Welcome to the Future

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Welcome to the Future

Studies in the Book of Revelation

Dr. Jim Denison

Revelation 1:1-3

John, Jesus’ beloved disciples, is the human author of this book. But this is not the Revelation of John—it is the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Jesus wrote a book! This is it.

John was on Patmos when he received this revelation. As he says, “I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus” (1.9).

Here, in this cave, he saw again the Lord he had last seen 60 years earlier. Domitian, the crazed Roman emperor, is on the throne of earth; but Jesus is on the throne of heaven. He shows himself to John. And he gives him seven letters for seven churches.

We will look at Jesus’ letters to them, each one in order. But first, we need to understand the nature of these letters, and of the book which contains them.

What Revelation says about itself

It is a “revelation” (v. 1). The word means “to unveil.” It is rarely used outside the New Testament; it refers to insight into truth (Ephesians 1.17), and also to the revelation of God or Christ at the Second Coming (2 Thessalonians 1.7; 1 Peter 1.7). This word points to the fact that everything we know about God comes to us from him.

Its subject is “Jesus Christ” (v. 1). This is not the Revelation of John, but of Jesus. He is the subject of everything we will read.

It is for believers: “to show his servants” (v. 1). The intended audience of the book is followers of Jesus Christ. More specifically, the audience is the churches: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches” (1.11).

It has relevance for the first century: “what must soon take place” (v. 1). The intent of the book is that it be understood in its first-century context. The events described here would begin to occur quickly, and would all have relevance for the first-century listeners.

It is a vision: “who testifies to everything he saw” (v. 2). We will do well to interpret the book as visionary and symbolic in nature.

It is a book: “Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it” (v. 3). In the Jewish pattern, one person would read the Scriptures to the congregation (cf. 2 Corinthians 3.14; Luke 4.16-17; Acts 13.15).

This was the early Christian model also: “On the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things” (Justin, Apology ch 67).

It is a prophecy: “Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy.” Biblical “prophecy” is more forth-telling that foretelling. There are predictive elements in this book, but its primary referent is immediate action.

Its words must be obeyed: “blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it.”

Its readers will be blessed. “Makarios” is the Greek word, the promise of joy which transcends circumstances. Revelation is the only biblical book which specifically promises such a blessing.

Its message is urgent: “because the time is near.” Cf. Revelation 22.20: “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.”

John Newport: “Revelation does not intend to teach a program of events that pinpoints our exact location on the final track of world history. Rather, it teaches the imminence of the second coming of Christ to the churches of Asia Minor and to all churches in history” (Lion and the Lamb 127).

Interpretive options

As mentioned in the previous study, here are the most common approaches to Revelation:

Preterist: the events recorded in Revelation have already been fulfilled.

Continuous historical: Revelation is a forecast of the entire history of the church; this view attempts to correlate passages in the book with specific historical events.

Theological principles: Revelation is a religious philosophy of life which demonstrates how things turn out in a world where evil seems to be in control but God is the actual ruler.

Social Interpretation: Revelation teaches a particular social agenda, in which God’s Kingdom overcomes the existing, hostile, godless powers.

Dispensational premillennialism: a literal approach wherever possible, separating Israel from the Church, and teaching a literal rapture, 7-year tribulation, and 1000-year millennial rule of Christ on earth.

Historic premillennialism: no rapture or 7-year tribulation.

Postmillennialism: Christ will return after the millennium.

Amillennialism: the prophecies of a future millennium are highly symbolic; seven sections move in parallel with one another.

An “apocalypticist” approach: Revelation translates “apocalupsis,” or “apocalyptic.”

“Apocalyptic literature” was first developed during the Jewish exile in Babylon, and was common from about 200 B.C. to A.D. 200. Apocalyptic writers transferred the Old Testament prophets’ promises of a better world from this world to the future. They foresaw the destruction of the present evil age and the rise of a glorious world of reward to come. Apocalyptic writings are found in Isaiah 24-27, Zechariah 1-6, Ezekiel 38-39, Daniel 7-12, and Mark 13.

Characteristics of apocalyptic literature

I believe that Revelation should be treated as apocalyptic literature in its interpretive method. There are several characteristics which make up apocalyptic literature:

It grew out of difficult times and spoke to them. The more we learn about the historical circumstances, the better we will understand this book.

It presented its message through visions and symbolic language. These symbols were a kind of code which was understood by the intended readers but concealed its message from those outside the church. Numbers, objects, and nearly any other element could be used symbolically.

It contained a predictive element, forecasting the destruction of evil and victory for the faithful.

It used dramatic elements, creating vivid and forceful images to impress the reader. In Revelation we read of rivers of blood, hailstones weighing one hundred pounds, a dragon so large he can knock down a third of the stars with his tail, and so on. These elements greatly heighten the suspense of the book and are intended to be interpreted as dramatic symbols.

It was usually pseudonymous—written by a fictitious person. This is the only characteristic of apocalyptic writing not found in Revelation, since John names. But each of the other elements is vital to understanding the letters’ intended meanings.

The prelude of the book makes clear that it is a “revelation” (1.1), a vision (v. 2), and a “prophecy” (v. 3). It reveals Christ through visionary means, to be preached and communicated to the churches.

And so, as we come to each of the letters of Revelation, we’ll ask how first-century readers would have understood the words and symbols. We’ll draw principles from the truths we discover and then apply those principles to our problems today. We will discover why we need to be ready for the future, and how.

Well-Intentioned Dragons

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Well-intentioned Dragons

Acts 5:1-16

Dr. Jim Denison

This week I found this list of actual label instructions on consumer goods:

On a Sears hair dryer: Do not use while sleeping.

On a bag of Fritos: You could be a winner! No purchase necessary. Details inside.

On some Swanson frozen dinners: Serving suggestion: defrost.

On Marks & Spencer Bread Pudding: Product will be hot after heating.

On the package of a Rowenta Iron: Do not iron clothes on body.

On a Korean kitchen knife: Warning, keep out of children.

On an American Airlines package of nuts: Instructions: Open packet, eat nuts.

On a Swedish chain saw: Do not attempt to stop the chain with your hands.

Good advice, all.

There should be a warning label over the doors of our church buildings as well: Warning: unity attacked here.

That’s an odd warning, isn’t it? But the word of God says as much: “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (I Peter 5:8). And being a great economist, he always attacks us first at the point of unity.

How does he assault our community, our unity? And what can we do when he does, in our personal lives and in our church?

The first dragons (1-10)

“Ananias” means “one to whom Jehovah has been gracious”; “Sapphira” means “beautiful.” Both names proved to be ironic, didn’t they?

Verse one tells us that they “sold a piece of property.” Others have done this to help the poor, and been applauded for their generosity. Now these two want that stage for themselves.

However, Ananias, with Sapphira’s full cooperation, “kept back part of the money for himself.” “Kept back” translates a word which means “to embezzle, to defraud”; sometimes in the New Testament it means simply “to steal” (Titus 2:10). He brings the rest of the proceeds and lays the money at Peter’s feet in a legal act of transfer.

The sin is not in the amount. As Peter makes clear, Ananias could sell anything he liked, and give whatever he wished. The sin is in the intent to deceive: to make the church think he has sacrificially given the entire amount when in fact he has not.

Why is this action so wrong? This is obviously a hypocritical act, pretending to be something he’s not. It is act of pride, putting his own enhanced status before the needs of the poor and suffering. And it’s a dangerous act. If everybody did what Ananias did, there would be no honesty, no objective morality, no godliness left in the church. And this fledgling Christian movement, which has only its character to commend itself to others, would be corrupted and ruined.

No wonder: Satan is the author of hypocrisy, of pride, of attacks on Christian character and unity. He used Ananias to lie to the Holy Spirit (v. 3). This is nothing less than an attack of the enemy himself.

But God doesn’t allow the attack to succeed. He always knows our attitudes as well as our actions. He reveals this deception to Peter, who calls Ananias to account for his sin. And in the instant that he hears his deception exposed, Ananias dies.

Then, three hours later, Sapphira comes in. Peter points to the money still at his feet and asks her, “Is this the amount you got for your land?” Her answer in the Greek is emphatic. She, too, lies deliberately; and the moment her sin is exposed she dies as well.

I know this text is harsh. The same God of grace whose power heals the sick and even the demon-possessed in the verses following, here allows, or perhaps even causes, the death of these two church members. Perhaps they died of shock; perhaps God knew that the fledgling church could not withstand such deception.

But two facts from the narrative are clear: the enemy will attack the unity of the church; and God takes such attacks most seriously.Is it any wonder that “Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events” (v. 11)?

Dragons today

Where do such attacks originate today? We no longer sell everything we have to give to the poor, so that some can exercise hypocrisy in the same way Ananias and Sapphira did. But while the methods have changed, the intent has not.

Marshall Shelley wrote an excellent book on this subject, whose title I’ve taken for my message this morning: Well-Intentioned Dragons (Carol Stream, Illinois: Christianity Today, Inc., 1985). He identifies several such “dragons” at work today. They were all active in the apostolic church. See if you recognize any of these in our church this morning.

Clearly the first category is the hypocrite, the person who pretends to be something he or she is not. Some are what Shelley calls “bird dogs,” always pointing to where the pastor and church should shoot, with no intention of getting involved themselves. “Pastor, if I were you I would give Mrs. So-and-so a call—she has some personal problems you need to help her with.” “The Lord has laid it on my heart that we need to be praying more for revival.” “We need to do more to help the poor in our community.” But the “bird dog” has no intention of getting involved personally. He appears more spiritual than he is.

Others he calls “entrepreneurs,” using the church only for financial or personal reasons, the person who joins the church for business contacts, or to impress his boss who goes here, or to date the girls or the guys who attend. That’s his purpose, his reason for coming, though he doesn’t want you to know it.

Still others he calls the “sniper”: using spiritual language to attack personally. “Be sure to pray for Mr. So-and-so. He has some problems, you know.” “We need to be praying for our [name the staff member]. He’s just not as effective as he used to be.”

Does this mean that the church is full of hypocrites? No, there’s always room for more. We are all tempted to pretend, to be something we’re not. And the enemy will use our pretense to attack the community of God.

A second category is the controller, someone Shelley calls the “steamroller.” This is the person who seeks undue influence among us, who wants recognition and status and control. This is what Ananias and Sapphira tried to buy; it’s what some of us are tempted to seek today.

