One of the most amazing things about God, and one of the unique things about the Christian faith, is how God can take a deeply flawed individual and transform him, using him in an amazing way. One of the most iconic stories in the Bible about this is the story of Jacob.
Jacob lived his entire life under God’s favor. God had favored him from the time he was conceived, and throughout his life, Jacob was reminded by God and others of the Lord’s favor upon him. Yet, Jacob continually lived as if he had to work it out on his own. That lack of faith led to some of Jacob’s biggest sins and mistakes, and cost him dearly.
However, by the end of his life, we find Jacob trusting and worshipping God. Take a listen to “Jacob Have I Loved,” from the Gospel Expedition Podcast, via Soundcloud or YouTube, below:
During an annual meeting of the Missionary Baptist Association of Texas, Pastor Bobby Sparks of Emmanuel Baptist Church of Greenville, Tex., preached that the glory of Christ is in the cross.
That statement drew dozens of “amens” from the congregation of pastors, deacons and church representatives, but it also prompted me (Leland) to study what glory is, and how the Gospel glorifies Christ.
The word “Glory” is translated from the Greek word, Doxa, which means to make renown, to cause to be well-known and well though-of, to magnify and to be great.
In this message, I discuss how the cross (and the Gospel as a whole) brings glory to the name of Christ, and how it should bring us glory as well.
John 12 records the powerful moment that Mary anointed the feet of Jesus with the expensive spikenard ointment, which John records was worth about 300 pence, approximately a year’s wage for a laborer.
Why would Mary pour such an expensive ointment on Jesus’ feet? That was the question posed by Judas, who noted that the ointment could have been sold and the proceeds given to the poor. While John notes that Judas was being dishonest about his intentions, Jesus answers the question.
“Against the day of my burying has she done this.”
This is Mary, the same Mary who sat at the feet of Jesus as He taught, while her sister Martha served dinner. This is Mary, who fell at the feet of Jesus when Lazarus died. And here is Mary, anointing the feet of Jesus.
It seems that every time we see Mary in the scripture, she is at the feet of Jesus. And why wouldn’t she be?
Jesus had given her hope. Jesus had given her redemption. Jesus had lifted her from a life of want, hopelessness and despair to a life of hope, fulness and meaning. Mary was truly living now that she met Jesus, even though her social and financial situation hadn’t changed.
So, since Jesus gave Mary everything that was dear to her, and since He became everything she was about, it makes sense that she worshipped Him with everything that she was, and everything that she had.
Do we see Jesus the same way that Mary does? And do we look to Him for hope, fulfillment and meaning? Or are we still looking to ourselves?
Check out Pastor Leland Acker’s sermon, posted above via YouTube, or below via Soundcloud, and reflect on whether you have the love and faith toward Jesus that Mary had, or whether you are looking for something for this world like Judas was.
“Gospel” is a buzzword that is widely circulated in Christian circles. There’s Gospel music, Gospel preaching, spreading the Gospel and standing for the Gospel.
There are full Gospel churches and Gospel revivals.
With all this talk about the “Gospel,” what is it really? What is “The Gospel?”
Some say that the Gospel is the entire word of God from Genesis to Revelation. However, while the scriptures contain the Gospel from Genesis to Revelation, the scriptures themselves are not the definition of the Gospel.
The Gospel is defined in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, which states that Paul delivered unto the saints at Corinth how Christ “died for our sins according to the scriptures, that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures.” Thus, the Gospel is the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ for our sins according to the scriptures.
By giving His life on the cross, our Lord endured God’s punishment for sin, thus removing the condemnation of sin from us. We have been forgiven because our sins have been paid for, and it was Christ that made that payment.
By rising from the grave, Christ defeated death, and brought eternal life to all who believe.
This is the central message of the Bible, and the theme that runs through all the scriptures. The deeper you dig into scripture, the deeper an understanding you gain of the Gospel.
