WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:16.800 Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. It is wonderful 00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:20.760 that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, either 00:00:20.760 --> 00:00:24.920 by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray 00:00:24.920 --> 00:00:31.520 for us that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself? 00:00:32.079 --> 00:00:37.939 The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, we really, 00:00:38.179 --> 00:00:42.579 I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the Bible, 00:00:43.240 --> 00:00:48.760 they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will 00:00:48.760 --> 00:00:54.560 do what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a 00:00:54.560 --> 00:00:59.340 non-Christian checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't 00:00:59.340 --> 00:01:04.680 hesitate to send us questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the 00:01:04.680 --> 00:01:07.760 types of things that you're really struggling with. So God bless. 00:01:12.280 --> 00:01:19.359 Father, we ask that as we deal, Father, with a bit of a difficult text, but Father, when we pierce 00:01:19.359 --> 00:01:29.120 through the difficulty, you help us to see just the beauty of your love for us, just the beauty of 00:01:29.120 --> 00:01:36.060 your love for us. And so, Father, we ask that you help us not to turn away from the difficulty, but to 00:01:36.060 --> 00:01:43.319 take the hand of Jesus and to be open to the Holy Spirit, to walk towards the difficulty, 00:01:43.319 --> 00:01:50.099 so that we might know afresh, Father, the beauty of your love for us, and the security of the beauty 00:01:50.099 --> 00:01:55.159 of your love for us. And so we ask that you would do this wonderful work in our lives this morning, 00:01:55.439 --> 00:01:59.699 in the precious name of Jesus. Amen. Please be seated. 00:02:02.519 --> 00:02:03.659 Set my timer. 00:02:03.659 --> 00:02:33.639 Set my timer. 00:02:34.340 --> 00:02:37.139 And Istone представited you and I want to see my mama that I have a prayer prepared for us for now, 00:02:37.139 --> 00:02:39.060 that I pray to ever shop and let us thank you so much for joining us today. 00:02:39.879 --> 00:02:42.379 And then we ask ourselves, 00:02:42.379 --> 00:02:43.659 We ask myself to see people who came here. 00:02:43.859 --> 00:02:53.479 And I've shared was still about sweet, but I've had to begega to heal because 00:02:53.479 --> 00:02:55.599 and how many things we get together. 00:02:55.599 --> 00:02:56.539 By getting in a way we're ready to come forever i in grace, 00:02:56.539 --> 00:02:57.840 and how they face life. 00:02:57.840 --> 00:02:58.800 And so many things we're good with it is to be able to capture these problems 00:02:58.800 --> 00:02:59.719 in the United States. 00:02:59.719 --> 00:03:00.479 That's it, and that P? 00:03:01.419 --> 00:03:02.620 In the United States, Hong Kong, or other than whatever, 00:03:02.620 --> 00:03:06.580 has a cause, and there's a cause, and then an effect, and then that's another cause, which is 00:03:06.580 --> 00:03:12.140 another effect, and that's just how things work. It just, everything has a cause and effect, and so I 00:03:12.140 --> 00:03:16.960 might think I've come to have these independent beliefs about being a Christianity, but it's just 00:03:16.960 --> 00:03:22.099 a matter of cause and effect, and about the fact that my parents happen to be Christians, and I 00:03:22.099 --> 00:03:26.960 thought I had these beliefs, and that they were real, but they can't possibly be true, when there 00:03:26.960 --> 00:03:32.540 was other things connected with it, and it, I mean, it might not sound like much to you, and I don't 00:03:32.539 --> 00:03:36.639 know how many of you have wrestled with different types of doubts about the Christian faith, but 00:03:36.639 --> 00:03:42.739 doubts aren't necessarily bad in the Christian faith. God wants us to think into them and pray 00:03:42.739 --> 00:03:48.379 into them, and that's what he did in my life. He used, I really went into an intense time of thinking 00:03:48.379 --> 00:03:55.780 about it, and I came out on the other side. In fact, I challenged my, I guess, I guess really they were 00:03:55.780 --> 00:04:01.319 trying to torment me, because when I challenged them, they didn't want to change their views, they just 00:04:01.319 --> 00:04:05.239 dropped, and they didn't want to talk to me anymore when they saw that they couldn't intimidate me out 00:04:05.239 --> 00:04:10.780 of my Christianity. The particular topic, and it sounds very boring, I'm going to show a video 00:04:10.780 --> 00:04:17.519 in a few minutes to help bring home what I'm getting at. It's actually addressed in a way in the text, 00:04:17.779 --> 00:04:25.240 which is, for a lot of people, it's shocking, and they don't like it, but if we press into what it's 00:04:25.240 --> 00:04:33.220 saying, as I said in my prayer, it actually brings home to us a profound comfort of the powerful, 00:04:33.920 --> 00:04:42.060 unfailing love of God for his children that gives us a type of emotional, helps us to enter into a 00:04:42.060 --> 00:04:48.519 type of emotional security to live a very, very good, just to live life and to deal with the 00:04:48.519 --> 00:04:54.699 challenges that come our way, even when they're very hard challenges. So let's look. It's Acts chapter 4, 00:04:54.699 --> 00:05:01.180 and we'll be looking today at verses, we'll be starting at verse 23. If you have your Bibles, 00:05:01.879 --> 00:05:06.599 Acts chapter 4, beginning at 23, and if you don't have your Bible, the words will be up on the screen, 00:05:07.120 --> 00:05:11.199 but it's good to have your own Bible. I don't know if we've run out of these books of Acts. If we 00:05:11.199 --> 00:05:16.779 haven't, we should get them back out, and people can pick one of these journal copies of Acts up to 00:05:16.779 --> 00:05:22.639 be able to follow along for themselves. And so what's just happening, right, the book of Acts is a true 00:05:22.639 --> 00:05:28.939 eyewitness-based history of the early days, the first 30 years, approximately, of the Jesus movement. 