Sunday, July 9, 2023 AM

Sunnyside Baptist Church

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July 10, 2023

Sunnyside Baptist Church Michael Dirrim

00:03: All right, good morning, everyone. Come on in, have a seat, and we will get started this morning just with a few announcements as we get going.
00:10: Come back tonight for our evening service at 5 .30. That's in the Fellowship Hall at the regular time.
00:16: And then Wednesday, we'll have our meal together at 5 .45 and then 6 .30 prayer for everyone after the meal.
00:25: Looking ahead to this Saturday, the Everyday Faithfulness Conference for the Prune to Bloom Women's Ministry.
00:32: It's gonna be here at the church. That starts at 9 a .m. and goes until 4 p .m.
00:38: Haley did just let me know, after church on Wednesday night, if there are any men around after church that can help kind of move tables and chairs to prepare for that conference on Saturday, just stay for 10 or 15 minutes and we'll get the
00:51: Fellowship Hall all set up for that together. Many hands make light work there, so we'd appreciate your help that way.
00:59: Also, end of the month, July 30th. That's gonna be a Sunday. We're gonna have a Fellowship out at Dwight and Jill Smoot's home.
01:07: Kind of a summer gathering for the whole church together. Be sure and bring lawn chairs. They're gonna provide hot dogs and buns and things like that but if you could bring a side dish to kind of round out the meals and share that with everybody, that would be great.
01:21: All right, any other announcements? Okay, our fighter verse for this morning comes from the book of Philippians 4, verse eight.
01:31: Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
01:48: It's a good verse to meditate on this week. We're gonna prepare our hearts for worship quietly now and at the conclusion of that,
01:54: Dwight will come and open us this morning. Father, what a blessing it is to be able to call you
03:07: Father. Abba, in a personal relationship with you, you have brought us to yourself through your son, the
03:20: Lord Jesus, our Savior. How blessed we are to know you.
03:28: How blessed we are to know your presence, to know that you are here among us by your spirit, and you have brought us together in fellowship, and we are in Christ.
03:49: What a blessing to know there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death.
04:11: Father, we have recently celebrated our independence and our freedom as a nation, but we come together here this morning to celebrate our dependence on you and our freedom in your son, the
04:34: Lord Jesus. Lord Jesus, we are free from the penalty of sin and death.
04:44: How blessed we are, how blessed we are.
04:58: May our worship this morning be pleasing in your sight.
05:06: In Jesus' name, amen. Good morning.
05:19: Would you stand with me as we read our call to worship, Psalm 89, verses 30 through 34.
05:31: Would you read with me the word of the Lord? If his children forsake my law and do not walk according to my rules, if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments, then
05:47: I will punish their transgression with a rod, their iniquity with stripes, but I will not remove from him my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness.
06:02: I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips.
06:10: Our Psalm of response is 89E in your Psalms for worship.
06:16: It's 89E and we'll do verses 16, 17, and 18.
06:39: ♪ And if his sons forsake my law, walk not as I do ♪ ♪
07:00: I'll do as I ordain if my commands they do not keep.
07:10: ♪ ♪ If they my laws profane,
07:18: I'll punishing their transgressions then on them.
07:33: ♪ yet I'll not take my love from him, nor break my faithfulness.
08:01: I'll not profane my cowardice, my promises.
08:18: Our hymns this morning will be Alleluia, 215 in your hymnal, and we'll go straight into the
08:25: Church's One Foundation, and that's 277. So 215, and be ready for 277.
08:47: Alleluia, alleluia, hearts to heaven and voices raise.
08:53: Sing to God a hymn of gladness, sing to God a hymn of praise.
09:02: He who on the cross has saved you, for the world's salvation bled.
09:11: Jesus Christ, the King of glory, now is risen from the dead.
09:22: All the iron bars are broken, Christ from life to life is born.
09:30: Glorious life and life immortal on this resurrection morn.
09:40: Christ has triumphed and we conquer by his mighty enterprise.
09:49: We with him to life eternal by his resurrection rise.
09:59: The Church's One Foundation is
10:05: Jesus Christ her Lord. She is risen from the dead by water and the
10:17: Word. From heaven he came and sought her to be his holy bride.
10:28: With his own blood he bought her and for her life he died.
10:40: He leapt from every nation, yet one on all the earth.
10:49: Her charter of salvation, one
10:55: Lord, one faith, one birth. One holy name she blesses, partakes one holy food.
11:08: And to one hope she presses with every grace endued.
