Pastor Goforth

The Persecuted Saint

August 2nd, 2016
I don’t usually post my weekly sermon manuscript here, though it is posted weekly on our website along with the video. I felt that perhaps this week’s sermon in our “Gospel of John” series might be timely and encourage someone who ends up randomly finding it in the blogesphere. So … here it is

That You May Believe – John #47 –

The Persecuted Saint – John 15:18-25

Growing up, we would hear stories of the persecuted church in communist countries. I read and was inspired by such stories, but they were far away in those oppressed countries, or in isolated regions where the gospel had never been proclaimed.

The Persecuted Church is a reality as much today as ever. Whether in the subtlety of a politically correct work environment; which defends the “right to believe” for the unbeliever or certain lifestyles, while squelching the “right to believe” of the Christian. Often it is an overt attack on life, liberty, and the pursuit of Christ by the atheist, the terrorist, the radical, and so the Church remains under attack.

More Christians have died for their faith in the last 100 years than 1900 years before. According to www.persecution.org, 384 Christians have been killed already in 2016 in Nigeria, more than all of 2015. The same website reports that 100,000 Christians have fled Iraq alone. Father Jacque Hamel was murdered in his church in Normandy this week. I was reading last week of nearly 2000 crosses removed from churches all over China. There is no place on the earth that is immune from the potential of persecution, because evil, like the sin which causes it, is like leaven that permeates an entire loaf of bread. But there is a geographical center if you will. 2/3^rd of the world’s population lives in 1/3^rd of the land mass, between 10`N and 40`N latitude. It is called the “1040 window”. It is the poorest, hungriest, most unchurched, and most hostile region to Christianity worldwide. And then, I remember the words of Jesus, “if you only knew today what would bring you peace”. Jesus IS the answer today for those bent on wiping away all mention of his name.

According to www.opendoorsusa.org, 322 Christians are killed every month, 214 churches and Christian properties are destroyed, and 772 acts of violence are committed against Christians.

The Pew Research Center says 75% of the world’s population lives in areas with severe religious restrictions. The U.S. State Department says that in more than 60 countries, Christians are persecuted by government or neighbors because they believe in Jesus Christ.

And the words of Jesus ring out across 2000 years, his words to his disciples the night before his death, “If the world hates you …”. In the next chapter he will say, “… in this world you will have trouble …”

READ 15:18-25

Persecution is the norm for those who follow Christ. I don’t know what you have experienced. Perhaps the ceiling at work seems to be shrinking. Perhaps the atmospheres around you is one of harassment for your faith. We may never know that we consider terrible persecution. Or, perhaps the terrorist’s hatred, even a jail cell, or funeral for your faith. Yet, no matter how it comes, it will come. So, how do we live in a world of persecution?

There are 3 realities Jesus gives … 3 things to “keep in mind”
1. You Do Not Belong To This World
If the world hates you … keep in mind …

You

A. Do Not Belong

– to this World

Our concerns are often over acceptance, adoration, love from those around us. And Jesus says “they don’t love you because you are not of, do not belong, to them.”

“not belong” “are not of” – it is a variation of eimi = “to have existence, to have an inheritance in”

Your existence is not in this world. This is not the place of your citizenship. You do not have your inheritance in this place. If we do not experience hatred, persecution, are we of the world? A.T. Robertson asks “has the world become more Christian, or the Christian more worldly?”

You do not BELONG to this world. Hebrews 11:9 says that Abraham lived in the Promised Land “in tents” v10 “for he was looking forward to the city … whose architect and builder is God”. V8 says that he was called “to a place he would LATER receive as an inheritance”. Abraham was living looking forward. Listen folks … this world IS part of your inheritance in Christ, but NOT now, a New Heaven and a New Earth … live like a resident looking forward.

You don’t belong to this world nor …

– To Your Persecutor

the terrorist, the harasser, the racist, the hatemonger is NOT your master. You do not belong to them. They can only do what God allows. Remember Job’s story. satan tormented and tested him, but he was only allowed to do what God permitted.

1 Corinthians 10:13 (NIV84)

¹³ No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

Every temptation is Common, God will provide a way, because God is Faithful. He is in charge. He allows what he decides is best and you are able to handle through him.

B. You Belong

– To Christ

He made you, he chose you, he bought you. You are his creation. You are his choice. You are his costly treasured possession. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. He told them, “you did not choose me, but I have chosen you”. You are a pearl of great price that Christ gave all he had to purchase. You belong to Christ and …

– To Heaven

Philippians 3:20–21 (NIV84)

²⁰ But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ 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.

The tormentor can have anything of this world because it doesn’t belong to me. Everything of this world will be burned up and recreated. Nothing in this world is worth the effort of your grip. Remember 1 Corinthians 10:13, God is the One to whom we belong and the One to whom all tormentors must bow. So then, 1 Corinthians 10:14 says “therefore … flee idolatry”. When we bow to our persecutor … to our suffering … through fear, decision-making, acquiescence to their will … then we are turning our persecutor into an idol, a god in our lives to be worshiped.

But we do not belong to this earth, nor to our persecutor. We belong to Heaven, to Christ, but we have temporarily been transplanted in this world, in this place in the world. So, we are but branches of the True Vine of Heaven, for now, planted on earth. We are here so that the earth might “taste test” Heaven and say “we have never tasted anything like this.”

Keep in mind that you belong to Christ and
1. They Will Persecute You
“If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also …”

Dioko = persecute, pursue, chase, strive for

The question here is not “IF” but “WHEN”. The only “if” is “if they persecuted me” and just hours later Christ was being arrested, falsely accused, beaten, and crucified. “if they persecute …”. The YLT says “if they DID Persecute”. Did they? Yes. Then, “they WILL persecute”, future indicative … that is, this is a coming reality, they WILL persecute you

A. Because Of My Name

“they will treat you this way”

Poieo = to do, practice, perform, These are not accidents but actions with intent.

Dia = because of, through, on account of

My onoma = name, person, reputation, title, authority

Jesus speaking about the evil times to come says

Luke 21:12 (NIV84)

¹² “But before all this, they will lay hands on you and persecute you. They will deliver you to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name.

“on account” – heneka = the marker of a participant constituting the event

Yes, as a Christian, you have a target on your back. It is the name, the person, Jesus, and his title as Lord, his reputation as the Darling of Heaven. That is what satan wanted and he hates all who have the name of Christ.

You will be persecuted intentionally because you claim Christ, or unintentionally because of the stand you take, and the values you have which are contrary to the values of this world. It is because Christ is in you.

2 Corinthians 2:14–16 (NIV84)

¹⁴ But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. ¹⁵ For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. ¹⁶ To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?

When you have Christ leading, affecting your decisions and actions, to those from this world, apart from Christ, opposed to Christ, they will hate what you do like a pungent odor that fills a room.

Jesus says “they have no excuse for their sin”. Don’t buy into the argument “they didn’t know”. Romans 1 and 2 say that creation and conscience testify to the truth and all men, deep down, know, they know they truth, they have heard in a witness, seen it in a sunrise, heard it in the first cry of a newborn.

Jesus says “if they hate you …”

B. They Hated Me First

Psalm 2:1-2 asks “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather against The Lord, and against his Anointed One.”

The hatred of God and his people is as old as time as we know it.

satan wanted to overthrow God’s loving rule and reign. He deceived 1/3^rd of the Angels to follow him, and they were banished from Heaven.

God created this earth and a beautiful garden, and placed his image, Adam and Eve, there. satan deceived and the result was death where God created life.

God claimed a people for Himself through which would come salvation and break sin’s hold. God took them to Egypt to deliver from famine. satan took the blessing of the people and the hatred of God’s people turned from blessing into slavery.

God set them free, led them to the Land of Promise but satan convinced them that they couldn’t succeed and they wandered for 40 years.

Haman tried to get the Persian King, Xerxes, to annihilate God’s people in exile, but God had positioned Esther to save his people.

Pharaoh, Antiochus, Herod the Great, Titus, Nero, The Ottomon Empire, Hitler, and today ISIS/ISIL and so many others have all tried to stop the plans of God through his people. They have attacked his name, his authority, his reputation, his title. Chosen People Ministries point out that perhaps one of the greatest deceptions of satan was when he has used Christians to persecute Israel, sealing for many, their hearts from seeing Jesus as Messiah.

satan hates God. satan attacked Jesus from the moment of his birth. He dogged him thoughout his life. He tried to kill him as a baby. He encouraged a suicide attempt in his great temptation. He attempted to discourage, defeat, and destroy, that is always his way.

