I understand the text before and after, but the portion of not needing to teach neighbors or relatives just felt confusing. Isn’t that evangelism?

Great question! In the previous covenants, the Old Covenants, God’s law wasn’t written on the hearts of his people. It was written on stone tablets. The promise in the New Covenant, as recorded by Jeremiah, is that God’s law will now be written on the hearts of his people instead of on stone tablets. That’s the key difference.

This means that all true believers will know the law, in the sense that it’s written on their hearts. Knowing, in this sense, means more than intellectual knowledge, but an intimacy with God where his desire (or law) for your life is now your desire. This is what it means for the Spirit of God to have impressed upon every Christian God’s law. Obviously, there’s still a need to be taught God’s Word, to be discipled, to repent when we sin, and so on…yet Jeremiah’s prophecy indicates that there will be a difference in the new covenant given that the law is now written on people’s hearts.

So what about unbelievers today? Given that they do not believe in Jesus, they do not have God’s law written on their heart (this comes after a person believes). Thus, we are to evangelize and share the gospel with them so that they might believe and have God’s law written on their heart.

Or, to explain it another way, unbelievers are not included in the words “neighbor” or “brother” in verse 34. Why? Because “neighbor” and “brother” would only include those who believe in Jesus in the context of Jeremiah’s words. Not every person living in a neighborhood or every relative in a specific family. They have a specific and limited meaning: those who believe in Jesus.

‌SCRIPTURE: Romans 10:14-21 (ESV)

‌DATE: 12-8-24

As always it’s a joy to be with all of you this weekend at Gateway Church. And if you’re worshiping with us for the first time — are joining us at our North Main Campus or are with our friends in Bucyrus — I want you to know that God loves you and that I love you too.

SERIES INTRO

We’re continuing our series in Romans this weekend — finishing up chapter ten today — if you’d like to turn there in your Bible. And this will be our last week in Romans for the year. Originally I’d thought that we’d be through chapter eleven at this time — but God had other plans for us — so we’ll pick back up in Romans chapter eleven in the new year.

And I know that — in previous years — we’ve done much longer Christmas series here at Gateway. But I made the decision to shorten this year’s Christmas series so we could at least get through Romans chapter ten before the end of the year. But know that we’ll be all in with Christmas starting next week and then — on December 22nd — Gateway’s founding pastor — Pastor Ben — we’ll be with us as part of our Christmas series. I should say that Ben — and his wife Kathy — are here with us a lot of the time during the year — Ben even spoke at our church staff retreat two months ago. I’m thankful for their continued faithfulness to God and his church here at Gateway — as I’m sure you all are as well.

INTRODUCTION

But — as I said — we’re wrapping up our time in Romans for the year — and what a journey it’s been! And I hope that — though today may sound like a repeat of previous weeks — for Paul’s going to show us that — though he believes in God’s sovereign mercy — he also believes that people are saved by God’s sovereign mercy through the sharing of the gospel — thus I hope that this sermon will feel like a companion to our sermon from a few weeks ago when I answered your question about our free will.

So let’s turn to our text and I think you’ll see what I mean. We’ll be in Romans chapter ten — beginning in verse fourteen. There Paul writes…

Romans 10:14–21 (ESV)

¹⁴ How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? ¹⁵ And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” ¹⁶ But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” ¹⁷ So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. ¹⁸ But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for “Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.” ¹⁹ But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, “I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.” ²⁰ Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, “I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.” ²¹ But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”

The point Paul’s making here is that saving faith comes through hearing the preached Word of Christ — or the gospel being proclaimed. This is where we — those who believe in Jesus — see the high calling and purpose that our God has given to us: to be those who share the news of Jesus Christ with others. Who — like the friends we saw a few weeks ago — who so loved their paralyzed friend that they carried him to the feet of Jesus — God has called us — has called you — if you believe in Jesus — to take the gospel to others — to carry them to the feet of Jesus so they might find life everlasting — a life full of joy and hope and peace and love — through faith in him.

THE BEAUTIFUL FEET OF THOSE WHO ARE SENT

To see this — we need to return to a verse we looked at last week — verse thirteen. For verse thirteen connects our passage from last week to today’s passage. In verse thirteen — Paul concludes his declaration of God’s glorious promise of salvation — with the words…

Romans 10:13 (ESV)

¹³ For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” A verse full of hope. A verse full of life. Full of mercy. Full of grace. To which Paul — after declaring that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” — continues with…

Romans 10:14–15 (ESV)

¹⁴ How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? ¹⁵ And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

If calling on the Lord — which is when we put our faith in Jesus Christ alone for our salvation — if calling on the name of the Lord is necessary in order for a person to be saved — to be rescued — to experience liberation and freedom from Satan, sin, death, and Hell — how do they call on the name of the Lord if they don’t believe in him — this is what Paul is asking. Which shows us that Paul’s making a distinction between calling — or confessing with our mouths that Jesus is our Lord — and actually believing that he is. Many make confessions — but belief and confession are not the same — for it’s one thing to say that Jesus is your Lord and something very different to live with Jesus as your Lord.

But how are they to believe in Jesus if they’ve never heard of him? Did you know that today — according to the organization Joshua Project — there are currently 3.2 to 3.4 billion people who have little to no access to the gospel. That’s around forty percent of the global population. They can’t believe in Jesus because they haven’t heard of him. And I understand how this seems impossible — how this is so hard to believe to be true because of our context. Some of us don’t remember a day not having heard about Jesus — you may not have believed in him — but — at the very least — you heard him used as part of a cuss word. Imagine not having ever heard the name Jesus — or about the cross — or of his sacrifice for your sins. That’s the reality for over three billion people right now — which is why our desire is that all who follow Jesus — here at Gateway — would be Kingdom-minded disciples. Meaning — we care about God’s global mission of saving people from all nations and people groups.

Paul asks, “How are they to hear without someone preaching?” I don’t want you to feel like you’re off the hook — by the word preaching here. The word means to “proclaim, to announce openly and publicly.” It’s the same Greek word that Paul uses a few verses earlier when he says…

Romans 10:8 (ESV)

⁸ But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);

“Proclaim” is the same word as “preached” in the original language. So this isn’t just something that preachers do — though the preaching of God’s Word should not be devalued — but what Paul’s talking about is something that all Christians are called to do: To proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

In the church world this is called evangelism. And — as we reported during our ministry celebration weekend back in September — I’m so thankful that ninety-six percent of us had at least one evangelistic conversation about Jesus in the past year — with thirty-seven percent of us having had six or more such conversations. What a blessing it is to be part of a faith family full of people who proclaim the news of Jesus Christ! I hope you’re encouraged by the faithfulness of those around you — I know that I’m encouraged.

Paul continues with, “How are they to preach — or to proclaim the news about Jesus — unless they are sent?” Unless they are sent. You know what I bet would be a good catch phrase for a group of Christians to use who want to remind themselves every week of the importance of being proclaimers of the gospel — I don’t know — maybe the words “You are sent.” For our friends in Bucyrus — we have banners at our Gateway campuses that have the words “you are sent” on them. It’s also something we say at the end of worship services around here.

And I love how Paul finishes this thought of his: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach — or proclaim — the good news!” How beautiful are the feet. I don’t know about you but feet don’t make my list of most beautiful body parts. They’re gross. They stink. Toes are weird. Not to mention that — in Paul’s day — everyone wore sandals, and the roads were dusty, and animals used the bathroom on them. So feet were way dirtier than our nasty feet today.

In Life Group — a couple of weeks ago — I won’t name names — but one of the dads in our group didn’t have socks or shoes on. And his toddler was on the floor by his feet. And one of the very mature adults in my Life Group turned the situation into a “smell dad’s feet” game with the little one. And she put her face right on his feet. And all of the adults were like, “That’s gross!” Which got her to do it again and again because of our reaction. We’re a super mature group if you can’t tell.

So what a statement Paul makes when he says, “How beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim the good news.” For they’re the feet of the sent ones — who through them — others will hear the gospel. And some who hear will believe and their belief will be evident by their calling out on the name of the Lord.

This reminds me of Philip’s encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch in the book of Acts. 

Acts 8:26–40 (ESV)

²⁶ Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. ²⁷ And he rose and went.

How beautiful are the feet.

And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship ²⁸ and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. ²⁹ And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.”

How are they to preach unless they are sent?

³⁰ So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” ³¹ And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. ³² Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth. ³³ In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.” ³⁴ And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.

How are they to hear without someone preaching? How are they to believe if they don’t hear? How are they to call if they don’t believe?

³⁶ And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” ³⁸ And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. ³⁹ And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰ But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

How beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim the good news — which Philip continued to do.

WHO SHALL YOU TELL?

‌Who does God want you to share the gospel with? Yes, you. From the moment you believed in Jesus you were commissioned to proclaim his good news to others. For — to be a disciple of Jesus — yes — means we need to learn the content of what he taught and commanded us to do — and — equally important — to be a disciple of Jesus means we do what he taught and commanded us to do. And the one whom we say we follow said of himself…

Luke 4:18–19 (ESV)

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, ¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

The one who we’ve called upon — the one who we believe and trust in for our salvation — is he who said of himself, “I’ve been anointed by God’s Spirit to proclaim good news — to proclaim liberty — to proclaim the Lord’s favor.” Thus — to follow Jesus — is to be proclaimers of this same good news of liberty and favor. Or — as we say it around here — to be disciples of Jesus who make disciples of Jesus — who help others follow Jesus — even if they’re currently someone who doesn’t yet believe in Jesus. For evangelism — sharing the gospel with those who don’t believe — and discipleship — sharing the gospel with those who do believe — go hand in hand.

And the command to make disciples is given to all who follow Jesus.

Matthew 28:19–20 (ESV)

¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

As is proclaiming the good news.

1 Peter 2:9–10 (ESV)

⁹ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

As is living — in such a way — that how we live causes others — who don’t believe — to ask us about our hope.

1 Peter 3:15–16 (NLT)

¹⁵ Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. ¹⁶ But do this in a gentle and respectful way. Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ.

Which leads us back to Paul’s words in Romans chapter ten. In verse sixteen he writes…

Romans 10:16–18 (ESV)

¹⁶ But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” ¹⁷ So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. ¹⁸ But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for “Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.”

DID ISRAEL HEAR?

Paul’s bringing us back to the dilemma we’ve been facing since we returned to Romans. For many people — who don’t believe the gospel — have heard it. Though earlier I mentioned how many people have little to no access to the gospel — thus we desire to be a Kingdom-minded group of disciples here at Gateway — there are also many people — and you probably know some — who’ve heard the gospel and yet still don’t believe it. Though faith comes from hearing the gospel proclaimed — hearing the gospel proclaimed is no guarantee that faith will be the result.

Thus Paul returns to the original question he’s been answering to his readers. A question I mentioned so long long ago it’s understandable if you’ve forgotten about it. The question Paul’s been trying to answer — since the beginning of chapter nine — is: Why did so many Israelites fail to believe in Jesus as the promised Messiah? Do you remember that question? That’s the dilemma Paul’s original audience is wrestling with. For the Israelites were the ones given the promises, the covenants, and the patriarchs — read the opening verses of chapter nine — and the Israelites were given the promise that the Messiah — the promised Savior of the world — would be one of them. And — yet — when Jesus came as the fulfillment of God’s Messiah — the vast majority of the Jewish people rejected him. The vast majority didn’t believe in Jesus — instead — they had him killed. So Paul continues with…

Romans 10:19–21 (ESV)

¹⁹ But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, “I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.” ²⁰ Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, “I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.” ²¹ But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”

Though there’s sweet beauty in our passage — in these verses — we encounter the sorrow of knowing not everyone will respond to the good news by believing in Jesus. Paul will expand more on Israel’s rejection of Christ in chapter eleven but — for now — know that Paul — in quoting both from Moses and Isaiah — is making it clear that the promised Messiah — though Jewish in ethnicity — is the Savior of people from all nations. This is our hope — those of us who are people of the nations — not of Jewish origin. For — though we weren’t God’s chosen nation — as we saw earlier in Peter’s words — we are “now his chosen people…a holy nation.” Though we were not seeking God — we found him — because he first revealed himself to us even when we had no interest in him.