11:20: Bitterland tribulation and tumult of the war.
11:29: She waits the consummation of peace forevermore.
11:40: Till with a vision glorious her longing eyes are blessed.
11:50: And the great church victorious shall be the church at rest.
12:03: Let she on earth have union with God the three in one.
12:13: And may she sweet communion with those whose rest is won.
12:24: O happy ones and holy forgive us grace that we like them the meek and lowly on high may dwell with thee.
13:00: If you have your Bibles this morning, and I hope you do, open them to the book of Isaiah, chapter 49.
13:11: We're filling in for Dylan Hamilton this morning. He's a little bit under the weather, so you might be in prayer for him and their family this morning.
13:19: We'll start in chapter 49 verse 14 and read through verse 21.
13:26: But Zion said, the Lord has forsaken me and my Lord has forgotten me.
13:33: Can a woman forget her nursing child and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget.
13:41: Yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.
13:48: Your walls are continually before me. Your son shall make haste.
13:54: Your destroyers and those who laid you waste shall go away from you. Lift up your eyes, look around and see all these gather together and come to you.
14:07: As I live, says the Lord. You shall surely clothe yourselves with them all as an ornament and bind them on you as a bride does.
14:17: For your waste and desolate places and the land of your destruction will even now be too small for all the inhabitants.
14:27: And those who swallowed you up will be far away. The children you will have after you have lost the others will say again in your ears, the place is too small for me.
14:41: Give me a place where I may dwell. Then you will say in your heart, who has begotten these for me since I have lost my children and I'm desolate, a captive and wandering to and fro, and who has brought these up?
14:56: There I was left alone. But these, where were they?
15:04: Would you pray with me? Our gracious and merciful
15:12: Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your faithfulness in the face of your people's unfaithfulness.
15:26: How amazing it is. Though we experience the consequences of our rebellion.
15:34: And you maintain your justice and your righteousness, and yet you continue to pour out your mercy that your promises might not return void.
15:44: Father, as we worship this morning, help us to come before you with humble hearts as we read your word.
15:51: That we might bow before it and obey everything that you give to us.
15:58: And we do all this in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. You may be seated.
16:20: Our next hymn will be out of the hymns, Modern and Ancient, the Little Black Book, 95,
16:26: O Church Arise. And then we'll go into To You Alone from the same hymnal, 124.
17:07: God has given With shield of faith and belt of truth
17:15: We'll stand against the devil's lies
17:20: An army bold Whose battle cry is love
17:26: Reaching out to those in darkness Called to war to love the captive soul
17:39: But to rage against the captor And with the sword that makes the wounded whole
17:50: We will fight with faith and valor When faced with trials on every side
18:00: We know the outcome is secure
18:05: And Christ will have The price for which he died
18:12: An inheritance of nations See the cross
18:22: Where love and mercy meet As the Son of God is stricken
18:30: Then see his foes Lie crushed beneath his feet
18:37: For the conqueror has risen And endless stone is rolled away
18:47: And Christ emerges from the grave
18:53: This victory march Continues till the day
18:59: Every eye and heart shall see him
19:06: So Spirit come Put strength in every stride
19:13: Give grace for every hurdle That we may run
19:20: With faith to win the prize Of a servant good and faithful As saints of old still find the way
19:35: Retelling triumphs of his grace
19:41: We hear their calls And hunger for the day
19:48: When with Christ we stand in glory
19:54: Let us join our hearts together
20:13: And give thanks in one accord
20:19: We would glorify the Father And give praise to Christ the
20:29: Lord O indwelling Holy Spirit Guide our thoughts and tongues, we pray
20:42: For our pride and selfish vanity
20:50: Too often cloud our praise
20:57: To you alone we sing today
21:08: To you alone our prayers we raise
21:21: To you alone we give the glory
21:33: For you alone, Lord, worthy of our praise
21:45: What joy there is in knowing
21:54: Jesus Christ is Lord of all
22:00: That each step in my life's journey
22:06: Is an answer to his call
22:12: In the cheerful meditation That his blood has ransomed me
22:22: I find hope and reassurance
22:31: His plan is best for me
22:38: To you alone we sing today
22:50: To you alone our prayers we raise
23:02: To you alone we give the glory
23:14: For you alone, Lord, worthy of our praise
24:35: Let's go to the Lord together in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day.
24:45: We thank you for gathering us here that we may rejoice in your truth. We may put our attention upon your
24:52: Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior, our King. We thank you for the way you keep your promises.
