2018.08.16 Hopewell @Home ▫ 1Corinthians 6:12-20

Read 1Corinthians 6:12-20

Questions for Littles: What were some Corinthians saying they were allowed to do (v12)? What were they saying the stomach is made for (v13)? But whom does Paul warn them will destroy it? For whom does the body exist? And what will God do with us that He has already done with the Lord Jesus (v14)? Of what are our bodies members (v15)? Of what must we not make them members (v15-16)? In what way are we one with the Lord Jesus (v17)? How should we respond to sexual immorality (v18)? Against what do we sin in sexual immorality? But what is this our body (v19)? How did God claim His right to us (v20)? What should we do with both our body and our spirit?

In this week’s Epistle reading, we find a couple sayings that sound wise, and were going around the Corinthian church. “All things are lawful for me,” they said. I’ve heard a version of this, where those who profess faith in Christ say, “I’m not perfect, just forgiven.” By that, they mean, “I can do whatever I want, since I’ve got forgiveness in Jesus.”

But that’s not how someone who actually has forgiveness thinks. Rather, the one whose heart has been opened to the Lord and forgiven by the Lord wants to live in the way that glorifies the Lord and keeps him free from sin.

Another thing that they were saying was, “Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods.” They were justifying their gluttony by saying, “this is the way God made us—that’s what stomachs are for!”

But the apostle reminds us that we are not in fact the way that God made us. Sin and death have entered the world, and the fact that our bodies will soon lie in the grave is a reminder that our impulses are full of sin now.

But the Corinthians were even using such excuses to tell themselves that it was ok to visit prostitutes. They were taking the temple of the Holy Spirit, the blood-bought possession of the Lord Jesus Christ—themselves—and joining it to a prostitute!

It is a sad fact that, as Christians, we think so much about how we can best enjoy ourselves rather than how we can best glorify God. But living for ourselves is theft. Our whole selves—body and soul—have been bought with the blood of Jesus Christ. We must live in the way that glorifies Him!

What must you stop doing that you have been doing? What must you do instead? 

Suggested songs: ARP51B “From My Sins, O Hide Your Face” or HB276 “There Is a Fountain”

2018.08.15 Hopewell @Home ▫ Genesis 28:10-22

Read Genesis 28:10-22

Questions for Littles: What did Jacob dream (v10-12)? What were ascending and descending upon him? Who stood above him in v13? What did He promise to give to Jacob? What did He promise about his descendants in v14? And who would be blessed through them? What else does the Lord promise in v15? How does Jacob feel, when he wakes up (v17)? What does he think that place is? What does he do in v18, and what does he call the place in v19? What does Jacob vow in v21? And what does he promise in v22?

In the passage for this week’s Old Testament reading, Jacob is running for his life from Esau. The map tells us that he has gone about 60 miles by the time he stops. That would be a 15 hour day of 15 minute miles!

No wonder he is so tired that he can sleep with a rock for a pillow! But, he is about to get even more scared. He has a vision of angels ascending and descending upon him by means of some kind of ladder, and even of a manifestation of the Lord right at his head.

The rest of the interaction is rather odd. The Lord makes glorious covenant promises of the land (v13), the people (14a), salvation (14b), and even His personal presence (v15). But, when Jacob wakes up, he seems not to be taking God at His Word. He makes his vow in a “if” “then” sort of format.

As we read it, we want to believe that he’s implying that God will surely keep the promises, but what we observe of Jacob in the coming chapters doesn’t really encourage us to think that he’s approaching this from a position of faith. In fact, it seems like he is bargaining with God.

We must never do that. God doesn’t need anything from us at all. Rather, He generously invites us into relationship with Him. It is a blessing to us to have God as our God. It is a blessing to us to be able to give Him a tithe of everything. We don’t do these things as some sort of quid-pro-quo response to if God keeps up “His end of the bargain.”

