P1 Reaching to make a difference - James 1:17-25

James 1:17-18 ¹⁷ Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. ¹⁸ In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.

Introduction:

The church that God has blessed me to pastor and to be a part of is a church that reaches out to people. However whenever I look at this passage of James 1:17-27, I discover that there are specific ways in which we or any church can be more effective in being a church that reaches to make a difference. Today's post is all about encouraging every church and every born-again child of God to reach out to make a difference. Five specific ways of "reaching" are mentioned here in James 1:17-27.  We will list them and then briefly expound on each of them:

1. Reaching out with the Gospel 1:17-18
2. Reaching up in prayer 1:19-21a
3. Reaching for the Bible
1:21b-25
4. Reaching towards holiness 1:26
5. Reaching the hurting 1:27


So how can churches and disciples of Jesus reach to make a difference? Notice first of all....


Churches reach out with the Gospel. James 1:17-18
The Book of James is the earliest New Testament we have and contains the earliest instructions to the church following Jesus' ascension. The Gospel in James' letter centers around the miracle that is regeneration. Regeneration, in the words of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 is: "a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ." The Gospel message is the vehicle through which the Holy Spirit works to bring the gifts of faith (Ephesians 2:8-9) and repentance (2 Timothy 2:25-26). In-as- much as the local church is composed of Christ's royal ambassadors telling sinners to "believe, repent and be reconciled to God", the Gospel's results cannot occur without the Spirit working through us. God desires to make a difference in the lives of people and has so ordained the preaching and teaching of the Gospel. (1 Corinthians 1:21) This effort of reaching out with the Gospel is the primary task of the church and the chief reason why Jesus has to occupy until His return. (Matthew 28:18-20) So churches that reach in making a difference reach out with the Gospel, but notice secondly....


Churches must reach up in prayer. James 1:19-21a
The wording of James 1:19-21a reminds me of two other passages of scripture that exhort believer's to pray.  The first is Paul's admonition in 1 Timothy 2:8 "Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension." A heart full of bitterness will never be able to be a heart full of prayer. This is why we see the second passage of Ephesians 4:30-32 "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹ Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. ³² Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you." Whenever we see James writing his words, implied in the instruction is the need to reach up to God in prayer. Notice what he says in James 1:21 "in humility receive the Word implanted...". How else do you humbly receive what God has, except through prayer? As Peter reminds us in 1 Peter 2:4-5 "And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." Or even more so consider Jude's instructions on the need to reach up to God in prayer in Jude 1:20 "But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit." So any Christian or church that is going to reach out to make a difference needs to reach out with the Gospel and reach up in prayer. Lets consider one more way of reaching for today, namely.....


Churches much reach for the Bible. James 1:21b-25
Clearly the bulk of James' instructions centers around the Christian's individual life and the church's corporate life being transformed by the scriptures. Notice the following statements in 1:21b-25:


1:21b - "in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls."


1:22a - "But prove yourselves doers of the word...."


1:23 - "For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror."


1:25 - "But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does."

Why does James so emphasize this point of reaching for the Bible? Because the same Words that convert in James 1:17-18 are the same words that cleanse the soul of the saint in 1:19-25. James cites or alludes to nearly 90 passages from the Old Testament and the words of Jesus in his short letter of five chapters. James' instructions are so saturated with scripture that not a verse scarcely goes by where he is not alluding to an Old Testament statement or a word of Jesus. This ought to tell us something as disciples of Jesus and churches living in the 21st century - we need to be Bible saturated. Unless we are Bible saturated people, we cannot saturate our culture with Jesus Christ. Churches that reach to make a difference reach out with the Gospel, reach up to God in prayer and reach for their Bibles.

More tomorrow....

P4 The Importance of the Trinity - The Holy Spirit & Life Applications

2 Corinthians 13:14 “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.”


Review from yesterday
As we saw yesterday, the term "Trinity" is doctrinal shorthand in bringing together the Bible’s revelation of God. We have thus far looked at the first major truth comprising the doctrine of the Trinity: namely that God is One God (Monotheism) Who is the Father. We have also considered the second major truth that functions alongside the truth of Monotheism in the Biblical revelation of God: namely the Deity of Jesus Christ.


