Robert J. Morgan's Blog, page 16

Two Heroes You Should Know

Part 1

Ignatius of Antioch

I want to introduce you to a couple of men, because knowing about them is almost – not quite, but almost – like knowing the Scriptures. In other words, there are two men who knew the apostles and outlived them, and they are two of our earliest post-apostolic heroes: Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp of Smyrna.

The final book of the Bible was probably written in the last decade of the first century. The apostle John, who outlived all his New Testament contemporaries and who, it seems, was the only disciple to die a natural death, lived almost to the year 100. He wrote the book of Revelation in perhaps the year 91, or 92, or 93, when he was probably in his eighties and living in the city of Ephesus.

When he died sometime before the end of the first century, the apostolic age ended. But at the time of his death many Christian leaders were still alive and writing letters and books. Many of them had been won to Christ and / or discipled by John or one of the New Testament heroes. We have preserved for us some of the documents these later men wrote. They are our earliest Christian writings apart from the New Testament, and they tell us what was happening in the church as the apostolic era ended and the post-apostolic or patristic era began.

I love studying about Christian history. It’s important for us to have a knowledge of the amazing story of the church and to know something about those who have passed the faith down to us.

The patristic or post-apostolic writings are not inspired nor infallible. We don’t take them as Scripture. They are fallible and very human, but they give us wonderful insights about how Christians lived and behaved in those days.

So let me introduce you to Ignatius of Antioch.

The Life of Ignatius

You may remember from our study of the book of Acts that when the Christians were persecuted and driven out of Jerusalem, many of them went up north to the great city of Antioch—the third largest city in the Roman Empire, and a city with a large Jewish presence. This became the primary church of its day, the center of gravity for Christianity. The city of Antioch still exists in southern Turkey, several hundred miles north of Jerusalem. Barnabas oversaw the church, and he recruited Saul of Tarsus (the apostle Paul) to help him. The church there became very strong and it was here the disciples of Jesus were first called Christians. The church of Antioch also sent out the first church-sponsored missionaries—Paul and Barnabas, as we read in Acts 13.

Well, sometime after Barnabas, Peter apparently became the head of the church there and oversaw the ministries of that region. And then, later, a man became the leader of the church whose name was Ignatius. We believe Ignatius was a disciple of the apostle John, and we know he zealously defended the Gospel against certain heresies that were sweeping into the church.

One of those heresies is called Docetism, which claimed that Jesus Christ only appeared to have a human body, which suffered and died on the cross. It wasn’t a real body. Jesus had a spiritual body of some sort, but it wasn’t physical Docetism denied the full humanity of Christ and the full nature of the incarnation. Ignatius fought this heresy and preached against it with vigor.

At some point, political pressures and persecution grew, and Ignatius found himself in danger. He was arrested and he may have been placed on trial in Antioch. Some accounts say Emperor Trajan came to Antioch and demanded everyone sacrifice to the gods. Ignatius, being the head of the church in Antioch, refused, and Trajan ordered him transported to Rome to be fed to the beasts in the Colosseum. However it happened, there’s no doubt Ignatius was bound in chains and turned over to a group of ten soldiers—whom he called his ten leopards. 

As he was taken overland across modern-day Turkey, the churches in the various cities gathered to watch him pass and to hear him preach. 

The early church historian Eusebius wrote: “He was sent from [Antioch] Syria to Rome and became food for wild animals because of his witness to Christ. He was brought through Asia under the strictest guard, strengthening the Christian community by speech and encouragement in every city where he stayed. He warned them in particular to be on guard against the heresies that were then first beginning to spring up, urging them to hold fast to the apostolic tradition, which he thought necessary to put in writing for safety’s sake.”

As he traveled, he also wrote letters to the various churches there to give them a lasting reminder of his visit. He wrote seven different letters—to the church at Ephesus; to the church at Magnesia and to the church at Tralles, to the church at Rome, to the one at Smyrna; and a personal letter to Polycarp.

The Writings of Ignatius

His letter to the Ephesians is the longest, with 21 chapters, so let me read you some of this fascinating letter, written not long after the death of John the Apostle to the church established by the apostle Paul. 

This isn’t New Testament inspired writing, but chronologically speaking, this is as close as it can possibly be to the epistles and the book of Revelation.

The bishop of the church in Ephesus was a man named Onesimus, and it may have been the very same Onesimus who we read about in the book of Philemon. Ignatius is keen that the church respect its bishop. 

Here is a sample of what he wrote to the Ephesians:

Ignatius writes to the church at Ephesus in Asia, most worthy of all blessings, greetings in the fullness of God the Father, and especially in Jesus Christ and in blameless joy….

I take the opportunity in advance to encourage you so you will agree with the will of God. For Jesus Christ, our common life, is the will of the Father as also the bishops, who are appointed in various regions, are in the will of Jesus Christ.

[Your bishop, Onesimus, loves you] beyond words. It is him I ask you to love in accord with Jesus Christ as well as all of you trying to be like him. Blessed is He who graciously gave you such a one as bishop!

…it is fitting that you agree with the opinion (or will) of the bishop, like strings tuned to a harp. For this reason, Jesus Christ is praised in your harmony and in your united love. Now, each of you, become a chorus together so that by a united voice in harmony as you take up the tune of God in unity, you may sing in one voice through Jesus Christ to the Father. This is so that the Father may hear and recognize you by the good things you do, who are members of His Son….

[Bishop] Onesimus himself highly praises your good order in God because you all live in accord with truth and because no heresy lives in your midst. Nor do you listen to anyone more than the one who speaks about Jesus Christ in truth.

For some are accustomed to bear the name of Christ with an evil guile while practicing other things that are unworthy of God. These are ones you should avoid like wild beasts for they are mad dogs…. 

Then, speaking of the Lord Jesus, Ignatius said:

There is one physician, both fleshly and spiritual, born and unborn, becoming God in the flesh, true life in death, from Mary and from God, at first suffering and then incapable of suffering. This is Jesus Christ our Lord….

I recognized some who were passing through there with evil doctrine. You have not permitted them to sow [evil doctrine] among you, because you have plugged up your ears so as not to receive the things sown by them. As stones in the Father’s temple you have been prepared to be God the Father’s building, lifted up to the heights through the crane of Jesus Christ, which is the cross, as you use the Holy Spirit for a rope…. You are fellow travelers, God-bearers, temple-bearers, Christ-bearers, bearers of holiness, ordered well in every way in the commands of Jesus Christ.

Pray unceasingly for others; in their case there is hope of repentance, that they may obtain God. Permit them to become disciples by seeing your works. With regard to expressions of anger, be meek; with regard to their boasts, be humble. Meet their blasphemies with your prayers and their deception with your steadfastness of faith. Meet their unruly life with your gentleness, and be diligent not to imitate them….

These are the last times….  Be diligent to gather more frequently for thanksgiving and glory to God. 

Ignatius ended his letter saying: I am going to Rome in chains. I, the least of all believers there, was counted worthy to be found for the honor of God. Farewell in God the Father and in Jesus Christ our common hope.

As Ignatius trudged across modern Turkey in chains, he next wrote to the church in Magnesia, telling them to respect their bishop even though he was quite young. And he told us something interesting about how and when Christians worshiped—no longer on Saturday (or the Sabbath), but on Sunday, the Lord’s Day. Ignatius wrote:

If those who lived in the old ways come to the newness of hope, they no longer keep the Sabbath but live by the Lord’s Day. On this day, our life dawned through Him and His death, which some deny. 

Ignatius’ third letter was to the Trallians. He exhorted them to respect and obey their bishop and deacons, and he warned them against false teaching.

His next letter is to the church of Rome—the church in the city to which he is being taken in chains. He wanted his letter to get there before he did. He began saying:

Ignatius…to the church [that] presides in the region of the Romans; it is worthy of God, worthy of propriety; worthy of blessings; worthy of praise; worthy of success; worthy of purity…. I greet your church in the name of Jesus Christ.

He went on to tell them he is looking forward to seeing their “God-worthy faces.”

Ignatius didn’t want the Christians in Rome to try to intervene on his behalf. He wrote: Do not prevent me from being poured out to God as a libation…. It is good that I should be like the sun setting from this world so that I may rise to God…. I willingly die for God, if in fact you do not prevent me. I appeal to you not to be inopportune even with a noble purpose. Permit me to be food for the beasts…. I do not command you as Peter and Paul did. They were apostles; I am a criminal.

Ignatius’ next letter is to the church in Philadelphia, which John also addressed in the book of Revelation. Remember, Ignatius may have written his letter only about ten or fifteen years or so after the book of Revelation was sent. In his letter to the church at Philadelphia, the apostle John had said, “I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut., I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.” Then John commended them for enduring some level of persecution from a nearby Jewish synagogue.

Fifteen or so years later, the Philadelphians were still contending with some of these issues. Ignatius commended the bishop, and as we read through his letters we see the structure of the local church at that time had evolved into a threefold organization: The bishop, the elders or presbyters, and the deacons—more about that later.

Ignatius wrote: Ignatius…to the church of God the Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ that is in Philadelphia of Asia. This church has received mercy, has been established in the harmony of God, and rejoices in the suffering of our Lord unquestionably, and is fully confident in His mercy in his resurrection. I greet this church in the blood of Jesus Christ, a church that is eternal and abiding joy, especially if they are at one with the bishop, with his presbyters, and the deacons who have been approved in the mind of Jesus Christ.

If anyone tries to interpret Judaism for you, do not listen to him. It is better to hear about Christianity from a man who has circumcision than about Judaism from an uncircumcised man. But if neither of them speaks about Jesus Christ, to me they are gravestones and tombs of the dead on which only the names of men are inscribed. Free the evil practices and snares of the ruler of this age lest you grow weak in love by this troubling of mind. Rather, come together in an undivided heart.

Ignatius’ last two letters were to the church in Smyrna and to its famous bishop, named Polycarp.  Once again, Smyrna was one of the churches addressed in the book of Revelation. Fifteen or so years earlier, John had told them: I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich! I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not be afraid about what you are about to suffer.”

So what was going on with this church a decade or so later?

The heresy of Docetism is troubling the church—the teaching that Jesus only appeared to have a human body. Ignatius wrote to the church in Smyrna: Truly he was nailed [to the cross] for us under Pontius Pilate and Herod the tetrarch…that he might carry the banner for the ages through the resurrection for his holy and faithful ones, whether Jew or Gentile, in the one body of his church. He suffered all these things for us to be saved. And truly he suffered as he also truly raised himself. It is not as some unbelievers say, that he only seemed to suffer.

And finally, there is a poignant letter to Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna, whom I’ll profile for you next week. He said, in part:

I encourage you in that grace with which you are clothed to set your course and encourage everyone to be saved. Vindicate your position with a physical and spiritual diligence…. Linger constantly in your prayers….

Ignatius went on to tell Polycarp to be wise as a serpent in everything, and always as harmless as a dove, and he told him to have the perseverance and endurance of an athlete. He reminded him to make sure widows are cared for and to write to the other churches with news of him.

At last, Ignatius arrived in Rome where he was apparently martyred by emperor Trajan. He was apparently killed, torn apart, and devoured by the wild beasts in the Colosseum. The traditional date of his martyrdom was December 20, 107. Historian Philip Schaff says that only a few bones remained of his body, and these were carefully gathered up and conveyed back to Antioch for burial.

Lessons

What can we learn? Clearly by this time there were three organizational levels in the early church—the bishop, the elders, and the deacons. 

Remember, these were the days of house churches. It would seem that every city had a church leader—a bishop—and many elders, who perhaps served as pastors of the house churches, under the authority of the bishop. The deacons, we can presume, worked to tend the flock in various practical ways. 

This is not very different from what I’ve experienced throughout my ministry. I was a senior pastor in a church; I had an ordained staff to help shepherd the flock; and we had deacons to assist in practical and invaluable ways. This is a workable structure that can be adapted in almost any environment. I’m convinced the New Testament had two ordained positions. The first was called the role of elder, or pastor, or shepherd, or bishop, or presbyter. The second was the deacon. But as the church evolved, the first category began to have levels that allowed for smooth administration, and Ignatius spoke of the bishop, the elders, and the deacons.

We should point out that Ignatius did not advance the idea of bishops over regions or a bishop over the entire church. He was speaking of a workable structure for local cities.

Ignatius was very keen that the church members in every city respect and obey their bishop. He was more dogmatic about this than I would be today, but remember—the church was combating false teachings like Docetism, and these bishops were responsible for keeping the church from veering off into dangerous teachings. 

In terms of theology, Ignatius followed the teachings of the apostle Paul and of the New Testament writers. He often quoted from or alluded to the New Testament scriptures. He taught that Jesus Christ is both fully human and fully God—and this is very important to remember. Some years ago during the DaVinci Code hysteria, the idea seeped into the public mind that the dual nature of Jesus—His being both God and Man—was something decided by the Council of Nicaea in the Fourth Century. 

Not so. Ignatius wrote to the Ephesians in the name of “Jesus Christ our God.” In the same letter, he wrote: Our God, Jesus the Christ, was conceived by Mary according to God’s design; he is from the seed of David and of the Holy Spirit. He was born and baptized so that he might purify the water by His Passion. His theology is grounded on the person and work of Jesus Christ.

One aspect of Ignatius’ theology, however, has generated some questions. He seems to have believed in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, or in the Lord’s Supper. In his letter to Philadelphia, he wrote: Therefore, be diligent to employ only one Eucharist. For there is only one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ and there is only one cup for unity in His blood. There is one altar as there is one bishop together with the presbytery and the deacons….

It is from Ignatius that we get the tradition of the Lord’s Supper being conducted by ordained church officials—by the bishop or someone authorized by him.

Above all, from the life of Ignatius we learn God places His people in every generation. When the last apostle died, nothing slowed down or ceased in the Lord’s work. Men and women like Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp of Smyrna and all the believers in the growing churches were there to carry on and to pass down the message of the cross, through the centuries, to us, who now bear the privilege of passing it to others. Every generation has faced the possibility of martyrdom, as Ignatius did. Every age has been forced to contend for the integrity of the faith once for all delivered to us. But in this way, the Kingdom of God advances across the earth until He comes to establish the Kingdom that will never end.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this excursus into Christian history. It seems logical as we’ve finished our studies of the book of Acts to see what happened during the next few years as the work continued. Next week, we’ll look at the second of our two early heroes—Polycarp of Smyrna. 

While I’ve consulted several church histories for this, my primary resource is a book by Kenneth J. Howell entitled, Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp of Smyrna: A New Translation and Theological Commentary, published in 2009. Also, see the new translation and commentary of Eusebius by Paul L. Maier, published by Kregel in 1999.

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The Perfect Storm

A Study of Acts 27

Introduction: I’m sure you’ve heard someone talk about the perfect storm. That’s become a phrase in our vocabulary, and it refers to a critical or disastrous situation that’s caused by a concurrence of factors. As far as I can tell, this phrase was coined as the title of a book about the crew of a fishing ship that was lost at sea in 1991. The ship was the Andrea Gail, and it was on a long commercial fishing trip when three different storms converged in the waters off Massachusetts. The six man crew all perished, but the story of the tragedy became a popular movie starring George Clooney. I remember thinking I might see the movie, but I asked a couple of teenagers how it ended. “They all died,” they told me, and I don’t watch movies with sad endings. So I never saw it.

But the apostle Paul could have identified with the plot because he faced a similar catastrophe in Acts 27.

Today is the thirty-nineth and final episode of our study, Unstoppable, on the story of the advancing church in the book of Acts. We’re coming to one of my favorite chapters—Acts 27, which has been somewhat overlooked. When I was growing up, I recall many Bible stories in Sunday School about David and Goliath, and about the feeding of the 5000. Over the years, I’ve heard many sermon on the Day of Pentecost and the Ethiopian Eunuch. But I’ve seldom heard anyone deal with one of the most thrilling and gripping accounts in the Bible—the voyage and shipwreck of the apostle Paul, which occupies the entirety of Acts 27.

