A Fourfold Gospel Series Week 3 - “The Healer”

 Last Saturday night my family and I went down to a rodeo in Yuma. On our way back, my stomach started to hurt, and from the time we got home, to early Tuesday morning I was sick. Because Marika got sick at roughly the same time, we didn’t know if it was food poisoning, because we’re the only ones who ate the carne asada fries, or it was from our daughter who was sick on Thursday. Either way, there was no way we were going to make it to church on Sunday and Jim graciously, and from what I heard, wonderfully, filled in for me. 

But before I called Jim to ask him to fill in, I spoke to God and said, “Hey I’m supposed to speak on healing tomorrow, what a wonderful thing to be able to share how you healed this so quickly.” And the response I got was, silence. So throughout the time I was sick, I was asking God to allow the sickness to quickly run it’s course and by Monday night, I was mostly over it. Then Tuesday came around. I was tired of sitting and laying around, so I got up, got dressed and started to hang sheetrock. That helped me get over the residual effects of being sick and I thought, okay, well I’m good. Then after I was done, I took a shower and when I got out, I felt a pain in my knee. I hobbled around, got dressed and then just sat. I had twisted my knee some how and now it was swollen. 

And all I could think about was, I’m never speaking on healing ever again. The next day, as I was speaking with God, about healing my knee, this thought was communicated to me, “Do you trust me in heal?” It was a simple question. And the reality is I do, I believe that God heals, I have seen it. I have prayed for people that left healed. I have prayed for people over the phone, and through text that have been healed. So I do believe God heals, but at that moment, I needed a quick reminder of a central aspect of God’s healing, trusting his purpose for the hurt. 

And it’s the topic of God’s healing that brings us back into our Fourfold Gospel series, where we’re looking at the four pillars of what drives the Alliance. 

In the first week we talked about Jesus the Savior. We looked through the Scriptures and saw that humanity is lost in the corruption of sin and so God looks to save us. This is done by God the Son coming down to the earth, taking on human flesh, walking in the obedient life we were meant to, then dying on behalf of humanity as a sacrifice that breaks the power of sin and death. Anyone who puts their trust into Jesus as Savior recognizes this truth and accepts it, and then seeks to follow the Savior.

Following that, in our second week we looked at Jesus the Sanctifier. When we accept Jesus as our Savior, our sin is immediately washed away from God’s sight. Yet while we remain in this life, Jesus moves us out of habits of sin and into his holiness. It’s a life long process that has it’s starts and stumbles, but it’s God’s work in us to transform us into the people we were created to be.

Within that process of sanctification, there is access to perks, if you will, of coming closer to God. But we must always realize what Romans 5:12 states, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”

This world is a dying place; sin has corrupted it in every possible way. With sin, comes death, and that death happens in a myriad of ways. Natural deaths such as diseases, cancers, and disasters such as earthquakes and famines are linked to sin’s corruption in this world. There is a connection between humanity’s sin and the natural world being a hostile place to live in. Then there are unnatural deaths through things such as war, man made chemicals, and violence.

But within the sanctification process, the holiness of God sets us a part from not only sin, but infirmities as well. And so in a corrupted world, where we need the Holy Savior God, we see that he is active in healing people in temporary ways as well.

In the Old Testament we see in the first book of the Bible, Genesis, God being the first one who is mentioned to be healer. In Genesis 20:17 we read, “Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelek, his wife and his female slaves so they could have children again…” The women under Abimelek’s rule were not able to have children because of the sin of Abraham, but once it was exposed, God brought healing to the woman.

From here on out, out of the sixty-two (62) times healing is mentioned, thirty-four (34) of them are connected with God. The other twenty-eight (28) speak of trying and failing to find healing outside of God. 

But the healings we see in the Old Testament are connected with obedience. Exodus 15:25 tells us, “He said, ‘If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.’”

And there are a lot of things to be healed from. When we think of healing we think of physical fixes, but there’s more than just that. In Psalm 103:2-3, the psalmist says, “Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases…” The forgiveness of sins is the greatest healing that we could ever have. This is a healing of our relationship with God. And if that is the only healing we ever receive, then we have all the healing we need. But there is also the land that can be healed. In 2 Chronicles 7:14 we read, “…if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” There’s that link between forgiveness of sin and healing again. But what does the land need healing from? War, famines, disease, strife. But there’s even more than that, there’s healing on an emotional level. The psalmist states about God in Psalm 147:3 that, “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”

There is so much emotional pain and heartbreak in this world that needs healing. The unseen scares that plague so many, God has the power to heal those as well. And sometimes these unseen hurts need to be dealt with before the seen ones can be addressed.