Shelley calls one such person “Captain Bluster”: he ends every sentence with an exclamation point. This guy can never talk around the church without making a speech, and he’s always right.

Another he calls the “fickle financier”: the blackmailer, the member who thinks that his or her contributions have earned influence, and who expects to be consulted on every decision the church makes.

A third is the “voice of experience.” This person has been around the church long enough to know exactly how everything ought to be done. He’s sure that anything which didn’t work before will never work, and that “We’ve never done it that way before” is the last word on any subject.

And the third category is the critic. The Christians faced him at Pentecost, before the Sanhedrin, and constantly through the book of Acts. Some criticize directly, in a frontal assault on the church, her leaders, or her motives. Others are far more subtle. They voice concerns and raise objections quietly, behind the back, in the church halls.

Again, it’s a question of motives. Honest, genuine questions and concerns are always welcome in the family of God. But when I criticize in order to hurt you more than help you, to build myself up by tearing you down, motivated by anger and not love, I’m dangerous.

Putting out their fire (11-16)

How do we handle such dragons? We do what Peter did. We listen to the Spirit of God. Peter could not have known of this attack if God had not told him. We stay constantly in touch with the Holy Spirit, for he is more concerned about our unity even than we are, and will show us what to do.

And we act by the leading of God. Peter confronted the situation directly. He didn’t allow this cancer to metastasize. He dealt with it, as soon as he discovered it. We do the same.

Jim Cymbala’s book, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire has been powerful in my life in many ways, no passage more than this one: “One Sunday about 20 years ago, back in our days in the YWCA, I said something impromptu while receiving new members into the church that has stuck with us ever since. People were standing in a row across the front before me, and as I spoke, the Holy Spirit seemed to prompt me to add, ‘And now, I charge you, as pastor of this church, that if you ever hear another member speak an unkind word of criticism or slander against anyone—myself, another pastor, an usher, a choir member, or anyone else—you have authority to stop that person in midsentence and say, “Excuse me—who hurt you? Who ignored you? Who slighted you? Was it Pastor Cymbala? Let’s go to his office right now. He will get on his knees and apologize to you, and then we’ll pray together, so God can restore peace to this body. But we will not let you talk criticially about people who are not present to defend themselves.”

“‘New members, please understand that I am entirely serious about this. I want you to help resolve this kind of thing immediately. And meanwhile, know this: If you are ever the one doing the loose talking, we will confront you.’

“To this very day, every time we receive new members, I say much the same thing. It is always a solemn moment. That is because I know what most easily destroys churches. It is not crack cocaine. It is not government oppression. It is not even lack of funds. Rather, it is gossip and slander that grieves the Holy Spirit” (p. 160).

And when Peter and the church dealt with the dragons, look at how God blessed: He gave them power to minister (v. 12). He gave them unity as they continued to meet together at Solomon’s Colonnade, on the east side of the Temple (vs. 12-13). He gave them growth, as “more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number” (v. 14). He expanded their ministry, so that people came from all over the area to be healed and saved (vs. 15-16).

They could never have ministered in such community, if they had not first defeated the dragons which attacked their unity. Nor can we.

Conclusion

Now, I have preached this message because God directed me to, not as an act of response, because I have not even a single complaint about a single one of you. Our first year together has been a blessed time of unity, fellowship, and grace. But I believe God directed me to preach this message today as an act of prevention, so that I will not become one of the “well-intentioned dragons,” and so that you will not, either.

Do you see any of these patterns in your life? Then ask God to forgive you and heal you today. He would have forgiven Ananias and Sapphira if they’d only asked him to. Jesus forgave the soldiers who were hammering nails into his body, and we are his body today. He will forgive you, but you must ask him. If you assume you cannot be a dragon, you probably are.

Do you see “dragons” in anyone else? Then ask God to help them, and show you if and how you are to help them.

And remember: God will deal with us as gently as he can, or as harshly as he must. He is a God of grace, but the church is his body. And he will do whatever he must to protect her unity. Our text proves that it is so.

I learned about redwood trees this week. They come from seeds so tiny that it takes three to six thousand of them to weigh an ounce. And yet they are the largest and tallest living things on earth. They can reach 360 feet in height, and mature at 1,000 years of age; some live 2,500 years. And yet their roots are tiny, thin, and shallow.

Their secret? Their roots are intertwined with each other. They stand, because they stand together.

So do we.

What About Faith Healers?

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What about Faith Healers?

Matthew 4:23-25

Dr. Jim Denison

This week I read one of the strangest stories I’ve seen in a long time. A woman, 23 years of age, was visiting her in-laws and drove to a nearby supermarket to pick up some groceries. Several people noticed her sitting in her car with the windows rolled up, her hands behind her head, looking very strange. A man asked her if she was all right, and she replied that she’d been shot in the back of the head and had been holding her brains in for over an hour.

The man called paramedics, who broke into the car and discovered that the woman had a wad of bread dough on the back of her head. A biscuit container had exploded from the summer heat, making a loud noise which sounded like a gunshot, and the wad of dough hit her in the back of her head. When she reached back to find out what it was, she felt the dough and thought it was her brain. She initially passed out, but recovered and held her brain until help arrived.

And you thought you’d had a bad day.

What do we do when the crisis is real? Here are the headlines from a recent Dallas Morning News metro column, covering one day’s events in Dallas: “2 dead in apartment swimming pool accidents;” “Body found in field is identified as Garland man;” “Man dies after being shot in billiards argument;” “Two arrested after woman’s death are identified;” “36-year-old man shot to death;” “Man trying to change tire killed by passing car.”

What would you say to the families of the 118 men who died on the Russian submarine Kursk? How horrible has this week been for them?

Let’s move closer to home. What is your greatest problem today? What issue would you most like to see solved, resolved, healed? How relevant is Jesus to that problem this morning? Let’s find out.

The Great Physician makes house calls

Our text begins: “Jesus went throughout Galilee” (23a).

The Greek syntax is in the “imperfect” tense, best translated “Jesus continued to go about.”

“He went about”—these three words capture the essence of Jesus’ ministry strategy: go to the need. He could have built a megachurch in Capernaum and waited for them to find him, but he didn’t. He went to them. We’re to do the same.

He went throughout “Galilee.”

This is the northern hill country, where the country folk lived. The region is a small area, approximately 70 miles long by 40 miles wide. But Josephus, the Jewish historian who was commanding general in Galilee in A.D. 66, says there were 204 cities and villages there. By some measures, more than 3 million people lived in Galilee.

What a task—if Jesus had preached in each of their towns at the rate of two a day, this ministry tour would have taken more than three months.

So Jesus formulated a ministry strategy with three parts. First, he was “teaching in their synagogues.”

This was the way he reached the Jews who lived in the Galilee. Their synagogue services had three parts—the prayers, readings from the Scriptures, and the address. The synagogue had no “preacher” per se; the president of the synagogue arranged each week for a speaker, or invited a guest rabbi to teach. After the address there was always a time for questions and discussion.

Jesus found the synagogue an ideal place to begin getting his message across. The Jews built synagogues wherever ten men lived. And so Jesus used their houses of worship to take the good news of God’s love to the Jewish people across the Galilee.

Second, he was “preaching the good news of the kingdom.” This was his open-air preaching and personal evangelism, directed to the Gentiles who could not come to synagogue services.

And third, he was “healing every disease and sickness among the people.”

“Disease” means serious, chronic illnesses; “sickness” refers to occasional physical problems. There is no disease too large for Jesus, no sickness too small.

Jesus did this to prove the truth that he was teaching and preaching, the good news of God’s love. We must do the same. Ken Medema, the Christian singer and composer, is right: “Don’t tell me I have a friend in Jesus until you show me I have a friend in you.”

And when the news of his healing power spreads north, “all over Syria” (24a), people brought him everyone they knew who was sick. In verse 23 Jesus goes to the sick; in verse 24 their friends bring the sick to him.

Each illness was beyond the reach of medical science then, and today: “the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed.” But Jesus “healed them.” Each of them.

The result: “Large crowds, from Galilee [to the west], the Decapolis [Gentile cities across the Jordan River to the east], Jerusalem, Judea, and the region across the Jordan followed him” (v. 25). North from Syria, west from Galilee, east from the Decapolis, and south from Judea. Jews and Gentiles. In short, people from every part of the nation followed Jesus.

All because he went to them, teaching God’s word, preaching God’s love, and showing God’s power to heal. No wonder the people loved Jesus.

Does Jesus still heal today?

And what Jesus did here, he did all through his ministry. Leaf through the pages of Matthew’s Gospel with me. In chapter 8 we find him healing a leper, and a centurion’s servant, then two demoniacs. In chapter 9 he heals a paralytic lowered to him through the roof in Capernaum, a dead girl and a sick woman, two blind men and a mute demoniac. In chapter 12 he heals a man with a withered hand; in chapter 14 he feeds 5,000 hungry families; in chapter 15 he heals the daughter of a Canaanite woman; in chapter 17 he heals a demon-possessed boy. In chapter 20, on his way to Jerusalem and the cross, he heals two blind men outside of Jericho. All through his ministry he heals the hurting.

Is Jesus still the Great Physician today? Does he still make house calls?

I know a woman diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, given three months to live; she is well today, twelve years later. The doctors have no explanation, but the Great Physician does.

I know a man who was given a 15% chance of surviving his cancer for a year, who is completely well today, three years later. The doctors don’t know how it happened, but Jesus does.

Most of you know someone whose healing has no medical explanation. A story of divine, miraculous intervention. They are still common today.

Jesus wants us to do what the Galileans did: to give him our sicknesses, our problems, our burdens. And to bring others to him as well. To trust him to heal, to bless, to strengthen. A doctor can only heal those who will let him.

And so Jesus wants us to claim the promise that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13), that our God will supply all our needs according to his riches in glory (Philippians 4:19). To let him be our Great Physician today.

Billy Graham’s book, Angels, contains this amazing story:

Dr. S. W. Mitchell, a well-known Philadelphia Neurologist, had gone to bed after a hard day. Suddenly he was awakened by someone knocking on his door. Opening it he found a little girl, poorly dressed and deeply upset. She told him her mother was very sick and asked him if he would please come with her. Dr. Mitchell dressed and followed the girl.