The Baptist Faith and Message 2000, the doctrinal statement of the Southern Baptist Convention, defines the Trinity: “The eternal Triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.”
 
As we already mentioned, three major truths comprise this very important Biblical teaching of God as Trinity. I will list them for the reader's convenience and then we will consider the third and final truth in today's post: The Personality of the Holy Spirit.
 
1. God is One God (Monotheism)
2. The Deity of Jesus Christ
3. The Personality of the Holy Spirit


The Personality of the Holy Spirit
Jesus tells us about the Holy Spirit in John 16:13 - “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come."   Notice how often Jesus uses the personal pronoun "He" in reference to the Holy Spirit.  Clearly the Spirit of God is not an "it", nor a "force", but a genuine Personality.  We first meet the Holy Spirit back in Genesis 1:2, wherein we see Him hovering over the face of the deep at creation.  We discover that the Bible describes the Holy Spirit as being God (Acts 5:3-4) who has the ability to communicate (John 16:13). 

The Personality of the Holy Spirit is the third plank of the doctrine of the Trinity.  Just like Jesus Christ, He too shares in Divine nature.  In fact, when Jesus states in John 14:16 that "another comforter" will be sent after He ascends into heaven, that term "another" means "of the same kind".  Thus The Holy Spirit is God, just as Jesus Christ is God, just as the Father is God.  God is "One what" and "Three Whos" - One God, who is identified as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

Summing up what we said
As we saw today the doctrine of the Trinity is undoubtedly the Biblical teaching about the nature and identity of God. The term "Trinity" is doctrinal shorthand for bringing together three fundamental ideas that the Bible teaches about the nature of God.  First, Monotheism or the idea that there is only One God. This One God is identified early in the scripture as the Father to His people Who is All-powerful, knowing, everywhere present and their Redeemer. Second, when we came especially to the New Testament, we saw the immediate identification of Jesus The Son as being fully Divine, sharing in the same Divine nature as the Father. Jesus the Son would come to earth through the virgin birth to share in our human nature, die on the cross, be raised again and ascend back to heaven wherefrom He will return to earth in His second coming. Then finally, we looked at the third truth of the Personality of the Holy Spirit and how He is equal to the Son and the Father with regards to His Divine Nature. The Holy Spirit convicts men of sin and strengthens believers in this current age.  

Applications for your life
Now how does knowing this about the God of Divine revelation help you out in everyday life? For one thing, God is by nature The Relational God. There is no doubt that He created marriage, the family and the church to be each a reflection of something that is true about Himself, namely a unity with a diversity of persons flourishing in love and trust. Without the Triune understanding of God, we would have no basis for the most fundamental aspects of marriage, family and the church – namely unity of love among diversity of persons.

Secondly, to say God is the God of love demands Him to Be The Trinity. How? One writer has noted that in the context of love you need three essential ingredients: A lover, one receiving love and love itself. With God we see the Father Who loves, The Son receiving the Love and the Spirit being the Personification of the love between the Father and the Son.  Without the Trinity, we would have no basis for understanding the nature of love itself.


Then finally, the plan of salvation itself entails the activity of the Trinity. Passages such as Ephesians 1:1-14 and others reveal that the Father planned salvation for His people Whom He knew about beforehand in the Son in eternity, the Son then came to purchase such salvation that is sufficient to save the entire world but will only be applied to all who believe. The Spirit agreed to apply salvation to all whom He would convict and who in turn would believe.

These are but a sample of the many applications for understanding why the Biblical doctrine of the Trinity is important to the Christian life. In short, without God we have nothing.