25:01: We thank you for the way you answer our prayers. We thank you for the way you answer our prayers.
25:06: We thank you for the way that you look upon our situations with more understanding and care, provision and concern we can possibly fathom.
25:21: Who are we that you would be mindful of us? And yet you have set your love upon us entirely of your grace.
25:34: And so we pray this morning as those who have been called out and brought together, that you would help us to respond well to your word, to your truth.
25:49: God, I ask that you would, by your Holy Spirit, do a work in our lives that what we see in your word, that this would also be seen in our lives.
26:02: That what you declare to us, by your Holy Spirit, concerning your
26:07: Son, that we would give a hearty amen to. This is your work,
26:15: Lord. We ask that you would do it. We pray these things in Jesus' name.
26:21: Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Acts chapter 9.
26:27: Acts chapter 9 and verse 31. I was looking forward to preaching this verse.
26:40: A couple of weeks ago I was reading through and was very encouraged by the manner in which all the various blessings and graces evident amongst the church were brought together here in a single verse.
26:59: The title of this morning's sermon is something of a grammatical theological pun, which
27:06: I enjoy. You may not. The church is churches.
27:12: The church is singular possessive. Church is plural nominative. So, what is this?
27:19: We want to see how it is that there is one church in Christ, and yet there are many churches in Christ, and to see what
27:30: He is doing here in the book of Acts, Acts 9, verse 31. How is
27:36: He building His church? What are the acts of the risen Lord Jesus that we can rejoice in here in this passage?
27:47: Well, let's take a look. I invite you to stand with me, and I'm going to read
27:55: God's holy word, Acts 9, verse 31. Then the churches throughout all
28:06: Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified.
28:13: And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied.
28:21: This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. This is an encouraging verse, especially when you think about what had just happened, what had just been occurring in the life of the church, and why it is that they're all over the place.
28:48: Why is the church not just there in Jerusalem? Why are they in Judea and in Galilee and in Samaria and just, you know, all over the place?
29:04: There had been a major persecution. Going back as far as chapter 5, we see the apostles were arrested and beaten for the name of Christ.
29:17: We see that there was a deacon in the church,
29:22: Stephen, who was bold in preaching Christ, opposed by the synagogue of the
29:29: Hellenists, among whom was one Saul of Tarsus. And a major persecution broke out against the church, and they scattered.
29:41: Some of them stayed in Jerusalem, and others fled. And Saul of Tarsus hated
29:47: Christians so much that he pursued them with letters authorizing his persecution.
29:57: But you know, though it looked like the flock was scattering, Jesus is a good shepherd.
30:06: We have a good shepherd. And it wasn't so much that the flock was scattering as the...
30:12: Well, He's also the vine dresser, isn't He? And the new wine was bursting forth from the old wineskin.
30:21: And Christ was sending forth His good news, the gospel of the kingdom, just as He commanded
30:30: His disciples to do, to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth.
30:40: Nonetheless, Saul of Tarsus was hot on their heels. What's a good shepherd to do?
30:49: Well, Jesus Christ is the kind of good shepherd that turns a pursuing wolf into a protecting sheepdog.
30:59: And He does that by a mighty miracle in the life of Saul of Tarsus, where once he hated
31:04: Christ and hated Christians. Now, he is the servant of Christ, the bond slave of Jesus Christ, eager to serve and minister and love his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, and eager to proclaim the good news of Jesus and defend it in front of those who would try to deny it.
31:28: What a good shepherd we have in our Savior Jesus Christ who can do that kind of miracle.
31:37: When I read Acts 9 .31, it's so encouraging to see what goes on in the church here with that as the background.
31:46: How much peril there had been in the life of the church. How difficult it had been. But now, look what
31:52: Jesus does and look at the prosperity of His church. As a student of theology and a student of church history, when
32:06: I think of the church, I often think in terms of controversies. Controversies.
32:14: So many different controversies in church history. Arguments about, what does the
32:20: Bible really say? How are we truly to follow Christ in this world?
32:26: What are we really supposed to look like? Everything from the controversies of the early centuries in the church to the
32:34: Reformation down to today. Controversies in church splits between this denomination and that denomination and why are they different?
32:45: These are things that I have to know and often think about. And then, of course, there's the conflicts within the local church where there can be folks who are not at peace with one another in the local church.
33:03: As you think about those things, you know, we realize that that is not to be the defining mark of Christians.
33:15: Jesus said, By this all men will know that you are my disciples. By the love that you have for one another.
