Josh Benner

Category: Faith

  • Jesus and sabbath controversies

    Jesus and sabbath controversies

    Honoring the Sabbath and keeping it Holy is in the Ten Commandments. Specifically, it’s the fourth commandment found in Exodus 20. When the command is given in Exodus, the basis for this command goes back to creation. 

    Exodus 20:11: 

     For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. 

    The Sabbath is important. 

    Throughout much of Israel’s history, they had not taken the Sabbath as seriously as they should have. 

    In the prophets, their failure to keep the Sabbath is pointed to as a symptom of their sin and lack of devotion to God. 

    In Ezekiel 20:10-26, Israel’s profaning of the Sabbath is looked at as a direct cause of their downfall. 

    In Amos 8:5, the Israelites are judged for their half-hearted Sabbath observance and their regular desire to have the Sabbath conclude so that they can resume pursuing their own ends and their own goals. 

    We see a similar idea at the beginning of the Book of Isaiah. The Israelites are half-hearted in their pursuit of God. And their Sabbath observance is mentioned in Isaiah 1:13: 

    13 Bring no more vain offerings; 

    incense is an abomination to me. 

    New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— 

    I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. 

    Half-heartedly going through the motions is looked upon by God as vain.

    He wants true, genuine worship. 

    As we’ve talked about on numerous occasions, in the Old Testament, Israel is eventually judged by God and they lose their land. 

    When the southern kingdom was able to return to their land, they attempted to learn from their past sins in the final centuries before Christ. 

    Here’s something you might not have known. 

    In the gospels, you have Jesus constantly interacting with the Pharisees. But where are they in the Old Testament? They’re not there. 

    Or think about rabbis. Where does the Old Testament ever talk about someone going to their rabbi? 

    It doesn’t. 

    It was after the Israelites had lost the land and returned from exile that these institutions arose. 

    And part of the goal was a return to the law. 

    They wanted to learn from history and learn from their past sins as a people, and so one of the cultural responses was a hyper-sensitivity to the Law of the Old Testament. 

    The Law was good. Romans 7:12 tells us that the Law is holy. 1 Timothy 1:8 tells us that the Law is good if used properly. 

    But in an effort to make sure that they followed the Law, they added rules that were not Biblical onto the Biblical Law as a way of trying to ensure adherence. 

    By the first century, Jewish tradition had listed 39 different activities which were prohibited on the Sabbath. 

    In some schools of thought, adherence to the Sabbath was more important than life and death.

    And so for this man who has just been healed, for him to move his bed is looked upon as a violation of the Sabbath because that’s viewed as technically being work. 

    They’re missing sight of what Jesus has just done for this man. 

    The religious establishment tells this man that it is not lawful for him to pick up his bed and carry it on the Sabbath. 

    But according to who’s law? It’s according to their interpretation not to a specific command of scripture. 

    The Sabbath command in the Old Testament relates to work. This man isn’t doing work. He’s simply picking up his belongings after being healed. He’s not committing a sin here. 

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  • Abram and Lot. Studying Genesis 13

    Abram and Lot. Studying Genesis 13

    Genesis 13 begins with Abraham moving from Egypt into the Negeb. Abraham’s nephew Lot was absent from the previous event in chapter 12 and as chapter 13 begins, even Abraham’s possessions are mentioned before Lot. In chapter 13, we will see a significant confrontation between the patriarch in his nephew. 

    Genesis 13:1: 

    So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the Negeb. 

    In chapter 12, Abraham and his wife Sarah had traveled ot Egypt. It was there that Abraham became fearful for his life and concocted a misleading story where Sarah would tell Pharaoh that she was Abraham’s sister instead of his wife. 

    Pharaoh falls for the ruse. Perhaps unexpected by Abraham, but Pharaoh takes Sarah to be his own wife. Thinking that Abraham is Sarah’s brother, Pharaoh pays a bride price to him. 

    In Genesis 12:16, we see all that Pharaoh gave to Abraham: 

    for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels. 