P3 The Importance of the Trinity - The Deity of the Son

2 Corinthians 13:14 “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.”


Review from yesterday
As we have seen from the past couple of posts, the term "Trinity" is doctrinal shorthand in bringing together the Bible’s revelation of God. Think of the term as being composed of two words: "Tri" meaning "three" and "unity" meaning one. We looked at the first major truth comprising the doctrine of the Trinity: namely that God is One God (Monotheism) Who is the Father. The Baptist Faith and Message 2000, the doctrinal statement of the Southern Baptist Convention, defines the Trinity: “The eternal Triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.”

As we already mentioned, three major truths comprise this very important Biblical teaching of God as Trinity. I will list them for the reader's convenience and then we will consider the second major truth in today's post: The Deity of the Son.

1. God is One God (Monotheism)
2. The Deity of Jesus Christ
3. The Personality of the Holy Spirit

The Deity of Jesus Christ

As we already mentioned, God is one in His being, a belief that is referred to as “mono-theism”. And now as we probe the text of scripture, we discover that in terms of His identity, God is not only revealed in the Person of the Father, but also in the Second Person – the Son. Old Testament passages such as Psalm 2:7 reveal the Eternal Pre-existence of the Person of the Son sharing in conversation with the Person of the Father. By referring to the Person of “The Son”, scripture is stating that whatever characteristics and qualities the Father has, the Son has in equal measure. When Jesus came to this world through the virgin birth, He revealed Himself to be God in human flesh. John 1:14 clearly states: “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” When Jesus walked on this earth, He lived as a man Who ever remained fully God. During His ministry Jesus made this statement in John 10:30 “I and the Father are one.” After three and a half years of doing miracles, preaching sermons and developing relationships with people, Jesus would be arrested and then die on the cross as a man. Though fully man, Jesus as the Person of the Son demonstrated His willingness and Love as the fully Divine Redeemer. When He raised from the dead, the belief of Jesus being fully God in human flesh became fully solidified in the hearts and minds of His followers.  Thomas’ response to Jesus in one of His post-resurrection appearances proves this in John 20:28:  “My Lord and My God”.  

Later on Paul in 1 Corinthians 8:6 tells us - "yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him."  As you explore the New Testament, Jesus Christ is asserted many times in the New Testament as being God. In John 8:58 for example He uses the Divine Personal name from the Old Testament to identify Himself to his opponents: “before Abraham was, I AM.”  Not only is He the Creator, as revealed in this verse, but He is also the Savior of the world sent by the Father as spoken of in 1 John 4:14. 

Inasmuch as the New Testament continued to assert the first truth of God being one God, the reality of Christ’s full Deity was clearly revealed in the New Testament. Both truths led the combined witness of the New Testament to communicate the shared unity between the Father and the Son. Such a profound revelation would provide the cornerstone for getting the early followers of Jesus Christ to correctly interpret God’s Triune nature.

With the Oneness of God, or Monotheism still in place, as well as the uncontested Deity of Jesus Christ soundly affirmed in the New Testament, one more essential truth is needed to complete the Biblical doctrine of the Trinity, which will look at tomorrow…

P2 The Importance of the Trinity - One God Who is The Father

2 Corinthians 13:14 “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.”

Review from yesterday
As we saw yesterday, the term "Trinity" is doctrinal shorthand for bringing together the Bible’s revelation of God. The Baptist Faith and Message 2000, the doctrinal statement of the Southern Baptist Convention, defines the Trinity: “The eternal Triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.”
 
Three major truths comprise this very important Biblical teaching of God as Trinity:
 
1. God is One God (Monotheism)
2. The Deity of Jesus Christ
3. The Personality of the Holy Spirit


Today's post will feature the first of these truths.
 
1. God is one God
Deuteronomy 6:4 states - “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!"  Isaiah 43:10 tells us - "“You are My witnesses,” declares the LORD, “And My servant whom I have chosen, So that you may know and believe Me And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, And there will be none after Me." 


These two scriptures communicate the first fundamental assertion of the biblical view of God - that there is only One God. This belief in “One God” is what people call “Monotheism” (Mono = from the Greek word "mono" meaning "One" and theism = from the Greek word "theos" meaning "God").  Contrary to what some may think, the doctrine of the Trinity does not teach three Gods, but rather that The One God of the Bible is Three “Who’s”: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is One in terms of being and Three with regards to His identity. To say God is Personal literally is to say that God not only relates within as The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit, but that the Father, through the efforts achieved by the Son, desires by His Spirit to have a relationship with you and me through saving faith.
 