And — yet — God continued to hold out his hand of mercy to the people of Israel — who are described as a “disobedient and contrary people.” A disobedient and stubborn people. A disobedient and obstinate people. A disobedient and rebellious people who heard the message of truth — the gospel — and yet their hearing did not lead to their believing and calling on the name of Jesus for their salvation.

This is what Paul experienced as he traveled the known world to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. When he entered a town — he made it a practice to go to the synagogue first — to the gathering place of the Jews — where he’d speak to his fellow Israelites about Jesus. Yet he often experienced opposition to his message — not the reception of it — by his fellow Jews. For example — in the synagogue of Antioch in Pisidia…

Acts 13:15–52 (NLT)

¹⁵ After the usual readings from the books of Moses and the prophets, those in charge of the service sent them this message: “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, come and give it.” ¹⁶ So Paul stood, lifted his hand to quiet them, and started speaking. “Men of Israel,” he said, “and you God-fearing Gentiles, listen to me. ¹⁷ “The God of this nation of Israel chose our ancestors and made them multiply and grow strong during their stay in Egypt. Then with a powerful arm he led them out of their slavery. ¹⁸ He put up with them through forty years of wandering in the wilderness. ¹⁹ Then he destroyed seven nations in Canaan and gave their land to Israel as an inheritance. ²⁰ All this took about 450 years. “After that, God gave them judges to rule until the time of Samuel the prophet. ²¹ Then the people begged for a king, and God gave them Saul son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, who reigned for forty years. ²² But God removed Saul and replaced him with David, a man about whom God said, ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. He will do everything I want him to do.’ ²³ “And it is one of King David’s descendants, Jesus, who is God’s promised Savior of Israel! ²⁴ Before he came, John the Baptist preached that all the people of Israel needed to repent of their sins and turn to God and be baptized. ²⁵ As John was finishing his ministry he asked, ‘Do you think I am the Messiah? No, I am not! But he is coming soon — and I’m not even worthy to be his slave and untie the sandals on his feet.’ ²⁶ “Brothers — you sons of Abraham, and also you God-fearing Gentiles — this message of salvation has been sent to us! ²⁷ The people in Jerusalem and their leaders did not recognize Jesus as the one the prophets had spoken about. Instead, they condemned him, and in doing this they fulfilled the prophets’ words that are read every Sabbath. ²⁸ They found no legal reason to execute him, but they asked Pilate to have him killed anyway. ²⁹ “When they had done all that the prophecies said about him, they took him down from the cross and placed him in a tomb. ³⁰ But God raised him from the dead! ³¹ And over a period of many days he appeared to those who had gone with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to the people of Israel. ³² “And now we are here to bring you this Good News. The promise was made to our ancestors, ³³ and God has now fulfilled it for us, their descendants, by raising Jesus. This is what the second psalm says about Jesus: ‘You are my Son. Today I have become your Father.’ ³⁴ For God had promised to raise him from the dead, not leaving him to rot in the grave. He said, ‘I will give you the sacred blessings I promised to David.’ ³⁵ Another psalm explains it more fully: ‘You will not allow your Holy One to rot in the grave.’ ³⁶ This is not a reference to David, for after David had done the will of God in his own generation, he died and was buried with his ancestors, and his body decayed. ³⁷ No, it was a reference to someone else — someone whom God raised and whose body did not decay. ³⁸ “Brothers, listen! We are here to proclaim that through this man Jesus there is forgiveness for your sins. ³⁹ Everyone who believes in him is made right in God’s sight — something the law of Moses could never do. ⁴⁰ Be careful! Don’t let the prophets’ words apply to you. For they said, ⁴¹ ‘Look, you mockers, be amazed and die! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it.’” ⁴² As Paul and Barnabas left the synagogue that day, the people begged them to speak about these things again the next week. ⁴³ Many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, and the two men urged them to continue to rely on the grace of God. ⁴⁴ The following week almost the entire city turned out to hear them preach the word of the Lord. ⁴⁵ But when some of the Jews saw the crowds, they were jealous; so they slandered Paul and argued against whatever he said. ⁴⁶ Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and declared, “It was necessary that we first preach the word of God to you Jews. But since you have rejected it and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we will offer it to the Gentiles. ⁴⁷ For the Lord gave us this command when he said, ‘I have made you a light to the Gentiles, to bring salvation to the farthest corners of the earth.’” ⁴⁸ When the Gentiles heard this, they were very glad and thanked the Lord for his message; and all who were chosen for eternal life became believers. ⁴⁹ So the Lord’s message spread throughout that region. ⁵⁰ Then the Jews stirred up the influential religious women and the leaders of the city, and they incited a mob against Paul and Barnabas and ran them out of town. ⁵¹ So they shook the dust from their feet as a sign of rejection and went to the town of Iconium. ⁵² And the believers were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

How beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim the good news — even when the message isn’t received by all who hear it.

CONCLUSION

As we end our time in Romans — for this year — a couple of questions for us to ponder. First — if you’re a follower of Jesus — how are you fulfilling your God-given role of being a sharer of the gospel? To ask it another way: How beautiful are your feet? Here at Gateway there are many opportunities for you to be a sharer of God’s good news. Maybe this is the year you get your passport and go on an international missions trip to Cuba or Bangladesh or to some other place to tell others about Jesus. Or men — maybe this is the year that you sign up to be a mentor in the Women’s Resource Center’s fatherhood program. Or maybe this is the year that you and your spouse start leading one of our next generation ministries’ life groups. Or start hosting a gathering in your neighborhood or college dorm or workplace — where you talk about life and faith. If you’re a follower of Jesus — you’ve been given the task of being a proclaimer of the good news — and oh how beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim it.

Second — if you’re not a follower of Jesus — what will you do with the news you’ve heard today? To repeat what you heard earlier from Paul, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” There’s hope in these words. A guaranteed promise of life, joy, hope, and peace in knowing that you are saved. Not “think that you’re saved” — but are saved. And this confidence isn’t based on you or anything you do — not even in your calling on the name of the Lord — but is a confidence based solely on who God is, what he’s promised, and what is guaranteed because of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection. May today — though you came here expecting nothing to change — may today be the day of your salvation. Where — though you never imagined it happening — you leave here believing that Jesus Christ gave his life in love for you. For the gift of salvation is being offered to you today in your hearing of the good news. May you receive it. Believe it. Trust it. And call on the name of the Lord.

Finally — if you’re here today and you’ve not heard anything new — but you’ve been unsettled by the life you’ve been called to live compared to the life you have been living — know that God always forgives those who turn back to him in faith as they turn away from whatever they’ve been living for. This world is full of distractions and we have a very real enemy who wants to lessen our impact as followers of Jesus. For he knows he can’t undo our salvation — so the best tactic he has is to make you an ineffective Christian. Know that Jesus not only forgives us of the sins we committed prior to believing in him — but his mercy also covers the sins we commit after having believed in him. May today be the day of your spiritual renewal. May today be a day of restoration and a refocusing of your purpose, priorities, and calling. May today be the day of your recommitment to serving the one whose name you have called upon for your hope and salvation. Let’s pray together.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, on behalf of those of us who believe in your Son — thank you for the beautiful feet of those who shared the good news with us. For you used them to be the means by which we heard, believed, and called on the name of Jesus. For some of us — it was a faithful Sunday school teacher whose name we’ve long forgotten. For others of us — it was a close friend or relative or roommate. For others — it may have been a stranger on the street. Yet you orchestrated that moment in our — and their lives — in love for us. You orchestrated that moment to be when we experienced your mercy.

Holy Spirit, those you’ve called to believe in Jesus are those you call to proclaim his good news. Give us confidence — not cockiness — but supernatural confidence that you’re with us, speaking through us, and doing the work of saving people today — just as you’ve always done through your people. Raise up more evangelists among us. Those with your special anointing as a sharer of your good news — as you empower all of us — to be obedient to Jesus’ command to “go and make disciples of all nations.”

And — Jesus — you’re our Savior and Lord — the one we believe in and are following. May our love for you increase our desire to see others respond to your love for them. May our love for you increase our desire to share the gospel with others. May our love for you spur us on to act on this desire and to actually share the gospel with those who don’t yet believe.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — I ask that even right now — you would use me to be the voice through which some hear of your love for them — and respond to it — by believing in Jesus and calling out to him for their salvation. And we thank you that your promise to us is guaranteed: that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. And we pray all of this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

BENEDICTION

May you go with beautiful feet — the beautiful feet of those who proclaim the gospel. Amen.

God loves you. I love you. You are sent.

Date: 12/4/2024

Questions

• These were some questions for Josh from the Fall 2024 Membership class.

1. Would you suggest that college students become members of Gateway Church despite the majority of them only being in Findlay for roughly 4 years and the majority of them going home for the summer?

2. Are there rules surrounding who can and can’t become a member beyond being baptized and a believer?

3. (Word & Spirit Christians) In this section you said that God’s Word teaches us to ask God for understanding of His Word. Do you think that we should not be so quick to turn to the wisdom of commentaries when studying the Bible? There are a lot of people that are a lot smarter and wiser than I am, so wouldn’t it be beneficial to study God’s Word as accurately as possible without the risk of maybe interpreting something incorrectly?

4. (Disciples who make disciples) In the booklet you say, “No member and no role is more or less important than the others; we just have different responsibilities because of our roles.” I’m challenged by the idea that everyone has an impactful role. In my head, if a pastor left, versus if a greeter left, the pastor leaving would be felt much greater than a greeter leaving. Sure, they each have a specific role, but objectively, one does not seem nearly as impactful as the other. 

5. (We are family) Is Life Group the only measure of being a part of the Gateway “faith family”? Page 31 says as such, but while Scripture does infer membership as being important, scripturally is there a place where Life Groups are a measure of being a part of the body of a church?
   1. Does Gateway believe you can never fully treat someone as a part of the church family if they aren’t a member?

6. (Generosity) The story of the master who entrusted his servants with 5 coins, 2 coins, and 1 coin makes it seem that investing our money is a good thing. And when I say investing, I think about Roth IRAs, 401ks, 529s, etc. However, would this be considered storing up our treasures on earth?
   1. I don’t know if we can say all of those investments are storing up treasures on earth, that’s a motive of the heart issue.
   2. However, in the parable reference, don’t forget that all of the servants invested the money for the master’s benefit. And the master, in the parable, represents God. And investing our resources for God’s benefit is the opposite of storing up treasures on earth.

