Mark 1:1-15 "The Gospel Message of Christ"

           Mark’s Gospel begins unlike the other three Gospels—Matthew, Luke and John. John begins with a theological discourse about who Jesus is. Matthew and Luke both present narratives about Jesus’ pre-birth and birth and genealogies of the line of Jesus. However, Mark is concerned about naming Jesus as the suffering servant therefore he doesn’t take time to explain the birth or baptisms and temptations; he cuts right to the chase. Mark’s Gospel is often known as the “action” Gospel because of the constant movement; the repetition of the word “immediately” and how he just wants to get the cross of Christ presenting Jesus as the suffering servant. Therefore, as Jesus heads into Galilee to preach His first sermon; as these words come out of His mouth, He is a dead man. Everyone was expecting a Messiah, but no one was expecting Him in this way.

            Last week we learned from Paul about the content, the delivery and the purpose of his preaching while he was in Corinth. This was also the content, the delivery and purpose that we should have today in our preaching that we all do to all people.  

            However, the other aspects of the Gospel which we have been studying are included in this; just as others have seen overlap as well. Jesus’ message was God entering the world in a unique and glorious fashion to show His power and wisdom to all men. The message which Jesus preached was about converting to Christianity by repentance and believing. If you recall; there are only two responses to the preaching of the Gospel—either you can accept it or you can deny it. And when a person believes by faith he or she is receiving the righteousness and atonement of sin that God offered as a remedy for humanities universal need. And when people receive this remedy; they do so with repentance of their sin and placing their faith in God which brings them joy because ultimately it is displaying the power of God in their life. And lastly, Jesus preached this message to all He came into contact with—there was no discriminating.

            All of these aspects of the Gospel overlap and are included in one another; but we can specifically see them in this passage by the four things that Jesus preached. This also gives us insights in regards to our response to the Gospel message being preached.

            The first thing that Jesus preached to all He came into contact with was that “the time has come.” This means that the time is fulfilled. At the right time, the right date, the right year, everything was perfectly fulfilled for the time to be correct for Him to enter the world and begin His ministry on earth by preaching the good news of God.

It is now that prophecies have been fulfilled; it is now that the prophets were correct in their predictions; and it was now the time which all the Old Testament persons were waiting for; and Jesus said that this time was now.

            In the Old testament, people hoped for a day when God would not only be their sovereign King in heaven controlling the affairs of sinful men; but would stand forth in glory and save His people from sin and misery and defeat their enemies and establish righteousness and peace and set up a throne on earth to reign in more of an immediate way. 

            And that time is now Jesus as Jesus preached, “The time has come”.  The time has been fulfilled to the fullest that it could be. You see, Jesus Christ is the focal point of all of history. Everything that happened in the past pointed to Jesus Christ and every thing that has happened after Jesus or will happen comes from Jesus and through Jesus. Everything that has happened on the earth and everything that will happen is centered around Jesus Christ.

            The time had come for God to break into the world like never before to reveal His glory in a personal way to comfort His people and to defeat their enemies. And this is what Jesus Christ did—He revealed the glory of God in a personal way by comforting people and defeating their enemies.

            Jesus was showing the world that the time was now that many had been anticipating for the Messiah to come and save the world. Because everyone was expecting the Messiah; however, no one expected the Messiah to come in this way and do the things that Jesus did. Therefore, Jesus’ message was that the time was now, the time was correct and the time was fulfilled for this to happen.

            And the anticipation of this Messiah was that He would come and overthrow the government; therefore showing that He was only a political power ready to reign on the throne. Therefore the second part of what Jesus preached was, “the Kingdom of God is near.” And when talking about the Kingdom of God, this can be a very confusing concept to grasp. Questions arise such as: what is the Kingdom of God? Where is the Kingdom of God? Is it fully here yet? If it isn’t fully here, then when will it be?

            These are all great questions. And first, we can see through Jesus’ teachings on parables that the Kingdom of God refers to His saving reign, not to His total providence over all things. God is in control over the whole entire world; however the Kingdom is in the hearts of those who acknowledge Him as the only King.

            And the Kingdom of God is fulfilled partially now and will be fully here at the second coming of Jesus Christ. Therefore, we are in a period of what many call the “already but not yet”. Meaning, we have glimpses of the Kingdom now, but the full and glorious Kingdom is not fully here yet. However, it is coming!

            So if the Kingdom is partially here, then what does that mean? What part is here and what part isn’t here yet?

            Well, Jesus was the embodiment of the Kingdom and has ushered it in when He was born as a little baby in a manger. But this tension of having the Kingdom here, but not fully can be seen in many Scripture passages:

• In 1 Peter and Romans we are taught that we know that Christ has already purchased our healing, but we still groan with sickness

• In 1 John and 1 Corinthians we are taught that we have already passed from death to life, but we still die

• In Ephesians and Galatians we are taught that we already have the sanctifying Spirit as a down payment of our inheritance in heaven, but the war between flesh and Spirit goes on every day.

• In Romans and Matthew we are taught that we have already been forgiven all sin in Christ, but we must go on every day asking for the forgiveness of our sin

• In Philippians and Romans we learn that we already have our citizenship in the Kingdom of God, but for now we must submit in measure to the rulers of the world

You see, there is a tension here that we are living in. We have a taste of what the Kingdom of God is and the things that will happen in it; but we do not have the full fledged whole Kingdom of God yet. But it is coming.

And we can read in Scripture about Jesus’ ministry that the Kingdom overcomes certain things and brings us other things, such as:

·        The Kingdom overcomes physical misery and brings healing

·        The Kingdom overcomes death and brings resurrection

·        The Kingdom overcomes demonic oppression and brings deliverance

·        The Kingdom overcomes rebellion and brings conversion

·        The Kingdom overcomes condemnation and brings forgiveness

·        The Kingdom overcomes wrongdoing and brings righteousness

·        The Kingdom overcomes sadness and brings joy

·        The Kingdom overcomes aimless futility and brings purposeful ministry.

Jesus demonstrated that the Kingdom of God was here and would overcome certain things and bring better things in which He demonstrated this in however we should not assume that our demonstration of the Kingdom today and Jesus’ demonstration of the Kingdom in His ministry will be the same.

            So there is a tension; and now we eagerly wait the 2^nd coming of Jesus Christ with great confidence in the hope that we have of this to come true and faith that this will actually take place.

            The third and fourth aspects of Jesus’ preaching let us know how we can enter into this Kingdom of God which is by “repenting” and “believing”; which ultimately happens when a person is converted to Christianity. Conversion is the human action done in response to what God has done for us—namely; softening our heart to hear the Gospel. And in conversion, there are two necessary elements: they are repenting and believing. They both are needed if there is going to be any value to conversion at all. These go hand in hand with each other. They are like a coin. You see, a coin has two sides—the heads and the tails side—and these two sides are what gives it value. And if a coin doesn’t have one of these two sides, then it isn’t worth anything—there is no value to it. Therefore, when learning about repentance; one must also learn about believing and vice-versa. But this morning, we are going to separate the two and hopefully we will see just how important these are as individual pieces; however, more importantly as a whole to see the full value of them.

