Christ Worth the Cost [Family Worship lesson in Matthew 10:34–42]

What difference does Christ make? Matthew 10:34–42 looks forward to the morning sermon in public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these nine verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that Christ brings great cost into the Christian’s life, but greater reward. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2024.08.17 Hopewell @Home ▫ Matthew 10:34–42

Read Matthew 10:34–42

Questions from the Scripture text: What does Jesus warn them not to think (Mt 10:34)? What did He come to bring to the earth? Whom did He come to set against one another (Mt 10:35, Mic 7:6)? And who would become one’s enemies (Mt 10:36)? What allegiance must be first in disciples’ lives (Mt 10:37)? What if it’s not? What must a disciple take in order to follow after Jesus (Mt 10:38)? What if he doesn’t? How can one lose his life (Mt 10:39)? How can one find his life? Whom does one receive, if he receives an apostle (Mt 10:40)? Whom else does he then receive? Who receives a prophet’s reward (Mt 10:41)? And who receives a righteous man’s reward? And who receives a disciple’s reward (Mt 10:42)?

What difference does Christ make? Matthew 10:34–42 looks forward to the morning sermon in public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these nine verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that Christ brings great cost into the Christian’s life, but greater reward.

Avoiding a great mistake about the world (Mt 10:34–36). Jesus now warns against thinking that He came to bring peace on earth. Although there is goodwill among men who are at peace with God (cf. Lk 2:14), this is not what Jesus brought to the earth more generally. The peace that He brings is entirely in Himself, and if someone else does not have Him, the difference that Christ makes is intolerable to that person.

Jesus came to bring a sword. He came to make such a difference in His people that no other connection can ultimately bridge that gap. The more you are like Christ, the less unbelievers will understand you or, eventually, be able to tolerate you. Dear reader, do not think that becoming Christlike will somehow win you widespread affection and admiration in this life.

Avoiding a great mistake about the Christian life (Mt 10:37–39). But what if this sounds undesirable to you? Can one have just enough Christ to be “saved,” but not so much that it makes trouble with the family, or enemies of unbelievers from his own household? Does Christ have to cost us so much? Yes! If we are unwilling to pay that cost, we are unfit for Him (Mt 10:37). Indeed, a believer who is fit to belong to Christ must take his cross to follow Christ (Mt 10:38). A cross means suffering, but it’s not just that we would be willing to suffer for Christ or even die for Christ.

A disciple must take his cross—the cross upon which he himself is to be crucified. There is a comfort in knowing that our cross has been selected for us by providence. And there is a devotion in carrying it yourself to place yourself upon it. We must be willing to lose everything that we were or had apart from Christ, so that we can find an entirely new self in Him and an entirely new life in Him (Mt 10:39). If you are still who you were, still in yourself, still for yourself, you are not fit to be His disciple. You must be a new person, entirely in Him, entirely for Him.

Avoiding a great mistake about Christian sacrifice (Mt 10:40–42). We may think that the Christian life is one of self-denial, but it’s quite the opposite. Just receiving an apostle, or a preacher, or a righteous man, or even one of Christ’s little ones… is receiving Christ—receiving God Himself—and being rewarded accordingly! Indeed, there is a great disproportion between “sacrifice” (cup of cold water) and reward. We can never lose so much that God’s reward won’t dwarf that loss (Mt. 19:27–29). In the near context, the reward is Christ’s own confessing us before His Father (Mt 10:32). We receive the Father and the Son; the apostles, preachers, righteous ones, and little ones; and along with them, everything else in heaven and earth.

Questions for Application

Who has despised and opposed you for the Lord Jesus’s sake? What relationships has Christ cost you? How are you different than you were outside of Christ? How does it appear in your life that you are in Him rather than in yourself? How does it show up in your daily life that you are not living for yourself but for Christ? What has this cost you in this world?

