and empowers us.

Function: To get people thinking about the Holy Spirit IN THEM

Form: expository (sort of)

Intro:

If you get a chance to take a course such as “Introduction to the New Testament” in a Bible college or a seminary, you will learn that the book of Ephesians is placed into the category of “Prison Epistles.”

They were written by the Apostle Paul during one of the times he was in jail because of his faith.

In this chapter, Brother Paul is trying to comfort the Christians in Ephesus about the fact that he is in prison.

Paul is like their father. He has suffered much on their behalf. There have been many times, when after he laid his own life on the line for them that people became petty or jealous or legalistic and abandoned him.

Yet he kept on with his work and here he is, in prison, writing a letter to one of his favorite churches and although he is suffering, he is more concerned about how they are doing that his own plight.

(SHOW) The Holy Spirit gives us power to love.

I find that love and devotion to be incredible. Most of us, if we were in prison because of the politics of religion would want, or be tempted to be bitter, angry, sullen and depressed. I find this out about pain, sickness and suffering, when a person has a nagging condition, a headache, a backache, a toothache, the pain keeps us from focusing on what we are doing. It distracts us and causes us to think more of ourselves than we normally would.

So, for this man, this leader, this apostle, the “sort of” father, to these people to forgo complaining about his own condition and to work at comforting them is really pretty amazing.

Actually, he is living beyond his means. I don’t mean he is spending more money that he actually makes, using credit excessively and is headed for a financial breakdown. No, I mean, He is living beyond human ability.

In this context only, for the sake of this sermon: (SHOW) “Living beyond our means” means that we are living beyond our human ability by the power of the Holy Spirit

By walking with God, he is able to do much more than anyone can do by themselves, in their own power.

So, let’s look at this passage and see what God did in him that God also wants to do in us. There are several things:

(SHOW) The Holy Spirit reveals mysteries to us:

• In verse 2 he tells them that they remember the fact that all this theology, this understanding of the Christian faith, the way that everyone, not just one race are also included into God’s family came to him by a divine revelation from God.
• Moses was not God, but he went up onto the mountain for 40 days and God dictated to him the law. Then, as a proof, God wrote the 10 commandments onto a piece of stone.
• We don’t know what it must have been like for him. We know he was there 40 days without food or water and he came down the mountain healthier than he went up it.
• The bible says that when he came down, he radiated the glory of God on his face.
• I remember there was this one televangelist who used to paint a silver sheen across his face so that people thought that he too had this divine aura about him. That evangelist turned out to be a major fraud.
• But it was real in Moses.
• Paul didn’t have the shining face, but God gave this revelation to Paul. Moses told the people that Jesus would come and establish a new covenant with God’s people, a New Testament. And Jesus told the apostles in the 14^th chapter of John that there was much more truth they needed to understand and teach and the Holy Spirit would come and teach them.
• God was speaking through the authors of the scriptures to reveal the mysteries of His nature, will and power to us.
• And the Holy Spirit still does that today: (SHOW) “…you'll be able to see for yourselves into the mystery of Christ. None of our ancestors understood this. Only in our time has it been made clear by God's Spirit…”
• The mystery of it all is wonderful.
• We may not get all the answers, but we understand that in mystery, it is the work of God.
• Last Sunday afternoon, mom asked me something, a question raised in her Sunday school class.
• She asked me about what happens to be one of my favorite verses in the entire bible, from 2 Corinthians 5:
• “He (Jesus) who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ.”
• God is a person, a being, a real live spiritual, and in the case of Christ, physical entity.
• So how can a person: Jesus, become a thing: Sin?
• As we understand it, it is impossible but then, we are not God.
• Jesus Christ became sin for us.
• When Jesus died on the cross, sin died.
• Well why does sin still exist?
• I don’t know, but I do know this, its power over believers is broken. Jesus’ death has forgiven our sins, all of them, the ones in the past, the ones today and the ones we have yet to commit.
• Sin’s only power is death. God said to Adam before Eve was created, don’t touch the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden. The very day you touch it, you will die.
• Well, they ate it and didn’t fall over dead. Was God lying? Or faking them out?
• No. They did die. Because on that day, they became sinners and there was no escaping the destiny of death for them.
• The Bible says, we are born “dead in our sins”
• And 1 Corinthians 15 tells us that the power of sin is death and that its power is broken when Jesus rose from the dead.
• It’s a mystery, it is hard to understand but the Holy Spirit is there to make us see it.
• The passage says that the ancient people didn’t comprehend what it all meant, because the Holy Spirit was only in the prophets. People didn’t understand it.

