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Article of Faith #1 - The Triune God

Date: Sunday, June 6, 2004

Author: Rev. Jonathan K. Twitchell

Today, the first Sunday after Pentecost, is known as Trinity Sunday.Trinity Sunday is a day in the Christian calendar which is set aside for us

to reflect upon the Nature of the Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy

Spirit. I have recently considered preaching a series on the Articles of

Faith of the Church of the Nazarene, and since the First Article of Faith is

entitled ―The Triune God,‖ I thought Trinity Sunday would be an excellent

day to begin our journey. For the next several weeks, we will take up a

different Article of Faith, explain it, explore the related scripture texts,

and attempt to understand how each doctrine impacts our lives.

It is vitally important that we, as a Community of Faith, know what it is

that we believe, why we believe that way, and the difference that those

beliefs make in our every day life. My messages this summer will have a

slightly different approach, as we will be guided, not by a single passage

of Scripture, but by the doctrines of the Church, and the many scriptures

which support them. We will take each doctrine, explore it, analyze it,

find the scriptural supports for it, and see how our belief in the doctrine

shapes our life. I hope that each of us will be challenged by this study, as

we deepen our understanding of God‘s Word in these matters of faith and

belief, so that we can explain them to those who would ask.

It is important, from time to time, to take a systematic trek through our

beliefs—examining our beliefs, seeing why we believe them, and learning

how to explain them to others. If we do not know what we believe, we

can easily be tossed about by every wind or wave—instead of being firmly

grounded in God‘s Word.

On the one hand, it would be easy to simply state: ―We believe the

Bible.‖ On the other hand, we recognize that some folks read the Bible

simply as another piece of literature, while others encounter the Living

God through its pages. There are many who ―believe the Bible‖ and yet

arrive at different conclusions about the nature of God and His

redemptive plan. We are familiar with great cult leaders who have been



able to convince others to commit heinous crimes in the name of

―believing the Bible.‖

And so, while it is true that we ―believe the Bible,‖ it is important to

recognize that we interpret God‘s Word within the bounds of theCommunity of Faith. We recognize that our reason and experience go far

in helping us to understand God‘s Word. We also believe that Church

Teaching throughout the ages helps us to understand God‘s Word the

same way that the writers and original hearers also understood it.

While the Church of the Nazarene has only been in existence for about

100 years, its beliefs stand squarely within the realm of Church Teaching

and Christian Tradition as taught through the last 2000 years. To remind

us of our earliest roots, it is often helpful for us to affirm together one of the oldest Summaries of Christianity—the Apostle‘s Creed. While it was

not actually written by the Apostles, it was gradually put together, by the

common consent of the Christian Churches in the First and Second

Century, and was used during the conversion and reception of new

members. It reached its present form at about the close of the second

century. It is one of the most ancient summaries of the Christian Faith ,

helping us to understand what the early church believed and taught about Jesus

. Incidentally, the Apostle‘s Creed predates the Canon of Holy Scripture, which

did not come together until the end of the 4th Century. The Creed is importantto us, for it ensures that our interpretation of Holy Scripture never sways far

from the earliest teachings of the Church.

I invite you to join me as we affirm our faith together by reciting this ancient

summary of the Christian Faith , which you can find in your bulletin.

I believe in God the Father Almighty,

Maker of heaven and earth;

And in Jesus Christ , His only Son, our Lord:

Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

Born of the Virgin Mary,

Suffered under Pontius Pilate ,

Was crucified, dead, and buried;

He descended into hades;



The third day He rose again from the dead;

He ascended into heaven,

And sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;

From thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

The holy Church universal,

The communion of saints,

The forgiveness of sins,

The resurrection of the body,

And the life everlasting. Amen.

Woven in the very structure of the Apostle‘s Creed is the doctrine of the Trinity.

Each paragraph introduces one member of the Godhead, and illustrates some of

the ways in which that person of the Godhead has revealed Himself to us.

The reality of the Doctrine of the Trinity is that while most of us are familiar

with it, few of us could say that we really understand it. We know that we don‘t

believe in 3 different Gods, and we know that we don‘t believe in 1 God who

just puts on different costumes or personalities. All three persons of the Triune

Godhead coexist in eternal relationship with each other. And yet, while they are

distinct persons, they are unified as one God.

Many analogies and pictures have been created in order to attempt to describe

the Trinity, and yet most have some inherent weakness which causes them to

fall short of their goal. No matter how we attempt to diagram, explain, or

describe the Holy Trinity, we are using mere human constructs and finite

limitations which cannot possibly do justice to the Nature of an infinite God.

However, despite our human limitations, our task today is to embark upon a

journey of discovery and explanation of the ways in which God has revealed

Himself to the world.

The Church of the Nazarene states the following: ―We believe in one eternally

existent, infinite God, Sovereign of the universe; that He only is God, creativeand administrative, holy in nature, attributes, and purpose; that He, as God, is

Triune in essential being, revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.‖

Let‘s take a moment and unpack that statement, defining our terms, and

making sure that we‘re on the same page as to its meaning.



Not only does Jesus speak of all three persons of the Trinity, but

Scripture continually reveals all three persons to us. We believe that God

is eternally existent, from before the beginning of time to after the end of

time. We believe Him to be the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last,

without beginning or end. Indeed, the first words of the Bible tell us thatGod existed. Genesis 1 speaks of God and the Spirit of God, and John 1

speaks of the Word of God - Jesus , eternally existent with God in the

beginning. These passages remind us that God was always the Divine

Trinity, eternally existing before the creation of the world. I invite you to

hear these passages of Scripture from Genesis 1 and John 1:

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface

of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

John 1:1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and

the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.

14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have

seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father,

full of grace and truth.

We see from these verses that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit

were all present at the very creation of the world. Each had a role to play

in Creation. One other place where we see all three persons of the Trinity

is at the baptism of Jesus , recorded in Matthew 3:16-17:

Matthew 3:16As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the

water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God

descending like a dove and lighting on him. 17And a voice from heaven

said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."

I‘d like to point out that in each of these instances, all three members of

the Trinity were present. There have been some throughout Church

History who have attempted to teach that the three persons are simply

different roles or personalities played by one God. Instead of three

distinct persons, these folks attempted to teach that God changed his



costume, becoming manifest as a different person. However, Scripture is

clear that all three are present at the same time, not simply different

manifestations of the same person.

Let‘s be clear on that point. Belief in the Trinity means that we believethat there are three distinct persons in the Godhead. God the Father IS

NOT God the Son IS NOT God the Holy Spirit. While all three persons are

God, they are fully distinct from one another. We must not emphasize the

unity of the Godhead to the exclusion of its diversity. In other words,

while we affirm that there is only one God, we recognize that there are

three distinct persons within the Godhead.

On the other hand we don‘t want to emphasize the diversity of the

Godhead to the exclusion of its unity. We don‘t believe in three separateGods. We were reminded of our earliest monotheistic beliefs as stated in

Deuteronomy. Further, Jesus claims unity with the Father in John 10:30

where He states ―I and the Father are One.‖ Jesus reveals a bit more of

the unified nature of God in the Gospel according to John chapter 14,

beginning in verse 15:

John 14:15"If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16And I will

ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you

forever-- 17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it

neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you

and will be in you. 18I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

19Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me.

Because I live, you also will live. 20On that day you will realize that I am

in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.

As you can see from your bulletin, there are many more scriptures listed

that lead us to believe in the Nature of God as outlined by this Article of Faith. Obviously, we don‘t have the time to look at each scripture this

morning, but I would encourage you to study these scriptures this week,

to learn more about the attributes of God, His sovereignty, His holiness,

and His Triune nature.

I hope that I have at least made a reasonable case for our understanding



of the Nature of God. The reality is that it is difficult for us to define God,

instead being able only to describe Him, as He has revealed Himself to

us—through the Bible and through the Person and Work of Jesus.

However, it does seem clear to us that God is eternally existing,sovereign, holy, creative, infinite, and orderly. Scripture also reveals Him

to us as ―God in three persons‖—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

We recognize that we must avoid the heresies of modalism on the one

hand—that God the Father puts on a different costume when He wants to

be Jesus or the Holy Spirit; and tritheism on the other hand—that there

are three separate distinct gods. Each extreme is outside the teaching of

the Bible and of the church. While we may not understand the mystery of

the Trinity—three-in-one—distinct yet unified—we affirm it as the way in

which God has revealed Himself to us.

So, I‘m sure by now that some of you are sitting here thinking that this is

all well and good, and that you believe in a Triune God, even if you don‘t

understand it. Some of you have a solid grasp on the concept of the

Trinity, and some of you hope that there won‘t be a quiz on the Trinity

when you get to Heaven. Frankly, some of you are sitting there

wondering what difference it makes.

Here‘s the good stuff…here‘s why it matters. There is one quality of God

that we have not discussed yet, even though it is one of the most basic

descriptions of God that we learn while we are young. Before we learn

that God is omnipotent or omnipresent or omniscient, we are taught that

―God is love.‖ Indeed, that is one of the simplest descriptions of God‘s

nature—―God is Love.‖

―What does ‗God is Love‘ have to do with the Trinity?‖ you ask.

Think about this…if God was eternally existent before the beginning of

time, and at the same time ―God is Love,‖ then we might have a slight

contradiction. How could God be ―love‖ if there was no object for Him to

love? You can‘t love emptiness or nothingness. You can‘t love unless you

are in relationship…you can‘t be in relationship unless there is another

person. If God were not Triune, He could not be eternal love—for there



would be no relationship in which that love could exist.

Do you see how God being Triune shows us that God is Love? You see,

inherent in God‘s nature is relationship. He exists in relationship, because

He is Triune. He is Love…because He is Triune. He didn‘t have to createhumanity in order to be fulfilled…He is perfect in His Triune state of loving

relationship. God…eternally existing in three persons…God is love…God is

relationship…God is.

In the March edition of Holiness Today, you would have found articles on

each of the Articles of Faith. Roderick Leupp wrote these words in regard

to the Trinity:

( Roderick T. Leupp ) The heart of Jesus Christ is to do His Father‘s will inthe constant embrace of the Spirit‘s anointing. The Triune God is, as

someone has so well expressed it, ―no solitary God.‖ He is rather a

Community-in-Love, where each of the three Persons pours His life out

for the other two and receives His life back from Them. Our best human

analogy, any family that constantly practices other-regarding love, is only

a flickering wick next to the Trinity‘s brilliance.

God is ―no solitary God,‖ but is a ―Community-in-Love.‖ Each person of

the Trinity pours out himself in love for the other. God is Love because

God is Triune…God is in relationship always—three distinct persons, one

God.

When we understand that God—by His very nature—is loving relationship,

we understand that we too are to be always in loving relationship.

Indeed, we learn from Genesis 1:26-27 that we were created in the

Image of God. The attributes of God that have been revealed to us are

attributes that we also find in ourselves—not because we have designedGod after ourselves, but because we were designed in His Image, in His

Likeness. We possess, in some fashion, copies or models of His Divine

attributes.

Genesis 1:26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our

likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the



air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that

move along the ground."

27 So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;male and female he created them.

Therefore, since God is Triune…and since God is Love…then we too are to

be characterized by relationship and love for the other. His Divine Love is

to be stamped upon our hearts, so that we are always living for the

other…pouring our lives out into them. Only then are we being who He

has made us to be…people in loving relationships with God and with

others. Christianity is not to be lived in isolation or solitude. In fact, we

cannot even call ourselves Christian unless we are in relationship withGod. The Relational Attributes of God, as revealed in His Triune nature

are to permeate every aspect of our Christian experience. We are to be in

right relationship with God and with fellow man. We are to love one

another, even as Christ has loved us. Only when we are in right

relationship with God may we begin to experience a taste of Heaven,

where (as John Wesley wrote) ―…there will be a deep, an intimate, an

uninterrupted union with God; a constant communion with the Father and

his Son Jesus Christ, through the Spirit; a continual enjoyment of the

Three-One God, and of all the creatures in him!‖

May we come to know Him more, that we may become more like Him—

His Image ever renewed in our lives. Amen.

Benediction: I invite you to receive this very Trinitarian Benediction

written by the Apostle Paul to the believers in Corinth , recorded in 2

Corinthians 13:14:

2 Corinthians 13:14May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love

of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.



Article of Faith #2 - Jesus Christ



Despite the somewhat bizarre weather we‘ve had of late, it appears asthough Summer is finally on its way. Friday was my last day of

volunteering in the school lunchroom until next fall, as the Cape Elizabeth

students will be on summer vacation beginning Tuesday afternoon. Even

though summer vacation is on its way, I‘m going to take a moment to

talk about different styles of teaching.

Teachers often use different tools and methods to get their lessons

across. Some will lecture, others will assign hands-on projects. Some

teachers give multiple-choice quizzes, others assign essays. Some teachusing visual aids, while others provide time for students to work out

problems. It is said that we retain information better the more senses we

can use to process the material. If we hear it, that‘s good, but if we hear

it, see it, recite it back, and experience it first-hand, that‘s even better.

Teachers will often use multiple approaches in order to reinforce the

material, so that we may learn.

Most teachers use some sort of examination, not only to evaluate the

students, but to help them process and retain the information. When we

work through the material in an examination, we are more likely to

remember it, because we thought more closely about it, as we tried to

remember it and relate it to other topics. Some teachers are less formal

in their examinations, relying instead on a series of questions and

answers, dialoguing with the student to gauge their level of

understanding.

Perhaps it was that sort of examination that the teacher Jesus was givingPeter in Matthew chapter 16, beginning in verse 13:

13When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his

disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"

14They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah ; and still



others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

15"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"

16Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ , the Son of the living God."

17Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not

revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you

that you are Peter , and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates

of Hades will not overcome it. 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom

of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and

whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." 20Then he warned

his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ .

The Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ .

This passage really gets to the heart of the matter, doesn‘t it? Jesus

doesn‘t beat around the bush with Peter , but goes straight to the most

important question Peter will ever be asked: ―Who do you say that I am?‖

That question and its answer formed the basis for church teaching from

that point on. After Jesus ascended, the Apostles and the early Christians

continued to wrestle with the question: ―Who do we say that Jesus is?‖

Who was Jesus ? What does it mean to say that He was the Christ ? What

does it mean to say that He was the Son of God? Was He God? Was He

human?

As the Apostles began to spread the Gospel message, it was important

that they had a clear understanding of who Jesus was. Indeed, in order to

explain His death and resurrection, they had to explain who He was. In

order to make sense of the events they had experienced, they had to firstexplain why Jesus was more than just a good teacher. Jesus question,

―Who do you say that I am‖ is a question that has been central to all of

Christian teaching throughout the centuries.

Without a doctrine of ―who Jesus was,‖ we might as well abandon this

thing we call church. If we don‘t understand who Jesus was, then it really



doesn‘t matter what we believe about His teachings or about His death

and resurrection. If He was just another good teacher, then Christianity is

no different from any other world religion.

But, we know who Jesus is. It has been taught to us from the verybeginning, that Jesus is the Son of God. Peter identifies Him as the ―

Christ , the Son of the Living God,‖ and it is that confession of faith upon

which all of Christianity stands. Without that rock, our faith crumbles, for

it is based upon sinking sand.

Peter begins that statement by affirming that Jesus is ―the Christ ,‖ which

is Greek for the Hebrew word for Messiah. The most basic meaning of

those words is ―Anointed One.‖ And yet, this is more than an affirmation

that Jesus was anointed for a specific task or purpose. This was morethan affirming His ―Lordship‖ or ―Majesty.‖ While there were many

lowercase messiahs in Jewish history, there is only one Uppercase

Messiah. Peter didn‘t state that Jesus was one christ among many, but

that He was ―The Christ.‖ He was to be the deliverer, to set His people

free.

Peter goes on, to not simply affirm that Jesus was The Christ, but that He

was somehow divine. We‘re not sure how well Peter understood this

affirmation, but he plainly states that Jesus is ―the Son of the Living

God,‖ indicating that Jesus is more than just another rabbi or good

teacher, but that He is also Divinely sent from God. Perhaps for the first

time, we begin to see that the disciples are starting to understand the

nature of Jesus as divinely-human.

Later, the Apostles all used different means to teach the nature of Christ

to their followers and to those they were evangelizing. Some of the early

writings are plain and simple, some provide a logical argument, othersprovide a picture or an image. As we look at the ways in which the

Apostles wrote about Jesus , we recognize the earliest examples of

Christian teaching on the person and nature of Jesus .

One of the most quoted passages on the person and work of Jesus can be

found in the Gospel of John, chapter 1. John uses the image of the ‗logos‘



or the ‗word‘ to communicate that Jesus is truth. But not only does John

communicate that Jesus is truth, he shows us something about what we

call ‗the Incarnation.‘ Hear these words from the Gospel according to

John , chapter 1:

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the

Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.

3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that

has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5The

light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

6There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John . 7He

came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him allmen might believe. 8He himself was not the light; he came only as a

witness to the light. 9The true light that gives light to every man was coming

into the world.

10He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world

did not recognize him. 11He came to that which was his own, but his own did

not receive him. 12Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his

name, he gave the right to become children of God-- 13children born not of

natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband‘s will, but born of God.

14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his

glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace

and truth.

15John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, "This was he of whom I

said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.‘ "

16From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after

another. 17For the law was given through Moses ; grace and truth came

through Jesus Christ . 18No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only,

who is at the Father‘s side, has made him known.

We learn from this passage some very important details: First, Jesus (the

Word), was fully God in the beginning. Jesus was eternally existing prior to the

creation of the world. Jesus did not somehow come into being when He was

born in that Bethlehem stable. To those who might teach that Jesus was just a



good teacher, we realize that He was so much more than that…He was God—

―The Word was with God, and the Word was God.‖

Secondly, we see that Jesus took on human flesh to dwell among us, for the

purpose of making known God‘s glory to the creation, which had never seen

God. Jesus didn‘t merely appear to be human, but He actually took on human

flesh, was born as a baby and grew up. He was not a phantom or figment of

their imagination, but an actually human being. And yet, at the same time He

remained fully divine.

That is the mystery of the incarnation—that Jesus was fully-divine and fully-

human. He wasn‘t half -and-half, but fully both. While our human minds

probably don‘t fully understand how that is possible, it is what was affirmed

from the beginning. It is reflected in the teaching of the New Testament, and in

the formulation of the early creeds.

Let us take a moment and summarize what we have stated so far: Jesus is the

Christ —the Messiah. He is the ‗anointed one,‘ sent from God to set the people

free. He is fully divine, yet fully human. He is clearly more than a good

teacher—since He is God. At the same time, He is not simply a phantom or

image, but has really taken on flesh-and-bones. God put on human flesh to

dwell among us.

The doctrine of the Incarnation is one of the most important doctrines of the

Church. We understand that Jesus never stopped being God when He put on

human flesh, but that He did accept some of the finite limitations of that flesh.

And yet, it is not enough to have a philosophical discussion about the nature of

Jesus , if we fail to remember what it is that He did. For many of us, it is

impossible to separate the Person of Jesus from the Work of Jesus, for they

seem so intertwined. The Work of Jesus is an integrated expression of the

Person of Jesus, as He lived out for us who He was. It is for that reason that

you will so often hear the phrase ―The Person and Work of Jesus,‖ as though the

two are inseparable.

One of the clearest summaries of the Work of Jesus can be found in

Peter‘s comments at Pentecost, as recorded in Acts chapter 2, beginning

in verse 22:



22"Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited

by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you

through him, as you yourselves know. 23This man was handed over to

you by God‘s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of

wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. 24But Godraised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because

it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. 25David said about

him:

" ‘I saw the Lord always before me.

Because he is at my right hand,

I will not be shaken.

26Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;

my body also will live in hope,

27because you will not abandon me to the grave,nor will you let your Holy One see decay.

28You have made known to me the paths of life;

you will fill me with joy in your presence.‘

29"Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and

was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. 30But he was a prophet and

knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his

descendants on his throne. 31Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the

resurrection of the Christ , that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor

did his body see decay. 32God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all

witnesses of the fact. 33Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received

from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you

now see and hear. 34For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he

said,

" ‘The Lord said to my Lord:

"Sit at my right hand

35until I make your enemies

a footstool for your feet." ‘ 36"Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus ,

whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ ."

Peter takes two passages written by King David , points out that David

could not possibly have been writing about himself, and teaches them

that David was prophetically writing about Jesus the Christ . In so doing,



Peter makes Messianic claims about Jesus , and summarizes the work of

Jesus life: that He did many miracles and wonders, was put to death,

raised from the dead, and has ascended into Heaven. These words should

remind you of a song that we sang today: ―From heaven to earth to show

the way, from the earth to the cross my debt to pay, from the cross tothe grave, from the grave to the sky, Lord, I lift Your Name on high.‖

Simply put, this is what Jesus did.

And so, we have looked at the Person of Jesus (who He was) and the

Work of Jesus (what He did). What remains for us is to understand why.

If you recall last week‘s lesson, you will remember that God is Holy Love.

The Triune Nature of God gives us a picture of who God is, that He is

relational, love, and giving of Himself. Since God, by nature is relational,it only makes sense that Love would flow from Himself in order to

reconcile mankind to Him. Only then could He also be in relationship with

His creation, whom He loves.

Jesus , the God-man, came to reconcile you to God. He put on human

flesh in order to reveal God to you, and to allow you to be in relationship

with Him. Perhaps Paul expresses it best when he writes these words to

the believers in Colosse—Colossians 1, beginning in verse 15:

15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

16For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth,

visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities;

all things were created by him and for him. 17He is before all things, and

in him all things hold together. 18And he is the head of the body, the

church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so

that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19For God was pleased

to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20and through him to reconcile tohimself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making

peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

21Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds

because of your evil behavior. 22But now he has reconciled you by Christ

‘s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without



blemish and free from accusation.

Or, we might say: ―He became like we are so that we might become like

He is.‖ Indeed, that is the fundamental reason for the Incarnation—to

restore you and me to right relationship with God. Through Jesus ‘ death,we can be restored, and presented as holy in His sight. That is good

news!

We are in the very beginning part of a study through the Articles of Faith

of the Church of the Nazarene. The second article of faith deals

specifically with the Person and Work of Jesus the Christ . In your

bulletin, you can find this article of faith, along with the scriptures in

which these truths are found. I encourage you to take time this week to

look up those scriptures, and to be reminded of the ―Story of Jesus.‖ As Iread this article to you, you will hear statements expressing His divinity

and his humanity, and you will hear statements describing what He did

while He was among us.

2. We believe in Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Triune Godhead;

that He was eternally one with the Father; that He became incarnate by

the Holy Spirit and was born of the Virgin Mary, so that two whole and

perfect natures, that is to say the Godhead and manhood, are thus united

in one Person very God and very man, the God-man.

We believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins, and that He truly arose

from the dead and took again His body, together with all things

appertaining to the perfection of man‘s nature, wherewith He ascended

into heaven and is there engaged in intercession for us.

While the theological discourse on the nature of Jesus is important,

without a practical application I suppose it might not really matter. Andso, I ask you this: ―Who do you say that He is?‖ When it comes right

down to it; that is the question that each one of us must come to answer

on our own. We cannot simply be content in the knowledge that Peter has

already answered the question. We cannot merely accept the answers

that our parents gave. Nobody else can answer the question for us. The

question is: ―Who do you say that He is?‖ Can you, with Peter , assert



that ―He is the Christ , the Son of the Living God?‖ Do you recognize His

divinity and His humanity? Do you confess faith not only in His person,

but in His work on the cross? Do you place your faith alone in Christ —His

death and His resurrection—for forgiveness of your sins?

If you can make those affirmations this morning, then I invite you to

affirm your faith together with us as we recite the Apostle‘s Creed as

found in your bulletin. After affirming your faith, you will be invited to

come and partake at His table—which is set for His children. He makes an

invitation for you to come be an adopted child of the King, and by coming

you affirm your faith and accept that invitation.

