Sunday December 18, 2022 “Prophecies of the Messiah pt 2”

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Sunday – December 18, 2022

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Word On Worship – Sunday – December 18, 2022

Daniel 9:25-26
“Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing.”

Because God is sovereign over the future, He alone is capable of giving prophetic insight into the future. In great mercy, the Father detailed for Who was coming to save them, how He would come, where He would come, when He would come, and why He would come, so that they would anticipate the incarnation and salvation of Jesus Christ. After Adam and Eve sinned, God prophesied the Messiah (Jesus) would be born of a woman; with no reference to a father. This notable omission makes one wonder but points toward His virgin birth. This prophecy was given by God himself and was the first time the gospel was preached: “I will put enmity between you [the Serpent] and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

From the opening pages of the Bible, God began to reveal his plan to send his Son into human history to save sinners. Like a bud that blossoms into a flower, this revelation continues to unfold through the rest of the Scriptures. Around 700 BC Isaiah prophesied exactly how Jesus would come into human history: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” The promise that Jesus’ mother would be a virgin who conceived by a miracle did, in fact, come true. Jesus’ mother, Mary, was in fact a godly young woman and chaste virgin who conceived by the miraculous power of God the Holy Spirit.

Some critics of Christ and Christianity have said that Jesus orchestrated his life in such a way as to deceive people by appearing to fulfill prophecies about the coming Messiah. However, one thing Jesus most certainly had no control over was where he was born. In roughly 700 BC Micah prophesied that Jesus would be born in the town of Bethlehem. This prophecy was fulfilled in Luke 2:1–7. Caesar Augustus had called for a census to be taken, which required that every family register in their hometown. Jesus’ adoptive father, Joseph, was required to return to Bethlehem because he was a descendant of the line of David. In God’s providence, this census was required right when Mary was pregnant; she journeyed with her husband from their home in Nazareth to Bethlehem so that Jesus was born in Bethlehem in fulfillment of Micah’s prophecy.

Isaiah prophesies in 700 BC about why Jesus would become incarnate—He is God’s arm of salvation reaching down to save sinners. Isaiah also says that Jesus would come from humble circumstances and suffer great sorrow and grief by men in order to deal with the human sin problem through His death, burial in a rich man’s tomb, and resurrection. The purpose of Jesus’ incarnation was fulfilled when, just as promised, He suffered and died in the place of sinners though He himself was sinless, was buried in a rich man’s tomb, and rose from death to make righteous the unrighteous.

Sunday December 11, 2022 “Prophecies of the Messiah pt 1”

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Sunday – December 11, 2022

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Word On Worship – Sunday – December 11, 2022

Genesis 3:15
“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.”

I would like to invite you to climb on board an imaginary time machine with me for an intriguing journey back into history. Why do I invite you to go with me on this journey? Well, look at our world today. In spite of all the technological advances and social programs, it is a world ripped apart by strife, murder, moral breakdown of the highest magnitude, wars and rumors of wars, and on and on the list goes. People devise human social programs, reforms, and solutions, but the problems don’t go away. Not only do they continue, but they are increasing just as the Bible warns (2 Tim. 3:13).

Mankind has been saying for years that what we need is an influential, powerful, charismatic leader to come on the scene of human history to mold the world into unity and peace. So, the world watches for such a person, forgetting that God has already promised and provided that Person the world needs. The Scripture not only promises the Messiah, but it does so in such a way that we can precisely identify Him. This is an important point because many have arisen who claimed to have the answers to society whether political or social, and the Bible warns us that many more will arise.

The Old Testament, written over a period of 1000 years contains some three hundred prophecies of the coming Messiah. The fact these prophecies were written at least two hundred years before Christ is proven by the Septuagint [LXX], the Greek translation of the Old Testament written in 200 B.C., and by the Dead Sea Scrolls. All of these ancient prophecies were fulfilled in the one person of Jesus Christ, and they provide solid confirmation: for His credentials as Messiah, for His claims as the Son of God and Savior, and for our hope and confidence that truly He and He alone is the one to whom we (and the world) must look for salvation and meaning in life.

