I’m guessing that most of you don’t know the name Otto Rohwedder. I’m also guessing that almost all of you have referenced his claim to fame. Rohwedder was an inventor and in the late 1920s he invented a machine that began to be used by the Chillicothe Baking Company in 1928. If his invention had arrived a few years later they would have said it was the best thing invented since sliced bread. Except his invention was the bread slicer! He’s the man who developed the machine that changed the baking industry, enabling the standardization of other machines like the toaster and making all our lives easier.

Rohwedder is in a long line of people who came up with “something better.”

When Jesus was on earth, the people were fascinated by His teaching because He spoke with authority. And they were amazed by His miracles, because, “who can do something like that?” But as is the nature of humanity and our fleshliness, they weren’t satisfied with Jesus, His teaching, or His miracles. We know that His teaching and miracles were designed to authenticate His claim to be the Messiah (beginning in His very first teaching, 4:17-21). But they wanted something more. They wanted someone more impressive, and they wanted a greater guarantee of the authenticity of who He was.

So to assert their desired for someone greater than Jesus and something greater than what He did, after Jesus healed a demoniac who made the man he possessed mute (11:14), some in the crowd attributed His work to Satan (v. 15), and others said, “give us a sign from Heaven” (v. 16, as if what He had just done wasn’t “heavenly”). Jesus responded to the first objection in vv. 17-28 (which we saw last week); He dealt with the second objection in vv. 29-36, which teach us —

Don’t just be amazed by Christ. Be transformed by His Word.

This section and the last portions of Luke 11 are about the rejection of Christ. While intrigued by Christ (v. 14b), the crowds are largely opposed to Christ. They don’t want Him. They want something more. Listen to what is revealed about Christ and His message, and learn two lessons from Jesus’ correction of the crowd:

1. Don’t be a Sign Seeker (vv. 29–32)
2. Be a Scripture Follower (vv. 33–36)

Download the rest of this sermon on Luke 11:29-36.

The audio will be posted on the GBC website by Tuesday.

What do people think about Christ? If they are like you, they will be a lover of Christ. But, there are many who don’t love Christ. And they will have other evaluations of Him (as you have heard):

• He is a good teacher, but He is not God:  this is perhaps the most dominant evaluation of Christ in our day and has a long history of adherents, like Thomas Jefferson who liked the teachings of Christ but rejected and hated His claims to deity and cut those out of his Bible.
• He exists, but He is not worth following:  atheist Anthony Flew became a deist but then warned, “if [Christians] think I am going to become a convert to Christ in the near future, they are very much mistaken.…[I am] certainly not [Paul] on the road to Damascus.”
• Whether or not He exists, I won’t believe:  it was said of George Orwell, “He was an embittered atheist (the sort of atheist who does not so much disbelieve in God as personally dislike Him).”  Aldous Huxley similarly said:  “We don’t know [about God’s existence] because we don’t want to know.”  These are those who attempt to suppress the truth in unrighteousness (Rom. 1:18).
• He might exist, but He is not good:  echoing the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, French poet Charles Baudelarie, concluded, “If there is a God, he is the devil.”  Of this kind of rejection Mark Jones and Rosaria Butterfield wrote, “To claim, ‘There is no God,’ is one thing, but to testify, ‘God is, but He is not good,’ is perhaps worse.…[This kind of] Unbelief portrays God as an evil tyrant and robs Him and Christ in the gospel of their peculiar glory, from where His attributes most clearly shine forth.”
• We don’t know who He is; perhaps if He had told us more or done more:  this was the request of many in Jesus’ day (Lk. 11:16) and it persists today; Woody Allen once said, “I might believe in God if only God would give me some clear sign!  Like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss bank.”
• We know His claims and they are erroneous and we want nothing to do with Him:  a generation ago, George and Tina Rollason said God had nothing to do with the birth of their daughter, so they named her “Atheist Evolution Rollason.”   They were following in the footsteps of the French philosopher, Voltaire, who said, “If a miracle occurred in the marketplace of Paris and in the presence of two thousand men, I would rather disbelieve my own eyes than believe the two thousand.”

And there are more as well.  Most of the people who were present when Christ was on earth were amazed by Him (both in what He said and what He did).  But despite their amazement, most did not follow Him.  They did not believe and they did not obey.  We see that in Luke 11. 

