Growing in the Truth

On September 13, 2012 By BrianIn Habit of Scripture

“Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” – John 17:17

We live in a world of opinions, lies, half-truths, and competing truths. But Jesus reminds us where to find truth – in the Word of God. The Bible is truth. It is our standard. It is the measure by which we determine what is true and false in our world. The question for us is always: does this idea or thought that I am hearing or thinking line up with the Bible? The truth of the Bible gives us direction in the confusion of opinions around us, a star to follow that cuts through the smog of false ideas and pretend truths. Biblical truth also shows us how to grow up in Jesus, how to be mature Christians.

Jesus says that we are sanctified by the truth. “Sanctify” conveys the idea of being set apart. We are to be set apart in the truth of the Bible. We are to live according to the truth. Sanctify also means to make holy. Sanctification is the process of God making us holy, of growing up in Jesus to be mature Christians. And this happens as our lives line up with the truth. Which leads to three responses:

First, we need to learn the truth. We can’t line our lives up with the truth if we don’t know it. As such we must be committed to digging into the Word. We are to meditate on God’s Word day and night (Psalm 1:2). We are to store up portions of God’s Word in our hearts (Psalm 119:11). We should gather regularly with God’s people to hear the word taught and preached. We must immerse ourselves in God’s Word that we might learn the truth.
Second, we must believe the truth. We must join the Psalmist who says, “I trust in your word” (Psalm 119:42). We must believe what we learn, conforming our thinking to the Book. We simply can’t say, “This is what the Bible says, but I think….” What we think is simply wrong if it doesn’t match the Bible. We must submit ourselves completely to the truth revealed by God in his Word. We must believe the truth.
Third, we must live the truth. As we learn it and believe it, we must conform not only our thinking but also our lives to the truth. James 1:22-25 speaks of the foolishness of hearing the Word but not doing it. We live in a world of information overload, and we hear so much that we never do anything about. But our approach to the Bible must be different. As we read it, mediate on it, memorize it, study it, and hear it preached, we must make every effort to do what it says. We must live the truth.

What will you do with the truth today?

Offer Yourself To God

On September 11, 2012March 30, 2019 By BrianIn Habit of Prayer, Miscellaneous

In a recent post, I said we needed to preach the gospel to ourselves. We need to remember the cross so we don’t want to sin. We need to consider our new life that means we don’t have to sin. As we remind ourselves of the gospel, we then offer ourselves to God.

We see this in Romans 12:1. It begins by pointing us back to the first eleven chapters all about the gospel. And then in response to the gospel, the verse tells us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. Because of all that Jesus has suffered and done for us, we offer ourselves to God.

We see this again in Romans 6:11-13. It begins by calling us to consider our new life in Christ (v11). And then it goes on to tell us to present ourselves to God rather than sin. Because we died to sin, we should no longer offer ourselves to sin, but rather to God who saved us.

In both passages, we offer ourselves to God in response to gospel truths. And yet, to be more precise, both passages tell us to offer not ourselves, but actually our bodies to God. And Romans 6 goes further telling us to offer the members or parts of our body to God. Applying this to our lives might look something like this:

Father, because of all that Jesus suffered to pay for my sins, I don’t want to sin. Because you have given me a new life, I recognize that I don’t have to sin. And so I offer myself to you.

I offer my eyes to you. Help me to see what you want me to see, and how you want me to see. Keep my eyes from what is sinful.
I offer my ears to you. Help me to hear what you want me to hear. Help me to listen to others as you would. Keep my ears from what you don’t want me to hear.
I offer my mouth to you. Help me to speak kind words, loving words, true words. May my mouth be used today to encourage those around me. Help me to speak the words that you want me to say. Help me to guard my tongue from unkind or untrue words.
I offer my hands to you. Help me to do what you want me to do. Help me to do my work in a way that please you today.
I offer my feet to you. I want to go where you want me to go, and stay away from places you don’t want me to go to.

Because of all that you have done for me, I offer myself to you.

Preach the Gospel to Yourself

On September 5, 2012March 30, 2019 By BrianIn Miscellaneous1 Comment

How can we grow up in Jesus? Part of the answer is that we need to preach the gospel to ourselves. We need to constantly remind ourselves of what God has done for us, of the many blessings of salvation that should change the way we live. In Romans 12:1 we read, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God….” These words mark a huge transition in the book. Everything before these words deals with God’s mercy in giving us a great salvation. Everything after these words deals with how we should live in response. It is because of the gospel that we should now live differently. And so we need to preach the gospel to ourselves. Let me take just two elements of the gospel to illustrate this point.

