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Julie pointed out something about me the other day. She said I like to make conversation with ordinary people like wait staff at a restaurant or workers that come to our house or bus drivers or cruise ship staff. I guess she’s right… who am I to argue with her, she knows me better than anyone else. Invariably though I will ask those kinds of folks this question… “Where do you go to church?” What I’m looking for are those who are not going anywhere or those who are not happy where they are going. Whereupon I have Julie give them a Parkway Church of Christ business card.
I’ve had some success with that. I had a waitress tell me that she had been struggling and thought I was sent from God. A guy came out the other day to do electrical work at our home and he said he and his young family would be attending. But who really knows how much success there has been? Sometimes you just can’t tell.
I am friends on Facebook with a concierge who worked at a hotel we stayed at in Italy. I’m also friends on FB with a young Filipino guy who worked on a cruise ship we were on. Also a Russian tour guide. Of course on Facebook I’m not ashamed of my faith and they see the religious articles I occasionally share.
Work at being friendly with everyone and don’t be afraid to ask the simple question… “where do you go to church?” Maybe just maybe you were sent from God to help someone discover their faith.
I was thinking about the unspeakable gift that God gave us when he allowed his son to be brutally sacrificed. And by the way that word “unspeakable” is awfully easy to say… unspeakable, unspeakable, unspeakable.
I’m not sure though that we really understand that word. Would I, for instance, ask my son to allow himself to be killed for a murderer or a rapist or an abuser of children… probably not.
Every once in a while I hear about someone needing a kidney to save their life. Even though I have two kidneys I have never been to be tested to see if I was a good donor. I might think… I really need both my kidneys or I don’t like to stay in a hospital or be cut on. What if I catch some kind of infection in the hospital like COVID?
I might donate a kidney for my wife or my children or my grandchildren if you’re in that circle or even close to that circle, but for a stranger… probably not and for a derelict of society… definitely not.
I know some people who won’t even put the transplant option on their driver’s licenses in case the doctor has a friend who needs a kidney and says something like… “he’s too far gone, we can’t save him… harvest his organs”
God didn’t ask Jesus to give up a kidney for one of his righteous disciples for instance. He asked Jesus to give up his precious, precious life for the worst of humanity… that’s an unspeakable gift and one I’m ashamed to say… I’m not ready to give.
Fortunately God doesn’t ask us to do that. What he does ask is for us to give up our old lives and transform our lives into the pattern of Jesus Christ’s life.
That “speakable” gift is not too much to trade for an “unspeakable” gift is it? Of course it isn’t.
The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.
“‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock, therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them.
“‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice. Ezekiel 34.
The context of these verses is the failure of the priests and prophets to take care of the nation of Israel. Because they did not teach, encourage and admonish properly God punished the nation of Israel. He lays the blame squarely upon the priests/prophets.
Israel’s shepherds failed to nourish/instruct them properly. Elders in a congregation are responsible for spiritual nourishment… not the preacher, not the deacons and not the Bible class teachers. Certainly they serve under the umbrella of the elder-hood but Elders must make sure the right things are being taught by the teachers with the most ability.
Israel’s shepherds failed to look after those who were straying. Elders as well are responsible to search for those who stray. It’s not too hard in a congregation to see who are straying. Attendance may not be the best criteria but it is an important one. Members who don’t attend or who don’t attend well (and have the ability to) l need to be taught and strengthened. They are not participating in the classes. They certainly have not prepared themselves to be teachers. They generally are lacking in hospitality in the congregation and they are not participating in the three hallmarks of one another responsibilities… encouragement, edification and admonishment.
Israel’s shepherds failed to treat the injured and strengthen the weak. Elders have the same responsibility. Sometimes members are weak because their faith is weak and they don’t know God’s word. Too often Elders take a one size shoe fits all… well it doesn’t. The weak are on the “milk of the word” and are “babes in Christ”. Plugging them into the auditorium class that is studying Revelation is tantamount to child abuse. The weak and injured need to be individually assessed and helped accordingly.
The Prophet Jeremiah laments the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and the destruction of the Jewish people by the Babylonians. He puts the blame on the Jews and among these charges we find this…
“The visions of your prophets were false and worthless; they did not expose your sin to ward off your captivity. The prophecies they gave you were false and misleading” Lamentations 2:14
One of the purposes of prophets specifically and God’s other messengers generally is the identification of sin and its consequences.
God expects a level of conduct among his faithful ones. Unfortunately we are occasionally deceived by Satan and led astray. Being led astray could have eternal consequences for us.
So God’s messengers, preachers, teachers and spiritually mature need to be constantly on guard to watch for those untoward behaviors so that those behaviors can be addressed and God’s people will not be led astray.
In addition, because sin is often of a secretive nature general teaching on the most common sins needs to be common.
The most common sins (public and private) include sexual immorality of all shapes and forms, drunkenness, anger issues and trivializing and missing church assemblies for the smallest of reasons.
Woe and lamentations to the teachers of our age on the Day of Judgement if they have failed in the most basic of their responsibilities to guide God’s people to living righteous lives.
In Luke 18 Jesus tells the very rich Ruler of the Jews to sell everything he had and give it to the poor and “follow me”.
The rich ruler turned away in sorrow and Jesus said these very famous and troubling words…
“it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God”
By definition, in the scriptures, the “poor” are identified as not having the daily necessities of life; food, clothing and shelter. Therefore, compared to the poor, those who have those necessities are rich.
I personally do not know anyone who fits that definition of being poor. Everyone I know is rich.
You might develop the idea that it’s best to be poor that God doesn’t want us to be rich… not true,
The promises of the Mosaic Law were that those who obeyed it would be prosperous on earth.
On the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said that those who put the kingdom first would have all the necessities that they needed in life.
In fact when someone comes into the church building begging I tell them I know what their problem is… they haven’t put God first.
So how are we going to get that camel through that needle?
1 Timothy 6:17-19, identifies several things rich Christians are to do.
- Be not high minded or arrogant
- Have hope set on God, not personal wealth
- Do good and be rich in good works
- Be ready to distribute or share their wealth
- Be sympathetic to the needs of other
An example or two might be handy.
Zaccheus dedicated 50% of his paycheck to help the poor. If he wronged anyone financially he not only returned their money but gave them 4X back.
Righteous Job instructed many, steadied the weak and braced up tired knees.
So how do we get that camel through the needle?
Easy… don’t make it your goal in life to become wealthy. Our goal should be to serve God with the totality of our being and if God wants us to be wealthy he will make us wealthy.
I don’t know where I went wrong with Caleb. Maybe I was too hard on him or maybe I was too soft… I just don’t know. His mother Abigail died when he was just a toddler and I just couldn’t bring myself to remarry. Every time I looked at Caleb as he grew up I could see more and more of his mother in him and I don’t know… it kind of hurt.
Seth wasn’t anything like Caleb, he was big and strong and I could count on him to do the work we needed on the farm… he loved farm life and I loved him for loving what I loved.
Every time we went into town on the Sabbath Caleb was always hanging around with kids his age who were a little on the wild side and Caleb seemed to like to hang around the Gentile boys too.
I knew that sooner or later I was going to lose him and then one day he came up to me and said… Dad, I’m of age and since I’m not going to inherit this farm anyway I just want my inheritance to try something different.
I didn’t really trust what Caleb was telling me but I knew if I didn’t give him the money he would resent it and I would probably never see him again. I watched him gather his things and watched him walk down that road until he disappeared. Oh Jehovah God what have I done? Where is Abigail when I need her the most? Please protect Caleb for me!
I remember when I got that money from my Dad that I was finally going to do things my way. I was tired of Seth being the favorite son… Mr Goody Two Shoes.
The Gentile boys had told me what life was like in Ammon… drinking and dancing and girls who knew how to do things that I couldn’t even imagine. I had a great time for a while until the money began to run out. Once the money was gone my drinking buddies were gone too.
The girls quit smiling at me and flirting with their eyes. I lost all my money, I lost all my friends, I lost a place to stay and now I was stuck sleeping with these unclean hogs doing a job no one else wanted to do for pennies. I was always hungry and had nothing to eat but hog food.
