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A Covenant Making, Promise Keeping, Loving and Gracious God

We are staring with a new series on the Book of Nehemiah. The approach is to do an Expository study of Nehemiah and understand God’s heart and His purposes for our lives as His children.

Expository preaching involves the exposition, or comprehensive explanation of the Scripture; that is, expository preaching presents the meaning and intent of a biblical text, providing commentary and examples to make the passage clear and understandable. The word exposition is related to the word expose — the expository preacher’s goal is simply to expose the meaning of the Bible, verse by verse.

In case you’re wondering why we’ve taken this route, here are 5 reasons why we think it’s Significant.

1. Exposition magnifies the Scripture which therefore leads the preachers to discover the original intent and meaning of the text before drawing out any conclusions.

2. Expository preaching is one of the best ways to preach the Bible because if every word of God is pure and true, then every word needs to be dealt with.

3. Expository preaching familiarizes people with the scripture itself instead of simply giving them a speech. It also encourages them to study the Bible on their own.

4. In Expository preaching, the Scripture clearly stands out as the ultimate Authority no matter how powerful and gifted the preacher is.

5. Last but not the least and my personal favorite – Expository preaching drives us to see the Gospel at work in every text of the Bible because the ultimate goal of every word of the Bible is to point us to Christ and His finished work on the cross.

Let’s Read Nehemiah 1

Personally, I love the story of Nehemiah. I’ve always been drawn to the courage of this guy called Nehemiah who took up the challenge to build the broken walls of Jerusalem at any cost.

This time though when I read through the story of Nehemiah, I realized that Nehemiah is not just a story of a man and the Rebuilding of the wall. The story of Nehemiah is an amazing story that gives us a glimpse of how God graciously worked among His people just after the great exile. It is primarily the story of God.

Rebuilding the wall was least critical in the rebuilding of a nation dedicated to God’s purposes. The wall is important only because what was restored at the same time behind the wall.

– The more special the watch case, the more expensive the watch.
– The more guards around a home, the more valuable the goods and people within are esteemed.

So the wall was rebuilt to protect and maintain a work within the people of God.

What made the walls of Jerusalem so valuable are not the walls themselves but what the walls could protect: the heart of the nation of Israel or later as we discover, the heart of God’s people, the Jews.

So, as we open the series on Nehemiah, the goal for today is to see God as a covenant making, promise keeping, loving and gracious God. That’s the goal for today.

The story of Nehemiah goes back in history when God’s people sinned against him and God turned them over to their enemies.

2 Kings 17:7 – “And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods”

Psalms 78 gives us a descriptive explanation of how Israel rebelled against God and refused to obey Him and acknowledge Him even after all the wonders He did for them.

God eventually turned them over to the enemies because it was God’s Glory that was at stake.

2 Kings 24 – Nebuchadnezzar (king of Babylon) came up to Jerusalem, and the city was attacked.

70 years of exile is what they went through.

At the end of these 70 years, we see a number of Jewish exiles returning back to Jerusalem.

Ezra 1-6: Zerubbabel led the first wave of Jewish exiles to return in 536 BC
Ezra 7-10: Ezra led the second in 445 BC
Nehemiah 1 -3: Nehemiah led the third in 445 BC

The book of Nehemiah opens up with an account where Hanani, one of the brothers come to meet him and when asked by Nehemiah about the people who returned from exile, he replies by saying “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.”

A closer look at the man Nehemiah will tell you that he wasn’t different than anyone of us who live in the city of Mumbai. He had a full-time job as the cup bearer to the King and possibly lived a routine life, though a luxurious one because to be a cupbearer to the King was not a low esteem job. But what amazes me is his heart for God and for his people.

Even though he was far away from his country and people, living a comfortable routine life, he obviously seemed to be a devoted person because his first and immediate response when he heard the dreadful news was to go to God in prayer. The other aspect in his opening statement reveals that he knew his God and revered Him unceasingly.

“O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments”

Nehemiah calls on God by mentioning His character & His nature. ‘A God who is a covenant making, promise keeping, loving and gracious God.’

His people are in trouble, life seems to be unfair to them, and they are falling prey to their enemies because of the broken walls but Nehemiah goes to God and calls out to Him as a covenant making, promise keeping loving and gracious God.