33:23: And this love defined not by anybody's estimation but Christ's Himself.
33:29: In that He said, A new commandment I give to you, that as I have loved you, so you ought to love one another.
33:36: And only He could say that. And indeed, because of who He is and what
33:41: He has done, indeed that is a new commandment. That we should love one another as Christ has loved us.
33:49: And so we know what we're called to. We know the signifying mark is to be our love for one another in view of Christ.
33:56: But as we think about the various controversies throughout church history which still have an impact today, and the splits between this denomination over here and this one over here, and even the conflicts that can come up within a church.
34:12: Well, who is sufficient for these things? To bring peace.
34:18: To reconcile. Not killing truth in the streets for the sake of peace, but truly, true reconciliation.
34:29: Bringing us together in the truth. Only one who is sufficient for those things is our good shepherd,
34:34: Jesus. We have a good and wise shepherd, and we see that.
34:42: We've seen ample evidence of that in the passages leading up to Acts 9 .31.
34:50: In that sense, Acts 9 .31 is a bit of a summary of all that Christ has been doing.
34:56: How it is that He is shepherding and building His church. And we need to pay attention to the components in this verse.
35:05: But it's also a segue, not just a summary, because this is, from this platform, all that's yet to come in the life of the church.
35:15: It's being launched from this point. We're supposed to look here at the
35:20: Acts of the risen Lord Jesus Christ as He promised, so He is doing.
35:26: He said, based on Peter's confession of Him as the Christ, the Son of the living
35:32: God, Jesus said, upon that rock, upon the rock of the gospel,
35:37: His identity, who He is and what He does, that He would build
35:43: His church upon the rock. And the gates of Hades would not prevail against it.
35:50: So we're looking at Christ building His church. And Christ is a wise man, the wisest of all.
35:56: And so He builds His house upon the rock, which is indeed Himself.
36:02: He is the cornerstone. So I want us to look at seven different aspects of the church's churches in verse 31.
36:13: And the first simply is their identity. Their identity.
36:20: When we read this, some of your translations are going to say, then the church.
36:26: Throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was edified. Singular.
36:32: Walking in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Maybe it says they, maybe it says it.
36:39: Church was multiplied. And there's one textual tradition that has it in the singular.
36:48: The one I'm reading in the majority text has it in the plural. But you know, they're both right.
36:56: They're both right. You know, there is one church and it is the body of Christ.
37:05: And each church is the body of Christ. And so we recognize the identity.
37:13: These are people who are called out from among other people and gathered to one another.
37:22: But the calling out and the gathering in has to do with one person and that is our Savior, Jesus. We gather to Him, for Him.
37:34: One of the great questions about, that plagued the days of the Reformation was what makes a church?
37:41: What makes a proper church? What makes a correct church? Because after all, if Martin Luther or Zwingli or Knox or others were going to say, or John Calvin was going to say, well, we're not going to recognize the legitimacy of the
37:57: Pope in Rome, let alone anyone else within that system of false teaching.
38:07: And we're going to gather together and we're going to be a church and we're going to worship Christ and do things the way we think that the
38:15: Bible teaches. Well, is that a church? What makes a church?
38:22: The Roman Catholic Church said you can't have a church unless you are part of the church. You have to have our approval.
38:29: Otherwise, you're not a real church. And the definition that the Reformers settled on was that a church is wherever the gospel is being preached and the sacraments being rightly observed.
38:44: Wherever the gospel is being preached and the sacraments rightly observed. Meaning, Christ must be preached.
38:54: Who he is. In all of his glory. As our savior and as our sovereign.
39:01: Christ must be preached. What he has accomplished in his work. What he is doing now.
39:07: What he is soon to do. And, not only that, not only must the word of God be rightly preached, as Christ preached from all the scriptures, but the sacraments must be rightly observed.
39:20: Meaning, that only those who are in Christ, alive in Christ, bought by his blood, found in him by faith, only they should be participating in communion.
39:37: Sharing together at the Lord's table. And, only those who are in Christ should be baptized.
39:44: There was a big argument about that. Between Paedo -Baptists and Credo -Baptists. But, the idea was we have to be identified by Jesus.
39:54: This way, that way, every which way. The idea was that to understand what a church is, you have to know who
40:01: Christ is. There is a clear identity that is built in him.
40:10: We've seen already in the book of Acts, from chapter 5 all the way to here, that there was a distinction.
40:17: The church knew who they were. People around them knew who the church was.
40:23: Saul of Tarsus' persecution was effective because everybody could identify who the Christians were. They were that distinct.