Remember the cross so you don’t want to sin. Part of the God’s mercy is that he became a man and took the judgment we deserved for our sins upon himself on the cross. Consider all that our Savior endured because of our sins. The whipping. The beatings. The mockings. The crown of thorns pressed into his head. The nails piercing his hands and feet. The agony hanging on the cross. As we consider what he endured to pay for our sin, how could we have any desire to sin? When the temptation to sin looks so alluring, place the picture of Jesus hanging on the cross next to the temptation, and the temptation will lose much of its tempting power. As we consider the cross, it motivates us to live for him. We remember the cross so we don’t want to sin.

Consider your new life that means you don’t have to sin. In Romans 6, Paul talks about the reality that we have died to sin and been raised to a new life in Christ. We are no longer slaves to sin. And so he tells us in verse 11 to “consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” He has already established that we have a new life. In verse 11 he wants us to consider this reality. To think about it. To remember it. He wants us to preach the gospel to ourselves. We have a new life. God has enabled us to say no to sin. We don’t have to sin anymore. Too often we hear people say (and we might say ourselves) after sinning, “Well, I just couldn’t help it.” But if we are true Christians, we have been given a new life. We can help it. In the face of temptation, remind yourself that you are no longer a slave to sin, and you don’t want to act like a slave anymore. You can say no. We consider our new life to remind us that we don’t have to sin.

Remember the cross so you don’t want to sin. Consider your new life that means you don’t have to sin. Preach the gospel to yourself.

Acts Articles – Jesus 03C

On August 2, 2012 By BrianIn Book of Acts

In Acts 3, Peter gives us an incredible description of Jesus from many angles. He is the Rejected and Suffering Servant. He is the Holy and Righteous One. He is the Author of Life. Today, I want to briefly consider two more descriptions of Jesus and our response.

First, Jesus is the Prophet Moses Foretold in v22-23. Back in Deuteronomy 18:15-19, Moses spoke of another prophet who was to come to whom the people must listen. Peter declares Jesus is the one Moses spoke of. And so we must, as Moses warned, listen to him. Are you listening?

Second, Jesus is the Offspring Who Brings Blessing in v25-26. Back in Genesis 22:18, God had promised Abraham that in his offspring all the families of the world would be blessed. And in Jesus indeed have the nations found great blessing. Peter mentions just some of them in Acts 3:

Jesus blots out our sin (v19). On the cross he bore our sins that they might be washed away.
Jesus turns us from our wickedness (v26). He not only removes the penalty for sin, but also the power of sin. Where before we walked in sin, now we follow him.
Jesus brings time of refreshing (v20). This may refer to the Holy Spirit who now dwells within us. Truly the presence of the Lord refreshes us – a foretaste of the day when we will dwell with God forever.
Jesus will restore all things (v20-21). One day when Jesus returns, there will be a new heavens and earth without suffering, sin, or death.

Jesus is the Prophet to whom we must listen. And he is the source of many blessings for us to enjoy!

Acts Articles – Jesus 03B

On August 1, 2012 By BrianIn Book of Acts1 Comment

In Acts 3:15, Peter portrays Jesus as the Author of Life. He is the source of life. Again we have this indication that Jesus is God, for of course God is the source of life. He gives physical life, as he gave physical healing to the lame man earlier in Acts 3. He also gives spiritual life; we can find spiritual healing in him. Let’s apply this truth to ourselves today.

Jesus gives us life. He gives us spiritual life, abundant life, eternal life. As Jesus makes clear in John 17:3, eternal life is knowing the Father and His Son. Eternal life is to have a relationship with God. This is what makes us different from the rest of the world. We have a real relationship with our Creator. The rest of the world is spiritually dead – separated from God. But Jesus gives us spiritual life, a relationship with himself.

What a privilege! The more we grasp this truth, the more we ought to cultivate this relationship. We should want to grow in this relationship. God has given us a book to know him better. And we can speak to him at any time. Jesus has given us life – a relationship with him. Are we cultivating this relationship or squandering it?