So Jesus says … if the world hates you, keep in mind, it hated me first”

Then 70 years later, John has experienced it firsthand. All of his fellow disciples died for their faith. He had been imprisoned for his faith. And he said, in 1 John 3:13, “do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.”

That use of miseo = to hate, to detest is in the indicative tense meaning it is a real state of being. It is not something that is possible, it is just the way it is. “The world hates me”, Jesus says, “that’s just the way it is, so they hate you as well because I am in you, and you are in me, and I am in the Father.”

– Expect Nothing Better

– Desire Nothing Different

Paul says “I want to know Christ … fellowshipping in his suffering.” We can’t know the power of the resurrection without fellowship of suffering and conforming to his death.

We don’t really know life if we don’t know the Valley of the Shadow of Death. We don’t know what it is to be well, if we have not been sick. We cannot know the victory of overcoming, if we don’t know the struggles.

So, finally, what of the Oppressor, the Tormentor, Persecutor? What do we need to keep in mind?
1. They Do Not Know God
“They do not know the One who sent me”

The Persecutor does not know God. And we don’t say this as an indictment but mournfully, they do not know God.

– Not in salvation

– Not in a Relationship Walking with Him

A. Understand Their Station

It wasn’t that they hadn’t seen, heard, but they refused to know him instinctively, intuitively, they didn’t know God within. They knew about God, but if God walked into the room, they wouldn’t perceive it. So Jesus did and they didn’t know him as God.

Those who persecute you, do not know him in truth, or they have left the experiential knowledge of him, as he is never leading them in this torment, though he allows it.

Yet in all of this, we need to remember that …

– Jesus died for them

The context in 1 John 3:13 and the hatred of the world for us … is that we should LOVE. It is the evidence that we are alive in Christ, that we have LOVE for those who do not know him. So v16 says “this is how we know what love is, Jesus laid down his life for us …

– They don’t KNOW God, so they NEED God

Understanding that; then comes the hard part for some

B. Pray For Their Salvation

The response, of one bought by Christ, in the face of persecution, is to LOVE; and Love defends, but also prays for the deliverance, and salvation of the persecutor. Yes as a society, we have a duty and a right to protect the persecuted, to defend them. But as individuals we should show love and grace.

So, let me try and bring this to a close.

At www.opendoorsusa.org, there are resources on how to connect to those in persecution. They also give a list for “Standing Strong in the Storms”

a “Theology of Persecution”

… Let me give you their list

ii. Build Yourself a Cell

Psalm 46:10 (NIV84)

¹⁰ “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

A Chinese Church Leader after 23 years in prison said this to Christians who have not been persecuted

“I was pushed into a cell … you have to put yourself into one. You have not time to know God. You need to do for yourself, what persecution did for me. Simplify yourself and know God”

ii. God Keeps Secrets

Isaiah 55:8–9 (NIV84)

⁸ “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. ⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

You may never know what God is doing, but our labor is not in vain in the Lord

1 Corinthians 15:58 (NIV84)

⁵⁸ Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

iii. Weakness is a Direct Path to God’s Power

2 Corinthians 12:9–10 (NIV84)

⁹ … my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

An Egyptian Christian Persecuted for his Conversion said “in great suffering you discover a different Jesus than you do in normal life. Pain and suffering bring up to the surface all the weak points of your personality. In my weakest state, I had an incredible realization that Jesus loved me even right then.”

iv. Overcoming Is Better Than Deliverance

Romans 12:21 (NIV84)

²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Opendoorsusa says “persecuted Christians all over the world never ask us to pray that it would end, but that they would be strong through it”

v. Extreme Hurt Requires Extreme Forgiveness

Luke 23:34 (NIV84)

³⁴ Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” …

A Christian Iranian widow said “I only had hatred in my heart for my enemies who had murdered my husband. But one day a miracle happened, God taught me how I could love my enemies. I had been praying for this, even though on the deepest level, I didn’t want it to happen. Gradually through a process of ups and downs, God answered that prayer”

Love is the most Christ-like response to hatred and persecution

vi. Prayer Is the Ultimate Fellowship With Persecuted Christians

Hebrews 13:3 (NIV84)

³ Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.

1 Corinthians 12:26 (NIV84)

²⁶ If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

Every part of the body hurts when any part of the body hurts

How do we pray for the persecuted?

www.cru.com gives us some ways to pray for persecuted Christians

– Pray they would know the Hope God Gives – Ephesians 1:18

– Pray the Holy Spirit strengthen them – Ephesians 3:16

– Pray they would know how much God Loves them – Ephesians 3:17

– Pray for them to know how to share the Gospel – Ephesians 6:19

– Pray for them to fearlessly tell others about Jesus – Ephesians 6:20

– Pray for access to the Bible

– Pray for Courage to Remain

– Pray for support and family for those rejected

– Pray for God’s advocacy for women and children

– Pray for jobs and a safe place to live

Conclusion

Surviving and Thriving In Persecution …

… Is about Dying Before The Threat of Death before Persecution

Jesus survived the cross because he was slain from the foundation of the earth. He continued because his eyes were on the finish. He died in the garden. He died to self, “not my will but yours be done”

… Is about Lifting our Gaze

Psalm 121 (NIV84)

¹ I lift up my eyes to the hills— where does my help come from? ² My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. ³ He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber; ⁴ indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. ⁵ The Lord watches over you— the Lord is your shade at your right hand; ⁶ the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. ⁷ The Lord will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life; ⁸ the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

I must Fix My Eyes on Jesus

– Consider what he has DONE for you

– Consider the depth of his LOVE

– Consider the level of his SACRIFICE

Pray for those facing Persecution

Pray with Compassion for your Tormentor

When my eyes are on Jesus, my eyes are off suffering

When my heart is praying for others in persecution, I am not hurt by my trials

When I am praying for the perpetrator of my persecution, I will have the right perspective on what is the greatest priority, and away from my pain.
When Jesus Says Go … he fills the void

August 1st, 2016

When Jesus says “go” he will take care of those you leave behind.

Matthew 11:1 “After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee.”

The KJV says that he “departed … to teach and preach in THEIR CITIES”

Chapter 10 is Jesus’ instructions to the disciples before sending them out on his mission. 10:5 “these twelve Jesus sent out …”

My bride and I serve far from home. We are called to a place thousands of miles, an ocean and continents away from our parents, children, grandchildren, not to mention friends and extended family. We serve a people here who live their lives separated from their friends and family to protect the freedom of others. But what about those we have left behind? Who will take care of them? Who will teach them? And I hear the soft reply of my Savior, “I will my child, trust me, serve me, and let me serve you.”

It is such a beautiful and immediate thing when Jesus sends them out and immediately fills the void of their presence with his teaching. Mark 10:29-31 “I tell you the truth … no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields FOR ME and THE GOSPEL 30 will fails to receive a hundred times as much in this present age … and in the age to come, eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.” Never did those words mean so much as when God called us to Germany in January of 2012.

Interesting that we sometimes read and think “where is my increase?” My first thought this morning is that the increase is directly connected to what we left behind. I didn’t have money when I left, so I’m probably not going to have money here either. We left family and friends and have 100-fold increase here. We left a ministry and we have an increase of 100-fold here. We dearly miss our sons, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter, and yet, we have become “surrogate parents and grandparents” to hundreds that come through this place every year. We say “hello” and “goodbye” to so many in this ministry but that just is about increase over what we have left behind.

So then, as the Lord has sent us here … he continues to go to the places we have left behind and he fills the void with Himself. Yes, we are sacrificing for his call, but so are those we left behind. Their sacrifice of our presence is just as real. Still we have a loving Savior who goes to our cities and fills the void to overflowing. So we are not so sad when we see them doing well without us. That is just evidence of the blessing of the Savior, filling the little loss with the overflowing of his presence.

What a good good Savior.
Who Are You Lord?

July 25th, 2016

Acts 9:5 “Who are you Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”

Paul is about his business. He is fervant, religious, pious, a man on a mission from God, he thinks. He is defending God’s honor, he thinks, persecuting Christians on the road to Damascus. Have you ever met Jesus on the “Road to Damascus”?

“Who are you Lord?” “I am Jesus.”

Hagar was running from Sarah’s anger. She met The Angel of the Lord, Jesus, and called him, “the God who sees me”. “Wow, God knows my name, I never thought I was that important.” Jacob was on the run from Esau’s anger. He had a dream and saw God’s servants doing his work throughout the earth. He woke and said “surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” Samson’s parents met a stranger with good news, birth news, but then he ascended to Heaven in the fire of their offering and they thought, “oh no, that was God, and we are going to die. Wait, no, he wouldn’t reveal himself to us just to kill us.”