(SHOW) The Holy Spirit works inside of us to bring others to him.

• He makes 2 references to the mystery: the first, we understood that we cannot save ourselves and that God did it for us.
• “The ancestors” didn’t get it and failed miserably at keeping all the commands of the law.
• The second is that God was using him beyond his means, beyond his human ability to share the good news with people who were from cultures, religions and philosophies very different from his own.
• We know that he was a real academic scholar in the Jewish Law.
• I had a parishioner who actually memorized the entire New Testament.
• Don’t be ashamed, or amazed, he had a mild form of Autism that gave him that ability.
• But it was common for those ancient scholars to memorize the entire Old Testament. The OT is well over twice the size of the New Testament.
• Paul was steeped only in the culture of his people, which was really all that he cared about when he was growing up.
• Before God got a hold of him and changed his plans, he meant to serve the people by becoming an expert in their religion.
• But look at verses 7-8: (SHOW) ^7-8”This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details. When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God's way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities.”
• He was living beyond human means in the power of the Holy Spirit.
• Several people in my last church in Lancaster County, PA were raised either Amish or Horse and Buggy Mennonite:
• One of my favorite parishioners, Ralph Auker, a kind, gentle, short in stature, peaceable fellow told me several stories of how God, by the power of the Holy Spirit moved in his life beyond what he grew up learning.
• When he turned 16, his father bought him his own team of horses, his own brand-new buggy and 2 new changes of clothes so that he could go courting an Amish gal.
• He took the horses and the buggy, sold them and bought a motorcycle.
• That landed him out of favor with the order and he came to our Church were he received Christ as his personal savior, got saved, and then led his brother’s family to the lord in that church as well.
• Ralph was 5’4” and went from an horse and buggy plain person to a semi truck driver.
• One of the things from the old tradition he was raised in was that he continued to wear the special hat. In their order, and Matt Fahrnbach would understand this, it would be called a “bowler” with narrow upturned rim.
• So, although he wasn’t plain dressed, he was noticeable.
• He was sitting in a Pilot truck stop, the biggest one in the country on Highway 80 just as one crosses into Iowa from Illinois. He was drinking coffee with some other truckers, he often introduced himself to them because he worked with “Transport For Christ” a ministry to lonely truck drivers.
• So one day, while talking with a bunch of truck drivers, a motorcycle gang came into the truck stop.
• They were a rough and scary looking group of guys.
• The truckers all looked down on them, but Ralph went over the biggest and meanest looking one of them, sat down, bought him a cup of coffee and shared his faith in Christ with him.
• He told me that afterwards, the other truckers told him they were just snickering at what they saw because he was this small, timid and plain looking fellow sitting in the midst of danger and was as calm and collected as could be.
• I don’t know if the biker got saved, but eventually, many of these truckers came to know Christ because of his witness.

(SHOW) This is not natural for us. It is beyond human ability.

I think of:

• Zach Patterson, right now he is in Liberia, out in a remote place in a completely different culture sharing his faith with strangers and I realize that this is what happens when the Holy Spirit comes inside a person.
• The man that lived across the street from my last church was a non-practicing Roman Catholic:
• One day, he asked me about my hope and I explained to him what the scripture says about being transformed, being “born again.”
• My friend added a personal relationship with Jesus Christ to his Catholic faith.
• One day he called me, very excited because he was at the garage that he rented with 4 other friends and the subject of Jesus came up.
• And he said, “all of a sudden, I felt something inside of me and I just started talking to them about what Jesus had done for me.