Acts Articles – Jesus 03A

On July 31, 2012 By BrianIn Book of Acts

In Acts 3:14, Peter portrays Jesus as the Holy and Righteous One.

He is the Righteous One: Once again we find an echo from Isaiah 53, this time verse 11, where the suffering servant is referred to as the righteous one. Other echoes come from Isaiah 32:1, Jeremiah 23:5, and Zechariah 9:9 which all predict that the coming Messiah King will be characterized by righteousness.

He is the Holy One: That Jesus is the holy one suggests that Jesus is to be understood as God, for we see such references to God in Isaiah 40:25, 43:15.

He is the Holy and Righteous One: The title in general speaks of his perfection – he is holy and righteous. This again echoes from Isaiah 53, where verse 9 speaks of the suffering servant having done no violence and having no deceit in his mouth. Peter later will echo Isaiah 53 in I Peter 2:22 where he says Jesus committed no sin, nor was their deceit in his mouth.

So Jesus is the Messianic King. Jesus is God. Jesus is without sin. Two applications for today:

First, Jesus is our King and God to whom we owe our total allegiance and worship. We are to obey him in all things. It doesn’t matter if we feel like it. It doesn’t matter if we want to obey. It doesn’t matter if we think Jesus is right or not. Regardless of our feelings, wants, and thoughts, we must obey. We must submit. And we must worship. Worship includes submission, but then goes further to include praise and honor. We must offer up our praises to our great God. We must live for his glory.

Second, Jesus is our righteousness. He lived a perfect life. We don’t. We fail to give Jesus our total allegiance and worship. But the good news is that his perfect life is attributed or accounted to us. II Corinthians 5:21 speaks of this miraculous exchange where the Suffering Servant bore our sins, and we now bear the righteousness of the Holy and Righteous One. In Christ, we change clothes. He takes my filthy dirty rags upon himself, and he gives me his pure white robe to wear. So now when God looks at us, he doesn’t see our sin, he sees only the perfection of Christ. He sees us righteous. What a glorious truth!

Acts Articles – Jesus 03

On July 27, 2012 By BrianIn Book of Acts

In Acts 3:13-18, Peter portrays Jesus as the Rejected and Suffering Servant with clear echoes of Isaiah 52-53. He begins in v13 by saying that God glorified his servant Jesus, an echo of Isaiah 52:13 where the servant will be high and lifted up and exalted. Peter goes on to show how Jesus is the rejected servant delivered over to Pilate and denied by the people of Jerusalem, as Isaiah 53:3 depicts Jesus as the rejected servant who is despised and rejected. Peter shows Jesus as the suffering servant in v18, and Isaiah 53:4-8 depicts the suffering of the servant as he stricken, wounded, crushed, oppressed, and afflicted. And so Jesus is the rejected and suffering servant from Isaiah 52-53. Two thoughts for us today:

First, Jesus can identify with our suffering:

Have you been despised? So was Jesus.

Have you been rejected? So was Jesus.

Have you known sorrow and grief? So did Jesus.

Have you been afflicted? So was Jesus.

Have you been wounded? So was Jesus.

Have you been crushed? So was Jesus.

Have you been oppressed? So was Jesus

Have you been stricken? So was Jesus.

Have you suffered? So did Jesus.

Have you known pain? So did Jesus?

And when you face death. Jesus faced it too.

He is not distant, untouched by our infirmities.
He has been there. He knows. He cares.
He endured it all for you. And so now we endure it all for Him.

Second, Jesus bore our sins in our place:

He is the suffering servant who was wounded for our transgressions and crushed for iniquities. The Lord laid on him the iniquities of us all. He died for our sins. The big sins that make us cringe. The small sins we deem insignificant and yet are disgusting in God’s eyes. He bore all of our sins on the cross to remove our guilt so we could go free.

