A Study in 1st, 2nd and 3rd John Week 3

1 John 1:5-1 John 2:6

The Gnostics and the Docetists were teaching that the message of God was that Jesus was a spirit and that one gets to God by incremental steps of behavior and purification. 

Chapter 1

Verse 5 - John sets them straight, saying, "That's the wrong message. This is the message that we have heard. This is the message we heard from Jesus. That He is the Light of the World. That the darkness of sin had not touched Him. 

John is very clear that these Gnostics cannot enjoy fellowship with Christians if they don't share the same Jesus we have. This is not a reference to the generalized fellowship of man, it is the specific fellowship that only Christians have with one another. He tells the Gnostics that they must trust in a Savior who was flesh and blood and who rose bodily from the grave, or they cannot know koinonia. He tells them that if we walk in Him, the Light, as He is in the light, we can have fellowship with one another, that is, you with us."

Koinonia is a transliterated form of the Greek word, κοινωνία, which means communion, joint participation, a share one has with (in this case) Jesus.

Verse 6 – John tells the Gnostics that if they think they have fellowship with Christians without the Light of the World, they are deceived. He lets them know that it is the physical blood spent at the cross of Calvary that provides salvation. Furthermore, he tells them that if they say we have fellowship with one another and they are without Christ, they are liars. Strong Words

Verse 7 – Conversely, John tells the Gnostics that if we both walk in the Light, as He is in the light then we can have koinonia with one another. The blood of Jesus is sufficient to cleanse us ALL from our sin.

Verse 8 – The Gnostics taught that the only sin was not realizing that Jesus was a spirit. They did not really believe in sin, certainly not their own sin. John said that if say we are not sinners, we are deceiving ourselves. The Gnostics certainly were deceiving themselves. But John tells them that the Truth (Christ) is not in them.

Verse 9 – John is clear as he addresses the Gnostics. He sets them straight about the gospel. He says that we must all confess our sins (in repentance) and that if we do, God will forgive our sin.

Although many people use this verse to apply to ongoing sin in our daily lives, it really has nothing to do with that at all. It is a clear message to the Gnostics that the sin debt that they owe is paid for when they confess what they didn’t even believe in, sin.

If this were a verse that could be “proof-texted” to mean that unconfessed sin breaks fellowship with God, then we can never be sure whether we are confessed up or not. We would constantly live in fear that we were out of fellowship with Him. Besides, I defy you to find any Scripture that says a Christian can lose fellowship with God.

John is saying that if they (the Gnostics) will recognize their sin, repent of it and trust in, and only in, the finished work of Christ at the cross of Calvary, they will be forgiven of their sins. That’s the way we must all come to Christ, recognizing that we owe a sin debt that can only be paid by the blood of Christ.

Verse 10 – If we adopt the Gnostics’ position, claiming that we do not sin, then we make God out to be a liar and His Truth (Christ) is not in us. We must each, individually recognize sin in our lives and repent of it. Whether they knew it or not, the Gnostics sinned.

Chapter 2

Verse 1 – This verse reveals that it is possible for Christians to sin. But if we DO sin, we have an advocate in Christ who intercedes to the Father for us. God sees us through Him, therefore He sees past our sin.

Verse 2 – He (Christ) is the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Can you understand that? When we placed our God given faith in Christ, our sins were atoned for. We do not have to keep coming to God to beg forgiveness. Our sin debt was paid, past, present and future! That should be HALLELUIA ground! That payment is good for anyone in the whole world who will trust Christ. That is not universalism, it is universal availability.

Verse 3 – We know Him, and we know that we know Him because we keep His commands. This is NOT a reference to the Ten Commandments. It is a statement about the condition of our hearts.

Verse 4 – The evidence that a Gnostic (or you or I, for that matter) has repented and trusted Christ is that he (or we) follow the dictates of the Holy Spirit, who comes to live in our hearts. Christ’s commands were: Love God completely and love your neighbor as yourself. Practice that, and you will know you are saved.

Verse 5 – The Word referred to here is Christ, Himself. If the Gnostics (and we) obey Him, He will give us the assurance of salvation in Him. There is no room for either pretense or vain philosophy here. If you say you know Him and do not follow Him, you are a liar.

Verse 6 – We know that we are in Christ if He abides in us and if we walk as Jesus walked. If Gnostics (or we) claim to know Him, and do not walk as He walked, we are not in Him and He is not in us. If we walk as He walked, it is because He abides in us.

Can You Fill In the Blanks?

I was leading Bible study from the book of Hebrews, dealing with the New Covenant and the priesthood of Jesus. The discussion was about sacrifices, and a few comments were made that caused me to talk about the Lord's Supper (Communion, to some).

