Michigan Camp Meeting 2016: The Harvest is Great

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Acts: First Generation Lessons for Last Generation Believers

Kameron DeVasher

1. Cut To The Heart

I hope it truly is a happy Sabbath for you.

At least we're going to do our best to get us off to a good start this morning.

Sometimes when I hear the term morning devotional, though, I'll tell you that it's not that the expectations are low, but there is a certain expectation of what you're going to hear at a morning devotional.

Sometimes I think of things like it's going to be general, soft platitudes, warm, fuzzy things, lambs, children, you know, those kind of things, which are good.

We want to be eased into our day, if you will, but the messages that I intend to present this morning and the rest of our time together are perhaps not so much morning devotionals as morning challenges.

We're going to be studying the Word of God, hopefully in a way that will be both interesting, but more than just interesting and inspiring, they will be truly challenging.

They will confront us with our need and see our need of Jesus more clearly.

I like preaching a series of sermons, each message having its own particular point while contributing to a larger overall framework of messages.

The morning devotionals here at Camp Meeting provide just such an opportunity.

This week we'll spend some time studying the early church experience as recorded in the book of Acts.

Our approach will be generally chronological, though not dogmatically so.

The intent is to find lessons that can apply to our lives today, what I like to call first generation lessons for last generation believers.

I truly, truly believe that Jesus is coming soon.

I don't mean that in a hollow kind of cultural tradition, that's just what you say kind of way, I believe that in my lifetime and in the lifetime of many of the people in this room, we will see Jesus before we taste death.

And if that is truly something we believe, it behooves us to be the people He wants us to be, to do the work He wants us to do, and hasten that soon coming that we all look forward to so well.

So before we get started in any study of God's Word, I would ask that we begin with just a word of prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father, I want to thank you this beautiful Sabbath morning for another day of life at all.

Lord, you give your sunshine to both the wicked and the righteous.

And Lord, even before redemption, we owe you this life, but Lord, you sent your only Son to give us the hope of eternal life, and for that we should be eternally grateful.

So Lord, as we come into your presence this morning, we expect great things, not for we ourselves are great, but you are great.

And we trust that there's instruction from on high that you want to give us through your word this morning.

So Lord, I would ask right now that you would sharpen our minds to understand, and you would soften our hearts to receive, that we may become the people you want us to be and hasten your soon coming.

This morning's study in the book of Acts, You would think, oh, we're gonna go to Acts 1 or Acts 2.

We're not gonna go to the book of Acts at all yet.

But I wanna begin our study in the book of Acts this morning actually in the book of Luke.

So if you take out your Bibles, I was gonna say if you have your Bibles, but this is the early morning devotion crowd.

Luke chapter 10, and we're gonna start with verse 25.

Jesus often had encounters with people who would try to test him, to try to paint him into a corner to make his life hard and confuse his mind.

Luke chapter 10, we're gonna start with verse 25.

Scripture reads, and behold, a certain lawyer stood up and did what?

Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

This is not esquire or attorney at law in a civil legislative kind of way.

You're someone who's a scholar in the law of God.

He was a student of scripture, and he was there purposefully to test Jesus Christ on the scripture.

Now you understand, of course, that Jesus Christ was the author of Scripture, so maybe he didn't know who he was up against, but he was there to test him, and this was his question, teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

He said to him, what is written in the law?

What does it say and what do you understand it to mean?

So he turns the question back around on the lawyer questioner, and in verse 27, the lawyer gives the answer to his own question.

Verse 27, so he answered and said, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.

Now, before proceeding any farther, we are probably familiar with that.

Oh, what do I have to do in an eternal life?

Love the Lord your God, love your neighbor as yourself, but we likely know that construction from this man's answer.

This man didn't have the New Testament yet.

He got his answer from the Old Testament.

And what's fascinating, the answer that he gives, you shall love the Lord your God and you'll love your neighbor as yourself, is not a single passage in the Old Testament.

