Nobleton Community Church

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Nobleton Community Church
29084 Sentinel Street PO Box 224
Nobleton, Florida 34661

Rev. Paul V. Lehmann, Pastor
813-389-8683
Nobletoncommunitychurch.org
info@nobletoncommunitychurch.org

OUR VISION IS:
To experience SPIRIT-FILLED WORSHIP AND PRAYER
To be involved in EVANGELISM, DISCIPLINING AND TRAINING PEOPLE
To use our SPIRITUAL GIFTS
To SERVE AND REACH PEOPLE FOR CHRIST, BOTH
“ACROSS THE STREET AND ACROSS THE WORLD”

Nobleton Community Church
Date May 31, 2026
Text Psalm 91:1-12
Pastor Paul Lehmann

Listen to live audio here

What I will be speaking about this morning is: UNDER COVER. This phrase can apply to a vast number of situations. In its simplest form, it could describe a small child nestled under the warmth and protection of a blanket, or behind the protective frame of a parent in danger. A civilian description may include a city under police or military protection. It could describe an animal hidden away in a thicket, cave, or subterranean refuge. Jesus said in Matthew 24:37 and Luke 13:34 that he had longed to gather Jerusalem like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but they were not willing. Or it could describe a family enjoying the shelter and safety of their home while a storm rages just outside.

Here in Florida, we get some pretty heavy thunderstorms, and especially in Tampa, we get a lot of lightning. (I believe I read somewhere that we have the most of any state in the U.S.A. At the Wesley Chapel outdoor basketball courts, where I used to coach, one night the playoffs were canceled because of lightning strikes within 3 miles. We really couldn’t see that many, but when I got home, I turned on the TV and saw the local weather report, and they showed more than 250 strikes within a 3-mile distance of the park in Wesley Chapel.

When we get rain, it can be very severe, so that you can’t even see to drive. It is then good to be in the house. When it is pouring outside it sounds like thousands of tiny hammers pounding away at our roof. The storm actually makes our house feel that much safer and more secure. Everything outside the windows gets soaked; it’s cold, and our trees are in danger of a fatal lightning strike, like what happened to one of them in my backyard some years ago. Yet inside we are safe and dry, shielded by our roof from the tyranny of the storm. We are undercover.

Taking the point further, we can pull these two words together and come up with another term—undercover; (one word). This term describes the safety found in hidden identities. An agent who is undercover can move freely without being apprehended by his enemy. His government has put him under the cover of an alias, and he is a free agent in a hostile area. When a witness to a murder trial is in danger of being killed, they can be put undercover in our witness protection program. No matter how we use this word or phrase in its vast applications, they all seem to include protection and freedom.

But how does this term Under Cover apply to Christians? David writes, in our text this morning, Psalm 91: 1-2: “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” In verse 4, we read, “He will cover you with his feathers and underneath His wings you will find refuge.

Again, we see protection for those under His cover. However, from the initial words of his statement, “Whoever…, we discover the all-important question: Who is under His cover? To put it briefly, the one who is under cover is the one who is under God’s authority.

Adam and Eve enjoyed freedom and protection in the garden under God’s cover. However, the moment they disobeyed, they found themselves in great need of the very thing they had voluntarily slipped out from under…it was the need, “to cover themselves” (Gen. 3:7 NLT). Their disobedience to God’s authority robbed mankind of the sweet freedom and protection they’d once known.

Let’s face it, Authority is not a popular word. Yet by rejecting or fearing it, we lose sight of the great protection and benefits authority provides. We shudder because we don’t see it from God’s perspective. Too often, our attitude toward authority reminds us of actions and situations that may have occurred in our past. Sometimes young children and teenagers rebel against authority. It usually starts in the home, but before long, all authority figures are seen as being against them. When they become adults, there may still be some resistance against authority. A subtle attitude may have developed. “I just don’t believe in authority,— or to put it in more adult terms, —I’m just not going to submit to authority unless I first agree with it.”

But what is God’s position on all this? Are we to submit to authority even if they are unfair? What if they are corrupt? What if they tell us to do what we perceive as wrong? What if they tell us to sin? Where can the line be drawn? Besides, why do we have to submit? Are there any benefits? Couldn’t we all just be led by the Spirit of God?

The Word of God holds specific answers to all these questions. In the church, we see that answers to these questions are important because they may be the root cause of many difficulties people currently experience in the church. What caused Lucifer to fall? Rebellion. What caused Adam to fall? Rebellion. What causes many to drift in their walk with God? Rebellion. What is really sobering is that most rebellion is not blatant, but subtle.

Confronted with truth, we can respond in two ways. We can become angry and defensive, like Cain, Adam’s son, and forsake the very relation we need, or we can be humble and broken, like David when challenged by Nathan, and let the pain and repentance raise us to another level of godly character (2 Sam. 12). Let’s have the heart of David in this matter and reject the pride endeavoring to keep us from God’s plan of provision and protection. Obedience to God’s authority is necessary to experience His provision and protection.

We read in Job 36:11-12 NIV, “If they obey and serve Him, (God), they will spend the rest of their days in prosperity and their years in contentment. But if they do not listen, they will perish by the sword and die without knowledge.”

Notice the promise: provision and protection in exchange for our submission to His authority. There is also an impending danger if we ignore His government. This is not a democracy when it comes to our personal relationship with God; it is a monarchy. He is in control of His Kingdom. We pray to Him: (Your kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven!). Do we really understand what we are saying? Do we really want that? I think most of the time we want our way, not His. We have difficulty allowing the Holy Spirit to control us; To reign in us on the throne of our lives. But the freedom we seek when resisting authority, we lose in our insubordination to it. In the book written by John Bevere on this subject, he says that his wife Lisa, has a saying. She says, “There is freedom in submission and bondage in rebellion.” How true. It sums up what we read in those verses from Job.

Do you remember the Damascus Road experience by Saul, who was going to persecute and kill those who were following “The Way,” which was what the Christians believed? In Acts 26:14, Paul recounts to King Agrippa his testimony. When the Lord struck him down and spoke to him, He said, “Saul, Saul; why are you persecuting ME; it is hard—or (RSV) it hurts you to kick against the goads.” Now this was a stick about 8 feet long, with a point on the end. The farmer used this to prod or prick the oxen that pulled a plow or a loaded cart if they didn’t want to pull. Then, rather than feel the hurt in their legs, they responded to the task at hand. In Paul’s day, this was a proverbial expression to describe the futility of resistance to superior authority or power.

Those who resist the authority of God, whether directly, as Paul did, or indirectly to His delegated authority, will find themselves kicking against the goad in God’s hands. More often than not, this can be a painful experience and a lesson that too many of us end up learning the hard way.

When we, as professing Christians, step out from under the protective covering of the Lord, thinking we will do things ourselves, we are in danger of falling into sin. Too often, we lack the core understanding of what sin really is, though. To move forward, we must look at how Scripture defines it. The Bible declares in 1 John 3:4, “Sin is lawlessness.” The Greek word for lawlessness is (anomia). According to Thayer’s Greek dictionary, it is defined as: “the condition of (being) without law, because of ignorance of it or because of violating it.” Simply put, lawlessness means not to submit to the law or authority of God.” Vine’s dictionary states that this verse gives “the real meaning of the word (sin). Then he says, “This definition of sin acts forth its essential character as the rejection of the law, or will, of God and the substitution of the will of self.”

In these “last days,” many people will realize their lives are empty and have brought them nothing but sorrow, and they will tire of “kicking against the goads.” When they hear the call of the Master, they will respond with instant obedience. In contrast, those who attend church and consider themselves godly but obey God only when it’s convenient or doesn’t interfere with their schedules, agendas, blessings, or pleasure will find themselves shut out from God’s glorious presence.

Please respond in obedience to the Lord. His Spirit wants to cover you, anoint you, fill you, and use you, but you must allow Him to do that. Get under the cover of His power, His protection, and His blessing.

He will cover you. You can hide in Him.

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Nobleton Community Church
29084 Sentinel Street PO Box 224
Nobleton, Florida 34661

Rev. Paul V. Lehmann, Pastor
813-389-8683
Nobletoncommunitychurch.org
info@nobletoncommunitychurch.org

OUR VISION IS:
To experience SPIRIT-FILLED WORSHIP AND PRAYER
To be involved in EVANGELISM, DISCIPLINING AND TRAINING PEOPLE
To use our SPIRITUAL GIFTS
To SERVE AND REACH PEOPLE FOR CHRIST, BOTH
“ACROSS THE STREET AND ACROSS THE WORLD”

Nobleton Community Church
Date May 24, 2026
Text Luke 24: 13-32
Pastor Paul Lehmann

Listen to live audio here

What is the most important thing that I can do for you? What one thing, more than any other, do you need from me? My question is not, “what do you want from me?” It is, “What do you need from me?

God’s truth! That’s it- God’s perfect, pure, unchanging, and holy truth. It doesn’t matter how long I remain as your pastor, or who your next pastor will be, –If the one who stands before you is committed to preaching and teaching the word of God without compromise, then he will be bringing you God’s truth. And if he does that—consistently and faithfully, he will be giving you what you need.

My desire is to have your next pastor preach and teach God’s truth .

God’s Word is true, it is righteous, and it is eternal. And He has called me to communicate it. Psalms 119:16 says, “I delight in your decrees, I will not neglect your word.” Verse 160 says, “All your words are true, all your righteous laws are eternal.”

The sum of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous ordinances are everlasting.

James 1:18 “in the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we might be (as it were) the first fruits among His creatures.” Colossians 1:5…because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel.”

2 Timothy 2:15 “Be diligent to present yourself approved to god as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling the word of truth.”

John 17:17; “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.

The results of teaching the truth are illustrated in our text this morning. Luke 24:13-32 In this passage, we meet two believers, true believers—different from the 11 who were left of Jesus’ disciples, but they still were disciples of Christ, who find themselves in the grip of doubts, fears, and confusion. But when they’re taught the Scriptures by Jesus, everything changes. The greatest service a pastor can do is to prayerfully and carefully preach and teach God’s truth.

The results of doing that are illustrated in our text,

But it also shows that these two disciples reflected what they had been taught by their Rabbi. It is the same today among Jews. They are not taught what the prophets foretold about the Messiah. Many won’t even try to explain Isaiah 53, or they misinterpret it. In verses 4-6 we read: “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted, But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

. Jesus was crucified and died on Friday. His body was placed in the grave just before sunset on Friday evening when the Jewish Sabbath began. He remained in the tomb throughout the day on Saturday (the Sabbath). Sometime after the Sabbath was over (at sundown on Saturday) and before sunrise on Sunday morning, Jesus was resurrected from the dead. On that morning, some of the faithful women and Peter and John went to the tomb, found it empty, and Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene. Later that same day, he appeared to the other Mary, Salome, Joanna, and Peter.