I asked the class to fill in the blank on each of the proclamations of Jesus as he introduced the elements.

Luke 22:19 - And he took bread and broke is, and gave it to them saying, "This is my_________ given for you,,,"

Every class member got it right. The answer is "body."

Then I quoted from Luke 22:20- In the same way he took the cup, saying, "This cup is ________..."

Every class member got it wrong. They answered "my blood."

What would you have said (without peeking)?

The correct answer is "the new covenant" Then Jesus added the modifier "of my blood."

The saddest thing in what passes for Christianity is that pastors, teachers, professors and "scholars" have no understanding of what Jesus was saying.

Jesus made the same statement in 1 Corinthians 11:25, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood..."

According to Hebrews 8:13, and in the context of all of the book of Hebrews, the Old Covenant has been made obsolete. It no longer applies in any way, shape or form to Christians.

Christians are under a New Covenant (contract) with God, one that He initiated and one that is unconditional.

The New Covenant is that if we will repent of sin and turn in faith, trusting in, and only in, the finished work of Christ at the cross of Calvary, we shall become a new creation in Him.

Did you get that? It's Christ's finished work, not mine. There is no work for me in the process of salvation. When Jesus cried, "It is finished," that meant that everything needed to accomplish salvation has been done. His blood ushered in a New Covenant.

Often Christians get tense over whether or not they have done enough to please God. Ease up! Jesus has pleased Him for us!

Wallow in that for a while.

It is not easy for us to neglect the "do this, don't do that" religion of the Old Covenant. Often we decide that it's our life plus Jesus.

That's so wrong.

It's Jesus and absolutely nothing else. As Paul said, "For me to live is Christ..."

Forsake the Old Covenant. It's over and done with. Kaput. Finis.

Revel in the New Covenant. Quit trying to live with one spiritual foot in the Old Covenant and one spiritual foot in the New Covenant. It won't work, Never has, does not now and never will.

Live in the New Covenant of His blood...just like He said.

This post was precipitated by a very meaningful Lord' Supper service in church Sunday Morning.

SUNDAY SOUNDS OF PRAISE-Agnus Dei - The Geneva International Christian Choir & Orchestra

A Study in 1st, 2nd and 3rd John Week 2 - Verses 1-4 Continue

The Gnostics in the church were teaching a behavioristic approach to God. Their emphasis was on an experiential knowledge of God. They believed that Jesus was OK, and all, but it was more important that you bypass Him and get to God through life patterns.

Today's church, even evangelical churches, are replete with Gnostic leanings, tendencies and outright practices. Gnosticism permeates the pulpit, mostly unintentional and unnoticed. 

The Docetists in the church were teaching that the phenomenon of Christ, was altogether mere semblance without any true reality. Jesus, to them, only seemed human. He was illusory and "spiritual."

Verse 1 - John came out "fighting." He declared that he and his compatriots had actually seen Jesus. They had touched Him and He was a real man, not just a spiritual entity. He who was present at the beginning of creation, they proclaimed as being the Word of life.

This idea is startling. The one whose words had brought into being all that was had actually been seen by men. He was both the creator of life and the fulfillment of life.

Verse 2 - "The life appeared..." is a further refutation of docetism. Jesus was not just a spirit, but was flesh and blood. John asserts that through Jesus comes eternal life. And He who was with the Father they had felt and touched. John vowed to proclaim that message. 

Verse 3 - John reiterates that what they were proclaiming was real. They had seen and heard Jesus. He also introduces the concept that through Christ alone, Christians can enjoy fellowship with one another. Through Christ that fellowship includes God the Father, Jesus the Son and us.

Verse 4 - John makes clear that Gnosticism and Docetism are joyless, dull and untruthful. He tells us that what he has written about Jesus and salvation will bring us joy. It will be a joy far greater than the temporary joys of everyday life. It will be a joy that is full and complete.

As he wrote in his gospel, "...these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name." ()John 20-31)

Through Christ, we can experience joy that floods our souls. It lifts us up. It encourages us. It fulfills the deepest need of the human experience. We need absolutely nothing more than faith in Christ and His finished work at the cross of Calvary.

In other words, we need the gospel, the good news of salvation found only in Christ, our Lord.

That's why Jesus and Paul said to beware of false teachers.

A Look At Luke 17:11-19

Jesus was moving toward Jerusalem. He was in the final months of His earthly life. On His way He healed many people and cast out many demons. There is no way to calculate the number of miracles He performed.

Earlier, Jesus performed three miracles that involved one person and one that involved two people, but here we have a record of ten people being healed by Jesus.

