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May 31, 2009
“The Work of the Holy Spirit”
Acts 2: 1-24
Sunday, May 31, 2009
In both the Old and New testaments of our Scriptures, the Holy Spirit of God is connected to some pretty bizarre events and visions. It was the Holy Spirit who gave the Apostle John the vision that he wrote down which became the last book of our bible. It is a strange book to be sure with all kinds of symbols and shocking events that none us understand with perfect clarity.
The Holy Spirit was also the inspiration of and the main subject of the strange vision of Ezekiel in which he saw a pile of human bones come together to form living people.
The Holy Spirit is credited with entering to King Saul at times and making him do strange things.
The Passage we are dealing with today describes the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Christian Church in a permanent relationship.
But as we begin to look at the Work of the Holy Spirit, we need to distinguish the methods of the Spirit from the mission of the Spirit.
We began our Worship this morning with a reference to the method of the Spirit when He came to the Church on the Jewish holiday of Pentecost. The Apostles and many other Jews were gathered in the city of Jerusalem. The Apostles were there out of obedience to Jesus who before he ascended into heaven told them to stay in Jerusalem until the Spirit came onto and into them.
The greater multitude of Jews were in Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish Holiday of Pentecost. In the Hebrew nomenclature this holiday was called the feast of weeks. It was a dual-occasion holiday. It was at this time that the first-fruits of the wheat harvest were presented to God in the Temple. This occurred on the 50th day after the first Sunday after Passover. Because of this, the Greek speaking Jews called it Pentecost because of the 50 days.
This holiday was also celebrated as the anniversary of God’s giving of the Law to Moses on Mt Sinai.
We are told that on this occasion, the apostles were gathered in one place. We do not know where they were. They may have been in the upper room where the last supper had occurred 7 1/2 weeks earlier. Or they may have been somewhere else. Wherever they were, the place was filled with the sound of wind, but there was no wind. Then something that looked like a flame appeared above each of the Apostle’s heads, and each of the Apostles began to speak in a dialect that was spoken by some of the visitors who were gathered in Jerusalem for the Jewish Holiday.
The Apostles then rushed to the temple court-yard and used these new language skills to preach to all of the Jews who were gathered there to celebrate Pentecost.
This is the part of the event that we recognized at the beginning of our Worship Service. We heard John 14: 6 read in many languages this morning as a way of remembering that the Holy Spirit gave the Apostles the gifts of speaking in other languages. We also recognize the work of the Spirit in bringing the good news of Jesus into many nations and cultures and language groups, and we praise God that we in Faith Church have been gathered from many places and cultures.
But what I want us to understand this morning is that the fire-like tongues and the sound of the wind and the gifts of various dialects were not the primary mission of the Holy Spirit. They were the means by which the Spirit accomplished his work on that particular occasion. We do not completely see the scope of that work until we complete the reading of the passage.
We are told that each of the visitors heard one of the Galilean Apostles preaching in his own dialect. We are told that the content of what was preached was “God’s Deeds of Power”.
You know by now that this unusual behavior sparked the kind of speculation that unusual behavior usually causes – some thought they were drunk. The Apostle Peter said that they were not drunk but that this was a fulfillment of what the scriptures had said about a time when the Spirit of God would come on many people.
Peter then quoted from the prophet Joel who had said that some really wild things would happen in the days when the Spirit would come. One of those things was that the sun would become dark. That had happened on the day of Jesus’ crucifixion about 53 days earlier.
Then as Peter continued to preach he narrowed down the message of the apostles that had previously been referred to as “God’s Deeds of Power.”
Peter began to preach about Jesus. He reminded his hearers of the great miraculous signs that Jesus had done by God’s power. He reminded them Jesus had been killed due to the plottings of some of them. And he declared that God had raised Jesus from the dead.
Peter’s sermon continued beyond the end of our passage to exhort his hearers to repent and be baptized in Jesus name, in other words, he told them to believe in Jesus as their savior.
