As you will hear in this PODCAST, I am speaking this week at a place near and dear to my sizable soul. Holy Ground. A place where God has sovereignly chosen to touch the earth.
It’s called Hartland Christian Camp. And I will be spending my week with 250 precious Junior High/Middle School students.
But I have not left you podcast-less. So take this message to heart, look up, wait eagerly, anticipate enthusiastically.
Thank you for listening, and for sharing this message!!!
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I am coming off of an exhilarating week with the BEST high school students you’d ever want to meet.
In this PODCAST, you will hear my opening night message at Hartland Christian Camp. Believing that “openness begets openness,” I get very open, very real, very fast—with them, and now with you.
May my words be a blessing.
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As you will hear in this PODCAST, I would not be overstating the case to suggest that if it wasn’t for this individual, there would be no Church History.
Indeed, if it wasn’t for him, all twelve apostles would have been executed, summarily stoned to death on the spot.
Hear it for yourself in Acts 5:33, “When they heard this, the high council was furious and decided to kill the apostles.”
And they surely Would.Have.Killed the apostles—all of the apostles—if it wasn’t for this one man. This one man who wasn’t even a believer in Jesus. This one man who stood as a buffer between the High Priest and the Apostles.
His name was Gamaliel. And whether you have heard of him before or not, he factors prominently in the development of the New Testament Church in multiple ways.
Gamaliel, a man who certainly lived up to the meaning of his legendary name: “The Reward of God.” For God surely rewarded the faithful obedience of the twelve apostles by sovereignly superintending Gamaliel to be an honorable member of the dishonorable High Council.
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It is an elegantly simple, straightforward, non-controversial statement (at least in original language).
Yet, as you will hear in this PODCAST, one that has led to nearly 2000 years of confusion. Confusion over things like:
What is the proper mode of baptism? (Sprinkling? Immersing?) Should babies be baptized?
Is baptism a sacrament? An ordinance? What’s the difference between the two? And what does it matter?
Must someone be baptized in order to be saved? And if you have not been baptized, are you then not going to Heaven?
My, oh my. How adept we humans are at taking something so supremely simple, and making it so insufferably complicated.
My friends, we have a lot to talk about.
Specifically: We need to talk about:
1. What did Peter actually say?
2. What did Peter not say?
3. What is the Scriptural significance of baptism?
4. Where exactly did Peter say this? IOW, is this story even plausible? Where in the Jerusalem of Jesus’ day do you find enough water to baptize three thousand people?
5. What are implications of Peter’s words for us today?
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If last week’s discussion revealed to us the iconic image of the heart of Jesus, this week’s PODCAST will unveil to us the iconic image of the humanness of Jesus.
The beloved Apostle John wrote this in the first chapter of his Gospel masterpiece:
“Jesus became human and made his home among us.”
Paul wrote this to his beloved little community of Christ-followers in Philippi:
“Though he was God… Jesus became completely human.”
Here in John 11, we will see just how completely human Jesus truly was.
I’ll clue you in right here from the start: We are about to witness three powerful, very human emotions collide within the heart and soul of Jesus. And as a result, we will be all the richer for having witnessed this collision, each emotion in response to the death of Jesus’ dear friend, Lazarus.
You are about to take a quantum leap in your understanding of who Jesus is, in a way that you may not be anticipating as we break the seal on this (to many people) very familiar story.
This entire discussion under this overarching question: What does it feel like to be Christ-like?
Rabbi, paint picture. OK, courtesy of John, let’s paint this picture. The picture of a very human Jesus, a human side of Jesus that perhaps you have never seen before.
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