Covenant Caswell

Deuteronomy 9:1-10:11 
Do You Learn From Your Mistakes? 
 
I. I’ll Never Do That Again 
1. Ever resolved not to do something and soon you’re back doing what you said you’d never do again? 
2. Do you eat too much desert, text while driving, argue on-line, buy stuff you don’t need on-line? 
3. Do you realize that unless you change something that you’re going to keep making this mistake? 
4. Maybe the big lesson is about you, about what you’re made of, what your weaknesses are. 
II. Where They Are (9:1-3) 
1. They are supposed to cross over the Jordan soon. All the preparation is over. 
2. They need to be careful that they don’t make the same mistake that their parents made. 
3. Rather than talking down the Canaanites or talk up their own abilities, Moses does the opposite. 
4. Moses reminds them that the Canaanites are too strong for them. Why? Will they be intimidated? 
5. Their mistake before was not believing in the Lord, not not believing in themselves. 
6. “Know” that “He who goes before you.” Our God is a consuming fire. “He will destroy” the enemy. 
7. Now our real enemies are spiritual. “We wrestle not with flesh and blood,” “cosmic powers.” 
8. It’s a mistake to think we can overcome the world, the flesh or the devil by our own willpower. 
9. Don’t make the mistake that you can defeat sin and get heaven by what comes from you. 
10. Instead of believing in yourself, believe in the Lord, that He has gone before you. 
 
III. The Wrong Lessons (9:4-5) 
1. Some people learn the wrong lessons from their mistakes. They are told to learn the right lesson. 
2. In 8:17, when you’re comfortable, don’t learn the lesson from that that my power gave me all this. 
3. Here, they’ll think that is was their morality, their religion gave them victory, the Promised Land. 
4. The wrong lesson here is more pernicious than in chapter 8. But it’s still trust in oneself. 
5. It assumes that God is like a blessing and cursing machine. If you put in the right religion, He blesses. 
6. You can’t manipulate Him with right behavior or right doctrine or the right prayer or right sacraments. 
7. Everyone who is condemned earns it. Everyone who is saved is given it as a gift. 
8. The right lesson is that nothing in your hands you bring but only to the cross of Christ you should cling. 
IV. The Right Lessons (9:6-7) 
1. Learn the right lesson of how unright you are. You are stubborn. Learn about your own sinfulness. 
2. If you’ve been congratulating yourself for your blessings, you’ve been making a mistake. 
3. Learn the lesson that your Promised Land, salvation, glorification, is a gracious gift. 
4. We’re saved not because of anything about us. It’s what the Old Testament calls “steadfast love.” 
V. Let’s Review (9:8-10:11) 
1. Repetition is the mother of learning. We need to learn from our mistakes and review until we do. 
2. We’re going to be tempted to credit ourselves for God’s blessings. So, let’s review. 
3. The Lord told Moses to go back down the mountain to the people because they have “acted corruptly.” 
4. In Romans 7, “nothing good dwells in me … Wretched, who will deliver me from this body of death?” 
5. Moses is away a little over a month and they revert to idolatry, just like the rest of the world. 
6. The Lord didn’t destroy them for our sins because they have an intercessor. 
7. Christ always lives “to make intercession” for us (Hebrews 7:25). Our law-giver is our intercessor. 
8. Whoever says not to be afraid of the “anger and hot displeasure of the Lord,” hasn’t learned the lesson. 
9. Moses knew that our God is a consuming fire, so he interceded, for Israel and for Aaron. 
10. If you’re not learning from your mistakes, you need to destroy those things that make you fall. 
11. Our law-giver is our intercessor and, greater than Moses, also our Savior. 
12. Moses remade the tablets and had them make a container, the ark of the covenant. 
13. We read the Bible so we would remember that it wasn’t our righteousness that earned God’s favor. 
14. Israel had 40 years of wandering around, reviewing their mistakes, reminded with every foot step. 
15. Moses reminds that he interceded for them for 40 days. “The Lord was unwilling to destroy you.” 
16. Our law-giver and intercessor is our Savior who goes before us and takes us into the Promised Land. 
VI. Invitation: Learn from your mistakes. Learn that just like these people that you’re stubborn, falling again and again into the same sins. Learn that you’re rebellious, resistant to the Kingdom, the rule, of God. Cry out, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Don’t believe in yourself. Believe in your law-giver and intercessor who is also your Savior. Who will deliver you — you wretched, stubborn, rebellious sinner — who will deliver you from death? There He is, coming down from the mountain. Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ our Lord!

Deuteronomy 9:1-10:11
Do You Learn From Your Mistakes?

I. I’ll Never Do That Again
1. Ever resolved not to do something and soon you’re back doing what you said you’d never do again?
2. Do you eat too much desert, text while driving, argue on-line, buy stuff you don’t need on-line?
3. Do you realize that unless you change something that you’re going to keep making this mistake?
4. Maybe the big lesson is about you, about what you’re made of, what your weaknesses are.
II. Where They Are (9:1-3)
1. They are supposed to cross over the Jordan soon. All the preparation is over.
2. They need to be careful that they don’t make the same mistake that their parents made.
3. Rather than talking down the Canaanites or talk up their own abilities, Moses does the opposite.
4. Moses reminds them that the Canaanites are too strong for them. Why? Will they be intimidated?
5. Their mistake before was not believing in the Lord, not not believing in themselves.
6. “Know” that “He who goes before you.” Ou

Deuteronomy 9:1-10:11, Do You Learn From Your Mistakes?

Deuteronomy 5:22-6:25 
What Do I Do Now? 
 
I. After You’ve Achieved Your Goal 
1. Have you ever worked for some achievement and then it comes and you think, ‘What do I do now?’ 
2. Maybe it’s graduation or marriage or the birth of a child or a dream career or the end of the lockdown. 
3. Things change once you reach some mountain top. You’ll have a new normal. ‘What do I do now?’ 
4. In Deuteronomy they are poised on the verge of the Promised Land. 
5. Then, once they have peace in the Promised Land, they’ll ask themselves, ‘now what?’ 
II. Honor (5:23-6:3) 
1. Moses recounted the Ten Commandments. They were amazed Moses could hear directly from God. 
2. They trembled that if God drew near to them like He had to Moses, that surely they would die. 
3. The Lord, “Oh that they had such a mind as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments.” 
4. Today Christians commonly think that now that they are saved, they have nothing to fear. 
5. The Christian has been saved by grace but still he honors the Lord, he trembles at His Word. 
6. When a Christian is earnest so he doesn’t want to do anything that might displease the Father, he’s safe. 
7. Lack of fear of the Lord, of honoring Him, might be a deal breaker for your salvation. 
8. Practically, you honor the Lord by keeping His commandments. Faith leads to obedience. 
9. Don’t just be entertained by preaching or educated by doctrine. Be a doer of the Word. 
 
III. Love (6:4-5) 
1. The Lord Jesus was asked what was the greatest commandment and this verse was His response. 
2. The Jews know this passage as the “Shema,” the “hear.” Are you listening? 
3. The Lord is our God. Not the money they tell you makes the world go around; not the dollars. 
4. He is one God, one essence, one nature. So He’s to be the number one you love. 
5. You love your wife or husband or children as a way of loving the Lord. You love the Lord first. 
6. Will you shut your shop for the virus but not for the Lord (to go to church)? What do you love? 
7. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; with resolve and passion. 
8. Feelings are to be judged as good or bad whether they are leading you to truth, to love the Lord. 
IV. Teach (6:6-9) 
1. Teach about Him to others, especially children, to raise up the next generation of the people of God. 
2. “You shall teach them diligently,” to your children, to God’s children, the covenant children. 
3. He means soak your mind with it. Think, memorize, meditate, listen to sermons, sing the Word of God. 
V. Remember (6:10-15) 
1. Most of the people were too young to have walked through the Red Sea and seen Mount Sinai. 
2. We’re especially prone to forget when we’re blessed, when we’ve reached our goals, comfortable. 
3. Affluence leads to indifference. We have enough money, then it’s easy to forget. 
4. The Puritans declined because their godliness begat prosperity and the daughter devoured the mother. 
5. When the Lord brings you to what He promised, then take care lest you forget. 
6. Remember that “the Lord your God is in your midst” even during a pandemic. 
7. God doesn’t tolerate us loving other gods, like money or things, besides Him. 
VI. Keep (6:16-19) 
1. Some foolish people think they can quote a verse to keep them from the corona virus, testing the Lord. 
2. Keep His commands. Don’t put the Lord to the test with your failure to keep His Word. 
3. The Lord Jesus wouldn’t test the Lord but said keep God’s commands, like don’t test Him. 
4. Persevere in keeping God’s Word because it’s perseverance that is “the grand mark” of a true believer. 
VII. Say (6:20-25) 
1. Say what He’s done, say the gospel, tell people who ask, speak the truth, especially your children. 
2. When you’re saved, you’re free from the slavery to sin, the wrath of God has passed over you. 
3. When your child asks you what it means, say, “We were slaves to the world, the flesh and the devil.” 
4. Now we must honor Him, love the Lord, teach about Him, remember Him, and keep His Word. 
5. Say to your children how the Lord will keep us safe;how we’ll be right with Him through Christ. 
VIII. Invitation: What are we to do now? The work of saving is over; it is being applied. Salvation has been done and is being implemented. It doesn’t depend on us. So, what are we to do? If we’ve been saved then the work of Him who worked is working in us. If you’ve been saved, the work is done and now you will get to work honoring and loving and teaching and remembering and saying “Amazing love, how can it be that you My God should die for me!” And if you’re not saved yet hear.

Deuteronomy 5:22-6:25
What Do I Do Now?

I. After You’ve Achieved Your Goal
1. Have you ever worked for some achievement and then it comes and you think, ‘What do I do now?’
2. Maybe it’s graduation or marriage or the birth of a child or a dream career or the end of the lockdown.
3. Things change once you reach some mountain top. You’ll have a new normal. ‘What do I do now?’
4. In Deuteronomy they are poised on the verge of the Promised Land. 
5. Then, once they have peace in the Promised Land, they’ll ask themselves, ‘now what?’
II. Honor (5:23-6:3)
1. Moses recounted the Ten Commandments. They were amazed Moses could hear directly from God.
2. They trembled that if God drew near to them like He had to Moses, that surely they would die.
3. The Lord, “Oh that they had such a mind as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments.”
4. Today Christians commonly think that now that they are saved, they have nothing to fear.
5. The Christian has been saved by grace but still he ho

Deuteronomy 5:22-6:25, What Do I Do Now?

Luke 12:1-3, Matthew 23, 2 Timothy 3:5 
The Infection of Hypocrisy 
 
I. Avoiding Infectious Diseases 
1. We have been learning a lot about infections, “social distancing,” “ppe”, N95 masks, etc. 
2. People are willing to go to extra-ordinary measures rather than risk of catching an infectious disease. 
3. Being radically committed to avoiding an infection can be a good thing. 
4. Are we as committed to avoid other harmful things that are also caught from other people? 
5. What are we willing to give up to keep ourselves from what would harm our spiritual lives? 
II. The Disease (Luke 12:1) 
A. Infection in First Century Terms 
1. The Lord Jesus warns us against the “leaven [the yeast] of the Pharisees.” Yeast can be transferred. 
2. They could see that if someone took a pinch from one lump of dough it could leaven a second lump. 
3. This was the closest thing that they understood to an infection, yeast being contagious. 
4. Jesus was saying, in our terms, ‘Beware of the infection of hypocrisy. 
B. The Taxonomy of Hypocrisy 
1. Hypocrisy is a focus on external things, on the forms of religion, not the relationship with the Lord. 
2. The person infected with hypocrisy practices his righteousness before other people, to be seen. 
3. The hypocrite is a functional atheist. He doesn’t really believe that God will reveal his secrets. 
III. The Symptoms (Matthew 23:4) 
A. Love of Rules 
1. The hypocrite loves rules because he then can keep them and show off his rule-keeping. 
2. They will challenge others to keep the rules so everyone will be impressed with how dutiful they are. 
B. Displays (Matthew 23:5-6) 
1. In their day, the hypocrites “made their phylacteries broad”: little boxes on their forehead. 
2. Today their facebook status shows how apparently spiritual they are. They’re for self-promotion. 
3. They especially love being honored. Some want to be pastors for the wrong reason, to be seen. 
4. The hypocrite is all about recognition. They’ll spend hundreds of dollars on an ornate “pulpit chair.” 
C. Titles (Matthew 23:7-12) 
1. Some people love to be called “reverend” or “bishop” or “doctor” (without an earned degree.). 
2. Some religious people don’t put much stock in education but they love the titles of being educated. 
3. Accreditation shows which institutions give a real education and which ones are diploma mills. 
D. Empty Words (Matthew 23:16-22) 
1. The hypocrites of Jesus’ day debated when you could make a commitment and then break it. 
2. They said, only some commitments are binding. Jesus twice calls them “blind”. 
3. Someone said that making a covenant to a church is not binding, not like a wedding vow. 
4. Hypocrites want ways so they can be excused for making a commitment they walk away from. 
5. “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil,” (Mt. 5:37.) 
6. In Psalm 15 the person God approves of keeps his (or her) oath even if it hurts. 
7. Above all the commands, be a person of integrity, a promise-keeper; your ‘yes’ is yes (James 5:12). 
8. A lot of people today make promises when it seems useful. We make commitments when we feel like making them so that we’ll keep them when we don’t feel like keeping them. 
IV. The Treatment (2 Timothy 3:9) 
A. Social Distancing 
1. “having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.” Their religion is an empty shell. 
2. “Avoid such people.” Be careful with hypocrites because their condition is contagious. 
3. Once one person starts acting, others catch it. It spreads until it contaminates the whole church. 
4. Beware of being exposed to hypocrisy and the way that it gets you to think it’s normal. 
5. Is it a shock to you if you encounter a Christian who honestly admits his or her weaknesses? 
6. Does having racists as church members seem acceptable? Pastors who don’t keep their word? 
B. Disinfecting 
1. Sunshine is the best disinfectant. Call it what it is. Don’t enable it by accepting the excuses. 
2. Tell the truth about sins. Let the sunshine of truth kill the pathogen of hypocrisy. 
3. Confession is a disinfectant. Confess your sins and weaknesses to each other and to God. 
V. Invitation: Beware of that deadly infection. God will make our reality plain for all to see. So, let’s not try to fool God. Expose our dark hearts to the bright light of God. Let the Word shine in us, expose us, , so we’ll be humbled and so beat back the infection of hypocrisy. Let’s believe that God sees who we really are. Let’s believe that being right with God matters most.

