Matthew 2:1-12

Wise Men, a Con Man, and a King

Please turn to Matthew chapter 2. This is a very well-known advent passage about the wise men from the east bringing gifts to Jesus. There’s a lot of mystery and wonder in this text. Part of that is because we’re not given many details about the wise men. However, we are clearly given their goal. And so, as I read, listen for why they were seeking Jesus and what they did when they found him.

Reading of Matthew 2:1-12.

Prayer

In our house, you’ll find several nativity scenes at this time of year. They’re festive and add to the aura of the season. But you know, they don’t really accurately depict the manger scene. And one of the inaccuracies is with the three wise men. Most nativity scenes have them. They’re usually tall, wearing middle-eastern attire, and bearing gifts as they stand next to the animals.

Well, first of all, we’re never told how many there were. Yes, they had three gifts, but that does not mean there were only three of them.

And second, they did not arrive when Jesus was born. No, actually, they arrived likely when he was 1 year old. They weren’t there to see Jesus in the manger.

I’m not trying to be the grinch and steal your Christmas joy. Rather, I just want to be sure we distinguish what we actually know versus what tradition has come up with over the centuries. There’s a big difference.

So, then, what do we know? Who were these wise men led by a star to Jerusalem and then to Jesus? Well, we are told they were from the east and we are given a clue of there origin base on their name. The name “wise men” comes from the Greek word magoi. Some translations give them the title of Magi. It’s a word derived from the Persian word for wise men.

And because of that, some believe that the Magi came from where the Medo-Persian empire was centered (which is where modern day Iran is). Others believe that the Magi came from the region where the Babylonian empire used to be centered. That’s where modern day Iraq is.

There are good reasons for both possibilities.

If we go back to the book of Daniel, it uses a very similar word for the wise men of the land. Daniel, as you may know, lived in Babylon in exile. Similarly, the book of Esther, which takes place in the Persian capital, also uses a similar word for wise men. In both cases, the Greek translation of the Old Testament uses the word magoi.

And honestly, I don’t think it makes much of a difference whether the Magi came from Medo-Persian roots or Babylonian roots. Even though these empires were centered in adjacent regions in the middle east, they overlapped as each kingdom took control. A few decades after Babylon conquered the whole region, they were then overthrown by the Medes and then the Persians. After that it was the Greeks under Alexander the Great who conquered the land, and then Roman Empire, which was in control when Jesus was born.

And when these empires overthrew one another, it’s not like they killed all the people. No, the people just were under the control of another kingdom. Yes, some of them moved out or were exiled. Others moved in to govern, but overall, the culture and history were preserved or intermixed with the new empire in power.

Furthermore, when we consider the Babylonians and the Medes and the Persians, they each had their wise men. We know this from the Old Testament text as well as from historical writings from the time. The Magi were the highest educated men of the land. They were given utmost respect and they had major influence in the culture. In fact, extra Biblical writings about the Medes particularly emphasize this. Someone could not become a king in that empire without first the same rigorous study as the wise men. Even more, in the Median Empire, it was the wise men who anointed the king. Think about the significance of tht if the Matthew 2 wise men came from that region.

The bottom line is that the Magi who were led to Jerusalem were held in the highest esteem and had significant cultural prominence.

Now, let me mention something else important. These Magi knew some of the Hebrew Scriptures. Let me make that case.

First, let’s go back to Babylon. When Babylon overthrew Judah in the early 5th century BC, thousands and thousands of Jews were relocated to Babylon. They brought their culture with them. They brought their history and they brought their writings. Even when they were later permitted to return to Jerusalem, most of them remained in Babylon and some even intermarried with the Babylonians.

Not only that, think of the testimony of Daniel and of Shadrach, Meshach and Abendego. Their wisdom and faithfulness earned them great status in the Babylonian Kingdom. King Nebuchadnezzar found them 10 time wiser than the wise men and enchanters of the region. That’s mentioned in Daniel chapter 1. And when they were put to the test, God delivered each of them - you know, the three thrown in the fiery furnace, and Daniel from the Lion’s den.

After each incident, it was the Babylonian king who decreed that the one true God should be worshipped and served. These men were furthermore elevated to a high standing in the land. Daniel himself ended up being promoted to the third highest position in the entire Babylonian kingdom. You see, their wisdom, wisdom from God, became part of the wisdom of the land.

A very similar thing happened in the Medo-Persian empire. Esther in the Old Testament was Jewish, but she was chosen to be queen by the Persian King. Some of you know the history. A plot was made against all the Jewish people in the land. They were to be slaughtered, but through the wisdom of Esther and her uncle, that plot was turned against the perpetrators. In the end, it was the Jewish people who prospered in all 127 provinces of the kingdom. It mentions from India to Ethiopia.

Here is my point. Whether the wise men from the east came from a Babylonian heritage or from a Medo-Persian heritage, the wisdom of the land included wisdom from God almighty. Their education would have included testimonies of God’s people and their teaching, which God had spread all throughout the east.

So, these Magi, who were the highest learned men in the near Eastern culture, would have studied and known the God of Israel, and his prophecies, and the wisdom given his people. Perhaps they knew Balaam’s prophecy from Numbers 24 that “a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel.”

So, yes, they came from the east, but they were not unfamiliar with what God had revealed and the prophecies of the Messiah.

Now, we are not told what prompted them to leave their country and follow a star to Jerusalem. They may have been given a vision given by God in a dream (you know, similar to the dream they were given in verse 12); or it may have been an angel appearing to them similar to how angels appeared to Mary and Joseph and the shepherds. Or, as some have suggested, it may have been their studies of the Jewish Scriptures and the timing of the Messiah. We don’t know, but whatever means God used, they knew that they were to seek the promised king who had come… and that he was worthy to be worshiped.

Notice what they said when they arrived in Jerusalem. Verse 2. They asked: “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

Now, given the prominence and status of these Magi, their arrival in Jerusalem came with great acknowledgment. We know that because word of their arrival and their question.. filtered all the way up to King Herod.

By the way, this Herod was Herod the Great. That is how he was known. Multiple Herods are mentioned in the New Testament. All of them are descendants of this Herod, Herod the Great. And none of them reached the prominence and power of their father or grandfather.

This Herod was even given the title “king of the Jews” by the Roman senate. He wasn’t even Jewish. This Herod is the one who built the great city Caesarea by the sea. He similarly constructed the mountaintop fortress of Masada in the south.

This is the same Herod who ordered the massive renovation of the temple. He did this to try to please the Jews and solidify his title. If you remember, the temple had been rebuilt some 500 years earlier by some of the exiles who had returned. However, Herod transformed and refined it. He doubled the size of the temple mount. And he had the temple adorned with gold plates, and had it covered in white marble. The Jews appreciated this, of course, but it didn’t change their opinion of him.

In fact, in 2007 (you know, less than 20 years ago) archaeologists actually found Herod’s tomb. It was inside the massive fortress that he built near Bethlehem called the Herodium. When they found it, they also found that Herod’s sarcophagus had been smashed to pieces. You see, the Jews hated Herod the Great. It’s likely, back in the first century, a group made their way into the chamber and destroyed his coffin and did something with his bones.

That is because Herod was not a just ruler. He had his first wife executed, including his mother-in-law. He also executed three of his sons. And he had dozen of opponents killed, including high priests and pharisees.

Now, look at verse 3. When Herod heard about the wise men and that they were seeking the newborn king of the Jews, it says Herod was troubled. This larger-than-life ruler of the land, who had political and military power, was troubled.

Of course he was. These renowned Magi from the east had arrived and they were seeking a new king of the Jews. But that was Herod’s title.

Do you see why he asked the Magi in verse 8 to find the child born a King? It was not, as Herod had said, so that he could also worship him. No, not at all. Herod was a con man and a tyrant. He wanted to put to death yet another potential threat to his power.

Herod did not know where to find this newborn king, so he did two things. First, he asked the priests and scribes. They mentioned Isaiah’s prophecy about Bethlehem. Well, that wasn’t narrow enough, so second, Herod met with the Magi. He asked them to return to him after finding the newborn king. Well, as the text mentions later, the Magi were warned about Herod in a dream. And so, Herod would never get his wish.

So, the Magi were in Jerusalem. Herod had met with them. They knew they needed to travel further, but exactly where, they did not know. But just like before, a star rose to guide them.

This star is mentioned four times in Matthew 2. It had brought them west from their country to Jerusalem. The star then turned them south towards Bethlehem. And it led them to the very house where Mary and Josph and baby Jesus were staying.

But you ask, how can a star, high in the heavens above lead to a specific home? This is why I believe that it was more of a supernatural star-like object in the sky. Afterall, it moved. It turned them from heading west to south, and then it was able to bring them to a specific place. As verse 9 says, it came to rest over the place where the child was.

So, the Magi arrived.

Now, in a minute, I want to come back to what they did at that moment. But first, let’s consider their gifts.

They had brought gifts with them from the east. We sing about them and hear them often at this time of year. The Magi brought gold, and frankincense (not Frankenstein), and they brought myrrh.

Now, different scholars have postulated different meanings for the gifts. Some have simply said the gifts were merely a royal tribute. In other words, the Magi brought expensive gifts as they would for any king.

Others have suggested that each gift signified something. I think that’s likely the case. Let me work that out.

First, the gift of gold. Just like today, it was the most precious of metals. It was hard to find and hard to mine. Gold had many uses, but one prominent use of gold was for a king. You know, crowns were made mainly of gold. Kings drank from vessels of gold and they wore golden rings. They carried golden scepters. All those uses are highlighted in various passages in the Scriptures. Of course, gold was not exclusively used for kings, but it’s reasonable to conclude that in the giving of gold by the wise men, they were acknowledging Jesus as a king.

Second, they also brought him frankincense. It’s a strange word. At its core is the word incense. And that is what it was. It came from a rare tree that grew in East Africa. Frankincense is referenced many times in the Old Testament as a fragrant perfume. Most often it was used in the temple by the priests including the high priest.

Now, here’s the important part. In it’s temple use, Frankincense was reserved for incense and sacrificial anointing for Yahweh – for God. It’s even referred to as Yahweh’s incense. So, it’s reasonable to conclude that the Frankincense signified Jesus’ divine nature and his priestly role.

Which brings us to the last gift. Myrrh. It was a perfume. It was used as a beautiful fragrance for women. You can find it referenced multiple times in the Song of Solomon. Elsewhere in the Scriptures, it’s mentioned as a fragrance for clothing. But also, it was used as one of the burial spices. The bottom line is that Myrrh was a fragrance for man – you know, mankind. So, it was different from Frankincense which was reserved in the temple use for Yahweh. Myrrh was instead used for the people. As one commentator put it, “it was a perfume used by and in the interest of… man to make his life more pleasant… and his burial less repulsive.” So, as a gift from the Magi, Myrrh likely signified Jesus’ humanity and perhaps his atoning death.

In sum, the gifts brought by the Magi testified to who this child was. In the very least, the gifts testified to his kingship. But likely they furthermore testified to the fulness of Jesus divine nature and the fulness of his humanity.

In his humanity he was, at that time, a young child born a king, but in his deity, he had existed from eternity past as God the Son. And he had come. The Magi knew and they testified to the wonder and awe of who this child was.

He was worthy for them to worship.

And I want you to notice something significant. Before the Magi even entered the house, look what verse 10 says. They rejoiced with exceedingly great joy! They gave praise to God for leading them to Jesus. They recognized the significance of that moment in history and that God had brought them to this place, to this child king. And after that, the Magi entered and it says they fell-down before him and worshiped.

These revered men, who were not Israelites, who were known for their decades of study and known for their cultural prominence fell down before a one-year old child and worshiped him.

Is that not tremendous? I think it is in a couple of different ways.

Number 1 - God used non-Israelites to acknowledge his Son, the true king. These Gentile Magi affirmed what many Jews would reject. As the Gospel of John points out, Jesus came to his own, but his own did not receive him. The worship by the Magi is a tremendous thing. It affirmed what the Scriptures in the Old Testament had been saying all along. That through the offspring of Abraham, through the seed of David, all nations would be blessed. It is truly an amazing affirmation of the Gospel call to all tribes, tongues, and nations.

Number 2 – the second thing that is tremendous is that they were led by God. God had turned the hearts of these men to him and they followed him. They followed his star. Even with all the temptations for pride that comes with knowledge and wisdom, these men humbled themselves to worship the true king. Go back to verse 10, again. They rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. Again, this was before they fell down and worshiped. In other words, they gave glory to God for leading them to Jesus. And then they worshiped him.

Believer in Christ, you and I were not led by a star to Jesus. But it is no less supernatural how God turned your heart and mine and led us to him. Yes, let’s worship the newborn king in this advent season. Yes, let’s give praise to God in Christ who is Lord and Savior. Yes, let’s declare the reason that Jesus came. He was born to die in our place and then resurrected so to overcome sin and death and the devil for us. So, yes, let’s worship Jesus for all these reasons. But let’s also rejoice like the Magi for God bring us to him. Were it not for God leading in our lives, we would still be in darkness. But God has led us to his Son, the King.

Perhaps you’ve come today or you’ve been coming, but you have yet to fall down and worship. God has been leading you. After all, you are here. He’s led you to Jesus. He’s led you to hear his Word. But there’s something preventing you from falling down in worship. Maybe skepticism. Maybe you say that you cannot intellectually get to a place of belief. But if there was any group back then who could argue against belief, it would have been the Magi. Wouldn’t it not? The Magi were the intellectuals of the time. Yet, they submitted themselves to God and they humbled themselves before him. They both praised him for leading them to Jesus and then fell down and worshiped the true king.

God has led you to this point. Let him now lead you into the house before the humble king.

It takes faith, doesn’t it? Was it not by faith that the Magi followed the star. It was. It also requires setting aside your unbelief and forsaking your own way. It takes humility to recognize all that you don’t know compared to the wisdom and glory and power of God. And it takes falling down before him and submitting your whole life to him, just as the Magi.

Will you let God lead you into his house and will you fall down as the Magi did to worship Christ? He is, as 1 Corinthians says, the power of God and the wisdom and of God. He is worthy to be worshiped.

What an amazing testimony in these verses… of God at work leading and affirming that he himself has come to us.

May we each praise God for leading us as he did the Magi. And as they also did, may we each humbly fall down before the king of kings, for who he is… and for what he has done for us so that we may worship him. Amen

Malachi 2:10-16

We are continuing in the book of Malachi. This morning we’ll be covering chapter 2 verses10-16. Please turn there. You can find it on page 954 in the pew Bible.

This is our fourth of eight sermons in Malachi. It’s a short book. It only has 4 chapters, but as you have seen already, it packs a punch.

Malachi’s prophecy began with a reminder of God’s electing love for Israel. But then God turns to the ways in which they have been unfaithful in response.

The overall theme of the book is God’s faithfulness and Israel’s unfaithfulness.

And we will see that clearly in our text this morning. The people were demonstrating a lack of faith in God because of unfaithfulness in their marriages.

Reading of Malachi 2:10-16

Prayer

There is one relationship in life that is more important than any other. This relationship requires dedication. It’s a relationship built on forgiveness. It’s one where if you are not seeking to honor the one with whom you are in this relationship with, then you will struggle. Your path will be filled with difficulty. This relationship is that important.

I’m talking about your relationship with the Lord.

Some of you probably thought that I was going to say, “your relationship with your spouse.” Right? After all, a marriage relationship is critically important. But your relationship with the Lord is more important.

It’s tempting to see our text this morning as only applying to marriage. After all, it has plenty to say about marriage, and we’re going to get there. However, this passage is ultimately about your faith in the creator God. So, whether you are married or not, you are directed to draw near to the Lord by faith.

