The workings of the New Birth

We received our "how to" video on Sunday concerning the New Birth. God brings New Life - salvation - via the Holy Spirit (we saw this from Eze. 37) through the proclamation of the word of God. When the Word of God, the message of Jesus Christ, is proclaimed, the Spirit is unleashed with life-saving power. 1 Peter 1 told us that the imperishable seed that causes us to be born again is the word of God.

Remember, we're not in control of this. This isn't a magical formula. It's the act of worship that God honors with his life-saving power.

I mentioned towards the end of the message that the Holy Spirit has a very specific mission, to bring honor and praise to the name of Jesus Christ. That's why he doesn't breathe new life apart from the message of Jesus Christ; messages that don't focus on Jesus Christ bring Jesus no honor or praise. Where do I get that the Holy Spirit is looking to honor Jesus?

In John 15, Jesus said the Holy Spirit is coming to "bear witness about me." That's what the Holy Spirit is about. He's coming to lift my name, my message high. He doesn't have his own mission; he's about Jesus' mission. And also, in John 16:14 Jesus says, "he will glorify me, fo rhe will take what is mine and declare it to you."

Here are just a couple of verses that show us that the Holy Spirit is about lifting high the name of Jesus Christ.

What do you think of 1) this, 2) the sermon and 3) the homework? Love to hear your thoughts.

Blessings.
Pastor Brian

Why we need the New Birth

On Sunday, we learned that the scriptures define the problem as being "dead in our trespasses and sins" (see Eph. 2 and Col. 2 in particular). Another analogy is that we are "spiritually blind" from seeing the glories of Jesus Christ (see 2 Cor. 4). Nothing natural can reverse the effects of death or blindness. Nothing short of the supernatural power of God can reverse or change people from death to life, from blind to seeing.

Our urging, our fervency, our slick programs, our ... you name it, can not produce the salvation people need. I'm struck by Paul in 2 Cor. 4; he says, "we refuse to practice cunning or tamper with the word of God... we will renounce all disgraceful, underhanded ways... instead, we will (as the NIV puts it) put forward the truth plainly." Plainly. Just, "here's the gospel." If its veiled, its veiled. If God has opened their eyes, they'll see.

I'm not suggesting we don't work at being effective evangelists. I'm not saying we shouldn't look to removed obstacles to faith for unbelievers. But our hope is the supernatural power of God to save sinners. When the Philippian jailer cried out, "what must I do to be saved?" the apostles didn't say, "check this box; pray this prayer." They said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved." We must do similar things.

Give your feedback. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this or the sermon.

Blessings.
Pastor Brian

The insides of a born again Christian

Throughout our New Birth sermon, we are going to make specific references to the difference the New Birth makes in a person. What do those "born again" love? What do they desire? What do they do? How do they live? What do they do when they sin?

I'm using my imagination here, but what would a born again Christian's insides look like if you opened them up? That's what we talked about on Sunday. This is what you'd see:

1. You would find them completely washed clean from the stain of their sin. According to Titus 3:3-5, the New Birth washes us. Not only are we forgiven of our sins, but we are even scrubbed clean from the stain of our sin.

2. You would find a new heart, per the promise of God in Eze. 36 (among others). People born again don't operate with the cold, dead heart they've always had. They are given a new one.

3. You would find a new resident in a person's heart, the Holy Spirit. God said, "I will put my Spirit within you" in Eze. 36. In the NT, we saw how the Holy Spirit was poured into the hearts of those God was converting.

God makes us alive to him and dead to sin by cleansing us, giving us a new heart and pouring his Spirit within us.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback.

Blessings,
Pastor Brian

The New Birth and Religion

This Sunday, began answering the question, "what is the New Birth?" We'll be covering this question some more this coming Sunday, but so far we've learned that it is 1) a work of God 2) in you. One strong contrast I made was that the New Birth is not religious devotion or commitment.

In fact, religion is in fact rejection of God. I would like to hear your response to that: do you believe religion (in the sense we talked about it) is rejection of God? How would you describe the difference between the religious life and the gospel life?

Anything else you would like to chat about? Let me know.

Pastor Brian

The New Birth

A new blog design for a new sermon series.

So we started the sermon series on the New Birth. I hope and pray you find this space as an opportunity to engage, question and search more deeply into these matters. So don't hesitate asking questions or making comments. When you do, make sure you tell us who you are.

Two things seem to be true: 1) we want to have assurance of our salvation. 2) God wants us to be assured that we are saved...when we really are. That's really encouraging to me. God doesn't want me wondering endlessly if I'm really saved; he wants me confident of my standing with God.

But that confidence is found in the New Birth and the evidences of the New Birth, not our typical evangelical responses.

What was your big "take home" from this sermon? What was your main observation or question? Let's talk about it.

Pastor Brian

Order is everything

The essentials of the Christian life must be kept in their proper order. Getting the order wrong is the difference between heaven and hell. Today, we saw how true faith keeps God's word. That you can't say you have faith in God and ignore what God says.

But you can't get the order mixed up. You can't say, "Because I keep God's word, he accepts me." If that statement is true than what's the basis of God's acceptance of me? My keeping God's word. Salvation then turns into product I have purchased by my ability to adhere to God's word. And that's completely opposite to what scripture teaches; that salvation is on the basis of faith.

So instead we say, "Because I believe in God, I keep his word." Now why do I keep his word? Not to be saved, but I keep his word because I am saved and I believe in God. This is the order we need to keep.

What do you think about this? And also, what are you feelings and questions? I'd love to hear them.

Pastor Brian

Wait a minute?

Our passage this morning provided another one of those "wait a minute?" kinds of responses. We've seen them before; how could cattle be killed in by the hail when God wiped out the cattle in a previous wonder? A three days journey in the wilderness? I thought God was bringing his people out of Egypt permanently.

At the end of chapter 10, in the tense scene between Pharaoh and Moses, Pharaoh said that he would kill Moses the next time Moses showed his face in the palace again. Even Moses said, "As you say! I will not see your face again." But in chapter 11, Moses warns Pharaoh of the coming wonder. What does this mean?

There are a couple of ways to understand this: 1) While Moses and Pharaoh had a moment of anger saying they wouldn't see each other again, they really didn't mean it. Or the need to meet again because of the coming trouble super ceded their previous "threats." 2) Another explanation could be that Moses warned Pharaoh of this last wonder before he left in chapter 10; a kind of "oh, by the way, before I got know this...."

Clearly, the author of Exodus isn't concerned about this like we are so its something we have to live with. I like the 2nd option, but ultimately, it doesn't change the overall story; God's bringing deliverance through the execution of judgment.

What else are you picking up or seeing Chapter 11?