Luke 12:1-3, Matthew 23, 2 Timothy 3:5
The Infection of Hypocrisy

I. Avoiding Infectious Diseases
1. We have been learning a lot about infections, “social distancing,” “ppe”, N95 masks, etc.
2. People are willing to go to extra-ordinary measures rather than risk of catching an infectious disease. 
3. Being radically committed to avoiding an infection can be a good thing. 
4. Are we as committed to avoid other harmful things that are also caught from other people?
5. What are we willing to give up to keep ourselves from what would harm our spiritual lives?
II. The Disease (Luke 12:1)
A. Infection in First Century Terms 
1. The Lord Jesus warns us against the “leaven [the yeast] of the Pharisees.” Yeast can be transferred.
2. They could see that if someone took a pinch from one lump of dough it could leaven a second lump.
3. This was the closest thing that they understood to an infection, yeast being contagious.
4. Jesus was saying, in our terms, ‘Beware of the infection of hypocrisy.
B

Infection of Hypocrisy, Luke 12:1-3, Matthew 23, 2 Timothy 3:5

Matthew 27:11-26 
You Gotta Do What You Gotta Do 
 
I. Duty of Care 
1. We have a duty to practice social distancing, groups smaller than 10, stay six feet apart, wash hands. 
2. If you own a restaurant, you have a duty of care that the food you serve is healthy, not poisonous. 
3. In 2009 Mary bought a ticket to Singapore and back but the airlines couldn’t get her past Atlanta. 
4. You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. We say that about some chore we wish we didn’t have to do. 
II. The Evil of Envy (27:11-19) 
A. Pontius Pilate’s Job 
1. Pilate doesn’t care about theology; only politics. His duty is keep the taxes flowing to Rome. 
2. Pilate’s question is political: “Are you the king of the Jews?” He wants to know if Jesus is a rebel. 
3. When the chief priests and the elders accused Jesus, He said nothing. He’s silent like a lamb. 
4. Pilate sees that Jesus is no hot-headed rebel. He is not that kind of revolutionary. 
5. Pilate doesn’t have time for idealism. His job is to keep these cantankerous people under control. 
B. Envy Is Behind the Murder of Jesus 
1. The evil of envy that has brought Jesus before a Roman judge and the judge can see that now clearly. 
2. Envy occurs when a person lacks another’s superior qualities, or achievements, or possessions. 
3. The religious leaders envied His popularity. Earlier Jesus was hailed with “Hosanna!” 
4. One reason some people get involved in religion is that they want to be thought of highly. 
5. They wanted what He had and if they couldn’t get it, they wanted to take it away from Him. 
III. The Mob-Mentality (27:20-23) 
1. For the leaders to get their goal of crucifying Jesus, they must turn the crowd against Jesus. 
2. Here, the crowd who had greeted Jesus before with “Hosanna” now turn against Him. 
3. In a stampede, either of cattle or people, the individuals don’t know why they are running. 
4. Here, the herd is steered to call for the execution of Jesus. They thought so many people can’t be wrong. 
5. The mob-mentality has taken over. If the individuals thought for themselves may have chosen Jesus. 
6. On the one hand, they have Jesus, who has done nothing wrong. He’s straightened people out. 
7. On the other hand, there is Barabbas, who is a “notorious prisoner.” He was infamous. 
8. He probably thought this would be an easy choice. He wanted to let Jesus go. He made the choice easy. 
9. The mob-mentality drives them, here, to ask for the infamous villain and kill Jesus. 
IV. The Requirement of Responsibility (27:24-26) 
A. Pilate’s Wife’s Dream and Responsibility 
1. Because Pilate thinks he’s got to do it, he condemns Jesus to death. Pilate knew Jesus was innocent. 
2. Mrs. Pilate had a dream. She suffered much because of seeing her husband condemn Jesus. 
3. Pilate’s duty is to keep the peace. If there’s a riot, he’d have to call in the troops and give a report. 
4. Those are the things we tell ourselves when we choose what is expedient, the easy way. 
5. The leaders are working that crowd hard to steer the herd in the right way. Pilate tries to let Jesus go. 
6. Like he’s in a covid19 epidemic, he’ll wash his hands, as though, with that, he’s not responsible. 
7. Pilate is responsible. He can wash his hands all he wants but the blood is still on them. 
B. Pilate Does What is Expedient 
1. Pilate can see the paper work he might get bogged down in if he has to put down a riot. 
2. So the Lord Jesus is condemned. He was condemned by a man who thought he was doing his duty. 
3. Pilate makes a show out of avoiding responsibility. The people take responsibility. 
4. The religious believe their sins are in service to God. They’ll be proud to take responsibility. 
5. Forty years later Roman armies crucified thousands of Jewish men, including some of those here. 
6. Some day they will wish they were not being held responsible for that righteous man’s blood. 
7. Today many think they will not be held responsible for their sins; that sins don’t have to be paid for. 
8. Some think no one has to be punished for sins, certainly not scourged or crucified for them. 
9. The evil of envy steered a mob mentality causing Pilate to avoid the requirement of responsibility. 
10. Pilate gives the order. Jesus is to be scourged. It was vicious torture. The flogging tore lacerations. 
11. Ripping and slashing, flaying the skin, flinging blood, tearing flesh. Leaving stripe after stripe. 
V. Invitation: By those stripes we are healed. What you’ve got to do, your duty, your responsibility, is stop following the mob, stop envying the world or the rich. See His stripes. Then sacrifice all the vain things that charm you most, sacrifice them to His blood.

Matthew 27:11-26
You Gotta Do What You Gotta Do

I. Duty of Care
1. We have a duty to practice social distancing, groups smaller than 10, stay six feet apart, wash hands.
2. If you own a restaurant, you have a duty of care that the food you serve is healthy, not poisonous.
3. In 2009 Mary bought a ticket to Singapore and back but the airlines couldn’t get her past Atlanta.
4. You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. We say that about some chore we wish we didn’t have to do.
II. The Evil of Envy (27:11-19)
A. Pontius Pilate’s Job
1. Pilate doesn’t care about theology; only politics. His duty is keep the taxes flowing to Rome.
2. Pilate’s question is political: “Are you the king of the Jews?” He wants to know if Jesus is a rebel.
3. When the chief priests and the elders accused Jesus, He said nothing. He’s silent like a lamb.
4. Pilate sees that Jesus is no hot-headed rebel. He is not that kind of revolutionary.
5. Pilate doesn’t have time for idealism. His job is to keep these cantankero

Matthew 27:11-26, "You Gotta Do What You Gotta Do"

Matthew 26:57-68 
Bad Religion 
 
I. Do You Love Religion? 
1. Some people love the sense of surety, of security, that religion brings. They love buildings, the routine. 
2. It is increasingly popular to say that I dislike “organized religion” but I like “spirituality.” 
3. Some people think any form of religion is good. They’re offended if you criticize another religion. 
4. It’s not truth, or Jesus, that matters, it’s just whatever works to get people to believe in being good. 
5. What if our idea of being good is bad? What if religion is bad for you? 
II. The Trial (26:57-62) 
1. They put Jesus on trial. It’s not a trial to find out the truth. They have decided what they want to do. 
2. They racked their brains trying to find a rationale to do away with Jesus. 
3. Exodus 23:7, “Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and righteous, . . .” 
4. They are not supposed to hold a trial for a capital crime at night, not during a festival time, etc. 
5. There is such a thing as bad religion, that holds to the truth, that preserves orthodoxy, but is still bad. 
6. They’ve used their knowledge of the Word of God not to submit to it but to evade it. 
7. The heart of sin is the refusal to submit to God, the insistence that we’ll do things my way. 
8. Pure religion shows itself in visiting orphans and widows, nursing home residents, elderly parents, etc. 
9. The bad religious are just as selfish and unfaithful as the world but they show it in different ways. 
10. The trial, based on trumped up charges, shows us bad religion. The trial is a sham. 
III. The Trap (26:63-65) 
1. There’s no shortage of people willing to lie under oath in order to please the powers that be. 
2. Did Jesus say, “I will destroy this temple” or, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up”? 
3. Finally Caiaphas, the high priest, tries a desperate ploy to get Jesus to incriminate Himself. 
4. He asks Jesus, “Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God.” Of course, He would not deny Himself. 
5. He says, “You have said so.” or, “That’s your way of putting it.” It’s not a denial. 
6. Jesus references Daniel 7:13, the vision of the Son of Man receiving an eternal Kingdom. 
7. He is implying here that He is the eternal King, who received authority from God to rule; that He is God. 
8. A bad religion will not let you believe that Jesus is Lord, that He’s the center, you exists to glorify Him. 
9. So, they spring the trap and Jesus says enough to let Himself be caught by it; to let them condemn Him. 
10. This whole charade is a blasphemy. They are so steeped in their bad religion they have to feign shock. 
11. They have God in the flesh before them and yet they are erupting in unquenchable hate toward Him. 
12. These religious people did not want a Messiah who did not accept their religion. 
IV. The Treatment (26:66-68) 
1. The treatment is when we see God in the hands of angry sinners. They mete out their treatment. 
2. They spit in His face. They punch Him. They slap Him. They jeer at Him. 
3. Some have taken this passage as a basis to hate Jews. They miss the point entirely. 
4. We could very well be among the people punching, slapping, and mocking Jesus. 
5. He chose to take this treatment, because we couldn’t contrive any religion to save ourselves. 
6. The men here are not examples of the worst of the worst. They are examples of us. 
7. We mistreat Him when we’re bored with Him or regard making money as more important than worship. 
8. We punch and slap and spit on Him when we make a God who exists for us. 
9. Here we see God in the hands of angry sinners. We can only, left to ourselves, hate God. 
10. Religion is our attempt to get to God. Christianity is God coming to get us. 
11. The best our religion can do is make angry sinners who beat and kill God if they get their hands on Him. 
V. Invitation: All of this is what our sins earned. In order for this Holy God to come to get us, He had to deal with the guilt of our sins, the fact that at our best we treat Jesus like this. Our sinfulness had to be punished. Jesus took every punch, every slap, the humiliation of every spit, the mockery, to pay for the guilt of our sins. “O sacred Head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down, now scornfully surrounded with thorns, Your only crown.”

