ALL MEANS ALL - Come and hear in December!

Winter in Kentucky…70 degrees one day and 30 degrees the next…what an experience!  God has everything under control.  I’m thankful.  We’re doing well at the Watterson Trail Church of Christ here in Jeffersontown, Kentucky.  Jeffersontown is a part of the Louisville metro area.  I’m finally learning my way around the city on my way to my weekly visits to the members of the congregation.  I am thankful for the opportunities and the challenges that God gives me every day.  This week I had the great privilege of meeting a new friend at one of our local restaurants.  If you know me at all you know that I am always looking for friends.  This lady served our table.  I found that she was new to Louisville as I am.  She stated that she had few friends and of course, hearing this statement, I told her that she now had two new friends, my wife and me.  The conversation led to the church, a pathway that I am always eager to follow.  I gave her my card and an invitation to come and hear and see what God has in store for her and her family in His church.  She has two sons, one in high school (We have a fantastic youth and family minister, Spencer Clark and a good youth program at WT) and her oldest son is a freshman at the University of Louisville and plays on the Cardinals basketball team.  I actually watched him play on Monday evening (11/24) against Savannah State.  Louisville won by 61 points.  What a thrill it is for me to be a gospel preacher and have such wonderful experiences.  God is so good to me and to all who love Him and are the called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).  I will be waiting in the lobby this Sunday to welcome this family to Bible study and worship, Lord willing.

This Sunday I will begin a new sermon series entitled “All Means All.”  Jesus has all authority.  He stated this in Matthew 28:18.  John wrote about Jesus authority in John 14:6.  He wrote of Jesus, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me.”  If Jesus has all authority (He does) then we cannot go to Moses or to the prophets or to David or to Solomon or to the angels for answers to questions about sin and salvation, life and living, or worship and what pleases God.  Now it is true that Moses and the Law, Psalms and Proverbs, the books of the prophets were inspired by God and were written for our learning, our comfort, and our hope (Romans 15:4).  I’ll study and preach and teach from the Old Testament until my dying day because the Old Testament was given to us by God to help us come to believe in Jesus as the Christ.  However, we must understand that though God gave us the Old Testament for learning, comfort, and hope, the Old Testament always points to Jesus Christ for authority in our lives today.

In Matthew 17 Jesus took Peter, James, and John up to a high mountain and was transfigured before them.  Moses and Elijah appeared and talked with Jesus.  Peter suggested that they build three tabernacles, one for each of the men present.  While Peter was still speaking, God spoke from the cloud and said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.  Hear Him.”  God wanted his followers to know who was in charge and who to listen to, not Moses, not Elijah – Jesus. 

Luke wrote in chapter 16, verse 16, “The law and the prophets WERE until John.  Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into in.”  In Acts 8 the eunuch from Ethiopia was reading Isaiah when Philip asked him if he understood what he read.  He didn’t and Philip began in Isaiah and taught the eunuch Jesus. 

In Christ the Law and the Prophets were fulfilled.  Psalms is one of my favorite books of the Old Testament and I often preach from Psalms.  Yet, David and the Psalms have no authority today except in directing us to and in Christ.  Solomon was only the second wisest man to ever walk the earth.  Jesus was the wisest.  Paul wrote to Timothy and told him to continue in the things which he had learned and been assured of, knowing from whom he had learned them.  Paul was speaking of the Old Testament.  Then he said that the things Timothy had learned, the Holy Scriptures, specifically the Old Testament were able to make him wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 3:10-17).  Again, note.  The Holy Writings, the Holy Scriptures, the Old Testament makes one wise for salvation through faith which is IN CHRIST JESUS. 

Note verse 1 of chapter 3 in 2 Timothy.  “But know this that in the last days perilous times will come.”  Now turn to Hebrews 1:1.  “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in the LAST DAYS spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom He made the worlds…”  In “time past” God spoke by the prophets.  In “these last days” God has spoken to us by His Son.  Question: Who has authority in these last days, the days in which we live?  Jesus.  Only Jesus.  All means all.