This is the series archive

Using Babylonian Kings

Written by

Topical Scripture: Matthew 5:33-37

Many years ago, I learned how to cuss and be a Baptist preacher: use Babylonian kings’ names. When you miss a three-foot putt say “Belshazzer!” When someone cuts you off on the interstate say “Nebuchadnezzar!” It works.

Jesus wants to talk with us about our language today. And we need the help.

Research indicates that 64 percent of Americans agree with the statement, “I will lie when it suits me, so long as it doesn’t cause any real damage.” Ninety-one percent say they lie “regularly.” Only 31 percent believe that honesty is the best policy.

Today Jesus wants to talk with us about truth telling. We’ll focus on our words, because they both reveal and mold our souls.

Why tell the truth?

Our Lord begins: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn'” (v. 33). Here he summarizes passages from Leviticus 19, Numbers 30, and Deuteronomy 23. And he agrees: lying is wrong.

So what is lying?

  • Speaking false words: half-truths, exaggerations, misquotes, slander.
  • Giving false impressions: misleading about our accomplishments, or income, or relationships. Sometimes we do this in spiritual garb: “Pray for the Smiths, they’re having trouble at home” or “Pray for the Joneses, their child is struggling in school.” Gossip in the guise of spirituality.
  • Withholding truth: “If someone sins because they do not speak up when they hear a public charge to testify regarding something they have seen or learned about, they will be held responsible” (Leviticus 5:1). Listening to slander or gossip without correcting it; agreeing tacitly to falsehood; refusing to pay the price of truth.

Why tell the truth? Because God consistently commands and commends truth-telling.

  • Without exception: “These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to each other, and render true and sound judgment in your courts” (Zechariah 8:16).
  • Every one of us: “Each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body” (Ephesians 4:25).
  • No matter how tempted we are to lie: “Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place” (Ephesians 6:14).

This is the key to peace with God and ourselves: “True instruction was in his mouth and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many from sin” (Malachi 2:6).

Why tell the truth? Because God condemns lying:

  • Here is what the Lord thinks of lies: “The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy” (Proverbs 12:22).
  • He warns us: “A fortune made by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor and a deadly snare” (Proverbs 21:6). Enron employees can attest that God is right.
  • Lying breaks our relationship with God: “No one who practices deceit will dwell in my house; no one who speaks falsely will stand in my presence” (Psalm 101:7).
  • God must punish those who lie: “You destroy those who tell lies. The bloodthirsty and deceitful you, Lord, detest” (Psalm 5:6).

So God commands us: “Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices” (Colossians 3:9).

Why tell the truth? Because our words reveal our souls. Jesus said, “The mouth speaks what the heart is full of” (Matthew 12:34). Our words are windows into our souls, and a witness we can never retract. How do we unring a bell?

Why tell the truth? Because our words mold our souls. James, the brother of our Lord and pastor of the first church at Jerusalem, makes the point clear: “the tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell” (James 3:6).

When we lie we become liars. Our words take on a power and life of their own. I don’t fully know why, but the words I speak shape how I think and feel. When I fail and then condemn myself, I become more of a failure. When I succeed and then encourage myself, I become more of a success. Our words reveal us, and they mold us.

Why do we tell lies?

Given their importance, the value of truth, why do we lie?

Comedian Jay Leno told a somewhat embarrassing story about himself in his book, Leading With My Chin. The problem is that it didn’t happen to him, but to another comedian, Jeff Altman. When the deception was discovered, Jay told a reporter for the New York Post that he liked the story so much he paid Altman $1,000 for the right to publish it as his own.

Why did he do it? Why do we? Think about the last lie you told. Why did you tell it?

One: Lying is part of our fallen human nature: “Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward, spreading lies” (Psalm 58:3).

Two: We lie to compensate for our own failures. We have some sense of the way things should be, of life as God intended it. But we know that we are failing to live up to this standard.

So we create a false self, an “idealized self,” the person we wish we were. And we spend the rest of our lives trying to live up to this person. But we cannot. So we lie, to others and to ourselves. We lie to be the people we aren’t. We lie to be empowered, to control the situation. It’s part of our fallen nature.

Three: We lie to get ahead. To get the account, to close the deal. To impress the girl or the boy. To please our parents. To further our agenda.

Four: We lie to hurt those who hurt us. Someone lies to us, so we lie to them. They hurt us, so we get revenge. We start or repeat half-truths, rumors, gossip, slander, to hurt the people we feel justified in hurting. After all, they did it to us.

Five: At its root, we lie because we are tempted by Satan himself. Jesus says, “Anything beyond this comes from the evil one” (Matthew 5:37 NIV). Later he explains: Satan “was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). The first sin in the Bible was a lie (Genesis 3:4), told by Satan himself.

Satan wants us to lie, so that we break the word of God, harm our witness, and corrupt our souls.

How do we tell the truth? (vv. 34–37)

So how do we refuse his lies? How do we refuse our own? How do we tell the truth? Here’s the key: give every area of your life to the Lord Jesus. Refuse to divide your days into sacred and secular, religious and the “real world.” Believe that God’s commendation of truth and condemnation of lying applies to your business practices as much as your Sunday school teaching, to your private finances as much as your public faith.

The Jews of Jesus’ culture missed this point completely. They believed they could make an oath and then break it, so long as they did not swear by God himself. They could swear by heaven, or earth, or Jerusalem. They could swear by their heads, as though to say “My head’s on the line if I don’t do this . . .” They could swear by the “secular,” just not the “sacred.”

But Jesus is blunt: there’s no distinction. Heaven is God’s throne room, the place where he lives. Earth is his footstool, his possession. If someone slanders America, we are upset. If you criticize my car or house, I feel criticized, because I own them. Jerusalem is his city. If you criticize Dallas, I’m unhappy. Our heads are his creation. If you criticize my sermon, I feel criticized, because I made it.

Greek philosophers taught that soul and body are separate, spiritual and secular distinct. Keep your faith and your life in separate compartments. Tell the truth at church but lie when necessary at work.

Except that God is as present at work as in church. You belong to him as much there as here. The “secular” does not exist. There is no place which stands outside God’s hearing, his caring, his judging or rewarding. Every word is spiritual, for it is spoken by a tongue God made. It reveals a heart which should be his. It shows who is on the throne of our mind and soul.

Conclusion

What was the last lie you told? Be honest—why did you tell it? To compensate for failure or weakness? To get ahead? To hurt someone who hurt you? Ultimately you did it because Satan tempted you. And you pleased him.

Please remember this week: God commands truth-telling and condemns lying. Your words will reveal and mold your soul. So tell the truth. You’re on the stage. Your world is the panel, watching to know if you’re a truth-teller. And God is the audience.

In the night fog, a ship’s captain saw what appeared to be another ship’s lights. To avoid a collision, he signaled the approaching ship: “Change your heading 10 degrees west.” Back through the fog came the reply: “Change your heading 10 degrees east.” The captain replied with clear irritation: “I am an admiral—change your heading 10 degrees west.” Came the response: “I am a seaman fourth class. Change your heading 10 degrees east.” Furious, the admiral blazed his message: “This is a United States Navy vessel under orders of the U.S. government. Change your heading 10 degrees west.” Came the reply: “Change your heading. I am a lighthouse.”

Live by the truth. Speak the truth. Or you’re sailing your ship in a foggy night. And the rocks are near. What heading do you need to change today?

Voting for God

Written by

Voting For God

Matthew 17.1-8

James C. Denison

I’ve been voting in presidential elections since 1976, and cannot ever remember one like this. A year ago, none of the candidates would have been expected to be here.

On the Democratic side we can vote for a man who was the offspring of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya, raised by a single mother, now in his first term in the Senate. A year ago he trailed significantly in the polls. His running mate lost his wife in a tragic accident and nearly died of a brain aneurism, a year ago he dropped out of the presidential race.

On the Republican side we can vote for a man who was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for nearly six years, suffering the effects of war wounds to this day. A year ago his campaign was nearly bankrupt and trailing in the polls. His running mate was unknown to national politics until ten days ago, and is a 44-year-old self-described “hockey mom.”

But if the candidates were speaking to us this morning, they would testify that their setbacks and challenges have molded and melded them, preparing them to lead our nation. On November 4 you will decide whose past has best prepared them for the future.

God has already cast his vote. He has made his choice, marked his ballot, and you won. He wants you to know that all you have experienced in your life to this day is but preparation for all he wants to do with your life now. On Summerset Sunday our congregation celebrates his blessings to our church family in recent months, and then we recommit ourselves to his call for the days ahead.

Now he wants you to do the same. He wants you to know that his call is worth your life, not just your Sunday mornings, that the biblical message is the true and only hope for our entire planet, the only way of salvation, the only answer to the deepest and most ultimate questions of life.

In addition, your Lord wants you to know that your past does not limit his future, that he has a plan to make your life more significant in his Kingdom than it has ever been. I can prove both assertions today from a single text. I can show you that God has cast his vote for you. Today you can return the favor.

