Music Service
With Pastor Chris out of town, our May 31st evening service was a time of worship through song led by Rev. Tommy Lane.
Archive for May, 2009
Snakes in the Grass
Numbers 21:4-9
This sermon was preached by Mr. Ted Spangenberg during the morning service on Sunday, May 31, 2009.
Covenant: Occupying the Promised Land
Joshua
This sermon was preached by Rev. Chris Roberts during the evening service on May 24, 2009.
The following resources are available from this service:
Presentation notes
Handout on Joshua
In One Body Through the Cross, Part One
Ephesians 2:14-16
This sermon was preached by Rev. Chris Roberts during the morning service on May 24, 2009.
Last week we began working on the section Ephesians 2:11-22. In this section Paul is teaching the church at Ephesus about the unity of believers found in Jesus Christ. He is focusing specifically on the gap between Jews and Gentiles that is bridged in Christ. As we worked through verses 11-13 we applied his teachings about Jews and Gentiles to the difference that exists between believers and unbelievers.
In today’s passage we will focus more on the nature of the divide between Jews and Gentiles and how the divide is closed by Jesus. There is a lot to be unpacked in this text and we will not be able to sink our teeth into all of it today. We will focus on verses 14-16 and next time we will tackle verses 14-19, picking up with what we have to leave off today and moving forward from there. Today we are looking at what has created the division between Jews and Gentiles. Next time we will see the new relation between Jews and Gentiles in the church and what this means for the people of God.
Ephesians 2:14-16
In verses 14-15 Paul speaks of the dividing wall of hostility which is the law of commandments expressed in ordinances. What was he talking about, and what created this dividing wall between Jews and Gentiles?
The divide begins as early as the book of Genesis when God sets apart a people for himself. In Genesis 17 God promises Abraham that he will make Abraham’s descendants into a great people. In Genesis 17:7 God says: I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. God made a promise not made to any other people on earth. The promise is repeated in Deuteronomy 14:2: For you are a people holy to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. Much later in their history, Isaiah 43:1 reads: But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.
Out of all the people on earth God chose one man to be his own. From that man came many nations but only one of those nations was set aside to be God’s chosen people. They were small, weak, unimpressive, chosen for God’s purposes, not because of their merit. God’s choosing them set them apart from the rest of the world. Even if nothing else had taken place there would be this division between the Jews and all others.
But something else did take place. In his relationship with Israel God established certain agreements or covenants with them. These covenants placed various requirements on Israel, guiding the life and worship of the community. Some of the requirements dealt with moral issues, others with ceremonial issues. Altogether they set the standard of behavior expected of all who belonged to the people of God.
No one could live in relationship with God unless these laws were carefully followed. Those outside of Israel had to join with Israel, including adoption of the whole law, in order to be among the people of God. In essence, a Gentile had to go through a process of becoming a Jew before his worship would be acceptable to God.
I mentioned that the law dealt with both moral and ceremonial issues. Briefly, the moral aspect of the law included regulations on life and behavior that generally apply to all humanity. No one was supposed to murder or lie or covet or commit adultery or perform other violations like these. But only the Jews had these codified as laws from God. On the other hand the ceremonial law was limited to just the Jews. Only they were expected – or even permitted – to carry out the sacrifices and ceremonies spelled out in the Mosaic law.
These two aspects of the law, the moral and the ceremonial, cannot really be divided. Together they are the law that was given to Jews but was not given to Gentiles. All humanity stand under God’s intentions for his creation. He has certain commands that apply to all people. For the Jews these commands fall under the covenantal law. For the rest of humanity they are as Paul describes in Romans 2:15: They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts… God has not left anyone without knowledge of how he expects his creation to behave. His will of decree has been made known to all.
So the Jews have the covenantal law given by God, a law which includes moral commands for all humanity and ceremonial commands just for God’s chosen people. This law stands between the Jews and the rest of humanity, creating a divide that outwardly shows which are the people of God.
