Grace Harbor Community Church

The weekend edition of our membership classes will take place at the McKays’ house tomorrow, January 18th and 19th. These classes are focused upon the Bible’s teaching that God intends to glorify Himself through believers united together in a local church. We want to explore what following Christ together looks like from a biblical standpoint in body like ours. Please see the video link below to get an idea of why we understand membership to be such an important part of our following Christ.

http://www.9marks.org/what-are-the-9marks/membership

Coming does not obligate you to join in any way, but if you would like to join or simply learn more about what we believe, then please join us for these classes. For more info email Kevin.L.McKay@gmail.com

The parable of the sower in Luke 8:11-15 describes the different responses to the good news of the kingdom of God that different people make. The one who does not believe is not saved (12). The litmus test for whether or not someone has actually received/believed the good news with saving faith is that they produce much fruit (15). In the parable, three out of the four of the hearers do not produce much fruit due to some kind of testing. The only hearer that is saved through their belief in the good news is the one who holds on to the message and by enduring through the testing bears much fruit.

For the unbeliever, testing is the means for eliminating fruit. For the believer it is the means for producing fruit. Therefore, in a world where we are bound to face many trials, the call upon Christians following Christ together, especially as members of the same church, is to fight with each other to hold on to the truth daily and persevere under testing through the knowledge that our present sufferings do not even compare for the glory that awaits us (Rom. 8:18). This is the good fight of faith that Paul told Timothy he had fought even up to his impending execution, and therefore he was looking forward tot he crown of righteousness in store for him which Jesus Himself was going to give to him (2 Tim. 4:7-8). We are called to exhort one another to fight this fight daily by encouraging one another. Hebrews 3:12-13 says, “See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” 

In light of Luke 8:11-15, the above verses show us that our life together as a church plays a significant role in our truly receiving the gospel and bearing fruit, because it’s our life together that the Spirit uses to protect us from a hard and unbelieving heart that would be deceived by sin and turn from the living God. Instead, as we speak to one another the truth about God working in our testing to mature us and bring us to heavenly victory in Christ (James 1:2; Rom. 8:28) we will all hold onto the truth and by enduring bear much fruit. 

Luke 6:37, “Judge not, and you will not be judged…” is one of those verses often pulled away from its context. It’s a verse that is often used as a blanket command that forbids anyone from making an evaluation about someone else’s actions being wrong or bad. Jesus, however, is in no way encouraging us to be willfully blind towards sin. He is not telling us to suspend our ability as humans to discern the difference between right and wrong. This verse comes right after Jesus’ exhortation in the sermon on the plain to love others just as God has loved us. He’s saying, even when your right about judging sin, make sure that you are not condemning the person in your heart with anger. Love, the kind of gracious love which God has chosen to love you with must be present in your heart if you wish to restore a brother or sister in sin. That’s actually the context and the goal (Luke 6:42). 

Therefore, If we struggle with the kind of judgement mentioned in verse 37, then it must be due to a lack of gospel love in our hearts. This is the main problem with our judgment of other sinners. We struggle to love other sinners the way God has loved us because of an inaccurate understanding of our own relationship to God (self-justification), and/or our relationship to other people (self-righteousness/superior holiness). 

John 3:16-18 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” The one who is blind to his own sin stands justified in his own eyes, he trusts in himself. That person is under the condemnation of his sin already. 

We need to understand grace in order to obey this command not to judge. But grace is a hard concept for people who would like to think that they aren’t completely helpless. That’s why John Calvin said that this command is meant to cure a disease that is natural to us all. We love to flatter ourselves. We actually look for opportunities to look down upon others. Tim Keller said that he think we all instinctively know that we were meant to be perfect.  But we’re not, so what we tend to do is find ways that make us feel better about not being perfect. When we criticize others it makes us feel better about ourselves. We’re trying to convince ourselves that we’re closer to being perfect than we actually are.It justifies, in our own eyes, our own self-justification. As one Hollywood star said, “Seeing our friends fail makes us feel better.” 

