Robert J. Morgan's Blog, page 18

Heaven’s Ahead!

Preface

When my wife, Katrina, was first diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, we were relatively young adults. Soon after her diagnosis—it might have been on the way home from the doctor’s office as we tried to make sense of it all—we decided we’d try to travel some, since it appeared doubtful we’d be able to do so in our later years. So periodically, she and I tried to take a trip somewhere.

That’s when I learned the value of having some good travel handbooks. Back in the days of bookstores, I would go to the travel section and buy several guidebooks, say, to Paris or to London. Our favorites were the ones by Rick Steves. We never went wrong when we took his advice.

Learning in advance is critical to having an enriching trip. The more I studied a place, the more I knew what I wanted to see—and the greater my anticipation.

Well, there’s still one country I’ve not visited and one city I’ve not seen. Today I came to church holding a travel guidebook, which tells me everything I need to know about the greatest destination in time and eternity. In a broad sense, we call this guidebook the Bible. It not only tells us about the Celestial City, but it tells us how to get there.

Introduction

The section of the Bible which really and truly seems like a very precise travel guide to the future is the book of Revelation. Now, we have to get over our intimidation of the book of Revelation. If I had an extra hour today, I could explain the book of Revelation to you. I think I could explain it even to elementary and certainly to middle school students. We don’t have time for that today, but I want to make three preliminary comments about this last and final book of the Bible—Revelation.

First, all of the books of Bible lead to the book of Revelation. If it weren’t for the book of Revelation, the Bible would end with the tiny book of Jude, which is a wonderful book about contending for the faith and keeping our doctrine with theological integrity. It warns us about false teachers. But it could never be an adequate ending for a book like the Bible. If our New Testament ended with Jude, we’d still be looking for some manuscript somewhere that gave the Bible the ending it deserves.

Jude would be a strange way to end the Bible. It would be incomplete. And so would the Bible’s description of Jesus Christ. If you don’t see the presentation of Jesus Christ in the book of Revelation, you cannot have a fulfilled or fulfilling view of Him. The Bible would be unfinished. It would be like a novel with the last chapters missing. All the other sixty-five books of the Bible lead to the book of Revelation.

Second, all of the pictures of Jesus in the Bible are completed in the book of Revelation. In 1796, the famous artist Gilbert Stuart painted a portrait of George Washington, but he never finished it. It’s known officially as the Athenaeum, but most people know it as the unfinished portrait. Without the book of Revelation, we would have an unfinished portrait of Jesus Christ.

It’s in the book of Revelation that we see Jesus as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, surrounded by twenty-four elders, four living creatures, and ten thousand times ten thousand of the heavenly host singing, “Worthy is the Lamb.” It’s here that we see Him as the rider on a white horse, descending to bring judgment on the world and eradicate evil in the universe once and for all. It’s here that we see Him as the high King of Heaven, who irradiates the city of God with the brilliance of His own burning luminescence.

Third, all the chapters of Revelation lead us to our eternal home. There are twenty-two chapters in Revelation. Nineteen of them are prophecies related to the end of the world, and the last two chapters open the doors of eternity and lets us see our Heavenly Home.

Let me give you a quick review of what Revelation says about the future. This book describes five great events that are still ahead of us. In my lifetime I’ve lived through the assassination of a president, a war in southeast Asia, 9/11, endless wars in the Middle East, a global pandemic, and the rise of a militant form of humanism and Marxism that threatens religious freedom in America.

But it’s nothing compared to what’s ahead. The book of Revelation is our travel guide to the future. Here’s a bird’s eye view.

1. Seven Years of Tribulation

First, there will be seven years of great tribulation, and if you want to know what will happen during the coming tribulation, begin reading at Revelation 6, and read to Revelation 18. There are thirteen chapters of apocalyptic events, culminating in the Battle of Armageddon. These cascading, unfolding disasters are described in Revelation 6 through 18.

2. The Return of Jesus Christ

Chapter 19 describes the return of Jesus Christ. The entire chapter—Revelation 19—describes in the Bible’s most vivid terminology the return of Christ to this planet, the Second Coming.

3. The Thousand-Year Reign of Christ

Third, when Jesus comes, He will establish a thousand year reign on earth, headquartered in earthly Jerusalem. You can read about this in Revelation 20:1-6. You can also open to almost any page in the Old Testament prophets like Isaiah and Ezekiel and read all about this millennial reign. That’s in the first half of Revelation, chapter 20.

4. The Great White Throne Judgment

The last half of chapter 20 describes the final event that will take place in the long, torturous history of the human race—the great white throne judgment. And that’s where I want to slow down and dip into the Scripture. Let’s begin with the final moment in the history of the physical universe as we know it. After the current age in which we are living; after the coming seven years of great tribulation; after the Battle of Armageddon; after the return of Jesus Christ; and after the Millennial reign of Christ – after all this we come to the terminal event in human history and on this earth and in this universe.

Look at Revelation 20:11:

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it.

This is the final climatic momentous event in human history. This event will slam the door on time and history. At the end of everything—after the current age, after the Tribulation, and after the Millennial Reign of Christ, suddenly a Great White Throne will appear.

Verse 11 goes on to say: The earth and the heavens fled from His presence and there was no place for them. What does this mean? What can it possibly mean when it says earth and heaven fled from God’s presence and there was no longer a place for them?

The apostle Peter described this in 2 Peter 3: By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly…. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare… That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat (2 Peter 3:7-12).

Psalm 102:25-26 says: In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded.

Jesus said: Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away (Luke 21.33).

I believe this fiery, cataclysmic termination of the universe occurs right here, Revelation 20:11: Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from His presence, and there was no place for them.

In other words, they no longer exist. At this point, the entire universe and the whole world will burst into a fireball that will envelop the entire cosmos, and everything—every planet, every star—everything will be vaporized.

For a terrible moment, the only visible thing in the entire physical realm will be an enormous throne of dazzling holiness and whiteness.

Verse 12: And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.

I do not believe the followers of the Lamb will be anywhere near this Great White Throne.  We will be in Heaven. We’ll be far away. These are the lost, those who neglected Jesus, those who delayed, those who trampled underfoot the precious blood of the Lamb. They will suddenly be standing fully exposed before this great throne. The books that are opened are the life stories of every single person. It’s every person’s biography from God’s perspective.

Another book was opened, which is the book of life.

This incredible book is described in many places in the Bible. It’s the listing of all those redeemed by Christ, washed in His blood, given eternal life through His name. If your name is in the Book of Life, you’re safe and secure from all alarm. You’re already in Heaven. You’re shielded from the wrath to come.

The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in them, and death and Hades gave up the dead there were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

To me, this is the most sobering and frightening paragraph in the Word of God. This is the final judgment—the Great White Throne Judgment, when there will be nothing between you and the holy judgment of God. You will have no attorney. You will have no advocate. You will have no recourse. You will have no appeal. Those without Christ will be lost forever.

But look at the next verse, what awaits those who do know the Lord Jesus Christ. This brings us to the two chapters—Revelation 21 and 22—which end the Bible with a tourist handbook of Heaven.

5. The New Heavens and the New Earth

John wrote: The I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.

The earth beneath us and the universe around us was vaporized in fire at the moment of the Great White Throne Judgment, and the lost plunged into the lake of fire. But instantly God will create a new heaven and a new earth. He is going to create a new universe. He will create new galaxies. He will create new stars and planets. And He will create a new planet earth.

There is a difference among Bible scholars at this point. Some believe the Lord will use the molten remains of the old universe to create the new, and others believe He will create the new universe ex nihilo, from nothing. But in either case there will be the new heavens and a new earth.

This will be the restored Garden of Eden, magnified to a trillionth degree. In fact, the original Garden of Eden was a miniature primitive replica of this place. Eden was a very miniature mock-up of the new heavens and the new earth.

This is what we call Heaven. We are talking literally about a literally new universe and a literally new planet earth. We are talking about new stars and planets and galaxies. We are talking about new mountains and rivers and valleys. It took me a long time to realize this, and I’m convinced the reason many Christians are ambivalent about Heaven is because they have no idea how to visualize it.

Well, please read this verse. This is not symbolic language. This is not a metaphor. This is not a figure of speech. This is not allegorical. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. John is actually quoting from the book of Isaiah here. This isn’t a new teaching. From the days of Eden, God’s people have had biblical reasons for expecting a very physical, literal, eternal Home.

The last phrase in this verse seems to bother people. Revelation 20:1 says, Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.

A lot of people say, “But I like the ocean!”

Please don’t worry about that. First, I have reasons to believe the new earth is going to be much larger than the current earth. I think it will be larger than Jupiter, which is the largest planet in our solar system. If you opened Jupiter up like a candy jar, you could pour 1300 planets the size of earth inside of it. It’s my opinion that the new earth will be far larger than Jupiter. And I’m sure there will be vast bodies of water on earth.

I’ll tell you something. I love water features in a landscape. I installed several water fountains and bubbling brooks around my house. One little boy came over last year and he said, “Mister, you sure like water features.” Well, I do. I remember when I first fell in love with features when I was a little boy in 1960. It’s funny how some things stick in your mind. Well, the Lord loves water features too—from vast waterfalls to the dew that glistens in the sunlight.

Right now on planet earth, 70 percent of the surface of the globe is a watery wasteland that cannot be inhabited. Remember, the apostle John wrote these words while marooned on a prison island in the Aegean Sea. Watery wastelands of ocean separated him from his loved ones.

I’m sure there will be fabulous water features on the new earth, and there will be large bodies of water. But I believe much more of the landmass will be inhabitable.

Now, let’s go on to verse 2: I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

I want to make this as clear as I can, so let me give you two statements about this.

First, the new heavens and the new earth do not yet exist. They are in the future. The Lord will create the new improved universe and the new improved earth after history has finished its course.

Second, the great capital city of God known as New Jerusalem does exist now. This vast city is God’s heavenly dwelling place. It exists now in an unseen realm. It may be much closer to us than we know, but we can’t see it. It’s in a realm that is invisible to our eyes. But it exists. The Bible talks about it in several places.

In the book of Hebrews, the Lord begins dropping some big clues and inklings to prepare us for this great city.

Hebrews 11:9-10 says: By faith, (Abraham) made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.Hebrews 11:16 says of the heroes of the Old Testament: They were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.Hebrew 12:22-23 says: But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect.Hebrews 13:14 says: For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

Twenty-one pages later, we come to the book of Revelation, and fifteen times in Revelation 21 and 22, New Jerusalem is called a city.

What is a city? It is a geographical location where large numbers of people live in an organized way. Every city that I know has a vibrant city life. It has cultural opportunities. It has neighborhoods having their own personalities. It has people coming and going. It has trade and commerce and government. Right now the city of New Jerusalem exists.

I believe this city exists right now, and that is where my dad and mom are. That’s where Katrina is. That’s where some of your loved ones are. They’re already in this city, which is lavishly described for us here in these two chapters. And one day, God will melt down the universe and re-create the starry heavens and the earth. And then this pre-existing great city of New Jerusalem will descend like a gigantic spaceship.

As soon as God has prepared the New Earth—full of flowers and colors and mountains and valleys and incredible landscapes—the great city of New Jerusalem will descend from Heaven, its brilliant foundations ready to clamp into its preformed 1,400-square-feet perimeter on the New Earth.

At this moment, the seen and the unseen realms will merge. Ephesians 1:9-10 say: “And he made known to us the mystery of His will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the time will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in Heaven and on Earth together under one head, even Christ” (1984 NIV).

