Don't Wait To Be A Witness

In April 22's sermon from Acts 22:1-21, I encouraged us all to be prepared to give a defense (witness) for Christ and His gospel.  This doesn't mean that we have to wait until we are thoroughly prepared to speak to lost people!  1 Peter 3:15 makes this plain: "In your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you..."

Always be prepared.  There are several implications to this including these: 1. That opportunities to witness for the Lord Jesus are always before us; and 2. That pursuing preparedness is to be part of our lives as we regard Him as holy.  Preparing and witnessing are to flow together in our lives as disciples as we regard Him as holy-- which means set apart, worthy of all worship, tops in our lives!

So let us not wait to be witnesses for Him!  Let us be preparing to give reasons for our hope!  Let us take up good resources to equip us for effective witnessing.  (Bob and Cindy Huisken's Apologetics Library will be open on April 26, 3pm - 7pm, on the campus of Rocky Bayou Christian School in Grace Presbyterian Church.  Check out this superb resource; talk with Bob and Cindy; get on their e-mail list.)  Let us pray for lost people by name and ask God to grant us boldness and help to speak up for Jesus Christ!  He will help us!  Christ promised, "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you" (John 14:26).  And the Holy Spirit has come and is in you if you belong to Christ.  He will help!

Don't wait; do witness!

We Are All Natural Evangelists...

This morning I read this from Kevin DeYoung's blog: "We are all natural evangelists for the people and things we love the most."  And I join with Kevin in this: "As I seek to grow as a personal evangelist, and want my church to grow in the same way, my first prayer is 'More Love to Thee, O Christ!'  What we need first and foremost is greater wonder and greater delight in our Savior.  The more we love, the more we love to speak of the things we love...Would that my joy in Christ knew no bounds."

Pastor DeYoung is right.  We are all natural evangelists for the people and things we love the most.  Spouse, family, church, military service, food, sport, travel destination, television, electronic gizmo, movie, author... I could go on and on.

Am I a natural evangelist for the living Christ?  Are you?  The more we know Him and love Him, the more we naturally overflow and talk about Him.  

Resurrection Sunday is four days away.  Jesus lives, so we don't trust a dead teacher's instructions.  We believe in and love the Son of God and Savior who died for our trespasses and was raised for our justification (Rom. 4:25).  Talk to unbelievers about Christ this week; they desperately need to know Him!  Bring them with you to hear the gospel on Resurrection Sunday and afterward pursue an ongoing conversation with them about Christ.  He lives and will help you (John 14:25-26).

Christ's Purpose in Jerusalem

"And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way He said to them, 'See, we are going up to Jerusalem.  And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and He will be raised on the third day.'" Matthew 20:17-19

"While He was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people...Then those who had seized Jesus led Him to Caiaphas the hight priest, where the scribes and the elders had gathered." Matthew 26:47, 57

"When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put Him to death.  And they bound Him and led Him away and delivered Him over to Pilate the governor." Matthew 27:1-2

"So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, 'I am innocent of this man's blood;; see to it yourselves.'  And all the people answered, 'His blood be on us and on our children!'  Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered Him to be crucified."  Matthew 27:24-26

"And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), they offered Him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, He would not drink it.  And when they had crucified Him..." Matthew 27:33-35a

O come, let us adore Him.

The Elisha Foundation

Dear Rocky Family,

Here is, I think, a good resource for you or someone you know who has special needs kids to be aware of.  Go to www.theelishafoundation.org.  I have read some of the site, including their doctrinal statement, and believe God may use this ministry to encourage and help those whom God has graced with caring for these little ones. 

Being Enthralled With Jesus Christ

Last Sunday I encouraged believers in Christ to join the apostle Paul in being enthralled with Him!  Love HIm!  Treasure Him!  How can we do this?  How can we stir this up in ourselves and one another?

I spoke of several ways to do this and one of them is reading (and meditating) about Jesus-- the Scriptures (especially the gospels) and great books about Him (such as Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ).  

Let me illustrate what I mean using this excerpt from Martin Luther's sermon on John 1, "Behold the Lamb of God":

"It would be spectacular and amazing, prompting all the world to open its ears and eyes, mouth and nose to uncomprehending wonderment, if some king's son were to appear in a beggar's home to nurse him in his illness, wash off his filth, and do everything else the beggar would have to do.  Would this not be profound humility?  Any spectator or any beneficiary of this honor would feel impelled to admit that he had seen or experienced something unusual and extraordinary, something magnificent.

But what is a king or an emperor compared with the Son of God?  Furthermore, what is a beggar's filth or stench compared with the filth of sin which is ours by nature, stinking a hundred times worse and looking infinitely more repulsive to God than any foul matter found in a hospital?