He found the mother desperately ill with pneumonia. After arranging for medical care, he complimented the sick woman on the intelligence and persistence of her little daughter. The women looked at him strangely and then said, “My daughter died a month ago.” She added, “Her shoes and coat are in the clothes closet there.”

Dr. Mitchell went to the closet and opened the door. There hung the very coat worn by the little girl who had brought him to her mother. It was warm and dry and could not possibly have been out in the wintry night.

Dr. Graham asks, “Could the doctor have been called in the hour of desperate need by an angel who appeared as this woman’s young daughter? Was this the work of God’s angels on behalf of the sick woman?”

What do we do when he doesn’t?

Jesus does still heal. But, what do we do when he doesn’t? He arranged for the mother to be healed; why didn’t he heal her daughter as well? When he doesn’t heal our hurts, prevent our pain, stop our suffering, what then?

This is the question of “theodicy,” justifying God in the face of suffering. Because we believe that Jesus is all powerful and all loving, he would want to stop evil and he could. But evil exists. What then?

Briefly, consider these steps. First, ask yourself if the suffering is your fault. God gave us freedom of will, so we could choose to worship and follow him. When we misuse that freedom and suffering results, the fault is not with God but us. When Mickey Mantle died of liver disease caused by a lifetime of drinking, he told America, “Don’t do what I did.” Sometimes our pain is our own fault. When it is, we begin the healing by admitting the problem and seeking the forgiveness of God.

Second, ask how God could redeem this suffering today. Romans 8:28 is clear: God will work through all things for good, for those who love him and are called according to his purpose. He can redeem anything. He may not remove the suffering, but use it for a greater purpose. Spurgeon said he’d learned more on his bed of suffering than in the chair of his study. Often God permits suffering for greater spiritual purpose. Ask how he would redeem this pain for his glory and our good.

Third, ask how God will sustain you in the suffering. The Bible does not often tell us why things happen, but what to do when they do. The psalmist was clear: even in the valley of the shadow of death we will fear no evil, for he is with us (Psalm 23:4). The book of Isaiah promises us: when we walk through the waters they will not pass over us; the rivers will not sweep over us; the fire will not set us ablaze; for he is with us (Isaiah 43:2-3).

How will God sustain and help you in these hard days?

Last, ask how God will redeem this suffering in the future. Paul was certain: “I do not consider the present sufferings worth comparing to the glory that shall be revealed” (Romans 8:18). Could God redeem the present pain for future glory and good? And one day in heaven, when we know as we are known and all our questions are answered (1 Corinthians 13:12), will not all this suffering be forgotten in the glory of the presence of Jesus?

Conclusion

What is your great burden or pain today? Be a Galilean—give it to Jesus. What friend of yours is hurting? Bring him or her to Jesus. And when he does not heal today, ask: is there sin I should confess? What good will God bring from this today? How is God helping me in my suffering? How will he redeem my faithfulness in glory?

Arthur John Gossip’s wife died suddenly. His first sermon after her death, entitled “But When Life Tumbles In, What Then?” is one of the greatest messages in the English language. Here is how it concludes—see if his words don’t speak the hope of Jesus Christ to your heart and hurt:

“In the New Testament you hear … a great deal about the saints in glory, and the sunshine, and the singing, and the splendour yonder. And, surely, that is where our thoughts should dwell. I for one want no melancholious tunes, no grey and sobbing words, but brave hymns telling of their victory…. Think out your brooding. What exactly does it mean? Would you pluck the diadem from their brows again? Would you snatch the palms of victory from their hands? Dare you compare the clumsy nothings our poor blundering love can give them here with what they must have yonder where Christ Himself has met them, and has heaped on them who can think out what happiness and glory?

“I love to picture it. How, shyly, amazed, half protesting, she who never thought of self was led into the splendour of her glory…. To us it will be long and lonesome; but they won’t even have looked round them before we burst in. In any case, are we to let our dearest be wrenched out of our hands by force? Or, seeing that it has to be, will we not give them willingly and proudly, looking God in the eyes, and telling Him that we prefer our loneliness rather than that they should miss one tittle of their rights. . . .

“When we are young, heaven is a vague and nebulous and shadowy place. But as our friends gather there, more and more it gains body and vividness and homeliness. And when our dearest have passed yonder, how real and evident it grows, how near it is, how often we steal yonder. For, as the Master put it: Where our treasure is, there will our heart be also.”

“Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.”

Now he has come here. Hasn’t he?

What Are You Waiting For?

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What Are You Waiting For?

James 4:13-17

James C. Denison

We’re beginning today with a little test a friend emailed me this week. Let’s see how you score.

You are running in a race and overtake the second person. What position are you in? Second place.

If you overtake the last person, what position are you in? If you said that you’re second to last, you’re wrong. How can you overtake the “last” person?

Do they have a 4th of July in England? Yes–it comes right after the 3rd.

How many birthdays does the average man have? One–it comes each year.

Some months have 31 days; how many have 28? All of them.

Is it legal in California for a man to marry his widow’s sister? No–he’s dead.

How many two-cent stamps are there in a dozen? A dozen.

If you missed them all, we’re doubling your tithe requirement today.

Now take another test, a word-association quiz: what comes to mind when I say the word “disciple”? On DiscipleNow Weekend, with more than 400 students and their teachers involved in the most important single youth event of the year, it seems an appropriate question. What is a disciple? What thoughts come to your mind?

I grew up thinking that a “disciple” was a really serious Christian, a Green Beret church member. You have “Christians” and then you have “disciples.” A disciple spends an hour in prayer each morning, shares his or her faith each day, and memorizes Scripture each evening. A disciple is out on the front lines for Jesus–willing to go anywhere and do anything for the Kingdom. At least that’s what I thought.

Then I met some “disciples” in the Bible and got to know their stories. Peter, denying Jesus to a serving girl when he needed his friends the most; James and John, wanting to call down fire on some poor Samaritans; Thomas, questioning his Lord’s resurrection; Matthew, a crony of the hated Roman government; Simon the Zealot, a terrorist insurgent. Not a Green Beret in the bunch.

Finally I came to understand that a “disciple” is simply a person who follows a teacher. You are a coaching “disciple” of Bill Parcells if you approach the game the way he does. Avery Johnson is a “disciple” of San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich because he leads the Mavericks in the same way “Coach Pop” leads the Spurs. A violinist is a disciple of Itzhak Perlman if she tries to play the way he does. You are a disciple of a person to the degree that you do what they tell you to do. It’s that simple.

So let’s see if we are “disciples now.” Using the theme text of DNow weekend, we’ll answer two questions which make up the “Discipleship Test” and see how we score this morning. There is no more important exercise for the health of your soul, your family, and your legacy today.

Are you assuming the future? (vs. 13-16)

The author of our book calls himself simply “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ” (1:1). If I were he, I would have said much more.

Our writer was the half-brother of Jesus, the oldest biological son of Mary and Joseph. He grew up in Jesus’ household. He knew him better than any other living person except his mother. However, he did not believe that he was the Messiah (cf. John 7:5) until after the resurrection, when the risen Christ made a special visit to his oldest half-brother (1 Corinthians 15:7).

The result was a new man. James quickly became the leader of the church at Jerusalem, the most visible spokesman for the gospel in all of Judea. His prayer life was so fervent that he was called “James of camel’s knees.” Eventually his faith and witness so threatened the authorities that they had him thrown from the temple and then beaten to death. His last words were a prayer, asking God to forgive them.

Now he calls himself a “servant” of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. “Servant” translates the Greek doulos, literally a “slave.” A slave belongs to his master. He has no will of his own. His only purpose is to do what his master wants. That was James. I’d say he knows something about discipleship.

In our text, he challenges his Christian readers in words which are eerily current: “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, and make money'” (v. 13). When last did you say something like that?

“This fall, I will go to such-and-such a college and major in so-and-so.” Or, “Later this spring, we will sell our house and buy one in such-and-such neighborhood.” Or, “By March we will expand into such-and-such a market and increase our revenues by so-and-so.” Or, “Later this year, our church will begin such-and-such ministries and services and reach so-and-so people.”

What’s wrong with such assumptions? “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow” (v. 14a). Is that true? Do you know what will happen on Monday?

Did you know on 9-10-01 that we would never forget 9-11?

When Barbaro won the Kentucky Derby and started in the Preakness, did anyone expect him to break his leg and eventually be euthanized?

When the football season began, who thought that the New Orleans Saints would play the Chicago Bears for the NFC championship and the right to go to today’s Super Bowl?

When the Mavericks’ season began, who thought they would lose four straight and then achieve the best record in basketball?

When the Cowboys’ season began, who thought Tony Romo would be our quarterback of the future? When their playoff game began, who thought it would end with a fumbled snap on the winning field goal?

The truth is that “you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (v. 14b). When’s the last time you saw mist in the early morning? It wasn’t there the night before. It settles over the fields or streets, sometimes so thick that you can’t drive safely. But by mid-morning the sun has burned it off and it is gone.

So it is with our lives today. We are here this morning, but none of us is guaranteed that we’ll be back next Sunday. Some sermon will be the last I preach, and the last you hear. I can’t promise you that it is this one, but I can’t promise you that it’s not.

So we are to say before every decision, every day: “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that” (v. 15). Otherwise we “boast and brag,” though “all such boasting is evil” (v. 16). A slave seeks first the will of his master. A disciple seeks first the will of her teacher. Or she’s not a disciple at all.

When last did you do that with Jesus? When last did you ask him to guide you through Scripture, circumstance, and Spirit? To speak to your mind and your heart? To make clear his “good, pleasing and perfect will” for your life (Romans 12:2)?

My first job was at Dairy Queen; my specialty was the “dip cone.” It has to be done properly–pull the ice cream out of the chocolate too soon and it doesn’t get enough on it; leave it in too long and it falls in and glops around. At Dairy Queen I learned something even more important than making dip cones, a very valuable life lesson: the difference between an employee and a customer.

When I became an employee I had to go to the store when my manager said, do what she said, leave when she told me I could leave. If onions needed to be cut but I didn’t want to get onion smell on my hands because I had a date that night, she didn’t much care. If the floors needed to be mopped but I was tired from playing tennis earlier that day, she wasn’t sympathetic. I had to do what I was told, or I couldn’t work for her.