Currently there are two realms—the visible and the invisible, the physical and the spiritual. As New Jerusalem descends to New Earth, these two realms will merge into one.

The next verse—Revelation 21:3—says: And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”

The next verse, Revelation 21:4 says: He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death nor mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away.

I’ll have to leave it to you to study the physical description of this city. As you read through Revelation 21 and 22, you see the city as it descends from the sky, as it clamps into its preformed foundational infrastructure on the new earth. The foundations, walls, gates, and size of the city is described. Then you go inside and see what it looks like. The Lord describes its light and glistening glory. It tells us about the throne in the center of the city, and of the river that flows from the throne to water the earth.

And for those who know Christ, we’ll have eternal access to the new heavens and the new earth.

Conclusion

The traveler in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, whose name was Christian, came to a point in his journey when tall mountains stretched before him. At one of the vantage points on a hill named Clear, an old shepherd offered to let him look through his telescope. Christian’s hand was shaking, but as he looked through the lens he thought he saw something like a gate and also some of the glory of the Celestial City in the distance. He burst into song and continued his journey with courage.

And Lord, haste the day

when our faith shall be sight,

the cloud be rolled back like a scroll;

the trump shall resound

and the Lord shall descend.

Even so, it is well with our soul.

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Taking Jesus At His Word

Scripture Reading: John 4:43-54:

After two days He left for Galilee. (Now Jesus Himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country). When He arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed Him. They had seen all that He had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there.

Once more He visited Cana in Galilee, where He had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to Him and begged Him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.

“Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”

The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

“Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.”

The man took Jesus at His word and departed. While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”

Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And so he and his whole household believed.

This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.

Learning About the Story

To really interpret this story, we have to check in with John’s timeline and follow the story that’s He’s telling. So let’s go back to John 2:1: On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee…

We don’t know the exact location of Cana; that’s been lost to history. But we believe it was probably a village perhaps twenty miles from Capernaum, which was Jesus’ adopted hometown during His ministry. So here we see Him in Cana, and look at John 2:11:

What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which He revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in Him.

Why did they believe in Him? Because they had seen Him perform a miracle, one that a normal human could not possibly have done. He turned the water into wine. At this point, their faith was largely based on what they had seen Him do.

Now look at the next couple of verses—John 2:12-13: After this He went down to Capernaum with His mother and brothers and His disciples. There they stayed for a few days. When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

The first thing He did in Jerusalem was to cleanse the temple and throw out the moneychangers. Look what the Jewish leaders said in verse 18: The Jews then responded to Him: “What sign can you show us to prove Your authority to do this?”

Well, Jesus did do some miracles and signs in Jerusalem. Look at verse 23: Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in His name.

Why did they believe? They were convinced by His miracles. These were primarily Galileans who had come down to Jerusalem for the Passover.

In chapter 3, Jesus has His nocturnal meeting with Nicodemus, and then look at verse 22: After this, Jesus and His disciples went out into the Judean countryside…

After spending some time in the Judean countryside near the Jordan River, they started for home. But instead of taking the Jordan Valley route, they returned by way of Samaria. In chapter 4, Jesus and His disciples meet the Samaritan woman, as we heard last week during student takeover Sunday.

Now, when you study the Bible, you want to notice what is there. But you also want to notice what is not there. What is missing from Samaria? What is absent? It’s like Sherlock Holmes dog that didn’t bark.

There is no indication Jesus performed any miracles, signs, or wonders. And yet, look at verse 40: So when the Samaritans came to Him, they urged Him to stay with them, and He stayed two days. And because of His words many more became believers.

Notice that! Why did the Samaritans believe? Not because of His works, but because of His words. Not because they saw miracles, but because they listened to His teachings. They believed Him for who He was and for what He said, not just for what they saw. Now let’s go back to our original text in verse 43:

After two days He left for Galilee.

And notice this strange parenthetical statement. It literally is in parenthesis in my version of the Bible in John 4:44:

(Now Jesus Himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country).

Why did John add that sentence? The Samaritans honored Jesus by believing Him because of His teaching and because of His words to them. But the Galileans were simply viewing Him as a miracle-worker. The Samaritans accepted Him for His preaching, but in Galilee they were obsessed with His miracles. John is contrasting the faith of the Samaritans with the faith of the Galileans.

This theme is going to unfold as we progress into the story. Look at verse 45: When He arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed Him.

Why? Because…

They had seen all that He had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there.

They had seen His wonders, His miracles.

I believe Jesus was very aware of this dichotomy, and He was not happy about it. The Galileans were only interested in His miracles, not in His message. Their faith was based on what they had seen, not on who He was or what He was saying. So now He is going to give them a lesson about it. This is very subtle, but I don’t want you to miss it.

Once more He visited Cana in Galilee, where He had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to Him and begged Him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.

“Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”

Do you see why Jesus responded this way? I don’t believe He was speaking just to the man. He said, “Unless you people….” He was speaking to all the bystanders who were ready to hike 20 miles with Him to see another miracle.

The moment this father asked Jesus to come and heal his son, everyone’s pulse sped up and they said, “Grab your friends and let’s go see this!” Jesus turned and said to them, in effect, “I wish you people would believe Me for who I am and what I am saying. All you want is another miracle. You have a miracle-based faith.”

The Samaritans have believed without miracles. There’s no evidence of Jesus having done a single miracle in Samaria, apart from His divine insight into the Samaritan woman’s past. Yet they believed in Him for who He was and what He said. Back in His own country, people weren’t as interested in His message or His person. They just wanted to see the wonders He performed.

Jesus is weary of that. So He turned the tables. Look at verses 49-50: The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

“Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.”

Let me translate that for you: “Go back home. I have just healed your son. He’s twenty miles away, and you can’t see him. But I’ve just sent My power shooting through the air, and at this very moment he is jumping out of bed as good as new.”

This took place precisely at one o’clock in the afternoon. At that very instant the words of Jesus Christ flew with the speed of light across the hills of Galilee, and suddenly at the very same instant, the boy’s fever dropped from 105 to 104 to 103 to 102 to 101 to 100 to normal. At that very moment, the boy’s strength came back and he jumped out of bed as though he had never been sick. The man could not see it. He could not know it by visual evidence. He could not see the miracle.

But Jesus said, “Go back home. Your son is already better. I’ve just healed him by telepathy.”

Look at what it says:

The man took Jesus at His word and departed. While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”

Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And so he and his whole household believed. This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.

John uses the word “sign” meaning that the miracle itself points to greater truths for us to learn. So put all this together. What is John teaching us? Well, let me sum it up for you by taking you to the climax of the Gospel of John in chapter 20. Look at John 20:24ff:

Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”

A week later His disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe.”

Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

Then Jesus told Him, “Because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

There is the lesson.

And I want to unpack this lesson with three statements of application.

Living Out the Story

First, Our Faith is Based on Who Jesus Is and What He says, Not Simply What He Does. Honestly, sometimes the Lord Jesus don’t do what we expected Him to do. We don’t always understand, and God doesn’t always answer our prayers with instant gratification. I keep a prayer list that goes back now for many years. Some of my prayer items are answered the very next day. Others I’ve been praying about for years and they are still outstanding. But I often think of the great hymn by Charles Wesley, seldom sung now. It says:

Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees

And trusts in God alone.

Laughs at life’s impossibilities

And cries it shall be done.

Job prayed, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”

I’ve been reading a book about the global persecution of Christians in the world, and it told the story of a man named Negasi, who lived in Southern Ethiopia, where he served as a pastor in a heavily Islamic area. One day, a group of local Muslims grabbed him and demanded he renounce his faith. They gave him one week, and at the end of the week they were back. One of them held a sword over Nagasi’s neck. Do you know what he said to them:

“If I die, my son will be a preacher. If you scrape my flesh, whoever touches it will become a Christian. And at the place where I die, a church will be built.”

The crowd let him go. This was a man who didn’t have a miracle up his sleeve. He just knew and trusted Jesus. That was his Job moment—though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.

Another great hymn says:

Oh, for a faith that will not shrink,

Though pressed by many a foe,

That will not tremble on the brink

Of any earthly woe!

And that brings me to the next lesson:

Second, Faith is Taking Jesus at His Word.

That is the definition of faith right from the text of the Bible itself—the man took Jesus at His Word. In my library I have some books by B.B. Warfield, who was one of America’s most famous theologians and who taught at Princeton Seminary until his death in 1921. Most people who read his books don’t know his story. B.B. Warfield married a young woman named Annie, and they traveled to Germany for their honeymoon. If a freak electrical storm, Annie was struck by lightning and suffered paralysis. From her honeymoon until she died in 1915, Annie battled paralysis, and Warfield cared for her. He seldom left home for more than two hours at a time.

But he had a verse of Scripture that you may very well know: Romans 8:28—for we know that all things work for the good of those who love God and for those who are called according to His purpose.

And if you got to B.B. Warfield’s extensive writings, here is what he said about that verse:

The fundamental thought is the universal government of God. All that comes to you is under His controlling hand. The secondary thought is the favor of God to those that love Him. If He governs all, then nothing but good can befall those to whom He would do good…. Though we are too weak to help ourselves and too blind to ask for what we need, and can only groan in unformed longings, He is the author in us of these very longings…and He will so govern all things that we shall reap only good from all that befalls us.

The most basic, most fundamental, most elementary thing I have ever learned in my Christian life is to find a promise from God whenever I’m in panic or pain, and to take Jesus Christ at His Word.

Third, Faith is the Spiritual Commodity that Sustains Us Between the Time the Promise is Given and the Time it is Fulfilled.

Here is the question. How do we keep up our spirits and maintain our morale during tough times? How do we persevere with a smile and with joy in our hearts? There is only one way—taking Jesus at His Word.

I have a great friend who is a retired Southern Baptist pastor named Richard Hipps. Years ago, he and his wife were missionaries to Brazil, but their youngest daughter died at the age of four. They decided to stay in the United States and to serve as pastor of a church. Richard poured himself into that work until he was exhausted, and he fell into a deep period of depression and anxiety. He began having panic attacks. At first he tried to keep it secret, but finally he told his wife Patricia and the leaders of his church, who began praying for him.

This went on for about a year, and one day he got in his car to go to an associational meeting. He pulled off Interstate 40 and paused at the yield sign to turn right. In his peripheral vision, he saw a man standing at the intersection holding a sign. Something about it nagged at him, and he turned around and drove back to where the man was standing.

As Richard approached, he was surprised to see that nothing was written on the man’s sign. Richard reached through the window to give the man some money, but the man gently took his arm and pushed it back into the car window. “I do not need your money, but thank you. I am here to tell you one thing. You are going to be better. The depressions will soon pass. So do not worry. OK?” And the man smiled at him.

Richard was so stunned he could hardly say, “OK.” He drove off, asking himself, “What just happened.” He turned the car around to talk to the man again, but no one was there. Within the space of two minutes the man had vanished.

Richard didn’t go on to the associational meeting. He went back to his office, saying, “Thank You, thank You. Thank You for letting me know that I will be better soon. Thank You for sending me this angel! You are so good. Thank You, thank You, thank You.”

God doesn’t usually send us angels, but He gives us the same message in the Bible. In the Gospels Jesus said:

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes. Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?Take courage, it is I. Don’t be afraid.Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.Peace I leave with you; My peace I give unto you—not as the world gives give I unto you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.For we know that all things work together for good to those who love the Lord and who are called according to His purpose.

