Easter Is Not an Island

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Easter Is Not an Island

John 20:1-9

Dr. Jim Denison

On average, they stand thirteen feet high and weigh fourteen tons. The largest of them weighs as much as 165 tons. There are 887 of them on the island. And no one is sure why.

In 1722 a Dutch explorer discovered their island. It happened to be Easter Sunday, so he named his discovery Easter Island. Here the explorer found the famous “moai” of Easter Island, giant statues which guard the beach and dot the island. You’ve undoubtedly seen them in pictures—huge stone figures, mostly faces, standing mute and stoic for centuries. We’re not sure how the people of Easter Island made them, or how they moved them. Theories abound, but no one is certain. Easter Island is in a sense a fascinating miracle.

Easter Day can be like Easter Island for us—a miracle, but an island, isolated from the continent of life. An annual religious observance and little more.

Last year, the Baptist churches in our area experienced a 50% decline in worship attendance from Easter Sunday to the next week. Our own experience was identical to theirs. Clearly many people see Easter as an island, unconnected to the rest of the year. A religious event with little relevance to our daily lives.

But our lives and souls need more. We need a transforming daily experience with the Christ who rose on Easter Sunday. And so, today, I want to show you the factual reality and the personal relevance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Why Easter is not an island we visit, but the home where we live.

To do that, I need you to take two walks with me.

Celebrate the reality of the resurrection

The first takes us back twenty-one years, to early spring of 1980 and a college retreat I was attending. My father had just died a few weeks earlier. In a few months I would graduate from college, marry Janet, and move to Southwestern Seminary to begin preparations for a life in vocational ministry. And my world came crashing in on me.

I’ll never forget that Saturday morning. I was about to spend the rest of my life preaching the gospel and serving the church. Was I sure about this? Was Christianity real? Was it more than Sunday school lessons and church services? Was I about to give my life to a religion, or to a reality?

I took that Saturday morning off from the retreat, and went for a walk. I can still see the stunning blue sky, hear the birds as they sang in the warm sun, feel the leaves and pine needles crunch beneath my feet. I walked and walked, as I thought about everything I had come to know about this Christian faith.

Perhaps you need to take that walk with me today, for yourself or to help someone you care about. Before we can see if Easter is relevant, first we must know if it is real.

As we walk and talk together, we begin where I started twenty-one years ago: with the fact that everything about the Christian faith hinges on Easter, on the resurrection. Jesus said he would rise again from the dead—if he did, his word is true and he is our living Lord. If he did not, the Bible is just a book and Christianity is just a religion.

Paul was clear: “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith” (1 Corinthians 15:14). If someone were to find a skeleton and prove that it was Jesus Christ, we would disband this church, sell the property, and give up the faith. Christianity hinges on the reality of the resurrection.

So let’s start here as we consider the reality of Easter. What explanations make the resurrection just a story, an island and nothing more?

One option: perhaps the first witnesses to Easter went to the wrong tomb, found it empty, and proclaimed Christ raised from the dead.

But in our text, Mary Magdeline was the first to arrive, and Mark 15:47 says she saw where Jesus was laid. Joseph of Arimathea, the owner of the tomb, certainly knew where it was. And assuredly the Romans knew where they had placed their guard. No, they had the right tomb.

A second possibility: perhaps these disciples wanted so much for Easter to be true that they imagined it was so. But Mary didn’t expect Jesus to be gone: “we don’t know where they have put him!” (v. 2). In verse 11 she’s still crying; in verse 15 she thinks Jesus is the gardener and appeals to him for the body. Verse 9 is clear: “They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.”

A third option, related to the second: maybe this was a hallucination, a mirage, a dream. But the tomb is still real, and empty. The Roman historians tell us that Christ was crucified by Pontius Pilate. His death and now-empty tomb are very real. More than 500 saw the resurrected Christ (1 Corinthians 15:6), and 500 people don’t have the same hallucination. No, Easter is no wish fulfillment or hallucination.

A fourth approach: perhaps the women or disciples stole his body and announced him risen. This was the Jewish authorities’ explanation for Easter. But people don’t die for a lie. And they don’t keep a secret, either. Just a few conspirators hatched the Watergate plot, and they couldn’t keep the secret more than a day or so.

A fifth answer: maybe the authorities stole the body. But they would undoubtedly have produced it the moment the resurrection was first preached by the disciples. And a body has ever been found, though skeptics for twenty centuries have looked.

When our tour group visited the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul three weeks ago, we saw on display hair and teeth from Mohammed. None are on display anywhere in the world for Jesus.

A sixth option: perhaps Jesus didn’t die, but swooned on the cross and later convinced his disciples that he had been resurrected. This is the thesis of Hugh Schonfield’s best-selling book, The Passover Plot. But verse 7 is fascinating rebuttal: “The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen.” The Greek original is clearer: the cloth around Jesus’ dead head was collapsed in on itself, not unfolded as it would have to be if he or anyone else had removed it from his body. And a swooned victim of crucifixion could never overpower guards, walk through locked doors, and ascend back into the heavens. This theory won’t work.

A last attempt: perhaps someone else died in Jesus’ place, maybe his twin brother, as philosopher Robert Greg Cavin speculates. Perhaps God substituted someone else for him, as the Muslim faith teaches. But men and women who lived with him for three years saw him raised, and his own mother saw him die. This explanation doesn’t work, either.

And so we have exhausted literally every possibility. There is a real, empty tomb. And no possible explanation for it, except that Jesus is alive and Easter is true.

I came to know that it is so as I took that Saturday walk and thought about the evidence. I came back with a deep assurance that Christianity is real, that Jesus is alive, and that he is worth my life. I have never had cause to doubt since. I encourage you to join me in that commitment to the reality of Easter today.

Live in relationship with the living Christ

But is Easter relevant? I know that Easter Island is real, but that fact doesn’t make it relevant to my life. What about Easter Day? What difference does its reality make for us? Why come back to worship God next week? Why pray tomorrow? Why share your faith on Tuesday?

To answer these questions, I need you to take another walk with me.

It was Monday before Easter Sunday in 1997. Our ministry staff at my church in Atlanta took two days for a silent retreat.

Late Monday afternoon I took a walk down to the Chattahoochee River and around to the waterfall on the retreat property. I sat on a deck overlooking that waterfall, and God spoke to me. He showed me that my faith had become a religion, not a relationship. That I was working for God, not walking with him. I couldn’t remember the last time I prayed because I simply wanted to be with God, or read the Scriptures simply because I wanted to hear from him. I couldn’t remember the last time I took an hour to listen to God, or the last time I told him I loved him.

Easter was real for me, but the living Christ was not relevant. During those two days, I learned how to fall back in love with Jesus again. I’d like you to take that retreat, that walk, with me. Ask yourself the two questions I asked myself.

First, ask yourself whether you have a religion or a relationship with God.

A religion is something we do to please God, to earn his blessing and help. A relationship with him is what we do because God is pleased with us, because he loves us. Are you here today for what you can get out of church, or for what you can give to God in gratitude?

A religion requires an event, a place to go, a tradition to keep. A relationship is not an event or tradition, but a celebration of our daily faith in God. Are you here to observe a religious event, or to celebrate the risen Christ?

A religion can be completed as a task is completed or a bill is paid for the year. A relationship with God is never done—every day is new and exciting. Will you feel you’ve done your religious duty today, or that tomorrow is another day to walk with Jesus?

I determined on that day that I had more a religion than a relationship with God. What about you?

Second, ask yourself if you want a transforming relationship with Jesus. A religion leaves us the same as we were. A relationship with Jesus always changes us for the better.

These disciples were confused, upset, and frightened. They were meeting “with the doors locked for fear of the Jews” on that first Easter Sunday (v. 19), and again the next week. But soon these men who were terrified of the authorities were preaching to them. The “doubting Thomas” of verse 25 became the great missionary to India. Matthew would die for Christ in Ethiopia, James in Jerusalem, Philip in Asia Minor, James the Less in Egypt, Jude in Persia, and Peter in Rome. John would be exiled on Patmos, and would write our text and gospel.

I decided that I wanted more with Jesus, that I wanted him to transform my life as he had theirs and so many others. Do you? When is the last time worshipping Jesus changed your life?

Do you know how much Jesus wants a personal, daily relationship with you? He chose to stay on earth for forty days after his resurrection. Forty days to eat and live with his disciples, to teach them God’s word, to develop their faith, to prepare them for the future. He waited forty days to return to his glory with his Father, because he wanted a relationship with his friends.

That’s what I learned again on my Easter walk with Jesus four years ago. That Jesus wants us to love him before he wants anything else from us. I learned that Easter is not the observance of a religion, but the celebration of a relationship. Not an island we visit each year, but a home where we live every day. Do you want that kind of relationship with God?

Conclusion

You can begin today. Jesus is ready and waiting. In a moment I’ll give you opportunity to pray with me, as I introduce you to him.

If you have begun that relationship, you can deepen it today. Take a few minutes today to be alone with him. Thank him for dying on the cross in your place, to pay for your sins. Thank him for rising from the grave, so that you can have eternal life in heaven. Make an appointment to meet him tomorrow for Bible study and prayer, and next week here with us for worship. Connect the island of Easter to the continent of your life.

If you already have, ask Jesus what he wants next from you. How can your walk with him be even stronger and deeper? What next step can you take? Ask him today, and follow him tomorrow.

The historian Philip Schaff said it well: “This Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Mohammed, and Napoleon; without science and learning, He shed more light on things human and divine than all philosophers and scholars combined; without the eloquence of schools, He spoke such words of life as were never spoken before or since, and produced effects which lie beyond the reach of orator or poet; without writing a single line, He set more pens in motion, and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art, and songs of praise than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times.”

And now he wants a living, daily relationship with you. What is your reply to him?

Erma Bombeck Was Right

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Erma Bombeck Was Right

2 Timothy 1:1-7

Dr. Jim Denison

Erma Bombeck was above all a mother. Here’s how she describes Mother’s Day breakfast in her home: “A mixer whirs, out of control, then stops abruptly as a voice cries, ‘I’m telling.’ A dog barks and another voice says, ‘Get his paws out of there. Mom has to eat that!’ Minutes pass and finally, ‘Dad! Where’s the chili sauce?’ Then, ‘Don’t you dare bleed on Mom’s breakfast!’ The rest is a blur of banging doors, running water, rapid footsteps and a high pitched, ‘YOU started the fire! YOU put it out!'” And breakfast arrives.

“Later in the day, after you have decided it’s easier to move to a new house than clean the kitchen, you return to your bed where, if you’re wise, you’ll reflect on this day. For the first time, your children have given instead of received. They have offered up to you the sincerest form of flattery: trying to emulate what you do for them.”

Erma is exactly right—your children will emulate you. Though bleeding on Mom’s breakfast is not the image I hope you remember from this message.

Tony Campolo’s homemaker wife was attending a faculty gathering at the University of Pennsylvania with her professor husband. A sociologist confronted her with the question, “And what is that you do, my dear?” Here’s her reply: “I am socializing two homo sapiens in the dominant values of the Judeo-Christian tradition in order that they might be instruments for the transformation of the social order into the teleologically prescribed utopia inherent in the eschaton.” Wow.

That’s what mothers do—they “socialize homo sapiens.” Not just intellectually or emotionally or physically, but spiritually. It’s this latter role which I want us to explore for a few minutes today. Here’s my one point: every Timothy has a Eunice, and probably a Lois. Let me show you what that sentence means, and why it matters enormously to your life and mine.

Where Timothy got his name

Timothy was the son Paul never had. He partnered with the apostle through most of his second missionary journey and all of his third. He traveled as Paul’s representative to Thessalonica, to Corinth, and to Philippi. He was at Paul’s side during his imprisonment in the Roman dungeon. After the apostle’s release he became pastor in Ephesus, the largest church in all of Christendom. He returned to Paul’s side as he faced execution by Nero (2 Timothy 4:9).

Listen to the various ways the apostle describes the young man: his “beloved and faithful child” (1 Corinthians 4:17), “my fellow worker” (Romans 16:21), “God’s fellow worker” (1 Thessalonians 3:2), “faithful in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 4:17), “brother (2 Corinthians 1:1), “my son” (1 Timothy 1:18).

In Philippians 2 the greatest of all apostles pays young Timothy the supreme compliment: “I have no one else like him” (v. 20). He adds, “Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel” (v. 22).

Sort of makes your resume and mine pale by comparison, doesn’t it?

His name means “one who honors God.” How did he grow into it? Let me assure you, it wasn’t easy.

Timothy grew up in Lystra, a Gentile country town in the central region of modern-day Turkey. His father was a Greek, a Gentile and a pagan; his mother Eunice was a Jewess (Acts 16:1). And so theirs was a mixed marriage, both racially and religiously. This marriage was illegal in her religion, and disparaged in his.

Timothy was technically a Jew, as the son of a Jewish mother. But his Gentile father forbade his circumcision and thus kept him from entrance into this faith tradition.

By the time Paul met the young man, during his second missionary journey, Timothy’s father was most likely dead and his mother a widow. He is a young man with no financial support and no faith community, the son of parents despised by their culture and shunned by their society.

And things hadn’t gone well for Paul in Timothy’s hometown, either. During his first visit to Lystra three years earlier, the pagan populace tried to worship him as a Greek god. Then some of Paul’s Jewish opponents showed up “and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead” (Acts 14:19). But Paul “got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe” (v. 20). No wonder.

Just the sort of career every young man wants to emulate, wasn’t it? Imagine yourself in Lystra twenty centuries ago. You know Timothy and his shunned family. You were eyewitness to Paul’s earlier travails in your city. Now you watch them meet for the first time. Could you have guessed that this despised young man and that persecuted preacher would change the world together?

