Grace Foundation Part 2

This Sunday we continued the “Grace Foundation” series. In it, we are looking at the obvious foundation of God’s grace that flows throughout the Word – even during the time when the law “ruled” the people.  In this part we looked at the story of Nehemiah’s rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. In Nehemiah 8, Nehemiah declares that the law is to be read to all the people in the newly rebuilt Jerusalem. They have been living without the law for quite a while, and without God’s guidance and precepts, they were not getting God’s results. They were a shell of what they once were because they had fallen away from God’s ways of doing things.

When we disobey God and experience defeat, it is not God punishing us for disobedience, but simply us not getting God’s desired results because we’ve failed to operate within His systems. This was the case with God’s people in Jerusalem.  Some may believe that this is what we need today. The world is in disarray. What we must need is the law shouted from the rooftops. Nehemiah lived in the day before Jesus, however, before the Holy Spirit and before redemption. The law was all they had.

 

This reading of the law was a special occasion. Normally, a reading like this would be only attended by men, but we read that all the men, women, and any who could understand were present. It was important that everyone heard this. We have seen how sometimes even the husbands don’t do the best job relating what God has to say to their wives (i.e. Adam and Abraham).  The people stood for six hours as the law was read, and after it was done, they mourned and wept. That is what the law will do; it will condemn. The people became very aware of how far they had fallen short of pleasing God.

Now, all of this happens on the first day of the seventh month – which on the Hebrew calendar was New Year’s Day. It was called the feast of trumpets. It was a day where the people came together to bring offerings and to ask for God’s favor (grace) upon their soil as they began to sow seed for the next year. This is somewhat like what we do by attending church on the first day of the week. We bring praise and offering and bring blessing to our soil that we will be planting into – first the soil of our hearts and also the soil of the earth that we work in.

While the law was being read, the Levite priests were among the crowd to help them understand what was being read to them. This is a picture of the Holy Spirit. This is why I have the congregation physically ask the Holy Spirit to be their teacher at the beginning of every sermon. I do my best to be Spirit-led in my teaching, but the Holy Spirit is there to help you learn what the Word means. It is not enough to simply read the Word or listen to a pastor read the Word to you. You need the Holy Spirit to teach you what it means.

At the mourning, Nehemiah declares that they should not weep or mourn, but celebrate. He declares that they should eat the choice foods and drinks and then take some to those who were not there.

One thing I find very interesting about that declaration is that it also says a lot about the assignment of the church. Think about who it is that would not have already been there at the assembly – those who did not understand. Who is that to us? It represents the lost, who do not have the Holy Spirit who makes them able to understand. What were they to take to those people? It was not the law, but the choice food and drink from the meeting place of God.

The church then should be a place full of great joy and celebration and “choice food” that can be taken out to those who do not understand. If they weren’t going to understand the “law” from the “priest,” why do we think they will understand it when WE beat them over the head with it? They understand joy and celebration. That will draw them to the source of the celebration (If I be lifted up, I will draw all men…).  So, even at this reading of the law, God saw it important that there be a joyous celebration. Why do we celebrate even at the reading of the law? We do so because the blood of Jesus has justified us apart from our ability to obey the law!

In Matthew 12, Jesus had a confrontation with the Pharisees over the authority of the law. The Pharisees saw his disciples eating grain off the ground in a field on the Sabbath. This was against law. They accused Him because, if He allowed His disciples to break the law, they thought He must not be who He said He was. Notice that Jesus did not eat the grain. He was keeping the law for us, but the hunger of His disciples was more important than a rule.

He answers their question, like any good defense attorney (remember, that is one of the things He is for us), with a question. He points out the hypocrisy of their accusation with examples from the Old Testament – how David and His men ate food consecrated for the priests and how, technically, priests themselves break the law when they WORK in the temple on the Sabbath. He illustrates the problem with law. Law is black and white, and the world is not. The spirit of the Sabbath was rest, but their observance became work and it lacked grace and love.

They used the presence of a man with a shriveled hand to try and trick Jesus also. Instead of being concerned with the man’s healing or well-being, they wanted to catch Jesus breaking the law.  Remember what Paul said in Galatians 4 – law always persecutes grace. Jesus asks them if they would rescue one of their sheep that fell into a ditch on the Sabbath or let it die, as well as whether a man is not more important than a sheep.  Then He tells the man to stretch out that crippled hand and be healed. Was it a sin to heal on the Sabbath? Even this does not answer the question because Jesus is not the one who did the WORK of healing. The man stretched out his hand and received healing. In the man’s world, grace just superseded law. What an awesome picture.