7. (Disciples who make disciples) One thing that challenged me from the chapter on being a disciple who makes disciples is that we MUST be disciples who are worthy of someone else’s imitation. This is challenging. I struggle to sometimes understand how Paul could even say this phrase with humility in his heart. Personally, if I think about telling someone, “Hey man, you should honestly imitate me because I am imitating Christ,” I would think of myself as the most prideful person ever Yes, I feel like I understand the point that it is trying to make: that all of our actions should point people back to the life that Christ desires us to live for His glory. We are obviously imperfect, so to imitate us would mean to imitate God imperfectly.
   1. I wonder if this is because the questioner is not modeling a life of repentance and humility. The quote in the book is a quote from Paul who told others to imitate him as he imitates Christ AND also acknowledged that he was the worst of sinners. So, at least for Paul, it seems like you can say “imitate me”, recognize that you’re not perfect, and do all of it humbly.

8. (Kingdom minded) How can we direct our minds and hearts to be Kingdom-minded and make disciples of ALL nations when many followers of Jesus struggle to even start making disciples, evangelize, and fulfill the Great Commission in their home community?
   1. Poor performance in one area doesn’t excuse poor performance in other areas. Jesus told us to make disciples of all nations — Jerusalem, Judea, Samara, and the ends of the earth. He didn’t say, “Get Jerusalem up and running well. Then move on to Judea. And, if Jerusalem starts reversing course, pull back from Judea and Samaria until you get Jerusalem going well again.” 
   2. And, from what I generally see in the church world, a church that’s not making disciples well in their local area isn’t doing so anywhere else either. And those that do well locally usually are doing so in other places.

9. (Disciples who make disciples) Why are the only places to make disciples listed in the book ministries through Gateway? Does this look exclusionary to people’s workplaces, hobbies and friends?
   1. Because the book that we had you read is specifically about our local church ministry. It’s not meant to cover “everything and everywhere you might make disciples” but “here’s what we do at Gateway.”
   2. Similarly, if I were reading a book on “making disciples in the workplace” it’d be unfair of me to say, “But aren’t we supposed to also make disciples in the local church? Why didn’t the author cover the church too?” Well it should be obvious: that wasn’t the goal of the book. 

10. I have a co-worker that does not directly associate himself with a religion but is interested in learning more about every religion.  I have discussed the Christian faith with him multiple times and the biggest thing that seems to worry or confuse Him about God is the Trinity and He wishes that there was a time in the Bible that Jesus simply said that He is God.  I know the Trinity can be a confusing and difficult concept to discuss along with many other topics.  What is a good approach to answering difficult questions on complex topics that people may have when the Bible doesn’t give people exactly the “proof” or “answers” they want?
    1. First, know that no proof or answer will convince someone. We find people in the Bible saying things like, “If you do a miracle we’ll believe that you’re the Son of God.” And this was after they’d already seen him do other miracles. And Jesus didn’t do the requested miracle for them because he knew it wouldn’t matter.
    2. Now — as far as Jesus claiming to be God: If we look for those exact words, “And Jesus said, ‘I am God” — your friend would be correct. There’s nothing like that in the Bible. However, Jesus did say something very similar that — for the religious leaders of his day — was even more obvious (and to them blasphemous) than just simply saying, “I am God.” What did Jesus say? He said, “I am” — the name that God revealed to Moses back in the book of Exodus. And all the Jewish religious leaders of Jesus’ day knew that Jesus — in saying, “I am” — was saying, “I am the God who spoke to Moses, who spoke to Abraham, who created all things, and so on.” That’s why they tried to kill him on the spot.

Date: October 17, 2019

Questions

Why do the campus pastors need to become elders? What couldn’t a campus pastor do that an elder can do? (8:00)

In our culture today, there is generally condescension or shame attached to singleness, however 1 Corinthians 7 seems to imply that singleness is a gift from God. Is that correct and if so how can we apply that within our church culture?…As an unmarried young adult, how can I find contentment in this stage in life? Is it okay if I don’t want to get married? (8:35)

The scripture (Romans 6) talks about life and death. So what does “death” mean if the eternal judgement leads to heaven or hell? There appears to be life after death either way. (11:20)

Why does Paul add the line “I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations.” (Romans 6:19, ESV)? Why did he need to add this at this point of his explanations and what is the Spirit teaching by this? (11:45)

Paul asserts “We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.” (Romans 6:9, ESV). How could death ever have “dominion “ over Him? Jesus is “THE LOGOS”! He clearly states that He has the power to lay down His life and to pick it up again. What is the Spirit teaching us through Paul’s assertion here? (12:45)

I have recently come across a few people who have told me that as a Christian, I should only donate money to Christian organizations. Would you agree with this or is it also okay to give to groups that still do things God would like us to do, like feeding the hungry, even if they are not a Christian organization? (14:00)

Would love some great scripture passages to memorize – especially for those moments I find myself in that “guilt/shame” mindset. (17:30)

How do we encourage and evangelize those who are ashamed because others have sinned against them when “giving shame to Jesus” feels mystical and confusing. Or worse, they hate Jesus for not protecting them from the sinner in the first place. (19:55)

If you feel false shame (like when someone sins against you), how do you stop feeling false shame? Counseling? (26:55)

Date: 10/14/2020

Lighting Round

1. Should we consider Catholicism a mission field or fellow Christians?  I had constantly prayed for my children to marry Christian spouses and two of them married Catholics. I felt it was more important for them to be united in Church and avoid mixed church issues where the kids don’t embrace any faith. Recently I’ve been watching YouTube sermons by John MacArthur and he is really critical of Catholic theology, and says  it’s dishonoring all the martyrs of the Reformation to endorse Catholicism. I have to admit that my grandchildren in Catholic schools know the Bible very well, but MacArthur says it’s a serious salvation issue.
   1. There are true believers who are Catholic and those who are just religious.
   2. But the same is true for protestant churches (including Gateway).
   3. Should we make them a mission field? Our community is our mission field and I think the best context, in our day, is to build a relationship first, show people we and God loves them, and then tell them why. 
   4. John MacArthur is critical of a lot of things. 

2. Would you give us a practical example of the word of religion?
   1. Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers by sociologists Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton
   2. Almost Christian by Kenda Dean
   3. Five core beliefs:
      1. A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.
      2. God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
      3. The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
      4. God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.
      5. Good people go to heaven when they die.
   4. Practical examples:
      1. Sermon series that focus on things like 5 steps to a healthier marriage or 3 steps to manage your finances that don’t get you to the gospel as being the reason why your marriage and your finances matter.
      2. Don’t want to make this a rule of thumb, but generally, when people ask for more “relevant” sermons they’re wanting MTD preaching. Nothing is more relevant to our lives than God’s Word and his gospel preached.

Questions

1. In a recent sermon Pastor Josh recommended “Heaven” by Randy Alcorn. I started reading it and it has already challenged some of my thinking and has sparked a new level of excitement/longing for Heaven. What would you say to someone who has a view that Heaven might be an everlasting church service in the clouds? Someone who thinks heaven might be better than hell but maybe not all that exciting? 

2. Corinthians 12:2 “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven.” How many heavens are there? Is there a book that discusses the different heavens?

Heaven by Randy Alcorn

1. Intro
   1. My (Josh’s) favorite book on Heaven. 
   2. Others who have or are reading it are telling me the same thing.
   3. It will encourage you to long for your eternity.
2. The author
   1. Randy Alcorn was a pastor in Oregon before turning primarily to a writing ministry.
   2. He’s written over 50 books.
   3. Nonfiction and fiction.
   4. Interesting story as to why he made minimum wage for 20 years despite having numerous best selling books. But you’ll have to find that story on your own.
3. Book breakdown
   1. Three parts
      1. A Theology of Heaven (the longest part)
      2. Questions and Answers about Heaven
      3. Living in Light of Heaven
4. Part 1: A Theology of Heaven
   1. Are you looking forward to Heaven? Chapter 1
      1. Edwards resolution “Resolved, to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness, in the other world, as I possibly can.” – 5 … “Tragically, however, most people do not find their joy in Christ and Heaven. In fact, many people find no joy at all when they think about Heaven.” – 5
      2. Satan need not convince us that Heaven doesn’t exist. He need only convince us that Heaven is a place of boring, unearthly existence. If we believe that lie, we’ll be robbed of our joy and anticipation, we’ll set our minds on this life and not the next, and we won’t be motivated to share our faith. Why should we share the “good news” that people can spend eternity in a boring, ghostly place that even we’re not looking forward to? – 11
   2. Is Heaven beyond our imagination? Chapter 2
      1. “Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God” (Colossians 3:1). This is a direct command to set our hearts on Heaven. And to make sure we don’t miss the importance of a heaven-centered life, the next verse says, “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” God commands us to set our hearts and minds on Heaven. – 20 … What have you been doing daily to set your mind on things above, to seek Heaven? What should you do differently? – 21
      2. C.S. Lewis quote “If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.… It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven you will get earth “thrown in”: aim and earth and you will get neither.” – 21
      3. He then tackles topics like:
         1. Is Heaven or Hell our default destination?
         2. Can you know that you’re going to Heaven when you die?
         3. What is the nature of the present Heaven? Will it be physical? What will life be like? (Answers the “how many heavens are there” listener’s question.)
            1. This is where most people reading the book will have their view of Heaven and eternity expanded big time. 
            2. Generally, I think that many of us don’t think about the difference between the Heaven we go to when we die and the Heaven that we will live in after Christ’s Second Coming.
         4. Then after a theology of the present Heaven, he gives a biblical and theological overview of the New Heavens and Earth.
5. Part 2: Questions and Answers About Heaven
   1. Won’t spend much time on this section, but some of the questions that he tackles — that I know many people wonder about — are:
      1. What will we be like?
      2. What will our bodies be like? 
      3. Will we be us? Meaning will I be Josh and Shaun be Shaun, etc…
      4. Will we eat and drink?
      5. Will we be capable of sinning?
      6. Will we learn new things in Heaven?
      7. What will our relationships with God and other people be like?
      8. What about animals? Will our pets live again in Heaven?
      9. Will Heaven ever be boring?
      10. Will there be arts and sports in Heaven?
      11. And many other questions.
6. Part 3: Living in Light of Heaven
   1. Though there’s application throughout the book, this final part focuses more on the practical application side of living in light of eternity.
   2. He quotes another theologian who said, “Our great affliction is not anxiety, or even guilt, but rather homesickness — a nostalgia or ineradicable yearning to be at home with God.” – 455
   3. Christ-centered righteous living today is directly affected by knowing where we’re going and what rewards we’ll receive there for serving Christ. – 470
   4. When I’ve meditated on Heaven, sin is terribly unappealing. It’s when my mind drifts from Heaven that sin seems attractive. Thinking of Heaven leads inevitably to pursuing holiness. Our high tolerance for sin testifies of our failure to prepare for Heaven…. [But] when we realize the pleasures that await us in God’s presence, we can forgo lesser pleasures now. – 471

Release date: 12/06/2022

COMPELLING COMMUNITY

Chapter 11: Evangelize as a Community

• Pg 193 — “What is the main evangelistic value of your church service? Is it directly explaining the gospel to non-Christians? No. Church is for explaining the gospel to Christians, to fuel the supernatural witness of their community together.”
  • This is an often debated idea. Are worship services primarily aimed at Christians or non-Christians. What do you think? And what Scripture supports your thoughts?
  • What would be different about a worship service aimed at Christians vs non-Christians?
  • What are ideas, traditions, added elements to a worship service that muddy the waters between aiming at Christians vs non-Christians?

• There’s quite a bit in this chapter (and book) about members owning the ministry. How does our own, catalyze, bless philosophy support or hinder ministry being owned by the members? Including the ministry of evangelism.