Our generation almost live in similar circumstances where pain and suffering are part of life for many around us. Wars, deaths, calamities, destruction, poverty, hunger are headlines in our newspapers. It is easy for people to look around and say God does not exist because if God exists this wouldn’t be the state of our world.

The truth is not that God doesn’t exist but that we constantly fail to go to Him and give Him the Glory He deserves.

In a situation like this it is important how we as children of God respond back to Him. Do we join the majority and question God and his sovereignty? Or do we go to Him in a humble posture of worship just like Nehemiah and remember Him as the covenant making, promise keeping, loving and gracious God?

“He is and will ever be the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments.”

In the light of Nehemiah’s beginning statements I want us to remember 3 things about God that which if we hold close to our hearts will change us more as a person and will take us on an unbelievable journey just like Nehemiah in building the Kingdom of God.

1. God’s Promises are bigger than our circumstances

Yes, the circumstances of the people of God who came out of exile was devastating. They were in great trouble and shame because of their enemies who had access to the city due to broken walls.

But Nehemiah was falling back on the promises of God because he knew God’s promises are bigger than any circumstances his people are facing.

In a similar way even though Sarah was barren and couldn’t bear children for Abraham, he still believed in the promises of God that his children will be as numerous as the stars in the sky. The bible says in Genesis 15:6

“Abram believed the LORD, and he credited to him as righteousness”

Abraham believed that God’s promises were bigger than his present circumstances.

What is our response when we look at our present circumstances? Do we get disappointed and heart broken or do we chose to fall back on God’s promises instead? Let’s search our hearts.

2. God’s faithfulness is bigger than our rebellion

As we read through the book of Nehemiah you will learn that these people even after returning from the exile had the same issues of rebelliousness and disobedience.

They ridiculed Nehemiah, spoke lies, behaved Lazy, entertained ungodly fear and even continued having strife among themselves.

Before we judge these people let’s be honest, don’t we behave like them at certain times? We quite often disobey and hurt God in indulging in our sins, we pretend and perform to cover our wrong doings, behave lazily and even entertain ungodly fear while proclaiming the gospel to our friends and colleagues.

What is God’s response to all of this?

FAITHFULNESS

2 Timothy 2:13 – “Even though we are faithless, he remains faithful – for he cannot deny himself”

Deuteronomy 7:9 – “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations”

Let’s remember this – God’s faithfulness is bigger than our rebellion and our response should be Repentance just like Nehemiah.

3. The cycle of failing to keep the law is always broken/overcome by the grace and mercy and provision of God.

After Nehemiah repented of his and his forefathers sins, he took on the task of obeying God by rebuilding of the walls. And as we read on the story we will learn that eventually the cycle of failing to keep the law was broken and overcome by the grace, mercy and the provision of God.

What is our greatest need today?

Deliverance from sin and slavery and a healthy relationship with our heavenly father. Isn’t it?

Did God already make provision for our need?

Yes, he did.

Can we achieve it on our own?

Never. The Bible says Even our righteousness are like filthy rags before a Holy God.

The fact is we can receive forgiveness & freedom from our sins only by believing in God’s son Jesus Christ who came and died for us 2000 years ago. He lived a sinless life yet paid the penalty that our sins deserved by dying a horrific death on the cross, conquered death and rose again in victory on the third day.

There is absolutely nothing more that we can do other than believe in Jesus and accept His Grace, Mercy and Provision which he bestowed upon us in full measure.

Just like the days of Nehemiah, God is building His Kingdom and our response to Him is what will matter the most. And remember the end goal of all of this is GLORY, GLORY, GLORY to the Lord Almighty.

Let’s Pray.

Related Sermons from the Nehemiah series:

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What’s so special about Easter?

Textual Passage: 1 Corinthians 15:12-22

Let’s start with these questions: What are some things that come to your mind when you think about Easter? What are some traditions that are associated with Easter? What is so special about Easter?

As you talk to different people, you get different explanations. Here are a few:

1. Easter eggs for children!

2. It’s a time of celebration: so it’s all about the food! You’ll find that a lot in traditional churches where they’ve observed “lent” for more than a month. They’ve abstained from eating meat so far and so people lose total control of their appetites on Easter!