How did it happen? Paul tells us the secret to Timothy’s soul: “I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice, and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also” (2 Timothy 1:5).

His faith is “sincere,” a word which means “without hypocrisy.” A “hypocrite” was technically a Greek stage actor who played many roles, wearing different masks to hide his true identities. Some of us never take ours off, but Timothy never put his on.

This faith “first lived” in his grandmother and mother. The Greek syntax means that it was theirs before it was his. They most likely were won to Christ by Paul during the brief days he spent in their city three years earlier.

And this faith “lived” in them—Jesus moved into their lives, took up residence in their souls, and could be seen at all hours of the day or night. He looked out their windows, built on rooms of spiritual growth, mowed down weeds of sin and neglect, greeted the neighbors, and generally ran the place. He was their Owner, their Landlord, their Master.

So it was natural that their faith would become his. Paul later reminds Timothy, “from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15). Jewish boys began their formal study of the Scriptures when they were five. But Timothy’s mother and grandmother started him in God’s word even earlier, when he was just an infant. And over time, their faith became his faith.

So when the apostle arrived again in Lystra, early in his second missionary journey, he found this spiritual “son” he didn’t know he had. The spiritual offspring of his ministry to Timothy’s mother and grandmother. And the two would change the world together.

All because his mother named him “one who honors God.” Twice.

How to name your child

Where did you get your name? Your spiritual name, for good or for bad? To whom do you owe your identity of significance?

Here’s an interesting bit of trivia: of the 69 kings of France, only three were truly loved by their subjects. They happened to be the three raised by their mothers and not tutors or guardians.

Napoleon was right. An aristocratic lady, sitting by his side at a great dinner, asked him, “My Emperor, will you tell me what it is France needs most at this present hour?” He turned to her and answered quietly, “France needs most of all mothers.” Does America?

Aurelius Augustinus would have made the cover of People magazine weekly, if it had been around in 354 AD. He had two mistresses, the first when he was only sixteen. He fathered an illegitimate child, and ran from one scandal to another. But his saintly mother Monica wouldn’t give up on her wayward son. Where he moved, she moved. While he sinned, she prayed. Finally, at 33 years of age, he came to faith in Jesus. He was ordained a priest, then a bishop; he wrote sixteen volumes of the greatest theology since Paul, and is considered the most brilliant Christian since the New Testament.

To whom do we owe Augustine?

Susannah Wesley was the 25th child of her father and the mother of 19. She taught each of her children to recite the alphabet by his or her fifth birthday; when they turned six, she spent six hours each day teaching them Christian theology. Two of her sons, John and Charles, would in time found the denomination known as Methodist. John Wesley later said, “I learned more about Christianity from my mother than from all the theologians of England.” To whom do we owe him?

Is the pattern clear?

C. I. Scofield published the famous Study Bible which bears his name. His mother died at birth, her last prayer that this newborn child would be a preacher of the gospel. His father didn’t tell him about his mother’s prayer until he had answered it.

The great expositor G. Campbell Morgan said, “My sermons were Bible stories which I had first learned from my mother.”

The remarkable evangelist Dwight L. Moody admitted, “All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.”

The greatest Baptist preacher ever, Charles Spurgeon, agreed, “I cannot tell how much I owe to the solemn words of my good mother.”

John Newton’s mother prayed for her wayward, sinful son, until he came to the Amazing Grace of which his hymn testifies.

Erma Bombeck was right: children do emulate their mothers. Mrs. Campolo was accurate: you are “socializing homo sapiens.” So reflect today on two requests.

First, would you choose the example you want your children to follow? They will become what you are. What spiritual model are you giving to their souls? What model do you want to give to them?

And second, would you make their spiritual development your highest priority? Our society values their grades, their athletic achievements, their social status. God values their souls. One day, so will they. But before they can, you must. What are you doing for your children’s souls today?

Conclusion

It’s never too late to be Lois and Eunice to your Timothy. This grandmother had spiritual influence worth recording in the record of God’s word. So did this mother. So can we all.

If you don’t have a child, find a Timothy anyway. Ask God for someone you can mentor, some soul you can help to mold, someone to pray for, someone whose eternal destiny you can help shape.

And whether you have a child or not, you have a mother. To the degree you can, honor her today.

And as you honor your mother, worship your Father. Trust in Jesus as Lord; live fully and passionately for him; and you will bring the greatest honor to your mother it is in your power to give.

Hear Temple Bailey’s famous essay:

“The Young Mother set her foot on the path of life. ‘Is the way long?’ she asked. And her guide said: ‘Yes, and the way is hard. And you will be old before you reach the end of it. But the end will be better than the beginning.’ But the Young Mother was happy, and she would not believe that anything could be better than these years.

“So she played with her children, and gathered flowers for them along the way, and bathed them in the clear streams; and the sun shone on them, and life was good, and the Young Mother said, ‘Nothing will ever be lovelier than this!’

“Then night came, and storms, and the path was dark, and her children shook with fear and cold, and the Mother drew them close and covered them with her mantle, and her children said, ‘Oh, Mother, we are not afraid, for you are near, and we know no harm can come,’ and the Mother said, ‘This is better than the brightness of the day, for I have taught my children courage.’

“And the morning came, and there was a hill ahead, and the children climbed and grew weary, and the Mother was weary, but she said to her children, ‘A little patience, and we are there.’ So the children climbed, and when they reached the top, they said, ‘We could not have done it without you, Mother.’ And the Mother, when she lay down that night, looked up at the stars and said, ‘This is a better day than the last, for my children have learned fortitude in the face of hardness. Yesterday I gave them courage. Today I have given them strength.’

“And the next day came strange clouds which darkened the whole earth—clouds of war and hate and evil, and the children groped and stumbled, and the Mother said, ‘Look up. Lift your eyes to the light.’ And the children looked and saw above the clouds an everlasting glory, and it guided them and brought them beyond the darkness. And that night the Mother said, ‘This is the best day of all, for I have shown my children God.’

“And the days went on, and the weeks went on, and the years went on, and the Mother grew old, and she was little and bent. But her children were tall and strong, and walked with courage. And when the way was hard, they helped their Mother; and when the way was rough, they lifted her, for she was light as a feather; and at last they came to a hill; and beyond the hill they could see a shining road and golden gates flung wide.

“And the Mother said, ‘I have reached the end of my journey. And now I know that the end is better than the beginning, for my children can walk alone, and their children after them.’ And the children said, ‘You will always walk with us, Mother, even when you have gone through the gates.’ And they stood and watched her as she went on alone, and the gates closed after her.”

The children were right: she will always walk with them. All mothers do.

Euthanasia and the Word of God

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Euthanasia and the Word of God

Dr. Jim Denison

It was the phone call from hell. I was on the back porch of our house, resting after a morning walk, when the father called. The doctors had just left his little girl’s hospital room. They told him it was time to turn off the machines, that there was nothing more they could do. But he and his wife didn’t have to do what they said. They could leave their baby on life support indefinitely while praying for a miracle.

If they removed the machines, were they playing God? Were they taking their girl’s life in their own hands? But short of divine intervention, why prolong the inevitable? Through his tears he asked me, What does God want us to do?

This wasn’t the first time a phone call stopped my world. Several years ago I was teeing off on the 10th hole of the local golf course when an assistant from the clubhouse drove a cart out to tell me I had an urgent message. He took me back to take the call. A college freshman in our church had put his father’s shotgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger.

It was the first time I preached the funeral message for a person who committed suicide. People kept asking me and I kept asking God why he didn’t stop the young man from destroying his life and his family with him. And we wanted to know what happened to him when he did.

Is the Bible still relevant in a world where our medical knowledge has outstripped our ethics? Does faith help when we deal with the most horrific decisions of our day–euthanasia, suicide, and abortion? If you haven’t needed to wrestle with these issues, be grateful. And keep reading, to prepare for the day you will.

Euthanasia and the will of God

You may remember Terri Schiavo and the national debate which surrounded her death. She had been living in a “persistent vegetative state” (PVS) since suffering a stroke in 1995. Now her husband wanted to turn off the machines, while her parents fought to keep her alive. The courts finally decided in the husband’s favor, and she died on March 31, 2005.

Most of us who watched the tragedy unfold wondered what to think. The legal issues involved in her medical care and death were enormous. When should society guarantee a person’s right to refuse life support? What kinds of statements and/or documents are necessary? Absent these, is the decision best left to the spouse or other immediate family? What role should health care providers play?

Nearly every person I spoke with on this subject said that he or she would not wish to be kept alive under such circumstances. Nearly every parent would want a role in making such a tragic decision. The legal and political issues raised by this tragedy are still being debated.

My interest in this issue is not legal but biblical. I’m writing to try to clarify my own mind on this difficult subject, and perhaps help others as they wrestle with this tragedy. Unfortunately, any of us could find ourselves where Mrs. Schiavo’s family was for 15 years.

Types of euthanasia

In trying to understand this issue, first I had to learn the language and history of the debate. Here’s a brief description of terms used by the media when they report on the subject.

“Euthanasia” is derived from the Greek word “eu” (well) and “thanatos” (death). It usually means a “good death” or “mercy killing,” and is understood to be the provision of an easy, painless death to one who suffers from an incurable or extremely painful affliction. Such an action is considered proper only when the suffering person wishes to die, or is no longer able to make such a decision.

A distinction is usually made between “active” and “passive” euthanasia. Active euthanasia occurs when someone acts to produce death. This is often called “assisted suicide,” as in the actions of Dr. Jack Kevorkian and others who have provided medical intervention leading directly to death. “Passive” euthanasia occurs when the patient is treated (or not treated) in a way which leads to death, but actions are not taken to cause death directly.

A third category has become common in recent years. “Letting die” refers to medical actions taken to enhance the patient’s well-being during the dying process. Unlike passive euthanasia, the doctor does not intend the patient to die as a result of this decision. Rather, the doctor withholds medical treatments which intensify suffering or merely postpone the moment of death for a short time.

For instance, it is not considered passive euthanasia to discontinue chemotherapy in cases of advanced cancer, especially if the drugs increase the suffering of the patient. The doctor does not intend this decision to cause death, even though death may result from his or her action.

In these terms, Terri Schiavo’s death resulted from passive euthanasia, since physical sustenance was withdrawn for the purpose of ending her life. Unlike most chemotherapy, food and water did not heighten her suffering. They were removed for the purpose of causing her death.

Ways to choose euthanasia

The decision to enact passive euthanasia is termed “nonvoluntary” since patients like Mrs. Schiavo cannot express their wishes. However, her parents could call the decision “involuntary,” believing that it went against her wishes as she would have expressed them. Her death would have been “voluntary” if she had given “informed consent” while motivated by her own best interests (unlike a person suffering from mental or emotional illness who wishes to die).

If Mrs. Schiavo had executed a “durable power of attorney,” she would have signed over all responsibility for her medical decisions to another person, usually her spouse. Because she did not take this action, the court gave her husband responsibility to make medical decisions for her, a decision known as “substituted judgment.”

Medical issues

Maintaining Terri Schiavo’s life would have required “heroic” or “extraordinary measures.” Some patients wish only “ordinary means” which offer reasonable hope of benefit and are not excessively burdensome. A third means of support could be called “basic,” providing only nutrition and water.

The doctors treating Mrs. Schiavo were required to help their patient (“beneficence”) and to refrain from harming her (“nonmaleficence”). They could ethically provide medical assistance to alleviate any suffering, even if such help shortened her life. This “double effect principle” assures that doctors do not act immorally if they intend only the good effect, do not use bad as a means to good, and create good at least equal to the bad. For example, doctors can prescribe morphine to alleviate the suffering of a terminally ill patient, even if a side effect of morphine in that patient will shorten the person’s life, unless they intend the drug to shorten or end that life.

Definitions of “death”

These definitions are obviously very complicated. I thought that at least the definition of “death” would be easy to state, but I was wrong. Doctors usually consider “death” to occur when circulation or respiration ceases irreversibly, or when the whole brain does the same.

But what is “brain death”? The “upper brain” supports consciousness, while the brain stem controls body functions such as breathing and heart rate. If the upper brain has died, the patient is considered to be in a “persistent vegetative state” (PVS). There are estimated to be 10,000 PVS patients in the United States. This was reported to be Mrs. Schiavo’s condition.

If the brain stem has also died, the patient is considered to have suffered “brain death.” Because nerve cells do not regenerate, both upper-brain and total brain death are completely irreversible.

What are our biblical options?

In cases of PVS (“persistent vegetative state” caused by upper-brain death), what medical options could be considered scriptural? What does the Bible teach regarding the larger subject of euthanasia?

First, let’s make it clear that active euthanasia or “assisted suicide” is unbiblical. This practice is the overt, intentional taking of life, and is prohibited by the Sixth Commandment. For the remainder of this essay, we will consider euthanasia only as the subject relates to passive or “letting die” options.

Defining the alternatives

Ethicists seem to agree that in cases of total brain death or upper-brain death, “heroic” measures are unnecessary. Many believe that ordinary treatment is not obligatory, and “letting die” is moral. Some, however, believe that it is wrong to withdraw food and hydration, allowing the body to starve. This approach views the life as “holistic,” meaning that a functioning body is still united to the “soul,” the “image of God.” Such a person is still a member of the human race, and deserves at least basic care (food and water), if not ordinary care (routine medical support).

Other Christians believe that brain-dead or PVS patients are simply bodies, that their souls or spiritual selves have gone on to eternity. Withdrawing food and water from such patients is then considered to be morally right. In this view, without a functioning brain, the body no longer sustains a soul or retains the image of God. Medical personnel should always care for those who possess potential for conscious life. But when a PVS exists, there is no possibility of brain regeneration and the “soul” has left the body.

