Many people ask,
how many people will see Jesus when He returns? Christ’s second coming will be bright, loud and glorious. This event cannot be hidden, every human on planet earth will See Jesus!:) He will come back personally and literally. Revelation 1:7 says, “Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him.” There will not be a person on earth who is unaware of Jesus’ return at the end of the tribulation period. Jesus Himself describes the manner of His coming. Matthew 24:27 states that the return of Christ will be like the brightness of lightning illuminating the entire sky from the east to the west. Verses 30 and 31 of the same chapter describe Jesus coming with power and great glory and with the sound of a great trumpet, that awakens the righteous dead who are then gathered from the ends of the earth. Learn more about Jesus coming back as a thief in the night. We know Jesus’ second coming will be a literal event and will be just like He went to heaven the first time!:) Acts 1:9-11 says the following, “Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, ‘ "Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.’” Jesus Himself told us how to recognize the general timeframe of His return. When the disciples said, "Tell us the signs of your coming and the end of the age" (Matthew 24:3), Jesus told them a number of things to look for. He then said, "When you see all these things, you can know my return is near. 'I'm right at the door" (Matthew 24:33). He also said , "When all these things begin to happen, look up for your salvation is near!" (Luke 21:28). This means the #1 indication Jesus will return soon is all the signs appearing together. Both Jesus and the prophets told us what signs to look for, and the appearance of just one is reason enough to take notice. But the arrival of one sign after another demands your attention. It's the sign Jesus said to look for. This convergence of signs is confirmation our generation will witness the Second Coming - not according to me, but according to Jesus! The Convergence of Signs So what are these signs? Jesus and the prophets pointed to dozens and dozens of signs. This article will only cite a few, but the reality of each one of these signs is undeniable. And their convergence should convince you the return of the Lord is close at hand. These signs include: Israel Back in the Land - God promised to bring the Jewish people back into the land of Israel before He returned (Jeremiah 23:7-8). He said He would call them from "among the nations" (Ezekiel 39:28), from "the farthest corners of the earth" (Isaiah 11:12), and from "north, south, east, and west" (Psalm 107:3). He promised to welcome them home from the lands where they were scattered (Ezekiel 20:34). When they did, He promised to return and establish His everlasting kingdom (Isaiah 11:11-12). The Jewish People in Control of Jerusalem - Jesus said armies would surround Jerusalem, destroy the city, and enslaves its citizens. The Roman legions fulfilled this prophecy in A.D. 70. Jesus then said people other than the Jewish people will control Jerusalem for a time, until the Jewish people once again control Jerusalem. When they did, Jesus promised to return (Luke 21:24-28). Since 1967, the Jewish people have controlled Jerusalem. The Gospel Preached Throughout the World - When asked about the end of the age and the signs of His coming, Jesus said to look for a very specific sign. He said the Gospel will be preached throughout the entire world. Every nation will hear it. And then? And then, the end will come (Matthew 24:14). For centuries after the crucifixion, the Gospel was confined to a small area surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. In the past two centuries, Christians have brought the Gospel to every nation in the world. Today, missionaries are in every nation. The Bible is translated in hundreds of languages, and the message of Jesus is sent around the world by radio, TV, satellite, and the Internet. This generation is on the verge of spreading the Gospel to every last person and ethnicity on earth. An Increase in Travel and Knowledge - Six hundred years before Jesus, an angel gave Daniel a special message. He said "travel and knowledge" will increase in the end times (Daniel 12:4). For centuries of human history, dramatic gains in travel and knowledge did NOT take place. Yet the last two hundred years have seen explosions in the speed and frequency of travel as well as the amount and availability of knowledge. Arrival of the Exponential Curve - Jesus said a variety of global signs will come before His return and the end of the age. These signs will be spiritual, natural, societal, and political in nature. He said they will appear in a distinct way - "like birth pains" (Matthew 24:3‐8). This means the frequency and intensity of these signs will increase as we near His return. Our generation has seen the exponential increase in war and famine Jesus said to look for. In the 20th Century alone, more people died from war and famine than lived on the earth when Jesus spoke these words. Israel Surrounded by Enemies - The Bible says enemies will surround Israel in the end times. Those enemies will say "Come, let us wipe away the nation of Israel. Let's destroy the memory of its existence" (Psalm 83:4) and "Let us take for ourselves these pasturelands of God" (Psalm 83:12). Ezekiel said Israel's neighbors will say "God has given their land to us" (Ezekiel 11:14‐17), and "Israel and Judah are ours. We will take possession of them. What do we care if their God is there?" (Ezekiel 35:10). Ever since the rebirth of Israel in 1948, the daily headlines have included these Bible verses. Israel's Muslim neighbors claim the land of Israel for themselves, and they have no regard for the God of Israel. Israel's Exceedingly Great Army - Ezekiel said, in the end times, Israel will field "an exceedingly great army" (Ezekiel 37:10). Zechariah said Israel will be like a fire among sheaves of grain, burning up the neighboring nations (Zechariah 12:6) and even the weakest Israeli soldier will be like David (Zechariah 12:8). Since 1948, Israel has fought no less than four conventional wars against its neighbors. Despite being outnumbered more than 50 to 1, Israel has achieved overwhelming victory every time. Rise of the Gog of Magog Alliance - The Bible says a military alliance that includes Russia, Iran, Turkey, and a number of Muslim nations will attack Israel "in the latter days" (Ezekiel 38:8) when God brings His people home from among the enemy nations (Ezekiel 39:27). Today, we see those very nations coming together for the first time - an alliance that has never existed in world history. Rise of a United Europe - The Bible says a revived Roman Empire will come to power in the end times (Daniel 2, Daniel 7, Revelation 17). According to Daniel, it will be a ten nation alliance of weak and strong nations. Some parts will be as strong as iron, while other parts will be as weak as clay (Daniel 2:42). We see the beginning of this alliance in the European Union - a coalition of weak and strong nations struggling to stay together. The Rise of Global Government - The Bible says a single government will rule the world politically (Revelation 13:7), religiously (Revelation 13:8), and economically (Revelation 13:16‐17) in the last days. It will rule over "all people, tribes, and languages" on the face of the earth (Revelation 13:7). Its authority will be so complete no one will be able to buy or sell anything without its permission (Revelation 13:16‐17). For centuries, a true global government was impossible. Today, world leaders openly discuss it. Denial of the Signs - Almost two thousand years ago, Peter issued a warning. He said in the last days people will mock the idea of Jesus returning. They will make fun of those who believe in the Second Coming and say exactly what we hear today - things like, "I thought Jesus was coming back? What happened to His promise? Generation after generation has said He's coming. Yet, since the beginning of the world, everything has remained the same!" (2 Peter 3:3‐4). The Hour is Late Keep in mind, these signs haven't always been present. Generations of Christians lived and died without witnessing any of these signs. For centuries of Christian history, none of these signs were present. Today, they all are. Jesus said when you see these signs, you can know His return is near. He's right at the door (Matthew 24:33). In fact, Jesus said the generation witnessing these signs will not pass away before He returns (Matthew 24:34). So despite the skeptics and naysayers, Jesus is coming, and ours is the generation that will witness His return. The convergence of all these signs confirm it. How many generations of Christians longed to see what we see? Yet, there's a strange silence in the church. Why? The appearance of all these signs after centuries of waiting should motivate every Christian on earth to make the most of what time we have left. Jesus commanded us to watch for these signs (Matthew 24:42). He scolded the Pharisees and religious leaders when they failed to recognize the signs of His first coming (Matthew 16:3). Will He do any different for those who fail to recognize the signs of His second coming? Jesus warned us not to be caught sleeping when He returns (Mark 13:36). If you're a Christian, God expects you to point out these signs to others and warn them the end is near. If the world ignores you, so be it. But if you recognize the signs of the times and don't tell others about them, you're no different than a watchman who sees an invading army and doesn't sound the alarm. If you fail in your role as watchman, God will hold you accountable for all those who perish (Ezekiel 33:1-6). Have no doubt. The signs of His return are all around us. Jesus is coming. If you've been waiting to share the Gospel with someone, don't wait one minute more. You may not have another opportunity. The hour is late. The signs are present. Now is the season of His return. After His resurrection, Jesus returned to heaven, and the disciples watched as He rose into the sky. The Bible says, “While they [the disciples] watched, He [Jesus] was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men [angels] stood by them in white apparel, who also said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven’ ” (Acts 1:9-11, NKJV). Two points stand out in these verses. First, the Jesus who returns to Earth the second time is the very same Jesus who lived here on Earth with us and went back to heaven following His resurrection. And second, He will return to Earth the same way—“in like manner”—as He went back to heaven. How did Jesus go to heaven following His resurrection? Did He go secretly? No. The disciples watched Him rise, literally, bodily, into the air until a cloud hid Him from their sight. So these verses tell us that Jesus will return to earth the same way—not secretly. Is Jesus' Second Coming Secret? Another Bible text makes it even more clear that Jesus will not return secretly. “Behold, He [Jesus] is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him” (Revelation 1:7, NKJV). This text says that when Jesus comes, every eye—everyone on earth—will see Him come. That doesn’t sound like He is coming secretly! Matthew says that Jesus’ coming will be as visible as the lightning that flashes from one end of the sky to the other. “For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matthew 24:27, NKJV). The Bible says that Jesus will come in glory with the angels (see Matthew 16:27); that He will come with the shout of the archangel and a blast from the trumpet of God (see 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17); that the wicked will see Him coming and cry out for the rocks and mountains to fall on them and hide them from His face (see Revelation 6:14-17); and that He will return as King of kings, leading the armies of heavenly angels (see Revelation 19:11-16). All these texts make it clear that Jesus’ coming is anything but secret! Will Jesus come like a thief in the night? The Bible says, “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10, NKJV; see also 1 Thessalonians 5:2). But does this mean that He will come secretly and snatch away the saved, leaving the wicked behind? No. This very text that says Jesus will come like a thief in the night, also says that the heavens will pass away with a great noise. That won’t be secret! So what does it mean for Jesus to come “like a thief in the night?” The apostle Paul says, “But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober” (1 Thessalonians 5:4-6, NKJV). Jesus’ coming will be unexpected by those who are not watching and waiting for Him. It will come upon them like a thief in the night. But His people—who are not of the night nor of darkness—will be looking for Him. They will be aware of the signs of His coming and will know that it is near. Jesus’ coming will not overtake them like the unexpected appearance of a thief. That’s what the Bible means by saying that Jesus’ coming will be like a thief in the night—it will be unexpected to those who are not watching for Him. The "Day" of the Lord comes as a thief in the night: both 2 Peter 3:10 and 1 Thessalonians 5:2 do not speak about the “Lord” coming as a thief in the night, but rather the “day” of the Lord coming as a thief. This completely changes the meaning of the verse. In fact, the subject of the sentence is “day,” while the phrase modifying the subject is “of the Lord.” Christians are to watch and be ready for the “day" of the Lord to come suddenly, but once the event is at hand it cannot be hidden. It will be very obvious when Jesus comes again! Raptured or Left Behind? But doesn’t Matthew 24:37-42 say that when Jesus comes, some people will be snatched away and others will be left behind? Let’s see what Matthew says. “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming” (Matthew 24:37-42, NKJV). Matthew says that when Jesus comes it will be like it was in the time of Noah-- some people will be saved (left) and other people will be destroyed (taken). Looking more in-depth at Matthew’s wording, those who are “taken” when Jesus comes are those who are lost, taken away, and destroyed by the brightness of His coming (see 2 Thessalonians 2:8). You can think of it like this, imagine a flood swept through your town. Those who escaped, were left behind by the waters of the flood, while those who lost their lives were taken away by the water. Additionally, in the parallel passage of Luke 17:37, Jesus’ 12 apostles ask the question, “Where Lord?” referring to those who are taken. Jesus responds by saying, “Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.” Thus Jesus again explains that those who are taken will be destroyed as is symbolized by the gathering of vultures seeking to consume the dead. Therefore, we can see that the Bible does not support the idea of the secret rapture for the saved. (Note: Logically and scripturally, the question “where” only applies to those who are taken, because the location of those who are left would be the exact same location as before the event occurred.) Those who hold to the idea of a secret rapture also believe that there will be seven years of tribulation following the rapture and that during this time individuals who were left on earth will have another opportunity to accept Jesus and be saved. Is there any Bible evidence for this belief? Seven Year Tribulation First, there is no biblical evidence for a seven-year period of tribulation following Jesus’ return to Earth. And the Bible is clear that when Jesus returns, every person’s eternal fate has been decided; individuals who are lost will not have a second chance to be saved. Jesus says, “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work” (Revelation 22:12, NKJV). The Bible presents Jesus’ second coming as the great climactic event of the ages when men and women are either saved or lost for eternity. There is no seven-year period to reconsider our lives and change our destiny. Jesus pictured the separation that will take place at His coming between the righteous and the wicked—the saved and the lost—in these words: “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. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world’ . . . Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels’ ” (Matthew 25:31-34, 41, NKJV). That is not to say there will not be a tribulation. The Bible does certainly foretell of a soon coming “time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time” before Jesus’ return (Daniel 12:1). However, does Scripture support the interpretation that Christian believers will be raptured, and taken away from the tribulation, leaving only the wicked? Jesus doesn’t leave us in the dark and sheds light on the event that will be like none other before it. “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Matthew 24:21-22). Are the elect raptured before the tribulation?One must question, if the “elect,” or God’s people, are raptured before “the great tribulation,” why would they need the days “shortened?” Actually, all throughout the Bible, we are given examples of God’s people being saved in the middle of tribulations, not being saved before it.
the faithfulness of the elect will cause them to be the target of the ungodly, bringing about a time of persecution and great tribulation. However, just as throughout all of Biblical history, God preserves His elect. The same Jesus that was with the Hebrew men in the fire and lion’s den, will go with us through our trials. When the last day judgments are poured out on the world, God will shield those who follow Him with all their heart and mind. Of course, the truth of a teaching is not dependent upon who believes it, but whether or not it is in line with all of the Scriptures. The rapture, pre-tribulation & last day eventsThere are some other points to consider when seeing if the “secret rapture” and pre-tribulation understanding fits into the last events of earth’s history as outlined in the Bible:
Bible verses about the raptureJohn 14:1-3 (NKJV), “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also." Acts 1:9-11 (NKJV), "Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.' " Revelation 1:7 (NKJV), "Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen." Matthew 24:27 (NKJV), "For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be." Matthew 24:37-42 (NKJV), "But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming." Luke 17:35-37 (NKJV), " 'Two women will be grinding together: the one will be taken and the other left. Two men will be in the field: the one will be taken and the other left.' And they answered and said to Him, 'Where, Lord?' So He said to them, 'Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together.' ” 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 (NKJV), "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.” Revelation 6:14-17 (NKJV), "Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” Revelation 19:11-16 (NKJV), "Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.” 2 Peter 3:10 (NKJV), "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.” 1 Thessalonians 5:2 (NKJV), "For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.” Revelation 22:12 (NKJV), "And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.” Matthew 25:31-34, 41 (NKJV), "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. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:' ... Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.' ” Jesus is patiently waiting to come back, because He is giving humanity as much time as possible to choose and follow Him. Jesus wants as many people as possible to repent and return to heaven with Him. 2 Peter 3:8-9 says, “But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” A momentous juncture has been reached for a country and a people whose very existence tells us God and the Bible can be trusted. That country, an ongoing focus of world attention in the Middle East, is the state of Israel—now celebrating its 70th anniversary. Its people are primarily the Jewish people—with 6.5 million Jews living here in their homeland and more than that living abroad, mostly in the United States. The Jewish state and people constitute a sign that God cares and is involved—evidence of the grace of God.