3. Most people would say…it’s a Christian festival to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. If you go to a Catholic or a traditional church and ask people what the meaning of Easter is, they’ll tell you that Jesus died on Good Friday and rose again on Easter Sunday. And even though that’s factually true, I don’t think they really understand or believe that it really took place. They’ll say it in a way as though it was a legend that was passed down over the ages. The main focus is the festival!

And I think that’s where the original context of this Resurrection Day event matters. Just imagine if all of us existed in Jesus’ day. We noticed him during his earthly ministry, witnessed the great and wonderful miracles he performed: healing the sick, driving out the demons.

We heard his message: Repent and believe in me for the kingdom of God is near! We observed his life: impeccable! Nobody could point a finger at him because he was sinless. He lived a perfect life! And then people falsely accuse him and put him on a cross and crucify Him. After his death, he is buried in a tomb and all that hysteria surrounding him is silenced! So they thought…but in three days he is raised from death and comes back to life! Do you think they celebrated a festival for his resurrection?

No, there was restored joy and hope for all who believed in Him and fear upon those who rejected him. Why? Because if Jesus conquered death, then everything He said about Himself is true and so is the judgment that will come upon those who rejected him! That’s the impact that the resurrection has. It’s not a festival or a feast but an encounter with the risen Lord!

Therefore, Jesus’ resurrection has major and huge implications for our lives today! We’ll attempt to glaze through a few of them in today’s passage: 1 Cor 15:12-22

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope[a] in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

When you read 1 Corinthians, you realize that this church has a lot of problems. Paul writes this letter to correct these problems. It was a church struggling with division, immorality, idolatry and theological confusion. One of the facts that some of the Corinthians was denying were believers being raised from the dead.

Why would some Corinthians deny the resurrection of the dead? It’s not just because they were confused or ignorant. Rather, a denial of the resurrection would mean hopelessness with regards to the future and also an unaccountable life which gives them the license to do whatever they wanted to do!

V32-34 says “If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Do not be deceived: Bad company ruins good morals.” Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right and do not go sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.

If there’s nothing to look forward to after we die, then that leaves us with no reason to live a holy life. Therefore, these Corinthians were using this as an excuse to justify their promiscuous lives.

And the way Paul puts it: he says it’s a BIG issue! You can’t allow this to slip under the rocks. It’ll ruin the entire foundation of our faith.

We’ll try and understand this by first looking at the resurrection event and then its effect!

1. Event of the Resurrection

v12, 13: Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.

The argument being, if there is no resurrection of the dead, then even Christ has not been raised! And if Christ is raised, then there is a resurrection of the dead!

So let’s answer this question first: Did Christ really rise from the dead? If this question is answered then every other question is laid to rest.

A. The Empty Tomb: Jesus was publicly executed in the most torturous manner and then placed in a tomb by Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Jewish Council. 3 days later a few women claimed that the tomb was empty! This is publicly verifiable! As we all know, Jesus had a hostile opposition. They could have easily squashed the news that Jesus rose from the dead by producing a body which they certainly tried to do. But they couldn’t…the tomb was empty and the body was nowhere to be found.

B. Jesus’ Post-Resurrection Appearances: One thing we need to remember is that the Bible is also a historical book which lists events in history as they were.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. (1 Cor 15:3-7)

This letter was written within 20 years of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Paul explicitly states the number of people who saw Jesus after his resurrection and also provides names of people “who were still alive”. If anyone wanted to cross-check and cross-examine these witnesses they could do it and confirm if Jesus truly rose from the dead or not.

These are two of the many reasons for believing that the resurrection of Jesus actually took place. These facts and witnesses that can be examined to verify the accuracy of the events and authenticity of the claims!

2. Effect of the Resurrection

So Jesus’ resurrection is Real and Accurate! How does that impact us is probably the question on your minds? It has everything to do with us.

In other words, the resurrection of Jesus is the foundation of our faith!

a. Christ’s resurrection settles our debts once and for all

V17: And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

We know that the main reason why Jesus came into the world was not to be a moral teacher or a miracle worker. He came to die and give his life as a ransom for many (Mk 10:45) Jesus lived a perfect life completely in obedience to God. He lived the perfect life that we could never live. His death on the cross wasn’t because he deserved it…he died as a substitute for our sins. All our sins were placed on Him and he paid the penalty of us all. His resurrection was God’s stamp of approval on the sacrifice. God completely accepted Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf and it means that

ALL of our sins are totally paid for!

