Biblical Truths from West Palm Beach church of Christ

Early in the scriptures, the Lord came to Abraham and made a promise. In Genesis 12:3 God promised to Abraham, “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” God confirmed this promise again in Genesis 22:18, “In your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” This promise is a central theme that is threaded throughout the pages of scripture. But there are many questions that came with this promise. What exactly is the blessing? How would God bless the whole world? Further, how would God bless the whole world through Abraham? Romans 4 looks to explain the answers to these questions so that we can appreciate and respond to what is available through our Lord Jesus Christ…

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In our lesson this evening we are going to look at the way God cares for his people and the way God teaches his people. What happens when God blesses his people? Our response to his security and blessings is a critical component of walking by faith. Chapter 11 of 2 Chronicles begins by looking at the reign of Rehoboam, king of the southern nation, called Judah. The kingdom has divided and Jeroboam (no relation to Rehoboam) is ruling over the northern nation, called Israel. The Chronicler has described the actions of Jeroboam and Israel as rebellion against God’s king and the promises to David (cf. 2 Chronicles 10:16, 19). Rehoboam believes he needs to go to war with Jeroboam and the northern nation to reunite Israel…

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One of the important characteristics needed to belong to the kingdom of God is humility. Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). The apostle Paul and the apostle Peter both taught that we are clothe ourselves with humility (Colossians 3:12; 1 Peter 5:5). Paul also said that in humility we would count others more significant than ourselves (Philippians 2:3). One of the goals of the gospel is to cause all people to be humble before the Lord and with each other. Please consider that as you study the scriptures you will see that an overriding problem for humanity is the problem of pride. God never proclaims that the problem people have is that they are too humble and they need to think more highly of themselves. Rather, God regularly teaches that the problem is pride and people need to stop thinking so highly about themselves and so much about themselves…

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We are in a series of lessons in which we are looking at how Jesus would transform a fisherman named Simon into the foundational apostle Peter. There are a number of times when Jesus speaks to Peter which becomes teaching moments to Peter, to the other disciples, and to us. Open your copies of God’s word to Mark 8:27-38 and we are going to see how Jesus is going to teach Peter and the rest of the disciples about the challenge of following him.

While Jesus and his disciples are walking to the villages around Caesarea Philippi, Jesus has a question for them. Jesus asks, “Who do people say that I am?” It is important to realize at this moment that this is not something that would be hidden from Jesus. Jesus is not asking about how his opinion polls are doing as if he were like our American presidents. Jesus is not asking about his approval rating…

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When Jesus delivered his sermon while on the mountain, one of the things he proclaimed was that those who are blessed are those who are peacemakers (cf. Matthew 5:9). Part of the fruit of the Spirit is peace (cf. Galatians 5:22). The apostle Paul declared that we are to pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding (cf. Romans 14:19). Earlier, the apostle Paul proclaimed that as much as depends on us, we are to live peaceably with all (cf. Romans 12:18). Jesus also said to have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another (cf. Mark 9:50). James tells us to make peace and so does the writer of Hebrews…

And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. (James 3:18 ESV)

Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:14 ESV)

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As God tries to teach us about himself and what he expects from his people, sometimes he will use two events and set them next to each other so that we can compare and contrast the situations. As we come to Jeremiah 34-35 we are going to read about two groups of people who have two different responses to hearing the word of the Lord. Before we get into the text, I want to set up our study with an important question. How do you respond when you hear the word of the Lord? Open your copies of God’s word to Jeremiah 34 and we will begin with the first picture.

