The Local Christendom Podcast with Aaron Ventura

Aaron Ventura
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The Local Christendom Podcast with Aaron Ventura

The Local Christendom Podcast is hosted by Aaron Ventura.

  1. 1D AGO

    Sermon: What is a Presbyterian? (Titus 1:5)

    What is a Presbyterian? Sunday, July 13th, 2025 Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA Titus 1:5 Prayer Father, we thank you for this letter of the Apostle Paul to Titus, through which we are taught the truths necessary for our salvation, and the kind of life we must live if we would see the kingdom of heaven. We ask for your blessing now as we hear this word preached, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen. Introduction After the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, it says in Acts 1:3, he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. Now just as every kingdom has a king, so also every kingdom has some form of government. We call a government a monarchy when there is one supreme ruler at the top. And in God’s kingdom, Jesus is that monarch who is called King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev 19:16). That is to say, Jesus is that monarch from which all other lesser monarchs and lords, receive some delegated power to govern. Paul puts it this way in Romans 13:1-2, Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. Now just as Christ rules as King in the civil realmthrough various lesser magistrates, so also does he rule in the church. And we said in our first sermon on Titus that the primary purpose of this letter is to teach us how Jesus wants the church (which is his garden and vineyard) to be governed and cared for, and by whom. Moreover, we read in Ephesians 4:11, that after those 40 days of speaking about the kingdom with his disciples, He ascended to heaven and gave gifts to man. What were those gifts? It says, And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. Paul says likewise in 1 Corinthians 12:28, And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, varieties of tongues. Notice that of all the gifts Jesus could have given at his heavenly coronation ceremony, he thought that what we most needed was church officers. And if that surprises you, just imagine a church without the apostles, the prophets, and the four evangelists. Imagine you have no New Testament scriptures and no pastors or teachers to explain those writings you do not have. It turns out that without church officers, there is no church. Paul puts it this way in Romans 10:13-14, How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! So the gifts that King Jesus gives at his ascension are people. And these people, full of the Holy Spirit, preach and write and evangelize and start churches, and then they appoint successors to care for those churches after they die. And this is what the book of Titus is all about.It is about giving us the particulars, the details, of how Jesus governs his church. We call this government of Christ over the church his ecclesiastical hierarchy. It is a form of government with Jesus at the top, then the twelve apostles, then prophets, then pastors and teachers, and down the line. And why does this ecclesiastical hierarchy exist? Paul goes on in Ephesians 4:12-16 to explain. He says they are, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. That is why church government exists: For the unity of the faith, for the health of the body, for the building up in love. This is why Jesus has given you elders, pastors, teachers, and deacons. Now I begin with this overview of Jesus’ monarchical rule over the world and the church because this morning in our text, we have a specific form of church government under that monarchy, described by the Apostle Paul. And it is a form of government that today we call Presbyterian Church Government. Now if we were to look around at these United States, and surveyed all the different churches, and denominations, and the many networks and tribes and governmental structures that exist, we would discover that there is a lot of confusion in our day about how the church is to be governed, and by whom. And so this morning I want to explain from the Scriptures, why our form of government is called Presbyterian, and why God commands the church to be ruled this way, and not the way that many other churches today are governed. There are three questions I want to answer this morning. Outline 1. Where does this name Presbyterian come from? 2. What is essential to Presbyterian church government? 3. Why does this form of Presbyterian government matter for the health of the church? Q#1 – Where does this name Presbyterian come from? Surprise surprise, it comes from the Bible, and we have an example of it right here in Titus 1:5. Verse 5 For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee: That word elders in Greek is πρεσβυτέρους, from which we get the English word presbyters. What is a πρεσβύτερος/presbyter? There are two main senses in which this word is used in Scripture. 1. In the first sense, a presbyter/elder can refer to any man who is of older/elder age. And because Proverbs 16:31 says, The silver-haired head is a crown of glory, If it is found in the way of righteousness, it became customary for those who were older and wiser men to also govern and rule the community. 2. Therefore, this word presbyter/elder also came to be used in a second sense to refer the office of government in Israel. So a presbyter can be any elderly or older man. Or it can refer to the office of presbyter/elder which is for those who are more mature and older in knowledge and wisdom. To give you just one example of this from the Old Testament, when Moses feels that leading the nation is a burden too heavy for him to carry alone, God says to him in Number 11:16-17, Gather (Συνάγαγέ) unto me seventy men of the elders (presbyters) of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there with thee. And I will come down and talk with thee there: and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone. First observe that an elder is an officer who carries a heavy burden. In Scripture, leadership and government is akin to carrying something heavy. What is that heavy thing? It is the responsibility to act justly towards those under your care. And therefore, the qualifications to be a presbyter in Israel, are that you must be wise, understanding, knowledgeable and without partiality in your judgment (Deut 1:13-17). Second, observe that these presbyters function as representatives of the people. In Deuteronomy 33:5 Moses says, And he [referring to himself] was king in Jeshurun, When the heads of the people And the tribes of Israel were gathered together. So in Israel, the hierarchy of God’s government was that God speaks to Moses, Moses speaks to the presbyters, and then the presbyters speak to their respective tribal heads, and so forth. We see that Moses father-in-law, Jethro the Midianite advised this presbyterian form of government in Exodus 18. There we read, So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father in law, and did all that he had said. And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. And they judged the people at all seasons: the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves (Ex 18:24-27). This is the original Israelite form of presbyterian government, and it becomes the pattern for the nation of Israel, the pattern for the Jewish synagogue, from which the apostolic church sprang forth. Summary: We call our form of church government Presbyterian, because it is presbyters who rule the church. Presbyters represent the people before God, and they represent God towards the people. So returning to Titus 1:5 we see that Paul has left Titus in Crete, because the church lacked presbyters, and it was Titus’ job to oversee the appointment/ordination of presbyters in every city. This brings us to question 2. Q#2 – What is essential to Presbyterian church government? I should flag here that within and amongst Presbyterians, there are a bunch of variations in our polities are organized. And that is because God has given us a measure of liberty to organize, for better or worse, according to the light of nature and gen

    51 min

  2. JUN 24

    Sermon: How To Govern The Church (Titus 1:1-5)

