 All right, here we are, 1 Timothy chapter 3. We're going to be looking today at the qualifications of leadership as it pertains to the office of deacon. And so let's begin reading at verse 8. I'll read to verse 16. We'll get into our study. 1 Timothy chapter 3, beginning at verse 8, reading to verse 16. Paul writes, likewise deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money, holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience. But let these also first be tested, then let them serve as deacons being found blameless. Likewise, their wives must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things. Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly. But if I'm delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory. And so what we're looking at is the selection of church leaders. Paul has been instructing this young man, Timothy, concerning this and has been giving to him the qualifications of church leadership. He especially last time we were together was speaking to them concerning the elder, the role of the elder and the qualifications of the elder. Because what had happened is unqualified elders had been placed in leadership and they were in reality harming the church. So because of this, Paul gave Timothy a list of qualifications for spiritual leadership. And when you look at those 16 different qualities that he speaks about, you'll notice with me that they are not only simply spiritual in sense that it's a holy spirit who is working within them. But actually there are what you would call moral qualifications, moral qualifications as well as spiritual giftedness. You see, there are moral qualifications because the work of a minister is a moral work and God has always used men of integrity, men of purity and men of moral virtue to lead his people. And these are the qualities that denote a person of spiritual maturity. So Paul is speaking to Timothy and he's saying to Timothy to be wise and selective in appointing leadership. That's why in 1st Timothy 522 he says, do not lay hands on anyone hastily. Because the work of ministry is so important, be very careful that you don't just because you have a need, put somebody into a ministry. It's been rightly said it's a lot easier to place someone in leadership than to remove them. You know, there are times that a pastor might see somebody who seems to have potential, who seems to have spiritual gifts and capacities that would make the church a better place. So he sees the potential and he approaches that person and he says, you know I've been considering you for a while, I've been thinking and to be a blessing to have you if you'd served along with us for a while and I'd like to see whether God may or may not have placed you in ministry here. And the man will go home and he'll tell his wife, you know, he truly is like Moses. He really knows how to select godly men. He selected me honey, I'm so humbled. Three months later he has to remove them and suddenly Moses becomes Satan. I mean they don't appreciate that, they get upset. So I've taught people and I've learned my own lessons this way, do not lay hands on anyone hastily. Don't put somebody in a leadership position without first proving them. And Paul's going to be speaking about that in just a moment. You see elders are selected on the basis of love for the Lord as well as mature spiritual lives. They're not to be novices. They need to have a track record of consistency. And so as we saw the pastoral leader was to be a man of giftedness as well as character. And as I mentioned a moment ago, Paul listed around 16 qualities that he should possess to qualify as an elder. So after speaking concerning the elders, Paul now turns his attention to the selection of deacons. And I want you to notice something, I was just reading through these verses related to the deacon. Notice with me that the standard for deacons is not inferior to those of an elder. Elders and deacons have different functions, but the qualifications for those positions are very similar. And that's because church leadership is of highest importance. The only difference between the two seems to be what is found in verse two, where an elder is to be able to teach. And you don't really see that qualification for a deacon. Now when you look at deacons, the word deacon and related root words occur around a hundred times in the New Testament. Ordinarily the word deaconess is translated to serve or service. It was originally a word that would be used concerning table waiters. It's only here in this passage, as well as Philippians one verse one, that the word is used to refer to what is called the office of a deacon. You see what happens is as the church grows, there's a growing need to organize. And so elders and deacons work together caring for the spiritual as well as the practical concerns. You know when your church first begins, it may have a small group of people. When our church first began, we had about 25 to 30 people. And so there wasn't a lot of need for what you would call a deacon, because we basically were able to do everything and I didn't need a whole lot of help. So there were some who were with us helping, but we didn't need to establish even more roles and greater and deeper roles and all. I mean, when we had our first breakfast that we had, I can still remember our first breakfast, we didn't have men's breakfast and women's breakfast, we just had breakfast. And we'd invite the whole church and the