And yet the love of the Son of God for us is of such magnitude that the greater the filth and stench of our sins, the more He befriends us.  For how amazing it is that the Son of God becomes my servant, that He humbles Himself so, that he cumbers Himself with my misery and sin...He says to me: 'You are no longer a sinner, but I am;  I am your substitute.  You have not sinned, but I have.  The entire world is in sin.  However, you are not in sin; but I am.  All your sins are to rest on Me and not on you.

No one can comprehend this.  In yonder life our eyes will feast forever on this love of God."

Jesus Reveals the Father

From my reading in Matthew 11 this morning:

"At that time Jesus declared, 'I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.  All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.'" (verses 35-37)

What a passage!  We look into the fellowship of the Father and Son; we witness God's sovereignty in revealing Truth to people; we see His heart for children and the child-like; we see the greatness of grace to God's own, who share with Jesus in the knowledge of His Father; we ponder the Son's revelation of His Father.

How shall I respond?  

* By humbly bowing before the Lord and joining Jesus Christ in expressing gratitude to the Father for His sovereign grace and will.

* By gladly celebrating the unity, love, and glory of the Father and Son, and the Son's knowledge of His Father.

* By gladly wondering at (not doubting) the choosing mercy and grace of the Son to reveal the Father to many.

* By thanking God for His gift of repentance (see 11:20-24) to me.

* By pleading with the Lord to reveal His Father to others, including through me as I speak the truth of Jesus' words in Matthew 11:28, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

Dear Rocky family, let us earnestly pray that the Savior's gracious, saving choice would settle on many as we share His gospel with others call them to "come to" Him-- at home, at work, in shops and restaurants, at school, in hospitals, in battle zones, mission fields, everywhere. 

 

Sermons and Weeping

Here is a quote from Charles Spurgeon: "A sermon wept over is more acceptable with God than one gloried over."  I have been pondering this today and am challenged and humbled.  I wonder, does Spurgeon mean to address the preacher or the listener?  Or both?  

Jim Elliot and Nate Saint

Last Sunday, when I preached on 2 Chronicles 14:11, I spoke of Jim Elliot, Nate Saint and their teammates who were all killed by Auca Indians in Ecuador, martyred for the cause of Christ and His gospel.  Today I was reminded that the very day of this sermon, January 8, was the 56th anniversary of these men's death-- Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Peter Fleming, Ed McCully, and Roger Youderian.  I was two and a half years old on that day.  The impact of their lives, ministries and deaths continue to impact the evangelical missions movement today.

Tim Challies has provided information regarding helpful resources for you to learn more about these men and their work and families. I encourage you to check out his blog where this information was posted on January 9 and entitled "The Ecuadorian Martyrs" (www.challies.com).  One resource he lists is a talk by Nate Saint's son, Steve, given at the 2005 Desiring God Conference.  I attended that conference and, like Tim Challies, I was deeply moved and challenged.  (I think Steve lives in the Orlando area, and I would love to invite Steve to speak here at RBBC during a future missions conference.)

Reading the Bible in 2012

Justin Taylor has provided a very helpful post listing a number of good plans for reading the Bible during the coming year.  I encourage you to go to his blog to read it and select a plan to use-- www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/.

Let It Heighten Your Surprise

As I prepare for Sunday morning, December 4, I found this quote from Jonathan Edwards.  It is lengthy but very much worthwhile!

"Consider what Christ has done for you.  He died for you.  O what did He bear for you?  If you knew the pains, the distress, and the agonies the glorious Son of God underwent for you, how would the thoughts of His kindness and love to you overcome you... God in Christ allows such little, poor creatures as you are to come to Him, to love communion with Him, and to maintain communication of love with Him.  You may go to God and tell Him how you love Him and open your heart and he will accept of it.  You may be familiar in your expressions of your love to Christ, as little or unworthy as you are, for He is near to you.  He is come down from heaven and has taken upon Him the human nature on purpose, that He might be near you and might be, as it were, your companion... You may place yourself in his divine embraces."

"Therefore don't let your unworthiness discourage you.  Let it heighten your surprise and cause you to express your love in the most humble manner possible.  But let it not keep you at a distance or change the expressions of your love.  You may want humility in your love, but you never can be guilty of any excess in the joys of divine love... Let these considerations influence you to the love of God and Jesus Christ, to love them with a superlative love and nothing contrary to them, and love nothing above them, and love nothing equal to them, and love nothing along with them with a parallel love.  And express your love by doing for them by being willing all your days to labor and suffer for the glory of God. Can you think of living so as to dishonor God and to be a stumbling block to others and a disadvantage to religion without the utmost dread of it and being sick at the thought of it?"

From "The Spirit of the True Saints Is a Spirit of Divine Love", a sermon a 1 John 4:16