This is a passage that rivets me. Years ago, I preached a series of sermons from Acts 27, which I called “Keeping Your Head Above the Water When Your Ship Is Going Down.” A year or so ago, I led a weekend retreat on this chapter, and I called it “Navigating Life’s Tempestuous Sea.” It’s my earnest desire to write a book on this Bible story, because it contains so many powerful and practical lessons for everyday life.

We’ll get to that in a moment, but first….

The Bible often uses storms and violent weather as a metaphor for the difficulties we encounter in life, and Jesus clearly used the stormy weather of Galilee to teach vital lessons to His disciples. The Lord spoke to Job out of a storm, and, of course, the prophet Jonah had a maritime disaster not far from where Paul’s would occur hundreds of years later—in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea.

Acts 27 is the longest and most vivid true narrative from antiquity of a shipwreck. It was written by Luke, the author of the book of Acts, who was on board and who experienced all the terror of it. It all occurred when Paul, on trial before Governor Festus, appealed his case to Caesar. That meant he had to be transferred to Rome to stand trial in the judicial system of Emperor Nero. Acts 27, verses 1-3 say:

When it was decided that we would sail for Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a centurion named Julius, who belonged to the Imperial Regiment.  2  We boarded a ship from Ad-ra-myt’-tium about to sail for ports along the coast of the province of Asia, and we put out to sea. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was with us.

The centurion, Julius, seemed to respect Paul as a noted political prisoner, not as a criminal, and he showed him respect. Luke was there as Paul’s personal physician; some commentators believe Aristarchus agreed to go as Paul’s slave to be allowed onboard. At this point, if you have access to a map of the Mediterranean or of Paul’s journey, it would be helpful.

Verse 4 continues: From there we put out to sea again and passed to the lee of Cyprus because the winds were against us. 5 When we had sailed across the open sea off the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we landed at Myra in Lycia. 6 There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing for Italy and put us on board. 7 We made slow headway for many days and had difficulty arriving off Cnidus. When the wind did not allow us to hold our course, we sailed to the lee of Crete, opposite Salmone. 8 We moved along the coast with difficulty and came to a place called Fair Havens, near the town of Lasea. 9 Much time had been lost, and sailing had already become dangerous because by now it was after the Day of Atonement. So Paul warned them, 10 “Men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous and bring great loss to ship and cargo, and to our own lives also.” 

There were no large passenger ships in Paul’s day. Travelers could buy tickets to travel on granary ships or cargo ships. The accommodations were pretty miserable by today’s standards, and all this would have been happening in the fall—in September and October of the year 59. The weather was getting rough. Notice the terms Luke used. He said: 

the winds were against usslow headway for many dayshad difficultywind did not allow us to hold our coursemoved with difficultymuch time had been lostdangerousdisastrous.

In his study of this, Ray Stedman said: “Why would the apostle experience such grave difficulty from natural forces when he is obviously in the center of the will of God, on the way to Rome where the Lord wants him to be? The Lord Jesus had appeared to Paul in Jerusalem and had told him that He wanted him to go to Rome, that He would take him there, and that he must appear before the emperor. And Paul is not disobedient; he is moving right in accord with God’s purpose. Nevertheless the winds are contrary and everything else seems to go wrong on this voyage. God, who controls the winds and the waves, could surely have made it easy for Paul to get to Rome. The question with which this confronts us is one which we all face: Why is it than, even when we are doing what we take to be God’s will for us, we oftentimes have such great difficulty in accomplishing it?”

We often don’t understand exactly what the Lord is doing, but He was in charge of the winds blowing through Acts 27, and He is in charge of the weather patterns for our lives. He knows the answers. He’s the navigator. 

God’s plans for us are synchronized far more precisely than we realize, and with patience and perseverance we’ve got every reason to believe that time is on our side. So when the winds are against us and we move with difficulty and make little progress, don’t be discouraged. We have to proceed with patience and perseverance. 

Well, let’s continue with verses 9-12: Much time had been lost, and sailing had already become dangerous because by now it was after the Day of Atonement. So Paul warned them, 10 “Men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous and bring great loss to ship and cargo, and to our own lives also.” 11 But the centurion, instead of listening to what Paul said, followed the advice of the pilot and of the owner of the ship. 12 Since the harbor was unsuitable to winter in, the majority decided that we should sail on, hoping to reach Phoenix and winter there. This was a harbor in Crete, facing both southwest and northwest.

Paul was in an awkward place. He was a prisoner, yet he knew from his own experiences on the sea (and perhaps by a special word from the Lord) that setting sail was foolhardy. He was an experienced mariner and according to 2 Corinthians 11:25 had already been shipwrecked three times. So he had a sense of the approaching danger, but the authorities discounted his warning.

But here’s what I’ve noticed: The apostle Paul did not fly into a rage, scream, nag, belittle, hound, or provoke the others. He simply spoke the truth and waited for everyone else to see the wisdom of his words. He didn’t want to lose his leverage by immature emotions.

On every occasion, we must try to be diplomatic, not defiant or defensive, in pressing our point. We seldom win an argument in the moment. But we can plant seeds that will prevail over time. This requires biblical wisdom and a godly temperament. Paul had those, and so he didn’t ruin his relationships.

Verses 13-17 continues: 13 When a gentle south wind began to blow, they saw their opportunity; so they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete. 14 Before very long, a wind of hurricane force, called the Northeaster, swept down from the island. 15 The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind; so we gave way to it and were driven along. 16 As we passed to the lee of a small island called Cauda, we were hardly able to make the lifeboat secure, 17 so the men hoisted it aboard. Then they passed ropes under the ship itself to hold it together. Because they were afraid they would run aground on the sandbars of Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor and let the ship be driven along.

This is what I really want us to grasp because there’s a powerful illustration here. It’s one of the most vivid scenes in the bible. Notice the phrase: Then they passed ropes under the ship itself to hold it together.

The King James Version says: 16 And running under a certain island which is called Clauda, we had much work to come by the boat: 17 Which when they had taken up, they used helps, undergirding the ship….

Let me repeat that: They used helps, undergirding the ship.

In other words, they had strong ropes or cables—helps—that were passed beneath the hull of the ship and secured in an effort to keep the ship from breaking apart.

The ship had to be frapped or undergirded by passing cables or ropes underneath it to hold it together. The Greek word for those cables that were holding the ship together is a nautical term boetheiais, literally, “helps.” This phrase is used only one other time in the Bible—in Hebrews 4:14-16 

14  Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.  15  For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.  16  Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

The word “help” is the same as in Acts 27: boetheiais. 

We have a high priest, a captain, and we can come to Him—to His throne—and find grace that will undergird us and hold us together when we’re in a storm. This is a powerful picture, and it seems to me the promises of the Bible are akin to the ropes the sailors passed around the vessel.  The Lord is not going to allow you to fall apart and be shattered in the tempest. He will ungird you and help you with His presence, His power, His peace, and His promises.

Well, let’s see how that worked out.

Verses 18 continues:  We took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard. 19 On the third day, they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands. 20 When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved.

In the hull, the grain would have filled he bottom and provided ballast, then other cargo on top of the grain. Then the tackle would have been on top of that and on the deck. They began throwing everything overboard to keep from sinking, but the typhoon was so unrelenting they all gave up.  Even Luke. Notice, he said we gave up all hope of being saved.

It’s a terrible thing to give up hope, and yet it’s also hard to hold out when the storms just don’t ever end.

Verses 21-26:  21 After they had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said: “Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete; then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss. 22 But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. 23 Last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me 24 and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’ 25 So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. 26 Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island.”

Apparently, the fear and hopeless had even begun to seep into the apostle Paul’s heart—imagine the wetness, coldness, hyperthermia, and exhaustion. So God sent an angel to him with a direct revelation. And there’s a lesson for us in this too. 

If God doesn’t calm the storm, make sure that He calms you. The Lord gives us secret help. We have hidden resources that no one else knows about or can understand. We even have angelic help. Paul apparently saw his angel. We don’t often see ours, but we have more resources than we know.

In his sermon on this chapter, Charles Spurgeon said: “(Paul) acted like a man who believed God in a business-like way. Faith was real in him and therefore practical. Many Christians appear to hold their religion as a pious fiction—regarding the promises of God as pretty things for sentimentalism to play with, and His providence as a poetical idea. We must get out of that evil fashion and make God to be the greatest factor in our daily calculations—the chief force and face of our lives. We must each one boldly act on the conviction that ‘it shall be even as He has told me.’”

Well, that’s just what happened. Let’s continue with verses 27-37: 27 On the fourteenth night we were still being driven across the Adriatic Sea, when about midnight the sailors sensed they were approaching land. 28 They took soundings and found that the water was a hundred and twenty feet deep. A short time later they took soundings again and found it was ninety feet deep. 29 Fearing that we would be dashed against the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight. 30 In an attempt to escape from the ship, the sailors let the lifeboat down into the sea, pretending they were going to lower some anchors from the bow. 31 Then Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved.” 32 So the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and let it drift away. 33 Just before dawn Paul urged them all to eat. “For the last fourteen days,” he said, “you have been in constant suspense and have gone without food—you haven’t eaten anything. 34 Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head.” 35 After he said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat. 36 They were all encouraged and ate some food themselves. 37 Altogether there were 276 of us on board. 

So far as we know, there were only three Christians on a ship of 276 souls, yet God’s grace saved all 276 because of the three. The whole ship saved because of the godly one percent. A small minority of Christians changes the chemistry in any environment. 

The story ends like this:

39  When daylight came, they did not recognize the land, but they saw a bay with a sandy beach, where they decided to run the ship aground if they could.  40  Cutting loose the anchors, they left them in the sea and at the same time untied the ropes that held the rudders. Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and made for the beach.  41  But the ship struck a sandbar and ran aground. The bow stuck fast and would not move, and the stern was broken to pieces by the pounding of the surf.

42  The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners to prevent any of them from swimming away and escaping.  43  But the centurion wanted to spare Paul’s life and kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land.  44  The rest were to get there on planks or on other pieces of the ship. In this way everyone reached land safely.

Conclusion: As I read and re-read this chapter I came away with many lessons:

Sometimes even when we’re in God’s perfect will, we face headwinds, delays, and prolonged storms.We should speak wisely and wait for others to recognize the truth of which we speak.There will never be a time when the children of God cannot find His undergirding strength in a crisis.God oversees the circumstances and we can trust His providence.And our witness for Him—even if we are an extreme minority—has a powerful effect on the majority.

It’s nicely summed up in B. B. McKinney’s wonderful hymn: Have faith in God, He’s on His throne; / Have faith in God, He watches o’er His own; / He cannot fail, He must prevail; / Have faith in God, have faith in God.

The post The Perfect Storm appeared first on RobertJMorgan.com.

Just As He Promised

Introduction: I don’t know if I kept my promises or not. When Katrina and I were planning to get married, we decided to write our own marriage vows. I don’t know who ever thought that was a good idea, but it was popular back then. So we labored and labored on those vows. I think they ran for about a page and a half. When it came time for our wedding, we were both so nervous that, in my memory, the pastor had to lead each of us through them word for word—one word at a time. We finally got through them and were married, but later we lost the things—and we could never remember what we had promised. The only thing we could remember—and this will tell you how ridiculous it was—is this: We promised that we would be intellectually stimulating to each other. In all my years of pastoring, I’ve never heard a couple include anything like that in their wedding vows. Intellectually stimulating!  That was the only phrase either of us could ever remember, so we tried to keep that one. But all those other promises—we never knew if we kept them or not because we couldn’t remember what we had said.

No such problem with our Lord! He has made hundreds of promises to us; they are all written down; and He will keep every one of them. They are recorded, archived, available, and precious. And He will do just as He promised.

Scripture: Look with me at Luke 1:37: For no word from God will ever fail.

Who said those words? The angel Gabriel! That was the way he ended his message to the Virgin Mary about God’s promised Messiah. Mary traveled to the Judean hill country to visit her relative Elizabeth, and look at what Elizabeth said to her in verse 45: Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill His promises to her.

And now we come to a famous passage of Scripture that is called the Magnificat, after the Latin words with which the passage begins. In that Latin version that was used throughout much of history, the opening words are: 

Magnificat anima mea dominum

Magnify, soul of mine, the Lord

It’s the song or the hymn of the Virgin Mary after she learned she was to be the mother of the Messiah. It’s found in Luke 1:46 through 55, and I’d like to read it with you. It’s quite short:

And Mary said: My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me—holy is His name. 

His mercy extends to those who fear Him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and His descendants forever, just as He promised our ancestors.

Just as He promised our ancestors! Just as He promised…!

Background: As I read and studied this beautiful little song, I wondered where Mary got all her theology. She was simply an ordinary Jewish girl in a northern village in Israel, and yet she wrote something that sounds like David or Paul or Augustine or Luther. Where did she learn such doctrine?

Well, she certainly knew the story of the Old Testament hero, Hannah, who also had a special story and composed a very similar song. Many writers have compared the song of Mary to the song of Hannah in the Old Testament. So she probably drew insights from there. 

But here’s another part of the equation. Mary grew up singing the classic hymns known as the Psalms. She had sung them for nearly two decades and the words were imprinted on her heart. The Jewish people had a hymnbook of 150 Psalms, and over time they memorized most or all of them. Mary had the words and the ideas and the language already in her heart because she had been singing these Psalms all her life. I believe she loved them. I went through the Magnificat phrase by phrase, and I found about fifty different verses in the Psalms that sound very similar to Mary’s words.

This is why when I speak or write on the subject of hymnody and the classic hymns, I talk about the importance of having lifelong lyrics in our heart and minds. We need music that transcends the generations. Well, Mary had the words of these classic ageless songs in her heart and mind, and, along with the model of Hannah’s song, they guided her in the writing of her own song.

Mary’s Magnificat clearly divides into two parts—what the Lord has done for her and what the Lord is doing for us.

1. What the Lord Has Done for Me (Verses 46-49)

In verses 46-49, she says, “Here is what the Lord has done for me.”

And Mary said: My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has been mindful of the humble state of His servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me—holy is His name. 

I read over this again and again, and suddenly it dawned on me that these verses apply to me just as much as they do for Mary. They apply to all of God’s children. We glorify and magnify the Lord, and our spirit rejoices. But almighty God in His highest heaven is mindful of us, of our needs, and He blesses us and He does great things for us—Holy is His Name!

Notice the word “mindful.” Sometimes we wonder if the Lord has forgotten us, if we’re too small or too insignificant for Him to notice. Let’s turn over to Psalm 139:16-18. In the New International Version, it says, “How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with You.”

Notice two things about this. First, in the margin of the NIV it offers an alternate reading: “How amazing are Your thoughts concerning me.” God thinks of us constantly, and His thoughts toward us are amazing, and the number of them is greater than all the grains of sand in all the oceans of the world. He is mindful of us.

Second, this is how God thinks of us while we are sleeping. All night long, as we’re asleep, the Lord is thinking about us, and when we awaken He is still thinking of us and present with us. He is mindful of us night and day! He is mindful of you. And He was mindful of Mary.

My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me—holy is His name.

2. What the Lord Had Done for You (Verses 50-55)

But now, Mary’s song turns to others. It’s remarkable how quickly she stopped praying for herself and started praying for other people. Notice the next words: His mercy extends…

Mary was saying, “God has been merciful to me, but not just to me. It extends to all those who fear His name from generation to generation.” Look at verse 50:

His mercy extends to those who fear Him, from generation to generation. 

Notice how she uses the phrase “He has” to amplify the fact that in sending Jesus into the world, the Lord has kept the promises He made. Let me read it with that emphasis:

His mercy extends to those who fear Him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but He has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but He has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and His descendants forever, just as He promised our ancestors.