So, here is Paul, pious, busy, on mission, and Jesus knocks him down and he says, “Who are you Lord?”

What are you facing that has you asking, “what is going on here?”. Have you FIRST looked into the face of God and said, “Lord is this you?” While I don’t believe that every trouble is God’s hand, nor that it is always discipline, the result of sin. I DO, however, believe that the first thing we need to do is look for God in the midst of it. “Lord, are you saying something … are you causing or allowing this? Where are you in all of this?”

As tragedy seems on every headline right now, how much would have been avoided if everyone involved would ask, “Who are you Lord? Where are you Lord? What are you doing Lord?”

When injustice rears its head, there is a time, and a way to act, but that time and way is always just. It is never vengeance, or retribution. “‘Vengeance is MINE’, says the Lord”. Why does it belong exclusively to God? He is the only one JUST enough, WISE enough, and LOVE enough to exact vengeance that is RIGHT. The terrorist isn’t asking “who are you Lord?” He is saying “I am lord.” the vengeance seeker, shrouded in a false understanding of justice isn’t asking “who are you Lord?” They are believing that they have God’s wisdom, and all the while stirring the pot that will not heal festering wounds, and will not bring justice but only cause more pain.

Hagar, Jacob, Samson’s parents, and Paul found out what Jesus knew in the garden and experienced on the cross, “your will and not mine be done.” That’s why on the cross, under an unjustice sentence, he could say, “Father, forgive them …” Sometimes pain brings healing. Sometimes death brings life. Sometimes injustice brings justice. Sometimes failure brings triumph. If we can look up and see the face of Christ, realize that he is here, he is on the throne, and hear him say, “I will tell you what to do, I am in this”, then we can get through it and trust him.

So often, we are busy fighting for “right” only to find that God is at work, and he will always bring RIGHT. Could it be the thing you are fighting the hardest right now, is God at work, you just don’t know it?

Look up and ask

Listen and live
I Want to KNOW

July 12th, 2016

Philippians 3:10 says I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” (NIV84)

I want to know … ginosko = to know, learn, be familiar with, understand, find out

Do we really? Oh we want Jesus to give us peace, to satisfy our desires, but do we really want to know him. Often, I think not.

The word carries with it an intimacy. “I want to know and be intimate with God.” It is like Abraham was so intimate, such a friend of God, that when God was going to destroy Sodom, he said “should I hide this from Abraham?” Where does this intimacy come from? David knew it. It comes from walking with the Shepherd, day in, day out, through the seasons of the year. Psalm 23 says “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.” Why? It is because this is a picture of a year in the cycle of sheep and the Shepherd. Green pastures, quiet waters, paths of righteousness, are all in the Spring, in home pastures. But then he goes through dark valleys, with deathly predators all around, yet without fear because he has been there before with his Shepherd. Correction and Protection, both, are seen as the Shepherd’s comfort along the paths to the summer highlands. He is not worried because they are headed to the tablelands where he knows the Shepherd has already been and prepared for him a beautiful summer place. Yes, he stays with the Lord with enemies all around, and with the attack of the pests of late summer. He finds the Lord anoints his head, and fills his cup till it runs over. Then, he continues with the Lord back home to dwell for the winter. Notice then that goodness and mercy FOLLOW him. They do not come TO him, they follow him. So then, goodness and mercy SURELY belong to the sheep of the Shepherd’s flock but those things follow us as we follow HIM.

We often don’t know him because we won’t stay with him through it all.

So, back to Paul in Philippians 3:10. We are so driven by desires that we adjust his scripture to fit our selfish desires. We take thoughts in scripture out of context. We want what we want more than we want Christ. But Paul leads in with v8 I consider everything else a LOSS compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing him. Paul says he counts these things as rubbish the worst of garbage, a waste … because if he treasures those things, he will not treasure and gain knowledge of Christ. But as I turn my selfish treasure into trash, I find v9 that what remains is a righteousness that is not mine, but only exists by faith in Christ.

So, I want the intimate experience of Christ which comes as I follow him. Denying self, taking up the cross, then I can know the power of the resurrection v10. Oh, we want resurrection power, but we don’t want to be crucified with Christ, and then find we live, not us but Christ in us. If we want to know him intimately, we must be willing to suffer for and with him, and become like him, not my will but thine be done, Lord. In dying to self, in walking through suffering, persecution, struggles, and strife, the cross firmly across our shoulders, then we know him in resurrection power.

Do you really want to know Christ?

Take his hand, yes, you will lie in green pastures, and drink from still waters. But you will also go through shadows and valleys, know the hot breath of enemies, and yes he will correct and protect. But the tablelands are ours, and as we look behind, we find goodness and mercy follow as we follow him, and his home is our dwelling place forevermore. THEN we will really know Christ.

O. Chambers says “The spiritual saint … sees everything he is dumped down in as the means of securing knowledge of Jesus Christ” and “The Holy Spirit is determined that we shall realize Jesus Christ in every domain of life, and he will bring as back to the same point again and again until we do (My Utmost for His Highest – July 11)
Some Thoughts on the Deceiver

June 15th, 2016
Mt Vesuvius

There is nothing behind this, but just some thoughts I had about our adversary, the deceiver, the accuser, the serpent.

John 8:43-44 Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the Father of lies.”

Notice that it is not that our adversary didn’t know what truth was. He was created in truth, created in light, but he did not hold to the truth. He rejected truth, he renounced light and embraced darkness. No this isn’t a StarWars movie, this is supernatural history. The serpent emptied himself of light and truth.

His desire – John 10:10 tells us what it is, to steal, kill, and destroy.

From the beginning – Adam and Eve sinned on their own, but our enemy was instigator, thus resulting in their death.

No truth in him – “truth” spoken by the devil is always for the purpose of deception, so it is a lie. “Truth” when it is designed to deceive is a Lie. Wrestle with that for a minute. Slander is truth told to mislead about someone, and so thus the truth becomes a lie. That’s what he does.

Jesus does say that he lies, he says that he is a LIAR. He lies all the time. The way you can tell if satan is lying, is that his lips are moving. When he isn’t talking, he is planning a lie. He is the Father of lies – that is he is the Pater – father, originator of Lies. So every lie finds its progeny in him and also finds his pleasure.

So, just a couple of thoughts about what to do with deception vs truth, a couple of questions
1. Ask: What are the lies here? a) what is their purpose? Fear? Discouragement? Destruction? b) what is their result?
2. Ask: What is the Truth? a) what is the purpose? helps us find if “truth” might be a lie. b) reject the place of “truth” that is designed to deceive, divide, or destroy. Jesus said I came that you might have life. Discipline can be for the purpose of life. Truth sometimes is in the form of disciple and correction and that is good. But if this is for the purpose of the above desires of the Liar, then reject their place. c) Embrace truth designed to correct and respond with positive action. d) Embrace truth that encourages and that eliminates fear.
So, not a bottled up finish … but just some thoughts, if deception is your foe, think on these things

Selah …
Work Out What God Works In

June 6th, 2016

Philippians 2:12-13 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed … continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good pleasure

When we gave ourselves to Jesus he didn’t just give us a thing, salvation, redemption, even righteousness. Yes, he gave us all these things, but we received so great a salvation. It is great not just because of its expanse, it is so great because he gave us HIMSELF.

Work out … what He works IN.

We cannot work IN our salvaton, it comes by grace through faith along, it is not of ourselves. (Eph 2:8-9) It is by faith from first to last. (Romans 1:17)

I can’t earn it, and I can’t keep it. It is worked in me by Christ and kept in me by Christ. But he is IN me, in the person of the Holy Spirit. W.A. Criswell says “the only real possession we have is our salvation because every other possession we have will wear out, decay, be destroyed, die.”

I have said it this way, “there is no shelf life for our salvation.”

But since God has worked salvation IN us, we have to die to self, deny self to let that salvation, that righteousness get OUT. We have to remove the covering and let that shine, we are the light of the world, a city on a hill that cannot be hidden. I have likened it to the spider who builds a web, line by line, section by section, minute by minute, and then sets himself up in the center as if to say “How about that?” For the spider to NOT weave a web would go against his will which is the will of God who created him. So, it is God who works in us to will and to do his good pleasure. So, work out your salvation.

Work out what he worked in.

When we received Christ, we became a new creation, the old has passed, al things are made new. So, now I want to follow, I want to obey, I want to love, I want to serve. To NOT do any of those things goes against my WILL, given to me by God in Christ Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

When I do not love, serve, obey, follow, it is not a reflection of my will, it is a perversion of the will because I want to Go with God. That’s why we feel conviction, because it really isn’t what we want.