Chapter 12: Fracture Your Community

• Is our church ready to replicate? Before we start another campus or plant a church…
  • Do our church members teach God’s Word to each other?
  • Does our congregation take seriously our responsibility to guard each other from sin?
  • Do we already see a depth and breadth of relationships that cannot be explained by natural bounds alone?

Conclusion:

• What’s our biggest opportunity? Of the main points of the book (below), what’s our greatest strength and what’s our great opportunity for growth?
  • Are we a gospel plus community or a gospel revealing community?
  • Do we focus enough on the supernatural aspects of our evangelism and discipleship?
  • Are our members committed deeply?
  • Do we have a diversity of community that is remarkable to behold?
  • Does the preaching of God’s Word foster community within our church?
  • Do we pray enough for community within the church?
  • Do our members participate in spiritually intentional relationships?
  • Do we design our staff, events, music and ministries to facilitate depth and breadth of community?
  • Do we handle disunity and discontentment in our church well?
  • Do we have a culture of honesty and grace when it comes to sin in the church?
  • Do we expose the fruit of God’s Word so that non-Christians can witness the supernatural events in the Church?
  • Do we replicate, plant and/or revitalize well?

Release Date: April 25,  2023

Questions

On what foundation do the Jehovah Witnesses beliefs come from and how could they believe in Jesus and not all he taught and said? How can we talk to a Jehovah Witness about our faith, especially if we are close to them? (5:00)

How do you truly know what you’re focusing on is really in line with the purpose God has given you? (8:50) 

Have you ever had a decision you were making that you feel like it went against your life mission statement so you ended up saying no? (19:10)

What’s the best way to deal with it when people say no they don’t want you to pray for them? (23:05)

What does joy mean in the context of the sermon? Does it mean you are always happy no matter what is going on? Or is it more that no matter what is going on or how we feel that we know we have hope in Jesus as our Savior? (33:25)

SCRIPTURE: Romans 9:1-9 (ESV)

DATE: 9-22-24

As always it’s a joy to be with all of you this weekend at Gateway Church. And there’s one thing I want you to know — and this is true if you’re worshiping with us for the first time — if you’re joining us at our North Main Campus or are with our friends in Bucyrus — I want you to know that God loves you and that I love you too.

HANG WITH HANSONS

Before we get to the sermon — a quick announcement. I’d like to invite you — including those at our North Main Campus — and our friends in Bucyrus are more than welcome — to come hang with some of the Hanson family — at least my wife and I — though there’s a chance that eighty percent of us Hansons will be present. We’ll be at Suter’s Farm this Saturday at 11am. Our plan is to enter the corn maze at 11:30 — and the Hansons are “on time” kind of people. 

If being on time is a challenge for you — 11am is the only time you need to hear from me today. The weather looks good for now — a bit warm, but no rain. Again — Suter’s Farm this Saturday at 11am — entering the corn maze at 11:30am. I hope you’ll come hang with the Hansons. And — if you’ve never been to Suter’s before — the maze is fun — but the cider and donuts are awesome. 

SERIES INTRO

Now to the sermon. We’re continuing our series in the book of Romans this weekend. And — today — we’re going to begin chapter nine. If you were here with us last weekend — you know we took our time to recap all that Paul covered in the first half of his letter because we’ve been on a two year break from Romans. Which is somewhat fitting given that Paul — in chapter three — started a thought that he seems to have gotten sidetracked from. And it’s not until our chapter — chapter nine — that he returns to his thoughts from chapter three. 

Now — I don’t know if we got sidetracked — but we had some other goals to accomplish before we returned to Romans — finishing our Finding Jesus series — one sermon on every book in the Old Testament — as well as our series in Mark, Acts, the Ten Commandments, First John, and Daniel.

But — here we are — back in Paul’s letter to the Christians living in Rome — a letter we’re going to focus on until we come to its end. We’ll take breaks here and there — but know that Romans is now going to have the bulk of our attention over the next year or so.

So — with that in mind — let’s turn to our verses for today. We’ll be in Romans chapter nine — looking at verses one through nine this morning. If you have your Bible — please turn with me to Romans chapter nine — we’ll begin in verse one.

Romans 9:1–9 (ESV)

¹ I am speaking the truth in Christ — I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit — ² that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ³ For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. ⁴ They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. ⁵ To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. ⁶ But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, ⁷ and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” ⁸ This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. ⁹ For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.”

DO YOU LOVE THE LOST?

When I sketched out this series — I naively thought that last week’s sermon, this week’s sermon, and next week’s sermon would all be — wait for it — one sermon. But once I started to write these sermons I realized that there’s more in these verses than first meets the eye. So we’ll be in these verses for two weeks — this week focusing on the first three verses and looking at the rest next week. 

Now I hope you remember how chapter eight ends on a high note. 

Romans 8:38–39 (ESV)

³⁸ For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

To which Paul — in verse one — says, “I’m telling the truth in Christ — I am not lying.” 

It’s as if he sings of the great love that God has for us in Jesus and wants to make it clear that he’s not pulling wool over our eyes — he’s not deceiving us — this truth is a wonderful promise for God’s people to receive and rest in: Nothing can separate you from his love. 

Yet — Paul’s, “I’m telling the truth — I am not lying” also sets up his next statement. A statement of profound love.

Were you moved by Paul’s love for those who were lost? Lost — here — doesn’t mean they’d ignored the directions Google maps had given them — lost means someone who’s not yet believed in Jesus Christ. The people Paul describes his love for had yet to believe that Jesus was God’s promised Messiah — the Rescuer whom the Old Testament promised would one day come and bring salvation to God’s people.

Now I know that the idea of there being people who are lost — who are not in a right relationship with God — who are under his judgment at this time — is about as off putting of an idea as there is in our day. I mean — just who do I think I am to say that some people are right with God and others are not? To which — I’d ask — who are you to say otherwise? 

You see, the issue isn’t that Christians are dogmatic and you’re not — the issue isn’t that I’m making an objective statement and you’re not — the issue isn’t that I’m saying that my view is universal — that it’s true for everyone — and that you’re not. If you don’t like my view — whatever your view is is just as dogmatic, claims to be just as objective, and is just as universally applied as my view. In fact — this is the reason why we get upset by someone else’s view: You believe that their view is wrong and that yours is right. 

Which means — now — the question we must answer is: Which view is true? 

• Your view may be that everyone is right with God and we’ll all end up in heaven or eternal bliss or whatever you want to call it. 
• Others may view that everyone’s eternity will be based on what we do — if your good works outweigh your bad then you’ll be good to go. 
• Still others may have an atheistic view of eternal life — where nothing we do in this life matters eternally. 
• Or — like me — you believe that all people will experience eternal life. For some — this eternal life will be lived in the presence of God — while for others it will be lived in separation from him. And — it’s not our works that determine where our eternity will be lived — instead — it’s whether or not we believe in Jesus Christ for our salvation. For this is why Jesus came: To give life and to give it abundantly to all who put their faith in him alone. He came to seek and save the lost — which means — being lost is something that’s part of all of our stories. Some of us have been found — while others haven’t — as of yet.

Maybe you’re here today and this is you: You’ve yet to believe in Jesus — to trust in him as your Savior. You know something’s wrong with the world, wrong with humanity, maybe even wrong with you — and you’re looking for an answer — a solution. My hope is that you’ll see how Jesus is the only answer to your, my, and everyone else’s wrongness.

Or maybe you do believe in Jesus — I hope that you do and that — if you do — Paul’s words — describing his love for those who are lost — will deeply move you. For that’s where Paul’s focus lies after having soared to the heights of heavenly hope with marvelous, soul-lifting and hope-filled words for those who believe in Jesus Christ. 

• Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 
• And — once you’re found — you’ll never be lost again. 

And — for Paul — these truths move him towards those who’ve yet to receive this promise. For his next words are words expressing his love for — and his mercy towards — and his concern for those who are still lost. He writes…

Romans 9:1–3 (ESV)

¹ I am speaking the truth in Christ — I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit — ² that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ³ For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

This sorrow and anguish that Paul has for his fellow Israelites — who’ve rejected Jesus as their Savior — leads him to say that he wishes — he knows it’s not possible, but he wishes — that he could be cut off from Christ if it would lead to their salvation. Essentially Paul is saying, “God, if it were possible, I’d gladly go to Hell if it would result in them believing in Jesus.” This is how much Paul loved the lost. 

But Paul knows he can’t go to Hell for their salvation — he’s not their savior — only Jesus saves — but his words are inspiring, right — or at the very least challenging. How much do you love those who are lost?

Some of us — who have children who’ve abandoned the faith — can deeply relate to Paul’s words. You know the anguish of loving someone who doesn’t — as of now — love Jesus. You know the heartache, the despair, the desperation for them to believe. In your love for them — you may have even gotten a bit preachy to them — which has only added to the messiness of your relationship. Yet you so love them. If they only knew that — like Paul — you’d give up whatever it’d take for them to believe in Jesus.

Some of us haven’t experienced this kind of pain — yet. Your children — or fellow family members — or whoever you care most about — all currently follow Jesus. Consider yourself blessed — not someone who’s figured out the secret formula — but someone who’s greatly blessed. Because we all — if we know our Bibles — know that this grief — of loving those who don’t love God — is something God’s people have always had to wrestle with.

Whether it be Adam and Eve with their son — Cain — who rejected God.

Or Samuel — God’s prophet — whose two sons did not follow in their father’s faithfulness.

David — whose son — Absalom — rebelled against his dad — and tried to have him killed as he took over the kingdom — sending his dad on the run.

Or — the many good kings in Judah’s history — who end up having a son who becomes a wicked and evil king.

The anguish that Paul expresses is an anguish and sorrow felt by many in the history of God’s people — including many of God’s people among us. May gentleness, mercy, and kindness be the atmosphere of our faith family so that those who are hurting and grieving — due to the lostness of a loved one — find restoration and renewal for their exhausted spirit.

ISRAEL IS LOST?

But — back to Paul’s statement — think about what he’s saying: Those who are known as God’s people — the Israelites — are accursed. They’re cut off from Christ — God’s Messiah — the promised Savior. Which means — God’s chosen people — are on their way to eternal judgment — they’re on their way to Hell — to separation from God for all eternity. 

What a statement that should cause us all to pause.

For all of their history — a history full of rebellion and wandering in the wilderness and living in exile — never would one think that they’d one day go so far that they’d be cut off by God. And — yet — this is what Paul is saying. For — if he wishes he could substitute himself in their place and be accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of his fellow Israelites — then our only conclusion can be: this is their reality. Israel is accursed and cut off from Christ. And to be cut off from Christ — is the very definition of being lost and without hope — especially eternal hope — which means they’re headed to eternal destruction.

Now — if you know where we’re headed in Romans — we’re going to encounter God’s sovereignty in salvation in the coming weeks. God’s sovereignty is his control, power, and ability to orchestrate all things to accomplish his plan. And — when it comes to God’s plan of salvation for mankind — God’s sovereignty has been the subject of countless books, podcasts, debates, discussions, and divisions among Christians. And it’s usually a topic that evokes strong emotions among those involved.

Yet something to notice — as we examine Paul’s words in the coming weeks — is where Paul begins. Paul doesn’t start by analyzing God’s sovereignty — or our free will — instead — he begins by demonstrating great mercy towards those who are lost. Paul’s the one writing the words to come that we debate, discuss, and analyze — yet this isn’t where he begins. And our response is so vastly different from his. 