These were lepers. Leprosy was a horrible, incurable disease. It affects the nerve endings, rendering them useless for feeling. The result was that trauma could occur to any part of the body and the leper could not feel any pain from it. Fingers could be chewed off by rats, and the leper would not know it was happening. Feet could be torn up by rough ground and the leper would feel nothing. 

Eventually, the damaged body became infected with terrible sores, boils and blisters. Lepers were not people you wanted to see before a meal.

Leprosy was considered a curse. It was seen as a divine judgement on its victim.  In the Bible, leprosy is a picture of sin. Just as men were revolted by even looking at a leper, so God is revolted by sin.

So many people consider sin to be some sort of “slip-up” or one of life’s mistakes. God sees sin as worthy of eternal punishment. As Paul wrote in Romans, “For the wages of sin is death…” Since we are all sinners, according to Romans 6:23, we are all “lepers” in God’s eyes. And He cannot even so much as look at us in our natural state.

Jews avoided lepers. Lepers were required to announce their presence with the proclamation, “Unclean! Unclean!” Since the disease was known to be contagious, Jews kept a great distance between themselves and lepers.

It was the priest’s job to determine if and when a person had leprosy. If you had any skin condition, you were to go to the priest, who would then judge whether you had leprosy. They followed the prescription in Leviticus 13 and 14 to make the determination.

A diagnosis of leprosy was devastating. It meant a person was doomed to be a social outcast. They had no relationship with their families, they had no job, no friends, no worship and no hope.

Jesus went right into a village where there were known lepers. Realizing their plight, the lepers did not go up to Jesus, but stood afar off and shouted to Him, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us.”

Of all the words they might have chosen, they chose Master. In the Greek it' sepistates, it's used only by Luke and only here is it used to refer to Christ by anyone other than His followers. It was a word of honor, used in recognition of someone of great authority.

Because these were known lepers, what Jesus did next was astonishing. He said to them, “Go show yourselves to the priests.”

This was remarkable, and would have been considered most unnecessary. They had already been to the priests. The priests were the ones who revealed to them that they were lepers. The priests would have been both offended and frightened by the presence of these lepers.

Luke tells us in verse 14, “And as they went they were healed.” They were healed before they got to the priests. Imagine the surprise and consternation of the priests when these ten people they had proclaimed unclean stood before them completely healed of their leprosy!

Ordinarily, good news such as healings in general and healing leprosy in particular would be seen as news to be celebrated. But as we will read later in Luke, Jesus’ healings were seen as an affront to the priest’s power and standing as religious leaders.

As we get to verse 15, one of the healed lepers came back to Jesus, shouting and rejoicing over his healing. It is in verse 16 that we learn that this one was a Samaritan.

Much has been made about the gratitude of this Samaritan, and he was indeed grateful. But remember, they had been told to go to the priest. Nine of the men did as they had been told. The Samaritan was so excited that he had been healed by this Jewish man’s authority that he turned around and ran back to Jesus.

Being a Samaritan was almost as bad as being a leper. Samaritans were disdained by the Jews. Jews would go a lot farther to get from the south to the north because they walked around Samaria, rather than cross through it.

Jesus, though, did not condemn Samaritans. Indeed, he extolled their value. Remember, when the priest and Levite avoided the man who had fallen among thieves because they were preoccupied with their religious duties, it was a Samaritan whom Jesus used to show the Pharisees that Samaritans are to be considered neighbors.

The Samaritan praised God in gratitude for his healing. Jesus took note that the only one who came back to Him with thanksgiving was this man from Samaria. He referred to him as a foreigner.

We learn from Acts 10:34 that God is not a respecter of persons. His salvation is available to Jews, Gentiles and anyone else who will come to Him in faith, trusting in, and only in, His finished work at the cross of Calvary, even a Samaritan.

Jesus acknowledged that this Samaritan whom He had healed of leprosy had an attitude of gratitude. He then told him to rise (the man had obviously knelt before Jesus) and go, having been made whole by his faith.

Leprosy was and is terrible. But sin is worse. Sin is ugly. Sin is nauseating. Sin is repugnant. But Christ is both willing and able to heal us of our sin. And He is the only one who can.

SUNDAY SOUNDS OF PRAISE-Reggie & Ladye Love Smith - You Raise Me Up

A Study in 1st, 2nd and 3rd John Week 1

A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

1st John - Correcting the False Teachers

There was a problem with false teachers in the  church.  The problems were: Gnosticism- A belief that salvation is achieved through a series of steps leading to a relational and experiential knowledge of God and Docetism - which is the belief that Jesus did not come "in the flesh", but only as a spirit.  Both gnositcs and docetists were claiming that Jesus was not really the Son of God. Paul spent the entire book of 1 Timothy explaining why good doctrine is so important. In this book, John addresses the issue, too.