Jesus asks you: ―Who do you say that I am?‖ If you truly believe these

truths, I invite you to answer Him by affirming our faith together, throughthe reading of the Apostle‘s Creed.

I believe in God the Father Almighty,

Maker of heaven and earth;

And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, dead, and buried;

He descended into hades;

the third day He rose again from the dead;

He ascended into heaven,

and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;

from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,the holy Church universal,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and the life everlasting. Amen.



Benediction: 1 Timothy 6

And may He keep you ―without spot or blame until the appearing of our

Lord Jesus Christ, 15which God will bring about in his own time--God, the

blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16who alone

is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seenor can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.‖



Article of Faith #3 - The Holy Spirit



Today, we continue our study on the Articles of Faith of the Church of theNazarene, helping us to more fully understand the teachings of the Bible

in matters of faith and doctrine. It is my hope that these lessons will help

us explore and internalize those beliefs that are essential to Christianity.

In so doing, we may better be able to explain the primary doctrines of

the Church of the Nazarene to those who are seeking God.

We began this series two weeks ago, first with a look at the Triune God.

We discussed how God has revealed Himself to us as Father, Son, and

Holy Spirit. All three persons of the Godhead eternally existing in ―Community-in-Love.‖ Since God is Holy Love, He is revealed in a Triune

relationship where each member pours itself out in love for the other two.

Each person is distinct yet united, showing us how we too can live in

perfect love with one another.

Last week we looked at the doctrine relating to Jesus the Christ. We

spoke of the incarnation (or enfleshment), which is the perfect union of

God and man. Jesus, the God-man, was fully divine yet fully human.

Because He lived without sin, He was able to take upon Himself the sins

of the world upon the cross. Jesus, the anointed One, took on flesh and

blood, so that his body could be broken and His blood could be shed, in

order that you and I might have forgiveness of sins. He was buried, rose

again on the third day, and ascended into heaven. Because of the person

and work of Jesus the Christ, we have hope of salvation and eternal life in

relationship with God.

Today, we turn our attention to the third article of faith, which focuses onthe Holy Spirit. In many ways, the Holy Spirit is the most neglected

person of the Blessed Trinity. We often speak of the Father and the Son,

but rarely speak about the Spirit. We pray to the Father, and we pray in

Jesus‘ Name, but often forget the role that the Spirit plays in our prayer

life. Outside of Pentecost and revival services, one could go weeks

without mention of the Holy Spirit. This is an unfortunate occurrence in



our churches today, for the Holy Spirit is the primary empowering and

moving agent in the Church today. It was the Holy Spirit which was given

on Pentecost to fill the early Christians and the Church, and it is the Holy

Spirit upon which we must rely today in order to see God‘s Kingdom

come to pass.

Fundamental to the picture of the Holy Spirit in Scripture is the imagery

of God‘s breath, or the wind. When the Spirit is present, we often see a

―mighty rushing wind‖ or God‘s Breath. Indeed, the very life which is

given to humanity is due to God breathing the ―Breath of Life‖ into Adam.

This ―Breath of Life‖ is likely one of the earliest understandings of the

Holy Spirit at work. God‘s Spirit is always at work around us, living and

active in this world.

I invite you to turn in your bulletin where you will find the Article of Faith

which speaks of the Holy Spirit. You will see the article written out, and

under it are several passages of scripture which have revealed to us the

Person of the Holy Spirit. We won‘t have time today to look at each of

those scriptures, but I hope you‘ll take time this week to look them up, so

that the Holy Spirit may reveal Himself to you through The Word. Here is

how we have come to understand the Holy Spirit and how he works in our

world:

3. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Triune Godhead,

that He is ever present and efficiently active in and with the Church of

Christ, convincing the world of sin, regenerating those who repent and

believe, sanctifying believers, and guiding into all truth as it is in Jesus.

Before we look at some scripture passages, I‘d like to highlight a couple

of points from the Article of Faith. First, we see that the Holy Spirit is

everywhere-present. One of the earliest characteristics of God that welearned what that He is omnipresent, and so we affirm that about the

person of the Holy Spirit as well. Not only is the Holy Spirit omnipresent,

but He is active in the Church. The Spirit does not sit on the sidelines and

observe, but He is active—doing things—in the church and through the

church. It is the Holy Spirit from which we derive our love and power. It

is the Holy Spirit that fills and empowers us to do the work of the



Kingdom.

We affirm that the Holy Spirit is active, doing these four things: 1)

convincing the world of sin, 2) regenerating those who repent and

believe, 3) sanctifying believers, and 4) guiding into all truth as it is inJesus.

Let‘s look at some scriptures which have revealed these tasks of the Holy

Spirit to us. John 16 speaks of the convicting role that the Holy Spirit

plays, showing us our sin and convincing us of our need for a savior. Hear

these words from the Gospel according to John, chapter 16, beginning in

verse 7:

John 16:7But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am goingaway. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I

will send him to you. 8When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt

in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9in regard to sin,

because men do not believe in me; 10in regard to righteousness, because

I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11and in

regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands

condemned.

The Holy Spirit convicts the world of its sin. What some may call

―conscience‖ is probably more accurately called the Holy Spirit. The Bible

tells us that the Holy Spirit comes to all people, showing them of their

sin, and their unbelief. In evangelism, one of our most exciting tools is

knowing that the Holy Spirit is at work in every person‘s life. Even

without belief in God, a person is under the convicting influence of the

Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, as they harden their hearts to the Spirit, they

become more and more unable to hear Him. Like Pinocchio and Jiminy

Cricket, it is possible to tune out the Holy Spirit in your life, hardeningyour heart to His voice. And yet, even though they may try to tune Him

out, He is active, convicting them of sin, and showing them the path

toward righteousness. They have only to respond to His call.

And so, we have seen how the Spirit convicts the world of sin. He uses

that thing we call a ―conscience,‖ and He uses you and I to set examples



for others, that they might be made aware of righteousness.

The second role of the Spirit outlined in our article of faith is that He is

―regenerating those who repent and believe.‖ The word ―regeneration‖ is

a word that simply means ―receiving new life.‖ And so, the work of theHoly Spirit is to give new life to those who repent and believe.

Repentance means to turn around—in this case, to turn away from sin

and to turn toward God. Belief is faith in action, casting ourselves upon

the redemptive work of Christ on the cross, believing that God will forgive

us of our sins. This role of the Spirit may be best illustrated through the

Scripture found in Romans 8. I invite you to turn with me to Romans 8

and hear God‘s Word for His children:

Romans 8:1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are inChrist Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life

set me free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law was

powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by

sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And

so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4in order that the righteous

requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live

according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

5Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on

what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit

have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6The mind of sinful man

is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7the

sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God‘s law, nor can it

do so. 8Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

9You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if

the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10But if Christ is in you, your body is

dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.

11And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you,

he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal

bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.



Keep your Bibles open to Romans 8 for a moment while I highlight a

couple of points here. In verses 1 and 2, we see that there is a new law

at work, the law of the Spirit. I suppose that if we were writing an old

Western movie, we might say that there is a ―New Sheriff in town.‖ No

longer are we subject to the old law which brings death, but are nowsubject to the Spirit, which brings life.

Verse 6 tells us that ―6The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind

controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;‖ Indeed, one member of this

congregation told me just yesterday how much his life has changed since

coming back to God. While once he was focused on negative thoughts

and fear and pain, he is now able to sleep better at night, aware of the

Peace of God at work within His life. This is truly the regenerative work of

the Spirit evidenced in our lives. When we accept the Spirit of God withinus, our entire perspective changes, as we are now controlled by life and

peace.

We see the regenerative work of the Spirit explained most clearly in verse

11, which states: ―11And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the

dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life

to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.‖ There seems

to be an intimate link between the resurrection and the work of the Holy

Spirit. God, who raised Christ from the dead, will also give you new life

through His Spirit. What an incredible promise that is. Indeed, we lay claim to

the New Life in Christ, through the work of the Holy Spirit within us. Old things

are passing away, all things are becoming new. In Christ, you are a new

creation, with new life! Thanks be to God!

But the work of the Holy Spirit doesn‘t end with the new life which is given at

the moment of salvation. Let‘s read a portion of this passage again, looking to

the work of the Spirit in regards to life after salvation. Hear again portions of

Romans 8, beginning in verse 9

Romans 8:9You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the

Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of

Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10But if Christ is in you, your body is dead

because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11And if the

Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised



Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit,

who lives in you.

Romans 8:12Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation--but it is not to the

sinful nature, to live according to it. 13For if you live according to the sinful

nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the

body, you will live, 14because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of

God. 15For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but

you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." 16The

Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God‘s children. 17Now if we

are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed

we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

In other words, we are to live according to the Spirit. We are to have the Mind

of the Spirit. We are to be set apart for His purposes. We are to live in sin nolonger but to live according to the Spirit. This is not a suggestion, for verse 12

clearly indicates that it is our obligation. Because of the new life within us, we

are to live according to the Spirit. Our new life, begun at salvation, is to express

itself. We are to be different, because the Spirit is in charge. His Holy Spirit

changes us, cleansing and filling us. It is this work of the Spirit that we call

Sanctification, and it is to be the experience of the Believer as we mature in our

Christian walk.

We will get more specific about the doctrine of Entire Sanctification during the

tenth week of our series. But for now, let‘s say that the basic definition of

sanctification is ―to be made holy.‖ Indeed, you might say ―holified‖ instead of

―sanctified.‖ Now, the most basic definition of holiness is ―separate‖ or ―set

apart.‖ In this case, we are set apart for God‘s use and His purposes. It is

important to always remember that we are ―sanctified‖ for a purpose. It is

never a cause for pride or arrogance. We do not claim to be ―holier-than-thou,‖

instead seeking to be consistently filled by the Spirit so that we can be set apart

for God‘s purposes in this world.

The fourth role of the Holy Spirit which we have identified is that He will ―guideinto all truth as it is in Jesus.‖ We affirm that all truth is God‘s truth, and so it is

the role of the Holy Spirit to reveal truth to us, which points us to the

redemptive work of Jesus. John 14:15-17 shows us how the Holy Spirit

shows us truth:

John 14:15"If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16And I will



ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you

forever-- 17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it

neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you

and will be in you.

And again, John speaks of the Spirit as a guide in John 16:12-15:

John 16:12"I have much more to say to you, more than you can now

bear. 13But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all

truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and

he will tell you what is yet to come. 14He will bring glory to me by taking

from what is mine and making it known to you. 15All that belongs to the

Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine

and make it known to you.

Note that the Holy Spirit always points people to the Father and to the

Son. Perhaps that is why we don‘t speak of Him as often as we do the

other two persons of the Triune Godhead. And yet, it is only through the

work of the Spirit that we come to be aware of the redemptive work of

Christ on the Cross. It is the Spirit which convicted you. It is the Spirit

which led you to the cross. It is the Spirit which has comforted and

guided you. It is the Spirit which began the work of regeneration in the

life of the believer, and it is the Spirit which cleanses and fills that we

might experience His work of sanctification. It is the Spirit which will

continue to sustain and guide in all truth, that you might pursue and fulfill

the will of God.

And so, you may ask, ―Pastor, why is this important? What difference

does it make?‖ Our understanding of the Holy Spirit is important for it is

the Spirit which guides us and sanctifies us. It is the Spirit—the Holy

Breath of God—which empowers the church. Without the Holy Spirit inour midst, we are ineffective and powerless. Our knowledge of the Spirit

enables us to be more sensitive to His work, being made aware of the

Spirit working among us and in our lives.

As we think of the Spirit, we are reminded that ―While we may not see

the wind, we see the effects of the wind,‖ and that ―the wind of the Spirit



blows where it will.‖ While we can‘t control the Spirit, we are to be

responsive to its subtle blowing in our lives. We must attune our senses

to every movement of the Spirit, that we might be empowered and able

to move where He would have us move. We must be cleansed by the

Spirit, in order that we might be filled by the Spirit. We must be filledwith the Spirit in order that we, like a hot-air balloon, may move about—

accomplishing the work of the Kingdom. The Spirit is to convict you, give

you new life, sanctify you, and guide you in paths of righteousness. He is

your comforter and intercessor. God reveals Himself to us through His

Spirit, sustaining us for every good work.

And so, my encouragement to you this week is that you would seek the

Holy Spirit where He may be found. Be sensitive to His leading. Allow

yourself to be blown about where the Wind of the Spirit might take you.Minister to others in Jesus‘ Name. Allow the Holy Spirit to use your life in

order to convince others of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Listen for

that small still voice motivating you for every good work for His Name‘s

sake. Allow His Divine Love to fill your life so that others may sense His

presence and be drawn to Him.

Benediction: Ephesians 3

14For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15from whom his whole

family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16I pray that out of his

glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in

your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have

power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high

and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses

knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of

God.



Today, we come to look at the Article of Faith regarding Holy Scripture.

Scripture has been important throughout human history, as it is the story

which reveals God and His interactions with His creation. Scripture tells

us of God‘s Story, showing us His plan and His will. While it is not a

history book, it shows us many historical events in which God interactedwith humanity.

Within the Wesleyan tradition, we often speak of the ―Wesleyan

Quadrilateral‖ of Scripture, Reason, Tradition, and Experience. If you

remember your geometry, you will know that a Quadrilateral is a four

sided figure, but that all side of the quadrilateral are not necessarily

equal, and the corners are not necessarily square. In the Wesleyan

Quadrilateral, we recognize that Scripture is always the foundational leg—

the longest side, but that Reason, Tradition, and Experience all supportGod‘s Word.

In other words, if all Truth is God‘s Truth, then we know that God also

reveals that truth to us through our gifts of reason, the teaching of the

Church throughout the ages, and our own experience of how God has

interacted with us. Primary to that revelation of truth is the revelation of

God‘s Word—Holy Scripture.

I‘d like to take a moment today and share with you a reading from a

book by Dr. Rob Staples entitled Words of Faith. Dr. Staples is a retired

professor of theology at Nazarene Theological Seminary and Southern

Nazarene University. The chapters in Words of Faith first appeared in his

monthly column in the Herald of Holiness (now Holiness Today). Each

chapter is a brief summary of a theological word, defining it and helping

us to understand its use within the Wesleyan Tradition. This is what Dr.

Staples writes on the topic of Scripture:

― ‗The Bible is the manger in which Christ is laid.‘ With that concise and

graphic metaphor, Martin Luther explained his view of Scripture.

―The great Protestant reformer was utilizing Luke‘s account of Jesus‘

birth, in which shepherds found the Christ child lying in a manger. The

manger itself was not the shepherds‘ ultimate goal. They were looking for



the newborn babe, and the manger was simply the place where the

angels told them to look.

―The point of Luther‘s analogy is that Christ, who is the living Word, is

found in the Bible, which is the written Word. But the latter is simply aninstrument directing us to the former—and thus not an end in itself.

―Let me construct a story, playing off Luther‘s metaphor. In my story are

four shepherds. After all, the Bible does not tell us how many of them

came to the manger. I suppose we have three shepherds in the children‘s

Christmas pageants in order to balance the three wise men on the other

side of the stage, also dressed up in their fathers‘ bathrobes. But the

Bible is also silent on the number of wise men present. Christian art and

legend have portrayed three wise men perhaps because there are threegifts—gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

―So my story has four shepherds—three representing various theological

viewpoints that are widespread in today‘s religious climate and one

representing the Wesleyan viewpoint. One by one they come to the

manger (remember that the ‗manger‘ is the Bible), seeking the Christ.

―The first shepherd comes to the manger and says, ‗This is a weak

manger; some of the boards have knotholes in them.‘ So he tries to

make it better by ripping out the ‗miracle‘ boards—the ‗Virgin Birth‘ and

‗Resurrection‘ boards. Pretty soon he has weakened the manger so much

that Christ falls into the straw onto the stable floor!

―Then the second shepherd rushes up. ‗I‘ll defend the manger,‘ he says.

‗I‘ll fight anyone who tinkers with it. Let no one lay a hand on it.‘ He

spends most of his energy defending the manger, and practically idolizing

the boards (the written words), leaving little time to adore the Christ (theliving Word) who lies in it.

―The third shepherd probably never even bothers to find the manger. He

thinks the angel‘s announcement of a newborn king is a nice story, but

only one store among many. It has meaning for some people. Other

stories are meaningful to others, and who can say which story is most



important? We can each create our own stories, and one is as true as

another.

―Now the Wesleyan shepherd differs from them all. Unlike the third

shepherd, he knows he must go to the manger (the Bible) to learn aboutthe Christ. There are many mangers (books) in the world, but only this

one has the words of eternal life. But having come to the manger, he

differs from the first shepherd, who wants to reconstruct it. The Wesleyan

knows that this manger is truly unique. Of all mangers (books) in the

world, this is the most important. He respects it, loves it, and handles it

with care. But he does not worship it. Having come to the manger, he,

unlike the second shepherd, does not tarry, avoiding adoring the manger

itself. He does not defend it, believing its truth is strong enough to defend

itself. He quickly turns to worship and adore the Christ lying there, andthen he goes and proclaims Him.

―Someone might say, ‗Wait a minute. Haven‘t you slanted this story to

make it come out the way you wanted?‘

―I answer, ‗Of course, it‘s my story. You may develop your own story and

slant it as you wish.‘ But this is my simple way of explaining the place the

Bible has in Wesleyan theology.

―Luther was correct in calling the Bible the ‗manger‘ in which Christ is

laid. He also said, ‗Christ is Lord and King of Scripture.‘ In these respects,

Wesley was much like Luther. The center of the Bible is Jesus Christ. The

written words are important. But they‘re important for one main reason—

they point us to the living Word, whom alone we worship and adore.‖

Dr. Staples reminds us that when we look at the Bible, we must

remember that its primary purpose is to reveal to us the person and workof Jesus the Christ. The Bible is of great value to us, for in its pages we

encounter the revelation of the Living God. Scripture reveals to us the

Triune God and His interaction with creation.

When formulating a doctrine about Scripture, it is important to look first

at what Scripture says about itself. It would be foolish to create a



doctrine about scripture that doesn‘t reflect the claims that Scripture

makes about itself. So let‘s take a moment and review some passages of

scripture which help us to understand the nature of scripture.

In the Gospel according to Luke, chapter 24, Jesus appears to somedisciples following the resurrection. They don‘t recognize him at first,

thinking that they are seeing a ghost. But Jesus speaks to them and

opens the Scripture to them, in order that they might recognize Him.

Hear these words from Luke 24, beginning in verse 36:

Luke 24:36While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood

among them and said to them, "Peace be with you."

37They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. 38Hesaid to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your

minds? 39Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and

see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have."

40When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. 41And

while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked

them, "Do you have anything here to eat?" 42They gave him a piece of

broiled fish, 43and he took it and ate it in their presence.

44He said to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you:

Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses,

the Prophets and the Psalms."

45Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.

46He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise

from the dead on the third day, 47and repentance and forgiveness of sins

will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.48You are witnesses of these things. 49I am going to send you what my

Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with

power from on high."

The Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ.



Jesus refers to the Hebrew Scriptures (what we call the Old Testament)

when He says ―Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the

Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.‖ It has been said that all of

the Old Testament is written to look forward to Jesus, and that all of the

New Testament is written to explain Jesus. In so doing, both portions of Scripture look to the central salvation event of Christ on the cross.

This passage in Luke also indicates that our ―eyes must be opened‖ in

order to fully understand Scripture. We believe that not only was

Scripture inspired in the writing, but that God has inspired the copying,

translation, reading and interpreting of His Word, so that when ―our eyes

are opened‖ we can fully understand God‘s will for us. It is important

when we come to scripture that we seek the Holy Spirit‘s guidance and

inspiration, that our eyes might also be opened.

Jesus summarizes the Gospel message in this passage as well, indicating

the fundamental facts of the Good News, that ―The Christ will suffer and

rise from the dead on the third day, 47and repentance and forgiveness of

sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.‖

Paul reiterates that Scripture reveals the fundamentals of the Gospel in

First Corinthians 15, beginning in verse 1:

I Corinthians 15:1Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I

preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your

stand. 2By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I

preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

3For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ

died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he

was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

Paul seems to indicate as well that the primary purpose (of first

importance) is the revelation of the Gospel message. It is for these

reasons that we say that Scripture ―inerrantly reveal[s] the will of God

concerning us in all things necessary to our salvation.‖ Indeed, God‘s

Word does not return void, but accomplishes the purposes that God has



designed for it—to reveal to us the nature of God, the person and work of

Jesus the Christ, and the path to salvation. In this revelation, Scripture is

inerrant and complete, accomplishing exactly what God intends it to

accomplish.

We say that Scripture is inspired, but that word itself has many different

uses. Paintings are inspired. Good works of literature are inspired. A

performance of a piece of music can be inspired. And yet, when we speak

of Scripture as inspired, we mean so much more than artistic inspiration.

Indeed, Paul teaches Timothy that Scripture is God-breathed. There is

much debate over whether God inspired every single word of Scripture or

inspired the thoughts of scripture. In other words, did God take control of

the pens of the authors, writing letter-for-letter, word-for-word? Or, did

He give them a general idea of what to write and they used their ownlanguage? Or, is there a middle ground that would be more accurate? For

instance, did God give them the general ideas, and at times inspire

specific words or phrases to be used in that flow of ideas?

One position on inspiration which I find to be meaningful is an

―Incarnational Inspiration.‖ In the same way that Jesus was fully Divine

and fully human, this theory says that the Bible is fully God‘s Word

written with human words. When we see scripture as incarnational, we

recognize that in the same way Jesus took on human limitations, God‘s

Word has also taken on human limitations.

The Church of the Nazarene leaves room for many positions on

inspiration, from a Verbal Inspiration to a more Dynamic Inspiration. Our

Article of Faith states that ―We believe in the plenary inspiration of the

Holy Scriptures.‖ Plenary means ―full.‖ In other words, we believe that

Scripture is fully inspired by God, able to accomplish exactly what He

desires to do with it. Beyond that, we make no dogmatic stance on howGod chose to inspire the Bible, choosing instead to simply affirm that it is

fully inspired.

Paul‘s teaching to Timothy helps us understand inspiration, and what the

Bible is intended for. Hear these words from First Timothy, chapter 3,

beginning in verse 14:



2 Timothy 3:14But as for you, continue in what you have learned and

have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you

learned it, 15and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures,

which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in ChristJesus. 16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching,

rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the man of

God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Paul teaches clearly what Scripture is for: ―making us wise for salvation

through faith, teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in

righteousness.‖ There is also a purpose and intent to the Scripture—that

the ―Man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.‖ We

don‘t read scripture for the purpose of education or entertainment, but sothat we might encounter the Living God within its pages and be

transformed into His Image. By being transformed into His image, we are

equipped for doing every good work. Scripture reading is not solely for

our edification, but for the edification of others.

Let us take a moment to summarize so far what we have learned about

Holy Scripture. 1) It reveals to us the person and work of Jesus the

Christ. 2) It teaches us the Gospel message, which is summarized most

simply in that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again on the

third day. 3) Scripture is fully inspired by God, and is useful for teaching

and instruction, so that we might be equipped for every good work.

As we turn our attention to the Fourth Article of Faith in the Church of the

Nazarene, you will see these core beliefs about scripture represented

within its words. You can find this Article of Faith on the inside flap of

your bulletin, along with several more scriptures which help us

understand God‘s Word. While we haven‘t had time to look at each one of those scripture passages, I hope you will make time this week to further

explore our doctrine relating to Holy Scripture: the written Word of God

which reveals the Living Word of God—Jesus.

We believe in the plenary inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, by which we

understand the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, given by divine



inspiration, inerrantly revealing the will of God concerning us in all things

necessary to our salvation, so that whatever is not contained therein is

not to be enjoined as an article of faith.

Lest we find this entire discussion to be purely academic, let us take amoment to explore the ways in which Holy Scripture make a difference in

our lives.