He begins by expressing sorrow and grief — over those who’ve yet to receive Christ as their Savior and Lord — as he goes into a lengthy defense of God’s sovereignty in our salvation. 

And I can’t help but think that we’d all be better off — including our unbelieving friends, co-workers, neighbors, and family members — I think we’d all be better off if we — those who believe in Jesus — followed Paul’s example. How much do you love those who are lost? How much are you grieved for those who don’t yet believe in Jesus? Do you love the lost more than you love debating your thoughts on God’s sovereignty, our free will, or what predestination does or doesn’t mean?

Add to all of this how it’s easy — and I get it — but it’s easy as Christians to live as either practical atheists or practical universalists. To live as if people we know and care about aren’t headed to an eternity in Hell where they’ll be forever separated from God. It’s easy to believe that — either everything just ends for them — the theological term is annihilationism — that’s practical atheism — or that they’ll end up in Heaven regardless of what they believe about Jesus — that’s practical universalism.

But — if we believe — if you really believe — that all people will live somewhere for all eternity — either Heaven or Hell — in God’s presence or separated from him — in eternal life or in eternal death — if you believe this — how can any of us dare to live as if we don’t? Eternities are at stake. 

How much do you love the lost?

As a church who exists to glorify God by making disciples of Jesus Christ — we have the vision of us being disciples who are growing in our generosity and in our Kingdom-mindedness. Being generous — financially giving to the ministry of Gateway — helps the gospel — the Good News of what Jesus has accomplished in his life, death, and resurrection — go forth so that those who don’t yet believe might hear the gospel and respond. 

• Whether it be through the curriculum we use in our next generation ministry — a curriculum called the Gospel Project — because we want to share the hope of Jesus with the kids and students in our faith family because we believe they will all spend eternity in either God’s presence or in separation from him.
• To our local and global ministry partners who are sharing the gospel to those who’ve yet to respond to it — your generosity helps us to be a church who proclaims the gospel to those who are lost — your generosity helps us to love those who are lost. 

Yet — love for the lost is also related to our vision of us being disciples who are Kingdom-minded. For we — who desire to see his Kingdom expand — his Kingdom is his reign and rule in the hearts of people all around the world — being those who desire for God’s Kingdom to expand means we must share the gospel with people. This is called evangelism — telling others the news about Jesus. And this happens both locally and globally. 

With all of this in mind — here are some next steps for you to consider as you evaluate your love for those who are lost. 

First, start supporting this church financially if you’re not already. We tell you how to do so every week during the announcements. Online giving is a great option for most of us. But it’s hard to say we’re a generous people if we’re not giving generously to the ministry God is doing in our local church. Does your generosity reflect your love for the lost?

Second, sign up to get updates from our ministry partners so you can start praying with and for them. Go to our website — gatewayepc.org/ministry-partners for more info. Get to know our partners and what they’re doing. Show an interest. Demonstrate your love for them by building a relationship with them. Maybe even visit them or find other ways to support what they’re doing in taking the news of Jesus to those who are lost. And — if you haven’t already — sign up for our Go Celebration event on October 15th to hear how God has used your faith family to love the lost all around the world. You can do so on our website or at your campus Resource Center.

Third, a lot of folks you know stopped going to church during COVID and haven’t come back — I’m not just talking about Gateway — I’m talking about going to church period. But here’s a little secret: the vast majority will come back if you personally invite them. A month or so ago I ran into someone at Walmart who I hadn’t seen at Gateway in years. I invited him to come back and — guess what? I saw him here the next Sunday. The next week — I ran into someone else who’d stopped coming during COVID. I invited him back. Who’s someone you could invite to come back to church with you? 

I’ll even tell you how to start the conversation. Are you ready? I bet you won’t even have to write it down. Just ask them, “Where do you go to church?” And if you hear them say, “I go to such and such” say, “Great!” If they say, “I used to go to such and such, but it’s been a while” say, “Would you like to come to church with me on Sunday?” And — if your greatest fear happens and they say, “Church! Why would I go to church?” Say, “That’s an interesting statement. Why wouldn’t you?” And listen to them. Either way, it’s not all that complicated.

Fourth, maybe you’re the parent of a wayward child — or it’s your sibling or parent or best friend. What can you do to demonstrate that you love them — and that God loves them too? Maybe it’s taking them out for coffee and asking them how life’s going. Or out for dinner to talk about their struggle at work. Or some other act of kindness where you take time to show them that they matter to you — regardless of what they believe about Jesus right now. For — remember — Jesus showed a lot of people that they mattered to him long before they ever believed he was their Savior.

Finally, as you all are probably aware — Ohio’s been making the news a lot these days — especially the city of Springfield. And we followers of Jesus have an amazing opportunity in this tumultuous election season: We can vote as citizens of this nation — holding politicians accountable for the job they’ve been elected to do — as we live as Kingdom-minded followers of Jesus — loving the new neighbors he’s brought into our communities. And — for many of us — turning off the news and social media — will help our love for the lost in our local community to be more like Paul’s love.  

As a local pastor in Springfield, Ohio recently wrote, “A well-functioning democracy should be informed by the perspectives of the people on the ground − not by rumors or social media memes. Most of us in Springfield recognize that this crisis stems from federal mismanagement. These policies were shaped in Washington, D.C., with little regard for the local municipalities left to handle the consequences. While Washington can be blamed for policy failures, the responsibility for how we treat one another rests with us. 

According to Lifeway Research, 91% of evangelical Americans want secure borders; 91% of evangelicals also want policies that reflect the human dignity of every person and that respect the unity of families. We do not need to choose between security and compassion, but can insist on policies that do both.

This moment in our country could be a do-over. We have the opportunity to forge a safer, stronger and more compassionate community by addressing immigration challenges while never losing sight of the humanity of those affected − immigrant or citizen alike.

For people of faith, Jesus provides clear guidance on how we should treat others. In Matthew 22, Jesus commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves, putting on the same level our love for others as our love for God. If we think we can love God without loving our neighbors, we are missing all of the Gospel. Not just half of it.

To my fellow Christians, I issue this challenge: Let’s follow Jesus’ example. Respond with care and compassion, as he did for the multitudes, and let no opinion leave our lips that lacks the concern he showed, even for those who disagreed with him.”

So vote. Hold politicians accountable. And — love your neighbors as Christ has commanded you. And love all of your neighbors. The federal government has a job to do that we’re to hold them accountable to. And we’re to love our neighbors — which God will hold us accountable to. 

CONCLUSION

Back to the question we’ve been asking: How much do you love the lost? Our sorrow and anguish for the lost will prove itself to be true in the cost we’re willing to pay. Because all love comes at a cost — that’s what we see in Jesus’ love for us. And if he was willing to give his life — in love — for you and me — what might he be asking you to do — in love — for those who are lost?

Now — to end — a beautiful reminder of God’s love for the lost. And — may these illustrations of his love — compel us in our love for them. In describing God’s love for the lost — Jesus says…

Luke 15:4–24 (NLT)

⁴ “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? ⁵ And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. ⁶ When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ 

⁷ In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away! ⁸ “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it? ⁹ And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’ ¹⁰ In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.” ¹¹ To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons. ¹² The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons. ¹³ “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. ¹⁴ About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. ¹⁵ He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. ¹⁶ The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything. 

¹⁷ “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! ¹⁸ I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, ¹⁹ and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.” ’ ²⁰ “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. ²¹ His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.’ ²² “But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. ²³ And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, ²⁴ for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.

The lost — experiencing God’s love for them in Jesus Christ — is a reason for Heaven to rejoice. Angels are filled with joy. And a party begins. And the lost — experiencing God’s love for them in Jesus Christ — should compel us to join the angel’s in their rejoicing — to join in Heaven’s party. For we are the people who hold fast to the promise which says…

John 3:16 (ESV)

¹⁶ “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

God so loved those who are lost that he sent Jesus to be our — and their — Savior. And whoever believes in him — will not perish — but is guaranteed eternal life. May God’s love for you — and his love for those who are lost — stir in all of us a growing love for them. Let’s pray together.

PRAYER

Father, what a truth to behold — you so love the world that you gave your only Son — Jesus — so that whoever believes in him will not perish — but have eternal life. Father it’s amazing to think that — in heaven — there’s rejoicing when one lost sinner repents. A party is thrown — and it’s a party like no other. For — like a father running to his prodigal son — you run towards your lost children whom you love — and the party begins again. 

Holy Spirit, increase our faith in you — the One who inspired the human authors of Scripture — so that our trust in God’s love for us — and those who are lost — increases. Often — the sorrows we face — due to those we love not believing in Jesus — cause us to waver in our trust in your Word. So — Spirit — we ask you to strengthen our trust in what it means for you to be a loving God.

And — Jesus — you came to fulfill and display God’s love to the world: The Messiah promised to come — the great Rescuer — the One who would — in love — save his people by offering his life as a sacrifice for our sin. You came and demonstrated the truth we’ve been looking at today: that our God loves the lost. And those who believe in you shall not perish — but are guaranteed eternal life — for nothing can separate us from your love.

Therefore — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — we thank you for your love for us and for the world. And we pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

BENEDICTION

‌May you — in being loved by God — go and show his love to those who are lost. Amen.

God loves you. I love you. You are sent.

SCRIPTURE: Acts 16:16-40 ESV

DATE: 7-24-22

As always it’s a joy to be with all of you this weekend at Gateway Church. And there’s one thing I want you to know — and this is true if you’re worshiping with us for the first time or are joining us at our North Main campus — I want you to know that God loves you and that I love you too. 

SERIES INTRODUCTION

We’re continuing our series in the book of Acts today. And what we’re going to be challenged with is how we respond to adversity and opposition in our lives. We’re going to see an example — from Paul’s life — of a better way to respond to adversity and opposition than how we typically tend to respond. What do I mean?

Well — most of us practice one of three “F’s” when faced with adversity or opposition. You know the three “F’s”, I’m sure — or you’re at least familiar with two of them. When we face adversity or opposition we fight or we flight. Some of us fight — an aggressive defense mechanism. Others of us flight — or flee — to try and find safety. 

But there’s also the response of fright. And fright — or fear — may cause us to freeze — another “F”! This is the person who doesn’t fight — and who’s too afraid to run — so you’re just frozen — and there’s no Elsa or Anna to help — lame joke, I know. 

Now all three of these are very natural responses to adversity and opposition — they’re instinctual. If I’m out running and a big dog starts barking at me — I’m not thinking about fighting — nor am I freezing out of fear — I kick it into a new gear cause I want to get away from the dog as quickly as possible. 

Now — it’s one thing to respond this way initially to a situation — but it’s something else to live in a constant state of fight, flight, or fright. Where we allow these responses to move from an initial reaction — to adversity or opposition — and become our lifestyle. For living in a constant state of fight, flight, or fright is a prison that keeps a person from experiencing joy and freedom. It makes sense for me to initially speed up to get away from a dog while running. But — when there’s no dog around — I shouldn’t be running as if there is.

Now — the joy and freedom I just mentioned — is something offered to us in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel is the Good News of what Jesus accomplished in his life, death, and resurrection — which offers us freedom from the brokenness that’s both in all of us — and has affected the whole world. And — to be clear — this is a brokenness we’ve all contributed to. And the freedom offered to us — in Jesus Christ — is a freedom that leads to our joy because all who find this freedom — after experiencing the pain of being enslaved to brokenness — or what the Bible calls sin and its consequences — all who find freedom from this universal brokenness can’t help but be joyful in all circumstances. Why? 