            So Jesus mentions the word “repent” as part of His preaching. You see, when we are “dead in our sins” the Holy Spirit softens our hearts so that we can hear the Gospel message being presented to us. When we hear the Gospel; we have already learned that there are two responses which we can do: either accept it through faith or deny it. And when we accept it through faith; we need to repent of our past sins. However, in that sense it appears to mean that repentance is a one time act that is never to be done again. But in the Greek; it stresses the importance of repenting by being an aspect of our daily life which we are commanded to do. Repentance is the removal of any obstacles in our life that hinder our reception of the Messiah and His Kingdom. Let me say that again; repentance is the removal of any obstacles in our life that hinder our reception of the Messiah and His Kingdom.

            And the Heidelberg catechism emphasizes three aspects of what is included in repentance in QA 89 saying that we must be genuinely sorry for sin; we must hate it more and more and then we must run away from it. In other words, we must have some knowledge of our sin, we must be convicted of our sin and we must trust in the forgiveness of sin.

            First, we must have knowledge of our sin. This helps us realize that we have changed from the past life of sin that we used to live into the new creation that we are in Christ Jesus. Our knowledge of our sin will help us admit the sin that we need to confess before God because when we admit our sins; we are acknowledging that what the Bible says is true. We are to acknowledge the sins which we commit, not because God doesn’t know how we sinned; rather it is beneficial for us to know the sins we commit and be open and honest before our holy God. This helps us be genuinely sorry for the sin which we have committed.

            Secondly, we must be convicted of our sin; we must hate it more and more. We must not only be sorry and feel sorrowful for our sins, but we must hate sin and the act of sinning. Our feelings change toward sin; we used to love it, but now that we are in Christ, we must hate it more and more. This conviction is done by the Holy Spirit working in us. This can be an awfully painful process; but people of God, we know that in the end, we will be better off because of it. And we can praise God because of this!

            Thirdly, we must trust that we are forgiven by God of our sins when we confess them to Him. This is a change in purpose of life for we never used to desire to be forgiven, however now it is different for us. We can have forgiveness and we must trust in this forgiveness and that it remains true for us—that when we ask for forgiveness; we can have complete trust that our sins will be forgiven. Therefore, we no longer want to sin; rather we turn and run away from sin. And we do this every day continually until we die. We must continually repent because we are continual sinners. But repentance won’t allow us to see Christ; seeing Christ drives us to our knees in repentance.

            And with these three elements of repentance, having knowledge of sin, conviction of our sin and trusting in forgiveness; we can see that this is only one aspect of conversion. Because before we were converted we loved sin and living in sin and doing everything sinful. However, we have now changed and have made a 180 degree turn from sin and to God.

            The fourth element that Jesus preached to all those who heard is also the second element of conversion which is the command to “believe the good news.” After repenting of our sins, we must believe. And believe is another way of saying to have faith. And faith, if you remember from the first sermon I preached here on James 2; I mentioned there are three aspects of faith as well—knowledge, conviction and trust.

            The first is that of knowledge. We must have some sort of knowledge about who or what we are placing our faith in. This knowledge doesn’t have to be much as we learn from the thief of the cross; but as we continue on with our Christian life; the more knowledge we have about God and who He is and what He has done for us; this surely deepens and strengthens our faith in Him. It doesn’t have to be a lot; but it does have to be enough. And people often look to books outside the Bible to strengthen their faith; however, many don’t know what authors to trust and many don’t know what authors are good and what ones are bad. But you see, when we turn to God’s Word and read it; God reveals Himself to us about who He is; and He is perfect; therefore the authorship of His Word is perfect. We can trust what we read in this book and the knowledge that we learn from it.

            The second aspect of faith is that of conviction. You see, it isn’t enough to have just knowledge. We must believe the knowledge that we learn about God is true. For when we believe that it is true; our heart moves in the direction toward God and we are convicted of the beliefs to be true!

            The third aspect of faith is that of a trust. We must have a full fledge commitment to God. Simply knowing it is not enough; even the demons know about God and when convicted they shudder. However, when we know about God and are convicted we must place all our trust and faith in Him for what He has done for us—namely providing a remedy for our need.

            Therefore, knowledge, conviction and trust are apart of both repentance and faith. And we must have both of these elements to make up our whole conversion; for if they don’t then certainly it isn’t worth anything—just like a coin needs two sides of it to have any value. Repentance and believing is not only suggested by Jesus, rather they are commands of Jesus for us to do daily—daily repenting of our sins and daily acknowledging Him as the Lord and Savior of our life.

And these two things—repenting and faith or believing—are things that we must do daily. We must daily repent and daily believe. We must daily have knowledge of our sin and of God. We must daily be convicted of our sin and of who God is. We must daily trust in God for the forgiveness of sins and daily trust in God for who He says He is.

And notice what Jesus says to believe in; He commands us to believe the good news. Well, what was the good news that He was talking about? This good news was that the “time has come, the kingdom of God is near.” This was the good news; and this still is the good news.

            For there will be a day when the Lord Jesus will usher in the full Kingdom when He comes back in all His glory; the dead will rise; the devil will be defeated once and for all; there will be no more pain, crying or death; there will be a new heaven and new earth; there will be eternity spent with our heavenly Father—only if we repent and believe in the good news.

            For if we only believe and don’t repent then we won’t enter into this Kingdom. And if we only repent and believe; then we won’t enter this Kingdom. Therefore, both are commanded to us as a daily practice as well as a necessary element for entering the Kingdom of God. And remember, repentance and believing are the human responses to God’s working in our hearts after we hear the Gospel presented to us. These are done in response to what God has done for us; we can only do these things because of what God has done for us.

You see, the Gospel is clearly for all of us and it demands a response from all of us. And the only logical response from us is through repenting of our sin and turning to God and placing our complete faith in God.

This is How Crazy Starts

So, I bet you're wondering what this title means.....I was unsure of how to title this because of the following.....

Jonathan Stockeland, my moped-riding, human trafficking fighter and seeker of justice, friend also known as "Viking" to most of you sat me down in my back yard around the campfire in 2010 and said this, "Brady, next year I am going to do a bigger moped trip, but it is going to be for a reason.....and you're coming with me."

This is how crazy started.

And the next summer, we circumnavigated the United States of America on Honda Ruckus' with 49cc engines raising awareness about human trafficking. You can read about our adventures here:  www.mopedjusticemission.blogspot.com. Or go to for a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C39UUhE-u7I of our trip.

And that was crazy.