The condition of the Gentiles is found in Ephesians 2:12: remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. We looked at this last time. Israel lives in tension with the rest of the world, the world was cut off from all the promises of God unless they joined with the people of Israel.
This created tension, enmity, hostility between Jews and Gentiles. The law itself was a wall separating the people, causing division. It is as the text says a dividing wall of hostility or enmity. Some commentators – and at least one paraphrase Bible – have said the division was caused by people, not by God. But it was God who set things up this way. It was God who made Israel distinct and gave them the law that divided them from the Gentiles. And in the minds of the Jews, things would always be this way.
Despite the expectations of the Jews, along the way something changed. Something happened that opens up entry into the people of God so that Gentiles can come in. Paul points us to this in Ephesians 3:4-6, which we saw in part earlier. Here it is in full: When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
The mystery, present in the Old Testament, is that God would open the doors to himself so that Gentiles would be welcome among his people. By the time Paul comes around the mystery has been made reality so that Paul can say the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body. What happened? What caused this change? And what does it mean for Israel?
Back in our passage, in Ephesians 2:14-15, Paul says that Jesus has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances.
This wall of the law, these decrees with their many commands, is somehow abolished by Jesus. Now, be careful with the word abolished. It can be misleading if you understand it the wrong way. The text literally reads that Jesus made powerless the law. He did not make the law cease to exist. He did not lift it. He fulfilled it. In Matthew 5:17 Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them…” In Matthew he uses a word that means destroy. In Ephesians the word Paul uses means make powerless. Jesus did not come to destroy the law but he did come to remove its power.
The only way he could do this was by fulfilling the law himself. He did what no human being had ever or would ever be able to do. He lived and died without sin, in perfect obedience to the covenantal law God had established with the Jews. With the law fulfilled there was now the possibility that we would not have to fulfill it, that somehow his merit, his righteousness, would be given to us as well.
But this would only happen for those who are in Christ. You might remember that several weeks ago in Ephesians we noticed that Paul is very interested in helping believers see how important it is for them to be in Christ. Over and over in this letter Paul talks about the need to be in Christ. Last week, in verse 13, Paul shows that in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Only by being in Christ is that wall, the law, made powerless. The kind of unity brought by Christ is not automatically applied to all people, as he writes in Galatians 3:28: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. The unity takes place only in Christ Jesus. Human beings come together only in him.
There is another unity that can only take place in Christ. In verse 14 Paul says that Jesus has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility. This describes the incarnate Son of God, God in the flesh, perfectly fulfilling the covenantal law. As we said, Jesus fulfilled the law so that those in Jesus have the law fulfilled for them, it is no longer a wall dividing those people who are in Christ. In verse 16 Paul tells us about another unifying work of Jesus, that he would reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, so making peace.
Without Jesus there is hostility between man and God. There is conflict. We wage war against him and he stands in just and good judgment over us. But through Jesus there is peace and reconciliation. He brings all those who are in him, both Jews and Gentiles, as one unified body, and gives us to his Father in Heaven. He can only do this by making powerless the wall that stands between man and God. That wall is our sin. In today’s verses Paul does not say much about sin. He has already addressed our being dead in sin in Ephesians 2:1-10. There we saw that in Christ we receive the kindness of God. But while he is on the subject of unity he wants us to once again see that unity with God, reconciliation with God, comes only in Christ. Jesus is the only way to find peace and unity with others, he is the only way to have peace and unity with God.
One of Paul’s big points in this passage is that Jews and Gentiles are brought together in one body. Some have described this as a third race of humanity – there are Jews, there are Gentiles, now there is a new class known as Christian which is neither Jew nor Gentile. It is what Paul describes in verse 15: that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace… This has major implications for how we understand the relationship of Israel and the church. The topic is so big that I’ve decided not to address it today but we will come back to it next time as we look at this new people of God.
