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Category: Gospel

The Week After The Resurrection

The Gospel Accounts (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) are filled with stories from Jesus’ earthly ministry. We read about His birth, His dedication, His parents somehow losing Him and not realizing it until days later (you had one job Joseph and Mary!), His baptism, a host of miracles and parables, and of course His death, resurrection, and ascension. Everything recorded in God’s Word is for our good and is sufficient to know God and to know the salvation He brings us (2 Timothy 3:16-17). In other words, God has told us exactly what He wants us to know. 

John tells us at the end of his account that “Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30–31). 

I’m so thankful for what is recorded about Jesus because what has been written, we have heard that Jesus brings us salvation.

But if I’m being honest, sometimes I wonder what exactly were “the other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book”. And it’s around the Resurrection weekend that my brain starts to wonder into the humanity of the entire week.

From Scripture we gather a small glimpse of the state of the disciples between Jesus’ death and resurrection. The disciples were scared (John 20:19). The Saturday before Jesus rose again must have been quite the day for the disciples. We can see and understand the fear and hopelessness they must have experienced. Jesus the Messiah was dead. And dead people don’t rise from the dead unless the Messiah had something to do with it. 

On Sunday we see the joy of the disciples discovering that Jesus was alive! Running into the tomb to see it was empty, touching the scars, and eating with Jesus because he was hungry. I imagine it took a few days for their jaws to finally come up off the floor.

I can only imagine that first week with Jesus after the resurrection. The joy. The peace. The hope. The confusion. The tears. We have very few details but I imagine the first week after the resurrection had to have been similar to the days after we too realized that Jesus was the Savior we needed.

Do you remember the joy? The hope? The peace? I do. And I still do. I am nothing without the resurrection of Jesus and it’s why I pray what David prayed in Psalm 51: God, restore the joy of my salvation! I want to be reminded and live in the hope of the resurrection every day. The celebration of the Resurrection weekend is the celebration we live in daily because we are in Christ!

The Resurrection of Jesus has made our resurrection possible. And one day too, we will experience what the disciples experienced that day. We will see the risen Lord, we will see his hands and feet, we will eat with him and walk with him, and we will for all eternity, live in the hope and peace and joy we have in Christ.

Until then, we live out what Paul wrote from prison in his letter to the Philippians:

“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, [11] that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead”. (Philippians 3:8–11)

By His Grace,

Pastor Matt

Standing Against A Modern Day Indulgence

From the Elders of Grace Life Church: This post continues a month long look into the Protestant Reformation. See the previous post on “What is the Protestant Reformation?” here. There is much we can learn from church history, mainly, the encouragement from men and women who boldly stood in the face of false teaching. One such example is provided below and written by one of our church members and LifeGroup leader, Josh Bird. 

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On October 31, 1517, a German monk posted a challenge to debate on the doors of the Wittenberg Church. That German monk was named Martin Luther, and the challenge to debate was on his 95 theses.  Today, the posting of the 95 theses is viewed as the beginning of the Protestant reformation. It certainly wasn’t the beginning of the reformation as several reformers preceded Luther, and it wasn’t Luther’s intent to start a reformation.  

We romanticize the moment in hindsight.  We think of Luther nailing the theses to the door with every hammer blow thunderously shattering against the Catholic church.  But that was not Luther’s intent at all. In fact, Luther posting his theses was like posting on a bulletin board.  Luther did not even post the theses in German, the common language. He posted them originally in Latin, the language of the academics. Some of his students translated his theses into common German, and once the laity were able to read the theses, a spark ignited into a flame which remains unquenched today.

Luther’s intent was to have an open discussion and debate about what he felt were abuses within the church, particularly with the selling of indulgences.  The Catholic catechism defines indulgences as follows: “An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which as the minister of redemption dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints.”

Under Catholic theology, when one dies and they are a believer, they are not immediately allowed to enter Heaven. They undergo what is called Purgatory. A Protestant understanding may describe this as further sanctification from sins in purgatory until they are allowed to enter Heaven.  Indulgences were sold by the Catholic church which would allow a reduction in time one had to spend in Purgatory. Indulgences could be bought on one’s behalf, or on behalf of the dead, such as a departed relative. As John Tetzel, a prominent seller of indulgences stated, “as soon as a coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs.”

In the early 1500’s, indulgences were sold to help pay for the rebuilding of St. Peter’s in Rome.  Luther felt that this practice was being abused and that the poor were being taken advantage of.  Luther stated in his theses that “they preach human folly who pretend that as soon as money in the coffer rings a soul from purgatory springs.” 