A few weeks ago I received a phone call saying, "Brady, let's do something crazy; like ride mopeds to the moon and back....or something like that."

Of course it was the one and only Viking.

But what he really meant was let's go hiking.

And so we discussed some possibilities and two options emerged.

We both love the canyon---I mean, who doesn't????!

And then our second option was to go to Yosemite; where we went on our moped trip.

But not just any hike in Yosemite....it was the hike called "Half-dome"

The North Face logo is from this amazing peak in Yosemite.....and we want to hike to the top.

But this hike is pretty intense.....Mom and Denae....please don't look at any other pictures until I get home and show you otherwise you might talk me out of it.......

However, in order to hike it you need a special permit, therefore we won't know if we can get this permit until a few days before we go. So if we don't get it, then we simply will just do other hikes.

Either or, I am excited to spend time with Viking and in God's creation....once again.

I love you bud and I pray that this can happen!

To God be the glory.

Friends!

So I had some visitors this weekend/part of the week!

Eric and Nina DeGroot decided to pay a visit to Bellflower!

They came in on Friday, did their own thing. Then on Saturday I worked all day and they went exploring Southern Cali.


When we ate dinner on Friday, it was so awesome to have company at meal time.....I guess it is just the little things that mean a lot. It has been weird eating meals alone, so it was good to have company to eat them with!

Catching sand grabs!

On Sunday, we worshiped and then went to Huntington Beach! It was nice to have someone who would play in the waves with me!

It was such a beautiful day and a great time spent with them!

And then on Monday, they did some things and I worked until early afternoon and then met them at the Hollywood sign and then we went down Hollywood Boulevard to explore some more....

Here are just a few pictures I've got:

We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe which was oh so good and filling! Delicious!

For those of you who don't know what Hollywood Blvd is; it is where the "walk of fame" is with famous people's names in "stars" on the sidewalk. It's pretty cool. It is a unique experience and I can tell you more about it later, just not on this blog :)

Well, Eric and Nina are getting ready to head home tomorrow A.M. bright and early.And maybe you've got no idea why there is a connection between us; well here is some history:

Eric's parents and my parents are good friends; therefore us kids did also as we grew up. Eric and I worked together for 5 straight summers when I was in high school. It was our boss and then us two working and our boss would go and do his own thing; and Eric and I would go and hydroseed/landscape.

We had very good conversations and just a quality friendship. Then he married Nina 5 years ago from last May. Therefore, I've got to know Nina very well also through this.

What a wonderful couple they are; so blessed to have them come visit!

I am glad they could come visit and really excited for the remainder of this week because my parents and sister are coming soon!

Whoot! Whoot!

To God be the glory!

1 Corinthians 1:17-2:5 "The Gospel Preaching of the Cross"

          This passage that we have read this morning is one that many will simply glance over and continue reading not giving much thought to it. And this is most likely because it is about preaching and not everyone is called to be a preacher behind a pulpit. Therefore, many of you maybe even are thinking, “Well I guess I can tune out of this message if we are going to hear about preaching.”

            However, there are important reasons why this passage pertains to everyone here. But first we must consider this portion of 1 Corinthians in the context of the letter. This topic of preaching was something that the Corinthian church needed to be taught. If we turn back to 1:11-12 Paul has heard that there were some quarrels or divisions in the Corinthian church about the pastors who had preached there. We read in 1:12 that some say, “I follow Paul, others say, I follow Apollos and still others say, I follow Cephas or Peter”. This happened because Paul had preached there for 1.5 years; Apollos began after Paul had left and Peter came and preached a little as well.

And surely, these three men all preached the same Gospel; therefore the division was not over what they preached; the division was over how they preached. The Corinthian believers were magnifying the messenger while completely missing the message.

            And ultimately this passage is for all of us for 4 reasons. First, as you notice in 1 Corinthians 1:2 Paul is writing this letter to “the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ..” And then in 1:10, 1:11, 1:26, and 2:1 Paul is clearly addressing, “Brothers” therefore Paul isn’t writing to seminary students or people who are at a Pastor’s Conference…..He is writing to the Corinthian believers and ultimately to all believers. Because when preaching takes place; the whole body of believers is active as the preachers speaks for God and the congregation listens to God’s Words.

            And secondly, this passage is also important to Bell One because when I leave in September there will have been three pastors in this pulpit at various lengths for the past year and a half: Pastor Derek, Pastor Don and myself. And now as you continue your search for a pastor of this church; it is important that we don’t fall into the same trap that the Corinthians did by magnifying the messenger and missing the message because this surely will only result in division just like the Corinthian church.

            And thirdly, since Paul is writing this to the whole church; the congregation must keep preachers accountable for the content of their sermon, their deliver and the purpose of their preaching. The Belgic Confession names three marks of the true church and one of those marks is the “pure preaching of the Gospel”; therefore if we are going to keep the pulpit pure; we need to know the what, the how and the why of preaching.

            And fourthly, preaching is something that is done by a pastor in a worship service; however, preaching is also something that in a way, we all do as we share the Gospel to all those who we meet in our everyday life.

            And also I want to mention that I come humbly before you today as a young preacher with very little experience. I am a rookie pastor. I am still in my ABC’s of preaching, therefore by preaching on preaching I am not claiming to know it all because I don’t.

But what I do know is what the Word of God says, and from this passage, Paul teaches the Corinthian church the what, the how and the why of preaching. I’d encourage you to keep your Bible opened as God speaks to us today.

            The first question that Paul addresses is the ‘what to preach’. But first, I want us to think about what we want to hear being preached: what do you desire to hear from a sermon? [PAUSE] The question of ‘what to preach’ is ultimately about what should be in the content of the sermon.

            And in this passage, Paul mentions four similar things that were in his sermons; therefore they should be in every sermon at all times.

First, in 1:17 Paul mentions that “Christ did not send him to baptize, but to preach the Gospel…” Paul was sent by God to preach the Gospel. He was sent to preach that we are sinners in need of a Savior. He wasn’t sent to baptize, but to preach. Obviously it is okay for a pastor to baptize people, but first and foremost; they have been sent by God to preach the Word for this is of greater importance in comparison to administering the sacraments. We need to hear that we are sinners in need of a Savior; and this should be apart of every sermon.

Secondly, in vs 23 Paul says, “But we preach Christ crucified…” Paul uses the ‘we’ to mean himself, Apollos and Peter who all preached the same message of Christ crucified. And clearly preaching without Jesus Christ crucified isn’t the Gospel at all. The Gospel is the good news of God providing a sinless savior for soiled sinners to spend eternity with Him; nothing more and nothing less. 

Thirdly, in 2:1 Paul says: “…I proclaimed to you (Corinthians) the testimony about God.”  Some translations have translated this as proclaiming “God’s mysteries”. And this is a mystery indeed; a mystery of how an infinite God saved finite human beings through the death of His very own Son. This was the testimony of God that Paul proclaimed the Corinthians.

