2022.11.19 Hopewell @Home ▫ Acts 15:36–16:5

Read Acts 15:36–16:5

Questions from the Scripture text: Who speaks to whom in Acts 15:36? Where does he suggest they go? To do what? Whom did Barnabas want to bring (Acts 15:37)? Why did Paul insist not to (Acts 15:38)? How does the argument proceed (Acts 15:39)? What happens to Paul and Barnabas? Whom does Barnabas take? Where does he go? Whom does Paul choose (Acts 15:40)? What is done to them before they depart? By whom? Unto what? Through where does Paul go (Acts 15:41)? Doing what along the way? Until he comes to where (Acts 16:1)? Who was there? The son of what ethnicity woman? Of what faith? What ethnicity is his father? What people spoke of him in what way (Acts 16:2)? What did Paul want Timothy to do (Acts 16:3)? What does he do to Timothy? Because of whom? And why? Through where do they go (Acts 16:4)? What does he deliver to them? What happens to the faith of the churches (Acts 16:5)? And what happens to the number of the churches?

How does the Lord strengthen His church? Acts 15:36–16:5 looks forward to the morning sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these eleven verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the Lord strengthens His church by His blessing upon follow-up ministry by partially sanctified men and the church’s unity in doctrine and practice. 

Follow-up ministry. It is Paul who desires to go and follow up on their first missionary journey (Acts 15:36a). The decision of the Jerusalem Synod has obvious implications for them (Acts 16:4), and as Christian love always is, he is interested to know how they are doing (Acts 15:36b). There is obviously the intent to “strengthen the churches” (Acts 15:41), and indeed by the end of the passage, the Spirit tells us that “the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in number daily (Acts 16:5). 

Partially sanctified men. One of the reasons to know how they are doing, and strengthen them, is that both the churches generally and the elders under whose care they left them (cf. Acts 14:23) are fallible men. But so are young ministers. John Mark had washed out of the first missionary journey (Acts 15:38, cf. Acts 13:13), and Barnabas wants to use bring him, ostensibly to give him another opportunity for serving and growing. But seasoned ministers are also growing, and there is a sharp contention between Paul and Barnabas (Acts 15:39a).

One thing that we see here is that not all conflict must be resolved in order for men to continue ministering. Barnabas takes Mark anyway and sails to Cyprus. The text speaks more fully positively of Paul’s departure in that he and Silas are commended by the brethren to the grace of God. But it does not necessarily speak negatively of Barnabas. 

Barnabas’s labors pay off, and later Paul noy only commends Mark to the Colossians (cf. Colossians 4:10) but even specifically requests Mark as very useful to him in ministry (cf. 2 Timothy 4:11). Sometimes, finding an imperfect way forward is blessed by God to the curing of some of those imperfections. Mark ends up trained, and the relationship ends up restored, even on this side of glory.

The church’s unity in doctrine and practice. A great part of that strengthening of the churches for which Paul is laboring comes by unity of doctrine and practice. Paul and Silas are delivering the decrees of the Jerusalem Synod (Acts 16:4), but also practicing in the spirit of that decree by seeking the removal of offense for the proclamation of the gospel.

While requiring circumcision of Gentiles was an obstacle to the gospel that the council had rejected, Timothy was a half-Jew (Acts 16:1). As such, he was considered wholly holy, set apart to God just as much as if his father had been holy (cf. 1 Corinthians 7:14). His mother Eunice was a believer, as well as his grandmother Lois (cf. 2 Timothy 1:5), and the brethren spoke well of him in his own right (Acts 16:3). But all the Jews knew his father was a Greek (verse 3b). Not as a mere concession to keep them happy, but as a removal of an obstacle for gospel ministry, Paul circumcises him (cf. 1 Corinthians 9:20). 

We maintain unity by holding to the pure doctrine of the Word and not adding anything in doctrine or practice that would bring men’s consciences under one another’s opinions rather than under the Spirit in the Scripture. But it is each of our privilege when we have an opportunity to lay aside our rights in order to serve better the peace and growth of the church.