It made me yearn for the days when I was a customer: I could go there when I wanted, order what I wanted, and leave when I wanted.

Are you an employee of Jesus, or a customer of his church? When last did it cost you something sacrificial to follow him?

Are you obedient in the present? (v. 17)

A disciple learns his teacher’s will, and then he does it: “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins” (v. 17). “Anyone”–preachers, deacons, trustees, all of us. “Who knows the good he ought to do”–the Greek assumes the condition; the disciple knows what the teacher wants him to do. “And doesn’t do it, sins.” Not “makes a mistake”–“sins” against the Master.

Conversely, those who know the good they ought to do and do it, please God and position themselves to receive all that his grace intends to give.

“But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it–he will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:25).

Noah obeyed God and was spared on the ark. Moses and his people obeyed God and were spared at the Red Sea. Joshua and the people obeyed God and were spared at the flooded Jordan River and the fortified Jericho walls. David obeyed God and defeated Goliath, Saul, and the enemies of God’s people. Daniel obeyed God and was spared in the lion’s den. Jonah obeyed God and was spared from the fish. James obeyed God and became the most significant leader of the first Christian church.

But such obedience must be complete, for Monday as well as Sunday, when it’s easy to follow and when it’s hard. For his sake, not ours. Because we want to glorify him, not ourselves. Because we want to extend his Kingdom, not our own.

This week I read a challenging but honest statement in C. S. Lewis’s last sermon, “A Slip of the Tongue.” Lewis spoke for many of us when he said:

Our temptation is to look eagerly for the minimum that will be accepted. We are in fact very like honest but reluctant taxpayers. We approve of an income tax in principle. We make our returns truthfully. But we dread a rise in the tax. We are very careful to pay no more than is necessary. And we hope–we very ardently hope–that after we have paid it there will still be enough left to live on.

Conversely, it is those Christians who choose to be full-time disciples who experience the abundant life of Jesus.

They consent to build an ark and save the human race when it has never rained.

Or they decide to “go out not knowing” and become the father of the nation, like Abraham (Hebrews 11:8).

Or they agree to stand before Pharaoh and lead God’s people out of slavery.

Or they choose to step into a flooded river and march around a fortified city, and take the nation into the Promised Land.

Or they go out to fight Goliath with only a slingshot and win a victory which will be remembered forever.

Or they leave their boats and nets to follow a Galilean carpenter and write nearly half of the New Testament.

Or they turn from their religious ambitions to follow Jesus and write nearly the other half.

Conclusion

What needs to happen for you to be a “disciple now”? For you to know and do God’s next step for your life? Have you sought his will for this day, this problem, this opportunity, this temptation, this decision? Will you follow it, wherever he leads, whatever he asks, wherever he goes? Are you an employee or a customer? Are you a Christian or a disciple?

Remember the service a few months ago when Matt Elkins shared the story of his missionary experience in the Sudan? He read from the leather journal which recorded the events of those sacrificial, risky, frightening, miraculous two years. As he did, I noticed the words he had inscribed on the cover of that journal and read them to you: “Every man dies. Not every man truly lives.” When your journal records the last page of your story, which will have been true for you?

What Does God Think of the Jews?

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What Does God Think of the Jews?

Romans 11.25-32 / Galatians 3.26-29

Dr. Jim Denison

A small boy was visiting his grandparents on their farm. He was given a slingshot to play with in the woods. Heading back to dinner, he saw Grandma’s pet duck. Out of impulse, he shot a rock at it, hit the duck in the head, and killed it. He was shocked and grieved. In panic, he hid the dead duck in the woodpile, only to see his sister watching. Sally had seen it all, but she said nothing.

After lunch that day Grandma said, “Sally, let’s wash the dishes.” But Sally said, “Grandma, Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen today, didn’t you Johnny?” Then she whispered to him, “Remember the duck?” So Johnny did the dishes.

Later Grandpa asked if the children wanted to go fishing, and Grandma said, “I’m sorry but I need Sally to help make supper.” But Sally smiled and said, “But Johnny told me he wanted to help you.” And she whispered again, “Remember the duck?” So Sally went fishing and Johnny stayed.

After days of doing his and Sally’s chores, Johnny couldn’t stand it any longer. He came to Grandma and confessed that he had killed her duck. She knelt down, gave him a hug, and said, “I know. You see, I was standing at the window and I saw the whole thing. Because I love you, I forgave you. But I was just wondering how long you would let Sally make a slave of you.”

Where does guilt live in your mind or heart? What past failures sting you? What secrets from your past still shame you? Where does your past enslave you?

Are you living with failure and wondering if you’re forgiven? Are you facing tough times and wondering if you’re being punished? Does your past poison your present?

It’s been said that to live with guilt is like being stung to death by a single bee. How do we remove that stinger today?

Did God still love them?

This is precisely the question Paul answers in the Scriptures which are before us. No one ever had better reason to wonder if God loved them than the Jews.

Through Abraham, God chose the Jewish nation as his instrument for bringing the good news of his love to all of mankind (see Genesis 12:3).

But along the way, the Jewish nation had every reason to wonder if they were really his chosen people, if God truly loved them. 430 years in Egyptian slavery, 40 years of wilderness wandering, and seven years of bloodshed and suffering as they conquered their Holy Land. Then civil war which divided the nation permanently. Then Assyrian conquest which destroyed their ten northern tribes. Then Babylonian conquest which enslaved their two southern tribes. Then oppression by the Greeks and finally enslavement by the Romans.

Worst of all, God is now receiving the hated Gentiles as his people. The Christians are preaching the story of their Messiah to the Gentile world, and these cursed pagans are coming to faith in Israel’s God.

It seems that God has abandoned the Jewish people, turned from them, rejected them. The Jews have every reason to wonder if God still loves them. Maybe you feel the same way today. Hear then, this word from your Father in heaven.

Does God still love us?

Here is the central fact from our text: though the Jews have rejected the Messiah, he has not rejected them.

Paul says, “Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles come in” (v. 25b). The “hardening” here is spiritual, that hardening of the arteries of the soul which comes from refusing the gospel.

Because the Jews rejected Christ, his followers turned to the Gentiles. His church took the gospel to the Gentile world. With this result: the “full number of the Gentiles,” meaning the entire Gentile world, could “come in” to God’s kingdom.

So God used the Jewish refusal of Christ, but Christ has not refused them.

“And so all Israel will be saved,” Paul continues (v. 26a). “All Israel” here does not mean that every Jew would be saved apart from Christ. Paul spoke in Romans 9:2 of his “great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart” over the lostness of his Jewish nation.

The apostle means that the entire race of the Jews would have opportunity to come to salvation, just as the Gentiles now have that privilege.

How? Through the Gentiles, God is now offering salvation to the Jews.

Paul says it this way: “I make much of my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them” (11:13-14).

The apostle hoped that the Jews would see the Gentiles coming to salvation, become jealous, and come to Christ as a result. Then God could fulfill his covenant to “take away their sins” (v. 27).

Here’s the point: despite all they have endured, all the failures and slaveries and pain they have faced, “they are loved” (v. 28). Verse 29 promises that God’s “gifts” (the word means his “grace”) and call are “irrevocable”—he will never take them back or regret them. One day he hopes to “have mercy on them all” (v. 32).

And what God promised to the Jews, he promised to the Gentiles as well. Galatians 3 announces this incredible fact: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (vs. 28-29).

The Jewish people rejected the Messiah, but he did not reject them. Now you have failed the Father; you have sometimes refused his truth; we have all sinned and fallen short of his glory. We have rejected God’s word and will, but he has not rejected us. No matter what you’ve done or where you’ve done it, he loves you still. This is exactly what his word promises every one of us, with no exceptions, today.

And now God wants us to accept this unconditional grace and love. Let me ask you: are you trying to earn God’s mercy? Punishing yourself for your failures? Confessing the same sins to God which he has already forgiven and forgotten? Laboring in guilt you won’t release? Allowing the past to poison the present?

There are many Old Testament Christians today—people who are saved by grace but live by works, keeping the Law, making sacrifices, living in religious duty and obligation and ritual, hoping to earn what Jesus died to give. Are you among them?

Conclusion

In the depths of the Great Depression, an impoverished elderly woman approached the front desk of an insurance office in Minneapolis. She wanted to know if she could stop making payments on the yellowed policy clutched in her work-weathered fingers.

The clerk glanced at the document, then studied it in amazement. “This is quite valuable,” he said. “I would not advise you to stop paying the premiums now, after all these years. Have you spoken with your husband about this?” “No,” she said, “he’s been dead for three years.”

She held in her hands an insurance policy on her husband’s life worth $300,000. The company immediately paid the benefits of that policy and refunded the years of overpaid premiums. And she finally began to experience the financial security which had been hers all along.

Jesus has already died—the policy is now paid in full. He loves you completely and perfectly. He has forgiven every sin you have confessed to him in genuine repentance. To punish yourself for sins God has forgiven is to pay premiums on benefits which are already yours. He loves all the Jews, and all the Gentiles. And all of us. And each of us.

This Lord’s Supper proves that it is so. Here is tangible evidence of his suffering for our salvation, his death for our life. In a moment you will take this bread and cup from the hands of your sister or brother. Don’t see their hands. See instead nail-scarred hands. Believe in nail-scarred grace. Accept nail-scarred mercy. Welcome nail-scarred love.

As we prepare to share these elements, prepare your heart to receive them. Think of that guilt you haven’t released, that shame which still hurts, that failure whose sting still poisons. If you have not already, confess it to God. Put it in his hands. Believe that he has taken it, forgiven it, forgotten it. Leave it there. And take the bread and cup in its place, from his nail-scarred hands for your grace-healed heart.

The grace of this table is the gift of God to us. Will you open yours?

What Does The Bible Teach About Divorce?

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What does the Bible

teach about divorce?

Dr. Jim Denison

When is divorce permissible biblically? When is it not? What does the Lord say about such a difficult subject?

This is unfortunately a very common question. America has five percent of the world’s population, but 50% of its divorces. Web sites, magazines, and support groups on the subject of divorce abound.