40:29: They were that different. They were that set apart. And so, consider their identity.
40:38: Who are we to our Lord? Who are we to our
40:47: Lord? As we consider the communion that we share once a month here, as we take of the bread and the cup, we're saying something about that we are those for whom
41:08: Christ died. We have been given to the Son by the
41:14: Father. And he died for us upon the cross and was raised the third day.
41:21: And he has given us his Holy Spirit that we would not be orphans but in communion with him.
41:27: We are those for whom Christ died and was raised. Our names are upon his heart and upon his hands.
41:40: That as we hold to these gospel truths, that Christ is our
41:45: Savior. He is holding on to us. Who are we to our
41:53: Lord? What a vital question to begin with to understand the identity of the church.
41:59: What do we read in verse 31? Or do we read the church? Either one is correct.
42:05: Who is the church? The church is not the building.
42:12: The church is not the institution. The church is not the membership role.
42:20: The church is the bride of Christ for whom he has shed his blood.
42:30: Who are we to our Lord? How does he consider us?
42:38: How does he look upon us? Isn't that the starting point for us?
42:46: As we consider that defining mark of who we are? By this all men will know that you are my disciples.
42:57: By the love that you have for one another. That we would love one another as Christ has loved us.
43:04: So here we begin. Who are we to our Lord? And if we will see how
43:09: Christ has loved us, then we will know how we are to love one another.
43:19: A second question about our identity. For this is the church and the churches throughout
43:24: Judea, Galilee, and Samaria. Who are we to each other? Who are we to each other?
43:36: Well, first and foremost, we begin with where we're at. As children do. I look out and I see brothers and sisters in Christ.
43:46: Those for whom Christ has died. I see those who are members here at Sunnyside Baptist Church.
43:53: Who have agreed together to live together according to our church covenant.
43:59: An expression of what the Bible has to say about how we love one another, and care for one another, and embrace one another.
44:10: Who are we to one another? By the blessing of the Holy Spirit, we are sons and daughters of God.
44:19: And that's why we're brothers and sisters. We're not brothers and sisters in the sense that we have necessarily a genetic connection.
44:30: Not brothers and sisters because we have a regional connection. Or a cultural connection.
44:38: But we have, our connection is through our elder brother Christ. Who has laid down his life for us.
44:46: And by the spirit that he gives to us, we cry Abba Father. We have the same father.
44:52: We have the same elder brother. Who are we to one another? Brothers and sisters. And in the local church, those who have promised.
45:02: Yes, I am my brother's keeper. Not like Cain, who was of the evil one.
45:08: Yes, I am my sister's keeper. And who are we to the world?
45:18: Before I ask that, one more thing. Who are we to each other, not just as local members, but everywhere else?
45:26: I'll talk about the internationality of the church in a moment, but just keep in mind, keep in mind, that the church is far larger than you can fathom.
45:41: And we have so many brothers and sisters that in this life, in this side of heaven, we're not going to meet.
45:49: But let's keep that in mind. The body of Christ. The glory of Christ in his body as those for whom he has died.
45:58: The third question is, who are we to the world? You see, we begin, please watch the importance of this priority.
46:04: We must begin with, who are we to our Lord? Without Jesus, we're nothing.
46:11: Without him dying upon the cross for us, without him saving us, we don't have an identity. We don't have a church at all.
46:17: So we have to begin there. That's the most important question that we have to ask as the church.
46:24: Who are we to our Lord? Then we see who we are to one another. And only then do we ask, who are we to the world?
46:34: You see how important it is to have that trajectory lined up? If we begin by asking, who are we to the world?
46:43: We might be very obsessed with what we think the world wants us to be.
46:53: We might have some idea in our head about what the world should want the church to be. And then we might try to live up to that ideal.
47:02: But that will not serve the world. That we should be man -fearers.
47:10: Who are we to the world? When we ask who we are to our Lord, we thought of communion. When we say, who are we to the world?
47:16: We might think of our baptism. I am owned lock, stock, and barrel by God the
47:25: Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. This I have declared by my baptism. Not my name, but his name.
47:32: Not my name anywhere. His name all over me. Every which way you should look at my life, you should see property of, owned by, defined by, directed according to the
47:48: Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Led by my mediator, my king,
47:57: Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Christ. Now each church is of the church.
48:06: Each church is of the church. We all get our identity in Christ. Now, if we had the opportunity to all get up one
48:15: Sunday morning and go visit a different church. I know that you've visited other churches. You've been members of different churches throughout your life.