How God prepared them

Travel with me to the Mount of Transfiguration, the most dramatic and shocking event in all of Jesus’ ministry prior to his resurrection. He walked on water, healed the sick, and raised the dead, but only here did he show his full heavenly glory to men. Only here, for this brief moment, did they see him as he truly was and is and ever shall be.

The text begins: “After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves” (v. 1).

These three would be the most significant leaders of Jesus’ movement. Peter would be the first to preach the gospel at Pentecost and open the church to the Gentiles; James will become the first martyr among the apostles; John would give the world the Fourth Gospel, his three letters, and the Revelation.

Jesus wants to equip them for their roles in the future of God’s Kingdom on earth, so he “led them up a high mountain by themselves.” This was most likely Mt. Hermon, the tallest mountain in the region. It stands north of Galilee, in Gentile territory, but can be seen from the Dead Sea, more than 100 miles to the south.

He led them here so they could be “by themselves.” Jesus knew what they needed to know and experience if they were to fulfill his purpose for their lives and future. He knows what you need to know and experience as you fulfill his purpose for your life.

They needed proof of his divinity and the fact that he came to fulfill God’s Messianic promises and plan. So “he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus” (vs. 2-3).

“Transfigured” translates a word which means that his appearance changed but not his essence. He was the fully-divine Son of God clothed in human flesh, but for a moment he pulled back that veil to show them his true and full heavenly glory.

Then Moses appeared before them. Imagine this scene—the giver of their Law, the liberator of their people, the greatest leader their nation had ever known appears again, some 14 centuries after his death, to Galilean fishermen. With his coming they know that Jesus fulfills the Law in its entirety.

And they see Elijah, the first and greatest of their prophets. He had been caught up to God in a whirlwind some eight centuries earlier; now he appears again on earth with the One who fulfills every word of every revelation of the prophets of God.

Peter wants to stay right here, to pitch their tents and remain on the mountain, far from the terrors and tumult waiting below. But God was having none of it: “While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” (v. 5).

Just as a cloud of divine glory covered Mt. Sinai when God gave the Ten Commandments, and covered the completed Tabernacle and the completed Temple, so that cloud now overshadowed them. Through it God commanded these men, “Listen to him!” Literally in the Greek, “Hear you him!” He spoke it to Peter and to the others, and through them to us as well.

Understandably, “they fell facedown to the ground, terrified” (v. 6). But Jesus touched them and said literally, “Stop being afraid” (v. 7). And “when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus” (v. 8). Not Moses or Elijah. Not religious leaders, not rabbis or Pharisees or Sadducees or priests; not military conquerors or wealthy landowners or brilliant philosophers. Only Jesus.

How God prepares us

On their way down the mountain Jesus reminds them that “the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands” (v. 12). It won’t be long now to the cross. As soon as they return to the valley below they meet a boy possessed by a demon and representing the spiritual battle which awaits them. What they saw on the mountain with the glorified Christ would prepare them for all the valleys and enemies to come. Now we have studied this event so it might do the same for us.

Here we learn that Jesus is God. He is not merely a great teacher or religious leader—he was and is the God of the universe.

The Bible says that he made all that has been made (John 1:3), and that he now holds the entire universe together (Colossians 1:17). His miracles demonstrate his divinity. His transfiguration demonstrates his divinity. Most of all, his resurrection demonstrates his divinity.

The birth of the Church demonstrates his divinity, springing to life in the face of furious opposition from the mightiest Empire the world has ever seen. The growth of the Church across 20 centuries demonstrates his divinity. No other religious movement has ever prospered despite systematic and rigorous persecution as has Christianity. More Christians have died for their faith than martyrs in all other world religions combined. More died in the 20th century than the previous 19 combined.

And yet the Church is on the march and on the move around the world today; historians are calling this the Fifth Great Awakening in China, and sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin and South America, and South Korea, and places across the Pacific Rim. What Jesus proved on Mt. Hermon he continues to prove daily—he is God.

Here we learn that Jesus is the only God. It is blasphemy for a Muslim to claim that Muhammad is God; their central affirmation is, “There is no God but God, and Muhammad is his prophet.” Buddha denied the existence of a personal God. Hindus believe in thousands of individual gods but no all-powerful personal Lord. Jews would reject any rabbi or priest who claimed to be God.

But no other religious leader has ever been transfigured. None has ever been raised from the dead. None has ever sparked a movement like Christianity. Jesus is the only God.

And so this God was worth their lives, their worship, their service and their sacrifice. Peter would be crucified upside down; James would be stoned to death; John would be exiled on Patmos and suffer great persecution—all for claiming that Jesus is the only God.

This God is worth our lives, our worship, our service and our sacrifice. There is no greater privilege than following Jesus. There is no greater purpose than helping other people follow Jesus. Whatever it costs to be fully his is worth its price and more.

The good news is that the God who prepared his first disciples to love and serve him has prepared you to love and serve him. He has given you spiritual gifts which will glorify him and extend his Kingdom. He has put you in places of enormous influence in this community and culture. He has given you a mission field in your school and work and neighborhood and home. He has prepared you for all he now wants to do with you. The tragedy is that we limit God’s future by our past.

Conclusion

Many of us think that we cannot make a real difference for God, not beyond coming to church services and giving money and volunteering time and doing religious charity. Many of us don’t think we can really win our neighbors and colleagues and friends to Jesus. Many of us know our past failures and mistakes and question whether God can really use us to do something significant and eternal.

But that’s a lie from Satan himself.

If our church will be courageous enough to ask God to use us this fall, more than he has ever used us before, he will rejoice to hear and answer our prayer. He will rejoice to lead and empower and bless us as we assault the gates of hell and build the Kingdom of God in Dallas and around the world.

If you will be audacious enough to ask God to use your life this fall, more than he has ever used you before, he will rejoice to hear and answer your prayer. He will use you where you are as you stand for him and share his word and love and grace. He will guide you into future significance you cannot imagine today. What you have been is no measure of what you will be in the hands of the transfiguring God of the universe.

In these days we’re thinking about four national, now-famous leaders and choosing those whose past best prepares them for the future. I found myself thinking this week about four other national, now-famous leaders, four of the greatest presidents in our history.

If you’ve been to Mt. Rushmore, you’ve stood in awe before the likenesses of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. There was a time when none of them would have been expected to be elected president, much less be engraved on one of our national landmarks.

George Washington lost the first battle of the War for Independence, and so many thereafter that an effort was made in 1777 to oust him from his command. He lost a quarter of his army at Valley Forge that winter; many thought the war effort doomed before he was able to rally his forces and eventually win our freedom.

When Thomas Jefferson retired as Governor of Virginia in 1781, the legislature published a report highly critical of his performance. His wife died the next year and he retired from public life. He was persuaded to run for president in 1796 but lost to John Adams. No one then knew that he would become one of our greatest presidents.

Theodore Roosevelt was an asthmatic child, forced to sleep propped up by pillows or in a chair. When he graduated from college his doctor warned him that his weakened heart could not stand a strenuous life. When his first wife and mother died on the same day, he abandoned public life for ranching in the Dakotas. Only when a harsh winter wiped him out did he return to New York and eventually was elected Vice-President. Only when President McKinley was assassinated did he ascend to the nation’s highest office.

Abraham Lincoln lost more elections than he won. He suffered severe, incapacitating and occasionally suicidal depression. He may have suffered from Marfan’s syndrome with its accompanying long limbs, skeletal problems, and heart problems. Before he was elected president in 1860, who would have predicted that he would become perhaps our greatest president?

When three Galilean fishermen stood on Mt. Hermon that day, none of them knew that they would launch a movement which would change the world and reach us in Dallas today. The past was no limit to God’s future. It never is.

Waiting in Expectation

Written by

Waiting in expectation:

How to pray with power

Dr. Jim Denison

Psalm 5

Prayer and Psalm 5

Why pray?

If God knows what we are going to ask, why ask? If he already knows what he is going to do, why pray? If my prayer causes God to do some good thing he was not going to do until I prayed, what does this say about the character of God? Why does he sometimes heal when we pray and sometimes not? Why pray?

The first answer to the question is the one children don’t like to hear: because our Father says so. Because Scripture tells us to pray.

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus was explicit: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). Ask, seek, knock–each is an imperative, not a suggestion. Each is God’s demand of us.

A second reason to pray: time with God changes us. When we are in the presence of God, his Spirit transforms us. Prayer is the way the Carpenter shapes and molds the wood of our lives. He must touch us to change us. In prayer we do not talk about him, but to him. We do not study him, we are with him. And then our time in prayer makes us more like his Son, which is his purpose for our lives (Romans 8:29).

Frederick Buechner said that we are to pray continually “not, one assumes, because you have to beat a path to God’s door before he’ll open it, but because until you beat the path maybe there’s no way of getting to your door.”