    So because of the deception, Abraham is enriched. The Bible doesn’t condone that fact, it’s just recording what happened. Later in chapter 12, Pharaoh learns that Sarah is actually Abraham’s wife and banishes them from Egypt.

    Chapter 12 ends in verse 20: 

    And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had. 

    Notice that it says that they were sent away with all that he had, meaning all that Pharaoh had given him. So he’s traveling heavy in Genesis 13. 

    Genesis 13:2: 

    Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. 

    Homecoming

    Abraham returns to the Negeb and it’s an area with which he was familiar. The passage reminds us that this was the palace where he had been an altar to the Lord after God had made his covenant promises to Abraham at the beginning of chapter 12. 

    Genesis 13:3-4: 

    3 And he journeyed on from the Negeb as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, 4 to the place where he had made an altar at the first. And there Abram called upon the name of the Lord.

    Too much wealth

    Abraham arrives back at Bethel much richer than he had been when he had left. And there’s a unique problem. Abraham and Lot each have so much wealth and such large flocks that the land where they’re staying isn’t big enough for the two of them. 

    13:5-6:

    5 And Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, 6 so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together; for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together

    We see this same challenge in other places in the Book of Genesis, such as between Jacob and Esau in Genesis 36:6-8:

     6 Then Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the members of his household, his livestock, all his beasts, and all his property that he had acquired in the land of Canaan. He went into a land away from his brother Jacob. 7 For their possessions were too great for them to dwell together. The land of their sojournings could not support them because of their livestock. 8 So Esau settled in the hill country of Seir. (Esau is Edom.) 

    We don’t see conflict specifically from Abraham and Lot but we do see conflicts between their herdsmen. Genesis 13:7: 

    7 and there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land. 

    Ironically, Abraham and Lot are able to dwell in the land of the Canaanites and the Perizzites peacefully but they can’t coexist amongst themselves. And they’re family! 

    Making peace

    A situation that could have potentially gotten very contentious gets smoothed over by Abraham. 

    Genesis 13:8-9:

    8 Then Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen. 9 Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.”

    This event in chapter 13 is a striking contrast from Abraham’s actions in chapter 12. 

    In chapter 12, we see Abraham act out in fear and show a lack of faith as he worries that his life is at risk for his marriage with Sarah. 

    Here in chapter 13, we see the faith of Abraham as he allows Lot to pick the land first. Being the elder in the family, Abraham should have had the greater influence but he freely gives that up to keep the peace. We also see tremendous faith in dealing with the land. In spite of the promises of God, Abraham was willing to allow Lot to choose his land first. 

    It’s speculation, but perhaps a part of the change is that Abraham has returned to the land where the Lord had made the promise and where Abraham had built an altar to the Lord. Abraham is in closer proximity to the sacred place of the Lord. 

    The unpromised land

    10 And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11 So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed east. Thus they separated from each other.

    -Genesis 13:10-11

    It’s hard to fault Lot too much. He was given first pick and so he picks the land that looks good to him. It makes sense. Ultimately, we will see that he did not pick the best land. Sometimes what appears to us to be good, isn’t what we thought it was. 

    Verse 10 talks of Lot seeing the land. It’s the same Hebrew word that gets used when Eve looks on the forbidden fruit in the garden. This verse also compares the land to a garden of the Lord. It’s using Edenic language. Lot has picked the land that looks like paradise, but the verse ends by foreshadowing Sodom and Gomorrah. 

    Sodom will be mentioned again in verses 12-13. This is an initial indicator that the land which Lot has chosen might not be so great. 

    12 Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom. 13 Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord. 

    In verses 14-15, we see that the Lord has not forgotten Abraham. 

    14 The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, 15 for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.

    Abraham is standing in the land that God will give to him and his offspring. As Christians, we know the rest of the story. But try to think about it from Abraham’s perspective. He’s been told something incredible, and still just has the promise of God to believe in. During his lifetime, Abraham will only own a small piece of land in the Promised Land. But it’s not just about Abraham. It’s about the people who would inherit the land and the God who would fulfill that promise. 

    The Lord reiterates the promises that he had made to Abraham. Land but also offspring. Verse 16:

    16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.

