Now, let's pray together, have any Father we want to thank you for this day, for the glory of spring, for the brightness of the sunshine, and so much that is lovely as you commit yourself to this world to bring newness back into everything. Father, we thank you for your commitment to us, and we pray that you'll teach us today. That's your desire, that's your promise. And Father, we cling to that promise that we will be those who are taught by God through your word and by your spirit and by each other. We ask for Jesus' sake, Amen. Now, in preparation for the next section of the class, I want you to read very carefully the accounts of Paul's first missionary journey, in Acts chapter 13 and Acts chapter 14, and also the account of Paul going to the city of Athens in Acts chapter 17. We're going to be studying those three sections for the next couple of weeks in our classes. So, I would like you to read them very carefully. Acts 13, where Paul addresses a group of Jews and Godfairers, Gentile Godfairers in the synagogue in Pesidian Antioch, Acts 14, where Paul is in the pagan city of Listera, and where the people want to worship him and Barnabas as if they were Hermes and Zeus, and their response. And Acts chapter 17, where Paul is in the city of Athens, and ends up addressing the Ariopagus Council, in that we have these three different messages. One is to Jewish people who are thoroughly soaked in the Old Testament, and Gentiles who also have aligned themselves with the synagogue to worship the God of Israel as the one true God. That's the first message there. In Acts 13, the second is to a group of completely uncultured pagans, typical pagans of the day, and the third in Acts 17 is addressed delivered to a group of more educated pagans in the city of Athens. And Luke has very carefully just given us one example of each of these three addresses in the Book of Acts, and obviously Paul gave hundreds, probably thousands of talks, like each of these, in different settings over the years of his ministry. But Luke has given us these three examples, and we need to take them very seriously, because they teach us a lot about communicating the gospel in different settings. Some of you probably heard Dr. Guthrie speaking in chapel yesterday, about Acts 17, is very interesting what he had to say. But we're going to be looking at those three passages over the next week, so I'd like you to read those words of Paul in those three different settings, in the synagogue to uncultured polytheists and to more educated pagans to read those three messages very carefully and reflect on what is similar about them, and on what is different, because we are to be instructed by these just as much as by any other part of Scripture. They're not just there for our historical interests. So that's interesting. Paul said this, but Scripture's written for our instruction, whether it's a narrative account, or whether it's theological instruction in one of Paul's letters, they're just as much written for our instruction. These are part of God's word to us, and they teach us how we should communicate the gospel today in our own very different setting. Now at the end of class last time, let me one other thing I would like you to do, and you can start working on this, and I think we have something pleasant for you to do over the break actually, work is sometimes pleasant, but I won't require it to be handed in immediately after the break, so if you want to take a total break, that's fine. But I want you to do two small things, which I think are very significant. The first is this, I want you to write just in one paragraph, paragraph, or two, like just half a page or so, something like that, anywhere between half a page and a page, I want you to write an account of what you believe. What do you believe as a Christian? Now I don't want you to just write out the creed, the Apostles creed, though that would be perfectly appropriate, or a summary of the Westminster Confession, or the shorter Catechism. I want you to write down in your own words, in words that any non-Christian could understand, there was no special Christian words, words that any unbeliever today could understand what you believe. It will be a good exercise for you, to think about what it is that is at the heart of your convictions as a Christian. What do you believe? To write that out just in one paragraph, this is what I believe. But I want you to avoid Christian terminology, and express it in language that anybody could understand who has never read the Bible and never been to church, and that's at least half of the people around you, who have absolutely no knowledge of the Bible. Increasingly America is like Britain and other Western European countries, where I was working as a pastor in the South of England, the overwhelming majority of people, probably 90% of the people, knew absolutely nothing about the Bible, or had never been to church except maybe to a wedding, or a funeral at some point, and then mostly in a context which was completely unbelieving. So people were totally ignorant, they didn't know who Moses was or David was, or anybody else, I mean they were ignorant to the Bible. That's true of half the people around you, totally ignorant. So I want you to write this in words that anybody could understand. This is what I believe. This is my hope. Remember Peter says in 1st Peter 315, always be ready to give a defense of the hope that is in you. Well in this first one, I want you to write a paragraph, this is what I believe. Now I want you to write a second paragraph as well, and the second paragraph is to be, this is why I believe it. Peter says always be ready to give a defense, an apology, an account, a reasoned presentation. The word apology is a legal word from a court, but you're in a court of law, you're having to give a defense. This is the truth, and this is why I think it's the truth. Now that's what I want you to do. This is why I'm a Christian. Again in one paragraph, and again in words that any non-Christian could understand who's never open to Bible and who's never been to church, this should be fun for you to do. So you can do it over your break if you like. If you want a total break, don't do it over the break. We'll have your hand these in a week or two after the break. Yes. Well yeah, I want you to say now, this is why I'm a Christian, though it may very well indeed