Blaise Pascal believed that “All the troubles of life come upon us because we refuse to sit quietly for a while each day in our rooms.” Gordon MacDonald adds: “I have begun to see that worship and intercession are far more the business of aligning myself with God’s purposes than asking him to align with mine.”

Oswald Chambers taught, “Prayer is the way the life of God is nourished. We look upon prayer as a means of getting things for ourselves; the Bible’s idea of prayer is that we may get to know God himself.”

We pray because God tells us to. Why does he want us to pray? Because then he can shape and mold us, preparing us for eternity and using us on earth. Prayer is the hand of God on our souls.

A third reason: prayer positions us to receive what God’s grace wants to give. You could not read these words unless you were close enough to your computer or page to be able to see them. Sitting in front of your computer screen does not mean that you deserve these words, good or bad. Just that you can receive them.

In the same way, there is much God wants to give us but cannot until we are willing to receive his grace. We have not because we ask not (James 4:2). He wanted to guide me in writing this essay, but could not speak effectively to me unless I was ready to listen. He wants to guide you through the rest of this day, but cannot unless you are willing to follow. Time in prayer connects your Spirit with his, so you can hear his voice and follow his will.

A fourth reason: because our Father always hears us. Jesus promised: ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened. No exceptions. God has an “open door” policy with the universe. Billions of people pray in thousands of languages, all at the same time, and God hears each one. You included.

Jesus followed his promise with a parable (vs. 9-11). Stones along the Sea of Galilee were small limestone balls, in appearance much like the bread of the day. Fish-like snakes grew in the Sea; they were without scales and thus forbidden to the Jews as food (Leviticus 11:12). Now, if you were a father in those days and your hungry child asked for bread, would you trick him with a stone? If he asked for a fish, would you give him a snake? Of course not. And compared to God, we are “evil.” Our perfect Father who is love always hears us. This is the promise of God.

When we pray

“Hearing” and “answering” may not be the same thing. We often say that God hasn’t heard our prayers if he has not yet granted our request in the way we asked it. But a father hears the child’s request which he must refuse just as he hears the request he can grant.

Here’s a one-sentence theology of prayer: when we pray, God always gives us what we ask for or something better. He always hears us, and always grants our request in the way that is for his glory and our good. He is not capricious, arbitrary, or deaf. He is a Father who is excited every time one of his children calls him. Every time.

The Greeks told a story about Aurora, the goddess of the dawn, who fell in love with Tithonus a mortal youth. Zeus offered her any gift she might choose for her mortal lover. She naturally chose that Tithonus might live forever; but she had forgotten to ask that he might remain forever young. And so Tithonus grew older and older and older, and could never die, and the gift became a curse.

Our Father is no Zeus. He loves us so much he watched his Son die in our place, on our cross, for our sins. Do you know anyone who loves you enough to send their child to die for you? One did.

There are times when God does not grant what we ask, or when we ask it. Why?

The simple fact is that a loving Father cannot give us everything we ask in the way we ask for it. A farmer prays for rain; a baseball fan prays for sunshine that same day, for that same county. Both sides prayed for victory in the Civil War.

His timing may not be ours. He might right now be working to answer your prayer, but you cannot yet see that work. You’re needing a new job, and have prayed for one. Today God is engineering circumstances in such a way that a person is being promoted to the home office of her corporation. Then someone in her office will be moved into her position. Then that person’s job will be yours. It is going to take another two months for that process to become obvious to you, though God is working on the issue right now. You just don’t know it.

And God loves us too much to give us what we ask for, unless it is for our good. When one of our boys was very small, he watched me use a razor blade to scrape paint from a window and wanted to play with this shiny new toy. He was incensed that I refused.

Here we come to one of the great mysteries of the Christian faith. When we prayed for something God did not grant, we can know that it was best that he acted as he did. Even when we do not understand why. The person did not get well. The house burned down; the divorce became final; the car wreck happened. It’s not a question of timing, for the worst has already occurred. And we do not understand why God did not grant us our prayer.

A very dear friend in our congregation suffered from cancer for many months. I prayed every day for her healing. When she died, I was deeply distraught. Her healing would have brought such glory to God and good to her family. I didn’t understand, and still don’t.

Dr. E. K. Bailey was the Senior Pastor of Concord Missionary Baptist Church here in Dallas, and one of the finest ministers of the gospel I have ever known. Our friendship was priceless to my soul. His preaching at Park Cities will be remembered always. Several times, God healed my dear friend of cancer. Then he did not. I still don’t understand why.

I must assume that it was not best for them to be healed. They are both with the Father in glory, in a paradise we cannot begin to imagine. One second on the other side of death, they were glad they were in glory. In the providence of God, their contribution to his Kingdom on earth must have been completed, their reward prepared, their eternity made ready. Even though I don’t understand or like it.

That’s the faith assumption I must make when God does not grant what I ask–he is doing something even better. Though my finite, fallen mind cannot begin to imagine how that could be so, I must trust his love and compassion enough to accept it by faith. Not until I became a father did I understand some of the things my father said and did. Not until we are in glory will we understand completely our Father’s will and ways (1 Corinthians 13:12).

What about free will?

Now let’s complicate matters even further. We have been thinking thus far about situations where God did not give us what we asked for, and trying to trust that he did something even better. But are there times when his will is frustrated by our own? When he wants to answer our prayer, but human freedom prevents him?

The question moves us into the arena of sovereignty/free will, one of the most debated and divisive subjects in Christian theology today. We’ll not go there except as the issue touches on a theology of prayer. Some theologians argue that God’s sovereign will is not subject to ours, that human freedom can never frustrate or defeat the divine plan. They would not agree that misused free will could be a factor in God’s answers to our prayers. He will do what is best, however humans react to him.

However, it seems to me that in at least one area, God’s will is limited by ours. 2 Peter 3:9 states, “God is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” 1 Timothy 2:4 promises that God “wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” Some believe God has chosen the “elect” who will be in heaven and those who will be in hell, and that human freedom is not determinative of eternal destiny. They must interpret these two passages as relating only to the “elect.” But the verses seem in their context to speak to all of humanity, never mentioning the “elect.” It seems clear that God wants every one of his children to be with him in eternity.

Yet we know that many are lost: “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15). Many will use their free will to refuse God’s offer of grace. And he has chosen to limit himself to their freedom. He created us to worship him; worship requires a choice; God will not violate that freedom. His sovereign decision to enable our free will causes him to honor that freedom.

If this is true, we have at least one area where human freedom limits the perfect will of God. Is this possible in other areas as well, specifically with regard to prayer? Could it be that a reason God has not answered a prayer as you asked it is because someone is refusing to cooperate?

God wanted you to have a particular job, but the person who was to hire you misused his freedom to hire his brother-in-law instead. God intended to lead your daughter to a particular Christian young man at college, but she refused to follow the Lord’s guidance. You prayed for God to use your life; he intended for you a deeply fulfilling ministry to children in your church; but you refused his leadership. Then you wonder why he hasn’t answered your prayer.

I have not resolved this issue fully in my own mind. If God is sovereign, his “good, pleasing and perfect will” must be done (Romans 12:2). If God intends us to have freedom of choice, he must honor the decisions we make even when they are counter to his perfect will. It seems to me that resolving this conflict in either direction creates a greater problem than we solve. If God’s will controls our own, our mistakes and sins are ultimately his fault (violating James 1:13-15). If our will controls God’s, he cannot fulfill his purposes for his creation (violating Jesus’ claim that “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” Matthew 28:18).

So I am ready to accept both sides of the paradox. God is three and one; Jesus is fully God and fully man; and Scripture is divinely inspired and humanly written. In the same way, God will accomplish his perfect will without violating my freedom. There are times when we are like Joseph, sold into slavery by our brothers’ misused free will. At the end of the story we will be able to say to them, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good” (Genesis 50:20). His love prevails.

How to pray

We are to pray with urgency.

Charles Spurgeon, the greatest of all Baptist preachers, warned us: “He who prays without fervency does not pray at all. We cannot commune with God, who is a consuming fire, if there is no fire in our prayers.” Maltbie Babcock agreed: “Our prayers must mean something to us if they are to mean anything to God.”

Hear Spurgeon again: “The sacred promises, though in themselves most sure and precious, are of no avail for the comfort and sustenance of the soul unless you grasp them by faith, plead them in prayer, expect them by hope, and receive them with gratitude.” He added, “Do not reckon you have prayed unless you have pleaded, for pleading is the very marrow of prayer.”

We are to pray urgently and continually. Jesus’ words are in the present tense: pray and keep on praying. Our Lord prayed before light, after dark, all night long, continually. His word commands the same of us: “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5.17).

George Mueller, the great minister and man of faith, prayed patiently for five personal friends who did not know the Lord. After five years, one came to Christ. In ten more years, two more were saved. After 25 years, the fourth friend came to Christ. He kept praying for the last friend for 52 years, then died. The fifth friend came to know Jesus a few months afterward. Keep praying.

