Biblical Theology of the Diaconate (18): Preserving the Dignity of the Needy Brother [2023.01.08 Sabbath School]

Though the presence of the poor among God's people is a reminder of ongoing sin, it is also a reminder of God's ongoing patience with us, and an opportunity to provoke one another to bless God's Name for His mercy.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

Justification into a Condition of Strength, Joy, and Hope in Jesus [Family Worship lesson in Romans 5:2]

What is the condition of being justified like? Romans 5:2 looks forward to the sermon in this week’s midweek meeting. In this verse of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the condition of being justified is not only a condition of peace and servitude, but now a condition of strength, joy, and hope.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2023.01.09 Hopewell @Home ▫ Romans 5:2

Read Romans 5:2

Questions from the Scripture text: What else do we have through Him (Romans 5:2)? What is the mechanism through which we have this access? To what do we have this access? What do those who have this access also do? In what do they rejoice? In what is this hope? 

What is the condition of being justified like? Romans 5:2 looks forward to the sermon in this week’s midweek meeting. In this verse of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the condition of being justified is not only a condition of peace and servitude, but now a condition of strength, joy, and hope.

A condition of strength. “through Whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand.” As we come into the section of the letter that argues the theology of the believer as God’s slave for righteousness (chapter 6), the Spirit brings us there through the wonderful doctrine of union with Christ. We are not just under Christ as Lord; we are in Christ as Jesus, as Savior. So it is through Him, within Him, by means of Him that “we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand.”

We are not brought by faith into a service that we can perform by works. Even our working, even our service, can be done only by God’s own strength. That is to say, we stand not by the flesh but by grace: by God’s strength in the place of our weakness (cf. 2 Corinthians 12:9). Standing, strength for standing, comes only in Jesus, by a mechanism of faith. By the knowledge that Jesus is God’s strength for us, by the awareness that He is carrying us. 

A condition of joy. “through Whom also we […] rejoice.” Jesus doesn’t just make us servants and make Himself our strength for that service. Jesus makes us happy servants. Here is a good test for whether I am actually a servant of Christ or am merely flattering myself that I am a servant of Christ: am I glad? Do I have joy? Jesus came that His joy might be in us (cf. John 15:11, John 17:13). Through Jesus we have access to grace, and through Jesus we rejoice! It is possible to have an accurate knowledge of justification without having an experiential knowledge of justification; those who are justified in Jesus are made servants in Jesus and are made joyful in Jesus!

A condition of hope. “in hope of the glory of God.” It is the truth of God’s glory that the sinner has suppressed in unrighteousness (cf. Romans 1:18–21). It is the blessedness of the Creator’s glory that the sinner has exchanged in order to seek blessedness in creatures instead (cf. Romans 1:25). It is against the glory of God that all have sinned, and it is the enjoyment of the glory of God that all have forfeited by that sin (cf. Romans 3:23). But for the believer, Jesus has reversed all of this. Through Him, we “rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” 

This New Testament word ‘hope’ is not a wishful desire. Though we have grown accustomed to using the word that way in English, the word here doesn’t mean something wishful but something that is absolutely certain. It means the ability to enjoy already something that is not yet seen (cf. Romans 8:24; Hebrews 11:1). To put it succinctly: if we already have the righteousness of God, then we can already enjoy the certainty of God’s glory. 

The more that we experience a joy that profound, the less that light and momentary pleasures will succeed in compelling us to serve them instead of serving Christ.

By what strength have you been trying to stand? What is the source of your joy? What is the quality of your joy? For what do you hope? How surely do you hope?

Sample prayer:  Lord God, thank You for this righteous standing into which You have brought us in Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Grant unto us to know also the glorious condition into which You have brought us. Give us Your own strength, joy, and hope in Christ, in Whose Name, we ask it AMEN!

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

How the Lord Reinvigorated and Sustained His Servant [Family Worship lesson in Acts 18:1–18]

What happens when the Lord wants to sustain a ministry? Acts 18:1–18a looks forward to the morning sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these seventeen verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the Lord may sustain ministries through rousing ministers’ spirits, reinforcing ministers’ doctrine, and restraining ministers’ opponents. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2023.01.07 Hopewell @Home ▫ Acts 18:1–18a

