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Unit 13, Session 3: The Gifts of God's Power

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Unit 13, Session 2: The Signs of God's Presence

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Unit 13, Session 1: The Picture of God's Authority

Scripture: 1 Kings 17

Sermons:
The Gospel Project Podcast: https://www.gospelproject.com/god-control/

Sinclair Ferguson, 1 Kings 17: 1-23: http://tapesfromscotland.org/Audio2/2112.mp3

Gary Millar: https://www.qtc.edu.au/2013/01/qtc-chapel-service-10-september-2013-1-kings-17/

Michael Horton, Lord of Life and Death: https://resources.thegospelcoalition.org/library/lord-of-life-and-death

1) Sinclair Ferguson, 1 Kings 17: 1-6: http://tapesfromscotland.org/Audio2/2109.mp3

2) Sinclair Ferguson, 1 Kings 17: 7-24: http://tapesfromscotland.org/Audio2/2110.mp3

3) Sinclair Ferguson, 1 Kings 17: 8-24: http://tapesfromscotland.org/Audio2/2111.mp3

Articles:
https://ftc.co/resource-library/blog-entries/will-god-provide-for-your-needs/print

John Piper, Elijah Series of Poems: https://www.desiringgod.org/series/elijah

Videos:
The Bible Project: https://thebibleproject.com/explore/1-2-kings/

Paul Tripp Summary: https://www.paultripp.com/bible-study/posts/1st-kings-and-2nd-kings-summary

Fill ins:
pg 13: exception, glory, message
pg 14: fulfills, teacher, revelation

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Unit 12, Session 4: A Son Rejects Wisdom

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Unit 12, Session 3: A Son Builds the Temple

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Unit 12, Session 2: A Son Learns True Wisdom

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Unit 12, Session 1: A Son Requests Wisdom

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Kyle Huitt Kyle Huitt

Where Is the "Peace On Earth?"

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“Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:14 ESV)

These were the first words from the angels to the shepherds after they had announced Jesus’ birth. Speaking to men of one of the lowest social stations in one of the most oft conquered and oppressed nations in the ancient world, the angels proclaimed a message of timeless beauty and unimaginable hope. There is a God worthy of our glory who has chosen to come to us, and with Him he has brought peace!

Into the 21st century, this message remains a favorite of Christians, and for good reason. The hope and comfort of the passage speaks to our hurting world now just as it spoke to theirs then. But where is the peace?

The angels proclaimed peace but within only a few years Jesus himself would be carried to Egypt as his family fled Herod’s slaughter. Jesus’ own life was marked by pain and strife, and so were the early years of the Church. The rest of Church history and secular history alike would come to be just as marred by pain, suffering, trial, etc. 

Where is the peace?

Many Christian readers are likely thinking at this point that the peace promised by the angels is a spiritual peace. An eternal one. We may be at peace with a just God despite our shortcomings because of His abundant love poured out for us in a beautiful story – the beginning of which we are celebrating this Christmas season. 

Christmas does mark spiritual peace, but the angels said, “. . .on earth peace. . .” And so we return to our earlier question, where is that peace on earth?

Paul sheds light on this question in Ephesians 5 where he gives a practical blueprint for the uplifting hope proclaimed by the angels in Luke 2. In Ephesians 5:15-30, Paul paints a portrait of Christian life in the context of our individual behavior, our interactions within the Church, and our interactions with our own families. 

To every member of the Church, Paul commands us to submit to one another. Paul’s charge does not carry with it the same sentiment of hope as the proclamation of the angels. His words do not carry the same melodic ring and soothing reassurance. Rather, his words are quite convicting and rather unpleasant for our human nature.

Submitting to another means that we are to put their interests before our own. It means that we are to temper our desires with concern for the desires of our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are to have a posture of respect towards the will of others in the Church. What better blueprint for having peace among men?

The angels were under no illusion that war and temporal strife on earth would cease after Jesus’ birth. But they knew that the birth of Jesus promised the rebirth of humanity as beings with an entirely new purpose which is love for our God that gives rise to love for our neighbors. Christians do not always uphold their new purpose. But when they do, peace among them and those who share their goodwill follows. 

The lofty hope of earthly peace promised by the angels entails the unsparing conviction of Paul’s commission to submit to one another. Paul gives the plan of action for the envied treasure of earthly peace promised by the angels.