Still others support “vitalism,” the belief that physical function by itself is sacred. In this view, even if the “soul” has departed a body which is brain-dead or in a PVS, the body deserves medical treatment to the very end of physical life. Some “vitalists” support ordinary care or basic care for such a body, while others argue for heroic means to preserve physical function as long as possible.

In these terms, Mr. Schiavo’s decision to withdraw food and water would reflect the belief that his wife’s soul had departed her body, and that ending basic care was morally right. Given his insistence that this decision reflected her wishes, his directive was followed by her physicians.

Which view is the most biblical?

Created in the image of God

One way to answer our question involves the scriptural description of humanity as created “in God’s image.” Genesis says that “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). What does it mean to be in God’s “image”?

Most theologians would focus on humanity’s uniqueness. What is it which separates us from other life? Such characteristics make us uniquely “the image of God.” Four biblical statements answer the question:

We are created in God’s image to “rule over” his creation (Genesis 1:28).

The Lord warns us, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God has God made man” (Genesis 9:6).

Paul instructs a man not to “cover his head” in worship, “since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man” (1 Corinthians 11:7).

James criticizes the fact that “with the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness” (James 3:9).

From these specific biblical references to the “image” or “likeness” of God, we can suggest that a person retains this “image” when he or she is able to relate to the rest of God’s creation as his representative on earth. We are to “rule” or govern creation, represent God to others, and value each other. In this sense we may be created not so much “in” the image of God but “as” his image on earth.

By this reasoning, we lose the “image of God,” that which makes us uniquely human and valuable, when we lose the ability or potential to relate to ourselves, our environment, other humans, and God. A baby in the womb and a comatose patient are each a person, in that they retain the potential for such interaction. But a PVS individual is not.

Dualistic and holistic views

How does this distinction relate to the body? Some believe that the “soul” can depart the body before its physical death. This is typically considered the “dualistic” view, separating the physical and the spiritual.

Jesus cried from the cross, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46). Stephen prayed before his physical death, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (Acts 7:59). Some interpreters use these statements to separate the soul or “image of God” from the body. In the belief that a PVS patient does not and cannot exhibit the image of God, it is then concluded that the person’s “soul” has left the body. Any physical support for the body, even food and water, is thus unnecessary.

Others adopt a holistic understanding of the biblical view of humans. While Greek thought separated body, soul, and spirit, Hebrew theology did not. It is not so much that we “have” a body, soul, and spirit which can be identified as separate entities. Rather, we “are” body, soul, and spirit. These words are different dimensions of the one person (cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:23).

In the holistic view, we retain the “image of God” so long as our bodies retain some dimension of physical life. Mrs. Schiavo’s parents spoke passionately of the joy she continued to bring them, the love they felt for her despite her condition. They would argue, I’m sure, that she was still a “person” to them. In the holistic approach, so long as a person is alive physically, that person is the “image of God.”

This view would see Mrs. Schiavo, as long as she lived, as a person deserving of basic physical support. Food and water would be essential, appropriate provision for any person. And so the decision to withdraw them would be wrong.

Permission to die?

What if she had previously directed that such withdrawal occur? Then the law would require that her wishes be honored. But should it? Should we be permitted to mandate that heroic or even ordinary measures not be taken to maintain our lives?

The dualistic view believes that a patient loses the “image of God” in certain medical conditions, and would support that person’s previously stated right to refuse medical life support. The holistic view, taken to its logical conclusion, would seem to require at least food and water to be provided, in the desire to preserve and honor the “image of God.” Some would argue that even heroic measures are required, and that a person should not be allowed to refuse them. Just as we require passengers in cars and airplanes to wear seat belts, so we should require patients to receive all medical support for as long as their bodies survive.

My position

I believe that the holistic view reflects God’s understanding of humanity. But I also believe a distinction between heroic, ordinary, and basic life support is warranted. In my view, it is permissible to cease heroic or even ordinary life support for a person who possesses no actual or potential capacity for relational life on any level, as that person cannot demonstrate the “image of God.”

But I also believe that so long as the body is alive, the “person” is alive. And persons deserve at least basic (food and water) support, for as long as they live. Although the state allows us to choose passive euthanasia, medical actions which are intended to bring about our death, I do not believe such a decision is warranted biblically.

Let’s assume that Terri Schiavo did in fact express her desire to refuse medical life support and even to experience passive euthanasia. Her husband and doctors then acted within the law in withdrawing food and water for the purpose of ending her life. But I do not believe she or they acted within biblical guidelines. In my view, we should not be permitted to request medical steps which are intended to cause our death. Absent our clearly expressed intention, our caregivers should not be permitted to choose such actions.

However, we and/or our doctors can choose to “let die,” to take medical steps which do not prolong our lives. When these medical actions enhance the present quality of life, even if they shorten the life span of terminally ill patients, they are especially warranted.

Medical care and the power of God

I wish I had written this essay before my conversation with that father about ending his daughter’s life support. The next time I get such a heartbreaking phone call, I’ll ask the family about their intentions. Do they intend to hasten or even cause death? I do not believe such a decision is defensible. On the other hand, do they wish simply to allow nature to take over, “letting die” if this is the natural result of the patient’s condition? In this situation, medical support is not prolonging life—it is prolonging death.

I will remind such a family that maintaining or ending medical care does not necessarily affect the intervention of God. The Lord Jesus raised Lazarus from the grave after he had been dead four days (John 11:38-44). He does not require medical life support to heal. And if it is his will that the patient not survive physically, no medical means can defeat his purpose.

If all medical options have been exhausted, and there is no plausible reason to believe the patient will ever improve, a family who ends heroic or ordinary life support is not removing the possibility of divine intervention. Rather, they are placing their loved one in God’s hands, allowing him to heal physically or eternally.

Then the Lord will heal as he wills. He sometimes heals us physically, continuing our lives in our fallen bodies on this fallen planet. But he eventually heals us eternally, taking believers from earth to heaven, from disease and death to paradise. Either way, we are well.

Everybody Can Be Somebody

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Everybody Can Be Somebody

Acts 6

Dr. Jim Denison

Everyone wants to be somebody. I do, and so do you. Somebody who matters, somebody who’s important to someone else.

The day was Monday, March 11, 1991, and the president of the United States was desperately trying to prove that he was somebody. President Bush was visiting Anthony Henderson’s school, and sat down beside Anthony to read him a book. Suddenly Anthony asked, “Are you really the president?”

Bush was surprised by the question. “You mean, you didn’t know that? How can I prove it to you?” He showed him his driver’s license, but the boy wasn’t convinced. He showed him his American Express card, then a picture of his grandson playing baseball, then pointed to the black limousine outside. But nothing worked.

The picture in USA Today told the whole story: Anthony sitting with a puzzled president, examining his American Express card. Wondering if he’s really somebody or not. We all want to be somebody special.

I came home from work Tuesday to the tragic news of the killings in Littleton, Colorado. How does it happen that two teenage boys open fire in their high school and kill thirteen people, then themselves? Now we know: they felt rejected by them, by the athletes, the “cool” students, the “in” people. They weren’t noticed, or special. They weren’t somebody. So they did something to get noticed, to feel important, to be somebody. And fifteen grieving families will pay for their perceived neglect, for the rest of their lives.

Everybody wants to be somebody. But there’s only one way which really works—which gives our lives purpose and meaning after the job ends, or the money is spent, or the kids move out, or even life comes to its end. One way to be somebody, which anybody can accomplish. One way to be somebody, today.

What is it?

Stephen ministry begins

Travel with me to A.D. 35, and to the greatest crisis confronting the first Christian congregation: “the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food” (v. 1). What is this?

Some in this first congregation were from Palestine, and spoke Hebrew and Aramaic. Others were from the Hellenistic world, so they spoke Greek. Many of these had become Christians at Pentecost, and stayed in the city. Others of them had moved to Jerusalem to retire.

The Jewish people had long cared for their widows, since they had no one else. When a woman married, her father no longer bore responsibility for her care; if her husband died, his family was no longer responsible for her, either. And employment options for first-century women were extremely limited, as you might guess. So the Jewish people took a daily collection for their needs, called the Tamhui or Table, and a weekly collection every Friday as well, called the Kuppah or Basket.

But if someone left Judaism for Christianity, he or she forfeited this support system. So the apostles took it over. However, the church had outgrown the care the apostles could provide. And these families who were not from Palestine were convinced that their widows were being discriminated against.

This is a very serious state of affairs. Not only could widows starve to death if the church doesn’t act; but the fragile racial coalition, which was early Christianity, is in danger of failing. And this splintering of the Christian movement would doom it.

So the apostles call the entire congregation together for the first business meeting in church history, an indication of the crucial nature of the issue. They will seek seven men “known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom” (v. 3).

The congregation elects seven such men. Interestingly, each of them has a Greek name, indicative of the church’s concern for the Greek-speaking widows. And these seven go to work. They organize the first comprehensive benevolence system in Christian history, with responsibility for the care, and even the lives, of hundreds of people.

And the results are spectacular (v. 7): “The word of God spread,” as the apostles continue their ministry of Scripture and prayer (cf. v. 4). “The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly,” now that the infrastructure is in place for their care and everyone is involved personally in ministry. Even “a large number of priests became obedient to the faith,” now that they see that their widows and families will be cared for if they leave Judaism. Impressed by the care and compassion of the Christians, even priests come to Christ in record numbers.

And Stephen, a man “full of God’s grace and power,” leads the way, performing “great wonders and miraculous signs among the people” (v. 8). Just one of seven men no one had ever heard of before. Not apostles, or prophets, or priests. Not people of fame or status. Just people who would give themselves to personal, caring, compassionate ministry to people in need. People who cared like Jesus cares. And the church will forever be different because they did.

Stephen ministry continues

And their ministries continue, far beyond their greatest expectations. Stephen is stoned to death, but his witness impresses and convicts a young man from Tarsus named Saul. If there had been no Stephen, there would have been no Paul, the most famous convert in Christian history.

Now Saul of Tarsus is on the road to Damascus when Jesus blinds him with his light and call. He staggers into Damascus in desperate need of help and compassion. So God calls another Stephen, a man named Ananias. This Christian is understandably afraid of the infamous murderer of Christians, but he goes to him anyway. And Paul’s eyesight is restored, and his ministry begins. If there had been no Ananias, there would have been no Pauline ministry such as we know it today.

Now Paul has returned to Jerusalem, but the frightened church will have nothing to do with him. So God raises up another Stephen, the benevolent Barnabas. He vouches for Paul and wins for him entry into the Christian community.

Still later, after Paul had returned to obscurity in his hometown of Tarsus, Barnabas finds him again. He brings him to the church at Antioch, and to leadership in the Christian movement. If there had been no Barnabas, there would have been no Pauline mission to the world, or Pauline letters, half the New Testament, or Pauline theology which shapes our faith tradition to this day.

Did Stephen, or Ananias or Barnabas have the slightest idea that God would use them in these eternally significant ways? Can we ever know how God will use us when we are willing? In all of Christian history, can you name three people whose lives were more significant than theirs? Three people who were more a somebody than they. People no one had ever heard of before. Not apostles, or prophets, or priests. Not people of fame or status. Just Christians who would give themselves to personal, caring, compassionate ministry to people in need. People who cared like Jesus cares. And the world will forever be different because they did.

Conclusion

Today we celebrate Martha Howard’s 80th birthday. When she and Dr. Howard came to Park Cities in view of a call in 1948, he preached a sermon entitled Everybody’s Somebody. It became famous. The church asked him to preach it each year. I listened to it this week with great gratitude and profit.

And he was right: everybody is somebody. This is the central fact of the Christian faith. Every person you know was made by God, in his image, and is somebody special to him. You may be a Saul, in need of help; you may be a Stephen, ready to give it. But you’re somebody. Stephens know that it’s so.

Today we celebrate 66 more Stephens: men and women who have received more than fifty hours of training in personal, caring ministry. Stephens who today stand ready to continue the tradition of eternally significant compassion and care. Stephens who will care like Jesus cares. 66 somebodies.

Perhaps you need a Stephen in your life today. Maybe you’re a Saul of Tarsus, in real need of compassion and personal ministry. We have 66 Stephens waiting to help you. Call the church, and they will.

Perhaps you know a Saul. That makes you a Stephen. You can receive the same training, and experience the same joy of such service. But you don’t have to wait. If you know a Saul, you can care like Stephen today. And when you do, you’ll care like Jesus does. And he will be grateful.

Francis of Assisi was a Stephen. In fact, he founded a movement of Stephens in 1209, and his ministry has given birth to wonderful Stephen stories. My favorite concerns the time when Francis, then a young man, was riding his horse in the countryside and came upon a leper trudging up the road. He was repulsed by the man’s appearance and smell. But something made him stop. Something made him go to the man, and put his arms around him, and hold him. And Francis said that, before his eyes, the leper’s face changed to the face of Christ, and he vanished.

But he didn’t. He’s still here. Every time a Stephen helps a Saul, he helps Jesus. And that’s how everybody can be somebody.

Expect the Best from God

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Topical Scripture: John 5:1-9

Dr. David Fite went to be with the Lord last August. He was a former missionary to Cuba and a colleague of mine when I served on the faculty of Southwestern Seminary in Ft. Worth.

Dr. Fite and his father-in-law were both imprisoned in Cuba for preaching the gospel there. They spent forty-two months in prison, where they were often put in solitary confinement or made to stand at attention all day. Dr. Fite’s father-in-law, advanced in years, often fell when standing in the hot Cuban sun. The guards would then hit him.

One day was especially hot. Dr. Fite and his father-in-law stood at attention all through the day; the elderly man never flinched but stood with amazing strength. That night, David asked him how he had done so. His answer: “David, I’m surprised at you. You forgot that my birthday is today! Southern Baptists all over the world were praying for our missionaries. God’s grace was my strength!”