48:24: You say, well, you know, it's different over there. Yes. But you know, it's the same over there.
48:33: Yes. Praise be to God. The things that should be the same are the things that, well, they're the things that matter before who we are to the
48:47: Lord. That matter in light of who he is, who we are to one another. Those things should be the same.
48:54: Oh, the place is going to be a little bit different. The culture can be a little bit different. The hymns, the music can be a little bit different.
49:02: The way that they order their worship service is going to be a little bit different. Yeah, there's going to be some differences.
49:07: Different people, different personalities, different giftings, different ministries and opportunities.
49:12: But you know, we all get our identity in Christ. He defines us. Now, we begin there.
49:21: That's the most important thing. When we read in the text, then the churches or then the church, we're talking about those who have been called out, ekklesia, and gathered together.
49:29: Ekklesia, they've been called out and gathered together all according to the name of Jesus Christ. We must know the identity of the church, and this informs their internationality.
49:42: Notice we've got churches throughout all over the place. Judea is not just Jerusalem, not just the villages surrounding
49:55: Jerusalem, but all throughout Judea, all throughout Galilee.
50:01: Jesus spent the majority of his ministry, think of all the names of the towns that Jesus ministered to there in Galilee.
50:11: And look at this, churches all throughout Samaria, all throughout Samaria. As we looked at chapter 8, how the gospel came to Samaria.
50:26: You know, these are different nations. I didn't say they're different political entities, they're just different nations.
50:36: Nations are made along many lines that God has sovereignly drawn. And these churches are going to be different.
50:43: You go to a Judean church, you may hear a lot of Aramaic. Maybe if you have a lot of converted priests in that church, you're going to hear some just straight -up
50:52: Hebrew. You go over to Galilee, and you're probably going to hear some
51:00: Greek. Maybe they're reading the Greek translation of the
51:06: Old Testament instead of the Aramaic or the Hebrew. Languages are going to be different.
51:13: The costumes are going to be a little bit different. And look at all these churches throughout.
51:23: And there's probably a church per town at least, but think about Jerusalem. Oh, the
51:28: Sanhedrin hates these guys. Just hates their guts. And there's thousands of them, thousands of Christians.
51:38: And they're probably not all at this point grouping up in Solomon's Porch right now because, you know, they're under fire.
51:46: How many different homes throughout Jerusalem are just chock -full of saints rejoicing in the truth of the gospel?
51:57: And in the villages and in the towns throughout Galilee and Samaria, there a church, here a church.
52:06: Now, it's important to read this verse. There is a joy in that one church in that village in Samaria, isn't there?
52:17: And there's a joy in the fact that the church is all over the place at the same time.
52:23: There's a joy in both of those things, isn't there? We need to have a sense of that scope as well as a commitment to our own church family.
52:33: I think of our brother Mitch Tillman, a missionary whom we support and have known for many, many years.
52:41: And the work that he inherited from his father in doing missionary work in Mongolia. He talked about the difficulty of getting out to the
52:50: Gobi Desert. These tribes who live in one of the most remote places in all of planet
52:55: Earth, places that are so suffused with paganism that it's about the same type of engagement that you would find of the tribes in the deepest, darkest jungles of Africa.
53:08: There, they worship the spirits. There, they worship demons. If a mother gives birth to twins, they suffocate one of them in ash.
53:21: Pagan, hopeless, dark place. And then the gospel goes forth and Jesus advances.
53:30: And then he begins to do miracle after miracle as Mongolian after Mongolian comes to faith in Jesus Christ.
53:36: A hospital is built in the Gobi Desert. Villages are found in the Gobi Desert. I remember
53:41: Mitch told me one time that they had made it all the way out to a very remote village, just a few yurts.
53:49: And there, they proclaimed the gospel and people came to faith in Christ. They left them with what they could.
53:56: And they couldn't get back there for over five years. Couldn't get back. It was too remote.
54:02: Mitch told me, he said, one day we finally got back there and after five years, we showed up and there they were on a
54:08: Sunday, all together in a yurt, reading the Bible together, praying and singing.
54:17: Praise be to God. And if we're thinking about the internationality of the church as that kind of scope that we need to be thinking about in giving praise to Christ.
54:32: I know it's fashionable today to exude a certain type of virtue, the virtue of demographics in which you don't really have a holy church unless you look like the population breakdown of the world or the population breakdown of the
54:51: United States. But the scripture rejoices in how
54:59: God loves the tribes and gave his son to the world so that men, women, and children of all the world, without distinction, would be brought into the kingdom.
