Sunday's Sermon Notes

GO!

This February FSBC will begin "GO" events. We will strategically place ourselves outside the walls of our buildings for the purpose of being Jesus to our community. Dr. Brent Taylor, pastor of First Baptist Church of Carrolton, Texas, recently preached a sermon titled "Jesus was Outside." What he said describes well the reason we need to GO.

The following is an excerpt from Dr. Taylor’s message from January 13, 2013 and is a picture of how we can be more like Christ.

Jesus was an outside-kind-of-leader. In other words, He was always with people. Jesus didn’t come to hide, but came to be with people. Certainly, there were times He got away from the crowd.

But Jesus was out with people.

I wrote down some of the times the Bible mentions Jesus being outside. I hope it reminds you of the fact that helping people means being with people.

Jesus was outside when He was born in a manger.
Outside when tempted by the devil.
Outside when His enemies threatened to throw Him from a high cliff.
Outside when He called Peter, James, John, Matthew, and others.
Outside He healed a man with leprosy.
He was outside when He preached the Beatitudes.
Outside when He called followers to consider the lilies of the field and the birds of the air.
Outside when He cursed a fig tree.
Outside when He encountered a centurion with great faith.
Outside when He met a woman at a well, a woman with an issue of blood, and a woman caught in adultery.
Outside when a demon possessed man fell at His feet.
Outside when He fed 5,000.
Outside when He walked on water.
Outside when He calmed the storm.
Outside when heard Peter exclaim, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”
Outside when He was transfigured on the mountain.
Outside when a desperate father begged for his possessed son to be healed.
Outside when He explained the high cost of being His follower.
Often outside when He confronted religious leaders.
Outside when He met Zacchaeus.
Outside when He healed ten men with leprosy.
Outside when a blind beggar received his sight.
Outside when He raised His friend Lazarus from the dead.
Outside when He rode a borrowed donkey into the city.
Outside when He cleansed a temple that had become a marketplace.
Outside when He watched a widow place her mite in the offering box.
Outside when He wept over the city.
Outside when He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane while sweating drops of blood.
Outside when He was arrested.
Outside when He was mocked, beaten.
Outside He stood before Pontius Pilate and the crowd.
Outside He fell under the scourge of a whip.
Outside He was nailed to a wooden cross.
Outside He bled.
Outside He laid down His life for the salvation of mankind.
Outside He cried, “It is finished.”
Outside He was buried in a borrowed tomb.
Outside the Son of God died for the sins of mankind.
But outside on the third day, He rose again.
Outside He was seen by the masses.
Outside He ascended into Heaven.
And outside He will break through the clouds when He comes again!

Jesus’ ministry was not hidden or private.
He was not behind a desk, in an ivory tower, or hidden away in a heart.
His ministry was to people.
He was a public leader.
He was outside.
We cannot sit behind the safety of church walls and be like Jesus.
We must be outside with people.
Just like Jesus!

LIFE AND DEATH AT CHRISTMAS

LIFE AND DEATH AT CHRISTMAS
By John Piper

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”—John 10:10

As I was about to begin this devotional, I received word that Marion Newstrum had just died. She and her husband Elmer have been part of Bethlehem longer than most of our members have been alive. Marion was 87. They had been married 64 years.

When I spoke to Elmer and told him I wanted him to be strong in the Lord and not give up on life, he said, “He has been a true friend.” I pray that all Christians will be able to say at the end of life, “Christ has been a true friend.”

Each Advent I mark the anniversary of my mother’s death. She was cut off in her 56th year in a bus accident in Israel. It was December 16, 1974. Those events are incredibly real to me even today. If I allow myself, I can easily come to tears—for example, thinking that my sons never knew her. We buried her the day after Christmas. What a precious Christmas it was!

Many of you will feel your loss this Christmas more pointedly than before. Don’t block it out. Let it come. Feel it. What is love for, if not to intensify our affections—both in life and death? But, O, do not be bitter. It is tragically self-destructive to be bitter.

Jesus came at Christmas that we might have eternal life. “I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). Elmer and Marion had discussed where they would spend their final years. Elmer said, “Marion and I agreed that our final home would be with the Lord.”

Do you feel restless for home? I have family coming home for the holidays. It feels good. I think the bottom line reason for why it feels good is that they and I are destined in the depths of our being for an ultimate Homecoming. All other homecomings are foretastes. And foretastes are good.

