A modern-day miracle took place at CrossPoint yesterday.  The Lord turned a $5 investment into $4,655 in less than three hours.  For those doing the math, that is 93,000% return on investment.

At the conclusion of my message I asked if anyone could match my $5 offering.  I wanted to use the money to minister to some families in our community of faith who had recently encountered financial hardship.  Yet I knew my $5 would not go far in meeting their needs.  And the Lord’s people responded generously.

I was preaching from Luke 9:1-6, 10-17, where Jesus fed 5,000 men with five loaves of bread and two fish.  The miracle of feeding the 5,000 men is the only miracle recorded in all four gospel accounts.

In John’s gospel Jesus asked Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” (John 6:3). The Bible adds, “He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do” (John 6:4).

Luke’s says that Jesus said, “You give them something to eat.” The apostles responded, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish—unless we are to go and buy food for all these people” (Luke 6:13).

Luke continues:

14 For there were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.”  15 And they did so, and had them all sit down. 16 And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing over them. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. 17 And they all ate and were satisfied. And what was left over was picked up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.

Luke 9:14-17

Jesus performed two miracles that day.  First, 5,000 men were fed and satisfied with only five loaves and two fish.  Second, twelve baskets of broken leftovers were collected.  Yet this would have never taken place unless the disciples had given Jesus what they had.  As long as they kept their resources, Jesus waited.  When they gave what they had, Jesus multiplied.

So I asked my people what they had to give.  I asked if anyone could match my $5, and CrossPoint did more than match the money.  They gave exceedingly and abundantly more than I could ever give.

After counting the cash offering, we nailed down three applications:

1. Our resources alone are woefully in adequate to meet the needs of others.
2. We must place our resources in the hands of the Lord and willingly release control of them over to Him.
3. He, in turn, blesses them and places them back into our hands multiplied, more powerful than we can ever imagine.

Today several families will benefit from our miracle.  Thank you, CrossPoint for making it possible.  A 93,000% return on investment is certainly a better than average return, especially in today’s economy.

Who has the power to deliver us?

No one but Jesus

Who has the power to proclaim freedom to the captives?

No one but Jesus

Who has the power to give sight to the spiritually blind?

No one but Jesus

Who has the power to set free the oppressed?

No one but Jesus

Who has the power to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor?

No one but Jesus

Who has the power to break the invisible chains of slavery to sin?

No one but Jesus

Who has the power to overthrow the devil?

No one but Jesus

Who has the power to make the mute speak?

Who has the power to make the lame walk?

Who has the power to make the sick well?

Who has the power to make the grief-stricken secure?

Who has the power to raise the dead?

No one but Jesus

Who has the power to challenge our unbelief?

No one but Jesus

Who has the power to make us right with God, though we do not deserve it?

No one but Jesus

Who has the power to save us from our sins?

No one but Jesus

Who has the power give us eternal life?

No one but Jesus

Who has the power to declare us righteous before God?

No one but Jesus

Who has the power to adopt us into God’s family?

No one but Jesus

Who has the power to resurrect our old bodies from the dead and make them new?

No one but Jesus

No one but Jesus…no one but Jesus…

No one but Jesus can do all these things

No one but Jesus can do so much more!

Run to Him!

Surrender to Him!

Trust in Him!

Rest in Him!

My friend, R. Kent Hughes includes a powerful story of grace in one of his commentaries on the Gospel of Luke.

Hughes teaches, “Those most in need of mercy and grace often know it least.”

Then he adds the following account as an example.

A large prestigious British church had three mission churches under its care.  On the first Sunday of each new year all the members of the mission churches would come to the parent church for a combined Communion service.  In those mission churches, located in the slums of a major city, were some outstanding conversions – thieves, burglars, and others.  But all knelt as brothers and sisters side by side at the Communion rail.

On one such occasion the pastor saw a former burglar kneeling beside a judge of the Supreme Court of England—the very judge who had sent him to jail where he had served seven years.  After his release this burglar had been converted and became a Christian worker.

After the service, the judge was walking out with the pastor and said to him, “Did you notice who was kneeling beside me at the Communion rail this morning?”

The two walked along in silence for a few more moments, and then the judge said, “What a miracle of grace.”

The pastor nodded in agreement, “A marvelous miracle of grace indeed.”

The judge then inquired, “But to whom do you refer?”

“The former convict,” the pastor answered.

The judge said, “I was not referring to him. I was thinking of myself.”

The minister, surprised, replied, “You were thinking of yourself? I don’t understand.”

“You see,” the judge went on, “it is not surprising that the burglar received God’s grace when he left jail.  He had nothing but a history of crime behind him, and when he understood Jesus could be his Savior, he knew there was salvation and hope and joy for him.  And he knew how much he needed that help.  But look at me – I was taught from earliest infancy to live as a gentleman, that my word was to be my bond, that I was to say my prayers, go to church, take Communion and so on.  I went through Oxford, obtained my degrees, was called to the bar, and eventually became a judge.  I was sure I was all I needed to be, though in fact I too was a sinner.  Pastor, it was God’s grace that drew me. It was God’s grace that opened my heart to receive Christ.  I’m the greater miracle.”

All who bow to him, acknowledging their need and hopelessness, receive eternal life. Miracles of grace!

I began a new message series yesterday at CrossPoint entitled CERTAINTY.  During these times of uncertainty I will be preaching about the certainty of Jesus Christ through the eyes of the Gentile physician named Luke.  I am excited about the adventure that awaits us for the remainder of the year.