00:05:30.479 --> 00:05:36.120 And this incident is about three months or so after the death and resurrection of Jesus. 00:05:37.319 --> 00:05:42.939 And then what's happened just before this is that Peter and John were going to the Jewish temple in 00:05:42.939 --> 00:05:50.099 Jerusalem to pray. They see a regular beggar there. Peter and John, in the name of Jesus, heals him. 00:05:50.100 --> 00:05:56.660 It's a very dramatic miracle because the man was over 40, and he had been lame from birth, 00:05:57.160 --> 00:06:01.980 and he's healed. He's jumping and jumping and jumping and jumping and hanging on to them. 00:06:02.460 --> 00:06:09.720 They draw a big crowd. Peter gives an impromptu sermon, and as he's finishing his sermon, 00:06:10.439 --> 00:06:17.140 the temple police arrest him. So him and John are arrested, and him and John spend the night in jail. 00:06:17.139 --> 00:06:24.659 And the next morning, which is now where we're caught up, sort of, they're brought out of jail to be 00:06:24.659 --> 00:06:32.199 brought before this very august body of the cultural and intellectual and spiritual and wealth leaders 00:06:32.199 --> 00:06:37.800 of the community. They're grilled. They're the same group of people that condemn Jesus to death, 00:06:37.800 --> 00:06:44.180 and they try to intimidate Peter and John. Peter and John aren't intimidated. They bear witness to Jesus. 00:06:45.579 --> 00:06:52.400 The group of leaders all sort of take a time out and try to decide what to do. They're really stuck. 00:06:52.580 --> 00:06:57.759 They really want to stick it to Peter and John, but they can't because of the miracle so dramatic. 00:06:58.540 --> 00:07:02.620 And so they tell Peter and John, listen, don't say anything more about Jesus from now on. 00:07:02.620 --> 00:07:07.600 And we didn't talk about it in our sermon last week, but the famous line that you've probably heard 00:07:07.600 --> 00:07:11.639 is what they say to him. They say, listen, you figure out whether you should, you know, you know, 00:07:11.699 --> 00:07:16.180 should I, should we believe, should we, should we obey God or obey human beings? 00:07:16.800 --> 00:07:20.759 That's what Peter says to them. You know, should we obey God or should we obey human beings? 00:07:21.180 --> 00:07:27.040 You figure it out. And then they get left, they get let go. And now the story continues. 00:07:27.139 --> 00:07:31.139 What do they do when they leave? Well, that's where the story continues, and it goes like this. 00:07:31.139 --> 00:07:39.360 When they were released, verse 23 of chapter 4, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests 00:07:39.360 --> 00:07:47.620 and elders had said to them. Now, we need to pause here for a second. You know, one of the problems 00:07:47.620 --> 00:07:54.699 we have as Christians who are very familiar with the text. So if you're here and you're not familiar 00:07:54.699 --> 00:08:01.060 with the Christian faith, you're outside the Christian faith or maybe just trying to seek out what's 00:08:01.060 --> 00:08:06.639 true or what's false, this story isn't very well known to you. But for many Christians, it's a 00:08:06.639 --> 00:08:11.160 familiar story. And the problem we have is the familiarity means that we lose the drama 00:08:11.160 --> 00:08:16.800 because we just assume that the next step is obvious, but it's not obvious. Now, we'll just 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:23.279 take it for a second. What would we do in this particular situation? Let's say it was me. 00:08:23.279 --> 00:08:31.279 You know, it was me and Barbara Allen. We're going somewhere to pray, and we say something, 00:08:31.379 --> 00:08:35.159 and we heal somebody, and then we give a talk about Jesus, and then the authorities arrest us, 00:08:35.199 --> 00:08:38.779 and then we spend the night in jail, and then we come out and we come to church on a Sunday morning. 00:08:39.259 --> 00:08:43.899 And what are you folks all going to say to me? Well, like in Canada, there's lots of different 00:08:43.899 --> 00:08:50.659 responses that we might actually say. The first thing that we might do is we might start to worry. 00:08:50.659 --> 00:08:58.500 We worry that now there's been a turn against us by the authorities and that we could start being 00:08:58.500 --> 00:09:08.459 arrested. That's probably how a lot of us would be like. I don't know. The intern who used to be 00:09:08.459 --> 00:09:14.600 here, who's now a pastor down in Port Perry, he didn't talk about much of this service, but before 00:09:14.600 --> 00:09:20.420 he was 18, he had a record as long as his arm. And so maybe he wouldn't be worried. He said, 00:09:20.639 --> 00:09:24.600 night in jail is just like a walk in the park, you know, but for most of us, we'd probably be pretty 00:09:24.600 --> 00:09:28.860 worried, and we wouldn't want to spend a night in jail. I know that's what it would be like for me. 00:09:30.340 --> 00:09:36.600 Some of us then might say, George, okay, it's really, really good, George, really, really good, 00:09:36.600 --> 00:09:45.340 but maybe we should be a little bit less confrontational. You know, maybe we should 00:09:45.340 --> 00:09:51.620 just try to work on our messaging a little bit, be a little bit more, what should we be? 00:09:52.379 --> 00:09:59.519 Winsome. Winsome's a wonderful word. We should be more winsome, and we should be a bit more nuanced. 00:10:00.259 --> 00:10:05.420 Two wonderful words, shows that we're well-educated, shows that we can speak like Canadians, 00:10:05.419 --> 00:10:14.519 means, translated, it means, be silent and less clear. Usually, that's what it means. Don't say 00:10:14.519 --> 00:10:19.959 anything, or if you do say something, you know, I had a friend who's in ministry, he's now retired, 00:10:20.439 --> 00:10:25.939 and he did not have the gift of clarity, and he regularly, he'd try to tell somebody off or tell 00:10:25.939 --> 00:10:29.459 some other message, and he'd go home to his wife, and he'd say, you know, I don't know if they actually 00:10:29.459 --> 00:10:34.899 realized I was telling them off, because he didn't have the gift of clarity. He's a very, very nice guy. 00:10:34.899 --> 00:10:39.100 Right? That just wasn't one of those gifts. So we might say, George, you know, maybe we should just, 00:10:39.379 --> 00:10:42.899 you know, I don't know, dial down the things a little bit, not be quite as confrontational. 