Have you ever wondered if God really cares for the human race? With all the evil and suffering in the world, can we ever really trust the teaching of the Bible about a just, merciful and all-powerful God? These are honest questions that sometimes come to the minds of sincere people wanting to believe the Bible and trust in God. A look at the world and at history can be sobering, causing us to doubt. And some even read the Bible and wonder why God did some things we read about there. Let us consider, then, God’s enduring love for Israel. Understanding the world through the backstory of IsraelJesus Christ told the people of His day they needed to “discern this time” (Luke 12:56). He said they were able to look at the sky, see a cloud rise out of the west and say, “A shower is coming,” while if the south wind were to blow, they’d say, “There will be hot weather” (Luke 12:54-55). But this same people had trouble discerning exactly who He was, and they could not act on the message of the gospel He taught. How about you? Can you discern your time, our time, in relation to Bible prophecy? Can you discern today’s world with all the many events shaping our lives? Do we understand why today’s world seems increasingly out of control and a place we don’t even recognize anymore because of the moral, cultural and social changes around us? You can understand today’s world events—and you need to. Because your faith in and understanding about God depends on your discernment of this time. Let me show you how by focusing on a part of the world we regularly hear about in the news. Again, let’s look at the state of Israel. This tiny nation in the Middle East plays a significant role in world affairs. The state of Israel is now 70 years old, having been proclaimed on May 14, 1948, by David Ben-Gurion, the head of the Jewish Agency, following the Nov. 29, 1947, United Nations Resolution 181 vote calling for partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. During this 70-year period the Jewish state has fought many wars against its Arab neighbors. Its survival is constantly threatened by hostile and unrelenting Islamic terror groups. In time the United Nations came to regularly condemn Israel through resolutions, with member states constantly attacking Israel’s policies and actions. Israel lives in a tough Middle East neighborhood, where it’s continually forced to defend its existence to survive. However, in spite of 70 years of hostility Israel has developed a vibrant, prosperous society. Its people make positive life-enhancing contributions to the world in many critical areas, such as technology, medicine, education and humanitarian efforts. So why does Israel struggle against continual danger? Why must it defend itself before the court of world nations? Why the antagonism and hatred? If we are to understand this paradox of hostility and blessing surrounding Israel, we must look to the Bible for the story. Scripture gives us the backstory of Israel’s origin. Only in the Bible do we find the divine purpose for Israel’s existence—both in the ancient world and as a modern nation today. Covenant relationship arising from God’s devoted loveThe ancient nation of Israel was made up of the descendants of the 12 sons of Jacob, himself the son of Isaac, who was the son of Abraham, known as the father of all faithful people who seek after the true Creator God. Now any man with 12 sons makes for an interesting story. Jacob was no exception. His life, as revealed in the book of Genesis, involves all the elements of a good story—betrayal, revenge, children by multiple wives and concubines. It’s all there, the good and the bad. For purposes here the story told about Jacob wrestling all night with a Being who can only be God is perhaps the most important. At daybreak God gives Jacob a new name, Israel, meaning “prevailer with God” or “prince of God.” This name, Israel, is given to the nation that arises from his 12 sons. The man Israel concludes his life in Egypt with his sons and their families after they escape a severe famine. Years pass, and the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob come out of slavery in Egypt under the leadership of Moses in the great Exodus. God remembers the promise He made to Abraham—a promise that Abraham’s descendants would be strangers and servants in a land not theirs. The Egyptian captivity lasted several generations until God delivered the Israelites from slavery and brought them back to the land God promised to their forefathers, the land known today as Israel. As God had made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob regarding the land, so He also entered into a covenant relationship with their descendants, the children of Israel who had grown into the nation of Israel. This covenant relationship between God and the people, the terms of which both agreed to, is at the heart of the story of the state of Israel today. This is not an old story from the ancient mists of time. This is not a myth created by ignorant tribes who somehow wandered into this land and created an epic story to justify their presence. God loved these people. His desire was to give them every opportunity for peace and success—allowing them to grow and prosper. Israel the nation was to become a model for all others to emulate in following His way of life, showing that His laws and judgments can produce a culture blessed with peace and prosperity. Notice how God said it in Scripture in Deuteronomy 7: “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to a be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth” (Deuteronomy 7:6). The Israelites had an amazing opportunity with God. They were given a special land to serve as a special people. And note what lay behind God choosing them: “The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage” (Deuteronomy 7:7-8). God had a deep spiritual love for the nation of Israel. This love, I say again, is at the heart of this story. God promised Abraham his family would grow into a nation and inherit promises lasting for generations, far beyond his day and into the modern world. Notice what God said next: “Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments” (Deuteronomy 7:9) God is faithful. He keeps His agreements for a thousand generations. Here is a key to understanding why the modern state of Israel sits in the same geographical spot as ancient Israel. The Jewish state is a continuation of the people with whom God entered into a covenant relationship so long ago. There were multiple covenants involved in this relationship, including that with Abraham previously. God’s covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai, where the nation agreed to be His people and accept the terms of obedience to His laws, was a marriage agreement—with God as the Husband (compare Jeremiah 31:32). And God made yet another covenant with the Israelites prior to their entry into Canaan in Deuteronomy 29–30 concerning the habitation of the land—with destruction and casting out for disobedience, and yet bringing the people back with repentance in the future. This is something you don’t read about in your history books. But this special covenant relationship and God’s promises and prophecies concerning His people and the Promised Land are at the heart of understanding the importance of today’s state of Israel after 70 years of survival and the controversies over and within Jerusalem, its capital. A love story gone wrong—to yet be put rightLet me take you into a passage of the Bible that is profound. It reveals the deep love and passion that God has for Israel. This love started thousands of years ago and continues to this day. And while the love story we find here is between God and one particular people, it’s ultimately meant for all peoples and nations. It’s also a sign that God is faithful to all His promises for mankind. This narrative is found in Ezekiel 16, where God speaks through His prophet to Jerusalem, the heartbeat of the nation. “On the day you were born,” God says, “your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water . . . nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. No eye pitied you, to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you; but you were thrown out into the open field . . .” (Ezekiel 16:3-5). Recall that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were wanderers with no permanent home. When Abraham’s wife Sarah died he had to purchase a burial spot from his neighbors. Jacob took his family into Egypt to find food to survive, and his descendants became slaves making mud bricks for Pharaoh. No one but God was looking out for the children of Israel. Then God says: “When I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you . . . ‘Live!’ . . . I made you thrive like a plant in the field, and you grew, matured, and became very beautiful” (Ezekiel 16:6-7). “But,” He further said, “you were naked and vulnerable, fragile and exposed” (verse 7, The Message). God delivered the Israelites from Egyptian slavery and brought them into the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. After many years as a small confederation of tribes, the fledgling nation grew into a major power under its greatest kings, David and his son Solomon. Israel’s location enabled it to act as a stabilizing power preventing such nations as Egypt, Assyria and Media from dominating the region. God’s transformation of Israel is described in these terms: “I took care of you, dressed you and protected you. I promised you my love and entered a covenant of marriage with you . . . I gave you a fashionable wardrobe of expensive clothing. I adorned you with jewelry . . . emerald rings, sapphire earrings, and a diamond tiara . . . You were absolutely stunning . . . You became world-famous” (Ezekiel 16:8-14, MSG). But this did not last. Israel did not live up to its part of the agreement. It did not keep the laws of God. The people adopted pagan forms of worship from neighboring nations, and they effectively abandoned God, the true and ultimate source of their wealth, security and standing among the nations. God describes it as adultery—immoral and unfaithful relations outside the marriage partnership—and even harlotry. He states: “But you began to trust in your beauty. You used the good name you had and became unfaithful to me. You acted like a prostitute with every man who passed by. You gave yourself to them all!” (Ezekiel 16:15, Easy-to-Read Version). God said they took all the clothes and fine food He had given—the wealth and the prosperity and status as a powerful nation—and used them in foreign, idolatrous worship: “You acted like a prostitute with those false gods!” (Ezekiel 16:19, ERV). So depraved was God’s unfaithful bride Israel that, rather than having strangers pay her for sexual relations as a typical prostitute, she paid them (Ezekiel 16:31-34). Every norm was turned inside out! This graphic passage of Scripture, with its beautiful imagery descending into horror, shows the depth of God’s feeling for the nation He created from nothing and made His own—His model nation to all the other nations. Israel’s story did not end well. God brought other powerful nations like the Assyrians and Babylonians against His people—to destroy and remove them from the land. Yet through all the unfaithfulness, idolatry and ultimate decline, God always held out a lifeline of hope based on His enduring love for the people who once held such promise. God said to Israel, “I’ll remember the covenant I made with you when you were young and I’ll make a new covenant with you that will last forever” (Ezekiel 16:60, MSG). Israel would then be forgiven and changed: “You will be so ashamed of the evil things you did that you will not be able to say anything. But I will make you pure, and you will never be ashamed again!” (Ezekiel 16:63, ERV). This final phase of an everlasting new covenant with Israel has not happened yet. The Church of God, as spiritual Israel, is a forerunner in this new relationship, the fullness of which won’t occur till Jesus Christ returns to earth and sets up the Kingdom of God to last forever. At that time, all of Israel will be brought into this relationship, and Israelites from all over the world will return to the same land. Then, with Jesus Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lords over all the earth, all nations will be led to become part of God’s covenant relationship with Israel. Judah only a part of Israel—yet set forth as clear testimonyLet’s pause to consider a little understood piece of the historical puzzle. The modern Jewish state bears the ancient name of Israel but in actuality represents only a small part of the entire people of Israel whose ancestors lived in the land and to whom so many of the biblical prophecies apply. As we have seen, in the Bible the nation of Israel refers to the 12 tribes that marched out of Egypt under Moses in the story of the Exodus. These 12 tribes were descended from the 12 sons of the patriarch Jacob whose name was changed to Israel by God. But here is what you should understand at this point. One of these sons was named Judah. His descendants were Judahites, a name later shortened in passing through other languages into the term Jews. King David, who was of the tribe of Judah, came to rule over all 12 tribes—as did his son Solomon. But after Solomon, the nation was split into two kingdoms—the kingdom of Israel in the north, made up of 10 tribes, and the kingdom of Judah in the south, made up of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin and a large portion of Levi, as well as a few from other tribes who ended up moving to the south. The people of this southern kingdom all came to be known as Judahites or Jews. What this means is that the Jews, the people of Judah, made up only one part of the larger nation of Israel. So you don’t have to be ethnically Jewish to be an Israelite! But how did the Jews become so prominent? Why do people usually think of the Israelites today as only the Jews? It’s a good question, and the Bible gives us the answer. The northern kingdom of Israel existed for about 200 years after Solomon’s death before falling captive to the Assyrian Empire. The northern Israelites were forcibly exiled from the land and scattered. They are known in history as the lost 10 tribes of Israel. But they are not truly lost even though they have largely forgotten their identity. God had said they would be sifted among the nations as grain without the smallest grain falling to the ground (Amos 9:9). And indeed, through comparing history and prophecy, we are able to identify the nations descended from the northern tribes of Israel today. The southern kingdom of Judah survived longer than Israel, but eventually it too fell—in its case to the Babylonian Empire. Most of the people of the ancient Jewish state were taken to Babylon. Seventy years later, after Persia took over from Babylon, a group of Jews, fulfilling a prophecy of Jeremiah, returned to Jerusalem, with a few more to soon follow, and the city of Jerusalem and its temple were rebuilt. A partially restored Jewish nation then existed in Jerusalem with its distinctive culture until the time of Jesus and the New Testament Church, when the Roman Empire ruled over the land. It was about 40 years after rejecting Jesus that the Jewish nation collapsed in A.D. 70 at the hand of the Romans, who destroyed Jerusalem and its temple following a Jewish rebellion. Still another Jewish revolt was put down by the Romans in 135. Many of the Jews were scattered in these Roman actions, joining the Jewish Diaspora (or dispersion among the nations) that existed since Babylonian times. Descendants of the scattered Jews founded today’s state of Israel in 1948. The existence of the modern state of Israel is necessary to the fulfillment of certain end-time prophecies and also assures mankind of God’s enduring faithfulness. As He remains committed to His people, we can also be confident that His promises to all nations and peoples are sure. In fact, Israel is a key factor in this. The promise God made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob involve both spiritual and physical promises. These promises will be poured out on all the nations—including you and me. To understand the existence of the state of Israel today is to understand God and His prophetic timeline. The constant opposition of most of the world’s nations to Israel today, many with severe hatred, is tangible proof of the removal of God from mankind’s knowledge. But God’s grace and enduring love transcends this corrupt condition that will come to an end. Your Bible shows us that God’s spiritual promises will be given to all. Peace, restoration and eternal life are the hope of all nations! God’s people not cast away—to still be a blessing to allIn the book of Romans, the apostle Paul tells the story of ancient Israel’s rise and fall and hope of restoration. The Israelites had a deep relationship with God. Their opportunity was to become a nation based on the law of God and His glory. God made special promises to the people of Israel, setting them apart from all other nations, promising protection and prosperity. All of the physical blessings God promised were lesser types of greater spiritual blessings to be found in Jesus Christ, a direct descendant of King David. But ancient Israel failed. As we saw earlier, they split apart, and through a combination of idolatry and Sabbath-breaking they dishonored and disobeyed God—resulting in their captivity and exile. Most of Israel, with the exception of the Jews, forgot who they were. And the Jews have not done as they should. But Paul’s desire and his prayer for Israel, his people, was that they would be saved (Romans 10:1). Even though they did not obey the gospel (Romans 10:16), their rejection is not total or permanent, as Paul makes clear in Romans 11. God has not cast Israel aside. Through Paul, God reveals there is a remnant of Israel among today’s nations, and by His grace they will be regathered. But here is the amazing and little understood truth: Israel’s rejection of God works to His glory and purpose! All other nations and peoples, what the Bible calls the gentiles, can have this same relationship with God based on His eternal promises. In God’s time, all will have opportunity to know Him. For God loves not just the people of Israel, but the whole world for whom He gave His Son to die (John 3:16). The apostle Paul says that blindness has come on Israel until the fullness of the gentiles has come in. In a magnificent piece of writing Paul is inspired to show that Israel, all 12 tribes, and the whole world will have the opportunity for salvation. All nations will have the opportunity to receive the full promises of God, both physical and spiritual. Notice Romans 11:1-2 where Paul asks, “Has God cast away His people?” He then answers: “Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew.” God had used physical Israelites such as Paul to form the very foundations of the Christian Church. Jesus Himself was a Jew! Paul goes on to explain that because of unbelief leading to sin, the original physical Israelites were cut off from being part of spiritual Israel—God’s covenant people—but that these are to ultimately be rejoined to Israel on repentance, as are the gentiles. He says in verses Romans 11:11-15 that by those of physical Israelite descent being cut off at this time, salvation is opened to the world. Gentiles thus have a place in God’s true spiritual Israel today. Yet it’s further explained that God is not finished with the physical descendants of Israel. By their being brought back into God’s grace, they will yet serve as the model nation for all peoples they were intended to be. This will happen during the coming reign of Christ on earth. Then all will be given the opportunity to be saved, Israel being used powerfully in “the reconciling of the world” (Romans 11:15). All the tribes of Israel, not just the Jews, will be united. Then all mankind will seek the Lord. In fact, “in those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you’” (Zechariah 8:23). All nations will come to Jerusalem and learn of His ways. Jerusalem, the capital of the modern state of Israel, will one day become the capital of the whole world under God (see Jeremiah 3:17). So Israel matters. Not just the Jewish state in the Middle East today. All the tribes matter to God. And all the nations of the world matter to God—yet they must all become part of Israel to be saved and live forever as God’s family, nation and Kingdom. In one last burst of inspired enthusiasm Paul exclaims: “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33). The understanding of the identity and role of Israel is the key to understanding today’s world and the march of history toward the Kingdom of God. The understanding of Israel shows us the enduring promises of God’s salvation for all the nations. Because He is faithful in His committed love toward Israel, He will be faithful in His promises through Christ to all people—including you and me—with all of us given a part in His covenant nation. This great love story involves God’s love for all people. That is the good news of the gospel! Finally, let me repeat that to understand Israel is to understand God and His prophetic timeline. The state of Israel’s existence, in spite of all the odds, is a sign that God controls the destiny of all nations. It is proof that God watches over history and is guiding our world with all its peoples to His ultimate purpose. God watches over the nations. The state of Israel is living proof! The world at large will continue to plot and rage against Israel and the Jewish people. But they will survive and will complete their God-ordained purpose. Remember this as you watch today’s headlines! Colossians 1:28 Whom we preach Under the above considerations; as the riches, the glory, and the mystery of the Gospel; as the hope set before lost sinners to lay hold upon; as the only Saviour and Redeemer, by whose righteousness believers are justified, through whose blood their sins are pardoned, by whose sacrifice and satisfaction atonement is made, and in whose person alone is acceptance with God: Christ and him crucified, and salvation by him, were the subjects of the ministry of the apostles; on this they dwelt, and it was this which was blessed for the conversion of sinners, the edification of saints, the planting of churches, and the setting up and establishing the kingdom and interest of Christ: warning every man; of his lost state and condition by nature; of the wrath to come, and the danger he is in of it; of the terrors of the Lord, and of an awful judgment; showing sinners that they are unrighteous and unholy, that their nature is corrupt and impure, their best righteousness imperfect, and cannot justify them before God; that they stand guilty before him, and that destruction and misery are in all their ways; and therefore advise them to flee from the wrath to come, to the hope set before them in the Gospel: and teaching every man in all wisdom; not natural, but spiritual and evangelical; the whole Gospel of Christ, the counsel of God, the wisdom of God in a mystery, and all the branches of it; teaching them to believe in Christ for salvation, to lay hold on his righteousness for justification, to deal with his blood for pardon, and with his sacrifice for the atonement of their sins; and to observe all things commanded by Christ, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly: by these two words, "warning" and "teaching", the several parts of the Gospel ministry are expressed; and which extend to all sorts of men, rich and poor, bond and free, greater and lesser sinners, Gentiles as well as Jews; and who are chiefly designed here, and elsewhere, by every man and every creature: that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus; not in themselves, in which sense no man is perfect in this life; but in the grace, holiness, and righteousness of Christ, in whom all the saints are complete: or it may regard that ripeness of understanding, and perfection of knowledge, which, when arrived unto, saints become perfect men in Christ; and is the end of the Gospel ministry, and to which men are brought by it; see ( Ephesians 4:13 ) ; and to be understood of the presentation of the saints, not by Christ to himself, and to his Father, but by the ministers of the Gospel, as their glory and crown of rejoicing in the day of Christ. Colossians 1:27 Christ in You, the hope of Glory I love a mystery. I enjoy a baffling exceptionally well-written mystery. Authentic Christianity is an inexplicable mystery to many people. That is because Christ is a mystery. Because of our intimate personal relationship with Him we are a mystery to the world. Those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ will not and cannot be expected to understand the true Christian until they, too, have a saving knowledge of Him. A. W. Tozer got to the heart of this mystery when he wrote that Christians are crazy in Roots of Righteousness: "A real Christian is an odd number anyway. He feels supreme love for One whom he has never seen, talks familiarly every day to Someone he cannot see, expects to go to heaven on the virtue of Another, empties himself in order to be full, admits he is wrong so he can be declared right, goes down in order to get up, is strong when he is weakest, richest when he is poorest, and happiest when he feels worst. He dies so he can live, forsakes in order to have, gives away so he can keep, sees the invisible, hears the inaudible, and knows that which passes knowledge." Christians are meant to be different, and we are in good company. Can you imagine Christ in all His glorious riches actually dwelling through His Spirit in our lives right now? God's goal is to make us in all respects just like Christ. God is at work. He is sovereign. He is busy changing lives and the way He does it is a mystery. TELL ME A MYSTERY The apostle Paul even said that Christ is God's mystery (Col. 2:2). The good news we share with the world is 'the mystery of Christ" (Col. 4:3). Paul uses the word "mystery" not as we do in our day, but in the context of his day and age. The word "mystery" in the Scriptures is a secret, a truth undiscoverable, except by divine revelation. It is a fact that cannot be understood in detail without divine help. It cannot be known by natural abilities and mental powers. It was a truth that was hidden in the counsels of God down through the ages and generations until God in His grace chose to make it known to mankind by divine revelation. The apostle Paul says, "the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations; but has now been manifested to His saints" (Col. 1:26). It was concealed from angels and men until God revealed it. The only way of knowing this "mystery" is through a self-revelation of God to man. God revealed a great mystery to the apostle Paul. God made it visible or known to man. If Paul has in mind the heathen use of "mystery" whose secrets were kept confined in a strict narrow circle of initiated members of their society, then he tells us that the Christian mystery in Christ is just the opposite because it is fully declared and proclaimed in the open to everyone in the world. God has revealed His deep secret to all mankind by means of His special revelation. There are no secrets with God. He has fully revealed Himself in Christ. The deep mystery is that God has granted free admission of all Gentiles on equal terms with the Jewish believers to all the privileges of the covenant. God has now told His secret to all His saints. God's riches are no longer limited by national ties. God has done this according to the riches of His grace. The context of this great passage on God's mystery in Christ is the church as the body of Christ (Col. 1:24). For some it is strange to say that the apostle can "rejoice in my sufferings for your sake." The apostle had learned the joy in Christ in times of suffering (Phil. 4:4). In fact, verse 24 is a great outburst of thanksgiving to God for the privilege of suffering "on behalf of His body." There is a sense of purpose in his experience. "I am filling up in my turn the left-overs of the tribulations of Christ in my flesh." Genuine Christians are strange, indeed. Does Paul's suffering have any atoning value for his sins? No. Do our sorrows have any atoning value for our sins? No, of course not. We do not come adding any virtue or merit to the completed work of Christ. Christ's work of atonement for sin is complete. It was completed when Christ declared from the cross, "It is finished!" We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. The Christian's suffering is on a different level from that endured by Christ on the cross. Punishment for sin is not in view here. The sufferings of Christ alone have atoning value for the sinner. Ours do not. It is part of our stewardship. We suffer troubles, afflictions, tribulations and persecutions because of our identification with Christ (Matt. 5:10-12). The afflictions of the church are also the afflictions of Christ (Acts 9:4-5). The person who persecutes the church persecutes Christ. When believers suffer, Christ suffers. It is this stewardship as a member of the family of God that he was "made a minister" on behalf of the church. God assigned him the task of fully proclaiming God's message to the known world. The call of God was to preach without reserve the whole gospel of God to the ends of the earth. Paul now proceeds to tell us about that great responsibility that was thrust upon him and every Christian minister (Col. 1:25). THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST IN YOU In Jesus Christ are summed up everything we can know about God and His eternal purposes. In Christ we see the riches of God's glory, wisdom and grace (Rom. 9:23; 11:33; Eph. 1:7, 18; 2:7; 3:16; Phil. 4:19). Christ is a mystery The gospel is a mystery of mysteries. Christ is Himself the grand mystery of redemption. It is the majestic secret of God with us. It is the glorious manifestation of God's dealings with mankind. The Holy Spirit takes the revealed Word of God and illumines us individually. We are made gloriously wealthy by this mystery. C. H. Spurgeon said: "Each separate individual must have Christ revealed to him and in him by the work of the Holy Spirit, or else he will remain in darkness even in the midst of the gospel day. Blessed and happy are they to whom the Lord has laid open the divine secret which prophets and kings could not discover, which angels desired to look into. "Without controversy," said the apostle Paul, "great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh." The Lord Jesus is crowned with "glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." He is "the brightness of the Father's glory." We have "unsearchable riches in Christ" because "in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." As Spurgeon noted: "Oh, the riches of the grace of God which it has pleased the Father to impart unto us in Christ Jesus! Christ is the 'mystery,' the 'riches,' and the 'glory.' He is all this . . . He is all this among us poor Gentiles . . . and we are made heirs of God. . . . All things are ours in Christ Jesus our Lord." The essence of the mystery is Christ Himself in His person. It is Christ in all His glorious riches actually dwelling through His Spirit in the inner lives of His believers. The incarnation of Christ is a mystery The incarnation of Christ is a deep mystery. It was born in the unsearchable wise mind of God. The idea of "Immanuel, God with us" was conceived in the omnipotent omniscient mind of God. Every regenerated mind delights in this vital union between God and man. The apostle Paul tells us another mystery. Let the quotable Spurgeon say it for us. "Our Lord's person is at this day constituted in the same manner. He is still God and man; still He can sympathize with our manhood to the full, for He is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh; and yet He can help us without limit, seeing He is equal with the Father. Though manifestly divine, yet Jesus is none the less human; though truly man, He is none the less divine, and this is the door of hope to us, a fountain of consolation which never ceases to flow." Very God-very man. God incarnate became a vicarious substitute for sin and died and rose again. The death of Christ is a mystery Since the incarnation is a great mystery we are ever mindful of the great mystery of His death. That the Son of God should die as a substitute for our sins is quite beyond us. He humbled Himself and became a servant, and died as our substitute on a cross. He bore our terrible load of sin on the cross that we might never bear the Father's righteous wrath. He took the cup of wrath that we ought to have drunk forever and drained it dry. He bore our punishment in His death. He redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. Moreover, He has made everything right and safe for us with God the Father by making an end of sin and an everlasting righteousness on our behalf with the Father. The finished work of Jesus Christ is a grand mystery. Jesus Christ is all my righteousness. He is all my salvation and all my desire. The resurrection and ascension of Christ is a grand mystery On the other hand since He is the second person of the Godhead, the Son of God, the eternal Word of God, should we be in the least surprised that He should rise from the dead? Jesus Christ "is the firstborn from the dead" (Col. 1:18). He overcame death and passed to His sovereign throne at the right hand of the Father in heaven where He reigns as the living Lord. He has overcome death. He is alive! Since you are a believer you have been raised up with Christ, therefore keep on constantly seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God the Father. Because of the new birth Christ now lives in me. This is the greatest miracle of all. Christ in me is the most certain thing in my personal experience (1 Cor. 6:19-20; Eph. 3:16-17). A total change took place in our outlook when we came into personal contact with Jesus Christ. There was a time when we were "alienated from God" and we were "dead in trespasses and sin." We began and ended each day without any serious thought about God and His will for our lives. He was not important to us. We were hostile toward God. But something happened in our lives. Now we are reconciled to God. Now He is our most valued person. Something happened within us. Something changed our attitude toward Jesus Christ. In the moment we believed on Jesus Christ our whole life changed. God is in the business of changing lives and He does it when we repent of our sins