Bonus Content from Feb-Nov 2023
bONUS CONTENT
11/16/23
Wow! It has been a long time since we posted responses to Sermon Questions in our Bonus Content. Sorry for the delay! Here goes:
From 2/5/23 - “To Demonstrate His Own Righteousness” From No One Greater Series.
Is remorse required for forgiveness?
Remorse must not be an absolute prerequisite for forgiveness. Otherwise, how can Jesus say, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” regarding people who have not yet felt remorse?
Surely most of us will die having never felt remorse for at least some small sins we were unaware of! Yet we expect to be welcomed into paradise… not because we remorsefully and dutifully remembered to confess every individual sin but rather because we have turned from our sin as a whole and trusted the blood of Christ to cover all of it.
That said, if we are aware of sin for which we are defiantly refusing to express remorse, we shouldn’t presume on God’s forgiveness.
From 7/23/23 - “The Sheep and the Goats” From Parables of Jesus Series.
You talked about caring for our brothers and sisters. But also those we come across. Do you think the text is talking about both?
This question came from the parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31-46). Here’s what I said in the sermon regarding this important question:
Who are “the least of these brothers and sisters of mine”? In other words, we’re doing things for Jesus when we do things for… whom, exactly?
It’s a popular interpretation of this parable today to identify “the least of these” as “those on the margins of society,” generally speaking. Like Mother Theresa’s famous language of “seeing Jesus in the face of the poor,” right? She said, “in the poor we meet Jesus in his most distressing disguises.” If that’s what this parable is teaching, the point is that anyone we see who is hungry, thirsty, poor, homeless: that’s the face of Jesus! And to serve them is to serve Jesus. Right or wrong?
Whatever truths or (at least partial truths) might be wrapped up in “seeing Jesus in the face of the poor,” it doesn’t seem that’s what this parable is saying. See, it’s not just “the least of these,” is it? It’s “the least of these brothers and sisters of mine.” And when Jesus talks about his brothers and sisters in the gospels, who is he always talking about? Christians (if we can use a term coined later). His brothers and sisters are not everyone in the world generally, but those who belong to him by faith.
So as good and noble as it is – and hear me saying with a bullhorn right now “it IS good and noble!” – to demonstrate care for people outside the Christian faith who are hungry and thirsty and naked and homeless and imprisoned… there’s a particular emphasis here on care for those in need within the family of faith… which means the sorting that will happen when Jesus returns isn’t based on how one treated marginalized people generally but rather on how one treated marginalized Christians.
From 8/13/23 - “The Barren Fig” From Parables of Jesus Series.
What kind of fruit are we supposed to bring?
This question came from the parable of the barren fig tree (Luke 13:6-9). I think there’s a danger in getting too specific with our answer to this, since the text itself doesn’t specify. For that reason, I like how Spurgeon answered this question:
“As fruit is the production of the tree’s life, and the end for which the tree exists, so obedience to the divine will, and holiness unto the Lord, should be the product of man’s life, and for it he was at first created. It is natural that the great Maker of all should look for the good fruit of obedience and love from the men who are the objects of his providential care, and be grieved when he meets with no return.”
From 10/8/23 - “You Don’t Have Many Fathers” From Healthy Relationships Series.
In 1 Corinthians 1:10-17 Paul denounces the divisions among members of the church of Corinth, asking them not to have rivalries. Why now in 4:16 is Paul urging them to imitate himself rather than urging them to imitate Christ?
I think language like what’s found in 4:16 helps flesh out what the limits are to what Paul has said in chapter 1. As he has been warning against divisions/factions, he can’t mean that we shouldn’t have any reverence for our leaders, or that we shouldn’t look to leaders at all.
We haven’t gotten there yet, but 11:1 helps bridge the gap, I think. There he repeats the call to imitate him, but he clarifies that he’s calling for imitation of him as he imitates Christ. In other words, God has designed the Christian life to work in such a way that (ordinarily) we grow in Christlikeness as we watch someone else live and imitate them. It may be hard for me to discern what Jesus would do in a given situation, especially when it’s not a situation he explicitly faced in the gospels! But if I see a godly, faithful Christian navigate that situation, now I have a better idea what Jesus would do.
From 10/15/23 - “Clean Out the Old Leaven” From Healthy Relationships Series.
Are LGBTQ “Christians” really Christians?
This depends what we mean by the terms. According to 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, plenty of the Christians in Corinth had lived lives that included same-sex behavior! But now they had been saved out of that – not that they never ever slipped up and fell back into it temporarily (otherwise why would Paul need to remind them that they were saved out of that?), but rather that the true Christians among them had turned from their old patterns of giving into those urges.
From 10/15/23 - “Clean Out the Old Leaven” From Healthy Relationships Series.
I’m curious about Christians one day judging angels. Are angels not sinless and if so, how could we judge them?
Some angels are sinless! But remember, many angels followed Lucifer in his rebellion and are now what we call demons. And they will face judgment on the last day.
From 11/5/23 - “To the Married” From Healthy Relationships Series.
Does the NT address when a married couple should not have sexual relations relative to menstruation as Jewish law does?
No, the New Testament does not address this directly. In light of biblical warnings against adding to God’s commands (Deut. 4:2), we should be careful about forbidding something outright that isn’t clearly forbidden to God’s people (John Piper makes that case here). That said, a strong case can be made that it’s ordinarily “wise” or “prudent” or “fitting” to abstain during this time each month.
From 11/5/23 - “To the Married” From Healthy Relationships Series.
Curious how you think through the balance of not neglecting your family and its spiritual, emotional, and practical needs (as was talked about in the sermon) and living as if we have no spouse for the sake of the gospel? …the example given of early in your marriage not having eaten dinner together for 4 months, alongside the call to not neglect our spouse and family seemed to butt heads, for us at least.
I should have done a better job clarifying: we did NOT think that was good that we went 4 months without eating dinner together at home, just the two of us. When we realized it, it was "we need to change this." My bringing that up was to say, "While we have fallen into plenty of ditches (including deprioritizing our marriage too much at times), here's one ditch we have avoided."
That said:
We didn't have kids at the time. That makes a HUGE difference.
We ate a lot of dinners together during that time; they were just always (a) at our house with other people or (b) out at a restaurant because we were too busy to cook as we ran from one ministry opportunity to the next.
We ate a lot of breakfasts and lunches together during that time, and spent many hours a day talking and praying together. It's just that there's something special about dinner at home, just the family, and we realized we had been neglecting that.
Still, I do think every couple is different. Sarah may need/want less than some wives do in terms of attention from me. I’m more often the one feeling a need to slow down and reconnect. So, even when we're in a healthy rhythm (UNLIKE that four-month stretch), I don't think the Higgins family patterns should necessarily be anybody else's. When counseling people on this, I think it matters a great deal who your spouse is and what their needs are.
As always, keep texting your questions to 224-300-0240! I’ll respond sooner next time!