O. Chambers said “In the reginerated man the source of will is the Almighty … you have to work out with concentration and care what God works in.” He goes on to comment on this passage, “… you do not bring an opposed will to God’s will, God’s will IS your will, and your natural choices are along the line of God’s will, and the life is as natural as breathing.” WOW! Yes it is true. What we want, as a Christian, is to do the will of God. We want to breathe out what he breathed in. But oh sometimes we are like obstinant children holding our breath aren’t we? But God, like a loving parent, doesn’t concern himself too much about that because he knows he has made us to breathe and eventually we have to breathe out.

So, keep on working out what God is breathing in. I need not create breath. I need not create oxygen. God is creator of the oxygen, and God has breathed it into me. I simply must breath out. Live naturally the nature he has placed within me.
A Picture of Christ in the Old Testament – Chapter Eight – The Minor Prophets

May 27th, 2016

This is a New Study I developed at Faith Baptist Church on Wednesday night. I would love to hear from you.

Chapter Eight – The Minor Prophets

The Same, yesterday, today, and forever

That’s what Hebrews says about Jesus. As the writer of Hebrews wrote to the Jewish Community, dispersed, perhaps to Rome or to Alexandria, he wanted them to fully understand Jesus. And so, he used many “types” of Christ for them to see: God’s Word, Angels, The Sacrifices, The Law, The Prophets, The Promises, were all pointing us to Jesus. Jesus was in it all, he was the fulfillment of it all, and so he is greater than it all. So, as he closes his teaching he says in Hebrews 13:6 “so we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” And what is this confidence? V8 “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever.

Don’t believe those who try and paint a divergent picture of God, of Christ, in the Old Testament, New Testament, and Today. He is, he has been, will be the same. That is not to say that he does always for us what he has done for someone else, but his character does not change. His glory doesn’t change. So when we look at the Old Testament and find Jesus, then we have a better understanding of God in the Flesh, Immanuel, who we see in the Gospels. We then better understand the Christian Living enjoined in the writings of the Apostles. Through it all we can understand what he has said, how to apply the promises, carry out his commands, and live in expectation, Today.

So, one section still to walk through – The Minor Prophets, or the less recorded prophets. They are NOT minor. God’s word is never minor; it is always major. Some of the greatest prophesies are in these minor works. We only have time for a few, but let’s see.

Hosea

Oh what an amazing and wonderful thing it is when the Lord speaks. It is truly an amazing thing when he speaks to us, calls us by name. But as we have seen already that the Word of God given to his preacher is not always something pleasant. I had preachers counsel me, “don’t be a preacher, unless God will not let you do anything else.” Because when the word of God comes it is not all flowers and fluffy clouds. But I guess if God’s people were always following him, and in communion with him there wouldn’t be a reason for preachers.

And so God’s Word comes to Hosea …

In 1:2 – … the Lord said to him, “Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord.”

“I’m sorry Lord, what was that?”

Israel was always seen as the wife of God. So unfaithfulness to him and his commands was equal to adultery. The Church is the promised bride of Christ, being prepared for a beautiful wedding in Heaven.

So he obeys God, then Hosea and his wife Gomer have a son, and name him Jezreel = God sows, because God was about to do some plowing under in Israel. Then a daughter was born, Lo-Ruhamah = Not loved, because God’s love for Israel was not going to be shown. And then they had another son, Lo- Ammi = not my people for v8 you are not my people and I am not your God

Wow …see a pattern developing … where is the good news? V10 YET …

Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘you are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ 11 The people of Judah and the people of Israel will be reunited, and they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel

Where is Jesus? In this adulterous generation where do we find Jesus? He is the seeker of the Sinner to be his Bride. The same lover who seeks his beloved in the Song of Solomon. The same one who seeks the one who wants to be loved and loving, seeks the one who is rebellious. The same one also calls the fickle follower back to himself as Hosea would have to do when Gomer left him to return to her old ways. And so Romans 5:8 God demonstrated his love toward us in that WHILE we were STILL SINNERS Christ died for us

The beginning of this fulfillment came in the ministry of Christ and the provision of the Cross

1 Peter 2:10 (NIV84) Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

But as all his promises, it won’t only come true in theory, and in allegory, but in reality in the end times. Revelation 7:4-9; Galatians 4:27

3:1 Go show your love to your wife again though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods …

V2 so I bought her for 15 shekels of silver, and about a homer and a lethek of barley. This price btw … the silver with the barley equal 30 shekels of silver … which Exodus 21:32 says in the cost of a lost slave.

So too, while we had sold ourselves to slavery, Jesus bought us … he was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver but the price was DEATH … and he counted and paid it to the full

So, 14:1 Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall! 2 Take words with you and return to him. Say to him: Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips.””

Oh Listen, all we have to take with us to Christ are words … “Lord forgive … receive” with intent to worship him with our lives. Anything else we bring comes up short … but everything we need is in Christ

Joel

The Lord is prominent in … The Day of the Lord this is a concept that will be throughout the minor prophets.

2:1 Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming.

1:3 tell it to your children and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation

The Day of the Lord was the day Jesus was born and lived, died, and rose. It will be the day / season of judgment, and restoration. It will be eternity in his presence. And it was the day he became MY Savior, Lord, and Friend

Amos

Jesus is the Judge of Nations in Amos

1:2 The Lord roars from Zion, and thunders from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds dry up, and the top of Carmel withers

His judgment is always Just and he gives legal reasons for his indictments in chapter 1.

5:23-24 away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream

6:1 Woe to you who are complacent in Zion

9:11 in that day I will restore David’s fallen tent. I will repair its broken places, restore its ruins, and build it as it used to be …

Then in those days … prosperity will flow

Jonah

What a wonderful little story to be included in these prophets’ writing.

The word of the Lord came to Jonah … 2 go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me

It is a proclamation of Judgment. Not on God’s people but on a wicked people. Jonah didn’t want to go. There is no promise of anything gracious here, just a promise of judgment. On one hand Jonah would expect to be HAPPY to deliver a message like this to a place so wicked. Nineveh was as wicked as they came. This is a people that always tried to top God and bring him down. The city was founded by Nimrod. He was grandson of Noah’s son, Ham. Outside of scripture, sources and tradition say this is where Babel was built when the people began to move east … They were wicked, cruel. They would build with the skulls of their defeated and cover their walls in the skins of defeated foes. So perhaps Jonah was scared to go preach. But though understandable, that was NOT why Jonah didn’t want to go … We know more at the end of the story about the encounter with God. Although God never promised to relent if they repented … Jonah knew God … and when the people responded to the proclamation of judgment with repentance, sack cloth and ashes, fasting … 3:10 when God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.

And Jonah got angry … and then we find out why he ran … what he had said to God in the first place …

4:2 O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home? This is why I was quick to flee … I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity

Jonah knew the glory of God Exodus 34:6-7 … and he wasn’t afraid of Nineveh, he was afraid Nineveh might get SAVED! Greatest Revival in history … and he was mad about it.

What do we see of Jesus?

… that he is CONCERNED about the Lostness of the Worst Sinners.

… that if he can save Me, he can save anybody

… that if he can save anybody, he can save me

Was Jonah real? The Fish real? Jesus said “As Jonah was 3 days in the belly of the huge fish so the son of man will be 3 days in the earth” …. Jesus believed he was real, and Jesus was buried for 3 days … if 1 isn’t true, is the other?

Micah

He was a contemporary of Isaiah, beginning with Uzziah’s son Jotham through Ahaz and Hezekiah.

1:3 Look! The Lord is coming from his dwelling place; he comes down and treads the high places of the earth

“high places” refers to pagan worship sites.

Where do we see Jesus?

4:2 Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths. The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 3 He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide …

Then it gives us a picture of the Millennium and Jesus ruling from Jerusalem

Swords into plowshares … spears into pruning hooks

4:5 all the nations may walk in the name of their gods; we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever.

Then we move into the passage that instructed the Magi …

4:8 As for you, O Watchtower of the flock … that is Migdal Eder – the watchtower between Bethlehem and Jerusalem where they watched the flocks destined to be sacrificial lambs. It was there where most likely the shepherds were that were called to Bethlehem that late winter, early spring night.

5:2 – But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler of Israel, whose origins are from old, from ancient times

Oh Jesus was born in Bethlehem but he didn’t start in Bethlehem … his origins are from of old … In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and was God. He was with God in the beginning

5:4 He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth.

