2016-12
2016-12
Sunday Dec 18, 2016
“The Song of the Angels”
Sunday Dec 18, 2016
Sunday Dec 18, 2016
“The Song of the Angels” (Luke 2:8–20)
Pastor Cameron Jungels
Eastside Baptist Church
Sunday AM, December 18, 2016
Luke 2:1–20 (NIV)
2 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register.
4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
Main Idea: The song of the angels is that Jesus Christ is the only way to peace with God.
Wednesday Dec 14, 2016
Chapter 8: The Reason for Suffering
Wednesday Dec 14, 2016
Wednesday Dec 14, 2016
Walking with God through Pain & Suffering
by Tim Keller
Chapter 8: The Reason for Suffering
People and cultures long to bestow meaning on suffering and evil.
Suffering has been explained by the Christian faith more thoroughly than any other religion or worldview.
In Christianity, suffering is not meaningless.
God has a purpose in suffering and evil.
God is accomplishing his purposes through suffering, not in spite of it.
God will one day finally eliminate suffering and evil.
In the person of Jesus Christ, God has suffered himself and has purposed to overcome suffering and evil.
Whatever God’s purposes for suffering, they are motivated by love for his people.
Suffering is the means God chose to redeem us, and suffering is one of the main ways we become like him and experience his redemption.
Though suffering is painful, it is also filled with purpose and usefulness.
On Not Wasting Your Suffering
Modern Western culture devalues suffering and finds no usefulness in it.
Evidence suggests that people need adversity in order to reach higher levels of strength and maturity.
Three benefits to suffering seen in many individual experiences:
People who endure suffering become more resilient.
It strengthens relationships and opens the door for deeper friendships.
It changes priorities and philosophies.
People who have never suffered are likely to have naïve views about life’s meaning.
Trauma has a way of shattering belief systems and robs people of their sense of meaning. It forces people to put the pieces back together, and often they do so by turning to God or some other higher, unifying principle.
The Bible assumes that suffering creates resilience (Rom. 5:3-4), and that it draws us nearer to God as our refuge.
To Glorify God
We, as God’s image-bearers, exist to glorify God in all of life.
So, one purpose of suffering is to glorify God through it.
Many biblical passages link suffering with the glory of God.
This Christian teaching that we can glorify God through suffering does not fit with the popular “prosperity gospel.”
God is worthy of our praise and admiration, because it is the only adequate and fitting response to his infinite perfection.
God, by his very nature, is the most supremely beautiful and all-satisfying Object.
God commands us to glorify him because it is only be doing this that we will ever find the rest, satisfaction, and joy in him that we were made for.
In every action by which we treat him as glorious as he is, we are at once giving God his due and fulfilling our own design.
The God of Glory
Much of Christian faith and practice hinges on the glory of God.
The glory of God is the combined magnitude of all God’s attributes and qualities put together.
“His infinite beyondness”
God is beyond our comprehension, and this is perhaps one of the aspects of the biblical God that people dislike the most.
People want a God they can figure out and control.
The glory of God also means his supreme importance.
Hebrew word “kabod” – expresses God’s “weightiness” or significance.
If anything matters to you more than God, you are not acknowledging God’s glory. You are giving glory to something else.
The glory of God is also his absolute splendor and beauty.
Greek word “doxa” expresses “praise and wonder, brilliance, and beauty.”
Edwards: “God is glorified not only by His glory’s being seen, but by its being rejoiced”
Glorifying God means obeying him not because we have to but because we want to—because we are drawn to his brilliance and beauty.
Glorifying God means to be delighted in him and to be satisfied in him.
No Graven Image
How, then, can we glorify God in our suffering—and how can suffering help us glorify God?
Many of us have “graven images” the idol of a God who always acts the way we think he should. We imagine a God who supports our plans, how we thought the world and history should go.
This is a God of our own creation, a counterfeit
Such a god is a projection of our own wisdom, of our own self.
When suffering comes, the demise of our plans shatters our false god. This enables us to be free to worship the True God.
Suffering introduces us to a God we cannot fully understand or control, who is infinitely perfect, wise, and glorious.
Suffering challenges us to leave behind our false images of God and embrace the True God who is incomprehensible and glorious.
When we trust God even when we don’t understand, we glorify him.
Glorifying God to Others
Trusting God in suffering also glorifies him to others.
