Grace OPC Sewickley PA

Sermon Series: The History of Salvation

  • Paul Lives Out What He Writes

    Paul Lives Out What He Writes

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The History of Salvation” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, February 24, 1991.

    About this sermon

    Closing the series, Paul’s epistles fall within a clear chronology of his ministry, sorted into four natural divisions. What stands out most, tying 1 Corinthians 11:1 to Paul’s final words in 2 Timothy, is how fully Paul lives out the very doctrines of Christ he spent his life writing.

    More sermons from Philippians · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    We begin our scripture reading this morning, excuse me, with Philippians 3. We will conclude it in 2 Timothy 4, first of all in Philippians 3. We begin in verse 1 here, Lord God. Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you. Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil vermin, beware of the false circumcision. For we are the true circumcision, who worship in the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more. To circumcise the eighth day of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Gentia, of the Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law of the Pharisees, as to the devil, the persecutor of the Church, as to righteousness, which is in the law, found blameless.

    Whatever things were gained to me, those things I encountered as laws. for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, in whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own, who I have become the law, that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being conformed to His death, of order that I may attain to the resurrection from the death, not that I have already attained this, but have already become perfect. I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of that. One thing I do, getting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upper part of God in Christ Jesus.

    Because, therefore, as many as are perfect have this attitude, and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you. However, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have obtained. Brethren, join in following my example and observe those who have walked according to the patterns left in us. For many walk with whom I have often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.” For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory by the exertion of power that He hath even to subject all things to Himself.” And turning over to 2 Timothy, the fourth chapter, reading verses 6 through 8, and then verses 16 through 18. 2 Timothy 4, beginning with verse 6.

    The time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. In the future there is waiting for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved His appearance.” At my first defense, no one supported me, and all deserted me. May it not be counted against me. But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me in order that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished, and that all the Gentiles might hear. I was delivered out of the lion’s mouth.” The Lord will deliver you from every evil deed and will bring you safely to His heavenly kingdom. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” Very good. Even now, I want to go on with verse 7-4.

    You can now warn Him that the heavens are witness for you, the earth is brought to testify on your behalf. For the heavens and the earth have seen them by the works. They know what has been accomplished in them. Lord, Your servants have been raised up, they too, to bring incovenient witness to the earth that all might be convicted. that some glory may in fact be transformed by the proclamation of the Gospel. So Lord, our prayers are in keeping with the testimony that has been given in heaven and on earth by your servants. Our expectation is with respect to the transformation of the men, the gathering of your elect from the four corners of the earth, so that the growth crates post this assembly. And in the day, Lord, in the day which You appear, surely all Your saints shall be congregated, and the joy will be immeasurable.”

    To that end, Lord, we worship Thou. To that end, we serve and live, our life being at peace with our worship, our worship and our life bound together. I put that to Your praise. We exalt You now in Christ, by whom we have access to and cope with respect to that great day which is promised.

    Well, this has been an ambitious undertaking from the beginning. We’re almost to the end of our consideration of the Old Testament. But in the midst of this ambitious project, we come to an ambitious project tonight, which is to cover, would you believe it, all thirteen epistles of Paul. So sit tight. Sit back. You may want to take out a few notes here. You may want to pass this way again.

    There are thirteen epistles, thirteen letters, written by Cole. I might say at the outset that there are many questions surrounding these epistles. There are many questions that deal with particulars attached to these epistles, questions that have to do with time and place, circumstances in the epoch of life. We’re not keyed in with respect to those matters at every point.

    In fact, we can even say that there’s something of a general tone to the epistles of Paul, a general tone that makes these epistles useful throughout the entirety of the history of the Church. a general and universal tone that makes them applicable at whatever point you find yourself along that line between Christ’s resurrection and our own. We won’t be spending any time tonight dealing with those particulars, except that we want to organize these epistles in a chronological fashion for you. That is, we want to group them for you so that you can easily see where ordinarily they have been placed within the life of the apostle and his ministry. Our interest, therefore, will be chronological this evening, not canonical.

    We know that the epistles are all run from Romans to Philemon, and they’re not necessarily appearing in the New Testament in the order in which they are written. We tried to map out a strategy tonight, an overview of the epistles where we’re able to set them in some sort of chronological frame, and that you’re able to move through them then in some way that will make some sense to you.

    There are four divisions for Paul’s letters. Four divisions for Paul’s letters. Now, his first two letters were written, as we have already stated previously, his first two letters were written to the Thessalonians. He judged that these were the first of Paul’s letters.

    They were written during his second missionary journey. They were written in the early fifties A.D., and they were written, most likely, from Paul. So Paul has, in that second missionary journey, moved down from Macedonia into Achaia to come down and visit Athens, and then he visited Corinth. And the supposition is that from Corinth, then Paul writes to the Thessalonian churches churches that had been formed founded by him in the process of that second missionary journey.

    So that’s the first letter. That’s the first division. The second group of letters is written during his third missionary journey. Here we have four letters, namely Galatians, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, and Romans. That’s not necessary in that order. Second-moving Galatians, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, and Romans.

    Now Paul’s Third Dictionary takes place in the middle years, in the fifties. in the middle part of that sixth decade in the first century of G. 1 Corinthians is the first letter produced by Paul in this group. 1 Corinthians is the first letter produced by Paul in this group.

    It was written from Ephesus to the church in Corinth. Now, keep your geography in mind. You know where Ephesus is, you know where Corinth is. Ephesus is in Asia Minor or present-day Turkey, and Corinth, of course, is in Achaia or in present-day Greece. So Paul has come to Ephesus first in his journey, moved through the territory of the eastern portion of Asia Minor to the territory of Galatia. in his third missionary journey, that he sends a letter across the sea, the Aegean Sea, to Achaea and to Ptolemy.

    And as you read through 1 Corinthians, you find out that this is actually his first letter to the Corinthians. It’s more likely his second letter to the Corinthians. But does it mean 1 Corinthians is the second Corinthians? Well, that’s what it seems. If you check out 1 Corinthians 5 and on, you’ll find there that Paul has written a previous letter to his church. We don’t know much about that letter except that the Corinthians are confused about what Paul is saying in that letter. So here we are with the first letter. which we have in Scripture, is written to these saints in Corinth. And we know something about the circumstances.

    I think it’s obvious to you there is severe fragmentation of the Church. There are terrible divisions. in the Church of Corinth, and there are particular problems that have arisen in the Church of What do we do with our relationship with pagans? How do we treat an offending brother, someone who has sinned in our midst? What do we do with the question of spiritual gifts? What about the question of the resurrection, bodily resurrection of Christ and our hope, respectively, in bodily resurrection?

    1 Corinthians 15. In the midst of this, of course, there is that gem, 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter in which Christ himself expounded in terms of the love that he presented there. Paul, of course, then, beckoning this church to unity, despite the division, beckoning them to doctrinal orthodoxy in lieu of the heretical tendencies that have been arisen within that church. Well, we know Paul’s stated emphasis a bit before he makes his way north to Troas and across the strait and into Macedonia. But Paul, en route now to Corinth, writes to Corinth again, and 2 Corinthians, penned by Paul at this time.

    This letter is actually the most intimate of his larger letters. If you want a long treatise written by the apostle in which his heart is in a sustained way being laid bare for you, here it is in 2 Corinthians. It’s an extended love letter written by Paul to this Corinthian church. It’s the most moving, moving letter written by the Apostle, out of his great love and concern for these saints who are in poverty.

    By and large, this epistle comes about As an extensive defense of Paul’s apostleship, it seems that his credentials are being questioned, and he puts forth an extensive defense of his apostleship in many wonderful stern passages within that epistle in which Paul, in a very poignant manner, presents his apostleship as that which has been conferred upon by Christ for the benefit of even these Corinthians who are resisted presently.

    Now, there is great debate about Galatians. But generally, what is held is that Galatians is written when Paul gets to Corinth. He’s making his way around the loop from Ephesus through Macedonia down to Corinth, having arrived in Corinth. There is word of waiting him there. about the defection of many in the Galatian churches. And, of course, there’s tremendous debate about some of the particulars surrounding the Galatian letter, but nevertheless we recognize it as being something of the Apostles’ great declaration of spiritual independence.

    The gospel is the means of liberty from Jewish legal tyranny, the root of true spiritual freedom found in and through Christ’s work, and that comes to realization in a life that is lived in the Spirit. I think that some of the marvelous passages that have come to us out of the relational I think I’ve been over in the fifth chapter. “…for free of the evidence that free from snagged visitors.” Stop! If you’ve been made alive by the Spirit, then walk in the Spirit.

    It’s a tremendous declaration by the Apostle. Also, you find in this epistle The statement concerning the way of justification, not by our works but by the work of Christ. It is the work of Christ that vindicates us. Our faith is directed toward that work, and that work is our hope and confidence. We are not then to glory in our own works or both in ourselves.

    Well, we contend, and it generally will be now, that this letter, this magnificent letter, the desertion of Galatian Christians to a Jewish formalism. This letter was tendered by Paul when he had, in fact, a wide affluence during the process of his third missionary journey. And finally, the set of epistles during the third missionary journey, we have the letter of Paul to the Romans, the letter of Paul to the Romans again. We suspect that this letter was written from heart, and this one is pried greatly, it seems, to stand as the first of letters for reason. It seems to be the most objective of all letters.

    There seems to be something of a systematic development within this letter that makes to reform the people who are deeply into the systems themselves, into the system of doctrine that is presented in Scripture. They gravitate, it seems, to the epistle to the Romans, and there they find a good, friendly territory to traverse for themselves.

    The epistle is concerned mainly with the issue of Jew-Gentile relations. The fact that now the Gentiles have been brought in, what does this mean for the Jews? Specifically, what does this mean with respect to the faithfulness of God to recover? Have God’s promises to Israel then failed? In the context of this discussion, Paul once more asserts the magnificence of that doctrine of justification by faith, spelling it out more fully than he has in his Epistles of the Galatians, and to this he adds, of course, his marvelous exposition and affirmation of that doctrine of predestination, God’s sovereign election by which he calls his own to himself.

    So this rounds out, then, the second grouping of Paul’s epistles. You have the first grouping, Second Missionary Church, First and Second Thessalonians, second grouping now in the Third Missionary Church, Galatians, First and Second Corinthians, and Romans.

    Those epistles were up to six years down the line ago. We come now, then, to the third group of letters written by the This third group is known as the prison epistles. Do you know which are the prison epistles? Name one prison epistle. So we’re going to have a test at the end of this sermon, and we’ll see how well he learns it. something that’s well for you to keep in mind.

    You can actually position these letters by Paul and keep these groupings in mind. So we’re at the third group now. Paul’s third missionary journey is concluded. And you know how things go for Paul. At the end of the Book of Acts, you remember, he returned from his third dictionary journey, went up to Jerusalem, and there he’s arrested, and now he’s being carted off to Rome, and he is in chains. So, the Book of Acts ends with Paul in a state of imprisonment, and thus the prison Now, he writes four letters from prison at this point. Four letters from prison at this point. And these letters are Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. There’s four. We’re up to ten. We’re getting there. Aren’t we? We’re getting there.

    And we associate these with Paul’s first imprisonment. We don’t know much about his subsequent imprisonments. There may have been multiple imprisonments. There may have been just one more. But at any rate, we contend that there were at least two imprisonments. And from the first imprisonment, we have these four epistles. Now, three of these are grouped together. We believe written as a… the same time.

    Maybe you could tell me which ones they were. Of course, you have Ephesians and Colossians, which are parallel pieces. Have you ever read Ephesians and Colossians together? They read alike. They have parallel passages, a parallel order to them, parallel statements. You can read the one in light of the other.

    Philemon is also grouped with these epistles that you have between Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon. And the first two of these, Ephesians and Colossians, are powerful treatises that revel in the fullness of Christ. that revel in the tremendous, magnificent fullness of Christ in the excellency of the Savior. Just read through those epistles if you want a spiritual high in which the glory of Christ are trekked out in front of you, for you there to behold.

    Christ is superlatively portrayed. He is the beginning of creation. For Him and by Him, all things have been made. In Him, all the fullness of the Deity, of the Goddess dwells bodily. You have all of these magnificent statements about Christ. In fact, in philosophy, you’re told that He is the All-in-all.

    You can’t get much higher. in your descriptions of Christ. the marvelous sections throughout Ephesians and Colossians. Grace is not shortchanged. You know that passage that you were taught as a child, Ephesians 2a, for by grace are you saved through faith. That love of yourselves is a gift of God, not of worthless. Any man should boast.

    You know that passage. You know the marvelous way, what have been called practical sections of those epistles. Now, Paul has instructions there for congregations as they are called upon to submit in Christ, how wives are instructed to love or submit to their husbands, and husbands are commanded to love their wives. You have children and parents given specific instruction, masters in service given specific instruction in those epistles, Ephesians and Colossians. And all of this, you see, coming forth from Paul while he is in chains. He’s dwelling on the breadth, the expansiveness of Christ while he is sitting confined in severe limitation in Rome.

    Then you have, by the way, what else? What can I say about Philemon? We’re going to have to do some more about Philemon someday, because here in brief form we have the Heart of the Apostle in compact, compressed form, the Heart of the Apostle, laid out in front of us. A brief epistle, yet a bold line.

    Here Paul proves himself Christlike and servant. to this master named Philemon. And he graciously asks Philemon to prove himself the same, that is, to prove himself Christlike and a servant to Onesimus, the runaway slave, one who has possibly been converted by Paul’s ministry while in chains in Rome. He asks, by Leman, the master to become the slave of the slave, and thus reflect Christ, who made himself slave to us, that we might be served. It’s marvelous stuff! The Christ is preached so powerfully here, not just by the words of an apostle, not just by doctrine laid out before Philemon, but by the very life of a man.

    With reason, then, this short, brief letter to Philemon is included in the corpus of Paul’s letters. almost as if you can’t go any higher, which you can in Ephesians and Colossians, and then you move on to Philemon. But let me tell you, we do move higher seemingly when we come to Philippians. Didn’t you enjoy hearing Philippians 3? Isn’t that a marvelous, marvelous chapter out of the Apostles’ writings?

    And how he sits forward so vulnerably. In the very center of his existence in this epistle, he says in the opening chapter, for me to live in Christ’s body. The second chapter, remember what stands at the center of the second chapter, Philippians? Have this mind of you which is also in Christ Jesus. You remember how that goes. Then you have the third chapter, which Paul tells us that he counts everything that may have been gained to him in the plague as but refuse. when compared to Christ and to knowing Him.

    How would we be found in Him without having my own righteousness, which is after the law, but the righteousness which is by faith, by faith in Jesus Christ? That I might be conformed to Him, now in the power of His resurrection and also the fellowship of His sufferings.

    How He presses on towards the end Towards the end of that chapter, it speaks about our heavenly citizenship, which is permanent, fixed, unshakable. From heaven we await our Savior. His coming shall mean the transformation of our vile minds into the image of His glory. What shall we say about the fourth chapter of Philippians? God’s psychometry talks about the peace that passes all understanding capable of guarding our earthly minds in Christ Jesus. God’s psychometry. Incredible, duh. Living is marvelous, marvelous indeed.

    Well, that concludes the third grouping of the assistance standard. in the first and second Thessalonians in the second missionary journey. We have those four letters that we spoke of in the third missionary journey. We had Galatians and Romans in the first and second trinity. Now the third grouping was the Prismatists, Ephesians, Olympians, Colossians, Philemon. We have three left, and what three on the day? Three. We have the pastoral epistles, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. There it is. There it is. We’re done.

    Now, most likely, the imprisonment that is spoken of with regard to Paul at the end of Acts was not the final imprisonment experienced by the Apostles. There’s other evidence within his epistles that He was released, he had a period of freedom before he was arrested again and then tried and, yes, in fact, executed. Now, most likely, Paul’s second arrest occurred in the year 64 AD. But the period now in which he writes these pastoral epistles is that period from about 62 to 64 A.D. Now, believe it or not, these epistles are very, very important. They seem to be the last epistles that he writes. Do you think he saved the best for last? Well, in some respect, he does.

    But when people are thinking about looking for the best from the Apostles, they don’t ordinarily turn to the pastoral epistles, do they? They turn to somewhere else. But the pastoral epistles are glorious. Now, why so? Because, you see, the pastoral epistles are transitional documents. What do I mean by that? They are documents that are born to them, chart out for us the pattern of things, the way in which things lay, as we move from the apostolic period to the post-apostolic period. From that period in which we have a living, breathing apostle with us, to a period in which we don’t. That makes these epistles very important, doesn’t it? Because here the apostle is going to tell us things that are of vital importance for us, and we will be in a state, in a condition, in which we have no living, breathing apostle among us.

    It’s almost as if the pastoral epistles are Paul’s last will and testament. These are the things he wants to say as he prepares to leave this world. Now, we can say something more about these pastoral epistles. They are architectonic. Oh, that’s a nice word. They are architectonic. They are concerned with architecture. What do I mean?

    They are concerned with structure, with order, the structure and order of the Church of Christ, how Christ’s Church is to look, how it’s to behave, how it’s to be ordered in terms of its offices, and the responsibilities that arise within the order of the Church.

    Now, Paul probably writes first Timothy and Titus from Macedonia, then released from Rome. He’s making journeys now through some of the territories that he has traversed before he comes to Macedonia, and from Macedonia he writes his letters to Timothy and to Titus. Where is Timothy? Timothy is in Ephesus. He has responsibilities there. And where is Titus? Titus is in Crete, the island of Crete.

    Now, after Paul has had a period of freedom, as we’ve said, he’s moved about the Mediterranean world and had a great impact, still further impact, possibly even made his way to Spain. He had hoped to get there, you know. He possibly got as far as Spain, but at any rate, he knows that there is an end to this period, and he is arrested a second time. He is taken to Rome now, and from Rome, during the second imprisonment, he writes his final letter, his glorious letter, second to the letter, from which we have read tonight.

    And this, most likely, immediately before his execution. If you were going to be executed for Christ, do you think that you could not be such wise as these? You might well be. And you think of Christians in Iraq and Kuwait, who may be facing death because of their faith? How would they express themselves? Were saints in Germany held up before the onslaught? Were believers in Holland during the Second World War? and were persecuted and executed for their faith.

    Well, marvelous stuff, and you’ll note as you go through it how the Apostle speaks in Christ-like language. Did you notice how things move from that 16th verse on? He’s already described Himself as an offering about to be poured out, a sacrifice. That’s Christlike. But in verse 18, He talks about His first offense. Noah stood with Him. Well, that sounds familiar. Then He says, but all deserted Me. Yes, that sounds familiar. May it not be counted against Him. That sounds familiar too.

    It’s paramount in His own departure, after the departure of life, for me to live His life. Then He speaks about His own. In this very statement, a personal quote, as wonderful as that 18th verse, the Lord will deliver me from every evil deed and will bring me faithfully to His heavenly kingdom.

    Now, here are the thirteen epistles of Paul. I’ve got them organized now. Okay, we’re having a test. The Thessalonian epistles in the Second Missionary Journey, the next four from the Third Missionary Journey, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, and Romans. Then the prison epistles. We have Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Pliny. Then the last period, the pastoral epistles, 1 and 2, Timothy, and the rest.

    There it is, what I made up. The letters themselves are a monument to the grace of God. As the apocryphal servant of the Spirit declares, the Gospel has given to successive ages that we are the beneficiaries of this. The apocryphal articulates the great doctrines of the faith, setting them before us as the standard, the rule, the canon for us.

    But He lives out those doctrines so wonderfully in the Spirit of Christ, so that Christ Himself is seen in the Apostle. Not only are we to embrace the doctrines, we are to live the doctrines. Not only are we to believe in Christ, we are to live Christ. So the Apostle Abel said, 1 Corinthians 11. be imitators of Me, even as I am of Christ.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Paul’s Third Missionary Journey

    Paul’s Third Missionary Journey

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The History of Salvation” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, February 10, 1991.

    About this sermon

    Paul’s third missionary journey carries him through Ephesus, Macedonia, Greece, and Troas, following Christ’s own pattern in setting his face toward Jerusalem. That journey reveals the real focus of the whole book of Acts.

    More sermons from Acts · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    Tonight we are reading from Acts 20, beginning at verse 17. Hear the word of God. And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church. And when they had come to him, he said to them, You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews, how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, am teaching you publicly and from house to house, solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

    And now, behold, bound in spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions awaken. But I do not consider my life on any account as dear to myself, in order that I may finish my course, and the ministry which I have received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God. And now, behold, I know that you all, among whom I went about preaching the kingdom, will see my face no more. Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.

    Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears.

    And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I have coveted no man’s silver or gold or clothes. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my own needs and to the men who were with me. In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he himself said is more blessed to give than to receive. When he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. They began to weep aloud, and he embraced Paul and repeatedly kissed him, grieving especially over the word which he had spoken, that they should see his face no more, and they were accompanying him to the ship.

    Now as is noted, we are dealing with Paul’s third missionary journey. We’ll be taking this in parts tonight. We’ll be dealing with part one, and that will concern something of the travel for Paul. This will be your travel log. And when we return to this matter a couple of weeks from tonight, We will take up the content of the letters that Paul writes to the various churches during this journey. According to my count, I have four letters that were written during this third missionary journey. Galatians, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, and Romans.