From the very beginning of Genesis we come to understand that though God is singular in regards to His being, yet there is something plural about His identity. As early as Genesis 1:26 we see this statement: “let us make man in our image….” As you explore the revelation of God in the Old Testament, you discover that the First Divine Person Whom we are able to establish the identity of God is the Father. For example we read in Deuteronomy 32:6 “Do you thus repay the Lord, O foolish and unwise people? Is not He your Father who has bought you? He has made you and established you.” The revelation of God in the Old Testament progressively unfolds seeds of thought that later become fully mature oaks in the New Testament. Nearly ten times is Yahweh or God in the Old Testament identified in the Person known as “The Father”. Yahweh God is the Father Who called forth into being His people Israel from stock of an aged Abraham and barren Sarah. Other passages such as Psalm 139 described God in His being as all powerful, all knowing and everywhere present.  The Deity of the Father is so well attested that there is virtually no dispute over either the Deity of the Father nor the strong case made by the Bible for there only being One God. Contrary to critics, the doctrine of the Trinity begins with and presupposes Monotheism, the belief in One God, Who is revealed in the Person of The Father.


More tomorrow.... 

Sat 7/19P1 The Importance of the Trinity

2 Corinthians 13:14 “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.”



Introduction:
So what kind of God is God
revealed to be in the Bible? Who is He? In today's post I want to consider a doctrine that is so fundamental to the Biblical understanding of God’s identity. What is this truth of which I speak? The Biblical doctrine of the Trinity. The Doctrine of the Trinity has been attacked over the centuries as being illogical and of no real consequence to the everyday concerns of the Christian life.  However today’s post will aim to show the importance of the doctrine of the Trinity.

 

So what does the Bible have to teach us about the doctrine of the Trinity? 

 

Immediately some people will note: "If the doctrine of the Trinity is as core to the Christian faith as you claim, then why is the word "Trinity" not found in the Bible?"  True, the word "Trinity" itself is not found in the Bible, but neither is the word "Bible". The term "Bible" comes from a Greek word "biblos" meaning book and is doctrinal shorthand for designating the 66 books of the Old and New Testament as "The Book" - i.e "Bible". 

 

Thus too, the term "Trinity" is doctrinal shorthand in bringing together the Bible’s revelation of God. The Baptist Faith and Message 2000, the doctrinal statement of the Southern Baptist Convention, defines the Trinity: “The eternal Triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.”

 

Three major truths comprise this very important Biblical teaching of God as Trinity. For now we will simply list them and begin looking at them more in detail tomorrow:

 

1. God is One God (Monotheism)



2. The Deity of Jesus Christ



3. The Personality of the Holy Spirit


More tomorrow....

Glorifying Jesus in the Gospel - An Overview of Paul's 3rd missionary journey

Acts 18:22-23  "When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, and went down to Antioch. 23 And having spent some time there, he left and passed successively through the Galatian region and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples."

Introduction:

Over the past few weeks I have been from time to time writing about the missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul in the book of Acts. For sake of review, I will simply include the links to those posts and a brief summary of each.

1. http://pastormahlon.blogspot.com/2014/07/p1-declaring-and-defending-gospel-why.html

In this post we had explored Paul's first missionary journey in Acts 13-15. We discovered that the main point of that trip was to declare and defend the Gospel. Paul declared the Gospel and defended it during his journey through the Island of Cyprus and the Southern portions of Galatian and Pamphylia. When he returned to Jerusalem in Acts 15, he along with the other Apostles fleshed out how the Gospel was going to be preached among an increasingly Gentile audience. Despite the opposition from the Judaizers, the cardinal doctrine of Justification by Faith alone was upheld and soon thereafter Paul wrote his 1st epistle, Galatians, in the beginning portions of his second missionary in Acts 16. 