Sample prayer: Lord, thank You for making us Your own, and for giving Yourself to be our own. Please help us to endure what relationships we might lose or attacks we might suffer for Your sake. Forgive us for the extent to which we continue to find ourselves unwilling to pay the cost, and give us a glad confidence and high esteem for the reward that we shall have in You Yourself in Christ, through Whom we ask it, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP73C “Yet Constantly I Am with You” or TPH508 “Jesus, Priceless Treasure”

The Wisdom of God: Christ! [2024.08.14 Midweek Sermon in Proverbs 1:1–7]

Wisdom is found especially in a being, the triune God and especially in His Son, the Logos—Christ

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

Cleansing Our Consciences [Family Worship lesson in Numbers 19]

What can be done about our uncleanness? Numbers 19 looks forward to the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these twenty-two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that Christ cleanses the unclean. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2024.08.16 Hopewell @Home ▫ Numbers 19

Read Numbers 19:1–22

Questions from the Scripture text: Who spoke to whom (Num 1:1)? Whom is he to command (Num 1:2)? To bring what? And give to whom (Num 1:3)? To do what with it? What is Eleazar to do with the blood (Num 1:4)? How many times? Where? Then what must be done to the heifer (Num 1:5)? What must the priest add to the fire (Num 1:6)? What must he do (Num 1:7)? With what effect? What must the one who operated the fire do (Num 1:8)? With what effect? Who must gather what (Num 1:9)? And store them where? For whom/what purpose? And what must this gatherer do (Num 1:10)? With what effect? For how much of Israel’s national and church history would this be maintained? What might happen to whom (Num 1:11)? For how long? On which of these days must what be done (Num 1:12)? What does the presence of such a man among the people do to the tabernacle (Num 1:13, 20)? To avoid this, what must Israel do to such a man? If the water is not sprinkled on him, then what remains on him instead? How else may a man become similarly unclean (Num 1:14)? For how long? What else is unclean with him (Num 1:15)? Where else can this uncleanness be contracted (Num 1:16)? For how long? How is the water for their purification mixed (Num 1:17)? What sort of person must apply it (Num 1:18)? Using what? To whom and what? On which days (Num 1:19)? What must the purified person do on the last day? With what effect? What must the man who applies the water do, on whatever days that he applies it (Num 1:21)? With what effect? Who else is made unclean (Num 1:22)? For how long?

What can be done about our uncleanness? Numbers 19:1–22 looks forward to the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these twenty-two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that Christ cleanses the unclean.

Purification that God accepts. The great problem that this chapter addresses is found in Num 1:13 and Num 1:20. Because YHWH Himself has made His presence to dwell among Israel in a consecrated, covenantal way, the defiled people in the camp become defilers of the tabernacle and its holy place and holy of holies. Such a person must be cut off from Israel as an assembly (Num 1:13, 20). This is at least excommunication and possibly even execution.  

How can their defilement be addressed? God specifies a red heifer here, the color itself communicating further the idea of purifying blood. The cedar wood and scarlet thread and hyssop (v6) have the same associations (cf. Ex 12:22; Lev 14:2, 6, 49). These are to be burned to ash, from which water for purification (Num 1:9) can be mixed as needed (Num 1:17)? By God’s own prescription, an exchange occurs for the unclean man: rather than his uncleanness remaining upon him (Num 1:13), the water of purification is sprinkled upon him (Num 1:12, 18–19). God honors His own prescription by considering the person clean.

Purification that actually works. None of this is because red heifers or any other ingredient here has inherent atoning or cleansing power. It is because God Himself cleanses sinners by the blood of Christ.

David understands this when he cries out to God, regarding his original sin (cf. Ps 51:5) and remaining sin (cf. Ps 51:6) that God would “purge [him] with hyssop and [he] shall be clean” (cf. Ps 51:7). He understands the point that God makes by these rituals: in God’s salvation, He is providing not just forgiveness of sin but cleansing from its power and even presence.

Heb 9:11–14 emphasizes “the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean” in how Christ’s blood cleanses our conscience from our dead works (works that come from our original, sinful nature, and the remaining sinfulness within us). In Christian baptism on earth, there is no application of Christ’s blood to us or mixing of Christ’s ashes with the water to be sprinkled with hyssop. But we understand the use of the same application of water to person to point to the same thing pointed to here: that when Christ pours out His Spirit upon a sinner, the Spirit applies to that sinner the cleansing merits and power of Christ and His blood. (Which the Spirit does by giving life and faith and thereby uniting him to Christ).