Recall that in John’s gospel he began by identifying Jesus as having been present at creation. In fact, John makes it abundantly clear that Jesus did the creating. John 1:3, “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”

Chapter 1

Verse 1 – John comes right out of the chute declaring that Jesus was present at the beginning of creation. He was stating in no uncertain terms that Jesus is as much God as He was man. This was in direct contradiction to what the false teachers were saying. Then he gives testimony on behalf of all of the apostles of having seen and touched Jesus and proclaims Him the Word of Life. Throughout the book, John will make reference to these facts about Jesus.

Verse 2 – In case you missed it, John proclaims again that the apostles had seen the giver of Life in Christ Jesus and broadens the testimony to include that God sent Jesus to fulfill what was needed for mankind to receive eternal life. The false teachers had been saying that eternal life was available for anyone who trusted in God. John says here and in his gospel that our trust must be in Jesus. Since Jesus IS God, that is neither blasphemous nor a contradiction of terms.

Verse 3 – John is building up to the greatest truth ever revealed to mankind. In verse 1 he proclaimed the testimony that Jesus made creation. In verse 2 he testifies that Jesus is the source of salvation and now in verse 3 he reveals that because of those truths, we can have fellowship with the Father through Christ and therefore with each other. The false teachers said fellowship with God was impossible because He is too lofty.

Verse 4 – The most accurate translation of this verse is, “We write this to make our joy complete.” There was no joy in the false teachers’ message. To them, salvation depended on behavior. If you were good enough, with or without Jesus, you could be saved. If you were not good enough, you had no hope of salvation.

Our joy is in the knowledge that Jesus is the Creator. He is as much God as He is man. He provides for us fellowship with God through the salvation He provides. This is absolutely the greatest joy that any human being can have. It is not a passing thrill, it is a full and complete, everlasting joy!

These four verses set the theme and the tone of the rest of the book of 1 John. Everything John says in the rest of the book refers back to these opening verses. Everything In 1^st John is directed at and is an attack on those false teachers.

As you study this book, ask yourself how what you are studying deals with the heresies being taught by the false teachers.

Context

When I was a child, one of my favorite books was Rudyard Kipling’s “Just So Stories.” I was captivated by the rhythm of the prose and the descriptions of the characters. I read the book over and over. Today I still return to those stories from time to time. I am enamored by Kipling’s way with words.

Allow me to quote from one of the stories called, “The Elephant’s Child.”

“Then Kolokolo Bird said, with a mournful cry, 'Go to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, and find out.'”

And here’s another: 

“He went from Graham's Town to Kimberley, and from Kimberley to Khama's Country, and from Khama's Country he went east by north, eating melons all the time, till at last he came to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, precisely as Kolokolo Bird had said.”

Now you know what the book is about and how it applies is moral to your life, don’t you?

“Well, no,” I hear you respond. “Those are just sentences and groups of sentences. They might well be exact quotes from the story, but by themselves they are meaningless. They have no context.”

And you are so right. Without context, it is utterly impossible to know anything about the stories or the book.

So it is with the Bible.

Verses of the Bible do not stand alone like so many poignant proverbs. They have context, and without the context you cannot possibly understand them.

Every passage of Scripture has a context of the verse it’s in, the chapter it’s in, the book it’s in, the Testament it’s in and the Bible as a whole. None of it can be understood out of context. If you try to use parts of the Bible out of context, you will inevitably miss its deeper meaning. You might find some use for it, but it will not be the use God intended.

See, God wrote the entire Bible. It is a continuum in its thoughts and its message. Its message is that God has a perfect character, loves His creation and has a plan for its redemption.

Every verse of the Bible relates to that message. If you read it in the entirety of its context, you will see how it relates to the Bible’s meaning. If you read it outside of its context, you are sure to get it wrong.

For example note this “randomly” chosen verse from Ephesians 5:22: “Wives submit yourselves to your husbands as to the Lord.”

That verse has been twisted and spun to mean that husbands are the boss and wives are to do as they say. It has been used to justify a husband’s right to exercise authority over their wives. It has been used to demonstrate some kind of hierarchy in the home.

But its context shows that to be incorrect.

The context requires the reading of verse 21, which says, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

So, which is it? Are husbands in control in the family or should family members willingly submit to one another?

Given the reason for Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, the context of the chapters leading up to chapter 5:21 and following it, the verse can only be understood as being a picture of Christ and His church. In fact, that is exactly what Paul wrote in verse 32, “This is a profound mystery – but I am talking about the church”

Indeed, the entire book of Ephesians was written to a church to show the church how, as the bride of Christ, it is to relate to each other and to Christ in a very specific way that will be reflected in how they relate to each other.

