Category: Saturday Study

1 John 1-5 (9.16.23)

Grab your Bible, and let’s go deeper into 1 John 2.

Dr. John Stott says it so well describing the letters of John when saying, “Against this backdrop of the current uncertain, postmodern world, to read the letters of John is to enter another world altogether, for its marks are assurance, knowledge, confidence, and boldness.”

He goes on to say, “The author’s purpose in writing is known from his own definition of it. He wrote the Gospel for unbelievers in order to arouse their faith, and the letters for believers in order to deepen their assurance. His desire for the readers of the Gospel was that through faith they might receive life; for the readers of the letters that they might know they already had it.”

Certainty About Who We Are in Christ

1 John 2:12 I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake.

First of all, he is writing to the Church—to those showing evidence for salvation. He is saying, “Your sins are forgiven. You can be certain of this. Nothing more to prove, nothing more to accomplish; it has been done by Jesus.”

1 John 2:13a I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.

Notice, he says, “You know”! “You know” is affirmation language. These are reminders of who we are. It is a plea for certainty. He is saying to those of us who are alive in Christ, “YOU KNOW.”

1 John 2:13b-14 I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

Don’t forget … You know! You have! You are! John is saying to his brothers and sisters in Christ, “Be certain! Remember, you overcame the evil one. You are strong in Christ, and the word of God abides in you!” John wants them to be certain, so he says two of these things twice: (1) “You know him who is from the beginning,” and (2) “You have overcome the evil one.”

Before we move on to verse 15, notice verse 14 more closely:

1 John 2:14b I write to you … because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

Notice 2 things: (1) the evidence of strength and (2) the evidence of victory over temptation and sin. Why do they have these evidences? Because the Word of God abides in them!

How does one navigate this uncertain world? How do you grow in maturity in faith and life in Christ? The word of God! Don’t minimize the crucial place of the word of God here. We need to receive it and need it to abide in us. When we do this, we abide in Christ, and we abide in His great accomplishment on the cross that defeats the accusations of the devil. We overcome the evil one by the word of God, because day by day this word is abiding in us.

It is living in us. The gospel—the great story of redemption, and the great Christ of redemption, and the great God of redemption, and the great process of redemption, and the great effects of redemption—this gospel, this word of God, is not something believed once and left behind. We believe the word of God and then it “abides” in us.

Some of you really need this. You need to stop trying to fight the evil one and all his lies and temptations against you on your own. John is saying, “Know who you are in Christ. Know that, in Christ, you have defeated the evil one. Don’t kind of know it; know it—claim it— live out of it—abide in it! Be certain in His victorious work on your behalf!”

Life in Certainty and the Good News

1 John 2:20-21 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth.

“You have …” Did you hear it again? This is John’s “be certain” language again! “You have” means you are possessors of … possessors of what? What do we have? God’s anointing–which is Christ’s victory over death on your behalf, the never-ending presence and counsel of the Holy Spirit, and the truth of God.

Notice, he didn’t say “you might have.” He says, “you have.” Look at verses 24 and 25:

1 John 2:24-25 Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise [not might be the promise] that he made to us—eternal life.

Twice in verse 24, John stresses that the truth that should remain in them is truth that came to them through their ears at the beginning of their Christian walk: “what you heard from the beginning.” This was the preaching of the gospel by the apostles. Here, John makes an effort to avoid the saying that what the Church needs is new revelation. It does not. It needs to let the original apostolic, gospel-centered teaching about Christ abide in them.

Now verse 25 says, “And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.”

This is good news! Why? Because the promises of God bring certainty. God doesn’t go back on His promises! They are iron-clad. They are rooted in His very nature which is truth and faithfulness! This is cause for certainty in our lives!

1 John 2:27b But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.

Beloved, you can be certain that if Christ alone is your Lord and Savior, the One to whom you trust your entire life, the One you desire more than any other, know that:

• You have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit; abide in Him.
• Your certainty needs to be built on your new identity in Christ.
• Your power needs to come from your life in Christ.
• ●       Your instruction needs to come from the word of God.
• Abide in Him! Be certain in Him as you live in this uncertain world!

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Joshua Kirstine

Disciples Church

Hebrews 9-13 (9.9.23)

Grab your Bible, and let’s go deeper into Hebrews 12.

Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us …

“Therefore …” Therefore what? Therefore, since chapter 11. Since there was Abel, and there was Enoch, and there was Noah, and there was David, and there was Abraham, and Isaac, and Joseph, and Jacob … He lists this whole lineage of this great faith. And now, he turns and says, “And now, it’s our turn. It’s our run. It’s our time on earth. Let us—let you, let me—let us run our race now.

The cloud of witnesses refers to the saints that have lived and died so valiantly by faith as described in chapter 11. But what does their “witnessing” refer to? Does it refer to them watching us from heaven? Or does it refer to them witnessing to us by their lives? I take the witnesses of Hebrews 12:1 to be the saints who have run the race before us, and have gathered, as those along a marathon route, to say through the testimony of their lives, “By faith I finished; you can too! Go for it! You can do it. By faith you can finish. LOOK TO JESUS!”

There are dozens and hundreds and thousands of those who have gone before, have finished the race by faith, and surround us like a great cloud of witnesses saying, “It can be done! By faith in Jesus, it can be done.”

àHe includes us with this unbelievable group of faith-filled men and women and says, “Now, it’s your turn. These people ran; they ran well. They were faithful, and now, it’s your turn. Since you’re surrounded by these men and women who have been so faithful, since they cry out to you from the grave, let us …”

Let us what? Two things:

1. Let us lay aside every weight and sin, which clings so closely.
2. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

1. If we are going to run, we must be able to run, which means we must put down whatever might slow us down—whatever might keep us from running! “Let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely.”

Two things here it says to lay down: weight and sin. Sin we get! Sin is anything I put in the place of God. Sin is my disobedience of God. But what are the weights? I believe they are things that are not innately sinful that encumber you.

I remember the effect this verse had on me when I really discovered it 10 years ago. This was revolutionary. What it did (and I hope it does the same for you) was show me the fight of faith—the race of the Christian life—is to run well. This is done not by asking, “What’s wrong with this or that?” Instead, we should be asking, “Is it in the way of greater faith, greater love, greater purity, greater courage, greater humility, greater patience, and greater self-control?”

Television is a great everyday example of this! T.V. is not in itself evil, but too much of it, a wrong prioritization of it, or a consumption of darkness from it can and does slow me from running the race that God has set before me!

Figuring out what to put down is not asking, “Is it a sin?” Instead, it’s asking, “Does it help me run? Is it in the way?” If it doesn’t point me to Christ or help me enjoy God, it is in the way! Look at some of the words the author uses in this chapter for a clue:

He says there are “sins” that slow us down—absolutely!

He says there are encumbrances that slow us down—things that simply keep me from pressing into Christ!

He says there are “single meals” that we need to renounce. This is a reference to verses 16 and 17, where the author refers to Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For immediate gratification, Esau quit the race!

Take a moment and seek God’s insight into what hindrances you are allowing in your life.

2. “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”

What is the race? It’s life! Did you wake up today? This is the race. God is not done with you; you are still on mission.

The race is the life God has given each of us! It is the purpose for which you are alive. It is the things with which He has entrusted you (skills, relationships, things) to be used for His glory and the ministry of reconciliation of the gospel.

This command does not come out of the blue; this is the point of the whole book of Hebrews. Endure, persevere, run, fight, be alert, be strengthened, don’t drift, don’t neglect, don’t be sluggish, and don’t take your eternal security for granted. Fight the fight of faith on the basis of Christ’s spectacular death and resurrection.

So the main point of this text is the one imperative: RUN! (12:1). Everything else supports, explains, or gives motivation for it.

Run the race set before you! Don’t stroll, don’t meander, and don’t wander about aimlessly. Run as in a race with a finish line and with everything hanging on it.

Why does it say that we must run with endurance? Because life is hard! Life is brutal. Life is full of trials and suffering. The text actually says this!

Look deeper with me. The Greek word for our word here, race, is agon. It is where we get our word “agony.” The race is an agonizing struggle. The race we are running is a regimen of difficulties. Life is hard. Life is not fair.

àThese are two statements that are absolutely true and absolutely needed to be—not just understood—but embraced!

Those who do not embrace the hardship of life, the lack of perfection and fairness of life, are doomed to be miserable. But those who have a faith in Jesus, a focus on Jesus, can embrace the fact that life is hard because they learn to persevere victoriously through life’s hardships and sufferings.

So, the question is what are you focused on—what are you looking to in your suffering?

Look at verse 4; It talks about the struggle of life, the struggle against sin:

Hebrews 12:4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

This is always a great reminder verse to me. When I think I have it bad, the reality is it could be worse. Because most of the time, my oppression, pain, abuse, or strife has not equaled the shedding of my blood unto death like it can and often does for many people in this world.

Hebrews 12:5-6 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

Did you hear it? “Those whom the Lord loves he disciplines.” This is so essential to see!  In verse 5, it says we are a part of God’s Fatherly care; we are sons and daughters. As a Christian, when you are suffering, it is not comforting to think of God as a coach who is making you exercise to grow you; instead, we are to think if God as our Father—our Father who disciplines us because He loves us! Now, our English understanding of discipline is punishment, which is not the right picture here. The key is to look deeper at the word discipline. The Greek word for discipline is paideia. It is where we get our word, “pediatrics”!

What is a pediatrician’s primary concern?  The over-all health of the child. This is what God is to us! God is the perfect parent, who brings non-destructive, designed pain into a child’s life to grow him and propel him forward for his over-all good. Human parenting is imperfect. We try our best to discipline in love, but we can struggle in sin and react in anger. Human parenting is imperfect; God’s is not. We need to understand God disciplines us for our good and to share in His holiness. His discipline is not a punishment; it is an intentional shaping of our very lives for our greater good and His glory.

What this is telling us is to endure our hardships as paideia! Paideia isGod’s perfect, loving discipline that grows us to His holiness and by which others taste His love by witnessing our Christ-filled response to our hardship. In this, He is growing us from selfishness into the Fruit of the Spirit.

We see this in the example of Joseph. Joseph was spoiled by his dad, cocky, and on his way to being an evil, proud man. Instead of leaving him to this path of destruction, God uses the jealousy of his brothers to sell him to slavery, the lust of Potiphar’s wife to get him imprisoned, and the forgetfulness of the baker and the cupbearer who forget to tell Pharaoh about him for two years. But in all these trials and sufferings, he becomes a great man, a man who is wise and humble. He was lifted up and remained faith-filled in God; he did great things in his life. At the very end of his life, he looks back over all his suffering and troubles and says to his brothers in Genesis 50:20, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good …” Joseph understood the discipline, the paideia, of God. He had faith in his trials and suffering. And God molded him through it into a better man who did great things—eternal things—for God’s glory!

Now look at verse 11 with me:

Hebrews 12:11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

In verse 11, the Greek word for trained is “gymnazo”. It is where we get our word gymnasium. When troubles overwhelm you, you feel like your life is out of control, right? Hear this: Just because it is not your plan doesn’t mean there is not a plan. God puts in our lives hardships to shape us, to mold us, to discipline us, and to train us—for His glory and our greater good!

Your doctor will tell you that you need to work your muscles and exercise. Do you realize what exercise is? Why do many of you hate it? Exercise is taking a muscle and exerting it, stretching it, tearing it, hurting it, and by this you strengthen it. Exercise is opposition. It is stress on your body. When you work out your muscles, you do not feel like they are getting strong; you feel like you are getting weaker at first. Your muscles feel like mush—like spaghetti, right? But if you do not do this, you will be flabby and die young.

The point of this section in today’s study is to remind you that the pain and trouble you are experiencing is not a sign of the hatred of God, but the love of God. Remember what the author tells us about discipline:

Verse 6: “Those whom the Lord loves he disciplines.” Your persecution is not a sign of God’s treating you as enemies, but as sons.

Verse 7: “It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons.” Your suffering is not meaningless, but designed for your good and your holiness.

Verse 10: “He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness.”

How do we run a winning race? The answer is in verse 2: look to Jesus!

Hebrews12:2-3 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

Look to Jesus or let us fix our eyes on Jesus.

2 Corinthians 3:18 says that you and I now, with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of Christ as in a mirror, are being transformed from one degree of glory into the next. By beholding Jesus, we’re transformed into His image. In Jesus we are changed! It is not saying try really hard to be LIKE Jesus! So many of us are caught up in this work-based junk that keeps us focused on trying to be a “good person,” but it just cleans up our outsides.

No; instead, look to Jesus, and He will transform you! It is by His power that we are alive and thrive! He is the Founder—the One who makes your faith exist. And the Perfecter—the One who sees your faith through to the end.

Look to Jesus! He ran the race because He knows the joy that is at the finish line. He knows the joy that is in eternal life with God is so wonderful, He wanted you to have it, too. He loves you so much, He endured the cross! Now He sits victorious! We endure sufferings and hardship in our weary life on the road to point to His grace and love—to shout the good news of His eternal, all-satisfying glory!

Look to Jesus! You cannot run, you cannot persevere, and you cannot win without Jesus!

Hebrews 12:3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 

Are you like the people the Hebrews author is writing to? Are you ready to give up? Put your eyes, your life, your heart on Jesus!

Now, when we look to Jesus, hold to Jesus, consider Jesus, what does our victorious life look like while we endure, while we run?

Hebrews 12:12-13 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

People who are lame and unfit to run are watching you! They, too, can be healed by Jesus! So, don’t meander around in the Christian life; run the straight race. Paul said it best in Philippians 3:13-14: “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Joshua Kirstine

Disciples Church

Hebrews 4-8 (9.2.23)

Grab your Bible, and let’s go deeper into Hebrews 5.

In verse 9 it says, “… he (Christ) became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him …” Christ is the source of eternal salvation—salvation from guilt, condemnation, and power of sin; from the wrath of God; and the fear of spiritual, eternal death. This verse says that all of our salvation comes from Christ.

The good news is that Jesus is the source, or the cause, of our salvation. It is not on, nor is it up to, you and me. It’s not dependent on our political, social, or economic status. We are dependent on Him! Even better, He became the source of eternal salvation. It’s eternal; it lasts forever. It starts in this life and it lasts through death, through judgment, and goes on forever and ever.

The entire book of Hebrews is helping us find perseverance in Christ while enduring the harsh circumstances of life on the road. One of the ways we find perseverance is in our solidification of who Jesus is. We must realize He is a solid foundation to rest on and draw from along life’s weary road. We have this confidence in Christ that gives us perseverance by answering the question, “Why was Jesus a suitable savior?”

Today we are going to see that Christ is all sufficient, more than suitable, and became the source of eternal salvation because of three things—His 1) dignity as the Son of God, 2) eternity in the priestly order of Melchizedek, and 3) purity in the crucible of suffering.

Then, we will look at the last part of Chapter 5 and see why we still struggle and how Christ gives us perseverance and growth through that struggle.

1) Christ is all sufficient and became the source of eternal salvation because of His dignity!

Dignity means worthiness of honor. A dog has more dignity than an ant, meaning that it’s worthy of more honor. That’s why nobody gets upset when you poison ants but would get angry at you if you poisoned all the dogs in the neighborhood.

Children have more dignity than dogs, because humans are worthy of more honor than dogs. The humane society gathers up stray dogs and mercifully puts some of them to sleep. We wouldn’t do that with children. Well, we do in abortion, but that is another bible study entirely.

God has more dignity than children or adults, because He created us and owns us and is infinitely superior to us in every way.

So, dignity means worthiness of honor. Christ has infinite dignity as the Son of God.

Look at verse 4. And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was.

In other words, the office of high priest is an office of immense dignity and you can’t just decide to have it. God has to call you to it like He called Aaron in the Old Testament.

Read verse 5. So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him,

“You are my son. Today I have begotten you.”

In other words, Christ did not glorify Himself with the dignity of the office of high priest, God the Father did.

What is interesting is the author quotes Psalm 2:7 about God begetting Christ as His Son. I believe this is saying Christ is qualified to be our High Priest and to become the source of eternal salvation because He is the Son of God, and it was God Himself who qualified Christ in this way.

So, Christ has the dignity to be our High Priest and to become the source of eternal salvation. No one but the Son of God could do it. No other being in the universe has the dignity that was required to obtain an eternal salvation. It took an infinite dignity. No priest of Aaron’s line and no angel in heaven could do it. Only one could do it—the Son of God. So, we see how important it is to know the dignity of Christ.

Why this is good news? All hell will rage at you one day with this one message, “Your salvation is not sufficient; your guilt remains; condemnation hangs over your head; and the wrath of God is not removed.”

At that moment you will need truth about the foundation of your eternal salvation. And one truth that will strengthen your confidence, in that hour, is the truth that you have no ordinary High Priest, but one who has the infinite dignity of the Son of God, and He has therefore become the source of eternal salvation.

2) Christ is all-sufficient and became the source of eternal salvation because of his eternity!

Eternity means forever. Something that has eternity has no beginning and no ending. If something lasts for a while and stops, it does not have eternity. If something didn’t exist for a long time and then it was created or came into being, it doesn’t have eternity. Eternity means forever—backward and forward, no beginning and no ending. Jesus has become the source of eternal salvation because He is an eternal priest.

Verse 6 says the same thing Psalm 110:4 says, “…‘You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.’”

The key word here is forever—”You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”

Not only does Christ have the dignity of the Son of God, but He also has the eternity of the “priestly order of Melchizedek.”

What Melchizedek symbolized, Christ realized. Christ really is a High Priest, as Hebrews 7:3 says, “having neither beginning of days nor end of life.” He has eternity.

That is the second reason He has become for us a source of “eternal salvation.”

Not only was His death infinitely valuable and infinitely effective because He has infinite dignity, but He goes on ministering the effect of that death for us in heaven forever and ever and never dies.

Why is this good news? In this we can have confidence in the face of fear and doubt, temptation, and accusation.

Wouldn’t it be an all-satisfying experience if two things were true?

1. You had a treasure of infinite value—I mean infinite with nothing lacking that is truly valuable;

and

• You had the guarantee that you could go on enjoying its infinite resources forever and ever with no end and no diminishment?

In other words, Christ’s infinite value (dignity) combined with Christ’s infinite duration (eternity) is what brings us complete satisfaction.

3) Christ is all sufficient and became the source of eternal salvation because of His purity!

Purity means unsoiled, not dirty. It means that when Jesus suffered and was tempted, He did not give into the impurities of anger, bitterness, cursing, or self-pity and unbelief. He prayed for help and God helped Him stay pure.

Christ became the source of eternal salvation, not only because of His dignity and eternity, but also because of His purity—not just the purity that He brought to His ministry as the Son of God, but purity that He had to forge in the furnace of suffering.

If you ask, “Did Jesus’ divine dignity and His priestly eternity give Him automatic purity?” The answer is no. It was not automatic. He proved His purity every day He overcame temptation and trials to remain faithful to God without sin. Jesus lacked nothing but learned or proved His purity over time and testing. This is what it means in verse 8, “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.”

This does not mean He moved from being disobedient to being obedient. If that were true, He wouldn’t be God. It means He moved from being untested to being tested and proven. He moved from a state of obeying without any suffering to obeying through unspeakable suffering. It means that the gold of His natural purity was put in the furnace and melted down with white-hot pain, so that He could learn from experience what suffering is and prove that His purity would persevere. In this, you and I are now able to persevere in Him.

Did this come automatically to Jesus because he was God? No. Verse 7 says that it was prayed for and begged for and cried out for and wept for with tears. This was no fake test of Christ’s purity. Everything in the universe hung on this test.

Was it brief? Notice the word “days” in verse 7, “In the days of His flesh …” Not just a night or a day, but during all the days of his humanity, He was wrestling and praying and begging and crying out and weeping. It was not brief. It was a lifetime of warfare against sin. Do you see that the Christian life is tough? Period.

Jesus prayed for obedience—for persevering purity. So, He prayed all his life against that, and He was heard by His Father and, instead of caving in to sin, He proved His obedience in what He suffered.

Jesus is our source of eternal salvation because of His dignity as the Son of God, His eternity in the priesthood of Melchizedek, and His purity in the crucible of incredible suffering.

A life altering question is, “Do you have this eternal salvation?” Not everyone does. Verse 9 tells us who does: … he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.

Is Jesus Christ your LORD? The one whom you serve? The one for whom you live? Do you obey Him? If not, He can be! His dignity, eternity, and purity cleared the path through death so that you could have life—eternal salvation with God.

Now verses 11-14 close this chapter with a strong warning and charge.

Verses 11-12: About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food

The Author of Hebrews is calling out the people’s prioritization of growing faith and life in Christ by saying it has become so casual it has left them immature—they still need milk even as adults.

If my ten-year-old, Natalie, were still only drinking only milk for her nutrients it would be a major concern for Jennifer and me, right?

The writer of Hebrews hasn’t come right out and said it until now, but he has implied it along the way. There is something wrong with the Christians to whom he is writing.

• In 2:1 he said, “Pay close attention to the message you’ve heard lest you drift away.”
• In 3:1 he said, “Consider Jesus.”
• In 3:8 he said, “Don’t harden your hearts like Israel did in the wilderness.”
• In 3:12 he said, “Take care, lest you have an evil heart of unbelief.”
• In 4:1 he said, “Fear, lest you fail to enter God’s rest.”
• In 4:11 he said, “Be diligent to enter God’s rest lest you fall by disobedience.”
• In 4:14 he said, “Hold fast to your confession.”

And as he takes a breath you can almost hear him sigh and say, in Hebrews 5:11, “About this (who Jesus is) we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.”

Did you hear it? He gives a specific diagnosis. Here’s the disease he is working on in this letter—dullness of hearing. This is what’s behind all those exhortations to pay close attention; consider; don’t harden your heart; be diligent; hold fast. These are all doctors’ prescriptions for the disease of dullness of hearing. The most urgent question today is, do you have this disease? And if so, how can you get well?

Take first the word, dull, which means slow or sluggish. It’s used one other time in the New Testament, namely, in Hebrews 6:12.

Let’s read 6:11–12 and you’ll see what the opposite of dullness is.

… we desire that each one of you show the same diligence (opposite of dullness) so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, that you may not be sluggish [there’s the word for “dull” in our text], but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.  (NASB)

So dull hearing doesn’t mean there is something wrong with your physical ears. It means there is something wrong with your heart. The heart is not diligent to embrace the promises and turn them into faith and patience. Instead, the Word comes into the ears and goes down to the heart and hits something hard or tough. That’s dullness of hearing. The promises come to the ear, but there is no passion for them, no lover’s embrace, no cherishing or treasuring; and so, no faith and no perseverance.

The other word we can track down is the word “hearing.”

It’s used one other time in Hebrews 4:2. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard [literally: “the word of hearing”—same word as in 5:11, “dull of hearing“]—the word of hearing—did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.

This is “dullness of hearing.” The word goes in the ears, and comes to the heart, and meets dullness, slowness, and hardness. The opposite of “dullness of hearing” is “hearing with faith which produces obedience.”

“Dullness of hearing” is hearing without faith. This is like hearing the Bible or the preaching of the Bible the way you hear the freeway noise, or the way you hear music in the dentist’s office waiting room. You hear it but you don’t. You have grown dull to the sound. It does not awaken or produce anything.

Hebrews 5:11 says that there is so much more that the writer wants to give his readers: “Concerning him we have much to say … but you have become dull of hearing.” If they had more grace to hear, they would receive more that the writer has to give. But they are becoming hard and dull and in danger of throwing away the little they have.

So, what is the remedy? Why are some Christians stuck at the baby stage of development with the disease of “dullness of hearing”? What is the cure? Why are some of you feeling broken down on the side of the road of life with little to no hope or perseverance to press on even in tough times?

The key verse to describe the remedy is verse 14.

Hebrews 5:14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

Now ask yourself this question, “If solid food is only palatable—digestible—for the mature, with what food do you become mature so that you can then eat the solid food?”

The answer is milk. You become mature with milk.

The problem with these Christians, and many of us today, is not that milk is weak or that babes can’t eat steak. The problem is that babes are not exercising with the milk they have. You see the key word there in verse 14 is practice. You become mature by practice, exercise, or habitual responses to the milk.

The problem is that the milk of the word is not producing muscles of faith. The good news is still seen as an entrance to salvation only, instead of the good news being the daily feast and power of your day and the foundation of your growth. What this means is that if you want to grow up and feast on the fullness of God’s revelation, you don’t do it by jumping from milk to meat.

The key is the way you drink the milk—what you do with the milk of the Word.

So, let me close with three steps in how to grow with milk to maturity.

1. Drink in the milk. That means you listen to the milk of the Word—the message of God’s promises in the gospel. You read them yourself in the Bible and you sit under the solid preaching and teaching of God’s Word. You diligently apply your heart and mind to what is being said. You spend time with people who get the Gospel and see the Gospel reveal itself in their lives. You hunger to talk about Jesus and study His word—babes long for milk and are incredibly focused when they are thirsty. Is this you, hungry for the word and for Christian, Gospel-centered conversation?

• Savor, swallow, digest the milk, and be satisfied. This is crucial. If this doesn’t happen, the next stage of discernment will not happen. This is the miraculous, spiritual event of loving what you once hated. You love the taste of the milk: “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). And when the promises of God, and the God of the promises, are tasted, the milk satisfies. And when it satisfies, it transforms your values and priorities, which leads to step 3.

• With a heart satisfied with God now, discern good and evil. There are hundreds of decisions that you must make day in, day out which are not spelled out explicitly in the Bible. What to watch on TV, political positions to take, investment strategies, vocational focus, insurance, retirement, where to live, what to drive, how to discipline your children, what to wear, where to volunteer, how much to give, etc. Your transformed heart and life begin now to have discernment for all of those everyday decisions; God at work in and through you, maturing you, the fruit of the Spirit coming out of you.

So, this is the remedy for “dullness of hearing.” Drink with delight until the desires of your heart are so transformed as to become the discernment of good and evil. Then you will be mature and ready for meat.

A final thought: I am so thankful for God’s word, to write these studies to help equip us all, and I pray God is very present and not distant in your life. I pray you are growing and maturing.

Share with others the dignity, eternity, and purity of our High Priest, Jesus Christ. Share with them how He is the only one who can bring us eternal salvation!

Do not grow dull in hearing. Listen. Feast on God’s word. Grow in the Gospel and mature to meat as God sanctifies you. But never move beyond the gospel. It is the power and the center of all we do.

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Joshua Kirstine

Disciples Church

Matthew 27-28 & Hebrews 1-3 (8.26.23)

Grab your Bible, and let’s go deeper into Hebrews 3.

I am stoked that we are in Hebrews for the next three weeks. It is packed with so much good insight and counsel for our souls. May we grow in Christ and fall more in love with Him.

Hebrews 3:1 Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus …

This whole book of Hebrews is written to help us “consider” Jesus. There is more to consider about Jesus than you could ever exhaust in this life. Consider Jesus! Ponder Him. Fix your eyes on Him.

This is the focus of one of my all-time favorite Scriptures in Hebrews 12:1-2: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

If your mind is like a compass moving through a world of magnets, making it spin this way and that, make Jesus the North Pole of your mental life and your heart’s affections so that your mind and heart come back to Him again and again throughout the day.

This very priority of fixing ourselves to Jesus is one of the reasons we study God’s word every day and why I prepare this weekly study. It is so we can CONTINUE to consider Jesus. We do this to reorient our minds and our hearts’ affections to Him as we study His living word. In this, we see every story whispering His name—pointing us to Him, to consider Him, to fix our eyes on Him.

Hebrews 3:1-2 Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house.

An apostle is “one who is sent.” So Jesus is the One sent from God the Father to earth with a heavenly calling. A high priest is the one who goes between us and God to offer sacrifice for reconciliation.

Jump back to chapter two for a moment:

Hebrews 2:17 Therefore he [Jesus] had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

That great phrase “make propitiation” means Jesus took God’s perfect wrath upon Himself, taking it off of us, so we can be pardoned and saved.

Verse 2 says “who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house.” Moses was faithful in the household of God. The writer is quoting here from Numbers 12:6–8. Now let this sink in. “Consider” this!

Jesus is our faithful apostle and high priest. He is the One who brought you a heavenly calling from God and made you a way to God.

à On Him hangs all your hope of life here and for eternity.

If you have any confidence this morning that your sins are forgiven and that you will persevere in faith through your struggles to attain your heavenly calling, this confidence depends on Jesus.

Hebrews 3:3-6 For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

Jesus is our Maker, our Owner, our Ruler, and our Provider. He’s the Son; we are the servants. We are the household of God. Moses is one with us in this household, and he is our fellow servant through his prophetic ministry.

God has ordained us as men to lead our households well and to be champions of the faith to our wives and kids. Just like Moses led his household well, we need to remember we are not the owner of our household; God is! He has entrusted us with all of it, to manage it and lead it well, for His glory. How do we do this? We “consider.” We “fix our eyes on Jesus,” who is the owner, the author, the perfecter of our life and faith.

He is the One for whom it all exists. Just as Jesus is superior in every way to Moses, He is superior to us men, too. This is something we need to be reoriented to often, because one of our great sins of the flesh is to try to be on top of our worlds. We want to be always right, always having the answer, always charging ahead. But what if our families, our marriages, our work associates began to see a different leadership out of us? What if they see a humility—a grace that loves being led by One who has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses.

We need this reminder! We need each other in our lives to remind us of this often, lest we drift from it as Hebrews 2:1 warns us.

Back to Hebrews 3: Verse 6 concludes by saying we are His house; we are His people, we are partakers of a heavenly calling, “If indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.”

Now notice the evidence that we are part of the household of God is that we don’t throw away our hope! We don’t drift into indifference and unbelief. Becoming a Christian and being a Christian happens in the same way: by hoping in Jesus. This is a kind of hoping that produces confidence and boasting in Jesus and not in you or your stuff.

Make it personal: What are you hoping in today? Where are you looking for confidence? Is it in yourself? In your job? In hard work? In luck? In love?

“Consider Jesus” and hope in Him. Then you will be part of His house, and He will be your Maker, your Owner, your Ruler, and your Provider.

Now because He is our apostle and high priest; because He is the owner of the house, and we are the house; because our hope and our confidence is in Jesus; verse 7 says “therefore”:

Hebrews 3:7-11 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.’”

A warning comes in verses 7-11 not to harden our hearts and look to, consider, or hope in other things. If we do this, it is evidence we were never saved, and God’s perfect wrath sits on us like it did for the rebellious Israelites in the wilderness who denied God and worshipped and hoped in man-made idols.

Then a charge comes in verse 12:

Hebrews 3:12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

Take care means to be attentive, to address it. Do not let evil or unbelief fester, as it will prove your unbelieving heart and cause you to walk away from the living God and His people. Later in Hebrews, it speaks of those who looked like they were one of us but in the end revealed they were not. This is why the counsel is still the same: CONSIDER JESUS! Take care; be attentive to the gospel truth. Because if you are saved, it keeps you centered on what matters most, and if you are not saved, it makes the most of your time with us to potentially be saved in God’s perfect time.  

To fall away from God and His people, from the testimony of the gospel and the Fruit of the Spirit is to turn your back on the only Light that will lead you to life.

Our need for community is so important. For those of us who are saved, it keeps us fixed on Jesus to thrive in our growth and testimony. For those who are still not saved among us, the gospel community that surrounds you is the beacon of light God uses to awaken your dead heart. This is where the author of Hebrews goes next:

Hebrews 3:13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

What: Exhort or encourage

Who: One another

When: Every day

Why: Because it is God’s design that we would be the family of God—the house of God. Loving each other, doing life together, pressing each other into Christ always—each day. Reorienting each other.

Why? Because this is how we grow instead of wither; remain moldable instead of becoming hard.

Now, read Hebrews 3:14-19: “For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.’ For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.”

In this passage, we have two pictures of belief and what that belief means for perseverance. Let’s look at the second part first:

Verses 15-19 are talking about a group of people (the Exodus Israelites) who heard God’s voice, witnessed great signs and wonders, and yet were unconverted, as evidenced by their disobedience against God. They remained in unrepentant sin, and as a result, God’s wrath was upon them. Why didn’t the people get to enter the Promised Land? You could say, “They sinned, and they rebelled, and they murmured.” Yes. But look at how this writer ends the chapter:

Hebrews 3:19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

Look at verse 10: “Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart.’”

The issue of perseverance is not first an issue of behavior. When you are in hard times, the first question should not be, “What actions does God want me to do?” The issue in this text is one of the heart. It is a matter of believing or trusting or hoping in God.

How do we have perseverance then? Jesus! We need to believe and rest in Christ. Look back at verse 14:

Hebrews 3:14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

Verse 14 is a crucial and often complicated verse for us to understand. What the Hebrews author is not saying here is that if you do not stay confident in Christ, you will lose your salvation. That would mean that our being saved is then dependent on us, which is not true! “Salvation belongs to the LORD” (Psalm 3:8 and Jonah 2:9).

If our salvation was up to us, we would have something to boast in ourselves, and we would have no rest as we all struggle with sin, fear, and doubt. This verse instead is highlighting the evidence of perseverance in one who is in Christ. The key phrase here is “original confidence.” This original confidence refers to one’s original trusting his life to Jesus—the confidence found in Christ becoming Lord and Savior of his life.

A great evidence that you “have come to share in Christ” is that you hold your “original confidence” to the end. This doesn’t mean you won’t find yourself in a day or week or season struggling with worry, fear, doubt, and sin. We will all battle sin along the way, but for the saved, the sin never overcomes us. The saved always eventually repent and endure to the end.

The disobedient people of Israel are given as a great example of people who witnessed great signs and wonders and the word of God but remained disobedient. They had unbelief in their hearts, and as a result, did not persevere.

We who have found faith in Christ, who have trusted Christ and leaned our life on Him, we have a confidence in Him that gives us perseverance to the end even in great struggles. This is the foundation of our hope!

Even though the Israelites saw the waters of the Red Sea divide and they walked over on dry ground, the moment they got thirsty along the dry road, their hearts were hard against God, and they did not trust Him to take care of them. They cried out against Him and said life in Egypt was better.

It is a terrifying condition to find yourself in—to find yourself no longer interested in Christ and His word, in prayer, worship, missions, and living for the glory of God. And to find all fleeting pleasures of this world more attractive than the things of the Spirit. If that is your situation this morning, then I plead with you to listen to the Holy Spirit speaking in this text.

Consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our great confession (3:1).

Do not harden your heart (3:8).

Ask others to encourage and reorient you to Jesus as you wake up to the deceitfulness of sin (3:13).

Share in Christ and hold your original confidence firm to the end (3:14).

Hold fast to your confidence and your hope in God (3:6).

Salvation belongs to the Lord. Consider Jesus in all things!

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Joshua Kirstine

Disciples Church

Matthew 22-26 (8.19.23)

Grab your Bible and let’s go deeper into Matthew 22.

Matthew 22:37-38 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment.

Love the Lord your God with “all”. Does that mean sometimes? Does that mean part way? Does that mean when you feel like it? Does that mean give Him some of your heart?

No, it means all. It means all the time. It means all the way. It means when you don’t feel like it. It means He gets the best you have to give. It means He is the greatest love of your life.

Do you love God with all of your heart?

This can be something we say, but in the end, is not backed up by how we live our lives.

The great commandment is really about worship. For what do you live? What causes your heart to beat? What makes your soul ache? What consumes your thoughts?

God should be the far-above-all-else answer for these things, but the reality is that for many of us He simply is not. We want Him to be, but He isn’t. So, how do we address this problem? If this is the greatest command of God for our lives and we know we are not fulfilling it, how do we begin to take it seriously?

I have come to understand that to tell myself I need to love God more than anything else can begin to feel like a religious weight on my shoulders that I just can’t seem to ever address. The way I have found to help is to ask myself another question. Do I enjoy God? Is He the source of my deepest satisfaction? Is God my treasure?

If the great commandment is really a worship thing, then the truth is that authentic worship is fueled by what we enjoy.

Let me explain. The pursuit of joy and satisfaction is a God-given desire deeply driving each one of us. To find happiness, satisfaction, and joy, we will do a lot of things and, as a result, put our worship onto a lot of things. For most of us, this results in some form of hedonism.

Hedonism = the pursuit of pleasure; it is self-indulgence. It’s the theory that pleasure is the highest good and aim of human life.

The problem is that hedonism couldn’t be further from God’s will for our lives. Essentially, hedonism by itself is heathenism! 

In 2 Timothy 3:4, Paul warned in the last days men would be “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” Surely, we are in those days. This passage seems to help us begin to see the root of what affects our love for God.

Now, let me make an observation.Satisfaction, enjoyment, and pleasure are good, God-given things! I believe the Bible teaches us that the desire to be happy is God-given and should not be denied.

Before I lose you, the key here is that it must be directed to God who ultimately is the only one who can truly satisfy.

Our ultimate purpose in life is to worship God and give Him Glory! The command is to love Him above all else!

1 Corinthians 10:31 “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

True, authentic praise flows from the mouth of one who has found great enjoyment in something. If you do not truly enjoy something or love it, then your praise for it is quite possibly based on something fake or mechanical. This is the kind of love that is begrudging or mandatory. No one gets excited about worship that is forced or obligated—including God!

I know my wife doesn’t. If I take her out on an amazing date and wine and dine her to the hilt and then at the end of the night say, “It was my obligation to do this for you.” She will in no way appreciate nor receive that from me. Nor should she!

But if I take her out on an amazing date and wine and dine her to the hilt because it truly is my pleasure to do so, then she knows that she has been enjoyed and loved deeply.

Do you see the difference? It is no different with God! If you and I show up to church simply because it is our obligation, or our duty as good Christians, would He look at the worship we sing to Him on that day as authentic or even real?

Our critical error lies not in the fact that we long to be happy and enjoy life, but in the intensity of our desire to be happy. Why? Because we settle for and chase after temporary, mundane, fleshly things to satisfy us instead of chasing a greater desire that is met in the One who truly can satisfy and make us eternally full of joy and love—God himself.

C.S. Lewis says it so well in “The Weight of Glory!”

“… it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

In our flesh and sin, we dream about scraps. We try to find deep, lasting pleasure in fast motorcycles, big screen TVs, and tasty meals.

Pascal brings to light how this traps us if left alone as our only pursuit! He says, “But these are all inadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself.”

The point is this:

All the daily things we have been trying to gain satisfaction from can be great things that are given to us by God to be enjoyed. But, if that is all we have dreamed of and learned to enjoy, then we have settled for a distant second.

If worship of God’s glory is our highest purpose, then our lack of satisfaction in God is our biggest failure.

Pastor John Piper said it best in his most famous quote, “God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in him.”

So, when we are looking for the best way to live out our biggest purpose in life, which is to love and worship God with all our heart, mind, and soul, we don’t accomplish this by trying really hard to be a “good Christian.” We accomplish this by feasting deeply in Him instead of all the counterfeit things for which we have been chasing or longing.

As a result, we will overflow with praise and glory that will terminate, not on us and our temporary pleasures, but on Him and His eternal supremacy!

The highest calling of our life, and the reason why we are given our next breath to breathe, is to give Him glory and praise Him. This can only happen authentically and unceasingly if He is the source of our joy! God is not worshiped where He is not treasured and enjoyed!

Consider these scriptures:

Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

Psalm 63:1 “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”

Psalm 36:8 “They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights.”

Over and over again we read in the Psalms that God is the “all-satisfying object.” Only in Him do we find the source of complete and unending pleasure, which always draws us to deep love and real praise.

God is the treasure and the satisfaction that trumps all others!

Here is what is so awesome: He willingly came to a people who choose to worship His creation instead of Him as the creator and instead of leveling us with His just and eternal wrath, He showed us amazing grace and love!

It is this grace that causes us to sing and worship, that allows our hearts to be satisfied in Him, and that makes us want to live all our life for Him.

Soldiers, I plead with you to consider not just working harder to love God more, but to really consider what you are treasuring in this life, what you are chasing or longing for, and what consumes your schedule or thoughts or desires. We must repent and turn from our over-pursuit of these things and back to God. We must cling to Him, dig into His word to stir our hearts for Him, and surround ourselves with men who will constantly remind us that Jesus is better!

“God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in Him.”

For further study on this topic and a great guide for the Christian life, I encourage you to get a copy of John Piper’s book Desiring God. Next to the Scriptures, this book has helped ignite and deepen my faith-walk with God like no other. Read it slowly and read it thoughtfully.

When your satisfaction and joy are in God, your love for Him will be all! Put down the mud pies and let’s go sailing!

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Joshua Kirstine

Disciples Church