When Your Faith is On Trial

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When Your Faith is On Trial

Studies in the Book of Revelation

Dr. Jim Denison

Revelation 2:18-29

Thyatira was located 45 miles due east of Pergamum. Jesus wrote his longest letter to the smallest of the seven cities, proof of the significance of the issues confronting his followers there. Her ruins today are not remarkable, but her challenge to Christian fidelity was of vital importance.

Thyatira possessed strategic military significance. It lay at the mouth of a long valley connecting the Hermus and Caicus rivers. Enemies of the empire would have to pass by Thyatira on their way to attack Pergamum. And so the city would defend the capitol of the region, and at least delay attackers until the main city was ready.

The city was not a center of religious importance. She housed temples to Artemis and Apollo, but they were not famous. Neither did she possess a special center for emperor worship. She did own the shrine of Sambathe, a kind of ancient fortune-teller whom many came to consult for guidance.

Her chief importance was as a commercial center. The roads traveling through Thyatira brought to her doors the commerce of half the world. The city was known for its linen, apparel, leather work, and tanning. It was also a great center for wool trade and the dye industry. The city was especially noted for its production of purple cloth (from the madder root, which grew abundantly in the region). It is no surprise that Lydia, a “dealer in purple cloth,” came from Thyatira (Acts 16.14).

Labor unions were important in Thyatira, and the city possessed more of them than any other town in the region. This is where the problem Jesus addresses originated. No merchants or craftsmen in Thyatira could prosper unless they joined a guild or trade union.

Each trade union had its own patron god. Whenever the union members met, they shared a common meal which began and ended with a wine offering to this god. The meat at the meal would usually be from an animal sacrificed to the pagan god as well. They would burn a few hairs from the animal on the altar and then barbecue the rest as their supper. After the meal, the meeting would often become a drunken orgy.

Now imagine being a Christian in Thyatira. If you refuse membership in your union, you will go bankrupt or worse. Your family could literally starve to death. But if you join your union, you must attend its mandatory meetings, where you will be required to eat the food and drink the wine offered to idols, and then to join in the corruption which follows.

The leader named “Jezebel”

To make matters even worse, there was a leader in the church at Thyatira seeking to convince members to make exactly this compromise–a woman whom Jesus assigns the name “Jezebel.” This person encouraged the believers to join the trade unions and participate in the activities, all the while maintaining their faith in Jesus.

The original Jezebel was the conniving daughter of the king of Sidon. She married King Ahab and became the queen of Israel (1 Kings 16.31). She soon brought Baal, Astarte, and other assorted pagan deities into her new kingdom, and led the people in their worship. She defiled the nation and earned an everlasting reputation for corruption. Now, at Thyatira, her first-century counterpart is doing the same thing.

We know that she “calls herself a prophetess,” an office of great influence (v. 20). A female prophet was not nearly as unusual in the first century as it is for us. Philip the evangelist had four unmarried daughters who prophesied (Acts 21.9); Luke speaks of Anna the prophetess (Luke 2.36), and Paul assumes that women will prophesy in the Corinthian church (1 Corinthians 11.5).

The Old Testament describes Miriam, Huldah, and Deborah as prophetesses as well. In the New Testament context a prophetess would cite the inspiration and leading of the Holy Spirit in whatever she said. The fact that she could claim divine authority in encouraging compromise would be very alluring to these Christians.

Furthermore, this Jezebel may have had an even more influential position in the church, quite possibly as the pastor’s wife. The “angel” in Thyatira receives this letter (v. 18), and “angel” can signify the “messenger” or “preacher” of the church. “Woman” (v. 20) can be translated “wife.” In fact, some ancient manuscripts inserted “your” before the word, thus “your wife Jezebel.” It’s possible that this Jezebel is not only a prophetess herself, but married to the prophet of the church as well.

Her sin is simple: “By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols” (v. 20). She is misleading the followers of Jesus in Thyatira, encouraging them to compromise with the morality of their trade unions and culture.

She has been warned: “I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling” (v. 21). Perhaps Jesus has already sent earlier letters to the church, or preachers to address the situation, or simply the strong conviction of the Holy Spirit. But she has refused to repent of her compromising leadership and immorality.

So the consequences will be severe: “I will cast her on a bed of suffering” (v. 22a). Here Jesus could refer to the “beds” or banquet couches used at Thyatira in their idolatrous feasts, or he could be using a Jewish expression for becoming ill.

What’s more, “I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways” (v. 22b). Her followers may be committing adultery physically, or spiritually. Both lead to the same punishment: they will “suffer intensely.” This phrase translates a Greek idiom for the crushing stone which ground wheat into flour and grapes into wine.

In addition, “I will strike her children dead” (v. 23a). These could be the physical children of her sexual adultery, or more likely, the spiritual children of her moral compromise. The Greek is “kill with death,’ an idiom for pestilence (cf. Rev 6.8).

The sentence is clear: Jezebel and her followers will suffer intensely, unless they repent now; “Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds” (v. 23b).

Help for hurting believers

If his people will refuse such compromise and “hold on to what you have until I come” (v. 25), the rewards will be worth far more than their cost. Here we find the first of several references to the Second Coming in these letters.

Christians in the smallest church in Revelation will have “authority over the nations” (v. 26). Here Jesus quotes Psalm 2.9, a forecast and picture of the triumphant work of the conquering Messiah (v. 27). With him, we will rule with an iron scepter and dash the enemy to pieces like broken pieces of clay. The local god of Thyatira was pictured with an iron staff on his shoulder. But those faithful to Jesus will have the real iron scepter of power from God himself.

He will also give us the “morning star” (v. 28). This could be the promise of resurrection, an indication that just as the morning star reigns over the darkness of night, so Christians will reign over the darkness of death. Thyatira may put these believers to death physically, but they will never die spiritually.

This could signify hope in hard times as well, since the morning star shines brightest in the hour preceding the dawn The symbol could refer to Jesus’ return, as this promise is like the morning star rising in our hearts (2 Peter 1.19).

Jesus could be referring to the planet Venus, the actual morning star in the sky. From Babylonian times Venus was a symbol of sovereignty; particularly, it was the symbol of victory to Romans. The Roman generals erected temples to Venus after their victories, and Caesar’s legions carried the sign of Venus on their standards.

But the best interpretation of this symbol is Jesus’ promise at the end of Revelation: “I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the bright Morning Star” (Revelation 22.16). Those who are faithful to Jesus, whatever the cost, can claim the greatest hope of all: we will know Jesus himself.

The church at Thyatira illustrates the fact that compromise always grows. We find here also the principle that compromise ruins our witness and dilutes the power of God. Last, we learn from Thyatira that compromise will be punished and faithfulness rewarded.

Where Did Cain Get His Wife?

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Where Did Cain Get His Wife?

Genesis 4:17-18

Dr. Jim Denison

Today we begin our summer preaching series, titled “Hard Questions in the Bible.” We’ll begin at Genesis and go through God’s word, asking such questions as What does God think of the Jews?, Did Jesus go to Hell?, and What is the unpardonable sin? We begin today with the issue of creation and evolution and the question, Where did Cain get his wife?

What do we know about God’s creation? And how does that knowledge apply to our lives, and to the country whose birthday we celebrate this week?

Thank God for you

The Bible starts at the start: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). So we learn that God existed before existence came to be. He made everything else that is. This is the bold and consistent claim of his word.

How did he do it?

Let’s get before us immediately the fact that Genesis does not intend to be a science book. In fact, science as a discipline is a recent invention; 90% of all the scientists who have ever lived are alive right now. Genesis is not speculative but practical. It does not tell us all we want to know about the world, but all we need to know about our place in it.

So Genesis says that God made the universe in six “days.” The word “day” translates “yom,” a Hebrew term for a defined period of time, not necessary a 24-hour day marked by sunrise and sunset. In fact, God didn’t create the sun and the moon until the fourth “day.” Some of the ancient rabbis thought Genesis meant that God did this in six days, others in six creative acts of undetermined time in between, still others in six “eons” or “ages.” We don’t know, because we don’t need to know.

When did he do it? Genesis doesn’t say, because the answer has no practical consequence in our lives. Some add up the biblical genealogies and say that God made the world in the year 4004 B.C., regardless of the evidence of geology and astrophysics. Others say the universe is billions of years old. Would it change your life to know? That’s why Genesis doesn’t say.

Did he use evolution to do it? Let’s define some terms.

Charles Darwin’s principles of evolution are really very simple: creatures procreate more offspring than can survive; the offspring possess enormous variety; there is a struggle for existence due to overpopulation; because of their variety, some of the offspring are more fit for survival than others; these capacities for survival become naturally selected and inherited.

As an example, a hundred years ago there were small-winged moths and large-winged moths in England. The small-winged moths couldn’t fly above the pollution generated by the factories of the day, and so died out. The large-winged moths could, and survived. Today there are only large-winged moths in England.

This is an example of what’s known as “microevolution”—adaptation within a biological set, genus, or species. People are taller and less hairy than they used to be. Horses are larger; most dogs are smaller. Nothing in the Bible teaches that God didn’t make the world so that it would adapt to its changing environment.

The difficulty arises when Darwin’s principles are applied across biblical categories—from apes to men, from fish to birds, and so on. This is called “macroevolution.” And it leads to problems, both with evidence and with Scripture.

The fossil record indicates no so-called “missing links” from one biblical category to another. The old Neanderthal Man, Piltdown Man, and so on are no longer representative of the best theories. Darwin said the fossil record would have to demonstrate increasingly simple organisms as we move backward in time, but it does not.

The paleontological record shows us adaptation within biblical categories, but not across them. Advocates for macroevolution now posit “spontaneous mutatory jumps” across the biblical categories, but without empirical evidence for their assumptions.

Such a theory is, of course, contrary to the clear record of Genesis. These chapters are not written as myths or legends or symbols, but as straight-forward narrative.

So it is clear that both macroevolution and biblical creationism are built on faith principles. I believe that both God’s revealed word and the best empirical research confirm the fact that God created us. And I rejoice in this fact.

Know this: you are here on purpose. You are not an accident, or the coincidence of random chaos. God made you, intentionally, for a reason.

Your body consists of 206 bones, wrapped with 650 muscles and seven miles of nerve fibers. Your eyes possess 100 million receptors, and your ears 24,000 fibers. Your heart beats 36,000,000 times every year and sends blood pumping through more than 60,000 miles of veins, arteries, and tubing.

Your brain contains 13,000,000,000 nerve cells. Picture the possible number of interconnections in your brain this way: the number of atoms in the universe is 1 followed by 100 zeroes. The number of different patterns possible in your brain is 1 followed by over 800 zeros. And your unconscious brain database, that which your unconscious brain knows and stores, outweighs your conscious brain on an order exceeding 10 million to one.

I liked what one brain and mind expert said: “If the human brain were simple enough to understand, we would be too simple to understand it.” But God does. And he made yours.

Thank God for your country

So rejoice today that God made you. And that he made everything else as well.

The first law of thermodynamics states that matter and energy can be neither created nor destroyed. Except by God, we add.

So glance at the matter and energy God has made. The Wall Street Journal recently carried an article describing the complexity of this universe. Picture a wall with hundreds of dials, it said. Each must be at exactly the right setting for carbon-based life to emerge in a suburb of the Milky Way. If the cosmic expansion of the universe had first been a fraction less, for instance, it would have imploded billions of years ago; a fraction more intense, and galaxies would not have formed. The odds of our universe’s existence and design occurring by random chance would not be accepted by any gambler, anywhere on earth.

And what an amazing world God has made. Picture a comet for a moment. Its vapor trail can be more than 10,000 miles long. But capture and bottle that “tail,” and you discover that the amount of vapor actually present in your bottle is less than one cubic inch of space.

Yet many see such phenomenal design without looking for its Designer.

Robert Ingersoll was a famous atheist. He once visited the great preacher, Henry Ward Beecher, who took him into his study. There Mr. Ingersoll noticed a magnificent contour globe of the world, with mountains and valleys painted with remarkable detail and beauty. He said, “Pastor Beecher, that is a beautiful work of art. Who made it for you?”

Knowing Ingersoll’s denial of God’s creation, Dr. Beecher replied, “Oh, nobody, it just happened.”

No, it didn’t. Your world didn’t just happen. You didn’t just happen. And your nation didn’t just happen.

Our nation’s birth is the result of the greatest sacrifices, the highest courage, the most passionate commitment to freedom and liberty. Thomas Paine captured the spirit best. This soldier in Washington’s army wrote a pamphlet to tell Americans what they needed to know about their army and their times.

Here are some of his words: “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his Country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.”

On December 25, 1776, as General Washington was preparing for one of the most decisive attacks of the entire war, he had Mr. Paine’s article read to all his troops. Most of his troops were half clothed and barefooted, charging in the worst possible weather, but they won. Over the next few months more than 100,000 copies of Mr. Paine’s words were printed and distributed across the infant nation. God used them to inspire our forefathers to greatness.

And miraculous events accompanied their courage. The unexpected and dense fog in August of 1776 which covered Washington’s retreat from annihilation on Long Island; the sudden freeze on January 3, 1777 which allowed Washington’s troops to travel to safety across otherwise muddy and impassable roads; the British riflemen who had Washington in their sights on September 10, 1777, but didn’t know who he was and didn’t fire; the storm of October 16, 1781 which prevented Cornwallis from retreating at Yorktown and effectively ended the War.

So we thank God this week for the courage he gave to men and women willing to fight vastly superior forces and sacrifice their lives for our nation. We thank him for the victory he gave to their armies. We thank him for the wisdom and insight he gave to their leaders.

And we pray for our country to worship its creator.

Only 36% of Americans say they have accepted Christ as their personal Savior. Some 173 million Americans are spiritually lost, 100,000 of whom live within three miles of this Sanctuary.

And so we pray for our country to come to Christ. The greatest way we can serve America is to pray for Americans.

Conclusion

Our title asks, Where did Cain get his wife? The author of Genesis would answer, what difference does it make? Let Genesis be what it is intended to be: not a scientific textbook but God’s revelation of his creative power and design in our world and our lives.