Were the Pharisees amazed and converted? No. They then plotted how that might kill Jesus. Once again, this is what law does when faced with grace. Law sees grace as its death sentence and will fight it with all its might.  Let grace rule in your life!

 

 To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php.  To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.

Grace Foundation Part 1

Last Sunday I began a new series called “Grace Foundation,” where we are examining the threads that wind through the entire Bible that show that God has always made grace the foundation for all He does. 

In Galatians 4:21-31, Paul creates the frame that we use to look at Old Testament story of Abraham. He helps us see what Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Ishmael and Isaac all represent in a spiritual sense from the New Testament perspective. Ishmael was born of Hagar, a slave woman. He was born in the ordinary way, meaning there was nothing supernatural about his birth. His birth came without needing to trust in God in any way. Paul says that this represents the law. If you live your life trying to be justified by the rules you keep and the things you avoid doing, that requires no power from God.

Isaac was born of the promise. Yes, Abraham and Sarah had to do the physical “work” required to conceive a child, but they both did so when they knew their bodies were incapable of producing a child without God’s intervention. You will only receive the promise that comes from living in the grace of God by believing and receiving what He promised, apart from your works.

After they received the promise, it was time to throw out the slave woman and her child. With these things in mind, now let’s look at what it says in Genesis 16. Hagar actually leaves twice. The first time was by her own choice, and the second was by Abraham’s demand. Each has spiritual significance for the New Testament believer.

In Genesis 16:2, we find that Sarah (Sarai at the time – God had not yet changed their names yet) was frustrated that they had not received the promise. She decided it was because God had chosen not to fulfill that promise. It is important, whenever you read the Bible, to not just treat everything that is said as truth. I know that sounds odd. But you must know WHO is talking and TO WHOM they are speaking.  There are many beliefs people have about God that are based on things that HE did not say. The book of Job contains many of these. GOD didn’t say, “the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.” Job’s friends said that. In Genesis 16, God did not say He was keeping Sarah from having a child. Sarah said that. Now, let’s not get upset with Sarah for her unbelief. I think Abraham has a role to play.

If you read the previous chapter carefully, you’ll find that the promises were made by God to Abraham. It would have been up to Abraham to make sure his wife understood what God said. I think this is the same error that Adam made in the Garden. God told Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and what would happen if they did. When the serpent tempts Eve, it becomes clear that she didn’t have the information quite right. Eve may have eaten of the fruit first, but she was deceived because Adam may not have properly informed her. So, communication issues between husbands and wives are no new thing!

 

Let’s look at this first time that Hagar leaves. After she becomes pregnant with Ishmael, it says that she began to despise Sarah. Most of the translations use the word despise, but the New Living  Translation uses the word contempt, which is closer to the Hebrew word originally used. Contempt is a strong word with a meaning that gives a clearer picture of what was happening between Sarah and Hagar.  You would think that it would be Sarah who despised Hagar – being jealous that she was carrying her husband’s child. Why would Hagar be bothered? When we see the word contempt, it explains it. Remember, in Galatians 4, Paul said that law persecutes grace. Contempt is not just anger or bitterness but involves a feeling of superiority. Hagar saw herself as superior to Sarah because she could produce what Sarah could not (or at least what Sarah did not believe she could produce).

Law minded believers look at those who profess to live by grace with superiority and contempt. They feel superior because they work way harder than you do at “pleasing God.”  They believe they can produce something others cannot – righteousness, but their righteousness is a SELF-righteousness and actually produces nothing. Paul said that the child born of the slave woman cannot inherit the promises.

Sarah then begins to mistreat Hagar until she can take it no more and decides to leave. So Hagar is gone, right? No. In Genesis 16:7, God tells Hagar that she must go back and submit to Sarah.  There is great spiritual significance to this act. Remember how Paul told us to look at what each character in this story represents. Hagar (law) was required to go back and submit to Sarah (grace). This was only for a season, because later God wants them to cast her out.

I believe this span of time of Hagar being required to submit to Sarah represents the time between Moses and the Cross. Law was going to come, but it was required to submit to grace. Once the true promise came, it was to be cast out.  The law came through Moses and was in effect as the means of justification until Jesus, the promised seed, came and established a new covenant. Then the law was cast out as a means of righteousness.