And that is the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit does many things in us, for us, and with us. He encourages us to love others, he makes us grateful and generous and caring. He causes us to love others and to help others. But those are not the final goals of the Spirit, just as the fire-like tongues and the speaking of different dialects were not the final goals of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. The final goal, the final work of the Holy Spirit was and is that Jesus would be presented as God’s Son whom he sent into the world to save all who will believe from their sins and the punishment their sins deserve.
All Christians should be open to being used by God’s Holy Spirit. We should allow him to use us to help others and to improve the lives of others. But we must always remember that the work of the Spirit is not complete until those people we help hear the good news about Jesus and believe in Him.
And now on this Pentecost Sunday we will honor the work of the Holy Spirit by celebrating the Lords Supper as a way of honoring the death and Resurrection of Jesus, and proclaiming his death for the sins of everyone who will believe. By eating this meal we declare that the Spirit of God has worked in us. We have heard the good news about Jesus and we have Believed in Him. I hope that when we leave this sanctuary we will be resolved to help the Spirit in his work of assisting all to believe.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 04:48 PM | Comments (0)
May 17, 2009
“The Water”
I John 5: 1-11
Sunday, May 17, 2009
It is our privilege and a joy to be able to administer the Sacrament of Baptism on and for Lizzi Kucik this morning. This momentous occasion necessitates a sermon explaining some aspect of the sacrament of Christian Baptism. Please note that I said “some aspect”. The sacraments of the Lord’s Supper and Baptism are so multi-faceted that it is impossible to touch on all of the meanings and benefits of baptism in the time we have set aside for the sermon this morning. So I have warned you, what I am about to say is not the final word on the sacrament of Christian Baptism, nor will it be a comprehensive discourse on this sacrament. But I think that this passage gives us a chance to think about Baptism in an orthodox yet creative way.
Any discussion of Baptism should place this sacrament in the context of the Christian Community. Baptism’s are normally done in a church sanctuary or in the context of public worship. Baptisms are normally done in and by the Christian Community. It is not just an individual’s event or even a family event, it is an event to be celebrated by the entire congregation with which the baptized person and their family worships.
We are reminded of this somewhat obliquely in the beginning paragraph of our passage this morning. Our passage tells us that all who believe in Jesus have been born of God. If we love God we are to love God’s children. And we are to obey His commandments.
In the sacrament of Baptism we demonstrate God’s love on those we think He has called to follow Him: Believers and the children of believers. And in this sacrament we promise to care for and support those whom we baptize.
And in doing so, we obey his command to baptize those who have been chosen by Him.
This passage also reminds us that there is something other-worldly about our faith. Our faith in Jesus gives us the power to overcome the world. We can overcome some of the sinfulness and strife that is present in this world by the power of the one who gives us freedom from death.
It is the second paragraph that gets us specifically into the area of the sacrament of Baptism. Speaking of Jesus the passage says in verses 6-8 “This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only, but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth. There are three that testify, the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and these three agree.”
Now it is not too difficult to understand that the Spirit of God testifies as to the truth of Jesus being the Christ or the Messiah and bringing God’s salvation. The Spirit inspired the OT prophets and the NT Apostles to write about the divinity of Jesus and the salvation he brings.
But what is the water and the blood? The blood would of course refer to the death of Jesus that supplied the sacrifice for our sins. The concept of Bloody sacrifices, or the killing of animals for the abatement of God’s wrath against our sins is found throughout the Old Testament. In the Sacrament of the Lord’s supper we celebrate the sacrifice that Jesus made for us on the cross to pay in full for our sins.
But what about the water? This passage says that Jesus came by water. There have been conflicting opinions about what this verse means. Some think it refers to the baptism of Jesus, some think it refers to the water that flowed out of the hole in his side when he was pierced after his death on the cross. I don’t think we have to be exclusive here. I think we can think of Jesus earthly ministry beginning and ending with water. But what does it mean that Jesus came with water?
Jesus was baptized by John and Jesus authorized his apostles to baptize those who believed in Jesus during his life and after his resurrection. But where did this practice of baptism come from?
Before John and Jesus the Jews were already baptizing. They had made a practice of baptizing those Gentiles who converted to Judaism. This baptism obviously was symbolic of washing the impure practices of the gentiles from these converts, of cleaning them up for their new lives with God’s chosen people.
