“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. 3 There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. 4 Their measuring line goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, 5 which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. 6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.” Psalm 19:1-6 ESV
On Sunday night I was sitting on a blanket on my Crazy Creek chair watching the sunset in Joshua Tree National Park. My wife and I were eating dinner and looking out the horizon as the sun slowly set and the full moon steadily rose. It was truly a sacred moment for me. You could see the alpine glow on the peaks of the distant mountains as the sunlight gradually faded away. If you looked at the sky you would see an amazing pallet of ever changing colors. The upper half of it in clear blue color and the lower half a light violet. My chair was placed in such a way that in front of me was a Joshua Tree, to the right was a hill covered with big smooth round rocks (unique to this national park) and in the middle between them was a huge rising Harvest moon. At that moment I felt so alive and at peace. Here I was in the presence of such beauty of God's creation, savoring each moment with the woman that I love, and feeling a profound sense of my Creator’s presence and His amazing grace. Here and now nothing else mattered to me in the whole world, it was well with my soul.
As I was basking in the glory of my Maker’s creation my heart began welling up with a deep sense of gratitude to God both for the moment and for the fact that the moon, the sky, the mountains, the rocks, the Joshua trees, and the desert were just there. I was blessed and privileged to drink in of their beauty and glory. I thought of how many moments like this have taken place throughout the created world where no one was there to see and enjoy it but God Himself.
While gazing at the splender and beauty of the moment, wonder and gratitude began welling up inside and out of my lips came deep, heartfelt praise. I exulted in the beauty and wonder of God, His workmanship in the created world, and His creating and sustaining grace over the world that He made. It was simply amazing to me that God is God.
At that moment I realized that God had surprised me with the gift of another gift. He gave me anew the gift of amazement at what I see. He gave me the gift of sight that awakened me to the reality that every day, every moment, if I open my eyes and look, that there is always more to see in what I see.
The Psalmist tells us that Creation is telling us stupendous things about God! “The heavens are telling the glory of God and the firmament declares his handiwork" (Verse 1). Creation is a gift from God (and by creation, I mean all that God has made, not just mountains, birds, and trees). It is meant to display and communicate his glory. The voiceless, visual, universally available knowledge is that behind it all is a glorious God as maker of the world. The world is his handiwork, and he is glorious.
I love what Spurgeon says about the revelation of God in nature,
The Great Master Author has sent forth several volumes; among the rest is one called the "Book of Revelation," and another styled the "Volume of Creation." We have been reading the Word-volume and expounding it for years, we are now perusing the Work-volume, and are engrossed in some of its most glowing pages. Our love for the sacred book of letters and words has not diminished but increased our admiration for the hieroglyphics of the flood and field. That man perversely mistakes folly for wisdom who persists in undervaluing one glorious poem by a famous author, in order to show his zeal for a second epic from the same fertile pen. It is the mark of a feeble mind to despise the wonders of nature because we prize the treasures of salvation. He who built the lofty skies is as much our Father as he who hath spoken to us by his own Son, and we should reverently adore HIM who in creation decketh himself with majesty and excellency, even as in revelation HE arrayeth himself in glory and beauty.
Modern fanatics who profess to be so absorbed in heavenly things that they are blind to the most marvelous of Jehovah's handiwork, should go to school, with David as the schoolmaster, and learn to "consider the heavens," and should sit with Job upon the dunghill of their pride, while the Lord rehearses the thundering stanzas of creation's greatness, until they cry with the patriarch, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee; wherefore, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes." For our part, we feel that what was worth the Lord's making, richly deserves the attention of the most cultivated and purified intellect; and we think it blasphemy against God himself to speak slightingly of his universe, as if, forsooth, we poor puny mortals were too spiritual to be interested in that matchless architecture which made the morning stars sing together and caused the sons of God to shout for joy.
John Piper, one who has taught me much about reading the Volume of Creation says,
God means for us to be stunned and awed by his work of creation, but not for its own sake. He means for us always to look at his creation and say: If the work of his hands is so full of wisdom and power and grandeur and majesty and beauty, what must this God be like in himself! These are but the backside of his glory seen through a glass darkly. What will it be to see the Creator himself! Not his works! Not even a billion galaxies will satisfy the human soul. God and God alone is the soul's end.
I think I can say that I the experience of delighting in some awesome natural phenomena—the moon rise at Joshua tree, a night sky in the clear pollution free Zion National Park, the astonishing Yosemite Falls, or a sunrise over the hills of San Clemente, where I live-is as Piper says, “the prep-school of our affections, readying them to delight in God.”
Christians ought to have better eyes than people in general for seeing the knowledge that every day and night pours forth. We ought to be the kind of people who walk out of the house in the morning with the same sense of suspense and expectancy.
John Piper mentions often the influence of the late Wheaton College professor Clyde Kilby. He says that Professor Kilby “pled with us to stop seeking mental health in the mirror of self-analysis, but instead to drink in the remedies of God in nature.”
I agree. Oh how nature is God’s great gift to our mental health! The moment on that evening in Joshua Tree I can honestly say that I had virtually no thoughts about myself and my problems because I was drinking in the remedy of God’s presence, His greatness, His glory, His power, His majesty, His beauty, and His peace.
In order to glimpse the glory of God in creation we actually have to engage with creation. It means to intentionally, “BE HERE NOW”. That is in obedience to “Be still and know that I am God.” When I practice “BEING HERE NOW”, I consciously stop, look, and listen to God speaking to me though His Volume of Creation, and quietly become alive to nature, being alive to life, and being alive to Him at that moment. At that moment I experience what is called “Transcendence” where I rise above myself, my life, my problems, my little thoughts, and enter into a world so wonderful, so vast, and so much bigger than little me that God has graced me to be an active part of.
Jonathan Edwards describes one of his experiences communing with God in nature:
As I was walking there, and looking up on the sky and clouds, there came into my mind so sweet a sense of the glorious majesty and grace of God, that I know not how to express.... The appearance of everything was altered; there seemed to be, as it were, a sweet calm cast, or appearance of divine glory, in almost everything. God's excellency, his wisdom, his purity and love, seemed to appear in everything; in the sun, moon and stars; in the cloud, and blue sky; in the grass, flowers, trees; in the water and all nature.
Clyde Kilby recommends that we consider nature simply because it is. That is, simply because God has made it. His plea was that we stop being unamazed by the strange glory of ordinary things.
"I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not then be concerned at all to ask what they are but simply be glad that they are. I shall joyfully allow them the mystery of what Lewis calls their "divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic" existence."
I invite you, with Clyde Kilby and myself, to open your eyes and ears, to BE HERE NOW” and to look and listen to the “heavens declaring the glory of God.
Amazed at God again!
Pastor Bill
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
THOUGHTS ON CONVERSION Part 2
What is conversion? What makes for a true convert to Christ? What does it mean to be saved? Born again? What is does it mean to believe in Jesus Christ? What part does God play and what part does man play in the salvation process? The answers to these questions is what I began discussing last week. Now this week I continue.
John Piper describes conversion in this way Christian conversion is the act or process of being changed (without coercion but through our own volition) into a person who believes and treasures Jesus Christ, his saving work, and his promises above everything else, including all that we were believing or treasuring before conversion.
CONVERSION IS A CONDITION OF SALVATION AND A MIRACLE OF GOD
This teaching on the nature and origin of conversion clarifies two things. One is the sense in which conversion is a condition for salvation. Continuous confusion is caused at this point by failing to define salvation precisely.
If salvation refers to new birth, conversion is not a condition of it. New birth comes first and enables the repentance and faith of conversion. Before new birth we are dead, and dead men don't meet conditions. Regeneration is totally unconditional. It owes solely to the free grace of God. "It depends not on will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy" (Romans 9:16). We get no credit. He gets all the glory.
But if salvation refers to justification, there is one clear condition we must faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:28; 4:4-5; 5:1). And if salvation refers to future deliverance from the wrath of God at the judgment and our entrance eternal life, then not only does the New Testament say we must "believe," so that this faith must be so real that it produces the fruit of obedience. There must be faith and the fruit of faith. "Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead" (James 2:17; cf. v. 26). "In Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcism counts for anything, but only faith working through love" (Galatians 5:6). "Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without no one will see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14).
When we cry, "What must I do to be saved?" the answer depends on what asking: how to be born again, how to he justified, or how to he finally welcomed into heaven. When we say that the answer is "Become a follower of Jesus Christ," we mean God's work in new birth, our faith in Christ, and the work God in our lives by faith to help us obey Christ. This is the fullest meaning of conversion.
Which brings us to the second thing that has become clear from our discussion of conversion, understood as the coming into being of a new nature (a Christian Hedonist) that will obey Christ, is no mere human decision. It is a human decision-but, oh, so much more! Repentant faith (or believing repentance based on an awesome miracle performed by the sovereign God. It is the breadth of a new creature in Christ. Saving faith has in it various elements. The nature of these elements makes faith a very powerful thing that produces changes in our lives. Unless we understand this, the array of conditions for present and final salvation in the Testament will be utterly perplexing.
Consider the following partial list.
What must I do to be saved?