When believers handle suffering rightly, we are showing the world something of the greatness of our God—and perhaps nothing else can reveal him to people in quite the same way.
In the early church, Christians used suffering to argue for the superiority of their faith because they endured suffering better than the unbelievers.
Peace, love, and forgiveness in the face of suffering is one of the greatest testimonies possible to the world of the reality of God, to his glory and his grace.
Glorifying God When No One Sees
Even when we think no one is watching how we go through suffering, God and the angels are watching and rejoicing in our spiritual growth through adversity.
How we endure suffering matters, because our existence is not just about this world that we can see or even just about the here and now. There is a spiritual world beyond our vision, and there is an eternity beyond this lifetime.
No suffering is for nothing.
Suffering and Glory
Though counterintuitive, suffering and glory are closely linked in the Scriptures.
Suffering glorifies God to the universe and eventually even achieves glory for us.
Philippians 2 – Jesus humbled himself and endured suffering on the path to glory. He did it in love for us to the glory of God.
Our suffering may be for the good of others, or to make us more like Christ, or simply to glorify God through our trust in him when we don’t
Sunday Dec 11, 2016
“Remarkable Revelations”
Sunday Dec 11, 2016
Sunday Dec 11, 2016
“Remarkable Revelations” (Genesis 45:1–28)
Pastor Cameron Jungels
Eastside Baptist Church
Sunday PM, December 11, 2016
Genesis 45:1–28 (NIV)
45 Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, “Have everyone leave my presence!” So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. 2 And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh’s household heard about it.
3 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence.
4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. 6 For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. 7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
8 “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt. 9 Now hurry back to my father and say to him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; don’t delay. 10 You shall live in the region of Goshen and be near me—you, your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all you have. 11 I will provide for you there, because five years of famine are still to come. Otherwise you and your household and all who belong to you will become destitute.’
12 “You can see for yourselves, and so can my brother Benjamin, that it is really I who am speaking to you. 13 Tell my father about all the honor accorded me in Egypt and about everything you have seen. And bring my father down here quickly.”
14 Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin embraced him, weeping. 15 And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Afterward his brothers talked with him.
16 When the news reached Pharaoh’s palace that Joseph’s brothers had come, Pharaoh and all his officials were pleased. 17 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Tell your brothers, ‘Do this: Load your animals and return to the land of Canaan, 18 and bring your father and your families back to me. I will give you the best of the land of Egypt and you can enjoy the fat of the land.’
19 “You are also directed to tell them, ‘Do this: Take some carts from Egypt for your children and your wives, and get your father and come. 20 Never mind about your belongings, because the best of all Egypt will be yours.’”
21 So the sons of Israel did this. Joseph gave them carts, as Pharaoh had commanded, and he also gave them provisions for their journey. 22 To each of them he gave new clothing, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred shekels of silver and five sets of clothes. 23 And this is what he sent to his father: ten donkeys loaded with the best things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain and bread and other provisions for his journey. 24 Then he sent his brothers away, and as they were leaving he said to them, “Don’t quarrel on the way!”
25 So they went up out of Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan. 26 They told him, “Joseph is still alive! In fact, he is ruler of all Egypt.” Jacob was stunned; he did not believe them. 27 But when they told him everything Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the carts Joseph had sent to carry him back, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. 28 And Israel said, “I’m convinced! My son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.”
A Remarkable Revelation (1–3).
A Remarkable Forgiveness (4–5).
A Remarkable Perspective (6–8).
A Remarkable Reconciliation (9–15).
A Remarkable Generosity (16–20).
A Remarkable Provision (21–24).
A Remarkable Revelation (25–28).
Main Idea: Reconciliation is the result of forgiveness, and forgiveness is made possible through a firm trust in the justice of God and his sovereignty over all the events of life.
Sunday Dec 11, 2016
“What Are We Singing About?”
Sunday Dec 11, 2016
Sunday Dec 11, 2016
“What Are We Singing About?” (Matthew 1:18–25; Luke 2:1–7)
Pastor Cameron Jungels
Eastside Baptist Church
Sunday AM, December 11, 2016
Matthew 1:18–25, NIV
18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. 20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 "The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" (which means "God with us"). 24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
Luke 2:1–7, NIV
1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register. 4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
We are singing about the miracle of the virgin birth, which was predicted by the prophet Isaiah centuries before its fulfillment.
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isa. 7:14, NIV)
We are singing about the miracle of God becoming man through the conception of Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit.
