Trinity Presbyterian Church North Bay — Sermons & Sunday School

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 09/19/2021 in Novato, CA. This week we continued a series through the Belgic Confession, addressing article 5 on the canon and authority of Scripture.

Sermon preached on Luke 5:33-39 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 09/12/2021 in Novato, CA.

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As you know, the OPC recently held the special day of prayer and fasting. Based on a number of questions I received in preparation for that day, I realized that as pastor, I should have given some better instruction to the congregation about how to go about fasting and about the nature of fasting. While today’s sermon won’t address every aspect about fasting, it will help make up for some of that recently missed opportunity.

So then, we find them asking Jesus about fasting here. They ask him how the practices he is having his disciples do compares with what both the disciples of the Pharisees and of John the Baptist are doing. Don’t miss the context for this question. In our pew Bibles, it is separated out as its own distinct subsection, and that is okay, but remember the passage right before this. That’s when Jesus and his disciples were being questioned for eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners. Jesus then admonished them for their critique, saying that it was sinners who needed a doctor, and that he came to call such sinners unto repentance. In other words, Jesus’ eating and drinking with sinful people was for ministry and evangelism purposes.

But then, do you see how the question and concern raised to Jesus today is only subtly different from last passage? Last time it was about why Jesus was eating and drinking with sinners. Now, it is why is Jesus eating and drinking, period. While the most popular forms of the Jewish religion of the time were regularly fasting, Jesus and his disciples were regularly feasting, in comparison. So then, Jesus is asked about this, why his ministry does not feature such fasting, and you can’t help but think this question is asked of Jesus not just for information purposes, but as a critique of Jesus. In fact, in Luke 7 we will see how Jesus mentions there that people were calling him a glutton and a drunkard because he has come eating and drinking. So, clearly there were people who were critical of Jesus and his disciples, thinking they were living it up in sinful partying and prodigality.

It would be helpful here to note what the law of God required in this regard. There was only one time of the year where such fasting was regularly called for in the Old Covenant. That was during Yom Kippur, i.e. the Day of Atonement. That’s described in Leviticus 16, and was the annual day for God’s people to humble themselves before God and confess of their sin and have a special sacrifice offered for their atonement in the Holy of Holies by the high priest. In that context, we see the Biblical concept that fasting is something to join with one’s prayer in the context of humility and lament over sin. It certainly was a quite fitting practice on the annual Day of Atonement observance. But that was the only regular day for fasting under the law. Otherwise, what we see biblically is that fasting would be an occasional practice, when it seemed fitting based on special circumstances. In times of great mourning, or great peril, or grave sin that had been committed, then fasting would be done on such extraordinary occasions to make urgent, special appeal to God. It would be a way to greatly humble yourself before God in lamentation, to cry out to God for help, or healing, or forgiveness, depending on the special circumstances. So then, fasting is typically described in the Bible as an occasional, not a regular, act of worship.

Now for the current circumstances of that day, apparently the Pharisees had turned this notion of occasional fasting upon special circumstances, into a part of their regular religious devotions.

Sunday School Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 09/12/2021 in Novato, CA. This week we continued a series through the Belgic Confession, addressing article 4 on the canon of Scripture.

Sermon preached on Luke 5:12-32 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 09/05/2021 in Novato, CA.

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In today’s passage we have three episodes detailing Jesus’ continued ministry of word and power. A good summary of all three episodes can be given with the last sentence in verse 17. It says, “And the power of the Lord was with him to heal.” Each of these passage deals in one sense with Jesus’ power of healing. Let us spend time to review them each, one point at a time, and see how they all complement each other in explaining Jesus’ powerful ministry of healing.

Let us begin in the first episode and look at Jesus cleansing this leper. This is verses 12-16. The summary here is how Jesus makes the unclean clean. We have this leper. He’s covered in leprosy, verse 2. He is physically diseased, and thus would be referred to as unclean. This standing among Israel meant that he had to live alone, outside the city, and if anyone came near him he had to cry out, “Unclean, unclean”, lest they touch him and catch his disease. This was according to Leviticus 13, and it was basically a sort of quarantine of the sick to try to keep the healthy well. But you can imagine how sad and lonely this would have been. Some of us have had to quarantine just for a few days recently due to COVID-19. Imagine a presumably permanent quarantine like this.

So, you can appreciate that this man begs Jesus to heal him. He falls down on his face before Jesus begging him. This is great humility. This is great desperation. This is great faith, for he believes Jesus can heal him. Yet, apparently what he didn’t know is if Jesus was willing to heal him. He knows Jesus can, but will Jesus heal him? That is why he pleads for Jesus to have mercy on him in healing him. He says, “If you will, you can make me clean.” So then, I love Jesus’ response. He says “I will be clean.”

But notice what Jesus does at the same time. He touches the man. Maybe under ordinary circumstances such a note would not have been noteworthy. Sure, Jesus touches people often when he heals them. But this is a leper, someone who is presumably so contagious to the touch that he had to live separate. You didn’t go around touching lepers if you could avoid it. The concern would be that if you touch someone unclean that you would become unclean. Jesus touches this unclean man. But Jesus doesn’t become unclean in touching him. The reverse of the norm happens. By the power of God, Jesus the clean one, makes the unclean clean by his touch.

