Or, How a Christian Should Prepare for His Return 1 Peter 4:1-11 May 15, 2022 Evening Service Ryan Hall

Or, Our Representatives and Their Reigns Romans 5:12-17 May 15, 2022 Lord’s Day Worship Sean Higgins

Introduction

Some things benefit by being balanced. Some are ruined by it. A balanced diet does the body good, but we don’t try to balance time spent breathing with time spent holding our breath.

Relationships have a kind of balance, and the connection between self and tribe is a constant pull. For example, is worship as an assembly or your worship as an individual more important? Does the whole body matter or each part? What do you prioritize? What’s the balance? What happens when it’s out of balance?

Is there any more relentless mass media message today than promoting one’s self? As if we were really having problems with that. We may get caught up in the group excitement of being the 11th man for few hours, but we drive out of the parking lot thinking about numero uno.

Such an atomized culture makes a passage such as Romans 5:12-21 foreign, if not disagreeable. As a church we have tried to correct course, considering our families as units rather than as platforms for personal fulfillment. We’ve worked to stress the goodness of being a church, an assembly of worshipers rather than only a gathering of whatever Christians showed up. Yet even among us, we’re still faster to distance ourselves from the ones we’re connected to, especially when they do something (we think is) stupid.

Of course there is no gospel if there is no shared relationship to a representative. Each man must believe, no dad can believe on behalf of his son, but what we believe is in the work of another that counts for us. Justification occurs when God credits the work of Christ to those connected to Christ. We are reconciled to God through our representative. This is the only way of salvation and it turns out, a representative problem is why we needed salvation.

It’s interesting that Paul didn’t start with this part of our fallen condition. He’s written (what for us are) chapters on the sinfulness and self-righteousness of men. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, all without exception, each and every one. There is none righteous, no not one. A culture can be given over, but we think about that in terms of a majority of individuals given over. And that is partially true, but not entirely true.

In Romans 5:12-21 Paul nails the comfort door shut, and us inside the comfort as we are in Christ. Our peace with God, our rejoicing in God, our hope in His glory, our hope through trials, our certainty of God’s love depend on the work of one applied to the work of many. It wasn’t a group project, it was the work of one for the group. Christ’s righteousness counts for His group. This is good news, but it also not new. One man’s sin is imputed to all who are born. We sin and we deserve death because we were already guilty in Adam.

If we want the peace of having been justified by faith, we should recognize the pattern. For as much sin, death, and condemnation as there was, there is much more grace. Death reigned, but we reign in life by grace. following our Head (Ephesians 5:23).

Imputed Death (verses 12-14)

Verse 12 begins an argument that Paul doesn’t exactly finish, though he does explain it. He answers the comparison eventually, but adds a parenthesis to clarify his conclusion (the KJV actually puts a parenthesis around verses 13-17).

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— (Romans 5:12, ESV)

He does not give evidence for his assertion, his assertion is the evidence. Sin entered the world in one act in Genesis 3. This was not the first sin, it was the first sin among men. The one man is Adam, named in verse 14.

Sin brought—and birthed, so to speak—death. The order is signifi[...]

Or, The Radical Salvation of Rebels Romans 5:6-11 May 8, 2022 Lord’s Day Worship Sean Higgins

Introduction

Is there a more important thing in the universe than love? Of course there are many other important, even vital commodities, things such as water and time, existence and awareness. But what is more powerful, more desirable, and so also in this fallen world more perverted, more defined and redefined to death, than love?

The Ten Commandments can be categorized as love for God (first four) and love for neighbor (last six). The Greatest Commandment is to love God, the second is to love our neighbors. The first part of the fruit produced by the Spirit in believers is love.

The Spirit and love were related together in the last part of Romans 5:5. In that case it isn’t Spirit-produced love but it is love poured out by the Spirit. It isn’t man’s love for God, or neighbor, but God’s love for man.

The reason we love at all is because we are made in the image of the God of love. God is love (1 John 4:8, 16). We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).

What other than love moved God to create the cosmos and in particular to create other persons? His love is glorious like a fountain: it overflows. There is no need in His love; His love is always source, always abounding, always sloshing over. His love is more powerful than the gravity that holds the stars in place and keeps the planets in their orbits. His love, between the three eternal Persons, and then out is like the sun of our solar system.

