Another great service brought to us by Pastor Aaron. He mentions a terrific turn out last night for the Trunk or Treat idea he brought to us. It was also Communion Sunday with a confession of sins and breaking of bread.
The Lord’s Supper
23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same way He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. (1 Corinthians 11:23-26)
In my study of the scriptures, I have come to the conclusion that we should be having the Lord’s Supper every Sunday, not once a month as in the Lutheran Church where I grew up and every other church I have been to, including this one. Nowhere does it state in the scripture that it should be done this way, although the earliest christians did. For me, it was a few conversations with family and friends that somewhat alarmed me when we talked of repenting. The long and short of it was this “Their sins had been forgiven by Christ, so they had no need to repent further.” Ah huh. We were not on the same wavelength and that is troubling. I do think that it is the result of not studying the scripture, or even reading the whole bible. How are you going to know these things unless you read them for yourself?
We all acknowledge the confession of sins when partaking of the Lord’s supper. If that’s what it takes, why can’t we do that every week? I have mentioned it to the church leaders and so far we haven’t seen eye to eye, yet. I’ll keep working on them and you do your part by listening to the whole service. Deal?
All Glory to God the Father and to our Savior Jesus Christ
From Westminster Shorter Catechism, questions 47 to 50:
Q47: What is forbidden in the First Commandment?
A47: The First Commandment forbiddeth the denying, or not worshipping and glorifying the true God, as God, [and our God,] and the giving of that worship and glory to any other which is due to Him alone.
Q48: What are we specially taught by these words, “before me” in the First Commandment?
A48: These words “before me” in the First Commandment, teach us, That God who seeth all things, taketh notice of, and is much displeased with, the sin of having any other God.
Q49: Which is the Second Commandment?
A49: The Second Commandment is, “thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth, thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep my commandments.”
Q50: What is required in the Second Commandment?
A50: The Second Commandment requireth the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire, all such religious worship and ordinances as God hath appointed in His Word.
Today we will come back to John 1 and continue where we left off. Christ has been gathering His disciples. In verse 37 of John’s epistle, Andrew and another had encountered Christ, by John the Baptist proclaiming “Behold, the Lamb of God!” as Jesus walked by. They were immediately drawn to the One True Light: “Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” (John 8:12)
And they were drawn to him as a moth would be to a flame, an irresistible force to be reckoned with. When God places His focus on you, all you can do is submit, for we are his creation: “For we are his creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that we may walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)
I bring this up because of confusion in many people’s minds as to how to deal with this year of 2020. I remind you that He who created you, also created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1). So when your anxious mind dwells upon whatever trouble you have chosen to worry about, ask yourself, who created all you see?
If you have read the whole bible, not just easy parts or a passage here or there, you will know that David, a man after God’s own heart, had many a day of anxious thoughts: “How long will I store up anxious concerns within me, agony in my mind every day? How long will my enemy dominate me?” (Psalm 13:2)
David knew that anxious thoughts are the result of sin: “So I confess my guilt; I am anxious because of my sin.” (Psalm 38:18) But David also knew this: “When my anxious inner thoughts become overwhelming, your comfort encourages me.” (Psalm 94:19)
God’s comfort encourages him. So to keep that comfort coming, and remember, Obey God and you’re blessed, disobey God and you are cursed (Duet 28), David asked God to keep an eye on him: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts;” (Psalm 139:23)
And just because those around you act like they have no faith in any other but man, (Psalm 146:3–4) David’s son Solomon gave this advice: “Don’t be anxious about those who practice evil, and don’t be envious of the wicked.” (Proverbs 24:19)
Remember, Solomon was blessed to be the smartest man in the world (1 Kings 4-29), so good advice to listen to. Proverbs as a whole are very interesting, so give it a read and ponder upon it.