Now it’s the late afternoon on Sunday, the day of the resurrection, and that brings us to our text. Luke 24:13-32

Two followers of Jesus are walking home. They are distraught over all that has happened. They have heard a “rumor.” About the empty tomb. . Jesus comes along and walks beside them. They don’t look up, and even if they did, they didn’t recognize him.(They were walking into the setting sun.) Jesus asks them what they are talking about. They tell him and are amazed that anyone could be anywhere near Jerusalem and not know what has happened in the past few days. They explain what they know. Then Jesus began to teach them the Old Testament scriptures. They didn’t understand that the Messiah had to suffer and die for our sins, and then rise from the dead. Jesus loves these two believers, but in the next few verses, his frustration with them comes out. They suffer from a common malady among God’s people—a staggering ignorance of his written Word. That ignorance leads to a lack of faith. That lack of faith leads to unbelief. Not the hard -hearted unbelief of the lost, but what you might call “the believers’ unbelief, “ that’s the unbelief that you and I struggle with in our daily lives.

We don’t struggle with the fact that Jesus had to suffer and die for our sins, but we wonder why he doesn’t always heal or answer our prayers, the ones we think are so logical. That’s kind of the unbelief these men had. We can relate to that. Jesus said to them. “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself in all the scripture of the Old Testament.

In verses 28-32, they approached the village where they were going, Emmaus (it was about 7 miles west of Jerusalem). Jesus acted as though He would go further. Verse 29 And they urged him, saying. “Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over.” And He went in to stay with them. When they sat down to “break bread,” and he served it to them, “their eyes were opened” and they recognized Him, and He vanished from their sight. They said to each other, “ Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while he was explaining the Scriptures to us?”

Perhaps today, as we think about how it applies to us. Are we sometimes assailed by doubts, fears, and confusion? Could the problem be that even though you believe the Scriptures, there are some things about them you just don’t understand? I would suggest that this is a major problem in the Church of Jesus Christ today. Too many true believers are struggling with things they shouldn’t be struggling with at all. Sometimes it is because pastors haven’t explained or taught about things plain enough, but we must remember that it is the Holy Spirit that helps us to understand the scriptures. Each one of us can read the scriptures and ask the Holy Spirit to help us understand what he would like us to know.

Today is Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost was 50 days after the resurrection. It was the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was given to give us power to witness, to lead us, and to teach us all things, if we open ourselves up to him and allow him to do just that.

Cleopas and his friend were no longer ignorant. They were no longer filled with doubts, fears, and confusion. Jesus opened the eyes of their hearts as he spoke to them.

And that is precisely what his written word—the Bible will do for you. It can make you wise. It can change your life. But it will do so only if you read it. It will do so only if you believe it. This was Paul’s point when he mentored young Timothy 2 Timothy 3:14-17 “You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them. And that from childhood, you have known the sacred writings (for Timothy, that’s the Old Testament), for us the whole Bible, which is able to give us the wisdom that leads to faith which is in Christ Jesus.

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof for correction, for training in righteousness. That the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

I wish I could set every one of your hearts on fire for the truth. But I cannot. All I can do is give you the match. You have to strike it. Why not get the fire going with the Bible, a book about which you may know very little?

Just read something in the Word. At the bottom of the page of the Daily Word, it gives you about 4 chapters to read every day, and then you will read it through in a year. Also, I would encourage you to come to our Adult Bible Study every Sunday morning at 9:20 am.

Let the truth of The Word of God dispel your doubts, your fears, your concerns, and your confusion. It will set your heart on fire.

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Nobleton Community Church
29084 Sentinel Street PO Box 224
Nobleton, Florida 34661

Rev. Paul V. Lehmann, Pastor
813-389-8683
Nobletoncommunitychurch.org
info@nobletoncommunitychurch.org

OUR VISION IS:
To experience SPIRIT-FILLED WORSHIP AND PRAYER
To be involved in EVANGELISM, DISCIPLINING AND TRAINING PEOPLE
To use our SPIRITUAL GIFTS
To SERVE AND REACH PEOPLE FOR CHRIST, BOTH
“ACROSS THE STREET AND ACROSS THE WORLD”

Nobleton Community Church
Date May 17, 2026
Text Galatians 1:1-12
Pastor Paul Lehmann

Listen to live audio here

(Everywhere we look these days, someone is either discovering or coming up with another version of the gospel.)

Text: SCRIPTURE READING: Galatians 1:1-12

This leads us to consider many of the so-called “gospels” floating around these days, and to ask why the apostle Paul would point a finger at a “wrong gospel” in his letter to the Galatian church.

Seems like it’s becoming a regular occurrence in the information age — someone is always discovering a new “gospel” that purports to shed some new light on Jesus that the church has either ignored or suppressed for two millennia. Most recently, a fragment (and we do mean fragment — it has four words) from a fourth-century Coptic Codex was found in Egypt. Harvard Divinity School professor Karen King says it may (read: “possible-but-I’m-not-going-to-stake-my-reputation-on-it”) reveal that Jesus actually did have a wife, à la the claims of The Da Vinci Code. The revelation of this “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife,” as it has become known, was exposed as a fraud in 2012, and it follows in the footsteps of a host of other Gnostic “gospels” that have been unearthed in recent years, like the gospels of Judas, Thomas, and Mary Magdalene, just to name a few. Historians and archaeologists don’t have a corner on the new gospel market, however. Just do a search of “The gospel according to …” on Google and you’ll come up with a host of other takes on the Christian gospel — Besides;

The Gospel of Jesus’ wife (Mary Magdalene) we also have,

The gospel according to the Simpsons, Dr. Seuss, Coco Chanel, Elvis and even Lamb. The gospel according to Biff. , Jesus; Childhood Pal,

Granted, some of these are merely trying to find themes of the Christian gospel within popular TV shows and characters, but others, at least:

Some are certainly trying to craft a gospel that fits their own conceptions of God.

Churches, of course, aren’t immune to this gospel-izing. There are plenty of gospels out there that more reflect the culture than they reflect anything having to do with Jesus. Think about some of them:

The Gospel of Sacrament Keeping and Priestly Confessions.

The Gospel of Hate spewed by “Christians” from the Westboro Baptist Church, in Topeka, Kansas, who picket soldiers’ funerals, the LGBTQ, and believe that people who don’t follow their agenda deserve whatever tragedy befalls them. So much for grace.

The Gospel of Prosperity is touted by famous TV preachers who tell their people that God wants them to be rich, and that all they need to do is “name and claim” what they want and God will give it to them (if they will only believe and send a check to their ministry). So much for “Blessed are the poor” (Luke 6:20), and “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24).

The Gospel of “Grace” is preached by the pastor of the largest church in America, and there are some other TV pastors who also emphasize God’s Grace and Love, but leave off repentance and the necessity to live our lives as committed followers of Jesus and obey Him. Another name for this is:

“The Gospel of Sin Management”— a phrase coined by Dallas Willard to describe a gospel that “produces vampire Christians who want Jesus for his blood and little else.” As I have said before, “A fire escape from Hell.: This gospel is only concerned about getting people into heaven and reduces salvation to a spiritual exchange divorced from life in this world. It makes salvation and God irrelevant to daily life.”

The Social Gospel, which grew out of the Enlightenment idea of progress and reason, believes that humanity can rid itself of social evils and that human progress will continue to make things better and better. In this gospel, Jesus provides a good example of how to make the world a better place, and his death and resurrection are mere metaphors for living sacrificially —more good advice than good news.

The Apocalyptic Gospel is all about the End Times: watching the sky for Christ’s return and waiting for the Rapture that will suck all the right-believing Christians into the great beyond like some kind of Heavenly Hoover vacuum cleaner, leaving the rest of humanity behind to stew in hell.

You can probably think of other “gospels” that get preached all the time.

Of course, there may be elements of truth in some of these “gospels.” God does hate sin, but continues to love sinners. God does want us to be prosperous, but in the richness of his grace, not necessarily the wealth of our bank accounts. Jesus’ blood does save us, but it doesn’t just save us from something; it saves us for the work of God’s kingdom. Yes, God desires our participation in making the world look more like what we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer (“on earth as it is in heaven”), but we can’t make that a reality without Christ’s redemptive death for the world and his resurrection promise of the ultimate defeat of death. We do, indeed, await Christ’s return, but he’s not coming to take us away — he is coming to take over!

What’s interesting about these wrong gospels, however, is that they tend to reflect or represent the people who promote them rather than reflect or represent the good news of Jesus Christ and his kingdom. People tend to understand the gospel through the lens of their own times. That can often lead to incomplete or distorted versions of the message, and:

The church in every age has had to recalibrate its understanding of the gospel.

Martin Luther, Jonathon Edwards, John Wesley, D.L. Moody, Billy Sunday, Billy Graham, Franklyn Graham, Reinhard Bonnke, or Louis Pilau are just a few of those throughout history who called people back to the full and powerful gospel of Christ.

Paul had to do the same thing as early as Christianity’s second decade. Paul gets fired up at the Galatians because they have bought into the wrong gospel — a gospel that reflects “the present evil age” (1:4).

The “different gospel” that the Galatians had bought into was one preached to them by some Jewish Christian missionaries who required Gentiles to be circumcised as Jews before they could become Christians (v. 6). Paul regarded this message as a non-gospel because it reflected the status quo of the age before the coming of Christ —

An age governed by the law of Moses. Paul believed that Jesus’ death and resurrection had transformed the status quo, and that faith leading to a spiritual circumcision of the heart was the mark of a true Christian (Romans 2:29; Colossians 2:11). The requirement for physical circumcision was thus abolished because God had reconciled Jews and Gentiles through the grace of Jesus Christ — a theme that runs through most of his letters.

A close look at this passage, then, reveals:

The gospel that Paul preached, and the one that the Galatians (and we) should be centering our faith around:

1. The gospel is not a human construction, subject to alteration by every human generation. The gospel comes from God, who has taken the initiative to rescue us from sin and death through his grace (1:1, 3-4, 6).
2. The grace of God is embodied and enacted in Jesus’ death. Jesus’ death liberates us from sin and the power of the present age. We cannot defeat sin and evil and change the world on our own. We need a Savior who defeats sin and its ultimate power, death. Jesus does this through the cross and his resurrection (1:3-4)
3. The grace of God enacted through the Lord Jesus enables us to become children of God, bringing people from different backgrounds, cultures and customs together into a new community not marked by ethnicity and circumcision, but by faith and baptism (1:3).
4. As God’s children, we participate with God in his mission of transforming the world into God’s new creation. As Paul puts it, “Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything!” (6:15). The goal of the gospel is not the mere transformation of our spirits or our bank accounts, nor is it merely about making the world a little better. The good news is that God’s kingdom is near and that will be the means of changing the world, not taking us away from it. As Revelation puts it, God isn’t about to destroy the world and make all new things; instead, God comes to redeem the world and “make all things new” (Revelation 21:5). If a gospel only benefits the individual, you can bet it’s the wrong gospel. A false gospel always seeks human approval and mostly benefits the human who preaches or believes it. Paul reminds the Galatians that the real gospel — the gospel of what God has done and is doing through Christ — does indeed benefit us by saving us from sin and death, but it doesn’t stop there. The real gospel is the good news that God is transforming us so that we can be part of God’s transformation of the whole cosmos. To put it another way, the gospel isn’t about our leaving, but about God’s coming! We have been saved by faith, but for God’s purpose. The gospel isn’t about pleasing others or even ourselves; it’s all about pleasing God and, like Paul, becoming Christ’s servants (1:10).