Rom 4:25: He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

How awesome is that! One sacrifice of Jesus now makes us right before God!

b. Christ’s resurrection seals our resurrection!

V20-22: But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

Not only are we presently in right terms with God but even our eternity is secured by His resurrection!
What’s the biggest fear in the hearts of men? It’s the same fear for the richest person in the world and the poorest person in the world. No matter how successful you are, you still won’t have an answer to the problem of “Death”. Even if you take all of the health precautions, that still doesn’t guarantee a long, never ending life. Everyone fears death!

But here’s the amazing truth for everyone who believes and trusts in Jesus for their salvation, know that your earthly death won’t be an end in itself! That’s why Paul uses the term “fallen asleep” and not dead. Just like Jesus was raised from the dead, everyone who trusts in Jesus as their Lord will be raised to life! The greatest enemy and fear was conquered by Jesus! Jesus reduced the impact of death to nothing with His victory over the grave. Death is no longer a consequence for believers in Christ!

You might wonder how does that take place. How can Christ’s life, sacrifice and resurrection be closely tied to mine? How does Christ’s resurrection impact my resurrection?

The reason is because believers are united to Christ in a very special way. Union with Christ is a very key theme in the Bible. It’s the same reason why Christ’s death for sins has been shared by us. It’s the same reason why the righteousness of Christ has been attributed to us. It’s the same reason why the close fellowship with God also been gifted to us. Similarly, our union with Christ also insures us of a resurrected body just like his!

Eg: How a married couple can share the financial benefits of their union with each other….

That’s how important and significant Christ’s resurrection is for us!! Let’s look at the application:

i. It empowers us to be focused on the mission:

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. V58

After a long discussion on resurrection, Paul exhorts the believers to be steadfast in the work of the Lord. It is because Christ was raised from the dead, and we too shall be raised from the dead, that we should continue unswervingly in the Lord’s work. Everything we do to bring people into the kingdom and build them up will have eternal significance, because we shall all be raised on the day when Christ returns and we will all live with him forever.

This is point that needs to be driven home! Christians living with the knowledge of the resurrection can’t be living for themselves! They can’t be living without a purpose. Christ and His mission are constantly on the forefront! Just imagine being like Jesus and with Jesus forever…1 John 3:2. We know how the story is going to end. We know what Christ is doing in the city of Mumbai and all over the earth and we know what He calls us to participate in! Every other ambition or purpose pales in comparison to the joy of serving God in building His kingdom. Maybe Christ’s mission not been the single focus of your life so far. In the light of the resurrection, would you surrender yourself to be steadfast in the work of the Lord?

ii. It demands us to stop yielding to sin in our lives:

Rom 6:11-13: In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.

When you evaluate your life, in which areas do you find yourself yielding to sin? Where is God asking you today to kill the sin in your life? What would it mean for you to offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness?

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Scripture & Preaching

‘Scripture & Preaching’ is the third part of our Liturgy series. The questions we will answer in this part are as follows.

Q. Why is the Holy Bible important to us?
Q. What is the goal of Biblical scriptures?
Q. What is Preaching?
Q. Why is preaching important?

Before we deep dive into answering the above questions, let me share with you some facts about the Bible we should know.

1. The Holy Bible has 66 books – 39 books in the Old Testament & 27 books in the New Testament.
2. The word Testament means ‘contract’ or ‘covenant’.
3. The Bible is written by approximately 40 authors from different walks of life, they were shepherds, farmers, tent-makers, physicians & kings.
4. They were written across a period of 1500 years.
5. The Bible was the first ever book to be printed in the year 1454.
6. The Bible is translated in 2018 languages, the highest ever.

Biblical scriptures has been an inspiration to many generations and it continues to inspire people even to this day.

Ravi Zacharias, one of my favorite preachers experienced the love of God through the scripture when he was a young boy lying down on the hospital bed. Somebody gave his mother the Bible and asked her to read the book of Luke. As Ravi was lying down helpless waiting for his death, he heard this mother read Luke 14:19 which said “Because I live you live”.

Later Ravi said that the word changed his life forever and meant to him as the defining paradigm for the rest of his life.