whole church could fit in a small area because we only had 30 people, 40 people coming. But after a while, the church began to grow. And as the church began to grow, there were more needs that were in existence that one or two or three people couldn't handle. So you have to begin to look for those who are qualified to do some of the practical work of the ministry. And that's what Paul's talking about here. He's speaking concerning those who can do practical things in ministry. You see, the elders and the deacons worked together, caring for the spiritual as well as the practical concerns of the church. Deacons generally carry out tasks that have been assigned to them by elders. Now, when you look into the New Testament, the role of the deacon began early in the history of the church. In the book of Acts in chapter six, Acts six records their origin, gives us insight into their importance because deacons originated at a time when the church was undergoing rapid growth. By the book of Acts chapter six, it's estimated that the church had grown to around 20,000 members. So during this time, many of the believers had actually become impoverished and were finding themselves in financial need. So in order to minister to those of financial need, the general fund had been established. You see, in Acts chapter two, verses 44 and 45, that all the believers were together and had everything in common, selling their possessions and goods they gave to anyone as he had need. In Acts 4, 34 and 35, it says there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time, those who owned land, lands or houses, sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. So there was need, there was a need in the church. But what was taking place with the rapid growth is there was some neglect that was occurring. It was inevitable that neglect would happen. So what happens by the time you get to Acts chapter six is within the church, two groups had formed. They had what are called the Hellenists and they had what were called the Hebrews. The Hellenists were those who were not born. They were Jews who were not born in Israel. Their language as well as their culture was Greek. And they were considered by the Hebrews as second class Israelites. And so what you see in Acts chapter six is a racial and cultural animosity that occurred. Many of the Hellenists had been converted during the Pentecost outpouring. They had remained and were serving in the church. They were learning from the apostles. The others were retirees from other lands and they were living out their last days in Israel. But the problem related to the Hellenist widows, they were neglected due to partiality. And that reached the ears of the apostles and they immediately dealt with it. Again, when you're looking at Acts chapter six, it says in verse two that they stated, it's not desirable for us to leave God's word and serve tables. It's not desirable for us to leave our priorities of ministry which the word of God and prayer and become managers to have to step out the different distractions and the church brush fires, if you will. And so this problem, this problem got the attention of the apostles. Their time in the word was jeopardized because of church business. You see, their ministry priority is to teach and preach the word of God and to pray. They're not about to go around stepping out problems. So with the problem came the origin of deacons. The deacons would take care of these kinds of things. They were to be people that the church knew and they were selected by the church. And what happens is the apostles confirmed their decision. But these people were to select qualified men. So when you look again in Acts six and you see the qualities of these men, they were to have good reputations. They were to be filled with the spirit and wisdom. They were filled with faith in Jesus and they were to minister in the power of the Holy Spirit. So that's how it began. Well, that took place in around 34 through 36 AD. So 28 years later, the office of deacon continues to exist. And deacons continue providing for spiritual as well as practical ministry in the church. And so Paul is speaking concerning leadership. He spoke earlier in the first seven verses of the qualities of an elder, a pastor teacher. And now he begins to speak concerning the deacons. Notice verse eight. He says, likewise, deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money. Deacons, they're to be reverent. The word reverent combines the attributes of dignity and sober-mindedness. They're supposed to be what we used to call stately. They're dignified. They're people that have strong moral qualities as well as maturity. They're the individuals that you look at and you can respect. They're to be people of spiritual maturity and moral character, because that is what attracts people and gives them the ability to lead. Now this is difficult. I was thinking about this today. We're living in a time, 2017, in a time when the idea of dignity and regarding people as examples of spiritual maturity, well, just in general, the idea of treating people who are older with respect is kind of lost on the generation that we're living in today. I don't mind telling you that I'm older than Methuselah. So I grew up in a time when my parents taught me to respect those who are older than me. Many of you did, too. Perhaps you still are of that nature. I was taught that. For me, for example, even as a kid, especially as a kid, when