Blessed in the LORD's Blessedness (Family Worship lesson in 1Kings 8:54–66)

What great benediction does Solomon pronounce, and what blessing do the people enjoy? Pastor leads his family in today’s “Hopewell @Home” passage. 1Kings 8:54–66 prepares us for the first serial reading in public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these thirteen verses, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the Lord’s people find their blessing in His infinite blessedness, which will require a new, eternal heaven and earth in which to enjoy Him.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2022.03.09 Hopewell @Home ▫ 1 Kings 8:54–66

Read 1 Kings 8:54–66

Questions from the Scripture text: Before what had Solomon just finished doing (1 Kings 8:54)? What did he do now? In what posture had he been? What posture did he now take (1 Kings 8:55)? To do what? With what kind of voice? Whom does he bless when blessing them (1 Kings 8:56)? What had He done? To whom? According to what? What does Solomon request in the blessing (1 Kings 8:57a)? What does he ask not to happen (verse 57b)? What does he want Yahweh to do to their hearts (1 Kings 8:58)? So that they would do what? Whom had Yahweh commanded all these things? What did Solomon want Yahweh to do with his words (1 Kings 8:59)? When/how much? For what goal (1 Kings 8:60)? Whom does 1 Kings 8:61 command that these things would happen? Who do what before Whom in 1 Kings 8:62? What type of offering does Solomon offer (1 Kings 8:63)? How many of which animals? How does the end of verse 63 summarize the whole chapter thus far? When does 1 Kings 8:64 take place? What did the king consecrate? Where? With what three things? Why did this area have to be consecrated—why not just use the bronze altar? When does 1 Kings 8:65 take place? What did Solomon host? With whom? Where? How long? What does he do to the people after (1 Kings 8:66)? What do they do to the king? Where do they go? With what kind of hearts? Why? Whom had Yahweh done good?

At one point in my life, I had a pastor who used to give doxologies (like Jude 24–25 or in Revelation 5:12-13) as benedictions. It struck me as odd then, but that was because I did not love the glory of God enough or see how completely my blessedness was bound up in that glory. Apparently, Solomon sees both of these things, because when he goes to bless all the assembly of Israel (1 Kings 8:55) what he speaks with a loud voice is the blessedness of the LORD (1 Kings 8:56). As this passage holds forth the blessedness of belonging to the ever-blessed God, it emphasizes three things to us:

God’s Promises

It is a wonderful thing to have promises from the LORD, for not one word of all His good promise has ever failed (1 Kings 8:56). Now, if that was true already in 1 Kings 8, how much more can we be sure about His promises after the coming of Jesus, in Whom all of those promises find their “yes” and “amen” (cf. 2 Corinthians 1:20)? 

And what are some of those promises? There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (cf. Romans 8:1). He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies (cf. Romans 8:11). We are “joint heirs with Christ” and will “be glorified together with Him” (cf. Romans 8:17). All things work together for good for those who love God, who are the called according to His purpose (cf. Romans 8:28). Those whom He justified He also glorified (cf. Romans 8:30). He Who delivered His own Son up for us will surely together with Him freely give us all things (cf. Romans 8:32). In all these things we are more than conquerors (cf. Romans 8:37). Nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God (cf. Romans 8:39). And that’s from just one chapter! Not one word of any of that will ever fail.

Many of us have as one of our favorite promises, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (1 Kings 8:57, cf. Hebrews 13:5), but let us take to heart what that means in 1 Kings 8:57-58. The LORD is not with us unto our ends, but unto His infinitely good ends; His pledging Himself to be with us is “that He may incline our hearts to Himself, to walk in all His ways,” etc. (1 Kings 8:58).

God’s Glory

Right hearts and right walking are the purpose for which we most need His nearness. By being near His people to make them walk in His ways, the LORD displays His exclusive glory as God (1 Kings 8:60).

May I ask you, dear reader, whether this was the case with Israel during the time of Solomon’s temple? Is it not more so with the church, and ought it not be more so? O how we should love for “the peoples of the earth to know that Yahweh is God; there is no other” (verse 60)! Therefore, let us seek from Him to be near us to make us walk in obedience to all that He has commanded.