Dad could never forgive me… I had slept with unclean gentile girls and now with unclean hogs. But maybe Dad would let me be a servant… they had beds to sleep in and ate three meals a day and lived happy lives.
I’ll go back home and be a servant in my father’s house. Every step I took on the way back home I rehearsed what I would say… I’m sorry Dad, you were right and I was wrong. You were so right that I am not even worthy to carry your name. Please let me be the least of all servants in your home.
Ever since Caleb had left the first thing I would do every morning when I got out of bed was get on my knees and pray to Jehovah God to bring mine and Abigail’s son back. Then in the afternoon I would sit on the porch of the house and watch the road to see if my prayers were answered.
I knew right where Caleb was. I knew he was in Ammon and I knew what he was doing there. I had heard that he had run out of money and was down on his luck.
I also knew that if I wanted him back forever I couldn’t go after him. He had to make up his own mind to come back.
One day I was watching the road and I saw a solitary figure approaching. I didn’t want to get my hopes up just to be dashed like had happened so many times before. But as the figure got closer and closer something about him seemed familiar… the way he walked… the way he held himself. Could it be?
As he got closer and closer… it had to be Caleb… it had to him. I jumped up and ran to him. It was him! It was him! He started to say something about not being worthy but I didn’t let him finish… I couldn’t. I hugged his neck and started crying and then an amazing thing happened Caleb hugged my neck and started crying too.
We held each other for a little while and I realized all the servants were watching. I told them… get these filthy clothes off him, bathe him and dress him like he deserves to be dressed… like my son… because Jehovah has done a great thing… he has returned my lost son.
A little later Seth came in from the fields and when he heard the news he was angry and said Dad I have worked side by side with you all my life. Caleb wasted your money and disgraced our family name. How could you honor him this way when you have never even thrown a party for me?
Seth, Seth… I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life but you are not one of them. You are everything to me. I couldn’t do anything without you by my side but Caleb is your brother and the second son of your own mother. Yes he wasted the money and yes he behaved in a disgraceful way but doesn’t sorrow and repentance count for anything?
Jehovah God brought your brother back and unless I miss my guess he’ll be twice the brother and twice the son he was before.
If Jehovah can forgive so can we and so should we.
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
We read a verse like this and understand that Jesus is directly talking to his disciples about the tribulation/persecution they would personally suffer and then we correctly try to make application to whatever tribulation/persecution we might suffer.
The first thing to realize is that whatever tribulation we experience it is nothing like what Jesus’ disciples experienced.
In addition, this verse is not about the tribulation we might experience that is common to all mankind. This type of tribulation only relates to our faith in Jesus Christ. If we say or do something stupid and are persecuted for it that’s on us… it is not relevant in this discussion.
But say we are persecuted for the right reasons… there are some things to understand. First of all we shouldn’t moan and groan about it and advertise it in a pitiful way to everyone. Rather we should be happy about it… after all that is an experience that we can share with Jesus Christ.
The other thing is to remember who is persecuting us. The persecutors are either spiritually ignorant or they are evil. So knowing that, we can respond out of knowledge.
Something like this…
“I know you can’t see this but I am wearing the full armor of God and those insults you just directed at me just fell right off”
“You have a problem and I know what it is… you are spiritually ignorant and you are following the commands of your father Satan. So I’m going to pray for you and ask the father to open your eyes so you can see the truth and develop understanding”
Or you can just ignore it and walk away because generally there’s not much use in talking to ignorant or evil people.
I can’t remember if anyone has spoken against me because of my faith or not but remember… don’t let anyone push you around… because you have God and his people on your side and the armor thing.
Ephesians 6:10-20 concludes a section of the Ephesian letter that begins in Ephesians 4:1.
Ephesians 6:10-20 contains a well known section of scripture that not only encourages a Christian to stand and be strong but also tells the Christian how to do it… by putting on the whole armor of God. Not just some of the armor but all of it.
Things like…
loins girded with truth
breastplate of righteousness
footwear that is associated with the gospel of peace
the shield of faith
the helmet of salvation
the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God
Okay that’s how we become strong but how do we put on that armor? Note that God doesn’t put the armor on us… we do that, but he does provide the mechanism for acquiring the armor.
Ephesians 4:1- 6:9 describes in great detail the “walk” of a Christian so that he can acquire truth, become righteous, proclaim the gospel of peace, build strong faith, be saved and learn to accurately wield the word of God.
Don’t expect God just to pour all those attributes on you… they have to be developed by conquering sin in our lives, learning humility in the service of others, the continual study of God’s word and sallying forth to meet and conquer our enemies who are the “principalities, the powers, the world rulers of darkness and against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places”
Don’t think you can do that by yourselves. Discipline yourselves to be completely armored soldiers of Christ in an army waging war with Satan!
Sometimes you hear folks justify not attending church be saying something like… “nature is my church” or “I can get closer to God on a mountain top than in a church building”.
Certainly God created nature and it testifies to his existence but does God really want people substituting nature for church? I think not.
Jesus after all in Matthew 16 said that he himself would “build the church”. What kind of sense does it make that Jesus would build a church and make attendance or congregation optional? Here… let me answer that… it makes no sense.
The church is somewhat analogous to the jewish synagogue. Did Jesus attend the synagogue services? Of course he did and so did the apostles.
Those folks who want to go out in nature by themselves to worship God fail to consider what the purpose of the church is.
The church was designed by Jesus Christ to help Christians reach spiritual maturity. Which begs the question… can Christians reach spiritual maturity without the church? If they could then why did Jesus Christ die to establish the church? Why didn’t he just say climb up on that mountain, or look at the stars or watch a bird sing a song and that’s your spiritual service to me?
We can go and observe nature and think about God and his majesty and in fact I recommend it. But on Sundays, Christians need to be in church being encouraged and being built up, serving each other and practicing love towards each other. That’s what Jesus Christ expects of us and is what makes him happy.
A famous college football coach once said… “your actions speak so loud that I can’t hear what you are saying”
He said that in reference to what his young players would say at team meetings or in the locker room and what he saw on the field. In other words they could talk the talk but when it came to the actual walking they came up short.
So too Christians…
we can say we don’t love money until someone asks us for some of it
we can say to our new wife I’ll love you forever and never disappoint you until some rough times come and you meet a more desirable woman
we can say that we attend church every time the saints meet until we have a headache or we’re a little tired or we decide to stay at home and watch services on line.
we can say that we welcome any kind of criticism until some one says our kids aren’t acting appropriately or like when an Elder calls us and says we haven’t seen you in a while and the defenses come up.
We can say we always tell the truth unless we need to cover up some little embarrassing fault
We might say all those noble spiritual things but they’re awfully hard to hear when our actions are making so much noise to the contrary.
In fact, let’s let our righteous actions be so loud that they drown out our speech.
There is a sales technique that is commonly employed by sales people that is a huge key to their business.
They have learned that if you give something to someone that it is in human nature for the receiver to want to give something back.
Hence you will find drug reps. taking doctors to dinner or taking them on free trips or bringing lunch into your clinic. All in the hopes that you will give them a drug order and they can meet the quota that their corporation has placed upon them.
Thats concept works in Christianity as well. Let’s say you identify an individual that you would like to convert to Jesus Christ. What should you do?
First of all one of the greatest testimonies about Jesus Christ is how he has changed your life. They don’t necessarily need to hear that but they do need to see it. How do they see that? By you sharing your life with them so that you can create a seam and insert into that seam the good news of salvation.
That might mean you invite them into your home, you help them with whatever they need. If you hear they have illness in their family you pray with them. You friend them on Facebook. You remember their birthdays, etc. etc. etc.
Like the salesman you are giving up something… you are giving up yourself (just like Jesus did) so that they by human nature will want to give something back. It’s simple human chemistry and it is entirely scriptural.
Sacrifice yourself for the benefit of others. Once their eyes are opened they will thank you for that great gift
Someone once said… “How you treat someone is what they become”
It’s probably not 100% true but most of the time it’s going to be true. Let’s think about this. What if we treated someone in a loving fashion? Would that make them lovable?