While the reformation primarily focused on issues of faith and justification, it started as an argument about indulgences.  An argument that Luther eventually seems to have won. The Catholic church outlawed the sale of indulgences in 1567, though the practice of earning indulgences is alive today.  But while the Reformers battled indulgences and buying God’s favor, today, there is a popular and prominent theology which seems to focus on the worldly. That false teaching has come to be known as the Prosperity Gospel. Prosperity theology teaches that God is predominantly concerned with a believer’s health, wealth, and prosperity is rampant. 

Prosperity theology operates on the assumption that it is God’s will to have financial blessings in this life. Oftentimes this blessing comes in the form of “sowing a seed,” via tithing to the church.  One prominent prosperity teacher stated in 2015 that “Jesus bled and died for us so that we can lay claim to the promise of financial prosperity.” He would delete the statement, but he never actually or formally retracted his statement to my knowledge.  His further writing seems to show he still believes that logic.  He would later go on to say, “He took our sins upon himself and exchanged them for His righteousness so that we could become enriched and abundantly supplied.” 

He looks to 2 Corinthians 8:9 as proof for his assertion which says,

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” But if you read that verse within the context of the entire chapter, it’s easy to see where he gets it wrong. 2 Corinthians 8:1-3 says “we want you to know brothers about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify and beyond their means of their own accord.” (Emphasis added). 

When we look at the entirety of the chapter, it has nothing to do with obtaining worldly wealth, but a wealth of joy at the great news of Jesus Christ. Out of this joy, the Macedonians gave to continue spreading the word of God and help fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who were in need.  

In his book “Your Best Life Now,” Joel Osteen also argues that “God wants us to constantly be increasing, to be rising to new heights. He wants to increase you in His wisdom and help you to make better decisions. God Wants to increase you financially, by giving you promotions, fresh ideas, and creativity.” He then goes on to argue that “you must conceive it in your heart and mind before you can receive it. In other words, you must make room for increase in your own thinking, then God will bring those to pass. Until you learn how to enlarge your vision, seeing the future through your eyes of faith, your own wrong thinking will prevent good things from happening in your life.”

Joel Osteen starts out on bad footing.  First, he creates a vision in which a Christian is supposed to be constantly seeking after things of this world, financial gain, promotions, etc. Consider Paul’s words in Philippians 4:12-13, “I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” Contrasted with the constantly seeking more version of Christianity from Joel Osteen, Paul talks of having as much contentment in prison as when he had abundance. Paul can do this because he has Christ.

The next thing to notice about Osteen’s premise, is it’s works-oriented. Notice that we are not responding to God, but it is God who is responding to us.  God will not bless us, we are told, until we have enlarged our vision, increased our thinking, and then God will respond by blessing us with good things in our life. Ignoring that prosperity theology has us focus on the wrong thing, financial and worldly position, it also ignores that we can do no good work but by God acting through us. We can produce no fruit unless we abide in Jesus Christ, the True Vine (John 15:4).  

While our fight may no longer be against indulgences, we fight against the false teachings of the Prosperity Gospel by standing on the right teachings of Scripture. We proclaim the spiritual and eternal “riches of God’s mercy” (Ephesians 2:4-10; Romans 11:33-36) and we trust that the Lord sovereignly cares for us in the abundance and in the little (Matthew 6:25-34; 2 Corinthians 12:9) and our earthly possessions in no way communicate the strength of our faith. We are recipients of saving grace and we testify to the world that the undeserved grace of the forgiveness of sins is far greater than any earthly wealth or prosperity.

As we come up on the anniversary of the Reformation. It is important to remember that we must always be reforming. We do this by remembering the five Solas of the reformation: Sola Scriptura (“Scripture alone”), Sola Fide (“Faith alone”), Sola Gratia (“Grace alone”), Solus Christus (“Christ alone”), and Soli Deo Gloria (“To the Glory of God alone”).  We must remember that the Bible is our highest authority. That we are saved by faith alone. This faith is through grace alone. Christ is our only Lord, Savior, and King. And we must live our lives to the Glory of God alone. As Scripture refers to the Church as Christ’s bridegroom, we must remember that in sickness and in health, in wealth and in poverty, we have all that we need through Christ.