Read Acts 18:1–18a

Questions from the Scripture text: What does Paul do, when the incident at the Areopagus is over (Acts 18:1)? Whom does he find there (Acts 18:2)? With whom? Where had they come from, and why? What does he do with them, while waiting for Silas and Timothy (Acts 18:3)? But with whom does he dialogue, when, and where (Acts 18:4)? Who arrive in Acts 18:5? What does the Spirit now constrain him to do in a more public manner (verse 5)? How do they respond (Acts 18:6)? Against Whom do they blaspheme? With what action does he respond? What does he say about them? What does he say about himself (cf. Acts 20:26)? Where does he say he is going? Where is the church plant’s new base of operations (Acts 18:7)? Who comes to faith at this point (Acts 18:8)? Whom else does the Lord save? And many of whom? Who now appears to Paul (Acts 18:9)? What does He tell him not to be? What does He tell him to do? What does He tell him not to do? Why—Who is with him, and what will no one be able to do (Acts 18:10)? Why not? How long did Paul stay there (Acts 18:11)? Doing what? But then what happened (Acts 18:12)? Who said what and where (Acts 18:13)? How does Gallio answer (Acts 18:14-15)? What does he do (Acts 18:16)? Who then do what to whom (Acts 18:17)? What does Paul do (Acts 18:18a)? 

What happens when the Lord wants to sustain a ministry? Acts 18:1–18a looks forward to the morning sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these seventeen verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the Lord may sustain ministries through rousing ministers’ spirits, reinforcing ministers’ doctrine, and restraining ministers’ opponents. 

Paul has been driven from one place to another throughout this entire missionary journey. Now, his evangelistic zeal brought him to the Areopagus, where he was laughed off the stage with just two named saints and a couple unnamed males (cf. Acts 17:34). He decides to continue his wait for Silas and Timothy in Corinth, leaving Macedonia and going to Achaia. 

There’s something Peter-like (cf. John 21:3) in his taking up tentmaking full-time while he waits (Acts 18:3), even though we have good evidence that even while pastoring he sometimes did enough of it to at least pay for his own food (cf. Acts 20:34; 1 Corinthians 4:12; 2 Thessalonians 3:8). During this time, he still attends synagogue every week, dialoguing (more literal than “persuaded” in Acts 18:4) with both Jews and Greeks there, but it isn’t until Silas and Timothy arrive from Macedonia that he picks back up his public ministry (Acts 18:5). As the Spirit tells us about this, He highlights three main components: the Lord sustains this ministry by rousing Paul’s spirit, by reinforcing Paul’s doctrine, and by restraining Paul’s opponents.

Rousing a minister’s spirit, Acts 18:5. Silas’s and Timothy’s arrival does not seem to be incidental to the “pressing together” of the Paul’s spirit. (Here, it is the work of the Holy Spirit in Paul’s own soul, so either ‘s’ or ‘S’ is appropriate). Moving from “dialogue” in Acts 18:4 to “solemnly testifying” in Acts 18:5 is produced by that beneficial, holy pressure that the Spirit brings by the encouragement of his ministry companions. Ministers are weak and grow weary. But when the Lord is about to sustain a ministry, here He uses brethren to rouse the minister’s spirit.

Reinforcing the minister’s doctrine, Acts 18:6-11. This rousing was not merely emotional but theological:

• Jesus being the Son of David (“Jesus is the Christ,” Acts 18:5) and Son of God (“blasphemed,” Acts 18:6) 
• The eternal and ultimate stakes involved (“Your blood be upon your own heads,” Acts 18:6) 
• The binding obligation of a ministerial call (“I am clean,” Acts 18:6) 
• The covenantal progression and expansion of the gospel age (“From now on I will go to the Gentiles,” Acts 18:7) 
• The presence of the Lord with the minister (Acts 18:9a, Acts 18:10a) 
•  The necessity of courage and boldness (Acts 18:9b) 
• The fact of sovereign providence (Acts 18:7-8 and the timing of Crispus’s conversion; Acts 18:10b) 
• The fact of sovereign election (Acts 18:10c).

The Lord brings all of these doctrines flooding in to bear upon his ministry with the extraordinarily ordinary result: “he continued there a year and six months, teaching the Word of God among them” (Acts 18:11). 

Restraining the minister’s opponents, Acts 18:12-18a. We’re not sure how far into the year and six months this event takes place. It is presented as an example of that sovereign providential restraint that Jesus had promised in Acts 18:10. The Jews drag Paul before the proconsul (Acts 18:12) and present the sort of argument that has worked before in Macedonia (Acts 18:13, reasoning that Christianity should not have the same protected status as Judaism, cf. Acts 17:6–7), and the reader thinks “hear we go again.” But the Lord has raised up a proconsul who refuses to be manipulated such that Paul doesn’t even get a chance to make his own defense (Acts 18:14). Gallio denounces the Jews and drives them away, with the rodbearers laying the stripes on the Jews’ leader all the way (Acts 18:15-17). In this way, the Lord sovereignly restrained Paul’s opponents so that Acts 18:18a might be fulfilled, “and Paul remained for many days.”