    How To Govern The Church Sunday, June 22nd, 2025 Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA Titus 1:1–5 Prayer Father, we thank you for manifesting your Word through preaching, and as we now hear Your Word proclaimed, we ask that you would subdue us by Your sweet mercy, rule us by your awesome power, and teach us by Your Holy Spirit of Truth, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen. Introduction If you have ever tried to plant a garden, you know that it is not enough to just toss some seed in the soil and then come back three months later to a beautiful and abundant harvest. Ever since Adam’s sin in God’s garden, our lot has been that of Genesis 3:17-18 where God says to man, “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you.” Because of our sin, fruit no longer comes easily. This is true in the natural world, and it is also true in the supernatural world. In proof of this consider Galatians 5:22-23, where Paul says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” Now ask yourself, does that supernatural fruit come easily and without effort? Do you find it easy to be gentle with obstinate and dishonest people? Do you find it easy to be joyful when your car breaks down, or when a steady stream of medical bills continue to arrive in the mail? Do you find it easy to be patient when you have a migraine, and a fussy baby, and you still have to cook dinner for your ungrateful husband? We all know the answer is No, fruit of the spirit does not come easy. And Paul himself acknowledges this by saying in the very next verse (vs. 24), “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” That is to say, if you are the hard ground where you want a fruitful garden to grow, you have to constantly tend the soil of your heart by crucifying selfish and sinful desires. You have to pull up bad habits at the root. You have to mow down and burn the thorns and the thistles, and only after that soil has been prepared are you ready in the words of James 1:21 to, “receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.” Jesus himself speak of the Word preached as seed that falls into many different kinds of soil. But it is only in the soil that has been made ready and fertile by grace, that any true and lasting fruit comes forth. Now this morning we are beginning Paul’s letter to Titus. And the whole purpose of this letter is to instruct the church in how she can become a fruitful and pleasant garden for God. The Apostle Paul had worked hard to plant the church on the Island of Crete, but he did not have time to ordain and test elders, organize the leadership, and give the church the protection and teaching she would need to become a healthy garden for years to come. And therefore, he leaves behind his coworker Titus, “to set in order the things that are wanting (lacking) and ordain elders in every city.” So just as after you prepare the soil and plant the seed, you still need to water and tend, guard and keep your garden from birds and pests, weeds and disease, so also it is in the church. And in God’s Garden elders are His appointed gardeners. Yes, every individual Christian is responsible to tend and keep his own soul, but because we are often irresponsible and inexperienced, God commands that certain qualified men, keep watch, oversee, and protect His garden. And so this letter from Paul to Titus, which is ultimately a letter from Christ to His church, are detailed instructions in how the church is to be governed. And because many people do not like to be governed, Paul has written to Titus in the form of an open letter. So that as Titus is making changes, rebuking heretics, installing qualified pastors, and telling everyone else in the church how they must live in accord with Christ, they all can see and hear that Titus is not just making things up on the fly. Titus is not being legalistic or arbitrary in what he commands, he is simply commanding what God has commanded. And so as we study this letter in the months to come, we are all going to receive some very pointed and at times uncomfortably specific instructions. And it will be good for us! This letter to Titus is one of the most practical letters in the New Testament. Luther calls it “an epitome and summary of Paul’s wordier epistles.” And William Tyndale says that “in this letter is contained all that is needful for a Christian to know.” For in it, Paul teaches us both good doctrine, true theology, and how to live a holy life. We might say that a major theme of this book is the marriage of truth with practice, right doctrine with good living. He is going to tell us how pastors must conduct themselves, and then how older men, older women, younger women, and younger men must behave, at the same connecting good behavior with the grace of the gospel. So with that by way of introduction, let us consider these opening verses together. Outline of the Text In verses 1-3 Paul establishes his authority as descending from God through Christ to himself (that is the hierarchy). In verses 4-5 Paul communicates that authority to Titus and explains the reason/cause for leaving him in Crete. Verse 1 1Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness; Paul identifies himself first as a servant of God. What is a servant? A servant is someone who lives not for their own sake but for someone else’s sake. A servant does not do his own will and desire, he does the will and desire of his superior. And therefore, a servant of God is a person who lives entirely for God. He has relinquished his will and says with the Lord Jesus, “Not my will, but yours be done (Luke 22:42).” Can you say that? Paul says in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” Can you say that? If not, then you are not yet a servant of God. A good servant from love does the will of his master. And this is who Paul is. Next, he identifies himself as “an apostle of Jesus Christ.” What is an apostle? An apostle is the highest human authority in the church,and he is appointed directly and personally by Jesus Christ, and therefore has authority with Christ to lay the foundation of the church. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:10-11, “According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” So Apostles are founders of the church who preach Christ as the cornerstone. And then on top of that foundation they charge lesser men, like Timothy and Titus, pastors and teachers, to build on that foundation taking heed how they build. How should Titus build? Paul models for Titus how to wield divine authority. He says it is, “according to the faith of God’s elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness;” That is to say, his ministry is in harmony with and for the sake of teaching and protecting God’s people. Titus must water, weed, and guard the faith of God’s elect. This includes both the act of faith, and the content/articles of faith. The act of faith is simply believing whatever God has spoken and acknowledging it as true. This faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God (Rom. 10:17), and therefore the word of God must be proclaimed. The articles of faith are the guiding first principles which every true Christian holds in his heart (some more explicitly and some more implicitly). This is the contents of our faith, sometimes called “the faith of Jesus Christ,” (Gal. 3:22-25) and Paul’s apostleship and Titus’ ministry in Crete was to be in accord with this faith, keeping in step with the gospel. Moreover, the sign that the true gospel has been preached and believed, is that godliness follows from it. This is what he means by, “the acknowledging of the truth which is after (kata/according to) godliness.” He says essentially the same thing in 1 Timothy 1:5, “Now the end/telos of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.” In other words, pure doctrine should lead to pure living. Your acknowledgment of Christ’s lordship should lead to Christ-like treatment of others, which is charity. And as Jesus says in Matthew 7:20, “by their fruits ye shall know them.” This leads us to verse 2 where Paul states the objective/purpose for Christ calling him as an apostle. Verse 2 2In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; Paul was given divine authority, not for his own ego or puffing up, but in order to lead the Gentiles from darkness to light. It says in Acts 13:46-48, “Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said [to the envious Jews], “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us [quoting Isaiah 49:6]: ‘I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ” Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.” So the fact that Christ ascended and gave to the church a government: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers (Eph. 4:11), was all in ho