If we were patient with them would that make them also patient?
If we treated them with complete trust would they become trustworthy?
If we treated them like we really appreciated them would they have their self esteem lifted up?
If we sought after the other persons well being more than our own would they recognize that and adopt the same trait?
If we refused to become angry even if we are intentionally baited to become angry… would the one provoking us learn to appreciate that quality?
If someone treated us badly could we put that behind us and treated the other person like it never happened… would they recognize that? Would they see the the moral superiority in that type of behavior and work to be the same kind of person? Would they?
The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 seemed to think so because he said the exact same thing.
Here’s the thing… not only can we help transform some one else by the way that we treat them but we are also transformed from “faith unto faith”
Don’t treat someone so horribly that they become horrible people… treat them with love as you yourself were treated by Jesus Christ himself and were washed and made clean and made acceptable to God.
Pass the love down.
Sometimes in congregations the question comes up… “what should we do about members who have quit attending?”
S
Some would recommend disfellowshipping them in accordance with what is taught in 1 Corinthians 5.
In my opinion our scenario would not fit 1 Corinthians 5. The fellow was actively involved in a sin that everyone knew about and continued to attend. Paul instructed the congregation to not associate with him in any form or fashion. Taking away that association would cause the fellow to lament what he had lost due to his willful sin.
See the difference? The one who has left the congregation doesn’t care about his association with other Christians so taking that away when he has already disposed of it won’t have the desired affect.
Some would recommend sending a letter to the fellow alerting him that he is no longer a member of the congregation. I’m not sure what the purpose of that would be because he has already given that up by walking away from it.
For these sorts of issues I think about the father and the Prodigal son. The Prodigal son gave up on his family to live a life style that he knew his family would not approve of.
Did the father send him a letter stating… “you are no longer my son”? of course not he continually thought of his lost son and looked earnestly for a change of heart.
Did the father “disfellowship” him? no, again, because the son had already removed his fellowship.
Those weak sheep who stray away need to be searched for and encouraged and not treated in such a way as to drive them away even further.
There’s a difference between a weak sheep and a rebellious sheep.
In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul calls the Corinthian Christians “babes in Christ” who aren’t ready for the “meat” of the word. They had failed to mature as Christians.
Hebrews 6 sheds additional light on this figure of speech. Everyone who is still on the “milk” of the word is “without experience of the word of righteousness”
These spiritual infants are contrasted with spiritual “full-grown men” who are able “by reason of use have their senses exercised to differentiate between good and evil”
The Corinthians who were spiritual babies were actively engaged in sin… they gloried in who baptized them and in so doing diminished those who were baptized by someone else. They failed to “differentiate between good and evil” in their failure to take action against fellow members who were actively engaged in fornication and they had civil law suits against each other. They were whiney little thumb sucking spiritual babies.
Full grown Christians can not only differentiate between the black and white of sin but also are wary of those gray areas… like where a gray activity might lead.
For instance, I made it a policy in my life not to eat lunch or any other kind of meal (by myself) with a woman who was not my wife. Why? because of where it might lead.
I have a friend who is a drug rep. and in the course of his business would go out to eat with young pretty women who were also drug reps. As a friend I told him that if I was him I would not engage in that behavior. He responded… but thats my job.
The next week he told me he had mentioned our conversation to his wife and continued… Rob, why would I go eat a hamburger when I have Filet Mignon at home? I responded, I like Filet Mignon too but every once in a while I like a hamburger.
Grow up as Christians and not only stay away from that black, black sin but also stay away from activities that could lead you in that direction.
Think of all the consequences. Remember 1 Corinthians 10:13
A few thoughts about what was going on in 1 Corinthians 5. As we all know Paul acknowledges the report that one of the Christians in the church at Corinth committed fornication with his father’s wife.
The text does not identify her as his mother but she may well have been. She may have been identified as “wife” to further illustrate that the guilty party had “uncovered his father’s nakedness which is expressly prohibited in the Law (Leviticus 18:7).
The father could have been either alive or deceased. Even deceased his son would “uncover his nakedness” by having sex with his widow.
The woman was certainly not a Christian. If she were she would have received the same admonishment that her Christian lover received. She was probably not a Jew either. She was probably a polytheistic pagan and she may have been a current or former prostitute.
Twice in 1 Corinthians Paul uses the phrase “All things are lawful for me… “ to introduce a conclusion. In 10:23 he draws some conclusions about eating meats sacrificed to idols.
Likewise in 6:12 he is drawing a conclusion about the subject of fornication that was introduced in chapter 5. In this conclusion he states that Christians should not be joined sexually to a prostitute. I think this has reference to the father’s wife that the Christian had sex with.
There was a temple in Corinth to the false Goddess Aphrodite and history records that there were male and female prostitutes available to the devotees of Aphrodite. It’s possible that the father’s wife was engaged in this activity.
Certainly some of these Christians came out of paganism and still may have felt the “hook” of not only the Priestesses of Prostitution but also the eating of meats sacrificed to idols.
Sometimes it takes time to fully eliminate deeply engrained sin in our lives. Fortunately according to 2 Corinthians 2:7 Paul’s admonishment worked and the guilty young Christian man repented of his heinous sin.
I occasionally hear of congregation’s Elders who mandate or require face masking in the assembly. In fact some friends of ours were told (by their Elders) that if they didn’t wear a mask in the assembly that they could go find a new church. Amazing and sickening.
Let me kindly suggest that Elders have no authority to require the wearing of masks in the assembly. The work of Elders is purely spiritual… they protect the flock from false teachers and they help their fellow Christians grow to spiritual maturity.
There is no authority in the scriptures for Elders to be in charge of their member’s health… none. People (not Elders) are in charge of their own health.
As usual what proves a little proves too much. If Elders can require face masking can they also require require vaccinations? Can they require that their members lose weight all in the name of health? Where does it stop?
If we can change the work of the Elders can we also change the work of the church and authorize churches to build health clinics or hospitals?
Requiring masks to assemble or even to be considered a member of a congregation goes beyond what is written.
Certainly Elders can make suggestions (and accomodations) concerning health, just as any Christian can do, but they cannot expand their authority and *require* things of members that they have no authority for.
“In the beginning was the Word (Jesus Christ)…
In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness…
There was a man sent from God whose name was John… he came only as a witness to the light.
The true light (Jesus Christ) that gives light to everyone was coming into the world” (John 1)
These verses in the Gospel of John are very reminiscent of what was written in Genesis…
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…
And God said, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1)
Imagine at the creation of the world (in Genesis) that all was dark and black and God flipped on the light switch and the whole world was illuminated.
Something similar happened when Jesus came into the world. The world was dark and black with sin… Satan was running rampant. The God flipped on the spiritual light switch by sending Jesus into the world.
But wait… the light of Jesus is contagious (like a California wild fire) and can light up humanity.
Imagine a dark room and someone lights a candle… one single solitary light and then another candle is lit and another and another until the whole room is fully illuminated.
We’re here to bring light into a dark world. When a room is lit up all those dirty, nasty cockroaches scatter and run looking for a dark place to hide in… and so does sin. Most people try to cover their sin. We’re here to help expose it and bring folks to repentance.
Here’s a problem… sometimes we hole up in our homes or just want our light to shine around other Christians. Take that light out where you can do the most good with it. Take it to some dark, dark places and don’t forget to have your Christian armor on. What’s there to be afraid of? After all we have the Spirit of God on our side.
There were some bad problems in Corinth. The big one was divisions among the members based upon who baptized them.
So how did Paul handle or approach this?
First of all he attacked the issue and argued that their position was inconsistent with the teachings of Christ.
Then he absolved himself of any blame recounting his behavior and teaching that came from the Holy Spirit himself.
He charged them with fomenting “jealousy and strife” which were the natural results of their contentions.
He said the fault was with them and called them “babes in Christ” and that they had failed to progress spiritually since the day they were born (baptized).
He called them “worldly”
He said his motivation was not to shame them but to admonish them. Certainly being admonished would cause shame but that wasn’t his primary intent.
