The Berean Manifesto

EP88 Leave Vengeance To God

Hello and welcome to episode eighty-eight of The Berean Manifesto, brought to you by The Ekklesian House. This is Pastor Bill and over the next ten minutes or so we’re going to step out of the vein we’ve been in the past few weeks and into the vein of episodes fifty-nine, bless those who persecute you, and seventy-four, not repaying evil with evil. With a hint of episode seventy-three thrown in for good measure. This episode is, leaving vengeance to God.

 

In episode seventy-three we talked about God being love, but being infinitely deeper than we could hope to imagine. This is where we find ourselves at the beginning of this episode in Nahum 1:2-6, it says, “The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord takes vengeance and is a master of wrath. The Lord takes vengeance against His foes; He is furious with His enemies. The Lord is slow to anger but great in power; the Lord will never leave the guilty unpunished. His path is in the whirlwind and storm, and clouds are the dust beneath His feet. He rebukes the sea and dries it up, and He makes all the rivers run dry. Bashan and Carmel withers. The mountains quake before Him, and the hills melt; the Earth is laid waste at His presence -- the world and all who live in it. Who can withstand His indignation? Who can endure His burning anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; even rocks are shattered before Him.” All of this is why in Hebrews 10:31 Paul said, “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

 

However, we find this occurrence in Christ’s life recorded in Luke 9:51-56, “When the days were coming to a close for Him to be taken up, He determined to journey to Jerusalem. He sent messengers ahead of Himself, and on the way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make preparations for Him. But they did not welcome Him, because he determined to journey to Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them as Elijah also did?” But He turned and said, “You don’t know what kind of spirit you belong to. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy people’s lives but to save them,” and they went to another village.”

 

We also can’t forget the ever popular Matthew 5:39, “don’t resist an evildoer. On the contrary, if anyone slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.” Some manuscripts read, “don’t set yourself against an evildoer,” or, “don’t retaliate against an evildoer.” No matter how you phrase it the message is, in essence, the same, and goes hand in hand with our topic. Don’t take vengeance, leave that to God.

 

So what do you do when you’ve been wronged and you’re waiting on God to punish the evildoer; you’re waiting, and you’re waiting, and nothing ever seems to happen? Well, the issue here is that it’s none of your business. If you’re going through life waiting for other people to get theirs then I would refer you to Matthew 18:21, “Then Peter approached Him and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? As many as seven times?” Jesus replies in verse 22, “I tell you, not as many as seven, but seventy times seven.” I’m sure you can do the math there; seventy times seven is four hundred and ninety. Jesus said we should forgive four hundred and ninety times, right? Not exactly. This is a phrase found somewhere else in the bible as well but translated from the Hebrew into English instead of the Greek into English. Genesis 4:24 says, “If Cain is to be avenged sevenfold, then for Lamech it will be seventy and sevenfold.” In the original language there Jesus isn’t saying three different words. It isn’t seventy multiplied by seven; this isn’t what he said. He said, “seventy times” - that’s one word, and “seven” that’s the second word. This is the mathematical idea of folding. We would say seventy times sevenfold.

 

If you take a piece of paper and fold it in half that’s one times one fold and you get two equal parts. This is expressed as 2 to the power of 1 equals 2. If you fold the piece of paper in half again we call that one times twofold and you get four equal parts. We would express that as 2 to the power of 2 equals 4. Fold the piece of paper in half again and we would call that one times threefold and we would have eight equal parts. By the time we get to one times sevenfold we would have 128 equal parts. In this case of seventy times sevenfold, we would express this as 70 to the power of 7 and we would come up with a figure that overwhelmingly expresses the idea being taught by Christ here. The number is eight trillion, two hundred thirty-five billion, four hundred and thirty million times that we are to forgive those who do us wrong. Get the picture.  If you forgive the same person every second it would take two hundred sixty-one thousand, one hundred and forty-three years for them to run out of chances.

