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Evangel Communion this Sunday, Both Services- July 12th 2020
Drive-up option available in 10:30 a.m. service only, available until 12 noon. evangelchurchpca.org
The Christian Life
What does it mean to “Believe in Jesus". “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" John 3:16 Belief in the simplest form says that Jesus was the son of God and that his death on the cross was accepted for our sins. True faith in this represents the door to salvation. Those that come in are given eternal life and promised great joy eternally with God. This is all possible because the penalty for sin that we all owe was paid by Jesus for those who truly believe in him. However a closer look at the scriptures reveal belief as much deeper and identified with the Holy Spirit giving us a new heart that desires to please God. John 3:3-8. In Luke 14:25 Jesus confirms belief is more than just saying words when He warns to consider the cost before following him. He sums it up by saying those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples. Luke 14:33 Jesus' last command is to go and make Disciples to do my commands. Matthew 28:19 Many see the Christian life as more about ignoring sin and resting on a foggy concept of grace, but belief in scripture describes discipleship. This is giving up our sins and anything that hinders us to obey God’s commands for a transformed life through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is becoming more and more common today to avoid this truth and make it as easy as possible to join the Church. It is being taught that belief and discipleship are two different things, however biblical belief is confirmed by discipleship. John 2:23-24 Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. This passage shows Jesus rejecting belief without discipleship. We can understand why when they profess belief but make excuses for not doing the work Jesus calls them to do. They will have time and money for their desires but not much for Jesus or his Church. When the Holy Spirit is given to a person their heart and mind are changed and you see the effects. Jesus explained this in John 3:8 and the first four beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-6. They become unsettled spiritually, remorseful over sin, increasingly meek or humbled and marked by a new hunger for righteousness. They begin to understand the depth of their sin and unworthiness and the great love Jesus showed in dying for them. They begin the journey of turning from sin to Godliness in faith. When our love for Jesus exceeds our love for our sins we will obey Him. If you love me you will obey me. John 14:21 This is the belief the Holy Spirit gives to those that sincerely ask. Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. Matthew 7:7. Have you truly Believed? Evangel Church PCA –Alabaster - All are welcome! 205-664-0889 evangelchurchpca.org Click Image to review past studies and for outlines and upcoming! THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
How are Christians the salt and light of the world? "You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world" (Matthew 5:13-14) Jesus Christ spent three years teaching before giving His life on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin and save those who would repent and follow Him - those referred to in Scripture as “His sheep". During that time, Jesus revealed who He was through His miracles and perfect obedience to God. He was revealed as and proved to be the Son of God and God in the flesh. What He taught revolved around exposing sinfulness and explaining how God commands us to live. The terms “salt” and “light” are first descriptions of Jesus and also those who truly follow Him. The Scripture teaches when a person truly believes in Jesus, they begin turning away from their sin and obeying His teachings. This is known as repentance, and it is the work of the Holy Spirit in the Christian’s life. The person that obeys habitually is the one whose eyes have been opened to his sinfulness and his hopelessness. This draws him to the incredible offer of forgiveness that Jesus’ death provides and His promise of eternal life in Heaven. He or she trusts in Him and begins to separate themselves from evil and obey Jesus in a serious and deliberate manner. This reflects the new life described in Scripture. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come,” and Ephesians 4:24 says, “Put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Salt preserves and makes food taste good. Likewise the Christian’s new life is to be a blessing in society in contrast to the moral decay in our sin-infected world. Unlike the world, he or she is to be humble, faithful, caring, honest, sincere and pure. Their consistent desire to do good reveals the character of Jesus to the world. Light, in this passage, describes enabling one to see or understand. Those around us must not only hear our good words, but they must see our good works so that they may be convinced of the truth and excellency of Jesus and the Christian faith. Seeing Christ-likeness in us, they may be compelled to believe and imitate the good works God does through us and glorify God themselves. Like the positive effects of salt and light the Christian through his or her character and good works are to be a positive influence in the world. They become a guiding light to Jesus. Jesus said “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). Do you have this wonderful light? Let your light shine! At Evangel we offer various bible studies by our Pastors and Elders to learn further how to come to Jesus and be salt and light. All are welcome! Colby Reeves - Evangel Member Evangel Church PCA 423 Thompson Rd. Alabaster, AL. 35007 205-664-0889 evangelchurchpca.org What does Jesus mean when He calls us to "follow Me" in Matthew 16?