You may be puzzled as to why I am going through this little stroll through the old testament. The bible, the Living Word of God (Hebrews 4:12): “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
This book gives us the tools we need to handle troubled times. We learn from those that came before us, standing on the shoulders of righteous men. Learn to handle your troubles by going to God and reading what he wanted us to read. Isn’t that better than wringing your hands and not sleeping at night? Why would you choose misery over comfort, that comes from Faith, that was provided by Grace, by He who has created all? You are not too old to learn, you may be too stubborn, but that’s a topic of another bible study.
So David and Solomon knew, from instruction from their God, our God, and they put down those thoughts, at the behest of the Holy Spirit, and these boys who had been following John the Baptist around and studied those words, probably scrolls that resided in a temple, and Jews were very good at teaching these things to young minds. Funny that while teachers taught what they did, most of them didn’t see the forest for the trees, because they missed the most important point, that the Messiah was coming to serve, not conquer (Isaiah 53) and He was now in their midst. John the Baptist was sent to proclaim His coming, (Acts 13:24) and now He is walking around and gathering in His disciples: “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.” (John 15:16)
Know that as these men were chosen, so are we:
“Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love” (Ephesians 1:4)
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)
All of these texts demonstrate God’s love for us and His expectation that we will be obedient to His word. How are you going to know that if you don’t study the scripture? Obey God (Romans 6:16) and gather His blessing.
Now onto the scripture for this bible study:
John 1:43-51
43 The next day He purposed to go into Galilee, and He *found Philip. And Jesus *said to him, “Follow Me.” 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the city of Andrew and Peter.
45 Philip *found Nathanael and *said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
46 Nathanael said to him, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Philip *said to him, “Come and see.”
47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and *said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!”
48 Nathanael *said to Him, “How do You know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”
49 Nathanael answered Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.”
50 Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.”
51 And He *said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
Here we see men who knew the words that had been taught to them, but until they met the Messiah, it was just head knowledge. It was brought to their hearts when Christ spoke to them. Learn from this. Take that head knowledge, learned in Sunday School, or by a preacher or wherever, and bring it to your heart. Then thank God for the blessings and daily bread (1 Thessalonians 5:18) that is yours though His Grace and Mercy: “He said, ‘I am the bread of life. The one who comes to me will never go hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty.’” (John 6:35)
And know also in these trying days, there is one who listens to you, stands by you, loves you and will not abandon you. And as a loving Father, He will discipline those that He loves (Hebrews 12:4-11). Accept it, learn from it and know that it is part of the process of sanctification, which will bring you closer to righteousness. Love God, fear God and love thy neighbor as thyself. Do these things and accept the Joy of Salvation that is yours. The year 2020 is not frightening when you put it into perspective. He who created all, our Father, has you within His loving grasp that none can tear you from. (John 10:28)
Go forth and act like children of El Shaddai, which is translated from Hebrew as God Almighty.
Church got a bit more complicated today. Not the sermon and service, but my part in presenting the whole thing to the world.
Up to last week, we were doing a Zoom session for those, who for whatever reason could not get to church. And then last week, Zoom decided that none shall login. The reasons are complicated but they confirmed my unhappiness at using the very popular app. Plan B, because there is always a plan B in my world, was to build a low power FM transmitter and pump out the message the old fashion way. Turns out I have all the bits and bobs required to make it work, but then the Government got in the way. While the FCC allows low power FM stations, it is only with a license. Fine, I figured that, this is the Government after all, but the catch is you can only apply for said license when they say so and the last say so was 2013. I read somewhere that the FCC has made no plans to “say so” again.
Plan C was to put the audio on the church website about a half hour after the service is done. It takes that long for me to edit it and upload it. And that’s what I did. Until I got to the part where the church website only lets you upload 50 megabytes or less for any file. The church audio comes in at 67 megabytes and sorry Charlie, you can’t put the file here.
Plan D is my website and here we are with the complete audio of the service of First Baptist Church of Grove City MN. It includes little Luke saying “Hi Dad” and other things. Luke is the 3 year old son of Pastor Aaron and a joy of the church.
Listen to the message, ponder the message and let the Lord guide your path as you apply the message.