 

I foresee the thought process that’s going to come up in some of your minds. If we aren’t to take vengeance or retaliate against those who do us wrong then what about the government and military that are made up of human beings? Paul addresses this is Romans 13:1-7, “Let everyone submit to the governing authorities, since there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are instituted by God. So then, the one who resists that authority is opposing God’s command, and those who oppose it will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have its approval. For it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, because it does not carry the sword for no reason. For it is God’s servant, an avenger that brings wrath on the one who does wrong. Therefore, you must submit, not only because of wrath but also because of your conscience. And for this reason you pay taxes, since the authorities are God’s servants, continually attending to these tasks. Pay your obligations to everyone: taxes to those you owe taxes, tolls to those you owe tolls, respect to those you owe respect, and honor to those you owe honor.”

 

This is Pastor Bill saying, “Until next time…”

EP87 Leadership

Hello and welcome to episode eighty-seven of The Berean Manifesto brought to you by The Ekklesian House.  This is Pastor Bill and over the next ten minutes or so we are going to take a look at Leadership.

 

There’s this event recorded in Matthew chapter twenty, and Mark chapter ten, where the disciples James and John, and their mother approach Jesus.  It seems that James and John tell Jesus they want Him to do something for them. When Jesus asks them what they want Him to do their mother kneels down and asks Him to promise that when His kingdom comes that her sons will sit on his right and left sides.  Jesus replies that they don’t know what they are asking and asks if they’re able to drink from the same cup that Jesus is about to drink from. They tell Him that they are able and He tells them that they will indeed drink from His cup, but to sit at His right and left hand isn’t for Him to give, but arranged by The Father.

 

Then this disagreement, debate, or argument breaks out among the disciples about who is the greatest Disciple.  Apparently this is a common pastime among the disciples. We see this same disagreement recorded a couple of other times in the gospels (See, Matthew 18:1, Mark 9:33, and Luke 9:46 for one of those instances, and you can go on over to Luke 22:24 for another instance).  I’m going to combine Christ’s response to this disagreement as recorded in Matthew 20:25-28, and Mark 10:42-45, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions act as tyrants over them. It must not be like that among you.  On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be a slave to all; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom in the place of many.”

 

In the same vein as we’ve been residing over the last couple of episodes, this statement of Christ cuts crossways through the behavior that we’ve embraced and encouraged in our Christian churches.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there are churches out there getting it right. But, as a culture, I’ve seen more embrace of a religion of Christianity than the teachings of Christ. A religion that, not unlike the Catholic church, places the pastors, deacons, or elders of a church in places of supreme authority who are responsible for dictating the right and wrong of every matter for their congregants.  It almost feels as if we’ve placed a pope behind every pulpit and if you don’t follow their dictates and agree with every jot and tittle of their theology then you know where you can find the door.

 

One could argue that when Christ said, “serve” here he meant it in the way that policemen and soldiers use the word.  I can see their point of view here. And if that is the way He meant the word then, this thing that I’m describing that we’re doing in our churches seems more appropriate, but if we look at Christ’s responses to the other times the argument was brought up we get a better picture of what He is actually saying.  In Luke 22 Jesus replies similarly to how He did earlier, but with a bit of differing detail. Starting in verse 25 it says, “The Kings of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who have authority over them have themselves called ‘Benefactors.’ It is not to be like that among you. On the contrary, whoever is greatest among you should become like the youngest, and whoever leads, like the one serving.  For who is greater, the one at the table or the one serving? Isn’t it that one at the table? But I am among you as the one who serves.” In the other instance I brought up that this argument comes up Jesus tells them in Matthew 18, “Truly I tell you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child -- this one is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”  In Mark 9 He tells them that, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be last and servant of all.” In Luke 9 He says, “For whoever is least among you -- this one is great.”

 

Taking all Christ’s responses to this disagreement into account it would certainly seem that He does not use the word, “serve” the way policemen and soldiers use the word.  He says that those who are great in Christendom are those who are like children and like those serving the food at the table. These are images of the weak who have absolutely no say over the actions of others.  These are not what we in modern terms would call the greatest, or leaders. In 2 Corinthians 1:24 Paul says, “I do not mean that we lord it over your faith, but we are workers with you for your joy, because you stand firm in your faith.”