And fourth in 2:2 Paul says: “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” You see, before Paul even got to Corinth, he had decided already what he was going to preach. This was the only thing that Paul could preach; the only thing that he desired to preach; and the only thing that he ever preached—which was Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And he knew if he preached anything more than this or anything less than this; then he wasn’t preaching the Gospel.

All four of these things that Paul mentions about the content of preaching are basically the same thing: Paul preached the Gospel. And this is what this series has been all about—the good news that Jesus Christ has been crucified delivering us from our sin and satisfying God’s wrath. Therefore, the Gospel message of salvation is the only content which should be heard in every sermon and from every pulpit.

Paul emphasized this four different times because the Jews and Greeks wanted to hear some other content in a sermon. In 1:22 Paul says, “Jews demand miraculous signs and the Greeks look for wisdom.”

You see, the Jews expected the Messiah, the Savior of the world, to be one who would come with glory, power and splendor to free them from the oppressive government and then to overthrow the government. Therefore, they demanded signs from Jesus again and again to see if He met their pre-conceived notions about what the Messiah should be like. They couldn’t grasp the concept of a crucified Messiah. These two things—a Messiah and crucified—didn’t go hand in hand for them—they were opposites. And because of their distorted expectations of a Messiah; vs 23 says that the cross has become a “stumbling block to Jews…” They couldn’t grasp the content of Jesus Christ crucified.

And the Greeks wanted the sermon content to be based on wisdom. This is because the Greeks were very wise and skilled in their speaking. The thought of saving human beings by having a God-man come to earth to die for the sins of them was absurd; this wasn’t wise by any human standards—therefore as vs 23 states, they considered the crucified Messiah as foolishness.

You see, knowing what to listen for in the content of preaching is not only applicable to the Corinthian believers; it is also important for believers in all time periods, especially those in the 21^st century because there are many preachers who say they are preaching the gospel; but you see, they leave out the cross of Christ in their sermons. And when the cross is left out; then it certainly isn’t the Gospel; it becomes a self-help or get-better message.

There are many preachers like Joel Osteen from Houston, Texas who preaches something called the “prosperity gospel” or the “health and wealth gospel”. Mr. Osteen says this; “It is God’s will for you to live in prosperity instead of poverty. You have to do all you can to make your dreams come true. God wants us to prosper financially, to have plenty of money, to fulfill the destiny He has laid out for us. If Jesus were here today, He wouldn’t be riding around on a donkey He’d be taking his own private jet.” [END QUOTE] He also has written many books, here are just a few of the titles:

• Becoming a Better You: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life Everyday
• Every Day A Friday: How to Be Happier 7 Days a Week
• Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

These are clearly only self-help books or simple moralistic advice so that we can have a better life and have it now. This clearly isn’t preaching the cross and certainly not the Bible either.

And I don’t know if you have heard, but there is also a new television show coming out this fall called “Preachers of L.A.”  It will show 6 pastors from this area—one in Huntington Beach area and another in Long Beach—and listen to a few quotes from them:

• “The Bible says I wish above all things that you would prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers and I believe that.” 

• And when they are challenged about their teaching of prosperity gospel they say, “There is no other kind of Gospel.” 

• Another says, “P. Diddy, Jay-Z, they are not the only one who should be driving Ferraris and living in large houses; the Bible says that those of us who sow among us should reap from us, that’s implying that preachers should be taken care of.” 

This stuff is absolutely ridiculous. It is amazing to hear some of the things that people come up with this days and people actually listen to it.

There are also some preachers who are preaching a faith which is called a Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. This belief is summed up as needing God’s involvement in life only when there is a problem and that the central goal in life is to be happy and feel good about oneself.

People of God, clearly these so called Gospels are clearly are based upon human wisdom and speech; therefore as Paul says in 1:17 “he preached the Gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross be emptied of power.” You see, when the Gospel is distorted from being sinners in need of a Savior and Christ crucified, died and buried and rising again; the cross loses its power. The power of the cross is the salvation of those who believe. The cross is not needed for a prosperity gospel or Moralistic Therapeutic teachings about God.

Christ came, not to give us 10 steps to be a better Christian or to have a better life, Christ came to help sinners realize that forgiveness and salvation is outside themselves: it is only found in Jesus Christ.

            People preach and believe these false gospels because they think like the Jews and the Greeks; they think the cross is utter foolishness because they can’t comprehend the magnificence of it. But in reality, the cross is clearly the wisdom of God as Paul says in vs 25 even “the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom.”

Therefore, the content of what is preached is extremely important for the church in the 21^st century. For if Jesus Christ crucified isn’t preach; then this is not a Gospel at all; it isn’t good news; it isn’t the power of God; it isn’t the salvation of all who believe; it isn’t the good news of great joy; and it isn’t the remedy for bad news.

            Secondly, Paul address the question of ‘how to preach’, in other words, the delivery of the sermon. How should this be done? Should a preacher stand behind the pulpit or move around? Should he use fancy words or certain phrased sentences?

            Well, Paul addresses this by fist stating how we shouldn’t preach and then how we should preach:

• In 1:17 he says, “Christ sent me to preach the Gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.”

• In 2:1 he says “When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom…”

• And in 2:4 he says, “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words…”  

So clearly, Paul didn’t preach with wise and persuasive words or with eloquent speech because once again, this empties the cross of its power. And Paul knew that human wisdom cannot come to know God as vs 21 states.

The Corinthians actually noticed the lack of wisdom in his speaking and poked fun of him for it. In 2 Corinthians 10:10 some of the Corinthians said that Paul’s “speaking amounts to nothing.” You see, the Corinthians were very wise and they were extremely boastful about their wisdom because they thought they had acquired this by their own studying and practice. And according to the Corinthians; Paul’s speaking style amounted to nothing in comparison with how they spoke with wise and persuasive words.

And this is because of one of their forms of entertainment was to have speaking competitions. They would have one speaker come up to the front of a crowd and give a speech; then another person, then another and so on and so on. After all were done, the audience would vote on which speaker used the best words and used the best wisdom to persuade them during the delivery of the speech. They were judging these things based on human ability. This judging of speaking styles infiltrated its way into the Corinthian church as we learned earlier, therefore causing divisions among the members because of magnifying the messenger NOT the message.

And preachers nowadays have fallen into this same trap by preaching as if they were entertaining. They tell jokes, lots of stories or illustrations in hopes of people liking them as a person and hoping that they like their delivery of the sermon. And as I learned from one of my college professors which I will share with you; the only emotion that isn’t mentioned of Jesus in the Bible is laughter. I am sure that Jesus did laugh and I am not saying that laughter is bad, but there are proper places for jokes and laughter and the pulpit I don’t believe is one of them.

