The Righteousness of God Through Faith

GOSPEL MEDITATION

Romans 3:19-26 & 1 John 1:5-2:2

The Righteousness of God Through Faith

  1. Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions.
  2. Be comfortably alert, still and at peace.
  3. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer
  4. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
  5. Slowly and carefully read the passages of Scripture.
  6. Reread them. From memory, determine the central points.
  7. “For all have sinned” is where it all starts. The testimony of both Old and New Testaments is that we have broken God’s commandments and therefore cannot have fellowship with Him, now and forever.
  8. The intent of God however, is that we enjoy His presence forever—Paradise regained—thus He acts to do what we cannot do.
  9. The Gospel must begin with our terrible condition but it then goes on to the mercy of God.
  10. Jesus Himself, Emmanuel, God with us, takes the death we deserve upon Himself on the cross. In a way we do not understand (we use words like love, grace, mercy) we are completely and forever forgiven and given as a result, the gift of eternal life—and all without our doing anything at all.
  11. Notice all our sin is gone, past, present, and future sin. But what about out future sin, how is it forgiven?
  12. Though it will never be fully understood, all of our sin was nailed to the cross. Yes, it is beyond us. But that it is what Scripture clearly teaches. How then do we deal with our ongoing sin? The Apostle John tell us in 1 John.
  13. We do continue to sin, daily, hourly, minutely. There is no help in denying this. We are to confess our sin, sin already forgiven, but which weighs on us nevertheless. We see that the Father is the wise counselor, psychiatrist, and healer.

Stephen’s Speech # 3 Acts 7:44-53

GOSPEL MEDITATION # 24

Acts 7:44-53

Stephen’s Speech # 3

  1. Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions.
  2. Be comfortably alert, still and at peace.
  3. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer
  4. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
  5. Slowly and carefully read the passages of Scripture.
  6. Reread them. From memory, determine the central points.
  7. Stephen is on trial before the Council of Israel, 70 members headed by the high priest, Caiaphas. Stephen, the deacon, has been charged with a number of crimes including blasphemy against both Moses and God.
  8. Stephen is allowed to defend himself and so he commences on a longish narrative emphasizing the reality that the Chosen people continually disobeyed God, though He rescued them from slavery and yet worshipped gods that are no gods.
  9. In the story Stephen tells, both Joseph and Moses are ‘types of Christ’ in that they were rebuffed and rejected yet delivered the people of God both in Egypt and the Wilderness of Sinai.
  10. Now Stephen speaks of the tent of witness in the wilderness, that tabernacle God instructed Moses to build, which would be the place where He dwelt, in the inner most sanctuary, the Holy of Holies. The concept being that Yahweh now dwelt with His people.
  11. Still, Stephen asserts, God does not dwell in a house made by hands and he appeals to Isaiah in our chapter 66.
  12. The intent is to show that the great temple in Jerusalem, that one build by Solomon and later rebuilt by Herod the Great, cannot contain the living God. Then he addresses Israel as “stiff-necked” and who continually rejected those sent to them, which they did again by murdering the Righteous One, meaning Jesus Himself. The elders of Israel stand convicted.

Gospel Meditation # 23 Stephen’s Speech, part 2

GOSPEL MEDITATION # 23

Acts 7:23-43

Stephen’s Speech, part 2

  1. Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions.
  2. Be comfortably alert, still and at peace.
  3. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer
  4. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
  5. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.
  6. Reread it. From memory, determine the central points.
  7. Stephen turns to Moses now, and like Jesus, he was rejected by his fellow Hebrews. Moses then fled to the land of Midian.
  8. Moses lived there for forty years, raised a family; his father-in-law was Jethro. He had two children born there.
  9. While in the Sinai desert, via an angel or messenger, Moses encounters a burning bush, and God speaks with Moses. This story is found in Exodus 3. It is unknown why Stephen mentions an angel rather than the Creator God, who reveals His name as Yahweh.
  10. God sends Moses back to Egypt for the purpose of leading the Israelites out and into the land promised to them, the land of Canaan.
  11. Stephen makes it clear that the one previously rejected, Moses, did in fact lead the people out of slavery in Egypt.
  12. Stephen quotes the words of Moses from Deuteronomy 18:15 where the promise that a Messiah would be sent to the people of Israel.
  13. Moses, while in the desert, was again rejected by the people who yearned for the false gods of Egypt.
  14. Strikingly, God’s response was to turn away and give the people up to the worship of idols.
  15. Then Stephen quotes a passage from Amos 5 where God says that the people of the promise turned from Him to follow false gods and the result would be banishment from the land promised to Abraham and his descendants.