Even when the law reigned, it was set aside for grace. King David is a prime example. He had committed at least two sins that, under the law that ruled in his lifetime, were punishable by death. He committed murder and adultery. So, why did God not enforce the written code regarding David? I believe it is because David had a revelation of grace.

God is silent for a while after this.  When we create messes by our effort, it is our job to maintain them.  BUT God was silent because Adam never consulted Him or asked for help.  If we cry out, like David did, God will always come to our aid and walk us through it back into grace.

I’ve taught previously that grace is not a free pass to sin but a true means of dealing with sin. Under law, when you sin you feel condemned and you hide from God. When you are truly under grace, you run TO God when you sin. This is what David would do. The fact that he did shows us that, while he lived under the law, he was not law minded. Something bigger than the law showed him that running TO God was the thing to do.

When you look at the things that made Jesus angry during his time on earth, you find that it is always in some way related to man putting rules over love and grace. Healing on the Sabbath? What was more important? Even the clearing of the temple of the money changers related to this. They were essentially using man-made law as a way to control the people and profit from the law.

Finally, in Exodus 20, immediately following the giving of the ten commandments, God has the people do something remarkable in its ability to show that grace was still the principle thing. The first order of business was to build an altar, but there were a couple specifics about this altar that demonstrate how God values man’s works.  In verses 25-26, He instructs them that the stones used for the altar cannot be touched by man’s tools. They were to be left as they found them – as God made them. Once they used their tools on them they would not be holy because they would be tainted with man’s works. Then He also instructs them that there cannot be any steps made to get to the altar because it would cause people to be able to see up someone’s cloak and view their nakedness.  There were many other things God had instructed them to do that would run the same risk of possible immodesty. Why was this one so important? He wanted no “man made” steps to be made, anything that people would be required to do to get to His presence. Doing so would reveal nakedness.

So many people complain that Christians are such hypocrites. They establish all these rules and restrictions, and they don’t even do what they preach, or they keep rules but don’t love people. We set up all these steps to being qualified to be near God and pretend we’re holy by our works. All the while, we only reveal our nakedness. None of our works will ever make us worthy of God’s presence!

 To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php.  To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.

Eviction Notice Part 5

This week, we wrapped up the “Eviction Notice” series. In Galatians 4:30-31, Paul reminds the reader that the scripture says that Abraham had to “evict” the bondwoman and her son from his household.  As we delve into why that eviction was necessary and what it means for us, we need to understand a little about the “seed of Abraham.” This may sound odd to you, but the reality is that there are four different seeds of Abraham. When we read scripture about the seed of Abraham and promises attached to that seed, it is important to know which seed is relevant to that scripture

Here are the four seeds…

1.       Natural Seed –This includes all the physical children and descendants of Abraham. This includes Isaac, but it also includes Ishmael. It includes Jacob, but it also includes Esau. Even though Ishmael was cast out with his mother and Galatians tells us he did not inherit the promise of Abraham, he still did get A PROMISE. In fact, his promise is almost identical to Abraham’s, with one distinct difference we will see in a minute. The same is true of the blessing and promise given to Esau versus that given to Jacob. 

2.       Special Natural Seed – This excludes Ishmael and Esau. It is the branch of the family tree that starts with Isaac and then Jacob and establishes the nation of Israel as God’s chosen people. It is important to know that there is not a special spiritual blessing here. The Jews do not have a higher spiritual standing than the Gentiles. They were and continue to be a chosen nation. They are not spiritually favored, but they were favored in that they first had the law given to them that revealed the need for a messiah, and also had the messiah first revealed to them. Now, the spiritual promise was given FIRST to the Jew and then the Gentile, but the promise itself is the same. 

3.       Spiritual Seed – This includes all who believe. You are not required to be in the physical bloodline of Abraham to be a child of Abraham.  We join this bloodline because of righteousness – a righteousness obtained the same way Abraham received his, by simply believing. 

4.       Unique Seed – This is Christ Jesus. He is “the seed” that proceeded from Abraham and became a blessing to all the nations of the earth. It is this seed that enables us to become the spiritual seed of Abraham and heirs according to the promise.