00:10:43.480 --> 00:10:47.939 You know, within that, we might say, you know, George, we could a lot further with the gospel, 00:10:47.939 --> 00:10:53.360 if we could try to build bridges, and so maybe what we should be doing is seeing how we could get 00:10:53.360 --> 00:10:59.439 involved in this, help them and serve them, have them to start to like us, and so maybe they will have 00:10:59.440 --> 00:11:04.040 us at the table, and if we have, if they're at the table with us, we're at the table with them, 00:11:04.080 --> 00:11:09.660 then we can, you know, speak the message and get the message out. You know, some of us actually might 00:11:09.659 --> 00:11:24.980 say, as well that privately blame me, because you see, we Canadians, we're sort of addicted to a type of 00:11:24.980 --> 00:11:34.659 human technology, a way of talking to people. Sort of, in our culture, it's sort of a sign of success 00:11:34.659 --> 00:11:40.100 that you're able to manage your interactions, and I'm using manage correctly, you manage your 00:11:40.100 --> 00:11:47.519 interactions in such a way that you get what you want, basically, in a win-win type of way. We all 00:11:47.519 --> 00:11:52.939 like win-win, right? Win-win is what we want. We want to have a win-win solution, and we manage things 00:11:52.939 --> 00:11:58.399 in such a way that we get what we want, and that there's a type of peace and harmony, and actually, 00:11:58.539 --> 00:12:03.019 the problem is that's such a popular way of thinking in our culture, that when that doesn't happen, 00:12:03.019 --> 00:12:07.840 we think we're sinning, but that's actually not a biblical idea. Like, none of what I've expressed 00:12:07.840 --> 00:12:14.379 is a, that's just not a biblical idea. Like, I'm not saying it's a terrible idea. Obviously, we should 00:12:14.379 --> 00:12:22.179 try to talk, you know, and try to minimize conflict when we can, but that type of mindset that we see, 00:12:22.460 --> 00:12:27.500 and it's in the church, it would mean then, if you see something like me spending the night in jail, 00:12:27.500 --> 00:12:34.379 it's in some ways a sign that I've done something wrong. And then, and then, of course, as well, 00:12:34.460 --> 00:12:39.360 the other thing which could very well happen, and that's a whole other topic with worry, is that 00:12:39.360 --> 00:12:44.600 people might wonder, people might be disappointed with God after I've spent the night in jail. 00:12:45.899 --> 00:12:52.159 Like, they might say, like, in thinking of Peter and John, they'd say, God, why, good grief, God. 00:12:52.159 --> 00:13:00.279 Like, Peter repented. He spent his time in prayer. He's a leader. He bore witness to Jesus really 00:13:00.279 --> 00:13:06.199 clearly. You did a miracle through him, and then you let him go and spend the night in jail? Like, 00:13:06.240 --> 00:13:13.939 what's going on? Like, we're disappointed with you, God. So those are different responses we could have. 00:13:14.439 --> 00:13:19.799 So how do they respond? Now that we realize that what happens next isn't obvious. 00:13:19.799 --> 00:13:25.519 It's not obvious. It's not obvious. We have to discover what happens next. Well, what happens next? 00:13:27.240 --> 00:13:34.079 Verse 24, the first bit, and when they heard it, they lifted their voices to God to get voices together 00:13:34.079 --> 00:13:42.179 to God and said, so they pray. Now, just a very tiny aside on that. This was a thing which really struck 00:13:42.179 --> 00:13:47.500 me this week. I might not always look to you like this, but I can have real doubts of worry. 00:13:48.799 --> 00:13:53.219 And I can't remember the Christian who said it, but there was a Christian who said that worry 00:13:53.219 --> 00:14:02.219 is a terrible abuse and misuse of the imagination. And I definitely can be prone to that, of having 00:14:02.219 --> 00:14:08.299 deep worry. And I would, you know, and often what happens, and this is just me, you know, this is 00:14:08.299 --> 00:14:12.500 yet another reason why you should pray for me is, is that when I worry, I don't pray. 00:14:14.219 --> 00:14:18.599 I don't know about you, but when I worry, I often don't pray. I have to be convicted of God by the 00:14:18.599 --> 00:14:22.199 Holy Spirit that I need to pray. And that's actually one of the things that happened to me as I was, 00:14:22.799 --> 00:14:27.639 I wasn't actually in a time of worry this week, but that's one of the things that really struck me. 00:14:27.719 --> 00:14:33.659 I would probably be worried. And when I tend to be worried, I tend not to pray. And this text, 00:14:33.659 --> 00:14:38.579 I'm sure there were worries in the crowd, but their response was to not to spend time in worry, 00:14:38.699 --> 00:14:45.419 but to pray. And that's a very powerful reminder. But what did they pray though? I mean, our prayers 00:14:45.419 --> 00:14:55.699 reflect what we believe. Our prayers often reflect our pride, our arrogance, our anxieties, our worries, 00:14:56.000 --> 00:15:02.179 our prescriptions that we think as to what God is going to do. So pray which is good, but what do they 00:15:02.179 --> 00:15:10.759 pray? Well, they pray a very, very interesting prayer. Look at happens in, in, in verse 24. And I'll 00:15:10.759 --> 00:15:18.079 read it again. When they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, sovereign Lord, 00:15:18.919 --> 00:15:27.240 who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them. And who through the mouth of 00:15:27.240 --> 00:15:32.200 our father, David, your servant said by the Holy Spirit. Now just sort of pause there for a second 00:15:32.200 --> 00:15:40.180 before we, we see the rest. Um, the very, very first thing they do is they acknowledge, they fill 00:15:40.180 --> 00:15:51.220 their mind with the greatness and bigness