Although the Bible cannot be read as a narrative as it is presently assembled, individual books of the Bible MUST ABSOLUTELY be read narratively. Failure to do so will result in quoting parts out of context and will result in a total misunderstanding of the meaning of the passage.

Context is everything.

I Really Enjoyed This---I Think It's Powerful

Recapping the Message of Acts

Last week I did a 5 day series on the often missed message of Acts. Today I want to capsulize its message.

Now the book of Acts does indeed tell of the spread of the church. But it is not the spread of the church that is paramount, it is the reason it spread.

The reason the church spread was because of the gospel of Christ.

The gospel has power. It has more power than the old hymns, more power than contemporary "praise and worship" music, more power than the deepest philosophy, more power than Christian behaviorism.

Paul wrote to the Romans, "I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes; first for the Jew, then for the Gentile." (Romans 1:16)

All through the book of Acts the church grew in direct proportion to the propagation of the gospel, that is the good news of Christ's life, death, burial and resurrection and the salvation that brings by the grace of God through our Faith in the gospel as God's final plan for His creation.

Remember, the apostles got in trouble with the religious leaders every time they preached the gospel. The Pharisees, the Levites, the Sadducees and the priests just could not bear to hear that Jesus was the one long prophesied.

The religious leaders told the apostles to stop preaching the gospel. They did not care what else they preached. In effect they said, "Preach anything you want to. Preach about social ills. Preach about politics. Preach about being a good parent. Preach about being a good worker. Preach about Moses' Law. Preach about the dos and don'ts of life. But please stop preaching the gospel. If you don't we will try you, imprison you and/or stone you."

The gospel is hated by "religionists." To them it is, if not repugnant, then at least boring. To them it is not relevant to today's society. To them it is old fashioned. To them the gospel doesn't go far enough. To them there has to be more than "just" the gospel.

Some preachers and teachers would much rather deal with dos and don'ts, which are legalism (although they would deny that they are legalistic). Some preachers just don't get that the Old Testament is about God's plan to bring in Messiah and that Messiah did away with the Old Covenant by fulfilling it.

Some preachers and teachers are actually afraid of the gospel. They fear that if they preach only the gospel, they will run out of things to say. They fear that society will continue on its down-slide if they don't preach about "relevant" topics.

But the gospel has more power than many of them seem to realize. They'll give lip service to believing Romans 1;16, but that lip service will not translate into believing that gospel has any real power.

In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul wrote, "I resolved to know nothing while I was with you but Jesus Christ and Him crucified." What does the word "nothing" mean? What part of "nothing" is hard to understand?

There are at least two kinds of "mega churches," those that got to be "mega" by presenting relevant messages and entertaining services and those that got to be "mega" by preaching the gospel. The former, sooner or later, will die. The latter will always be with us...until the return of Christ.

The challenge for preachers and teachers today is to have the nerve to put aside the other trappings and to boldly preach the gospel, like the apostles of Acts did. Preaching the gospel will get them into trouble with society, but it will build a solid church that will endure to the end of the age.

Memorial Day Tribute-Praise You In the Storm-Casting Crowns

A Study In Malachi Week 2

Chapter 2

Verses 1-9 – The priests were at the top of the chain of religious leaders. They were the ones who were supposed to be the “mediators” between the Israelites and God. But they had not done the job correctly. They oversaw the apostasy of Israel and cheated them. The Levites had actually caused the people to sin.

Praise God that we have a High Priest in Christ who is higher and greater than all of the priests of Israel. (See the book of Hebrews.)

Verses 10 – 17 God is the Father of the nation of Israel. The Israelites themselves were supposed to relate to one another as brothers. This makes the sin of dealing treacherously with each other more heinous and glaring.

Christians are saved by the grace of God. Our mission is to preach the gospel. Yet from time to time Christians engage in squabbling with one another, even in church. That is a disgrace to the cause of Christ. To be fighting among ourselves when we ought to be united in our efforts to point people to Christ is an abomination. It is caused when we collectively lose focus on the reason for our being.

Verses 11-12 – The second sin is that of men who had divorced their wives to marry heathen and pagan women. Israel was supposed to propagate herself. Malachi called this sin a breaking of the faith.  This is a grievous sin which will cause God to amputate this diseased member from the nation.

When Paul admonished Christians not to be unequally yoked, believer with unbeliever (2 Corinthians 6:14) he was talking about a similar thing. It is very difficult for a Christian to make Christ first when a worldly, unsaved spouse is pulling in the opposite direction.

Verses 13-14 – Israel had exchanged faith for emotion and weeping. They put on a good show. Sometimes those who call themselves Christians put on a good show as well. They engage in all of the behavioral trappings of Christianity without real commitment to Christ.

