God Decides What's Worshipful (FW lesson in 1Sam 15:1–23)

Pastor leads his family in yesterday's Hopewell @Home lesson from 1Sam 15:1–23. Sometimes we think that something just feels so worshipful. Saul certainly thought so about the method in which he was going to off the last of the Amalekite livestock. He thought their little, well-meaning modification to God's command was a good thing that would be rewarded. God, however, hated it as a rejection of His Word, and He rejected Saul.

2020.08.06 Hopewell @Home ▫ Ephesians 4:12–13

Read Ephesians 4:12–13

Questions from the Scripture text: Whom were the apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastor-teachers been given to equip (Ephesians 4:12)? For what work? What were these gifts given also to build up? Who come to what unity by these works (Ephesians 4:13)? To what knowledge do they come? To what kind of man? To what measure and stature?

Why must we have this thoroughly Scripture-founded, Scripture-formed, Scripture-filled, Scripture-facilitated ministry from Ephesians 4:11?

Because we are in constant need of repair. That’s what the word translated “equipping” (Ephesians 4:12) really means: restoring again back to usefulness, like when the fishermen were repairing their nets and hooks.

The equipping ministry of the Word is like a soldier who keeps his body fit and meticulously maintains his weapons, because he’s got a mission.

What is that mission? Ministry (service, verse 12—and, in this case, necessarily service in the truth) by which Christ builds up His body (verse 12). Elders’ ministry in the Word, and our service to one another, aims especially at three things:

The unity of the faith (Ephesians 4:13). Biblical unity is not peaceful interaction between those who disagree, but the reorientation of many different minds and values and preferences to the one mind and values and preferences of Christ. It is the unity of the faith. Unity that comes by passionate pursuit of agreement with Scripture, under the ministry of pastor-teachers upon whose ministries all the saints attend well so that they can reinforce it to one another.

A second thing that biblical ministry aims at is the knowledge of the Son of God (verse 13). Not merely “all the feels” about Jesus. It’s Scripture-driven and theological. O, everything, everything, we learn of our Lord Jesus should and does inflame our hearts with passionate love to our glorious and dear Redeemer! But this is a love and a knowledge that is built brick by brick, sinew by sinew, by every new thing that we accurately and truly understand about the Lord Jesus. This is not a surprising response to the pastor-teachers’ ministry in the Word of God, because our Lord Jesus says, “it is they [the Scriptures] that speak of Me.”

A final thing that biblical ministry aims at is maturity (“a perfect man,” verse 13). What is Christian maturity measured by? Christ (verse 13). How does one come by this maturity? Being filled with Christ (verse 13). Believers who want more of Jesus should be seeking their elders to pastor them more in the Word and to teach them more from the Word, then reinforcing that in which they are led and taught with one another. Here is a wonderful truth in this verse: this is Jesus’s way not only of making us know Him more, but also of making us more like Him, by filling us with Himself!

So a biblical ministry is a Jesus ministry. And a Jesus ministry is: saints, who have been repaired/remedied from their own thoughts/values/preferences to be reoriented to those of Christ, by the ministry of pastor-teachers, now proceeding to reinforce one another in this reorientation. And Jesus Himself has been pleased to appoint this as the way by which we know Jesus more, become more like Jesus, and are even filled with Jesus. Praise Jesus!

What should pastor-teachers be doing? What will keep their congregations in good shape? Why is your own sermon-listening and Scripture meditation important to the building of the church? Why is it important for unity? What are some things that you have been learning about Jesus in the Bible recently? How have you reinforced it to others?

Suggested songs: ARP23B “The Lord’s My Shepherd” or TPH23A “The Lord’s My Shepherd”

