Monmouth Church Of Christ Sermons

The Love Of God: A Difficult Doctrine

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 06:00:00 GMT

Mal 1:2-5

Mal 1:2-3 "I have loved you," says the LORD. "But you ask, 'How have you loved us?' "Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" declares the LORD. "Yet I have loved Jacob, (3) but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his hill country into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals."

At first glance the love of God seems extremely simple, however we would be remiss if we did not consider how the culture views the love of God and how that affects how we have been conditioned to think about God’s love. In some people’s minds, there is a strange dichotomy between the picture of God of the Old Testament and the New. It somehow does not fit well together, and therefore we avoid looking at God in the Old Testament and focus our eyes on the picture of God in the New.

As Christians if we believe the entirety of scripture we are forced to take a look at God in the seemingly difficult places in scripture, and then form an accurate picture about the love of God. Why is understanding the love of God important? The answer not only informs how we perceive God, but it also informs our faith, and how we act as a result of that faith in our Christian walk.

Paul in the book of Ephesians asks us to “Follow God’s example” and “walk in the way of love”, and an accurate understanding of the love of God is crucial in how we walk in the way of love.

Ashok Bruno

Humility And Grace

Sun, 07 Aug 2011 05:00:00 GMT

I Peter 5:5 and Proverbs 3:34

What does it mean to be humble before each other and God? Throughout scripture, God opposes those who are prideful and arrogant, but lifts up those who know their need and understand their dependence on God.
One way to get our mind around what it means to be humble is to understand humility in light of grace. In the New Testament, grace is not simply God’s mercy or forgiveness, but rather God’s power that is at work in us. The grace that comes to us is God’s energy, strength, wisdom, and insight. Humility then is the condition of our heart that allows us to receive God’s power. We can only receive the power of God at work in our lives when we realize the limitations of our own strength. Pride is the elevation of our own ability over God’s. To be prideful is to assert that “we can handle it” and we don’t really “need” God’s strength. One might say that pride is “self-reliance” and humility is “God-reliance.”

Peter encourages the church to be humble towards one another. In the context of I Peter 5, he encourages the shepherds to be humble before Christ and the flock they oversee and he admonishes the younger men to be submissive to the older men among them. The church is encouraged to humble themselves under God’s mighty hand so that God might lift them up in due time. As an example, he says, “Cast your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”

Grace comes to us in our anxious moments when, in humility, we cast our cares on the Lord. When we trust God’s strength to see us through, his grace is in plentiful supply. In anxious moments, pride makes it worse—thinking that we have to “fix it.” It is out of God’s great caring mercy, that his grace sustains us. The old saying, “Let go, and let God.” is another way of expressing, “God gives grace to the humble.”

God Who Judges Justly

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 05:00:00 GMT

“When they hurled insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats, instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.”
(I Peter 2:23)

How to deal with insult and injury? How to get past the temptation to “take things personally” so that we are left with hurt, grudges, and disappointment in people. How to stop the cancer of waking up wanting to retaliate against those who have caused us grief and no small amount of emotional pain?

Jesus was certainly no stranger to insults. As the Son of God, Jesus was reviled, spat upon, rejected, mocked, stabbed, and crucified. If anyone knows how to deal with insults, it is the Son of God. Why do we think (at times) that we should be immune from insults when Jesus wasn't? But Jesus shows us how to handle these difficult moments. He did not retaliate, issue threats, become reclusive or combative. Rather, he “entrust yourselves to God who judges justly “(I Peter 2:23).

What does it mean to “entrust ourselves” to God who judges justly. Simply this: only God knows how to respond in a completely just way to those who insult us. In other words, if justice-real honest justice-were left up to us, we would mess it up. God knows how to deal with folks in a much better way than we do. So, when insulted, we need to “entrust ourselves” to God and “let it go!”

How can we just “let these things go?” It is hard, but as I Peter says, “For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” Jesus is watching over us. Jesus is attentive to our needs. Moreover, Jesus “gets it.” He understands what it is like to have to bear up under injustice-but he shows us the way: trust God to get you through it, trust God to handle the situation, trust God to make things right.

Our job is to trust and to love even those who insult us. No good comes from retaliating. Letting God move and do the work is the way to go.

Now, You Are The People Of God

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 05:00:00 GMT

“Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. ” (I Peter 2:10)

Identity. We all need a sense of individual and communal identity-a knowledge of “who we are.” In Christ, our identity has changed. We have transitioned from being “just one in the crowd” to being a special people: a people of God who have received mercy.

