The Last Word - Acts 28:31

Acts 28:31 Paul proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness and without hindrance! (NIV)

I love the last verse of the Book of Acts. It is full of encouragement and energy, showing us that Paul continued to preach and teach the Gospel for the rest of his days. His faith absolutely captivated him and we should be thankful for his focus on serving Christ. Most of what we still read, hear, preach, and teach about Christianity originates in the mission, work, and writings of Paul.

He must have known that his time was almost up. At some point, he was brought before the Emperor and his appeal was rejected. Traditional stories suggest that he was beheaded by Nero just after most of Rome was burned to the ground. The Christians were blamed for the fire, so Paul as a ringleader of the notorious sect was probably executed. During this time of persecution, Simon Peter was also crucified in Rome.

It must have taken a lot of courage to continue proclaiming the kingdom of God when Paul knew that he was under a death sentence. The apostle made sure that every minute of his diminishing days was spent talking to folks about faith or writing letters to people and churches that were beginning to flourish all over the Mediterranean. And this is why I love how the Book of Acts ends; it’s almost as if the writer Luke is handing over Paul’s mission to the rest of us, to take up his work and continue the Gospel story in our own lives. With the help of the Holy Spirit, the reading of the Gospels, and the studying of Paul’s letters that is exactly what we all can do – in effect, our story becomes a new chapter - Acts 29.

Point to ponder

What am I doing with the faith I have received? How am I continuing this great story of the Gospel?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, teach us Your ways and help us to continue proclaiming Your Kingdom in our lives and the world today. Enable us to share Your words and take up the mission that Paul laid down so long ago. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. Come and join us for worship on Sunday mornings at 11:00 AM to continue the Gospel story! You will be made very welcome 😊

Today’s image is of a Roman denarius coin. If you want to view a larger version, please click this link: Denarius.

Stewardship devotion: Excelling in Giving - 2 Corinthians 8:7

Today’s readings: Judges 9:7-21 and 2 Corinthians 8:1-12

2 Corinthians 8:7       But just as you excel in everything--in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us--see that you also excel in this grace of giving.

We've just completed a new stewardship campaign at our church called Consecration Sunday. A lot of hours, effort, and focus were put in by members of the Stewardship Team, along with prayers and presentations. It was a very upbeat method of helping the members of the congregation to think about not just what they give, but also how and why they give. I think most of the good folks bought into the aspect of honoring God with their financial commitment. There were no guilt trips or undue pressure put upon the people, so we’ll find out if this approach has worked in the weeks to come.

Most pastors, like myself, worry about giving, especially in uncertain economic times. Added to the burden is the sad fact that folks are beginning to adopt a laissez-faire attitude to church all across society. People say that they are spiritual and thankful to God, but it sometimes does not manifest itself into regular worship and giving. Taking God for granted has always been a part of the human condition; these days it appears as though more people are majoring in self and minoring in God, forgetting that we live as creatures in His Creation.

Giving money, giving our time, and giving our hearts to God shows others that our faith is actually real. Being a Christian is the hardest faith on the planet because it requires commitment, devotion, and loyalty to Christ above everything else. As human beings, we all have skills, pursuits, activities, and gifts that we excel in; the tough question that we should be asking ourselves this morning is this: do we also excel in giving?

Questions for personal reflection

What do I give to Christ through the church? Am I excelling in giving?

Prayer:            Lord Jesus, You are the greatest gift in the history of the world. For our sake, You left the riches of Heaven and became part of a poor refugee family on Earth. For our sake, You gave everything that You had, including Your precious life, on the Cross at Calvary. Without Your gift, we would be cut off from God forever. By Your blood, Your Church was established to continue Your mission on Earth. Challenge us today, so that we may cheerfully, faithfully, and exceedingly give to You. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to make a comment or ask a question about today’s message, please send him an email to traqair@aol.com.

Today’s drawing is one of John’s latest Nativity images called “Bethlehem Lullaby.” If you would like to view a larger version, please click on the following link: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7459/10916628304_9c9bf3f08f_b.jpg

Daily Devotions: On the Edge

Psalm 14:1      The fool says in his heart,” There is no God.” They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good.

Like everyone else, I struggle with my faith at times. I’ve always believed in God as far back as I can remember, but it’s what I believe in God that keeps changing. When I first became a Christian, I wanted to convert the entire world. I actually preached on street corners in Scotland and sang hymns outside of Glasgow pubs. I was fearless for Christ and wanted to show the world what unbelievers were missing. I guess I must have appeared like a religious freak to most of my drunken audience, but I was on fire for the Lord and it didn’t bother me.

These days, I would find it tough and perhaps be too embarrassed to preach outside a city bar. I get in enough trouble preaching from the relative safety of a church pulpit. Sometimes my zeal to get the Gospel message across has caused some people to get upset and leave the church. A sermon that stings is sometimes too close to the truth, even for me.

Faith is a precious gift from God, but sometimes we foolishly take it for granted or allow ourselves to cast it aside in order to indulge in sinful things. We totter on the edge of foolishness which, for some people, can lead to affluence and unbelief, indifference and apostasy. I’m not one of those who subscribes to the belief that ‘once saved means always saved.’ I think that we can lose our salvation if we lose ourselves to the wiles of the world, which is why Jesus says in Mark’s Gospel: “Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him."(Mark 4 v 25) If we were saved for all time, we could give our hearts to Christ at the age of three and spend the next 97 years doing whatever we liked.