As we think about Dr. Staples‘ comments that I quoted earlier, let me

encourage you to come to the manger of God‘s Word, which reveals the

Christ to you. Do not fall into the error of the first shepherd, and attempt

to deconstruct the manger or find fault in it. It is God‘s Word, and should

be handled with great respect. On the other hand, do not fall into the

error of the second shepherd who became so preoccupied with defendingthe manger that he forgot to worship the Christ child within the manger.

The Bible itself is not to be worshipped, only the Living God who you can

encounter in its pages. Neither should we succumb to the trap of

pluralism which believes God‘s Word to merely be one story among

many. Instead, recognize God‘s Word for what it claims to be: the

inspired Word of God which reveals to us God‘s plan for salvation and for

our lives. When we read it, we recognize that it is God-breathed—or filled

with His Spirit, and that we need the Spirit‘s inspiration to help us fully

understand its message of truth.

As we go forth this week, let us commit ourselves to being people shaped

by the Image of God as revealed to us through Holy Scripture. As we are

shaped by His image, we will be equipped for doing every good work,

that we may serve others and bless them.

Benediction: Numbers 6

24 " ‘ "The LORD bless you and keep you;

25 the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;

26 the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace." ‘



Article of Faith #5 - Sin, Original and Personal

Date: Sunday, July 4, 2004


Before we begin our study today, I‘d like to take a moment of pastoralprivilege. A couple of weeks ago you took some time to recognize some

special occasions in my life; my birthday, and our 7th wedding

anniversary. I wanted to thank you for the kind words and the gifts which

you gave to us.

As I contemplate those occasions, I‘m reminded of one of the running

jokes among some pastors on the Maine District. There are those who try

to keep me humble by reminding me that churches keep me around

because they get Melody as part of the bargain. As funny as that mayseem, we all know that there is a great deal of truth to the statement, as

she is a vital part and support of my ministry. We‘ve always believed that

God put us together to be a team, and to minister in His Name. And so, I

want to take a moment to thank you, Melody…for being a great support,

for using your gifts and abilities so well, and for being the best wife a

man could ever ask for. I love you, and thank you…for simply being you!

But, a 7th wedding anniversary is not the only anniversary that is

celebrated. I don‘t know if you know it or not, but today—the first Sunday

in July--is also another anniversary. You may not believe it, but two years

ago we moved from Redbank Village in South Portland to your beautiful

parsonage on Susan Rd. Two years ago this Sunday was my first Sunday

in the pulpit as your pastor. And so, I want to take a moment to thank

you for being such a wonderful congregation and for taking such good

care of us. I want to thank you for your support in my various ministries,

however unconventional they may appear. I want to thank you for

inviting us into your lives, to be part of your families. Many pastorsidentify a moment—usually 3-to-9 months into their ministry with a

particular congregation—when the ‗newness‘ wears off and the

excitement fades. They often speak of that moment as the ―honeymoon‖

being over. While I was at PALCON this week, I was thinking about that,

and realizing that I can‘t identify any such moment here at Cape

Elizabeth , and that is truly extraordinary. Now, I don‘t believe for a



moment that I am an extraordinary minister, and so I‘m firmly convinced

that the honeymoon continues for two reasons: 1) because we serve and

extraordinary God, and 2) because you are an extraordinary church. I

feel blessed and fortunate to have been called here, and want to tell you

that we love you, and we look forward to whatever future God has instore for us together! May the honeymoon continue….

We turn our attention this morning to the 5th Article of Faith in the

Church of the Nazarene. You can find this article and its supporting

scriptures in the inside flap of your bulletin. As we arrive at this Article of

Faith, we arrive at a topic which is not a popular topic in our culture

today. People don‘t often like to hear about sin, unless it is to point out

someone else‘s sin. Jesus had a keen understanding of human nature

when He exhorted His listeners to first take care of the plank in their eyebefore worrying about the speck in their brother‘s eye.

Before we look at the Article of Faith, I‘d like to ask you a question to

think about. ―How are we aware of sin? How are we, as humans, even

able to identify sin or bad behavior?‖ I suppose, first and foremost we

would say that our parents taught us right from wrong, and before them

their parents taught them, and their parents before them, and so on. But

before that, how were people aware of sin? How were they able to

identify bad behavior?

I want you to think about this for a moment: the very fact that we are

able to identify sin is evidence of the Grace of God at work in our lives.

Simply because we can identify evil is evidence that we have encountered

good. We know there is a God, because woven into each of our lives is a

moral fabric.

If you think about it, you realize that in order to identify sin, we musthave some experience with holiness—else we would not recognize sin in

our midst. Clearly, humanity has—at some point in its history—

encountered a holy God, or else it would be entirely unable to recognize

that which is less than holy.

I am reminded of Isaiah‘s vision recorded in Isaiah chapter 6. You will



recall that he:

―saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his

robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings:

With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet,and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:

"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;

the whole earth is full of his glory."

4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the

temple was filled with smoke.‖

In his vision, Isaiah saw a Holy God surrounded by creatures who coulddo nothing less than declare His holiness and glory. We read of Isaiah‘s

reaction to this holy vision in verse 5, where he says: 5 "Woe to me!" I

cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a

people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD

Almighty."

The very fact we can identify sin indicates that woven into the fabric of

our being is an awareness of a Holy God. That, my friends, is evidence of

God‘s grace at work in our lives before we even knew we were in need of

that grace.

When we understand that, we realize that the story of the Bible does not

begin with sin, but that it begins with perfection. Before there was a fall,

God said that it was ―good, good, good, and very good.‖ Before there was

an apple, there was fellowship in the Garden. The message of the Bible

doesn‘t begin with sin, it begins with God. It begins with holiness. It

begins with pure relationship. It begins with grace.

It is only after Adam and Eve took of the forbidden fruit—as recorded in

Genesis 3—that relationship between God and humanity was broken. It

was only after they succumbed to temptation that sin began to play a

role in human lives, tempting us, leading us astray, and keeping us from

being in right relationship with God and with one another.



And so, because of the decisions of Adam and Eve , ―We believe that sin

came into the world through the disobedience of our first parents, and

death by sin.‖ Romans 3:23 tells us that ―all have sinned and fall short of

the glory of God,‖ and later on Paul tells us that ―The wages of Sin isdeath.‖ Because sin entered the world, death entered the world.

Our article of faith states that ―we believe that sin is of two kinds: original

sin or depravity, and actual or personal sin.‖

―We believe that original sin, or depravity, is that corruption of the nature

of all the offspring of Adam by reason of which everyone is very far gone

from original righteousness or the pure state of our first parents at the

time of their creation, is averse to God, is without spiritual life, andinclined to evil, and that continually. We further believe that original sin

continues to exist with the new life of the regenerate, until the heart is

fully cleansed by the baptism with the Holy Spirit.‖

In other words, Original Sin, is the condition or state in which we find

ourselves. Each one of us was born into the state of Original Sin, just like

some of us were born into the State of Maine , or the State of

Massachusetts .

Now, someone born into the State of Massachusetts is not accountable

for their birth place—they had no choice in the matter. We don‘t hold it

against them, just because they were born in Massachusetts . BUT…if an

opportunity arose for this person to move out of Massachusetts and into

the glorious state of Maine (this would be a redemptive move), and they

failed to do so, then we could hold them accountable for that decision.

As a church, we hold to a doctrine of accountability, which states: ―Webelieve that original sin differs from actual sin in that it constitutes an

inherited propensity to actual sin for which no one is accountable until its

divinely provided remedy is neglected or rejected.‖

The State of Original Sin is an ―inherited propensity to actual sin.‖ It is as

if we had an old-fashioned balance, with two pans on each side



suspended from a fulcrum. If the balance was empty, we would expect

both pans to be at the same level. However, our tendency to sin means

that we are already at a disadvantage. The scales are tipped, our hearts

are turned inward, our pans are off-balance, as though the crooked shop

keeper was keeping his thumb on the scales so that the grain cost more.In other words, all other things being equal, we tend toward doing the

wrong thing. However, since ―Sin is not taken into account where there is

no law‖ (Romans 5:13 ) one is not held accountable for their original sin

until they neglect or reject God‘s Divine plan of Salvation.

In tension with the concept of Original Sin is that of Actual (or Personal)

Sin.

―We believe that actual or personal sin is a voluntary violation of a knownlaw of God by a morally responsible person. It is therefore not to be

confused with involuntary and inescapable shortcomings, infirmities,

faults, mistakes, failures, or other deviations from a standard of perfect

conduct that are the residual effects of the Fall. However, such innocent

effects do not include attitudes or responses contrary to the spirit of

Christ , which may properly be called sins of the spirit. We believe that

personal sin is primarily and essentially a violation of the law of love; and

that in relation to Christ sin may be defined as unbelief.‖

We could probably take a few weeks to unpack all of our doctrine of sin,

but we don‘t have the luxury of that time this morning. Let me focus on

the next-to-the-last phrase in the paragraph, which says ―We believe that

personal sin is primarily and essentially a violation of the law of love.‖

―What is the ‗law of love‘?‖ you ask. Well, I‘m glad you asked! You can

find the ―law of love‖ in Matthew 22, verses 36-40:

36"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37Jesus

replied: " ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your

soul and with all your mind.‘ 38This is the first and greatest

commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as

yourself.‘ 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two

commandments."



Do you remember Article of Faith #1? It was about the Triune God. You

remember that God was eternally existing before time as the Holy

Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is Love because God is Triune.

Three persons in One, eternally existing in relationship with the other.The Father giving Himself in love for the Son and the Spirit. The Son

pouring out love into the Father and the Spirit. The Spirit offering pure

love to the Father and to the Son. Three distinct persons, living in Holy

Community—God is Love because His very essence is relational.

Since sin is the opposite of God‘s nature, then we can see sin as that

which breaks relationship. Sin is that which violates the law of love. Sin is

that which comes between humanity and God, or between a brother and

a sister. Sin breaks down relationships.

When we understand that Sin breaks down relationship, we realize that

we are entrapped or enslaved by our sin. Because of the sin which comes

between us and God, we can‘t approach His throne in order to right the

wrong. In ourselves, we are unable to correct the relationships which are

broken. Therefore, sin entraps us and enslaves us. We find ourselves in

destructive patterns of behavior which keep us from becoming all that

God intended us to be. The shackles of our sin keep us from walking in

fellowship with God in the Garden. We are prisoners of sin, slaves to our

own temptations and desires.

Paul speaks of this slavery to sin in Romans chapter 7, verses 11-24:

11For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment,

deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. 12So

then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.

13Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Butin order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me

through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might

become utterly sinful.

14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave

to sin. 15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not



do, but what I hate I do. 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree

that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is

sin living in me. 18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my

sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry

it out. 19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do notwant to do--this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do,

it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there

with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God‘s law; 23but I see

another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the

law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within

my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from

this body of death?‖

Indeed, who will rescue us from these bodies of death? Who will set us

free from the slavery of sin? How shall we escape our shackles that we

might be in right relationship with God?

Do you remember where we started this lesson? God‘s grace came before

all of this. We recognized that in order for us to even be aware of the

slavery of sin, God‘s grace must already be present in our lives. In order

for us to recognize our dark hearts, we must have once recognized

something holy.

25Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Paul doesn‘t stop at the end of chapter 7, but continues on to write these

words:

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God‘s law, but in the sinfulnature a slave to the law of sin.

1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ

Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me

free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law was powerless to

do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his



own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.

God does not want us to live in sin. He does not want us to live in broken

relationship. After all, He created us in His Image, so we are designed to

be in right relationship with others. Sin keeps us from being what He hasmade us to be. And so, in order to offer more grace to us, He offered His

Son Jesus to form a bridge of relationship that our sins might be forgiven,

that there might be a remedy for sin, and that we might find ourselves

once again in right relationship with God.

We can be set free from sin and guilt. We can be set free from despair.

We can be set free from the traps of our own temptations and sin. We

need only accept the forgiveness of sins offered through the blood of

Jesus , and the cleansing of our hearts offered through the power of theHoly Spirit.

While I have no intention of minimizing the Patriotic Celebration which

occurs this weekend, we recognize today that as Christians we celebrate

a greater sort of Independence Day. Our Independence Day has little to

do with men in wigs gathered around a document placing their signatures

upon it. Our Independence Day has little to do with an inter-continental

squabble about taxes and tea. Our Independence Day is not so much

about ―hanging together or hanging separately.‖

No. Our Independence Day was 2000 years ago when the Son of God

climbed the hill called Mount Calvary and poured out every drop of blood

so that you might have forgiveness of sins. Our Independence Day was

when He went to the place of the dead to loose the captives and lead

them forth into the heavenlies. Our Independence Day was when He

busted out of the tomb, bringing new life to all who believe. Rejoice, for

you have been set free!

―But,‖ you say, ―I don‘t feel free. I feel trapped in my sin. I don‘t know

what it means to be in right relationship with God. I understand exactly

what you‘ve said about a tendency to do the wrong thing, and I find

myself doing that wrong thing all the time. What should I do?‖



Let me tell you this. God loves you. He sent His Son to die for you on a

cruel Cross. Jesus lived a sinless life in order that He might be sin offering

for you and for me. His blood can make the foulest clean. His blood can

wash away my sins. Nothing but the Blood of Jesus . Not only did He die

on that cross, but He was buried and rose again on the third day, so thatyou and I might experience new life on this earth, and the resurrection of

the dead—and eternal life with God.

To receive that free gift, you need to pray, talk to God—admitting that

you are a sinner, believing that Jesus‘ death can cleanse you, and

confessing that Jesus is Lord. He will forgive your sins, He will set you

free, if you…by faith…ask Him to.

In just a few moments, we will celebrate our Independence Day bypartaking of the Sacrament of Holy Communion. This table is open to

those who place their faith in Jesus Christ and are in right relationship

with Him. In a moment we will affirm our faith together by reciting the

Apostles‘ Creed, which outlines the essence of our faith. Then, we will

pray. As we pray, I invite you to enter into a time of confession, where

you seek God‘s forgiveness for any areas where you have fallen short. If

you do not know Christ , let me assure you that He is reaching out to you

and waiting for you to respond to Him. Should you ask Him to enter into

your life, you can rest assured that He will set you free from the sin

which entangles you.

Benediction: I Thess 5:23May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify

you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept

blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24The one who calls

you is faithful and he will do it.



Article of Faith #6 – Full Atonement

Date: Sunday, June 11, 2004Author: Rev. Jonathan K. Twitchell

Experts can‘t agree if the following is a true story or if it should be written

down next to the tale of George Washington and the Cherry Tree. Whilethere is no concrete evidence of its truth, there is enough anecdotalevidence that the story has been in existence long enough to quitepossibly be true. Regardless, I submit to you the following story aboutMayor Fiorello LaGuardia.

In the middle of the Great Depression, New York City mayor, FiorelloLaGuardia , strived to live with the people. It was not unusual for him toride with the firefighters, raid with the police, or take field trips withorphans. On a bitterly cold night in January of 1935, the mayor turned up

at a night court that served the poorest ward of the city. LaGuardiadismissed the judge for the evening and took over the bench himself.Within a few minutes, a tattered old woman was brought before him,charged with stealing a loaf of bread. She told the mayor that herdaughter‘s husband had left, her daughter was sick, and her twograndchildren were starving.

However, the shopkeeper, from whom the bread was stolen, refused to

drop the charges. "It‘s a real bad neighborhood, your Honor," the mantold the mayor. "She‘s got to be punished to teach other people around

here a lesson."

LaGuardia sighed. He turned to the woman and said, "I‘ve got to punishyou. The law makes no exceptions. Ten dollars or ten days in jail." Buteven as he pronounced sentence, the mayor was already reaching into

his pocket. He extracted a bill and tossed it into his famous hat, saying,"Here is the ten dollar fine which I now remit; and furthermore I amgoing to fine everyone in this courtroom fifty cents for living in a town

where a person has to steal bread so that her grandchildren can eat. Mr.Bailiff, collect the fines and give them to the defendant."

The following day, New York City newspapers reported that $47.50 wasturned over to a bewildered woman who had stolen a loaf of bread to

feed her starving grandchildren. Fifty cents of that amount wascontributed by the grocery store owner himself, while some seventy pettycriminals, people with traffic violations, and New York City policemen,

each of whom had just paid fifty cents for the privilege of doing so, gave



the mayor a standing ovation.

I share this story primarily to illustrate the difference between two keyterms: mercy and grace.

It is said that mercy is when we ―don‘t get what we deserve.‖ Often,mercy is used to refer to not getting the punishment we deserve.Children play that game called ―mercy‖ when they try to bend each

others‘ hands over backwards. The game is over when one child begs for ―mercy,‖ asking the other child to stop. Our story illustrates ―mercy‖ inthat Mayor LaGuardia paid the fine for the woman. Justice was served, inthat the f ine was paid…but mercy also reigned—for the woman could notpay her fine herself, so LaGuardia paid it for her. Mercy is when we ―don‘t

get what we deserve.‖

Grace , on the other hand, is when we ―get what we don‘t deserve.‖ While mercy is ―Not getting the bad things that we deserve,‖ grace isabout ―getting the good things that we don‘t deserve.‖ The graceevidenced in the story was not the forgiveness of the debt, but theadditional assessment of a $.50 cent fine on every member in the

courtroom. The grace was the $47.50 that this woman received. $47.50that she did not deserve.

As Christians, we understand mercy as being the forgiveness of sins, theremoval of the punishment. We deserve eternal death and separation

from God – ―For all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God‖ and ―the wages of sin is death.‖ Mercy is the forgiveness of our sins, and theremoval of the punishment. On the other hand, grace (receiving what we

don‘t deserve) is the gift of new life, the gift of right relationship with God, the gift of eternal life in heaven—―the gift of God is eternal life inChrist Jesus our Lord.‖

And yet, there‘s one more element that‘s needed. Justice must still beserved. We know that God is a just God. Justice is not merely dismissedin the interest of grace or mercy. Had Mayor LaGuardia simply forgiven

the fine, then the shopkeeper would have received no compensation forthe stolen loaf of bread. And so, Mayor LaGuardia had mercy on thewoman, not by forgiving her debt, but by paying for her debt.

Paul speaks of the justice of God in Romans chapter 3. I invite you toturn in your Bibles to the book of Romans, and you may wish to keepyour Bibles open there for the remainder of our study. Hear these words



from Romans 3, beginning in verse 21.

21But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been madeknown, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22This righteousnessfrom God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is

no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that cameby Christ Jesus . 25God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement,through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, becausein his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished-- 26he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus .

May God add His blessing to the reading of His Word

We learn from this passage that God is a just God, and at the same timeHe is a merciful God. God cannot contradict His own nature, and so couldnot sacrifice His Justice in favor of His Mercy, or sacrifice His Mercy infavor His Justice. Therefore, we understand that God must be fully justand fully merciful. And so, He made the only move that could be made to

release us from bondage …He gave us His Son as an atonement for oursins.

And so, God did not simply have mercy upon us, He went ahead and paidthe debt that we could not pay. He did this through what we call ―The

Atonement.‖ We continue our study on the Nazarene Articles of Faith, andtoday look at the sixth article of faith—the Atonement. You‘ll find thisarticle and its supporting scripture references in the inside flap of your

worship folder.

We believe that Jesus Christ , by His sufferings, by the shedding of His

own blood, and by His death on the Cross, made a full atonement for allhuman sin, and that this Atonement is the only ground of salvation, and

that it is sufficient for every individual of Adam ‘s race. The Atonement isgraciously efficacious for the salvation of the irresponsible and for the

children in innocency but is efficacious for the salvation of those whoreach the age of responsibility only when they repent and believe.

I have to be honest with you, I think that this article seems to be full of some twenty-dollar words, so I think we‘d better break down a couple of

them for the sake of making sure that we‘re all on the same page.



We believe that Jesus Christ, by His sufferings, by the shedding of His

own blood, and by His death on the Cross, made a full atonement for allhuman sin, This portion seems fairly straightforward. We understand thatJesus (the Divine Son of God who took on human flesh) suffered, bled,and died for our sin. To Atone for something is to make amends, or to

reconcile.

Last week, we learned that sin primarily violates the law of love. In other

words, Sin breaks relationship. Because of our sin, we can‘t be in rightrelationship with God…we can‘t even approach the throne in an effort tomake amends for our sin. In fact, if it weren‘t for God‘s grace, we

wouldn‘t even be aware of our sins or the broken relationship between usand God. And so, it becomes impossible for us to atone for our own sin.

Just like the woman who stole the bread, we can‘t possibly offer anatonement that would be sufficient. But ―God so loved the world that he

gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perishbut have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world tocondemn the world, but to save the world through him.‖ In so doing,Jesus provides reconciliation—the repairing of broken relationship.

And so, we understand that the death of Jesus on the cross is theatonement for our sins. We believe in a ―Full Atonement‖ that is sufficientfor all. As we are created in the Image of God, we have the self-

sovereignty to accept, neglect, or reject that Atonement and theSalvation which it provides.

We believe that this Atonement is the only ground of salvation, for Jesussaid ―I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Fatherexcept through me.‖ It is only through the Atonement—the death of Christ on the cross, that any of us have hope of a reconciled relationshipwith God.

Before we continue looking closely at the Article of Faith, there are two

words which deserve explanation: ―sufficient‖ and ―efficacious.‖ AmericanHeritage defines ―Sufficient‖ as ―Being as much as is needed.‖ Webster ‘s

adds in ―Enough, ample, competent.‖ ―Efficacious‖ on the other hand isdefined as ―capable of producing the desired effect.‖ Synonyms for

―Efficacious‖ are ―Effective, able, active, useful.‖ There‘s a very slight, butever important, distinction between the two words. Something can besufficient (enough) without being efficacious (useful or active).

Perhaps we can best illustrate the difference like this. Two weeks ago was



the Pastors‘ Conference in Boston . I had agreed to ride with Pastor Jimto the conference. Let‘s say that it takes about ten gallons of gas to getto Boston and back. Pastor Jim bought enough gas to get us there, thegas was sufficient. However, since the starter in his car needed to bereplaced, the gas was not efficacious in getting us to our destination. And

so, Pastor Jim had to borrow his sister‘s car. There was sufficient gas inthe tank—enough gas, but the gas was not efficacious—effective, useful,active—to achieve the desired result.

The Full Atonement is the same thing— Christ ‘s blood is enough for all. Itis sufficient. Nothing else is needed to atone for our sins. However, it isonly efficacious—effective—when coupled with our faith. Christ ‘s blood isenough for the unrepentant sinner (no sin is too big to outlast Christ ‘sblood), but it is only effective for salvation when coupled with repentanceand belief.

Here is how we‘ve worded that in our article of faith: and that it (theAtonement) is sufficient for every individual of Adam‘s race. TheAtonement is graciously efficacious for the salvation of the irresponsibleand for the children in innocency but is efficacious for the salvation of

those who reach the age of responsibility only when they repent andbelieve.

We see present in our doctrine of The Atonement all three elements:mercy, grace, and justice. We receive mercy by the forgiveness of our

sins. We receive grace through the gift of new life. Justice is still served,as the penalty for sin is still paid. We see, even in the Atonement, apicture of God‘s nature—Holy Love. Motivated by His great love for His

creation, He sought to forgive us. Restrained by His Holiness,Righteousness, and Justice, He paid the price. We were redeemedbecause we were bought back.

Paul clarifies it for us in Romans chapter 5, beginning in verse 6:

6You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died

for the ungodly. 7Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, thoughfor a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8But Goddemonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners,Christ died for us.

9Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall webe saved from God‘s wrath through him! 10For if, when we were God‘s



enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how

much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!11Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord JesusChrist, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

12Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and deaththrough sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned--13for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not takeninto account when there is no law. 14Nevertheless, death reigned fromthe time of Adam to the time of Moses , even over those who did not sinby breaking a command, as did Adam , who was a pattern of the one tocome.