    We’ll study them, we’ll look at them at a later time. You may want to consult the map in the back of your Bible. If you have a Bible that has a map in it, it might help you to trace out what we’re saying with that map, or you may want to follow along as we move through the material in Acts 18 through Acts 21. If you can do both at the same time, you have two Bibles.

    Paul’s third missionary journey. It is the most complicated of his journeys and it is one that covered a very long period of time. Some have calculated that it covered as many as four years. Four years as he went out from Antioch of Syria and then returned, not to Antioch, This third missionary journey took place in the middle period, in the 6th decade in the 1st century. I would put it in the mid-50s. As I have suggested to you, the account of this journey starts up in the 18th chapter of Acts, verse 23. and it continues through the 15th verse of the 21st chapter.

    Now we are told that at the beginning Paul makes his way from Antioch in Syria through the regions of Galatia and Phrygia. He moves up into Asia Minor and then from the eastern regions of Asia Minor he moves to the west through Asia Minor into the regions of Galatia and Phrygia. He’s moving by land westward and most likely he is making contact with churches that have been established in that region already, churches that he has visited. And he is probably also making contact with other regions, if not other churches, that have grown up, possibly in the northern Galatian era as well as in Phrygia.

    Now it is at this point that Luke interjects for us and comments, an interlude if you will, concerning Apollos. Running on there towards the end of the 18th chapter, Acts have Apollos, this figure of Apollos, introduced to you. Apollos comes from Africa. He comes from Alexandria, northern Africa. He is a man who is mighty in the scriptures. He is definitely blessed and gifted. He’s eloquent. He is a convert to the baptism of John.

    When he comes to Ephesus, he encounters Priscilla and Aquila. You may recall they have come to Ephesus. Now, Apollos arrives at Ephesus and he meets up with Priscilla and Aquila and they take him aside and they explain to him the way of truth more completely. He is convinced by their argument and their presentation that he moves, as it were, from the baptism of John to the baptism of the Spirit in Jesus Christ. From here, Apollos moves on to Corinth, and now we note that as Paul makes his own progress in this journey, he will make similar progress from Ephesus to Corinth. But at any rate, now we are back to Paul. as we start up the nineteenth chapter of Acts, and Paul himself arrives in Ephesus coming from the east. He finds there a number of people who are of the opinion that Apollos had held formerly. There are many apologists, it seems, at Ephesus at this time.

    There is a party of folk that have held to the baptism of John, and Paul instructs these, and they then receive the Holy Spirit. Interestingly, we are told that there are twelve men in number who receive this blessing through the ministry of Paul, and this is reminding us of the twelve tribes of Israel. The ministry intended for Israel is complete as things transpire here in Ephesus, and these twelve men receive the blessing of the Holy Spirit. They’re sort of men who are walking out of time, and now they are brought up to date by the ministry of Paul as they are blessed by the Holy Spirit. Holdovers from Israel, and now blessed as they become part of the Church of Christ as it is meeting in Ephesus.

    As well, we might note that the new Israel continues to take shape, and that out of the background of the old Israel. You might recall that all the practice has been to go to the synagogues addressing the old Israel, and now these people, even though they are of the baptism of John looking for the Messiah, is still held, as it were, in a time warp, and is still part of the old administration, and they now are brought into the new administration by this marvelous work of the Spirit through the Apostle Paul. As we’ve noted then, Paul preaching in synagogues, and that’s what he does here at Ephesus.

    The things become difficult for him in that setting, and he is driven out crudiform, and he ends up in the school of Tyrenus. The site proves to be quite advantageous for his ministry, for his preaching, for his instruction. There is tremendous growth for the church, and Paul ends up staying in this setting for over two years. But his ministry, you will notice as we move through this nineteenth chapter of Acts, his ministry is more than just one of instruction, teaching and preaching.

    We are told here about the remarkable ministry of healing, the remarkable ministry of power that is evidenced in Paul as he carries on his ministry in the city of Ephesus. Now there were some who vainly sought to profit from this ministry. We are told about the seven sons of Sceva, for instance, and how they are dealt with by the Spirit of God. But there are others, of course, who are wonderfully profited in their spirit by this ministry.

    We are told of the great number of magicians in the city of Ephesus who renounced their craft and then bring their books to be burned. Indeed, we have the price of those books calculated for us there in the 19th verse, 19th chapter, 50,000 pieces of silver worth of books burned.

    Well, Paul’s ministry in Ephesus is coming to a close now, and he is making plans to visit Macedonia and Achaia. these regions that lay to the west. So he sends Timothy and Erastus ahead of him into Macedonia. In the meantime, we are told things begin to heat up for him in Ephesus.

    You may recall a fellow by the name of Demetrius. No, not the gladiator, this is Demetrius the silversmith. And he seems to be one who is the head of a guild of silversmiths, and this particular guild has made an incredible amount of money because they have been forming little shrines that they sell, shrines honoring Diana, or Artemis, the goddess whose temple sits in Ephesus, whose grand temple is situated there, her temple being one of the great and wonderful splendors of the ancient world. Well, as you know, Paul and his message were ruining the trade for Demetrius and the silversmiths.

    The riots break out, and by the time things calm down, Paul has decided that it’s time to leave and make his way to Macedonia, which is what he does. Now, he works hard in Macedonia, and we assume that he, again, there, as he was an Asian minor, there visiting established churches. You have a number of them situated in Macedonia, Philippi, Correa, and others. And we might assume that he breaks new ground as well. He’s there laboring in Macedonia with established churches and very likely seeing the churches established.

    He then subsequently labors in Greece or in Achaia. And as he is about to set sail from Corinth, one of the chief cities of Achaia, As he is about to set sail from Corinth for Antioch, a Jewish plot against his life is on earth. It seems that the Jews there are intent upon killing him. So he retraces his steps, he doesn’t set sail, instead he retraces his steps, he moves then backward towards the north, back into Macedonia.

    He arrives at Philippi, and there he picks up Luke, most likely, because at this point we have, again, the wee passage introduced, the writer of Acts introducing himself into the narrative. We’re into the 20th chapter, of course, now. Paul and his party leave before Philippi after the Passover, after the Feast of Unleavened Bread. They travel five days by boat to Troas, across the straits there where they spend a week, seven days altogether. Now I think that he knows something about what takes place here At Troas, it’s one of the interesting passages from the Book of Acts, on the first day of the week, for instance, that the church is gathering together, and they are gathering together for fellowship, for worship, to hear the Apostle.

    Paul’s intending to leave the next day, but he preaches well into the night. In fact, he preaches until midnight. We all remember the tale about Eutychus, the young lad who is sitting in the windowsill and goes off and falls out of the windowsill to the ground and is presumed to be dead. Paul goes out and ministers to him and Eutychus is raised up.

    I, of course, again, enjoy this passage because it seems that the saints were getting together And this is only one of those instances in the Book of Acts where it’s obvious to us that the saints were, in fact, gathering, yes, on the first day of the week, but they were gathering seemingly in the evening.

    Now that doesn’t mean they weren’t gathering in the morning, too. They were, of course. marked the resurrection of Christ in the morning. They marked the appearances of Christ in the evening. That’s how it was on the first resurrection day. So the saints got together morning and evening.

    And you might know, of course, that in that society they didn’t give you Sunday off. It was a pagan environment. Now the Jews might take Saturday off. They wouldn’t work on their Sabbath. But there was nothing in the society that permitted the Christians to have their Sunday bus. So what did they do? Well, I had to work. I didn’t make it to worship.

    No, what they did is they got up before they went to work, and they went to worship. And then, that not being enough for them, strange people that they were, they seemed to have an incredible appetite for worship. for getting together and hearing about the mighty works of God. They came back at night after they had worked, after they had put in a full day.

    Now, is it any wonder that the Church was progressing and being blessed? How the Spirit moved in the hearts of these people, that the Spirit could move again. And I’m not talking about extraordinary things, I’m just talking about the ordinary means of grace that become so precious to the people of God that they seemingly cannot live without them. They want the Word, they want the sacraments, they want prayer, and each one of those elements are focused in the corporate experience of the people of God. All you need do is consider the sacraments, do you not?

    Do we? Do we discharge our responsibility towards the sacraments by ourselves privately? Do we have a little private baptism in our bathroom, in the bathtub, as we baptize our kids? No, it’s a corporate act. It’s an act by the assembly. Do we have communion by ourselves? Do we sit ourselves down at the kitchen table and take out a bottle of wine, a loaf of bread, and have a private communion service? No, it’s a corporate act.

    The means of grace pertain to corporate acts, the Word, the hearing and the preaching of the Word. That’s where the emphasis is placed throughout the Scriptures in their entirety. And with regard to prayer, not so much to minimize our private responsibility and duty when it comes to prayer, but the emphasis is on corporate prayer, people of God coming together to pray. All right. Not for my harangue on that, but that you might know the focus in the Word upon the people of God getting together, coming together, and being blessed in that corporate experience through the means of grace, which are God’s ordinary means.

    And it’s verses on an evening in Troas. I’ll write a poem on that someday. Well, now, Paul then makes his way down the western shore of Asia Minor. He moves from Athos to Mycolene, to Chios, to Samos, to Miletus. That’s where we were tonight as we read from Acts 20. He was at Miletus. He wished to make good time towards Jerusalem, so he wasn’t going to stop in Ephesus, he wasn’t going to go to Ephesus. He wanted to be in Jerusalem for the feast at Pentecost, but he didn’t want to bypass Ephesus altogether, so he called for the elders to come to him from Ephesus, and they meet him here at Miletus.

    In this context we have Paul delivering his most moving and eloquent message to the church leaders. It’s magnificent stuff. He not only speaks about how he has conducted himself in their midst, but also how they are to conduct themselves. Strong, strong words. Very powerful. There is that sense, too, if you read through this section, there is that sense, too, that this will in fact be Paul’s last visit amongst these folks, and for that reason they are extremely saddened.

    They go home, and Paul continues on his journey back to Israel, on his way to Jerusalem. He and his party move past coast, Rhodes and Patera, and then past Cyprus to Tyre, where they spend a week with the saints. They’ve now landed on the shore, and all along the way we have these testimonies coming to Paul. He is told of the dangers that are awaiting him in Jerusalem. His party then moves south to Ptolemaeus, they spend the day there with some of the saints, and then on to Caesarea.

    Interestingly here, we are introduced again to the personage of Philip the Evangelist, one of the seven. He has four daughters who are prophetesses. It’s in this context that Paul encounters the prophet Agabus, who tells him that there are chains awaiting him in Jerusalem, and he will be delivered over to the Gentiles. The language itself sort of jars us, delivered over, bound to the Gentiles, as if there’s some sort of Christ-like form and shape to this whole experience that awaits the Apostle Paul.

    And he is going to fulfill his ministry. He’s going to complete his course. And in that, there is going to be a number of striking similarities between him and his Savior. He will be conformed to the image of his Lord, going up to Jerusalem, just as Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He will be bound there. He will be handed over to Gentiles, just as his Lord was.

    And he is ready for this, because he has studied the life of his Lord, and he even yearns to be conformed to the image of his Lord. Thou, Jesus, even die in Jerusalem, if need be. So in fact, as we see the third missionary journey come to an end, we are witnessing the progress of a man in his ministry who is progressively being conformed to the image of his Savior, And that includes death. He does not shy away from it, that he even walks towards it.

    Now throughout this section, in conclusion this evening, we will note again those themes that we have already articulated for the Book of Acts. There is that continual emphasis upon the Gentile mission, the realization of that mystery which has been held secret from ages past, which is now manifest and revealed, that God’s intention is to bless the nations, and they are now in fact being blessed at the same time. And secondly, we have an emphasis falling upon the unity of the Church.

    Yes, Disciples of John the Baptist move, move out of that context into the environment of the blessing of the Spirit, as differences are drawn between them and the Christian assembly, and they become full participants in the assembly that is ruled by Jesus Christ and His Spirit. There’s the unity of the Spirit, and not just that, Jews who are transformed, converted, more still coming. not holding on to their Jewishness, but in fact becoming something other than what they were as they are blended with Gentiles, and they become one new body in Christ Jesus. There is the authority of the Word as Paul preaches and as he ministers, as he deals with those who are beset with problems, those who are overcome with idolatry, those who are possessed with all kinds of things. difficulties and spirits, He, working His ministry through the Word, the authority of His ministry as it exerts itself, and not only that, His office as His office is related to the Word. We do not walk away from the structure of the Church and the authority forms that our Savior has set up for the government of His body.

    So yes, the Gentiles brought in the unity of the Church, the authority of the Word, the binding of the Word to office and structure these things being asserted. But there are new things as well. We’ve already hinted at those new things. There is this pressure which exerts itself in the life of the Apostle as he is compelled along the road to pursue a course that conforms him to his Savior in a literal fashion.

    The unity that exists, not just between Jew and Gentile, not just for disciples of John and those who profess Christ, but the unity that exists between Christ and His own. What prospect is there for us? What direction is there for us in our lives? For me, says Paul, for me to live is Christ. To die is giving. Here is one who rejoices in Christ, even though conformity to Christ may mean literally that he give up his life for his sake. just as Christ has given up his life for us.

    Even the church found Paul’s attitude inexplicable. They tried to keep him from it, almost as if they were Peter-like. Remember Peter laying stumbling blocks in the road of Christ? And Jesus has to say, get me behind me, Satan. Even the church hesitates.

    We can’t take this thing literally now. We can’t take this thing literally. But Paul says, yes, we can. And I was. as I am conformed to Christ, even in His death. We spend a great deal of time trying to save our lives. Self-preservation is a natural instinct. The call is giving up the call. How it manifests itself not just in that he pursues a course that leads him to Jerusalem where he may die, but he extends himself for Ephesian Christians and others in a way that testifies to the fact that he really is not counting his life dear, he’s not concentrating on himself, he’s giving himself away. Day and night I labored among you, giving myself away. I even worked at two jobs. One, I worked as an apostle. Secondly, I worked as a tent maker, in order that you might be spared.”

    Well, he conducts his ministry in a way that accents his message. His ministry is underscored by The very message, his ministry is underscored by the very message that he proclaims. The message is lived out in the ministry performed. There is a consistency in the man that is glorious. The work of the Spirit. Oh, that we were consistent. that our lives match our words, and our words our lives. We can learn much, indeed, from Paul, here in his third missionary journey. Amen.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Paul Confronts Peter at Antioch

    Paul Confronts Peter at Antioch

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The History of Salvation” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, February 3, 1991.

    About this sermon

    The stage is set with James before turning to the sharp confrontation at Antioch, where Paul corrects Peter to his face. Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians and his wider second missionary journey follow, the same gospel integrity worked out in new territory.

    More sermons from Galatians · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    So now shall we begin our scripture reading in Galatians, chapter 2. We start at verse 11 and read to the end of the chapter. Hear the word of God. When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his faith, because he stood condemned. For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles, but when they came, he began to withdraw to hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cetus in the presence of all, if you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?

    We are Jews by nature and not sinners among the Gentiles. Nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, Even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law, since by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. But if while seeking to be justified in Christ we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin?

    May it never be, for if I rebuild what I once What I have once destroyed I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me in the life which I now live. In the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and delivered himself up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, with righteousness comes to the law, and Christ died needlessly.” I’m turning over to the book of Acts, the 18th chapter. In order to get a feel for Paul’s second missionary journey, we’ll begin reading with the first verse.

    After these things he left Athens, that is, Paul, and went to Corinth, and he found a certain Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. He came to them, and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them, and they were working, for by trade they were tent makers. And he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews in Greece. Then Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia.

    Paul began devoting himself completely to the Word, solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. And when they resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, Your blood be upon your own heads, I am cleansed. From now on I shall go to the Gentiles.

    And he departed from there and went to the house of a certain man named Titius Justus, a worshipper of God whose house was next to the synagogue. And Christus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his house, and many of the Corinthians, when they heard, were believing and being baptized. And the Lord said to Paul, In the night, by a vision, do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking, and do not be silent. For I am with you, and no man will attack you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city.”

    And he settled there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. Then turning over to 1 Thessalonians, for a taste of that epistle, Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians, the first chapter. And reading the end of that first chapter, beginning in verse 8, For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything.

    They themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who delivers us from the last to come.

    Our Father, it is true that often we believe that the impossibilities that stand for man are final, that there are impossibilities for us and for those that we know and love. We ask, Lord, that we would have that faith that sees you as the God of all possibility, not only for ourselves, for surely we have been rescued by you, redeemed and set in your kingdom. Lord, with respect to those about us, those we love, and with respect to the circumstances that overtake your people, you are the God who can change things. We thank you, our Father, Such is your power, that according to your ordination, your people make their requests, they cry out unto you, and you, in response to them, change things.

    You even change, Lord, those whose hearts are apparently of stone. You take those who are intractable and make them pliable. You renew them. You change the direction of their lives. You raise them up, as it were, from the dead. You rejoice our God. May we, in our attitude, never act as if great things are impossible to you. Instead, may our confidence be built up and our hope strengthened through what you tell us in your word. May we pray with all confidence and with full expectation that we are heard and shall be answered as you please. We pray these things as we approach your word tonight. For Jesus’ sake, amen.

    Now as we make our way through this history of New Testament times, we want to remember that there is not simply historical material for us that comes to us from the Gospels and from the Book of Acts. But there are also epistles, and that the epistles work within the framework of that history that is laid out in front of us. Not that that’s an easy task. It isn’t. We go to work trying to colorate what we find in the epistles with what we find in historical sections of Acts. Sometimes we are baffled. Sometimes we’re at a loss. Nevertheless, there is a historical frame which the various epistles fit. There is a figure that has been introduced to us now in Acts that is important to us.

    The figure is James. He was introduced to us last week as we took up the Jerusalem Council. He appeared there and According to the account in Acts, he gave the final speech, and everybody was happy after he had spoken, and the letter was drafted and sent out to the churches with the imprimatur of the apostles and the elders in Jerusalem. And James certainly was a pillar of that church. So who is this James? If he, in fact, the brother of John, one of the sons of Zebedee.

    Well, that can’t be. Why? Because in the 12th chapter of Acts, we’ve already found out that that fellow has been executed by Herod Agrippa. He’s gone from the sea. That James has died, passed on. Here’s another James. What James might this one be? Well, there is the James who was the younger brother of Jesus, son of Mary. It seems from the gospel accounts he wasn’t a believer to begin with. Now after the death and resurrection of Jesus, he has come to believe and now is a pillar in the church at Jerusalem. And the epistle that bears the name James, later on in the canon of the New Testament, has been written by the younger brother of Jesus.

    Now, this epistle that has been written has caused its own problems, and I think that you’re well aware of those. Have you worked your way through the epistle of James recently? Maybe you were as distressed as was Martin Luther when he read through it.

    He didn’t like that epistle at all. He called it the epistle of straw. Very weak, he said. Why? Because he couldn’t find any evidence in it of the doctrine of justification by faith alone, the doctrine which he felt was the chivalrous by which all true Scripture could be identified and authenticated. James hadn’t fared well with the Protestant Reformation, at least as it came forth from Luther.

    It fared much better with Calvin. Calvin looked at the epistle of James, and he saw the epistle of James as something of a New Testament book of wisdom. Do we have Old Testament books of wisdom? Do we not? the most famous of which is probably the Book of Proverbs.

    Here is a New Testament book of wisdom, and you hear James speak about wisdom, and that’s centrally to his epistle. You read the third chapter of James, and you come to the fifteenth verse of that chapter and what a marvelous statement is given up there as James speaks about that wisdom that is transcendent, the wisdom that comes down from heaven but doesn’t arise from the earth.

    Magnificent, magnificent statement. It’s obvious from that statement that James himself has the heavenly point of view, and that with respect to the wisdom that then he places before the churches, before the saints. Now, he has a number of sober reminders for us in light of this wisdom that he is sharing now by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. I might say a wisdom that is possible only because of the work of Jesus Christ. This wisdom that comes down from above is the wisdom that is dispensed by Christ from on high. This epistle, as I have said, is a book of sober reminders.

    We must remember that faith, though it justifies, does not stand alone in its activity. Faith is proved by works, so much is this the case that James wants us to hear it in stark, in bold fashion. justified, therefore, by a faith which stands alone. For a faith which stands alone, devoid of works, is dead.”

    Now, does this contradict what Paul has said so magnificently in Galatians, the second That portion which we have read tonight? No, not at all. If you continue to read in Paul’s letter to the Galatians, you come to the fifth chapter, the sixth verse, and we’re told there by the Apostle Paul that there is this faith then that justifies, but this faith which justifies is a faith that works by love. And if it doesn’t work by love, it’s not justifying faith.

    It’s as simple as that. It’s as simple as that. an epistle then of sober reminders to us coming forth from James, the younger brother of Jesus. And not only is he reminding us of faith’s relationship to work, he’s reminding us of faith’s relationship to prayer. Go on to the fourth chapter. You want to jolt, read that fourth chapter. In fact, pick up any of the chapters of James’ epistle, and you’re sure to be jolted by what you read in those chapters. But nevertheless, moving on to the fourth chapter, you have faith relationship to prayer. He comes out boldly.

    Why is it that you pray, and then you don’t see any consequence to your prayer? A straightforward question. Why is it you see no response from heaven to your prayers? Because you pray them in. You pray out of your lust, he says. What you wish for, you will hope to receive in order to consume what you have received upon your lust, that’s why. You are not, therefore, submissive to God In your prayers, your faith is not directed properly.