So, it was not heifer-ash-water that worked, nor is it Christian-water-baptism that works, but Christ Himself Who works by His Spirit. And the God Who has prescribed each in its season accepts what He has prescribed for the ceremonial/covenantal “cleansing” of His people in each season.

Purification applied to you. In one more important way, the superiority of Christ can be seen in our passage. Uncleanness is profoundly contagious! Not just the one who touches a dead body, or even a part of that dead body or is in a tent with a dead body, is unclean. The priest is made unclean. The one burning the heifer is made unclean. The one who carries the ashes of the heifer is made unclean. Even in the 3rd and 7th day purification rituals, the one applying the water is made unclean. But Christ is not made unclean in offering Himself in our behalf or applying Himself to us! We even saw this signified recently when he took the dead girl by the hand but was not made unclean (cf. Mt 9:25). On another occasion, He touches the open coffin of a widow’s son (cf. Lk 7:14) as He raises him from the dead. He is a Priest of such inherent and pervasive holiness and righteousness that He cannot be defiled but rather cleanses us!

So, dear reader, when you are keenly aware of not just your guilt before God, but your uncleanness before God, come to Christ. Come to God through Christ. Set your mind and heart upon Him Who has shed His blood once for all, and embrace the purification that God has provided for you. Not the blood of bulls and goats or the ashes of a heifer, but “the blood of Christ, Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God.” Enjoy the cleansing of your conscience, and devote yourself to the service of the living God! 

Questions for Application 

What are times that your conscience was defiled before God—that you knew and felt that you had done wrongly before Him? In such circumstances, what use can you make of your baptism, and God’s own view of it? How does Psalm 51 help you understand how to make use of the outward ritual in relating directly to God?

Sample prayer: Lord, thank You for providing to us a purification ritual that You accept, and that is applied to us just the once. Please continue to apply Christ to our consciences by the ongoing work of Your Spirit in our lives. Keep us from being polluted by sin, and keep cleansing us suntil You have completed Your work of sanctification in us and fit us for glory, we ask through Christ, our Priest and sacrifice, AMEN! 

Suggested songs: ARP51A “God, Be Merciful to Me” or TPH51C “God, Be Merciful to Me”

Loving the Church and Her Members [Family Worship lesson in 2John v1–6]

Who loves the church? 2John v1–6 looks forward to the second serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these six verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that all in whom Christ abides love the church. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2024.08.15 Hopewell @Home ▫ 2 John 1–6

Read 2 John 1–6

Questions from the Scripture text: How does the writer identify himself (2 John 1)? His addressees? What is his disposition toward them? In what does he love them? Who else loves them in truth? Why (2 John 2)? What is their relation to the truth? How long will the truth be with him and them? What three other things will be with them (2 John 3)? From what two persons? In what two aspects of Their character? What is the first Person called here? What is the second Person called here? What has the elder done (2 John 4)? How much? Over finding whom? Doing what? In accord with what that they have received from Whom? Now what does the Elder do with the lady (2 John 5)? But what isn’t he doing with this pleading? Regarding which commandment is he pleading/urging? What is the commandment which they have had from the beginning? How does 2 John 6 define love? And how does this relate to loving one another—what have they done with this commandment for how long? What must they continue to do with this commandment?

Who loves the church? 2 John 1–6 looks forward to the second serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these six verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that all in whom Christ abides love the church.  

How to think of the church and her members. “The elder” is John, who is an apostle and an elder (cf. 1 Peter 5:1), in addition to probably being elderly and the last remaining apostle at the time of writing. “The elect lady” is the church, considered both broadly as the visible church (“elect/select” from the world) and particularly, in this case, in a specific congregation in a specific place (n.b. “the children of your elect sister” in 2 John 13). Some would have these be two noble Christian women, but it is much more consistent with the office of the apostle to be sending greetings from one congregation to another rather than one woman to another. Also, if this was a particular woman, it could hardly be said that “all who have known the truth” love her. 

With that settled, we can see how the apostle’s address teaches us to think of the church: as the elect lady and her children (cf. Revelation 12:13–17). Everyone who has known the truth loves the church as Christ’s chosen lady on earth. If you don’t love the visible church (though you might grieve over congregations of it), then you have not known the truth. For the truth is more than accurate concepts; the Truth is a Person. And He loves the elect lady and her children… i.e. the members of the visible church.

