Skip to main content

Tag: the church

What is Pentecost? (Part 2)

Written by MattMacNaughton on . Posted in The Church. No Comments on What is Pentecost? (Part 2)

(This is a continuation of a study about Pentecost. You can find the first part here.)

Peter makes an argument that would be specifically aimed now at the Jewish population, which would likely be the majority of the listeners. He is pointing to the history of Israel’s kings and the promise God made to David that one of his descendants would be forever on the throne.

Acts 2:22-28-  “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For David says concerning him,

 

“‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’

 

Notice the confidence of his words. This was God’s definite plan and foreknown! This was not random, not the act of man against God outside of God’s will. This was a necessary thing so that God could offer salvation and righteousness to our broken world. 

Acts 2:29-36- “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and whose tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,

 

“‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”’

Let us not forget that the 11 apostles had spent three years with Jesus and were direct witnesses not only to the miraculous resurrection but also to all the acts of Jesus done within the community, whether healings, teachings, or other miracles.  And so once again Peter says with complete confidence:

 

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

In the same way, we can have confidence of God’s saving work in our lives as we consider the things God has done for us. Although we have not seen Jesus directly as the apostles did, our personal testimony is a powerful tool given to us in order that the gospel message will continue to spread. Peter’s words are pointed, especially calling out the Jews desire to crucify Jesus. And we see a beautiful repentant response from the crowd.

Acts 2:37-41- Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.


All people will respond to the gospel message. This is why we share the gospel with others, because we know the power it holds and the need everyone has (the promise is for you, your children, all who are far off, EVERYONE!) But we are not responsible for how people respond. As we see in this moment, though, we know what is required for those who will accept the Spirit’s conviction, the same thing that Jesus told before He ascended- make disciples and baptize them in my name.

And we finally get to the description of the church and the wonderful plan and blessing it is for believers to gather-

Acts 2:42-37- And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number m day by day those who were being saved.


We do our best to follow this model of gathering at Grace Life, recognizing that our modern context means some logistical aspects of this list look different today than in Jesus’ time. But we see important threads for the church here.

We devote ourselves to teaching. God’s word is at the center of all we do, as we know it is our authority on life. We also know that it’s not just a sterile pursuit of knowledge that we are called to, but recognizing that God’s word applies to every situation we will face.

We devote ourselves to each other. The awesome part of the local church is that it is a unique and diverse gathering, all centered around the commonality that only the Gospel can provide. We look different, we have different likes and dislikes, but we put aside those differences in order to glorify God together and encourage one another.

We devote ourselves to frequent gathering. Although we may not all be able to gather daily as the early church, we set aside Sunday mornings and an evening each week for LifeGroups because we know that we need to be around other believers. Some of us work at the same place or live in the same neighborhood and can spend more time together. It’s because we know the value of staying connected to the family of God.

We devote ourselves to prayer. We pray together whenever we gather. We pray for each other as we get into the messy details of life, knowing that we all have struggles. In todays’ world, we have phones that we use to text and call one another in order that we can lift one another’s names before the Lord and know that others are doing the same for us.

So as we consider Pentecost, let it be a reminder of both how powerful the Holy Spirit is and what our calling is as a church.

Love in Christ,

Pastor Ben

A Recap of the Book of Revelation

Written by MattMacNaughton on . Posted in The Church. No Comments on A Recap of the Book of Revelation

Studying prophecy is not the easiest task. There are strange images, flowery language, and sometimes difficult truths to decipher.  The book of Revelation gives us a picture of the end results of God’s ultimate redemption of all creation.  Specifically, it points us to the second coming of Christ and the events leading up to that point.  As we study through this letter, we see important truths echoed throughout the book, including God’s eternal nature, Jesus’ rule as King over the earth, the glory that will be given Him, and His glorious return to Earth.  We see in Revelation 1-3 that Jesus has a blessed plan to prepare His church for His return. Jesus provides the blessing of true security, freedom from sin and acceptance into God’s family, and the future hope of His return. In light of this, the church must set aside earthly distractions and look to Jesus alone for provision, carefully resist any message that gets in the way of preaching the Gospel, and point her gaze on the coming Kingdom.

Breaking down the main points that are echoed through the book will give us tentpoles to associate the reading of the text.

