Sunday, July 23, 2023 AM

Shall be established forever. And we know that God had ordered and ordained and promised the Lord Jesus Christ the Messiah would be would come to he would send his only begotten son to be our savior to be our lord to be the messiah and that he will rule and reign his father on the throne of david.

And he as christians today he rules and reigns in our hearts. So if you're able let's stand at this time and we'll continue. Psalms chapter 89 verses 35 to 37. Read with me together. Once for all i have sworn by my holiness.

I will not lie to david. His offspring shall endure forever his throne. As long as the sun before me like the moon it shall be established forever a faithful witness in the skies. And our psalm of response is in our psalm for worship hymnal page 89 e.

And we'll be singing these very words that we just read. We're singing verses 18 19 and 20. Our hymn of praise is in our regular hymnal page 234. Crown him with many crowns of isaiah 49.

Thus says the lord god behold i will lift up my hand to the nations and set up my standards to the people. And they will bring their sons in their bosom and your daughters will be carried on their shoulders.

Kings will be your guardians and their princesses your nurses. They will bow down to you with their faces to the earth and lick the dust of your feet and you will know that i am the lord. Those who hopefully wait for me will not be put to shame.

Can the can the prey be taken from the mighty man or the captives of a tyrant be rescued. Surely. Thus says the lord even the captives of the mighty man will be taken away and the prey of the tyrant will be rescued.

For i will contend with the one who contends with you and i will save your sons. I will feed your oppressors with their own flesh and they will become drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine. And all flesh will know that i the lord am your savior and your redeemer the mighty one of jacob.

Let's pray. We're so grateful for the opportunity to come and spend time with each other around your word and learning about you. Just thank you for michael and his diligence to study your word. I pray lord that you would give him the freedom and the strength to open that to us as you've shared with him this last week.

I pray that our hearts would be receptive to hear what he has to say and obey your word and just bless us for being here and thank you for all of your other blessings.

In christ's name amen. Our last two songs are going to be breathe on me oh breath of god and forever jesus. So breathe on me is on page 259. And then there was a handout in the back for.

Forever jesus together in prayer. Heavenly father we thank you for the day thank you for your many.

Blessings upon us gathering us together for what we so genuinely and deeply need. We thank you for your love for us that you have poured out upon us through your son jesus christ. And i pray that you would help us this morning to look upon the truth here in your word that you would warm our hearts to what you have to say.

We would rejoice in it that you would have your way in our hearts by your word that you would change us and shape us for your glory. We pray these things in jesus name. Amen. I invite you to open your bibles and turn with me to acts chapter nine.

Book of acts chapter nine and verse 31. Verse 31. We began to look at this verse last week and the title of the sermon is the church's churches. Uh there's a there's one church but there are many churches in that church.

And understanding uh that uh that grammatical theological word is uh has everything to do with who jesus is has everything to do with the kind of savior that he is the kind of king that he is. Act chapter 9 and verse 31 you'll begin to hear about the church as a unique identifiable separate special people in the parables of jesus.

The teachings of christ anticipated of course in the promises of the new covenant in the old testament. But the first time we actually have the word church being used of the followers of christ there in jerusalem was in chapter 5 of acts.

And in chapter 5 of acts after the after the incident with ananias and sapphira where they had lied to the holy spirit and god struck them down in judgment. We read in acts 5 verses 11 through 14 that great fear came upon all the church there.

It is that's the first time we have the word used in that way in the book of acts. So great fear came upon all the church the ecclesia those who have been called out from and then gathered to christ. Fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things.

So there's the church and then there's everybody else. They all heard about these things and had similar response. But verse 12 and through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people and they were all with one accord in solomon's porch.

This is where the church was gathering at that time big area. They had thousands of people. Verse 13 says. None of the rest dared join them but the people esteemed them highly there again there's the church and then there's the rest.

There's the there's the church who are the people of christ. And then there's the rest of the people and believers were increasingly added to the lord multitudes of both men and women. See there's the there's the defining characteristic of the church the defining community of the church.