of God. And the word sovereign here, the word sovereign is a 00:15:51.220 --> 00:15:59.240 very, very powerful word. It means that God, if God is the sovereign Lord, that there is no limitation 00:15:59.240 --> 00:16:09.019 to his power. There are no rules that he has to obey, to obey. There is no force that can change what 00:16:09.019 --> 00:16:15.980 he is or does or wants to do. There is absolutely nothing that can limit whatever he wants to do. 00:16:15.980 --> 00:16:28.620 That's what sovereign Lord means. God, you are one of unlimited power in your scope. Whatever you will, 00:16:29.120 --> 00:16:37.480 you can do whatever you will, and nothing can stop your will from happening. Like that, by the way, 00:16:37.519 --> 00:16:42.539 just as an aside, it's a profound thing to meditate upon. Like I, I have to confess, I do not meditate 00:16:42.539 --> 00:16:47.059 enough upon the greatness and bigness of God. I, I should. You can pray that I do it more. I mean, 00:16:47.079 --> 00:16:52.539 I do it sometimes, but not as much as I should. And they not only acknowledge that God is this 00:16:52.539 --> 00:16:57.000 unlimited God, that his will is unlimited, but they acknowledge that he is the one who's created 00:16:57.000 --> 00:17:02.399 everything and everything that exists within it, that he is the creator of all things. He's unlimited 00:17:02.399 --> 00:17:09.359 in power, unlimited in his rule. He is the one who's created all things. And, and even, 00:17:09.359 --> 00:17:19.079 even more wonderfully is he is a God who speaks. He is a God who speaks. Look again at what it says in 00:17:19.079 --> 00:17:27.379 verse 25, who through the mouth of our father, David, your servant said by the Holy Spirit. So when we 00:17:27.379 --> 00:17:35.339 read this next bit, I I've said this many times, but it, it, it always bears repeating. Like I'm a very 00:17:35.339 --> 00:17:43.419 simple-minded Christian. Like when I believe that the Bible is, is inerrant and infallible and is 00:17:43.419 --> 00:17:49.740 authoritative. I, I did it because that's what the apostles teach and they teach it because they learned 00:17:49.740 --> 00:17:55.419 it from Jesus. That when I read Acts 2, the first, or Psalm 2, the first couple of verses in the next 00:17:55.419 --> 00:18:00.019 verse, I'm hearing God speak. Like I'm hearing God speak. 00:18:00.019 --> 00:18:10.519 And so what does he speak? Well, look at this, the last part of verse 24, uh, 25 and then verse 26. 00:18:11.400 --> 00:18:19.019 Why did the Gentiles, or pagans, rage and the people's plot in vain? The kings of the earth set 00:18:19.019 --> 00:18:23.460 themselves and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed. 00:18:23.460 --> 00:18:30.539 Now just pause before we go anything further. This, uh, is the beginning of Psalm 2, uh, if it doesn't, 00:18:30.680 --> 00:18:41.360 and, uh, it was written a thousand years before this. So a thousand years before their day, God caused 00:18:41.360 --> 00:18:50.380 these words to be written. And that part of their prayer then is a response to how God speaks. 00:18:50.380 --> 00:18:55.640 See, that's one of the wonderful things about prayer. It's to be a conversation. We don't always hear, 00:18:55.720 --> 00:19:01.380 in fact, we usually don't hear God speak to us directly and personally, but we hear God speak to us in 00:19:01.380 --> 00:19:07.540 his word. And we are just to talk, not, not talk back in a bad way as if a kid talks back to his parent, 00:19:07.700 --> 00:19:14.220 but that we, we, we respond to what God says. And then as we respond to what God says, it, it helps us to 00:19:14.220 --> 00:19:20.519 understand the scriptures better. And then we're to respond back in prayer. And the, the amazing thing 00:19:20.519 --> 00:19:25.920 is they, God through the Holy Spirit brings this passage of scripture to them. And it's not just 00:19:25.920 --> 00:19:30.700 that, because, uh, if you go back and you read the gospels, you'll see that Jesus has used this text 00:19:30.700 --> 00:19:37.079 in the gospels. He's highlighted this text to them. And, and so in verse 20, see what 27, what we see is 00:19:37.079 --> 00:19:43.519 for truly, the quote is over for truly in this city, that's Jerusalem, they were gathered together 00:19:43.519 --> 00:19:51.359 against your Holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed. So in other words, when it says in, in, in, in Acts, 00:19:51.480 --> 00:19:58.339 in Psalm chapter two, against his anointed, and it's capitalized, they understand that the anointed 00:19:58.339 --> 00:20:05.460 one, that that Psalm a thousand years ago was talking about was Jesus. And so read 27 again, 00:20:05.460 --> 00:20:10.900 for truly in this city, right? Like this, this city in our life, there were gathered together 00:20:10.900 --> 00:20:16.620 against your Holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed and who was gathered against Jesus, 00:20:17.100 --> 00:20:24.420 both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the pagans and the people of his peoples of Israel. 00:20:24.420 --> 00:20:31.140 I just sort of pause there. So what they see is that when God's caused these words to be spoken a 00:20:31.140 --> 00:20:39.080 thousand years ago, on one hand, the scripture always has a power and a way of understanding 00:20:39.080 --> 00:20:45.960 your present situation. But at the same time, it was being talked about and being fulfilled in a very 00:20:45.960 --> 00:20:51.220 particular way. It was about to be accomplished in a very particular way in the city of Jerusalem 00:20:51.220 --> 00:20:57.880 around a thousand years later, where you see Herod, a pagan king, Pontius Pilate, the pagan governor, 00:20:57.880 --> 00:21:05.700 and the Jewish religious leaders and authorities, all united in opposition to Jesus, the anointed one, 00:21:06.040 --> 00:21:12.880 and they kill him. Now here's the shocking thing in the next verse, verse 28. 00:21:14.780 --> 00:21:24.640 So they're all united, verse 28, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. 