    51 min

  3. JUN 16

    Sermon: The Holy Trinity Pt. 3 - Faith Seeking Understanding

    The Holy Trinity Pt. 3 – Faith Seeking Understanding Sunday, June 15th, 2025 Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA Deuteronomy 29:29 Prayer Father, we thank you for the mystery of our salvation, the mystery of who You are as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As we seek now to understand just a small fragment of that mystery by studying the Scriptures, we ask for light to dispel the darkness of ignorance and sin. For we believe what the Lord Jesus taught saying, ‘blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.’ Grant us such purity and reverence for Your Word now, in Jesus’ name, Amen. Introduction For the last two Sundays, we have been attempting to climb the most difficult mountain in all of Christian doctrine. That is, the mystery of the Holy Trinity. How is God One, and yet Three in One? How are the three divine persons really distinct, and yet each the One Divine Essence. This has been our study and meditation for the last two weeks, and this morning since it is Trinity Sunday we shall have one more attempt at grasping this truth. Now whenever you are attempting something difficult and strenuous, it is helpful to remind yourself why you are doing this hard thing in the first place. I remember long ago sitting in my high school calculus class and wondering why am I here? How is calculus going to help me get a job? What do derivatives have to do with my life? And because I did not have Professor O’Dell as my teacher, I dropped out of calculus, only to have to retake it later in college (even then I think I got a C). I imagine most of us in this room have a similar story, perhaps not with math but in some other area of life. If we don’t see or understand the reason why, the purpose of doing a hard thing, we are tempted to give up, or we never even try. And sadly, that is how a lot of people approach their relationship with God. They think that God is so high up there, and I am so low down here, the Bible is such a long and big book, and my attention span and memory is so short, therefore it would be either pride or presumption, folly or fruitless to attempt to try to really get to know Him. And indeed, there are many dangers to avoid if you want to know God. God himself warns of approaching Him without fear and reverence and humility. And yet, that high and glorious God has come down to us in Jesus Christ so that we might know him and have a real living personal relationship with him. Moreover, he has come down and sent the Holy Spirit into our very hearts. He has bequeathed to the church the Scriptures through which He invites us, nay commands us, to search him out and know Him. It says in Psalm 105:4, “Seek the Lord, and his strength: Seek his face evermore.” And in Jeremiah 29:13, “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” Paul prays for the church in Colossians 1:10, “That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.” Why do people climb mountains? Why do people attempt hard, dangerous, and difficult things? They do it for the glory. For the views from the top. If they are virtuous, for the formation of character. Even those who only do it for the thrill or the excitement or the vanity of social media have made a value judgment, that the risk is worth the reward, the pain is worth the payoff, the sacrifice is worth the investment. And so for good and biblical reasons it is most appropriate to liken the hard work of increasing in our knowledge of God (as Paul prays that we do) to the climbing up a mountain. When God created Adam and Eve, he placed them in a garden on a mountain from which four rivers flowed down. And we call the fall into sin a Fall, in part because we fell down that mountain of the knowledge of God and lost our intimate friendship with Him. And so later, when by grace God reveals his name to Moses (see Exodus 3, and Exodus 33), he reveals His name on a mountain. When God reveals His law and will to Israel, He does so from the mountain. When God commands a temple to be built for worship, he commands it to be built on a mountain. Where does Christ go to reveal his glory to Peter, James, and John? The mount of transfiguration. And most importantly, where was Jesus Christ crucified? From where did Jesus commission the apostles to baptize in the Triune Name? On a mountain. So this idea of ascending the mountain of God is a motif that runs from Genesis to Revelation. It acknowledges that we as sinners have fallen from grace, we are way down here in the valley of the shadow of death, and yet God by His grace calls us back to Himself. And therefore, this ascent to God is a most fitting theme to make your own, to explain the journey of your life. What is your autobiography? It is carrying a cross in Jesus’ footsteps, following him from one place to another. From the place that Jesus first loved you and converted you, to the place where you shall behold him on the mountaintop face to face. Summary: So returning to that initial question of why do a hard thing? Why climb the mountain of trying to know and understand God? Well, it should be for no other reason than that you love and value the God that came down and rescued you. You believe what Jesus says in John 17:3, that eternal life consists in knowing the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent, and have no greater desire than that. And so this morning I want you to think of this sermon as a kind of group hike to the basecamp of Mount Rainier. I am going to give you two important rules (as your guide) so that you don’t die along the way, and then we’ll apply these two rules to a most important text on the Trinity, John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Rule #1 – Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law. First observe that God makes us to distinguish two kinds of things. There are secret things, and there are revealed things. Secret things are for God, revealed things are for us and our children. And so when it comes to knowing God, we need to remember where God Himself has set the boundaries, and then we need to to respect and honor those boundaries and not trespass beyond them. Amongst the many secret things are the particulars of the final judgment, who God predestined for salvation and who God leaves to their just punishment. It is not for you or I to know and judge the unseen thoughts and deeds of men. We refer that decision to the Creator, and with fear and trembling seek mercy for ourselves. Jesus says to Peter when he inquires about John’s destiny, “What is that to you? You follow me.” And then Peter having learned his lesson says in 2 Peter 1:10, “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall.” In other words, instead of tying yourself in knots and doubts about whether you are predestined or not, attend to what God has revealed, which is for you to make your calling and election sure by adding virtue to your faith (2 Peter 1:5). Remember the whole purpose for which God has made things known. It is for us to do, to obey, to observe, to follow. And part of following Jesus is trusting that if He wanted you to know something, He would have told you in His Word. Moreover, if you are not presently obeying the things He has already revealed, why do you think knowing hidden things is going to help you? Too often we deceive ourselves into thinking that more and new knowledge will help us, when what we actually need is to just do and practice what we already have been told. Confess your sins, forgive one another, love your neighbor as yourself, etc. So that’s Rule #1. If God has not revealed it, you ought not to pry, you ought not ask (who are you O man to question God?). But if God has revealed it, then we must make it our own possession, pass it on to our children, and observe it with all our heart. Now amongst those things that God has revealed, He has told us that in this life we cannot know what the Divine Essence is (what God is essentially in Himself), we can only know what He is not by some creaturely analogies about Him. And this brings us to Rule #2. Rule #2 – God is always greater than what your mind can grasp. It says in Job 36:26, “Behold, God is great, and we know him not, Neither can the number of his years be searched out.” And in Psalm 145:3, “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; And his greatness is unsearchable.” You and I cannot grasp eternity, the finite cannot comprehend the infinite. God says in Isaiah 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are my ways higher than your ways, And my thoughts than your thoughts.” So whatever likeness or similitude there is between us and God, there is always an ever-greater dissimilitude. Paul says in 1 Timothy 6:16, “He alone hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see.” And in Romans 11:33, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!” God is far greater than you presently think He is. And even when the Bible tells us something like God is love or God is good, even that falls short of the love and goodness that God actually is, because you and I have never met anyone or anything whose very being and essence is love and goodness. What in us is a qua

