Biblical Truths from West Palm Beach church of Christ

We are going to ask some of the difficult questions concerning faith, God, and the Bible in this series. Before we begin our examination, I want to urge every person to put away any preconceived notions or biases that you may have already formed and to be affected to a decision simply by the weight of the evidence. If you believe in God regardless of the evidence, I want you to set aside that bias and build a new foundation of faith based upon the evidence. If you do not believe in God, I also want you to set aside that bias and listen to the evidence to make a decision…

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So how to do you end a book? Remember that the book of Acts began with Luke telling us that the gospel he wrote to Theophilus was “all that Jesus began to do and teach.” The implication is that the book of Acts is the continuation of Jesus’ work. The final chapters of the book of Acts are showing pictures of the mission. What the apostle Paul is encountering shows the problem, the solution, and the mission. The problem was declared in Acts 26:18. People are in darkness and under the power of Satan. This is true for every person. Everyone is blinded spiritually and under Satan’s power. The solution comes from the Lord to open people’s eyes so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God…

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This morning we are kicking off a new series for our summer. After this summer series we will come back to the Gospel of Matthew and look at the next teaching chunk, in keeping with our theme this year, “Journey With Jesus.” Our summer series is called Faith In The Furnace. We are going to look at some selected texts that speak to us about how to maintain our faith and continuing proclaiming the gospel when the culture is in full rejection of the Christian faith and message. So this is a series to help us know how to live in a world that turns itself against the Lord. This is a series that will help us maintain our hope and encourage us to press forward even in the face of hardships and rejection for Jesus’ name. Our selected texts will come out of 1 Peter because Peter is writing to Christians are who dealing with similar circumstances. We see this as we turn in our copies of God’s word to 1 Peter 2:11-12…

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Paul was on a mission. The mission was so important to him that he was willing to suffer all kinds of trials and mistreatments for the mission. This is why Paul is imprisoned right now. Paul was proclaiming Jesus in Jerusalem which enraged the Jews who then wanted to kill him. The apostle Paul is in the middle of dealing with people who seem to not be interesting in hearing the truth he is proclaiming. So we are going to look at what the truth and it is supposed to affect everyone as we look at Acts 25-26…

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On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7:37–39 ESV)

We have looking at the prophecies of Zechariah to see amazing pictures of what God was going to accomplish for his people when Christ came. In the last two chapters we saw that when the shepherd was struck, God would be coming through Christ to strengthen his people, transform his people, forgive his people, and answer his people. The cross of Jesus was to be the moment that cut people to the heart, mourning over their sins and changing their lives for the Lord. Zechariah 14 continues these pictures, revealing what God is going to do when Christ comes to the earth. We noted in the last lesson that we keep reading this phrase, “In that day.” “In that day” is referring to the arrival of Jesus on the earth and what would be accomplished when Jesus gave his life for the world. The repetition of the phrase, “In that day” continues in chapter 14, pointing to this same period of time, showing us what God was doing when Christ came into the world and gave his life on the cross, then rose from the dead…

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Listen to what the apostle Paul proclaims before the Jewish leaders of Jerusalem.

“Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.” (Acts 23:1)

I want us to think about those words. I have lived my life before God in all good conscience. In the text we are looking at in this lesson we are going to see that the apostle Paul will say this again. Look at Acts 24:16.

“So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man.” (Acts 24:16)

We are being given a window into the mind of Paul who is explaining how he looked at his life before God. His goal and his effort was to live life with a clear conscience before God and all people. In our lesson we are going to look at how Paul could say this and what living such a life looks like for us today…

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Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.” (John 19:31–37 ESV)

We have been looking at pictures of what Christ would do when he came to the world. The book of Zechariah was written about 500 years before Jesus was born. This book contains prophecies of our hope for what God will do to help and rescue his people. In Zechariah 9 we see that the moment Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, he had come to redeem his people through the blood of the covenant. In chapter 10 the picture is that Jesus came to bring us back home. In chapter 11 we see Jesus came to bring us favor and union, to shepherd his people so that they would no longer be doomed for the slaughter. In Zechariah 12-13 we are giving multiple pictures of the work of Jesus when he came…

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So how do you handle times when you are misunderstood? Being misunderstood can be a pretty frustrating situation. It can cause a lot of problems when you are misunderstood in your marriage, your family relationships, or friendships. Misunderstanding can cause a lot of problems and can cause serious divisions in relationships that have to later be rectified. But it can really be a problem when the misunderstanding is over important issues. This is especially true when it comes to spiritual issues and biblical teachings. It is hard when people think you believe something you do not believe. Trying to clear up these kinds of misunderstandings can also be very difficult. There was a long period of time when our brethren were writing in magazines, declaring what other people believe and teaching, and then tearing those people down for believing what they believe. But sometimes they were wrong. Sometimes they would put a label on someone that was not what that person was teaching or did not believe. Trying to undo that label was very difficult and often led to conflicts between people who were trying to serve the Lord…

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I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. (John 10:11–15 ESV)

This picture of Jesus as a good shepherd who comes to lay down his life for the sheep is not a random image presented in the Gospel of John. In our lesson last week we talked about how we make lousy shepherds for our own lives. When we follow ourselves and our idols that in our lives, we are left wandering aimlessly in life and afflicted because we lack a shepherd for our lives (cf. Zechariah 10:2). Zechariah 11 continues this picture about how we are lost and how we need a shepherd to direct our lives so that we are not wandering and afflicted…

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…The apostle Paul is on a mission to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. He is going to new cities and previously visited cities to proclaim the gospel and strengthen God’s people. The record of Paul’s actions in Acts 20 reveals how he was ready for the work God had called him to accomplish. Paul regularly told his audience to imitate him as he imitated Christ (cf. 1 Corinthians 4:16; 11:1; 2 Thessalonians 3:7-9; Hebrews 13:7). Further, we are also told that one of the pieces of God’s armor that we are to wear is the readiness of the gospel as shoes for our feet (cf. Ephesians 6:15). In this section of scriptures we are going to see five ways the apostle Paul was ready for doing God’s work. These are pictures to help us get ready for being the disciples God wants us to be…

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