Jacob definitely is not the hero here. The Lord is. He makes this glorious promises that belong to all Israel. But He especially makes them to those who belong to the true Israel—our Lord Jesus Christ!

What are the Lord’s promises to you in Jesus? How are you privileged to respond?

Suggested songs: ARP89C “Behold, How Blessed the People Are” or TPH245 “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”

2018.08.14 Hopewell @Home ▫ Acts 4:5-31

Read Acts 4:5-31

Questions for Littles: Who were gathered together to put Peter and John on trial (v5-6)? What did they ask (v7)? By what name does Peter tell them they had done a good deed to a helpless man (v8-10)? What else does Peter say about Jesus in v10? What does he quote in v11? What does he say about Jesus’ name in v12? What did the accusers and court realize about them in v13? Still, what did they decide to do in v14-17? What command did they give in v18? How did Peter and John answer in 19? What did they feel that they had to do (v20)? What did they do to them in v21? What couldn’t they do to them, and why (v21-22)? What do the apostles acknowledge about God in v24? Whom do they recognize Psalm 2 as being about (v25-27)? What did the nations and Israel do, according to v28? For what do the apostles ask in v29? What did they immediately go out and do at the end of v31?

This week’s Call to Worship, Invocation, and Confession of sin came from Acts 4. In this particular passage, the apostles are on trial, and the Lord actually uses those who are trying to punish them to give them a great opportunity. Their captors actually ask them by what power or name they had healed the man!!

Of course, that’s a great big softball, and the Holy Spirit fills Peter and enables him to knock it right out of the park. He doesn’t just tell them that it was Jesus—but the crucified and risen Jesus in whose name alone there can be any salvation!

The court threatens them, but how much of a threat is it really? The apostles have read all about the nations raging in Psalm 2, and they know something very important: God foreordains whatsoever comes to pass.

Dear Christian, don’t you realize this about yourself, your friends, and even your worst enemies: though each of us is responsible for our willful actions, we all do “whatever God’s hand and God’s purpose determined before to be done.”

The cross, of course, is the greatest example of this. And the effect of it is that the Scripture here gives us a model prayer: not so much that we would be comfortable, but rather that we would be faithful. We can trust our ultimate comfort to God, who sovereignly works all things for our good.

In what difficulty is God’s sovereignty enabling you to focus on doing right?

Suggested songs: ARP2 “Why Do Gentile Nations Rage?” or TPH231 “Whate’er My God Ordains Is Right”

2018.08.13 Hopewell @Home ▫ Romans 13:1-4

Read Romans 13:1-4

Questions for Littles: How many souls should be subject (v1)? To whom should they be subject? Where does all authority come from? Who has appointed the authorities that exist? If we resist authority, what do we really resist (v2)? If we resist authority, what will we bring upon ourselves? To what kind of works are rulers a terror (v3)? What should we do, if we want to be unafraid of authority? From whom also, then, will we get praise? Whose minister to us is the authority (v4)? For what purpose? When should we be afraid? What does the authority bear, and no in vain? What is the authority to be upon him who practices evil? 

From the Scripture for this week’s sermon, we were reminded of the significance of the fact that every man must answer to God. Authority was not our idea, it was God’s. Everyone is under authority, and everyone must answer… and ultimately everyone will answer to the Lord.

This is why we must never resist the idea of authority. In our sinfulness, we don’t like to be under authority, but God doesn’t need to consult us on how He operates His creation.

When God told Noah, in Genesis 9, that the one who sheds man’s blood must have his blood shed by man, God commanded the death penalty for murderers. Of course, God could easily kill all murderers Himself, but in giving that command, He established that there must be an authority who oversees, who investigates, who determines guilt, who carries out sentences.

Sadly, man corrupts authority—just as he corrupts all of God’s good gifts. So, there are authorities of whom we might rightly be afraid… IF God hadn’t said, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, says the Lord.”

Ultimately, if we do what is good, even if the immediate authority above us does not approve, God does. He will take vengeance upon any wrong done to us. He will even reward us—for Jesus’s sake!—for any good that we have done in Christ. The ultimate authority will even praise us!

