Jim Wilson's Blog, page 15

How Paul Prayed for the Unsaved

“I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscienceconfirms it in the Holy Spirit— I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in myheart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ forthe sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs isthe adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving ofthe law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, andfrom them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, foreverpraised! Amen” (Romans 9:1-5).

“Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for theIsraelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that theyare zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they didnot know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish theirown, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. Christ is the end of the lawso that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes” (Romans 10:1-4).

Do you see the parallels in these two passages? Here theyare: sorrow, anguish, brothers, heart’s desire, prayer, Israelites. This is howPaul approached evangelism: emotional intensity in prayer to God for unsavedpeople.

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Where Immorality Starts

“So they are without excuse; for although they knew God theydid not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in theirthinking and their senseless minds were darkened” (Romans l:20-21 RSV).

The increasing decadence that is described in the last halfof Romans l has its start by a choice described in verse 21: they did not honoror give thanks to God. All idolatry and immorality start here. Althoughthis was written about people who had only natural revelation (and they werewithout excuse), how much more inexcusable are those who have specialrevelation and have been redeemed.

Thanksgiving is the basic means of praising God. It is, forour benefit, a means of avoiding a critical and complaining spirit. "Ineverything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerningyou” (1 Thessalonians 5:18 KJV).

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Our Calling

“But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this iscommendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered foryou, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps” (1 Peter2:20-21).

Do you have a calling? Yes! What is it? To this you arecalled:

Do good.

Suffer for it.

Take it patiently.

If we do good, suffer for it, and take it impatiently,this is not commendable before God. Two out of three is not good enough.

Christ, in His suffering, left us an example that we shouldfollow in His steps. We are to imitate Jesus in His goodness, sufferings, andpatience.

The book In His Steps was written more than 100 yearsago. It is a novel about a group of people who wanted to follow Jesus by askingthe question, “What would Jesus do?” The fallacy in the book is that it tookimagination to come up with the answer. The answer is in the text—do good,suffer for it, and take it patiently. We already know what Jesus would do.He has already done it. He is our example, and His action is our calling.

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Whatever Pleases Him

“Why should any of you consider it incredible that Godraises the dead?” - Paul the Apostle, in chains, before King Agrippa andGovernor Festus, Acts 26:8.

God is God! He created the universe and every microscopicpart of it.

“Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him” (Psalm115:3).

I’m with Paul. I think it is incredible that anyone thinksGod raising the dead is incredible. God is God!

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Go into All the World

Recently,* I was talking with a 20-year-old Christiancollege student. In the conversation, I asked him if he talked to unbelieversabout the gospel. He replied that he did know any unbelievers.

I live in the Northwest, which is probably the leastchurched part of the country. But there are a lot of Christians here. I haveasked this question to many of them, and they come up with similar answers.Generally, they do know some unbelievers, but they do not talk to them aboutthe gospel.

One of the reasons they give is that they don’t have thegift of evangelism. Evangelism is not restricted to those who have agift. It is a command to believers—go into all the world and make disciplesof all nations. This has nothing to do with gifts. It has to do withknowing the Father through the Son. It has to do with believing that the gospelis true and that unbelievers are lost.

I ask these Christians if it is true that unbelievers arelost. They say yes. The next question is, “Do you care?” Apparently, notenough.

Do you find that hard? The truth is that Christians do notlove unbelievers enough to talk to them about the gospel.

It’s not that difficult to do. Just read the book of Acts tothem. Acts 9, 22, and 26 are three accounts of Paul’s conversion. Two of themare his testimony.

Paul didn’t hesitate to tell the gospel. It didn’t make anydifference to him whether anyone wanted to know. In fact, the Jews sent peoplefrom town to town to keep him from talking about the Lord Jesus. Paul did notpreach the gospel just because he had an open door. In fact, in Troas, he hadan open door, but he didn’t preach there because he wanted Titus to be withhim. That is understandable. Jesus sent His disciples out two by two. Paul andBarnabas went together. Barnabas and Mark went together. You don’t have to doit alone. You can get a companion to go with you.

Please go through the book of Acts. See what is happeningthere with the Christians and imitate them.

 

*Written April 2019.

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The Name of Jesus Christ

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no othername under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

This statement is either true or false. Peter said it to thehigh priests Annas and Caiaphas after he and John had spent the night in jail,after seeing the church grow by two thousand, and after they had healed thecripple in the name of Jesus. He said it in answer to the question, “By whatpower or what name did you do this?”

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them:

“Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called toaccount today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how hewas healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the nameof Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from thedead, that this man stands before you healed” (Acts 4:8-10).