31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob's descendants forever; his kingdom will never end." 34 "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" 35 The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. (Lk. 1:31-35, NIV)
We are singing about the fulfillment of all of God’s promises and covenants with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David as witnessed by the prophets.
32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob's descendants forever; his kingdom will never end." (Lk. 1:32-33, NIV)
54 He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful 55 to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors." (Lk. 1:54-55, NIV)
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. (Matt. 1:20, NIV)
4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. (Lk. 2:4, NIV)
We are singing about the coming of Jesus into the world to be our savior and rescue us from the condemnation that our sins deserve.
"Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." (Matt. 1:20-21, NIV)
68 "Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them. 69 He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David 70 (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), 71 salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us-- 72 to show mercy to our ancestors and to remember his holy covenant, 73 the oath he swore to our father Abraham: 74 to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear 75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. 76 And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, 77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, 78 because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven 79 to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace." 80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel. (Lk. 1:68-80, NIV)
We are singing about the God of the Universe voluntarily humbling himself to become a servant and live in poverty, hardship, and sorrow for us.
6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death-- even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11, NIV)
Wednesday Dec 07, 2016
Chapter 7: The Suffering of God
Wednesday Dec 07, 2016
Wednesday Dec 07, 2016
Walking with God through Pain & Suffering
by Tim Keller
Chapter 7: The Suffering of God
Christianity is unique in teaching that God is sovereign over suffering and also made himself vulnerable and subject to suffering.
Holding both the sovereignty of God and the suffering of God together is crucial to a Christian understanding of suffering.
We see glimpses of God’s suffering in OT:
God’s love and compassion for Israel.
God’s grief over human sin and evil.
God’s deep love for his people means that our condition affects his heart.
We need to hold and maintain two biblical truths:
The living God is a self-maintaining, self-sufficient reality that does not need to draw vitality from outside. God does not need us.
God experiences emotions, such as joy, pleasure, pain, and grief.
Heart involvement leads to suffering. The more you love someone, the more that person’s grief and pain become yours.
God is not an abstract deity, but a person who experiences emotion and suffering.
The Suffering of God the Son
The suffering of God comes into clearest focus in the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
Jesus experiences the ordinary pressures, difficulties, and pains of normal human life.
Jesus experienced the ultimate suffering in his Passion, his betrayal, trial, torture, and death on the cross, when he bore the wrath of God for our sins and was forsaken by his Father.
God took into his own self, his own heart, an infinite agony—out of love for us.
The NT speaks of Christ continuing to suffer in the persecution of his people (Acts 9:4).
Jesus so identifies with his people that he shares in their sufferings.
The NT also speaks of Christians sharing in Christ’s sufferings (1 Pet 4:13; Phil 3:10).
Our sufferings do not add anything to the suffering of Christ, his atoning work for our salvation.
Because we are in union with Christ, we “fellowship” with Christ in our suffering.
Christ learned humanhood from his suffering. We learn Christhood from our suffering.
Just as Jesus assumed human likeness through suffering, so we can grow into Christ’s likeness through suffering, if we face it with faith and patience.
The Suffering Sovereign
These two complementary (not contradictory) truths must be held together:
God is capable of emotions and suffering.
And, God is completely sovereign over suffering.
The God who has no causal relationship to suffering is no God at all, certainly not the God of the Bible…who is both suffering and sovereign. Both beliefs are necessary to the Christian assertion that suffering has some meaning.
If God is out of control of history, then suffering is not part of any plan; it is random and senseless.
On the other hand, if God has not suffered, then how can we trust him?
It is because God is all-powerful and sovereign that his suffering is so astonishing. If God were somehow limited or out of control, his suffering would not be so radically voluntary—and therefore not so fully motivated by love.
If even God has suffered, then we cannot say that he does not understand, or that his sovereignty over suffering is being exercised in a cruel and unfeeling
Since he has not kept himself immune from our pain, we can trust him.
Because suffering is both just and unjust, we can cry out and pour out our grief, but without the toxic bitterness.
Because God is both sovereign and suffering, we know our suffering always has meaning even though we cannot see
The Final Defeat of Evil
The Bible teaches us to look forward to a final judgment as the decisive answer of God to all such questions, as the solution of all such problems, and as the removal of all the apparent discrepancies of the present.
In our world of justice, we only have the capability of punishing evil, but we do not have the power to undo
God has the power to undo it.
