A Voice of Faith

Ever traveled to another country.

Have you ever had the experience of when you travel to that other country where you haven't even spoken a word, but they pick out the fact that you're an American.

Or maybe it's just you've traveled somewhere else in the United States end. Before you even met the person, you're marked as a Yankee or a northerner. They can pick you out pretty quick and the Southern States. Either of those experiences. It makes you wonder what gave me away, especially if you haven't even said a word yet. You just wonder what it is.

you know, in the first century, Christ followers were also recognized immediately by people So, what gave them away? It certainly wasn't their buildings because they had none. It wasn't their programs going on at their church because they didn't have any. It wasn't their political power, they had none of that either. It wasn't their webcast, they're slick Publications or catchy bumper stickers or you know, growing social media presence. Existent. So what was it? in Acts 4:33, we read With great power, the apostles continue to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God's grace was so powerfully at work in the mall.

They testified to the truth about Christ and live by his grace.

That's what gave him away. Truce was the food that they ate in the message. The Facebook can Grace. Was there are that they breathe in the life that they live that simply who they were.

The world around them had. Never seen anything like it. That's why they could identify him so easily, so quickly. And sadly enough. The world hasn't seen anything like it since

You know, the only church growth formula the early church possessed was the body of truth that they were proclaiming. That was flowing with the grace of Jesus Christ. That's all that they had. And they drew thousands to Jesus. But now get this, this is a really radical idea.

By simply being like Jesus. That's how they grew the church. what does it mean to be like, Jesus, you know, we could come up with all these long list, and many, many people have done it of all of Christ's character qualities, but the problem is, The longer we make the list.

You know the less likely we are to be able to wrap our minds around what it really means to be christ-like or really to be able to live it out. The longer that list gets the more we struggle with it. Could kind of oil down the character of Christ reduce it down to two essential ingredients.

And we can.

You know, if you'll remember is, I was sharing us some verses in the last series, I did. One of the important verses was John 11, you know, end up getting was the word and the Word was God and the Word was with God and all we talk about those things and that was an essential verse in that. And another verse that we paired with, it was John 1:14.

The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, we have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only son who came from the father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus. Was full of two things. Grace and Truth.

Not the long list that we like to see sometimes, you know, he wasn't full of patients, wisdom Beauty, compassion, creativity. We could go on. And on all those things were a result of the grace and truth. That was within him.

You know, if you noticed in the list and scripture there in that passage that I read from John, you know, there are no commas and there's only one conjunction between them, Grace and Truth.

Scripture distills Christ attributes into a two-point checklist for christlikeness.

The baby that was born in a Bethlehem. Barn was creator of the universe?

But yet. he chose to come to Earth and to be one of us, On our little planet, God's glory. No longer was restricted to dwelling in a temple made of wood and Stone.

It was now dwelling in Christ. He was the new holy of holies.

And then when tries to send it back into heaven, he left God's glory here. You know, that manifestation of his presence is Shekinah Glory here on Earth.

And with that, that meant that we as Christians. Became his living temples the new holy of holies. 1st Corinthians chapter 3 verses 16 and 17 says. Don't, you know that you yourselves are God's Temple? And that God's spirit dwells in your midst, if anyone destroys God's Temple, God will destroy that person. Fer God's Temple is sacred, and you together are that Temple. Are 1st Corinthians 619 says, do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you have received from God? You are not your own.

You know, what gave away? The first century Christians was the fact that people had only to look at Jesus. To see what God was like. And those first century, Christians were doing a great job of living that out. People today should only have to look at us to see what Jesus is like.

Now, that's kind of a scary and intimidating thought. But for better for worse people draw, conclusions about Christ from what they see in US. Our good days and our bad days. You know, if we fail the grace test, we fail to be christ-like. And that's something that we have to learn. If we passed both tests, you know, not just the grace test, but the truth test, then we are starting to be like Jesus.

And integrace starve truth starved world that we live in. They need Jesus.

That's why I love the alliance slogan. That's back there, on the top of our map and it's kind of their new overalls slogan. And it's on her t-shirts that we've gotten for the Church of all of Jesus for all the world.

you know, as we go through this new series about truth and Grace will see that We can't just choose. Which part of Jesus were going to give people.

Are we going to give people his grace or his truth? That's often the way we look at it and we don't realize. That's not the way scripture describes it. It said, full of grace and truth. It's the same thing. We need to be presenting a people cuz you know I said that's a scary and intimidating thought to think that you know, people make assumptions about Jesus about Christianity based on what they see in us because they know that we go to church, they know that we claim to be Christians

You know what? I think about that. I think so. What Does a Grace hungry Grace? Starve truth. Hungry World. Think when they look at us,

As a church. What do they think about me? When they look at me? Do they see those qualities in me?

You know, first century Jewish culture understood truth, a whole lot better than they understood Grace.

You know, the Pharisees had truth down to a science. They had a rule, a law for everything to try to make sure they stuck to God's truth. But the problem was They forgot about Drake's.

Your Grace comes. First in John 1:14, that verse it comes first because it's what is more surprising to those first century Jewish people, that Jesus is talking to.

dad had truth pounded into them by the Pharisees, all their lives, but Grace was something new. so when Jesus stepped onto the world stage and began his public Ministry, you know, people Not only heard the demands of the truth that the Pharisees have been telling them but now they were finally seeing the truth itself in this may.

But what was different? What was so attractive to them? Was not only were they hearing this truth.