How do we pray with continual urgency?

Begin. Make an appointment to meet with God. I read this week about a man who put on his calendar each day, 7-7:30, prayer. But he kept missing it. Then he changed it to say 7-7:30, God. That’s a harder meeting to neglect.

In Jesus’ name: “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (John 14:13-14). Do you believe that you deserve to be heard, or do you pray on the basis of Jesus’ death for you?

According to God’s will: “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us–whatever we ask–we know that we have what we asked of him” (1 John 5:14-15). He will give us what we ask, or something better.

For God’s glory: “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father” (Jn. 14:13). Do you seek your glory or his?

With a clean heart: “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; but God has surely listened and heard my prayer” (Psalm 66:18-19).

If God seems silent, check yourself by these biblical standards. But know that your Father wants to hear you even more than you want to be heard. And pray. Let nothing stop you. Do it today.

Conclusion

Now, where does this subject come home to you? Do you pray much at all? Continually? With urgency? Is there a need you’ve abandoned, a request on which you’ve given up? A place in your life where God seems silent?

Perhaps this man’s experience will help. An anonymous Confederate soldier wrote,

“I asked God for strength that I might achieve; I was made weak, that I might learn to serve. I asked for health, that I might do great things; I was given infirmity, that I might do better things. I asked for wealth, that I might be happy; I was given poverty, that I might be wise. I asked for power, that I might earn the praise of men; I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life; I was given life, that I might enjoy all things. I got nothing I asked for, but all I hoped for. Despite myself, my prayers were answered. And I am, among all men, most richly blessed.”

So can we be. This is the promise of God.

Waiting on God

Written by

Waiting on God

Luke 18:1-8

James C. Denison

When I yawn, you want to yawn, don’t you? No one knows why. Scientists aren’t even sure why we yawn. We live in a confusing world, or at least I do. I don’t know why we drive on parkways and park on driveways, or call it “rush hour” when no one moves, or sterilize the needle for lethal injections.

This week’s news has me even more confused. The Chinese women’s gymnastics team apparently uses several athletes who are nowhere near the required 16 years of age, but Olympics leaders won’t intervene for risk of offending China. Russia signs a cease-fire with Georgia then continues its aggression. Barack Obama wins the Democratic nomination, but Hillary Clinton will still be nominated. And the first presidential debate of 2008 is hosted by a Baptist pastor in his church, just last night. Who would have imagined it four years ago?

There’s much about the world I don’t understand, and even more about its Creator. I’ve been doing formal theology for 32 years, but I’m still not sure how to understand the Trinity, or explain the Incarnation, or resolve God’s providence and our freedom. And I’ve long wondered why we pray to an all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful God.

If he’s omniscient, presumably he knows what I’m going to ask before I ask it. In fact, Jesus told us that God knows what we need before we pray (Matthew 6:8).

If he’s all-loving, he would want to do the right thing without being asked. Surely my prayer doesn’t talk God into doing the right thing, as though he wouldn’t have unless I convinced him. I might need convincing to skip dessert or join the PTA, but presumably God doesn’t need persuading to do whatever is best.

If he’s all-powerful, he can do the right thing without my request or permission. Why pray, then?

And why pray when he hasn’t answered your prayer the way you wanted him to? What are you still waiting on God to do? What problem are you waiting for him to help you solve? What relationship still needs to be reconciled? What circumstances need to be changed? What illness needs to be healed? What job needs to be given? What bills need to be paid? Why pray to a God whose answers you’re still waiting to see?

Let’s walk through Jesus’ parable, then see why it answers our hardest questions about prayer today.

Pray persistently

Jesus is on his final journey to Jerusalem, most likely in the spring of AD 29. Along the way, Luke says that he “told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up” (v. 1). The Jews typically prayed three times a day—Jesus wants us to pray “always,” and never “give up.” That’s why the New Testament tells us to “pray continually” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Even when God doesn’t seem to answer. Especially when God doesn’t seem to answer.

To make his point, Jesus told our parable. It involves two main characters. First, “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men” (v. 2). This was a Gentile, not an Israeli; Jewish judges always worked in threes, not alone. This was a paid magistrate appointed by Herod or the Romans. He “neither feared God” as the Jews did, “nor cared about men” as Gentile judges were expected to do. These judges were notoriously corrupt, so that bribery was the only way to get them to act on a complaint or a problem. The person with the most money usually won.

Now Jesus introduces the other character: “And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary'” (v. 3).

Women typically married when they were 14 or 15, usually to men who were in their 30s. Men didn’t live many years after that, leaving their wives as widows for years to come. When her husband died, his property was inherited by his children or brothers, leaving his widow with nothing. As a result, the Bible continually commands God’s people to “look after widows in their distress” (James 1:27). Exodus 22:22 is clear: “Do not take advantage of a widow.”

But someone has. A family member has taken the estate and left the widow with no provision. Or someone in the community has stolen her property, or refused to pay her for services provided, or harmed her in some other way.

Their religious leaders discouraged the Jews from going to Gentile magistrates, preferring to settle matters with the elders and within their religious community. People usually went to them when they wanted the judge to do something the Israeli judges would not. Given the biblical injunction to support widows, it is likely that whatever wrong was done to this woman was permitted by a Gentile judge. The fact that this woman went to such a Gentile judge probably indicates that her adversary had done the same earlier, and that he had rendered the very verdict she is now asking him to reverse.

She “kept coming to him”—the Greek indicates continued, repetitive action. She has no money with which to bribe the judge, as she cannot even afford a lawyer to make her case. Her adversary has already secured the judge’s favor through bribes, political power, or social status. Persistence was her only weapon (Fitzmyer, Anchor Bible Commentary 1179).

Not surprisingly, “For some time he refused” (v. 4a). He wouldn’t listen to the woman’s pleas, or even admit her into the court. But then, “finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!'” (vs. 4b-5).

“Wear me out” translates a Greek idiom which literally means, “give me a black eye” and symbolizes personal shame, disgrace, or loss of face. The judge is not worried about physical assault, but he is concerned about his status and reputation.

The woman’s continued complaints will eventually engender the sympathy of the judge’s public. He will “give her a black eye.” There is no end in sight, so he gives her justice.

Here’s the point: “Will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?” (v. 7). Here’s Jesus’ answer: “I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly” (v. 8a). Jesus doesn’t mean that God will always answer our prayer “quickly,” but that when he does, he acts swiftly. In the meanwhile, “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (v. 8a). Will he find people who are waiting on God in faith?

Trust God to do whatever is best

Jesus’ parable is a powerful example of a very common rabbinic teaching technique called the qoi whomer, literally “from the lesser to the greater.” If an unjust judge would hear a widow’s persistent pleas, how much more will God hear ours? In both cases, persistence is required. Remember the point of the parable: Jesus “told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up” (v. 1). But with God, persistence is needed for another reason—not to wear God down, but to receive whatever he intends to give.

Why pray persistently to an all-knowing God?

Not to inform him of your need, but to receive his answer. God gave you freedom of mind and will so you could choose to worship him. He has chosen to limit himself at the point of this freedom. As a result, he will not act in your life without your permission.

As Jesus said, “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). By contrast, “You do not have, because you do not ask God” (James 4:2). Praying persistently positions you to receive all that God intends to give.

Why pray persistently when God hasn’t yet answered your prayer? Because prayer changes circumstances, in ways you cannot see. He might right now be working to answer your prayer, but you cannot yet see that work. You’re needing a new job, and have prayed for one. Today God is engineering circumstances in such a way that a person is being promoted to the home office of her corporation. Then someone in her office will be moved into her position. Then that person’s job will be yours. It is going to take another two months for that process to become obvious to you, though God is working on the issue right now. You just don’t know it.

Why pray persistently when God hasn’t answered your prayer? Because prayer changes you. In prayer, the Holy Spirit is able to touch, shape, and mold you. In prayer, God works on you. Oswald Chambers, the great spiritual genius, said that “prayer is the way the life of God is nourished. We look upon prayer as a means of getting things for ourselves; the Bible’s idea of prayer is that we may get to know God himself.”

So pray persistently. Don’t give up on God.

Blaise Pascal believed that “all the troubles of life come upon us because we refuse to sit quietly for a while each day in our rooms.”

Gordon MacDonald adds: “I have begun to see that worship and intercession are far more the business of aligning myself with God’s purposes than asking him to align with mine.”

God is working in ways you cannot see or measure. George Mueller, the great minister and man of faith, prayed patiently for five personal friends who did not know the Lord. After five years, one came to Christ. In ten more years, two more were saved. After 25 years, the fourth friend came to Christ. He kept praying for the last friend for 52 years, then died. The fifth friend came to know Jesus a few months afterward. Keep praying.

When we pray persistently, God gives us whatever we ask or whatever is best.