Therefore, we need to expect different things from a sermon. Instead of expecting to be entertained throughout the sermon; we should learn to recognize God’s voice in the preaching of His Word:

• We can interact with God’s voice by bringing our Bibles to worship or at least keeping the pew Bible open

• We can interact with God’s voice by recording our insights from the sermon and reflecting on them in our daily devotions throughout the week

• We can interact with God’s voice by expressing our emotions when prompted by Him

• We can interact with God’s voice by stilling our Spirit when overwhelmed by His Words

• We can interact with God’s voice by expecting the sermon to make us godly, not expecting it to give us guidance for our every day life

• We can interact with God’s voice by expecting the sermon to transform us, not expecting to gain mental information about a passage.

These are all simple things that we can all do so that we can recognize preaching being God’s voice to His people.

Paul didn’t use human wisdom to persuade people in his delivery. Rather he came as a humble servant as he says in 2:3, “I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.” He came this way most likely for two reasons:

First, before Paul arrived in Corinth on his second missionary journey

• He was beaten, flogged and thrown into prison in Philippi;

• Then he moved on to Thessalonica where the Jews became jealous so they started a riot in the city causing Paul to hide and fear for his life as he fled to Berea.

• In Berea, things were going well until the Jews in Thessalonica came over and began a riot there; sending Paul fleeing for his life with body guards.

• He was taken to Athens after a lot of physical abuse happened to him. He took some emotional and spiritual abuse in Athens because there were many idols causing him to be deeply distressed as the people sneered at him and poked fun of him

• And finally after leaving Athens, he came to Corinth.

And he came in weakness, fear and trembling and rightfully so!

But also, he came this way because he knew the content of what he was going to preach. And he knew that the preaching he was going to do was from God. He knew that he was speaking for God to the people. Therefore, this caused him to be in weakness, fear and trembling. And after all people of God. If we actually believe that this is God’s Word for God’s people—shouldn’t we approach the reading and the studying of God’s Word the same way—with weakness, fear and much trembling? Because if these are God’s Word, remember Genesis 1 God created the earth. And how did He create them? He said, “Let there be tree” and there was a tree. “Let there be sand and there was sand.” “Let there be light” and there was light. God’s Word is more powerful than the sun.

Now you know that when you ask a pastor if he was nervous before he preaches; well certainly he should be nervous because pastors are speaking for the holy God and creator of the universe to the people of God. And every person who approaches the text to study and proclaim the text; should approach it with fear and trembling—for this is a good thing!

This is a good thing because Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 12 that God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. When we are at our weakest point; it is then that God helps us. And to come before the text in weakness, fear and trembling is okay. It is a sign of reverence and respect for the holy God who created the universe by His Word; it is a sign of humbling ourselves before God, allowing Him to work through us.

It is a sign of full reliance upon God when we come this way; for we need to use His Words and not our own. It is this way because as vs 29 states, “so that no one may boast before Him.” Instead of boasting in ourselves, we must boast in the Lord because it is all of Him and all from Him. To Him be all the glory!

            And lastly, the apostle Paul teaches us that there is a purpose in preaching. He answers the question why preach? I have heard this question many times in my ministry—especially from younger kids, although adults are just as guilty: “why do we have to sit and listen to a man speak for 20 or more minutes? I just don’t see the purpose in this.”

            Well, many pastors preach for different reasons, but  Paul gives us two reasons.

            In 1:21 Paul says, “God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.” God has chosen the foolish method of men speaking for God to save those who believe in the content being preached. For when the Holy Spirit speaks through a man; the Holy Spirit takes those words and grips the hearers hearts, softening it and giving them a new heart in obedience to God.

            And secondly in 2:5 Paul says faith is strengthened through preaching. Not only through preaching do people find salvation; but they also have their faith strengthened. Sermons are to transform people into godly people striving to be like Jesus Christ. We can gain all the information we want from a sermon; but this doesn’t transform people. The Holy Spirit speaking directly to hearts transforms people.

            And a great example of this is the early church. The church was conceived in Acts 1 in a prayer meeting and birthed by a sermon in Acts 2. And at the end of Acts 2 in vs 42 Luke writes that, “They devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”

• The apostle’s teaching was the ministry God’s Word proclaimed
• Fellowship was the ministry of God’s Word shared
• The Breaking of Bread was the ministry of God’s Word visualized
• And Prayer was the Ministry of the Word returned.

Everything that the early church did revolved around the preaching of God’s Word—this made it a successful church in every way!

            In conclusion, this passage clearly is not directed only to preachers; rather it is addressed to members of congregations. This passage helps believers realize the content of preaching, the delivery of preaching and the purpose of preaching which are according to God’s Word, not according to what the world wants to hear. And these concepts are important so that we can keep the preaching of the Gospel central to the life of the church and to keep the pulpit pure by holding our pastors accountable for the things they preach.

            For when the pure Gospel is not preached; the true church doesn’t exist; and when the true church doesn’t exist; then we have defiled the bride of Christ with Christ no longer wanting her.

            People of God, I pray that in the future, BellOne may continually keep this pulpit pure as they have done so in the past.

May the Lord bless us in this endeavor of keeping the pulpit pure and faithful.

A Preacher's Prayer and a Prayer for Preachers

I received my license to exhort in the Christian Reformed denomination on April 20, 2012. This allowed me (and still does) to now to 'exhort' (not preach) the Word of God in any Christian Reformed Church (CRC) in the world.

I was ecstatic when I received this news!

Even though I had already preached a handful of times at my home church, Heritage CRC, I was excited to now preach at other churches. So I began immediately in this endeavor of preaching in local churches.

In the summer months of 2012, I worked for VandenBerg Landscaping on Mondays through Thursdays. Then I would preach on the Sunday in a local congregation; I preached every Sunday morning in the summer months except twice; and did a few evening services as well. I immediately began to love preaching and leading worship! It definitely confirmed my calling to be a pastor!

And then throughout the school year I'd preach here and there; mostly during youth group breaks, such as Christmas break.

I also began dating a girl, Denae, on Novermber 29, 2012 which was completely unexpected if I must say so myself. The first question I asked her was, "Could you be a preachers's wife?"

She responded with something similar to this, "Yes, I've always wanted to partner with someone to do ministry."

I was blown away; thrilled and ecstatic doesn't fully describe my emotions.

My first time preaching when we were dating was on December 30, 2012 in the morning and evening.

The plan was for her to come to hear me in the evening and then spend time with my family afterwards. I was nervous! (As I always am when I go and see her, talk to her, etc.)

However, the morning of December 12, I got up early and was preparing my sermon for the morning; it was on 1 Corinthians 1:4-9.

I was a bit behind on preparations, so I had a lot to do. And then my phone dinged....letting me know that I had a text......

I had no idea who it could be or what they wanted since it was around 7 in the morning on a Sunday, but I looked at it anyway. And this is what I found:

It was from Denae.

I don't think she knows how much this has changed me. 