Maybe we keep coming up with new gospels because:

The Gospel, The Good News that Jesus gave us actually requires something of us. We serve Christ and we serve others, which is more important than any physical mark or promise of individualistic eternal bliss.

It starts with our faith, our believing in Jesus, receiving Him into our lives, but the surrender and commitment to Him means that we serve Him and obey Him.

Paul will go on to talk about the fruit of the Spirit as being the mark of those who belong to Christ and have crucified their old selfish and sinful natures (5:22-24). Endless debates about eschatology, soteriology, and any other ology can keep us from responding to the heart of the good news not only with our faith, but with our faithfulness to the gospel’s call to be and work for God’s new creation.

What will you do with the good news?

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Nobleton Community Church
29084 Sentinel Street PO Box 224
Nobleton, Florida 34661

Pastor Nick Everett Hand
813-389-8683
Nobletoncommunitychurch.org
info@nobletoncommunitychurch.org

OUR VISION IS:
To experience SPIRIT-FILLED WORSHIP AND PRAYER
To be involved in EVANGELISM, DISCIPLINING AND TRAINING PEOPLE
To use our SPIRITUAL GIFTS
To SERVE AND REACH PEOPLE FOR CHRIST, BOTH
“ACROSS THE STREET AND ACROSS THE WORLD”

Nobleton Community Church
Date May 10th 2026
Text
Pastor Nick Everette Hand

Listen to live audio here

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Nobleton Community Church
29084 Sentinel Street PO Box 224
Nobleton, Florida 34661

Rev. Paul V. Lehmann, Pastor
813-389-8683
Nobletoncommunitychurch.org
info@nobletoncommunitychurch.org

OUR VISION IS:
To experience SPIRIT-FILLED WORSHIP AND PRAYER
To be involved in EVANGELISM, DISCIPLINING AND TRAINING PEOPLE
To use our SPIRITUAL GIFTS
To SERVE AND REACH PEOPLE FOR CHRIST, BOTH
“ACROSS THE STREET AND ACROSS THE WORLD”

Nobleton Community Church
Date May 3, 2026
Text I John 3:1-7;
Pastor Paul Lehmann

Listen to live audio here

II Chron. 20:7 tells us that Abraham was a “friend of God;

Prov. 18:24 tells us that God is a “friend” who is closer than a brother; then Jesus is accused of being a “friend to sinners” Matt. 11:19; Luke 7:24

It is important to recognize that God loves us, He is our friend, and Jesus is our friend, even when we haven’t received his friendship.

How many friends do you have? Some people think you can never have enough. Usually, we qualify our friends. “Old friends”—not just in age, I know, we are all old! But those we have been friends with for a long time, even though we hardly ever get to see them anymore. Best friends, just friends, and then lots of acquaintances.——– These are the people that when we are asked if we “know” them, we might respond, yeah, I know him, or I know her. Actually, we might not really know them at all. What we mean is that we met them, or “heard” of them, or we know who they are. This is especially true if you have a large number of acquaintances. Those who are on one of the social networks, like Facebook, usually have quite a few “friends.” There are some though that have thousands, and they can’t possibly be real friends. They have just responded to a request to be your friend, and you click yes. You can also unfriend someone by just clicking that. Apparently, there’s a Facebook page entitled, “Raise the maximum number of Facebook friends allowed.” You see, you are “allowed” to have 5,000 friends, and some are not satisfied with this “paltry number” that Facebook has deemed to be enough. More friends are necessary, the writer on this “Facebook page” claims, but not for in-depth conversations or a soul-searching exchange of ideas about the meaning of life. No, he (it’s got to be a “he”) needs more friends because that will make games like Mafia Wars and Farmville (whatever they are) more fun. If there are more people, more friends to play with, the games will have more variations and last longer. More friends meant better play time. (It sounds like a bunch of kids.) Now I personally think all of that is ridiculous, but many seem to respond to this. At first, it was only college students and other young people, but with the introduction of other social networks, Facebook is now used mostly by middle-aged and older people who want to share photos and chat with family.

Robin Dunbar, a professor of evolutionary anthropology at the University of Oxford, says, “the ideal limit on friends is actually 150. More than that, we limited humans, simply can’t keep track. It doesn’t matter if the 150 are all in your neighborhood and you see them every day, or if you have connections with friends, neighbors, and relatives across the globe. If the number exceeds 150, relationships will start to suffer, and meaningful contact will become more sporadic. Gradually, the connection will fade away, and that person will no longer be counted among our “friends.” This will happen over and over until we naturally whittle our true friend list to —guess what? 150 people or fewer. Humans seem to be hard-wired to maintain a certain number of meaningful relationships at one time. Dunbar has researched this so thoroughly that the phrase “Dunbar number’ refers to these 150 people who make the inner circle of meaningful friends.

Dunbar based this research in part on the experiences of Bill Gore, the founder of GORE-TEX, a company that makes wetsuits, hiking boots and ponchos. The company was started in 1958, born out of Gore’s passion for outdoor pursuits. The humble beginning was in his backyard, where he pursued his interest in producing quality products for outdoor enthusiasts. The company created dependable and useful tools and clothing. Word spread, and the company grew. What started as a small startup with a few employees who enjoyed an intimate, family-like work environment evolved into a large manufacturing company with close to 200 people laboring in an intense, impersonal atmosphere. To Gore’s dismay, he experienced the disconnect that occurs when too many people are working in one place. He walked around the now large factory and discovered that there were many people he did not know by name. He felt out of touch and cut off from his dream of creating a different kind of work environment.

Gore came up with a unique solution. Instead of enlarging the workplace to allow for more employees, he capped the number of workers who could be hired in any one place. When demand grew, and expansion was necessary, he built another factory; the limit of workers in any one place?—150. He discovered that this allowed the workers to work together better and maintain a close atmosphere. He discovered that the bigger a company got, the less likely people working for the company were less likely to work hard and help each other out. Everything ran more smoothly when people knew each other, from the top manager down to the lady behind the counter in the cafeteria, or the janitor, who could address each other by name. The employees felt as though they had a personal stake in what happened at the factory. They knew who that person was, and maybe even spent time with them outside of work. It wasn’t just business; it was personal.

Now we can know more than 150 people of course. In fact, it has been estimated that humans can recognize and remember up to 1,500 people. They just can’t maintain a relationship with that many. (I might add that we can’t always remember names either. Certainly not the names of 1,500 people, unless maybe you have learned to use Jerry Lucas’ memory system. When Jeannene and I were missionaries, our mailing list got up to 1000. These were people who signed up to receive our prayer letter after I spoke in their church. The vast majority, I don’t think I would have recognized, let alone would have known their name if I had seen them, four years later, when we came home on furlough. In fact, some people would see us at our General Counsel meetings and say, “Don’t you remember me? I go to such and such church in –wherever.” I would have to politely say, “I’m sorry. Thee are so many people that I meet.”

The point is, we don’t have the time, the memory or the resources to engage on a deep level with more than a limited number of people at one time. The answer is not to have an ever-increasing number of friends on Facebook. Less may indeed be more when it comes to quality, deep understanding, and in-depth relationships.

The good news is: God’s number is not Dunbar’s number.

There is no limit to God’s love, and Jesus is a “friend to all sinners as well as his disciples. The apostle John says in I John chapter 1, “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God.” Verse 1. Then he goes on to say something to the effect of, “Yet that is precisely what we are—children of God!” The astonishing thing is that God receives us—just as we are—and wants to restore us to fellowship with him. God loves us, even when we are far from him. God does not place a cap on how many people can be saved and come into His presence. He does not want anyone to be lost for eternity, we are told in 2 Peter 3:9. It reads, “The Lord is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

HOW MANY PEOPLE CAN GOD LOVE?

God loves the world. He loves everyone. But he doesn’t have an intimate relationship with everyone. We read in John 1:12 …To as many as receive him and believe on his name, he gives the right to become children of God.”

GORE-TEX caps at 150. Facebook caps at 5,000. God doesn’t set a cap on the number of people that he loves and wants to have a relationship with. We may stumble, choose a broad path that is more crooked than straight and narrow, or at times be deeply disappointing to God. But when we search for God and call on God for forgiveness and new life. God’s door is open. There’s always a welcome waiting. Jesus emphasized this when he said, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28)

God loves us and wants a relationship with us. He does not love Christians more than those who have rejected Him, because he shows his love and mercy to everyone. We all deserve death and punishment, but he withholds that punishment from those who reject him, always waiting for them to repent and receive his forgiveness. There are some who believe that God only loves Christians, or that God only loves “good” people. Who is good? Just because some have integrity, or they have decent character and a pleasing personality, or they help a lot of people ir they do good deeds, or give a lot of money to the poor, or contribute to charity; those things do not make them “good.”

In Mark 10:17-22, a young man came to Jesus and said, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus answered, “Why do you call me good? No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother, he declared. Teacher, all these I have kept since I was a boy. “Jesus looked at him and loved him. One thing you lack, he said. “Go sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” At this, the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.”

Does this passage teach that in order to have eternal life, we must sell all of our earthly possessions, in order to be a disciple of Christ and have assurance of Eternal Life? No, not at all! This man said that he hadn’t broken any of the commandments that Jesus mentioned, and maybe that was true. Maybe he had even kept the Pharisees’ loophole-filled version of them. But Jesus lovingly broke through the young man’s PRIDE with a challenge that brought out his true motives; “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor.” This challenge exposed the barrier that could keep this young man out of the kingdom: his love of money. Money represented his pride of accomplishment and self-effort. Ironically, his attitude made him unable to keep the first commandment to let nothing be more important than God. He could not meet the one requirement Jesus gave- to turn his whole heart and life over to God. The man came to Jesus, wondering what he could do; he left seeing WHAT HE WAS UNABLE TO DO. What barriers are keeping you from turning your life completely over to Him?

When Jesus asked this question, he was saying, “Do you really know the One to whom you are talking? Because only God is truly good, the man was calling Jesus God, whether or not he realized it. Jesus wanted this man to sell everything, but this does not mean that all believers should sell all their possessions. Most of his followers did not sell everything, or if they did, the money was used for Jesus’ itinerant ministry. Also, they used their possessions to serve others. This account does show us, though, that we must not allow anything we have or desire to keep us from following Jesus. We must remove all barriers to serving him fully.

We must realize that it is not what we do that makes us somehow worthy of God’s love. Romans 5:8 says that, “God demonstrated his love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” It is important to note that God’s love is a love that initiates; it is never a response. That is precisely what makes it unconditional. If God’s love were conditional, then we would have to do something to earn or merit it. We would have to somehow appease His wrath and cleanse ourselves of our sin before God would be able to love us. But that is not the Biblical message. The Biblical message—The gospel—is that God, motivated by love, moved unconditionally to save His people from their sin. Even though His love is unconditional, there is just one conditional part—we must accept or receive this gift of salvation, and put our faith and trust in Him alone. Nothing else.

GOD’S LOVE IS LARGE ENOUGH TO MAINTAIN A RELATIONSHIP WITH ALL OF US. IT IS NOT LIMITED.

