[The following is a manuscript of my sermon delivered on Sunday morning, the 13th of November, 2016. Look for the video on our Vimeo channel, http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]
As the early church began to spread across the known world, some men went out from Jerusalem with a message that was not necessarily condoned by the Apostles. They were telling the new Christians that in order to truly be saved, they had to follow the Laws of Moses and be circumcised like the Jews. Their thinking seemed to be that since Jesus was a Jew and was circumcised as a babe, that His followers must also be circumcised or they were doomed. When Paul and Barnabas got wind of this, they went back to tell the others.
The Apostles and the whole congregation of the church in Jerusalem decided to write a letter to be circulated among all the new churches explaining that they did not have to adhere to the Laws of Moses in order to be saved by Jesus. Listen to what they wrote the churches, from the Apostle Luke’s Book of Acts, chapter 15, verses 22 through 29, as I read from the Modern English Version of our Bible…
The Apostles and the whole congregation of the church in Jerusalem decided to write a letter to be circulated among all the new churches explaining that they did not have to adhere to the Laws of Moses in order to be saved by Jesus. Listen to what they wrote the churches, from the Apostle Luke’s Book of Acts, chapter 15, verses 22 through 29, as I read from the Modern English Version of our Bible…
22 Then it pleased the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men from among them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely, Judas called Barsabas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers. 23 They wrote this letter by their hand:
The apostles and the elders and the brothers,
To the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia:
Greetings.
24 Since we have heard that some of us, whom we did not commission, have gone out and have troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, saying, “You must be circumcised and keep the law,” 25 it seemed good to us, being assembled in unity, to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 Therefore we have sent Judas and Silas, who will also speak to you, saying the same things. 28 For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to put on you no greater burden than these necessary things: 29 Abstain from food offered to idols, from sexual immorality, from strangled animals, and from blood. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well.
Farewell.
--Acts 15:22-29 (MEV)
Let us pray… Father God, we come into Your presence to worship You and to listen for Your voice, for the message You wish us to hear today. Speak to us now, Father, and give us discernment into Your will for our lives. In the blessed name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
A landlubber who could not swim went fishing with a friend and after a while hooked a really big fish. He was so excited about catching this whopper that as he was reeling it in, trying to get it next to the boat, he leaned too far over and fell into the water. He was panic stricken and began to yell, “Help! Save me! Help! Save me!”
So his friend just calmly reached out and was going to grab the man by his hair, pull him over a little closer, an get him into the boat. But as he tugged, the man’s toupee came off and he slipped down under again. He bobbed back up yelling, “Help! Save me!” So the friend reached down again, this time catching hold of an arm. As he pulled on it, it came off because it was an artificial limb. The man continued to kick and thrash about in the water, sputtering and splashing and getting more desperate and panicky by the second. The friend reached out once more and grabbed a leg, and as he pulled on it – you guessed it – the leg came off, too! It was an artificial leg!
As the man continued splashing and sputtering and crying out for help, his now discouraged friend sputtered, “How can I help you if you won’t stick together?!”
As soon as the man fell out of the boat, his friend was suddenly burdened with a terribly heavy load. He had invited his friend to go fishing, even though he probably knew the man could not swim. And then when he tried to help, his friend just kept coming apart, physically and emotionally. And that only served to add to his burden.
Last week I talked about how one of the disagreements the reformers had with the Roman Catholic Church was that they claimed the church had added to the burdens of believers over the many years. I read some scripture the reformers often pointed to that showed how Jesus came to free us from our burden of sin and guilt, not add to it. That scripture comes from the Gospel according to the Apostle Matthew, chapter 11, verses 28 through 30…
A landlubber who could not swim went fishing with a friend and after a while hooked a really big fish. He was so excited about catching this whopper that as he was reeling it in, trying to get it next to the boat, he leaned too far over and fell into the water. He was panic stricken and began to yell, “Help! Save me! Help! Save me!”