All that God has ever done, he can still do. As we continue our series on Jesus’ healing miracles, we come today to one of the most surprising stories in Scripture. And we will hear Jesus ask us the strange but penetrating question, “Do you want to be healed?”

Listen to his voice

Our story begins: “Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews” (John 5:1). He had to go “up,” because Jerusalem sits atop a plateau whose sides must be scaled by pilgrims coming to the Holy City.

He came for a “feast of the Jews,” but which one? The options are Purim in March, Passover in April, Pentecost in May, Tabernacles in October, and Dedication in December. This episode likely occurred during the springtime, as the lame were lying outside in the weather and Jesus referred to the time of harvest earlier (John 4:35). Thus Purim and Passover are the best guesses.

If this feast was Passover, Jesus attended it out of religious obligation. Every Jew within fifteen miles of Jerusalem was legally required to attend Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. Our Lord knew the controversy which awaited him, but he came anyway. The healing of a paralyzed man was worth all the trouble it cost him.

Verse 2 continues the narrative: “Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades.” John used the present tense, “there is in Jerusalem . . .”, even though he wrote these words long after the Roman destruction of the city in AD 70. He wanted us to experience the reality of this miracle as if it occurred in our time, for it still can.

The Sheep Gate was one of the entrances through the walls of the city of Jerusalem. It had been rebuilt by Eliashib the High Priest and his fellow priests during the time of Nehemiah (Nehemiah 3:1), more than four centuries earlier. It was likely the entrance through which sheep and lambs were brought from the neighboring fields to the Temple for sacrifice. Through this gate the Lamb of God came to heal a crippled man, as one day he would die for the spiritual healing of our crippled world.

Here lay a “pool” (this word is found only here in the New Testament). It was surrounded by “five covered colonnades.” These colonnades were covered porches called stoa where people gathered (the “Stoics” are named for the fact that they began by meeting on porches like these). The pool in question was trapezoidal in form, 165–220 feet wide by 315 feet long, divided by a central partition. There were colonnades on four sides of this partition, and one on it. Stairways in the corners permitted descent into the pools.

The Crusaders built a church over this pool, with a crypt framed like the five porches and an opening in the floor which descended to the water. This structure is known as the Church of St. Anne; its remains stand today on the northwest corner of Jerusalem near the gate by the sheep market. I’ve seen it, as do most tourists to Jerusalem. The pool was called Bethesda in Aramaic, a term meaning “House of Mercy.” Jesus fulfilled its name this day.

Beside this pool “a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed” (John 5:3). This was likely not a winter scene, given their exposure to the weather. They were “paralyzed,” withered, atrophied. Why were they there?

Verse 7 supplies the answer: “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred.” There is a subterranean spring beneath the pool which bubbles up occasionally, stirring its waters. The popular belief was that the first person who entered the water after it was stirred would be healed.

And so later copies of the Greek New Testament supplied this explanation, continuing verse 3: “and they waited for the moving of the waters.” Then a fourth verse: “From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease he had.” The earliest and most reliable manuscripts of the New Testament do not contain these words, so biblical scholars are certain they should be omitted from the text. They appeared in the manuscripts used by the translators of the King James Version, which is why these words were included in that version. But no modern translation of the Bible includes them in its text.

Now we meet the suffering man Jesus came to heal: “One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years” (John 5:5). The length of his incapacity proves the fact that it was medically incurable. Jesus did not provide him a medical solution but a miraculous healing.

So, “When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” (v. 6). Unlike the healing of the nobleman’s son, this miracle was initiated by Jesus himself. The crippled man could not come to Jesus physically, and did not know to ask Jesus to come to him. So Jesus met him at the point of his great need.

But first he asked what seems to us a strange question: “Do you want to get well?” What crippled person wouldn’t want to be healed?

However, Jesus “learned that he had been in this condition for a long time.” This man has spent his adult life and perhaps longer in this condition. He may have become accustomed to living on the donations of others. He may not want to return to the responsibility of an earned income and work to perform. Jesus will only work in our lives with our permission. He always limits himself to our free will.

Where do you need his healing, helping touch today? Jesus knows your pain. In fact, “your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:8). Jesus is calling to us in our suffering, for he shares it with us. Even in the valley of the shadow of death, he is with us (Psalm 23:4). He promised that he would never leave or forsake us (Matthew 28:20). He hurts as we hurt, and calls to us in the pain of our lives.

But some of us feel that we are beyond his help, that our sins have exempted us from his grace. The world would have said the same of this invalid. In Jesus’ day, popular theology taught that physical illness was proof of spiritual judgment. A person with a physical birth defect, as may have been the case with this man, was under the justice and judgment of God (cf. the disciples’ question of Jesus, “who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” John 9:2). And those who experienced suffering for other reasons were judged to be sinners as well.

No self-respecting rabbi would have stopped for this man, but Jesus did. Perhaps you think no one cares about you or your pain today. If we knew your secrets we would reject you; if the world knew your problems, it would turn on you. But not Jesus. He initiated this miracle, as he will yours. He went to this man, as he will come to you. He stands ready to meet us where we need him most.

But we must listen. The Psalmist invites us to “be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). We must set aside our own furious activity, the crush of the calendar and the press of the day’s demands and listen to his voice.

One of the most life-transforming essays I have ever read is Mike Yaconelli’s Lost and Found: My Soul. This late, well-known Christian columnist related a time years ago when he retreated to be alone with God, with this result: “It only took a few hours of silence before I began to hear my soul speaking. It only took being alone for a short period of time for me to discover that I wasn’t alone. God had been trying to shout over the noisiness of my life, and I couldn’t hear Him. But in the stillness and solitude, His whispers shouted from my soul, ‘Michael, I am here. I have been calling you. I have been loving you, but you haven’t been listening. Can you hear me, Michael? I love you. I have always loved you. And I have been waiting for you to hear Me say that to you. But you have been so busy trying to prove to yourself that you are loved that you have not heard Me.”

Yaconelli then testifies: “I heard Him, and my slumbering soul was filled with the joy of the prodigal son. My soul was awakened by a loving Father who had been looking and waiting for me.” As he waits for us.

To feel the touch of Jesus, first listen to his voice.

Trust his heart

The invalid replied to Jesus’ question, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me” (v. 7). He wanted to be well but could not be on his own. He needed help and sought it from our Lord.

Notice how little he asked of Jesus. He believed that he would be healed if he could be the first one into the pool after the spring stirred its waters. And so he wanted the Son of God, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, simply to carry him a few feet into the water. Jesus stood ready to heal his body, and the man instead asked him to help him get wet.

Are we so different? Do we ask for all God can do, or merely what we need for the present moment? Do we limit God’s power in our lives by our lack of faith in his power?

We might object that the crippled man didn’t know who Jesus really was. True, and this ignorance is his defense. But we have no such argument. When we give our need to Jesus, we must trust his heart and expect his best. For that is what he waits to give to us.

Our Lord said to the invalid, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk” (v. 8). He called the man to do something he had not done for thirty-eight years. He did not carry the man to the water—he healed him so he could walk there himself. He did not offer him a temporary cure or help for the symptoms of his disease—he worked a miracle which would banish this disease from his life forever. He told him to pick up his “mat,” the light pallet on which he had begged for so long.

And he told the invalid to “walk.” He has not moved the muscles of his legs for thirty-eight years. Even if a physician were to cure the cause of his paralysis, perhaps a rupture in the spine or nerves, his muscles would be so atrophied that years of physical rehabilitation would be required by him. But not by Jesus. He did for the man far more than the man asked of him.

Now the divine-human partnership emerges again. Jesus healed the man, but the invalid had to get up with the power given him by God. Jesus restored his body but told him to carry his own mat. Jesus cured his limbs but required the man to use them himself. And when he did, “At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked” (v. 9a).

When we trust our problem into Jesus’ hands, we must always expect the best from him. He will always do as we ask, or something better. We often misunderstand his ways or timing and feel that he will not hear or help us. But he is giving us what is best for us, whether we know it at the moment or not.

Years ago, I was using a razor blade to scrape paint from a window one Saturday morning when one of our small boys happened by. Attracted by the shiny “toy” in my hand, he wanted to play with it and was not happy that I wouldn’t give him what he asked. But of course, no amount of begging or anger would have persuaded me to give him what he wanted.

When we stand with our Father in glory, we’ll see how many times he met our needs and answered our prayers with what we asked. And how often he gave us even more.

Where do you need his touch? Listen to his voice, and then trust his best. As the song says, when you can’t see his hand, trust his heart.

Conclusion

When we pray, God gives us what we ask or something better. Where do you need his touch? Where is a paralytic lying on a mat in your life? Get alone and still with the Father, so that you can hear him call to you by grace. Trust his heart, believing that he will give you what you are praying for unless he can give you even greater blessing. Seek spiritual health, not just temporal happiness. And join God at work, adding your hands to his, touching the spiritual, emotional, and physical paralytics who lie at your side. Believe that he can use you for great Kingdom work, and he will.

I have seen God do things in Cuba that we seldom see him do in America. Why is this?

I was discussing this question with a longtime missionary friend. She pointed out the obvious but often overlooked answer: the Cubans know they need Jesus. They know they need his power, his presence, his encouragement and joy. So they pray with passion and expectation, and God answers.

Mother Teresa was right: “You’ll never know Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.”

Expect The Best From God

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Expect the Best From God

John 5:1-18

Dr. Jim Denison

Thesis: Jesus always gives us what we ask, or something better

Dr. David Fite is a former missionary to Cuba and was a colleague of mine when I served on the faculty of Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth. Dr. Fite and his father-in-law were both imprisoned in Cuba for preaching the gospel. They were often put in solitary confinement or made to stand at attention all day. Dr. Fite’s father-in-law, advanced in years, often fell when standing in the hot Cuban sun. The guards would then hit him.

One day was especially hot. Dr. Fite and his father-in-law stood at attention all through the day; the elderly man never flinched, but stood with amazing strength. That night, David asked him how he had done so. His answer: “David, I’m surprised at you. You forgot that my birthday is today! Southern Baptists all over the world were praying for our missionaries. God’s grace was my strength!”

The New Testament specifically describes thirty-five such miracles of the Lord Jesus. They fall into four categories. Nine times Jesus changed the natural world, such as turning the water into wine (John 2:1-11), calming the storm (Matthew 8:23-27) and feeding the multitude (Mathew 14:13-21). Six of his recorded miracles were exorcisms (cf. Mark 1:21-28; Matthew 12:22; Luke 8:26-39). Three times he raised the dead (Matthew 9:18-26; Luke 7:11-15; John 11:1-44). But the majority of his recorded miracles were devoted to the suffering. Seventeen times he healed. Our Lord was indeed the Great Physician.

We will study another such miracle in this study. But this one comes with a twist: here Jesus initiates the action. The man doesn’t ask him for help; Jesus offers it. Just as he offers it to you today. Let’s learn how to hear his invitation to hope.

Listen to his voice

Our story begins: “Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews” (John 5:1). “Some time later” translates a vague phrase by which John supplemented the accounts given in the Synoptic Gospels (Robertson 78).

Here is what John assumes we have already read from the other Gospels: between last week’s miracle and today’s text, Jesus preached in Nazareth and was rejected by the people (Luke 4:16-30); he made Capernaum his residence and called Andrew and Peter, James and John to permanent discipleship (Matthew 4:18-22); he healed a demoniac in the synagogue (Mark 1:21-28) and Peter’s mother-in-law (Matthew 8:14-17); he preached throughout Galilee, healing many including a leper (Mark 1:35-45); he healed a paralytic in Capernaum (Mark 2:1-12); he called Matthew, and attended a feast in his house (Mark 2:13-17); and he gave instructions with regard to fasting (Mark 2:16-20) (Hovey 128).

Now John supplements the Synoptics with his own material, giving us a miracle story found nowhere else in Scripture. (Herschel Hobbs, who wrote his dissertation on the subject, believed that John added such unique stories as part of his intentional strategy to give the Church the full story of Jesus’ life and work; Invitation 42).

So Jesus has been busy. Now he “went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews.” He had to go “up,” because Jerusalem sits atop a plateau whose sides must be scaled by pilgrims coming to the Holy City. He came for a “feast of the Jews,” but which one? The options are Purim in March, Passover in April, Pentecost in May, Tabernacles in October, and Dedication in December. This episode likely occurred during the springtime, as the lame were lying outside in the weather and Jesus referred to the time of harvest earlier (John 4:35). Thus Purim and Passover are the best guesses (Bruce 735); Lenski settles on Passover (358-60), and Hobbs agrees (Study Guide 27).

If this feast was Passover, Jesus attended it out of religious obligation. Every Jew within 15 miles of Jerusalem was legally required to attend Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles (Barclay 177). Our Lord knew the controversy which awaited him, but he came anyway. The healing of a paralyzed man was worth all the trouble it cost him.

Verse 2 continues the narrative: “Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades.” John used the present tense, “there is in Jerusalem,” even though he wrote these words long after the Roman destruction of the city in AD 70 (Robertson 78). He wanted us to experience the reality of this miracle as if it occurred in our time, for it still can.

The Sheep Gate was one of the entrances through the walls of the city of Jerusalem. It had been rebuilt by Eliashib the High Priest and his fellow priests during the time of Nehemiah (Nehemiah 3:1), more 400 years earlier. It was likely the entrance through which sheep and lambs were brought from the neighboring fields to the Temple for sacrifice. Through this gate the Lamb of God came to heal a crippled man, as one day he would die for the spiritual healing of our crippled world.

Here lay a “pool” (this word is found only here in the New Testament; Robertson 78). It was surrounded by “five covered colonnades.” These colonnades were covered porches called stoa where people gathered (the “Stoics” are named for the fact that they began by meeting on porches like these). The pool in question was trapezoidal in form, 165-220 feet wide by 315 feet long, divided by a central partition. There were colonnades on four sides of this partition, and one on it. Stairways in the corners permitted descent into the pools (Brown 207).

