Beta-Believers

Grace to you . . .  (Eph. 1:2, NKJV) 

Have you experienced God’s grace?  Are you expressing God’s grace?  Experience should lead to expression.  Author Craig Brian Larson writes about a new website phenomenon called “beta” site.  It illustrates how we should extend and expect grace from other believers.

When a new website launches, or when a website launches a new feature, they commonly go public for a period of time as what is called a "beta" site. For example, Google for years called their email feature—Gmail—a beta site. The idea of a beta site is it's a test site that is available for the public to use, but with the understanding that you may find bugs in it. The site is not making any claims to have everything worked out to perfection. If you find a problem with a beta site, you think to yourself, “Oh yeah! This is a beta site. Maybe I should send the designers an email so they know they still have a problem here.” If you are a mature person, you don't get angry with a beta site if you find a broken webpage. A beta site is a "grace-expected" web site. The site is counting on you to give them grace.

Likewise, we are “Beta-believers.”  We are a work in progress.  Shouldn’t we extend grace to each other?  Can we refuse to give what God has lavished upon us?  Grace to you!  Grace through you!   

Consider the Cross

And He, bearing His cross . . .  (John 19:17, NKJV) 

Van Morris writes about the tragic event in 2008 at the famous Taj Mahal Palace in India and how it illustrates for us a certain aspect of Christ’s death on the cross for us:

On November 26, 2008, a gang of terrorists stormed the Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai, India. After the carnage had left 200 people dead, a reporter interviewed a guest who had been at the hotel for dinner that night. The guest described how he and his friends were eating dinner when they heard gunshots. Someone grabbed him and pulled him under the table. The assassins came striding through the restaurant, shooting at will, until everyone (or so they thought) had been killed. Miraculously, this man survived. When the interviewer asked the guest how he lived when everyone else at his table had been killed, he replied, "I suppose because I was covered in someone else's blood, and they took me for dead."

Are you covered in Someone Else’s blood, in the blood of the Lamb?  John exclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).  The only way the Lamb of God could take away your sin would be to die—as your sacrifice on the cross!  Does the cross move you to worship?  Charles Spurgeon, the prince of preachers, once wrote: “Stand at the foot of the cross, and count the purple drops by which you have been cleansed: See the thorn-crown; mark His scourged shoulders, still gushing with [an] encrimsoned [flow]. . . .  And if you do not [fall] prostrate on the ground before that cross, you have never seen it.”  When you find yourself chilled by discouragement and doubt, consider the cross.  When anxiety threatens to choke your faith, consider the cross.  When numbing indifference creeps over your soul, consider the cross.  Jesus didn’t just bear His cross; He bore His cross for you.  You’re really alive because of Someone Else’s blood.    

The Blesser of All Blessings

“Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon. . .” (Matthew 16:17, NKJV).


Our Lord pronounces a blessing on Simon Peter because of his spiritual insight into the work of the Father through His Son. This blessing is really paradigmatic, for all blessing comes through Christ. While His blessings fall on the just and the unjust, there are special blessings targeted for His own. These blessings gravitate to the believer on a regular basis.

The word for “blessing” in the original language of our text is “makarios.” This word is rich with meaning. Haddon Robinson, in his book, What Jesus Said About Successful Living, offers insight into the origin of the word makarios:

In secular Greek the island of Cyprus was called the makarios isle, the blest isle. The idea was that those who lived on Cyprus never had to leave its shores in order to have all they needed to be content. They had natural resources and minerals. They had a beautiful place to live, with fruit and flowers. The island was self-contained. No one had to search for the needs and wants of life. . . . When we are blessed by God, we are in a sense self-contained; that is, our happiness does not come from circumstances, or by accidents, or through diligent searches. It comes because we stand approved before the Creator of the universe. . . . To be blessed means to sense the joy, or happiness, that comes from knowing that we stand approved before God (Robinson, Successful Living, 28).

Likewise, the Christian experiences no blessing apart from Jesus Christ, who is a kind of island unto Himself. He is the “Makarios Isle.” You’re a citizen of His King-dom[inion]. Every blessing that Jesus possesses can become yours. Are you experiencing His blessings? Are you expressing His blessings? All you need for contentment and satisfaction can be found in Christ: “For all of the promises of God are in Him [Jesus] ‘Yes’, and through Him ‘Amen,’ to the glory of God through us” (2 Cor. 1.20).

Reluctant Prophet Series: Jonah and Jesus on Mission with God.

Sermon on Matthew 12:38-41 [Play] [Download]

Reluctant Prophet Series: Mission Accomplished.

Sermon on Jonah 4:1-11 [Play] [Download]

Reluctant Prophet Series: Running with the Word.

Sermon on Jonah 3:1-10 [Play] [Download]

Reluctant Prophet Series: Thinking Outside the Fish.

Sermon on Jonah 2:1-10 [Play] [Download]

Reluctant Prophet Series: On Mission with God.

Sermon from Jonah 1:1-17 [Play] [Download]