Many Old Testament texts either directly or indirectly point ahead in time to the coming of the promised Savior, the Messiah. These prophecies may refer to either His first coming or His second coming, or both. The probability of all these being fulfilled in one person as merely coincidence is beyond comprehension and, for all practical purposes, mathematically impossible. The entire Old Testament, though dealing with the history of the nations and of Israel, ultimately spoke of the Messiah, the Redeemer who would come. He is the only One mankind needs and He is the reason we celebrate Christmas. May our reading and reflecting on these passages greatly enrich your worship of the Savior at this Christmas season.

Sunday December 4, 2022 Romans Week 76 Romans 16:14-27 “Watching For Wolves”

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Sunday – December 4, 2022

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Word On Worship – Sunday – December 4, 2022

Romans 16:25-27
Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him— to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.

How do you end a letter like Romans that has often been called the greatest letter ever written and the greatest book in the Bible? Normally, Paul ends his letters with a benediction, such as (1 Cor. 16:23), “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.” So now, as he thinks back over what he has written, Paul wells up with praise toward God, who has provided a glorious gospel for people from all nations. The goal of sound doctrine should be a heart that overflows in praise to God.

Paul reminds us in this conclusion the goal of the gospel is more than our happiness. Certainly, we should be exuberant that God has rescued us and bestowed on us every blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 1:3). But our happiness is not the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal of the gospel is God’s eternal glory. The Westminster Shorter Catechism states, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” To glorify God, in simple language, is to make God look good as He truly is. John Piper defines God’s glory as, “The glory of God is the infinite beauty and greatness of his manifold perfections.”

This concept, that the ultimate goal of the gospel is not about us, but rather about God’s glory, is a crucial and practical paradigm shift from the commonly held notion that the gospel is all about us. It affects, for example, our view of suffering. If the gospel is all about us and our happiness, then how do you deal with suffering and death, which aren’t happy experiences? But if the gospel is not ultimately about our happiness, but rather about God’s glory, then you can even face possible martyrdom as Paul did, with the goal that (Phil. 1:20) “Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.”

Of course, as John Piper has often pointed out, our happiness and God’s glory are not at odds, because God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. And we are most satisfied in Him when we get a glimpse of His “infinite beauty and [the] greatness of His manifold perfections.” Just as when you view a spectacular sunset over the Pacific Ocean or the beauty of God’s creation in nature, you exclaim, wow! So, when you see the beauty and greatness of God, you spontaneously praise Him. That’s the goal of the gospel.

Sunday November 27, 2022 Romans Week 75 Romans 16:1-13 “The Church Is”

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Sunday – November 27, 2022

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Word On Worship – Sunday – November 27, 2022

Romans 16:15-16
Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas and all the saints with them. 16 Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send greetings.

When you come to a section of Scripture like Romans 16 with its long list of names, it’s good to keep in mind Paul’s words in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” These verses, along with the lists of genealogies in the Bible, are inspired by God for our spiritual profit to equip us for every good work. So rather than skip over them, dig a bit, and you will come up with some nuggets that make the search worthwhile.

I can’t comment on every name, but let me say that this chapter dispels the notion that Paul was a non-relational theologian who was so wrapped up in his study that he didn’t care about people. These verses show that Paul knew many of the saints in Rome by name and some of them closely, even though he had not yet visited Rome. The chapter brims with personal relationships that reflect Paul’s love for people. The best theologians are those who can form loving relationships.