When Israel brought offerings to God, He refused to accept them.  They asked, “Why?” God answered that He knows what they have been doing and He knows about their sin of divided marriage.

Verses 15-16 – Marriage is a picture of Christ’s relationship to His church. In Malachi, it is a picture of God’s relationship to the Jews, a precursor to the Christian marriage relationship.

In verse 15, God tells us that just as marriage was ordained to be two people acting as one flesh, so was Israel to be one in both flesh and spirit. Marriage outside the faith was just not permitted.

God hates divorce. That is not arguable. God says so in verse 16. Because of what marriage is supposed to represent, oneness before God, He considers divorce as awful. He also hates misdirected violence and pretentious clothing.

Can you imagine Christ divorcing His church? That would never happen. That is why marriage is a picture of the relationship between Christ and His church.

Divorce is not an unforgivable sin. All sin except the grieving of the Holy Spirit is forgivable. But as Paul said in Romans 6:1, should we go on sinning just because our sin is forgivable and we will therefore experience more grace? God forbid!

Like Israel was supposed to be, Christians are to be of one mind. That mind is Christ and nothing but Christ.

Malachi warns Israel to guard themselves. As Christians, we are to guard our hearts, being certain to allow the Holy Spirit to lead us in both our thoughts and our actions.

The Often Missed Message of Acts - Day 5

So this is it, the final day of our search for the often missed message of Acts. If you haven't realized the theme of Acts by this time, you haven't been paying attention. The theme is: No matter what difficulties you encounter, no matter which way the world and/or other churches influence you, no matter what society says is important, the gospel is our only message and it is bound to affect our favor with the world.

Before you read the final act of Acts, please consider this: If you were called to preach, you were never called to preach about social ills. If you were called to preach, you were never called to make a list of right and wrong for people. If you were called to preach, you were called to present the good news that salvation is freely and gracefully given to those who will repent of sin and will trust in, and only in, the finished work of Christ at the cross of Calvary.

It might or might no come a a surprise to you, but I am not a perfect person. I make mistakes just like you do. I sin just like you do. If you find error in this series, feel free to point them out. But whatever you do, don't miss the main message of Acts. Preach the gospel.

We learn in chapter 24 and 25 that the man who succeeded Felix was Festus (not the guy from Gunsmoke). Festus heard the charges against Paul, and after learning that Paul was a Roman citizen, who appealed to Caesar, he agreed to let Caesar hear him.

But King Agrippa was visiting Festus and wanted to hear all about Paul. In fact, he wanted to meet him.

The Jewish community had demanded that Festus kill Paul. Festus declared that Paul had done nothing worthy of death. In chapter 26, Agrippa tells Paul to speak for himself. Seizing the opportunity, Paul gave his testimony and preached the gospel to Agrippa.

King Agrippa was almost persuaded to become a Christian, but not quite. He decided Paul should be sent to Rome to face Caesar.

Chapter 27 is about the journey by boat to Rome. They encountered a storm. They were shipwrecked and wound up in Malta.

In chapter 28 we have the often misused account of Paul being bitten by a poisonous snake and surviving. If the rest of the Bible is correct, there is no way to turn this section into a general doctrine about snake handling.

Paul arrived in Rome. While there, he did what he always did. He preached the gospel from, of all places, the Law of Moses and the prophets.

According to this last chapter, Paul, boldly and without hindrance preached the gospel and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ.

So there you have it! The book of Acts. I suggest to you that the theme of the entire book is nothing more and nothing less than the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Again and again, when the gospel is preached, there are those who want it stifled. Again and again the religious leaders wanted to kill the preacher for preaching the gospel.

The gospel is disturbing. Jesus said it would be and He was right. But it is the only message we have. It is the only message we need. It is the only message the world needs.

If we believe the book of Acts, we must preach the gospel and nothing else. Something else might tickle the ears of the listener. Something else might seem scholarly. Something else might feel good philosophically. Something else might seem pious, even righteous. Something else might seem morally correct. Something else is not what is needed.

What the world needs now is not some generic “love, sweet love.” What the world needs now is the gospel.

For Christ’s sake, PREACH THE GOSPEL!

The Often Missed Message of Acts - Day 4

This is our 4th day looking at Acts. We're seeking the often missed message. It is the message of the urgency of preaching the gospel, no matter the cost. It comes with the promise of persecution. Many other messages can be preached with abandon and without danger. If you're preaching anything other than the gospel, you're not preaching the message of the Bible.

Chapter 19 finds Paul in Ephesus. He set some people straight about the simplicity of the gospel message and then began preaching the gospel in the Synagogue.