Verse 50 sets the theme for this section: His mercy extends to those who fear Him. To fear the Lord means to respect Him, to stand in awe of Him, and regard Him as the supreme force in our lives. And to know that He has kept and is keeping all His promises to us. Mary lists seven of them. She said:

(1) He Has Performed Mighty Deeds With His Arm

In the Bible, the arm of the Lord is synonymous with His strength. Human arms can be pretty strong. A baseball pitcher can throw a baseball over 100 miles per hour. But the arm of God can fling the stars and planets throughout the universe. A strong man can lift as much as a thousand pounds, but the hand of God can raise the mountains and scoop out the caverns of the sea.

What Mary had in mind here was perhaps the parting of the Red Sea, which was the greatest miracle of the Old Testament. Look at Psalm 77:15-20: 

With Your mighty arm you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. The waters saw you, God, the waters saw you and writhed; the very depths were convulsed. The clouds poured down water, the heavens resounded with thunder; your arrows flashed back and forth. Your thunder was heard in the whirlwind, your lightning lit up the world; the earth trembled and quaked. Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waves through your footprints were not seen.

God’s arm reached down into the wilderness and churned up the elements, and with cataclysmic phenomena He parted the waters and made a pathway through the mighty waves, though his footprints were not seen.

This is the same mighty arm that reaches down to help us, to guide us. We don’t always see His footprints, but we feel the whoosh in the air as His arm moves on our behalf. 

(2)  He Has Scattered Those Who Are Proud

Second He scatters those who are proud. Look at Psalm 89:10: You crushed Rahab (Egypt) like one of the slain; with your strong arm you scattered your enemies.

Think of the enemies we have right now. Not just military enemies. We’re surrounded by people who have a hostile attitude against the biblical worldview that we hold. We have the devil and all his forces against us. And we have other enemies, such as disease and illness and death, which the Bible describes as the last enemy. But He scatters them all.

(3) He Has Brought Down Rulers from Their Thrones

I found at least five similar statements in the Psalms, but the most apparent is Psalm 2: 

Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together

Against the Lord and against His anointed, saying,

“Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.”

The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.

He rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,

“I have installed my king on Zion, my holy hill.”

When Mary composed her song, the most powerful man in the world was the leader of Rome, Caesar Augustus. The ruler of Judea was Herod the Great. Within a short time, both were dead, and Jesus Christ was on His way to becoming the centerpiece of history.

(4) He Has Lifted Up the Humble

Fourth, God lifts up the humble. I’ve found four different cross-references to this in the Psalms, but let’s just look at one—Psalm 25:8-9: Good and upright is the Lord; therefore He instructs sinners in His ways. He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them His way.

(5) He Has Filled the Hungry with Good Things

Fifth, God has filled the hungry with good things, and with this statement Mark practically quotes the Bible word for word. Look at Psalm 107:8-9: Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.

This is about God’s ability to meet our needs, and not to meet them in a grudging way. He fills our lives with good things—with blessings.

(6) He Has Sent the Rich Away Empty

Sixth, Mary said that God had sent the rich away empty. Psalm 49:12 says: “People, despite their wealth, do not endure.”

(7) He Has Helped His Servant

But then Mary sums it all up in this wonderful phrase: He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and His descendants forever, just as He promised our ancestors.

Psalm 146 says: Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God.

The Virgin Mary was magnifying God because He was sending a King to the earth who would fix all the problems, correct all the wrongs, judge all the wicked, bless all the humble, and bring about true economic justice, racial justice, legal justice, and moral justice. That process began with His first coming and it will continue with His second.

Mary saw all of this as the fulfillment of the covenant God made with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the patriarchs of Israel to send them a Redeemer, a Rescuer, a Savior, and a Messiah. Her offspring was going to be the source and the center of all God’s answers to all His promises. And as I looked at this list of seven simple statements, I thought of how Jesus did, in fact, even during His lifetime, fulfill them.

For no word from God will ever fail… Blessed is the one who believes that the Lord will fulfill His promises. He will keep them all—just as He promised.

Conclusion

These are all the things that Christ did. Let’s take them in reverse order.

He helped people. One day Jesus was leading a Bible study in Peter’s house. The place was crowded, standing room only, and there was a crowd around the house. As Jesus taught, there was a commotion over His head, and some men began moving tiles. A stream of sunlight came into the living room, and in a few minutes something else came—or someone else—a paralyzed man being lowered on a mat. He swung down and landed at the feet of Jesus. Just like we sometimes do. Jesus looked down at man and said something very unexpected. “Son, your sins are forgiven.” And then He told him to take up his pallet and walk home on his two legs—which he did as the amazed crowd parted to let him through. The Bible says Jesus went around doing good. He helped people, and He still does.

He also sent the rich away empty. One day a rich man came to Jesus and said, “Good Master, what must I do to have eternal life?” Jesus said, “Give everything away and then come and follow me.” The man wasn’t willing. He came to Jesus thinking he was rich, and he left knowing he was bankrupt in his heart.

On the other hand, our Lord filled the hungry with good things. When He was teaching in Galilee, thousands of people massed in the fields and valleys about the Sea of Galilee, none of them with anything to eat. Jesus took a few bits of food, looked up to Heaven and blessed it, and began breaking it—and with those few loaves and fishes, He filled thousands of people with good things.

He also lifted up the humble. One day in John 8, a woman was dragged before him and accused of sexual immorality. Jesus took it all in, stooped down, and wrote some words on the ground. Perhaps He was writing the first four of the Ten Commandments. He looked at the crowd and said, “You who are sinless among you throw the first stone.” Then he bent down and began writing again. Perhaps he was writing the last six of the Ten Commandments. When He finished He looked up and saw no one there to accuse her. They had all drifted away. He looked at her and said, “Where are those who condemn you? Well, neither do I. Go, and give up your life of sin.”

He also brought rulers down to size. One day some of our Lord’s enemies taunted Him, telling Him that King Herod was going to kill Him. Jesus said, “Go tell that fox, ‘I will keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow and on the third day I will reach my goal.’”

When Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor said, “Don’t you realize I have the power to free you or to crucify you.” Jesus said, “You would have no power over Me at all if it had not been given to you from above.”

Pilate had no answer for that, and he’s gone down in history as the most haunted man of all time.

Our Lord also scattered those who were proud of heart. Do you remember when He was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane? It was late and cold and everyone was exhausted. Suddenly Judas Iscariot led a contingent of Roman Soldiers into the garden and identified Jesus. When the soldiers came to arrest him, suddenly they were forced back by an invisible energy field that burst from His very person. The Bible says when Jesus said, “I am He,” they were pushed back and fell to the ground like the Keystone Cops. Well, the Bible doesn’t say like the Keystone Cops, but that’s about what it was. He scattered His enemies, and they were able to eventually arrest Him only because He allowed them.

And finally, He performed mighty deeds with His arms. And no more powerful moment has ever occurred in Heaven or on earth than the moment the strong, bare arms of the Nazarene Carpenter were stretched out horizontally on the crossbeam of Calvary while His hands were spiked to the cross. He died as if reaching out to embrace all of humanity. 

And in the death and resurrection of Jesus son of Mary all the promises of God were purchased and redeemed for all His people.

For no word from God will ever fail… Blessed is the one who believes that the Lord will fulfill His promises. He will keep them all—just as He promised.

And so we say:

Magnificat anima mea dominum

O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name forever.

The post Just As He Promised appeared first on RobertJMorgan.com.

Surrounded!

A Study of Acts 25 and 26

Many years ago, Katrina and I were watching a James Bond movie, one that starred Pierce Brosnan as Bond. I don’t remember the movie or anything about it except one thing. Bond and his girlfriend were in a very bad situation in a marketplace in Thailand or somewhere, and they were completely surrounded. There was no way out. The girl looked at him and said, “James, we’re trapped!” He glanced at her and then back at the opposition and, with determination, he said something—one word. But I didn’t hear it. I said, “Katrina, what did he say?” She said, “He said ‘Never.’” 

I don’t know what that little bit of dialogue has stayed with me, but I do think it represents a Christian truth. As children of God through Jesus Christ, even when we are surrounded on every side, we are never trapped. And that’s the lesson I want us to see today in Acts 25 and 26. 

If you’ve been following our Bible studies in Acts, you know Paul was seized in Jerusalem in Acts 21 and had been moved to Caesarea for his own safety. He was housed in the palace of the governor, and he was confined there for two years while Felix and his young and beautiful wife, Drusilla, governed Palestine. Paul was a prisoner, but the charges against him were vague. What he did during this time we don’t know, but I suspect he used it to rest, pray, study, share the Gospel whenever he could, and encourage Luke in the writing of the Third Gospel, which I believe happened during this time.

Finally Governor Felix was recalled to Rome because of complaints about his leadership and brutality, and a new governor was appointed named Festus.

Felix had made a mess of things. Law and order had broken down. Violence was increasing. Travel was dangerous. Mobs were controlling parts of the country. Jerusalem was rebellious, and Festus was appointed to replace Felix and regain order.

We know very little about this man, Porcius Festus. Josephus mentions him and says he was governor of Judea for two or three years, and that he did a lot to rid the land of armed groups of bandits, but that he died in office in A.D. 61 or 62 of natural causes, of an illness of some sort. He didn’t live long enough to change the trajectory of history very much in Palestine.

Bible Study: The problem was that the new governor Festus was inexperienced in Jewish affairs, so three days after arriving in Caesarea, he traveled to Jerusalem to meet with Jewish leaders. This story is told at the beginning of Acts, chapter 25. While Festus was in discussions with these leaders, they brought up the long-delayed case of the apostle. To ingratiate himself with the Jews, Festus agreed to reopen the case. He stayed in Jerusalem for over a week, but as soon as he returned to Caesarea, he convened the Roman court and ordered that Paul be brought to him.

Verse 7 says: When Paul came in, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him. They brought many serious charges against him, but they could not prove them.

Paul was literally surrounded by his enemies, but he wasn’t a man easily intimidated, especially because of his relationship with Christ; he simply denied the charges made against him. In verse 8, he said, “I have done nothing wrong against the Jewish law or against the temple or against Caesar.”

Verse 9 continues:  Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, said to Paul, “Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and stand trial before me there on these charges?” Paul answered: “I am now standing before Caesar’s court, where I ought to be tried. I have not done any wrong to the Jews, as you yourself know very well. If, however, I am guilty of doing anything deserving death, I do not refuse to die. But if the charges brought against me by these Jews are not true, no one has the right to hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar!”

This is the third time in the book of Acts when Paul exerted his rights as an official Roman citizen. Paul refused to be handed over to the jurisdiction of the Sanhedrin or to have his Roman trial conducted in Jerusalem. He knew the dangers that would pose. So he appealed to Caesar, and by law that stopped his proceedings. 

Verse 12 says:  After Festus had conferred with his council, he declared: “You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you will go!”

The Caesar to whom Paul appealed was none other than Emperor Nero, but this was near the beginning of the young emperor’s reign and his cruel insanity wasn’t yet as apparent.

Well, all of this put Festus in the middle of a difficult Jewish problem, just at a time when he was trying to reduce tensions in Palestine. He had to send Paul on judicial appeal to Rome, but on what charges? He needed advice from someone who knew more about the Jewish issues than he did, so he decided to consult someone named King Agrippa.

Agrippa was the great grandson of Herod the Great, and he was the Roman official in charge of the northern area of Palestine. His capital was at Baneas, which he called Caesarea Philippi. It was north of the Sea of Galilee at the foot of Mount Hermon. When I lead trips to Israel, we often drive up there, because the biblical history is very rich. This is also at the headwaters of the Jordan River. Agrippa was also given custodial responsibility over the temple in Jerusalem, which his great grandfather had rebuilt, and the rebuilding process was still going on.

Agrippa and his sister Bernice came to visit Festus and welcome him into their region. There were widespread rumors that Agrippa and Bernice had an incestuous relationship. Those rumors exist to this day. Agrippa never married and his sister never married successfully. They kept ending up back together. Whenever I get frustrated with our political leaders today, I think of the kinds of characters Paul had to put up with.

At any rate, Agrippa and Bernice came to pay their regards to Festus in his new position, and they stayed several days.

Verse 14 says: Since they were spending many days there, Festus discussed Paul’s case with the king. He said: “There is a man here whom Felix left as a prisoner. When I went to Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews brought charges against him and asked that he be condemned. I told them that it is not the Roman custom to hand over anyone before they have faced their accusers and have had an opportunity to defend themselves against the charges. When they came here with me, I did not delay the case, but convened the court the next day and ordered the man to be brought in. When his accusers got up to speak, they did not charge him with any of the crimes I had expected. Instead, they had some points of dispute with him about their own religion and about a dead man named Jesus who Paul claimed was alive. I was at a loss how to investigate such matters; so I asked if he would be willing to go to Jerusalem and stand trial there on these charges. But when Paul made his appeal to be held over for the Emperor’s decision, I ordered him held until I could send him to Caesar.”

All this was an interesting topic to Agrippa, so he said he would like to meet Paul. 

The story continues at verse 23: The next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp and entered the audience room with the high-ranking military officers and the prominent men of the city. At the command of Festus, Paul was brought in. 24 Festus said: “King Agrippa, and all who are present with us, you see this man! The whole Jewish community has petitioned me about him in Jerusalem and here in Caesarea, shouting that he ought not to live any longer. 25 I found he had done nothing deserving of death, but because he made his appeal to the Emperor I decided to send him to Rome. 26 But I have nothing definite to write to His Majesty about him. Therefore I have brought him before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that as a result of this investigation I may have something to write. 27 For I think it is unreasonable to send a prisoner on to Rome without specifying the charges against him.”

Now once again Paul speaks on his own behalf before a legal proceeding. But he does not view this simply as a legal defense. He views this as an evangelistic opportunity. Whenever we’re in a situation where we feel we’re on the defensive, we should look around to see how we can share the Gospel. Paul presents his presentation in chapter 26 and verse 2:

 “King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate to stand before you today as I make my defense against all the accusations of the Jews,  3  and especially so because you are well acquainted with all the Jewish customs and controversies. 

As opposed to Governor Festus who was in over his head. Paul continued in verse 4:

 “The Jewish people all know the way I have lived ever since I was a child, from the beginning of my life in my own country, and also in Jerusalem.  5  They have known me for a long time and can testify, if they are willing, that I conformed to the strictest sect of our religion, living as a Pharisee.  6  And now it is because of my hope in what God has promised our ancestors that I am on trial today.  7  This is the promise our twelve tribes are hoping to see fulfilled as they earnestly serve God day and night. King Agrippa, it is because of this hope that these Jews are accusing me.  8  Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?

This is one of the greatest questions of logic and philosophy that has ever been posed. This is one of my favorite sentences from the apostle Paul: Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?

In other words….

If there is a God who possesses all the essential elements necessary for being God—if He is omnipotent, eternal, self-existent, all-sufficient, unchangeable and unchanging—why wouldn’t it be logical to assume He could bring the dead to life?If there is a God who designed and brought into being the entire cosmos, out of nothing and from nothing, why is it so inconceivable that He could raise Jesus from the dead?If there is a God who took a handful of dirt and fashioned it into a human being, breathed His breath into it, and created a living soul, why would we doubt He could raise the dead?If there is a God who reigns over the seen and the unseen, who is Lord of the dead and the living, who loves His creation and wants His people to be with Him forever, why should any of us consider it incredible that God raises the dead?

Paul went on to share the story of his conversion on the Damascus Road. It’s interesting to me that during his missionary journeys, Paul preached the Gospel. But during his time of imprisonment, he was more likely to share the Gospel by giving his testimony. But just when Paul was getting wound up, Festus interrupted him.