The church in Rome was made up of ordinary but diverse people. Some were slaves, others were blue collar workers, and still others were wealthy. Some were men, but Paul mentions a number of women. What drew them together and united them? We find the answer in a phrase that Paul repeats eleven times in these verses: “in the Lord” or “in Christ.” He asks the Romans to receive Phoebe “in the Lord” (16:2). He commends Prisca and Aquila as his “fellow workers in Christ Jesus” (16:3). He says that Andronicus and Junias “were in Christ before me” (16:7). He calls Ampliatus “my beloved in the Lord” (16:8). Urbanus is “our fellow worker in Christ” (16:9). Apelles is “the approved in Christ” (16:10). Paul sends greetings to those of the household of Narcissus, “who are in the Lord” (16:11). Tryphaena and Tryphosa are “workers in the Lord” (16:12). Persis the beloved “has worked hard in the Lord” (16:12). And Rufus is “chosen in the Lord” (16:13).

As we’ve seen in Romans, being “in Christ” through faith is the most important designation that can be true of anyone. Paul begins Romans 8 by stating (8:1), “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” He ends that chapter by saying (8:39) that there is nothing that “will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Whether you are wealthy or poor, ordinary or important, male or female, no matter what your background, those eternal blessings are offered to you in Christ Jesus if you will trust in Him as your Savior. What a tribute to the glorious gospel that saves ordinary, diverse people from every walk of life and places them “in Christ”!

Sunday November 20, 2022 Romans Week 74 Romans 15:14-33

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Sunday – November 20, 2022

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Word On Worship – Sunday – November 20, 2022

Romans 15:15-16
I have written you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

Paul had good reason to offer an excuse for not yet having reached Rome. Although his introduction to the Romans indicates he had wanted to visit these saints for years, he had not done so. Now Paul writes this epistle to them from Corinth, some 600 miles southeast of Rome. But now as close as he is to Rome and as eager as he is to visit the saints there, when he leaves Corinth Paul plans to head not northwest toward Rome, but southeast, traveling more than 800 miles back to Jerusalem. Though so close, he does not press on the remaining distance but turns around and goes in the opposite direction to Jerusalem.

If the Epistle to the Romans is Paul’s ministry to these saints in absentia and by mail, Romans 15:14-33 provides his excuse for his prolonged absence when he could have visited with relative ease. Indeed, his reasons for not having visited, and his future plans to visit, are most instructive. Here Paul reveals his priorities for living out his life and the basis of his plans for future ministry. Paul informs us how he determined on a practical, daily basis the will of God for his life.

Compliments are not handed out by Paul without good reason as his epistles contain a number of instances of admonition and rebuke. If these Roman Christians did not need to be taught or corrected, why did Paul write this epistle? He did not write this epistle to inform as much as to remind. He did not write Romans to innovate as much as to reiterate. This is a very difficult but vital principle for we who devote our lives to learning the Bible. Personally, I find great exhilaration learning something new, and I find great pleasure in sharing this new insight in my teaching ministry. But such insights seldom focus on the fundamentals of the faith but on incidentals. To the degree that we innovate, we depart from the fundamentals which we are responsible to reiterate.

The great danger for Christians is similar to that which faces athletes—in focusing on the fine points, one can forget the fundamentals. Sports are won or lost because teams execute or fail to execute the fundamentals of the game.  So it is with the fundamentals of the faith. The great danger for Christians is that we may lose our focus on the fundamentals and begin to pay too much attention to the fine points. In the words of our Lord, we may “strain out a gnat and swallow a camel” (Matthew 23:24). Paul wrote Romans to remind growing Christians of the fundamentals of their faith. There is little “new” in Romans, but all of it is vital.

Sunday November 13, 2022 Romans Week 73 Romans 15:4-13 “Accepting Others to the Glory of God”

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Sunday – November 13, 2022

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Word On Worship – Sunday – November 13, 2022

Romans 15:7-9
Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God. For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers, and for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy…

Paul is concluding his appeal to the (mostly Gentile) strong and the (mostly Jewish) weak factions in the church of Rome to show the love of Christ to each other. In Romans 14:1, he told those who were strong to accept those who were weak in faith, but here he extends the command to both sides. But Paul’s goal is that the Gentile and Jewish believers in Rome would not only genuinely accept one another in their daily relationships, but also that they would join together in worship to God for His mercy in accepting us through Jesus Christ.