Brother Paul said it like this in the passage: (SHOW) “…it had nothing to do with my natural abilities…. …All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus. When we trust in him, we're free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go.”

(FIRST SERVICE) We are empowered to go.

(SECOND SERVICE) We are free and empowered to go. Earlier, we sang the song: “All For You” everyday, I want to be the reflection of your love…”

(BOTH SERVICES)

Paul certainly demonstrates it in the way he cares for them while in prison, and the way he cares for others by faithfully sharing his faith.

We have the same power of the Holy Spirit in us and God expects us to use it for him.

You/we don’t have to be high and mighty, just available to God.

Sealed By God

Text: Ephesians 1:1-14

Focus: The Holy Spirit

Function: To help people see the family of God.

Form: Bible study explanation

Intro:

I remember at a Church I used to pastor that had two “sort of” factions, not enemies, but people of different persuasion about the doctrine of eternal security, the doctrine that once we are saved, nothing we ever do will take us away from God, and these groups wanted me to settle it once and for all by taking a stand on this passage of scripture.

I don’t like arguing points of theology, but this scripture, especially in the King James talks about being predestined by God. Verses 4&5 -“predestined from the time before the universe was created”- to be part of His family.

Again, I am not going to argue one way or another, I think I could prove either side from scripture. And that isn’t the point of the passage.

Sadly, too often, one doctrine or another has been held up as a litmus test for “true faith” to see who is in or who is out.

The problem is that just a simple, saving relationship with Jesus Christ isn’t enough for us when our sinful nature gets involved.

For example, I loved the bowl games, and I’m getting excited abut the NFL playoffs because my team is sitting on the top. Sports, in that sense, are fun because if we have a healthy attitude about them, then we can have a healthy attitude about competition.

But some people get carried away. It gets crazy, as if a person’s entire life is based upon the success of these professional athletes. The truth is that if they win or lose, it isn’t going to change the fact that the next day, the sun is still going to rise.

But that idea, that principle, that sense of pride that we have something, a faith, a belief, a team or a doctrine that somehow makes us better than others is part of our sinful nature.

We want to feel better than others.

This doctrine of predestination has been taken out of context in one evil way. Some people have taken it to mean that we have some sort of manifest destiny and that no matter what we do; we must be in the right because we are the chosen.

It has also lead to a sort of “Christian irresponsibility.” Because up until the great missionary movement of the 1800’s the doctrine taught that it was God’s responsibility to preach the gospel to the whole world and if people didn’t come into God’s family, into a saving relationship with Christ by trusting in His death and resurrection, it was somehow God’s fault because only “we” and you can insert whatever name of the group you want to, are chosen by God.

So Brother Paul talks about this very concept as he explains in this passage that because of God’s love, before the world was ever created, God had it in mind to come to earth as Jesus the Savior, die on the cross and forgive the sins of everyone who trusts in Jesus and God’s circle was bigger than one nation.

And that is made clear in the way the Apostle opens up the circle of the elect, those who are called the chosen, by explaining to everyone that it isn’t just the Jewish people who are in this special covenant with God. Nope, it is everyone who trusts in Jesus.

I believe that God ultimately knew who would trust in Him in the end, but I also believe that His foreknowledge does not mean that He arbitrarily chose who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. 1 Peter 1:2 says that.

If He decided it, it wouldn’t be the actions of a God who is dedicated to ultimate justice and fairness.

Although Romans 9 states that if God did choose who was in and who was out, we couldn’t argue with Him because He is God and we aren’t.

But it never says God decided who would or wouldn’t make it into eternity.

And this passage drives home the fact that God wants to include everyone who believes in His family.

God left the Church here on Earth as His plan to be the agent to bring everyone to Him.

There is a glorious concept in this passage.