Verse 24 says: At this point Festus interrupted Paul’s defense. “You are out of your mind, Paul!” he shouted. “Your great learning is driving you insane.” 25 “I am not insane, most excellent Festus,” Paul replied. “What I am saying is true and reasonable.”

Notice those two words. The Gospel is not only true; it is reasonable. It is intellectually logical. It is coherent. Believing in Christianity is not a blind faith based on unreasonable assumptions. It is a logical faith based on historical events, and those events correspond perfectly to an intellectual framework that gives them meaning. The theology and doctrine of Christianity is not a fabricated assortment of odd beliefs. It’s a cohesive explanation for historical events that have changed history and have the power to change our lives.

Festus had little understanding of these things, but Agrippa was very knowledgeable. So Paul continued in verse 26:

The king is familiar with these things, and I can speak freely to him. I am convinced that none of this has escaped his notice, because it was not done in a corner. 

I love that phrase. Christianity is not a secret religion or based on hidden mysteries. It is as public as the call of Abraham, the land of Israel, the predictions of the prophets, the birth of Jesus, the death and resurrection of the Messiah, and the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. What God has done, He has done publicly and openly in this world. 

Sounding just like an evangelist, Paul posed the question straight to Agrippa:

“27  King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you do.” 28  Then Agrippa said to Paul, “Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?” 29  Paul replied, “Short time or long—I pray to God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains.”

What a gospel presentation! But Agrippa missed the greatest opportunity of his life. He got up and left. Verse 30 continues:

30  The king rose, and with him the governor and Bernice and those sitting with them.  31  After they left the room, they began saying to one another, “This man is not doing anything that deserves death or imprisonment.” 32  Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.”

I don’t think Paul second-guessed his decision. It’s not likely he would have been set free, because Festus didn’t have the political leverage with the Jews to do that. All of this was proceeding according to God’s plan. 

Now here’s the point I want to make. Paul was encircled by problems, which had been going on for two or three years. And in his hearing before Governor Festus, he was literally surrounded by his enemies. Acts 25:7 says: When Paul came in, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him.

Does it ever seem you are surrounded by problems and burdens? You don’t just have one adversity in front of you. You have them all around you. Many times I like to reflect on stories like this in light of the book of Psalms. The word “surround” is used nineteen times in the book of Psalms. Sometimes it speaks of times when, like Paul, we are surrounded by enemies and problems.

In Psalm 17, the Psalmist talked about his mortal enemies who surrounded him.In Psalm 22, he said he was surrounded by evil like being surrounded by a herd of threatening bulls. In the same chapter, he said he felt he was surrounded by a pack of mad dogs. Imagine that image!Psalm 40:12 says, “For troubles without number surround me.”

We have quite a bit of that kind of imagery. But the word is also used in another way.

Psalm 5:12 says: “Surely, Lord, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield.”Psalm 32:7 says, “You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.”In the same Psalm, we read, “The Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the one who trusts in Him.”And my favorite surrounding verse is Psalm 125:2: “As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people both now and forever.”

We can use this picturesque language to our advantage. When you feel surrounded by difficulty and critics and problems, remember that the invisible and invincible presence of the hovering God surrounds you even closer, even tighter. Are we surrounded? Yes. Are we trapped? Never.

There’s a very interesting visualization given in the second chapter of the prophet Zechariah. At that time, a returning remnant was trying to repopulate and rebuild Jerusalem, but they were surrounded by enemies. But the Lord said about Jerusalem: “And I myself will be a wall of fire around it, and I will be its glory within” (Zechariah 2:5).

I read the story of a missionary in China who was often in very dangerous places, but she felt God had given her this verse and she took it seriously. She said, “The Lord Himself is a wall of fire around me and the glory in my heart.” And her exploits are amazing.

We’re also surrounded by the angels. Psalm 34:7 says, “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.”

We’re also surrounded by blessings, by mercy, by grace. Psalm 139 says, “You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.”

Let me close with Psalm 125, part of which I quoted earlier. It has been a comfort to me many times when I’ve felt surrounded and trapped.

Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people both now and forever.

The post Surrounded! appeared first on RobertJMorgan.com.

A More Convenient Time

A Study of Acts 24

Introduction: When I was growing up, our church had revival meetings—evangelistic campaigns. Evangelists would come for the week and preach every night. I recall the church being full, and many nights when the invitation was given, people would be saved. Usually, one of the sermons would be from Acts 24:25. In the King James, the verse said: “Felix trembled and answered, ‘Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.’”

It’s been a long time since I heard a sermon on that verse, which is a shame. It’s one of the best examples in all of history of the dangers of procrastination. In today’s blog, we’ll revisit this famous story.

Background: The story of Paul occupies Acts, chapter 13 to the last chapter of the book. It’s told in terms of his three missionary tours, followed by his arrest in Jerusalem. In chapter 23, the Roman Commander in Jerusalem, fearing Paul’s safety and wanting to get him out of town, had him taken under heavy escort to Caesarea.

Caesarea was the Roman city on the Israeli coast, built by Herod the Great as the military headquarters for the Roman forces in Palestine. Paul was evidently kept in the palace in a secure location. If you visit the ruins of Caesarea now, you’ll see the foundations of a room in which the archaeologists claim Paul was kept. And there he stayed for two years, as his legal case was pending.

I’m fascinated by this two-year period because Luke doesn’t tell us of very much going on with Paul except, as we’ll see, occasional appearances before Roman officials. We don’t have any letters Paul wrote from Caesarea, although I’m sure he wrote many. Most scholars think the Prison Epistles of Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon were written from his house arrest in Rome at the end of the book, not from Caesarea. As far as the pages of the book of Acts tell the story, this was a rather quiet period in Paul’s ministry.

I do have one theory about it, and I ran it by the renowned New Testament scholar, Dr. Craig Evans, and he agreed with me. I believe Luke used this time to do the final research and writing of his Gospel of Luke. So Luke was preoccupied with that, and Paul undoubtedly saw visitors and wrote letters and rested and prayed and studied. But little of that is recorded for us.

What we do have is the account of Paul’s three appearances before Roman officials, as his legal case lumbered along. All that essentially takes us through chapter 23 of Acts. So let’s start today with Acts 24. Let me give you the names of the three men before whom Paul made his case: Felix, Festus, and Agrippa.

Bible Study

24  Five days later the high priest Ananias went down to Caesarea with some of the elders and a lawyer named Tertullus, and they brought their charges against Paul before the governor. 

Antonius Felix was the younger brother of a powerful Roman politician who was leader of the treasury during the reign of Emperor Claudius. The brother’s name was Pallas, and evidently he secured for Felix the governorship of Palestine or Judea.

Felix was frustrated in Judea, and he had clashes with the high priest in Jerusalem, whose name was Jonathan, who criticized him. Felix had someone hire a group of assassins who surrounded high priest Jonathan in the temple and plunged daggers into him during one of the festivals.

We know that Felix was married three times. His first wife was Drusilla from Africa. She is thought to have been the granddaughter of Mark Anthony and Cleopatra. While he was governor of Judea, Felix divorced Drusilla and married another woman named Drusilla, whom he seduced from her husband. Here’s how Josephus puts it:

While Felix was procurator of Judea, he saw this Drusilla and fell in love with her, for she did indeed exceed all other women in beauty; and he sent to her a person whose name was Simon, a Jewish friend of his…who pretended to be a magician. Simon endeavored to persuade her to forsake her present husband and marry Felix, and he promised that if she would (marry) Felix that (she would be) a happy woman. 

She was only sixteen years old at the time, and in this passage she would have been in her early twenties. Let’s continue reading verse 2: 

2 When Paul was called in, Tertullus presented his case before Felix: “We have enjoyed a long period of peace under you, and your foresight has brought about reforms in this nation. 3 Everywhere and in every way, most excellent Felix, we acknowledge this with profound gratitude. 4 But in order not to weary you further, I would request that you be kind enough to hear us briefly.

5  “We have found this man to be a troublemaker, stirring up riots among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the Nazarene sect  6  and even tried to desecrate the temple; so we seized him. 8  By examining him yourself you will be able to learn the truth about all these charges we are bringing against him.”

9  The other Jews joined in the accusation, asserting that these things were true.

10  When the governor motioned for him to speak, Paul replied: “I know that for a number of years you have been a judge over this nation; so I gladly make my defense.  11  You can easily verify that no more than twelve days ago I went up to Jerusalem to worship.  12  My accusers did not find me arguing with anyone at the temple, or stirring up a crowd in the synagogues or anywhere else in the city.  13  And they cannot prove to you the charges they are now making against me.  14  However, I admit that I worship the God of our ancestors as a follower of the Way, which they call a sect. I believe everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets,  15  and I have the same hope in God as these men themselves have, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.  16  So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man.

17  “After an absence of several years, I came to Jerusalem to bring my people gifts for the poor and to present offerings.  18  I was ceremonially clean when they found me in the temple courts doing this. There was no crowd with me, nor was I involved in any disturbance.  19  But there are some Jews from the province of Asia, who ought to be here before you and bring charges if they have anything against me.  20  Or these who are here should state what crime they found in me when I stood before the Sanhedrin—  21  unless it was this one thing I shouted as I stood in their presence: ‘It is concerning the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you today.’”

22  Then Felix, who was well acquainted with the Way, adjourned the proceedings. “When Lysias the commander comes,” he said, “I will decide your case.”  23  He ordered the centurion to keep Paul under guard but to give him some freedom and permit his friends to take care of his needs.

24  Several days later Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish. He sent for Paul and listened to him as he spoke about faith in Christ Jesus.  25  As Paul talked about righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and said, “That’s enough for now! You may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you.”  26  At the same time he was hoping that Paul would offer him a bribe, so he sent for him frequently and talked with him.

Drusilla would have been about twenty-two at the time of this story. Notice how this ruler was drawn to Paul and to his message. I believe in his heart he knew that what Paul believed was true. The name Felix in the Latin means “Happy,” but this man was not happy. I believe he was under conviction. He called for Paul frequently and talked with him. According to this passage, Paul kept four subjects on the table.

Application

First, Paul spoke about his faith in Christ. Verse 24 says, Several days later Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish. He sent for Paul and listened to him as he spoke about faith in Christ Jesus. 

Knowing as we do Paul’s message and ministry, we can infer what he said. He undoubtedly shared his own testimony, how he had been converted on the Damascus Road. And he certainly would have told Felix and Drusilla something of what he had written in the book of Romans, when he said, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.” 

He must have described the incredible life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our Lord had been crucified under the authority of one of Felix’s predecessors, Pontius Pilate. All that had happened only about 25 years before. I’m sure Paul explained the importance of the crucifixion of Christ and the impressive evidence for the resurrection. He may have even said exactly what he wrote to the Romans: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ the Lord.”

I know Paul tried as hard as he could to present the Gospel clearly and with boldness.

Second, Paul spoke about righteousness. Let’s go back to the passage: 24 Several days later Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish. He sent for Paul and listened to him as he spoke about faith in Christ Jesus. 25 As Paul talked about righteousness….

This has to do with God’s expectations on the human race. His nature is holy, and no one can enter His presence, live in fellowship with Him, or have the eternal life He gives without perfection of righteousness. Since we are failures in that regard, God became a man who died for us and rose again to impute His righteousness to us.

This word occurs nearly forty times in the book of Romans. For example:

Romans 3:10 says: There is no one righteous, not even one.Romans 3:20 says: Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law.Romans 4:13 talks about the righteousness that comes by faith.Romans 4:23 says that “God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.”Romans 5:17 says that “those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness” will “reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

I’m certain these are the truths Paul explained to Felix and Drusilla.

Third, Paul spoke about self-control. Verse 25 says: As Paul talked about righteousness, self-control… This almost seems like a strange way to evangelize. Paul didn’t say, “God loves you….” Well, of course, he might have done so at some point. But there’s an old saying that you have to get someone lost before you get them saved. In other words, until they see their sinfulness it’s hard for them to see their need of a Savior.

Felix wasn’t known for his self-control. He was apparently quick-tempered, and he could be ruthless. As we’ve already seen, he was eager to throw his first wife overboard for a sixteen-year-old married girl, whom he found beautiful. I have to believe Paul was gracious and earnest in what he said, but he didn’t beat around the bush. He must have something like, “The kind of life God expects and the kind of life He wants to give you is one in which you live with greater self-control. You have to control your reactions, your habits, your moral decisions.”

Fourth, Paul spoke about the future day of judgment. Verse 25 says: Paul talked about righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come….

Revival preaching, evangelistic preaching never bypasses the coming day of judgment, which is the most frightening event facing the human race. All unsaved humanity will stand before the Great White Throne of God to hear their eternal sentence and to receive their eternal condemnation.

Now, verse 24 is very interesting. It says: As Paul talked about righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid… And the Greek word here is very strong. Felix was terrified. But what did he say:

That’s enough for now! You may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you.

I don’t know if there are any words in the Bible more tragic than that. This is probably the clearest case of condemnation by procrastination in all the Scripture. Felix put it off. He wanted to wait until a more convenient time. How many people have said that?

I know that I need help with my spiritual life, but I’m not ready. I’ll do it later. I’ll call for you at a more convenient time. When a person says that, they are very likely pronouncing their own death sentence. They’re like a man with a cancerous tumor telling the doctor, “I don’t want to deal with it now. I’ll come back at a more convenient time.”

They’re like a woman in a car wreck telling an emergency responder, “Come back later, when it’s more convenient.” 

They’re like the crew of a sinking ship telling the coast guard, “We’re not ready to be saved yet. Come back later.”

Verse 27 says: When two years had passed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus, but because Felix wanted to grant a favor to the Jews, he left Paul in prison.

As I said, we know very little of what Paul did during these two years. Perhaps he was resting, studying, praying, counseling friends who came to see him, evangelizing the soldiers in the palace, writing letters we no longer have, and encouraging Luke, who was almost certainly using the time to research and write the Gospel of Luke.

Felix was recalled to Rome because of his mismanagement of his governorship in Judea and his brutality toward the Jews, and many historians believe he died of tuberculosis. 

Conclusion: One of the sorrows of my life is the number of people who have reacted as Felix did when I shared Christ with them. One man more than any other is on my mind. I tried to talk with him on his deathbed about the Lord Jesus, but he simply shook his head and waved me away.

The Bible says, “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.”

I had a good friend named Jonathan Yandell, a third-generation preacher, who gave me a book by his father, Pastor Larkin Yandell. Larkin’s father had been an old-time evangelist. His name was Elzie Yandell. One week he had a series of evangelistic meetings beneath a bush arbor in eastern Oklahoma. It was outdoors under this arbor, and the people sat on crude wooden benches. On Thursday night, a family came in a wagon pulled by mules. The woman and her children found a place to sit, but her husband refused to come into the meeting. He stayed outside. The woman was gloriously saved, and they came every night. Each night she came to the altar to pray for her husband, but he stayed outside.

On Sunday night, Mr. Yandell went out and talked to the man during the invitation, begging him to give his life to Christ. The man was rude. He said, “Preacher, you got my woman up there and made a fool out of her, and you are not going to make a fool out of me!”

“My dear sir,” said Yandell, “I will be praying for you.” The went back to the altar to pray with those who had come forward. But soon a man was tapping him on the shoulder. “Brother Yandell,” he was told, “the man you were talking with has fallen to the ground.” The man was dead.

We never know when our days and hours and minutes will be up.

If you are reading this without knowing Jesus Christ as your Savior, I want to remind you of the Gospel, and of the importance of righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come. The Bible says, “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.”

I urge you to receive the Lord Jesus Christ now, while there is still time and while you still can. There will never be a more convenient time.