But there’s not just the physical or the emotional that gets healed, in the book of Hosea chapter 14, verse 4, God states, “I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them.” This brings us full circle into God’s desire to bring us back to himself which is what we truly need. Our sin and rebellion drives all hurt, pain, suffering and sickness in this world, and the only healer is the Holy Savior.

And this is all done through the cross. God gives us a glimpse of this in Isaiah 53:5, “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” This man who is talked boat here, will be pierced and crushed for us , and will bringing healing through it on every level that humanity needs it. From the disease of sin and waywardness, to the seen and unseen hurts that plague us.

So when we fast forward to Jesus what do we see in his life? Healings abound. Out of the fifty-two (52) times healing is mentioned in the Gospels, Jesus is referenced fifty-two (52) of those times. And Jesus heals in all sorts of ways. In Matthew 8:7-13, Jesus meets a centurion and we get this interaction, “7 Jesus said to him, ‘Shall I come and heal him?’ 8 The centurion replied, 'Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.” In response we’re told, “Jesus said to the centurion, ‘Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.’ And his servant was healed at that moment.”

So we see Jesus doesn’t need anything but a word to heal. But he also uses, mud and spit (Mark 7:33; 8:23; John 9:6-15) to heal the eyes and tongues. His cloak healed a woman (Luke 8:47), and time and time again he healed with a touch.

But people are not passive in these healings. Just like in the Old Testament were obedience is linked to healing, there is an element of faith in the New Testament healings as well. Jesus says to people, like the woman in Mathew 15:28, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.” But was it her faith that healed her, or her trust in the one who did the healing? A misconception that we can have is, I just need more faith to be healed, as faith is what heals us. But in reality, it’s Jesus himself, the Holy Savior who heals. They trusted Jesus to heal, not their own faith, and the Holy Savior healed. This is why in John 12:40, Jesus, quoting from Isaiah 44:8, speaks of himself as the Healing God, “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.”

And it’s this same connection of Jesus being the Holy Healing Savior that Peters links in Acts 4:10 when he himself was the instrument God used to heal and he tells the people, “let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well.”

And so the instruments that Jesus uses to heal are varied and never formulaic, but they’re always from the same place, the Holy Healing Savior God. And so we don’t even see the name of Jesus being used in healing until Acts 9:34, when Peter says,“…Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed.’ And immediately he rose.”

Because it’s not a formula that we can learn to make God heal, he heals in accordance with his purposes. This was actually the insight we get with the question the disciples raised to Jesus when a crippled man came before him in John 9:2-3, “2 And his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ 3 Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.’”

So healings are done by the will of God for the purposes of God, and there’s nothing that guarantees healing, and so we must trust God in all things, which is what our faith is based on. So when we seek healings, our primary desire is for the will and purposes of God to be displayed in us. If the healing brings God glory we should desire it; if not being healed brings God glory, we should desire that. 

This is the point of Jesus’ interaction with the ten lepers in Luke 17. Jesus heals ten men of leprosy with just a word and yet, only one came back to praise God (v.11-19). God is worthy of our praise, and whether he heals or not, he is still deserves it. 

But there is instruction that we are given in a broad sense of seeking healing from God within the Church. James 5:13-16 states, “13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”

As believers, if we are desiring healing from God, there is confession that we need to make, so that we are in a right place with God. Because, a right relationship with God is the most important thing that God wants for us. This means that we are okay with whatever God has for us, whether healing or not. Secondly we need the prayer of righteous people, and the Elders of a local body of believers is the place to start. 

Don’t take this as a formula though, but rather as a place to start walking in obedience, which as we saw in the Old Testament was what God called his people to do if they wanted healing. Obedience, trusting God, and healing walk closely together. But even if you have all the obedience in the world, all the faith, and you trust God with all your heart, sometimes God gives no healing, because there is purpose within the hurt, especially for his people. This is one of the points of Job’s story.