The Crusaders built a church over this pool, with a crypt framed like the five porches and an opening in the floor which descended to the water (Bruce 736). This structure is known as the Church of St. Anne; its remains stand today on the northwest corner of Jerusalem near the gate by the sheep market (Tenney 62). I’ve seen it, as do all tourists in the city. The pool was called Bethesda in Aramaic, a term meaning “House of Mercy” (Robertson 78). Jesus fulfilled its name this day.

Beside this pool “a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed” (John 5:3). This was likely not a winter scene, given their exposure to the weather (Brown 207). They were “paralyzed,” withered, atrophied (Rienecker 279). Why were they there?

Verse 7 supplies the answer: “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred.” There is a subterranean spring beneath the pool which bubbles up occasionally, stirring its waters (Barclay 178). The popular belief was that the first person who entered the water after it was stirred would be healed (Robertson 80).

And so later copies of the Greek New Testament supplied this explanation, continuing verse 3: “and they waited for the moving of the waters.” Then a fourth verse: “From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease he had.” The earliest and most reliable manuscripts of the New Testament do not contain these words, so that they “must, beyond question, be omitted from the text” (Hovey 130). Greek scholar A. T. Robertson explains that these words were added to make clearer the statement of verse 7 (Robertson 79). They appeared in the manuscripts used by the translators of the King James Version, which is why these words were included in that version. But no translation of the Bible includes them in its text today.

Now we meet the suffering man Jesus came to heal: “One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years” (John 5:5). Medieval commentators tried to link this man’s 38 years of illness to the Jews’ 38 years in the wilderness, a suggestion Bruce labels “an imbecility” (736). But the length of his incapacity proves the fact that it was medically incurable. Jesus did not provide him a medical solution but a miraculous healing.

So, “When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” (John 5:6). Unlike the healing of the nobleman’s son, this miracle was initiated by Jesus himself. The crippled man could not come to Jesus physically, and did not know to ask Jesus to come to him. So Jesus met him at the point of his great need.

But first he asked what seems to us a strange question: “Do you want to get well?” What crippled person wouldn’t want to be healed? Christopher Reeve is spending his life and fortune seeking a cure for his paralysis. Millions of others in his circumstances join him in pursuit of health. However, Jesus “learned that he had been in this condition for a long time.” This man has spent his adult life and perhaps longer in this condition. He may have become accustomed to living on the donations of others. He may not want to return to the responsibility of an earned income and work to perform. Jesus will only work in our lives with our permission. He always limits himself to our free will.

Where do you need his healing, helping touch today? Jesus knows your pain. In fact, “your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:8). Jesus is calling to us in our suffering, for he shares it with us. Even in the valley of the shadow of death, he is with us (Psalm 23:4). He promised that he would never leave or forsake us (Matthew 28:20). He hurts as we hurt, and calls to us in the pain of our lives.

But some of us feel that we are beyond his help, that our sins have exempted us from his grace. The world would have said the same of this invalid. In Jesus’ day, popular theology taught that physical illness was proof of spiritual judgment. A person with a physical birth defect, as may have been the case with this man, was under the justice and judgment of God (cf. the disciples’ question of Jesus, “who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” John 9:2). And those who experienced suffering for other reasons were judged to be sinners as well.

No self-respecting rabbi would have stopped for this man, but Jesus did. Perhaps you think no one cares about you or your pain today. If we knew your secrets we would reject you; if the world knew your problems it would turn on you. But not Jesus. He initiated this miracle, as he will yours. He went to this man, as he will come to you. He stands ready to meet us where we need him most.

But we must listen. The Psalmist invites us to “be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). We must set aside our own furious activity, the crush of the calendar and the press of the day’s demands, and listen to his voice.

One of the most life-transforming essays I have ever read is Mike Yaconelli’s Lost and Found: My Soul. This well-known Christian columnist tells of a time years ago when he retreated to be alone with God, with this result:

“It only took a few hours of silence before I began to hear my soul speaking. It only took being alone for a short period of time for me to discover that I wasn’t alone. God had been trying to shout over the noisiness of my life, and I couldn’t hear Him. But in the stillness and solitude, His whispers shouted from my soul, ‘Michael, I am here. I have been calling you. I have been loving you, but you haven’t been listening. Can you hear me, Michael? I love you. I have always loved you. And I have been waiting for you to hear Me say that to you. But you have been so busy trying to prove to yourself that you are loved that you have not heard Me.”

Yaconelli then testifies: “I heard Him, and my slumbering soul was filled with the joy of the prodigal son. My soul was awakened by a loving Father who had been looking and waiting for me.” As he waits for us.

To feel the touch of Jesus, first listen to his voice.

Trust his heart

The invalid replied to Jesus’ question, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” He wanted to be well, but needed help, and sought it from our Lord.

Notice how little he asked of Jesus. He believed that he would be healed if he could be the first one into the pool after the spring stirred its waters. And so he wanted the Son of God, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, simply to carry him a few feet into the water. Jesus stood ready to heal his body, and the man instead asked him to help him get wet.

Are we so different? Do you want Jesus to help you with words, or to speak himself by his Spirit working through you? Is it your goal to lead others to a life-transforming encounter with God? Do you come to worship to hear a “good sermon” and music service, or to meet the Lord of the universe? Am I writing these words to give you my wisdom or God’s? To explain the text or lead you to the One who inspired it and wants to repeat its miraculous power in our lives today?

We might object that the crippled man didn’t know who Jesus really was. True, and this ignorance is his defense. But we have no such argument. When we give our need to Jesus, we must trust his heart and expect his best. For that is what he waits to give to us.

Our Lord said to the invalid, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk” (Jn 5:8). He called the man to do something he had not done for 38 years. He did not carry the man to the water—he healed him so he could walk there himself. He did not offer him a temporary cure or help for the symptoms of his disease—he worked a miracle which would banish this disease from his life forever. He told him to pick up his “mat,” the light pallet on which he had begged for so long.

And he told the invalid to “walk.” He has not moved the muscles of his legs for 38 years. Even if a physician were to cure the cause of his paralysis, perhaps a rupture in the spine or nerves, his muscles would be so atrophied that years of physical rehabilitation would be required by him. But not by Jesus. He did for the man far more than the man asked of him.

Now the divine-human partnership emerges again. Jesus healed the man, but the invalid had to get up with the power given him by God. Jesus restored his body, but told him to carry his own mat. Jesus cured his limbs, but required the man to use them himself. And when he did, “At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked” (Jn 5:9a). The word translated “at once” is found only three times in John, while it is common in Matthew and Mark. John used it here to give even greater emphasis and urgency to the moment (Morris 303).

When we trust our problem into Jesus’ hands, we must always expect the best from him. He will always do as we ask, or something better. We often misunderstand his ways or timing, and feel that he will not hear or help us. But he is giving us what is best for us, whether we know it at the moment or not.

I was using a razor blade to scrape paint from a window one Saturday morning when one of our small boys happened by. Attracted by the shiny “toy” in my hand, he wanted to play with it and was not happy that I wouldn’t give him what he asked. But of course no amount of begging or anger would have persuaded me to give him what he wanted.

When we stand with our Father in glory, we’ll see how many times he met our needs and answered our prayers with what we asked. And how often he gave us even more.

Where do you need his touch? Listen to his voice, and then trust his best. As the song says, when you can’t see his hand, trust his heart.

Seek spiritual health

Now the crisis appears: “The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat” (John 5:9b-10). Four things were central to the Jews: the temple, the law, their traditions, and the Sabbath. Other religions had the first three; only Judaism had the Sabbath. And so it was especially important for their faith and culture (Hobbs, Study Guide 28).

The Law was clear: “Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work” (Exodus 23.12). So, “When evening shadows fell on the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I ordered the doors to be shut and not opened until the Sabbath was over” (Nehemiah 13.19). The prophet quoted God: “This is what the Lord says: Be careful not to carry a load on the Sabbath day or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem. Do not bring a load out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your forefathers” (Jeremiah 17.21-22).

Some of the Sabbath regulations were astounding. A man could borrow jars of wine or oil, provided that he did not ask that they be lent, because this would imply a transaction, and the transaction might involve writing. If a man put out a lamp so that someone sick could sleep, he is not culpable, but if he did so to spare the oil or wick, he violated the law. A man could not put vinegar on his tooth to alleviate toothache, but could put it on his food (cited in Morris 305).

The Jews identified 39 different kinds of labor which were prohibited by the Sabbath. Carrying a mat was among them. A man could be carried on a pallet, but he could not carry one himself (Howard 542; Hovey 132). When a man broke the Sabbath in this or other ways, stoning was his usual punishment (Exodus 31:14; 35:2; Numbers 15:36; Leviticus 24:16).

Jewish leaders spoke to “the man who had been healed”—the Greek tense stressed the permanence of his cure (Rienecker 229). But they had no interest in his life-transforming miracle. Their only concern was for the law he was breaking in experiencing it. No matter that he was not walking for the first time in 38 years—he must stop, or discard his pallet. He must not continue with the simple mat rolled up under his arm, under pain of execution.

Unfortunately, the man’s physical healing had not become spiritual: “But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk'” (John 2:11). He quickly shifted blame from himself to the One who had healed him. The authorities then asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?” (John 5:12). “This fellow” translates a contemptuous figure of speech (Robertson 81), delivered by the Jewish officials with obvious scorn. But “the man who was healed had no idea who it was” (John 5:13a). He had not returned to the One who transformed his life even to ask his name, reminding us of the nine lepers who were similarly ungrateful (Luke 17:17).

And neither the former invalid nor the authorities could locate Jesus, for he “had slipped away into the crowd that was there” (v. 13b). He did this on three other occasions in John’s Gospel (8:59, 10:39, 12:36), each time to avoid a confrontation with the authorities until it was time for his death (Tenney 63).

But our Lord did not persist long in such avoidance: “Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, ‘See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you'” (v. 14). Jesus was not satisfied with healing this man’s body—now he returned for his soul (Bruce 738). He “found” him, a Greek word which indicates a significant search (Hobbs, Study Guide 29). The man was in the temple, just south-southwest of the pool of Bethesda (Brown 208), a dangerous place for Jesus to be at this moment.

Jesus found him anyway, even knowing that the man would betray him to the authorities. He went this far for a man who didn’t even know his name. And for all of us who do.

And he told him, “no longer go on sinning” (Robertson 82). While some connect this phrase to the man’s former physical infirmity (cf. Robertson 82), I find nothing in the text to suggest such a relationship. Jesus did not mention sin in the man’s life when he healed him earlier, and mentioned it here only because the man was in fact sinning by betraying Jesus to the authorities. If he did not repent of his ingratitude and betrayal of the Lord, “something worse may happen” to him. Before this moment he sinned in ignorance; now he has met the Lord and would be sinning intentionally. The justice of God would follow, in his life and especially at the final judgment (Carson 246).

Nonetheless, “The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well” (v. 15). He did so to clear himself and escape a possible stoning (Robertson 82). He willingly betrayed Jesus, transferring his guilt to his benefactor. He would have Jesus die in his place. As our Savior did.

We will watch Jesus deal with the authorities. But first let’s pause to consider the fact that Jesus would risk his own life to offer health to the soul of a single sinner. Jesus’ physical miracles were always performed for spiritual reasons. They taught his disciples to trust more fully in him (our first miracle), or led unbelievers to join him in faith. Jesus’ ultimate interest was not the body which perishes but the soul which lives forever.

So it is with his work in our lives. Jesus wants to meet our physical needs, but ultimately for the sake of our spiritual health. You can give him your temporal problems, but also your spiritual burdens. He is as ready to forgive your sins and wash away your guilt as he is to remove your pain and ease your suffering. Both are miracles only Jesus can perform.

There is no sin he cannot forgive, no sinner he cannot transform. No person is beyond the reach of his grace. He is still looking for souls to heal, seeking those who will confess their sins and give to him their shame. How long has it been since you gave him yours?

Join God at work

The invalid’s transference worked: “because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him” (v. 16). The religious authorities were aligned against Jesus from the first: after he cleansed the temple of their moneychangers “the Jews demanded of him, ‘What miraculous signs can you show us to prove your authority to do these things?'” (John 2:18). They were suspicious of his popularity: “The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John” (John 4:1). Now they have cause for an “open breach” (Robertson 82).

This was not an isolated act in Jesus’ ministry, but part of an ongoing pattern. “Doing these things” is the imperfect active, showing a repetitive pattern (Robertson 82). Later Jesus would heal a blind man’s eyes on the Sabbath (John 9:14), with resulting criticism from the Pharisees: “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath” (v. 16). Such conflict later spread to Galilee, where Jesus allowed his disciples to pick and eat grain on the Sabbath, then healed a man’s withered hand on another Sabbath” (Luke 6:1-11). With this result: the authorities “were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus” (v. 11).

Why would the Son of God have refused to obey the Sabbath instituted by his Father? The answer is that he did. He kept always the Sabbath as it was intended. But he refused to recognize the man-made laws and traditions which purported to protect the Sabbath but actually enslaved those who would observe it. On this point Jesus was blunt: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27).

Here Jesus gave a similar answer: “he said to them, ‘My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working'” (John 5:17). “Said” in this tense indicates a legal defense, a formal reply to their legal charge. He called God “My Father,” claiming a personal relationship which put him on a par with God. His work on the Sabbath would thus be justified, since God works on the Sabbath (Robertson 83).

A significant theology could be built from the material found in this single verse. God is personal, a “Father.” He can be known personally, “my Father.” He “works,” not the deists’ passive creator but an active participant in his creation. He works today, so that these miracles we are studying in Scripture are still possible in our lives. Jesus is God in the flesh, God “working” on earth in and through our lives. When we join his work, we join hands with the Lord of the universe.