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Two Kinds of Prayers, Two Kinds of Answers

A Study of Daniel 9

Introduction

Who prays the most—young people or older people? I don’t know about the United States, but a new survey in the United Kingdom found that 51 percent of young adults pray at least once a month, compared with 24 percent of older people. The same was true for church attendance. Young adults were more likely than older adults to attend church. Of course, praying once a month is a pretty low objective, but the poll was widely reported in the British media, because it was so unexpected.

But I’m just not surprised. Look around this church! Look at the young people, and many of them really know how to pray—and they don’t just do it once a month.

It reminds me of Daniel. 

Today we’re coming to chapter 9 of the book of Daniel and to one of the most intense prayers of all the Bible.

Let’s begin with verse 1: In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes (a Mede by descent) [a title for King Cyrus], who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom—in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel….

I hope during these weeks of our Sunday morning studies through Daniel you’ve come to know this man. Think of his remarkable life. He grew up in the city of Jerusalem under the ministry of Jeremiah the Prophet. When he was twelve or thirteen, he went to the temple with his parents for his bar mitzvah, and after that he was able to fully participate in temple worship, going onto the temple mount with his parents, hearing the music, seeing the smoke of the sweet incense wafting into the sky, joining with the worshippers.

He was part of a very prominent family, and he undoubtedly lived in an affluent part of the city. Daniel 1 says his family was among the nobility. Daniel was extremely bright. Even as a teenager he was a born leader. And we can also surmise that he had godly parents who instilled within him from infancy a love for the Lord and for the Scriptures and for prayer. There’s really no other way to explain his life.

When he was about fifteen, his nation and city were invaded by the most brutal enemy imaginable—the Babylonians. They overran the affluent section of town, perhaps the elite school where Daniel was a student. I suspect Daniel and his buddies tried to evade the Babylonians but they were trapped like animals, bound, and marched 600 miles to the city of Babylon. 

What happened to him and to his friends is similar to what periodically happens in northern Nigeria when schools are stormed by Boko Haram and the teenagers are kidnapped and marched off to some kind of horrible confinement.

Daniel and his friends were enrolled in a re-education camp, stripped of their Hebrew names, given names reflecting the titles of the Babylonian gods, and they apparently never saw their parents again. But Daniel was a young man who knew how to pray—and I feel certain he had parents who, though they apparently never saw him again, prayed for him night and day. 

In his first existential crisis in Daniel, chapter 2, he and his friends went to the Lord in prayer together and God gave them a miraculous answer. In time, God promoted Daniel to a place of high political office and made him a world-renowned statesman—one of the greatest leaders in history.

It is from Daniel we learn there are two types of prayer.

Two Types of Prayer

1. Regular Prayer

First, there is regular prayer, as we saw a few weeks ago in Daniel 6. I want to revisit that just a moment and remind you of Daniel 6:10: Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem.  Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before.

In other words, that was his lifelong habit. He had regular times of prayer built into his daily schedule.

Every one of us can find a way of doing that. Rick Hamlin is the executive editor of Guideposts Magazine. His regular time of prayer is on the subway. He has a long commute every morning in New York City. He gets on the A-train, takes his seat, and pulls out his old Gideon Bible that’s all taped up and repaired. He reads the Scripture and then closes his eyes. He knows all the stops and how long it is between each stop. That guides the sections of his prayers. He said, “The rumble of the train on the tracks is the perfect background for my prayers. It’s my call to worship.”

I’m not sure that plan would work for me, but it works for him. He can pray for the entire world between his home and his office as the subway cars jostle beneath the Big Apple.

I read about another man who wrote a letter to his sons, explaining to them how he learned to pray. He said, in essence, I’ve never known how to use fancy language, but every morning after I’ve showered and dressed, I kneel down and talk to the Lord out loud. First, I tell Him things I’m thankful for, and then I pray for things I’m concerned about. It’s not very fancy, but it’s very habitual and it helps me start the day in God’s presence and with His blessings.

I read about another woman who has a comfortable chair in the corner of her bedroom beside a small table. In the drawer she keeps all her prayer supplies—a Bible, a fountain pen, a devotional book of Scripture reading, and a short list of prayer items. She rises early every morning and meets the Lord in that spot.

One missionary said that he has a patch of woods near his home. Every day he takes a prayer walk, and as he walks he prays out loud, as if the Lord were walking beside him, which He is.

So you can do this. You need it. Find a way to establish regular prayer in your life.

Regular prayer brings habitual strength.

2. Rigorous Prayer

But sometimes we need more than regular prayer. We need rigorous prayer, and that brings us to Daniel 9 and to one of the most rigorous, most intense prayers in the Bible. Let’s begin reading in verse 1:

In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes (a Mede by descent) [a title for King Cyrus], who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom—in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. 

Not only was Daniel a prayer warrior; he was a student of the Scriptures, including the writings of his childhood preacher, the prophet Jeremiah. In two different places—in Jeremiah 25 and 29—the Lord had promised to restore the city of Jerusalem 70 years after the Babylonian invasion. In fact, one of those chapters—Jeremiah 29—was actually a letter Jeremiah wrote to Daniel and his other exiles, and in verses 10 and 11 he said: This is what the Lord says: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

When Daniel read those words, they turned into neon lights in his heart. And listen while I read his incredible prayer, starting in Daniel 9:2:

So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed:

Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. We have not listened to your servants, the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our ancestors, and to all the people of the land.

Lord, you are righteous but this day we are covered with shame—the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you. We and our kings, our princes and our ancestors are covered with shame, Lord, because we have sinned against you. The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him; we have not obeyed the Lord our God or kept the laws he gave us through His servants the prophets. All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you.

Therefore the curses and sworn judgments written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against you. You have fulfilled the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing on us great disaster. Under the whole heaven nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem. Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come on us, yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth. The Lord did not hesitate to bring the disaster on us, for the Lord our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him.

Now, Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand; and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong. Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill. Our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn to all those around us.

Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. Give ear, our God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. 

Lord, listen! Lord, forgive! Lord, hear and act! For your sake, my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.

This is so intense and heartfelt, I hardly know how to exegete it. It just speaks for itself, and the point I want to make is that sometimes regular prayer isn’t enough. Sometimes there is a need, a crisis, an opportunity, a burden that calls for rigorous prayer, wrestling in prayer, prevailing in prayer.

I’m not going to go through this prayer line-by-line, but notice these three things:

First, he knows what God is like. He calls Him great, awesome, righteous, merciful, forgiving.

Second, he knows how to confess his sins and those of his nation.

Third, he knows how to claim the promises of God in Scripture.

I’ve been personally very convicted by this. It’s been a little while since I’ve prayed with this kind of intensity, but every biblical hero had such moments in their lives.

Hannah prayed this way in 1 Samuel 1, overwhelmed with her family and personal distress.Hezekiah prayed like this when the Assyrians were surrounding his city.Jonah prayed like this when he was swallowed by the whale.Jesus prayed like this in the Garden of Gethsemane. 

As I prepared this message, I read a book by Anne Graham Lotz called The Daniel Prayer. She told of some times in her own life when she was driven to what she called The Daniel Prayer type of intense, earnest, fervent prayer:

When she struggled with infertility…When she sat in a hospital chapel as a dear friend was about to be taken off life supportWhen she heard her son and his wife in a heated argument that signaled the beginning of the end of their marriage.When she returned home and found the door broken down and the entire house ransacked.When she discovered her husband unresponsive in the swimming pool.

I thought back to times in my own life when I had to pray like my life depended on it—earnest, agonizing, insistent prayers.

Well, Daniel’s prayer in chapter 9 certainly got God’s attention, and I want to show you two kinds of answers.

There are two kinds of prayers—regular prayers and rigorous prayers. And there are two kinds of answers—immediate answers and ultimate answers.

Two Kinds of Answers

1. Immediate Answers

Let me show you God’s immediate answer. Verse 20 says:

While I was still speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the Lord my God for His holy hill—while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift about the time of the evening sacrifice. He instructed me and said, “Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. As soon as you began to pray, a word went out, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the word and understand the vision. 

As soon as we begin to pray, a word goes out. I wish we could visualize this. Here you have a terrific burden, you have an overwhelming need, you have a sudden crisis. You cry out to God and you pray with great earnestness and intensity. If only you could see into Heaven, you would see Almighty God speaking a word—and the word goes out.

2. Ultimate Answers

But notice something else. The answer is given immediately but it unfolds ultimately. Gabriel comes with a message, which is a prediction, a prophecy about the future. What follows is the most crucial and critical paragraph of prophetic information in the Bible. Pastor Tommy will look at next week, but in its essence it contains the embryo of the rest of human history. Gabriel’s message takes us all the way to Calvary; and all the way to the Tribulation; and all the way to the Second Coming; and all the way to the Millennium; and all the way to Eternity.

Sometimes the answer to our prayers is given immediately, but it unfolds on its own schedule.

This week I was with my friend, Reese Kauffman, who is the president of Child Evangelism Fellowship. He’s a dear friend, and he’s a man of prayer. Whenever we’re together, he wants to talk about the power of prayer. This week at supper he told me of something that happened many years ago. Reese had a friend who was not a Christian believer. Reese had shared the Gospel with him without any success, but he continued praying for him. One evening he drove home, and as he drove into his driveway he was overwhelmed with a burden for his friend. He sat there in the car and prayed for him. He began to weep and cry. Reese said, “I’m not someone who cries very often, and I can’t explain what was happening to me, but I sat there and wept and prayed for this man. Then I went inside and had a normal evening. 

Twenty years later, this man told me he was coming through town and we decided to get together. I thought I’d have at least one more chance to bring up the Gospel. But when I did so, he said, “Reese, don’t you know? I became a Christian, let’s see, it’s been about twenty years ago.”

Reese was stunned, but his mind went back to that evening in the front seat of his car when he had felt such an intense burden.

Conclusion

There’s one final thing I want you to notice. Look at verse 21: …while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice.

This was at 3 p.m. And look at verse 26: …After the sixty two “sevens,” the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing.

As we’ll see next week, this is a remarkable prediction of the death of the Lord Jesus which took place at 3 p.m. at the time of the evening sacrifice. And it is His death that ripped the veil of the temple, giving us access to the power of prayer.

If we’re going to change the circumstances of our lives and of our world, we must learn how to pray regular prayers and we must learn how to pray rigorous prayers. We must do so in Jesus’ name. And as we do so, the Lord knows how to give immediate answers and He knows how to give ultimate answers.

Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer,

That calls me from a world of care

And bids me at my Father’s throne

Make all my wants and wishes known.

In seasons of distress and grief,

My soul has often found relief,

And oft escaped the tempter’s snare

By thy return, sweet hour of prayer.

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Two Questions That Create a Quality Life

A Study of Acts 21 and 22

Introduction

Anthony Robbins said, “Quality questions create a quality life. Successful people ask better questions, and as a result they get better answers.”

Well today, I want to show you two questions that lead to a quality life unlike any other.

Review

We’re continuing our series of studies called Unstoppable into the text and scriptures in the book of Acts, and today we’re coming to chapters 21 and 22. So if you’re able to grab your Bible and follow along, this is the time to do it. Here’s where we are. The apostle Paul finished his third missionary journey and he was eager to embark on his next one. But first, he wanted to go to Jerusalem to deliver the offering he had collected for the impoverished Jewish Christians in Judea. He thought that if the Gentiles of Asia and Europe sent a financial gift to the Jewish Christians of Jerusalem, it might heal the rift between the Jewish Church and the Gentile Church. Perhaps Paul didn’t fully realize the state of things in Jerusalem. The city was boiling with political and religious emotion. Rebellion was in the air. The Jews were tired of the brutality of Rome, and the Jews in Judea were frustrated with the growth of Christianity. 

I was in Jerusalem during the intifada of some years ago, and I could feel the danger and tension as I walked through the Old City. As I walked through the streets and alleys, groups of children encircled me with toy guns, saying, “Pow, pow, pow.” It was a very gentle threat, but a threat, nonetheless. Perhaps some of you have been in cities or urban areas on the verge of rioting, when you can feel the anger as thick as fog. Well, Jerusalem was a powder keg, and Paul’s presence on the temple precincts sparked a riot. He was in danger of being torn limb from limb. 

Bible Study

Let’s pick up the story in Acts 21:30: The whole city was aroused, and the people came running from all directions. Seizing Paul, they dragged him from the temple and immediately the gates were shut.

The temple was on a hill, so the crowd was pushing and shoving Paul down some set of stairs, and undoubtedly people were falling and fighting and flailing about. 

Verse 31 says: While they were trying to kill him, news reached the commander of the Roman troops that the whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar.

The Roman Fortress Antonia was adjacent to the north side of the Temple Mount, so the troops mobilized very quickly.

Verse 32: He at once took some officers and soldiers and ran down to the crowd. When the rioters saw the commander and his soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. The commander came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains. Then he asked who he was and what he had done. Some in the crowd shouted one thing and some another, and since the commander could not get at the truth because of the uproar, he ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks. When Paul reached the steps, the violence of the mob was so great he had to be carried by the soldiers. The crowd that followed him kept shouting, “Get rid of him!”

37  As the soldiers were about to take Paul into the barracks, he asked the commander, “May I say something to you?”

We find out later that the commander’s name is Claudius Lysias. 

“Do you speak Greek?” he replied.  38  “Aren’t you the Egyptian who started a revolt and led four thousand terrorists out into the wilderness some time ago?”

Interestingly, Josephus, who was a Jewish writer and historian from the first century, also wrote about an Egyptian who led a revolt of thousands of Jewish zealous terrorists or daggermen out into the wilderness. Both Josephus and the book of Acts date this event to about A.D. 54, so it’s another small indication that Luke’s story is historically reliable. Some Egyptian Messianic-like figure massed a group of thousands of followers in the desert to attack the walls of Jerusalem. He told his troops that the walls of Jerusalem would collapse before them, and he led them to the Mount of Olives. The Romans took preemptive action, killing 400 of the rebels and capturing another 200. But the Egyptian instigator got away. The Roman commander apparently thought Paul might have been that wanted outlaw.

So we have confirmation of this detail from contemporary history. 

Notice also that Paul spoke Greek, which was the dominant language in the West, even though Aramaic was the dominant language in the Middle East.

39 Paul answered, “I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no ordinary city.” I am not an Egyptian. I am a Jew, a citizen of the great city of Tarsus. Then Paul said:

“Please let me speak to the people.”

40  After receiving the commander’s permission, Paul stood on the steps and motioned to the crowd. When they were all silent, he said to them in Aramaic:

22   “Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense.”

At this point, Paul is going to do something we’ve not seen before in the book of Acts. He is simply going to give his testimony. He’s going to tell his story.

All of us who know Christ have a testimony. It may not be as dramatic as Paul’s, but we have a story of what Christ has done for us and what He has meant to us. We may never stand in front of a murderous mob, but we will have an audience of people in our lives: our grandchildren, our children, members of our ball team, friends, and coworkers in the factory or office. We should all practice and be able to share our stories of faith whenever we have the chance. Here is what Paul said, beginning in Acts 22:3

3  I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city.

That gives us some information we didn’t know about Paul. We call him Paul of Tarsus, because he was from the city of Tarsus (in what today we would call the southern coastline of Turkey). But apparently as a child or young person he was brought or sent to Jerusalem, and that’s where he grew up.

I studied under Gamaliel [the famous Rabbi we met in Acts 5] and was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors. I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. 4 I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, 5 as the high priest and all the Council can themselves testify. I even obtained letters from them to their associates in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished.

6  About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me.  7  I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ‘Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?’

The original account of Paul’s conversion was told in Acts 9, but here we learn some additional details. We learn that this incident occurred at noon when the sun was at its zenith. We also learn that those with Paul saw the light, but could not make out the words Paul heard. He said:  My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me. 

