ANCF-622-140316 - length: 82:29 - taught on Mar, 16 2014
Class Outline:
Welcome To
BARAH MINISTRIES
a Christian Church
Rory Clark
Pastor-Teacher
Welcome to Barah Ministries…a Christian Church…my name is Pastor Rory Clark.
MUSIC AND REFLECTION
Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ
Enjoy the Singing of His Praises
Fear Not
As God prepares your soul for RENEWING, let’s hear June Murphy worship our Lord in song. Feel free to place your cares into the hands of the One who cares for you…our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The opening song is FEAR NOT.
OPENING PRAYER
Let us pray...
We’re grateful Heavenly Father for the privilege of studying the absolute
truth...the Word of God…
Thank you for helping us to grow tall and strong because we are growing slowly and well…thank you for helping us to see in those times when we are blinded by our own ambitions and by our own self made religion…thank you for loving us unconditionally especially when you know the depth of the depravity which in our hearts…thank you for giving us the victory through your Son, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…thank you for giving us God the Holy Spirit…to mentor us…to direct our paths…to pour His enabling power into us…and to sustain us in times of adversity like He sustained our Lord at the Cross…
Father…teach us to be generous as You are generous...teach us to serve You as You deserve to be served…teach us to give and not to count the cost…teach us to fight and not to heed the wounds…teach us to toil and not to seek for rest…teach us to labor and not to ask for reward…except the reward of knowing that we are doing your will…
We ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit...in Christ’s name... Amen.
THE LORD’S SUPPER CELEBRATION
The Gospel is the Message of Christ Resurrected
Some of the prayer you just heard is from the words of one of my heroes…
Ignatius Loyola…his prayer for generosity. Today we celebrate the ultimate act of generosity…the Lord’s sacrifice on our behalf at the Cross…
“Greater (unconditional) love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”
First, a few announcements…
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Mark Your Calendars!
The next Lord’s Supper Celebration is April 13, 2014
Mark Your Calendars!
The Resurrection Day Celebration is April 20, 2014
Bring Friends!
Happy Birthday!
Alex Leary
March 3
Happy Birthday!
Dorothy McDonnell
March 11
Happy Birthday
Lila Lopez
March 12
Happy Birthday
Susie Embree
March 12
New Location!
We’re Moving in April
Details Forthcoming
Let’s take the offering. Welcome up Deacon Denny Goodall.
Let’s remember to give with the motivation suggested in Scripture
Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful (grace oriented) giver.
TODAY’S OFFERING
Deacon Denny Goodall
Barah Ministries Financial Policy
Even though we are sanctioned by God to charge for the many things we provide so you can worship God, we choose not to exercise our right. Therefore no price appears on any material from Barah Ministries so that anyone who desires biblical teaching may have it free of charge.
Barah Ministries Financial Policy
Even though the materials we provide are free of charge, they are not free of cost. We appreciate it when the Word of God motivates you to give financial support so as to provide biblical teaching, both for yourself and for others.
OFFERING VERSE
This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.
OFFERING
Father I Adore You
THE LORD’S SUPPER CELEBRATION
The Gospel is the Message of Christ Resurrected
Welcome to our Lord’s Supper Celebration for the month of March in the year of our Lord 2014. Happy spring to all of you throughout the United States…for whom the spring could not be coming a moment sooner. In Australia, the fall is imminent…I hope you are having a great summer.
I have a question for you as we begin our Lord’s Supper celebration…
QUESTION FOR REFLECTION
What is the gospel message?
As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have responded to the gospel message…we know that there is a things called the gospel message…but do you know what it is? Do you know the important elements of a message that actually make it a gospel message? Today, I’d like to share one of the critical components with you…and in our Resurrection Day Celebration, we’ll take a deeper look at the subject of the gospel.
We have been studying Paul’s letter to the Romans for eight months now…and studying it is an appropriate way to describe what we have been doing. As for me, I know it has required study. We are a mere eighteen verses into the study. I am enjoying what we are learning, and quite frankly I am shocked at how much different what I am learning is compared to what I thought I knew. If I were a new believer, and I were teaching Paul’s letter to the Romans, I think we’d be finished with Romans by now. But the challenges Romans presents for us as “veteran believers” is that we have to throw out much of our previous learning about the gospel. Because of this need to discard lies from our souls, this study is “tough sledding” to borrow a metaphor. I’m enjoying the work.