The answer in Acts 16:31 is "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”
The answer in John 1:12 is that we must receive Christ: "To all who receive him ... he gave the right to become children of God."
The answer in Acts 3:19 is "Repent therefore, and turn again, that your may be blotted out."
The answer in Hebrews 5:9 is obedience to Christ. Christ "became source of eternal salvation to all who obey him."
Jesus Himself answered the question in a variety of ways. For example in Matthew 18:3 He said that childlikeness is the condition for salvation: "Truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter kingdom of heaven."
In Mark 8:34-35 the condition is self-denial: "If anyone would come me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For who would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and gospel's will save it."
In Matthew 10:37, Jesus lays down the condition of loving Him more anyone else: "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worth me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” The same thing is expressed in 1 Corinthians 16:22: "If anyone has no love the Lord, let him be accursed." And in Luke 14:33 the condition for salvation is that we be free from love of our possessions: "Any one of you who does not renounce all that he cannot be my disciple."
These are just some of the conditions that the New Testament says we are meet in order to be saved in the fullest and final sense. We must believe in Jesus and receive Him and turn from our sin and obey Him and humble ours like little children and love Him more than we love our family, our possessions or our own life. This is what it means to be converted to Christ. This alone is of life everlasting.
But what is it that holds all these conditions together and gives them unity? And what keeps them from becoming a way of earning salvation by works? One answer is the awesome reality of saving faith-trusting in the word of God, the promises of Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit, not ourselves. This is the unifying key that not only unites us to Christ for justification, empowers us for sanctification. Yes, but what is it about saving faith that unifies and changes so much of our lives?
CONVERSION LEADS TO THE THE CREATION OF A DISCIPLE OF CHRIST
Jesus pointed to the answer in the little parable of Matthew 13:44: The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in [literally, from] his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." This parable describes how someone is converted and brought into the kingdom of heaven. This is a pretty straight forward description of conversion. The arrival of King Jesus in a life is like discovering ten million dollars in a bucket in a field. And you know the laws that given the field, you get the bucket. You think, “I have somehow, someway got to get this field before anybody else gets it.” So he covers it over and then we see a phrase that will radically change how you understand conversion: “and from or for joy he sold everything he had.”
Do you see what happens? He exercises self denial. He sells everything he had, everything. What emotions do you feel as you sell all your goods? Would it make sense for you to weep and mourn, “Oh, my Lexus! Oh, my in-home theater! Oh, my condo! Oh, my Dell Duo Core Centrino!” No. What emotions did this man feel as he sold all his goods? “Ok, that’s sold! All I need is $2,000 more. There goes the Lexus! Great, take it for $15,000 under blue book, I’ve got the price now! Take all that’s left for a dollar; that home theater system might as well be junk – I’m running off to buy that field!” Sell the wedding ring, sell the sea doo, sell the car, sell the computer, sell the surfboards, and sell the books, Bill. Sell everything. Nothing compares to the value of the field. All that this man once held dear, all he once thought important, all that he once valued, all that he once had worked so hard to attain – all this he now considers rubbish compared to the tremendous worth of the treasure in the field. So he pursued his greatest joy by selling all his possessions and buying the field. When someone becomes a Christian, he values Jesus Christ more than everything else. Jesus Christ is the great treasure, and the joy of knowing Him far outweighs the cost of any sacrifice, of any loss.
Brothers and sisters, too be saved is to have your eyes open to the value of Jesus. Paul says it clearly in 2 Corinthians 4:4, “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them (it means from getting saved) from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
People get saved when the light goes on in their hearts. What does it mean to be saved? It means the devil is punched by the Lord and eyes go open and the foolishness of the cross becomes wisdom and power. You were looking at Jesus and He was boring. Why would I want to go worship Him? I have the surf, television, golf, fishing, booze, money, girls, you know, the things of life. That’s life, you Christians are so boring. Then suddenly, late at night, light floods the heart and the cross is majestic. It was the sweetest thing a kid ever heard at the age of 22.
The kingdom of heaven is the abode of the King. The longing to be there is not the longing for heavenly real estate, but for camaraderie with the King. The treasure in the field is the fellowship of God in Christ. I conclude from this parable that we must be deeply converted in order to enter the kingdom of heaven and that we are converted when Christ becomes Treasure Chest of holy joy-a crucified and risen Savior who pardons all provides all our righteousness, and becomes in His own fellowship our pleasure.
Jonathan Edwards reminds us “The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams. But God is the ocean.”
Pastor Bill
John Piper describes conversion in this way Christian conversion is the act or process of being changed (without coercion but through our own volition) into a person who believes and treasures Jesus Christ, his saving work, and his promises above everything else, including all that we were believing or treasuring before conversion.
CONVERSION IS A CONDITION OF SALVATION AND A MIRACLE OF GOD
This teaching on the nature and origin of conversion clarifies two things. One is the sense in which conversion is a condition for salvation. Continuous confusion is caused at this point by failing to define salvation precisely.
If salvation refers to new birth, conversion is not a condition of it. New birth comes first and enables the repentance and faith of conversion. Before new birth we are dead, and dead men don't meet conditions. Regeneration is totally unconditional. It owes solely to the free grace of God. "It depends not on will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy" (Romans 9:16). We get no credit. He gets all the glory.
But if salvation refers to justification, there is one clear condition we must faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:28; 4:4-5; 5:1). And if salvation refers to future deliverance from the wrath of God at the judgment and our entrance eternal life, then not only does the New Testament say we must "believe," so that this faith must be so real that it produces the fruit of obedience. There must be faith and the fruit of faith. "Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead" (James 2:17; cf. v. 26). "In Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcism counts for anything, but only faith working through love" (Galatians 5:6). "Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without no one will see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14).
When we cry, "What must I do to be saved?" the answer depends on what asking: how to be born again, how to he justified, or how to he finally welcomed into heaven. When we say that the answer is "Become a follower of Jesus Christ," we mean God's work in new birth, our faith in Christ, and the work God in our lives by faith to help us obey Christ. This is the fullest meaning of conversion.
Which brings us to the second thing that has become clear from our discussion of conversion, understood as the coming into being of a new nature (a Christian Hedonist) that will obey Christ, is no mere human decision. It is a human decision-but, oh, so much more! Repentant faith (or believing repentance based on an awesome miracle performed by the sovereign God. It is the breadth of a new creature in Christ. Saving faith has in it various elements. The nature of these elements makes faith a very powerful thing that produces changes in our lives. Unless we understand this, the array of conditions for present and final salvation in the Testament will be utterly perplexing.
Consider the following partial list.
What must I do to be saved?
The answer in Acts 16:31 is "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”
The answer in John 1:12 is that we must receive Christ: "To all who receive him ... he gave the right to become children of God."
The answer in Acts 3:19 is "Repent therefore, and turn again, that your may be blotted out."
The answer in Hebrews 5:9 is obedience to Christ. Christ "became source of eternal salvation to all who obey him."
Jesus Himself answered the question in a variety of ways. For example in Matthew 18:3 He said that childlikeness is the condition for salvation: "Truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter kingdom of heaven."
In Mark 8:34-35 the condition is self-denial: "If anyone would come me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For who would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and gospel's will save it."
In Matthew 10:37, Jesus lays down the condition of loving Him more anyone else: "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worth me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” The same thing is expressed in 1 Corinthians 16:22: "If anyone has no love the Lord, let him be accursed." And in Luke 14:33 the condition for salvation is that we be free from love of our possessions: "Any one of you who does not renounce all that he cannot be my disciple."
These are just some of the conditions that the New Testament says we are meet in order to be saved in the fullest and final sense. We must believe in Jesus and receive Him and turn from our sin and obey Him and humble ours like little children and love Him more than we love our family, our possessions or our own life. This is what it means to be converted to Christ. This alone is of life everlasting.
But what is it that holds all these conditions together and gives them unity? And what keeps them from becoming a way of earning salvation by works? One answer is the awesome reality of saving faith-trusting in the word of God, the promises of Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit, not ourselves. This is the unifying key that not only unites us to Christ for justification, empowers us for sanctification. Yes, but what is it about saving faith that unifies and changes so much of our lives?
CONVERSION LEADS TO THE THE CREATION OF A DISCIPLE OF CHRIST
Jesus pointed to the answer in the little parable of Matthew 13:44: The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in [literally, from] his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." This parable describes how someone is converted and brought into the kingdom of heaven. This is a pretty straight forward description of conversion. The arrival of King Jesus in a life is like discovering ten million dollars in a bucket in a field. And you know the laws that given the field, you get the bucket. You think, “I have somehow, someway got to get this field before anybody else gets it.” So he covers it over and then we see a phrase that will radically change how you understand conversion: “and from or for joy he sold everything he had.”