What I want to leave you with this morning is the comfort and assurance that the divisions in fallen humanity can be mended in Jesus Christ and the division between man and God can also be mended in Christ. For those who are in Christ there is no disunity, there is no divide. We do not yet see this in full. We still deal with sin and pride and we struggle against one another. But we have hope and trust that in Heaven this promise will see its full expression and all the people of God will dwell in perfect unity and harmony.
All of this has been done by Jesus Christ and through his cross. The law fulfilled, himself the sacrifice that carries our sins, the judgment of God paid for in his blood. If you want to know peace then you need to know Jesus. There is no other way.
Covenant: The Wilderness Wanderings
Exodus-Deuteronomy
This sermon was preached by Rev. Chris Roberts during the evening service on May 03, 2009. Tonight we look at the ten plagues of Egypt.
The following resources are available from this service:
Presentation notes
Handout on Exodus-Deuteronomy
Handout on the Torah
Brought Near by the Blood of Christ
Ephesians 2:11-13
This sermon was preached by Rev. Chris Roberts during the morning service on May 17, 2009.
Very often the world is in division and discord. These divisions are not usually peaceful but come at the end of a gun. Race, religion, nationality, political party, place of birth – the list of things that can divide us is very, very long. The old question still stands: why can’t we all just get along? Why indeed.
There are a few things that seem to bring people together. Marriage and family can help unite people into some sort of harmony, though they are also often the source of discord. Tragedy or national crisis or a shared enemy can also bring people together. Many of the solutions offered to unify people are limited and shaky. One wrong word, one wrong action, and unity is broken, the way of violence returns.
In Ephesians 2:11-22 Paul discusses the one thing that can bring people together. Unity is not found through diplomacy or through violence. It is found only through Jesus Christ. Diplomacy is not a bad thing but it can never offer a lasting solution. True unity can only be found in Christ.
This unity does not erase the division between those who are in Christ and those not in Christ. The believer and the unbeliever are not united. But the promise is that all who come to Christ are joined with Christ, united with God, and brought to peace with all others who are in Christ. The assurance for the believer is that this unity will never pass away.
Before telling us about our unity with one another Paul wants us to know more about our unity with God. In Ephesians 2:1-3 we saw what our moral condition was before God: fallen, dead, children of wrath. In today’s passage, Ephesians 2:11-13, Paul tells us our relational position toward God.
Ephesians 2:11-13
Paul begins in verse 11 with the word therefore. There is a reminder in this. When you read a passage of Scripture you never have just that passage, you have the whole Bible and you’re just looking at a piece of it. Always have the other pieces in your mind as you wrestle with the meaning if the piece in front of you. The principle is to let Scripture interpret Scripture.
This piece, these three verses, follow what Paul said in verses 1-10. There he revealed the total depravity of man, our utter inability to save ourselves, the mercy of God to save us, the great gift of faith, and that we are now called to be faithful and obedient in doing good works for God – works God has prepared for us and has equipped us to carry out.
Therefore. Because of this great grace. Because of the marvels of God’s love for you, the unfathomable depths of his grace when he saved you, the majesty of his glory that he now reveals through you – therefore, dear sinner made saint, remember.
This little word remember is repeated many, many times in Scripture. We are a forgetful people. In preparation for our Sunday night studies in the Old Testament I’ve been reading time and again where God reminds his people to remember his mercies to them and time and again they forget and complain and turn away. We are no different. We forget what mercies God showed us five minutes ago.
Remember what the Lord has done for you. Remember what he has promised for your future. But as you remember don’t be dragged down by the sin and guilt in your past. Paul tells us in Philippians 3:13-14: …forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Paul wants you to forget what is behind. You are forgiven! Live like someone who was once a slave but has had the shackles thrown off. A dead man, blind and unable to move, suddenly given sight and taste, and touch, and smell, and hearing, able to explore a wonderful new world of God’s mercies. Don’t be consumed with the memory of the things that killed you. But remember what you were before God made you alive. Remember also what he has promised for your future, what 2 Corinthians 4:17 calls an eternal weight of glory with Him.
