Sermon Video: "give him the name Jesus" Matthew 1:21

A short message from the Christmas Eve service.

The message of the angel to Joseph, to enable him to understand how Mary's pregnancy was not a blemish on her character, also revealed crucial insight into who this miracle child would one day be.  The name given by the angel to Joseph, Jesus, is the Greek version of the common Hebrew name, Joshua.  Joshua means, "the LORD saves", but Jesus' use of the name would be different, for as the angel said, HE would save his people, and not from oppression or injustice, but from their sins.  What's in a name?  For the Son of God, a lot, for it would indeed be the LORD that saved, this time in the flesh.

To watch the video, click on the link below:

What is a Christian willing to accomplish by "doing whatever is necessary"?

What are we willing to attempt to accomplish by "doing whatever is necessary"?  The answer, literally, should be nothing, for there is nothing that we ought to be willing to utilize evil in order to achieve, but when most people use that phrase they're talking about effort and sacrifice, perhaps a little stepping over the line when needed.
The following video is a test, watch it first before reading my comments upon it below.  Your reaction to this video will judge your ability to understand the purpose of the Gospel, your willingness to obey what it requires of you, and just what it is that you are willing to see blood spilled to accomplish.  The speaker in the 6 minute video is Pastor Jeffress of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, a 12,000 member church.  He received a standing ovation at the end of these remarks, how will you respond?


Pastor Jeffress in response to ISIS

Did you cheer along with the audience, or did their cheers send a chill down your spine?  The words of Pastor Jeffress paint all Muslims as believers in the ideology of ISIS, saying that the Koran is full of commands to violence, while dismissing the commands of God in the Old Testament, and then following that up by saying that individual Christians need to love our enemies, but our government should blow them all to hell.  Also, where in the Bible does it say that God is against illegal immigrants and refugees, to claim Acts 17:26 as a justification for that political viewpoint is terribly poor exegesis.  Likewise, quoting a politician from the pulpit, and endorsing his viewpoint, especially a politician who has demonstrate virtually none of the fruit of the Spirit, is both foolish and dangerous.  I'm sorry, Pastor Jeffress, killing our enemies by "doing whatever is necessary" is NOT what Jesus taught his followers; not even close.  That misguided ideology led to the fire bombing of Dresden in WWII, civilian casualties be damned.  We cannot defeat radical Islam, just as we could not defeat militant communism, by lowering our moral standards and killing innocent women and children along with those who are actually a threat.  Don't we need to overcome evil with good, isn't that in the Bible, or do we get to ignore that command when the government does the killing for us?

What are you willing to accomplish by "doing whatever is necessary"?  I recently spoke privately with a friend because I was alarmed by his publicly expressed zeal to see Muslims, even if it is just militant ones, killed.  I tried to remind him that our obligation, given to us as a command by Jesus Christ, is to witness to the Gospel to everyone, our enemies included.  Sadly, the response I received later was to mock my concern for Muslims who don't know Christ, it seems some who claim the name of Christ (and thus should know better) would rather cheer while their enemies are killed by a smart bomb than sacrifice to share the Gospel with them.  If that attitude had prevailed in the early Church, the zealot hater of Christianity, Saul of Tarsus, would have been assassinated by Christians instead of hearing of God's forgiveness on the road to Damascus, there would never have been an Apostle Paul who received numerous beatings to spread the Gospel without God's willingness to forgive, God's willingness to turn an enemy of his people into a champion for his grace.
Did you cheer when Pastor Jeffress gave the government a blank check to kill as many people as necessary to stop those living among them who are terrorists?  Do you celebrate when the bombs fall, or when the knees bow in repentance?  The answer matters, there are over a billion Muslims in the world, aren't you required to present to them the Gospel of God's grace?  In the words of that redeemed enemy of Christ, the Apostle Paul, "I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some."