In talking to Christians about their new identity, Peter draws upon a concept that is presented in the book of Exodus: the Hebrew people delivered by the mighty hand of God out of Egyptian slavery and brought into the promised land. In Exodus 19:4-6, God tells Moses that this newly delivered group of people will be formed into a “kingdom of priests.” The job of the Israelites, once delivered, is to be God's witness and “intercessor” for surrounding nations. The witness is that God “hears the cries” of his people, has mercy, and delivers them.

Similarly, Peter tells the newly forming Christian communities that their identity is one of a priest-one who is the link between the human and the divine. The mark of this priesthood, is mercy. The people of God are those who have received the mercy of God and are therefore witnesses to God's love for humanity. As “priests,' Peter is teaching these early Christian communities to live in such a way as to show this mercy by way of good deeds and “good lives” among the Pagans.

What does this mean for us? Simply this: because we have been the recipients of God's grace in mercy, we, too, should live lives that reflect this mercy. We are not agents of God's condemnation and judgment, nor is our job to “convert” people to a religious system of rules and regulations. Rather, as a “kingdom of priests,” we are witnesses through our lives of God's mercy. As such, the point is not to live in the dark ways of sin (deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander), but rather to live in the light of God's grace. Even though we will be criticized perhaps, but the good deeds will be undeniable , and God will be glorified (I Peter 2:12).

You Shall Be Holy As I Am Holy

Sun, 12 Jun 2011 05:00:00 GMT

“Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; for it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” ” (I Peter 1:15 NRSV)

The word “holy” sounds a little scary. It has the ring of “un-touchability.” But what does the word mean? I Peter quotes the command to “be holy” directly from the Hebrew scriptures: Leviticus 19:1. So to get a handle on what it means to “be holy,” in this context, we need to look at the setting for this command in Leviticus.

Leviticus 19:1 begins a lengthy section detailing the law for how to treat one's neighbors (Lev. 19 to 26.) In Leviticus 19:1, the command to “Be holy as I am holy” framed the understanding for all the laws which followed: as the Israelite community obeyed the laws, they would them mirror the likeness of God.

What did holiness look like? Holiness was a “separate” way of living: a different way of being in the world-not like the daily grind of surrounding people groups, but rather “like God.” To live “differently” or “separately” meant being intentional about how one treated one's neighbor. For example:

Being conscious of the needs of the poor (Leviticus 19:9-10)
Not defrauding one's neighbor through lying, stealing, slander or wrong judgments (Leviticus 19:11-17)
Not hating anyone, but rather “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18)

In reality, the command of Jesus to love one another and I Peter's reminder to “love deeply from the heart” have their origins in the Levitical codes of holiness. Thus, to be holy involves paying attention to the needs of one's neighbor. One cannot be “holy” and ignore the needs of others. Too often in the larger Christian world, “holiness” is treated almost like a synonym for “morality.” Holiness involves personal purity and ethics, but the emphasis in the first part of Leviticus 19 is on right treatment of neighbor.

Thus the question: Are you “holy” as God is “holy”?

New Birth Into A Living Hope

Sun, 05 Jun 2011 05:00:00 GMT

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...” (I Peter 1:3, NRSV)

On what does our hope in Christ rest? What is the foundation of our hope? What is the anchor that keeps us stationary when the world swirls around us? What is the fundamental truth to which we return to be sure of our hope?

Peter's early letter to the Christian church answers the question squarely and sufficiently: it is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. That God made the dead live again-Jesus-is the truth upon which we pin our hope. God raises the dead. God does what humans consider impossible.

It is by faith that we believe God raised Jesus from the dead. I Peter tells us that it is through this faith that our hope, our inheritance, is kept secure as we wait for Christ to be revealed (I Peter 1:3-6). In this life, we will have trials-sufferings-that we must endure.

As the “heat gets turned up” in life, we have yet another opportunity to stand firm in a living hope and strengthen our faith. Trials and sufferings prove our faith in that they make our faith stronger, more resilient, and more genuine. Just as fire burns off impurities in metals, such as gold, the trials we face bring impurities of our lives to the surface and burn them off. What remains is an even purer faith.

Hope is not like an insurance policy that we buy once and keep in the drawer. Hope is not like cash stored away for a rainy day. Rather, hope lives with us every day. And, because our eternal hope is “living,” we must tend to it. The energy that helps our hope to become every more refined and pure is standing on our faith in times of trial. No matter how difficult things may appear to be, those difficulties cannot take away our hope. Nothing can rob us of hope.