Because this freedom provides us with a different way to respond to the adversity and opposition we experience in life. Where — though we may still initially react with fight, flight, or fright — these won’t develop into a lifestyle. Instead — our lifestyle of response — to adversity and opposition — will be one of three “P’s.” So let’s discover these responses we’re given in our freedom in Christ.

PROCLAIM

The first way we can respond to adversity and opposition — in having been freed through the work of Christ — is we can respond to adversity and opposition with proclamation — with proclamation. Now — if you’re not a Christian — and maybe even if you are a Christian — this may seem completely irrelevant to whatever adversity or opposition you’re facing — but bear with me for a minute. One way we can respond to adversity and opposition — in having been freed from our enslavement to brokenness and sin by the work of Christ — is by proclaiming the gospel and the greatness and faithfulness of our God. 

Now — I hope — if you’re a Christian — that even hearing this is stirring up inside of you something powerfully passionate — a desire to proclaim the gospel — for this is the new freedom you have in Christ.

We see this response a few times in our verses. For example, Paul and his companions are being followed around by a demonized slave girl and one of the things she says about them is that “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” 18 And this she kept doing for many days.” (Acts 16:17b-18a ESV)

And — though it’s Paul and his companions — who are proclaiming the gospel — I find it interesting that this demonized slave girl — in trying to disrupt them — is actually helping to spread their message. She tells the crowd that Paul and his friends are both servants of the Most High God and proclaiming the way of salvation. And this went on for days! Not the typical church strategy — get the demonized person on the evangelism team — but hey — it sure was attention grabbing — people in the town knew something was up.

Later — when Paul and his crew are brought before the magistrates — they’re accused of advocating for customs that weren’t in accordance with Roman law. The point is that they’re being accused of advocating for — or proclaiming — something. And — after being thrown into prison — and after the miraculous events take place — Paul responds to the jailer’s question of— “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” — with proclamation. “31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.” (Acts 16:30b-32 ESV)

You see, one freedom you have — in having believed in Jesus Christ — a freedom you’ve been given in how you can respond to adversity and opposition — is proclamation — to proclaim the Good News — the greatness of God — declaring your trust and hope in him alone for your salvation even as you face adversity or opposition.

And I know how foolish this may sound as a response — Paul does say proclaiming the gospel will be seen as foolish by many — but know that — in proclaiming the gospel — while facing adversity and opposition — you’ll experience the power of the Spirit of God who can drive out demons and cause earthquakes to open prison doors and cause prisoner chains to fall off. The power of the Spirit of God — who uses our proclamation of the gospel — to cause others to say, “What must I do to be saved?” is what you will experience if you step into this freedom that is yours in Jesus Christ.

“But, Josh, my adversity is health related — how does proclaiming the gospel help me?” Is it not encouraging to see God use you to be the means by which someone else believes in Jesus? Maybe that doesn’t directly change your health situation but surely it’s not to be dismissed. I remember when one of our young mothers-to-be was in the hospital for a few months prior to giving birth. She used her time in the hospital to proclaim God’s love to the staff and patients. What a response to adversity.

“But, Josh, my issue is in my relationship with my children — or my spouse — or someone at work — how will proclaiming the gospel help me?” Do you know that a confidence will be stirred up inside of you as you remind yourself of what you believe, who your trust is in, and the hope you have in Christ — even as you’re in the midst of a relational conflict? God will remind you that the greatest relational conflict you’ve ever faced — your broken relationship with him — has been overcome through your faith in Jesus Christ. And this reminder will encourage you even as you’re in the midst of other relational conflict.

Regardless of the adversity or opposition we face — dear Christian — don’t underestimate the encouragement offered to us in proclaiming the gospel to ourselves and others. And let me ease some of the common concerns we have when it comes to talking about our faith with others. 

According to research — from last year — 47% of unchurched Americans say they’d discuss freely if someone wanted to talk about their religious beliefs. Another 31% would be willing to listen to your beliefs without discussing theirs. That’s 78% of unchurched Americans — who say they’re willing to hear about your religious beliefs. But here’s the disconnect — and this is on our end of the conversation — if you’re a Christian. Only 29% of unchurched Americans say a Christian has ever shared the gospel with them personally. 

Think of 10 unchurched people you know. Eight of them are open to you talking about your Christian faith with them. Yet only three will have the gospel shared to them personally. Talk about an unexpected opportunity in this culture of adversity and opposition we’re all living in. One area where there’s little to no opposition is in our unchurched friends and neighbors’ openness to hearing us talk about our faith. So how about we respond to adversity and opposition — in this freedom we’ve been blessed with — by proclaiming the Good News. For in it — the gospel — others will find the freedom that Christ offers to them. Keeping in mind what Paul tells us when he writes — “For ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.’ 14 But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? 15 And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? 

That is why the Scriptures say, ‘How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!” (Romans 10:13-15 NLT)

This is why we say “You are sent” at the end of each of our worship services. For we send you out — into the world — into our community and schools and workplaces and neighborhoods — to go and tell people — who 80% are very open to hearing the Good News of Jesus Christ. We can respond to adversity and opposition — not with fight, or flight, or fright — but by proclaiming the gospel.

PRAY

A second way we can respond to adversity and opposition — as we see in our text — is to respond with prayer. We can respond to adversity and opposition with prayer. 

The verses — we’re looking at today — begin with the words, “As we were going to the place of prayer…” (Acts 16:16a ESV)

As we saw last week — when Paul and his companions first arrived in Philippi — they sought out the location where a prayer meeting was taking place. And later — after having been arrested, beaten, and thrown in jail — while their feet are fastened in stocks and having been left in a grueling and uncomfortable position — at “about midnight Paul and Silas were praying…” (Acts 16:25a ESV)

I don’t know about you — but I often find it hard to stay focused while I pray — especially when I’m tired. And I’m no night owl — so praying at midnight — with any kind of focus — requires supernatural intervention from God. But I’ve never been chained up in an uncomfortable position — where sleep isn’t possible — and tried to maintain my focus during prayer. But that’s the kind of position Paul and Silas are in — one so uncomfortable that sleep would not come. 

But think of the adversity they’re facing — the opposition they’ve experienced. They’ve been arrested, beaten, and thrown in jail. Do they fight? No. Do they flight? No. Do they freeze in fear? No. How do they respond? They respond with prayer. 

Now — if you’re not a Christian — prayer may be a strange idea to you. Even if you are a Christian — prayer may still feel kind of strange to you. We close our eyes. Sometimes we hold hands — which can be weird. Then someone talks while everyone else does their best to pay attention to what’s being said. Sometimes a person goes on and on and on and — try as you might to stay focused — you remember that you meant to send an email before you left work and you don’t want to forget to send it later — so you’re all “don’t forget the email, don’t forget the email, don’t forget the email” while the person keeps on praying. Don’t tell me that’s never happened to you before. Maybe not with an email — but something like that’s happened. 

And — while that one person is still praying — someone else is wondering, “Am I going to have to pray?” No one made it clear before all the heads were bowed and eyes were closed if only this one person was praying — I mean — they’re taking a long time — or if we’re going around the circle and allowing — or forcing — everyone to pray. 

So you’re wondering what you’ll say and if what you’ll say will be OK because — great! — pastor Josh is in the circle and he’s probably judging every word that comes out of your mouth — which I’m not doing by the way.

And — again — if you’re not a Christian — you may be even more confused about what prayer is after hearing all of that. So what is prayer? I’ll quote from this booklet that’s available for free at all of our campuses and online. The booklet is titled “How do I grow?” It’s meant to help you know how to grow spiritually and in your relationship with God. 

“To pray means to communicate with God. It’s that simple. A good model to follow is the A.C.T.S. model of prayer. The “A” stands for adoration. Praise God for who he is. The “C” stands for confession. Confess your sins to God. The “T” stands for thanksgiving. Thank God for all of the wonderful things he’s done for you and others. Finally, the “S” stands for supplication. This is where we bring our needs and the needs of others before him. 

It’s OK if you need to write out your prayers or have lists so that you don’t forget something. Some people journal their prayers and others don’t. No matter what you do, just be sure to communicate with God daily. And don’t do all of the talking. Let him get in a word or two.”

And the best way to ensure that you’re adoring God for who he is — and not who you think he is — and to know what sin is so that you can confess it to God — and to thank God because you recognize the wonderful things he’s done for you and others — and to bring your needs before him with confidence knowing that he hears you — is by knowing God’s Word — the Bible. And the Bible is especially the best way to know that — as you listen during prayer — that you’re hearing from God — for God will never contradict his Word. 

What adversity in life — or what opposition that you’re facing — need to be the focus of your prayer? Maybe it’s your marriage — which has seen better days — or your health — or a relationship with one of your children? Why not respond to the situation with prayer? Or maybe you are praying but realize you’re doing all the talking. Maybe listening to God is what’s needed? 

Maybe someone you know and care about is facing adversity — are you praying for them? What about the adversities your company’s facing or the opposition you’re experiencing in the workplace — how often is prayer your response instead of fight, flight, or fright?

PRAISE

Finally — Paul and Silas — respond to adversity and opposition with praise. We see this while they’re lying on the ground of the jail cell with their feet chained up. When at “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, 26 and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened.” (Acts 16:25-26 ESV)

Notice that Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns — that’s them praising God — and this all happened before the miracle takes place. 

I don’t know about you — but it’s easy for me to praise God after something miraculously good happens — but prior — when things are difficult and hard and the adversity or opposition I’m facing seems impossible to overcome — well — singing and praising God is just way harder. But — here — Paul and Silas — with their feet in stocks as they’re chained to the prison walls and — oh — while other prisoners can hear how great of singing voices they have or don’t have — what do we find them doing? They sing! They praise God while they’re in this dire situation. 

There’s no fighting in this situation and — even though there’s plenty of opportunity for fright — they show no signs of fear. And even when they have the opportunity to hightail it out of there — they stay. Why? Because — having believed in Jesus — they’ve got a different set of options in how to respond to adversity and opposition. They don’t have to fight. They don’t have to fear. And they don’t have to run. 

Often in life — adversities and opposition become reasons for people to stop gathering with the church to praise God. 

In our day and age — with online church services — it’s easy to stay home and watch church. But you know what I noticed with my family — when we were doing only online church for a couple of months back in 2020 — I noticed that singing at home is weird — it was also much easier to be distracted at home. Maybe your personality’s different — but the Hansons are different people when we’re gathered with you all than when we were sitting at home. We sing when we’re with you in a way we didn’t when we were at home. We were less participatory when we watched from home — but when we’re with you all — it’s hard not to participate. 

And so — let me encourage you — to not take the easy route when it comes to worship. Get out of bed — get out of your house — get in your car and get to one of our campuses to gather with the people of God to worship. Now — I know that there are extraordinary cases where gathering just isn’t possible — know if that’s your situation, you’re not who I’m talking to. I’m talking to folks who say they’re part of the body of Christ and yet haven’t made gathering with the church to praise God the priority it once was for them. It’ll be good for your soul and ours to have you praise God together with us.

One of the things that always amazes me — when I’m gathered with you all — is to see people — who I know are facing tremendous adversity — obstacles that would cause most of us to fight, flight, or freeze in fear — to see these folks worshiping at our campuses. Some of the hands raised the highest — as we sing songs praising God — are the hands of those facing the most difficult obstacles in life. 