    46 min

  4. JUN 16

    Sermon: The Holy Trinity Pt. 2 - Filioque

    The Holy Trinity Pt. 2 – Filioque Sunday, June 8th, 2025 Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA John 20:19–23 Prayer Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus who has power to forgive sins. And we thank you on this Pentecost Sunday for the Holy Spirit, who was given to the apostles and their successors so that the church today may bind and loose, remit and retain, as ministers of Christ on earth. We ask for your blessing now as we approach and contemplate the highest of all mysteries, who you are in yourself. Teach us now by the Spirit of Truth, in the name of Jesus, and Amen. Introduction Every Lord’s Day in our worship service, after we confess our sins, we arise and confess our common faith. This is an important act of worship, because it says in Romans 10:9-10, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” And so from the earliest days of the Apostolic Church, it became necessary to confess the Lord Jesus, his full divinity, his perfect humanity, his death and resurrection for sinners, Jew and Gentile alike. It was necessary to confess these truths in such a way that no false Jesus or false gospel could be understood. We find in Scripture itself various creed-like statements. Romans 10:9-10 is one example. Another is what Paul writes in 1 Timothy 3:16, “Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.” You can hear the creed-like rhythm of that confession of faith. So creeds became necessary in the church for two main reasons. 1) To protect and preserve the truth, and 2) to more quickly and understandably propagate the truth. Especially in a time before everyone had a personal copy of the Bible! The earliest heresies in the church said that Jesus was either a created being and therefore not equal to the Father in divinity (what became later known as Arianism), or that he was not really a human being with a nature like ours (we call this Gnosticism or Docetism), or that the Son and Spirit were just God the Father wearing different masks, no real distinction in persons (Sabellianism). So even in the New Testament we find various heresies popping up that need to be refuted (much of the New Testament is written to refute such errors). And as time went on, new heresies arose that required new refutations, new articulations of the common faith once received. So the creeds did not invent or create new doctrines, they were meant to clarify and make explicit what the Word of God had always taught. The purpose of creeds is to make explicit what is implicit, that is, logically contained within that simple confession that Jesus is Lord. And so while it might seem trivial or routine to some that we confess the Nicene Creed every Lord’s Day, it is actually a matter of salvation or damnation that we believe and confess rightly the true Jesus and none other. Because only the true Jesus can save. Now this morning we are in part 2 of a short series on The Holy Trinity, and because it is Pentecost Sunday, I want to consider more closely the person of the Holy Spirit. Who He is, and what He does. And so the outline of my sermon is as follows. Outline First, I will give you a brief history lesson on what is called the Filioque controversy, which is about answering the question, Who is the Holy Spirit as unique Divine Person? Second, we’ll consider, How is the Holy Spirit’s procession from Father and Son reflected in the life of the church? So 1) Who is the Holy Spirit? And 2) How is the Holy Spirit manifest in the church? #1 – A Church History Lesson The year is 589 AD. And a church council has been called in Toledo, Spain to address the rise of Arianism and Sabellianism amongst the Spanish Goths. Recall that Arianism teaches that Jesus is not consubstantial (of the same nature) with the Father, and it therefore introduced subordination and difference of essence within the Godhead and divided/destroyed the unity of the Trinity. Arianism was the long archenemy of true Christian faith and the reason for which the Council of Nicaea (325 AD), and the Council of Constantinople (381) had convened and written the Nicene Creed. These creeds where in large part written to exclude and refute Arianism, and later Sabellianism. Now at this Third Council of Toledo (589), the newly converted Spanish king, King Reccared, said that the Holy Spirit is not only from the Father, but is a Patre Filioque, from the Father and the Son. And this was a doctrine that had long been taught in the Latin West, most famously by St. Augustine and later in the Athanasian Creed. However, it had never been confessed as part of the Nicene Creed. This idea that the Holy Spirit is not only from the Father but also Filioque, from the Son, was a way of expressing two important realities: 1) the full divinity of the Son together with the Father, which rejects Arianism, and 2) the distinct identity of the Son and Spirit as really distinct persons within the Godhood, which rejects Sabellianism. We find this doctrine defended from many places of Scripture. For example, Jesus says in John 15:26, “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.” And then also in John 16:15, “All things that the Father hath are mine.” And so if the Holy Spirit is from the Father, He by good and necessary consequence has to also be from the Son. Because the only real distinction between Father and Son are their distinct relations of origin. The Father is from none, and the Son is from the Father, and nothing else is really distinct between them than that. There are what we call many rational distinctions, many ways of attributing to the Father certain actions in history, but remember because God is One, those distinctions are only in our mind and manner of speaking, they are not in God as He is in Himself. Aside: This difference between what is really distinct within God, and what is only rationally distinct in our minds, is one of the most important distinctions in all of theology. If you get this confused, you will certainly be dividing the Godhead into different parts or turning the Trinity into three different beings. So recall what we said last week, there is no real distinction between the Three Persons and the One Essence, the Three Persons are the One Essence. The only real distinction in God is in how the Persons are distinct in origin. The Father from none. The Son from the Father. And the Spirit from the Father and the Son. In everything else they are the One God acting inseparably. Returning to our history lesson. Following St. Augustine and other church fathers, King Recarred used this idea of Filioque to make more explicit the truth contained within the Nicene Creed. However, the emphasis on this doctrine eventually led to a number of churches adding ex Patre Filioque (and the Son) into their recitation of the creed in their worship services. And that’s where major problems start to develop. Up to this point in Christendom, the church was united in their confession of the Nicene Creed, both the Latin West and the Greek-speaking East. Moreover, it was agreed upon at the Council of Ephesus (431) that no one church could make additions or changes to the Creed without consent and agreement of the other churches, that is by the mechanism of an ecumenical council. So even though the Filioque was a true doctrine and held by theologians in both East and West, still it was a violation of church law to tamper with the creed. Creeds were by definition ecumenical (representative of what the only holy catholic apostolic church believed and confessed). Fast forward a couple hundred years and King Charlemagne (Emperor from 768-814 AD) comes to power. And under Charlemagne and what we call the Carolingian Renaissance, Pope Leo of Rome tried to crack down on the use of the Filioque in reciting the Nicene Creed, but the Frankish church basically ignored the Pope’s command and continued to recite it anyway. Especially in their missionary work to the Slavs. Fast forward another 200 years and this conflict comes to a head in 1054 with what now call The Great Schism between East and West. And what this schism revolved around was amongst other things, Papal Authority, and whether the Filioque is true. The Eastern Church, what we today call the Eastern Orthodox, rejected the Pope’s claim to universal sovereignty. However unfortunately, because the Filioque was a prime example of the Pope throwing his weight around, many looked upon this doctrine as suspect, if not outright heretical. So to this day, now almost 1,000 years later, the Eastern Church (of which there are some 200+ million Christians) still rejects Papal Supremacy, and largely rejects the Filioque. Now where we do as Reformed Protestants fit in? Well because the Reformation grew out of the Latin West, the reformers agreed with the East on rejecting the Pope’s supremacy, however, we received and inherited the Western version of the Nicene Creed which has the Filioque added to it. And because this doctrine is thoroughly biblical and logically necessary to distinguish the three persons while maintaining their unity, the Reformed Church to this day confesses and teaches Filioque as the faith once received from Christ and the Apostles. So that’s the very short version of how we came to recite every Lord’s Day this version of the Nicene Creed, and not the Eastern version. Because we trace our roots back to Christ and the Apostles