I don’t know if you noticed it, but the word “faithless” is used here 5 times. Look at verse 10. After asking a couple of rhetorical questions, which we’ll get to, it says, “why then are we faithless to one another.” Then immediately in verse 11. “Judah has been faithless.” Judah was the southern kingdom which was exiled, some of whom had returned. So in other words, God was calling them faithless. Now go down to verse 14. In the middle there it says, “…the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless.” That is repeated at the end of 15. “Let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth.” In those instances, it is faithless to their spouse. And finally, this passage ends with this, “so guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”

So, faithless. Their faithless actions and faithlessness in their marriages, displayed a faithlessness before God.

To give a little structure this morning, we’ll consider this in 4 points.

1. Faithless before a Faithful God (2:10–11a)

2. Faithless with a Faithless Bride (2:11b–12)

3. Faithless to a Faithful Bride (2:13–16)

4. Faithful despite a Faithless Bride

Those may be hard to remember, but they are printed there on page 4.

1. Faithless before a Faithful God (2:10–11a)

So again, #1, Faithless before a faithful God. Verse 10 and the first half of verse 11 begin by emphasizing their covenant relationship with God and therefore with one another.

The two questions there in 10 direct them to God. Malachi asks “Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us?”

They already know the answer. Yes, he is God their Father. Yes, they are his children. And yes, he is their creator. Those questions are to remind them of who God is;  who they are; and the centrality of his relationship with them. You see, before God speaks into the tangled mess of their marriage relationships, he first directs them to himself.

He also directs them to one another.

That is because their faithless actions not only reflected their faithlessness before God. But it also reflected on their faithlessness with one another. In other words, because they were in a covenant relationship with God together, anyone who broke that covenant with God, was being faithlessness toward one another. And anyone breaking the covenant with one another, was being faithless before God.

By the way, we are going to get very practical in just a couple of minutes. But before we get there, it’s critical to first understand why breaking the covenant was an act of faithlessness.

It says that by their actions, they were “profaning the covenant.” That’s  a strong statement

Let me say a couple things about it:

·      The reference to covenant here includes the promises that God made to Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David. God established a relationship with them as his people. He called them to be his. He gave them his law. He promised them a kingdom and that they would be a people as numerous as the sands of the sea. They were set apart by the God of all creation. It was a beautiful thing.

·      But they “profaned” the covenant relationship. They profaned it because they were dishonoring God by violating the relationship that he had established with them. They had been breaking his commands. Rather than acting in faith, some had been rejecting the covenant promises that God had given them. So, it was serious. That’s why it says in 11 that they had been faithless. They had been faithless to God and faithless to one another.

Now, I want to say one more thing before we get to the heart of this passage about marriage. In the middle of verse 11 it says that they profaned the “sanctuary of the Lord.” At the heart of the word translated “sanctuary” is the word set apart. Some believe this is a reference to God’s covenant people. They were profaning one another. And I think that’s right. It goes along with two things. First, verse 10 had just said that they were faithless to one another. And second, immediately after saying they had profaned the sanctuary, it says, “which he loves.” Remember from the opening verses of chapter 1. God loves his people.

In summary, their sin broke faith with God and with one another.

Sometimes we don’t think about that. Our sin is not only a sin against God it is sin against the covenant community. No matter our sin, it affects the community, sometimes in a more direct way, which we will see here, or sometimes indirectly. Either way, it was breaking fellowship with God and with one another.

Ok, then, but what was it? What sin had they committed which was an abomination to God and which was faithless to one another?

Well, they had been violating God’s sacred establishment of covenant marriage. They were violating it in two ways: First, many had been marrying people outside of the covenant. And second, many had been unlawfully divorcing their spouses.

2. Faithless with a Faithless Bride (2:11b–12)

Which brings us to points 2 and 3 about those two things. About unholy marriage and unlawful divorce.

Point 2 is this: Faithless with a Faithless Bride. They were being covenantally unfaithful because they were marrying outside of the faith. Right there at the end of 11. They had “married the daughter of a foreign God.” Verse 12 points the finger at some men who were doing this

When the exiles were in Babylon, all around them were not just Babylonians but also other nations that Babylon had conquered and brought to Babylon. The temptation was to intermarry with those outside of God’s covenant people. But even when they were back in Jerusalem, there were now people from other kingdoms. Part of the temptation was marrying into the people group who was in control in order to improve their plight. Now, whether it was just an attraction to someone outside of the covenant community or whether it was for economic gain, either way, it was an abomination, as God says.

And let me be very clear. This is not about race. There is nothing in the Bible that prohibits marriage between people from different ethnic backgrounds or people groups. Rather, this is about marrying outside of God’s covenant community. That is very clear at the end of verse 11, “the daughter of a foreign God.” Plus, we have several examples of women who were originally outside of God’s covenant community, but who became part of the covenant, and then married an Israelite. Think of Ruth. Ruth was a Moabite woman who was joined the covenant community and then married Boaz. Rahab is another example. She was a Cannanite, whom God spared from the destruction of Jericho because of her faith. She married Salmon.

The admonition for us is to only marry someone who shares our faith in Christ.

Let me take a moment to speak to those of you who are not married – young and old. Not everyone is called to be married. The apostle Paul wasn’t married, and he makes it clear that there are blessings to being single. But many of you have the desire to be married. Younger kids, I want to make sure you are listening as well. Marriage may be far from your mind right now. You may be thinking “eww, marriage.”  But that will likely change. So, listen as well.

If you decide to get married, the most important thing is to marry someone who shares your faith in Christ. It’s God’s command to marry in the Lord.

The world says that love is not a choice. It says that when love finds you, no matter with whom, you cannot say “no.”

But don’t buy the lie. Don’t mix up attraction with love. Love is a choice. Yes, you should be attracted to someone you want to marry, but that person needs to share your faith and commitment to your Lord and Savior. There is no such thing as missionary dating. Do you hear me? You are playing with fire if you are dating someone who you think you can win over to Christ. It’s the Holy Spirit job to change someone’s heart. Don’t go there.

The most important relationship you have is with the Lord and if you can’t share that with your spouse, it is difficult and comes with consequences.

I know several godly people who are married to unbelievers, and they would confirm that struggle. Sometimes that happens because one spouse comes to faith in Christ after getting married. Praise the Lord. If that happens, the struggle is still there. If you are in that situation, stay married. As the Scriptures say, so that you may win over your spouse.

But sometimes someone young in his or her faith marries an unbeliever. It’s only later that the person realizes the sin of it and how difficult it is. God forgives and he helps. If that is you, stay married and continue to pray for your unbelieving spouse to believe. And we will pray along with you.

But for those of you who are not married, I plead with you, if you marry, marry a Godly man or woman who loves the Lord and his Word. Not just someone who says they are a Christian, but someone who demonstrates their faith and Love for the Lord.

These verses are saying that marrying outside of God’s covenant community demonstrates faithlessness. The consequences are difficult.

3. Faithless to a Faithful Bride (2:13–16)

Which brings us to the other thing that they were doing. Many were unlawfully divorcing their spouses.

This is point 3. Faithless to a Faithful Bride. As we already saw, twice it mentions unfaithfulness to the wife of their youth. These men had made a covenant commitment to these women, yet they were walking away from their marriages. We’re not told, but perhaps some of them were the ones who then married outside of the covenant community.

Before I go on, I want to be sensitive to the burdens and pain in this room from past marriages. Some of you have endured difficult marriages that have failed. Perhaps your marriage failed because of your own sin or perhaps your spouse’s or perhaps both of you. Whatever the situation, it’s hard and there’s often relational fallout beyond the breaking of that marriage covenant. But I want you to know that God is merciful and forgiving. As you look back and either recognize your own complicity or you feel the hurt of being sinned against, know that God forgives and ministers his grace.

To be sure, God’s mercy and forgiveness is never to be a justification for an unbiblical divorce. The Scriptures are clear about divorce. Jesus spoke of divorce being permissible when sexual infidelity has occurred. Elsewhere abandonment is included. I would include abuse as a form of abandonment. These grievous sins are the only grounds for divorce.

What was happening in Jerusalem is that marriages were being annulled because a spouse no longer cared to be married. And because of it, God no longer heard them or received their offerings, verse 13. They were weeping because of God not receiving them. It was not a godly grief that led to repentance, but rather just a groaning because of the consequences.

In verse 14, they ask, “why has he not?” Why does God no longer accept us?

By the way, this is the Malachi pattern, remember. They were reaping the consequences of their sin but didn’t acknowledge their sin. And so the hammer drops again. Two weeks ago the hammer dropped on their polluted offerings. Last week it dropped on the corrupt priests. And here, it’s back to the people, some of whom were faithless by divorcing their spouses without warrant.

But they had made a covenant with their spouse. The Lord was a witness to that covenant commitment. And look at verse 15. “Did he [that is, God] not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union?” They were united to one another in marriage. It’s a reference back to Genesis 1. God was actively present in bringing about that oneness. So by abandoning their marriage, they were abandoning God. And not only that, they were abandoning God’s call for them to raise their children to know the Lord. As the middle of 15 says, God desires “Godly offspring.” It would be a downward spiral of faithless future generations.

Now, not every husband or wife was walking away from their marriage. But even some who were still married were considering divorce.

We know that because it says, “guard yourself in your spirit and let none of you BE faithless.” The verse before said some of them “have been faithless.” In other words, for the ones who were still in their covenant marriage, they were to guard their hearts and minds against going down the path of divorce. And, actually, did you notice that the phrase, “guard yourself in your spirit” is used twice. Once in verse 15 and second in verse 16.

Ok, let me now speak to those who are married. Some of your marriages are struggling. And I probably only know the half of it. Every marriage has its ups and downs, but some marriages have acute struggles for a variety of reasons. And it is hard. What is supposed to be the most intimate relationship on earth, is sometimes fraught with tension and mistrust and heartache because of current sin or past sin... which can lead to more sin and cause more tension and more mistrust and more heartache.

If that is you, I want to say two things:

1. As it says here, “guard yourself in your spirit.” Do not let yourself wander to thoughts of divorce. Don’t let go of the covenant that you made to your spouse. Pursue your spouse again. Recommit yourself to your marriage. There’s a warning here of faithlessness if you pursue unbiblical divorce. So, guard your thoughts and your heart.

2. Number 2. There is help and there is hope. There is not a single elder here unwilling to help if your marriage is struggling. Please reach out. I will meet with you and pray with you, multiple times if necessary. We can also find help outside of our church if you would be more comfortable with that. But please reach out. If you do not think your marriage needs help, but your spouse does, let me encourage you to honor and listen to your spouse. Set aside whatever is preventing you from getting help.

And do not lose hope. We serve a God who is in the business of forgiving and reconciling. The forgiveness and reconciliation that he gives you, individually, is the basis for forgiveness and reconciliation in you marriage.

4. Faithful despite a Faithless Bride

Which is a nice transition to point 4. Faithful despite a Faithless Bride

I’m not talking about a marriage between a man and a woman here. I am talking about the marriage between Christ and his church. Despite the unfaithfulness of God’s people, his bride, God has remained faithful.

The marriage paradigm is the pattern that God uses all throughout Scripture to convey his faithfulness despite our unfaithfulness.

And this goes all the way back to the garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve sinned against God, when they ate of the forbidden fruit, their sin was spiritual adultery. They had been in a covenant relationship with God. He promised them life, but they turned against his promise of blessing and instead ate that which was forbidden.

That spiritual adultery theme continues throughout the Scriptures. God’s people were betrothed to God, but they forsook his name and committed spiritual adultery against him by going after other so-called gods from the surrounding nations.

But as we read in Hosea 2 earlier in the service, despite the people’s unfaithfulness, God promised that he would be faithful. He promised to be their husband who would protect and lead them in righteousness and justice. They would once again be called his people and they would call him their God. This is the pattern over and over in the Old Testament. The people forgot the Lord. They acted in adulterous ways like the people here in Jerusalem. Yet God was merciful… and just like here, he called them back to himself.

And the climax of this marriage paradigm in Scripture… is found in Christ. He not only sought his bride, the church, but as we read earlier in Ephesians 5, he died for her. There is no greater love. He sanctifies and cleanses her. By giving his church his righteousness, Christ presents her pure and spotless. SO not only is he faithful despite her unfaithfulness, he makes her faithful.

And he nourishes and cherishes her and leads her. And all of that will come to full fruition when he returns for the consummation of the great spiritual wedding. He will usher his people, his bride, into the wedding supper of the Lamb forever.

Beloved, this is the reason that marriage is sacred. Marriage on earth is patterned after the union between God and his people. It is why a Christian should only marry a Christian. It is why God hates divorce. It is why those who are married should fight for their marriage and not against it. It is why in a marriage relationship you should love and forgive just as Christ loved you and forgave you. It is why a husband has been called to be the spiritual leader in his marriage and home. It is a sacrificial leading. Again, as Ephesians 5 said, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and died for her.

The people in Jerusalem didn’t have this full picture, yet. They didn’t yet know of what was to come. But as we will find out in these next 2 chapters, God is going to lift the curtain and give them a glimpse of what was soon to come for them. In the meantime, they were to return in faith to God by returning in faithfulness to their covenant marriages.

For those who desire one day to be married, seek Godly spouses by faith in Christ. And for those who are married, pursue and love our spouses because God has pursued and loved you. For all of us, may we see the beauty and wonder of our bridegroom, Christ. And because of his love and faithfulness to us, may we seek to be faithful in return to him.

Please turn in your Bibles to Malachi chapter 2. Our sermon text is verses 1-9. That can be found on page 953 in the pew Bible.

Last week, we learned that the people had been bringing polluted offerings to the temple. They were supposed to bring unblemished offerings for the sacrifices. Instead, they brought lame and sick and blind animals. By doing so, they were dishonoring the Lord.

I usually don’t spend a lot of time on sermon titles. But last week’s title and this week’s title are connected. Last week’s title was The Polluted Offerings and the Pure Offering. This week, it’s The Polluted Priests and the Perfect Priest. That is because last week’s passage and this week’s passage are connected. The problem was not only that the people were bringing impure offerings. The problem was also that the priests were allowing it. And not just allowing it, supporting it and failing to lead the people in God’s way and will.

Let’s now come to God’s Word

Reading of Malachi 2:1-9

Prayer

In 1794, a young man was ordained to pastoral ministry in Berlin. He was brilliant and eloquent. This man had studied theology and philosophy at a Protestant university named after the great Martin Luther.

As a young pastor, he witnessed the younger generation in Germany walking away from the church. That greatly grieved him, as it should. But, to win them back, he developed a new kind of theology which he hoped would make Christianity more attractive to modern minds.

He began to teach that the essence of faith was not trusting in God’s revealed truth, but feeling God’s presence within. The Bible, he said, was not divine revelation itself, but a record of human experiences with the divine. Repentance gave way to sentiment, and the cross of Christ became a symbol rather than a saving act.

His name was Frederich Schliermacher. Sadly, his sermons and teaching spread across Germany. Even worse, after he became a professor at the University of Berlin, his influence spread to all of Europe and into America.

In the last two centuries, Schleiermacher’s beliefs have led thousands of churches and millions of Christians astray. Few men in modern history have done more to undermine the Gospel while claiming to defend it.

I bring this up as an example of what Malachi 2:1-9 warns against. The priests were supposed to lead the people. They were the ones who were to direct the people to the Lord and were to faithfully teach his truth. But they failed.

Look down at verse 7. I know we are jumping ahead. But this is an important verse about the role of priests. It says, “For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.” The priests were not only to oversee the temple and sacrificial system, but they were to faithfully teach God’s truth. By the way, that is different from a prophet. A prophet was given new revelation from God. A priest was to teach what God had already reveled. Does that make sense?

Well, as you know, we do not have priests today. No, the priestly function in the Old Testament has been fulfilled in Christ. That is why there are no priests in the New Testament. There are no more animal offerings, because, as a reminder from last week, Jesus offered himself for us as the ultimate offering for sin.