Note that this logic only applies if it is God who determines what is “good” in v3-4. We recognize God’s authority by refusing all commands to do evil!

However, if we do what God calls evil, His justice will fully agree with the just punishments that we receive. And that is good reason to be afraid!

What authorities are over you? When and why must you obey them?

Suggested Songs: ARP95B “Today If You Will Hear His Voice” or HB146 “Hail to the Lord’s Anointed”

2018.08.11 Hopewell @Home ▫ Psalm 78:67-72

Read Psalm 78:67-72

Questions for Littles: Whom did the Lord not choose (v67)? Whom did He choose instead (v68)? Why? What did He construct there (v69)? Whom else did He choose (v70)? From where did He take him? From doing what did He take him (v71)? For doing what did He take him? What did he do and how (v72)?

From the Scripture for this week’s sermon, we learned about God’s plan for bringing the cycle of failure to an end.

At first, it seems like this passage is only about David the son of Jesse. After all, v70 calls him by name and v70-71 describe his beginning as a shepherd, following mama sheep and baby lambs.

But then v72 describes a result from this “shepherding” that we don’t quite come away from 2Samuel satisfied has happened: “So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.” Bathsheba. Uriah. Amnon. Absalom. Adonijah. There’s a fair measure of integrity and skill missing.

Even worse, we go from king to king, finding that they are just about all thieves and robbers, just as the Lord declared they would be in 1Samuel 8, and as the Lord rebukes them for being in Ezekiel 34.

At last, there is One who comes and says, “I am the door of the sheep… all who came before Me are thieves and robbers… I am the Good Shepherd” (John 10).

As we go through the history of Israel, we wonder when the time will come that there will be one faithful generation after another? Then we put John 10 together with the end of Psalm 78, and we find that this is a big part of what Jesus means when He announces that the kingdom has arrived.

Jesus is the promised, forever-King. He is great David’s greater Son, the Good Shepherd. And it is His generations who transmit faith, worship, and obedience from one generation to the next. If ever there was a time when Psalm 78:5-7 would be fulfilled among God’s people, it is now!

How does Christ’s Kingship over the church come out in daily and weekly life?

Suggested Songs: ARP72A “God, Give Your Judgments to the King” or HB146 “Hail to the Lord’s Anointed”

2018.08.10 Hopewell @Home ▫ John 1:19-36

Read John 1:19-36

Questions for Littles: What did the Jews want to know from John (v19)? Whom did he say he was not (v20-21)? Who/what did he say that he was (v23)? With what did John baptize (v26)? What did John call Jesus in v29? What did he say Jesus would do? What reason does he give for Jesus being greater than he (v30)? What does John say he saw in v32? With what/whom does John say that Jesus will baptize (v33)? Whom does he say that Jesus is in v34?

In the Gospel reading this week, the Jews are looking for the Christ, and they wonder if John the Baptizer is He. But he’s not the Christ. He’s not Elijah who would come first (cf. Malachi 4:5). He’s not the Prophet (cr. Deuteronomy 18:15).

Ironically, John didn’t even know it, but Jesus would later identify him as the Elijah who would come (cf. Matthew 17:11-13). What John did now is who Jesus is: Yahweh Himself, come to save us.

First, John identifies himself as going ahead to announce the arrival of the Yahweh (v23, cf. Isaiah 40:3).

Second, even though Jesus is six months younger than John, John says that Jesus is greater than he is, because Jesus was before him (v26-30).

Third, John presents Jesus’ ability to pour out the Holy Spirit as being like John’s ability to pour out water (v33).

Finally, John directly says that Jesus is the Son of God (v34). The son of man is man. The Son of God is God.

Four proofs that John knew Jesus is God—and he still begins to doubt when he’s imprisoned. Let us never be surprised at how our faith can waver!