How are you seeking for the Lord to rouse your elders’ spirits? Of which of the doctrines in Acts 18:6-11 do you and your congregation most need to be reminded? How has the Lord been restraining opposition to the work of the gospel in your area/ministry? What further restraint are you praying for?

Sample prayer:  Lord, we thank You and praise You that You rule and overrule all things for gathering to Yourself those Who are Yours by election and redemption. Grant the ongoing work of Your Spirit to sustain a renewed gospel work in our own day we pray, in Jesus’s Name, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP46 “God Is Our Refuge and Our Strength” or TPH400 “Gracious Spirit, Dwell with Me”

Justified into a Condition of Servitude to the Lord and Subjection to the Christ [2023.01.04 Midweek sermon from Romans 5:1]

Having Jesus means having a Lord and a Christ, which means being a creature, a slave, and a subject.

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

How Sinful Mediators Were Ordained by Pointing Them to the Sinless Mediator and His Once-for-All Sacrifice [Family Worship lesson in Exodus 29:1–35]

How are the priests set apart for their service? Exodus 29:1–35 looks forward to the p.m. sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these thirty-five verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the priests are consecrated unto their service by substitutionary atonement.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2023.01.06 Hopewell @Home ▫ Exodus 29:1–35

Read Exodus 29:1–35

Questions from the Scripture text: What are the first things Moses is to take for the consecrating of the priests (Exodus 29:1)? Of what quality? What three other things (Exodus 29:2) in what container (Exodus 29:3)? Now what (whom) is he to bring in Exodus 29:4? And do what to them there at the door? Then what is he to do specifically to Aaron there in Exodus 29:5-6? And what, once he is attired (Exodus 29:7)? Then what to whom in Exodus 29:8-9? Once they are consecrated, what are Aaron and his sons to do to what (Exodus 29:10)? Then what does Moses do to the same thing (Exodus 29:11)? Before Whom? Then what is he to do with what from the bull, and where (Exodus 29:12)? What else is he to take from the bull to do what with it where (Exodus 29:13)? And do what where with the rest of it (Exodus 29:14)? What are they to do with the first ram (Exodus 29:15)? And then what with the same ram (Exodus 29:16)? And do what with its blood? And then do what to the ram (Exodus 29:17)? In order to do what with how much of it (Exodus 29:18)? Unto Whom? As what to Him? What do they do with the other ram (Exodus 29:19)? And then what with the same ram (Exodus 29:20)? And do what with its blood to what parts of Aaron and his sons? And do what else with its blood where? Then what are they to gather and put it on whom and on what (Exodus 29:21)? With what effect to them and their garments? What are they to take from the second ram in Exodus 29:22? And what else are they to take in Exodus 29:23, for Aaron and his sons to do what (Exodus 29:24)? Then what with the waved bread, and the choice parts of the second ram (Exodus 29:25)? What part does Moses get to eat (Exodus 29:26)? Who will receive such portions in the future (Exodus 29:27-28)? To whom will Aaron’s garments go in the future (Exodus 29:29)? How long is that consecration to take pace (Exodus 29:30)? What will be done with the rest of the second ram’s meat (Exodus 29:31)? So that who can do what with it and with the bread (Exodus 29:32)? What had been done with these things, and who can eat them (Exodus 29:33)? Why? What should they do with leftovers in the morning (Exodus 29:34)? Why? For how many days is this to be done (Exodus 29:35)? According to what? 

How are the priests set apart for their service? Exodus 29:1–35 looks forward to the p.m. sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these thirty-five verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the priests are consecrated unto their service by substitutionary atonement.

It was not a flattering thing to be ordained as a priest. Three times in this passage (Exodus 29:10, Exodus 29:15a, Exodus 29:19), Aaron and his sons put their hands on the head of an animal. The implication is that they are identified with the animal. What belongs to them passes to it. And as soon as an animal is identified with them, it is mercilessly butchered (Exodus 29:11, Exodus 29:15b, Exodus 29:20b). Its blood is displayed in various ways (Exodus 29:12, Exodus 29:16, Exodus 29:20-21). And then its choice parts (or the whole animal) are burned with fiery fury (yes, those words are related; Exodus 29:13, Exodus 29:14, Exodus 29:18, Exodus 29:1-25). 