What has been most shocking to me, I suppose, is the importance of the gospel message to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because I am a Christian, and because I responded positively to the gospel message years ago…no decades ago…I supposed that the gospel message was an important message for those poor souls who weren’t as smart as me…those who had yet to respond positively to the gospel.
Paul’s letter to the Romans is teaching me how critical the gospel message still is to me, as a believer in Christ, not only in my evangelism to others, but also for the very encouragement that it provides for me to be able to press on as a Christian. I am grateful to God for these revelations, a little bugged at Him for the patience of His timing (yuk! yuk!), and even more grateful for the renovation in my soul that is in progress. Yet all of us who have had religious and legalistic pasts can take comfort in God’s slowness. Our wicked, religious and legalistic past is the perfect backdrop to magnify the Lord’s magnificent grace and His unlimited power, especially as it is directed at wretches like us who believe, so that His light may be manifest through our imperfection to a lost and dying world.
So to borrow the lyrics of a song by Johnny Nash…“I can see clearly now…the rain is gone…I can see all obstacles in my way…gone are the dark clouds that had me blind…it’s going to be a bright…bright…bright sunshiny day.” Or as the Lord would put it, in Psalm 118, Verse 24…
This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Lamentations, Chapter 3, Verses 21 to 25…
This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope.
The Lord’s loving kindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.”
The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him.
What has been most shocking about Romans, I suppose, is the importance of the gospel message to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Deacon Caleb Alburn used verses in First Corinthians, Chapter 15 for another purpose in his lesson last week…turn there please…to First Corinthians, Chapter 15, beginning at Verse 1…I will use these verses to illuminate the real gospel message…and to reinforce what must always be present in the gospel message if it is to be thorough and different…we’ll use this passage as part of our celebration of the Lord’s Supper.
Before we do that…let’s enjoy the elements.
THE LORD’S SUPPER
Enjoying the Elements
Following God’s request, we keep on celebrating CHRIST and His Cross on a regular basis…we eat to remember who He is…His PERSON…we drink to remember His WORK, the voluntary sacrifice He made at the Cross on our behalf…and we are grateful. First Corinthians, Chapter 11, Verses 23 and 24 say…
For I, Paul received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that
the Lord Jesus Christ on the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is, and keeps on being My body, which is broken for you; keep on doing this celebration for the purpose of remembering Me.”
When we eat the bread during the Lord’s Supper celebration, we remember THE PERSON of the Lord Jesus Christ.
First Corinthians, Chapter 11, Verses 25 and 26 say…
In the same way the Lord Jesus Christ took the cup after supper, representing His death on the Cross, saying, “This cup is a new testament forged with My blood; keep on doing this celebration, as often as you drink it, for the purpose of remembering Me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”
When we drink the cup, we remember THE WORK of the Lord Jesus Christ.
As you remember the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, please enjoy the bread and enjoy the cup. As you do, give thanks, as we listen to the Lord’s Supper song...
LORD’S SUPPER SONG
Give Thanks
Take a five-minute break.
BREAK
When I Think About Home
THE LORD’S SUPPER CELEBRATION
The Gospel is the Message of Christ Resurrected
Welcome back…now back to the question I asked you…
QUESTION FOR REFLECTION
What is the gospel message?
First Corinthians, Chapter 15, beginning at Verse 1 gives us some insight…
Now I (Paul) make known to you, brethren (believers in Christ), the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received (by saying yes to it), in which also you stand…
…by which (gospel) also you are saved, if you hold fast the word (of Christ’s resurrection) which I preached to you (and let’s assume you do), unless (otherwise) you believed in (Christ in) vain.
Some people in the Corinthian church were believing the Satan proliferated lie that Christ was not resurrected from the dead. Paul seeks to make the components of the gospel message crystal clear…
For I (Paul) delivered to you (Corinthian believers) as of first importance (in the gospel) what I also received (from the gospel), that Christ died for
our sins (on the Cross) according to the Scriptures…
…and that He (the Lord Jesus Christ) was buried, and that He (the Lord Jesus Christ) was raised (in resurrection from the dead) on the third day (after His death on the Cross) according to the Scriptures…
…and that He appeared to Cephas (Simon Peter), then (He appeared) to the twelve (minus Judas).