and believe on Christ as our Savior. What happened? We were born again. A spiritual birth took place and Christ came within you and the Holy Spirit made you His temple. If you need your life changed that is where you must begin. It begins when you open your heart to Christ and receive Him as Lord. Every believer has stamped in him, "Made in Christ." That means there are no cheap imitations of Christians. The crowning work of redemption is conforming the believer into the image of Christ (Gal. 4:1). The greatest miracle is Christ in you "Christ in you, the hope of glory." The grandest mystery of all Paul tells us is "Christ in you, the hope of glory." Christ in me creates the "hope of glory." A. T. Robertson stresses the idea of the preposition en here is "in" not "among." The context requires that we understand the phrase as referring to an inner subjective experience. The mystery long hidden is not a diffusion of Christ among the Gentiles. It is the indwelling of Christ in His people, both Jewish and Gentile. The declared "hope of glory" of both is "Christ in you." Paul has in mind the indwelling Christ in the heart of every believer. Though "among you" makes good sense, it is more probable "in you" or "within" (cf. Rom. 8:10; 2 Cor. 13:5; Gal. 4:19; Eph. 3:17). It is the personal experience of the living presence of Christ in the individual life of the believer that is the mystery of mysteries. Ephesians 3:17 tells us Christ "dwells in your hearts." The central fact of an intimate personal relationship with Christ is this great truth of "Christ in you." This indwelling constitutes "the hope of glory" for every believer. Jesus is the Shekinah glory of God, and He shines in our hearts so that we see the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Cor. 3:18; 4:6, 16; 1 Jn. 3:2-3). The Christian has experienced the superior light and knowledge of Jesus Christ and all other religious experiences and claims of the Gnostics and secret mystery religions fade into nothing when compared to the inward knowledge of an intimate love relationship with Him. The first Adam headed up the human race and stood for us, and fell for us, and we fell in him. How marvelous that the second Adam took up within Himself all His people and stood for us and kept the covenant with God the Father so that now every blessing of that new covenant is infallibly secure to all who are risen in Him. "Whatever Christ is His people are in Him. They are crucified in Him, they were dead in Him, they were buried in Him, they were risen in Him; in Him they live eternally, in Him they sit gloriously at the right hand of God, "who has raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.' In Him "we are accepted in the beloved,' both now and forever; and this, I say, is the essence of the gospel; he who does not preach Christ, preaches no gospel. . . . Christ Himself is the life, soul, substance, and essence of the mystery of the gospel of God" Anything short of Jesus Christ will leave you short of salvation. You have to reach Christ, and touch Christ and nothing short of this will save you. Jesus gives us Himself. To have Christ is to have eternal life. He does not merely give us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption etc., but He is made of God all these things to us. He is our life. Therefore, we cannot do without Him. The Christian experience heightens every individual power we have. Keep in mind the person in whom Christ begins to possess does not cease to be himself. He does not become a robot. This is not some pantheistic philosophy Paul is teaching. "Christ in me" means that He is bearing me along from within. His motive-power carries me on giving my whole life a wonderful sense of God's presence. It gives me life with an endless song in my heart. This blessed union with Christ is a vital union with God. The more a person is "in Christ" the more he is "in God." To be united with Christ is to be united with the God who raised Him (Rom. 8:11; Col. 2:12). The heart of Paul's fellowship with Christ is found in his certainty that "God was in Christ." The believer is risen with Christ through faith of the operation of God who raised Him from the dead. The apostle John says, "Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:3). It is Christ in you or within you that gives us the riches of His glory. The mystery is the indwelling Christ in Gentiles. It was not a mystery to the Jewish people that the Messiah should come and dwell among His people. That was their great hope. However, that the Messiah of Israel should dwell among the non-Jews was an entirely new revelation of the purposes of God. Christ freely given to the Gentiles is the mystery. Christ now indwells in His people, regardless of whether they are Jewish or non-Jewish. Christ in you Christ in you accepted by faith alone means Christ possessed. When Christ is in you the law has nothing more to say to you. It can no longer condemn you because God has declared you acquitted. You have been justified by faith in Christ. Christ in you means Christ experienced in all His power. Christ in you fills your life with His holy presence and power. That which the law can never do, Christ does by indwelling in you. Christ in you is His sovereign rule in your life. Christ in you is Christ's scepter from the center of your being over every facet of your personality. Christ in you is His power bringing every thought into captivity to Himself. Christ in you means the imperial sovereignty of Jesus Christ over your life. We find our freedom by being in submission to His sovereign hand over our lives. Christ in you means His filling you with His wonderful presence. Christ in you transforms your person until you become like Christ. When Christ enters into our lives and we yield to His presence He transforms, elevates us to His likeness. The apostle Paul declared, "I live, yet not I, Christ lives in me." When Christ enters in He sanctifies us, and sets us apart for His glory. Christ in you means He enters into us and becomes our life. Christ in you means His power in you. We were without spiritual strength until Christ came into our lives. We were dead in trespasses and sins. Now our spiritual victory is guaranteed. Christ in you means we are spiritually rich. We were in spiritual poverty until Christ came in and now we have all the riches of Christ Jesus. We are now rich because He is rich. Christ in you means honor and glory. He glorifies the place where He dwells even for a moment. If Christ comes into your heart His whole court comes with Him! Rejoice for you have Him as a holy guest. People who value and love Him cannot be happy without Him. OUR HOPE OF GLORY The indwelling Christ is the ground for the expectation of glory both now and the future. "Christ in you, the hope of glory." The word "glory" points to the great consummation in God's eternal purpose, and is a comprehensive word for God's glorious presence with His people. The wealth of glory for the believer is this mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ. Our ground of hope is "Christ in you." ''The full glory of the inheritance was a hope, to be realized when Christ should appear. Glory refers to the glory of the mystery; hence the glory consummated at Christ's coming" the glory which shall be revealed." The glorified saints around the throne of God have no higher source of joy than the saints on earth. They have no higher theme or song of praise to the Father. They are only happier because their discovery of these things is more complete and are now freed from all earthly hindrances and limitations that interrupt our enjoyment in our present state. Christ alone is our foundation for the blessed hope in the future, or eschatological glory. The fact that we now have Christ in us is the pledge of final glory when Christ returns. This glory is yet future. We will share in the yet future full manifestation of God's glory in Christ. Jesus Christ focuses our minds and desires on that which is above in heaven and the eternal future. Christ in you gets eternity into the picture. He gets our minds off our past through the forgiveness of our sins and into the present as He lives within us and into the future as we concentrate on our blessed hope in Him alone. "Christ in you" energizes the present and gives us a song to sing. Lord Jesus, will I see You today? Even so, come! Paul wrote in Colossians 3:4, "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory." The apostle Paul prayed that this great truth would become a reality for the believers in the church at Ephesus. He prayed, "that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:16-19). That will take your breath away! When Christ in you offers all of those glorious benefits why in the world do people go turning to new age movements, secret mystery religions, occults and cults seeking the most recent religious fad? If you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior He wants to settled down and make Himself permanently at home in your heart. He wants to settle down in your "inner man" that is, the personal, rational self, the moral I that has experienced spiritual renewal by the Spirit of God. He is talking about the very core of your inner spiritual being, the place where the Holy Spirit works to fashion and form His temple since the moment you were born again. That is the place where He is at work forming you in the image of Christ. It is there Paul tells us Christ "dwells" "in your hearts through faith." Christ wants to settle down in a dwelling, to dwell fixedly in a place, to live in a home. He wants to settle down and feel completely at home as a permanent dwelling place in your heart. But Paul is not through. He says in a great doxology, "Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen" (Eph. 3:20-21). Literally Paul writes, "But to Him [God] who is able above all things to do exceedingly above . . ." It is exceeding some number or measure, over and above, more than necessary and is intensified by adding the idea of exhaustlessness and "above." The apostle Paul has in mind something that is beyond all things. It is superabundantly and over and above anything he can imagine. Now to our God who is able to do exceedingly beyond all things, superabundantly and over and above all things, exceeding all things beyond all things, we ask or think, according to the power that works within us. What a great God and Savior we worship! Our weakness is connected to God's omnipotence and omniscience. God is able! The amazing thing is the best is yet to come! These are words of hope and confident assurance of the believer's future. The apostle John wrote of that final glory in 1 John 3:1-3. What glory is ours, glory unspeakable! We shall have glorified bodies just like the resurrected body of Christ when He appears in glory. "He who has come to live in our hearts, and reigns as our bosom's Lord, makes us glorious by His coming," declared Spurgeon. When Christ comes to reign He brings countless blessings with Him. Just think of it. "He who went to the cross for me will never be ashamed of me: He who gave me Himself will give me all heaven and more: He that opened "˜His very heart to find blood and water to wash me in, how shall He keep back even His kingdom from me? O sweet Lord Jesus, thou art indeed to us the hope, pledge, the guarantee of glory." The Lord Jesus Christ entered into a covenant with God the Father to bring His people home to glory. He who pledged to bring every sheep of His flock safe to His Father's right hand will not fail. He has never failed one of His covenant promises. He never will. Christ in you is glory. In having Christ, you have glory. Christ's glory and your glory are wrapped up together. If Christ were to lose you it would be a great loss to Him. If I can perish with Christ in me He will lose His honor. His glory is gone if one soul who has put their trust in Him for eternal life is ever cast away. As sure as the Lord God lives, Christ in you means you in glory with Him for all eternity. This is the most astounding truth taught in the Bible. "Christ in you." SOME ABIDING PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS Christ in me is a prophet teaching me His way, giving me His direction so I can proclaim His message with clarity and boldness. "To whom God willed to make known" is the result of God's grace, through no merit of the saints, making it known. God says, Now that you know all my deep secrets in Christ, go into the entire world and tell them. Instead of piously keeping them to yourself, "or your select group," go out and tell the secret to everyone who will listen. Only Christians can understand the mystery because it is "Christ in you, the hope of glory." Christ in me is my High Priest interceding and giving me immediate access to God so I can go directly into His presence with my petitions on your behalf. Christ is me is a king demanding my loyalty as I bow in worship only to Him as my Lord and Master and as His servant I go out to serve. Don't be ashamed for one moment of the fact that Christ in you is your hope of glory. This is the greatest mystery of the universe that God of the Jewish people would take up residence in Gentile men and women. The idea of salvation of the Gentiles was nothing new. The prophets spoke of it and the poets wrote of it in the Psalms. But the idea that He would tabernacle Himself in a Gentile was something wholly new. That is the mystery of "Christ in you the hope of glory." Prophetic statements sometimes apply to more than one fulfillment, a principle we could call "duality." A prime example of duality is Christ's first coming to atone for our sins and His second coming to rule as King of Kings. Such dual themes are common in Bible prophecy. Jesus specifically alluded to the dual application of some prophecies in Matthew 17:11-12. Asked about the prophecy of "Elijah," who would precede the coming of the Messiah (Malachi 4:5), Jesus responded: "Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things. But I say to you that Elijah has come already …" (Matthew 17:11-12). The disciples understood that the "Elijah" who had come already was John the Baptist (verse 13). Jesus Himself explained that John, already dead when Christ uttered these words, was a first fulfillment of Malachi's prophecy. But Christ's clear implication is that another Elijah will precede His second coming, announcing His return just as John the Baptist preceded Christ's first coming. John no longer could do anything in the future. But as a forerunner, John had fulfilled, at least in part, Malachi's prophecy. Another prophecy with dual application is Jesus' Olivet prophecy (Matthew 24; Mark 13; Luke 21), so named because He gave it on the Mount of Olives or Mount Olivet, overlooking Jerusalem. Many conditions described in this prophecy existed in the days leading up to the Romans' siege and destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. But Christ makes it clear that similar conditions would prevail shortly before His return. Another example of dual fulfillment is in references to the "Day of the Lord" such as in Isaiah 13:6: "Wail, for the day of the Lord is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty." Verse 1 of that chapter identifies the time setting as when the Babylonian Empire threatened the kingdom of Judah (Babylon invaded Judah and captured Jerusalem in 586 B.C.), and it is in this setting that Isaiah wrote that "the day of the LORD is at hand!" However, he again mentioned the Day of the LORD in Isaiah 13:9: "Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and He will destroy its sinners from it." His subsequent inspired words, though, show that he is writing about the time of the end: "For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the moon will not cause its light to shine. "I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will halt the arrogance of the proud, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold, a man more than the golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth will move out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts and in the day of His fierce anger" (Isaiah 13:10-13). We must carefully examine the context of prophecies to understand their meaning and discern whether the prophecy seems incomplete after its first fulfillment. It is equally important to avoid reading duality into passages that do not support such interpretation. We should take great care to properly discern whether duality is a factor in any particular prophecy. Often we may recognize a prophecy's fulfillment only after it is well under way or already has taken place. What are parables? Parables were short, relevant stories that Jesus told to communicate spiritual truths. Jesus used "well-known" aspects of first-century life to help illustrate and communicate the message of the kingdom. The parables showcase the wisdom of Jesus as the master teacher. But the parables served a unique function in Jesus’ ministry in polarizing the crowds between those who hear him and those who truly understand him. It is to that function of the parables I want to look at together today as we begin this series. Jesus teaches this parable of the sower in verses 1–8 and then explains this parable to his disciples in verses 18–23. Between its teaching and explanation, Jesus speaks to the purpose of his teaching parables. In many ways, the parable of the sower is a parable about the parables. Thus, it makes it a fitting place to start as we begin this series on the parables. Traditionally called “The Parable of the Sower,” the sower really isn’t the main point of the parable. I think a better name for it might be “The Parable of the Four Soils.” The point of the parable explains the various "reactions" to the gospel. We will see that the good seed of the gospel can fall upon various soils of the human heart. In other words, the parable is trying to answer the question, “Why do so many people respond so differently to the Gospel?” In sum, the secrets of the kingdom can only be understood by God’s gracious aid. We will first consider the purpose of the parables, focusing on verses 10–17, before then explaining and applying the parable of the four soils. The Purpose of the Parables (Matthew 13:10–17) Jesus tells the parable to the crowd. A sower goes out to sow. Some seed fell on the path; birds ate it. Some seed fell on rocky ground; the sun scorched it. Some seed fell among the thorns; the thorns choked it. Some seed fell on good soil and produced fruit. Then Jesus wraps up the parable with, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Amazingly, Jesus doesn’t seek to explain the parable to the crowd or interpret it for them. That’s not the way the parable works. Parables forced the hearer to think about the message, wrestle with its meaning, and thus examine their own hearts. Jesus intends the parable to force people to contemplate and respond to his teaching. Parables were culturally relevant illustrations that functioned like a "puzzle box" enclosing the nature and purpose of the kingdom of heaven. Yet, only those who have ears to hear the truth can hear it. As Jesus taught by the sea, all audibly heard the teaching of the parable; not all will comprehend its message. This leads to verses 10-17 of the passage, in which Jesus explains the purpose of the parables. While Jesus taught the parable to the crowd, he explains his purpose in the parables to his disciples. He pulls them in and discloses to them the secret of the kingdom. The word “secret” comes from the Greek word mysterion. The word is used similarly by Paul when he talks in Ephesians of how God made known “the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ” (Eph. 1:9). The secrets of the kingdom refer to the hidden purposes of God’s kingdom that must be spiritually understood. The secret isn’t obscure, possessed only by a few entrusted folks. Rather, the kingdom of God is proclaimed publicly through Jesus’ teaching in parables. Yet, few understand the nature of Christ’s kingdom. They see but do not perceive. They hear but do not understand. In Matthew 13:12-13, Jesus speaks of the polarizing reaction to his teaching in parables. Those who wrestle, engage, and ponder over Jesus’ teaching will discover increasing truth. More understanding will be given. They will know the secrets of the kingdom. Yet, for the one who ignores, discards, and casts aside Jesus’ teaching will have what little truth received taken away. He says, “For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” (Matthew 13:12, ESV) Jesus taught in parables because the parables create and expose these spiritual realities—the parables spiritually harden or spiritually enlighten. Look at verse 13, “This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.” Jesus roots his teaching in Isaiah 6 and quotes this prophecy in verses 14 and 15. In many ways, Jesus intends the parables to polarize the crowd. He’s separating the wheat from the chaff. He is separating true spiritual seekers of Christ’s kingdom from phony impostors. Notice what Jesus says in verse 11, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.” You see, understanding of Christ’s kingdom must be given. Some receive this understanding, and others do not. We must pause here for a moment and consider how do we gain spiritual truth? How does anyone understand the kingdom of God? How can anyone believe in the gospel? Jesus points to God’s sovereignty as the reason any one of us understands the secrets of the kingdom of heaven. As he explains to the disciples, they see and hear, not because of their brilliance but because they are blessed. Blessed by who? Blessed by God. He tells them in verses 16–17, “But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” Just as Jesus will say a few chapters on in Matthew, in Matthew 16:17, when Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ, the Lord responds, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has -not revealed- this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” It is God who reveals to anyone the secrets of the kingdom. We can’t comprehend the identity of Jesus without God’s help and aid. Our sin causes such blindness and such deafness to the truth that it requires the supernatural aid of God to regenerate our hearts and enable us to behold the glory and salvation of Christ. Just as Paul taught the Corinthians, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14). So, the parables then identify those who are supernaturally enabled to understand the teaching of Christ and behold the glory of Christ. Yet, there is a lesson as well here in terms of how the Spirit works in bringing us into the knowledge of the secrets of Christ’s kingdom. The parables provoke spiritual interest and spur the pursuit of more understanding to meaning. It says in verse 12, “For the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance.” There is a lesson for those of us who know the Spirit of God as our teacher. Our ability to understand spiritual truth is spiritually given. But once we have the Holy Spirit, knowing the truth is like a muscle. If you train and exercise your muscles, they will grow stronger, and you will be able to lift a heavier and heavier weight. However, if you don’t use it, it atrophies. It gets weak and shrivels away. Similarly, if we understand the truth that’s been revealed, we will have a greater ability to comprehend more truth. The disciples, who have already latched on to Jesus’ teaching, have demonstrated that they are true hearers, and Jesus gives them greater insight into his message and kingdom. Truth gives way to greater truth. The more truth we respond too, the more truth we can understand. Those who reject the truth, cannot understand Jesus’ parables. There is also a warning here if you are not a Christian. It is vital that you respond to the truth of God. When we fail to respond to the truth of the gospel, whether it is from a friend or from a sermon, our hearts begin to harden against the truth. Though we hear it, we do truly hear it in our hearts. Before long, truth ricochets off of us, and the result is hard-hearted resistance. The Parable of the Four Soils (Matthew 13:1–9; 18–23) In many ways, Jesus gives us a detailed interpretation of this parable because it’s so essential in understanding all the other parables. It is the key to understanding all the parables. This is the parable about parables. Now before we get into the specifics of the parable, we must note that in first-century Palestine, plowing came after sowing. So as the sower scatters his seed, he is not being careless as he’s throwing the seed, thus accidentally throwing some on the path. The purpose of the parable isn’t to urge us to be discriminatory in sharing the gospel, “Well that guy looks to be like the soil on the path, so I’m not going to share Jesus with him.” Or, “Oh well she looks like the superficial seed on the rocky ground, best not share the Gospel with her!” No, that’s not the point of the parable. If anything, the parable encourages us to be as widespread as possible with the sowing, but the parable helps give us a framework for understanding the various responses that come after the sowing. The sower sows the good seed of the Word upon the various soils. This good word is the gospel itself, of how Jesus has come to die on the cross to save us from our sins. It’s the message of his kingdom. Jesus came to fulfill the demands of God’s Law, and as the messiah, he will lay down his life for sinners so that anyone who would repent and believe in Christ would not perish but have everlasting life. The seed sown is the message of the gospel, the announcement of the kingship of Christ, the heralding of the way of salvation through God’s Son. The gospel is a good seed, a good word! It is news—the best of news! However, not everyone receives the gospel with joy. As the seed is sown, the four soils represent different types of human hearts. The parable asks us both to examine our own hearts while at the same time giving God’s church a framework for understanding the variety of reactions to our evangelism. So as we walk through Jesus’ interpretation of this parable, the question that should be in our minds is this: what type of soil is my heart? Keep that question in the back of your mind as we discuss these four types of soils. 1. The Unreceptive Path: The Hard Heart As the sower sows the seed, some of it falls upon the path. The seed has no time to grow on the hard, compacted soil and a bird quickly snatches it up. Our hearts can become so hard that the gospel bounces off of our hearts, and Satan quickly snatches it away. The image of the path brings to mind the idea of travel, commerce, and busyness. There is so much traffic and activity upon the heart that the word of God cannot take root in their heart. They hear the gospel, but they have no understanding. This person keeps themselves so busy with activity that they do not have time to contemplate spiritual things. They run to and fro at a frantic pace. When they do slow down, they keep their minds busy by the bombardment of media, news, and entertainment options available. No room, no time, no opportunity exists for the gospel to take root. If they hear the gospel, their heart is so trampled down by frantic activity they have no time to consider it. The evil one snatches it away with speed. This is a frightening reality because you can hear the gospel so frequently taught and preached and yet not understand it. A hard-heartedness can easily seep into active churchgoers. You get into the habit of going to church because that is how your mom raised you, or you want to look moral and important somehow. You sit week after week under the teaching of the gospel, and your heart is so hard that the word just bounces off of you. You leave unchanged, unmoved, and unresponsive to the word of God. If you are unresponsive to the gospel, then your heart may have been hardened against the gospel. And I pray that somehow God would get your attention before it is too late. Often, what this type of heart needs is a good plowing up to soften up the soil. Your heart needs good breaking with the cutting of the plow. It is a mercy for God to bring tragedy and suffering into your life in order to soften your heart and unclog your ears. With a heart tiled by suffering and softened by pain, you are ready to truly hear the gospel message. 2. The Superficial Gravel: The Shallow Heart The seed was also sown upon rocky ground. The terrain of Palestine is a rocky one. Much of the land is covered with 2-3 inches of soil over limestone bedrock. As a result, seeds scattered in such areas would begin to take root, but the roots couldn’t grow deep into the soil. When the heat of the sun beamed down upon the young plant, it dried out and died. The shallow roots couldn’t take the heat. Such hearts hear the gospel and initially find great joy in it. Filled with zeal, they become quite impassioned about Jesus, but as soon as tragedy or persecution hits, they abandon Jesus. More often than not, these people become the greatest antagonist against Christianity. When they hear about Jesus, they superficially attach themselves to the church, but their excitement does not last. It withers once life becomes difficult and dies out. Here we must caution against the dangers of emotionalism. Experiencing great feelings doesn’t necessarily mean that you know Christ. It’s common for people to chase experiences—whether it’s a conference, a youth camp, or a worship service. You can chase an experience all you want, but you might not have necessarily gained Christ. Such experience chasers are often like this soil. It’s all frothy emotions and crocodile tears, but there are no roots. They never develop a deep faith and trust in Jesus. Thus, as soon as the heat of the sun bears down upon them, they reveal themselves as the imposters they truly are. As soon as life gets hard, persecution occurs, or suffering strikes, they go from praising Jesus to blaming Jesus. For the true Christian, deeply rooted in the gospel, the heat of the sun strengthens us grow by forcing our roots to go deeper. Sufferings and trials grow and mature the Christian, yet for those who have only superficially attached themselves to Jesus, the heat shrivels them up. Emotions are by no means a bad thing for the Christian. Indeed, we should have great feelings and love for Jesus, but true faith in Jesus is a deep trust and confidence in God’s Word that goes beyond how we feel in any given moment. Only the true Christian can praise Jesus through sorrow and cling to Christ in tragedy. 3. The Worldly Weeds: The Divided Heart The third type of soil is that of the worldly weeds. This is the divided heart. It’s the type of heart that refuses repentance. It’s a divided heart because it attempts to add a love of Jesus along with love for the world. But, no matter how hard you may try, you cannot sustain split loves like that. As Jesus says in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters.” Or, as James puts it, “Friendship with the world is hatred towards God” (Jam. 4:4). Or, as John puts it, “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 Jn. 1:15). You see, true faith, saving faith is a complete and total devotion to Jesus. Those who have divided allegiance to Jesus end up rejecting Jesus in the end. It’s not as if they were Christians and then they lost their salvation. They were never Christian at all. They never truly repented of their former way of life. The roots of the world lie beneath the surface of their hearts. As the good seed of the gospel comes to them, it begins to grow, but the thorns and thistles of the world quickly choke out the seed. For each of these three soils so far, we must state firmly that none of them were truly Christian, though they may initially seem to be Christian. The first soil obviously rejects the seed, and Satan swallows it up. The second soil, the shallow heart, never truly becomes a Christian as the seed of the gospel doesn’t last. The third soil, the divided heart, also never truly becomes a Christian, as the gospel is choked out. Though to us looking at the outside, there may be initial signs of spiritual life; it doesn’t last. Time reveals their so-called faith as phony. The roots are too shallow to endure hardship or worldly desires choke out the gospel plant. These three soils help us understand the various responses to the Gospel message. However, there is a fourth soil Jesus gives us. 4. The Good Soil: The Fruitful Heart This fourth soil is the good soil of the fruitful heart. The message of the gospel comes into their life and begins to take root and grow. Their heart is ready, supernaturally prepared, for accepting the Gospel seed. The soil is soft, ready to receive the word, not hardened like the path. The soil is deep, ready to put down roots deeply, not like rocky like the gravel. The soil is pure, not contaminated by worldly weeds that choke out the gospel from their hearts. The Holy Spirit had gone before and prepared the heart in regeneration for true faith in Christ to take root. Jesus tells us that this soil represents the one who hears, accepts, and bears fruits. This person hears the gospel and accepts it as true. They hear of what Jesus has done for them, how he is the son of God who came down from heaven, became flesh, and dwelt among us. They hear of his death for the sins of humanity. They hear of his victorious resurrection, conquering sin and death. They hear it and accept it—they truly believe in him, that Christ is the king! It is only by the power of God that any of us can truly hear this gospel! So the message of the gospel is received, but what is the evidence of authentic hearing of the gospel? Well, Jesus is pretty clear: it is a life lived in fruitfulness. The seed of the gospel produces fruit thirty, sixty, or a hundredfold! What sort of fruit does this look like in the Christian life? Well, it means the fruit of the Spirit is evident in your life, and not just evident by continually increasing. Paul tells us: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (Galatians 5:22–24, ESV) Fruit in the Christian life is also displayed through evangelism. A tree produces fruit for reproduction. In the same way, we, through our witness, must proclaim the gospel to others. We speak of what Christ has done for us and invite others to put their faith in Jesus! The mark of the true Christian is Spirit-empowered, persevering fruitfulness. Final Thoughts The four soils indicate four types of hearing, with only one soil representing the true hearing and acceptance of the Gospel message. Examine yourself and ask which type of soil reflects my heart?