an older woman would walk into the room, older woman meaning my mom's age and above, when an older woman would walk into the room and I'd be six, seven, 10 years old, whatever, my mom said, whenever a woman walks in, stand and show them respect. To this day, when a woman walks in the room, if I'm meeting somebody who I haven't met before or whatever and don't know them, the first thing I do is I stand. I always do, pastor or no. And I stand for ladies. So when a woman walks in, I'll stand for ladies. You should do that. I was taught to do that. We didn't call my parents' friends by their first name. We knew their first name. We knew their names. Of course, Isabel, Johnny, whatever. We knew their names. But unless they gave you permission, you didn't use their name. You called them by their last name. That's how it was. Because the Old Testament says rise in the presence of the agent. This is actually a biblical model for respect for those who are older. And so the elder, those who were older, actually wanted your respect so they would act in a dignified way around you, even in common culture. Even in common culture. If you, back in, we'll say 30 years ago, 40 years ago, if you as an older person went into a doctor's office, for example, and you went and signed in, the person at the desk would call you by your last name. They would say, Mr. Rosales, how are you? They didn't use my first name. Just the other day, I had to go to the doctor for an appointment I went in. And there's this young woman, probably in her 20s or whatever. How you doing, David? The pastor comes in, how you doing, David? No, I'm not insulted, that's my name. But there was a time when even business protocol regarded people and gave them a show of respect because of their age. And so this kind of teaching may fall on your ears in a deaf way. You may not understand the value of it. Because unfortunately, there are numbers of people who are in ministry who don't act dignified. They don't act respectable. They wanna be your buddy more than they wanna be an elder or a deacon. They wanna joke around and they wanna be silly more than they want your respect. But in ministry, respect is everything because you're representing the kingdom of God and the people ought to know you're so reminded about that and that's what Paul's telling Timothy. He said the same kind of thing concerning the elders. That he is saying now concerning the deacons. And he says that there to be people who are, well, they're reverent. They have a spiritual maturity. They have a moral character. That's the quality that causes both young and old to honor and respect them. Deacons are not to be silly. They're not to be flippant because they see serving the Lord is sacred. And because he is reverent, he doesn't make light of serious matters. In other words, you can go to him for counsel or advice and they're gonna take it seriously. They're not gonna trivialize it. Now that doesn't mean that they don't laugh or it doesn't mean that they have no joy. It simply means that that's the kind of person that you can respect and trust. And so one, they're supposed to be reverent. Two, he says not double-tongued. Not double-tongued. It doesn't speak at two tongues flipping out of your mouth like that. Not double-tongued. He doesn't say one thing to one person and something else to someone else. That speaks of consistency and integrity. You see people who say one thing to this person and then one thing to that person, two different things, they're usually caught when they do that. It's simple dishonesty. And a deacon is not to be a person who says something over here and then changes his mind over there. That shows to us integrity and consistency. Third, he's not to be preoccupied or given. He's not to be given to much wine. He doesn't allow wine to influence him. He's not attached to drinking. Now this attachment to drinking, I'll speak about it for a moment. This attachment to drinking actually reveals the heart of a person because someone who is not willing to forgo perceived freedom is not suited for spiritual leadership. If the deacon insists on drinking, though it stumbles other people, he's not qualified to lead. Why is that? Well, because his insistence of pleasing himself reveals a lack of love for other people. The most basic characteristic of a Christian, ask yourself, what is it that Jesus said, by this all men shall know that you are my disciples? What is it that Jesus said? He said, if you have love, one for another. What is the great commandment in the law? Love the Lord thy God with all that is within you and love your neighbor as yourself. So the mark of a believer, the mark of a Christian has always been love for God and love for others. And this love for God is what motivates their activity to other people. Thus, if I do something that causes one of my sheep to stumble, I'm not showing them love. If I'm a person in the church and I want the role of spiritual leader, but I enjoy my wine, even if it's called Christian Brothers, if I enjoy my wine more than I am concerned with their scruples, with their concerns, I'm revealing that I don't have love for them. My freedoms end where their concerns and their ability to be stumbled begins. And when you look for a leader in the church, you look for somebody who loves people and won't stumble them, they're not given to wine. To be more concerned with our own freedoms at the expense of others is simply wrong. In Romans 14, 