Faith is believing in Jesus because of who He is and what He says.

Faith is taking Him at His Word.

And faith is the spiritual commodity that sustains us between the time the promise is given and the time it is fulfilled.

Faith—is the victory!

The post Taking Jesus At His Word appeared first on RobertJMorgan.com.

When Jesus Cleansed The Temple

Becoming a Better Person Through and Through

A Study of John 2:13-25

There’s a YouTube Channel called “What’s Inside?” in which a dad and his son spend every weekend smashing things open to see what’s inside them. It started with a second-grade science project. One episode was devoted to what’s inside a giant wasps’ nest. What’s inside an oyster? What’s inside a computer? What’s inside a punching bag? What’s inside a golf ball? This father and son team have over 7 million subscribers because people want to know what’s inside of things.

Well, what is inside of you? What’s inside of you and me? That’s a hard question. We can often figure out what’s inside of us physically, but morally and emotionally and spiritually and psychologically?

Well, Jesus knows—and He can help us with the stuff within us that isn’t so good. And that’s the theme of today’s message. Let’s continue our study of the Gospel of John today by reading the paragraph we’re coming to in our pulpit studies—John 2:12-14:

When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts He found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So He made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple, both sheep and cattle; He scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves He said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house will consume Me.”

The Jews then responded to Him, “What sign can You show us to prove Your authority to do all this?”

Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and You are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple He had spoken of was His body. After He was raised from the dead, His disciples recalled what He had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

Now while He was in Jerusalem at the Passover festival, many people saw the signs He was performing and believed in His name. But Jesus would not entrust Himself to them, for He knew all people. He did not need any testimony about mankind, for He knew what was in each person

1. Jesus Knows What Is In You

Notice that final dramatic phrase. Jesus knows what is in each person. Now, that requires omniscience, because human beings are fearfully and wonderfully made. We are complicated. I’m glad Jesus knows what is in each person, because I really don’t know all that is right or wrong within me. Humans are very complicated creatures, and we’re hard to figure out, and a lot of it has to do with our fallen and sinful nature.

Let me show you some verses about it.

Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?”Jesus said in Mark 7: “For from within, out of the heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.”Ecclesiastes 9:3 says: “The heart of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live.”Psalm 51:5 says: “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.”

That last verse is rather shocking. We were sinful even before we were born. Inside our mother’s wombs, we had a sinful nature that we inherited from Adam. That’s why you have to teach your children good habits, and why the bad ones spring up naturally.

Only Jesus Christ was perfectly righteous in His mother’s womb. There was something mysterious and wonderful about the virgin conception and birth of Christ that protected him from the blood disease of sin. That’s why He could die for us, as our substitutes, and offer us His righteousness in return. So when we come to Jesus Christ we are saved from the penalty of our sins, but we still struggle with the temptations and we are subject to failure.

With that understanding, let me ask you a question. If you ask the Lord Jesus Christ to help you with one area of your life, to improve, to grow, to overcome and to be victorious, what would it be? In other words, do you have a habit that needs to be expunged from your life? Or a habit you need to change or to begin? I thought so. I have a few areas in my life I’m working on too, believe me. Let’s take this seriously today. I wonder if you would just pause right now and pray. Let’s pray together in unison from Psalm 139:

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

2. He Is Zealous to Cleanse Your Life of All That’s Harmful

And that’s exactly what Jesus Christ did at the temple. The first lesson today is that Jesus knows what is in us. The second lesson is that He is proactive in helping us improve, and that brings us to this famous story of His cleansing the temple.

We have one interpretative challenge in this story. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the Gospel writers place this story at the end of our Lord’s ministry, during the passion week. John places it at the beginning of His Gospel. There are two possibilities about this. Perhaps Jesus did this twice, once at the beginning of His ministry and once at the end. The other possibility is that John knew very well that this activity happened at the end of our Lord’s ministry, but John wasn’t giving us a strictly chronological account of the life of Christ. He was writing thematically and He wanted to show from the very beginning the zeal and passion and purity of our Lord the Messiah.

In my own opinion, I believe Jesus did this both at the beginning of His ministry as we read here in John’s Gospel, and at the end as we read in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It seems reasonable to me that the ministry of Jesus would come full circle in this way. And here is one reason for that. Look at verse 13: When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

Have you ever heard that the ministry of Jesus lasted only about three years? How do we know that? The Gospel of Luke tells us Jesus began His ministry when He was about thirty years old. But none of the Gospels tell us how old He was when He was crucified and resurrected, and none of them tell us how long His ministry lasted.

But John’s Gospel is built around three Passovers, the Jewish festival which occurred once a year, in the Springtime. The first Passover is recorded here in this chapter. The second Passover is mentioned in chapter 6. And the third is when He came to Jerusalem in John 12 at the beginning of Passion week. So based on John’s three Passovers, we estimate the duration of our Lord’s ministry at about three years.

The passage goes on to say: When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts He found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money.

From everything I can read about this, it seems the problem wasn’t what was happening, but where and how it was happening. So let me give you a little background. The Passover was the Jewish festival that commemorated the slaying of the lamb in Exodus 12, and it was a Jewish national holiday. Every family went to Jerusalem if they possibly could, and each family needed a lamb to offer for sins. Some didn’t raise sheep, and others had trouble transporting animals over the miles. The same was true for the other animals that made up part of the Jewish sacrificial system. So there was an allowance made permitting people to purchase a lamb or a sacrificial animal close to the temple. Furthermore, each person had to pay a coin to enter the temple, and most of the people had Roman coinage. So the moneychangers would change it into the Hebrew shekel.

What infuriated Jesus is apparently two things. First, all this activity had been brought right into the temple courts, ruining the reverence and sense of awe and the holiness of the setting. The presence of God in His temple deserved reverence and awe and a sense of holiness. Instead when you ascended from the staircase onto the Temple Mount, all you saw was bedlam and arguments and livestock and moneychangers. They should not have been up there in the courts of the temple. From what I can learn from Jewish sources, the money-centered Jewish high priest, Caiaphas, had only recently allowed it because he got a cut of everything.

Second, these merchants and moneychangers were gouging the people and cheating the people. They were overcharging. They weren’t interested in ministry to people but in making money. And so Jesus found some cords, made a small whip, drove the animals away and upset the tables of the moneychangers. He wanted to disrupt these bad habits.

In fact, He was zealous. When the disciples saw the look in His eyes and the tone of His voice and the force of His personality, they remembered a verse from the Old Testament that said, “The zeal for Your house has eaten me up! It consumes me!”

And in the same way the Lord zealously wants to disrupt the bad habits in our lives and cleanse us and help us. The Bible says that in the New Testament era, the very bodies of Christians are temples of the Holy Spirit, who lives within us. If you know Christ as Savior, your body is His temple—the dwelling place of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

So imagine the Lord Jesus taking some cords, making a small whip, and coming after your bad habit, trying to drive it out of your life. I believe He is zealous about it.

Recently I’ve become fascinated by the way the book of 1 Thessalonians ends. Many of the New Testament epistles end with a very rich and liturgical benediction, and these are some of the most wonderful blessings in the Bible. Look at 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24: “May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and He will do it.”

The word “sanctify” is similar in concept to the word “cleanse” in John 2. And God wants to sanctify you through and through. He wants our spirit, soul, and body to be blameless at the coming of Christ.

Now, think of that habit or trait or tendency in your life. How can you cooperate with the Lord Jesus Christ as He seeks to sanctify you through and through, to drive out what doesn’t belong in you. Well, you have be zealous, like Jesus was. And I want to use the word “zeal” as an acronym for the steps we have to take.

The Z stands for Zero in on the Change You Need to Make. I don’t know about you, but I’m generally aware of patterns in my life that are going bad. In fact, I have a small list right now in my prayer journal of things I need to change and improve.

It’s true that we can be self-deceived and live in denial. A lot of people are walking around with a bitter spirit and they’re blaming other people for their bad attitude. But earlier when I asked you to think of a habit in your life that needed the Jesus-in-the-temple treatment, you probably thought of something. If you’re not sure what it is, ask your husband or wife! But zero in on that habit and take it seriously.

The E stands for Educate Yourself. We do that first of all by learning everything the Bible has to say about that subject. For years I struggled with melancholy. Katrina just wouldn’t know what to do with me when I got into a despondent mood. Finally I realized that’s not the way the Lord wanted me to live, and I got a concordance and looked up every occurrence in the Bible of the words “joy” and “rejoicing.” I typed them all up and tried to systemize them. I studied them in their contexts and looked up cross-references. By the time I was done, I had so many verses that I found it impossible to organize them. I never preached a series of sermons on joy because I was overwhelmed with the scriptural data, but that personal study was the thing that turned the corner on my habit of being down in the dumps.

Whatever issue you’re struggling with, the Bible probably has a significant number of verses on that. Do a very personal study and educate yourself with what God has to say about the issue you’re struggling with.

This is an amazing aspect of the Bible. This is why I’m a lifelong student of Scripture. No matter what I’m struggling with – and there could be ten thousand issues – somehow there is a cross-section of Bible verses that speak to that aspect of my life. If your issues are related to sexual habits, there are entire passages in the Bible that will inform and help you. Whatever it is!

And then, we should read what others have to say—especially solid Christian writers. Look up material. If you have a struggle with your temper, for example, or with some particular addiction, there’s a lot of research that can help you. After Katrina passed away, I realized I’d let myself become a little bit debilitated in the task of caregiving, and I bought a book having to do with improving your health when you’re at my age. That book has been very helpful and motivational. So educate yourself in the area in which you need to improve.

The “A” stands for Ask for Help. First of all, ask help from God by making this area of your life a matter of prayer. Learn to confess your sins and to ask God’s help in specific areas of your life. And then ask help from others. Ask a good friend to stand with you so you can have an ally. You might need a support group or LifeGroup. You might need counseling from someone who is trustworthy and wise. You may need medical help or a treatment program. You’ve got to be honest and get the help you need.

The “L” stands for Let Nothing Stop You. I want to show you a verse that I’ve put to use a hundred times – Proverbs 24:16: “…for though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again.” In other words, no matter how many times a godly person falls, they keep getting back up. They aren’t going to stay down there in the ditch feeling sorry for themselves. They going to get up and try again. So if you mess up, don’t let that stop you. Confess your failure and keep fighting that habit, even if it takes years.

3. He Died and Rose Again to Accomplish It

There’s one other thing I want you to notice. Even with our best efforts, we cannot be victorious without the power of our Lord’s resurrection. Let’s go back and look at this passage again:

The Jews then responded to Him, “What sign can You show us to prove Your authority to do all this?”

Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and You are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple He had spoken of was His body. After He was raised from the dead, His disciples recalled what He had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

Our sinful habits would have pulled us down to Hell if Jesus had not risen up to Heaven. But His resurrection power broke the back of sin and Satan, and our victory is found in Jesus. Let me show you one last passage having to do with this.

Ephesians 1:18-21 says: I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in His holy people, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength He exerted when He raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.

The temple of your life can be cleansed and sanctified. You can improve and grow better and stronger each day and each decade. You just have to remember these three things:

Jesus knows what is in you.

He is zealous to cleanse your life of all that’s harmful.

He died and rose again to accomplish it.

Benediction

“May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and He will do it.”

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Just Who Do You Think You Are?