Matthew  26:57-68
Bad Religion

I. Do You Love Religion?
1. Some people love the sense of surety, of security, that religion brings. They love buildings, the routine.
2. It is increasingly popular to say that I dislike “organized religion” but I like “spirituality.”
3. Some people think any form of religion is good. They’re offended if you criticize another religion.
4. It’s not truth, or Jesus, that matters, it’s just whatever works to get people to believe in being good.
5. What if our idea of being good is bad? What if religion is bad for you?
II. The Trial (26:57-62)
1. They put Jesus on trial. It’s not a trial to find out the truth. They have decided what they want to do.
2. They racked their brains trying to find a rationale to do away with Jesus.
3. Exodus 23:7, “Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and righteous, . . .”
4. They are not supposed to hold a trial for a capital crime at night, not during a festival time, etc.
5. There is such a thing as bad re

Matthew  26:57-68, "Bad Religion"

Matthew 26:47-56 
Some Things Are Just Impossible 
 
I. Impossible Things 
1. Slamming a revolving door; for 1 + 1 to not equal 2; kiss your elbow; control a teenage daughter. 
2. Have you ever come across something that, even after trying hard, you conclude is just impossible? 
3. God might bring you face-to-face with something that is impossible so you learn what is impossible. 
4. We might think it’s impossible for the Son of God to be captured, arrested, lead away like a criminal. 
5. Last week we saw that it was impossible for us to be saved any other way than the cross. 
II. The Unashamedness of Sin (26:47-50) 
A. Judas the Betrayer 
1. We are reminded there that Judas is “one of the twelve” because it is astounding He was betrayed. 
2. It seemed impossible that one of those men, so close together, would be a betrayer. 
3. It should be impossible but sin has a way of making us unfaithful, ungrateful, disloyal, selfish. 
4. Not only has Judas done what seemed impossible, he does it completely without shame. 
5. There are many attempts to spin what he did to put him in a good light; to sympathize with him. 
6. When people started getting creative with rewriting the gospel, they made excuses for Judas. 
7. We have a hard time accepting the unashamedness of sin. We think everyone can see their sin. 
8. We misunderstand what sin is. We think it is something we do, external to the real us. 
9. We under-estimate what sin does to us when we give into it, how it hardens us to more sin. 
B. Judas the Audacious 
1. Sin sears our conscience, like a hot iron, burns out the nerves of our conscience (1 Timothy 4:2). 
2. Judas doesn’t stand far off and just point Jesus out. He is unashamed about identifying Him exactly. 
3. The kiss, Matthew writes specifically, is an intense word. It is an affectionate, repeated kiss. 
4. Judas identifies Jesus it in the most demonstrative, expressive, audacious way possible. 
5. Jesus says to him literally, “For this you came” (26:50). His life was about this. 
6. In John 17:12, Judas is called “the son of destruction”, a term only used for the antichrist. 
7. A sociopath is “someone interested only in their personal needs and desires.” 
8. Little sins can make people into a big, audacious, sociopathic sinners. 
9. Do you think your little sins are no big deal? They are, right now, searing your conscience. 
10. They make it easier for you to fall for the big sin. You cannot play with sin without being burned. 
III. The Unprofitability of Violence (26:51-53) 
1. You also cannot profit spiritually by carnal means. It is unable to advance the Kingdom of God. 
2. A disciple took out a sword to fight. He almost certainly intended to cut off more than an ear. 
3. The disciples expected that the Messiah would take power and impose the Kingdom. 
4. Jesus taught that the Kingdom is like a grain of mustard seed that gradually grows. 
5. Jesus said that forceful, or violent, people lay hold of the Kingdom of God (Matthew 11:12). 
6. The Roman Emperor Constantine claimed a vision of a cross with the words, “Conquer by this.” 
7. We cannot, with our force, advance the Kingdom. Only God’s power can advance the Kingdom. 
8. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal or mere human reasoning (2 Corinthians 10:4). 
9. If He wanted to fight He’d call on twelve legions of angels, an overwhelming number. 
10. He’s telling them He is not a victim. He doesn’t need any human help. He wasn’t trapped. 
11. If the disciples couldn’t use violence, they would flee. The only alternative was submission. 
IV. The Unbreakability of Scripture (26:54-56) 
1. The disciples think they can change events with grit and determination; with swords and muscle. 
2. Jesus tells them that scripture must be fulfilled, “it must happen in this way” (26:54). 
3. We can never drop studying and teaching the Bible and still call ourselves a church. 
4. Living the Christian life by yourself is impossible. You need the power of the Holy Spirit and a church. 
V. Invitation: 
1. Entering the Kingdom of God with enough of our own religion and morality is not possible. But coming into God’s Kingdom, being saved, without dedication is not possible either. You must violently lay hold of it, with all your heart; a single-minded commitment to not let go. Lay hold now, violently, of the Kingdom, knowing that your forcefulness cannot advance it. The Kingdom of God demands 100% from us while relying on 0% of us. 
2. Pleasing God at all, on our own, is impossible. We need for this Jesus to be numbered with the transgressors – even though He was not a transgressor, and we are. We need Him to do for us what is impossible for us to do for ourselves.

Matthew 26:47-56
Some Things Are Just Impossible

I. Impossible Things
1. Slamming a revolving door; for 1 + 1 to not equal 2; kiss your elbow; control a teenage daughter.
2. Have you ever come across something that, even after trying hard, you conclude is just impossible?
3. God might bring you face-to-face with something that is impossible so you learn what is impossible.
4. We might think it’s impossible for the Son of God to be captured, arrested, lead away like a criminal.
5. Last week we saw that it was impossible for us to be saved any other way than the cross.
II. The Unashamedness of Sin (26:47-50)
A. Judas the Betrayer
1. We are reminded there that Judas is “one of the twelve” because it is astounding He was betrayed.
2. It seemed impossible that one of those men, so close together, would be a betrayer.
3. It should be impossible but sin has a way of making us unfaithful, ungrateful, disloyal, selfish.
4. Not only has Judas done what seemed impossible, he does it completely w

Matthew 26:47-56, Some Things Are Just Impossible

1 Timothy 5:17-19, 2 Timothy 4:1-2, Titus 2:15, Hebrews 13:17 
Church Leadership 
 
I. The People of the Lie 
1. Pseudocyesis is false pregnancy, the condition that you are expecting a baby when you really are not. 
2. When it becomes clear to me that someone is deeply troubled then they leave. 
3. One of the symptoms of a psychological or spiritual disease is not wanting it dealt with. 
4. Psychiatrist M. Scott Peck wrote People of the Lie. “The evil hate the light.” 
5. Since the evil want disguise, “evil people are most likely to be found … within the church.” 
6. That assume that the church is a good place to hide sin; that people will be enabled to stay in their sin. 
7. One of the pillars of a Biblical church is that the pastor preaches the Word to the needs of the people. 
II. 1 Timothy 5:17-19 
1. What does a “pastor” do? He labors in preaching and teaching, not just giving lectures. 
2. The word for “work” means to toil, to work hard, strenuous labor that results in weariness and fatigue. 
3. Someone said that the pastor should not preach something that anyone might not agree with. 
4. The person thought the pastor should confirm you as you already are; enable you. 
5. The opposite of a leader is an enabler. A Biblical leader helps people follow Christ. 
6. An enabler helps people stay comfortable in their sins, to stay as they are, unexposed, unchallenged. 
7. “Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses.” (1 Tm. 5:19.) 
8. The Apostle Paul wrote that elders should be protected from rumors and unfounded accusations. 
9. You all need the maturity to go along with things that are uncomfortable, to be supportive, followship. 
10. In English, we don’t even have a word for the art of following. It would logically be “followship.” 
11. We don’t respect following. But leaders need followers. 
III. 2 Timothy 4:1-2 
1. Paul begins 2 Timothy 4, extremely seriously, calling God and the Lord Jesus to witness this. 
2. John Calvin, “the government of the church is conducted under the eye of God and His angels”. 
3. In 2 Timothy 4:2, the pastor does three things: “(1) reprove, (2) rebuke, and (3) exhort”: 
a. “reprove” is to correct. Like, don’t try to serve God and money; you can’t do it. 
b. rebuke is the opposite of enabling; it is a sharper form of correction. 
c. “exhort” is more positive and encouraging; it’s to come alongside someone to help. 
4. You should be glad for correction in church because you want to be a better Christian. 
5. In our culture where churches are havens for evil people, some are going to be offended by the Word. 
IV. Titus 2:15 
1. Here we zero in on what church leadership is about. What exactly does a spiritual leader do? 
2. “Declare” is an authoritative word. Some ministry can be delegated. The pastor doesn’t have to do it all. 
3. “With all authority,” literally “by command,” with authority because Titus, the pastor, has authority. 
4. “Let no one disregard you.” The pastor is not to be ignored, considered the punching bag. 
5. It is worldly to tell the pastor he must take every accusation (from members). It’s unbiblical. 
6. “Servant leader” sounds spiritual but is usually code for, ‘You’ll do what we say.’ 
V. Hebrews 13:17 
1. “Obey your leaders and submit to them.” Some assume that they can treat the pastor rudely. 
2. Because, “they are keeping watch over your souls.” Leaders have a responsibility, before God. 
3. The spiritual leader is called to be popular, in the end, with only One Person. 
4. Your leaders are those who are keeping (present tense, right now) watch over your soul. 
5. Let them do this with joy. So listen, be someone who wants to grow and wants to hear the Word. 
6. This is the key to understand the role of women in ministry. They can speak under authority. 
VI. Invitation 
2. It’s God’s design that churches have pastors. Pastors are imperfect men, sinners like anyone else. Through them the Word of God is preached, taught, applied, sometimes, even used to rebuke, correct, expose our embarrassing sins. 
3. We’re tempted to hide from it’s light, to ask to be lied to; to hide, to be told that I’m okay as I am. We’re tempted to love enabling, positive, encouraging words and not the Word. 
4. The Word became flesh and lived among us. And without God’s grace, we loved darkness rather than light. So we shouldn’t be surprised when His Word, through us, brings the same response He got. People love darkness more than light. But He is still the Word and it’s through the Word that we have the power to become the sons and daughters of God. Preach the Word because Jesus is the Word, the shepherd, the pastor. Love Him rather than darkness.

1 Timothy 5:17-19, 2 Timothy 4:1-2, Titus 2:15, Hebrews 13:17
Church Leadership

I. The People of the Lie
1. Pseudocyesis is false pregnancy, the condition that you are expecting a baby when you really are not.
2. When it becomes clear to me that someone is deeply troubled then they leave.
3. One of the symptoms of a psychological or spiritual disease is not wanting it dealt with.
4. Psychiatrist M. Scott Peck wrote People of the Lie. “The evil hate the light.”
5. Since the evil want disguise, “evil people are most likely to be found … within the church.”
6. That assume that the church is a good place to hide sin; that people will be enabled to stay in their sin.
7. One of the pillars of a Biblical church is that the pastor preaches the Word to the needs of the people.
II. 1 Timothy 5:17-19
1. What does a “pastor” do? He labors in preaching and teaching, not just giving lectures.
2. The word for “work” means to toil, to work hard, strenuous labor that results in weariness and fatigue.


1 Timothy 5:17-19, 2 Timothy 4:1-2, Titus 2:15, Hebrews 13:17                   Church Leadership

Acts 20:17-35 
The Whole Counsel of God 
 
I. The Problem With Seeing Only One Side 
1. Ever thought you understood something only to realize you were only seeing one side of the story? 
2. Two men in one side of a parking lot looked like they were starting a fight. But they were actors. 
3. Everything I saw before was true, but I couldn’t interpret it correctly until I saw the whole picture. 
4. Micah’s speech therapist saw airplane disappear into the side of one of the World Trade Center towers. 
5. She was an eye-witness to a terrorist attack but she couldn’t interpret it correctly because she didn’t see the whole picture. You respond in exactly the wrong way, unless you get the whole picture. 
6. There are many preachers who are just preaching one side of the story. 
7. A half-truth presented as a whole truth is a complete untruth. 
II. What Is the Whole Counsel of God? 
A. What Is It? 
1. We’re focusing on the advice he leaves for the church, as we look at the pillars of a Biblical church. 
2. A pillar of a truly Biblical church is that it is committed to “the whole counsel of God.” 
3. “Whole” means all, the entirety. The Bible is the counsel He has given us, which is “of God”. 
4. We proclaim everything and it is all profitable because that message of the gospel is in all of it. 
B. How Important Is Declaring the Whole Message of Scripture? 
1. Paul reminds them, “I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable.” (20:20). 
2. He never flinched from declaring everything God has said. He didn’t whisper the unpopular parts. 
3. In Ezekiel the watchman is held accountable for warning, not winning. We must warn. 
4. Faithfulness to the whole message may mean losing people who can’t accept certain teachings. 
5. If we have to make a choice between warning or winning, we had better choose warning. If we hold back any part of the message and people continue to head toward disaster, we will be judged. 
III. How Do We Get he Whole Counsel of God? 
1. It’s not something we can leave up to following our preferences, our tastes, our whims, feelings. 
2. What we need is a disciplined regimen of going through all of scripture. 
3. If we really want to the leading of the Spirit, then let’s follow the book whose every letter He led. 
4. True humility bows before the Word and admits that God was right all along. He led the Word. 
5. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly by singing: singing Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. 
6. We need to talk about it. To see the whole picture, we need the whole Body. 
7. We still need preaching. Paul preached publicly. That means you need to listen to preaching. 
8. In expository preaching the main point of a passage of scripture is the main point of the message. 
9. We experience it. We need to experience the sweetness, savor the meat, of all of God’s Word. 
10. Twice, Paul mentions his tears. He experienced God Himself, especially God the Holy Spirit. 
IV. Why Do We Do We Need the Whole Counsel of God? 
1. Without it, we become badly nourished, like someone who only eats sweets. 
2. Only hearing the “sweet” themes we naturally prefer is like only eating sweet foods we crave. 
3. When we miss some of what God has revealed, we will be vulnerable to wolves. 
4. Paul was passionate in his care for the church, the “flock.” Here he calls us to have the same care. 
5. “The Church of God which He obtained with His own blood” (20:28). Shows Jesus’ divinity. 
6. It is God’s blood which bought the Church because Jesus is God. Jesus died for the church. 
7. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” (John 1:1) 
8. The Word of God incarnate spent His blood to purchase us, the flock, the church. 
V. Invitation: The Lord Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” and He gave His blood because He cared for the church. The Word of God in the flesh commends us to the Word of God in scripture; to the “Word of His grace,” to nourish us, to defend us, a pillar to hold us up, to give us our inheritance: the salvation He spent His blood to buy. So, don’t you want to know the Word?