00:21:24.640 --> 00:21:34.120 Now some of you are going, whoa, predestined? Predestination? I don't like that idea. 00:21:36.800 --> 00:21:42.400 In my own private devotions, for about the last four or five years ago, I've switched from using 00:21:42.400 --> 00:21:46.680 the English Standard Version, which is what we're using this morning. And in my own private devotions, 00:21:46.800 --> 00:21:51.680 my own private Bible reading, I now read the new internet, I've gone back to reading the new 00:21:51.680 --> 00:21:56.440 International Version, because I read a fair amount of the Bible in my devotions, or I try to, 00:21:57.039 --> 00:22:02.680 and I just was finding the ESV a bit too clunky for my reading. I wanted something that was a bit of 00:22:02.680 --> 00:22:10.680 a smoother read. And so one of the reasons the ESV is a bit clunky, actually, is that they often, 00:22:10.799 --> 00:22:16.259 not always, because it's not a perfect translation, and people have to make decisions, and they're human 00:22:16.259 --> 00:22:23.259 beings making those decisions. But often, they actually have the literal translation. 00:22:24.339 --> 00:22:29.799 And this is a perfect example. So if you were to go out and get some commentaries and look at verse 28 00:22:29.799 --> 00:22:36.480 of chapter 4, you'd see that it literally says, whatever your hand. Like that's actually literally, 00:22:36.700 --> 00:22:42.039 I'll see it because maybe the commentary is using another version, and they'll say, well, literally, 00:22:42.039 --> 00:22:50.500 brackets, lit, your hand. And then it comes up to the next bit, and your plan. And different versions 00:22:50.500 --> 00:22:54.399 might not have that precise wording, but the commentary will have a little bracket that says, 00:22:54.539 --> 00:23:01.779 lit, your plan. And then it comes up at the next little bit, like the next few words, 00:23:02.220 --> 00:23:07.420 and they'll have some other different words. I think NIV and most of the other ones don't use the 00:23:07.420 --> 00:23:12.900 word predestined, but if you, and the N-A-T, they don't use the word predestined. But if you go to 00:23:12.900 --> 00:23:20.140 the commentary, they have a little, once again, the bracket lit, predestined. It's actually quite 00:23:20.140 --> 00:23:26.100 literal. And this is a very, very intimidating idea to many Canadian Christians. 00:23:29.640 --> 00:23:36.200 Here's the issue. Could you show the video now? Hopefully this video will help you to understand 00:23:36.200 --> 00:23:38.900 how to approach this verse. 00:24:06.200 --> 00:24:36.180 So I hope you 00:24:36.180 --> 00:24:41.600 saw what it was. I tried to find a better one at the last second, but it's just dominoes. You've 00:24:41.600 --> 00:24:46.060 seen a variety of different things. You set up dominoes or some type of blocks. You'll see people 00:24:46.060 --> 00:24:51.200 who make this very, very long, complicated thing, and you knock over the first domino, and then 00:24:51.200 --> 00:24:56.120 there's this chain reaction of cause and effect that goes on and knocks all the dominoes down. 00:24:56.779 --> 00:25:04.180 Now, just before we go any further, by the way, that video to our secular Canadian friends 00:25:04.180 --> 00:25:12.539 shows two reasons why secularism is wrong and Christianity is true. And they're actually two 00:25:12.539 --> 00:25:16.060 very ancient arguments for the existence of God. You see, somebody has to move the first 00:25:16.060 --> 00:25:24.799 domino. You can't just have an endless series of dominoes falling without somebody having been the 00:25:24.799 --> 00:25:29.840 one to push the first domino down. The other thing is it's obviously designed, but that's not my point. 00:25:29.839 --> 00:25:39.459 My point is, you know, when I was having my conversation with my friends who were skeptics 00:25:39.459 --> 00:25:45.539 back when I was in school, they basically were just trying to say this is actually how the world 00:25:45.539 --> 00:25:51.119 works. The world is just a cause after a cause that causes an effect. The effect is a cause that 00:25:51.119 --> 00:25:56.199 makes another effect, and it's just this unbroken chain of cause and effect through all eternity, 00:25:56.200 --> 00:26:02.160 and there's no freedom, and there's no types of free will. That actually is what is taught in 00:26:02.160 --> 00:26:08.680 Canadian schools. When you get taught neo-Darwinian evolution, that is in fact what you are being 00:26:08.680 --> 00:26:13.460 taught. You are being taught that there's an unbroken chain of cause and effect, cause and effect, 00:26:13.600 --> 00:26:18.019 cause and effect, cause and effect, cause and effect. So why am I mentioning this? I'm mentioning this 00:26:18.019 --> 00:26:23.259 because we see these texts like verse 28 that says to do whatever your hand and your plan had 00:26:23.259 --> 00:26:29.220 predestined to take place, and we don't like it, and we want to withdraw from it, but we don't 00:26:29.220 --> 00:26:35.879 understand that there's a problem. Like, where do you go? Well, you can't just say, well, I'm just 00:26:35.879 --> 00:26:40.400 going to become like an average Canadian. The problem, I don't mean to offend you if you're here and you're 00:26:40.400 --> 00:26:47.420 an average Canadian, but the problem is that average Canadians by and large are like ostriches that have 00:26:47.420 --> 00:26:53.140 put their head in their sand, and they don't actually think through what it means to believe 00:26:53.140 --> 00:26:58.779 that everything happens just by cause and effect. I mean, the fact of the matter is, is one of the 00:26:58.779 --> 00:27:02.380 things I turned around to my friends. I said, well, woman, if everything is cause and effect, then what 00:27:02.380 --> 00:27:06.460 you tell me is also cause and effect, and that means neither of us have free will, and how can that 00:27:06.460 --> 00:27:11.800 be? How come you think it just... Anyway, we don't have to go there, but you see that... And so this problem 00:27:11.799 --> 00:27:16.960 of how do you live in a universe where there's cause and effect and still have freedom? The fact 00:27:16.960 --> 00:27:23.359 of the matter is, it's a problem in Islam. Islam is, in fact, the religion