Heralds of the King

Matthew 3:1-17

Who is familiar with Epiphany?  It is a holiday, a day of commemoration.  We typically do not point it out or celebrate it here in our church.  The word epiphany comes from the Greek and means to show or to reveal.  In western churches that do celebrate Epiphany, it is sometimes called Three Kings’ Day.  In other words, in the western church, Epiphany is often associated with the arrival of the magi to worship the child Jesus as told in Matthew 2.

I did not realize though that the arrival of the magi is only one event which is associated with this holiday on January 6^th or also the first Sunday after New Year’s.  In the Eastern Church, particularly the eastern orthodox churches, Epiphany is rather a commemoration of Jesus’ baptism which we are going to look at today in Matthew 3.

Year in Review

Days to be Remembered: The Book of Esther (January 6 – March 24)

We started the year by studying the short, unusual book of Esther.  You’ll recall how the Amalekites and Israelites had been enemies for years, despite being distant cousins through their fathers Jacob and Esau.  The Israelites found themselves in captivity due to sin.  The second in all the Persian Empire was a man named Haman who hatched a plan to kill all the Israelites with the King’s permission.  However, he did not realize that the king’s new wife, Esther was herself and Israelite.  Despite her initial fear and at the urging of her relative Mordecai, she approached the king to see a way to save her people.  God granted her favor in her husband’s eye, and spared her.  Once he heard of the plot to kill his wife and her people, he had Haman put to death on the very gallows he built for Mordecai and empowered the people of Israel to fight back and be allowed to live. 

Infant King

Matthew 2:1-23

Merry Christmas and welcome to this second message in our new series in the gospel of Matthew. John set the stage for us last week, remarking how Matthew tells the story of Jesus from an intensely Jewish perspective. He frequently quotes from the Old Testament to make his case for Jesus being the promised Messiah. In the things that Jesus said and did – even through who he was and what happened to him – Jesus fulfilled many prophesies that foretold the coming of a savior, a leader who would deliver the people of Israel from everyone oppressing them and give them a life of shalom: peace, freedom, and fulfillment. The word Messiah literally means “anointed one,” harkening back to the anointing of David by Samuel to be a godly king over the people of Israel. The anointed Messiah would come from the line of David and reign in righteousness and blessedness, expanding his own divine kingdom into the whole world. The message of redemption would be universal. Matthew emphasizes how the Messiah, though Jewish and coming in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, touches all people everywhere and for all time. We’ll see evidence of this in our passage for today.

Generation 42

Matthew 1:1-25

 Good morning!  We are starting a new series today.  It is titled, “The Kingdom of Jesus.”  We will cover the first half of Matthew’s gospel, chapters 1-12.  It will carry us till the end of March.

Carl wrote the introduction for the series in this way … “In the decades before Jesus, expectations grew of a long-awaited Messiah who would finally bring the kingdom of God to earth. Even the long-celebrated kingdom of David was seen as a foreshadowing of the far greater kingdom that was to come. For centuries, prophets had written about this coming King and kingdom, but the age of the prophets had seemingly ended. Life in Israel was difficult as a result of foreign occupation and interference. Had God forgotten His promises? Matthew tells the fantastic story of how, at last, the Messiah had come.”

Multiplying Workers

Fulfilling the Great Commission: Multiplying Workers

Welcome! Today is our final message in this series entitled “Fulfilling the Great Commission.” Today’s message is entitled “Multiplying Workers.” As I have mentioned throughout this series, this series is based in part on the book “What Jesus Started” by Steve Addison.

I want to start today with a review of where we’ve been, and to also specifically ask the question, “Is this really what Jesus started?”

Gathering Communities

Fulfilling the Great Commission: Gathering Communities

Welcome! Today we continue our series on “Fulfilling the Great Commission.” Today’s message is entitled “Gathering Communities.” I want to start with a pretty provocative quote by Richard Halverson, a former chaplain to the US senate:

“In the beginning the Church was a fellowship of men and women who centered their lives on the living Christ. They had a personal and vital relationship to the Lord. It transformed them and the world around them. Then the Church moved to Greece, and it became a philosophy. Later it moved to Rome, and it became an institution. Next it moved to Europe and it became a culture. Finally, it moved to America, and it became an enterprise. We’ve got far too many churches and so few fellowships.”