"If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me for he that saves his life will lose it and he that loses his life, for My sake will save it" (Matt 16:24-25). If self-denial is a hard lesson, it is no more than what our Master learned and practiced to redeem us, and to teach us. A true disciple of Christ is one that follows Him in duty, and will follow Him to glory. Our cross in this passage represents the self denial in our new life of submission to Jesus. "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies (lives) as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship" (Romans 12:1). "If a person follows Jesus, they must voluntarily renounce everything that might hinder their discipleship." They must follow in his footsteps as the sheep after the shepherd, the servant after his master, the soldiers after their captain; so much so that our life becomes Christ living in us. (Matthew Henry) This passage speaks of submitting to the changed life that following Jesus demands and of those that are willing and those who are not. The Christian's call is to sacrifice or put to death, His own will and to live for Christ, His Church and His ministry. In Matt 4:17 Jesus said “repent” which is to turn from our will and trust in his. The person who preserves his old life will lose it in eternity. The one who gives up his old life to follow Christ will find eternal life and this is the meaning of our verse (see also Mark 10:28-30). In Matt 7:20-22 Jesus says, "Many in that day (the day of His return) will cry out to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but will not enter in (Heaven), but the one that does the will of the Father will enter. This again confirms we cannot simply follow our own will but must study and do God’s will. "Hypocrisy will be judged harshly (Read Matt 22:11-14). Jesus asked, “What is a man profited, if he gain the whole world but lose his own soul?” (Matt 16:26). Every person has a soul of their own. The soul lives in us now and will continue after death. Our life now determines the soul’s life eternally. "He is no fool that gives up a life he cannot keep for one he cannot lose"(Jim Elliot - missionary). Jesus' first command to his Disciples was "Follow Me" and it is the path of all who truly believe. Is your name in His book of eternal life? It is if you truly believe in Jesus. Colby Reeves - Evangel Member At Evangel we offer various bible studies by our Pastors and Elders to learn further how to follow Jesus. All are welcome! Evangel Church PCA 423 Thompson Rd. Alabaster, AL. 35007 205-664-0889 evangelchurchpca.org Easter is the most important event in the Christian calendar. It celebrates God raising his son Jesus from the dead, after dying on the cross for our sins.
The foretelling of Easter began in Genesis 3 saying, "one will come to crush the serpent's head". Isaiah 53:5 gives more specific details. "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed." The books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in the Bible are accounts of the actual event and referred to as the gospel of Jesus. And this is the gospel.... Living with God requires the absence of sin, but Romans 3:23 says, "all people have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" and Romans 6:23a, "the wages of sin is death; The breaking of any of God's commands brings guilt, yet we break many every day. Jesus taught that sin not only refers to our actions but our words and thoughts. Jesus sees all that is in our heart. The Gospel continues.... Romans 6:23b, "but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord". Matthew 20:28, “ just as the Son of Man (Jesus) did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." God, through Jesus' sinless life and death on the cross, provided a way for humanity to live with Him forever. Jesus' perfect life qualified him as an acceptable sacrifice for our sin debt. Because of this, in John 14:6, "Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life; no man comes to the father but by me." So what is required of us to have our sins forgiven and be joined with God? Romans 10:9 says, "If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." When we sincerely trust in Jesus, our sin is removed by his sacrifice on the cross and His righteousness is given to us for entry into Heaven. Jesus' resurrection and victory over death is what Christians celebrate at Easter. For just as He was raised from the dead on Easter Sunday, we also who sincerely follow Him will be raised. Come, willing to trust and follow Jesus and he will give you true and eternal life. At Evangel we offer various bible studies by our Pastors and Elders to learn more about receiving eternal life. All are welcome! Evangel Church PCA - 423 Thompson Rd. Alabaster, AL. 35007 - 205-664-0889 Sunday School 9 am - Worship Service 10:15 am evangelchurchpca.org THE CHRISTIAN LIFE -HOW DOES GOD BECOME MY FATHER? "Sermon on the Mount" M. Lloyd-Jones How then does God become my Father? According to the Scriptures it is like this. Christ “came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power (i.e. authority) to become the sons of God” (John 1:11-12). You become a child of God only when