Tim's Sermon Notes

Paul instructs Titus here to lead a healthy church by doing a few things. First, to focus on the things that matter. Second, and related, to avoid those things that will not help us move forward with our service to God. And finally, to stop this who are undermining the work of the Church and the truth of the gospel.

In Titus 3:8, Paul calls back to the statement he has just made about the gospel, and the mechanisms for living out good works these he has walked through all through this letter. These are the things that matter that we are to focus on, and the “excellent and profitable” works we are to undertake.

On the other hand, we must avoid that which is unprofitable. The instruction in verse 9 echoes the advice given to Timothy in both epistles Paul wrote to him, in 1 Timothy 1:3-4 & 6:4-5, and 2 Timothy 2:14. There is a place for discussion and debate, but ultimately they completely separate from the vital things of the gospel. It is very easy to get wrapped around quarrels about words.

And there are people out there whose primary goals when entering a church are centered around argument and debate. That is when verses 10-11 come into play – but keep in mind that not every argument or disagreement rises to this level. We cannot let disagreements rise to a level that they distract the church from the work of the gospel.

We see this in Matthew 18 as well – the principle is clear, that we should start at the lowest level possible and then only escalating to involve additional people as necessary – and always with the goal of bringing people to repentance. Ultimately, these behind questions is attitude. If someone listens and has an attitude of humility and grace, there will be no reason for things to escalate. If the attitude is one of belligerence, pride or divisiveness, then it is that attitude which becomes the problem, not the original problem. This was a common problem – see also Romans 16:17.

There will always be disagreements and conflict in church. Our responsibility is to deal with those, one on one at first, rather than just leaving our avoiding the issue.

One of Jesus’ most difficult instructions to us was to seek unity. Most issues that cause division within a church on a day to day basis don’t matter. They are trivial issues that entirely disappear when put in the light of eternity. There are extreme situations that do happen, but the principles remain the same. Focus on the lordship of Christ, and stop or avoid that which distracts from serving Him.

-Sermon Notes, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, March 1, 2020

Crete was not an easy place to minister. The name “Cretan” was synonymous with “liar.” they were also known as “evil brutes” and “lazy gluttons”. Epimenides joked of his own people that the absence of wild beasts on the island was supplied by its human inhabitants.

So it’s remarkable that these are the people Paul tosses these instructions about submission to authority to. We are called to be good citizens, seeking as best we are able to follow the laws and obey those who we find in positions of authority over us within whatever human structures we are engaged with.

We can temper this somewhat by looking at the behavior of the apostles in Acts 4, when they clearly state that they will serve God over man when the two are in conflict. But this is never too be our first instinct. We can look to Paul himself for an example of working within the Roman system to accomplish the things of God.

This is a complex question, with many different circumstances and contexts that may lead to very different behaviors and actions depending on those. But we clearly see the basic principles laid out here that we should use as our guide – not merely to submission, but also to “be ready for every good work.”

The story of Daniel and his compatriots is another window on this. When ordered to eat unclean food, they resisted and worked within the system to turn the entire circumstance to their own good. Then, when ordered to worship an idol, they refused and prepared themselves to be martyred for this refusal, before God miraculously intervened.

The police officer pulling us over is not trying to make us worship an idol. City regulations may be onerous and even absurd, but they are not contravening God’s command.

Paul also addresses how we should deal with difficult people who are not in authority. He lays out for key principles: speak evil of no one, avoid quarreling, be gentle and show “perfect courtesy” toward all people. In the latter term, now that it requires an outward demonstration of praÿtēs, a term also translated as meekness and gentleness. It is the same root used in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, “blessed are the meek,” and the same describing Jesus in the prophecy of the humble king riding on the donkey.

All this is an explication of the broader instruction from Christ to love our enemies. Sometimes we like that more vague statement more than this very clear outline that clarifies how we are to do this.

Ken Sande of the Relational Wisdom ministry outlines a method for conflict resolution, working first through our own internal inventory and thought processes, both being aware of ourselves and then engaging with our self, then doing the same with the other people in the conflict, both becoming aware and engaging- and finally doing the same with God.