15But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by thetrespass of the one man, how much more did God‘s grace and the gift

that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ , overflow to themany! 16Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man‘s sin:The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the giftfollowed many trespasses and brought justification. 17For if, by thetrespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much

more will those who receive God‘s abundant provision of grace and of thegift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ .

18Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation forall men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification

that brings life for all men. 19For just as through the disobedience of theone man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

20The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sinincreased, grace increased all the more, 21so that, just as sin reigned in

death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternallife through Jesus Christ our Lord.

This is the Good News of Jesus the Christ .

Last week we learned that sin entered the world through thedisobedience of Adam. We spoke of the condition or state of original sin,and how that condition causes a tendency for us to commit actual orpersonal sin. We spoke of how sin primarily violates the law of love,breaking relationship between us and God. Disobedience entered theworld through Adam …and through that disobedience came death. But,



the good news is that we don‘t have to be in bondage to our sin. We canbe confident in God‘s justice, mercy and grace…knowing that through thehumble obedience of Jesus , we can have new life in Him.

We rejoice today, for we serve a Great God who loves us, who is

constantly acting on our behalf, who seeks to redeem us, so that wemight be His children, in right relationship with Him.

Benediction: I Thess 5:23May God himself, the God of peace, sanctifyyou through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be keptblameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24The one who callsyou is faithful and he will do it.



Article of Faith #7 - Prevenient Grace



It‘s not a simple matter to adjust the Constitution of an entiredenomination. We don‘t expect that our Articles of Faith could be easily

adjusted to fit the changing times. Since God is eternal and unchanging,

and the Gospel message is unchanging, we expect that our Articles of

Faith should also remain unchanged.

However, while God is unchanging, the language we use to describe Him

does change. While the Gospel message is eternal, we sometimes find

better words and phrases to describe that message. We may even find

that we can more accurately describe the same God and the same workof grace. And so, from time to time, the General Assembly of the Church

of the Nazarene takes action to amend the Articles of Faith.

It‘s still no simple matter to make amendments. The amendments have

to be proposed to the Reference Committee which will review and edit

one or more resolutions in order to bring them to the floor of the

Assembly. Lengthy debate for and against the amendment will likely take

place on the floor of the assembly before it is brought to a vote. A

constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds majority vote of the

delegates at General Assembly, and then the amendment must be ratified

by two-thirds of the Districts at their next district assembly.

Any one of those hurdles can easily prevent an amendment to the Church

Constitution from passing. This gives us confidence that we are not easily

changed by the culture and the shifting times around us. I suppose that it

would be an interesting study to sit down with all of the ―Manuals‖ of the

Church of the Nazarene since 1908 and see what changes and additionshave been made since then. It would provide for us an opportunity to

chart the growth in the Church over the last hundred years.

In any case, today we look at the Seventh Article of Faith, which did

undergo a slight change at the 2001 General Assembly, and has since

been ratified by the individual districts. The Article itself remains



unchanged, only the title was changed from ―Free Agency‖ to ―Prevenient

Grace.‖

If you are anything like me, you want to know why it was changed. And,

you may already be scratching your head wondering what a baseball term(Free Agency) has to do with a theological phrase (Prevenient Grace).

And, you may have already read through the Article of Faith and are

wondering why we changed the title to ―Prevenient Grace‖ when that

phrase doesn‘t even appear in the Article. These questions, and more,

will be the subject of our study this morning.

Before we go any further, we need to define what we mean by

―Prevenient Grace.‖ We understand ― Grace ‖ as being ―Unmerited Favor,‖

or, as we learned last week, ―Mercy is not getting what we do deserve,and Grace is getting what we don‘t deserve.‖ Prevenient (sometimes

called Preventing) means ―going before.‖ Prevenient Grace , then, is that

grace, (or unmerited favor), which goes before. ―Before what?‖ you ask.

Before everything you do, think, or say. Before your very existence,

God‘s grace was. Before the Creation of the world, God‘s grace was.

Other words and phrases are sometimes used to describe this: Divine

initiative, preceding grace, or preparatory grace.

In other words, it all begins with God‘s grace. Your very existence is

because of the unmerited favor which God gave you. The air you breathe,

the water you drink, the food you eat…are because of God‘s grace. The

fact that you are aware of a deeper reality and of a need for God is

because of God‘s grace. Grace is not merely Saving Grace experienced at

the moment of conversion. Indeed, the only reason you arrived at a

moment of conversion is because God was drawing you unto Himself —

that‘s Prevenient Grace.

―So,‖ one might ask, ―Is Prevenient Grace more than a thelogical

construct? Can we find it illustrated within the pages of Scripture?‖

In Acts chapter 10, we read the story of the conversion of Cornelius.

Cornelius was a Roman Centurion, and in the course of the narrative in

Acts 10, we see Peter traveling to Joppa to share the Gospel with



Cornelius and his family. By the end of chapter 10, all of those gathered

at Cornelius‘s house (his relatives and close friends) had heard the

Gospel message, accepted it, repented, believed, and were baptized. It

was a historical moment, as the gathering was entirely Gentile, and yet

they were welcomed into the Family of God with open arms.

I‘d like, however, for you to pay close attention to the description of

Cornelius and his family prior to their conversion experience. Hear these

words from Acts chapter 10, verse 1-7:

1At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was

known as the Italian Regiment. 2He and all his family were devout and

God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God

regularly. 3One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. Hedistinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, "Cornelius !"

4Cornelius stared at him in fear. "What is it, Lord?" he asked.

5The angel answered, "Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up

as a memorial offering before God. Now send men to Joppa to bring back

a man named Simon who is called Peter . 6He is staying with Simon the

tanner, whose house is by the sea."

7When the angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two of his

servants and a devout soldier who was one of his attendants. 8He told

them everything that had happened and sent them to Joppa.

The Word of the Lord.

I want you to pay close attention to verse 2: 2He and all his family were

devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayedto God regularly. While not part of the family of God, while still needing

Salvation, while still in need of conversion and baptism, the Bible tells us

that Cornelius and his entire family were devout and God-fearing.

And yet, we affirmed just a few weeks ago that ―We believe that original

sin, or depravity, is that corruption of the nature of all the offspring of



Adam by reason of which everyone is very far gone from original

righteousness or the pure state of our first parents at the time of their

creation, is averse to God, is without spiritual life, and inclined to evil,

and that continually.‖ How is it then, that Cornelius is described as

devout and God-fearing? How, if he too was corrupted by original sin,inclined to evil, and averse to God; could he be devout and God-fearing?

And, how then, if he was outside the Family of God, was he able to ―see a

vision of the angel of God?‖ How is it that his prayers were heard?

Clearly, there was unmerited favor here. Cornelius had done nothing to

deserve this grace. He could not have merely ―decided‖ to exercise ―free

will‖ to be devout. Original sin makes us incapable of that sort of choice

outside the realm of God‘s grace. And so, we see God‘s Prevenient Grace

working in Cornelius‘s life before he even realized he had a need forGod‘s grace.

With this understanding of Prevenient Grace before us, let us now take a

closer look at this Seventh Article of Faith. You can find it in the inside

flap of your bulletin, and I encourage you to take time this week to

discover more about God‘s grace and its relationship to our free will and

salvation by exploring the supporting scriptures that are listed with it.

We believe that the human race‘s creation in Godlikeness included ability

to choose between right and wrong, and that thus human beings were

made morally responsible; that through the fall of Adam they became

depraved so that they cannot now turn and prepare themselves by their

own natural strength and works to faith and calling upon God. But we

also believe that the grace of God through Jesus Christ is freely bestowed

upon all people, enabling all who will to turn from sin to righteousness,

believe on Jesus Christ for pardon and cleansing from sin, and follow

good works pleasing and acceptable in His sight.

We believe that all persons, though in the possession of the experience of

regeneration and entire sanctification, may fall from grace and apostatize

and, unless they repent of their sins, be hopelessly and eternally lost.

This particular Article of Faith is particularly Wesleyan in nature, and for



those of us who come from different traditions, it may take time to work

through all of the issues brought up in this Article. What we do this

morning may do little more than scratch the surface, and so I invite you

to take time to engage one another in dialogue on issues raised by this

Article. Let us break this Article of Faith down, one sentence at a time.

We believe that the human race‘s creation in Godlikeness included ability

to choose between right and wrong, and that thus human beings were

made morally responsible; that through the fall of Adam they became

depraved so that they cannot now turn and prepare themselves by their

own natural strength and works to faith and calling upon God.

Genesis tells us that on the first five days of creation, God created the

heavens and earth, the stars and the sun, the waters and the land, theplants, the animals and fish and birds. On the sixth day,

26 …God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let

them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the

livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along

the ground."

27 So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.

Adam and Eve were made in the image of God. In other words, they were

patterned after Him, somehow possessing His attributes, although in a

smaller degree. Since God is Holy Love, Adam and Eve were made first

and foremost for perfect relationship with one another and with God.

Since God is Sovereign, Adam and Eve possessed—in some small way—a

degree of self-sovereignty, that which we call free will.

Now some people have difficulty with free will, saying that if God is

sovereign, then how can people have freedom of choice. It is easy for us

to think that mankind‘s freewill somehow encroaches upon God‘s

sovereignty. After all, how can God be totally sovereign if a simple man

can choose over-and-against Him? If the created can choose not to follow



the Creator, then how can the Creator be sovereign?

These questions are excellent questions that have been debated for

centuries. I don‘t expect to solve them in one morning, but consider

this—God is so powerful, so sovereign that He can create a person thatcan be self-sovereign. God‘s sovereignty is not diminished by freewill, but

rather enhanced. Our own freewill is sustained by God‘s sovereignty—

sustained by God‘s grace. As humans we may not understand it, but God

is so sovereign that He can create a person who can choose against the

Creator. He is more sovereign then we can imagine.

And so, God created us with the ability to choose. We can identify and

choose between right and wrong. We are morally responsible for our own

decisions. Before the fall, before the Image of God within mankind wastarnished, we were inclined to choose rightly. We were able to choose

rightly, using our self-sovereignty for good. Yet, after the fall, the Image

of God within us was tarnished, and we became depraved, so that we

cannot will ourselves to make the right choice. We cannot, by our own

human strength, utilize our freewill to make the right choice. We are

inclined toward selfish choices, instead of choosing for the Other. We

exist in the state of Original Sin, whereby we have a tendency to use our

self-sovereignty wrongly, over-and-against the Creator.

Even this ability to make moral choices is evidence of God‘s Prevenient

Grace at work in our lives. Even though we are unable, on our own, to

make good moral choices, God‘s grace enables us to do that, even before

we are recipients of the gift of Salvation through the shed blood of Jesus .

The Article of Faith continues like so:

But we also believe that the grace of God through Jesus Christ is freely

bestowed upon all people, enabling all who will to turn from sin torighteousness, believe on Jesus Christ for pardon and cleansing from sin,

and follow good works pleasing and acceptable in His sight.

The good news is that the Grace of God is freely bestowed on all people.

Each person is a recipient of the Grace of God – unmerited favor. Simply

by breathing, eating, and drinking, we are recipients of God‘s Grace , it is



His Grace which sustains us. But, beyond that, His grace enables those

who respond to Him to do the following: turn from sin to righteousness,

believe on Jesus Christ for pardon and cleansing from sin, and follow

good works pleasing and acceptable in His sight.

I want you to notice this. The Grace of God is available to all people—and

that Grace enables them to turn from their sin, to believe on Jesus , and

to exhibit good works. The very fact that you can respond to God‘s work

is evidence of His grace calling you.

Really, when you think about it, the entire process of Salvation is about

us responding to God‘s grace. When we understand that God‘s grace goes

first, all we can do is respond. Divine-human participation always begins

with God initiating, and us responding. Grace comes first, then faith, andthen action.

Paul is eager to remind us of the preveniency of grace when he writes

these words to the believers in Ephesus :

―8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not

from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- 9not by works, so that no one can

boast.‖

Some have been quick to note that salvation is not by faith alone, but by

God‘s grace. This grace is mediated through our faith, but note this…even

our faith is not from ourselves, it is the gift of God. In other words, even

the faith that you possess is sustained by God‘s Grace . God‘s grace

initiates, and God‘s grace gives you the faith to respond. It truly is mostly

about God‘s grace, and only a little bit about our faith and our response.

And yet, we call it ―responsible grace‖ in that we must respond to it. It iswhen we respond to prevenient grace that we are able to cross the

threshold of salvation. It is when we respond to His sanctifying grace that

we grow in grace and become purified. It is when we respond to His

sustaining grace that we carry out the mission of the Kingdom of God

upon this world.



You might ask, ―So what happens if someone stops responding to God‘s

grace? While God‘s grace is infinite and unlimited, what if someone stops

responding?‖ The last sentence in our Article of Faith speaks to precisely

this question:

We believe that all persons, though in the possession of the experience of

regeneration and entire sanctification, may fall from grace and apostatize

and, unless they repent of their sins, be hopelessly and eternally lost.

Now, folks love to walk up to Nazarenes and say, ―I hear you belong to

that church that believes you can lose your salvation.‖ And, on the one

hand, I suppose they are right. But let‘s be clear on this…you don‘t lose

your salvation like you lose your car keys. You don‘t wake up some

morning and wonder ―where is my salvation today?‖ As Nazarenes, wedon‘t live in fear of ―losing our salvation‖ the way that some think that we

do. In fact, I believe that it is difficult to ―lose our salvation.‖ ―Why is it

difficult?‖ you ask. Because God‘s grace continues to work in our lives,

and He doesn‘t will that we should fall away.

Rather, I think that instead of saying that ―we believe you can lose your

salvation,‖ it would be better put that ―we believe you can walk away

from your salvation.‖ When we understand the entire salvation process as

―responding to God‘s grace,‖ we recognize that salvation is all about

relationship. Indeed, if God is primarily understood as a relational God—

Holy Trinity existing in perfect relationship and holy community before

the beginning of time—then we are created to be in relationship with

Him. Salvation—responding to God‘s grace—is about being in

relationship. We don‘t merely misplace a relationship…instead we either

walk away from it abruptly, or drift away through neglect.

I believe that Paul speaks to this question of ―falling from grace‖ inSecond Timothy 2, where he writes:

11Here is a trustworthy saying:

If we died with him,

we will also live with him;

12if we endure,



we will also reign with him.

If we disown him,

he will also disown us;

13if we are faithless,

he will remain faithful,for he cannot disown himself.

In other words, God is faithful to us, even when we fall short of perfect

faithfulness. And yet, at the same time, we have the ability to sever our

relationship from God, either abruptly or through neglect, and to disown Him.

This happens when one ceases to respond to God‘s grace, or to be in

relationship with Him. Only then do we fall from grace, and turn from Him. But

even then is the ability to repent of sins and to return to God. Indeed, His grace

abounds more and more.

To those who are tempted to lose sleep over the question of ―losing my

salvation‖ or ―falling from grace,‖ I have this to say: Concentrate on living as

close to God as you can. Respond to His grace at work in your life. Live in

constant communion with Him. If we focus our energies on responding to God‘s

grace and being in relationship with Him, we have no fear of waking up one day

having ―misplaced our salvation.‖ Indeed, if you live in relationship with God for

the rest of your life, then we can say with all certainty that you are ―eternally

secure.‖

It is all about God‘s grace. It is God‘s grace which created you and gave you

life. It is God‘s grace which allowed you to be morally responsible. It is God‘s

grace which made you aware of sin in your life, and that you were not in right

relationship with God. It is God‘s grace that allowed you to hear His voice calling

you. God‘s grace has called you. To those who respond to that prevenient

grace, that grace saves you, sanctifies you, sustains you, and will eventually

glorify you as the Image of God is restored within you.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once waslost, but now am found, was blind but now I see. Let us sing of God‘s Amazing

Grace!

Benediction: I Thess 5:23May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you

through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at



the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24The one who calls you is faithful and he

will do it.



Article of Faith #8 - Repentance



It‘s an ongoing battle at the Twitchell household. We have a greatnumber of beautiful songbirds that come to our birdfeeders in the front

yard: goldfinches, house finches, red-winged blackbirds, orioles, and

cardinals are accompanied by chickadees, mourning doves, blue jays. We

tolerate the cowbirds, crows, and grackles, but we draw the line when it

comes to squirrels and chipmunks.

We have one chipmunk that lives under the front steps. Since he lives

under the steps, his entire life (during the summer) consists of running

out to the birdfeeder, filling his cheeks with birdseed, and running backunder the steps to deposit his collection into his winter stash. He‘ll make

trip after trip after trip, stuffing his cheeks with birdseed and spitting it

out under the steps. I‘m pretty sure that his entire life (during the winter)

consists simply of sleeping and going to his pantry for food.

It was kind of cute last year, but this year he‘s brought his friends over

too, and we‘ve counted at least four different chipmunks living off of the

generosity of the Twitchell household. While the chipmunks are cute, the

squirrels are simply a nuisance. They are simply pigs! One squirrel hangs

upside down for 10-minutes at a time eating black sunflower seed from

the feeder. We have a suet cage which hangs on the tree with suet cakes

in it. Well, I should say that we used to have a suet cage hanging on the

tree. That was until the squirrels figured out how to break the chain on

the cage and carry it away so they could devour its contents in peace. We

looked for the suet cage, but couldn‘t find it and bought another one.

Wouldn‘t you know that they broke that one as well? This time we found

it, hosed it off, and hung it up again (not wanting to spend any moremoney on another suet cage. They broke it a third time and ran off with

it. We looked for it, couldn‘t find it, and decided that was the end of

feeding suet to the birds. Well, wouldn‘t you know, that this week when I

went out to mow the lawn, the suet cage was back lying under the tree

again. I have images in my mind of those pesky squirrels cleaning out the

suet and then deciding to bring the cage back to us in hopes that we



would refill the cage and hang it back on the tree. Forget it! No more suet

until winter comes and the squirrels go away!

We‘ve tried everything to deal with the squirrel problem. We‘ve tried that

―Squirrel Away‖ powder that is made of some sort of pepper irritant. Itdoesn‘t seem to work. Melody got so fed up with them a couple of weeks

ago that I went to the toy store and bought her a super soaker water

gun. And so now when we see a squirrel or chipmunk, we go to the

closet, grab the Liquidator 200 and begin firing at the squirrels. Boy can

they run! It‘s to the point where they‘ll run away just because the door

opens.

But, as often as we squirt streams of water at the greedy little rodents,

they come right back. You see, they were scared, perhaps even sorrythey got caught, but there was no repentance, for their behavior did not

change. Try as we might, I doubt we will ever encourage these squirrels

and chipmunks to change their erring ways.

Those of you who have been parents of teenagers fully understand the

difference between ―being sorry they were caught‖ and being

―repentant.‖ A teenager might stay out past curfew, get caught, and be

―sorry.‖ But, the following weekend, they do the same thing—their

behavior has not changed—they have not repented.

Four Greek words are used in the New Testament which are translated in

English as repent or repentance: metanoeo, metamelomai, metanoia,

ametameletos. The most common of those are metanoeo and metanoia,

both of which mean a change of mind, or to think differently. Repentance

is not merely ―feeling sorry,‖ but is a change in the very way we think

about sin. Some have said that it is a ―one-eighty,‖ or an ―about face‖ in

our attitudes and behaviors. Instead of being drawn to sin, repentancecauses us to be repulsed by sin. This change in our thoughts and

attitudes works itself out in a change of behavior. The squirrel no longer

comes to the feeder, and the teenager no longer stays out past curfew.

Paul illustrates this difference between ―being sorry‖ and repentance in

Second Corinthians 7, verse 8-11:



8Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did

regret it--I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while-- 9yet

now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your

sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intendedand so were not harmed in any way by us. 10Godly sorrow brings

repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly

sorrow brings death. 11See what this godly sorrow has produced in you:

what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation,

what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice

done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this

matter.

Sorrow (or being sorry) is not the same as repentance, and yet it leads torepentance. When we are truly sorrowful about our sinful thoughts,

attitudes, and behaviors, then we are more prepared to repent and turn

from those behaviors.

The Eighth Article of Faith in the Church of the Nazarene is entitled

―Repentance.‖ You can find it in the inside flap of your bulletin, with the

supporting scriptures. We are taking time this summer to focus on a

systematic study of our beliefs and doctrines. Many of us in this

community of faith (myself included) did not grow up as Nazarenes.

Some of us did not grow up in a Christian household. And, even those of

us who have been Christians since the age of five can use a refresher of

the basic doctrines of the Christian Faith . And so, we have committed to

a systematic study of the Articles of Faith, that we might better

understand the scriptural teachings of the Church.

#8: Repentance—We believe that repentance, which is a sincere and

thorough change of the mind in regard to sin, involving a sense of personal guilt and a voluntary turning away from sin, is demanded of all

who have by act or purpose become sinners against God. The Spirit of

God gives to all who will repent the gracious help of penitence of heart

and hope of mercy, that they may believe unto pardon and spiritual life.

Before we look at the various scripture references, I want to point out



one item in this Article which stems from our discussion on God‘s Grace

last week. Note that ―The Spirit of God gives to all who will repent the

gracious help of penitence of heart and hope of mercy. ‖ Even your

repentance is not something that comes from you, it is a gift of God—

evidence of His grace (unmerited favor) at work in your life. We spokelast week of how each step in the process of Salvation comes about

because we respond to the grace which God has given to us. God

initiates, we respond. As we walk in the grace that He gives to us, he

offers more grace. Our responsibility is to respond to the Divinely

initiated grace. Even our ability to repent and believe is a gift of God—lest

anyone should boast. Acts 5:31 tells us that ―God exalted [ Jesus ] to his

own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and

forgiveness of sins to Israel .‖ Did you hear that? Jesus ―gives repentance

and forgiveness.‖ It‘s not that we give repentance in exchange forforgiveness, but Jesus —by Grace —gives us the ability to repent, to turn

from our sins. This is an ability that we do not possess on our own, being

corrupted by the state of Original Sin.

Remember that Sin is that which separates us from God. Sin breaks the

law of love, breaking our relationship with the Creator. Since each one of

us was born in the State of Original Sin , each one of us was born with a

need for repentance. Each one of us was in need of turning from our own

selfish desires to seek instead to glorify God with our lives.

Perhaps one of the most dramatic stories of repentance in the Bible is

that of the Apostle Paul . Prior to his conversion experience, he

persecuted Christians. After his conversion, he became one of the most

active evangelists, preachers, and authors known to the early church.

Acts chapter 26 recounts his testimony in the courtroom of King Agrippa

:

1Then Agrippa said to Paul, "You have permission to speak for yourself."

So Paul motioned with his hand and began his defense: 2"King Agrippa, I

consider myself fortunate to stand before you today as I make my

defense against all the accusations of the Jews, 3and especially so

because you are well acquainted with all the Jewish customs and

controversies. Therefore, I beg you to listen to me patiently.



4"The Jews all know the way I have lived ever since I was a child, from

the beginning of my life in my own country, and also in Jerusalem .

5They have known me for a long time and can testify, if they are willing,

that according to the strictest sect of our religion, I lived as a Pharisee.6And now it is because of my hope in what God has promised our fathers

that I am on trial today. 7This is the promise our twelve tribes are hoping

to see fulfilled as they earnestly serve God day and night. O king, it is

because of this hope that the Jews are accusing me. 8Why should any of

you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?

9"I too was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose

the name of Jesus of Nazareth . 10And that is just what I did in

Jerusalem . On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the saintsin prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them.

11Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them

punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. In my obsession

against them, I even went to foreign cities to persecute them.