Perhaps God made other people, and Cain married one of them. Perhaps Cain married his sister, a necessity if no other women existed. How exactly did it happen? How long ago did God make the world? In how many “days?” By what method?

Here’s the answer: God made you. God made your world. God made your nation. And God wants us, and our country, to trust in him and to worship him today.

Will you trust God today with your greatest problem, whatever it might be? Will you give that issue in your life to your Creator?

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse was right: God is as big as your faith. He is as big as your faith will allow him to be. How big will you let your Creator be in your life today? Will you give to him the specific problem for which you need his help the most?

And will you worship your Creator with every day you live?

President Theodore Roosevelt and his good friend, the naturalist William Beebe, would on occasion stay at Roosevelt’s family home. They would go out on its lawn at night. They would search the skies until they found the faint spot of light behind the lower left-hand corner of the Great Square of Pegasus. Then they would remember together the words:

That is the Spiral Galaxy in Andromeda.It is as large as our Milky Way.It is one of a hundred million galaxies.It consists of one hundred billion suns,Each larger than our sun.

Then President Roosevelt would grin at Mr. Beebe and say, “Now I think we are small enough. Let’s go to bed.”

Are we small enough to go to God?

Where Everybody Knows Your Name

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Where Everybody Knows Your Name

Acts 4:32-37

Dr. Jim Denison

It was his first day on the job. He was a new clerk in the produce department of a super market. A lady came up to him and said that she wanted to buy half a head of lettuce. He tried to talk her out of this, but she persisted. Finally he said, “I’ll have to go back and talk to the manager.”

He went to the rear of the store, not noticing that the woman was walking right behind him. He found the manager and said, “There’s some stupid old bag out there who wants to buy half a head of lettuce. What should I tell her?”

Seeing the horrified look on the face of the manager, he turned around and, seeing the woman, added, “And this nice lady wants to buy the other half of the head of lettuce. Will that be all right?” The relieved manager said, “That would be fine.”

Later in the day, he congratulated the boy on his quick thinking. Then he asked, “Where are you from, son?” The boy said, “I’m from Toronto, Canada, the home of beautiful hockey players and ugly women.” The manager looked at him and said, “My wife is from Toronto.” The boy said, “Oh, what team did she play for?”

Don’t you wish we could solve our relational problems that easily? Unfortunately, most of us cannot. Loneliness is an epidemic in our country today. We see it in the alcohol and drug abuse rates; the suicides; the fact that the number of unmarried couples living together has increased 800% in recent years; the popularity of New Age and alternative spiritual movements; the mushrooming number of chat rooms on the Internet. We are lonely people.

Remember the television show Cheers, about a bar in Boston? The opening lyrics had it right: You want to be where you can see, our troubles are all the same. You want to be where everybody knows your name. Where you can belong, no matter who you are or what you’ve done. Where everybody knows your name. Wouldn’t you like to be part of a group like that? Who wouldn’t?

Outside of television, there’s only one such place. Luke, the author of our text, would like to take us there. Let’s go with him and see if what we discover helps us today.

Where everybody knows your name and your need

As we go in, Luke makes an amazing claim for these people: “All the believers are one in heart and mind” (v. 32a). “All the believers,” he says. Now remember, there are more than 5,000 in this church. And they’ve come from everywhere—Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free, male and female, crossing every barrier of prejudice known to their world. If we were to walk in on a crowd of Jews and Arabs, blacks and KKK members, Yugoslavians and Albanians, we’d be in the same room.

Yet, he says they are “one in heart and mind.” United both in their emotions and their ideas, their feelings and their actions. Aristotle defined friendship as “a single soul dwelling in two bodies.” This is Luke’s claim for these people, here.

It sounds impossible, doesn’t it? But Luke proves it. “No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own” (v. 32b). “No one” is emphatic in Luke’s Greek: there are no exceptions to this rule. “They shared everything that they had” (v. 32c). Jews and Gentiles would not share the same food or even the same room; now they share everything.

The Greeks had a very common proverb: “Friends have all things in common.” These people fulfilled their ideal. And with this result: “There were no needy persons among them” (v. 34). None.

Here’s how this program of congregational ministry worked: People in the church were constantly on the lookout for others in need, so they might report this to the congregational leaders.

When such reports came in, the wealthier members of the church voluntarily responded. This was no Social Security tax or required contribution. On their own, they sold lands or houses and brought the entire amount of the sale to the church. This was an act of Christian charity and grace. The Roman Empire would certainly give them no tax advantages for their contributions.

They placed their money at the feet of the apostles, an act of legal transfer akin to signing over your title today. Then the church utilized a massive aid distribution system, to get the money to those in need. And this happened continually, not just occasionally or during times of special emphasis. This was a regular part of their congregational life.

Now, Luke knows we might be skeptical of such a description. So he invites us to meet someone whose credentials we can check: Joseph, named Barnabas. He’s taking part in this ministry, at enormous personal sacrifice. He is a Levite, thus a member of the priestly tribe of Israel, part of their aristocracy. This means that by law he can own no land in Palestine, for God had decreed that they were to live off the good will of the nation (Numbers 18:20; Deut. 10:9).

But he’s become a Christian, forfeiting all such support. He is something like a pastor living in a parsonage who leaves the church and has no home. His family has some property on the island of Cyprus, where he’s from. It is expensive land, rich and productive, and valuable for tourism as well—something like owning part of Honolulu. It is likely his only financial support and sustenance. But he sells it anyway, brings the money, and transfers it to the church for those in even greater need than himself.

As a result, he must work to support himself for the rest of his life and ministry (cf. 1 Cor. 9:6). He goes from personal wealth to poverty overnight. For this, the apostles nickname him “Barnabas,” which means “Son of Encouragement.” As indeed he is.

But he’s just one example of a church which cares about its people, and proves it by meeting their needs with sacrificial love. Is it any wonder that the community was impressed? That “the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus” with “great power,” and that “much grace was upon them all” (v. 33)?

Here’s a place where everybody knows your name, and even more, your need. And cares about you anyway. Wouldn’t you like to be part of a group like this?

Such a place still exists

Is it still possible, today? Can the church still be a place where everybody knows your name, and your need, and loves you as you are?

Gordon MacDonald was the well-known pastor of Grace Chapel in Boston when he had an affair. It was a single, sinful act. He confessed it immediately to his wife and to his church, and resigned from the ministry. But neither his wife nor his church would give up on him. They put him through years of counseling, accountability, and restoration. At the end, in 1988, they held a “Service of Restoration,” encouraging his return to ministry.

Eventually another church asked him to be their pastor. He wouldn’t go, but they said, “We’re broken people, and you’re a broken person, and we need each other.” And then, years later, Grace Chapel asked him to return as their pastor. That’s where he serves today. At a place where people know his name, and his need, and love him anyway. Is it any wonder that Grace Chapel is one of the most effective congregations in America?

The Brooklyn Tabernacle Church is a Book of Acts kind of congregation, made up of rich and poor, blacks, white, Latinos, people from everywhere. They are truly a remarkable family of faith.

Our church in Atlanta asked its pastor and some of the choir to lead in worship on a Friday night. During the evening they showed a taped interview with a man named Calvin. He was a drug user and dealer, living in a doghouse in an abandoned lot. One Tuesday night his wife went to the church to pray for her husband. Word got to the pastor, Jim Cymbala, and he asked all 2,000 present to pray for Calvin.

As he told the story on tape, Calvin felt compelled to climb out of that doghouse and get on a bus. When he got off, he was at the church. He walked in and heard 2,000 calling his name to God. That night he was saved and delivered.

Then the taped interview ended, and Calvin walked out on our worship platform and sang a solo. I’ll never forget it. All because of a church which knew his name, and his need, and loved him anyway. Is it any wonder Brooklyn Tabernacle has grown from 25 members to 7,000, with 23 missions and ministries around the world?

Saturday night’s evening news carried the story of an elderly couple in Albania, living in a small flat on their monthly pension checks, who have taken in twenty-six refugees from Kosovo. The refugees are Muslim, the elderly couple is Christian. When asked why they did this, the man said through the interpreter, “These people are our brothers. How could we turn them away?” One of the Muslim refugees called the man and woman “Our angels from God.”

He was right. Because God knows your name, and your need, and loves you as you are.

Conclusion

My brothers and sisters, it is absolutely crucial that we be that kind of place, in every way possible. This is what people are looking for today: someone who will know them, and accept them, and care for them. While they may have no interest in our preaching or our programs, they care whether our people care about them.

When we are a family to each other, and to our city, we can take Jesus’ love to hurting people everywhere. We can continue to plant the seeds of God’s love and word in the hearts of people we know, across this community. If we are a family like Luke’s church was a family.

How can we be even more a family like this? Some of us can be Barnabas today. You have money, or time, or abilities someone else needs. Ask God to show you how to invest them, to show you who needs them. Don’t claim that your possessions are your own, but share everything you have (v. 32). Find someone who needs you. You won’t have to look far.

And some of us need a Barnabas today. It’s hard enough to give sacrificially; it’s even harder to accept sacrifice from someone else. To be honest and authentic enough to admit that we’re hurting, that we’re lonely, that we are in need. Take the risk this week. Call someone you think you can trust, and be vulnerable. Ask someone else to be your Barnabas for a while.

We are the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27). Therefore, God’s usual way of meeting our needs is through each other. And this is his usual way of meeting the needs of the people who live all around us, of proving his love to them.

Perhaps you need a spiritual Barnabas right now. Maybe you feel lost, or alone, or unwanted. You are wanted here. We are the family of God, the body of Christ. We will accept you, no matter where you’re from or what you’ve done—you have my word on it. We will love you, and help you. Just as God loves us, and helps us. Will you let us?

Milton Cunningham is the retiring chaplain at Baylor University, and a dear friend. Many years ago, when he was pastor of Westbury Baptist Church in Houston, he learned of a couple who wanted to join their church, but wished to speak with the pastor first. So he sat down with them.

The man began telling Dr. Cunningham the Sundays they’d be in attendance, the money they’d be giving, and the committees they’d serve on, and those they would not. Dr. Cunningham let him talk a while, then said, “I’m not sure you’d be happy at our church.” The man was shocked, as you might imagine, and asked, “Are you saying we can’t join your church?”

“No,” said Milton, “but we are a people who need each other. We get together on Sunday to find enough strength to make it to Wednesday, then we get together on Wednesday to find enough strength to make it to Sunday. We need each other. It doesn’t seem that you need us.”

The wife, who had been silent throughout, pushed her husband in the side and said, “Tell him.” Tears came to the man’s eyes as he said, “Pastor, you don’t know how wrong you are. Our daughter-in-law just left with our only grandchild, and we don’t know if we’ll ever see them again. Our family’s falling apart—everything’s gone wrong. You don’t know how wrong you are.”

Dr. Cunningham said, “On second thought, maybe you would be happy at our church.” I make you the same promise here, today.

Where Is God When It Hurts

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Where Is God When It Hurts?

1 John 4:7-12

Dr. Jim Denison

So you think you had a bad day recently. This true account was taken from a recent Florida newspaper.

A man was working on his motorcycle on his patio when it slipped into gear and dragged him through the glass patio door and into the dining room. He lay bleeding on the floor as his wife called the paramedics, who transported him to the hospital for stitches. Then she went into the living room, pushed the motorcycle back outside, and used some paper towels to blot up the gasoline which had spilled onto the floor. She threw the towels into the toilet and went to the hospital to check on her husband.

His stitches done, he was released to go home. As he looked at his shattered patio door and damaged motorcycle, he became despondent, went into the bathroom, sat down and smoked a cigarette. He then threw it into the toilet where the gasoline-soaked towels were. It exploded, blowing his trousers away and burning his backside. His wife again ran to the telephone to call for an ambulance.

The same paramedics came to the house again. As they were carrying him on their stretcher down the stairs to the ambulance, one of them asked his wife how he had burned himself. She told him, and the paramedics started laughing so hard one of them tipped the stretcher and dumped the man out. He fell down the remaining steps and broke his arm.

Now, how was your week?

We begin today a series on problems with God, starting with the hardest question of all: where is God when it hurts? Christians believe three facts: God is all powerful, God is all loving, and evil exists. If you’re hurting today or care about someone who is, you know the third statement is true. But what of the others? Where is God when life hurts?

God is love

One answer to this problem is to deny the first statement, the assertion that God is all-powerful. If God could not prevent this problem, or heal this disease, or change these circumstances, then we should not blame him for them. Across the years many have unfortunately chosen this approach.

Here’s an example. Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote the bestseller, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, out of the suffering and death of his own child. In his book, the rabbi states flatly that God cannot change the laws of nature for our benefit, and will not answer our prayers for the impossible or the unnatural. The rabbi has chosen a limited God as his approach to suffering in the world. Many would agree.

But most of us would not. I am assuming today that most of us know that God, if he is indeed God, is all-powerful. The God who created the universe out of nothing clearly has the power to intervene in that universe. If I can create a watch, I can change its time. If I can create a car, I can drive it.

We more commonly question God’s love, don’t we? If God really loved us, he wouldn’t allow this problem or this pain, we say.

Now our text is clear: “God is love.” The text does not say, “God loves,” for we love and we are not God. It does not say “love is God,” for God is more than a loving feeling or action. The Bible says that God is love.

Love is his nature, his very being. You and I sometimes do loving things—God is love. God loves in action because he is love in essence. Love is who God is, the Bible says.

Do you believe that it’s really true?

Many did not believe these words when John wrote them. The Greeks of his century pictured their gods living on Mt. Olympus, removed from our cares and problems, throwing thunderbolts at us on a whim.

The Roman Stoics of his day saw the gods as fates. They said that we are dogs tied to carts. We can run with the cart or be dragged with the cart, but we’re going with the cart. Apathy—literally “no feeling”—is the best way to deal with gods who do not feel.