 

As Christians, even the ones in the offices given to the church in Ephesians 4:11, we should be leading not like the world with their bosses who lord it over their employees who have to obey or else.  We should be humble servants of low esteem, we should be leading with the example of our lives. 1 Peter 5:3 talking about being a shepherd of God’s flock says, “not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.”

 

We should all strive to be less like the world, and more like 1 Thessalonians 4:11, “Seek to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands.”  Yes, I do recognize the irony of a pastor teaching this stuff, but there it is.

 

So what do you do if you find yourself in a church where your church “leadership” are being these bosses like the world says, that aren’t serving the people so much as controlling what’s going on?  Do you leave the church body? Not over that, no. You can leave over issues of then preaching something other than faith in Christ being the salvation issue. But short of that, short of the fundamental gospel being preached there; you need to stay where God has you.  Invest in that body, volunteer, pray for your pastor. Only leave under the unction of the Holy Spirit. Only look for a new church family because you feel like that’s what God wants you to do. Not because of anything I say. ~Or~ Because your flesh might feel uncomfortable; you don’t like the music, or whatever (honestly) petty thing that comes to mind.  Don’t abandon your church family because of those things. Seek the will of the Lord for you, for your family, on where you should be plugged in and heed that voice.

 

This is Pastor Bill saying, “Until next time…”

 

EP86 Water Into...

Hello and welcome to episode eighty-six of The Berean Manifesto, brought to you by The Ekklesian House. This is Pastor Bill and over the next, well, eleven minutes or so we’re going to look at Jesus first recorded miracle in the Bible, turning water into wine.

In John 2:1-11 we find that on the third day after John baptized Jesus that “a wedding took place in Cana of Galilee. Jesus’s mother was there, and Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding as well. When the wine ran out, Jesus’s mother told him, “They don’t have any wine.” “What does that have to do with you and me, woman?” Jesus asked. (Some manuscripts say Jesus replied, “You and I see things differently.”) “My hour has not yet come.” “Do whatever He tells you,” His mother told the servants. Now six stone water jars had been set there for Jewish purification. Each contained twenty or thirty gallons. “Fill the jars with water,” Jesus told them. So, they filled them to the brim. Then He said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the headwaiter.” And they did. When the headwaiter tasted the water (after it had become wine), he did not know where it had come from -- though the servants who had drawn the water knew. He called the groom and told him, “Everyone sets out the fine wine first, then, after people are drunk, the inferior. But you have kept the fine wine until now.” Jesus did this, the first of His signs, in Cana of Galilee. He revealed His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.”

In verse six we see that there were six stone jars set there for Jewish purification that Jesus tells them to fill to the brim with water. At a Jewish wedding, there is a set time before the ceremony, usually around seven days, of eating and drinking that all the guests are invited to participate in. The thing is that the law requires the ritual washing of the hands before and after eating. These pots then would have been how the hosts provided for all the guests to follow the law while attending the wedding. Every attendee would have had their hands in at least one, if not more, of these jars by the time the party ran out of wine. This is most likely why in verse nine John makes a point of emphasizing the detail that the headwaiter or governor of the wedding, “did not know where (the wine) came from — though the servants who had drawn the water knew.”

This turning of water into wine is the first sign pointed to as proof that Jesus is the Messiah. The belief of the day was that the Messiah was supposed to do the same miracles that Moses did. Jesus first public miracle was turning water into wine and Moses first public miracle was to turn the waters of Egypt into blood. On the surface, there are the similarities between the two, but beyond that, there seems to be more going on here. Moses turned the water into blood as the first official action of a ministry that would bring us the law of sin. Jesus chose an everyday aspect of that law to perform the first official action of His ministry that would bring us the law of the Spirit of life that would set us free from the laws of sin and death.