There is also something we need to keep in mind regarding the promise. There is a physical aspect of each thing promised as well as a spiritual aspect. Let’s look at the things promised in Genesis 12:2-3 and define these…

 1.       Seed/Child – Physical: Isaac, Spiritual: Jesus

2.       Nation – Physical: Israel, Spiritual: the church

3.       Land – Physical: Palestine, Spiritual: Sabbath rest and Holy Spirit

 

In Hebrews 6:13-15, we are told that after Abraham waited patiently, he received the promise. Then in Hebrews 11:11-13 and 39-40 we read that Abraham (along with the rest of the great patriarchs of faith) did not obtain the promise.  So, is this a contradiction? Of course not! When you read carefully in Hebrews 6, you find that the context points to the physical aspect of the promise, or the child Isaac. Abraham unquestionably received that promise. The passage in Hebrews 11 is talking about the spiritual aspect of the promise, or the Sabbath rest by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

I taught in the last series that what Abraham believed that made him righteous was that he simply believed God, but as I was studying for this message the Lord further clarified that. There was a specific thing that he believed about God. That thing was that one part of the promise I mentioned earlier that was not given to the natural seed Ishmael or Esau. That was the last part of the promise in Genesis 12:3 – that all the nations would be blessed through his seed. In an indirect way, Abraham believed in Jesus. Abraham believed the promise God made that a redeemer would come through this miracle child birth – not by Isaac, but by one of his descendants. Even Abraham had to believe in the Messiah!  Both the beginning of the bloodline of Christ and His actually birth happened by miraculous conception that were not related to man’s works!

Even though Abraham believed in a coming Messiah and used his faith to put that plan in motion, Jesus had not yet come, and the Holy Spirit had not yet come.  That is the part of the promise that was to be available to the spiritual seed. You cannot get it by being only natural seed of Abraham. Natural seed CAN receive it now if it chooses to believe and become spiritual seed just like a Gentile does, though.

So, how does this relate to the “eviction notice?” When we receive Christ, we become spiritual seed in OUR spirit. Now, we are Abraham’s seed. We are adopted into the family. Now, as part of the family, we make a decision as to which branch of the family tree we are going to be connected to in our body and soul. Will we align ourselves with the Isaac branch of the family, which represents grace and righteousness apart from works, or will we align with the Ishmael branch of the family, which represents law and condemnation?

The choice we make does not change our eternity. Both are children of Abraham, but the life of Christ and power of the Holy Spirit are only working in the Isaac branch. When we choose to live by grace, we need to cut off our ties to law. You must evict the other branch from your household. Based on what Paul said in Galatians 4:29, the Ishmael branch is always going to persecute you and ridicule you for choosing to live by grace, but we’ll love and bless them anyway!

 

 

 To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php.  To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.

 

Easter 2014

On Easter Sunday, I shared about one of the things that the blood of Jesus provided for us – right standing before God. The work that He did for us at the cross and His victory over death are the greatest gifts given to mankind.  One of the most important things we need to take away from Easter is that what Jesus did is a GIFT to us. It is something we do not earn. We cannot earn it – never could and never will. It is, however, a gift that must be received. One must receive the gift that has been given. The gift must be acknowledged, and it needs to be appreciated.  There are many believers who have acknowledged Christ and have had their eternity changed but who have not truly appreciated all the gift entails. If we continue trying to be worthy of our standing before God by our works, we have not truly received that gift.

We earnestly seek to do good works and to not be ruled by sin, but we do so because we first know He loves us. When we begin to understand His love for us, we can’t help but reflect that love back to Him through our obedience.  We cannot allow ourselves to ever think that His love or blessing of us is conditional upon our obedience. Man’s love is generally conditional, but His is not!

He loved you so much he was willing to humble Himself and step down to earth in the form of a man to do what you could not – fully obey. Then, He went to the cross and suffered an excruciating death that we deserved. Finally, He rose again to utterly defeat death. There is nothing you can add to that equation. You cannot add to the work of Christ. You must humbly receive the gift and stop trying to earn it. Only then will you be empowered to defeat sin, sickness, disease, poverty and death – not because of YOUR works and righteousness, but because of HIS!

We must also know that, because of what Jesus did for us and not our own good works, we can boldly approach God’s throne. We are considered friends of God. You cannot boldly approach that throne if you think there is still a debt owed. Have you ever been in the room with a friend or relative that you knew you owed money to? It isn’t possible to feel comfortable in that situation. If you still feel you owe God for your sin and weakness, you will never “boldly” approach Him.