Lastly he said this…
“What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a rod of discipline, or shall I come in love and with a gentle spirit?” (1 Cor. 4:21)
Basically he said there were two ways he could handle this… a nice way and a not so nice way… you choose.
There’s a lot we can learn from Paul… arguing the inconsistency of a problem, identifying where that problem might lead. Calling them out and holding them accountable.
His first approach would be “love and gentleness” but failing that he was ready to whip up on them (figuratively).
Admonishment takes a lot of thought and consideration. Thank you Paul for providing a pattern for us.
Paul uses the figure of house building in 1 Corinthians 3 to describe how Christians are built. Of course he says that no matter who the builder is they all use the same foundation… Jesus Christ.
However, teachers/preachers can build different things on that foundation. Every teacher/preachers work will be tested with the fire (fires of temptation. RP)
Some build with non-combustible materials… gold, silver, jewels. Others build with things that will burn up… wood, hay stubble.
Verse 17 states that we are temples of God and that if any man destroys the temple of God then God will destroy him.
There were false teachers in Corinth that were building on the foundation with wood, hay and stubble which would be destroyed. What specifically did they build on that foundation?
- That Paul was not a real Apostle and those taught and baptized by Paul were inferior Christians (4:3)
- They built “jealousy and strife” on the foundation (3:3)
- They tolerated sexual immorality in the church
- They were involved in civil lawsuits with each other.
Paul, of course, in this letter was trying to dismantle that faulty structure and replace it with imperishable things. FYI, it’s always better to build it right the first time.
Here’s the question… what has been built on your foundation? Have you been so haphazard in your faith that you will listen to any teacher/preacher and swallow whatever they have to offer?
Or do you consider carefully what you are being taught so you can withstand the test of fire with imperishable qualities?
In 1 Corinthians 1:11 Paul says this…
“My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you”
Someone from Chloe’s household had informed Paul of some problems in the church at Corinth.
Apparently Paul did not respond… “you’re guilty of the sin of gossip and instead of informing me of this you should have gone to the person yourself (Mt 18:15-17) and handled it”
I sit in Bible classes and the conclusions I see reached sometimes are that you can’t say anything about anyone else or you are guilty of gossip and the Lord may require your soul one day.
Let me suggest that part of defining gossip is intent. My guess is that Chloe saw a problem at Corinth and the problem was too big for her to handle so she communicated the problem to someone of sufficient spiritual stature to handle it.
Obviously Chloe loved the Lord and loved his bride... the church. She wasn’t trying to slander or demean… that wasn’t her intent. Therefore in my opinion she was not a gossip… she was part of the solution.
Certainly Paul made her part of the solution by identifying her as his source.
Let’s all be very careful about the charge of “gossip” and make sure we understand it in the first place because it may not be gossip at all and we might be hammering on someone who is doing their best to help someone else.
Imagine with me if in a church someone had got busy and converted a bunch of Pakastanis to Christ and someone else had converted a group of bikers. And you walked in that church and all the Pakastanis were sitting separately together and all the bikers were sitting with each other… Anglos, Hispanics, etc.
What would you think about that? You might think that church was divided and segregated.
That’s kind of what was happening in the church at Corinth. Some were trying to distinguish and differentiate themselves by who they were baptized by… Paul, Apollos, Cephas, Christ. In other words… I am superior to you because my baptizer is superior to your baptizer.
Paul said they were full of “jealousy and strife” and as such were failing as a church which according to God’s plan was supposed to demonstrate love and unity to the world.
That sort of division could lead to a division of the church itself a la Acts 20:28-30, in which “grievous wolves” drew people away to start a new church. New churches such as the “Followers of Paul” church, etc.
It’s nice to associate with other Christians who might have a similar culture (racially) or to associate with other Christians who have similar hobbies… such as riding Harley’s but we have to be careful how we present ourselves to the world because we might appear to be divided and not united.
As members of a congregation lets develop relationships with all of our other members. Members who are racially different, old and young members, male and female, etc. so that we can demonstrate to the world the wisdom of God that in spite all of our differences we share the commonality of Jesus Christ which is life changing.
Lets be diligent and cautious about presenting the right picture to the world because you might only have one shot at it.
There is a little bit of controversy in 1Cor. 11 about head coverings. Was Paul talking about artificial head coverings like a veil or a hat or was he merely talking about hair?
First of all keep in mind that an activity is being regulated and the activity is a man or a woman “praying or prophesying”
If Paul was instructing that a woman had to have long hair during those activities (prayer and prophesy) then it would also mean that for every other activity in her life she could have short hair.
Likewise a man would only have to have short hair during those activities. That doesn’t really pass the smell test does it?
Another thing to think about is that if the head covering is just hair… why didn’t Paul just say… you women need to have long hair and you men need to have short hair instead of using up 16 verses on the subject?
So, why did Paul introduce the subject of hair into this discussion?
The discussion of hair begins in verses 5…
“Every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head—it is the same as having her head shaved. For if a woman does not cover her head, she might as well have her hair cut off; but if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, then she should cover her head”
This verse calls for a judgement. The verse compares a woman “praying and prophesying” without a veil/hat to her having her head shaven. If one is embarrassing then both should be.
Verse 13 calls for another judgement to the woman who “prays or prophesies” without her head covered and that is to judge about the teaching of nature… nature teaches that a woman should have long hair (not short or shaven)… and that it is a *type* of covering.
So hair is brought into the discussion as an argument from nature to prove that a woman’s head should be veiled when she is engaged in the activity of “prayer and prophesy”
One more thing in verses 6 and 7 the Greek verb “katakalupto” is used for being "veiled" so you would expect that the verb form would agree with the noun form in verse 15… hair given for a “covering” (“kalumna”). However, that’s not the Greek word that Paul uses for “covering” he uses the Greek noun “peribolaion” whose verb form is “periballo”
Of course I believe that the activities being regulated were miraculous “prayer and prophesy” which no longer exist today. However, I still would not be comfortable with a man leading a public prayer in the assembly with a hat on.
When considering the “work” of the church it’s important to note that God does not specifically in one locale of the New Testament reveal that to us. Rather… it requires some study to draw conclusions about what that work is.
Another thing to consider… is there really a difference in the work that individual Christians do (who are the Church) and what the church assembled or gathered does? That’s something to think about.
Let me suggest that the over whelming “work” that the church does is found in Ephesians 3:10…
“His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms”
God’s intent for the “work” of the church was to illustrate his wisdom to spiritual beings (in the heavenly places).
That’s it… that’s the work of the church (individually or collectively). Anything else we might consider to be a “work” of the church is just a subset of that overriding work whether it is described as “evangelism, edification or benevolence” as the work of the church is sometimes classically defined.
So how does the church do that?
John 17:20-23…
“…that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one… I in them and you in me… so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me”
God’s intent as revealed here was that the church… individually and collectively would be one with the exact kind of oneness (unity) that Jesus had with God the Father. A oneness based on sacrificial love. Which is the very best evidence to the world that Jesus came from God.
When the world knows that… then the spiritual beings in Heavenly places also know it, God’s wisdom is glorified and the church (individually and collectively) is fulfilling its purpose and completing its work
Once we know what our mission is then we can ask ourselves... what am I doing to promote love and unity at my church? Am I involved or am I sitting on the side lines watching?
1 Kings 3 records that God offered to give Solomon anything he wanted… anything. Solomon upon reflection asked for…
“An understanding heart to judge your people, to discern between good and evil”
God responded…
“Behold, I have done according to your words. Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you. I have also given you what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there will not be any among the kings like you all your days”
A description of the wisdom God gave to Solomon is recorded in 1Kings 4…
“God gave Solomon wisdom and discernment and breadth of mind, like the sand that is on the seashore. Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. He was wiser than all other people He also told three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered 1,005. He told of trees he told also of animals, birds, crawling things, and fish. People came from all the nations to hear the wisdom of Solomon”
I’m so glad that God gave the details of the wisdom, otherwise I might have thought he only gave Solomon and intimate knowledge of his written word… something that might be duplicated by the intense study of God’s written word.
