Biblical Truths from West Palm Beach church of Christ

Please open your copies of God’s word to Acts 9:26. Our annual preaching theme last year was, “We, Not Me.” But there were more things that I wanted for us to talk about but we ran out of time last year. So I do hope to be able to come back to this series from time to time and continue thinking about the importance of considering one another and not just ourselves as we walk with God. As we begin this lesson I want us to be looking at Acts 9. Acts 9 records the amazing conversion of Saul who is also known as Paul. Paul was actively trying to extinguish the faith and teaching of Jesus as the Christ by persecuting Christians. Paul was not only causing havoc in Jerusalem, but also would go to surrounding cities like Damascus, arresting Christians and bringing them to Jerusalem for trial (cf. Acts 9:1-2). Acts 9:1 records frightening words if you were a Christian then. Paul was breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. His threats were not empty because we oversaw the stoning of Stephen (cf. Acts 8:1). But while on the way to continue his efforts to destroy more Christians, Jesus appears to him. Paul believes and is baptized and now is proclaiming Jesus as the Son of God in the synagogues (cf. Acts 9:17-22). Before we move forward, I want to assert firmly in your minds that this event is one of the strongest proofs of the resurrection of Jesus. What could possibly cause an ardent enemy and active persecutor against Jesus and his followers to turn and become an ardent believer and active proclaimer of Jesus as the Son of God? Paul’s own words will tell you when you read his account in the book of Acts: he had an encounter with the risen Lord (cf. Acts 22:6-9; 26:13-18). Paul’s life was forever changed by this encounter as he preached the gospel of Jesus and was a powerful apostle in service to the Lord. Paul wrote 13 letters which have been preserved as the inspired word of God which you hold in your hands today. Now I want you to turn your attention to Acts 9:26…

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How do you deal with guilt? It is an interesting question to think about, especially in the context of our culture today. Right now our culture has made great efforts to erase feeling guilty about anything that we do. We are told that we should live with no regrets. But if you think about that idea long enough you will realize that you must completely erase your moral compass and be a completely selfish, self-absorbed person to have no regret about words you said or decisions you made. How do you deal with guilt? Our culture wants to redefine sin so that there is no sin so that we will not feel guilty for anything we do. This is a reason why people desire to deny the existence of God and deny the existence of judgement. We do not want to feel guilty for what we are doing. But God has another way to deal with the guilt that we feel in our lives. The answer is not to deny him or deny sin. Rather, God has a far better solution for guilt. Open your copies of God’s word to Jeremiah 33 and we are going to look at our hope over guilt…

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We are looking at some pictures of our atonement in our annual series which intentionally coincides with our study of Romans. In our last lesson we noticed the beauty of Jesus as our redemption. We looked at this in Romans 3:24. Even though all of us have sinned and all of us have fallen short of the glory of God, we are justified freely by God’s grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. This is one of the most frequently used images in the New Testament. Jesus is our redemption. Jesus is our ransom. God often described what he did for Israel in the exodus as redeeming them from slavery and often described himself in the prophets as their Redeemer. But another picture is immediately given to us in Romans 3:25. Paul says regarding Jesus that God put him “forward as a propitiation by his blood” (ESV). Propitiation is certainly not a word we use today and so we can be left wondering what this word means. Some translations read that God put forward Jesus as a “sacrifice of atonement” (cf. NIV, NRSV). Some translations read that God presented Jesus as “the mercy seat” (CSB, NET). You can consult many more lesser known translations that give even more translations that try to express the meaning of this word. For example, the Common English Bible reads, “the throne of mercy where God’s approval is given.” The God’s Word translation reads, “the place of sacrifice where mercy is found.” So what is God telling us about what Jesus is for us and what Jesus accomplished for us?