The Bible promises more than just Judgment Day.
Judgment Day is accompanied by the coming of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the dead, and the renewal of heaven and earth.
The death of Jesus not only secured our salvation; it assured the restoration of all things at the end of time.
The cross of Christ was the worst human evil in the history of the world; it was the worst that human and non-human evil against God could do.
Yet, in God’s plan the worst evil ever committed accomplished the ultimate victory over evil.
The very moment Jesus was dying on the cross, he was “disarming the powers…triumphing over them by his cross” (Col 2:15).
It is a wounded and resurrected lamb who is able not only to judge wrongdoing but actually to undo the damage that evil has wreaked on creation.
Without the suffering of Jesus, evil wins.
It is only Jesus’ suffering that makes it possible to end suffering—to judge and renew the world—without having to destroy us.
At the cross, evil is turned back on itself.
Calvin: “On the cross, destruction was destroyed, torment tormented, damnation damned…death dead, mortality made immortal.”
Christ’s suffering on the cross humbles We have no other position than at the foot of the cross. There we find the wisdom to reject optimistic theodicies and tragic philosophies. God’s answer to suffering is evil turned back on itself at the cross.
While Christianity never claims to be able to offer a full explanation of all God’s reasons behind every instance of evil and suffering—it does have a final answer to it. The answer will be given at the end of history.
No More Tears
The cross secured the defeat of evil in the past, on Calvary, but now it also guarantees a final experience of that defeat in the future in the renewal of all things, when every tear will be wiped away
The suffering of Jesus has ended
The Bible teaches that the future is not an immaterial “paradise” but a new heaven and a new earth.
The Christian hope is unlike any other religion or philosophy.
Christianity offers not merely a consolation but a restoration—not just of the life we had but of the life we always wanted but never achieved. And because the joy will be even greater for all that evil, this means the final defeat of all those forces that would have destroyed the purpose of God in creation, namely, to live with his people in glory and delight
Sunday Dec 04, 2016
“The Silver Cup”
Sunday Dec 04, 2016
Sunday Dec 04, 2016
“The Silver Cup” (Genesis 44:1–34)Pastor Cameron JungelsEastside Baptist ChurchSunday PM, December 4, 2016
Genesis 44:1–34 (NIV) 44 Now Joseph gave these instructions to the steward of his house: “Fill the men’s sacks with as much food as they can carry, and put each man’s silver in the mouth of his sack. 2 Then put my cup, the silver one, in the mouth of the youngest one’s sack, along with the silver for his grain.” And he did as Joseph said. 3 As morning dawned, the men were sent on their way with their donkeys. 4 They had not gone far from the city when Joseph said to his steward, “Go after those men at once, and when you catch up with them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid good with evil? 5 Isn’t this the cup my master drinks from and also uses for divination? This is a wicked thing you have done.’ ” 6 When he caught up with them, he repeated these words to them. 7 But they said to him, “Why does my lord say such things? Far be it from your servants to do anything like that! 8 We even brought back to you from the land of Canaan the silver we found inside the mouths of our sacks. So why would we steal silver or gold from your master’s house? 9 If any of your servants is found to have it, he will die; and the rest of us will become my lord’s slaves.” 10 “Very well, then,” he said, “let it be as you say. Whoever is found to have it will become my slave; the rest of you will be free from blame.” 11 Each of them quickly lowered his sack to the ground and opened it. 12 Then the steward proceeded to search, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. 13 At this, they tore their clothes. Then they all loaded their donkeys and returned to the city. 14 Joseph was still in the house when Judah and his brothers came in, and they threw themselves to the ground before him. 15 Joseph said to them, “What is this you have done? Don’t you know that a man like me can find things out by divination?” 16 “What can we say to my lord?” Judah replied. “What can we say? How can we prove our innocence? God has uncovered your servants’ guilt. We are now my lord’s slaves—we ourselves and the one who was found to have the cup.” 17 But Joseph said, “Far be it from me to do such a thing! Only the man who was found to have the cup will become my slave. The rest of you, go back to your father in peace.” 18 Then Judah went up to him and said: “Pardon your servant, my lord, let me speak a word to my lord. Do not be angry with your servant, though you are equal to Pharaoh himself. 19 My lord asked his servants, ‘Do you have a father or a brother?’ 20 And we answered, ‘We have an aged father, and there is a young son born to him in his old age. His brother is dead, and he is the only one of his mother’s sons left, and his father loves him.’ 21 “Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me so I can see him for myself.’ 22 And we said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father; if he leaves him, his father will die.’ 23 But you told your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.’ 24 When we went back to your servant my father, we told him what my lord had said. 25 “Then our father said, ‘Go back and buy a little more food.’ 26 But we said, ‘We cannot go down. Only if our youngest brother is with us will we go. We cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’ 27 “Your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons. 28 One of them went away from me, and I said, “He has surely been torn to pieces.” And I have not seen him since. 29 If you take this one from me too and harm comes to him, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in misery.’ 30 “So now, if the boy is not with us when I go back to your servant my father, and if my father, whose life is closely bound up with the boy’s life, 31 sees that the boy isn’t there, he will die. Your servants will bring the gray head of our father down to the grave in sorrow. 32 Your servant guaranteed the boy’s safety to my father. I said, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, I will bear the blame before you, my father, all my life!’ 33 “Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers. 34 How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery that would come on my father.”
