Tag: Christianity
What Are We Willing To Risk?
In Acts 4-5, we see the apostles taking risks for the gospel. In Acts 4, when Peter and John had been arrested, the Jewish leaders charged them not to speak any more about Jesus. Upon being further threatened and then released, the apostles convened a prayer meeting to pray for boldness to continue to speak of Jesus. And they continued to proclaim the gospel with boldness and power (4:31, 33). They took risks for the sake of the gospel and multitudes were being saved (5:14).
The chief priests driven by jealousy, arrested the apostles and put them in prison (5:17-18). God sent an angel to bring them out and command them to go into the temple and continue preaching the gospel. And so they did. They continued to take risks for the gospel. After finding the prison empty and the apostles in the temple, the chief priests arrested the apostles again. Standing before the Sanhedrin, the apostles began proclaiming the gospel to the very men who opposed them (5:30-32). They were again taking risks for the gospel. Indeed the Sanhedrin wanted to kill the apostles!
The advice of a Pharisee named Gamaliel saved their lives, but they were beaten for proclaiming the gospel before they were released. And what did they do? They continued to proclaim the gospel (5:42). They continued to risk everything for the sake of the gospel.
Which brings us to the question: What are we willing to risk for the sake of the gospel? Are we willing to risk it all? Risk our lives? Our wealth? Our comfort? Our jobs? Our popularity? Are we willing to risk ridicule and rejection? What are we willing to risk to make use of the opportunities God gives us to share the gospel? What are we willing to risk for the One who gave his life for us?
Eternal Father of My Soul
Eternal Father of my soul,
let my first thought today be of You,
let my first impulse be to worship You,
let my first speech be Your name,
let my first action be to kneel before You in prayer.
For Your perfect wisdom and perfect goodness:
For the love with which You love mankind:
For the love with which You love me:
For the great and mysterious opportunity of my life:
For the indwelling of Your Spirit in my heart:
For the sevenfold gifts of Your Spirit:
I praise and worship You, O Lord.
Yet let me not, when this morning prayer is said,
think my worship ended and spend the day in forgetfulness of You.
Rather from these moments of quietness let light go forth,
and joy, and power, that will remain with me
through all the hours of the day;
Keeping me chaste in thought:
Keeping me temperate and truthful in speech:
Keeping me faithful and diligent in my work:
Keeping me humble in my estimation of myself:
Keeping me honorable and generous in my dealings with others:
Keeping me loyal to every hallowed memory of the past:
Keeping me mindful of my eternal destiny as a child of Yours.
Through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.
– John Baillie, 1886-1960
The Lord’s Supper
Our church looked at the significance of the Lord’s Supper yesterday from I Corinthians 11:23-26. As we think about what the Lord’s Supper is all about, at least four things come out of the passage.
- It is a meal of remembrance. We are to eat and drink in remembrance of Jesus. Specifically we remember his suffering and death for us. And we remember his great love that led him to make this sacrifice on our behalf. And so our time around the table is a somber, reverent time of remembrance. We dare not partake in a flippant, careless manner.
- It is a meal of affirmation. “This cup is the new covenant in my blood” (v25). The Lord’s Supper is then a covenant meal. In participating we affirm our place in the new covenant. We affirm our relationship with God thru Jesus. We affirm that our sins are forgiven through Jesus. We affirm our new life in the Spirit. We affirm our faith in Jesus. And so only believers should partake of the Lord’s Supper, for only believers can affirm these things.
- It is a meal of proclamation. In eating and drinking we “proclaim the Lord’s death” (v26). It is a visible tangible proclamation of his death and hence the gospel. We proclaim the gospel to each other as we partake. And we proclaim the gospel to any unbelievers who may be present as they see the central importance of Christ’s death.
- It is a meal of anticipation. We “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (v26). As we remember his death we recognize that he did not remain dead, but rose, ascended, and is one day returning. We look forward to the day when we will partake of a new meal – the wedding feast of the Lamb (Revelation 19). We look forward to the day when we will be with the Lord forever, and there will be no more suffering or pain or death or sin.
Passion Points
Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:
Toward a Theology of Church Unity – Kevin DeYoung
Why Did God Use Spurgeon? – Chris Castaldo
There is one thing on which many Christians today agree–we need genuine revival…
Why Pastors and Elders Need Your Prayers – Kevin DeYoung
Six Ways To Encourage Your Pastor – Charles Stone
Being a pastor is a high calling, yet pastors often face loneliness and discouragement...
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day praising the Lord with your local church!
Prayer Warrior-February
Starting this month, I am creating a prayer insert for my church with suggested requests for our church, prayer quotes, a prayer from the Bible, and a prayer from history. I thought I’d share them here on my blog too. Quotes and prayers will come later, but here are some suggested prayers for you to pray for your church in February. May we grow to be prayer warriors!