So his friend just calmly reached out and was going to grab the man by his hair, pull him over a little closer, an get him into the boat. But as he tugged, the man’s toupee came off and he slipped down under again. He bobbed back up yelling, “Help! Save me!” So the friend reached down again, this time catching hold of an arm. As he pulled on it, it came off because it was an artificial limb. The man continued to kick and thrash about in the water, sputtering and splashing and getting more desperate and panicky by the second. The friend reached out once more and grabbed a leg, and as he pulled on it – you guessed it – the leg came off, too! It was an artificial leg!
As the man continued splashing and sputtering and crying out for help, his now discouraged friend sputtered, “How can I help you if you won’t stick together?!”
As soon as the man fell out of the boat, his friend was suddenly burdened with a terribly heavy load. He had invited his friend to go fishing, even though he probably knew the man could not swim. And then when he tried to help, his friend just kept coming apart, physically and emotionally. And that only served to add to his burden.
Last week I talked about how one of the disagreements the reformers had with the Roman Catholic Church was that they claimed the church had added to the burdens of believers over the many years. I read some scripture the reformers often pointed to that showed how Jesus came to free us from our burden of sin and guilt, not add to it. That scripture comes from the Gospel according to the Apostle Matthew, chapter 11, verses 28 through 30…
28 “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me. For I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”
--Matthew 11:28-30 (MEV)
Jesus promised to lighten our load if we would follow and obey Him, but Martin Luther flatly stated that the church had increased the loads of those who followed Jesus, not lighten them. In the very scripture Luther pointed to, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for adding so much to the Laws of Moses that the faithful’s burdens were unbearable.
After last week’s message, the Holy Spirit started prodding me to dig a little deeper into all this. A bit earlier in Matthew’s account, in chapter 23 verses 1 through 4, Jesus didn’t hold back in His disdain for the Pharisees…
The scribes and Pharisees placed heavy burdens onto the backs of the faithful and yet wouldn’t lift even one little finger to help them. To me, Luther found the Catholic Church guilty of the very thing Jesus accused the Pharisees of.
To my thinking, the Pharisees represented the established church of their day, just as the Roman Catholics were the established church of Luther’s day. What Moses brought the people from God, the established religious body embellished and so increased the burdens on the faithful. Jesus came to fix this, to lighten the loads of believers, to free us from our guilt and sin. But the established religious body once again began to heap more and more upon the faithful. So Martin Luther and others of his thinking protested the church and split away in what we now call the Protestant Reformation.
I want you to think about this for a minute. The church caused additional grief for its members. The established religious authorities, or those within, added to the burdens the faithful had to endure. This is effectively persecution of the church by the church, isn’t it? Where do you think this came from, this attitude of adding burden, this persecution of a sort?
Do you remember a few weeks back when we talked about our real enemy? Do you remember who that enemy is? Paul tells us we fight not against flesh and blood in mortal warfare, but against Satan and his minions in spiritual warfare.
Family, Satan has invaded the church, and he first did so long before Jesus came to earth to live among us. We call the church building a holy place, the house of God, sacrosanct, a sanctuary from the world. And yes, the devil himself has walked the halls of church buildings the world over ever since there first were buildings called churches. But I’m not so much worried if he is in this building as I am if he is in our hearts.
Family, we are the church, and Satan has invaded and is corrupting the church, the body of Jesus! He causes extra burdens to be heaped upon the backs of believers, hoping to break them. He tempts us, speaks lies to us, tells us what we want to hear without any regard to truth.
We’ve just looked at two examples where Satan added to the burdens of God’s chosen people and of Jesus’ church. I can’t help but feel that he is very active again, but this time taking away all our burdens rather than adding to them. By that I mean that he wants us to believe that we have no role or responsibility in following and obeying Jesus. His agents tell the church what they long to hear, and not what they need to hear. People don’t want to be told they need to repent, turn from their sins, obey God and His commandments, love all others. They’d rather go on living life the way they want to, the way that feels good, rather than the way Jesus wants us to live.