That's a synthesis of different passages woven together to create a bigger principle.

The first part comes from Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 5, where the scripture says you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

But the second part comes from a more obscure passage.

Go to the book of Leviticus, if you will.

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus chapter 19, and verse 18.

This comes in the midst of a litany of policies that were to govern the people of God, the children of Israel.

And in Leviticus 19, in verse 18, notice the passage.

You shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

So he took the principle from Leviticus 19, 18, wove it together with the policy of Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 5, and in there in Luke chapter 10, the lawyer synthesizes these together and says this is what the law teaches is our duty.

Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself.

He was in fact a lawyer, a scholar in the word of God.

So when Christ asked him that question, he was ready with an answer.

What is Christ's response to this man's answer?

Verse 28, and he said to him, you have answered how?

He didn't just say you've answered well, he said you gave the right answer.

It's not just a good answer, it doesn't just pass, it's exactly right.

In fact, 1 other way we can know that this is the right answer besides Jesus himself saying it is that this is the answer Jesus himself gave.

When on another occasion he was tested, Look at Matthew chapter 22.

Matthew chapter 22 starting with verse 34.

Jesus again is approached, tried to put in a corner.

Chapter 22 verse 34, but when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.

So it's almost you get a lineup of enemies, 1 here, 1 there, the Sadducees versus the Pharisees versus Jesus Christ, and it's a, they gather together, they huddle, What's the best thing we can attack him with?

And this is what they came up with, verse 35.

Then 1 of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him and saying, teacher, what is the great commandment in the law?

And Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like it.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

So when you go to Luke chapter 10, we see the lawyer's answer isn't just a good answer, it's not just the right answer, it is in fact Jesus' own answer to that question.

He is familiar with the law of God, he's conversant at it, he knows exactly what he's talking about.

So we go to Luke chapter 10, and again Jesus said, Verse 28, he answered and said to him, you have answered rightly.

Now put into practice what you know from the word of God and you will live.

2. Discipline

There's a little muscle memory that has to be, you know, exercised and get past when you say happy Sunday, but every day is a good day, amen?

You know that we are not deserving of life at all.

God is our creator and the fact that we have this short span to live is a blessing even if we didn't receive him as our savior.

But praise the Lord that he not only gives us this life, he gives us the hope of eternal life in Jesus Christ so we have a lot to praise him for, amen?

Now, as was mentioned, we are going a bit through a study of the book of Acts.

And again, it's not rigidly chronological, it's not dogmatically, chapter by chapter, it's not exhaustive in that sense.

But what we want to do each morning is pull out lessons from the first generation of believers that are applicable to this last generation of believers so we can be the people of God when we see Jesus face to face, amen?

Yesterday we looked at the idea of, in Acts chapter 2 and Acts chapter 7, the 2 times where the term cut to the heart is used in the Bible, it's right there in the book of Acts.

And cut to the heart was a representation of Conviction.

People heard a message and they understood it.

Their hearts were touched and convicted by the truth, but convincing and convicting is still not converting unless we yield to that truth and choose to walk in it.

All right, good, so we don't have to do all of yesterday's again.

The Apostle Peter got up and preached a message, a powerful, mighty message, a present truth, Bible-based, spirit-filled, gospel presentation of Jesus Christ and his work on their behalf and how repentance was available for all.

And the Bible says that they were cut to the heart and 3, 000 were added to them that day.

Now what we want to do this morning is pick up from there and go forward.

But before we do any study of God's word, what's the very first thing we need to do?

So please, if you would, bow your heads with me.

Dear Heavenly Father, I want to thank you for this absolutely gorgeous morning.

I want to thank you for giving us this life at all, and we want to thank you so much for the eternal life offered to each 1 of us in Jesus Christ, our Lord.

So we know that we are yours twice over, once by creation and now by redemption, so Lord help us to see that our lives are your life lived out.

Not just in a vague, nebulous way, but to each person here and those listening elsewhere.