include some of the reasons you became a Christian in the first place. If I gave that a counter word, as I said to you the other day, the book of Ecclesiastes is still my favorite book in the Bible. This addresses the issues of not just where I was, but where people all around me are. So I often give talks to non-Christians in which I will basically use the book of Ecclesiastes. That's what God used to bring me to himself from his word over 30 years ago, and it's still very precious to me. So Peter says, he prepared to give a defense that legal word, apology for the hope that is in you. This is why I am a Christian. We have made a great mistake in the church today in putting apologetics over here as a sort of intellectual academic thing to be studied in seminaries, and personal witness or testimony over here, which is something which all Christians can give. The New Testament knows nothing about such a distinction. Both the word apology and the word testimony are legal terms, which are basically interchangeable in the New Testament. They're both taken from a courtroom. A person gives their testimony. They give their witness. They call various things to witness. This is why this is the truth. This is why I believe this. Just like a witness does testify in the court. In the New Testament, the word apology, defense and the word witness testimony are interchangeable terms. And any defense you give should always be personal. That's what Peter says. Be prepared to give an account, a defense of the hope, that's in you. Why are you a Christian? Now, if it's going to mean anything to anybody else, it's got to have some reasons, some testimony, some defense that they can relate to, just as a person in a courtroom has to give a defense, has to give a testimony, which is going to convince the jury of the innocent or guilt of whatever it is they're speaking about. Well, it's the same for you. Those terms are interchangeable in the New Testament, but that's the second thing I want you to do. This is why I am a Christian. Again, it must be written in words that any non-believer, totally ignorant of the Bible, can understand. And relate to it. And I hope you find it really fun to do this. Really fun. And Peter says you should always be prepared to do this, so get ready, do it. Do it. And hopefully you'll thank me afterwards. And I'll give you a date after the break to hand those in, but any questions about that, little assignment for you. I hope you enjoy it too, thanks. This is what I believe, and this is why I believe it. Okay. In class the other day, I was talking about my own conversion and using it as an illustration of God's infinite variety of means. In my case, the wonderful example of my parents teaching me about what was good and honorable and kind and loving in human life. I spoke about the literature. My father had read to us, particularly Lewis and Tolkien. And then my own encounter with postmodernism, really, at university, just the absurdity of so much that it's taught in the intellectual culture of our time that there are no answers whatsoever to the human condition and the way that brought me to a position of complete despair. And some of the movies that I saw at the time, which had the same impact, and also some of the music I listened to at the time, I used to listen to a lot of rhythm and blues at that time, which much of which is extremely depressing, and its message about the human condition. And also to some classical music from the early part of the 20th century by people like Rickard Straves and Marla, which also much of which is extremely depressing, because both of them communicate a lot about the futility of human existence. And then the glory of God's creation, even in the middle of winter, which God used to prevent me from committing suicide. And then the friend I met at university, Mike Timshack, who's a Canadian, and the beauty of his life as a Christian of righteousness and hospitality and kindness and his preparedness to answer my questions. And God used the ministry of Shaffer, because Mike used to play tapes by Shaffer on Saturday nights in his apartment and have discussions around them. And then the word of God itself in the book of Ecclesiastes, God used all these things and others too to draw me to himself, to bring me to faith. Now, my wife's story's completely different. Vicki grew up in a Christian home in rural California, and she has no recollection at any point in her life of not believing. She has had faith in Christ since her earliest memories. She loved her parents and trusted them, and she loved the Lord and trusted him. That's been her life. Some of you are probably like that. That you can look back and you have no memory of not believing, of not loving Christ, and desiring to serve and honor him. She has wonderful parents who are some of our very dearest friends, just really marvelous people. And of course she went through periods of questioning and doubt and struggle later on, but we all do. All of us continue to. There are none of us who rest in perfect assurance every moment of our existence. And we all struggle in one way or another at the various challenges we face from life. But as we look back at this section, what we're really talking about is the way God draws people to himself by the work of his spirit, who uses all sorts of means. We could put up on the board a list of all the means that God uses, whether it's the glory of creation, or his work in Providence, as he cares for us. That's one of the thing Paul appeals to when he's talking to the pagans in Acts 14. He says God hasn't left himself without a testimony. He sends you your crops in their seasons, and he fills your hearts with joy. Paul is saying to those pagans is that God's providential care for the human race, as he gives people their harvests, and as he gives them gladness in their hearts, the gladness of married life, of family, of delight in the beauty of spring, the arts, whatever, these are gifts of God, which are a testimony to who he is. God hasn't left himself without a testimony. The Holy Spirit uses these things. God's providential rule over history is something that the Holy Spirit uses too, whether it's the history of a person's individual life. We saw that in the life of Manasseh, how judgment and being taken in shackles, whether hook through his nose, to Babylon, is God's means of humbling him, same in