55:10: And that is a true joy. And we rejoice that we have brothers and sisters in Christ that can't speak our language and we can't speak theirs.
55:18: And maybe on a mission trip or passing by, we would only see them very briefly. But we don't have to turn the local church into the whole church to rejoice in the internationality of the church.
55:37: Thirdly, I want you to see their interaction. Notice that the churches throughout all of Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace.
55:47: They had peace. Now, why were they having peace? Well, for one thing,
55:55: Saul of Tarsus was on their side now. And, of course, that's going to foster some peace when the main persecutor of the church, with all his legal prowess and religious zeal, is no longer persecuting you but helping you.
56:15: So, they were having peace because of that. But, notice how this is put.
56:23: The churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace. It's an ongoing thing in the original language where they were having peace.
56:32: It's an ongoing thing. It was characteristic of how things were going for them at this point in time.
56:39: They were having peace. They had peace, in other words, between their churches and they had peace within their churches.
56:51: And both of those are a grace from God. Both of those are a grace from God.
57:03: Peace between churches is a precious thing. That we can gather here on a regular basis and commit to one another and love one another and follow
57:16: Christ together in our church covenant. Oh, it's a blessed thing. And, oh, there's another church a sister church and they're doing the same thing and we can rejoice with them when they rejoice and we can weep with them when they weep.
57:33: I know you have friends and family who are part of other churches. And I know that you rejoice when you hear good news from that body.
57:44: And I know it breaks your heart when you hear that there's some problem. I know on Wednesday nights we will pray for prayer requests that started at another church.
57:59: Because we want to help bear that burden as well and pray. That's having peace, isn't it?
58:06: You see, peace is more than the absence of conflict. Irenae in the
58:12: Greek. Shalom in the Hebrew. This biblical peace is more than a ceasefire. It's not just the absence of conflict.
58:20: It is the presence of communion. And our communion together by the
58:26: Holy Spirit is indeed in Christ. Let us have peace with other churches.
58:40: Let us seek for their good. Let us comfort them. Let us promote to our brothers and sisters in other churches that which we know will bring peace in their church.
58:55: And that is the exaltation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let that be our best foot forward.
59:04: How much more in our own church? How much the more in our own church?
59:11: Where the majority of our opportunity to love fellow believers is seen. That we would do more than try to avoid conflict.
59:22: Peace is more than the absence of conflict. It is the presence of communion. And what communion can we have?
59:32: What communion can we have? Shiloh brings shalom.
59:42: It's only him. He's the only one who can bring us together to love one another. When we see each other in light of who he is and what he has done for us.
59:53: When we see how much he loves us and what he went through for us. How he reigns over us and consider all the promises he has made concerning us.
01:00:04: What does peace look like between one another? Well, it looks like communion.
01:00:15: There is the peace that we have with God. There is the peace that we have with one another.
01:00:22: When we gather together, as we communicate with one another throughout the week, the peace that we can even feel in our own households.
01:00:32: You can tell the difference when you walk into a household that is full of peace. It's not about the decor.
01:00:40: It's not about the number of people there. It's not about the location of the house.
01:00:47: You can walk into a household and know that peace is there. May that be true here.
01:00:56: May that be true of our house. This property we hold in common. We take care of and we meet in.
01:01:04: Shalom, peace, looks like faith and hope and love between churches and church members.
01:01:13: That's what it looks like. Faith, hope, and love between churches and church members.
01:01:19: Now, we don't give too happy thumbs up to just any church because there are some really whacked out places calling themselves churches.
01:01:31: We don't slaughter truth in the streets for the sake of peace. The peace, true communion, not just the absence of conflict, but real communion, real relationships is along the lines of the
01:01:42: Christian virtues of faith and hope and love. Faith, the shape of our
01:01:48: Christian lives. What do we believe about Christ? And how do we come to know who
01:01:56: Christ is? What is the basis of our authority? What's the standard by which we are understanding what the truth is?
01:02:04: We have to be in agreement there. Churches of like faith can be at peace. Not that we agree on every single last detail, but the shape of our faith needs to be the same.
01:02:16: The hope needs to be the same. What is our hope? What are we looking forward to?
01:02:23: What do we think really matters, ultimately, over the long haul and in the long term? Can we agree on that?
01:02:31: There are some churches that are hopeless. Hard to have communion. There are some churches that have an entirely wrong kind of hope.