But they were seeing Grace himself as well. No longer was it just fleeting glimmers of Grace and hope that came but they could see grace embodied in this person. John 1:29 says the next day. John saw Jesus coming toward him and said look the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John's talking about Jesus, being that embodiment of Grace and Truth.

And you know I love how one commentator put it. It said he said Grace is a delightful fragrant word.

It intrigues, us, it attracts us, it compels us, it dazzles us.

But, you know, the thing about Grace is Grace, also baffles us.

But, you know, when Jesus came to Earth it's as though God said, okay, you know about truth. But now, let me teach you about Grace.

And you know, a lot of people anymore in our society think that we should set the Old Testament aside because you know, we're under the New Covenant, it doesn't apply to us. You know, the Old Testament teaches, the fear of God and it spells out the consequences of disregarding his truth. And I think that's really what people would like to ignore his consequences for their actions. You know, the Old Testament presents truth relentlessly. So the Pharisees were doing a good job of presenting it in that way.

But there's certainly Grace in the Old Testament. Also, there's lots of it but it's overshadowed by the truth. And the Pharisees never emphasized Grace and they're teaching just the truth.

And, you know, those who would have been hearing Christ, come and share, they would have known the truth. They had heard the truth in the law of Moses over and over again.

But it was Christ who gave them their first clear view of Grace.

Cuz the truth is the law can only reveal sin. Jesus could remove it. And that was an entirely New Concept for them.

Newsom churches. Today, embrace the truth. But man, could they use a heavy dose of Grace? Other churches. You know. Really love truce. In the Recon. Grace, you know, and sometimes stir when we get into that, we're we're so big on the truth. And the truth is all, we focus on that can make us really quick to judge. And slow to forgive.

But then you have the other side of the scales where you have the grace oriented Christians who, you know, they love forgiveness and they love freedom. And they just love those things so much. That the problem is sometimes, it can lead them to not dig as deeply as they need to into God's work.

You know, cuz they see moral standards as legalism things, we shouldn't impose on other people. They're strong on Grace. But weak on truth.

And you know countless mistakes in marriage and parenting and Ministry and other relationships are failures to balance Grace and Truth. It's not an easy balance. Keep, you know, sometimes we straight up neglect post.

And I think that's because we often think that we have to choose one or the other. We can either show this person Grace or we can either show them truth. I don't know why we think that way but in Jesus we see that your Jesus showed us that we don't have to make that choice between grace and truth. We can do both. We can live out both. We can show people both at the same time.

You know, if you want to be more like Jesus to be christ-like, we have to understand that we can be 100% Grace and 100% truth 100% of the time Grace and Truth really aren't contradictory. Like we think they are

Yo, Jesus didn't switch on truth and then have to turn off his grace so that he could present people truth. and then switches Grace back on and turn off truth whenever he needed to deal gracefully with somebody know, you know, both were permanently on both were permanently a thing that was presents there.

You all too often. I think that when we start thinking about everything, okay, so that means Jesus was 50% truth. 50% Grace. You know, that's not how it was. He was 100% of both all the time.

Truth without Grace breeds a self-righteous legalism that poisons the church.

And it's also something that pushes people away from Christ. And Grace, without truth breeds, this moral indifference that keeps people from seeing their need from price. Is this, everything's okay.

Then why do I need Jesus? Why do I ever need to repent for my sins? And unfortunately, churches have thought that they need to choose one or the other. We don't. We need to find a balance between grace and truth and give people both. That's what the world needs. That's what the first century Church did. That was so attractive to the world around them. It's what got them recognized so quickly. By others.

And it's what will get us recognized as Christ followers if we choose to live that way.

And I think it's so beautiful that, as we start this new series out, talking about grace and truth that We're doing communion today because really communion is such a great reminder of that Grace and Truth. That Jesus shared with us.

You knowing. One of the common passages that we share is 1st Corinthians, chapter 11, verses 23 and 24. It says you're the Lord Jesus. On that night. He took the bread. And having taken the bread. He broke it. And said this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

Yes, we take communion here in a few minutes. I want you all to remember you know and embrace the truth that Christ sacrificed himself. For you.

He died. And one of the most excruciating ways man has ever thought of for you, that is truth. Price body is nailed to the cross for you.

but the other side of that, that we need to see in that we need to remember as we take that bread, is that

We can also see the beauty of God's grace. And providing his son to be that land to be sacrificed for our sins.

Continuing on in that passage. That's so common when we do. Communion in 1st Corinthians chapter 11 verses 25 and 26. It says in the same way after supper, he took the cup saying This cup is the New Covenant in my blood do this whenever you drink it. In remembrance of me.

for whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim, the Lord's death, Until he comes.

You know, we should never shy away from the idea of proclaiming the death of Christ, and the fact that Christ died for the sins of the world.

That's our job. It says it right there that we are to keep doing that every day until he returns

But we also have to remember him continue to Proclaim that it is because Christ died on the cross for our sins that we have been washed clean. By the blood of the Lamb. So God's Grace has been poured out on all of us because of the cross.

and as we drink that cup, That's what we need to be remembering.

It's not just grape juice but we are drinking it in remembrance of him, remembering the beauty of God's grace and truth.

Because that is what's flowing in the blood of Christ. We must Proclaim it each and every day. By the way, that we choose to live.

Now as we begin to take communion here, I forgot to ask them before but Brian and Jamie if you could have helped us with it too. And Julie, if you want to come up here as we get ready to do communion and pass it out today, you guys can come forward and get