This also touches on the nature of hard skills versus soft skills, the relational capabilities that are outside of the specific technical expertise. Most of the failures in business, in ministry, in families and elsewhere are not due to a lack of hard skills and technical expertise, but rather a breakdown in soft skills. The value of a person to an organization is not their hard skills plus their soft skills, but rather their hard skills multiplied by our soft skills. It is the soft skills that Paul is instructing Titus in here.

– Sermon Notes, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, February 9, 2020

We return to Paul’s letter to Titus where the young minister is responsible for congregations all across the island of Crete. In verse 2:15, Paul calls on him to teach all the things that he wrote – how young and old, men and women, slave and free are to behave.

To that end, Paul goes on to instruct him to both exhort and rebuke those who are in his care, and to do so with the command of God behind him.

This is a hard teaching for us today, when if we don’t like the exhortation we get at church, we can just go to one of the ten churches we passed on the way. This was explicitly predicted in 2 Timothy 4:

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

This is not carte blanche for anyone in authority to be seen as some sort of superior being whose words cannot be questioned. This is about the word of truth from God. It is our responsibility as Christians to separate the wheat from the chaff. Discernment is vital. We can learn truth from people who are, in balance, wrong, and we can hear falsehoods from those who are usually accurate.

We must be open to the exhortation and rebuke from those who teach us, while still being discerning about it.

He is to do this with the authority that comes with speaking the truth of God, and to not let others disregard him. But how does a leader avoid being disregarded? By speaking the truth with boldness and by living a life in line with that teaching of God.

Verse 15 in some ways an outline of what Aristotle wrote the centuries earlier. Persuasive speech, or rhetoric, has three components. First, the logos, the content is the teaching: “declare these things.” Second, the pathos, the emotional of that teaching – the rebuke and exhortation. And finally, the credibility and authority of the speaker, the ethos – “with all authority, let no one disregard you.”

This is true for all of us in one setting or another. If we are parents or instructors or managers, we will need all three of logos, pathos and ethos. And these are things we need to watch for as we long for a new pastor.

We also must consider how we approach the teaching of God we receive on Sundays. First, we should prepare ourselves properly – don’t just stay up late watching garbage on TV Saturday night. We must listen for the truth of God even from a lousy preacher. We must discern where the truth is, and where it isn’t. If we have problems with what we hear, we should discuss it before fleeing to some other church.

– Sermon Notes, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, February 2, 2020

The final piece of Seed Church’s mission statement is “Make A Difference,” serving and reaching out to our community to invite them to know Christ. This instruction has its basis in the Great Commission.

After he rose from the dead, Jesus appeared to his disciples in Galilee, an area north of Jerusalem centered around the Sea of Galilee, actually a large lake. He gathered them on a hill, possibly the same hill where he preached the Sermon on the Mount. This may have just been the Eleven disciples, or it may have been the 500 that Paul mentions saw Jesus after his resurrection.

It also notes that “some doubted” – what they doubted is not clear. They’re are many possibilities. Was this really the same person? Is it OK to worship a man when we are supposed to be monotheists? Or maybe they doubted their own abilities or faithfulness. Regardless if should give us peace that we don’t need to have our all figured out either.

Because even in the midst of this doubt, Jesus gives what is called the Great Commission, the last instructions of his life on earth.

It begins “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” This echoes Daniel 7:

In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

Daniel 7:13-14

When we think about the Great Commission and our attempts to make a difference, this is our starting place. When we follow this instruction, we are backed by all the authority in the universe.

It begins “go.” This can be actively going out, or “as you go” – an instruction as to what to do as we move around this world.

Next, “make disciples” – it is a single word, the imperative verb “mathēteúō”. Paul, in defending himself to Agrippa in Acts 26 fleshes out this mission in describing what Christ told him directly, in a verse that sums up the entire gospel:

I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

Acts 26:17-18

There are some who assert that this mission is reserved for the original hearers, but the next phrase belies that: “of all nations”. The disciples went far, but they did not reach all nations. That responsibility is passed on to us. This command also means that racism is anathema to Christianity, and in direct opposition to our ultimate mission.

Next, an explicit and specific command – “baptizing them”. Baptism is the public demonstration of our discipleship, and is explicitly tied to the fundamental nature of being a disciple. It also implies a theological understanding, because it happens “in the name,” singular, “of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit” the Trinity, three in one.