Do you see what happens? He exercises self denial. He sells everything he had, everything. What emotions do you feel as you sell all your goods? Would it make sense for you to weep and mourn, “Oh, my Lexus! Oh, my in-home theater! Oh, my condo! Oh, my Dell Duo Core Centrino!” No. What emotions did this man feel as he sold all his goods? “Ok, that’s sold! All I need is $2,000 more. There goes the Lexus! Great, take it for $15,000 under blue book, I’ve got the price now! Take all that’s left for a dollar; that home theater system might as well be junk – I’m running off to buy that field!” Sell the wedding ring, sell the sea doo, sell the car, sell the computer, sell the surfboards, and sell the books, Bill. Sell everything. Nothing compares to the value of the field. All that this man once held dear, all he once thought important, all that he once valued, all that he once had worked so hard to attain – all this he now considers rubbish compared to the tremendous worth of the treasure in the field. So he pursued his greatest joy by selling all his possessions and buying the field. When someone becomes a Christian, he values Jesus Christ more than everything else. Jesus Christ is the great treasure, and the joy of knowing Him far outweighs the cost of any sacrifice, of any loss.
Brothers and sisters, too be saved is to have your eyes open to the value of Jesus. Paul says it clearly in 2 Corinthians 4:4, “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them (it means from getting saved) from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
People get saved when the light goes on in their hearts. What does it mean to be saved? It means the devil is punched by the Lord and eyes go open and the foolishness of the cross becomes wisdom and power. You were looking at Jesus and He was boring. Why would I want to go worship Him? I have the surf, television, golf, fishing, booze, money, girls, you know, the things of life. That’s life, you Christians are so boring. Then suddenly, late at night, light floods the heart and the cross is majestic. It was the sweetest thing a kid ever heard at the age of 22.
The kingdom of heaven is the abode of the King. The longing to be there is not the longing for heavenly real estate, but for camaraderie with the King. The treasure in the field is the fellowship of God in Christ. I conclude from this parable that we must be deeply converted in order to enter the kingdom of heaven and that we are converted when Christ becomes Treasure Chest of holy joy-a crucified and risen Savior who pardons all provides all our righteousness, and becomes in His own fellowship our pleasure.
Jonathan Edwards reminds us “The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams. But God is the ocean.”
Pastor Bill
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
THOUGHTS ON CONVERSION
The Christian community throws around many words and sayings in regards to salvation like “Believer, born again, faith, repent, once saved always saved, backslider, give your life to Jesus, come forward and give Jesus a chance, Christian, confess Jesus as Lord and Savior, or say the sinners prayer”. But what really constitutes a Christian? What makes for a true convert to Christ? What does it mean to be saved? Born again? What is does it mean to believe in Jesus Christ? What part does God play and what part does man play in the salvation process? Today many biblical terms have lost their meaning in the light of 21st century misunderstandings. We live in a day surrounded by unconverted people outside the church and within the church who say and think that they believe in Jesus.
WHAT IS CONVERSION?
Conversion is used in the Bible only once, in Acts 15:3, Paul and Barnabas "passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers." This conversion involved repentance and faith, as the other reports in Acts show.
For example, in Acts 11:18 the apostles respond to Peter's testimony about Gentile conversions like this: "Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life." And in Acts 14:27, Paul and Barnabas report the conversion of the Gentiles by saying that "God ...had opened a door of faith to the ¬Gentiles."
Conversion, then, is repentance (turning from sin and unbelief) and faith (trusting in Christ alone for salvation). They are really two sides of the same coin. One side is tails-turn tail on the fruits of unbelief. The other side is heads-head straight for Jesus and trust His promises. You can't have the one without the other any more than you can face two ways at once or serve two masters.
This means that saving faith in Christ always involves a profound change of heart. It is not merely agreement with the truth of a doctrine. Satan agrees with true doctrine (James 2:19). Saving faith is far deeper and more pervasive than that.
CONVERSION IS A GIFT OF GOD
We get an inkling of something awesome and stupendous behind repentance and faith when we see hints in the book of Acts that conversion is the gift of God. "God has granted repentance that leads to life" (11:18). "God exalted [Christ] at his right hand ...to give repentance to Israel" (5:31). God "opened a door of faith to the Gentiles" (14:27). "The Lord opened [Lydia’s] heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul" (16:14).
We will never fully appreciate what a deep and awesome thing conversion is until we own up to the fact that it is a miracle. It is a gift of God. The truth is that we not only sin, but we also are sinful-blind, hard, dead, and unable to submit to the law of God. And so when we hear the gospel, we will never respond positively unless God performs the miracle of regeneration. We are all radically corrupt and utterly unable to respond to the gospel left to ourselves.
FAITH IS OUR ACT, BUT IT IS POSSIBLE ONLY BECAUSE OF GOD’S ACT
Repentance and faith are our work. But we will not repent and believe unless God first does His work to overcome our hard and rebellious hearts. This divine work is called regeneration or the New Birth. Our work is called conversion. Conversion does indeed include an act of will by which we renounce sin and submit ourselves to the authority of Christ and put our hope and trust in Him. We are responsible to do this and will be condemned if we don't. But just as clearly, the Bible teaches that, owing to our hard heart and willful blindness and spiritual insensitivity, we cannot do this. We must first experience the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.
The scriptures promised long ago that God would devote Himself to this work in order to create for Himself a faithful people:
"And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of our offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with a11 your heart and with all your soul, that you may live." (Deuteronomy 30:6)
"I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD), and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart." (Jeremiah 24:7)
"And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God." (Ezekiel 11:19-20)
"And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules." (Ezekiel 36:26-27)
These great promises from the Old Testament describe a work of God that changes a heart of stone into a heart of flesh and causes people to "know" and we" "desire" and "obey" God. Without this spiritual heart transplant, people will not know and love and obey God. This prior work of God is what we mean by regeneration or the New Birth.
WE ARE CONVERTED (CALLED) THE WAY JESUS CALLED LAZARUS: DEATH TO LIFE
In the New Testament, wee see that God is clearly active, creating converts to Himself by calling them out of darkness and enabling them to believe the gospel and walk the light. The Bible requires that we speak of God’s call in at least two distinct senses. One is the general or external call that goes out in preaching the gospel. Everyone who hears the gospel is called in this sense. But God calls in another sense to some who hear the gospel. This is called God’s internal or effective call. It is the call changes a person’s heart so that faith is secured. It’s like the call of Lazarus , “Lazarus come forth!” It creates what it demands. The key passage is 1 Corinthians 1:23-24, "But we preach Christ crucified (General call), to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called (Effective call), both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."
Jesus said, "Many are called, but few are chosen" in Matthew 22:14. Among the "many" or the “generally called” there is a group who are “called” in such a way that they are enabled to esteem the gospel as wisdom and power. The change caused by the effective calling is none other than the new birth or regeneration!
John teaches most clearly that regeneration precedes and enables faith. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. (1 John 5:1) The verb tenses make John's intention unmistakable: "Everyone who goes on believing [pisteuon, present, continuous action] that Jesus is the Chris been born [gennesanta, perfect, completed action with abiding effects] of God." Faith is the evidence of new birth, not the cause of it. This is consistent John's whole epistle (cf. 1 John 2:29; 3:9; 4:2-3; 4:7).
Since faith and repentance are possible only because of the regenerating work of God, both are called the gift of God:
"Even when we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved.... By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God. (Ephesians 2:5, 8).
"It has been granted(graced or gifted) to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake" (Philippians 1:29).
"The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge o the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will" (2 Timothy 2:24-26).
To be continued...
WHAT IS CONVERSION?
Conversion is used in the Bible only once, in Acts 15:3, Paul and Barnabas "passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers." This conversion involved repentance and faith, as the other reports in Acts show.
For example, in Acts 11:18 the apostles respond to Peter's testimony about Gentile conversions like this: "Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life." And in Acts 14:27, Paul and Barnabas report the conversion of the Gentiles by saying that "God ...had opened a door of faith to the ¬Gentiles."
Conversion, then, is repentance (turning from sin and unbelief) and faith (trusting in Christ alone for salvation). They are really two sides of the same coin. One side is tails-turn tail on the fruits of unbelief. The other side is heads-head straight for Jesus and trust His promises. You can't have the one without the other any more than you can face two ways at once or serve two masters.
This means that saving faith in Christ always involves a profound change of heart. It is not merely agreement with the truth of a doctrine. Satan agrees with true doctrine (James 2:19). Saving faith is far deeper and more pervasive than that.
CONVERSION IS A GIFT OF GOD
We get an inkling of something awesome and stupendous behind repentance and faith when we see hints in the book of Acts that conversion is the gift of God. "God has granted repentance that leads to life" (11:18). "God exalted [Christ] at his right hand ...to give repentance to Israel" (5:31). God "opened a door of faith to the Gentiles" (14:27). "The Lord opened [Lydia’s] heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul" (16:14).
We will never fully appreciate what a deep and awesome thing conversion is until we own up to the fact that it is a miracle. It is a gift of God. The truth is that we not only sin, but we also are sinful-blind, hard, dead, and unable to submit to the law of God. And so when we hear the gospel, we will never respond positively unless God performs the miracle of regeneration. We are all radically corrupt and utterly unable to respond to the gospel left to ourselves.