In verse 11 Paul speaks of you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands. He is making a distinction here between the Jews and the Gentiles.
Circumcision was the sign that one had entered into the covenant people of God. It was the visible, physical sign of covenant promise. Throughout Scripture we see that physical circumcision is not the real intention of this act, though it is required of Jews. As early as Deuteronomy 10:16 we read: Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. Similarly, in Romans 2:28-29 Paul tells us: For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter.
There is more to circumcision than cutting away a piece of flesh. The physical act should reflect a spiritual truth: the heart is circumcised. Dead flesh has been cut off. Faithlessness has been rooted out. His desire is for the Lord, not for the world.
In the Old Testament if a gentile wanted to be a worshiper of Yahweh he had to enter the covenant community of Israel, adopting the law. Under the new covenant the requirements of the law have been fulfilled and God’s people are no longer under the law. We are still to obey and follow God’s will for his creation but this obedience comes from children, not slaves.
The divide between Jew and gentile is broken down in Christ. We will see more of this as we go on. In today’s verses Paul’s focus is first on the problems faced by the gentile. Really these are problems for all who are not saved, all who do not have circumcised hearts. The Jews are good at acting like upright, moral people, having even been circumcised in the flesh, but nothing has taken place in their hearts. They are in the same boat as the gentiles. What we will see in the rest of this passage is meant to be heard by all of us, Christians saved by the grace of God and unbelievers in need of that grace.
In verse 12 Paul lists five problems faced by the uncircumcised, he says: remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
First, gentiles were separated from Christ. They were cut off from the Messiah. This would be a death sentence except they were already dead. Life comes only from being united with Jesus Christ. The gentiles, cut off from Jesus, have no hope of life, of salvation.
And such were you, Christian, and such are you, unbeliever. Without Christ there is only an eternal weight of despair. We are good at forgetting this or ignoring this but it is still there, the guilt of sin, the deadness that reigns in the hearts of all those who are not united with Christ.
The second problem for the gentiles is that they were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. This is the community with whom God is working. In the Old Testament the community of God was those who followed the Mosaic Law, the nation of Israel. To become part of God’s people Israel you had to become one of them and adopt the law.
In the New Testament the people of God are found in the church of Jesus Christ. We are the New Testament Israel. Entrance into this community is not found through rite or ritual but through the blood of Jesus Christ. It is this community that God is working with and through. It is this community that God will redeem. To be alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, separated from membership in the community of God, is to be left with the world, outside the church, enemies of God that will be crushed on the day of judgment.
Third, Paul tells us the gentiles were strangers to the covenants of promise. In the Old Testament we can find several covenants that God makes with his people Israel. The gentiles, cut off from Israel, would not be participants in the covenants of God. Cut off from God, alienated from the community of God, strangers to the covenants of promise. Ultimately these covenants were about God redeeming his people, sending Messiah who would save his people. Without Jesus Christ you cannot receive the promised salvation.
The fourth problem of the gentiles is that they were having no hope. What hope is left to them? Cut off from every provision for eternal blessing what could they put their hope in? We hear the word hope thrown around a lot today but it is hope in the work and effort of mankind. We are mortal and mortal is the work of our hands. It will pass away. Hope cannot be found in another person. It is found only in the eternal God.
Without Jesus Christ there is no hope for you. Without Jesus’ salvation there is only judgment and destruction and unending punishment. Without Jesus every human effort is doomed to failure. This is why we cannot make peace in the world, why the best minds cannot find a solution to war and hunger. They are, as the saying goes, looking for love in all the wrong places. Hope and peace and life and unity and love are only found in and through Jesus Christ.
If things seem bad for the gentiles they are about to get worse. We saw that the gentiles were cut off from every provision for eternal blessing. Now in the fifth problem Paul tells us they are also cut off from the source of blessing. Gentiles are without God in the world.