But no… Solomon was among other things a student and teacher of nature. He wrote down his wisdom in proverbs and was a great writer of songs which means he was also a poet.
My guess is that Solomon was intellectually curious and had a thirst for knowledge… all kinds of knowledge.
Remember that outside of the Bible God also reveals himself in nature so along with our Bible study… a study of nature and this world (God’s creation) also teaches us about God.
If it is our desire to be wise remember how God made Solomon wise and try to duplicate that path. And oh by the way though Solomon’s wisdom he also became quite wealthy.
Proverbs 8…
“I (Wisdom) love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.
With me are riches and honor, enduring wealth and prosperity.
My fruit is better than fine gold; what I yield surpasses choice silver.
I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice,
bestowing a rich inheritance on those who love me and making their treasuries full”
The Lord said to Moses, “Gather for me seventy men of the elders of Israel and bring them to the tent of meeting… and I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them…
So Moses gathered seventy men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tent. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the Spirit that was on Moses and put it on the seventy elders. As soon as the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied.
Now two men remained in the camp, Eldad and Medad, and the Spirit rested on them too. They were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. A young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” Joshua the son of Nun said, “My lord Moses, stop them.”
The reaction of the Great Joshua was to stop the two men from prophesying.
But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”
What can we learn from this?
- Sometimes God acts outside of his specified command. I guess that’s okay, after all he is God and He can do what he wants.
- When others aren’t obeying God’s command just like we are we may get a little indignant… like Joshua did and rashly rebuke them. Maybe we should take a little time to think about that.
- How was Joshua going to stop Eldad and Medad from prophesying? It was God who caused them to prophesy. Was Joshua going to stop God?
- The Great Moses realized this and didn’t question God or get insulted… Eldad and Medad were prophesying great things about God himself! Moses might not have understood the mechanism but he understood the results.
Moses wished that God would give his Spirit to all humanity and that’s just what God did starting on the day of Pentecost when God poured out his Spirit (on all flesh) and fulfilled what the prophet Joel predicted…
“‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy”
Joshua and Moses were both great men in the Old Testament but Joshua was focused on the minute details of God’s Word and couldn’t see God’s great plan for mankind.
Oh that we could lift up our eye and see our great God like Moses did!
Burn up their idols in the fire. Do not wish for the silver and gold on them. Don’t take it for yourselves, or you will be trapped by it. The Lord your God hates it. Do not bring one of those hated things into your house. If you do, you will be completely destroyed along with it. Hate and reject those things. They must be completely destroyed. Deuteronomy 7.
This text instructs the Israelites to not only turn from idol worship but also what to do with the idols… utterly destroy them and burn them up. But look what else the text says don’t even keep the melted silver or gold that the idol was made of… get rid of it. Probably don’t even sell the gold and silver… just get rid of it.
In fact we see the exact same principle illustrated in the New Testament…
Many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices. And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone; and they counted up the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing. Acts 19.
Some might say… why don’t we take the gold from the melted idols… sell it and give it to the Lord. Or… why don’t we sell these magic books and give the proceeds to the church?
There is a sort of wisdom in that but not godly wisdom… the proceeds from the melted idols and sold magic books would be tainted and not acceptable to God.
What can we learn from these examples and the sin in our lives today?
Suppose you went to the garage sale of a widow and you “beat” her up on the pricing and went home and bragged about the good deal you got and the money you saved. Is the okay to take advantage of widows or the poor? What do you do with the widow’s property that you stole from her? Keep it anyway? Sell it so you won’t be reminded of your iniquity and use the money to buy something else?
What if you had been engaged in “outlaw” hunting on one of the big south Texas ranches and brought home a trophy buck and had it mounted and placed over your fire place. You later realize that you are a thief. What do you do with the deer mount? Keep it and recite to yourself over and over that you are saved by God’s grace? Or do you get rid of the monument to your sin and refuse to even keep or profit from selling it?
God’s people live to a higher standard than the rest of humanity. Part of that is not sinning or even keeping any of the treasure associated with sin. If you’re not ready to do that then you are not worthy of the Kingdom.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27
In this verse Jesus cites the two greatest commandments… loving God and loving your neighbor.
Let me suggest that participating in the Lord’s Supper (properly) fulfills both these commands.
Of course Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper so observing and obeying that directive fulfills the Great Command… loving God because we show that we love God by obeying his command.
When Christians congregate together and observe the Lord’s Supper, they are fulfilling the second great command… loving your neighbor as yourself.
Here’s why… God never intended that the Lord’s Supper be taken individually and privately. It is a communal activity observed when all Christians come together to demonstrate the unity of believers to the whole world. Check out Ephesians 3…
“His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms”
When we don’t assemble to take the Lord’s Supper we are violating God’s great command by neglecting his communal intent and we are violating the second command by neglecting our fellow Christians. In essence, telling our brothers and sisters that they don’t even matter.
Assemble together with your fellow Christians to observe the Lord’s Supper properly and in so doing fulfil the two greatest commandments given by Jesus.
Most of you don’t know this but I bring my own personal song book to church every Sunday. It is a leather-bound “Praise for the Lord”.
As a song leader I like to write the date by every song I have led. That’s one of the ways I know if I am leading a given song too many times. When other song leaders lead and they lead a song that I have never led… I mark that song too. That way I have a record of all the songs that the congregation “knows”.
Sometimes a member tells me something about a particular song. For instance I led the song “Beautiful” on May 2, 2010 and David Smitherman told me that was his grandmother’s favorite song. I mark things like that down.
I’ve gone through my whole songbook and marked all the songs I think I know and also have marked the songs I think look interesting so I can learn them later.
I also mark all the songs that were led at member’s funerals. For instance, the songs…”Seek Ye First”, “Does Jesus Care”, “He Leadeth Me”, How Great Thou Art”, “Victory in Jesus”, “Amazing Grace”, “Alleluia”, and “Blest Be the Tie” were all sung at my Dad’s funeral. I can’t lead those songs without getting a little emotional.
Likewise if I want to make various members cry… I know which ones to lead. You see… it’s all right there marked in my songbook.
My songbook is an old friend and I take a lot of comfort in it. It is in a lot of ways my own personal record and I think that one day when I have passed my children or grandchildren would love to have it as a memorial to me.
I guess that’s why I’m not a big fan of paperless hymnal… I could never leave my old friend on a shelf and sing without him and also neglect one day to pass my old friend to a loved one.
I was talking to my High School Bible class the other day and I asked them what they thought Heaven might be like? I didn’t get much of a response.
When I read descriptions of Heaven it’s like streets of Gold, gates of pearl and walls of precious stones. Plus activities like worship and singing before the throne of God. For me I can’t get too excited about walking on a street paved with gold and although I like to sing after a while I get tired of singing. Plus… I know some people who don’t even like to sing.
I asked my class… what would be the perfect Heaven for you? What would you like to be doing up there?
One said… I would play my guitar every day. Others talked about playing video games all day long. I guess for me it would be playing Volleyball or eating great food or laughing or spending time with loved ones.
Here’s the thing… a lot of those descriptions about Heaven in the scriptures are figurative… not literal. God uses figurative descriptions to describe immeasurable value in timeless terms that humans can understand.
I told my class that all those fun things we like to do now and the enjoyment those things bring us… that whatever God has planned for us in Heaven… it will be 1000 times funner… maybe a million times.
Have faith in God that he knows how to reward his children. The good things of earth are merely a foreshadowing of those things that God is going to surprise us with in Heaven
“If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, “Let us follow other gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us worship them,” you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer.
The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him.” Deut 13
Usually we know if a Prophet is truly from God because his prophecies come true. Obviously if a Prophet’s prophecies don’t come true he is not from God. Makes sense right? Not so fast…
This passage appears to tell us that God can inspire a Prophet to give a mixed message as a test for us.
So imagine this… God inspires a prophet to tell us that God will raise up a T. Rex who will rise up out of Corpus Christi Bay and smash up the Selena Auditorium. Of course we all laugh but then one day a big old T. Rex does exactly that.