FAITH IS OUR ACT, BUT IT IS POSSIBLE ONLY BECAUSE OF GOD’S ACT
Repentance and faith are our work. But we will not repent and believe unless God first does His work to overcome our hard and rebellious hearts. This divine work is called regeneration or the New Birth. Our work is called conversion. Conversion does indeed include an act of will by which we renounce sin and submit ourselves to the authority of Christ and put our hope and trust in Him. We are responsible to do this and will be condemned if we don't. But just as clearly, the Bible teaches that, owing to our hard heart and willful blindness and spiritual insensitivity, we cannot do this. We must first experience the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.
The scriptures promised long ago that God would devote Himself to this work in order to create for Himself a faithful people:
"And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of our offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with a11 your heart and with all your soul, that you may live." (Deuteronomy 30:6)
"I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD), and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart." (Jeremiah 24:7)
"And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God." (Ezekiel 11:19-20)
"And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules." (Ezekiel 36:26-27)
These great promises from the Old Testament describe a work of God that changes a heart of stone into a heart of flesh and causes people to "know" and we" "desire" and "obey" God. Without this spiritual heart transplant, people will not know and love and obey God. This prior work of God is what we mean by regeneration or the New Birth.
WE ARE CONVERTED (CALLED) THE WAY JESUS CALLED LAZARUS: DEATH TO LIFE
In the New Testament, wee see that God is clearly active, creating converts to Himself by calling them out of darkness and enabling them to believe the gospel and walk the light. The Bible requires that we speak of God’s call in at least two distinct senses. One is the general or external call that goes out in preaching the gospel. Everyone who hears the gospel is called in this sense. But God calls in another sense to some who hear the gospel. This is called God’s internal or effective call. It is the call changes a person’s heart so that faith is secured. It’s like the call of Lazarus , “Lazarus come forth!” It creates what it demands. The key passage is 1 Corinthians 1:23-24, "But we preach Christ crucified (General call), to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called (Effective call), both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."
Jesus said, "Many are called, but few are chosen" in Matthew 22:14. Among the "many" or the “generally called” there is a group who are “called” in such a way that they are enabled to esteem the gospel as wisdom and power. The change caused by the effective calling is none other than the new birth or regeneration!
John teaches most clearly that regeneration precedes and enables faith. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. (1 John 5:1) The verb tenses make John's intention unmistakable: "Everyone who goes on believing [pisteuon, present, continuous action] that Jesus is the Chris been born [gennesanta, perfect, completed action with abiding effects] of God." Faith is the evidence of new birth, not the cause of it. This is consistent John's whole epistle (cf. 1 John 2:29; 3:9; 4:2-3; 4:7).
Since faith and repentance are possible only because of the regenerating work of God, both are called the gift of God:
"Even when we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved.... By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God. (Ephesians 2:5, 8).
"It has been granted(graced or gifted) to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake" (Philippians 1:29).
"The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge o the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will" (2 Timothy 2:24-26).
To be continued...
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
WHEN JESUS PRAYED FOR YOU! Part 2
We learned that the first part of God’s divine love is that He loves us in a way that enables us to see His glory. But that is only half of what Jesus wants in these final, climactic verses of his prayer. I just said we were really made for seeing and cherishing His glory. What he wants is that we not only see His glory, we cherish it, savor it, relish it, delight in it, treasure it, and love it. In short that we would delight in Him; that we treasure Him; and that we would love Him.
Jonathan Edwards writes:
“When God is loved aright, He is loved for His excellency, the beauty of His nature.” What does it mean to love Him? That Jesus would truly be as precious to us as He is to the Father. That we would love Him with a “peculiar love”. So, consider verse 26, the very last verse:
“I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
Let us look at this carefully. Jesus' request to God is that He desires the Father’s love for the Son to be in us in order for us to love Him. Have you ever thought that Jesus wants you to love Him not merely with your love but with love that the Father has for Him? My love is weak and inconsistent. My love is conditional and moody. My love is selfish and prejudiced. My love is limited and finite. My love is human and sinful. Therefore, my love for Him is totally inadequate in loving Him, the God of glory; therefore, it is inadequate and in reality, impossible, for loving others with His love. That is why Jesus asks the Father for his love to be given to us. God makes it possible for me, a sinner, to love such a worthy, glorious being like God in a manner of love that He so richly and worthily deserves! In short, Jesus is praying for the Father to love us in order to help us love Him by making much of him!
How is this possible? First, because of the knowledge of the God of love. "I have made known unto them thy name, and will make it known." We cannot love a God whom we do not know: a measure of knowledge is needful to affection. However lovely God may be, a man blind of soul cannot perceive him, and therefore is not touched by his loveliness. Only when the eyes are opened to behold the loveliness of God will the heart go out towards God who is so desirable an object for the affections. Brethren, we must know in order to believe; we must know in order to hope; and we must especially know in order to love. Hence, the great desirableness that you should know the Lord of love (1 John 4:8, 16) and His great love which surpasses knowledge.
“I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:17-19).
You cannot give in return love which you have never known. Some of us in our lives have been deprived of love. Perhaps we have never known much love in our earthly relationships. Love for us has been as the song goes “the Elusive Butterfly”. In reality, we all are deprived of God’s love! Not because of Him but because we have never received His love due to our sinfulness. Without the inflow of love, no wonder there has been no outflow of love. So until the love of God has come into your heart, and you have been made a partaker of it, you cannot rejoice in it or return it.
Second, it is possible because the knowledge here spoken of is knowledge which Jesus gave them. “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known.” O beloved, it is not knowledge that you and I pick up as a matter of book learning that will ever bring out our love to the Father: it is knowledge given us by Christ through his Spirit. It is not knowledge communicated by the preacher alone which will bless you; for however much he may be taught of God himself, he cannot preach to the heart unless the blessed Spirit of God comes and takes of the things that are spoken, and reveals them and makes them manifest to each individual heart, so that in consequence it knows the Lord.
This knowledge, dear friends, comes to us gradually. The text indicates this. “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known." As if, though they knew the Father, there was far more to know and the Lord Jesus was resolved to teach them more and more and more and more.
Third, it is possible because of the new birth. Becoming a Christian means getting a new nature which is given by God. Practically speaking this means that God comes into our lives by the Holy Spirit and begins to give us new affections, new emotions, namely the emotions and affections of God: the love that the Father has for the Son! It is the presence of God the Spirit in our lives that causes us to love Jesus with the love of God the Father. Romans 5:5 says that “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us”. Indeed the Holy Spirit may be viewed as the love of God in a Person. To be ruled by the Spirit is to be ruled by a divine love for Jesus. Jesus is simply praying that we may be filled with the Spirit who is the divine Person who expresses the love that the Father has for the Son. Thus we will be filled with the very love with which the Father loves the Son. The result is divine love flowing into your soul and pouring out of your life to God and others. No wonder why Paul speaks of love as the fruit of the indwelling Spirit (Galatians 5:22).
So what kind of love does Jesus desire for you to have? A peculiar love. “The love with which you have loved me.” This is a kind of love whereby Jesus is as precious, as valuable, to us as He is to the Father in Heaven. There is no greater love in the entire universe than the love flowing between the Father and the Son in the holy Trinity. No love is more perfect, more powerful, more intense, more continuous, more pure, and more full of delight in the beloved, than the love God the Father has for the Son. It is energy of joy that makes atom bombs look like firecrackers. Oh, how the Father delights in the Son! Oh, how precious the Son is to the Father! "This is my beloved Son, with whom 1 am well pleased," God said at Jesus' baptism (Matthew 3:17). "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him," God said at the transfiguration (Matthew 17:5). Jesus is the living Stone-rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him” (1 Peter 2:4). In the entire universe none is more precious to God the Father than His Son, Jesus Christ. He is loved with perfect, infinite, divine love. That is how precious He should be to us.
Oh how much does the Father love the Son! Is not this a wonderful thing,—that God's own love to Jesus should dwell in our hearts? And yet it is so. The love wherewith we love Christ, mark you, is God's love to Christ: "That the love that You have loved Me may be in them.”
All true love, such as the Father delights in and accepts at our hands, is nothing but his own love, which has come streaming down from his own heart into our renewed minds. Jesus' longing and goal is that we see his glory and then that we be able to love what we see with the same love that the Father has for the Son. And he doesn't mean that we merely imitate the love of the Father for the Son. He means the Father's very love becomes our love for the Son – that we love the Son with the love of the Father for the Son. This is what the Spirit bestows in our lives: Love for the Son by the Father through the Spirit.
Oh what grace He gives us. And I say it is his grace, because the best thing he has to give us is his love and joy. "These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full" (John 15:11; see also 17:13). It would not be fully gracious of Jesus simply to increase my love and joy to its final limit and then leave me short of his.
My capacities for love and joy are very confined. So Christ not only offers himself as the divine object of my joy, but pours his capacity for love and joy into me, so that I can love and enjoy him with the very love and joy of God. This is glory, and this is grace. We will love and enjoy the Son of God with the very love and enjoyment of his Father. God's delight in his Son will be in us and it will be ours. And this will never end, because neither the Father nor the Son ever ends. Their love for each other will be our love for them and therefore our loving them will never die.