of pure predestination 00:27:23.359 --> 00:27:30.000 and predetermination. In Islam, Allah writes on each person what's going to happen to them and 00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:34.419 whether they're going to go to heaven and hell, and it's an unbroken thing that Allah does for each 00:27:34.419 --> 00:27:40.180 person. And even in Eastern religions like Buddhism and Hinduism, that fundamentally they are religions 00:27:40.180 --> 00:27:46.840 that are overwhelmingly predestination, that you... Your life right now is a result of the things 00:27:46.840 --> 00:27:52.420 you did. In fact, it's even... It's so predestination-focused because you get born in a particular 00:27:52.420 --> 00:27:57.759 way, and actually that's just a result of all your past actions coming up to capture you and 00:27:57.759 --> 00:28:01.580 determining your life right now. And there's nothing you can even... There's very little you can do about 00:28:01.580 --> 00:28:06.360 changing it. You can change it into tiny, minute little bits towards eventually, you know, making whatever 00:28:06.359 --> 00:28:11.359 the end is. It's a bit different in Hinduism than in Buddhism, but it all happens even before you're 00:28:11.359 --> 00:28:17.779 born. So if you withdraw from this and say, I don't like this, and I don't... Well, where do you go? 00:28:19.659 --> 00:28:20.519 Where do you go? 00:28:22.699 --> 00:28:27.719 You just don't realize you've gone some other place where the problem is actually far deeper and far 00:28:27.719 --> 00:28:34.879 more profound. Because we have a profound... The problem is we have a profound sense that freedom 00:28:34.880 --> 00:28:40.340 is real and that freedom is important. And at the same time, we know we live in a universe that's 00:28:40.340 --> 00:28:45.480 cause and effect. You see, the thing which is so beautiful about the gospel, the thing which is so 00:28:45.480 --> 00:28:49.600 beautiful about what the Bible teaches, and you can see it if you go back and read on your own, 00:28:50.360 --> 00:28:57.160 go back and read on your own from Acts chapter 2 verse 1 to this part in chapter 4, and it's even more 00:28:57.160 --> 00:29:04.000 obvious in the original languages, is that there's this dual truth which is taught. And the dual truth 00:29:04.000 --> 00:29:08.900 which is taught is that God is sovereign. Things happen by his plan and by his hand. 00:29:09.680 --> 00:29:14.819 He is in control. But at the same time, human beings have freedom. Well, how can this be? 00:29:15.799 --> 00:29:24.299 Well, the fact of the matter is, is that we understand that human beings, God made human beings 00:29:24.299 --> 00:29:30.900 not just as a purely physical being. There's two different ways to understand what a human being 00:29:30.900 --> 00:29:39.820 is. And they're just two different ways of expressing the same truth. I am an enfleshed soul. 00:29:42.300 --> 00:29:51.360 So are you. I am an enfleshed soul. A soul that has been given flesh. You can also understand me as 00:29:51.359 --> 00:30:01.459 flesh. So I can, I'm either, I can be enfleshed soul or an enfleshed flesh. You can put the EN bit 00:30:01.459 --> 00:30:07.879 at either one. And they're both ways to describe what human beings are. And so God has created us 00:30:07.879 --> 00:30:14.579 and bestowed upon human beings the gift. It's a, it's a free gift. It's a beautiful gift that we are not 00:30:14.579 --> 00:30:20.579 just completely and utterly dependent upon the stream of cause and effect and cause and effect and cause and 00:30:20.579 --> 00:30:25.699 effect that God has made us in his image. And part of making us in this image is that he has made us, 00:30:26.220 --> 00:30:31.480 well, we are soul and body. I am a soul that has a body. I am a body that has a soul. 00:30:32.179 --> 00:30:37.500 And, and, and as, as an unsold body, it means that I have some freedom that God gives to me. 00:30:37.779 --> 00:30:45.899 It's a gift. It's a true gift so that I can flourish and that I can love him. 00:30:45.900 --> 00:30:51.660 And it's a gift which is guaranteed. You see, the other problem is that even if you were to try to 00:30:51.660 --> 00:30:56.759 come up with some cause and effect reason by which we, we have some freedom is you need to have 00:30:56.759 --> 00:31:05.620 freedom guaranteed somehow. It has to be, it has to be guaranteed. You see, because the fact of the 00:31:05.620 --> 00:31:10.380 matter is, is that the cause and effect of the universe is always undermining human freedom. 00:31:10.380 --> 00:31:16.700 We can see this with Alzheimer's. Um, you know, by the way, I don't talk about this very much, but my 00:31:16.700 --> 00:31:27.100 mother's mother died of Alzheimer's. Um, my mother has Alzheimer's and her sister and brother have died 00:31:27.100 --> 00:31:34.560 of Alzheimer's. And it's not yet clear whether the other two sisters have Alzheimer's. I of course worry 00:31:34.559 --> 00:31:39.659 about having Alzheimer's at some point in time in the future. I don't worry about it. There's nothing 00:31:39.659 --> 00:31:43.619 I can do about it. I mean, there's some things I can do about it, but fundamentally I should just 00:31:43.619 --> 00:31:50.519 live my life and accept what comes my way when it comes my way. Enjoy the day, right? Um, by the way, 00:31:50.539 --> 00:31:54.720 I just read a wonderful thing about, um, in a book just the other day, a non-Christian book, 00:31:54.759 --> 00:31:59.440 but it was a very thing. They said that a man had Irish Alzheimer's. I'm making this joke because 00:31:59.440 --> 00:32:04.940 I'm Irish. He had Irish Alzheimer's and the other person said, what's Irish Alzheimer's? And the guy 00:32:04.940 --> 00:32:13.360 responded in Irish Alzheimer's, you forget everything except your grudges. And we could 00:32:13.360 --> 00:32:18.860 probably apply that to a lot of different people groups, by the way, uh, or social movements. Uh, 00:32:18.860 --> 00:32:23.740 the only remember your grudges and how you've been wounded. But you see, the point of the matter is, 00:32:23.779 --> 00:32:29.259 is that some small biological processes can come in such a