The unsaved person is cut off from God. There is no way to experience life with God except through Jesus Christ. This is what Jesus tells us in John 14:6: Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Those without Christ have nothing of God. A lot of people today like to talk about being spiritual but not being religious. Maybe they are spiritual, but probably not in the way they think. It is not God they find in their spirituality, it is his enemy.
Each of the five problems go together and the solution for one is the solution for all of them. But of these problems the fifth one has to be the worst. Saint Augustine once wrote as a prayer to God, “Thou hast made us for thyself and our hearts are restless until we find our rest in thee.” There is no rest for the person who has no walk with God.
Paul does not leave us without hope. In Ephesians 2:13 he says: But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
This verse starts with a reminder of distance. Those brought near had been far off. They had not pulled themselves along the miles, only needing Jesus to pull them the last bit. Nor, as we often think it, had Jesus brought them most of the way, leaving them to move the final inches. They were far off, far from God, cut off, separated, in their deadness unable to move, but Christ has brought them to his Father. As near as the throne of Heaven. The void between man and God is corrected in Christ.
The image we have of Christ filling a great chasm that we can walk across to reach the Father is not exactly correct. It is better to envision Christ leaping down a great cliff, picking you up, and leaping back up, depositing you safely at the feet of his Father, now your Father.
Jesus has taken you and brought you to himself. He did not do this casually, without doing something about our moral condition. He brings us to himself through the blood of Christ. This blood was shed at the cross to cover your sins. He lived and died and rose again in such a way that you might be fully forgiven and brought to life and lifted up to the throne of God. Your salvation is a costly thing. Jesus paid for it with his sweat in life and his blood in death. Christian, will you remember what you were? Unbeliever, will you acknowledge what you are? Rejoice in the hope God has given us in Jesus Christ. Turn to him for your salvation and serve him all the days of your life.
May 20th Menu
The following is our menu for the Wednesday evening fellowship meal on May 20th.
Fried Chicken
Potato Salad
Black-eye Peas
Corn
Roll
Dessert
The meal will begin at 5:30 in the fellowship hall. Those unable to attend can still come at 6:15 for the prayer time and Bible study.
Cost for meals is $5.00 per adult or $3.00 per child.
Brotherhood Breakfast
Men, be sure to join us for brotherhood breakfast on Sunday, May 24th at 7:30. The speaker will be Conrad Meadows.
Vacation Bible School
Once again we will be joining with Springfield Baptist Church for our Vacation Bible School. VBS will be held this year from July 20-24. This year’s theme is Boomerang Express.
May 13, 2009
Our special meeting that honored our Sunshine members past and present was held this past Tuesday, May 12th. There were 45 in attendance to enjoy the program and the fish dinner.
The Sunshine Club began in 1977 and six past members present for this meeting were Mary Bell, Lorene Branning, Mildred Brannon, Bertha Smith, Eunice Stanley, and Bessie Ruth Trappe. They were presented a special gift package filled with love. Four members unable to attend were given gifts also – they were Ruby Bryant, Dorothy Johnson, Erma and L. T. Lane. Ruby Bryant was the director of the Sunshine Club for many years.
After a welcome by Martha Greeson, our pastor, Bro. Chris Roberts, opened the meeting with a prayer. Donnie Smith, a past music director of Immanuel presented the special music. He sang “Midnight Cry” and “Beulah Land”. A DVD with memories from 1990 was shown and enjoyed by all. Bro. Randy Kuhn spoke words of encouragement and reminded us as we travel down memory lane to be grateful of all God’s blessings. These blessings instruct us and guide us and inspire us to continue to serve Him in the future.
After the program we adjourned to the fellowship hall for a fish dinner with all the trimmings. Alex Pitts and his crew were responsible for this delightful dinner. Thank you Alex for making this day so special.
Martha