The Greatest Chapter in the Bible

A few months ago, my family found a documentary series on the International Space Station. Since then, we’ve been pretty enamored by space. We’ve woken up early to see the space station passing by us and we’ve prepared to watch the recent Artemis mission launch, but it was rescheduled to launch later this month. Along the way, we learned more about the James Webb Space Telescope, which NASA launched in December of last year. The JWST is 100 times more powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope and uses infrared light to peer through dense layers of space dust. 

In July, NASA released the very first images captured by this telescope. You can look at these remarkable images here, all of them displaying God’s magnificent creation.

The enormity of the universe is virtually impossible to grasp. NASA explains that the SMACS 0723 image is “approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length.” So, find a grain of sand, hold it up to the night sky, and imagine that in it are thousands of galaxies we can see with the most powerful telescope we’ve ever constructed—and certainly countless more galaxies we cannot yet see. You can read more about it here.

I look at these pictures and I think of the enormous depths of space and think, how big is our God, the creator of it all! These pictures show us the glorious depths of God’s creation. And yet, the glorious God behind the great depths of space is not beyond them. He is near. While there are deep pockets of space we won’t see on this side of heaven, the glorious depths of God’s Gospel can be known and there are glorious depths to God’s gospel that we must search and discover for our own souls. 

But we don’t need a telescope or a microscope even; we have the book of Romans, which church history has called, “The greatest letter ever written”. Within the greatest letter ever written is what many, myself included, have called “The greatest chapter in the Bible”, Romans 8.

The Letter of Romans gives us the glorious depths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There are some of you here who are (1) questioning this gospel and maybe skeptical of it, (2) just dipping your toes into grace, or (3) ready to dive into the depths of God’s grace. No matter where you are, my prayer for you is to me amazed by the splendor of our God. It’s what Paul writes in Romans 11:33-36,

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” – Romans 11:33–36

The entire letter shares with us that God has revealed the gracious depths of His righteousness to us. 

We see from Romans 1:1-7 that the Apostle Paul is the author of this letter to the house churches in Rome. He wrote this letter in roughly AD 56 during his third missionary journey while he was in Corinth (Italy) on his way to Jerusalem. You have to look at the final chapters to see a few of the reasons why he wrote this letter. He wrote this letter to (1) unite the Jews and Gentiles and (2) raise money for his mission trip to Spain, in which he hoped to stop by to see these brothers and sisters in Rome (Romans 15:24-25). 

It’s really by reading the entirety of the letter that we see why Paul wrote this letter to these Christians: he wanted them to explore the depths of the gospel.

This letter is a gospel treatise, an overflowing fountain of grace and mercy. It is saturated with Gospel goodness. It is rich in Gospel hope. And Paul invites his readers then and his readers now to discover the depths of Christ’s Gospel. Because A heart that has explored the depths of the gospel is a heart that overflows with gospel joy.

Paul encourages to keep going deeper into the endless wells of God’s grace to scrape the barrels dry only to discover it never does run empty. The depths of this gospel of grace that never ends is the theme of the entire letter. Grace upon grace from the God who is rich in grace. Not only is the gospel the central theme of this letter, but it must be the central theme of our lives. And for the gospel to be the central theme in our lives, then we must dive deep. And when we do, we can along with Paul declare, 

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” – Romans 1:16–17

The gospel is Paul’s reason not only for writing, but for living! This gospel message is not just interesting information, but a transforming declaration! As we dive into the depths of God’s righteousness over the next several weeks, I pray the Lord will continue to stir within our hearts an overflowing joy for who He is and all that He has done for us. 

If you missed Sunday’s sermon, be sure to listen to it here.

By His Grace,

Pastor Matt

Annoyingly Bold with the Gospel

It’s summer time in Florida which means we are dealing with the influx of mosquitos. The mosquito is the most annoying species in the world. There are over 3,500 different species of mosquitoes, all of which are annoying. They fly around your ear, bite your ankles, and ruin your cookouts and send you inside before you’re done with the outdoors. 

When I think of the word “annoying”, I think of the mosquito. I think of the people who take too long to turn. There are hundreds of habits and mannerisms that are annoying to me and I’m sure there is something I do that annoys other people. In fact, I can tell you exactly the habits I have that annoy my wife and my kids. I can’t help it. It’s who I am. I am the mosquito to someone.

The dictionary definition for annoying is “to irritate someone” or “to make someone a little angry” and this is how the Jewish people labeled the teaching of Peter and John in Acts 4.