A Study of John 1:19-42

In our study of the Gospel of John, we’re coming today to chapter 1, verse 19, which is the beginning of the body or the main story of the content, after the marvelous prologue that we looked at last week. Let’s read this section, beginning with John 1:19. I want to make one note at the beginning. The Gospel of John was written by the apostle John, but he opens his book by talking about another man named John, who was John the Baptist. So there are two Johns here, and in this passage the apostle John is talking about John the Baptist:

Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.”

They asked Him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”

He said, “I am not.”

“Are you the Prophet?”

He answered, “No.”

Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord.’”

Now the Pharisees who had been sent questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

“I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”

All this happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”

Then John gave this testimony, “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”

The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”

When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw hem following and asked, “What do you want?”

They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”

“Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”

So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon. Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus.

Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John.  You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).

Introduction

Just who do you think you are? Have you ever asked yourself that? Are you grappling with these existential issues of self-identity, trying to figure yourself out. I had the best dad in the world, but he didn’t always understand me when I was teenager. One day he asked what was wrong with me, and I told him I was just trying to figure out who I was. He scoffed at that. He didn’t understand, and on that occasion I just didn’t get any help.

In retrospect, he might have brought me to this passage, which deals with this very issue using three illustrations:

Who are you, John?Who are you, Jesus?Who are you, Peter?

And if we can figure out who they are, we can figure out who we are. So let’s have a stab at it.

Who Are You, John?

Look at verse 19 again: Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was.

Just who do you think you are?

Most of us Bible students have underestimated the sensational nature of John’s ministry. Let me try to describe it. After the prophet Malachi, there had been no great anointed preacher in Israel for 400 years. The Hebrew text of the Bible stopped. Centuries passed. And suddenly news spread that an Old Testament-like figure was preaching with tremendous power in the Jordan Valley. He looked like an Old Testament prophet. He sounded like one. God was speaking to them again. This was a great awakening and word spread mouth to mouth. Crowds began gathering by the thousands from all over Israel and from all over the Mediterranean world. Later the apostle Paul would discover that people in far off places knew about John’s ministry even though they had not heard Jesus. His preaching struck Judah like an earthquake.

And so the Jewish high priest and the Jewish officials in Jerusalem sent a delegation down the Jericho Road, across the Jordan River, and the managed to press through the crowds to get to this eccentric evangelist, and they had one question.

Just who do you think you are?

Verse 20 says: He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.”

There was undoubtedly a lot of speculation that John the Baptist was the long-awaiting Messiah, but he said, “I am not. That’s not who I am.”

Then asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”

There was a tradition based on some Old Testament verses that the prophet Elijah, who had been taken to Heaven in chariots of fire, would return to announce the coming of the Messiah, but John said, “Nope. That’s not who I am.”

“Are you the Prophet?”

Moses had predicted that one day a great prophet would arise, referring to the Messiah.

He answered, “No.”

Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us answer to take back to those who set us. What do you say about yourself.”

I don’t have time to parse John’s answer, but in essence John simply said, “I am coming before the one, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”

My identity is bound up in the one, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.

That’s a pretty good way of answering the question: “Who am I?”

You will never find yourself until you find Him. And you won’t find your identity until you find the one, Jesus, the straps of whose sandals you and I are not worthy to untie.

Who Are You, Jesus?

So if we can’t find out who we are until we find out who He is, then who is He? And here we have the single most remarkable introduction of a notable person ever recorded in human history.

Verse 29 says: The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

John the Baptist could have said:

Look, the Messiah Israel has awaited for 2000 years!Look, the Seed of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David!Look, the Ruler of the kings of the Earth!Look, the Eternal God made Flesh!Look, the Savior of the whole World!

All those things would have been true. But under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, John the Baptist reached out and grabbed hold of the Scarlet Strand that ties together the entire Scripture, Genesis to Revelation. It’s what J. Sidlow Baxter calls The Master Theme of the Bible.

And I’ll you—it’s very difficult for critics of the Bible to explain the unity and progression of this master theme of Scripture.

Abel

It begins in the early chapters of Genesis, when God slays an animal to clothe Adam and Eve, and then He asks their children, Cain and Abel, to bring an acceptable offering. Abel brings a lamb, the finest of the firstborn lambs his flock. This proves to be an acceptable sacrifice.

Abraham

In Genesis 22, two thousand years before the birth of Christ, Abraham and his son Isaac go to the top of a mountain that would become Jerusalem, and Isaac asks, “Where is the sacrifice?” And Abraham said, “God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering.”  And he said, “On this mountain—the mountain of the Lord—it will be provided.”

The Exodus

Generations pass, and the descendants of Abraham and Isaac are enslaved in Egypt until God sends catastrophic plagues against the land, including the death of all the firstborn. But the families of Israel were told to each take a lamb, slaughter it, and paint the doorframes of their houses with the blood, and because of the blood of the Passover lambs, the Israelites would be shielded from death.

The Day of Atonement

The Israelites fled Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, and camped at Mount Sinai, where God established an annual holy day known as the Day of Atonement, during which a lamb would be slaughtered as an emblem of the shedding of blood necessary for the forgiveness of sins. The lamb was to be without fault or blemish—as perfect as conceivable.

Isaiah

From that point, century after century, the priests of Israel offered the lambs of God on the temple altars. And then, 700 years before Christ, the prophet Isaiah added an essential piece of information, a truly shocking revelation in the progressive unfolding of this doctrine. Isaiah revealed that the lamb of God was a person. Isaiah 53 says:

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

What Abel, Abraham, the Israelites of the Passover, and the priests of the atonement had been pre-enacting for thousands of years was part of a concatenated, progressive revelation about a single person who was to come.

John the Baptist

That’s why when Jesus walked down the Jordan Valley to the site of John’s great revival, John saw Him and said, “This is the One who fulfills the scarlet strand—this is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

The Ethiopian

But that’s not the end of the scarlet strand. Look at Acts 8, the story of the Ethiopian. This man, a high government official from North Africa, was returning home from visiting Jerusalem in the days of the apostles. Verses 28 and following say: …on his way home (he) was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, “Go to the chariot and stay near it.” Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.

“How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth?”

The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

The Lamb of God didn’t simply die for an individual like Abel.

He didn’t simply die for a family like Abraham’s.

He didn’t simply die for a nation like Israel.

He died for the people of Ethiopia—for all the world.

Peter

Now look at how Peter remembered that day by the Jordan River in 1 Peter 1:18: For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver and gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.

Revelation

And then we come to the book of Revelation, where Jesus is introduced to us during a vast worship service in Heaven. Look at Revelation 5:6 and following:

Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders…. Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”

Jesus Christ is called the Lamb 33 times in the book of Revelation—one time for each year of His earthly life.

New Jerusalem

And now, let me show you Heaven. Let me show you the City. Look at Revelation 21:22 and following:

I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the lamb is its light….

Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb… No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve…

With credit due to Sidlow Baxter and others who have taught this long before me, look at the incredible concatenated unfolding scarlet strand that links Genesis to Revelation:

Abel showed us the necessity of the Lamb.Abraham spoke of the provision of the Lamb.The Passover emphasized the blood of the Lamb.Leviticus talked about the pure, spotless character of the Lamb.Isaiah showed us the personality of the Lamb.John identified the Lamb.The Ethiopian showed us the Lamb was for whosoever of any and every nation.Peter spoke of the precious nature of the Lamb.In Revelation we see the enthronement of the Lamb.And in New Jerusalem we will be with the Lamb of God and serve Him forever.

That’s who Jesus was! And that’s why John introduced Jesus in this way: “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the earth.”

Who Are You Peter?

Well, there was a young man from Galilee who had traveled down from Capernaum and become part of the John the Baptist Revival, and he heard what John said. His name was Andrew, and that day he began following Jesus. And the first think he did was to find his brother, Simon, and to bring him to Jesus.

Jesus looked at Simon—a young, impetuous, volatile, immature Galilean and He said to him, “I’m going to give you name. Let’s call you Peter—Simon Peter, the Rock.” And that’s how Simon Peter found out who he really was.

Conclusion

Here’s the lesson of it all. It’s very simple. We will never discover who we are until we discover who He is.

Without Jesus Christ, we have no durable basis for developing our self-identity, self-esteem, or self-worth. I didn’t answer my own question, “Who am I?” until the night I surrendered my life fully to Christ. And somehow the question of my identify was swallowed up by His love for me.

We’ll never know who are until we find who He made us to be, until we begin following the one, the stamps of whose sandals we are not worthy to untie, until we give our lives to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Until we say:

Just as I am, though tossed about

With many a conflict, many a doubt,

Fightings and fear, within, without,

O Lamb of God, I come.

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A Bird’s Eye View of Things

This morning, I poured some coffee and stepped outside to test the weather. It was chilly. I started singing “And Can It Be That I Should Gain…,” softly so as not to disturb the neighbors, and I walked around to the patio in the back. My hymn stopped in the middle of the third stanza when I saw a body floating in the pool. Face down. It was a shock. I grabbed the pole and pulled the corpse from the water. It was a Cooper’s hawk. Just the day before I’d been startled by a rustling in the bushes near the fountain. Some kind of creature darted among the bushes, and I wondered at the time if it was a distressed hawk; but I couldn’t find her. She probably died last night of old age. I covered her with the net and went on with my business.

This afternoon, my appointments finished and the ground thawed, I gave her a decent Christian burial in the gully between the trees. This may seem childish, but I wasn’t sure what to pray over her grave. Then I remembered the Lord Jesus saying the Heavenly Father sees every bird that falls from the sky, and I thanked Him for letting the hawk fall on my patio so she could be buried with dignity.

There’s no great sermon or lesson here—only that the smallest actions in life are often bigger than the largest things we do, and knowing that yields satisfaction.

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A Nation in Crisis

If you’re like me, you’re feeling a lot of stress, frustration, and disappointment over America’s rampageous politics. Here’s what I’ve told myself today:

1. Violence is evil, hurtful, and damaging to its own cause. I abhor it.

2. I shouldn’t watch too much TV news right now or pay much attention to social media reports, because what is being reported doesn’t totally reflect what really happened. Everything is interpreted for us through the lens of a biased media. I have people on the ground who tell a somewhat different story about the capitol riot—not to justify anyone or any group. But there’s no end to bad actors and there’s enough blame to go around in all directions.

3. For now, I’m not going to believe a single politician. Nor most media outlets. Nor Big Tech. Especially not Big Tech. As cynical as I am about secularism, even I am surprised at the openness & speed with which Big Tech is eradicating conservative voices in our society. Media platforms are exploiting the Capitol incident as an excuse to silence literally millions of voices. Their monopoly gives them a virtual chokehold on freedom of speech.This is very wrong. It should frighten us all.

I’m not an advocate of a political point of view. My concern is for the Gospel message and for a biblical worldview. If Big Tech has the power to suppress political viewpoints, how soon will it begin suppressing spiritual truth? Despots of all ages have tried to silence the Gospel. How many times in history have Bibles been banned and burned? This isn’t new, but our technology has increased the stakes.

But the Word of God cannot be chained. When the apostle Paul was thrown into prison & condemned to death for his faith, he took courage in knowing the Gospel could not be suppressed. The Bible is better, truer, louder, and far more enduring than any of the cultural despots who want to silence it. After they are dead and gone, the Bible will endure.

There are millions of ways to communicate. If we lose one, we’ll use another. Speaking up is the best way to answer those wanting you to stand down and shut up. As best I can, I intend to preach truth to culture, as I’m sure you do, too. This is no time to be browbeaten. We have the only message in this world that can heal our broken culture—the message of the cross of Christ. It’s hard to suppress buoyant people, especially when they have a Book that cannot be chained. Let’s preach the Word, in season and out of season!