In fact — the people who you saw reading our verses in the video earlier — are some of those people. If you see them at your campus — go up and ask them about their story and why their hands are still raised as they praise Jesus. And — they don’t know this — but I want them to know that their faith is inspiring to me. To see them praising God — instead of defaulting to fighting, flighting, or freezing — to see them praising God shows me that God is at work in their life. And it’s an encouragement to this pastor’s soul to see them praising God. 

CONCLUSION

The ugly truth about adversity and obstacles in life is that we’re all gonna face them. Though today may not be that day for you — the day is coming. It can’t be avoided in this world we live in broken by sin — a world full of the consequences of our rebellion against God. The consequences aren’t always due to a specific decision we’ve made — but there’s a brokenness to our world that’s unavoidable and — eventually — it catches up to all of us.

The question for us — then — is this: How will we respond when we find ourselves facing adversity or opposition? Will we respond in the way of the world — by fighting, flighting, or freezing in fear? Or will we — the people of God — respond supernaturally? With proclamation, prayer, and praise? 

This is how Paul and Silas respond when they were falsely arrested, beaten, and put in jail. Though innocent — they didn’t fight. Though beaten and — I’m sure wondering if they’d be killed — they didn’t freeze in fear. 

And when the chains fell off and the prison doors were opened and they had a way of escape — they didn’t hightail it out of there. Instead of responding naturally — they responded supernaturally. They responded in the freedom they had because of their faith in Jesus Christ.

How are you responding to the adversity you’re facing right now? How will you respond when you find yourself facing opposition in the future? Decide now. Choose now. Be determined now for when the day comes it may be too late and your natural instincts will kick in. And remember that — what’s an opportunity for us as individuals — is an opportunity for us as a church as well. 

How will we respond to the adversities we face as a congregation — to the opposition we experience? Naturally or supernaturally? Seek the love of your Heavenly Father, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the joy that Jesus offers to you today so that — when the day comes — you’ll respond to adversity and opposition supernaturally — bringing glory and honor to your God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let’s pray. 

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, thank you for the freedom you’ve given to us because of what Christ has accomplished on our behalf. Freedom to respond to adversity and opposition supernaturally. 

Spirit — in the moments of life where fight, flight or fright begin to take over — remind us of the freedom that is ours through our faith in Christ. We can proclaim the gospel. We can pray. We can praise. 

And — Jesus — we thank you for making this freedom possible and for graciously giving it to us. May any — who are longing for the freedom you offer — put their trust in you today. May they call out to you as their Savior. And we pray all of this in your name. Amen.

BENEDICTION

No matter the adversity or opposition you face — may you go in the freedom that Christ has made possible — proclaiming his Good News, praying to him, and praising him for he is your Savior. Amen.

God loves you. I love you. You are sent.

SCRIPTURE: Acts 2:1-13 (ESV)

DATE: 5-20-18

It’s good to be with all of you at Gateway Church this weekend. And one thing I want you to know — and it doesn’t matter if it’s your first time with us or if you’re worshiping at our North Main campus — one thing I want you to know is that God loves you and I love you too. 

And North Main — you should know that your campus pastor — Mike Barnhart — passed his final exam towards becoming an ordained pastor in our denomination this weekend. And in two weeks — on June 3rd — we’re going to have an evening communion service at our CR9 campus where we will officially install Mike as a teaching elder in our denomination. So tell Mike congratulations and be sure to give him lots of hugs — because Mike loves hugs.

SERIES INTRODUCTION

And we’re continue our series through the first few chapters of the book of Acts, which we’re calling “Ordinary” because — let’s face it — every follower of Jesus is pretty ordinary — there’s nothing particularly spectacular about any of us — we’re all called to be witnesses — someone who shares the news about what Jesus has done in His life, death, and resurrection — we all have the same purpose — we’re all so — ordinary. 

So let’s jump right in the Bible — if you have your Bible, please turn with me to Acts chapter two. We’ll be looking at verses one through thirteen.

And, if you’re a guest with us, something we like to do at Gateway is let you ask questions. So if you have a question during the sermon, you can text your question to the number printed on the bulletin or you can submit it on the Gateway app.

SCRIPTURE INTRODUCTION

And while you’re finding Acts chapter two, let me catch us all up in case you’ve missed the first few weeks in this series. The disciples — the followers of Jesus — number one hundred and twenty people. And they’re in Jerusalem. And it’s been a few days since Jesus ascended to Heaven.  

You probably know that Jesus was crucified on a cross, but death could not keep Him in the grave. And for forty days He appeared teaching and preparing His disciples for the mission He was about to give them. And on the day of His ascension — the day He went up to Heaven — Jesus said His last words on earth — and — as you know — people don’t waste their last words on unimportant things.  

And with His last words Jesus, “ordered them (His followers) not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” (Acts 1:4b-5 ESV)  

And then He said, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.” (Acts 1:8-9 ESV)

And with His last words, Jesus gave His disciples their mission and He promised them that they would be given the power needed to accomplish this mission — they would be empowered witnesses when the Holy Spirit comes upon them. But this mission wasn’t just for them — the mission to be His witnesses is for every follower of Jesus — even us today.

BIG IDEA

And our passage today — Acts chapter two — is the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise. We’re going to see how we — a bunch of ordinary people — are empowered to be witnesses for Jesus — people who take the news of His life, death, and resurrection to the ends of the earth. Because this isn’t some puny mission we’ve been given — this is global in scale — it can be overwhelming to think that — we — are to take the gospel to people of all nations — us — you and me — and there’s something about this mission we’ve been given — that — instinctively we know we can’t do this on our own — we can’t accomplish our purpose in our own power. We need extraordinary power in order to be the ordinary witnesses we’re called to be. 

And here’s the truth for you and I. “Because the Holy Spirit has come, all Christ-followers are empowered to be ordinary witnesses for Jesus.” Because the Holy Spirit has come, all Christ-followers are empowered to be ordinary witnesses for Jesus. 

So here’s what I want to do — but let me tell you a secret first. I haven’t been at Gateway for very long — just over two years — but I’ve already preached Acts chapter two to you. And there’s a temptation — as a preacher — when you come to a passage you’ve already preached. And that’s to repeat the sermon you’ve already preached. I mean, no one’s going to remember it anyway — except for like one guy in the congregation. In fact, I had a staff member ask me if that’s what I was going to do. But I’m not. I understand how sermons work. Preaching isn’t about one life changing sermon — preaching is about hundreds and thousands of sermons being used by God to change your life.

But as tempting as it was to just re-preach a sermon you’ve all forgotten — that’s not what I’m going to do. So we’re going to take a second look at Acts chapter two together over the next few weeks. And we’re going to allow this passage to add some more sermons to God’s work of transformation in our lives.

And — today — we’re going to answer three questions about the Holy Spirit. We won’t be able to look at everything the Bible has to say about the Holy Spirit, but there are a few things we see in our verses that give us answers to three questions — though we’ll look at some other passages in order to bring clarity to our answers.

The three questions we’ll be answering are: Where does the Holy Spirit come from? What does the Holy Spirit do? And why does the Holy Spirit do these things?

Where does the Holy Spirit come from? What does the Holy Spirit do? And why does the Holy Spirit do these things?

Let’s begin in verse one of Acts chapter two.

MAIN POINT 1

“When the day of Pentecost arrived, they (the one hundred and twenty disciples) were all together one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.” (Acts 2:1-2 ESV)

So the disciples are all together and as they’re praying, something like a mighty rushing wind comes — Luke’s trying his best to describe this unusual event that’s happening as the Holy Spirit comes. 

But notice — in verse two — where the Holy Spirit is coming from. Where did the sound that was “like a mighty rushing wind” come from? Luke tells us that the sound “came from heaven” — the Holy Spirit came from Heaven.

Now what does this tell us about the Holy Spirit? At the very least, we see here that there’s something supernatural going on. Supernatural things come from heaven — not natural things. But our text doesn’t give us enough information to know much more than that about the Holy Spirit. And — if you’re familiar with the Bible — you know that angels come from Heaven — so is that all that the Holy Spirit is? Is the Holy Spirit just an angel or something like that?

Well what we do know — from other places in the Bible — is that the Holy Spirit isn’t an angel sent from Heaven. Let’s look at a few passages that tell us more about the Holy Spirit who comes from Heaven.

In the opening verses of Genesis we read, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:1-2 ESV)

So in the beginning — we see the Spirit of God — that’s the Holy Spirit — actively involved in the creation of all things. So before creation — the Holy Spirit existed. This tells us that the Holy Spirit isn’t created — He is Creator.

Additionally, scripture teaches us that the Holy Spirit is present everywhere. In Psalm 139 we read, “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!” (Psalm 139:7-8 ESV)

King David knows that there’s nowhere he can go where God’s Spirit will not be present. “If I go up to heaven — Your Spirit is there.” And — something you may have not thought much about — but David says, “If I go — not to heaven — but to hell — or Sheol — God — Your Spirit is there.” Some people think of Hell as the absence of God’s presence — and that’s not quite accurate. Hell isn’t the absence of God’s presence — it’s the unfiltered presence of His wrath and justice — by unfiltered — I mean — the presence of God’s wrath and justice without His love and mercy. So God’s Spirit is everywhere.

Additionally, the Holy Spirit knows all things. The prophet Isaiah writes, “Who is able to advise the Spirit of the Lord? Who knows enough to give him advice or teach him?” (Isaiah 40:13 NLT)

The implied answer is “no one is able to give advice to the Spirit.” We just don’t know enough, why? Because He already knows everything. I was driving into Gateway a few weeks ago, and I remember thinking, “God, You know what I’m thinking right now. That’s incredible. You know my desires, my hurts and pains, my hopes and dreams…You even know my darkest secrets. But You also know what the person driving that car is thinking. You know their desires, their hurts and pains, their hopes and dreams, their darkest secrets…You know everything about them too.” And then another car passed and God knows everything about them. And when you think of all of the people who are alive today and — right now we’re just limiting ourselves to what people are thinking, hoping, dreaming about — that’s just a small slice of the knowledge pie — yet God knows the thoughts and desires, hopes and dreams, and darkest secrets of the seven and a half billion people who are alive today. That’s absolutely incredible — the Holy Spirit knows all things. 

In Hebrews chapter 9 the Holy Spirit is called the “eternal Spirit.” We touched on this a bit earlier when talking about creation — but the Holy Spirit — not being part of creation — means that He existed before creation — even before time — because time is part of creation. And to exist before time is to be eternal — to have no beginning or end. The Holy Spirit is eternal.

Now we could keep going, but let’s pause and ask ourselves what all this adds up to. Regardless if you consider yourself to be a Christian or not — what do all of these things add up to? The Holy Spirit is Creator, present everywhere, knows all things, and is eternal. So what does that mean? That the Holy Spirit is God, right? 

So the Holy Spirit — coming from heaven — isn’t just supernatural — like an angel or something — the Holy Spirit is God coming from Heaven — just as Jesus promised. When Jesus left earth to go back to Heaven, He promised to send the Holy Spirit from Heaven to earth — and that’s what we see happening here in Acts chapter two.

Now for some of us — who are followers of Jesus — the Holy Spirit may be the least familiar and understood person of the Trinity. As Christians we believe in One God in three Persons:  the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And the church typically has done a better job of helping us understand the Father and the Son, and left the Holy Spirit to be this sort of mystery. 