Finally the last place in the Bible that mentions healing is Revelation 22:2-5, “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”

The ultimate healing is still ahead. It happens when all the corruption of sin in this world is done away with and in it’s place is the new heavens and new earth, and we enter into eternity with the Holy Healing Saving God. So when a believer passes away, they have entered into perfect healing. So at the passing of a believer, we sorrow for our lost of their presence, but were rejoice that they have a perfect healing and their pain as ceased. And that perfect healing awaits the entire creation when the Holy Saving God returns for his people. But more on that next week.

My challenge for you this week is to walk in obedience. If you are desiring a healing from God I implore you to follow God’s instruction. First confess. There tends to be sins that we know we struggle with that we allow to go unchecked in our lives, let’s be honest with them and seek God’s work in those areas. That’s the sanctification aspect of our relationship. We should be seeking his sanctifying work first and foremost. Then once you have confessed, ask the elders to pray over you and anoint you with oil. We are always willing to do so, because that’s one of the things God has called us to.

But let us not seek healing for healing sake, but that our God would be gloried through it. Amen.

A Fourfold Gospel Series Week 2 - “The Sanctifier”

I don’t know about you, but I have a particular way I like the dishes to be done. I have a mistrust of any dishwashing machine, and so I make sure that every dish that goes into a dishwasher is completely rinsed. See I didn’t grow up with a machine that washed dishes, so I had to wash them by hand. And up to about a four years ago, in my marriage, I was the primary dishwasher, because I wanted to make sure they got done right. Then as our kids got older and it became time for them to start learning how to wash dishes, we instructed them how to do it too. 

Except they tend leave food on the dishes and don’t put them in the dishwasher correctly. My process is, on the lower rack, big plates go the furthest away from me from the sink, going down to small plates in the center, and then back up to big plates. This is because of the spinner in the middle that gets the top rack. But because food doesn’t always get rinsed at the sink, my wife has instructed the kids to start using the scrubber to get the food off. And we’re almost at the point of doing two cleaning cycles now, one by hand and one by machine, just to make sure they get cleaned. Because, I don’t know how you feel about it, but one of my pet peeves is grabbing a cup, plate, or utensil and there being food on it. If it’s not completely clean, there have been times when I’ve actually lost my appetite because of it.

And it’s this idea of cleaning that brings us back to our Fourfold Gospel series where we’re looking at the four pillars of what drives the Alliance to do what it does. These four pillars are not unique to the Alliance, and we’re not looking at the history behind why the Alliance chose to emphasis these four, but rather how these four are overarching themes contained within the Scriptures. 

And so last week we looked at the first of these four pillars, Jesus the Savior. We walked through the Bible showing how it clearly shows that humanity is in a corrupted state and in need of a Savior. Scripture also shows that the God of the Bible is the only Savior and because of that, he has to come down to earth and died on behalf of humanity. Jesus is raised back to new life by the Father as a result of of his perfect sacrifice. Now anyone who would put their trust in him and who would follow him, are moved from the path of eternal death, to the path of eternal life. This is what it means that Jesus is Savior. 

This first pillar has to be understood, because everything that follows relies on this first one to be firmly in focus. We can’t have the next three without comprehending the first. Without Jesus as Savior, the next neither make sense, nor can they occur. 

The second pillar in our Fourfold Gospel series is that Jesus is Sanctifier. Once a person puts their trust in Jesus, they are justified. This means that as far as God is concerned, our corruption and sin has been dealt with. Psalm 103:12 states it like this, “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” That’s poetic language for, God’s dealt with you sin, it’s gone. And because your in this justified state, God has plans for you. Last week we touched on this when we read Ephesians 2:10, “10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

The greatest work we talked about was sharing of the Gospel. God created us, we sinned, Jesus provided the way out, and when you trust in him, your sins are forgiven and you will experience eternal life.

But there’s more to it than that. God’s work in us is just beginning. See, if you were to accept Jesus as your Savior right now, there may or may not be a noticeable change. There’s an eternal change, but a temporal change right at that moment, may or may not occur. There are people that say they have quit smoking the moment they accepted God. Or quit drinking, or finally forgave someone at the moment they were justified. In my experience, those are the exception to the rule, not the rule itself. Most people feel the same. They might experience a rush of joy, I felt that, but the vices are still there. And if we do not seek discipleship from a local church body, that joy can be squashed, and those vices can take hold. That was my story. I couldn’t find a local youth group, and my early passion for God was hampered, and my habits of sin reared their head again.