The authorities understood exactly what the Nazarene carpenter was claiming: “For this reason, the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God” (John 5:18). And not for the last time. For the next two years the authorities would seek ways to have Jesus killed (cf. John 7:1, 19; 8:37, 40; 10:33; 19:7; Robertson 83).

They had opportunity to join their work with that of the Lord on earth, but they refused. Convinced that they understood the ways of God better than Jesus, and that their institutions and authority were essential to his plans, they could not see the Lord in their midst until it was too late. Because human nature does not change, we must beware the same self-sufficiency in our own souls.

Henry Blackaby is right: The key to Christian joy and significance lies in finding where God is at work and joining him there. What is God blessing in your service? In our church? Where do you see his Spirit at work? Will you rejoice in his blessings and join your hands to his? Will you focus your attention on his clear call on your life, and set everything else to the side? Good is always the enemy of great. If Satan cannot defeat us, he will seek to distract us. The Jewish authorities were distracted by their religious traditions and rituals. What is Satan using today to keep you from focusing on your best service to our Lord?

Oswald Chambers’ life motto is worthy of adoption by us all: “My utmost for his highest.” Join your utmost commitment and service to God’s highest work in your life and church. Join God at work. Other paralytics are waiting for his touch, through you.

When we pray, God gives us what we ask or something better. Where do you need his touch? Where is a paralytic lying on a mat in your life? Get alone and still with the Father, so that you can hear him call to you by grace. Trust his heart, believing that he will give you what you are praying for unless he can give you even greater blessing. Seek spiritual health, not just temporal happiness. And join God at work, adding your hands to his, touching the spiritual, emotional, and physical paralytics who lie at your side. Believe that he can use you for great Kingdom work, and he will.

Charles Spurgeon was arguably the greatest preacher Baptists have ever known, and one of our most evangelistic. A young pastor once asked Spurgeon why more people didn’t respond to his preaching. Spurgeon replied, “You don’t expect people to come to Christ every time you preach, do you?” The young preacher assured him that he didn’t. Spurgeon said, “That’s why they don’t.”

Extreme Soul Makeover

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Extreme Soul Makeover

1 Corinthians 3:16-17 / Ephesians 5:18

James C. Denison

Occasionally we wonder if the human race will survive another generation. These “idiot sightings” are unfortunately all true:

My family is originally from Kingman, Kansas, a small town outside of Wichita. Now I’m not so sure that’s a good thing. A man in the area called the local police to request the removal of the Deer Crossing sign on the road. He gave his reason: “Too many deer are being hit by cars out here. I don’t think this is a good place for them to be crossing anymore.”

In Birmingham, Alabama, a man was checking his luggage at the airport. An employee asked, “Has anyone put anything in your baggage without your knowledge?” The man replied, “If it was without my knowledge, how would I know?” The employee smiled knowingly and nodded, “That’s why we ask.”

At a Ford dealership in Canton, Mississippi, a couple arrived to pick up their vehicle but were told the keys had been locked inside. They found a mechanic working feverishly to open the driver’s side door. As the woman watched from the passenger side, she instinctively tried the door and discovered it was unlocked. “Hey,” she said to the technician, “it’s open!” He replied, “I know–I already got that side.”

Self-esteem is a major issue these days. Depression rates are at all time highs. Downsizing is a fact of corporate life. There is more stress on our time, finances, and families than many of us can remember. We’re not sure we’re up to the times. That’s because we’re not. But the God who lives in us is. “Greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world,” the Bible promises (1 John 4:4). How can God’s power be yours wherever you need it most today?

Why the Spirit lives in us

“You yourselves,” the phrase begins. Paul addresses all the Corinthians, no matter their past, present, or future. This church was divided, condoned sexual immorality, were suing each other, and committed every sin of their culture. And yet they were individually and collectively “God’s temple.” If they were, so are we.

We are God’s “temple.” Not heiron, the temple enclosure, but naos, the Most Holy Place, the most sacred place in all the world. That place which housed the ark of the covenant and the Ten Commandments. That place which was so holy that the High Priest could enter only one day a year, on the Day of Atonement. A rope was tied to his ankle so that if he was struck dead by the glory of God, his corpse could be dragged out from behind the curtain. Now we are that Most Holy Place where God dwells today.

Why? Because “God’s Spirit lives in you.” He literally “dwells” in us, “makes his home in us,” “pitches his tent in us.” He has taken up residence in our lives. This is in the present tense–he is living in us right now, this moment.

When we “ask Jesus into our heart,” it is actually the Holy Spirit who comes to dwell in us. Jesus is at the right hand of God, praying for us (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25) while the Holy Spirit lives in us today. God does not dwell in temples made with human hands (Acts 7:48; cf. Acts 17:24). Instead, he dwells in us. All of God there is, is in us right now.

Our status as God’s temple is so serious that “if anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him.” “If anyone” is a Greek construction which assumes the reality of the condition–“if and when” would get the sense of it. “Destroys” means “corrupts” or “tears down.” The word is in the present tense: if and when people tear down the temple of God right now.

When people attack the church, dividing our fellowship, slandering or gossiping about our members, seeking to hurt the people of God. “God will destroy him”–God will do to the enemy of his church what that enemy does to his church. If a person attacks or assaults God’s people, that enemy will face the wrath of God Almighty.

This is because “God’s temple is sacred,” holy, set apart for himself, belonging only to him. And “you are that temple,” right now, where and as you are. We are not our own–we were bought with a price and must glorify God in our bodies (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

It is human nature to measure ourselves by our appearance and possessions, our house and car and job and salary. But Scripture says that our chief value is this: we are the temple, the house, the dwelling of the Spirit of God.

A friend recently sent me a story about a group of successful alumni who got together with their favorite college professor. Talk turned into complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups–porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal. Some were plain looking while others were expensive, even exquisite.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: “If you noticed, all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken first, leaving the plain and cheap ones. It’s normal for you to want the best for yourselves, but that is the source of your problems and stress.

The cup adds no quality to the coffee. Yet you all went for the best cups, then began eyeing each other’s cups. Consider this: life is the coffee; the jobs, money, and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The type of cup we have does not define nor change the quality of life. When we concentrate on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee.”

We are the cup–the Spirit is the coffee. He is what makes life worth living.

What the Spirit does with us

Why is this so? Why is it so important that the Spirit lives in us? Who is he? What does he do? In my systematic theology classes we take hours to discuss “pneumatology” or the “doctrine of the Holy Spirit.” Let me summarize all of that in a page.

The Holy Spirit is a person. He is not an “it,” or a “ghost.”

He knows the thoughts of God (1 Corinthians 2:11), and loves us as God’s people (Romans 15:30). He speaks to us (Revelation 2:7), cries out to the Father from within us (Galatians 4:6), prays within us (Romans 8:26) and for us (v. 27), teaches us about Christ (John 15:26), and leads us into all truth (John 14:26).

He is grieved when we sin (Ephesians 4:30), insulted and blasphemed by those who reject Jesus (Hebrews 10:29; Matthew 12:31, 32).

He is omnipresent, so there is nowhere that we can go to “flee from the Spirit” (Psalm 139:7-10). He knows all things, the thoughts of God and of man (1 Corinthians 2:10, 11).

He is the means by which God the Father acts in the world.

The Spirit created order from chaos: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light” (Genesis 1:1-3).

He gave us the word of God: “prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21).

He empowered Jesus’ life and ministry, and raised him from the dead.

He is the one who made Mary to be pregnant with the Lord Jesus: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (Luke 1:35).

Jesus lived a sinless life through the power of the Spirit: Jesus “through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God” (Hebrews 9:14).

At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus was anointed and empowered by the Spirit: “the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased'” (Luke 3:22).

The Spirit empowered the miracles of Jesus: “if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matthew 12:28).

He raised Jesus from the dead: “if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you” (Romans 8:11).

What he does in our lives:

He gave each of us physical life: “The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life” (Job 33:4; cf. Psalm 104:30).

He gives us eternal life: “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing” (John 6:63).

He liberates us from sin today: “through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2).

He brings out the character of Christ within us, the “fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22-23).

He leads us each day: “those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Romans 8:14).

He gives us assurance of our salvation: “the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (Romans 8:16).

What he does through us: the first Christians preached in the power of the Spirit (Acts 2:4), performed miracles in his power (2:43; 19:11), healed the sick and the lame (4:31); were unified in the Spirit (4:32), raised the dead (9:36) and defeated the devil (13:6-12). What he did then, he still longs to do today.

How the Spirit works through us

How can he? How can this doctrine be our personal experience today? Here’s the key, the single most important command in Scripture for any of us seeking the power of God in our lives: “be filled with the Holy Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18).

The word translated “filled” means to be “controlled by” or “under the influence of” another. This is a Greek passive: “be filled,” be yielded to God. Don’t try to fill yourself–ask him to do this. It is in the present tense: “be continually being filled.”

How? First, begin the day with this commitment. You fill the car with gas before you drive it, and plug in the power tool before you try to use it.

Second, ask the Holy Spirit to show you anything keeping you from experiencing his direction and power today. Confess whatever comes to mind.

Third, submit your life to his leadership in every dimension. Pray through your day, specifically giving everything you anticipate to God. Ask him to lead you and use you for his glory.

Fourth, believe by faith that he has done what you have asked. Nowhere does the Bible say how it feels to be filled with the Spirit. Believe that he is in control, and he will be.

Last, when you step out of the Spirit, step back in. Confess your sin immediately and turn yourself fully over to him again. Do this all through the day.

The result will be a Spirit-led, Spirit-empowered life of purpose and power. You will manifest the “fruit” or the results of the Spirit every day: his love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). If you see these traits in your life, you can know that the Spirit is in control. If you don’t, he’s not.

Conclusion

You’ve perhaps watched or heard of “Extreme Home Makeover,” one of the more popular shows on television. Each week a construction crew builds or rebuilds a home for a deserving family. One week it’s a family who lost their father to disease. Another week it’s a family with a child facing great physical challenges, and so on. When the crew is done, the house looks nothing like it did.

God invented the idea of an extreme home makeover. When his Spirit comes to live in our lives, he wants to remake us into the nature and character of Jesus. He is working on us right now. We’re a project under renovation. The result will be worth all it costs.

C. S. Lewis put the analogy better than I can: “Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised.

“But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of–throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself” (Mere Christianity 174).

Who is the Master of your house today?

Facing North When the Market Goes South

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Facing North When the Market Goes South

1 Kings 17:7-16

Dr. Jim Denison

Today we want to address the subject of finances and family, the economic downturn and its effect on our lives and relationships. Financial challenges are something I know something about. Trust me when I tell you that Janet did not marry me for my money.

Our first home was a duplex in Arlington, renting for $330 per month. We struggled to make that payment each month. Our kitchen table was an old inlaid checkerboard table Janet’s grandfather had made. It was missing several of the checkers, so we put a tablecloth over it to hide the holes. But I knew where they were; when people would come over, I’d put my water glass in the holes just to watch it tilt and see the people’s reactions.

I drove a 1966 Ford Mustang, with a leaking power steering cylinder. It would have cost $35 to fix, so I cut off the belt and drove it manually. Janet worked at our church, then became a teacher. While finishing my master’s degree, I worked as a graphic artist part-time and as a janitor on Mondays, and we addressed the church newsletter on Tuesday nights for extra money.

Few problems challenge a family more severely than finances. But few circumstances can make our relationships stronger and more godly than the spiritual renewal which financial pressures can bring. The choice is ours.

If your relationships are not facing financial stress, they likely will be. Let’s ask God for practical help together. Walk with me through this remarkable Old Testament event, then we’ll gather up some lessons for life today.

The king who ruled a dust bowl

Elijah the prophet appears suddenly and without introduction in 1 Kings 17, walking into the middle of the greatest spiritual crisis his nation has seen since the wilderness. King Ahab and his wicked Queen Jezebel have led the people to worship Baal, the Canaanite god of fertility and rain. All sorts of unspeakable sexual immorality and heinous spiritual adultery have resulted.

1 Kings 16:33 makes this horrific statement about him: “Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him.” Of all their corrupt, decadent kings, he was the worst.

So God raises up this prophet Elijah to show the nation who is really Lord.

Rain was crucial to this drought-plagued, agriculturally dependent country. Without rain they could not farm, eat, or survive. You know what happens to us when the electricity goes out; far worse came to them when it did not rain.

Baal was supposed to be the god of rain. So the real God shows the people who’s truly in charge of the rain and the world. He send Elijah to tell wicked King Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word” (1 Kings 17:1).

God kept his word. For 3½ years there was no rain in the land. The nation looked like the Dust Bowl of the 1930’s. We suffered through a few weeks without rain last summer; imagine what would happen to Dallas if it didn’t rain until November of 2004.

The eventual result of this standoff between Elijah and Ahab, between Jehovah and Baal, was that the people returned to their worship of the one true God, and the wicked regime of Ahab and Jezebel was destroyed. God’s power prevailed, and the nation was saved. But along the way, innocent people would suffer the consequences of their leaders’ sinfulness, as they always do.

This is where our story picks up.

A strange way to feed a man

Elijah has been living by a brook in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan river. But the brook dries up because of the drought. “Then the word of the Lord came to him . . .” (v. 8). Not “before” but “when.” God never reveals his will to us ahead of time. Now that the crisis has come home to Elijah, God gives him his word.

And a strange word it is: “Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food” (v. 9).

Zarephath was a commercial center located 20 miles north of Tyre on the Mediterranean coast of ancient Phoenicia. The small town of Surafend is there today.