However, there are some parallels between priests and pastors… or priests and teachers of God’s Word. Both are to direct people to God, and both are to faithfully teach his Word and live out his ways. So, a big part of the application of these verses today is about preachers and teachers. And as you will see, the stakes are high.

Now, you may be tempted at this point to check out. Maybe you are thinking, “I’m not called to teach the Bible, so this doesn’t really apply to me.” Well, I want to say a couple things.

·      First, one of the passages we read earlier in the service was from 1 Peter 2. In 1 Peter 2:9, God’s people are called a royal priesthood. Maybe you’ve heard the phrase, “priesthood of all believers.” In some ways, we are all to teach and model God’s Word. You may not have a formal teaching role in the church, but you may be called to disciple others at some point in your life. Or if you are married, you have a responsibility to lead or participate in leading your family.

·      Second, this passage teaches us to know what to look for in a Godly leader in the church. In the Old Testament times, the priests were descendants of Levi, one of Jacob’s 12 sons. However, in the New Testament, elders and pastors in the church are appointed by the church. So, we have a responsibility to seek Godly men to lead.

I’m just saying that these verses apply to everyone in the church.

Which brings us to Malachi 2.

We’re going to look at three things: #1. The Curse. #2. The Corruption. And #3. The Covenant.

1. The Curse

So, number 1. The Curse.

Briefly look at verse 1. It says, “And now, O priests, this command is for you.” It’s referring to the command in chapter 1 to bring pure offerings. Last week, our focus was on the people bringing their offerings. But the bigger problem was that the priests were letting them. The priests were not rejecting the offerings that the people were bringing. They were not reminding the people of God’s command to bring unblemished offerings. Furthermore, the priests were taking the people’s polluted offering, and they were the ones sacrificing them on God’s altar – polluting God’s altar.

Also from last week, we saw that the end of chapter 1 was all about honoring the Lord. The people were dishonoring him by bringing inappropriate offerings. But it was the priests who were leading the people to dishonor God.

That is why, in chapter 2, verse 2, God warns them. He says, “If you will not listen, if you will not… give honor to my name… then I will send the curse upon you.”

That word “curse” is used three times here. God is warning of their damnation if they do not repent. “IF you will not listen or… honor me, THEN I will send the curse upon you.”

Well, what was the curse? Three things would happen.

·      Number 1 – God would curse their blessing. In fact, verse 2 says that he has already cursed their blessing. The priests blessing was their blessing on God’s people. Quite often at the end of our worship, Coleman or I will use the Aaronic blessing from Numbers 6. You probably know it well, “may the Lord bless you and keep you, may the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.” Aaron was the first High Priest – he was from the tribe of Levi. And he and the priests were to bless the people. Well, God had taken away their blessing. In fact, he had turned their blessing into a curse. Instead of blessing the people… through their words and actions, they were cursing the people. That's very sad.

·      Number 2 – The Lord also says that he would “rebuke their offspring” – their seed. This is about the Levitical line. You see, these priests were priests because their fathers were priests. Their fathers were priests because their father’s fathers were priests. The priests in Malachi 2 were part of the priestly succession going all the way back to Levi. God was saying that their particular branch of the Levitical line would end with each of them. It was a devastating warning for them.

·      And Number 3 – this one was the worst… and most graphic. Middle of verse 3.  “I will spread dung on your faces.” It’s referring to the contents of the entrails of the offerings. When the people brought the offerings, the priests prepared the offering. They would remove the inner digestive system. You know, intestines and such. Those things were to be carried off and burned outside the temple area. It was all unclean. God was saying that the priest’s acts were so shameful that God metaphorically would spread the unclean intestinal dung on their faces. They were to be carried off like the innards to be burned. It’s a stinging warning they would be cursed like the dung.

Add those three things together and it is a pretty condemning curse upon them.

#2. The Corruption

Which brings us to point #2, The Corruption.

We’re going to move down to the second half of our passage next. We’ll come back to the middle section in a minute. We’ve already looked at verse 7 which is about their responsibility to teach. But now look at verse 8.

It begins, “you have turned aside from the way.” The priests own lives did not display the godliness and wisdom of God. They were not living out God’s commands. And that makes sense, doesn’t it. It stands to reason that if they were not directing the people to fulfill God’s commands then they themselves were not doing it.

Not in every case, but often a pastor who begins to teach false doctrine or who does not direct his people in righteousness, has himself fallen from the way.

And the result of turning aside is found in the second half of verse 8. “You have caused many to stumble by your instruction.”

I want you to think of the gravity of what they were doing. The priests were leading people to destruction. That is why the curse, as we just considered, was so condemning! Their sin not only impacted them, it impacted many.

A friend once said to me, “you know, all sin is the same before God.” He was trying to argue that his sexual sin was the same as telling a white lie. But that is not true. Yes, each and every sin deserves God’s judgment. Our sin, no matter what it is, condemns us before our holy God. No matter our sin, we need Christ. That is all true. However, there are degrees of severity with sin. It is not the same to think of murdering someone in your heart as it is to actually murder someone. Some sin, like actual murder, is more heinous. Some sin is more grievous in God’s eyes. All sin deserves God’s judgment, but some sin is more severe.

And one of the worst sins in all of Scripture is when the leaders of God’s people abuse the sheep or lead them astray. Malachi 2 here is just one of several Old Testament judgements against godless and morally corrupt leaders. Ezekiel 34, Isaiah 56, Jeremiah 23, and Zechariah 10 all speak of God’s condemnation of the “corrupt” and “worthless” so-called “shepherds” and “watchmen” of Israel. Think of Jesus anger against the Pharisees. Or in James chapter 3, verse 1, it says “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” Now, if you’re a math or science or English teacher, the Lord is not necessarily talking about you. Rather, his greater judgment will be upon teachers in the church.

That is why the hammer is so heavy here in Malachi 2. They, themselves, had fallen from the way and they were leading people astray.

You need to fire me… the moment I begin to teach false doctrine. If I ever start teaching things contrary to the Gospel of Jesus Christ or in direct contradiction to the Word of God, I should no longer be allowed to be a minster. I think you know this, I’m talking about tier one things that are very clear in Scripture. Things that we share with the Bible-believing Protestant world.

For example, that salvation is found in Christ alone. There is no other way. Jesus death on the cross satisfied the wrath of God, for those who believe in him. We receive Jesus’ righteous when we come to him by faith and in repentance. And furthermore, that the Bible is the very Word of God. It testifies to its own authority. You should boot me out if I ever undermine essential doctrines like those.

You also need to fire me… the moment I commit a sin that undermines my responsibilities… like abuse or infidelity or a pattern of ongoing sin that is not being delt with or of which I will not repent. Obviously, like any elder, I sin and need the grace of God. However, just like the priests of old, a leader in the church should model faith and repentance.

3. The Covenant

Which brings us to that very point. #3 The Covenant

In the middle verses here, verses 4-6, we are given the picture of what a priest should be like!

By the way, you’ll see the word “Covenant” used several times in these verse. When I first saw that, I thought it was referring to the Covenant of Grace. You know the covenant that God had established with his people. The Covenant of Grace includes the covenant with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David. They all, in different ways, are part of the Covenant promises fulfilled in Christ. After all, verse 7 speaks of life and peace and reverent fear. Those are all benefits of God’s Covenant with his people.

However, I realized that the word Covenant here is actually referring to the specific responsibility that God had given to Levi and his descendants. Verses 4, 5, and 8, specifically refer to God’s “covenant with Levi.” To be sure, the priestly order and responsibilities given to Levi directed God’s people to the Messiah, so it’s not unrelated. But it’s different.

By the way, there’s not a single passage in the Old Testament which describes the covenant with Levi. However, we are given their priestly responsibilities in the book of Leviticus. That is why it is named Leviticus, of course. Also, we read from Deuteronomy 33 this morning which speaks of God’s blessing upon Levi and his descendants. They were to keep the covenant; they were to observe and teach the word. The Levites were also to administer the offerings on the altar, and they were to protect the people from false teachers.

And now look at the end of verse 5 into verse 6. “…he feared me.” As we talked about before, that’s a reverent worship-filled fear of the Lord. “He stood in awe of my name. [verse 6] True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity.” That description is the opposite of the priests of Malachi 2. It’s the model.

The priests were to give honor to God’s name. They were to teach the truth of God’s Word. Furthermore, walk with God in uprightness. And instead of leading people astray, they were to turn many people from sin.

This is God’s call for teachers and pastors in the church.

I read a really good book last year. It’s titled, Pastor as Leader. The author, John Currie, is a professor at Westminster Theological Seminary. He teaches and trains future pastors. The whole book is about the character and responsibilities of a pastor. The book is very rich and it’s full of Scripture.

Currie summarizes a pastor’s role this way: “for the glory of God, a man of God, appointed by the Son of God and empowered by the Spirit of God, proclaims the word of God so that the people of God are equipped to move forward into the purposes of God together.” That’s helpful, isn’t it? Let me read that again… [repeat]

That really captures the heart of Malachi 2:5-6.

This is the kind of pastor that each and every church needs. A man who seeks God’s glory and not his own. A man who leads his sheep in God’s Word through his Spirit, and who cares for and loves them in Christ.

I’ll say, it’s both sobering and inspiring to me. It’s sobering because I know my own weaknesses and propensity for sin. I know I’ve failed at these responsibilities many times and perhaps even at times have hurt you without even knowing. I feel inadequate.

But it’s also inspiring because God doesn’t call without equipping. He doesn’t leave pastors to their own strength. No, God gives clear guidance to the role and responsibilities of a shepherd. His Word clearly reveals his salvation and clearly reveals his truth and his way. God furthermore gives his Holy Spirit to lead in righteousness and truth. And God provides earthly accountability in the process.

And there’s one more related thing. Look again at verse 6. “True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity.”

Who is this referring to? Is it referring to Levi? Well, Levi failed in many ways – he was vengeful and a murderer.

What about Aaron, one of Levi’s descendants? He was Moses’s brother and the first High Priest. Is verse 6 referring to him? Well, don’t forget that it was Aaron who led the people to melt their gold and create the idolatrous golden calf. He, at first, led many people astray.

Verse 6 certainly doesn’t describe Aaron’s sons, who brought unauthorized fire and experienced God’s immediate judgment.

In Numbers 25 we are given the example of Aaron’s grandson, Phinehas. He was identified as a faithful Levite who fought against unrighteousness. Perhaps verse 6 alludes to him.

But in the end, there is only one who meets this description. He is the one in whom all the Levitical requirements are fulfilled. He is the perfect High Priest. Every single word he spoke was true instruction. Absolutely no wrong was found on his lips. He followed the way of God, keeping all the commandments of God. He not only walked in peace, as verse 6 describes, he bought and brought peace with God - peace beyond measure. And last, he turned many from iniquity. And the word “many” is a vast understatements. He had led billions in the way of truth and righteousness.

Beloved, this is your Savior Jesus. In him is truth and righteousness, and through him is the only way to God.

May each and every one of us as a priesthood of believers look to him for he is the way, the truth, and the life.

 And may every single pastor and teacher point to him as the great shepherd who laid down his life for his sheep… and may they point to his Word.

And may we each follow his lead and model for he is the perfect priest.

Malachi 1:6-14

The Polluted Offerings and the Pure Offering

We are in the second week of a new sermon series. We’re studying Malachi. It’s the last book in the Old Testament.

Malachi was prophesying to the returned exiles in Jerusalem…. at some point in the mid-400’s BC. However, even though many had returned, the situation was pretty dire. That is why the Lord reminded the people in verses 1-5 that he loved them. He had chosen them to be his people. They had been questioning God’s love and thy needed that reaffirmation.

Which brings us to verses 6-14 of chapter 1. You can find that on page 953.

As you are turning there, let me note that at this point in history, the temple had already been rebuilt – likely a few decades earlier. That meant that the sacrificial system had resumed. People would bring their offerings to the temple, you know, different kinds of animal offerings, and the priests would take them and sacrifice them, presenting them to the Lord.

As we come to our text this morning, you will hear that all was not right with the offerings.

Stand

Reading of Malachi 1:6-14

Prayer – revealed your righteousness. Truth. Like the people of old, failed. HS. Conviction. Ways in which we do not glorify you in our lives and worship.

A few years ago, a woman found a Butterball turkey at the bottom of her freezer. She had forgotten about it and after checking the date on it, realized it had been there for 26 years.

She wondered if it was still good to use, so she called the Butterball support line. They said that as long as her freezer had stayed below freezing for the entire time, the turkey would be fine to eat. However, the support agent said, it likely has lost all its flavor.

To which the woman responded, “if that’s the case, I’ll just give it to my church.”

I know that’s just an anecdotal story, but it does illustrate how we often today de-prioritize the things of the Lord including his church and worship and our personal and family Scripture reading and prayer. But as God has called us to in his Word, we’re to honor him with our first fruits, or like Mary Magdelene, to anoint Jesus’ feet with the finest of perfumes, or like in the sacrificial system, to present to him our unblemished offering, not our leftovers.

But what does it mean to offer to the Lord our finest and why does it matter? I hope to answer those questions this morning.

Introduction

Before we get into our text, I do want to note that the book of Malachi is pretty intense. We are going to see in every section how God confronts the people and the priests with their sin - their corruption, their idolatry, their immorality, their faithlessness, their selfishness, and their lawlessness. God hates it. He hates our sin. His judgment is real, which we will also see over and over. Which brings up a question you may be asking, “ok, well, how does that fit with last week’s message that God loves them? That his love for them and us is unconditional? Yet he is angry at their sin?”

Let me answer that this way: God’s unconditional love does not give us license to live unconditionally. 2x. In other words, we are not free to do whatever we want just because God love us. God’s standard and law do not go away when you receive God’s love in Christ.

To be sure, pursuing God and his commandments are not a prerequisite to receive his love. No, God’s love is unmerited meaning we do not earn it by our works or keeping his law in any way. No, we receive it on the basis of Christ’s work. But that does not mean that after receiving his love in Christ, we are free to pursue our own desires and will. No, God calls us to submit to him, to pursue his righteousness, to honor him in our lives. That is very important as we study Malachi. God continually calls out their sin because he loves his people. He wants them (and us) to reflect that love by honoring him.

Honoring and Fearing the Lord

Which brings us to our text. In fact, this whole passage is about honoring the Lord. It is about our hearts reverently fearing him.

Honestly, I didn’t see that initially. The first couple of times I read it, I only saw the failure of the people to do the thing. You know, they were failing to follow the law. They did not offer the best sacrifices, as they were required. Therefore, I thought that the primary reason the Lord was angry was because their offerings were polluted. Now, it’s true that their offerings were unacceptable. But the Lord was angry because they were not honoring him. Their polluted offerings were just a symptom of hearts that did not fear or honor God.

That’s the thrust of this passage. It’s right there in the beginning, the middle, and the end.

·      First, look at verse 6. God questioned why they had not been honoring him and fearing him? He said to them, “where is my honor? … where is my fear?” He was asking, “why have you not been giving me the reverent awe and worship that I deserve as the God of the universe?” Instead, they were despising his name. That’s what it says. They were dishonoring him.

·      Next, jump now to verse 11, in the middle. It says, “For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations.” Even if you do not honor me, my name will be honored throughout all the earth.

·      Now look at verse 14. Our passage ends with that same reaffirmation. It begins, “Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock, and vows it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished.” Why? Listen to the reason. “For I am a great King, says the Lord of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations.”

You see, their polluted offerings revealed hearts that did not honor and fear the Lord. God is the great king over all the earth, over all of creation. Yet they were despising and dishonoring his name.

And do you know what? They did not even realize it. Or, they denied it. Look at the end of verse 6. “But you say, How have we despised your name?”