Help us to understand the message, be cut to the heart once again, and be converted to be more like Jesus.

If you would, let's open our textbooks to Acts chapter 2.

Like I said, we're gonna pick up right where we left off, and in Acts chapter 2, there at the day of Pentecost, when Peter preached that marvelous sermon, people were cut to the heart, and we record again, we come back to where it happens in chapter 2, we'll just start with verse 36 to give it a little bit of context, but we're gonna go on beyond that.

Says, therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, there's the convincing part, understand, be intellectually agreeing with this, Know assuredly that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.

Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do?

So they've been convinced, they've been convicted, and now it says in verse 38, then Peter said to them, what's the word?

And let every 1 of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

For the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.

By the way, you and your children and all those who are afar off, that's us too.

So this is applicable to our lives today.

And with many other words he testified and exhorted them saying, be safe from this perverse generation.

Then, verse 41, those who gladly received his word were baptized and that day about 3, 000 souls were added to them.

Right there in verse 41 is where we're gonna pause for just a minute.

We're gonna linger here for a moment and break down what we see in verse 41.

I believe there are at least 2 important lessons, I'm sure there are more than that, but 2 I wanna highlight this morning, that come from Acts chapter 2 and verse 41, the experience there.

This simple passage brings us at least these 2 ideas.

The first idea is that baptism is predicated on an understanding and reception of the word of God.

Those who gladly received his word were baptized.

They didn't just hear his voice, they weren't just stirred, but they received the word itself.

They understood the message he was preaching.

They felt the burden, the conviction of it, and in response, they repented and therefore were baptized.

So they heard the word, they were convicted by the word, they were converted and evidenced that with baptism.

So clearly, baptism follows an understanding of the Word of God.

It's not just an opinion, it's not just an inspiring, stirring thing, it's an understanding of the Word of God itself.

Let's go back to the Great Commission in Matthew chapter 28.

Jesus, as he was concluding his work here on earth, ascending into the heavens, he gives what we know as the Great Commission.

And let's go to verse 18 of Matthew chapter 28.

Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

Now we're not to this point in our series yet, but later we're going to see that, I find this fascinating.

Christ says, All authority has been given me.

I have the strength, I have the power, I have the ability, the authority to send you.

Disciples, this is our theme, Make us disciples, followers of Jesus.

Of all nations, that's where they're from, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and look at the next word, teaching them to observe a few of the things I have commanded you.

There should be a rich, deep understanding of God and his word in order for you to know who you're following and commit to him in baptism.

So Christ says teach them, you make disciples by baptizing them after you've taught them.

So there's a teaching and baptizing to make you a disciple.

And that's exactly what we see lived out in Acts chapter 2.

The people received the word, and as a result, they were convicted, they were converted, and they were baptized into the faith.

Let's look at another example from the book of Acts this time.

Acts chapter 8 tells us the story of the conversion and baptism by Philip of this Ethiopian.

Let's go down, we can't all the way through, let's just start with verse 26 to give it a little bit of context.

Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, arise and go, very much like the Great Commission we just said, therefore go.

Angel says go, this time toward the south, Along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.

This is desert So he arose and went By the way, if God tells you to go what should you do go simple enough, but let's keep going See a rose and went and behold a man of Ethiopia a eunuch of great authority under Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury and had come to Jerusalem to worship.

Is he familiar with Judaism and the rites and ceremonies of the Hebrew faith?

3. The Evidence of Divinity

As was mentioned, now the real camp meeting begins.

Now we're getting down to business, amen?

I don't know if you've enjoyed camp meeting and been blessed so far, but I have, and I hope it has been a wonderful experience for you.

And as you recall, in our morning sessions here, we've been going through the book of Acts.

We're looking at the early church, learning first generation lessons for last generation believers.

We want to be the church God has called us to be, what he needs us to be, what he wants us to be, to hasten his soon coming.