Acts Articles – Witnes 02-3

On July 20, 2012March 26, 2016 By BrianIn Book of Acts

Throughout the book of Acts, we see the early church proclaiming the gospel. But what is the gospel? One probable reason for the many evangelistic sermons recorded in Acts is to help us better understand the gospel and so better share the gospel. John Stott in his commentary on Acts gives four categories of the content of the evangelistic messages, and so four categories we must include when sharing the gospel. His four categories are: gospel events, gospel witnesses, gospel promises, and gospel conditions. Here I want to apply his categories to the messages in Acts 2 and 3, and then to the message we share:

Gospel Events: We must tell others about what Jesus has done that our salvation is based on. In Acts 2, Peter speaks of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension. In Acts 3, Peter focuses on Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension. We too must tell others what Jesus has done to save us – especially his death and resurrection.
Gospel Witnesses: In both Acts 2 and 3, Peter gives two witnesses to what Jesus has done. First, he appeals to Scripture, quoting numerous Old Testament passages that point to Jesus doing exactly what he did. Second, he appeals to his own witness of Jesus’ resurrection. This was an essential part of being an apostle – that they had seen the risen Christ. And the apostles have recorded their witness for us in the New Testament. So when we share the gospel, we should use the Bible. The prophecies and eye-witness accounts point to the truth of our message.
Gospel Promises: In Acts 2, Peter focuses on forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Spirit. In Acts 3, Peter rewords them as the blotting out of sin and times of refreshing (a reference to the Holy Spirit?), and then adds another: the return of Jesus for the restoration of all things. And of course there are many more gospel promises we could mention: reconciliation, justification, new life, adoption, sanctification, and on the list goes. When we share the gospel, we should include some of the gospel promises that would attract that person or group of people to Jesus.
Gospel Conditions: Finally, we need to tell people how they can receive these gospel promises made possible by the gospel events as given to us by the gospel witnesses. In Acts 2 and 3, Peter calls the people to repent, to turn from their rejection of Jesus, and as such to believe in Jesus as their Messiah and Savior and King. We too must call people to turn from their sin to Jesus, to repent and believe.

Gospel events, witnesses, promises, and conditions. This is the gospel presented in Acts that we present to others.

Acts Articles – Service 03

On July 19, 2012 By BrianIn Book of Acts1 Comment

In Acts 3, Peter and John come across a lame man whom they serve by healing in Jesus’ name. The result is praise to God and an opportunity to share the gospel. Their example suggests several principles for us as we seek to serve others:

We should serve others using the opportunities God gives us. Peter and John were on their way to a prayer meeting. They could have been too pre-occupied to notice the lame man. They could have been tired and not felt like helping. But they stopped. They used the opportunity God gave them. Are we watchful for opportunities to serve? Or are we too pre-occupied with our own agendas? Are we too tied to our feelings?
We should serve others using what God has given to us. Peter and John tell the man they have no money to give him. But God has given them the power to heal the man, and so they do. They used what God gave them. We may not have money to help someone. We probably can’t heal anyone. But we shouldn’t worry about what we can’t do. Rather we should focus on what we can do, serving in the ways God enables us.
We should serve others as representatives of Jesus. Peter heals the man in Jesus’ name – according to his power and authority. Peter is just a representative of Jesus. As the crowds gather, Peter asks the crowds why they stare at him as if he had made the man well. Instead, he points the crowds to Jesus. Here is an important point. In serving others we point to Jesus not ourselves. This means our actions require explanation. Without explanation, the crowds would have been impressed with Peter, so Peter points them to Jesus. In serving others, it is possible for people to become impressed with us, and so we need to point them to Jesus. Our service is not about us, but about Jesus working through us, so we must point to Jesus. Lifestyle evangelism requires words to explain our good deeds, or we witness simply to our own goodness.
We should serve others so that God may be praised. The lame man who is healed begins leaping and praising God. The crowds too begin to praise God (4:21). Certainly one goal in our serving others is to help them – because we love them. But our ultimate goal should be that God would be praised – because we love him. People are to see our good works and glorify God. But if we don’t point them to Jesus, who gets the glory? Often we do. People praise us. They are impressed with us. And we rob God of his glory. This is a serious matter. We need to be careful when we serve that we point people to Jesus so they praise God and not us.
We should serve others with the hope of sharing the good news of Jesus. Peter’s service led to an opportunity to share the gospel. That should be our hope – that our service would open doors to share the gospel. Their greatest need is Jesus, so our greatest service is to tell them about Jesus. May our service bring many such opportunities.

Acts Articles – Church 02C

On July 18, 2012 By BrianIn Book of Acts, Church Life, Habit of Prayer

In Acts 2:42, the early church devoted themselves to prayer. The context is the church. They were devoted to praying together. What about us? Are we devoted to meeting together for prayer? Do we love God and his people so much that we want to gather together before the throne? What is our attitude? Are we devoted? How might we grow in our devotion to praying together?