Notice that what Solomon prays for in 1 Kings 8:58, he commands the people in 1 Kings 8:61. It is perfectly consistent to pray to the Lord that people would do something, and to command the people to do it. Both wills are involved, but except for the mercy of God, there will never be any obedience from sinful man.

Our Joy

Finally, the blessing produces joy. There is no joy greater than seeing the glory and goodness of God. This is the ultimate joy unto which the Lord has created us and redeemed us. The sheer volume of sacrifices in this feast of joy requires that the entire middle court be consecrated into a makeshift altar (1 Kings 8:62-64). The feasting from those sacrifices lasts two weeks for the entire nation (1 Kings 8:65). And on the eighth day of the second week, when they return home, their hearts are still ringing with joy over the goodness of God.

Marvelously, this great joy is only anticipatory of what our joy will be like with God, not just for two weeks, but continually and forever in the New Heavens and New Earth. The mind cannot comprehend what that joy will be. And if the mind could comprehend it, the heart would not be able to endure the intensity of considering it. Blessed be the Name of our God; we literally cannot imagine what is being pronounced upon us in His benedictions!

When do you hear benedictions? How does this passage help you think through what is being pronounced upon you at that time? How should you think/feel during a benediction?

Sample prayer:  Lord, thank You for choosing to glorify Your everblessed Self by enmeshing our blessedness with the glory of Your Name. Forgive us for when we lose sight of the greatness and certainty of Your promises in Christ. And make us to rejoice over Your glory and goodness, even as we look forward to doing so forever in Christ, in Whom we ask it, AMEN!

How to Live with a Clear Eye (Family Worship lesson in Matthew 16:19–34)

How can we stop worrying? Pastor leads his family in today’s “Hopewell @Home” passage. Matthew 6:19–34 prepares us for the opening section of public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these sixteen verses, the Holy Spirit teaches us that seeing the Lord’s goodness in everything solves not just the problem of worrying but also the sinful tendency to live for earthly things.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2022.03.08 Hopewell @Home ▫ Matthew 6:19–34

Read Matthew 6:19–34

Questions from the Scripture text: What shouldn’t we lay up where (Matthew 6:19)? What happens there? What should we lay up where instead (Matthew 6:20)? What doesn’t happen there? When we lay up our treasure somewhere, what else will be there (Matthew 6:21)? What is the lamp of the body (Matthew 6:22)? What happens if you have a good (clear) eye? But if you have an evil (cloudy) eye, what will be full of what (Matthew 6:23a)? What is in danger of being darkness (verse 23b)? With what result? What can no one do (Matthew 6:24)? What must he do? Which two specific masters can we not simultaneously serve? What does Jesus say not to do in Matthew 6:25a? What two things mustn’t we worry about for our life? What else mustn’t we worry about (verse 25b)? What mustn’t we worry about for our body? What does verse 25c imply about our life and our body? At whom does Matthew 6:26 say to look? What don’t they do? So, Who feeds them? Whom does He value more? What does Matthew 6:27 ask? What does Matthew 6:28 ask? What are we to consider? How they do what? What don’t they do? To whom are they compared in Matthew 6:29? How did he compare to them? Who has thus clothed them (Matthew 6:30)? And what is going to happen to them? Whom will He much more clothe? What does Jesus call us at the end of verse 30? What does Matthew 6:31 forbid? What three things, specifically, does it say not to worry about? Who seek after all these (Matthew 6:32)? But Who knows that we need them? What two names does Matthew 6:33 give to what we should seek instead? What will be added if we do? Even seeking His righteousness, about what are we not to worry (Matthew 6:34)? Why?

Next week’s Call to Worship, Prayer for Help, and first song all come from Matthew 6:19–34 so that we will see that we are singing God’s thoughts after Him with We Plow the Fields. 

What does Matthew 6:19-20 mean by “lay up treasure”? Matthew 6:24 gives us a good idea when it talks about treasure on earth as serving the mammon master and about treasure in heaven as serving God instead. 

Either God is a way to get what we really want as we live and work, or else all of our living and working is a way to serve God. Sadly, I’ve heard presentations of “the gospel” that come primarily from a standpoint of all of that God can do for you to serve your interests. 