The next day the prophet says we must all become Muslims.
The true follower of God will say… I know that T. Rex tore up Selena’s Auditorium and I can’t explain it but I cannot reject my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and will wait for God to explain it all in Heaven one day.
Same thing with Preacher’s today… some of them may look good and may sound good and may do a lot of good but they could just be a test from God to see if you are going to follow a man or God’s Holy written Word… the Bible. How are you going to know what to do and who to follow if you don’t know the Bible?
“Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always.
But if that place is too distant and you have been blessed by the Lord your God and cannot carry your tithe (because the place where the Lord will choose to put his Name is so far away), then exchange your tithe for silver, and take the silver with you and go to the place the Lord your God will choose. Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice.” Deut. 14
The above passage explains the Old Testament instruction of tithing. Of course remember that Israelites were commanded to give back 1/10 of whatever their blessings were to the Lord. There was a problem though… they were to carry their 1/10 of grain, wine, oil, etc. to Jerusalem (for instance). That could be a potentially very long way to freight those products and the Lord understood that. He instructs them to sell it… take the money to Jerusalem and use it to buy things worth their 1/10th tithing so they could fulfill the tithing commandment.
Of course we’re not required to tithe in the sense of Old Testament tithing today. Rather we give free will offerings… as we have prospered. So it might be less than 1/10th and it might be greater than 1/10th. Some would say that since we live under a better covenant that it should be more than 10%
The Israelites had a problem giving due to distance. What kind of problems might we have today? I can think of two things off the top of my head.
- We might “love” our money too much and get real sad and have a hard time saying goodbye when the collection plate is passed around.
- We might “love” things that money can buy too much and have bought so many nice things on credit that our money is tied up and we can’t give much to God.
Since we know that we have an obligation to give and that God will hold us accountable what kind remedy might God suggest for our monetary problems?
God might say… don’t live beyond your means. If you can’t afford to pay cash for it don’t buy it.
God might say… why are you buying expensive things for yourself and giving me nothing?
God might say… it’s better to live frugally and give bountifully than to live bountifully and give frugally.
I look back at my life and see that he has blessed me every step of the way. The reality is that if he asked me to give Him everything I have… how could I say no? Surely Heaven is worth “all”
When I was in Veterinary School they taught us that as diagnosticians we lived in a world of probability not possibility and they illustrated it like this…
If you were standing on one side of the barn and heard some hoof beats what would you expect to see? A Tibetan Ox? A Giraffe? A Camel? An Oryx?
Those are all possibilities but are any of them probabilities? No they are not. Don’t be surprised to see a cow or horse come around the corner.
When we consider the testimony of nature we can clearly see that the earth had a beginning and has a complexity to it that cannot be duplicated by the smartest of humanity and cannot be reasonably explained by being an accident.
So as diagnosticians what do we conclude? There are a lot of possibilities but the probability is that the earth and all the life on it were created by an intelligent being. Are the Big Bang theory and specific evolution possibilities? Yes they are but they are not likely or probable.
It’s then that we turn to the Bible record to find that intelligent being that was responsible for it all.
Someone told me one time that if you sat a monkey down in front of a type writer and gave him enough time that eventually he could type out the Declaration of Independence. That’s ridiculous… I know monkeys… they would tear the typewriter up and defecate all over it.
Don’t waste your time and life chasing after every little possibility that exists. Follow after probabilities and keep your eyes open for the rare possibility that might pop up.
Examine nature carefully and carefully investigate the Holy Scriptures it's possible and probable that you will find God.
Many years ago Julie and I used to sit towards the front of the auditorium and then for some reason we decided to change our seats and moved to the very back row. That turned out to be a good move for us. Here’s what I’ve learned.
As an Elder when you are sitting on the back row you can see the whole flock. When you are sitting in the front you can’t. Things that can be seen from the back include things like who is missing, visitors and any activities that might need to be addressed.
Sometimes strangers with requests including homeless come in the after services have started. It’s good to have a person in authority in the back to address those folks.
Sometimes members come up to me with a note about something that needs to be announced when they ordinarily would not feel comfortable walking to the front to give said note.
Sometimes I see members crying during the services or who walk out crying that may have needs that I can address.
I do a little bit of texting during the services. If there is some kind of issue I can text the other Elders and inform them. If there is a security issue where the security person in the back may need a little help I can text the other security people.
If there are several visitors who need to be greeted after services and I know I can’t get to all of them I can text my other hospitality experts to help out. I can even surreptitiously take a digital photo from my cell phone of the visitors and text it to our super greeters.
Once services have started I can assess who is missing and text a message that we have missed them.
When the kids are filing out to go to class I can give them all a “fist bump”.
One of the down sides to sitting on the back row is some of the members like to slap me on the back of the head or tap me on the opposite shoulder to make me look the wrong way. Just joking… that’s not a downside… they’re telling me that they are comfortable with me and that they love me.
I’m not saying that all the Elders need to sit on the back row but at least one does because it’s hard to shepherd the flock when you can’t see the flock.
Julie and I didn’t move to the back row because we did some in depth analysis or because of the wise council of a spiritual sage. We did it by accident and like a lot of things in our lives it just worked out for the good.
There’s a subtle shift in the New Testament in the use of miraculous powers given to humans by God.
For instance, if Jesus needed money he could pull a coin from the mouth of a fish. If he needed to feed a mass of people he could feed thousands with just a few pieces of fish and bread.
And yet in the book of Acts we find that there is a famine in Judea and instead of miraculously manufacturing money and food the Apostles relied on the sacrificial giving of Gentile Christians. Oh they still did miraculous things but it was more on the order of casting out demons, healing the sick, tongues and prophecy.
So why would God begin to limit the miraculous gifts he had given to Spirit filled people? I think the answer is obvious… if God continuously spoon fed his children they would never become the spiritually mature men and women they needed to become.
That spiritual maturity could only come about by sacrificial living best demonstrated by Jesus Christ. God’s people begin to become like God when they sacrificially give of their resources just like he did.
So fast forward to today… what does that mean for us? One thing it means is don’t be continually asking God in prayer for things that we can provide for ourselves. In many areas he has already given us everything we need to become successful in life.
Another area of application would be the use of church resources. Don’t let the church and her resources (building, funds, etc.) be our primary source of fulfilling our social and financial obligations to each other.
Have people into your homes. Support Evangelists and ministries out of your own pocket. Use your money to be kind to others, etc.
Grow up… don’t continually be babies nursing on the breast of the church.
The church grew exponentially in the first century and a big reason was God stepped back and didn’t provide every single thing that his people needed when they could provide those things themselves… and they grew into the mature spiritual stature of Jesus Christ himself.
There’s a lesson in that for us as well.
We’ve been in a drought here in South Texas since before January. We really never had a spring it’s been so dry. Of course you can keep the plants alive with city water but they really don’t thrive. To compound that in early February we had a historic freeze that killed a lot of vegetation that wildlife lives on. So it’s been pretty sad around here.
For the past two days we’ve had rain… four inches of rain at my house. This morning when I got up and went outside the White Wing dove were singing their hearts out and as I checked our plants they were putting on new growth and leafing out.
That city water has been worked over pretty hard by the water department and is laden with chemicals so it can be safe for our consumption. It can keep plant life alive but just barely. The water that falls out of the heavens is really what vegetation needs and thrives on… and it’s what people need too.
I see congregations that are watered with “city water”. The water has been sanitized, chemically treated, bottled up and labeled by human beings. When congregations are fed this kind of water they’re kind of like plants… stunted and not much growth, collectively or individually,
When congregations are fed the “living” water which comes from Heaven people are growing spiritually and the congregation is growing collectively because people would rather live in and are attracted to a garden watered from Heaven.
As leaders let’s do our best to provide what the plants in God’s garden need… the kind of water they can thrive and grow on. And if we look at our “work” and see that it’s stunted and sad let’s take a long look at what we’re doing and make whatever corrections we can.
The Old Testament categorizes sin. Two of those categories are “un-intentional” and “defiant” sin.