4. I’m going to place my full confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ, who has missed nothing that’s happened. And, praise the Lord—all of this is moving us closer to His return. He rules over the affairs of nations and kingdoms. He is in ultimate control. World chaos may continue until Armageddon, but it will not continue forever. We have a New Heaven and a New Earth coming.

5. Nothing that has happened can or will justify the atheistic, Marxist, ungodly agenda that is overtaking much of our politics. I must continue undauntedly to speak truth to culture.

6. For now, my mind is best focused on biblical meditation and on the great hymns of the faith and the praise songs that bring balance to my heart. I’m not going to bury my head in the sand, but neither am I going to bury it in the news. If I’m going to fixate on something, it will be the truth of my gracious Lord. When I feel overwhelmed, I’m going to remember Psalm 61:2: “From the end of the earth I will cry to You, when my heart is overwhelmed; Lead me to the rock that his higher than I.”

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Full Steam Ahead!

The Five-Fold Fullness God Has for You in the New Year

A Study of Acts 6-7

If you want a little peace and quiet in Nashville, you might spend an afternoon at Radnor Lake. It was created about a hundred years ago by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company as a reservoir for their steam locomotives. It took about a million gallons of water in Nashville every day to keep trains operating. So the L&N they dammed Otter Creek and formed the lake. The waters were piped to the railroad yards and into the boilers of these locomotives. The engineers built fires in the fireboxes of the trains and produced the steam needed for locomotion.

My message is Full Steam Ahead. We’re getting ready to barrel into a new year, and we need to plow into it full steam ahead, filled to the brim with living water from the limitless lakes of God’s resources. I want to show you five of those lakes. God has a five-fold fullness for us.

We learn about this by studying the biblical character of Stephen in the book of Acts. In Acts 6, the growing church in Jerusalem needed help in the ministry of food distribution to widows. The apostles gathered people together and this is what they said in Acts 6:3:

“Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and [full of] wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.” This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and [full] of the Holy Spirit… [and six others]. Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and [full of] power, performed great wonders and signs among the people. Opposition arose, however….

Stephen was seized and hauled before the Jewish Ruling Council. In defending himself and presenting the Gospel, Stephen gives the longest sermon recorded in Acts.

In these passages, the word “full” is used to describe Stephen—eight times. There’s no one else described like this in the entire Bible. This is unique in Scripture. Stephen was said to be full of supernatural resources in five different dimensions of his life. There was a five-fold fulness to him.

We’re told three times that Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit.We’re also told he was full of wisdom.We’re told he was full of grace.We’re told he was full of power.We’re told that he was full of faith.

In other words, Stephen had five different rivers running into his life and filling him to the brim. I can find no other person in all the Bible described like this—and we too need to open the dikes and be filled from these five divine lakes.

Be Filled With the Spirit

Three times we’re told Stephen was filled with the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is described in the Bible like water. Jesus said in John 7:38, “Whoever believers in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this He meant the Holy, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive on the Day of Pentecost.

What does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit? It means to be filled with Jesus as with a liquid. Jesus came to earth as an incarnate human being—both God and man—but as such he was localized to one place at one time. When He returned to Heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit onto the church to dwell within us and, if I could extend our Lord’s metaphor, the Holy Spirit is like liquid Jesus. The Spirit is the way the Lord Jesus comes to live within us. When you are filled with the Spirit it’s like being filled with liquid Jesus.

Being filled with the Holy Spirit simply means your whole personality is filled with and controlled by and empowered by Jesus.

How does this happen? It’s a habit pattern. We acquiesce, we ask, and we affirm. We acquiesce and allow Jesus to have control of every aspect of our lives; we ask daily to be filled with the Spirit; and we affirm that fullness by faith. I go through this process every morning—allow, ask, and affirm. The Bible says, “If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

Be Filled with Wisdom

Stephen was also filled with wisdom. The apostles said, “Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be filled with the Spirit and wisdom.” So they choose Stephen. I know where Stephen got his wisdom. He got it from studying the Scriptures, which, in his day, meant the Old Testament. Read his sermon in Acts 7. In that one message, Stephen took the Jewish Sanhedrin on a tour of Old Testament Jewish and Messianic history. You can read the entire story of the Old Testament in this one chapter—Acts 7. This was a man who knew his Scripture and He also understood who Jesus was and how Jesus fulfilled the words of the Old Testament.

Stephen was Greek-speaking, a Hellenistic Jew, and he quoted from the Greek version of the Old Testament, but he had so much Scripture memorized he was able to snatch it out of thin air, and he knew how it all fitted together.

The book of Ephesians talks about “the water of the Word” of God. Think of the Bible is liquid wisdom, which God wants to pour into your mind as you study it daily.

We absolutely must have biblical literacy and a Christian worldview. We cannot be naïve about what’s happening to our society. For example, consider the atheistic neo-Marxist socialism that has swallowed up journalism and the media and our institutions of higher learning. They’re pumping this into the textbooks our children read and the cartoons our children watch. As Christians, we must have solid biblical literacy and be able to biblically evaluate these trends. (I’ve personally found a lot of help in thinking through these issues a website called breakpoint.org, which is sponsored by the Charles Colson Center for Christian Worldview. My friend, Jeremiah Johnston, is president of The Christian Thinkers Society, and these folks are brilliantly biblical and know how to help us develop a Christian and a biblical worldview). Both in our personal Bible study and in our ability to evaluate the current culture, we’ve got to be filled with wisdom.

Being filled with wisdom means you have a growing understanding of the Bible and the way the Bible intersects with daily life in a fallen world.

Be Filled with Grace

Third, Stephen was filled with grace. I’ve wracked my brain trying to probe this phrase. It’s only used three times in the Bible. Here, about Stephen. And in John 1:14, about Jesus Himself: “And the Word became flesh and dwelled among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace….”

It’s also used a third in Colossians 4:6: “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” The New Living Translation says: “Let your conversation be gracious and attractive, so that you will have the right response for everyone.”

In light of this, I went back and studied Stephen’s words in the book of Acts. Look at verses 8ff:

Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people. Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)—Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia—who began to argue with Stephen. But they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke.

Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We have heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.” So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brough him before the Sanhedrin. They produced false witnesses, who testified, “This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us.” All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently to Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

Here he was in a confrontational situation, but the expression on his face was not acrimony, animosity, hatred, outrage, or anything like that. They had asked him a confrontational yes or no question, but such questions rarely can be answered with yes or no.

Then the high priest asked Stephen, “Are these charges true?”

To this he replied, “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham…”

Stephen took them on a tour of the Old Testament and he spoke for a long time. Finally—and this is my speculation—he got more and more heckling and jeers and hatred from his listeners, and so he said in verse 51:

You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered Him—you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.

When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.

While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.

That’s what it means to be full of grace. To speak to culture without hatred or hostility. Stephen wasn’t afraid to speak truth to culture, but he did it not to be argumentative but to redemptive.

Being full of grace means, among other things, we aren’t afraid to speak truth to culture, but we do it not to be belligerent but to be redemptive.

Be Filled with Power

Fourth, we must be filled with power. As followers of Christ, we’re the most powerful people in this world. I’m not saying that bravado, and when people look at us they may miss the true extent of our power. In fact, we might miss it ourselves. But it’s the power of the cross. Look at the way chapter 8 begins: And Saul approved of their killing him.

This was Saul of Tarsus, who was evidently Luke’s source. He was a brilliant young student of Gamaliel, who took it all in and heard every word. He probably took notes. He wasn’t a member of the Ruling Council, but he was an aide, and he totally approved of killing Stephen and kept the robes of those who threw the stones.

But he never forget Stephen’s words. He never forgot the angelic strength of Stephen’s face. He never forgot how Stephen died. And in the years to come, Saul of Tarsus would become the man who would do what Stephen was unable to do—take the Gospel to the world.

The Scottish preacher, Alexander Whyte, in his classic studies of biblical characters, says that Stephen could have been and probably would have been the apostle Paul. Stephen’s brilliance, sterling character, courage set him apart and he could have become the world’s greatest evangelist. But the great providential irony is that Stephen’s death triggered a chain of events that brought the actual apostle Paul into being. Young Saul of Tarsus was there along the edges of the Sanhedrin listening, boiling in anger, keeping the cloaks of those who stoned and murdered the godly Stephen, and Saul approved of the violence.

Being full of power means that we’re doing far more good then we know, and the Lord is using us in greater ways than we realize.

Be Filled with Faith

Finally, we’re told Stephen was full of faith. Faith is liquid trust. Jeremiah said those who trust in Lord like trees planted by rivers of water. When our roots are grounded in Christ and dipping into the water of Scripture, the ability to trust the Lord flows into us like a liquid.

This week I heard the testimony of a woman named Karen Short, whose husband, John, had been arrested in North Korea. This incident happened back in 2014. This couple has a Christian publishing ministry in Hong Kong, and John had one of his Gospel tracts translated into Korean, While visit North Korea he gave some out. Authorities came to his hotel and arrested him. Karen received a call from Beijing telling her the news.

She said: “I knew the Lord was in control. I didn’t go into all the ‘what-ifs.’ I simply trusted the Lord with it all.” The next two weeks were full of the things that happen to you in a crisis. She said, “I focused on the most important matters of each day.” Two weeks later John was released and deported from North Korea. But how do you describe someone who says, “I knew the Lord was in control I didn’t go into all the ‘what-ifs.’ I simply trusted the Lord with it all”?

Being full of faith is remembering the Lord is in control so you don’t have to go into all the what-ifs. You simply learn to trust the Lord with it all.

Conclusion

So let’s take a page from Stephen’s life. Actually the New Testament gives him about three-and-a-half pages! Don’t let the New Year be a train wreck in your life. Accelerate full steam ahead, full of the Spirit, full of wisdom, full of faith, full of grace, and full of power. The fullness doesn’t come from you but from pipelines of living water that flow from the higher elevations of heaven and from the limitless lakes of our Savior’s love.

May the Lord melt us, mold us, fill us, use us.

Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on each one of us!

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All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name

When I realized I was on deck to preach on the Sunday after the most contentious election of our lifetime, I decided to prepare three sermons. One, if Trump won. A different one, if Biden won. And a third, if we didn’t know who won. But somewhere along the way I threw all those sermons away and I’ve prepared a message on the subject—All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name.

We simply need to direct our attention to our sovereign Lord and His domination of history. My Scripture is from the book of Revelation, chapter 1. Let’s read this powerful little passage in Revelation 1:5-7. I want you to notice how the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth is described.

… and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve His God and Father—to Him be glory and power forever and ever! Amen!

Look, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all peoples on earth will mourn because of Him. So shall it be! Amen.

***

Recently a group of researchers conducted a study with participants who were given sheets of paper containing puzzles—mazes. You’ve done those as a child. You have to start on one side and find your way through a twisted maze of lines and boxes until you come out the other side. Every sheet had a little mouse near the beginning and the participant had to get the mouse through the maze. At the top of the page for one set of participants was an owl, looming over the page and hunting the mouse, ready to snatch him up if he took the wrong route. The other set of participants had no owl. Instead there was a morsel of cheese awaiting the mouse at the end of the puzzle.