They were added to the lord. God was saving them. Christ was saving them. They were being added to him. This is the church. When we come to chapter nine we've looked at the great persecution that broke out against the church against the followers of the way saul of tarsus the the point man of that persecution the sharp end of the spear.

And yet god confronted him saved him turned him around completely. So that now sol of tarsus is the greatest champion of jesus of nazareth. In fact he's preaching so loud and so hot that they have to keep on sneaking him out of town lest he be killed by those who just don't want to hear it anymore.

So now we come to chapter 9 and verse 31 a verse that is a summary of how things are going. The acts of the risen lord jesus christ in building his church. It's a summary of how things are shaping up.

But it's also a segue moving into further acts of the risen lord jesus. And what lies ahead for his community. What lies ahead for his church. More glory ahead. Well i invite you to stand with me. As we read god's word we're going to read verse 31.

This is the word of our lord and savior jesus christ by his holy spirit through his servant luke. Then the churches throughout all judea galilee and samaria had peace and were edified and walking in the fear of the lord and in the comfort of the holy spirit.

They were multiplied this is the word of the lord thanks be to god. You may be seated. Well i got my.

Four-year degree in five years i got my three-year seminary degree in eight and a half. So spent a long time in education religious education education for pastors uh just doing what i could as i went along.

Now one of the major themes that kept on popping up again and again in classes was church growth church growth. And there was a there's a lot of intense focus on how to get more nickels and noses and i read many books where the entirety of each chapter would be concerned about different ways proven ways to increase those nickels and noses.

And then there'd be a paragraph i'm not kidding a paragraph at the end and oh by the way you need the holy spirit. Leave the last paragraph out. It works just fine. I think it's really funny that uh the unitarian church you know that denies basically everything.

Uh they were having trouble. You know not many people like going to a church where they denied everything there was about god. Um and they were having trouble with their numbers. But you know what they they picked up some of these church growth techniques and boy they began to have more and more people come.

You don't need the holy spirit to do these things. Uh you can you can increase a personality driven organization. You can you can bolster and increase a non-profit organization. But what we're concerned with in this verse is how is the what about the church's churches.

What about the way that christ builds his church. What does that look like. What's involved there. Because that's what matters forever. I had a story in one of my classes where there was a cautionary tale and you may have heard the quote from uh charles spurgeon that if you have to give a car carnival to get people to come to church uh then you'll just have to keep on giving carnivals to keep them coming back.

And there was a story it was uh shared with us in class at a guest speaker and he came and he talked about how um he was involved with uh some church growth schemes in his past he wasn't too proud of like the time that they uh brought a circus on board to have a festival in their front parking lot and the in the premiere show was the pastor of the church was going to wrestle a bear.

Um and the moral of the story that he shared was that the next week they had far fewer show up and one of them complained about why are we not wrestling the bear again. So his point was you should probably just stick with hot dogs every week don't go up too high because then you're going to lower it.

Then the expectations will be disappointed the next week. Now the elders here we've uh we've talked about church growth. We've thought about the way the lord builds his church. And you know the way that we think about it is as follows.

You know if you can use the metaphor it's a metaphor that's been used and it's been used in a book or two that we've looked at. But if you can think of a metaphor of the trellis in the vine there's a vine there's life there's growth.

And that's what matters. And we want to see the vine grow. We want to see the life of the church grow spiritually. We want to see people grow up in christ mature in christ grow up in their love and understanding of the lord.

And that there would be a fruitfulness among us because of the holy spirit. And as that fruitfulness grows and as the vine increases and grows and it will because god promised it would. We will see from time to time that we need to build a little bit more trellis to support the vine.

But we don't want to build a bunch of trellis and ignore the vine. You see i think that's what's going on here in acts 9 31. And we've already looked at some of the things going on here. We understand that christ is building his church upon the rock of his own person.

He is the cornerstone. The gates of hades will not prevail against it. And he is building his church. And we've thought about their identity. Some translations say the churches some say the church. But both are correct.

Because we're one in christ we thought about the identity of the church. Who are we to our lord. Number one question most important who are we to jesus. How does he think of us. And that informs how we think of each other.

