I preached again!

Once again I was in Paulden Christian Fellowship. Pastor Paul had just finished the Book of Acts, so I was allowed to give a summary, not just of Acts and not even just of the gospel, but the whole biblical story was briefly recounted, comparing and contrasting the Kingdom of Darkness and the Kingdom of Light.

As usual, below are my rough notes (more of an outline) and the PowerPoint.

Advancing Hope

An Advent Teaching on the Acts of God, the Acts of Men, and the Acts of the Apostles

Last week was the Scripture reading from Romans 10 about confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believing in your heart that God raised him from the dead saving you. Then Pastor Paul finished going through the book of Acts, discussing some people believing and some not, that some people found hope and some turned violent.

From Light to Darkness … and Deeper Darkness

Genesis 1:1-3 – God made everything, including light
Genesis 1:26-28 – God created humanity in His image, gave them dominion over His creation
Genesis 3 – Humanity gives the power of dominion to the Serpent, pushing back God’s light.
Genesis 4 – Sin increases with two lies: 1) “I am the most important” and 2) “I do what I want.” Darkness spreads.
v. 26 – The birth of religion about 250 years after the Garden.
Genesis 6-11 – Sin increases, to the point God destroys the world by a flood. Even after, the command to fill the Earth is ignored, adding the lie “We can make God come to us.” Darkness and confusion spread.
Genesis 12-22 – Abraham is called and promised a land, descendants, and to be a blessing to the world (and the promise of “bless those who bless you …”)
Genesis 26:1-5; 27:27-29; 28:10-22 – The promise passed on to Isaac and Jacob (and the promise of “bless those who bless you …”
Genesis 48-49 – Jacob/Israel blesses his sons, including the promise seen in Genesis 3:15, 15:7-18; 22:11-18 – 49:10-45 – Through Israel, specifically Judah, will come one who blesses the world through garments washed in “blood of wine.”

Exodus shows God’s chosen people being redeemed from slavery and given the Law.

Exodus 19:5-6 – God’s treasured possession, “a kingdom of priests”
They failed. Miserably.
Yet, this is the people blessed by a pagan prophet in Numbers 23-24 (including 24:9 – “Blessed are those who bless you, and cursed are those who curse you.”) that God will give Israel the Promised Land, and one will come with Dominion.
God uses a disobedient people to show how much we all fail as humans, and even with direct revelation from God can we all fall.

It was often non-Israelites that were used: Rahab the Jericho prostitute; Ruth the Moabite (great-great grandmother and great grandmother of David); Uriah the Hittite; foreign kings who obeyed God better than Israel; Nineveh, despite Jonah; three astrologers visiting a baby born the King of the Jews.

Still, an ancient call on Israel stood: Isaiah 42:5-9; 49:6-8 – Called to be light, but Ezekiel 5:5-6

John 1:1-18 – The light comes into this dark world.
Yet, the secret of Jesus coming was hidden in plain sight in these Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 2:7-16.

What was Acts about?

Acts 1:8-11 – The Church is gifted the power of God by the Holy Spirit to spread His light into this dark world.
In Acts 2 we see the reversal of the Tower of Babel and Israel’s rebellion in the wilderness when 3,000 are saved at the preaching of the gospel in language all can understand.
The light begins to spread from Jerusalem to Judeah to Samaria and even out to the Gentiles, yet …
Acts 28:24-28 – Whether Israelite or Gentile, many will not hear, but more Gentiles will listen.
Acts is a reminder that the Holy Spirit-filled Church fights against the darkness of sin, ignorance, and rejection of God.

Acts shows the cosmic battle of darkness vs. light.

In Matthew 5-7 and John 15-16, Jesus warned that if we abide in Him and His Word, the world will hate us as it hated Him, yet His death and resurrection have shown that He is more powerful.
Evil has spread, and it was easy for it to spread.
People like Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5), Saul of Tarsus (pre-conversion) and Simon Magus (Acts 8), various religious adherents and Christianity-adjacent groups (like the sons of Sceva and Artemis worshipers in Acts 19), and many others show how Truth can be, is, and will be twisted for selfish, controlling, and deceptive purposes.
Remember it was the most religious who caused the most problems in the time of Acts, but the irreligious can be just as unreceptive and violent. (Look at the past few months.)

What does it mean for us?

We know Christ can return at any time, and this is our hope!
We know that death came because of Adam’s sin, and we await that time Jesus finally does away with death.
Until then, we persevere and join with our Lord weeping about the pain of death and sin (John 11:35), and we offer the hope of Christ’s return and complete defeat over death.

We know sin has affected everything in this world, causing pain, sadness, and separation; hatred, distrust, and violence.
Christ took all of that on Himself on the cross and overcame it all that wonderful Sunday morning, so we point people to the hope of the cross and Christ’s return, showing that the Holy Spirit changes us, one by one, to overcome the pain, sadness, hatred, distrust, and violent separation in our own lives.
So, we do not despair when the world is crazy, wicked, and violent. We know God has a plan. He warned in Matthew 24, echoed by Paul in the letters to the Thessalonians and to Timothy, that as the Kingdom of God progresses, there will be a time before His return that will only get worse, with many falling away from the faith, with many false prophets, apostles, and anointed ones arising, and with lawlessness growing as the accepted norm.

What does this look like?

People denying the importance of Israel, even saying the promise of those who bless Israel being blessed was not about modern Israel. (Then why is national Israel back in the land?)
People declaring evil as good and good as evil, even making laws to that effect, and even from those who call themselves Christian.
People preferring violence and violent religions as peaceful religions, all the while denouncing Christianity as violent.
People in churches separating over issues that do not affect salvation.

What do we do?

• We believe the gospel.
• We love God by loving others sacrificially.
• We love God by loving the Church.
• We love God by sharing and defending the truth with love and respect.

Doing these spreads the light against the darkness.
This is the beginning. Christ has already redeemed us, but we await our final redemption when He returns.
By His wounds we are healed, but we watch out for where the dark deceptions of the Evil One creep in trying to keep the wounds open.