This is My Father's World - Acts 17

SERMON AUDIO

  Pastor Steve Alberts dives into Acts 17 and how Paul makes the argument that this is my Father's world. He is the Creator of all things. He has authority, and we can trust Him as our loving Father and Creator. This gives us meaning and purpose as we live in His world.  

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SERMON TRANSCRIPT [accordion title="Sermon Audio Transcript" text="14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Okay, so when James says “What good is it,” he is saying, “What does it profit? What benefit is it if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? And the answer to that is, “none!” It’s not profiting them or anyone else around them.And he asks the question, “Can such faith save them?” Now, this is the first place we start getting off…because we assume that when we see the word “save” (sozo) here that it means salvation from hell, but I don’t think that is what James is talking about here. Let me give you one example of it that we’ve already seen earlier in the book of James. Look at James 1:18…18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth…21 …humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. (your soul)So here is the same word again, sozo. Now does James here mean salvation from hell? No, he’s already said in v. 18 that God had given them new birth, that they were already Christians. He had just said in v. 21 that the word had already been planted in them…they were already saved from the penalty of sin.To “accept the word already planted in them” means to accept Jesus’ way of doing things…to allow your actions to line up with who you are in Christ… and when you and I take action in this way…in following where Jesus is leading us then we begin to experience our salvation in those moments. We were already saved in that moment in our spirit, but now we begin experiencing our salvation in an outward way through our souls and our bodies.Here’s another way we are experiencing salvation in those moments: As we take action & follow Jesus in the ways He is leading us to live, we are saved from the negative realities/natural consequences of sin.See, when we sin, there are consequences that we experience. It never fulfills. It never satisfies. It actually leaves us feeling worse instead of better.So this is what James is talking about here in v. 14 when he says, “can such faith save them?” No, faith alone cannot allow someone to experience their salvation. You’ll miss out on the Life of Christ flowing through you if you don’t take action too. And it also won’t save you from the negative realities and natural consequences of sin in your life?” I like the way Tony Evans puts it in relation to this passage…James is not talking about a sinner who needs to get to heaven but rather a saint who needs heaven to work through him!And so this is the first thing we need to see…that James is not talking about how to get to heaven but rather how to have heaven work through you. V1515 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. So everyone knows that it doesn’t do any good to tell someone who is in need of clothing and food to JUST be wished well…it doesn’t profit them in any way if you don’t follow through in action and actually do something about their physical needs.And so James relates that to faith and deeds… it doesn’t profit you or anyone else around you if your faith isn’t accompanied by the actions that the object of your faith is directing you in (which is Jesus). And so James says faith without action is dead…it’s useless, it doesn’t profit. He isn’t saying there no faith…and again, this is another place where a lot of people take what James is saying out of context…They say that faith being dead equals no faith. If someone isn’t doing good deeds then that means that they had no faith in the first place, they weren’t really Christians.But think about this… Philosophers, when looking at logic and making arguments, say things like, “A cannot be non-A.” IOW, you can’t say that an apple is not an apple. You can’t say that faith is not faith. When James says faith without works is dead he isn’t saying it’s not faith, he’s saying it’s unprofitable!If I have faith or believe that it’s better to give than to receive, but I see someone in need and don’t give does that mean I don’t believe that or does it mean that my belief was unprofitable in that moment?If I believe that I am to love my wife as Christ loved the church (sacrificially), but I choose to be selfish and not serve her and help her in ways that are needed sometimes does that mean I don’t believe that? NO! It means that my belief is unprofitable in that moment and I need to follow through with my belief in the power of the Spirit. I need to walk by the Spirit instead of my flesh.When I am walking by faith and dependence on Christ in me and through me, then it will always lead to action (and that will be profitable to me as I experience my salvation & it will benefit others around me)But now James brings up an objector…someone who might object to what James is saying about faith and deeds working together…V. 1818 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. Okay so let’s talk about these quotation marks here for just a second. There are no quotation marks in the original Greek text. When translators read the original Greek text, those aren’t there and they have to determine where to add those, but it can be difficult to figure out sometimes where they should go. For example, you saw in the NIV that I just read that the quotes were in v. 18, “You have faith; I have deeds.” And then it stops… In other words, these translators make the assumption that this is all the objector had to say and that everything else that was said were James’ words. But look at the NASB translation of this passage:18 But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” 19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.In other words, these translators believed after looking at the original text closely and in context that the objector’s words are not just “You have faith; I have deeds,” as said in the NIV but are “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” And then they say that James’ comments pick up in v. 19. But loot at yet another translation…18 Nay, someone will say, "You have faith, I have actions; prove to me your faith from corresponding actions and I will prove mine to you by my actions. 19 You believe that God is one, and you are quite right: evil spirits also believe this, and shudder."And so these translators actually take the quotes all the way through v 19 so that it’s not James bringing up the demons but the objector…and that James’ words don’t actually get picked back up until v. 20, which actually makes a lot of sense b/c the first words of James 2:20 are… 20 You foolish person, (But do you want to know o foolish man…) do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? In other words, it seems like the natural spot where James jumps back in and addresses the objector, “But you foolish person…” As a matter of fact here is the way one commentator on this passage talks about this…In v. 18–19 the specific literary format James uses was familiar from the Greek diatribe, which was a learned and argumentative form of discourse. The form employed in v 18–20 might be called the “objection/reply format.” Words such as James’s “but someone will say” (v 18) are used to introduce the objection and, when the objection has been stated, a sharp rejoinder is begun with words like James’s “but do you want to know, O foolish man” (v 20). This same format used by James also