Side comment here - I’ve read Malachi several times now, and there’s something I’ve been convicted about. The people did not realize their sin nor the depth of their sin. In every section, like this one, God tells them their sin and every single time, he quotes them question him. Like here “How have we despised your name?” And verse 7 “How have we polluted you?” They didn’t see it.

I’ve been asking myself, what sin am I blind to in my life? Is there pride or selfishness or some heart idolatry or some area where I am dishonoring God? Every single one of us in this room is blind to some sin. Now, there are many sins in our lives which we know about and struggle with. But there’s also sin that we do not recognize, or we suppress. Will you pray that the Lord reveals that sin, that unconfessed sin? And will you listen to him when he does? May the Lord reveal our sin and refine us.

Ok, back to our passage, the returned exiles did not know they were dishonoring God. But it was bad. They were polluting God’s altar. Their relationship with the Lord revolved around the temple sacrifices. God had commanded them to bring animal offerings of different kinds for different sin on different occasions. The priests were to take the people’s offerings and then sacrifice them to the Lord on the large altar just outside of the temple. Those offerings symbolized the need for atonement for their sin. That is why, as we read earlier in Leviticus 22, they were to bring an unblemished male… the very best and purest of their flock.

But, as we read in Malachi 1, they failed to do that and they therefore despised the Lord’s name. By the way, the priests were especially guilty here. More on that next week.

Now, let’s enter back into their situation for a moment. Remember from last week, even though they were in Jerusalem and the surrounding areas, they were subjected to a foreign kingdom. That came with heavy taxation. It came with some opposition at the local leve. Much of their forefather’s land had been taken over by this godless people. On top of it all, they were enduring a famine. Every day, they struggled to survive.

Now, imagine that you lived there and that you had 5 goats. You had to care for and feed them. There wasn’t, you know, kudzu everywhere for them to eat. The younger females would produce milk, and you could use and sell the milk. The healthy males were especially valuable – and they could be sold if needed. Your goats were important for your daily sustenance.

Well, the time has come for one of the annual sacrifices. You are to bring one of your 5 goats to offer to the Lord. And out of the five, three of them are female. You couldn’t offer them. Of the two left, one is a healthy male and the other male has a bad rash and is sterile – it’s unable to reproduce.

So, which goat would you bring? I know it’s hypothetical, but put yourself in their shoes. Their unblemished male goat was their prized possession. Offering it would put themselves at risk. So, what did they do? Well, they brought their weakest or sickliest animal to the temple to be offered.

As very 8 tells us, they brought their blind, or lame, or sick animal to present to God Almighty. But it gets even worse. Look at verse 13. It’s the parallel verse in the second half. We learn that they didn’t even want to bring any sacrifice! The people were saying, “what a weariness this is” and as it says, they snorted at it, you know, like a horse unwilling to move.

It furthermore says some even took animals by force for the offering. In other words, they stole and offered what was not even theirs to the Lord. IN all these ways they profaned God’s altar.

I think we can certainly understand their temptation. But they were dishonoring the creator God of the universe who had commanded them to offer their best…. He’s the one who breathed life into them, who called them to be his people, who rules and reigns over all things, who promised them eternity with him. He is the great God who saved Noah and his family, who covenanted with Abraham their forefather, who revealed himself to Moses, and promised through David a kingdom that would never end.

And look at the second half of verse 8. God points out that they would never bring such a gift to an earthly governor. The Lord asks, “will he accept you or show you favor?” Of course they would not bring a sickly goat to an earthly ruler as a gift – it would greatly dishonor him.

Yet that was the very thing that they were doing to the “Lord of Hosts.” Did you notice that description of the Lord multiple times here – seven times. The Lord of hosts. The Lord of the heavenly armies, king of kings, who has and will subject all earthly rulers under his sovereign reign. Yet they had defamed his great and awesome name.

Their worship… because that’s what this is – their offering to the Lord… their worship was complacent. They were simply going through the motions. They didn’t care about God. After all, as we learned in verses 2-5, they weren’t even sure he loved them.

Friends, in difficult times, it is easy to slip into a similar pattern. God can become just an afterthought. Instead of giving him our whole heart and mind and body and strength, he’s often at the bottom of our list.

Instead of giving back to him the first fruits of the talents he’s given us, or the first fruits of the resources which we steward; or our most precious resource – our time; instead of honoring him with those things, we direct them to ourselves. We keep our unblemished offering and we offer him our polluted offering.

What about Sunday morning worship? Are you bodily present here but your mind is wandering to things of work, or yesterday’s football game, or your upcoming vacation? Do you let your mind wander to those things including your difficult situations and struggles? Are you going through the motions, but your heart is far from the Lord?

If you were in the presence of the governor of Georgia, would not your attention be fully on him? I think it would. Yet, when you come into the presence of the Lord of the universe, is your attention on other things and not worship directed to the one who created you and who loves you and who invited you into his very presence?

And what about those Sundays that you are not here? Are you travelling because flights are the cheapest on Sunday mornings? Are you at the beach and make excuses that because you are in God’s beautiful creation that you don’t need to worship with God’s people? I’m not saying that we shouldn’t enjoy travel, but God desires us to be worshipping together with his people. If you are out of town, find a Bible preaching church where you can worship the Lord with other believers in the splendor of his holiness. Find a church where you can exalt his name and where his Word is declared, where you can give him glory in your hearts and praise him with others lifting your voices together to the one who is worthy.

You see, in all of these ways, and many more, we are complacent in our worship of God. I’m talking about both our gathered worship and also how we are to worship God in all of life.

And then there is verse 10. It’s like the nail in the coffin. “Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain!” In other words, it would be better if someone barred you from bringing your sacrifice to the temple. It would be better not to bring any sacrifice than the vain polluted offering that reveals your wayward heart and which despises my name. Or as the Lord put it in Revelation 3, writing to the church in Laodicea, “Because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”

The Lord is not mincing his words here. They had profaned God’s mercy and holiness. God would have been just to consume them with the fire of his eternal judgment.

Yet, he didn’t.

These verses called them to forsake their vain, polluted, and heartless worship. God desired his name to be honored. He was calling them to return to him… to repent… to once again come to him in reverent holy fear. Instead of bringing their polluted offering, they were to once again bring a pure, unblemished offering.

There was an even deeper reason why their polluted offerings were profaning the name of Lord. Yes, they were breaking God’s commandments. And yes, their offerings revealed hearts that were complacent. But even more so, they were disregarding the Messiah. They were defaming Christ, who had yet come.

You see, all of the sacrificial offerings were set in place in anticipation of a Messiah, of a deliverer, who would come and who would be the perfect sacrifice. He would be the unblemished perfect offering. The sacrificial offerings in the old covenant demonstrated the need for a pure offering to once and for all atone for their sins.

And so, by offering their sick and blind and stolen offerings, they were rejecting God’s promise that he would send a pure, righteous Savior who would be offered in their place for their sin. It was a matter of faith. Their difficult situation did not relieve them from trusting in the future promise that a Messiah would come and would be the pure offering.

This is what verse 11 is alluding to. God’s name will be great in all nations. As it says, “in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering.” To translate that, incense was the sweet aroma which signified the prayers of God’s people. Psalm 141 speaks of our prayer being an incense before God. And in both Revelation 5 and 8, the incense in the golden bowls were the prayers of the saints which would rise to the very throne room of God.

The Lord was saying to them, a time will come when throughout all nations, prayers would be offered to the Lord, and a pure offering would be made.

And that time has come. Jesus has come and he has offered up himself as the pure offering. His sacrifice has fulfilled all the sacrificial offerings of old. But more importantly, he has satisfied the debt of our sin before our holy God.

And so why do we seek to honor God in our hearts when we worship? Why do we seek to be obedient to his commands to worship him well? Why do we set aside this particular day to gather together and praise the Lord? Two answers:

·      First, because when we do, with hearts tuned to him and his mercy, we honor our Lord. We bring great fame to Jesus our Savior. Our prayers are received in his name as a holy aroma to our God. God is both honored in our lives and his glory and name is displayed for all to see.

·      Second, we seek to worship him well because he is the pure offering. As John the Baptist said, Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. We worship him with grateful hearts because of his mercy and forgiveness. Our worship is a testimony of true faith in him. He enables our worship. He is the center of our worship. And we will be worshiping in his presence forever.

Even in those days of trials and pain and temptations and grief (especially those days), come before your great God and your Savior, honoring and fearing his great name.

So, leave your 26 year-old Butterball turkeys at home. Give him the first fruits of your time, your talents, your resources. They are all from him, anyway. Furthermore, plan your trips around the Lord’s day and worship with God’s people, in person together.

And when you come to worship, focus your hearts and minds on him. And do all of this because of God’s great name and because Christ, our Savior, has offered himself, for you. Amen.

Malachi 1:1-5 - From Doubting God’s Love to Declaring God’s Love

We’re beginning a new sermon series this morning. We’ll be in the Book of Malachi for the next couple of months. You can find Malachi chapter 1 on page 953 in the Pew Bibles.

Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament, so if you can find the book of Matthew, turn left a couple of pages.

We’ll begin with verses 1-5.

One note before I read. In these verses, you will hear of a reference to Edom. The Edomites were the descendants of Esau. That will be some helpful context.

Reading of Malachi 1:1-5

Prayer

When I was in high school and college, I spent a few summers working at a Christian camp.

Well, one particular summer, one of my fellow counsellors had a very difficult camper.

This kid was, I think, only in 1st grade. And he was rambunctious. He was mean to the other campers. He struggled to follow rules. He didn’t want to participate in activities.

In those moments, his counsellor would get down on one knee to his level, and try gently instruct him. During dangerous activities, like archery, his counsellor would often have to hold his hand, to keep him safe. Of course, the other boys in his cabin would get angry at him. Their counsellor would always intervene and remind them all to speak kind words to one another.

Well, one afternoon, things escalated. The counsellor tried to calm his camper down, but the boy lost it and started screaming. Literally, the whole camp could hear it. They were in the middle of a big group activity, so his counsellor had to gently carry him away.

As this young boy was being carried away, he kept screaming over and over, “I hate you.” “I hate you.” To which his counsellor calmly responded over and over, “I love you.” “I love you.” Their back and forth slowly faded as they passed out of sight.

The camper, of course, didn’t understand that his counsellor did love him. He didn’t know what love really looked like in that situation. To this boy, it didn’t appear to be love at all.

Maybe some of you who are parents have experienced something similar.

Well, as we get to Malachi chapter 1, God’s people, likewise, were questioning God’s love. It didn’t feel like God loved them. But he did. And in response, God mercifully reminds them of his love.

Most of us here today have at one point or another cried out to God. We’ve questioned whether he was even there or if he was loving. Maybe that is what you are feeling today.

My hope and prayer that you will leave here with a renewed or new sense of God’s love for you.

Introduction

As we get into the book of Malachi, let me first mention some background things.

Malachi is one of 12 books called minor prophets. They are called “minor” not because they are less important but because they are shorter. We don’t actually know much about the prophet Malachi other than that his name means “messenger.” He was a messenger from God.

As we will find out next week, he lived in Jerusalem. And based on the themes in the book and its position in the Old Testament cannon, Malachi prophesied sometime during the middle of the 400s BC. He very likely overlapped with Ezra and Nehemiah. At that time, some of the exiles had returned from Babylon to Jerusalem, and the temple had been rebuilt.

The last thing to point out is the word “oracle” right there in verse 1. It’s used throughout the Old Testament when a prophets were given a particularly burdensome word from God. Oracle, in fact, means burden – you know, like a heavy load that an animal would carry on its back and the weariness or distress that it would bring.

When the word “oracle” is used to describe a prophetic utterance, it is conveying the weight of that prophecy. As we work our way through Malachi, we are going to see the weight of this prophecy. Over and over, God very clearly calls for repentance from grievous sin, and God warns them if they do not return to him.

However, before all of that, God begins with a reminder of his love. And that is what verses 2-5 are about.

If you turn to page 4 of your bulletin, you can see where we are headed.

·      First, God’s Love Doubted. Verse 2.

·      Second, God’s Love Defended, the end of verse 2 through verse 4

·      And third, God’s Love Declared, 5

So, God’s love doubted, defended, and declared.

1. God’s Love Doubted

We see right there in verse 2 that the people doubted God’s love for them.

 “I have loved you,” says the Lord, but you say, “how have you loved us?”

By the way, this is the pattern throughout Malachi. God quotes the people questioning him, and then he answers. It’s the organizing framework for the book.

How have you loved us, Lord? It sure doesn’t feel like you do.

This was a difficult time in Jerusalem. We don’t often think of it that way because, after all, the people were back in Jerusalem. The temple had been rebuilt. However, socially and economically, it was a very unstable time.

Yes, the Persian kings had supported the return and rebuild, but that did not mean prosperity. No, the people experienced a lot of trouble and opposition. Taxes were high. Jobs were scarce. They were in the middle of a famine. The people had to mortgage their fields and vineyards and houses just to survive. Some even forced their sons and daughter into slavery. We know those things from Nehemiah 5. All of it weighed heavily on them.

And think about their expectations. God had promised through Isaiah and Jeremiah a return from exile back to Jerusalem. The people had in their minds the glory of the former unified kingdom – you know, prosperity and peace. They pictured Solomon’s temple restored to its original beauty and splendor. I’m sure some even pictured a return of the national power that Judah and Israel had once had.

But their expectations came crashing down with the reality of their situation. They couldn’t lift their eyes to see beyond each day… because of the difficulty that each day brought. It was not peace and prosperity, it was survival mode.

And in their minds, who was at fault? God. And so, they were asking, how have you loved us, Lord? Where have you been?

Have you or are you asking that?

Lord, do you love me? It sure doesn’t feel like it. I can’t find a job or it’s hard to financially survive each day. Or I’ve lost a parent or a spouse or a sibling or a child. Or even harder at times, my relationship with my son or daughter is estranged, or I’ve endured the pain of divorce. Or my health is deteriorating more each day, Or I struggle with chronic pain or a debilitating disease. Or my loved one is.  I feel all alone. Or I’ve been a victim of abuse or false accusations.

Lord, where are you? Do you really love me?

Maybe someone told you this well-known phrases once: “God has a wonderful plan for your life.” Have you heard that before? It is one of the most unhelpful statements in evangelicalism. I’m not saying that it is not partially true. Stay tuned for that.

But becoming a Christian does not mean that you will experience peace and prosperity in this life. To be sure, being a Christian does come with many blessings on earth. Blessings in relationship and community with one another in the church. Blessings of worship and prayer, and many others things. But if we expect that our days on earth will be filled with temporal success or health or relational flourishing, we will become deeply disappointed. And it may cause us to question God’s love.

I want you to note something in verse 2. Before the Lord quotes their questioning of his love, he begins by affirming that he does love them.

“I have loved you.” By the way, that word “love” is not the word “hesed.” You know, God covenant lovingkindness. Rather, that word for “love” is the word “ahab.” It is a word for love that focuses on a loving relationship. It’s God’s love for them as his people whom he chose to be his people.

In fact, the verb form indicates that God’s love for them has been accomplished and it is definitive. It’s like saying, I *did, I do, and I will * love you. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. God has, does, and will love his people.

What I want to say to wrap up this first point is that in those times of doubting God’s love... in those times when you are burdened by your suffering… or when you are wondering where the Lord is, God calls you to first remember that the Lord does love you.

But rather than just leave it there, the Lord goes on to defend his love. He explains the source of his love.

2. God’s Love Defended

That brings us to #2. God’s Love Defended.

In the second half of verse 2, the Lord returns their question with a question himself. He asks, “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” And then reminds them of his love for Jacob and his hatred for Esau. The Israelites are Jacob’s descendants.

Now, the reason that God reminds them about Jacob and Esau is because Jacob and Esau demonstrated both God’s unmerited love as well as his just anger.