Some today struggle to picture God as love. They know that Jesus loves us, but are not so sure that God the Father does. I still remember the preacher’s story about the dying woman, with her husband on one side and their estranged son on the other. In her last act, she took the hand of the father and the hand of the child, brought them together, and died. And so the preacher said that Jesus on the cross took the hand of the wrathful Father and sinful humanity and brought them together in his death. But the Bible says, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son” (John 3:16).

Perhaps you struggle with this assertion that God is love. If God really loved you, he wouldn’t let you hurt like this, would he? He wouldn’t allow a plane to crash, killing ten people associated with a college basketball team; he wouldn’t permit an earthquake to kill multiplied thousands; he wouldn’t countenance cancer or heart disease, or rape or drug abuse, or poverty or pain. Or so it seems.

How do we know that God really loves us in the face of hard times? This must have been a question John anticipated in writing this letter as well, for he answers it immediately: “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (vs. 9-10).

He sent his Son as our sacrifice (v. 10). He died in our place, for our sins, to prove his love.

He sent him as our Savior: “We have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world” (v. 14). He sent him to save us from our sins and give us eternal life in heaven, to prove his love.

And he sent him as our security, to guarantee us this life with his Father: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13).

I first preached on this text on March 16, 1986, the Sunday after Ryan was born. I only thought I did not understand God’s love in sending his Son to die for us. Then God gave Janet and me a son. Now I know that I don’t understand how God could do this for you and for me. But he did. Our Father proved his love by sending his Son for us.

And he is love, no matter what our circumstances might be. No conditions are placed on this statement in Scripture, or in life. No matter what is happening to you, God loves you. It probably doesn’t seem or feel that way, but it’s so.

Charles Spurgeon, the Baptist preaching genius, was out for a walk in the country one afternoon. He came upon a farmer’s barn with a weathervane on the roof, and saw the words at the top of the weathervane, “God is love.” Just then the farmer came out, and Spurgeon asked him, “Do you mean to say that God’s love is as changing as the weather?” The farmer smiled and said, “Not at all. I mean to say that no matter where the winds blow, God is love.”

Help for our minds

So why would a loving God allow life to hurt so much? Here in brief is the collected wisdom of theologians and other scholars on the subject. Here’s help for our minds. Then we’ll seek help for our hearts.

First, some suffering comes from the natural order. God created a world which operates according to natural laws. As one theologian observed, the man who jumps from a fifty-story window doesn’t break the law of gravity—he illustrates it. God could not give us fire without the possibility that we might be burned, or water without the possibility that we might drown, or the ability to produce cars without the possibility that they might crash. Some suffering results from the natural world.

Second, some suffering comes from the enemy. Scripture says that Satan is a “roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Lions only roar when they are about to attack. Not all pain comes from him, but some does.

Third, some suffering results from our mistakes. Not all, but some. When I don’t study for a test and fail it, I shouldn’t blame the teacher (but I do). When Mickey Mantle was dying of liver disease caused by a series of wrong choices he told the world, “Don’t do what I did.” And I admire his courage in saying it.

God gave us freedom of choice, so we could choose to worship him. If we misuse this freedom, the fault is not with God but us.

Fourth, God can redeem all suffering. Scripture teaches that God works through all things for good (Romans 8:28). He sometimes permits suffering so as to grow us spiritually and personally. And he always redeems suffering for good, either now or in the future, given the opportunity.

Fifth, we will fully understand suffering one day. The Bible says, “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).

When Mike Yaconelli’s child died he wrote, “We are surviving this a day at a time, knowing that one day we will be able to ask God some very hard questions.” So will we all.

Last, God suffers with us. Because he is love, he hurts as we hurt. David was right: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me” (Psalm 23:4).

Every parent in this room knows that we hurt when our children hurt, for we love them. How much more does the God who is love hurt as we hurt. And love us all the while.

Help for our hearts (11-12)

Now let’s make this study as practical as we can. How do we experience his love, his help, his presence? In his Spirit, in his word, but especially in his people.

God calls us to prove his love through ours: “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” “Ought” here means to be morally obligated or compelled.

Then the text continues: “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (vs. 11-12).

We are the only Bible most people will read, the only Jesus they will see. Nearly 20 centuries ago, Clement of Alexandria said that the real Christian “practices being God.” Because we have received, we know how to give. Because we are accepted, we know how to accept. Because we are loved, we know how to love. With God’s love.

Jesus said that loving hurting people would be our greatest witness: “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35). We prove God’s love when we love.

When my father died, two of the people who helped me most were Ricky Wilcox and Linda Sharp. Ricky drove across Houston the next day, and spent that day sitting with me. No advice, no words of wisdom, just his presence. He was just there. I’ve never forgotten the love of God I felt in his love.

And Linda Sharp was there. Linda’s father had died of cancer and then her pregnant older sister was killed by a drunk driver. She put her arms around my brother and me and said, “Time helps.” She was right. And God’s love was in hers.

Someone said, “I would like to ask God why he doesn’t do something about all the pain and suffering in the world.” “Why don’t you ask him?” someone replied. The man answered, “Because I’m afraid he’ll ask me the same question.”

Conclusion

No matter where the wind blows, God is still love. He hurts as you hurt, and wants to redeem your suffering for his glory and your good. And he wants you to show his love to the hurting people close to you. Today.

Debbie Hamilton has helped us worship God today, and I’m grateful. One of the most powerful experiences of my three years with you occurred in Paul and Debbie’s home last fall. The Waggoners are in their Sunday school class; as you know, Chip and Wendy’s little baby Benjamin was born with serious health challenges, though surgery this past week was wonderfully successful.

The week before the birth, the Hamilton class met in their home to pray for Chip, Wendy, and Benjamin. They surrounded them with their care and love. Then, when the members left, each took a specific assignment for helping: mowing the lawn, cleaning the house, bringing food, etc. They each also took a stamped envelope to send the Waggoners a note of encouragement. They showed Jesus’ love in theirs.

Where is God when it hurts? Someone is waiting for your answer.

Where Was God On 9-11?

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Where Was God On 9-11?

Matthew 5:11-12

Dr. Jim Denison

A good friend in our church recently showed me a travel brochure she picked up years ago while visiting in New York City. It is from the World Trade Center, and describes the twin towers and the view from the topmost observation deck. The brochure’s cover pictures the towers beneath these words: “The closest some of us will ever get to heaven.”

This Wednesday our nation and world will remember the day more than 3,000 souls met their deaths in the worst act of terrorism ever committed against America. We’ll mourn with the surviving families. We’ll think of the 63 babies born after 9-11 to mothers without husbands. And we’ll ask “why?”

It is appropriate today for Christians to ask and be asked three questions. First, where was God on 9-11? Second, how are we to handle the crises of our own lives when they come? Third, how are we to feel about the enemies of our nation today? We’ll seek answers this morning from the most famous Sermon ever preached.

Where was God on 9-11?

First, where was God on “the day everything changed”? While the towers burned and collapsed, the Pengaton was attacked, and Flight 93 crashed into the Pennsylvania soil?

If God is all-powerful, he could have prevented the atrocities of that day. If he were all-loving, he would want to. If you or I were God, 9-11 would not be the most notorious numbers in American history, but just another day. Why did he allow it?

Jesus’ Sermon points to this explanation for 9-11: mankind is free to choose evil.

Matthew 5:11: “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.”

Jesus tells us, “Do not resist an evil person” (5:39). He instructs us to “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (v. 44). Jesus expects us to meet with evil people and enemies in life. Why must they exist?

God created us to worship him. But worship requires freedom of choice. And we can choose to misuse this freedom for atrocity. Cain did. David did. Saul of Tarsus did. So did Hitler, and Osama bin Laden. Tragically, though in ways far less destructive, so have I. So have you.

Could God have intervened on 9-11? Could he have prevented the planes’ attacks by miraculous means? Of course. But only if he would likewise prevent the results of every sinful choice on the part of every sinful human. Only if he were to remove consequences from our choices. In the final analysis, only if he were to strip us of our freedom. And this he will not do.

So where was God on 9-11? Mourning with us, and more deeply than any of us. Grieving as only a Father made to watch his child die could grieve. Hurting with every hurting spouse, every lonely child, every aching parent’s heart.

In the same way he mourns with us every time our freedom leads to failure, our choices to crime, our sins to suffering. He is “God with us.”

Elie Wiesel’s books told the world of the Holocaust atrocities he survived. No passage is more horrifying than his account in Night of the small boy hanged by the Nazis: “For more than half an hour he stayed there, struggling between life and death, dying in slow agony under our eyes. And we had to look him full in the face. He was still alive when I passed in front of him. His tongue was still red, his eyes were not yet glazed.

“Behind me, I heard [a] man asking:

“‘Where is God now?’

“And I heard a voice within me answer him:

“‘Where is He? Here He is—He is hanging here on this gallows….'”

His suffering soul was more right than he knew.

How are we to handle hard times?

Now let’s make 9-11 even more personal. How does the Christian faith prepare us for the crises which come to our own lives? You may have known not a single person affected directly by 9-11, but you’ve had your own problems and you’ll have more. Jesus was a realist: “In this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33). It’s not “if” but “when” 9-11 comes for us personally.

What can we do to be prepared? The entire Sermon will help us this fall. Today we’ll explore briefly three simple principles.

Don’t live for today (6:19-21).

It’s a fact: moth and rust do destroy all the treasures of earth, and thieves “break in and steal.” Today is uncertain. Its possessions are not secure, its promises often unmet.

No one but the terrorists knew that September 11 would be a day different from any other. People went about their normal morning until the terror began. None of us expects this day to bring catastrophe. Or tomorrow. Neither did they.

And so Jesus advises us, “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal” (v. 20).

Live every day for eternity. Be ready today to meet God. Make sure your sins are confessed, your soul right with your Lord. Make your money and resources, your time and talents a means to the end of doing the eternal, of building God’s Kingdom on earth. Don’t live for today, because one day “today” will be gone.

Don’t worry about tomorrow (6:34).

Then you can obey this word from our Lord: “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (6:34).

Jesus says of our daily needs, “Your heavenly Father knows that you need them” (v. 32). His word promises: “My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).

“Tomorrow” doesn’t exist. It’s just a word, not a reality. So plan and prepare for it, but don’t worry about it. Put your needs for tomorrow in the hands of God, today.

Trust the word of God (7:24-27).

Third, Jesus promises us: “everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock” (7:24-25).

This “rock” is trust in God’s word. We must hear the words of Jesus, but also “put them into practice.” When we study it every morning and live its truths every day, we build on its truth. Then when the storms come, we will stand. God says so.

How should we respond to our enemies?

Here’s our last 9-11 question for today: how should Christians respond to these enemies? To those who hurt us personally? How do we reconcile forgiveness with justice, the gifts of grace with the rule of law?

Jesus says about the crimes of 9-11: “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment'” (5:21).

Murder is typically defined as the willful taking of innocent life. God condemns it. The sixth commandment forbids it (Exodus 20:13).

The operatives of al-Qaeda broke this command, and the Koran’s prohibition against murder as well, by the way. They will be “subject to judgment” when they stand before God.

And stand before him they will: “man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

Without exception: “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10).

The murderers of 9-11 will face the justice and judgment of Almighty God. His word promises that it is so.

So how are we to feel about them? Listen to these hard words from our Lord: “I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven” (5:44-45).

They had enemies, to be sure. Every disciple who heard these words lived to die at the hands of Christianity’s enemies but John, and he was imprisoned and exiled.

Despite such suffering, they were commanded by Jesus to “love” their enemies. Not to like them or their deeds, but to love them. And to put such love into action: “pray for those who persecute you,” literally “as they persecute you.”

We are to pray for America’s enemies, today and every day. To pray for their repentance from sin, for their conversion to Christ, for their best and God’s will in their lives. This is the word and will of God.

Does this mean that we are not to fight back, to defend our nation? That we are not to seek justice for the criminals behind these atrocities? Not at all.

No words of Jesus’ famous Sermon have been more misinterpreted than these: “Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also” (5:39). Jesus here refers to personal insult, not bodily injury or threat to life.

The Bible consistently upholds the rule of law and the expectation that a just society will live by justice. For instance, as commentary on the sixth commandment just stated, the law of Moses adds: “Anyone who strikes a man and kills him shall surely be put to death” (Exodus 20:12).

Ours is a just God. He is love, mercy, and grace. But Hebrews 12:29 also says, “Our God is a consuming fire.”

When I am insulted, I am to respond with grace and mercy, choosing to forgive, to pardon, to refuse to punish. But when I am attacked, I am to defend myself. As the Jewish nation did throughout its history. As America must today.

So there is this difficult balance for the Christian: do not punish those who insult, but defend ourselves against those who threaten our lives and nation. And in both, act in love.

Conclusion

Love alone can change the human heart. Trust the love and presence of God in the hardest times. Trust the love and word of God now, before the hard times come. Trust the love and justice of God when others bring injury and pain to you.

And find ways to express that love to those who question it, to those who need it most.

Max Lucado is pastor of the Oak Hills Church of Christ in San Antonio. Not long after September 11, a large group of members from his church went to New York to serve the devastated people there. When they returned home, some shared their reflections with Max and their church family. A friend in our church gave me a recording of that service. Here is the last story told that night.

One of the returning missionaries told of meeting Mark, an officer with the New York Police Department. He was a strong and passionate Christian, with a kind and gentle heart.

He told this church member of his experience on 9-11. He had been on duty at the World Trade Center when the attacks occurred. He helped move bystanders back as debris began falling from the burning towers. Then a large object fell, and he saw it was a human body. He looked into the sky, and saw to his horror other people jumping from the burning buildings. Many of them.

Risking his life, he ran back to the base of the towers, braving the falling debris and bodies. He began shouting to these people as they plummeted to the earth, “God loves you! Jesus loves you!” Mark wanted the last words they heard in this life to be the Gospel. He wanted them to have one last chance to know God’s love.

Where was God on 9-11? Could it be that he is asking us the same question?

Which Role Is Yours?

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Which Role Is Yours?

Matthew 26:47-56

Dr. Jim Denison

A woman tells you that she is 20 years old today and has great-grandchildren. She looks fantastic for her age. Of course, she was born on February 29, 1924.