Still we see his coming, and then still he is coming. He provided peace, and yet peace is still to come. Peace has come to our hearts and yet peace is still to come to our lives in a physical present way.

And finally in this book the most beautiful picture of Jesus

7:18-19 who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl our iniquities into the depts. of the sea. You will be true to Jacob, and show mercy to Abraham, as you pledged on oath to our fathers in days long ago

He is a promise keeper

Nahum

Remember that the glory of God is Gracious, Compassionate, slow to anger, forgiving the guilt of our sin … but he will not let the guilty go unpunished …

So Nineveh, forgiven under the preaching of Jonah because of the repentance of the people.

Now 100 years later they have returned to their old ways, they are not repentant, and God brings their destruction and disappearance forever from history.

The other side of his glory … God will never send anyone to judgment, but a Just God must do what justice demands …

Nahum 1:2–8 (NIV84) The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The Lord takes vengeance on his foes and maintains his wrath against his enemies. ³ The Lord is slow to anger and great in power; the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet. ⁴ He rebukes the sea and dries it up; he makes all the rivers run dry. Bashan and Carmel wither and the blossoms of Lebanon fade. ⁵ The mountains quake before him and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, the world and all who live in it. ⁶ Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his fierce anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; the rocks are shattered before him. ⁷ The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him, ⁸ but with an overwhelming flood he will make an end of Nineveh; he will pursue his foes into darkness.

Habbakuk

Don’t ever think that God’s silence in trials means he doesn’t hear and won’t bring justice …

1:2 How long, O Lord must I call for help but you do not listen?

1:5 Look at the nations and watch – and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.

What we see in Habbakuk is a God who hears and answers prayer

Zechariah

Well we won’t look at every book. But you may know I LOVE Zechariah. You can go online to our website and watch my 17 sermons from this book.

1:8 – A man riding a red horse! … standing among the myrtle trees … 10 the man standing among the myrtle explained … they report to the Angel of the Lord, who was standing among the myrtle … Lord Almighty how long will you withhold mercy from Jerusalem … the Lord spoke kind and comforting words … I am Jealous for Jerusalem … I will return to Jerusalem with mercy

God keeps his promise … 70 years has passed … God keeps his promise

He is a God who is jealous for his own, and for his glory

He does get angry in Justice

He will return with Mercy – Ezekiel 10:18-19; 11:22-23

I will Bring Prosperity and Blessing

Isaiah 40:1-11 – Comfort my people … speak tenderly … every valley shall be raised, every mountain and hill made low … he tends his flock like a shepherd. He gathers the lambs in the arms and carries them close to his heart …

A Picture of what Happens Spiritually when we Turn to God is in – 3:1-10 – I Believe it is a picture of the supernatural in our salvation and anytime we repent and turn to God.

V1 – satan standing at his right side to accuse him … Oh the devil doesn’t want you to repent even less than Jonah wanted Nineveh to hear the message of God. who do you think directed Jonah’s thoughts? Why do you think some of your biggest fusses happen in the car on the way to church? How many headaches, cares, concerns, come to a peak during or before service

1. satan will accuse you, before God, before men, before yourself

2. Christ comes to your defense

V2 the Lord said to satan, “the Lord rebuke you, satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?”

Oh God is FOR you … you are never so far away as when you are turned from him, but you are never so close as when you turn your head, turn your heart, turn your steps back to him, he is right there … to snatch you from the fire …

Romans 8:33-34 – who will bring a charge against those whom God has chosen? Who is he that condemns? … Christ Jesus … died … raised … is also interceding for us

3. Christ Transforms Us

V3 Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes … 4 the angel said to those who were standing before him, “take off his filthy clothes”… see I have taken away your sin, and I put rich garments on you” … put a clean turban on his head (Crown)

M. Henry – now that he looks clean … let him look Great

Oh he doesn’t just take from us he replaces with so much greater … richer … eternal

4. He Commissions Us

If you will walk in my ways and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you a place among these standing here

Oh he saves us in the heavenlies to bring us to the heavenlies … Hallelujah

Oh I wish I could preach you the whole book, because I just love it … but one more

12:7 the Lord will save the dwellings of Judah first … 8 on that day the Lord will shield those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the Angel of the Lord … 9 on that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem 10 And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. 11 … in the plain of Megiddo …

They will look on Him … given because God so Loved … he lived among us in perfection … called us to repentance … showed us God’s glory, gave a sacrifice …

And they will mourn …

Many mourned when he died … but until we mourn our sin … we don’t really understand his death. His death was more than a waste, it was a sacrifice for ME …

When we mourn our sin … and recognize his sacrifice … we are ready to receive … Grace and Supplication – God’s grace follows our repentance … Jonah knew it … it IS the Glory of God … slow to anger, gracious and compassionate, forgiving our sin …

John 6:37 whoever comes to me I will never drive away

From his wounds … God’s grace flows over us

Pierced, he presents himself for us …

Pierced he brings us in to God’s grace

Pierced he will remain … John 20:27 – see my hands … reach out your hand and put it in my side … stop doubting and believe

Oh we will have no problem recognizing Jesus in Heaven. The scars will still be there. And some day we will be in Heaven and Revelation 4 and 5 says God will be on the Throne arrayed in splendor. All of the church, the priesthood of God will be there. We will be dressed in white with crowns of gold on our heads. Flashes of lightning and peals of thunder will come from the throne and the Holy Spirit will be ablaze before God. There will be Heavenly Beings before the throne leading worship saying

“Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come”

And every time they say that, we, the church will fall down in worship and lay our crowns down saying,

“you are worthy … to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things and by your will they were created and have their being.”

Then it says that God will have in his hand a scroll sealed up with seven seals. And a call will go out across the multitudes of people, angels, and creatures asking “who is worthy to break the seal and open the scroll or even look inside?” And no one in heaven or earth or under the earth will be worthy … Then one of those church folk, the 24 elders, maybe you, will say “do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David has triumphed. He is Able to open the scroll …”

And Then we will see a LAMB, looking as if it had been slain standing in the center of the throne … and He will take the scroll from the right hand of God and as we look on Jesus, the one they pierced, Still bearing the scars of our sacrifice, we will sing a new song

You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals

Because you were slain

And with your blood you purchased men for God

From every tribe and language and people and nation …

And all of Heaven will Declare

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain

To receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength

And honor and glory and praise!

To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb

Be praise and honor and glory and power

For ever and ever!

They will look on Him, The One Who Was Pierced …

Oh will YOU Look?

Pierced we see his love

Pierced we see the price has been paid

Pierced our sins are forgiven

Pierced we can be his children

Look and Believe

Look and Receive

Look and Live

And so … chapter 13 says on that day a fountain will be opened … Oh what a Glorious Day … Idols banished …

Oh see him in 13:7 strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered …

Oh what a glorious day …

14:8 on that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem … 9 the Lord will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one Lord, and his name the only name

V20 – Holy to the Lord will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, and the cooking pots in the Lord’s house will be like sacred bowls in front of the altar …

Oh God … on the day of Christ … the every day is amazing … the common place is supernatural and the supernatural common place …

Because Jesus Is Lord

If you have read through the Great Testament to God’s promises called the Old Testament you understand that you can’t fully understand the Testament to the Fulfillment of the promises called the New Testament, if you haven’t found Jesus in the previous testament.

May the Lord bless us as we see him in the fullest way we can … through his complete revelation in his word. Old and New, exciting and mundane, Beginnings, Law, History, Poetry, and Prophesy … it is all by Jesus, it is all for Jesus, it is all to Jesus

Romans 11:33–36 (NIV84) Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! ³⁴ “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” ³⁵ “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?” ³⁶ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.

Oh Who … Who … who? It is Jesus … that’s who knows God, counsels with God, and reveals God … to him be glory forever and ever.
A Picture of Christ in the Old Testament

May 24th, 2016

This is Chapter Seven of a New Study I developed at Faith Baptist Church on Wednesday Nights. I’d love to hear what you think.

Session Seven: In the Major Prophets

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Well … through the beginnings, through the Law, through the History books, Through the Poetry and Wisdom … Jesus. Jesus has always been there. He is the Image of the invisible God. He is God with us, God to us, God for us.

So we turn to the Major Prophets. They are not major because they are better, but because they are bigger.

Isaiah, the son of Amoz wrote the book of Isaiah to Judah and Jerusalem, during the reign of the kings, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Those bookend of Kings would have both been heroes for Israel and for Isaiah.

His prophesy begins by saying “Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth! For the Lord has spoken ‘I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows his master, the donkey his owners manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.’ Ah sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the Lord: They have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him.”