Paul warns us of this, in his 2nd letter to his young friend Timothy, chapter 4, verses 3 and 4…
Jesus also warned us of this happening, as recorded by Matthew in the 24th chapter of his Gospel account, verses 3 through 5 and 11 and 12…
Family, false prophets are at work today in churches all across America and the whole world. They are doing Satan’s work, whether by adding burdens onto the backs of believers or by removing them completely and just telling the people what they want to hear. And sadly, the people are deceived. In those cases, Satan wins.
So if all this turmoil in the church throughout the ages and still today is all the work of Satan, and if we are engaged in spiritual warfare, what can we do about it? How do we fight? Do we ease some burdens and increase others?
The Apostle John gives us a clue how to resolve some of our problems with loads and burdens. And with it a hint at how to fight this spiritual war. In his first letter to the churches across the known world, chapter 5 verses 1 through 4, John writes…
When we love God and keep His commandments, then we love one another. And because God loves us, His commandments are not all that burdensome, not at all heavy.
Could love be a key? In our little story at the start, the friend was so discouraged he lashed out at the drowning man and asked how in the world could he help if the man didn’t stick together. Not sticking together is a problem plaguing our nation for too many years now. We’re supposed to be one nation under God, but we are divided neighbor against neighbor, brother against brother. And we’ve kicked God out of any role of importance. We just can’t seem to stick together anymore, even among those of us who do try to follow Jesus as our Lord. If we can’t stick together, how can anyone help us?
In his letter to the Galatians, chapter 6 verse 2, Paul instructs us…
We need to stick together, especially we Christians, and share one another’s load. By doing so we will be fulfilling the law of Christ - we’ll be doing what Jesus would have us do. It all comes back to loving one another just as we love ourselves, just as Jesus loves us. If we truly love our brother or sister, then we will gladly bear their burden, whether physical, spiritual, or emotional. We’ll share their load, without complaint, and with no conditions placed on them. That is what Jesus would have us do, how He wants us to love. And when we bear the burdens of another, He will lighten our own load.
Share each other’s burdens. In the glorious name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Let us pray… Father God, Your faithful have been under attack ever since the serpent first told Eve to take a bite from the forbidden fruit. Satan is unrelenting in his assault on Your Son’s church, never letting up for a minute. If one approach doesn’t work, he tries another. We need Your help, Father, to stay true to Jesus and to Your commands.
Hear us now, Father, as we repent of our disobedience, seek Your help, plead for Your forgiveness…
Lord Jesus, You came to earth not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. You gave of Yourself to lighten our loads, to free us from guilt and sin, while Satan has worked overtime in doing just the opposite. He adds to our burdens hoping to break our wills. He deceives us into thinking that we can do anything we want to do and still receive Your Father’s wonderful grace. Help us, Lord Jesus, to see the truth. Help us to be faithful and true to You, just as You are to us.
This we pray in Your glorious name, Christ Jesus, our Lord and Master, the one true Son of God, in whom we place all our hope, all our trust, all our faith. Amen.
After last week’s message, the Holy Spirit started prodding me to dig a little deeper into all this. A bit earlier in Matthew’s account, in chapter 23 verses 1 through 4, Jesus didn’t hold back in His disdain for the Pharisees…
1 Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, 2 saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. 4 For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
--Matthew 23:1-4 (NKJV)
To my thinking, the Pharisees represented the established church of their day, just as the Roman Catholics were the established church of Luther’s day. What Moses brought the people from God, the established religious body embellished and so increased the burdens on the faithful. Jesus came to fix this, to lighten the loads of believers, to free us from our guilt and sin. But the established religious body once again began to heap more and more upon the faithful. So Martin Luther and others of his thinking protested the church and split away in what we now call the Protestant Reformation.
I want you to think about this for a minute. The church caused additional grief for its members. The established religious authorities, or those within, added to the burdens the faithful had to endure. This is effectively persecution of the church by the church, isn’t it? Where do you think this came from, this attitude of adding burden, this persecution of a sort?
