Strengthening Christ's Church through persecution

…I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Matthew 16:18

We have been exploring ways that Christ has been building His Church

First, Christ’s Church was established by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost in Acts 2.

Second, Christ’s Church expanded evangelistically, both through preaching and through writing the New Testament. 

Now for a third way in which Christ builds His Church: Christ’s Church experienced persecution. Persecution is almost always an ingredient in the strengthening of the Christ’s Church and growing individual believers in faith.  Our culture has experienced peace (no real persecution) for a long time.  Christians in other places in the world have suffered persecution all along. 

As a result of not experiencing persecution, Christians in our culture have grown soft (relative to our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ).  As the Church in America has been spared persecution, the American church been compromised and even perverted.  As it stands, the days of no persecution may be drawing to a close.  No one likes that prospect, but consider this: Christ’s Church is always strongest and most devoted to Christ when it suffers persecution. 

The next generation of Christians is likely to see our religious freedoms disappear and persecutions begin.  If that is God’s will, it will be painful, but it will be the means of separating the true Christians from the imposters.  People will not endure persecution for something that is not real and important. 

And by the way, persecution come not only from outside the Church. Sadly it comes also from within “the church,” historically when false churches persecute true Christians. Sadder still, it happens when people in the church wrongly judge, speak ill of, and cause division within the church.

Though the Lord uses persecution to strengthen His Church, those who persecute or divide His Church will be held accountable for their misdeeds!

How real is your faith? How important is it?  How willing are you to be hated, persecuted, or even martyred for Christ?  If being popular and liked are at the top of your priorities, you will not last—and you will turn in fellow believers to save your own skin.

Besides living and dying to save His people, Jesus rose.  Jesus ascended.  Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, and Jesus is establishing His Church. 

Next time: the vital importance of the church.

Writing the New Testament (2)

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16-17

The Lord expanded His church through the writing of the New Testament. Last time we considered the New Testament “epistles” (meaning letters). This time let’s give brief thought to the four gospels.

First, “the Gospel” is not the same as the four New Testament books we call “the gospels.” The Gospel (singular) is the good news of Jesus Christ that, when believed and obeyed, equals salvation. The Gospel is the plan of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

The gospels (plural) are the four New Testament books that tell us about Jesus—His life, death, and resurrection. So, what about these four gospels?

There are four of them, written by four different men, all telling the same story but from different vantage points having four different emphases. The first three (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), called the synoptic gospels, are similar and more biographical than the fourth gospel (John).

Matthew, written by a Jew primarily for a Jewish audience, presents Jesus as the King of the Jews and the One who fulfills Jewish prophecy. Matthew was one of the original twelve disciples.

Mark was not one of the original twelve disciples, but was tutored by Peter who was one of the twelve. Mark presents Jesus as the Servant. This gospel is the shortest and moves at a rapid pace.

Luke was not one of the original twelve disciples. He was not Jewish, but a Gentile. Luke wrote based on the information he gathered from eye witnesses (Luke 1:1-2). Luke is the longest of the four gospels and the longest book in the New Testament. Luke presents Jesus as the Son of Man, emphasizing the humanity of Jesus (while not neglecting His deity).

John was one of the original twelve disciples, and was also one of the three who made up Jesus’ inner circle. (The other two were Peter and James.) John presents Jesus as the Son of God, emphasizing the deity of Jesus.

Each of the four gospels deserve to be read and studied individually, as their unique emphases are important. There is also great value in reading one of the many merged treatments of the four gospels-in-one to get the most comprehensive picture of Jesus’ life. Personally, my favorite is the gospel section of “The Daily Bible,” by F. LaGard Smith. 

Writing the New Testament (1)

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16-17

The Lord expanded His church through the writing of the New Testament.

Saul, whose name was changed to Paul, wrote at least 13 books of the New Testament:

Romans is Paul’s Magnum Opus on the Christian faith.  (The Gospel according to Grace.)

1 & 2 Corinthians are letters Paul wrote to Christ’s church which Paul planted in the Greek city of Corinth.  The letters are largely corrective because the church in Corinth had such spiritual problems.

Galatians is a letter to a number of Christ’s churches in the region of Galatia (modern Turkey).  It is a corrective letter reminding Christians that salvation and the Christian life is based on grace, not on human effort.

Ephesians is a letter to another of Christ’s churches which Paul planted in the city of Ephesus (He remained there for three years--longer than anywhere else).  It outlines Christianity in two parts:  Chapters 1-3: God’s grace.  Chapters 4-6: the Christian’s response to grace is righteous living.