There are endless stories of how the Biblical scriptures has changed people lives throughout generation.

My life was changed when I was a young boy who failed in studies and was rejected by my teachers, neighbors and especially my father. An old uncle counselled me and reminded me of God’s love from the Bible; it changed my life forever.

The Importance of Scripture

To answer the importance of scriptures let me talk about the 2 major characteristics of the Scripture.

i) Authority of Scripture
ii) Sufficiency of Scripture

AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE

Wayne Grudem in his book “Bible Doctrine” defines the Authority of Scripture as follows.

“The authority of scripture means that all the words in scripture are God’s words in such a way that to disbelieve or disobey any word of the scripture is to disbelieve or disobey God”

Scripture is important to us because they are Gods own words. In 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Paul writes to Timothy as says

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

There are internal as well as external evidences that prove the Bible is God’s word.

Internal Evidences

a) It’s Unity

Even though the Bible is written by 40 different authors from different walks of life across 1500 years there is an unbelievable uniformity in the overall text from the start to the end without any contradiction.

Most people who contradict the scriptures have either not read it completely or are interpreting it wrongly. If at all there were any major contradictions the scripture would have been abolished long ago.

b) It’s Prophecies

The Bible also contains prophecies which has been fulfilled through ages. The Old Testament has over 300 prophecies about Jesus that were fulfilled.

There is absolutely no other religious book with this type of predictive prophecy.

c) It’s Authority & Power

Like I mentioned before, the Scriptures carry an Authority & Power that has been transforming lives of millions across the globe.

It is quite rare to see a book change and transform people’s lives in such a massive way.

External Evidences

a) It’s Indestructible nature

There were hundreds of attempts made to destroy the Bible over generations, from Roman emperors to Communist dictators to modern day atheists & agnostics. None of them were successful, the Scripture and its impact over human lives still continues to grow.

b) It’s Self attesting nature

In India it’s a common practice to get photocopies of our educational certificates attested by a Lawyer before submitting it to any government procedure. The Lawyer verifies it against the original document and validates the photocopies with his stamp saying they are true.

To attest any document in this manner the attesting person should have a higher authority and should be a reliable source.

In case of the scriptures if anybody has the authority to validate its authenticity its scripture itself because there is absolutely no Higher authority or reliable source that can validate the scriptures.

The two arguments people use to speak against the scripture is either ‘Human Logic’ or ‘Scientific Truth’. In no way these two are reliable sources or else they would have the answers to human sufferings and pain. Only the Bible has the answer to human suffering and the cure.

SUFFICIENCY OF SCRIPTURE

Waye Grudem defines Sufficiency of Scriptures as follows

“The sufficiency of scripture means that Scripture contained all the words of God he intended his people to have at each stage of redemptive history, and that it now contains everything we need God to tell us for salvation; for trusting him perfectly, and for obeying him perfectly”

2 Timothy 3:15 –

“and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”

Please note in the above verse Paul says the primary goal of the scripture is to make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus, it is to restore the broken relationship between God and Humanity.

Therefore the sufficiency of scripture means that we don’t need any more special revelation to help us relate to God which I believe is the most important need to every human being.

The work of Christ on the cross revealed in the Holy Scriptures is all sufficient for our redemption from sin and sufferings which also promises us an eternal life of Joy and fulfillment.

The answer to human sufferings is sin and Bible says that Christ died for all and bore the penalty of our sins once and for all on the cross. He died in our place and conquered death and rose again on the third day. All we need to do is to believe in his redemptive work, put our faith in him and follow him wholeheartedly.

The Gospel is the only truth that needs to be treasured.

In Colossians 2:8 Paul is warning the church to be careful of ungodly philosophy and empty deceit which is based on human traditions, the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ.

In Galations 1:8 Paul says “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed”

We believe in the Scriptures because it is all sufficient.

PREACHING

Preaching is proclamation especially the fundamentals of the gospel.

In 1 Cor 1:23 Paul says ‘We preach Christ crucified.’

We preach because we are commanded to do so in 1 Timothy 4:1-4

“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”

In Romans 10:4 Paul is urging the believers saying “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?”

Preaching is important because it reminds people about God’s faithfulness and his provision for salvation.