I should be thinking of you and relating to you in the way that christ sees you. And then who are we to the world. Oh that's last. You see that's the last question we ask. Not because it's unimportant but because it has to be listed last because it's what jesus thinks is most important of all.

And how we relate to one another because jesus said all men will know that you are my disciples by the love that you have for one another. And how are we going to love each other unless we see each other in jesus.

And then we think about who are we to the world. That's our identity. And it is not unique to just one place in one time. We have brothers and sisters sister churches all over this globe. Praise god praise christ.

He's building his church. The bible has been translated into a vast majority of all languages and dialects a few more to go over the course of history the church has prevailed. If you ever have the privilege of reading the sermons and the writings of our brothers from the past john softstone athanasius and so on you will be so encouraged to see they worship the exact same jesus christ we do today.

And so it's not about a particular time in a particular place. It's not about just jews or just gentiles. It's not east versus west. We are one in christ all over the place. Our brothers and sisters in mongolia or in the palika tribe in ivory coast we worship the very same jesus christ.

So we thought about their internationality here. It's mentioned that their churches throughout judea galilee and samaria. But no matter who they were they were in christ. And they had peace and were edified.

So they had peace. That was their interaction. They were having peace in their church and in between their churches. The biblical peace is more than the absence of conflict. This is not saying that there was a ceasefire between churches.

This wasn't saying that there was a ceasefire within a church. This was saying that there was communion. Biblical peace is more than the absence of conflict. It is the presence of communion. And christ is the one who brings that we are one in him.

Shiloh brings shalom and shalom looks like faith hope and love lived out towards one another. Now they come to their instructions. We see in the verse that the churches were throughout all galilee judea galilee and samaria had peace.

And notice they were edified. Edified. That's probably not a word that's used very often in in the world today. Probably not used in emails probably not going to see the term edified in some sort of human resource package.

But you you hear the term edifice. Don't you. And you know that that means some sort of construction. You know that means some kind of building. And that's what this word means. It has to do with construction.

They were built up built out. They were being constructed. And remember that jesus said the wise man is the one who builds his house upon the rock. Well jesus is the wisest of all. He builds his church his house upon himself.

Ephesians tells us that he's the cornerstone that he that jesus christ is in the process of building his church as a temple a temple of the living god. The new covenant temple is not made of of of dead stones but of living stones.

And he's building and he's constructing us as a temple of the holy spirit so that god indwells us. And we dwell with god here in this new covenant. And what does he build on. He builds upon himself the cornerstone.

And what else does he use as a foundation. The prophets and the apostles see the cornerstone is the very first stone that you have to have laid. It has to be perfectly cut. It has to be straight. All three dimensions.

And everything else is ordered according to that stone. So jesus christ is the cornerstone. And then all the prophets who prophesied of his coming and all the apostles who preached his resurrection are ordered and aligned to christ who is the cornerstone.

And upon this foundation christ builds his church. He builds his temple. This is temple construction. They were. When we see that they are edified we see that they are being built up. That this is temple.

Construction can be seen from first peter chapter two. First peter chapter two. Peter right saint peter that preached at pentecost saint peter. That we're.

Going to read about here at the rest of acts. Chapter nine. And what does he say. Well let's just.

Back up to chapter one because it's really really good. Verse 22. Since you have purified your souls and obeying the truth through the spirit in sincere love of the brethren love one another fervently with a pure heart.

Having been born again the source of all this life that he's talking about not of corruptible sea but of incorruptible. Notice the through the word of god which lives and abides forever. And he quotes isaiah here.

Because all flesh is as grass and all the glory of man is the flower of the grass. The grass withers and the flower falls away. But the word of the lord endures forever. Now notice at the very end of chapter one.

Moving into chapter two. Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you. In other words the good news of jesus christ takes up the entirety of the word that was preached by the prophets and it is applied to you.

Peter says we take up the gospel. When we preach the gospel we're preaching the entirety of the word of god to you. Paul was known to have said that he preached nothing but christ and also the full counsel of the word of god.