As Jesus gets closer to Jerusalem and the cross, He uses a healing miracle to reveal Himself (again) to the people — and to expose the nature of their responses to Him.  And there are really only two responses to Christ: people either believe and follow Him, or they disbelieve and disobey Him. There is no middle ground. Everyone is either for Christ or against Christ, submissive to Christ or rebellious against Christ. As we come to this miracle in Luke 11, the gospel writer uses the miracle to confront us with the gospel…

Don’t just be amazed by Christ. Believe and obey Christ.

This passage reveals to us the heart of unbelief; when people reject Christ, what is going on internally? These reasons applied in 1^st century Judea and 21^st century America. This passage reveals the hearts of all unbelievers — your parents, your children, your neighbor, boss, and employee. They reveal the hearts of us in America, and the hearts of those in SEA to whom Will and Natalyn have gone. They help us to remember the reason for evangelism at home and sending missionaries overseas. The heart is bent away from Christ and wants nothing to do with Christ. And the gospel is the simple message of faith in and obedience to Christ. Listen to what is revealed about Christ and the heart of man in the conversation between Christ and the crowd:

1. A Confrontational Miracle by Christ (v. 14)
2. An Evaluation of Christ (vv. 15-16)
3. A Response by Christ (vv. 17-26)
4. A Reiteration for Christ (vv. 27-28)

Download the rest of this sermon on Luke 11:14-28.

The audio will be posted on the GBC website by Tuesday.

We have seen how prayer is a central theme in Luke’s gospel — he talks about prayer and shows Jesus in prayer more than any other gospel writer:

• Jesus prayed at His baptism (3:21)
• While the crowds pressed in on Him, He would often slip away to pray (5:16)
• Before choosing the Twelve disciples, He spent an entire night in prayer (6:12)
• He instructed on prayer — even teaching to pray radically (for enemies and persecutors, 6:28), not to be discouraged in prayer (18:1ff), and to pray to avoid temptation (21:36ff; 22:40, 46)
• He took the disciples with Him to pray (9:28-29)
• He prayed specifically for Simon Peter and the perseverance of his faith (22:32)
• He prayed before the trial of the cross (22:41ff)
• And His praying led to questions from the disciples about prayer more than once (9:18; 11:1)

Luke is a book of prayer, demonstrating Jesus as a man of prayer.  Throughout the book, Luke is revealing the Son of Man as dependent on prayer and showing us how to pray.  And all this discussion of prayer exposes our own weakness in prayer, faltering in prayer, and lack of persistence in prayer (just like the disciples who fell asleep in prayer at the most critical hour of Jesus’ ministry). 

So this morning we are going to listen in one more time as Jesus responds to the disciples’ request that He teach them how to pray (11:1).  He has already taught us about the content of prayer (vv. 2-4). In this passage, Jesus now teaches about the attitude of the petitioner — how should we pray, and what should our inner disposition be as we approach God in prayer?  In two stories, Jesus has a simple answer —

You have access to God the Father. Pray boldly.

In order to encourage (exhort/command) His disciples to pray with boldness, He tells two stories (parables) and draws two conclusions:

1. A Story to Compel Boldness in Praying (vv. 5-8)
2. A Command to Compel Boldness in Praying (vv. 9-10)
3. A Story to Reveal Compassion for Petitioners (vv. 11-12)
4. A Promise to Compel Trust in Petitioners (v. 13)

Download the rest of this sermon on Luke 11:5.

The audio will be posted on the GBC website by Tuesday.

Some 2500 years ago, perhaps as early as 700 BC, in order to protect themselves, the feudal states of China began to build protective walls to guard against invaders. When the 1500-year-project was completed, those walls were joined to form the massive Great Wall around China.  The wall eventually measured over 13,000 miles long and on average was over 25 feet tall (some sections as tall as 39 feet) and 13-16 feet wide. 