There will be times when we don’t understand how that can be true, times when God’s delays are discouraging and debilitating to our faith and souls. There are times when the divine “no” seems harsh, times when the divine “wait” is intolerable. But our God is holy and perfect. He never makes a mistake. He always does what is best. One day we will see him face to face, and know as we are known (1 Corinthians 13:12).

In the meanwhile, persistent prayer is the way God molds and shapes our lives and eternal souls. Prayer is not so much about getting answers as it is about knowing God. It is about walking with our Father, communing in his Spirit, knowing him. Janet gave me a quote this week which says it well: “It is good to have an end to journey towards, but it is the journey that matters in the end.”

Conclusion

Where are you waiting on God? Keep waiting and keep praying. God is moving in your life and in your circumstances to do whatever is best. He is molding you and molding your world. And one day you will understand why you had to wait, and how his ways were best.

Perhaps this man’s experience will help. An anonymous Confederate soldier wrote,

“I asked God for strength that I might achieve; I was made weak, that I might learn to serve. I asked for health, that I might do great things; I was given infirmity, that I might do better things. I asked for wealth, that I might be happy; I was given poverty, that I might be wise. I asked for power, that I might earn the praise of men; I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.

“I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life; I was given life, that I might enjoy all things. I got nothing I asked for, but all I hoped for. Despite myself, my prayers were answered. And I am, among all men, most richly blessed.”

So can we. This is the promise of God.

Wake Up To A Miracle

Written by

God’s Power for God’s Purpose

Wake Up to a Miracle!

Dr. Jim Denison

Acts 12

This is the weekend following Easter. Jesus has risen from the dead, and we have celebrated his resurrection with hymns and words of triumph. Now our culture has returned to “normal.” What difference will it make in your life this week, that we remembered Jesus’ resurrection last week? Today we’ll focus on a practical, personal, daily answer to that question.

Archimedes, who died in 212 B.C., was the first scientist to recognize the power of the lever. He once famously said, “Give me a place to stand and rest my lever, and I can move the Earth.” We will learn this week how to use that lever.

Larry Dossey, chief of staff of a Dallas hospital, published a few years ago his findings that prayer lowers blood pressure, helps heal wounds, heart ailments and headaches, and even influences the action of bacteria and medications.

Ian MacPherson tells the true story of an atheistic scientist who attempted to find the wavelength of the human brain during different experiences. A woman who was dying of a brain disease consented to his test. Wires were connected to her brain, and a meter attached. Previously, this instrument had measured the power used by a fifty kilowatt broadcasting station in sending a message around the world—the needle had registered nine points.

As the last moments of this woman’s earthly life arrived, she began to pray aloud and praise God. She told the Lord how much she loved him, and how she was looking forward to seeing him face to face. The scientist was so engrossed in her prayer that he forgot his experiment. Suddenly he heard a clicking sound, and found that the meter on his gauge was registering 500 points.

Prayer is the lever which can move the world. Here’s how the lever works.

Hold a prayer meeting (vs. 1-4)

As Acts 12 opens, it is the early part of A.D. 44 and we find the infant Christian church in yet another crisis. King Herod, grandson of the Herod of Jesus’ birth, is ruler of the Jews. And he wants to placate and please them. Thus he beheads James, one of their leaders. Then he arrests Peter, the chief of the apostles, intending to kill him as soon as the Feast of Unleavened Bread passes. Jews by the tens of thousands will be in Jerusalem. Herod won’t miss this chance to impress his subjects.

So he seizes Peter and turns him over to four squads of four guards each (v. 4). He’s heard of Peter’s earlier escape at the hands of the angel (Acts 5:18-21) and wants to avoid a repeat fiasco. The apostle was probably imprisoned in the fortress Antonia, northwest of the temple area, where Paul would later be confined as well (Acts 21:31—23:32).

Four soldiers are with him at all times—two chained to his body, and two to guard the door. Not to mention the soldiers stationed at the main door to the fortress, or others patrolling the area. This is the highest security Rome can muster.

What does the church do? Organize a mob and storm the prison? Circulate a petition to get the names of leading Christians in Jerusalem to request Peter’s release? Take a collection to bribe Herod for his freedom? They hold a prayer meeting.

Could anything be more ridiculous and fruitless? Imagine praying for a man so securely incarcerated, so near execution. Suppose a family and friends kept vigil outside Huntsville, while their loved one was being readied for execution, praying for him to escape. How would we view their prayers? Here’s a better question: how would God?

Where are you in jail this week? Where is someone you love? Have you prayed yet? Have you asked others to join you in intercession? Have you held a prayer meeting? Will you?

Pray as they prayed (v. 5)

What now? Let’s make the example of our text the model we follow: “Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him” (v. 5). R. A. Torrey’s classic The Power of Prayer and the Prayer of Power contains an investigation of this verse which we will follow in our study.

Pray together

Luke notes that “the church” was earnestly praying for Peter. By now the followers of Jesus number more than 5,000 men, not counting women and children (Acts 4:4). They were scattered across the larger area (Acts 8:1), but news of Peter’s impending execution would travel quickly across the region. Luke is careful to note that the house to which Peter would go following his release was “where many people had gathered and were praying” (v. 12). But this was not “the church” in total. All who knew Jesus were calling on him, together.

Imagine having 5,000 families praying for you. Jesus promised great power in response to such unity: “If two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them” (Matthew 18:19-20).

Two horses working alone can do the work of two. But two horses pulling together can do the work of 40 working alone. There is more power in praying together than the world knows. With this lever we can indeed move the earth.

With whom will you pray this week?

Pray with intensity

They were “earnestly praying” for Peter, as should we. The Greek is in the continuous tense; they were still praying in the morning when Peter escaped and came to them. Thus they prayed all night. “Earnestly” pictures a runner straining for the finish line. There is work in intercessory prayer, hard labor.

Paul informed the Colossians of one who was engaged in such work on their behalf: “Epaphras . . . is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. I vouch for him that he is working hard for you” (Colossians 4:12-13). Jesus himself furnishes our best example: “Being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground” (Luke 22:44).

Remember David Brainerd, the missionary to American Indians in colonial days. Sometimes in the winter night he would go out into the forest and kneel in the cold snow where it was a foot deep. Laboring with God in prayer, he would be wringing wet with perspiration even on the coldest nights. God heard David Brainerd, and sent such a mighty revival among the North American Indians as had never been seen before. And he transformed Brainerd’s father-in-law, Jonathan Edwards, into the great preacher of the First Great Awakening. If more prayed like Brainerd, more would preach like Edwards. And Awakening would come again.

For whom will you pray with intensity this week?

Pray to God

It seems redundant that Luke would write, “the church was earnestly praying to God for him” (emphasis mine). To whom else would they be praying? Actually, the options are several.

We can pray to impress each other with our eloquent words or pious faith. When you lead in public prayer, isn’t it hard not to pray to the people instead of to God?

We can pray to ourselves, in a kind of meditation or contemplation. We can allow our minds to wander and daydream so that we are not praying at all. Shakespeare makes one of his characters lament, “My words fly up, my thoughts remain below; words without thoughts never to heaven go.”

Or we can pray “to God.” We can enter the presence of the Lord Almighty. We can find ourselves kneeling before the throne of the God of the universe, the Creator of all that exists. We know when we are praying to God and when we are praying about him; when we are connected with him, our spirit one with his spirit. Here is true power—not in our prayer, but in the One to whom we pray.

Will you connect with God this week?

Pray specifically

Again it seems redundant for Luke to write, “the church was earnestly praying to God for him” (emphasis mine). For what other purpose would they be together? Again, the options are several.

We can meet to be seen meeting. We can meet to “get something out of the service.” We can meet to pray generically (“Lord, heal all the hurting and save all the lost, and forgive all our sins”). Or we can pray specifically.

We ask God to “be with us” when he already promised he would be (Matthew 28:20). We ask him to “bless us” when we wouldn’t know what that meant if he did. If we would pray specifically, telling God our actual need and asking him for particular answers, he would know how to answer us. And we would know when he did.

This is how God wants us to pray: together, with intensity, to our Father, specifically. This lever will move the world.

Expect God to answer (vs. 6-19)

The night before Peter was to be executed, he was asleep between two soldiers (v. 6), an indication of the peace of his soul. Then suddenly God’s angel came, and everything changed. He woke Peter up, removed his shackles, led him out prison past two sets of guards, and set him free.

Then Peter knew that God had indeed spared his life. He went immediately to the prayer meeting at the home of John Mark’s mother. Because the early church was so large, they had to meet in many homes. This was apparently the house church with whom Peter worshipped. He knew they had been praying for him, so he went to show them the answer to their intercession.

And then, in one of the humorous ironies of God’s word, they couldn’t believe it was really him. The servant girl was so excited at hearing his voice that she left him exposed on the street while she told the rest of the crowd. Imagine you’re standing by the locked door, with Roman guards probably scouring the streets by now in pursuit. Your faith is still being tested, this time by your friends.