13, Paul said, let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way. So when you look for a leader, he is not to be someone who is given over to wine. He's not to be a person who has given to much wine. He goes on, verse eight, a deacon is not to be greedy. That word greedy speaks of a fondness of dishonest gain. He's not to use his position to make a profit off of trusting believers. Remember originally the deacons were placed over the finances to care for widows. That means that he'd have access to the funds and could pilfer them, he could steal them if he wanted to. So a deacon isn't to be somebody who's greedy, somebody who's gonna use people and take advantage of them. And because he's not greedy, people can trust him. He doesn't encourage people to give them gifts. He doesn't tell people, I need money. He's not gonna do that. He trusts the Lord. I remember a story my own pastor gave years ago now, Pastor Chuck Smith, about a guest speaker who was at his church and the guest speaker got up and was having a series of evening services and all in one night as he got up, he was up there at the pulpit and he began to pray like this. He said, Lord, you know that I appreciate all that you've done and I thank you for all that you're doing. And I thank you that you provide. And I would just say to you even now that I need a pair of shoes and you know that I wear size eight and a half and I really could use a brown pair. Thank you, Jesus, hallelujah, amen. And the next day somebody comes and gives a pair of shoes, brown, eight and a half to this guy and the guy stands up behind the pulpit saying, oh, praise you, Jesus, thank you, Lord, for providing my shoes for me. And Chuck said, you ought to thank the people who gave you that. That wasn't the Lord. You put a strong arm on them and you ripped them off. That's one of the reasons I love Pastor Chuck. He was pretty straight. But that's the bottom line, now isn't it? I mean, it would be easy to get up there and say, oh, you know, it would be need if and I wish I could. But a deacon, neither a deacon by the way or verse three, neither at Nalder where it says in verse three, not greedy for money. Neither one is to be after people's income. That's a mark of a false teacher. In Matthew 23, 14, it says, you woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites. You devour widows' houses and for a pretense, make long prayers. Therefore, you will receive greater condemnation. You devour widows' houses. During the time of Christ, a widow would approach and ask someone to pray for them and would give them a gift. And the more they gave, the longer the prayer. It was an act of hypocrisy that Jesus spoke about concerning that. And so he's saying a deacon is not to be greedy. A deacon instead is to be heavenly minded. And that would be because he even has a personal generosity that is fueled by his own faith. And he can be an example of somebody who's not hungry for money. In verse nine, he says, holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience. The word holding speaks of holding tightly, grasping or possessing. That is revealing commitment to the gospel. He holds tightly to what is called the mystery of the faith. He does so with a clean conscience. A clean conscience reveals that he is completely loyal to God. He's a man who is thoroughly committed to Christ. He has moral integrity. His conscience is cleansed by the blood of Christ, avoids offense towards God as well as men. But he says in verse 10, but let these also first be proved. You need to be tested. He must be unaccused by anyone before they begin serving and he needs to remain unaccused after he has been serving. He's to be found according to verse 10, blameless. They can withstand scrutiny and be found without reproach. They're to live morally spotless lives capable of impartial examination. And so he's speaking about the kinds of men who should lead and now they bring the wife in. In verse 11, likewise, their wives must be reverent, not slanderous, temperate, and faithful in all things. A wife who is not saved disqualifies the husband from being a deacon. She needs to be reverent. When it uses the word reverent again, they are to have godly lives. They're to be models to the other ladies in the fellowship. They're to have dignity. They're to be sober minded. They're to be what we would call stately. Verse 11 says they're not slanderers. A slanderer is a false accuser or gossip. She's going to hear things that should not be repeated. And thus she needs to be someone who doesn't take what she's hearing and tell other people about it. She's to be temperate. That means she's calm of spirit and she's to be faithful in all things. In other words, she's to be ready on all occasions to do good and to care for others. He says in verse 12, let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. And like I mentioned last time, that's not one wife at a time. That is a lover of one woman. Why? Again, because in ministry, it's easy for you to be tempted to be with somebody else. And so a man who has this kind of dignity in these qualifications is also to be a man who has eyes only for one woman. And that would be his wife. He's also to take care of the children. They're to manage their children and manage their finances responsibly. Now as that happens, verse 13, those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. Going back to Acts chapter six, there were seven different deacons that are