    As the passage concludes, Abraham is moving about in the land the Lord has promised. 

     17 Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” 18 So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord. 

    What looked like it had the potential to be a significant crisis ends up being a display of God’s amazing grace and blessings. 

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  • Rescued from the present evil age. Galatians 1:3-5

    Rescued from the present evil age. Galatians 1:3-5

    On a January afternoon in 2003, a father and his son walked through a local park in the city of Twin Lakes, Wisconsin. Twin Lakes sits on the border of Illinois and Wisconsin. As you’d expect for a day in the middle of January, it was cold. The  temperatures were well below freezing. 

    To that point in the season, there had been relatively little snowfall and so the nearby sledding hill, which was often frequented by local children, sat empty. That fact perhaps made it all the more unlikely that a father and his son would be in the right place at the right time. 

    As they were walking, they came to an outdoor porta potty where they felt like they heard something. It was a whimpering or whining sound. To what must have been their absolute shock, when they opened the door, wrapped in a canvas bag, they found a baby boy. 

    All alone in that bathroom, exposed to the cold, there was no way the child would have survived if he hadn’t been found.

    Because of sin, the whole world is in a desperate situation which will bring death and from which we cannot save ourselves. And just like that baby boy who was found in that Wisconsin bathroom, we too can only know salvation through the intervention of a father. And a son. 

    In Galatians 1:3-5, the Apostle Paul will talk of how Jesus has rescued a sinful world from the present evil age. 

    Verse 3:

    3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,

    The mention of grace and peace is standard in Paul’s opening greetings. He mentions grace and peace at the beginning of all of his letters. 

    Those two words are packed with theological meaning. 

    Grace is the unmerited favor of God that he grants to us because of the gospel. Grace is a gift. It’s something that we cannot earn or deserve.

    And because of grace, there is peace made with God. The ordering matters. It is grace and then, because of grace, there is peace. 

    That grace and peace does not come from ourselves, but as Paul says, the source of it is from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 

    In three verses, Paul has pointed both to the resurrection from the dead of Jesus and now he points to the Lordship of Jesus. For Christians reading this letter today, it can be easy to take these facts for granted, to read over them pretty quickly. But Paul is making important statements about Jesus, especially when we remember that people were undermining the gospel to these Galatian churches. But really, it’s just as important for us to remember what Paul is saying here because there are people in our own time and in our own society who undermine and distort the gospel. 

    Today, people so often will acknowledge that Jesus really existed but then totally disregard the reality of who he is. So many people love a few moral teachings of Jesus here or there but get real quiet when the exclusivity of Christ gets mentioned. 

    It’s really easy to be a cultural Christian. But are you a Christ-centered Christian? 

    And Paul will say much more about Jesus in verse 4. 

    Now before we look at this verse, I want you to ask yourself this question: “Is this what I truly believe?” Because Paul is pointing to the gospel. 

    Talking about Jesus, he says:

    4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,

    There are three significant things which Paul reveals in this verse. 

    Jesus gives himself for our sins.

    This is something that Jesus himself talks about during his ministry. 

    Mark 10:45:

    the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” 

    That is sacrificial language. Sacrifice points to a cost of forgiveness. In the Old Testament, you couldn’t just sacrifice any old thing. It had to be animals without blemish. It was literally costly. It was also an act of faith to trust that the Lord would still provide, even when you had made the sacrifice. 

    It points to God’s requirement for holiness and necessity of atonement. Most significantly, the sacrifices in the Old Testament pointed to a greater sacrifice that is fulfilled in Christ. 

    Hebrews 10:12-14 says: 

    when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

    I could not pay the cost for my sins. You could not pay the cost for your sins. We could not make it right. But Jesus could. On the cross. 

    Some hear that message and are offended by it. They don’t think that they need Jesus. They think “I never asked him to die for me,” why is that necessary? Why couldn’t a gracious God just forgive us? 

    Because in a righteous savior going to the cross, being sacrificed for our sins, Jesus is showing us just how costly our sin is. 