Meanwhile, the church couldn’t believe the girl’s testimony (v. 15). Here is proof that fallen people can still pray in power. Their faith was less than it should have been, as ours usually is. Is your typical response to a miraculous answered prayer one of calm expectation or shocked surprise? Finally they came to the door, let Peter inside, and praised God together.

I remember reading the true story of a tavern owner who sued a local church. It seems he built his bar down the street from their sanctuary, so they began praying that God would remove the tavern. One night during their prayer meeting, lightning struck the tavern and burned it to the ground. The owner sued the church. The congregation pled “not guilty.” The judge noted that the tavern owner had more faith than the church members.

When you pray as these people prayed, expect God to move as God moved. This lever opens prison bars, sets prisoners free, and moves the world.

Give God the glory (vs. 19-25)

Acts 12 begins with Herod in charge and Peter about to die. It ends with the church in charge and Herod dead. Let’s learn why.

There are six “Herod”s of importance in the New Testament. Herod the Great (reigned 41 B.C. to 4 B.C.) was the Herod of the birth of Jesus Christ. He was married ten times; all the other Herods are his descendants.

Herod Antipas was ruler of Galilee, the second husband of Herodias and the one responsible for the death of John the Baptist. He was also the Herod to whom Pilate sent Jesus for trial.

Herod Archelaus was the evil ruler of Judea mentioned briefly in Matthew 2:22. Herod Philip the Second was the ruler for whom Caesarea Philippi was named. Herod Agrippa is the subject of our present study. And his son Agrippa the Second was the ruler before whom Paul eventually stood trial; his daughter was the wife of Felix the governor as well. The Herods played the lead in every soap opera of their time.

Herod Agrippa is now in a quarrel with the people of Tyre and Sidon to the north. He can stop their food shipments and trade; thus they press for good relations with him. In due course a public session is arranged with him.

Josephus, the famous Jewish historian (died A.D. 97), supplies his narrative of what happened next: “A great multitude was gotten together of the principal persons, and such as were of dignity through his province. On the second day of which shows he put on a garment made wholly of silver, and of a contexture truly wonderful, and came into the theatre early in the morning; at which time the silver of his garment being illuminated by the fresh reflection of the sun’s rays upon it, shone out after a surprising manner, and was so resplendent as to spread a horror over those that looked intently upon him: and presently his flatterers cried out, one from one place, and another from another, (though not for his good,) that he was a god: and they added,–‘Be thou merciful to us; for although we have hitherto reverenced thee only as a man, yet shall we henceforth own thee as superior to mortal nature.’ Upon this the king did neither rebuke them, nor reject their impious flattery. . . .

“A severe pain . . . arose in his bell, and began in the most violent manner. He therefore looked upon his friends, and said,–‘I, whom you call a god, am commanded presently to depart this life; while Providence thus reproves the lying words you just now said to me; and I, who was by you called immortal, am immediately to be hurried away by death.’ . . .

“When he said this, his pain was become violent. Accordingly he was carried into the palace; and the rumour went abroad everywhere, that he would certainly die in a little time. . . . And when he had been quite worn out by the pain in his belly for five days, he departed this life, being in the fifty-fourth year of his age, and the seventh year of his reign.” (Antiquities of the Jews,).

Here’s the point: if the most splendid and powerful man in all the country must give glory to God, so must we. The Lord of the universe will not share his glory. Someone has well advised, “To get along with God, stay off his throne.”

If we pray for our glory rather than the Lord’s, our prayers will have little effect. But if we pray for God to honor himself by answering us, we pray in his will. And he is pleased to give us what we ask, or even more.

Conclusion

You hold in your hearts the lever which can move the world. Will you use it this week?

Pray for others. Every believer needs to be engaged in personal intercession. Paul asked the Romans to “join me in my struggle by praying to God for me” (Romans 15:30). In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus wanted his disciples to pray for him (Matthew 26:40). God’s word calls us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17), especially for each other.

How can we do this more effectively? I am convinced that every believer needs a personal prayer ministry and notebook. Develop a list of lost and unchurched people, and pray for them by name. Make a list of other people for whom you will pray daily. List other, less urgent, needs for each day of the week. Write down your requests, and document God’s answers. When I began keeping such a notebook, my prayer life was revolutionized.

Pray personally, and collectively. When coals stay together, they stay lit. When they are separated, they grow cold. We need each other. Our staff is now praying together each morning at 9:00 A.M. in the Narthex Chapel, because we need to. Our hearts need each other.

A few years ago, a group of missionaries were camping at night on a hillside. Robber bands were common in the area. The missionaries were carrying money, and feared attack. After praying, they finally went to sleep.

Months later, the leader of one of the robber bands was brought to the mission hospital for treatment. While there, he asked the missionaries if they still had the soldiers who guarded them that night. “We intended to rob you,” he admitted, “but were afraid of the 27 soldiers.” When the story got back to the church supporting these missionaries, someone remembered, “We had a prayer meeting that night, and there were 27 of us present.”

Washing Soles And Soles

Written by

Washing Soles and Souls

Matthew 4:23, John 13:34-35

Dr. Jim Denison

Houston Baptist University, my alma mater, required an identification card of every student every year. I still have mine for 1978, my junior year, with my picture complete with mustache and sideburns. Why have I kept it? Because my ID number that year was 666. Remember Revelation 13 and the prediction that the beast who will accompany the antichrist has the “mark of the beast,” 666. My receiving this number bothered some of my friends, but was no surprise to others.

Today let’s discuss the opposite subject: the mark of a disciple, a fully-devoted follower of the Lord Jesus. There is such a mark, and only one. How do we acquire it? With a washbasin and towel. Let’s see why this is so, and how we find our towel today.

Take God’s word to people

Matthew 4:23 says that our Lord “went throughout Galilee.” The Greek grammar shows that he continually, incessantly did this. Through all Galilee, the northern part of Israel, an enormous task. Josephus, the ancient Jewish historian, documents 204 cities and villages in Galilee, none smaller than 15,000 residents and a total population of three million.

Why did he go to them?

They were despised by their Judean neighbors in the south, since the majority of their population was Gentile. Greek language, pagan customs, and non-Jewish influences were everywhere.

But this area was extremely strategic. The Way of the Sea, one of the oldest trade routes in history, passed through it. Those reached here could touch people from across the known world. Jesus always sought to be strategic—so should we.

And their spiritual needs were great. Matthew 4:15 calls them “the people living in darkness,” “in the land of the shadow of death.” The Jews here were caught in the legalism of their Pharisaical leaders; the Gentiles were trapped in paganism. And Jesus always brought his light to those in the darkness. As we should still.

How did he go to them? With a three-part strategy we must follow today. First, he taught in their synagogues.

The synagogue service began with prayers, then readings from the Law and the Prophets. Then the address would be given by someone selected by the synagogue leaders. They had no “pastor” or permanent preacher, but rather invited guest rabbis or synagogue members to speak.

And so Jesus was given opportunity each Sabbath to speak in their synagogues, to teach them the word of God. In Isaiah 55:11 God calls the Scriptures “my word that goes out from my mouth” and promises, “It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

To reach our Galilee we must teach the word of God to all who will come to hear it. To all who will join us in this “synagogue” for worship and Bible study. We must have space for all who want to come, from preschoolers to senior adults. And in that space we must teach the word of God, for the gospel it proclaims is “the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).

Second, he spoke in their countryside, “preaching the good news of the kingdom.” Jesus brought God’s word to those who would not or could not come to the synagogue to hear it. The “good news” that God loves us and has provided us a way to spend eternity with him in his glorious heaven. The good news “of the kingdom,” that God is our King and we are his subjects.

To reach our Galilee we must preach the good news of the kingdom to those who will not join us here to hear it.

Evangelism training and strategies are empowering our people to share the gospel with their friends and neighbors through their personal witness.

Media initiatives are being planned right now to communicate the gospel itself to our community effectively.

Missions strategies in our community and partnerships around the world are preaching the good news of the kingdom to multiplied thousands who will not come to our “synagogue” to hear the word of God.

And so we must have space for all we can train to do their ministries, to equip Christians to fulfill the Great Commission. We must have the latest technology to utilize distance learning in training believers across the city and around the world. In this way we will preach the good news of the kingdom more fully than ever before.

Heal bodies, heal souls

So Jesus taught in their synagogues and preached in their countryside. Last, he reached Galilee by meeting their personal needs: “healing every disease and sickness among the people.”

“Healing” translates the Greek word “therapeuo,” meaning to serve, to treat medically, to heal and restore. He healed their “diseases”—”nosos,” chronic, serious, life-threatening diseases. Cancer, strokes, heart attacks. And their “sickness”—”malakia,” occasional illnesses and problems. Every need gained his attention.

He did this healing ministry repeatedly.

Matthew 9:35 repeats this exact ministry strategy a second time in his work: “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.”