    It is not directed aright. Sobering sucks. You have to go to work on your heart when you enter into the activity of prayer. You have to fight with yourself. You have to argue with yourself, debate with yourself, with regard to the condition of your heart as you make requests of heaven. Be in tune with the One to whom you are called upon to submit. Be in tuned to God. Be in tuned with Christ. Be in tuned with that wisdom that comes down from above. understand him, and pray accordingly.” Well, here is James, and he is figured, as I have said, already, as you know, we saw this last week, he is figured in the Jerusalem Council.

    He’s said the decision is made now with respect to Gentile status. Do they have to submit themselves to Jewish rights to the law itself? Is that to be required of them? Are they to be compelled to keep the ceremonial laws of the Jews? No. So says the Council in Jerusalem, and now the word goes out, James contributing to that.

    Now, we’re not done with the figure of James, as you’ve seen from the letters to the Galatians. We have Galatians 2, which James has mentioned once more. It seems that now that Paul and Barnabas have returned from Jerusalem to Antioch, which is their home church, they have engaged in teaching and preaching there once more, and it could well be within that context that the things that are described now in Galatians 2 take place. Peter has come down from Jerusalem. He’s paying a visit to the church in Antioch. And when he comes there initially, he eats with the Gentiles.

    Makes no bones about it. Jews and Gentiles eating together. Now, see, that’s not the way it used to be. Jews didn’t eat with Gentiles. You would become unclean if you did such a thing. Now, we are told that there are those who have come down, reputedly, from the party of James, come down from Jerusalem, representing him, and when they arrive on the scene, we are told that Peter withdraws from the Gentile tables and eats at the table of the Jews who have come down from Jerusalem. Now, things are in a backdraw. Not only is it a matter of Peter withdrawing and then segregating himself to eat only with Jews, we have pressure brought to bear upon Barnabas, the former Levite, you know. He is withdrawing also.

    So Paul withstands Peter to the face. He puts it to him, knowing that if he does not make his stand, the Gentiles there at Antioch are liable to think once more that salvation in some respect is related to the work of the law, or that these Jews have a privileged status and that their keeping of their ceremonial practices somehow places them at a level above Gentile believers. Paul sees this as a threat. a threat to the gospel itself. So he goes toe-to-toe, eyeball-to-eyeball with Peter publicly, stands up to him, challenges him, and wins the day. Peter is convicted and realizes his error. and he and Paul once more in fellowship again, and Barnabas is recaptured.

    Well, this is the second missionary journey with Paul, and we’re going to survey that tonight with you. We’ll be moving from the 15th chapter of Acts, verse 36, through the 18th chapter, verse 22. Now, it’s in fact these Problems arose in the Antioch church prior to the second missionary journey of Paul. What now transpires as Paul’s getting ready for that second missionary journey leaves us quite disillusioned, doesn’t it?

    Because, you see, the church is a place where controversy takes place. You can’t avoid it. There’s been controversy at the church at Antioch. There’s been trouble. People have been fighting with one another. Peter and Paul, in fact, have squared off against each other and gone toe-to-toe.

    And not only that, but now as you move into the preparations for the second missionary journey with Paul, we have Paul standing over against Barnabas. Completely different matter now, for Barnabas wants to take along with him John Mark. What’s the problem there? Well, during the first missionary journey, you might recall John Mark abandoned ship. He left. And Paul is quite upset about that. Why should we take this fella who abandoned us in our first journey? Barnabas is insistent. He wants to take John Mark. They can’t come to an agreement, so they part company. Barnabas takes John Mark, and they go to Cyprus, and Paul takes Silas, and they set out to the north and to the west through Asia Minor.

    Now they retrace the steps of the First missionary journey, that is, they retrace the cities that had been visited by Paul and Barnabas in Lavergne. They go to Derby and then Lystra. If you have a map in the back of your Bible, you may want to follow the progress of the journey through Asia Minor. They go to Derby, the city of Derby first, and then they go to Lystra, and there, though we’re not told in the Book of Acts, they pick up Timothy. Timothy joins the company because he is from Lystra.

    They then move to Iconium and then to another Antioch. This is Antioch of Pisania, a different city than the one that they had left where their home church was situated. They are forbidden to go into the province of Asia, which stands to the far west, now in Asia Minor, the province that includes such cities as Ephesus and others, they’re forbidden to enter into that province by the back door, so they must move northward, but they run then into the province of Bithynia, and they are forbidden by the Spirit to enter Bithynia, so they have to move due west. They have to move due west to Troas. It’s almost as if Paul’s party must to skirt the territories of Asia and Bithynia, like the Jews were compelled to skirt the territories of Edom and Moab in the Old Testament as they were making their approach to the Promised Land.

    But at any rate, at any rate, Paul and his company finally come to Troy. Now, this is, in fact, ancient Troy. And we’re not told much about what happens there, but it is plain from the text that at this point they pick up, in addition to the ones that they are already carrying along, they pick up Luke, which is at this point that we have introduced for us the wee passages of the Book of the Acts, suggested that the author is himself engaged in what is happening. Well, it is at Troas that Paul receives his Macedonian call. You remember the vision that he has? The Macedonian that appears to him says, come over and help us. So Paul and his company are off to Macedonia, and they land at Neapolis, and from there they go down to Philippi, a famous city of that region, and great things happened in Philippi.

    Read the sixteenth chapter of Acts. and refresh your memories. They meet Lydia there. She’s saved. She is a convert. There is also the healing of the demon-to-death girl. She’s a sorceress. She’s a means of income to others who live in Philippi. Those who are denied now their income through her services are enraged, and they go to work on Paul and his company and set the officials against them. Paul and Silas are then in prison. They’re beaten. You remember what happens at midnight as Paul and Silas are singing psalms together. There’s an earthquake and the jailer comes in. He’s trembling. He sees that his wife is in the balance.

    He asks the question, What must I do to be saved? And Paul gives his response, “…believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” We usually leave off the last part of that. Unfortunately, I suppose the reason that we do is that we’re Baptists at heart instead of Presbyterians. No, the whole verse says, “…thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” Covenantal response Paul makes here. to this Gentile jailer. Today there is the apology that was given by the officials of Philippi as Paul and Silas are then released.

    They make their way then to Antipolis and then to Apollonia and then they come to Thessalonica. We’ve read from Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians tonight that there are controversies that arise in Thessalonica. And from that region they then moved down to Berea. On their heels come Jews from Thessalonica to make trouble for them there at Berea. The Bereans, however, proved themselves to be most noble because they searched the scriptures diligently to see whether the things that Paul is saying are true. But Paul is then, because of the pressure that is exerted in Berea, forced to leave there.

    He leaves behind Silas and Timothy, he travels out to the coast, and then he moves on down south to Athens, and at Athens he preaches in the marketplace, and he’s taken up on Mars Hill, there to address the philosophers that had gathered there regularly in order to hear something new.

    He preaches to them something new indeed, the resurrection from the dead, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He tells them, in fact, that this one who has been raised will come again to judge the world. Some of them said, well, that’s interesting. Some of them stopped. Others believed.

    We move then into the 18th chapter of Acts, Paul is moving west from Corinth, I’m sorry, he’s moving west from Athens to Corinth, a place where then he stays for 18 months, a year and a half we are told. He meets there Aquila and Priscilla, they are tent makers, they’re fleeing Rome because Claudius the Emperor has issued an edict and driven the Jews out of Rome, they’ve come to Corinth to live there and to work, and Paul being a tent maker, he knows a trade, He joins forces with them, and they are working together, Paul supporting himself, and we assume at the same time he is preaching the gospel. When Timothy and Silas arrive, they come down from the north.

    He is able to give his full time to the ministry of the Word. The Jews, however, are stirring things up. They enlist, or hope to enlist, Gallio, a council there, a royal official, a government figure. He has no sympathy for the Jews and their objectives, and the church is sparing.

    But after the 18 months, Paul is on his way to Jerusalem. He leaves Corinth, and he makes his way to Ephesus. He stays but a little time A little period there, he is with Aquila and Drusilla once more there in Ephesus, but then he departs from Ephesus, promising to return and minister to them later on. He makes his journey back to the Holy Land, to Caesarea, he goes up to Jerusalem, he there greets the Church, and then he returns to the home base, Antioch. We have that in the 22nd verse of the 18th chapter, and the second missionary journey of Paul has reached its conclusion.

    Now, there is something else to be said. We have, in fact, read some Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians. There are letters to the Thessalonians this evening. There are two of them. These epistles are written by him when he was at Colon. and quite concerned about the well-being of the Thessalonians to the north. There have been some deputations to Thessalonica. We had sent Timothy to investigate the situation there. He was quite concerned about the well-being of these saints. But Timothy has reported much to the joy of Paul how well the Thessalonians are doing.

    Once an exciting reading, read through the Thessalonian Epistles because you have an account of the well-being of the Thessalonian Church and how magnificently these things are doing even under the pressures that they are living. You have them doing well, but there are some concerns. I might note some of them.

    In the fourth chapter, for instance, of that first epistle, Paul is warning them about the sorts of things that they are bound to face, which they are in fact facing in this Gentile environment. Immorality, in a Gentile environment, has a certain status. Because, you see, immorality has placed upon it a religious sanction. you can sin sexually in a Gentile environment and be looked upon as one who is pleasing the gods and goddesses. So sexual immorality has a certain status conferred upon it in a Gentile environment. These Thessalonians have been rescued from that, They have been introduced to the living and true God, they are awaiting his sons in heaven, but the pressures are severe, they are intense.

    So you can read in that fourth chapter of the first epistle to the Thessalonians how Paul gives them instruction. But not only that, you have the problem of the second coming, and that too is addressed by Paul in the latter part of that fourth chapter and into the This chapter has some very interesting things to say about the return of Christ. Now, it’s not as if Paul’s letter was fully successful, because you turn to the second letter of Paul to Thessalonians and you find him dealing with similar issues. In fact, things have become so bad now, with respect to the second coming, it seems that a number of people have stopped working. can become a drag upon the life of the Church. So Paul again speaks to them very forthrightly about matters concerning the second coming of Christ, but then he tells them, look, get to work.

    You’re busy about those things that you should be busy about, and don’t give yourself an excuse. Don’t provide yourself some sort of theological excuse for your slothfulness, for your laziness. words again that I pointed, and I read, and of course minister to those folks in Thessalonica several centuries ago. Well, read those epistles for profit, for instruction to yield. They are very helpful.

    Remember the stress that that early church was under. and under the temptations to face them on every side, the concerns they had about life day by day, concerns they had with respect to things theological, like the return of Christ, and the importance of that question for the life of believers. The second missionary journey is Paul, expressing the things that we’ve already emphasized time and again, mission and the message of grace, the unity of the Church as once more Jew and Gentile are brought together under the banner of Christ, and, of course, the apostolic presence as the progress of the Church is overseen by the authority of those whom Christ has called and set in place. Amen.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • The Gentile Mission

    The Gentile Mission

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The History of Salvation” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, January 20, 1991.

    About this sermon

    The Gentile mission sits at the very center of God’s plan, summarized as Acts 9-11 spreads the gospel to tribes and tongues far beyond Israel. In a real sense, we ourselves are still that Gentile mission underway.

    More sermons from Acts · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    Again, I’ll be picturing you in Acts, Chapter 9. Acts, Chapter 9, verse 31. We will read to the end of the chapter, and then we will be turning over to the eleventh chapter. Here’s where it goes. So the Church, throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, enjoyed peace being built up.

    Going on, the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit continued to increase. Now, it came about that as Peter was traveling through all those parts, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lyda. And there he found a certain man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden eight years, and he was paralyzed. And Peter said to him in the end, Jesus Christ heals you. Arise and make your bed. And immediately he arose, and all who lived at Vita and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.

    Now, in Joppa there was a certain disciple named Camatha, which translated in Greek is called Dorcas. This woman was abounding with deeds of kindness and charity, which she continually did. And it came about at that time that she fell sick and died. And when they had washed her body, they laid it in an upper room.

    And since Vida was near Japa, the disciples had incurred that Peter was there, sent two men to him, entreating him, do not delay to come to us. And Peter arose and went with them. And when he had come, they brought him into the upper room, where all the witnesses stood beside him, weeping, and showing all the tunics and garments that Dorcas used to make while she was with them. But Peter sent them all out and knelt down and prayed, and turning to the body, he said, And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up. And he gave her his hand and raised her up. Calling the saints and widows, he presented her with love. And it became known all over Japa, and many believed in the Lord. It came about that he stayed many days in Japa with a certain cantor, a son.

    Then turn it over to the 11th chapter, beginning with verse 19. So then those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose in connection with Stephen made their way to Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Ammion, speaking the word to no one except the Jews alone. that there were some of them, like the Cypress and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus.

    And the Lord was with them. A large number, we believe, turned to the Lord. And news about them reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem. They sent Pilate off to Antioch. Then, when he had come and witnessed the grace of God and rejoiced, he began to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord. For he was a good man, full of Holy Spirit and of faith, and considerable numbers were brought to the Lord. He left for Tarsus to look for Saul. When he had found him, he brought him to Enoch.

    And it came about that for an entire year he met with the Church and taught considerable numbers, and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. Now, at this time, some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, and one of them, named Artemis, stood up and began to indicate by the Spirit that there would certainly be a great famine all over the world. This took place in the reign of Claudius, and in the proportion that any of the disciples had means, each of them determined to send a contribution for the relief of the brethren living in Judea.

    This they did, sending it in charge of Barnabas and Saul to the elders. how we ask You, our Father, that we would be mindful of the power of Your Word, of its work in our lives, how it is able to get to the root of the issue, how we are open to You, how everything is clear to You, how it is impossible for us to hide the truth about ourselves from our God.

    So, our Lord, we do come to You as to the light. Realize that if we were of the darkness, we would not come at all. We come to You as to the light. even though it means that those recesses of our hearts will be exposed by the light. But we welcome your judgments and your chastises.

    They are a blessing, a kindness to us, that we might be more perfectly conformed to Jesus Christ, your Son and our Savior. May it be, our God, that you recognize in us your Son, who answers to you as your Spirit is at work in us, prompting us to live as we ought, in keeping with your commandments, in keeping with the pattern that is set before us in Jesus. Hear us, Lord, and we ask it now. In his name, amen.

    Now, we’ve been at this series for quite some time now, and we’re getting relatively close to the end. But as we move through this series on Bible history, it is appropriate for us to occasionally remind ourselves as to our intention at the beginning. Now, I don’t mean to delay long over this, but I just offer this to you as a reminder of something of a lighthouse for you, as you would think about what we have been spending our time on for so long.

    Our purpose here has been to draw your attention to the details, the figures, that is, the personalities, that appear for us in the flow of Bible history. We are setting forth then the flow of Bible history, calling your attention again to those important events and those personalities, those figures that have been so central to the outworking of God’s purpose. Now, as we have done so, I hope we have kept our eye well trained with regard to the centrality of God himself. Our approach to this history of the Bible is for the purpose of setting well before our eyes once more the figure of God, God as He has revealed Himself in His Word. We know, through the complement of that revelation, means for us the unveiling of our divine, His Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Well, that means that we cannot consider this history apart from a theological or doctrinal purpose. We endeavor to set something of that theological and doctrinal purpose before you as we have made our way through Bible history.

    Now, there are other considerations, too, that we haven’t delayed long over. It hasn’t been our purpose in this series to take time out to look into literary matters, for instance, that are very important. I hope in other contexts we have attempted to deal with those matters, for instance, on Wednesday night or Sunday morning, as we have expounded the word on those occasions. But here, our focus has been the flow of Bible history.

    I might say that as we acquaint ourselves with these central events and these central personalities and think of them in light of the activities of our God, which reveals itself, all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit, we’re better equipped to handle texts as they arise, as we are presented with those, as we have those texts presented to us from occasion to occasion. for your benefit, that you might be able to integrate the Word better, that you might be able to grab hold of the references that are made, that when allusions appear in Scripture, you’re able to leap from place to place, even coming to some of your own conclusions about those things that are mentioned. So, this is for a purpose. Now, I think that as we have moved through, we can see, having arrived at the apostolic period, which we have presented before us here in the Book of Acts, there is laid out before us in it that force of Bible history that is peaking in the Gentile mission, the Gentile And we are watching, as we move through the Book of Acts, how the author, Luke, is setting out before us the incremental stages that then come to full complement in the realization of the call to the Gentiles and their inclusion into the Church of Jesus Christ. Now, by the way, if you mind taking a little bit of a theological detour here, it might be well to remind ourselves of just how central this whole matter of the Gentile mission is to biblical religion.

    I would suggest to you here that we are not dealing with a side trash. We are not dealing here with a road that goes off from the main course. It seems that we are on the central path if we see that this path is right at the center of God’s purpose. I can’t think of it for a minute.

    Is God really the creator of Jews? God is the creator of all men. That fundamental thought is presented to us at the very outset of revelation. God is the creator of all men. God has made all men from one blood. So Paul tells us later on in the Book of Acts, Chapter 7, verse 26, God’s intention, despite man’s willful disobedience, is to bless all nations, to bless all men, all manner of men.

    You might recall that things look bleak. The world descends into sin, God comes in judgment. He rescues the family of Noah, and the rest of the world is judged. And then from Noah’s sea there comes forth the repopulation of the earth, but then the earth descends, even while it tries to ascend in battle, and God’s judgment comes once more, and the peoples are dispersed, and the nations there are distinguished.

    If God is not done, as if at Babel his final word of respect to the nations has been given. For we know that there is the call of Abram, Abram arising out of Carneval County, possibly close to the site of Babel itself. Abraham arises out of Ur of the Chaldees, and there is set in motion now that program of God, whereby He plans through Abraham to bless the nations. All people shall be blessed in you.”

    Genesis 12.3.

    Now, as we read through the Old Testament and we look at the psalms, at the prophets, this message is going to be reiterated again and again. Think of the famous psalm that has meant so much to Presbyterians through the centuries. Think of old hundreds.

    A hundredth psalm, verse one, make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye land. Well, that song is prophetic. It envisions a day when the word of the Lord will go to the nations, and all of the nations then will be brought unto the Lord to His sanctuary there to make a joyful noise to Him. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lambs. Then there is promise throughout the prophets.

    The light that is to go forth to the nations, God promises that His law will be received in the coastlands, that is, the coasts that lead their way throughout the entirety of the created order. How central. We are not here then on some side road. We are on the main road as we think about the call to the Gentiles and the fulfillment of the Gentile mission.

    Is there any question about that after we have read what the Apostle Paul has said in his epistles? I call your attention to his epistle to the Ephesians, the third chapter. This is Ephesians 3, and I have in mind here what Paul says concerning the mystery. Now, he mentions that mystery in verse 3 of that third chapter, but then he goes on to explain what mystery he has in mind in verse 4 of that third chapter of Ephesians. And by referring to this, when you read, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ. which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to its holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit, to be specific, verse 6. that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister.”

    Now, that is rather powerful stuff. Here, what Paul is saying is that there has been a mystery. that has been kept back and is now revealing what is the nature of that mystery that God all along had intended to make the nations, that is, the Gentiles, fellow-heirs of all the promises and blessings that are found in the Covenant, real words in Jesus Christ. We are not here on a side road. We are on the main road of God’s purpose and intention.

    He has, from the beginning, meant His blessings for all men. universally. Now, of course, that does not mean that everyone universally is saved, but his intention is that from amongst all men there will be brought those who believe and trust in him and profit from his covenant.

    Now, we can mark out what has previously been recorded in the Book of Acts. We have arrived at Chapter 9, and we are looking at part of 9 for Chapter 11 this evening, but we can mark out for us what has previously been established. is in impotence, pretending to have this wonderful outwording of God’s purpose as His intention. His intention, from the very beginning, is realizing His fulfillment, His final stuff, final stuff, which He worked through. Go relax from this point of view.

    That is the promise, of course, that Christ gives in chapter one. Remember how he says it in verse eight, that his apostles, his disciples, will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon them, and they will be his witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea, in Samaria, even to the remotest part of the earth. There is the outline of it, and that outline will work itself out throughout the book of Acts as you progress through it. There is the promise of Christ, then, with respect to this blessedness that is coming upon the nations, not just one nation, not just the Jews, but the Gentiles mostly.

    We read then in chapter 2, remember that marvelous event of the preaching of Peter at Pentecost? and how we’re leading into it here. In Chapter 2, we have an accounting there in verse 9 of all of us who are present and hear of the mighty works of God.

    And he is performing now. You have part of him. Verse 9, these two lines. You have residents from Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, districts of Libya and Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and Proselytes, Cretans and Arabs. Verse 11. And all of them are hearing in their own tongues the life deeds of God. You see how we’re making progress.

    Then in Chapter 6, the first verse of that 6th chapter, you have the composition of the Church given to you in that point. You have the mixture of those Greek-speaking believers who are of Hebrew descent and those who are Hebrew or Aramaic-speaking Jews who are residents in Judea or in Jerusalem as part of the Church at that time. There is a broadening out, you see. a broadening doubt.

    Then, in Chapter 8, you have, as a consequence of Stephen’s death, he’s been martyred. Now, you read of that in the seventh chapter. That’s there at the conclusion. But then, as you begin the eighth chapter, you have this effect, the subsequent dispersion as the effect of Stephen’s death, as those in Jerusalem are pushed out from the city.