I’m convinced Saul of Tarsus quite literally saw the Lord Jesus Christ, that the heavens were parted and the Son of God, enthroned in His brilliance, bore down on Saul. He saw Jesus for a split second, but the brilliance of the searing light radiating from Christ burned his eyes and blinded him. I believe Jesus Christ is clothed with light, radiates light, generates light, and is wrapped in light. This is the self-manifestation of Christ. I believe the light of Jesus provides the illumination for New Jerusalem. After the resurrection, our glorified bodies will have glorified eyes so we can see Him face to face. But on this day on the Damascus Road, the brilliance of the person of Christ led to instant and total blindness.

Saul asked: Who are you, Lord?

The answer: I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting. 

In one sense, Paul was not literally physically persecuting the body of Jesus of Nazareth, but in another sense he was. The church is His body. Jesus took this personally. When His followers are persecuted, He is persecuted. 

10  ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ I asked.

‘Get up,’ the Lord said, ‘and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.’  11  My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me.

12  A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there.  13  He stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ And at that very moment I was able to see him.

14  Then he said: ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth.  15  You will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard.  16  And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’

17  When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance  18  and saw the Lord speaking to me. ‘Quick!’ he said. ‘Leave Jerusalem immediately, because the people here will not accept your testimony about me.’

19  ‘Lord,’ I replied, ‘these people know that I went from one synagogue to another to imprison and beat those who believe in you.  20  And when the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.’

21  Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’”

Well, that’s as far as Paul got. The word Gentiles was like a match thrown onto a pool of gasoline.

22  The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. Then they raised their voices and shouted, “Rid the earth of him! He’s not fit to live!”

23  As they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air,  24  the commander ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks. He directed that he be flogged and interrogated in order to find out why the people were shouting at him like this. 

Remember, Lysias had not been able to understand a word Paul had said in Aramaic, so he was a frustrated man, not knowing what was going on or causing the uproar. He determined to extract the information by torture.

25  As they stretched him out to flog him, Paul said to the centurion standing there, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?”

There was nothing worse than a Roman flogging. It was far worse than anything Paul had ever experienced—far worse than the Jewish beatings he had received in the synagogues and much worse than the whipping he’d received in Philippi. Paul was stripped almost bare, and his hands were tied above his head. He was stretched out, and the Roman whips were designed to rip the flesh off one’s body. For Paul, it would likely have been death by torture. But Paul asserted his Roman citizenship, for Roman citizens were exempt from this brutality. 

26  When the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and reported it. “What are you going to do?” he asked. “This man is a Roman citizen.”

27  The commander went to Paul and asked, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?”

“Yes, I am,” he answered.

28  Then the commander said, “I had to pay a lot of money for my citizenship.”

“But I was born a citizen,” Paul replied.

That tells us that Paul came from a prominent family in Tarsus, that both his parents had been Roman citizens.

29  Those who were about to interrogate him withdrew immediately. The commander himself was alarmed when he realized that he had put Paul, a Roman citizen, in chains. 

For the sake of time, I’m going to summarize what happens next. In trying to investigate the cause of the turmoil, Lysias assembled the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Ruling Council, and had Paul address them. That caused another riot, this one smaller and inside the Sanhedrin hall. Acts 23:10 says: The dispute became so violent that the commander was afraid Paul would be torn to pieces by them. He ordered the troops to go down and take him away from them by force and bring him to the barracks.

And then we have another visit by the Lord Jesus. Verse 11 says: The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, “Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.”

And this begins the process by which the apostle Paul made his slow but providential journey to the center of the Roman Empire and the story is told in the final chapter of Acts.

Application

As I read and studied through our passage for today, my own mind zeroed in on the two questions Saul of Tarsus asked Jesus when he was blinded by His presence on the Damascus Road. Let’s go back and look at those in chapter 22, beginning with verse 6: About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, “Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute Me?”

“Who are you, Lord?” I asked.

“I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,” He replied. My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of Him who was speaking to me.”

“What shall I do, Lord?” I asked.

Who are you, Lord, and what do you want me to do?

As to the first question, entire libraries could be filled with the books written about Jesus of Nazareth. One of the very first theological descriptions we have of Jesus after the time of the apostles and the New Testament comes from the pen of a man named Ignatius, who was a bishop of Antioch (the same church that sent out Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary tour). This occurs in AD 107, which was probably a decade or so after the life of the apostle John—that early! In fact, Ignatius was a disciple of John. As Ignatius was being transported to Rome to be fed to the wild beasts in the Colosseum, he wrote a series of letters. In one of them he wrote:

“I glorify Jesus Christ, the God who made you so wise, for I observed that you are established in an unshakable faith, having been nailed, as it were, to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ in both body and spirit, and firmly established in love by the blood of Christ, totally convinced with regard to our Lord that He is truly of the family of David with respect to human descent, Son of God with respect to the divine will and power, truly born of a virgin, baptized by John in order that all righteousness might be fulfilled in Him, truly nailed to the cross in the flesh for us…in order that he might raise a banner for the ages through His resurrection for his saints and faithful people, whether among Jews or among Gentiles, in one body of His church.”

That was not something formulated hundreds of years after Christ. Jesus is the Almighty God who entered humanity through miraculous conception, lived righteously, died on the cross for us, and rose again to give us eternal life. 

But because He is a real person, we have to have a personal relationship with Him. Jesus knew all about Saul of Tarsus. He was determined to turn his life around and to do something with him that would change history.

We have to know Jesus with theological accuracy, but we must also know Him personally.

And that leads us to the second question: What do you want me to do? Based on Psalm 139:16 and Ephesians 2:10 (among other verses), I have a deep conviction that the Lord has pre-planned each day of our lives, and He assigns our work in one-day increments. I write about this in my book: Mastering Life Before It’s Too Late.

Last year I spoke about this in Florida, and I said that every morning in my devotions, I say, “Lord, what do You want me to do today?” Then I prayerfully try to plan out my day and go about the Lord’s business as well as I know how.

That afternoon as I went for a walk, I met a man wearing a Navy hat. He was eighty years old and a veteran. He said, “I have never thought of asking that question before. You taught me something new and very important. Beginning tomorrow, I’m going to awaken and ask the Lord: “What do you want me to do today?”

The best kind of life on earth is knowing who Jesus is and what He wants you to do today. Those were Paul’s two great questions, and I recommend you ask them too. Those two quality questions will lead to a quality life!

The post Two Questions That Create a Quality Life appeared first on RobertJMorgan.com.

400 Words for Kingdom Workers

Sometimes I’m asked to speak to a group of ministers, and it’s hard to describe how I feel. I love the thought of encouraging them, because ministry is hard. I often need encouragement myself. Yet I often feel inadequate to help them, because everyone’s situation is so different. Why should I be speaking to them? Why shouldn’t they be speaking to me? To be a pastor speaking to pastors—well, that’s a challenge and it can be intimidating; but it’s also a great privilege and opportunity. 

Now, think about this. Hypothetically.  

If you were asked to prepare and preach a message of instruction to all of the pastors on earth, to all of the church leaders in the world – what would you say? Suppose it was going to be streamed onto the phone or laptop of every Christian worker on earth, of every group and denomination?

Now, imagine your message could also travel across time and speak to all the pastors and all the Christian workers who had ever lived? All the pastors and priests and missionaries and staff members and Sunday School teachers who have ever—or will ever—live.

And one more thing. You have to do all of this using no more than 400 words, which is a very brief sermon.

What would you say? What advice would you give to all the leaders of all the churches in all the world through all the ages, in only 400 words? 

Well, I know exactly what I would say. I would open my Bible to Ephesians 20 and read the sermon of the apostle Paul to the Ephesians elders.

In Acts 19, Paul spent three years establishing a church – or a network of house churches – in the city of Ephesus. Then he left, traveled around some, and then came back into the area. He didn’t want to return to Ephesus, but he stopped in the port of Miletus and sent word for the elders of the church to join him. They traveled 30 miles to meet him. It was a minister’s retreat with the apostle Paul.

He spoke to them, and in so doing he was giving a Spirit-inspired message to every church leader in Christian history. Luke records it in about 400 words. I suspect that Paul used a lot more words than that. He may have spoken for several hours, but Luke gives us a digest of it in Acts 20.

Luke was a remarkable writer. For example, just consider this. In his book of Acts, Luke records three missionary trips made by Paul the apostle. We call them Paul’s three missionary journeys. During each of these journeys, Paul spoke and preached and taught many times. But Luke only gives us an account of three sermons.

On Paul’s first missionary tour, Luke tells us what Paul said to an audience of unsaved Jews. On his second missionary tour, Luke tells us what he said to an audience of unsaved Gentiles. And on Paul’s third missionary tour, Luke tells us what he said to the saved church—to the leaders of the church in the city of Ephesus. 

We have three samples of Paul’s preaching—to the Jews, to the Gentiles, and to the Christians—one message from each of his three journeys. Well, the one we’re coming to is the message to the Ephesian elders, and let’s begin by reading these 400 words, beginning in Acts 20:18:

You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia. I served the Lord with great humility and with tears and in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents. You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.

And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.

Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.

Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

Scholars would put this into the category of a farewell speech. If you’re a student of American history, you know that many of our presidents have given farewell speeches as they left office. It started with George Washington, who wrote his farewell address to the nation when he left office and returned to his farm at Mount Vernon. I remember listening to Ronald Reagan’s farewell message, given from the Oval Office on the last night of his presidency. It was so moving I wished he could stay another term.

Well, the Bible contains a number of very moving farewell speeches. 

Jacob gave one in Genesis 49.Moses did so at the end of Deuteronomy.Samuel had a dramatic farewell address, which is recorded in 1 Samuel 12.Joshua did so at the end of the book that bears his name.Jesus gave a farewell address in the Upper Room in John 13-17.

Well, here in Acts 20, we have Paul’s farewell address to the Ephesians. It’s emotional and personal and not tightly organized or outlined. But it contains seven layers that I want to show you. As I’ve studied this message, I’ve come away with seven lessons.

First, we must serve the Lord with emotion.

Let’s go back to verse 17: From Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church. When they arrived, he said to them: “You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia. I served the Lord with great humility and with tears and in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents.”

It’s interesting that Paul talked about preaching with tears. I want to talk for a moment about the tears of Paul. 

Here in Acts 20:17, Paul said that he came to Ephesus and served the Lord with tears. And in verse 31, he added this: “Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.”And in verse 37 we learn that the entire group was in tears by the end of his message. They all wept as they embraced him and kissed him.In Romans 12:15, he told us to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep.In 2 Corinthians 2:4, he said that he wrote to the Corinthians with “great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears.”In Philippians 3:18, he said, “For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.” In his last letter, he wrote to Timothy saying, “I remember your tears….”

If Jeremiah was the weeping prophet, Paul was the weeping apostle.

Now, all of us are made with a different emotional complexion. When I was a young person, my pastor, Winford R. Floyd, often wept during his sermons. I sometimes wonder if something is wrong with me because I seldom do that. If I’m tired, I may get emotional and a little choked up. But we are all made differently. 

For me, the takeaway is that ministry is emotional. It should be emotional. The old word for it was zeal. We should be zealous. Most younger ministers use the words passion and passionate. But even newer translations retain the old word zeal. 

In the New International Version, we learn that Phinehas the priest was zealous for the honor of God. In fact, God said, “Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron…was as zealous for My honor among the Israelites as I am” (Numbers 25:11). God made a lasting covenant with Phinehas’ descendants because of his zeal (Numbers 25:13).The prophet Elijah described himself as being “very zealous for the Lord God Almighty” (1 Kings 19:10).The Psalmist said, “…for zeal for your house consumes me.” And that statement was later applied to Jesus Christ (Psalm 69:9; John 2:17).Proverbs 23:17 says, “…always be zealous for the fear of the Lord.”Romans 12:11 says, “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.”

Whatever we do for the Lord should be done with all our hearts. If we lose the enthusiasm and passion and zeal, we’ll end up going through the motions until we burn out. 

We must serve with emotion.

Second, we must teach with thoroughness.

Paul went on to say: 20 You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. 21 I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.

And down in verse 27, he said that he had proclaimed to them the whole counsel of God.

First and primarily, we must teach expositionally, through books of the Bible. The reason is very simple. That’s the way God gave us His Word, so that every word has the context of a sentence; every sentence has the context of a paragraph; every paragraph has the context of a section; and every section progresses from one to the other to give us a full understanding of what God wants us to know in, say, Malachi or 2 Timothy.

Now, many pastors are reluctant to do that. They say, “People want topics. They don’t want book studies; they want topics.”

But what do you think about book study? The Bible deals with 66 different topics. In other words, each of the books of the Bible had its own message.

I had a professor once who challenged us to name each book of the Bible. You know, most of the books of the Bible do not have a title. Take the book of 1 Thessalonians. That title is simply the designation of the original recipients. It was the first of two books addressed to the Christians of Thessalonica. But what if you were an editor in a publishing company, and someone gave you this brief booklet that we call 1 Thessalonians. It had no title. You had the contents, but you had to study it out and come up with a title that described what the book was about. 

I might call 1 Thessalonians, “Living a Better Life—Through and Through.” 

Paul wrote this letter to tell the Thessalonians how to grow in their newfound Christian experience. The key verse is in chapter 4, verse 1: “…we instructed you how to live in order to please God. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more.” He said in verse 3: “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified.” And he ended the book by saying, “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through.”

Now, the word “sanctify” would require some explanation as you dealt with it in the text, but the broader idea is Living a Better Life—Through and Through.

Who doesn’t want to do that?

I believe there is tremendous power in preaching expositionally, while marketing topically. In other words, you don’t have to tell people you’re going to start a series of sermons from 1 Thessalonians. Announce the topic and make it sound as relevant as it really is. And then as you go through the book, paragraph by paragraph, amazing things happen.

I recently met a man and asked him how he came to Christ. He said he started attending a church where the pastor said he was going to devote a year to preaching through the book of Romans. The man said, “I received Christ when we got to chapter 3.”

Never hesitate to preach or teach or share anything that would be helpful. Preach and teach and share the whole counsel of God.

Third, we must finish the work.

22  “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there.  23  I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me.  24  However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.

Dr. David Jeremiah’s half century of ministry, including thousands of sermons and millions of books sold, has been built on one sentence, found in Colossians 3:23- “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” There is a great challenge to successful ministers to resist the temptation of pride and seek only to glorify the Lord in all of their work. But there is also great reward in it, giving everything that they have for the Lord and trusting Him to accomplish all that He desires to come from our works. Though Dr. Jeremiah could seek to boast in his accomplishments, or cater to earthly pressures, he seeks to truly live only for His master in Heaven. And in this, he works with an ethic of excelling in his work for the glory of God. 

The great Billy Graham’s life verse was Galatians 6:14- “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” This verse shaped his approach to ministry, as well as his life as a whole. In all that he did, and the plethora of earthly accomplishments in which he could boast, he sought to give glory solely to Jesus, knowing that he had died to the world and was alive only by the grace of Christ, and for the glory of Christ. A heaven-focused work ethic seeks not just to provide results, but to have a humble heart eagerly excelling in earthly work for the sake of God’s glory, knowing that He desires not only works done in His name but a working spirit joyfully carrying out His will.

For many years I myself didn’t have a life verse, but as of late I’ve come to take on Acts 20:24 as my life verse, a rallying cry to serve the Lord well and always be focused on His will and the work laid before me. Through this I stay anchored to His will for my life, and encouraged in times of distress. We do our best in every area: raising our kids, succeeding in school, finishing our work, and working diligently in all the Lord leads us to do. At the end of the day we must commit all our work to the Lord and trust that he will bring results from it. Paul committed Ephesus to the Lord when he left, and there is something wonderful about our inability to do it all on our own; we do our best, and commit it to the Lord who is able to do much more than we can.

Fourth, we must proclaim with audacity.

25  “Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again.  26  Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you.  27  For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. 