It's a little too easy for us to read quickly through that. But for Aaron and his sons the message is clear: death and Hell is exactly what it would please God to do to them—apart from the love in which He has been pleased to do it to a substitute instead of them. How great is this love, such that we will eventually learn that the substitute is not bulls or rams but actually Christ (cf. Hebrews 9:13–14; Hebrews 10:4–10)! And how great, then, must be our guilt that even upon Christ Himself this death and Hell would be executed!

So Aaron’s sons, and especially Aaron himself, were set apart for ministry by the vivid, repeated display that they deserve for this to kill and damn them. The blood was sprinkled on all the apparatus (Exodus 29:12, Exodus 29:16, Exodus 29:20) signifying it as sufficiently atoned for in order to be fit for holy use. Then in Exodus 29:20, the blood was applied to every segment of Aaron and his sons’ bodies for the same purpose. They were fit to die and go to Hell. But the Lord had fit them instead for His priestly service.

Even after the prescribed fabrication, the garments and the altar still needed to be atoned for by blood. Even after being selected specifically by God, Aaron and his sons still needed to be atoned for by blood. Sin is so filthy that the worship items are “cleansed” not with detergent but with blood and oil (cf. Exodus 29:21)

The passage takes an interesting turn in Exodus 29:26. Moses gets a portion to eat. There won’t be one like he again, but in Exodus 29:27 Aaron and his sons are made the heirs of the same portion. It’s just for them. Indeed, it’s so holy that whatever they don’t eat is to be destroyed by fire (Exodus 29:34). So how great is their privilege that is initially reserved for them to enjoy (Exodus 29:32-33)!

God’s commandments (Exodus 29:35) take those who deserve Hell and instead bring them into a position of honorable service and near fellowship. And the Lord makes accommodation for their weakness by starting this afresh every day for seven days. Praise God Who shows such grace to sinners! And praise God, Who mercifully compensates for the weakness of our faith by repeatedly pressing upon us the truth and reality of that grace!

What do you deserve, in yourself, for even the best of your works? What blood had to be spilled for your induction into God’s service? What privilege have you gained by this? What fellowship? 

Sample prayer: Lord, thank You for atoning for us by the blood not of bulls and goats but of Your own Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. Forgive us for how lightly we have taken our service to You and the access that You have given us to Yourself. Grant unto us nearness to You and holiness to You through Jesus, in Whose Name we ask it, AMEN!

 Suggested songs: ARP51B “From My Sins, O Hide Your Face” or TPH275 “Arise, My Soul, Arise”

God's Exemplary Working in Ministers and Resultant Working in Their Congregations [Family Worship lesson in 1Timothy 4:12–16]

How is ministerial authority maintained? 1Timothy 4:12–16 looks forward to the second reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these five verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that ministerial authority is maintained by taking heed to oneself first, and then with a diligence already demonstrated in one’s own progress, to direct others in theirs.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2023.01.05 Hopewell @Home ▫ 1 Timothy 4:12–16

Read 1 Timothy 4:12–16

Questions from the Scripture text: What were some doing with Timothy’s comparative youth (1 Timothy 4:12)? What was Timothy to do about this despising? By what means was he to put a stop to it? In what six areas, specifically, was he to be an example to them? What three public ministries would this personal example commend (1 Timothy 4:13)? What would he be doing if any of this lapse (1 Timothy 4:14)? What practice would facilitate his giving himself entirely to them (1 Timothy 4:15)? With what result before whom? How does 1 Timothy 4:16 summarize/recap this charge? Who is using this (cf. 1 Timothy 2:3) to do what two things?

How is ministerial authority maintained? 1 Timothy 4:12–16 looks forward to the second reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these five verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that ministerial authority is maintained by taking heed to oneself first, and then with a diligence already demonstrated in one’s own progress, to direct others in theirs.

There was a time when people rightly despised inexperience, immaturity, lack of progress, lightness, and half-heartedness in the ministry. The idolizing of youth and characterization of seriousness as misery and maturity as mythical has brought us into bizarre times, where we can hardly understand what the apostle is telling his young (probably in his 40s!) protégé: what Timothy lacks in years, he should seek to make up by diligence.

