This week begins our Advent Series. Picture the series as four paintings, side by side. I know there are things called triptych, a 3 panel painting, but I am not sure if there are quadtychs? These paintings reveal a different facet of our Christ. One is the Prophet (this Sunday). One is the Priest. One is the King. And the final one is the Savior. We will trace how these four offices were promised in the OT, fulfilled in Jesus, and then what that means for us today and for Advent as we not only gaze into that paintings, but discover we are one of the characters God has painted into the frame.

God loves to right side His people by turning them upside down. This Sunday we will study Acts 17:1-15 and see the gospel turning people and communities upside down and thus right side up! We'll look closely at the Bereans and how they were eager and examined the Scriptures daily to see the connections and conclusions about Jesus that Paul was teaching them. God blessed that. Many were saved.

We continue with the Apostle Paul as the gospel breaks forth into Europe. The Lord is accomplishing His purposes and building His kingdom through faithful gospel proclamation. This is not without opposition, and though we find Paul and his team persecuted greatly, their demeanor, posture and persistence serve as an example to us and a demonstration of Christian contentment in every joy and trial.

Has a door closed on you lately? Has a chapter come to an end, and you did not exactly invite that? To boot, were you trying to serve God when the door closed or the chapter ended? Endings are hard. Really hard. But the things is, God does some of His clearest leading by funneling us by closing doors and then opening new ones. Every closed door leads to a new open door, and a beautiful door. God does not have dead ends. This Sunday's text will remind us of these truths of God's sovereign grace as it leads by way of closed relationships, closed opportunities, and yet new relationships and new opportunities. At the end of the day, we will see that the whole point of our lives is to make Christ known and the only doors we should want are the one's God has planned. What a solid and encouraging place to be.

Legalism is like the Applebee's menu. It promises so much and yet never delivers (apologies to you Applebee's fans 😉). Legalism is not debatable, though. Adding anything to Jesus as the ground of salvation is wrong and it robs us of life. Legalism never relents, it manifests itself in all times and in all cultures. The church in Acts 15 responds swiftly, clearly, and graciously in how it dealt with it in its own time and I think we have a great example of how to respond, teach, and disciple the church on how to reject legalism, all the while embracing the way of Jesus Alone love, which may involve choosing to avoid certain things for unity sake. Legalism is the forcing of unbiblical commands. Love is the choosing to give over rights for the sake of the common good. I think Sunday will be helpful to all of us as we seek to live by grace and truth together. 

The text this week is a summation of the first missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas. It lists a bunch of important and basic things these missionaries did as leaders in local churches. We will take the seven marks of a healthy church this Sunday and look at them. It might be helpful for folks looking at joining CHBC and hopefully it will help us value the basics more as a church, to long for growth in each of these reasons, and to see how we can help with our spiritual gifts in the growth of these health markers.

The passage this week has a lot to say about a couple things. First, is gospel clarity. Paul and Barnabas go to great lengths with their word and actions to make people clear on what they represent - the heavenly gospel, not an earthly worldview gospel. To that end, they push glory and honor away. Paul is then physically tortured because of this clarity, almost to death. But, with gospel power and hope, Paul gets back on his feet and heads right back onto mission? How? The dude was scared for life, physically. Well, because he knew he was in Christ and so lived like Christ, he believed his scars would lead to glory. May we feel reminded and anchored in that hope, for our own gospel scars, this Lord's Day as we sit under the good and loving Word.

A new chapter. A new city. But the calling is the same. Regardless of their location, we see Paul and Barnabas the proclamation of the good news to the Jews and to the Gentiles alike. In doing so, God bears witness to the word of his grace by signs and wonders (good works) done by the apostles. The text invites us to consider how we too can boldly share the gospel, join God in doing good works, and remain faithful to that calling regardless of where we are.

I confess that I often struggle to step out into my spheres of influence, even as a pastor, because I am fearful of the response. Preaching is intimidating, for instance. It never ceases to be so. What if the congregation rejects this? How clear should I be about what is in the passage? What if I have to teach a culturally unacceptable truth? This week's passage was a reminder. It was the Holy Spirit saying to me: "Jay, this is for you, too. Take care of the depth, and I will take care of the breadth." CHBC, this is the Word of the Lord for you, too. I bet there is a place in your spheres of influence you are hesitant to step forward in because you are not sure about how it will be received. Based in the passage this week, you can do it, because God has sovereignly planned out the result, both the fruit and the fall out. You can trust Him with that and this week we study the depth of that.

I love the Bible. I trust it as totally true, the very words of God. I hope you do, too. But, the Bible can actually get in the way of faith if we don't understand what God is trying to do with it. The religious leaders of Israel would have sworn by their allegiance to the Scriptures but Jesus rebukes them sternly about their faith-killing way of relating to God's Word. He says in John 5:39, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me." The Jews had lost sight of the point of the Bible. It had become an end to itself and it had become the means of their justification. From the beginning, God's Word was pointing God's people to the Messiah, and that Messiah is Jesus of Nazareth. When you get that, the Truly True Bible comes alive. It is all of grace. It is all of love. The whole Bible is whole Gospel showing us whole salvation through the Holy Savior. I say all that because we see Paul preaching the Word, showing the people Christ, knowing that is what the Spirit uses to save. And we should follow suit.