Sermon Video: The Council at Jerusalem, Acts 15:1-19

There have been many Church Councils in the past two thousand years, most of the helpful, a few not so much.  The very first of them was held at Jerusalem under the leadership of Jesus' half-brother James over the question of how to include the new gentile believers in Jesus Christ in the Church that was at this point predominately Jewish.  If this first Council not successfully resolved the controversial issue at hand, the Church would have split far sooner than the Great Schism of 1054.
The issue debated at this first Council arose because individual from Judea decided that they needed to go down to Antioch to tell the Gentiles there that, "unless you are circumcised...you cannot be saved."  In other words, unless these gentile believers were willing to follow the whole Law of Moses, their belief in the salvation through Jesus Christ would be insufficient to save them.  This issue had been simmering behind the scenes throughout the first half of Acts, but now it was boiling over.  Paul and Barnabas opposed their message, and the leadership of the Church of Antioch decided to send them, along with other representatives, to Jerusalem to the disciples to resolve the issue.
After much debate, Peter stood up and took the side of the gentiles by proclaiming that God had not only sent him, and others, to them, but had also validated their work by giving the same Holy Spirit to them as he had given to the Jewish believers at Pentecost.  If God had approved their salvation by faith, apart from the Law, who would gainsay God?  In addition, Peter points out the fatal flaw in the argument of those in favor of extending the Law to the gentiles: Nobody is keeping the Law.  The history of God's chosen people is a story of broken promises on the part of the people who failed to keep the Covenant.  If the Jews couldn't keep the Law, "a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear", why would anyone believe that the first chosen people had been saved by anything but God's grace?  Indeed, Peter concludes, "it is through grace...that we are saved, just as they are."
When Peter finishes, Paul and Barnabas add the testimony of their recent successful mission's trip among the gentiles, but the final answer awaits the decision of James.  James, known for his piety and reverence for the Temple, agrees with Peter that this decision has been made by God, as predicted by the Prophets, and thus "we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God."
With that decision the Council at Jerusalem manages to avoid the splintering of the Church along ethnic lines that had been threatening its unity.  Their wisdom speaks to us today as we ask ourselves, how are we hindering the Gospel through our actions or inaction?  What obstacles have we put in the way of the Lost hearing the accepting the Gospel?  Whatever those things may be, we as a Church must rid ourselves of them because the Lost are coming to God by grace, just as we did.

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Sermon Video: Turn to the Living God - Acts 14:1-20

Is there anything in common between the audience in Lystra that Paul preached to who mistakenly thought him to be a god, and the modern skeptical audience most likely to believe that there is no God?  At first glance there might not seem to be, the world has changed so much, but the humanity that inhabits it still has the same spiritual need.  Paul was mortified that the local responded to his miraculous healing of a lame man by trying to offer a sacrifice to him, so he responded by telling that that he was just a man like them.  It was not to Paul that they needed to turn, but "to the living God, who made heaven and earth".  The kindness of God, who sends rain in its seasons, was the way in which Paul attempted to share the Gospel with this crowd who had mistakenly put their trust in may gods who could not save them.
When talking to an agnostic or atheist in America today, the lack of worship for God, or gods, is not an indication of a lack of worship.  The worship of self has replaced the worship of God for many people, but the need for a relationship with the God who created us is not something that will go away.  On that level, the deep and abiding spiritual need that we all have, our efforts to share the Gospel in America today really aren't that much different than Paul's efforts so very long ago.

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Sermon Video: The Peril of Rejecting God's Grace - Acts 13:40-52

Having just concluded his message of forgiveness of sins through justification in Jesus, Paul now ends his message to the Jews at the synagogue in Pisidian Antionch by warning them to take seriously God's offer lest they fail to heed God's warning as their ancestors had.  Paul quotes the prophet Habakkuk who spoke for God to an unbelieving generation who scoffed at his message.  God's reply concerning his judgment through of his people at the hand of the Babylonians could just as easily have stood in for God's use of a suffering servant instead of a mighty warrior king as his Messiah, "I am going to do something in your days that you would never believe, even if someone told you." (Habakkuk 1:5) 
At first, the warning to accept the message from God seems unnecessary.  Paul and Barnabas were invited to speak again on the next Sabbath, and many from the audience spoke with them afterwords as well.  That next Saturday, however, a massive crowd of Gentiles gathered to hear Paul speak.  Rather than being excited to see the grace of God at work among those who did not know him, the leaders of the synagogue were filled with jealousy and turned against Paul.  How sad to see those to whom the grace of God has been offered jealous of God's efforts to save others as well.
Paul then had to choose between his own people and the crowd of anxious Gentiles.  The choice was clear, though it wounded Paul deeply, "We had to speak the word of God to you first.  Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles." (vs. 46)  At this point, Paul is no longer welcome among his own people and they begin to work with the Roman officials to have him expelled from the region.  The Gentile crowd, in contrast, rejoice in God's forgiveness and large numbers of them believe in Jesus.
As Paul and Barnabas move on to Iconium, a final gesture from Paul speaks volumes about the danger of rejecting God's freely offered grace.  Paul, in imitation of Jesus' apostles, shakes the dust off his sandals before leaving to indicate that he no longer bears responsibility for the fate of those he had attempted to save.  God's mercy and loving kindness is vast, but it is not boundless.  His patience is deep, but it will not overlook the rejection of his Son, to reject the Gospel is to reject eternal life, a perilous course indeed.

