Why Are You in Church This Morning? Part 2
A3 What do we do in church?
B1 Sing: Ephesians 5:19-21 NKJV speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.
B2 Pray: 1 Thessalonians 5:17 NKJV pray without ceasing.
B3 Collect:
C1 For congregation expenses: 1 Timothy 5:17-18 NKJV Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer [is] worthy of his wages.
C2 For the poor Christians: Galatians 2:10 NKJV [They desired] only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I also was eager to do.
B4 Offer sacrifices
C1 The sacrifice of praise: Hebrews 13:15 NKJV Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of [our] lips, giving thanks to His name.
C2 The sacrifice of helping the brothers and sisters in financial need: Hebrews 13:16 NKJV But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
C3 Ourselves: Romans 12:1 HCSB Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship. (Compare: Luke 9:23-24 WPNT Then He said to everyone: “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow me. Because whoever desires to ‘save’ his life will lose it, but whoever ‘loses’ his life for my sake, he will save it).
C4 The sacrifice of prayer: 1 Timothy 2:1 HCSB First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone.
C5 The sacrifice of thanksgiving: 1 Thessalonians 5:18 HCSB Give thanks in everything, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
B5 Be taught
C1 The Gospel
C2 Jesus’s doctrine (teachings)
C3 The Christian life
C4 Apologetics
C5 Summary: Matthew 28:19-20 WPNT As you go make disciples in all ethnic nations: baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to obey everything that I commanded you; and take note, I am with you every day, until the end of the age!” Amen.
B6 Encourage each other
C1 By faith
C2 By prayer
C3 By good works
C4 By listening
C5 By helping serve in the congregation
C6 By the grace and help of the Holy Spirit
D1 Acts 9:31 WPNT So then the congregations throughout all Judea and Galilee, and Samaria, had peace and were built up; and proceeding in the fear of the Lord and in the encouragement of the Holy Spirit they were being multiplied.
D2 The Greek word for encouragement is παράκλησις paraklesis. It means (via Strong’s)
E1 An imploration, entreaty (urgent request (for mercy or help)).
E2 An exhortation (urgent counsel, encouragement, or caution).
E3 A comfort, solace.
D3 He helps in our prayers: Romans 8:26 NKJV Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
D4 He strengthens us to get through trials: Ephesians 3:16 NKJV that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man.
D5 He never abandons/forsakes us: John 14:16-17 GNB92 I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, who will stay with you forever. He is the Spirit, who reveals the truth about God. The world cannot receive him, because it cannot see him or know him. But you know him, because he remains with you and is in you.
D6 He gives us peace in difficult situations Romans 15:13 GNB92 May God, the source of hope, fill you with all joy and peace by means of your faith in him, so that your hope will continue to grow by the power of the Holy Spirit.
B7 Application
C1 The church is us believers.
C2 We are a family.
C3 We are to worship God together, be taught, and be encouraged.
C4 We are to bear one another’s burdens.
C5 We are to be taught, then do, then teach others.
A4 Sources and quotes
B1 1 Timothy 2:4:
Understanding 1 Timothy 2:4 by Pastor John Samson
God “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 1 Timothy 2:4
I have often times heard people quote 1 Timothy 2:4 to dismiss, out of hand, the biblical teaching on Sovereign grace or Divine election. In quoting the verse they have told me that God has no interest in electing certain people to salvation but that His desire is for every person to be saved. Yet, we must remember that the word “all” always has a context. It can sometimes mean all people everywhere – many times it does – but it sometimes means “all” in the sense of “all kinds” or “all classes, types” of people or at other times it refers to all within a certain type or class. For instance, we do the same thing in our English language when a school teacher in a classroom may ask the question, “are we ALL here?” or “is EVERYONE here?” She is not asking if everyone on planet earth is in the classroom, but because of the context in which the question is framed (the school teacher’s classroom) we understand she is referring to all within a certain class or type – in this case, all the students signed up for the class.
I believe 1 Tim 2:4 is speaking of all in this sense of “all types.”
What is my biblical basis for saying this?
The context. Let’s read the passage:
1 Timothy 2:1-4 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Who are the “all people” of verse 1? I believe the “all people” of verse 1 are the same “all people” of verse 4, as the subject matter does not change in any way at all in the intervening verses.
When Paul wrote “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people.” was he asking Timothy to get the equivalent of the local phone book and starting with the alphas and going all the way through to the omegas (the Greek alphabet) make supplication, pray, intercede and make thanksgiving for each individual in the city… or more than that, the whole world?
I don’t think so. Why do I say this? Because Paul qualifies verse 1 with verse 2 when he speaks of “kings” (kings are types of people) and “those in high positions” (again “those in high positions” are types of people).
Why should we pray for them?
One of the reasons we should pray for them is because these people (kings and those in high positions of authority) make decisions which affect society at large. If these people have their eyes opened, they will not be persecutors of Christians but will enact laws that will actually restrain sin so “that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” So one of the reasons to pray for them is because good government can mean a measure of peace in a society, and it is a lot easier to spread the Gospel when there is no civil unrest.
The passage also points us to another reason to pray, namely that God desires all (all who?) .. all types of people.. including these influential people with authority in society.. to be saved.
His message to Timothy was this: Do not just pray for the peasants, the farmers and the uneducated (the people who seem to be coming to Christ in great numbers right now), but remember to pray for kings and the very rulers in society who are at this moment persecuting Christians. Make prayer of this kind a priority – do it “first of all” – pray for these people Timothy – make sure the Church is praying for these people – because God desires all kinds of people – even kings (or Emperors like Caesar) and the elete in society – people of every kind, to be saved.
We must remember that the earliest Christians were almost all from the lower class of society, so this would be BIG news to them. As Paul wrote elsewhere.
1 Corinthians 1:26-29 26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
Turning to another Scripture in Revelation chapter 5, we are given prophetic insight into the future, revealing to us what Jesus the Lamb actually achieved in His atoning work on the cross. He did not save everybody or make a mere potential atonement available for everyone, but he made an effectual atonement – a powerful one that achieved its desired end or goal of saving certain specific people. What exactly did He achieve?
In Revelation 5:9, the heavenly anthems ring out in praise of the Lamb saying, “…for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed (specific, actual) people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation…”
Note the words, for they are very specific. It does not say that Jesus ransomed the people OF but people FROM every tribe and language and nation. The Greek word for “from” is ek meaning “out of” – He redeemed people out of every tribe, language, people group and nation.. NOT all without exception, but all without distinction.
I mention this verse in Revelation 5 because this is in perfect harmony with 1 Timothy 2:4 which teaches very clearly that God desires all (all kinds of people) to be saved. God will have every tribe, tongue, people group and nation represented around the throne as the heavenly hosts sing of the Lamb who was slain to redeem them.
B2 The World’s Worst Bible Interpretation in History
This is obviously a touchy subject and you are free to believe or not to believe whatever you feel. However, Jesus never said He made all food clean.
If you read the scripture of Peter’s vision, it says (Acts 10:15) “What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.” As far as I can see throughout scripture, the unclean animals were never cleansed.
If you read on, Peter is trying to make since out of this vision, because he knew the Lord wouldn’t have him eat unclean meat.
What came about?
In verse 28 Peter says, “Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.”
Peter says here that God showed, in that vision, that he should not call any MAN common or unclean.
I believe the issue of the clean and unclean meats is not a Salvation issue, but God loves us and cares about us enough to show us what is good food to put into our bodies (His Temple) and what is not good. Why would we want to eat things that live off of waste?
As for the bad grammar that that man has… I agree with you!
Posted by Choco 4 May 19
Labels: Believers, Church