2020.08.05 Hopewell @Home ▫ 1 Samuel 15:1–23

Read 1 Samuel 15:1–23

Questions from the Scripture text: What does Samuel remind Saul about his kingship (1 Samuel 15:1)? What then should Saul do? Whom does Yahweh of hosts plan to punish (1 Samuel 15:2)? Why? What must Saul do, how completely, and to whom, and specifically to what (1 Samuel 15:3)? What did Saul do to the people in 1 Samuel 15:4? How many were there? Where did they go in 1 Samuel 15:5? Whom does Saul give prior notice in 1 Samuel 15:6? Why? What does Saul do in 1 Samuel 15:7? Whom does he take in 1 Samuel 15:8? What does he do with the rest of the people? Whom and what do Saul and the people spare (1 Samuel 15:9)? How did they decide what to spare or what to destroy? What comes to Samuel in 1 Samuel 15:10? What does Yahweh say about having made Saul king (1 Samuel 15:11a)? Upon what basis does He evaluate Saul’s kingship? How does Samuel respond? When does Samuel rise in 1 Samuel 15:12? For whom is he looking? But where has Saul been, and what has Saul done? When Saul sees Samuel, what does he say to him (1 Samuel 15:13)? What does he claim about himself? What does Samuel ask in response (1 Samuel 15:14)? What does Saul say is the purpose of the animals (1 Samuel 15:15)? How does Samuel answer him in 1 Samuel 15:16? What does he remind Saul that Yahweh has done for him (1 Samuel 15:17)? What does he remind Saul that Yahweh has commanded him to do (1 Samuel 15:18)? What does he say that Saul has done instead (1 Samuel 15:19)? What does Saul claim in response (1 Samuel 15:20)? Whom does he blame (1 Samuel 15:21)? But how does he defend them? What does Samuel say more delightful to Yahweh than burnt offerings and sacrifices (1 Samuel 15:22)? What does he say is better than sacrifice and the fat of rams? What is rebellion as bad as (1 Samuel 15:23)? What is stubbornness as bad as? What has Saul rejected? What has Yahweh rejected from what?

1 Samuel 15:22-23 controls our understanding of this entire passage. God doesn’t particularly care for our acts of worship in and of themselves. Ultimately, the value of a sacrifice was that it was one that God had commanded in anticipation of Christ and His cross. Similarly for us today, the value of our worship is that it is mediated by Christ in heaven, upon the worthiness of His righteousness and His sacrifice on the cross.

The problem is that many of us think that we are doing what God wants (1 Samuel 15:13, 1 Samuel 15:20), and are very sincerely giving God what we think is best (1 Samuel 15:9, 1 Samuel 15:21). And we think that God likes it.

But if we have added our own ideas to the worship of God, or if we add to His law, this is the Bible’s assessment of what we have done: “you have rejected the word of Yahweh.” And how dreadful to consider that if this is the case with us, then we can expect to hear, “He also has rejected you from being king.”

This is one of the glories of Jesus’s forever-kingship. He is the never-rejected King! He is the One who has never rejected the word of Yahweh, but always kept it. And if we rest upon Him alone for salvation, He is our forever-King, and His righteousness is our righteousness.

But let us not think that this is license to obey. For, our Lord comes to us in Christ, as if to say like 1 Samuel 15:1, “The Lord sent me to be your Redeemer and King. Now therefore, heed the voice of the words of the Lord.” Can we rejoice to be God’s and Christ’s and not repent and pursue obedience with all our heart?

So, let us rejoice that not only do we have a King who has no sin of His own from which to repent, but also Who is able by His Spirit to work repentance in us, and give that repentance increasing success until He has made us to be like Himself!

What is one area of your worship or your life that you thought was sincerely spiritual and good, but which God’s Word has exposed to you as disobedience and rebellion? What is your hope for forgiveness when this happens? What is your hope for doing better when this happens?

Suggested songs: ARP32AB “What Blessedness” or TPH119W “Lord, Let My Cry Before You Come”

Gospel Gifts from the Victorious King: Offices of Word and Doctrine

After giving Himself as His own greatest Gift, and the Chief Cornerstone of the church, Jesus gave four foundational and constructional gifts. The foundational gifts of apostles and prophets, through whom His foundation of Scripture was finished. And the constructional gifts of evangelists (who proclaim His Word where it hasn't yet been heard) and pastor-teachers (who lead by and proclaim His Word to the members of the church so that each may cause all the others to grow properly upon the foundation).