I think there is unfortunately a lot of truth to this quote. There have always been exceptions, but the church in Greece, and then in Rome, and then in Europe, and then in America, has had its struggles. In each of these setting, the trouble begins because people try to “do” church without first and foremost submitting their lives to Christ, living in submission to Him day by day, depending on the Holy Spirit to convict, teach, and guide them. Apart from Christ, the church starts to look like the institutions of the world. Although I think the illustrations of Jesus’ first disciples and the early church in Scripture are more descriptive than proscriptive in terms of the organizational details, from looking at the letters to the churches in Revelations, as well as Paul’s letters, it is clear that individual relationships with Christ must always be the foundational bedrock of “church.”

Training Disciples

Fulfilling the Great Commission: Training Disciples

 

Welcome! Today we continue our series on “Fulfilling the Great Commission.” A starting point of our series has been the idea that disciples are people who make disciples. Today’s message is entitled “Training Disciples.” As I have mentioned throughout this series, these messages are based in part on the book “What Jesus Started” by Steve Addison.

Today, I want you to imagine that you are one of the people who lived at the time of Paul and the early church. I am basing this on a real person. This person is male, and I apologize if this makes this exercise somewhat less relatable if you are female. You are Greek, not a Jew, and while a young adult, you come into contact with the gospel, believe, and are saved. You are either taught directly by Paul or in a circle of people that were taught by Paul. Because you are faithful and earnest in the work of sharing the gospel and helping to disciple believers, your reputation leads Paul himself to want to take you along with him and use you as needed to further the work of growing churches. However, there is the question of circumcision. There were leaders of the church in Jerusalem who thought that being an “upper tier” leader required that one be circumcised. In the case of Timothy, Paul had gone along with this, perhaps because Timothy had a Jewish mother. But in your case, not having any Jewish connection at all, Paul feels it is entirely inappropriate. He feels it is important to establish that in Christ, circumcision is nothing and is certainly not meant for any Gentile believers in Christ.

Sharing the Gospel

Fulfilling the Great Commission: Sharing the Gospel

Welcome! Today we continue our series on “Fulfilling the Great Commission.” As I have mentioned in the past two messages, this series is loosely based on a book called “What Jesus Started” by Steve Addison. Two weeks ago, we looked at God’s heart towards the lost, how He loves them and wants them to turn to Him in faith. Last week, we talked about connecting with people. Jesus taught His disciples by example, showing them that compassion was for everyone, including those whose lives were quite a mess. One such example was the Samaritan woman at the well, who was in many ways the absolutely last person Jews might otherwise talk to. She was a Samaritan, whose religious beliefs were a toxic hodgepodge of half-truths and cultish traditions. She was a woman, and Jewish men did not talk in public with women at all. And she had lived a very immoral life and was likely shunned by even her own village. Yet Jesus chose her to talk to, she was very receptive to Him, and the disciples learned to seek out the lost, no matter what “package” they came in. Jesus also spoke to a demon-possessed seemingly crazy and dangerous man in the Gerasenes. Jesus cast out the demons and the man was then very receptive to Jesus and His message. We likewise see all kinds of people coming to faith in Christ in the Book of Acts, from the non-Jewish centurion named Cornelius, to the woman of Thyatira named Lydia. Brought to faith were everything from the wealthy and influential to the poor and anonymous.

Connecting with People

Fulfilling the Great Commission: Connecting with People

Welcome! Today we continue our series on “Fulfilling the Great Commission.” As I mentioned last week, this series is loosely based on a book called “What Jesus Started” by Steve Addison. Today’s message is entitled “Connecting with People”. Last week we considered God’s heart towards the lost – He loves the lost and has great compassion for them, and as Christ followers we too should have great compassion for the lost. We looked at the Great Commission in Matthew 28, and how disciples are by definition people who make disciples, and thus, as Christ followers, we too should reach out to the lost with the gospel, and as they come to faith in Christ, we should continue to help them grow and become people who themselves can help others come to faith and grow. In this way, the effects of the gospel multiply like wildfire, and this is what we see in the gospels, in Acts, and in the New Testament letters. We also talked about the “Satanic lullaby” in America that encourages believers to “sleep” spiritually and not be about the work of the Great Commission. Shockingly, an Iranian Christian woman living for a short time in the United States wanted to go back to Iran facing potentially severe persecution and possibly even death, because she preferred these threats to the sleepiness she felt in America. How do you feel today? I pray that we are not spiritually sleepy.

Seeing the End

Fulfilling the Great Commission: Seeing the End

 Welcome! Today we begin a new series entitled “Fulfilling the Great Commission”. This series is loosely based on a book called “What Jesus Started” by Steve Addison. I want to start this series with a well-known passage from Matthew 9:

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.” – Matt. 9:35-38