Ezekiel 3:17-21: 17 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. 18 When I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. 19 But if you do warn the wicked person and they do not turn from their wickedness or from their evil ways, they will die for their sin; but you will have saved yourself.”

We must have courage to share the Gospel and to speak truth to people, truth to culture, and truth to power. We cannot hesitate. We must proclaim the message with audacity.

I’ve been reading the memoirs of a preacher named Stuart Briscoe, who has been a favorite of mine for over a half-century. His ministry, especially when I was a young adult, had a powerful effect on me. One day, Stuart said, he was asked to speak at a youth club in England, in Yorkshire. When he arrived, a group of kids was playing a furious game of basketball, and the youth club organizer hurried over to Stuart and said, “I’ve been in youth group work for years, and this is the worst group I’ve ever had to deal with. And he,” pointing to one fellow, “is the worst of the bunch.”

Stuart thought of his long trip and his homesickness for his family and he wondered why he had even come. But after his talk, the young man who was the worst of the bunch approached him and told him he was moved to enroll in Bible School. Stuart didn’t believe him, but he did.

The young man’s name was Graham Stamford, and he was not a conventional student. He didn’t have much of an aptitude for study. He loved sports. But he knew how to reach young people. He got a job working in road repair, and every day at lunch he would gather men around him and read a sermon from evangelist D. L. Moody.

One day Graham forgot his book of Moody’s sermons. The men asked him to preach to them one of his own. He didn’t have a sermon, but he began telling them about Hell. They’d never heard about Hell, and he started winning them to Christ.

Graham Stamford went on to speak all around the world, and to organize sports events that featured the Gospel. He’s actually still at it. He was the worst of the bunch, but thought he was the pick of the crop. 

We just have to find and take every opportunity we can to proclaim the word with audacity. 

Fifth, we must guard with watchfulness.

28  Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. 29  I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock.  30  Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.  31  So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears .

I don’t have time to deal with this at length, but Paul is telling these leaders to guard their flocks and their families against the false philosophies and heretical teachers who seem to show up everywhere.

But notice verse 28 – keep watch over yourselves…. Take heed to yourself, and to all the flock. This has been a big help to me over the years. If I don’t take care of myself, I can’t take care of others.

Sixth, we must depend on God.

32  “Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. 

Paul left the Ephesian elders with the difficult task of leading the church. And he knew that on their own power they would be totally incapable of doing so. But his confidence was not in his instruction, nor in the Ephesian elders themselves. Rather, he chose them and instructed them in order that they might rely on God’s Word and on the working of His spirit through continual grace given to them. In this I find one of the most wonderful principles a follower of God can have: We are not enough, and that is quite alright. Were we to have the ability to minister on our own strength, we would not need to rely on the power of God. Luckily, I have never found this to be the case. Rather, we find our greatest strength in acknowledging our inadequacy and praying for God to work in us and through us for His glory.

Paul similarly instructs Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:11-12- “For this gospel I was appointed a herald, apostle, and teacher, 12 and that is why I suffer these things. But I am not ashamed, because I know the One I have believed in and am persuaded that He is able to guard what has been entrusted to me until that day.”

He is able to guard what has been entrusted to me. What a wonderful promise that is! We can have confidence in God, knowing that he is able to cultivate the instruction we have received and sustain us in our daily lives and ministry. We are living in the time between Christ’s self-revelation to the world and His return. The present day will become increasingly daunting, and the world around us has already become hostile to the Gospel. Furthermore, there are forces both in our world and in the spiritual realm actively working against us to deter us from our calling. But in all this, we have Paul’s promise that the Lord will guard His truth in us, and until his return will aid us as we seek to glorify Him in everything that we do.

As Proverbs 3:5-6 says: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”

Depend on the Lord, and He will sustain you.

Finally, we must strive for generosity.

33  I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing.  34  You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions.  35  In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”

36  When Paul had finished speaking, he knelt down with all of them and prayed.  37  They all wept as they embraced him and kissed him.  38  What grieved them most was his statement that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship.

By following these seven guiding principles from Acts 20, we can seek to truly live and minister in the methods of the Apostle Paul himself:

Serve God with emotionPreach with thoroughnessFinish the work assigned to youProclaim the truth with audacityGuard the flock with watchfulnessDepend on God for the resultsAnd strive for generosity. 

And I’m going to leave it at that. After all, I’ve taken over 3000 words to say what the apostle Paul said in 400.

The post 400 Words for Kingdom Workers appeared first on RobertJMorgan.com.

The Writing on the Wall

A Study of Daniel 5

If you are fed up with news about Afghanistan, politics, unbiblical racial theories, Chinese oppression, North Korean craziness, and all the rest of it, so am I. Let’s spend some time in Daniel 5—the story of the handwriting on the wall. As we study this chapter, I want to show you three lessons that really amount to the same thing—three in one.

1. The Lord’s Bible is True

In the 1700s and 1800s, liberal scholars who didn’t really believe the Bible began taking over many of the Bible Colleges and seminaries in Europe and in the United States. When genuine Christian young people enrolled in these schools, they were ridiculed. Their faith, their belief in the Bible was attacked. Daniel 5 is a passage in the Bible that was often used to undermine the faith of many ministerial students.

Notice the first two words: King Belshazzar….

According to this chapter, a man named Belshazzar was the king of Babylon when that great empire fell to the Persians. The liberals said, “There never was a Belshazzar. We have contemporaneous records from antiquity. We have the names of the Babylonian kings. The king at this time was a man named Nabonidus. This chapter is fiction. It may have a moral lesson, but it does not have. Historical accuracy.”

The critics keep burying the Bible and the archaeologists keep digging it up. Some years ago, an ancient inscription was found bearing the name Belshazzar, and then another and another. His name been found on numerous cuneiform documents and tablets. Today, we have thirty-seven different archival texts that speak of Belshazzar.

In fact, we know the time, the very year and month and day in which this event in Daniel 5 took place. It was October 12, 539 B.C.

We know the very room where this occurred. Excavations in Babylon have uncovered the palace of Belshazzar include a vast room where a dinner like this could have taken place.

And we know the circumstances. King Nebuchadnezzar was the founder and the greatest king of Babylon. When he died, there was a succession of kings, most of whom were assassinated. Finally a man named Nabonidus became king, and he was a relatively competent man. He was interested in archaeology. He was interested in traveling across the empire searching for records from antiquity. He had little interest in governing, and so he appointed his son, Belshazzar, to sit on the throne in Babylon. Belshazzar was the de facto king.

Meanwhile the Persian Empire had invaded Babylon. Today it would be like Iran invading Iraq. Basically, geographically, ancient Babylon was Iraq and ancient Persia was Iran. And Nabonidus had left his excavations to try to lead the Babylonian armies against Persia, but he was being defeated.

Back in the city of Babylon, Persian forces surrounded the city, but they could not conquer the city of Babylon. Its walls were impregnable. According to the historian Herodotus, the walls were 56 miles around the city, 80 feet thick, and 320 feet high. They were topped with 250 defensive towers.

Furthermore, the Euphrates River flowed through the city, giving it a constant source of water; and there were provisions in the city to last at least 20 years. So it was on this night, October 12, 539 B.C. in the banquet hall of the Babylonian Palace, while the city was surrounded but seemingly safe, that Belshazzar threw a great banquet.

Now, let’s continue our story: King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them.

While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his faither had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them.

The king and everyone else was intoxicated, and the banquet had become a drunken orgy. What was happening in this room was X-rated. It was vile. In his intoxicated state, the king’s inhibitions were lowered and he impulsively decided to commit an act of sacrilege against the God of Israel. Nebuchadnezzar had taken holy vessels from Jerusalem fifty years before, and they had remained in the royal museum or treasury. In his drunkenness and arrogance, Belshazzar made sacrilege against the holiness of God.

What is it about human society that spirals downward? There is a moral gravity that has characterized human history from the very beginning.

Think of Sodom. It became nothing but a place of moral decadence.Think of the generation of Noah. They tumbled downward until every thought of the intents of their heart was only evil all the time.Think of all the ancient empires, the ones we’re studying in the book of Daniel. They all collapsed inwardly.Do you know that Alexander the Great died, probably in a drunken orgy, in this very same palace in Babylon about 200 years after Belshazzar?Think of Rome. And think of America.

So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.

Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace.

To whom did this hand belong? It was just a hand, just fingers. It might have been the same hand that wrote the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai—almighty God. It might have been the same hand that wrote in the dirt in John 8—the Son of God. It might have been the hand of an angel or an archangel. But it must have appeared with such force and ominous drama that suddenly the room became as still as death.

The king watched the hand as it wrote. His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his legs became weak and his knees were knocking.

What this probably means is that he stood to see what was happening and his legs gave way and he fell to the floor.

The king summoned the enchanters, astrologers and diviners. Then he said to these wise men of Babylon, “Whoever reads this writing and tells me what it means will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around his neck, and he will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.”

Why the third highest? Nabonidus was the high king; Belshazzar was the de facto king. That left the third place, the place of Prime Minister, available to anyone who could interpret the writing.

Then all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or tell the king what it meant. So King Belshazzar became even more terrified and his face grew more pale. His nobles were baffled.

The queen, hearing the voices of the king and his nobles, came into the banquet hall. “May the king live forever!” she said.

Commentators and historians from the time of Josephus think this was the Queen Mother—the king’s mother or grandmother. She remembered a man who had served Nebuchadnezzar, the man Daniel. She said:

“Don’t be alarmed. Don’t look so pale! There is a man in your kingdom who had the spirit of the holy gods in him. In the time of your father he was found to have insight and intelligence and wisdom like that of the gods. Your father, king Nebuchadnezzar, appointed him chief of the magicians, enchanters, astrologers, and diviners. He did this because Daniel, whom the king called Belteshazzar, was found to have a keen mind and knowledge and understanding, and also the ability to interpret dreams, explain riddles and solve difficult problems. Call for Daniel, and he will tell you what the writing means.”

2. The Lord’s Servants Are Confident

Daniel was about 80 years old, perhaps 85 or so, and probably retired. He had no interest in this party. He had his own apartment where he still studied the Scriptures and prayed three times a day with the windows open toward Jerusalem. But he quickly came when summoned.

So Daniel was brought before the king, and the king said to him, “Are you Daniel, one of the exiles my father the king brought from Judah? …Now I have heard that you are able to give interpretations and to solve difficult problems. If you can read this writing and tell me what it means, you will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around your neck, and you will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.”

Then Daniel answered the king, “You may keep your gifts for yourself and give you rewards to someone else. Nevertheless, I will read the writing for the king and tell him what it means.”

Before reading and interpreting the words, Daniel reprimanded the king. He may have spoken with gracious courage, but he was blunt and plain-spoken. He spoke truth to power and truth to culture. He was uncompromising. And he condemned the king.

We need the quiet courage of Daniel today as we face our society. Listen to what he said. In front of all the government officials, he denounced and damned this profligate king. He said:

“Your Majesty, the Most High God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness and glory and splendor. Because of the high position he gave him, all the nations and peoples of every language dreaded and feared him. Those the king wanted to put to death, he put to death; those he wanted to spare, he spared; those he wanted to promote, he promoted; and those he wanted to humble, he humbled. But when his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne and stripped of his glory. He was driven away from people and given the mind of an animal; he lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like the ox; and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until he acknowledged that the Most High God is sovereign over all kingdoms of earth and sets over them anyone He wishes.”

“But you, Belshazzar, his son, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this. Instead you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from His temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the golds of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways.”

Daniel was blunt. But he was also calm and confident. That is, he is simply telling the truth and letting his words do the work. He isn’t out of control. He isn’t frantic. He is calm, but he is as blunt as an anvil.

Sometimes as we attack the sinful patterns of our day, we are so careful not to offend anyone that we understate the severity of the situation.

Daniel had the right balance: Blunt words but a calm spirit.

3. The Lord’s Agenda is Fixed and His Kingdom is Coming

Daniel said: The Most High God is sovereign over all kingdoms of earth and sets over them anyone He wishes.

This is the great theme of chapter 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of Daniel. We have five amazing stories—five of the greatest stories in the Bible—but they all end at the same place: The Most High is sovereign over the kings and kingdoms of the earth.

There are only three choices when it comes to history.

First, history is accidental. No one is in control of it. It is random, dog eat dog. A madman with a gun can change the entire course of history in a single moment, as we saw in Sarajevo at the beginning of World War I and in Dallas in 1963.

Second, history is in the hands of a handful of great men and women. When World War I ended, Woodrow Wilson went to Europe to negotiate with the Allies about what to do with the world. The First Lady entered the room and saw these great leaders on their knees. They were not praying. They had a map of the Middle East and they were carving it up into different nations. The Ottoman Empire was gone, so out of this came Iraq and Iran and Syria—and we’ve been reaping the consequences for well over 100 years.

Third, history is in the control of Almighty God. He permits evil to happen. He permits sin to occur. But behind the scenes He is in control of the process and is bringing everything to His pre-ordained and decreed conclusions. The message of the book of Daniel is that this is the only reasonable option. The Most High is sovereign over the kings and kingdoms of earth.

Belshazzar had finally filled himself up to the brim with sinfulness and sensuality and evil, and now God was going to deal with him in front of his entire government. Daniel said:

Therefore he sent the hand that wrote the inscription.

This is the inscription that was written:

MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN

“Here is what these words mean:

Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.

Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.

Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.

These were Aramaic words. The word Mene was a word that meant to number. The term Tekel meant to weigh. The word Parsin conveyed the idea of breaking in two.

Numbered, weighed, and broken in two.

Then at Belshazzar’s command, Daniel was clothed in purple, a good chain was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom.

That very night, Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain, and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom at the age of sixty-two.

Some historians believe the Persian solders entered the city through the sluice gates that allowed the Euphrates River to run through the heart of the city from North to South. But while Belshazzar and his leaders were insulting the God of Heaven, the Persians were massing at the northern and southern walls where the Euphrates flowed under the walls. Other Persian soldiers were digging a canal to divert the water of the Euphrates into a nearby lake. When the water dried up, the armies entered the city by going under the sluice gate, and the Persians took the city without a fight.

Some historians believe the Persians bribed the soldiers at the gates. Perhaps both things happened.

But as the aged Daniel returned to his apartment on October 12, 539 B.C., King Belshazzar was being cut down with a sword and the empire of Babylon ceased to exist.

Conclusion

Now, have you ever heard the phrase: “History repeats itself?” The book of Daniel is where God first begins to systematically lay would the pattern of world history. To seriously study the book of Daniel is to discover the future of our planet. In the future, the spirit of Babylon is going to be resurrected. The future king will be the Antichrist, and he will be second in the kingdom. Over him will be the devil. All the evils of Babylon will be revived, and this nation will once again come against the Jewish people—the Jewish state. But look at Revelation 18:

After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illumined by his splendor. With a mighty voice, he shouted, “Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great! She has become a dwelling for demons and a haunt for every impure spirit…. Then I heard another voice from heaven say: “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins or receive any of her plagues, for her sins are piled up to heaven.”

Shortly after this in the book of Revelation, in the very next chapter, the future Babylon—the empire of the Antichrist—falls as Jesus returns to earth in splendor.

History is not out of control. The empires and nations—including the USA—may come and go. Rulers will rise and fall. But what unfolds is not accidental.

It is judgmental. God is judging the nations. And it is incremental. One thing is progressively leading to another.

And it is instrumental. It is the instrument through which God is bringing about the consummation of the ages—His glorious kingdom.

So let me review my three main points.

The Lord’s Bible is True. His Servants are Confident. And His Agenda is Established; His kingdom is coming. And knowing all of that makes us very different people than everyone else.

Many years ago—over a half-century ago—the Lord used a man named Stuart Briscoe in a powerful way in my life. Stuart is still alive, but quite old. Last week when I was in Wisconsin someone gave him a copy of his memoirs, which I didn’t know about. I can’t put them down. On one occasion, Stuart said, in the days of the Soviet Union and the Cold War, he was invited to come to Poland to teach the Bible. It was a bit dangerous and intimidating because of the Communists, and it was bitterly cold.

