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| July 7, 2019: Toward the Fraser River |
Oct 08, 2017 pm
Sermon audio link
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From the day of my birth until Thursday of last week, I would have said, 'Fear is the number one hindrance to Personal Evangelism'. I'm sure this is true in North Korea or Saudi Arabia, but it is not true in America.
In this country, where there is little formal or state sanctioned persecution, the main reason we don't witness for Jesus Christ is embarrassment.
Both fear and embarrassment would seem reasonable suggestions for a lack of witness and evangelism from many biblical Christians within North America. I would add, lack of biblical knowledge for some is likely a reason for hesitation with evangelism.
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I suppose there are many answers to this, but let me tell you the one I think fits our situation the best. Christians in the Bay Area today are ashamed to Jesus because He is remarkably uncool. His theology is intolerant, saying there is only One God, only One Savior, only One way of Salvation, and that if you're not on that One way, you're on the way to Destruction. Can you imagine anything less cool than this?
I will admit that Pastor Phillips; mention of living in the (San Francisco) Bay Area and therefore Jesus Christ would be remarkably uncool, was funny to me. Jesus Christ, indeed, by modern western standards, is also considered theologically intolerant. The same can be stated for his New Testament writers.
A good Reformed friend of mine, now living in Calgary has said to me many times, paraphrasing a famous American pastor: 'Christians are supposed to be uncool!' In the context of this sermon, this is mainly under the review of western secular worldviews.
The New Testament, biblical worldview via progressive revelation is connected to the previous Old Testament/Hebrew Bible. The New Testament claims for Jesus Christ, include a virgin birth, the pregnancy initiated by the Holy Spirit in Matthew 1: 18, Luke 1: 35, states Browning in Oxford (389).
There were also documented miracles (see mainly Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and by his disciples through God, in Acts).
Through his crucifixion and death on the cross, his atoning and resurrection saving work is applied to those who believe in him (key theological teaching of the Gospels and the New Testament).
Jesus Christ is documented as God incarnate (John 1), and the eternal God the Son (John 1, Matthew 28 as examples), and Word of God (John 1), and as God is the creator of all things (Colossians 1).
John 1: 1-5 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 [a]He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not [b]comprehend it.
a John 1:2 Lit This one
b John 1:5 Or overpower
Colossians 1: 15 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
15 [w]He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For [x]by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 He [y]is before all things, and in Him all things [z]hold together.
w Colossians 1:15 Lit Who is
x Colossians 1:16 Or in
y Colossians 1:17 Or has existed prior to
z Colossians 1:17 Or endure
E.G. Ashby explains the mistake made by the Arians that Christ is the first-born of creation was therefore created, instead of being co-eternal with God the Father. But the context does not allow that interpretation. Page 1454. Firstborn can be defined as having to do with priority and superiority of God the Son in pre-existence as God. This being a reference to his deity, not his humanity. Page 1454. Firstborn has to do the priority and superiority of Christ over creation as he was the creator and not a mere creation.
There is no sense of a literal son being born of a literal father. However, Bauer from the Greek states that the term is used in a figurative sense as in Christ is the firstborn of a new humanity. Page 726. Christ would be the firstborn of resurrected humanity within the culminated KOG.
Romans 8: 29 firstborn of many brethren.
Πρωτοτοκος, the root word is prototokos, defined as firstborn prwtotokon in Romans 8:29.
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Jesus is also uncool in His ethics. He was against Divorce, for example; or living together without marriage. And, while He never personally addressed the LGBT Thing, His Apostles did, and they were dead set against it!
In context, even as Pastor Phillips is an excellent teacher of the Reformed tradition, he is from the United States of America and generally, American evangelical churches have certain biblical issues emphasized, and some of these connect to very heated political issues.
I have not been interested in this politicized approach on my websites and am not interested in this approach. As can be seen by my writing over the years, I have no intention of singling out a particular group within sinful humanity, connected to politics and political rights within a democracy. To be clear.
My Reformed, New Testament theology appeals to universal corrupted, fallen, human nature. From Romans 3, no person is righteous (10), no one understands and no one seeks for God (11), no one does good (12). With issues such as this, the Reformed view on sinful nature is incredibly helpful and clarifies the actual, as opposed to sentimental theologies, reality between humanity and God. Universal human sinful nature, and embraced sinful choices exist, and these can only be remedied within New Testament theology by Holy Spirit regeneration (Titus 3, John 3), and the atoning and resurrection work of Jesus Christ applied to persons.
In both love and truth, I need to be academically and intellectually open and honest with my readers, being one that reviews Greek manuscripts and uses biblical tools, there are New Testament verses based on thousands of ancient manuscripts that agree with the theology mentioned by Phillips in regards to Jesus Christ and his Apostles views on sexual morality and ethics. Please see Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 6, Revelation 22, as examples.
For example, adulterers and fornicators, also outside of the applied gospel work of Jesus Christ, will as well not inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6).
There are no verses that reasonably support a disagreement with what Phillips has stated. There are creative, usually liberal theologies that attempt reinterpretations for agendas, but they fail to be contextually true to the scripture. As I have noted on this website, premises (and conclusions) can be logical, but logical premises are not always reasonable and true. There can be logical theologies that are used within Christendom to counter logical biblical theologies, but they fail to be true.
Tuesday, February 13, 2018 Logic versus Truth
Back to the sermon...
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...Jesus is also uncool in His ethics.
True.
1 Corinthians 6 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor [f]effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
f 1 Corinthians 6:9 I.e. effeminate by perversion
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He's a Man who is naïve enough to think that you ought to have sex only with the person you're married to, and if you're not married, with no one at all, either real or imaginary. That's uncool!
Then you think of His political stances, or rather, non-stances. I suppose our Lord had His share of political beliefs, but He considered them to be of secondary importance, not taking bold stands for 1st Century equivalents of welfare, immigration, health care, or prison reform. He may have cared deeply for such things, but you'd never know it from the Bible!
Jesus Christ, and his key New Testament era followers, were far more interested in sharing the gospel than they were in politics.
Jesus is the uncoolest Man who ever lived; and if you're going to be His disciple, you'll also have to be uncool. The stigma keeps many Christians silent when they ought to speak up for the Lord who bought them. Does Jesus embarrass you? If He does, you need to remember I John 2:17- The world is passing away and the lusts thereof, but he who does the will of God abides forever.
Wanting to fit in, be cool, accepted, hip, up-to-date, in step with the times, is one of these lusts, and is rushing headlong to oblivion!
If indeed, the manuscript evidence and Church history support the gospel and a New Testament worldview, then an everlasting perspective on humanity and God should be embraced.
ASHBY, E G. (1986) 'Colossians' in The International Bible Commentary, Grand Rapids, Zondervan.
BAUER, WALTER (1979) A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, Translated by Eric H. Wahlstrom, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press.
BROWNING, W.R.F. (1997) Oxford Dictionary of the Bible, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