Let no one despise your youth, 1 Timothy 4:12. Timothy was to “command and teach” (1 Timothy 4:11). But there is a perpetual problem of people whom God is saving by means of His appointed ministry depriving themselves of its benefits by having too little regard for the minister himself. The apostle would tell another protégé, “Speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you” (Titus 2:15). 

Be an example, 1 Timothy 4:12b, 1 Timothy 4:15.  But this authority is not enforced by domineering; it cannot be maintained by declaration and demand of status or imposed by force of will. Its purpose is God’s use of it to save the hearers (1 Timothy 4:16b), so it is strengthened by the demonstration that God is also saving their preacher. The preacher’s progress (1 Timothy 4:15b) indicates that the path that they are on together ends in perfect blessedness.

There are six areas, specifically, in which the apostle commands the pastor to be an example. Six areas in which the people should be aiming at making “progress,” and in which therefore it is a help to them that the pastor’s own progress would be evident. 

• in word; if his words are going to be used to teach, then they should never be idle or useless (cf. Matthew 12:36–37; Colossians 4:6), and they should certainly never be rash or malicious (cf. Proverbs 12:18; Colossians 3:9–12).
• in conduct; God Himself, Christ Himself, is the standard. But if the man preaching this standard isn’t being conformed more and more to that standard, he makes himself the occasion of others’ disregarding it. 
• in love; outward keeping of rules is not Christian behavior if it does not flow from faith that is energized by love (cf. Galatians 5:6, Galatians 5:13–14; Romans 13:8–10; Matthew 22:37–40; John 13:33–35). The pastor who is not making progress in love to God, neighbor, and brother may be an example of the fleshly counterfeits of the condemned, but he is not an example of progress in the Christian life. 
• in Spirit; again, the man’s spirit must be being formed by the Holy Spirit. This is something that, being inward, he himself cannot produce. He must pursue it by the means of grace for himself as a dependent upon grace, just as his pursuit of it for others is also by the means that the Spirit uses to form their spirits. 
• in faith; he is always to be meditating upon (cf. 1 Timothy 4:15a) the truth that he believes about Jesus (cf. 1 Timothy 3:16). He rejects all manmade religion (1 Timothy 4:1-3, 1 Timothy 4:7; cf. Colossians 2:20–23), but is always full of how Jesus is reigning in glory, making Himself to be preached among the nations and believed upon in the world. 
• in purity; there is no room in the minister’s life for impurity, because there is no room in the believer’s life for impurity. He must be single-minded, always aiming at what will honor the Lord best and serve the Lord most, rather than seeing how much fleshliness he can get away with tolerating.

Give attention to reading, to exhortation, to teaching, 1 Timothy 4:13. It is the truth that the Lord uses to make an example out of a minister, because it is the truth that the Lord uses to conform believers to Christ through the ministry. Thus, the truth must be read; the mere reading of God’s Word is its own component of worship and discipleship. The truth must be applied; exhortation is bringing the truth to bear in every useful way.  The truth must be taught; there can be no proper application without the formation first of the understanding. 

Do not neglect, but continue heedfully, 1 Timothy 4:14-16. This discipleship plan was not the best practices plan produced by an elite think-tank. It is what God has ordained to give His church through the preacher (1 Timothy 4:14a), as He Himself has proclaimed in Scripture (verse 14b), which He Himself signified on earth by the actions of others whom He had appointed from heaven (verse 14c). Such a divine calling is worthy of cultivation that forms the entire setting of one’s life (“these things cultivate” being a more literal translation of 1 Timothy 4:15a) and the core substance of one’s life (“in these things, Be!” being a more literal translation of the next phrase). The command “take heed” translates a verb that indicates both strenuous effort and attention to detail. 

God is saving people! Though we do not all have the calling of a minister of the gospel (cf. Ephesians 4:11–14), we do all have a calling to participation in that work (cf. Ephesians 4:15–16, Ephesians 4:25–29). Surely, it is worth great devotion and diligence to participate in God’s own work in God’s own way.

In each of the six areas, how do you most need to progress? What is God’s method for progressing you? Who are God’s ministers for progressing you? To what things in life are you giving more thought, time, and effort than this progress in yourself and others?

Sample prayer:  Lord, thank You for sanctifying us unto salvation through Your truth: read, applied, and taught by men whom You have appointed. Forgive us for when we take them or their ministry lightly. Forgive them for neglecting their own progress, and save us both we ask, through Jesus Christ, AMEN!

ARP1 “How Blessed the Man” or TPH538 “Take My Life, and Let It Be”