Back in Genesis 25 and following, we learn about Jacob and Esau. They were both sons of Isaac. Twins, in fact. Esau was born first, so Esau was to have the privileges of being the firstborn, authority in the family, the blessing of Isaac, and a large share of the inheritance.

But if you remember, Jacob took advantage of Esau. When Esau was famished, Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of stew. And then Jacob lied to and tricked their father into blessing him instead of Esau.

Even though Jacob did not deserve it, God chose him and chose his descendants to be his people. Esau and his descendants, on the other hand, were rejected. You see, neither deserved God’s love, yet God chose Jacob. Jacob and his descendants were the ones who received God’s promise.

But, back to Malachi, there was the problem. To the people in Jerusalem (you know, the returned exiles), it sure felt like God loved Esau’s descendants and not Jacob’s. As I mentioned earlier, the Edomites were the descendants of Esau.

In fact, in some way, they partnered with or supported Babylon in the destruction of Jerusalem a hundred years earlier. We’re not told how, but we’re told elsewhere that Edom rejoiced in Jerusalem’s destruction. The prophet Ezekiel even mentions that Edom took vengeance against Judah. So, it’s possible Esau’s descendants even participated in Babylon’s destruction of Jerusalem.

Let me make a side note here. There is some evidence that after the Babylonian exile, another nation overthrew Edom and the Edomites were forced to move. There is also evidence that at this time Edom began rebuilding just south of Judah. If that is true, it certainly explains verses 3 and 4. They were displaced by jackals, as it says, but they began to rebuild.

I’m telling you all this because in these verses, God is both affirming his love for his people… and he is letting them know that even though Edom appears to be prospering again, it will be short-lived and their destruction would be eternal.

In contrast, the suffering that God people were experiencing would be short-lived but their prosperity would be eternal. Why? Because God chose them to be his people. He loved them with an undeserved and unconditional love.

Beloved in Christ. There are or will be times in your life when it seems like the enemies of faith are overcoming you. I’m talking about sin, death, and the devil. You will have moments when you are questioning God’s love because you don’t see a path forward. Your pain, suffering, grief, loneliness, or disappointments may overwhelm you at times.

But if God has given you the gift of faith in Christ, you are one of God’s chosen descendants of Jacob – his spiritual descendant. And God loves you. Does God have a wonderful plan for your life? Yes, because all his and your enemies will be defeated and one day, you will be rejoicing for eternity in his presence.

Do you see what I am saying. This passage, for them and for us, is ultimately fulfilled in the unmerited love of God in Jesus Christ. God chose all his people to be his people, not because of any self-worthiness. No. Just like with Jacob, despite our sin, God chose us to be his people. He called us in him before the foundation of the world. And God’s judgment against Edom is the judgment that Jesus bore on the cross for his people.

What I am saying, is that in those moments of despair and doubt. Remember not only that God loves you, but remember that he has called you to be his through Christ. And one day, God will defeat once and for all the very burdens that are weighing you down.

Just a week and a half ago, I was at an event where a missionary shared about a very difficult time. He and his wife were serving in Rwanda back during the difficult civil war there. It was tragic. Neighbors turned on neighbors. In a single day, a million people were killed. In one incident, a group or Christians fled to their church building. Their pursuers broke in and slaughtered every single one of them. As you can imagine, seeing all of it overwhelmed this missionary and his wife.

But then it became more difficult. Because, soon after that, his wife went into premature labor while there. Their son was delivered but the hospital didn’t have the expertise or medical equipment to save him. He died after only 5 days of life. This missionary described the deep struggle that he and his wife went through. They questioned God’s love and goodness in all of it.

They searched for answers.

He then recounted how Job demanded God for answers. And how God answered Job back and asked, “where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?”

And then this missionary said this: “Job never got answers, but he got presence. And in that presence, he worshipped.” That really struck me. God does not promise that we will not suffer in this life. But he does promise that he loves us and will be with us… and one day he will defeat his and our enemies forever.

This missionary closed by sharing how they were drawn back to Jesus and God’s love for them in him.

3. God’s Love Declared

Which brings us to point number 3. God’s love declared.

For the exiles who had returned to Jerusalem, both their worldview and their perception of God was small.

Remember, God had promised them many things. He had promised a Messianic king. He had promised a restoration of a kingdom beyond what could be imagined. He promised to defeat their enemies. And that was part of their struggle. None of it seemed to be coming to pass. In fact, for them, it seemed to be getting worse rather than better.

They forgot God’s love and his promises, and they lost hope.

What they needed was not only a reminder that they were God’s chosen people whom he loved. They needed a reminder of his future promises. Verse 5 says “Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, ‘Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel!’”

Most prophecies in the Bible have a more immediate fulfillment but also a future redemptive fulfillment. For the immediate, there is some historical record that the Edomites were soon overcome by both Greek and then Roman conquests.

But I think verse 5 is really meant to draw their attention to the future. To point them to a coming king who will be victorious, not only in Israel, but as verse 5 says, beyond its borders.

It’s like God was saying to them through Malachi, “Yes, I love you, but I also want you to lift your eyes up from your suffering to see what I will do! It will be far greater than you can imagine. Not only will the enemies of faith be destroyed, but you will see the greatness of my salvation to the world”

As you may have figured out, it was still about 450 years before Jesus’ birth. God was not saying that those particular people in Jerusalem would see the ultimate fulfillment of this verse. Perhaps they would see Edom overcome. But remember, the Lord was speaking to Israel. It is through them that that Savior would come. This is the last period in their history before Jesus came. And when he came, he would bring salvation not only to Israel, but his electing love would greatly expand beyond the border of Israel to the world.

Beloved in Christ, you and I are part of this promise. We are here today worshiping our God who has saved us because God has and is fulfilling this promise to Israel. Christ has come and His Gospel is going forth in mighty ways throughout the earth.

This is part of God’s reminder to us when we are doubting his love. Yes, we can rest in the fact that we are God’s people. We have his love in Christ. But in times of suffering and disappointment and grief and despair, we can lift our eyes up to see what God is doing all around us and around the word. It is truly amazing. And by seeing what God is doing, believing what he will do, we can and should then declare his love to the world.

As verse 5 puts it, “you shall say, ‘Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel!’”

From doubting God’s love to declaring God’s love.

Conclusion

As we close, let me briefly say that these opening verses are the foundation to the rest of Malachi. We’re going to see over and over the sin of the people, the sin of the priests, and the Lord’s call for them to repent and return to him.

Malachi begins where they needed to begin… it begins where we need to begin. Knowing and believing in God’s saving and electing love in Christ.

So, in our doubt and discouragement and pain, may we know and believe in God’s undeserved love for us in Christ – he has chosen us in him. May we lift our eyes to see what he is doing, and may we declare the greatness of our God in all of it. Amen.

Over the last 6 weeks, we’ve been talking through our vision, mission, and philosophy as a church. We started with 4 sermons on the pillars to our ministry.

·   First, being a faithful church, which begins with God’s faithfulness to us in the Gospel.

·   Second, the means through which God applies his grace in us – which are his Word, prayer, and the sacraments.

·   Third, the overarching theme of the entire Bible, God’s covenant promises and their fulfillment in Christ.

·   And forth, God’s appointed leaders for his church – elders.

And now we are applying those pillars to our worship, our discipleship, and our missions. Last week we focused on worship – that is, corporate worship. This week’s focus is on discipleship, and then next week, we will conclude with missions and outreach.

Please turn to Matthew 28 in your Bibles. Our first of two sermon texts is what we call the great commission. Matthew 28:18-20. That is on page 993 in the Pew Bible.

You may be wondering why our sermon text is the great commission, yet our focus is on discipleship. Well, that is because this passage is about discipleship. You can’t really separate missions and discipleship. In fact, worship is in the mix as well. Discipleship begins in worship and includes missions. They all overlap.

Reading of Matthew 28:18-20

Our second sermon text is from 2 Peter chapter 3. That is on page 1209 in the Pew Bible. 2 Peter 3 verses 14-18.

This is one of the more traditional passages related to discipleship. The apostle Peter has just written about the second coming of Christ. And then Peter writes these very important words as far as our godliness and our knowledge of Jesus Christ, as we wait for the new heavens and hearth.

Reading of 2 Peter 3:14-18

Prayer

If you were to survey 1000 pastors and you were to ask each one for a definition of discipleship, you would get 1000 different answers.

Some would focus on relationships. Others would focus on Bible study. Some would center their answer on serving. Others would say it’s about being real. Others would make the case that discipleship is all about missions. Some would say that it is about God’s kingdom – kingdom discipleship. For others, it’s life-on-life ministry. Others talk about sonship – being sons of God. Yet others describe it as head, heart, and hands. For some, families are the most important thing. For others, the church is key. Some say discipleship is about self-denial and taking up your cross.

And we ask why? Why are there a gazillion definitions of discipleship?

Well, I think the main part of the answer is quite simple.

The word “discipleship” is not in the Bible. It is therefore difficult to come up with a Biblical definition for that reason. To be sure, the word “disciple” singular and “disciples” plural are in the Bible. It’s just that the word discipleship is not. It’s is a word that we’ve come up with to capture the task of making disciples. The word discipleship seeks to answer the “how” questions. How do we make disciples of Jesus? Discipleship is about implementation. That is why there are so many definitions.

And so, I think it’s better not to come up with a single approach to discipleship. Rather, I think it’s best to first understand what a disciple is, then second, consider the foundations to making disciples. And only after we do that, can we evaluate discipleship approaches and start identifying our own principles.

Here’s what I am saying… rather than trying to come up with a definition of discipleship, it’s better to consider the broader Biblical framework for the task of making disciples. That framework can then be used to evaluate discipleship approaches.

By the way, this is an impossible task. I’m not talking about identifying the Biblical principles for making disciples, I’m talking about trying to preach on it in one sermon. I realized this on Friday afternoon. I thought, what have I got myself into? There is no way to fit this into a 30+ minute sermon. I also thought, I’m looking forward to getting back to our regular expository sermons in a couple of weeks.

But we are here now. And many of you have mentioned that this series has been helpful. So, I’m going to press on and try.

1. What is a disciple and what is the call?

As I mentioned, let’s begin with the question, what is a disciple?

Let’s start by looking at Matthew 28. These verses give us a good foundation on what a disciple is and what a disciple should pursue. And we know these verses well. Matthew 28 verse 19 – “Go therefore and make disciples.” By the way, much debate has been had about the underlying Greek words, especially the word “go.” We’re not going to “go” there today. Let me simply say that the imperative here is to “make disciples.”

The call is to bring people from not following Jesus to following Jesus. That is what the word disciple means - a follower. Being a follower includes, of course, believing in Jesus, but it implies a lot more. It includes a commitment to Jesus’ teaching, and his ways, and pursuing his commands… just like Jesus’ 12 disciples did.

So the call in Matthew 28 is to “make disciples” and that involves two things here. First, it’s bringing them into the covenant community. That’s what Baptism is. It includes either being part of a household, like circumcision in the Old Testament – that’s one reason why we disciple our children. Or it includes those coming into the covenant community for the first time as believers in Christ. So that’s the first task.

Second, making disciples also includes teaching the commandments of God. That is captured in verse 20. After the call to baptize, Jesus adds, “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Being a disciple requires learning God’s commands and pursuing them.

I think that all makes sense because that is what a disciple is and what he does. He believes and follows Jesus.

And the message to make disciples is simple. Faith, repentance, and obedience.

Matthew 28 does not speak to the message. But Jesus has been clear. The Bible is clear. The core message is repentance from sin and faith in Christ. That is what we call our children to, and it is the call for all humanity. Obedience is part of that call. It comes after faith and repentance, as a response to God’s grace. Again, Jesus said, “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

However, let me say this. The call to faith and repentance does not end when we come to Christ. No, actually, faith, repentance, and obedience is the ongoing call for a disciple. Ongoing repentance from sin; an ongoing renewal of our faith; and an ongoing commitment to observe the commandments of God.

Now, just to be sure, when you come to faith in Christ, you are secure in him. You are forgiven of your sin. That does not go away. Rather, renewing your faith in Christ, repentance from ongoing sin, and new obedience are in response to God’s saving grace. I just want to be clear about that.

Now, you may be thinking, “well, yeah, isn’t that obvious? Of course, a disciple should believe that Jesus died for his or her sin and should believe that we need to pursue holiness despite our ongoing sin.”

Well, the reason you may think those two points are obvious is because we teach them. We teach the heinousness of our sin before our holy God. We teach that the only path to God is by faith, repenting to God of our sin and trusting in Christ as our Savior. We teach that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross is necessary to atone for our sin. And we teach that in our redeemed state, we are still sinners. We are redeemed sinners who struggle with sin but are empowered by God’s Spirit to pursue holiness – and God calls us to pursue him. That is the Gospel.

But let me say, that message is not emphasized in many parts of Christianity. Often sin is minimized. The word “sin” is not seen as culturally sensitive today. And so, some circles replace it with words like “brokenness” or “struggle” or “woundedness.” I am not saying that we are not broken nor struggle nor have wounds. But when those ideas are used in place of sin and not in connection to it, then the underlying problem of our separation from God because of sin is suppressed.

What I am saying is that the task of making disciples of Jesus begins and ends with faith, repentance and the call to observe Jesus’ commands.

2. How do we mature as disciples?

Ok, let’s move on to a second helpful question. Let me ask you, how do you mature as a disciple of Jesus?

It’s important to ask that question because the Bible calls us to mature in our faith. We call that maturity sanctification. It is the ongoing work of God’s Spirit where more and more we die to our sin and live to righteousness. The task of making disciples needs to include that lifelong pursuit. All throughout the Bible we are called to grow in our faith. We’re called to be conformed to the image of Christ. We are called to be filled with the knowledge of his will. Hebrews 5 calls us to mature from milk to solid food like children. Ephesians 4 calls us to mature into manhood, growing up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ. In 2 Timothy 3, we’re to know the Word that the man of God may be equipped for every good work. Romans 12, we’re to renew our minds.

We would be here all day if we were to go through every single passage that speaks of being conformed more and more to Christ. Rather than doing that, I picked one example that I find to be very helpful as a representative passage. 2 Peter 3:14-18 – it was our second sermon text. If you’ll turn there.

This is one of my favorite passages about our sanctification.

We’re going to focus on verse 18, but I don’t want to overlook the context.

The apostle Peter had just written about Christ’s second coming when he will make all things new. While we are waiting, we’re called in verse 14 to “be diligent” that we may be “found by him without spot or blemish…” And then a couple of verses later in verse 17, there is a warning against sin. It says, “…take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people...”

Then we get to verse 18 which is my favorite. If you only remember one thing about this sermon on discipleship, I want you to remember this verse. 2 Peter 3:18. It says, “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” I love it. Let me read it again. “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

Look first at the titles given to Jesus. Lord and Savior. He is to be both. He is to be Lord over us as we live. We look to him, as Lord. He is to lead us in what is true and right and good. But Jesus is not only our Lord. Jesus is not just a model for living. His teaching includes more than just commands about how to live. He is also our Savior. He has redeemed us. He calls us, as I mentioned earlier, to faith and repentance.

And the command in verse 18 is to grow in two things: grace and knowledge of him.

·   First, we are to grow in grace. That is, more and more we need to see our sin and the depths of his mercy and love. We are to grow in our understanding of the cross and the hope of the resurrection in our suffering, and grief, and pain. That is all growing in grace.

·   And second, we are to grow in our knowledge of him. We need to know his Word, not for the sake of head knowledge but for the sake of knowing him, knowing God, in his fullness, and living out his commands.

You see, when it comes to discipleship, verse 18 is so very helpful. It directs us to the core things that discipleship needs to be about. It direct us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And that is very consistent with the rest of Scripture.