    They can’t stay there. to push out to the regions around them, to have the dispersion of the Christian testimony and witness throughout that part of the world. That means now, as you move into the rest of Chapter Eight and consider the ministry of Philip, that the Gospel is, in fact, going not to Jews only, but it is also visiting Samaritans. We shall be members of Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria.” Okay. And not only in Samaria, but as Chapter 8 ends, he has Philip’s ministry to the Ethiopian eunuch. We are moving back into territories the Jews once left. down through Egypt and even lower into Ethiopia. Now, we arrive at Chapter 9.

    Here is the capstone. Here is the capstone for the foundations. Capstone will be realized in the conversion, transformation of this man, Saul of Tarsus, whose mission, so says Christ, so says Christ, his mission shall be to take the word of the gospel to the Gentiles. That’s what Ananias is told by the Lord. Verse 15, the Lord says to him, Go, for he is a chosen instrument or vessel of mine, to bear my name before the Gentiles.

    So, that’s where we are presently. We’ve seen it unfold, God’s purpose being realized before your very eyes. But what happens now as this incremental development continues? We have consideration of three distinctive elements. One calls life after conversion. We find that in Acts 9, verses 19 through 30. Then we have Peter’s ministry. Chapter 9, verse 31 through chapter 11, verse 18. Then we have a remarkable story of the Antiochian ministry at the end of chapter 11.

    First of all, Paul’s life after conversion constructed in itself We have the account given here about his sojourn in Damascus and then his visit to Jerusalem. Other portions of scripture, particularly Paul’s account of things in the first chapter of Galatians, suggest to us that this all took about three years.

    After his conversion, he went into Aramaic for a while. And then he returned to Damascus and preached there, and after he was driven out of Damascus, he went down to Jerusalem, there to confer with the apostles about the Gospel that he had been given. Afterwards, after his Sojourn in Jerusalem, we have to leave there as well. For as I have been in Damascus, so it proved to be in Jerusalem there were those who hated him and wished to destroy him. So he leaves Jerusalem for Trissus. You might note, And in this section, we are introduced again to Barnabas. It is Barnabas that treats Paul kindly, receives him when others are suspicious, and proves to be a great help to Paul. But you might also note this line.

    Consider the three years. Consider Paul’s desire. to confer over those who had the authority. I don’t think he had any doubt about his gospel. He said that. But there is this recognition of the authority that was residing in Jerusalem. It’s important for him to touch base with them. Notice the time, people. Three years, as we’ve already mentioned, and then the retreat to Persis. And some have conjectured that Paul was in Persis for ten more years, but here is the man, you see, who had been the winged and God’s messenger to the Gentiles. I have a ministry, you see. I’ve got to be about my ministry. Don’t hold me back. I’ve got things to do.

    A man goes to Arabia. A man has three years before he goes up to Jerusalem. Then, possibly ten more years, he’s sitting in Tarsus. What’s this guy doing? Thirteen years sitting around? How in the world is this mission going to be accomplished if this fellow Paul isn’t doing anything? Rather, he’s gone home. He’s sitting around in Tarsus.

    What in the world is he reading? Why? If he was an enterpriser like unto the enterprisers of our age, he would have had a dozen books written by them, and he would have had a line of communication, two-handle lines of communication, that would have built his mystery beyond your wildest dreams. There is a sobriety about them. He waits. He learns. He listens. He grows.

    He waits for a glimpse, a common day, to bring him to Antioch. And from that point, the mystery begins, truly, he learns. How unlike our enterprises present, who are so impatient in seeing in their wisdom to know exactly the right time, the right measure, the right amount. So that’s Paul after conversion. The most important of God’s objectives in the balance. And he’s sitting around for 13 years.

    Next we have set before us Peter’s ministry. important ministry it is. Peter, that chief figure in Jerusalem, that one who will be the lineage that did it, the messenger to the Jew, as Paul is the messenger to the Gentile. Peter himself will be involved, and that directly, in the outworking of the realization of the Gentile mission.

    We hear how the Church is spread throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, and it’s enjoying peace, verse 31 of that ninth chapter. Then we hear about Peter’s wounds, verse 2, lying on the ground, and how he heals a man dead in eight years. The Gospel is moving on. In a ministry that much parallels the very ministry of Christ, the healing ministry of Christ, Peter is at work.

    Then down to Java, where he’s received word of the death of Tabitha, and he raises her up. Just as Jesus had healed the lame, just as Jesus had raised the dead, now Peter is at work. He gives that chapel, but then he receives that friend, that magnificent vision, when he was praying at noon. Remember the story?

    There’s a great sheep that has all manner of animals in it, but down in heaven he’s given it to man. Why is Peter killing it? He said, not so, Lord. I’ve never eaten any unclean food. Well, God is at work in the Gospel to declare all foods clean. You remember Mark 7, verse 19? To declare all foods clean, and by way of analogy, all men. Those from all the nations no longer can the Jew look after the Gentiles and say, I’m clean, and anyone who comes in contact with them, I’m clean as well.

    And this Cornelius, who is living in Caesarea, he too has had a vision that he sends for Peter. Peter knows now, in keeping with the vision that he has had, that he is to go with those who have been sent by Cornelius, this Gentile who lives in Caesarea.

    As Peter preaches to them, there in the Tenth Chapter of Acts, There is a remarkable blessing of God that comes upon this Gentile audience. The very Spirit of God. How wonderful the conclusion. How wonderful the conclusion, as that conclusion is arrived at by way of the conference that follows for those in Jerusalem to hear about what has happened, and Peter must return there to give a defense. For Peter has baptized Gentiles now, not just proselytes, but Gentiles. He’s baptized them, and the Holy Spirit has come upon Gentiles.

    And you have verse 18 of that 11th chapter. And those in Jerusalem heard this and quieted down because, again, it is an uproar. Glorify God, saying, well, now, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life. In fact, thematic passage will pull the backs and put the spirit of redemption in front of the gospel. of the Eleventh Chapter. And that’s important, because, as we have already suggested, Antioch will prove to be permanent, as the Gospel now goes forth into Gentile lands. We have the account going back of touching the persecution of Stephen, verse 19.

    As those who were scattered preached the word, they were originally preaching the word to Jews alone. And there were those men from Cyprus and Cyrene who came to Manioc, and they began to speak to the Gentiles as well, preaching to them the Lord Jesus, and look what happened. A large number of them turn to the Lord. It’s the spread of the word to these preachers, as that word is brought to Gentiles.

    It will be then more than to a family or a household in Caesarea. Many within the city of Antioch of Gentile background now are believing. off to Tarsus and is full of salt. He knows what salt is all about. What’s happening here is something of a signal, it seems to Douglas. He too is an apostle. He turns then with salt in tow, and they begin a joint ministry, and the effects of that ministry are magnificent, as many Gentiles believe.

    We are told as well that it was at Antioch that those who did believe, the disciples, were first called Christians. So it is now that that community that is delineated by the person of Jesus Christ and his work, that community is being set apart separated from Judaism. And Judaism is being left behind, as it were, as the new epoch of redemptive history has been reached. Does that mean that those Gentiles who have converted can turn their back on the Jewish foundation and origins of faith which they profess. Not at all. Here come some prophets down from Jerusalem who tell about a famine that is going to spread over all the world during the year’s clients. One is the response of the saints in Antioch as they look to their brothers and sisters in Judea and in Jerusalem. They give. They express their gratitude, their love, and they send gifts.

    Not only is the Church moving out to Gentile regions as the nations are being converted by the gospel, but those who are converted now are looking back to Jerusalem and Judea, and they are sending their Gentile life to help Jewish Christians. things that should be well said in our minds as we conclude this eleventh chapter down on the text, the centrality of the Gentile mission, but as well the importance of apostolic authority in the realization of that mission.

    Notice how apostolic figures are standing at every point as you make your way through the development that realizes the fullness of God’s purpose. This respect of authority and office is very important, and something, unfortunately, the Church of our time has lost its grip over. There is that respect of order. There is that submission to the authority that arise according to Christ’s constitution. Apostolic authority is respected. The office of the Word is respected.

    That ministry is honored by the review. But lastly, with regard to the impressions left upon us by this mission, yes, the importance of the Gentile mission, yes, the importance of apostolic authority, but as well, poor participation. Are these glad times or sad times? Are these times which we are witnesses ourselves to realization of God’s purpose, Or are we left in some sort of dismal state whereby we have no evidence at all with regard to the purposes, the intentions, and the fulfillment of God’s will? You, yourself, are here because the time for the fulfillment of the Gentile mission has arrived. What are your national origins? Do we all come from the same stock? Do we all hail from the same tribe? Did our ancestors all speak the same language? No. Various nations of the world, even here, we see the glories of the fulfillment of God’s purpose. You are testimony to that. The presence here is a witness of God’s glory in fulfilling his will. Amen.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • The Conversion of Saul

    The Conversion of Saul

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The History of Salvation” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, January 13, 1991.

    About this sermon

    Saul came from Tarsus, zealously persecuted the church, and then God converted him supernaturally into Paul. That conversion is utterly unique, and in its basic shape it is common to every true conversion since.

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    Sermon transcript

    Tonight we are reading from Acts chapter nine. Acts chapter nine beginning with verse one. Listen to the word of God. Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus. so that if he found any belonging to the way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

    And it came about that as he journeyed, he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. And he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Rise and enter the city, and it shall be told you what you must do.

    And the men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the sound but seeing no one. And Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing. And leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus. He was there three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

    Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias, and the Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias, and he said, Behold, here am I, Lord. And the Lord said to him, Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas, for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying. And he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.

    But Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to thy saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call upon thy name. But the Lord said unto him, go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine. bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake.

    And Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying hands on him, said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he arose and was baptized. And he took food and was strengthened.

    Now for several days he was with the disciples who were at Damascus, and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogue, saying, He is the Son of God. And all those hearing him continued to be amazed and were saying, Is this not he who in Jerusalem destroyed those who called upon this name and who had come here for the purpose of bringing them down before the chief priests? But Saul kept increasing in strength and confounding the Jews who lived at Damascus by proving that this Jesus is the Christ.

    Let’s pray together. Our Father, we do ask you that the fullness of the spirit that is mentioned often in your word would be that fullness in which we participate. And, Lord, may it be plain to us that to have that fullness then means that we are zealous for holiness, for righteousness, for truth. and that there is nothing that we desire more than to be obedient to you and to be found pleasing in your presence. Even this evening, our father, may we approach you with faith, knowing that you have summoned us here that we might be blessed by you. Therefore, Lord, according to the full measure of your blessing intended, so we hope to receive, that our souls might receive strength by way of meat which you provide. And Lord, we ask that we might be made glad in the service which we render, so that it is not merely a matter of duty, obligation, a constraint with which we comply. Lord, beneath the surface, there may be the grudging spirit, but we ask you, Lord, to deal with us, deal with us, even in sins such as these. O Lord, awaken us, and may the fullness of your spirit benefit us. that we with zeal and ardor might pursue the purposes, intent, commands, and ordinances of the kingdom of our Christ. In whose name we pray, Amen.

    We have come in our reflection upon New Testament times to a story that we are all quite familiar with. A story that is recorded for us here, which we’ve read this evening in Acts chapter nine. And what a story it is. What a story it is. Here we are introduced more fully to the figure of Paul. This man who will prove to be a strategic instrument of God for the spread of the gospel throughout the world at that time. Well, who is this man? Who is Paul?

    We are told that he is a native of Tarsus. If you haven’t checked your map recently for Tarsus, you may want to look it up again to pinpoint it. You will find it in the southeast corner of Asia Minor, present day Turkey. In the province then of Cilicia, Tarsus was in fact a prominent city at that time, a city favored by Rome, because it seemed that Tarsus always had the knack for picking the right size in a conflict, and therefore it was favored highly by the city of Rome and subsequently, in the development of the empire, the city of Tarsus prospered, prospered greatly. Tarsus did not only do well financially, commercially.

    It was a city that was recognized in the time of Paul as a great intellectual center. I know that you’ve heard of Athens. You know how important Athens was as an intellectual center for the world. At that time, also the city of Alexandria was looked upon as a great intellectual center. It was famous for its library. Tarsus as well was a university town. And it was known far and wide for its great intellectual strength.

    Paul is a native of this city. This is where he is born. His heritage is interesting. He is, as a matter of fact, a Roman citizen from birth. We are told that by him in one of his testimonies in court. You can find it recorded in Acts 22 verse 28. Paul is a Roman citizen by birth, which means his father also was a Roman citizen. We don’t know anything more about Paul’s background in this respect. How it is that his father came to be a Roman citizen, for instance, But that fact is evident.

    It seems also that Paul, in this environment early on, was exposed to and gained some facility with the Greek language. Now these factors, when we add them together, if we were great humanists, would prove to be valuable to Paul These human and cultural features would be looked upon as strengths, strengths upon which he would draw in later life. We have to be cautious at this point. Is it really Paul’s native background, even abilities that were cultivated early on in his childhood, his background at Tarsus that proved of such value to him and useful for God as Paul moved out into the world.

    Well, as you find out, Paul is a man made over. And as valuable as these things might be on the surface of things, they will be undone by his conversion as much as his Jewish connections are undone. He becomes a new man and his ministry has to do with the newness of God’s program made plain in Jesus Christ. Well, Paul then is native to Tarsus, a Roman citizen, but he is also born and raised, as you know full well, a Jew.

    His Jewish name is Saul, and he is born of the house of Benjamin. Interesting in itself. Interesting because you’ll recall there was another Saul from the house of Benjamin. We have an Old Testament Saul who was a Benjamite, and we also have a New Testament Saul who was a Benjamite. An interesting study might be how the New Testament Saul answers the Old Testament Saul. A comparison and contrast of those two figures.

    Well, even though Paul or this Jewish boy Saul has been born within Gentile territory, he is not raised like so many of the Jews who are born within the Gentile regions. He is not raised like a Hellenistic Jew. Rather, he is raised with an eye that is directed devotedly towards Palestine, towards Israel, towards the capital, towards Jerusalem. Even though he may well have spoke Greek, learned it, was conversant in it from an early time, it is clear that he was also speaking Aramaic, which was the native language of the Palestinians of that day. Now, as proof of his Israelite orientation, we have the fact that he tells us in Acts 22 that at an early age he is sent off, packed off, to Jerusalem. He doesn’t stay in Tarsus. He is sent to Jerusalem and raised within the rabbinical circles of that city, it seems. He is placed under the tutelage of a very famous man.

    That man is Gamaliel. Now, we’ve already heard about Gamaliel in Acts. At the end of chapter five, we were told that it was Gamaliel that came to the defense of the disciples and said, in effect, if this religious movement of which these men are a part is of God, then we cannot withstand it. If it is not of God, it will fail. So Gamaliel is the teacher under whose tutelage Paul is trained.

    This man was a great teacher, a member of the Sanhedrin, a leader among the Pharisees. And now Paul himself becomes a Pharisee. Thinking about Paul’s Pharisaical zeal, he tells us that he was in fact a zealous Pharisee, one who is so zealous that there was none more zealous than he.

    So zealous, in fact, that he becomes the active champion of the cause of Israel against the Church. How often Paul, in later life, will make mention of his persecution of the Church, and that to his grief and sorrow. It’s almost as if you can hear him cringing as he speaks of it. So ashamed is he of it.

    He recalled how Saul was introduced to us. This figure, Saul, later called Paul, was introduced to us. in the context of the stoning of Stephen. You have him standing by as those in authority have led Stephen out and they place their cloaks and coats in the hands of Saul and then proceed to stone Stephen. We are told that Saul, chapter eight, verse one, gave hearty agreement to the execution of Stephen. spurred on from that point. Now, he is very active in persecuting the church, so much so that he has gained letters from the chief priests as he makes his way to Damascus for the sake of arresting Christians there and bringing them back to Jerusalem for trial.

    Well, that introduces us to the man, Paul. Now we have set before us his conversion. Now the account of his conversion is straightforward enough. It is a radical transformation. It is spectacular, it is extraordinary in so many ways. The account of it, the appearance of the risen Christ to this man, a flash of light, him struck down, and then there is this conversation between them. He is left, as it were, blind. There is the entrance into Damascus, the events that follow, introduction of the figure of Ananias, the instructions to Ananias, and then the healing of Paul, and then his subsequent ministry, which we read about, a ministry that begins in Damascus itself. Now, there are those who have suggested being late nineteenth-century folk and early twentieth-century scholars, that Paul’s conversion was anything but radical, anything but spectacular, anything but extraordinarily. It is psychologically explained.

    This man obviously had witnessed, at least he had heard of, Gamaliel’s defense of the disciples, the account of which is recorded for us at the end of Acts 5. He had also been a witness to Stephen’s execution. And you remember what is said about Stephen, how the people who heard Stephen were unable to refute him, his face shining like that of an angel. The people about him actually dumbfounded, then in their rage, taking him out and executing him. Some have suggested that when Saul did not himself participate in the execution, but just watched over the coats, he was in a quandary.

    Then we have a paroxysm of energy and explosion. of activity may be born of guilt. The fact that he is still a Jew, he recognizes his pharisaical duty, so he goes out to demonstrate his commitment to and his devotion to the principles of Judaism in persecuting the church. But he’s a man who is internally in turmoil, psychologically distressed. So the conversion of Paul is psychologically explainable.

    Of course, over against this natural explanation is the supernatural account that is given to us in Acts. the radical transformation that comes. The appearance of Christ on the background of this psychological explanation is nothing more than a vision produced by a tormented conscience. Hardly real. not in the sense that we would think of it being real and true. Well, as we have said, the account given us here in Acts is straightforward. It is apparent to us, is it not, that the conversion, as it is recorded here, is anything but gradual, anything but psychologically explained.

    Radical, spectacular, extraordinary, supernatural, but we’re against the natural explanations. All right. Supernatural, the work of God. But even though we who are orthodox in our faith and committed, though we be agreed on that point, seem to have problems from that point forward.

    What do we do with the conversion of Paul? Well, ordinarily, it seems, within some circles, the conversion of Paul actually is made to be the paradigm, that is, the pattern for all conversions, for all transformations of individuals. You may recall how, out of early Lutheranism, the Damascus Road experience of the Apostle Paul became paradigmatic for all Lutherans. In fundamentalist and even evangelical circles, the conversion experience of Paul becomes a pattern for all religious conversions. all true conversions to Christ.

    And if you have not had that radical, spectacular, extraordinary transformation, one that you can pinpoint, if you have not had the Damascus Road experience yourself, then you have not been converted. Have you spent some of your time in quest of the Damascus Road experience. Even if you did experience a transformation at one point in your life, were you satisfied with it?

    When you read Acts 9, you came back to that text and you said, well, wait a minute. My experience wasn’t as convincing as Paul’s experience. It wasn’t as dramatic and as spectacular as that. Somehow I feel cheated. So there has been that habit of mine within some circles in Protestant Christianity to make the Damascus Road experience of the Apostle Paul the standard for all conversions. There are many things that we forget about this conversion of Paul, which set it in a setting all its own. We forget that Paul’s conversion was by direct revelation from the risen Christ. Now, there may be some here tonight who can pinpoint their conversion experience.

    They can tell us the date. They know exactly what they were doing, where they were. But I ask you, did you see the risen Christ? If you did, we better question your experience. Did you actually see the risen Christ? We’ll note the extraordinary features that are attached to this conversion that set it apart. Yes, there was that direct revelation of the risen Christ. This then fits the one to whom the risen Christ appeared for apostleship, There is a mission in view, not only the extraordinary character of the revelation, but the extraordinary character of the office, of the mission, too. For you see, now Paul is being called to a unique mission as spokesman for God and for the risen Christ to the Gentiles.

    Think once more about your own experience. As genuine as that experience is, don’t let me question the genuineness of your experience with Jesus Christ, which may well be a true and fine transformation, effected by Christ, to which you can point with regard to its specificities. The hour, the time, the day, you know. But here is a call to office, to apostleship. Here is a call to unique mission, as this one who is called becomes spokesman for God, for the risen Christ, to the Gentiles and to others, to the Jews as well. There is something then unique to the experience of the Apostle Paul. In fact, this is the only conversion experience like this recorded in the scriptures.

    It is indicative of a redemptive historical transition. It’s almost as if you are looking at something here that will not be repeated. In fact, cannot be repeated. It’s as if there is a closing out of one era and the leadership and the authority that pertains to that era with the opening up in some significant fashion to that which is new and final. It’s as if we have here the closing out of that leadership that pertains to Old Testament Israel, as it centers in this figure of the apostle and the constituting of a leadership and organization for the new order that just as well focuses in him. We are not pivotal figures in the history of redemption.

    The Apostle Paul was. His conversion experience is a pivotal experience, and in some respects, unrepeatable. So when you’re thinking about your conversion, and you’re imagining yourself to have been cheated because you’ve just read Acts 9, please don’t think less of yourself than you ought to in that regard. For Paul’s conversion is a pivotal conversion transformation, radical, spectacular, supernatural, yes.

    It has a special place in the history of salvation. And for that reason, there is that dimension to it which cannot be repeated. But, having said that now, Are there features here in the story that call attention to those features which are common for conversion always? Extraordinary, unrepeatable, yes, on the other hand, possibly now? the suggestion of things that then are always true with respect to those who are brought into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

    In fact, there are features that are suggested here in this story that play an important role in the development of Paul’s own theology and preaching, as he would preach to others and describe their experiences as Christians—experiences, then, that are common, yes, to all Christians and to Paul and Christians alike. Note, for instance, That we are told in this ninth chapter that Paul is a chosen vessel, a chosen instrument of mine. That underscoring God’s sovereign election, His choice.