In our opening message, we looked at the idea that the early church believers, those in Acts chapter 2, not only heard the word of God and were convinced by it, they were cut to the heart, convicted by it, and more than even that, they yielded their will and were converted.

They were convinced, convicted, and converted.

Of course, we saw in Acts chapter 7 that that same process happened with the leaders of the Sanhedrin, they were also convinced of the truth, they were convicted by the truth, but they did not yield their heart, they stubbornly closed their ears, and they were not converted.

So what we want to do is not only be hearers of the Word, but doers of the Word, put it into practice and be truly converted people.

Then we saw that after their conversion, after that initial experience where they yielded to the word of God, that the early church believers continued in the doctrine, In fellowship, they kept studying the Word of God, and we made the application that we need a generation of Bible-believing Seventh-day Adventists who will not just have a one-time experience, but will continue through daily study, through attendance in church function, and growth in all areas as the Bible indicates.

The Bible does not teach that salvation is a transaction to get you into heaven.

It's a transformation to fit you into the kingdom of heaven.

So that's what we want to do is continue steadfastly in the doctrine and in fellowship, in breaking bread and in prayers so that we can be the last generation of people to represent the character of God and hasten the soon coming of Jesus.

Now let me ask you, has everything that I just reviewed rung bells in your mind?

Good, so now we're gonna move forward in our study, and our message this morning is entitled The Evidence of Divinity.

But before we do any study in God's word, of course we need to begin with a word of prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, I thank you so much for this beautiful, crisp Monday morning.

I thank you for allowing us to be alive for it.

And I thank you for this particular time during the day when we can come apart from the rest of the world, before the day gets going and humming and busy with all kinds of other activities, but Lord we want to start on a foundation of your Word.

So Lord help us to see the truth this morning, Cutting as it may be, help us to allow the Word of God to sink down past the superficial, past the skin and go into the very heart of each 1 of us.

Help us to see the example of Jesus Christ and help us to learn to be like Christ even now.

Now this is gonna be 1 of those studies where we have a study before we get to the book of Acts but we're gonna look at the life of Christ for a little bit and see the believers' experience with something like that in the book of Acts.

Throughout his entire, not just public ministry, but his entire life, including his public ministry, For over 30 years, Jesus faced the same challenge.

His identity was constantly being questioned.

There was always some sort of rumor mill doubt as to about his genuine Authenticity.

His enemies, his friends, his family, and even the prophetically appointed forerunner, Each at different times doubted his call and his identity.

So I'd like us to begin our study this morning by looking at several examples of what Christ faced in his life and more importantly, not just the doubts he faced, but the answer, The 1 answer, the consistent answer that Jesus gave every time this question arose.

Let's first look at the attacks by his enemy.

Take out your Bibles with me and let's go to John chapter 10.

The gospel of John chapter 10 will begin with verse 22.

It says, now it was the feast of dedication in Jerusalem and it was winter.

I often wonder what Jerusalem winter is like to people reading this from northern Michigan or something.

But it was winter for them, but the text continues.

And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch.

Then the Jews surrounded him and said to him, how long do you Keep us in, what's the word?

Jesus answered him and said I told you and you do not believe me.

The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me.

And he goes on, let's skip down now to verse 31.

They apparently did not like this answer and the explanation that Christ offered because look at their response.

Then the Jews took up stones against him to stone him, again to stone him.

Jesus answered them, many good works I have shown you from my Father.

For which of those works do you stone me?

It's like am I seriously in trouble for healing people, for being kind, for being helpful?

And notice they say, The Jews answered him saying, for a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy, and because you, being a man, make yourself what?

The issue they have is his claim to be divine.

Now we could read all through it, but I want to hit the high points this morning.

Verse 37, Jesus says, if I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me.

Notice that Christ makes the evidence of his divinity the good works he does in the Father's name.

And he says, if I don't do those, Don't believe my words.

If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me.

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Acts: First Generation Lessons for Last Generation Believers

3. The Evidence of Divinity

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