Once again, she blew my mind away. And since I was unfamiliar with this verse; I decided to look it up.

What an encouragement this was! (not the hug, but the verse part (: ) 

1 Corinthians 2:4-5 says this in the NIV: "My (Paul) message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your(the Corinthian believers) faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power."

What encouragement to hear!

I know she prays this, as well as others, each Sunday that I preach. And I appreciate it greatly!

These are the verses (and prayer)that I read before I go into a church, the verses I say before I ascend to the pulpit and the verses I say as I study in the study.

It is a great reminder that even the greatest church planter and pastor of all time didn't need wise and persuasive words; He fully relied on the Holy Spirit. And the "so that" was the purpose and his reasoning for doing so. He didn't want men's faith to rest on what he said or how he said it; he wanted their faith to rest on the power of God. 

How amazing is that?

This was just something I wanted to share with you today as I finalize the preparations for preaching tomorrow from 1 Corinthians 1:17-2:5 "The Gospel Preaching of the Cross".

Please pray for all of those who are ascending the pulpit tomorrow morning; that they might not bring a message with wise and persuasive words; but a message FROM God demonstrating the Holy Spirit's power.

To God be the glory.

My (old) Roommate

Something interesting happened to me last week, let me share it with you.

In the year 2007, I graduated high school in the end of spring/beginning of summer. And then I was headed off to Kuyper College to live and to double major in Biblical/Theological studies and Pre-seminary studies with a double minor in communications and Koine Greek.

And I was planning on living there also; I went pot-luck. Pot-luck means that you let the college decide who is going to be your roommate. Since I didn't know anyone going there, I guess it made sense.

1st day of college!

I was really nervous to meet my roommate when I found out it was Harrison Burgett from St. John, Indiana. I call him "Harry" but I learned that I am/was/still am the only person to call him that. We communicated maybe twice before we actually met.

I was so nervous.

To fast forward the story, we met and instantly became best friends.

We lived together for 1.5 years; and had many "sleep-overs" and Call of Duty and NHL game nights after that.

We had so many things in common by the way we acted; thought and spoke. I loved it.


We did so many crazy things together--too many to name or count or even remember.

We also did many awesome things together.

We played college soccer together--he had never played soccer before.

We went on a study tour to Israel for 2 weeks.

We studied Greek for 2 years until we were blue in the face.

We still have sleep overs.

We still hang out even though he has moved back to Indiana.

We still talk every week.

We started a Bible study together in college.

We held each other accountable for specific sins we were struggling with.

We helped each other study.

We critiqued each other's chapel talks or any other talks we gave.

And finally, we graduated with the same degree. (He's got a red cord because he was smarter than I)

And we both entered into seminary. He started attending Grand Rapids Theological Seminary just for a semester. Then he transferred to Western Theological Seminary (the dark side). He is married, and he moved back to Indiana; but now takes classes online and comes up here roughly twice a year for two weeks at a time.

He has a little bit left to go for seminary, but he is receiving an "internship/mentorship/leadership training course" through his church which he is actively involved in. Therefore, he is taking classes at a slower pace.

I have one more year left.

And this past Sunday, we both preached at different churches.

Okay, this was in Sophomore year, but you get the picture :)

And that was awesome. We talked on Friday evening and then again on Sunday afternoon. 

On Friday, we went through our sermons that we had planned and gave each other pointers and helpful hints/critiques.

On Sunday, we reflected on our AM service.

And I couldn't help but think, "Wow, God sure has brought both of us a long way!" 

He has shaped and molded us on this journey through each other.

What a blessing Harrison "Harry" Burgett has been to me in my life and on my faith journey.

I praise God for the man that he is and for the man that he is becoming.

Thank you Harry for the good times, the tough times, the sad times and the times where we shared stories of God's grace, faithfulness and mercy.

As we both would say;

To God be the glory.

Visiting

One of the areas of ministry where I can feel the devil very prominent is the are of pastoral care visits.

When I hear of someone who needs visiting or I should go and visit them; I am not very thrilled at all. I've got all the good intentions in the world to go and visit them, but it is just so easy for me to just not do it.

And I don't know why.

Because this is the thing......they are so rewarding!

More rewarding than preaching a sermon, more rewarding than handing in the last final exam of the semester, more rewarding than winning any sport ever, more rewarding than having a light bulb go off in my head for the sermon to come together.....

I can't explain how awesome these visits are.

Last week, I went to the Artesia Christian Home where we have a close to 10 members. I visited some of them, not all of them. I had been there before two times with an elder; however, this was my first time going 'solo'.

Therefore I was super nervous.

But I went anyway.

And oh my, these old people sure do know how to make me laugh! And smile! And give God all the glory!

For many of them, the end of their life is very near. But they don't focus on that.....here is what one lady said,

"You know Brady, death can come to me anytime it wants (I did not ask a question leading into this or even hint at death....she said this out of the blue). It can come anytime it wants because I have the greatest hope that I'm going to be with my Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. I am assured of my salvation and for this Brady; I give God all the glory. And in your preaching and teaching and ministering Brady, my hope for you is that you will give all the glory to Him and that you would spend more time on your knees than in the pulpit. Preach the Gospel and nothing but the pure Gospel."

I felt like this was a Paul to Timothy moment a little bit.

The first time we visited her, she kept saying how young I was and how crazy it was to see a young minister making visits.

These words are awesome.

Also last week, we had a member who is 91 years old, who was admitted to the hospital because of internal bleeding. So, when I heard of this, I immediately went up there. I had never met her before either or never been in this hospital.

But I went anyways.

As I walked in and told her who I was and met her daughter there; we had the greatest conversation! I was only there for about 10 minutes before she had to be taken down for a test; so I went back the next day and I stayed and we chatted for an hour!

What a blessing this is to hear how God is at work in all our lives.

He never stops working.

To God be the glory.

Romans 3:9-31 "The Gospel Remedy for Bad News

Read: Romans 3:9-31

            People of God, I want to share a story with you this morning. This story happened to me last winter on Calvin College’s campus. I was crossing the campus from the seminary to go to the bookstore to get my books for the Spring semester. It was a beautiful winter afternoon with the fresh snow gathered upon the branches of the trees. As I was gazing up into the beauty of the trees; two men approached me, one with video camera asking me this, “Sir, can we have 5 minutes of your time by asking you 2 questions?” Since I wasn’t in a hurry, I decided to listen to what they had to ask. So they proceeded to ask these two questions and I felt very confident in my answer.

            These two questions have changed my thinking about things and my life. These 2 questions are questions that I often like to ask of people as well; whether they are people I know such as the students in the youth group or members in the church back home or even if they are complete strangers that I meet in the mall or on college campuses like they were doing. I would go up to people and ask them if I can have five minutes of their time asking them 2 questions. Most of them say that I can.