But even more amazing than the fact that Jesus is God is what He came to be—not just a man, but a lamb. No, not a cute, little, wooly mammal. A sacrifice. A man whose blood would be shed to pay for sins—not just of one man but of men from all over the world.

As God, and the Lamb, there no one whom we must worship but Jesus, and no one whom we must trust in but Jesus.

How have you responded to Jesus’s divinity? To Jesus’s sacrifice?

Suggested songs: ARP2 “Why Do Gentile Nations Rage?” or TPH280 “Wondrous King, All Glorious”

2018.08.09 Hopewell @Home ▫ 1Corinthians 6:1-11

Read 1Corinthians 6:1-11

Questions for Littles: If we have a matter against one another, where should we “got to law” (v1)? Whom else will the saints judge (v2)? And whom else (v3)? How does the church esteem the judges of the world (v4)? What has already happened, when Christians go to court against one another (v7)? What should they rather accept and allow instead? What are they doing to one another (v8)? What kinds of people will not inherit the kingdom (v9-10)? Who had been among this group (v11)? What happened to them? In what name? By what Person?

In this week’s Epistle reading, we find out another role for church courts.

In the previous passage, we learned about the necessity of church discipline. Now, we find that church courts also help believers sort out their issues.

On the one hand, believers don’t esteem the judgment of unbelievers (v4, 6). Wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord. Justice and righteousness are defined by His law.

On the other hand, going to unbelievers brings shame upon the name of Christ—something that is itself a defeat. We should rather be cheated than allow something so terrible.

I wonder, dear reader, do we treasure Christ’s honor more than our rights?

We do if we are on our way to inheriting the kingdom. However, if we are willing to cheat one another, we should be very alarmed. If we are unrepentant about that, then perhaps our identity is not in Christ.

It’s an either-or proposition. Either your identity is in your sin (whether covetous, slanderer, homosexual, etc.), or it is in Christ.

What an encouragement to read the list of the different kinds of former sin-identities from which one may be redeemed! And yet it’s necessary to see that this change in identity is not optional.

Don’t let anyone deceive you. That’s a command from v9. Anyone whose identity is still bound up in their sin is still outside of Christ. What’s your identity—with your enslavement or your freedom?

In what situation do you have a chance to set aside your rights for Christ?

Suggested songs: ARP32A “What Blessedness” or HB276 “There Is a Fountain”

2018.08.08 Hopewell @Home ▫ Genesis 27:41-28:9

Read Genesis 27:41-28:9

Questions for Littles: What did Esau plan to do (v41)? Who found out (v42)? Whom did she tell? Where did she want to send him (v43)? How long did she think it would take (v44)? How does Rebekah set Isaac up to send Jacob away (v46)? What does Isaac do in vv1-2? What does he add in vv3-4? When had he done this before? What is different this time? When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, what did Esau do (v6-9)?

In the passage for this week’s Old Testament reading, we find sinful people being sinful, and our merciful God being merciful.

Esau is vengeful and murderous. Not only does he want to kill Jacob, but when he says that the days of mourning for Isaac are at hand, he may even be implying that he’s willing to accelerate his father’s pace to the grave.

Rebekah is still operating a spy network, and is ready to put another manipulative plan into action. She plays on the irritating Hittite daughters-in-law.

But we do see a repentant sinner, by God’s mercy. Isaac. He’d been fighting the idea of giving Jacob the blessing. He tried to put one over on God.

But, at last, he shook with the realization that Jacob would indeed be blessed. Now, he takes the opportunity to bless Jacob with his eyes wide-open (so to speak). We could have easily missed it, but vv3-4 are Isaac finally yielding himself to the Lord’s word and willingly giving Jacob the blessing of Abraham.

What a mercy of God to him to give Isaac such a second opportunity! And the greatest mercy of God is that all of this occurs in the process of bringing the Christ into the world.

Sadly, sometimes there are deep and abiding consequences to our sin. Rebekah thought her manipulations would separate her from Jacob for a few days. As far as we know, she never saw him again. Oh what a tangled web we weave…

What costly sins have you committed? How has God been merciful anyway?

