Fulfillment

Love does no harm to its neighbor.  Therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Romans 13:10

Outline of message brought on June 28, 2009.

2 Corinthians 8:7-15

Churches Leading in Generosity

The Situation:
Churches supporting each other worldwide
2 Cor. 8:1-6

Giving is not a Law, but a grace! (2 Corinthians 8:8)

Christ is the example (2 Corinthians 8:9)

A Promise Kept is Priceless (2 Corinthians 8:10-11)

Take Inventory (2 Corinthians 8:12)
Count Your Blessings!

God’s Economy: Balance! (2 Corinthians 8:13-15)
God’s wealth is demonstrated when everyone has enough!

Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

—Psalm 37:4

Pentecost Sunday message, May 31, 2009

John 15:26-16:15

John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

15:26 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf.

15:27 You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.

16:4b “I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you.

16:5 But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’

16:6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts.

16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.

16:8 And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment:

16:9 about sin, because they do not believe in me;

16:10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer;

16:11 about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.

16:12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

16:13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

16:14 He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

16:15 All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Jesus predicts the coming of the Holy Spirit, and explains what that gift will involve.

Quick announcement for followers of this website:  If you are a Facebook member, you are hereby invited to click here to take a look at a new Facebook group for members and friends of the Marbury Church of God.  This will not by any means replace the current website, but is another way for members, friends, former members, future members, and other interested people to connect and know what is going on.

We intend to use every means possible to encourage people in the love of God.  More ideas are always welcome.

Notes from the sermon preached at MCOG on May 17, 2009,  drawn from John 15:17.  Following the notes from that sermon is a link to some thoughts on the same passage recorded earlier in the same week.  This is Pastor Bob’s first attempt at making a YouTube video for upload.

Text:  

15:9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.
15:10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.
15:11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
15:12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
15:13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
15:14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.
15:15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.
15:16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.
15:17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

Notes for John 15:9-17

Friends

As the Father Has Loved Me: See Hebrews 1:3

Abide!  Continue! Stay with it!

How has the Father loved Jesus?
—From the beginning
—Unconditionally, unchanging
—With a Purpose in Mind

The purpose:  Joy!

What was that commandment again?

Love lays it down

Who did He lay down His life for?
His enemies….. who become His friends! (Romans 5)

What kind of Friend gives this kind of Command?

The Secret to Answered Prayer

I am giving you these commands
so that you may love each other.

Commanded to love!

(Pastor Bob’s first attempt at making a YouTube video)

Sermon notes for Sunday, May 10, 2009 (Mother’s Day)

Text:  Acts 8:26-40

8:26 Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.)
8:27 So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship
8:28 and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
8:29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.”
8:30 So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
8:31 He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him.
8:32 Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth.
8:33 In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.”
8:34 The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?”
8:35 Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus.
8:36 As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?”
8:38 He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.
8:39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.
8:40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

The Acts of the Holy Spirit

Acts 8:26-40
The Spirit in Action

The Commission:  Acts 1:8

Philip:  Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria….. ???

Philip was Philip the Evangelist, as he later became known, not the Philip of the Twelve who had walked with Jesus and were now leading the church at Jerusalem, but Philip of the Seven who were chosen to help make sure that the service to the poor — the daily distribution of food to widows — was fair and equitable and left no one out.  When one of his colleagues in that group, Stephen, was martyred for his faith, “a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria” (Acts 8:1).  “Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went” (Acts 8:4).  Note this.  The apostles stayed behind, and all the rest took up the task of preaching.  Philip was one of these, and it was through this process of persecution and scattering that the Word spread from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria, and began, through Philip as we shall see, to go out to the ends of the earth.

The Holy Spirit Works —through Obedient People 
—Acts 8:26-27a

What we see in our passage is that when Philip heard an instruction from God, whether from “an angel” or from “the Spirit” — that is, whether the witness was from outside of him or within him, he not only heard, but acted.  What a miraculous thing it is, already, to hear from God and know it!  Even a great prophet such as Elijah, who had spoken to kings and stood up to false prophets in God’s name, came to the place where all the noisy influences around him, all the impressive signs and wonders that could confront him, were not to be compared to the “still small voice” which questioned him, and then answered his questions.  Ultimately, each of us stands in God’s presence, responsible to no one else but God, and the obedient soul is the one who will take that prompting of the Spirit and step out into new territory.  Philip was being successful in Samaria, but the divine instruction sent him on a lonelier road; and he went.