That’s what we’re talking about today. See the day you accept Jesus, eternity awaits, but until that day that God calls you home, he has work in you. The rest if our lives are transforming us into the people God always intended us to be.

Let’s take the story of Israel to get a better idea of what this is. See God saved Israel from Egypt and brought them out to a mountain in the wilderness. There he told them this in Exodus 19:5-6, “5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation…”

God created humanity to be holy. That word holy [qadosh (kaw-doshe)] means to be set a part. It carries with it the idea of being removed from sin and placed into righteousness. Or we could say that it removes us from rebellion to obedience. From chaos to peace. It also carries with it the removal of infirmities and impurities, but we’ll get into that part next week.

And the reason why God intended us to be holy is because he is holy. In Leviticus 11:45, God says of himself, “45 For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”

In the first five book so the Bible, when we and Israel are getting to know who God is, holiness is brought up roughly one-hundred and seventy-two (172) times. Love, on the other hand is brought up only fifty-two times (52).

In our society, we tend to think of God as being love. Which he is, but God never says directly, I am love, rather it is stated about him that he is love by those who are being loved on by him. When he does speak of his love, it’s in an action way. But he does say of himself that he is holy. Holiness is the foundation of everything God is. It’s what drives his creation to be perfect, it’s what drives his opposition to sin, it’s what drives his love and sacrifice on the cross. The love of God cannot be downplayed, but that love is based on the holiness that he is. And it’s because he is holy, that we are to be too.

  So when we fast forward to the work of Jesus, we see that Jesus too, is holy. In an encounter Jesus had we see this interaction in Mark 1:23-25, “23 And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, 24 ‘What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.’ 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be silent, and come out of him!’” These were demons who recognized Jesus as being God in the flesh and they called him by the title the Holy One of God.

Later on, after Jesus rose from the dead and sent his disciples out to share the Gospel, Peter said this in Acts 3:13-15, when addressing the Jewish people, "The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. 14 But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.” Peter is specifically drawing a connection to Jesus’ title of Holy One, adding Righteous as an emphasis to it, and his Godhood by calling him the Author of Life. In other words, like we said last week, Jesus wasn’t just a regular man, but the Holy God who created the universe, come down to his creation as a willing sacrifice to bring us out of sin and back into his holiness. 

When we accept Jesus as our Savior, we are brought into his holiness. Whereas justification is a one and done moment in the believer’s life, making us holy is a process. It’s bringing us into a position where we recognize what God already sees. He sees us through the lens of Jesus’ work on our behalf, which is our eternal state.

This work is called sanctification, which is the the New Testaments way of saying to make holy. To be sanctified is literally to be made holy. It’s a process. And so Jesus states in John 17:17, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”

Paul picks this up when he talks about husbands and wives in Ephesians 5:25-27, “25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”

And the writer of Hebrews mentions it in chapters 9 and 13 when connecting what Christ did to the sacrifices of the Old Testament, “12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God (9:12-14).”

“For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. 13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured (13:11-13).”

And so the sanctification process, or the life long work of God in us to be holy as he is holy, is the good works God has prepared for us to do. When we trust in Jesus as our Savior, that’s a one time event that moves forward into a lifetime of moments that transform us into the people God intended us to be. Peter says it like this is in his first letter. “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’ 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. 22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 24 for ‘All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord remains forever’ And this word is the good news that was preached to you (1:13-25).”

So what does that look like and what’s the end goal?

Well Paul puts it this way in Colossians 3:12-17, “Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

The sanctification process produces God’s compassion in us. His kindness, humility, and patience. Giving grace instead of hate, forgiving others instead of begrudging them. Seeking peace instead of strife, bringing unity in God’s Church instead of division. Being thankful instead being greedy. And building others up, instead of tearing them down. It’s fulfilling Jesus’ words in Mark 12:30-31, “30 'And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

And the end result is what Paul states in Romans 8:29, “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”

We are to act just as Jesus our Savior acted. Walking in the holy righteousness of God and becoming more and more like the person the Father sees us as through Jesus. Each believer is on this road, being drawn closer to the image of Jesus, the image that was marred by sin, but was restored through Jesus’ work on the cross.

