Sermon Video: The Debt you cannot repay: Love - Romans 13:6-8a

After telling the followers of Jesus that they have an obligation to pay their taxes, along with other things they may owe to those in authority like respect and honor, the Apostle Paul broadens the conversation to show us that we should discharge all of our obligations to the people in our lives.  Sometimes these things are material (money, time, labor) and sometimes they are intangible (dignity, kindness, hope), in each case we ought to stive to do our part.  However, there is one debt that we cannot possibly repay, yet must continue to strive toward doing so anyway: the debt of love.  We owe God an infinite debt of love (How could it not be infinite when the price paid for our ransom was the blood of Christ?), but rather than focus that effort of love on God who is not among us and has no needs, we are told to consider ourselves in debt permanently to each other, as fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, with respect to love.

Sermon Video: Pastor Powell and Pastor Phillips, The Harvest is Plentiful - Matthew 9:37-38

To commemorate the reopening of our building's original worship space (now known as Clark Hall) after the collapse of the ceiling two years ago, we decided to worship alongside Redeemer Anglican Church, a congregation which has been sharing our space for the past two years.  Pastor Eric and I thus divided up the passage in Matthew, I preached first on 9:37 and he followed after with 9:38.

What does it mean when Jesus tells his disciples that the harvest is plentiful?  Why doesn't it seem that way to us?  Also, why are the workers too few, and what does God tell us to do in response to this challenge?

Sermon Video: Crime and Punishment from God's point-of-view, Romans 13:3-5

What does an ideal government do with respect to crime and punishment?  The Apostle Paul was well aware of the shortcomings of human governments, all of them fail to varying degrees to live up to the standard of being God's servant in this category, but there is still value in understanding what the responsibility of a government should be even when they fall short.

Taken out of context?? Let FFOZ's words speak for themselves, this is how they describe the Gospel:

The primary pushback from the local Torah Club leadership has been that my recent six-hour seminar has taken the positions of the First Fruits of Zion organization out of context.  While this charge falls flat when considering that I utilized 13 primary sources published by FFOZ consisting of 27 pages and 14,000+ words worth of quotations {About 1/10th of which is my commentary, the rest is verifiable quotes from the organization’s top leaders}, another way of demonstrating that the concern of our ministerium’s pastors is well grounded exists.  

Why not list all the ways that FFOZ’s leadership describe the traditional/biblical/apostolic Gospel as accepted by Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox Christians alike, and contrast the words they choose with the ways in which they describe their new ‘gospel.’  Let the descriptors they choose shed some light on this question. {FYI, the whole quotes are available, they were used in full in my seminar}.  At a certain point, the very weight of the evidence makes its own point.

How FFOZ describes the Gospel that has been preached for the past 2,000 years:

Inauthentic, devoid of the kingdom, obscuring the kingdom, missing the very cornerstone of Jesus’ message, incomplete (3 times), partial, missing something, oversimplified distortion, temporary, watered down, simplified, a tiny sliver of an idea, dry and dead, bad news (4 times), pretty bleak, a little absurd, convoluted, repellent, and God’s hatred for Israel and mankind. 

How FFOZ describes the new ‘gospel’ they have uncovered and are now selling:

Totally different, robust, broader, deeper, wider, original (2 times), green, plush, beautiful, unencumbered.

Can you see the difference?  How much closer do we need to look to see, how much more do we need to listen to hear?

** Note, some of the pejoratives used by FFOZ are aimed not at the Gospel as it has been taught in Church History, but at the Straw Man they routinely utilize and which they accuse the Church of routinely teaching.  This is either ignorance of what the true Gospel message is, or a deliberate choice to try to win converts by slandering the Church.  In all my research I can’t recall any FFOZ publication saying, “Some in the Church have misunderstood the Gospel”, instead the Church is always painted as a failed monolith, all equally “missing something” in every generation of its history that only FFOZ can provide. **

Sermon Video: A God honoring rebellion? Romans 13:1-2

In these verses the Apostle Paul lays out our responsibility as Christians to the human governments that we live under.  His statements are general principles rather than specific applications, and are based upon the reality that all authority ultimately rests with God (thus every human authority is a delegated one).

Church history has examples for us of the Church working to maintain the status quo, even when that state was unjust to most of its people, and examples of the Church standing with the oppressed and rebels, and bearing the consequences.

Rather than firm answers, this passage reminds us of the prayer, study, and deliberation that ought to go into our desire to live out our calling to be Christ-like in this world.  God-honoring Christians may arrive at different answers to these questions, what we all must do is respect God's authority enough to wrestle with them when we choose to act either for or against a particular governing authority.