It’s important to note that women were the first to see Him, as noted in Matthew, Chapter 28. Simon Peter was the first male witness.
After that He (the Lord Jesus Christ) appeared to more than five hundred brethren (believers in Christ) at one time, most of whom remain (physically alive) until now, but some have fallen asleep (died physically)…
…then He (the Lord Jesus Christ) appeared to James, then (He appeared) to all (those with) the (spiritual gift of) apostle…
…and last of all, as (if) to one untimely born (one not with Christ during Christ’s earthly ministry), He (the Lord Jesus Christ) appeared to me also.
All of those with the spiritual gift of apostle had this in common…they saw the resurrected Christ with their own eyes…in that way they were eyewitnesses to His resurrection from the dead.
For I (Paul) am (literally) the least of the apostles, and (I am) not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God (the Christian Church).
Paul did not consider Himself worthy to be an apostle.
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them (the other apostles), yet not I (doing the labor), but the grace of God with me (is doing the work).
In other words, Paul was living Ephesians, Chapter 2, Verse 10…which says…
For we (believers in Christ) are His (God the Father’s) workmanship, created in (union with) Christ Jesus for good works, which (good works) God (the Father) prepared beforehand (for us) so that we would walk in them.
God the father, in grace, has chosen to make us believers in Christ instruments of His will.
Whether then it was I (Paul preaching) or they (the other apostles preaching), so we preach and so you believed.
Now if (1) Christ is preached (and He is), (and it is preached) that He has been raised from the dead (in resurrection), how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
But if (for the sake of argument we say) there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised (from the dead)…
…and if (for the sake of argument we say) Christ has not been raised (from the dead), then our preaching (of the gospel) is vain, (and) your faith (in Christ for salvation) also is vain.
Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ (form the dead), whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised.
In other words…if there is no resurrection from the dead, and we preached that there is on behalf of God, we are representing a liar!
For if (for the sake of argument we say)the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised (from the dead)…
…and if Christ has not been raised (form the dead), your faith is worthless (useless); you are still in (the sphere of) your sins.
In other words, if there is no resurrection from the dead, you believers in Christ are still spiritually dead and are still condemned to the Lake of Fire.
Then (if, for the sake of argument, we say Christ has not been raised) those also who have fallen asleep in (union with) Christ have perished.
If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we (believers in Christ) are of all men (the ones) most to be pitied.
The gospel message is the good news of Christ’s death AND resurrection for sinful mankind. It is a two part testimony from the Lord through believers in Christ…Christ died for our sins…and was buried…and Christ was raised from the dead in resurrection…and He appeared to others to prove it…to have witnesses.
Therefore, without the resurrection of Christ from the dead as a component of the gospel message, the gospel message is lifeless. We just worship a dead guy.
Christ’s resurrection from the dead was God the Father’s validation that the redemption paid by Christ on the Cross was accepted.
By this the (unconditional) love of God (the Father) was manifested in us, that God (the Father) has sent His only begotten (uniquely born) Son (the Lord Jesus Christ) into the world so that we might live through Him.
In this is (unconditional) love, not that we loved God (the Father unconditionally), but that He (God the Father) loved us (unconditionally) and sent His Son (the Lord Jesus Christ) to be the propitiation (the ONLY perfectly satisfactory payment) for our sins.
Beloved (divinely loved ones), if (1) God (the Father) so loved us (unconditionally, and He did), we also ought to love one another (unconditionally).
Without Christ’s resurrection from the dead there could be no certainty of atonement, and all of us would have remained in a state of alienation and sin. As of now, because of Christ’s death and resurrection, the only ones who live in a state of alienation and sin are those that want to…thank you Lord…thank you Jesus!
CLOSING VERSES
“For I know the plans that I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.
Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
CLOSING SONG
Come See a Man
CLOSING PRAYER
Let us pray...
THANKS
INTERCESSION
PETITION
And we pray that You continue to shape the messages from this pulpit that are an accurate reflection of Your unconditional love, Your person, Your thinking, Your work, and Your essence...we ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit, in Christ’s name, Amen.
Thanks for coming!
Thanks for watching!
Thanks for listening!
www.barahministries.com
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1220 S. Alma School Rd. Suite 201 Mesa, AZ 85210 |
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