May our hope result in the praise and glory and honor of Jesus Christ as, by faith, we trust in him..

Living With Hope

Sun, 29 May 2011 05:00:00 GMT

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.”
(Hebrews 12:1-2, NRSV)

How did Jesus endure the pain, the humiliation, and the shame of the cross?

The scripture says that Jesus “disregarded” the shame of the cross. He looked past the shame, humiliation, and even the unspeakable physical pain of the cross to what lay before him: the joy set before him, sitting his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Paul speaks of “hope” that comes to us by the Holy Spirit, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13, NRSV).

All of us need hope. Hope is not “positive thinking” but rather the knowledge of the certainty of what lies ahead, even though yet unseen. In the spiritual realm, we have already been seated with Christ at the right hand of God (Ephesians 2:6). Yet, we live in these bodies beset with “sin that clings so closely.”

The sin that clings so closely is related to both our “presumptions” and “despair.” Presumption that we “know” all there is to know and there is nothing “beyond ourselves;” and despair that we deny the reality of the promises of God that guide our future. That there is no future goodness that God wants to bring to us.

On the other hand, hope is realized through the humility to see our human limitations and accept the gracious gift of God's life for us both now and in the age to come. Hope is realized as we act as Jesus did, looking beyond the trials of this temporary life, disregarding the “shame” of our disappointments, and looking to the joy that is set before us in Christ-in hope, by the power of the Spirit.

Communing Together

Sun, 22 May 2011 05:00:00 GMT

1 Corinthians 11: 23-34

For I received from the Lord what I also
passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.

So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for each other. If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment.

And when I come I will give further directions.

Resolving Conflict, Part 1

Sun, 15 May 2011 05:00:00 GMT

“If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one.” (Matthew 18:15, NRSV).

Conflict is inevitable. To live, is to experience conflict on many different levels with many different kinds of people. The notion of living a conflict-free life or a trouble-free life is just not reality. Jesus said it simply, “In this world you will have trouble.” (John 16:33, the word in Greek for “trouble” has to do with conflict: the friction caused by rubbing two things together.”

The question is: how do we deal with conflict?

Today will be the first in what may be several sessions on dealing with conflict. Today we will look at how God/Jesus handled conflict in the following stories: The story of Cain and Able (Genesis 4:1-16), the conflict between Miriam and Moses (Numbers 12:1-16), Jesus and the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11), Jesus teaching on judgment (Matthew 7:1-4), and the conflict between Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42). The questions we want to ask are these:

What is the conflict about?
How is the conflict expressed?
How does God/Jesus address the conflict?
What is a principle of conflict resolution we might glean from these stories.

In these passages, failed expectations give rise to conflict. People do not act as we expect them to act. When that happens, we become disappointed, frustrated, and perhaps even jealous or critical, thus increasing the intensity of the conflict. These stories illustrate that while conflict must be addressed, we need to look into our own hearts first and remember that we too are imperfect beings. Our handling of conflict must reflect an awareness of the grace and mercy of God that has first been extended to us.

When We Meet Together, Part 1

Sun, 01 May 2011 05:00:00 GMT

“Those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers...” (Acts 2:41-42, NRSV).

The first Christians met together often-every day! Acts records that they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, fellowship, prayer, breaking of bread, praise, and shared their possessions in common. This was no small group. To start with, Acts 2:41 records there were initially three thousand that came into fellowship with each other from all walks of life. No doubt there were social and economic reasons for them to share their possessions. But the feeling we get from scripture leads us to think more deeply about what bonded this group together.

As new Christians, they were excited about their faith. They wanted to learn more about the Jesus they embraced. Through coming together over meals (breaking of bread) and through sharing together in the apostle's teaching, they grew in their knowledge quickly. In addition, in this early phase of Christianity, they enjoyed the favor of all the people and their number increased as the Lord added to their number.

For such an arrangement to work, each person brought something that would encourage the group. The first groups of Christians were not so tightly and organizationally organized that people relied on just a few to do the work. Their assemblies together were not the formalized structures that characterize “church” today-there were no formalized and scripted “worship services.” Rather the meetings were organic in nature: people met daily, and lived life together.

Looking at this example from Acts, we might ask ourselves the question: what do I bring to the assembly? How does the Lord want me to encourage the assembly? How is the Lord leading me to participate in the meeting of his people? As we go through this series, let us pray about the role we play in the assembly of believers.