But when you read the Old Testament I think you will find another reason for baptism. Many of the definitive events of Jewish History involved passing through water. Noah saved the human race and the animal kingdom by passing through the waters of the flood. Moses passed through the waters of the Nile at the beginning of his life’s journey to free God’s people. The people of Israel started their journey into the promised land by marching through the sea, surrounded by the waters of the sea. They later started their lives in the promised land by crossing over the Jordan while the waters ceased flowing just long enough for them to cross.
Jesus started his ministry by being baptized and commanded that all those who believed in him should be baptized. Baptism marks the beginning of our journey with God, it marks the beginning of our living in pursuit of God’s promises. Baptism marks our becoming a part of the covenant of Salvation that was completed by the work of Jesus but began with the work of Noah in riding the ark through the flood.
In Christian Baptism we are baptized in the name of Jesus because He completed the covenant. But in Christian Baptism we are also joined with Noah, Moses, the jews of the Exhile, the Jews who crossed over the Jordan, John the Baptist and countless others who have come through the waters and have come into the covenant of God’s Salvation. Baptism is for those of us who are a part of God’s Community, those who believe in the Salvation that was predicted by the OT believers and finally accomplished by the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Lizzi is too young to have expressed a faith in Jesus. But it is our plan and the intent of her family that she shall. Her parents and we will declare in a few moments that we intend to live before her and instruct her so that she will embrace the love of God and the salvation that comes from Jesus. So today we will pass her through the waters of Baptism to declare that we want her to live in and for the promises of God through Jesus Christ. We hope that this day will begin her pursuit of God’s promises.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 04:38 PM | Comments (0)
May 10, 2009
“The “Mothers” of Moses”
Exodus 1: 22 – 2: 10
Sunday, May 10, 2009
This passage describes a time when the Jews, the descendants of Jacob AKA Israel were having a difficult time living in Egypt. Life in Egypt had not always been oppressive for the descendants of Jacob. Jacob’s 11th born son had been the prime minister of Egypt and had been the one to being his father’s entire family into Egypt. But that had been over 400 years earlier. During this period the people of Israel had become a large group of slaves. And it was at this time that God was making preparations to bring them out of Egypt and into their own land. This passage announces the birth, childhood and adolescence of the one whom God had chosen and perhaps even created to bring His people out of Egypt. His name is given at the end of this passage. His name was Moses.
God chose Moses before Moses was born to be the one who would deliver the People of Israel from their oppressive existence in Egypt. So what we see in this passage is God’s working through 3 women or two women and a girl to mold Moses into the kind of person who would become a great liberator.
You may have found it ironic that this passage which I have chosen to look at on Mother’s day actually begins with references to two men. The first is Pharaoh, ruler of Egypt. This particular Pharaoh was being used by God to create a more oppressive situation in Egypt so the Jews would want to get out of Egypt. God was also using Pharaoh to create hard times for his people so certain people among the Jews could become strong and capable leaders.
Pharaoh had tried unsuccessfully to limit the growth of his Jewish slave population by instructing the Jewish midwives to kill all male babies as they were born. The midwives did not obey the decree, so this attempt of Pharaoh did not work.
The last verse of chapter 1, the first verse of our passage, tells us of pharaoh’s second attempt to limit the growth of the Jewish population. He got his entire citizenry involved. He issued a decree that any one who came across an infant Jewish male should throw him into the Nile river.
The second man to be mentioned is a Jewish man, a member of the tribe of Levi. This passage tells us that this presently unnamed man married a woman from the tribe of Levi. Later we find out that they were already married and had at least 2 children. The oldest seems to have been a daughter named Miriam. There was also a son named Aaron who was about 3 years older than Moses.
Now, having dealt with those two men who are mentioned in our Mother’s Day passage, the rest of our passage is all about women. And what women they were!
The wife of the Jewish Levite man became pregnant again and gave birth to a male baby. Now this would have ordinarily been good news for this family, but it was now illegal to let a newborn Jewish male live. So they hid the baby for 3 months. Those of you who have had babies in your families know that at 3 months or so, babies become more active and are therefore harder to hide.