    49 min

  5. JUN 9

    Sermon: CKA Graduation 2025 - The Man As City

    CKA Graduation 2025 Friday, June 6th, 2025 Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA Proverbs 25:28 Prayer Father, we thank you for the end of one chapter, and the beginning of another, and as these two graduates, these two young men, go forth into the world we ask you to protect them, to preserve them, and to prosper them in every way. We ask for your blessing upon the ministry of Your Word now, and we ask it in Jesus’ name, Amen. Introduction As we just heard from Proverbs 25:28, every person is like a city. And this evening the question I want to pose for all of us, but especially to Ezra and Chapman is, What kind of city are you? What kind of city are you becoming? What kind of city do you want to become? According to King Solomon, if you lack self-control, if you cannot rule your own spirit, your passions, your body, your mind, then you are like a city broken down and without walls. You are a city in ruins. A city easily invaded and overcome by others. However, on the flipside, this also means that if you can control your spirit, if you are learning to bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit which includes self-control, then imagine what you can become? You can become a great and magnificent city, with high and majestic walls. Or as Jesus says in Matthew 5:14, “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.” So what kind of city are you? A city of darkness and decay, or a city of light and refuge? Regardless of what you think yourself presently to be, I am just going to assume that everyone here has room to grow in their ability to rule their own spirit. Whether because of our own sin, or weakness, or ignorance, all of us have walls in need of repair, gates in need of mending. All of us have areas in our city where we lack self-control and need to be built up into mature manhood in Christ. For example, the Apostle James warns of how difficult it is to rule your own tongue. We might liken the tongue to the media outlet or newspaper of your city. He says in James 3:2, “For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.” And then he says a little later in verses 7-8, “For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” Jesus says in Matthew 12:34-35, “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.” So if you want to rule the tongue, first you have to rule the heart, you have to bring into the gates of your city good things (truth!), and then store them up in the treasure house of your memory, so that when you speak only good things come out. Good words, good things, the good life, starts with receiving the Spirit of God, the spirit of Christ, so that you can rule well your own spirit. And so this evening I want to briefly develop this idea of the person as a city, and I want to offer you three qualities of a great city, that you ought to pattern your life after, especially in this next season of life. #1 – A Great City Is A Place of Productive Work It says in Proverbs 12:24, “The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: But the slothful shall be under tribute.” And in Proverbs 22:29 it says, “Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings; He shall not stand before mean men.” Notice what Solomon presents as the path to success. It is not a short and quick path for one, in fact it is usually a long path that can at times feel monotonous, and yet which Scripture extols under the virtue of diligence. What is diligence? It is doing the right thing with a good attitude, day in and day out, especially when you do not feel like it. Diligence is that long obedience in the same direction. It is the grinding work of a young ox, who bears the yoke in his youth and yet plows in hope. Hope is the virtue that inspires the virtue of diligence, and without hope, people procrastinate, they suffer from analysis paralysis, or sometimes they give up entirely and become sluggards. And so if you want to cultivate diligence and a productive city, you must start by cultivating hope in God. God is the one who holds your life in His hands, and He wants you to be ambitious. He wants you to aspire to great things that will honor Him. Sloppy work does not honor God. Half-hearted effort does not honor God. Never taking a risk does not honor God. Hope on the other hand trusts God and then is decisive. Hope seeks out wise counsel, hears good advice, and then makes a decision and owns the consequences. Hope remembers Proverbs 24:15, “For a righteous man may fall seven times, but rises again.” So imagine within your city there is a central park, you could name it Hope. And what this next season of life is mainly about is planting trees, sowing seeds, pulling weeds, and doing that all of that in hope that it is God who gives the growth. It says in Proverbs 24:27, “Prepare your outside work, Make it fit for yourself in the field; And afterward build your house.” Meaning, there is a right order in which to do things. Before you get married, before you have children, before you build a household, there is a bunch of outside work in the field calling your name. Preparations need to be made. That might look like working a bunch of odd jobs, it might look like going to college, but whatever you choose to do, do it in faith. Your work now is a work to prepare your city to accommodate others one day, especially a wife and children. Paul says in 1 Timothy 2:6, “The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops.” And so remember, trees don’t bear fruit 15 minutes after they are planted. These things take time. And it is the diligent hand, the man diligent in his business that will stand before kings. More importantly, you are going to stand before the King of kings and give an account for your work.And so heed the words of Colossians 3:23-23, “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.” Aspire to become the kind of city where all your work is unto the Lord. #2 – A Great City Has Guards At The Gate It says in 2 Chronicles 23:19, speaking of God’s city, “And [the king] set the porters at the gates of the house of the Lord, that none which was unclean in any thing should enter in.” And likewise of that heavenly city New Jerusalem we read in Revelation 21:27, “But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie.” What are the gates of your city? They are your five senses. They are how you interact and engage with the world. What then is the guard? It is your spirit. Your mind/reason is like the porter, the gatekeeper, who has to assess and judge what to let in and what to keep out. And so the health of your city, the air quality of your soul, is dependent upon this judgment. Are you going to indulge the flesh, and make provision for the flesh, and the lust of the eyes? Or will you pray with David in Psalm 119:37, “Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; And quicken thou me in thy way.” Will you pray with Solomon the words of Proverbs 30:8, “Remove far from me vanity and lies.” What does Jesus teach us to pray, “lead us not into temptation.” And so resolve today, resolve now, to let no unclean thing enter and occupy your soul. Moreover, cast out the impure thoughts and imaginings that defile your conscience. It says Jude 1:23, “hate even the garment defiled by the flesh.” And Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:22, “Flee youthful lusts: but pursue righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” If you would become a great and holy city, you must pursue this “with them that call on the Lord out of pure heart.” That means choose your friends carefully. That means, turn off the garbage that is social media, worldly music, movies and shows that tempt you to sin. If it is not entering in to build up your city, then it is coming to erode and sap your strength. Do not let them in. #3 – A Great City Has Christ At The Center It says of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 22:1-2, “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” Who is enthroned in your heart? Who owns your affections? If you are the governor, who is the emperor of your city? At the heart of every fruitful city is the throne of God and of the Lamb. And from His throne flows down pure water, clear as crystal, to make your central park fruitful in every season. This is how what you plant grows. Notice there are a variety of fruits, twelve different kinds. Meaning, God wants you to be fruitful in more ways than one. He wants you to bear new and different fruit in different seasons. But notice what is common to all this fruitfulness is that the throne of God and of the Lamb is its source. Jesus says in John 15:5, “without me ye can do nothing.” And in John 7:38 he says, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” And in the next verse it says this water is the Holy Spirit. So you can do nothing good unless Christ is with you. And so make knowing Christ, obeying Christ, and loving Christ your highest ambition, y

