June 15, 2014
Scripture:
Scripture:
Let’s turn to John 3:16. Sometimes I remember God’s word to Abraham, “Take now thy son, thine only son whom thou lovest.” He was asked to sacrifice his son. Think about it from the perspective of Abraham and all that went through his heart, the agony and pain it must have brought. Abraham was a man of faith and obedience to have accepted such a request. God did not have the option not to accept. In the original language, begotten is used like “darling.” God gave His “darling” to go to the cross for us, even if it meant death and judgement. God wasn’t asked, so what prompted it? “God so loved…” God loved His Son, but He also loved us so much to give the Son as a sacrifice so He could have us as sons in the family and house of God. We have a blessed position forever!
Hymn 306 – Like a little wandering lamb
Prayer
We have been working through the story of the prodigal son. It’s the last part of a three part parable. In each part something is lost, and then is found, and then there is joy because it was found. We are at the place in the last part where there is joy.
Luke 15:19-24
The son didn’t need to ring the doorbell. He was still a great way off when his father spotted him. His father probably looked for him each day. I heard a story of a Sunday school teacher who asked her class to draw a picture of what it must have looked like when the father met the son. One of the boys drew a picture of the father whipping the son with a stick. The teacher told the boy that was not what happened. To which he replied, “It was what he deserved.” That is what the Gospel is, not getting what we deserved. The father had compassion and ran, hugged him and kissed him. He got the best robe for him, a ring on his finger and shoes for his feet. The son has repented and was come into a place of blessing. This is a picture of a sinner getting saved, not a backslidden Christian being restored. He could not go into his father’s house in the clothes that he had worn in the pig sty. The father supplies him with clothes. When we are saved God gives us a robe of righteousness. In Romans we are told that the righteousness of God is unto all and upon all that believe. The ring is a picture of the eternal spirit of God that is given to us. Do you remember what happened when Moses tried to approach the burning bush? He needed to take off his shoes because it was holy ground. The prodigal son was given shoes that were fit for the father’s house. When they got into the house the fatted calf was killed for a beautiful meal. The father and the son sat around the table together eating the same food. The fatted calf is a picture of the Lord. This morning we had John 3:16. The father loved the world so much that he gave his son for it. Because his son gave his life for the world the father loves him so much more.
The young man left home and got into so much trouble. He repented and came home and was brought into much blessing. It is such a beautiful picture of a sinner that gets saved.
Acts 13:44 - 52
Acts 14:1-7
We’ve seen the foundations of Christendom here in Acts. It was something new, apart from Judaism, and included the Gentiles.
While here in Antioch on his first missionary journey, Paul started by preaching to the Jews; but the Gentiles wanted to hear the good news the next Sabbath Day. That next week almost the whole city came together to hear God’s Word from Paul. It was wonderful; but the Jews grew envious. They were God’s people and had always been religiously superior to everyone else. Paul told them that, by their rejection of Jesus, they deemed themselves unworthy of everlasting life. We’ve almost reached that point with the Gentiles today.
We see Romans 11:11-13 played out here. The Jews rejected the blessing of the Gospel, and so it went to the Gentiles. As we saw, the Jews were envious, and spoke against what Paul and Barnabas were saying. Paul and Barnabas waxed bold at this and told the Jews that this good news had been given to them first, but since they rejected it, it would now be given to the Gentiles. This wasn’t something that the Law would have permitted—the Jews were allowed very little contact with the Gentiles under the Law, as protection. This was grace, not law; and it was actually foretold by Isaiah (Paul quoted part of Isaiah 49:6—7a). Christendom came out of Judaism, though, and Jesus was Jewish. The Jews brought the Saviour into the world, but He’s not just the Saviour of the Jews. He’s the Saviour of “whosoever will!”
The Gentiles heard the glad tidings and they were glad. How many are like that today? These people opened their hearts to the word, and the result was everlasting life.
The Jews, however, stirred up people of the city and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas. The enemy always seems to work where the Lord does. Paul and Barnabas didn’t hide from the persecution; instead they were filled with joy and the Holy Ghost. However, they did shake the dust off their feet in a testimony against these people when they were expelled from their coasts.
In Iconium, the Jews had another opportunity to hear the gospel, and some of them, with some of the Greeks, believed. In Romans 1:16 Paul says: “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” Even though they were in a synagogue, the Greeks were somehow able to hear the word, and some believed. There may have been some miracles that the Lord used to help verify His word to these people; He often did that in that day.
The unbelieving Jews stirred up the people here, too. The resistance just seemed to make Paul and Barnabas bolder; there was work to be done! They weren’t ashamed of the gospel. 2 Timothy 1:8—9a. May the Lord help us to be faithful with the truth that we’ve been given. We can’t lose our salvation, but we can lose truth. May we be given what we need to hold it fast!
Hymn 163—Guide us, oh thou gracious Saviour
Prayer