The Holy Spirit Sets Up Meetings — Acts 8:27b-30a

God knew just what He was doing when he sent Philip down that lonely road.  It would have seemed strange to any observer that the leader who had instigated a great movement toward God in a Samaritan city should choose to leave, but having done so under God’s instruction, we now see that the Spirit was at work in a coordinating role.  Listen:  When God calls you to do something a little bit different, beyond your routine, out of your comfort zone, be assured that he is also preparing the place where you are going.  This is one of the most delightful things about the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  He connects us with people and circumstances at just the right time.  This is Philip’s experience as he now comes upon this Ethiopian court official, reading the prophet Isaiah.  We are told that the Spirit now instructed Philip to join himself to this chariot.  Things begin to come together.

The Holy Spirit Raises Questions! 
Three Critical Questions about Scripture 
— Acts 8: 30b-31

The three questions we see here are:  “Do you understand what you are reading?”  “How can I, unless, someone explains it to me?”  and “Who is theprophet talking about?” Let’s look at how all of these questions get answered.

The Holy Spirit Points to Jesus —Acts 8:35

Then Philip began at this same Scripture and preached unto him Jesus

Here is the key:  To read scripture without understanding is frustrating and futile.  For understanding there must be a key, a guiding principle, a way of “explaining.”  I submit to you that it would nto have mattered much which text the man was reading, it would be right in every case to begin there, and proclaim Jesus.  Jesus is the key  to understanding all of scrupture, and any explanation of scripture that does not point to Jesus is missing something of critical importance. In this case, it was a passage dealing with his suffering and death.  But “to him all the prophets give witness” (Acts 10:43) and so every scripture could be used as a starting-point to show that “everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins in his name.”

The Spirit Brings Understanding
The Key To Understanding:  Jesus!
Jesus, the Living Word
The Holy Spirit Empowers New Believers 
— Acts 8:36-38
The Spirit Leads Each of us Differently — Acts 8:39-40

Text:  1 John 3:16-24

3:16 We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us–and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.

3:17 How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?

3:18 Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.

3:19 And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him

3:20 whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

3:21 Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God;

3:22 and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.

3:23 And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.

3:24 All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.

Key verse:  1 John 3:18   Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.

How do we define love?

1.    John talks a lot about love.  One problem:  Love is often whatever we want it to be.  Is it a warm feeling?  An emotional attraction?  A desire?  A chemical, sexual urge to procreate?  Is it romance?  Understanding?  Trust?  All of these have been suggested, and all have some validity.  All, however, fall short.  For John, love is the defining evidence  of new life in Christ (v.14), so this question is of utmost importance.  John starts by making a contrast (v. 15) between love and hate.  He draws, no doubt, from his wealth of exposure to the teaching of Jesus to point out that hatred and murder are the same (v.15; compare Matthew 5:21-22 and Matthew 5:43ff), when he makes the equation between hate and murder. With this stark picture in mind, he draws the ultimate contrast, illustrating Matthew 4:44 with the example of Christ himself, and defines love not in any of these fuzzy ways, but by a particular kind of action.

2.    Verse 16:  This is how we know what love is, that he laid down his life for us.  We could stop there, as much of the world does, and say, “Thank God that the unique, eternal, Son of God laid down His life for us!  Thank God that because He did that, we never have to repeat such an action!   Thank God that Christ is so unlike us”, says even much of the Church, “that we should not ever be so arrogant as to think that we could or should act as He did.“  After all, as John 10:17-18 clearly says, he has power to lay down His life, as well as to take it up again.  We could go on and on in this vein, separating what is true of Christ from what is possible for us, as much of Christendom does, if it were not that John gives us no time, no room, to develop such an argument, comforting though  it may be; instead, he keeps going, and in the same sentence, he says:  —and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.