The commonality between the two types of sin is guilt. Whether the sin is un-intentional or defiant the party is guilty and the sin has to be accounted for.
The un-intentional sin can be remedied by sacrificing an animal (Lev. 4)
The defiant or intentional sin is classified as “blasphemy” for which no animal sacrifice will suffice (Numbers 15). God requires the blood of the perpetrator. Make no mistake… God can forgive blasphemy if he wants but the perp is completely at the mercy of God.
So that’s the Old Testament… what about the New Testament? Let me suggest the example of Judas Iscariot. He knew who Jesus Christ was. He had seen his power and his miraculous abilities and yet he defiantly blasphemed against God by being complicit in the murder of Jesus Christ. He was sorrowful and went to the priests for absolution but received none because there was none so he killed himself.
What about Peter? He denied knowing Jesus even though he had been warned by Jesus that this particular temptation would occur. It seems defiant but God had other plans for Peter and he was forgiven.
Keep in mind that both Judas and Peter were still under the old Law when they committed their sins.
How about Ananias and Sapphira? They lived under the new Law but defiantly “lied to the Holy Spirit”, which was blasphemy as defined above, and were killed by God for it.
I find it interesting that as Jesus hung on the cross he told his Father… “forgive them because they don’t know what they are doing”
They seemed like they knew what they were doing but Jesus asks God the Father to categorize their sin as “un-intentional” because despite the miraculous proof they thought they were just killing a human being who they thought was guilty of blasphemy… not the actual son of God.
What does this mean for us today? We all know people and family members who were baptized believers but have blasphemed by denying Jesus Christ.
Hopefully at some point they will return to Jesus Christ and hopefully Jesus Christ seated by the right hand side of God will whisper in his ear… “forgive them because they didn’t know what they were doing.”
I hope that’s the case but their blood may be required for their denial. Knowing that, let’s take “defiant” and “willful” sin seriously and never put ourselves in that dangerous situation and watch for those who are headed in that dangerous direction.
There are a couple events in the life of Jesus Christ (and how they are connected) that are very intriguing to me.
The first is Jesus' Baptism. Of course Jesus' immersion and arising out of the waters mimic and foreshadow his death, burial and resurrection.
Immediately after this figurative resurrection Jesus goes into the wilderness for forty days of fasting and temptation.
The second is Jesus’ actual death, burial and resurrection. In which he, immediately upon his resurrection, spends another (but different) 40 days demonstrating his power over death. Hooray!
Of course all of this is an example for us. Nothing happens by accident in the scriptures. Let me take a swing at this.
When Christians figuratively die and enter the waters of baptism it symbolizes our death to sin and our old way of life. We arise out of the waters brand new people… squeaky clean.
Immediately we become Satan’s number one enemy but as we learned from Jesus (during the 40 days in the wilderness) Satan has no power over us. We equip ourselves with the armor of God and go out to rescue as many people as we can from our great enemy... Satan. Also, we no longer rely on physical food but hunger for that true spiritual food that only God can provide.
When Christians literally die and are resurrected… like Christ... we are no longer tempted by Satan… he is out of our lives for eternity. Our fight is over. We gather with all the others of humanity who have conquered death and clothed with immortality we witness to “principalities and the powers in Heaven” the marvelous wisdom of God.
Here’s the thing… we can’t experience the good things associated with our literal death until we experience our figurative death… baptism. Don’t neglect or trivialize baptism.
“A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.” Deut. 22:5
Here’s an interesting Old Testament verse. It says that we shouldn’t wear clothing of the opposite sex. I don’t think that means women shouldn’t wear pants or that Scot’s shouldn’t wear kilts. What I do think it means is that a woman shouldn’t try to look like a man and a man shouldn’t try to look like a woman.
But wait a minute… some might say… that’s the Old Covenant and that verse doesn’t apply to us because we live under the New Covenant. Hmmm…
Consider 1 Corinthians 6:9…
“Nay, but ye yourselves do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren. Or know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with men (homosexuals)…”
This verse says men should not be “effeminate”… defined as “having or showing characteristics regarded as typical of a woman; unmanly”
Okay so now we see God wants men to look like men and women should look like women in both Covenants.
In my office we see all kinds of people and more and more frequently I see people who I don’t know what their gender is… not a clue. That kind of behavior is often associated with homosexuality.
Since God “detests” that type of behavior then my advice is to not get caught up in being transgender at any level including your dress and how you present yourselves to others.
If you see young scripturally naïve Christians trying to be “cool” like some of their friends. Please, please, please share with them God’s word on this matter. Who knows you might help them save their souls.
Luke 10:25-37.
In this text a Jewish religious Lawyer asks Jesus what he must do to be saved. Jesus, in part, tells him to “love his neighbor”
The lawyer, of course being a lawyer, tried to justify himself and asked “who is my neighbor”?
Then Jesus tells him the famous parable about the “Good Samaritan”. First let’s identify the characters…
The Priest and the Levite were probably of the Pharisee class. As such they were doctrinally correct. They correctly believed in the afterlife and taught correctly about things like “tithing”.
The Samaritan was doctrinally incorrect… he didn’t worship in the correct place, he only believed in the first five books of the Old Testament, etc.
In this parable the doctrinally correct Priest and Levite ignore the plight on the hapless individual who had been beaten by robbers and was “half dead”. However the doctrinally incorrect Samaritan showed “love to his neighbor” and helped him.
Then Jesus asked the loaded and poignant question to the religious Lawyer… “which one proved to be the neighbor?” The Lawyer correctly answered… the one who showed mercy (the Samaritan).
Keep in mind the question has to do with salvation and Jesus elevates the doctrinally incorrect Samaritan over the doctrinally correct Priest and Levite.
Here’s another story. I know of a congregation who had a member who happened to be the son of the Preacher. This young man got hooked on drugs and while on drugs made several mistakes including evil mistakes and ended up in jail.
To my knowledge no one from his congregation went to visit him in jail. However, a denomination in the same town had a little jail ministry going on and visited this young man in jail and with their help he got clean and repented and had a much greater appreciation for the grace of God.
Here’s my question… which congregation proved to “love his neighbor”?...the one where he grew up or the one he met in jail?
Those are hard questions but here’s a learning point… we need to be correct doctrinally but at some point the rubber has to hit the road and we have to “love our neighbors” no matter what our neighbors have done
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The Pharisees and religious Lawyers had become spiritually elite and spiritually arrogant as if their religious correctness was enough. Well guess what… it wasn’t.
Thank God there are religious people out there who may not have everything figured out (scripturally)… like the Samaritan… but whose hearts are in the right place.
I’ve always wondered when reading the Old Testament how Baal worshippers could sacrifice their own children in their worship of Baal… unless somehow they got something out of it? Like for example they petitioned Baal for rain… sacrificed a child and then it rained.
Paul states (1 Cor. 10:20) that those sacrificing to idols are actually sacrificing to “Demons” or “Devils”.
A-Ha! Baal is really Satan or a minion of Satan.
That begs the question… can Satan do anything beneficial for mankind? If a Baal/Satan worshipper sacrificed a child could Baal/Satan reward that behavior by sending rain or whatever else was requested for the purpose of gaining followers?
During Jesus temptation in the wilderness (Mt. 2:8-9) the Devil offered to give Jesus “all the kingdoms of the world” if Jesus would fall down and worship him. Presumably Satan could deliver on that promise.
In the Book of Job we find that Satan has great supernatural powers… the power to manipulate the weather, the power to strike with disease, the power to send other people to pillage, etc.
This concept is something very important to realize about Satan… he may do a form of good for people… but at what price?
So before we start getting envious of people who seem to have great lives and seem to have everything going for them… conside this... they might have “sacrificed their babies to Baal” and in so doing… sold their souls to Satan.
When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left.
Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel. Deut. 17:18-20
This is found in a section concerning the duties of a king over Israel. Note that he is to read the Law “all the days of his life.” Not some of the days. Nor is he to read it and put it up and think to himself… I’ve read it… I don’t need to read it again.