But here’s the reality, too often those in the Church have not sought this work of God in their lives. We too often fall into sayings like, “I’m only human,” or “I’m a sinner.” But we don’t realize that the Holy Spirit of God dwells inside every believer, working in us to bring about the holiness God already sees. To say we are only human is to discount God’s perfect creation, where original setting for humanity was to walk in holiness without being indwelled by the Holy Spirit, so how much should we accomplish now that we are indwelled?! 

And to say that I am a sinner is to allow sin to continue to reign in our lives. No! Sin’s power has been broken, let us not seek to allow it to shackle us again. We are saints saved by grace. Instead, when we falter in our walk with God, we should be humble, seeking forgiveness from him and from those whom we have sinned against. 

The biggest problem with the Church is that the people of God tend to be too lazy to take their calling of holy lives seriously. If we are to be set apart from the world, why do we continue to do as the world does? Instead, let’s take those things the world presents to us and show them to God, asking him, should I do this or not? That’s what it means to have a relationship with the God of the universe. And in doing so, we give room for our brothers and sisters to exercise their relationships too. Because from some of us, we must abstain from certain things, but for others, God has given freedom in them. Instead of looking on in judgment, we are to encourage others to seek God through the Scriptures. 

Because it’s in them that we will be sanctified. In fact, what we read from the Scriptures today tells us that through the blood of Jesus and through the Word of the Scriptures, are we sanctified. The process starts on the cross, where Jesus’ blood was shed, and continues daily in the life of the believer who reads and puts into practice the Word of God.

And so I have two challenges for you. First, we need to be heartbroken over sin. Over that sin that lingers habitually in us, which should spur us onto seeking the Holy Spirit’s work ever greater; but also heartbroken over the sin in the world, that keeps others in bondage. As we come closer to Jesus, we are being made holy, and that holiness should drive our love for people that they too would know their Savior.

So on a personal level, I want to challenge you with the passage that, in my opinion is the foundation of the practical sanctification work, Matthew 7:1-5. Jesus states, “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.”

Here Jesus directs us to seeking God to remove any logs in our eyes, which are sins that are clearly seen by others, but we are blind to. When we seek the Holy Spirit to deal with the sin in our own lives, we can then help others in their walks as well. But if we are not addressing those sins God is pointing out in us, we cannot hope to help another, and we’ll just come off as judgmental and not heartbroken. 

We, who have put our trust in Jesus as Savior, are to be holy, and when the Church seeks holiness, God is glorified and the world sees that transformative work of Jesus. Let us be a holy people, because our God is a holy God. Amen.

A Fourfold Gospel Series Week 1 - “The Savior”

  Today, I hope that you will leave here uncomfortable and determined. We’re starting a new four week series, called the The Fourfold Gospel. See in the Alliance, we have a way of presenting the Gospel of Jesus in four aspects. Christ our Savior, Christ our Sanctifier, Christ our Healer, and Christ our Coming King.

These things are not unique to the Alliance, but this is a part of our heritage as a denomination and what motivates us to get out into the world and share Jesus with people. It’s on the global Alliance logo, where each symbol represents one of these four aspects of the Gospel message, which are then put on top of a globe. 

In the next four weeks, I’m not going to go into the history of each, in the sense of how they were integrated into the Alliance’s heritage, but rather how these four aspects run through the whole of Scripture. And because they are at the very core of the Gospel, we’ll also address how they are to impact us today. This isn’t going to be a series on how good the Alliance is compared to other denominations or ministries, but rather, we are using this Alliance idea as a jumping off point as to why you and I should take seriously the call of God on our lives when we are to be witnesses of what he has done in us.

So today, I hope that you will leave here uncomfortable and determined that God has called you to a great purpose, to join in his life saving work.

One of my favorite things to do is people watch, and try to figure out who they are by the clothes they wear, and their interactions with those who they’re with. If you do the same, do you create stories about how they must have traveled from x to see x because of x? Or maybe they’re just starting a budding romance. Or maybe they’re just tired parents because the kids are just needing a nap. 

Lately, people watching for me has changed. In the past, the questions in my head have swirled around what got them to this moment that I’m observing. But lately my thoughts are, how is God seeking them? In what way is God using his people to reach out to this husband, wife, mother, father, child with the Gospel message. And, should I say something?

See Jesus states in Luke 19:10 that, “…the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” 

And so, as a disciple of Jesus, I ask, Jesus how are you seeking to save this lost person?