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Our Offerings to God – Singing, Confession & Giving

 

Last week we started with a new series on Liturgy and we looked at Sacrifice – The Act of worship.

We read through the book of Romans chapter 12 where Paul is appealing to the church in Rome by the mercies of God to offer themselves as a living Sacrifice.

Sacrifice in the new testament is the act of worship where we offer ourselves, our bodies our minds into total submission to God and to one another not because we have to but because we want to.

In Romans 5:8 Paul writes “God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”

Romans 3:25
God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood.

Hebrews 10:10
And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

We firstly gather around the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And our response to that Sacrifice is our offerings in the form of Singing, confession and giving.

We don’t sing, confess and give out of religious duty.

Very often it is possible for us to look at these offerings as some kind of favor we do to God or as an obligation.

Remember the rich young ruler who came to Jesus and asked what he should do to inherit eternal life. From the outside he seemed to be a great guy, was obedient to the scriptures, lived a righteous life, had a good reputation in the society, but Jesus reveals the condition of his heart, his heart was set on the worldly treasures.

Yes, Is it possible for a Christian to do all the rights things and bring the right offerings to God and yet have his heart set on the world and the things of this world?

The rich man’s acts of righteousness was done as a duty. In fact, His treasures and possessions were the center of his life. He just couldn’t imagine a life without his wealth and possessions and walked way depressed. He failed to recognize that everything belonged to God, that everything comes from God.

In Acts 17:24-25 the author writes
The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

First and foremost we have to recognize that it is because of His mercies that we are what we are, it is because of His mercies we have what we have. Everything in our life works for good because we love him and treasure him more than anything else.

Therefore, our singing, confession and giving is a response to his great love and mercy.

Now, some may ask if everything belongs to God than what does he need from us.

The answer can be found in
Psalms 50:7-15

v14 – offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving
v15 – call upon me in the day of trouble

The 3 things God desires from us is

  1. Humility
  2. Gratitude
  3. Dependence on Him

Without these 3 our singing is meaningless, our confession is waste of time and our giving is worthless.

So, let’s fix our hearts in the right place as we now look into each of these elements in Liturgy.

SINGING

Why do we sing?

We sing because the scripture says so

Colossians 3:15-17
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Paul tells us that worshiping God together in song is meant to deepen the relationships we enjoy through the gospel. This happens in 3 ways.

1. Singing helps us remember Gods word.

Paul says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in your richly…singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.”

Last week in our community group we talked about how we can find ways to get rid of guilt when we sin and learn to live as the adopted children of God. One of the ways we talked about was to constantly remind ourselves the word of God.

Singing, especially is an excellent way to remind ourselves of truths from Gods word.

I remember a few months I kept playing and singing a song called “Father, you are my father” the whole day because I was low and discouraged with something that happened, reminding myself of the Father’s love for me. It took away my sorrow and filled my heart with joy and hope.

That’s what happens and should happen even when we gather on a Sunday morning to sing and celebrate. Reminding ourselves the word of God.

2. Singing helps us respond to Gods grace

We’re also told to sing with “thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

Our wholehearted singing demands a response.

God gave us singing to combine objective truth with thankfulness, doctrine with devotion, and intellect with emotion.

3. Singing helps us reflect on Gods glory

Doing “everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,” implies bringing God glory.

Worshiping God together in song glorifies God. It expresses the unity Christ died to bring us.

It anticipates the song of heaven when we’ll have unlimited time to sing, clearer minds to perceive God’s perfections, and glorified bodies that don’t grow weary.

Singing is not about giving preferences to particular kind of music or a particular worship band. It is about glorifying God.

CONFESSION

In our community group one other solution we talked about in dealing with guilt was to be able to confess our sins to one another.

Most of the time when we fall into sin we often think we can deal with it on our own without telling anybody, which is very dangerous place to be in. We allow the guilt to ruin our days and weeks until we find a solution on our own by sometimes moving to a quieter place, until we hear a preacher on the television who speaks words of encouragement etc.

Dealing with sin and guilt on our own is a very unhealthy and dangerous practise. Many have ruined their lives.

The healthy way to deal with it is to use the provision God has given us and that is to confess with one another.

James chapter 5:16 says

“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”

When we confess to one another we allow others to speak and remind us of Gods word, his love, our identity and lead us into devotion completely setting us free from guilt and shame and enable us to live a life of freedom and joy.