12"On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority

and commission of the chief priests. 13About noon, O king, as I was on

the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing

around me and my companions. 14We all fell to the ground, and I heard

a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘ Saul , Saul , why do you persecute

me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.‘

15"Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?‘

16" ‘I am Jesus , whom you are persecuting,‘ the Lord replied. ‘Now get

up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a

servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I willshow you. 17I will rescue you from your own people and from the

Gentiles. I am sending you to them 18to open their eyes and turn them

from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they

may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are

sanctified by faith in me.‘



19"So then, King Agrippa , I was not disobedient to the vision from

heaven. 20First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in

all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they should repent

and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds. 21That is why

the Jews seized me in the temple courts and tried to kill me. 22But I havehad God‘s help to this very day, and so I stand here and testify to small

and great alike. I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and

Moses said would happen-- 23that the Christ would suffer and, as the

first to rise from the dead, would proclaim light to his own people and to

the Gentiles."

May God add His blessing to the reading of His word.

Saul , the persecutor of the Church, turned into a great missionary. Thatis true repentance. That is a complete change in heart, mind, and

soul…working itself out in a change in behavior. That‘s what the Grace of

God can do, if we respond to His grace calling out to us. That is a ―one-

eighty‖—a complete turn-around.

Jesus speaks of this sort of drastic change when He says to Paul : ―I am

sending you to them 18to open their eyes and turn them from darkness

to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive

forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in

me.‖ To turn from darkness to light—from Satan to God. It‘s a complete

change in perspective, a new outlook on life. Not only did Paul experience

this change, but he went on to preach it to others. In his own wo rds, ―I

preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their

repentance by their deeds.‖ Repentance is more than feeling sorry—but

Godly sorrow does lead to Repentance, which leads to forgiveness. That

is the Gift of God—His Grace at work in our lives. Our repentance is made

evident in the change in our thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors. The truthof the Gospel is that we are transformed (changed) more and more into

the Image of God.

So, Melody and I are not the only ones who have troubles with rodents

eating the birdseed. My father really felt that the chipmunks at his house

were not only eating the birdseed, but sitting on the railing, looking in the



window and mocking him as they did so. He got so fed up with the pests

that he went out and bought an air powered pellet gun to take care of his

chipmunk problem. Now, my father is a very patient man (he must have

been…having raised four sons), but he appears to have no patience left

when it comes to chipmunks eating his birdseed. Now, the differencebetween a squirt-gun and a pellet gun is this…the pellet gun leaves no

room for repentance. There is no opportunity for a chipmunk to change

his behavior after having been hit in the head with a pellet.

I‘m grateful that God doesn‘t use pellet guns to discipline his children, but

is very patient with us. Second Peter 3:9 tells us that ―The Lord is not

slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient

with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to

repentance.‖

And yet, we are not to take advantage of God‘s patience, for there is

coming a day when Jesus shall return to judge the living and the dead.

Acts 17:30 tells us that ―30In the past God overlooked such ignorance,

but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31For he has set

a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has

appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the

dead."

God‘s patience is not simply that we should continue to live in sin. His

grace is not given simply to allow us to carry on the way we always have.

No, God‘s grace and patience are leading us to repentance and

righteousness. Romans 2 verse 4 cautions us against taking God‘s grace

for granted: ―4Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness,

tolerance and patience, not realizing that God‘s kindness leads you

toward repentance?‖

The ―Good News‖ today is this: For those who repent, forgiveness is

granted. We are not bound to our sin, but God freely offers grace to all—

enabling us to repent—to turn away from sin and selfishness, and to turn

toward God and the light. Ezekiel 33 tells us what happens for those who

repent: ―14And if I say to the wicked man, ‘You will surely die,‘ but he

then turns away from his sin and does what is just and right- 15if he



gives back what he took in pledge for a loan, returns what he has stolen,

follows the decrees that give life, and does no evil, he will surely live; he

will not die. 16None of the sins he has committed will be remembered

against him. He has done what is just and right; he will surely live.‖

Repentance precedes forgiveness, which precedes life.

This morning we conclude our service with a time of prayer. As we sing

our prayer chorus, I invite you to come and join me here at this altar.

Come with your thanksgivings and praises, come with your burdens and

intercessions, but come prepared to spend time in the presence of God,

allowing Him to ―change your mind‖—to give you the gift of repentance,

that you might be transformed more and more into His image. Would you

stand with me as we prepare our hearts for prayer, and as we sing, would

you come to these altars to spend time with the Lord in prayer?







Article of Faith #9 - Justification, Regeneration, and Adoption



Before we begin our study on the Ninth Article of Faith this morning, I‘dlike to take a moment for a very quick review of the first eight articles.

We began our study at the beginning of the summer with a look at the

nature of God. The first three Articles of Faith spoke of the Trinity:

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In week four, we spoke of how the primary

purpose of Scripture is that we might encounter God within its pages,

learning from them the His plan of redemption and salvation.

The Bible also tells us of the sinful condition of humanity, and how eachof us are born into the state of Original Sin, which gives us a tendency

toward actual or personal sin. It is that actual sin which violates the law

of love and breaks our relationship with God.

But, as we learned in week 6, God‘s grace abounds to us, for "He so

loved the world that He sent His one and only Son," in order that we

might not perish. We spoke of how Christ‘s perfect sacrifice on the cross

was available to all, and effective for those who repent and believe.

In week 7, we learned that we can respond to (and accept) the

atonement only because of God‘s grace which calls us to Him. We

specifically spoke of how it is only because of His grace that we are aware

of our sinful nature and aware of the holiness of God. It is only because

of His grace that we are able to have a seed of faith, and only by His

grace that we might repent from our sins. It is this grace that we call

Prevenient Grace: the grace which goes before.

It is this Grace which calls us to repentance, which is more than simply

being sorry for our sin, but turning away from our sin. Turning from

ourselves toward God. When we respond to God‘s grace, we are able to

repent and believe.

Precisely what happens at the moment of repentance and belief is the



subject of this week‘s Article. In your bulletin, you will find the Ninth

Article of Faith, and I‘d like to read the final paragraph for you first:

12. We believe that justification, regeneration, and adoption are

simultaneous in the experience of seekers after God and are obtainedupon the condition of faith, preceded by repentance; and that to this

work and state of grace the Holy Spirit bears witness.

I do apologize this morning, for I will have to charge you three times as

much for this sermon. Typically I only charge twenty dollars for these

sermons, for they only contain one "Twenty Dollar Word." But, it appears

as though this week‘s article has given us three "Twenty Dollar Words" to

look at, and so I guess this must be a "Sixty Dollar Sermon."

We believe that at the moment of salvation-that moment when we

respond to God‘s grace, repent of our sins, turn from ourselves toward

God, and believe that Jesus died for our sins-we believe that three things

happen all at once-the sinner is justified, regenerated, and adopted.

Justified bears within it the root word of justice. The concept of being

justified carries a sense that God‘s justice has been met. The atonement-

Christ‘s death on the cross-was, in part, about God‘s justice and His

mercy coexisting in such a way that the penalty for our sin might be paid

for. You may have heard me say that when I was justified, in God‘s eyes

it was "just-if-I‘d never sinned." It is in justification that we are forgiven,

that we are saved from the penalty of our sin, we are pardoned.

Justification follows repentance, as illustrated in this parable told by Jesus

in Luke 18, beginning in verse 9:

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down

on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 10"Two men went up to thetemple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The

Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am

not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax

collector. 12I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.‘

13"But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to



heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.‘

14"I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified

before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who

humbles himself will be exalted."

The Gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.

Being forgiven necessitates having repented of our former deeds and

turning toward our new deeds. It is then that we are justified, pardoned,

forgiven. The publican was justified because he honestly recognized his

condition as a sinner. He came to God with no pretense or righteousness

of his own, but relying entirely upon God‘s grace. We say this about

justification:

9. We believe that justification is the gracious and judicial act of God by

which He grants full pardon of all guilt and complete release from the

penalty of sins committed, and acceptance as righteous, to all who

believe on Jesus Christ and receive Him as Lord and Savior.

Remember that the first condition of justification is that we have

responded to God‘s grace, by faith repenting of our sins. We learned last

week that repentance not only indicates sorrow for our behavior, but an

actual change in our behavior as well. It is not unreasonable then to

suppose that we ought to be different after our repentance…we ought to

be new.

Our culture has a seeming obsession with ‗new‘ things. We like new cars,

new computers, new clothes. Last week I drove by a Library, and noted a

new parking lot, new landscaping, new sidewalks and a new sign. I‘m

sure that those librarians must be very excited about the new thingsaround them. Here in this church, we got new pew Bibles. In fact, I

imagine that most of you were so excited about the new Bibles that first

week they were in the pews that you didn‘t notice they had spelt

"Nazarene" wrong on the front cover. (Oh, don‘t worry, we got a new set

shipped to us, which have been out since the second week.) Right there

on the front cover was Church of the NazErene, and I don‘t think a single



person came up to me and pointed it out…why? Because we were excited

with the newness of it. We looked at the large print inside, and how sharp

they looked, all matching in the pews instead of the mismatched ones we

had before.

I confess that I have such a fascination with new things, that sometimes I

can‘t even wait to get home to open the packaging. Earlier this week I

had to purchase a new computer part, so I had Melody drive home so I

could open the package up and read the instructions and look it over.

While some of us are more extreme about this than others, we have to

admit: we like new things.

This is not a bad thing. We recognize that things get worn out, broken,

and need replacing. We get tired of seeing the same dents and scratchesin our cars, and would like to replace them. Clothes fray and get stains on

them, and so we buy new clothes. Sometimes we can patch things and

repair them…but there is a limit to the patching and repairing that we can

do before we need something new.

In a way, our lives are like that. Before coming to Christ, our lives were

broken beyond repair. We were unable to patch up our own life or fix

ourselves. And so, we needed to wipe the slate clean, and start life anew.

he great message of the Gospel is that we can have new life, we can be

born again. No, we can‘t start life over again as a baby, but we can have

a spiritual rebirth. Hear these words from John 3:

1Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of

the Jewish ruling council. 2He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we

know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could

perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him."

3In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the

kingdom of God unless he is born again. "

4"How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he

cannot enter a second time into his mother‘s womb to be born!"



5Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of

God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6Flesh gives birth to flesh,

but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7You should not be surprised at my

saying, ‘You must be born again.‘

How is this "New Birth" possible? These verses from the New Testament

certainly should shed some light on regeneration and the new birth:

Romans 6

4We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order

that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the

Father, we too may live a new life.

2 Corinthians 5

14For Christ‘s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died

for all, and therefore all died. 15And he died for all, that those who live

should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and

was raised again

16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though

we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if

anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has

come!

Our new life, our regeneration, is specifically related to the resurrection.

Because Jesus conquered death and the grave and was raised to new life,

you too may experience newness of life. This also happens at the

moment of salvation. You are regenerated, the old is passing away and

you are becoming a new creation. You have a new perspective, your

spiritual eyes have been opened, and your capacity for righteousness hasbeen awakened. In more formal words:

10. We believe that regeneration, or the new birth, is that gracious work

of God whereby the moral nature of the repentant believer is spiritually

quickened and given a distinctively spiritual life, capable of faith, love,

and obedience.



This leaves us with one final event that happens simultaneously at the

moment of salvation-your adoption. One of the best illustrations of

adoption comes not from the New Testament, but from the time of King

David. In Second Samuel 9, you read about how King David desired toshow kindness to someone from the household of King Saul. Now we might

not think too much about that today, but in those days it was customary to kill

off the prior king‘s family, in order that they might not be able to come back

and lay claim to your throne. Instead of seeking out Saul‘s household to make

sure that they had all been done away with, David finds Mephibosheth, a

crippled grandson of the former King. He calls Mephibosheth to come to the

palace, not to execute him, but to welcome him in as part of the King‘s family.

This is what happens when Mephibosheth arrives at the palace:

6 When Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he

bowed down to pay him honor.

David said, "Mephibosheth!"

"Your servant," he replied.

7 "Don‘t be afraid," David said to him, "for I will surely show you kindness for

the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belongedto your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table."

8 Mephibosheth bowed down and said, "What is your servant, that you should

notice a dead dog like me?"

9 Then the king summoned Ziba, Saul‘s servant, and said to him, "I have given

your master‘s grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family. 10 You

and your sons and your servants are to farm the land for him and bring in the

crops, so that your master‘s grandson may be provided for. And Mephibosheth,

grandson of your master, will always eat at my table." (Now Ziba had fifteen

sons and twenty servants.)

11 Then Ziba said to the king, "Your servant will do whatever my lord the king

commands his servant to do." So Mephibosheth ate at David‘s table like one of

the king‘s sons.



12 Mephibosheth had a young son named Mica, and all the members of Ziba ‘s

household were servants of Mephibosheth. 13 And Mephibosheth lived in

Jerusalem , because he always ate at the king‘s table, and he was crippled in

both feet.

The Word of the Lord for His children.

Once again, we see an interplay between mercy and grace. Remember that

mercy is when we "don‘t get what we deserve," and grace is when we "get what

we don‘t deserve." Mephibosheth (according to the standards of the culture)

deserved death, but David demonstrated mercy by allowing him to live. He

certainly did not deserve to have land given to him and servants instructed to

care for the land in order that he might live in the palace as one of the King‘s

sons, and David demonstrates grace by inviting him to come eat at his table.David‘s grace resulted in Mephibosheth‘s adoption.

11. We believe that adoption is that gracious act of God by which the justified

and regenerated believer is constituted a son of God.

It is adoption which allows us to call God our Father, our Abba-Daddy. It is

adoption which allows us to place our petitions before the Throne of God. It is

adoption which allows us to eat at His Table-both the banqueting table at the

Marriage Supper of the Lamb, and the Table of Holy Communion.

We will celebrate that Adoption in just a moment, when I pass on to you the

invitation that Christ issues to come to His Table, to feast with Him and enjoy

His presence. You‘ve been invited…not simply as a repentant sinner, but as a

son of God. If by faith, you have responded to God‘s Grace and repented of

your sins then you have been justified, regenerated, and adopted into the

family of God. Titus 3 encapsulates the Gospel message for us:

4But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5he saved

us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his

mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the

Holy Spirit, 6whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ

our Savior, 7so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become

heirs having the hope of eternal life.



Indeed, through repentance from our sins, we are saved from the penalty

of our sin, we are made into a new creature, and we are adopted by the

Almighty God, Creator of the Universe.

Benediction: I Thess 5:23May God himself, the God of peace, sanctifyyou through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept





Article of Faith #10 - Entire Sanctification

Date: Sunday, August 8, 2004


Four-hundred-and-fifty years before Christ walked the earth there lived aphilosopher by the name of Zeno. Zeno was best known for his

mathematical paradoxes…situations that appear to be impossible or self -

contradictory. One of his most famous paradoxes could be stated this

way:

Let us suppose that we had a turtle in the back of the church who wished

to come up to the pulpit to preach. Given that we would allow the turtle

to take the pulpit, he must first walk from the back of the church to the

front of the church. Now, in order for him to cover the distance from theback to the front, he must first go half-way--the distance from the back

to the center (where Ken is sitting). And then, he must go halfway

between Ken and the pulpit, and then halfway between that point and the

pulpit, and halfway again between that point and the pulpit. Stated

another way, in order for him to go the entire distance, he must first go

half of the distance, half the remaining distance, half the still-remaining

distance, and so on into infinity.

As you can see, our poor turtle is now betwixt and bewildered, not

knowing how he will ever come to this pulpit to preach the word of God to

the people, for he must first cover an infinite number of half-distances

before he can arrive.

In other words he will get infinitely close to the pulpit, but never quite

reach the pulpit, for he will always have half the distance to traverse

before he can arrive.

Now we recognize that this is a foolish argument, for in actuality the

turtle does reach his destination, and the sum of the infinite halves never

exceeds the total distance from start to finish. But, in some ways, our life

on this earth is not unlike our poor turtle trapped in Zeno‘s Paradox who

can never quite reach the pulpit. We know that we are destined for

something greater than this earth has to offer. We know that the day will



come when the Image of God will be completely restored within us, but

that day is not this day, and it‘s probably not the next day either. We

know that we get closer and closer to the day when we are made fully

perfect, released from our human imperfections, and remade in the

Image of God. But we know that in this life we will not reach that goal.We may get infinitely close to it, but the goal of Glorification is reserved

for the life to come.

I say this to point out the following: Entire Sanctification is important.

Indeed it is our primary doctrinal distinction. But…it is not the ultimate

goal. The ultimate goal is our final salvation in the Kingdom of Heaven .

Our ultimate goal is eternal life in right relationship with the Triune God.

Our ultimate goal is to "glorify God and enjoy Him forever." Our ultimate

goal is for the Image of God to be entirely restored within us…completelyperfected.

It is important to mention this, because many people often confuse the

doctrine of Entire Sanctification with that of Final Sanctification (or

Glorification). Entire Sanctification is not the final goal, but is part of the

process by which we reach that goal. Many people hear that Nazarenes

believe in Entire Sanctification, and because they have confused that with

Glorification believe that we believe that you can be perfect. We don‘t

exactly mean that the Entirely Sanctified is perfect, but that he is being

perfected, and that his heart is pure and he has been freed from the

bondage of Original Sin. Perfection is reserved for God, and for those who

have been released from their mortal bodies into life everlasting. Our

doctrine this morning is not about the ultimate goal (reaching the pulpit,

or being perfected into a glorified heavenly state), but about the

purification of our heart and the baptism of the Holy Spirit which frees us

from the power of sin, though not necessarily its presence. While

Glorification is a final state for the saints who have died, Sanctification isa progressive state for the believers who are still alive.

We might say it this way: Entire Sanctification is not so much a state that

we attain, but a process in which we participate. Entire Sanctification is

more about the Turtle being invited to preach, responding to that

invitation, and making his way toward the pulpit then it is about him



actually reaching the pulpit. Even if the turtle never makes it to the pulpit

in this lifetime, we see him responding to the invitation and moving in

that direction.

Paul states this goal for us in Philippians 3, starting in verse 10:

10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the

fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made

perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took

hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold

of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining towardwhat is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which

God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

15All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on

some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.

The goal, at least according to Paul, seems to be tied up in "becoming

Christlike and attaining to the resurrection of the dead." He speaks about

"pressing on" to the goal, even though we recognize that the goal of

"resurrection of the dead," obviously cannot occur in this lifetime. And so,

like the turtle, it is important to continue moving toward Glorification,

heaven, and eternal life, even if we will never receive them in this

lifetime.

Now, having said all of that, this message today is not about

"Glorification," it is about "Entire Sanctification." Entire Sanctification is

known by many names, including: baptism of the Holy Spirit, Christianperfection, heart purity, heart holiness, fullness of the blessing, and

Christian holiness. Simply put, Entire Sanctification is the continual filling

of the Holy Spirit, and we believe that is certainly attainable in this

lifetime.

New Testament scriptures continually exhort the believers to "Be Holy as



God is Holy," or to "be filled with the Holy Spirit." We see the first mass

outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost when the believers were filled

and empowered with the very presence of God. The example and the

commands exist for us to follow in those footsteps, seeking the infilling of

the Holy Spirit, to be consecrated and set apart for God‘s purposes.

I think that the following image may help us understand Entire

Sanctification. While any analogy, if taken to an extreme, has a tendency

to break down, this picture may help us understand the process of

salvation, and the ways in which our salvation and sanctification

experiences are both instantaneous and process-related.

Some of you may remember the Drop-While-You-Shop activity that the

children did back in the spring. They took plastic cups, lined them withnewspaper and put soil inside the newspaper. Then they took different

seeds and put them between the newspaper and the side of the cup, so

you could see the seed. Then they watered the seed and put the cups on

the window sill out in the coatroom.

Now, honestly…do you expect that those seeds would do anything? As I

came in to do my regular routine at the church, I would look at those

seeds. Days would go by with no change at all, the seeds would look just

the same as they did the first day. You might have been tempted to

believe that nothing would happen at all. If you had looked at them every

morning for 5 mornings in a row, you might not have noticed any change

at all. But the water continued to wash the nutrients in the soil through

the paper to the seed, and the sun continued to beam down its rays of

light. One day, I came in and there was a noticeable difference in the

seed…it had sprouted a root.

You might say that this was a bit like a moment of salvation. Sometimeswe pray for someone and witness to them and watch them. We give

water, fertilizer, and plenty of sunlight in hopes that they will confess

their sins and be justified. We watch and pray, and nothing seems to be

happening. And yet, when the seed is ripe enough and enough sun and

nutrients have reached it, the seed sprouts. It is an instantaneous

moment. All the gradual work has gone unnoticed until the precise



moment in time when the seed sprouts its roots.

If we took that same seed and put it inside the soil, we would no longer

see the seed. Oh, it would continue growing inside the pot, but we

wouldn‘t see that seed anymore, and wouldn‘t know of its growth. Thatis, until the second crisis moment in the life of a seed, that moment when

it‘s stem breaks through the surface of the soil into the sunlit air above.

In the life of a believer, we might call that moment the beginning of his

Entire Sanctification.

You say, "beginning of his Entire Sanctification?" Yes. For if he does not

continue to grow in the grace which has been given him, then the plant

may ultimately wither away. Instead, we expect the plant to continue to

grow. Oh, we may not notice the growth. We could sit and watch a plantfor hours and never see any growth, but while we watch, the chlorophyll

is transforming sunlight into nutrients which travel through the plant to

help the roots grow, the roots gather more nutrients, which travel back to

the leaves to help the leaves grow, in order that they might collect more

sunlight. The growth may be imperceptible, but that doesn‘t mean it‘s not

growing.

We say that Entire Sanctification is both a crisis moment, and instant in

time, and a process of continuing Sanctification. For that reason, when

asked to share my testimony I will often say that "God began His work of

Entire Sanctification in my life at a teen camp in eastern Maine ." He

hasn‘t finished the work of Entire Sanctification, and won‘t until He does

His work of Final Sanctification (that which we call Glorification). Like the

turtle, I must continue to move toward the goal, although my progress

may be imperceptible at times, it does not mean that I‘m not moving in

that direction.

You see, at any instant in time, it may appear that there is no growth. If I

were to take a photograph of the plant, you would not see any change or

growth. Were I to take a snapshot of our turtle, you would not see any

motion at all. Were we to replace the turtle with one of the fast-moving

chipmunks in my front yard and take a picture of him, you would still not

see any movement. Why? Because growth and movement require two



instants in order to notice. I need two photos, two snapshots, in order to

identify growth or movement. And so, we may not have yet arrived, but

we ought to be able to look at our lives and see that we have made

progress since yesterday and the day before that.

"What exactly is meant by ‗Entire Sanctification‘?" you ask. The Article of

Faith puts it this way, "We believe that entire sanctification is that act of

God, subsequent to regeneration, by which believers are made free from

original sin, or depravity, and brought into a state of entire devotement

to God, and the holy obedience of love made perfect." In other words, it

is freedom from the bondage of Original Sin.

It has been said that you are saved from the Penalty of your sin at

Justification, saved from the Power of sin at Sanctification, and savedfrom the Presence of sin at Glorification. Sin no longer has a hold on the

sanctified believer, for they have been baptized by the Spirit, set apart

for God‘s purposes. Paul speaks of this "freedom from the law of sin" in

Romans 8, verses 1-14:

1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ

Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me

free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law was powerless to

do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his

own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he

condemned sin in sinful man, 4in order that the righteous requirements

of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful

nature but according to the Spirit. 8Those controlled by the sinful nature

cannot please God.

9You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if

the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10But if Christ is in you, your body is

dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.

11And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you,

he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal

bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.



12Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation--but it is not to the sinful

nature, to live according to it. 13For if you live according to the sinful

nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of

the body, you will live, 14because those who are led by the Spirit of God

are sons of God.

Paul goes so far as to say that since we have been set free from the "Law

of Sin" we have an obligation to live according to the Spirit. This "living

according to the Spirit" could be termed "growth in grace" or "continual

filling of the Spirit.

We see here, that Entire Sanctification is both about the moment of

cleansing and the continual filling of God‘s Spirit. It is not just about the

moment, nor is it just about the process, but is about 1) being freed fromthe power of sin, and 2) living according to the Spirit.