So then, he instructs the cleansed man to go show himself to the priest and make the appropriate biblical offerings that were instructed in Leviticus 14 to give upon his cleansing. In short, that offering involved two birds, one killed, and the other alive one dipped in the blood of the dead bird then set free. It symbolized life from death. And that is what this cleansed man had found. He really does get his life back. He’s able to go back and engage in normal society again. Not only that, his going to the priest highlights something even more important that he can do again. He can once again go to the temple and worship God. Before he would not have had access to the temple. He probably felt in some way cut off from his communion from God. Maybe that is why he as a leper wondered if Jesus would even be willing to heal him. But in the gospel of Jesus Christ, we see that Jesus indeed is not only able to make the unclean clean, but is heartily willing to do so. And this point of the man’s renewed access to God in the temple, hopefully shows that the ramification of this healing was more than just physical, but also religious and spiritual.

Interestingly,

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 09/05/2021 in Novato, CA. This week we continued a series through the Belgic Confession, starting with article 3 on the inspiration of Scripture.

Sermon preached on Luke 5:1-11 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 08/29/2021 in Novato, CA.

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Last week’s passage emphasized that Jesus needed to keep on teaching and preaching and bringing his message throughout Israel.  Here we see him continue to be about that ministry of the word as a crow gathers around him on one occasion when he was near the lake of Gennesaret, also known as the Sea of Galilee.  The crown had come to Jesus to hear God’s word.  But they were now pressing in on Jesus.  I could imagine he could have been crushed by such an eager crowd coming to him.  But Jesus wanted to teach this large group that was hungry for God’s word.  So, Jesus gets Simon Peter to take him out in his boat just a little way off the coast.  From there, Jesus is able to safely and effectively communicate to the crowd.  From there, Jesus can fulfill his purpose to teach these many people as God had given him to do.  So then, as we study today’s passage we too will be learning from Jesus.  And we’ll see themes of discipleship and evangelism come forth from this teaching.

In our first point for today, let us consider first this miracle of a great catch of fish.  I’ve already set the context for our story.  And so, after Jesus finished teaching the people from the boat, he directed Peter to take the boat out to deeper waters and cast the nets down for a catch of fish.  Note the background here in verse 2.  There had been two boats on the short, Jesus was now on one of them.  But when we saw the two boats it was clear that they were done with fishing for the day.  When Jesus arrived the fisherman were busy cleaning the nets, which is what you do at the end when you are done fishing.  We learn in verse 4 that in fact Peter, and James, and John, and probably some other hired hands, had been out all night fishing.  They had worked hard, and as professional fisherman they surely knew their craft, but they had sadly caught nothing.  I’m sure now, after a long night of being skunked in their fishing, then Jesus talking surely long to the crowds, they were tired and ready to be done and go home.  But Jesus then directs Peter to go back out for another run on the fish.

Peter at first seems to complain a bit.  “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing!”  We can appreciate that.  He’s the professional fisherman.  He’s the one who worked all night and caught nothing.  He’s the one who knows the conditions for when it is best to catch fish.  Surely by now it is well into the day and surely the worst time to try to catch fish.  We can appreciate his immediate retort.  But then you have to appreciate his next words, expressing some sort of sort of respect and deference to Jesus as the master and teacher.  He says, “But at your word I will let down the nets.”  I imagine Peter basically meaning something like, “For anyone else Jesus, I wouldn’t bother to do this, but for you, I will do it.”

So then they bring the boat out deeper and they let down the nets, and praise be to God there is a humongous catch!  Verse 6 says it was so big that the nets started to break!  That’s when they signal back to the short to get their other boat to come help them with the big catch.  But even then, when the other boat comes and helps, it says that the boats are both so full that they are starting to sink.  To clarify, given the details here, this probably doesn’t mean that they are all going to sink and drown because the boats are overfilled.  But rather that the boats are so filled to maximum capacity that the boats have sunk down dr...

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 08/29/2021 in Novato, CA. This week we continued a series through the Belgic Confession, starting with article 2 on revelation.

Sermon preached on Luke 4:31-44 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 08/22/2021 in Novato, CA

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As we consider Jesus’ ministry of the Word in todays passage, it would be helpful to see it in light of last week’s passage. Last time, we saw Jesus explain his ministry at that time to his hometown of Nazareth. He used a prophecy from Isaiah 61 in verses 18-19 to describe his ministry as one who is anointed by God to give the gospel of God’s liberating power and healing. After Jesus read that prophecy, he said that by reading it, he fulfilled it. So then, that is what we continue to see him literally doing in today’s passage. While the people of Nazareth wouldn’t receive him, we see how the town of Capernaum received him well. There he brings that same prophesied ministry of the word in power, liberating and healing the afflicted. So then today we’ll see Jesus’ powerful ministry as a prophet and apostle of God to preach the good news of the coming kingdom of God.