I pray that today the Spirit would show you the depths of your heart and help you to truly hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ this morning. He has come to deliver you from your sin and save your soul. Through this sermon (and every sermon), I’m throwing out the seed of the gospel. If you’ve been coming to Redemption a while and hearing the gospel, I pray that the Lord has brought great fruit into your life as you accepted and received Christ. As you believe the truth, may the Lord give you greater understanding and enjoyment of Christ. May truth beget an increasing knowledge of the truth in your life, manifested by the fruitfulness that comes from Christian maturity! However, if you’ve been coming here a while and there is no fruit in your life, the problem isn’t with the good seed of the gospel but your heart. Receive Christ. Grow deep roots into Christ. Uproot the worldly weeds that choke out Christ from your life. For some of you, you may have never truly, authentically heard the gospel. The message has hit your ears but never your heart. I pray today you would respond for the first time in saving faith. May the Lord give you to know of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven. May he bless your eyes, for they see. May he bless your ears, for they hear. He who has ears, let him hear. Why did Jesus often tell those he healed to remain silent? It is interesting that on a number of occasions after Jesus performed a mighty deed, he commanded those who benefited to not tell anyone. This is especially the case in Mark’s gospel. Why did Jesus do this? The messianic secret is a feature of the Gospel. Another major part of the answer to my initial question has to do with the nature of miracles and their main purpose. It seems they were mostly about confirming the man and his message. They were not ends in themselves. They pointed to the nature of salvation and the long-awaited messiah. The connection between miracles and salvation can be seen in many places. For example, the story of the healing of the paralytic in Matthew. 9:1-8 shows the inseparable link between forgiveness of sins and the man’s healing. “Although Jesus’ miracles teach about his power to heal physically, these signs are especially meant to turn attention to the kingdom of God (6:33; 9:12). Similarly, in the Book of Acts signs and wonders constitute the primary method of drawing attention to the claims of the gospel, but it is the gospel itself that is paramount (e.g., Acts 14:3).” The same can be said about Mark’s gospel. Miracles are primarily pointers, and they point to a person. As James Edwards comments: “For Mark the significance of Jesus cannot be fully conveyed by what he does, but only by who he is. One can be amazed by a miracle, but one can only trust and believe a person.” Moreover, Jesus did not want to be sidetracked from the main purpose of the incarnation: the cross. Jewish expectations at the time of what the messiah would be like were quite different from his. They were looking for a military conqueror, a political liberator. Although this was a proper expectation based on much Old Testament teaching, it was not the whole package. That the coming messiah should first suffer, then rule, was not part of most Jewish expectations. But the idea of a suffering messiah was there nonetheless (as in the Suffering Servant passage in Isaiah 52:13-53:12). What the Jews were eagerly looking forward to from the day of the Lord was God’s vindication: God’s salvation of his people and judgement on their enemies. The coming messiah was looked on as a great deliverer or judge, in the tradition of Moses, Samson or Gideon. Jesus knew these skewed expectations would become an obstacle to his appointed task of his substitutionary death. He could not allow those who wanted to make him a political revolutionary to deter him from his true mission. Thus he had to urge quiet, so that he might follow his father’s will, not the misguided will of the crowd. Here's an interesting thought experiment -- if you knew you had a finite amount of time to teach people everything they needed to know about abundant life now and eternal life to come ... how would you do it? If we're honest, I'll bet most of us would choose as straightforward a method as possible. Maybe contract law, or exhaustive doctrine? Among several kinds of teaching, one of Jesus' favorites was story. Moreover, his stories were sometimes strange or enigmatic, and he did not always try to explain them. What was he up to? Jesus knew that human beings are "story-formed people." We perceive and process our lives in the form of characters, plot, conflict, and resolution. So he used stories as a primary way of engaging our imaginations and inviting us to explore the deep truths he wanted us to know. One such story is the parable of the vineyard, in Matthew 20:1-16. (Click the scripture reference to read it online!) When reading parables, remember the principles we've outlined so far in this series, "Lost in Translation." Be aware of your own cultural lens; give priority to the historical context in which it was written; beware of creative normative commands from narratives meant to illustrate truth. In this parable, the vineyard would conjure in the first-century Jewish mind the important metaphor of the vineyard for God's people (see Isaiah 5:7). This isn't a story about how to do business, or about a free capitalist market, or about employing day laborers. It's a story about God's people...especially who's in and who's out. Jesus often designed his parables to begin with a setup, then offer an unexpected ending. It was a skillful way of exposing us, especially when we have hard hearts. This parable is a classic reversal of expectations: not only does the landowner pay the last workers first, he pays them a full day's wage! So what is Jesus trying to get across, if it's not about fair wages or being a generous employer? Parables aren't allegories (stories in which every element symbolizes something else -- think Orwell's "Animal Farm"). So we can't pick them apart piece by piece -- if we pull the petals off a rose, we'll lose the beauty of the whole! Instead, the parables are illustrating truth about "the kingdom of heaven." Jesus even starts this parable that way! In this case, Jesus is challenging people who feel that they somehow deserve privilege in God's kingdom. These might be people who have lived faithfully, tithed generously, even made personal sacrifices for God's glory. In these cases, it can be all too easy to mistakenly believe we "deserve" something from God, or that there are degrees of belonging in God's kingdom. But the simple fact is that everything we have is the result of God's grace -- a gift from our generous Landowner. Philip Yancey brilliantly put it this way: "God give gifts, not wages." When we accept the fact that we are recipients of God's grace rather than earners of God's favor, we will discover the kind of gratitude that permeates the hearts of so many people we read about in the Gospels and Acts. And oh, how we need this gratitude today! How we live in a cultural grace-drought! The Church has been called and equipped with the Holy Spirit to lead the way within our divisive, petty and backbiting culture to let God's rivers of living water flow through us into this dry and thirsty land. But it starts with remembering that we are all latecomers to the vineyard. We are all recipients of God's scandalous grace. We are all given more than we deserve from the One who wants us to have abundant lives. For reflection: 1) Which characters do you primarily relate to in this parable? 2) Do you feel like a "latecomer" to God's kingdom? How does it make you feel to consider that you are a latecomer, rather than one of the faithful all-day laborers? 3) Do you know anyone that you would find difficult sharing an equal share of the Church? (If you don't think of anyone, consider people who have wronged you, or wronged someone else. Think of people who do things you don't approve of. This is how many 1st century Jews thought of Gentiles and others they considered "unclean.") 4) What can you do to change your attitude toward the person(s) you thought of in #3? How can you bring all of this to God honestly in prayer? In Grace! Isaiah’s ministry spanned fifty years as he prophesied and addressed the sins of the people during the reign of four different kings. As a messenger of God’s covenant, one of Isaiah’s primary roles was to remind the people what God expected of them. The book has a coherent structure, which can be divided into two parts, but written by one author. The first half, chapters 1-39, focuses on God’s judgment of His people, while the second half, chapters 40-66, focuses on the salvation of God’s people. Another key difference is the first half deals more with the Assyrian crisis while the second half deals with the Babylonian crisis and resulting exile. Despite these calamities, an overarching theme throughout the book of Isaiah is God’s special relationship with the nation of Israel and the unfortunate need of judgment and exile to bring about the future restoration of God’s people.
GOD’S JUDGMENT AND SALVATION OF HIS PEOPLE Michael Wilkins explains, “The people of Israel understood that God was using them as a people to fulfill the prophecies of Isaiah; however, the problem was Israel, as a nation, had failed in its mission and as a result had become a blind and deaf servant”[1] (Isaiah 42:18-25). God can use anyone and anything to accomplish His plan and during the first part of Isaiah, He uses the Assyrian army to confront the people’s sinfulness and bring about judgment and salvation. “Assyria was the rod of Yahweh’s anger and the staff in their hands was His fury” (Isaiah 10:5). In the second half of Isaiah, it would be the Babylon Empire that the Lord would use to pronounce judgment on Israel, but even before the exile took place in 586 B.C., the Lord planned to use Cyrus, the Persian king to allow the people to return home. As J. J. M. Roberts asserts, “Israel’s current predicament was due to the sins of her people (Isaiah 42:24-25). Their plight was well deserved, their coming salvation was due simply to Yahweh’s graciousness, and the appropriate response was to return to Yahweh in trust and confidence”[2] (Isaiah 43:22-44:2). Ultimately, the hope and salvation of Israel would only come through their suffering, judgment, and exile. RESTORATION AND TRANSFORMATION OF THE CITY OF JERUSALEM Barry Webb explains, “The transformation of Zion is both the literary link and formal key that helps us understand the message of Isaiah.”[3]In chapter one, Zion, the unfaithful prostitute is reduced, but in chapter two, Zion, Yahweh’s bride is exalted and taken back, following the divorce/exile. This dichotomy is a powerful reminder of God’s grace and the comparison being made is how old Jerusalem was equated with God’s judgment while the New Jerusalem was going to be a place of God’s blessing and a place where God establishes His kingdom forever. Roberts explains, “Isaiah’s transformation of the royal ideology and the Zion tradition became the wellspring from which the later messianic expectations and the hopes for a New Jerusalem [and] the conception of a heavenly Jerusalem and a transhistorical view of salvation that includes even the ultimate victory over death [arose].”[4] After the purge, John Watts shows, “The important thing about Zion is her reputation as Yahweh’s dwelling. It is Yahweh’s house, the temple, which stands out, because He is present and active there.”[5] This is reminiscent of Isaiah’s vision again, as the glory of the Lord filled the temple. His holiness is overwhelming, as the seraphim are depicted covering their face and feet, calling out to one another, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory” (Isaiah 6:3). Watts adds, “Yahweh’s presence in the temple lifts its importance to supremacy and this has nothing to do with Israel or Judah, their kings or leaders. Purely because Yahweh is there, Zion attracts the other nations.”[6] Then the imagery of beating swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks is profound. Here, Geoffrey Grogan explains, “The issues that set nations against one another do not disappear automatically but are settled by the supreme Judge, whose decisions are accepted. Thus there is no uneasy calm but peace based on righteousness.”[7] The coming kingdom of God and the future restoration of Israel are dominant themes. Gary Yates states, “God is going to bring the people back to their homeland; there is going to be the restoration of the Davidic Dynasty, through the Messiah; the temple will be rebuilt; and as the nations see how God blesses Israel, they will come to the Promise Land to worship God.”[8] Sin still had consequences, so as the children of Israel return home from the Babylonian exile, they find themselves impoverished and living under foreign oppression. It is here, Yates asserts, “If the return from exile is all there is, then Isaiah’s prophecies and promises are a disappointment at best and they are an outright failure at worst.”[9] Ultimately, the full restoration will not occur until they have fully returned to the Lord (Isaiah 56:1-7). The new heavens and new earth referenced in Isaiah 65 and the New Testament, (Hebrews 12:22-24) says the blessings and presence of God are being enjoyed now, but in the future there will come a time where God completely reverses the effects of the fall. This means death, violence, and wickedness will be replaced with life, love, and harmony and Isaiah recognized, as he looked to the future kingdom, some of these promises and blessings are being enjoyed now, but some are still yet to come. LORD AS KING AND HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL Roberts states, “If there is any one concept central to the whole book of Isaiah, it is the vision of Yahweh as the Holy One of Israel [and] Isaiah’s vision… left a lasting impression on the prophet’s ministry.”[10] Isaiah’s vision in chapter six is profound as the glory of the Lord filled the temple and this encounter would shape his entire ministry and message. Isaiah desperately wanted the nation of Israel to have a similar experience and encounter, so that they too would find themselves undone by their sinful lives. Unfortunately, Israel had to learn the hard way, despite God’s sincere desire to enter into a relationship with His people. Instead of pouring out blessings, as a result of righteous behavior, the Lord would use the exile to purge all the unholy traits from the people. God is the one the people should have put their trust in exclusively, but the people, instead, chose to rely on political and military alliances for protection. The main issue throughout Isaiah was Israel’s failure to deal with its own spiritual apostasy and no alliance made with any other nation could protect them from the Lord’s wrath. The holiness of the Lord demanded a proper response from His children, but as Roberts explains, “If Israel refused to look to Yahweh, to trust in the quiet waters of Shiloah, God would send the raging waters of Assyria against them to reveal the vanity of their trust in human power”[11] (Isaiah 8:5-8). LORD OVER ALL NATIONS Roberts further illustrates how, “Before Yahweh would fight for Zion; He would fight against her (Isaiah 31:4-5). Jerusalem would be humbled and humiliated, but in the hour of her desperation, when Yahweh had cleansed her in the fiery judgment, God would intervene to save her from her arrogant enemies (Isaiah 31:4-5). Then Jerusalem would be exalted and glorified.”[12] While God used Assyria and Babylon as tools to purge Judah and Israel of sin, the very nations used by God would face judgment themselves because they failed to recognize Yahweh as Lord over all. When reading Isaiah 45, part of which focused on the fact that God is the one who “Forms light and creates darkness, the one who makes peace and creates calamity. I am the One who does these things.” This portion of Scripture is amazing, especially considering most people do not normally think that God has anything to do with the darkness. In fact, most people define darkness as the absence of light, so Isaiah is making a profound assertion here that God declares that He is even in the dark chaos of the world, and for this reason, followers can have peace, even in the darkness, because He is Lord over all. John Oswalt explains, “What Isaiah asserts is that God, as creator, is ultimately responsible for everything in nature, from light to dark, and for everything in history, from good fortune to misfortune. No other beings or forces are responsible for anything.”[13] Even in darkness and chaos, God is with every true follower, and the darkness will eventually give way to the light of day. “For the light has shone already into the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it” (John 1:5). FUTURE MESSIAH AND SUFFERING SERVANT Instead of leading the people of other nations to Yahweh, the people of Israel often did the exact opposite by worshipping the false gods of other nations. In the midst of this apostasy, Isaiah promises that God would provide a solution to the problem, which was the raising up of an individual Servant who would restore the national servant, the nation of Israel. Richard Averbeck explains, “The Lord’s concern for the nations, not just Israel, is declared in the larger context in Isaiah 49:6-7; 56:6-7 and now the same sacrificial redemption and restoration applies to them as well.”[14] This means the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 brought redemption and restoration, as Averbeck says, “To the Jew first, but also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16). Roberts further explains, “The plan of salvation, centered in the vicarious death of Jesus Christ is dependent on [Second] Isaiah’s portrayal of the Suffering Servant, and the NT emphasis on the receptions of that salvation through faith picks up and continues the Isaianic demand for faith.”[15] In light of the entire canon of Scripture, God still has a plan for the nation of Israel and while they were spiritually blind to the Suffering Servant’s arrival, Isaiah 61:1-3 indicates the first coming of Jesus began the restoration of Israel and the second coming will finish it. Jesus quoted these words in Luke 4:18-19 and as He read to the people in the synagogue, He stopped in the middle of 61:2 after the words, “The time of the Lord’s favor has come.” Rolling up the scroll, He said, “The Scripture you have just heard has been fulfilled this very day!” (Luke 4:21). While the world is now under God’s favor; His wrath is yet to come.[16] Robert Hughes and J. Carl Laney explain how Isaiah 61:1, “Revealed that the Messiah, who ministered salvation at His first coming, will also minister comfort for redeemed Israel at His second coming.”[17] By His death and resurrection, Jesus instituted and inaugurated a new phase of God’s kingdom, some of which is now, and some of which is still to come, when Christ returns. While this student does not agree with Roger’s conclusion on the matter of multiple authors of Isaiah, nonetheless, Rogers does offer considerable insight on the overarching themes in the book that bears his name. Upon reading Isaiah, there is no denying the special relationship God had and still has with His children, but while they were supposed to be a light and witness for God, they fell victim to greed and apostasy. God wanted the best for them, yet the nations of Judah and Israel chose to find their own versions of “God’s best” outside of God’s will. As a parent punishes a child, Yahweh too is forced to pronounce judgment before He is able to provide salvation. This salvation ultimately finds its initial fulfillment in the arrival of the Suffering Servant, the Messiah, but even then, as Isaiah prophesied, “He would be despised and rejected by man” (Isaiah 53:3). The words written by the eighth century prophet are just as relevant today and much can be applied to nations, like America, by heeding what was revealed in the woe oracles against foreign nations. These declarations can directly be traced back to the Abrahamic Covenant, which God made with man and are unconditional promises by God. Christ is coming back, a future kingdom will be established forever, and the Lord will rule over all, as every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Isaiah 45:23; Philippians 2:10). In addition to Isaiah having multiple dominant themes, it also is the only Old Testament book to predict the virgin birth of Christ (7:14), the ministry of John the Baptist (40:3-5), and contains one the Old Testament’s clearest statements on the Trinity (48:16). Next to Deuteronomy, Isaiah presents the most detailed information on the person and work of God and also the Messiah’s role as both sacrificial lamb and ruling lion. Christ was obedient and empowered by the Father and He will return one day as the anointed one of the Lord and victorious warrior (63:1-6). “This is the day the Lord has made, let us be glad and rejoice in it” (Psalm 118:24)… This is the Lord’s Day… This is Easter Sunday… This is Resurrection Day… This is a glorious day… Every Sunday we gather in celebration of the truths that it is finished—Jesus has paid it all, and that He is risen—and because He lives so will we… And all of this hinges on what happened on this weekend all those years ago… Don Carson has said that, “The entire Bible pivots on one weekend in Jerusalem two thousand years ago.” And if that’s true of the Bible how much more so of our lives? Friends, the gospel is the most important message in existence… It defines our lives as Christians and it’s where true life is found… And at the heart of the gospel is this weekend… On this weekend, roughly 2,000 years ago Christ was crucified; and then on the third day, on the Sunday after His death, up from the grave He rose… He got up from the grave, He defeated death, He defeated sin, and He satisfied God’s wrath for His people… But over 700 years before the cross of Christ, Isaiah laid out what happened perfectly… Jesus Himself said in Luke 22:37, “For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in me: And he was numbered with the transgressors.’ For what is written about me has its fulfillment.” There He was speaking of Isaiah 53; and in Isaiah 53 we find an amazing picture of the gospel… Charles Spurgeon called this chapter, “the Bible in miniature, the Gospel at its essence…” And so, today we’re going to look at this gospel message, we’re going to look at Good Friday and Easter through the lens of Isaiah 53… And given the critical nature of the gospel, regardless of how familiar you may think you are with this message, you would do well to give it your upmost attention this morning… Because again, if the Bible pivots on this, how much more so our lives? So let’s dive in… Isaiah 53- Our text begins in verse 1 with the questions, “Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” Well the answer to the first question seems to be no one, and the answer to the second question is first Israel and then the world… Isaiah says, “Who has believed what he has heard from us?