Suggested songs: ARP51A “God, Be Merciful to Me” or TPH459 “My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less”

2018.08.07 Hopewell @Home ▫ 2Corinthians 4:13-18

Read 2Corinthians 4:13-18

Questions for Littles: What do those who believe do (v13)? What will He who raised up the Lord Jesus also do (v14)? Why does God save so many by grace (v15)? What do we not lose (v16)? What is perishing? What is being renewed day by day? What kind of affliction do we have (v17)? For how long? What is it working for us? How much and for how long? What do we look at (v18)? What is the difference in how long the seen lasts vs. how long the unseen lasts?

This week’s Call to Worship, Invocation, and Confession of sin came from 2Corinthians 4:13-18.

What is it that a Christian believes and says? That since his faith is into Christ, his whole future is bound up with Christ. Faith unites us to Jesus, so if Jesus was raised, we will be raised.

All things work together for Him, and so all things work together for us. And more than that, all of this produces thanksgiving unto the glory of God. So, our being raised up in glory with Christ must certainly come.

What, then, is the purpose of our troubles? Why, to work glory for us, of course! And how big are our troubles by comparison to that exceeding weight of glory? Light. And how long are our troubles by comparison to that eternal glory? But a moment.

Now, it’s well enough to know that these things are true. However, our passage tells us that we do more than just know this truth; rather, we look at this truth.

We need to be dwelling upon the fact that we are guaranteed an eternal weight of glory. It’s in dwelling upon glory that our affliction is shown to be light and short. It’s in clinging to Christ—in whom that glory is guaranteed—that we are able to be inwardly renewed day by day, even if we are outwardly wasting away.

This is why we need faith, and why we must cry out for that most precious gift of God. What we need to look at is unseen to the physical eye. We can only see it with the eye of faith. God grant us to see it!—to see Him!

If faith comes by hearing the Word of God, how do you look for it from God?

Suggested songs: ARP16B “I’ll Bless the Lord Who Counsels Me” or HB378 “My Faith Looks Up to Thee”

2018.08.06 Hopewell @Home ▫ Psalm 78:1-8

Read Psalm 78:1-8

Questions for Littles: To what are to give our ears and incline them (v1)? What will we be told (v2)? Where have we heard this (v3)? Whom will we tell (v4)? What will we tell? What has God established and where (v5)? What did He command our fathers to do? To whom else would this be communicated (v6)? What are the three parts of the application of this teaching (v7)? What had previous generations not done (v8)?

From the Scripture for this week’s sermon, we learned God’s plan for the reformation and preservation of His church: on generation teaching another generation of teachers—all of whom put that teaching into practice.

Of course, teaching begins with your ears. You can’t teach what you haven’t studied. In our flesh and our folly, we would like to skip to faith, worship, and obedience. But, the Lord’s plan for us and assignment to us begins with our minds. Listen and learn. We cannot teach the next generation until we have learned from the previous one.

What are we to learn in order to teach? The Lord’s testimonies and laws. His teachings and His commands. The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of man.

There are three primary responses to this knowledge:

Faith. “That they may set their hope in God.” One generation doesn’t just teach the other. They put their hope in God, training the next generation by example as well.

Worship. “And not forget the works of God.” Worship is the first part of faith. We fall at His feet saying, “My Lord and my God.” We don’t forget His works, but rather acknowledge and praise Him.

Obedience. “But keep His commandments.” Obedience is worship in action in the life. Having acknowledged the Lord as God, we give up our right to ourselves and live according to whatever He says.

In what situations are you listening to God’s Word? In what situations are you teaching God’s Word? What place does worship have in each of your days? In each of your weeks? What difference does it make daily that you are living a life of obedience?

Suggested Songs: ARP95B “Today If You Will Hear His Voice” or HB146 “Hail to the Lord’s Anointed”