    Does Paul choose to be saved? If ever there was a man who didn’t choose to be saved, it was Paul. No one’s conversion is a matter of their own deciding to be saved. They are called by God. They are chosen of Him. And think of how important that doctrine then is to the Apostle Paul as he writes to others with respect to their experience, an experience which is common. For he with them have been chosen from before the foundation of the world. God’s sovereign electing choice. Notice this also.

    How does Christ appear to Paul? Let’s consider more than just the fact that he did appear. Let’s consider how he appeared. How would you expect him to appear? This man has been going around arresting and persecuting and oppressing Christ’s sayings. How would you expect Christ to appear to him? Kindly? Benevolently? Graciously? No! You would expect him to appear in anger and strike him down on the spot. He struck down Ananias and Sapphira, didn’t he? Why wouldn’t he strike down this man? How does he appear to him? He appears to him graciously. lovingly, in mercy.

    Is there something then from this conversion of Paul that connects well with the gospel that he preaches without compromise throughout his life? A gospel of grace. not only of God’s sovereign choice, but of God’s graciousness in Christ to wrath-deserving sinners. Once more a common feature. You, no less than Paul, have been called by God’s gracious choice. God has come to you, no less than to Paul, in grace and mercy. By nature, we all were the children of wrath, worthy of condemnation. But God, rich in mercy, has proved merciful to us. The chief of sinners has been spared. And you have been spared.

    Well, there are other features. Paul loses his sight. Is there significance in that? Here’s the Pharisee who says he sees. So Christ blinds him. And the physical malady is now indicative of the spiritual state, you see. The man is actually blind, he doesn’t see, and he will not see until Christ gives him light. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the best that Israel has to offer, whether you’re a Pharisee of the Pharisees, whether you stand, in your own estimation, before the law blameless. That’s what Paul says in Philippians 3.

    Is there significance, then, to the loss of sight? And Paul’s subsequent message with regard to how it is natural man, even the Jew, stand blind to God if they do not see. and receive Christ. Is there something significant to the fact that he is three days blind? Aha!

    There’s another significant three days that we know about, is there not? For Christ was in the tomb for three days. Death in the tomb, then life by resurrection, the three days, then become paradigmatic for the Apostle Paul with respect to our relationship to Christ. Not that we all have to go through a three-day experience where we don’t eat or drink. And we pray continually at the end of that three days, then we know something significant is going to happen. Some people have approached it like that. Some people haven’t been content with the three days. They say, we’ll do it 40 days.

    You see, the three days there is significant because in Paul’s development of his doctrine, he begins to speak about union with Christ. having been crucified with Christ and then having been raised, that being his explanation of conversion and transformation.

    Not so much to tell his experience time and time again, but to relate who he is now to what happened to Christ then. It always being a matter then of seeing the relationship to Christ in terms of that death and resurrection that takes place in our union with Christ, we having died with Him, we having been raised with Him, and that being the message. Centrality, then, always upon Christ. One other feature here, and that pertains to just how Christ is viewed. Is it enough to say that Christ in the vision that Paul has, and in the subsequent vision that Ananias has, is it enough to say that Christ is merely an exalted man? who, by virtue of his resurrection, has been exalted above other men.

    I challenge you to go through the interview with Ananias and ask you who it is that’s speaking to Ananias. Well, you’re told it is the Lord. The Lord. The name given to that one who is speaking is the divine name, the Lord. But then you find out. As Ananias meets with Paul and lays his hands upon him in verse seventeen, he says, Brother soul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me by whom was Ananias commissioned by the Lord, who is the Lord, the Lord Jesus. It’s not just an exalted man, you see. Luke, in his formulation of this section of his book of the Acts, is presenting to you the divine Lord, the one who is not just exalted man by virtue of resurrection. of the one who is God himself.

    The subsequent ministry of the Apostle Paul will have indelibly imprinted upon it that as its cardinal doctrine. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, by which the Apostle means more than just he is the exalted man, but that he is God, the Son of God, the Christ. Well, while the Apostle’s conversion may be extraordinary, there are those ordinary features which match up to your understanding of transformation. in the past, the new having come, and this one whom you confess being more than exalted man, being God himself who came in the flesh for sinners like us and for our salvage. Amen.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Stephen, Philip, and the Spread of the Gospel

    Stephen, Philip, and the Spread of the Gospel

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The History of Salvation” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, January 6, 1991.

    About this sermon

    A squabble over deacons sets up Stephen’s ministry and stoning, which actually spreads the gospel rather than silencing it. Philip’s encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch carries that spread further still, always tied to the plain importance of the Word in the apostles’ own miracles.

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    Sermon transcript

    There in that chapter, we will start with verse 46. Hear the word of God. This is what Stephen is saying. And David found favor in God’s sight and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built a house for him. The Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands. As the Prophet says, Heaven is my throne, and earth is the footstool of my feet. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what place is there for my repose? Was it not my hand which made all these things? You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in harbineers are always resisting the Holy Spirit, you are doing just as your fathers did. Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?

    And they killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become, you who received the laws ordained by angels and yet did not keep it.” And when they heard this, they were cut to the quick. and they began gnashing their teeth at him.

    But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. But they cried out with a loud voice and covered their ears, and they rushed upon him with one impulse. And when they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him. and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. And they went on stoning Stephen as he called upon the Lord and said, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. And having said this, he fell asleep.

    And Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death. And on that day, a great persecution arose against the Church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. And some devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him. But Saul began ravaging the Church, entering house after house and dragging off men and and he put them in prison. Then turning over to verse twenty-six in that eighth chapter, But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, Arise and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.

    This is a desert road. And he arose and went, and behold, there was an Ethiopian a court official of Candacy, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure, and he had come to Jerusalem to worship. And he was returning and sitting in his chariot and was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip, Go up and join this chariot. And when Philip had run up, he heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet and said, Do you understand what you are reading? And he said, How could I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

    Now, the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this. He was led as a sheep to slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he does not open his mouth. In humiliation, his judgment was taken away. Who shall relate his generation? For his life is removed from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip and said, Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else? And Philip opened his mouth and began from this scripture. And beginning from this scripture, he preached Jesus to him.

    And as they went along the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, Look, water, what prevents me from being baptized? And he ordered the chariot to stop. and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, but went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azathoth, and as he passed through, he kept preaching the gospel to all the cities until he came to Caesarea.”

    This section that we’re looking at tonight in Acts, chapters 5-8, is certainly a very exciting section in the book of Acts. The beginning we have there for us in Acts 5 stands out for us as a sentinel in the history of the Church. It stands there, lest anyone think it is a small matter to feign piety, to play at godliness in the Church of Jesus Christ. We have taken up our place within a new temple, a new structure which is now created in the And we are dwelling in that habitation. We should be sobered by that fact. For not only are we individually temples of the Holy Spirit, we as a group, corporately, as the Church of Jesus Christ, are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Therefore it is no small matter to feign piety to fake godliness in the new temple, the last and final temple which God has set himself to establish. The judgment then that comes upon Ananias and Sapphira, you know Acts 5, you’ve read it a number of times, the judgment that comes upon these two is an appropriately placed warning for the Church throughout the entirety of their history.

    This couple willfully faked giving all, giving all in lieu of an eternal inheritance. But they lied. Having loved this world, they lied. Being unable to give up their claim upon wealth and property and inheritance here, they wished all in the assembly to think that they had. But God strikes them down. God strikes them down as surely as he will strike down every hypocrite in the day of judgment.

    We should not think, then, that because no one has been struck down lately, that God is asleep or has forgotten or is simply left off with matters concerning his wrath. It is a mercy that men and women are not struck down where they stand presently, but they do have that warning given to them at the outset of the history of the Church. God will not be mocked. You do not lie to God and escape His judgment.

    He is the one, after all, who sees all. Have we not read today Psalm 139? He is the God who sees all. He knows all the secrets of our hearts. Bless him because he is at work presently to purify his assembly unto the end of his age. And may we all be purified.

    Well, here is the power of God’s Word unmistakably registering itself upon the assembly of God’s people. Then we move on to the conclusion of Acts 5, and in that conclusion God demonstrates His purpose. There is an outworking for the demonstration of His purpose, so as you move through the Acts of the Apostles, you see that purpose more clearly presented. And in this setting His people’s resolve will also be held out, set forth before us.

    Note, first of all, verses 12 through 16 in that fifth chapter. We have the account here of the mighty miracles performed by the apostles. Now these mighty miracles, these wonderful deeds, stand related to that judgment that we have just read about concerning Ananias and Sapphira. For these miracles performed by the apostles are as promissory as the judgment that has come upon Ananias and his wife.

    Hang with me through this now. God’s purpose is to make His children new. God’s purpose is to heal His own, to make them whole. And ultimately, that will be plain and clear. In the day of the Lord, just as hypocrisy will be judged, God’s people who persevere will be manifest as whole and healthy and complete.

    That achieved, accomplished by the Word of God. We want a theme running through this entire section. We might well concentrate upon the Word of God. It’s interesting to note throughout Acts how the growth of the Church is oftentimes described We’re told the Word of God increased. The Word of God increased. The concentration, Ben, is upon the Word, the powerful Word, the impact of that Word, and upon the one who gives the Word, God Himself.

    So much for the church-growth fanatics of our time, where there’s little time given to the Word of God at all. In fact, I recently received a paper from a man in a congregation The man was greatly distressed because he said, You realize, in our church, standing as we do within the Reformed tradition, the elders have now made a decision where they are taking out the reading of the Scripture, and we are reduced to a few verses, two or three, before the morning message. And that’s all we hear of the Word of God during the service. They are taking the Word of God out of the worship of God. Obviously, they’ve concluded that it simply doesn’t communicate. It was written to another era. It belongs in another context, not contextualized. It is made irrelevant. Of course, I am parodying their position.

    Well, here we have the Word of God making its impact and God’s purposes manifest all the more clearly in what He is doing in and through His apostolic band. His purpose is to make His children, His people, new. What we see among the sick, the afflicted, the demon-possessed, are signs of God’s power by His Word to change His own, to make them over, to make them whole. as there has been then in these instances an outer change. So there will be a consummate outer change, corollary to it an inner change, a complete and thorough transformation. These changes witnessed here in Acts chapter 5 testify to the great day when God’s people will be made perfectly fit for life in heaven, in the presence of God. But these wonderful works, these tremendous miracles, serve another purpose still. As we have suggested, they call attention to the Word of God, but not only so, they call attention to the Word of God and those who bear that Word, those who carry it.

    And when these are jailed, they are put in prison, they are behind bars, God is powerful to show that His Word will not be bound. He sends His angel for His servants’ relief. And thus the Word continues its mighty effect. He will even protect his messengers against those who would destroy them. Those who carry his word are safe insofar as they fulfill his purpose. They with resolve are bound by God, and by his word they declare to those would stand in their way, we must obey God rather than men. Then the one who surveys all, who controls everything, sends them help from an unsuspected source.

    You remember how at the end of the fifth chapter, Gamaliel from amongst the membership of the Sanhedrin, a Jew, hardly sympathetic to the Christian cause, rises to aid the apostles. And so it is, the word, the preaching of the word, goes on uninterrupted. from the fifth chapter to the sixth. And we see there, once more, how God is concerned with how His Word meets not just the unbelieving and hostile world, but how that Word functions within the Church. Yes, it functions, as we saw, the beginning of chapter 5 and brings judgment, but now here in chapter 6 that word is functioning once more. Chapter 6 presents us, I might say, with the first ecclesiastical battle, the first intramural squabble within the Church.

    It seems that the Hellenistic Jews, the Greek-speaking Jews, believed that their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food, and they were being neglected by the local Hebrew Christians. What arose here, the struggle that arose, may well have been related to racial difficulties. Jews coming from other parts of the world, Greek-speaking. They standing over against the Aramaic-speaking Jews of Palestine.

    At any rate, the apostles set up a second tier of leadership by calling for an election of officers who would then see to it that the ministry of the Word would go on unhindered, uninterrupted. You recall what the Apostles said? It is important that we give ourselves to the ministry of the Word and to prayer, and that this ministry go on uninterrupted.

    Therefore, choose among yourself men who could take care of this matter that has arisen amongst you. So the Church chooses seven men. They’re listed for you there in the fifth verse of the sixth chapter. Some of the names you will recognize, others you won’t. These seven men stood with the apostles for the ordering of and the caring for the Church.

    We see in them something of a composite office. This text is often used as a proof text for the Office of Deacon. As I suggested to you last week, there is more here than just the deaconate. Yes, these men served as deacons, but they seem to have also served as elders, or even preachers and evangelists, as in the case of Stephen and Philip. So there’s more here than just the Office of Deacon. Some of these men, therefore, proved to have gifts that forecast a ministry that reaches out beyond the ministry of the apostles. A ministry that is being set in place for a time in which the apostles will no longer be present. Babbling. We have Stephen, for instance. What a magnificent figure this man is. He seems to outdistance even, if you like to think, even outdistance Peter and John.

    The sermon that we have of his recorded for us in chapter 7 has to be one of the great all-time sermons ever. This man is gifted by the Spirit of God. He performs miracles. He performs great signs. He preaches with such power that people are overwhelmed. They are confounded. He wanders into the synagogues, and the people there have no answer to give him. He preaches with such power. Oh, to have preachers like that. And he even seems to be a biblical theologian, which is even more marvelous. Maybe that’s why they were confounded. They couldn’t understand it. But it is in his preaching ministry that the prospects of God’s program are beginning now to so well assert themselves, so clearly assert themselves. Stephen’s argument is with the Jewish leaders of the synagogues over the nature of God’s commitment to Israel and his commitment to the temple. That’s where the focus is and where it ends. Stephen’s points are these.

    First of all, Israel has always resisted God’s kingdom. Israel has always resisted God’s kingdom. Preach that message and see if you get out of Jerusalem alive. Jesus didn’t. and neither will Stephen. First of all, Israel has always resisted God’s kingdom or God’s program.

    Secondly, Israel has continually misread the intentions surrounding the establishment of the temple. as if it were God’s intention to inseparably bind himself to that edifice, that building, as if he could be contained within it. Even though there is that word in Scripture that invades against such thinking, it seems that, practically speaking, the Jews have succumbed to it. God can be contained in the temple and is identifiable with it. And thirdly, Israel has misunderstood God’s intention, because it always was God’s intention to bring to Israel, to bring to his people something greater than the temple. But now, in the time, in this day, when that greater thing has come, Israel in her sin is unsuited for it, and thus the condemnation. Well, such a sermon as that brings instant reaction. Oh, that there could be preaching like that today. That message brings instant reaction.

    The Jews rush on Stephen. As we read, they carry him out of the city. They lay their coats at the feet of this young Pharisee by the name of Saul from Tarsus, and they stone Stephen and believe that in that act they have destroyed the words that he preached. It is now in this context that God makes plain to us just how wide a range His word will have, how expansive it is, how universal. And if the Jews haven’t been angered as yet, they certainly will be now. With the execution of Stephen, as we read, as the eighth chapter begins, a great persecution breaks out. We are told again about the young Pharisee, Saul, who holds the coats of Stephen’s executioners, and how this one devises his own program for the extermination, the extermination of the church.

    Well, I could go on about that one for a while. But at any rate, the church is scattered As we read, under Saul, the Pharisee, many are captured. He goes from house to house, he drags people out into the street, puts them in bonds and carries them off to prison. It’s not a very pretty sight.

    But is the word of God defeated, or are God’s purposes enhanced? Is God’s program and kingdom thwarted, or is it furthered? The wrath of men accomplish the purposes of God. end up in the implore of the sovereign as he surveys them and their actions. So now, the scene is set for the word to enter territories previously thought unthinkable.

    We are introduced to Philip, Stephen is gone. Another of the seven takes his place. Philip now, one ordained, one who rises up more than a deacon. Here is a preacher, a preacher indeed, an evangelist. He finds himself in the territory of Samaria, a territory to which these Jewish Christians in Jerusalem have fled. And there he is not silent. He preaches. and Samaritans are converted. These, the native enemies of the Jews, these transformed by the Word of God, changed, brought into the kingdom. They receive the message.

    Against the background of hostilities in Jerusalem, the story of the welcome the gospel receives in Samaria. amazing. But in order to keep things decently and in order, Peter, the apostle, comes down from Jerusalem into Samaria to confirm the Holy Spirit’s work. And yes, as has been reported, so it is found to be, Samaritans believe, They believe, and they are being brought into the kingdom. And note this one figure who has been introduced to us in this narrative, Simon the Magician. You know about him, the man from Samaria. He believes the Holy Spirit’s power can be bought and sold.

    Please give me this power that you have, he says. and Peter rebukes them, and that’s a miracle. There is a translation of Peter’s rebuke that goes like this, to hell with you and your money. Gets the point across? So, Peter’s rebuke. But that rebuke, you see, is meant to be more than merely a rebuke to those who would buy, like Simon the magician.

    It is meant to be a sentinel, once more, in the early times of the Church, standing there as a testimony to all who would take a different route than Peter did. and actually sell the Word and its power. There is a mighty indictment being now lodged against the Church from heaven. Because there are those who have risen up in the Church in our time who have commercialized the Word of God. Who have turned it into a commodity to be bought and sold, to be profited by monetarily.

    I love the conclusion of the book of Zechariah, where we are told in that grand and glorious vision of the coming temple, and there will be no merchants, no merchandiser, no profiteer in the house of God. Well. Act eight and then versus twenty six through forty. With as marvelous an affirmation of God’s intent to date. As marvelous an affirmation of that intent that we have seen to date.

    For here we have this Ethiopian, but not just an Ethiopian. This man is an Ethiopian eunuch who has gone up to Jerusalem to worship. That line is put in there deliberately. And what is the problem that this Ethiopian eunuch is going to find when he comes to Jerusalem to worship? He can’t worship because he’s a eunuch.

    He has no place. Even if he was to be a proselyte, even if he was to come into Israel by the back door, even if he was to become a Jew by the back door, there was no way for him to be signed as Jew. He can have no standing or status in Israel, as much as he might want it. As you realize how important lineage is in Jerusalem, one must leave behind him sons. He must leave behind him those who will pick up the inheritance, the name, carry it on. This man is left without lineage, without name. He dies, and he’s gone. What a marvelous figure he is. He’s reading that passage where it talks about one who is cut off without generation. Is this man speaking, is the prophet speaking about himself or someone else like me?

    And then we have that most marvelous of statements to date in the book of the Acts. Verse thirty-five of that eighth chapter, and Philip opened his mouth and began from this, beginning from this scripture, he preached Jesus to him. Hardly adequate in our contemporary setting, We’d have to set up some sort of ministerial method and program that would meet the man where he is, speak about his needs and his predicament and situation, some sort of thing that would take into consideration all of the psychological and sociological ramifications of the man’s situation. But Philip preaches to him Jesus. This Ethiopian eunuch, so attracted to Judaism, has no place in Jewish worship, for he is a Jew.

    But now note what happens. and by right of that fuller and more complete sacramental sign. Baptism. He is introduced as one purified and sprinkled into the very temple of God. This man then, his portent of the coming expanse and expansiveness of the gospel, the extent of the Church and the intent of God and his kingdom.

    Well, might we learn from this section of Acts, the risen reigning Christ rules by his Holy Spirit through his word. His word is powerful to judge within the church. His word is not bound. It will not be bound with bars of iron. The apostles are free to preach.

    This word creates an order for the church as if at work in a new creation and provides ministry for and justice to the people of God in their need. This word battles opposition and triumphs over all those who would seek to stamp it out. And this word carries forward the program of God from Jerusalem to Samaria, to the uttermost parts of the earth. And it is this word that you have received that has profited you. This Word, which has been made effectual in your life by the wonderful work of the Holy Spirit upon you. This Word you love. And this Word cultivates within you the righteousness of God. for an increase in you that shall be harvested by your Lord in the great day. Amen.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • The Acts of the Reigning Christ

    The Acts of the Reigning Christ

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The History of Salvation” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, December 30, 1990.

    About this sermon

    Four keys for reading the book of Acts rightly get set out: it records the acts of the reigning Christ, the acts of the Holy Spirit, and truly the acts of the apostles, with its whole focus resting on action and activity rather than doctrine alone.

    More sermons from Acts · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    Tonight we are reading from Acts chapter five. We will be reading the first sixteen verses. Hear the word of God. But a certain man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property and kept back some of the price for himself, with his wife’s full knowledge, and bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles’ feet.

    But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? and to keep back some of the price of the land. While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your hearts? You have not lied to men, but to God.” And as he heard these words, Ananias fell and breathed his last, and great fear came upon all who heard of it. And the young men arose and covered him up, and after carrying him out, they buried him.

    Now there elapsed an interval of about three hours, and his wife came in not knowing what had happened. And Peter responded to her, telling her whether she had sold the land for such and such a And she said, Yes, that was the price. Then Peter said to her, Why is it then you have agreed together to put the spirit of the Lord to the test? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they shall carry you out as well. And she fell down immediately at his feet and breathed her last.