Next, “teaching them to observe,” to keep and carry out, “all I have commanded you.” Not some of it, not the parts that we like, but all of it. We must learn, and then we must do. One of those doings is to teach, and then those who are taught must do.

If you look at the commands Jesus gave, though, it becomes clear soon that they can only be carried out in community. To “love one another” we need “another.”

It is better to fail in a cause that will ultimately succeed than to succeed in a cause that will ultimately fail. That is why we can give our lives to the Great Commission.

But we need even more than that, and in the last line, Jesus gives that to us: “Behold, I am with your always, to the end of the age.” This fulfills the promise God made to Joseph in the first chapter of Matthew: “He will be called Immanuel, which means ‘God with us.'”

The Great Commission starts with ourselves – we have a responsibility to ensure that we are ourselves disciples. Next, our spouse, if we have one. Our children, grandchildren, etc. if we have them. Our other family members, neighbors, friends. Pray for opportunities to speak into these lives.

Sermon Notes, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, January 26, 2020

When you are building a building, there are two important things to do to start. First, a ground survey to ensure the ground is ready and capable of holding up the building, abs second, a foundation must be properly designed and built. If those steps are not accomplished, the building will fail.

When looking at our purpose, our foundation is clear. We are here to worship and serve God. But what gets built on that foundation is an open question that many of us struggle with. One of Seed’s key values is helping people understand that level of purpose.

The attitude we must take into this is that described in 2 Peter 2:12-17. We were slaves, but are now set free to do good works.

We also must understand the importance of our own purpose. In Romans 12:4-5, we are told that our specific capabilities are vital components of the body of Christ. When we do not use our abilities to serve, we hobble the body we are members of, and we fail to accomplish the purpose we have been put on earth to do.

We can see examples of purpose and ways to serve when we look at passages about different spiritual gifts, like in Romans 12:6-8. And even beyond spiritual gifts, God can also use our more material talents and abilities for his work. If you want to understand more about the spiritual and other gifts you may have, there are lots of tests and personality quizzes out there, but you can also just ask others what gifts and abilities they see in you.

But ultimately, the only way to learn our gifts and purpose is to live a life that seeks to serve, and to learn by doing, as described in James 2:18. To do that, we need a group of people to serve with clear needs and hurts. Fortunately, God has given us a people to do that with – the group of people Jesus calls His bride. We have our gifts in order to serve the church.

We don’t thing about that very much. We like to think about our gifts as if we are an Old Testament prophet, coming down from the mountains, using our gifts and going back up. But the New Testament is clear that Christians need the Church, and the Church needs Christians.

It all goes back to the foundation mentioned at the beginning. We are here to love God, but the way we show that love is by serving the Body of Christ.

– Sermon Notes, Aaron James, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, January 19, 2020

We desire that everyone who walks through the doors of Seed Church will experience true freedom.

In general, we in America are pretty big fans of freedom. The question becomes, though, what is freedom, and in what context? It clearly doesn’t mean that we are at liberty to do whatever we want whenever we want. More importantly for our purposes here, what is spiritual freedom?

In Romans, Paul addresses this, and ends up describing how, in order to be free, we must serve the right master.

Paul wrote Romans in the mid-50s in the 1st century to the Roman church which was a blending of Jews and gentiles. There was tension between those groups, and Paul largely wrote the letter to address those tensions and

In chapter 6, Paul asserts that all people serve some master. “You are slaves to anyone you obey.”

In the movie “The Master” Philip Seymour Hoffman’s character, a thinly veiled L Ron Hubbard, says “If you figure out a way to live without a master, any master, be sure to let the rest of us know, for you would be the first in the history of the world.”

So everyone in the church, Jew and gentile alike, were faced with this choice of who they would serve. The default is serving sin – “all have sinned,” writes Paul, regardless of which group they are in, and all must reap what they have sown.

But Paul also writes that we are offered another master, a master in whose service we find true freedom. When we enter the service of Christ we are justified in the sight of God and the process of sanctification begins. It is through these twinned processes that we find freedom.

We find freedom from the idols in our culture: comfort, pleasure, success, sex, status, politics, power. Striving after these things drives anxiety and depression, even in a society that is, by any measure, the most free, the wealthiest and the most successful in any time period in human history. Even poor Americans live better than the Pharoahs of ancient Egypt – arguably even better than the millionaires of the 19th century. And yet we still do not feel free.