In all the cacophony of voices speaking to this issue, it’s vital that we hear God’s. That’s my only job in this essay—to give you what the word of God says, and what it means for us. Every one of us has experienced divorce or known someone affected directly by it. Let’s ask the Lord our most common questions about this painful subject, and listen to him as he offers us hope for hurting hearts.

What did Jesus teach?

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addresses our issue: “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce'” (Matthew 5:31). “Anyone who divorces his wife” points to an extremely common practice in Jesus’ day.

The Jews typically allowed divorce for any reason whatsoever. A man could divorce his wife if she spoiled his dinner by putting too much salt in his food; if she went into public with her head uncovered; if she talked with men in the streets; if she burned the toast. Rabbi Akiba said that a man could divorce his wife if he found someone more attractive. Divorce was so common in Jesus’ day that many women refused to get married.

To divorce his wife, the husband presented her with a “certificate of divorcement.” The most common form: “Let this be from me your writ of divorce and letter of dismissal and deed of liberation, that you may marry whatever man you will.” If he handed this document to his wife in the presence of two witnesses, she stood divorced, with no legal proceedings or protection whatsoever.

So Jesus speaks to an extremely common situation, in which the structure of family life is collapsing and national morals are disintegrating. His words are significant and radical: “anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery” (v. 32). “Marital unfaithfulness” means adultery, sexual relations between a wife and a person not her husband. Such an act breaks the marriage union, rendering it null and void. Divorce otherwise “causes her to become an adulteress,” since she will have to remarry to support herself but is still bound to her first husband in the eyes of God. And he adds, “Anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.”

Jesus repeats the very same words in Matthew 19:9. Divorce except for adultery is outside the word and will of God. This is the clear teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ.

What constitutes a biblical divorce?

What is the larger teaching of Scripture on our subject? In addition to Jesus’ clear statement, the Bible also says, “If the unbeliever leaves, let him do so. A believing man or woman is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace” (1 Corinthians 7:15). If a believer is married to a non-Christian, and the unbeliever deserts the marriage, the believer is innocent.

Abandonment by a believer must be considered as well. What if your spouse is a Christian but refuses to stay in your marriage? What if you want to work, to seek help and restoration, but he or she will not? This person has misused the freedom of will given by God. The Bible forbids this divorce, but the laws of our land do not. And the Bible clearly teaches that we are not responsible for the sins of others, but only our own.

Abuse is a third area we must discuss. Physical, emotional, verbal, and substance abuse are epidemic in marriages today. While the Bible nowhere addresses abuse specifically with regard to divorce, we can draw two conclusions from biblical truth.

First, abuse is always wrong: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:25). And wives are to just as loving, supportive, and sacrificial with their husbands.

Second, life must be protected: “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13). You must protect yourself and your children from abuse.

So biblical counselors recommend that an abused person separate from the spouse immediately. Get yourself and your children to safety. Seek intensive counseling. But don’t give up—God can heal any marriage if both partners will surrender fully to him. I’ve seen abusers repent and be restored. Consider divorce only as the lesser of two evils, in order to protect the abused, and only if there are no other options.

As I understand Scripture, these are the conditions under which divorce is permissible biblically: adultery, abandonment, and abuse. Note that the Bible does not prescribe divorce even in these painful circumstances, but only permits it.

If you’re considering divorce

Now we come to the hope God offers hurting hearts today. Hope for those who are considering divorce, and for those who have experienced one. We’ll find both in God’s word and grace.

First, if you’re considering a divorce, please know that God can heal any marriage whose partners are fully yielded to him. He doesn’t want you to have a better marriage, but a new marriage. I know of pastors and staff members who have committed the horrible sin of adultery, but through their repentance and God’s grace their marriage is restored and renewed today. I have seen abuse healed, and abandoners return. God is still the Great Physician of bodies, souls, and homes as well.

And he wants to heal every marriage, to prevent the tragic consequences which so often accompany divorce. Divorce seldom solves the problem it was meant to solve. Financial pressures are enormous: the woman’s standard of living drops 73% in the first year, while men who remarry find themselves supporting two families on the same income. And while you can divorce your spouse, you cannot divorce your child’s parent.

There is great hope today, for divorce is never inevitable. We hear constantly that half of all marriages end in divorce. That’s simply not true. Pollster Louis Harris explains: several years ago, the Census Bureau noted that during that particular year, there were 2.4 million marriages performed and 1.2 million divorces granted. Someone did the math without considering the 54 million marriages already in existence, and announced that half of all marriages divorce. The fact is, only one out of eight marriages will ever end in divorce. Any given year, only two percent of existing marriages will break up.

If your marriage is struggling:

Remember God’s plan: one man and one woman joined for life (Genesis 2:24). He wants to help and heal your home.

Seek help. If you’ve gone to biblical counseling without success, try someone else. Try again. If your spouse won’t go, go alone. To work on your marriage, work on yourself.

Don’t wait for your spouse to make you happy—find ways to make yourself happier. Seek new activities, work, ministries, friendships.

And seek God together. It is a fact that couples who attend worship together have the lowest risk of divorce. Those who are in church regularly are 2.5 times less likely to have been divorced than those who do not attend. Seek God’s strength and help. Ask his family to help you, to pray for you. Ask him to guide you to those who can help you most. Your Father wants to give you a new life together. There is wonderful hope for you today.

If you have done all that you can to heal your marriage, but the abuse continues or your partner is unwilling to help, divorce may be the only option available to you. But go there only if you know that you have done all you can with God’s help. And read the next section of our discussion.

If you’ve been divorced

What if you’ve already experienced divorce, as a result of adultery, abandonment, or abuse? You are the innocent party. You will need counseling, healing, and help. But you must reject the guilt you may feel, and move forward into God’s grace and hope.

What if your divorce was not for biblical reasons? Here I must speak very carefully. I want to do nothing which will encourage someone considering a divorce to do so. The consequences of divorce are very real, and those of you who have experienced them know their pain better than anyone else.

But at the same time, know that divorce is not the “unpardonable sin.” God can forgive any person who repents and returns to his word and will. Scripture is clear: “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). “All” includes divorce.

God wants to help you and heal you. He plans to prosper you and not harm you, to give you hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). The Bible is clear: “The Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion” (Isaiah 30:18). God grieves with you, cries with you, walks with you, and accepts and loves you, just as you are, right now.

As I understand Scripture, remarriage is a biblical option for you. With counsel and help, restoration and healing, I believe God can lead you into another marriage. I am so grateful when every ministry in a church is open to those who have experienced divorce. There are those among many church ministry staffs, deacons, Sunday school teachers, and choir members who have experienced the pain of divorce. And God is using them in wonderful ways.

Billy Graham said: “I am opposed to divorce and regard the increase in divorces today as one of the most alarming problems in society. However, I know that the Lord can forgive and heal.” He is right.

Conclusion

We’ve discussed a very large and very hard subject in this essay. To summarize:

Biblical conditions for divorce would include adultery, abandonment, and abuse.

God does not want any couple to divorce. He stands ready to give hope, help, and healing.

God loves those who have experienced the pain of divorce. He still has a wonderful plan and purpose for their lives and ministries. Would any good father still love a child who experiences the pain of divorce? Your perfect Father in heaven does.

The Apostle Paul is proof. He was a Pharisee (Philippians 3:5), and was thus required to be married. By the time he wrote 1 Corinthians he was no longer married (1 Cor. 7:8), so that he was either a widower or a divorcee. He states in Philippians 3:8 that he “lost all things” when he gave his life to Christ; most scholars believe that he lost his wife when he became a Christian.

In Paul’s day, a Jew who converted to Christianity was considered dead by his family and wife. She was a widow, free to marry another Jew. We would say she divorced him. And he wrote half of the New Testament.

What will God do with your life?

What Every Marriage Needs

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What Every Marriage Needs

Ephesians 5.22-33

Dr. Jim Denison

The publication New York Newsday carried this report a few years ago: “Former Rolling Stone Bill Wyman’s son is to marry Bill’s ex-wife’s mother. Wyman’s son from a previous marriage, Stephen, age 30 announced his engagement to Patsy Smith, age 46, the mother of Wyman’s former wife, Mandy, age 22. The marriage would make the rock star his ex-wife’s step-grandfather.”

Marriage can be confusing.

And no marriage is safe from storms. Frank and Kathie Lee Gifford were a model of married happiness until their problems made headlines. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, and Alex Baldwin and Kim Basinger are only the most recent Hollywood break-ups. No marriage is immune from problems. No relationship is guaranteed.

And relationships are even harder when we don’t know the essentials necessary to them. Fortunately, God’s word is clear on the basics. What do wives’ needs have in common? The gift our text calls “nourishing love.” What do husbands’ needs have in common? The commitment our text calls “encouraging respect.”

Because God made us, he knows exactly what we need from each other. In his word, he tells us how to give these gifts. Whether you are married or not, in committed relationships or not, you need these essentials. To understand yourself and those you care about. Here’s God’s answer to one of our greatest needs today.

What every man needs

Let’s discover first what every husband needs from his wife, what men need from women. The key word in our text is “submit”—”Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.”

The Greek word is “hupotasso,” a military term which means “to rank under,” “to take your post.”

This is the present tense, pointing to an ongoing, continuing commitment. Not just for the wedding, but for the marriage; not just when things are easy and good, but when they are not.

Now, here’s a very important point. It is made very clearly in Paul’s original language, but not so clearly in English.

Paul’s word, “submit to your husbands,” is in the middle voice in the Greek. Translated literally, he says to “place yourself in submission.”

This is a decision, your choice, a voluntary decision. Clearly, women are not by nature in a subordinate role to men, as so many have thought. The wife chooses this role with regard to her husband. This is not the inferior admitting her place, but the co-equal deciding freely to do this.

Scripture is clear: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). In God’s eyes, men and women are equal in status. This is a voluntary submission, made freely by the wife. Not because she is the inferior—far from it.

Thomas Wheeler is a retired CEO of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company. He tells about a time when he and his wife were out driving and nearly ran out of gas.

They pulled off the freeway and into a dumpy little gas station with one pump. There was only one man working the place, so Wheeler asked him to fill the tank while he checked the oil. He saw his wife talking and smiling at this attendant. When they saw Wheeler looking at them, the man walked away and pretended that nothing had happened. Wheeler paid the man and he and his wife pulled out of the seedy little station.