            So the first question I ask is, “What comforts you in life?” And just to summarize their answers, they often reply with: “my financial situation” or “my friends and family” or my house or my dog, cat and pets; knowing the fact that I can go home and sleep in a bed tonight; my house; etc. etc. etc.

            And then I ask them the second question I was asked, “What comforts you in death? What comforts you in death?” Now this question seems to make people uneasy because they really don’t have an answer; in fact, most respond with, “I don’t know.” And to summarize other responses to this; “I guess my body will be taken care of by my family; that is comforting to me.” Or “I guess I’ve been a good person and have done good things in my life; so I guess I’ll be rewarded for these good things by going to the good place when I die.”

            People of God, I want to ask these two questions of you this morning and I want you to take just a moment to answer them: “What comforts you in life?” and “what comforts you in death?”

            For those of you have studied the CRC’s confession called the Heidelberg Catechism and know it; you should be familiar with these answers. It begins with combining these two questions asking, “What is your only comfort in life and in death?” And the answer is absolutely phenomenal,

• “That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.

• He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.

• He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven;

• in fact, all things must work together for my salvation

• Because I belong to Him, Christ, by His Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for Him.”

Now this is comfort! Belonging to Jesus gives us comfort in life and in our death. But how do we get to know this comfort? What must we do to know this comfort? Well the 2^nd question of the Heidelberg Catechism asks this also, “What must you know to live and die in the joy of this comfort?” And the answer is that 3 things must be known:

• First, how great my sin and misery are
• Second, how I am set free from all my sins and misery
• Third, how I am to thank God for such deliverance

People of God, there are three simple, glorious and life changing truths found in this amazing document and in this passage. In vs 9-20 we learn of humanities universal need; in vs 21-31 we learn of God’s all-sufficient remedy for that need; and then there is something mentioned 8 times which teaches us how humanity receives God’s remedy.

            The first truth that we find in this passage is from vs 9-20 and here Paul shows us humanities universal need. These verses are apart of a section that starts in 1:18; which paints a terrible picture of humanity in their completely lost situation due to their sinfulness. You see, before sin entered into the world; Adam and Eve could live in the presence of God, being in constant communion with Him. However, when they sinned; they were banned from His presence because our holy and just God cannot be in the presence of sin. So the presence of God was over here; then there is a chasm now; and on the other side of the chasm there is all of humanity. This chasm was created by our sinfulness and our sinfulness has no way to bridge this chasm. Therefore, without a bridge across; the wrath of God is placed upon us condemning us to eternal life in hell.

And this is what Paul is getting at when He begins in vs 9 saying that “Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin.” All of humanity is over here and the wrath of God is on all humanity, condemning them to hell.

Paul mentions Jews and Gentiles specifically because he was anticipating some objections from them. The Gentiles thought that their morally good deeds would earn them enough righteousness to be found innocent. Both groups of people thought that they could earn enough righteousness by the things they did. And the Jews thought that their religious activities would earn them enough righteousness so they would be found ‘not guilty’.

And people of God, we often think like this and act like this falling into one of these two camps a lot. We think like the Jews that because we have given more than 10%, we have gone on over 25 mission trips before we were age 25, we have preached the Gospel in many churches across America and the world; we have led people to Christ and study His Word daily that we should be considered ‘not guilty’.

      Or maybe we think and act like Gentiles did because after all, we did have lunch with 3 homeless people this past week; we helped an elderly lady at the grocery store get some groceries; therefore, those should get us enough righteousness so that we will be found ‘not guilty’ right?!

Wrong says Paul! Take a look at vs 10-18 with me a minute; here he is quoting many Old Testament passages so that the Jews and Gentiles and so we also; don’t think this is some new teaching of Paul; starting in vs 10:

• “There is no one righteous, and just in case you missed tht all are under sin and all are under the wrath of God, “there is no one righteous, not even one;”

• And sin has tainted our mind so much that “there is no one who understands”; we can’t understand salvation by ourselves; therefore we attempt to gain it ourselves.

• And because sin has tainted our mind so that we can’t understand; therefore there is no way “no one who seeks God.”

• All have turned away, they have together become worthless;

• there is no one who does good, not even one.
• So you think that you’re a morally good person; well your wrong. Not even one person is good says Paul

Now get this:

• Their throats are open graves—just ponder this image for a minute. A grave is a place where a lifeless body is. And an open grave must smell like rotting flesh. That is what their throats are; that is what comes from them—the smell of dead, rotting, flesh.

• their tongues practice deceit meaning that no truth can be found in what they say.

• The poison of vipers is on their lips­—everything they say is damaging. It is a poison and harmful to everyone.

• Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness—there is no room for anything good or encouraging to come from their mouth

• Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways,

• And the way of peace they do no know—if you’d follow trail of someone like this; you’d know where they went because there would be bloodshed and misery.

• And finally Paul says that “There is no fear of God before their eyes—their vision is completely blocked by their own sin with no fear or reverence for God.

What an awful picture! This is terrible; absolutely gruesome picture of humanity.

            So let’s continue; vs 19,”Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, this makes sense…so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.” Paul is speaking of judgment day here. Every person in the world will be held accountable for all their sin that they have committed in their life through word, deed or thought. It is a necessity that all sin we commit must be punished.

            And then in vs 20 Paul concludes his argument that he started back in 1:18 until now; “Therefore, in light of what I have just said from 1:18-3:20 no one just in case you’ve missed it before, I’ll say it again will be declared righteous in His [God’s] sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.”

            You see, the morally good person and the person who practices the religiously right activities won’t be declared righteous when God holds them accountable on judgment day. This is because they were observing the law by relying on the good things that they have done to try and bridge this chasm. Therefore, they will only bring wrath upon themselves just as chapter 4:15 says: “The Law brings wrath. And where there is no law, there is no sin.” Observation the law by our morally good deeds or religious activities will not bridge this chasm; it won’t even begin to bridge the chasm—it will only bring silence on judgment day.

            And since the law doesn’t work to save us; many people say, “What’s the point of the 10 Commandments then? What does it even do for us if we can’t keep them to be saved?” Therefore many people want to simply throw the Law out; and the church has listened.

            I remember when I was younger; probably 10-15 years ago in Church we would hear the 10 Commandments read every single Sunday morning and evening and then we would have a time of confession of sin and shortcomings for not being able to live up to the Law. And then we would hear from God’s Word assuring us that our sin has been pardoned. Where did that go? Why did the church lose that?

            I personally, think it’s because of the post-modern culture telling us that we are good people in and of ourselves. Therefore, people don’t want to hear about their sin; mainly because they don’t want to hear or believe that they are sinners in need of a Savior because it makes them feel uncomfortable. And there are many people come to church each week to get a ‘feel good’ feeling and to sit comfortably not wanting to hear about the seriousness of their sin.