With Paul‘s comments and our two analogies in mind, let us take a

moment and read the Article of Faith. You may wish to follow along, as I

will insert some clarifying comments as we read.

13. We believe that entire sanctification is that act of God, notice that is

not your act or my act, this is God‘s act, a result of His grace.

Sanctification is never about what we do, but about what God‘s Spirit is

doing within us. subsequent to regeneration, (after salvation) by which

believers are made free from original sin, or depravity, and brought into a

state of entire devotement to God, and the holy obedience of love made

perfect. The result of God‘s work in my life is that I am made more into

His image, released from the bondage of Original Sin, and made devoted

to God.

It is wrought by the baptism with the Holy Spirit, Again, note that this isnot our work, but that we are baptized with the Holy Spirit, filled to

overflowing and comprehends in one experience the cleansing of the

heart from sin and the abiding, indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit,

empowering the believer for life and service. And so, two things happen

at our Entire Sanctification. First, the heart is cleansed from Original Sin

(the tendency toward selfishness and sinfulness). Second, the believer is



filled with and empowered by the Holy Spirit. This filling is not simply for

the benefit of the believer, but in order that we might enter into a life of

service to the Master.

Entire sanctification is provided by the blood of Jesus, is wroughtinstantaneously by faith, preceded by entire consecration; and to this

work and state of grace the Holy Spirit bears witness. In other words, we

can only experience this baptism if we have first been forgiven through

the blood of Jesus, by faith respond to God‘s grace, and if we have

consecrated ourselves entirely. Simply put, while Entire Sanctification is

God‘s work, the believer must prepare themselves and seek God‘s filling.

We must do our part to continue to grow in the grace that has been given

us, not simply expecting God‘s grace or unmerited favor to be lavished

upon us.

This experience is also known by various terms representing its different

phases, such as "Christian perfection," "perfect love," "heart purity," "the

baptism with the Holy Spirit," "the fullness of the blessing," and

"Christian holiness." Each of these multiple terms for the experience is

found in scripture and in the writings of Church leaders. You‘ll want to

take time this week to explore the various scriptures provided in your

bulletin.

14. We believe that there is a marked distinction between a pure heart

and a mature character. The former is obtained in an instant, the result

of entire sanctification; the latter is the result of growth in grace. In other

words, just because you have been given a pure heart does not mean

that you have found all the answers to your questions. It does not mean

that you cease to be human. It does not mean that you have reached the

end of the journey. Like the turtle, you must continue to move forward,

responding to God‘s grace, recognizing that the ultimate goal will not beattained this side of the grave. We believe that the grace of entire

sanctification includes the impulse to grow in grace. However, this

impulse must be consciously nurtured, and careful attention given to the

requisites and processes of spiritual development and improvement in

Christlikeness of character and personality. Without such purposeful

endeavor one‘s witness may be impaired and the grace itself frustrated



and ultimately lost. Perhaps our plant analogy works best here. If the

plant is removed from the sunlight, it will stop growing. If we don‘t water

the plant, it will wither away. In the same way, we must ensure that we

continue to grow in the grace that God has given us, nurturing that grace

through spiritual disciplines, accountability, prayer, devotions, andfaithful attendance to the means of grace.

And so, perhaps you are seated in these pews asking that all-so-

important question, "Pastor, what difference does it make?"

The difference is this…nobody wants to be anything less than they can

be. It‘s no wonder that the Army saw great success with their recruitment

phrase "Be all that you can be." Within our being is a longing to fulfill

what we were made to do. We desire to be what God made us for. If wego back to our initial understanding of God as Holy Trinity, we remember

that by very nature, God is relational. Since we were created in His

image, we were designed for relationship. If sin is what blocks that

relationship between us and God, then in order to fulfill our nature as

relational beings, we long to have sin removed from our lives.

The Good News today is this…you can be set free from the power of sin in

your life. Oh, you won‘t stop being human, and you want stop making

mistakes. But you can be cleansed from sin and filled with the Holy Spirit.

How? By faith, responding to God‘s Grace, seeking His presence in your

life every moment of every day. Pray for His filling, and continue praying

for Him to baptize you with the Spirit. Do all that you can, and trust God

to do all that He wants to do with you.

As we conclude our time with this Article of Faith, I invite you to meditate

on these words written by Charles Wesley in 1742:

Oh, for a heart to praise my God,

A heart from sin set free!

A heart that always feels thy blood,

So freely spilt for me!

Thy tender heart is still the same,



And melts at human woe;

Jesu, for thee distressed I am -

I want thy love to know.

Thy nature, gracious Lord, impart;Come quickly from above;

Write thy new name upon my heart,

Thy new, best name of love!







Article of Faith #11 - The Church



During my experience as a student at Eastern Nazarene College, therewere very few times when I was reminded that I was a non-Nazarene at

a Nazarene college. You might think that I often felt like a bit of an

outsider, but in reality, when I was in attendance, ENC had about a 50%

split of Nazarene and non-Nazarene students. Most of the time it was

easy to forget who had what denominational affiliation, since we had

more in common to hold us together than we had differences to tear us

apart.

However, there was one time each year when I was reminded that I wasan outsider looking in. During the spring, about 1000 Nazarene high

school students would descend upon our little campus for an event called

―Festival of Life.‖ During Festival of Life, these Nazarene high school

students would compete in all sorts of events, including talent events,

athletic competitions, academic challenges, and arts & crafts. The idea

behind Festival is that God has given every student gifts and abilities ,

and this event gave an opportunity to use their talents for God‘s glory.

During their three day visit, they would eat in the cafeteria, enjoy a class,

and catch up with their older friends who used to be in their youth group

back home. While people like me dreaded Festival of Life and came up

with every reason to get out of town that week, some of my classmates

actually looked forward to Festival of Life, so they could relive their high

school days and visit with old friends.

Of course, my perspective on the event changed when I served as a

youth pastor and had teenagers to bring to the event. Festival provided

an opportunity for every teenager to participate, experience a Christiancollege campus, and fellowship with other parts of the Body of Christ

from all over the Northeast. When I served as youth pastor in Brunswick,

we took soccer players, ping-pong players, chess players, public

speakers, and a puppet team. You can imagine the logistics of

transporting 15 teenagers and chaperones to Quincy in 3 different

vehicles, and then back and forth between the hotel and the various



competition sites. This was before I started to carry a cell phone, and

someone suggested that we try to borrow cell phones from church

members for the trip. And so, as youth pastor, I got up on Sunday

morning, wondering how people would react to my strange request, and

put out a call for 3 cell phones to go to Quincy for the weekend. I wasafraid that none would come through, but knew that one way or another

God would supply a means for us to safely transport those teens back

and forth.

Well, before the day was over, cell phones had been promised to me, and

arrangements were made for me to pick them up that week. I was

thrilled with the response, especially from one lady who had just recently

begun coming to church. When I met this lady later in the week to pick

up the cell phone, she said something very profound. She told me thather husband (who didn‘t go to church) gave her a hard time about

loaning me the cell phone. He had said to her, ―If he really needs a cell

phone for this trip, don‘t you think the church ought to take care of

getting one for him?‖ And she told me that she had said to him, ―But I

am the church, and this is how ‗the church‘ is getting one for him.‖

You see, even in her beginning days of attending church, she understood

something so profound and significant that is sometimes so easy to

forget. The church is not an organization, it is an organism. The church is

not about budgets and boards and committees as much as it is about the

people who make it up. When the church becomes an organization, it

ceases to be an organism, which means it ceases to be alive. The Church

is made up of many people, bound together in commonality under Christ,

with common purpose and mission.

It is the doctrine of the church which we look at today, as we continue

our study of the Nazarene Articles of Faith. You can find this article(number 11) in the inside flap of your bulletin, along with several

scriptures which I encourage you to look up during the course of the

week.

We believe in the Church, the community that confesses Jesus Christ as

Lord, the covenant people of God made new in Christ, the Body of Christ



called together by the Holy Spirit through the Word.

God calls the Church to express its life in the unity and fellowship of the

Spirit; in worship through the preaching of the Word, observance of the

sacraments, and ministry in His name; by obedience to Christ and mutualaccountability.

The mission of the Church in the world is to continue the redemptive

work of Christ in the power of the Spirit through holy living, evangelism,

discipleship, and service.

The Church is a historical reality, which organizes itself in culturally

conditioned forms; exists both as local congregations and as a universal

body; sets apart persons called of God for specific ministries. God callsthe Church to live under His rule in anticipation of the consummation at

the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

One of our biggest limitations when it comes to looking at the Church is

that we see it through our human, finite eyes. We tend to forget that we

are part of a universal movement which has been led by God and in the

business of transforming this world for the past 2000 years. We tend to

forget that each person is part of a congregation, each congregation part

of a denomination or tradition, and that each tradition has a role to play

within the Church Universal. Instead, when we think ―church‖ we think of

a building, or a pastor, or a Sunday School teacher. We rarely see the

Church (capital C) as it truly is, spread out through all time and space.

Many of you who attended our Book Club in the spring of 2003 will

remember this quote from The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. The

premise of the book is that Screwtape (a senior demon) is writing letters

to his nephew Wormwood (an under demon assigned to tempting aparticular human male). These letters have somehow been discovered,

and released to us in the form of a book. Screwtape dispenses advice to

Wormwood, helping him to lead this man away from their common

―enemy‖ --God. Here is what Screwtape has to say about the Church:

[quote]One of our great allies at present is the Church itself. Do not



misunderstand me. I do not mean the Church as we see her spread out

through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army

with banners. That, I confess, is a spectacle which makes our boldest

tempters uneasy. But fortunately it is quite invisible to these humans. All

your patient sees is the half-finished, sham Gothic erection on the newbuilding estate. When he goes inside, he sees the local grocer with rather an

oily expression on his face bustling up to offer him one shiny little book

containing a liturgy which neither of them understands, and one shabby little

book containing corrupt texts of a number of religious lyrics, mostly bad, and in

very small print. When he gets to his pew and looks round him he sees just that

selection of his neighbours whom he has hitherto avoided. You want to lean

pretty heavily on those neighbours. Make his mind flit to and fro between an

expression like ‗the body of Christ‘ and the actual faces in the next pew. It

matters very little, of course, what kind of people that next pew really contains.

You may know one of them to be a great warrior on the Enemy‘s side. No

matter. Your patient, thanks to Our Father Below, is a fool. Provided that any of

those neighbours sing out of tune, or have boots that squeak, or double chins,

or odd clothes, the patient will quite easily believe that their religion must

therefore be somehow ridiculous. [end quote]

I suppose that dear Uncle Screwtape has a point. If we can be made to focus on

the temporal, we miss the eternal. If we look only at our own local

congregation, we miss the fact that we are part of that great Body of Christ

stretched throughout time and space. If we see the Church through physicaleyes, it may be a disappointment to us.

But perhaps, the woman who sings out of tune is singing loudly simply in order

that her deaf husband might hear the words of the song. Maybe the man‘s

boots squeak so much because he is often in prayer with his feet bent under

him as he kneels. Perhaps the gentleman with the double-chin is a master of

hospitality and is always cooking for others. The lady with the odd clothes may

have given her last dime to purchase new clothes for the children in the

orphanage. Perhaps these are the images that God sees when He looks down at

the Body of Christ.

That image, at least, seems to be very much in line with Paul‘s teaching to the

Corinthians in the twelfth chapter of his first letter, beginning in verse 12:

The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts

are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by



one Spirit into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free--and we were

all given the one Spirit to drink.

Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say,

―Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,‖ it would not for that

reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, ―Because I am

not an eye, I do not belong to the body,‖ it would not for that reason cease to

be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of

hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?

But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as

he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it

is, there are many parts, but one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, ―I don‘t need you!‖ And the head cannot say to

the feet, ―I don‘t need you!‖ On the contrary, those parts of the body that seemto be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable

we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated

with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment.

But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to

the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that

its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every

part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

May God add His blessing to His word.

Let me repeat just two phrases that Paul uses in this portion of his letter: ―But

in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he

wanted them to be. (verse 18)‖ and from verse 24 ―...God has combined the

members of the body....‖

Let me say this today, you are part of this local church because God has

arranged you in that way. Each one of you are a part of this body, and have arole to play in this body. This local church is arranged within a larger body, and

has a role to play within it. That larger body (the Church of the Nazarene) has

been arranged specifically where it is within all of Christianity for a particular

reason, and the entire Body of Christ is to be about fulfilling Christ‘s mission on

this earth.



In other words, we don‘t act in isolation. Christianity is not a hermit sport.

Christianity exists only in relationship, only within the community, only in the

Body of Christ. Each one of you have been arranged by God to be in a particular

place in the Body of Christ for a particular purpose. Each one has been gifted

with talents and abilities in order to glorify God. We are not to look around at

the next pew and compare our gifts to someone else‘s gifts. We should never

feel that our gifts are insignificant compared to another‘s. On the other hand,

we are never to look down at another‘s gifts and think that we don‘t need them.

In order for the Body to function, each member is needed, and each member

must be doing their part.

While we were on vacation in Acadia National Park this week, we took a couple

of the nicer days to stretch the limits of our bodies and explore the park in a

more strenuous way. One day we took our bicycles, and, after lunch at the

Jordan Pond House, rode 14 miles over the hilly terrain of the carriage roadsback to the Visitor Center and then along the paved roads to Bar Harbor. The

very next day (before we had fully recovered) we took the bus to the north side

of Cadillac Mountain and hiked two-and-a-half miles up the North Ridge trail to

the summit, and then hiked down the South Ridge Trail four-and-a-half-miles

back to our campground. Now, in order for this ―finely-honed, ultra-athletic

body‖ to accomplish all that, everything needs to be working together. My lungs

have to be processing oxygen. My stomach has to digest food and water. My

heart has to circulate blood to pick up the oxygen and the nutrients to feed the

muscles in my legs and arms. My eyes have to watch for blazes or cairns to

point out the trail, while also watching for loose rocks or slippery spaces, my

feet have to step firmly on the trail, and my arms have to help keep my

balance. All of these parts have to be working together to accomplish the goal,

or I will stumble and fall, or fail to complete the journey.

In the same way, each part of this local expression of the Body of Christ

must be doing its part to the best of its ability in order for us to

accomplish the goals which Christ has set out for us. When one of us

stops using the gifts God has given us, the whole body suffers. We each

need each other, as we come together to form a body with Christ as the

head.

Let me assure you of this: each one of us has a role to play in the

Kingdom of God. Each one of us has been divinely equipped with special

tools to help build that Kingdom. Some of us are leaders, some are



musicians, some work with children. Some of us are builders and Mr.-fix-

its. Some of us minister through the public reading of Scripture, some are

tenacious prayer warriors. Some go on missions trips, others support

missions financially. Some make crafts, some make dinners. The point is

this...each one of us has a role to play. Each one of us is a special part of the Body. Just like the eye cannot say, ―I‘m going to stop seeing now, the

nose can take over that job,‖ we cannot say ―I‘m not going to use my gift

anymore, someone else can do it.‖ Eyes are made for seeing...that is

what they do. You have been made with a special purpose in the

Kingdom, and that is what you are to do. Otherwise, we fail at our

mission.

And, what is that mission, you say? The Article of Faith says that: The

mission of the Church in the world is to continue the redemptive work of Christ in the power of the Spirit through holy living, evangelism,

discipleship, and service. Simply put, we are to continue the redemptive

work that Christ began. We do this through the power of the Holy Spirit.

We do this by loving God and loving neighbor. We do this by being

witnesses to Cape Elizabeth, to Portland, to Maine, and to the Uttermost

Parts of the Earth.

As a church, we‘ve stated that mission this way: ―We exist to live Spirit-

empowered lives to God‘s greater glory by living out the Great

Commandment and fulfilling the Great Commission, trusting God to build

His Church.‖

The Church is not an organization, it is an organism, made up of people

just like you, assembled together by God, with Christ at the head. It is

not a monument to go into, but a movement to go forward. We don‘t ―go

to church‖ we ―are the church.‖ Indeed, we are the Body of Christ in this

world. We are His hands to touch and heal hurting people. We are Hisfeet to swiftly carry His message. We are His eyes to see people as God

sees them. We are to have His heart and His mind, orienting our lives

toward Him. We are the Body of Christ, assembled together by God.

As the Body, we come together to celebrate our unity of purpose and our

diversity of gifts. Each one of us is different from the person next to us,



yet we are bound together by common purpose and brotherhood within

the family of God. As the Body of Christ, it is only appropriate that we

gather around His table to feast together, celebrating our unity and

diversity. We gather to remember the gift that Christ gave us, and to

gain nourishment from the spiritual food found at this table. It is HisSpirit which empowers and sustains us for each new day. As we come to

the table, we also recognize that other members of the Body gather

around the same table, eating the same food. We are part of a great

movement of God‘s interaction with human history. We are part of the

Body of Christ.

Congregational Benediction: (Prayer of St. Patrick)

I arise today through God‘s strength to pilot me,

God‘s might to uphold me,

God‘s wisdom to guide me,

God‘s eye to look before me,

God‘s ear to hear for me,

God‘s word to speak for me,

God‘s hand to guard me,

God‘s way to lie before me,

God‘s shield to protect me.

Christ be with me,

Christ before me,

Christ behind me,

Christ in me,

Christ beneath me,

Christ above me,

Christ on my right,

Christ on my left,

Christ when I lie down,

Christ when I sit down,

Christ when I arise,

Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,

Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,



Christ in every eye that sees me,

Christ in every ear that hears me.



Article of Faith #12 - Baptism



So far in our study on the Articles of Faith, we have looked at thenature of God, His revelation to us through the Incarnation and

through Scripture, our sin which separates us from God, God‘s plan of

redemption, and the steps by which God calls us by grace: repentance,

justification, and sanctification. Last week we looked closely at the way

in which God is at work in our world today, namely through the Body

of Christ that is the Church Universal.

For the next three weeks we will look at some of the ways in whichGod interacts with His creation, through the sacraments of Baptism

and Holy Communion, as well as His miraculous touch through divine

healing. We will then conclude our study in the following two weeks as

we look at the Second Coming of Christ, the resurrection of the dead,

final judgment, and life everlasting.

Today we look at the Nazarene doctrine of Christian Baptism, as stated

in Article number 12. Simply put, Christian Baptism is a sacrament, or

a means of grace, which functions as the primary sign of the new

covenant for all who desire to unite themselves with the Body of

Christ.

Before we look at the doctrine of Baptism, it is important to define a

sacrament. You‘ll want to keep this discussion in mind both this week

as we talk about Baptism, and next week as we talk about Holy

Communion. Some have said that a Sacrament is "an outward sign of

an inward grace." Others refer to it as a "means of grace," meaningthat somehow God‘s grace is mediated to us through the sacrament.

One pastor, Dr. Russell Metcalfe combines these ideas and defines a

sacrament this way: "We use the term ‘sacrament‘ to signify an

outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given to us,

ordained by Christ Himself as a means of receiving that grace, and as



a pledge or assurance of Christ‘s promise. From the earliest times, the

sacraments have been understood by the church to be religious rites

that carry the most solemn obligation of loyalty to Jesus Christ and His

Church." Each of these definitions are valuable to us, but this word

picture may help more.

We know that Jesus, God‘s Son, came from heaven and put on human

flesh. This is what we call the Incarnation (or enfleshment). Jesus took

the natural body and infused it with His presence and it became

supernatural. The ordinary became extra-ordinary, and the mundane

became heavenly.

In many ways, the sacraments are like the incarnation. Simpletangible elements: bread, juice, water; which have no intrinsic value of

their own are combined with God‘s presence in worship and the

ordinary becomes extraordinary, the natural becomes supernatural,

and the mundane becomes heavenly. These "Means of Grace" become

the ordinary means by which we meet the extraordinary God. Let‘s

make clear right now that Baptism doesn‘t save you anymore than

Holy Communion sustains you. It is always and only God‘s grace which

saves, sustains, sanctifies, and glorifies. The Sacraments are the God-

ordained ordinary means by which this grace is mediated. Notice that I

didn‘t say "only means" as God can give grace (unmerited favor) any

way He desires. Nor can we assume that we can control God through

the sacraments and force His grace upon us. Rather, we understand

that they are the ordinary means by which God gives us extraordinary

grace.

With that in mind, let us now turn our attention to the Sacrament of

Baptism. In our time this week, I intend to answer a number of questions which you might raise. We will begin by looking at the Article

of Faith as it is written, and then I will pose a number of questions and

set out to answer them from the grounds of Scripture, Tradition,

Reason, and Experience. You can find our doctrine on Baptism in the

inside flap of your bulletin.



16. We believe that Christian baptism, commanded by our Lord, is a

sacrament signifying acceptance of the benefits of the atonement of

Jesus Christ, to be administered to believers and declarative of their

faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior, and full purpose of obedience inholiness and righteousness.

Baptism being a symbol of the new covenant, young children may be

baptized, upon request of parents or guardians who shall give

assurance for them of necessary Christian training.

Baptism may be administered by sprinkling, pouring, or immersion,

according to the choice of the applicant.

As we work through this article of faith, we will take time to ask the

most common questions which are asked about baptism in the Church

of the Nazarene. If your question is not answered in this format, you

are welcome to ask it later, and I will try to find an answer for you. For

the next several minutes, I will simply go ahead and ask those

frequently asked questions, and attempt to offer an answer to them.

Question: Does baptism save you?

Answer: No. "8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--

and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- 9not by works, so

that no one can boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9) Let us remember that the

primary factor in our salvation is God‘s grace. It is His grace by which

we are saved. This grace is mediated through our faith, but even that

faith is a gracious gift of God, so that no-one can boast. Baptism does

not save you, church membership does not save you, not evenrepeating the "sinner‘s prayer" saves you. We are saved only by God‘s

grace, through our faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Question: Why then should we be baptized?



Answer: Simply put, each believer should be baptized because Jesus

set that example for us in Matthew 3, and later commanded that the

Church be his witnesses in all the world, baptizing in the Name of the

Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28). We are baptized

primarily in faithful obedience to Christ‘s call upon us to be baptized.

Question: What is the purpose of baptism?

Answer: Baptism is the sacrament most closely associated as the

initiation into the Body of Christ. Just as circumcision functioned as the

conversion rite in the Old Covenant, baptism is the sign and seal of the

New Covenant. It represents to us the washing away of our sin, the

sprinkling clean of our hearts, and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit.As a Sacrament, we understand it to be the ordinary (not the only)

means by which Justifying Grace is mediated to the believer, and

Prevenient Grace is mediated to the infant. The ordinary water

accomplishes something extraordinary in our lives, as we are washed

clean and brought into the Body of Christ.

Question: Why does the Church of the Nazarene baptize infants and

small children?

Answer: According to our Article of Faith, "Baptism being a symbol of

the new covenant, young children may be baptized, upon request of

parents or guardians who shall give assurance for them of necessary

Christian training." We understand that male children born into a

Jewish household were circumcised on the eighth day as a sign of the

covenant. In many ways baptism is the sign of the new covenant the

same way circumcision was the sign of the old covenant. While infant

baptism is not specifically recorded in the book of Acts, we do knowthat entire households were baptized into Christianity. An example of

this is the conversion of the jailer in Acts chapter 16. Further, we know

from Church tradition that newborn babies were baptized into the faith

of their parents. While those points may be enough, we have a

theological understanding which drives our understanding of Infant



Baptism. If baptism is a sacrament, and a sacrament is the ordinary

means by which God‘s grace is mediated to us, then we understand

Infant Baptism as an expression of God‘s Prevenient Grace. Remember

that Prevenient Grace is that grace at work in our lives before we were

even aware of our need for grace. It is that grace which called us,preserved us, and protected us until the moment of our rebirth. We

understand then, that Infant Baptism is all about God‘s Prevenient

Grace. You see, the sacraments are never about what we have done,

or about our choice, but are rather about God and His grace. Baptism

isn‘t about my decision to "accept Christ" as much as it is about His

decision to search me out and redeem me. Baptism is my faithful

response to God‘s grace at work in my life. We therefore will baptize

infants of parents who have given their assurance of Christian trainingand upbringing as an expression of our faith that God is at work in the

life of that child.