way that the person is lost and your freedom 00:32:29.259 --> 00:32:35.160 is lost. And so not only does God give you by creating you in his image, does he create you 00:32:35.160 --> 00:32:41.519 in such a way that he, well, it's only because he's sovereign and in control that he can create a 00:32:41.519 --> 00:32:47.559 human being that is given the gift of having freedom and having some control and that he can 00:32:47.559 --> 00:32:55.019 guarantee it that you have at least at significant times in your life, significant freedom. And, and then 00:32:55.019 --> 00:33:00.579 the other thing about this is, you know, being, uh, about him being sovereign, the truth of the 00:33:00.579 --> 00:33:06.339 sovereignty of God is not only that we get freedom as a gift, but that 00:33:06.339 --> 00:33:17.400 two things about it. The first thing is that often how God uses his sovereignty in the face of human 00:33:17.400 --> 00:33:25.200 beings is that often, and we see this perfectly in the cross, that God subverts the freely chosen 00:33:25.200 --> 00:33:30.980 evil of others for some type of good. Not, not in every case. In, in many of these cases, it won't 00:33:30.980 --> 00:33:36.300 be until we're in the new heaven and the new earth, uh, where we see it. It, I think it is a very deeply 00:33:36.300 --> 00:33:44.259 true Christian idea that in heaven, everything that was sad in our lives will become untrue. 00:33:44.259 --> 00:33:53.519 Earth, as there's a popular song from a few years ago that says, earth has no sorrow that heaven can't 00:33:53.519 --> 00:33:59.279 heal. And I think that's true, but I also think it's true that in, and when we're in Christ and we 00:33:59.279 --> 00:34:06.140 are in heaven and our, our lives are unfolded and unrolled, we'll see that the sadnesses of our lives 00:34:06.140 --> 00:34:10.599 in heaven are untrue. Not, I mean, they're true here now. I'm not, I'm not saying that they're not true now, 00:34:10.599 --> 00:34:13.039 but look, you look at what happened in the cross. 00:34:15.860 --> 00:34:21.259 Herod used his freedom. Pontius Pilate used his freedom. The soldiers used their freedom. The crowd 00:34:21.259 --> 00:34:26.339 used their freedom. The Jewish rulers used their freedom, and they used their freedom, and they 00:34:26.339 --> 00:34:32.059 seemed to win. They accomplished exactly what they wanted to accomplish. They were raging against Jesus, 00:34:32.059 --> 00:34:39.019 and their rage appears to be successful, and they accomplish exactly what they desire, and exactly 00:34:39.019 --> 00:34:44.159 what they plot, and the exact outworking of all of their freedom and all of their plotting is that 00:34:44.159 --> 00:34:50.559 Jesus dies a horrible, painless, painful death upon the cross. But, 00:34:50.559 --> 00:34:59.219 they don't stop to think that this is something that God the Father had prophesied through the mouth 00:34:59.219 --> 00:35:09.259 of David a thousand years earlier, and that by him dying, just as the Sabbath, Passover lamb is being 00:35:09.259 --> 00:35:17.699 killed, that he is signifying in the most powerful way that all of our desires for atonement, and all of 00:35:17.699 --> 00:35:23.759 our desires to be made right with God, and all of the sacrifices that we think are needed, that God has 00:35:23.759 --> 00:35:29.079 provided the perfect sacrifice, that he is, in fact, Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the 00:35:29.079 --> 00:35:38.480 world. And God takes the evil that human beings did against Jesus and uses it as a powerful means by 00:35:38.480 --> 00:35:42.919 which human beings who put their faith and trust in Jesus can be made right with him. 00:35:42.920 --> 00:35:55.960 And it's for these very reasons that we have this, that when you're in Christ and you understand that 00:35:55.960 --> 00:36:02.780 God is sovereign and that you are free, but that nothing in human life can, at the end, undermine 00:36:02.780 --> 00:36:10.680 what God ultimately has planned for you. And the Bible is very clear that becoming a Christian 00:36:10.679 --> 00:36:15.039 doesn't mean you will never suffer, and it doesn't mean you will never die until, unless you're alive 00:36:15.039 --> 00:36:23.319 when Christ returns, and then you won't die. But God never says that those things won't happen to you, 00:36:23.379 --> 00:36:29.359 but because he is sovereign, he can subvert the evil things in your life in ways out of which good can 00:36:29.359 --> 00:36:35.819 come. That the Irish blessing, we'll stick with the Irish theme, expresses this profound comfort of the 00:36:35.820 --> 00:36:42.260 sovereignty of God. The Irish blessing is, may the wind, may the road rise up to meet you. In other 00:36:42.260 --> 00:36:47.380 words, may you journey successfully. May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your 00:36:47.380 --> 00:36:54.519 back. May the rains fall soft upon your field. And may God hold you in the hollow of his hand. 00:36:55.680 --> 00:36:58.920 And that perfectly expresses the beauty of the Christian faith. 00:36:58.920 --> 00:37:08.920 I am held in the hollow of God's hand in Christ. I don't think I'm doing anything wrong. If you ask 00:37:08.920 --> 00:37:14.539 Crystal with her chemotherapy, her chemotherapy has been something that she has used to share Jesus 00:37:14.539 --> 00:37:22.579 with many people. Having cancer is a bad thing. Not a good thing. We don't all pray that we get cancer. 00:37:22.579 --> 00:37:30.139 And we should be agents of healing. But God can subvert the evil that happens in a way that bears 00:37:30.139 --> 00:37:39.380 witness to him and brings glory. And I can live my life comfortable. I'm invited to enter into a 00:37:39.380 --> 00:37:45.219 greater knowledge and trust in the sovereignty and love of God, made most real in the death of Jesus 00:37:45.219 --> 00:37:51.219 for me and him becoming my savior. So that the words of the Irish blessing that God is holding me in the 00:37:51.219 --> 00:37:55.279 hollow of his hand is the way that I understand my life. 00:37:58.599 --> 00:38:02.259 It's a very powerful and beautiful image to understand about God. 00:38:04.639 --> 00:38:08.419 Just very briefly in closing, how do they finish off their prayer? 