If we seek after the freedom offered by the world, we will slowly poison ourselves (and sometimes not do slowly). The irony is that to be truly free, we must become a slave.

We don’t like that notion. Especially in our individualistic American culture, we hate that notion of overtly giving over our will. We would prefer to live in rebellion and denial, and accept the silent mastery of sin over the vocal mastery of Christ.

Others have a hard time accepting the freedom Christ offers because they feel the weight of the guilt and shame that come with the mastery of sin.

Many others don’t even see the freedom or the slavery, because we are distracted. Phones, social media, entertainment, drugs, food, travel – they can all stick our time away and make us completely blind to the fact that we are enslaved.

But as Bob Dylan sings,

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes
Indeed you’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody

The only hope for freedom is to surrender to Christ. The only way to truly live is to die with Christ. The only way to be who we are meant to be is to lose ourselves entirely.

What decisions do you need to make in order to experience freedom? What boundaries do you need to put up in order to experience freedom? What do you need to lay down in order to take up the gifts God offers?

– Sermon Notes, Dave Lester, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, January 12, 2020

The mission of Seed Church is to help people know God, experience freedom, discover a purpose and make a difference. Today, we will focus on Knowing God.

Each part of the mission springs from what we value. In this case, it is a result of the value at place on biblical knowledge and prayer – the revelation of God and our response to him.

To understand this relationship we can go to Isaiah 6. It was the year that Uzziah died, who had been king for over 50 years – a time of transition and uncertainty for Israel. For Isaiah, it represents a commissioning of Isaiah for a specific, difficult task.

Isaiah gets a somewhat warped and veiled vision of God, but one that still demonstrated the power and majesty of God – “the foundations of the thresholds shook.”

We sing songs about wanting to see God, but reading this passage may give us pause. Seeing and knowing God is not a small thing – it is a terrifying, all-encompassing, surprising thing.

That is why Isaiah responds the way he does: “I am toast.” Seeing the Lord of Hosts made it clear to him that he was far too sinful to survive the process. He had unclean lips, made unclean by what was in his heart. And of Isaiah said this, consider how we today would stack up. Why don’t we also respond with “woe is me.” It may be because we don’t truly see God, and one of the reasons we seek to know Him better is to better see ourselves as well.

But the response to this recognition of guilt, sin and unclean lips is simple grace. Isaiah’s guilt is atoned for, ultimately through the future sacrifice of Christ. When we take the elements of communion, we also put the coals to our lips as we remember the way we were atoned for.

With his guilt removed, Isaiah hears God’s call. “Who will go for us?” His response this time is the opposite of “woe is me.” Because his sin has been taken away, he immediately leaps forward to take up the task that God has presented.

The task was to preach to Israel despite the fact that they will not listen even after severe punishment. They will not listen, becoming as insensitive to the truth as the idols they worshipped. We all become what we worship.

This hopeless task is much the same as what was given to Jeremiah and Ezekiel – preaching the word of God to the hard-hearted. We even see this in the ministry of Christ, with Isaiah’s message serving as a prophecy, as cited by Matthew, Mark and John – the latter of whom declares that the prophecy itself sprang from Isaiah seeing the glory of Christ.

Paul also cited this passage, warning that many people would remain hard of heart despite the coming of Christ. However, our mission is not the same as that given to Isaiah. We were given the Great Commission, a far more hopeful task following the new covenant.

But the warning here is still applicable. We cannot just coast on the faith of the past. We cannot live a life of faith in neutral. We cannot let our hearts be hardened or our ears closed. We must always continue to seek after God, to receive his revelation through the scriptures and give our response through worship and prayer.

– Sermon Notes, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, January 5, 2020

We return again to the first few verses of Hebrews, this time to examine the honors given & due to Christ.

The message of the book of Hebrews is the supremacy of Christ, and that message begins immediately. We have gone through how God brings his full message through the Son, and how Christ is equivalent with His as the creator, upholder and master of all things.

Today, we are looking at what he did for us as incarnate deity – here is where we get to the Christmas story.

First, Christ as God-made-man made purification for sins. The term here is the word we get “catharsis” from – a purification or cleansing. As Hebrews says later, “by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”

Christ delivers us from both our discrete sins and from the self-focused philosophy that is inevitable without a focus on something greater than and bigger than ourselves. As covered earlier in the chapter, there is nothing and no one greater than Christ.