And perhaps because it is so deep, divine, determinative, it dares shallow men for simplistic treatment. Unbelievers call attraction love, or good feelings love, or appreciation of certain qualities love. Many Christians in response have said that love is not a feeling at all, but it is an action. They’ve tried to pin it all on agape, as if the Spirit invented the word rather than inspired the use of it.

But both of these have problems. The worldly view makes it seem that love is mostly a response; and sure, response can be a part of it. The pietist view makes it seem that love is a duty; again sure, love is a command to men. Yet in Romans 5 love is a force, and an energy that creates shameless hope, an effectual gift that is and leads to glory.

The gospel in Romans 5:6-11 is three hundred proof. The gospel of God’s love in potent overflow will put hope on your chest. The gospel is the power of God to salvation because love is stronger than death.

You don’t have to read this paragraph as a Calvinist, but that’s just making extra work for yourself. Man is simply in no condition to be offered God’s love, nor does man want God’s love, nor is he capable of asking for it apart from God’s initiative, unconditional love. You could read this paragraph looking for a self-esteem boost, trying to find inherent worth in men that caused God to send His Son to the cross. But you would have to read the Ego Massaged Paraphrase to find that (which doesn’t exist).

Here is love vast as the ocean. The glory isn’t that a fish can be made wet, the glory of the ocean is that it makes wet everything it touches.

Three things: our condition (verses 6-8), our chances (verses 9-10), and our attitude (verse 11).

Our Condition When Christ Died (verses 6-8)

The key in these three verses is found in the repetition of “Christ died.” It is that He died to show God’s love and not because we were lovely.

Verse 6 shows our condition at the time of Christ’s death.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6, ESV)

We were weak and ungodly. More words pile on as the paragraph progresses, but “weak” (ἀσθενῶν) at least means that we lacked the strength to do anything for ourselves; we wouldn’t be the ones chosen by a team captain[...]

1 Peter 3:8-17 May 1, 2022 Evening Service Jonathan Sarr

Or, Enduring the Process Romans 5:3-5 May 1, 2022 Lord’s Day Worship Sean Higgins

Introduction

Peter blessed God that the elect are born again to a living hope (1 Peter 1:3). Paul wrote that because believers have peace with God they exult in hope of the glory of God. Those who are spiritually dead have false hope at best, if they have any hope, and if they could understand what they were up against, they would be terrorized by what gives Christians hope.

Hope is a gift of God. Christian hope is the real deal. Hope works. Hope holds up. True hope is more than getting through the commercial break of a Hallmark movie.

How do we get more hope? Can we get more, or more vertebrate hope? Yes, we can. Yes, by God’s grace we will. We will graduate one day from needing hope, but it’s a required class for all His people.

Almost out of nowhere Paul brings up suffering, except it’s not really out of nowhere if we pause to think about what hope is good for. Hope is the end of Romans 5:1-2, and here again in 5:3-5. The “not only but also” starting verse 3 says, in effect, Wait, there’s more. Peace with God gives us hope, and so do problems. Hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and things going badly.

There’s no command to be found here. It’s teaching, and actually more reminding, since we are “knowing,” already aware of how it works. More than reminding, it’s rejoicing, of the leaping/exulting sort. This is a doctrine of trials, even a doxology of trials, glorying in the hope (and glory) that God brings about in our sufferings.

There is a process that makes us more hopeful (verses 3-4) and a presence (verse 5) that makes the process effective.

Enduring the Process (verses 3-4)

When I taught through Ecclesiastes a number of years ago I emphasized what I understand to be Solomon’s theme: enjoying the process. It’s about finding joy in our toil under the sun, which is only possible by fearing the Lord (see Ecclesiastes 2:24-26). Here in Romans 5 it’s more than just vanity and striving after wind, it’s double-double toil and ouch. It requires endurance.

“Not only but also” (οὐ μόνον δέ, ἀλλὰ καὶ) coordinates two rejoicings that may not seem obvious. We rejoice in hope and we rejoice in trials, which produce hope. Peace with God is a hope-giver, so are circumstances that are not peaceful. We exult in sufferings.