Our theme for the series is found in the last phrase of the opening sentence of Luke’s Gospel:

1 Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, 2  just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, 3 it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

Luke 1:1-4 (bold & underline added for emphasis)

(more…)

In my continuing research of Luke’s Gospel I have found some valuable resources.  One of the richest resources I have discovered is Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington.   Driscoll is doing something most mega-church pastors avoid, he is preaching through a book of the Bible line by line, sentence by sentence, word by word over a matter of three years.

Three years?  That is unbelievable.  I am not that gifted.  It’s just not in my bones.  I am not capable of such an extensive study. That is why I am attempting to preach through Luke’s gospel in one year.

I admire Driscoll.  He’s faced fierce criticism.  Some of it is self-inflicted and deserved; most of it is critic-inflicted and undeserved.

Check out what Driscoll said about preaching this great book:

Luke is the longest book in the New Testament with 1,151 verses (586 of which contain words of Christ) compared to 1,071 verses in Matthew, 678 in Mark, and 869 in John. This makes preaching through the entire book quite a daunting task. Even John Calvin never preached consecutively, verse by verse, through the Gospel of Luke. Still, between 1559 and 1564, Calvin did preach sixty-five sermons on the harmony of the Gospels. Some noted contemporary pastors who have preached through Luke in its entirety have taken anywhere from over one hundred to nearly three hundred sermons.

Admittedly, a growing church of our size with plans for additional rapid expansion is not supposed to undertake a project of this magnitude. Nearly all of the “experts” in the areas of megachurch trends and church growth agree that if we want to plant dozens of Mars Hill Campuses, plant hundreds of Acts 29 churches, and baptize thousands of new converts in the next few years, the last thing we should do is tackle the longest book in the New Testament with sermons lasting an hour or more. Instead, to accommodate people’s short attention spans and consumer desires, we should do simple, short series with pithy self-help topics compacted into brief feel-good sermons.

But we are Mars Hill Church. We’ve always been far more about following the Holy Spirit than following the trends. Furthermore, we have always been a church that has opened the Bible to learn about Jesus. So, after a few years in prayer and listening to the Holy Spirit, I proposed to the Executive Elders that they permit me to undertake the longest and most daunting preaching task of my ministry career, roughly three times as many sermons as my previous high (Genesis). After prayer and consideration, they agreed.

We do not know everything that will happen during the few years that we will be studying Luke, but one thing is certain: every week we will gather as God’s people to open the Scriptures and learn about Jesus Christ as the beginning of all that we are and do. If our mission is to flourish, it must be for that reason and none other. We are far more concerned about faithfulness and fruitfulness than about fads.

There are a few sentences that stick out to me, and I think describe specifically what we are trying to do at CrossPoint:

“We’ve always been far more about following the Holy Spirit than following the trends. Furthermore, we have always been a church that has opened the Bible to learn about Jesus. “

“…every week we will gather as God’s people to open the Scriptures and learn about Jesus Christ as the beginning of all that we are and do. If our mission is to flourish, it must be for that reason and none other. We are far more concerned about faithfulness and fruitfulness than about fads.”

Thank you, Mark Driscoll.  Thank you for your courage in leadership.  Thank you for preaching Luke’s Gospel.  I look forward to following your series as I preach mine.

Start familiarizing yourself with this, the longest of the four Gospel accounts.  We are going to study, learn so that we may have certainty concerning the things we have been taught.

If the Lord is willing, CrossPoint will study the Gospel of Luke in 2010.  I will kick off the series the first Sunday in February.  And it is my plan to preach all twenty-four chapters through the last Sunday in November.

I have spent hours laboring over Luke’s Gospel.  I will spend many more hours in prayer, research and study.  I am elated about the Lord’s leadership in this direction.

Check out the way Luke introduces us to his gospel record:

1 Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, 2  just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, 3 it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

Luke 1:1-4

Verse four will be the theme of our study:

…that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

French philosopher and theologian, Ernest Renan called Luke’s Gospel account “the most beautiful book in the world”.  Darrell Bock’s introductory thoughts on Luke in his IVP New Testament Commentary provide additional insight on this great gospel:

The Gospel of Luke is about life and God’s plan. It is a story written to a man, Theophilus, who in all likelihood was a believer who needed reassurance (1:4). A Gentile in the midst of what had originally been a Jewish movement, he seems to have been asking whether he really should be a Christian. Had God really called all nations to enter into life with God? Was a crucified Messiah the beacon of hope for both Jews and Gentiles? Would God really save through a ministry that ended with crucifixion? What about the endless obstacles the church was suffering in getting its message out into the world? Might the obstacles not be a sign of God’s judgment on a message gone awry, rather than evidence of blessing? Questions like these probably haunted Theophilus. They are not unlike questions we might raise as we contemplate what God has done and imagine how we might have done it differently.

This is why Luke wrote his Gospel: to explain how the God of design and grace works out his will through Jesus, the ascended Messiah-Lord. Luke wishes to make clear how Jesus is Lord of all, so the gospel can go to all. He also wishes to explain the journey that is salvation. To be saved involves coming to Jesus in faith, but the act of faith is only a first step in a journey that many others do not understand. How does the salvation-traveler face life in the midst of great opposition? In sum, Luke’s Gospel, as his preface makes clear, is a reassurance that through Jesus one can know God and experience life as God designed it.

In these uncertain times, I cannot think of a better message for CrossPoint – certainty concerning the things you have been taught.