The wall seemed to be an impenetrable defense:  it was too high to climb, too thick to knock down, and too long to go around.  And for many centuries, and during many dynasties, the wall served the people of China well.  But it did not protect perfectly, as one historian noted: 

“But the Great Wall was not always effective. Genghis Khan and his armies had no trouble invading Chinese territory, for example, nor did various other tribes from the north. In some cases, the invaders may have simply gone around sections of the wall; in others, they found more ingenious methods. The Tanguts, in 1002, were able to cross the wall easily by filling in trenches along its length when they noticed the guards of the Song dynasty weren’t paying attention.”

That incident points to a key weakness in the Great Wall: Defensive fortifications are only as good as the people manning them. This would prove true on more than one occasion during the Great Wall’s history. For example, in 1644, the Ming dynasty was betrayed to invading Manchu forces by a turncoat general who simply let the enemy army in through a gate.

The wall was only as good as the people manning them.  There is a spiritual analogy there.  God has provided for His followers everything they need for life and godliness (2 Pt. 1:3).  But those provisions are only as effective as the people are faithful and obedient to implement what God has provided. 

As Jesus concludes His teaching on how to pray in Luke 11, He instructs the Twelve (and us) about the importance of praying about temptation.  He does not say to pray that there won’t be temptation (He makes no promise of removing temptation).  Martin Luther also reminded us of the reality of temptation when he said, “There are three things [that] make a Christian:  prayer, meditation, and temptation.”  Temptation will not be removed from us, but, Jesus teaches, there is protection in the temptation…

You will be tempted by sin. Ask God to protect you from failure.

As we consider this petition remember three essential realities about sin and temptation…

1. Our Relationship to Temptation
2. God’s Relationship to Temptation
3. God’s Provision for Temptation

Download the rest of this sermon on Luke 11:4b.

The audio will be posted on the GBC website by Tuesday.

There are many truths that distinguish Christianity from the religions of the world:

• The tri-unity of God
• The union of God and man in the person of Christ — the eternal God-Man
• The humility of Christ in coming to earth and going to the cross
• The resurrection
• Salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone (apart from works)
• That He indwells saved sinners by the Spirit and works in them to build the church, etc.
• That we can talk to Him in prayer and that we have fellowship with the Father who adopted us

This morning, as Jesus again teaches us to pray (Lk. 11), we come to another of the most remarkable truths about our faith — we can come to Him for forgiveness.  And — He will forgive.  There is freedom from sin.

This request that Jesus teaches us to pray follows the request for bread — for our daily and ongoing needs.  When these two requests are combined, we remember that just as there is no physical life without food and covering, so there is no spiritual life without forgiveness.  So it has been said, “A world of revenge and retaliation is a world of terror and dread; a world of forgiveness is a world where there is renewal of life, peace, and hope.” [Edwards]  Kent Hughes has rightly said, “Forgiveness should mean more to you than your daily bread.”  So if you are a sinner (and you are), this prayer is of vital significance to you; and if you are enslaved to some particular sin, this prayer is the lifeline of hope for you. 

Even unbelievers realize the weight of guilt that comes from sin, so you will often hear it said that we should forgive ourselves.  The problem with that sentiment (as “profound” as it sounds) is that our sin has incurred a debt, but the debt is against God and not against ourselves (so as both sinner and “forgiver” we aren’t in a position to forgive — my sin isn’t against primarily against myself). And because the sin is against God, the debt of the sin is infinite, so we are incapable of paying the debt incurred by the sin. What can we do? We do what Jesus teaches us to do: we pray, “Father, forgive us our sins…” —

You have sin and God is gracious. So ask God to pardon you.

Let’s consider this petition by recognizing four truths about seeking God’s forgiveness…

1. What Forgiveness Is
2. Who is Forgiven
3. Why Forgiveness is Needed
4. What Forgiven Sinners Do

Download the rest of this sermon on Luke 11:4.

The audio will be posted on the GBC website by Tuesday.

Missionaries don’t engage in missions because they decide to go.

Missionaries engage in missions because they are sent by the church.

Missionaries are chosen by the church, trained by the church, funded by the church, and sent by the church. The missions task is the responsibility of the church, which sends some of its best people to build the church in places where there is no church, and strengthen the church where a church already exists.

And missionaries are prayed for by the church. Perhaps the best thing the church does for missionaries is to pray for them. What can we pray for those whom we send? What follows is a prayer that our church prayed as we commissioned a family last Sunday for a missions task. The prayer serves as a good reminder for the church (and its members) of its responsibility to those who are sent. [For security reasons, the names of our missionary family and their country have not been identified in the prayer below.]