So … the people had been unfaithful … they had forsaken God … Jesus told the Pharisees once that they search the scripture thinking that by their knowledge they would have life, but they refuse to come to HIM … the One the scriptures testify about … to HAVE Life.

So, when Isaiah was called by God, Uzziah was King. Uzziah was a king for 52 years. Mostly he was a good King. He was faithful to God. But one day he got out of order, tried to do the work of a priest. He was corrected but did it anyway. He went into the temple and tried to offer incense. Remember to obey is better than sacrifice. So he was struck with leprosy. Most commentators say that Isaiah was related as a nephew or cousin to Uzziah. He was the country’s hero, but he was a special hero to Isaiah. He died in the separation and shame and shame of leprosy. And in that year when he died, no longer having glory, no longer having rule, no longer having majesty, Isaiah saw The Lord

Isaiah 6:1-10

Who did Isaiah see? The Lord – Adonai – Remember we have said that 1 Timothy 6:16 says no one has or can see God. So who did he see?

John says about Isaiah, John 12:41 “… he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.”

Isaiah saw JESUS …

How did he See the Lord?

On a Throne …

Psalm 146:3–4 (NIV84) Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save. ⁴ When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing.

Psalm 146:10 (NIV84) The Lord reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the Lord.

Uzziah no longer sat on a throne, he was already buried in the place where every King goes … the ground. But there was Jesus … ON the THRONE …

High and Lifted Up – this was not the essence of God – that is Father, but the dominion of God, his authority given to the son. John’s connection of Jesus to this vision is clearly the proclamation of his divinity, his eternity, and his superiority.

Train filled the temple – interestingly, Isaiah doesn’t have a description of Jesus’ appearance because this was a vision to show his Immensity, his Expanse, his Glory, which is beyond description. All he really saw was the hem of his garment … oh but the power of that hem. Do you remember the woman with the “issue of blood” in her stomach? She had sought doctors for years, she had spent all she had, but she saw Jesus was coming through town. She pushed her way through the crowd, and threw herself at his feet touching the HEM of his garment. She was like the Canaanite woman that asked Jesus for crumbs from the table. Isaiah saw Jesus, filling the universe and his robe hem came down and filled the temple. Similarly, there is a very mysterious encounter between Aaron and the Elders of Israel on Mt. Sinai. Before Moses received the law from God’s hand they had been consecrated and God gave them a little taste …

Exodus 24:9–10 (NIV84) Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up ¹⁰ and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself.

They “saw the God of Israel” … but the only thing they “saw” was the pavement under his feet. It was sapphire … clear as the sky … What was it fully? Don’t know but it sounds like God’s Glory was shining out everything else, and all then could see was what was under his feet. Oh it was beautiful … but it was all they could see …

What was Around Him?

PRAISE – Don’t get a small picture here. Everything about this vision is HUGE. So don’t just see two seraphs. It just says “… seraphs, each with six wings: with two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another …” If your mind is too focused you might only see a pair of angels. But I see innumerable pairs of angels calling to each other … surrounding our Jesus with Words of Praise … calling to one another … Oh I believe when we get to heaven we will be in awe and there will be a lot of this going on … “Do you see him, Do you see Him? He is amazing, he is wonderful, he is majestic, he is like no other, like no other, mighty, mighty, mighty, the whole earth is just FULL of his GLORY.”

And so these Angels cried …

“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty, the whole earth is full of his glory”

And the doorposts shook at their voices, and the temple was filled with smoke …

Smoke comes from the prayers of the Altar of Incense …

Smoke comes from the fires of the Altar of Sacrifice …

Jesus is the Answer to our prayers

Jesus is the Answer to our sin

He is the Deliverance we seek

He is the Forgiveness Provider for our Sin

Oh Holy, Holy, Holy, like no other, is our God. Who else so wronged by rejection, stubbornness, so just, so righteous, and so able to judge; would himself become our Way-maker? Who would himself become the vehicle for grace?

What did he do?

He saw himself as he was.

Oh when Peter realized it was Jesus he said “Lord I am sinful”. Another time he realized it was Jesus on the shore and he covered himself up. Why? Because Jesus in front of us shows us how we are. Just like Uzziah was leprous, when he thought he was an untouchable King, so Isaiah saw himself as he was … “WOE to ME!” – owy – woe, alas … oh he said “I am a dead man” … I am ruined (NIV) I am undone (KJV) I am lost (ESV) = damah = destroyed

Remember when Samson’s Father realized he had seen God and he said “we are going to die”?

I am a sinner not just in the general, universal situation, I am a sinner in a specific fashion. When we see God, see Jesus, there is no more pretending, beating around the bush, we come clean. “I am unclean … in my lips” … specifics don’t matter, but he knew and God knew.

Why did he know he was unclean? Because he saw the Lord of Hosts – Jehovah Tsaba – the Commander of the Hosts of Heaven … Oh that’s who Joshua saw overlooking Jericho

What did God do?

He did NOT leave him that way

“A seraph flew to me with a live coal … from the altar … touched my mouth … SEE … your guilt is taken away and you sin atoned for”

Oh hallelujah … God didn’t look the other way. He didn’t just clean him up but leave him with the guilt. He didn’t reform him, he pardoned him. But Pardon is not without a price. Your sin is atoned for – kaphar = purged, atoned for, annulled, blotted out, forgiven – those are the words used in the English by different translations to translate this beautiful action of God. Oh my sin is so great that one word cannot even describe all that God has done to take it away. I have been purged, removed of the root, I have been atoned for, paid in full, annulled and blotted out, like it was never there, that’s justification. I am forgiven, as he has borne the weight of my sin.

What God Said

Whom shall I send, who will go for US – who is the US? Father, Son, and Spirit. This is not simply the hosts of Heaven. Because the hosts of Heaven serve God, they are not part of God’s dominion. God always has a mission. He always has a plan. As he reconciles us to himself, he then gives us the ministry of reconciliation. You have been saved to tell, saved to share, saved to minister him to others. 1 Corinthians 1 says that we comfort others with the comfort we have received. 2 Corinthians 5 says we have that same ministry of reconciliation that came to us. You were always called to call. We will never fail to hear the voice of God to go, if we hear the voice of God to come.

How Isaiah Responded

HERE I AM – Literally BEHOLD or SEE ME … he was there with hand raised, voice lifted, “Lord pick me, pick me, I’ll go, send me!”

Have you seen him? Have you worshiped him? Have you been Cleansed? Have you gone for him? If answer to question #4 is NO … then you better go back to #1-3 because you missed something.

Prophesies in Isaiah

Isaiah 7:10 “Ask the Lord for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights”

Now this is God speaking to an ungodly king. And offering to him an opportunity to prove himself. Listen, when God says “Tell me what you want and I will do it” … you should take him up on the offer. It is rude not to, but more than that you miss a chance to see God’s Glory right in front of you. And Ahaz says I will not put the Lord to the test … that sounds spiritual, and that’s a scripture answer, but if God offers a test take it. But he didn’t want a test because he didn’t want to be accountable to the proof. If the proof of the pudding is in the tasting, we have to taste to have the proof. Once we taste then we have to be willing to consume it if it proves good. Oh taste and see that the Lord is good. But we often say
“NO, I don’t want to taste, I don’t want to be accountable to the taste.”

7:14 – the Lord himself will give you a sign: the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel

The Promised One, The Christ, had been promised since Genesis 3:15 … and Isaiah affirms that he WILL come … but just to make sure you understand and do not confuse him with any other … he will be born of a virgin. He will be born Supernaturally.

He will be called Immanuel – His name would not be Immanuel, but his call, his duty, his purpose will be to be God with Us …

Matthew 1:21–25 (NIV84) She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” ²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ²³ “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.” ²⁴ When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. ²⁵ But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

But Israel was experiencing gloom and defeat because of people that followed the way of Ahaz … what was God’s word for them?

Isaiah 9:1-7

We like to go straight for verse 6 and then only at Christmas – FOR … to us

FOR … ki = because, as, surely, verily, indeed – For what?

Isaiah 9:1–7 (NIV84) Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan— ² The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. ³ You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as men rejoice when dividing the plunder. ⁴ For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. ⁵ Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. ⁶ For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ⁷ Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

To Us … To those who will see him and know him … The Angel in Luke 2 said this was good news of great joy for ALL people

A child is born … he is LIKE us … a child, and born of us, in our condition

A son is given … a son has the authority of his Father, a son has the blessing of his Father, a son has the inheritance of his Father … and his Authority, Blessing, and Inheritance is GIVEN to us …

Government upon his shoulders – Oh rule is his because he is the only one good enough, mighty enough, loving enough, to bear the weight of rule.