Sufferings, beloved, are more than one. There are numerous sufferings in one’s lifetime, there may be numerous sufferings at the same time. The translations vary in how to express this cocktail of problems: afflictions (HCSB), tribulations (Tyndale, NASB), sufferings (ESV). At its root the idea is pressure. Depending on the direction these either squeeze in or weigh down, or both.

What causes pressure? If you stick your head in a vice and crank that’s pressure, and don’t do that. Sin causes suffering so don’t pull the granite slab onto yourself. There’s also pressure just from living with gravity in a fallen world; things fall on us or we fall on things. There are also evil actors, spiritual and human, and they seek to crush God’s people (see Psalm 94:5).

Peter wrote that there is no credit if we sin and face the consequences bravely. Beyond that, though Paul adds no qualifications and provides no pietistic measuring stick. Jesus taught that being slandered is persecution (Matthew 5:11), though we can acknowledge it’s not the same as being stick-and-stoned to death. Being beaten and robbed hurts more than being canceled online, so we might be slower to build monuments for social media martyrs. Yet pressures and burdens and pains, words and more, all count.

The pressures might come from those who are abandoned to their lusts and are surprised you won’t join them (as in Romans 1:18-32, see more i[...]

Or, Exulting in the Glory That Should Have Killed Us Romans 5:1-2 April 24, 2022 Lord’s Day Worship Sean Higgins

Introduction

Were it not for grace we would all be consumed by the thing we long for the most. Even if it misfires, some internal combustion like engine within each of us longs to see true beauty. Even if it’s diluted by false ideas or dulled by half-heartedness, we want to know and be a part of ultimate glory. All this really means that we have a heart that wants to know God, to have God be pleased with us. But were it not for grace, His glory would kill us.

His glory is righteous glory, and unrighteousness is more than inadmissible it is intolerable. Those who have turned from His ways and fallen short of His standard are in grave danger. If God were to reveal the fulness of His glory right this moment, glory in the raw, glory undisguised, we would all be burned up by it as if we were enchanted into the center of the sun. Getting closer would be certain death.

But to the believer, the glory of God is our hope. It is not safe, but it is the only satisfaction for our thirst. It is not a position we’ve put ourselves in, it is not a rank we’ve purchased or earned, it is a status we’re given by grace through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Considered from the legal side, it cost Jesus His life so that we could be declared righteous (Romans 4:24-25). God does not hold our sins against us because Christ was delivered up for our transgressions. We believe in Christ and we are counted before God with the righteousness of Christ.

This freedom is good, but you can imagine, I’m sure, a convicted felon, in prison, waiting for his capital punishment, one day a judge overturns his conviction and releases him, and he is out but also left on his own. Guards fling the gate open, and he walks out without threat of return, but also without resources.

Much of the above illustration relates to the good news. We have been delivered, and any time someone wants to check our status, the record of our charges has been wiped clean before God and we are free men. But there is more. Romans 5:1-5 tells us more.

Verses 1-5 are a paragraph with two parts. I didn’t have enough time to figure out how to exult in all five verses in one sermon, so this morning we’re going to look at the grace of peace in verses 1-2. We have peace, we have access, we exult.

Reconciled (verse 1)

The gospel is not a distraction from our disturbed consciences, but a resolution to our fear and shame of having defied God.

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” (verse 1, ESV)

Therefore pushes us further downstream from the previous paragraph, Romans 4:18-25. A participle sums up all of chapter 4, “having been justified by faith.” The ESV translates it as since because the justification is the basis for this first implication: we have peace with God.

This is another way to talk about reconciliation, except that it’s more than clearing up a miscommunication between friends. This is to know that the one who rules the universe, God Himself, is pleased with us. It is our position, whether or not we feel it, but because it is our position, it has real consequence. Peace with God (compared to the peace of God) stresses that the friction have ceased. His face is no longer against us.

The face of the LORD is against those who do evil,to cut off the memory of them from the earth.(Psalm 34:16 ESV)

There is a textual variant in the main verb, the difference between a long and short “o” in Greek (ἔχωμεν and ἔχομεν), so either an subjunctive or an indicative. If a subjunctive, then it is an exhortation: “let us have peace.” If it is the indicative, it is the reality: we have it. The context favors the state of it.

We have p[...]