All Glory to God the Father and to our Savior Jesus Christ
From Westminster Shorter Catechism, questions 43 to 46:
Q43. What is the preface to the Ten Commandments? A43. The preface to the Ten Commandments is in these words, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house OF SLAVERY.”
Q44. What doth the preface to the Ten Commandments teach us? A44. The preface to the Ten Commandments teacheth us, That because God is The Lord, and our God, and Redeemer, therefore we are bound to keep all His commandments.
Q45: Which is the First Commandment? A45: The First Commandment is, “thou shalt have no other gods before Me.”
Q46: What is required in the First Commandment? A46: The First Commandment requireth us to know and acknowledge God to be only true God, and our God; and to worship and glorify Him accordingly.
Today we will diverge from our study of John 1 and spend a bit of time in Luke 10. Our Lord Christ is being tested by a lawyer, who had sat there with Christ and listened to the report of the 70 that had been sent out.
Luke 10:1 Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come.
And if you apply any of the curiosity that the Good Lord has blessed you with you would naturally wonder what “after this” means. Luke has been a favorite of mine and chapter 9 of his epistle is jammed packed with the works of our Lord. A few of the highlights were His sending the 12 out and them coming back amazed that even the demons obey them through Christ’s name. Meaning that they knew it was not their power but Christ’s.
And then there was the feeding of 5000 and the Transfiguration and on and on. I will let you read chapter 9 in detail on your own.
So the Lord had sent these 70 out to proclaim the good news and do what the 12 did.
Luke 10:2-12 And He was saying to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. 3 Go; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no money belt, no bag, no shoes; and greet no one on the way. 5 Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house.’ 6 If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. 7 Stay in that house, eating and drinking what they give you; for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not keep moving from house to house. 8 Whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is set before you; 9 and heal those in it who are sick, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10 But whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your city which clings to our feet we wipe off in protest against you; yet be sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ 12 I say to you, it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city.
We’ve all heard this story, head knowledge, but we need to apply it to our heart. The harvest is plenty but the laborers are few. Do you consider yourself to be a laborer for the Lord? That’s a valid question for you to ask yourself. And if you don’t consider yourself to be laborer for the Lord, why not? I mean what are you doing with your time? You might think “Oh, I’m too old or I’m disabled or I don’t know what to say,” the list of excuses are endless really. If you are not serving the Lord, if you are content to let Pastors do all the heavy lifting while you sit comfortably in your pew, then you are serving the prince of this world, satan. That’s how Jesus views things. You either obey God, serve him with your obedience and doing His will and by that be blessed, or you serve man, by being passive, sitting there in your pew and letting others do the work of the spirit. Not changing how you go about your day to day life, even when you know what God wants from you. And by serving man, by not participating, you are serving satan. The bible was written by God so that we might know Him and His will, how to live.
These 70 were commissioned by Christ to do his will and they did. They went out as lambs, in the midst of wolves, going to houses of men who were obeying God and let these boys stay and fed them. And Peace was blessed upon that house. There were instructions also on how to deal with those not obeying God. As Christians, we are told to not consort with unsavory types:
1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”
Proverbs 13:20 Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.
1 Corinthians 5:11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.
He told them to shake the dust off their feet when encountering such a place or people, in disobedience to God. It comes down to this passage:
Luke 10:16 “The one who listens to you listens to Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me; and he who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.”
The 70 came back with good news:
Luke 10:17-20 The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” 18 And He said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. 19 Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you. 20 Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.”
When God sends you out, He sends you out with the tools to get the job done. This is why your excuse that you can’t, for whatever reason, is not true. Jesus sent a helper to the apostles and that helper is indwelling you, if you are truly a believer. The Holy Spirit will give you the courage and the words to say.(Deuteronomy 31:6 Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.) I am not saying you will have the courage of a lion, just enough courage to do the job. Doubting this, is troubling.
At hearing the report from the 70, Christ praised the Father:
Luke 10:21-22 21 At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, “I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight. 22 All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”
I hope you noticed that Christ rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit. That very same Holy Spirit that you doubt when you say you can’t.