Sermon Video: "the power of the Most High" - Luke 1:34-35

The basic elements of the Christmas story are well known, but what of the deeper questions of purpose and meaning?  To know that Jesus, the Christ, was born of Mary is of course important, but our understanding needs to be more than that, we need to know why Jesus came, and why he had to be who he was, and nothing less, in order to fulfill that purpose.  The conversation between the angel Gabriel and Mary that informed her of her impending pregnancy contains the answers to those two questions.  Gabriel tells Mary that her pregnancy will not be the result of any normal biological process, her betrothed Joseph will have nothing to do with it, but instead the power of God himself, the Holy Spirit, will "come upon" her and "overshadow" her.  This unique conception will eliminate the stain of original sin, Adam's curse, from the child, and also be the key to his all important dual nature, both man and God, for as Gabriel further explains, the child to be born of Mary will not only be holy, but also be the Son of God.  These details are crucial to the Christian understanding of who Jesus was, and is, and what he would later accomplish through the Cross and Resurrection.  He had to be sinless to escape the penalty of death hanging over us all, and he had to be God in the flesh in order to accept our penalty for sin upon his shoulders and share his righteousness with us.  The sorrow of Good Friday and the celebration of Easter are not possible without the Virgin Birth, the conception by the Holy Spirit, and the pre-incarnate Word of God made flesh as Jesus, the Son of God.

To watch the video, click on the link below:

Sermon Video: "On the day the Son of Man is revealed" Luke 17:20-35

During Jesus' public ministry there was much speculation that he was the one who would usher in the Kingdom of God by driving out the Romans and re-establishing the Kingdom of Israel.  Jesus did indeed bring the Kingdom of God into our midst, but it was a very different kingdom than the physical/political kingdom that many longed for.  The kingdom that John the Baptist prepared the way for, and Jesus inaugurated, was a spiritual kingdom, a kingdom built upon repentance and reconciliation, a kingdom without borders or barriers, one open to any and all who were willing to accept it.  So, while the Pharisees, the Zealots, and the disciples, scanned the horizon looking for signs that a revolt was about to happen, Jesus went out spreading the Good News that God was already offering forgiveness from sins.
After his death, resurrection, and ascension, that kingdom grew rapidly from its core of dedicated followers, helped along by the Holy Spirit's power at Pentecost, until it spread throughout the known world within two generations, a remarkable feat unprecedented in history.  But when would he return, when would Jesus sit upon the throne that he had secured through suffering and receive the glory due him?  Beginning with that first generation, Christians have speculated about when the Son of Man would return, and while a natural urge drives that desire, it has remained unfulfilled thus far, for that day awaits the decision of the Father, and only he knows when the trumpet will sound.
What do we do in response?  We know that Jesus will return, but we don't know when, so what do we do?  Our task, our obligation, is to live our lives, here and now, for the betterment of the kingdom of God, i.e. his Church, by living out the Gospel's teaching and spreading the Good News to the ends of the earth.  We may have personally, days, years, or decades left on this earth, and it may be days, years, centuries, or even millennia, until Christ returns.  Our task remains the same: do our part by making the love and mercy of Jesus known, through us, to all we meet.

To watch the video, click on the link below;

Why Christians cannot claim all Muslims are the same

On a recent podcast, James White, author and debater on a variety of Christian topics, explained why it is not only dangerous, but ultimately sinful for a Christian to paint all Muslims with a broad stroke as terrorists.  It has been popular in some circles to claim that all Muslim are interested in Jihad, that a global caliphate achieved by violence is inherent to all Muslims.  Rather than argue about the nature of Islam, let us instead focus upon our responsibility as Christians to witness to the Gospel.  Why can't Christians dismiss all Muslims as terrorists or terrorist sympathizers?  The answer is simple: It destroys any hope you may have of sharing the Gospel with a Muslim.  Maybe you don't care, maybe you're so afraid of Islam, or so angry about terrorism that you simply don't care if there are Muslims who are non-militant (which there are).  Well, that's too bad, you don't have the choice to act that way because you have been commanded by Jesus Christ to share the Gospel with the whole world.  We must care for all of the Lost, even those who dislike us or hate us.  We have been called to show compassion to the Lost, we have been called to bear witness to the trans formative power of the Gospel.  This is not optional, to dismiss a type of person or group of people as being beyond the scope of the Gospel is a sin on our part.  It is not acceptable.  The "throw them all out of the country" attitude is not acceptable.  The "kill them all before they kill us" attitude is reprehensible.  We must reject, without reservation, the temptation to make the world an "us" vs. "them" fight; why, because the Gospel requires us to.  Our response as Christians must be that of our Savior, that is our only option.  It is easier to hate, but it is not Christian, not even a little bit.