A few weeks ago do you remember that I sang you a song during my sermon? Remember it? “Read your Bible, pray every day, and you’ll grow, grow, grow.”

That was probably the first and last time that I’ll do that. Remember that we talked about the ordinary means through which God changes us. And what are those ordinary means? God’s Word, Prayer, and the sacraments. We considered Acts 2:42, about the early church, and we looked at Hebrews 4 as well as 1 Corinthians 10.

Our sanctification, that is, our growth in grace, comes through the Holy Spirit’s work in us as we engage in these appointed means – (1) reading and studying God’s word, (2) praying to the one true God of heaven and earth, and (3) participating in the visible signs through which he shows us the Gospel and strengthens our faith, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

And to tie that back to what I mentioned earlier, through those means, we are called again and again to repentance, to a renewal of our faith, and to further observance of and obedience to God’s word and will.

Here’s what I am saying. Any discipleship approach needs to include some aspect of those foundations. I’m not saying every discipleship approach needs to include all of it. But every discipleship approach needs to direct us toward maturing in Christ by… revealing our sin and his grace and commands… or directing us to God Word, prayer, and the sacraments. It is through those avenues, that God conforms us more and more to his image.

·   So, if a discipleship approach is only about loving as Jesus loved but mentions nothing about sin nor Jesus’ call to repentance and faith, then it falls short.

·   If a discipleship approach is all about being a better husband or wife, or a better doctor or electrician, or a better neighbor, but there’s nothing about the grace of God in Christ and being conformed to him and his commands, then it falls short.

·   If a discipleship approach is about the disciplines of the Christian life, but does not focus on knowing God’s Word and being in prayer, then it falls short.

I could go on with more examples. My point is that the Scriptures do give us a framework for making disciples. And that framework needs to be at the heart of our discipleship approach.

Discipleship at Tucker Presbyterian

Which brings us to our church – Tucker Presbyterian. Given what I’ve said already, how are we seeking to make disciples?

By the way, it’s entirely impossible for me to answer that question over the next 10 minutes.

But I do want to let you know that on the welcome table is a draft of our new philosophy of discipleship. We, as your elders, have been working on this for the last 2-3 months. It includes the foundations to discipleship, which I’ve just mentioned, but also includes our priorities in discipleship and how we desire to work those out… in worship, in our children and youth ministry, and our adult ministries, which includes our men’s and women’s ministries.

I can’t cover it all, but I do want to highlight 8 priorities or principles of our discipleship.

1. We believe discipleship begins in worship. This is really important. Corporate worship is where the means of grace converge, as I mentioned last week. God works through our worship, including our family or private worship. Through worship, he conform us to him as we declare salvation in Jesus Christ and praise God for his grace and mercy.

2. In our discipleship, we desire to foster a heart for missions – a heart for our neighbor and a heart for the nations. In other words, disciple making involves disciple making, which is calling people to faith in Christ. More on this one next week.

3. Discipleship needs to direct people to the local church. Local congregations, where God’s covenant people gather, are God’s ordained avenues for worship, discipleship, and missions. The sign of baptism is the sign of our ingrafting into Christ and therefore ingrafting into one another as a body of believers.

4. We seek to disciple one another across generations. God’s call for the church is to be a people of God together. We want our members, old and young alike, to know and care for and support one other in the task of discipleship. To be sure, we do not believe this should be the exclusive pattern. As Proverbs teaches, a brother is born for adversity, and as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. There is value in peer discipleship, but often times, churches overprioritize that and not intergenerational discipleship.

5. Every single one of us is called in one way or another to the task of making disciples. You may be a parent, you may be an ordained leader in the church, you may have been given one of several Holy Spirit given gifts mentioned in the Bible such as teaching or knowledge or wisdom. Even if none of that applies to you, you are still called to be a witness to your neighbor or co-worker or family member. We are all to be disciple makers.

6. This next one is about children and parents. Parents are ordinarily to be the primary disciplers of their children. However, not all children have believing parents or parent, nor are all parents available for different reasons. The church needs to support parents and children in the discipleship endeavor.o

7. Church discipline is a matter of discipleship. Two months ago, when we were in 2 Corinthians chapter 13, we considered the responsibility that the church has to disciple those whose sin is destroying the family of God or whose sin is unrepentant and grievous. We can’t unpack all of that here, but that sermon is out on our website and podcast. And let me remind you that the goal of church disciple is always repentance, renewed faith, and restoration.

8. Finally, number 8. Discipleship needs to happen in the context of fellowship. In Acts 2:42 intentional fellowship, or koinonia fellowship, is included with the means of grace. Fellowship is important. We believe discipleship happens in relationships with one another because we are brothers and sisters united together in Christ.

So, those are our priorities in discipleship: the priority of worship, a heart for missions, the centrality of the local church, discipleship across generations and in support of peers, assisting parents, church discipline, and all in the context of deep fellowship.

Conclusion

In summary, we do not believe there’s a one-size-fits-all pattern for implementing discipleship. However, that does not mean that all discipleship approaches are good. We need to evaluate each according to God’s pattern for making disciples which he has given in his Word.

And at its core, that pattern for making disciples involves (1) calling each other to faith and repentance and obedience in Christ, and (2) directing one another to the Word, prayer, and the sacraments. It is through those means that God will grow us in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Over the next 3 weeks, we’ll be working through our beliefs and practices in our worship, discipleship, and missions.

Really, these are the implications of the last 4 weeks… and how our foundational beliefs apply in those three areas.

So, today, we’ll focus on worship. And I do want to remind you that we have a philosophy of worship document. It’s next to the welcome table. That document gives the reasons behind the elements of our corporate worship. We’ll be talking through many of those today.

We have two sermon texts listed, Leviticus 10:1-3 and John 4:1-26. We will also be considering the second commandment from Exodus 20. We read earlier in the service.

Please turn to Leviticus chapter 10. You can find that on page 104 in the Pew Bible. This is a difficult passage. Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu make an unacceptable offering to the Lord. And they were met with God’s immediate judgment.

Reading of Leviticus 10:1-3

Reading of John 4:1-26 – Our second reading is from the Gospel of John, chapter 4. Please turn there. You can find that on page 1056. This is the account of Jesus’ interaction with the woman at the well.

Reading of John 4:1-26

Prayer

We live in the age of personalization. You can configure your home screen, your playlist, your news feeds, your chicken sandwich. Certain apparel can be tailor-made to your liking. If you buy a new car, you can pick exactly the features and colors you want before it’s even manufactured. A new home can be customized to your desire, including picking a floorplan, your kitchen cabinets, your flooring, the color of your walls, your bathroom tile and vanity, and the exterior look.

And those things are kinda nice, because, you know, we have different likes and preferences.

Well, Nadab and Abihu learned the hard way that the worship of God is not on the customizable list. That is, how we worship God is not something that we get to decide, but rather has been decided by God himself.

Now, I want to acknowledge that Leviticus 10:1-3 is a sensitive text. It’s hard to read and think about because here are two men who were coming before the Lord. Their father, Aaron was the very first High Priest among God’s people. He was Moses’s brother. But in that very moment when Nadab and Abihu came to the Lord, they were consumed by the fire of God’s wrath. They did not die in an accident nor were they killed by another man. No, it was God himself who inflicted his judgment directly on them.

And I’m sure you, like me, have many many questions. God, where is your mercy? What did they do to deserve this? Or how about this question, which you may also have: Do I deserve the same judgment?

Well, the answer to that last question is “yes.” Yes, I do. Yes, you do.

You see, one thing that this passage reveals is why Christ Jesus came and was crucified.

Jesus suffered the wrath of God in place of his people for the very reason that Nadab and Abihu were killed. God is a holy and just God. His judgment against sin must be satisfied. Nadab and Abihu experienced what Christ endured for those who turn to him by faith.

I wanted to say that up-front to relieve any undue burden for those of you who believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior. The holy justice and judgment of God, which Nadab and Abihu suffered, Jesus bore on the cross for you.

But that does not mean that Leviticus 10 only speaks about God’s justice and our need for mercy.

No, it also shows that God cares about how he is to be worshiped.

1. Worship According to God’s Word

Our worship, meaning, what we are doing here and now, our corporate worship, needs to be submitted to God’s Word.

That is the foundational thing that I want us to consider this morning. We need to worship according to what God has prescribed for us. I’ll begin by arguing that principle from a couple of passages, and then we’ll apply that to our worship this morning.

But first, back to Nadab and Abihu. They had been given the ceremonial requirements that the priests were to follow. In fact, right before they offered their unauthorized fire, Moses had presented all of God’s requirements for the priestly offerings and then their father, Aaron, made the first offerings to God based on those commands.

But Nadab and Abihu failed to meet them. They were supposed to consecrate themselves and their incense before coming to the Lord. That consecration involved a ceremonial cleansing which indicated their need to be holy in God’s presence. But they didn’t do that and they therefore suffered the immediate consequences of God’s holiness.

As I mentioned earlier, that event reveals the need for cleansing work of Christ, who makes us holy. So, Nadab and Abihu’s lack of obedience to God’s commands for worship… revealed that their hearts didn’t believe in the justice of God nor the Messiah who was to come.

Let me put it this way, God prescribes his worship to reveal his character, our need, and his mercy in Christ. The sacrifices and offerings of old directed the people’s attention upward to God and forward to Christ who was to come. The bottom line in Leviticus 10 is the need to trust God and worship him according to his commands.

Now, more could be said about Leviticus 10, but I want to move on to a second passage in the Bible that also reveals this principle. In fact, this second text is the most important passage about worship in the entire Bible. It’s that important. I am referring to the second commandment. We didn’t read it as part of our sermon text this morning. We read it earlier in the service. But let me re-read part of it. Exodus 20 verses 4-5

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God.”

Now, you may be thinking. “Ok, yes, we should not have idols, but isn’t that commandment really about other gods?” And the answer is “yes” and “no.” Yes, because it in-part refers to creating something that we worship that is not God. But the answer is also “no” because it’s refers to not creating a carved image or any likeness, as it says “that is in heaven above.” God is in heaven. In other words, we are not to make images or likenesses of God himself.

In fact, I would argue that is the primary point of the second command. The first command is that you should have no other Gods before him. The second command is saying that if we make images, even if we make them to represent God, we are not worshipping God, we are instead bowing down to something that is not God at all.

Let’s go back to when God gave Moses the 10 commandments. God had just miraculously saved his people from slavery in Egypt. He had just made a path through the Red Sea and destroyed the Egyptian army. God brought them safely to the base of Mount Sinai. And Moses is then called to go up on the mountain, where he is given these very commands carved on stone.

But back down the mountain, Aaron led the people to melt down their gold and make a golden calf and worship it. But do you know whose image they thought they were worshipping? They thought they were worshiping Yahweh. God himself. But they were gravely mistaken. They had come up with their own worship. Instead of worshiping the one true God, their idolatry was a false worship, and they received judgment. Why? Because God alone is to be worshiped and worshiped according to his commands.

That has huge implications for our worship, doesn’t it? We want to worship the Lord well. Our responsibility is to worship the Lord according to his Word and not according to our whims or our creative devices or the world’s ways.

Now I think this is obvious, but I want to say it anyway, just to be sure. The Old Testament sacrifices and offerings are no more. All those priestly observances and the annual festivals have been fulfilled in Christ. The second half of the book of Hebrews makes that really clear. Our worship no longer includes those shadows which pointed forward to Christ, but rather, our worship now focuses on Jesus and his sacrifice for us – the salvation we have in him. I just want to be absolutely clear about that.

Let me summarize so far. God desires to be worshipped. He is the only one worthy of worship. But our worship of him needs to be conformed to the pattern of worship that he has given us in his Word, as the second commandment teaches and as Nadab and Abihu learned the hard way.

We believe that principle is really important for the church. And so we seek to conform our worship to the pattern given in God’s Word.

2. What has God prescribed for our worship?

Which brings us to THE important question. What exactly has God prescribed for our worship?

We’ll spend the rest of our time on that question.

But first, a quick story. My first time in London I was at a series of conferences. And one of them was at a Pentecostal church – I think it was a Toronto Blessing church. Some of you may have heard of that before. Anyway, in the middle of a worship service, people were barking in the Spirit… like literally making animal noises. It was very disconcerting to me. I know that’s an extreme example of worship not according to God’s word. Another one like that would be snake handling. Of course, we set those aside. But let me ask you this: is it ok in worship to have skits? You know, dramatizations…or what about some kind of dance? Or what about movie clips? I just want to get you thinking.

Let me begin to answer the question about worship by going back to the foundations that we’ve talked about over the last few weeks. Because, our foundational beliefs especially come to bear in our worship. So let’s reconsider them with that I mind

Number 1 from four weeks ago: We looked at the church in Antioch which was faithful in three things - their devotion to Christ, their commitment to doctrine, and their desire to fulfill the great commission. Remember: the master, the message, and the mission. At the heart of those three things is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And the heart of our worship needs to be those three things. (1) a heart devotion to Christ as we praise God for our salvation in him, (2) the amazing doctrines of truth as we acknowledge God for his glory and grace, and (3) the declaration of his work throughout the world.

When Jesus was talking to the woman at the well about worship, he said “a time is now here when the true worshippers will worship Father in Spirit and truth.” Our worship needs to be grounded in God’s revealed Word, his truth, and empowered by his Holy Spirit. That means that our worship cannot be a empty going-through-the-motions kind of worship. Rather our worship needs to be Gospel saturated and Spirit led, as the Holy Spirit works in us as we praise the Father for the ministry of his Son.

You can call that the heart of our corporate worship.

Number 2 from three weeks ago: The ordinary means of grace. Remember what those are? God’s Word, prayer, and the sacraments. Those means of grace are the content of our worship.

God uses those appointed means to give us his grace, which changes us. And those means of grace converge in corporate worship. Infused throughout our worship are God’s Word, prayer, and the sacraments.

A couple of years ago, some out-of-town friends of mine were visiting. And after the service, one of them said, “there is so much Scripture in your worship service.” It was said, I think, to imply almost too much. But it warmed my heart. Besides our sermon passage, we have other readings. We often include responsive readings from the Psalms. Our call to worship and our benediction are from the Scripture. Our confession of faith is most of the time right from the Bible as well as our assurance of pardon. We intentionally fill our worship with God’s Word.

And as you know, also throughout our service, we pray. We open with our adoration to God. We confess our sin. We intercede for our needs and those of our community and world. We pray for God’s kingdom work in the world. We pray for the Holy Spirit to illuminate us before the sermon. We pray after the sermon and before and after the Lord’s supper. And. ss you probably hear, many of our prayers are filled with Scripture.

And speaking of the Lord’s Supper, in our worship, we celebrate the visible signs that God has given us – his sacraments. Both the Lord’s Supper and Baptism. They are part of worship as they display forth God’s covenant promises, including our union with him and one another and the cleansing work of Jesus Christ.

God’s Word and prayer and the sacraments are the primary content of our worship.

Number 3: In our third sermon in this series, we considered how God’s Covenant with his people is the unifying theme of the Bible, from Genesis (the first book) to Revelation (the last book). It connects God’s people in the Old Testament to us, the church today. Our worship emphasizes God’s creation, the fall, redemption in Christ, and the final consummation when he returns. We read from the Old Testament and the New including the Law and the Gospels. Our practice of Baptism likewise aligns with our belief in God’s covenant promises given to the next generation. Our sermon series rotate between the various genres of the Bible including the history portions, the wisdom literature, the law, the prophets, the Gospels, and the New Testament letters. And … each and every sermon always includes how our passage fits within God’s plan of redemption.

Ok. Number 4: Last week, we talked through our belief that God has ordained elders to lead his church. Their role is to shepherd the flock of God, comforting us in times of pain and grief, leading us to Jesus, calling us to repentance and righteousness and faith, protecting us from those who would seek to hurt us or lead us astray, teaching us the Word, and giving us godly wisdom in life. And I would include in the list of their responsibilities, leading our worship. Preaching, praying, and administering the sacraments. That is part of shepherding the flock.