Acts 20:17-35 
The Whole Counsel of God

I. The Problem With Seeing Only One Side
1. Ever thought you understood something only to realize you were only seeing one side of the story?
2. Two men in one side of a parking lot looked like they were starting a fight. But they were actors.
3. Everything I saw before was true, but I couldn’t interpret it correctly until I saw the whole picture.
4. Micah’s speech therapist saw airplane disappear into the side of one of the World Trade Center towers.
5. She was an eye-witness to a terrorist attack but she couldn’t interpret it correctly because she didn’t see the whole picture. You respond in exactly the wrong way, unless you get the whole picture.
6. There are many preachers who are just preaching one side of the story.
7. A half-truth presented as a whole truth is a complete untruth. 
II. What Is the Whole Counsel of God?
A. What Is It?
1. We’re focusing on the advice he leaves for the church, as we look at the pillars of a Biblical church.
2

Pillar 1 of a Biblical Church, The Whole Counsel of God, Acts 20:17-35

Acts 23:11-24:27 
Opportunity is Knocking 
 
I. Have You Ever Had Opportunity Come Knocking? 
 
1. “The Proximity Principle”: to get the opportunity be around “the right people and in the right places.” 
 
2. But it can be that you’re in the wrong place, seemingly, but still opportunity comes to find you. 
 
3. Our modern Christmas is from businesses looking for an opportunity to sell you stuff. 
 
4. O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi” about a poor couple wanted to get the perfect gift for each other. 
 
II. Providence (23:11-22) 
 
1. Providence is God directing the created things in every action to fulfill His purposes. 
 
2. In Acts, God’s purpose is that the gospel get to “the end of the earth.” It depends on God’s providence. 
 
3. Jesus has told Paul to “Take courage,” because “you must testify also in Rome.” So, don’t worry. 
 
4. God provided for Paul’s nephew — the right person — to be at the right place and the right time. 
 
5. Over 40 men plotted to ambush Paul and kill him. They’ve pledged not to eat or drink until they do it. 
 
6. Paul’s nephew was in proximity of the plot. He goes to Paul to inform him and then the tribune. 
 
7. God has promised Paul that he will go to Rome and so He protected him from the band of over 40 men. 
 
III. Protection (23:22-35) 
 
1. The Lord provides for his protection, courtesy of the Roman Empire. The tribune guards Paul. 
 
2. Paul is escorted safely back to Caesarea, by about half the garrison, even provided a horse to ride on. 
 
3. The tribune doesn’t know that he is an instrument in the hand of God to fulfill Jesus’ promise to Paul. 
 
4. The tribune is Claudius Lysias. The governor is Felix. His wife is Drusilla, daughter of Herod Agrippa. 
 
5. Lysias’ letter says that Paul was charged “with nothing deserving death or imprisonment.” 
 
6. Paul arrives back in Caesarea, where before he had stayed before with Philip. Now he’s in custody. 
 
7. Their two years waiting in Caesarea is an opportunity. Paul writes letters and Luke researches. 
 
IV. Prosecution (24:1-9) 
 
1. Paul’s enemies see an opportunity to prosecute him. Ananias came to Caesarea with a Roman lawyer. 
 
2. Tertullus begins by flattering the judge, “most excellent Felix.” It’s to make a good first impression. 
 
3. They accuse Paul of being a plague, a trouble-maker, a disturber of the Pax Romana (the Roman peace). 
4. Paul is accused of being a “ringleader of the heretical sect of the Nazarenes,” a false religion. 
 
5. He is accused of trying to profane the temple. The Jews had authority over the temple. 
 
V. Profession (24:10-21) 
1. He can’t flatter since that’s lying. He says they can’t show he was rousing any rabbles in Jerusalem. 
 
2. “This I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call an heretical cult I worship God.” 
 
3. What Jesus brought, the Way, wasn’t a break from the Old Testament. The way of Jesus is based on it. 
 
4. Because of the faith based on the Old Testament, he has a hope in God that there will be a resurrection. 
 
5. Contrary to some Roman philosophy that this life is all there is, everyone will be raised up and judged. 
 
6. If you know that you will have to give an account to God for everything you do, you will live right. 
 
7. While he was purified in the temple, causing no trouble, some Jews stirred up the mob, caused the riot. 
 
8. Romans 4:25, Jesus was crucified for our trespasses and raised for our justification. 
 
VI. Procrastination (24:22-27) 
 
1. He keeps procrastinating, hoping for a bribe, for a reason to let Paul go, other than it’s right. 
 
2. He brought his wife Drusilla, only 20 years old, described as surpassing “all other women in beauty.” 
 
3. Felix lure her away from her prior husband. So he was an immoral, conniving man. 
 
4. Paul spoke to him about faith in Jesus. He “reasoned”, or dialogued, with Felix about: 
5. Felix was alarmed. He had to make a decision about himself, his own soul. He has the opportunity. 
 
6. He is procrastinating like the rich man in the parable of the barns (Luke 12:13-21). Puts God off. 
 
7. So Jesus says about him, “You fool, tonight your soul will be required of you.” 
 
8. Felix is a picture of procrastination. He had opportunities to believe. But he wouldn’t decide. 
 
9. Drusilla was later killed, along with their son Agrippa, Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried Pompeii. 
 
10. As one of his last acts, he procrastinates to curry favor and just leaves Paul in prison. 
 
VII. Invitation: Some of the same people who never miss an opportunity to please people, build bigger barns, invest in property, expand their business, make more money, always miss the opportunities to believe in Jesus, to be right with God, to have the power of the Spirit to be self-controlled, to be ready for judgment. God says, don’t procrastinate. Now is the acceptable time. Today is the day of salvation. You aren’t promised another opportunity. Seize the opportunity you have now and believe.

Acts 23:11-24:27
Opportunity is Knocking

I. Have You Ever Had Opportunity Come Knocking?

1. “The Proximity Principle”: to get the opportunity be around “the right people and in the right places.”

2. But it can be that you’re in the wrong place, seemingly, but still opportunity comes to find you.

3. Our modern Christmas is from businesses looking for an opportunity to sell you stuff.

4. O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi” about a poor couple wanted to get the perfect gift for each other.

II. Providence (23:11-22)

1. Providence is God directing the created things in every action to fulfill His purposes.

2. In Acts, God’s purpose is that the gospel get to “the end of the earth.” It depends on God’s providence.

3. Jesus has told Paul to “Take courage,” because “you must testify also in Rome.” So, don’t worry.

4. God provided for Paul’s nephew — the right person — to be at the right place and the right time.

5. Over 40 men plotted to ambush Paul and kill him. They’ve pl

Acts 23:11-24:27, Opportunity is Knocking

1 Corinthians 11:17-34 
“Do You Remember?” 
 
I. The Lord’s Supper 
1. We shouldn’t take the Lord’s Supper flippantly as though it needs no preparation. 
2. Thomas Cranmer, the archbishop of Canterbury, led the church of England to reform. 
3. Queen Mary was determined to undo Cranmer’s reforms and make an example out of him. 
4. Cranmer was forced to sign a statement that he was retracting all his reforms and made to say it. 
5. But facing the crowds, he said what he had signed he did not mean, that he was forced to do it. 
6. They dragged him out of the pulpit and took him outside and burned him at the stake. 
7. As the flames grew higher, he held out his hand, ‘the hand that offended shall be the first to suffer.’ 
8. Modern Christians can barely imagine that the Lord’s Supper would be something that provocative. 
9. Some have put their trust in that ritual, in something they did. They’re offended if it is undermined. 
II. Remember His Body 
1. Rather than neat and uniform squares of unleavened bread, we break our own so its jagged and broken. 
2. Jesus’ crucifixion was not a tidy, sterile execution. He was brutally beaten and lashed. 
3. His death was an ugly, violent, bloody mess. That’s what we’re supposed to remember. 
4. Jesus instituted it at the very time He was being betrayed. He gave thanks for our salvation. 
5. Our salvation is so great, that even the One who gave up His body to acquire it could give thanks for it. 
III. Remember His Blood 
1. The Lord Jesus said “this is the new covenant in My blood.” The old covenant had animal sacrifices. 
2. They were to remember their sins, God’s holiness and justice, and remember they needed a sacrifice. 
3. His blood is what makes the covenant possible, to create a covenant between His people and God. 
IV. Remember Yourself 
1. Because the Lord’s Supper is sacred, we had better remember who we are when we take it. 
2. If we take it in a way that is not worthy, we will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord (11:27). 
3. If we are treating the symbols of His Body with contempt, we are treating Him with contempt. 
4. So we need to examine ourselves (11:28), even judge ourselves (11:31). Remember we are unworthy. 
5. Perhaps the most unworthy manner you can take it, is to take it with self-assurance, with pride. 
6. The worthy way to receive it is to know yourself, to “judge ourselves truly” (11:30). 
7. The worthy way to receive it is to know yourself as a desperate sinner, dependent on His sacrifice. 
8. Remember where we’re at now. “Proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” We’re not at the end. 
9. He is still yet to come. The Lord’s Supper is a proclamation for this age (11:26). 
10. We’re between what has been done on the cross and what will be done when Christ returns. 
V. Remember Others 
1. The way the Corinthians ate showed that they weren’t remembering each other. 
2. Because they weren’t remembering each other it is not, then, really the Lord’s Supper at all (11:20). 
3. Some of them are weak or dead because they took the Lord’s Supper without remembering the Body. 
4. The Lord’s Supper is a great blessing if we take it rightly but, if we take it wrongly, it can be poison. 
5. God made them sick or killed them to keep them from being condemned with the world (11:32). 
6. If we don’t remember each other, the church, we can’t remember the Body of Christ. 
7. By not remembering each other, they despised the church, the Body of Christ (11:27). 
8. Some were eating their fill while not caring that others were coming with nothing to eat. 
9. The way we treat the church is the way we treat Christ. You cannot separate Christ from His body. 
10. In the Lord’s Supper, we can experience the reality of the crucifixion of Jesus in our hearts. 
VI. Invitation: We can, by faith, feast on Christ by in our spirits, sharing in His death, so too sharing in His resurrection life. Thomas Cranmer was willing to die for taking it rightly, holding his hand out into the fire. When we examine ourselves and see the body of Christ, given for us, we should too.