Philippians is a letter to Christ’s church which Paul planted in Philippi.  Though Paul wrote from prison (at the same time as Ephesians and Colossians) the letter is an encouragement to be joyful in all circumstances because of the grace of God in Christ.

Colossians is a letter to Christ’s church in the city of Colossae.  Paul never went there.  It was planted by a person from Ephesus who was converted under Paul’s ministry.  The letter corrects a slide away from the gospel into philosophy (Gnosticism) by extolling Jesus above all things and calling believers to live to glorify Him.

1 & 2 Thessalonians are two short letters written to Christ’s church which Paul planted in Thessalonica.  These were brand new believers, and they needed guidance to grow in grace and to avoid errors that were already creeping in.  Both of these are also corrective.

1 & 2 Timothy are letters written to Paul’s younger protégé, Timothy, who continued as pastor of Christ’s church which Paul planted in Ephesus.

Titus is a letter to another of Paul’s protégés, Titus, who continued to pastor Christ’s church which Paul planted on the island of Crete.  It provides essential instruction about how Christ’s churches are to be ordered.

Philemon is the only personal letter of Paul’s in the New Testament.  It is an exhortation to a slave holder to accept a former slave who ran away, and while away, was converted.  Paul’s message is that the grace we have received in Christ is to be the grace we give to others.

There are other letters not written by Paul, called General Epistles:

Hebrews is a letter written primarily to Jewish believers reminding them that everything about Jesus and Christianity is “better” than what they had in the Jewish religion.  (Some speculate that Paul also wrote Hebrews, but we do not know that.)

James was written by Jesus’ half brother, an early leader in Christ’s Church in Jerusalem.  It is an exhortation on the Christian life, including warnings about errors.

1 & 2 Peter were written by the Apostle Peter.  1 Peter is about handling suffering in the Christian life.  2 Peter as about remaining steadfast in the faith, especially in the face of false prophets, while waiting for the Lord’s Second Coming.

1, 2, & 3 John were written by the Apostle John (the only one of the twelve who didn’t die a martyr’s death).  1 John is about love (God’s for His people, and ours for each other). 2 John is about remaining steadfast to the truth. 3 John contains a commendation of Gaius (a faithful servant of Christ) and a condemnation of Diotrephes (a false teacher who sought to undermine apostolic authority.)

Jude was written by another of Jesus’ half brothers.  It is a strong exhortation to be discerning, to contend for the faith, and to remain in the love of God.

The Revelation of Jesus Christ was written by the Apostle John and contains a series of visions intended to encourage and support Christians facing persecution.  The overarching theme of the Revelation is that Christ will triumph, just as He told the disciples in Matthew 16:18 that He would.  The Revelation concludes with the Second Coming of Christ and the establishment of His eternal Kingdom in the New Heavens and the New Earth.

While many New Testament letters are expressly corrective, virtually all contain correction. What does that tell us?  Christians err.  Christ’s churches err.  Correction is needed.  God provides it—not only then, but ever since by recording and preserving these letters.  The New Testament is instructive and encouraging, but because we need it, it is also corrective.

 Next time, the four gospels

The establishment and expansion of the Church (1)

Let’s continue with our thoughts regarding Jesus’ establishment of His Church.

How the Lord builds His Church in the New Testament:

The book of Acts is the record of the first Christians and the earliest Church.

1. Christ’s Church was established by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  Acts 2.

2. Christ’s Church expanded evangelistically. 

Matthew 28:18-20  And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.  Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.

Acts 1:8  But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

Jesus told the disciples to be witnesses in Jerusalem (home), Judea (surrounding area), Samaria (nearby—to people not like us), and to the end of the earth (everyone everywhere!).

At first, Christ’s Church huddled in Jerusalem and didn’t go, the way Jesus commissioned them to go.  So God stirred them up and out of their comfort zone through persecution and tribulation.  We’ll consider persecution a little more next, but now, understand this:  There was a great famine in Jerusalem, and because the Jews revolted against the Romans, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem.  This stirred Christ’s Church to go.  Acts 1-8 is about Christ’s Church in Jerusalem.  Acts 8-12 is about Christ’s Church in Judea and Samaria.  Acts 13-28 is about Christ’s Church expanding to the ends of the earth.

One of God’s primary agents in this expansion was the Apostle Paul.  Paul was not always Paul.  He was born Saul of Tarsus. He was a serious Christ-hater and persecutor of the Christ’s Church.  As Saul was persecuting Christians (Acts 9), God miraculously saved him and commissioned him to be the Apostle to the Gentiles.  Ironic, isn’t it? Saul’s persecution scattered Christians all over the place, and then God sent him (then, Paul) to be the Apostle to these distant lands.)