This is what Jesus prays for us: "Father, show them my glory and give them the very delight in me that you have in me." May we see Christ with the eyes of God and savor Christ with the heart of God. The love of God is so working as to change you so that you enjoy making much of him forever and ever and ever. And that's the end of your quest. Do you want this? Do you desire to be loved by God for God? That is the essence of heaven. That is the gift Christ came to purchase for sinners at the cost of his death in our place.
When Karl Barth, the famed German theologian, visited the United States, a student in seminary supposedly asked, “Dr. Barth, what is the single most important truth you have learned as a theologian?” Barth replied, “the most important thing that I have learned is this: Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” May we never forget not only that Jesus loves us but also the peculiar and precious way that He loves us: to be free to love Him the way the Father loves Him. There is no greater gift than this.
A PRAYER:
Father, please answer Your Son's prayer for us even now as much as we can bear that the love with which You loved Him may be in us and He in us. We confess that our love for Christ is not all He deserves. We long to love Him more. More purely. More intensely. More consistently. More joyfully. For Your own sake, Father, and for the glory of Your Son, satisfy us with His glory. In His name we pray. Amen.
Jonathan Edwards writes:
“When God is loved aright, He is loved for His excellency, the beauty of His nature.” What does it mean to love Him? That Jesus would truly be as precious to us as He is to the Father. That we would love Him with a “peculiar love”. So, consider verse 26, the very last verse:
“I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
Let us look at this carefully. Jesus' request to God is that He desires the Father’s love for the Son to be in us in order for us to love Him. Have you ever thought that Jesus wants you to love Him not merely with your love but with love that the Father has for Him? My love is weak and inconsistent. My love is conditional and moody. My love is selfish and prejudiced. My love is limited and finite. My love is human and sinful. Therefore, my love for Him is totally inadequate in loving Him, the God of glory; therefore, it is inadequate and in reality, impossible, for loving others with His love. That is why Jesus asks the Father for his love to be given to us. God makes it possible for me, a sinner, to love such a worthy, glorious being like God in a manner of love that He so richly and worthily deserves! In short, Jesus is praying for the Father to love us in order to help us love Him by making much of him!
How is this possible? First, because of the knowledge of the God of love. "I have made known unto them thy name, and will make it known." We cannot love a God whom we do not know: a measure of knowledge is needful to affection. However lovely God may be, a man blind of soul cannot perceive him, and therefore is not touched by his loveliness. Only when the eyes are opened to behold the loveliness of God will the heart go out towards God who is so desirable an object for the affections. Brethren, we must know in order to believe; we must know in order to hope; and we must especially know in order to love. Hence, the great desirableness that you should know the Lord of love (1 John 4:8, 16) and His great love which surpasses knowledge.
“I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:17-19).
You cannot give in return love which you have never known. Some of us in our lives have been deprived of love. Perhaps we have never known much love in our earthly relationships. Love for us has been as the song goes “the Elusive Butterfly”. In reality, we all are deprived of God’s love! Not because of Him but because we have never received His love due to our sinfulness. Without the inflow of love, no wonder there has been no outflow of love. So until the love of God has come into your heart, and you have been made a partaker of it, you cannot rejoice in it or return it.
Second, it is possible because the knowledge here spoken of is knowledge which Jesus gave them. “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known.” O beloved, it is not knowledge that you and I pick up as a matter of book learning that will ever bring out our love to the Father: it is knowledge given us by Christ through his Spirit. It is not knowledge communicated by the preacher alone which will bless you; for however much he may be taught of God himself, he cannot preach to the heart unless the blessed Spirit of God comes and takes of the things that are spoken, and reveals them and makes them manifest to each individual heart, so that in consequence it knows the Lord.
This knowledge, dear friends, comes to us gradually. The text indicates this. “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known." As if, though they knew the Father, there was far more to know and the Lord Jesus was resolved to teach them more and more and more and more.
Third, it is possible because of the new birth. Becoming a Christian means getting a new nature which is given by God. Practically speaking this means that God comes into our lives by the Holy Spirit and begins to give us new affections, new emotions, namely the emotions and affections of God: the love that the Father has for the Son! It is the presence of God the Spirit in our lives that causes us to love Jesus with the love of God the Father. Romans 5:5 says that “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us”. Indeed the Holy Spirit may be viewed as the love of God in a Person. To be ruled by the Spirit is to be ruled by a divine love for Jesus. Jesus is simply praying that we may be filled with the Spirit who is the divine Person who expresses the love that the Father has for the Son. Thus we will be filled with the very love with which the Father loves the Son. The result is divine love flowing into your soul and pouring out of your life to God and others. No wonder why Paul speaks of love as the fruit of the indwelling Spirit (Galatians 5:22).
So what kind of love does Jesus desire for you to have? A peculiar love. “The love with which you have loved me.” This is a kind of love whereby Jesus is as precious, as valuable, to us as He is to the Father in Heaven. There is no greater love in the entire universe than the love flowing between the Father and the Son in the holy Trinity. No love is more perfect, more powerful, more intense, more continuous, more pure, and more full of delight in the beloved, than the love God the Father has for the Son. It is energy of joy that makes atom bombs look like firecrackers. Oh, how the Father delights in the Son! Oh, how precious the Son is to the Father! "This is my beloved Son, with whom 1 am well pleased," God said at Jesus' baptism (Matthew 3:17). "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him," God said at the transfiguration (Matthew 17:5). Jesus is the living Stone-rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him” (1 Peter 2:4). In the entire universe none is more precious to God the Father than His Son, Jesus Christ. He is loved with perfect, infinite, divine love. That is how precious He should be to us.
Oh how much does the Father love the Son! Is not this a wonderful thing,—that God's own love to Jesus should dwell in our hearts? And yet it is so. The love wherewith we love Christ, mark you, is God's love to Christ: "That the love that You have loved Me may be in them.”
All true love, such as the Father delights in and accepts at our hands, is nothing but his own love, which has come streaming down from his own heart into our renewed minds. Jesus' longing and goal is that we see his glory and then that we be able to love what we see with the same love that the Father has for the Son. And he doesn't mean that we merely imitate the love of the Father for the Son. He means the Father's very love becomes our love for the Son – that we love the Son with the love of the Father for the Son. This is what the Spirit bestows in our lives: Love for the Son by the Father through the Spirit.
Oh what grace He gives us. And I say it is his grace, because the best thing he has to give us is his love and joy. "These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full" (John 15:11; see also 17:13). It would not be fully gracious of Jesus simply to increase my love and joy to its final limit and then leave me short of his.
My capacities for love and joy are very confined. So Christ not only offers himself as the divine object of my joy, but pours his capacity for love and joy into me, so that I can love and enjoy him with the very love and joy of God. This is glory, and this is grace. We will love and enjoy the Son of God with the very love and enjoyment of his Father. God's delight in his Son will be in us and it will be ours. And this will never end, because neither the Father nor the Son ever ends. Their love for each other will be our love for them and therefore our loving them will never die.
This is what Jesus prays for us: "Father, show them my glory and give them the very delight in me that you have in me." May we see Christ with the eyes of God and savor Christ with the heart of God. The love of God is so working as to change you so that you enjoy making much of him forever and ever and ever. And that's the end of your quest. Do you want this? Do you desire to be loved by God for God? That is the essence of heaven. That is the gift Christ came to purchase for sinners at the cost of his death in our place.
When Karl Barth, the famed German theologian, visited the United States, a student in seminary supposedly asked, “Dr. Barth, what is the single most important truth you have learned as a theologian?” Barth replied, “the most important thing that I have learned is this: Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” May we never forget not only that Jesus loves us but also the peculiar and precious way that He loves us: to be free to love Him the way the Father loves Him. There is no greater gift than this.
A PRAYER:
Father, please answer Your Son's prayer for us even now as much as we can bear that the love with which You loved Him may be in us and He in us. We confess that our love for Christ is not all He deserves. We long to love Him more. More purely. More intensely. More consistently. More joyfully. For Your own sake, Father, and for the glory of Your Son, satisfy us with His glory. In His name we pray. Amen.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
WHEN JESUS PRAYED FOR YOU! Part 1
"Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them." John 17:24-26 ESV
John 17 is one of the most profound prayers in the entire Bible. Here we have before us one of the most intimate glimpses anywhere in Scripture of the mind and heart of the Lord as He prayed this prayer while on His way to Gethsemane. On that night we are revealed Jesus Christ’s ultimate concerns. His words are dominated, even in His darkest hour, by a spirit of high reverence for His Father and a loving concern for His then-present and future followers.
An overview of His prayer is that first, He prayed for Himself that night (Verses 1-5). He spoke of unimaginable glory and of perfect union with the Father in that glory. As He prayed He revealed as never before the single purpose of why He had ever left the glory of heaven. The hearts of the disciples were stirred as they realized the Presence of Deity. And then Jesus prayed for them! (Verses 6-19)They listened as He asked the Father to make them a part of the fellowship and life which Jesus Himself shared with the Father. But then, wonder of wonders, Jesus prayed for you and for me! (Verses 20-26) Jesus reveals His deepest desires and wants to His Father for you and me! Here is the climax of his desire:
"Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am" (verse 24).