This is the overarching theme of Scripture, that God is the Savior. In Isaiah 43:11, God states, “I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior.” The Bible makes clear that there is only one Savior, and that’s Yahweh. The God who created Adam from dirt and Eve from a rib. He is the God that called Noah to an ark, and Abraham to the land of Canaan. Yahweh is the God who called Moses to bring his people out of Egypt, and Joshua to conquer a land of milk and honey. This God is the one who spoke prophecies of blessing and calamities. And unlike the gods made into wooden idols, Yahweh is true and living; he brings blessings, stands against injustice, and grants peace to those in storms. 

But why does he call himself savior? Is it because he seeks to protect people from physical, or emotional harm? Yes, but it goes deeper than that. 

The ill of humanity is not as simple as a physical hurt, or an emotional scar; it goes deeper than that. Psalm 14:1-3 tells us, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.' They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good. 2 The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. 3 They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.”

This corruption is at the heart of the reason God is Savior. It’s humanity’s corruption or what God’s word says is sin. Sin is the distortion and rebellion of humanity against God’s original design for his creation. It’s the distortion truth into a lie. It’s the distortion of life with murder. It’s the distortion of trust with theft. It’s the distortion of purpose into chaos. It’s the distortion of holiness into wickedness. And it’s the distortion of love into hatred.

And when we choose to participate in lies, theft, murdering in our heart with anger, or the myriad of other things that distort God’s original intent for his creation, we engage in that corruption and sin, and add to the evil that’s in the world. 

The Bible tells the story of the first human sin. It was the belief of a lie against God’s truth. And every time we sin, we agree that given the opportunity we would have done the exact same thing those people did, if give the chance.

And so sin leads to the opposite of what God intended for his humans. God intended that they would experience a physical life that was eternally connected with him through their reliance on him. But in their rebellion to choose that which he did not intend, or to say it another way, they chose to try and say they knew a better way, separate from God, that access to eternal life was taken away. Because if they had access to eternal life in their corrupted state, there would be no saving. Evil would continue, not just for a little while, but for all eternity. So God moved into action. And so, sin ends in death, both in a physical and spiritual sense. This is why, in Romans 6:23, we’re told, “For the wages of sin is death…"

So all of humanity is headed for this place of death. A death not just that ends when you close your eyes for the final time, but an eternal death. Because we were meant to be eternal, and so eternity awaits us. And this eternal death that awaits is not a decaying body, as if we were a mummy wrapped in cloth, but a conscious understanding that we are separated from God forever unable to regain even the hint of joy, or peace, or love that we have in snippets here on earth.

It’s a said state, and so God tells us in Ezekiel 33:11, “…As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live…”

And in 2 Peter 3:9 were told of God, that, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

The greatest misconception of who God is, is that people tend to think that he is foaming at the mouth, hoping we mess up so that he can punish us. But it reality it is more like a parent weeping that their child was kidnapped. To use humans terms, God’s heart breaks as he watches his creation fall ever further into the corruption of sin and destiny of death.

This is why God is Savior. Because God doesn’t just leave us to our own eternal deaths. He seeks to save those who are lost in corruption and sin. He seeks to give a new path for those who are a path of death.

This is where Jesus comes into the mix. In the eternal nature of God, there are three persons. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit. All at once God, and all at once unique within the being that is reveled to us as God. 

It is the Son who willingly descends to the earth at the purpose of the Father. Where sin entered humanity by that first person so long ago, sin’s power over humanity can be broken by one as well. And so, Jesus begins to forgive sins, but the religious leaders scoff at this, because they know, only God can do that. So Jesus states in Matthew 9:6, “‘But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, he then said to the paralytic, ‘Rise, pick up your bed and go home.’” That crippled man stood up in their presence, showing that this Jesus was God come down. 

And because Jesus was God come down, he was the path to which one would need to follow to leave the destiny of sin behind. And so Jesus stated things like this in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus’ path, his teaching, his work, that’s what one must follow to escape the destiny of death that sin holds over every human. But it’s not just following teachings. There are teachings that are similar to Jesus’ because they are truths that come from the creation itself. Love instead of hate, mercy instead of power. These are things many people can see as virtuous, but death is an all consuming black hole and needs something to satisfy it. And since there was rebellion, there must be a punishment given. 