Why is separation sometimes necessary in the church? How are you seeking to be strengthened? How are you participating in Christ’s method of strengthening His church by His servants? How are you pursuing unity of doctrine with your church? What rights are you laying aside for peace and ministry?

Sample prayer:  Lord, thank You for strengthening us by one-another’s service, and especially by the ministry of the gospel. Please bless and use our preachers and teachers so that we may all be of one, stable, Scriptural mind with Christ. Keep sanctifying us, and help us to love and forgive one another. Give us the humility and grace to lay aside our own rights or privileges wherever that would be helpful. Give us that mind that is in Christ Jesus, we ask in His Name, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP197 “Christian Unity” or TPH409 “Blest Be the Tie That Binds” 

How Abraham's Boasting Was Excluded: More Help for Excluding Our Own [2022.11.16 Midweek sermon in Romans 4:1–4]

The righteousness that is truly ours in Christ comes as an accounting of grace, rather than the repaying of debt, we know that our faith is not a work, and we have no room at all for boasting.

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

What We Learn from the Ceiling and Roof of God's Tent [Family Worship lesson in Exodus 26:1–14]

What do we learn from the style of covering of the tabernacle? Exodus 26:1–14 looks forward to the p.m. sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these fourteen verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the tabernacle was a very mobile, temporary anticipation of glorious presence to come.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2022.11.18 Hopewell @Home ▫ Exodus 26:1–14

Read Exodus 26:1–14

Questions from the Scripture text: What are they to make for the covering of the tabernacle (Exodus 26:1)? How many of them? Out of what primary material? And what threads? With what embroidered upon them? How long should each curtain be (Exodus 26:2)? How wide? How are they to be arranged (Exodus 26:3)? What should be made on the edges in order to connect them (Exodus 26:4)? How many loops per curtain (Exodus 26:5)? What are they to make for connecting the loops (Exodus 26:6)? Out of what? With what ultimate result (end of verse 6)? What other curtains are to be made (Exodus 26:7)? In how many sections now (cp. Exodus 26:1)? And what length now (Exodus 26:8, cp Exodus 26:2)? What does the extra curtain do (Exodus 26:9)? What assembly does this second set use (Exodus 26:10)? Of what are its clasps made (Exodus 26:11, cp. Exodus 26:6)? What are the extra two cubits of length for (Exodus 26:12-13)? What additional layers are there to be (Exodus 26:14)?

What do we learn from the style of covering of the tabernacle? Exodus 26:1–14 looks forward to the p.m. sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these fourteen verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the tabernacle was a very mobile, temporary anticipation of glorious presence to come.

Mobile. With the descriptions of the furnishings completed, the theme of the mobility of God’s tent now takes center stage. Before moving out into the court, God’s design addresses the covering of the Holy of Holies and of the Holy Place. “Curtains” here is a word that primarily refers to tent coverings used by nomadic people. The people are going to be wandering, and God prepares to wander with them. 

Modular. In addition to a portable style of dwelling, the particular design is for very rapid setup and take down. The loops and the clasps on multiple four-cubit (6 ft) sections would enable very quick assembly/disassembly. God’s people must be ready to obey and move at a moment’s notice. 

Both of these aspects of the design remind us that this is not the final form of God’s dwelling with His people. This is a greatly gracious season in God’s dealings with man, but it is anticipating a greater season still. One day, God’s dwelling with man will be permanent, stable, persistent.

Majestic. The materials of these under-curtains are costly. The blue, purple, and scarlet thread employed rare dyes. The clasps are made of gold. The linen is both costly and also mirrors the ritually pure garments of the priesthood when they are on tabernacle duty. Embroidered into this “ceiling” would be cherubim. The candle-light shining on the linen, the gold, and the costly-thread embroidered cherubim would all convey heavenliness even upon the “ceiling” inside the tabernacle.