    And the young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. great fear came upon the whole Church, upon all who heard of these things. And at the hands of the Apostles, many signs and wonders were taking place among the people, and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s portico. But none of the rest dared to associate with them, however the people held them in high and all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women were constantly added to their number, to such an extent that they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and pallets, so that when Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on any one of them. And also the people from the cities in the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming together, bringing people who were sick or afflicted with unclean spirits and they were all being healed.

    We are continuing our series on New Testament times this evening. We are in the book of Acts, and we’re taking a bit of a detour this evening. We will not be considering the first persecution, as is listed there for you in the bulletin, Rather, we will be considering a broader topic, namely things to remember about the Book of the Acts. That’s setting something of a tone for us as we then progress further in our series on New Testament times and reflect upon those things that will follow as we move through the Book of the Acts and also the rest of the New Testament canon. There are certain features of the book of Acts that we must bear in mind as we make our way through it, and I’m going to list for you tonight four items that I wish for you to keep in mind.

    First of all, although this book is entitled—you can turn to the first page if you want—although this book is entitled The Acts of the Apostles, it might also be looked upon as the record of the acts of the risen Christ. This book may be looked upon then as the axe of the risen, exalted, reigning Christ. This brings before us an extraordinary truth that should register well upon our consciousness, one that too often does not seem to sink in upon us as it ought to do. That is this.

    Our Lord Jesus Christ is alive and he is active. He is active in the affairs of his church and in the affairs of the world. Will you not see him at work? Do you not perceive his presence and understand him to be one who lives, one who is actively engaged in the life of his church and in the activities of the world?

    They do have a certain prominence in this book. The Apostles are, to be sure, witnesses for Christ. They are witnesses for the living, active, reigning Lord. But they are even more dynamically His agents. Jesus has, in fact, promised to build his Church. Remember what he has told his disciples in Matthew 16. He will build his Church. The very gates of hell will not prevail against the Church. Jesus has then promised to build his Church, and now, as the risen, reigning Savior, he is about that work. Have you thought about his activity with respect to the church of which you are a part? Do you see this church as a testimony to Christ’s reigning activity? Are you conscious of it? Do you look past near appearances? Do you perceive things invisible? Do you sense His living presence and His activity in our midst?”

    Now, there are instances in the Book of Acts where the living Christ asserts Himself directly You may recall the story of Saul of Tarsus, Acts chapter 9, where Saul is blessed by a heavenly vision. He sees the living Christ, just one who is thought to be dead, his disciples but fools. This one now Saul knows to be alive. He’s seen him. And that one says to Saul, why are you persecuting me? As you set out to persecute the church that is mine. There’s another instance later on you may recall. when Paul is at Corinth. A vision comes to Paul as Christ addresses him once more, telling him not to be afraid, for I have much people in this city.

    The acts of the apostles is a record of the acts of the risen, reigning Christ. And the apostles, by their acts, by their activity, are but entering into the actions of the risen Christ. They are participating in his work, which is full and complete. Alright, that’s our first point. The Book of the Acts is a record of the acts of the risen, reigning Christ. But secondly, this book, although called the Acts of the Apostles, might also be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit.

    Can it be doubted? Does not the third person of the Trinity have an extraordinary preeminence in this book? The person of the Holy Spirit is given great promise throughout. You may recall the beginning of the first chapter, how the Spirit is promised spiritual And then, in the second chapter, there is that coming of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

    In fact, before we can call the apostles agents of the risen Christ, we must call the Holy Spirit, that agent, par excellence. He comes as the agent of the risen reigning Christ. He comes because of and in the power of the risen Christ, the risen Christ dispensing him from heaven, sending him into the world. So it is then with power that the Holy Spirit comes, and when he comes he brings life, he brings new life. The life that he brings is as if it were life for the first time, for what is taking place seems to be a new creation.

    The people of God being formed, as it were, for the first time. There is then the Holy Spirit’s work as the New Testament assembly takes shape. there is, as it were, a glory cloud that is present with the Holy Spirit as evidence of his presence then for a new filling of God’s new temple, as tongues of flame and fire appear above the heads of the apostles and those who are gathered. In his power The Holy Spirit brings order, the order of the risen Christ, upon this new creation as the assembly takes shape, begins to take on its proper and appropriate form. An order for association and fellowship, an order for office and ministry, the patterns of which are beginning to emerge in the book of the Acts. will not be complete, the patterns will begin to form. They will begin to appear, to take shape, to assert themselves.

    And by His power now, the Holy Spirit ministers comfort and encouragement to the Church. Behind the preaching of the Apostles is the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit, making that preaching effective. specifically as comfort now is ministered to the saints.

    There was one marked out by the Holy Spirit, one Levite by the name of Joseph, whose name is also Barnabas. He’s called the Son of Consolation, the Son of Comfort. There is the comforting efforts of the Council of Jerusalem as their counsel goes out to the churches. throughout the world at that time. We read about it in the fifteenth chapter.

    There is that comfort that is extended by the Apostle Paul to elders gathered along the shores near Miletus, a ministry of comfort that comes in the power of the Holy Spirit. Yes, this book can be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit, a dynamic testimony to the presence the power, the activity of the third person of the Trinity.

    Jesus had promised to send the Spirit, had he not? Just as he had promised to build his church, he had promised to send his Spirit. That fact is emphasized by John in his Gospel. As our attention is drawn to that promise again and again, And now, as the risen, reigning Savior, Jesus has sent forth his Spirit, that Spirit of reality for us, we, not strangers to him, nor his ministry. So that we might see clearly that it is Christ’s power by which the church then is created, renders service, and grows. The acts of the apostles must be understood in terms of works in and by the Holy Spirit. And I might add that this theme also lies at the root of the message concerning election that we find strong throughout this book. As many as were appointed unto eternal life. They say they were added to the church. That remind you of anything. Why, that’s the fourth point of the five points of Calvinism, the irresistible grace of the Holy Spirit, operative, working, drawing, convincing, converting, according to God’s appointment, His plan, His purpose.

    So the acts of the apostles, if you would think of them as the acts of the risen, reigning Christ who is alive, think of them as the act of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of life.” Those are our first two points, but thirdly, we must deal with the fact that this book is, after all, called the Acts of the Apostles. Is it a mistake to call it the Acts of the Apostles? Well, not at all.

    The risen Christ, who reigns, who carries out his ministry from heaven through his Holy Spirit, asserts himself into the affairs of the world, into the affairs of his church, with such servants as we find in the book of Acts. congregations of men and women, old and young. The risen Christ who reigns, asserting His power from heaven through His Holy Spirit, introduces Himself into the affairs of the world and into the affairs of His Church through servants such as we find in the Book of Acts. Jesus Christ is not simply pleased with men to dwell, but also by man to accomplish his will.

    Focusing then upon the apostles, this book is rightly called The Acts of the Apostles. If we remember first, it is the record of the acts of the risen Christ and of his Holy Spirit. who are pleased to use the instrumentality of men. Now, it is at this point that we do well to grab a hold of an important fact. We have been speaking about apostles, those men who become useful in the hands of the in the reign of Christ for his church. These instruments that are now being used as we read through the account given here in the book of Acts. It is important for us to grab hold of an important fact. That there are yes. Abiding ministry. pattern of which we may perceive in the testimony here given us.

    But then there is the temporary nature of that apostolic ministry that is plainly, clearly brought before our eyes. For the apostolic ministry, described as it is in the book of Acts, There is, to be sure, a permanent, since that ministry participates so directly in the activity of the risen Christ and of his spirit. And Paul, later on, as he writes to the church that is at Ephesus, will speak of that ministry as foundational, for the church is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. And does that foundational ministry continue to have mighty impact and effect in the church of our time, even though the apostles are long dead and gone? Yes, by all means. Are you a beneficiary of the ministry of the apostles? Is there a permanency to the ministry that they have rendered for the risen Christ and in the power of His Spirit?

    The foundation that has been laid now, that ground-level foundation that has been laid, is, however, but once laid. It is not laid again and again. There are not many ministries that are foundational, there is this one ministry, the apostolic ministry, that is foundational. And its purpose is now to support the superstructure that’s built upon it in subsequent years. It is the foundation of the structure of which you are a part.

    But at the same time, we are recognizing the permanence. For the ministry of the apostles, we must also recognize the temporary nature of that ministry. For we move, in point of time, from a period in which the apostles are bodily present with the Church, to a time in which they are no longer bodily present. Have you seen an apostle recently? Well, of course, there are those walking around today who are claiming such an office for themselves. In fact, there are many who say that they have seen and greeted and spoken to apostles in the flesh. But we are compelled, as we read through Acts, to recognize the temporary quality of that apostolic ministry as we move from a period in which the apostles are bodily present to a time in which they are not. Nor is it necessary in the providence of God for them to be bodily present. And because this is true, the Book of Acts, then, is a book of transition. It is meant to be a book of transition.

    Failure to grab hold of this, failure to understand it, has landed the Church in all sorts of difficulties. Many difficulties that are abroad even in our time. Pentecostalism and the charismatic movement, for example, have become shipwrecked at this point.

    They have contended that the speaking-in-tongues experiences, the miraculous ministry of the apostles, and the direct revelations from God in Christ, all found in the Book of Acts, are currently prescribed, if not commanded, for the Church. and the only church with power, the only church that pleases God in our time, is that church that manifests all of these things.

    If you are not then speaking in tongues, if you are not privy to miraculous ministries, if you are not one who has received direct revelation from God in Christ, then your profession of faith is highly suspect, if not bogus altogether. But there are others, not to pick upon Pentecostalists and Charismatics solely, For there are those who would look at the book of Acts as a book that prescribes exact and finished forms of order. Catholics and Episcopalians believe that as they look upon the apostolic office as it functions in the book of Acts, they have the justification for the diocesan and hierarchical systems of church government. For how are we to understand the activity of the apostles, unless it’s along the order of bishops?

    We don’t dare leave ourselves out. Even Presbyterians have overstated their case when they have claimed that their particular governmental church system has sprung full grown from the Book of Acts. That you can chronicle it, you can chapter and verse it, right here from the Book of Acts. But you see, the Book of Acts is a transitional document. And this book, together with other biblical testimony, is meant to direct us beyond the charismatic and miraculous era of the Church’s beginning, and either take us beyond those immature times with respect to the government of the Church to a more mature time when things are settled. As far as Church government is concerned, then, the Book of the Acts is a directional document pointing us toward the Spirit’s will concerning the order for the Church. We will see suggestions of that order as we move through.

    As the Apostles themselves give way to ordained ministry, There will be the composite office that appears in Acts 6. No, we don’t justify the office of the deacons solely out of Acts 6. In fact, we see many offices in Acts 6. Think of those spoken of ordinarily as deacons. We have amongst the seven that are ordained in that text Stephen and Philip. Are they merely deacons? No, they are evangelists. They go out and preach and teach. They are more than deacons.

    The suggestion of the ordained ministry then is found in text like that, but it’s not full grown yet. We’re still in the developmental period. We look at the Council in Acts 15, and we think we have the justification, pure and simple, for Presbyterian government and order. It is suggested there, it’s not full grown yet.

    The pattern is there, it’s pushing us further on to a state of maturity, and we believe that state of maturity has been reached, of course, in the Presbyterian system. But the Book of the Acts is a transitional document, and we must not forget that. If we say that it is a document suggesting to us final forms and orders, then we are bound to pursue the charismatic and the Pentecostal conviction with regard to this document. We may well end up being Episcopalians in our view of church government.

    There are other matters that we must keep in mind. I might say in this regard, parenthetically. It is when Presbyterianism has placed all of its eggs in the basket of the Book of Acts that it has gotten into deep trouble. Tremendously deep trouble. For what do Presbyterians hold?

    Presbyterians hold that there is a continuity that moves from Old Testament to New Testament and back with regard even to matters like church government. So if you’re going to develop a biblical doctrine of church government, you can’t suddenly dismiss the Old Testament as irrelevant. So it is the whole of Scripture that informs you as you come to the matter of church government that our forefathers have made some tragic mistakes. in the middle of the eighteenth century, again in the nineteenth century. They have suggested to us that if we are to have a biblical base for our position with respect to church government, it must come exclusively from New Testament considerations. And having made that judgment, they have short-circuited the genius of Presbyterian interpretation of Scripture as a whole. We are not just New Testament saints. We are biblical saints. We don’t throw our Old Testament away. We hold on to it. Well, close parenthesis. That’s our third point. Finally, this book is, in fact, not just the acts of the apostles, but the acts of the apostles. You get my emphasis.

    In you specifically are actions and activity. the actions and activities of these Apostles as they are, in fact, the motions of the risen Christ in and by His Holy Spirit. Now, think of this for a minute. This means that Christ the Holy Spirit, the Apostles, are engaged in a common program for action. Take your cue from the Book of Acts with regard to the ministry of the Church. There will be other considerations that you must take into account. You must deal with the Holy Scripture, but be sensitive to the ministry of the risen Christ, of the Holy Spirit, and the Apostles as they are in concert, engaged in a common program for action. Learn from that. This is my plea with regard to the Psalter. This is my plea.

    Will the Church know how to sing a rite? Will it know how to form its hymns? They will not do it a rite unless they do it upon the foundation that is laid in the Word. They form their hymns and their songs of praise the throne, the power, the vision, the grandeur, the glory of the Psalter that has been given us by God. Now, I am not in favor of exclusive psalmody. You know that. Neither is this Church. But the Church goes wrong when it dismisses the Psalter as its foundation for its enmity.

    And similarly, when you take up the book of the Acts, if you dismiss this book, you have cut yourself off, it seems to me, from that joint testimony of Christ’s Holy Spirit and the apostolic band concerning the common program for action. And as you read through the book of the Acts, you must be impressed. by the fact that we have something here that is magnificently sublime.

    I’m going to say this, and I know that I’ll be misunderstood. Peter and John and Paul have class. And I mean that in the best spiritual sense, and to be honest with you, I have no interest in participating in programs of actions that are generated by spiritual barbarians. And I am telling you that the Church of our time is overrun by spiritual barbarians. Now what’s the difference? Well, I know one of them.

    Men of spiritual class never lose sight of the glory of God. Spiritual barbarians are always interested How different the program presented for us in the book of the Acts from those recently described by one wonderful minister from the PCA who described the current activities and programs for actions as those dominated by numbers, nickels, and noise. So, this program that is in view is, first of all, sublime. It brings before us the greatness of God, the matchlessness of Christ, the superlative excellence of the Holy Spirit, and the pricelessness of Christ’s Church.

    There is a seriousness with respect to the activities. We are not engaged in frivolousness. Again, I will be misunderstood. The church is not a weekend retreat, folks. It’s not a picnic. It’s not one glorified Sunday school picnic. Are people being struck down for their sin at Sunday school picnics? Ananias is. Sapphira is.

    And yet there are those now who would trivialize the Church, her ministry, her activities. The whole tone of the Book of Acts then is glorious and profound. And in it, the church, her ministry and the character of her God are never reduced to the level of the trivial and the merely remedial. We’re going to enable people to get on and get along and cope and survive. Here is the high plane. that always keeps before us the crucified Christ. Is that a serious matter? The holiness of the Holy Spirit. Is that a serious matter? The kingdom of God. In fact, the program for action.

    From Christ, his Holy Spirit engaged in by these apostles can actually be expressed as the defining of the kingdom of God. Yes, that kingdom is now defined by the spread of the word from Jerusalem, the center of the Jewish world, to Rome, the center of the Gentile world. It is now defined not by one nation, but by the inclusion of all nations as the entire world is touched by the message of God and His Christ. It is now defined not in terms of an inheritance here in a plot of ground in a corner of the Mediterranean world. It is rather defined in terms of an inheritance realized in the Holy Spirit and as one that transcends the order of this creation. This is what Paul says in Romans 14, verse 7. The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • The Importance of Christ’s Resurrection

    The Importance of Christ’s Resurrection

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The History of Salvation” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, December 9, 1990.

    About this sermon

    The gospel accounts of the resurrection raise real difficulties of harmony, and an honest reckoning faces them. From that reckoning come three reasons why Christ’s resurrection matters as much as it does.

    More sermons from Luke · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    Tonight our scripture reading is from Luke’s Gospel, the twenty-fourth chapter, Luke chapter twenty-four. And we’ll start with the first verse and read through verse twelve and then pick up again in verse thirty-six. hear the word of God. But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.

    And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. But when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened that while they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling apparel. As the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, but he has risen.

    Remember how he spoke to you while he was still in Galilee. saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and the third day rise again. And they remembered his words and they turned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now they were Mary Magdalene and Johanna and Mary, the mother of James. Also the other women with them were telling these things to the apostles. And these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them.

    But Peter arose and ran to the tomb, stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrapping only, and he went away to his home, marveling at that which had happened.” Then there is the account of the two on the road to Emmaus. We know that story well, and we pick up again in verse 36 after These men had come back and reported what they had experienced from Jesus as he met them on the way. And while they were telling these things, he himself, that is Jesus, stood in their midst.

    They were startled and frightened and thought they were seeing a spirit. He said to them, why are you troubled? and why do doubts arise in your heart? See my hands and my feet, that of his eye myself? Touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And while they still could not believe it for joy and were marveling, he said to them, have you anything here to eat? And they gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took it and ate it in their sight.

    Now he said to them, these are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and he said to them, thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day. and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things, and behold, I am sending forth the promise of my Father upon you, that you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.’

    And he led them out as far as Daphne, and lifted up his hands and blessed them. And it came about that while he was blessing them, departed from them. They returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple, praising God. Pray with me now.

    Our God, we are looking unto you, realizing, Father, that if we are to find strength it will be found with you we know our God that we find ourselves weak and that before the declaration of your power in such an event such an incomparable event as the resurrection and Lord how we thank you how we rejoice in the power that is displayed in that event.

    And Father, we are rejoicing too because this means renewal and refreshment, rebirth for us. O God, may it be plain to us and to those about us that we ourselves have been visited by you, that we are serious, so very serious about our lives, how we live them, how we conduct ourselves, that the very power of Christ and his resurrection may be apparent in us. And Lord, how we yearn for your people that the same may be true for them throughout the world. Our God, we are not those who hang our hopes upon a revival, but we are those who hang our hopes upon your renewal of us, your regenerating work within our hearts. And our Father, we pray that your people who are regenerated would not be deceived by the world, nor put to sleep by the things that come their way in this world, nor distracted by those things either. Instead, may our full energy be directed towards our service to you.

    This means, our God, that even in the little matters, or those matters that may appear to be small, like attendance at evening worship, like attendance during midweek service, that these things might become important to us again, and that we might demonstrate that we are a people of your word, and that we are devoted to you, and anxious to obey you in every respect. We ask these things now, in Jesus’ name, Amen. There are a few details that are in need of reading up with respect to the death of Christ before we move on to the complications involved in the accounts of the resurrection. Now, this is not for the purpose of throwing you off or confusing you, but rather setting forth for you honestly the record that we have in all of its complexities and with its problems and difficulties.

    According to Mark, chapter 15, verse 25, we are told Jesus was crucified at 9 a.m. on Friday. 9 a.m. on Friday. That would mean that he hanged upon the cross for about six hours. If you happen to be reading the Gospel of John, the 19th chapter, the 14th verse, you’ll find there the suggestion that it was noon when the Jews actually prevailed against Pilate and were granted a favorable verdict for execution.

    So obviously we have a problem here, don’t we? The problem will not be resolved by us tonight. I don’t pretend this evening to go on and resolve that difficulty that appears in the text. But be assured of this, this being the best we will do this evening, there is that fact that is mentioned by three of the four gospel writers, and is also inferred by John, that darkness did in fact cover the whole land from the sixth hour to the ninth hour, that was from noon to three in the afternoon.

    So, that fact seems to be well confirmed by the gospel accounts. So I think you know how we have regularized this whole affair in the church of our time. And we have adopted, it seems, the post-reformational three-hour service. Have you attended such a service on Good Friday from noon to three? Did you know that that service was originally concocted by the Jesuits after the Reformation? It was bought by the Church of England and then disseminated in the colonies as the colonies and the churches in the colonies became communities and ecumenical Protestant enterprises. So the origin of the Good Friday three-hour service was the Jesuits and by route of them through the Church of England to community Protestantism in the colonies. You might note as well that this service continues to bear Roman Catholic marks.

    For instance, there are only two days in the calendar year when Catholics do not celebrate the mass, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. Those are the two days when mass is not celebrated. Well, you see, in the three-hour Good Friday service, there’s no communion service either, even as Protestants celebrate it. And in that service, there is the Roman Catholic practice of the short homily on the seven last words of Christ.

    That’s a Roman Catholic practice born of the Counter-Reformation. It was not originally a Protestant practice. I might add, in relation to all of this, the practice of Covenant, O.P.C. Grove City. Their practice is to hold a regular preaching service, in which there is one message delivered in keeping with ordinary Protestant practice, and in that service there is a celebration of the Lord’s Supper. You might ask, what are the origins of this? That is the continental Protestant tradition. On Good Friday, there was a regular preaching service in which the Lord’s Supper was celebrated, And that is a statement over against the Catholic practice. You see all these things come about? All right, well, there you have it.

    We won’t settle the problem of the apparent contradiction between Mark and John tonight, but just to fill you in a bit on some of the details of the crucifixion, Jesus is hanging on the cross, according to one account, from nine till three in the afternoon. but most assuredly from noon to three when darkness does in fact cover the whole world. Alright, Jesus has died around 3pm in the afternoon on that Friday.