Bill Gore at Gore-Tex cannot do that with his 9,500 employees. The 150 associates at each of his factories can maybe somewhat know everyone who works at any given location. But Facebook people cannot possibly maintain a viable relationship with 5,000 “friends.” —BUT GOD CAN.

GOD’S LOVE IS BIG ENOUGH TO COVER US WHEN WE DO WRONG.

Verses five and six tell us that…” he appeared so that he might take away our sins, and in him is no sin. (I John 1:9, once again—tells us that we have forgiveness if we confess our sins.) No one who lives in him, though, keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. Confession without repentance (that is, turning from our sin), does no good. We are encouraged to pursue purity. The notion of being pure in oneself because He is pure is familiar. We read that in Leviticus 11:44—“Consecrate yourselves, and be holy, because I am holy.” Peter repeats this in I Peter 1:14-16:As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written, “Be holy because I am holy.”

The Apostle Paul says, “Be filled with the Holy Spirit”—(Keep on being vfilled) Keep on being holy. This happens when—

We “consecrate ourselves” completely to the CONTROL of the Holy Spirit. That’s the only way we can be pure.

God has provided a remedy for when life goes wrong,— when we go wrong; and that’s good news.

God is of course, capable of everything. Since the Scriptures say that GOD LOVES WITHOUT LIMITS, then we need to take that blessing on faith. The challenge of unconditional love, therefore, lies not with God but with our imperfect ability to conceive and then believe such a possibility. The notion that we are both loved and lovable is perhaps the most challenging one that God places before us; this idea dares us not only to accept ourselves as a beloved child of God, but also to view every person that we encounter as another potential brother or sister in Christ. I know that we encounter many people who are hard to love, and we can’t imagine them as someone God can love, but he does. He wants us to love them too. Love them into the Kingdom. “They will know we are Christians by our love” for each other in the body of Christ, and also the way we relate to those outside the Church. We may not like them, but we must respect them, and God’s love in us can be shown to them. We don’t get to declare limits either. We can’t turn to God and say, “I’ve done my part; I’ve cared for all the people that I can care about today. I have reached my limit. There is no “Dunbar number” to caring. What God asks of us is to receive this love so that we can share it as Jesus does. When we say that we are members of the Body of Christ, we are saying that we want to follow Jesus, to serve Jesus, and to live as He did. What Jesus did was to offer love. We are asked to love as freely as Jesus did. It is truly amazing what he did for us when he died for us. When he died for the world.

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Nobleton Community Church
29084 Sentinel Street PO Box 224
Nobleton, Florida 34661

Rev. Paul V. Lehmann, Pastor
813-389-8683
Nobletoncommunitychurch.org
info@nobletoncommunitychurch.org

OUR VISION IS:
To experience SPIRIT-FILLED WORSHIP AND PRAYER
To be involved in EVANGELISM, DISCIPLINING AND TRAINING PEOPLE
To use our SPIRITUAL GIFTS
To SERVE AND REACH PEOPLE FOR CHRIST, BOTH
“ACROSS THE STREET AND ACROSS THE WORLD”

Nobleton Community Church
Date April 26, 2026
Text Acts 8:4-8; 26-39;
Pastor Paul Lehmann

We sometimes think that we as individuals have no power, not only in the spiritual realm, but in the natural. Who are we anyway? We are always told that there is power in numbers. Sometimes that is true, but we need to recognize that it is usually only one person who starts something, and sometimes that something is spectacular and supernatural.

In our everyday sports world, we have often seen how one person dominates the game. In the NBA years ago, it was Wilt Chamberlain, the 7’ 2’ center, who scored 100 points himself in a game. Then, later, Michael Jordan was known worldwide for his spectacular ability, especially to make clutch shots at the end of games. More recently, it was Lebron James who carried the Cleveland Cavaliers to their first NBA championship. Then, when he left Cleveland for the LA Lakers, he hasn’t been able to do so well. What is it that has to happen for one person who is strong or skilled to be successful? Well, the answer is, usually, there has to be cooperation from others. In the Spiritual realm, we must cooperate with the Holy Spirit.

You will remember that the early church in Jerusalem suffered great persecution after the first martyr, Stephen, was stoned. The people scattered everywhere, preaching the gospel. These were ordinary people like you and me, doing the ministry that they were taught to do by the apostles, who stayed in Jerusalem.

In our scripture reading today, we see how Phillip had a tremendous healing and deliverance ministry in Samaria, where multitudes were coming to Christ. So let’s look at three significant events in our text.

FIRST, THE JERUSALEM CONGREGATION WAS SCATTERED THROUGHOUT JUDEA AND SAMARIA (verse 1)

Sometimes God has to use force to get us to do what is in His perfect plan. I don’t mean he will force you to do something you don’t want to do, but he uses other people and circumstances to threaten our position of resistance when we are reluctant to move into action. When the church is persecuted, the church always becomes stronger.

He wants us to go out where the people are. Where the unbelievers are. We must get out of our Jerusalem; that is, out of the four walls of our church. Out of our comfort zone, and out of the status quo. When we go, Jesus said, (or as you are going, it is the more accurate rendering of the Greek in Matt. 28:18,19), we are told to make disciples. This presupposes that there is witnessing going on, now that we have the Holy Spirit to give us that power. (Act 1:8). —“After the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will receive power, and you will be my witnesses. In Jerusalem in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” Verse 4 says, “…those who were scattered preached the word wherever they went.” Now I know that what we so often think is that we don’t know what to say to people. Do you suppose that these new converts in that early church were Bible School or seminary-trained people? No, of course not. They were just like you. They had heard the word, responded to Jesus, were born again, and empowered by the Holy Spirit to tell others what had happened to them, because they believed. They simply “preached” what they had heard and what they had experienced.

THE SECOND THING IN OUR TEXT THAT IS SIGNIFICANT IS THAT; SOME ARE CALLED TO “SAMARIA.”

Our Samaria will always be a “stretch” for us. It was for these Jewish disciples, too. These followers of Jesus Christ obeyed and went wherever God told them to go, and God told Phillip to go to the area of Samaria and proclaim Christ there. It was only one person, Phillip, who started the revival that took place there.

It was hard for him because the Samaritans were despised by Orthodox Jews for centuries. When the Israelites from the Northern Kingdom were defeated centuries before by a foreign power, they didn’t hold fast to the One true God. They intermarried with the incoming foreigners, and they lost their racial purity, but worse, they lost much of their zeal for the One true God, and they lost the right to be called Jews at all.

In the course of time, a like invasion and a like defeat happened to the Southern Kingdom whose capital was Jerusalem. Its inhabitants also were carried off to Babylon, but they did not lose their identity; they remained stubbornly and unalterably Jewish. In time, there came the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, and the exiles returned to Jerusalem by the grace of the Persian King. Their Immediate task was to repair and rebuild the shattered temple. The Samaritans came and offered their help in this sacred task. They were contemptuously told that their help was not wanted. They had lost their Jewish heritage, and they had no right to share in the rebuilding of the house of God or the wall that surrounded it. Because of this, they turned bitterly against the Jews of Jerusalem. It was about 450 B.C. when that quarrel took place, and it was as bitter as ever in the days of Jesus. So this was still the situation at the time of this persecution. So going to Samaria was really a cross-cultural effort. They were certainly different, even though they spoke the same language. Have we reacted contemptuously against those of another religion or ethnic group? Thinking they have rejected Christ, so they aren’t interested? —-Who are your Samaritans today?

Our Samaritan ministry may be just someone we are not normally drawn to. Or it may be someone that the (majority) other people despise. It may be someone who is a different nationality or race, but it may be a category like the “homeless” or someone who speaks a different language than you do. Or you don’t know anything about their religion, or they are part of a sect, and that is intimidating.

Philip was aware of what Jesus’ attitude was towards the Samaritans. He was aware of how Jesus talked to the woman at the well. So he didn’t hesitate to hold an evangelistic campaign in a town in Samaria. When the crowds heard Phillip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said.

What were the things they SAW? With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed. Wow! Would you have been afraid or criticized Phillip for what he was doing? What was the result? There was great joy in that city! We would like to see a revival, but on our terms. We don’t want to be uncomfortable or see anything weird happen. This “great joy” is mentioned in verse 14; when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria (of all places), had accepted the Word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. They preached the gospel in many Samaritan villages.

THE THIRD SIGNIFICANT EVENT WAS THAT; PHILLIP IS CALLED BY AN ANGEL TO LEAVE A SUCCESSFUL MINISTRY AND GO TO THE DESERT. “GO SOUTH TAKE THE DESERT ROAD TO GAZA,

This is where we see the importance of “The Power of One” person. Don’t think in terms of a mass crusade (like Billy Graham used to have), but rather think about what god is asking you to do, as one person. You can make a difference. The key is obeying the Lord when he shows you what he wants you to do.

What is the first thing that Phillip does? He started out! —He obeyed and went where he was called to go. Verse 20 tells us that, “the Spirit told Phillip to go to that chariot and stay near it.” He had a Divine Appointment. Who did he find? An Ethiopian who maybe was a Jew, but most likely was either a proselyte, or at the very least what they called a “God-Fearer”, one who was searching to know God, and was willing to go to synagogue or to the temple in Jerusalem to worship, but they couldn’t become a proselyte until they were willing to be circumcised and tot take the law completely on themselves and follow everything about Judaism. It isn’t clear who he was, but he certainly was searching the scriptures having to do with the Messiah, and he is reading out loud. Phillip, who was led to “stay near” the chariot, heard him. The word here means literally “be glued” to the chariot so here is Phillip hanging on to the chariot as he runs beside it, close by, and then he is invited to sit with this high-ranking officer of Queen Candice of Ethiopia. Candice was a general term used of many Ethiopian Queens, like the term Pharaoh was used of the Egyptian leaders. It doesn’t seem that Phillip is intimidated; he just goes and sits with him.

The Eunuch accepts the Messiah Jesus and wants to be baptized (verse 36).

Sometimes the Lord wants us to just go to one person whom he has prepared. In the book Power Evangelism, by the late John Wimber (who used to play the guitar with “The Righteous Brothers before he became a Christian and was called to preach the gospel), there is an account which powerfully illustrates the spiritual gift called the “Word of Knowledge.”

A man he calls Kerry Jennings (not his real name), tells how he had just had a long day at the office, full of deadlines and meetings that leave editors eager for only one thing; getting home and relaxing with their families As he navigated across the freeway system towards his suburban home, he began to pray, a habit he had developed to redeem the hours spent in traffic jams. He interceded for his family, co-workers, and friends. He prayed about an article that he was writing. Then he began to ask god to provide opportunities for personal evangelism. Suddenly, strange thoughts entered his mind; the accompanying peace indicated the Lord was responding to his prayers. He had acted on these kinds of thoughts before, almost always seeing God work through him.