…” Us being the prophets of Israel; those who faithfully proclaimed God’s Word… And then he speaks of the arm of the Lord. And what’s typically meant by the arm of the Lord in God’s Word is the power of God in action… And in this context the power of God in action is Jesus, the Suffering Servant Himself… And we can see this as the text shifts from speaking of the arm of the Lord to speaking of a person… In verse 2 we read, “For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.” So, notice that the arm of the Lord is now referred to as a He. And in light of the whole of Scripture this makes sense… The gospel is the good news about the person and work of Jesus Christ; who He is and what He has done and will do… And in Romans 1:16 we’re told that the gospel, “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Or we could say to Israel and to the world… And that’s exactly what we’re being told here… The power of God in action, the power of God for salvation is revealed in a person, in a servant, in the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53, in Jesus… In Isaiah 52:13, just before this we’re told that the one Isaiah 53 speaks of is indeed a servant. God’s Word says, “Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.” And we refer to Isaiah 53 as the Suffering Servant passage, because it tells us how this Servant of God suffered for the sins of man; it tells us how Jesus conquered through death… Now, outside of the grace of God no one believes this message… Even Israel who saw Jesus face to face didn’t see Him for who He was; that’s in part because they weren’t looking for a suffering servant, but a conquering hero; but also, Isaiah says, they didn’t see Jesus rightly because, “he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.” Jesus looked like an average Palestinian Jew… He didn’t look special or attractive… He didn’t have blond hair and blue eyes… And He certainly didn’t look like what they were looking for in a King… So in verse 3 Isaiah tells us, “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” But, Jesus was and is the King of the universe. “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him” (Colossians 1:16). He is the, “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Revelation 19:16)… We owe Him our allegiance. We were created for Him… We owe Him our esteem… To esteem is to regard highly or favorably, with proper respect and admiration… But Isaiah says that we despised Him and esteemed Him not… We were created to delight in Him and esteem Him, but in our sin we despise Him and esteem Him not… This was true of Israel and the world by and large… And that’s because it’s true of everyone in their sin… In the flesh we are unable to see the beauty and majesty of Jesus… His beauty can only be seen by faith… In verse 2 it says that after coming to this world Jesus grew up before God… He was always before God’s eyes; but the eyes of man never rightly looked upon Him, at least not without a work of grace… Jesus has always been in perfect communion with God the Father and God the Spirit… Our triune God is holy, perfect, and good, and has always existed in perfect joy in and of Himself. And even after Jesus left heaven and came to earth to save sinners, before going to the cross God always looked upon Him in love and joy… But He was despised and rejected by men… He was not rightly esteemed… And this is the heart of what sin is: rejecting God, not esteeming Him rightly; and regardless of what we think, if we don’t esteem God rightly we despise Him because we belittle Him and seek to put ourselves in His place… This is what mankind has been doing since Adam and Eve, but this is especially what happened when Jesus came to earth… In verse 4 we read, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.” In other words, He took on our sorrows and sufferings, yet the world thought He was being punished by God for His disobedience… The Jewish leaders accused Him of sinning against God and had Him sentenced to death. And notice that Isaiah says, “we esteemed him stricken…” In other words he’s including himself with those who would have Jesus crucified… He did that 700 years before it happened… And understand, we should write ourselves into that as well, even 2,000 years after it happened… Sure we’d like to think that we would do better, but we wouldn’t… As that old hymn asks, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” Friends, we were there, because we are no different than they in our flesh… We would have shouted crucify Him because we would have thought Him guilty… And as we watched Him suffer we would’ve thought He was getting what He deserved for His sin… Oh, but it wasn’t His sin that He suffered and died for, but ours… In verse 5 we read, “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” They esteem Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted; they thought He was being punished by God for His sin, and we would’ve too… But, in actuality, God in the flesh was being punished for our sin… It was our griefs, our sorrows, our transgressions, our iniquities… And notice the language here; again, this was written 700 years before the cross, yet God’s Word says, “he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows . . . . he was pierced . . . . he was crushed…” This is what is known as prophetic perfects… In other words, God has said it, so it is as good as done… That’s why the Bible speaks of Jesus as the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world… In other words, God’s plan before He created the world was to save the world through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The gospel is not plan B… There are no plan Bs with God… The cross was the plan before creation, so Isaiah can say with confidence that Jesus will be pierced, crushed, chastised, and wounded for our salvation… He can write as if it was already done, because it was already as good as done… And as we look back at the cross, we look back knowing that all of this did indeed happen, that it is finished… God made good on His Word, as He always does… Jesus was pierced for our transgressions by three nails and one spear… His chastisement brought us peace… The idea behind chastisement here is corporal punishment… And that’s what happened… Jesus was tried, He was flogged and beaten, and then He was crucified… It was corporal punishment inflicted upon Him as though He had committed a crime… But it wasn’t He who committed the crime, but us… So He took our punishment… He was wounded for us… He had a crown of thorns beaten into His head, His beard ripped from His face… Pierced, chastised, wounded… Oh but worst of all, He was crushed for our iniquities… In verse 10 Isaiah elaborates on this a bit, saying, “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief…” Jesus wasn’t crushed by the beatings, by the nails, by the cross, or by the spear; He was crushed by the wrath of almighty God… Verse 6 helps us understand this; it says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” This is the Old Testament language of atonement and of sacrificial lambs… And that’s exactly what Jesus is… He’s the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, because it was laid on Him… “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—everyone—to his own way…” And basically what that means is what Romans 3:23 says: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We have turned to our own way instead of God’s way… We have sought to live for ourselves instead of God’s glory… We have despised Him and esteemed Him not… As I said earlier, we were created to delight in Jesus and esteem Him, but in our sin we despise Him and esteem Him not, we turn to our own way… And why do we do that? Because we think we know better than God… We think our way is better than God’s way… That’s essentially what sin is, and that’s always what sin promises. Our sin tells us that there is more joy to be had in sin, there is more pleasure to be found in doing things our way, in going after the desires of our flesh, than there is to be found in Christ… Sin says, “Just come with me… Go here, do this, look at that, try this… Follow me into the darkness, for there’s joy in the night…” And indeed there may be some pleasure in the night… But there is always sorrow in the morning… But with God, in following Jesus, as Psalm 30:5 tells us, sorrow may last for the night, but joy comes in the morning… Our way leads to destruction, God’s way leads to eternal life… Our way leads to ruin, following Jesus who is the life, the truth, and the way leads to eternal joy… From what may seem like the smallest sin, to the greatest—every sin is an offense against the infinitely perfect, just, good God of the universe… Every sin offends His infinite glory… Therefore every sin is an infinite offense, and deserves infinite wrath, infinite punishment… But God laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21)… And when He took on our sin, He took on the punishment for our sin: the infinite righteous wrath of God, in all of its fury… We have committed a crime against God; and the punishment for that crime is infinite wrath… But Jesus took that wrath on Himself, and it crushed Him… It was the Lord who crushed Him… As bad as the cross and all that sinful man did to Him was, it does not compare to the wrath and fury of almighty God that was poured out upon Him… And it was God’s will that this happen… It was the will of the Lord to crush Him this way… Peter says the same thing when he’s preaching to the Jews in Acts 2:23. He says, “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God (the will of God), you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.” Jesus was delivered up, He was crucified, and He was crushed according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God… This was God’s plan A, and there is no plan B… And though it was the hands of lawless men that crucified and killed Him, it was God, it was God’s wrath that crushed Him. In verse 7 and 8 we read, “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?” Isaiah is saying that Jesus went to the cross willingly, and on that cross He was cut off and stricken for the transgression of the people of God… Now, those who were doing this didn’t realize what all was happening; that’s why Jesus prays, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34)… As they hung Him there on that cross He was cut off from God and soon cut of from life. As it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” . . . . But that was the point. In hanging on the tree, on the cross, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13)… He was cut off and cursed… For the first time ever, He was cut off from God’s loving presence and He was under God’s wrath… He cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And then with the fury of a hundred billion Niagara Falls, God’s wrath poured out upon Him until it was completely satisfied. Because Jesus is God the Son, because He is the infinite God of the universe in the flesh, He was able to satisfy God’s infinite wrath in a few hours on the cross… He took the cup of God’s wrath and drank it down to the dregs, and proclaimed, “It is finished…” Imagine a man standing at the bottom of Niagara Falls, under all its force and water pressure, and yet not only be able to take it, but to drink it until there was no water left… That’s essentially what Jesus did with God’s wrath… It was a spiritual reality that wasn’t visible to those around Him, but it was far more intense and real than the nails holding Him to the cross… And He suffered under it until it was satisfied… In verse 11 we’re told that, “Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.” Jesus is God… He had knowledge of all that was going to happen… It wasn’t forced upon Him… No one take’s His life; He Himself says, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord” (John 10:18). “[F]or the joy that was set before him [He] endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2)… You see it wasn’t nails, or even our sin that held Jesus to the cross, but love… His love for the Father and His love for His people… He was a willing and joyful Savior… And He was the only suitable Savior… Verse 9 says, after He died, “they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.” He had done nothing wrong, and He said nothing wrong. He was perfect in Word and deed. He had total moral purity… He was the perfect man… And that made Him a suitable sacrifice for the sins of man… As the perfect man He could stand in the place of men as our representative… As verse 10 says, his soul could make an offering for guilt… And notice that legal language… The language of guilt, the language of chastisement, the language of transgression… And these are between us and God… In our sin we are guilty before God, we deserve the wrath of God, we have transgressed against God… Understand then, that the cross of Christ first and foremost saves us from God… But, it had to be the perfect sacrifice to save us from God… It had to be the perfect man, and the perfect God… The perfect man being a suitable substitute, and the perfect God being a sufficient sacrifice; and that’s who Jesus is… He’s 100% man and 100% God… A few weeks ago my family and I went to the zoo… At one point we stopped to buy a drink, and while we were in line I noticed this little girl—maybe 2 or 3 years old—come up and snatch a bag of popcorn… Her mother quickly got it from her and took it back, so it was no big deal; but it could have been… For instance, let’s say I’m in line and a young boy—about 10 years old or so—tries to buy popcorn, but when he goes to pay for it he realizes that he’s a dollar short. Now, I could offer him a dollar and cover the cost no problem. The clerk would take the money, and the boy would take the popcorn. All parties would be happy with the transaction… That’s suitable.. It’s no problem… But let’s say it went down different, and this time he just does what that little girl did, but he keeps running. He takes the popcorn and takes off… The clerk goes after him screaming, “Thief!” But when he gets around the corner this boy runs into a police officer. Now I could offer to pay for the popcorn completely, but that might not get him off the hook. At this point he’s done something both morally and legally wrong; he’s broken the law. And so a few bucks for popcorn isn’t going to cover his offense. The officer and the clerk do not have to accept my money, they don’t have to set this boy free, because it’s about more than a debt, it’s also about justice… Well friends, that’s how it is with us… Our offense against God is both moral and legal; and it’s an infinite offense… So, it couldn’t just be anyone who paid the price for our sin… Just because someone tries to pay the price for our sin doesn’t mean that they did… Just because someone sets out to satisfy the wrath of God due His people, doesn’t mean they did… But we know for sure that Christ did indeed pay the price, that He is indeed the perfect sacrifice, that He did indeed satisfy the wrath of God… That He was both a suitable and sufficient Savior… How do we know this? Well look at the rest of our text… In the rest of verse 10 it says, “he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.” And then in verse 12 it says, “Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.” Did you catch all of that? Jesus poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors… He was nailed to our cross and hung there in our place beside two thieves… And there He poured Himself out to the death as God poured out His wrath until it was satisfied… That’s when Jesus cried out, “It is finished!” But He didn’t cry out, “I am finished…” It is finished, not Jesus… Jesus’s days are prolonged, He shall see His offspring, the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand… God’s Word says, “Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong…” Do you see what He’s saying there? That’s the language of a victor, of a conquering hero enjoying the spoils of His victory… Verse 12 says He died with the transgressors, but it follows that with the word “yet”… Yet He bore the sin of many… In other words, what happened at the cross was what theologians call penal substitutionary atonement: the guiltless dies to save the guilty… In our place condemned He hung on our cross taking the wrath due us until it was completely satisfied… And we know that it was indeed satisfied because it says after dying He’s now a victor, and He makes intercession for sinners… This is priestly language… The author of Hebrews refers to this when he says, “The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he (Jesus) holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:23-25)… So do you see? Do you see how we know that Jesus did indeed satisfy the wrath of God for all who will turn from their sin and trust in Him? Because He is alive! He’s a victor! He’s a conqueror! He was a suitable, successful sacrifice… Jesus wrote a check with His life and death… He signed that check by taking on God’s wrath on the cross… And we can see that the check cleared because on the Sunday after Good Friday Jesus got up from the grave! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!!! His blood was the payment and His life was the cost… And because He is the perfect God man there was sufficient funds in the bank to cover the check He wrote on the cross… He paid it all! As we sing, “Because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free; for God the just is satisfied to look on Him and pardon me…” And we know He’s satisfied because Jesus is alive! We know His death was not in vain because death could not hold Him! The resurrection was God declaring to the world that Jesus did not die in vain and that He is indeed the Son of God, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, and the conquering Lion of Judah! And now He always lives to make intercession for His people… As we read earlier, “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us” (Romans 8:33-34)… Jesus is alive!!! Rising He justified, freely forever, all who will turn from their sin and trust in Him… Remember, verse 6 told us that all we like sheep have gone astray; every one of us has turned to His own way… In our flesh we have despised Jesus and esteemed Him not… That’s the great sin that is behind all of our sin… So to turn from our sin means that we turn from our way to God’s way… And God’s design for our lives is to delight in Jesus, not despise Him; and to die to ourselves and esteem Him… We owe Him our esteem… Again, to esteem is to regard highly or favorably, with proper respect and admiration… In other words, it’s to magnify, to glorify… That’s why we exist: to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever; and Jesus is God… He proved Himself to be the true Son of God when He got up from the grave!!! So how do we esteem Jesus? We trust that it is finished! That Jesus did everything necessary to save us from our sin, to save us from death, to save us from God and His righteous wrath… Peter elaborates on this in 1 Peter 2:24-25 saying, “[Jesus] himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” By His wounds we are healed… Healed from what? From the disease of sin, that’s what… Jesus’ death frees us from slavery to sin. His victory over sin gives us victory over sin… On the cross He purchased the redemption of all who will turn from their sin, trust Him, and follow Him… By His grace He gives those for whom He died eyes to see His beauty, so that we might see and know that He is the way, that He is better than anything this world could offer us or take away from us… And in that moment, we are healed… But, because He conquered the grave when He rose from the dead, we will be healed from sin and all of its effects, including death… We will have eternal resurrection life with Jesus… Because He lives so will we… If, we return to the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls… If we esteem Him… Jesus has already paid it all… The check has cleared, for He is risen… What we must decide is whether we will go our own way, or His… Our way is foolishness… Sin never makes good on its promises, but God always does… And I hope you’ve caught what God has been doing in His Word this morning, what He’s been doing in speaking of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection and the promises attached to them… He’s been wooing you… Sinclair Ferguson points this out, saying, “When we think of Christ dying on the cross we are shown the lengths to which God’s love goes in order to win us back to himself. We would almost think that God loved us more than he loves his Son! We cannot measure such love by any other standard. He is saying to us: I love you this much. The cross is the heart of the gospel. It makes the gospel good news: Christ died for us. He has stood in our place before God’s judgment seat. He has borne our sins. God has done something on the cross which we could never do for ourselves. But God does something to us as well as for us through the cross. He persuades us that he love us.” And if we are persuaded of that, we will love Him. And if we love Him we will trust Him, we will follow Him, we will esteem Him… He is the risen Lord, and He deserves nothing less… A kingdom divided,
not built on firm foundation, will fall. Why so many labels, pronouns, and identities? And What is "Christian Nationalism?" If you watch certain news organizations, you'd think it was a huge part of reality. America, and the world, has never been so divided on what constitutes perception, reality, and truth. Honestly, I don't know what that term even is- "Christian Nationalism." If it exists, it's -incredibly small- and being way over-represented in media. Much like anything else that is a tiny percentage being radically over-represented or over enforced, it -skews- the entire perception of the weight of the part -in relation- to the implications of the whole. People who don't truly understand Christianity, or grasp the truth, can mischaracterize and misjudge anything based off of radicalism. It's probably easy to want to find a solution by over focusing on the wrong thing. I've never heard of anyone who's heard of anyone that knows what this is. And for whatever their beliefs may be, we should be able to accurately decipher what it is that is a threat to human prosperity. Many Are mislead on the truth. I've only recently heard of this term, only from Media sources that support specific political ideologies. Christianity is the most culturally and racially diverse, peaceful, prosperous and accepting movement to have ever existed among the human population. Slander never suited anyone well, and we've seen it many times throughout history. We can not say that Muslims are bad people because of a small radical group who are bad. Violence is never okay, and should be equally denounced in any situation. Violence in one uprising shouldn't be overlooked in preference of another uprising- peacefully discussing why it's occurring and what policies best remedy it is the answer- not- by canceling or shaming- which much worsens it. What we really need to decipher is what is true, and what truly threatens human prosperity. What is the threat, and how much of a threat is it, and why? We need to be careful when we start labeling and creating division off of identity or politics. It's the same for any type of slander or bias in any direction. It distorts the correct interpretation. Christianiy is not about religion, identity, or politics. People who know the living God and acknowledge it to be true and are faithful to that, are what you can call Christians. That is our worldview. Ideology is not identity, and ideologies have value structures. Our value is in and from who God is, not who we are or man-made identity. We are more than this physical realm, and are faithful to that. We know the living God, his word, and uphold his laws- God is higher than government. This country was not founded on nationalism or Christianity in labeling terms, I have no idea what "white nationalism" is and truly don't think it's more than a minuscule percentage of the population, certainly not what is truly threatening us. The danger lies in grouping people together based off race, religion, identity, or politics, and people who stand for truth have to acknowledge what is true. You can't judge anyone off of radicalism. The original problem with this began in 2015- when the media wasn't willing to respect or listen to all people and America dissented into cancel culture tactics to achieve ideological control, and that doesn't work. What we see in the media doesn't reflect reality or the vast majority. We saw the uprising of tactics used in cultural Marxism to insert control over speech and media. Freedom of speech can not be controlled. Just because someone doesn't like the truth, doesn't mean they can cancel the truth from being spoken. Truth never changes, only our understanding or interpretation of the truth does. If we don't debate truth, we can't wrestle over the best ideas. This is the tragedy in universities. If we don't have an equal right to speak the truth and pursue the truth, then we don't hear or know the truth, and we wander further from the truth. We unravel into destruction against the laws of nature. It's deceptive. That's when uprisings occur- people who are tired of "being polite" in their silence, are speaking up... and getting louder. Loving others and yourself, peace, prosperity, and being witness to and upholding the truth defines Christianity. Government policies are not the focus, but they do reflect our ability to practice our Faith. Religious freedom, freedom of speech, and separation of church and state are important for a functioning society predicated on mutual respect. In America, we all have a right to public education and resources. We finance the government, we pay taxes for public education, not for political indoctrination in schools. Political indoctrination in education has never been this severe. Christianity is not in public education or government. Over the past decade, the government, media, cdc, Facebook, Twitter, school boards, academia, and even healthcare has far too overstepped it's authority, and the response to the pandemic further proved this. Gender ideology in media, government, children shows, and mainly public education is a violation to religious liberty, and it's being ignored by government. Accepting a small minority shouldn't result in altering the fundamental course of the majority. Government mandates, shutdowns, vaccines, pronouns, questionnaires, etc.. that is not working with followers of Christ and is pushing them out of public education and government. They are also the majority, and are either being unrepresented, wrongly represented, or just silenced and ignored. That is a deception of truth. People need to start listening to each other. If people had respect, they wouldn't feel the need to address the "name-game, shame-game" tactics that seem to be leading people astray from a truthful and prosperous society. We cant fix problems without identifying the cause. It wasn’t the pandemic; it was largely the response to it. Source, response Cause, affect Truth, perception 🙃 A lot of tragedies, in their own definition are horrific, are trying to fix themselves with perceived remedies that ...don’t produce actual remedy. The universe can only function off of acknowledging what is true, thats the reoccurring pattern- theres always rising universal consequences in building off of what is untrue. Thats why we seek the truth. Sources exist and are meant to be discovered. When certainity is reached, its known. Truth is knowable, truth is provable. Sources matter- otherwise our perception of truth isnt founded on truth. We are under the universal laws of the creator of this existence. Its not human opinion or bias, It is just... what is. Truth is probably offensive- but its unchangeable. Its truth. Cause and effect always reoccurs. We need to acknowledge the effect- whether thats offensive to us, sadly, doesn’t matter- because we dont create universal laws, and cant change them. We want to avoid the consequences of suffering, and it starts with the truth of any source in any circumstance. If it's not the truth, it won't work. Just as good parents warn their children about what is dangerous and wrong, truthfulness has implications as well. The truth is that radical Islam is a radically more significant threat to global peace and prosperity than "radical Christianity." To imply that to mean anything other than what it truly does has implications- totalitarianism, communism, recession and security are much larger threats to peace and prosperity than perceived Christian bias or conservatism, or perceived racism in America. If we silence people for acknowledging the cause to a warranted outcome because we don't agree, the solution never comes but gets far worse. The media isn't reflecting the truth, and there's global consequences to that. The media wants to create and inflate its own truth, and there's consequences to that as well. People can be respectful, fair, and disagree at the same time. What is just and noble always prevails over tyranny. If it's not fair, it eventually fails.. or we end up in a global communist surveillance state with no free will. We are reaping severe consequences and should decide if we are awake, or woke. Human perception may not align with existing truth, but truth still exists and continues on its course anyway- as always proven. Humans cant create or determine their own truth- the universe has a system, we need to pursue what that is to the best of our ability, and seek the truth until certainty, otherwise we create more chaos thats opposing the created order. This is exactly what America was founded on- the pursuit of truth and prosperity, freedom of religion, and freedom of speech. That is the American foundation that has crumbled. Those who defend the constitution defend those values, those values create the best chance for a peaceful and prosperous society. Until they're gone. Race and identity are irrelevant, so Americans would be wise to not misuse and mislabel terms such as "nationalism." Nothings perfect (other than God and his plan) no one is. We all have struggles and why we are handed different struggles is difficult to grapple with, but we are all equal in his eyes. We are equally imperfect (me first!). We need god. Thats why he created us and revealed himself to us- not just for our future forever home, but now- more specifically- because when times get worse- and they will- and they will continue to increase in frequency and intensity- its much easier to be prepared in knowledge of the truth and relationship with our living and coming savior, who delivers us from our sorrows during tribulation and tragedy. The labor pains are in the beginning stages, we are living in revelation, prophecies are fulfilling, and we are experiencing both global physical and spiritual battles. Just as he said. Whether we have a relationship with our creator Now in this existence, or after we cross this physical realm into a better age, we will all meet our creator. God is real, God heals, and God is for everyone. We are all invited into the glory of knowing our savior now. . Jesus is our living hope! Maranatha! 