3.    To see a need and refuse to do something about it:  v.17 suggests that this is clear evidence that the love of God is not present.

4.    V. 18 — Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.  Truth is a matter of the heart, and action is, well, action.  One runs deeper than mere words, and the other is more visibly effective.   Here John is substantially in agreement with James, who says, ”Be doers of the word, not merely hearers“ — but he goes further in saying that the ”doing“ is ”action“ not just ”speech.“
⁃    It’s important to express love in words, but mere words are not enough.

⁃    Has God called you to action?  Yes he has.

There is someone God has appointed you to love.  Action is love demonstrated.  Remember that action is not just any activity, but sacrificial action, action that is described as ”laying down one’s life.“  What have you actively laid down for your beloved?  What have you done to demonstrate it?  As Paul says in Romans 5:8—”God proves [“demonstrates”] his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.“  This is pre-emptive love, love which does not wait to be reciprocated, love which is a demonstration of a power greater than the powers of this world. ”I have power to lay it down“ — thus Jesus — ”and I have power to take it up again.“   Has not God given you the power to lay down your privilege, lay down your authority, lay down your comfort, lay down your right, lay down your prerogative, not to make you a helpless victim of an unjust situation (though that’s what Jesus looked like also) but already knowing that you have “power to take it up again.”  That is the power of love in action.

5.     When we demonstrate such power, a spiritual witness, the very presence of the Holy Spirit which Jesus himself promised, “the Spirit of truth” John 14:17, is so present that we will “know we are of the truth” {v. 19), and “assure our hearts before him”

6.    “whenever our hearts condemn us”….. why does he include this?  John knows by long experience the same thing that is obvious to you and me:  you can never love enough, you can never do enough, there is only so much action that can be taken, and some needs still seem to remain unmet; there is a limit to what we can physically do.  It is a normal human response that even good, faithful, obedient saints of God will feel, from time to time, like we have fallen short.  But here’s the good news:  at such times, “God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything” (v. 20).  He knows our intent, our effort, our weakness; he knows also the circumstances we can’t see, the hidden resources he can bring to bear, the others who also in their faithfulness can come alongside us to help.  Thus he, by his Spirit can remind us that for those who walk in this way, who take upon themselves the very cross of Christ, not as a burden to bear with quiet suffering but as a privilege to take on the challenge such as he took with the strength such as was supplied to him:   that “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

7.     With our hearts thus assured, (v. 21), we can come back to the place where “our hearts do not condemn us”  — if indeed we had departed from it — and experience again “boldness before God.”  Faith now is expressed as obedience, and results in miraculous answers to prayer (v. 22).

8.   Summary:  Believe, love, be faithful, and experience the presence of the Spirit (v. 23-24).

Self-promotion?

For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord,
with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.

2 Corinthians 4:5

Sermon notes for April 26, 2009

Notes: Luke 24:36-48

Christ Appearing

What Jesus does when he appears:

He gives peace (v. 36) “While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’”

Peace is the beginning-point of the encounter with Christ. Whereas in the way the world works, peace is always a far-off, elusive, idealistic goal, often seen as unrealistic and unattainable, in the kingdom of God it is the foundation, the starting-point from which everything flows. It is not an achievement to be arrived at, but a gift to be received. Just as at the beginning God spoke “let there be light” and there was light, so here in the beginning of the new creation, Jesus says “peace be with you” and indeed, his gift of peace is ours. Just four days earlier he had told them: “peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

All Christian life and ministry starts with peace.

He deals with our fears (v. 37-38)

There was, however, something preventing them from enjoying this gift of peace. They were terrified! When we are habituated to fear, even good news can scare us. These disciples had just come through the most horrific experience of their lives. No wonder they reacted like something even worse was coming!

Here he deals with fear by confronting us with a simple question: why are you fearful, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? It is good to take a look at ourselves at such moments; as the Psalmist said, “what time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee.”

He reminds us of His sacrifice (v.39-40)
He assures us of His victory (v.39-40)
He shares our common life (v. 41-43)
He teaches us (v. 44-47)
He gives us work to do (47-48)