The word of the Lord comes to Jeremiah when Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, has put Judah under his control and his now fighting against Jerusalem and its surrounding cities. The message is clear. God is going to give Jerusalem into the hands of king of Babylon and he is going to destroy the city (Jeremiah 34:2). Zedekiah, the king of Judah, will be captured and speak to the king of Babylon face to face (Jeremiah 34:3). Even though Zedekiah will be captured, he will not die by the sword. Rather, he is going to die in peace and there will be ceremony for his death like the kings in the past (Jeremiah 34:4-5). Jeremiah takes this message and tells Zedekiah while Nebuchadnezzar continues his attack against Jerusalem and the remaining fortified cities…

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In our last lesson we looked at healing anger. We noted that quick anger is foolish, causes problems, shows a lack of restraint, and is contagious. The key of the lesson was to see that our anger is not accomplishing what we think it will accomplish. Rather, than helping us, our anger is destructive to ourselves and to others. We make foolish decisions in our anger, even saying and doing things that are sinful. But the Proverbs do not only tell us all the problems that come from venting our anger. The Proverbs also teach us the power of patience.

The Proverbs tell us that how we answer dictates what happens next.

A gentle answer turns away anger, but a harsh word stirs up wrath. (Proverbs 15:1 CSB)

A hot-tempered person stirs up conflict, but one slow to anger calms strife. (Proverbs 15:18 CSB)…

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So if you have grown up on the pews, we are coming to an account that you might have learned about in your children’s Bible classes. It is the account of the nation of Israel dividing into two nations. The northern nation would be called Israel and the southern nation would be called Judah. One of the places in the scriptures where this account is given is in 1 Kings 12. The other place we can read about this is in 2 Chronicles 10, which is our text of study today. But what we can have the tendency to do is read into one account the message of the other account. What I mean is that we can think that the author of 1 Kings 12 and the author of 2 Chronicles 10 must have the same message and are making the same points. In fact, this can be one big reason why we may not study 1 and 2 Chronicles because we think we already know this information from 1 & 2 Kings. So here is the point I want to make as we approach this study and our future studies in 2 Chronicles. It is not at all that these two accounts are in contradiction to each other. Rather, the Chronicler assumes some knowledge of the Kings account and its message and desires to teach you another message from this event. It is the same as how the Gospel of John will take the same account that is recorded in either Matthew, Mark, or Luke and teach us another message about Jesus. It is not a contradiction but another teaching message. As we come to 2 Chronicles 10 I want us to consider that there is a different teaching message being given here than in the 1 Kings 12 account. To see this teaching message, we need to go to the end of the chapter…

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We are returning to a series we began some time ago called Storm Proof. The book of Proverbs is a book of wisdom, written to help the readers live wisely. We spent some time going through the first couple chapters of Proverbs where Solomon gives various teachings about the importance of wisdom. The book of Proverbs talks very practically and directly about different issues in life that can either help us or hurt us. One area that the Proverbs speak directly about is the problem of anger. We can feel discouraged by our anger. We might even think that there is nothing we can do about the problem of anger in our lives. We can look at our upbringing and say that we learned to be angry people and so there is nothing we can do to change. We can look at our culture and say that because we have a certain cultural background that we cannot help but have anger. We can look at our anger and blame others for it. If other people didn’t do what they did, then we would not be so angry. We can have a lot of reasons why we see anger in our lives and we might have a lot of excuses and justifications for our anger. But the scripture are clear that every person has control over their anger. God makes it very clear that anger does not need to control you. Here are just a couple scriptures that shows how our anger is a decision…

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We are spending time in this series looking at how Jesus transformed Simon into Peter. There are many events and many teachings in Jesus’ life where his effort it to teaching Peter and the disciples. One of those moments is recorded for us in Matthew 14. Jesus has just finished with a miracle of feeding 5000 men, not counting the women and children who were there, with only five loaves and two fish (Matthew 14:17,21). We are told that Jesus immediately sends his disciples to get into the boat and go to the other side of the sea while he remained behind to dismiss the crowds (Matthew 14:22). What I want us to see as we introduce this section is that Jesus knows what he is doing and knows what is going to happen. Jesus is not randomly doing this. Jesus sends his disciples to go across the sea because this is going to be a teaching moment for his disciples shortly…

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