Which group did the best with their puzzles? The people with the cheese consistently did better. The researchers explained that we do much better in life when we’re moving forward toward a goal, not looking backward at a threat. We don’t need to look behind us in fear, but to look ahead of us in hope and expectation.

That’s why we have the book of Revelation, which highlights the rule and reign and the return of Jesus Christ. So today I want to get out of the way and let the Word of God itself infuse you with the forward direction we need as I show you the five different functional roles of Jesus Christ, which are highlighted in verses 5-7.

1. The Revealer

First, Jesus Christ is the Revelator or the Revealer, the One who shows us what will happen in the future. Look at verse 5 again. This is a greeting John is giving to the readers. He said: Grace and peace be to you from…

And he mentions God the Father and God the Spirit, and then he extends the blessings from God the Son, but at the way He describes God the Son, the Lord Jesus.

Verse 5: …and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness….

A faithful witness is someone who tells exactly and truthfully what he knows. Someone who tells the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Well, let’s go back to verse 1 and see to what John is referring.

Revelation 1:1 says: The revelation from Jesus Christ….

When we open the last book of the Bible, we learn that Jesus is about to reveal something. He has already revealed so much to us. In the Gospels, He revealed Who He was and what He had come to do. He revealed the person and the truth of God. He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you….”

By His Spirit, He also revealed many other things in the epistles and in the letters of the New Testament. And now, He’s going to reveal to us one final set of teachings. There is one more subject He wants to teach us. There is one more graduate course He wants to offer. There is one last dossier He wants to open for us. He wants to show us who is in charge of this world and how it all will end.

The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants what must soon take place. He (Jesus) made it known by sending His angel to His servant John, who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.

Jesus is revealing something to us that we could discover in no other way. No one knows the future except God Himself. None of us knew January 1, last, what kind of year 2020 would be. We can’t even discern what will happen tomorrow. But the Lord Jesus knows and He had decided to reveal it to us—to give us a revelation.

The One who is giving us the contents of this dossier—the twenty-two chapters of this book of Revelation—is absolutely true and faithful and every word He speaks is true and faithful. He faithfully tells us what the Father told Him. God the Father told Him what is going to happen at the end of time, in the future, and He is a faithful witness in passing the material on to us.

2. The Resurrected One

Now, let’s read on.

…and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead.

This means that Jesus Christ was the first person who ever died who was resurrected in a permanent, glorified, everlasting, changeless, imperishable, indestructible way.

This isn’t a time to present evidence for the veracity of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but let me just point out that even in our relatively modern scientific era, there have been a number of highly trained scholars and historians who have set out to disprove the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and who, upon encountering the strength of the evidence of His resurrection, have been converted. Want some names? J. D. Anderson, Lee Strobel, William Ramsey, Josh McDowell, Frank Morison, Gilbert West.

3. The Ruler of the Kings of the Earth

And now look at the next phrase: Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

Now the apostle John was writing this in the last decade of the first century, and he was perhaps ninety years old. He was writing this in exile during the reign of Domitian. Emperor Domitian was less than half the age of John. Domitian was in his early forties. Domitian had exiled John to the island of Patmos. He thought he was shutting up John. He thought he was silencing the last of the twelve great apostles. He thought he had put an end to the apostolic influence of the Gospel.

But it was there on the island of Patmos that John had a vision of the future and wrote down what the angel told him about the outline of world history and the end of the age.

About the same time, Domitian had a dream. According to the Roman historian Suetonius, who was alive during this era, Domitian had a dream that he would die, and that he would die soon, and that he would die at midday, sometime around noon.

From the day of that dream, Domitian was ill at ease. About noon the 18th of September, AD 96, he asked his servant what time it was, and the servant lied to him and told him it was already in the afternoon. He went to his desk to sign some papers, and an aide suddenly pulled a dagger out of his sleeve and started stabbing him. The wounded emperor put up a fight, but the aide stabbed him again and again, and he died in agony from his seven wounds. He was forty-four years old. His nurse unceremoniously burned his body to ashes and sprinkled them in the Flavian Temple.

Two men—the old apostle and the young emperor. One had a vision of the long-term future and the other had a dream of his noontime death. Domitian has been dead 1900 years, and the Roman Empire is long gone. But the vision of the apostle John is ready to unfold into reality at any moment. The history of this world is the history of leaders who have come and gone, and most of them have been forgotten. A very few great leaders are remembered for their good works, and a few are remembered for their horrendous evil. But they come and go like ghosts on the stage of history.

Behind the scenes, the hidden hand of God’s providence is moving history along toward the events recorded here in Revelation, which is a detailed account of the seven final years in world history.

Only one person is truly in ultimate control. Only one person is guiding the nations of this world toward the swiftly approaching events of the book of Revelation. And that is Jesus Christ, the ruler of the kings of the earth.

4. The Redeemer

So Jesus Christ is the Revealer, the Resurrected One, the Ruler of the kings of the earth. And The passage goes on to say: To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve His God and Father—to Him be glory and power forever and ever! Amen!

First, He loves us. If only we could somehow comprehend those words! There is a Savior in heaven at the right seat on the throne of eternity—and He is eternal in nature—He is wise and strong. And He loves you. He absolutely loves you more than you can imagine!

And He has freed us from our sins by His blood. When Domitian was stabbed seven times with the dagger and bled out in his private office, his blood was nothing but a royal mess that had to be mopped up and the emperor’s body was dragged to the fire. But the blood of Jesus Christ has the power to free you from your sins.

Now, without the blood of Jesus, the devil owns you. Your sins own you. Your failures own you. Your eternal destruction owns you. But the wondrous blood of Jesus has the power to cast off all those forces. He frees us from our sins by His blood.

And then He makes us to be a kingdom. You and I are citizens in God’s kingdom on this earth—His church. The kingdom of God is already, but not yet. It’s already here in the presence of His children on earth. But one day according to this book of Revelation, it’s going to come in a geo-political reality when Jesus comes again.

And He has also made us to be priests to serve the Lord. Have you ever thought of yourself as a priest? The apostle Peter said that the church is a royal priesthood. That is, we are appointed to serve here on earth and to represent God to the people of his planet.

All of that is bound up in the idea of redemption.

A couple of weeks ago, I spoke at a Christian camp in Illinois. The director of the camp told us that for the first time in 65 years, they weren’t able to open the camp for children. But when he realized how many children were being schooled at home he developed a learning center for middle school children and many enrolled. They studied online in socially distanced cubicles in a monitored environment, and he had activities for them. Most of these children were unchurched. One day he took them all for a hike through the campground and through the woods to a great cross that had been erected over a campfire spot. One of the little boys looked at him and said, “Mister, what that giant “T” for? Why do you have a letter of the alphabet there?”

The camp director said, “That’s not a T. Let me tell you what it is….” And he shared the story of the cross of Jesus Christ with that young man and led him to faith in Jesus Christ. Perhaps you’ve seen the cross so many times in churches or in drawings that it no longer moves you, but you’ve never accepted for yourself its great life-changing redemption. Jesus loves you, He can free you from your sins by His blood. He can make you part of His kingdom and even make you a priest, so to speak, to serve Him.

5. The Returning Lord

But there’s one final truth here about Jesus. He is the returning Lord. Look at verse 7: Look! He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all peoples on earth will mourn because of Him.” So shall it be! Amen.

Now, the rest of the book of Revelation is a rollout of the final seven years of world history, and this is what makes me think events are speeding up. I teach a course on the book of Revelation on my website; I don’t have time to cover it all now. But the events in the book of Revelation now seem very plausible, very credible.

Look at Revelation 6:8. This is a description of what will happen near the beginning of the seven years of global tribulation: I looked and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine, and plague….

What’s another word for “plague?” It’s pandemic. Not long after the beginning of the Tribulation, warfare, famine, and a pandemic will kill twenty-five percent of Earth’s population. Now, the coronavirus pandemic has killed 1,200,000 people and think of the disruption it has caused in our nation and world. But it’s only a foreshadowing of a massive pandemic that will decimate a quarter of the population of the earth when combined with war and famine near the beginning of the final years of history.

Now, look at Revelation 13:16-17: It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark.

When the antichrist comes, he is going to know all about everyone and have the power to keep them from all commercial transactions, even purchases. It’s going to be an economic dictatorship. One of the most frightening things about our modern technology is how the big companies have become so invasive into our private lives. Thirty years ago, if you went to Sears-Roebuck to buy a pair of pants or a washing machine, they would sell you what you wanted without invading your private life. But now these giant companies study every stroke of your keyboard. They analyze you down to your most personal habits.

In America, they are doing this just in order to sell us things. But in China, what is now emerging is Orwellian and Dystopian.

And China is emerging as the world’s most threatening superpower. Let me just quote an article from Business Insider:

China is setting up a vast surveillance system that tracks every single one of its 1.4 billion citizens—from using facial recognition…to forcing people to download apps that can access all the photos on their smartphones.

And Time Magazine said that China is rolling out Big Data and surveillance to inculcate “positive” behavior on its citizens via a Social Credit system…. Every person is automatically given 1000 points. If you do things the government likes, they will give you points. If you do things that are counter to policy, they take away points. Now listen to this:

“Fall below a certain threshold and it’s impossible to get a loan or book high-speed train tickets.”

The concept of 666 is already at work in China.

And finally, speaking of China, look at Revelation 15:12: The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its waters dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East.

This is in advance of the battle of Armageddon, and the Bible predicts that the Euphrates will dry up so that vast armies from Asia can march unhindered toward the surrounded nation of Israel. As of 1948, Israel is back in its ancestral home. And the nation of Turkey has built vast dams on the Euphrates that can stop the flow of the river.

The Economic Times reported that President Xi of China is determined to build the Chinese military complex to be on par with America’s within seven years. He’s the most powerful ruler in China since Mao Tse-Tung, and he has been declared Chinese leader for life. Of course, that’s what Domitian thought too.

The entire description of the seven years of tribulation as described in the book of Revelation seems now, for the first time in history, plausible and credible. And Jesus is getting ready to return to this earth.

Let me give you three takeaways:

First, we must train ourselves to live with a daily anticipation of the return of Jesus Christ.



Second, we must share the message of Jesus with those who aren’t ready.



Third, we must speak truth to culture while we can. There are many issues right now in the marketplace of ideas that are Darwinian, atheistic, and dangerous. On every issue, the Bible speaks truth to our culture and it speaks with clarity and with charity.

This is our task until the Lord returns. No president can stop Him. No election can hinder Him. No army can deter Him. No empire can delay Him.

He is…

The RevealerThe Resurrected OneThe Ruler of the Kings of the EarthThe RedeemerAnd our Returning Lord.

According to Revelation 5, when these things begin to take place, the angels will burst into worship. John wrote:

Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they were saying, “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power forever and ever!”

The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshipped.

The most important song on our hearts and minds today is not “Hail to the Chief.”

It’s…

All hail the power of Jesus’ name

Let angels prostrate fall.

Bring forth the royal diadem

And crown Him Lord of all.

The post appeared first on RobertJMorgan.com.

Standing Firm in High Winds

A Study of Philippians 3:12 – 4:1

When the tornado stuck Nashville this Spring, much of the damage came from trees being blown down. I know because a number of trees hit my daughter’s house, and they’re still trying to repair the damage. Maybe you suffered the same thing. I went onto the internet to see if there are any trees that will survive a tornado, and, of course, there aren’t, if they are squarely in the path of a twister. However, there is one kind of tree that almost always survives a hurricane. It’s the Cypress tree. They may lose a few dead limbs, but they almost always survive the storm because of their flexibility. They can bend with storm almost horizontal to the ground, and when the storm passes they bounce back and stand firm.