But Matthew 6:22-23 tell us that viewing God this way is a strategy for making your life only darkness without light (Matthew 6:23, “how great is that darkness!”). It’s like replacing your eyeballs with two giant cataracts so that no light gets through at all. Viewing God as a way to increase your earthly prosperity shuts you up in such darkness that you do not properly function in any way (verse 23, “if your eye is cloudy, your whole body will be full of darkness”).

One might protest, “but I have to survive! I have to focus on getting things and storing them up!” In that case, one would be doing the worrying that Matthew 6:25 forbids. But if God cares about our whole life, then surely living in service to Him (including working hard and combining frugality and generosity, as His own Word teaches us to do) will not ultimately result in missing out on something we need. 

The nations seek with their lives food and drink and clothing (Matthew 6:31-32a). But they don’t know God as heavenly Father and therefore don’t have confidence that He knows (and cares about and acts upon) their needs (Matthew 6:32b).  If worrying about things like that expose a heart that doesn’t really know Father, then what does it say about us if we are full of worry about even less needful things?

Our God has shown great care and lavish generosity on creatures that we value very little (Matthew 6:26-30). But He values us even more than we value ourselves! “How much more” (Matthew 6:30b) is His care for us and generosity toward us!!

It is this recognizing of examples of God’s love toward all His creatures all around us that neutralizes worrying and supports and enables living our lives in service of Him. He is the best Master. Money doesn’t know, doesn’t care, and cannot love you back. With worry eliminated, all the expenditure of our life that goes into worrying (Matthew 6:34) can be redirected into seeking to live righteously before our King (Matthew 6:33). After all, He is our Provider and Protector, which demands that we recognize Him as our Master and live in service to Him!

What are some examples of creatures that you see God taking care of? How does His care for you and generosity compare? What is the greatest example of this? What else will He do for you? What does this free you to spend your life upon? 

Sample prayer:  Lord, we bless Your Name for the generous design of Your creation and the generous conduct of Your providence. Surely, You love Your creatures, but of all of them, You have made us in Your image and redeemed us in Your Son. What a great wickedness our worrying is, O God! And how greatly it harms us by leading us into serving earthly interests with our lives! Forgive us, and grant unto us the ministry of Your Spirit, so that we would thereby be enabled to live vigorously on earth as those who serve You and obey Your righteous law! For this, we cry to You through Jesus Christ, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP145C “The Eyes of All Are Turned to You” or TPH551 “We Plow the Fields”

Choosing between God's Fury and God's Favor in Trials and Blessings (2022.03.06 Evening sermon in Exodus 16:1–7)

How we respond to God’s providence reveals whether we consider God Himself the best part of His providence. Our choices are between God’s fury and God’s favor.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this sermon)

Jesus Heals Cripples through Faith in Him (2022.03.06 Morning sermon in Acts 3)

Jesus came to give all families of the earth the blessing of being turned from their iniquities

(click here to DOWNLOAD video/mp3/pdf files of this sermon)

2022.03.07 Hopewell @Home ▫ Acts 3

Read Acts 3

Questions from the Scripture text: Who go where, when (Acts 3:1)? Who was carried where to do what (Acts 3:2)? Whom did he ask (Acts 3:3)? What does Peter command him to do (Acts 3:4)? What does the man do, why (Acts 3:5)? What doesn’t Peter have (Acts 3:6)? What name does he have? What does he do with it? What does Peter do (Acts 3:7)? And what happens to the man? What does the man now do (Acts 3:8)? Who saw this (Acts 3:9)? What did they know (Acts 3:10)? With what were they filled? What does the lame man do in Acts 3:11? What do all the people do? With what two questions does Peter respond in Acts 3:12? Who has done what to Jesus (Acts 3:13a)? Who else had done what to Jesus (Acts 3:13-15)? But what has now made the lame man strong (Acts 3:16)? What contributed to their wickedness (Acts 3:17)? But Who has fulfilled what (Acts 3:18)? What does Peter tell them to do (Acts 3:19)? So that what may be done to their sins? And what may come? And then the Lord would send Whom (Acts 3:20)? Until when does heaven receive Him (Acts 3:21)? Who has spoken of this? How? Since when? Whom had Moses said the Lord God would raise up (Acts 3:22)? From whom? What were they to do? But what if they did not (Acts 3:23)? Who else spoke about when (Acts 3:24)? Of whom are they sons (Acts 3:25)? Of what are they sons? What did this covenant say? What was its sign? What has God done (Acts 3:26, cf. Acts 3:15)? And to whom did God send Him first? To do what to them? How?