God had told Kerry to stop at a familiar restaurant, look for a certain waitress, and tell her that “God had something for her.” Further. God said that what he had for the waitress would be revealed when Kerry talked with her. Though apprehensive, Kerry responded to the inkling, steering his car off the exit towards the restaurant. He did so because he sensed that god had arranged a divine appointment, and appointed time in which God reveals himself to an individual or group through spiritual gifts or other supernatural phenomena. God arranges these encounters. They are meeting, He has ordained to demonstrate His power in developing His Kingdom (Eph. 2:10)

After being seated in the waitress’s section, Kerry began to ponder all the reasons for not delivering the message. While caught up in anxious thoughts, she approached. Before he could say anything, she cheerfully said, “You have something for me, don’t you?” In response (his resistance now gone_, he told her that God had sent him specifically with something, and then two insights regarding her job and a relationship, both areas of trouble for her, were supernaturally revealed to him. Asking God for courage, he told her. She was stunned. She knew that she was encountering god because the only way Kerry could know the things he told her was through supernatural means. (In scripture, this is called a Word of Knowledge)

I Cor. 12:8. At the end of the conversation, they prayed. She cried. Later, Kerry learned that she was the daughter of a pastor now decreased and that she had turned away from God. Soon after the divine appointment, she gave her heart to the Lord.

Divine appointments are an integral part of “power evangelism” (especially one-person evangelism). People who would otherwise resist hearing the gospel are instantly opened to God’s word. Sometimes even the most hostile individuals turn to God when a significant need is met.

We must obey the Lord who says go to all ethic groups (that’s the great commission), and make disciples. Sometimes he forces us (by persecution), or other circumstances. When he says go, we should go, not rationalize or analyze the situation.

Miracles follow those who believe, and then people accept Christ. He demands faithful witnessing and preaching. Sometimes He wants us just to go to one person whom He has prepared. “Go to that chariot and stay near it” (go to a certain restaurant, for instance). Speak to that certain neighbor or friend at the community center.

Perhaps you are more like the Ethiopian this morning? Are you still searching and asking questions about God or Jesus Christ? He wants you to ask, just like he did, in order that you might find out who Jesus really is, and that he truly wants to be your Savior and change your life.

Are you like Philip, willing to obey and follow God’s greater plan for you, even though it might not seem as good? Phillip left a mass evangelism campaign for just one personal encounter. He made a difference in this Ethiopians life, and tradition has it that he went back to the palace and witnessed to who Jesus was, and the church was established there.

THE POWER OF ONE PERSON. Yes, you can make a difference. If each of us just leads one person to Christ, and they do the same, it is astronomical how many can be won to Christ in just one year. How wonderful to see people’s lives changed and they experience life in all its fullness, just as Jesus promised we could have.

D.L Moody said, “We have yet to see what God can do through one person who is totally submitted to Him.”

Scroll down past Sermon for more info

Nobleton Community Church
29084 Sentinel Street PO Box 224
Nobleton, Florida 34661

Rev. Paul V. Lehmann, Pastor
813-389-8683
Nobletoncommunitychurch.org
info@nobletoncommunitychurch.org

OUR VISION IS:
To experience SPIRIT-FILLED WORSHIP AND PRAYER
To be involved in EVANGELISM, DISCIPLINING AND TRAINING PEOPLE
To use our SPIRITUAL GIFTS
To SERVE AND REACH PEOPLE FOR CHRIST, BOTH
“ACROSS THE STREET AND ACROSS THE WORLD”

Nobleton Community Church
Date April 12, 2026
Text Colossians 1:15-27
Pastor Paul Lehmann

Listen to live audio here

Captain Reginald Wallis from Great Britain, whose evangelistic crusades and convention ministry blessed thousands of young and old on both sides of the Atlantic, used to define the word “Christian” as follows: He would say, “spell out the word CHRISTIAN. Then take the letter (a) from near the end of the word and put it at the beginning. Now what do you read?

“A CHRIST IN” So a Christian IS A PERSON WHO HAS CHRIST LIVING IN THEM.

The Bible teaches that people by nature, according to Ephesians 2:1 “ are dead in their transgressions and sins.” In other words, a person doesn’t have that divine element which makes him or her alive to God. This fact can be true of anyone, regardless of educational, cultural, or religious background or training. God’s answer to this basic deficiency of being “dead in our sins” is life as it is in Christ.

We need to understand some things about this life in Christ. First of all, in chapter one and verse 15 of our text, we see;

THE MAJESTY OF THIS LIFE IN CHRIST

Verse 15 –Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. Some (like the Jehovah’s Witnesses) teach that Jesus was a created being, just like the angels, but he was created first. But in verses 16-18, we see that Paul is talking about “presidency,” meaning Christ was the first to come from the dead in true resurrection life. Not that He was created first. It is a title that refers to His exalted position, but the timing of his physical birth. Among the Jews, the firstborn son was especially favored by his parents. But it also means “supremacy in rank.” Both meanings apply to Jesus. Christ is before all creation in time, and he is also over it in rank and dignity. The major stress, however, is on the idea of supremacy. There was a heresy being taught in Colossae, and we don’t know exactly what it was, but because Paul puts so much emphasis on who Christ is and was, and the sufficiency of Jesus Christ alone, it probably had to do with presenting Christ as insufficient in himself. The same thing is still happening today. People are led to believe that we still have to do SOMETHING in order to be saved. In order to have eternal life. We are too often taught that what Jesus did for us isn’t enough. We have to keep trying to earn our salvation. This is what all of the world’s false religions and pagan religions teach. Christianity, as taught in scripture, presents Christ as the all-sufficient sacrifice for our sins. He is “the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” We must put our full trust in him alone as our Savior.

Then there is the statement which declares that all that God represents is embodied in what Jesus Christ is. He is the image of the invisible God; he is the radiance of the glory of God and is seen in HIS CREATIVE LIFE.

Paul depicts Jesus as the mediator, agent, and Goal of all things. This includes declaring His authority above all negative cosmic powers, which are also subjects of His creation who fell from their first estate. The word designates both the act of creating and the product of a created act.

By Him all things are created…and in Him all things are held together. As John tells us in his gospel, all things were made by Him (Christ), and without him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1:3). The countless constellations of our universe were brought into being by the creative act of the Son of God. What is more, they are held together by the same outgoing of divine power. Only in recent years have scientists realized that everything that holds together must have an integrating point. And they are absolutely correct in their assumption, because centuries ago, Paul declared that by Christ all things “hang together” (verse 17). What a glorious concept this is of the majesty of the creative life of Christ.

Scientists who are not Christians like to refer to this creative power that created the universe as “the Big Bang Theory,” however, it is far more logical that we recognize that there was “intelligent design” involved in creation and not just “chance.”

An American cutlery manufacturer wrote years ago, “it takes a girl in our factory two days to learn to put the 17 parts of a meat chopper together. It may be that these millions of worlds, all balanced so wonderfully in space, just happened; it may be that, by a million years of tumbling about, they finally arranged themselves. I don’t know. I am merely a businessman, a plain manufacturer of cutlery. But this I do know: that you can shake the 17 parts of a meat chopper around in a washtub for the next 17 million years, and you’ll never make a meat chopper.” Pretty profound!! Only God could have created the Universe and everything in it, including us.

Not only do we see his majesty in his creative life, but, secondly, we see his:

MAJESTY IN HIS REDEMPTIVE LIFE

This is made clear by the witness of Paul to Agrippa when he told him of the calling that God had given him. (Acts 26:18) His task and our task is: “to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in God.”

The Jews were always God’s chosen people, but now the door has been opened to the Gentiles (that’s us), and to all people everywhere, to all nations.

The second idea is that God has translated us into the kingdom of God.

This is a transfer from the kingdom of darkness and of this world into the realm of God. It means a transference from darkness to light.

It means a transference from slavery to freedom. It is redemption, and that is the word used for the emancipation of a slave, and for the buying back of something which was in the power of someone else.

In Washington D.C., there was an “Emancipation Day Parade” , and they celebrated all weekend. I doubt if one word was spoken about the redemption that we have because of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

It means a transference from condemnation to forgiveness. We don’t deserve anything but condemnation, but through the work of Jesus Christ, we discover the love of God and the forgiveness of God; and we can know that we are no longer condemned like a criminal at God’s judgement seat, but a forgiven sinner, and now the way home is open.

Because now it means a transference from the power of Satan to the power of God. Through Jesus Christ we are liberated from the grip of Satan and we are able to become a citizen of the Kingdom of God. Just as an earthly conqueror transferred the citizens of the land he had conquered into a new kingdom and a new land, so God in his triumphant love transfers us from the realm of sin and darkness into the realm of holiness and light and love.

Verses 18, 20 And he is the head of the body, the Church…making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” This is the story of the gospel. —The Good News. The only way to be reconciled to God. Ever since we were separated from God because of sin, there had to be sacrifices of animals where there blood was shed. Now in Jesus he is the supreme sacrifice. We read in John 1:29 where John the Baptist sees Jesus and says:. “Look here comes the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

Christ is all and in all in the life of His people. For, in the first place, our life all begins by receiving Him. “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him” Colossians 2:6. It is not receiving a sacrament, a creed, a system of theology, a set of moral precepts, but a living, personal Savior. That is salvation. “Whoever comes to me I will never drive away” John 6:37. Then in that verse 6 we are also told to continue to live in him. . The continuance and progress of our “Christin” life is just as simple and as personal. It is a life of dependence and communion, step by step, receiving him afresh as our all-sufficiency, our wisdom, strength and holiness. Be holy, because I am holy. God says. But we can’t do that in the flesh. Only as the Holy Spirit empowers us—He makes it possible.

We are taught in verse 10 of chapter 2, that we are complete in him. That is to say, He fills up every possible need of our life and being. For the deeper life os sanctification is simply Christ within. This is the mystery, Paul says in our passage; verse 26, and verse 27; “that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is CHRIST IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY.

This is so plain and simple. It is not a process of teaching, or even the formation of a character. It is acquaintance with a Person, and intimate union and fellowship with Him so that He actually comes into our being and becomes the Source and Strength of our very life, reliving His own life in us; and we falling with perfect naturalness into His will, His plan, His steps and all His perfect life. So deep and intimate is this union that a great variety of figures are introduced to express and illustrate its fuller meaning. In the following 2 chapters of Colossians we read; 2:7 We are built up in him, verse 12 we are buried with him When we were dead in our sins verse 13 we were raised with Christ 3:1. Our life is hidden with Christ in God. 3:3. He Himself is our very life verse 4.

And then when it comes to the question of conduct, our actions are to be determined by our relation to Him. It is because we are in Him that we are to act like Him. And so we read, “whatever you do, whether in word or deed do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus.” 3:17.

To act in the name of Jesus is to act as if you were Jesus, to sustain His character, His dignity and the life that would be expected from Him if He himself were here. But it is our relation to Him that inspires our conduct. We need the powerful motive of his life and love, yes, and the actual force of his indwelling Spirit to enable us to live out His life in our daily conduct and conversation.

We have a high calling as children of God. The consciousness of our high calling and our union with such a Master and Lord, must lift us above the world and all its ways.

It is said that the Dauphin of France, the poor orphan child of the murdered Louis XVI and his queen, was committed by his enemies to the care of a very brutal and wicked man who was to teach him only that which was evil. The poor boy had to look and listen to nothing but that which was degrading and wrong, but often he would say when tempted to stoop to the level of his companions, “I cannot say, I cannot do such things. I was born to be a king!”