Peace on earth is made possible by the birth of individuals into the Church where they act out of love and virtue rather than the selfishness that had defined their empty life before they came to Christ. The greatest gift of Christmas is eternal life which is so unfathomably merciful that it deserves all of our thought and adoration. But God in His goodness did not stop there, and the angels in their excitement could not help but mention the temporal blessing of our eternal rebirth brought on by the birth of the one we celebrate this Christmas. 

When Christians walk with a full view of the eternal gift of Christ, we facilitate temporal peace.

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Disruptive Grace

There are times when God's Word breaks into our lives and causes a disruption. It's counter-cultural, counter-intuitive it runs against the grain of what I want. We cry out, "God, what are you doing?"

Consider Joseph. He is engaged to Mary, who unexpectedly becomes pregnant but not in the way Joseph thinks. The baby Mary has conceived is not conceived of a man but by the Holy Spirit of God. God chose Mary to give birth to Jesus, the Savior of the world, but if you step back and see it from Joseph's perspective, it's like God is breaking in and disrupting this poor man's storybook family. What we learn is how God's timing and commands are perfect. God's promise is sure, and Joseph's obedience is how the whole world is blessed.

The circumstances surrounding Mary are not what they seem, and just as Joseph was about to legally and quietly break off the engagement with Mary, God intervenes and speaks directly to him. God's audible revelation to Joseph in a dream is God's Word to Joseph as recorded in Matthew chapter one.

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us). 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus. Matthew 1:18-25

God is revealing his unfolding plan to Joseph in the same way that he has revealed himself to us in the written Word of God, the Bible.

As a result, Joseph does the right and unusual thing. His obedience is uncommon because of the ridicule and shame he feared by others, maybe even his own family. Joseph does not act on his fear; instead, his trust triumphs over his fear and Joseph trusts God. He intends to marry his fiance. Mary gives birth to a son, Jesus. Jesus is the Promised One, the Son of God, the Messiah, the One through which we receive the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting.

There is a pattern we see here: God's promise, the Word of God revealed, man's obedience, and then a blessing.

Similarly, God's instructions to husbands and wives in Ephesians 5 break into our equality sensitive world as a disruption or more like a 500lb bomb. Wives submit to your husbands. Husbands, be the spiritual head of the home and love your wives. It's counter-cultural, it is disruptive. God, don't you understand we are modern people? We don't talk this way.

But what we see in Ephesians is the same pattern that we see at the birth of Jesus with Joseph and Mary. God's promise comes first. A brief study of Ephesians and we know that we are blessed and loved in chapter one. We have a relationship with God through Jesus that restores our relationship to God in chapter two, and in chapter three, everyone, including the Gentile nations, is blessed through Jesus. Chapters one to three is the promise and revealed Word of God. Only then after the promise do we see the commands to walk worthy of our calling, to walk in love, to walk in the light, wives submit to your own husbands, and husbands love your wives. We see the commands following the promises in chapters four through six.

God's commands disrupt the sin-fallen broken-normal of our lives like a surgeon resetting a broken bone. From our perspective, God doesn't know what he is doing. What kind of modern family looks like the family in Ephesians five and six? A godly family. A blessed family. A family through which God's Word and work will flow to people around them.

If we are patient enough to look further, to study God's promises and his commands, we will see a pattern of love. The path to God's blessing sometimes leads humanity through a sheep pen and a feeding trough and to a cross before we see the glory of the resurrection.

I don't know how the commands of God are breaking in on your life specifically today but know that they are based upon his gracious promises. Follow his Word, trust God like Joseph, and know that God's blessing will follow.

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Ephesians 5 Husbands and Wives Resources

Statements

1987 Davnvers Statement on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood

2017 Nashville Statement

Video

The Beauty of Biblically Broad Complementarianism by Kevin DeYoung

God Created Man Male and Female: What Does It Mean to Be Complementarian? by John Piper

How to Depict the Beauty of Complementarity Rosaria Butterfield, Sam Allberry, and Jackie Hill Perry discuss this question in a new nine-minute roundtable.

A Beautiful Design, sermon series by Matt Chandler

Audio

Complementarianism - Pastor Blaine Braden Eastmont Church in Bend, OR

Articles

What’s in a name? The meaning and origin of “complementarianism” by Denny Burk

Don’t Be Sidelined by the Gender Debate by Trisha Newbell

9Marks Journal Complementarianism: A Moment of Reckoning

Books

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Kyle Huitt Kyle Huitt

Our enemies realized our belts were weak.

The belt of truth, like the sword of the spirit, can be used on offense as we do battle with our spiritual enemies. We need the belt of truth to move swiftly and nimbly as we engage our enemies. Without it, our attempts at swordplay are futile. We will stumble and trip and even fall down when we engage our enemies if our belt is not up to the task. 