If you look for a church that is made up of people who are “your kind of people,” people who are just like you in their cultural background, their politics, and their likes and dislikes, you’re missing the radical nature of Paul’s command here. In the context, the “one another” represented those from conservative, religious, Jewish backgrounds, who had been taught from childhood not to defile themselves with any contact with “Gentile dogs.” It also included Gentiles from pagan backgrounds, who thought that the Jews were a bunch of legalistic, hyper-religious prudes. In other words, the other person whom you are to accept is precisely the person who is radically different than you are in almost every way!

If Christ had only accepted those who had achieved a high level of righteousness, no one would marvel. That’s how the world system works. You earn your way. But the fact that Christ accepts sinners who come to Him for mercy and forgiveness glorifies God and His abundant grace. When God converted a proud, self-righteous Jew, who hated Gentiles and killed Christians, and turned him into the apostle to the Gentiles, that glorified God! When God opened your eyes and mine to see that our own self-righteousness is worthless trash so that we embraced Christ as our righteousness, that glorified God!

We Gentiles did not receive any covenant promises from God in the Old Testament, yet He graciously included us in His promises to the fathers (Gen. 12:1-3). When we receive God’s mercy rather than His deserved judgment, it causes us to glorify Him. Now we are to demonstrate God’s mercy in our relationships with those in the church who are different than we are. The church should be a place where everyone can find and experience God’s abundant mercy. This means that we are to be gracious and merciful towards one another, especially when someone has offended us or acted insensitively toward us. Christ’s servant ministry to Israel and His mercy to the Gentiles serve as our example of what it means to accept one another.

Sunday November 6, 2022 Romans Week 72 Romans 15:1-3 “Love Limits Liberty”

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Sunday – November 6, 2022

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Word On Worship – Sunday – November 6, 2022

Romans 15:1-2
We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.

Throughout high school I was in marching band where I marched in several parades each year. While I was not the best musician, through much practice, I eventually learned to march in step with the rest of the band. Marching requires unity—people doing the same thing at the same time. Although a band or a choir has many instruments and many different parts, it must have a central unity for a harmonious end result. Our text in Romans 15 finds Paul speaking of the church of Jesus Christ as though it were similar to a choir. The great task and privilege of this unique choir is singing praises to the glory of God. For this to be accomplished, there must be both unity and harmony.

These verses are Paul’s closing statement concerning our convictions and the exercise of our liberties within the body of Christ and they are very significant. The final practical lesson of the Roman epistle is pleasing others instead of ourselves. By pleasing our neighbor, Paul does not mean pleasing them at any cost. He doesn’t mean avoiding or watering down the truth, because it might be hard for the other person. Paul means to please them in a way that upholds the highest commandment of all: Love. Love sincerely seeks the highest good of the one loved, which is that they be conformed to Christ.

Christianity turns the world’s thinking upside-down concerning the “strong” and the “weak.” The world thinks those who are strong should use their strength to take advantage of the weak—the vulnerability of another is seen as an opportunity for the strong to gain at the expense of the weak. The Bible turns this mindset inside-out, requiring a transformed mind regarding the strong and the weak. Those who are strong have an obligation to the weak. They are not to victimize the weak but to come to their aid.

This mindset is evident in the Old Testament Law where the widows, the orphans, and the aliens were given special consideration, protection, and benefits. Not only were these helpless people not to be taken advantage of, they were to be helped. Jesus taught the same truth. The leaders of the nation Israel were to serve the people and to protect the helpless but they failed in this regard. In the Gospels, Jesus has strong words of rebuke for Israel’s leaders who abused their power. He taught His disciples that while the Gentile leaders misused their power, causing the weak to serve them, His disciples were to use their power as leaders to serve others just as He Himself did (Mark 10:35-45).