Those two go together. Verse. Verse one of chapter two. Therefore laying aside all malice all deceit hypocrisy envy and all evil speaking lay all that aside as newborn babes as suckling infants desire cry out for reach for the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby.

There's church growth. If indeed you have tasted that the lord is gracious. Now what kind of how does this growth manifest. What does it look like. Well peter begins to use the metaphor of construction.

Verse 4 coming to him as to a living stone rejected indeed by men. As we see that the jews were rejecting the gospel of jesus christ they had their temple it was it was big it was beautiful it was covered in gold and silver.

They had spent decades building their temple and they weren't about to give it up. So they rejected christ as the cornerstone of the new temple. But christ is chosen by god and precious. Verse 5. You also as living stones.

So christ is a living stone. You also as living stones are being built up edified. There's that there's the same word that we have in acts 9 21. And they were being edified. Same word is here being built up into what a spiritual house a spiritual house a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to god through jesus christ.

Therefore it is also contained in the scripture. Behold i lay in zion a chief cornerstone elect precious. And he who believes on him will by no means be put to shame. Therefore you to you who believe he is precious but to those who are disobedient the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

They stumble being disobedient to the word to which they were also appointed. But you are a chosen generation a royal priesthood a holy nation his own special people that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Who once were not a people but now are the people of god who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. So when when we read that the churches were being edified were being built up were being constructed.

We know the shape into which they were being constructed. It is being constructed into a temple constructed into the very shape of christ. The shape of the temple declared the glory of god. The very shape and and structure of the temple was a message.

Every bit of the architecture and every last artifact in the temple declares the glory of god in his in his redemption of all creation. That's what the temple was declaring through his chosen servant.

So the new covenant temple is the same thing however the new temp the new temple is being constructed. It is about declaring the glory of god in the face of jesus christ. The whole shape of it just screams jesus.

We have architecture from the medieval ages cathedrals that took generations to build. And how are they shaped. They are shaped to declare gospel messages. When we think about who we are and how we're being edified and constructed it is to be in the shape of jesus christ the last adam who is the image of the invisible god.

Now what. What about the particular content. How is it that they're being built up. Well all we have to do is look in the book of acts and see what it was that they were talking about to one another. How were they edifying one another.

What was the content of that edification. It wasn't something where somebody said you know i had a thought this morning you know. Or uh you know i've got something on my heart i want to share it's not that.

Or i heard this nifty thing or i just read this bestseller. Have you watched the latest movie or show. Oh it was so good. Is that. What is. So what are they using to edify one another in such a way that they're being built up into the temple the new covenant temple.

So in acts chapter 2 back where we see after pentecost and the arrival of the holy spirit and then first gathering together in these in these numbers baptized identified as the church verse 41 of acts chapter 2.

Then those who gladly received his word peter's preaching about how jesus christ is the fulfillment of god's promises whether in joel or the psalms or isaiah. Those who had gladly received his word were baptized.

They were acknowledged and brought in as members of the church. They were publicly declared as members of christ. These belonged to christ. And that day about 3 000 souls were added to them. Now notice this verse 42.

They continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine in their teaching in and their declaration of who christ is from all the scriptures according to luke 24. So they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine in fellowship in the breaking of bread and in prayers.

So their instruction has to do with the the the apostles doctrine that which christ taught them and opened their eyes that they may understand uh the scriptures. And notice also in acts chapter 4 another summary moment in acts and what it said here about how the church was doing acts chapter 4.

In verse 33 speaking of the multitude of the church and in their unity and so on. Verse 33 says. And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the lord jesus and great grace was upon them all.

They did not preach a dead christ. They did not preach a theoretical christ. They did not preach a christ of myth. They did not preach a christ of happenstance. They did not preach a christ who was lowly and dead in the grave who was merely human or a good teacher.

They preached christ who was raised from the dead the living reigning christ. Now that builds the church. When we put our eyes upon christ who is the right hand of the father reigning our living risen lord the first fruits of the new creation and us raised in him.