We live in a world that has become especially adept at aiming for our belts. Our enemies seek to slice, tear, and undo our belts of truth so they can out maneuver us and finish us off. 

It might seem strange to talk about the belt of truth being weak or susceptible to attack. How could truth ever be vulnerable? It is not truth that we must worry about, but it is our knowledge of the truth that we must tend to. If truth is to keep us from stumbling, how can it do that if we are unaware of it? 

While truth is unassailable, the belt we construct from it is not. Truth is something we must come to know in our own hearts and minds. Until we know and understand truth, it cannot serve in our belt. 

Christians need belts that are robust, sturdy, reinforced, and capable of surviving assault so our opponent cannot take away our own agility. A mere bit of twine clumsily tied around our waist will not do. Neither will a belt designed to only be fashionable by the standards of the world. We would seriously question the sanity of a soldier who trades their utility belt for a designer Gucci belt. 

Truth supplies unbreakable material, and it is up to use to craft a belt from it that will endure all attacks we may encounter. If we were Roman soldiers, we might say that we must craft a belt from the toughest leather, reinforce it with hardened metal that will protect the leather, and bind our belt together with an unbreakable clasp. 

But what does this mean?

To understand why Paul thinks of truth as a belt, we should think carefully about what Paul means by truth in Ephesians 6. The word Paul uses is aletheia. At its most basic level, ‘aletheia’ means something which is true which we believe, but it also means having a well developed understanding and clear view of what is true. Here we have a distinction between believing truth and having a clear understanding if it. Also related to aleitheia is having a mind that is unafflicted by false beliefs or lies. It is possible to believe true things but for falsehoods to undermine or weaken belief in true things. 

Now we can start connecting these ideas to the analogy of a good, strong belt. 

We can think of having a clear, thorough view of truth as the leather holding our belt together. It is the essential core of the thing. The clearer our view of what is true, the more in depth our understanding, the tougher the the leather will be.

Having only a vague idea that Jesus loves you and died for you is the bare minimum of truth a Christian must possess. Such a belief by itself amounts only to a string tied around one’s waist. It will fail to hold up when our enemies put it to the test. 

So what would make for “good leather”? We must not be content to only believe Jesus died for our sins. We must build up our belts with the knowledge of who God is, what He has done, who we are before Him, what role models he has given us, and how He has commanded us to live. We must carefully study the truth handed down to us in scripture and have it committed to memory so it will be there to hold our belt together when our enemies tug and pull. 

We must carefully study not only what the Bible says, but also what it means. This graduates us from just seeing truth, to seeing truth clearly and rigorously. Knowing what the Bible says but not carefully studying what it means leaves the fabric in one’s belt quite vulnerable to becoming distorted and the message of what God has said susceptible to bad interpretation and misuse. 

Satisfying this requirement is only part of the story. Even at its strongest, leather is still vulnerable. It can be cut. It can be stretched. It can be afflicted by external forces no matter how thick and tough it is. The leather must be reinforced to withstand external affliction. 

The same can be said of our minds. Aleitheia partly means having an unafflicted mind, and so we must address the things that afflict our minds if we are to have a sufficiently strong belt of truth. 

What sorts of things afflict our minds? The list can include false beliefs and doubts which are borne from sincere questions.  

Which questions and doubts might undermine our beliefs? That is, tear and tug at our belts? Here are some of the common ones: 

Does the Bible endorse slavery? Why should we listen to the Bible if it goes against our sexual preferences? How do we know it’s accurate? How do we know it is true? How do we know it is written by the people we say it was written by, and how do we know they’re inspired by God? Isn’t the Bible full of errors and contradictions? Why believe Christianity rather than any other religion? Why believe there’s a god when there’s so much pain and suffering in the world? Wouldn’t he make himself more obvious if he existed?

These are a handful out of the hundreds of questions that can severely afflict the minds of believers and unbelievers alike. No matter how clear and carefully we tend to our knowledge of the Bible, any one of these questions poses a danger of completely severing the leather we have so carefully conditioned. 

The world supplies answers to these questions that slash and cut at our belts. We could try ignoring such questions, but that does nothing to change that our belt is being cut to shreds in the meantime. 

This is an urgent concern. How often do believers stumble, stutter, and even fall entirely because their mind came to be afflicted by such questions? How many times has evangelism been frustrated because a Christian went into battle with a belt that could not hold up to the strain under which it was put by a culture constantly hacking away at it?