Here is Jesus praying for us. He loves us in this prayer. Oh how He loves us in this prayer! Jesus is praying for all of His future disciples, these are those whom God has drawn to the Son (John 6:44, 65). These are Christians, people who have "received" Jesus as the crucified and risen Savior and Lord and Treasure of their lives (John 1:12; 10:11, 17-18; 20:28; 6:35; 3:17). Jesus says he wants them to be with him. Why does Jesus want us to be with him?
“. . . To see my glory that you [Father] have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world” (Verse 24B)
This expresses Jesus’ concern not for our companionship with Him but instead for the fulfillment of our deepest longing. If Jesus loves you and prays for you, do you know what he finally asks for you? That you may see him. The ultimate answer to the prayer of love is, "Show them my glory, Father. Show them my glory, and they will have arrived at ultimate purpose."
As Augustine said, “Oh Lord, thou hast made us for thyself and hearts find no rest except we find it in thee.” The deepest longing of the human heart and the deepest meaning of heaven and earth are summed up in this: THE GLORY OF GOD. Nothing less will do. Jesus is not lonely and is not needy for our companionship. He and the Father and the Spirit are profoundly satisfied in the fellowship of the Trinity. We, not He, are starving for something: THE GLORY OF GOD! Jesus knew this. That is why He prays this way!
“To see my glory”. This is the very purpose of God creating us (Isaiah 43:6-7; Romans 9:23). This is the heart of all that the apostles preached (2 Cor.4:6). This is the goal of every Christian act (1 Corinthians 10:31). This is the focus of all Christian hope (Romans.5:2). This is what will someday replace the sun and the moon as the light of life (Revelation 21:23) and even now what the heavens are proclaiming (Psalm 19:1). When people see it and discover its worth they cry out like Moses, “Show me your glory” (Exodus 33:18) and David “One thing I ask and what I seek after is to behold the beauty of the Lord” (Psalm 27:4).
So here Jesus’ love is manifest by praying for us to experience the fulfillment of what we were really made for, seeing and cherishing His glory. Oh, that God would make this sink in to our souls! Oh that we would bask in this amazing love!
This is the most loving thing, the highest good, that Jesus could do for us and ask the Father to give us sight. The love of Jesus drives Him to pray for us and then die for us, not that our value may be central, but that His glory may be central, and we may see it and savor it for all eternity.
"That they may see My glory!" For this sight is the very healing of our souls and the strengthening of our lives and the meaning of our creation and the fulfilling of our salvation! Jesus is praying that we would see His glory like the Father sees His glory. The Father sees the Son as He really is in all His worth and value. The Father who is the God of glory has given Jesus glory and sees the glory of His Son. How does the Father see His Son’s glory?
“And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” (John 17:5)
“The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being.” (Hebrews 1:3)
“He is the image of the invisible God.” (Colossians 1:15)
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)
So the first part that we learn from Jesus as He prays for us is that God loves us in a way that enables us to see His glory. But that is only half of what Jesus wants in these final, climactic verses of his prayer. I will discuss that next time...
Pastor Bill
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
THOUGHTS ON PARADISE, GAINED, LOST, AND RESTORED
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. Genesis 1:1,31 ESV
I was sad the other night in thinking about the many struggling people that I deal with as a pastor. People who struggle with addictions, broken relationships, lonliness, social disfunction, anxiety, fear, anger, bitterness, hopelessness, unforiveness, suffering from consequences of bad decisions, discontentment, disease, mental illness, habitual sins, and so many other results from the fall. I felt so much love and compassion for them all and at the same time great feelings of helplessness over all the sorrow and pain that I see in this world. In my sadness I began deeply reflecting about the way things used to be before the fall, what happened after the fall, and what God intends to do someday.
When God created the world everything that He made was exceedingly beautiful and perfect. To God Himself it was “good”.
Paul Tripp describes it this way:
God's creative artistry, shown in the world he made and everything he placed in it, was a thing of gorgeous and stunning beauty. The hills were awash in multi-hued flowers, with no weevil to consume their leaves and no mites to infect their blossoms. The soil was packed with life-giving nutrients, and there were no thorns, thistles, or weeds to be found. Trees were laden with the lushest, sweetest, most succulent fruit. There were no plagues or pollutants. Nature grew, bloomed, and produced without struggle or toil. There was untainted natural beauty as far as the eye could see. It literally covered the earth. Animals frolicked, fed, mated, and produced without fear of predators or a fight with disease. The animal kingdom was a place of an amazing variegated beauty, all existing in an atmosphere of peace.
People lived in joyful, unafraid, and unashamed community with one another. There was no stealing, lying, cheating, harsh words, abusive actions, strategies of vengeance, sexual immorality, broken families, or corrupt government. No one struggled with depression, anxiety, issues of identity, paralyzing regret, anger, envy, compulsion, addiction, fear, guilt, aloneness, hopelessness, or doubt. People didn't suffer from injury, disease, or old age. There were no hospital vigils and no viewings of the deceased. No one needed to ask for forgiveness and no one struggled to forgive. There was no marital disappointment and no employment gone bad.
People lived in heartfelt, loving, obedient worship of God. They worshipped the Creator and managed creation; they didn't give in to worshipping creation and trying to manage the Creator.
There was no doubt of his goodness, no fear of his anger. There was no overt rebellion or subtle disobedience. They obeyed his words and listened to his wisdom. There were no corrupting idols or competing systems of faith. No one was ever angry at God, and God had no cause for anger with the people he had made. People loved God's glory and in no way lived for their own.
In every way you could think or imagine, the world, as God created it, was a place of unparalleled peace and beauty. It was a sight and surround-sound glory display, reflecting the transcendent glory of the One who had made it out of nothing. His creative majesty was on untainted and uninterrupted display: the piercing red of the rose, the fluorescent scales of the fish, the sweet song of the bird, the gray grandeur of the rock, the earth-shaking roar of the lion, the endless gurgling of the stream, and the lacey delicacy of the leaf. Each part pointed to him. Each thing existed as a hymn to his glory.
But then something catastrophic happened. Man sinned, fellowship with God was ruined, and paradise was lost:
“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. ..To the woman he said, "I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you." And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return." (Genesis 3:6,16-19)
How do you begin to express the result of the cataclysmic events that happened? Perhaps the apostle Paul did it best with this powerful statement in Romans 8:21:
The whole creation groans."
Do you ever wonder why things are the way that they are? Do you ever feel a sadness, a sense of loss, frustration, brokenness, mourning, grief, or despair over the way things are? Sometimes as a pastor I will look at all the suffering and pain and falleness in this world and just weep before the Lord. I feel this longing inside, a sense that this is just not the way it was supposed to be?
Look at the way this world has become since paradise was lost. This sadly, is the very world that we are so tragically accustomed to live in paradise lost!
Paul Tripp writes,
Lilies now fought with weeds that would choke out their lives. Pollutants floated as shadows in the sky and unseen toxins in the stream. Fruit and flower were blighted with disease. Pain, suffering, toil, disease, and death became the regular experience of everything in the creation. What was once very easy was easy no longer. What was simple became terribly complicated. Everything that was once free now was only obtained at great cost. What seemed once unthinkably wrong and out of character for the world that God had made now became a daily experience. Words like falsehood, enemy, danger, sin, destruction, war, murder, sickness, fear, and hatred became regular parts of the fallen-world vocabulary.
For the first time, the harmony between people was broken. Shame, fear, guilt, blame, greed, envy, conflict, and hurt made relationships a minefield they were never intended to be. People looked at other people as obstacles to getting what they wanted or as dangers to be avoided. Even families were unable to coexist in any kind of lasting and peaceful union. Violence became a common response to problems that had never before existed. Conflict existed in the human community as an experience more regular than peace. Marriage became a battle for control, and children's rebellion became a more natural response than willing submission. Things became more valuable than people, and they willingly competed with others in order to acquire more.
The human community was more divided by love for self than united by love of neighbor. The words of people, meant to express truth and love, became weapons of anger and instruments of deceit. In an instant, the sweet music of human harmony had become the mournful dirge of human war.
Yet, with all of the havoc that sin wreaked on the physical world and on the human community, there was another horrible result. It was something so unthinkable, so horrific, so hard to grasp, that it easily stands as the saddest thing that has ever happened on earth. This tragedy is portrayed in a seemingly mundane conversation captured in Genesis 3:8-10,
"Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" He answered, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."
What a sad, sad moment! Here is a man, created to have the boundaries of his life reach to the furthest boundaries of the glory of God. Here is one who was created to get his identity, meaning, and purpose from an intimate relationship with God. Here is a person whose every word, thought, desire, and deed was meant to be shaped by a heartfelt submission to and worship of his Creator. What do we find him doing? He hides in fear when the One who is meant to be his life comes near! And so we continue hiding from God to this day.
How sad I am as I think about this loss of God and of paradise seen and lived out every day in this fallen world.
But thanks be to God who is seated on the throne and in Revelation 21:1-5, says, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new."
Do you see and feel this wonderful and hope filled truth? "I am making everything new!”
There is going to be a restoration of all of God’s beautiful creation. Something new, something better, something wonderful, something hopeful, something beyond anything we could ever ask or imagine!