    23 min

  6. MAY 26

    Sermon: The Divine Liturgy Pt. 7 - Tongues & Interpretation

    The Divine Liturgy Pt. 7 – Tongues & Interpretation Sunday, May 25th, 2025 Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA 1 Corinthians 14:1-40 Prayer O Holy Father we ask that you would now cleanse our tongues and lips from every impurity. Remove far from us vanity and lies, that we might become valiant for the truth on earth. We ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen. Introduction For the last two weeks we have been studying the topic of Charismatic Grace. And thus far we have seen from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, that God has given some measure of Charismatic Grace to every person that is united to Jesus Christ, and then each of us are called to steward that grace, our gifts, for the building up of Christ’s body. We said that a good way to identify our gifts is by looking for where our Desire, our Ability, and the Needs of others all align. Because as members together of one another, our gifts are not given primarily for our own personal benefit, but rather for other people’s benefit (for the common good). So while Sanctifying Grace is given by God for our own individual salvation, Gratuitous/Charismatic Grace is given to bring other people to salvation. And this is why in between 1 Corinthians 12 and our text of 1 Corinthians 14, the Apostle Paul dedicates an entire chapter to extolling the spiritual gift that is superior to all others, the best gift, which is charity, or supernatural love. Charity is that most special love which comes down from God, leads us up to God, unites us to God, and makes us to desire God for everyone else. God is THE GIFT we want to share. So charity is one of those gifts from the Holy Spirit that is both a Sanctifying Grace to us personally, but it is also the grace that is given to inform, guide, and animate all our lesser gifts. So while we have been studying the importance of the gifts of Prophecy, and this morning Tongues, we must not forget that these charismatic gifts are a temporary means to an eternal end, whereas Charity is both a means and an end in and of itself. Charity is the best gift to pursue. This is why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:1-2, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.” And then he says a little later in verses 8-10, “Charity never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.” Meaning, when we see God face to face, when that perfect vision of God comes, there will be no need for prophecy, or tongues, or preaching, or miracles, or apostles, or evangelists. Because we will have arrived at God who is our destination and First Love. And the charity which unites us to God in this life, will continue to unite us to God in the next. So even faith and hope will pass away, but charity/supernatural love shall remain. Paul says something very similar about the importance of physical exercise in comparison with spiritual exercise in 1 Timothy 4:8, “For bodily exercise profits a little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” Summary: So in this life we are to be up early busy in God’s gymnasium, cultivating and exercising our spiritual gifts, our virtues, and most of all love which makes us God-like (godly). If love for God and loving people for the sake of God is what your whole life is aimed it (if that is the reason for your existence), then you will know how to use and steward lesser gifts, like prophesy, tongues, or whatever other gifts you may have. So with all that by way of review and introduction, let us now consider the gifts of Tongues and Interpretation. Outline So there are three questions I want to answer in this sermon: Q1. What is speaking in tongues? Q2. What is interpretation? Q3. In what sense are these gifts operative today? Q#1 – What is speaking in tongues? As we saw with the gift of prophesy, to speak in tongues can refer to multiple and different activities. And if we survey the Scriptures, we discover there are two main senses in which someone can be said to speak in a tongue. One is supernatural, the other can be merely natural. 1. First as a supernatural gift is what we find at Pentecost in Acts 2. There, the disciples suddenly and miraculously are able to speak in foreign languages. Let me read to you verses 1-11 of Acts 2 and notice as I read that these are all real human languages they are speaking which other people can understand and interpret. “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.” Observe, this is a sudden and miraculous gift of the Holy Spirit, where without any previous study, these Galilean disciples can now speak in the native tongues of other Jews who had been scattered across the empire for the last 700 years (since the exile and diaspora). And because of that scattering, most did not know Hebrew, some of them knew Greek, but each of them was born and raised speaking their own local dialects, whether Aramaic, Persian, Babylonian, Latin, etc. Observe also the content of what they speak. They hear these disciples speaking the wonderful works of God. The gift of tongues makes you to testify of the gospel and grace of Christ. Summary: The gift of tongues in the most proper sense is the supernatural ability to speak a new foreign language, without previous study, and the content of what you speak in that language is the wonderful works of God, Christ and His gospel. Pentecost is of course a fulfillment of what Jesus promised to his disciples in Mark 16, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature… In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues.” So the whole reason for God giving the disciples this miraculous gift, is so that they can preach the gospel to the ends of the earth as quickly as possible. Christ by His divine power overcomes the natural language barrier between his unlearned Galilean fishermen disciples, and the rest of the known world. The language barrier that once separated and divided all the nations at Babel (and was a mercy to prevent them from uniting in an evil cause), is not obliterated into everyone speaking one language (Hebrew/Greek/etc.), but rather God gathers in every nation, tribe, and tongue, and sanctifies them. This is God’s pattern in redemption. He remakes us by using our natural materials. He is the potter; we are the clay. God breathes supernatural life into our soul so that we become pleasing to Him. So that’s the first and most proper sense in which speaking in tongues is a supernatural gift. You can suddenly speak a new foreign language. 2. And then there is a second and much broader sense in which the Bible describes speaking in tongues, and that is what we find here in 1 Corinthians 14. Here, the Apostle expands the definition of tongues to include anything that is spoken without understanding. To speak in a tongue is to say anything that is not understood, either by you, or the person hearing, or both. So notice this definition of tongues can include someone using their supernatural gift of tongues, but it extends to anyone saying anything that is not understood. We gather this definition from what the Apostle Paul says in verses 9-11, “Except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air. There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification. Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me.” Notice the example Paul gives is of himself hypothetically talking to someone that does not speak the same language as him. They are trying to have a conversation, but they are as barbarians to each other. Perhaps you have experienced this if you have ever traveled to a foreign country. We find further on in verses 23-24 that to speak in a tongue includes even speaking to someone in the same language but using words or concepts that they do not understand. He refers to two kinds of hearers there, 1) the unlearned (ἰδιώτης) and, 2) the unbeliever. So the principle is that wherever there is a deficiency or lack of understanding, there the person speaking is as one who speaks in a