the case of Nehaman, his experience of leprosy, there's something which God uses, God's providential hand in his history to draw him to himself. And we see that today. I told you earlier this example of a friend of mine who was converted when he broke his neck as a gymnast, and how God spoke to him in those circumstances, as his heart kept stopping and his life ebbed away and he was brought back. Now, God uses his providence over the lives of individuals to draw them to himself, and he uses his providence over the lives of nations. You can think about how through the fall of Communism, in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and in a country like Mongolia, God has used his rule over history to bring the gospel to England. I told the gospel to millions of people who had no opportunity of hearing it before, or to take another example. If you think about what happened in Tiananmen Square that Dreadful Massacre in China several years back, God used that in the life of many, many Chinese people to make them so deeply unhappy and dissatisfied with the rule of their government. But it caused many people to ask very serious questions about the human condition, and many, many people in China came to Christian faith after the massacre in Tiananmen Square. No matter how wicked the things are that the devil does, no matter how dreadful the things are that wicked human beings do, God's power is greater. And he is able to use what seems to be a victory for wickedness to bring about salvation. That's exactly what happened in the work of Christ. It looks like the greatest victory of Satan, some of the early church fathers used to use the image of Christ as a little fish on a hook as a bait to catch the devil. And of course the devil was caught and defeated. That's exactly what the New Testament says, not to use that image, but that God led the principalities in powers in triumph by the cross. He defeated them by the cross. They thought they had won, but God defeated them. And this is true all the way through history. We see dreadful things like Tiananmen Square and God defeating the purposes of Satan and wicked men and drawing people into his kingdom because God rules over history for the sake of the gospel. So God's providence in history in the lives of individuals in the lives of nations as a means the Holy Spirit uses God uses the lives of his people individually. Many of you will have become Christians primarily through somebody who loved you and befriended you and cared for you who was a believer. And when you saw the quality of their life as a person just as with me at university, this person might come. He was just a man who was filled with kindness. I knew at least the dozen people, maybe 20 who were converted through him during the time I got to know him. And primarily because he was so kind and hospitable and he just opened his life and his apartment to needy people like me. And his remarkable kindness and graciousness was was a display to me and to many others of the beauty of the Christian faith lived down in practice. And God uses the spirit uses the life of the church where people see the reality of community and the beauty of relationships and of love. And that's exactly of course what Jesus says that all people will know you might have disciples by the way you love each other. People will know that the father sent the son because they see the reality of community among Christians. And of course the Holy Spirit uses God's Word directly as people read it. I have a dear friend. I just heard from him last week who was converted. He grew up in a home in Los Angeles where his parents never went to church and never told him anything about Christianity. He didn't know anything about it at all. His parents got divorced when he was a young teenager. He was left alone a lot and they had a Bible in the house which nobody ever read just like so many other people do. And he was bored and he just started reading the New Testament and he became a Christian by the time he got halfway through the book of Acts. Now he had never ever heard anybody talking about Christianity. And he didn't know there were other Christians. He became a Christian simply by himself. And then he felt as he read through the New Testament he ought to do something useful with his life. Now he believed in Jesus Christ so he went to Guinea Bessau in French West Africa to work with the Peace Corps because he thought this would be a useful thing to do to go and serve people. And that's how he ended up coming to Lebris and how we got to know him because the guy who was heading up the work there had been a worker in one of the branches of Lebris. And he encouraged him to come and get some solid teaching because he'd never had any. You know he'd never until he met that guy in Africa he'd never met another Christian. Now God uses his word directly. He uses little fragments of his word. I spoke about my friend who was paralyzed in the neck down and how he became a Christian that night that he died several times when the Holy Spirit spoke directly to his heart, but his wife became a Christian in a remarkable way too. She and a friend were living on a little island called the island of Sark between England and France and the Channel Islands. They were living in a row and has and taking LSD and speed every day. And in that row and has they found a copy of daily light and they started reading it every morning and evening those little fragments of pieces of Scripture and they were both converted. Taking speed and LSD and then reading these little pieces of God's word. That's how she became a Christian and they decided well perhaps let's try and find some more Christians so they went to a church and they turned up at this little pent-costal church where there were just a bunch of elderly ladies who had been praying that God would bring them somebody. They didn't expect somebody quite like that because they were rather counter-culture to say the least. This was in the right around 1970 and you can imagine what they looked like at that time. They were very much into the drug culture and these little old ladies just welcomed them with delight, not a moment's hesitation. Despite the dishonest of their appearance and she eventually came to Liberia and studied there and met the sky who was paralyzed in the neck down and they got married and have been pillars of that