And he will be called

Wonderful Counselor – Wonderful – pele’ = Oh do you remember that God told Samson’s parents that his name was too wonderful to say? That is this same word. Counselor – yoes – counselor, advisor … where are you looking for the plan? He has it

Mighty God – Gibbor – Manly, vigorous, hero, CHAMPION – Oh stick with a winner

Everlasting Father – Abi = chief, father, ancestor, progenitor – oh he is the beginner of all things … In the Beginning God … He started, the First, and he will finish, the Last …

Prince of Peace – shalom = peace, prosperity, success, welfare, state of health, friendliness, deliverance, salvation – Yes Please … I need it all, I need health, I need peace from my war with God, I need a friend of God, I need deliverance from this judgment of death … Save me Prince … Save me

Of the Increase … there will be no end … His Rule, His Peace is without end. Listen, God made us to live for eternity. Eternity is the destiny of ALL … the question is what address will we take up? If we let him rule us … he will rule us in peace and we will know that peace for eternity. If we choose to be at war with him, reject him, his government will still never end, but we will place ourselves outside the borders of Peace.

On the throne of David to establish and uphold it

Psalm 89:4 (NIV84) ‘I will establish your line forever and make your throne firm through all generations.’ ” Selah

With Justice and Righteousness … again … there are two sides to his glory, compassion and judgment … which side we are on depends on our obedience to the call … Exodus 34:6-7

Oh but how can we pull this off? You don’t have to …

The Zeal of the Lord of Hosts will DO THIS …

Isaiah 11:1

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesus … Olive trees grow in a funny way. They go down into the ground and come up and come up and come up. So they have these funny looking trunks when they grow a long time. But also if you cut a tree down, if the roots still have nutrients, the shoot will go underground and come up another place, another time.

So … remember Rahab, she believed the word of God. She feared the Lord, she obeyed the instruction of God, and God saved her through a scarlet cord out of her window in Jericho. And she became part of God’s people. And she married Salmon and they had a son named Boaz. Boaz, took in another woman from outside Israel who was committed “your people my people, your God my God” … and They had a son, Obed. And he had a son Jesse, and he had a son David. David had a son Solomon, but Solomon’s son Rehoboam splintered the Kingdom. Eventually Judah lost their Rule over their own land, but God keeps his promise. It would seem that the tree of Jesse, was cut down … but God was still at work …

From his roots a Branch will bear fruit

What is the picture of Jesus? One indwelt by the Spirit of God … v2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him …

Here is a picture of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit really? Yes the Holy Spirit living in and dwelling, working, empowering Jesus

When Jesus was baptized, God gave a visual of it. The Holy Spirit descended like a dove and landed on him.

So, this is the Holy Spirit? Certainly

Revelation 1:4–5 (NIV84)

⁴ John, To the seven churches in the province of Asia: Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, ⁵ 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,

John sees this vision and writes to the 7 churches of Asia … and who is this Message from? God.

V4 God the Father – Him who is, and who was, and who is to come

V5 God the Son – from Jesus Christ … faithful witness, firstborn from the dead, ruler … who loves and has freed us from our sins by his blood

So … where’s the Holy Spirit

V4 God the Holy Spirit is – from the seven spirits before the throne

Revelation 4 … God the Father is seen on the Throne … God the Son will appear taking the scroll, a Lamb who was slain … but there also is the Holy Spirit

Revelation 4:5 (NIV84) From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God.

So back to Isaiah 11:2

Isaiah 11:2 (NIV84) The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord—

Did you count them? The Spirit of …

1… of the Lord

2… wisdom

3… understanding

4… counsel

5… power

6… knowledge

7… fear

Jesus will delight in the fear of the Lord

John 17:4 I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do

V3 `He will not judge by what he sees … or decide by what he hears …

V4 but with righteousness he will judge

V5 righteousness his belt … faithfulness the sash … sounds sort of like the Armor of God we are to take up … Ephesians 6

V10 In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious

V12 he will raise a banner for this nations and gather exiles …

Isaiah 12:1–2 (NIV84)

¹ In that day you will say: “I will praise you, O Lord. Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me. ² Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.”

Ok … we need to move on …

Isaiah 53 – Suffering Savior

Psalm 98:1 (NIV84) Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.

Isaiah 59:16 (NIV84) He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm worked salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him.

Isaiah 63:5 (NIV84) I looked, but there was no one to help, I was appalled that no one gave support; so my own arm worked salvation for me, and my own wrath sustained me.

So this arm is seen not as a Mighty Arm, but as an outstretched arm on a cross

Isaiah 52:10 (NIV84) The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.

Isaiah 52:13 begins the discourse

Isaiah 52:13–15 (NIV84) See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. ¹⁴ Just as there were many who were appalled at him— his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness— ¹⁵ so will he sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand.

Jesus was lifted up … it was appalling … after beating, spat upon, beard plucked, crown of thorns, blood stained face … grotesquely forced onto a cross … and like the blood of the sacrifice sprinkled on the altar and on the mercy seat … so he will sprinkle many nations … and kings will shut their mouths … Whether they close their mouths in disbelief or in repentance, there was nothing else to say.

Peter boldly proclaimed Christ at Pentecost and before the priests in Acts 2 and 4 … but they could not make any statement against the truth he proclaimed … that Jesus was this one …

Who has believed our message?

V2 a tender shoot … (Isaiah 11:1, 10)

V2 no beauty, majesty, to attract – Moses was described as “no ordinary child” – he must have been a beautiful baby to catch the heart of the Pharaoh’s daughter (Acts 7:20, Hebrews 11:23). David was a handsome young man, obviously a leader to come when he was anointed. 1 Samuel 16:12 … but Jesus was ordinary, nothing to attract us to him. We draw these beautiful pictures … but he was simply ordinary.

V3 he was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering, like one from whom men hide their faces … What a powerful image of Jesus. I think we think Jesus had a great, easy, carefree life … even ministry, and then a rough final few months, a terrible last week, and then death, then resurrection. “Oh I could do that, we might dare to think.” NO … it was a life of misery with joys scattered within. But he was never focused on personal happiness but in the joy that is fulfilling the plan of God, joy that comes from setting captives free. So like a Hero, who lays down his life to set captives free and is bruised, bloodied, destroyed in his efforts, so Jesus was … the only beauty is the beauty of the task completed.

V4 Surely he took up our infirmities

The God who made everything with his word, the God who had all power, laid that down. Oh he may have walked on water, and healed sickness, but he lived in the confines of our fallen world in its fullness. He took it up … borne … nasa – to carry, to lift, to raise, to take away …

He carried our sorrows – Yet we just thought he was hated by God … “what bad luck this guy has, how misguided he is he must be sinful to be afflicted such by God …”

But he was Pierced for our transgressions

He was Crushed for our iniquities

The Punishment that brought US peace … was upon him …

Atonement … Break that word apart … we are separated from God by our sin …but the death of Christ in our place has brought … At ONE ment – between us and God. Jesus came because we were already condemned and enables us to be at one with God again.

We … like Sheep … have gone astray … like stupid, wandering, meandering sheep …

We have turned to our own way … And the wages of sin is death

V6 and the Lord has LAID on him the iniquity of us all. So what is our sickness?

Transgressions – the actions of the flesh

Iniquity – actions of the heart

And v5 by his wounds … we are healed … not of physical but of sin and iniquity.

This is NOT a verse to use talking about any physical healing … because it is Not the nature or purpose of the prophesy.

He was oppressed and afflicted

Yet he did not open his mouth

He was led like a lamb to the slaughter – And as sheep before the shearers is silent So he did not open his mouth

He was cut off from the land of the living …

For the transgression of my people he was stricken

He was assigned a grave with the wicked … with the rich …

And they buried him in Joseph’s Tomb … and New Tomb

YET … Oh I live the contractions of Scripture

But God … here … Yet …

It was the Lord’s will to crush him … to suffer … make his life a guilt offering …

V11 after the suffering of his soul … he will see the light of life and be satisfied

Oh on the cross the light at the end of the tunnel was LIFE Eternal for you and for me

He will justify many

He will bear their iniquities

V12 THEREFORE … I will give him a portion among the great … because he poured out his life unto death … for he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors …

Tonight we must stop there … Read the Rabbi’s Dilemma on Jews for Jesus website

http://jewsforjesus.org/publications/issues/v02-n05/isaiah53

No time for Isaiah 37:36; 2 Kings 19:35 where The Angel of the Lord strikes their enemies from Assyria

Jeremiah 7:11; Matthew 21:13

Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 8:8-12

Jeremiah 31:31–35 (NIV84) “The time is coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. ³² It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. ³³ “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. ³⁴ No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” ³⁵ This is what the Lord says, he who appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the Lord Almighty is his name:

Oh Daniel is also full of Jesus

From the 4^th man in the Fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednigo … one who Nebuchadnezzar said looks like the Son of God

Daniel 3:35 – a Rock that became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth … v45 a rock cut not by human hands … that will endure v44

Daniel 7:13; Matthew 26:64; Mark 14:62

Daniel 7:9,13; Revelation 1:13-14 – thrones set in place and the Ancient of Days took his seat, clothed in White, hair like what wool, flaming fire, wheels ablaze – thousands upon thousands, ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him … books opened …

Daniel 9:26 accurately predicts when he will come and when he will be cut off

Daniel 12 – The Ancient of Days, is the Man Dressed in Linen, righteousness telling Daniel that the mystery yet unfolding is too wonderful for him to see.