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Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:28-29 ESV)

One of our challenges while on earth is to understand the kingdom God has prepared for us. One of the ways that our Lord has shown us pictures of this kingdom is through his people, Israel. In particular, God made a promise to David that God would establish his kingdom through David’s offspring and that kingdom would be established forever (cf. 2 Samuel 7:12-13). The Chronicler has spent his time showing the wisdom and wealth of David’s son, Solomon, and his building of God’s house in the first seven chapters of 2 Chronicles. Now that the temple to the Lord is complete, the Chronicler is going to show the nature of this kingdom. Solomon, as David’s son, stands as a foreshadowing of David’s greater, future offspring, Jesus Christ. This modeling is highlighted by the fact that the Chronicler does not record Solomon’s failure as David’s son. Rather, the Chronicler continues to reveal the success and glory of this kingdom. Open your copies of God’s word to 2 Chronicles 8-9 and we are going to look at these vivid pictures of Solomon’s kingdom and consider how they are foreshadowing the kingdom that Christ would establish that cannot be shaken that we are receiving…

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Romans 3 is critical and transformational teaching about the work of Christ. We are in a section in which Paul profoundly proclaims what Jesus did that changed everything for us. Our theme for this year is Jesus Is: Pictures of Our Atonement. At the same time we have been looking at the book of Romans and learning the great gospel of God from this book. These two series intentionally collide in the next couple of lessons as we look at the redemption of the gospel and Jesus is our redemption. Open your copies of God’s word to Romans 3 and we are going to spend our time primarily in verse 24. But we need to begin reading in verse 21 to understand the context for this great teaching about our redemption…

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We are starting this series that I am calling Becoming Peter. Now the point of this series is not that you would become like Peter, though that is a worthy goal. The apostle Paul proclaimed to the Philippians to imitate him in Philippians 3:17. We would certainly do well to imitate the apostle Peter and we will consider doing so in this series. But the point of this series will be more focused on how Peter became Peter. Remember that Peter is not his original name. His parents gave him the name, Simon. When he first encountered Jesus, his name was Simon. All of his life everyone who knew him called him, Simon, until he met Jesus…

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What was the whole point of the Hebrew Scriptures? Why the Old Testament? Why have the patriarchs? Why have Israel? Why have the promises? What was the value? What was the point? Have you ever wondered these things? Why not just start in the Gospel of Matthew and go from there? This is where Romans 3 begins. What was the point of Israel, what advantage was there in being a Jew, and what was the benefit of circumcision if those who belong to God are those who have the law written on their hearts leading them to do God’s will (cf. Romans 2:25-29; 2:15)? Paul appears to begin to answer this in chapter 3 but a fuller answer is given in chapter 9. What Paul lays out in this section of Romans 3 are two key teachings. Two of the purposes for Israel, the patriarchs, and the promises were to teach us something about God and something about ourselves…

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We are spending this month looking at James’ teachings on how to have authentic faith especially during trying times. James 1 tells us that God is using trials to make us mature and complete so that we lack nothing. Therefore, we must let steadfastness have its full effect. Further, James tells us that we need to pray for wisdom while we are in our trials because God will gives us the wisdom we need generously. James also taught us how to look at temptations. No one should think that God is tempting them or that God is trying to destroy their faith. God is for us, gives us every good and perfect gift, and has given us new birth by the word of truth. Rather, what is separating us from God are the evil desires that are in us. Our desires give birth to sin which leads us to spiritual death. Now James is bringing us to a fourth consideration for our times in trials. Another problem that arises during trials is anger…

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We are starting a short series for our Sunday evenings in January called Authentic. The purpose of this series is to see how the scriptures picture how we can have a real faith and be real disciples. Now if you think about books in God’s word that give pictures of what faith looks like, James is one of the books that rises to the top. We can sometimes oversimplify the book of James so that the point is missed. We talk about how James tells us that true faith does work. We see this point made in James 2. This is a very important truth. But the point of the book is not to convince us that true faith has action. I believe the point of the book is to show us what faith does. What does true faith look like? To be a little more precise, what does true faith do during times of hardship and suffering? What does faith do when suffering? So what I would like to do is spend five lessons looking at first chapter of James and look carefully at what faith does when encountering trials and suffering…

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Up to this point we have been reading about various prophecies of hope in what is often called “the book of consolation” in Jeremiah 30-33. But as we come to Jeremiah 33 God will do something different with Jeremiah. Rather than giving another prophetic message, God is going to have Jeremiah act out this particular message. Now you may remember that Jeremiah has been told to act out some of God’s messages. We have seen the potter and the clay prophecy acted out, followed by breaking the clay pot (cf. Jeremiah 18-19). We have seen the ruined loincloth representing the ruin of the nation (cf. Jeremiah 13). But now the Lord is going to give Jeremiah an inexplicable prophetic command in Jeremiah 32 and through this action show our hope in Christ…

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