For the next chapter and a half (and not unlike all of human history) everything rests upon the Name of Jesus. In Acts 3:6, Peter commands the lame man, “In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” And in Acts 3:16, he preaches to the crowd, “And His Name, through faith in His Name, has made this man strong.” The council recognizes this in chapter four threatening them to speak to no one in the Name of Jesus (Acts 4:17–18).

God’s redemptive plan was to use even the greatest wickedness to do the greatest good. 

Healing a lame man is a very good thing. “Alms” (Acts 3:2) is literally “mercy-deeds,” and some translations will say “charitable deeds” or even “mercy” or “pity.” If that is a good deed, then healing him is an extremely good deed. 

The people recognize that the cause of the newfound soundness of the man’s legs must be great power and/or godliness (Acts 3:12). But it was faith that comes on account of Jesus (Acts 3:16) that had actually given the man “perfect soundness.” 

God had promised this to the fathers (Acts 3:13, Acts 3:18, Acts 3:22-25), in order to glorify Jesus. And God had fulfilled it (Acts 3:18), even though it came through their delivering Jesus up, and denying Jesus, and preferring a murderer, and killing the Captain of life. They did wickedness, through which God has done good to the lame man.

And now through that very wickedness, by which God had done this good, He offers them the greatest good: that they may repent and be converted (Acts 3:19a, Acts 3:25), that they may have their sins blotted out (Acts 3:19b), that times of refreshing may come from the Lord’s presence (verse 19c). The family that killed Jesus is the first family that is offered blessing in Jesus (Acts 3:25-26)!

This is what God had been saying through all His holy prophets since the world began (Acts 3:21b). And His Word still aims forward to the restoration of all things at which point “He Whom heaven has received” will return (Acts 3:20-21a). From end to end, history is about the fulfillment of what God has purposed in Christ and promised in Christ.

Our response must be to do whatever Jesus says. Of course, the first thing to do is to call upon His Name and be saved (cf. Acts 2:21)—to repent and put all our hope in the promise which He signals to us in baptism upon His Name (cf. Acts 2:38–39). But the prophecy to which Acts 3:22-23 refers tells us to hear Him in all things, whatever He says to you. It is self-refuting to claim to have faith in Christ without submission to all His Word (cf. Deuteronomy 18:15–19). 

What good are you looking for in your life? What ultimate good must you have for this to be any good at all to you? What must you do to come into this ultimate good? What does the life look like of someone who has come into this ultimate good?

Sample prayer:  Lord, we praise You for sending Christ to us to bless us and all the families of the earth. Grant that we would be turned from our iniquities and do whatever He says, we ask in His Name, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP34B “I Will At All Times Bless the Lord” or TPH397 “Breathe on Me, Breath of God”

How Can I Do All Things to God's Glory?, pt 1 (2022.03.06 Sabbath School)

How Can I Do All Things to God's Glory? in the RHB series, "Cultivating Biblical Godliness."—1 of 2

No One Ever Gets Away with Any Sin (Family Worship lesson in Proverbs 5:21–23)

Pastor leads his family in a selection from “the Proverb of the day.” In these three verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that when we sin, we are always seen, we are always caught, and it is always punished.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

Soundness and Strength in Jesus's Name for All of Us Cripples (Family Worship lesson in Acts 3)

What does Peter have to offer at the temple gate? Pastor leads his family in today’s “Hopewell @Home” passage. Acts 3 prepares us for the morning sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these twenty-six verses, the Holy Spirit teaches us that our greatest crippling (sinfulness) can be cured by the strength and soundness that is in Jesus’s Name not only to give us repentance, conversion, and forgiveness, but that turning from our iniquities which is necessary for living according to all that Christ has commanded.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)