Yes, there was an impulse and a memory of higher things, and it kept him above the low and the base. The love of Christ, the life of Christ, the higher spiritual consciousness which His presence give must lift us to the place of holiness and lead us to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called. IT IS CHRIST IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY. It is because of his amazing love and grace that you can be lifted up beyond a mediocre life, spiritually speaking, —allowing His life to be lived through you here and now, so that the hope of one day living with him in glory will become a reality.

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Nobleton Community Church
29084 Sentinel Street PO Box 224
Nobleton, Florida 34661

Rev. Paul V. Lehmann, Pastor
813-389-8683
Nobletoncommunitychurch.org
info@nobletoncommunitychurch.org

OUR VISION IS:
To experience SPIRIT-FILLED WORSHIP AND PRAYER
To be involved in EVANGELISM, DISCIPLINING AND TRAINING PEOPLE
To use our SPIRITUAL GIFTS
To SERVE AND REACH PEOPLE FOR CHRIST, BOTH
“ACROSS THE STREET AND ACROSS THE WORLD”

Nobleton Community Church
Date Easter Sunday, April 5, 2026
Text Matthew 28:6-7
Pastor Paul Lehmann

Listen to live audio here

In these uncertain days, people need to make some kind of divine connection. If they don’t know Jesus Christ and have him in their lives, there is always something missing, and this becomes more and more evident in a time of crisis like we have experienced the past month. We are spiritual beings, so we have an innate desire for spiritual things. Unfortunately, this doesn’t automatically mean a person has a desire to know Jesus. Sometimes they don’t even know that he is the one who is missing in their life.

Of all the top-grossing films, the majority have a supernatural or faith-based theme of some kind. Also, most of the literature’s great epic stories deal with the human quest for God.

In their hit song, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” the rock band U2 expressed the search for answers in their lyrics. “I have climbed the highest mountains…But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.” Then at the end they sing, “I believe in the kingdom come. Then all the colors will blend into one.—Well, yes, I’m still running, you broke the bonds and you, loosed the chains, carried the cross, and my shame, all my shame. You know I believe it—but I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.”

Maybe that’s you. You say I believe in Jesus. I believe he died for my sins. I believe he rose again from the grave, but I still haven’t found what I am looking for. Perhaps there is that elusive peace that you hear Christians talk about. The problem is that perhaps you only have “intellectual faith.” Your belief isn’t any different than believing something about someone else in literature. Like George Washington was our first president, and you believe the facts surrounding the Revolutionary War.

Perhaps there is that little shred of doubt about life after death. The question is in the back of your mind: Will I really go to heaven after I die? Will I live into eternity with Jesus? You lack assurance of salvation.

In every corner of today’s popular culture, people are asking questions about the hereafter. During the coronavirus pandemic, some were asking if this was the beginning of the end times. Will we ever recover from what went on worldwide? Here in Nobleton, as perhaps where you live, it wasn’t as bad as, say, in New York City; nevertheless, we have never seen such a widespread pandemic in our time.

When it comes to God, if they believe at all, he is a God who is out of touch with us. He has nothing to do with this world, or he wouldn’t allow something like this to happen. It may not even be the COVID-19 virus for you, but something else in your life. If he is powerful, he is maybe too powerful, and we can’t have anything to do with him personally. This thinking has kept us from knowing God and having the relationship with us that he longs for. When we try to be “spiritual,” we look in all the wrong places for answers. Who would ever think you could find any answers in a Cemetery, but the title of my message is;

GOOD NEWS FROM A CEMETERY!

The message of Christianity is just that: “Good News from a cemetery.”

Graveyards have always been melancholy places because they are associated with grief, sadness, and separation from our loved ones. The cemetery is the last place from which one would expect to receive good news.

When Jeannene and I lived in Paris, our great niece came to visit us. She wanted to see the grave of Jim Morrison, the singer who died in Paris on July 7, 1971. We had never heard of him, since we were in the Congo at that time, but we agreed to take her to the cemetery. He is buried in the largest cemetery in Paris. All of the tombstones are huge. Some are cement structures that are locked, but it is possible to go into them. His tombstone is quite large and very elaborate. Morrison is an American who apparently was in France for a concert. His girlfriend was addicted to heroin, but Jim didn’t like heroin because it made him sick. He tried to make her quit taking it too. He preferred cocaine. His girl knew that, so when he came home and saw a pile of white powder on the table, she told him it was cocaine. He then put some up his nose. This caused him to die almost immediately. It’s astonishing to me that his grave is the fourth-largest tourist attraction in Paris. Young people still come to his grave, and while we were there, some youth were smoking pot and taking drugs while they sat on his tombstone. There certainly was no good news there, but there are people who are looking for something and trying somehow to identify with this guy Jim Morrison. It is really rather pathetic, no matter how great a poet and singer he was. People are looking for answers on how to live, and to have the assurance that life isn’t in vain, that there is life after death.

From the beginning of time, people have raised the question which was posed by Job; “If a man dies, will he live again?” (Job 14:14). Century after century the small and the great, the wise and the foolish, the rich and the poor, the young and the old marched into the silent, clammy chambers of death. Men stood in fear of death and the tomb. Job had faith, but It remained for Jesus Christ, the God/man, to come with an authentic answer to Job’s painful, perplexing question. After listening to all the babbling of his so-called “friends,” Job declares in faith in 19:25: “I know that my redeemer lives and that in the end he will stand on the earth.”

It would be a long time before this actually came to pass. The basic truth of Christianity, and the central core of the Gospel, is the resurrection of Christ. This is announced by the angels in Luke 24:6. The explanation was, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? A very logical question, but they hadn’t realized that he was living. They saw him dead, so they went to the cemetery.

Many people today are in that category of belief. They know the facts of orthodox Christianity are that he rose from the dead, but they wear crucifixes to remind them of the suffering of Jesus Christ on the cross. Now, there is nothing wrong with wearing a cross, but when we live like he was buried in that tomb, and that he is still dead (even though his body was never found), then we are missing out on what the meaning of his resurrection is. Victory over sin, death, and the grave.

It is my understanding that when there is a homicide investigation, if there is no body, there is no case, except maybe under rare circumstances. How people think they have a case against the resurrection is hard for me to understand. ( See, “A Case for Christ” written by a former atheist Lee Strobel.) He was a lawyer and a legal journalist for the Chicago Tribune when he wrote that book. He did research to determine that the resurrection never happened. He ended up declaring that, “there is more evidence for the resurrection than all the homicide cases that he had seen.” It is astonishing that intelligent people can so harden their hearts against the idea of a living Savior that they invent explanations that do not make sense and that they themselves would never accept if it were applied to any other research. There is more evidence for the resurrection than for any other historical event in recorded history.

When the women arrived at the tomb, the angel said, “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.” Basically, he was saying, “Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee, ‘the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again?” They probably thought, yeah, we remember, but we didn’t think he really meant that; we never really did understand what he was talking about. The scripture says only that, “Then they remembered his words.”

In our text, Matthew 28:6-7, we read, “Go quickly and tell his disciples; He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him. Now I have told you.” This is the truth of Christianity. The only explanation why millions of people since that time have risked their lives, and have been willing to die for this truth. You cannot convince people of this truth through arguing. The Easter message is not an argument. It is a divine proclamation! The angels declared that Jesus Christ had conquered death and had risen to life. The apostles experienced his living presence to the extent that they died martyrs’ deaths rather than surrender or recant their faith and deny their relationship with him.

Would we be willing to die for our faith? For some, I don’t think so. If you have only agreed to accept a creed, or doctrinal statement of what you believe, but have never experienced the life-changing power of the resurrection in your life, then it would not be any big deal to change your mind, or be convinced that it would be in your best interests to deny Christ. You might be in the same category as Peter was when he said he never knew Jesus, because he was afraid of what the Romans might do to him if they knew he was a follower of Jesus. You must understand, though, that his denial was before the cross, before the resurrection, before Jesus breathed into his disciples the Holy Spirit, that is before he was born again by the Spirit of God. It is the Holy Spirit that empowers people with Holy boldness, the kind that made it possible for Peter and the other disciples to preach with power after the Holy Spirit had come upon them on the Day of Pentecost. The boldness that gave Peter and the others no concern about what people thought of them, or what they might do to them.

The Scriptures record at least eleven appearances of the living Christ to the disciples. The empty tomb spoke with a shout to declare that he was no longer dead. The present-day strength of Christianity and the Church is a dramatic testimony to the presence of the living Christ who has walked through the corridors of time in the lives of people who have had their lives completely changed.

There are two declarations found in the Good News of the resurrection.

The first is: THE DECLARATION OF THE EMPTY TOMB

During the last six months of our Lord’s earthly ministry, he sought repeatedly to instruct his disciples concerning the necessity and nature of his forthcoming death upon the cross. They found these teachings impossible to understand and they sought by every means at their command to prevent Christ from going to the cross. Jesus told them in parables that this had to happen. In John 2:19, he told the Pharisees, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” The Jews thought he was talking about the temple building, which took 46 years to build. In John 12:23-24, he explained that unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed, but if it dies, it produces many seeds. Then he spoke directly in John 10:17-18: “I lay down my life only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have the authority to lay it down and the authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” This was the boldest of his claims. It was this truth that authenticated his teaching and declared him once and for all to be both God and man. He was the eternal God with a human body. It is just this part that some people have trouble with.

1. The empty tomb declared to their minds and hearts that Jesus Christ was really the divine Son of God (Rom. 1:4) who, through the Spirit of holiness, was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead; Jesus Christ our Lord.
2. The empty tomb declares that his death upon the cross made atonement for our sins (Rom. 3:25); God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—and in-(Rom. 4:25) he was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
3. The empty tomb was for the apostles and for us, a promise of victory over death and the grave. (John 14:19) “Because I live, you also will live.” This was Good News. It is Good News to all of us who are his disciples now living, who will one day find ourselves in a cemetery, as our Lord delays his return.

Many people think that the gospel is good advice. Let us never forget, as someone has said that: “the gospel is not good advice but good news. It does not just tell us what we ought to do for God, it tells us what God has done for us. It does not only offer us “lessons from the life of Christ, it offers us life by the death of Christ.”

Imagine a battlefield with troops advancing under heavy fire. They flatten themselves to the ground and hold their prone position until the enemy artillery is silenced. Imagine further that all of the soldiers are either dead or alive and unwounded. He who gets up and walks has life. Does that mean that life is given to the soldiers who get up and walk, or that the soldiers who possess life manifest it by getting up and walking? Obviously, the latter is true. This meaning is illustrated in John 5:24, where hearing and believing are the marks of the existence of the new life of God implanted in the individual. Jesus says, “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.”

Then this leads us to proclaim, a second declaration:

THE DECLARATION OF A LIVING SAVIOR

Christianity must be defined in terms of a relationship to a living Lord. His living presence is a fact more solid than the mountains, more firmly established than the stars. Jesus was the only leader/teacher of a religion that rose from the dead. Confucius is dead, Buda is dead, Mohamed is dead. Jesus is alive. This truth should revitalize our worship, for we come together, not in memory of a dead Christ but in fellowship with a living Lord who desires a relationship with us.