    And this is a point to which Paul will build up in Galatians. Chapter 3, verse 13, Paul says: 

    Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”

    Now again, some will be repulsed by that message.But even among those who believe that Jesus died to forgive sinners, people have different views of how to respond to that. 

    Some treat that as a justification or license to sin. “We’re forgiven. Love, love, love. Jesus is love. He loves you.” 

    The problem is that too many people want salvation without the savior. 

    To deliver us from the present evil age

    The text continues: 

    To deliver us from the present evil age. 

    The Greek word that translated as “deliver” here can also mean “rescue.” I think that’s perhaps a more helpful way of reading this verse. English Bible translations are somewhat evenly split on “deliver” vs “rescue” here. 

    At the cross, Jesus has rescued us. We were helpless and dead in sin. 

    Roller Coaster

    I read a story this about a rollercoaster that got stuck at an amusement park in California in 2016. 21 riders were trapped 148 feet up in the air. 

    The ride could not be lowered. Fire Crews were called and got a ladder. 

    Guess what? 

    The ladder wasn’t tall enough!

    Rescue crews had to go into the ride with a harness. One by one, they took out each passenger and had to manually lower them the 148 feet to the ground.

    They rescued them. Those people were not saving themselves. They weren’t getting down by themselves. Without a rescuer, they were hopeless. 

    We were hopeless at the height of our sins when Jesus came to our rescue. 

    But as I said, many want the salvation without the savior. 

    Present evil age

    Now there are many things which Jesus rescues us from. The wrath of God, the penalty of our sins, but he also has rescued us, as the text says, from the present evil age. 

    The present evil age is the state of the fallen world. 

    Jewish theology had the idea of two ages where there would be a new age that would be greater than the present age. This idea gets picked up in the New Testament. Jesus makes several references to a distinction between ages. 

    In one sense, that new age has already been realized because of the cross. In Christ, we are forgiven, we have Spiritual blessings, we have an inheritance through Jesus. What’s more, we have a reason for hope. And we have a citizenship which is in heaven. 

    But we still live in a world where there is still sin as people who have a dual citizenship. 

    Illustration: Pregnancy

    I think about when my wife was pregnant. In one sense, you’re already preparing for parenthood. Especially for the mother. You’re already having to make different lifestyle choices for the health of the baby. You’re making different decisions on spending, you’re thinking about the future. 

    It’s a time between two ages. There’s the period where you have no kids and the period where you have one, but in the pregnancy, there’s some overlap between the two times. 

    In Christ, we live in a period of overlap between the old and the new. 

    Where we are in a world that is fallen but with a new identity in Christ. Where we live in a world where there is sin, but where we have the hope of the gospel. Where we live in a world where there is still death but where we’ve been given the Holy Spirit. Where we still struggle with our own sins but where we have grace and peace. 

    When we want the salvation without the savior, we cheapen what Jesus has done. It’s not merely a matter of forgiveness so that we can just keep on sinning, but it’s a rescue from a world of sin. 

    Do you look at the gospel as a rescue mission? For the people trapped in the roller coaster, the rescue crew did not go up there to save them so they could stay on the ride. It was so that they could get out. 

    The world is dead in sin but the gospel promises us another world. 

    Jesus has given himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, the last part of verse 4 says: 

    according to the will of our God and Father

    It was the divine plan from all of eternity.

    It was the divine rescue that was the only way to rescue a sinful world from the present evil age. 

    It had to be a divine plan because sinful people could not create our own perfect future. We could not create a new age where we overcome disease and death, let alone sin. Because we continue to sin and the world is fallen, but we have a savior who has overcome the world. And he did that by giving himself for our sins. 

    The world is dead in sin but the gospel promises us another world. 

    The response to the gospel

    Verse 5. After Paul has talked about Jesus rescuing us according to the will of God the Father, Paul says: 

    5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. 

    To know the gospel, to know the forgiveness which is found in Christ is meant to cause a response of praise. 

    Now if you don’t believe in the gospel. If you don’t believe that Jesus has died for your sins. If you are not born again in Christ, then there is no reason for you to join in this response of praise. 

    Praise and giving glory to God follows from knowing you’re forgiven. 