Let us then begin in our first point to consider the power which Jesus’ word possessed. We see this stated in verse 32, that his word possessed authority. Now, if we just heard that statement by itself, we might just assume it means he spoke with a boldness or with a tone of command. But the context shows us that this had much more in mind. The passage immediately shows us what kind of authority it had in mind in the exorcisms. In verse 35, Jesus’ word commands a demon to leave a man. In verse 40, we see that he does the same for many others. Verse 36 then explains this by saying that his word came with both authority and power. In other words, for Jesus’s word to possess authority, it means that his word had power over the demons. At the command of his word they had to obey. By his word, he exercised control over demons.

But that’s not all. The power of Jesus’ word was also seen in how he healed people. We saw how the passage gave one example of Jesus rebuking an evil spirit from one man and then it described how Jesus exorcised many such demons there in Capernaum from people. Likewise, we see an example of one person healed with Simon’s mother-in-law in verse 38. This Simon is that beloved disciple Peter who was also named Simon, by the way. But notice in verse 39 that he rebukes the fever like he rebuked the unclean spirit. He spoke that fever out of her and she was healed. Then verse 40 describes a whole mass of other people from Capernaum that he later healed that same day. So, we see here that his word contained power and authority not only over demons but even over sickness and disease, amazingly!

Notice the effect that this fact had on the people. When they recognized the power and authority in his word they were astonished and amazed, verses 32 and 36. They ask in bewilderment, “What is this word?” They see the inherent power of his word, but they are at a loss to explain it. Of course, the facts speak for themselves. It’s what was said in that Isaiah prophecy. As the incarnate Son of God, he has been anointed by God with a ministry of word in power. We today look at what we did and rightly recognize the wonder of his miracles, but there is a sense in which we aren’t astonished and amazed the way they were because we know who Jesus is. The text focuses his power and authority in his word, in what he was saying, but we recognize that his words had such power because of who Jesus’s identity, because of who he is. So then, let us recapture some of that awe today when we remember there is power in his word because he is Jesus, the Christ and the Son of the God!

Let us turn now in our second point for today to see how his word silenced the demons. Consider just the contrast there.

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 08/22/2021 in Novato, CA. This week we started a series through the Belgic Confession, starting with article 2 on revelation.

Sermon preached on Luke 4:14-30 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 08/15/2021 in Novato, CA.

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Last time in Luke we talked about the start of Jesus’ ministry in terms of his baptism and testing in the wilderness. But that start of his ministry was really in terms of equipping him and then proving him. He was equipped for ministry by the Holy Spirit falling upon him in bodily form like a dove. And then the Spirit immediately brought him to the wilderness to undergo temptation by the devil in order to prove his righteousness as the Lord’s anointed one as the Second Adam. He passed that probation and so now we see his ministry really begin in terms of his teaching the people as the Lord’s Christ. Verse 14 records this. After the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness, he then returned in the power of that same Spirit to Galilee and began to go through the whole region of Galilee. Remember, Galilee was the northern part of Israel, with Judea the southern region and Samaria the region in between. There in the region of Galilee, he was teaching in the synagogues and as we see later in verse 23, he was also doing miracles in various places. Things are going very well in this early Galilean ministry as it says in verse 15 that he is being glorified by all. But then he comes to his hometown of Nazareth, which was also a city in Galilee. There we see a glimpse of the kind of early ministry he was doing. But there we also see that his reception is quite different there. So then, today we will have a chance to consider both of these two main things. First, we’ll get a glimpse about this early ministry of Jesus by looking at what he taught and said here in Nazareth. Then second, we will see how the people of Nazareth did not properly honor and receive him as he was received elsewhere, showing the proverb to be true that no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.

So then we begin first by observing Jesus’ profound teaching ministry there at Nazareth. It is nothing short than a grand pronouncement that Jesus is the Lord’s anointed one to declare the long-awaited restoration of God’s people. We see beginning in verse 16 that it was a Sabbath and Jesus was at the synagogue in Nazareth. He gets up and reads from the book of Isaiah. Specifically, we see that he reads from chapter 61. That is an amazing chapter to read from on any church assembly. There, in Isaiah 61, is a beautiful chapter that prophesies of how one day God would restore the fortunes of his people. Remember, that Israel in the Old Testament had been conquered in the north by Assyria and in the south by Babylon. The people had been led away in exile. The land was in ruins, including the King’s palace and the LORD’s temple, with the walls of Jerusalem destroyed. This was due to their sin that God brought such chastening upon them. The prophets had warned them, but they disregarded those many warnings. The prophets then declare the judgment was coming upon them and even then they ignored them. Finally, the judgment did fall on them. But the prophets also then prophesied that one day God would gather up his fallen and exiled people and bring them back to the land and restore them.

This passage in Isaiah 61 is one of those restoration prophecies. For example, the prophecy goes on to say, “They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.” The prophecy in that chapter goes on to say how all God’s people will then be a nation of priests to the LORD. It goes on to speak of how the people then will know great prosperity. God says there that will at that time make an everlasting covenant with them – in other words,