Saturday Morning at the Miller Avenue lectures
The Miller Avenue lectures are always time well spent. The theme for this year’s lectureship is “God People” and is based on 1 Peter 2:9. This morning we were treated to the “one-two punch” of Josh Lewis from San Francisco, CA and Ben Hall of Brooklyn, NY.
Josh Lewis started us off with a lesson about God’s sovereignty. His overall point was that God is sovereign and that we are not called to question his choices or why He makes them. We are called to belong to Him and do what He says.
He made the point of saying nothing that God has no need to explain himself. Sometimes, as in the case of Noah we understand why God chose Him since He and his family were the only God-fearing people on earth. (Genesis 6:8-9) However, in the case of Abraham, we do not know why God chose Him to bless all nations (Genesis 12:1-4) when He clearly had other options available (although he did not specifically list him, see Melchisdec of Gen 14).
Josh also referenced the nation of Israel. He specifically mentioned that God noted that Israel was chosen not because of their strength (Deuteronomy 7:7-8). He also talked about Jacob and noted that the world would have chosen his older brother Esau, and that it was clear that Jacob was well known trickster. At this point we could not help but remember Paul’s statement that God has chosen the foolish things in the world to shame the wise. (I Corinthians 1:27)
Josh concluded by reminding us that even though Romans 8 seems to be more often quoted, the relevant portions for this lesson were drawn from Romans 9. First, he noted that all who are children of God enjoy God’s sovereign selection. (Romans 9:6-12). Then, Josh noted that God’s selection is just even though it may not seem that way to us. (Romans 9:14-18) Finally, Josh noted that we Gentiles are also chosen by God and have no right to answer back to Him. (Romans 9:19-24) He concluded by pointing out that God’s sovereignty means His love cannot be separated from us. (Romans 8:34-37)
Next, Ben Hall pointed out that we are priests and that means we have a special obligation. Ben began by talking about the modern notion of priests and how we ourselves are actually priests today. Ben pointed out that we often do not think of ourselves in this way, but that the Bible is very clear about this fact.
Ben noted that verse for which the lectureship theme is chosen, 1 Peter 2:9, actually points this out. He also noted that Jesus in his Revelation to John, makes this clear also. (Revelation 1:6, Revelation 5:9, others)
Ben pointed out that the reference to bathing in “pure water” (Hebrews 10:22) is not a reference to baptism as many suppose, but is actually a reference to what the priests did (Exodus 30:17-21) to purify themselves before they went in God’s presence. Done correctly, Ben pointed out that this was designed to bring God’s glory before them. (Leviticus 9:23)
Just as the priests in Israel were building a bridge between a Holy God and his sinful people, Ben pointed out, we are to do the same thing today. Just as Nadab and Abihu did not do their priestly job correctly (Leviticus 10:1-2) and just like the priests of Israel we condemned for not following God’s law (Malachi 2:1-7), it is important for us as priests to live and lead correctly.
You can access the complete sermons here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ocqfmDb2HI0BvvEZd_aGDdfVa5l_EV-T?usp=sharing