By and large, that captures our public worship. Out of hearts that love the Lord and his church, we praise him for his Gospel, we pray to him, we focus on his promises and commands and their fulfillment as his Word reveals, and we practice the ordinances that he has given us in the two sacraments of the church.

But of course, there is one more thing that we cannot forget! Singing!

The scriptures are full of songs. When the Hebrew people were freed from their slavery in Egypt, they sang a new song. After the last supper, Jesus and his disciples sang a hymn and went to the mount of Olives. The Psalms are a book of songs! Furthermore, we are commanded to sing. In Ephesians and Colossians we’re called to sing Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. And we seek to fulfill that.

As you may know, we sing 2-3 Psalms from the psalter portion of our hymnal every month. But actually, we sing more Psalms than that because many of our hymns are based on Psalms.

And while it is wonderful to sing the Psalms, we do not exclusively sing the Psalms. That is because the Messiah has come. Jesus has come. Many of the Psalms allude to the coming of Christ, but they are veiled. Well, Christ has come, and we can sing of the cross, as we did today, and of Jesus’ resurrection. So, we sing God’s word from the Psalms, and we sing of their fulfillment in Christ. We sing rich hymns, as you know, old and new, from all eras of church history.

I’ll never forget an experience I had back in the early 1990s. I was travelling with a college choir to Eastern Europe. We visited several churches in different cities like Prague and Bratislava. On the only Sunday that we were there, we worshipped at a church in Oradea, Romania. It was a pretty big church. I think maybe 500 people. I remember not being able to understand what they were saying – the service was in Romanian. But then, they started singing Great Is Thy Faithfulness… in Romanian. It was very powerful. Mind you, this was only 5 years after the Romanian people overthrew their communist government. Their pastor had been in prison until that time. Through all of that, God was faithful. As they sang, we joined in English. It was wonderful to sing across cultures as well.

And, as you also know, we sing with instruments. Nine of the Psalms mention being written for stringed instruments and 13 other Psalms mention instruments in their songs.

Other places in the Old Testament mention trumpets, harps, flutes, and cymbals. In the book of Revelation, harps are mentioned in heaven, as the angels and saints sing a new song to the Lamb. And so we lift our voices, supported by instruments, as we worship in song.

But of course, singing a cappella is also beautiful, and so we sing without instruments once or twice in a service. Now, I’ll have to be honest, the cafeteria here is pretty unhelpful acoustically. I can’t wait to someday be in a space that supports our worship in song. Maybe soon. Let’s pray for that.

And finally, we occasionally have our children’s choir or our adult choir sing. Choirs and singers are mentioned many times in the Psalms. In Nehemiah 12, two great choirs participated in the dedication of the wall and then immediately in the temple worship service. To be sure, we all sing, but at times choirs lead in song, presenting a musical offering to the Lord.

In summary, at the heart of our worship is God’s faithfulness to us through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is out of our love for the Lord and his Word that we seek to worship him in Spirit and truth. And so, in our worship we read and declare the truths of God found in his Word; we confess our sin and rejoice in God’s forgiveness in Christ. We preach God’s Word testifying to its unity and God’s plan of redemption in Christ, as we seek to apply it to our lives. We pray throughout and we sing Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, seeking to give glory to God in all of it.

As we close, I want to say one more thing about our worship. We often fail. At times our hearts and minds are distracted. At times, our prayers or preaching are weak. Other times, we struggle to believe, or the elements of our service are lacking. But I want you to leave you with this: We have a savior in Jesus who is not only interceding for us, but who is perfecting our worship. As God the Son, he is perfectly worshiping the Father and the Spirit. And they likewise are worshiping him. We serve a God who perfectly exalts himself, and as believers by grace, through Christ, our worship is offered in Spirit and truth.

May we as a church know this…  and in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and through his Spirit, may we pursue worship not conformed to the pattern the world but conformed to the pattern given in his Word. Amen

As many of you know, we just had our church’s 5th anniversary a couple of months ago. Because of that, we have been taking a few weeks to walk through our foundations as a church and how those work out in our ministry.

We started 3 weeks ago with our calling to be faithful in three things: faithful in our devotion to God, faithful to Biblical doctrine, and faithful to the great commission. We considered the church in Antioch as an example of a church that was faithful in those ways.

Then 2 weeks ago, we talked through the primary means through which God changes us. The Holy Spirit works through God’s Word, Prayer, and the Sacraments. We call those the means of grace. Our worship, our discipleship, and our mission revolve around those means of grace.

Then last week, Coleman preached on the central unifying theme of the Bible - God’s Covenant promise to his people which he fulfilled in Jesus. God’s Covenant with us is what ties together the Old and New Testaments including God’s covenant people of old and the church today. That covenant theme affects our teaching and prayer and ministry and really, our lives.

That brings us to our focus for today. The question is, why do we call ourselves a Presbyterian church? What does that mean and why is it important for us?

We have two sermon texts this morning. The first is from Acts chapter 15. Please turn there. You can find Acts 15 on page 1098 in the pew Bibles. We’ll look at verses 4-21.

This passage is about the Jerusalem council. Remember from three weeks ago, the church in Antioch had sent the apostle Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem. They were to work with other elders and apostles concerning an important matter in the church. Our verses this morning are about the council itself.

Reading of Acts 15:4-21

Our second reading is from 1 Peter 5:1-5. Please turn there. That is on page 1206. The apostle Peter is writing to the church scattered across Asia minor. In the prior chapters, he has been encouraging them in their persecution, and then Peter turns to address the elders and their role.

Reading of 1 Peter 5:1-5

Prayer

Every single organization in the entire world shares one thing in common. I’m talking about corporations, non-profits, governmental agencies, countries, states, counties… social clubs, and sports team … Each and every one of those organizations shares one thing in common. They all have leaders.

Some leaders are effective, some struggle. Some are inspiring, some lead by example, some you want to follow, others you don’t have a choice.

From the world’s perspective, good leaders are often identified as strong and decisive. They are the take-charge kind of people who are willing to take risks and make hard decisions and sometimes whatever it takes to be successful.

Well, that leadership model is a far cry from God’s call for leaders in his church. No, rather, the church is called to raise up shepherds of God’s flock. Elders. These men are not to be like army drill sergeants or naval commanders. They are not to be heavy-handed CEOs or brash politicians, or whip-you-into-shape coaches.

No, elders in the church are called to care for your soul and to pray for you. They have been entrusted to lead in matters of eternal consequence. They are therefore to be humble like our chief shepherd, Jesus, who humbled himself and laid down his life for us, his sheep.

Elders are to serve. They are to pour themselves out for us, as God’s sheep.

Now, you may be asking, what does all of that have to do with being a Presbyterian church?

Well, actually, it has everything to do with being Presbyterian. The word presbuteros is the Greek word for elder. The plural is the word Presbuteroi, elders. We are a Presbyterian church because we believe that God’s design for leaders in his church centers around elders.

Given that, what I want to do this morning is argue for two things related to elders:

Number 1, that God has prescribed elders to lead his church.

And number 2, the model for elder leadership goes beyond the local congregationals.

That is where we are headed. And by the way, this is not the first sermon we have had on elders. We have had a couple of them. It’s usually when we have opened nominations for elders and deacons. In those sermons, we’ve mainly focused on the Godly character qualities of the officers, as both Titus chapter 1 and 1 Timothy chapter 3 reveal.

Today, we will not be focusing on the qualifications of elders. But I don’t want you to get the impression that those are not important. No, those qualifications are absolutely critical.

Rather, my goal today is to make a Biblical case for the role of elders in God’s church.

1. Elders as God’s Prescribed Leadership

Number 1: elders (presbuteroi) are God’s prescribed leaders for his church.

And the first thing I want to say is that if we take the New Testament as a whole, we are given two offices for the church – elders and deacons. I’ve already mentioned Titus 1 and 1 Timothy 3. Titus 1 speaks of the qualifications of elders and 1 Timothy 3 speaks about the qualifications of both elders and deacons. Broadly speaking, the word deacon is the word for servant. Deacons are entrusted with the mercy needs of the church family and stewardship of tangible needs. Elders, on the other hand, are to minister to the church’s spiritual needs and are to oversee the church.

The word elder, itself, presbuteros, refers to someone mature, typically older. In the Greco-Roman culture of the time, it referred to those with wisdom and dignity who were counsellors or advisors. Often the word elder was used in a formal way as a title, like the elders of the city.

In the New Testament, elders were to be able to teach. In other words, one application of their wisdom and knowledge was the ability to convey it to others.

Let’s now look at 1 Peter chapter 5. Verse 1 uses the plural of the word elder. And then we are given a beautiful description of the role. Elders are to shepherd the flock of God. And what does a shepherd do? A shepherd cares for the sheep under his care. He protects them from danger. When they wander, the shepherd seeks them out. The shepherd’s staff is used to keep the sheep close to the fold but also to fend off predators, like wolves.

The primary role of an elder is, in fact, to “shepherd the flock of God.” That command is right there in verse 2. By the way, the word shepherd is the word for pastor. They are one in the same.

Shepherding includes comforting us in grief and pain by pointing us to the hope of Christ. Shepherding includes directing us away from our sin and toward righteousness. It is reminding us of God’s promises and the forgiveness we have in Jesus. Shepherding is guiding us in the wisdom revealed in God’s Word - wisdom for life. In all those ways, elders are spiritually caring our souls.

Also in verse 2, shepherding involves “exercising oversight.” Do you see that phrase? It is having a responsibility over us – a spiritual authority. But the apostle Peter is clear, elders are not to take advantage of the flock, nor be domineering over the flock, but are instead to be examples to the flock. They are to spiritually oversee us - caring for and loving and guiding us.

By the way, there is something very important here. The root word for oversight is the Greek word episcopos – an overseer. Does that sound familiar? Episcopos. It’s where the episcopal church gets its name. In the English, besides being translated overseer, it’s sometimes translated as bishop.

Let me say this. We believe the New Testament uses the word elder and bishop or overseer interchangeably. They are merely two roles of one spiritual leadership position.

Let me give you four examples of this synonymous use:

·      First, our 1 Peter 5 text right here, verses 1 and 2. An elder is described as having the responsibility of oversight. Both words are right there.

·      Second, in the apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he addresses the saints in Philippi which include overseers and deacons. The word overseer in Philippians 1:1 is the plural of the word episcopos. Paul is identifying the two offices of the church. But in 1 Timothy 3, he uses the word elder – persbuteros in place of overseer. In that chapter, he refers to elders and deacons. In other words, Paul is not creating a new office for an elder. Rather, he’s simply referring to one and the same office.

·      Third, and related, in Titus chapter 1, verse 5, Paul directs Titus to appoint elders in every town - presbuteroi. Then in verse 7, he describes their qualifications. He begins with the phrase “For an overseer” – episcopos. He’s just commanded Titus to appoint elders and then describes what these overseers should be like. Again, both words are used interchangeably – elder and overseer.

·      Fourth, earlier in the service we read from Acts 20. The apostle Paul had called the elders of the church in Ephesus to meet him. He refers to them as presbuteroi. But then when he is speaking to them, he says this “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.” He refers to the same group as both presubteroi and episcopoi.

Personally, I think that is pretty clear. God’s plan for his church is to have elders, who oversee the flock of God. Put simply, an elder equals an overseer equals a shepherd. They are one and the same

Just so you know, I did not grow up in a presbyterian church, but in my early 20s, I came to the conviction that a presbyterian form of church government is God’s design for his church. That’s partly why I am here today.

To be sure, there are many many faithful churches that are not Presbyterian. We are all first and foremost, Christians. We believe in the atoning death of Jesus Christ for us. He died in our place to break the bonds of our sin and pay our penalty. When we come to him in repentance and faith, we are made righteous in him. Furthermore, we believe in the resurrection. We believe in eternal life. I want to be very clear about that. That Gospel is the very center of what we believe, and we share that belief with many churches.

But we also believe that the Bible speaks to other less important things, and one of those is God’s leadership plan for his church. We are presbyterian for that reason.

Now, before we move on to point number two, let me make one side note here. All the examples in the Bible of elders are men. Furthermore, the description of the roles and qualifications are focused on men. Because of that, we also believe that the office of elder, which includes pastors, is reserved for men. We believe that is God’s design. That belief in no way diminishes the worth or dignity or respect of women. There is no inferiority in that pattern that God has given. There are also many many other ways that women serve and lead in the church. We just believe that God has given spiritual authority and oversight in the church to qualified Godly men.

I know that is not culturally popular. However, we believe it is what the Bible presents as God’s design. If you would like to talk through that more, I would be glad to. Please reach out to me.

Let me summarize this first point. God, through his Word, has given us his pattern for leadership in his church. That leadership comes through elders who faithfully serve and shepherd the church of God with humility. They are entrusted to care for, guide, oversee, and protect God’s sheep, you and me.

2. Elder leadership in the visible church

That brings us to point number 2. God’s appointed elders are to work together to oversee the broader church. In other words, the elders of our church have a responsibility to support other churches. And the elders of other churches, have a responsibility to support us.

Think about this. Probably 99% of organizations in the world have a leadership hierarchy. Think of a business. You have the owner or president at the top. Then you have several people who report to him or her, like CEOs or CFOs. Then below that you have middle management, and it works its way down to the various workers.

Well, a presbyterian form of government is very different. There is no top. We don’t have a pope. There is no archbishop of Canterbury. We don’t have a hierarchy of bishops and cardinals we certainly don’t have priests. We believe in the priesthood of all believers. The temple curtain was torn in two when Jesus was crucified. Jesus is our high priest and we can go to him directly.

What I am saying is this: one implication of elders leading the church is elders leading the church. Instead of a top-down hierarchy, the presbyterian form of church oversight is shared and it’s representative. It’s like an upside-down pyramid. The higher you go, the more elders you have in oversight.

Let’s look at the example in Acts 15, which we read. As I mentioned, this is called the Jerusalem council. It happened because a theological division had come to several local churches. We are not going to consider the specifics of the disagreement. We actually did cover that a few years ago when we went through the book of Acts. Today, we’ll just consider how the council worked.

The particular issue was causing division and confusion. So, what did the apostles and elders do? Well, they gathered together in Jerusalem. Paul and Barnabas were sent by the church in Antioch. They were welcomed by other apostles and elders, verse 4. We learn here the council included the apostle Peter and the apostle James. And look at verse 6. It says, “The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter.” In fact, that phrase, “the apostles and the elders” is used 5 times in this chapter.

And what did they do in this council? Well, they deliberated. They listened to arguments from both sides. They took turns speaking. They considered the Scriptures. And in the end, they decided the matter. Later in chapter 15, we learn that they wrote down their decision and they distributed it to the churches in Antioch, Cilicia, and Syria. Now look at verse 28. This is an important verse. “For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements:” And then they went on to describe the particulars. You see, the Holy Spirit worked through the apostles and elders in this council.

We believe this is the model of oversight that the church is to have. There are no other layers. No bishops, no cardinals, no popes.

In this council, it was just apostles and elders together. And to be sure, the apostles filled a unique role at this point in redemptive history. In our 2 Corinthians study we saw that the apostles were given unique gifts. Nowhere in the New Testament are new apostles to be appointed. Rather, it is elders which are to be appointed in every town.

Do you see what I am saying? Elders from different churches are to work together to oversee the broader church. That is the presbyterian model of church oversight.

On a quarterly basis, a subset of our elders at Tucker Pres gather with elders from other churches in the Metro Atlanta area. We pray, we oversee men who desire to be pastors, we support church plant efforts and support the Reformed University Fellowship campus ministries in our area. Occasionally we work through difficult things like when elders break their vows and hurt their people. We care for those churches and families. Spiritual discipline is often involved in those difficult situations.