Praying for your Church
- Revival in your church, a passion/hunger for God
- Worship – Heart worship, Joyful singing, Cheerful giving, Passionate prayer, Powerful preaching, Appropriate response
- Grow in your fear of God – leading to obedience
- Grow in your integrity and honesty
- Prayer – Growing priority and passion for prayer, Prayer Services
- Word – Sunday School, Children ministries, Youth ministries
- Fellowship – Growing care/love/unity, Growing generosity toward one another, Fellowship activities
- Growing passion for evangelism and missions
- Opportunities and boldness to share the gospel
- Grow in your witness > share gospel, pray for gospel to go forth, be filled with the Spirit, lives of generosity and integrity (that attract people to the gospel)
- Growing willingness to take risks for gospel
- People to be saved in your spheres of influence
- Guests to come to your Worship Service and the Spirit to work in their lives
- Missionaries: walk with God, evangelism opportunities, growing maturity
We Must Pray
All of our doing
means nothing
without God’s doing,
and so we must pray.
Passion Points
Here are some good posts for your weekend reading to help you grow in the Lord:
23 Reasons To Be Joyful – Paul Tautges
Re-training your heart for joy.
10 Point Inventory – Steve Cornell
Ten questions to examine your heart.
How Do We Grow In Holiness – Part One and Part Two – Tim Chester
Excerpts from You Can Change – highly recommended!
The Pursuit of Holiness – Part One and Part Two – Desiring God
Discussion on video between John Piper and Kevin DeYoung
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day with your local church!
An Effective Witness
One of the main themes of Acts is witness. Jesus called the disciples to be his witnesses, and we trace that witness throughout the book. In the first five chapters, we see five characteristics of an effective witness which we should apply to our lives and churches today:
- Proclaim the message. This may go without saying, but we see again and again in these first few chapters the proclamation of the gospel. Clearly we need to be looking for opportunities to proclaim the gospel today.
- Pray for the gospel to go forth. In Acts 4, after being threatened for proclaiming the gospel, the early church prays. They pray for boldness to continue to proclaim the gospel. Their prayer is centered on a desire to see the gospel spread. We too ought to be crying out to God for the gospel to be spread.
- Be filled with the Holy Spirit. After praying, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. We are reminded that we cannot save anyone, only God can. And so for an effective witness, we need the Holy Spirit to be active in our lives, and indeed in the lives of those who are hearing the good news.
- Be generous with one another. The early church was known for its generosity (Acts 4:32-37). This made their message attractive and real – they were showing generosity toward each other even as God had shown great generosity toward them. Jesus said people would know we are his disciples by our love and good deeds (John 13:35, Matthew 5:16). Our love for one another will help to draw people to the gospel.
- Live in the fear of God. An important part of the gospel is that we have died to sin and been raised to righteousness. We are to live a new life turning from wickedness to follow Jesus. When we fail to live out this new life, we deny the power of the gospel. We begin to look like the rest of the world. And why should the world care what we say if our lives don’t match our words? This was part of the problem with Ananaias and Sapphira’s sin (5:1-11). But God dealt very decisively with them, so that the church might fear God and live a new life according to the gospel.
The witness of the early church showed these five characteristics, and multitudes were saved (5:14). May our witness look like this, and may God grant to us this year many who will be saved!
The Fear of God
Seeing others sell their land and give the money to the church, Ananias and Sapphira decide to the same (Acts 5:1-11). But they choose to keep some of the money. Nothing wrong so far. But then they further decide to pretend that they are giving all of the money. They decide to deceive the church. They choose to lie.
When Peter confronts them, he makes clear that they are not merely lying to the church, but by application they are lying to God. They are testing God by sinning in his face. There is no fear of God before their eyes. And God punishes their sin by taking their lives. Great fear came upon the church. What Ananias and Sapphira lacked, the rest of the church now received in abundance.
This passage is a stern reminder that God is not to be trifled with. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is our Creator. And as such, we owe him respect, reverence, awe, fear, and obedience. How dare we ever think that we can sin against God, and God won’t notice! How dare we ever consider testing God by parading our sin in his face! We dare not treat God flippantly. Those who are living in sin are living in dangerous territory.
We live in a world that thinks nothing of sin. Sin is celebrated in the media and everywhere you look. And this carefree attitude toward sin has in too many ways infiltrated the church. We need a fresh dose of the fear of God. We need to take sin seriously – like God does. We may need to repent and seek God’s forgiveness. We need to pursue righteousness. We need to live in the fear of the Lord.