But pastor, who are we to boldly go before God? We are lowly sinners. EXACTLY! Guilty as charged. God knows that none of us is worthy, no matter how hard we try to not sin and be a good person. That situation was unacceptable to Him. He provided a way for us. It was HIS prerogative to do so. When we believe that we are not worthy, we are actually setting ourselves up as a higher authority that Him. We’re saying that He may think He made us worthy, but He didn’t and I will only be worthy by my own works. You may not have thought of it that way, but that’s the reality.  Let us take hold of the gift that has been given to us. Let us fully realize the power of that gift and appreciate that gift. God values His relationship with you so much and doesn’t want you to let your self-righteousness to get in the way.

 

 To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php.  To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.

Eviction Notice Part 4

This week, we continued in the “Eviction Notice” series. We spent time in Galatians 4, where the “eviction” of law is discussed. In Galatians 4:21 Paul asks the question of those who desire to be under the law, “do you know what the law says?” Of course they do, right? True, they know all of the rules and laws, but they don’t know the stories behind them and the symbolism of those stories. They don’t know all of it – only what they have seen through their law glasses.

Each of us can choose through which glasses we choose to view God’s Word– law glasses or grace glasses. The glasses you choose determine the view you have of God and His Word. Those experts in the law saw God’s Word through law glasses, and Paul’s point is that those law glasses cause them to miss the bigger picture. Many believers today have been conditioned to view the Bible through law glasses and seem to zero in and see everything as a thou shalt or thou shalt not. They are drawn to scriptures that appear to define how someone could be disqualified from a relationship with God.  In contrast, if we live in the New Covenant, the covenant of grace, we need to trade in our old law glasses and get fitted for some grace glasses. Paul gives them a lesson on grace as he proceeded in Galatians 4.

Throughout this series we have been making mention of the “Judaizers” who would come in after Paul and convinced the new believers that they needed to obey the law. To get more insight into who they were, we went back to Acts 13 and 14, which is Paul’s first trip through the Galatian region. What we find is that these Judaizers were not just people who simply disagreed with Paul. They actually tried to kill him for what he was teaching.

We live in a day and age where persecution against Christianity is increasing worldwide and even in our own nation, yet the overwhelming majority of persecution in the early church was not coming from “the world” or Rome, but from the law. It was the Jewish believers who thought Paul’s message of grace was heresy who actually attempted to stone him to death for preaching it – which is what the law required, by the way.   We read in Acts 14 that they thought they had stoned him to death. Some believe that he actually was dead and that the disciples raised him from the dead. They thought he was dead, and then he came walking back into town!

 The importance of knowing how these events played out is explained further in Galatians 4. In verses 21-29, Paul tells them what they “did not know” the law said. He lays out the difference between Abraham’s child born of the slave woman (Hagar) and the one born of the free woman (Sarah). He says that Hagar represents Mount Sinai – where the law was given – and Sarah represents the New Jerusalem.  An important observation he makes is that the one born in the “normal” way, or by law, will always persecute the one born the supernatural way. Trying to be justified by our own works is the natural or normal way. Justification by the blood of Jesus and righteousness apart from our works is the supernatural way.  Also, Ishmael will always persecute Isaac.

I don’t know if you have shared the revelation of grace you have been receiving with other believers, but I would not be surprised to find out that some other believers may not be so excited about your new insight. You may be told that you need to get away from that dangerous teaching that is telling you that sin is OK. Of course, you know that nothing of the sort is being taught in our church. In fact, I’ve never heard any of the prominent teachers in the “grace movement” teach that, but that doesn’t stop those who wear law glasses from asserting they are.

An important thing to remember is that people are not the enemy. THE enemy, Satan, is your enemy. People may persecute you when you choose to use grace to overcome your sin instead of law. Don’t get angry. Don’t argue. Pray. One of the things I find striking about Paul’s story is that when we know how much the Judaizers persecuted and sought to harm him, he showed tremendous restraint in attacking them back.  

To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php.  To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.

 

Eviction Notice Part 3

This week, we continued in our Eviction Notice series.  We studied Galatians 3:1 and following.  The background is that the new church mostly Jews and some Gentiles converted.  After the church was established by Paul, the Judaizers would come in and tell them they needed to obey the law, including circumcision (yikes!).  He calls the Gentiles foolish for going back to the law after receiving grace.  Foolishness means you know the truth but don’t do it. 

