Being the Church (Part2)
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Being The Church (Part 2)
Being The Church (Part 2)
Hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee: Be thou for the people to God-ward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto God: And thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt shew them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do. Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens: And let them judge the people at all seasons: and it shall be, that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge: so shall it be easier for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with thee.
Part 1
Part 1
Defined Burden
Defined Burden
Hebrew word
Hebrew word
maśśāʾ
++Physical Load
++Psychological and spiritual load
2 Greek words
2 Greek words
Greek word is φορτίον (phor-ti-on)
++A necessary load
++The load you have to carry
βάρος (baros)
++Can be transferred to another
++Can be relieved by another
++Carried by another
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
Everyone has a burden to carry.
Everyone has a burden to carry.
Coming to Jesus
++Can lighten the load
++Can make the load bearable
How does this happen?
How does this happen?
Acts 15 the apostles faced a challenging issue.
Acts 15 the apostles faced a challenging issue.
While Paul and Barnabas were at Antioch of Syria, some men from Judea arrived and began to teach the believers: “Unless you are circumcised as required by the law of Moses, you cannot be saved.” Paul and Barnabas disagreed with them, arguing vehemently. Finally, the church decided to send Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem, accompanied by some local believers, to talk to the apostles and elders about this question.
When they arrived in Jerusalem, Barnabas and Paul were welcomed by the whole church, including the apostles and elders. They reported everything God had done through them. But then some of the believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees stood up and insisted, “The Gentile converts must be circumcised and required to follow the law of Moses.”
The scripture gave them what they needed to decide.
The scripture gave them what they needed to decide.
++They did not just rely on their own thinking.
++James looks to the Scriptures
In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen,
And close up the breaches thereof;
And I will raise up his ruins,
And I will build it as in the days of old:
They did not just rely on their own thinking.
James looks to the Scriptures
++James recognized the Lord's work
That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things.
James has grasped the very heart of Amos’s eschatological message concerning the nature of the salvation that Messiah brings to the Gentiles. In so doing, James has replaced a proselyte model of Gentile salvation with an eschatological/christocentric one.
The Lord has chosen to place his name on Gentiles as Gentiles, without requiring that they surrender their ethnic identity.
The Lord has chosen to place his name on Gentiles as Gentiles, without requiring that they surrender their ethnic identity.
That name, “the Lord Jesus Christ,”
++The basis on which they have repented and believed
Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.
Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.
++The identity they have adopted in baptism
Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.
Acts 11:36
++The reason they will suffer
And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.
Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.
.William J. Larkin Jr., Acts, vol. 5, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Downers, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1995), Ac 15:13.
For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;
“For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay no greater burden on you than these few requirements:
It seem Good
++To the Holy Ghost
++To them
This is
++not religion
++a relationship
But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
Why these four requirements
++These were fellowship breakers
++Jews and Gentile believers
The four requirements suggested by James were thus all basically ritual requirements aimed at making fellowship possible between Jewish and Gentile Christians. John B. Polhill, Acts, vol. 26, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 331.
Why These Requirements?
++The old testament
++Cultural distinction was the standard
++Ceremonial distinction was expected
++God separated a people group to himself
Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.
The New testament church
++The church would be cross cultural.
++Culturally and ethnically different
++Unburdened
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
We recognized God is no respecter
++of person
++of culture
++of politics
++of the things that divide us
He came
++not to build walls
++to tear down walls
James’s proposal, then, teaches us three things about life together in a culturally diverse church. We must say no to any form of cultural imperialism that demands others’ conformity to our cultural standards before we will accept them and their spiritual experience. We must say yes to mutual respect for our differences. And we must live out that respect even to the extent of using our freedom to forgo what is permissible in other circumstances.William J. Larkin Jr., Acts, vol. 5, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Downers, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1995), Ac 15:13.
But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
No additional burden.
No additional burden.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
We will
++carry a load
++not carry it alone
We are
++not alone
++the church
And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.
Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
Christian Responsibility
++to bear the load
++to share the load
++to carry the load .....together.
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
Be the Church
++Stand fast
++Be Strong
++God’s grace is enough
Being The Church (Part 2)
Being The Church (Part 2)