    And the more we’re aware of our sin, the more heartfelt the praise. And the more we look to the cross, the more we can praise. And the more that we appreciate that we had been in need of rescue, the greater our praise. 

    to  whom be the glory forever and ever.

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  • Lessons in evangelism. Studying Acts 13:13-26

    Lessons in evangelism. Studying Acts 13:13-26

    Acts chronicles events in the early church. But something else very interesting that we see from Acts is that there are places where we see Paul’s introduction to certain regions to which he would later write the letters which comprise so much of the New Testament. We see it with Galatia in chapters 13 and 14. We see it with Philippi in Acts 16, to name a couple.

    Galatia was a province in Rome. It’s in the central part of modern day Turkey. 

    And Paul was traveling to cities in this Galatian region during his first missionary journey 

    This post is part of a series looking at Paul’s missionary journeys in Galatia.

    Paul arrives in Galatia

    In Acts 13:13 and 14, where we see them first arrive in the Galatian province:

    13 Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem, 14 but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia.

    The text says Paul and his companions. 

    Earlier in chapter 13, it had mentioned that Paul had been traveling with Barnabas and men named Simeon, Lycius, and Manaen. Later on, they were joined by the Apostle Mark (known in this passage as John).

    John Mark has left the group to go to Jerusalem. 

    Next, the verses talk about the route. They leave from Paphos.That’s on the island of Cyprus. They sail by boat to Perga which is in Pamphylia, which is also in the Galatian province. We’re not sure how long they stayed there or what type of ministry they might have engaged in. It gets mentioned in passing. 

    Next, they would have taken the Roman roads to get from Perga to Antioch. 

    And it is there where this book talks about Paul’s missionary activities in the Galatian region. Now we’re getting more into the meat of the story. 

    Second part of verse 14: 

    And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. 

    So Paul had been Jewish and converted to Christianity. In the Book of Acts, we see a tactic he often employed was beginning in a new city at the synagogue. Because Paul was ethnically and culturally Jewish, he understood Jewish society and customs. 

    Verse 15:

    15 After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.” 

    So he’s at the synagogue service. They’re doing their scripture readings and the Rabbi allows Paul to have the floor. This was often practiced in Jewish synagogues where if a traveling Rabbi or teacher was in attendance, that he would give a message. 

    We see Jesus do this multiple times during his ministry.Paul does the same thing here. 

    Paul preaches in Galatia 

    Paul will utilize the opportunity to talk about the Old Testament and how it points to a Son of David who would be the savior of Israel. 

    But first, he talks about the Exodus in verse 17-20. 

    In four verses, Paul covers 450 years of Israelite history. Giving a broad thumbnail sketch of their forefathers. 

     The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. 18 And for about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness.  19 And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. 20 All this took about 450 years.

    Paul stresses that the Israelites had been chosen by God and that it was the Lord himself who had miraculously brought them out of Egypt and led them through their time in the wilderness in pursuit of the Promised Land.  

    The audience knows exactly what Paul is talking about. 

    It would be like if I were telling you about the founding fathers and how they debated and agreed upon they Declaration of Independence in 1776. You know what I’m talking about. It’s at the core of our history. 

    Next, Paul talks about how Israel had a monarchy established. The first king of Israel was Saul and that ends up going poorly as Saul was not a Godly king but his reign paved the way for one who would be. 

    Starting in verse 22, Paul talks about David and this matters because this is where Paul will change his tone and transition into talking about the gospel. 

    For the audience, they’re right there with him so far. He’s preaching to the choir. 

    Verse 22:

    22 And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’ 

    Paul arrives at David. The man after God’s heart. And in our passage, Paul says to this synagogue in Galatia: 

    23 Of this man’s offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised.

    There was a prophecy in 2 Samuel 7:12-14 about a future offspring from the line of David who would establish an eternal kingdom. 

    12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.

    Paul is telling this audience that Jesus is the promised Son of David. Continuing in our passage. Paul speaks personally to the audience. 

    Verses 26:

    26 “Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation.

     He calls them his brothers. 