church there ever since. But God uses all sorts of amazing means, little fragments of his word like that to draw people to himself and he uses of course the writings of believers, commentaries on his word. God used Luther's commentary on Galatians or Romans, I can't remember now to bring John Wesley to faith when Wesley understood the gospel, reading that commentary. He was already a minister. We didn't understand the gospel at all and God uses all sorts of other books. I've met all sorts of people who have become Christians through reading CS Lewis through reading his children's stories and of course God uses the proclamation of his word by us as individuals and by inserments and in evangelistic meetings. The Holy Spirit uses all sorts of means and the Holy Spirit also is constantly speaking to the heart of people directly because he is the witness par excellence. I know people who have become believers without any contact with Christians at all just through God speaking directly to them. You might think that's kind of strange but I know a guy who's a pastor in the Presbyterian Church in Australia who became a Christian just like that, he had no contact with Christianity at all. Australia is a very pagan society and he was plowing his field one day as a farmer and God just spoke directly to him. He got out of his tractor and he knelt down in the field and gave his life to the Lord and now he's a pastor. He had no contact at all with believers. Now God doesn't usually save people that way but the Holy Spirit is always working through all these other means to testify to the gospel of Christ and to draw people to him. God has these wonderful ways of saving people. Now that brings us to our next section here. We're going to look at this section I've entitled through the wall or letting go of our culture for the sake of the gospel. But before we move on, does anyone have any questions just from this last section?
Fine. Point number four. Through the wall or letting go of our culture for the sake of the gospel. We have spoken about the way proclamation of God's truth to the Gentiles began in earnest first in the city of Antioch and that's recorded for us in Acts chapter 11 that's Syrian Antioch. Not the Antioch Paul goes to in Acts 13 but in Syrian Antioch and then missionary journeys begin from that church with the sending out of Paul and Barnabas. Now the question here is this. Why was the church so reluctant to go to the Gentiles and why were there such obstacles once they were reached? Now in the book of Acts of course we read about the reluctance to go to the Gentiles and even when they were reached we read that there were still all sorts of problems. So if you turn to Acts chapter 10 how Peter himself asks the question can anyone keep these people from being baptized and how at the beginning of chapter 11 the first response of the believers. Now these are not unbelieving Jews but the first response of Jews who have put their faith in Christ. The circumcised believers Acts 11 verse 2 criticized Peter and said you went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them. Now if we turn further on we discover that the problems didn't stop there they didn't go away. If you read Acts chapter 15 if you turn there for the moment we read about the cancel at Jerusalem and we read about why it takes place. Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers unless you are circumcised according to the custom taught by Moses you cannot be saved. So the problems didn't go away the problem continued of communicating the gospel to the Gentiles and then accepting them as members of the church and dealing with the issues of Judaism. This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed along with some other believers to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. The church sent them on their way and as they travelled through Phoenician Samaria they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the brothers very glad. When they came to Jerusalem they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders to whom they reported everything God had done through them. Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said the Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses. So this caused a huge problem. This is the first major church council addressing this issue because it's causing such tension and dispute in the church. So Peter has to give his account again. The account that he's already given several times of what happened, how he went, happened to go to Barnabas house and to Cornelius house and what happened there. And you notice how he finishes up, verse 8. God who knows the heart showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them just as he did to us and you see again the importance of that visible sign, audible sign of the Spirit's present presence that took place in Cornelius house. He made no distinction that is God between us and them. For he purified their hearts by faith. Now then why do you try to test God by putting on the next of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? No, we believe. It is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved just as they are. We are saved by faith in Christ not by observing these requirements of the laws of Judaism. We are saved in the same way that the Gentiles are and then they hear Paul and Barnabas and then James gives his word and they all come to an agreement that they should encourage the Gentiles not to do things which will be offensive to the Jewish believers. To abstain from strangled things, from blood and so on. So to encourage the Gentiles and the new churches to be sensitive to the sensibilities of their Jewish brothers and sisters who are believers in Christ and so they send a letter out to all the churches. But of course this isn't the end of the problem. We read about the problems in the church in Galatia. In Galatians 2, Paul tells us that it became such a serious problem that Peter and Barnabas, even Barnabas, the first to go from Jerusalem to the church of Antioch. Peter and even Barnabas stop eating with Gentile believers and of course what that meant was they couldn't share the Lord's supper together. The Lord's Supper is a meal and so the church becomes divided. People can't go to each other's homes anymore. There isn't a reality of community at all in the church and it's such a serious problem