1 John 3:11-2411 For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15 Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. 16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. 19 This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: 20 If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us. We should love one another The first verse that shows up today gives a simple message: “We should love one another” (v. 11). It’s a simple yet important message that John repeatedly brings up in this epistle. He even calls it “the message you heard from the beginning” (v.11). It’s nothing new—not to us, and definitely not to the original readers of the letter. What he’ll do in the next couple of verses though (v. 11-18), is go through in depth what exactly that looks like, giving us not only specific instructions on what we are to do in v. 16-18, but also giving us strong instructions on what not to do in v. 12-15. For simplicity’s sake, we’ll go through it in order as provided in the text. Don’t be like Cain, a hateful murderer Going straight into v. 12, John recalls a story that the original readers, and us, are probably very familiar with. He brings up the story of Cain and Abel. If you’re not in fact familiar with Cain and Abel, it’s a story of two brothers who offer their sacrifices to God. God likes the sacrifices of Abel but not Cain, and Cain’s jealously leads him to murder Abel. This story leads perfectly into the statement that John makes in v. 15, and equates anyone who hates their brother and sister with Cain, a murderer. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. (1 John 3:15) If we’re familiar with the gospels, this is actually one of Jesus’ teachings on the Sermon on the Mount: 21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.” (Matthew 5:21-22). It’s not enough to simply not murder our brothers and sisters when we’re angry—that’s ridiculous. We need to go as far as to love and reconcile with them, and Jesus actually mentions this in the next set of verses: 23 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.” (Matthew 5:23-24) One person may bring up the question: “Isn’t it much worse to physically murder someone than just being mad at them?” And my answer is: probably. But if our principle is to simply resent others without any sense of reconciliation, is that really what it means to love your neighbor? If you treat someone as if they are dead to you, haven’t you already killed them in your heart? Lay down your life for others The next section (v. 16-18), rather than instructions on what not to do, gives instructions on what we should do instead. V. 16 has a pretty bold command: we’re told to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. At first glance, kind of extreme. Why does God call us to do this? Because that’s what Christ Jesus did (v. 16). Remember the last post where we talked about purifying ourselves in order to be more like Jesus? It’s the same thing here. As we learn to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters, we purify ourselves to be more like Jesus. What does that look like? John addresses it in v. 17-18. Although I don’t doubt the importance of a literal laying down of our lives for our brothers and sisters as stated in v. 16, the command is a bit more multi-dimensional than that. It’s not an “in the moment” thing, it’s a lifestyle. How do we live a lifestyle of laying down our lives for others? It looks like providing material possessions for brothers and sisters in need (v. 17), and it looks like loving others not only with words and speech but with actions and in truth (v. 18). Are these things easy? No. But our faith is put to the test when these things come up; when a brother or sister wrongs you, what will you do? Will you murder them in your heart? Or will you have faith that God’s way of forgiveness is better? When you see a brother or sister in need, what will you do? Will you ignore them, or will you be sacrificially generous, laying down your own needs for theirs? We are called to provide for other’s needs, and love them not only with words or speech but with actions and truth. True confidence before GodMoving on to the final section for the day, John makes a pretty bold promise: that if our hearts do not condemn us, we can have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask (v. 21-22). The big question becomes, “How can we have uncondemned hearts before God?” Well, John gives us a bit of a hint in v. 22: someone who has an uncondemned heart before God keeps his commands and does what pleases him. It’s a person who has such faith that it allows them to obey God. It’s a love that goes beyond words or speech but also affects one’s actions and lifestyle. When we live like this, our desires align with God’s. We are free to approach his throne of grace and ask boldly, trusting that he will respond and provide for us. So once again, we go back to the question: where is your faith kept? It’s one thing to say that our faith lies with God, but what do our actions show? Do we have a trust in God that goes beyond words and speech? Or is that simply all it is? What does it look like for me today to love God and others with action and truth? Maybe it looks like forgiving that person who you’ve held a grudge against for a while. Or maybe it’s taking initiative to reach out and take care of a brother or sister in need. Whatever it is, I pray that you’ll be able to do so with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Verses 16, 17. - The nature of love as shown by Christ, and its obligation on Christians. Love has been declared the criterion for distinguishing the children of God from the children of the devil. It remains to show what love is; and this is best seen in a concrete example. "The Eternal Word, incarnate and dying for the truth, inspires St. John to guard it with apostolic chivalry; but also this revelation of the heart of God melts him into tenderness towards the race which Jesus has loved so well. To St. John a lack of love for men seems sheer dishonour to the love of Christ" (Liddon). Verse 16. - In this (verse 10; 1 John 2:3)we have come to know (have acquired and possess the knowledge of) love (what love is), in that he laid down his life for us. This is better than "We have come to know love as consisting in this, that he laid down his life for us," which would have been ἐν τούτῳ οϋσαν. Cain is the type of hate; Christ, of love. Cain took his brother's life to benefit himself; Christ laid down his own life to benefit his enemies (see on John 10:12). This realized ideal of love we must imitate; ready to sacrifice ourselves, and even our lives, for the good of others. The effacement of another's rights and perhaps existence for one's own sake is the essence of hatred; the effacement of one's self for another's sake is the essence of love. Christ died for those who hated him; and the Christian must confront the hatred of the world with a love that is ready even to die for the haters. This shows that the "brethren" here and in verse 14, though used primarily of Christians, does not exclude unbelievers; otherwise the parallel with Christ would be spoiled (see on verse 10). The sacrifice and service of your faith.--The word here rendered "service," with its kindred words, properly means any service rendered by an individual for the community; and it retains something of this meaning in 2Corinthians 9:12, where it is applied to the collection and transmission of alms to Jerusalem (comp. Romans 15:27; and see below, Philippians 2:25; Philippians 2:30), and in Romans 13:6 and Hebrews 1:7, where "the powers that be" and the angels are respectively called "ministers of God." But the great preponderance of New Testament usage appropriates it to priestly service (see Luke 1:23; Romans 15:16; Hebrews 8:2; Hebrews 8:6; Hebrews 9:21; Hebrews 10:11), which is obviously its sense here. The simplest interpretation of the whole passage would be to consider the Philippians merely as priests, and to suppose "sacrifice" to describe the chief function, and "ministration" the general function, of their priesthood. But the word "sacrifice," though it might etymologically mean the act of sacrifice, has universally in the New Testament the sense, not of the act, but of the thing sacrificed. Accordingly, here it would seem that, following afar off the example of the great high priest, the Christian is described as at once sacrifice and priest, "offering" (see Romans 12:1) "his own body as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God," and with it the "sacrifice of praise" and the "sacrifice of doing good and communicating" (Hebrews 13:15-16, and below, Philippians 4:18). This union of sacrifice and ministration, being the work "of faith," is in St. Paul's view the thing really precious; his own death the mere preparation for it, in which he rejoices "to spend and be spent" for them. . . . (17) If I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith.--The striking metaphor of the original is here imperfectly represented. It is, If I am being poured out--if my life-blood is poured out--over the sacrifice and religious ministration of your faith. The same word is used in 2Timothy 4:6, where our version has, "I am now ready to be offered." The allusion is to the practice of pouring out libations or drink-offerings (usually of wine) over sacrifices, both Jewish and heathen. Such libation was held to be a subsidiary or preparatory element of the sacrifice. In that light St. Paul regards his own possible martyrdom, not so much as having a purpose and value in itself, but rather as conducing to the self-sacrifice of the Philippians by faith--a sacrifice apparently contemplated as likely to be offered in life rather than by death. If there be therefore any consolation . . .—In the four-fold division of this verse we trace, first, a reference to unity with Christ, and to a spiritual effect following from it; next, a similar reference to communion with the Holy Ghost, and a corresponding spiritual result. (1) “Consolation” is properly encouragement—the stirring up of spiritual activity—ascribed in Acts 9:31 to the action of the Holy Spirit, but here viewed as a practical manifestation of the life flowing from union with Christ. Out of it comes naturally the “comfort of love,” that is, as always, the deep and thankful sense of comfort in His love, overflowing into comfort, lovingly given to our brethren. On this “encouragement” in Christ, both received and given out to others, St. Paul dwells at length (2Corinthians 1:3-7). (2) Next, he speaks of “communion of the Spirit” (the very word used in 2Corinthians 13:13), by which, indeed, we are brought into that unity with Christ; and of this, still keeping to the main idea of love, he makes the manifestation to be in “bowels and mercies”—that is, both in strong affection, and in that peculiar form of affection which is directed towards suffering, viz., compassion or pity. The whole passage (like Philippians 4:8-9) is full of a grave and persuasive eloquence characteristic of this Epistle. No absolute distinction is to be drawn between the two elements of the sentence; but it may be noted that the “consolation in Christ” is exhibited in the action which visibly follows His divine example, “the communion with the Holy Spirit” is shown by the inner emotion, not seen, but felt. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. He showed us love in the way unthinkable This is how we know love for God gave sacrifice to us by the death of his only son that Jesus Christ gave his life out of love for us to live because of the love shown to us we should lay down ourselves for others our brothers and sisters in Christ in love and in the same image 16 Hereby perceive we the alove of bGod, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. What Does 1 John 3:16 Mean? ► We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 1 John 3:16(NASB) Many believers like to focus on the love of Jesus because they think that this will cause unbelievers to get saved but they prefer to allow Christ’s death, burial and resurrection to be side-lined in a blurry background, in case it offends or puts the unbeliever off the Christian faith! But the shed blood of the incarnate Son of God Who was born into His own creation, and the immutable love of the eternal Father are inseparably interwoven and irrevocably united together. It was LOVE that caused the almighty God to send His only begotten Son into the world to become the sin-sacrifice for the entire race of humanity and it was love that caused the Lord Jesus Christ to lay down His life for us. It was love that caused the Lord Jesus to be crucified on a cruel cross..willingly, so that all who believe on Him might not perish but have everlasting life. The Lord Jesus offered the supreme example of ultimate love when He laid down His life for friends and enemies alike. Love is manifest in its highest measure at the cross of Calvary and as His children we ought also to lay down our lives in the same way for our brethren. Mankind is crumpling under the weight of sin and collapsing under the satanic influence of evil, which is suffocating a world in distress, but the true character of the spiritual Christian is based on a godly love and stands in stark contrast with the evil hatred that reigns supreme over this fallen world system. We cannot begin to imagine what it cost God the Father to turn His back on His only begotten Son and pour out the full force of His holy hatred of sin.. upon HIM. It was for love of us that God the Father poured out the full force of His holy wrath for the accumulated sin of the whole world, upon His innocent and dearly beloved Son – Whom He had loved from before the conception of the universe. And He did it out of LOVE.. for the world. We cannot presume to comprehend what it cost the innocent Lord Jesus, Who as God incarnate.. had to lay aside His eternal majesty and supreme glory and be clothed in human flesh.. and then be made sin for you and for me. The eternal Creator God demonstrated His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners He laid down His life for us and became a curse and a hissing – as the weight of the accumulated sin of the world was laid on His shoulders – and He did it for LOVE of you and for LOVE of me. When we look at the cross of Christ and the blood that He shed for us at Calvary – we see incarnate LOVE. and we know what real godly love is by this: that Christ Jesus laid down His life for us. Ought not we for HIS sake, lay down our lives for our brethren? Source: https://dailyverse.knowing-jesus.com/1-john-3-16 1 John Chapter 3 1 John 3 – The Love of God and the Life of Love A. The destiny of our relationship with God. 1. (1) The glory of God’s love. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. a. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Having just mentioned being born of Him, John speaks in amazement about this manner of love that makes us children of God. He wants us to behold it – that is, look at it and study it intently. i. It is of great benefit to the Christian to take a good, intense look at the love of God bestowed on us. ii. Bestowed on us speaks many things. First, it speaks of the measure of God’s love to us; it could more literally be translated lavished on us. Secondly, it speaks of the manner of God’s giving of love; bestowed has the idea of a one-sided giving, instead of a return for something earned. iii. What is it that makes us slow to believe the love of God? Sometimes it is pride, which demands to prove itself worthy of the love of God before it will receive it. Sometimes it is unbelief, which cannot trust the love of God when it sees the hurt and pain of life. And sometimes it just takes time for a person to come to a fuller understanding of the greatness of God’s love. iv. Behold means that God wants to see this love and He is not ashamed to show it to us. “‘There,’ he says, ‘you poor people that love me you sick people, you unknown, obscure people, without any talent, I have published it before heaven and earth, and made the angels know it, that you are my children, and I am not ashamed of you. I glory in the fact that I have taken you for my sons and daughters.’” (Spurgeon) b. That we should be called children of God: The greatness of this love is shown in that by it, we are called children of God. As God looked down on lost humanity, He might have merely had a charitable compassion, a pity on our plight, both in this life and in eternity. With a mere pity, He might have set forth a plan of salvation where man could be saved from hell. But God went far beyond that, to call us the children of God. i. Who calls us the children of God? · The Father does (“I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the LORD Almighty,” 2 Corinthians 6:18). · The Son does (He is not ashamed to call them brethren, Hebrews 2:11). · The Spirit does (The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, Romans 8:16). ii. There is a sense in which this is a totally “unnecessary” blessing that God gives in the course of salvation, and a demonstration of His true and deep love for us. We can picture someone helping or saving someone, but not going so far as to make them a part of the family – but this is what God has done for us. iii. In this, we gain something in Jesus Christ greater than Adam ever possessed. We never once read of Adam being called one of the children of God in the sense John means here. He was never adopted as a son of God in the way believers are. We err when we think of redemption as merely a restoration of what was lost with Adam; we are granted more in Jesus than Adam ever had. iv. If we are truly children of God, then it should show in our likeness to our Father and in our love for our “siblings.” v. It is important to understand what it means to be the children of God, and that everyone is not a child of God in the sense John meant it here. God’s love is expressed to all in the giving of Jesus for the sins of the world (John 3:16), but this does not make all of humanity the children of God in the sense John means it here. Here he speaks of those who have received the love of Jesus in a life of fellowship and trust with Him; But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name (John 1:12). c. Therefore the world does not know us: Because of our unique parentage from God, we are strangers to this world (or should be). i. This shows the great danger of a Christianity that works so hard to show the world just how much like the world they can be; we can not be surprised or offended to find out that the world does not know us. d. Because it did not know Him: Ultimately, we should expect the world to treat us as it treated Him – rejecting Jesus and crucifying Jesus. While it is true that Jesus loved sinners and they, recognizing that love, flocked to Him, we must also remember that it was the world that cried out crucify Him! 2. (2) The destiny of God’s children. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. a. Now we are children of God: Our present standing is plain. We can know, and have an assurance, that we are indeed among the children of God. Romans 8:16 tells us, The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. If you are a child of God, you have an inward assurance of this. b. It has not yet been revealed what we shall be: Though our present standing is plain, our future destiny is clouded. We don’t know in the kind of detail we would like to know what we will become in the world beyond. In this sense, we can’t even imagine what we will be like in glory. i. “What we are does not now appear to the world; what we shall be does not yet appear to us.” (Stott) ii. “If I may use such an expression, this is not the time for the manifestation of a Christian’s glory. Eternity is to be the period for the Christian’s full development, and for the sinless display of his God-given glory. Here, he must expect to be unknown; it is in the hereafter that he is to be discovered as a son of the great King.” (Spurgeon) c. We know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is: We are not left completely in the dark about our future state. When Jesus is revealed to us, either by His coming for us or our coming to Him, we shall be like Him. i. The Bible speaks of God’s great plan for our lives like this: For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren (Romans 8:29). God’s ultimate goal in our lives is to make us like Jesus, and here, John speaks of the fulfillment of that purpose. ii. This does not mean that we cease to be ourselves, full of the distinct personality and character God has given us. Heaven will not be like the Nirvana of Eastern mysticism, where all personality is dissolved into God like a drop into the ocean. We will still be ourselves, but our character and nature will be perfected into the image of Jesus’ perfection. We will not be “clones” of Jesus in heaven! iii. The Christian should long to be like Jesus, yet remember that God will never force a person to be like Jesus if he doesn’t want to. And that is what hell is for: people who don’t want to be like Jesus. The sobering, eternal truth is this: God gives man what he really wants. If you really want to be like Jesus, it will show in your life now, and it will be a fact in eternity. If you don’t really want to be like Jesus, it will also show in your life now, and it will also be a fact in eternity. iv. We shall be like Him: This reminds us that even though we grow into the image of Jesus now, we still have a long way to go. None of us will be finished until we see Jesus, and only then truly we shall be like Him. d. We shall see Him as He is: Perhaps this is the greatest glory of heaven: not to be personally glorified, but to be in the unhindered, unrestricted, presence of our Lord. i. Paul said of our present walk, For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known (1 Corinthians 13:12). Today, when we look in a good mirror, the image is clear. But in the ancient world, mirrors were made out of polished metal, and the image was always unclear and somewhat distorted. We see Jesus now only in a dim, unclear way, but one day we will see Him with perfect clarity. ii. Heaven is precious to us for many reasons. We long to be with loved ones who have passed before us and whom we miss so dearly. We long to be with the great men and women of God who have passed before us in centuries past. We want to walk the streets of gold, see the pearly gates, and see the angels around the throne of God worshipping Him day and night. However, none of those things, precious as they are, make heaven really “heaven.” What makes heaven, heaven, is the unhindered, unrestricted, presence of our Lord, and to see Him as He is will be the greatest experience of our eternal existence. iii. What will we see when we see Jesus? Revelation 1:13-16 describes a vision of Jesus in heaven: He was dressed in a long robe with a golden [breastplate]; His head and His hair were white as snow-white wool, His eyes blazed like fire, and His feet shone as the finest bronze glows in the furnace. His voice had the sound of a great waterfall, and I saw that in His right hand He held seven stars. A sharp two-edged sword came out of His mouth, and His face was ablaze like the sun at its height. (J.B. Phillips translation) This isn’t the same Jesus who walked this earth, looking like a normal man. iv. At the same time, we know that in heaven, Jesus will still bear the scars of His suffering on this earth. After Jesus rose from the dead in His glorified body, His body uniquely retained the nail prints in His hands and the scar on his side (John 20:24-29). In Zechariah 12:10, Jesus speaks prophetically of the day when the Jewish people, turned to Him, see Him in glory: then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. Zechariah 13:6 continues the thought: And one will say to him, “What are these wounds between your arms?” Then he will answer, “Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.” e. We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is: John made the connection between seeing Him as He is and our transformation to be like Jesus. We can say that the same principle is at work right now. To the extent that you see Jesus as He is, to that same extent, you are like Him in your life. i. We can say that this happens by reflection. “When a man looks into a bright mirror, it makes him also bright, for it throws its own light upon his face; and, in a much more wonderful fashion, when we look at Christ, who is all brightness, he throws some of his brightness upon us.” (Spurgeon) 3. (3) Knowing our destiny purifies our lives right now. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. a. Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself: Knowing our eternal destiny, and living in this hope will purify our lives. When we know our end is to be more like Jesus, it makes us want to be more like Jesus right now. i. Having the anticipation of being with Jesus, of the soon coming of Jesus Christ, can have a marvelous purifying effect in our lives. It makes us want to be ready, to be serving Him now, to be pleasing Him now. b. This hope in Him: Ultimately, our hope is not in heaven or in our own glory in heaven. Our hope is in Him. We must never set our hope on other things; not on a relationship, on success, on mutual fund, on your health, on your possessions, or simply just on our self. Our only real hope is in Him. B. Sin: An Attack on Relationship. 1. (4-5) The nature of sin and Jesus’ work in removing our sin. Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. a. Sin is lawlessness: John defines sin at its most basic root. It is a disregard for the law of God, which is inherently a disregard for the law Maker, God Himself. i. We often fail in the battle against sin because we won’t call it for what it is: lawlessness, an offense against the Great Law Maker, God. Instead, we say things like “If I’ve done anything wrong… ” or “Mistakes were made… ” and so forth. Call it for what it is: sin and lawlessness. “The first step towards holy living is to recognize the true nature and wickedness of sin.” (Stott) b. You know that He was manifested to take away our sins: John here defined the mission of Jesus Christ at its most basic root – to take away our sins. The angel Gabriel promised Joseph regarding the ministry of Jesus: you shall call His name JESUS, for He shall save His people from their sin (Matthew 1:21). i. Jesus takes away our sin in the sense of taking the penalty of our sin. This is immediately accomplished when one comes by faith to Jesus. ii. Jesus takes away our sin in the sense of taking the power of sin away. This is an ongoing work in the lives of those who walk after Jesus. iii. Jesus takes away our sin in the sense of taking the presence of sin away. This is a work that will be completed when we pass into eternity and are glorified with Jesus. c. He was manifested to take away our sins: This is the work of Jesus in our life. It is a work we must respond to, but it is His work in us. i. We cannot take away the penalty of our own sin. It is impossible to cleanse ourselves in this way. We must instead receive the work of Jesus in taking away our sin. ii. We cannot take away the power of sin in our lives. This is His work in us, and we respond to that work. Someone who comes to Jesus does not have to clean himself up first, but he must be willing to have Him take away his sin. iii. We cannot take away the presence of sin in our lives. This is His work in us, ultimately accomplished when we will be glorified with Him. d. In Him there is no sin: Jesus had no sin to take away; therefore, He could take away our sin, taking it upon Himself. 2. (6) Abiding in sin or abiding in God. Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. a. Whoever abides in Him does not sin: Since sin is lawlessness, a disregard for God (1 John 3:4), and since Jesus came to take away our sins (1 John 3:5), and since in Jesus there is no sin (1 John 3:5), then to abide in Him means to not sin. i. It is very important to understand what the Bible means – and what it does not mean – when it says does not sin. According to the verb tense John uses, does not sin means does not live a life style of habitual sin. John has already told us in 1 John 1:8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. In 1 John 1:8, the grammar indicates John is speaking about occasional acts of sin. The grammar of 1 John 3:6 indicates that John is speaking of a settled, continued lifestyle of sin. John is not teaching here the possibility of sinless perfection. ii. “The present tense in the Greek verb implied habit, continuity, unbroken sequence” (Stott); the NIV has the right idea when it translates these verbs with phrases such as keeps on sinning, continues to sin, and he cannot go on sinning. b. Whoever abides in Him does not sin: John’s message is plain and consistent with the rest of the Scriptures. It tells us that a life style of habitual sin is inconsistent with a life of abiding in Jesus Christ. A true Christian can only be temporarily in a life style of sin. i. Paul’s teaching in Romans 6 is a great example of this principle. He shows us that when a person comes to Jesus, when his sins are forgiven and God’s grace is extended to him, he is radically changed – the old man is dead, and the new man lives. So it is utterly incompatible for a new creation in Christ to be comfortable in habitual sin; such a place can only be temporary for the Christian. ii. In some ways, the question is not “Do you sin or not?” We each sin. The question is, “How do you react when you sin? Do you give in to the pattern of sin, and let it dominate your lifestyle? Or do you humbly confess your sin, and do battle against it with the power Jesus can give?” iii. This is why it is so grieving to see Christians make excuses for their sin, and not humbly confess them. Unless the sin is dealt with squarely, it will contribute to a pattern of sin that may soon become their lifestyle – perhaps a secret lifestyle, but a lifestyle nonetheless. iv. What is important is that we never sign a “peace treaty” with sin. We never wink at its presence or excuse it by saying, “Everybody has his own sinful areas, and this is mine. Jesus understands.” This completely goes against everything we are in Jesus, and the work He has done in our life. c. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him: To live a lifestyle of habitual sin is to demonstrate that you have not seen Him (in a present sense of the ultimate “seeing Him mentioned in 1 John 3:2), and that you have not known Him. There are some people so great and so wonderful that seeing them or knowing them will change your life forever. Jesus is that kind of person. 3. (7) Righteousness will show in a person’s life. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. a. Let no one deceive you: This tells us that John wrote against a deception threatening the Christians of his day. b. He who practices righteousness is righteous: John did not allow us to separate a religious righteousness from a life of righteousness. If we are made righteous by our faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:22), it will be seen by our righteous lives. i. The most important thing a person can ever do is make sure he is righteous before God. This simply means he is held in right standing before God. It’s more than saying, “not guilty.” It is more like saying, “Not guilty and in right standing.” It speaks of the presence of good, not just the absence of evil. ii. John is not saying that we are made righteous before God by our own righteous acts – the Bible clearly teaches that we are made righteous through faith in Jesus Christ – yet that righteousness in Jesus will be evident in our lives. iii. Apparently, there were those who taught that you could be righteous before God with no evidence of righteousness in your life – John is rebuking this idea. Charles Spurgeon said it well: “The grace that does not change my life will not save my soul.” c. Just as He is righteous: We can live lives characterized by righteousness, not sin, because we have been given the righteousness of Jesus, and He is righteous. We have the resource we need to live righteously! 4. (8-9) The root of sin and the root of righteousness. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. a. He who sins is of the devil: People who are settled in habitual sin are not the children of God – they are of the devil, and Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil and free us from our bondage to the devil. i. “Well, labor under no mistake, sir. ‘He that committeth sin is of the devil.’ It is no use making excuses and apologies; if you are a lover of sin, you shall go where sinners go. If you, who live after this fashion, say that you have believed in the precious blood of Christ, I do not believe you, sir. If you had a true faith in that precious blood, you would hate sin. If you dare to say you are trusting in the atonement while you live in sin, you lie, sir; you do not trust in the atonement; for where there is a real faith in the atoning sacrifice, it purifies the man, and makes him hate the sin which shed the Redeemer’s blood.” (Spurgeon) b. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil: John gave us one reason why Jesus came in 1 John 3:5 (He was manifested to take away our sins). Now, John gives us another reason: that He might destroy the works of the devil. i. We can just imagine the heart of God grieving over the destruction the devil has wrought over this earth, and grieving that man has allowed the devil to do it all. Jesus came to put a stop to all that by overcoming the devil completely by His life, His suffering, His death, and His resurrection. ii. Note the purpose of Jesus: to destroy the works of the devil. Not to neutralize them, not to alleviate them, or not to limit them. Jesus wants to destroy the works of the devil! iii. Many people are unnecessarily afraid of the devil, fearing what he could do against them. If they only knew that as we walk in Jesus, the devil is afraid of us! As we walk in Jesus, we help in seeing Him destroy the works of the devil! c. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him: The change from being of the devil to being children of God comes as we are born of God; when this happens, our old nature, patterned after the instinctive rebellion of Adam, dies – and we are given a new nature, patterned after the instinctive obedience of Jesus Christ. i. John here is simply emphasizing what it means to be born again. It means that a change comes into our lives – it is a change that will be worked out into every area of our lives as we grow in Christ, but it is a real, observable change. ii. It is the same message Paul preached, saying that as believers we are to put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and that we are to put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:22, 24). d. Does not sin… he cannot sin: Does not sin and cannot sin each has the same verb tense as does not sin in 1 John 3:6, meaning a continual practice of habitual sin. John tells us that when we are born again – born into the family of God – there is a real change in our relation to sin. C. Hatred: An Attack on Relationship. 1. (10) Two essentials: righteous conduct and love for the brethren. In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. a. The children of God and the children of the devil: John has already introduced the idea of being a child of God (1 John 3:1, that we should be called the children of God and 1 John 3:9, born of God). He has already written of some being of the devil (1 John 3:8). But here, he makes it plain: some are children of God and some are children of the devil. i. John doesn’t spend time trying to prove or explain the existence of the devil. He knows the reality of the devil is a Biblical fact. Some today lack John’s wisdom and either deny the devil’s existence or they are obsessed with the devil. ii. Some might think John is far too harsh in saying some are children of the devil, supposing perhaps that John did not love people as Jesus did. But Jesus called people children of the devil also in John 8:41-45. In this passage, Jesus’ point was important, establishing the principle that our spiritual parentage determines our nature and our destiny. If we are born again, and have God as our Father, it will show in our nature and destiny. But whether our father is Satan or Adam, it will also show in our nature and destiny – just as it showed in these adversaries of Jesus. b. Are manifest: John gave a simple – though not easy – way to identify who the children of God and the children of the devil are. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. i. Both of these are essential. Righteousness without love makes one a religious Pharisee, and love without righteousness makes one a partner in evil. ii. How do righteousness and love “balance”? They don’t. We are never to love at the expense of righteousness, and are never to be righteous at the expense of love. We aren’t looking for a balance between the two, because they are not opposites. Real love is the greatest righteousness, and real righteousness is the greatest love. iii. Love and righteousness are each most perfectly displayed in the nature of Jesus. He was both righteous, and completely loving. 2. (11) The need to love one another. For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. a. This is the message that you heard from the beginning: John had already emphasized the command to love as being the word which you heard from the beginning (1 John 2:7). In remembering this message to love one another, he remembered the command of Jesus in John 13:34. b. That we should love one another: The basic Christian message has not changed. Perhaps some have thought that because Christians talk about a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ” that it is only us and Jesus who matter. But how we treat others – how we love one another – really matters before God. 3. (12) An example of hatred: Cain. Not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous. a. Not as Cain: As a negative example, John presents Cain, who was not right with God (his works were evil) and who hated his brother. When there are two children of God who are both right with God, there will be love. b. Who was of the wicked one: Cain is a good example of the failure to love. i. We can presume that Cain had a godly upbringing that should have equipped him to love, but he chose not to. ii. Cain’s disobedience came from a lack of faith (Hebrews 11:4) which resulted in first disobedience, then hatred. iii. Cain’s disobedience and hatred was based in pride (Genesis 4:5). iv. Cain’s disobedience and hatred made him miserable (Genesis 4:5). v. Cain refused the warning God gave him, and gave into the sin of hatred (Genesis 4:6-7). vi. Cain’s sin of hatred led to action against the one he hated (Genesis 4:8). vii. Cain was evasive about his sin of hatred, and tried to hide it. But God found him out (Genesis 4:9-10). 4. (13-15) Love as the evidence of the new birth. Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. a. Do not marvel: We shouldn’t be surprised when the world hates us; but we should be surprised when there is hatred among the body of Christ. b. We know: John insists that the believer can come to a place of genuine assurance. “I have, heard it said, by those who would be thought philosophers, that in religion we must believe, but cannot know. I am not very clear about the distinction they draw between knowledge and faith, nor do I care to enquire; because I assert that, in matters relating to religion, we know; in the things of God, we both believe and know.” (Spurgeon) c. We know that we have passed from death to life: A love for the people of God is a basic sign of being born again. If this love is not evident in our lives, our salvation can be questioned. If it is present, it gives us assurance. i. We can know we have passed from death to life by our love for other Christians. The place of hatred, of jealousy, of bitterness you find yourself in is a place of death. You need to pass from death over to life. ii. This means knowing two things. First, we know that we were dead. Second, we know that we have passed to life from death. To pass from death to life is the reverse of the normal. We all expect to pass from life to death; but in Jesus, we can turn it around. iii. This speaks to our pursuit of fellowship. If we love the brethren, we will want to be with them – and even if we have been battered and bruised by unloving brethren, there will still be something in us drawing us back to fellowship with the brethren we love. iv. “Do you love them for Christ’s sake? Do you say to yourself, ‘That is one of Christ’s people; that is one who bears Christ’s cross; that is one of the children of God; therefore I love him, and take delight in his company’? Then, that is an evidence that you are not of the world.” (Spurgeon) d. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer: To hate our brother is to murder him in our hearts. Though we may not carry out the action (through cowardice or fear of punishment), we wish that person dead. Or, by ignoring another person, we may treat them as if they were dead. Hatred can be shown passively or actively. i. John seemed to have in mind the teaching of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount regarding the true fulfillment of the law (Matthew 5:21-22). ii. “In the heart there is no difference; to hate is to despise, to cut off from relationship, and murder is simply the fulfillment of that attitude.” (Barker) iii. “Every man who hates another has the venom of murder in his veins. He may never actually take the deadly weapons into his hand and destroy life; but if he wishes that his brother were out of the way, if he would be glad if no such person existed, that feeling amounts to murder in the judgment of God.” (Spurgeon) e. You know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him: To live in the practice of murder – or to have a life style of the habitual hatred of our brethren – is a demonstration that we do not have eternal life abiding in us, that we are not born again. i. There are many people for whom being a Christian is a “none of the above” sort of thing. They consider themselves Christians because they are not Muslim, or Jewish, or Buddhists, or atheists. But being a Christian is never a “none of the above” kind of thing. ii. Being a Christian is more than saying, “I am a Christian.” There are in fact some who claim to be Christians who are not. How can we know if we are one of these? John’s reply has been constant and simple. There are three tests to measure the proof of a genuine Christian: the truth test, the love test, and the moral test. If we believe in what the Bible teaches as true, if we show the love of Jesus to others, and if our conduct has been changed and is becoming more like Jesus, then our claim to be a Christian can be proven true. D. What love is and how we should love one another. 1. (16) The objective reality of love and how it shows in our life. By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. a. By this we know love: What is love? How we define love is important. If we define love the wrong way, then everyone passes, or no one passes, the love test. To understand the Biblical idea of love, we should begin by understanding the vocabulary of love among the ancient Greeks, who gave us the original language of the New Testament. i. Eros was one word for love. It described, as we might guess from the word itself, erotic love. It referred to sexual love. ii. Storge was the second word for love. It referred to family love, the kind of love there is between a parent and child, or between family members in general. iii. Philia is the third word for love. It spoke of a brotherly friendship and affection. It is the love of deep friendship and partnership. Philia love might be described as the highest love that one is capable of without God’s help. iv. Agape is the fourth word for love. It described a love that loves without changing. It is a self-giving love that gives without demanding or expecting re-payment. It is love so great that it can be given to the unlovable or unappealing. It is love that loves even when it is rejected. Agape love gives and loves because it wants to; it does not demand or expect repayment from the love given – it gives because it loves, it does not love in order to receive. v. Many people confuse the four loves, and end up extremely hurt as a result. Often a person will tell another, “I love you” meaning one kind of love, but the other person believes he means another kind of love. Often a man has told a woman, “I love you,” when really he had a selfish love towards her. Sure, there were strong feelings in the heart – but they were feelings that wanted something from the other person. vi. “It’s true you can say to a girl, ‘I love you,’ but what you really mean is something like this: ‘I want something. Not you, but something from you. I don’t have time to wait. I want it immediately.’… This is the opposite of love, for love wants to give. Love seeks to make the other one happy, and not himself.” (Walter Trobisch in I Loved a Girl, cited by Boice) b. By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us: Real love isn’t merely “felt” as an inward feeling; it is also shown by demonstration – and the ultimate demonstration was the giving of Jesus on the cross. i. The exact same idea was expressed by Paul in Romans 5:8: But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ii. It isn’t the death of Jesus in itself that is the ultimate demonstration of love; it is the death of Jesus together with what it does for us that shows the epitome of love. If I am on a pier, and a man jumps in the water and drowns, and cries out with his last breath, “I’m giving my life for you!” I cannot really comprehend that act as an act of love – it just seems strange. But if that same man jumps in the water to save me from drowning, and gives his own life that I may survive, then I can fully understand how the giving of his life was a great act of love. iii. In a sermon titled “The Death of Christ for His People,” Charles Spurgeon drew three points from this great sentence: · How great must have been our sins. · How great must have been His love. · How safe the believer is in the love of Christ. c. By this we know love: There is a real sense in which we would not know what love was all about if not for the work of Jesus on the cross. We have an innate ability to pervert the true meaning of love, and pursue all kinds of things under the guise of looking for love. i. Nature can teach us many things about God. It can show us His wisdom, His intelligence, and His mighty power. But nature, in and of itself, does not teach us that God is a God of love. We needed the death of God the Son, Jesus Christ, to ultimately demonstrate that. ii. David Scott Crother died of AIDS in early 1993, but not before he infected his unnamed partner, who pressed charges against Crother. The woman said in an interview: “This is not an assault. It is murder… All I wanted is someone to love me, and now I’m going to die for that. I don’t think I should have to die for that.” We all have that craving for love, but we look for it in the wrong ways and in the wrong places. d. And we also: Since we are sent with the same mandate Jesus was sent with, we must demonstrate our love by laying down our lives for the brethren. Jesus’ words As the Father sent Me, I also send you (John 20:21) seem to be ringing in John’s ears. i. Stott on laid down and lay down: “It seems to imply not so much the laying down as the laying aside of something like clothes… It is, in fact, used in John 13:4 of Christ taking off his outer garment.” [Italics added] e. We also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren: The focus here is on loving the brethren. Of course, we are also called to love our enemies and those who hate us (Matthew 5:44), but John calls us to a more basic test – if we can’t even love our brethren, what kind of Christians are we? f. Lay down our lives: John also reminds us that love, and its demonstration, often involves sacrifice – the laying down of our lives for others. Wishing to be more loving won’t do, because it won’t sacrifice where it is necessary. i. And if we take the analogy from Jesus’ love for us, sometimes the cost of love will make us feel like we are dying – but that is what it means to lay down your life. “Love means saying ‘No’ to one’s own life so that somebody else may live.” (Marshall) ii. We often consider ourselves ready to lay down our lives in one great, dramatic, heroic gesture; but for most of us, God calls us to lay down our lives piece by piece, little by little in small, but important ways every day. iii. Simply put, John is telling us to do the same thing we read of in Philippians 2:3-4: Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. 2. (17-18) What it means to love in real life. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. a. Let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth: John will not allow us to merely talk about love; real love is demonstrated in actions (though it is also often evident in our feelings). b. And shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? If you have the capability to meet a brother’s needs, and do nothing to meet those needs, then how can you say you love that brother? How does the love of God abide in you? i. “Here is a test of this love; if we do not divide our bread with the hungry, we certainly would not lay down our life for him. Whatever love we may pretend to mankind, if we are not charitable and benevolent, we give the lie to our profession.” (Clarke) ii. What is the limit to this kind of love? The only limit is the one that love itself imposes. When giving to a person, if meeting his perceived or immediate need, does him harm instead of good – then the loving thing to do is to not give him what he asks for, but to instead give him what he really needs. c. My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth: We can substitute talk for love – talking about meeting people’s needs instead of actually meeting them. i. Stott quoting Lewis: “It is easier to be enthusiastic about Humanity with a capital ‘H’ than it is to love individual men and women, especially those who are uninteresting, exasperating, depraved, or otherwise unattractive. Loving everybody in general may be an excuse for loving nobody in particular.” 3. (19-21) The assurance this love brings. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. a. Assure our hearts: When we see this love at work in our lives, we can know that we are of the truth – and this brings assurance to our hearts before God, that we are standing in Him. i. Gayle Erwin tells a wonderful story about a man he knew when he was a boy. The man’s name was Jake, and he was the meanest, drunkest, man in town. He would come to church from time to time, but that was only to beat up the elders. One Wednesday night, Jake came to church – but not to beat anybody up. Remarkably, Jake gave his life to Jesus. He walked down the aisle of the little church and kneeled down at the altar. The next night there was another meeting at the church, and the pastor asked if anyone wanted to share what God was doing in their lives. Jake stood up, and said: “I have something to say. Last night when I came here, I hated you people.” Heads nodded in agreement. “But something happened to me and I don’t understand this, but tonight I love you.” And even though he only had one tooth, he smiled really big. This is a wonderful assurance that we are born again. ii. Assurance is essential – who wants to wait until it is too late to know if they are really saved or not? b. And shall assure our hearts before Him: Our assurance is two-fold. First, God already knows everything about you and He loves you, He cares for you, He desires you; second, God knows all things, and knows who we truly are in Jesus Christ. If we are born again, then the real self is the one created in the image of Jesus Christ. c. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things: But what if we have been walking in love, yet our heart still condemns us before God? John assures us that God is greater than our heart, and so reminds us that we cannot base our relationship with Him purely on how we feel in His presence. i. Condemnation can well up inside us that has nothing to do with our standing before God. It may be the work of the enemy of our souls (who, according to Revelation 12:10 accuses the brethren), or the work of an over-active conscience. At those times, we trust in what God’s Word says about our standing, not how we feel about it. ii. “Sometimes our heart condemns us, but, in doing so, it gives a wrong verdict, and then we have the satisfaction of being able to take the case into a higher court, for ‘God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.’” (Spurgeon) d. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God: Yet, when we are in fellowship with God, and our heart does not condemn us, we know that we can have confidence toward God and our standing with Him. i. If someone is in true fellowship with God – not deceiving oneself, as mentioned in 1 John 1:6 – then the assurance that comes to his heart while fellowshipping with God is a precious thing. It is what Paul spoke about in Romans 8:16 – The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. e. We have confidence toward God: How precious is the confidence we can have in Jesus Christ! There is such a thing as a false confidence, a confidence in self or in illusions; but there is also a glorious confidence we can have in Jesus. i. “The word rendered confidence stood in ancient Greece for the most valued right of a citizen of a free state, the right to ‘speak his mind’… unhampered by fear or shame.” (Barker citing Dodd) 4. (22) Fellowship in God’s love means the assurance of answered prayer. And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. a. Whatever we ask: The person who walks in the kind of obedience and love John speaks of will also experience answered prayer. This is not because their love and obedience has earned them what they ask, but their love and obedience comes from fellowship – the key to answered prayer. i. John seems to be quoting Jesus’ idea from John 15:7 – If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. b. Because we keep His commandments: Keeping God’s commandments is important to answered prayer. But we should make a distinction between the prayer of the man who is saved, and the cry of the heart seeking mercy from God in Jesus. For the sinner who comes to Jesus in prayer, seeking mercy, the only requirement is sincerity of heart. God does not demand our obedience before He saves us. i. The key to prayer is being in such close fellowship with God that we ask for the things that are on His heart; we take up His agenda with our requests and intercession. ii. The spirit of true prayer is Thy will be done, not My will be done – we turn to prayer to call into action what God desires; even knowing that some of the things God desires will directly and personally benefit us. c. And do those things that are pleasing in His sight: The person who is in fellowship with God will want to do those things that are pleasing in His sight. We should have hearts that just want to please the Lord in everything that we do. i. It is sobering to look at our lives and see how much we do to please ourselves and how much we do to please the Lord. We shouldn’t think that the two are opposites; God is glorified when we enjoy His goodness and His good things. Yet, the godly life will have special focus on just pleasing God, even if it doesn’t particularly please us at the moment. 5. (23-24) The commandment of Jesus. And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment. Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. a. And this is His commandment: The idea of keeping His commandments in the previous verse led John to speak specifically about what His commandment is. Simply, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another. i. Here, John does not refer to these two aspects of obedience as two commandments, but as one commandment. Grammatically, he may not be officially correct, but spiritually, he is right on. These two are one. When Jesus spoke of the greatest commandment: You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, He added another saying: And the second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39). There are two commandments, but they are clearly like one another. b. We should believe on the name of His Son: Again, John seems to have quoted Jesus’ idea from John 6:29: This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent. The first commandment and the greatest work we can do, is to believe on Jesus. i. This is not simply believing that Jesus is, or even believing that He did certain things such as die on a cross. To believe on the name of Jesus means to put your belief on Jesus in the sense of trusting in Him, relying on Him, and clinging to Jesus. It isn’t about intellectual knowledge or understanding, it is about trust. c. And love one another: The second commandment is also a quoting of Jesus’ idea from John 15:12: This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. The love of the brethren is not an option for some Christians; it is a commandment for all. d. Abides in Him: Those who abide in Jesus know they are abiding in Jesus, because of the presence and assurance of the Holy Spirit. John again is giving the same idea as Romans 8:16 (The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God). i. Romans 8:9 tells us that anyone who belongs to Jesus has the Spirit in him; that indwelling Holy Spirit gives us assurance. You can’t be abiding in Jesus and not know it, though you may be attacked with doubt from time to time. ii. The one who does not keep God’s commandments does not have the ground of confidence that he abides in Jesus. As well, he does not truly have the assurance of the Holy Spirit’s presence in his life. iii. To know if you really have this assurance can take spiritual discernment, and that is what John deals with in the very next verse. But God has already given us another basis for assurance: seeing if we love one another (1 John 3:19). One in Christ (Ephesians 2:11–18) 1Therefore if you have any encouragement in Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, 2then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being united in spirit and purpose. 3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty pride, but in humility consider others more important than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. The Mind of Christ (Isaiah 52:13–15) 5Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus: 6Who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,a 7but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross. 9Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name above all names, 10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Lights in the World (Matthew 5:13–16) 12Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now even more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. 13For it is God who works in you to will and to act on behalf of His good purpose. 14Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and perverse generation,b in which you shine as lights in the world 16as you hold forth the word of life, in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain. 17But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. 18So you too should be glad and rejoice with me. Timothy and Epaphroditus (1 Corinthians 16:10–12) 19Now I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered when I learn how you are doing. 20I have nobody else like him who will genuinely care for your needs. 21For all the others look after their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. 22But you know Timothy’s proven worth, that as a child with his father he has served with me to advance the gospel. 23So I hope to send him as soon as I see what happens with me. 24And I trust in the Lord that I myself will come soon. 25But I thought it necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger and minister to my needs. 26For he has been longing for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill. 27He was sick indeed, nearly unto death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow. 28Therefore I am all the more eager to send him, so that when you see him again you may rejoice, and I may be less anxious. 29Welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor men like him, 30because he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for your deficit of service to me. And the drink offering thereof shall be the fourth part of an hin for the one lamb,.... For the lamb offered in the morning, along with the meat offering of which went a drink offering, which was of wine, and strong wine too, as the next clause expresses it; the quantity of which was the fourth part of an hin, which was about a quart and half a pint of our measure: in the holy place shalt thou cause the strong wine to be poured unto the Lord for a drink offering; that is, in the court of the tabernacle upon the altar of burnt offering, which stood there: the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem interpret it of old choice wine, old wine being reckoned best, see Luke 5:39, and though this wine was poured out on the altar, and not properly drank by any, yet it was to be the strongest, best, and choicest that could be got, as it was reasonable it should; since it was poured out as a libation or drink offering to the Lord, which was his way of drinking it, as the burning of the sacrifice was his way of eating that; all which was typical of the sufferings, sacrifice, and bloodshed of Christ, which are well pleasing and acceptable to the Lord; see Isaiah 53:10. The Daily Offerings …6This is a regular burnt offering established at Mount Sinai as a pleasing aroma, an offering made by fire to the LORD. 7The drink offeringaccompanying each lamb shall be a quarter hin.Pour out the offering of fermented drink to the LORDin the sanctuary area. 8And offer the second lamb at twilight, with the same grain offering and drink offering as in the morning. It is an offering made by fire, a pleasing aroma to the LORD.… Colossians 1:24 Paul's offering to the church' 23if indeed you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope of the gospel you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. 24Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you,and I fill up in my flesh what is lacking in regard toChrist’s afflictions for the sake of His body, which isthe church. 25I became its servant by the commission God gave me to fully proclaim to you the word of God,… Why was wine vinegar or sour wine given to Christ on the cross? Bible Question:Why did they give wine vinegar/sour wine to Christ while He hung on the cross? Bible Answer:Wine was offered to Jesus on three separate occasions while He was on the cross. The gospels indicate the first time Jesus was offered sour wine it was mixed with gall. The second time Christ was mocked as a king, and the third time wine was offered to Him, it was sour wine. Wine Mixed With Gall_ Mathew 27:34 and Mark 15:23 record the first time that Jesus was offered wine while He was hanging on the cross. And when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means Place of a Skull, they gave Him wine to drink mixed with gall; and after tasting it, He was unwilling to drink. Matthew 27:33-34 (NASB) Mark 15:23 says the wine was mixed with myrrh. The gall or myrrh, which was used in perfume and for embalming, was probably a narcotic. It would either help to numb the pain or it “is an invitation to commit suicide.”[1] This wine was offered to Jesus before He was crucified (Matthew 27:34-35; Mark 15:23-24). This wine could have been given to Christ in a cup. Wine Offered In Mockery The second time Jesus was offered wine is reported only in Luke 23:36. The soldiers also mocked Him, coming up to Him, offering Him sour wine, and saying, “If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself!” Now there was also an inscription above Him, “THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.” Luke 23:36-38 (NASB) The soldiers mockingly offered the wine to Christ as if He was their king (Luke 23:35-38). They mocked Him. Most likely they offered the wine in jest to Christ. Sour Wine OfferedMatthew 27:48; Mark 15:36 and John 19:29-30 record the third time wine is mentioned in the gospel accounts of Christ’s crucifixion. This time Jesus asked for something to drink. It is after 3:00 pm in the afternoon. After Jesus drank the wine, He bowed His head, gave up His spirit and died. (Mark 15:36-37; John 19:29-30). Matthew 27:48 tells us that the wine was given to Christ from a sponge attached to a reed. Immediately one of them ran, and taking a sponge, he filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and gave Him a drink. Matthew 27:48 (NASB) The Greek word that is translated as “sour wine” is oxos. This Greek word refers to cheap, sour wine that was apparently not purchased by the wealthy. It was a “sharp vinegary wine.”[2] It was a common wine used simply to quench one’s thirst. John 19:29 adds that there was a jar of the wine nearby. A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. John 19:29 (NASB) The jar of wine was most likely there to satisfy the thirst of the soldiers.[3] Therefore, the sour wine would not have been laced with a sedative or a pain killer such as gall. Most likely the sour wine was not mixed with anything. Yet, some have suggested that the sour wine was mixed with gall and was given in fulfillment of Psalm 69:21. But a close examination of that Psalm’s passage reveals that it does not say that the wine contained gall. The reference to gall is in the food. None of the gospel texts indicate anything differently. Therefore, Psalm 69:21 is not a prophecy of this event. Since Jesus was thirsty, He took a brief sip. After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, “I am thirsty.” John 19:28 (NASB) The sour wine was provided on a long pole with a hyssop sponge on the end (John 19:29). John Nolland comments, The third-century B.C. Antigonus Carystus reports the use of sponges tied to poles as a means of bringing up water. So the one who gives the drink to Jesus is not being entirely innovative.[4] Conclusion:Most likely the sour wine was given as a simple drink for a thirsty, dying, suffering man. https://biblia.com/books/esv/Lk23.29 The first recorded occurrence of a drink offering was that given by Jacob in Genesis 35:14, right after God changed his name to Israel. Drink offerings were also included with burnt and grain offerings in God-ordained sacrifices, including the morning and evening sacrifices of Exodus 29:40. One-quarter hin, about one quart, of wine was poured out into the altar fire for each lamb sacrificed (Numbers 15:4-5). A ram sacrifice required one third of a hin (Numbers 15:6), and a bull required one half (Numbers 15:10). It has been speculated that the offering of an animal, grain, oil, and wine—the smoke making a “soothing aroma to the LORD”—is a metaphor for providing food for God, an important cultural requirement in the Middle East. What we do know is that the pouring out of a drink offering is a metaphor for the blood Jesus spilled on the cross. Jesus spoke to this directly in Luke 22:20 when He instituted the New Covenant. He picked up a cup of wine and said, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.” Jesus’ sacrifice fulfilled the need of a drink offering, His blood literally pouring out when the soldier pierced His side with a spear (John 19:34). Paul took the metaphor further, twice using the image of a drink offering to describe his own service. In Philippians 2:17, he challenged the church in Philippi to live a life worthy of his dedication to them. In 2 Timothy 4:6, he sensed the end of his ministry, again comparing his efforts to wine poured out of a vessel onto an altar. Romans 8:17 And if we are children, then we are heirs: heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ--if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him. 1 Corinthians 12:27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each of you is a member of it. 2 Corinthians 1:5 For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 2 Corinthians 6:10 sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything. 2 Corinthians 12:15 And for the sake of your souls, I will most gladly spend my money and myself. If I love you more, will you love me less? Ephesians 1:23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Philippians 2:17 But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. Philippians 2:17 But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. Exodus 29:42 For the generations to come, this burnt offering shall be made regularly at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting before the LORD, where I will meet you to speak with you. Numbers 28:6 This is a regular burnt offering established at Mount Sinai as a pleasing aroma, an offering made by fire to the LORD. Numbers 28:8 And offer the second lamb at twilight, with the same grain offering and drink offering as in the morning. It is an offering made by fire, a pleasing aroma to the LORD. ''A new SONG" And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
Matthew 10:5–15 contains Jesus' instructions for His twelve apostles, for their missionary trip to the towns of Galilee, in northern Israel. Their mission will be to preach His message that the kingdom of heaven is near, while also healing people and casting out demons. The apostles must not take with them extra money or clothes. Instead, they will stay with those who are worthy in each town they visit. If nobody in a town believes their message, the disciples are to shake the dust of that town from their feet. Jesus will follow these instructions with a series of warnings and encouragements. This continues a very thorough set of instructions for the Twelve, the hand-picked apostles of Jesus Christ. He is sending them out into Galilee, and only to the people if Israel, for now (Matthew 10:1–6). There, they will do the work they have seen Him doing since each of them began to follow Him. Now Jesus tells them what they should say to the people of Israel. The message He gives them is the same one proclaimed by John the Baptist (Matthew 3:2), and the lesson Jesus Himself declared (John 4:17). Both John the Baptist and Jesus began that message with the word "repent," and the same is implied here. In short, the disciples were to go out and tell people that Jesus was the Messiah, the promised King of Israel. His kingdom was near, because He was on the earth now. The time had come for the people to put their faith in the Christ in order to be welcomed into His kingdom. Nobody understood, yet, that the kingdom would begin not with the overthrow of the Romans but with Jesus' death for the sins of humanity and His defeat of death in the resurrection. God is the gifter and provider of all our talents, and gifts, as he is our creator. He calls -us- to use those gifts to minister his message, than freedom, peace, jor, deliverance, all belongs in Christ. When he gifts people for a calling, God rewards the faithful who accept his calling, even if it takes preserverende, we know that ultimately, our treasures are given to us, most certainly in the age to come by following his call to use the gifts and talents he predestined you with, to glorify him and his sacrifice, than you and i, are given eternal life through the Sacrifice he made on our behalf. God especially calls to those he called as separate, unique, chosen, he calls them to a higher purpose, In the beginning of my journey, the hardest part was identifying this kingdom and the kingdom to come. It's hard for us, as human beings, to comprehend this existence as being temporary. How could it Not? Unless, perhaps, we have been given reason to believe otherwise? What I have learned, as it was spoken, is that the more time spent in his word, the more faithful he becomes. It's not always easy-usually, it's not! Ever! It's tough. it's not seamless. God promised hills and valleys. Once we trust that his word is true, which it is, then perhaps- we can trust his plan, too. And what happiness that may bring? The joy and glory of the promises of the world to come! It's clearly given. His promises are sure. The horizon is like a rainbow, God's promise- it comes right after the storm, There may be a few storms, maybe God is refining us. I promise, if you cling to his word, he will not forsake you, it's really the only thing he asks of you. STAY STRONG! Your crisis is coming. If it hasn’t already, or if you’re not in the middle of one right now, your time will come.
And not just one crisis. In his severe mercy, God punctuates our lives in this fallen age with crisis moments of varying degrees, designed for our everlasting good. For thousands of years, God’s people have known “times of trouble” and “days of distress,” sometimes all too well. And the same continues today. Our Father never promised that our being his would mean we won’t have ours. Over and over again, the Scriptures describe the faithful not as those who never saw trouble, but as those who cried out to God in their crises. The men and women we remember as models faced the greatest times of trouble and days of distress. And God heard their cries for help. He was not deaf then — nor is he today — to the voices of his people, however great or humble, especially in crisis. In Trouble and Distress_ Our God is not just the God who speaks — remarkable as that is — but also, wonder upon wonder, the God who listens. When James calls us to be “quick to hear” (James 1:19), he calls us to be like our heavenly Father. We have a Father “who hears prayer” (Psalm 65:2), who attends to the voice of our pleas (Psalm 66:19). Our God not only sees all people, but sees his own in a special way, as those to whom he has covenanted himself in love. He hears his people with the ear of a Husband and a Father. He is not bothered or annoyed by our petitions — especially not in trouble and distress. The Psalms in particular celebrate God’s eagerness to hear and help his people in their “day of distress” and “time of trouble.” David testified that God had been to him “a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress” (Psalm 59:16, also 9:9; 37:39; 41:1). He knew where to turn when crisis came: “In the day of my trouble I call upon you, for you answer me” (Psalm 86:7). “He will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble” (Psalm 27:5). And David knew where to point others: “May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble!” (Psalm 20:1). “The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble” (Psalm 9:9). And not only David, but the psalmist Asaph as well: “In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord” (Psalm 77:2). God himself says, “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me” (Psalm 50:15). Far from being bothered by our cries for help, God is honored when we turn to him with our burdens. Perhaps most striking of all is the refrain of Psalm 107 (four times): “Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress” (verses 6, 13, 19, 28). This is not just Israel’s story over and over again, but ours as well. Our God is at his best in our crises. This is who our God has been from the beginning. This is the God of Abraham and Isaac. And this is who Jacob, in his many ups and downs, his many strivings and wrestlings, found God to be: “the God who answers me in the day of my distress” (Genesis 35:3). The God of Jacob is not like the false gods of the surrounding nations. He is not like the household gods of Jacob’s uncle, Laban (Genesis 31:19, 34–35). And not like the Canaanite gods Jacob’s sons would have found as they plundered Shechem (Genesis 34:29; 35:2). Other “gods” do not answer in the day of distress. They are simply made by human hands and imagination. They are baby toys. They don’t answer. They do not act. Jacob’s life was a succession of crisis moments, and God proved himself faithful as the God who hears and answers. Just as God saw Leah in her crisis (Genesis 29:31) and remembered Rachel in hers (Genesis 30:22), he sees, he hears, he remembers, he cares. He is the living God who wants us to turn to him, to wrestle with him (Genesis 32:22–28), not just our circumstances, in our time of crisis. This is the God of Jacob — and the God of Nahum (Nahum 1:7), Obadiah (Obadiah 12, 14), Jeremiah (Jeremiah 16:19), and Hezekiah (Isaiah 37:3). His Perfect How and WhenIn our finitude and fallenness, it may seem to us, at times, that God is hiding himself in our moments of crisis (Psalm 10:1). But if we come before him humbly, not cherishing sin in our hearts (Psalm 66:18; also 1 Peter 3:7), we can expect that “truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer” (Psalm 66:19). And yet God hearing doesn’t mean he always — or even typically — answers how and when we expect or want. When we remember our God as the one who answers us in our time of crisis — as he did for Jacob and the psalmists and the prophets — we don’t assume that he answers how we would do it or exactly when we would want. Jacob, for one, spent twenty years under the tyranny of Laban, and his son Joseph spent thirteen years going down, down, down — sold in slavery, falsely accused, thrown into prison, then forgotten — before God raised him up. Our God works in his “proper time” (1 Peter 5:6), in his “due season” (Galatians 6:9). He indeed will hear us and answer — but often in ways, and in timing, we did not anticipate. His ways and thoughts are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8–9), and he does “far more abundantly,” not less, than what we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20). In Christ, we do not assume that our God isn’t seeing us, or hearing us, or answering because our lives are not unfolding according to our plans. Far from assuming he’s not answering, we want to receive his severe mercies as his continuing to do his surprising work of unfolding history, and our lives, not according to human expectations, but according to his infinitely majestic plans and purposes. Which we see so clearly in the crisis moment of God’s own Son. His Greater Answer... "He took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled” (Mark 14:33). There, in that garden of crisis, Jesus “offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence” (Hebrews 5:7). God heard his Son in his time of crisis, but he didn’t let the cup pass. He didn’t spare him death. God hearing and answering Jesus didn’t mean salvation from the cross, but salvation THROUGH the cross. His Father “saving him from death” could have meant protection from death. But his ways were higher. He did far more abundantly than we are prone to ask or think. The rescue God gave his Son this time was not protection from death, but sustaining grace through death. Then resurrection. And unless Jesus comes back first, we all will face death soon enough, and God’s answer to us will be sustaining grace in it, and resurrection on the other side. Our God is too real, and too big, and too glorious to work according to our human expectations and convenient timetables. He loves us too much to regularly do just what we want when we want in our times of crisis. But he always sees us. He always hears us. And in Christ, he will answer, not necessarily when and how we want, but with the answer we need, painful as it may be for now, for our ultimate good and glory. |
|