Going to Zarephath was a bad idea. The drought had hit them hard as well, so that they have no more water than Elijah does. Jezebel’s father is still king of the region, and we know what she thought about Elijah. And these are pagan, Baal-worshipping idolaters. Why go there?

To make things even worse, he is to depend on a “widow” in the town. She is the least likely person to survive this drought. She has no husband and no other family; there is no welfare system; she and her son will likely die.

But Elijah goes anyway: “So he went to Zarephath” (v. 10). His life, and hers, would depend on his obedience to the word of God. Obedience is the theme of this entire text, and of its relevance to our lives.

He finds the woman at the city gate; someone has said that “coincidence” is when God prefers to remain anonymous. She’s “gathering sticks,” twigs, really. To make a fire for cooking—this must be a good sign, Elijah thinks.

So he asks her for some water, and she consents. Then he asks for some bread, assuming that she will have what he needs or God wouldn’t have sent him to her.

Then comes the shock: “As surely as the Lord your God lives, I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug” (v. 12a). To make matters worse, she says, “I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die” (v. 12b).

Great! Now the hungry prophet must help her as well as himself. “Don’t be afraid,” he says (v. 13). This is always the place to start. Literally, “Stop being afraid.”

Instead, do what you can do: make some food for me and for yourself. And God will provide for us: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord gives rain on the land'” (v. 14).

God had promised in Deuteronomy: “He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing” (10:18). Now Elijah claims this promise, and with it, the provision of God.

She obeys Elijah, and God keeps his word: “The jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah” (v. 16).

God kept his word—he always does. My pastor was right: “The will of God never leads where the grace of God cannot sustain.”

Profiting from the prophet

Now, how can we find God’s help and hope in financial pressure as Elijah and the unnamed widow of Zarephath did? How can we profit from the prophet? What lessons apply to our lives and relationships today?

Consider taking these steps.

First, examine your spiritual health. This drought was at its root a spiritual crisis, used by God for spiritual and eternal purposes. Nothing reveals our spiritual health more quickly than financial pressure. Use hard times to learn about your soul.

To see what’s inside a bottle, shake it up. To see if you’re a servant, see how you react when someone treats you like one.

The Bible contains 500 verses on prayer, less than 500 on faith, but more than 2,000 on money and possessions. Why? Because possessions show us who possesses us. They show us our souls.

Henry Ford said: “Money doesn’t change men, it merely unmasks them. If a man is naturally selfish, or arrogant, or greedy, the money brings it out; that’s all.” Fred Smith adds: “God entrusts us with money as a test; for like a toy to the child, it is training for handling things of more value.”

What is your relationship with God like, today? Are you focused on your soul, or your stocks? Possessions, or people? Worried, or trusting? Anxious, or at peace? Examine your spiritual health today.

Next, decide to rely on God.

You and I live in an amazingly materialistic culture. Did you know that Americans spend $9 billion a year to rent mini-warehouses, so they can store all their stuff they don’t have room for in their homes? Mercedes-Benz has just introduced the CLK-GTR, a sports car with the purchase price of $1.7 million. Mechanics must be flown in from Germany to fix it. In our culture, we must choose to rely on God. Elijah did.

The prophet and the widow have nothing but the promises of God to depend upon. Elijah could have left her for a place with water and food, but he didn’t. He knew this fact: the safest place in all the world is the center of the will of God.

Do you know that? Have you decided to rely on God, to trust his help and hope? His word is clear: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7). And listen to this promise: “My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).

Have you prayed for God to help your finances and your family? To strengthen your key relationships during this time of economic pressure? To draw you closer to him, and to each other? Why not today?

Third, work as God works.

God sent the widow to make bread as he provided the flour and oil. He could have made the bread, but so could she. As she worked, he worked.

God meets our needs, but not all our wants. He has given us the ability to work, and expects us to use it. Economic challenges can be a wonderful time to grow closer to the people in your life. These days can cause you to remember what truly matters, and to commit your heart to it again.

Do what you can, and trust God to do what only he can.

Last, lead your family to be faithful financially to God.

Martin Luther said, “I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess.”

That which you cannot give away, you do not possess. It possesses you.

I like novelist John Grisham’s testimony: “My wife and I measure the success of the year on how much we give away.”

Use your money here to honor God eternally. Anne Graham Lotz is right: gold must not mean much to God, for he uses it as paving material in heaven. Use yours to help people be there.

Conclusion

Jesus is the great provider—for our bodies and our souls. He is the constant source of all we need. But like the prophet and the widow, we must turn to him in the hard times of life. And we must do it together.

The prophet and the widow would never forget each other, or their God. May this time of financial pressure do the same for us all.

The first-class passengers on the Titanic paid more for their accommodations than the average annual salary of most Americans. In the stateroom of Major Arthur Peuchen sat an ornate tin box containing $200,000 in bonds and $100,000 in preferred stock. But when the ship began to sink, the major looked into his tin box, then grabbed three oranges, stuffed them into his pockets, and left the box behind. Icebergs have a way of clarifying what matters.

Don’t they?

Faith and the Power Of God

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Faith and the Power of God

Mark 9:14-29

Dr. Jim Denison

“Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes. A duck’s quack doesn’t echo—no one knows why. No piece of paper can be folded in half more than seven times. Walt Disney, the inventor of Mickey Mouse, was afraid of mice. Elephants are the only animals that can’t jump. Women blink twice as much as men. It is physically impossible to lick your elbow.”

A friend recently e-mailed me these statements. I had no way to test the truth of any of them (except the part about licking my elbow). So I did some Internet searches, and discovered that everything my friend sent me is wrong, except the fact that elephants are too heavy to jump. I even watched a girl lick her elbow on YouTube, checking off yet another item on my Bucket List.

On the other hand, how do I know that the articles I found are any more correct than the e-mail I received? I’m not sure how the YouTube video could have been faked, but I’m forced to take the rest of my discoveries on faith.

They say that the Sun is 93 million miles from the Earth, that our planet tilts at a 23 degree angle, and that the Milky Way galaxy is 100,000 light years across. But how would we know if it’s so. I hope I have a brain, but I’ve never seen it.

These reflections are of interest to me in light of a recent experience. I was privileged this summer to debate a philosophy professor on the question, “Is religion the basis of morality?” He graciously but firmly maintained throughout our encounter that he does not believe in the existence of God. I was reminded of a church billboard I once saw: “Since I don’t believe in atheists, atheists don’t exist.”

On the other hand, most of us have times when we wonder if God really is the all-loving, all-powerful deity we have been told he is.

Moses questioned the word and will of God. Peter, after he denied his Lord, went outside and wept bitterly. Paul had a “thorn in the flesh” he asked God three times to remove, but God didn’t do what he hoped. Even Jesus cried from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).

Where is the reality of God a questionable supposition for you today? Are you dealing with a problem or suffering and wondering how God could allow this? Are you waiting for him to answer a prayer or meet a need? Has he disappointed you in some way? Does he seem more a Sunday sermon topic than a present, transforming reality?

Let’s learn how to deal with our doubts and find in them God’s hope today.

My favorite prayer

As Mark 9 opens, Jesus has just been transformed before Peter, James and John on the Mount of Transfiguration. When they came down the mountain to the other disciples, they found them surrounded by a large crowd and the religious authorities, engaged in a heated argument.

He asked them what they were arguing about, and a man said, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not” (Mark 9:17-18).

Here we encounter the subject of Satan and demon possession, our topic for next week as we consider demons and the power of God. But for today we’ll move on.

Jesus asked them to bring the boy to him. He manifested his demonic possession again, so Jesus asked his father, “How long has he been like this?” “From childhood,” his father answered. “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him.” Now comes our point for today: “But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help him” (v. 22).

Jesus replied, “If you can? Everything is possible for him who believes.” There is a clear and significant connection between faith and the power of God. Now we come to my favorite prayer in the Bible: “Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, ‘I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!'” (v. 24). I like the King James Version here: “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief!”

Jesus responded by rebuking the demon, healing the boy, and giving him back to his father. Afterwards his disciples asked him, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer.” This will be our topic in two weeks, when we deal with the issue of unanswered prayer and consider prayer and the power of God.

Trust and obey

For today, we’re exploring the relationship between faith and the power of God. Why must we believe to see his power manifested in our lives? Why is everything possible “for him who believes”? Why do you need faith to see God’s power in your life and problem this morning?

Let’s deal first with the wrong answers. Faith does not earn God’s favor. He does not measure our faith and reward it when it gets to the appropriate level. There is no grade scale with God—A level faith gets to see miracles, B level doesn’t, and so on. We are saved by grace through faith. Everything we have from God is his gift.

Nor does faith manipulate God’s power. It is not that if we have enough faith we can command God to do as we wish. We cannot obligate the King of the universe. It’s not that we meet the conditions and then God must keep his end of the bargain.

Here’s the biblical answer: faith positions us to receive what grace intends to give. Grace is a gift, but gifts must be opened. Christmas presents are not much good if they stay under the tree. A surgeon can operate only if I will let him. A pilot can fly me only if I’ll get on the plane. A boat can take me to see Hell’s Gate only if I’ll get on the deck.

All through Scripture it’s this way. Moses had faith to stand before Pharaoh; God then sent the plagues that set the people free. The priests had the faith to step into the flooded Jordan River; God then stopped the river so they could cross to the Promised Land. Peter had faith to get out of the boat and walk on the water to Jesus; Jesus then caught him and saved him. Peter had faith to preach at Pentecost; God then sent his Spirit and 3,000 came into the Kingdom. John had faith to worship on Patmos; Jesus then gave him the Revelation.

Conclusion

Why believe in God even when it hurts? Even when your son is demon-possessed or our marriage is in trouble or your job is in question or your health is in doubt? Why trust him in the hard places? Because he redeems all he allows.

God is holy. He can never make a mistake. He must therefore redeem for greater good everything he allows. He must use everything that happens to us for his glory and our good. All things work for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).

We may not see his redemption this side of glory, but it’s coming. Paul told us that our present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory to be revealed. It’s always too soon to give up on God.

So give him your pain or problem, by faith. Trust him to redeem it for his glory and your good. Let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we will reap a harvest if we faint not (Gal. 6:9). Keep walking, trusting, obeying. You cannot measure the eternal significance of present obedience.

Two of my faith heroes are named Robby and Allison Ates.

Some years ago I stood with them at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas as they had to remove the life support for their precious baby girl. As Robby held Emily’s tiny hand, he happened to look out the neonatal intensive care unit’s small window. At just that moment, a pink balloon floated by and on up into the blue sky. He sensed God’s Spirit encouraging him to know that he could let his little girl go, that God would catch her and bring her to heaven with him. And so he did. At her graveside service, Robby and Allison brought balloons which we released together.

How has God redeemed their tragedy? By helping them trust him together in the hardest places of life, through financial challenges and health issues and family struggles. Theirs is one of the strongest faiths I have ever seen. And by using them in his ministry. Whenever a couple in our church loses a baby, we call Robby and Allison. Caring for grieving families is part of their ministry.

They know they will see Emily again, that she is in her Father’s hands. They know that in the meantime, they are in the same hands. So are we. This is the promise of God.

Faith at Work

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[email protected]

Are you where you’re supposed to be?

Dr. Jim Denison

James 1:1

For many in our society, place = success.

Janet and I moved to Atlanta in 1994 to pastor Second-Ponce de Leon Baptist Church. The church is located in “Buckhead,” a strange name for a residential area. The name comes from a tavern opened in the vicinity in 1837, whose owner mounted a buck’s head to attract interest. The area is today considered the most exclusive in Atlanta; living in Buckhead means you’re a success.

When we moved to Dallas, we discovered the same success/place identity. The area where you live is important to people, and even the street; and even the block on that street. Our house on Marquette is in the Highland Park school district, but is a Dallas address. Move the house one block west, and it is in University Park, and worth another $100,000, I’m told.

Where do you identify success with place? If you could change your “place” in life, how would you? A newer, larger house? Area? Address? Office location? “Place” in life–job, title, salary, social strata?

We are right: there is a “place” which defines success. Today we’ll learn where it is, and how to get to it this week.

What kind of literature is this?

A letter: the book of James is addressed “to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings” (1:1b).

“Greetings” demonstrates the epistolary nature of this book.

This was a formal way of opening correspondence, found in the NT only here; with the opening of the letter from James and the Jerusalem Council to the Gentile Christians (Acts 15:23); and in the opening of the letter regarding Paul sent by Claudius Lysias, a Roman centurion, to Governor Felix (Acts 23:26).

A pastoral letter: James is “a quasi-prophetic letter of pastoral encouragement and, no less, of pastoral rebuke, proceeding from an unquestioned right of pastoral vocation and authority. It was most natural that James, as first ‘Bishop’ (or whatever we may style him) of Jerusalem, should address his charges, not only in Palestine but also in their many and great centers elsewhere” (Adamson 20).

Wisdom literature, like Proverbs and Ecclesiastes (thus less systematic than Romans and similar literature):

James often uses a proverbial style: “he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does” (1:8); “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (1:22); “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins” (4:17).

He juxtaposes good and evil (cf. 3:13-18).

He uses “wisdom” with emphasis (1:5; 3:13-17).

He quotes Proverbs. 3:34: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (4:6).

Other parallels can be cited (cf. 1:5 with Proverbs 2:6; 1:19 with Proverbs 29:20; 3:18 with Proverbs 11:30; 4:13-16 with Proverbs 27:1; 5:20 with Proverbs 10:12; Burdick 164).