Next time: the expansion of the Church through writing.

How Jesus saves His people (5)

We continue considering how Jesus saves His people from their sins.  We have already mentioned that Jesus (1) Lived for his people.  (2) He died for His people.  (3) He rose for his people.  (4) He ascended into Heaven where He intercedes for His people.  (5) He sent the Holy Spirit for His people.  And now for number (6): Jesus established, builds, and guarantees the success of His Church.

Matthew 16:18  I will build My Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

Let us understand that the Church is not merely a place for saved people to worship and serve—it is that, but the Church is one of the ways the Lord sanctifies He people.

From Jesus’ words in Matthew 16, we learn three truths about the Church of Jesus Christ: 

First, Christ’s Church belongs to Jesus.  Not to preachers, or congregations, or denominations, or the state, but to Christ Himself.  The Church belongs to Jesus because He established it, and because He purchased it—with His blood, no less!

Second, Jesus will build His Church.  He is the Master Builder.  Our role is to do as He says—not to try to come up with new innovative ways to promote and grow Christ’s Church, or individual local churches.  All Christ looks for in us regarding the His Church is that she is faithful to: preach the Word and shepherd His sheep in love, including administering the sacraments and exercising church discipline as needed. 

Part of the problem is that we want to evaluate the Church’s success (or lack of success) by worldly measures: bodies, buildings, and bucks.  That is not how Jesus builds His Church.  He merely looks for faithfulness, and then He builds His Church in His way, and in His time.  His building program sometimes includes subtraction as well as addition.  Sometimes even good churches close, but Christ is still building His Church.

Third, Christ’s Church will triumph. The Church will succeed because it is His Church and He cannot fail.  Read Revelation 4, 5, 7, and 20-22 to see what the Church triumphant in Heaven looks like on into eternity

Next time: How the Lord builds His Church in the New Testament

Independence Day 2024

First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior…
1 Timothy 2:1-3

On this American Independence Day holiday let me share a few random thoughts from these verses.

“First of all, then…” That is how the passage begins, reminding Timothy (and us) the importance of what follows. Friends, this is important!—especially in the tumultuous times in which we live.

Second, let us not forget the essential necessity of prayer. Let us never forget or undervalue James’ word on the subject:

James 4:2-3 You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

Third, let us not neglect to pray for our government and for those who lead our government. Pray that we might be able to lead tranquil and quiet lives in all godliness and dignity. This means many things, not the least of which is not becoming political junkies and/or those unnerved by politics. As bad as things are in our nation, which has largely forsaken God, Jesus is still the King of kings. Our ultimate citizenship is in His kingdom, which is eternal and cannot fail!

Fourth, let us pray for those who lead our government with the next verse in 1 Timothy in mind:

…who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
1 Timothy 2:4

Pray not only for governmental leaders to make wise decisions and enact biblical laws—but that they may be saved through faith in Jesus Christ.

Lastly, let us remember on this Independence Day that the only safe and wise independence rests in absolute dependence on Jesus Christ as Lord!

How Jesus saves His people (4)

We have been considering six ways Jesus saves His people from their sins.  So far we have pondered the first four of six.  They are Jesus (1) lived for us, (2) died for us, (3) rose for us, and (4) ascended into Heaven where He intercedes for us.  What a glorious ministry our Savior has in saving His people!  

The fifth is about the Holy Spirit, but in case we have forgotten, in John 14 Jesus told the disciples that He was sending the Holy Spirit.  So let’s give thought to #5:  Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to indwell us.  

Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. John 16:7

On His last night with the disciples, Jesus told them that He was leaving.  That was sad news for them, but He also told them (John 14:1) “Do not let your heart be troubled.”  Why?  Because He promised to send the Holy Spirit (the 3rd member of the Trinity) to dwell in and to empower His people.  For what purpose?  To live like the new creatures He saved us to be. 

Granted, in John 14:16, 26, & 15:26, Jesus asked the Father to send the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ name, but in John 16:7, & Luke 24:49 Jesus says He will send the Holy Spirit. This is not a contradiction.  Rather it is further biblical evidence of the “oneness” of the three Members of the Trinity (John 17:20-21)

Jesus was around for 40 days after He rose from the dead—plenty of time to establish the reality that He really did rise!  Then Jesus ascended.  After He ascended into Heaven, the disciples waited ten more days, and on Pentecost (which means 50 days) the promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit was fulfilled as God poured out the Holy Spirit on the people Jesus saved.  And that has been happening ever since.