occurs in Rom 9:19–20 and 1 Cor 15:35–36. The view of many writers that James’s reply has to begin at v 18b ignores the manifest structural signals of James’s text. These writers have failed to produce any comparable text in the relevant literature. And so it seems to make the most sense that it’s the objector’s comments all the way through v. 19 and that James then picks up in v. 20… And here is what he is saying…He is objecting to James by saying, “No, faith does not result in actions nor do actions reveal faith.” And the objector brings up an example of this with the demons. He says you know that the demons believe that God is not multiple gods but just one God… IOW, they have that proper belief that Christianity is based on, but they are not going to go out and do good deeds…He’s just trying to prove that having the right (intellectual) beliefs/faith don’t always produce the same results. This goes back to the examples I gave earlier. Sometimes we can believe the right things, like it’s better to give than to receive, but that belief doesn’t ALWAYS lead to action.So the objector is saying, “faith and deeds are not linked.” He is saying faith is one thing and deeds are another, and both as separate things are profitable.But James says, “you foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless (unprofitable)?” And he gives an example of Abraham and Rahab from the Old Testament. V.2121 Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone. 25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?So we don’t have time this mng to take a deep dive into what was going on in each of these O.T. situations that James brings us, but what he is showing to this objector that he had brought up is that Abraham and Rahab’s faith in these situations was working together with their actions…he says that it was made complete… it was carried out (made mature). This is the way faith is supposed to work.Now, that wasn’t always the case for Abraham’s life…I mean we can read in Genesis how Abraham grew impatient waiting for God’s promise of a son and ended up sleeping with his maidservant to help God out. And we see several other mistakes that Abraham makes along the way…Now, does that mean that Abraham didn’t have any faith in God? I mean if the point of the passage is to prove that you must have good works to be saved then Abraham must not have had saving faith. But that wasn’t the case, we are told that he believed God and that his faith was credited to him as righteousness…He was justified by God in that moment…But there were times when his faith and actions were not working together…his faith in those moments was dead/unprofitable…but we see in this example of trusting God (walking by faith that this was the right thing to do at this moment… “sacrifice his son”) led to the right actions and it was profitable…it saved him from the consequences of sin in his life and it also justified him before men…People saw this and how God provided for him, and they called Him “God’s friend.” Now here’s the deal: Abraham was already “a friend of God” before this incident with Isaac, but now other people saw that he was “a friend of God” based on the way God provided for him in that moment as Abraham walked by faith.In other words, Abraham was justified before men and they saw how walking by faith is profitable, has a purpose and is what is best for us. They saw the outworking of his faith and his salvation.This is the way it is meant to work after we put our faith and trust in Jesus for salvation…to then exercise faith in the way He is guiding and leading us in life by actually taking that step…and that is when His power and life come flowing through us…it’s no longer just sitting there dormant and useless, it’s being carried out to completion and we experience our salvation coming through our lives in those moments.So James is trying to get his audience and us to see that if we’ve put our faith and trust in Jesus for salvation and are not following through in action then we are missing out on God’s power working in us and through us… You may have faith and an eternal life with him in heaven one day but you are missing out on that eternal life working in you and through you in action right now…it’s not benefitting you in your own life and it’s not benefitting the lives of others.Illustration… Maybe this will help us to see what James is saying… One of the things that we are all kind of into today is smart technology, right? We have smartphones, we have smart tv’s, we have smart homes… and you know one of the things we have access to now are motion-sensor lights or motion-detecting lights right? It’s dark when you walk into a room and when it senses that motion, when it senses that action, then the lights get turned on. But again, it has to detect the movement before the lights will respond. I mean the lights are there and the power to the lights is connected and there, but until you actually take a step of action, you won’t see the power kick in and activate those lights.So you could stand at the door & have faith that the lights are in that room & faith that power is hooked up to those lights but you are not going to see those lights turn on by faith alone…it’s useless/not profiting you…you have to take a step of action & then that power kicks in & activates the lights in the room.And so we can have put our faith in Jesus for salvation and have received his life and power that is sitting in us but it could be sitting there dormant…But when we have faith that Jesus is leading us to take a certain action and we begin to take that step of action then His power kicks in and flows through us to produce results and our faith is now on display before others and being useful and profitable and making impact. & so James finishes up & says in v.2626 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. Without deeds, without works and action, it leaves faith dormant…it just sits there and you miss out on the Life of Christ being expressed through you. You miss His power being expressed through you. You walk by your flesh and you sow flesh, but you walk by the Spirit and your reap the eternal life that was already in you being expressed through you.TRANSITION: So, let’s not be a church that is sitting around waiting on getting to go to heaven one day, but let’s be a church that is letting heaven be expressed through us in action and deeds in order to make Kingdom impact here in this world!That’s what this passage is about…not second-guessing whether we are saved or not based on actions… It’s not a passage about sinners needing to get to heaven but about saints needing heaven to work through them! So, how is Jesus wanting to work through you this morning??? What is He leading you to get involved with and take action on in this world that you have been ignoring? Is it mentoring someone through the Mentoring Alliance? Is it getting involved in helping to stop human trafficking? Is it adopting or fostering someone? Is it providing financially for those in need? Is it serving widows or orphans in some way? Is it telling your neighbors about Jesus?Whatever it is, if you have faith that those are the ways Jesus is leading you in but you are not following through in the power of the Spirit with doing those things, then it isn’t profiting you and it certainly isn’t profiting those whom Jesus is leading you to serve? So…let’s walk by faith and allow Jesus to lead us into His actions…Let’s get involved in what He is doing in our community and around the world. Let’s experience heaven being manifested through us and transforming the lives of the people around us. Let’s see faith in action."]