In order of testimonies:

Calvin Kulishov (2:57)Bernt Smith (6:31)Gideon Barnts (10:25)Trevor Barnts (14:52)Stephanie Herr (19:02)

Or, The Terminal Move That Changed Everything1 Corinthians 2:8-9 April 17, 2022 Lord’s Day Worship Sean Higgins

Introduction

There are stories too good to be told only once. Some people enjoy going over known information, they get edification in the repetition, others enjoy seeking out new information and adding it to their collection. But there is one story in particular that is always the same and yet keeps making all things new.

A key element in these stories is when things are bad. David and Goliath is a genre; there was no way David could win. Aslan at the Stone Table is brutal; when you read it for the first time it seems like hope dies. The 2004 Red Sox were down three games to none in a seven games series against the Yankees; no professional team in any sport had ever won four in a row in that situation. Chamberlain’s men were out of ammunition at the holding the Union’s left flank at Little Round Top. We eat these stories up like meat on a charcuterie board.

What I pray brings comfort and strength and joy to you today is not only our remembrance that the darkness of the cross is eclipsed by the light of Christ’s resurrection, but also that the cyclical attacks of the evil one, as bad as they have been, continually lead to his own undoing. At no point is this more obvious than the cross.

Let’s look at the main text for this morning and then trace the evil one’s series of brutal yet self-defeating blunders.

Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written,“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,nor the heart of man imagined,what God has prepared for those who love Him.”(1 Corinthians 2:6-9)

Paul has been exalting the word of the cross since 1 Corinthians 1:18. That word is folly to the kind of man who can only see what’s in front of him, the man who takes his cues from what’s everyone else around him thinks. Christ crucified made no sense as a way of salvation and certainly not as a way of glory. Christ crucified obviously made sense as the way to shut Christ down. Killing Him was clearly the move to make Him look bad.

Surprising Power

But it is preaching Christ crucified that is God’s wisdom. Christ crucified is God’s power.

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18 ESV)to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Corinthians 1:24 ESV)my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, (1 Corinthians 2:4 ESV)so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (1 Corinthians 2:5 ESV)

The power of God is demonstrated in the crucifixion, which is a kind of divine wisdom, a wisdom that rulers missed, and in missing it they sealed not only their ignorance but their doom.

Verse 6 doesn’t change the subject from Christ crucified, but Paul does clarify that what sounded like a simple message–Christ crucified—is surprisingly powerful.

This age is the current aeon, not just the first century, but is a way of looking at things. It’s less a whenever and more a however of a fleshly, man-centered, and God-hating way. They are playing a game, so to speak, and the field is only what’s in front of them. There can only be one winner, and the competition must be destroyed.

The rulers of this age are not just the Jewish leaders or Roman officials, Pilate and Herod and soldiers. Those men are included, as are all the m[...]

Or, Wavering Isn’t Worship Romans 4:18-25 April 10, 2022 Lord’s Day Worship Sean Higgins

Introduction

Regardless of what anyone tells you, doubt doesn’t make you cool. We doubt because it makes us think that we know better, because we think it’ll help us save face when the thing, whatever it was, turns out not to be true. “Hey, at least I wasn’t gullible like those twits.”

Christians should be more comfortable looking crazy. We should boast more in the things we can’t see. We are believers, and if you can see it, then you don’t need faith. If you don’t need faith, then you can’t glorify or please God. He delights to make promises to His people and then making their faith like gold.

So, yeah, we don’t believe everything anyone says, but we do believe everything God’s Word says. The world is full of liars, but Scripture doesn’t make a virtue of skepticism, and actually condemns the double-minded. The righteous live by faith, we are born again to a living hope, and that means we live on unseen things. This is how we are saved, this is what we are saved unto: faith and hope.

Doubt siphons of strength. Doubt divides attention. Doubt hamstrings our walk in obedience. Disobedience may cause doubt, but doubt also leads to disobedience. The Word calls for and builds up faith.

Abraham is the man of faith, he is the father of all those with faith. In this last part of Romans 4 Paul puts a bow on the story of Abraham’s belief and asserts that it applies to all believers.

Abraham’s Faith in the One Who Promised Offspring (verses 18-22)

Verses 18-21 are one sentence, with a follow up conclusion sentence in verse 22. Having already taught that it was Abraham’s faith that saved him, not his works or circumcision or connection to the law, Paul tells a little more of Abraham’s story.