 

The New Apostolic Reformation—The World’s Fastest Growing Cult

The New Apostolic Reformation—The World’s astest Growing Cult

For years now I have ignored the development of what is most often referred to as the New Apostolic Reformation. While I am very much aware of it, I did not fully realize the global extent of this rapidly growing movement. In it we see a biblically, Christian-oriented, cultic group, similar to Mormons or Jehovah Witnesses, grow and prosper. But no more can I sit back and pretend it will go away. It is several decades now in the making, and it goes back to Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena and a professor there, C. Peter Wagner. I knew him, had extensive conversations with him in 1988–89, and was unwittingly helpful to him and the development of his views, none of which I can help now: I did not know that I was contributing to the makings of a cult. At that time I was part of the charismatic/Pentecostal phenomena, from which this movement springs.

I have been to Bethel Church in Redding, the headquarters of Bill Johnson, now semi-retired, with his son Eric taking the lead. I was also there when Randy Clark spoke. Bethel Church in Redding is one of the most influential churches in the NAR along with Rick Joyner at Morningstar and Mike Bickle of the IHOP ministry in Kansas City. The chief strategic idea is that God is establishing ruling apostles and prophets to direct the Church in order to prepare the world for establishing the kingdom of God on earth and the second coming of Christ. They claim to be “off the charts” now, that is, what is transpiring now is not in the Bible, but the apostles and prophets are charting the way, getting direct communication from God. It is a form of post-millennialism, in which the Church takes dominion in preparation for the Lord’s return. This is also known as dominionism.

This is not a cohesive organization; rather it is a network of apostles and prophets and the congregations over which they pastor or have authority. There are several churches in Marin, with more in San Francisco and in the larger Bay Area that are part of it. They consider themselves a fifth branch of Christianity, no longer Protestants, and are guided by prophecy and personal, direct encounters with Jesus and the Father. For instance, Kat Kerr, who claims to visit the Father directly in the “throne room,” is part of this movement. All who oppose them are considered as rejecters of what God is doing here in the last days.

The NAR reaches into many areas of our culture, from politics, to music, film, television (e.g., God TV), and more. They especially emphasize signs and wonders, miracles, especially of healing, and strange phenomenon. One of their chief activities is “soaking prayer” in their 24/7 prayer rooms, where people will lie seemingly unconscious for hours, even days, and enter into altered states of consciousness, experiencing direct contact with angels, Jesus, and other spiritual entities. It is a combination of shamanism, which is common to Santeria and Wicca, and other religious groups who practice going on a “soul journey” while in a trance state. And all this in the name of Jesus, though it is very “gospel lite,” but the champions of the NAR would deny my charge here.

Large crowds attend NAR services—the latest music is often followed by “miraculous” events, the likes of which I witnessed during the 1970s in San Francisco with Jim Jones’ church, The People’s Temple. I did not speak out at that time as I should have. I hope not to make the same mistake again.

My intention is not to offend, but I ask everyone to think, pray, and consider whether this NAR is of God or not.

Beginning July 9, I will be teaching on the NAR during the evening services at Miller Avenue Church. And why will I do this? Many well meaning people are not aware of the nature of the NAR and the churches affiliated with it. It is my job as a pastor to warn the sheep of the approach of the wolf. And I sincerely wish I did not have to engage in this—it is far from pleasant. For too long now I have not spoken up because I have close friends involved in it, and I know they might respond by rejecting me. That is often the cost of speaking out against error. Sadly, some of well meaning Christians are caught up in it.

Kent Philpott

 

Stephen’s Speech, part 1

GOSPEL MEDITATION # 22

Acts 7:1-22

Stephen’s Speech part 1

  1. Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions.
  2. Be comfortably alert, still and at peace.
  3. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer.
  4. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
  5. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.
  6. Reread it. From memory, determine the central points.
  7. Stephen standing on trial before the Council of Israel, the Sanhedrin, is invited by the high priest to explain himself.
  8. He gives a summary of the history of the nation, beginning with Abraham (the story begins in Genesis 12), and in this part one of Stephen’s entire speech, we read of the history of God’s people up until the time of Moses.
  9. From the account of Abraham, from verses 2 through 8, Stephen speaks of Joseph, one of the sons of Jacob making Joseph Abraham’s great-grandson. Joseph has long been recognized as a type of Christ and thus serves Stephen’s purpose that Israel, God’s chosen people, have continually rejected His purpose.
  10. Joseph is envied by his brothers, is sold into slavery in Egypt, falsely accused, put into prison, and is miraculously released via God’s intervention. Then Joseph becomes the second in authority in all of Egypt, which results in the temporal salvation for the entire Abrahamic family.
  11. Joseph is rejected, killed (imprisoned), raised from the dead (released from prison), and then is responsible for saving his family and bringing them to Egypt. It is a fore-shadowing, a dramatic historical prophecy, of what Jesus the Messiah would one day accomplish.
  12. In Egypt, God’s people were in slavery, and through another type of Christ, Moses, they are freed.