Question: Is an infant who is baptized any more saved than one who

isn‘t?

Answer: Remember that baptism doesn‘t save anybody, rather God‘s

grace saves us, and baptism is one of the primary ways in which that

grace is mediated to us. We do not somehow control God‘s grace

through baptism, for grace is always "unmerited favor" and if we could

control it then it would cease to be unmerited.

We also believe (see Article number Six on the Atonement) that "The

Atonement is graciously efficacious for the salvation of the

irresponsible and for the children in innocency but is efficacious for the

salvation of those who reach the age of responsibility only when they

repent and believe." In other words, we believe that the atonementcovers all children who are not yet morally responsible.

Since infant baptism does not provide justifying grace for the child, it

is important that we realize that the day will come when that child will

have to either accept or reject the terms of their baptism. Nobody will



be in the Kingdom of God because of the faith of their parents, but

only because they have responded to God‘s grace. It is important that

children be brought up and nurtured within the Christian community

that they might personally accept and respond to God‘s grace,

affirming those baptismal vows as their own.

Question: Does the Church of the Nazarene recognize baptisms from

other traditions or denominations?

Answer: We are not baptized into a local church or into a

denomination, we are baptized into the Body of Christ. In fact,

Galatians reminds us that there are no divisions among the Baptized,

for we have been baptized into one family, and have been made one inChrist. Hear these words from Galatians 3, verses 26-28: "You are all

sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were

baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is

neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all

one in Christ Jesus." For this reason, many pastors (myself included)

are very reluctant to rebaptize anybody simply because they were

baptized as an infant or in a different denomination. An act of

rebaptism is not an expression of faith, but in fact becomes an

expression of doubt that God was at work the first time. We recognize

as valid any Christian baptism which utilizes water and is done in the

Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (in accordance with

Matthew 28:19).

Question: What if I am unsure of whether or not I was baptized?

Answer: Perhaps you think that you might have been baptized as an

infant, but don‘t have any baptismal certificates, and don‘t rememberfor sure. You would like to affirm your faith publically in this way, but

don‘t want to be rebaptized. In those instances, I will perform what is

known as a "conditional" baptism, whereby in the baptismal liturgy I

will simply state that "if you are not already baptized, then I baptize

you in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit."



Question: What if I was baptized as an infant, but wish to make a

public confession of faith as an adult? Or, what if I was baptized as an

adult but wandered away from the church and have now come back?

Answer: Just like marriage partners take time to renew their vows to

one another, it is always appropriate to allow people to reaffirm their

baptismal vows publicly. This gives believers an opportunity to accept

the terms of their infant baptism and publicly identify themselves with

Christ. Those who have drifted from the Body are able to renew their

acceptance of the covenant relationship in a public way. No water is

used, but the candidate is examined and given the opportunity to

publicly affirm the baptismal vows and the creed. For that reason, atour last baptismal service, opportunity was provided for those who

were already baptized to publicly renew their baptism as well.

Question: What modes does the Church of the Nazarene utilize and

recognize?

Answer: The Church of the Nazarene recognizes and utilizes three

modes of baptism: immersion, sprinkling, and pouring. Each mode has

historical roots within the Christian church, and early archeological

evidence points to Christian baptism utilizing a shell to pour water over

the head of the candidate. In addition to historical tradition and

archeological evidence, each mode is enriched by images presented in

Scripture.

Hebrews 10:21-23 lends meaning to the act of baptism by sprinkling:

"and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us drawnear to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our

hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our

bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope

we profess, for he who promised is faithful."



In Acts chapter 2, on the day of Pentecost, Peter has just witnessed

the baptism of the Holy Spirit among the believers, and explains the

occurrence utilizing language from the prophet Joel. Peter says:

"Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem , let me explain thisto you; listen carefully to what I say. 15These men are not drunk, as

you suppose. It‘s only nine in the morning! 16No, this is what was

spoken by the prophet Joel:

17" ‘In the last days, God says,

I will pour out my Spirit on all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy,

your young men will see visions,your old men will dream dreams.

18Even on my servants, both men and women,

I will pour out my Spirit in those days,

and they will prophesy."

And so, we recognize that Baptism by pouring reminds us of the

Pouring out of the Holy Spirit. This mode also has its roots in the

anointing of the Kings and leaders in the Old Testament who were

anointed by the pouring of oil.

Baptism by immersion is given rich meaning by the imagery found in

Romans 6, beginning in verse 3:

"Or don‘t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus

were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him

through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised

from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a newlife."

Each mode of Baptism has a rich tradition within the Body of Christ,

historical and archeological evidence for its use, and scriptural

references which help us understand what God does for us through the



sacrament of baptism. It is for those reasons that the Church of the

Nazarene has accepted and utilized all three modes of Baptism. One

Nazarene theologian may have summarized our position best when he

said, "We believe that al believers should have some water by some

means."

Question: If I have never been baptized, what should I do?

Answer: You should be obedient to what Christ has asked you to do. If

you have already expressed faith in God‘s saving work upon the cross,

then baptism is the logical next step. If you have not already found

that faith, then I urge you to seek forgiveness for your sins and enter

into a right relationship with God. Jesus died on the cross for yoursins, that you might be forgiven and washed clean. Once you‘ve

settled that question, then make no delay in seeking water baptism to

make public your entrance into the Body of Christ and to encounter

the supernatural through the natural waters.

If any feel the Lord calling them to follow Him in obedience in regard

to baptism, do not delay in this matter. You can speak to me later

today, or utilize a pew card to let me know. It would be a delight to

welcome you into the Body of Christ in this way. Even though we do

not have a baptistery here, if you desire baptism by immersion we are

certainly able to make the arrangements as well. All I ask is that you

be obedient to God. If you‘ve come to saving knowledge of Jesus as

your Savior and not been obedient in this way, now is the time to

affirm your faith and your dependence upon His grace.

Let me conclude our time today with this passage of scripture from

Acts 2. The Holy Spirit had just come upon the believers at Pentecost,and Peter had preached a wonderful sermon to the crowd. After the

crowd heard and contemplated the message, we read that this was

their response:

37When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to



Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?"

38Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the

name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will

receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39The promise is for you and yourchildren and for all who are far off--for all whom the Lord our God will

call."

40With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them,

"Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." 41Those who accepted

his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to

their number that day.

Let us seek each day to be faithfully responsive to God‘s Grace at work

in our lives. May we continue to seek His cleansing and filling, that we

might be formed into His Image, moment by moment, day by day.


you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be

kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24The one who

calls you is faithful and he will do it.



Article of Faith #13 - The Lord‘s Supper

Date: Sunday, September 5, 2004


Each week as we conclude our time of prayer, we repeat the wordsthat Jesus used to teach his disciples how to pray. We pray the Lord‘s

Prayer, not so much for the sake of the words, but to remind us of the

structure and manner in which we are to pray—praising God, seeking

His kingdom, affirming our dependence upon Him for each day,

seeking forgiveness and forgiving others, asking for guidance and

deliverance, and concluding by praising Him once more. As we affirm

our dependence upon Him, we pray these words: ―Give us this day our

daily bread.‖

On the one hand, our prayer can simply be read as a prayer for food

and sustenance. On the other hand, it is really an affirmation of our

complete and total dependence upon the Creator. We recognize that

we are asking for the bread for today, not worrying about the bread

for tomorrow, for we trust that He will provide that in time for

tomorrow.

The concept of ―Daily Bread‖ really was integrated in the hearts and

lives of the Israelites while they were wandering in the wilderness

during the Exodus. Food had become scarce and they had begun to

complain to Moses saying that it would have been better if they had

died by the plagues in Egypt instead of being led out into the

wilderness to starve to death. Hear these words from the book of

Exodus, chapter 16:

4 Then the LORD said to Moses, "I will rain down bread from heavenfor you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that

day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my

instructions. 5 On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in,

and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days."



6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, "In the evening you

will know that it was the LORD who brought you out of Egypt , 7 and

in the morning you will see the glory of the LORD , because he has

heard your grumbling against him. Who are we, that you should

grumble against us?" 8 Moses also said, "You will know that it was theLORD when he gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread

you want in the morning, because he has heard your grumbling

against him. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but

against the LORD ."

9 Then Moses told Aaron, "Say to the entire Israelite community,

‘Come before the LORD , for he has heard your grumbling.‘ "

10 While Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they

looked toward the desert, and there was the glory of the LORD

appearing in the cloud.

11 The LORD said to Moses, 12 "I have heard the grumbling of the

Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning

you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the LORD

your God.‘ "

13 That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning

there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14 When the dew was

gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor.

15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, "What is it?"

For they did not know what it was.

Moses said to them, "It is the bread the LORD has given you to eat. 16

This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Each one is to gather asmuch as he needs. Take an omer for each person you have in your

tent.‘ "

17 The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some

little. 18 And when they measured it by the omer, he who gathered



much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have

too little. Each one gathered as much as he needed.

19 Then Moses said to them, "No one is to keep any of it until

morning."

May God add His blessing to the reading of His word.

If we were to continue reading the story, we would learn that some of

the Israelite did not seem to trust the promise, were afraid that there

wouldn‘t be any more manna, and so they decided to gather more

than they were told to and keep the extra in their tent. We‘re told that

the extra manna became maggot infested and that Moses became

angry. Manna truly was to be the ―Daily Bread‖ of the Israelites in thewilderness. They were to trust each day that God would supply just

enough for today, and not to worry about tomorrow, for He would

supply for tomorrow as well.

All sorts of lessons and applications about dependence on God could

come out of this passage in Exodus. We could talk about trusting God

day-by-day, taking only what we need, waste-not-want-not, or being

obedient even when we don‘t understand why. While any one of these

lessons would make for a good sermon, we‘re in the middle of a

sermon series on the Articles of Faith, and you may be wondering how

this passage in Exodus possibly applies.

Before we answer that question, let us take a moment to read our

Thirteenth Article of Faith entitled ―The Lord‘s Supper.‖

17. We believe that the Memorial and Communion Supper instituted by

our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is essentially a New Testamentsacrament, declarative of His sacrificial death, through the merits of

which believers have life and salvation and promise of all spiritual

blessings in Christ. It is distinctively for those who are prepared for

reverent appreciation of its significance, and by it they show forth the

Lord‘s death till He come again. It being the Communion feast, only



those who have faith in Christ and love for the saints should be called

to participate therein.

So, what does manna in the wilderness have to do with the Lord‘s

Table, Holy Communion, the Eucharist, the Last Supper, or any otherwords which we might ascribe to this Sacrament? Is there any

relationship at all between the daily bread eaten by the Isrealites in

the wilderness and the bread that Jesus offers us at His table?

Well, in the Gospel according to John, Jesus makes reference to

manna in the wilderness in a most interesting way. I invite you to hear

these words from John chapter 6, verses 28-58:

28Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God

requires?"

29Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he

has sent."

30So they asked him, "What miraculous sign then will you give that

we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31Our forefathers

ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread

from heaven to eat.‘ "

32Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has

given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you

the true bread from heaven. 33For the bread of God is he who comes

down from heaven and gives life to the world."

34"Sir," they said, "from now on give us this bread."

35Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me

will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.

36But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.

37All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to

me I will never drive away. 38For I have come down from heaven not



to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39And this is the

will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given

me, but raise them up at the last day. 40For my Father‘s will is that

everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal

life, and I will raise him up at the last day."

41At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, "I am

the bread that came down from heaven." 42They said, "Is this not

Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can

he now say, ‘I came down from heaven‘?"

43"Stop grumbling among yourselves," Jesus answered. 44"No one

can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I willraise him up at the last day. 45It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will

all be taught by God.‘ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns

from him comes to me. 46No one has seen the Father except the one

who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47I tell you the truth,

he who believes has everlasting life. 48I am the bread of life. 49Your

forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. 50But here is

the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and

not die. 51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If

anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh,

which I will give for the life of the world."

52Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, "How can

this man give us his flesh to eat?"

53Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of

the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

54Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and Iwill raise him up at the last day. 55For my flesh is real food and my

blood is real drink. 56Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood

remains in me, and I in him. 57Just as the living Father sent me and I

live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live

because of me. 58This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your



forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will

live forever."

The Gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.

I would suggest that much of our sacramental theology about the

Lord‘s Table comes from this passage of scripture. If you were here

last week, you will remember that a sacrament is the ordinary means

by which we meet the extra-ordinary God. It is the ordinary means by

which God‘s grace is mediated to the believer. The natural is infused

by God‘s presence and becomes supernatural. Ordinary elements like

bread and juice become a means for us to encounter God and

experience His presence.

Jesus essentially tells his listeners that participation in the Communion

Feast provides a spiritual nourishment for us, that by gathering at His

table and eating these signs of the new covenant, we are eating unto

eternal life. Indeed, at this table we are reminded that Christ died for

us. It was His body that was broken and His blood that was shed. He

was broken and spilled out that we might be forgiven of our sins and

be renewed to right relationship with Him.

Wesley spoke of Communion as a means of grace, but at the same

time recognized that it might possibly function in different ways for

different people. For some, exercising faith to come eat at the table

might be a means of justifying grace. For some who are too young to

fully understand the significance of the moment, it may function as

prevenient grace (that grace which goes before everything, calling us

unto repentance and right relationship with God). For some, Holy

Communion might be a means of sanctifying grace, cleansing us fromsin and filling us with God‘s Spirit. Wesley admonished believers to

come to the table, seeking whatever grace God determined to give

them that day, whatever grace it was that they needed.

I often suggest one additional type of grace which is found here at the



Table—sustaining grace. Sustaining grace is that grace which keeps

and leads us through each new day. It is that grace which nourishes

our soul and nurtures us in continued growth. Sustaining grace is a lot

like the manna in the wilderness, enough for each day…no more, no

less.

This food won‘t keep your body alive. It won‘t keep your stomach from

growling or your throat from being thirsty. This food isn‘t designed to

sustain the body, it‘s designed to sustain the soul. It‘s designed to help

you be in constant communion with the One who created you, and the

One who redeemed you. This food is to nourish the soul.

And so, the invitation today will be to come and receive whatevergrace you might find here at this table. Take time to examine yourself,

recognizing that it only by God‘s grace that you might partake of the

feast. Take time to affirm your dependency upon God for your daily

bread each day. Take time to confess your sins and seek forgiveness.

And then, come with joy to feast at the table of our Lord. Come and

receive His grace, whatever grace He has to offer you today. Come

and enter into His presence with thanksgiving in your heart.







Article of Faith #14 - Divine Healing



If you turned on the television last night, you were probablyconfronted again with images of the terrorist attacks from three years

ago. You may have watched some of the coverage, remembering the

numbers of lives that were lost at the time. During one the segments

that I watched, two people who had managed to escape the building

alive were interviewed, indicating that they don‘t go through a day

without thinking of the way that life changed for them three years ago.

Their entire perspective on life has been changed, as they have

realized how fleeting life can be. One lady, in an effort to explain howher life had changed since safely escaping the building said, ―I truly

did die that day,‖ indicating that her life now is nothing like it was on

September 10th, 2001.

Anytime there is a tragedy with survivors, people are faced with the

question, ―why me? Why was I spared while another wasn‘t?‖ A term,

―survivor‘s guilt‖ has been coined to explain the emotions felt by a

survivor who wonders why they were spared while another died in the

tragedy. Sometimes survivors feel truly guilty that another person died

while they were allowed to live.

These questions that we wrestle with are the same questions that

cause us to be nervous when approaching an article of faith on Divine

Healing. We know that God doesn‘t choose to heal every time we ask

Him to. We wonder why some people are healed and others aren‘t. We

even experience a sense of nervousness when coming to be anointed;

for fear that it might appear that we have weak faith because we werenot healed. The pastor even loses sleep the night before, afraid that a

parishioner might interpret God‘s inactivity as evidence of the pastor‘s

lack of faith. And then, we realize that we‘ve entered into the entire

time of a healing service by expressing doubt that we will see a

miracle.



The fact is, we‘re quite perplexed about this doctrine of healing. We

believe in healing, and we‘ve seen miracles, and at the same time

we‘re plagued with questions about why God doesn‘t always choose to

heal the way that we expect Him to. We know that there is no secretformula to guarantee God‘s miraculous intervention, and yet we are

tempted to doubt our own faith when we continually pray and don‘t

see the answer we would hope for.

Today, we continue our journey through the Nazarene Articles of Faith,

with Article number Fourteen: Divine Healing--

18. We believe in the Bible doctrine of divine healing and urge ourpeople to seek to offer the prayer of faith for the healing of the sick.

We also believe God heals through the means of medical science.

This is perhaps the simplest statement we‘ve dealt with so far, as the

language is clear with no $20 theological words that need definition.

Simply put, we believe that God heals through divine intervention, and

that we should offer prayers, in faith, asking God to heal the sick. And,

while we believe in divine intervention, we also believe that God has

given gifts and abilities to humanity which have allowed for medical

and scientific intervention which also cure the sick. Going to the doctor

can be just as much an affirmation of faith in God‘s healing abilities as

coming to this altar for prayer and anointing, if trust ourselves to

God‘s care while under the care of the physician.

And yet, while this is a simple doctrine from a linguistic standpoint, it

raises all sorts of practical and theological concerns for us. We want to

know how God heals. We want to know why He heals. And, we want toknow why He sometimes doesn‘t heal. It would be easier if we could

put God in a box and expect Him to do what we want Him to do. It

would be easier if He were predictable and understandable. And yet,

there is a recognition that He is the Creator of the universe, and

simply doesn‘t have to answer to us.



Before we go any further, let us take a moment to look at why we

believe in Divine Healing. One the one hand we have modern

experiential evidence of God‘s miraculous working in our lives. Cancer

cells that were there one day are gone the next. Unborn babies thatdidn‘t look like they would ever make it to full-term are now happy and

healthy toddlers. Family relationships that looked like they might turn

into World War Three have been reconciled by miraculous intervention.

Indeed, God does miracles even today!

But before that, we have scriptural evidence of God‘s healing hand at

work in the lives of His creation. In Second Kings chapter five, we read

of the healing of the commander of a foreign army by the name of Naaman.

1 Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram . He

was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded,

because through him the LORD had given victory to Aram . He was a

valiant soldier, but he had leprosy.

2 Now bands from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young

girl from Israel , and she served Naaman‘s wife. 3 She said to her

mistress, "If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria

! He would cure him of his leprosy."

9 So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the

door of Elisha‘s house. 10 Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, "Go,

wash yourself seven times in the Jordan , and your flesh will be

restored and you will be cleansed."

11 But Naaman went away angry and said, "I thought that he would

surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his

God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. 12 Are

not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus , better than any of

the waters of Israel ? Couldn‘t I wash in them and be cleansed?" So he



turned and went off in a rage.

13 Naaman‘s servants went to him and said, "My father, if the prophet

had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How

much more, then, when he tells you, ‘ Wash and be cleansed‘!" 14 Sohe went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the

man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean

like that of a young boy.

15 Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God.

He stood before him and said, "Now I know that there is no God in all

the world except in Israel . ―

Before we move on, I want to point out a couple of items from this

passage. Note that the prophet is not given credit for the healing, nor

are the waters of the river. We must always recognize that when God

heals, he may utilize people or elements in the process, but it is

always God who heals. Note also that the healing requires action on

the part of the person. Naaman has to exercise faith in order to

receive God‘s grace. It is God‘s grace that calls him and heals him, but

he has to respond to that grace. Lastly, notice the final outcome of the

healing. Naaman says ―I know that there is no God in all the world

except in Israel .‖ Time and time again throughout scripture, we see

that the purpose of miracles, signs, and divine healings are to show

forth to the world that there is a God. Miracles are not really for us,

but are for a watching world to see us glorify God.

Not only do we see miracles in the Old Testament, but Jesus performs

miracles in the Gospels, as recorded in Matthew 4:

23Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues,

preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease

and sickness among the people. 24News about him spread all over

Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various

diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those



having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them.

Not only does Jesus heal, but gives authority to the apostles to heal in

His Name. We read in Acts chapter Five that:

12The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among

the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon‘s

Colonnade. 13No one else dared join them, even though they were

highly regarded by the people. 14Nevertheless, more and more men

and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.

15As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them

on beds and mats so that at least Peter‘s shadow might fall on some of

them as he passed by. 16Crowds gathered also from the towns aroundJerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and

all of them were healed.

The ministry of Jesus was synonymous with healing. Wherever Jesus

went, he healed people from sickness, disease, infirmities, and

demons. Wherever the apostles went, the same healing ministry

followed. But healing was not restricted to Jesus and the 12, for we

are taught to seek divine healing in the book of James, chapter 5,

verses 13-16:

13Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let

him sing songs of praise. 14Is any one of you sick? He should call the

elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the

name of the Lord. 15And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick

person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be

forgiven. 16Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for

each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous manis powerful and effective.

Given all of these scripture passages on healing, we might think that

everyone was healed of their problems all the time. We might think

that miracles characterized the work of the early church. And yet, one



of the greatest church leaders, the Apostle Paul did not receive the

grace of God‘s healing the way he desired. Hear these words written

by Paul in Second Corinthians 12:7-10:

7To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassinglygreat revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a

messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8Three times I pleaded with the

Lord to take it away from me. 9But he said to me, "My grace is

sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so

that Christ‘s power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ‘s sake, I

delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in

difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Do you know, I‘m relieved by this passage of scripture this morning?

Why? Because Paul was a great man of faith, and yet he was not

healed. Three times he asked for healing, yet God did not see fit to

heal him. We learn a very important lesson from Paul…God‘s healing

does not entirely depend upon our faith. Surely we know that Jesus

often told people that their faith had made them well. We recognize

that our faith is a vital element to God‘s work in our life. And yet, we

can have the faith of the Apostle Paul and still not be healed from our

infirmities. God‘s grace is not dependant upon our faith, and the fact

that God hasn‘t chosen to heal us does not necessarily have anything

to do with our faith, or lack thereof.

No, God is not predictable in healing. We cannot control God‘s grace

simply by praying and anointing. Healing is not necessarily an indicator

of our faith, nor is lack of healing necessarily an indicator of our lack of

faith. Why does God choose to heal some and not others? The fact is,we could wrestle with this question for hours, days, months, or even

years and not arrive at an answer. We may simply never know. But

that does not alter our faith that God heals and that we are to pray for

and anoint the sick. Our prayer for healing is an act of trust that God is

the creator and that He knows better than we do.



All of my wonderings and arguments about this remind me of Job.

After Job received word that his sheep, servants, camels, and children

had all been lost, he tore his clothes and worshipped God saying:

"Naked I came from my mother‘s womb, and naked I will depart.

The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the

LORD be praised."

Later in the book, after hearing poor advice from his friends, Job

begins to question God and why God had not protected him from the

devastation which had come his way. God listens to the dialogue

between Job and his friends, and finally offers an answer to these sortsof questions in Job chapter 38:

1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said:

2 "Who is this that darkens my counsel

with words without knowledge?

3 Brace yourself like a man;

I will question you,

and you shall answer me.

4 "Where were you when I laid the earth‘s foundation?

Tell me, if you understand.

5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!

Who stretched a measuring line across it?

6 On what were its footings set,

or who laid its cornerstone-

7 while the morning stars sang togetherand all the angels shouted for joy?

8 "Who shut up the sea behind doors

when it burst forth from the womb,

9 when I made the clouds its garment



and wrapped it in thick darkness,

10 when I fixed limits for it

and set its doors and bars in place,

11 when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther;

here is where your proud waves halt‘?