mentioned and two of those deacons, one is named Stephen and the other is Philip. And you will see them later on in the book of Acts because Stephen, one of the original deacons, also became the first martyr in the church. Philip is referred to as the only one by name who's called an evangelist. And so you see that these two people as deacons still had a tremendous ministry that the Lord gave to them and they were looked at as being very, very useful in the hands of the Lord. They were people that had great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. And then finally in verse 14, these things I write to you though I hope to come to you shortly, but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the ground of the truth. We'll look at that for just a moment. This is why I'm writing if you said. I'm writing to teach you how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God. Listen Timothy, you're in the city of Ephesus. The city of Ephesus is known for a variety of things including its idolatry and its sorcery, its occultism. You're ministering in a place that is depraved morally. You're living in a place that is absolutely dark. And as you're taking your ministry out, you're gonna be winning people the faith in Christ and your church is gonna grow. But Timothy, you have teachers that have entered in that have raised up to become people of prestige and honor who are actually preaching and teaching things that are incorrect because that's happening. You're undermining the work of God by allowing unqualified people to serve. So I'm telling you that the reason that I wrote this to you was to make sure that you understand what the house of God is all about. That you understand that it's the people of God gathering together to worship their father. That you're a family in the things of God and that as a family grows, there needs to be organization. There needs to be a way that the family works together. So what you need is you need elders. You need elders who are qualified morally because they're gonna be tempted to fail in so many areas. So make sure that they're qualified. Make sure that you lay hands on no man suddenly because what happens is they will influence and infiltrate and their bad doctrine will undermine what God wants to do. So make sure that these are people that are qualified and also you're gonna have deacons. Now the spiritual leaders who are able to teach, apt to teach, they're gonna divide the word of God and they're gonna communicate these things to the church. But you need people who are there who are also qualified theologically that are very practical in what they can do. And so as you have these practical individuals there they're gonna be able to carry out the work of ministry because you need to understand that the church is really God's house and it ought to be run in a certain way. And so though I hope to come to you shortly, if I'm delayed, he said in verse 15, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which notice is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. And so this is what the church is. This is what you need to know. These are the things you need to be aware of. You see Timothy, you need to be developing consistency in your walk with the Lord because that's gonna cause you to be a minister that people will respect. In chapter four, verse 12, he says it like this. He says, let no one despise your youth but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Timothy, they're looking for a template. They're looking for somebody who lives out what God says, be that model. And as you're that model, select men around you who also have that kind of model life so that people can see them and realize that Christianity means something. And so you're gonna be a leader worthy of respect if you do these things. But I wanna share with you, he's saying, some things about the church. First, I want you to notice in verse 15 that it's the church of the living God. And so notice he says the church of the living God. In other words, God owns the church. God paid for it. The church doesn't belong to Timothy. It doesn't belong to the elders. It doesn't belong to the deacons. It doesn't belong to the people. The church belongs to its God. God owns the church. Many years ago now, I performed a wedding over 30, 30 some years ago. I performed a wedding. And you know, when you perform wedding sometimes people will give you a gift. Thank you, a thank you gift. So he gave me a card. I'll never forget it. Thank you for performing my wedding as he's shaking my hand there at the church. And he hands me a card. And I said, well, thank you. And it was an envelope and it was kind of bulky. So I took it home and I remember opening it up to see what the card said. And it was actually a letter. It was a seven page letter outlining every bad thing I do in the church. Yeah. Yeah, that was sweet. Seven pages. And I'll never forget thinking when he wrote this, he said, sir, you do not own the church. Jesus does. And I still remember that. And I spoke to him afterwards and had a conversation with him before I killed him. And but you see the book of Acts chapter 20 verse 28 says this. Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood. So when Paul is speaking here, he said it is the church of God. Never forget the church isn't yours. You didn't pay for it. You didn't earn it. It isn't yours. Remember that they keep your eyes in the proper places when you're minister. These are God's sheep. Love them for God's sake. So when it's the church of the living God, secondly, God is the living God as opposed to dead idols. There used to be a bumper sticker that said because atheists were saying God is dead. And I still remember in the 70s a bumper sticker that said my God is alive. My God is not dead. Sorry about yours. But we have the church of the living God. Our God is alive and active. You see in the midst of idolatry the church worships the living and active God. In Jeremiah 10, verse 10, it reads the Lord is the true God. He is the living God and the everlasting King. Third, the church of the living God is the pillar and ground of the truth. So pillars held up the roof and the ground speaks of foundation or support for the pillars. The church of the living God is the pillar and ground of the truth. The truth is divine revelation, especially revealed in the gospel. So the church is a foundation and pillar that supports the truth of God. The church has the divine responsibility of upholding the truth of God's word. The church does not invent truth nor does it add to it and nor does it take away from it. The church is intended by God to simply present it. And that's what Bible teachers are supposed to do. We're living in a time when pastors are aware of the fact that many of those who come to church get bored easily. We're living in a time when people are expecting some form of entertainment 24-7. I mean, there was a time when we understood that church was a place where we met with God. But today's generation needs to be reminded and perhaps even retaught that when you come to hear the word of God, it's God himself through his word, speaking by his spirit to our hearts to transform us. And so we're not coming to a show. We're not coming to a theater. We're not coming to a play. We're coming to hear God's word so our lives can be transformed to conform into the image of Christ so that we can take this word out of these four walls and we can impact a world that's going to hell without Jesus Christ. And the pastor needs to understand that the church is a pillar and ground of the truth that you're not gonna find it in People Magazine. You're not gonna see it on entertainment. You're gonna see it only in the word of God. And that's why the pastor has to remain faithful to the teaching of God's word and to resist the temptation to become the popular celebrity in his own pulpit. God has called us to speak the truth. And the truth is found in his word. And that's what he's saying. The church is the pillar and ground of the truth. And you take this word and you proclaim this word and you allow it to be the surgeon's scalpel that it is because it has a tendency of removing that which will destroy you and healing that which has been affected by the sin of the world. That's why you give the word of God to people. That's why you teach it line upon line. That's why you go verse by verse, word by word, chapter by chapter, book by book so that the people will understand the ways of God. So they'll understand that there is a God who is alive. There's a God who actually intervenes in our life. There's a God who directs our footsteps. There's a God who loves us. There's a God who empowers us. There's a God who is with us. There's a God who will never leave us. There's a God who gave his son Jesus Christ to die for us. There's a God worthy of worshiping. That comes through the word of God. That's how that comes. It comes no other way. And that's why we need to, even as pastors, remember that because we're aware of the fact. We know that people walk in. We know they have a 10 minute attention span. We know that they have their phone out and they're texting somebody almost done. Be there in a minute, looking forward. We know that. We already know that. And you can be tempted to wanna entertain. You could be tempted to want to catch their attention by doing something spectacular. Guess what? Jesus Christ is spectacular. Jesus Christ in his word is powerful. That's what changes lives. And we need to remember that. And that's what he's speaking about here. He says you need to remember that the church that the living God is the pillar and ground of the truth. And we have the responsibility of upholding and teaching God's word. In Psalm 119, 160, the entirety of your word is truth. Jesus in John 17, 17 prayed and said, sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. And that's what God's word is. It is the truth of God to our hearts. And then he closes here in verse 16, without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory. God's word produces godliness. Great is the mystery of godliness. God's word produces godliness in the believer who is being conformed into the image of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the very essence of true godliness. And we are being conformed into his image. He says that God was manifested in the flesh. We know scripture teaches that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. Jesus is the invisible God made visible. Hebrews 1 3 says Jesus is the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person. He said he was justified in the spirit. He was resurrected by the spirit's activity, vindicating his words. In Romans 1 4, Paul said Jesus was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is what validated all of his claims. Keep that in mind because this Jewish rabbi taught many things that the rabbis of his day were saying. He