It is summarized in Romans 8:17-25,
“And if children, then heirs- heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”
Neil Morse wrote a song that sums up our longing:
I wish there was
A way to start again
Just blink and count to ten
In the land of beginning again
Where no one knows
The bad things that you´ve done
The past is truly gone
In the land of beginning again
And I
See a child returning to the sky
We´ll all play simple games
And all the hard things there
Are soft as rain
I wish there was
A way to start again
To wake up among friends
In the land of beginning again
And I
Love my brother more than my own life
And no one feels mean
All things are new
Behold - the slate is clean....
I wish there was
A way to start again
Just blink and count to ten
In the land of beginning again
THERE IS A LAND OF BEGINNING AGAIN!
Full of longing for the restoration of paradise and the restoration of all these precious people who suffer so,
Pastor Bill
I was sad the other night in thinking about the many struggling people that I deal with as a pastor. People who struggle with addictions, broken relationships, lonliness, social disfunction, anxiety, fear, anger, bitterness, hopelessness, unforiveness, suffering from consequences of bad decisions, discontentment, disease, mental illness, habitual sins, and so many other results from the fall. I felt so much love and compassion for them all and at the same time great feelings of helplessness over all the sorrow and pain that I see in this world. In my sadness I began deeply reflecting about the way things used to be before the fall, what happened after the fall, and what God intends to do someday.
When God created the world everything that He made was exceedingly beautiful and perfect. To God Himself it was “good”.
Paul Tripp describes it this way:
God's creative artistry, shown in the world he made and everything he placed in it, was a thing of gorgeous and stunning beauty. The hills were awash in multi-hued flowers, with no weevil to consume their leaves and no mites to infect their blossoms. The soil was packed with life-giving nutrients, and there were no thorns, thistles, or weeds to be found. Trees were laden with the lushest, sweetest, most succulent fruit. There were no plagues or pollutants. Nature grew, bloomed, and produced without struggle or toil. There was untainted natural beauty as far as the eye could see. It literally covered the earth. Animals frolicked, fed, mated, and produced without fear of predators or a fight with disease. The animal kingdom was a place of an amazing variegated beauty, all existing in an atmosphere of peace.
People lived in joyful, unafraid, and unashamed community with one another. There was no stealing, lying, cheating, harsh words, abusive actions, strategies of vengeance, sexual immorality, broken families, or corrupt government. No one struggled with depression, anxiety, issues of identity, paralyzing regret, anger, envy, compulsion, addiction, fear, guilt, aloneness, hopelessness, or doubt. People didn't suffer from injury, disease, or old age. There were no hospital vigils and no viewings of the deceased. No one needed to ask for forgiveness and no one struggled to forgive. There was no marital disappointment and no employment gone bad.
People lived in heartfelt, loving, obedient worship of God. They worshipped the Creator and managed creation; they didn't give in to worshipping creation and trying to manage the Creator.
There was no doubt of his goodness, no fear of his anger. There was no overt rebellion or subtle disobedience. They obeyed his words and listened to his wisdom. There were no corrupting idols or competing systems of faith. No one was ever angry at God, and God had no cause for anger with the people he had made. People loved God's glory and in no way lived for their own.
In every way you could think or imagine, the world, as God created it, was a place of unparalleled peace and beauty. It was a sight and surround-sound glory display, reflecting the transcendent glory of the One who had made it out of nothing. His creative majesty was on untainted and uninterrupted display: the piercing red of the rose, the fluorescent scales of the fish, the sweet song of the bird, the gray grandeur of the rock, the earth-shaking roar of the lion, the endless gurgling of the stream, and the lacey delicacy of the leaf. Each part pointed to him. Each thing existed as a hymn to his glory.
But then something catastrophic happened. Man sinned, fellowship with God was ruined, and paradise was lost:
“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. ..To the woman he said, "I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you." And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return." (Genesis 3:6,16-19)
How do you begin to express the result of the cataclysmic events that happened? Perhaps the apostle Paul did it best with this powerful statement in Romans 8:21:
The whole creation groans."
Do you ever wonder why things are the way that they are? Do you ever feel a sadness, a sense of loss, frustration, brokenness, mourning, grief, or despair over the way things are? Sometimes as a pastor I will look at all the suffering and pain and falleness in this world and just weep before the Lord. I feel this longing inside, a sense that this is just not the way it was supposed to be?
Look at the way this world has become since paradise was lost. This sadly, is the very world that we are so tragically accustomed to live in paradise lost!
Paul Tripp writes,
Lilies now fought with weeds that would choke out their lives. Pollutants floated as shadows in the sky and unseen toxins in the stream. Fruit and flower were blighted with disease. Pain, suffering, toil, disease, and death became the regular experience of everything in the creation. What was once very easy was easy no longer. What was simple became terribly complicated. Everything that was once free now was only obtained at great cost. What seemed once unthinkably wrong and out of character for the world that God had made now became a daily experience. Words like falsehood, enemy, danger, sin, destruction, war, murder, sickness, fear, and hatred became regular parts of the fallen-world vocabulary.
For the first time, the harmony between people was broken. Shame, fear, guilt, blame, greed, envy, conflict, and hurt made relationships a minefield they were never intended to be. People looked at other people as obstacles to getting what they wanted or as dangers to be avoided. Even families were unable to coexist in any kind of lasting and peaceful union. Violence became a common response to problems that had never before existed. Conflict existed in the human community as an experience more regular than peace. Marriage became a battle for control, and children's rebellion became a more natural response than willing submission. Things became more valuable than people, and they willingly competed with others in order to acquire more.
The human community was more divided by love for self than united by love of neighbor. The words of people, meant to express truth and love, became weapons of anger and instruments of deceit. In an instant, the sweet music of human harmony had become the mournful dirge of human war.
Yet, with all of the havoc that sin wreaked on the physical world and on the human community, there was another horrible result. It was something so unthinkable, so horrific, so hard to grasp, that it easily stands as the saddest thing that has ever happened on earth. This tragedy is portrayed in a seemingly mundane conversation captured in Genesis 3:8-10,
"Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" He answered, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."
What a sad, sad moment! Here is a man, created to have the boundaries of his life reach to the furthest boundaries of the glory of God. Here is one who was created to get his identity, meaning, and purpose from an intimate relationship with God. Here is a person whose every word, thought, desire, and deed was meant to be shaped by a heartfelt submission to and worship of his Creator. What do we find him doing? He hides in fear when the One who is meant to be his life comes near! And so we continue hiding from God to this day.
How sad I am as I think about this loss of God and of paradise seen and lived out every day in this fallen world.
But thanks be to God who is seated on the throne and in Revelation 21:1-5, says, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new."
Do you see and feel this wonderful and hope filled truth? "I am making everything new!”
There is going to be a restoration of all of God’s beautiful creation. Something new, something better, something wonderful, something hopeful, something beyond anything we could ever ask or imagine!
It is summarized in Romans 8:17-25,
“And if children, then heirs- heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”
Neil Morse wrote a song that sums up our longing:
I wish there was
A way to start again
Just blink and count to ten
In the land of beginning again
Where no one knows
The bad things that you´ve done
The past is truly gone
In the land of beginning again
And I
See a child returning to the sky
We´ll all play simple games
And all the hard things there
Are soft as rain
I wish there was
A way to start again
To wake up among friends
In the land of beginning again
And I
Love my brother more than my own life
And no one feels mean
All things are new
Behold - the slate is clean....
I wish there was
A way to start again
Just blink and count to ten
In the land of beginning again
THERE IS A LAND OF BEGINNING AGAIN!
Full of longing for the restoration of paradise and the restoration of all these precious people who suffer so,
Pastor Bill
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
YOUR GOD IS LARGE AND IN CHARGE Part 2
"The word of the LORD came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, "Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and overthrow the chariots and their riders. And the horses and their riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his brother. On that day, declares the LORD of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the LORD, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the LORD of hosts."Haggai 2:20-23 ESV
Our God is the great maker and promise keeper. When God makes a promise, He tells His people what He is going to do. So when God makes a promise, God telling us NOW what He will do in the future. As we continue in Haggai, we see that God spoke to Zerubbabel about the future in Haggai 2:20-23 with two promises.
We can lump these statements in verses 20-23 into two broad categories:
A. The first promise has to do with the overthrow of earthly kingdoms
We see here God repeating His promises from earlier in Haggai 2:6-7, “For thus says the LORD of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of hosts.” Now the promise in Haggai 2:21 -22 obviously refers to the same shaking, which God said would take place “in a little while.”
Although there may have been some partial fulfillments of that shaking of the nations when Persia, Greece, and Rome were overthrown, the final fulfillment is still future in our day! Clearly God’s idea of “a little while” does not coincide with our idea of “a little while”! Peter wrote to mockers who say, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” As Peter goes on to point out, “But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:4, 8-9). There is coming a day when God is going to shake the heavens and the earth. In that day everything made by the hand of man will come crashing down.