“And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand”. – Acts 4:1–4

It did not take long for Peter and John to irritate people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Shortly after Jesus ascends into heaven, Peter, empowered by the Holy Spirit, stands up on the Day of Pentecost and proclaims the death and resurrection of Jesus. Thousands place their faith in Jesus Christ and are added to the church. The Gospel has broken free.

This must have been exhilarating for Peter and John because they keep proclaiming Jesus. In the name of Jesus Christ, they heal a lame man who stood up and started praising God with them. We don’t know the lame man’s name but “all the people saw him walking and praising God, and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.” (Acts 3:9–10)

But not everyone responded this way. The religious leaders were greatly annoyed because Peter and John were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. This is how we should be labeled.

Sharing the Gospel with someone is intimidating, mainly, because we know the Gospel is offensive to those who do not believe (1 Corinthians 1:18). Yet, over and over again in Scripture we are reminded to be bold and to not be ashamed of the Gospel (Romans 1:16). Even in the books of Acts (Acts 4:13), the disciples are said to have shared the Gospel with boldness, meaning, they knew sharing the Gospel was offensive and intimidating, but the good news of Jesus must be proclaimed. The eternal life of the sinner is at stake.

In love, let’s proclaim the message of salvation. Let’s be so bold in our proclamation of the Gospel that it irritates people. But let’s not be irritating in our presentation. It’s the message of the Gospel that is offensive, not the presenter of the Gospel. Peter and John had such a passion for Jesus that it annoyed people, but more importantly, it led many to Jesus. Take every opportunity to share the hope of salvation and the forgiveness of sins with someone. It may be annoying to some, but it will be life changing to others. 

How can we be annoyingly bold with the Gospel?

Take every opportunity to share the Gospel.

The Gospel, in short, is the good news that Jesus Christ died and rose again for the sins of the world and through belief in Jesus, you can have eternal life. This is the message we share. Not our opinions. Not just an invitation to church. Jesus has called us to “Go and make disciples” (Matthew 28:18-20).

Romans 10:13-17 asks the question, “How will people believe on Jesus if they have not heard about Jesus”? Most likely, when sharing the Gospel, the questions you are asking yourself internally are, “Will they say no?”, “Will they still be my friends?”, or “What if I don’t have the right answers?”. You’re probably not asking the question: “What if this is their last opportunity to hear the Gospel?” Or “What if no one else tells them?”.

This is what Romans 10 is telling us to consider. Consider every encounter as a last opportunity to share the Gospel with someone. “How can I do this?” you may ask. God desires to use ordinary men and women, like Peter and John and like me and you, to proclaim the extraordinary message of salvation in Jesus Christ. 

In love, let’s proclaim the message of salvation. Let’s be so bold in our proclamation of the Gospel that it irritates people. But let’s not be irritating in our presentation. It’s the message of the Gospel that is offensive, not the presenter of the Gospel. Peter and John had such a passion for Jesus that it annoyed people, but more importantly, it led many to Jesus. Take every opportunity to share the hope of salvation and the forgiveness of sins with someone. It may be annoying to some, but it will be life changing to others.

By His Grace,

Pastor Matt

The Gospel for Everyday Life

We’ve all been there. We walk into a room to grab an item only to have that needed item escape your memory. “Why did I walk in here?” we say to ourselves as we bumble around aimlessly, trying to remember what we knew just moments prior. It’s a reminder of another reality we often forget about: we are finite creatures with an inherited tendency to forget the infinite God who redeemed us.

The Bible teaches us that each and everyone of us have inherited sin from Adam (Romans 5:12). We are sinners, plain and simple. There is no one righteous; not a single one (Romans 3:9-12). The sin that dwells within us is, as Theologian R.C. Sproul states, is “Cosmic treason against God”. The sinfulness of man is the single greatest problem in the entire world.

Because of sin, we deserve death (Romans 6:23). We deserve hell. Yet, as we read in last week’s post, God is marvelously gracious. He shows us this marvelous grace, this eternal love through His Son Jesus. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). Jesus was condemned to die in our place in order that we would not face condemnation. His death canceled ours. His resurrection sealed our eternal victory. Christ, and Christ alone is our hope.

This is the message of the gospel. The Gospel is the good news that a holy God sent us His sinless Son Jesus Christ who, through His death and resurrection, has graciously saved us from our sin, delivered us from eternal hell, and has called us to live holy.

It is the gospel of Jesus that has saved us from our sin! But it is also the gospel of Jesus that sustains us in the here and now. This is why, beginning July 20th, we will be hosting a four week study called, “The Gospel for Everyday Life”. 