And so were told, in Hebrews 9:22, “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” It’s not just Jesus’ teachings that we must follow, but his sacrifice on our behalf. Death owns us because of sin. We deserve it because we participate in the corruption of God’s perfect creation. So what does God do? He steps in. Jesus not only teaches the perfect way of God, he lived, and then he died for it. But here’s the problem, death only comes to those who sin. It only comes to those who participated in the corruption. Yet those that knew Jesus declared that, “in him there is no sin (1 John 3:5).” So why did he die? That’s the sacrifice, death needed a sacrifice that could quench its eternal hunger. That’s why God descended, the eternal satisfied death’s appetite, but because he had no sin of his own, death could not hold him. His sacrifice broke death, and at the same time was a pleasing payment for the rebellion of humanity. 

God himself fix the problem we found ourselves in. This is why Jesus’ closest disciple, Peter, declared in Acts 4:11-12, “11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Jesus’ teaching, his life, his sacrificial death, and his resurrection all open the path for those who would accept to move from death to life. 

But that’s the issue, the path away from the corruption of sin and the destiny of death has been blazed by Jesus, but we have to accept it. See the Bible states in Romans 10:9, “…if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

To confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord is to recognize that Jesus is God. See in the world that the writer of Romans is in, people would declare Cesar as Lord. Meaning that they believed Cesar was like a god himself, and that what he said was right and true. The writer of Romans, Paul, is saying, no Jesus is God himself and what Jesus said is right and true. So you must recognize that Jesus has come down to save. That means you accept that God created this world, that you have sinned, and are in need of Jesus the Savior. 

That leads to the second part, to believe in you heart that God raised him from the dead means, that you accept Jesus’ sacrifice for you. That without it, you’re destined for death, but you accept that Jesus died for you to forgive all your sins and bring you into eternal life, a life that starts at the rising of Jesus from the dead.

And this acceptance then moves you from being a child wrath to a child of God (Ephesians 2:3ff). A citizen of darkness to a citizen of heaven. But always to remember what is said in Ephesians 2, “8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (v. 8-10).”

You see we did nothing in this process except that we accepted the gift of Jesus’ work. But in doing so, we are now tasked with sharing that same message with everyone whom God brings into our lives to share it with.

And that’s were it gets uncomfortable. Does God want the Family in the suburbs to hear this message that they might be saved? Yes! Does he want the family in the lands of Africa to hear this message and be saved? Yes! Does he want the senior couple driving their RV to hear this message? Yes! Does he want the homeless person to hear this message? Yes! Does he want the Trump supporter to hear this message? Yes! Does he want the Antifa follower to hear this message? Yes! How about the little children? How about the Taliban fighter? How about the gender dysphoric? How about the Chinese Communist? Or the Buddhist monk? What about the homosexual couple? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! 

No matter who you are, no matter what the ethnic, political, social, sexual, economic or whatever else background you have, you need the message of Jesus. That we are separated from him by sin, but he is loving and comes to us to die for us that we may live for him. And that our life turns away from what he calls sin and embraces his teachings. But it all starts with a moment where we agree with him, I have sinned and am destined for eternal death, therefore I accept that I cannot fix it, but Jesus lived the perfect life, and died that I might live. I call him Lord because he is God, and I believe that he resurrected because his sacrifice covers my sin. I will now follow him, allowing his word to change me until the day he calls me home.

If you have never accept Jesus as your Savior, this is what it means. This what we teach, because it’s what he taught us. I was a sinner lost in death, and only the free gift of Jesus’ sacrifice could save me from that destiny. I accepted that fact and now I know I’ll spend eternity with him. Jesus is calling you who are still in sin to not go into that eternal destiny, Jesus is seeking the lost, and we’re following his lead. And so I ask and plead with you do not go another day without coming to know Jesus as your Savior, because tomorrow is not guaranteed and eternity is just one breath away.

But if you have accepted Jesus as your Savior I want to challenge you that in your bulletin there was a random picture placed in it. I want you to pray for the people in that area. Whether it be the Antifa member, the suburban family, the homosexual couple or whoever. Pray that the message of Jesus would get out to that group, that people would turn from sin and come to know Jesus as their Savior. (If you’re reading this, take one of these listed above and begin to pray for them)

This is what the Christian and Missionary Alliance is about, getting the message that Jesus is Savior out to the world. Let us, no matter our denomination or ministry background, take the call of Jesus to share his saving work seriously and follow him in it. Amen.