The video by James White, pertaining to this topic, begins about 44 minutes into the video and runs for the next 5 minutes or so, and then also picks back up about 1:13:30 until around 1:15

James White on the Dividing Line

And this video from James White as well, beginning at about 38:30, with the most clear explanation coming toward the end of the video

James White on the Dividing Line - video #2

** Disclaimer, I don't agree with James White on everything, primarily we would disagree about Ecumenism (esp. regarding Catholicism), but his work on textual issues (i.e KJV only debate and history of the Bible stuff) is top notch, and his views on Islam are both informed and Biblical. **

Sermon Video: Only the foreigner praised God - Luke 17:11-19

On his way to Jerusalem with his Passion drawing nigh, Jesus is confronted by ten men suffering from leprosy who cry out to him for pity.  In response, Jesus sends the men to the priest to be certified as being cleansed, before they are healed.  When they act in faith and begin the journey, all ten of them are healed.  Only one of the ten, however, takes the time to return to Jesus to praise God, and that one was a foreigner, a Samaritan.  This episode is one of many in which Jesus finds greater faith among foreigner than among his own Covenant people.  This phenomenon reinforces his teaching that Paul will later make explicit that with God there are no racial, geographic, or class distinctions.  There is one Lord, he is Lord of all, and all who would approach him must do so alike through grace by faith.
There is thus no room, whatsoever, in the Christian faith for prejudice or racism of any kind.  It is incumbent upon us, as followers of Jesus, to be on the side of the refugees, the aliens, and generally all those who are treated like "them" by "us".  In Christ, distinctions of "us" and "them" become meaningless, for there are only two types of people in the kingdom of God: sinners and redeemed sinners.

To watch the video, click on the link below:

The non-Christian militancy of Jerry Falwell Jr.

It has often been said that moderate Muslim clerics and imams need to denounce terrorism and the philosophy of jihad that lies behind it.  This is of course true, but it carries with it the same obligation for Christian pastors and apologists to denounce hatred and other attitudes that are contrary to the Gospel when they come from those claiming to be leaders in the Christian community.  During recent comments to the student body of Liberty University, the president of that institution, Jerry Falwell Jr. said this, "I always thought that if more good people had concealed-carry permits, then we could end those Muslims before they walk in and kill".  His statement was applauded by many of the students in the audience, and he went on to explain, playfully it seemed, that he was carrying a gun at that time, almost as if he was hoping to find an armed Muslim that he could shoot first.  It should go without saying, but sadly it probably doesn't, that such inflammatory rhetoric is beneath the role of the president of an university, and certainly inappropriate as a topic to the student body of an university, but it also points to a larger issue where Mr. Falwell is misrepresenting the Gospel of Christ.
It is the obligation and right of law enforcement, the military, and government in general to protect its citizens (and by the way the non-citizens aliens in their midst) from danger, which may include of necessity at times preemptive measures when that threat is indeed imminent.  That is the role of duly constituted authority, from a Christian Biblical perspective, but that is not the role of the average citizen.  For the Christian, violence against even one's enemies should be contemplated with sadness, necessary to protect one's life or the lives of the innocent, but never gleefully laughed about, and never wrapped up in fear, anger, or prejudice.  It was, after all, Jesus who taught that we MUST "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you".  It was this attitude, adopted by Martin Luther King Jr. that helped transform the racial attitudes of the American people, not the militant self-protection ideology of the Black Panthers.  What do Falwell and others who share his ideas envision?  An America where walking through a shopping mall or into a school you pass a half dozen people brandishing weapons, self-appointed security and vigilantes looking to shoot first and ask questions later, especially if the person in question looks like a Muslim?  This is not America, and it most certainly is not the way shown to us by Jesus who prayed while they nailed him to the Cross, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do".  When Christianity has walked down the road toward violence and militancy, in particular when that those attitudes are mixed up with nationalism, we have known our darkest hours as a Church, we cannot allow the name of Christ to be associated with such things, for the Muslim among us is not an enemy to be slain, but a lost soul to be saved by grace, just as you once were before Christ saved you.