First, we see the idea of “He who is and who was and who is to come.” This is found in places such as 1:8, 1:17-18, 4:8, 10, 21:6, and 22:13. God is timeless! He has always been and will always be.  It is hard for us as temporal beings to try and understand God’s eternal nature, but it’s also a comfort to know that the God we worship is not a created being and has no beginning and no end.

Second, the establishment of God’s Kingdom wherein Jesus will reign as King of Kings on earth can be found  very specifically in chapter 13, but also in other places like 6:15.  The true Kingdom of God is coming, which helps us understand the conflict we currently experience and also the conflict to come is over who truly rules the world. Satan may have power now, but we know that Jesus will ultimately reign!

Third, we see the importance of Him who loves us and that He has freed us from our sins by his blood. This pointing of the blood of Jesus can be found in Revelation 5:9, 7:14, 12:11, and 22:14.  We must not forget that freedom from sin requires a blood sacrifice, and this awesome truth of Jesus’ perfect sacrifice orients the readers of Revelation back to the source of salvation.

Next, we see the giving of glory to God through worship of different groups of entities in Revelation 4:11, 5:12-13, 7:10, 12, 15:2-3, 19:1-7. So many of these doxologies will go on for eternity, with the true believers, angels, and even creation crying out the praise due to God for who He is and what He has done.

Finally, we see the assurance of Jesus’ second coming. This point bookends the letter- (1:3, 8  and 22:20) but is also mentioned in places like 2:25, 3:3, 3:11, 16:15, 22:7, 22:12. There is no doubt that Jesus is coming, and the events leading up to this and the immediate aftermath make up the majority of this letter. However, the letter opens with something special.

Revelation 1:4-7 sets up what’s to come in the messages to the seven churches found in the next couple chapters, which we will be studying intermittently throughout this year.  We can see the purpose of these messages as we break down this text.

Revelation 1:4-5a- John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne,  and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. 

This text teaches us that Jesus provides the blessing of true security. Therefore, we must set aside earthly distractions and look to Jesus alone for provision. After all, He is Creator of the universe, a faithful witness who can only be truthful, Lord over life and death; why do we seek out from anywhere else? Yet money, family, status, knowledge, all these things can get in the way. Even though they may be good things (it is good to work in order to have money to feed your family), we have to see that Jesus gave us the skills, orchestrated the opportunity, and created the very things we consume! And we know that Jesus wants to provide for us, as we see in the next portion of the text.

Revelation 1:5b-6- To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 

Here we see that Jesus provides the blessing of freedom from sin and acceptance into God’s family. If you’ve ever done a year-long read through the Bible, you have been through the genealogies contained in the Old Testament. While it’s easy to gloss over them, for the initial audience of Jews, these were of utmost importance. It was a way of saying, “Yes, I am a part of God’s chosen people. I’m a part of the lineage that gets God’s promised blessings.” For us, we get to say that too. Not because we are Jewish, as we have been studying out in Galatians, but because we are adopted into God’s family! And it’s important to recognize that the church, true believers, have that status. Because of this, we must set aside any message that gets in the way of preaching the Gospel. We are called to action because of the status gained through Jesus’ sacrifice. And we know that the Gospel is life-changing. So we must be careful not to preach a Gospel of change yourself/clean yourself up and then come to Jesus. We must not preach a Gospel of knowing a lot about God, knowing about the Bible, going to church, as though any of this will save us. We must preach the message of admitting sin guilt, believing Jesus died, was buried, and rose again in order to pay the debt for our sin, confessing our need for His salvation and repenting of that old life in pursuit of becoming more like our Savior.

And as Phil 1:6 says-

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Which this day of Christ is exactly what this text is pointing to!

Revelation 1:7- Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.

Here we learn that Jesus provides the blessing of the future hope of His return. Because of this, the church must point her gaze on the coming Kingdom. If you feel like your life is meaningless- recognize the work that you are doing is not in vain as long as it is for the Lord. If you feel like you’re set and good to go- check that your priorities align with the coming King, and don’t be caught in the wrong. If you feel like you’re drowning and there’s no way to keep treading water- reach out to the hand Jesus offers. He’s already won. If you can’t seem to let go of worry- cast your cares upon the Creator, and take up his yoke. It’s work, but it’s much easier work than trying to plow through alone. And he’s going to restore us, this world, and the beauty of eternal life with God. (Rev 21-22)

As we look at these seven churches through this year, we will see points of praise and points of warning, all of it to show that Jesus has a blessed plan to prepare the church for His return.

Love in Christ,
Pastor Ben