that Paul has to rebuke. Peter the leader of the apostles publicly about the issue. But again that's not the end of it. You read the letter to Colossians and you find the same problems that they're in the Colossian churches up in the area near Ephesus in the center of Western modern day Turkey. But there too there are teachers who come in and tell people that they've got to observe the Jewish food laws and laws about circumcision and laws about the holy days and very strict views of the Sabbath in a Jewish manner and many other things as well. Paul has to address that issue there and when you read the pastoral letters there's still having problems. Much later, when Paul writes those letters too, just in the year or two before Paul's death in the early 60s, Paul writing from prison in Rome to Timothy and Titus and he's again addressing these issues of people seeking to impose the laws of Judaism on Gentile believers. So it was an enormous problem in the life of the church. So the question is why was the church so reluctant to reach the Gentiles and why did they continue to be such obstacles once the Gentiles were reached? And the fundamental answer to that question is the wall that had been built by Judaism between itself and the Gentile world. There were food laws especially food laws which kept them completely separate. They could never eat together or visit in one another's homes because of the problems of uncleanness associated with their food and the preparation of the food and what was done within their homes. It's impossible to eat with Gentiles or even visit with them. You remember how Peter says that? You are well aware that it is against our law to eat with a Gentile, to associate with a Gentile, to visit with a Gentile. There are the Sabbath and festival laws which in their particular interpretation at the New Testament period also set them completely apart. There was the law of circumcision which very few adults were prepared to undergo. There are a few examples of Gentile converts who were prepared to be circumcised as adults and join themselves more fully to the synagogue but the vast majority of Gentile converts never went that far. And that's what they described as Godfairers in the New Testament. Those are Gentiles who haven't been circumcised who will not join themselves fully to the Jews. There were ritual laws which covered issues of cleanliness and purity about every aspect of life. Remember how we referred to Mark 7 and Matthew 15 where the gospel writers talk about this, how the endless laws they had about ritual cleanliness. Some of these laws were part of the law of Moses but the original intent of the laws was forgotten, thousands of laws which had been added to them, literally thousands of laws which were added to those original laws given to Moses. And their original intent was forgotten. The original purpose of the food and ritual laws was to be outward expressions of a separation of the heart to God and a separation of the moral life of God's people to Him. But when we read the Gospels and the Book of Acts, we see that often the heart and intent of the law was forgotten. And the effect was that the Jews had become completely separated from those around them by these laws that had been expanded with incredible detail to cover every circumstance of life. So the Sabbath laws, for example, told you exactly how far you could walk on the Sabbath without breaking the rule of work. They told you just what you could actually do in terms of having a meal that was prepared beforehand on the day before and that it wouldn't involve work. So they applied it to absolutely every detail, how much you have to tithe not just in a general sense but you're mint and you're ruined and you're cumin, you've got to make sure that every little thing that you've got is taken care of. When you remember how I mentioned about they had taken the laws about the temple and the work of the priests and applied them to people's own eating habits and to the washing of their dishes in their kitchens. The law was applied to every aspect of life. We are going to be holy, we're going to be set apart to the Lord, we're going to be pure in every single little detail of everything we do. So the original intent was forgotten, the effect was the Jews had become completely separate from those around them. And the result also was a back breaking and soul breaking legalism which the Pharisees banned the conscience of every Jew. If Jesus talks about that, he says, you put enormous burdens on men's shoulders and then you don't lift a finger to help them. You just impose all these rules on their lives. Everybody's got to be constantly thinking every moment of their life about what they're going to do. You remember how they criticized the disciples when they are rubbing grain in their hands as they walk through a field on the Sabbath day. That's work. You've all done that. If any of you have lived in the country and you walk through a field that harvest time, you pick off the grain and you rub it and you eat it. I was brought up in the country, we would do that all the time. But the disciples criticized for working on the Sabbath when they do that. It touches absolutely every little detail of life. So a back breaking and soul breaking legalism. The grace and forgiveness of God had been replaced by a work's righteousness. The very heart of the law of Moses is grace. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. You shall have no other gods apart from me. It's grace. God is the deliverer, the Savior of His people. That's the heart of the law. In the Old Testament. And of course that's what the sacrifices taught as well. Everyone needs God's forgiveness. Everyone needs their sin, a toned for. The heart of the law is grace. But that grace was completely forgotten and it was totally replaced by a work's righteousness. We will do these things and earn a relationship with God. And we are doing them better than anybody else, so we have the best relationship with God. I was exactly the mentality. Think about Pharisee that Jesus speaks about in the temple saying, thank you God. I am not like other people. I fast, so and so and so. I give a tenth of everything, including my herbs. I do this. I do that. I am doing all these things, Lord. And I am a great servant of yours. That's works righteousness. It's not what the Old Testament teaches at all.