Occasionally there are theological matters to discuss. Often those theological matters are considered at our annual assembly, which includes elders across North America and some from across the world. Just three months ago, a question about Christian Nationalism arose. As you know, that’s a sticky subject. And so at our denomination’s assembly, we approved a study committee to review the range of beliefs about the relationship between Christianity and the state. That committee will consider the Scriptures and it will report back next summer or the summer after on how we should be thinking about these matters from a Biblical worldview. When that report comes back, it will be a matter of deliberation just like in Acts 15. That is just one example of many.

Now, I do not want you to think that your elders here are spending hours and hours on matters outside of our church. We don’t. But we do spend some time and energy to support the broader church family.

Why do we do that? Well, because we believe that it is the pattern God has given the church. Godly elders primarily shepherd the flock of God where they serve but also joining with other elders in the Acts 15 pattern of broader church oversight.

Conclusion

You may be asking, why does it matter to me? Well, for one, it matters because if this is God’s ordained structure for his church, then we want to be faithful to that end. It matters because if culture dictates leadership in the church, then there will be leaders who do not align with the principals of loving and humble eldership, but who instead are domineering or who mistreat the flock of God. We read from Ezekiel 34 this morning. It’s one of several Old Testament passages where God drops the hammer on the worthless shepherds of Israel who abandon the flock or who have led the flock astray or who are lazy or are in it for their own personal gain or because of their pride.

Godly elders are instead are to be committed to the truth of God and are to be loving examples to the flock.

This matters because God’s care for his people and his oversight for his church is to come through faithful elders. And those elders are to love Jesus and his Gospel, and are to love us and shepherd our souls, and are to love Jesus’ church and care for her.

This matters because when it comes time to nominate men to this role, we should have an understanding of their responsibility and character.

I know you know this, but I am going to say it anyway. Your elders here at Tucker Pres are sinners. It’s true. We, at times, have failed and will fail you and the church.

But we have a Savior in Jesus who has died for us. He is our Great Shepherd. And in his salvation and through his Spirit, your elders are striving to love you well and point you to him. In our monthly session meetings, that’s when our elders meet, the most important thing we do, which we prioritize, is to pray for you and for our church. Would you pray for us as we seek to be faithful to this important call – the call to be your presbuteroi, your elders, who serve under the great Sheperd of the sheep. Amen.

This morning is our second sermon in our series about who we are as a church.

Last week we talked about our desire as a church to be faithful to God’s call for local congregations. Remember that faithfulness is a three legged stool. 1. Faithful in our devotion to the Lord, the Master, 2. Faithful to the message – the rich doctrines that God has given us in his Word including and especially the Gospel message. And 3. Faithful to the mission. God’s call for us individually and as a church is to be a light of the Gospel. That mission is carried out locally and to the ends of the earth.

Underlying those three responsibilities is God’s faithfulness to us … what God has done for us through Jesus’ death and resurrection.

That is our ministry heart – a desire to be faithful to the Master, the message, and the mission.

Today we’ll be considering the centrality of God’s Word, prayer, and the sacraments in these endeavors as a church.

Before we begin, let me give you a brief the lay of the land where we are headed over the next few weeks. We’re starting with four foundational beliefs.

·      Last week was our belief in God’s call for the local church

·      This week is the primary means through which God works in our lives.

·      Next week will be what we believe is the overall theme of the Bible - God’s covenant promises to his people which are fulfilled in Christ.

·      And in 2 weeks, we’ll consider what we believe the Bible teaches about the organization of the church. In other words, why do we call ourselves a Presbyterian church.

Those are the four foundational things we’ll be covering. Then after that, we’ll talk about how those work out in our worship, our discipleship, and our missions.

Again, this series is a little out of the ordinary, but hopefully it will be an encouragement to you as well as unifying for us.

This morning, we have three passages. First, Acts chapter 2, then Hebrews chapter 4, then 1 Corinthians chapter 10.

If you will turn to Acts chapter 2. That can be found on page 1082 in the pew Bibles. we’ll begin with verses 42-47.

·      Reading of Acts 2:42-47 (church just beginning);

·      Hebrews 4:12-16 (page 1189 - right after the author of Hebrews had expounded on God’s Word given in Psalm 95);

·      1 Corinthians 10:16-17 (page 1138 – the context is the contrast between idols and food sacrificed compared with the Lord’s supper).

Prayer

How do people change? Have you ever asked that question? How does change happen deep within us? I’m not talking about changing our minds about what we like or what we agree with in secondary or tertiary matters. Rather, I’m talking about a heart change to believe a truth about God or a change in someone’s life for the better – you know, like setting aside a pattern of sin…or forsaking some kind of heart idol or changing a bad habit and replacing it with something that honors the Lord.

What causes that kind of change in someone… or in you? It’s a critical question because the answer impacts everything about our ministry as a church.

One of the responsibilities of a local congregation is to be a change agent in people’s lives. I’m using the word “agent” intentionally because we are not the ones who actually change people. No. It is the Holy Spirit who changes hearts and minds. The church merely leads people in the means or to the means through which the Spirit works to change hearts. In that way, we are agents.

So, then, to what do we direct or lead people for spiritual and life change? And the answer is, #1, God’s Word, #2, prayer to the one true God, and #3 the sacraments that he has ordained, which are Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

To say it again, the Holy Spirit works through these means to transform us. God works his salvation in us through these ordinary things – his Word, prayer, and the sacraments.

When I say that God is working his salvation in us through them, I’m using the word salvation in a broad sense, like the Scriptures often do. Salvation includes faith in Jesus’ work on the cross, reconciling us to him, which we sometimes call justification. But salvation also includes God’s continuing work of sanctification in us as he conforms us more and more to his image. That salvation will one day bring us to glory.

So, God’s Spirit works through his Word, and through prayer and in the sacraments to change us or transform us, as he brings to bear his salvation in our lives. Those three things are the ordinary means through which God gives us his extraordinary grace. They are God’s appointed instruments.

We’re going to get into more details in a moment, but let me say this up front. Given the overwhelming significance of these means of grace, the church must focus its ministry on them. The church needs to steward these gifts given to us. God’s Word, prayer, and the sacraments need to be the primary emphasis in our ministry.

That is one of the foundational things that we believe as a church.

If we go all the way back to the early church in Acts 2… it is these means of grace to which the church devoted itself.

By the way, Acts 2 is when the Holy Spirit was given to the church. After that event, Pentecost, is when the people of God started gathering together in communities. That was when local churches started forming. And we learn in Acts 2:42 that they devoted themselves to these means of grace.

They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching. That’s the first thing mentioned. Now, at that time, they did not have the New Testament. Rather, the Holy Spirit was at work through the Apostles to reveal God’s truth. We know from other places in the book of Acts that this included teaching how the Old Testament is fulfilled in Christ. Their teaching also included how Jesus accomplished Salvation for his people, and it included the call to faith. So, the church was dedicating themselves to these truths, which we have in God’s Word.

It next says they dedicated themselves to fellowship. That’s the word Koinonia, which is a mission-driven relationship with one another. In other words, God’s word and prayer and the sacraments were not being pursued in a vacuum. Rather this devotion happened in this new gathering of believers, the church.

It also says they dedicated themselves to prayer. What is prayer? Well, it is coming before God in humility for who he is and what he has done for us. It’s asking for the Lord’s help for our situations and others. It’s interceding for his work throughout the world. The apostles would have taught the people the Lord’s Prayer as they learned it from Jesus. Their prayers would have included many examples from the Old Testament, like Hannah’s prayer or Daniel’s, or David’s, or Ezra’s or Nehemiah’s. We’re given many examples.

Prayer and the Word have always been central to God’s people, Old Testament and New. We call them means of grace because they are the channels through which God gives amazing gifts to us. You’ve heard me say before that the word grace is the word gift. God has given us his very Word and he invites us into his presence in prayer.

We read from Hebrews 4 because it, in part, captures the power of God’s Word to change us. Listen again to the language and consider the ministry of God’s Word in your heart and mind. “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” It penetrates to our very core. God’s Word always goes with his Spirit and as we read from Isaiah 55 earlier, it will always accomplish the purpose for which it goes forth. It will never return void. And as God’s Word goes forth, through the power of his Spirit, it brings conviction. The Holy Spirit shines the light of the truth of God’s Word on our hearts.

What an amazing blessing and grace that God has given us.

·      Through God’s Word, we learn of his nature and power and justice. Through it, we understand the demand of his law and the sin in our own hearts.

·      Furthermore, God has revealed, through his Word, both the divine and human nature of Jesus, who is, by the way, the Word of God incarnate.

·      We’re called to repentance and faith through God’s Word. Romans 10 says that “faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ.”

·      Moreover, God molds and shapes us through his Word. As 2 Timothy 3 puts it, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

All of that is why we study it. It is why we uphold it as authoritative and inspired. Each of us could spend our entire lives mining its truths and we would still not exhaust its depths. It is that rich and deep.

And let me say… prayer is no less an extraordinary grace. It’s an amazing thing to consider that the God of the universe has invited us in to his very presence.

We’re unworthy, yet we have been made worthy through Christ. And he goes before us. He intercedes for us. That is what Hebrews 4 verses 14-16 speaks of. Jesus is our High Priest. Through his sacrifice and his intercession, we can draw near to the throne of grace. Here’s Hebrews 4:16. “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” We can come with confidence and when we do, as it says, we will receive his mercy and find his grace. Do you see how prayer is a means of grace? Through prayer, we are communing with the living God. We are abiding in him. We are acknowledging his worthiness and power to accomplish his purposes in our lives. We are submitting ourselves to him, confessing our sin, asking for peace. Philippians 4 says “in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

God uses his Word and prayer to lift us up and sustain us and remind us of his precious promises in Christ. They are there for our blessing. And so, we each need to avail ourselves of God’s Word and prayer.

I remember learning a song in, I think, first or second grade Sunday school. At the time, I didn’t think anything of it. But it’s come to mind decades later. We would start on the ground and then we would sing, “read your Bible, pray every day, pray every day, pray every day, read your Bible, pray every day, and you’ll grow, grow grow.” [repeat] and we would slowly stand up. It was symbolizing our maturing in Christ. And then, it would reverse! “Forget your Bible, forget to pray, and you’ll shrink, shrink, shrink.” We would not be maturing in Christ.

I had no idea, at the time, how profound that is. I am still learning its lesson, today.

If you are not regularly in the Word and in prayer, you are missing out on two of the three most amazing gifts that God has given his people.

Let’s look at the third.

Briefly go back to Acts 2:42. Another phrase is used: they dedicated themselves to  “The breaking of bread.” Now, at first glance that seems to indicate they enjoyed fellowshipping over meals together. However, it already says that they fellowshipped, which would have included meals. Rather the historical consensus, including John Calvin and Martin Luther, considered this phrase to reference the Holy Supper as they often called it. In other words, when the early church gathered, they participated in the sacraments.

Now, the word sacrament is not in the Bible. However, we use that word to identify the two holy ordinances that Jesus established for his church - Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

I am using the phrase “Jesus established” because he is the one who called the church to practice these sacraments. Jesus calls us to make disciples and baptize them. As you heard me say a couple of times earlier this month, Baptism is the New Covenant sign of God’s promise and it is connected to the Old Covenant sign of circumcision. Similarly, the Lord’s Supper is the New Covenant sign of faith and our union with Christ. It connects to the old sign of the Passover. Jesus called his disciples and calls us to partake of the holy supper often, and as we do in remembrance of him.

It is a remembrance, but it is way more than just a remembrance. First of all, the sign itself, just like Baptism, is more than words on a page and words spoken. They are visible and tangible signs of the Gospel. The symbols themselves, the bread and the cup in the Supper and water in Baptism display the ministry of Christ – his death and his cleansing of sin. And those symbols are applied to us. All our senses are engaged as we see and participate in these ordinances that God has given.

In the case of the supper, we are participating in the body and blood of Christ. That’s what we read from 1 Corinthians 10. That similar idea is in the Gospel of John chapter 6, which emphasizes our eating of Jesus body and drinking of his blood.

Now, we don’t believe that the elements become the body and blood of Jesus. No, Jesus has ascended and he is reigning in heaven. But in a mysterious way in the supper we are participating in Christ. The Holy Spirit has united us to him by faith and in the supper, the spiritual reality of that union is brought to bear.

Sometimes I say that we are receiving his sanctifying grace in the meal because in the meal, we are given assurance and hope and we’re given strength to endure temptation. But as I mentioned earlier, our sanctification is part of our salvation. I say sanctifying grace to make clear that the elements do not justify you. No, Jesus justifies you when you come to him by faith in repentance of your sin. But do not minimize the grace that you receive in the supper through our mysterious participation in Jesus’ body and blood.

What I am saying is that just as God’s Word and prayer are ordinary means through which God gives his extraordinary grace, so too are the sacraments. They show forth and commune the benefits of salvation.

All three are means through which God changes us. And to be absolutely clear about it, it is the Holy Spirit who uses these means to transform our hearts and minds.

Let me now ask, what does this mean for us as a church? Well, it means we need to be devoting ourselves to these means… just like the early church did. We as a church need to both direct one another to participate in them, and we need to lead with them in our ministry.

·      So, why do we have several Bible studies and focus on God’s Word in our small and large groups and throughout our worship? It’s because of these means of grace.

·      Why do we have prayer throughout our service, and on Sunday evenings, and in our home groups, and other times? It is because of these means of grace.

·      Why in our outreach do we teach Bible stories and emphasize Jesus’ ministry on the cross and in the resurrection? It is because of the means of grace.

·      Why do we have a prayer sheet and occasionally have Bible memory verses and a Bible reading plan? It is because of these means of grace.

·      Why do we take time in our service to explain and practice the Lord’s Supper and Baptism. It is because they are means of grace.

Now, you may have a question. How do these means of grace connect to our study last week about being faithful? Remember, faithfulness to the Master, the message, and the mission. It is an important question.

Think about it this way. The church’s call to be faithful in those three things are like railroad tracks that we need to be travelling down. The church is the train and the tracks are what we are to focus on – the Master, the message, and the mission. But what makes the train move? Well, the means of grace power the train. The Word, prayer, and the sacraments are like the fuel for the train. It’s like the coal in an old steam train. It powers us to go forward down the tracks.

In other words, at the center of our devotion to the Lord (the Master) needs to be God’s Word and prayer and participation in the sacraments he’s given us. It fuels our piety and devotion to the Lord.

Likewise, at the center of the message is God’s Word. Furthermore, we pray that God would open our hearts to understand it.  And we practice the Lord’s Supper and Baptism which display what we believe. The means of grace fuel our heart desire to know the Gospel and the depth of the doctrines that God has revealed.

And last, at the center of our mission, the great commission, needs to be declaring God’s Word and praying for God to be at work in those to whom we minister. And, as we make disciples, they will worship the Lord with us where they can then participate in the sacraments.

Last week, I mentioned the first line of our motto. “Living and proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ.” That captures our desire to be faithful to the Master, message, and mission. Well, the second line of our motto captures the means of grace. It says, “through worship, prayer, in word, and deed.”  In other words, we desire to fulfill the call to live and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ, through those things. The first three are the means of grace. The sacraments happen in worship, and we are committed to prayer and the Word. By the way, we included “deed” there because we desire not just to minister to one another and our community in word, but also we want to display the Gospel in our deeds.

So, living and proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ, through worship and prayer, in word and deed.

Brothers and sister, this is at the core of who we are.

May we not only be a church that practices these means of grace, but may we each avail ourselves of these extraordinary graces… that God may change us and mold us to conform to his righteousness more and more each day. Read your Bible, pray every day, and you’ll grow, grow, grow.