One evening I was put in a ricket car and driven along poorly lit streets until they weren’t lit at all, and then they ceased to be streets, and we bumped and swerved along dark trails through dense pine forests. As I did not know the people who had picked me up, this was interesting to say the least. About an hour later, we arrived at a large, isolated building shrouded in darkness. We struggled through deep snow to a door that was opened in response to our knocking, and we were ushered into a large, sparsely furnished room that was packed—and I mean packed—with young people. I was told I was in a Bible school and the young people wanted me to speak to them. Duly bidden, I wasted no time talking to them through an interpreter about the Vine and the branches.

Partway into the talk, to which they were listening avidly and taking notes busily, the light suddenly went out. Being in the middle of the forest, we were plunged into the darkest of darkness. A loud, deep voice through the gloom said, “Keep speaking!” So I did. Just as I finished, the lights came on again. Everyone in the room was kneeling. During the talk they had spontaneously started to pray about what I was teaching. I was later told by one of their teachers, “They told me they had never heard about abiding in Christ, and they wanted to make sure before the Lord that they understood what Jesus meant when he told His disciples to abide in Him.[i]

I read that on the airplane and the picture stayed with me. It seems to me that you and I are Christ’s ambassadors in a hostile and very cold land. As we speak of Him, we feel like we’re being plunged into darkness, because this world is very dark right now. But the light comes on, I think we’ll be amazed at how many people have learned to abide in Christ because of our testimony and because of our teaching.

So remember: God’s Bible true. His servants are confidant. His agenda is established. His kingdom is coming.

[i] Stuart Briscoe: Flowing Streams (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008), 102-103.

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Spiritual Warfare

A Study of Acts 19 and the book of Ephesians

Introduction: It seems to me there is heightened interest in the subject of spiritual warfare in these days. The existence of an ultimate personality of evil – the devil – and a vast world of other evil personalities of different types and ranks in the unseen realm… all this seems to be reflected in the brutal, self-destructive, sinful nature engulfing our world. How else do we explain the headlong plunge into Marxism that seems to enchant our cultural elites despite its century-long record of horrendous failure? How do we explain the societal determination to massacre millions of innocent preborn babies? And when it comes to the atrocities of war, how do we explain the evil of groups like ISIS? And the sexual perversions that are dominating our culture, with many of our educators wanting to make sure our youngest children are acclimated to these debaucheries?

All these things go beyond the human capacity for evil, as great as it is. What we’re seeing today is supernatural evil, and the Bible’s primary laboratory for studying it is found in the ancient city of Ephesus—both in the account of Paul’s ministry in Ephesus and in the letter he later wrote to the Ephesians. 

Today we’re continuing our study called Unstoppable, the story of the book of Acts. As we saw last time, in Acts 19, Paul began preaching and evangelizing in the port city of Ephesus, the magnificent ruins of which you can still visit along the coast of Turkey. Paul began with twelve men and stayed in the city about three years. He faced Jewish opposition, yet planted a church, which evangelized the entire region after his departure. You can’t miss the parallel with Jesus’ ministry. Now, let’s pick up the story in Acts 19:8. As usual, Paul began his ministry by taking the Gospel into the Jewish quarter of the city.

8  Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God.  9  But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.  10  This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord.

This is the single longest period of stable ministry in the revealed life of the apostle Paul; and as a result, the church in Ephesus is the strongest model for a local church in the entire New Testament. The lecture hall of Tyrannus was a public auditorium, and some of the old texts say that Paul taught here every day from 11 A.M. to 4 P.M.  It may have been owned and operated by a local teacher named Tyrannus, or it could have been an auditorium named for him. Apparently, Paul rented this space. He, in effect, opened a seminary. I happen to believe every local church should have some form of a School of Tyrannus. Every church should have a way of providing Bible-college level teaching for believers at a time when it is convenient for them.

For the Ephesians, that was in the afternoons. According to Witherington, in the Greco-Roman world, the typical work or school day took advantage of the cooler morning hours, and usually ran from dawn until about 11 a.m. So the hall would have been free beginning at 11. And the same is true for Paul’s listeners. They would have worked or been in class all morning, but by about noon, they’d be free for the day. Paul lectured there in this auditorium like a philosopher or academic would have done, in this lecture hall.

Supernatural Power in Paul’s Ministry in the City of Ephesus (verses 11-12)

But now, I want to show you how Luke devotes the rest of the chapter to various situations involving spiritual warfare. First, in verses 11-12, God gave Paul the ability to perform miracles and to have authority over evil spirits. Look at verse 11:

11  God did extraordinary miracles through Paul,  12  so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.

This is truly amazing. If someone had a rag and it brushed against Paul or brought it up to him to touch in the School of Tyrannus, they could take it to their sick loved one, wipe their brow with it, and the person would be healed. There’s nothing quite like this elsewhere in the Bible. Why is this? Because of the nature of the city of Ephesus. As we’ll see, it was a city enthralled with magic and with the magic arts. It was a city full of invisible, evil forces, and so God gave Paul authority over them.

Paul’s success, especially over evil spirits, was so amazing that some Jewish exorcists tried to duplicate what he was doing. Before I read this, let me go ahead and give you the background, because this is essential for understanding not only the book of Acts but also the epistle to the Ephesians. Apart from the Bible, my primary source for studying this is a book entitled Power and Magic: The Concept of Power in Ephesians by Clinton E. Arnold and published by Baker Books. It was recommended to me years ago by my friend, Jim Weaver, who was actually the publisher for this book at Baker. He later became my publisher at Thomas Nelson for a series of projects. Power and Magic is a very important work on the background and contents of the book of Ephesians.

According to Arnold and others, the city of Ephesus was the capital of magic and the center of the occult for all of Asia Minor. It was a city filled with magic, with superstition, with evil spirits, and with all kinds of demonic forces. When I use the word magic, I don’t mean performances of illusion, but dark and demonic powers. Arnold defines magic as “the belief that supernatural powers…could be harnessed and used by appropriating the correct technique.” It was “a method of manipulating supernatural powers to accomplish certain tasks.”

Another authority wrote, “Of all the ancient Greco-Roman cities, Ephesus…was by far the most hospitable to magicians, sorcerers, and charlatans of all sorts.”

We know this, in part, from the discovery of the magical papyri, specifically the Ephesia Grammata (literally, the Ephesian Letters), which were associated with the goddess Artemis of Ephesus. I don’t have time to go into the nature of this goddess, but her temple in Ephesians was a wonder of the world and the entire city operated in her shadow. This created an atmosphere for the magical arts to thrive.

Now, in antiquity there were many books of magical spells and charms. The best known extant papyri about this are the Greek Magical Papyri, which had their roots in ancient Egypt. Papyri was the ancient Egyptian form of paper. The Greek Magical Papyri contained many magical spells and formulas and rituals. These books spread from there throughout the entire Greco-Roman world, and these magic formulas influenced every part of the daily life for most Ephesians and apparently led to the Ephesian Grammata and to many other books and scrolls filled with incantations and spells.

As we’ll also see a bit later in Acts 16, the new Christians in Ephesus burned all their magical books and paraphernalia; and as people came to Christ all around the Roman Empire, these people also burned their books of demonism and magic. As a result, the magical writings moved underground and were kept in secret. The magic arts became mysterious and cryptic and esoteric for hundreds of years. For 1800 years, magic was a dark underground movement that terrorized the world with fears of evil spirits.

In the 1800s, an Armenian man named Jean d’Anastasi traveled through the world locating and purchasing collections of ancient Egyptian papyri that had been discovered. He shipped these to Europe and sold them to places like the British Museum and the Louvre in Paris. These documents sat in these museums for another century before scholars really began to study and translate them. Somewhere around the year 1900, some of these materials were published. In the meantime, other discoveries were made. So we have a large body of ancient material now, which helps us understand the demonic hold that magic had over the world of Paul’s day, especially in Ephesus, the home of the temple of the goddess Artemis. 

I’ve read a few samples from the magical papyri. Remember, this is demonic, magical, and addressed to false gods, idols, and forces of evil. These samples are from The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, edited by Hans Dieter Betz and published by the University of Chicago Press in 1986.

For someone facing a great distress, this magical formula was written: “I call upon you, lord. Hear me, holy god who rests among the holy ones, at whose side the Glorious Ones stand continually. I call upon you, forefather, and I beseech you eternal one, eternal ruler of the sun’s rays, eternal ruler of the celestial orb, standing in the seven part region….”

And there follows a long series of syllables that are something akin to words like abracadabra – just made-up words of magic. 

Then the distressed one would say, “I call upon you, lord of the universe, in an hour of need; hear me, for my soul is distressed and I am perplexed and in want of everything…. Shield me against all excess of magical power of aerial demons and fate….”

And following that is another series of strange syllables. Now that was a relatively simple incantation, almost like a prayer offered to dark unseen powers. But other magic spells had elements that remind us of the movies. For example, another entry in the magical papyri contains a formula for invisibility. It says:

“Take fat or an eye of a night owl and a ball of dung rolled by a beetle and oil of an unripe olive and grind them all together until smooth, and smear your whole body with it and say to Helios: ‘I adjure you by your great name…’ [and there follows another long series of magical words. And if you do it correctly and the god agrees, you’ll be invisible in the presence of any man until sunset.]

Here is one more. To achieve a good memory, the spell said: “Write on a leaf of cinquefoil the following character, written with myrrh ink, and keep it in your mouth while you sleep.” And there followed a special symbol, something like our letter “l” in script form. 

Well, this pervasive atmosphere of magic and invisible forces engulfed Ephesus and it also seeped into the Jewish quarter. In fact, there were elements of Judaism everywhere that were caught up in matters of angels and demons and speculations as to the nature of the supernatural realm. Back in Acts 13, Paul had encountered a Jewish sorcerer named Bar-Jesus or Elymas who tried to turn away Paul’s first convert in Europe, and Paul struck him blind for a time and said, “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord” (Acts 13:10).

Well, here in Ephesus, there were other Jewish sorcerers and they were in for a shock. Let’s continue our reading of Acts 19, resuming at verse 13:

13  Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” 

14  Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this.  15  One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?”  16  Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.

This event marked a turning point for the Gospel in Ephesus. Verse 17 continues:

17  When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor.  18  Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done.  19  A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas.  20  In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.

These magic papyri and books of magic were very valuable. Some were old and rare. Apparently thousands of them were burned. Fifty thousand silver coins may have amounted to a million dollars or more in today’s terms.  

Another thing happened too. Since Ephesus was the worldwide center for the worship of the goddess Artemis, there were statues of her everywhere for sale, each one handmade by artisans. It was like a Disneyworld for Artemis. The Gospel came with such supernatural power during the three years of Paul’s ministry there that sales of these figurines dropped dramatically, and that’s what led to the riot described in the latter part of the chapter.

So what I’m wanting you to know from Acts 19 is the Lord equipped Paul with supernatural influence in Ephesus. It was a power ministry, because this city was the center for the magical arts as no other city he ever visited. Now, why is it so important to know that? Because it gives us some needed background when we study the letter Paul later wrote to the Ephesians.

Supernatural Power in Paul’s Message in the Book of Ephesians

There’s one final thing I want to say about this. When you read the book of Ephesians against this background it comes alive.

Earlier I mentioned the book, Power and Magic: The Concept of Power in Ephesians by Clinton E. Arnold. In its original form, this book was based on a doctoral dissertation presented to the  Faculty of Divinity at the University of Aberdeen in June 1986. Arnold points out that Ephesus was a beehive of demonic powers, as we’ve seen. When Paul later wrote to the Ephesians, he constantly referred to the infinite power of God, far above all other authorities and powers.  

Arnold says, “(There is) a substantially higher concentration of power terminology than in any other epistle attributed to Paul (the sole exception is 1 Corinthians—but it is nearly three times longer). When these occurrences of power terminology in a given book are considered in proportion to the size of that book, Ephesians is found to contain a greater percentage of power terminology than any other New Testament book…. The devil and various categories of ‘powers’ are mentioned sixteen times in the epistle…. Ephesians is also loaded with many concepts and theological constructs conveying the notion of divine power.”

This is why the book of Ephesians is ground zero when studying spiritual warfare from a biblical perspective. Much of the power terminology Paul uses would have been familiar to readers of the magic papyri. 

Let’s turn over to Ephesians and I’ll give you some examples.

Look at the way the book opens in Ephesians 1:3: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

The heavenly realms are the unseen realms, the supernatural realms, the realms occupied by the Eternal. We are blessed in these realms when we belong to Christ. We have nothing to fear.

Paul goes on to pray for us to understand God’s incomparably great power for us who believe.

That power is the same as the mighty strength  20  he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,  21  far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.  22  And God placed all things under his feet…

All the ranks and rivals in the spiritual world – all the forces good and bad – are under Christ. And His supreme ultimate cosmic power is available to help us. Our personal power is bestowed by Christ, who ascended far above all other spiritual forces in the seen and unseen realms, both now and forever.

Let’s go on to chapter 2: 

2  As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,  2  in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.

The air or the atmosphere was thought by people in the first century to be the realm of these invisible forces of evil, and they are ruled over by Satan, who is also working in the unsaved culture. Quoting Clinton again: “The air was regarded as the dwelling place of evil spirits in antiquity. This is well attested in the magical papyri.” Jews believed the air was the abode of demons. And from what Paul writes in Ephesians, there is truth to that.

But we have been delivered from all this. Clinton wrote, “(Paul) seeks to demonstrate to his readers that there are two possible realms in which people exist. One is the realm of death, which is controlled by an evil angelic prince, and the other is the realm of life, entered by faith in Christ Jesus. The believer has experienced a transfer from one realm to the other.”

In chapter 3, Paul says that the spirits in the unseen realm—both good and bad—learned about God’s triumphant plan by hearing it in the apostolic teaching. Verse 10 says:

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. 

And look at Paul’s prayer at the end of chapter 3:

14  For this reason I kneel before the Father,  15  from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 

In other words, every group in the human race and every group in the heavenly realm—both good and evil—is under the authority of Almighty God. Paul continues:

16  I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,  17  so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,  18  may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. 

Arnold points out that the phrase, “wide, long, high, and deep” would have been familiar to the magicians of Ephesus. These four dimensions are found in the papyri. It’s called dimensional terminology. In one of the magic spells, for example, the magician is instructed to call on the name of a certain god and request his power so that the secrets of the power of the god may be known. The incantation says: “Let there be opened for me the house of the all-powerful god Albalal, who is in this light! Let there be light, breadth, depth, length, height, brightness….”

The four dimensions refer to all space, everywhere, in every realm. They have to do with the vastness of power.

20  Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,  21  to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Going on to Ephesians 4:6, we read about the “one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” The next verse refers to the moment of Christ’s ascension, when “He ascended on high, (and) He took many captives.”

Ephesians 4:27 tells us not to give the devil a foothold.

In Ephesians 5:8 we’re told that we were once in darkness, but now we are children of light.

And, of course, the great climax of it all comes in Ephesians 6 when Paul says:

10  Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  11  Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.  12  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 

Arnold points out that the first century readers would have understood that rulers, authorities, powers, and forces were referring to various levels of invisible spirits that pervaded the unseen atmosphere around them. And we have the incredible instructions about the armor of the believer. I don’t have time to delve into all that, but my point is that when we read the book of Ephesians, we have to read it against the backdrop of the story of the establishment of the church in the city of Ephesus in Acts 19. And from the historical study and from the written letter, we gain incredible insights for knowing what it means to confront spiritual warfare.

Let me just end with these ensuing verses in Ephesians 6:

  13  Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.  14  Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,  15  and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.  16  In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  17  Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

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