Multilayered. There are three more layers described here. The design of the next one is the same, except with one extra layer overlapping in the middle, a cubit extra length at each edge, and less expensive materials (goats’ hair for the curtains and bronze for the clasps). The next layer is ram skins dyed red. Skins are especially suited to keeping moisture out. The final layer would be especially so, since the word translated “badger” in our version is probably “dolphin.” These extra layers not only reinforce the separation from the outside world but preserve the more delicate inner layer.

God, Who made the heavens, describes doing so as “stretching them out like a curtain” in Psalm 104:2. He uses the same word there as we have here. The care and design that He commands to be put into the tabernacle reminds us that this is a copy of a true and heavenly reality. One day, the mobile and modular will be replaced not only with the stability of a stationary temple, but finally with the glorious permanence of the resurrected and returned Savior. And the declaration will be that “the tent of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God” (Revelation 21:3). 

In Whom are you now with God? How has He come to dwell with You? If God designed and maintained the picture of that dwelling in the tabernacle, what will He do with you?

Sample prayer: Lord, thank You for coming to dwell with Your people and bringing Your people to dwell with You. Forgive me for thinking little of Your presence. Preserve me and sanctify me by Your Spirit, until You bring me at last into the perfection that the tabernacle pictured, I ask through Christ, AMEN!

 Suggested songs: ARP73C “Yet Constantly, I Am with You” or TPH332 “Songs of Thankfulness and Praise”

Foundational Qualifications of a Deacon [Family Worship lesson in 1Timothy 3:8–9]

What are the primary qualifications of a deacon? 1Timothy 3:8–9 looks forward to the second reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that deacons must be dignified men who live consistently with their sound doctrine.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2022.11.17 Hopewell @Home ▫ 1 Timothy 3:8–9

Read 1 Timothy 3:8–9

Questions from the Scripture text: What is the first thing deacons must be (1 Timothy 3:8)? What is the first thing he must not be? What is the second? What is the third? What must he be doing (1 Timothy 3:9)? 

What are the primary qualifications of a deacon? 1 Timothy 3:8–9 looks forward to the second reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that deacons must be dignified men who live consistently with their sound doctrine.

The qualifications of deacons are introduced here (1 Timothy 3:8–9), a brief procedure for recognizing and installing them stated (1 Timothy 3:10), including the character of the women who serve under them (1 Timothy 3:11), followed by further description of how their character is shown in testing (1 Timothy 3:12-13). The implication is that the women in 1 Timothy 3:11 are first/originally their wives in the home (1 Timothy 3:12) and then the women who are officially engaged in the diaconal service of the church. More on that in subsequent passages, but for our purposes this week, we’re just noting the place of 1 Timothy 3:8-9.

Qualifications appropriate to position. By saying “likewise,” the apostle refers us back to the more extensive set of qualifications he has just finished delineating for elders. Just as those qualifications were suited to the “good work” that the office of overseer engaged a man in, now the good work of overseeing material service as a deacon requires qualifications appropriate to the work.

The implication is that while these qualifications in verses 8–9 are necessary, they are not the only ones. We know this already because of our study in Acts 6:1–7. 

A deacon must be reverent. The word here is related to the “dignity” and “nobility” word from 1 Timothy 2:2 and 1 Timothy 3:5. Beyond propriety, seriousness, and majesty of manner, this cognate word refers to worthiness of respect. If there is a shade of difference in meaning, it is that not only is his behavior is respectable, but the dignity and nobility of his behavior is what best summarizes him as a person: both inwardly by the Spirit and outwardly in serious, worthy living.

A deacon must not be double-tongued. There is a word that is more literally “double-tongued,” but this one is more literally “double-worded.” He doesn’t say one thing to one man and a different thing to another. Neither inconsistency nor partiality change the way that he responds. Deacons are going to have to deal with tricky situations and will often have to be deciding between competing interests and worthy causes. Consistency of conduct and impartiality is vitally necessary for a deacon. 