Well, for a community of people that are in Christ this ought to make the church the place where we realize that our perfect righteousness is in heaven. So instead of competing with one another, we exercise an affectionate care and watchfulness over each other and faithful admonish and entreat one another as occasion may require. That’s what we promise in our church covenant ,because this is part of what following Christ together looks like. So we don’t compare ourselves with one another. We pursue Christ with one another. He is our righteousness, and in Him we are being made perfect. Gospel awareness helps us love one another just as Christ loved us. 

In Luke 5, following the miraculous catch, the scene of the miraculous healing of the leper ends with Jesus withdrawing to deserted places to pray in verse 16.  Luke notes this throughout the book. Jesus, the Son of God, anointed with the power of the Spirit, goes about His supernatural work, but not apart from prayer. 

Our self-dependency manifests itself in our lack of prayer.  It’s worth noting that in verse 15 large crowds were coming to hear Him teach and be healed. There was good work to do. Even so, Jesus withdrew to pray. We, on the other hand, do the opposite. When the schedule is full and we grow more busy, we cut out prayer, because we don’t believe that we have the time for it. When we weigh the value of praying against the value of the work we think we can get done we often see our to-do list as the more important work. So we move forward in the day or week doing more of what we have to do without having prayed, because we assume that we can. We believe that we’re not fully dependent upon God to live for Him and serve Him the way He has called us to do. 

We might be tempted to think that much of we do doesn’t really require the help of the Spirit, but what part of life is not spiritual? The Bible doesn’t compartmentalize parts of our life into the secular and sacred. All of life is lived before the Lord, and the opportunity to sin or to do good is always present. Spiritual success in any area of our lives does not come about apart from the grace of God and the work of His Spirit. If Jesus, the Son of God anointed with the Spirit of God prayed, then we, people with indwelling sin, ought to pray. 

This is also why it’s so good for us as a church to gather every Sunday night and pray together for the needs and ministry of the body. It not only instructs us at an individual level to pray, but at a corporate level. It reminds us as a church that we are not the ones building or growing the body of Christ. As we testify to in our church covenant, we are dependent upon His gracious aid for our spiritual progress as a church. Whatever spiritual fruit we see among us is the result of God’s gracious Spirit at work.

May we never fall under the deception of apparent success, and believe that we have just the right ideas, and the right amount of good talent, to grow and be faithful both as individual followers of Jesus seeking to glorify the Lord with our lives and as the bride of Christ – and then forget the need for prayer. 

This Friday night at 7 pm and Saturday morning at 9 am we will be offering all of our membership classes. If you are interested in joining the church, or simply want to learn more about what we believe and how it is that we understand that we are to follow Christ in community together, then please join us for this time. If you have any questions, then please just email the church at info@graceharbor.net. 

Also, due to a scheduling conflict with the hotel we will not be able to meet during the morning for our main service on September 2nd and 9th. This Sunday, September 2nd, we will meet instead at Olney St. Baptist Church at 5 pm. Olney St. is located at 100 Olney St. in Providence. On September 9th, however, we will meet at Trinity Presbyterian at 72 Clifford St. in Providence. We hope that you can join us for this time, but if you can’t then we hope to see you again the following week at our normal meeting place and normal time. 

As Christians, we know that Jesus is much more than just our example, but He’s certainly not less than our example. One of the purposes of biographies, which is the genre of literature that the Gospels fit into based on the current genres of the days in which they were written, was to present a person as an example for everyone else.

Knowing this, let us be encouraged by what we see in Luke chapter 4 to live boldly for God. Jesus preached a sermon from the prophet Isaiah about God’s anointed servant who would bring about salvation for God’s people. Yet, Jesus’ hearers were full of pride and unbelief, and it eventually led to hostile opposition. They drove Jesus out of town, led him to a cliff, and intended to kill Him. In 4:30, however, Jesus passes through the midst of the crowd kind of like Moses does the Red Sea. This was nothing short of a miracle. God preserved Jesus for saving His purposes. After passing through the angry mob bent on killing Him, Luke makes it clear that Jesus was sent to preach the message about the good news of the kingdom (4:31-44).