    And now we enter into, if you haven’t been confused by some of this so far, we enter into the cryptic and compressed treatment of what follows And what we find here in the resurrection accounts may be as mysterious as the event itself. Have you ever attempted to harmonize the various accounts of the resurrection as they appear in the four Gospels? Well, that’s what I’m going to attempt for you this evening. I’m going to attempt to harmonize the biblical accounts, not so you can race from one gospel to the other, and because that will virtually be an impossibility, but I’m going to try to weave together for you something of a harmonious account of the resurrection from the four gospels, and see something of what the scriptures present for us with regard to that period that stretches from Christ’s resurrection to his ascension forty days later.

    You know, first of all, that Joseph of Arimathea and as well Nicodemus, who were both members of the ruling council in Jerusalem and secret disciples, they come and then bury Jesus. And that account is given to us in Matthew and also in John. The women Specifically, Mary Magdalene is mentioned, and another Mary. They observe where Jesus is buried.

    The Jews then next, interestingly, on the Sabbath, go to Pilate and weasel out of him a guard to be posted at the tomb. Interestingly, it’s done on the Sabbath. What are they doing that for on the Sabbath? Obviously, they’re breaking the Sabbath. very interesting fact in itself. Well, what are the women doing on the Sabbath? They’re keeping the law of God. They rest. Even though Christ is in the tomb, that event being of such monumental importance to them, they do not violate the law of God. They keep the Sabbath.

    They rest on the Sabbath day, while the leaders of the Jews are breaking the Sabbath, which are your friends. You break the Sabbath? Throw your lot in with the rulers of the Jews? Or do you keep the Sabbath like the women? All right, well, the women are keeping the Sabbath. They rest, but then they return early Sunday morning as the day dawns towards the first day of the week. Before they have arrived Jesus is raised.

    The stone is rolled back as we are told from the tomb, there is an earthquake, there is the appearance of an angel, the guards are terrified, and the women who appear then are comforted by the angel visiting. Upon entering the tomb, The women are greeted again by angels who give them instruction about what they should say to the remaining eleven disciples of Christ. Now what follows becomes very confusing for us if we are attempting to meld together the various accounts, so hang in there now.

    It seems that somehow in all of this At least according to John’s gospel, Mary Magdalene becomes separated from the other women. Possibly upon seeing the empty tomb, she immediately races through the town to the disciples with word that the body of Jesus has, in effect, been stolen. Meanwhile, the other women are making their way to the disciples, back to the disciples. Possibly there are some that are not able to move as quickly as Mary Magdalene. She may be swift to foot, but anyway, they’re moving a little bit more slowly, and as Matthew tells us in his account, they are met by Jesus, the risen Christ.

    28th chapter of this gospel, verses 9 and 10. Now, they arrive at that place where the disciples are, with their story, to add to Mary’s excited report, which she’s already conveyed to the disciples. The disciples, and possibly even Mary herself, find these words from the other women incredulous. But Peter, so we are told, in Luke, and Peter, along with the beloved disciple, so tells us John, race to the sepulcher. Peter and John, the beloved disciple, find that the body is in fact John, and they are puzzled by this, Women’s words have been confirmed, at least insofar as the body is not there. They return, however, to their homes, we are told, by Luke and by John.

    Now what about Mary? She was able to outrun, possibly, the other women in coming to the disciples in the first place, And because of that, he had missed out on the encounter with Christ that the other women had, but now she’s not quite as fast as Peter and John, so she’s trailing along behind them. And as she trails along behind and comes into the garden and near to the tomb, she herself meets the risen Christ.

    We have that marvelous exchange given for us in John’s Gospel, the 20th chapter, verses 15 through 17. Remember how it goes. She doesn’t recognize him at first. She thinks he’s the gardener, and she pleads with him, tell me, sir, where you have laid him. Then Jesus speaks her name, Mary, and her response is, Rabboni, which means, my teacher. And then he proceeds to teach her. Teach her as no woman has been taught with respect to the ultimate destiny of mankind. He says, don’t cling to me, Mary.

    She wants to hold him there, you know. Don’t cling to me, don’t hold me down. I must ascend. I must go above. That’s the point to which I employ. That’s the point to which I am directed. I am going above. I must ascend to my God and your God. Don’t try to hold me down for some sort of paradise here upon earth. See, I’m going above, he tells her.

    And now, of course, she raises back to the disciples, and with words that she also has seen the risen more. Now, meanwhile, as we are told by Luke, There are a number of disciples, those who had clung to Christ, they had been attached to him. A number of these disciples had become discouraged by the events.

    You can imagine their state of mind and soul. The one whom they had served is dead. What hope is there? He is gone. So they are discouraged. And they have left Jerusalem. Why hang around? They have left Jerusalem for their home. Now, two of them are traveling toward Emmaus, which is to the west of Jerusalem, about seven miles, we are told. And while they are on their journey, they are overtaken by a stranger. They don’t know who this fellow is. He walks with them along the way, and as He does, He opens up for them the Scriptures, and tells them why it must be that the Messiah should suffer in order to enter into His glory.

    Arriving at their homes, they convince this stranger to stay with them, And then as they sit down to meal, and he breaks bread for them at the table, they recognize him as Christ, Jesus, the Risen Lord. So now they’re racing back to Jerusalem, covering that seven miles as they’ve never covered it before, filled with joy, and when they arrive there, they find out in the telling of their story that Christ, in the meantime, has also appeared to Peter. Now that is related to us in Luke. twenty four thirty four, but it’s also mentioned interestingly by Paul, you know, in his resurrection chapter, first Corinthians fifteen. He tells us that Christ appeared to Cephas, appeared to Peter, so that appearance to Peter as the chief of the disciples is mentioned by Luke and by Paul. As these are now assembled on that evening, that Sunday evening, Jesus appears to them.

    He proves that he is risen in the body and no spirit, remember? He invites them to investigate his wounds, to look at them. He also says, do you have anything here to eat? And then he eats something in their presence. convincing them that this is in fact a raised body that they are looking at, transformed, truly transformed, made new by the Spirit, but His body nevertheless.

    And in that context we are told as well that He commissions His servants, He empowers them He promises them the Spirit and breathes on them. You remember from John’s account, breathing on them, he says, receive the Spirit. And then, as Luke goes on to tell us, he opens the Scriptures to them, maybe even more, he opens their minds so that they can understand the Scriptures.

    And moving back to John’s gospel once more, we find out that Thomas wasn’t there that evening. He wasn’t there, and when he returns and speaks with the group, Jesus having left, he, Thomas, refuses to believe, unless I see the print of the nails in his hand, the wounds in his feet, I will not believe.

    So a week later, We’re told they’re assembled again on Sunday evening. Interesting. I love those passages. They’re assembled again on Sunday evening. And when they’re assembled that week later, that evening, Jesus comes and stands in their midst and promises wisdom this time. And there is that wonderful, wonderful account of the exchange between them.

    Jesus offering himself to Thomas, Thomas being straightened because of his doubt and conviction, and exclaiming in the 20th verse, I believe it is of that 20th chapter, My Lord, and my God.” To which Jesus then responds, do you believe because you have seen? How blessed are those who believe even though they have not seen. How blessed are you in that you believe on the basis of the word of God, even though you have not seen personally the risen Christ. Well, what happens next? Trying to sew all of this together.

    The disciples then, in keeping with Jesus’ command, which he has given repeatedly, through the angels and in keeping with statements that he has made previously, the disciples in keeping with these commands from Christ travel to Galilee from Jerusalem and move north back to the territory from which they were from.

    Possibly as they wait for further word from him, Peter and some of the other disciples decide to go fishing. Do you remember the account in John 21? There appears that scene in the 21st chapter of John, of Peter and some of the other disciples going out for an evening of fishing, and then, having not caught anything, they spy the man on the shore, who tells them where to cast their nets, and they draw in that great catch of fish, and Peter recognizes the man on the shore as the risen Christ throws himself into the water and swims to shore and comes to shore before the other. But at any rate, there is that scene in which Jesus then feeds the disciples breakfast on the shore and then commands his disciples through Peter, whom he addresses three times, to feed his sheep.

    After this event, it seems that the disciples were gathered on a mount in Galilee. It has been suggested by some that it was at this point that the five hundred others that are mentioned by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 6, also assembled. It wasn’t just the disciples on that occasion, but at any rate, upon that mount in Galilee We have that definitive commission given to the disciples, the so-called Great Commission, with which Matthew’s Gospel concludes.

    Jesus then continues to appear to his disciples over the forty-day period that stretches from his resurrection to his ascension. From Galilee, his disciples return once more to Jerusalem, where, at the end of this period, Jesus leads them out of the city of Jerusalem to the east, to the Mount of Olives, and into the vicinity of Bethany. He there blesses them, and while he is blessing them, he is received up into glory until the time of his return.”

    So there you have it. I ought to put this all in a chart for you to have an easy index to the resurrection stories that appear in Scripture. In recounting this marvelous history and trying to put it together into a harmony, it is important to place before us, to place before ourselves the importance of this great event, the resurrection of Christ. First of all, in this regard, is its historical nature and the factuality of the resurrection, the sheer power of that, as it registered upon you.

    At this very moment, he is alive in his body. At this very moment, Jesus is alive in his body. Jesus is not dead. Now do you understand what that means for you? The historical factuality of Christ’s resurrection is of monumental importance to you, for this one historical figure in the body has been raised, and the promise is that historically, factually, you in the body shall rise too. That is what stands at the center of the Christian message. If you don’t believe that, well, I’m glad you’re here so you can hear the gospel preached. But if you don’t believe that, you are certainly not a part of the Church of Jesus Christ. You are not truly a follower. of Jesus.

    Those who follow Jesus will follow Him right into resurrection. Literally. All right. There is this important fact, the historical nature of the resurrection and the sheer power of it. Jesus is alive in His body. He is not dead. and as he is, so you shall be. Secondly, there is the great apologetical power with respect to this event. Jesus said he would rise, and he did. Jesus said he would rise, and he did.

    Now, not only that, You have, backing this up, the entire line of Old Testament expectation. And in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that entire line of Old Testament expectation receives its confirmation. Godly Jews in the time of Jesus believed in the resurrection. the resurrection of the dead, the resurrection of the body. You want to hear a good Jewish confession with respect to the hope of the resurrection?

    Turn to John’s Gospel, the eleventh chapter. You have Jesus there at the tomb of Lazarus, his friend. And who is the woman that meets him first? It is Lazarus’ sister, Martha. Jesus says to her in verse 23, your brother shall rise again. Martha’s response in verse 24 of that 11th chapter of John is this, I know he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. And Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life.

    He who believes in me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? Well, I don’t know if I’m prepared to believe that. But I do know that he will rise on the last day. That’s good Jewish theology.

    You see now, in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that entire line of Old Testament expectation receive fulfillment and confirmation. Now is there registering upon you the impact of the appearance of the Risen Christ to that good old Jew, Saul of Tarsus? You see what it meant for him to see the Risen Christ. On the road to Damascus. everything that he had ever been taught to expect from his Old Testament religion. He sees it there on the road. Jesus is alive. That means the Old Testament is truer than ever I had imagined. And the expectation and hope of Old Testament Israel is contained in this one who has been raised. For it changed his life. It changed his life.

    Now this very apostle, thirdly, then declares for us the indispensable character of the resurrection event. We know his resurrection chapter, verse 20 and 15. Without the resurrection, Paul says, we are still in our sins. If Christ didn’t rise, we are still in our sins. Our faith is vain. My preaching is vain, says Paul.

    It goes on to underscore the fact that in the resurrection power, God, who raised Christ as the first fruit, will also raise us up and back certainly. Finally, there is that abiding significance of the resurrection for our current situation, and this also is underscored by the Apostle for whom that resurrection has become central to all of his senses.

    For he will tell us now, not only are we crucified with him so that the old man dies, we are raised with him so that we are alive as new men in a new life and an eternal life. that is present and is enjoyed by the saints of the world. You need not wait to the last day. You need not wait to the end of the world. There is the contemporary significance of the resurrection in that already you have begun to enjoy resurrection blessings. The old man and his practices are being put to death. The new man has come, and you are alive in the dead. And sin no longer is behind the mastery of it. Well, there’s the resurrection. Is there anything so great? triumph over death, and also power over sin, that we might not live in the power of death and sin any longer. All of that is a praise of the glorious grace of God in Christ. Amen.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • The Mystery of Christ’s Rejection

    The Mystery of Christ’s Rejection

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The History of Salvation” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, November 25, 1990.

    About this sermon

    The Monday and Tuesday before the crucifixion unfold in detail, and the events accumulate. They reveal a mystery, the deliberate, layered rejection of Christ by those who should have known him.

    More sermons from Matthew · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    Tonight our scripture reading begins in Matthew chapter 21. We are beginning at verse 12 and we will read through verse 22. Hear the word of God. And Jesus entered the temple and cast out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changer and the seats of those who were selling dogs.

    And he said to them, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a robber’s den. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them. When the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he had done, and the children who were crying out in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David, they became indignant, and they said to him, Do you hear what these are saying? And Jesus said to them, Yes, as you never read, out of the mouth of infants and nursing babes thou hast prepared praise for thyself.

    And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany Lodge there. Now in the morning, when he had returned to the city, he came hungry. And seeing a lone fig tree by the road, he came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only. And he said to it, No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you. And at once the fig tree withered. And seeing this, the disciples marveled, saying, How did the fig tree wither at once? Jesus answered and said to them, Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you shall not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, be taken up and cast into the sea, it shall happen. Everything you ask in prayer of believing, you shall receive. rather the twelfth chapter, the twelfth chapter of the twenty-eighth verse.

    And one of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that he had answered them well, asked him, What commandment is the foremost of all? Jesus answered, The foremost is, Hero Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. And thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. And the second is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. And the scribe said to him, write, teacher, you have truly stated that he is one and there is no one else besides him. And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength and to love one’s neighbor as himself, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. When Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently, he said to them, You are not far from the kingdom of God. And after that, no one would venture to ask him any more questions.

    Turning over to Luke’s Gospel, page 21, reading from verse 20. But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is at hand. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are in the midst of the city depart, and let not those who are in the country enter the city, because these are days of vengeance, in order that all things which are written may be fulfilled. to those who are with child and to those who nurse babes in those days. For there will be great distress upon the land and wrath to this people, and they will fall by the edge of the sword and will be led captive into all the nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. And there will be signs in sun and moon and and upon the earth this may among nations in perplexity at the roaring of the seas and the waves men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world for the powers of the heavens will be shaken and then will they see the son of man coming in a cloud with power coming in a cloud with power and great glory but when these things begin to take place straighten up and look up lift up your head because your redemption is drawing near.

    And he told them a parable. Behold the fig tree and all the trees. As soon as they put forth leaves, you see it and know for yourselves that the summer is now near. Even so, you too, when you see these things happening, recognize that the kingdom of God is near.

    Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. Be on guard that your hearts may not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that they and that they come on you suddenly like a trap. For it will come upon all those who dwell upon the face of all the earth.

    But keep on the alert at all times, praying in order that you may have strength to escape these things that are about to take place and to stand before the Son of Man. Now during the day he was teaching in the temple, but at evening he would go out and spend the night on the mount that he called Olivet. And all the people would get up early in the morning to come to him in the temple to listen to him.

    Our Father, by your Word, the world was created. And by your Word, your Church, the center of your new creation is brought into existence. As there is order in the original creation, so there is order in the second creation. And Father, we rejoice in the order that you have placed within that second creation. We thank you for the order of triumph. and how he ordered this church. And we rejoice, Lord, in the structure that you have raised up, whereby through elders, through those who would rule, that structure is made apparent, whereby through ministers of the Word, that structure is made evident as well. And how wonderfully, Lord, you care for your people, and the order that you have provided provides for them.

    Surely there are those now who care for living stone. Living stone from the temple of our God, the house of our Savior, the body of Christ. So Lord, we ask that for your church throughout the world, you would grant strong ministers of the word, that you would be pleased to grant good and strong and faithful elders within the congregations of your people, and that you would supply your own with those who have diaconal ability so that they may be able to care for the needs of the people that pass before them, whose concerns and needs are great. These things we pray as we look to you in the preaching of the word, so that our hearts may be strengthened with respect to that order that you have established, and that we might be found submissive, obedient, living within the freedom that you have established for us in this new creation founded in Jesus Christ.

    Amen. Jesus last week, before his crucifixion, confronts us with the mystery of that rejection that he experienced, the rejection that he experienced at the hands of his own people, rejected by Israel. How is it that Israel, those who bear God’s name, we get them there. And there is. How is it that they’re gone we get them. How are these things working out as part of the plan.

    But even beyond that with respect to the matter of rejection of the bill we look at the rejection that Jesus during the week. What of the incalculable pain and travail for God’s people, who, under the banner of Christ, serving him faithfully, know the nearly unbearable sorrow of rejection at the hands of us? So it is, then, we come in our survey of New Testament time to this final week for Jesus prior to his crucifixion. and that’s subject of his rejection.

    Jesus enters Jerusalem, as we have pointed out previously, on Sunday. We know of the fallen Sunday. Jesus enters Jerusalem on Sunday, prior to the Friday of his crucifixion. And we read of his entry into Jerusalem in the Gospels Each of the Gospels has a record of it.

    Matthew’s account of it is in the 21st chapter, the first 11 verses. Now Mark tells us that upon entering the city, he surveys the city. But having looked things over, he leaves and stays in Bethany that night. And Bethany became something of a home base for him as he moved in and out of the city. The next day then, Monday, the final conflict with Christ begins.

    Jesus casts out the merchants, there is the cleansing of the temple, earlier he had cleansed it, you know the account at the end of John 2, so that there were two cleansings of the temple, one at the beginning of his ministry and then another at the close. John’s account of that early cleansing is very instructive. He tells us that Jesus on that occasion chastised the leaders of Israel because they had allowed the merchandisers to set up shops within the temple precincts.

    Think of it. Merchandisers. Those who buy and sell. Those who are profiteers. Enterprises. Even religious entrepreneurs. We see certain similarities, do we not? Between what is occurring in Jesus’ day and our own. As a house of God is transformed into a house of merchandise. Into an environment where there is much buying and selling. Prosecution, even. Jesus cast out the merchants. the merchandise. He cleanses the temple. He teaches. He heals. He challenges the leader that is challenged by them.

    On that Monday, then, within the context of his entrance into the temple and his cleansing of it, we also are face to face with the It’s a difficult passage, quite enigmatic, but I think that we’re all clear about this much, that the fig tree represents Israel, and because there is no fruit to be found on the fig tree, it is condemned, and thus the fig tree’s cursing becomes a prophecy of what is awaiting Israel.

    The disciples in that context are encouraged to faith. A faith by which they will then participate in the apocalyptic holocaust that is sure to come. Mountains being cast into the midst of the sea is an end-time vision. It is faith alone that will enable one to endure when everything is brought to its conclusion, when the elements of this world will be dissolved. and we will be face to face with judgment and God. So then, we have the event of that Monday, as the final conflict begins, Jesus cleansing the temple, teaching, healing, challenging leaders being challenged by them, the cursing of the fig tree, The prophecy of the judgment that is coming, and through that, the promise of an even greater judgment. For beyond the dissolution of Jerusalem is the dissolution of this world order. We ought to be prepared for that. And truly, there is no other way to be prepared for that than by faith. And on Tuesday, Jesus enters the city once again. He spends this day teaching extensively. He’s in the temple, and there he teaches and responds to the attacks of his enemies. In this context, his wits and critical ability are revealed in all their forcefulness. He is questioned, for instance, about his authority. By what authority do you perform these signs? By what authority do you enter the temple and cast out our money changers? By what authority do you do these things?” he asked.

    But Jesus, as I said, his wit and his critical ability at his height, at their height, turned upon his accusers, his inquisitors, and asked them about John the Baptist. Was John’s ministry from heaven or from heaven? And when the leaders of the people refused to answer that question, Jesus said to them, I refuse to have you by my authority. I do the same. Why didn’t they receive John? Or to receive John was to receive the one He prepared the way for the Messiah. And who was the Messiah? Jesus. And what do Jesus and John the Baptist preach?

    The coming of the kingdom of heaven. The coming of the kingdom of God. And ironically, within the proclamation of that kingdom, the Jewish leaders can recognize nothing that is familiar to them. They are men of the earth. They are driven by the flesh. They cannot see beyond the appearance of things. They are not able to peer by faith to heaven, to see eternal life. So, they refuse to answer Jesus. This then opens the door for Jesus, for his great parable, in which he powerfully exposes the leaders of the people. The most powerful of all is that parable of the wicked husbandman that appears at the end of Matthew 21, beginning with verse 33.

    You remember how it goes. The warden of the vineyard sends out his servant in series to receive for himself the produce that is his. These servants are wickedly treated, and then finally the Lord sends out his sons. Surely they will respect my son, but his sons are still treated and even executed. What then will the Lord do to these wicked husbandmen? The Jewish leaders are invited out of their own mouths. He’ll come and destroy them. He’ll place others in charge of the vineyards so that he might receive what is his due.