Paul attempts to explain the difference between what these two men brought us in Romans 8:1-9, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law(s) of sin and death. What the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering, in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their minds set on the things of the Spirit. Now the mind-set of the flesh is death, but the mind-set of the Spirit is life and peace. The mind-set of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit to God’s law. Indeed, it is unable to do so. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”

When Moses turned the waters of Egypt into blood it was setting the precedent that what he was going to bring was going to be of works and flesh. When Jesus turns the water, contained in the jars set out for Jewish purification according to the law, into wine He was sending the message that He was replacing the old corruptible law of sin, that law based out of works and flesh, with the law of the Spirit of life by fulfilling the requirement of that law.

Now, technically in context, in Romans 8:2 when we read, “because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.” The modern English should read “laws of sin and death.(Plural)” In chapters five through seven Paul talks about the law of death and the law of sin, two different laws that in chapter eight he is saying Christ took care of; not in the physical (you know, cause people still physically die), but in the spiritual.

Paul goes as far in Romans 5:12-14 to say, “just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned. In fact, sin was in the world before the law, but sin is not charged to a person’s account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam’s transgression. He is a type of the Coming One.”

“sin is not charged to a person’s account when there is no law.” The law of death came into the world through Adam’s transgression and the law of sin came through Moses. Christ brought the law of the Spirit of life. A law that says if Christ is in you, your flesh may be dead because of sin, but the Spirit gives life because of the righteousness credited to you because of your faith in Christ. The kind of faith that we talked about in episode eighty-five.

Here at the end of this podcast, I wanted to bring up something from the last episode. When I listed the three things that have been in my heart for the Berean Manifesto and The Ekklesian House from the very beginning, number three was to, “Have a faith in, and passion for, Christ that is sincere.” I expounded on that by saying that this was, “Knowing the difference between the religion of Christianity and actually being a follower of Christ.” You don’t have to look very hard to see that Christianity has become a religion, which misses the whole point of what Christ came for.  One denomination does this one thing, another denomination does this other thing, and they both swear to their own hurt that their way is right, and the other guy is missing it. It reminds me a lot of the Pharisees and Sadducees that Christ chastised for leading the people astray.

I implore you to, as Paul puts it in Galatians 5, “For freedom, Christ set us free. Stand firm then and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery.” He goes on to tell us that if we pick back up religious law then Christ will not benefit us at all.  If we continue with Christianity as a religion, then Christ will not benefit us at all. Find out what and how your life should look, not based on what some religion or religious person tells you. Jesus gave us only two personal commands, outside of making new disciples of Christ, that sum everything up. The first, to love the Lord your God with all your spirit, soul, and body. The second, to love your neighbor with the same love you would give yourself. Everything else should be between you and God, or else it becomes law/religion/slavery/death.

This is Pastor Bill saying, “Until next time…”

EP85 Do You /faith?

Hello and welcome to episode eighty-five of The Berean Manifesto, brought to you by the Ekklesian House.  This is Pastor Bill and over the next ten minutes or so we’re going to talk about faith. In 1 Timothy chapter one, we find Paul writing to Timothy, a young preacher of whom it’s estimated Paul led to Christ about 20 years earlier when Timothy was 15.

Starting in verse three Paul tells Timothy, “remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach false doctrine or to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies.  These promote empty speculations rather than God’s plan, which operates by faith. Now the goal of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.”  Paul has articulated what’s been in my heart for this podcast and The Ekklesian House from the very beginning. That what I say on the podcast and what we do as a church would lead people to:

1. Love others from a pure heart

   1. We’ve talked about it over and over again about Love being the most important aspect of our lives as Christians; regardless of if they’re your enemy or friend, without respect to whether they believe the same as you or not.  It’s more important to love them than it is to have Hope, than it is to have Faith, than it is even to uphold any Religious Law.