Another day, another mass shooting, is the world going to hell in a hurry?

If you watch the news, diligently, you will hear a story about a mass shooting and/or an act of terrorism somewhere in the world each and every day.  There will be a weather related crisis, or perhaps an earthquake, or a man-made disaster too.  There are plenty of things going on in a world with over seven billion people that demonstrate the inhumanity of man toward our fellow man and the corruption of human endeavors.  We could be pessimists without much prodding.  We could despair of the future and throw our hands up in the air and say, "Come Lord Jesus!"  Many Christians do just that, they're convinced that the United States, the West, even the World is spiraling out of control and the return of Christ is imminent because things are "worse than they've ever been".  This isn't a new phenomenon, it isn't particularly surprising either, but it is sad and unnecessary because by any indication, whether that be violence, poverty, life expectancy, responsible government, and especially the growth of the Church, we are living in the most prosperous and secure generation in the history of mankind.  It doesn't seem like it, not when ISIS is shooting up restaurants in Paris or new polls show that less Americans are going to Church than in prior generations, but it is true.
Our ancestors one hundred years ago, and especially further back than that, lived in a world that was more dangerous, poorer, more corrupt, and a lot less Christian than it is today.
Your gut may be fighting against that claim, you may not want to believe it, especially is you have a lot emotionally invested in thinking like a victim or claiming that the sky is falling, but not wanting to believe a fact doesn't make it untrue.  Five hundred years ago, to pick a random spot in history, the average person lived hand to mouth, always one bad harvest or pestilence away from starvation, and always worried that a marauding army was just over the horizon, not to mention pirates and their own rapacious nobility.  The average person was illiterate, had very few possessions, may never have traveled more than an hour or two away from the place where he or she was born, could expect to bury several children who didn't make it out of infancy, and aside from Europe, lived in a world where the vast majority of the people knew not the name of Jesus, let alone believed in him.
Today, by virtually every measurable statistic, things have improved, and not just a little, by leaps and bounds.  There are still pockets of poverty, endemic bloodshed, and resistance to the Gospel, but they're pockets now, not whole continents.  Africa has been transformed in the past fifty years, millions have been lifted out of poverty and the Church has not only conquered the animism that once thrived there, but is pushing back the frontier of Islam as well.  Asia is following suit, with India and China seeing hundreds of millions of people lifted out of abject poverty and the amount of Christians in their midst growing rapidly.  The world's largest Christian population will soon enough reside in China.  The Church may be declining in the West, but it is exploding in the South and East.
We have many reasons to be optimistic about the future, and many reasons to not despair about the present.  Remember, Jesus spoke of a Church against which the gates of Hell would not prevail, but if the Church is to conquer even the stronghold of the enemy, it will be on the offensive not cowering behind high walls and a moat.

I'm not a pessimist, not because I choose to be an optimist in the face of contrary evidence, but because my faith in the power of God agrees with all of the good things that are really happening in our world today.  The future is in the hands of God, and those hands are capable indeed.

For an excellent detailed examination of this issue, please read the article below by JD King.
Why You've Been Duped Into Believing The Myth That The World Is Getting Worse and Worse

Sermon Video: "we have only done our duty" - Luke 17:7-10

What is our relationship with God?  We are his workers, but does that make God our boss and us him employees?  The nature of the relationship between God, the king of the universe, and mortal man is not really like that of a boss and an employee, rather it is like the relationship between a master and a servant (or even a slave).  We may prefer to think of ourselves as God's freelance independent contractors, but we most certainly are not, we are his servants.  What God commands we must do.  God is owed honor, praise, and service, when we fulfill that obligation God is does not owe us recompense in return for we can never repay our debt that God has forgiven.  We have been assigned a task, as the people who constitute the Church, to spread the Gospel and advance the Kingdom of God.  This is our calling, and we must answer it.  Let us never forget, God is God, and we are not.  It is God's will that must be done, it is his kingdom that one day will come.  Our response, our obligation, is to simply do our duty as faithful disciples of Jesus Christ.

To watch the video, click on the link below: