Christ Presbyterian Church | Preachers Kyle Wells

Grief: Living in Light of His Coming

Bible Text: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 | Preacher: Kyle Wells | Series: In Light of His Coming

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Sunday’s sermon addressed a taboo topic: Death. No matter who we are, death touches all of our lives. And this was no less true of the Christians in Thessalonica. These Christians believed with all their heart that Jesus would return and rescue them from death. So what were they to think when their friends started dying? How were they to continue believing in light of the reality of death? This is not just a question for 1st century Christians. Sooner or later we all face this issue: How do we deal with death?

Common Responses to Death in Our Society: We looked at two common approaches that our society has for dealing with death. The Secular Approach assumes death is natural and ultimate. For some, this evokes paralyzing fear. Most, however, try stoically to accept death as a natural part of life. The Religious Approach views death as a natural transition to a better state—be it reincarnation, unity with all that is, or heaven. While this approach does not assume that death is ultimate, it nevertheless treats death rather stoically. We need not grieve for those who have died because death has brought about their progress. But the question we need to ask is: How does the Bible tell us to respond to death?

The Biblical Response to Death: In verse 13 Paul writes: But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. What is important is that Paul does not discourage grief with pious platitudes. The Bible does not give us a stoic approach to death. Rather than downplaying death as natural or right, the Bible tells us death and suffering are intruders into God’s good world; they don’t belong. Our grief is a testimony to the biblical truth that death is not right. Death is not natural; it is not even a natural step. Death is awful, demonic; it is that great enemy (1 Corinthians 15:26). Thus, Paul recognizes the appropriateness of Christian grief, but distinguishes Christian grief from that of others who have no hope in Jesus’ return. Paul then reframes grief not by downplaying death, but by pointing Christians to the day in which death is defeated.

Death cannot be tamed; it can only be conquered and one day death shall be no more (Revelation 21:4). This is the hope that Paul lays out in 1Thessalonians 4:14–17. These verses paint a familiar picture about a triumphant King coming back to his capitol after a victory, only here, that king is God in Christ: the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God (v16; cf. Psalm 47:5). As the ancient people would travel outside the city to greet their King and usher him in, so too Christians will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air (v17) that they might welcome Jesus’ eternal presence on earth (v17). Paul is describing the day when Jesus will destroy that last great enemy—death; the day when we will not be grieving death, but taunting it: “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

As for those who have died before this great day, well, they won’t miss out on the celebration: we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep (v15), the dead in Christ will rise first (v16), and then we will all go out together to meet him (v17). Death is an implacable enemy. But here is the hope that Paul says we must remember: death is not only our enemy; it is God’s. And one day he will be victorious. We can encourage one another with these words.

By Faith Abraham…

Bible Text: Hebrews 11:1-12:2 | Preacher: Kyle Wells | Series: The Story of Abraham

“It will be alright, you just got to have faith.” As well intentioned as this statement might be, it is less than helpful when faced with the trials life brings. Sure, we need faith, but we need a specific type of faith.

What is it? Hebrews 11 portrays the faith we need to endure. When Hebrews says that faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen, it is portraying faith’s future-posture. But immediately we see that this is not the American optimism that says “it will all work out in the end;” for the text speaks about a resolute confidence that the things you hope for actually will come true. Such confidence in future events would be brash and even irrational, except for the fact that it is based on God’s promises. Abraham provides an example of such faith: his life was a promise driven life. Specifically, he was looking forward to an eternal city (v10), a heavenly country (v16), designed and built by God.

Do you have it? Two things mark a life that has the faith that it takes to endure. First, people who have this faith live as resident aliens. They confess themselves to be strangers and exiles on the earth (v13). Like Abraham, Christians always have an ambiguous relationship with the places where they live. On the one hand, Christians live as foreigners, displaced from their homeland. Thus whether a society is liberal or conservative, traditional or progressive, capitalist or socialist, communal or individualistic, no matter what, a Christian will never fully fit into any city or culture this side of heaven. On the other hand, Christians are the true heirs of the world. They live as in a foreign land (v9). They have a certain love for this world, not because of what it is, but because of what it will someday be by God’s grace.

Second, people who have this faith live in obedient anticipation. The phrase “by faith” resurfaces 18 times throughout this chapter. In each case the author shows how faith is, in Martin Luther’s words, a busy little thing. Faith acts in the present in anticipation of God’s future; it presumes upon the power and promise of God. Such anticipation invites preparation as Christians live in light of God’s future.

How do you get it? As we look at the qualities of faith, we must admit that, sadly, most of us do not have it; or if we do, we have it in part, but not in full. So how can we grow in the faith we need?

First, we must reflect on the City of God. Verse 16 tells us that those who had this type of faith desired a better country. One of the primary reasons why so many of us do not have this faith is because we are more satisfied with the city that is than with the city that is to come. We need to have our inappropriate desires dislodged by something more desirable. The sanctified Christian imagination plays a crucial role here. Reflecting on the city to come will show it to be more desirable than any city that is.

Second, we need to reflect on God. Abraham and Sarah were able to live as they did because they considered God, his faithfulness (v11) and power (v19). We need to consider God as well, and consider how he is not ashamed to be associated with those who desire this city (16). God’s character and power is revealed supremely in Christ. Faithful to his promise, he provided a savior and powerfully raised him from the dead. He associated with sinners when he bore our shame, suffering, and sin on the cross

How Much Will It Cost to Follow God?

Bible Text: Genesis 22:1-19 | Preacher: Kyle Wells | Series: The Story of Abraham

How much will it cost me to follow God? It is a question for all of us: whether we are just starting to check out Christianity or whether we have been Christians for a long time. In Luke 14:28, Jesus told a large crowd of people who were following him: which of you desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost? Jesus was saying, “Before you follow me, count the cost.” Genesis 22 is one of clearest pictures we have of what it costs to follow God. It’s a story about how God tested Abraham’s faith and obedience. We approached this text by looking at it through the lens of three questions.

How much does God require of me? Out of all God’s good gifts, Isaac was the one Abraham cherished most. All Abraham’s hopes were bound up in Isaac. It was through Isaac that Abraham’s offspring would be named (Gen 21:12). And here God commands Abraham to sacrifice Isaac as a burnt offering. A burnt offering was the most common sacrifice and symbolized the whole-hearted devotion of the worshipper (the animal represents the worshipper). In offering Isaac, Abraham was surrendering all his hopes; in offering Isaac as a burnt offering, he was surrendering himself. What Genesis 22 tells us is that God demands everything.

What does this look like practically? Abraham paints a picture for us what total self-surrender looks like. Abraham neither disputes, delays, nor resists. He answers God’s call and commands decisively, without hesitation, and in spite of how severe the command sounded and how nonsensical it seemed. He doesn’t put off costly obedience until he understands or in hopes that God will change his mind. Instead, he does the next practical thing. He saddled his donkey. He cuts the wood. He arose and went. Obedience often starts with doing the next practical thing, even when God’s commands are severe, even when his ways don’t make any sense.

But Abraham’s obedience would not end there. It took three days for Abraham to reach his destination. If he was waffling, he had time to back out. For three days he had to marinate on what was about to happen. How did he keep going? How was he able to complete the task? The answer seems to lie in verse 8, when Abraham says to his son: “God himself, will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” Somehow Abraham’s faith was so great that he knew that he and Isaac would walk down the mountain together. Abraham believed God’s promises even when those promises seemed to be jeopardized by the very obedience God required.

Is following God worth it? Why follow God? The answer to that question is found in what happens next. When Abraham was a moment away from slaughtering his child, the angel of the LORD stops him: Abraham then sees a ram which he offers as a substitute for Isaac. So overwhelmed was Abraham by the Lord’s provision, that he named the place “The LORD will provide”. Through this test, Abraham’s faith was perfected, because for faith to be perfected, it must be enacted. But more importantly, through this test Abraham gained an experience of God as a God who provides. And for centuries to come, whenever an Israelite would come into the temple and in faith offer there a whole burnt offering, they would be reminded that no matter what they were facing, they could commit their ways to God, because “on the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.”

The Birth of Laughter

Bible Text: Genesis 24:1-7 | Preacher: Kyle Wells | Series: The Story of Abraham

After excruciating tension and delay, this week we arrive at the birth of the long awaited child. And yet it is reported in a few short anti-climactic verses. Nestled between Abraham’s international affairs with King Abimelech (20:1–18; 21:22–34), the birth appears insignificant. But appearances can be deceiving. Isaac’s birth is the key promise in the Abrahamic narrative; everything else depends on it.

Laughter is an important word in this story. Isaac’s name means “he laughs” or “laughter”, and the word appears 5 times in these 7 verses. Isaac’s name would be a reminder of his parent’s previous responses to the promise (Gen 17:17; 18:12). It would also denote the joy that God brought into their lives, and the lives of so many others, through his faithfulness to his promise. In the end, Abraham and Sarah’s God turns their laughter of disbelief into a joyful laughter. He does this in at least two ways.

God fulfills his promise to Abraham: Verses 1–2 emphasize that God’s faithfulness extends to the details. He did exactly what he said he was going to do when he said he was going to do it. Isaac’s birth did not depend on the strength of human faith, but on the reliability of God’s promise. Abraham and Sarah could rejoice in knowing that God’s word is trustworthy. Through the birth of his son, Laughter, Abraham’s apprehensive laughter would have been put to rest and replaced by joy.

God fills Sarah’s heart with wonder: The years of waiting had taken their toll on Sarah. The pain of suffering had calcified into bitterness. Sarah had lost hope that God would intervene and stopped marveling in God’s power. She needed a renewed sense of God’s miraculous work on her behalf. The birth of Isaac gave her just that. The miracle of a son born to a ninety-year-old barren woman transforms her view of God: “God has made laughter for me” (21:6), and fills her heart with wonder (v7).

What about Israel?

As the first recipients of this message, Israel would have identified with Isaac; for had the Lord not been faithful in fulfilling his promise, there would have been no Israel. This text would encourage them to rejoice in how God miraculously and faithfully called them into existence and encourage them to continue to rejoice in all the ways he would miraculously and faithfully sustain their existence.

What about us?

As Christians, we can rejoice in much the same way. Yet we look to the ultimate son of promise, Jesus Christ. His miraculous birth gives even further cause for rejoicing in the God who miraculously and faithfully keeps his promise. Through Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, ascension, and through sending of the Holy Spirit, God has called us into existence. Every Christian is a miracle of grace and thus a cause for wonder. Every Christian can rejoice in the certainty that God will miraculously and faithfully keep every last one of his promises, even down to the details.

Entertaining Unaware

Bible Text: Genesis 18:1-15 | Preacher: Kyle Wells | Series: The Story of Abraham

Are you ready to welcome God’s presence and word at anytime, even when God shows up unannounced and his identity is not disclosed? This is the question that Abraham and Sarah faced when three men appeared on their doorstep in the middle of the day, one of whom happened to be God. Unlike previous episodes in the Abrahamic narrative, this narrative has the characteristic of being jovial in its presentation. Through it, we find that God can and does show up at anytime, even during a lunch break on a mundane Monday afternoon.

Abraham showed himself more than ready to receive the visitors. Even without knowing their identity, he wastes no time in inviting them in and preparing a feast fit for God. Moreover, Abraham had mastered the art of hospitality, showing deference, and making it easy for the men to accept his offer.

While hospitality has become something of a lost art in the church today, especially in certain parts of the privatized western world, one cannot deny its importance in the Bible. Take Paul’s exhortation in Romans 12:13: Contribute to the needs of the saints and pursue hospitality. Or Peter’s instruction: Show hospitality to one another without grumbling (1 Pet 4:9). So important to gospel ministry is hospitality that it appears as a qualification for an Elder (Tit 1:8; 1 Tim 3:2). This is because hospitality is intrinsic to the character of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In the Old Testament, hospitality is rooted in God’s love for the sojourner (e.g., Deut 10:18). In the New Testament, hospitality is revealed more clearly as being tied to God’s character and love. As S.C. Barton suggests: “hospitality, for Paul as for Jesus before him, is not just a practical issue. It is a fundamental expression of the gospel: a response to God’s hospitality to humankind in providing Christ as the ‘paschal lamb’ (1 Cor 5:7) and an outworking of what it means to be members of the one ‘body of Christ’.” And, like Abraham, when Christians express hospitality, they open themselves up to God’s presence and word (Matt 25:34–40; Luke 24:13–32; Heb 13:2).

But God’s word isn’t always the easiest thing to accept. In fact, when God reiterates the promise that Sarah would bear a son, she laughs and says: “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” It becomes clear that God’s primary purpose in coming was to confront and transform Sarah’s cynicism and doubt. After Sarah denies her laughter, the Lord, somewhat whimsically, rebukes her. But it is a restorative rebuke: the one who can read her mind also has the power to open her womb. The key is found in the Lord’s rhetorical question in verse 14: Is anything too hard (or wondrous) for the Lord? The answer, of course, is a resounding no: nothing is too wondrous for God. We know that Sarah believes God’s word because by faith does what is necessary to conceive a child: she has sex with her husband, believing God’s promise over against what her aging body tells her. The passage is a beautiful illustration of God’s tender mercy.

A Covenant in Your Flesh

Bible Text: Genesis 17:1-26 | Preacher: Kyle Wells | Series: The Story of Abraham

Genesis 17 introduces the most significant ritual of the Old Testament—circumcision—as a sign of the covenant. We shouldn’t think of this as some separate covenant from the one outlined in chapter 12 and ratified in chapter 15, especially since the promises expounded here only expanded on the promises that God already made there. Chapter 17 is best read as filling out the details of a single Abrahamic covenant, by which God would bless Abraham and through Abraham to bless the world.

Circumcision is a Sign of the Covenant Promise: In chapter 17 God’s promise is fully and forcefully asserted: Abraham will be the father of a multitude of nations; his offspring will come through Sarah and inherit land of Canaan. All these promises hinge on the central promise that God will be God to him and to his offspring forever. Since the promise of offspring is of central concern for Abraham, it is appropriate that God would use circumcision—an act thought to expedite procreation—as a sign of that promise. The fact that this was performed when Abraham was 99 only reinforced how Abraham’s fruitfulness was due to God’s supernatural power and not through Abraham’s biological maturation.

Circumcision is a Sign of the Covenant Requirement: But circumcision was not only a sign of what God pledged to do for Abraham and his offspring, it was also a sign of the commitment the covenant demanded of Abraham and his offspring. First, in order to keep the covenant Abraham and those who came after him must be circumcised. This is because the covenant sign has an intimate relationship with the covenant itself. So close is the relationship between the two that circumcision is described simply as “a covenant” in verses 10 and 13, and not as “a sign of the covenant” (v11). The signifier has a role in the things signified. From Abraham until Christ, circumcision was an entry rite into covenant relationship with God and his people (note the horizontal dimension of v14 cut off from his people). It is not difficult to see how baptism now performs this role as an entry rite into the life, loyalty, and community of the covenant (see Rom 6:1–5; Col 2:11–13; Gal 3:27–29).

But it would be reductionist to read Genesis as if this is all that God required. Verse 2 tells us that in order for the covenant to go forward, Abraham must walk before God blamelessly. The requirement was not just external obedience, but an internal disposition. Circumcision signified such allegiance; anything that impedes fidelity was to be excised from life.

Circumcision is a Sign of the Covenant Curse: The ratification of a covenant often included a sign, denoting what would happen to a person who breaks the covenant. In fact, covenants weren’t “made” in the ancient world, they were “cut”. The person who failed to keep the covenant would be “cut” off. Circumcision graphically depicted how covenant breakers would be “cut off” from the promised seed (v14), as would their progeny.

Chapter 17 introduces a great tension: How do we reconcile the seemly unconditional expression of the Abrahamic covenant in chapters 12 and 15 with Genesis 17’s very conditional expression (vv2, 14)? The apostle Paul found that tension resolved in Christ (Gal 3:7–16).

Sarah’s Synergistic Scheme and God’s Mediating Mercy

Bible Text: Genesis 16 | Preacher: Kyle Wells | Series: The Story of Abraham

“Do what comes naturally.” This familiar advice might be good wisdom when it comes to choosing a major; but when comes to finding salvation, doing what comes naturally is simply disastrous. Genesis 16 presents a story that shows how God’s promised salvation will not be fulfilled through natural means, but by a supernatural intervention. Our sermon looked at four aspects of this story: the pain, the plan, the plight, and the provision.

The Pain: At 75 years old Sarah had yet to bear a son for Abraham (v1). In a day when a woman’s identity, value, and fulfillment was wrapped up in her ability to have children, Sarah was a nobody. Since it was her duty to provide her husband with children, she would also have been considered a failure. Her lingering predicament was both difficult and devastating.

The Plan: Tired of waiting on God to fulfill his promise, Sarah decides to take matters into her own hands and devises a plan to remedy her pain. Sarah’s plan centered on an Egyptian servant named Hagar. Following a popular and accepted ancient custom, she tells Abraham to use Hagar as a surrogate mother. This looked like the only practical way to have a child. And it seemed to work. Hagar conceived. But it wasn’t God’s plan.

The Plight: Through an allusion to the fall narrative, the narrator indicates how Abraham and Sarah simply replay the actions of Adam and Eve (cf. Gen 3:6, 17). The fall out is as predictable as reality TV. Hagar, pregnant and elevated to the status of a wife (v3), shows pride and disdain toward Sarah. Sarah, disgusted and jealous, falsely blames Abraham. Abraham abdicates responsibility, allowing Sarah to abuse Hagar. Hagar flees, jeopardizing her life and the life of her unborn child. In the end, no one comes away looking very good.

The Provision: While on route to her native land, Hagar is suddenly addressed by God’s angelic representative, who assures Sarah that God has heard her cry and seen her plight. God promises that she will be blessed by her child, though her child will in no way be the promised son. The angel also sends Hagar back to Abraham and Sarah. His request is strange if not shocking when one considers how Hagar had been treated. Nevertheless, God has chosen Abraham and his promised offspring as his means of saving the world. By sending Hagar back, God places Hagar and Ishmael in the channel of blessing. The command thus represents a severe mercy. Once again God shows grace and provision in the face of human sin—this time to an “Egyptian” outside the elect line. The Israelites who first received this story would have taken great encouragement: If God graciously provides for wandering Egyptians, how much more for his children.

Passage for Discussion: Galatians 4:21–31 Genesis 16 illustrates how God’s people are wholly dependent on his sovereign will and supernatural power. To attempt independently to help God accomplish his saving purpose is what theologians call synergism. Ishmael would always be a stark reminder of the disaster that results from trying to fulfill God’s promise through human initiative and strength; i.e., through synergism. In Galatians 4, Paul likens Hagar’s son to a group of people who are slavishly dependent on their own strength and initiative. In contrast, he claims that God’s people are always dependent on the supernatural work of God’s Spirit. Those who began by God’s supernatural power must continue the same way (cf. Gal 3:2–3).