2. http://pastormahlon.blogspot.com/2014/07/christians-need-to-share-jesus-with-all.html
In this post we considered Paul's second missionary journey as recorded in Acts 15:36-18:21. Paul's point was to spread the Gospel Westward and heed the vision given by God to press into the regions of Macedonia.  During this time he wrote two more Epistles: 1 & 2 Thessalonians, from Corinth. This journey last for nearly two years, nearly twice as long as his first one.

With those reviews in mind, we now once again travel with Paul on what will be his third missionary journey in Acts 18:23-21:16. Again one of reasons we are doing these periodic studies is to understand the backgrounds to some of the other books of the New Testament. 

Paul's third missionary journey in a nutshell


Paul's third missionary journey was both similar and yet different from the prior two. The similarities lie in the fact that he started out encouraging the same set of churches he had ministered to in his first missionary journey (compare Acts 18:23). Upon meeting a scholarly Jew by the name of Apollos, Apollos' conversion led him to be sent onto Corinth while Paul made headway into the region of Ephesus and Asia Minor in Acts 18:24-28. Unlike his second missionary journey wherein he had been unable and prevented by the Holy Spirit from heading into Asia Minor and Ephesus (Acts 16:1-8), Paul was now given liberty by the Spirit to make Asia Minor his target in Acts 19:1-41 and 20:17-38. 

Out of all the places Paul would have the most fruitful ministry, none exceeded Ephesus. After two years of fruitful ministry, Paul left and then returned to Ephesus to say his final farewell in Acts 20. As Paul would sail to Macedonia once more, he would make several stops along the way in Acts 21:1-16. It would be during this time that Paul would compose three more letters: 1 & 2 Corinthians and then Romans.

Dr. Harold Kime, a professor that I had in my Bible College days, wrote these words in his notes on 1 & 2 Corinthians: "Paul's travels between the writing of 1 & 2 Corinthians. After writing 1 Corinthians, Paul left Ephesus and sailed to Macedonia, stopping a while at Troas, and then moving onto Philippi. There he awaited the coming of Titus who had been sent to Corinth in his place." Many scholars believe that Paul would had written the Epistle to the Romans towards the tail end of his third missionary Journey. Much like Galatians functioned in summing up all that Paul did in his first missionary journey, Romans was written to spell out the Gospel on the Western-most frontier of the early church's westward push. Romans contains the finest and most comprehensive presentation of the Gospel found anywhere in the Bible. 

The following outline summarizes Paul's third missionary in Acts 18:22-21:17

1. Paul's journey through Galatia to Ephesus.  Acts 18:22-28

2. Paul's ministry at Ephesus (most likely wrote 1 Corinthians during this time). Acts 19:1-41

3. Paul's journey back to Macedonia through Greece to Miletus. Acts 20:1-16

4. Paul's final farewell to the Ephesians, back through Miletus to Caesarea to Jerusalem (this is where he most likely wrote Romans, 2 Corinthians). Acts 20:17-21:16 

Point of Application for Paul's third missionary journey in Acts 18:22-21:16
In comparing these chapters to what Paul ended up writing in Romans, 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, we can note that following main point of application: The more we let the Gospel transform us, the more effective we will be in glorifying Jesus Christ. 

Certainly Paul's great concern during his third missionary was about getting the Gospel right and letting it transform him, his companions and his hearers. If we were to locate a summary set of verses for this third journey, we would find them in Acts 20:25-32 “And now, behold, I know that all of you, among whom I went about preaching the kingdom, will no longer see my face. 26 Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. 27 For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. 28 Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. 29 I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. 31 Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears. 32 And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.


Closing thoughts
Today's main point of application was:  The more we let the Gospel transform us, the more effective we will be in glorifying Jesus Christ. We looked briefly at Paul's third missionary journey in Acts 18:22-21:17 and noted how during this trip Paul wrote three more letters: 1 & 2 Corinthians and Romans. May you and I be those who are being transformed by the Gospel and who are eager to tell the transforming Gospel to other people.