The Church Stands on the Gospel

All of our testimonies are about the power, love, and grace of Jesus Christ. We have unique testimonies, but each testimony is the same story as it magnifies the name of Jesus. My testimony began years before I was born as my parents were told that they couldn’t have kids. They wanted children so bad and they prayed and believed that they were supposed to adopt. Time after time, year after year, an child would need to be adopted and my parents would find out about it and proceed with the necessary steps only to run into a complication somewhere down the line. This happened multiple times and they were discouraged. Fast forward to October of 1996 and I was born to a couple of teenagers who didn’t know what they were getting into. I was born with cleft pallet and wasn’t gaining weight due to complications and I was put in the foster care system for a few weeks only to be adopted by my parents around 4 months old. This is nothing other than the providence of God in making a way where no one else would have ever thought of there being a way. My parents are my parents. Not adoptive parents, they’re my parents and they raised me in church and they taught me what it means to love Jesus and to worship Him in a world that loves to worship ourselves. My parents brought me to church but more than that, they taught me about Jesus at home. As I grew older, I became aware of my sinfulness and my need to be saved from my sin.

This happened young - I was 5 in Kindergarten and several friends were getting baptized and I told my dad that I wanted to get baptized too because my friend Kendra just got baptized… my dad said that that’s not why we get baptized, so we talked a little more about it and a few months later I talked with them about accepting Christ and having Him save me from my sins and wanting to spend eternity with Him and to follow Him.

As much as 5 year olds think that they have it all figured out, they don’t! As I grew older, I realized how little I knew and how much more I have to grow. I struggled with the things that pre-teen and teenage boys struggle with, but I knew that Jesus was with me and that I had others with me in my walk to help me stay on track. In 5-6 grade I went through a church discipleship program called Leaders in Training and learned the importance of reading my Bible daily and memorizing Scripture and praying daily. This program helped me “own” my faith at a younger age and really begin to grow and produce fruit and serve in the church to glorify Christ and use the gifts that He had given me. It wouldn’t be a testimony without looking at God’s grace and providence in leading Lindsey and I here… I’m going to be honest with you all, if you could go back in a time machine 10 years ago and tell 16 year old Joel that he’d be pastoring in Salem, Missouri, he would laugh at your face because he’d say that he doesn’t know where Salem is and that he’s going to be a big shot Neurosurgeon making millions and playing golf. But God, right? Not only did Jesus change my heart, but as I grew He changed my desires from good plans to God’s plans. Our youth pastor stepped down whenever I was in high school and I had the opportunity to preach during our Wednesday night services. Looking back, that’s God preparing the way for His plan. The summer before senior year on a mission trip I felt called to lay my dreams down and to pick up what God really wanted and that was ministry of some type. Between college, marriage, seminary, and a pastorate in Conway, Jesus has led us here. This guy isn’t perfect - but Jesus is. This story isn’t Hollywood or scripted, but God planned each step of the way for His glory. Pastors are people and I say this often but I mean it each time, if God can save and use me, He can save and use you. Your testimony is a spotlight to the awesomeness and powerfulness of Jesus Christ and we need to share God’s greatness with others in obedience with His Word.

We have 7 more Wednesday nights before Spring Break, so that means 7 more people will be giving their testimonies in the weeks to come before we break into smaller groups in April. Be praying about possibly sharing your testimony as you encourage others, glorify God, and share the hope of the Gospel with those that you know and those in our community that you don’t.

Reintroduce our series on Church History. Important to understand the history of the church in order to understand how we got to where we are and to see how Christians of other generations influenced their culture in difficult times. Tonight’s lesson is on the persecution faced in the first 300 years of the church and some of the dangers associated with not being faithful to Jesus and His Word. There were false beliefs or heresies that people were teaching and starting to believe and tonight we’ll learn about some of the early Christians who wrote about what true Christianity looks like!

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Video Notes:

Gnostics

Flesh is bad and spiritual is good

Think of the danger that this view has about Jesus being fully God and fully man

God created flesh good in the Garden! He redeems creation!

Tertulian

Martyrdom is a benefit as it helps to spread the Gospel

This seems to be the opposite of what people think of today. We think that martyrdom is a weakness or something to be avoided

Docetists

Jesus was only God but wasn’t fully man. He was a phantom of sorts and fooled a lot of people. See Hebrews 4:15 and other texts. This isn’t true with Scripture. John 1:1 the Word became flesh

John 1:1 CSB

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Ebionites

Jesus was only man but wasn’t fully God. He received the Holy Spirit after His baptism (adoptionism)

Man named Jesus who became the Christ after His baptism

This goes against Scripture!