The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:1 reminds us of the gospel that saved us, the gospel we’re standing on, and the gospel that sustains us. Why do we need a gospel reminder? Because as stated earlier, we are finite creatures with an inherited tendency to forget the infinite God who has redeemed us. Paul says it this way in his letter to the Galatians:

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ”. (Galatians 1:6–7)

We need to be reminded of the Gospel everyday. We need to be reminded of the hope of our salvation that is only found in Jesus. We need to be reminded of His redeeming love. We need the reminder because we are prone to wander, prone to leave the God we love.

Our goal in “The Gospel for Everyday Life” is to help you know the gospel deeper and how this good news sustains us every day. We’ll focus on four aspects of the gospel:

  1. What is the Gospel? (July 20th)
  2. The Gospel and our Personal Holiness (July 27th)
  3. The Gospel in our Relationships (August 3rd)
  4. The Gospel is our Mission (August 10th)

My prayer for you is that your affections for the Lord will grow as you grow in the grace of the Gospel. Each and every one of us needs a gospel reminder. As author and pastor Tim Keller said, “The Gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.” 

So come and join us as we remember how the power of the Gospel is for everyday life. Register Here.

By His Grace,

Pastor Matt

Marvelous Grace

On our way out of town for vacation, Julie and I took the kids on a slight detour past our first apartment in Knoxville, TN. It was the first time we had been there since we left in a Penske truck back in 2008. It looked just like we remember it. 

We then drove the winding road back towards the highway, a road I traveled quite a bit for classes, work, and church. We drove up the hill where I spun out the winter of my freshman year. I hadn’t learned how to drive in the snow yet. We drove past neighborhoods where our friends used to live, places we used to eat, and stores we used to shop at. Finally, we drove past the college and church I attended for close to four years.

With memories flooding back of the different places and people from those years in Tennessee, there is one word that explains how thankful I am for this short time in my life: grace.

Those four years were quite difficult to say the least. Everyday I fought the legalistic posture of my heart. I was working so hard to please God. I tried doing everything right and still didn’t feel like it was enough. I couldn’t keep the rules of the school the way they were intended to be kept. I was often scrutinized, questioned, and ridiculed. After an accidental rule breaking, I was asked a question that I didn’t have an answer to at the time: “What would Jesus think of you right now?” 

“He’d think I was a failure”, is how I wanted to answer. But I didn’t. I didn’t know at the time how much Jesus truly loved me. It was around this time I realized I was never going to be able to do enough to be good. I was never going to be good enough. I was never going to be righteous. 

Legalism is a deadly weight. It devalues the finished work of Jesus and elevates our filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). It is an unbearable task to earn any favor with God. There is nothing we can do to earn the righteousness of Jesus. No matter how often we keep the rules, no matter how “good” we are, no matter how churchy we appear, legalism is a lie from the pit of hell. Legalism continues to yell, “Do more! Do more! Do more!” while Jesus lovingly declares, “It is finished!”

It had been close to 10 years since I had placed my faith in Jesus Christ for the salvation of my sins, but in the Rocky Mountains of Tennessee, I learned and came to appreciate the grace of Jesus. While I was never going to be able to do enough to be good enough, Jesus did. While I was never going to be righteous, Jesus was and now through His grace, His righteousness covers me (2 Corinthians 5:21). We are so underserving of the grace of Jesus. His grace is truly marvelous.

The good news of Jesus reminds us that we are saved through faith in Jesus Christ. It is faith that pleases the Father (Hebrews 11:6), faith in His Son, Jesus. While our natural tendency given to us from Adam (Genesis 3) is to cover ourselves, there is freedom in knowing that we can’t. Our sin covering, our standing before God, only comes from the finished work of Jesus on the cross. Our joy comes from the victory we have through His resurrection. And none of this was deserving. When we fell short of God’s standard of righteousness, Jesus measured up (Romans 3:23). It is all because of grace. 

As the old hymn says, 

“Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt! Yonder on calvary’s mount out-poured, there where the blood of the Lamb was spilt. Grace, grace, God’s grace, grace that will pardon and cleanse within; grace, grace, God’s grace, grace that is greater than all our sin!”

If I were to be asked the question again, “What would Jesus think of you right now?” I’d respond with great joy, “He loves me as His own, not for what I have done, but for all that He has graciously done for me”. And it is this grace of Jesus that frees us to live in obedience to all his commands.