Month: May 2024

On this Sunday morning, God’s people across the world gather to focus their attention on the most important event in world history. Only days ago, most Christians’ thoughts were on the crucifixion. Which of these, the cross or the resurrection, is the most significant? This is not necessarily a point of debate since each is indispensable in the salvation of sinners. There are those who wear a crucifix almost daily which seems to me their focus is a dead man hanging on a cross. There is no symbolism of God in their depiction. It would be more difficult to devise a trinket that expresses the resurrection since an empty grave does not seem to be suitable for jewelry. However, the empty tomb is our symbol that Jesus Christ was both man and God. Joseph carried a dead, lifeless human body and placed it in a tomb and three days later it came back to life by its own power. The power of the resurrection is the ultimate symbol that Jesus is God.

These are facts presented in the Holy Scriptures and leaned on by the apostles as their incentive to risk their lives and give their lives for a man who died whom they believed to be alive. When Felix stated Paul’s disposition to Herod Agrippa, he described the controversy by saying Paul had many accusers but their accusations were not of the sort he anticipated: “Against whom [Paul] when the accusers stood up, they brought none accusation of such things as I supposed:But had certain questions against him of their own superstition, and of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive.” (Acts 25:18-19). Throughout Paul’s ministry in both missionary work in Acts and in his epistles, he affirms belief in the resurrection as a primary reason for our justification. The proof that the death of the cross was propitiatory is that God raised Christ from the dead.

In his explanation of the gospel and his emphasis on the necessity of the resurrection for it, he wrote in 1 Corinthians 15 that Christ’s death was for our sins. In other words, His death was a substitution for ours. He follows this with the assertion that He was buried and rose again on the third day according to the scriptures. Without the resurrection, Christ did not fulfill the scriptures and thus the promises of God through Christ’s death are meaningless.

An interesting aspect of Paul’s claim that Christ arose according to the scriptures is what many consider a futile attempt to find any Old Testament proof of this promise. As one author wrote, and I paraphrase, they do not know what to look for as proof. The proof is the promise made to Abraham that God gives life from the dead. Paul leans into this in Romans 4:16-25. The promise was concrete in Abraham’s experience as he and Sarah had a child in the deadness of his and Sarah’s bodies. Abraham held on to this promise later when he would try to sacrifice Isaac. He believed God would raise him from the dead.

The question for us to consider today is whether the resurrection of Christ is our firm undergirding of faith. Is our faith built on the same foundation as the apostles? The resurrection drove them; it motivated them as it provided their confidence in God. I believe it does much less for us if we casually approach Resurrection Sunday. We are soft on such important principles. I doubt most Christians think any more of this day than a time for bright clothing and an obligatory church day. What does it mean to you? Is all your hope dependent on it? To properly understand the day, it must!

Pastor V. Mark Smith

Every Sunday morning, the Berean Baptist services begin in a familiar repetitive way. We start with the Call to Worship which is a scripture reading that usually corresponds to the theme of the first congregational song. Next is Bro. John Bunn’s greeting— “Good morning, Bereans!” John addresses two principles with this greeting. We are Bereans because the name of our church is Berean, and we are Bereans because we love to study the Bible to learn the truths of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We take our name from the believers in Acts 17:11 who readily received the word and regularly researched the word. It is always a pleasure to preach to those who are interested in the scriptures and who faithfully take their Bibles and follow as we read and study.

Each of the Bereans here on Sunday morning attend church because of the common bond we have in Christ. Some attend who are here for curiosity and want to learn more about us and what this church believes. But by and large, most are well acquainted with each other, and the faithful core is always here eager to hear God speak through His word and worship Him in hymns, prayer, and preaching.

When I think of the core of the church, I equate this with their faithful attendance, faithful support, and faithful service. Some meet one or two of these areas—attendance and support—while we can name far fewer as servants of the church. As numbers dwindle, we must have more of our membership active in all three areas. In a discussion a few weeks ago, I remarked that those who are present for our afternoon class are members who enter the room, take their seats, and open their Bibles with well-worn pages covered with markings, underlines, and notes. I know their adventures in the Bible are frequent and not limited to the information they hear from me. They are Bible students throughout the week researching what I say on Sunday mornings and reading for themselves to learn the scriptures and achieve better knowledge of them.

As I survey this group on Sunday afternoons and see their heavily used Bibles, I recognize they are mostly the people who are the servants of the church. I am not sure who among them are monetary supporters other than the ones I casually see as I glance while leaving the pulpit for the offering. I have little doubt all of them give which only John Bunn our treasurer and Taber Jarrell our financial secretary can confirm.

My primary purpose in this article is to explain what I know regular Bible reading and study will do. The word convicts the heart and tells us what kind of Christians we should be. It is difficult to be doers of the word as James commanded without doing anything. The word makes well rounded Christians. They attend worship and study sessions. Our core is here, and it is our main support. The scriptures prompt our core to more prayer and study, and thus better acquaintance with word and the God of the word.

I believe each member should ask themselves, “Am I a part of the core of the Berean Baptist Church? If I am not, why am I not?” Which is better—a partially devoted Christian or one who surrenders all for Christ?

I know my definitions cannot be strictly exclusive. I also know each believer can evaluate what they read here and apply accordingly. Where do you stand? Does the Lord agree with your assessment?