2020.08.04 Hopewell @Home ▫ 2 Corinthians 3:17–4:7

Read 2 Corinthians 3:17–4:7

Questions from the Scripture text: To whom do we turn, when we turn to Lord (2 Corinthians 3:17)? And what does the Lord, the Spirit, give us? And what do we see, when our blindness is removed (2 Corinthians 3:18)? And what effect does this have upon us? What have Paul and his companions received for their ministry (2 Corinthians 4:1)? What do they not lose? What does he call the things that they have renounced in 2 Corinthians 4:2? In what do they refuse to walk? How do they refuse to handle the word of God? Instead, what do they do with the truth? To what aspect, then, of every man, do they commend themselves? In whose sight? What may happen to their gospel (2 Corinthians 4:3a)? But to whom would it be veiled (verse 3b)? What does 2 Corinthians 4:4 call the devil? What has he done to those who are perishing? What do they not do? What does this veil keep them from seeing? Who is Christ, according to verse 4? What, then, do Paul and his companions not preach (2 Corinthians 4:5)? What do they preach? How do they consider themselves? Who does the work (2 Corinthians 4:6)? What else has He done about 4000 years prior? In whom else has He already done this spiritual counterpart to that work? Where does He shine? What light does He give? In whose face is the knowledge of this glory received? By what kind of vessel is this treasure conveyed (2 Corinthians 4:7)? What does this show?

Next week’s Call to Worship, Prayer for Help, and Confession of Sin come from 2 Corinthians 3:17–4:7 in order that we will see that we are singing God’s thoughts after Him with Spirit of God, Dwell Thou within My Heart.

Here, the apostle explains why his ministry is not generally impressive to all. One might have (wrongly) expected that the ministry of an apostle would be impressive to anyone.

Paul’s ultimate response is that God alone is the impressiveness of the work, and those who are not impressed with Him are not going to find anything else to be impressed with in his ministry (2 Corinthians 4:7). This doesn’t bother him, because his ministry is not his idea or his pride. It as an assignment of God by the mercy of God. It may seem to be going poorly, but if it is of God, then there is no reason to lose heart!

Ironically, the apostle refers to superficially impressive ministry as “the hidden things of shame.” There is a way of handling the Word of God that looks impressive on the outside, but what you cannot see is that it is man-derived and man-dependent. But the apostles are not concerned with commending themselves to men’s admiration. They are concerned with commending themselves to men’s consciences. O that we would learn to see our life as an assignment from God and deal earnestly with others as those who will have to stand before Him!! How this might help us to stop living for their applause!

Will such a ministry have a hundred percent conversion rate? No and yes. In one sense, no. There are those who are perishing. And if the Lord has not atoned for them, and is not going to regenerate them, then what exactly are we supposed to be able to do about that? It is not just that they are unable to see God’s glory. It is also that they are not permitted. 2 Corinthians 4:4 says that God has set things up this way because He refuses to shine the light of the gospel upon them.

But in another sense, yes. Such a ministry will have a hundred percent conversion rate. For, the Lord is all powerful. He spoke light itself into existence. And He can speak spiritual light into existence in the hearts. And He does, because in the case of His elect, He is determined to give them the light of the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ! It is the Lord, the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:17a) who frees sinners from their blindness (verse 3:17b) so that they may not only see the glory of the Lord in the first place (2 Corinthians 3:18a), but also grow in our sanctification until He has at last conformed us to His own glorious image (verse 3:18b)!

What kind of ministry should we look for in the church? Whom should we be looking to make it effective? With whom should we aim at being impressed? What aims and approaches are incompatible with this? 

Suggested songs: ARP1 “How Blessed the Man” or TPH393 “Spirit of God, Dwell Thou within Our Hearts”

Racial Reconciliation 4: Loving Our Enemies (200802 Sabbath School)

Those who are at enmity with the Lord Jesus will be at enmity with His followers. But, He has told us what to do about that: love your enemies.

You Need Jesus More Than You Can See Or Know (2020.08.02 Morning Sermon in Genesis 31:1–16)

We have more enemies than we can see, and more sin than we can see. But God, Who is doing more than we can see, is working in all things for the perfect and permanent good of those who belong to Him through Jesus—and to Whom He gives Himself to belong to them.