Our Father,

We come to You this morning with hearts full of joy, and likewise full of questions, uncertainties, and dependence on You.  We are sending today this most precious and faithful family to the ends of the earth for the sake of Your name.  They are going because they are compelled by the gospel and the urgency of taking the gospel to the lost.  They are going because they love Christ.  They are going because we are sending them.  And we are sending them and they are going because we are compelled by You.  This is Your task.  As they go, they are dependent on You.  And as we send, we are dependent on You to be faithful to our responsibilities.

As we send them, we are aware that Grace Bible Church also has responsibilities.  Just as You will be faithful to keep them in a foreign land, will You keep us faithful to You and our responsibilities here?  First of all, we desire to remain faithful to You and Your truth.  Would You give us diligence in training and equipping another generation of leaders who will be bold defenders of the truth of the gospel and the love of Christ?  You have made us to be pillars and supports of the truth of God.  You have made us guardians of the gospel.  Might we not waver from that role — might we always love the gospel and stand for the truth of Christ.  Might our family return in three years when they have finished their first language and then again and again over the next two or more decades, and find us more firm and more resolute for the gospel of Christ.  Might they be able to stand for the truth because we are standing for the truth — and encouraging, equipping, and helping them to stand.

We also ask that You might preserve our unity and continue to expand and deepen our ministry so that we can give generously to their needs.  You have been so very gracious to provide for them to go; but going has never been the goal.  Going and translating and planting a church and staying has been the goal.  And they can only stay as we continue to support financially.  So would you grace us with resources that are enough for us — and plenty for them.  Might we be generous with the gifts You have entrusted to us and might we faithfully invest our financial wealth into eternal opportunities. 

Another responsibility we have had has been to train and equip our family for this work.  Would you give us wisdom to continue to equip them.  Might we continue to sharpen them with good theological questions and discussions.  Might we continue to examine their personal faith, exhort and counsel them in their questions, and give them tools that will enable them to serve the church of Christ in their new country.  Might we also do that by being faithful to communicate with them.  Help us to remember them — and as we remember them, to text them, email them, and call them to encourage them and help them.  Might they always be aware that there is a church body in Granbury that loves them and is committed to them — and even more, that we love Christ and are committed to Him and to pointing our missionary family to Him and all the grace He gives.

And would we be faithful to pray.  Of all that we do for them, perhaps the greatest gift we might give them is the gift of prayer.  We pray because we know we ultimately are not strong enough, wise enough, or rich enough to provide for them.  We pray because they aren’t strong, wise, or rich.  We pray because we are incapable, and because You are capable.  You have saved them from their sin and rebellion and You have equipped them with the Holy Spirit and You have trained them and You have provided for them — and now they are going, still dependent on You and Your grace.  You who are “teaching us to pray” this year, would You keep us faithful in praying for them?  Might our prayers be insightful, persistent, and dependent?  And would You be so kind to give them all that they need as we pray for them?  The missionary pioneer William Cary told his friend Andrew Fuller before he left for India that, “I will go down into the pit, if you will hold the ropes.”  Our beloved friends are going to a new part of the world and a new country.  Might we be faithful to hold the ropes for them by praying dependently on You for them.

And now as we close this service, we do the best thing we can do for them.  We pray to You and echo the words of Paul to the Ephesian elders as he left them to go to Jerusalem and imprisonment — “now we commend the husband and wife and their children to You and to the word of Your grace, which is able to build them up and to give them the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”

In the name of Christ we pray, Amen.

A Map of the World, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

W&N, I don’t remember the first time you mentioned your interest in missions to me.  But I do remember that it has been a repeated conversation between us.  You have always been interested in missions and taking the gospel to those who do not know Christ.  You have prayed.  You have planned.  You have already sacrificed (job, resources, house, training at Radius, etc.).  You have already experienced some of the troubles of missions and ministry (three significant health issues while at Radius among them).  And you have experienced some of the blessings that come from entrusting yourself to the Lord.

And tomorrow you leave for SE Asia. 