Revelation 16:17-20 describes that day and connects with the Battle of Armageddon just before Jesus returns to the earth: “The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and out of the temple came a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘‘It is done!” Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake. The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath. Every island fled away and the mountains could not be found.” Think of it. Paris leveled, Tokyo in ruins, London turned into a disaster area, New York burning, Miami in flames, Los Angeles in ashes, San Francisco fallen to the ground. Everything that man builds collapses before his eyes. So it is with everything that is of this world. This is a sobering reminder, and one we dare not forget.
B. The second promise has to do with God’s plans for Zerubbabel
“On that day, declares the LORD of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the LORD, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the LORD of hosts" (verse 23).
What part can a person play in God’s purposes? Haggai offers Zerubbabel the answer to this question here. First, you are my servant. The word here was used for many of God’s most famous servants, from Moses to Joshua to David. God says one of the most important roles one can have in the purposes of God is to simply be His servant.
Then He says “I will take…I have chosen you” Again note the first-person pronoun repetition. God does not place conditions on this strategy; he just says that I will do it. God says that he will “take” and “has chosen” Zerubbabel. These two terms imply special divine selection for a special purpose. God also said that that he would make him a signet ring. Most of us are not familiar with the concept of a signet ring. The signet ring was a stone carved with the symbol of the person in power. It was used by pressing it into clay tablets to authenticate what was written on them. Thus, it was much like a signature today. The signet was a precious object. So it was kept on the ruler’s finger or on a cord around his neck. It was guarded with his person. God was saying that Zerubbabel was going to be like that to God. God was going to place the governor on his finger or hang him around his neck so that, even though nations and even heaven and earth should be shaken, Zerubbabel would not be shaken. He was safe in God’s hand and so are you.
As the Lord’s signet ring he also had the seal of God’s promise to provide for the future Messiah. In other words, through his bloodline, God will continue the royal line and bring in the King of Israel. Zerubbabel is the descendant of King David. When David was the king of Israel, God made a promise to him that the throne would never depart from his family. Zerubbabel belongs to the royal bloodline. Through him, God will bring in Jesus. Both Matthew and Luke trace the ancestry of Jesus Christ back to Zerubbabel (Matthew 1:12; Luke 3:27).
God’s Kingdom will be established. His King will come through Israel. God’s salvation plan is on track. Nothing has changed, despite Israel apparent failure. God is planning for the grand entry of His Son. Man sees only the present. God sees the future. Israel may have lost sight of it, but not God. Man may have become disillusioned with what is going on, but not God. God’s plan for you has not changed.
Thus the book ends with a stirring word of encouragement to a discouraged leader and to us. It was God’s way of saying, “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up. Be greatly encouraged. You have no idea of how great my plans are for you.”
Five times God has asked us in this book to “consider your ways”. Now this day God wants us to be encouraged and strengthened by considering His ways. He is in control. He keeps His promises, and He is on your side. He had a purpose for Zerubbabel and He has a purpose for your life. “For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his father’s” (Acts 13:36). God has a plan for every life. God wants you to realize His call upon you. And each life works in the master plan for the world. He is concerned about every individual fulfilling His purposes in their generation. He wants the moms and dads, husbands and wives, grandparents, managers, laborers, kids, and especially you, to achieve what He has for them. And He will do it through you. He will choose, He will make, and He will take you to you divine purpose. And just like Zerubbabel you will never know the full reaches of your life.
Ajith Fernando tells the story of a godly missionary who faithfully served in a village in Sri Lanka over a long period of time. He did not see anyone from that community come to Christ during his lifetime. After his death a young missionary came to the village to take his place and was surprised to see almost the entire village respond to the call of same gospel his predecessor had proclaimed to them for so many years. Perplexed and humbled, the young man asked the villagers why they did not respond to the gospel during the time when that great and godly man lived among them. They responded that the old missionary had told them that “for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” And if they became followers of Jesus Christ they would not need to fear death. What he said impressed them, but they needed to see if what the man said was really true. So they watched him live and waited till he died. In seeing the way that he lived and the way that he died made them all want to become Christians.
Do you see what God can do? He is purposeful with you and your life, He is the sovereign Lord, He is large and in charge to accomplish His plans for you and through you.
Pastor Bill
Our God is the great maker and promise keeper. When God makes a promise, He tells His people what He is going to do. So when God makes a promise, God telling us NOW what He will do in the future. As we continue in Haggai, we see that God spoke to Zerubbabel about the future in Haggai 2:20-23 with two promises.
We can lump these statements in verses 20-23 into two broad categories:
A. The first promise has to do with the overthrow of earthly kingdoms
We see here God repeating His promises from earlier in Haggai 2:6-7, “For thus says the LORD of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of hosts.” Now the promise in Haggai 2:21 -22 obviously refers to the same shaking, which God said would take place “in a little while.”
Although there may have been some partial fulfillments of that shaking of the nations when Persia, Greece, and Rome were overthrown, the final fulfillment is still future in our day! Clearly God’s idea of “a little while” does not coincide with our idea of “a little while”! Peter wrote to mockers who say, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” As Peter goes on to point out, “But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:4, 8-9). There is coming a day when God is going to shake the heavens and the earth. In that day everything made by the hand of man will come crashing down.
Revelation 16:17-20 describes that day and connects with the Battle of Armageddon just before Jesus returns to the earth: “The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and out of the temple came a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘‘It is done!” Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake. The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath. Every island fled away and the mountains could not be found.” Think of it. Paris leveled, Tokyo in ruins, London turned into a disaster area, New York burning, Miami in flames, Los Angeles in ashes, San Francisco fallen to the ground. Everything that man builds collapses before his eyes. So it is with everything that is of this world. This is a sobering reminder, and one we dare not forget.
B. The second promise has to do with God’s plans for Zerubbabel
“On that day, declares the LORD of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the LORD, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the LORD of hosts" (verse 23).
What part can a person play in God’s purposes? Haggai offers Zerubbabel the answer to this question here. First, you are my servant. The word here was used for many of God’s most famous servants, from Moses to Joshua to David. God says one of the most important roles one can have in the purposes of God is to simply be His servant.
Then He says “I will take…I have chosen you” Again note the first-person pronoun repetition. God does not place conditions on this strategy; he just says that I will do it. God says that he will “take” and “has chosen” Zerubbabel. These two terms imply special divine selection for a special purpose. God also said that that he would make him a signet ring. Most of us are not familiar with the concept of a signet ring. The signet ring was a stone carved with the symbol of the person in power. It was used by pressing it into clay tablets to authenticate what was written on them. Thus, it was much like a signature today. The signet was a precious object. So it was kept on the ruler’s finger or on a cord around his neck. It was guarded with his person. God was saying that Zerubbabel was going to be like that to God. God was going to place the governor on his finger or hang him around his neck so that, even though nations and even heaven and earth should be shaken, Zerubbabel would not be shaken. He was safe in God’s hand and so are you.
As the Lord’s signet ring he also had the seal of God’s promise to provide for the future Messiah. In other words, through his bloodline, God will continue the royal line and bring in the King of Israel. Zerubbabel is the descendant of King David. When David was the king of Israel, God made a promise to him that the throne would never depart from his family. Zerubbabel belongs to the royal bloodline. Through him, God will bring in Jesus. Both Matthew and Luke trace the ancestry of Jesus Christ back to Zerubbabel (Matthew 1:12; Luke 3:27).
God’s Kingdom will be established. His King will come through Israel. God’s salvation plan is on track. Nothing has changed, despite Israel apparent failure. God is planning for the grand entry of His Son. Man sees only the present. God sees the future. Israel may have lost sight of it, but not God. Man may have become disillusioned with what is going on, but not God. God’s plan for you has not changed.
Thus the book ends with a stirring word of encouragement to a discouraged leader and to us. It was God’s way of saying, “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up. Be greatly encouraged. You have no idea of how great my plans are for you.”
Five times God has asked us in this book to “consider your ways”. Now this day God wants us to be encouraged and strengthened by considering His ways. He is in control. He keeps His promises, and He is on your side. He had a purpose for Zerubbabel and He has a purpose for your life. “For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his father’s” (Acts 13:36). God has a plan for every life. God wants you to realize His call upon you. And each life works in the master plan for the world. He is concerned about every individual fulfilling His purposes in their generation. He wants the moms and dads, husbands and wives, grandparents, managers, laborers, kids, and especially you, to achieve what He has for them. And He will do it through you. He will choose, He will make, and He will take you to you divine purpose. And just like Zerubbabel you will never know the full reaches of your life.
Ajith Fernando tells the story of a godly missionary who faithfully served in a village in Sri Lanka over a long period of time. He did not see anyone from that community come to Christ during his lifetime. After his death a young missionary came to the village to take his place and was surprised to see almost the entire village respond to the call of same gospel his predecessor had proclaimed to them for so many years. Perplexed and humbled, the young man asked the villagers why they did not respond to the gospel during the time when that great and godly man lived among them. They responded that the old missionary had told them that “for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” And if they became followers of Jesus Christ they would not need to fear death. What he said impressed them, but they needed to see if what the man said was really true. So they watched him live and waited till he died. In seeing the way that he lived and the way that he died made them all want to become Christians.
Do you see what God can do? He is purposeful with you and your life, He is the sovereign Lord, He is large and in charge to accomplish His plans for you and through you.
Pastor Bill
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