2020.08.03 Hopewell @Home ▫ Genesis 31:1–16

Read Genesis 31:1–16

Questions from the Scripture text: What does Jacob hear in Genesis 31:1? What were Laban’s sons saying that Jacob had done? What does Jacob see in Genesis 31:2? What was the difference in it now, from before? Who spoke to Jacob in Genesis 31:3? What does He tell Jacob to do? Whom does He say will be with Jacob? For whom does Jacob send in Genesis 31:4? To where? To what? What does he say that he has seen (Genesis 31:5)? How does he now explain his surviving and prospering? What does he say that they know (Genesis 31:6)? What does Jacob say that Laban has done (Genesis 31:7)? What does Jacob say has kept Laban from succeeding in this? How did God stop him (Genesis 31:8)? What does Jacob conclude that God has done (Genesis 31:9)? What had happened to Jacob, when (Genesis 31:10)? Who spoke to him (Genesis 31:11)? What did He say? What did Jacob say? In Genesis 31:12, what explanation does God give for which rams “leap on the flocks”? How does God identify Himself in Genesis 31:13? What two things does He remind Jacob that Jacob had done at Bethel (verse 13)? What does God now command Jacob to do? What do Rachel and Leah ask in Genesis 31:14? What do they ask in Genesis 31:15? What do they say that Laban has done? What do they say that God has done (Genesis 31:16)? To whom do they say that the flocks really belong? What do they tell Jacob to do? 

Our God sees. Everything.

Long before Jacob “saw the countenance of Laban, and indeed it was not favorable toward him as before” (Genesis 31:2), Yahweh had “seen all that Laban is doing to you” (Genesis 31:12). This is not good news for Laban. Indeed, it is not good news for anyone who is outside of Christ. Apart from Christ, “God knows my heart” is never good news.

But for the Christian, it is great news that God sees everything that is done to us.

Because our God works. In everything. For our good.

Laban’s failure to harm Jacob wasn’t for lack of trying. And it wasn’t for Jacob’s cleverness or diligence to overcome it—no matter what Jacob at first thought about his clever breeding scheme. No, in the vision to which Jacob refers in Genesis 31:11-13, he learned the real reason, “but God did not allow him to hurt me” (Genesis 31:7).

Thus, God had instructed His chosen one. So that Jacob would not see the instruction in Genesis 31:3 as an indication that what Jacob really needed was a change of geographic location.

Our God is with us. Everywhere.

The promise attached to Jacob’s removal back to Canaan is, “and I will be with you” (verse 3). But this would not be something new. Indeed, God had always been with him.

Jacob understands that this is the message of Genesis 31:11-13, when he says later in Genesis 31:42, “Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac had been with me.” Jacob has learned that God isn’t just with His people in Canaan, or when running from Esau.

The angels had always been ascending and descending, in their continually obedient attendance unto God’s elect one. It had never been by might, nor by power, but always by God’s Spirit that Jacob had been protected and prospered in his way.

Why then the relocation to Canaan? Because it is the land of promise. This is how we are to understand, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your family” from Genesis 31:3. The Lord is commanding Jacob to make his life choices as someone who clings to God’s promises, which are terms upon which God has bound Himself to him in covenant.

This is the greatest covenant promise—the one that makes all of the other ones a blessing, and to which all of the other ones point: “I will be your God, and you will be My people.”

This is what you need, dear Christian. Whether or not you can escape trouble, heal from disease, improve financial circumstances, get relief from persecution. The Lord may or may not alter your circumstances, but whether in these circumstances or new ones, here will be your purpose, your protection, your prosperity, your pleasure: “Unless  the God of Abraham had been with me…”

What circumstances/people are a threat? What is your protection, prosperity, and pleasure in it?

Suggested songs: ARP146 “Praise the Lord” or TPH257 “Children of the Heavenly Father”

Looking Forward to Learning to Do Things Jesus's Way (2020.08.01 Pastoral Letter and Hopewell Herald)

Hopewell Herald – August 1, 2020

Dear Congregation,

Everyone whom the Lord saves, He brings to the point where they see that Jesus has a way of saving them, and that it is the only way of being saved.

In our Ephesians passages for the next several weeks, we will see that Jesus has a way of keeping us in ministry-shape, a way of building His church, a way of unifying His church, a way of making us know Himself, a way of maturing us, a way of filling us with Himself.

For some of us who walked for some time with the Lord before we learned that He defines ministry, unity, and maturity, this realization was a significant moment in our Christian life—not unlike some who have walked for some time with Him before embracing the doctrines of sovereign grace or before coming to understand the church covenantally or before coming to understand union with Christ.