The fact that He is alive makes prayer more meaningful. For when we pray in his name, we requisition the needed resources from the bank of heaven (so to speak), for the carrying on of his Kingdom’s work.

The fact that he is alive makes sacrificial service more meaningful and worthwhile because the resurrection proves that God will bring every good work to fruition. (I Cor. 15:58)

By his living presence, he gives us a full life. (John 10:10); “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”(NIV) The KJV says, “abundant life” or life in all of its fullness. It is a life with purpose, a life that gives us the assurance of Christ’s intervention in our lives, his protection, his healing power, his comfort, his compassion, his help in so many different ways. Because he is alive and is with us, and is in us, we should be encouraged to abstain from that which is evil. We should be bolder in attempting that which is difficult. We can receive comfort from him in times of sorrow through the Holy Spirit. Because he said he would never leave us comfortless.

So we see that he offers us life in all of its fullness, and eternal life after death. We have the assurance of Great News and something to praise him for.

There was a storm that passed through a rural area, and the hail had beaten the garden and truck patch into the ground. The house was partially unroofed, the henhouse had blown away, and dead chickens were scattered about. Destruction and devastation were everywhere. The farmer, while standing dazed, evaluating the mess and wondering about the future, heard a stirring in the lumber pile that was the remains of the henhouse. A rooster was climbing up through the debris, and he didn’t stop climbing until he had mounted the highest board in the pile. That old rooster was dripping wet, and most of his feathers were blown away. But as the sun came over the eastern horizon, he flapped his bony wings and proudly crowed. That old wet bare rooster could still crow when he saw the morning sun. And like that rooster, our world may be falling apart, we may have lost something or someone, but if we trust in God, we’ll be able to see the light of God’s goodness, pick ourselves out of the rubble, and sing the Lord’s praise for what he has given us.

Make sure that you know him personally today. Put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation. He will forgive your sins. Not just “the sins of the world” —but you personally, he is waiting for you to experience this Good news from a graveyard. HE IS RISEN INDEED. If you know Christ as your savior, then make him known, especially in these uncertain days, when so many don’t have any hope, or they are trying to trust in the government and health workers, rather than putting their HOPE IN JESUS.

Scroll down past Sermon for more info

Nobleton Community Church
29084 Sentinel Street PO Box 224
Nobleton, Florida 34661

Rev. Paul V. Lehmann, Pastor
813-389-8683
Nobletoncommunitychurch.org
info@nobletoncommunitychurch.org

OUR VISION IS:
To experience SPIRIT-FILLED WORSHIP AND PRAYER
To be involved in EVANGELISM, DISCIPLINING AND TRAINING PEOPLE
To use our SPIRITUAL GIFTS
To SERVE AND REACH PEOPLE FOR CHRIST, BOTH
“ACROSS THE STREET AND ACROSS THE WORLD”

Nobleton Community Church
Date March 29, 2026
Text Matthew 21:1-17
Pastor Paul Lehmann

Listen to live audio here

There are two events in this passage that I want to call to your attention this morning. The first is: “The Triumphal Entry” into Jerusalem, and the second is what we sometimes call, “The Cleansing of the Temple.”

Jesus had often taught in Jerusalem, and people were also healed by his ministry there. There were always those who were curious, had heard about him, and wanted to see for themselves. But the people who were with him during this entrance to Jerusalem were probably mostly those who had been following him, perhaps even from Galilee. They had seen his miracles, listened to his teaching, and realized that “no one has ever taught like him.” He came into the city on his own terms, different than usual. Normally, he didn’t want to make a big splashy entrance. He didn’t even proclaim his Messiahship. When he healed people, he told them not to tell anyone. You would think that he would want everyone to know and be drawn to him, but in the early days of his ministry, it wasn’t the right time. Now it was, because it was the last week of his earthly life before he was crucified.

Usually, we have talked about how —- The Jews who were expecting the Messiah wanted a “King” who would lead them into battle against the Roman Government. Jesus always rejected this notion, and did everything the opposite of all the other, self-proclaimed Messiahs had done. Those were the “Zealots” who usually got themselves arrested.

Jesus didn’t ride into the city on a steed, a war horse, which would have indicated this kind of leader. He made preparations for a mild-mannered entry into Jerusalem. This was to fulfill the prophecy in Zechariah 9:9.

“Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion, Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See your king come to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” This is showing Jesus’ meekness and an Anointed One of Peace. “In chapters 9-11 the prophet proclaims a king who is rejected.

Jesus sent his disciples to Bethphage, just a couple of miles up the road southeast of Jerusalem. Jesus demonstrated “a Word of Knowledge” about the location of the donkeys, and what the people would say when they saw them unhitching them. “Why are you doing this?” When the disciples told them “the Lord needs it,” it wasn’t just because of a past relationship, but rather, indicating his universal authority. His “Chief Proprietorship of all things,” as G. Campbell Morgan puts it. Some commentators have always said that he knew about this because he had probably made arrangements ahead of time with the people who lived there, or he knew simply because he was God, who is All Knowing. Now, neither of these explanations makes sense. When would Jesus have had a chance to arrange this ahead of time? He was always with his disciples and followers. He didn’t know because he was God, but because the Holy Spirit who was in him, revealed a “Word of Knowledge” which later on, after Pentecost, the gifts of the Spirit were made available to all believers. Otherwise, Jesus could have never said to his disciples that they would be able to do the things that he had done. They weren’t God.

So the disciples came back with the donkey and the colt of the donkey, and Matthew tells us that Jesus mounted both of them. Maybe, or maybe he mounted the colt, which wasn’t that small; it is just that he “had never been ridden.” Therefore, they brought the mother with them. Luke simply has him mounting a colt after the crowd threw their garments on it as well as on the path. Also, branches from the trees, and shouted: “Hosanna to the Son of David. BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD! Hosanna in the highest!”

This is nothing less than a declaration of his Messiahship. The Anointed One of God. This verse is one of the few places where the Gospels record that Jesus’ glory is recognized on earth. Jesus boldly declared himself as King, and the crowd gladly joined him. Most commentators say things like: “these same people would bow to political pressure and desert him in just a few days.” I personally believe that isn’t the case. These people were probably mostly Galileans and had been following him. They had seen his miracles and listened to his teaching, and now he is presenting himself as a king would, and they are delighted. When Jesus stands before Pilate, we read in Matthew 27:20 when he was trying to decide what to do with Jesus;…” the chief priests and elders PERSUADED the crowd to ask for Barabbas, and to have Jesus executed.” They shouted CRUCIFY HIM! It was a small vocal minority that stirred up the crowd. Maybe some did change their mind about Jesus, but I believe that if there were people who were praising him a few days before were weeping and saddened by what was happening. Some day, we may be faced with the same kind of influence against Jesus. Will you be influenced by people who are against him and have rejected him? Don’t be like the people who have been destroying our cities and trying to influence others to join them. We are seeing some things happen these days that are preparing us for the end times.

Now, before this entry to Jerusalem, Jesus often referred to himself as “The Son of Man.”

The title “the Son of Man” refers to Jesus and highlights the fact that He was a human being. This was vital in order that He could be a sacrifice in our place. It refers to the fact that Jesus was a perfect human. He, as God, came down and lived among us as the perfect human being. By doing this, He fulfilled the Law of Moses and did what no other human being was able to do. By using this title, He is identifying with the people He had come to save.

Jesus uses the term “the Son of Man” in reference to Himself 80 times in the gospels: 32 times in Matthew, 14 times in Mark, 26 times in Luke, and 10 times in John. Each gospel highlights different aspects of who Jesus is.

Matthew presents Jesus as the Messiah
Mark as the suffering servant
Luke as the Son of Man
John as the Son of God
So, in answering this question of “why is Jesus called the Son of Man”, the gospel of Luke is a good place to start.

Jesus is indeed the Messiah that the Jewish nation had been waiting for ever since the fall of Adam and Eve, and then God’s promise to Abraham. The Messiah is the Son of God, equal with God, and God sent Him into the world in order to open up the way of Salvation for mankind. Jesus was 100% God, but in order for Him to be able to die as a sacrifice so that human beings could be saved, He also needed to be 100% human.

“The Son of Man” in the Old Testament

The “Son of Man” is mentioned 107 times in the Old Testament; 93 of those mentions are in Ezekiel. Probably the most significant of these mentions is in the book of Daniel, chapter 7. This is a prophecy of the end of time when God is seated on His throne. Verses 13 – 14 are a mention of the “Son of Man”, Jesus, taking His rightful place, and His kingdom is established forever. “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).

It Is A Messianic Designation

The title “Son of Man” was a designation for the Messiah. The Book of Daniel predicted that the Son of Man would inherit God’s everlasting kingdom. We read

And behold, one like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him. Then to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed (Daniel 7:13,14).

Jesus is the Son of Man

Jesus most frequently refers to Himself as the Son of Man, but if challenged, He acknowledges that He is also the Son of God. So, both of these two titles can rightly be used of Jesus, and both reveal to us different aspects of who Jesus is. In calling Himself the Son of Man, though, Jesus identifies with us, in our humanity, and is our representative before God. Hebrews 4:15 says: “For we do not have a high priest (representative) who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet was without sin.” And because of this, the next verse says we can “approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16

Though the Bible does not define its exact meaning, the title “Son of Man”

It Is Connected With His Earthly Life

The title is connected with the earthly life of Jesus.

But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins – he said to the paralytic (Mark 2:10).

Jesus said: So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28).

Jesus also said And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head (Matthew 8:20)

Jesus gave the reason for His coming to earth.

For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10).

It Is Connected With His Sufferings

“Son of Man” is also connected with the sufferings of Jesus on behalf of humanity.

And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again (Mark 8:31).

This Speaks Of His Exaltation And Rule

The title “Son of Man” also has to do with his exaltation and rule over humanity.

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory (Matthew 25:31).

Jesus said.

The Son of Man indeed does just as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born (Matthew 26:24
As Jesus proceeds into the city, he goes to the Temple. On his way, he must have seen many things that were out of harmony with the Kingdom of Heaven and contrary to the will of God. If Jesus came into one of our cities today, He would also see many things that are outside of his will.

He passed all of these things, not because he didn’t care, but because he went to the temple because he knew that it was the best way to touch them. “Judgement must begin at the House of God.” As long as the Temple was wrong, the whole city was bound to be wrong.

When Jesus comes back again and sets up the “New Jerusalem,” and there is a ‘new heaven and a new earth,” we read in the book of Revelation that there will no longer be a need for a temple, because the whole city is like a temple. There will be no need for any other light, for “The Lord God” will provide it.