John Calvin commented on verse 30 saying, “When Luke says, that Jesus passed through the middle of the crowd, and so escaped out of their hands, he means that God rescued Him, by an extraordinary miracle, from immediate death. This example teaches us that, though our adversaries may prevail so far, that our life may seem to be placed at their disposal, yet that the power of God will always be victorious to preserve us, so long as He shall be pleased to keep us in the world, either by tying their hands, or blinding their eyes, or by stupifying their minds and hearts.”

We do not need to fear preaching the message of the Gospel. Jesus said that He would build His church, and He is building it through His people proclaiming the same good news about Himself that He did when He opened the scroll of Isaiah. The world is full of pride and unbelief, and it will surely hate us as it hated Him. Nonetheless, we we are not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of salvation to all who believe (Rom 1:16). Hearing the word of Christ is the means by which God grants saving faith (Rom. 10:17).  So we talk about Jesus even though it means we might be ostracized at work, or made to feel unwanted at the dinner table, or even physically beaten to the point of death in a closed country. Whether we live or die under persecution, we trust God, because even though people may destroy the body, they cannot destroy the soul (Matt. 10:28). He will rescue us from death. 

Whether you’re talking with someone who is a Christian or an atheist it is easier to talk about heaven than it is to talk about hell. Hell can be uncomfortable to talk about no matter what. It’s uncomfortable to write about. Yet, in our love for God and people, if we are going to be faithful to sharing the gospel we need to talk about what people need to be saved from. If we are going to talk about God’s rich love and mercy towards us, then people need to hear about God’s terrible wrath we all deserve. We cannot be afraid of how the opinions of others might hurt us, or of how our opinion of hell might hurt them, when God’s just judgment (not opinion) currently remains on them. John the Baptist’s message of repentance was accompanied by warning for people to flee the coming wrath (Luke 3:7;17). Jesus warned people saying, “It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the everlasting fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire” (Matt: 18:8-9). If these two men felt like hell was worth talking about, then why would we avoid it?  

Below you will find what two old puritan pastors helpful said about the need to talk about hell when ministering to others’ souls. I pray that they would exhort all of us to speak the truth in love for the spiritual good of our family, friends, and those we come across everyday. 

JC Ryle said, “The subject is one which should be spoken about if we wish to do good to souls. It is one that our Lord Jesus Christ often spoke about in his public teaching. That loving Saviour, who spoke so graciously about the way to heaven, also used the plainest language about the way to hell. Let us beware of being more wise than what is written and more charitable  than Scripture itself. Let the language of John the Baptist be deeply engraved on our hearts. The religion in which there is no mention of hell is not the religion of John the Baptist or of our Lord Jesus and His apostles.” – (Luke, The Crossway Classic Commentaries, 49). 

Jonathan Edwards said in his Distinguishing Marks, “If there be really a hell of such dreadful, and never-ending torments, as is generally supposed, that multitudes are in great danger of, and that the bigger part of men in Christian countries do actually from generation to generation fall into, for [lack] of a sense of the terribleness of it, and their danger of it, and so for [lack] of taking due care to avoid it; then why is it not proper for those that have the care of souls, to take great pains to make men sensible of it? Why should not they be told as much of the truth as can be? If I am in danger of going to hell, I should be glad to know as much as possibly I can of the dreadfulness of it: if I am very prone to neglect due care to avoid it, he does me the best kindness, that does most to represent to me the truth of the case, that sets forth my misery and danger in the liveliest manner…Some talk of it as an unreasonable thing to think to fright persons to heaven; but I think it is a reasonable thing to fright persons away from hell, that stand upon the brink of it, and are just ready to fall into it, and are senseless of their danger: ‘tis a reasonable thing to fright a person out of an house on fire.” – (The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 4, 246-8).