2. Find a place of good conscience

   1. Discovering the peace with God that Christ came to give.

3. Have a faith in, and passion for, Christ that is sincere

   1. Knowing the difference between the religion of Christianity and actually being a follower of Christ.

Like I said, today we’re talking about faith, so let’s look at that bullet point.  In 1 Timothy 1:5 the word used for sincere there is:

G505 ἀνυπόκριτος anupokritos an-oo-pok'-ree-tos From G1 (as a negative particle) and a presumed derivative of G5271; undissembled, that is, sincere: - without dissimulation (hypocrisy), unfeigned.

I like the word undissembled and the King James version chose the word unfeigned there.  To dissemble is to conceal your true motives, feelings, or beliefs. To feign is to pretend to be affected by something.  

Paul is telling Timothy that one of the purposes of their teachings is to ensure that people in the church have unfeigned faith, or undissembled faith, or sincere faith.  We can deduce then that there is such a thing as feigned faith, or dissembled faith, or insincere faith. Is your faith in Christ sincere, unfeigned, undissembled? Or are you hiding what you believe and pretending to have faith, pretending that you’ve been changed?  Religion has taught for generations that all you have to do to be saved is to say a prayer. But the scriptures teach that you have to believe in your heart -and- confess with your mouth. If you didn’t truly believe in your heart then the confession of your mouth wasn’t a confession of faith, but a parroting of someone else.

 

Why would I even bring this up?  Why would I challenge your salvation experience and run the risk of casting doubt in your heart?  Let’s look at 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves.  Or do you yourselves not recognize that Jesus Christ is in you? -- unless you fail the test.” I didn’t make this up that you should make sure your faith in Christ is real.  The bible tells you to examine yourself to make sure you are in the faith. To make sure that you are quote/unquote “saved.”

 

In Matthew 7 Jesus himself even says, starting in verse 21, “Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.  On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name?” Then I will announce to them, “I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers!”  These folks never had an unfeigned, undissembled, sincere faith. They confessed with their mouths over and over that Jesus was Lord; they prophesied in His name, they cast out demons in His name, they did miracles in His name. But they obviously never truly believed in their hearts.

 

They believed God existed and in the power of Jesus name, but that wasn’t alone enough.  In James chapter two James tells us that it’s good that you believe that God exists, but even the demons believe in God.  It’s not enough to believe God is real or that Jesus lived. You have to believe, and I mean truly believe, that Jesus died on that cross with you in mind; took the issue of sin onto Himself, died, He rose again from the dead, and is forever at the right hand of God.  Believing that; having that kind of faith isn’t a head thing, it isn’t a knowledge thing, it isn’t even something reasonable. You can’t be talked into it and it’s no small leap or simple thing to get there.

Philippians 2:12 says, “...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”  This is not an endorsement of a simple prayer and you’re done theology. Salvation here is painted as a deeper process.  Praying that prayer may be a good first step to belief, but it’s not the last.

 

I’m really not fond of the analogy, but the salvation experience is similar to marriage.  You can get up there and quote the words before God and man, but if you didn’t honestly mean it in your heart then were you ever really married?  You might say yes, and maybe legally you were married, but if you asked your spouse how they felt about your feigned, or dissembled, or insincere vows then they would probably have a different answer than you.  And if your vows were feigned, were dissembled, were insincere; then how long until you cheat because in reality you were never really married? You were just pretending.

So if you stood before God and man and confessed faith in Christ then religion says you have salvation, congratulations.  But, if you didn’t actually believe it in your heart; if your confession was feigned, dissembled, or insincere, how long until you “fall away” because in reality you were never really saved?  Are you truly persuaded, or just pretending? Only you can heed the words of 2 Corinthians 13:5 and “test yourself to see if you are in the faith.” I can’t do it for you, no one can, but you.

 

While you’re testing yourself a good rule is to see if you are exhibiting the fruits of the Spirit from Galatians 5.  If you want more info on that, we talked along these same lines in episode 42, you can go back and look into it.

I haven’t said it in a while, but it’s more important with issues like this than most podcasts, go back and look up these scriptures for yourself.  It’s a prime tenet of The Berean Manifesto and The Ekklesian House. Don’t believe a word I say until you find it and verify it for yourself.

This is Pastor Bill saying, “Until next time…”