1 Corinthians 11:17-34
“Do You Remember?”

I. The Lord’s Supper
1. We shouldn’t take the Lord’s Supper flippantly as though it needs no preparation.
2. Thomas Cranmer, the archbishop of Canterbury, led the church of England to reform.
3. Queen Mary was determined to undo Cranmer’s reforms and make an example out of him.
4. Cranmer was forced to sign a statement that he was retracting all his reforms and made to say it.
5. But facing the crowds, he said what he had signed he did not mean, that he was forced to do it.
6. They dragged him out of the pulpit and took him outside and burned him at the stake.
7. As the flames grew higher, he held out his hand, ‘the hand that offended shall be the first to suffer.’
8. Modern Christians can barely imagine that the Lord’s Supper would be something that provocative.
9. Some have put their trust in that ritual, in something they did. They’re offended if it is undermined.
II. Remember His Body
1. Rather than neat and uniform squares of unleavened b

1 Corinthians 11:17-34, “Do You Remember?”

1 Corinthians 6:12-7:40 
“What’s Your Price?” 
 
I. The Religion of Eroticism 
1. Perhaps the main competitor of Christianity today in this country is eroticism. 
2. The “sexual revolution” over-threw an order of restraint of uninhibited pursuit of sexual pleasure. 
3. Pornography is common. We have a culture soaked in sex. But no wisdom about it. 
4. We are paying the price. The “sexual revolution” is responsible many divorces and lonely young people. 
5. Eroticism is an opponent Christianity has fought before and defeated. Corinth was sex-soaked too. 
6. Many Christians had fallen for either the cheap grace of anything goes, or the rigorous over-reaction. 
II. Flee to be Free, (6:12-20) 
1. They took “All things are lawful for me!” and applied it to sex. Guess what the genitals are for! 
2. He is saying it is an invalid comparison. Our bodies were not made for sexual immorality. 
3. The word for “sexual immorality” is pornea, a general word for any sex outside of a proper marriage. 
4. “The Lord is for the body.” God is pro-body. Our bodies that are members of Christ (6:15). 
5. Our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. In immorality we desecrate that temple. 
6. We have been bought with a price, the price of the literal body of Jesus being beaten and crucified. 
7. “Flee” implies that sexual immorality is pursuing us so we have to run away from it, like from a bear. 
8. Avoiding sexual immorality requires positive action. 
9. Pursue purity with a passion not because you’re afraid of being caught but because you’ve been bought. 
 
III. Marry to be Moral (7:1-16) 
A. Our Bodies Don’t Belong to Us (7:1-9) 
1. Marriage is a dam against the flood of immorality. Healthy, happy marriages hold it back. 
2. Because most don’t have the “gift” of celibacy (7:7) then they should marry. 
3. Wedding Vows: Marriage “was ordained for a remedy against sin, and to avoid fornication.” 
4. Marriage is a dam against immorality by having sex as often as the neediest spouse needs. 
B. Marriage Under Attack (7:10-16) 
1. Whenever possible, marriages should stay together. Jesus commands that we don’t divorce. 
2. Even if one is an unbeliever, they should not separate. Whenever possible, marriage is held together. 
3. If the unbeliever leaves, the abandoned believer is not bound. He or she is free to be remarried. 
IV. Stay to Serve (7:17-24) 
1. He begins with marriage but then he goes to every area of life. Be content as single. 
2. Some think they’ll serve the Lord after they have a lot of money or gotten married. 
3. Serve the Lord in the condition you are in, even if single. 
V. Dedicate to Devotion 
A. Living Between Resurrections 
1. He highly extols the advantages of staying to serve because singles can have an undivided devotion. 
2. The present form of this world is passing away. So be prepared to live with an undivided devotion. 
3. The specific case of a betrothal, is foreign to us. But the over-riding principles are as relevant to us. 
 
B. Seven Suggestions for Dating After the Sexual Revolution 
1. Do not over-emphasize marriage. Don't suggest people aren’t complete until they are married. 
2. Those not yet able to marry (like children) don’t need to be pressured to have a boy- or girl-friend. 
3. Dating is for a greater purpose than just having fun. It’s to find the one who will help me glorify God. 
So dating relationships shouldn’t go on for very long. If they can’t decide to marry, then break up. 
4. Christian couples need to decide on their physical limits before they’re alone. 
5. Pace yourself like a distance race. Start slow. Don’t quickly jump to the conclusion that this is the one. 
a. Dating is a process of finding out whether this person is the one you should marry. Pace yourself. 
b. Don’t ignore all your friends, spend all your time together; move to be closer to each other, etc. 
c. You aren’t engaged until you are engaged, with a ring on your finger and a wedding date set. 
6. Avoid prolonged proximity to the opposite sex, living near them or protracted engagements. 
a. Sharing houses or apartments with non-family members of the opposite sex is foolish. 
b. Once you cross that line into engagement speed up and sprint to the finish line at the wedding altar. 
c. Engagements should only be as long as it is necessary to plan a wedding and to live together after. 
7. We can marry only in the Lord (7:39). Christians should only marry other Christians. 
a. If they’re married to a non-Christian, stay in the marriage and pray to convert the other partner. 
b. So there is no reason why a Christian would intentionally date a non-Christian. 
VI. Invitation: We are free. But our freedom did not come for free. It costs Christ everything. We were set free to glorify God. You have, in your experience, been bought? The Lord Jesus has paid the price. But has it been an exchange transacted in your life? Your need now is not first to resolve to be more moral. It is to cry out for mercy to the Lord, to ask Him that that high price be paid for you.

1 Corinthians 6:12-7:40
“What’s Your Price?”

I. The Religion of Eroticism
1. Perhaps the main competitor of Christianity today in this country is eroticism.
2. The “sexual revolution” over-threw an order of restraint of uninhibited pursuit of sexual pleasure.
3. Pornography is common. We have a culture soaked in sex. But no wisdom about it.
4. We are paying the price. The “sexual revolution” is responsible many divorces and lonely young people.
5. Eroticism is an opponent Christianity has fought before and defeated. Corinth was sex-soaked too.
6. Many Christians had fallen for either the cheap grace of anything goes, or the rigorous over-reaction.
II. Flee to be Free, (6:12-20) 
1. They took “All things are lawful for me!” and applied it to sex. Guess what the genitals are for!
2. He is saying it is an invalid comparison. Our bodies were not made for sexual immorality.
3. The word for “sexual immorality” is pornea, a general word for any sex outside of a proper marriage.
4. “The Lord 

1 Corinthians 6:12-7:40, “What’s Your Price?”

1 Corinthians 6:1-11 
Where Do You Fit In? 
 
I. Do You Fit In Here? 
1. Key to getting people to return is making them feel like they fit in, that they are accepted. 
2. Foreigners don’t feel like they fit in. Living overseas, everything is different. 
3. People crave to feel that they fit in. Universities have fraternities and sororities and we have clubs. 
4. Psalm 68:6, “God sets the lonely in families.” Racism takes from certain people a sense of fitting in. 
5. Martin Luther King called gradualism a “tranquilizing drug” numbing us to the fierce urgency of now. 
6. A cultural expectation: everyone fights and claws for their rights in the courts. That’s the Greek way. 
7. We must be distinct from the world. If we are not distinct, we will be extinct. 
8. Where you fit in depends on who you are. If you’re an American, you fit in America. 
II. We Are Saints (6:1-2) 
1. Being a Christian changes where you fit in. It means you are a saint in a world of the unjust. 
2. When they had a grievance, they fought for what was theirs by right, just like everyone else. 
3. It makes no sense to expect justice from the unjust. After all you are “saints.” 
4. The world is not our home but this planet will be. Don’t try to escape from this world. 
5. Escapism blinds its eyes to all that is wrong here while singing about how we’ll fly away. 
6. Romans 13 shows that the courts and rulers are instituted by God to bring His justice to bear on earth. 
7. The Lord Jesus commanded us to be light and salt in our society. So vote if you can. 
III. We Are Future Judges (6:3-6) 
1. We will get to have a vote on the eternal destinies of people and angels. 
2. How much sense does it make for future judges to take their grievances before the unjust? 
IV. We Are Sufferers (6:7-8) 
1. People are willing to suffer to fit in. They’ll suffer paying dues to be part of a club. 
2. If a so-called Christian is not in our church, we appeal to them, then their church but we can go to court. 
3. Our members should not be suing one another. We should be able to trust the arbitration of the church. 
4. If we think that we’ve still not gotten justice, then we should say, “It is better to suffer wrong.” 
5. This proves the importance of church membership, where you are in a Body that you fit into. 
6. We are brothers and sisters, a Body. One day God will use us to be agents of His judgment of the earth. 
V. We Are Heirs (6:9-11) 
1. Eventually, the unjust will not fit in with us. We are heirs, inheritors of everything. 
2. There is a radical divide between the world and the church. 
3. Abel received God’s grace and so was saved but Cain did not. So they were divided. 
4. At the judgment, the righteous will be divorced from the unrighteous, with no more reconciliation. 
5. Then, this world will be our home. That is what we are passing through this world toward. 
6. Those who will not submit to the coming King are listed in verses 9 and 10: the sexual immoral, lovers of self-exalting religion, those who break their marriage covenant, homosexuals, thieves, those who live for the dollar, those who crave intoxication, those who scorn authorities, swindlers. 
7. Such people who fit in so nicely here will have no place in the Kingdom of God. 
8. Now, it is true, the world is not our home. But then, the world will not be their home. 
9. They thought they could rule and be wealthy now. It’s not yet. Now, remember Christ crucified. 
10. “Such were some of you.” You used to be immoral or greedy or selfish but now, something happened. 
11. But: a magnificent adversative; a sharp, bold contrast; a radical distinction. 
12. The power of the Kingdom of God can take the dregs of humanity and make them into children of God. 
13. You were washed, sanctified, justified. We were the objects of the action. God was the active one. 
14. That is how we changed citizenships, how we immigrated to fit into the Kingdom of God. 
VI. Invitation: 
If you fit in so naturally here, “Do not be deceived,” about whether you can fit into God’s Kingdom. Whether you’ll inherit the Kingdom of God or will be on the other side of the Great Divorce, that is what you need to search your heart to find out now: the fierce urgency of now. The question is not whether you’ve sunk into the worst of these ugly sins. The question is whether you’ve experienced that great contrast – washed, sanctified, justified. Whether you’ve had that radical change and been converted. If not, now is the time.

1 Corinthians 6:1-11
Where Do You Fit In?

I. Do You Fit In Here?
1. Key to getting people to return is making them feel like they fit in, that they are accepted.
2. Foreigners don’t feel like they fit in. Living overseas, everything is different.
3. People crave to feel that they fit in. Universities have fraternities and sororities and we have clubs.
4. Psalm 68:6, “God sets the lonely in families.” Racism takes from certain people a sense of fitting in.
5. Martin Luther King called gradualism a “tranquilizing drug” numbing us to the fierce urgency of now.
6. A cultural expectation: everyone fights and claws for their rights in the courts. That’s the Greek way.
7. We must be distinct from the world. If we are not distinct, we will be extinct.
8. Where you fit in depends on who you are. If you’re an American, you fit in America.
II. We Are Saints (6:1-2)
1. Being a Christian changes where you fit in. It means you are a saint in a world of the unjust.
2. When they had a grievance, they

1 Corinthians 6:1-11, Where Do You Fit In?

Acts 9:32-10:48 
Who’s Included? 
 
I. The Importance of Being Intentionally Inclusive 
1. Some are still addressing racism. Others think its ancient history and divisive. 
2. Should we just preach the gospel and let the chips of ethnicity fall where they may? 
3. A Nobel Prize winner, Jewish expert on slavery, said Christians ended slavery. 
4. There can be Chinese-language churches but not Chinese-people churches. 
5. Churches by definition are for including all kinds of people. They should be doing that deliberately. 
6. Crossing cultural barriers to get to ethnic groups is so important to God, He takes the initiative Himself. 
7. The Jews understood that they were elect. There was a barrier between them and other people. 
8. The idea of election produces exclusion if we don’t understand that election is based on grace (not race). 
II. Two Signs and Wonders 
A. Aeneas (9:32-35) 
1. Peter is now traveling and ministering. “Here and there” among all Israel, not confined to Jerusalem. 
2. He comes to a town named Lydda. Aeneas who had been paralyzed and bed-ridden for eight years. 
3. Peter says to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you.” Jesus Christ who is doing and teaching. 
4. When the people heard about it, they knew that the Jesus Christ who healed him was for real. 
B. Tabitha (936-43) 
1. In Joppa, on the coast, Tabitha (“Gazelle”) “was full of good works and acts of charity.” 
2. She got sick and died. They urged Peter to come, unlike when Jairus’ daughter died, people gave up. 
3. Mourners showed off the items Tabitha had made. Mrs. Perry made a table cloth and sash for us. 
4. Peter is not Jesus. Peter has to kneel, pray, seek the Lord’s will, and then he can say, “Tabitha, arise.” 
5. When news of that got out, that Jesus still raises the dead, many believed in Jesus. 
III. Cornelius (10) 
A. Visitation (10:1-8) 
1. They couldn’t conceive that people could believe in and follow Christ without first being Jewish. 
2. Cornelius is a “God-fearer”, who believed in the Lord, but hadn’t converted to Judaism yet. 
3. At about 3 pm, he’s gets a visitation. An angel comes to him. He’s terrified. He’s told to find Peter. 
4. The angel is sent just to to make the connection. So Cornelius sends three soldiers to fetch Peter. 
5. Jews don’t enter the house of Gentiles or fraternize with them. If Peter is like that, he’d say ‘no.’ 
B. Vision (10:9-33) 
1. Peter, in Joppa, is hungry at about noon. He goes up to the housetop and falls into a trance. 
2. He sees a sheet or sail with all kinds of animals on it, like pigs. A voice, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” 
3. He’s so indoctrinated, like everyone else in his culture, that he refuses. “By no means, Lord.” 
4. The voice responds, “What God has made clean do not call common.” 
5. He was perplexed because be still hadn’t fully understood everything that Jesus taught him. 
6. In Mark 7:19 it says, “Thus He declared all foods clean.” The vision is about more than what to eat. 
7. But it is literally about food because it was the food laws that separated Israel, excluded Cornelius. 
8. Then the three Roman soldiers arrive with an invitation from Cornelius for Peter. 
C. Sermon (10:34-43) 
1. Peter with some “brothers,” went up to Caesarea to see Cornelius. Cornelius greeted him like a god. 
2. Peter wouldn’t be treated like a god and he’d seen that he shouldn’t treat Cornelius like a dog. 
3. Peter remarks that it’s contrary to their traditions for a Jew to associate with them. 
4. “Truly, I understand that God shows no partiality.” Inclusion is important to God. 
5. Cornelius isn’t saved yet. But he acceptable to have the gospel revealed to him so he can be saved. 
6. Cornelius has heard about Jesus. Jesus is not just another do-gooder, a prophet. He is Lord of all. 
7. Jesus is appointed by God to judge the living and the dead, Confucius, or Lau Tzu, or our ancestors. 
8. The Old Testament is about Jesus. Isaiah 52 says the Servant will sprinkle many nations. 
9. Everyone who believes in Jesus receives forgiveness of sins through His name. So believe in Jesus. 
D. Sign (10:44-48) 
1. Because they believe, they receive the Holy Spirit. We know that because of the sign. 
2. The sign is the same that the 120 disciples received on the day Pentecost. 
3. Here the signs are for Peter’s friends so they’ll know that God includes these foreigners. 
4. “Can anyone withhold . . . baptizing these people?” Receive the Holy Spirit and then be baptized. 
5. The Holy Spirit included them. To exclude people God has included is to insult God. 
6. Our building was built to keep out some people. King Jesus had other ideas. 
7. Inclusion is so important, He sent an angel, a vision, the Holy Spirit, Jesus Himself to build a church. 
IV. Invitation: Believers are included, no matter where they’re from. Believers who believe that He is Lord of all, that He will be their final judge, that He’s the One the Old Testament says sprinkles them clean of their sin, who’s name is the one to call on for salvation, the name of Jesus.