What shall we say on this day?  You already know what we believe about the gospel and ministry — you’ve heard hundreds of sermons here.  You’ve heard thousands of sermons in your lives, you’ve read hundreds of books, you have attended Bible school, and you have been discipled by many, starting with the excellent job done by your parents for the first two decades of your lives.  We aren’t going to tell you anything new today.  But I do want to remind you of three essentials to pack as you leave.  They won’t take much room in your luggage, but they will fill your heart to overflowing.  These are truths that are familiar to you, but as you get on that airplane and land in SE Asia, we want these truths sounding in your ears and resonating in your hearts.

To guide us, I want to take us back to one of the first great missionary documents — the book of Romans.  At the end of that great letter, Paul reveals that he is going to Spain and he wants the Roman church to serve as his “sending church” and base of operations.  The majority of the book reveals his theology and demonstrates why Paul is a worthy candidate to be sent as a missionary.  Starting in 15:14, Paul unfolds his ministry and missions philosophy.  From that section I want to focus on vv. 20-21 and think with you about three essentials as you go.  You know and are committed to them.  Don’t forget them.  Since you, like the apostle Paul, aspire to preach the gospel where Christ is not yet known, remember these three priorities…

1. Remember the Gospel
2. Remember the Lost
3. Remember Christ

Download the rest of this sermon on Romans 15:20-21.

The audio will be posted on the GBC website by Tuesday.

A Map of the World, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Next Sunday we are sending out a family from GBC to serve as emissaries of Christ to SE Asia — W&N.  They started preparing for this venture before they were even married (it was a desire they nurtured throughout their lives); and they began talking to us about it as soon as they came to GBC.  We have had many conversations, Will has completed the entrusted program, they have Bible degrees from college, they completed a one-year training program with Radius International, and a one-year internship with us.  The Lord has provided all the funds they need.  They are about to cross the finish line.

Actually, just like a wedding, they are not crossing the finish line.  They have been training for years, and they are about to start the race.  And in the same way that they are starting the race, so we are not finished training and caring for them; in many ways our work has just begun.  So what are our responsibilities?  To what are we committing ourselves as we send them?  As a church, what do we do for those we send?

It has been suggested that Acts is the best manual for missions that the church has.  We learn a tremendous amount about missions by reading Acts.  But many of the principles of missions we glean in Acts are also present in 3 John, but in shortened form.  If Acts is the missions manual, then 3 John is the synopsis of that manual.   If Acts is the novel, then 3 John is the short story. 

How will we summarize our commitment to missions?  Our missions policy document says this — The goal of missions at GBC is to cultivate a network of missionaries that will expand our global involvement and see people from all the nations trust Christ, love Christ, and live for Christ’s glory. To say it more simply, our goal is to be involved in taking the gospel to other parts of the world so those who don’t know Christ will come to know Christ.  As we do that, we recognize we have responsibilities. 

We are committed to fulfilling God’s responsibilities for us in the missionary endeavor.

What are those commitments?  John identifies at least six commitments of the church to those we send:

1. We Commit to Sending Purposefully (v. 6a)
2. We Commit to Sending Worthily (v. 6b)
3. We Commit to Giving Generously (vv. 7-8)
4. We Commit to Defending Truthfully (vv. 9-12)
5. We Commit to Communicating Regularly (vv. 13-14)
6. We Commit to Praying Consistently (vv. 1-2)

Download the rest of this sermon on 3 John.

The audio will be posted on the GBC website by Tuesday.

When Jesus taught the Twelve disciples (and us) to pray daily for daily bread (Lk. 11:3), He is instructing us to pray for our daily need for food and our daily need for all the basics of life — the “staples” of life. He is teaching us to express our dependence on and trust in God to provide for our needs.

Because we are needy and because we are limited in ability and strength, we go to the One who is unlimited in resources and love and ask Him to provide. We ask Him for help with all our needs — the biggest and the smallest — engaging in conversation with Him about all those needs just as we would any other dear friend.

To pray for all our needs is also helped by being purposeful in praying — by planning to pray for all things. As we get older, and as our responsibilities and relationships expand, it can be helpful to maintain lists of needs for which we regularly pray. (Note: Jesus doesn’t teach us to make lists; He teaches us to pray for all our daily needs. Keeping lists is simply a means of remembering the things for which we are praying and need to pray.)