The Gospels record 23 different healing episodes in two years. Not to mention episodes like the next verse of our text: “people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them” (v. 24).

And when he healed their bodies, he was then able to heal their souls.

Jesus healed the paralytic on his mat, and the crowd “praised God” (Matthew 9:8).

He asked two blind men, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They replied, “Yes, Lord”—kurios, God. And he healed them (Matthew 9:28).

He healed two blind men outside Jericho: “Immediately the received their sight and followed him” (Matthew 20:34).

He healed a leper, who “came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him” (Luke 17:15-16).

After he healed the man born blind, “the man said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshiped him” (John 9:38).

And in our text, v. 25 says that “large crowds…followed him.”

Jesus met the personal needs of his hurting world, earning the opportunity to meet the spiritual needs. He showed the people God’s love in his own. When they believed that he loved them, they could believe that God loved them. Now, what does his ministry strategy say to our church and our lives?

Love as he loves us

Here’s the answer: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:34-35). Here is the mark of a disciple, the proof that we follow Jesus: when we love as he loves us.

So how does Jesus love us? He showed us.

Earlier that night in that Upper Room, Jesus “got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him” (John 13:4-5). He washed their dirty, smelly, mud-caked feet. Judas’ feet. Peter’s feet.

Then he told them, “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you” (vs. 14-15). When we show others unconditional, sacrificial, servant love, we prove to them that we follow Jesus. And only then.

Preaching doesn’t prove this—anyone can speak from a pulpit. Singing doesn’t prove this, or leading, or teaching. Only serving. Servant love is the disciple’s mark. When we meet the personal needs of our community, we earn the right to meet their spiritual needs. This was Jesus’ ministry strategy, and it must become ours.

The building initiative is nothing more than a large towel for us to use. When we give our community a recreation center, a senior adult center, a youth and preschool center, a library, a civic center, we meet their needs. When our people use these facilities to reach out to their neighbors, we wash their feet. We extend Jesus’ ministry. We build his Kingdom. We show our Jerusalem, our Galilee, that we are his disciples.

And so I am thrilled with this initiative, and invite you to pray daily for God’s clear will as we consider it together. But don’t wait for the building to find your towel. The Bible study materials today focus on the gift of prophecy, of preaching, and its significance. And God does use preaching to get his word to his world. But whether you have this gift or not, you can wash feet. You don’t need a pulpit to preach—just a towel.

Conclusion

Now Jesus is here. He has come from Galilee to Dallas. He is teaching his word, by his Spirit, in our synagogue. He wants us to preach it to our community. And he is ready to heal your diseases and sicknesses. He is ready to pardon your sins and failures, to wash away your past, to give you a new life and a fresh start. To wash your feet, and your soul.

And to examine your towel. The world rewards your title, Jesus your towel. Whose feet will you wash in his name this week?

I’ve told you of Dr. A. O. Collins, my father in the faith. My major professor in college, the brilliant scholar who befriended me and mentored me. He was part of my licensing and ordination, my father’s funeral and my wedding. Some years ago my first pastorate had a birthday party for me and invited him to come. He drove from Houston to Waco the night before, preaching in Waco that Sunday morning, drove to Ft. Worth that afternoon, and hid in the broom closet in the back of the Fellowship Hall for 45 minutes until it was his turn to speak. He stayed with us until ten that night, then drove back to Waco to get his wife, and then drove to Houston so he could teach his 8:00 class the next day.

Dr. Collins died last year. His family gave me much of his library. And an old, wooden tennis racket. Why? Because the first thing we did together, 25 years ago, was begin to play tennis. Every Friday, nearly every week. On that tennis court, and before and after, we talked together and prayed together, and he shaped and molded my soul.

To you it is a tennis racket, but it’s not. It’s a towel. Where is yours?

Weapons Of Mass Construction

Written by

Weapons of Mass Construction

John 21:15-19

Dr. Jim Denison

Last Sunday morning, Dr. John Plotts announced this weekend’s events in a way which I have borrowed today. He referenced the war in Iraq, then showed that we are in a spiritual war in Dallas. In Iraq we are fighting to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction. In Dallas, he said, we are fighting to use “weapons of mass construction.”

Let’s learn the truth of those words today.

The big question

The point of our story is simple: if we love Jesus, we will serve him.

Peter had denied Jesus three times on the night of his arrest. Now Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him. To each question Peter replies honestly: “Lord, you know all things—you know that I love you.”

Jesus didn’t ask if Peter was sorry, or if he would promise not to fail again. He asked not for vows or conduct but for his heart, because he knows that when he has the heart he has everything. And Peter gave it to him.

Then Jesus called him in response to “feed my sheep.” He called him to service. He ordained him to ministry. And Peter would fulfill this service for the rest of his life. Because Peter loved Jesus, he served him. And the rest is history.

Now the same Lord asks us the same question: do we love him? Do we love Jesus today? If we do, we will serve him. We will find and use our spiritual gifts. We will become weapons of mass construction.

If we do not, it will be for one of two reasons.

Exposing words-righteousness

Our “ministry discovery” weekend has two enemies. One I call “words-righteousness,” the other “works-righteousness.” “Words-righteousness” is the spiritual malady, all too common for evangelicals, which assumes that our words of faith are enough for God. So long as we pray a salvation prayer, say the right words, know the right language, we’ve done all that God expects of us.

I prayed such a prayer on September 9, 1973, in the living room of the Holmes’ house, down Beechnut Street from College Park Baptist Church in southwest Houston. I asked Jesus Christ to forgive my sins and come into my life as my Lord. When I prayed that prayer I was “saved,” or “born again.” I “became a Christian.” Most of you have had a similar experience; I hope you will all trust Christ as your Savior in this way.

There is nothing else I must do to earn my salvation, and no way I can lose it. I am the child of God, and will be with in him heaven forever.

So why is ministry discovery vital to my life? Why must I find my spiritual gifts and use them as “weapons of mass construction”?

Such a lifestyle is wonderful for those who choose it, of course. They will have great reward in heaven for their commitment.

But unless ministry discovery is vital to my existence now, central to my life today, it remains an option to consider, an “extra” to add to my already-busy life, going the second mile when the first mile is hard enough.

I have “words-righteousness,” and that’s enough for now. Maybe I’ll get more involved in ministry later, when I have more time. But not today.

Exposing works-righteousness

The other opponent of our “ministry discovery” weekend is works-righteousness. Working as hard as we possibly can so we will be people of worth and value. Words-righteousness makes ministry discovery unnecessary, since we’re already going to heaven; works-righteousness keeps us so busy it is impossible.

Works-righteousness especially appeals to high performance people—those of us who measure our worth by our works, our accomplishments and grades and salaries and possessions. We are what we do. And nothing is ever enough—there is always the next business deal to close, the next semester’s dean’s list to make, the next season’s victories to win, the next person to impress. The next sermon to preach, or devotional to write.

We are busy, but for the wrong reasons. We serve so we will be people of worth, instead of serving because we already are. We work to be righteous, instead of working because we already are. We even become involved in ministry so that God will accept us, instead of serving because he already has.

And so we are so committed and busy that we cannot imagine doing anything else. There isn’t enough time for the work we have already.

Discovering our ministry

To both of us, those caught by words-righteousness and by works-righteousness, Jesus has a word today. To the first, he asks with Peter, “Do you love me?”

We say, “Yes Lord, you know that I love you.” If words-righteousness were enough, the text would end. Peter has prayed his salvation prayer, he is “saved,” he has spoken the right words.

But no. Jesus continues: “Then feed my sheep.” Serve my kingdom. Do your job. Use your gifts. Fulfill your calling. In essence he says, If you truly love me, you will serve me. Not because you must, but because you will. Not because works save, but because the saved work.

We owned a peach tree in Midland. We knew, because it produced peaches. It couldn’t help it—bearing such fruit was simply its nature. If it had not borne peaches, no matter how much it looked like a peach tree it would not have been one. A fruit tree bears fruit.

It is the same with our love for any person. I can say that I love our boys, but if I did nothing to serve them you would say that my love was not real. If I would not care for them, work hard for their future, provide for their needs, spend time with them, enjoy them, my words would be empty and false. My works do not prove my love, they express it. They are not love, but its fruit. They are the natural, inevitable result of a heart which loves.

You are not required to discover your ministry to have Christian faith, but to express it. Ministry is the natural, inevitable result of a heart which loves. If we truly love him, we will serve him. Service is how we show him that we love him. Ministry discovery shows God that our love is real. It is just that simple.

To those committed to works-righteousness Jesus says, “Feed my sheep.” In other words, do my will, my work. I have a call for you, and it is exactly right for you. My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

There are always enough hours in the days we give to God. If you are too busy, too burdened and stressed, you can know that you are not doing God’s will. You are busy, but for the wrong reasons.

He wants us to serve him because we love him, not to prove that we do. Because he loves us, not so he will. He has a ministry which is exactly suited for your gifts, your personality, your life experience. It will bring you joy, peace, and purpose, today. It is the purpose for which your Creator made you. It alone will bring the fulfillment he alone can give.