Acts 9:32-10:48
Who’s Included?

I. The Importance of Being Intentionally Inclusive
1. Some are still addressing racism. Others think its ancient history and divisive.
2. Should we just preach the gospel and let the chips of ethnicity fall where they may?
3. A Nobel Prize winner, Jewish expert on slavery, said Christians ended slavery.
4. There can be Chinese-language churches but not Chinese-people churches. 
5. Churches by definition are for including all kinds of people. They should be doing that deliberately.
6. Crossing cultural barriers to get to ethnic groups is so important to God, He takes the initiative Himself.
7. The Jews understood that they were elect. There was a barrier between them and other people.
8. The idea of election produces exclusion if we don’t understand that election is based on grace (not race).
II. Two Signs and Wonders
A. Aeneas (9:32-35)
1. Peter is now traveling and ministering. “Here and there” among all Israel, not confined to Jerusalem.
2. He comes t

Acts 9:32-10:48, Who’s Included?

Isaiah 52:13-53:12 
The Suffering Servant 
 
I. The Servant is Revolting (52:13-15) 
1. Look at Him. Fix your gaze at Him. It’s a command, an invitation and at first it seems appealing. 
2. His appearance will be marred, inhuman, appalling. The horror of the crucifixion is described. 
3. We have the Lord’s Supper to remember, to behold that bloody mess. 
4. He’s a disfigured mauled sight, oozing out blood so that He can sprinkle, be an offering. 
5. Our guilt needed to be taken away. The Servant sheds His blood to take away our guilt. 
6. The Servant takes away the guilt of many nations. Jesus is the end of racism, of ethnocentrism. 
7. He’s so astounding, both in His glory and in His agony, that kings are dumbstruck by Him. 
II. The Servant is Rejected (53:1-3) 
1. Who would believe that by acting wisely He is crucified, a bloody mess? 
2. The Servant grew up like a tender shoot, vulnerable looking, like a sprout in a desert. 
3. He didn’t appear particularly impressive. He didn’t have a majestic, royal, imperial bearing. 
4. We’re the witnesses. We’re telling the message. We were, first, among His despisers. 
5. He knew grief. He was familiar with betrayal, loss and loneliness. Too hideous to look at. 
6. “We esteemed Him not.” Now, we are implicated in this. We didn’t account Him as much. 
7. When He succeeded at achieving His goal, He was a grotesque pulp, we esteemed Him not. 
III. The Servant is Our Replacement (53:4-6) 
1. The Servant is our replacement, a man of sorrow and familiar with grief because He took ours. 
2. He has borne our griefs. Yet, still, “we esteemed Him” — counted Him as stricken by God. 
3. He was wounded for our sins; crushed; punished for our peace; by His stripes we’re healed. 
4. We must have a replacement because all of us, “like sheep”, wandered astray. 
IV. The Servant is Sinless and Suffers Silently (53:7-9) 
1. Pontius Pilate had Him viciously scourged and announced, “Behold the man.” 
2. Animals go to their slaughter unaware but He went to His death because of His submitted will. 
3. He is “cut off from the land of the living.” He’s killed. He had done nothing wrong. 
4. The disciples couldn’t grasp it even after they had been told. We so easily forget today. 
V. The Servant Is a Guilt Offering (53:10-12) 
1. He came to be a guilt offering, to serve by giving His life for many. 
2. It had to be done because God is holy and will not just wink at sin, excuse them. 
3. Talk about our transgressions, punishment, us being like sheep who stray is offensive. 
4. The Lord crushed Him. The Servant is acquainted with grief because the Lord gave it to Him. 
5. He crushed Him to be one final, true sacrifice for sin, a guilt offering. 
6. He will see the fruit of His sacrifice, all the sons and daughters adopted from every nation. 
7. The path through anguish, is the plan for the Servant to makes us to be accounted righteous. 
8. He has poured out His soul to death. So, He was numbered with the transgressors. 
9. We assume, hanging between two criminals, that He’s one too, getting what He deserves. 
10. This was all written about Him. He fulfilled it so that He could bear the sin of many.

Isaiah 52:13-53:12
The Suffering Servant

I. The Servant is Revolting (52:13-15)
1. Look at Him. Fix your gaze at Him. It’s a command, an invitation and at first it seems appealing.
2. His appearance will be marred, inhuman, appalling. The horror of the crucifixion is described.
3. We have the Lord’s Supper to remember, to behold that bloody mess.
4. He’s a disfigured mauled sight, oozing out blood so that He can sprinkle, be an offering.
5. Our guilt needed to be taken away. The Servant sheds His blood to take away our guilt.
6. The Servant takes away the guilt of many nations. Jesus is the end of racism, of ethnocentrism.
7. He’s so astounding, both in His glory and in His agony, that kings are dumbstruck by Him.
II. The Servant is Rejected (53:1-3)
1. Who would believe that by acting wisely He is crucified, a bloody mess?
2. The Servant grew up like a tender shoot, vulnerable looking, like a sprout in a desert.
3. He didn’t appear particularly impressive. He didn’t have a majestic, 

Isaiah 52:13-53:12, The Suffering Servant

Isaiah 50:4-11 
The Third Servant Song 
 
I. How Do You React? 
1. How do you react to a challenge? Maybe we need to be challenged more and challenge others more. 
2. Maybe you react better to encouragement. Some of us react much better affirmation. 
3. How do you react to criticism? The people who criticize often react the worst when they are criticized. 
4. How do you react to suffering? Do you pull back, take the easy way out? Pain makes us recoil. 
II. The Response of the Servant (50:4-6) 
A. His Speaking 
1. The Lord is called “Lord God” or “Sovereign Lord,” The ultimate Lord, the King of the universe. 
2. The Servant is a good teacher, a skilled speaker. God has made Him an effective speaker. 
3. He “knows how to sustain with a word him who is weary”. He’s skilled in speaking the truth in love. 
4. He reacts to the weary and the broken with patience, with healing, with the right words. 
B. His Listening 
1. Every morning, Jesus was taught by the Father. He was quick to listen. He heard and learned. 
2. Every day on earth, as the Servant, He awoke seeking to be taught. So He grew in wisdom. 
3. The Sovereign Lord opened His ear. Pray that the Sovereign Lord would open your ears. 
4. The Servant heard the leading of the Father and was not rebellious. He didn’t draw back. 
5. Peter rebuked Jesus for saying He was going to suffer, be killed, and finally be raised. 
6. On Palm Sunday the crowds hailed Him coming into Jerusalem as their soon-to-be king. 
7. At Gethsemane, He prayed that this suffering could be taken from Him. But He didn’t pull back. 
8. He “gave” His back to those who strike. He deliberately gave Himself to suffering, purposefully. 
9. He gave Himself to those who pull out the beard, to cruel, sadistic abusers. 
10. Jesus knew that’s what He was going to Jerusalem for on that Palm Sunday. 
11. He hid not His face from disgrace and spitting. He wouldn’t dodge being humiliated. 
12. The response of the Servant to the cross was to say, “Not my will, but yours be done.” 
III. The Resolve of the Servant (50:7-9) 
1. As He comes on Palm Sunday, He sees the lashes on His back and plucked beard that await Him. 
2. The torment is described in Isaiah 53 (Good Friday), as so bad we’re asked, “Who has believed” this?. 
3. He is able to see that, and yet, not step back from it, because, the “Lord God” helps Him. 
4. With the vision of that exaltation ahead, He says, “I have set My face like a flint.” (cf. Luke 9:51). 
5. “When the days drew near for Him to be taken up, He set His face to go to Jerusalem.” (Lk. 9:51). 
6. He went from a mountain top of glory to one with a cross and He didn’t pull back. 
7. We set our face toward our comfort. We recoil from what’s hard because our comfort is our goal. 
8. The resolve of the Servant was to go to the cross, to save His people. 
9. He knows that He will not be put to shame. Eventually every knee will bow. He will be vindicated. 
10. If He’s justified by God, who can contend with Him? If God is for Him, who can be against Him? 
11. Who’s going to be His adversary, His accuser? Satan? He challenge everyone to accuse Him. 
12. No one can accuse Him. He has no skeleton in the closet; no sin of His own to die for. 
13. If we believe in Him, we are “in Him”. God is also the One who vindicates us if we were Him. 
14. All our accusers won’t be able to separate us from God’s love because our sin has been taken away. 
15. So, all those things will wear out. Even death is temporary. They’re like a garment eaten up by moths. 
16. Only the Sovereign Lord, the Servant, God in all His fullness, and we who are in Him will be left. 
IV. The Reverence for the Servant (50:10-11) 
1. How do you react to Him? With reverence or with self-reliance? Faith is fearing, fearing is obeying. 
2. “Who among you fears the Lord?” If your faith doesn’t produce fear of God, it’s not real faith. 
4. “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son” no life...” (John 3:36.) 
5. “Who among you fears the Lord and — a reaction — obeys the voice of His Servant” Jesus? You? 
6. If you can’t see the next step, then “trust in the name of the Lord”, the name of Jesus. Rely on your God. 
7. The ways of obedience bring days of darkness. But trust God through those dark days. 
8. But, if you kindle a fire, trying to make do-it-yourself light, security in money, instead of by faith . . . . 
9. The Servant promises, ‘this is what I’m going to give you,’ “You shall lie down in torment”: hell. 
V. Invitation: Now, do you fear the Lord? Do you react with reverence for the Servant? That’s the only rational response. He’s speaking to you. Has the Lord opened your ears to hear it? He gave His back to be struck for you; His beard to be plucked for you, so He could be the one who vindicates you and when even death itself is worn out and undone, then there will be no guilt separating you from the Sovereign Lord. How do you react to that?

Isaiah 50:4-11
The Third Servant Song

I. How Do You React?
1. How do you react to a challenge? Maybe we need to be challenged more and challenge others more.
2. Maybe you react better to encouragement. Some of us react much better affirmation.
3. How do you react to criticism? The people who criticize often react the worst when they are criticized.
4. How do you react to suffering? Do you pull back, take the easy way out? Pain makes us recoil.
II. The Response of the Servant (50:4-6)
A. His Speaking
1. The Lord is called “Lord God” or “Sovereign Lord,” The ultimate Lord, the King of the universe.
2. The Servant is a good teacher, a skilled speaker. God has made Him an effective speaker.
3. He “knows how to sustain with a word him who is weary”. He’s skilled in speaking the truth in love.
4. He reacts to the weary and the broken with patience, with healing, with the right words.
B. His Listening
1. Every morning, Jesus was taught by the Father. He was quick to listen. He heard and lear

Isaiah 50:4-11, The Third Servant Song

Isaiah 49:1-12 
What’s He Do? 
 