You don’t have to ruin even a single day with a guilt ridden, unproductive and unhappy mentality.

For Christians, confession of sin, ultimately, is application of the gospel.

James chapter 5 calls Gods people to a corporate confession.

Confession of sin in the presence of others is applying and celebrating the gospel, together.

Confession is part of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. And that is why we Confess.

GIVING

We give because Jesus said so. In Matthew 6:2 he said

“So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

We give because the early church gave and set aside a sum of money for missions work.

1 Cor 16:2
On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.

Proverbs 3:9 ‘Honour the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops’.

Proverbs 14:31 ‘Whoever is kind to the needy honours God’

Motives For Giving

1) TO BLESS GOD:- 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, ‘Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God’ so we primarily give to bless and bring glory to God

2) TO BLESS THOSE AROUND US :- Because Jesus said in Acts 20:32 ‘It is more blessed to give than receive’.

3) TO BE BLESSED OURSELVES :- Not for selfish reasons but to be in an even better position to give even more into the work of God. In 2 Corinthians 9:11, Paul exhorts the generous brothers at Macedonia that, ‘You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion’.

Categories
Sermon

Sacrifice – The Act of Worship

Series: Liturgy
Date: 28th March 2016

Preached by Saju Joseph

Good Morning & Welcome Everybody.

As posted on Facebook we are doing a series on Liturgy.

The dictionary definition of Liturgy means ‘a fixed set of ceremonies, words etc that are used during public worship in a religion’. In our context it simply means what we do on a Sunday gathering and that’s what we’re going to look at. The question we will answer is ‘Why do we do what we do when we gather?’

Growing up in a Christian family, I have often asked these questions to my parents and church leaders and have received answers that formed my opinions about Church.

In these series what we will do is basically answer these questions from the scriptures, we will conclude with what the Bible teaches us and therefore build our foundational beliefs around it.

We have divided the topics into four weeks and this is how it looks like.

Wk 1 – Sacrifice, as in the act of worship.
Wk 2 – Giving, Singing and Confession.
Wk 3 – Scripture and Preaching.
Wk 4 – Communion and Baptism.

Today, we will be looking at ‘Sacrifice’ as in the act of worship and the bible text that we will look at is Romans 12.

The book of Romans is a letter written by Paul to the church in Rome and in the NIV version the chapter starts with the word “Therefore”.

Imagine we pick up any letter and stumble upon a paragraph that starts with the word “Therefore”. We comprehend that whatever the writer is about to say henceforth has some connection with what he has already said and it won’t make any sense to read through it without reading through the previous chapters and understand what the writer is trying to say.

When you read through chapter 1 -11 you will see Paul talks a lot about doctrine and the verses are full of heavy theology. He talks about Righteousness, Gods judgment, Justification, Slavery to sin & Righteousness, Future Glory, God’s everlasting love, the message of salvation.

It’s heavy with theology and doctrine. And therefore when we see Paul using the word ‘Therefore’ as he begins a new paragraph, we see him moving from doctrine to practice, from theology to ethics, from foundation to application.

It’s like me teaching my children how stuffs work. For e.g. I can teach my children what an Iron box is, and how it works, how the metal gets heated when attached to an electric board, and how the hot metal when pressed on our clothes removes the creases etc. And then I conclude with a “therefore” saying how they need to be careful while they are around a hot Iron and how they need to use it carefully and stuff. Paul is doing a similar thing here where he shares the doctrine and now moves to the application part of it.

Secondly we see that Paul makes an appeal to the believers in Rome, a serious, urgent and a heartfelt request. We see him doing it quite often and uses the word ‘I urge you’, Í beg you’. I believe he is making an appeal because it seems that the people know a lot of things about God but are struggling to keep up with it in action and are failing to apply it in their Christian walk.

Paul goes on and makes an appeal to the people that they offer themselves a living Sacrifice to God. Sacrifice is the act of worship where we offer ourselves to God holy and acceptable not in our minds, but in posture, in our lifestyle, in our conduct, in our behavior towards one another.

But sadly even in our generation we have people struggling with these issues where they know a lot about God, they know the bible text in and out, they have a strong theological understanding of the scriptures but completely fail to apply them in their Christian walk, fail to offer their lives as a living Sacrifice and worship him with all their heart, mind and soul.