In Ephesus, the preaching of the gospel resulted in a riot, led by a businessman who made idols for sale. He attacked some believers, but really wanted Paul. The city clerk calmed things down by reminding the Ephesians that their rioting could get them in trouble.

We read in chapter 20 that Paul set out for Macedonia, where he preached the gospel. Because of his message, the Jews plotted against him, as usual. So he went to Troas.

In Troas Paul was preaching the gospel in an upper room when Eutychus fell from his perch on the window sill. Paul “threw himself on him” and Eutychus was alive again.

Paul wanted to go to Jerusalem, regardless of the possible consequences. He bade farewell to his friends, reminding them of the gospel message and the benevolence by which it was evidenced.

According to chapter 21, Paul arrived in Jerusalem to find that his message that Christ has fulfilled the Law of Moses and that there is eternal life in Christ alone had not been warmly received by a group we now call Judaizers. They “believed,” but were zealous for the law, too.

As Paul prepared to set the Judaizers straight, some Jewish leaders (surprised?) started stirring up the people and plotting to kill him. He was arrested. He asked the commander of the arresting troop if he could speak. The commander acquiesced, and Paul gave his personal testimony and preached the gospel.

For this the crowd demanded that he be flogged. But Paul informed them that he was a Roman citizen and was released. But he was released to the Sanhedrin, a hostile group, for trial before them.

Now we’re in chapter 23. Paul did what he always did. He preached the gospel to them. He reminded them that he was a Pharisee who had become a believer in Christ, specifically in His resurrection. 

They placed him in the barracks, where he heard a message from Jesus to testify in Rome.

The Jews conspired to kill Paul for his unwillingness to give up preaching the gospel. The barracks commander, having been told about the plot against Paul, a Roman citizen, had him transferred to Caesarea with a letter of introduction.

The high priest, Ananias, went to Caesarea, according to chapter 24, to try Paul for disturbing the peace by preaching the gospel. Of course, Paul, after a bit of testimony, preached the gospel to Ananias and Felix, the judge. Felix left Paul in prison.

The Often Missed Message of Acts - Day 3

This is our third day examining the often missed message of Acts. The theme is established. It occurs over and over again. It is the most frequent scenario in the entire book. It is: Preach the gospel - suffer persecution. Preach the gospel anyway - suffer more persecution. No matter the cost, preach the gospel.

In chapter 13, Saul (who would forevermore be called Paul) and Barnabas head for Cyprus where they preach the gospel…what else? One who waged war against the gospel, a sorcerer, was blinded. When the proconsul, Sergius Paulus witnessed this, he became a believer of the gospel.

Paul and his companions head to Pisidian in Antioch. In Pisidian he preached the gospel. He used the Old Testament scriptures to justify his good news. He spoke from Psalm 2, as well as from other places in the Old Testament, to preach the gospel.

For preaching the gospel Paul and his cohorts were ejected from the region by the Jewish leaders’ cunning use of Jewish women.

You would think Paul and Barnabas would be dejected by this, but instead there were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

They went to Iconium. That’s recorded in chapter 14.

Now all of this has really been an introduction to what is to come. The body of this treatise is to come, and it is not nearly as long as the introduction.

In chapter 14, Paul and Barnabas preached the gospel in the Synagogue and many were brought to faith in Christ. But those who weren't, especially the religious leaders, sought to stone them. But they escaped.

They went to Lystra and Derbe, where they preached the gospel. The Jewish leaders stoned Paul to what they thought was death, even putting his body on the mount for the dead. But Paul survived and preached the gospel.

They returned to Antioch in Syria and preached the gospel.

Let me pause from the account for a moment. The New Testament is adamant about the importance of good doctrine. Some seem to think that as long as one’s intentions are good, it doesn’t really matter what they teach or preach. That is pure balderdash. “Rightly dividing the Word of Truth” (2 Timothy 2:15) means using the Bible to understand correct doctrine…specifically the doctrine of salvation, which many were (and still are) corrupting with a lot of add-ons.

The entire book of 1 Timothy is a warning to be sure teachers and leaders in the church are teaching and leading right doctrine. Paul raises the question of right doctrine four times and each times gives examples of where it is important. (What did YOU think the diatribe about Deacons and Elders was about?)

Paul also insists on right doctrine in Romans, Galatians, Ephesians and 2 Timothy, among other places.

Let me tell you what he says. He says that the gospel requires absolutely, positively no assistance from the Law (ceremonial or otherwise), from the prophets, from customs, from rules and regulations, from visions or dreams, from critical thinking, or from any other source. The gospel stands on its own or it does not stand at all. Trust me; it stands.

Here’s why I brought all of that up.