    He calls them sons of the family of Abraham. 

    He is pointing to the shared heritage that Jews and Christians both have through Abraham. 

    For both Jews and Christians, Abraham is the patriarch of the faith. 

    He is the one through whom the Lord had made his covenant promises of land, offspring, and blessing. 

    But through Christ, we see the greatest fulfillment of the promises to Abraham. He is the one who brings true and eternal blessings. He is the the true offspring of Abraham through whom the nations of the world would be blessed. And he is the one who brings his people to the true promised land: the new heaven, and the new earth, and the new Jerusalem. 

    Abraham was the Father of Israel. The father of Isaac, who was the father of Jacob, whose line led to David and ultimately to Jesus. 

    Abraham matters for all of those reasons but he also matters because of his faith. In Genesis, when God made his promises, Abraham believed and that belief, that faith, that trust in God was what was counted to Abraham as righteousness. 

    In the New Testament, in Galatians and in other writings, the faith of Abraham will be pointed to as an example for Christians as the basis for our justification before God. It is a matter of trusting in Jesus, believing in his gospel, knowing that he is Lord and savior and that by that faith, God justifies us. 

    In our passage, we have Abraham, revered among the Jewish people, and Paul is saying that as the people of Abraham: to us has been sent the message of this salvation.

    A lesson in evangelism

    We see something important in this passage. I can’t stress this enough but Paul is speaking to these Galatians on terms they’ll understand. 

    They might not know who Jesus is or why he matters. So Paul starts by talking about what he knows they’ll know and showing how that points to Jesus. 

    I can’t help but wonder if this disconnect has caused part of the challenge with evangelism in our society today. That we assume people know more than they do about Jesus. 

    Even for a person who goes to church, they might not know the gospel. Not all churches preach the gospel.

    I’ve mentioned before that surveys have been done and more Americans can list off more ingredients on a McDonald’s Big Mac than commandments in the Ten Commandments. 

    I read a survey this year where people answered in response to their readership of the Bible. Just 11% of respondents said they read the Bible everyday. 

    Half read from their Bibles once or twice a year…or less. 

    We can’t assume people know the Bible and we can’t assume people know the gospel. That’s part of why personal evangelism is so important. Sharing the gospel with people. Sharing Jesus with people. 

    And it’s gotten worse for younger generations. And that becomes a viscous cycle. Because the previous generations did not teach their kids the Bible and now they don’t know the Word of God. And you cannot teach what you do not know and so the problem gets worse.

    Paul at the Areopagus

    In Acts 17, Paul is speaking in Athens to a totally different group of people and he has a totally different approach to sharing the gospel. 

    There instead of talking to Jewish people, he’s talking to Greeks who believed in a pantheon of gods. 

    Paul doesn’t lay into them, he doesn’t yell at them, he doesn’t just say “you’re wrong, I’m right.” He explains to them.

    Acts 17:22-23:

    22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.

    He actually commands the people for being very religious. 

    He makes light of the fact that the people were so religious and believed in so many gods that they even had an altar to an unknown god in case they missed one. 

    I don’t have time to unpack the entire section but Paul will talk to this audience of the transcendence of God, how God is the creator of all things and Paul will point to the Lord as a God who judges and the savior he has sent who has risen from the dead. 

    In 17:32-34, we see the response to Paul’s message:

    32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33 So Paul went out from their midst. 34 But some men joined him and believed

    So once again, we see Paul beginning with where his audience is and then skillfully leading the conversation to the resurrection of Jesus and to the gospel.

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  • The covenant with Abram. Studying Genesis 12

    The covenant with Abram. Studying Genesis 12

    In Genesis, we see three acts of divine judgment each followed by acts of divine grace. 

    We see the curse of the original sin which brings forth death but the Lord also makes a promise of ultimate victory to come from an offspring of the woman (Genesis 3:15). 

    The next major divine judgment is the flood where God wipes out the earth and all of its inhabitants, save for Noah, his family, and the animals on the ark. But then we also see this event followed by another divine blessing as the Lord makes his covenant with Noah. In this sense, Noah becomes like another Adam figure in a reconstituted world. 