00:38:09.419 --> 00:38:16.139 Well, let's look. Verse 29. Remember they're now, they understand that they're in the hollow of God's 00:38:16.139 --> 00:38:20.079 hand. They understand that they're living in this bigger story that God has written. 00:38:20.079 --> 00:38:23.759 They understand that Jesus is their savior. And so how do they pray? 00:38:24.880 --> 00:38:29.579 In this particular case, verse 29, they say, now, Lord, look upon their threats. 00:38:30.279 --> 00:38:35.519 So all they're saying here is they say, God, we just hope you're noticing their threats. 00:38:35.659 --> 00:38:39.799 They're not telling God how to act about them, but they want him to notice it. 00:38:39.800 --> 00:38:45.420 They want him to notice it. And they're trusting that God will deal with their threats as he sees fit. 00:38:46.580 --> 00:38:51.519 And then the second thing, and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness. 00:38:52.440 --> 00:38:58.560 In other words, rather than equivocating, rather than becoming winsome, and rather than becoming nuanced, 00:38:58.559 --> 00:39:01.799 and by the way, there's times to be winsome and nuanced. 00:39:03.860 --> 00:39:08.279 Being winsome and nuanced is only helpful if you're also clear. 00:39:08.280 --> 00:39:19.120 To be clear and winsome is a great thing. To be winsome and unclear, you're not actually winsome. 00:39:20.800 --> 00:39:28.820 You're just unclear. And so they pray in verse 29 to be bold and clear. And then verse 30, 00:39:28.820 --> 00:39:34.660 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant, Jesus. 00:39:34.780 --> 00:39:39.039 It's valid to pray for miracles, brothers and sisters. It is valid to pray for them. 00:39:39.740 --> 00:39:44.260 Trust that God in his sovereign power will decide whether he's going to say yes, no, or not yet. 00:39:44.640 --> 00:39:49.340 But it's valid to pray for them. And if God does a miracle of healing directly, 00:39:49.460 --> 00:39:52.960 like in those in our congregation who are sick, those who have cancer or other problems, 00:39:53.240 --> 00:39:57.600 we should pray that God will heal them. And God can heal them instantly in a miracle. 00:39:57.599 --> 00:40:03.960 He can heal them slowly through medicine. Or he will heal all of us who are in Christ finally 00:40:03.960 --> 00:40:07.059 when we die and are in the new heaven and the new earth. 00:40:08.239 --> 00:40:11.679 We can pray for healing. Go into medicine. 00:40:12.880 --> 00:40:18.699 And if you're a doctor here or a nurse, you do your best with the medicine. 00:40:19.420 --> 00:40:21.860 And I encourage you to also pray for your patients. 00:40:22.500 --> 00:40:27.380 Not only for a healing of their body, but for a healing of their soul and their relationship with Christ. 00:40:27.599 --> 00:40:32.400 And then this verse 31 is how it ends. It's a very beautiful thing. 00:40:32.519 --> 00:40:36.779 And there's a fellow who wrote in the 400s by the name of St. John Chrysostom. 00:40:37.299 --> 00:40:40.259 And he has a wonderful... I'll share what he says about this when I read it. 00:40:40.319 --> 00:40:40.880 Verse 31. 00:40:41.460 --> 00:40:45.179 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken. 00:40:45.179 --> 00:40:52.019 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. 00:40:52.960 --> 00:40:56.440 And St. John Chrysostom, 1600 years ago said, 00:40:56.980 --> 00:41:00.419 The room was shaken so that they would be unshaken. 00:41:02.019 --> 00:41:02.879 Isn't that great? 00:41:03.279 --> 00:41:07.659 The room was shaken so they would be unshaken and bold. 00:41:08.059 --> 00:41:09.539 Brothers and sisters, let's stand. 00:41:09.539 --> 00:41:15.179 Bow our heads in prayer. 00:41:18.179 --> 00:41:21.219 Father, we thank you for your word. 00:41:21.599 --> 00:41:26.539 We thank you that when we are in Christ, you hold us in the hollow of your hand. 00:41:27.179 --> 00:41:32.539 We thank you, Father, that this offer and promise to be in Christ is not just for... 00:41:32.539 --> 00:41:34.440 We're not special people, Father. 00:41:34.539 --> 00:41:36.420 We're not, like, exceptionally virtuous. 00:41:36.420 --> 00:41:37.260 We know that. 00:41:37.380 --> 00:41:38.740 We're not exceptionally holy. 00:41:39.619 --> 00:41:44.240 Father, we know that we do not deserve your love or your grace. 00:41:45.079 --> 00:41:47.960 And it's a gift, Father, that is offered to us. 00:41:48.099 --> 00:41:55.720 And we ask, Father, that you use us to let others know about the grace of Christ in such a way that their heart will be warmed and moved. 00:41:55.880 --> 00:41:59.599 And that they will call out to Jesus to also be their Savior and their Lord. 00:41:59.599 --> 00:42:03.980 And that they will call out, and Jesus, be my Savior and my Lord. 00:42:04.059 --> 00:42:10.179 And we thank you that just, Father, as you did not say no to us but said yes to us, that you will say yes to them. 00:42:10.819 --> 00:42:15.940 And we thank you, Father, for this profound truth that he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 00:42:16.019 --> 00:42:17.420 That you are our Father in heaven. 00:42:17.779 --> 00:42:19.719 That you are sovereign over all things. 00:42:19.799 --> 00:42:21.960 That you hold us in the hollow of your hand. 00:42:21.960 --> 00:42:25.440 And that nothing can take us from the hollow of your hand. 00:42:25.659 --> 00:42:30.500 Whether we are walking through the valley of the shadow of death and even into death itself. 00:42:30.639 --> 00:42:34.960 That you will never let us go from the hollow of your hand until you bring us to glory. 00:42:35.400 --> 00:42:36.740 And we see you face to face. 00:42:36.820 --> 00:42:41.579 And we thank you for these wonderful promises that you will not abandon or forsake us. 00:42:41.679 --> 00:42:46.440 But that you are our Father in heaven who is sovereign over all things. 00:42:46.440 --> 00:42:53.019 And so, Father, we ask that you help us to be bold in our life as Christians and bold in our witness. 00:42:53.380 --> 00:42:55.119 And we ask this in Jesus' name. 00:42:55.840 --> 00:42:56.220 Amen.