Archives: October 2006

Fueling Your Passion to Treasure Christ by Providing Grace-saturated Audio Sermons

“As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” (Psalm 42:1-2 ESV)

The Apostle Peter was a part of the Jewish community in the first century. His original name was Simeon (Acts 15.14, 2 Peter 1.1). He seemed to have most often used the Greek version of his name, Simon. Jesus renamed him “Peter” or “rock” in Greek. And for some reason only known to him, Paul preferred calling Peter “Cephas” which is the Aramaic transliterated form of the word “rock.”

His father’s name was Jonah (Matt 16.17) or John (John 1.42). Jonah was a fisherman. And by the tradition of the day, that meant his sons Peter and Andrew were fishermen too. They were from the city of Bethsaida (John 1.44), but later, when they met Jesus they were residing in Capernaum It is possible that they were partners in the fishing business with James and John, sons of Zebedee (Luke 5.10). (Mark 1.21, 29).

Peter was married. He and his wife owned a home in Capernaum. She was a believer and went along with Peter in his travels and ministry (1 Corinthians 9:5). I don’t know which would have been harder for her, being married to Peter, going along with him wherever he went, or knowing that the Lord prophesied her husband’s death. I can’t imagine that they didn’t have any children. Since having no birth control tends increase the probably of God blessing through children, it should be possible that there little “Simon Peters” running amuck in Capernaum, Jerusalem, and Rome.

He was marked as a Galilean by his accent (Matt. 27.73; Mark 14.70). Being from the South, I tend to hear that Galilean accent as a bit of a southern drawl. He’s from a small town, and he’s a fisherman, what else is needed for this picture other than a six-pack of cold ones and a lawn chair? That may be stretching it, but the elders and the scribes did refer to him as uneducated (which is, unfortunately, a label for the South). “¹³Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus”(Acts 4:13 ESV). The word translated may mean illiterate, but I think that’s highly unlikely. Luke didn’t mention the elders handing Peter an ACT college entrance exam, but they just heard him speak. So there was a simplicity mixed with boldness and authority that impressed these elders. Let’s see how Peter came to be that man.

Part One: Introduction: The Loneliness of Spirituality

Part Two: Why Should We Take Care?

Part Three: How Do We Exhort One Another?

Part Four: How Shall We Make It to the End?

How shall we make it to the end?

¹⁴For we share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.” (Hebrews 3:14 ESV).

I believe that these truths bring us to a very precarious position. The point I’ve been making is that for every professing Christian, there is a need to in a community that will exhort the believer to stay faithful to Christ because he or she might not make it to the end. He or she might not persevere until Christ returns. He or she might stop believing in Christ. He or she might not be saved. Which should raise the question, “Is this the Christian life? If it’s nothing but an upward fight with no assurance, how shall we make it to the end? And can someone who is a believer truly fall away?

No, there is assurance. There is titanium-reinforced, diamond-hard foundation to a Christian’s confidence and the writer of Hebrews wants you to have it. He says in 6.11, “And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end.“ It is not a fool’s quest or a mythological treasure. But the assurance isn’t in anything you’ve done. Your assurance must rest safely in the person and work of Jesus Christ: ” ¹⁹Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, ²¹and since we have a great priest over the house of God, ²²let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. ²³Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. ²⁴And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, ²⁵not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. ²⁶For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, ²⁷but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. ²⁸Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. ²⁹How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? ³⁰For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” ³¹It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:19-31 ESV).

So all of our confidence must be based entirely on the trustworthy character of God who has promised to justify the sinner based upon the person and work of Jesus Christ. On that you can trust. Then what about all of this “if” stuff? ¹⁴For we share in Christ, if we hold our original confidence firm to the end.” (Hebrews 3:12-14 ESV). “And we are [God’s] house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope. ” (Hebrews 3:6 ESV). So what do you do when you read those texts? We’ve already established that you don’t throw out assurance.

There’s a couple of reasons why these texts are important and precious to the believer. First, what happens to the believer when he reads those texts that doesn’t happen in the heart of an unbeliever? The unbeliever, who may claim to be following Christ, brushes the warning aside and says, “I’m okay. That doesn’t apply to me.” But the believer goes to the cross and pleads, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. I deserve to be cast away, but you’ve promised to save those who hold fast their confidence in you and I trust you to save me. Your work on the cross has atoned for my sins, your righteousness has given and will give me standing in the judgment. I trust in You, Jesus. That’s what I think the writer means in 10.14 “¹⁴For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” Those who keep on fighting their sin, continue clinging to Christ, trusting everyday in his righteousness alone.

God has ordained not only who shall be saved, but also how he or she shall be saved. One method is through the warnings of Scripture. Then there is the flip-side of warning, which be exhorting. That is the goal of the Christian community—to exhort the fellow believer to make it to the end. And what we shall find when we are all in heaven is that those who made it to the end had been regenerated. And the way the regenerated heart keeps loving Jesus is by the church’s constant reminder of how glorious He is.

So, I hope that makes sense as to why Bethlehem has a certain type of shepherd group in mind. This shepherd group exists to help you to keep on believing and trusting in Jesus Christ so that you’ll make it to the end and be saved. And this community aspect is what is lacking in our culture and especially in American spirituality. This is a community of believers that points you to the Living God manifest in Jesus Christ. It is a group that points you to His word, and exhorts you to hold fast to Him. And we don’t just want you to coast to the end, but to be so enamored by Jesus that you go to a glorious Hebrews 13 ending: “⁸Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. ⁹Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. ¹⁰We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. ¹¹For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. ¹²So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. ¹³Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. ¹⁴For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. ¹⁵Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. ¹⁶Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” (Hebrews 13:8-16 ESV).