This is a sermon that continues in our Devotional: No Longer Tossed, “All Things New” Revelation 21: 1-5. You can watch more here.
pearls on someone who isn’t
teachable. I think that’s possible.
But in the heart of the passage it is even more strong. In verses 1-5 we are to
be gentle and gracious with our words with one another, but there are some
who are “dogs and pigs” who intend to lead people away from Christ.
Listen to me, verse 6 isn’t about the person who misunderstands God’s Word
and accidently says the wrong thing. This is the person who is intentionally
trying to lead people away from Jesus. Does that make sense?
If you scan down to verse 15 Jesus gives a warning for the “false prophet”
because sometimes there are men and women who are intentionally leading
people away from the glory of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.
There are people on social media who will tell you the Apostle Paul and Jesus
represent two different gospels, so don’t listen to Paul. That’s a lie. There are
people who will tell you Jesus is just a good guy who came to show us love.
That’s a lie. There are people who will tell you Donald Trump is a prophet of
God. That’s a lie. We don’t want to be gentle and gracious with these people.
I had someone walk in our building last year and he was telling these stories
of how people in the church have been hurtful to him, judging him, not
returning his phone calls and emails and as we talked he said, “Jesus isn’t God,
Jesus is just the Son of God.”
I said, hold on, “What?” He said, “Jesus never claimed to be God, just the Son of
God.” I said, first, “That’s not true.” Second, you just told these stories of how
people in the church have hurt you. He said, “Yeah.” I said, “They aren’t
hurting you. They don’t agree with you.” There’s a difference.
He said, “Yeah, brother but…” Then I said, “You keep calling me brother, but
we aren’t brothers in Christ.” You’re presenting another gospel where we
disagree, so that in those moments, we can be nice but more than being nice,
we want to be clear. We want to be firm. We want to treasure the life we have
in Christ!
Now, more than ever we need to be clear on the gospel. What a gift for our
church family to be going through these books on Gospel Identity in our
Community Groups.
The better we understand the gospel the more we will turn up the spiritual
temperature. The more likely we are to speak the gospel over ourselves. The
more likely we are to speak the gospel over our spouse and our children and
our friend, so that because of the gospel there is a time to be gentle and
gracious but there is also a time to be firm and clear. Amen?
North Village Church
This sermon is brought to you by North Village Church, a non-denominational church in Austin. established in 2009 and built around Jesus and Bible teaching.
Are you looking for a church in Austin? At North Village Church we put Jesus at the center of our church family. We worship together every Sunday at 10:30am, encourage Christ centered fellowship through groups, and host special events such as Bible studies and Theological Training, to ensure that we are rooted in in God’s Word. We also serve our local community in association with several Austin based organizations.
North Village Church is made up of professionals, married couples, singles, and families who are wanting to experience the life-transforming power of Jesus. If you are a family with children or teens, we can support you with either or both our Kids Ministry and Youth Ministry.
You are welcome to contact us if you would like more information.
NVC Online
Unable to attend this Christian Church in Austin? Don’t worry, because, through God’s provision, we have created NVC online, an Online Church streaming a worship service every Sunday from 10:30am Central Time. You can also watch our short, powerful sermons on demand and follow us on Instagram for daily Christ centered content.