When I preach the message on Sunday mornings, I am very much aware that we’re all just living on the edge of eternity. Who knows what tomorrow may bring, so that is why we all need to get our hearts and minds, our lives and ways right with God through Christ today. To do anything else or to leave it for another time is plainly foolish and just as bad as the person with no belief at all.

Prayer:                        Lord Jesus, let this be the day when we all completely surrender our lives to You. Let this be the time when we allow You totally into our hearts, to change us forever. Enable us not to keep back anything or any part of us from You. Take away our foolishness and fill us with true faith. In Your Holy Name, we humbly pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send John an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

4 Minute Devotions: Basic Christianity

Mark 2:5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."

Last night, I went down to my favorite fishing hole at Concord Park. I sat on the rocks for about an hour, reading one of my favorite books. It’s called “Basic Christianity” and it was written by John Stott. I read it years ago when I was in Scotland after a friend suggested it to me. John Stott is a great English preacher and he writes with a wonderful clarity.

I was reading a chapter about Jesus and the claims He made about Himself. As John Stott puts it, we can’t know much about Christianity until we learn about Christ. This makes what Christ had to say about Himself as very important to our faith. We cannot pick and choose what we like about Jesus and disregard the rest.

One of the claims that Christ made, which got Him into a lot of bother, was the ability to forgive sins. In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus forgives the sins of the paralytic before He sets out to physically heal the sick man. It caused a great deal of consternation amongst the witnesses because they thought that who else but God can forgive sins? Some of them wanted to stone Jesus to death for blasphemy. They didn’t care about the sick man; they only wanted to purge the community of Christ’s sinful mistake.

I guess we would be much the same. If a preacher were to come into our town proclaiming that he had the power to forgive all of our sins, we’d probably tar and feather that person and kick him out of town.

John Stott says that Jesus claimed this divine power for Himself and that we have to deal with this issue. If Christ is truly the Son of God, then He can indeed forgive our sins. But if He does forgive our sins, then don’t we owe Him all of our faith, allegiance, and loyalty? In other words, you can’t go halfway and make a compromise with Christ. It’s either all or nothing.

In these confusing days when we are bombarded with New Age philosophies and other world religions, it’s hard to make a total commitment to Christ. It’s like putting all of our eggs in one basket, whilst so many people in the world want to keep their options open. But as Stott writes throughout the book, either Jesus is both everything He says He is, and His claims are unchangeable, or Christ has made false claims about Himself and Christianity is untenable.

For me, I think both Christ and Stott have it completely right. Jesus is God’s Son and the Savior of the world; so when I need forgiveness, I confidently come and pray to Him.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are the Son of the Living God, the Savior of the World, and the Lord of our lives. You alone have the power to forgive our sins and restore us to God. We rejoice in Your Sovereignty and Authority. We praise You both now and forevermore. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

The Invisible Man

Claude Rains was one of Hollywood's best actors. His spine chilling role as the original Invisible Man has remained unequalled.
As Christians, we believe in an invisible Christ, so how can we convince the world that Jesus exists?

Podcast version here

1 Peter 1:8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.

I love old movies, especially the black and white ones. The storylines have a lot of depth to them and the actors are incredible. What passes for movie entertainment these days is just an excuse for extroverts to do something outrageous. There’s no real acting, just gross stupidity.

Anyway, one of the best Hollywood actors in my opinion was Claude Rains. You’ll maybe remember him as Captain Renault in “Casablanca,” or King Herod in “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” or even Prince John in “The Adventures of Robin Hood.” He usually played the baddie in movies, but the three roles that I liked most are when Claude played Caesar in “Caesar and Cleopatra”, Job Skeffington in Mr. Skeffington, and, my all time favorite, as the Invisible Man.

If you’ve ever seen the original “Invisible Man,” you’ll know that most of the time you hear Claude Rain’s voice. It’s absolutely creepy and can still send shivers down my spine. He plays a scientist who discovers a formula for making himself invisible, but the side effect is that it drives him insane. He wants to rule the world and becomes a monster in the process. It’s like “Phantom of the Opera” and “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” all rolled into one. The ending is marvelous, but I won’t spoil it for you!

When the apostle Peter writes about Christ being invisible, he is writing to a new generation of Christians who have never seen Jesus. He knows that his own time is running out and that he is amongst some of the last survivors who knew Jesus personally. His mission is to help this new wave of Christians understand that although they cannot see Jesus, they can feel His presence joyfully in their hearts. He refers to this as a glorious and inexpressible joy.

Peter’s words are also meant for us today. None of us have ever seen the Lord, but we feel His Presence within our souls. The world may not understand what this is like and refuse to believe us, but we know what we feel, and we place our faith on the certainty of that feeling being real.

We may not be able to convince everyone that Christ exists because some are always going to say that “seeing is believing.” But perhaps more people would accept His invisible presence if they could see His Holy influence over our lives. That is our mission; that is our ministry to a faithless world – to show it that Christ exists because our lives exhibit Christian faith, hope, and love.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You for entering into our lives and for touching our hearts with Your Spirit. Help us to be vessels of Your love to our community and grant us the ability to let people truly see You through who we are and what we do in Your Name. Amen.