When I was much younger, a friend of mine was the father of the three month old and he was excited because as he said “Now my son can do more than this (as he rolled his head slowly from from side to side).”
At 3 months, their baby was becoming much more difficult to hide. This was a woman who was in a great deal of trouble. Her mother’s instincts and her love for her child had not permitted her to allow her to son to be thrown into the river. But how was she now to preserve the life of her son?
Let me pause here for a moment so we can think about other Mothers who are in trouble. There are many of them in our time and even in our towns. The woman in our passage is unnamed at the moment but in other places we discover that her name was Jochebed. Some of the mothers in trouble in our time and place are nameless to us, some are known to us. Some are in difficult circumstances because of decisions they have made, some of them are in difficult circumstances because of decisions that others made. Jochebed was in trouble because of the decision that Pharaoh had made.
As we celebrate Mother’s day today, and in the weeks ahead, we need to pray for and search for opportunities to help mothers who are in trouble. They and their children may need our help, and like Jochebed’s son, God may have a great plan for some of those children of mothers who are in trouble.
Let’s get back to our story. Jochebed put her 3 month old son in the river. Only she first made a basket and sealed it with pitch so the baby won’t drown. We really don’t know what her intent was in doing this. Did she deliberately place the basket in the place where Pharaoh’s daughter bathed so she would find it or was that part arranged by God? We really don’t know.
There is one really interesting thing about this part of the passage in the original Hebrew version however. In the Hebrew text, the vessel into which the baby was placed is not called a basket. It is called an ark. The same word is used that earlier described the larger, wooden vessel that Noah coated with pitch and saved the human race from the flood. The author of this passage wanted his readers to understand that salvation came in this little ark made of reeds or bulrushes.
The second woman who is described in this passage was really just a girl. She is the baby boy’s older sister. And she kept watch over her infant brother. She kept an eye on his little ark, floating among the reeds near the river’s edge.
She was not strictly speaking the boy’s mother, but she was performing a mother’s role in looking after this child. You do not have to be a mother to have a great influence on the life of a child, but you can greatly assist a child and his or her mother by keeping an eye out for a child or some children. And maybe you can have some input later on in that child’s life. This older sister, whom we later learn was called Miriam, gave a great deal of guidance in connecting this baby’s adoptive mother to his birth mother.
There are many children in our lives who need us to watch out for them and place ourselves in positions where we can give some guidance to them and for them.
The third “mother” listed in this passage was the baby’s adoptive mother. For this roll, God needed someone who could get away with defying the decree of Pharaoh. Pharaoh’s daughter was able to do that. She discovered the basket, was touched by the crying infant and took him home to raise. She did not do this to help the mother of the baby, she did it to save the life of the baby.
She saw to it that he got the best education available in Egypt and was raised with the best of all that Egypt had to offer, which in that time was one of the greatest of nations and civilizations.
Sometimes, children cannot become all that they should be if they are left to depend totally on the resources of their birth families. Sometimes they need help and support from beyond their families.
Some of you might know the name of Dr. John Gerstner. He was one of my professors at Pittsburgh Seminary. He was also the Mentor of Dr. R.C. Sproul of the Ligonier Study Center and resources.
Doctor Gerstner was originally from the Philadelphia area. His family had few resources for his education, but a lady in their church paid for his college and seminary educations. Her contributions not only influenced his life, but the lives of his many students and the students of his student R.C. Sproul.
This passage describes the process God used to bring a great deliverer into being.
At the end of this passage we learn that his name was Moses. That is the English translation. The Hebrew pronounciation is Moshe or Moishe. The Egyptian pronounciation was probably Moije.
Through one woman God gave Moses life. Through another woman or girl He gave Moses guidance. Through another He gave Moses the education he needed to be the great leader of God’s people.
Moses was given his connection with his enslaved kinsmen through his birth mother and his sister. He was given his education and many privileges through his adopted mother. He was trained in the schools of the Egyptians, but he was of and for the Jews.
Each of those 3 women had a great influence on Moses.