1. The Setup (1–3)
2. The Pursuit (4–9)
3. The Search, Discovery, and Arrest (10–13)
4. The Accusation (14–15)
5. The Plea for Mercy and offer of Substitution (16–34)
Main Idea: Because God is just, we can be sure that our sin will find us out; but our God is also merciful and he has provided a substitute to stand in our place and bear our sin for us.
Sunday Dec 04, 2016
“The Song of Zechariah”
Sunday Dec 04, 2016
Sunday Dec 04, 2016
“The Song of Zechariah” (Luke 1:68–79)Pastor Cameron JungelsEastside Baptist ChurchSunday AM, December 4, 2016
Luke 1:68–79 (NIV)
68 “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them. 69 He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David 70 (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), 71 salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us— 72 to show mercy to our ancestors and to remember his holy covenant, 73 the oath he swore to our father Abraham: 74 to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear 75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. 76 And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, 77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, 78 because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven 79 to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
1. Zechariah praises God for fulfilling the Davidic Covenant. (vv. 68–71).
2. Zechariah praises God for fulfilling the Abrahamic Covenant. (vv. 72–75).
3. Zechariah praises God for fulfilling his promise regarding John (vv. 76–77).
4. Zechariah praises God for the rising Sun that will scatter the darkness. (vv. 78–79)
Main Idea: The Birth of our Savior Jesus Christ is a reminder that God keeps his promises.
Wednesday Nov 30, 2016
Chapter 6: The Sovereignty of God
Wednesday Nov 30, 2016
Wednesday Nov 30, 2016
Walking with God through Pain & Suffering
by Tim Keller
Chapter 6: The Sovereignty of God
Many philosophies and religions approach human suffering and evil too simplistically.
The Bible’s picture of suffering is the most nuanced and multidimensional.
Two foundational balanced truths:
Suffering is both just and unjust.
God is both a sovereign and a suffering God.
These paired truths present a remarkably rich and many-sided understanding of the causes and forms of suffering.
Suffering as Justice and Judgment
Genesis 1-3: Suffering in the world is the result of sin.
All forms of suffering enter the world after Adam and Eve’s disobedience:
Spiritual alienation, inner psychological pain, social and interpersonal conflict and cruelty, natural disasters, disease, and death.
All of this natural and moral evil stems from our ruptured relationship with God.
Romans 8:18f.: The world is under the curse of frustration or futility.
The world is now in a cursed condition and falls short of its design.
A frustrated world is a broken world, in which things do not function as they should, and that is why there is evil and suffering.
God placed the world in this condition for judgment, but God has not abandoned the world or us.
God had in view a plan for the redemption and renewal of all things.
Once human beings turned from God, there were only two alternatives, either immediate destruction or a path that led to redemption through great loss, grief, and pain, not only for human beings, but for God himself.
The existence of suffering in the world is really a form of God’s justice.
God often metes out retributive justice, in which people get what they deserve.
Biblical wisdom literature is clear that suffering comes in many instances because of foolishness or wickedness.
Suffering as Injustice and Mystery
While suffering in general is the result of sin in general and while God does sometimes bring retributive justice on individuals for their foolishness or wickedness, the Bible is also just as clear that individual instances of suffering may not be the result of a particular sin.
The fact of suffering was held to be the result of sin, especially original sin, but this did not mean that each instance of suffering could be causally linked to a specific sin and its divine punishment.