Now, when Jesus entered the Temple on this day more than 2000 years ago, he showed that he is more than “meek and mild.” He “drove out” those who were buying and selling. and “overthrew” the tables of the money changers, and also where they were selling doves. They had set up these tables in the court of the Gentiles. Quite legitimate, to provide offerings for those coming from far off, and also to change their currency into the Temple currency. It provided a service to Gentiles who had become proselytes to Judaism and had come to the Temple to worship God. The problem was that they did not respect the exchange rate, and overcharged these visitors to Jerusalem in the currency exchange and the price for their offerings. Jesus declared that: This temple is: ‘A House of Prayer”, but you have made it a “den of robbers” or (thieves). (Isaiah 56:7)

We may not buy and sell and cheat people, but sometimes we too don’t think of our worship in the right way. May the Holy Spirit guide us and help us to understand what he expects of us. He wants us to PRAISE AND WORSHIP HIM, and then to also SERVE HIM.

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Nobleton Community Church
29084 Sentinel Street PO Box 224
Nobleton, Florida 34661

Rev. Paul V. Lehmann, Pastor
813-389-8683
Nobletoncommunitychurch.org
info@nobletoncommunitychurch.org

OUR VISION IS:
To experience SPIRIT-FILLED WORSHIP AND PRAYER
To be involved in EVANGELISM, DISCIPLINING AND TRAINING PEOPLE
To use our SPIRITUAL GIFTS
To SERVE AND REACH PEOPLE FOR CHRIST, BOTH
“ACROSS THE STREET AND ACROSS THE WORLD”

Nobleton Community Church
Date March 22, 2026
Text Romans 4:13-25
Pastor Paul Lehmann

.There were many times when I was a child that my dad would make certain promises to me, and he always tried to keep them. Sometimes something beyond his control would make it impossible for him to keep his promise to me. I just couldn’t understand, and I would be shattered. Fortunately, he would always make it up to me, and I would forget about the broken promise. As I became older, I understood more about the promises. It depended on my behavior for one, but also, circumstances would make it impossible for him to do exactly what he had promised. His favorite answer to me was, “We’ll see! Now, any kid knows that that is not a good response. I remember my senior year in high school, I had a date for our Jr-Sr. banquet. I went to a small town public school in a country that had a lot of Mennonites and other conservative Christians. Therefore, we didn’t have a “prom” like most schools. Those who wanted to dance rented a dance hall and band, etc., somewhere in another city. The Christians went to a Christian campground where we played board games or watched a Christian film until midnight or later. Anyway, this was an important date for me, with the sister of my best friend from church, I needed the car, and my dad was in business for himself, and had an egg and produce route in nearby Akron, Ohio, and he told me he would be home by 6:00 pm. When it was 6:30, and he wasn’t home yet, I began to panic, because I had to pick up my date 15 min. away, and drive back to the school, all before 7:30 pm. He finally came about 10 min before 7:00, apologizing profusely. I was able to get to the banquet just a couple of minutes before 7:30 pm. Everyone was already seated, but they got to see me and my beautiful date walk in. It wasn’t until I was 22 years old and I ran a bread route, the year before Jeannene and I got married, that I realized how hard it was to finish your route when you thought you could. There was always something that kept you from getting home when you thought you could. I came to realize that Daddy didn’t ever deliberately lie to me, but sometimes his promises could not be kept.

Promises on the human level are sometimes broken. The Bible is a book filled with the promises of God to His people. Someone has calculated that there are at least 30 thousand promises in the Word of God. While this figure may appear to be extravagant, it must be recognized that there are thousands of promises made to us which we have failed to recognize and to claim. The most wonderful thing about God’s promises is that they are never broken, but they, too, are conditional; however, once we have done our part, the promise is ours, never to be broken.

Chapter 4 of the book of Romans tells us that the secret of Abraham’s spiritual achievement is to be found in his recognizing and clinging to the promises of God. In other words—his FAITH. He did not stagger back because of the mystery or miracle of the divine plan for his life. He was fully convinced that God was both able and willing to accomplish all that he had promised. May God grant us the insight to discover His promises and the faith to claim them.

Charles Spurgeon, the famous preacher of the last century, wrote a book which is still in print, entitled “Faith’s Checkbook.” This book is a series of daily devotionals for us to use throughout the year. Each devotional is based on one of the exceeding great and precious promises of God. Concerning the promises of God, Spurgeon has said, “A promise from God may very instructively be compared to a check payable to order. It is given to the believer with the view of bestowing upon him some good thing. It is not meant that he should read it ever comfortably, and then have done with it. No, he is to treat the promise as a reality, as a man treats a check.”

So you see, a check is no good until it is cashed. How many of the promises of God have you discovered and claimed—cashed so to speak”?

We want to look at three categories of promises to understand all that God has for us in His Word.

1. FIRST WE HAVE PROMISES FOR THE PRESENT.

Many of the promises that God made in times past are for those who live in the present. In verses 23-24, Paul says that when God declared Abraham righteous (because of his faith), it wasn’t just for his benefit, but for us too, “if we believe in our heart that God brought Jesus Christ our Lord, back from the dead. He was handed over to die for our sins, and he was raised from the dead to make us right with God.” If we just recognize God’s promises and claim them by faith, God will do what He says He will do.

There are very few promises God made to his people in the past that have no relevant application for the present. God doesn’t change with the passing of time. What he was yesterday, He is today, and will be tomorrow and forever. What he did for his people yesterday, he will do for us today. When we study the Word of God we should place ourselves in the middle of the action and identify with Biblical characters when such is appropriate. When God promises to forgive and cleanse from sin in the past, we can be safe in assuming that we can claim his promise of doing that in the present upon the condition that we sincerely repent. As God promised to guide in the past, so he promises to guide us in the present. If we are not sensitive to listen and willing to respond, and meet his conditions, either by something we must do or else simply applying faith, then and only then, does He not fulfill his promise.

An illustration of this kind of faith would be if I asked one of you how much cash you have, and you would say $5.00. Then If I gave you as a gift of $5.00 and someone asked you how much you have, you could say, “I have $10.00. But then I ask for $5.00 back, and you are asked how much you have, you would probably say $5.00. What you should say, If you believed me, —-that I said I was giving you a gift of $5.00, is: I have $10.00, but $5.00 is in his pocket (pointing at me). [ That’s like the old offering joke that pastor Wayne used to say, about the $30,000 we need to build a basketball court here in Nobleton. He said we have the $30,000, but it is still in your pockets.}

In verses 19-23, we see that Abraham’s faith never wavered. God had promised him a son, and the world would be blessed by him and his descendants. Even though he was about 100 and Sarah was 90, he believed what God said. His faith got even stronger when he was asked to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice.. He was ready to obey God, knowing that the promise would still be fulfilled, even if God would raise Isaac from the dead. When God makes a statement in His Word, no matter how hopeless circumstances seem to us, we must believe Him and claim his promises. Maybe God hasn’t fulfilled a promise to you yet, but God will not fail if we put our faith and trust in Him and His Word.

Then we not only have promises for the present,

2. WE HAVE PROMISES FOR THE FUTURE.

The only thing certain about the future, as far as we are concerned, is the fact of change. Nothing will be exactly the same tomorrow. You know how it is when you go back to your hometown after a number of years. (My hometown of Dalton and New York City from the 60s to the 90s ). Change is all around us, and the future will be filled with change in every era of our lives. The period from 1910 to 1960 was perhaps the greatest change in the world in any other 50-year period of history. ( Then, the almost 50 years it took to change Roe vs. Wade and save babies’ lives in the future). My home state of Ohio didn’t waste any time in declaring that, after the 6th week, when a baby’s heart is detected, abortions are illegal. Other states have also made rulings already. The changes that have taken place in this century are maybe not as visible as the first part of the 20th century. Like cars replacing horses, which were the main means of transportation for thousands of years. But those of you who have smartphones, it has been said that the technology that put a man on the moon was not as advanced as you have in your smartphone today. In a world that moves so fast and we have unlimited destructive power, it is easy to understand why many should be fearful as they face the future. We live in such a complex society in which the consumer and the producer are frequently so far removed that it is difficult for many to have a sense of significance and belonging. On all sides, there is a constant increase in anxiety and insecurity.

As children of God, we can be assured that in a changing world worship a God who does not change. (Mal. 3:16 we read, “I am the Lord, and I do not change….”) The promise to us of eternal life is real, even though the fulfillment of this promise is almost incomprehensible to us, but we have assurance of the reality of this because His Word says so, I John 5:11-12 says that “these things are written so that we might know that we have eternal life.” and because the Holy Spirit bears witness to our spirit that we are His. (and Romans 8:16). God saves us, fills us, and calls us to serve him, in ways that we can’t imagine. There are those in my home church who thought,- “What good thing could come out of Nazareth—uh Dalton–or Orrville,”-surprised that I was a missionary. Wherever you are from, or whatever the circumstances were when you were growing up, we know that in God’s divine providence, He doesn’t make mistakes. Sometimes we need to recognize the category of :

3. PROMISES FOR GOD’S CHILDREN

God has revealed his desire to impart to us a blessing and to enrich our lives. The divine promises were not given to deceive or to encourage false expectations. The heart of the loving Heavenly Father moves toward his children constantly with purposes of grace. His every intention toward us is good. A study of the Bible and of Christian history will reveal that those who have endured trials and difficulties of life and who persisted and went forward to real achievement were those who had studied the word of God and discovered God’s promises. These promises were claimed, and men and women moved forward depending upon God to do as he had promised.

It is reported that the margin of the Bible used by D.L. Moody contained the letters T and P on almost every page. When he was asked about this, he said that the passage contained a promise from God to his children. The T indicated that he had tried the promise, and the P indicated that he had proven the promise to be true in his own experience.

How many times would those letters appear in your Bible?

The writer of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 10:23-25, “Without wavering, let us hold tightly to the hope that we say we have, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds. And let us not neglect our meeting together as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially since the day of his coming back again is getting closer. “

There was a woman in the south of France, years ago, who was very poor. She hardly had enough food to feed her children, and their clothes were in rags. She was so discouraged, but at that time she cried out to the Lord for help. She prayed Lord, what promise do you have for me. Something to encourage me. There was a little promise box of cards that sat on the top of the icebox. As she reached for it, blinded by her tears, she knocked it over. The promises showered down around her, on her lap, on the floor; not one was left in the box. She knew a moment of supreme joy in the Lord as the Holy Spirit flooded her soul with divine power and light. She realized that all of the promises were indeed for her in the very hour of her greatest need.

So it can be for you today. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. (Matt. 4:4).

There are 12 promises of God that I want to leave with you.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Once you experience the love of Jesus poured into your heart, you will know that :

Nothing can separate you from his love. and forgiveness

WE HAVE THE PROMISE OF ETERNAL LIFE

He promises us: provision, protection, strength, empowerment, and guidance

He will never leave us or forsake us.

Paul tells us in I Cor 15:58 to be strong and courageous (steadfast) and faithful, let nothing move you from doing the work of the Lord, because you know that

Your labor is not in vain.

We must accept that the promises of God are personal to us and we must claim them by faith. We must put our confidence in the faithfulness of God.

He gives us peace

He is the God of all comfort

We must put the endorsement of our faith upon the divine promise and present it at the throne of grace just as we would present a check to the cashier of a bank.

The promises of God are conditional, but once we have fulfilled the condition of placing our faith in Him, we will see that He is not a liar; we can count on him.