Do you remember a few weeks back when we talked about our real enemy? Do you remember who that enemy is? Paul tells us we fight not against flesh and blood in mortal warfare, but against Satan and his minions in spiritual warfare.
Family, Satan has invaded the church, and he first did so long before Jesus came to earth to live among us. We call the church building a holy place, the house of God, sacrosanct, a sanctuary from the world. And yes, the devil himself has walked the halls of church buildings the world over ever since there first were buildings called churches. But I’m not so much worried if he is in this building as I am if he is in our hearts.
Family, we are the church, and Satan has invaded and is corrupting the church, the body of Jesus! He causes extra burdens to be heaped upon the backs of believers, hoping to break them. He tempts us, speaks lies to us, tells us what we want to hear without any regard to truth.
We’ve just looked at two examples where Satan added to the burdens of God’s chosen people and of Jesus’ church. I can’t help but feel that he is very active again, but this time taking away all our burdens rather than adding to them. By that I mean that he wants us to believe that we have no role or responsibility in following and obeying Jesus. His agents tell the church what they long to hear, and not what they need to hear. People don’t want to be told they need to repent, turn from their sins, obey God and His commandments, love all others. They’d rather go on living life the way they want to, the way that feels good, rather than the way Jesus wants us to live.
Paul warns us of this, in his 2nd letter to his young friend Timothy, chapter 4, verses 3 and 4…
3 [For] the time will come when people will not endure sound doctrine, but they will gather to themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, having itching ears, 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn to myths.
--2 Timothy 4:3-4 (MEV)
3 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”
4 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.”
11 “And many false prophets will appear and will deceive many people. 12 Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold.”
--Matthew 24:3-5, 11-12 (NKJV & NLT, rsp.)
So if all this turmoil in the church throughout the ages and still today is all the work of Satan, and if we are engaged in spiritual warfare, what can we do about it? How do we fight? Do we ease some burdens and increase others?
The Apostle John gives us a clue how to resolve some of our problems with loads and burdens. And with it a hint at how to fight this spiritual war. In his first letter to the churches across the known world, chapter 5 verses 1 through 4, John writes…
5 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves the one born of the Father. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome, 4 for whoever is born of God overcomes the world, and the victory that overcomes the world is our faith.
--1 John 5:1-4 (MEV)
Could love be a key? In our little story at the start, the friend was so discouraged he lashed out at the drowning man and asked how in the world could he help if the man didn’t stick together. Not sticking together is a problem plaguing our nation for too many years now. We’re supposed to be one nation under God, but we are divided neighbor against neighbor, brother against brother. And we’ve kicked God out of any role of importance. We just can’t seem to stick together anymore, even among those of us who do try to follow Jesus as our Lord. If we can’t stick together, how can anyone help us?
In his letter to the Galatians, chapter 6 verse 2, Paul instructs us…
2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
--Galatians 6:2 (NKJV)
Share each other’s burdens. In the glorious name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Let us pray… Father God, Your faithful have been under attack ever since the serpent first told Eve to take a bite from the forbidden fruit. Satan is unrelenting in his assault on Your Son’s church, never letting up for a minute. If one approach doesn’t work, he tries another. We need Your help, Father, to stay true to Jesus and to Your commands.
Hear us now, Father, as we repent of our disobedience, seek Your help, plead for Your forgiveness…
Lord Jesus, You came to earth not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. You gave of Yourself to lighten our loads, to free us from guilt and sin, while Satan has worked overtime in doing just the opposite. He adds to our burdens hoping to break our wills. He deceives us into thinking that we can do anything we want to do and still receive Your Father’s wonderful grace. Help us, Lord Jesus, to see the truth. Help us to be faithful and true to You, just as You are to us.
This we pray in Your glorious name, Christ Jesus, our Lord and Master, the one true Son of God, in whom we place all our hope, all our trust, all our faith. Amen.
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