Jesus is there open your eyes and see him come alive

One more chapter next week.
Wasted Thoughts

May 23rd, 2016

How many wasted minutes do we spend daily with our thoughts on “God Things”? By that I don’t mean wasted thinking godly things. I mean wasted time thinking about things in the dominion, concern, and control of God. How much time do we waste in worry over things we cannot control? If we wasted only 10 minutes a day, that would be 3,650 in a year. That’s 60 hours in a year which is 2.5 days a year wasted in worry from 10 minutes a day. But if you wasted 30 minutes on worry every day, that’s 7.5 days over the course of a year. If we stay with math and are honest, if you worry, you worry more than 10 minutes, more than 30. If you spent an hour consumed by worry, that’s 15 days of worry in a year. That is a full 3 work week vacation wasted on worry. That’s a vacation away from completing the tasks of God in your life.

Jesus says in Matthew 6 that we have a worry problem. The problem with worry is that we are serving two masters when we worry. He says we are trying to lay up treasure in places that are not safe. We are treasuring earthly things, things that will rust, or be destroyed, stolen, or otherwise consumed outside of our control. So, Jesus says, lay up treasure in Heaven.

So, in v24, Jesus says “no one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” (NIV84)

“Therefore” v25 “Do not worry …”(NIV84) The KJV says “take no thought about your life” … “what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear … Is not your life more important than food … the body more important than clothes?”

Of course this is not saying “don’t think about food, just eat whatever.” Nor is it saying “don’t think about clothes, just wear whatever.” No, it is saying “don’t waste time in worry about these essentials.” The word is merimnao = be anxious, care for, be concerned about, meditate upon, ponder, to be burdened. It is the idea of wasted worry untrusting thoughts, misused moments.

Misused moments turn into squandered hours. Squandered hours turn into desecrated days. Is not your life more important than that? It comes down to what we know and believe about God.

Yesterday I was walking in nature and I saw a tiny bird clothed in the most beautiful red garment of feathers. I saw an eagle soaring majestically, powerful wings spread and covered in feathers around his strong frame. I saw a pheasant, oh how beautifully he was clothed. Beautiful rust colored garment with multiple hues covered his body. As he strutted in front of me he was showing off his clothes. his neck was covered in iridescent green. His long tail extending out and his head covered in a red hat. He wasn’t worried. I saw a snail, large, almost 2 inches tall, was his beautiful house he carried on his back, while he dined on a leaf in my path. None of those simple creatures went shopping, God clothed them and housed them.

v26 Look at the birds of the air … your Heavenly Father feeds them …

And then comes the worry eradication phrase …

“… are YOU not MORE VALUABLE than they?”

diaphero = more valuable, superior to … Oh listen, this world IS subject to death and decay, because of sin … but Jesus didn’t leave heaven and become a bird, or a dolphin, an ape, or a rock for that matter. No, he left heaven and became one of us so that he might redeem US into a relationship with him. Nature is blessed as a by-product of God’s love for US, redeeming US. We are so valuable to him. He sought us as a pearl of great price, a treasure buried in a field.

So, v28 says “why worry … look at the lilies of the field …” They don’t worry. But he says Pagans worry about these things … why? Pagans worry because they have dead gods. When we waste our thoughts on worry, it is as if we have a god that we know is our own creation. A god who really can’t do anything for us. But David says “lead me to the Rock that is higher than I”

v33 But Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven … and Righteousness … and leave God to worry for the rest of it.

because, v27 “who by worrying can add a single hour to life?” Well you can’t ADD days to your life by worry, but if you DON’T worry, then you are saving Days … so you CAN add to your life by TRUSTING God …

Reclaim your clock … Banish worry … and do something fun and eternal with the unwasted moments
Participants in the Divine Nature

May 17th, 2016

One of my favorite passages is 2 Peter 1:3-4. I say favorite. But it is more of a “love to hate” passage. I love it because it is good. I hate it because it removes excuses. It says we can be participants in the diving nature.

Parents are “participants in the divine” as God entrusts children to us, and in essence entrusts the future of the next generation in the hands of parents.

Pastors are “participants in the divine” as God has given them to the church according to Ephesians 4, until God’s people are fully fitted together to reflect the image of Christ.

Individual believers together “participate in the divine” as Christ is reconciling the world to God, and then he has given to us the ministry of reconciliation in 2 Corinthians 5. We are ambassadors for Christ.

The fact that God would entrust divine, eternal things in human vessels of clay, broken, breaking, imperfect, is a truly amazing thing.

But what is communicated in one of my favorite verses, 2 Peter 1:3-4 is more than these participations in the divine

2 Peter 1:3 Says “his divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness.”

Not SOME things, but EVERYthing. It is that simple greek word, pas = every, all, the whole, the universe, every kind, everything – we need.

So, we get up in the morning and we face a challenge and we say “Lord, I can’t …” and he says “no child, you can. I have given you everything you need for this life, and to walk with me in godliness.”

How?

1) v3 “Through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” – Oh this isn’t simple Biblical knowledge, seminary training, no. This is experiential. This is Salvation Knowledge, this is experiential knowledge because we know him as Savior. It is because one day, one night, one afternoon, he called you by name and you responded. It is because he foreknew you as his, and predestined you to be conformed to his image. Then he called you. And called, you heard, believed, and by faith entered his grace and are justified, being sanctified, and will be glorified. That is salvation knowledge. And that day, he gave you everything you need for life and godliness. It is in the person of the Holy Spirit, given to all believers that you have all you need. It is DIVINE power. Power divine that was exerted on the dead body of Christ to raised him from the dead. Ephesians 1:13-14 … when you heard, and believed, you were given the Holy Spirit as a deposit guaranteeing all that is to come

How do we participate?

2) v4 “through these (v3 glory and goodness) he has given us his very great and precious promises – Because of God’s reputation (glory) and his Majestic acts (goodness) he gave us his Word. Every day that we fail to treasure, consume, and live according to his Word, we are failing to take advantage of the opportunity and destiny to participate in the divine.

3) What is it to Participate? – 4 so that through them you may participate in the divine nature … does this mean I become divine? No … It says participate. God alone is divine theios, interestingly the word means sulfur, brimstone, divine things, divine. But we can participate koinonos – partner, share, accomplice, friend, companion of … participate with the all consuming divine, nature physis – nature, natural condition of God. because God’s spirit lives in me, because i surrender to him, because I treasure his word and consume it like water to a thirsty man, food to a hungry man, air to a drowning man. I am able to become a companions to things that are not natural to me a sinner, but are natural to God. I become one who has love, patience, compassion, empathy, a hatred for sin, and a lover of good, not because of me, because that is unnatural, but it IS natural for God and I can participate in the divine.

4) So That – God gave me his Spirit, gave me his word, to be a companion of His. To surrender to a new nature and escape … the corruption … There is my natural nature … I am corrupt. The word means decay, destruction, depravity. Romans 7:14 says what a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? v25 Thanks be to God – Through Jesus CHRIST OUR LORD. I cannot escape the corruption alone. But I can become a companion, a shareholder, an accomplice of God’s. The gift of Jesus in my salvation is the Holy Spirit in me, and Christ in me is the Hope of Glory’ the Hope of God’s reputation being lived out in my life and I look up and … I am going against my nature, and love; against my nature, and living holy; against my nature, and being compassionate, gracious, merciful, and patient. When I see those things manifest in my life, it is Christ in me. It is resurrection power at work bringing life to this dead body. He has then made that power available to all who believe, Ephesians 1:19, and 2:6 says he has raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in heavenly realms.

Hallelujah! We are companions of the divine!