A leap year occurs in every year which can be evenly divided by four; thus we’re meeting for worship on leap year day today. However, the years 1600 and 2000 had a February 29 but 1500 did not, because the only century years that are leap years are the ones which can be divided evenly by 400. Is that clear?

It is somehow appropriate that we are confused today as we begin a sermon series on questions. Difficult, perplexing, common questions. More specifically, questions on the cross. As you know, Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ was released this week. Many of you have already seen it. You know that is not a movie one “sees” but a movie one experiences. It is the most realistic portrayal of the crucifixion ever filmed. For the first time, we can see what actually happened. And ask the most profound questions as a result.

Today we begin with the most foundational question of all: who killed Jesus? Who was really responsible for his death—the Romans? The Jews? You may be surprised at the answer you hear this morning.

Who arrested Jesus?

The setting of the text is familiar to most of us.

The Garden of Gethsemane was a private olive grove on the western slope of the Mount of Olives. Jesus and his followers often went to this secluded garden for prayer. I’ve been to the area twice, and found it as quiet and peaceful as it must have been for our Lord.

On this occasion, however, Jesus went there not to find peace but a sword. He went there so Judas would know where to find him. He could have fled into the Galilean hills and evaded arrest forever. Instead, he went to the one place where his arrest was assured.

He could have hidden in the Garden, and escaped from the soldiers marching through its trees, but he waited for the soldiers to come.

He could have used his disciples to prevent Judas from identifying him. Instead he said, “Friend, do what you came for.”

John gives us more of the story:

“Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, ‘Who is it you want?’ ‘Jesus of Nazareth,’ they replied” (John 18:4-5a). Note the irony of this situation. They are looking for him, but don’t know that this is the one they seek. Clearly he could direct them elsewhere, or flee under the cover of anonymity.

Instead, the narrative continues, “‘I am he,’ Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.)” (vs. 5b). His Greek words were actually, “I am,” echoing the solemn and holy name of Yahweh himself. Note what comes next: “When Jesus said, ‘I am he,’ they drew back and fell to the ground'” (v. 6). Here is a second chance to flee.

Instead we find this response: “Again he asked them, ‘Who is it you want?’ And they said, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ ‘I told you that I am he,’ Jesus answered” (vs. 7-8). And finally they seized him. Have you ever heard of a person who worked so hard to be arrested?

But the story isn’t done. Peter then drew his sword and attacked Malchus, the servant of the high priest (John. 18:10). Such an armed resistance could well have been successful, but Jesus stopped it immediately. He could have called “twelve legions of angels” (a legion was 6,000 soldiers; this would be 72,000 angels, sufficient for the task at hand, one would think). But he did not.

Who was actually responsible for Jesus’ arrest? These incompetent soldiers, men who didn’t even know their subject? The disciples? Judas? Or our Lord?

Why was he arrested?

Here’s a second question: why did they arrest him? He asked them: “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me?” (v. 55). Why did they seize him? Who did they think he was?

The religious authorities arrested him as a blasphemer, a heretic, one who claimed that he was God. He would soon confirm their charges: “The high priest said to him, ‘I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.’ ‘Yes, it is as you say,’ Jesus replied” (Matthew 26:63-64).

The civil authorities executed him as a rebel, a traitor to Rome. Pilate made his crime clear: “Above his head they placed the written charge against him: This is Jesus, the king of the Jews” (Matthew 27:37). And there could be no king but Caesar.

Note what didn’t happen.

No one thought to claim that he didn’t exist. It is instructive that even his strongest enemies never considered such an attack. No one in all the literature of the period suggested that Jesus never lived. Not the Jewish responses, nor the Roman. Not the most hateful critic and opponent. We know too much from Tacitus, Suetonius, Mara bar Serapion, Josephus, and Pliny the Younger to dismiss his existence.

No one thought to claim that he was simply a religious teacher or leader, as The DaVinci Code and other modern critics claim. The Romans didn’t crucify Sunday school teachers or denominational officials. The authorities executed him because they understood who he claimed to be: the Son of God, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Nothing else. Nothing less.

Why did he die?

Now, if he was the Son of God, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, able to call twelve legions of angels to his side, why did he die? Why did he allow them to crucify him? Who was really responsible for his death?

Note his own answer to the question: “How then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this way?” (Matthew 26:54). He repeated himself: “All this has taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled” (v. 56). “Scriptures,” plural; “writings,” plural.

What did he mean? Listen to the plan which he and his Father created.

How would he be betrayed? “Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me” (Psalm 41:9).

For how much? “They paid me thirty pieces of silver” (Zechariah 11:12).

How would his followers react? “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered” (Zechariah 13:7).

Who would accuse him? “Ruthless witnesses come forward…They repay me evil for good and leave my soul forlorn” (Psalm 35:11-12).

How would he respond? “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7).

What would happen next?

How would he suffer? “I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard” (Isaiah 50:6a).

How would he die?” They will look on me, the one they have pierced” (Zechariah 12:10).

How would the crowd react? “I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting” (Isaiah 50:6b).

With whom would he die? “He poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12).

How would these criminals respond? “They hurl insults, shaking their heads; ‘He trusts in the Lord; let the Lord rescue him'” (Psalm 22:7-8).

At his death:

He would suffer thirst: “They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst” (Psalm 69:21).

His bones would not be broken: “”I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me” (Psalm 22:17).

They would gamble for his robe: “They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing” (Psalm 22:18).

He would cry to the Lord, “”My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1).

At the end he would pray, “Into your hands I commit my spirit” (Psalm 31:5).

Why did Jesus die? To fulfill the plan of his Father as “the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). Because this was their strategy before time began, before the first human was created, before the first sin was committed.

Conclusion

It comes to this: you cannot kill God. The soldiers didn’t arrest him—he gave himself to them. The authorities didn’t kill him—he chose to die, to fulfill the Scriptures, the plan he and his Father had made from the foundation of the world. God intended to have Jesus crucified before time began.

So know this: we are the ones responsible for his death. We are the reason he gave his life. God knew his only begotten Son would die for you before he made you. Consider that fact for a moment.

A family is moving into the vacant house next to yours. Somehow you know that your son is going to befriend their drug-addicted daughter and save her life. But her drug dealers will kill him for it. Would you introduce them?

Your daughter calls to say that she is driving home from college this weekend with a friend. Somehow you know that this friend is going to drive drunk, and steer the car into oncoming traffic. At the last moment, your daughter will grab the wheel and save her friend’s life, but she will die. Would you allow the trip?

A friend’s kidneys have failed, and a transplant is his only hope of survival. The only possible donor is your son. Somehow you know that his kidney will save your friend’s life, but your son will not survive the operation. Would you allow it?

Absurd questions, aren’t they? Do you love anyone that much? Does someone love you that much? Actually, someone does.

You may know that Mel Gibson, the director and producer of The Passion of The Christ, appears in the movie himself. When Jesus’ hand is stretched on the cross, a fist holds the spike which is driven into the Savior’s flesh. The hand which holds that spike, the hand which crucifies the Lord, is Mel Gibson’s. He was asked why he did it that way. His answer: because I killed him. We all did.

I understand and appreciate what he means. But we can’t kill Christ. He chose to die, for you. Before he made you, he knew he would die for you. That’s how much he loves you. The passion of the Christ is you.

Which Son Are You?

Written by

Which Son Are You?

Dr. Jim Denison

Luke 15:11-32

Thesis: We are each welcome in the Kingdom of God

One of the most encouraging readings I have ever found is this adaptation from Henri Nouwein’s classic book The Beloved:

I have called you by name

from the very beginning.

You are mine and I am yours.

You are my beloved,

on you my favor rests.

I have molded you in the depths of the earth

and knitted you together in your mother’s womb.

I have carved you in the palm of my hand

and hidden you in the shadow of my embrace.

I look at you with infinite tenderness

and care for you with a care more intimate

than that of a mother for her child.

I have counted every hair on your head

and guided you at every step.

Wherever you go, I go with you,

and wherever you rest, I keep watch.

I will give you food that will satisfy all your hunger

and drink that will quench all your thirst.

I will not hide my face from you.

You are my beloved in whom I am well pleased.

Do these words touch you at a deep place in your soul? Why?

The most popular hymn in America is “Amazing Grace.” This is the conclusion of a survey of more than 10,000 newspaper readers. Others on the top ten list: “How Great Thou Art”; “In The Garden”; “The Old Rugged Cross”; “What A Friend We Have In Jesus”; “A Mighty Fortress”; “Blessed Assurance”; “He Lives”; “Victory In Jesus”; and “Holy, Holy, Holy.” What do our most beloved hymns have in common?

Blaise Pascal was by every measure a genius. He is considered the father of the modern computer, and was famous in his day for his work on probability theory and the problem of the vacuum. He devised Paris’s first public transportation system. And he was a man of remarkable insight into the human condition.

Consider his diagnosis of our basic problem: “All men seek happiness. There are no exceptions. However different the means they employ, they all strive towards this goal. The reason why some go to war and some do not is the same desire in both, but interpreted in two different ways. The will never takes the least step except to that end. This is the motive of every act of every man. . . .

“Yet for very many years no one without faith has ever reached the goal at which everyone is continually aiming. All men complain: princes, subjects, nobles, commoners, old, young, strong, weak, learned, ignorant, healthy, sick, in every country, at every time, of all ages, and all conditions. . . .

“What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object.”

What is this “infinite and immutable object”? What is it that we need most in our lives? This week we are privileged to walk through “the greatest short story in the world” (Barclay 204). Here we’ll find the answer to our souls’ deepest longing, the hub into which all the spokes of our lives fit. Here is the “true north” which makes sense of our chaos, the discovery which alone can give life genuine significance.

This key to the meaning of life is found when you answer one question: which son in our story are you?

Leaving the home of grace

“There was a man who had two sons” (v. 11). And so our story begins. The man was presumably a Palestinian Jewish farmer or landowner. His “many” servants (v. 17) attested to his wealth. He was a man blessed with lands, possessions, and sons. Until today.

This day, “The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate'” (v. 12a). Nothing in the story indicates that either son was married, yet both were wealthy and would likely wed when reaching the marriage age of 30. And so they were both under this age; the younger son is perhaps closer to 20 (Fitzmyer 1087). And their father was still a relatively young man.

Nonetheless, his younger son wanted the part of the state which customarily came to him at his father’s death. Assuming there were only two sons, the older would receive 2/3 of the estate, so-called “double share” (Deuteronomy 21.17), while the younger received 1/3. Such a request was not impossible legally, but it was as much an outrage as a similar demand would be in our society today.

Despite this grave insult, the father did as his younger son asked: “So he divided his property between them” (v. 12b). This decision marked a formal and legal division of his goods (Rienecker 186), a binding action for them all. It would appear that the younger son received his part of the estate in money or moveable property, while the elder received the lands and fixed property (Barnes 102). If this is true, the father must have given a great deal of his personal possessions to constitute the estate owed his younger son. Every day would bring a fresh reminder of all he no longer owned—in his property and in his son.

Here we see the first appearance of that grace which is the central focus of Jesus’ parable. The father was not bound to grant his son’s disrespectful demand. He was not bound to give such personal possession to constitute an estate he did not owe until his death. But he gives what the son asks, with no word of complaint or censure. How many parents would do the same for one of their sons today? Would you?

“Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living” (v. 13). What a turn in life and fortune Jesus captured in these few words. The young man had more than most of the world could dream of owning. After converting flocks or grain, possessions and property, he owned 1/3 of a wealthy estate. To a world populated primarily by slaves and impoverished serfs, such a man was standing at the top of the social ladder. Given the popular belief of the day that wealth is proof of divine favor, this man has been blessed by heaven and earth.

But not for long. He left his Palestinian home to see the larger world. And it saw him coming. Soon he “squandered” his wealth—the word means to scatter in various directions (Rienecker 186). Jesus used the same word in Matthew 25.24: “gathering where you have not scattered seed” (Robertson 208). Picture a farmer throwing his seed to the wind, and you see the younger brother at work. His father’s lifetime of earning and savings was nothing to him. Easy come, easy go.

Had he invested poorly, we would criticize his foolishness but not his goals. But no: he squandered his wealth in “wild living.” The word means to “live prodigally,” to engage in debauched living (Rienecker 186). It stands for reckless waste with free reign given to every passion, the height of undisciplined freedom (Bruce 580), the “limit of sinful excesses” (Robertson 208). This word, found here only in the New Testament, names its owner for all time as the “prodigal son.”

What happened next is the way of our fallen world: “After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need” (v. 14). Famines were common in the ancient Near East. They were caused by crop failures, want of rain, strong sun, or prevalence of plagues or pestilence (Barnes 102). At the worst possible moment, such a famine struck the “whole country” where he now lived. The young man had lost all he owned, and now had no way to earn it back.

So he stepped from the immoral to the unthinkable: “he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs” (v. 15). “Hired himself” means to glue together, to join. He appears that he forced himself on a citizen of that country (Rienecker 187; Bruce 580). And not just any citizen—a pig owner, thus a Gentile. Remember that the Jews were taught to believe that God made Gentiles only so there would be firewood in hell. No self-respecting Jew would go into a Gentile home, or touch Gentile possessions. And above all, no Jewish boy would feed a pig.

Pig herding was the most degrading occupation known to the Jews (Rienecker 187). Pigs were “unclean” for the people (Leviticus 11.7); they were “not to eat their meat or touch their carcasses” (Deuteronomy 14.8). One of the rabbis said, “Cursed be the man who raises pigs” (quoted by Fitzmyer 1088).

Barnes gives us the spiritual sense of Jesus’ picture: “The object of this image, as used by the Savior in the parable, is to show the loathsome employments and the deep degradation to which sin leads men, and no circumstance could possibly illustrate it in a more striking manner than he has done here. Sin and its results everywhere have the same relation to that which is noble and great, which the feeding of swine had, in the estimation of a Jew, to an honorable and dignified employment (103).