It is through the Gospel that we have salvation. It is through the Gospel that we find peace, and we find deliverance from shame and regret.
In His messages of repentance, Christ urged the people to believe the Gospel. By believing the Gospel, your faith is placed squarely on Christ and you will have salvation. With that salvation, you have the blessed assurance that you will spend eternity in Heaven.
To explore the theme of the Gospel throughout the Bible, check out The Gospel Expedition, posted via YouTube or Soundcloud below:
Here’s a challenge for you… go to any Bible study, Sunday School class, or online Bible forum, and ask the question, “What is faith?”
You will get a variety of answers. One common answer is, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, thge evidence of things not seen.” That answer is a quotation of Hebrews 11:1. Your next step is to ask, “What does that mean?”
The tragedy of modern Western Christianity is that salvation comes by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9), but most don’t even know what faith is.
If we don’t know what faith is, how can we be saved? If we don’t understand faith, can we truly experience redemption and reconciliation?
In John 3, Jesus is approached by Nicodemus, who recognizes that Jesus was sent by God, but the Lord’s radical teaching of repentance and faith did not always line up with the religious traditions that Nicodemus followed.
Nicodemus, unlike his fellow Pharisees, wanted the truth. Recognizing that Jesus came from God, and that what Nicodemus believed didn’t line up with what Jesus taught, Nicodemus came to Jesus to reconcile his personal belief system with what God actually wanted.
Jesus knew this, which is why Jesus said that a man “must be born again” in order to be saved.
The rest of the conversation in John 3 is about how to be born again, that is, how to be saved, or how to be redeemed and reconciled to God. John 3 is one of the most important passages of scripture, because it is here that Jesus, the only Begotten Son of God who went to the cross to pay for our sins, tells us how to be saved.
These instructions on how to be saved are as valid and true to us today as they were to Nicodemus. Nothing has been added or changed since, for if it were, this passage would not have been recorded in scripture.
In John 3, telling us how to be born again, Jesus tells us that “whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” And just in case we confuse ourselves on what it means to believe, Jesus tells us (and Nicodemus) and Old Testament Bible story.
In John 3:14, Jesus said, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
In this verse, Jesus references an incident from the book of Numbers, where Israel complained and rebelled against God. Because of the severity of their rebellion, the LORD sent what the King James Version refers to as “fiery serpents” into the camp. Fiery serpents were more than likely poisonous snakes, as the scripture described how they bit the people, and the people began dying.
As they died, they cried out to Moses for help. Moses prayed to God, and God told Moses to make a bronze serpent, place it on a pole, and set it up in the middle of camp. If anyone is bitten, they can look at that bronze serpent and live.
Being saved from the snake bites in Numbers was as simple as looking to that serpent on the pole. No sacrifices, no offerings, no religious works. Just a simple look.
In John 3, Jesus said in the same way, He was to be lifted up on the cross. And in the same way, if people look to Him on the cross, they will be saved. Looking to Jesus on the cross constitutes belief, because that is what you are depending on for your forgiveness and salvation. Because Jesus went to the cross, you know you have been redeemed and reconciled to God.
Belief in Jesus is as simple as looking to Jesus and remembering that He redeemed you through His death on the cross. And that belief is the ONLY condition that must be met in order to be saved.
Faith and belief are used interchangeably in the New Testament. They are both translated from the same Greek word. So, with that in mind, we conclude that faith simply means a belief, a trust in the Lord. We have faith because we believe that Jesus will receive us into Heaven, because He paid for our sins on the cross. That’s faith. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Faith is not a religious system. Faith is not an expression of religious works (on the contrary, your works reveal whether or not you have faith.) Faith is belief.
Do you believe in Jesus? Do you believe that He died on the cross for your sins? Can you look to Him on that cross and know that because of His death and resurrection, you are going to Heaven? If you can, and if you have done that, you have been saved, and you have become a Christian.