Unless they become substitutes. O, don’t let all the sweet things of this season become substitutes of the final great, all-satisfying Sweetness. Let every loss and every delight send your hearts a-homing after heaven.

Christmas. What is it but this: I came that they might have life. Marion Newstrum, Ruth Piper, and you and I—that we might have Life, now and forever.

Make your Now the richer and deeper this Christmas by drinking at the fountain of Forever. It is so near.

GOLD, FRANKINCENSE, AND MYRRH

Tuesday, December 11
GOLD, FRANKINCENSE, AND MYRRH
By John Piper

When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.—Matthew 2:10–11

God is not served by human hands as though he needed anything (Acts 17:25). The gifts of the magi are not given by way of assistance or need-meeting. It would dishonor a monarch if foreign visitors came with royal care-packages.

Nor are these gifts meant to be bribes. Deuteronomy 10:17 says that God takes no bribe. Well, what then do they mean? How are they worship?

The gifts are intensifiers of desire for Christ himself in much the same way that fasting is. When you give a gift to Christ like this, it’s a way of saying, “The joy that I pursue (verse 10) is not the hope of getting rich with things from you. I have not come to you for your things, but for yourself. And this desire I now intensify and demonstrate by giving up things, in the hope of enjoying you more, not things. By giving to you what you do not need, and what I might enjoy, I am saying more earnestly and more authentically, ‘You are my treasure, not these things.’”

I think that’s what it means to worship God with gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.

May God take the truth of this text and waken in us a desire for Christ himself. May we say from the heart, “Lord Jesus, you are the Messiah, the King of Israel. All nations will come and bow down before you. God wields the world to see that you are worshiped. Therefore, whatever opposition I may find, I joyfully ascribe authority and dignity to you, and bring my gifts to say that you alone can satisfy my heart, not these.”

 © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

BETHLEHEM’S SUPERNATURAL STAR

Sunday, December 9
BETHLEHEM’S SUPERNATURAL STAR
By John Piper

“Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”—Matthew 2:2

Over and over the Bible baffles our curiosity about just how certain things happened. How did this “star” get the magi from the east to Jerusalem?

It does not say that it led them or went before them. It only says they saw a star in the east (verse 2), and came to Jerusalem. And how did that star go before them in the little five-mile walk from Jerusalem to Bethlehem as verse 9 says it did? And how did a star stand “over the place where the Child was”?

The answer is: We do not know. There are numerous efforts to explain it in terms of conjunctions of planets or comets or supernovas or miraculous lights. We just don’t know. And I want to exhort you not to become preoccupied with developing theories that are only tentative in the end and have very little spiritual significance.

I risk a generalization to warn you: People who are exercised and preoccupied with such things as how the star worked and how the Red Sea split and how the manna fell and how Jonah survived the fish and how the moon turns to blood are generally people who have what I call a mentality for the marginal. You do not see in them a deep cherishing of the great central things of the gospel—the holiness of God, the ugliness of sin, the helplessness of man, the death of Christ, justification by faith alone, the sanctifying work of the Spirit, the glory of Christ’s return and the final judgment. They always seem to be taking you down a sidetrack with a new article or book. There is little centered rejoicing.

But what is plain concerning this matter of the star is that it is doing something that it cannot do on its own: it is guiding magi to the Son of God to worship him.
There is only one Person in biblical thinking that can be behind that intentionality in the stars—God himself.

So the lesson is plain: God is guiding foreigners to Christ to worship him. And he is doing it by exerting global—probably even universal—influence and power to get it done.

Luke shows God influencing the entire Roman Empire so that the census comes at the exact time to get a virgin to Bethlehem to fulfill prophecy with her delivery. Matthew shows God influencing the stars in the sky to get foreign magi to Bethlehem so that they can worship him.

This is God’s design. He did it then. He is still doing it now. His aim is that the nations—all the nations (Matthew 24:14)— worship his Son.

This is God’s will for everybody in your office at work, and in your neighborhood and in your home. As John 4:23 says, “Such the Father seeks to worship him.”

At the beginning of Matthew we still have a “come-see” pattern. But at the end the pattern is “go-tell.” The magi came and saw. We are to go and tell.

What is not different is that the purpose of God is the ingathering of the nations to worship his Son. The magnifying of Christ in the white-hot worship of all nations is the reason the world exists.

 © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

No Detour From Calvary

Thursday, December 6
NO DETOUR FROM CALVARY
By John Piper

And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.—Luke 2:6–7

Now you would think that if God so rules the world as to use an empire-wide census to bring Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, he surely could have seen to it that a room was available in the inn.

Yes, he could have. And Jesus could have been born into a wealthy family. He could have turned stone into bread in the wilderness. He could have called 10,000 angels to his aid in Gethsemane. He could have come down from the cross and saved himself. The question is not what God could do, but what he willed to do.

God’s will was that though Christ was rich, yet for your sake he became poor. The “No Vacancy” signs over all the motels in Bethlehem were for your sake. “For your sake he became poor” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

God rules all things—even motel capacities—for the sake of his children. The Calvary road begins with a “No Vacancy” sign in Bethlehem and ends with the spitting and scoffing of the cross in Jerusalem.

And we must not forget that he said, “He who would come after me must deny himself and take up his cross” (Matthew 16:24).

We join him on the Calvary road and hear him say, “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you” (John 15:20).

To the one who calls out enthusiastically, “I will follow you wherever you go!” (Matthew 8:19). Jesus responds, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20).
Yes, God could have seen to it that Jesus have a room at his birth. But that would have been a detour off the Calvary road.


 © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

Are You Growing?

I have discovered a great tool for discipleship.  It’s called “Real-Life Discipleship Training Manual.”  It was written by Jim Putman, Avery T. Willis Jr., Brandon Guindon, and Bill Krause.  

In the third week, the study addresses how a disciple grows.  It gives five stages of spiritual growth: dead, infant, child, young adult, and parent.  Each one of these stages has a “phrase from the stage.  Our words and actions reveal where we are at in the spiritual growth journey.   Look at each stage and determine where you are at in your spiritual growth.   Contact me if I can help you with anything.

Dead Stage

This stage is characterized by unbelief.  Everyone is in this stage before they come to Christ.  They are dead in their sins and objects of God’s wrath.  Here are some typical phrases a dead person might say. 

·      “I don’t believe there is a God.”

·      “The Bible is just a bunch of myths.”

·      “God is just a crutch.”

·      I am not a Christian because religion is responsible for most of the wars in history.” 

·      “There are many ways to God.”

·      “There is no hell because God is a God of love.”

·      “I have been a good person, so I will be okay.”

·      “There is not absolute right or wrong.”

·      “I’ll take my chances with the man upstairs.”

Infant Stage

This stage is characterized by ignorance.  Everyone who comes to Christ begins in this stage.  Here are some of the phrases that characterize what a spiritual infant might say. 

·      “Why do I need to go to church regularly?”

·      “I’ve been hurt by a lot of people, so it’s just me and God.  I don’t need others.” 

·      “If I pray and read my bible, will I be good enough?”

·      “I didn’t know the Bible said that.”

·      “I know that Jesus is Lord and Savior, but is karma real?”

·      “I provide for my family, I don’t have time for church.”  

Child Stage

This stage is characterized by selfishness.  Here are some phrases that a child might say. 

·      “I believe in Jesus and my church is in the woods, just him and me.” 

·      “Don’t branch my group into two groups.  It is comfortable for me right now.”  

·      “Who are all these new people coming to our church? The church is getting so big.” 

·      “I love my small group; don’t add anymore people to it.” 

·      “If we do table groups, I will stop coming to church.” 

·      “I’m not being fed in my church, so I am going to a church that meets my needs better.” 

Young Adult Stage

This stage is characterized by a change from being focused on self to being focused on God and others. Here are some of the phrases that might characterize what  a young adult might say. 

·      “I love my group, but there are others who need a group like this.” 

·      I think I could lead a group with a little help.  I have three friends I have been witnessing to, and this group would be too big from them.”

·      “Look how many are at church today—it’s awesome! I had to walk two blocks from the closest parking spot.” 

Parent Stage

This stage is characterized by intentionality in feeding themselves and reproducing disciples.   Here are some of the phrases from this stage that a parent might say.

·      “I have a person in my small group who is passionate about children.  Can you have the children’s ministry people call me?” 

·      “This guy at work asked to go and explain the Bible to him.  Pray for me.” 

·      “We get to baptize someone from our small group tonight.  When is the next 101 Class? I want to get her plugged into ministry somewhere.”

·      “I realized that discipleship happens at home, too. Will you hold me accountable to spend time discipling my kids?”