The “prodigal” has taken his father’s estate as though he were dead. He has left his home for the “far country.” He has “squandered” possessions his father spent a lifetime earning. Now he has forced himself on a Gentile to feed pigs. But there is one step lower into the abyss: “He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything” (v. 16).

These “pods” were horn-shaped parts of the carob tree (Bruce 580), sometimes called “Saint John’s Bread” from the notion that the Baptist ate them in the wilderness (Robertson 209; cf. Barnes 103). Some read the text to suggest that the prodigal could eat these but nothing more (Bruce 581). But the more likely meaning is that he could not have even these (Barnes 103). In such depressed times of famine, this food had been measured out for the swine and there was nothing to spare.

Here is what it is like to leave the home of grace. It is to refuse your Father’s plans and purposes, dreams and goals for your life. To take gifts, abilities, possessions and opportunities which he intends to be used for his glory and your good, and use them for your own selfish ends. To waste them. To give yourself to people or purposes which demean him as your Father, and dishonor his family and you. To find yourself starved and abandoned alone.

It is your story and it is mine. It is the story of every person who rejects the love of God, who leaves the home of grace. But the story didn’t end there. It never does.

Coming home to grace

“When he came to his senses” (v. 17a)—the second chance of grace. The Greek says literally, “coming to himself.” It can mean that he realized his situation, but more likely it indicates that he came to “his true self, his sane mind” (Bruce 581). The phrase was commonly applied to one who had been deranged but recovered his mind (Barnes 103). In this case, his soul.

No matter where you find yourself today, it’s not too late. You can stop feeding the pigs, and craving their food. You can stop working for the pig owners. You can come to yourself. You can come home to grace.

The prodigal said to himself, “How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!” (v. 17b). “Food to spare” translates a phrase which means to be surrounded by loaves as by a flood (Robertson 210). So, “I will set out and go back to my father” (v. 18a). But how could he? The legal documents were signed and executed. He had no further claims on the estate, no rights to his previous status. The father had no reason or obligation to receive such a sinful, dishonorable prodigal.

The young son knew it was so: he would declare to him: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men” (vs. 18b-19). He “sinned”—the word means to miss the mark (Robertson 210), to miss the purpose and meaning of life. He sinned against heaven, against his heavenly Father. This recognition is the first step to genuine repentance, for all sin is first and foremost against our holy Father (cf. Psalm 51.4: “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight”).

And he sinned against his earthly father: “and against you.” He missed the mark with his family, with this man who loved him so much. And now it was too late to earn it back: “I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” He could do nothing to deserve restoration. He was right, and repentant (Geldenhuys 408; Fitzmyer 1089).

So, his repentance sincere and his resolve sure, “he got up and went to his father” (v. 20a). But his father was not done with grace. The same grace which gave the inheritance the son did not earn, now refused to give the punishment he deserved. Refused to continue the consequences for sins his son confessed. He is just like our Father in heaven.

Here is one of the most poignant verses in all the word of God: “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him” (v. 20). The father had been looking for his son, from the moment he left to the moment he returned (Robertson 210). He was “filled with compassion” for this son now limping back in rags and repentance. He “ran” to his son, regardless of Eastern dignity and the proprieties of advancing years (Bruce 581), exactly the opposite of the way his son has come home to him (Barnes 105).

He “kissed him,” in language which means to kiss fervently and frequently, over and over again (Bruce 581; Robertson 210). This act was the ancient sign of forgiveness (Rienecker 187; Fitzmyer 1089). When King David kissed Absalom, his wayward and sinful son, he extended to him this same forgiveness (2 Samuel 14.33). Now the father gave such grace to his shocked and sinful boy.

The prodigal started his speech: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son” (v. 21). But his father wouldn’t let him finish. He heard enough. He heard words of repentance from a heart of grief and guilt and genuine sorrow. And that was all he needed to hear.

The father welcomed the boy as his son. He was “justified”—”just as if I’d never sinned.” He was restored, publicly and powerfully. He received “the best robe” (v. 22a), a stately garment coming down to the feet, worn by kings (Robertson 211), replacing the wretched rags the boy wore home (Bruce 582). A ring was placed on his finger (v. 22b), Jewish tradition for one honored as his father’s deputy (Rienecker 187; Esther 8.2). The son was not only received, but promoted. And he was given “sandals on his feet” (v. 22c). No slaves wore sandals, only sons (Bruce 582).

But the father was not done with grace: “Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate” (v. 23). Wealthy landowners kept a calf fattened for festive occasions. And so the father kept the calf, perhaps hoping for his son’s return and the party he would give in his honor (Robertson 211).

Why the celebration? “This son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found” (v. 24a). “This my son” is the literal wording. The father claimed his boy publicly, introducing him to attendants who did not know him from before he left for the far country. And telling the world that he was proud of his boy. He had been “dead” spiritually (cf. Romans 6.13; Revelation 3.1; Ephesians 2.1-5), but now he was alive. He had been lost, but now he is found. “So they began to celebrate” (v. 24b).

The prodigal thought he was coming home to face wrath and works, and deservedly so. But he found instead grace and gifts. Not grace he must earn, for that is no grace at all. Grace he could only receive in wonder, faith, and joy.

Theologian Paul Tillich described such an encounter with true grace, in words so meaningful they deserve a slow and careful reading:

“Grace strikes us when we are in great pain and restlessness. It strikes us when we walk through the dark valley of a meaningless and empty life. It strikes us when we feel that our separation is deeper than usual, because we have violated another life, a life which we loved, or from which we were estranged.

“It strikes us when our disgust for our own being, our indifference, our weakness, our hostility, and our lack of direction and composure have become intolerable to us. It strikes us when, year after year, the longed-for perfection of life does not appear, when the old compulsions reign within us as they have for decades, when despair destroys all joy and courage.

“Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness and it is as though a voice were saying: ‘You are accepted. You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you do not know. Do not ask for the name now; perhaps you will find it later. Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later you will do much. Do not seek for anything; do not perform anything; do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted!’

“If that happens to us, we experience grace. After such an experience we may not be better than before, and we may not believe more than before. But everything is transformed. In that moment, grace conquers sin, and reconciliation bridges the gulf of estrangement. And nothing is demanded of this experience, no religious or moral or intellectual presupposition, nothing but acceptance.”

The father in the story did not love his son because he came home. His son could come home because his father loved him. Our Father does not give us grace if we believe, or repent, or trust. We can believe, and repent, and trust because he gives us grace.

The prodigal “came to himself,” then came home. Is there a Father waiting for you to do the same? Looking even now at your soul in the far country? Waiting, robe and ring and sandals in hand? Ready to give what you cannot earn or deserve? Ready to welcome you home?

Giving what we have received

But the story is not done. We know what happened to the younger brother. But what of the elder? He was “in the field” (v. 25a), hard at his job, doing work his younger brother had abandoned to him. Coming near the house “he heard music and dancing” (v. 25b). “Music” translates the Greek word sumphonos, from which we get “symphony.” The musicians were entertainers hired by the father for his son’s party.

And everyone danced to their music. Dancing was common at Jewish feasts (Judges 21.21), at times of triumph (Judges 11.34), and at times of joy (Psalm 30.11-12; Jeremiah 31.4, 13). But why? The older brother “called one of the servants and asked him what was going on” (v. 26). And he got his answer: “Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound” (v. 27). Note Jesus’ explicit words: “your brother, your father.”

But his brother “became angry” (v. 28a)—the words mean he “flew into a rage” (Robertson 212). Long resentment towards his wayward brother, coupled with work done to compensate for his failures, was combined with the public humiliation the prodigal has caused them all. Wanting no part of this celebration, he “refused to go in” (v. 28b).

So his father came to him, rushing out just as he had rushed earlier in the day to his younger brother. He “pleaded with him” (v. 28c), the tense indicating that he “kept on beseeching him” (Rienecker 188; Robertson 212). But the older would have none of it: “Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders” (v. 29a). We wonder if his “slavery” indicates a secret desire to do what his younger brother had done. He “never” disobeyed—the tense means that he did not err even once (Rienecker 188).

“Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends” (v. 29b). To hear him tell the story, his life was nothing but drudgery and work, slaving for a father who was little more than an employer. We cannot believe that it was really so, or that it was the father’s fault if it was. No father could extend such marvelous grace to one son without offering it to the other.

Now we see into the older brother’s true soul: “But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!” (v. 30). Not “my brother” but “this son of yours,” a Greek expression of great contempt (Rienecker 188; Barnes 106). No one mentioned prostitutes before he made his accusation, a charge for which he could have no support. Barclay may be right: “He, no doubt, suspected his brother of the sins he himself would have liked to commit” (206).

But the father showed his older son the same grace he has given to the younger: “My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours” (v. 31). Despite his reproofs, his accusations, his charges, this man was still his son. The estate belonging to him was still his. Nothing had changed. Though the father had the right to reprove and reject such a malicious and slanderous boy, he refused.

Instead he explained: “We had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found” (v. 32). “We had to celebrate”—there is urgency here, for whenever a child comes home, his family must celebrate. The Greek says “to be merry”—deep-seated joy, hilarity beyond words (Robertson 213). “This brother of yours”—the father’s point is clear. The father’s son, and his son’s brother, was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.

The older brother offers us two lessons. The first: keep working in the fields. But not as a slave but a son. Motivated not by obligation to our Master but by gratitude for his grace.

Legends always grow up around famous people. Here is one of my favorite Paderewski stories. A mother took her young son to hear the famous pianist, so as to encourage him in his own progress on the piano. After they were seated, the mother spotted a friend in the audience and went to greet her. This was her son’s chance. He bolted for the curtains obscuring the stage from the crowd. The house lights dimmed, the concert was about to begin, and the mother found her son missing. In the next moment the curtains parted and spotlights focused on the Steinway on the stage gleaming with polish.

In horror, the mother saw her little boy sitting at the keyboard, innocently picking out “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.” At that moment, the great piano master made his entrance, quickly moving to the piano. He whispered in the boy’s ear, “Don’t quit. Keep playing.” Then leaning over, Paderewski reached down with his left hand and began creating a bass part. With his right hand he added a running obligato. Together they performed a duet for the ages.

So it is with our performance on the instrument built by our Father. As we work he works. What we create is far less our ability and far more his. He does so much more with us than we can do for him. Our job is simply to be obedient, to play in gratitude for his grace, and to trust his hands to do the rest.

The father gave to his older son what was not his, just as he did so for the younger. Neither of them earned life, care, or compassion. Neither created the wealth he inherited. Neither deserved the compassion he received. Both were called to work with the father—not from obligation but gratitude.

What motivates you to teach your class? To give your time and abilities and finances to God’s Kingdom? To study this lesson?

The second lesson: give to others what you have received. Extend to others the grace God has given to you. You have received the blessing of God. Now give to a prodigal what the Father has bestowed on you.

Grady Nutt was a wonderful Christian comic and a deeply devoted believer. In college I heard him tell this week’s parable, and ask this question: If you were the prodigal, who would you want to greet you at the gate—the father or the older brother?

We have studied the two sons of Jesus’ famous parable. Which are you—the prodigal in the far country, squandering all God has given you in rebellion? Perhaps. But it is more likely that someone reading this commentary to prepare a Sunday school lesson is tempted to be the older brother. Serving in the fields, working for the Father. Will you give the grace of God to those entrusted to your care this week? Will they see the compassion, acceptance, and love of your Lord? Will you give what you have been given?

The famous preacher Samuel Chadwick once announced to his congregation, “I am going to preach on the third Son in the parable of the prodigal son” (cited in Morgan 266). Who is the third? The one who taught this parable. The one who sings with his Father when a prodigal comes home. Will you join his song?

Who Is the Holy Spirit

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Who is the Holy Spirit?

Dr. Jim Denison

The Holy Spirit is the most misunderstood member of the Trinity. Who is he? What does he do? Why does he matter so much in our lives today?

I spent years in Baptist churches with no real introduction to the Holy Spirit. I don’t remember ever hearing a sermon on the subject. We knew to trust in Jesus and worship his Father, but I had no idea how to relate to the Spirit. Or even if I should. I suspect that many of us have a similar story.

We’ll begin with some introductions. The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal neuter, an “it.” He is more than a “presence.” He is not a “ghost,” holy or otherwise (the King James Version notwithstanding).

Rather, the Spirit is a Person who works personally. He possesses the three distinctive characteristics of personality: knowledge (1 Corinthians 2:10-11), will (1 Corinthians 12:11), and feeling or emotion (Romans 15:30). He performs acts which only a person can perform: he searches (1 Corinthians 2:10), speaks (Revelation 2:7), cries (Galatians 4:6), prays (Romans 8:26), testifies (John 15:26), teaches (John 14:26), leads Christians (Romans 8:24), and commands people (Acts 16:6,7).

He is treated in Scripture as only a person can be treated: he is grieved and rebelled against (Isaiah 63:10; Ephesians 4:30); insulted (Hebrews 10:29); and blasphemed (Matthew 12:31, 32). But is he God?

Why is the Spirit “Holy”?

Why do we believe the Spirit to be God? For five reasons. First, he possesses the four distinctly divine attributes: eternity (Hebrews 9:14), omnipresence (Psalm 139:7-10), omniscience (1 Corinthians 2:10, 11), and omnipotence (Luke 1:35). Second, he performs each of the three distinctively divine works: creation (Job 33:4; Psalm 104:30; Genesis 1:1-3), impartation of life (John 6:63; Genesis 2:7), and authorship of prophecy (2 Peter 1:21).

Third, Old Testament statements about God are applied to the Holy Spirit in the New Testament (see Exodus 16:7 and Hebrews 3:7-9). Fourth, the name of the Holy Spirit is often coupled with that of God (1 Corinthians 12:4-6; Matthew 28:19-20; 2 Corinthians 13:14). And last, the Holy Spirit is called God. Peter asked Ananias, “how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit?” (Acts 5:3). Then the apostle warns, “You have not lied to men but to God” (v. 5).

While the Spirit is God, he is also distinct from the Father and the Son. At Jesus’ baptism, the Spirit descended while the Father spoke (Luke 3:21, 22). We are to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (Matthew 28:19). The Son promised that the Spirit would come when the Son left earth for heaven (John 16:7).