“Then they called them in again and commanded them not tospeak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, ‘Judgefor yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God.For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard’” (Acts 4:18-20).

Isn’t this a great dialogue? The statement Peter made was true.He was filled with the Holy Spirit.

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Real Punishment & Real Happiness

Jesus told many stories. Some of them were parables, as inthe lost sheep and the lost coin (Luke 15:1-10), the tenants in Luke 20, andthe ten minas in Luke 19. Jesus also told true stories like the rich man andLazarus in Luke 16. We also have stories of real encounters with people: Nicodemusin John 3, the rich young ruler in Mark 10, and the woman at the well in John4.

Let’s look at one of the true stories:

“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and finelinen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar namedLazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’stable. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. The time came when the beggardied and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died andwas buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham faraway, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pityon me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool mytongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’ But Abraham replied, ‘Son,remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarusreceived bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. Andbesides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so thatthose who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over fromthere to us.’ He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father'shouse, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not alsocome to this place of torment.’ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and theProphets; let them listen to them.’ ‘No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but ifsomeone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If theydo not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even ifsomeone rises from the dead’” (Luke 16:19-31).

This is not a parable. Lazarus is named, as is Abraham. Thisis history. This is not a picture; this is the real thing.

Judgment is instantaneous upon the deaths of the rich manand Lazarus. There is no second chance after death. The gulf is fixed. Jesussaid so. And if this was only a parable, the real thing would be even worse.

There is a real place of punishment and a real place ofhappiness, and it starts when we die.

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A Great Company of Angels

“But when the set time had fullycome, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we mightreceive adoption to sonship. Because you are hissons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out,‘Abba, Father’” (Galatians 4:4-6).

The first Christmas happened so thatwe might receive the full right of sons. Thank God.

We talk about the shepherds and thewise men. They were the first human witnesses of this event “when the time hadfully come.”

There were other witnesses of thebirth of the Son of God:

“Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel,praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and onearth peace to those on whom his favor rests’” (Luke 2:13-14).

 

This was not a select choralgroup of twenty-four angels singing four-part harmony. This was a great companyof the Heavenly Host. My guess is ten thousand times ten thousand, or onehundred million. They were not singing; they were saying.

One angel announced Christ’s conception to Mary. One angel announced to Joseph.A few angels came to Jesus in His temptation. One angel came to Him in thegarden, two angels showed up at His resurrection, and two angels at Hisascension. No angels at His crucifixion. And in Revelation 5:11-12, “thousandsupon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand”angels were singing about Christ’s crucifixion.

 

The big events from the angels’viewpoint were the birth of Christ and the death of Christ. Those two eventsdrew the crowd. They were the miracles.

 

“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing oureyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before himhe endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of thethrone of God” (Hebrews 12:2).

 

“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts onthings above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds onthings above, not on earthly things” (Colossians 3:1-2).

Glory to God in the Highest!

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The Gospel We Preach

“They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leadingthe way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed wereafraid. Again he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happento him. ‘We are going up to Jerusalem,’ he said, ‘and the Son of Man will bebetrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him todeath and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit onhim, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise’” (Mark 10:32-34).

Jesus said this on his last walk to Jerusalem. This was nearJericho where Blind Bartimaeus was healed and saved, where Zaccheus was saved,and where the rich young man refused to be saved.

The prophecy was fulfilled one week later. The discipleswere not paying attention. They did not hear the clear gospel.

This is the same gospel that Peter preached a few weeksafter the resurrection where 3,000 were saved in Acts 2. It is the gospeldefined by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:1-5:

“Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel Ipreached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. Bythis gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you.Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you asof first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to theScriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.”

This is the gospel that we at Community Christian Ministriesare preaching personally in four states and by books and email in many otherstates, including in many prisons. Please pray for us. If you would like tosupport this ministry, you can do so at ccmbooks.org/donate.

 

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The One with All Authority

“Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heavenand on earth has been given to me’” (Matt 28:18).

Here we have commands from the supreme commander, the onewith all authority: “Therefore go and make disciples of allnations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and ofthe Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commandedyou” (vv. 19-20).

When Jesus was on earth, the people saw His authority:

1.     To teach (Mark1:22).

2.     To cast outdemons (Mark 1:27).

3.     To forgive sins(Mark 1:10).

4.     Over the windand the waves (Mark 4:41).

5.     To raise thedead (Mark 5:41).

6.     To heal thesick (Mark 5:30).

7.     To not let thedemons speak (Mark 1:34).

8.     “I haveauthority to lay it down [His life] and authority to take it up again”

(John 10:18).

We are to believe and obey the one with all authority.

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