I. Do You Have a Job Description? 
1. You know exactly what you’re supposed to be doing, even if no one has ever written it out for you. 
2. If your job description is to take the orders and the cash, you can’t spend all your time behind cooking. 
3. In Acts 6, with the calling of the first 7 deacons, they had a specific job description. 
4. Does Christ have a job description? Job descriptions are written beforehand. 
II. The Servant Speaks (49:1-4) 
1. The second Servant Song begins by us being told to listen to Him. He’s speaking. “Listen to Me.” 
2. He’s speaking to the “coastlands”, the ends of the earth like Ethiopia, or China, or America. 
3. If you think this is just for the Jews, or the white man’s religion, and ours is different, He speaks to you. 
4. Some Chinese think we are for Confucius, ancestral tablets, Taoist funerals, Buddhist art, the filial child. 
5. Jesus Himself speaks to that and says, No, ‘Listen to me, Chinese, all people, pay attention.’ 
6. He’s a king called from the womb to rule. He rules with the sword of His mouth. 
7. Hebrews 4:12, The Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword, cutting to the deep intentions. 
8. The Servant wields the sword of the Word of God, He is the Word. 
9. For a while the Servant was hidden. The Lord kept Jesus in obscurity for about 30 years. 
10. The Servant is called “Israel.” How is the Servant Israel and the One who gathers Israel? 
11. The Servant embodies all that Israel was called to be. The Servant Israel, restores the nation Israel. 
12. In Him the Lord will be glorified. The Lord will be made much of, even people in China. 
13. But not without trouble; and disappointment; not without people bringing dishonor to the Lord (49:4). 
14. How do you think Christ Himself, looking at what’s been done wrong in His name, sees that? 
15. The crowds were flocking to Christ but He told them that they would have suffer and so they went away. 
16. Followers kept leaving until there was only one disciple left at the cross. He felt of futility. 
17. He encourages Himself, not with success, but that His reward is from God, not in tangible success. 
III. The Servant Shines (49:5-7) 
1. “That Israel might be gathered to Him.” He is sent to gather His people. He’s the gatherer. 
2. “It is too light a thing . . .” just to be the literal king of Israel. He deserves a better job than that. 
3. Instead, He is to be a “light for the nations,” “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). 
4. It’s too little to think that He’s just the light for Israel or white people or just any one people. 
5. The Servant is “one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation.” He suffers rejection. 
6. Kings will see the Servant and stand up out of respect. Princes will prostrate themselves. 
IV. The Servant Shepherds (49:8-12) 
1. We get to overhear the Father speaking to the Son, before the incarnation, telling Him His job. 
2. “Give you as a covenant”: He’s both the subject of the covenant and the means of the covenant. 
3. To form “a chosen race, . . . a holy nation, a people for His own possession” (1 Peter 2:9.) 
4. Servant Shepherd will feed us, provide everything that we need, like Israel was provided the manna. 
5. The sheep being shepherded through mountains and deserts will come from “afar,” like China. 
6. The Lord Jesus: “I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also.” (John 10:16) 
7. “It is necessary” to bring “other sheep”, all kinds of sheep, from afar, from every nation. 
8. He gathers His people from al kinds of other people. He sustains them along the way. 
9. He suffers for us, including the feeling of abandonment, of despondency, of futility. 
10. He speaks His word and calls together His church the Israel of God from afar. 
V. Invitation: What’s your job description? The Servant calls all people everywhere to repent. You might think, He’s not for my culture. He calls you to change your mind, to accept that He’s for all people, including you. He’s not just the God here, He’s the God everywhere. His job description is to build His church, to make a holy nation, a new people for Himself. Yours is to proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness by His shining light. Proclaim that He’s the king who makes royalty bow. Proclaim that He is your King now.

Isaiah 49:1-12
What’s He Do?

I. Do You Have a Job Description?
1. You know exactly what you’re supposed to be doing, even if no one has ever written it out for you.
2. If your job description is to take the orders and the cash, you can’t spend all your time behind cooking.
3. In Acts 6, with the calling of the first 7 deacons, they had a specific job description.
4. Does Christ have a job description? Job descriptions are written beforehand.
II. The Servant Speaks (49:1-4)
1. The second Servant Song begins by us being told to listen to Him. He’s speaking. “Listen to Me.”
2. He’s speaking to the “coastlands”, the ends of the earth like Ethiopia, or China, or America.
3. If you think this is just for the Jews, or the white man’s religion, and ours is different, He speaks to you.
4. Some Chinese think we are for Confucius, ancestral tablets, Taoist funerals, Buddhist art, the filial child.
5. Jesus Himself speaks to that and says, No, ‘Listen to me, Chinese, all people, pay attention.’
6

Isaiah 49:1-12, A Job Description

Isaiah 42:1-9 
What We Behold 
 
I. We Become What We Behold 
1. If all you do is behold athletics what happens when your body ages and declines? 
2. Others behold wealth. Their life is all about money-making. 
3. Others in our culture only behold the relationship. Maybe now it’s the kids. 
4. More pernicious is religion that appears zealous but that puts out a portrait of God that is wrong. 
5. Some behold a God who oozes sentimentality, caring for them with a “reckless” love. 
6. An idea of spirituality is an angry man in a suit and tie thumping the Bible decrying “heretics”. 
7. The narcissistic culture today churns out people who think the “Servant of the Lord” is their servant. 
II. Look At Him (42:1-4) 
A. Upheld: “whom I uphold” 
1. The Lord holds onto the Servant. He preserves, sustains Him, through death and burial. 
2. We can believe He will hold us fast through death too. 
B. Chosen and Delighted In: “My chosen in whom my soul delights” 
1. Our being elect depends on the Elect. First, Christ is the elect. 
2. Ephesians 1:4, “we were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world.” 
3. The Father chose Him because, He says, “in Him My soul delights”, personally takes joy in Him. 
4. The Father finds the Servant delightful and so chooses Him. 
C. Spirit-Filled: “I have put my Spirit upon Him” 
1. About the servant, “I have put my Spirit upon Him.” Jesus had the power of the Spirit. 
2. How much more do we need the Spirit? 
3. We behold the Servant as a man of the Spirit. 
D. Brings Justice: “He will bring forth justice to the nations.” 
1. He’s the justice bringer. 
2. So the servant of the Lord brings God’s Kingdom on earth, to nations, like China and America. 
3. “Justice” is the judge decreeing His judgments and now us living according to those decrees. 
E. Peaceful: “will not cry aloud or life up His voice or make it heard in the street” 
1. He’s peaceful. He’s not an angry young man, pouring out vitriolic denunciations. 
2. He understands that if you’re in the graveyard, speaking to the dead, raising your voice doesn’t help. 
3. “Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest” (Mt. 11:28) 
F. Meek: “a bruised reed He will not break and a faintly burning wick He will not quench” 
1. He calls, “Come to Me, . . . for I am meek and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls.” 
2. If you’re bruised, like a stalk of reed (or bamboo), He won’t break you. He’ll let you heal first. 
3. You may feel broken, He’ll let you grow until you’re strong enough to hold up. 
4. He cares for you, understanding your bruises, your weaknesses, so He does not crush you. 
5. You wonder whether you have any faith. But you have a spark. Something is smoldering. 
6. He will first, gently fan it into flame. The Servant does not blow you out now if there’s a flicker. 
7. Richard Sibbes wrote, “The best men are severe to themselves, tender over others.” 
G. Faithful: “He will faithfully bring forth justice” 
1. The weapons of His kingdom are still, small voices; gentle words; the good news of the gospel. 
2. He won’t give up when it gets hard, when people quit on Him and choose superstition and coercion. 
3. He’ll bring justice to “the coastlands”, the furtherest distant lands. 
III. Look at Me (42:5-7) 
2. He was speaking to us about the Servant. Now He is speaking to the Servant about Himself. 
3. The Lord, created the universe, currently 46 billion lights wide, and spread out the earth, gave life. 
4. Behold our God! We overhear the Father speak to the Son. “I will take You by the hand and keep you.” 
5. The Servant is a covenant, the one who makes it possible for us to have a relationship with God. 
7. And Can It Be: “Long my imprisoned spirit lay, . . .; Your eye defused a quickening ray”. 
8. The Servant makes it possible for us to behold our God. Look at Me, says God. 
IV. Look at This (42:8-9) 
1. “I am the Lord.” “My glory” — my weightiness — “I give to no other.” He is a jealous God. 
2. He’s not like a Chinese temple sharing a space with other gods. 
3. He shares His glory with no idols, no kitchen gods, or ancestral tablets, or buddhas. He allows no rivals. 
4. Yet He’s spent most of this passage glorifying the Servant because the Servant is also the Lord. 
5. “The former things have come to pass”. Now new things are come to pass. 
6. Now a new covenant and new life. Jesus says, “Behold”, look at this, “I made all things new.” 
7. 700 years before the Servant came, He’s described for us here. 
V. Invitation: We become what we behold. The question, now, then, is what have you been beholding? We think, that all things are fine, in their place, if they serve me, maybe ancestral veneration, Chinese traditional religion, or Buddhism. The idolatry of self is the most demented idolatry. Here we’re given a picture of the one to behold, the Servant, the Lord, the good shepherd who gently leads His sheep and lays down His life for them. Behold Him.

Isaiah 42:1-9
What We Behold

I. We Become What We Behold
1. If all you do is behold athletics what happens when your body ages and declines?
2. Others behold wealth. Their life is all about money-making. 
3. Others in our culture only behold the relationship. Maybe now it’s the kids.
4. More pernicious is religion that appears zealous but that puts out a portrait of God that is wrong.
5. Some behold a God who oozes sentimentality, caring for them with a “reckless” love.
6. An idea of spirituality is an angry man in a suit and tie thumping the Bible decrying “heretics”.
7. The narcissistic culture today churns out people who think the “Servant of the Lord” is their servant.
II. Look At Him (42:1-4)
A. Upheld: “whom I uphold”
1. The Lord holds onto the Servant. He preserves, sustains Him, through death and burial.
2. We can believe He will hold us fast through death too. 
B. Chosen and Delighted In: “My chosen in whom my soul delights”
1. Our being elect depends on the Elect. First, Chr

Isaiah 42:1-9, What We Behold

Acts 8:26-40 
What’s Your Next Step? 
 
I. Where Are You Going Next? 
1. Providing guidance is a favorite topic for Christian speakers: find the will of God in the Bible, etc. 
2. Dysfunctional family won’t mention their sins; we won’t even admit that they’re sins. 
3. Some people need guidance to take on a pornography problem or start reading the Bible every day. 
4. Here, the church has crossed one boundary. What’s the next step for the gospel? We need guidance. 
II. The Guiding (8:26-31) 
A. An Angel (8:26) 
1. He's just told one step at a time. He’s not given the whole scenario, just the next step. 
2. “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase”. (Martin L. King) 
B. The Spirit (8:29) 
1. The Ethiopian was an eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, the treasurer. 
2. Why not arrange for Peter and John to speak to the Ethiopian eunuch when they’re in Jerusalem? 
3. Philip though, doesn’t yet know why he’s been told to go to the highway. He needs guidance again. 
4. Can we expect to get guidance from the Holy Spirit? Why not, since Philip isn’t an apostle either. 
5. Our feelings might be the leading of the Holy Spirit but the Word of God always, definitely is. 
6. It can be abused but, the Holy Spirit can speak to us to lead us still. 
7. We see through a glass darkly. We might be wrong about what we perceive as His guidance. 
8. Don’t expect the supernatural voice of the Holy Spirit for natural things. Use natural means. 
9. This is about the gospel finally first beginning to make a breakthrough to the “ends of the earth.” 
10. Perhaps we don’t experience the leading of the Holy Spirit because we’re not on His mission. 
C. A Teacher (8:31) 
1. Philip hears the voice of the Spirit. ‘Go up to that chariot.’ Philip can jog over to it. 
2. The Ethiopian eunuch is reading out loud from Isaiah 52-53, which begins, “Behold My servant”. 
3. Scripture offers guidance but do you need guidance to understand scripture? Often, yes. 
4. That’s why the Lord gave the church pastor-teachers, to guide you into what His Word says. 
5. The Puritans were in America only 6 years when they started a college to train their pastors. 
6. The Ethiopian was humble enough to understand that he needed a teacher. We need that attitude. 
7. The Ethiopian invited Philip up into the chariot to sit with him and teach him. He was teachable. 
III. The Servant Song (8:32-35) 
2. The book of Isaiah contains at least four “Servant Songs”, spread out from chapters 42 to 53. 
3. Who is it the Servant of the Lord? 
4. The exact passage is from Isaiah 53:7-8, “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter.” 
5. Isaiah is speaking in the third person, about someone else. Is it about Israel corporately? 
6. The servant songs of Isaiah give us a portrait of who Jesus is, what He felt, what His experiences mean. 
7. The Holy Spirit had guided Philip perfectly so that He was beside the chariot at just the right time. 
8. Philip begins with Isaiah 53 and from it told the Ethiopian the good news about Jesus. 
IV. Baptism (8:36-38) 
1. The Ethiopian wants to be a disciple of Jesus and Jesus commanded that baptism is for disciples. 
2. The Ethiopian is not a child, manipulated to say a repeat-after-me prayer and then rushed to be baptized. 
3. He’s a grown, intelligent, responsible man who can count the costs and decides to be a disciple. 
4. Once you finally see that Jesus is the Servant of the Lord, become His disciple, the next step is baptism. 
V. The Spirit (8:39-40) 
1. They come up out of the water and then the Holy Spirit takes Philip away. Is it a miracle like Elijah? 
2. It could mean only that the Holy Spirit guided him. Either way, the Spirit was guiding him again. 
3. The Spirit was also with the Ethiopian, giving him joy. He’ll take it to the uttermost parts of the earth. 
4. He’s not just the one you worship when you’re in America. He’s for all people, all nations, like China. 
5. Philip goes one step at a time from Azotus to Caesarea, the big city, about 30 miles north. 
VI. Invitation: What’s your next step? If you are a disciple, you need to be baptized. He wants to guide you to sacrifice for His mission, for doing your part to get the gospel out. If you’re not a believer in the Lord yet, you need to know that He is the God of Ethiopia, America, China, the uttermost parts of the earth. He is your God and if you would but take the next step to believe that, to follow Jesus, you can go your way, like the Ethiopian, with great joy.