Conclusion

Now our Lord awaits our response. We are going to break our norms today, because this is not a normal Sunday morning.

If you would like to meet Jesus personally and experience his salvation and love, or if you would like to join with our church family, please meet with me and our ministry staff in the narthex chapel behind the sanctuary when our service concludes. We would be delighted to talk and pray with you.

But for this moment, we have constructed altars at the front and the back of this sanctuary. In the Old Testament, an altar was just a pile of rocks until someone put their heart on it. We will come to these altars with our hearts in our hands.

The commitment card you began earlier today will be your offering to your Savior and Lord now. Please make your decision and record it on this card. Then we will come to the altar and place this card there. And with it, the commitment of our lives.

I will lead in prayer, then begin our commitment process by placing my card on this altar. I will invite you to join me. As our choir sings, I Surrender All, we will do what the words require of us.

This is a high and holy moment. We will leave in commitment, silence, and reverence. Our response to Jesus’ love will be our benediction.

Now he asks you: Do you love me? Please stand with me as we answer him with our prayer, and then with our lives.

Weeping at the Empty Tomb

Written by

Topical Scripture: John 20:11-18

Thomas Jefferson is one of my favorite presidents. Our third president could read seven languages, authored the Declaration of Independence, and negotiated the Louisiana Purchase.

However, his faith was not the part of his life I admire. While he believed in the existence of God, he denied the divinity of Jesus and the divine inspiration of Scripture. Late in his life, he compiled his own version of the Gospels, cutting out every reference to the miraculous.

The so-called Jefferson Bible ends with these words, “Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein never man yet laid. There laid they Jesus: and rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.”

By contrast, billions of Christians around the world will proclaim on this Easter Sunday, “He is risen! He is risen indeed!” We believe that it is true. We celebrate it as fact today.

But tomorrow, if Jesus is not as alive in our lives as he was on that first day, it’s as though Easter is an event rather than an experience, a day rather than a way of life.

In these days of pandemic, how does Easter relate to the crises we face and the fears we feel?

An unlikely evangelist

From Christmas to Easter, we’ve watched Jesus change lives. Today we come to the unlikeliest evangelist of Easter: Mary Magdalene.

Let’s begin with what we don’t know about her: she was not the “sinful woman” who wept over the feet of Jesus (Luke 7:36–38). And despite Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code heresy, she was not Jesus’ wife.

Here’s what we do know. Consider three biblical facts.

First, her first name tells us that she was a woman, of course. Women in her day had no social status whatever. They were the possession of their fathers until they became the possession of their husbands. We have a letter written from a Roman soldier on the battlefield back to his pregnant wife instructing her, “If it is a boy, keep it. If it is a girl, throw it out.”

Second, her last name tells us that she was from the town of Magdala on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. A Galilean, country peasant in the eyes of the city sophisticates down in Jerusalem and Judea. Someone from nowhere special.

Third, Luke 8:2 tells us that she is someone “from whom seven demons had gone out.” Like other demoniacs healed by Jesus, she had been delivered from the enemy. But we don’t know anything else about this fact in her past.

Now fast forward to Good Friday, when Mary Magdalene watched Jesus die on the cross and then watched Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus as they buried his body. She was then in the first group to go to his tomb on Easter Sunday morning: “Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early” (John 20:1). She came to finish burying Jesus’ body (Mark 16:1).

However, she “saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.” Now watch her reaction: she ran to find Peter and John and told them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him” (John 20:2).

It did not occur to her or to them that Jesus had been raised from the dead, a fact that contradicts any claim that the disciples stole his body or hallucinated his resurrection.

After Peter and John saw the empty tomb and left, our text picks up: “Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb” (v. 11). I have been more than thirty times to the Garden Tomb north of the Old City of Jerusalem, where one must indeed stoop down to step inside.

The text continues: “And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet” (v. 12). Angels often appear in pairs in Scripture, as they did again when Jesus ascended back to heaven (Acts 1:10). And they often appear in white.

“They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him'” (John 20:13). She still did not understand that Jesus has been raised from the dead.

Then, “having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus” (v. 14). This was not uncommon with the risen Lord: he traveled with two disciples on the road to Emmaus who did not recognize him, either (Luke 24:13–31).

“Jesus said to her, ‘Woman why are you weeping. Whom are you seeking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away'” (v. 15). She even then, in the presence of the risen Lord, did not realize that he was risen.

Then “Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’ She turned and said to him in Aramaic, ‘Rabboni!’ (which means Teacher)” (v. 16). He knew her name, just as he could call Zacchaeus by name (Luke 19:5). And just as he knows yours. She now knew him and fell before him in worship.

Verse 17: “Jesus said to her, ‘Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”‘” And “Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’—and that he had said these things to her” (v. 18).

A life-changing encounter

With this, Mary Magdalene became the first evangelist of Easter. Not Peter, his lead apostle, or John, his best friend. Not a chief priest or Pharisee or member of the Sanhedrin. A woman from a nondescript town in Galilee who had been demon-possessed before she met Jesus.

If he could call her and use her, he can call and use anyone.

But here’s the catch: we have to know who he is. We have to know that he is in fact risen from the dead, that he is as alive as when he first walked the earth, that he is real and he is Lord.

Otherwise, we have a message but no Master. We have a symbol but no Savior. We have a nice story to tell but no good news to share.

So here’s the question: are you Mary when our text begins, or Mary when it ends?

According to a recent survey, only 64 percent of Americans believe Jesus was raised from the dead. Adding to our confusion, only 57 percent say Jesus is the only person who never sinned; 57 percent think he was created by God; 59 percent say the Holy Spirit is a force rather than a personal being.

Now let’s get personal: if Jesus is not the living, life-changing Lord of your life today, it’s as though Easter isn’t real for you.

When was the last time praying or reading Scripture changed your life? That you did something you would not have done or did not do something you would have done?

When was the last time you worshiped Jesus in a way that touched you emotionally as well as rationally? When Peter encountered the divinity of Jesus, he said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8). When John met the risen Christ on Patmos, he says in Revelation 1, “I fell at his feet as though dead” (Revelation 1:17).

When last were you awed by God?

If you are, you will want to tell someone. Like Mary Magdalene, you will want to spread the news. You’ll be the Samaritan woman who told her village about Jesus, or Matthew the tax-collector who invited his fellow tax-collectors to meet his Lord, or the Gadarene demoniac who told the Decapolis what Jesus did for him.

In fact, you can measure the depth of your encounter with Jesus on Easter by the degree to which you tell his story on the day after Easter. And the degree to which you serve others as he has served you, the degree to which you pay forward what you have received in gratitude for such grace.

When our first son was born, no one had to prompt me to tell the story or to show his pictures. It was the same with our second son. And don’t get me started on our grandkids. When you love someone, you want everyone to know. And you want everyone else to love the one you love.

That’s just how love works.

Conclusion

So I’ll close by asking you again, which Mary are you? The Mary before she met the risen Christ on the first Easter, or the Mary after she met him? Is he an old story or a risen Savior for you? Is he a religious subject or a personal Lord?

When last did he change your life? Will you make time with him today for him to change your life again today? Will you share his story and his love tomorrow?

Dr. Samuel M. Lockridge was one of the most profound orators of our day. I love his description of our risen Lord: “He is enduringly strong; he is entirely sincere. He is eternally steadfast; he is immortally gracious. He is imperially powerful; he is impartially merciful. He is the greatest phenomenon that has ever crossed the horizons of the globe.

“He is God’s Son; he is the sinner’s Savior. He is the captive’s Ransom; he is the breath of life. He is the centerpiece of civilization; he stands in the solitude of Himself. He is august and he is unique; he is unparalleled and he is unprecedented. He is undisputed and he is undefiled; he is unsurpassed and he is unshakeable.

“He is the loftiest idea in philosophy; he is the highest personality in psychology. He is the supreme subject in literature; he is the fundamental doctrine of theology. He is the Cornerstone and the Capstone. He is the miracle of the ages.”

Now he wants to be the miracle of our lives. The next step is yours.

Welcome to the Future

Written by

Welcome to the Future

Studies in the Book of Revelation

Dr. Jim Denison

Revelation 1:1-3

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

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

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

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

What Revelation says about itself

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Interpretive options

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

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

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

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

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

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

Historic premillennialism: no rapture or 7-year tribulation.

Postmillennialism: Christ will return after the millennium.

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

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

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

Characteristics of apocalyptic literature

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Well-Intentioned Dragons

Written by

Well-intentioned Dragons

Acts 5:1-16

Dr. Jim Denison

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

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

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

On some Swanson frozen dinners: Serving suggestion: defrost.

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

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

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

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

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

Good advice, all.

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

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

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

The first dragons (1-10)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dragons today

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Putting out their fire (11-16)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Conclusion

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

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

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

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

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

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

So do we.