A treatise on the Sermon on the Mount:

Rejoice in trials (1:2; Matthew 5:12)

Ask and it will be given to us (1:5; Matthew 7:7)

Be perfect and complete (1:4; Matthew 5:48)

Be peacemakers (3:17-18; Matthew 5:5, 9)

Show mercy or be judged (2:13; Matthew 5:7; 6:14-15; 7:1)

Refuse oaths (5:12; Matthew 5:33-37)

Be meek (3:13; Matthew 5:3)

Refuse to hoard (5:2-3; Matthew 6:19)

Deal with anger (1:20; Matthew 5:22)

Be honest (2:14-16; Matthew 7:21-23)

Refuse divided loyalty (4:4; Matthew 6:24)

Refuse slander (4:11; Matthew 5:22; 7:1-2)

Claim the blessing of the poor (2:5; Matthew 5:3)

Follow the example of the prophets (5:10; Matthew 5:12; Martin lxxv-lxxvi).

A sermon: the book displays an amazing coherence with typical preaching methods in the first century (see Robertson 6-7, Barclay 27-30). Parallels with Greek sermons:

Began with a paradox which would capture the attention of the listeners (1:2)

Carried on imaginary conversations with opponents (2:18f; 5:13f)

Introduced transitions with questions (2:14; 4:1) and used rhetorical questions frequently (2:4, 5; 2:14-16; 3:11, 12; 4:4)

Fond of imperatives (nearly 60 in James’ 108 verses)

Personified virtues and vices (1:15; 2:13; 5:3)

Used figures of speech (the bridle, rudder, and forest fire were standards; 3:3-6)

Used the examples of famous men and women (2:21-23, 25; 5:11, 17)

Often concluded with a vivid antithesis, setting the right way beside the wrong (2:13; 2:26).

The Jewish sermon possessed an additional characteristic: it was deliberately disconnected. Speakers were instructed to jump quickly from subject to subject, so as to keep their hearers’ attention. Such preaching was called charaz, which means “stringing beads.” The letter as sermon would explain its lack of systematic theology, as James was speaking on the subject of practical Christianity.

Perhaps a sermon by James, later transcribed as a letter in the best Greek in the NT (with the possible exception of Hebrews). Some hold that James wrote the transcribed letter himself: “James both writes and thinks in Greek better than any other NT author” (Adamson 52). Others suggest that the letter was written by an amanuensis who recorded his sermon in excellent Greek (Barclay 33).

Inspired revelation, despite Luther’s assessment.

Luther’s Preface to the New Testament concludes: “the gospel and the first epistle of St. John, St. Paul’s epistles, especially those to the Romans, Galatians and Ephesians; and St. Peter’s first epistle, are the books which show Christ to you. They teach everything you need to know for your salvation, even if you were never to see or hear any other book or hear any other teaching. In comparison with these the epistle of James is an epistle full of straw, because it contains nothing evangelical.” Luther thought that James ascribes salvation to works, criticizes him for mentioning Jesus only twice, and considered the work non-apostolic in value.

But the date of the letter (see below) precludes the possibility that James contradicts Paul. The two wrote to very different audiences, for very different purposes.

When was it written?

Some believe the letter to have been composed before AD 50, and consider it perhaps the first book of the NT to be written. Evidence:

Jesus’ return is expected quickly: “Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!” (5:7). Some scholars consider this assertion to argue for an early date, believing that the expectation of Jesus’ imminent return faded somewhat as his Coming was delayed (an assertion I would dispute; cf. Revelation 22:20, “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon'”).

The letter does not mention the Jewish/Gentile controversy, perhaps indicating that it was composed before Acts 15 and the Jerusalem Council. This suggestion would date the letter before AD 47/48 (Moo 26).

The meeting place of the church is still identified as the sunagoge (2:2, translated “meeting” in the NIV). Later the church gathering would be called the ekklesia, dropping the Jewish “synagogue” identity.

Elders are mentioned (5:14), but no bishops or deacons, perhaps indicating a very early stage in the church’s development.

The famine in Judea of AD 46 (Acts 11:28) is a likely backdrop for James’ discussion regarding the poor and the rich.

Others believe the letter to have been composed later in the life of James, for these reasons:

There are only two references to Jesus, suggesting to some scholars that the letter was composed in an era when the early, evangelistic preaching about the Lord had become more didactic, assuming knowledge of his life and work.

The rich are discussed often (1:9-11; 2:1-3; 5:1-6). In the earliest church there were apparently few wealthy members: “Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth” (1 Corinthians 1:26). Thus some believe the letter to have been composed during a period when more influential people had joined the church.

I accept a very early date for the letter (perhaps the mid-40’s), and believe James to be the first book of the NT to be written.

I believe that James’ lack of references to Jesus is a function of the letter’s purpose, and do not accept the assertion that the relative poverty of the Corinthian church precludes the existence of wealthy members in the Jerusalem congregation.

People from across the Roman Empire had gathered in Jerusalem at Pentecost (Ac 2), families with enough means to make such a journey.

Many who trusted Christ that day apparently stayed in the city to compose the Jerusalem church, providing the social and cultural variety which James reflects.

Who are its recipients?

The letter is sent to “the twelve tribes scattered among the nations.” The Greek literally translates, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion. The “twelve tribes” reminds us immediately of the people of God in the OT, the descendants of Jacob’s twelve sons (Exodus 1:2-5).

Diaspora means “scattering” or “dispersion.” The term indicates one who is living in a foreign country (Rienecker 375); cf. 1 Peter 1:1, “To God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered (diasporas) throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia.”

Some have interpreted this “scattering” as spiritual or metaphorical in nature, but it is most likely a geographical reference (Adamson 49-50).

The ten northern tribes of Israel were scattered into Assyria (ca. 922 B.C.), never to return; their descendants continued a Jewish presence in that land.

The southern kingdom of Judah was exiled to Babylon (586 B.C.); many never returned, but established a thriving Jewish community in that land which continued when Persia later conquered Babylon. Cf. Haman’s description of the Persian Jews to the Persian king Xerxes, “There is a certain people dispersed and scattered among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom whose customs are different from those of all other people and who do not obey the king’s laws” (Esther 3:8). They lived in all 127 provinces of Persia (8:9; 9:30; 10:1).

In 63 B.C., Pompey took thousands of Jews to Rome as slaves, but they were soon freed and lived in that city in large numbers.

As many as a million Jews lived in Alexandria, Egypt in the first century, and multiplied thousands more in Antioch and Syria. Strabo, the Greek geographer, records, “It is hard to find a spot in the whole world which is not occupied and dominated by Jews” (Barclay 40).

By the first century, Jews numbering more than four million had scattered across the entire Empire and known world, as the question asked of Jesus made plain: “Will he go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks?” (John 7:35).

Note that at Pentecost, Jews were present from Rome and Crete to the west, Asia Minor (including Phrygia and Pamphylia), Pontus and Cappadocia to the north, Egypt and Cyrene (in northern Africa) to the south, the Parthian empire to the east (including Medes and Elamites), and Arabia to the southeast (Acts 2:9-11). Presumably, converts at Pentecost carried their faith back to these lands, bringing the gospel across the world.

The persecution which followed Stephen’s martyrdom further scattered these early believers: “On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria” (Acts 8:1; “scattered” is the same Greek root as in James 1:1).

They spread as far as Phoenicia (to the north), Cyprus (to the west), and Syrian Antioch (to the northeast) by Acts 11:19.

The literary style of the book indicates a wider audience than Palestine, where the people were mainly agriculturalists who spoke Aramaic. The koine (common) Greek of James’ letter was the typical language of those Jews who lived in Gentile lands (Robertson 10).

Given that many of them had been members of his church in Jerusalem, James would naturally feel a spiritual responsibility for them and wish to continue his pastoral ministry in their lives. Thus he writes with a note of authority which indicates his previous status as their spiritual leader (Burdick 162-3; Moo 50; Stulac 30-2).

The “twelve tribes in the dispersion” would likely have included those living in Jerusalem and Judea as well.

The rabbis typically saw the “twelve tribes of Israel” as representing all Jews everywhere; cf. Paul’s statement, “this is the promise our twelve tribes are hoping to see fulfilled as they earnestly serve God day and night” (Acts 26:7; Adamson 50).

Hebraic customs abound in the letter. For instance, we find numerous examples of repetitive alliteration in the Greek (“you fall into various trials” [1:2] in the Greek is peirasmois peripesete poikilois; see also 3:5, 3:8; 4:8). Parallelism is also common (1:9, 10; 15; 17; 19, 20; 22; 3:11, 12; Oesterley 394-5; 406).

James speaks of the readers’ place of worship as a synagogue (2:2), and uses the Hebrew title kyriou sabaoth (“Lord Almighty” or “Lord of hosts”; 5:4).

His reference to the “early and latter rain” (5:7), hot winds (1:11), sweet and bitter springs (3:11), and figs and olives (3:12) indicate a Middle Eastern context (Lea 9). It seems likely that his readers had once lived or known of the Palestinian climate and culture, even if they are scattered beyond it now.

The internal linguistic evidence indicates that James was writing principally to Jews living in Greek lands and culture. But James does not confine his letter to those who are scattered outside Israel, but means it for those living wherever Israel has been scattered, including Palestine.

Is James addressing only Jewish Christians; only Jews; or both? Internal evidence makes clear that his audience are believers:

He is a “servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ,” writing to people he calls “my brothers” (1:2).

He later calls his readers “believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ” (2:1).

He mentions Jesus only twice and never explains the gospel of salvation, omissions explainable only if his readers are already believers (think of a pastor addressing a group of deacons or Sunday school teachers).

Peter likewise addresses his first letter to readers who are “scattered” in the world (1:1). But he makes clear that they are “God’s elect” (v. 1), and that they “have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, by obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood” (v. 2); clearly Christians can be “scattered” or “dispersed” as were the Jewish people.

What is its purpose?

Practical: the letter sets out the essentials of life lived according to God’s Law, to help the sincere live up to their faith and refuse conduct unworthy of a follower of Jesus (Adamson 20).

Pastoral: James wishes to continue his ministerial relationship with Jewish Christians who have been scattered from Jerusalem by persecution. He preaches his sermon/writes his letter to guide and encourage their continued faithfulness to God.

Apologetic: James knows that Christians are the best (and worst) arguments for Christ. He wants the followers of Jesus to live so faithfully that others will see their faith at work and want to join their commitment to their Master. In this sense, James is the most post-modern book of the NT, with the most thoroughgoing emphasis on relevance and praxis.

What is its structure?

Some have seen the letter as disjointed thematically. At first reading, the epistle does indeed jump from topic to topic with little or no transition or apparent overarching structure. But further investigation reveals an underlying pattern very typical of ancient Jewish rhetoric.

The author begins and ends with the same emphases: the need for patience (1:2-4; 5:7-12) and prayer (1:5-8; 5:13-20). The body of the letter centers in the Christian’s spiritual birth (1:13-19a), growth (1:19-25) and development (1:26-5:6). Such development can be measured by the use of the tongue, care for the needy, and personal purity in life (1:26-27), themes which will be developed in detail.

This thematic development can be outlined as follows (remember that the chapters and verses were added centuries later, and can be misleading):

Introduction: patience (1:2-4) and prayer (1:5-8)

Spiritual birth (1:13-19a)

Spiritual growth (1:19b-25)

Spiritual development (1:26-5:6)

–control of the tongue (1:26; 3:1-12)

–care for the needy (1:27a; 2:1-16)

–personal purity in life (1:27b; 3:13-5:6; Motyer 11-13).

Theological truths

We are the people of God, wherever we find ourselves.

These Jewish Christians are now far from their Holy Land, their Temple, their pastor and church. Since they entered the Promised Land under Joshua, they have historically identified their faith with their place.

However, displacement is not new for the people of God (cf. Joseph in Egypt, Daniel in Babylon and a lion’s den, John on Patmos).

As Christians, nothing can separate us from God’s love (Romans 8:35-39). David was right: “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast” (Psalm 139:7-10).

The question is not where we are, but whose we are. Paul said it well: “To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi” (Philippians 1:1). We are “in” Christ spiritually and eternally, no matter where we are “at” physically.

God will meet our spiritual needs, wherever we live.

He used James, their “home church” pastor, to deliver revelation which addressed their specific spiritual problems and opportunities. They received theological teaching and encouragement which was more divinely inspired and enduring than anything they had learned while in Jerusalem.

In addition, they are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cointhiansr 3:16), the body of Christ on earth (1 Corinthians 12:27-30). He will use his people to minister to each other, to encourage and guide to the abundant life of Christ, as he meets our needs by his grace (Philippians 4:19).

God cares about every dimension of our lives, “secular” and “sacred.”

The Hebrew people typically disparaged those who lived in Gentile lands (cf. the problem in Acts 6 with the widows). They would have considered these people to be “secular,” and would have given little attention to their lives and faith.

But James will speak to every part of their lives, not just their Sabbath religion and spiritual observances.

Apologetic issues

Why did God allow his people to be “scattered”?

Free-will theodicy: their persecution was the result of misused freedom on the part of the Jewish authorities, not the prescriptive will of God.

Soul-building theodicy: God used their dispersion to advance his Kingdom, bringing the gospel to those we encounter (Acts 8:1 fulfilled 1:8).

Eschatological theodicy: they would one day see the ways their scattered witness advanced the cause and Commission of Christ.

Existential theodicy: they learned to rely on God’s word and Spirit, not their geographical place and former religion.

How do we know we are God’s children even when we are far from home?

Nothing can take us from God’s hand (John 10:28).

Our children are still our children, wherever they live.

Concluding applications

Commit daily to his Lordship and will.

Invest eternally, using your resources where they can best serve the Kingdom.

Serve effectively, utilizing your gifts where you are placed in ministry.

Are you in the will of God today? Baker James Cauthen: “The only ‘place’ that matters is the center of the will of God.”

Are you faithful to serve God where you find yourself? We all have seen the poster or heard the saying: “Bloom where you are planted.” Mother Teresa says it better: Success = faithfulness in love.

Are you close to God spiritually, wherever you are located physically?