This is what many people believe today as they’re good with Jesus being a man or us being able to do all the things that Jesus did (see Bethel church, Bill Johnson) but there is a gap between ourselves and Jesus in Scripture. He is fully-man, sure, but Scripture teaches that He is also fully-God.

Hebrews 1:3 CSB

3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

Church faced persecution from the outside from Jewish leaders and Roman Emperors while also understanding the true Jesus from Scripture within the church (fully-God and fully-man). This creates problems on multiple sides!

Martyrdom led many to see the seriousness of these Christians and their commitment to follow Christ, even to death. This led the next generation to adopt similar mentalities concerning following Jesus even whenever it meant persecution for themselves and their families. The truth was too important to back down from!

On Sunday we looked at Hebrews 4:11-13 and we focused on the importance of standing on God’s Word because it is living, active, and sharp. God’s Word is our authority and standard in the middle of a lost and godless culture. What we see in this clip is that there are consequences whenever you stand on God’s Word unashamedly. This leads to conflict with people outside of the church as well as inside of it.

What are some external conflicts that can arise whenever a group of believers stand on the truth of God’s Word without compromising?

Lots of things

Persecution for some

What are some internal conflicts that can arise whenever a group of believers are divided on standing on the truth of God’s Word or standing on the popular cultural belief?

Division flourishes

Witness is hindered

People are confused

Tonight, I want to look at 2 key passages and see what they tell us about standing on God’s Word and the persecution that might come our way

Daniel 3:16–25 CSB

16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king, “Nebuchadnezzar, we don’t need to give you an answer to this question. 17 If the God we serve exists, then he can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and he can rescue us from the power of you, the king. 18 But even if he does not rescue us, we want you as king to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up.” 19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with rage, and the expression on his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He gave orders to heat the furnace seven times more than was customary, 20 and he commanded some of the best soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and throw them into the furnace of blazing fire. 21 So these men, in their trousers, robes, head coverings, and other clothes, were tied up and thrown into the furnace of blazing fire. 22 Since the king’s command was so urgent and the furnace extremely hot, the raging flames killed those men who carried up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. 23 And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego fell, bound, into the furnace of blazing fire. 24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in alarm. He said to his advisers, “Didn’t we throw three men, bound, into the fire?” “Yes, of course, Your Majesty,” they replied to the king. 25 He exclaimed, “Look! I see four men, not tied, walking around in the fire unharmed; and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”

What do we see here about the danger of standing on God’s Word?

Literally it could get you tossed into the fiery flames of the furnace

Would Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego say that it was worth it to stand on God’s Word and be faithful to Him?

Absolutely yes, even if it didn’t go that way! They resolved to stand on what they believed to be true, regardless of the cost.

If we fast forward to the New Testament, we find in 2 Timothy 3 that persecution is going to happen to Christians and that we are commanded to remain true to God’s Word

2 Timothy 3:1–5 CSB

1 But know this: Hard times will come in the last days. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, demeaning, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good, 4 traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to the form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid these people.

2 Timothy 3:12–17 CSB

12 In fact, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 13 Evil people and impostors will become worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you, 15 and you know that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

“All who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”

Why do many people fight against that?

Why is it so important to truly know what the Bible says?

Because lots of people twist Scripture

Anytime you hear a song or sermon, you test that message with what the Word of God says. Within our local church, yes, there is respect for our teachers but the most respectful thing that you can do to your Sunday school teacher or your pastor is to bring your copy of God’s Word with you to church and test what it said and taught with Scripture. Because if the answer is no, we have a problem.

Much of the problems that we see in megachurches is due to the fact that many of the congregants don’t know their Bibles. How do you get a message like this, “God wants me to be happy, healthy, and wealthy” whenever the Bible shares in 2 Timothy 3:12 that we’re going to be persecuted as followers of Christ? Those don’t go together and if we don’t know our Bibles, we’ll be tempted to go right along with the masses. The answer is to stand on God’s Word and meditate on it daily.

Early Church heresies:

Gnostics - Christians need secret knowledge. Blend Christianity with other pagan religions. Matter is good but spirit is evil. These people often did whatever felt good because their flesh was already corrupted and sinful and didn’t matter. Rejected goodness of creation, truthfulness of the Word, and incarnation of Jesus as well as bodily resurrection.

Docetists - Jesus only appeared to be a man but wasn’t actually a man. Denies humanity of Jesus. If Jesus wasn’t human, John 1:1 is wrong and we don’t have a human Savior. Only a man can pay for the sins of man.

Ebionites - Jesus only appeared to be God but wasn’t actually God. Adoptionism (Jesus was adopted by the Father after His baptism).

These heresies aren’t dead - they’re still taught in our world and in churches each week. It’s important to know them and to know what the Word of God says about Jesus being fully God and fully man as well as the importance of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. If we waver from the Word, we will stumble and fall on something down the road.

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