When we survey the names given to the Spirit by Scripture, we get a better sense of his divinity and significance. He is the Spirit (Psalm 104:30); the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 3:16); the Spirit of Jehovah (Isaiah 11:2); the Spirit of the Lord Jehovah (Isaiah 61:1-3), and the Spirit of the living God (2 Corinthians 3:6). He is the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9), the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:19), the Spirit of Jesus (Acts 16:6, 7), and the Spirit of his Son (Galatians 4:6).

He is the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13), the Holy Spirit of promise (Ephesians 1:13, RSV), of holiness (Romans 1:4), judgment (Isaiah 4:4), and burning (Isaiah 4:4). He is the Spirit of truth (John 14:17), of wisdom and understanding (Isaiah 11:2), of counsel and might (Isaiah 11:2), and the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2). He is the Spirit of life (Romans 8:2), the oil of gladness (Hebrews 1:9), the Spirit of grace (Hebrews 10:29), of grace and supplication (Zechariah 12:18, RSV), of glory (1 Peter 4:14), the eternal Spirit (Hebrews 9:14), the Comforter (John 14:26), and God in us, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).

How can we know him better?

What does the Spirit do?

We’ve learned that the Spirit is a Person and that he is Holy. What does this holy Person do? The Bible likens him to fire (Isaiah 4:4), wind (John 3), water (John 7:37-39), a dove (Genesis 1:2; Luke 3:22), a “seal for the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30; 2 Timothy 2:19), an “earnest” or down-payment on the future (Ephesians 1:13, 14), and anointing oil (2 Corinthians 1:21).

The Spirit was extremely active in the Old Testament. He created the material universe and humanity (Psalm 33:6; Job 33:4). He empowered individuals for specific tasks (Judges 14:6,19; 15:14; 1 Samuel 10:6,10; 2 Chronicles 15:1-2; Zechariah 4:6). He maintains living creatures (Psalm 104:29, 30), and sides with the helpless, poor, wretched and oppressed (Psalm 103:6).

He anticipated the Anointed One, the Messiah (Isaiah 42:2), and would one day be poured out on the house of Israel (Ezekiel 39:29). He would be experienced universally (Joel 2:28-29), and would write God’s laws on the hearts of all (Jeremiah 31:31-34).

The Spirit was active in the life and earthly ministry of Jesus. Our Savior was born of the Spirit (Luke 1:35), and lived a sinless life in the power of the Spirit (Hebrews 9:14). He was anointed and fitted for service by the Spirit (Acts 10:38; Isaiah 61:1; Luke 4:14,18,19; 3:22). The Spirit led Jesus in his earthly movements (Luke 4:1). He taught Jesus, and was his source of wisdom (Isaiah 11:2, 3; 42:1, fulfilled in Matthew 12:17,18).

Jesus worked his miracles through the Spirit (Matthew 12:28). By the power of the Spirit, Jesus was raised from the dead (Romans 8:11). After his resurrection, Christ gave commandments to his apostles through the Spirit (Acts 1:2). Now the Spirit bears witness to Jesus (John 15:26, 27).

The Spirit then worked in the apostles and prophets, giving them special gifts for specific purposes (1 Corinthians 12:4, 8-11, 28, 29). Truth was hidden before the Spirit revealed it (Ephesians 3:3-5). The apostles and prophets spoke not in their wisdom but the Spirit’s (1 Peter 1:10, 12), as they were carried along by him (2 Peter 1:21). The Spirit spoke prophetic utterances (Hebrews 3:7; 10:15,16; Acts 28:25; 2 Samuel 13:2), so that when we read their words we find not the speech of men but of God (Mark 7:13; 2 Samuel 23:2). In a very real sense, every time we open the pages of Scripture, we hear the voice of the Spirit as he speaks to us today.

How does all this relate to our personal lives?

Why does the Spirit matter to us?

The Holy Spirit shows us our guilt as sinners, convicting us of righteousness and judgment (Acts 2:36, 37). He then imparts spiritual life to those who are spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1; cf. Titus 3:5; John 3:3-5).

Now he indwells the believer (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20), and sets us free from sin (Romans 8:2). He forms Christ within us (Ephesians 3:14-19), bringing forth Christ-like graces of character (Galatians 5:22, 23). He guides the believer into the life of a son (Romans 8:14), and bears witness to our sonship (Romans 8:15,16).

The Spirit brings to remembrance the words of Christ, and will teach us all things (John 14:26). He reveals the deep things of God which are hidden from and foolishness to the “natural man” (1 Corinthians 2:9-13). He interprets his own revelation to us (1 Corinthians 2:14), enabling Christians to communicate to others in power the truth which we have been taught by him (1 Corinthians 2:1-5).

He guides the believer in prayer (Jude 20; Ephesians 6:18); he inspires and guides us in thanksgiving (Ephesians 5:18-20); and he inspires and leads our worship (Philippians 3:3). He infills the believer (Ephesians 5:18). He sends us into definite vocations (Acts 13:2-4). And he guides us in daily life (Acts 8:27-29; 16:6, 7).

One of the most significant ways the Holy Spirit impacts the lives of Christians is through the “spiritual gifts” he bestows on us at our salvation. God’s supreme gift to us is himself. These spiritual “gifts” are means by which we can know our Father better and serve him more effectively. They are to the church what organs and body parts are to the human body. The study of these gifts is the study of the anatomy of the Church, the body of Christ.

Spiritual gifts are God’s way of equipping and enabling us for our world mission and ministry. They are equipment necessary for service. They are bestowed on believers as the Spirit chooses (1 Corinthians 12:11), not as we might wish. They are often given in accordance with natural talents, but always supersede them.

How do we know our gifts? How can we experience daily the power of the Spirit? We’ll close our study by discussing the controversial questions people often ask about him: what are our spiritual gifts? What about “tongues”? What is the “baptism of the Spirit”? How can we be “filled with the Spirit”? Why should we be?

Who is gifted?

The New Testament provides three lists of spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12; Romans 12; Ephesians 4). Theologians have classified them as ministry of the word vs. practical ministry; and as motivational, ministering, and manifestational. One wrong classification is to group them in permanent and temporary categories. A good division: Ephesians 4 provides the orders of ministry given the church, while 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12 list the gifts themselves.

Here are gifted people, according to Ephesians 4:11. First come “apostles.” Their qualifications (1 Corinthians 9:1; Acts 1:22; 14:4,7) are that they saw Jesus, were witness to the resurrected Christ, and were called by him to this function. The word means “delegate, messenger, one sent forth with orders.” The title came to include more than the original Twelve, as Paul makes clear in greeting Andronicus and Junias, two who are “outstanding among the apostles” (Romans 16:7). Most theologians see the gift or office of “apostle” as one of introducing Christ and his gospel where it has never been preached, and leading churches to do the same.

The second office in Ephesians 4:11 is that of “prophet” (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:10). These were both male and female (cf. Deborah and Miriam in the Old Testament, and Philip’s four daughters who prophesied, Acts 21:9). The emphasis of their ministry was on forth-telling more than fore-telling, though God occasionally gave them messages regarding the future as well as the present. “Evangelists” were the third office, individuals who founded churches as roving ministers. We are all to do the work of evangelism (2 Timothy 2:5), but some are especially gifted for bringing souls to salvation.

The fourth office in Ephesians 4:11 is the “pastor-teacher” (“pastor” and “teacher” in the Greek syntax are one function). They are responsible for protecting, shepherding, and teaching the people of God. They are to “feed and lead” the church of Jesus Christ.

Now we come to individual gifts. Every believer has at least one spiritual gift (1 Corinthians 12:7, 11; Ephesians 4:7), given at his or her salvation. No believer has every spiritual gift (1 Corinthians 12:12, 27, 29-30). Our gifts differ from each other (Romans 12:3-6a).

We receive our gifts according to God’s will, not our own desire or experience (1 Corinthians 12:11; Ephesians 4:7-8).

What are the “spiritual gifts”?

Combining the various lists, we discover these gifts:

administration: organizing people and ministries effectively

apostleship: adapting to a different culture to share the gospel or do ministry

discernment: distinguishing spiritual truth from error or heresy

evangelism: sharing the gospel effectively and passionately

exhortation: encouraging others as they follow Jesus

faith: seeing God’s plan and following it with passion

giving: investing with unusual sacrifice and joy in God’s Kingdom

healing: being used by God to bring physical health in supernatural ways

intercession: praying with unusual passion and effectiveness

interpretation of “tongues”: being used by God to explain to others the message given by the Spirit through “tongues” (see below)

knowledge: discerning and sharing the deep truths of God’s word and will

leadership: motivating and inspiring others to serve Jesus fully

mercy: showing God’s grace to hurting people with unusual passion

miracles: being used by God in ministry which transcends natural explanation

prophecy: preaching the word of God with personal passion and effectiveness

serving: meeting practical needs with unusual sacrifice and joy

shepherding: helping others grow spiritually

speaking in “tongues”: using a God-given spiritual language in prayer and worship

teaching: explaining God’s word and truth with unusual effectiveness

wisdom: relating biblical truth to practical life with great effectiveness

How can you know your gifts?

Some believe that God reveals our spiritual gifts to us directly, as his Spirit speaks to us. Others depend on the insight and opinions of godly believers. Most theologians would add a third approach: give attention to your God-given opportunities for service, and to your interests, passions, and abilities. The Lord typically uses us in ways consistent with our gifting. For instance, if you are often asked into a leadership position, you may well be gifted for that role. The Lord usually gives us a desire to become involved in those ministries for which we are gifted. And he blesses the uses of our gifts, so that we can identify their existence by their effectiveness.

Several “spiritual gifts analysis” tools are available today. The Center for Informed Faith has developed one which is available to you on this website under “Gifts of the Holy Spirit.” As you utilize it or other approaches, know that the Father wants you to discover and use your gifts even more than you do.

And remember: the Lord gives his greatest joy to those who help fulfill his Great Commission. When you find and use your spiritual gifts, you will find the passion, purpose, and peace of God.

The gift of “tongues”

Now we come to a divisive subject. Let’s begin with the Pentecost event we will remember this Sunday:

When the day of Pentecost came, [the first believers] were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them (Acts 2:1-4).

“Pentecostalists” are typically named for their understanding of this event: that when the Spirit came at Pentecost, each Christian began speaking in a “heavenly” or “prayer language,” an “unknown tongue.” If each of them should, each of us should. In this view, if you are a Christian who has not “spoken in tongues,” you have not yet experienced the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

In the late 1970’s, no issue was more divisive for evangelicals than the “Charismatic” movement which advanced this thesis. While divisions regarding this phenomenon seem less intense today, confusion still surrounds the issue.

Should all Christians “speak in tongues”?

The question first arises at Pentecost, when early believers “were filled with the Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them” (Acts 2:4). It seems clear that the activity of speaking in “other tongues” was a direct result of the Spirit’s work, and that it was experienced by every believer.

Later, the Corinthian Christians experienced an ecstatic kind of spiritual language as one of the Spirit’s gifts (1 Corinthians 12:30; 14:1-25). This gift is usually called speaking in “unknown tongues.” Let’s note the contrast between the two experiences at Pentecost and Corinth:

At Pentecost all spoke in tongues (Acts 2:4); this was not true at Corinth (1 Corinthians 12:30, where the Greek syntax is literally translated, “All do not speak in tongues, do they?”).

At Pentecost these tongues were understood as languages by the crowd (Acts 2:6); at Corinth they were understood by none (1 Corinthians 14:2).

At Pentecost the Christians spoke to men (Acts 2:6); at Corinth, they spoke to God (1 Corinthians 14:2).

At Pentecost no interpreter was needed (Acts 2:6); at Corinth public tongue-speaking was prohibited unless an interpreter was present (1 Corinthians 14:23-28).

At Pentecost there was perfect harmony (Acts 2:1); at Corinth there was confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33).

And so the Corinthian experience was completely different from the Pentecost event. In Jerusalem on Pentecost day, Christians were given the divine ability to share the gospel with the assembled crowds by using known languages which they had not yet learned. At Corinth, believers were given the divine ability to speak to God in a language known only to his Spirit. Nowhere does the Bible teach that all Christians will speak in tongues as did some in Corinth. In fact, it is clear that they will not (1 Corinthians 12:30).

What do we know about “unknown tongues”?

The Pentecost gift is found in Acts 2 and never mentioned or practiced again. However, the “unknown tongues” practiced in Corinth have been a significant part of the Charismatic movement and Pentecostal worship in recent generations.

What can we learn from Scripture about this experience?

Jesus never mentioned this gift.

Numerous conversions occur in Acts without this accompanying sign.

The spiritual gifts are given to the edification of the church (Ephesians 4:12). Any gift which is used to the division of the church rather than for its edification is being abused.

Any person who desires to speak in an “unknown tongue” in public must first determine whether one with the gift of interpretation is present (1 Corinthians 14:27-28). If an interpreter is present, only two or three are to speak, and each in turn (1 Corinthians 14:27).

Tongues are given last in every list where they are found (1 Corinthians 12:8-10, 28-30), and are not included in lists found in Romans 12:6-8 and Ephesians 4:11.

But Paul rejoiced that he spoke in tongues “more than all of you” (1 Corinthians 14:18).

Are “unknown tongues” still a valid gift today?

Some say no. Paul predicted that tongues would “one day cease” (1 Corinthians 13:8), and they are omitted in Ephesians 4 and Romans 12, gift lists written later in the New Testament.

However, 1 Corinthians 13:8 also states, “where there are prophecies, they will cease.” “Prophecies” means preaching; no one claims that preaching has ceased as a spiritual gift and activity. Paul’s reference in 1 Corinthians 13 relates to that time in glory “when perfection comes” (v. 10). And nowhere does the New Testament clearly teach that this gift is temporary.

Some suggest that the reason for the gift ceased at Pentecost, since we are able to translate the gospel into hundreds of languages today. However, such interpretation confuses the Pentecost experience with the Corinthian gift.