Here are some categories of “daily bread” needs for which you might consider praying (and expanding the lists to your particular needs):

• Pray for food and shelter and all the needs related to providing for yourself and your family (pray for the provision of food, gratitude for food provided, and for skill and faithfulness in planning for food, including things like saving for future needs of food and other staples)
• Pray for your job — provision of a salary to meet your needs, skill in fulfilling your responsibilities, transportation to get to your job, health and rest to be able to do your job
• Pray for health (implied many places, but explicit in 3 Jn. 2) as well as the spiritual lessons that we might learn through illness
• Pray for your own spiritual growth —
  • What is the Lord teaching you about Himself and yourself so that you can grow in Christlikeness? What is the state of your heart (what do you love? hate?) — and what is that revealing about what you need to change?
  • What is your ministry revealing about your need to grow and change? How can you be more faithful in your ministry and service of Christ and the church?
• Pray for spiritual strength to obey Christ and resist temptation (Lk. 11:4; Mt. 26:41). Just as the need for food and sleep is daily, so we are assaulted by daily temptations. So pray for grace to daily resist those onslaughts from the world, the flesh, and the Devil.
• Pray for your family members by name. Pray for their particular needs and circumstances, including what they need to grow in Christlikeness.
• Pray for the needs of others (notice Jesus says, “give us” — implying both that all of us are to pray in this way and that we should also pray for others). One way to do that is to systematically pray through the church directory, perhaps praying one or two letters of the alphabet each day, or taking a day to pray for the needs of the people within your home group, Sunday School class, or other circle of influence that you have.
• Pray for ministry (both yours and others)
  • Keep a list of all the various ministries of the church and their leaders and pray systematically through that list
  • Pray for all the missionaries of the church and other missionaries you personally know
  • Pray for unbelievers who need to hear and believe the gospel — and for people to share the gospel to them
  • Pray for opportunities to speak the gospel (and boldness to take advantage of the gospel)
• Pray with gratitude — don’t just ask God for your daily needs but thank Him for how He faithfully provides for those needs

It has been said that no one grows in Christlikeness accidentally. If a person grows spiritually, it is because he has been intentional in pursuing Christ. Similarly, if we will grow in our skill of praying it will be because of a purposeful plan for our prayers.

Anders Zorn, “Vårt dagliga bröd,” Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

One blistering hot day when they had guests for dinner, a mother asked her four-year old to give thanks for the meal. “But Mom, I don’t know what to say,” he protested. “Oh, just say what you’ve heard me say,” she told him.  Obediently, he bowed his little head and said, “Oh, Lord, why did I invite these people here on a hot day like this?”

We know we should pray, but one of the reasons we don’t pray is that we don’t know what to say.  Just what do we say to the Master of all things?  Even if we know we have needs, for what do we ask Him, and how should we ask Him?  Those questions are behind the request the disciples make of Jesus, “Teach us to pray.”   And that isn’t just a question for the Twelve; it’s a desire we also have — we want to pray more biblically, more effectively, and more like Christ. 

Jesus answers the disciples with concise instruction about prayer.  He tells them how to address God — as Father (remarkably!), and then He gives them five topics to pray; the first two relate to the nature of God — for the character of God to be hallowed (revered and worshipped), and for God’s kingdom to be established on earth.  Following those two expressions of worship and submission, Jesus teaches the Twelve and us to pray three corporate and personal requests.  The first of those is the simple desire, “Give us each day our daily bread” (Lk. 11:3).  With that request He is simply reminding us —

You have needs and God is sufficient.  So ask God to provide for you.

To paraphrase Matthew Henry, we have something to say to God every day.  Many of us are unaware of that need, believing we can live without God — we are unaware of our dependence on Him and obligation to Him, and when we do not go to Him with our worship and needs, we are living without Him.

We don’t want to live without Him.  We want His help.  So what does it mean to pray for daily bread?  Let’s consider this petition by recognizing three truths about asking God to meet our needs…

1. The Way We Ask for Our Needs
2. The Kind of God Who Provides for Our Needs
3. Some Spiritual Provisions in Our Material Needs

Download the rest of this sermon on Luke 11:3.

The audio will be posted on the GBC website by Tuesday.