you are born again, when you receive a new life and a new nature. The child partakes of the nature of the Father. God is holy, and you and I are not children of God until we have received a holy nature; and that means we must have a new nature. Being evil and even conceived in sin (Psalm 51:5), we do not have one, but He will give it to us. Now that is what is offered to us. And there is no contact or communion with God, nor are we heirs to any of these promises of God, until we become His children. In other words, we must remember that we have sinned against God, that we deserve the wrath and punishment of God, but that He has dealt with our sin and guilt by sending His son to die on the cross of Calvary for us. And believing in Him, we receive a new life and nature and become children of God. Then we can know that God is our Father, but not until then. So, how does God become my Father? The answer is illustrated in this story. There was a man who was very skilled in balancing himself while walking a tightrope, so he had a cable stretched across Niagara Falls. A large crowd gathered to watch his performance on this high wire stretched across the thundering waterfall. Many in the crowd wondered if he would make it, or would he slip and fall to his death? The performer mounted the cable and with great skill he crossed the roaring chasm and returned. Then he asked the crowd if there was anyone who trusted him enough to let him carry them on his back across and safely return. The crowd was silent. Finally one man stepped forward expressing his trust in this man. With the man mounted on his back, the performer successfully crossed the falls and returned. This is how God becomes our Father. Christ has already crossed the chasm of death by His own resurrection from the dead. He stands ready to carry anyone across the chasm between death and eternal life who will trust in him alone for their salvation. How about you? Have you trusted in Christ alone for Salvation? You can trust Him now. He will not refuse you. - Rev. Grady Simpson At Evangel Church we offer various bible studies by our Pastors and Elders to learn further how to trust Jesus. All are welcome! Evangel Church PCA - 423 Thompson Rd. Alabaster, AL. 35007 - 205-664-0889 evangelchurchpca.org THE CHRISTIAN LIFE Why do we celebrate Christmas? In chapters 1 and 2 of Genesis, we have the pleasant view of the holiness and happiness of our first parents, Adam and Eve. We see the grace and favor of God and the peace and beauty of the whole creation, all good, very good; but in chapter 3 the scene changes. We have here an account of the sin and misery of our first parents, the wrath and curse of God against them, the peace of the creation disturbed, and its beauty stained and soiled, all bad, very bad. Our Creator gave but one command to preserve our innocence. "Do not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. If you do you will surely die." Innocent Eve was deceived and tempted to doubt God by Satan through the serpent. She and Adam yielded to that temptation, that is they willfully sinned against God. Their innocence was lost and their sin nature born. Judgment was pronounced: Banishment from the Garden of Eden now and eventual death. This was a sentence against them and their offspring, all humanity, or "the Fall" of man. This is the condition we're born into, slaves to sin and bound to death--lovers of the world and its values and not lovers of God. A child does not have to be taught disobedience. It's in the DNA. Genesis 3:15 tells us that though the world now is Satan's domain there will be one to come, a Savior. Through Him God will restore hatred (enmity) of evil (the world) and love for Him in His people. God initially provided the system of animal sacrifice to show the cost of sin, which is death and how His people would be saved, through the death of another. It is said that at the annual Passover in Jerusalem blood flowed like a river from the sacrifices made for so much sin, but they were only temporary substitutes allowed until the real sacrifice came. In the Gospels of the New Testament, we're told of that coming. Jesus came in obedience to God's plan to pay a sin debt He did not owe. As God the Son, He broke no commands and gave His life as a ransom for all who would repent and follow Him, promising His Holy Spirit to enable them. God accepted His payment by raising Him from the dead and restoring Him to Heaven, and you also will be raised from the dead and restored to heaven if you follow Him. At Christmas we celebrate the fulfilling of God's promise in the birth of Jesus, the gift of Eternal life (Matthew 1-2). It requires our willingness to turn from sinning and live as He teaches in faith (Mark 1:15). Repent and trust in Jesus sincerely, and He will give you His spirit to live this new life and seal your future in heaven. Come! Colby Reeves - Evangel Member At Evangel we offer various Bible studies by our Pastors and Elders to understand repentance and trust in Jesus. All are welcome! (See website or call) Evangel Church PCA - 423 Thompson Rd. Alabaster, AL. 35007 - 205-664-0889 evangelchurchpca.org |
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