As they drove down the road, he asked his wife if she knew the attendant. She admitted that she did know him. In fact, she had known him very well. It seems they had not only gone to high school together, but they dated seriously for about a year.

Wheeler couldn’t help bragging a little and said, “Boy, were you lucky I came along. If you’d married him you’d be the wife of a gas station attendant instead of the wife of a Chief Executive Officer.” His wife replied, “My dear, if I had married him, he’d be the Chief Executive Officer and you’d be the gas station attendant.”

A wife chooses to support and respect her husband. Not because she is inferior to him, but because God’s word calls her to do so.

Verse 33 elaborates: “the wife must respect her husband.” The word here means to support, encourage, honor. Paul describes a wife who supports her husband, who respects and encourages him, who follows his leadership. Encouraging respect is the gift God wants wives to give their husbands.

Why? Because this is a man’s greatest need. Every husband needs from his wife an ongoing commitment to support and encourage him. Not just while they’re dating, or when he deserves it. Remember, this is in the continuous tense: “Wives, continually respect and encourage your husbands.” Because this is his greatest need.

John Gray wrote the famous book, Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus. He states the fact well: “A man’s deepest fear is that he is not good enough or that he is incompetent.” Encouraging respect is the gift every husband needs.

What every woman needs

Now let’s see what every wife, every woman needs. The key is in verse 25: “Husbands, love your wives.” The word here is not the Greek term for sexual love, or for friendship or business partnership, but for serving, nourishing love.

Martin Luther was right: “Some marriages were motivated by mere lust, but mere lust is felt even by fleas and lice. Love begins when we wish to serve others.” Nourishing love is the gift every wife needs from her husband. How do we give it?

We make love a lifestyle. Verse 25 is also in the continuous tense: “Husbands, continue to love your wives.” Not just until you are married to them, or feel like, or want something from them, or are moved by circumstances to do so. Continuously, repeatedly, as a lifestyle.

We put our wives first: “just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (v. 25b).

Jesus sacrificed everything for us—status, achievements, his very life. The Bible wants me to put Janet before my career, my ambitions, and my achievements. We husbands deceive ourselves into thinking that our workaholism is for our wives and children, but it’s really not. It’s really to satisfy our thirst for status and significance. All the while, our wives want most for us to love them.

We love our wives unconditionally, for this is how Jesus loves us. We love when we don’t feel like it, as Jesus did in Gethsemane. In action, not just feeling, as Jesus did at Calvary. Jesus put us first; so we are to put our wives before every other priority in our lives as well.

I know an elderly pastor who used to say, “If I take care of the church, God will take care of my family.” He nearly lost his family, until he got his priorities right. We put our wives first.

We seek to meet their needs: “husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies” (v. 23a).

We eat, sleep, exercise, and do whatever our bodies need. So with our marriages: they have needs as well. Our wives need affection, but also conversation, listening, honesty and commitment.

Our wives need to know that they are far more than the mother of our children or the manager of our home, that their status and identity extends beyond their children and their job and their house. God’s word teaches us to be attentive to their needs, and work hard to meet them.

We are to give nourishing love to our wives because they need it, not because they deserve it. Just as wives are to give encouraging respect to their husbands because they need it, not because they deserve it. Whatever the circumstances might be.

When Elizabeth Dole was appointed Secretary of Transportation some years ago, a photograph was taken of the two of them making their bed. The day after the photo ran in the national press, then-Senator Dole received an irate letter from a constituent. The man complained that Senator Dole should never have allowed a picture of a man “doing such things around the house.”

The Senator wrote back, “Buddy, you don’t know the half of it. The only reason she was helping me was that the photographer was there.”

We are to give our wives nourishing love, whether the photographer is there or not. This is our wives’ greatest need in marriage.

Practical advice

Let’s close with some practical advice from marriage counselors. These characteristics are essential to all strong marriages.

Commit to the marriage.In 1962 only 51% said a husband and wife who don’t get along should get a divorce; in 1985, 82% said they’d divorce.

Is it any wonder that the divorce rate has tripled in one generation? When you were married, you stepped from contract into covenant. A contractual relationship can be ended at any time by either partner. A covenant is an unconditional, permanent relationship. Make a commitment to the covenant you entered when you were married.

Be positive with one another.John Gottman of the University of Washington says, “In couples that stay together, there are about five times more positive things said to and about one another as negative ones. But in couples that divorce, there are about one and a half times more negative things said than positive.”

Overlook faults. A grandmother, celebrating her golden wedding anniversary, told the secret of her long and happy marriage: “On my wedding day, I decided to make a list of ten of my husband’s faults which, for the sake of my marriage, I would overlook.” Then whenever he did something on the list she would say, “Lucky for him, that’s one of the ten!”

Don’t let small things become big things. No one is perfect—not even you. Overlook faults wherever you can.

And work hard. Martin Luther spoke words which should be engraved over every home: “Let the wife make her husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave.”

Conclusion

What does every marriage need? One expert summarizes: “Men are motivated and empowered when they feel needed … Women are motivated and empowered when they feel cherished.” Every marriage needs encouraging respect and nourishing love.

And these gifts are given “as to the Lord” (v. 22). By a man and a women who have first given their hearts to Jesus. Only he can make two lives into one. Only he can sustain a marriage in the best and worst of times. Only when Jesus is Lord can the marriage be its best.

When I perform a marriage, I always begin the ceremony with this paragraph: “We have come to this place of worship to witness the uniting of two lives in holy matrimony. The Bible tells us that the first woman was taken from the side of the first man. Not from his head to rule over him, or from his foot to be trodden upon by him, but from his side to be equal with him. From under his arm to be protected by him; from near his heart, to be loved by him.”

Nourishing love, and encouraging respect. How will you give your gift, this week?

What God Looks Like

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What God Looks Like

Studies in the Book of Revelation

Dr. Jim Denison

Revelation 1:4-20

John, the writer identifies himself for the second time in verse four. He addresses the revelation from Jesus to the seven churches of Asia, which at that time was Asia Minor, the western region of modern-day Turkey. The churches are named in verse 11.

“Grace to you and peace” was a common biblical greeting. “Grace” translates the typical Greek greeting; “peace” translates “shalom,” the typical Hebrew greeting. Together, they offer the reader the grace of salvation and the peace which is its result.

The God John served on Patmos was the “one who is, and who was, and who is to come”

(1:4). The Lord God makes the same claim for himself in 1:8, as does Jesus in 1:17.

Hebrews 13:8 agrees that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

This description is an extension of God’s self-designated name YHWH (generally

represented in English as Yahweh), meaning the One who is, who was, and who ever

shall be (see Exodus 3:14). The One “who is to come” is the first reference in Revelation

to the return of Christ, continuing the promise Jesus made at his ascension (Acts 1:11).

John also sees “the seven spirits before his throne” (Revelation 1:4), better translated “the sevenfold Spirit”. Seven in apocalyptic language is the number of perfection and completion. So this description refers to the perfect Spirit, complete and powerful in every way. The Spirit serves “before his throne,” a reference to the Spirit’s role in leading us in worship before the Father.

Thus two of the three members of the Trinity are identified—the Son will come next. Now Jesus is described as “the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth” (1:5). “The faithful martyr” would be another translation of the first phrase in the text.

“Firstborn” relates not to chronology but to significance and importance. The firstborn in

Hebrew culture was the most important of the children. Our text does not teach that Jesus was created (as the Jehovah’s Witnesses claim), but that Jesus is the “only begotten Son” of the Father in the sense that he is the Father’s first Son in significance or importance. In fact, he is “ruler of the kings of the earth” (Revelation 1:5) at present, whether they know it or not.

While he rules the world, Jesus also loves each and every one of us personally. He has proven his love by freeing us “from our sins by his blood,” making us priests to serve his Father (1:5-6). “Freed us from our sins” is a completed action in the Greek, a past event with present consequences (1:5). We are already set free to serve God today.

Then one day our Savior will return to our earth and make complete our victory (1:7).

The entire world will see him, from the first-century enemies who crucified him to those alive at his return. Every person, across all time, in all nations of the world.

His very nature guarantees his eternal omnipotence, for he is both “Alpha” (the first letter in the Greek alphabet) and “Omega” (the last letter). He is the “Almighty,” the one who rules over the universe with infinite power (1:8).

Patmos

In Verse 9, John identifies himself again, this time as “your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus.” And identified his location as the island of Patmos. John is different from the Jewish apocalyptic writers of the interbiblical period in that he identifies himself.

Early writers stated that John was exiled to Patmos; Victorinus said that he was quite old, and that he worked in the mines of the island. This was around A.D. 95. In 96, Domitian the Roman ruler died, and tradition affirms that John then returned to Ephesus.

Affliction, which John mentions, was thlipsis, and he was looking forward to basileia, the kingdom into which he desired to enter and on which he had set his heart. There was only one way from thlipsis to basileia, from affliction to glory, and that was through hupomone, conquering endurance. Jesus said, “He who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13. Paul told his people, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” Acts 14:22). In 2 Timothy we read: “If we endure, we will also reign with him” (2:12).

Endurance can only be found in Christ. He endured to the end and enables us to do so.

Patmos was a small, rocky island about of about16 square miles in the Aegean Sea, some 40 miles southwest of Miletus. It was a penal settlement to which the Roman authorities sent offenders. It was sparsely settled, and according to Pliny, was treeless. This probably meant hard labor in the quarries.

According to some theologians, his banishment would have been “preceded by scourging, marked by perpetual fetters, scanty clothing, insufficient food, sleep on the bare ground, a dark prison, work under the lash of the military overseer” (quoted in Barclay, 41).

He was in the Alcatraz of Patmos, worshiping “on the Lord’s Day” (1:10). This is the first reference in literature and in the New Testament to “the Lord’s Day.” While some have seen it as a reference to the future “Day of the Lord,” most interpreters identify the phrase with Sunday. The early Christians worshiped Jesus on the first day of the week, the day of his resurrection (see John 20:19; Acts 20:7; 1Corinthians 16:2).

The Didache, the earliest compendium of Christian theology, identifies this phrase with Sunday as well (Didache 14). While the pagan world celebrated the first day of the week as Emperor’s Day, Christians worshiped Christ and not Caesar on the “Lord’s Day.”