Acts 8:26-40
What’s Your Next Step?

I. Where Are You Going Next?
1. Providing guidance is a favorite topic for Christian speakers: find the will of God in the Bible, etc.
2. Dysfunctional family won’t mention their sins; we won’t even admit that they’re sins.
3. Some people need guidance to take on a pornography problem or start reading the Bible every day.
4. Here, the church has crossed one boundary. What’s the next step for the gospel? We need guidance.
II. The Guiding (8:26-31)
A. An Angel (8:26)
1. He's just told one step at a time. He’s not given the whole scenario, just the next step.
2. “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase”. (Martin L. King)
B. The Spirit (8:29)
1. The Ethiopian was an eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, the treasurer.
2. Why not arrange for Peter and John to speak to the Ethiopian eunuch when they’re in Jerusalem?
3. Philip though, doesn’t yet know why he’s been told to go to the highway. He nee

Acts 8:26-40, What’s Your Next Step?

Acts 8:4-25 
What’s It For? 
 
I. What Is This For? 
1. You’ve been taught that the pointing gesture is for pointing to something beyond it your finger. 
2. The early church has been to be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth. 
3. Now, “those who were scattered”, fleeing for their lives, “went about preaching the word.” (8:4) 
II. Samaria (8:4-5) 
1. Going to Samaria is crossing a major boundary; it’s a breakthrough to a different kind of people. 
2. The Samaritans were outcasts; they were considered half-breeds and heretics, descendants of Gentiles. 
3. Philip goes to these break-away Israelites and, proclaims to them that Jesus is “the Christ” (8:5). 
III. Signs (8:6-8) 
1. Signs are not for drawing attention to themselves. Signs are for pointing to something else. 
2. Crowds gathered and were attentive to what Philip was saying because they saw the signs he was doing. 
3. These healing weren’t intended to be just miraculous works of health care. They pointed to the eternal. 
4. Signs point to the truth that Philip is preaching, that Jesus is the King of the Kingdom of God. 
5. Because the gospel has come to Samaria, “there was much joy in that city” (8:8). 
IV. Simon (8:9-13) 
1. Simon was a magician, either charlatan who did illusions, or had demonic power. 
2. The people thought he was somebody great. They gave him the title of Simon the Great. 
3. It’s a power encounter between the God and Simon who’s been enthralling the people for years. 
4. The signs point to the fact that Jesus is more powerful than Simon and whatever he was representing. 
5. Many believe. The Kingdom of God comes through, and in, the name of Jesus. 
6. Simon “believed”, in a way of speaking. He agreed, he said. He was even baptized. 
7. What you think faith is about shows whether your faith is real or is about something else. 
8. Simon the amazer is now amazed. He didn’t see what the signs pointed to. 
V. Spirit (8:14-25) 
A. The One Baptism in the Holy Spirit 
1. The Samaritans “had received the Word of God”, all of it, even the parts about discipleship. 
2. The unspiritual cannot accept. Everyone who truly believes needs the Holy Spirit to enable them. 
3. The Holy Spirit had not“fallen on them”; they had “only” been “baptized” in water, not the Spirit. 
4. After Pentecost now every believer is baptized in the Holy Spirit at conversion (1 Cor. 12:13). 
5. Pentecostals say that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a separate experience; there are two stages. 
6. The Samaritans are break-away Israelites. They might be tempted to form a break-away church. 
7. The local church is for being part of the true, universal church, not thinking we’re self-sufficient. 
8. Peter and John lay hands on them, communicating by touch that together we’re the Body of Christ. 
9. Being baptized in the Spirit is noticeable. “Receiving the Holy Spirit is experiential, not inferential.” 
10. Many now think they can infer that they have the Holy Spirit by the fact that they believe. 
11. Being baptized in the Holy Spirit was something that could be seen; it made an obvious difference. 
12. If someone says they believe but they have no signs of the Spirit in their life, they may not be saved. 
13. Some professed Christians are truly saved by seeking to be baptized (or filled) with the Holy Spirit. 
B. What Money Can’t Buy 
1. Simon thinks he’s a believer. The church thinks he’s a believer. But he shows he’s not. 
2. Simon wants to buy the power. He doesn’t know that there are somethings that money can’t buy. 
3. Money can’t buy the power of God, a new heart. It can’t convert your child or save your family. 
4. The Spirit is for the power to make stone, dead hearts into soft, living ones; pointing us to Christ. 
5. Peter says,‘rich guy, you can go to hell with your money’ (8:20). You can’t buy a whiff of the Spirit. 
6. Peter says, to a baptized, professed believer, ‘You have no share in the Spirit’ (8:21). He’s not saved. 
7. Peter says, “Repent, therefore,” because you’re going to hell, trusting in your money (8:22). 
8. “If possible”; it may not be possible, “you are in the gall of bitterness” and a slave of sin. 
9. Hard words are for creating soft people. Simon asks to be relieved of the consequences of his sin. 
10. If you don’t have the Spirit, you’ll be bitter, self-serving, hard-hearted. 
11. If you have the Spirit the Word of the Lord goes out. It’s believed. It changes your life. 
VI. Invitation: Money can’t buy everything. It can’t buy the Spirit who can make you alive, and put a living heart in you. Before, without the Spirit, you were cold and dead inside, thinking life was for chasing dollars, or skirts, or whatever thrill, or title, like “The Great”, you could get. Now you have a new heart that loves the Lord with all you are, that loves His Word and His church, that unites you with all who truly believe with you. If you have true faith. If so, we’ll see it in what you’re for.

Acts 8:4-25
What’s It For?

I. What Is This For?
1. You’ve been taught that the pointing gesture is for pointing to something beyond it your finger.
2. The early church has been to be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth.
3. Now, “those who were scattered”, fleeing for their lives, “went about preaching the word.” (8:4)
II. Samaria (8:4-5)
1. Going to Samaria is crossing a major boundary; it’s a breakthrough to a different kind of people.
2. The Samaritans were outcasts; they were considered half-breeds and heretics, descendants of Gentiles.
3. Philip goes to these break-away Israelites and, proclaims to them that Jesus is “the Christ” (8:5).
III. Signs (8:6-8)
1. Signs are not for drawing attention to themselves. Signs are for pointing to something else.
2. Crowds gathered and were attentive to what Philip was saying because they saw the signs he was doing.
3. These healing weren’t intended to be just miraculous works of health care. They pointed to the ete

Acts 8:4-25, What’s It For?

Acts 6:1-7 
What’s the Problem? 
 
I. Finding the Problem Helps Solving It 
1. Finding out what the problem is goes a long way to solving it. A mechanic needs to find the problem. 
2. In health care find the “diagnosis” can lead to a cure or at least alleviate the problem. 
3. What’s the problem with the church? Not “relevant”, too worldly? Or not Biblical? 
4. The virus that is the source of all the symptoms is individualism and consumerism. 
5. It makes many church-going people numb to idea that this passage assumes — the idea of the church. 
II. The Problem: Division (6:1) 
1. Here believers are “disciples”, people disciplined to follow Jesus in their daily lives. 
2. There’s a division. The Hellenists complain against the Hebrews. It wasn’t race. It was culture. 
3. Race is only a divider if our culture makes it one. But culture is a major divider. 
4. Luke is saying that Hellenistic widows really were being neglected. It was a fact, not just a perception. 
5. “Neglected” implies that it wasn’t deliberate, because of purposeful discrimination or hostility. 
6. They don’t talk to them much since their most comfortable with different languages. 
7. When they distributed food, they couldn’t think of the Greeks. They forgot about their widows. 
8. When we don’t relate, we don’t think about each other. And so it’s out of mind, out of sight. 
III. The Proposal: Distraction (6:2) 
1. It appears some were proposing that the Apostles take over the distribution of the food themselves. 
2. The Apostles calling is to preach the Word of God and so they don’t have time for this problem. 
3. It’s an important ministry. It’s just not theirs. “It is not right that we should give up preaching the Word”. 
4. Some people today think that the pastor should do it. Obstinate, unreasonable demand the pastor do it. 
5. Here, they understand that they are a church; a body. They stay together and work things out. 
6. The ministry of the Word takes time. If you want it done well, consistently, it will take time to study, etc. 
IV. The Solution: Diaconate (6:3-6) 
1. The solution is the diaconate, the office of deacon. Forms of “deacon” are used in verses 1, 2, and 4. 
2. “Team work makes the dream work. We are a team on a mission. 
3. In this culture, many want to be the guy talking in the spot light; few want to be a “deacon.” 
4. We need people who are part of the team, who want to help others do the ministry of the Word. 
5. A real deacon should be (1) “of good repute”; (2) “full of the Spirit”; and (3) also full of “wisdom”. 
6. The diaconate would be the solution to the problem of division without giving them a distraction. 
7. They appoint seven men to this new office. All the names are Greek. One of them, is even a proselyte. 
8. They decided that to ensure that minorities aren’t being overlooked, choose people from the minority. 
9. They knew that preserving unity is more important than my entertainment. 
V. The Result: Development (6:7) 
1. The result of the solution was the development of the Word of God growing. 
2. We usually talk about numbers. Here, it’s “the Word of God” that is increasing. 
3. Before, disciples were being added. Now they are being multiplied. 
4. Even, a “great many of the priests became obedient to the faith”. They were “jealous” before (Acts 5.) 
5. Priests have the most to lose by believing in Jesus because Jesus has now put them out of business. 
6. Jesus offered Himself as the final, sufficient sacrifice. He’s the high priest, so we don’t need priests. 
7. Why did many priests chose to believe what wasn’t in their selfish interests to believe? 
8. Now the church proved, by including people who weren’t in their orbit, that they weren’t selfish. 
VI. Invitation: The church decided that even if they aren’t my kind of people, they’re of a different culture they’re part of the family of God, the Body the Christ; that it’s not about me and my interests. It’s about Jesus, about those He bought with His own blood. Maybe the priests saw that and realized that if they can put Jesus ahead of their self-interests so can I. Do you see that?

Acts 6:1-7
What’s the Problem?

I. Finding the Problem Helps Solving It
1. Finding out what the problem is goes a long way to solving it. A mechanic needs to find the problem.
2. In health care find the “diagnosis” can lead to a cure or at least alleviate the problem.
3. What’s the problem with the church? Not “relevant”, too worldly? Or not Biblical?
4. The virus that is the source of all the symptoms is individualism and consumerism.
5. It makes many church-going people numb to idea that this passage assumes — the idea of the church.
II. The Problem: Division (6:1)
1. Here believers are “disciples”, people disciplined to follow Jesus in their daily lives.
2. There’s a division. The Hellenists complain against the Hebrews. It wasn’t race. It was culture.
3. Race is only a divider if our culture makes it one. But culture is a major divider.
4. Luke is saying that Hellenistic widows really were being neglected. It was a fact, not just a perception.
5. “Neglected” implies that it wasn’t 

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