We see again in this part as well, because after making purification, He sat down at the right hand of the Father. The imagery comes from Psalm 110, which is one of the most quoted pieces of the Old Testament in the New, everyone from Jesus himself through many epistles. It represents his nearness and intimacy with the Father, and his supremacy over all created things. In summary, “Jesus won.”

The author of Hebrews specifically calls out the superiority of Christ to the angels – there was a trend in this era to venerate angels, and so it was important to explicitly clarify the reality of where they stand in relation to Christ. In our day we have our own angels that we venerate, and must remember clearly where they stand in relationship to Jesus.

All this is why we celebrate Christmas. The baby born in Bethlehem became a man who died for our sins, rose again, ascended into heaven, reigns in heaven as the second person of the Trinity, and will return again. How do we live in light of that?

– Sermon Notes, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, December 15, 2019

Last week at looked at the first verse of Hebrews, in which the author asserts that, while in the past God spoke through the prophets, he has now spoken fully and entirely through Jesus Christ.

He then goes on to list Christ’s qualifications for the role. What makes Christ qualified to be the Lord of All. He is the “heir of all things” bestowed on him by the father. This means all things – visible and invisible, large and small, epic and mundane.

Not only will he receive all things ultimately, but he also created all things to begin with, and sustains them going forward. See John 1 and 1 Corinthians 8 for more.

Next, he is himself the radiance of the glory of God. Again, this echoes John 1.

He has exact imprint of the father, like a stamped coin or a footprint. He is the imprint of God’s character and nature. “all the fullness of deity dwells bodily” in Christ. Jesus deserves our worship.

Finally, he upholds all things by the word of his power. “Upholds” here means to bear, to carry or to bring, with the implication of bringing something to a goal or conclusion.

All this is a lot. This is why religions have, since the 1st Century when Hebrews was written, attempted to dilute Jesus. From Arians to Islam to Mormonism – or even within otherwise orthodox Christianity, who overlay Jesus over a sinful culture, whether the barbarism of slavery or the consumerism and greed of today.

This Christmas, let us remember, honor and praise Jesus for who He is.

– Sermon Notes, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, December 8, 2019

The book of Hebrews appears to be a sermon, unlike the rest of the epistles, which are letters. Timed out, it would take about 45 minutes, which is not an unheard of length for a sermon.

The book opens with a euphonous, alliterative opening, with a parallelism that highlights the new thing God has done and the new way he has spoken. Long ago, he spoke in bits and pieces across time to the prophets. But there was a time, not long before this was written, when God spoke all at once, through the incarnate Son of God.

Those many ways were amazing – everything from pillars of fire to poetry to apocalyptic visions to laws and regulations to thunderous voices to whispers in the dead of night. But they were not complete.

We also know that God also speaks through creation. The heavens declare His glory and the world around us His might. His power and divine nature is made clear by creation – but again, the message is not complete.

His message was not made complete until the coming of Christ. When He came, all of history and human existence changed. The breadth and depth of God’s love and the majesty of His plan for the salvation of the world were made clear through the very life of His Son – and His death and resurrection.

Jesus revealed the nature of God in a way that could not be accomplished in any other way. The truth has been revealed “in Son.” It is personal and close, unlike anything else. This is why we celebrate the incarnation with the vigor that we do at Christmastime.

The book of Hebrews focuses on this notion of God speaking throughout the book. Through the prophets, through Christ, God has spoken. But are we listening? This is the question the preacher of Hebrews raises over and over of his listeners. We should also consider the same.

It is easy, especially at this season to hear without listening – after all, we have heard all these stories before, we have heard these sermons before (maybe from more highly skilled preachers). But the question is not whether we have heard it, but whether we have done anything about it.

If it was important for the Christians of the 1st Century to listen, how much more important is it for us to do so, in this age of information overload?

And once we have listened to what God has said through Christ, we must answer the same question that Jesus himself asked of His disciples at Caesarea Philippi. “Who do you say that I am?”

If we answer that question the way that we should, then there becomes a new stage of God’s message. Christ’s life in us becomes the message of God manifested in us, both personally and as the corporate body of Christ.

– Sermon notes, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, December 1, 2019