So, I’m eager for us to be hearing these afternoon texts together and hope that you’ll be praying with me that by God’s helping me preach and all of us to hear, that He will bring us into the enjoyment of those glorious results that He describes in these passages.

Looking forward to His ministry among us in the means of grace tomorrow,

Pastor

2020.08.01 Hopewell @Home ▫ Genesis 31:1–16

Read Genesis 31:1–16

Questions from the Scripture text: What does Jacob hear in Genesis 31:1? What were Laban’s sons saying that Jacob had done? What does Jacob see in Genesis 31:2? What was the difference in it now, from before? Who spoke to Jacob in Genesis 31:3? What does He tell Jacob to do? Whom does He say will be with Jacob? For whom does Jacob send in Genesis 31:4? To where? To what? What does he say that he has seen (Genesis 31:5)? How does he now explain his surviving and prospering? What does he say that they know (Genesis 31:6)? What does Jacob say that Laban has done (Genesis 31:7)? What does Jacob say has kept Laban from succeeding in this? How did God stop him (Genesis 31:8)? What does Jacob conclude that God has done (Genesis 31:9)? What had happened to Jacob, when (Genesis 31:10)? Who spoke to him (Genesis 31:11)? What did He say? What did Jacob say? In Genesis 31:12, what explanation does God give for which rams “leap on the flocks” (verse 12)? How does God identify Himself in Genesis 31:13? What two things does He remind Jacob that Jacob had done at Bethel (Genesis 31:13)? What does God now command Jacob to do? What do Rachel and Leah ask in Genesis 31:14? What do they ask in Genesis 31:15? What do they say that Laban has done? What do they say that God has done (Genesis 31:16)? To whom do they say that the flocks really belong? What do they tell Jacob to do?

God is actively taking everything from those who have the upper hand and giving it instead to those who are His. That’s Jesus’s first message of discipleship to the largely sorry-looking and oppressed lot Whom He redeems to follow Him (cf. Matthew 5:1–12; Luke 6:20–26; 1 Corinthians 1:26–31).

And in this passage, we have a temporal, earthly example of the same thing. How does Jacob explain his own prosperity? “The God of my father has been with me” (Genesis 31:5). “God did not allow him to hurt me” (Genesis 31:7). “God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me” (Genesis 31:9).

God sees all that is done to His chosen ones (Genesis 31:12), and He comes to us in this passage not only reminding us of His past faithfulness (“I am the God of Bethel,” Genesis 31:13a) but also of our former resolves when first we knew Him (“where you anointed a pillar and where you made a vow to Me,” verse 13b).

Upon the basis of His faithfulness and goodness, and of our belonging to Him and having made commitments to Him, He now gives us good commands by which He intends to continue and complete His blessing of us. “Return to the land of your fathers and to your family and I will be with you” (Genesis 31:3). “Now arise, get out of this land, and return to the land of your family” (Genesis 31:13). This was not just “go home,” but rather go to that land which was once referred to your grandfather as “the land which I will show you,” and which is closely tied to all of My covenant promises.

So also, the Lord has been with us. He hears whatever we hear that worries us (Genesis 31:1), and He sees what whatever we see that worries us (Genesis 31:2, cf. Genesis 31:12b). Indeed, when we stop to consider it, we know that He hears and sees all things. And He gives us good commands to walk in the way of His blessing, based upon the past displays of His faithfulness.

For us, that past display of His faithfulness is especially the finished work of Jesus Christ, which is the central concern of the teaching of the whole Bible. So the Lord calls us to dwell upon all of the glorious Scriptural theology that flows in and out of who Christ is and what Christ has done.

And those commands that are the way of His blessing is especially His instruction about the means by which Christ continues to apply His finished work by the ministry of His Spirit. So the Lord calls us especially to live by all of His good commands and instruction and wisdom as the path of blessing.

Because, surely, what He who has given us Christ is doing—in all of these things that we hear and see—is giving us all things together with Him. Whether Laban’s things. Or the Canaanites’ things. Or the things of all the nations. Or indeed a New Heavens and New Earth, and ultimately and best of all: Him Himself!

What place does reflecting upon who Jesus is and what Jesus has done have in your thought life? How do you factor in Biblical commands, instruction, and wisdom into all your choices and actions, big or small?

Suggested songs: ARP32AB “What Blessedness” or TPH433 “Amazing Grace”