Whenever Gods people gather together something powerful should happen but sadly that’s not what we experience. Sometimes we fail to experience joy and fulfillment when we are with our fellow believers. Maybe one of the reasons for this kind of bitter experiences is also because we have been failing to live in the light of the Gospel, our heads are full of knowledge, theology & doctrine but our actions say something else.

Here Paul is making an appeal for men to fully understand that we need to live out the life God intended us to live, not just in our minds but in our actions, in our commitment to one another.

Let’s read the verse again (verse 1,2). The next word that we see Paul uses is ‘by His mercy’. What he means ‘by His mercy’ is to see things in the light of what God has done for us, he is not saying ‘by the knowledge you now acquired ’ or ‘by the theology you just learnt’, his words are ‘by the Mercies of God’.

Look at our lives. How did we reach here today? Isn’t it because of God’s mercies? Are we here because of our righteousness or our choice? It is purely because of God’s redemptive work in our lives.

Remember the Cross chart we looked at while going through lesson one of the Gospel Centric Life. When we are saved we grow in the awareness of God’s Holiness and also grow in the awareness of our sinfulness. We learnt that the only way we can bridge that gap is when we daily appreciate Gods redemptive work on the cross by sending his Son to die for our sins. It is His mercies that saved us from our sinfulness and placed us in His holiness.

This is our identity. Our identity comes from God. Our identity is that we are children of God who are being saved by God every single day of our lives and that’s what we keep reminding ourselves.

It’s our identity that should lead us to activity. The world’s got it upside down. The people of the world says your activity decides your identity. But in Jesus it’s our identity of who we are that leads us to activity.

It is the mercy of God that leads us into Holiness and it is God’s mercy that drives us to worship.

Sacrifice is an Old testament language. Sacrifice in the Old testament is the offering of bull, dove etc. When the people came into Gods presence with these sacrifices God accepted them as a substitute from their Sin, but even when they offered sacrifice they knew that it’s not actually these sacrifice which will completely redeem them from God’s wrath. In Hebrews 10 verse 4, the writer says it’s impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. So even though they offered sacrifice, what God wanted was their heart.

We see later that Jesus Christ Himself becomes a sacrifice for us, He dies for us as a remission for our sins, He brought an end to the old testament sacrifice.

Now, when Paul is talking about sacrifice he’s not talking about the old testament sacrifice, he’s talking about something else. So, lets look at that.

Paul says, ‘offer your bodies as a living sacrifice’. The first word he uses is ‘bodies’. What Paul is trying to say is that our body matters. Even though we’re living, we’re in the flesh but it’s not just the flesh, skin and the blood but also our minds because in later verse he also mentions “be transformed by the renewal of your mind”

When I was growing up I always thought of offering myself means giving myself to serving ministry, doing things for God. Doing things on my own strength and capabilities because God needs me, he needs my intelligence.

But when read 1 Peter 2:5 it says
Offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

What we learn is that even the offering of ourselves should be done through Jesus Christ.

In this text Paul is appealing to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice through Christ Jesus not just in the looks of it but also in our motives & behaviors.

We see in the preceding verses he goes on to give practical ways of offering ourselves to the body of Christ, most of it is self explanatory but to see in the context in which Paul is presenting them to us is more important.

This is what Sacrifice means, this is what worship means. We gather every Sunday to worship God in submission and reverence as one body, not thinking more highly about ourselves, to have think with sober judgment, to serve, to teach, to exhort, to contribute to each other’s need, to lead with zeal, to show mercy, to show genuine love, to abhor evil, to live in harmony, to feed our enemies and not to overcome evil by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Let’s look to God in prayer.

Categories
Sermon

What’s Your Excuse?

[audioplayer file=”http://thegatheringcommunity.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/whats-your-excuse.mp3″]

Scriptures: Luke 9:57-62
Preached by: Jinson Thomas.
Download Link

Description:
Following Jesus doesn’t promise a comfortable life. Comfort gives a false sense of security, a lack of eternal purpose and a lack of devotion.

In this audio you will learn about three men who gave different excuses when Jesus asked them to follow Him and how they missed the opportunity to respond in Faith.