So let me offer two book recommendations to you, if you want to learn more about the Holy Spirit. The first, is a bit more technical — scholarly — kind of book. It’s written by Sinclair Ferguson and it’s titled “The Holy Spirit” — it’s part of the Contours of Christian Theology series. A more accessible book — less on the technical side, but still very helpful — is Francis Chan’s “Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit.” Either of these would be a great addition to your book collection and your understanding of the Holy Spirit.

We’ve been asking the question:  Where does the Holy Spirit come from? He comes from Heaven and — more importantly for us — this tells us that the Holy Spirit is God.

MAIN POINT 2

Now on to our second question. What does the Holy Spirit do? Now that He’s come down from Heaven to earth — what is the Spirit doing? Let’s begin in verse three.

“And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. 5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 

Now remember the mission Jesus gave His disciples. They were to be witnesses to the ends of the earth — meaning to all nations — and here the nations have come to the disciples at the exact moment the promised Holy Spirit has empowered them. And in verse six we read…

6 And at this sound (the sound of the Holy Spirit coming like a mighty rushing wind) the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one (in the crowd) was hearing them speak in his own language. 7 And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? 

And to give us an idea of the nations that are represented — in verse nine — we read that there are…

9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, 11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians 

We’ve got people from Northern Africa, Greece, Italy, Turkey, and modern-day Iran.  And look at what they’re all hearing in their own language. Finishing verse eleven…

— we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” 12 And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”” (Acts 2:3-13 ESV)

What does the Holy Spirit do? Again — more could be said than what we find in our verses — but here we see two things that the Holy Spirit does. He fills believers and He gives spiritual gifts.

First, the Holy Spirit fills believers. Look again in verse three. “And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Acts 2:3-4 ESV)

And skip to verse twelve. “And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”” (Acts 2:12-13 ESV)

If you were here at Easter, you may remember the story from the gospel of Mark where Jesus talks about old wine and new wine and how new wine needs to be stored in new wineskins. And here — as the Holy Spirit comes and fills the disciples in a new way — I find it interesting that one of the responses of the crowd — of those who were resistant to what they were seeing and hearing — one response is that the disciples were filled with new wine — that they’re drunk.

And how wrong and right they were. They’re wrong because they assume the disciples are drunk on actual wine. But they’re right, because the disciples are filled with new wine — the wine we saw Jesus speak of on Easter weekend — the wine of His Spirit filling His disciples so they’re empowered to be His witnesses.

Now the Bible shows us that there are two parts to this filling of the Spirit. The first is when you initially believe in Jesus. God’s Spirit then fills you — comes in you — takes up residence in you. The second filling is more of a spiritual boost. There will be times when we may fall back into depending upon our own strength, or get distracted by the things of the world, maybe have a sickness that wipes us of our spiritual energy — and then — we experience a personal revival — a new filling or empowering of the Holy Spirit. This doesn’t mean we’ve been saved again — just that our spiritual tank got a little low and God filled it back up. But if you believe in Jesus, the Holy Spirit has filled and is filling you.

Second, the Holy Spirit gives believers — disciples — spiritual gifts. Look with me in verse four. “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Acts 2:4 ESV)

And as you know, the crowd — this crowd made up of people from many different nations speaking many different languages — could all understand the disciples even though the disciples hadn’t “downloaded the app that millennials are raving about because it can teach you a new language in under three weeks” — at least that’s what the advertisements say. But what we’re seeing here is a preview of how the Holy Spirit gives spiritual gifts to every follower of Jesus. Here the gift is speaking in tongues — speaking in a known language they couldn’t previously speak in — so others hear the Good News about Jesus in their native language.

And throughout the New Testament we find passages that tell us about these gifts of the Spirit — gifts, talents, special skills, even some that appear to be rather usual behavior — but anointed gifts given by the Spirit. 

So what are some of these gifts? There are quite a few passages on the gifts. One — written by the apostle Paul — is, “Now, dear brothers and sisters, regarding your question about the special abilities the Spirit gives us. I don’t want you to misunderstand this…To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. 9 The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. 10 He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. 11 It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have…Here are some of the parts God has appointed for the church: first are apostles, second are prophets, third are teachers, then those who do miracles, those who have the gift of healing, those who can help others, those who have the gift of leadership, those who speak in unknown languages. 29 Are we all apostles? Are we all prophets? Are we all teachers? Do we all have the power to do miracles? 30 Do we all have the gift of healing? Do we all have the ability to speak in unknown languages? Do we all have the ability to interpret unknown languages? Of course not!” (1 Corinthians 12:1, 8-11, 28-30 NLT)

Wisdom, special knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, speaking in unknown languages, interpretation of the languages, apostleship, teaching, helping others, and leadership are just the gifts of the Spirit listed in this passage — more gifts are listed elsewhere. 

But notice four things about the gifts of the Spirit. First, we need to be informed about them and be aware of them. Paul doesn’t want there to be any misunderstanding about the gifts — nor ignorance — it’s hard to properly use something if you’re ignorant about it.

Second, the Holy Spirit is the giver of the gifts. Who gets what gift is up to Him. We’re to desire the gifts. We’re to pray for the gifts. We’re to use the gifts. But which gifts we have or don’t have isn’t up to us. The Spirit alone decides which gift — or gifts — each person should have — implying every believer has at least one gift.

Third, no one has all of the gifts and no gift is given to all people. We see this in Paul’s repeated question “do we all have?” and his answer being “of course not!” 

And fourth, no gift is better or more important than any other gift. All are needed because all the gifts are given for the building up of the church. In another of his letters, Paul writes, “Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.” (Ephesians 4:11-16 NLT)

Here we see the purpose of the gifts given to us. Now the gifts given to us here are given by Christ — but notice that many are the same gifts given to us by the Spirit — which is Paul’s way of saying all of the spiritual gifts come from God. Sometimes the work of the persons of God are distinct and sometimes they overlap — here’s an example where the work of Jesus and the Spirit overlap. 

But here we see how these gifts are meant to build the church up to maturity in Christ. So we need you — if you’re a believer — no matter your age or gender, socio-economic or educational background, single, married, or divorced — if you’re a believer in Christ we need you using the gift — or gifts — the Spirit of God has given you for our maturity. 

But — Josh — how do I know what gift — or gifts — I’ve been given? Well there are spiritual gift tests you can take for free on the internet, but I find them to be only sort of helpful. One of the easiest ways to figure out your spiritual gift is to ask other believers — who know you — what they think your gifts may be. Sometimes we can be blind to what seems to come naturally to us — so blind — that we don’t realize that it’s not natural — it’s supernatural. Others will see that. Also, pray for the spiritual gifts — that’s biblical. Pray for God to reveal to you the gifts the Spirit has given you. But always allow others to confirm the gift. Sometimes we need confirmation to encourage us to use the gifts we’ve been given. Other times we need others to tell us — lovingly — “that definitely ain’t your gift.” 

So what does the Spirit do? He fills believers and He gives us spiritual gifts.

MAIN POINT 3

Finally, why does the Holy Spirit do these things? Why does He fill believers and give us spiritual gifts. Look with me in the last part of verse eleven. 

The crowd — upon hearing the disciples speak in their language — said, “we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” (Acts 2:11b ESV)

Why does the Holy Spirit fill us and give us gifts? So that we will be His empowered witnesses — ordinary people with extraordinary power — who testify about the mighty works of God. Power that enables us to tell others about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ so they might believe and find life in Him. 

The Spirit’s goal is to magnify Christ and what He accomplished in His life, death, and resurrection. The Spirit’s goal in filling us — of residing in us — of living in us — is to empower us so we tell others about Jesus. The Spirit’s goal — the reason why He fills us and gives us gifts — is so that as we mature as a church — we accomplish the mission Jesus has given us — the mission to take His gospel to our community, our country, and our world — even to the hard places. Places where we may be hated because of our faith in Christ — places where — if we’re honest — we’re afraid to go to. 

But — as is said elsewhere in the Bible — “God did not give us a Spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control.” (2 Timothy 1:7 NET)

When I was in Lebanon, we found ourselves in what I’ve called “Hezbollah land.” We were in an area controlled by Hezbollah — which — if you don’t know — is a terrorist organization stemming out of Islam. Driving into the area, the light poles had Hezbollah flags on them — kind of like the UF Oiler flags on the light poles on Main St here in Findlay. So it was a pretty wild place to find ourselves in — in a country that already has a wild reputation. A week after we returned there was an assassination attempt on someone running for government office. While we were there, the locals kept saying that assassination stuff was all in the past. Guess not.

But while in Hezbollah land, I spoke with a man who was a Muslim and — most likely — had some connection to Hezbollah. And I was amazed because he was talking to me — with great excitement — about the number three — how the number three is found in most religions — he even mentioned God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

And this blew me away because — if you know anything about Islam — Muslims don’t think very highly of the Trinity. Yet here’s a Muslim man — living in a community run by a terrorist group — talking to me about the Trinity. A little later he mentioned that his sister had cancer — it was back for the second time — and given our recent conversation about God — I asked if I could pray for her and him. And he said yes. So I was able to pray for this Muslim man and his sister — in a place known for radical Islam — and I prayed to and in the name of Jesus. And the guy shook my hand and thanked me for praying for his sister.

I share that story not to make much of me, but to show you what God’s powerful Spirit can do in any of us. Places like Hezbollah land can be intimidating. They can put you on edge. When we heard AK47 gun fire going off — what the locals called a “domestic dispute” — well — it’s a bit concerning even for this Army vet who’s been to war. But we must remember that we’ve been promised a Spirit of power — not of fear. A Spirit of power to be witnesses for Jesus.

CONCLUSION

And the Good News for us is that Jesus has fulfilled His promise to us — He has sent the Holy Spirit to empower us. And because the Holy Spirit has come, all Christ-followers are empowered to be ordinary witnesses for Jesus. If you believe in Jesus, you’ve been empowered to be His witness — here in Findlay — even to the ends of the earth.

And dear Christian — no matter your past or present — no matter the mistakes you’ve made or the hurts you’ve experienced — no matter your intellect or how much money is in your bank account — the Holy Spirit has come from Heaven to live in you — to fill you — if you believe — and to give you gifts, so others might hear of the mighty works of God, repent of their sins, and believe in Jesus. 

That may sound extraordinary, but it’s not — it’s the ordinary work of the Spirit in the life of those who believe in Jesus. For that’s why He has come — the Holy Spirit has come to empower ordinary people who believe in an extraordinary God. The God who is the Creator of everyone and everything. Who knows all things, is present everywhere, and is eternal. This God empowers everyone who believes in Him — so they can be His ordinary witnesses. 

Do you have this power in you — the power of the Holy Spirit? Would you like to? 

Would you like to experience more of God’s power even if you already believe in Jesus? How about we pray for all of us to be filled with the power of God’s Spirit right now. Let’s pray.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, remind us often that all Christ-followers are empowered to be witnesses for Jesus. And help us to remember that Jesus has fulfilled His promise to us — by sending the Holy Spirit to empower us — a bunch of ordinary people — who are called to be Your witnesses. 

Father — for anyone who longs for Your Spirit to fill them — for the very first time — I ask You to guide them in repentance and faith even now as I pray. Give them confidence to tell someone — before they leave today — that they believe in Jesus. 

And Father, for those who are heavy-hearted — who’ve been spiritually running on empty and need You to fill them once again with Your Spirit’s power — I ask that You would do so right now. May they experience the sweetness of Your grace, mercy, and presence as You fill them with Your Spirit’s power. And we pray all of these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.