Humility before God, which is the purpose of the law, it's just to humble ourselves. The law is a pedagogue to lead us to the grace of God, to teach us our sinfulness among other things. That's the intent of the law. That's why they're all the sacrifices. That's why the law is applied to the heart. So that nobody should think, well, this is just an external thing. I'm doing these things, so God will love me. But it's talking about coveting, about lust, about hatred, about pride, about envy. That's what the law is really about. It's about the heart, and that's completely forgotten. So instead of humility before God, which is the intent of the law, there is pride before God. Pride in ritual purity, pride in observing traditions. The moral law, that is the true requirements of the moral commandments of God, have been made null and void by the traditions which set them aside. So much of the Lord Moses is about justice, and about mercy, and about faithfulness, and about integrity. So it's not about whether I've cleaned a dish or gone through some ritual before I eat my food, or anything like that. It's not what it's about. It's about justice, and mercy, and kindness, and integrity, and work, and all of those things. And that's just forgotten. That's completely emptied by these things.
You can think, for example, of Jesus' comments on, they're setting aside of the command to honor your parents. It's a very interesting one. There is a commandment at the heart of the law, respect, and honor for parents. And the laws it expands itself, talks about the need to care for them as they become elderly, to look after them. And Jesus addresses that question in Mark 7 and Matthew 15. He speaks about how the Pharisees avoided that responsibility. How, by doing this, what they said was, what they decreed, the teachers of the Lord decreed, that anybody could say, I am going to dedicate my property to God. It sounds very holy, doesn't it? My property is Corban. That is, it is offered to God. I'm going to leave all that I possess to the Lord and to His temple. The worship of God and for the spread of His Word sends very spiritual. But then, what the law said was this, that the person who left all that they possessed to God and to His worship and to the temple and to the spread of His Word, they could live on the proceeds of their estate until they died and then when they died, everything would go to the temple or to the Lord. But it set them free from their obligation to care for their parents as they got older and needy because it was offered to God. And this was a more holy thing to do, to give all that I possess to the Lord rather than to care for my parents or to give it to my children. It sounds very spiritual. We have lots of similar things in the church today. Some of the most hurt people I've ever been involved in seeking to minister to in my life, were the children of ministers and missionaries who said, our lives are dedicated to God, God will look after our children. A very dear friend of mine who worked at Libry for many years, she's now with the Lord, her name was Birdie. She labored when she was three years old, her parents set sail for India to be missionaries. This was around 1910, something like that. Wonderful thing to do, but they said, God will take care of our daughter and she was left to live with an aunt and as her parents sailed over the horizon from Southampton docks in the south of England, she had to stand there and sing, name your blessings, count them one by one. She saw her parents for something like two weeks between the age of three and 23 years old because her parents were dedicated to the Lord and someone else could take care of her as exactly parallel to what the Pharisees and teachers of the Lord did in Jesus' day.
Of course, the motivation may be good. I don't want to call into question her parents' motivation, she never did, but thinking we've got a good motivation is no reason to disobey the word of God which tells us that we're to honor our parents and provide for them when they get in need and to care for our children.
But if we don't care for our families, Paul says we're worse than I believe, but that's what he says. It can be, it's a challenge, all of you are going to have to face. There are many people in the ministry.
I was talking with a student here the other day, he was saying he speaks to many pastors who say, well, they don't take a day off. Do we think we know better than God who has called us to work six days and to rest? One day a week who gave his people several weeks of holiday each year when they would refrain from their work completely and gather to celebrate and rejoice and have fun and sing and dance and worship at the temple and just take a break from their lives and to give them one year's rest in seven. And I really want to challenge you as you go out into ministry, as many of you already involved in ministry. Are you at the same time building your marriage? I remember a dear friend of mine said he had a deputation of his deacons came to him one day. He was a pastor and said, we are widows. We might just as well be widows. Their wives came to him. They never see our husbands. They always have obligations in the church. Our children are orphans without fathers. That's not what God's word teaches us to do. Of course he calls you to dedicate yourself to his service and say, here I am, Lord, send me. But he doesn't ask you to set aside the responsibilities his commandment give you. You love your wives to love your husbands to care for your children to care for your parents and to honor them. Now we sometimes have to make difficult decisions and go and serve God far away from our parents. I already mentioned that to you earlier this semester, but we cannot set aside our responsibilities. Now Francis Schaeffer felt called to go and serve God in Switzerland far away from his parents in Pennsylvania, in Germantown, Pennsylvania. But when his father died, he went and fetched his mother to go live with him so that he could fill his responsibility towards her. God calls us to be obedient to his word, not to pretend to ourselves that my life is dedicated to God. So I don't have to spend time with my children.