said many things that others would have agreed with. They had a problem though with the fact that he said things that were beyond them. He said things like he was gonna come back. He was gonna die, be buried, be resurrected, descend to heaven and return. Now that's kind of a crazy thing when you think about it. That a rabbi is saying that he's gonna die, be buried and resurrected, ascend into heaven and then return visibly. If he had not been resurrected, then everything he ever taught should be suspect. It's been said either as a lunatic, a liar or the Lord. Because the things that Jesus said were incredible. A young girl around the ages, between the ages of 12 and 14, goes and visits a relative in another place in returns and she's engaged to be married. She comes back and she tells her espoused husband I'm pregnant and the husband spirals. And he starts to think how am I gonna be able to put her away privately? I don't wanna bring shame to her and because she has done this, she is actually liable for the death penalty. It's a capital offense for a virgin who is espoused to another man to commit a sexual act. Become pregnant, it was a capital offense and so Joseph is thinking how am I gonna put her away? Divorce her privately. I don't wanna bring shame to her. I certainly don't wanna enact the death penalty because we're told he was a righteous man and he thought in these things. The angel appears to him and says, don't be afraid to take Mary, your wife because that holy thing that has been conceived of her is by the spirit of God and Emmanuel will be with you, God will be with you. Well, come on now. Mary gives birth, she raises a son in a village of Nazareth. Northern Galilee was regarded in a different kind of way. Nazareth was regarded as not one of the places that you would be proud to come from. As a matter of fact, one of Jesus' disciples asked the question, can anything good come out of Nazareth? It's just not known for being a good place. Messiahs don't come out of Nazareth. Come and see, he's told and he discovers Jesus and so Nazareth didn't have a good reputation and so there's Mary in a small village and she's pregnant and she, you know, it's just not a good scene altogether. But she gives birth to Jesus as her other children but all along, even later in the ministry of Jesus, Jesus is speaking concerning his father and his opponents say, we have one father, even God, we haven't been born illegitimately. So that reputation of Christ being an illegitimate child continued until his 33rd year. It didn't disappear, it was brought up to him by his opponents. We have a father who's yours. Mary keeps these things to herself, the scripture says, and she ponders them. The thing she sees that her son Jesus is doing but her reputation is that she got pregnant out of wedlock and there's no doubt that there's gossip around the little village that Joseph out of kindness married this woman who didn't deserve it, right? That's the way small minds think and then Jesus when they is going through the city carrying a cross and then Jesus one day is placed on a cross and he's crucified between two thieves and there's a mother there watching and there's a disciple named John. Jesus looking down from the cross says, woman, behold your son, not saying look at me but he's pointed to John and he says to John, behold your mother, I'm entrusted the care of my mother into your hand, John. Then he breathes his last dismissing his spirit father into thy hands, I commit my spirit and he dies. And as far as the world is concerned, Mary gave birth to Jesus and he was illegitimate until three days later. And then the resurrection and her words were demonstrated to be true. He is the son of God by the power of the resurrection. Romans one four says, Jesus was declared to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead and her honor and her dignity was restored to her but it took 33 years for that to come back. Seen by angels from visits to Joseph and Mary angelic visitations throughout his ministry angels were involved. But this was especially noted at his resurrection when an angel rolled away the stone preached among the Gentiles. You shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the uttermost part of the earth. And the Gentiles were welcomed in to a relationship with God, preached among the Gentiles believed on in the world through the preaching of the gospel that goes out from Pentecost until this day, received up in glory. In his ascension, he was seated at the right hand of God in Acts one verse nine. It says when he had spoken these things while they watched he was taken up a cloud received him out of their sight. So he was raised from the dead has a glorious risen body ascended to heaven in a cloud was received by his father is that his right hand crowned with glory and honor is glorified with the glory he had with them before the world was. And so he breaks into this, this creedal statement of what it means to be a believer that our God was manifested in the flesh. He was resurrected, seen by angels, preached among Gentiles. He's believed on in the world received up in glory. And we as his brothers and sisters, we as children of God worship the one true God through Jesus Christ our Lord and our savior who is worthy of being worshiped and worthy of praise for he has loved us and he has given himself for us. And if that isn't something we rejoice in, I don't know who it is. Jesus Christ loves you.