How we come to love the church and her members. So, we should think of the church the way that the Lord Jesus Christ thinks of the church, but how does that happen? There are clues to that all through the first three verses. “whom I love in truth” (2 John 1) sounds, at first, like “sincerely” or “accurately,” but then in 2 John 2 it turns out that “the Truth” is a person: “the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever.” Christ abides in believers (cf. John 15:4, John 17:23; 2 Corinthians 13:5; Ephesians 3:17). And He is with us forever (cf. Matthew 28:20). By the grace that is from the Father and the Son, we are strengthened to love the brethren. The loving mercy that we have from the Father and the Son overflows in us in love unto the brethren. In the peace that we have with the Father and the Son to know that God loves us, and that we love God, so also we love those who are born of Him. 2 John 3 is not merely a greeting; it is a recipe for how union with Christ produces love for our brethren, which is one reason why the apostle concludes it with “in truth and love.”

What it means if we genuinely love the church and her members. This letter was occasioned by the apostle John “rejoicing greatly.” What made him so glad? He found some members of this other congregation walking in truth. That is to say that they were obeying Jesus Christ, just as the Father Himself had commanded (cf. Deuteronomy 18:15–19; Matthew 17:5; Mark 9:7; Luke 9:35; Acts 3:19–26). This is the hallmark of those in whom the Father, Son, and Spirit have savingly worked: they live in union with Christ, according to the commandment of Christ. The apostle puts this a couple of ways. First, he reminds this church that what He urges them to continue to do, when they receive this good report back with their church members that have so gladdened him, is the same thing that Christ has commanded since the eve of His crucifixion (2 John 5, cf. John 13:34–34, John 15:12, John 15:17). 

Second, the apostle reminds them that genuine love will always be accompanied by obedience to the commandments (2 John 6a), and genuine obedience to the commandments will always include walking in the commandment to love the brethren (verse 6b). If there is no love of the brethren, then whatever outward conformity there is to God’s law is not Christ-produced obedience. And if there is not obedience to Christ’s other commandments, then whatever warm feelings, good social relations, or works of service there are toward other Christians, it still isn’t Christ-produced love of the brethren. The life of Christ, the Son, the Truth, produces both (love for the brethren and obedience to the Word); or else, we may be sure that it is producing neither. If we are genuinely loving the brethren, and keeping the Lord’s other commandments from the heart, it is fruit and evidence of our walking in Him Who is the truth. Of course, then, the apostle rejoiced greatly! We, too, should rejoice greatly at finding this in others, as well as seeking to become occasions of others’ rejoicing.  

In what ways does your love for the visible church show up in your schedule? Your prayers? Your efforts? Your expenditures? In what ways does love for specific brethren do so? 

Sample prayer:  Lord, forgive us for not treasuring the church more, as Christ’s “elect lady.” We have not devoted ourselves to her as we ought in our plans and prayers and priorities. And forgive us for often allowing our hearts to despise, or scorn, or even just feel coldly toward other church members. Forgive us this great sin, the violation of Christ’s new commandment, and grant that by His abiding in us, we would love the elect lady and her children in truth. For we ask it through Him Who is the Truth, AMEN!

 Suggested songs: ARP197 “Christian Unity” or TPH406 “Jesus, with Thy Church, Abide”

The Power of a Wife [Family Worship lesson in Proverbs 14:1]

Pastor teaches his family a selection from “the Proverb of the day.” In this verse of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that a wife has great power to build or destroy, based upon whether or not she fears the Lord.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

Midweek Meeting Live Stream (live at 6:30p)

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August 14 Prayer Meeting Folder

Proverbs 1:1–7 sermon outline

We urge you to assemble physically, if possible, with a true congregation of Christ's church. For those of our own congregation who may be providentially hindered, we are grateful to be able to provide this service.

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First Beings First [Westminster Shorter Catechism 45—Theology Simply Explained]

Pastor walks his children through Westminster Shorter Catechism question 45—especially explaining how the placement of the first commandment indicates that our relation to God is foundational to every other part of our existence and morality.

Q45. Which is the first commandment? The first commandment is, Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)