    53 min

  7. MAY 19

    Sermon: The Divine Liturgy Pt. 6 - Prophets & Prophecy (1 Corinthians 14)

    The Divine Liturgy Pt. 6 – Prophets & Prophecy Sunday, May 18th, 2025 Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA 1 Corinthians 14:1-40 Prayer Father, we ask now that by the preaching of Your Word, we may grow up together in maturity, thoroughly equipped for every good work. We ask for Your Holy Spirit to enlighten the eyes of our understanding, and we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen. Introduction Last week we considered the gift of Charismatic Grace, and we observed that all Christians who are united to Christ Jesus, receive from Him some spiritual gift (or gifts), which are intended to build up (edify) Christ’s body, the church. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:7, “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.” And in Ephesians 4:7, “But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” And again in 1 Peter 4:10 it says, “As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” And so we learned that all of us have some spiritual gift to steward for the good of others, and we can try to identify our gift (or gifts) by asking: Where does our Desire, our Ability, and the Needs of others all line up? Where does my 1) Desire to bless others, 2) my Ability to bless others, and 3) the Need for someone to blessed all find harmony? Because that is where spiritual gifts most frequently reside. God has so designed the body to function as a diversity within unity, as distinct members with different functions who are all united together for the common good. This is what Christian community should look like. And so Paul goes on in 1 Corinthians 13 to describe that bond of unity, which is supernatural love, also known as charity. Unlike natural and ordinary love which even unbelievers have for themselves and their children, charity has God as for its object and loves other people for the sake of God. Charity is supernatural love in that we receive it from above as a gift of grace, and by it we can are able to love people who are not naturally loveable. And this is why Paul says that charity is the best of all spiritual gifts, and without it all the other charismatic graces profit us nothing. He says in 1 Corinthians 13:2-3, “And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not charity, it profits me nothing.” And then he concludes his exaltation of love in verse 13 by saying, “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” So where there is supernatural love animating our spiritual gifts, there you will find peace, order, and unity. But where there is envy, pride, and selfish desire, there you will find confusion, disputing, and every evil work (James 3:16). So Paul is writing to correct and instruct the Corinthian presbytery, the churches in Corinth, in how to use their spiritual gifts. And having established the primacy and superiority of love as the best gift, he then dedicates all of chapter 14 to explaining how the gifts of prophecy and tongues are to be used in the church. And so this morning will consider the gift of prophecy, and then next week we’ll consider the gift of tongues. And we will not actually spend very much time in 1 Corinthians 14 this morning because we need to do quite a lot background work in other parts of Scripture before we can rightly interpret it. So this sermon will be setting the stage for addressing tongues and other spiritual gifts next week. Outline So there are three questions I want to answer in this sermon: Q1. What is a prophet? Q2. How is a true prophet distinguished from a false prophet? Q3. In what sense if any may someone be called a prophet today? Q#1 – What is a prophet? We read in 1 Samuel 9:9, “(Formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he spoke thus: ‘Come, let us go to the seer’; for he who is now called a prophet was formerly called a seer.)” So the Bible itself gives us an origin story for why prophets are called prophets. And it was because they had a supernatural ability to see, with sight being a metaphor for knowing. So a seer receives divine inspiration that lifts up the eyes of the mind, and then they receive divine revelation to understand what they saw. And so a seer was a person with knowledge (intellectual sight) of things divine. And thus, before they were called prophets they were called by this action of seeing, they were seers. Now what exactly did these seers see? When we study the writings of the prophets (whether Moses, or David, or Isaiah), we discover that there are two unique senses in which they have supernatural sight. 1. They can see events far off in the future that only God could know and reveal (e.g. the destruction of Jerusalem, the virgin birth, the kingdom of God, etc.). 2. And/or they can see truths that surpass the powers of human reason to know (things like how the unity of the divine essence is Triune, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, or how the Son of God would become incarnate, the hypostatic union, or the plan of salvation, etc.). So knowledge of future events and/or knowledge of things that surpass human reason are the basis for which seers/prophets get their name. DEFINITION: A prophet in the widest and most basic sense is someone who receives from God supernatural knowledge. And then usually that knowledge is preached or taught and communicated to others for their edification, and in some special cases, that knowledge is written down such that it became what we now call Scripture. Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” And it says in 2 Peter 1:19-21, “We have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” Summarize: What is a prophet? A prophet is someone who sees/knows things by supernatural revelation. They do not speak from their own personal/private opinion but are mouth pieces for God. This is why they usually begin their prophecies with some form of, “Thus saith the Lord.” Or, “the word of the Lord came to me.” Or, “Hear now what the Lord says.” So a prophet speaks as an ambassador and messenger of heaven. And insofar as he prophesies, He is inspired and infallible, but insofar as he speaks not in the spirit, he is just another man and can err. For example, David was an inspired prophet who wrote many Psalms, but that did not make his decrees as a king infallible, and in fact he often sinned and sinned grievously despite being a prophet. The same could be said for Solomon who also wrote Scripture but fell into idolatry. So it possible for a man to be a true prophet, and also fall into grievous sin, and yet that sin does not nullify the truth of what he spoke by divine inspiration. This brings us to question 2. Q#2 – How then is a true prophet distinguished from a false prophet? Answer: God himself gives various tests to determine a prophet’s authenticity. In the New Testament we have Jesus saying in Matthew 7:15-16, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits.” And the Apostle John says in 1 John 2:22, “Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.” So here are two initial criteria to judge the true from the false: 1) they have fruit of the spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, etc.), and 2) they acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ and eternal Son from the Father. By those two criteria, are excluded a bunch of false religions (like modern Judaism, Islam, atheism, secularism, etc.), and many sub-Christian cults like Mormons, Jehovah’s witnesses, oneness Pentecostals, and other heretical sects that claim to be Christian but are not. Moreover, we have also in Deuteronomy two others tests for whether a prophet is true or false. We heard earlier in the service from Deuteronomy 18:21-22 which says, “And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’—when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.” And then earlier in Deuteronomy 13:1-5 it says, “If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to