As recorded in chapter 15, some men purporting to be believers came from Judea to Antioch and were teaching adherence to the law of circumcision in addition to the gospel. They were also apparently requiring other aspects of the Law of Moses and Jewish law in order to be saved.

Because of this, a council was held at Jerusalem at which the simple gospel was confirmed.

Timothy, a man of both Jewish and Gentile heritage joined Paul and Silas and they set off to preach the gospel.

Chapter 16 tells us that they went to Philippi, where Lydia was converted and they continued to preach the gospel. They expelled a spirit of fortune telling from a girl, by inference winning her to 

Christ. For preaching the gospel a little “too effectively,” Paul and Silas were flogged and imprisoned.

They were freed from prison by a God-sent “earthquake,” and preached the gospel to a guard. The guard and his entire family became believers.

They went, according to chapter 17, to Thessalonica and preached the gospel: “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ (Greek for Messiah). They were chased by the Jewish leadership, but escaped.

They went to Berea, where they preached the gospel in the Synagogue. The Jews learned that they were preaching the gospel and went after them. But they escaped.

Paul went to Athens. There he preached the gospel. Some believed, some didn’t. But those who didn’t took note of Paul’s offense.

Chapter 18 says that Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. He preached the gospel to Jews and Greeks. Some Jews opposed him fervently for preaching the gospel. Paul was vexed and determined to preach only to Gentiles after that. He did, and many were converted.

But The Jewish leaders attacked Paul again. They had him tried for preaching against their interpretation of the Old Testament. Once again Paul escaped the long arm of the law.

In Corinth Paul met Priscilla and Aquila. Then he went to the Synagogue and preached the gospel. And then he went to Antioch and the rest of the area, preaching the gospel. In Ephesus, Apollos, a Greek convert, was earnestly preaching the gospel. Apollos went to Achaia to preach the gospel and had to fend off the Jewish leaders who hated his message.

The Often Missed Message of Acts - Day 2

This is the second day of our 5 day series on the book of Acts. In this section you will see a very definite theme emerge. It will be a theme that engulfs the entire book. 

Chapter 8 starts out with a great persecution of the church at Jerusalem. Why? Because they kept preaching that pesky gospel. Because of the persecution, the followers of Christ were scattered hither and yon to…can you guess?...preach the gospel all over the world!

The apostles dealt with Simon the Sorcerer, who thought the Holy Spirit could be bought. Then they went to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to, of all people, the hated Samaritans!

We also see in chapter 8 the account of Philip and the Ethiopian. The Ethiopian was reading scripture (Isaiah, since all they had was the Old Testament). Peter used the Old Testament to do what to the Ethiopian? To preach the gospel! And Philip preached the gospel from Azotus to Caesarea.

In chapter 9 we have the account of the conversion of Saul (the bad guy at Stephen’s stonning, remember?). He came face to face with the living gospel, Jesus, the Messiah. Suddenly we find Saul preaching the gospel in Damascus! For that, the Jews conspired to kill him.

Can you see a theme developing in the book of Acts? It is not nearly as much about the growth of the church as it is about the preaching of the gospel at whatever cost.

Peter encounters Aeneas and Dorcas in chapter 9 and Prayed for Tabitha, who was then raised from the dead!

Chapter 10 finds a Roman centurion, Cornelius, who sends for Peter. Meanwhile Peter had a dream that seemed to contradict everything he knew about the Law. A large sheet was let down containing all sorts of “impure” animals for Peter to eat. He objected, being a “good” Jew, but God set him straight.

What Peter learned from this is twofold. First, the ceremonial dietary laws were no longer in force. Secondly, and more importantly, the gospel was not for the Jews only, but for the “unclean” Gentiles as well.

Peter goes to Cornelius’ home where he preached the gospel…can you believe it? The converted Jews who were with him could not believe their eyes. A Gentile and his entourage were perfected before God in Christ!

As we come to chapter 11, Peter explained to the Jewish Christians that the gospel was for all men everywhere. Messiah was indeed for the Jews, but not exclusively. This explanation caused them to praise God!

The news of these things reached the church in Antioch. They were both amazed and joyful that their gospel message was for everyone.

Now we come to chapter 12, where for preaching the gospel, Peter is thrown in prison by King Herod. To no avail, however, because an angel of God shook off their shackles and led them out of the prison. He went to Mary’s house and, after some convincing, was let in to the tune of much rejoicing.

As punishment for letting Peter and company escape from jail, Herod ordered the guards executed. 

Then Paul went to Caesarea where he denied that the gospel was from a god. The people disagreed with him vocally. For his rejection of the gospel, Herod was struck dead. (People suffer eternal death in Hell  for rejecting Christ.)