Before the World was created God had us in His mind. He knew/knows each and every single human being that ever lived. He is so spectacular, Jesus said, that not only does He know every human that lives, He even knows the number of hairs on each of their heads.

I love God, and I am trying to make it easier on Him (because I am bald).

We hear that them repeated in the song: “When He was on the cross, we were on His mind.”

But Jesus makes it clear that intimate knowledge of each and every one of us is not an impossible task for God. He is GOD.

He knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows our sin, He knows our good, He knows our strength, He knows our weaknesses, He knows the noble things we have done and He also knows the thing or things that we are terrified to for others to discover.

And in all of that, seeing that from before creation began; the text says that God called us because He has always loved us. ALWAYS!

In love, He has brought us into His family.

He loves us in spite of our sin, weaknesses and brokenness. He loves us enough to place His Holy Spirit, the very essence of Himself inside of everyone who believes.

Before Christ came, the Jewish people were pretty sure that they were the most favored people in the whole world. And they enjoy this special relationship with God.

And this passage is God making it clear that He isn’t just the Jewish God, but the Savior of the entire world.

Brother Paul hammers this concept home. He is saying that God is calling every single person to Himself.

I pray the hardest for the salvation of my own children, their spouses, and their children. I keep telling them: “Heaven won’t be the same if you aren’t there.”

And I realize again that for God, the more who are there, the better it will be for Him. He grieves greatly over every one who makes the choice to reject Him.

The good news about this promise, this persuasion that the Apostle is trying to make to everyone, so that they won’t fall into fear and back away from faith is that the promise is more than just his words on a page. It is more than just Paul’s theology, even though the Bible says that his theology was given to him by a direct revelation from God. Galatians 1:12

There is more to this faith than these words and that is the most important part of this passage.

And that is our theme for most of the month of January.

The promise, the proof of our salvation, the proof that we are part of His family is the real, genuine and personal relationship that we have with God through the fact that the Holy Spirit dwells in everyone who believes in Jesus.

He calls it “the seal of our salvation.” (Vs 13) He tells us that God has sealed us up for the promises He made to us by living inside of us.

In one way, I am an amateur student of the physical sciences. I am not like brother John Hepner who subscribes to Scientific American, but more on the level of Phil, who subscribes to Popular Science.

Sometimes I daydream about what it would be like if some famous figure from history appeared in the 21^st century and I get to explain to him what those long contrails are in the sky, how a jet engine works, how electricity gives us so much, how computers do so many mundane tasks for us and I try to imagine what it would be like for them to grasp a hold of possibilities that they were never even able to imagine.

Daydreams can keep us focused on what is important. They reveal a lot about our character. Sometimes I daydream about what my life would be like if Jesus Christ was visiting us, or if I spent three years with Him while He was showing humanity how to live and love each other.

Think of the questions you would ask Him. It is a healthy daydream because it focuses us on what it means to have a personal, genuine relationship with God. How much more real would our faith seem if He was right here?

But right before Jesus left the apostles, He told them He was leaving and that by leaving, it would be even better for them.

In John 14: Jesus said: “If I go away, I will come back to you in the form of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is one with Me and the Father, and He will make you one with us. You will be in Me, and I will be in you. You will continue to see My power at work in even greater ways because I am in you.”

The apostles didn’t want to let the physical form of Jesus to go away from them; they had come to depend upon His presence.

And Jesus knew that, so He came back to them and He dwells in every single person who has asked Jesus to save them.

We forget what that means. The apostle tells us the first and foremost, it is proof of His salvation.

It is proof of His love and acceptance for us.

Brother Paul made it clear in this passage and Galatians 3:2 that the Holy Spirit doesn’t come to us because we obeyed the Jewish law. He comes because we have trusted in Jesus.

And His coming isn’t meant to prove who is elect; His coming is to draw us into the family of God.

Stay tuned as we learn more about the Holy Spirit this month. It is a fantastic miracle.