Like I said to you, some of the most hurt people I've ever met are people whose fathers and mothers neglected them for the sake of their ministry. If your children start saying to you, dad or mum, you've always got time for other people. But what time do you have for me? And there'll always be people who need you. So that's not the issue. There are always more needs than you can meet. Remember when my voice coming to me was four years old, and this was in knock on the door, and he came running back and he said, Daddy, there's that man who always needs you. Life is like that in the ministry, people who always need you. And you have to be prepared to say, actually, God is the one who meets their need. It's not that you don't have to work hard, you do. God calls you to work hard and faithfully. But God is the one who meets people's needs in the end, not you. God is the one who builds this church, not you. Many pastors who don't take a day off feel that there's too much work to do, they can't afford to. If we say that, we're basically saying, I have completely accepted the teaching of this culture that my life is made by the work that I do. But the central meaning of the Sabbath is that my life is a gift of God. And that's why I stop working. Life is not the fruit of my labors. Life is God's gift to me, to enjoy, to worship Him for. So resting is an act of faith, working all the time, never taking a break, neglecting your marriage, neglecting your family for the sake of the ministry is an act of arrogant unbelief. I'll say that again. It's an act of arrogant unbelief, which says that this work, the work of this ministry, this church is more dependent on what I do than it is on what God does. That's really what it is. It's saying, I know better. I can't afford to ever take any time off for my marriage or for my family or just to rest for myself. Because the work will fall apart if I stop. When the greatest idols in our culture is work, for the great majority of men in our culture, work is the primary source of identity, and it's the primary source of identity for an increasing number of women. As women, more and more accept, a male chauvinist evaluation of the worth of the person, the work that I do. And it's one of the greatest idols of people in the ministry. The work that I do is what gives me a sense of identity. Now of course God intends us to find a sense of meaning and purpose in our work. He has created us to work. And to find joy and fulfillment in the work of our hands and of our minds and of our imaginations, of course he does. But our identity is found ultimately in him, not in the work that we do. Not in the work we do. God is the one who gives us life. God is the one who gives us salvation. God is the one who builds this church. And he calls us to put our trust in him. And if we put our trust in him, then we can rest. Then we can take a day off each week gladly because God commands us to. And the world isn't going to fall apart and the church isn't going to fall apart if I take a day off. Because God tells me to, now for all of you, your day off will never be Sunday. It will be one of the busiest days of your life, always. And my day off, my Sabbath rest used to be Friday or Saturday, alternatively. Friday's some week so my wife and I could just spend the day together, Saturday's the next week so we could spend it with the kids and really be together and have no responsibilities at all. That's what a Sabbath rest is. Taking a break because we know that God is the one who's building his church and building his work and providing our needs and providing our salvation. So we trust him, feeling that I've got to dedicate myself to God, that my life is Corban, is offered to God as no substitute for God's word. And obeying him, and that's why Jesus says it so strongly. You have made the word of God of no effect. You look at his words in Matthew 15 or Mark 7, they could not be stronger than he says. You know that because you think he's just talking about some little thing but he's not talking about some little thing. Let's turn to Mark 7 and it's in both of these passages. See how he puts it when they challenge the Pharisees and teaches the Lord challenge Jesus in his disciples. He says Isaiah was right when he prophesied about two hypocrites. It's a very strong word to use here. As it is written, these people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain. Their teachings are about rules taught by men. When we substitute our ideas of what is holy and what it means to dedicate ourselves to the Lord, for what God said, Jesus says our worship is in vain because it's just the teachings taught by men. And then verse 8 he says, you have let go of the commands of God and instead are holding on to the traditions of men. And then he said again, you have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions. And then he talks about this issue of core band that I've been addressing and then he finishes off. 13 thus, you nullify the word of God is strongest expression yet. You make God's word completely nothing. You nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down and you do many things like that. We need to hear God's word and to obey that word to delight in that word and to never think that we know better than he does because that's really the issue. By adding to God's word, we end up destroying it. And that's what Jesus says no matter how spiritual or devout we think our motivations are. The command to love your neighbor was hedged around with so many restrictions that prevented people from loving their neighbor. Think of how Jesus is criticized for healing somebody on the Sabbath. He's doing work. Actually the Lord Moses itself says if somebody's ox or ass falls into a ditch on the Sabbath, you get the help that you love your neighbor. If you're supposed to help your neighbor's animal, how much more you help your neighbor in their need? The command to love enemies and strangers and to be hospitable to them, which is at the heart of the