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Sermon Video: "Everyone who believes is justified" - Acts 13:13-39

As the first missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas continues, the team leaves Cyprus and sails to Perga on their way to Pisidian Antioch.  It is at this juncture that John Mark, Barnabas' cousin, leaves the expedition and returns to Jerusalem.  Why did Mark leave?  In the end, any answer is just a guess as the text tells us nothing, but it does remind us that the journey was a difficult one and that those making it were ordinary people like us with real problems and limitations.
At Pisidian Antioch, Paul and Barnabas enter the local synagogue where they are invited to speak.  Paul's message begins with a recap of God's provision for the people of Israel under the Covenant from Abraham to David.  Next Paul speaks of the prophetic ministry of John the Baptist who proclaimed the coming of God's Messiah, the Savior Jesus.  Paul briefly explains that Jesus was rejected by his own people, just as the prophets of old whose rejection the Scriptures mourn, and put to death without cause.  However, God vindicated his Son Jesus by raising him from the dead, a miracle that many witnessed.  After this, Paul cites examples of prophetic predictions about Jesus from the Scriptures as further proof of Jesus' validity.
The conclusion of Paul's message is both simple and timeless: forgiveness of sins and justification before God are available through Jesus.  What's the big deal about forgiveness, isn't it available through the Law?  Sadly, no, the Law can cover guilt and hold back the wrath of God, but as the book of Hebrews will later make crystal clear, it can never take away sins.  Sin no only separates man from God, it also corrupts, ruins, and destroys our minds, hearts, and souls.  If we cannot find forgiveness for our sins, we are doomed.  If God has forgiven us in Jesus, we cannot fail.  Likewise, justification, the salvation of man from the guilty verdict hanging over our heads is also available through Jesus.  Instead of the just punishment for our sins falling upon us, it has been redirected to the only one who could accept it, the perfect and sinless Son of God. 
The song "In Christ Alone" has a great line that reflects the truth of Paul's message here: "no guilt in life, no fear in death, this is the power of Christ in me".  It is a message of hope, a message of reconciliation, the very core and essence of the Gospel that we have been commanded to take to the ends of the earth.

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The lust of humanity for gold that glitters

There's a line in The Lord of the Rings that reads, "all that is gold does not glitter" which is Tolkien's rearranging of the well known proverb from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, "all that glitters is not gold".  Tolkien was trying to emphasize that not all things of value shine on the outside, whereas Shakespeare's point is that not everything that looks good on the outside is worth it on the inside, but both metaphors utilize the fact that gold has a hold on the imagination of humanity.  It has been sought after, fought after, killed and died for, for as far back as we have records.  I just finished watching "Klondike" on the History Channel last night, a mini-series based on the actual experiences of miners who went to Dawson City in the Yukon during the gold rush that lasted from 1896 to 1899.  In those few years, an estimated 100,000 people headed for the Yukon with only about 30-40,000 surviving the journey and only about 4,000 of them finding any gold.  After Dawson City the gold craze moved on, just as it had before from California and before that North Dakota; the list goes on and on back into history.  The craze for gold continues to this day, it actually has intrinsic value now in the electronics industry beyond its age-old use for currency and jewellery.  The show "Gold Rush" on the Discovery Channel chronicles the lives of would-be gold miners, some of whom work like professionals and some of whom appear to be still amateurs.  The human stories behind the quest for gold are interesting, but the question of why man has been so fascinated with this substance remains.
Gold isn't the only rare thing that has caused empires to rise and fall in history, but it does seem to rise above more practical commodities and has certainly been a part of some of the worst crimes of humanity against itself from the horrid working conditions of the South American mines of the Spanish Empire to the gold extracted from the teeth of Jews killed by the Nazis.  The insatiable quest for gold over thousands of years has yielded roughly 377 million pounds of gold; surprisingly, that amount would only be a cube of 68 ft. on each side.  All that risk, all that killing and death, for a pool sized cube of metal?
If gold didn't exist, humanity would be fixated on something else.  Gold isn't the cause of the sickness that is associated with it, simply the window through which the human soul is illuminated.  The same attributes and potential terrors can be ascribed to the pieces of colored paper that replaced gold as the currency of humanity, or even the electronic money that doesn't even exist apart from the computers that keep track of it.
Which topic does the Bible spend the most time talking about?  Which human vice fills more pages of God's Word than any other?  To hear many preachers and Christian lay people talk, you think it would be sexual sin, whether that be pre-marital or extra-marital sex, pornography, homosexuality, or abortion.  We certainly have great troubles in society connected to our misuse of God's gift of sex, but it isn't the number one vice discussed in the Bible.  The Bible spends more time talking about the proper use of, and abuse of, money than anything else (over 800 times) except love.  So why are we so reluctant to talk about money?  Perhaps it is because we as Americans have so much of it.  Perhaps it is because we do such a lousy job of utilizing our money for the good of the kingdom of God and such a great job spending it on ourselves. 
How often do I preach about money?  I haven't analyzed each of my sermons over last seven years to have stats, but since I normally preach verse by verse through a book on the Bible once I start, I'm guessing that its pretty often.  Do yourself a favor, don't skip over the next part of the Bible you read about money, actually take some time and figure out if you're doing what the Bible says you should be doing with the money that you've earned through the blessings of work, life, and health that God has given you.