    In Genesis 11, we see another major sin event: the Tower of Babel as a prideful world tries to build a monument to their own glory. The Lord brings confusion to the people in Genesis 11. But we are also introduced to Abram in that same chapter and it would be Aram through whom the Lord would make a great covenant. 

    In this sense, Abram too will be another Adam figure who is the father of a new humanity, a people of God and through whom the Lord will ensure divine blessings to the world and through whom he will bring the ultimate blessing of the Lord Jesus (Galatains 3:16). 

    In Genesis 11, Abram is introduced as a son of Terah. We’re also told that he has a wife named Sarai and that she is barren. This introduces a theme of barrenness that will also come up in numerous future Bible stories including with Rachel and Rebekah as well as with Hannah in First Samuel and with Elizabeth in the Gospel of Luke. 

    Genesis 11 ends by saying that Abram and his family had settled in Haran. 

    Genesis 11:31-32: 

    ​​31 Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. 32 The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran. 

    Genesis 12 hits the ground running with the Lord calling Abram away from the land where they had settled. 

    Genesis 12:1-3: 

    Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 

    The Lord makes three promises to Abram. 

    A great nation

    As Adam was the first man in the world, as Noah was the leader of a new world and the one chosen by God to be spared (along with his family), Abram is also uniquely positioned as the one man through whom the Lord makes this covenant. As Thomas Schreiner notes in the Short Studies of Biblical Theology of Covenant, the rest of the world was still opposed to God when he made his covenant promise with Abram. 

    As with all covenants in the Bible, it is totally at the initiative of God that the covenant is made. The Hebrew word translate for “covenant” is not found in Genesis 12 but it is found in chapters 15 and 17 in similar contexts of talking about the same promises. For that reason, it is appropriate to view chapter 12 as the beginning section of this covenant. 

    In verse 2, the Lord promises to make Abram a great nation. This promises will also be elaborated upon in Genesis chapters 15 and 17. The promise of being a great nation will imply two things. 

    In chapter 11, a kingdom had just fallen at Babel. But here, the Lord tells Abram that he will be a great nation. It’s because the Lord was establishing a nation that would be dedicated to him and set apart for the purposes of God. As Schreiner notes, “the word nation also implies offspring, for Abraham couldn’t be a great nation without offspring” (Covenant and God’s Purpose for the World, Page 43). 

    In chapters 15 and 17, the Lord would also promise that his offspring would be as numerous as the stars (15:5) and that Abram would be a father of many nations (17:4) and that kings will come from him (17:6). 

    Abram would also later be gold that his offspring would possess the gates of their enemies (22:17). This victory links the offspring of Abram ot the seed of the woman in Genesis 3:15 who would defeat the serpent. 

    In the New Testament, we see that this promise is fulfilled in Christ. 

    Galatians 3:16: 

    the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ

    We see a further elaboration of the political natures of God’s promise to Abraham. 

    Genesis 28:14: 

    Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

    And again in Genesis 35:11 where we see a furthering of the promise: 

    God said to him, “I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body. 

    And all of this happens through a man and a woman who are barren and have no children when we’re first introduced to them! 

    Land

    God had also promised land to Abram. 

    Schreiner notes that if Abram is like a new Adam, then the Promised Land is like a New Eden. 

    In Genesis 15:18, we’re told of the parameters of the Promised Land: 

    18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,

    They arrive in the land under the leadership of Joshua.  

    We seem to see a realization of these promises during the reign of King Solomon. 1 Kings 4:20-21: 

    20 Judah and Israel were as many as the sand by the sea. They ate and drank and were happy. 21  Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt. They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life. 

    We saw a picture of what God’s promises were supposed to look like but the people sinned and lost it. God was still faithful to his people. 

    Blessing

    Abram was told that he would be a blessing. Schreiner points out that the covenant was always intended to be a blessing for all of the nations, not just Israel. God would bless his people but also bring blessings to the world through his people. 

    In the New Covenant age, we see the blessings to the world through the gospel and as a result of the cross of Christ.