People are saved when the Holy Spirit opens our ears, eyes and hearts, enabling us to understand the gospel.  The Holy Spirit redirects our affections so that we love Jesus, and want to follow Him.  And the Holy Spirit indwells believers, empowering us to follow Jesus, obey Jesus, and to testify to others about Jesus.

There is a sixth action that Jesus has been doing since Pentecost, is doing, and will continue to do until He returns in glory.  Next time… 

How Jesus saves His people (3)

We have considered three of six ways Jesus saves His people from their sins.  Do you remember what they are? Jesus (1) lived for us, (2) died for us, and (3) rose for us.  Most believers are aware of the first three, at least in a cursory manner.  But the fourth is an often forgotten and/or undervalued action Jesus took on behalf of His people.

Jesus ascended into Heaven for those He came to save.  This is important because once Jesus ascended into Heaven, He stands in the presence of the Father, as our Great High Priest, interceding for His people. 

Hebrews 7:25  Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

The most obvious action of Christ’s role as our Great High Priest rests on offering Himself on the cross as the once-for-all, never-to-be-repeated sacrifice for our sins.  Are you aware that our Great High Priest continues even now in Heaven as He intercedes for us all day, every day?

Our Intercessor prays in two ways:

First, that He prays for all of His people all of the time means that Jesus also intercedes for us when we are not explicitly sinning.  He prays for us just as Christian friends pray for each other—except that He never stops praying for us, and His prayers are always according to God’s perfect will. How wonderful that because our Savior prays for us, we do not sin as much as we would otherwise!

Second, Jesus’ continuous intercession is good news, especially since even as believers we still sin. 

1 John 2:1  My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if [since] anyone sins, we have an Advocate [a defense attorney] with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

The great news is that, while the devil accuses us (Revelation 12:10), our Savior continually advocates for us before the throne of the Father every time we sin! And what is the basis of His plea?  “Father, I died and rose for that sin too!”  When you confess your sin, rejoice that Jesus paid for that sin too! How wonderful that our Savior continues to save us from our sins by praying for us when we sin!

The God-Man, Jesus Christ ascended into Heaven where we have a Man interceding for us and pleading our case when we sin.

Having considered four ways Jesus saves His people from our sins, next time a fifth.

How Jesus saved His People (2)

Last time we considered two aspects of how Jesus saved His people from their sins:  He lived for us and He died for us.  This time: He rose for us!

1 Corinthians 15:14, 17 “And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is EMPTY and your faith is also EMPTY… And if Christ is not risen, your faith is FUTILE; you are still in your sins!”

When He rose, He fulfilled at least two objectives:

First, by rising from the dead, Jesus proved that He is who He said He is. Jesus is God—the One and only true and living God.  That He is the living God means that He has always lived and can never die. That is why for the Son of God to become our Savior, He had to become a man. Only God can save us because only God is without sin. But since God cannot die, the Son of God became a man—not only to live for us to provide us with the righteousness required to enter Heaven, but also in order to die for us.

The Baby was born in Bethlehem and laid in a manger so He could live and die for those He came to save. But being the living God means that even when the Son of God became a man, no one or nothing could take His life from Him. Nothing could kill Him. What about the cross? The cross didn’t kill Jesus.

John 10:17-18 “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. 18 No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”

He rose from the dead to prove that because He is God, death could not hold Him.

Second, by rising from the dead Jesus defeated sin, death and Hell for those He came to save. The most important thing Jesus came to do was to save His people from their sins. The greatest temptation Jesus faced in (the Garden of Gethsemane) was to say “No” to the Father’s will concerning the cross to save His people. The greatest sin Jesus could have committed would have been to say “No” to the cross. By saying “Yes” to the Father, and to the cross, Jesus defeated sin.

Romans 6:23 “The wages of sin is death…”

The wages or penalty for sin is death. By rising, even though all the sin and guilt of His people was poured out on Him, He defeated death.  By rising, Jesus defeated Hell. Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, Hell is not in the future of those He came to save.

There is another often forgotten and undervalued action Jesus took on behalf of His people.  Next time...

How Jesus saved His people (1)

“…you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins."
~ Matthew 1:21

If I were to ask you what did Jesus Christ do to save His people? what would you answer?  Like most, you would probably say He died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins.  And you would be exactly right.  But He did more.  In the next blogs we’ll consider six actions Jesus took to save His people: 

1.   As we have already seen, before He died for us, Jesus lived for those He came to save.  By His righteous, sinless life, and perfect obedience to the will of His Father, Jesus earned the reward of righteousness.  He is the only one who has, or ever could, since all other people not only act sinfully, but we are born in sin.  By His sinless life, Jesus earned the reward of righteousness, which He gives to those He came to save.  We not only need our sins forgiven, but we must be righteous to enter Heaven.  We receive the righteousness required to enter Heaven from Jesus Christ—a righteousness He earned through living for us before He died for us.