Pastor V. Mark Smith

In January of last year, we were early into our study of Mark’s gospel when we had opportunity to examine the ministry of John the Baptist. John appears early in all four gospel accounts because of his baptism ministry. Before Jesus began His public teaching, it was necessary for Him to inaugurate His ministry with the New Testament right of the church which is baptism in water. Of course, there was no church when John started baptizing, but it appears the apostles chosen as foundational building blocks of the church were all baptized by John. Before choosing Judas’ replacement in Acts 1, Peter said the new apostle must be qualified in this respect—he must have accompanied the ministry of Jesus since the baptism of John. The New Testament stressed John’s baptism as well as the Old Testament in mentioning how John would prepare Israel for the coming Messiah.

Although appearing only in the New Testament, Jesus named John as the last Old Testament prophet. Apparently, God saved the best of those types of prophets until last. Jesus said there was no greater man born of women than John the Baptist. It is a superlative statement especially since Jesus Himself was born of a woman. I will leave you to research and decide on His meaning.

The last we saw of John in our study was in chapter 2 when the Pharisees complained that he and his disciples fasted when Jesus and His did not. It was a convenient comparison for them as they tried to drive a wedge between Jesus and John while knowing the people considered John to be a prophet. The Pharisees had no use for John except as they could use him against Jesus. It is hardly imaginable they favored John when he called them vipers and called them to repentance from their sins. It was not a good look for John to call them self-righteous sinners. It was also useless for them to try to exalt John above Jesus. He recognized Jesus’ authority and said he was not worthy to untie the sandals on Jesus’ feet. Jesus applauded John for his strong stand on the truth of God’s word, an immovable position since prison did not deter him from outing Herod and his wife for their immorality.

The first messages on John last year were The Baptist Bulldozer and The Baptist’s Baptism. We conclude the saga of John the Baptist today with The Baptist Beheaded. John met an ignominious end as Herod treated him as an enemy of the people. He certainly was Herod’s enemy—at least an enemy of his sin. He called him to repentance not only because his responsibility was to rule in righteousness, but also because his soul depended on it.

Herod never repented of his sin and later Caesar exiled him and stripped away much of his authority. A man who dined fabulously in a palace and could speak a word to dispel his enemies now burns in the flames of an eternal hell. Such is often the end of the world’s mightiest men. John’s legacy was that of a nomad traversing the desert in rough camel hair clothing and dining on grasshoppers. And yet, we know him better than Herod because of His trust in the Messiah and his faithful obedience to truth. John’s life teaches us not to be afraid of what people can do to us. Service to Christ yields honor at the proper time.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

In my sermon today, I will use a word you have not heard from the pulpit for several years. It is not that the word is unimportant, it is simply that the teaching has taken us in a different direction in which I have not needed to explain the doctrine expressed. To give you an introduction to the word, I invite you to walk down the hall leading to the older part of the building. Most of you will not need to because your memory of what is there will serve fine.

On the right-hand wall under spotlights are the portraits of all the pastors who have served this church over the past fifty-five years of our existence. I am the last in the line and have the distinction of serving longer than any of the earlier men. Some may lament this, but I doubt my record run will end soon. This brings me to the word I want to use later, and when I do, you will be quite sure of its meaning and have the visual expression of it in your brain. The word is perpetuity. Applied in our setting, it means the continuous uninterrupted existence of the church. Concerning this local body of Christians, Berean Baptist Church has continued the ministry here for fifty-five years. We are a church of the Lord Jesus Christ, but our history is not the total years of Christ’s church as you well know. In our study of Mark’s gospel, we read of Christ’s choice of twelve men appointed as His apostles and serving as the foundation stones of His church with later scriptures explaining that Christ Himself anchored this foundation with Him as the chief cornerstone.

Armed with this truth and two thousand years of history, we may confidently say the church of Jesus Christ has existed in perpetuity for twenty centuries. This accords with Christ’s promise in Matthew 16:18 that the gates of hell would not prevail against His church. In Matthew 28, Jesus commissioned the church with the gospel and commanded His disciples to make more disciples, to baptize them, and teach them to obey everything He commanded. This would ensure His promise of perpetuity and that His church would be here until the end of this age. Until Christ returns, the church continues and brings more of God’s people into its fellowship. Each of the pastors on the wall have done their part to support this legacy of ministry in Rohnert Park.

Across the world, there are many groups who are pretenders claiming to be part of the church founded by Christ. They bear His name and claim His blessings. We do not agree to the validity of many of these claims. We judge the claims of The New Testament church by its connection to the doctrines taught by the original church with each generation checking their close adherence to these doctrines. The apostolic doctrines of the church do not change. The word of God does not change; Christ promise does not fail. Therefore, we believe churches built on the model of the New Testament still exist. We are responsible to compare and associate ourselves only with those churches.

The apostles are long dead but the truths they taught remain. These are unalterable no matter how much time passes or how much the culture in which we live may be different from the time of the apostles. Number one on the list of pastors of Berean is Harry Buerer. Pastor Buerer planted this church in 1969 from the doctrinal seeds of churches preceding him. I stand at the end of the line still holding the truths taught in 1969, and more importantly checking those doctrines to make sure they follow what God says in His word.

Listen for the word perpetuity today and for reason I use it. We are the church of Jesus Christ in Rohnert Park. We intend to stay that way.

Pastor V. Mark Smith