So their instruction has to do with the word of god has everything to do with the son of god taking the word of god by the spirit of god to remake the image of god. That's what's going on in our lives when we're being built up in christ by his word this is his work.

He is the son of david. And so he is building the temple. It is his it is his role. And he does so by the power of the holy spirit. Not by flesh not by might says the lord but by my spirit the temple was built.

But we see that that's not always welcomed. The the cornerstone is also a stone of stumbling a rock of offense. It doesn't make sense sometimes doesn't fit well with the world view. Paul says that he was preaching christ but this preaching of christ and his resurrection from the dead was was what it was a stumbling block and in an offense the prevailing world view of his day said that you wanted to escape all things uh fleshly and material and be delivered to nothing but ethereal spiritual mystical experiences.

So why would you ever want any resurrection from the dead. They made no sense to the gentiles and it was a great stumbling block to the jews because they didn't want to believe in a messiah who was humbled and who was who was killed on the cross as a sacrifice and was raised from the dead.

It was an offense and a stumbling block. This message still today is not accepted by many. It causes offense it causes stumbling. And if there is one thing that those church growth books told me it was you had better not offend anybody.

That's not how you do it. But how does christ do it now. He's doing such a good job. Our great shepherd is doing such a great job. I just rejoice in the testimony of christians all around the world and what god is doing there.

We just heard from one of our missionaries that they're in the process of handing off all the future discipleship opportunities and the training of new pastors to the people who already live there. Who are the natives there.

Right. The americans and the europeans are going home who came to us who came in the first place. There are missionaries going from venezuela to northern africa to preach gospel to the to the muslims missionaries pouring out of south korea.

Isn't jesus doing such a good job building his church. And how does he build his church. He builds them up and edifies us through his word through his scripture teaching us who he is and shaping us in his image so that by looking in the scriptures and looking at our lord from glory to glory he moves us so that by looking in his word we will look like him in this world.

Now why would why would we ever reject this kind of building and edification. Well it's humbling. Isn't it say i'm not already a perfectly shaped stone. It is very humbling in our day. Isn't it to say you know i'm not fully accepting of myself.

But how vital for the gospel how vital for salvation that a sinner will never come to christ and be saved. If that sinner says i am fully accepting of myself. Jesus says if any man wants to follow me he must take up his cross denying himself and follow after me to repent of all that which offends god that has brought us under the judgment of god and to recognize that he has given us a savior who upon the cross for us and for our salvation died under the wrath of god that we might be saved that we might be transformed by his resurrection.

We own the only reason why we would reject this type of construction and this kind of edification this kind of building up into a new covenant temple is we're too busy whitewashing our tombs. I like my stone just the way it is.

I'm just going to make it pretty. The unity of the churches their interactions of peace are entirely informed by this edification. If there is a church group over here and they're shaping themselves after this successful program.

And there's a church group over here shaping themselves after this really nifty philosophy. How are they going to have peace. How's there going to be unity. You see our unity is in christ. He builds us up into him.

He's the head now notice also um their illumination what makes sense of everything. The churches throughout all judea galilee and samaria had peace and were edified and notice and walking in the fear of the lord and in the comfort of the holy spirit they were multiplied.

Um that's a it's it's a fun thing to to look at the similarity of each one of the carrying verbs in this uh verse. This is my translation of the verse. So it was the churches throughout all judea galilee and samaria were having peace being built up and being walked in the fear of the lord and in the comfort of the holy spirit being multiplied.

They were being walked. You know why. Because we're sheep. Christ is the shepherd. He's walking us in certain ways. We have a good shepherd who leads us in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. And we are being walked.

The way that christ builds the church is to walk us in good paths lead us in good paths. And what a good path. This is to fear the lord. To fear the lord. The fear of god is the beginning of wisdom the beginning of knowledge the beginning of understanding.

To fear the lord is life and health. To fear the lord is to depart from evil. How vital is the fear of the lord. What does it mean. It means to think of him first and think of him most. If you are in a very frightening situation there's a threat confronting you.