As a leader in the congregation I can see the wisdom in that. I read my Bible every day and have developed the habit of writing notes in the margin. As I cycle back through the Bible I sometimes run across some notes that I don’t remember and think… hmmm that’s very interesting.
So as humans we’re forgetful and as leaders we can never forget so we have to read… read…read.
This text also reveals a benefit of reading… we learn (by reading) to “revere the Lord our God”. So important. The moment we stop revering God and substitute that with revering ourselves we’re in huge trouble and so is the congregation.
Note the last sentence in the text… “not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites…”
You see sometimes when you have a lot of success and people are complimenting you all the time you might start buying into that and might think… I am special… I am great… I’m the greatest! and in doing so neglect God who put you in that position.
So we have to keep reading to know how to lead and how to be humble giving the true credit to God.
In that way the congregation will have the kind of leadership she needs and will prosper.
“‘Do not hate a fellow Israelite in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in their guilt” Leviticus 19:17.
This is an interesting verse because it calls on us to do something a lot of us are uncomfortable doing… rebuking or getting in someone else’s business.
It also qualifies the type of rebuke… rebuke frankly. Sometimes we can get to that business of rebuking and are so timid in doing so that the message is watered down and loses its true impact.
I’ve listened to that kind of weak rebuking before and walked away and wondered… what just happened?
I know people who if something can be said in 10 words will use 1000 words and after I’ve heard about 20 of those words I mentally check out and start looking for a way to escape. It doesn’t take a lot of words to rebuke.
It’s kind of like rebuking a child for not minding and telling the little rascal that if he doesn’t mind he’s going to get a whipping, or wait ‘til your daddy gets home or I’m going to count to 100 and if you’re not minding by then you will be in gigantic trouble. Most parents know that “frank rebuke” is telling the little miscreant one time and if he doesn’t mind then snatch him up and paddle his rear end.
Same thing with rebuking a fellow Christian… get a serious look on your face, identify the problem and let him know the consequences in as few words as possible and then wait for a response.
Of course I know of folks who believe and teach this but as soon as it happens to them or one of theirs they get their feathers all ruffled and start squawking all about it.
But remember we’re supposed to love our fellow Christians right? Well this text says if you don’t rebuke a bad behavior that in fact you HATE them.
Not only do you HATE them but you share in their guilt. It’s like being condemned to Hell twice.
It’s also like standing at the judgment seat, maybe next to the Apostle Peter, and feeling pretty good about yourself and the Lord God Almighty condemns you for getting drunk and you tell Jehovah God… that’s just not true… I’ve never had a drink in all my life!!!
Then God says… you saw one of your fellow Christians boozing it up and never said a word. Guilty as charged… who’s next?
Love your fellow Christian. If you see him doing wrong go tell him. He might change his ways or he might get really mad at you. If he gets mad at you he’s really getting mad at Jesus Christ because Jesus would have said the exact same thing and you’re just speaking for him.
There was a Priest in Israel named Eli who had two adult sons who also served as Priests named Hophni and Phineas. Hophni and Phineas were doing some very bad things and their father Eli said this to them…
“No, my sons; the report I hear spreading among the Lord’s people is not good. If one person sins against another, God may mediate for the offender; but if anyone sins against the Lord, who will intercede for them?”
So just what were they doing that was bad? For one thing they were having sex with some of the women who also served before the “Tent of Meeting”, i.e. the sin of fornication.
The other thing they were doing was taking God’s portion of meat that was sacrificed by the people of Israel.
So which sin was worse? They were both bad but the sin of fornication could have been repented of and sacrifices offered and forgiveness given, but for the sin of stealing from God there was no intercessor and it could be punished by death.
In fact isn’t that the exact same thing that happened with Ananias and Sapphira? They made a verbal commitment to give a certain amount to God but they stole part of it back for themselves and died for that great sin.
So which sin was worse? Let me suggest that the sin with the greatest punishment is worse. Sinning directly against God is worse than sinning against another human being.
Which brings up the “unforgivable sin” that we read about... just what is that sin? Maybe it’s sinning directly against God… the sin of Blasphemy.
Can we steal what is God’s today and duplicate the sin of Hophni, Phineas, Ananias and Sapphira?... probably. The bottom line is this… don’t sin!
Don’t sin against other people and certainly don’t sin directly against God.
Both could have disastrous consequences and one is worse than the other.
And David danced before the Lord with all his might, wearing a priestly garment. So David and all the people of Israel brought up the Ark of the Lord with shouts of joy and the blowing of rams’ horns.
As the ark of the covenant of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David dancing and celebrating, she despised him in her heart.
When David returned home to bless his own family, Michal, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet him. She said in disgust, how distinguished the king of Israel looked today, shamelessly exposing himself to the servant girls like any vulgar person might do!
The event recorded above illustrates King David’s and the people’s great joy at the return of the Ark of the Covenant. There was singing and music and David, perhaps overwhelmed with great joy, danced in celebration. It was a big event!
However David’s wife Michal wasn’t too impressed with David’s behavior and dressed him down good. She was disgusted with him and mocked him and said he was “vulgar”.
David defended himself and told Michal… God chose me over your precious father Saul and he did it for a reason. You may not like it Michal but I serve God and I will celebrate before him and if you think my behavior was undignified just wait… I will become more undignified in my celebration of Him. Yay David!
We kind of see the same thing today… people’s expression of joy before the Lord. I’ve seen people lifting their arms up and swaying with the singing. I’ve seen clapping and whooping and hollering. Even people speaking during a public prayer saying things like… “amen” and “tell it brother.”
I’m uncomfortable with that kind of thing because that’s not my culture. I was raised to sit in the pew and keep my mouth shut and my arms down, but to tell you the truth I kind of wish I was free to express my joy like David expressed his.
Just because I’m uncomfortable with expressive behavior doesn’t make that behavior wrong and I’d better think two or three times before I condemn others for it.
Michal was the daughter of a king who wasn’t like her husband-King and in her princess pride she failed to account for the fact that she married a King who was really just a shepherd boy at heart and whom God loved very much. She should have gone down and danced in joy with him.
Way too bad for her that God cursed her so she would never bear God’s anointed son David… a son and never have a chance to be named in the lineage of Jesus Christ. Huge mistake… gigantic.
“Listen to me, my fellow Israelites, my people. I had it in my heart to build a house as a place of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord, for the footstool of our God, and I made plans to build it. But God said to me, ‘You are not to build a house for my Name, because you are a warrior and have shed blood.”
David had an independent idea to build a house for God. I don’t see anywhere in the scriptures that God told him to do this and as far as we can tell it was David’s own idea.
I mention that because sometimes we have the idea that we can’t do anything unless it is authorized in some way or in some form from the scriptures.
We also don’t see in the text that anyone rose up and said… King David… where is your authority for this? God only directed us to make him a tent. We need to speak where God speaks and be silent where God is silent. If God wanted a Temple he would have told us to build him a Temple.
It’s okay to think outside the box like David did. He had an idea and God validated that idea. Don’t be afraid of ideas that you may not have Book, Chapter and Verse for... David didn't. You might have a great idea that God just loves and who knows... maybe God put it in your heart.
“The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God.
They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green, to declare that the Lord is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.”
This figure describes God’s righteous people as trees planted in God’s house that are… flourishing… that is they are growing the best that they can in the perfect environment… God’s House and Courts.
They’re not like ordinary trees that grow old and weak and diseased and unproductive. No… these trees defy aging and are, from an empirical standpoint, young and ageless. Their “fruit” is to declare wonderful things about God almighty.
What was true at the time of this writing (the Israel of King David) must also be true in our day and age… the Israel of Jesus Christ.
After all God’s trees today grow in a better environment… the New Covenant established by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Growth and productivity not restrained by impossible “Law keeping” but growth and productivity in an environment of “Incomprehensible love”.
That’s why when we look in a mirror we may see features that demonstrate aging… wrinkles and scars and deterioration, but what God and fellow Christians see are a stalwart tree that has weathered many storms but come out victorious.
When I look at my aged mother I don’t see her infirmities… I see her life and I stand in awe.
Don’t ever give up on God… don’t do it. Stay righteous.