A deacon must not be given to much wine. Note, of course, the word “much.” It is not that a deacon does not drink wine at all, but that he is always ready to exercise good judgment. Not only does he need to do this for the real-time decisions that may be involved in the exercise of his office, but it will also help him make wise denials of financial assistance where that would be harmful. 

There have always been those who need material help because they squander their resources on drink. To give them more material help would only harm them by facilitating their obtaining more drink. A man who himself is addicted to fleshly desires weakens his ability to say no to another such man.

A deacon must not be greedy for money. This is that same “shameful gain” word that we came across in 1 Timothy 3:3. It refers to a man who has few compunctions about gaining in any way (not just financially) that he can get away with. The man who is always looking for an angle, always looking to advance himself, must not be given the opportunities to do so at the expense of the church and of the members who are most needy.

A deacon must hold to the mystery of the faith. The New Testament word “mystery” doesn’t refer to something still hidden, but to something that has been revealed and that we wouldn’t know apart from special revelation. The doctrine referred to in 1 Timothy 3:9 is summarized as “the mystery of godliness” in 1 Timothy 3:16. The core doctrines of the faith are the very ones that produce godliness in believers. Christ's divinity and incarnation, His death and resurrection, His appearance to messengers, His saving through preaching, and His current ascension and reign. 

A man who doesn’t believe these things is not a Christian, let alone qualified to be a deacon. But the second half of 1 Timothy 3:9 explains the connection between the character in 1 Timothy 3:8 and the doctrine to which the man holds. The diaconate is not just for “decent” men but for “doctrinal” men, whose decency organically and obviously flows from theology. The good works of the church are to adorn the gospel; the men who oversee these good works should be models of how those two things go together in one’s life.

These are not the only qualifications of a deacon, but they are all necessary. A man who lacks one of these is not qualified or called to the office. The Lord bless His church by gracing men in such a way as to fit them for this office!

What characteristics in these two verses do you find most rare in the churches today? 

Sample prayer:  Lord, thank You for Your blessed gospel! Forgive us for how we often fail to hold to the good doctrine in Your Word, and we often fail to work it our with a pure conscience. So, we live silly and superficial lives. And we are inconsistent and impartial in our speech. And we let our fleshly desires control us. And we are always looking to gain for ourselves. O forgive us! Give us deacons whom You have much sanctified from such sin, and sanctify us from that sin as well, we ask through Jesus Christ, AMEN!

 ARP128 “How Blessed Are All Who Fear the Lord” or TPH128B “Blest the Man Who Fears Jehovah”

The Holy Place Portrays Christ as the Fellowship of God and Light of God unto Us [2022.11.13 Evening sermon in Exodus 25:23–40]

The benefits of God's presence in Christ and atonement in Christ flow to us in His fellowship in Christ and the light of His blessing in Christ.

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

Keeping the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace [2022.11.13 Morning sermon in Acts 15:23–35]

The Spirit, Who gives to His church peace in Christ, works it by Scripture truth, providential care in the church, and gracious work in believers' hearts, lives, and relationships.

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

Theology Simply Explained — WSC61, What the Law and Nature of the Sabbath Forbid

Pastor walks his children through Westminster Shorter Catechism question 61—especially explaining from Scripture what God forbids by the way He words the fourth commandment.

WSC61: What is forbidden in the fourth commandment? The fourth commandment forbiddeth the omission or careless performance of the duties required, and the profaning the day by idleness, or doing that which is in itself sinful, or by unnecessary thoughts, words or works, about our worldly employments or recreations.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

The True Condition of the Enemies of God, of His Word, and of His People [Family Worship lesson in 2Kings 6:8–23]

What is the true condition of the enemies of God and His Word? 2Kings 6:8–23 looks forward to the first serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these sixteen verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that God’s enemies are always at the mercy of His wisdom and power.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)