Let's say you're in a vehicle in deep water and the water is pouring in and you're trapped. What you're thinking of first and thinking of most. Well that's what you're fearing. Correct. Fearing the lord means think of thinking of him first thinking of him most.

Fearing christ. Having this high reverence for christ puts everything into perspective. Who am i to my lord. First question. No matter where we are we are in him. No matter what goes on i relate to you as christ is related to me.

I love you as he has loved me no matter where i am. In the word it's about my savior jesus christ. You see we think of him first and we think of him most. And we're walked in that way. This is why the word of god is a light to our path a lamp to our feet.

That's why. Because christ is the light of the world and coming into the world he enlightens every man. He's the light for every person who has ever existed. By his light we are to live. Anything else is darkness.

So we have a high reverence for christ. We are being walked in the fear of the lord. Your fear is what you're always on about. You're afraid of something. That's what you talk about all the time you can't get away from.

It dominates your thinking. Dominates your decisions. What is dominating your thinking. What is dominating your decisions. What is pulling you along. And it seems like you just can't even help but go.

Is it the fear of death. Missing out fear of death. Not having enough fear of death not living long enough fear of death. It's a fear of man. What do you. What do they think of me. Or how do i view myself the fear of man.

Fear of death is slavery. The bible says in the fear of man is a snare. But the fear of the lord is life and freedom in christ. Well we are to walk in the in the fear of the lord. That's our illumination the illumination of the church by which all of the work on the temple is to be done.

What. What holds up construction. By the way number one reason for stopping construction is not the weather although that's very common. It's the sun went down. It's dark out. Really really hard to do construction 24 7.

But in the light of jesus christ where there is no darkness there is no need for the sun or the moon but the light shines forever. In the new jerusalem. As this temple is being built we have the eternal ever shining light of jesus christ for this construction to continue but also notice our indwelling.

Not only our instruction and illumination but our indwelling and walking. In other words being walked in the fear of the lord and in the comfort of the holy spirit. So this this being walked informs the fear of the lord.

We're walking in the fear of the lord and we're being walked in something else the comfort the comfort of the holy spirit. We have a good shepherd. He makes us to lie down in green pastures. He leads us beside the still waters.

He leads us in paths of righteousness for his namesake. He restores our soul with his knee and he puts us into the comfort of the holy spirit. This is the significant difference between the old covenant and the new covenant.

Very significant difference before the holy spirit he indwelt the tabernacle holy of holies the temple the holy of holies. But now we're the temple in christ and he indwells us. And so we have a comforter.

Jesus told his disciples i must go away i must depart. I'm going to go and prepare a place for you. And knowing that i'm going to come again and take you to myself so that where i am you may also be. But i'm not going to leave you orphans.

I'm going to send to you another comforter meaning a comforter that like unto jesus was for his disciples. So the holy spirit for us comforting us. How does the holy spirit comfort us. He comforts us by his very presence that he indwells us.

And by his presence we may abide with god may abide with the lord. He comforts us by his power. The power of god is not millions of miles away. And here we are hollering as loud as we can and as plaintively as we can hoping that his power will some by some means reach all the way down to us to help us.

No the holy spirit god himself and all of his power and all of his attributes dwells within his temple his people the church. The power of god is not far away. The holy spirit indwells us. He is right here.

He comforts us in our prayers. Sometimes we don't know how to pray as we ought. Situations are just too painful too complicated too messy. I don't even know what to say. And yet we have the comfort of the holy spirit who intercedes with us with groanings far too deep to be uttered.

We have the comfort of his proclamation. Every single one of the words of god here in these scriptures is god-breathed holy men born along by the holy spirit wrote down every word that god superintended with his truth.

We have the proclamation of the holy spirit. We have a comfort. How much comfort do we receive from the word that god has given to us by his spirit. We have the comfort of the holy spirit's prompting because he brings to mind all that christ has taught us.

He prompts us with the word of god. He directs us according to the word. We are comforted by his purpose. The work that god has begun in us. He's going to complete into the day of christ. Jesus he has given us this holy spirit to purify us to build us up to to bring us into unity and into love.