Whose life can you influence? There are lots of children and mothers who need your help. Please keep your eyes and hearts open. God may use you to have a great influence on someone who may be very important in God’s plan.
As you honor your mothers today, remember to pray for mothers who need help and for their children.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 479006
Posted by faithpres at 04:01 PM | Comments (0)
May 03, 2009
“Our Assurance and our Calling”
I John 3: 16-24
Sunday, May 3, 2009
24 years ago singer Whitney Houston catapulted to fame with her first album/CD on which was her first major single, How will I know? It of course asks the question “How will I know if He really loves me?” - a question many have asked as they enter a romantic relationship.
It is also a question many Christians have asked about their status with God. How do we know that God really loves us? How do we know that God has forgiven our sins? How do we know that we will be apart of his eternal kingdom? How do we even know that God exists and that Jesus is His divine Son? Many have said that doubt is a part of our Christian experience. A few weeks ago I talked about Thomas and his week-long period of disbelief.
Now to be sure, if we seek empirical proof or physical proof, we cannot be certain. There is no scientific theory for the existence of God. There is no mathematical equation for the existence of God. But many scientists and Mathematicians do believe in God. This is not a surprise because all scientists and mathematicians and the rest of us believe many things that cannot be proven, or have not yet been proven.
So, on this the third Sunday after Easter, How can we be certain that Christ has forgiven our sins, and how can we be certain of our salvation? Well, the most obvious proof is the resurrected body of Jesus. But He is no longer physically with us. The Bible tells us that On the 40th day after his resurrection, Jesus physically ascended into Gods heavenly kingdom. So while the physical evidence of His resurrection and our forgiveness and eternal security was on earth for 40 days, it is no longer on earth and no longer empirically provable.
We now have eyewitness accounts that have been written into the bible, so it can be argued that it is historically provable, but not empirically provable.
So, how do we attain a measure of certainty about the content of our faith? Our scripture passage seems to have two answers for us. What Jesus did and what we do.
In verse 26 we read “We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us – and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.”
I think that this verse and some others in this passage relate to the Sacrament we will be participating in in a few moments. In this Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper we see portrayed before us the symbols of the love of Jesus. Jesus said that the bread was/is his body broken for us. He said that the wine was/is his blood poured out for us. In other words, this sacrament represents and reminds us of the surrender or laying aside of his life for us.
The Bible teaches us that it is by his death that our sins are forgiven and that we are given entry into God’s eternal kingdom. But this sacrament is more than just a reminder that Jesus died for us. It provides us with a chance to participate in his death. We take the symbols of his life and death into our own bodies, our own lives.
The sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is more than just a memorial supper where we remember and honor Jesus. It is also a means of Grace. When we eat this bread and drink this wine in the context of Worship, the Holy Spirit brings the risen and glorified Christ to us in a spiritual yet real way. And the Spirit of Christ gives us the assurance that Christ did die for us and that we are saved.
I have known some Christians to refuse to take the sacrament because they had doubts. I think that many doubters should take the sacrament because it can give them the assurance they need.
I think that unrepentant sinners need to be careful about taking communion, but that is another issue.
But according to this passage, the Lords Supper is not only a source of assurance of our salvation, it is also a reminder of our calling. We are called to love others as Jesus loved us. Look at that 26th verse again: “We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us – and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.”
The sacrament of the Lord’s Supper ought to be a reminder to us that we are called to love others with the same type of self-sacrificing love that Jesus demonstrated for us on the cross. We are called to sacrificially love others, not by good feelings but by deeds of love and kindness.
Our passage tells us that this will have a reassuring effect on us. Look at verses 18-20. “Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.”
So I call you to participate in this sacrament and receive the full benefits of it. Take it and see the fullness of the love of Christ for you. Experience the death of Jesus for your sins. Receive the assurance of salvation that is here for you.
And I call you to participate in this sacrament as a reminder of your calling to love others as Christ loves you. As you live up to that calling, as you love others by your words and acts, you will also receive from God the reassurance of his forgiveness and the reassurance of your citizenship in his eternal kingdom.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 05:25 PM | Comments (0)