But you see, we can’t think that way about the Law. Paul says that the law exists to show us our sin because we can’t keep it. Therefore because we can’t keep it, it clearly shows us our need for a Savior. So this is the wonderful purpose of the law; this is what the law does for us—it shows us our sin and it points us to Christ.

            This is humanities universal need—we are over here in need of a bridge across the chasm to get to the presence of God. And remember that this chasm was created by our sinfulness and our sinfulness cannot bridge this chasm.

            There has got to be some other way right? Well, yes! And this is where we get to God’s all-sufficient remedy. And this is where Paul turns the corner in this letter in vs 21 saying “But now…” after painting for us a picture of the sinful condition of man with no hope of bridging the chasm by ourselves; Paul says, “But now a righteousness from God, apart from Law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.” This is beautiful. There is a righteousness that is not of ourselves—a divine righteousness! When we hear things like this, we should be ecstatic over this righteousness that we are able to have; we should be jumping up and down! And there are four things we need to notice about this righteousness.

            First, it is from God. Verses 21, 22, 25 and 26 say that it is from God. Actually, vs 21-31 is about what God has done for us. And this righteousness from God is able to bridge the chasm. It is righteousness that we cannot earn by ourselves being a morally good person or by being a religious person—it is different than that—it is a divine righteousness. This is the righteousness that all of humanity needed.

            Second, it is apart from Law which doesn’t mean that the Law is useless as we have just learned from vs 20 and because just after this Paul says that the Law testifies to this righteousness meaning once again that the Law points us to Christ. And then again in vs 31 Paul returns to this subject of Law. The Law clearly had value in the Old Testament period and continues to have value in the 21^st century. This is why it was read in church; because it would show people their sin and then point us to Christ. The law was never meant to save; therefore we needed a righteousness which was apart from the law.     

Third, it has been made known. Formerly, in 1:18 only the wrath of God had been made known. And in vs 21 is the contrast saying, “But now a righteousness from God has been made known.” It is no longer that we are stuck without a bridge over the chasm. What we have is righteousness from God that is apart from law, the Prophets and the Law have testified about this; therefore it has been made known to us. We have no excuse to not know about it. We have no excuse not to know about this bridge.

Fourth, this righteousness was testified by the Law and prophets. Paul includes this because this righteousness was not a new concept. It wasn’t new when Christ was born; it isn’t new now. It is a concept that was there even before the beginning. And all throughout the Old Testament Prophets and Psalms and all the Old Testament books we can find in them, how they point to this righteousness Paul speaks of.

But then the question comes, how was this bridge even made possible if it wasn’t from us? Even if there was a bridge over this chasm to get us into the presence of God, we still couldn’t be in God’s presence because our holy God can’t be in the presence of sin. Therefore, something needed to happen to our sin. There needed to be an atoning sacrifice for our sin.

This is what vs 25 speaks of: “God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement…” A simple definition of atonement can be this: we are now “at one with God”. Jesus Christ has made us at one with God. Before we were at one with God; we were enemies of God; we were opposed to everything God-like; we didn’t seek God; no one was righteous; no one did good. But you see, Jesus Christ has atoned for our sin by the shedding of His blood. Blood needed to be shed because there can be no forgiveness of sin and no atonement of sin without blood being shed (Heb 9:22)   

And this isn’t a new concept either; this goes back all the way back the Israelite time in the Old Testament. The Israelites would have to sacrifice two goats to make atonement. The one goat would be slaughtered as a sin offering and the other goat would be presented alive before the Lord to be used for making atonement by putting a leash on it and sending it out into the wilderness as a scapegoat—a representation of their sin being carried or taken away. These two goats represented that the people of God were sorry for their sin and that their sin had been taken away from them. Their sin had been atoned for.

This is what Jesus Christ is for us—the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” He not only bridged the chasm with His divine righteousness; but He also satisfied God’s wrath against sin—therefore making us at one with God.

This is God’s all-sufficient remedy for humanities universal need: the righteousness of Jesus Christ has been imputed to us and our sin has been imputed to Jesus Christ. God the Father made Him who had no sin (Jesus) to be sin for us; so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).  

            People of God, this is a wonderful remedy for our need. This is comfort. This is good news. So then, what is our response to this bridge that has been made? Matt Chandler in his book The Explicit Gospel says that there are only two responses; and these two responses make the Gospel a dangerous Gospel.

Response #1 is that we send our own righteousness that we have gained ourselves through our morally good actions and/or our religiously correct activities to God the Father hoping that our own righteousness will be good enough to justify us; satisfying His wrath against our sin and now making at one with Him.

And Response #2 is that we receive God’s remedy through faith. These are the only two responses available to us and this is why the Gospel is so dangerous—we can either send our own righteousness to God or we can receive the righteousness that we are offered.

            And the apostle Paul clearly has taught us that there is no one righteous enough to satisfy God’s wrath and to make atonement for their own sin; therefore relying on our own righteousness as response #1 suggests, is out of the picture. However, there are many people who still choose this response. There are many who think that their only comfort in life and in death is the good deeds that they have done or the religious activities they do. But those who choose this response will not satisfy God’s wrath and will not have atonement for their sin.

And those who don’t receive this righteousness will spend eternity apart from God’s presence; condemning themselves to hell where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt 8:12). Where even the worm doesn’t die and where the smoldering smoke goes up forever and ever.

Therefore, the bottom line is that if we seek our own way of bridging the chasm; we are literally stepping over Jesus and into the pit of hell by our own doing; literally stepping over Jesus into the pit of hell by our own doing.

            Therefore, the only logical response is the 2^nd response which is mentioned throughout this passage on 8 different occasions in vs 22, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30 and 31. And this is the only acceptable response to God’s remedy for humanities need is nothing less than a heart of faith.

            We must have faith in Jesus Christ and faith in His blood. Faith is the principle which excludes boasting. Faith is justified apart form observing the law. And faith does not nullify the law; rather faith upholds the law because the law shows us our sin and points us the Christ. And in Jesus Christ is where we place our full faith. This is the only place where our faith should be.

            People of God, this is the good news of the Bible. This is the Gospel remedy for bad news. This is the comfort that we can have in life and in death. But before we heard the good news and for us to fully appreciate the good news; we had to hear the bad news even if it made us uncomfortable. We must hear the bad news that we are sinners in need of a savior or we will constantly look to everything else, including our own righteous deeds for salvation.

The bad news is that in our totally depraved condition, we can’t earn salvation. The good news then is that  Jesus became all that He hated, namely sin, and drank the full cup of the Father’s wrath so that we might receive what we did not deserve—salvation by grace.

And this is the sacrifice that we have come to celebrate, the sacrifice that we give thanks for and the sacrifice that we remember. For on the cross, Jesus Christ has taken away the sin of the world and has provided the righteousness that we need to stand before God the Father. And we receive this righteousness through faith as we fully rely on His grace for salvation.