Considered Faith (verses 18-19)

The first part Paul points out are the two reasonably incompatible facts on the ground: 1) the word of the Lord said Abraham would be a father and 2) there was no human way he could be a father.

Who, that is [Abraham], against hope in hope believed that he would become the father of many nations according to the word said, “So will be your offspring,” and not wavering in faith he considered his own body already having been put to death, being about one-hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb, (verses 18-19)

The two prepositional phrases are right next to each other and they start the sentence: against hope in hope. That Abraham believed against hope means that there was no good reason to hope; the wind was against him and he had no ground to stand on. Becoming a father at this point in his life was as hopeless as telling a mountain to move.

Yet he’d been told that even his name wasn’t sufficient for what was supposed to happen. Abram, meaning “exalted father,” was too little. Abraham means “father of a multitude” (Genesis 17:5). Paul quotes “So will be your offspring” which requires the context.

And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” (‭‭Genesis‬ ‭15:5‬, ‭ESV‬‬)

The object of his belief wasn’t hope, hope was the way he believed. He believed bullishly, confidently.

Abraham did not believe blindly. He saw the problems with his situation. He considered, he measured in his mind, that his body was basically dead, at least in reproductive terms. He was century-level impotent, past the point of help from mail-order drugs. And Sarah’s womb was barren; Paul uses a word for deadness and says she had “deadness of womb.” But his consideration was without weakening in faith. His faith wasn’t giving way.

except faith flies upward on celestial [...]

Or, Christ Vivified, Vindicated, and Victorious1 Peter 3:18-22 April 3, 2022 Evening Service Sean Higgins

Introduction

Last summer when we agreed to cover 1 Peter during our Sunday evening sermon series I made recommendations to the other pastors on paragraphs we each should preach. I assigned myself this section, 1 Peter 3:18-22, for…fun. If you’re keeping note, you remember that Dave taught last and covered 3:1-7. Jonathan has a message already for verses 8 and following, but he had an opportunity to be gone tonight, so we swapped evenings, not passages.

My title, though, and the reason for this paragraph, hinge on a part we’ve temporarily skipped. When we are suffering, and when we show a sort of hopefulness that causes others to ask about it, we want to be ready with a good apology. The word in 3:15, typically translated as “defense” or “reason” is ἀπολογία (apologia). Apology here means not admitting that we were wrong or saying that we’re sorry, but explaining the foundation for why our hope is real. We’re to have our case prepared. There is actually plenty of basis before 3:15, and yet there is a “for” or “because” in verse 18 that sets up clear comfort for suffering Christians.

There are, as we’ll see, some significant questions and competing interpretations that keep everything from being equally clear. But these verses contain some glorious, and hope case-making, truths.

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him. (1 Peter 3:18–22, ESV)

Christ Vivified (verse 18)

Christ also suffered, connects with Christian suffering in verse 13 and 17. It’s not that Christians suffered first, but rather that Christian suffering isn’t without precedence. In chapter 2 Peter said that Christ left us an “example,” an underwriting (ὑπογραμμὸν), that we should follow in His steps. This is where WWJD got its origin, with the fictional story by Charles Sheldon. But Christ’s suffering is more than merely a pattern which we should imitate, it is also for our propitiation. His unique suffering was once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous. We have hope in whatever parts of our suffering that are similar to His because of His suffering that was something we could never do. His was a substitution which the “for” or “instead of” emphasizes.

“He was pierced for our transgressions;He was crushed for out iniquities;upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace,and with his wounds we are healed.”(Isaiah 53:5-6, from which Peter quotes in 1 Peter 2:24, and see also Isaiah 53:11-12)

We also have hope because of the purpose of our justification: that He might bring us to God. This is my favorite reminder of Christ’s work; He turns rebels into brothers, hostile enemies into companions and allies. Redemption is unto reconciliation, forgiveness unto fellowship, propitiation unto peace in His presence. Our sin offended His holy standard and it separated us from Him. The Son suffered to save and bring back the wandering sheep (1 Peter 2:25); He leads you to the Father (see Ephesians 2:18).

The end of verse 18 begins the challenging part,  being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit. He really died; He had a phy[...]