While that faith will change the way you live and think, please know and be assured that it is the faith that has saved you.
Are the things you are doing bringing you peace and fulfillment? Do you find purpose in those things, and are they rewarding? If not, why do you continue to do those things?
It is those questions and more that the Lord poses as He issues a great invitation to Israel in Isaiah 55.
In Isaiah 53, the Lord showed how Israel’s sin led them astray, but how God would redeem and restore them through Christ, who would give His life as a sacrificial lamb to satisfy the judgment and wrath of God.
Following that message of salvation, the Lord calls the nation to break forth into singing, because He would bring in a time of everlasting blessing. That promise was made in Isaiah 54. In Isaiah 55, the Lord invites the people to come, and to inherit that blessing by repenting of their sins and trusting in Him for salvation.
The picture the Lord paints in Isaiah 55 is of a benefactor offering water, wine and milk to the thirsty, and food to the hungry. He then questions why anyone would work for, or spend their money on anything less.
In the message posted above, Pastor Leland Acker addresses God’s invitation, and discusses what it means to “come to the waters.”
In this message, Pastor Leland Acker discusses how multiple, seemingly small decisions made to please ourselves lead us away from God. Scripture reference is Isaiah 53:6, which says, “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
Some of the most intelligent people in the world subscribe to “The Butterfly Effect” theory. The theory goes as follows: One insignificant event can create a chain reaction that results in major events down the road.
To illustrate this, the statement is made that a butterfly flapping its wings in South America can create inclement weather in New England. Profound? Yes. True? Absolutely not.
First, the scientific aspects of the illustration do not work. The idea that a butterfly flapping its wings creates a series of disturbances in its airspace that send ripple effects through the atmosphere not only violates the laws of physics, nothing like that has ever been observed.
Furthermore, the idea that one small insignificant incident in your day created a chain reaction that set off a life changing catastrophe later also flies in the face of logic. Rather, the consequences that impact our lives are more routinely caused by a series of decisions that led to their inevitable conclusion.
So, what’s impacting your life is not so much the butterfly effect, but rather the domino effect, where one decision leads to another, which leads to another, which ultimately leads you to the place you are… whether good or bad.
It’s that concept that the prophet Isaiah spoke to when he said, “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
Going astray, turning each one to his own way, is the process of our making a series of sometimes inter-related decisions that lead us away from God and down the path to destruction. No one sets out to destroy their lives, but through these decisions, destruction results.
No one sets out to gain 300 pounds, but a series of inter-related bad diet choices leads us there.
No one sets out to declare bankruptcy, but a series of bad financial moves will land you there.
No one sets out to destroy their marriage, but a series of selfish choices will lead you to divorce.
No one aims to go to Hell, but a life of living for self and rejecting God will leave you there.
The good news that Isaiah 53:6 presents is that God redeemed us from the destruction our sin brings by laying the judgment of sin on Jesus Christ. In essence, God is stopping the next domino from falling through Jesus who stood in the gap when He went to the cross.
Wherever you are in life, God can redeem you from it, setting the stage to welcome you into His perfect Kingdom. The question is, will you set up a new line of dominoes, a series of good decisions borne out of faith in God and not your own rebellion?
In Isaish 7, the Lord promised Ahaz, an unGodly king, that He would protect the him and his kingdom from a pending invasion. The Lord then invited Ahaz to ask Him for a sign. In essence, God extended His grace and provision to Ahaz, who rejected it out of his own pride.
In this message, Pastor Leland Acker shows how this fits into Isaiah’s theme of reasoning with God, and how we can align ourselves with God in our lives so we can experience the peace He offers.
In Isaiah 1:18, God says, “Come, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
As we discussed last week, to reason with God means to come to the Lord, allow Him to convict you of your sin and correct your sin, and then God will cleanse you and forgive you of your sin.
In Isaiah 6, we see what this looks like, as Isaiah has his reasoning moment with God.
The Point... 