    57 min

  8. MAY 12

    Sermon: The Divine Liturgy Pt. 5 - Charismatic Grace

    The Divine Liturgy Pt. 5 – Charismatic Grace Sunday, May 11th, 2025 Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA 1 Corinthians 12:1–31 Prayer O Father, we praise You for Your Son, and for His mystical body into which we have been baptized. We praise you because Your church is fearfully and wonderfully made, marvelous are thy works, and that our soul knows very well. Remove from us now all sin and ignorance, grant to us knowledge and virtue, that we might be good stewards of your grace, for we ask this all in Jesus’ name, Amen. Introduction Children, I have a true story to tell you. When I was little, maybe 7 or 8 years old. I went to church with my parents, and I was sitting in the pew, just like you are right now, listening to the pastor talk. When all of a sudden, the pastor tore a page out of his Bible, crumpled it up, put it in his mouth, and then ate it! Now is that crazy? I think it’s crazy. I thought it was crazy back then, and I still think it is crazy today. And yet, sometimes God tells His prophets and apostles to do crazy things. The prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 3:1) and the Apostle John (Rev. 10:9) were both told to eat the word of God while they were in a vision. And so while they did not literally have to eat a scroll or a book, what they did have to do was understand and digest and become one with God’s Word so that they could preach it to others. Now there were other times when the prophets did have to literally/really do some uncomfortable things. And that was their special job and assignment from God. For example: Isaiah had to walk naked (at least partially naked) and barefoot as a sign of warning and judgment (Isaiah 20). It says in Isaiah 20:2-4, “At the same time spake the Lord by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, And put off thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot. And the Lord said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot Three years for a sign and wonder Upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia; So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, Young and old, naked and barefoot, Even with their buttocks uncovered, To the shame of Egypt.” So sometimes, God tells the prophet to do something crazy in order to get his message across. Isaiah’s nakedness was a sign of future judgment upon Egypt, and a warning not to trust Egypt and their nakedness, but to trust God instead. Likewise, God told the Prophet Ezekiel to shave the hair off his head and his beard and then burn it. And this was to be a sign of God’s fiery judgment on Jerusalem (Ezekiel 5). Ezekiel also had to lay on his left side for 390 days, and then lay on his right side for 40 days, as a sign of the siege warfare to come upon Israel and Judah (Ezekiel 4). The Prophet Jeremiah had to take off his undergarment (his loincloth or girdle) and hide it in the hole of a rock. And then after many days, God said to him, “Arise, go to Euphrates, and take the girdle from thence, which I commanded thee to hide there. Then I went to Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it: and, behold, the girdle was marred, it was profitable for nothing. Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Thus saith the Lord, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem. This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing” (Jer. 13:6-13). So sometimes God tells his prophets to do crazy things, but He always has a good reason for doing so. The Bible says that God is love (1 John 4:8), and that He desires all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4). Therefore, in addition to the grace that sanctifies us, and makes us into Christians, God also gives to his saints another kind of grace, a grace that we call charismatic grace, which is given to lead other people to repentance and salvation. The Old Testament Prophets are just one example of such extraordinarily gifted saints, and what we find in the New Testament and in our text of 1 Corinthians 12, is that God has given a measure of grace to everyone that is a member of Christ’s body. This charismatic grace often goes by the name of spiritual gifts, and it is those gifts that shall be our focus this morning. And so as we conclude our series on the The Divine Liturgy, our study of worship, I want us to consider three questions that arise from 1 Corinthians 12 which is all about charismatic grace. Outline Q1. What is charismatic grace (or the charismatic gifts)? Q2. How does God intend for our different gifts to work together? Q3. How can you identify and steward the particular gifts that God has given to you? Q#1 – What is charismatic grace (or the charismatic gifts)? Note first the purpose for which Paul is writing 1 Corinthians 12 (and the chapters that follow). He says in verse 1, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.” Meaning, although the Corinthian church already had and were using spiritual gifts, still they were ignorant of God’s intention and purpose for bestowing them. And therefore because of their ignorance and immaturity, they were actually abusing and misusing the gifts of the Holy Spirit. What God had given to build up and unite them, was being used to destroy and divide them. So Paul is writing to reform the Corinthian church’s use and understanding of the spiritual gifts. Now where do we get this word charismatic from? Well, our English words charisma and charismatic come directly from the Greek word “χάρισμα,” and its plural form, “χαρισμάτων.” In Greek, Χάρισμα signifies a gift freely given, or a favor that is bestowed. For example, in verse 4 of our text, Paul says, “There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.” And there the Greek word for gifts is just this plural form of charisma, χαρισμάτων. So when we use this phrase charismatic grace, or charismatic gifts, we are emphasizing the gratuitous or gracious nature of the gift that was given (it is gracious grace). And indeed, our English word for grace is how we translate the Greek word χάρις in the New Testament. For example, in John 1:16 it says of Christ, “And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.” In Greek it says, “καὶ χάριν ἀντὶ χάριτος.” So if your name is Karen, or Karis, those are both derived from this Greek word for grace. So when we say charismatic grace, or as Paul says in verse 4, the χαρισμάτων from the Spirit (Πνεῦμα), spiritual gifts, we are emphasizing that this is a grace given over and above the grace of salvation that we all received at conversion. Now what exactly is grace? Grace at the most basic level is God’s action in man that leads to salvation. And what we see from Paul in verses 4-6 is that while grace is one in essence since it comes from the One God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, still there are a diversity of effects that result from receiving this one grace. And so unlike the grace/gift of faith, which is common to all the elect, and without which none can please God (Heb. 11:6), the grace of which Paul is speaking here is not given to everyone. These are gratuitous gifts that are given over and above what is necessary for own salvation. Indeed, the whole purpose of these gifts is not primarily to benefit us, but rather to benefit and build up others. Charismatic grace has an outward focus on the common good of the whole body, whereas the Corinthians were using them to show off and distinguish themselves in pride. Paul describes this outward focus in verses 4-7, “Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.” That phrase, “profit withal” is just King James for “the common good.” To Summarize: There is one grace of the Holy Spirit even as there is One God from which all blessings flow. However, we distinguish this one grace according to the diversity of its effects. For example: All believers receive the same and common grace of faith to believe on the Lord Jesus, and so we call that Sanctifying/Saving Grace. Grace that saves us as individuals. Charismatic Grace on the other hand is grace given over and above Sanctifying Grace, and it is given to lead other people to salvation and to build up Christ’s body. Sanctifying Grace saves us, Charismatic Grace is used by God to save others. And so Paul wants the Corinthians (and us) to acknowledge this common unity of source, this unity of grace’s essence as coming from the same Holy Spirit, even though on the ground and in the church and in each person, the effects of grace can often look very different. This is a feature of grace and not a bug. And so he goes on in verses 8-11 to describe that diversity within unity, how grace is one in essence but diverse in its effects. And this leads us to question 2. Q#2 – How does God intend for our different gifts to work together? In verses 8-11 he describes some of the different charismatic gifts. And then in verses 12-27 he develops this analogy (this picture) of the church as Christ’s body. And so the way God intends for us to use our diversity of gifts, is just like how the body is one but is composed of many different and essential parts (ears, eyes, nose, feet, etc.). And then after he gives this analogy of the body, he describes in verses 28-31

    45 min
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The Local Christendom Podcast is hosted by Aaron Ventura.

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