Jesus in John’s vision

Then John heard a voice, like a trumpet, that told him to write what he would “see” (indicating the visionary nature of the book to follow), and send it to the seven churches (to be addressed specifically in Rev. 2—3). The seven churches are probably listed in the order in which they would be visited by a messenger with such letters.

Turning to see the one speaking, John saw the Christ for the first time in about sixty years. He could not go to his best Friend, Savior, and King, and so Jesus came to him.

The risen Lord was standing in the midst of “seven golden lampstands” (1:12), explained later as the seven churches of Revelation (1:20) and signifying the church’s work in sharing the light of God with the world (see Matthew 5:14-16). Jesus stands among his people, identifying with our mission and our struggles, still today.

John saw Jesus’ “robe reaching down to his feet” (Revelation 1:13). “Robe” translates the

Greek word also used in the Greek translation of Exodus 28:4 for the blue robe of the high priest. Jesus had been condemned by the high priest. Now he is the High Priest (see

Hebrews 4:14-16). The “golden sash around his chest” (Revelation 1:13) also points to the priesthood (see Exodus 39:29; Leviticus 8:7).

His white head and hair (1:14) signify wisdom and dignity (Leviticus 19:32; Proverbs 16:31). His flaming eyes symbolize judgment and vision (see Hebrews 12:29) and perhaps point to the burning bush where the Lord first revealed himself personally to Moses (Exodus 3).

Jesus’ bronze feet (Revelation 1:15a) show his strength, as bronze was the strongest metal known in the day. His loud voice (1:15b) suggests the power of a great waterfall and is symbolic of his authority over the entire universe. The seven stars in his right hand

(1:16a) are later identified as the “angels” of the seven churches—perhaps messengers to the churches, or even their pastors.

The “sharp double-edged sword” in his mouth points to the long and heavy sword used in military conflict, and to the powerful word of God (Hebrews 4:12). His brilliant face recalls the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:2) and Moses’ shining face (Exodus 34:29).

John understandably “fell at his feet as though dead” (Revelation 1:17a). For similar responses to the awesome glory of God, see Joshua 5:14; Ezekiel 1:28; Daniel 8:17; 10:15; Matthew 17:6; Acts 26:14. Now the same Lord who holds the churches touched John and calmed his fear (Revelation 1:17b). As Jesus holds death and Hades (1:18), so Jesus holds his servant.

Conclusion

From the introduction to Revelation and its founding vision we learn four relevant facts.

First, Jesus can do today everything he has ever done. He was, is, and is to come. If Jesus could raise Lazarus, he can raise us. If Jesus could save a drowning Peter, he can save us.

Whatever you find Jesus to do in the Scriptures, you can find him to do in the world today.

Second, Jesus possesses every ability we need today. He has conquered death, Hades, and prison (see 1:18). He stands among his churches, holding their leaders in his hand. He is our royal King, our High Priest, and our Savior. And all his power is available to his people.

Third, Jesus deserves our awe and reverence. Compare John’s response to him with our typical worship attitudes and experiences. When was the last time you were awed by God? That was the last time you worshiped him fully.

Last, Jesus comes to those who cannot come to him. John could not leave Patmos, and so Jesus came there. Nothing can keep our Lord from his people. Wherever you find yourself, he finds you.

What Happens to Those Who Never Hear?

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What Happens to Those Who Never Hear?

Matthew 5:13-16

James C. Denison

A friend recently sent me an essay titled “Ode to Plurals.” It goes like this.

We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes; but the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes. One fowl is a goose, and two are called geese, yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

If I speak of my foot and show you my feet, and I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet? If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth, why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth? We speak of a brother and also of brethren, but though we say mother, we never say methren.

There is no egg in eggplant, no ham in hamburger, and neither apple nor pine in pineapple. Boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And if teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught?

We recite at a play and play at a recital. We ship by truck but send cargo by ship. We have noses that run and feet that smell. We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway. Your house burns up as it burns down; you fill in a form by filling it out; an alarm goes off by going on. If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? And if Father is Pop, how come Mother’s not Mop?  

You probably hadn’t asked yourself any of those questions before today (and you probably won’t ever again). Here’s another question you may not have come to church wondering, since it doesn’t apply to you. But it is crucial to more than two billion people on our planet: what happens to those who never hear the gospel? How can God be fair in sending them to hell for rejecting a message they never heard? But if they can go to heaven without trusting in Christ, how can God be fair in sending Christians to sacrifice their time and even their lives to tell them?

All through our summer series we’ve been calling the church “the world’s only hope.” Today we find out why. And why the answer is the key to living with purpose, redeeming your days, and leaving a legacy that matters.

Wrong answers

More than two billion people on planet Earth have never heard the gospel. To them, the syllables “Jesus Christ” are like “mumblephump” to you–sounds with no significance. There are a billion more unevangelized people in the world today than there were a hundred years ago. Eighty percent of the Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus in the world have never met a Christian, much less heard the gospel. What happens to them?

Let’s begin with the wrong answers to our question. “Universalism” is the very popular idea that a loving God wouldn’t let anyone go to hell. “Christian universalism” says that Jesus’ death paid for all our sins, so everyone goes to heaven.

Except that the Bible says, “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15). And Jesus was explicit: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life…Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:16, 18).

“Middle knowledge” is the idea that God knows what we would do if we had a chance to hear the gospel. It is clear that God knows the future better than we know the present. But if he knows what the unevangelized would do if they heard the gospel, why tell them?

Natural revelation is the assertion that God judges us according to the light that we have. If that’s true, why give people any more light? Some say that if a person responds to the light he has, God will see to it that he receives the light of the gospel. If that’s true, why do I need to go?

“Determinism” is the claim that God chooses who will be saved and who will be lost, and makes sure that the “elect” hear the gospel. But what of the biblical promise that God does not want anyone to perish but all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9)? Or the assertion that God wants all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4)?

Jesus’ answer

So, what is the answer to the problem of the unevangelized? You are. “You are the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13); “you are the light of the world” (v. 14). “You” is plural–all of you, not just those who went to a seminar. “Are”–present tense, right now. “The”–the only salt and the only light in all the world.

Salt was the one way people in Jesus’ day could preserve their food. During their frequent crop failures and droughts, salt was crucial to life. The “lamp” to which he refers (v. 15) was a small clay oil lamp with a floating wick. It was their only means of lighting a dark room. Nothing could take the place of his salt and lamps in their world. Nor in ours.

That’s why Jesus called us to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19), to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8)–because those who do not believe in him are condemned (John 3:18). The only way to be in the “lamb’s book of life” is to trust in the Lamb, Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life–no one comes to the Father except by trusting in him (John 14:6).

But what happens to those we don’t tell? The Bible doesn’t really say, because we’re supposed to tell everyone.

Supernatural evangelism is one option. As God revealed himself to the prophets through dreams and visions; as he revealed his plans for Christ’s birth to Joseph and Mary through dreams and visions; as he revealed himself supernaturally to Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus Road and to John on Patmos; so he might reveal the gospel supernaturally to those the church does not reach. For instance, thousands of Muslims are reporting visions and dreams in which Jesus appears to them and calls them to himself. Nothing in Scripture says that God cannot do this.

Some theologians believe in after-death evangelism, whereby God gives those who die without hearing the gospel a second chance. This is a controversial idea, one I’m not comfortable adopting, but some very conservative scholars are.

I can find no indication in Scripture that a person can go to hell except for rejecting Jesus. Hell was created for the devil and his angels after their rebellion (Matthew 25:41). It would be unfair for God to send a person to hell for refusing an invitation he never received. At the same time, it would be unfair for God to send us sacrificially to give that invitation if it’s unnecessary.

I’ve wrestled with this problem all summer. It’s been the longest chapter of a book I’m finishing this month–69 pages in the first draft. As best I can tell, the only logical answer is that God somehow gets the message to those we do not. We find examples of such supernatural revelation all through Scripture, and not a single verse which tells us that God is not still revealing himself today.

Does that fact make me any less responsible for evangelizing those I can reach? No more than the fact that there are thousands of missionaries around the world sharing Christ with people I cannot reach. Having God as a missions partner is a privilege, not a problem. It is my responsibility to reach all I can. I’ll trust the rest to God. Rather than speculating about the unevangelized, I’m called to tell them. So are you.

How to use your influence

When we answer God’s call to be his salt and light for a decaying and dark world, we fulfill the highest and most joyful privilege in life. Nothing you and I do today will matter eternally but this. Spreading the gospel of Jesus, sharing his love with people who will spend eternity in hell unless they trust in him, knowing that God used us for his eternal glory–this is the greatest calling in life. How do we do this well?

First, connect with Christ. Only God can create spiritual salt and light. Jesus called himself “the light of the world” (John 8:12). The Bible says that he is “the true light that gives light to every man” (John 1:9).

We get our influence from him. We cannot convict of a sin or save a soul or change a life. Human words cannot transform human hearts. We are to reflect Jesus’ light; to share Jesus’ preserving and purifying salt with the world.

So we stay close to our Source. We begin the day by submitting it to the Holy Spirit, by meeting God in prayer and Scripture. We walk with him through the day, praying about our problems and opportunities. And we stay with his people. These are collective images–not a single grain of salt; not a single lamp but a city on a hill. As we cooperate with Christ, he uses us to reach the world he died to save.

Second, care about the lost. Salt is no good in the saltshaker. In fact, that’s how it became corrupted in Jesus’ day. They didn’t have pure sodium chloride. What they had came from the marshes around the Dead Sea. Left unused in a container, it would decompose and be good for nothing. What can you use salt to do if it doesn’t taste salty?

Light is no good under a basket. Having a flashlight is not much use if you never turn it on.

Do you care about those you know who do not know Jesus? They will spend eternity separated from him in hell, unless they accept the forgiveness and grace he alone can give them. When was the last time you asked God to use you to help someone know him personally?

Last, communicate God’s love. Compassion is not much good without action. Make sure that people know you follow Jesus. Your good life is not enough. They need to know that you follow Jesus, or your example will not lead them to him.

Put a Bible on your desk where people coming into your office can see it. Wear something which shows that you are a Christian. Since I’ve been wearing a cross ring, I’ve been more conscious of my witness to everyone who sees it. Sign “God bless you” on your restaurant bill. Tell hurting colleagues or neighbors that you’re praying for them.