While the human race as a whole deserves the broken world it inhabits, nevertheless evil is not distributed in a proportionate, fair way.
Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes are linked together in a complementary
Proverbs emphasizes the foundational moral order of God’s world, the way things should work in a just world.
Job and Ecclesiastes emphasize the fact that this world is broken, and suffering is not always linked to morality in a consistent way.
Proverbs shows us the reality of God’s order, Job points to its “hiddenness,” and Ecclesiastes to its “confusion.”
In the NT, John 9 shows us that suffering is not necessarily linked to past immoral actions. God’s ways are inscrutable.
Much suffering is disproportionate and unfairly distributed. Much suffering is mysterious and unjust.
Suffering as the Enemy of God
Suffering is an intrusion into God’s good creation, and often evil and suffering occur without regard to an individual’s moral decency or deserts.
The Bible is insistent that suffering is not outside of God’s control, but we must understand evil as the enemy of God.
Jesus’ emotional reaction at the tomb of Lazarus was not mere sadness; it was righteous anger and indignation toward the violent tyranny of death.
Jesus came to destroy death and the one who “holds the power of death.”
Jesus is furious at evil, death, and suffering. Evil is the enemy of God’s good creation, and of God himself.
Jesus’ entire mission was to take on evil and end it.
But Jesus could not just come as judge to end evil, or we would all be destroyed and without hope.
Jesus came in weakness to the cross in order to pay for our sins, so that someday he will return to wipe out evil without having to judge us as well.
Suffering, Justice, and Wisdom
Understanding that suffering is both just and unjust leads us to wisdom about how to face suffering.
Wisdom is an awareness of complex reality.
Suffering is something that God has justly imposed on the world; we deserve to live in a broken world because of our sin.
At the same time, the created order is broken, and suffering and pain are disproportionately distributed.
So, we cannot look at individuals who are suffering and assume a moral superiority over them.
When suffering inexplicably comes to us, it means that we can cry out to God in confusion.
If we ignore the fact that suffering is both just and unjust then we will be out of touch with the universe as it really is.
This balance—that God is just and will bring final justice, but life in the meantime is often deeply unfair—keeps us from many deadly errors.
The Sovereignty of God
Second pair of balancing truths:
God is a sovereign and yet a suffering
God is not merely “all-powerful,” but sovereign over every event in history.
God is not merely “good and loving,” but entered our world and became subject to greater evil, suffering, and pain, than any of us have ever experienced.
The doctrine of the sovereignty of God in the Bible has been described as compatibilism.
God is completely in control of what happens in history and yet he exercises that control in such a way that human beings are responsible for their freely chosen actions and the results of those actions.
Human freedom and God’s direction of historical events are completely compatible.
The Bible’s description of God’s sovereignty is not in any way like the Greek concept of “fate” or the Islamic concept of “kismet.”
God’s plans work through our choices, not around or despite them. Our choices have consequences, and we are never forced by God to do anything—we always do what we most want to do.
God works out his will perfectly through our willing
God “works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will” (Eph 1:14).
God’s plan includes even the “little things” (Prov 16:33).
There are no accidents.
God’s plan also includes the bad things (Psalm 60:3).
Suffering is not outside of God’s plan but a part of it.
Jesus’ suffering and death was a great act of injustice, but it was also part of the set plan of God.
God’s Plan and our Plans
God plans our plans.
Prov 16:9 – “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.”
While we make our plans, they only fit into the larger plans of God.
Joseph’s brothers’ evil actions and God’s overriding sovereign plan to rescue Abraham’s descendants.
Romans 8:28 – God is working in all things—even the hard and painful—for our good.
The enemies of Jesus acted in full accordance with their own desires and wills and yet fulfilled the ultimate plan of God for his crucifixion.
Pharaoh hardened his own heart in accordance with his own will and stubbornness, and yet we read in Exodus that this was a part of God’s plan to harden Pharaoh’s heart.
The Christian doctrine of God’s sovereignty is a marvelous, practical principle, and no one can claim to know exactly how it works.
The sovereignty of God is mysterious but not contradictory.
We have great incentive to use our wisdom and our will to the best effect, knowing that God holds us to it and knowing we will suffer consequences from foolishness and wickedness.
On the other hand, there is no action that we can take that will thwart or alter the eternal, wise plan of God.
We have the assurance that even wickedness and tragedy are being woven together by God into his wise plan.