Fourth Year Ministries

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3) The truth of the gospel includes this important phrase: Christ died for our sins . You've probably heard it before. Many times. Sometimes familiarity leads to a diminished sense of importance. The more you hear about something the more ordinary it may seem. Common. Ho-hum. Boring. But this truth is anything but common. Another difficulty arises with this truth. Beyond being common. It may happen in your ears without you even realizing it. When the truth is declared that Christ died for our sins, you may think you hear the truth. But what you really hear is a diminished version. A partial truth. Instead of hearing that Christ died for our sins you may hear a slightly different version of this truth. You might hear this: Jesus died for your sins. Do you see the difference? You should. These statements are similar. Both m...

Some Christians look at the men and women recorded in the Bible as "super saints." People whose images are rightly captured on stained-glass windows. Those whose sacrificial service to the King of kings is beyond the grasp of normal, regular, every day Christians. But this is not how the Apostle Paul viewed himself. Paul urged Christians in Corinth to be imitators of him. Twice (1 Corinthians 4:16, 11:1). He said similar things to Christians in his other letters. See, for example, Ephesians 5:1; 1 Thessalonians 1:6, 2:14; 2 Thessalonians 3:7-9; Hebrews 6:12, 13:7; and 3 John 1:11. Paul said this instruction of imitating him and his conduct is something he teaches everywhere he goes: Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me . For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church . (1 Corinthians 4:16-17) Paul traveled. He preached...

Many stumbling blocks exist for people coming to Christ. One of them is the idea that God's grace is unable to save some because they are too sinful. This stumbling block can exist in the mind of the person being confronted with the gospel. They may believe the words of the preacher couldn't possibly apply to them. Not with their background. Not if you knew the whole story. Maybe for others. Not for me. This is false. God's grace is more amazing than we can fathom. It is the responsibility of Christians to declare the height, breadth, width, and depth of God's redeeming love in Christ. God is both able and willing to save all who will turn to Christ. Another stumbling block may exist in the mind of the preacher. This occurs when the Christian restricts their preaching from certain people because of their own bias. This is why Jesus taught about the Good Samaritan. God's glorious gospel and offer of salvation should be freely offered to all. Even th...

Content is important. But it's not the only thing. Some evangelistic methods are presented as if they are the  perfect witnessing method. Some think memorizing a method and mechanically delivering the content means you have effectively witnessed. Witness throughout the New Testament demonstrates this is not accurate. There is not a cookie-cutter approach that is applied the same way every time. Content is extremely important. Without the right content our witness cannot be effective. Messing with the content of the gospel voids its power. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void. (1 Corinthians 1:17) Focusing only  on content fails to recognize that we are not preaching to the air. We are preaching to persons . To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some. I do all things for t...

For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (Romans 15:4) (If you missed Part 1, you can read it here .) The Apostle Paul quoted a verse from Psalm 69 before making his comment in Romans 15:4. When he speaks of whatever was written before he means what we have recorded in the Old Testament. He simply called them the Scriptures. God inspired the Hebrew Scriptures, our Old Testament. Paul said they were written for the instruction of New Testament believers. Through perseverance and encouragement in the Scriptures we can have hope. The Old Testament is not supposed to be ignored by Christians. As we apply this to our task of lifting up the Son, that in and through Christ our Father may be glorified, we encounter a word of caution. It is easy to agree on the surface that the church ought to talk about Jesus. That's a given. But are we aware that not ev...

"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life." (John 3:14-15) There is a difference between outreach and evangelism. Outreach can take many different forms. It can be service. It can be advertising. Outreach can (and should) contain evangelism. But it doesn't always. Sometimes Christians fall into the trap of preaching ourselves. Preaching our churches. Preaching our favorite doctrines, moral battles, pressing burdens, or our pet programs. To be sure, there is a time and a place for all of that. But Christians must also remember the counsel of Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles: For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus' sake. (2 Corinthians 4:5) We do not preach ourselves. We preach Christ Jesus as Lord . We present ourselves as servants of others for Jesus' sake. Our service to them c...

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. (2 Corinthians 5:17) Paul's declaration in 2 Corinthians 5:17 is one of the most well-known and oft-quoted verses in Scripture. It speaks of the beautiful truth of salvation. The old things passed away. New things have come. Praise God! Much less quoted are the next verses. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation , namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:18-20, underline added) If you are in Christ, you are a new creature. The old has passed away. The new has come. The "new" includes a...

But Moses said to the people, "Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the LORD which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. The LORD will fight for you while you keep silent." (Exodus 14:13-14) Salvation is wholly a work of God from beginning to end. The fact that you can contribute nothing to your salvation is a stumbling block to non-believers and believers alike. Pride can keep people from humbling themselves before God and receiving the gift of salvation. Those who have received salvation can begin to think they must now add something to what they have received. Both are serious errors. The Apostle Paul used the exodus and wilderness wanderings of the sons of Israel as a picture of God's work of salvation. For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in t...

For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. (1 Corinthians 5:7) God promised to make a great nation of Abraham. Genesis records God's faithfulness in beginning to fulfill these promises through the lineage of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. As Genesis ends we see that God has orchestrated events in order to bring the sons of Israel (Jacob) into Egypt. When they entered into Egypt there were about 70 persons in all. Over the next four hundred and thirty years the people multiplied greatly. God brought them out of the land of Egypt with powerful plagues in order to make them a holy nation, set apart for His great name. The series of plagues drew a distinction between the sons of Israel and the Egyptians. The final plague was the harshest and was a foreshadowing of the coming Christ. The Apostle Paul makes it plain that Christ is the fulfillment of the Passover. Distinguishing The People of God God declared the purpose of the plagues from the beginning. "But on...