When Jesus’ parents finally find Jesus in the temple, after looking for Him for three days, there is a bit of rebuke in his mother’s question, “Son, why have you treated us like this?” (2:48). 

Jesus’ response is one of surprise. He’s not aware that He was even lost, and since He apparently was lost in their minds, He’s confused as to why it took them so long to find Him. “Why were you searching for Me?” He asked them. “Didn’t you know that I had to be in My Father’s house?” 

In Jesus’ mind, filled with the wisdom and grace of God (2:40), there wasn’t a problem. He was where he HAD to be. His relationship with the Father superseded everything else, even returning to Nazareth at that time with His parents. It was a spiritual perspective that His parents, at least initially, did not understand (2:50). 

The whole point of this story is to show that the divine wisdom with which Jesus was endowed with by the Spirit led Him to obey God the Father above all else. According to the book of Proverbs, this is basically the definition of wisdom. It’s the skill to live life well by living God’s way in God’s world. In a world that God created for His glory certainly that means we ought to follow Jesus’ example to make our relationship with God supersede everything else. 

Jesus died on the cross to restore that relationship with God, and then He gave us His Spirit that we might be empowered to live that life of devotion, or holiness, to God for His glory. As Christians, therefore, we want to bring this spiritual perspective that we find in Jesus’ early life to every area of our own, including places like our work. I’m not suggesting that you don’t obey your boss, or crunch numbers, or maintain the home well because you should be reading your Bible. I mean, understand that ultimately the one that you are serving is not your boss, or the consumer, or your family – but God Himself. Pour a cup of coffee for your customer, manage your employees, or give instruction to your child, as one who is living unto God in all things for His glory. In fact, it’s precisely because your relationship with God is primary that you ought to obey your boss, or instruct your child, etc. This is what God has instructed you to do, so worshipping Him means doing just that. You can apply this to every one of your relationships. Since our relationship with God is primary, we have obligations to our families, co-workers, fellow church members, etc., because God has given us clear commands in Scripture of how to live with others in this world. In fact, when Jesus presumably gets a clear command from His mother to come home with her, He obeys, because Mary doesn’t leave the temple upset (2:51). He continues to obey them, because His relationship with His Father superseded everything else He continues to obey them (Luke 2:51). 

Our relationship with God defines all other relationships, because it supersedes all other relationships. That’s the spiritual perspective that we must have if we are going to live well in God’s world for His glory. 

God does things differently than us. To begin with, we would have never suggested that He save the world by becoming a man Himself. Even if we had, we would not have thought that He would come as a baby first, born of a virgin no less. This is not the way we would draw it up for the almighty creator of the universe to save the world. Then, if it were not enough, the manner in which He comes as a baby continues to be an odd approach from our point of view. He chooses to be born from among one of the smallest peoples on the planet, in a poor family, in a small town, out in the country. If it had been up to us, then God would have arrived in a really influential city surrounded by a circle of really influential people, and brought up under the training of some great world changer, not a carpenter. God, however, does things differently than us. That is why we continue to be surprised by the events surround Jesus’ birth when we read about announcement to the shepherds, a group of outcasts with a bad enough reputation that they could not bear witness in court. Yet, these are the people that God grants the privilege of being the first to hear about the good news, and it was they who became the first evangelists in their own rite. 

This mode of operation never stops for God. Jesus said that He would build His church, and when He calls out His sheep from among the peoples of the world not many are wise, or noble, or strong (1 Cor. 1:26). It’s in this way that God shows off His own wisdom, majesty, and strength. He works in such a way that no one can boast except in the Lord. It’s obvious that only He could have done it when He works the way He does.

It should continue to amaze us today that God chooses to spread the gospel and bring glory to Himself through the church. An assembly of people, who from a spiritual standpoint, are not any different from the unreliable and unworthy shepherds. Why did God choose to accomplish His mission to fill the earth with His glory through people like us? Well, it’s to bring glory to Himself. We cannot take any of the credit. It is simply our joy and our privilege.