And look for chances to explain the gospel to them. Forward an evangelistic website. Get a gospel tract to give them. Invite them to worship or a special event here. Tell them how you met the Lord. Ask God to help you connect with those you can influence, and know that he will.

Conclusion

Being called salt and light is the greatest compliment Jesus ever paid his people. We are indeed the world’s only hope. Not in ourselves, but in the story we have to tell. If you’ll connect every morning with Jesus, you’ll care for the lost as he does. You’ll ask him to help you communicate God’s love with them, and he will. And your decision to answer this call will be eternally significant and joyful, for you and all those God touches through you.

Last week I saw evidence of the eternal legacy left by those who choose to be salt and light in their decaying, dark world.

In the late 19th century, Rev. W. D. Bloys made his way to the Davis Mountains of West Texas, coming as a Presbyterian missionary to that tough and violent part of the Old West. This small, frail man rode from ranch to ranch, sharing Christ and winning the people to Christ. He brought a portable Communion kit with him to use in sharing the Lord’s Supper and worship. He won hundreds across that difficult land to Jesus. But none of them could go to a Sunday worship service. It was a day’s ride to the nearest town, and they couldn’t leave their ranches.

So in 1890, Dr. Bloys began what he called Campmeeting. He called the ranchers from all over the region to come together in a beautiful area called Skillman Grove. The second week in August, they came. They brought shovels and pickaxes to dig for water. They shot antelope to have food. They camped in tents and in the open air. They began Tuesday night and met through Sunday, four times every day for worship.

Dr. Bloys preached all four services, every day. For many of those cowboys, this was their only worship service of the entire year. When the Campmeeting grew too large for him to preach alone, he began inviting other ministers to preach as well–Baptist, Disciples of Christ, and Methodist.

Dr. Bloys died in 1917, and the Campmeeting soon took his name. George Truett was the Baptist preacher for a time. Last Sunday, the Bloys Campmeeting concluded its 118th meeting. I’ve been the Baptist preacher the last two years, and have three more years to go.

On Saturday night we honored the person who had been to the most Campmeetings–a woman named Tommy who was attending her 95th. More than a dozen other Campmeetings have begun all over the West, each following Dr. Bloys’ model. We will not know this side of eternity the significance of one small man’s decision to be salt and light in his world. He was slight of stature but great of faith. So can we be.

Who was Brother Bloys to you? Who will be grateful that you were Brother Bloys to them?

What Is Heaven Like?

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What is heaven like?

Dr. Jim Denison

When Ronald Reagan was running for Governor of California, a woman confronted him by his car one day and berated him severely. Finally she said, “I wouldn’t vote for you if you were St. Peter.” He smiled and replied, “No problem. If I were St. Peter, you wouldn’t be living in my district.”

What do we know about “St. Peter’s district”? We’re all fascinated with the subject. Last week we looked at hell, the place everyone wants to avoid; today let’s discuss the place everyone wants to see. Each of us has loved ones there; I assume we all would like to spend eternity there ourselves. So let’s ask the word of God to tell us about heaven. Then let’s ask why our topic matters, why heaven is important for us on earth. I don’t believe we can study a more motivating subject than this.

What is heaven?

What does God tell us about our eternal home? First, he tells us that heaven is real. It is certain–no figment of religious imagination, no superstition, no “opiate of the people” (to quote Karl Marx). He revealed it here to John: “I saw a new heaven and a new earth” (Revelation 21:1). According to God himself, heaven is real.

Second, heaven is a place (Rev. 21:1-2). John “saw” it. He didn’t feel it, or dream of it, or hear about it. He saw it, and we only see things which are. Heaven is a place.

Jesus said, “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2; emphasis mine). Where? “Up there”? Heaven is a place beyond our locating or understanding. Just as you couldn’t dig down into the earth and find hell, so you can’t rocket into the skies and find heaven. God is bigger, more awesome than that, and so is his heaven.

One of the Russian cosmonauts came back and said, “Some people say that God lives out there. I looked around, and I didn’t see any God out there.” Ruth Graham, Billy’s wife, says he looked in the wrong place. If he’d stepped outside the space ship without his space suit, he would have seen God very quickly.

Third, heaven is where God is (Rev. 21:3). John reveals, “Now the dwelling of God is with men.” When we get to heaven, we get to God. Psalm 11:4 is clear: “The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord is on his heavenly throne.” Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father, who art in heaven” (Matthew 6:9). Heaven is a real place, where God is. It’s being with God.

Fourth, heaven is a blessed place (Rev. 21:4). Because God is there, all that is perfect is there as well. There will be no death in heaven, thus no mourning or crying or pain. Our greatest enemy will trouble us no more. Think of that—no death, ever! Eternity with God in his blessed home.

It’s a place of incredible joy: “You will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand” (Ps. 16:11). It’s a place of reward: “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Mt. 6:20). And this reward is eternal: “An inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade–kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:4). Thus, heaven is a celebration, a party: “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God” (Luke 14:15).

We will reign in heaven: “To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne” (Rev. 3:21). In heaven, we’re royalty! We’ll have perfect understanding there: “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

Revelation 21 summarizes the blessedness of heaven: “I am making all things new” (v. 5). No more Fall, nor sin, or death, or disease, or disaster; no more earthquakes or tests or grades; no more. Everything new. No wonder Jesus called heaven “paradise” (Lk. 23:43). It is that, a place of blessing beyond all description: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what the Lord has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9; cf. Isaiah 64:4).

What will we be like?

First, let’s set aside a popular misconception: in heaven, people are not angels. God created angels before he created us, and we are completely different. When Jesus said that people in heaven are “like the angels” (Lk. 20:36), he meant that we never die, like them. Not that we have wings and a halo. We are not angels.

But we do receive heavenly bodies: “The perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality” (1 Cor. 15:53). So, will we recognize each other? Will we know each other. Yes, for these reasons. Jesus said that in heaven we will take our places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Mt. 8:11); on the Mount of Transfiguration the disciples easily recognized Moses and Elijah (Mt. 17:3-4); we will “know as we are known” (1 Cor. 13:12).

I like what one preacher said: “We won’t really know each other until we get to heaven!”

So, what is heaven? Most of all, it’s home. A home of eternal blessing, reward, and bliss, better than the best earth can offer us. John Owen, the great Puritan, lay on his deathbed. His secretary wrote to a friend in his name, “I am still in the land of the living.” Owen saw it and said, “Change that and say, ‘I am yet in the land of the dying, but I hope soon to be in the land of the living.'” So can we all be.

Why does heaven matter?

Time magazine once published an extensive article entitled “Does heaven exist?” (Time, March 24, 1997). The writer documents three facts: preachers preach on heaven much less than in the past; while a large majority of people believe that it exists, most have no real idea what it is; and almost nobody thinks its existence changes the way we live here. Theologian David Wells is quoted as saying, “I don’t think heaven is even a blip on the Christian screen, from one end of the denominational spectrum to the other.”

How often did you think about heaven this week? Did its existence change anything you did? Why should it? For this simple reason: when we lose heaven we lose the transcendent. We lose our sense that there is something more than this world, and we who live in it. And that is always a bad decision, for several reasons.

First, if we don’t live for heaven we will live for this world, for it is all there is. And that, the Bible says we must not do. Listen to 1 John 2:15-17: “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”

Paul says, “We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18). He warns us: “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:1-3). The apostle summarizes for us: “Our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20).

Why are we not to love this world? Because it is not enough. It is never enough. When an assistant asked a tycoon how much money is enough, he said: “Just a little more.” Our new house seems wonderful, then they build others by us which are larger and better. Our new car is great, until the next model year arrives. Straight A’s are super, but there’s always the next semester. CEO is outstanding, but the more we succeed the more we must succeed to stay there.

If you don’t live for heaven, you must live for earth. You trade eternity for something which could be gone today. And that’s a mistake.

Second, if we don’t live for heaven we must rely on ourselves, for God will not help us love this world. We are on our own.

Sociologist James Davison Hunter surveyed the titles released by the six largest evangelical publishers in America. He discovered that 87.5% of all books concerned self-help issues—pop psychology, how to’s, self therapy. Only 12.5% dealt with God, theology, Scripture, or eternity. When we don’t live for heaven, God cannot help us live on earth.

Third, if we don’t live for heaven we lose any sense of direction, purpose or values. If this world is all there is, who is to say what’s right and what’s wrong? Everything becomes relative. And so it has.

Ninety three persent of all Americans say they are their only moral determiner. We must tolerate all beliefs as if they were our own. No absolutes exist—we’re absolutely sure of it. In 1907 P. T. Forsyth made a prophetic statement: “If within us we find nothing over us we succumb to what is around us.”

Remember the time in Alice in Wonderland where Alice meets the Cheshire Cat and anxiously asks, “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” says the Cat. “I don’t much care where,” says Alice. “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” says the Cat. And the serpent with him.

Last, when we don’t live for heaven we have no real hope when hard times come. When there is no heaven, we have an intense need for everything to be right on earth. We can have no suffering, no pain, no distress here—we have an “inalienable right to happiness,” we’re told. But not by the Bible. Jesus said, “In this world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33). So long as this life is only a trip to a destination, that’s o.k. But when it’s the destination, then all is lost.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago describes the terrors of a Soviet concentration camp. He begins with the day of the arrest and the inquisition which comes before the sentence. He describes the tortures experienced by the unlucky ones. Endless, brutal tortures that break down all kinds of men and women—except for the few who cannot be broken. Those few are ready to die. The torturers have no power over them. As much as they enjoy living, they believe there is something more important than life. They’re right.

Conclusion

So, are you living for heaven? How do you?

We live for heaven when we care more for people’s eternal souls than for their temporal approval; when we use our money to build God’s kingdom more than our own; when we ask God to use our suffering more than to solve it; when we remember that this life is the car, not the house, the road, not the destination; when we make sure every day that we’re ready to die. Are you living for heaven?

If you are, one day you’ll be so glad you did. The poet said it well:

Think of stepping on shore

and finding it heaven,

Of taking hold of a hand

and finding it God’s

Of breathing new air

and finding it celestial,

Of feeling invigorated

and finding it immortality;

Of passing through a tempest

to a new and unknown ground,

Of waking up well and happy

and finding it home.

Think of it. Would you?