 

We also took a look at Luke 24:13, the story of the people on the road to Emmaus after Jesus has risen.  Again, Jesus calls them foolish for not understanding who Jesus was  and what He was supposed to do.  Cleopas was the name of the only person of the two whose name was mentioned.  His name meant “of a renowned father,” which means he himself was a person of influence from a renowned family.

 

Back in Galatians 3:5, we see that we receive salvation by faith and grace.  For some reason, it’s very easy once we become born again to be led to believe that everything from then on is based on our works.  God is pleased with us because you are His child and have acknowledged it.  He may not be pleased with everything we do, but He is always pleased with us (just as most parents are with their children).  True, you can’t live in sin and be effectively used by God, but we receive the miracles and the Holy Spirit, which allow us to be effectively used by God, because of what Jesus did and not because of what we do or do not do.  We don’t need to be perfect to be used by God.  Then, when we understand that, we become more perfected as God’s grace teaches us and works within us.

 

In verse 6, it emphasizes that instead of the law written out to guide us, where then man has to interpret it, we have the Spirit in our hearts to guide us.  Man couldn’t do it all and was under a curse because of it.  Even now, if we rely on the law, we are under a curse.  Jesus did what we could not.  He fulfilled it, completed it, did the work we could not do, and extended to us what He inherited by doing so.

 

We then went to John 14:15 to explore the promise of the Spirit.  The contingency was what Jesus commanded (love God, love others, love yourself), not obeying the law fully (that is important).  He then promises the Spirit of truth.  We can then hear what God has to say to us directly.  The verses following flesh out the promise of the Spirit.

 

 To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php.  To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.

Eviction Notice Part 2

This week, we continued in the “Eviction Notice” series. We dug into Galatians 3. At the beginning of the chapter Paul calls the Galatian believers “foolish” because they had received the Gospel but then were convinced to still rely on law for righteousness.  Why call them foolish? Paul was not insulting their intellect or mental capacity. Foolishness is when you do something when you know better. In our parenting, classes we teach about the need for us to discern the differences between childishness and foolishness in our children’s behavior. Childishness is when they do the wrong things because they just don’t know any better. Foolishness is when they know what is right, but choose to do something different.

 

Paul was telling them that they HAD the truth of righteousness by grace, but allowed themselves to be talked into foolishly believing that observing the law was still required to be right before God.  When I looked up the word, “foolishness” I found that Jesus had used the same Greek word in Luke 24. It was right after the resurrection, and Jesus had appeared to two strangers walking to Emmaus. They do not recognize Him, and He uses the opportunity to ask some questions. He asks why they are so downcast. They tell Him of what had happened with the one they thought was going to be the Messiah. Their response shows that they had missed the big picture. They thought everything was over because Jesus hadn’t overthrown Rome and freed Israel.

 

He goes on to call them “foolish” for not seeing how the words of the prophets were fulfilled in the life of Jesus (to whom they did not know they were speaking). Then He proceeds to outline for them how Jesus (He) had fulfilled every prophecy. What an amazing message that should have been. Before the cross and His completed work, there were many things Jesus could not yet share, but now He could reveal everything. What an amazing message that would have been!

 

We looked at the story where Peter tells Jesus He is the Christ.  Jesus changes Peter’s name from Simon to Peter.  Simon means reed (tossed about and always bending.  Peter was known for having a bit of a temper (volatile like the Sea of Galilee), but Peter meant rock.  When we follow the law, we are like a reed, but when we understand grace, we become a rock, not moved by the storms of life. Then just after that, Jesus rebukes Peter for telling Him He shouldn’t follow His purpose.  Just like us, Simon doesn’t become what he’s meant to be all at once. 

Back in Galatians 3, Paul reminds us that we are of the lineage of Abraham and heirs of His blessing if we receive righteousness by faith apart from our works. Finally, he tells us that the reason for all of this is that the “promise of the Spirit” would be available to us. What is that promise? John 14:15-21 tells us all about it. The promise of the Spirit is peace, counsel, wisdom and much more. We cannot access that promise by relying on law, but only by grace. Observing the law is good, but relying on it for righteousness leads to death and will keep us from obtaining the promise.

 

 

 To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php.  To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.