    And Jesus says, truly the kingdom of God shall be taken away from you and given to a nation bearing fruit. The chief priests and the Pharisees know too well Jesus’ meaning. Now he speaks in this fashion. Jesus then proceeds to tell another parable, the parable of the wedding feast, in which the king’s invitation is issued and goes out so that there might be many of his countrymen, his friends, who come to the king’s son’s wedding. But that invitation is rejected, rejected by his subjects, supposedly loyal subjects. When that happens, The king sends out his servants afresh, that his banquet hall might be filled, and others come in to enjoy the wedding feast that the king has prepared for his son. This parable that appears at the beginning of Matthew 22, the first 14 verses, previews the rejection of the Jews and the re-gathering of the Gentiles, as you know.

    Then we move on. The various religious and political factions, because of Jesus’ teaching now in the temple, are driven all the more in their hatred for him. We have a strange alliance forged here in the midst of this conflict. You read about it in the 22nd chapter of Matthew, beginning with verse 15. Here the The Pharisees, as you move on from the 15th verse into the 16th, here the Pharisees join together with the Herodians. They come at Jesus with their clever questions about Jesus’ Trinity.

    In these two factions, religious and political, the Pharisees being religious, quite religious, not wholly apolitical. The Herodians definitely political, but not apolitical. In these two factions, representative of religious and political power, the love of the world is being perfected. Jesus who founds them both.

    They are interested in one thing, his destruction, because his presence speaks to them of something that challenges their authority, their place, their privilege. all the things that they have amassed for themselves. Next come the Sadducees. The Sadducees were the real power behind the priesthood in Judaism at that time. They were a worldly aristocracy that controlled the court system, the legal apparatus within as well as the official religious worship services for Israel.

    They attempt with their questions to make the resurrection of the dead look ridiculous, because they did not believe in spirit, they did not believe in the supernatural, and they did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. So Jesus confronts them, chapter 22, verse 23 and following. and how marvelously he does confront them, confounding them out of the Old Testament scriptures, taking those scriptures that they revealed to prove the fact that there was a resurrection. In fact, the resurrection is at the very heart of what the Old Testament is all about. If you don’t understand the resurrection, there’s no hope with respect to the resurrection, then you’ve missed the point.

    But then there comes that lone paragon, a lawyer as he is called, in one instance, with his question about the greatest commandment, chapter 22, 34 through 40, and we read the parallel passage in the Gospel of John chapter. While each receives the appropriate and perfect response, this last figure is one in whom we can see hope. According to Mark, and we’ve read him this evening, Jesus told him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God, verse 34 of that twelfth chapter in Mark.

    Indeed, the structures of Israel, political and religious, are corrupt. The parties and their orders, with their aspirations and vested interests, have become even murderous. They’re contemplating destroying this man, Jesus. that this solitary lawyer, this solitary therapy stands out as a figure in whom we are able to see the proportion of salvation and its prospect for the Israelite salvaged from the jaws of death. All hope is not lost, even with respect to Israel.

    All Israel will be saved. therapy indicative of the fact that yes, God’s purpose, His plan is perfect. We can speak about God’s rejection of His people, but yet we know His people are not rejected in the sense that any of His elect are lost. seemingly is not far from being gathered by God into the ultimate and eternal sense. But now, the one who has been interrogated, Jesus, as we end that 22nd chapter of Matthew, the one who has been interrogated becomes the interrogator. the end of his encounter with these leaders, with these inquisitors, by asking them a question.

    What do you think of Christ? Whose son is he? Jesus asked, beginning in verse 41 of that twenty-second chapter. And then quoting from Psalm 110, The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand. He asked further how David can refer to his son as his Lord. And at the asking of that question, all mouths are stopped. For in order for David’s son to be his Lord, his son must be one greater than him.

    Jesus then addresses the multitudes and disciples with an avalanche of woes in Matthew 23, telling them about the manifest hypocrisy that is increasingly evident within the Jewish establishment. Woe after woe articulated for you there, and Jesus goes through that. that indict a nation. But Jesus, at the conclusion of that 23rd chapter, launches on into a lament, for he is crushed personally in his spirit by the uncertainty of Jerusalem’s impending demise.

    O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and those who are sent to her, how often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wing, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate, for I say to you, from now on you shall not see me until you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” Jesus retires to the Mount of Olives with his disciples, and there he delivers his great but controversial description of what is coming for Jerusalem. But lest we are too short-sighted, it is not just the end that is coming for Jerusalem, but on the background of that end that is coming for Jerusalem, the end of all things, the end of the world. how many an interpreter has floundered on Matthew 24, how many an interpreter has run aground when he has tried to steer his boat, the boat of Matthew 24, exclusively into the harbor of either the event of Jerusalem’s demise or the event of the end of the world.

    Actually, this twenty-fourth chapter speaks of both events in apocalyptic terms. One must see the end of the world in the end of Jerusalem. Jesus speaks about the end, the coming end of Jerusalem, and on the background of that impending destruction, he then telescopes with respect to those events that are coming that shall conclude the age in its entirety. So both are in view. And one must read, one must read that twenty-fourth chapter with both eyes clear and well focused. For it’s not one versus the other, it’s not an either-or, rather it is a both-and.

    Jesus then closes out this day, this Tuesday before his death. with appropriate warnings to his disciples. The warnings that you find at the end of the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew’s gospel. For instance, the forty-third verse. If the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. For this reason, You are to be ready too, Jesus says to his disciples, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think he will. Jesus, as he closes out the day, gives to his disciples those wonderful parables with respect to preparedness. In chapter twenty-five you have the parable of the ten virgins. Do not let the day overtake you. as those who would be unprepared as the foolish virgins were.

    Instead, we are to be on the alert, we are to be prepared that we might enter into the wedding ceremony that is coming for the King and his bride. There then follows Jesus’ parables In verses fourteen through thirty of that twenty-fifth chapter, a parable of a talent. We are told that we are to live wisely, circumspectly. We are to think hard and well about those things that have been committed to our care. We are to be answerable and responsible before our Lord. as we look to the day when he shall come and give us our reward.

    Finally, at the end of that twenty-fifth chapter, there is the sobering picture to the image of the sheep and the goats of the final judgment. The goats are placed on the left hand and the sheep on the right. The sheep are welcomed into the kingdom and blessed The ghosts are cast into utter darkness. The terrible despair of this man will come at the end of that day, that Tuesday, prior to Christ’s crucifixion.

    So now, halfway through the final week, the stage is set for a conspiracy to work itself out for Christ’s betrayal or His execution. Our purpose here tonight has been to lay out the events to that midweek point, but it’s also appropriate to make some comments. The mystery of Jesus’ rejection, we know, is the mystery of sin. What is it about that so rebelled against the good, and when the good is epitomized in an individual, in the Son of Man, in the Son of God, how that rebellion is accentuated, how it is excited.

    It’s very appearing. He draws it out of us. And are we any different than the Jews of the first century? Can we really stand apart from them and say, well, if we had been there, if we had been in that situation, we wouldn’t have acted as they did. We wouldn’t have been party to their crime. Are we so sure? Are we so certain?

    Have we not been convinced by what we have seen here as Jesus virtually stands alone and makes his way through these events? that it is only by grace that we are going to stand at all. It is only by grace, in fact, that His disciples stand. Grace alone gains the victory over their misconceptions and doubts. And likewise for us, it is grace alone that enables us to stand.

    It is not our goodness, it is not our righteousness, it is not our good sense. It isn’t because we’re so intelligent and we see everything so clearly that we can set ourselves apart from these Jews who were the perpetrators of this crime against the Son of God. No, we are involved. We are involved. Our sin, likewise, condemns us.

    We are indicted, and except by grace, we stand under the judgment. that falls upon them, and as they were destroyed, likewise we are destined for destruction. But we believe that God is merciful and looks favorably upon a people which he has determined to preserve for himself. That by mercy, God’s grace, we have come to believe and to trust. We have repented of our sins Our faith and our repentance be the evidence of His working in us.

    We are now poised. We are now poised for glory, for eternal life, rather than judgment. And to Him alone belongs all praise. To Him who was rejected To him who died, to him who was raised again from the dead, we long all praise. As you have confessed your faith, as you have repented of your sins, we do not this evening praise him for his matchless courage on your behalf. Amen.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Heroic Faith and True Humility

    Heroic Faith and True Humility

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The History of Salvation” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, November 11, 1990.

    About this sermon

    Peter’s faith is heroic before it is mature, still shaped by an earthly, millennial hope rather than true understanding. Jesus corrects it directly at the transfiguration, then turns in chapter 18 to teach the humility that heroic faith still lacks.

    More sermons from Matthew · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    We will pick up on chapter 17, the opening verses of that chapter. And six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, his brother, and brought them up to a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them. And his face shone like the sun, and his garment became as white as light.

    And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with them. And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah. While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Hear him.”

    And when the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were much afraid. And Jesus came to them and touched them and said, Arise, and do not be afraid. And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus himself. And then turning to the 18th chapter, the opening verses of that chapter, “…at that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And he called a child to himself, and stood him in their midst, and said, Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you shall not enter the kingdom of Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

    And whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck and that he be drowned in the depths of the sea.

    Let’s pray together now. We do call out unto you, our God, for we are zealous for your Church, for the household of faith, and we are zealous for the office of ministry and for the office of the ministry of the Word. And we plead with you, our Father, that in this time You would not leave your people without faithful preachers of the word. And Father, may it be pleasing to you to hear our prayer as we would cry out unto you that your people would not be left destitute. O Lord, we do not ask you for the celebrities, for we have celebrities enough We do not ask you even for the gifted rhetoricians, for we would have them in abundance. We remember Paul, the Apostle, who claimed that he was not gifted in speech, and to many he appeared as offensive. Yet it pleased you to use him powerfully And we would ask Lord for those whom you might use powerfully, powerfully in congregations, in assemblies where your righteous gather so that your people would be fed week by week.

    Oh Lord, give your servants good grasp of the things contained in your word. May they have a sense of the movement of the whole as they make their way from Genesis to Revelation. And may they be expert in setting forth the excellencies of Jesus Christ to your people, that your people might always be assured of that gospel truth, namely, salvation is of grace and not of works, lest any man should boast. O Lord, may it also be to the end that they preach for your glory. Lord, glorify yourself in the proclamation of your word, and raise up within us that spirit that would make us anxious to hear the word, so that we would be quick to assemble when your word is to be read and declared. Father, may we be known as a people of your word. We pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

    Now, last week we made a great deal out of the miracle of Peter’s confession at Caesarea Philippi, and we have the account of that for us in the sixteenth chapter there in Matthew’s Gospel. Now, I say the miracle, given the background to that confession, the background of that opposition that Jesus faced from many sides, especially from the leaders of the people. A miracle, in fact, against the background of family confusion. And then, as we read of it at the opening of that sixteenth chapter, the background of the disciples’ obtuseness and lack of faith, being an especially block-headed lot they were. So in the midst of that, then, there comes this confession by Peter, and it is nothing but a triumph for faith in the midst of those circumstances. Yes. the disciples’ slow rigidness, the fierce opposition of the Jewish leadership, the instability of the Jewish crowds that gather to hear Jesus, and the confusion and lack of confidence that is evident even in Jesus’ family.

    What a miracle it is. This faith, expressed now by Peter, thou art for Christ, the Son of the living God, he says. What but faith? Faith now that comes as miracles. faith that comes by way of revelation from the Father himself, what but faith pierces the walls that bar the sort of zeal that Peter then reflects in his powerful affirmation. Everything is against that affirmation, but yet the affirmation is heard. It is as if Peter were face-to-face with the crushing impact of the impossibility of what he asserted.

    How can it be that this one is the Christ? So formidable are the odds, yet this faith catches hold of something. This faith catches hold of something from the words of Christ. It is brought to life by God Himself through His Word and His Spirit, and it is now bold to state the case regardless of the odds. Despite the opposition, Despite all the appearance of things, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus is in retreat, it seems. He’s fleeing Galilee. He’s moved east and north into the territory of Philip. And Peter is bold to stay. Nevertheless, thou art the Christ.

    True faith, then, as much as it now appears in this man, Peter, true faith pushes past the predictabilities and the necessities that hem others in. It penetrates the world’s declared impossibilities and confident, rational conclusions. It is not content until it is in the presence of the one who declares, with God, all things are possible. It is one thing for faith to be, shall we say, heroic. It is altogether another thing for faith to be mature. At this point, then, we introduce the but. the acceptive clause. For Peter’s faith, as wonderful as it is, as much as we match it now with revelation from the Father in heaven, as much as it is truly grasped hold of something in those words from Christ, as glorious as it is, his faith is more heroic. than the cure.

    We know the overwhelming opposition. We have surveyed the circumstance. We have considered all the obstacles. Yet in this, Peter is not dislodged, he is not wavering. His faith is a gift, just as Jesus says. But there’s a sense to it all that yet this faith is facing but human opposition. and constrictions which this world, this world would place before it. And in facing that human opposition, as magnificent as it is, it remained at this point yet undeveloped and underdeveloped. Immature. It’s a complex matter, this whole issue of faith. Hang with us, then, as we push on.

    At this level, Peter’s faith meets the challenge of detractor. such as Jewish leaders, it meets the challenge of ambivalence, the ambivalence of the multitudes. It meets the challenge of that hesitation that is found in the other disciples and the thick-headedness that has most recently been found in them all. But less at this level, risks say, will actually degenerate.

    Once at this level, it itself will seemingly be transformed, changed, and it will become a mere confidence in the expansive abilities of human potentiality. the expansive abilities of human potentiality seen in Jesus. What a marvelous figure he is! Why, I can believe in him! What an incredible personality this fellow is! There is a reading of the Messiahship of Jesus Christ that operates nearly on that level. remaining at that level, faith itself becomes a faith in the expansive abilities of human potentiality. Left at this level, then, faith that begins well ends poorly. It becomes a mere heroic optimism. resolute, fierce, determined in all of its assertions against overwhelming odds. But in the end, left at this level, it becomes the substance of that faith professed by motivational engineers. Have you been to an Amway convention? Do you know that Robert Shuler is a regular guest at Amway conventions? He brings motivational messages to all who are assembled. Charles Stanley does the same thing.

    Get these boys pumped up! with respect to the realization of your human potentiality, such then being the content of faith. The odds are great against you. Why, you’ve been down and out. You’ve lost a couple of fortunes. Well, don’t give up. Things look bleak But what you need is a good dosage of heroic optimism. Faith will triumph in the end. So you hear the determined, resolute, fierce assertions against overwhelming odds.

    Who would have thought? But tragically, And this kind of faith also becomes the substance out of which are spun millennialist dreams and fantasies. Left at this level, such faith then wanders into that realm, constructing for itself optimistic, fantastic dreams for the future. And for none of these, be they Schuller or Stanley or current modern millenarians, from none of them do I hear any denial that Jesus is the Christ. And yet, there is something so sadly, so tragically defective in their faith. In the end, it proves to be immature, if not wrong-headed altogether.

    Now there is a tell-tale brand. You know about brands? There is a tell-tale brand for this kind of immature faith, the kind of faith that merely remains at this level, this heroic faith, even this heroic faith. That tell-tale brand is that it thinks in terms of a life preserved and maintained here.

    Isn’t that how it is for heroes anyway? No less for heroic faith. Do not heroes save lives? their own and or others for the preservation and maintenance of life here in this world? In the situation Peter faced, it would eventually register this way. Well, boys, regardless of how bleak things look, don’t get down. We’ll lick this thing yet.

    But Peter, Peter, what if I die? You see how the passage goes on in Matthew 16? But Peter, what if I die? What if I go to Jerusalem and I die, Jesus? What about your faith now, Peter, if I choose death? I deliberately choose it. What if I choose not to preserve my life in this world, but give it up? What if I choose to lose my life in this world?

    Now we’re not talking about apparent improbabilities in the world of men. We’re talking about the utter and absolute impossibilities that pertain to the world of the flesh in its entirety. And Peter is astounded. Peter is astounded. His faith as yet cannot factor this in. Far be it from you, Lord,” he says.

    But Jesus will begin his instruction for Peter and for all who would follow after Peter, for all disciples of Christ. Jesus begins his instruction by telling him that true faith, mature faith, see beyond the things of mere men. beyond even those things that religious men savor and delight in. True faith, now mature faith, must push beyond, must grab hold of eternity, of the age to come, of the world of the Spirit, True faith, then, does not count life and this world dear, but is even willing to give it up for the sake of the life that is reserved for us in glory. True faith finds itself ready to deny itself, pick up and carry crosses, follow Jesus into glory. True faith, more than being heroic for the sake of life here, walks away from the bona fide certainties and guarantees of life in this world, and commits itself unto Christ because of Christ. And on the basis of His Word, it grabs hold of the certainties of glory, of those things that lay beyond. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

    It is a heavenly city to which Abraham presses. It is a heavenly goal to which all of the so-called heroes of the faith listed for us in Hebrews chapter 11 press. Being heroic about it is a start, and it is admirable. But there’s something in all of that that still gets the applause of men.

    True faith ends up giving the back of men’s hand. It appears to the world as foolish, but it proves itself of supreme value in God’s eyes, seeing as it does beyond death, beyond even the dissolution, of everything that even an heroic faith may depend on. As yet, Peter’s confidence with regard to Christ is conditioned upon his hopes for an earthly But you will note that Jesus remarks, do not dislodge Peter in his immaturity. Peter has not grown much as we move from the 16th chapter of Matthew into the 17th, as is proved by the experience on the Mount of Transfiguration.

    There, as we have read, God reveals the ultimate objective to which Jesus’ mission is directed, the transformation of his body into a glorious resurrection body, sick for eternity. That’s what appears on the top of that mount. And what is Peter’s reaction?

    He wants to set up a few booths. Let’s make a few huts here. Tabernacles, landmarks to the event. Certainly, these landmarks will be an inspiration to many. Can’t you just imagine the pilgrimages that people will take to see the tabernacles and the booths? Why, these shrines will prove faithful, prove useful to the sort of faith that I have. None of those who come will deny that Jesus is the Christ, but they’ll come and they’ll see the booth. You can see what’s happening now.

    The faith that is blessed by Christ that starts well remains, as it were, fixed in immaturity. And insofar as that immature element is discernible, it is less than admirable. Then there follows the story of the other disciples who are waiting at the foot of the Mount of Transfiguration. They have been dealing with the man with the epileptic son. They are not able to heal the boy. And Jesus tells them there about a faith that seemingly at this point lies beyond their reach.

    And this faith, as is made clear in verses 22 and 23, this faith must remain resolute and even joyful. in the face of Jesus coming to mind, his death and crucifixion, grasping as it does the resurrection to glory and the true nature of the kingdom. And as the seventeenth chapter ends with the story of Jesus and Peter and the Temple tax. You can imagine out of this story how it’s possible to conceive.

    Of a faith that continues to place the greatest importance upon the institutions and customs that have become peripheral to the interests of the kingdom. Jesus’ words to Peter are, I want you to go pay the temple tax, lest you give offense, lest we give offense. But it’s almost as if anymore, this not giving offense has become a whole, an entire way of religious life. As if the greatest religious responsibility were not to give offense. And our interests lie with those matters that were on the periphery of what concerned Jesus. The religious and the political establishment demanded that tax at that time. Jesus makes his statements in light of the coming of the kingdom and the privileged status now that the servants in the kingdom have.

    But lest we give offense to the world, lest we give offense to those who rule and have authority, we do such and such. But then to take the such and such and make that the most important thing and the very center of religious obligations is nonsense and is walking right away from the concern that stands at the center of Jesus’ exposition of true faith. entire orders and approaches to social and moral life have been constructed around considerations like this. We don’t needlessly give offense to the institutions of the world. We don’t flaunt ourselves in front of those who have authority, civil, moral, religious.

    We show respect. But we don’t take these peripheral matters, now in light of the coming of a kingdom, in light of the fact that we are the sons of the kingdom, and make them the center of our religious obligation. These things are necessary. Pay your taxes, please, will you? That we are being educated with respect to an entirely different arena. And our faith is being focused elsewhere. We’re not rebels. We’re not anarchists. But we do not turn peripheral matters into the be-all and end-all of our conscious devotion to our God and King. Vote. Please do. Exercise that right. Perform your duty.

    But be aware of that to which your Christ calls you with respect to faith. You see an unseen world. beyond the world of civil governments and the moral forces of this creation, perfectly. And finally, as if proof that the disciples as a whole are still operating on the level of that immature faith that Peter expresses, we come to the beginning of the 18th chapter and testimony to the fact that they have not grasped Who’s greatest? Can you imagine Peter being blessed by Christ, parading around in the midst of the twelve?

    I got it right. I answered the question. Can you imagine Peter after Jesus has said to him, you take the fish you find, you take the money you find in the fish’s mouth, down and pay the temple tax for you and me? Peter comes out, you see, he paid it for you and for him and me. Peter’s feeling pretty good about himself. Is it not natural that there should be an argument that now arises in the midst of the twelve? Well, who then is going to be greatest? Why not me? Why not the rest of us? Peter probably isn’t doing any better than the rest of the disciples at that point.

    Jesus sits in the midst of a child and gives them instruction with regard to humility and other dependents. So despite our cleverness, despite our wit, despite what we might think of ourselves, in the end we are but children, waiting in faith upon our Father, who is going to give us the riches of the kingdom.

    And our eye, I say, is trained upon those things, and we live for them and by them. Oh yes, your confession with Peter is, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. But your confession is mature. Even though he dies, even though all of the goods of this world be removed from me, even if I have nothing, even if this world is dissolved, I believe. I know that my Redeemer lives. And at the last he shall stand up upon the earth, and in that day I with my eyes shall behold him.” Amen.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.