12 "Have you ever given orders to the morning,

or shown the dawn its place,

13 that it might take the earth by the edges

and shake the wicked out of it?

14 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;

its features stand out like those of a garment.

15 The wicked are denied their light,and their upraised arm is broken.

16 "Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the

recesses of the deep?

17 Have the gates of death been shown to you?

Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?

18 Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?

Tell me, if you know all this.

And so, upon hearing God‘s answer, my foolish questions are silenced.

I can no longer ask why one person escaped the World Trade Center

and another didn‘t. I no longer struggle with why one person is healed

and another isn‘t. I begin to realize that it is not my role as pastor to

have the answers to these tough questions, but to simply remember

that God is God, and I am not. The fact remains that we did not create

the foundations of the earth. We did not instruct the sun how to rise

and set. We did not set limits on the land and the water. And so why isit that we think we ought to be able to instruct God as though we were

His counselor? Why is it that we think we might even need to know

why He chooses to heal one and not the other?

Perhaps, the biggest affirmation of faith this morning is not to pray



and anoint (although we‘ll do that in a minute). Perhaps the greatest

affirmation of faith is for us to suspend our questions. Perhaps the

greater good is for to stop trying to understand why God sometimes

heals and sometimes doesn‘t. For when I suspend those questions, I‘m

affirming not only God‘s ability to heal, but His wisdom in deciding howand where to do so. We place ourselves entirely in God‘s hands,

trusting Him to do what is right and what is best. By seeking His hand

of healing, we are also trusting that He will walk with us through

whatever tomorrow holds, whether He chooses to heal or not. We are

affirming His goodness and His wisdom, and recognizing our prayer

that His ―will be done on earth as it is in heaven.‖

In a moment we will put all of our theological arguments aside. We willsuspend our questions and our debates with ourselves. We will

attempt to silence our questioning and our doubting and come, simply

trusting that God will meet us here at these altars.

We are always prepared to anoint any who ask for prayer and

anointing, but at least once a year we have a service dedicated to

prayer and anointing. In a moment I will invite you to come to receive

whatever healing God has in store for you today. It may not be

physical healing, but may be spiritual, emotional or relational. He may

not provide the healing that you think you need, but may instead

provide a greater healing that He knows you need. You may come for

healing for yourself, or on behalf of a loved one in need of healing.

There‘s no secret formula here, the oil is not a magical substance. We

simply come to affirm our faith in the God that heals. We place

ourselves in His hands, trusting that He will walk with us every step of

the way. We come, by faith, seeking His miraculous gracious hand atwork in our lives.

As we sing our prayer chorus, you may come and kneel here at these

altars, seeking the Lord‘s forgiveness and healing in your life, however

He chooses to meet you.



Article of Faith #15 - Second Coming of Christ



Today we come to the fifteenth article of faith in the Church of theNazarene. We‘ve been studying together this summer learning about

the Nature of God, the nature of our sin, and God‘s plan of redemption

to provide eternal salvation for us. So far, much of our study has been

about the past. We spoke of creation and the fall. We discussed what

happened at the cross and the empty tomb. We brought those lessons

into modern day as we spoke about how God comes to meet us

through the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion. During our

last lesson, we spoke of His healing power, and anointed many forhealing in their lives and the lives of their family and loved ones.

Today, we turn our attention from studying about the past and the

present to studying about the future. Instead of talking about what

has already happened and was recorded in God‘s Word, we look at

what God has revealed to us about the future. Instead of discussing

our experiences of enjoying God‘s presence now, we shift our focus

today to looking forward to our final redemption at the end of the

world.

With this shift from the past and present to the future, comes a

recognition that we tread on much more fragile territory. Instead of

retelling the story of what has already happened and attempting to

understand how it impacts us today, we are now faced with the task of

attempting to understand what happens in the future. We are also

faced with the task of trying to interpret prophesies, for which we have

received very little training. Fundamentally, we must return to theunderstanding that Scripture should never be twisted to mean what it

never meant to its original audience. Our interpretations of scripture

prophecy should not only make sense to us, but the same

interpretation should also make sense to the original hearers. If they

did not understand the prophecy in their time, they would not have



likely preserved and passed it down from generation to generation.

We call the study of end times eschatology. Many other phrases and

words have been developed to describe different camps of

eschatological doctrine. We speak of premillenialists, postmillennialists,and amillenialists. Within the group of premillenialists, we find those

who believe in a Secret Rapture, and those believers are often further

described by pre-, mid-, and post-tribulationists.

Without taking time to define each of those terms and describe their

positions, let me share with you the sorts of eschatalogical questions

that divide one camp from another: Will there be a literal 1000-year

reign of Christ on the earth (a millennial kingdom)? Will this millennialreign be brought about by Christ ‘s return? Or will Christ reign through

the Body of Christ (the church) at work throughout the world, bringing

about the Kingdom of God in reality for one thousand years prior to

the physical return of Christ ? Did the events in Revelation partly occur

in 70 AD with the fall of the Temple and of Jerusalem ? Or have none

of the events in the book of Revelation yet occurred? When Jesus

returns, will he be escorted to earth by the believers to set up His

Kingdom, or will He ‗rapture‘ them to Heaven while a tribulation is

meted upon the wicked? If there is a tribulation of the unsaved, will

Jesus steal His bride away before, during, or after? Is the Tribulation

something endured by non-believers? Or is it a great Tribulation of the

Saints? Is it possible to know any dates? Or even to recognize the

signs of the times?

These are all questions that are debated by laypeople, pastors, and

theologians all over the world. Scholars and theologians who have

studied for years arrive at different conclusions. Pastors attempt tointerpret those conclusions and provide them to the laypeople, who

are surrounded with all sorts of popular theology and literature on the

topic…some of it good, some of it probably not so good.

I‘m sure that by now some of you are sitting there in the pew waiting



for me to tell you what it is that ‗we‘ believe. And, you‘re hoping that I

won‘t use any more of those twenty-dollar words that by the time I‘ve

defined we will have forgotten why I used it in the first place. You‘re

probably hoping that I‘ll tell you that ‗we‘ believe whatever it is that

the authors of the Left Behind books believe so you can just go homeand read those books. After all, they don‘t use twenty dollar words! :)

I‘m sorry, but I‘m afraid my message this morning will probably be a

great disappointment to you. You may, in fact, find that the Church of

the Nazarene is a great disappointment to you. But I hope not. It‘s not

a great disappointment to me, and neither is this article of faith, which

you can find in the inside flap of your bulletin.

We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ will come again; that we who are

alive at His coming shall not precede them that are asleep in Christ

Jesus; but that, if we are abiding in Him, we shall be caught up with

the risen saints to meet the Lord in the air, so that we shall ever be

with the Lord.

As important as it is to notice what our article of faith does say, it is

important to notice what it doesn‘t mention at all. First, notice that

there is no specific mention of a Secret Rapture of the church, or of a

great tribulation. ―But wait,‖ you say, ―caught up…to meet the Lord in

the air‖ is the same as a secret rapture, right? Not necessarily. Just

because there is a meeting in the air, we have not stated where Jesus

and the saints go after the meeting. The word for ‗meet‘ used in First

Thessalonians Four, is the same word that is used for meeting a

visiting dignitary, or meeting the bridegroom at a wedding. In each

case, the guests go out to meet the visitor, for the purpose of

escorting them into the building or the town. If this were the case, itmight not be that the saints are raptured away, but that the saints go

to meet the Lord in the air, escorting Him to earth to set up a

millennial kingdom.

Our article of faith doesn‘t take a position on this one way or another.



We don‘t take an official position about what is meant by the Great

Tribulation, or about the millennial kingdom. There is much that is left

unsaid in our article of faith.

While this may come as a disappointment to you, remember thatscholars who are far more learned than you and I have studied the

Scriptures about the end-times, and have come to far different

conclusions about these matters. Within our own denomination are

scholars who don‘t quite agree about matters of rapture, tribulation, or

millennial kingdom.

Does this mean that we should stop caring? Does it mean we should

ignore any discussion of end times and the return of Christ ? I don‘tthink so. I think that we should study scripture. I see no harm in

studying the different theories about how the world might come to an

end. But remember that for the most part, they are theories, and that

we should probably not get so hung up on defending one particular

theory that we stop focusing on how to live our lives today.

At the same time, we recognize that while there is vast disagreement

among scholars and theologians, we can come to solid agreement on

the things that are stated in our article of faith. Namely that Christ will

return, the dead will be raised, the risen and living saints will be

caught up to meet Him in the air, and that we will always be with the

Lord. These are the solid points of faith in the Second Advent of Christ

that are non-negotiable. These are our core beliefs about Christ ‘s

return. ―Where do they come from?‖ you ask. Let‘s take some time

simply to hear the words of Scripture which have helped us define

these core beliefs.

In Acts chapter 1, we read of Christ ‘s last meeting with His disciples.

He gives them the Great Commission, and in verse 9, we read that:

9After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a

cloud hid him from their sight.



10They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when

suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11"Men of

Galilee ," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This

same Jesus , who has been taken from you into heaven, will comeback in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."

This is the message of hope taught and believed by the disciples to all

Christians. I think to myself, when skies are cloudy and grey, look

then to the east, for Christ will return in the same way He left. Paul

taught the message of the Second Coming to the believers in

Thessalonica. They were concerned about people who had died before

the second coming, for they probably believed that Christ would returnin their lifetime. Paul offers to them assurance of Christ ‘s return, and

resurrection hope for all who died in Christ . Hear these words from I

Thessalonians 4.

13Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall

asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 14We

believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will

bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15According to

the Lord‘s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are

left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who

have fallen asleep. 16For the Lord himself will come down from

heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and

with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

17After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up

together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so

we will be with the Lord forever. 18Therefore encourage each other

with these words.

Encourage each other with these words. Christ will come again. Are

the skies cloudy and gray? Christ will come again. Does the load seem

too heavy to bear? Christ will come again. Are you grieving? Christ will

come again. Are you sick? Christ will come again. Are you in distress?



Christ will come again. Evil in the world getting you down? Christ will

come again. When it seems like darkness and death are winning, when

it seems like the forces of evil are too strong, when the clouds are

covering the sky…look to the east, for Christ will come again.

You see, our article of faith on this matter is not wishy-washy at all.

Oh, you might wish that our church had taken a position on pre-, post-

, or a-millennialism, or pre-, mid-, or post-tribulationalism. You might

wish that we had an official dogmatic position on the end-times so that

when someone asked ―what do Nazarenes believe about the rapture,‖

you can answer them. But, perhaps, just perhaps, by not taking a

decisive stand on divisive doctrinal issues that may not really matter

all that much, we have done more to focus on the main thing.

After all, how and when will we know who is right about the millennial

kingdom? At the end of the world, after it all happens. How will we

know who is right about raptures and tribulations? At the end of the

world, after it all happens. And, at the end of the world, after it all

happens, I don‘t think we will be sitting around in a room discussing

whether or not we were right or wrong. I don‘t really think that those

who were right will get some sort of a pin, keychain, or gold necklace.

No, I think we will be unified together with Our Lord.

Let‘s focus on the important things. Christ will come again. What

matters right now is this…when He returns, what about you? Where

will you be? Will you be found ‗in Christ ‘? Will you be abiding in the

Lord, and He in you? That‘s what matters, much more than the

definition of twenty dollar words.

First Thessalonians talks about two groups of people who will becaught up to meet the Lord: 1) the dead in Christ , and 2) the saints

who are alive and remain.

I ask you this question today: Are you in one of those two groups?

When Christ returns, for indeed He shall, will you be at that great



meeting in the air? Are you abiding in Him? Is He abiding in you? You

may die before that meeting in the air. I may die before that meeting

in the air. Will we die in Christ ?

The theological, eschatological questions are not nearly so importantas those practical questions right there. We could have figured out the

right answers to all of the questions about the end-times…but if we

can‘t answer the questions about being found ‗in Him,‘ it won‘t really

matter.

Are you ‗in Him?‘ Are your sins forgiven? Are you living in right

relationship with Him now? Do you cast your faith on His salvation

through the death of Jesus on the cross? Has this faith invaded andinfiltrated every corner of your life? When the roll is called, up yonder,

will you be there?

If you can‘t answer yes to any of those questions, I ask you to

seriously consider the message of salvation. I ask you to spend time in

prayer, even today, to confess your sins to God, and to ask Christ to

be your Lord and Savior. You don‘t need a special prayer from me, you

just need to spend time with God. Allow His searchlight to examine

every area of your life, receive forgiveness for all your sins, even the

ones hidden in the dark corners, and be filled with the saving presence

of Jesus the Christ .

And, if you can answer these questions, I invite you to stand and sing

our closing hymn today as a testimony to our faith in Christ Jesus and

His return to gather us unto Himself.

Are you ‗in Him?‘ Are your sins forgiven? Are you living in rightrelationship with Him now? Do you cast your faith on His salvation

through the death of Jesus on the cross? Has this faith invaded and

infiltrated every corner of your life? When the roll is called, up yonder,

will you be there?



Article of Faith #16 - Resurrection, Judgment, and Destiny

Date: Sunday, October 3, 2004


Today we reach the conclusion of our sixteen week study on theArticles of Faith. I know that several of you have enjoyed our study

and found it a helpful refresher of what it is that we believe, and why.

I know this because you‘ve told me so. Some of you have had a

chance to study our doctrines closely for the first time, others have

benefited from a review of our stand on these important doctrines.

Some have grown from the study of our denominational distinctives,

while others have appreciated the reminder that we are a part of

something much larger than ourselves…part of the universal Body of Christ.

I‘d be deceiving myself, however, if I didn‘t recognize that there are

some of you out there today who are breathing a sigh of relief because

we are finally through a very long study…complete with twenty dollar

words and theological concepts that might not always appear to have

clear practical applications to our lives today. I want to thank you for

being patient with our study, and I do hope that you were able to

glean some benefit from our studies on these beliefs. Next week will

be our Faith Promise Convention for Missions, and following that, I will

return to the Gospel of Luke for the remainder of the Liturgical Year.

Before we look at the sixteenth and final article of faith, it may be

helpful for us to take a brief survey of some of our lessons so far. We

began our series with a look at the Triune God. Eternally existing in

three-persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—God is Holy

Community, showing forth divine love. We learn from the doctrine of the Trinity that God is most basically described as ―Holy Love.‖

Since God is relational, he created us to be in relationship with Him.

We know that the sin committed by Adam and Eve in the Garden

broke that relationship, the consequence being that each one of us is



born with an inherited propensity toward committing actual (or

personal) sin. In other words, even though we were created to be in

relationship with a Holy Relational God, sin prevents us from being in

perfect relationship with Him. If the Grand Narrative ended there,

however; we would be without hope, for we are completely unable toreconcile ourselves to God.

However, we know that Jesus, fully-divine and fully-human, enrobed

Himself in human flesh in order to make atonement for our sins. It is

the death of Christ on the Cross that allows for our sins to be forgiven,

and it is His resurrection from the grave that gives us hope for New

Life in Christ.

We recognize that it is only because of God‘s grace—unmerited favor—

that Jesus came to earth. It is only by His grace that Christ died and

rose again. It is only by His prevenient grace that we were called to

Him before we even knew we needed a savior. It is only by His grace

that we can have the faith necessary to receive the free gift. It is only

by His justifying grace that justice and mercy can be served at the

same time and we can be justified. It is only by His sanctifying grace

that we can be remade in His image. It is only by His sustaining grace

that we can have strength for each new day. Indeed, we learned that

it is all about God‘s Amazing Grace. We have spoken of how our faith

is the necessary and appropriate response to God‘s grace, in order

that we might be saved.

In recent weeks, we spoke of the ways in which God‘s plan is manifest

on earth today, through the church and through the sacraments. We

spoke of what it means to be part of the Body of Christ as expressed in

local churches, denominations, and traditions. While there may bemuch that separates us from other denominations, there is far more

that holds us together.

Last week we spoke of the certain hope that we have in Christ‘s return

to this earth. We were reminded to encourage each other with these



words, ―Christ will come again!...When it seems like darkness and

death are winning, when it seems like the forces of evil are too strong,

when the clouds are covering the sky…look to the east, for Christ will

come again."

Today we turn our attention to the additional events that will happen

at the end of time as we know it. Our Sixteenth article of faith is

entitled ―Resurrection, Judgment, and Destiny.‖ You can find the

article in the inside flap of your bulletin, along with scriptures for you

to read and study during the week.

20. We believe in the resurrection of the dead, that the bodies both of

the just and of the unjust shall be raised to life and united with theirspirits-"they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and

they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation."

21. We believe in future judgment in which every person shall appear

before God to be judged according to his or her deeds in this life.

22. We believe that glorious and everlasting life is assured to all who

savingly believe in, and obediently follow, Jesus Christ our Lord; and

that the finally impenitent shall suffer eternally in hell.

I suppose that nobody in our culture today seems to like talking about

judgment. With the increasing use of buzzwords like ‗tolerance‘ and

‗relative,‘ society attempts to persuade us that we can believe

whatever we want, and that it doesn‘ t matter. We are expected to be

tolerant of all people and beliefs, to the point where we are chastised

for suggesting that another belief system might not be right.

In an increasingly pluralistic culture like ours, it is extremely counter-

cultural to suggest that there will be a final judgment, and that God

will judge each of us, and that there will be a reward for the righteous

in Christ, and eternal separation from God for the unrepentant. It‘s

certainly not the sort of ‗feel-good‘ message that we would like to hear



when we turn on the TV, and I suppose that it might be messages like

that which have turned some people against attending church at all.

And yet, we must be careful to never water down truth simply because

it may be popular. What we teach as a church and as individuals is toalways reflect the truths of Scripture, not the whims of our culture.

While it may be popular to believe some sort of universalistic belief

that all people will go to heaven, we must always check ourselves

against the scriptures to understand what is revealed to us through

the written word.

The Bible speaks often of final judgment, and of eternal separation

from God in the lake of fire. Perhaps one of the most direct passagesreferring to the final judgment can be found in Revelation 20, verses

11-15:

11Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it.

Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them.

12And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne,

and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book

of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as

recorded in the books. 13The sea gave up the dead that were in it,

and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each

person was judged according to what he had done. 14Then death and

Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second

death. 15If anyone‘s name was not found written in the book of life,

he was thrown into the lake of fire.

The critic of the Christian faith argues that a loving God would never

send anyone to hell. And yet, we can‘t help but be reminded that itwas always our choices which put us where we are. Remember that we

were created in the Image of God, with the ability to make our own

decisions and guide our own life. God gave us the ability to make that

choice for ourselves. In Deuteronomy 30, God set the same choice

before the Israelites, and called all of heaven and earth to stand as



witnesses.

―19 This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I

have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose

life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may lovethe LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the

LORD is your life…‖

God‘s grace has always been present in our lives. God has always

offered unmerited favor to His creation. He has been at work calling

each one of us before we knew we needed a savior. We simply have

one thing to do—in faith respond. All that is needed is to turn from our

sinful selfish ways and receive the gift of God‘s grace. All that isneeded is faith—and God‘s grace even gives us the faith that we need.

The choice between life and death has been set out since the

beginning of time. We don‘t choose death because of ignorance, but

because of self and sin. We choose life only because God‘s grace

enables us.

Some might have problems with the knowledge that we are judged

according to our deeds. After all, we preach salvation by grace through

faith. We don‘t believe that you are saved by your works or your

deeds, but only by God‘s Grace. And yet, scripture is clear, both in our

passage from Revelation and from the parable of the Sheep and the

Goats in Matthew 25 that we are judged according to our deeds.

In order to think about this more deeply, I‘m going to ask you to think

back to our study on the book of James from a year ago. Hopefully you

recall the primary point of James (at least as I have come to

understand it), which is that true faith, authentic faith, or saving faithis an integrated faith which infiltrates and informs every area of our

lives. True faith is something which moves from our head, into our

hearts, motivating us to action. In other words, faith is never defined

as simple belief, but as a life-altering belief which changes the way we

interact with God, with others, and with the world around us. We are



reminded that ―as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without

deeds is dead.‖ Indeed, you are saved by grace, through faith; but

authentic saving faith will matter-of-factly produce good works in your

life, by which all may know that you are a Christian.

We could spend our entire time today on the concept of judgment, but

that is not all that is taught in the sixteenth article of faith. We must

also remember that in order for there to be a judgment, there must

also be a resurrection. There must be new life. Our hope for

resurrection life begins at the empty tomb. Because Christ had victory

over death and the grave, we too can be raised to new life. Paul

teaches this vital link between the empty tomb and eternal life for the

Christian in First Corinthians 15, verses 12-23:

12But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how

can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13If

there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been

raised. 14And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless

and so is your faith. 15More than that, we are then found to be false

witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised

Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are

not raised. 16For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been

raised either. 17And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile;

you are still in your sins. 18Then those also who have fallen asleep in

Christ are lost. 19If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to

be pitied more than all men.

20But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of

those who have fallen asleep. 21For since death came through a man,

the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22For as inAdam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23But each in his own

turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to

him.

The Good News of Scripture can be summed up in this…death came



through a man—Adam. Eternal life came through the God-man who

was victorious over death. He conquered death the only way possible,

by dying and coming back to life. Because Christ died, our sins can be

forgiven. Because Christ arose, we too can rise to new life in Him. We

don‘t only have hope for this life…if we did, then we would be pitiedmost of all people. No, we have hope for the life to come—resurrected

new life in Christ.

Paul gives us just a hint of what will happen at the resurrection of the

dead in First Corinthians 15:50-58:

50I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the

kingdom of God , nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.51Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be

changed-- 52in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.

For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and

we will be changed. 53For the perishable must clothe itself with the

imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54When the perishable

has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with

immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has

been swallowed up in victory."

55"Where, O death, is your victory?

Where, O death, is your sting?"

56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57But

thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus

Christ.

58Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you.Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you

know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His word.



The Gospel message is a message of hope. While we teach a certain

future judgment of all people, we know that God has given each one a

choice. He has placed within the fabric of our being the ability to

choose Him. Even when that ability was tarnished in the fall, He had a

plan to bring us back into right relationship with Him, that we mightagain choose life. It is because of this plan, because Christ rose from

the dead, we have a certain hope for new life in Him. Death has no

power over the Christian, as it is merely a passageway to being more

fully alive…forever being with the God who created us, loved us, and

redeemed us. ―Where, O death is your victory? Where, O death is your

sting? 56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

57But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord

Jesus Christ.‖

Today as we conclude our study on the Articles of Faith, we are

reminded again that while we are glad to call ourselves ―Nazarene,‖ it

is far more important that we find ourselves ―In Christ.‖ It is far more

important that we identify ourselves as people of God called together

for the purposes of God. It is far more important that we recognize

that we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.

As we think about the final judgment, we realize that the day will

come when we will sit at the banqueting table with the entire Body of

Christ. Christians from every land will gather together at one table.

Men and women; children and adults; the rich and the poor; people of

every color, language, and culture will gather together united by the

fact that they have been redeemed by the blood of the lamb and have

been found in Him. No longer will we be identified as Nazarene,

Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Methodist,

or Charismatic…but simply by the name of Christ. Those who are foundin Him and have been forgiven for their sins will finally celebrate unity

in the Body of Christ.

The first Sunday of October has been designated by many Christian

traditions as ―World Communion Sunday.‖ While we may not fully



experience the unity that Christ desires for us today, we can gather

around this table and recognize that we are called together according

to His purposes. We are reminded that we are part of ―the

Church…spread out through all time and space and rooted in

eternity…‖

In a sense, this table is but a shadow of the Table that is yet to come.

The communion we experience with God here is but a taste of the

unbroken fellowship that we can have in the Kingdom of God . It is a

reminder of what Christ has done for us, and a foretaste of the life to

come. As we come today, let us remember Christ‘s sacrifice, and

celebrate our place in the Body of Christ—looking forward to the day

when we feast around a table with the Lamb of God.





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