Paul wrote: “Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is for believers, not for unbelievers” (1 Corinthians 14:22). And so some believe that the purpose of “unknown tongues,” like other “sign gifts” of miracles and healing, is no longer valid today.

In this reasoning, these spiritual gifts existed to show the unbelieving world the truth and veracity of the Christian faith. Now that the New Testament and its church are established, these gifts of persuasion are no longer necessary.

However, no text teaches that this is so. Believers who consider “tongues” to be invalid still pray for God to heal bodies and work other miracles. I can find no biblical warrant for dismissing “tongues” as a valid gift for believers today. When this gift is used within Scriptural guidelines, it apparently draws those who practice it closer to the Father.

So we can conclude that “tongues” are still a valid spiritual gift. But we should also note: no biblical text suggests that “tongues” is a superior spiritual gift, or that it demonstrates that the believer is more “filled” with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). We are all to be submitted to the leading of God’s Spirit each day. Then our spiritual gifts will fulfill his purpose, to his glory and our good.

The “baptism” and “filling” of the Spirit

Finally, we come to the most practical dimension of our entire study. A power drill is not much good unless it’s plugged into a power source. You can make a hole in a piece of wood if you try hard enough, but the tool isn’t fulfilling its purpose without its intended power. So it is for all Christians–we cannot accomplish our purpose without the power of the Spirit.

The “filling” of the Holy Spirit is the most crucial experience of the Christian life. Next to our salvation, it is the most important decision we make. And we must make it daily.

Some traditions believe that we can become Christians without experiencing the “baptism” of the Spirit. But Romans 8:9 makes clear that if we do not have the Spirit, we do not belong to Jesus. I believe that the moment we ask Christ to be our Savior and Lord, the Holy Spirit comes to indwell us. In fact, when we “ask Jesus into our hearts,” it is actually the Spirit who answers our prayer.

Unfortunately, while every Christian is “baptized” in the Spirit, not every Christian is “filled” with the Spirit. The command in question is Ephesians 5:18, “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.” “Filled’ means “controlled.” The Greek literally says, “be continually being controlled by the Spirit.” This is an ongoing, daily decision we must make.

Why be filled with the Spirit?

When we are living under the control of the Holy Spirit, we are empowered for our purpose and work (Acts 1:8). We find the comfort of Christ (John 14:1,18,27-28). We experience his teaching, counsel, guidance and wisdom (John 14:26). The Spirit anchors, stabilizes, grows, and matures us (Ephesians 4:14-16).

The Spirit then equips us against Satan (Ephesians 6:10-17; 1 John 4:4). And he makes us witnesses to the world (Matthew 28:18-20). Without his power, we cannot fulfill his purpose. With his power, no purpose is beyond our fulfillment.

How are we filled with the Spirit?

Begin at the beginning of the day. A runner does not finish the race and then warm up. We don’t fill the car’s tank after the trip is done. The earlier you give your day to the Spirit, the more of your day he can bless.

First, we must confess our sins, for the “Holy” Spirit cannot control a person in rebellion against the Lord. We can lie against the Spirit (Acts 5:3), grieve him (Ephesians 4:30), and quench his power in our lives (1 Thessalonians 5:19). So get a piece of paper and a pencil, and get alone with God. Ask the Spirit to reveal to your mind anything which is separating you from God. Write down whatever comes to mind, as specifically and honestly as possible. Then confess each sin specifically to God, claim his forgiving grace (1 John 1:9), and throw the paper away. Conduct this “spiritual inventory” regularly.

Next, surrender every dimension of your life to the Spirit. Put him in charge of your plans for the day, your decisions, problems, and opportunities. Ask him to guide your steps and protect your character. Yield all that you will do this day to him.

Now, step out by faith, believing that he has answered your prayer. The Bible nowhere describes how it feels to be filled with the Spirit. It takes just as much faith to believe that the Spirit is controlling your day as it did to ask Jesus to be your Savior.

Here is what will not result from this decision: continuous emotional heights (Ephesians 5:19), permanent filling (Ephesians 5:18), sinless perfection (1 John 1:8), or any particular gift (1 Corinthians 12:29-30). Here are results of this decision as seen in the book of Acts: preaching and witnessing in the power of the Spirit (Acts 2:4ff); gathering in fellowship (2:42,46); performing signs, wonders, and miracles (2:43; 19:11); giving sacrificially to needy brethren (2:44-45); healing the sick and the lame (4:31); adding new believers (2:45; 5:14); expanding the faith and establishing churches in new areas (9:31); maintaining the unity of the believers (4:32); raising the dead (9:36); and defeating Satan and his demons (13:6-12; 16:16).

When we are surrendered to the Spirit, we are empowered for God’s purpose and plan for our lives. And eternity is always affected by our obedience.

Conclusion

We have learned that the Holy Spirit is God indwelling us. He affects and empowers every dimension of our lives. He directs every step and decision of our days. He is the Lord who gives us significance and purpose, life and a future.

We can measure the degree to which we are surrendered to the Spirit by the “fruit” or results which manifest themselves in our lives: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22). Would those who know you best say that they see the Spirit at work in your life today?

One of my favorite stories concerns a father arriving home from work one day. His two little girls ran to meet him. The five-year-old got to him first, throwing her arms around his legs. Hedges on either side of the sidewalk kept the three-year-old from going around her big sister to her father. Standing on the sidewalk, she began to cry. So her father reached down and picked her up.

The big sister then taunted her little sister, “Ha, ha, ha–I’ve got all of Daddy there is.” The little sister replied, “Ha, ha, ha–Daddy’s got all of me there is.” If Jesus is your Lord, you have all of God there is. Does he have all of you?

Who Will Win The Oscar?

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Who Will Win the Oscar?

Matthew 6:1

Dr. Jim Denison

Last Tuesday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its nominations for this year’s Academy Awards. The winners will each receive something called an “Oscar,” though no one knows why. One possible answer is that early on, the Academy librarian said the statuette resembled her Uncle Oscar.

An Oscar weighs 8.5 pounds and stands 13.5 inches tall. It depicts a knight holding a crusader’s sword, standing on a reel of film. It takes twelve people twenty hours to make one of the 50 statuettes produced each year. The Oscars are then shipped in unmarked cardboard boxes for security reasons, though they were stolen three years ago and found nine days later next to a dumpster.

Last year, 41 million people watched to see who would win an Oscar. On March 23, we’ll watch again. And then forget what we saw. Who won last year? The year before? Who really cares?

However, another performance is being watched every day by an audience of One. You’re on his stage right now. And his judgment will last forever.

This morning we’ll learn that God cares more about our hearts than our hands, our motives more than our methods. His is the only reward which can give us joy, peace, and significance, long after the world’s awards have faded. So, how do we receive his reward, in this life and for all eternity? How do we please our audience of One?

Who is our audience?

Jesus begins: “Be careful.” The words in the original are much stronger; they mean to be on your guard now, to take heed immediately. Jesus sets up a sign along the highway: Don’t go here! Bridge out—falling rock—dead end. Turn back now! When the all-knowing, all-seeing God of the universe warns us not to travel down a road, we want to “be careful.”

Of what? “Not to do your acts of righteousness….”

Jesus refers to the religious activities he’ll address shortly: giving, praying, fasting. But he also means the issues he has just addressed: giving to those who ask, loving our enemy.

He assumes that we’ll do these “acts of righteousness.” The issue is not the action, but the motive. Not the “what” but the “why.”

So here are the key words: “before men, to be seen by them.”

The syntax means, “for the purpose of being seen by men.”

Now the Oscar comes into view: “to be seen by” translates the word theathenai, from which we get “theatrical.” The phrase means “to be theatrical before men” and is best translated, “do not do your acts of righteousness as an actor on a stage, seeking the applause of men as your audience.”

His concern is not with our methods, but our motives. He wants us to work hard and well, so that our world will praise the God whom we serve. Not for our glory, but for his. Not for our applause, but for his alone. Why does he warn us so strongly about this “desire for glory”?

Such pride can corrupt us morally, as we compromise for applause. The Chinese have a proverb, “He who sacrifices his conscience to ambition burns a picture to obtain the ashes.” How many in public life have done this in recent years?

Ego steals our peace and joy. As the story goes, a monk in a wilderness cave was so famous for his holiness that even demons tempting him with great wealth and sensuous pleasure failed. He just sat serenely. So the devil barked, “Step aside, and I will show you what has never failed.” He leaned over to the monk and whispered, “Have you heard the news? Your classmate Makarios has just been named bishop of Alexandria.” And the monk scowled.

Pride causes us to hurt others for our sake. T. S. Eliot was right: “Most of the trouble in the world is caused by people who want to be important.”

Pride hurts us with God, not just with people.

God’s word is clear: “If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord” (Romans 14:8); “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:17); “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Pride keeps God from using us fully. Martin Luther: “God creates out of nothing. Therefore, until a man is nothing, God can make nothing out of him.”

Kenneth Blanchard, co-author of the business classic The One-Minute Manager, says, “I define ego as Edging God Out.”

And Jesus taught us that when we live for the applause of the world more than for God’s glory, “you will have no reward from your Father in heaven” (6.1b). His reward is “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:4). His is the reward for which we were made. It alone satisfies the hunger in our souls, the longing for significance and meaning in our hearts. The world’s applause will die as quickly in our lives as at the Oscars. But the reward Jesus gives to those who live for his glory, to please him, is for now and forever.

My favorite story about humility comes from the time Muhammad Ali was about to take off on an airplane. He was in his prime, on top of the world. The flight attendant reminded him to fasten his seat belt, and he said brashly, “Superman don’t need no seat belt.” She came back, “Superman don’t need no airplane, either.” He fasted his belt.

That was then; this is now. The former heavyweight champion of the world was interviewed not long ago. The reporter met him in the barn on his property. His awards, trophies, posters were lying against the barn walls, bird droppings running down them. He could barely speak, and his hands quivered constantly. He gestured to the awards around him and whispered, “Look at all that. It don’t mean nothin’ now.”

What motivates us?

Let’s apply Jesus’ words to our church first, and then to our personal lives. What motivates Park Cities Baptist Church? Who is the audience of our ministries and activities? For whose sake do we do what we do?

Our vision is clear, and given to us by our Lord: “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). Disciples are fully-devoted followers of the Lord Jesus. So, we are here to help people follow Jesus.

Our church exists to “help”—to minister, to serve.

To help “people.” Success is not how big our programs become, but how effectively our people follow Christ.

To help people “follow”—as a lifestyle, not just a weekend religion.

To help people follow “Jesus,” to know him personally and eternally.

This is Jesus’ vision, so it must be ours.

Our values are clear.

We exist to evangelize the lost, then equip the saved for their ministries, then engage them in those ministries so they can evangelize the lost.

Remember the difference between evangelism and discipleship: if I won one person a day to Christ for 33 years, 12,045 would be saved. But if I won and discipled one person a year, and they in turn won and discipled another person next year while I did the same, and so on, in 33 years, more than eight billion would be saved.

And our power is clear.

As we exalt Christ, he empowers us to evangelize, equip, and engage. Worship is the center of all we do, for we exist to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. Only then can we love our neighbor as ourselves. We must worship passionately before we can live biblically, serve joyfully, and love practically.

And so the purpose of worship, as this text makes clear, is not to impress you but to impress God. As Stephen Holcomb has said, worship is encountering God. You are the performers, not the ones on this platform. The sanctuary is the stage; this platform is the sideline, where the coaches stand and help. We send in the plays, but you must perform them. We encourage, but you must exalt. God is your audience of One.

And so we select music and message each week which will best help you encounter God. On some Sundays we use traditional elements; sometimes we use classical elements; sometimes we use more contemporary elements—all depending on the text, or the season of the year, or the world circumstances of that week. Our music and message do not depend on what we on this platform “like,” but on what you need to encounter God that week. We are successful to the degree that you encounter God each week.

Now, is our motive clear? Do we help people follow Jesus for his sake, or for ours? Are we trying to build a bigger church, or a bigger Kingdom? Do we worship for us, or for God? Is our church for us, or for God?

Corrie ten Boom was asked if it was difficult for her to remain humble. Her reply was simple: “When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday on the back of a donkey, and everyone was waving palm branches and throwing garments on the road, singing praises, do you think that for one moment it ever entered the head of that donkey that any of that was for him? If I can be that donkey on which Jesus Christ rides to his glory, I give him all the praise and honor.” So must we.

Conclusion

Now, let’s close personally. What motivates you? Why do you do your “acts of righteousness”?

Why are you trying to succeed at school? At work? At home? Is it for God’s glory or yours?

Why do you do your “acts of righteousness” at church? Why do you teach your class? Serve on your committee? Perform your ministry? Sing in the choir? Why do I preach? Is it for God’s glory or ours?

John Adams: “I believe that there is no one principle which predominates in human nature so much in every stage of life, from the cradle to the grave, in males and females, old and young, black and white, rich and poor, high and low, as [the] passion for superiority” (David McCullough, John Adams, 170).

The ancient Roman historian Tacitus agreed: “The desire for glory clings even to the best men longer than any other passion.”

If “ego” is “edging God out,” what can we do to prevent this? To be sure that we do our “acts of righteousness” for God’s glory and not our own? I have two suggestions.

First, every time you are tempted to pride yourself in what you do, make the conscious decision to be humble instead. To do this for God’s glory alone. Be intentional about this. Erasmus, the outstanding Reformation-era scholar, offers brilliant advice: “use temptation as a means to virtue. If your inclinations are to be greedy and selfish, increase your donations to charity. If you tend toward boasting, make a deliberate effort to be humble in all things. This way you can find in temptation a renewed determination to increase in piety. This procedure is the one that most galls Satan. It makes him afraid to tempt you because nothing is more hateful to the Author of Evil than that he should be responsible for some good” (Handbook of the Militant Christian, 1503, twelfth rule).

Second, pray about this daily. Jesus stands ready to help you. And you need his help. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the great English Bible teacher, prayed every day of his life this prayer: “Lord, keep me from pride.” How long has it been since you made this your prayer?