Well, as followers of Jesus Christ in this world, we’re facing some serious headwinds, but our job is to bend if necessary but not break. Our job is stand firm. And that’s the great overarching theme of the book of Philippians.

Today we’re continuing our study of the book of Philippians with an incredible passage that begins with Philippians 3:12 and continues through chapter 4 and verse 1. This is such a life-changing passage that I want to read it first and then unfold it line by line as it occurs. It gives us the three secrets to standing firm and surviving the hurricanes coming toward us.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. 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. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame.

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, who whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends!

Do you notice that last line?

Stand firm in the Lord. Now, go back to chapter 1, verse 27: Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ. Then whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm….

I really believe this is the overarching theme of Philippians. If I had to give the book of Philippians a title, I would call it Standing Firm.

When skeptics question the intellectual credibility of Christianity, we need to stand firm.When theological liberals try to water down and dilute our Christian convictions, we need to stand firm.When political forces try to silence us and hinder our ability to remain true to our faith, as some are certainly trying to do, we need to stand firm.And when Satan tries to tempt us and trouble us and defeat us, we need to stand firm.

Now, let’s analyze the paragraph we just read, because it contains three essential ingredients to standing firm.

Standing Firm Requires a Goal

First, standing firm in life requires a goal. Now, goals are very important. What would a basketball be without any goals? I was almost never able to hit the goal with the basketball—I did it a few times by accident—but I wasn’t a good basketball player. But I did know what the goal was and where the goal was. I could at least aim there. But what if those goals didn’t exist. It would be a useless game.

A lot of people don’t have any goals in life; but if you don’t know what your goals are, you’re just going to run back and forth, up and down the court, until the buzzer sounds.

Now, look what the apostle Paul said about his goal: Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal….

What was his goal? Well, that was last week’s message from the previous passage, but let’s review it quickly. Look at verse 10:

I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of His resurrection and participating in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection of the dead.

What a verse! This tells us what our goal should be life, and there are clearly four parts of it.

First, to know Christ. The Amplified Version puts it like this: For my determined purpose is that I may know Him—that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His person more strongly and more clearly.

I’ve loved that translation for years, because it really sums up the totality of our purpose and goal in life.

There’s a young man who lives in Texas. He’s an intellectual. He’s a thinker. I began following him on social media, and he started following me. One day to my surprise, he sent me message. He told me how much my books have encouraged him. I wrote back and told him how much his books have encouraged me. We’ve been sending each other messages for a couple of months, and I’ve watched some of his videos and he’s been watching my sermons. We’ve been getting to know each other. We have not yet met in person, and we’ve not even spoken on the phone. I think we will at the right time, but we are getting to know each other.

That’s the way it works with human beings. And that’s the way it works with Jesus too. We have not yet met Him face to face, but through salvation and prayer and Bible study and the Holy Spirit, we are progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His person more strongly and more clearly.

Second, we want to be fueled by His resurrection power. Verse 10 says: I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of His resurrection….

Paul talked about this in Ephesians, chapter 1. We all know what it is to become tired and depleted. But the same power that raised Christ from the dead is constantly available to give us new strength for each day.

Third, we want some participation in His sufferings, even if we die in the process. Verse 10 again: I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of His resurrection and participation in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death.

The nation of India is the largest democracy in the world, but it’s becoming less democratic every single day as Hindu nationalism seems to be driving the government; and more and more Christians in India are facing persecution and death. And what can we say of Nigeria and other places on earth where Christians are literally living out Philippians 3:10?

But there’s another element—the coming resurrection.  That’s our goal too: I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of His resurrection and participating in His sufferings, become like Him in His death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection of the dead.

So all that was the apostle Paul’s personal goal. He summed it up earlier in Philippians 1:21 when He said, “To live is Christ and to die is gain.” There it is in a nutshell. That’s our purpose. That’s our goal—to know Christ, His resurrection power, His sufferings, and to experience the coming resurrection.

Now back to verse 12: Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Notice that Paul circles back and repeats himself. He uses the word goal and the phrase press on twice. If you don’t do anything else in life, do this. Your goal is to know Christ and His suffering and His resurrection and His eternity.

That is our one thing, and we must forget what’s behind and press toward it. Dr. David Jeremiah was preaching on this verse the other day and he said that in every car he has ever driven, the windshield is much bigger than the review mirror. Some people go through life with their eyes on the rearview mirror, looking back at their accomplishments, or looking back on their failures, or looking back on the things that have afflicted them.

Well, we need to occasionally glance in the rearview mirror in gratitude or confession, but our primary focus is on the road ahead, on what’s coming next. Everything we’ve experienced thus far in life is simply preparing us for the next steps of productivity and usefulness.

And notice that last phrase. I had never noticed it before, until I prepared this message: God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

God has called you heavenward in Christ Jesus. We have a higher calling than others. That’s the direction in which we’re headed—heavenward, upward, onward, skyward, Christ-ward.

Standing Firm Requires a Model

Now, if we’re going to stand firm, it also helps to have model, someone who has done all this before. And so look at verses 15 and following:

All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. 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. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame.

We have to remember that the Philippians had very little if any New Testament Scripture. It’s possible they had some copies of some of Paul’s earlier writings, but the New Testament was in the process of being written. They had come out of a very pagan, Roman, Macedonian environment, so what did a Christian even look like?

Well, in chapter 2, Paul gave three examples—Christ, Timothy, and Epaphroditus. And in chapter 3, he offers himself as a model. He said, in effect, if you want to know how to live this new life in Christ, than look at me and use me for a model.

Other people will lead you astray. Look at the way he described them in verse 18:

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.

There have never been so many enemies of the cross of Christ. I read with interest this week a study done by George Barna and the Cultural Research Center of Arizona Christian University. They found that 98 percent of American adults who have a socialist political worldview are opposed to and reject a biblical worldview. And the number of such people is growing.

Barna said, “Recent reports based on the study have indicated that most adults have discarded the notions of a Bible-based moral code, a shared Christian faith, or the value of human life; dismissed the reliability of the Bible or salvation based on faith in Christ alone; and rejected the ideas that success in life is based on obedience to God, or that the central purpose of life is about knowing, loving, and serving God.”

I can’t believe I read that quote while preparing this message. The apostle Paul said, in effect, the central purpose in life is about knowing, loving, and serving God.

Barna went on to say, “The current political upheaval in the United States is a consequence of a constantly changing, person-centered philosophy of life–i.e., worldview—that is fighting for pre-eminence in the nation’s economic, political, religious, educational, and familial spheres.”

Sounds like the days of the Philippians. Paul said, “Our purpose is to know, love, and serve God, even in suffering, looking heavenward to the resurrection. But the rest of society are enemies of the cross of Christ. Enemies! Their destiny is destruction.

They aren’t going heavenward, but hellward. Their God is their stomach. They live for their pleasure and appetites. And their glory is in their shame. They are proud of the things of which they should be ashamed.

Paul said, “Follow me as I follow Christ.” If we’re going to stand firm in these days, we need that model.

Standing Firm Requires a Passport

And finally, standing firm requires a passport, a promise. We have to have a future hope promised by Jesus Christ. So look at verses 20 and 21:

But our citizenship is in heaven.

We are not citizens of earth on the way to heaven; we’re citizens of heaven traveling through this earth. Right now, we have dual citizenship. We’re most of all citizens of heaven, but we also carry an American passport, or a French passport, or a Chinese passport—whatever nation it is for you. But that passport expires forever the moment you die or the moment Christ returns. Your heavenly passport and citizenship has no expiration date. And so…

And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body.

Jesus Christ has the power to bring everything under His control. Notice that. He has the power to bring everything—everything—under His control. One day He will do it. In fact, He’s doing it now and one day He will finish it.

And here is one application of that power. He will use it to transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body.

Now in the Gospel of John, we have two resurrections. First, there is the resurrection of Lazarus in John 11. Jesus went to the village of Bethany where His friend had died, and He went to the cemetery, and He called out: “Lazarus! Come forth!” And Lazarus returned to life and came hobbling out of the grave.

But ten chapters later, it was Jesus Christ who was the grave, and on Easter Sunday God the Father called, “Jesus! Come forth!” And Jesus rose bodily from the grave.

But there is an essential difference between the risen body of Lazarus and the resurrected body of Jesus.

Lazarus came hobbling out still wrapped in his graveclothes and had to be cut out of them.Jesus passed right out of His grave clothes and left them deflated on the slab. His body passed right through them.



Lazarus, though alive, was still trapped inside the tomb until someone rolled away the stone and let him out.Jesus passed right through the stone walls of the tomb, and the angels only opened it to let the disciples look inside.



Lazarus eventually grew sick and died all over again, and was wrapped in graveclothes, and was buried all over again, and his decayed body is somewhere in the dust of that tomb.Jesus arose, never again to face illness or death. In fact, His resurrection body is incapable of dying. The Bible says it is imperishable.



The resuscitation of Lazarus created a sensation, but it didn’t start a movement.The resurrection of Jesus Christ has changed the world forever and has populated eternity.



The reviving of Lazarus did nothing for you and me except show us the power of Him who accomplished it.The resurrection of Jesus Christ did everything for you and me because of the power of Him who accomplished it.

When Jesus rose from the dead, His body was essentially, fundamentally, existentially the same, but it was essentially, fundamentally, existentially different. It was now glorified, ageless, deathless, supercharged, and equipped for eternity.

And that is the pattern of our own resurrection bodies. They will be like His glorious body.

For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we always be with the Lord.

In Jesus Christ we have a goal; we have a model; and we have a promise, yes, and more than a promise—a guarantee and a Savior who has secured it.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, who whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how we stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!

The post Standing Firm in High Winds appeared first on RobertJMorgan.com.

The Dignity of a Humble Life

A Study of Philippians 2:1-11

My message today is about the dignity of a humble life.

Steven K. Scott is an entrepreneur who has built his entire business career on the principles of the book of Proverbs, and one of those principles involves humility. In his book about this, Scott tells of a time when his pastor, Dr. Jim Borror, visited a church in the Pacific Northwest. While preaching there, a woman asked Dr. Borror to visit her husband, who had built an enormously successful company. It was a multimillion dollar enterprise with over 3,000 employees. But this man who owned it was surly and unhappy and cantankerous. No one liked being around him, not even his family.

Dr. Borror went to see the man and listened to him as he talked about his accomplishments and his success and how he had built the entire corporation by himself. He said his parents had never given him a dime. He said he had worked his way through college. He said he had singlehandedly built his company from scratch.

Dr. Borror said, “So you did everything by yourself?”

“Yep.

“No one gave you anything?”

“Nothing!” said the man.

Then Dr. Borror asked “Who changed your diapers? Who fed you as a baby? Who taught you to read and write? Who gave you jobs that enabled you to work your way through college? Who serves food in your company’s cafeteria? Who cleans the bathrooms in your office?”

For some reason, those questions punched a hole in the businessman’s pride, and he hung his head and he began crying. “Now that I think about it,” he said, “I haven’t accomplished anything by myself. Without the kindness and efforts of others, I probably wouldn’t have anything.”

Dr. Borror nodded and said, “Don’t you think they deserve a little thanks.”