We must reinforce our belts to withstand such attacks. Truth offers unbreakable metal to attach at the points where our belt seems most attacked. We must make full use of that truth. 

Mending the cuts in our belts with mere thread will not do. It is less work, but it comes apart far too easily. We do exactly that when we seek to mend the damage done by hard questions with easy but inadequate answers or responses. Providing inadequate answers, or trying to avoid giving answers altogether, to the most afflicting questions will not hold up when combat ensues. Our beliefs cannot just be deeply felt. They must be tightly bound together with the strength that only an adequate knowledge of the truth can provide. 

Imagine how quickly and effectively the church will charge through our world when we are no longer stumbling over ourselves. Think of the beauty of the body of Christ mercilessly parrying every attack the world and the devil can throw at it. Think of the Church rescuing those who have been taken hostage and ensnared in webs of falsehoods and lies the world has presented to them as truth. 

 Imagine those things, then realize that in most cases such imaginings are not accurate to the world we live in. How many believers have mere threads for a belt because they have not applied their minds to truth? How many live in fear that the cuts and slashes in their belt will undo it altogether? How many Christians avoid evangelism because their opponent immediately exploits the weaknesses in their belt and leaves them paralyzed in their duel?

The weak belts of Christians are leaving them in miserable battles. Rather than being agile champions quickly dispensing with the futile attacks of the enemy, Christians are falling down on the battlefield as their shield, helmet, and breastplate absorb blow after brutal blow - growing weaker and more distorted with each swing from the enemy. The helmet of salvation may not ultimately fail, but time and again the shield and breastplate have proven to shatter under unrelenting assaults when the believer is unable to move out of the way. Meanwhile, the Christian’s shoes of peace just sink farther into the mud on the battlefield, becoming more obscured and tarnished, as the believer struggles to even deflect the enemy’s attacks without being able to move and counter. 

Christians can do better. We must do better. Our enemies realized our belts were weak. They exploited it. We must regroup in humility before Christ, fashion unbreakable belts of truth worthy of our mission, and return to the battlefield with a righteous resolve fueled by love for the souls that will otherwise be damned. 

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Gain A More Productive Attitude

The heart is quick to entitlement, but what we deserve is far less than what our hearts often desire. What we deserve isn't anything our heart desires at all.

Romans 9:15-16 says, "For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion upon whom I will have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion but on God, who has mercy."

The human heart is quick to become entitled, and Romans 9 reminds us that reality is the opposite of what with think. Standing in the line at the Secretary of State, a man barked how ridiculous it was to have so many service windows and so few people working them. He spat out a few expletives and blended back into the melancholy cue. Part of me was offended at the man's grumpy anger, but inside of me, something else, something more sinister, was routing it on. I almost wished he was a little louder, so the people who run the place could pick up the pace.

If I remind myself of the truth, I can see that what I deserve is not the swift service of people but the speedy justice of God. Instead, what I get is life. But, and it gets better, I get a certain kind of life because my life is through Jesus (Ephesians 1:5), and I receive an experience of rest. Verse sixteen says that God's compassion and mercy do not depend on me or my will. That means that everything that causes me to feel rushed our hurried as I stand honing my patience will get done or not get done. The outcome of my day or my life doesn't depend on me.

The mercy and compassion of God should not lead a person to laziness or excuse a lack of preparation, but God's mercy and compassion should lead to peace and rest. God's promise of rest becomes my attitude as I prepare, pray, and work. The sabbath principle that is is demonstrated in Romans 9 by God's sovereignty is reflected moment by moment in our attitude and enacted weekly by taking one day in seven, a twenty-four hour period of time to cease from all work and enjoy the mercy and compassion of Jesus.

If someone or something hampers the progress of your day, if you're frustrated because you don't seem to be getting enough done, it's time to lay down your pride and be reminded of what you deserve. And then remind yourself of all you are and all you have in Jesus.

Only then will you be able to rejoice in and pray with thanksgiving, "Oh LORD, thank you for this line of people. You love each one of them… and even me."

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Unit 11, Session 6: The Good Shepherd

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Unit 11, Session 5: A Sinner Receives Forgiveness

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Unit 11, Session 4: A King Shows Kindness

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Unit 11, Session 3: A Servant Receives God’s Kindness

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Unit 11, Session 2: A Fugitive Spares His Rival

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Unit 11, Session 1: A Shepherd Slays a Giant

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Unit 10, Session 3: God Rejects a King

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Unit 10, Session 2: God Rescues His Ark

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