The largest statue ever carved from a single piece of stone weighed more than two million pounds. It was a figure of Ramses I, the Egyptian Pharaoh who died in 1317 B.C. When the children of Israel left Egypt, they passed his enormous statue.

Who would have dreamed that these ragged former slaves, trudging out into the hardships of the unknown desert, would amount to anything? But today Ramses’ statue lies broken in the sands of Egypt. Meanwhile, the movement God began with those children of Israel, men and women willing to live in God’s will and for his glory, have been used by his hand to change our world forever. To touch your soul and mind. To glorify our Maker and King.

They win the only Oscar that matters. Will you?

Who Will You Bring To Jesus?

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Who Will You Bring to Jesus?

Dr. Jim Denison

Luke 14:15-24

Thesis: “Grace is given not because we have done good works,

but in order that we may be able to do them.” Augustine

I once heard the famous preacher Frederick Sampson tell about spending a summer on his uncle’s farm. His first morning, his farmer uncle rousted him out of his bed in the hayloft at 4:00 in the morning, and got him busy mucking out stalls, sweeping floors, chopping wood, heating water, doing whatever the house and barn required.

Finally Fred was done. He started back up the ladder to the hayloft to go back to sleep. His uncle stopped him and asked where he was going. Fred said, “I’ve finished my work.” His uncle bent down, put his finger in Fred’s face, and said, “I’m going to tell you something, and don’t you ever forget it. What you do around the house is chores. What you do in the fields is work.”

To extend the Kingdom of God, we must work in the fields. This week’s parable shows us how and why to do this work. But understand: this is a parable of grace, not works. To be invited into the Kingdom is grace. To extend that invitation to others is grace. Augustine was right: “grace is given not because we have done good works, but in order that we may be able to do them.” Here’s how to “do them.”

Look forward to the party

Our text begins: “When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus . . .” (Luke 14.15). Luke 14 has already told the story of Jesus’ dinner at the house of a “prominent Pharisee” (v. 1). Here Jesus watched as “the guests picked the places of honor at the table” (v. 7). So he urged his host: “When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (vs. 13-14).

In response to Jesus’ reference to the resurrection, one of the invited guests at the banquet made his exclamation: “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God” (v. 15). The man was well educated in rabbinic theology. The rabbis typically used the banquet table as a symbol for the bliss of heaven (Robertson 197).

They expected that the Messiah “would be a temporal prince, and that his reign would be one of great magnificence and splendor. They supposed that the Jews then would be delivered from all their oppressions, and that, from being a degraded people, they would become the most distinguished and happy nation of the earth. To that period they looked forward as one of great happiness” (Barnes 96).

Jesus did not at all deny the man’s theology. Heaven will in fact be a great feast in the presence of the Lord, for “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” (Revelation 19.9). But Jesus corrected the man’s assumption that Jews, and only Jews, would attend the festival. The parable we are studying this week shows who will be part of the great feast, and who will not.

Before we explore Jesus’ story, let’s rejoice in its premise. Heaven will be a party. It will be a celebration, an eternal feast in the presence of our loving Father. It will be glory beyond description, for “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2.9). Those seated at God’s banquet table “will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21.3-4).

One day all of us who know Jesus personally will answer his invitation, “so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom” (Luke 22.30). On that day, “Many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 8.11).

The kingdom of God is a party. If Jesus is your Lord, you will spend eternity by his side, at his banquet. This is the good news of God.

Come when you’re called

Now, who will attend with you? Jesus’ story begins: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests” (v. 16). In Jesus’ parables the kingdom of God is always central. The hero is always the King. Here, he is the man giving the “great banquet.”

To his festival he “invited many guests.” God “is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3.9). Who can come to his party? “Whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3.16). The king wants “many guests” at his table.

So he sent out the first invitation. In ancient Palestine, banquets were announced long before the preparations were finished. There were many factors which affected the actual date and time of the feast. Weather was always a factor in their society, where meals were typically cooked and eaten out of doors. Harvests and the availability of food varied widely. Health issues were harder to resolve. Political circumstances changed often.

And so it was customary to invite people to a feast, then notify those who accepted the invitation when the meal was actually prepared. As people had fewer distractions than we face today, it was far more likely that they would respond to such an immediate notice. And once they had accepted the first invitation to come, they were honor bound to do so (cf. Esther 5.8; Bliss 235; Barclay 192-3).

Now the time was at hand. The master “sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready'” (v. 17). “Sent” is the word “apostello,” meaning to send as an official and authoritative representative (Rienecker 184; this is the root of the word “apostle”). This servant has come in the name and authority of his master, acting on his behalf. In the same way we are sent to our unbelieving world as “Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us” (2 Corinthians 5.20).

To refuse this servant was to refuse his master, a great and grave insult. But tragically, unbelievably, “they all alike began to make excuses” (v. 18). Every person who had accepted the master’s first invitation now refused to come. Their meal had been cooked, their place prepared, but now they declined.

Three examples of their excuses were offered. The first: “I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it” (v. 18). One typically sees the farm before buying it. Some ancient purchases did require a postpurchase inspection, but it could be done at any time (Boch 252). The field would still be waiting after the banquet was done.

Here is a man who “allowed the claims of business to usurp the claims of God.” Unfortunately, “It is still possible for a man to be so immersed in this world that he has no time for worship, and even no time to pray” (Barclay 194). Jesus gives us the antidote to such materialism: “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6.33).

The second excuse is no better than the first: “I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out” (v. 19). Most landowners had only one or two oxen; this man is clearly wealthy by ancient standards (Boch 252). He could easily have sent a servant to do this work for him. And he had no reason to hurry. He would have tried the oxen before buying them, or could wait until the banquet was done to do so.

If the first man let materialism keep him from God, the second was the victim of “the claims of novelty”: “It often happens that when people enter into new possessions they become so taken up with them that the claims of worship and of God get crowded out. . . . It is perilously easy for a new game, a new hobby, even a new friendship, to take up the time that should be kept for God” (Barclay 194).

The third excuse is worst of all: “I just got married, so I can’t come” (v. 20). This man knew he would be getting married when he accepted the first invitation to the banquet. An engagement period typically lasted a year or more in ancient Israel, with the date for the actual wedding determined months beforehand. And the new wife would have been happy to go to the feast with her new husband if asked (Robertson 198).

The law excused a man newly married from war (Deuteronomy 24.5), but not from his social obligations. Here a man refuses to honor his commitment to the banquet, and blames his wife for his failure. Barclay is right: “It is one of the tragedies of life when good things crowd out the claims of God. There is no lovelier thing than a home and yet a home was never meant to be used selfishly. They live best together who live with God; they serve each other best who also serve their fellow-men; the atmosphere of a home is most lovely when those who dwell within it remember that they are also members of the great family and household of God” (194).

No wonder the owner of the house “became angry” (v. 21). “Angry” is actually the word for being “enraged” (Bruce 574). His honor has been insulted in the extreme. The entire town knew of his banquet, and would now know of this grave injury to the man’s honor. There is no surprise in his reaction. But his solution to the crisis would surprise every person who heard this parable from our Lord.

From this portion of the parable we learn a significant fact: we must come when God calls us. It is not enough to believe that the owner of the house exists. It is not enough to know that we are invited to his banquet. It is not even enough to decide that we will attend. We must come. We must commit our lives to his call. In this sense, “faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (James 2.17).

Invite everyone you know

Have you accepted the invitation of Jesus to his banquet in heaven? Have you made him your Savior and Lord? Have you surrendered your life to his purpose and will? If so, if you know that you will be in paradise with him (Luke 23.43), here’s what you must do now: invite everyone you know to join you there.

The master of the feast “ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame'” (Luke 14.21). “Go out”—go to them. Don’t wait for them to come. They likely do not know they are welcome at the feast. They have no way to come.

Go “quickly,” urgently. The feast is ready; there is no time to waste. The harvest is white, the time is at hand. This is the only day we have: “Now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6.2). None of us has been promised tomorrow. Go today.

Go to the “streets,” the broad roads traveled by a great variety of people. Go to the “alleys,” the small lanes or side paths (Liefeld 978). Go to all the streets and alleys “of the town.” Those living here likely heard about the feast, and probably envied those invited. But they would never expect to be admitted. Go and give them the good news.

Bring in the “poor,” though Jews thought the impoverished were being punished by God. Bring in the “crippled,” though the physically challenged were barred from full participation in Jewish worship (Rienecker 184-5; cf. Leviticus 21.17-23). Bring in the “blind,” though the Jews saw blindness as a sign of spiritual judgment (cf. John 9.1-3). Bring the “lame,” because they cannot come on their own. None of these unfortunates would ever expect to be welcomed at the estate of this wealthy master. None would come unless invited and brought.

The servant was obedient to his master: “Sir, what you ordered has been done” (v. 22). But this is a great feast, for “there is still room.” This is a banquet “on a grand scale, worthy emblem of the magnificence of Divine grace” (Bruce 574).

There is still room indeed. And we are grateful: “What a sad message it would be if we were compelled to go and say, ‘There is no more room—heaven is full—not another one can be saved. No matter what their prayers, or tears, or sighs, they cannot be saved. Every place is filled, every seat occupied.’ But, thanks be to God, this is not the message which we are to bear; and if there yet is room, come, sinners, young and old, and enter into heaven. Fill up that room, that heaven may be full of the happy and the blessed. If any part of the universe is to be vacant, O let it be the dark world of woe!” (Barnes 98).

There will be room at this table for “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb” (Rev 7.9). There is room at this table for all who will come to the mercy of God.

Now the servant was sent to “the roads and country lanes” (v. 23). The “roads” were the main streets leading from town to town. The “country lanes” were hedges, footpaths between fields. These hedges were typically made of thorns, planted thick to keep cattle out of the vineyard. Those who lived and worked there would be poor laborers, the lowest class, people of great poverty (Barnes 98).

Those the servant would find on these roads and lanes would be people who did not know the host at all. They had no idea of his existence or his invitation (Boch 253). Jesus’ immediate reference may have been to the Gentiles who lived outside the Jewish community (Bruce 574). In a larger sense, the parable points us to those who have heard of our master (in the “town”) and those who have not. Every person is invited.

The servant was told to “make them come in, so that my house will be full” (Luke 14.23). The word “make” is the word for “compel.” But it does not mean to cause a person to come against his or her will. It means to persuade, to convince, to motivate. It is found in Matthew 14.22, “Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side”; it is found in Acts 26.11, “I tried to force them to blaspheme”; and in Galatians 6.12, “trying to compel you to be circumcised.”

This text must never be used to justify religious persecution. We cannot coerce people into the Christian faith. Tragically, Augustine and others used it as a pretext for such religious coercion, and it was later cited in defending the Inquisition and other campaigns against “heretics” (Barclay 193).

The meaning is simple: we must do all we can to encourage people to attend the banquet in heaven with us. We must not accept excuses. Just as a physician would not let a man dying of cancer excuse himself from treatment, so we must not allow our friends and family to excuse themselves from the kingdom of God. At the end of the day, the decision must be theirs. But we will do all we can to help them make the right choice.

With this result: “so that my house will be full. I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet” (Luke 14.23-24). If we will not come to Jesus while on earth, we cannot be with him in heaven, for “man is destined to die once and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9.27).

Philip Yancey tells the story of just such an unusual wedding banquet, from the Boston Globe’s account in June of 1990. A woman, accompanied by her fiancé, went to the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Boston to order the wedding meal. They arranged for an expensive party, with a bill of $13,000. After leaving a check for half the amount as a down payment, they went home to look at wedding announcements.

The day the announcements were supposed to be mailed, the groom got cold feet. “I’m just not sure,” he said. “It’s a big commitment. Let’s think about this a little longer.”

His angry fiancée returned to the Hyatt to cancel the banquet, to discover that she had signed a binding contract and could only receive $1,300 back. She had two options: go ahead with the banquet, or forfeit the rest of her down payment. The jilted bride made a wonderful decision: she turned her banquet into a real party.

Ten years before, this woman had been living in a homeless shelter. Now, after years of hard work and progress, she had a sizeable nest egg. She decided to use her savings to treat those who were where she had been.

So it was that in June of 1990 the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Boston hosted a memorable party. The hostess changed the menu to boneless chicken, “in honor of the groom.” She sent invitations to rescue missions and homeless shelters. That warm summer night, people who expected to peel half-gnawed pizza off cardboard dined instead on chicken cordon bleu. Hyatt waiters in tuxedoes served hors d’oeuvres to senior adults walking on crutches and canes. Bag ladies, vagrants, and drug addicts took one night from the hard life of the streets outside and instead sipped champagne, ate chocolate wedding cake, and danced late into the night.

And so will we, one day. Who will join you? When you see Jesus at his table, he will ask, “Who did you bring me?” What will be your answer?

To extend the kingdom of God, invite everyone you know to its banquet. Tell your friends and family that it will be a joyful, eternal feast. Do all you can to convince them to join you at the table. Pray for those you don’t know. Support missionaries and ministries which will reach them. Go yourself. Do all you can to bring as many to Jesus as you can. And you will spend eternity in the joyful knowledge that others are in heaven because God used you.

The rabbis had a story which seems appropriate as a footnote to Jesus’ parable. A man died and went to heaven. Before he entered, he told the Lord that he had always been curious about hell. He wondered if he could see it before he entered heaven. So the Lord sent the man with an angel to hell.

The man walked into a banquet hall, and found a table heaped to overflowing with every kind of good food. Seated around it were thousands and thousands of people, starving to death. He couldn’t understand why, until he watched them eat. Each had a long wooden spoon. The spoon was so long that when the people used it to pick up food, they couldn’t get it to their mouths. They would spend eternity so close to food, and yet starving.

The man was horrified, and implored the angel to take him to heaven. So he did. There the man found another banquet table, identical to the one in hell. Heaped to overflowing with every kind of good food, surrounded by people with the same long spoons he had seen in hell. But these people looked well fed and happy. He couldn’t understand, until he watched them eat.

The people in hell tried to feed themselves. The people in heaven fed each other.