That conversation changed that man’s life. In the months that followed, he wrote thank you notes to everyone he could think of who had made a contribution to his life. He wrote individual thank you notes to all 3,000 of his employees. He began to treat everyone around him with a newfound respect and appreciation. And when Dr. Borror visited him a year or two later, he hardly recognized him. His anger and contentiousness had been replaced by peace and happiness. He even looked several years younger.[1]

There is a dignity to humility. And that’s one of the great themes of the book of Philippians. The apostle Paul was very warmhearted toward the church in the city of Philippi, and he wrote an extremely upbeat and encouraging letter to them. But he knew there was some internal conflict in the church. There had been some disagreements and arguments and hurt feelings. You can see how Paul addressed this all the way the way through the book. In chapter one, he prayed that their love would grow deeper for each other. In chapter four, he told them plainly to straighten out their attitudes. But the greatest teaching along this line is in chapter 2, and that’s the passage we are going to study today. It teaches us about the Humble Life.

Our Advantages (verse 1)

Turn with me to Philippians 2. The apostle Paul began by telling them, in essence, “In your ability to form meaningful relationships, you have some built-in advantages from being a follower of Christ.”

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion

And without doing any damage to the passage, we can change the word “IF” to “SINCE”. Let’s read it that way:

Therefore since you have encouragement from being united with Christ; since you have comfort from His love, since you have common sharing in the Spirit, since you have any tenderness and compassion…

The apostle Paul is telling us here that when Jesus comes into our heart and makes us part of His family, it gives us some advantages that no one has in our social lives. Some of you may be having a challenge right now in your social life. It could be with your husband or wife, or with your boyfriend or girlfriend, or perhaps with an acquaintance at work or school. Getting along with someone else is problematic. But as Christians we have four advantages that no one else has.

First, there is encouragement: Since we have encouragement from being united with Christ….

You can approach everything with encouragement because of Christ. But in the context here, Paul is speaking about the environment of the church.

When we gather here we are all united with Christ, and that should give us encouragement that spreads throughout the areas of life. When I was in college, I began attending the First Baptist Church of Columbia, South Carolina. It was a big downtown church, and it was very formal. It was packed, and we had to arrive early to get a good seat. At the start of the service, the procession would begin with the young people chiming the hour in handbells, and the choir would enter, and the pulpit party would come, and the organ would burst out with the opening anthem. For a few weeks I didn’t really like all the formality of it all. But within about a month, I found myself counting down the days until Sunday came. My buddies and I would crowd into my little car and drive downtown and find a parking place and enter the historic building with expectation. When the sermon came Dr. Young would stand in the pulpit like a biblical orator and preach the Word of God. And at the end of the service he would pronounce the benediction and the organ would usher us out. As soon as I left, I was looking forward to the next Sunday, and there was something about the spirit of those services that encouraged me all week. Whenever we go to church with expectancy and a desire to worship, there is great encouragement.

Second, we find comfort from God’s love among us. The verse says: Therefore since you have encouragement from being united with Christ and since you have comfort from His love….

In the body of Christ, there is not only encouragement; there is comfort. As we’ve already learned from this series of sermons, the apostle Paul had been imprisoned and it was big news. It sent shockwaves through the church throughout the Empire, and when the Christians in Philippi heard about it, they were grieved. Paul was very dear to them, and so they sent him some money and supplies and good wishes. And a member of the church, Epaphroditus, traveled from Philippi to Rome with all these things for Paul. And he also said, “I have come to stay here with you and to take care of any needs to you. They church has sent me.” Imagine the comfort that brought to Paul.

When you’ve gone through the mill, nothing can comfort you like your brothers and sisters in Christ. No one else can pray for you or meet your needs like your brothers and sisters in Christ. There is comfort from His love as we’re gathered together.

Third, we find a common sharing in the Spirit. Verse 1 says: Since you have encouragement from being united with Christ, since you have comfort from His love, since you have a common sharing in the Spirit…

What does that mean? The phrase “common sharing” means “fellowship.” A few weeks ago I was flying back into Nashville and it was during the height of the discussions about racism, and that was on my mind. I landed and called for an Uber, and presently a young black man picked me up. I asked him where he was from and he said, “Ghana.”

“Oh,” I said, “I was in Ghana recently. It’s a beautiful country and some of the friendliest people on earth.”

Well, he literally just squealed and laughed with delight, and he asked what I had doing there. I told him I was speaking to Christian workers, and I asked him if he was a Christian.

He just squealed and laughed again, and he told me about his Pentecostal faith, and I told him the group I was with had rented the Pentecostal assembly. We talked about the Lord Jesus, and I almost wished I lived further away so we could have talked longer. We had such good fellowship, a common sharing in the Spirit. And when he drove off, I thought to myself, “The answer to our problems in this nation is Jesus Christ. There is no other deeply-grounded solution.”

But Paul isn’t finished. There’s a fourth thing we find in the family of God—the tenderness and compassion that we share as members of the body of Christ. Look at verse 1 again: Since we have encouragement from being united with Christ, since we have comfort from His love, since we have fellowship in the Spirit, since we have tenderness and compassion….

Do you realize that tenderness and compassion is a Christ-centered trait?

Matthew Parris is an atheist and a prolific writer. He grew up in Africa, and many years later he returned to help rural African communities install water pumps, giving them access to clean water. What he found was a blow to his atheism. Everywhere he went, it was Christians who were touching the heart of Africa with tenderness and compassion. Parris admitted that what he saw didn’t fit his atheistic perspective. He found that the evangelism and humanitarianism of Christians was very different from that done by secular organizations or government initiatives. He came back and wrote a stunning article in The Times of London, saying, that Africa needs Christian evangelism to bring about spiritual transformation. Without this there can be no real change. Parris said: “As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God…. Removing Christian evangelism from the African equation may leave the continent at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone, and the machete.”[2]

So what do we find when we become part of the family of God? We don’t find perfection, but…

We find encouragement from being united with Christ.We find comfort from His love.We find common sharing in the Holy Spirit.We find tenderness and compassion.

That is verse 1.

Our Obligation (Verse 2a)

Now, let’s follow Paul’s unfolding logic. Since we have these four qualities as Christians—since Jesus Christ brings these things with us when He moves into our lives, then what should be do? How should we live?

He goes on in verse 2 to say, “…then make my joy complete.”

This is rather amazing. Philippians is the book of joy, and yet here Paul tells them something is missing in his joy. His joy is deficient in some way. It is incomplete. He needs for the Philippians to do something to inflate his joy.

…then make my joy complete.       

This phrase has just gripped my heart. I wish I had discovered it earlier, before my wife passed away, because it would have helped me be a better husband. The husband’s job is to make his wife’s joy complete. The wife’s joy is to her husband’s joy complete. Children should bring joy to their parents, and friends to their friends.

How would your marriage or your relationships be different if God impressed this on you—that your obligation is to make someone’s joy complete.

The Philippians were divided, and division subtracts from our joy. Let me say that again: Division subtracts from our joy. If you’re divided in your family, if there are divisions in your marriage or in your home or in your church, it weighs down your joy

Paul said, “Yes, I am joyful, but I should have a little bit more joy than I do. If you’ll iron out the divisions among you then I’ll have more joy here in my prison cell in Rome.”

Our Method (verses 2a-4)

He bores into this and becomes more specific.

…then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking at your own interests but each of you to the interest of others.

Notice there are three items on this list: Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit; value others above yourselves; and don’t focus on your own interests but on the interests of others.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceitValue others above yourselvesDon’t focus on you own interest but on the interests of others

One day some years ago, the motivational speaker and writer, Dr. Sheila Murray Bethel, found herself seated beside Katherine Graham at a luncheon in Washington, D.C. At that time, Katherine Graham was one of the most powerful women in Washington, the publisher of the Washington Post, which she had kept running after the suicide of her husband. Katherine Graham knew everyone—the most powerful men and women on earth. Dr. Bethel asked her, “Mrs. Graham, you have hosted all the greatest leaders from around the world. What is the single most important trait of all great leaders.”

Without hesitation, Mrs. Graham said, “The absence of arrogance.”

Years passed, and one day when Katherine Graham as 84 years old, she tripped on a sidewalk and suffered a traumatic head injury and died. At her funeral, Senator John Danforth, spoke of her own absence of arrogance. She was very strong and powerful and influential. But there was a remarkable absence of arrogance to her, and he quoted this passage from Philippians 2 to describe her and he said that Katherine Graham lived out this text of Scripture.[3]

There’s a book called The Power of a Humble Life by an executive coach named Richard E. Simmons III. In it he asks some very personal questions that I’ve wrestled with:

Why do we feel so compelled to impress other people? And why are we always comparing ourselves with others?[4]Despite our achievements, why don’t we feel we are successful unless other people are aware of them?[5] 

Then he said:

The ultimate solution is humility. The humble are continually at peace with who they are in the eyes of others. They are content with their position in life and what they possess. The humble are the only ones who are delivered from this great drive to prove to the world that “I am important.”[6]

But how do we do that? How do we become humble people when by nature we are filled with pride and insecurity?

Our Mindset (Verses 5-11)

Well that brings us to one of the greatest set of words ever written—the apostle Paul’s great poem about the nature of the person of Jesus Christ. Look at verse 5:

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

We can never exhibit the true dignity of humble life if we don’t understand the person of Christ Jesus.

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage; rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage; rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death-even death on a cross!

Samuel Wesley wrote:

He left His Father’s throne above—

So free, so infinite His grace—

Emptied Himself of all but love,

And bled for Adam’s helpless race;

‘Tis mercy all, immense and free,

For, lo, my God, it found out me!

Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the very embodiment of humility, and the only way to be truly humble is to embody Him. He was co-equal in essence and in nature with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. And yet He will willing to temporarily lay aside some of the privileges of His position, and to enter into humanity because He was putting our interests before His own.

I’ve recently rediscovered a wonderful prayer that seems to sum all this up. I’ve known this song for many years, but as I prepared this message I rediscovered it. t was composed by a British Anglican woman, and it’s so simple yet so intimate:

May the mind of Christ my Savior

Live in me from day to day,

By His love and power controlling

All I do and say.

May the Word of God dwell richly

In my heart from hour to hour,

So that all may see I triumph

Only through His power.

May the peace of God my Father

Rule my life in everything,

That I may be calm to comfort

Sick and sorrowing.

May the love of Jesus fill me

As the waters fill the sea;

His exalting, self-abasing,

This is victory.

May His beauty rest upon me

As I seek the lost to win,

And may they forget the channel,

Seeing only Him.

That is the mind of Christ.

Wherefore God has highly exalted Him and has given Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in earth and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

[1] Steven K. Scott, The Richest Man Who Ever Lived (New York: Currency, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, 2006), 185-186.

[2] https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/nov/3/church-has-stemmed-the-tide-of-evil-throughout-his/. Also Richard E. Simmons III, Reflections on the Existence of God (Birmingham, AL: Union Hill Publishing, 2019), 44.

[3] Pat Williams, Humility: The Secret Ingredient of Success (Uhrichsville, Ohio: Barbour Publishing House, 2016), 13-17.

[4] Richard E. Simmons III, The Power of a Humble Life (Birmingham, AL: Union Hill Publishing, 2017) Kindle Location 104.

[5] Adapted from Richard E. Simmons III, The Power of a Humble Life (Birmingham, AL: Union Hill Publishing, 2017) Kindle Location 133.

[6] Richard E. Simmons III, The Power of a Humble Life (Birmingham, AL: Union Hill Publishing, 2017) Kindle Location 192.

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