Luke 10:23 Turning to the disciples, He said privately, “Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see, 24 for I say to you, that many prophets and kings wished to see the things which you see, and did not see them, and to hear the things which you hear, and did not hear them.”
Now we are at the point where a lawyer steps up and wants to test Christ. Who do you think he was serving?
Luke 10:25-29
And a lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 And He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” 29 But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Who really is my neighbor? It is interesting to me and should be to you as to how God works things out for us. This is called Providence. I see Providence happening all the time. I had it happen last Sunday, or really last Tuesday when I created the graphic to the bulletin for the church. You see, I am the secretary in charge of making the bulletin and I research the bible and come up with some image that will fit with it. I chose John 15:16-17
16 You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. 17 This I command you, that you love one another.
I stuck that on the front page of the bulletin and thought no more about it. Sunday comes around and as we go to church, about a block from the church, we passed what I initially thought was a mannequin and pointed out to my wife, but as we drove, I reviewed it in my mind and found it probably was real because I also saw a sign that read “Anything will help.” It was 26 degrees at the time and my mind was burdened by this. I get in the building and my normal routine is to set up my iPad to start a Zoom session and get the video camera rolling. However, I made a beeline to my Brother in Law, Leighton, and asked him if he had seen the homeless guy on the road. Now I know Leighton well, he and God are why I am doing all this. This is called discipleship. And I know that Leighton would be concerned if I said there was a homeless guy a block from the church. Except he wasn’t. “Nope” he said “didn’t see him” and that was that. I am now really bothered, because of the homeless guy and Leighton’s response. I get everything set up and sit down by my wife. We discuss the homeless guy and then look up and around and notice that Pastor Aaron is not around. He should be very evident at this time. I asked my wife if she had seen him. No, she had not. I asked her what the bible verse for the sermon today is. Luke 10:25-37. I opened my bible and started to read and stopped.
God has blessed me with an active and curious mind. One that can see patterns and sometimes put 2 and 2 together. I looked up and told my wife the homeless guy is Aaron. Then I got up and found Leighton and asked him if Aaron was the homeless guy. My Brother in Law got a brief moment of surprised panic in his eyes and nodded yes. My stomach dropped and what came out of my mouth was “I am convicted!” This was worse than a random homeless guy. I had just about been ready to get back in the car and convince the homeless guy to come back to the warm church. Just about, but not quite. Good intentions don’t count when doing the Lord’s work. I found out something else about myself. ALS will give you the shakes now and then, but it breaks the knob off at the 11 mark when under stress. I confess to being a tad stressed while wobbling back to my seat. I picked up the bulletin and looked at the bible verse on the front page, the one I put there. “This I command you, that you love one another.” This is where Providence left its mark. I was convicted, I did not do what my Lord had commanded me. And it hurt, bad. I spent the rest of the service shaking and repenting. It made for a good combination of contrition.
Pastor Aaron had been calling for testimonies from the congregation for the last month. So of course the homeless man had made it to the church and of course the homeless man slowly walked up and gave his testimony. And it was a killer one too. And then said homeless man took off his long wig and became our strong Shepard again and told of the Good Samaritan story.
Luke 10:30-37 30 Jesus replied and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. 31 And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, 34 and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.’ 36 Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?” 37 And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.”
Go and do the same, and I did not. My wife reminded me that we are forgiven, and I said yes, I know, but that does not make it any easier that I have failed my Lord, for I knew what I should have done.
While we are forgiven, we are still sinners and as such, our Father expects us to repent our sins and learn from them.
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Matthew 6:14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,
Disappointing our Lord should be painful and was. Accept the conviction, repent and forsake the sin, and learn the lesson so that you may not sin like that again. We have a merciful and forgiving Lord. That is the best part of this lesson.
My Mother in Law who was also at church, asked me on her way out the door “Was it you that gave him (homeless guy) your coat?”. No I said, but it should have been.