Lord Moses, there are innumerable commandments about loving your enemy, about loving strangers, about being hospitable to the aliens, lots of laws about that. And they were made of no effect by the laws of separation. That was the effect of them to make it impossible to really love an enemy, an alien, a stranger because they're unclean. So a huge section of the law is set aside. Oh Jesus is not teaching something new in the Sermon on the Man when he says love your enemies to good to them that hate you. He is reaffirming something that is at the heart of the Lord Moses that they were to indeed love their enemies and to be hospitable to strangers. The effect of this was the consequence of this was that there was a religion which bore no relationship or rather only a superficial relationship to what God had given to his people in the time of Moses and in the years onward. It bore only a superficial and outward relationship to the word that God had taught his people. And that's why Jesus denounces the teachers of the law so passionately. Let me give you a few references. Matthew 6, verse 5 and verse 16, Matthew 9, verses 10 through 13, Matthew 15, verse 3 and verses 19 through 20, Matthew 23, verses 3 through 5 and 23 through 25. Of Jesus basically tells them you have another religion like that past in Matthew 15 and Mark 7. Your worship is just rules taught by men. It's not what God taught at all. Now this tradition in Judaism influenced the early Christians and that's why we read about the problems in the past as we've looked at in Acts 10 with Peter saying what he did in Cornelius home. And in Acts 11 those believers criticizing Peter and Acts 15 and in Galatians 2, etc. So many examples of the way the early church was influenced by this tradition. Now the Apostle Paul is the one who appears to understand most clearly the issues. Now Peter did as well of course and that's evident if you read Peter's words that we read earlier in Acts 15, 5 through 11, that we looked at Peter's words at the cans of Jerusalem. Peter's words at the beginning of Acts 11, Peter's words in Cornelius home, they show us that Peter really understood but the pressures were so great that one occasion he backs off from them. But it's Paul who appears to have the clearest insight into what the gospel meant for this dilemma because as long as the early church was shaped by this heritage of Judaism then mission to the Gentiles was impossible. Happy churches were impossible where Jews and Gentiles could live side by side and could visit each other's homes and could really grow into the family of God. It's Paul who has the deepest understanding of the issues and who spells it out for us and there are four points someone to make and we just get started here. Number one, what is our identity as believers that is where do I get my source of self worth? Where do I get my sense of security? This is who I am. This is what makes my life really precious. Who am I at the very heart? Paul addresses this issue in Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3 verses 4 through 9. So very interesting passage Paul again in Philippians here is addressing the problem of the Judaizers requiring circumcision of the Gentiles. Look how strongly he puts it in verse 2. Watch out for those dogs, that's what he calls them. Those men who do evil, that's a very strong word for people who are requiring Gentile believers to observe the laws of Judaism. Those mutilators of the flesh, for it is we who are the circumcision, that is the true circumcision, those who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus and who put no confidence in the flesh. And the flesh, now in the flesh here, he's obviously taking off from the fact that circumcision is done to the flesh, the cutting off of a piece of flesh, who put no confidence in the flesh. Then Paul expands the meaning of the term flesh here, and sometimes the term flesh means the sinful nature. Like in Galatians 5 for example, he talks about the Spirit and the flesh, lasting against each other. Here he's talking about those things in which we put confidence as human beings, those things in which we get our sense of identity, our sense of self-worth. That's really what he means by flesh here. Though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, in regard to the lower Pharisee, as for zeal persecuting the church, as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. And Paul setting out the things which gave him once a sense of self-worth, a sense of identity. This was me. This was who I was. I was circumcised on the eighth day. I was an Israelite, a true Israelite, of the tribe of Benjamin, one of the two southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin that weren't taken captives. So much more likely to have remained pure, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. I was the model of everything that Jews should be. In regard to the lower Pharisee and he adds elsewhere of the strictest sect, full of zeal, persecuting those who I thought of as heretics, as for righteousness to every detail of the law, faultless. I devoted my life to this. This is who I was. But then Paul says, but, whatever was to my prophet, I now consider a loss for the sake of Christ. What is more I consider everything a loss compared to surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I've lost all things, I consider them rubbish. The Greek word is much stronger. It's just done manure. That's what he says. I consider all that just done in comparison with knowing Christ. That's what really matters to me. That's who I am now. I am a man who is in Christ. That's my identity. That's where I get my sense of self-worth, of dignity. That's what makes me tick whatever expression you want to use. Where's your sense of self-worth? Where's your sense of identity? Is it in your race, in your cultural heritage, in your church heritage? Do you belong to the best church of all? Where's our sense of identity? Paul says our sense of identity must be in Christ.