01:02:40: Hard to have communion. But Christ will unite us if we have His hope and love.
01:02:50: Yet we have to understand that love is not affirmation.
01:02:58: Love is not affirmation. It is not something where we're just simply saying, oh,
01:03:05: I approve of you and I think you're great. Jesus made fun of that kind of stuff in Matthew 5.
01:03:15: Love is a righteous and sacrificial devotion. By this we know, love, that Christ laid down His life for the brethren, so also we ought to lay down our lives.
01:03:24: 1 John 3 .16. It's a righteous and sacrificial devotion. I'm going to be for you for your benefit in the right way, even if it costs me.
01:03:35: That's what love is. We can do that between churches. How much more between church members here?
01:03:44: Let our peace be made known through our faith and hope and love towards one another. That we would rejoice in the truths of the
01:03:53: Gospel. We would rejoice in the truths of Christ. Rejoice in what God has given to us in the
01:03:58: Word is our standard. And we would have the same hope. My hope for you is the same as my hope for the whole church.
01:04:08: I don't think that what you need is some technique. I don't think that what you need is some plan.
01:04:17: I don't think that what you need is some new way of doing things, or a new opportunity.
01:04:24: I don't think that's what you need. I think you need Jesus. Because He's an all day, every way
01:04:32: Savior. That's who I think you need. That's what I think the church needs.
01:04:39: And that's what we have to remind each other of. That's our hope.
01:04:46: And again we come back to the theme of love, which we've already thought about in our identity.
01:04:53: Our love for one another. Faith, hope, and love. The greatest of these is love.
01:05:01: May our life be like a river. A peaceful river. Not a raging river, torrential river, dangerous river.
01:05:10: But a peaceful river. And a peaceful river has three things. A peaceful river has a shape.
01:05:18: It has its bends and its twists. It has its shape of the banks.
01:05:24: How it curves around. A river has direction.
01:05:31: The water is flowing somewhere. It's flowing downhill somehow. It's moving from point
01:05:36: A to point B. It has a direction. Most importantly a river has water. It's not all that common in Oklahoma that a river has water.
01:05:46: I'd say after this last bit of rain we're doing okay. But a river has to have those three things.
01:05:52: A shape, direction, and water. So the
01:05:57: Christian life needs to have faith, shape of our lives, hope, the direction of our lives.
01:06:05: Of course the most important thing is love. The most important thing is love. That love will be filling up our lives.
01:06:12: Love for one another. Love in Christ. We'll leave it there. Giving praise to our
01:06:19: Lord. Jesus, we thank you for our time and your word. Lord, I am so grateful for how you build your church.
01:06:31: I am so grateful for this church. Lord, I'm grateful for the churches where I have been a member of in the past.
01:06:43: And the churches who have been a blessing to these, my brothers and sisters, in their past. Because it's from you, it's from you,
01:06:52: Lord, that you do your work. We thank you that you identify us in yourself, by your blood.
01:07:00: In your name. We thank you that it's not just us, but you have a flock that is very wide and numerous.
01:07:17: We thank you that you have called us to be a people of peace. And that we would commune together in faith and hope and love.
01:07:27: We thank you for these gifts and these graces.
01:07:33: We pray these things in Jesus' name. In your name. Amen. Join me in singing the benediction.
01:07:58: Oh, how good it is. Oh, how good a family dwells together in spirit, in faith and unity.
01:08:29: Where the bonds of peace of acceptance and love are the fruits of his presence here among us.
01:08:43: So with one voice we'll sing to the Lord, and with one heart we'll live out his word, till the whole earth sees the
01:08:59: Redeemer has come. For he dwells in the presence of his people.
01:09:16: Oh, how good it is on this journey we share to rejoice with the happy and weep with those who we loathe for the weak find strength.
01:09:32: The afflicted find grace when we offer the blessing of belonging.
01:09:42: So with one voice we'll sing to the
01:09:48: Lord, and with one heart we'll live out his word, till the whole earth sees the
01:10:00: Redeemer has come. For he dwells in the presence of his people.
01:10:13: How good it is to embrace his command to prefer one another.
01:10:26: Forgive as he forgives when we live as one.
01:10:33: We all share in the love of the Son with the
01:10:39: Father and the Spirit. So with one voice we'll sing to the
01:10:49: Lord, and with one heart we'll live out his word, till the whole earth sees the
01:11:01: Redeemer has come. For he dwells in the presence of his people.
01:11:15: May the love of the Father and the grace of the Son and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all.