2.   Jesus died for those He came to save.  On the cross, Jesus died for us.  When He died on that ghastly Roman cross, He experienced something infinitely more than the torturous pain of crucifixion.  He received the wrath of Holy God—the wrath that we deserve for the sins we have committed against God.  It was the wrath that God had to pour out on sin—not because He is mean, harsh or bad—but because He is holy and righteous.  Holiness demands holiness. We fail to be holy every day so we are guilty.  Righteousness demands justice.  God cannot not judge sin and guilt.  God cannot look the other way.  And the wrath we deserve for our sins against God is infinite and eternal.  Why?  What if we are not as bad as someone else?  The answer is simple:  Because God is infinitely and eternally holy, our failure deserves infinite and eternal wrath.  It doesn’t matter how we stack up against other people.  It matters only how we stack up against God, and compared to Him, we are infinitely and eternally guilty and therefore deserving of infinite and eternal wrath.

We are incensed when an imperfect human judge lets the guilty go free.  God is not an imperfect human Judge.  He is perfect in all His ways and He is the Judge of all the earth. Genesis 18:25 “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"  When Jesus died for us, the just wrath of God was diverted onto, and intercepted by Jesus.  He stepped in front of the wrath we deserve, so that those He came to save would never taste the wrath of God.  Jesus drank the cup of God’s wrath and drained it dry.  “There is therefore now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)  Why?  Because there is none left!  Jesus absorbed it all—in the hours He hung on the cross, He absorbed an eternity of infinite wrath—in our place.

But that is not all Jesus did for us. Next time: Jesus rose for us!

Two footnotes on Jesus' sinless life

Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.
John 4:34

A couple of blogs ago, I wrote about how important Jesus’ sinless life is in providing us the righteousness needed to enter Heaven. Let me offer two important theological footnotes.

First, the importance of Jesus supplying righteousness for His people. Sin is a spiritual debt that Jesus paid by dying for His people, but paying our sin debt is not enough to provide us with entrance into Heaven. HUH? Let me explain:

Say I have a million dollar debt, and have zero dollars with which to pay. Someone pays my debt, the debt is erased, but I am still flat broke. Because God commands us to “be holy as He is holy” (1 Peter 1:15-16), even if our sin debt is paid, we are still spiritually flat broke. Even if our sin debt is paid, since we have no righteousness, we still cannot enter Heaven (Hebrews 12:14).

In addition to dying for His people to clear our sin debt, by living a sinless life for His people He provides us with the reward of His righteousness, completing the transaction.

Second, and this is a little technical, but wonderful. Jesus is eternally and intrinsically holy and righteous because He is eternal God. That is not the righteousness He gives His people! The righteousness He gives His people is the reward for His righteous living as a man. By living sinlessly, Jesus earned the reward for righteousness. But He does not need that reward because He is already eternally righteous. Wait for it… Jesus lived sinlessly to earn the reward of righteousness to give it away to His people! That is worthy of meditating on and worshiping Jesus for!

By the way: I learned this studying systematic theology in seminary, but it became precious to me when John Bunyan explained it (better than I just did) in “The Pilgrims Progress.”

Jesus taught like no other

And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
Matthew 7:28-29

Jesus taught.  He taught like no other.  He taught as one having authority. 

You think?  He IS God!  He taught about the kingdom of God.  He said the kingdom of God was “at hand.” 

He taught calling people to repent—meaning, turn from sin, to God.  He taught calling people to believe in Him to the degree that they would follow Him. 

Why did He teach? Because, as He Himself said in Luke 4:43, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent."

He came to save His people from their sins. Ultimately that was accomplished by His death and resurrection. But the first phase of saving His people was preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God (Mark 1:14-15).

He taught the kingdom of God, which is synonymous with forgiveness and salvation.  Jesus taught using parables—stories that contained spiritual truth that His people (the ones He came to save) would understand—but that the rest would misunderstand entirely.

As He taught, He was kind, compassionate, and merciful to sinners.  Conversely, He was brutal on the religious crowd, who didn’t think they needed a Savior.  The sinners knew they were sinners.  The religious didn’t realize that they too were sinners.  The sinners had no hope, the religious hoped in themselves—in their religious rituals and good deeds.  Jesus called sinners to Himself. He called the religious people hypocrites and sons of snakes!

There has never been, nor will there ever be a teacher like Jesus!

Jesus' righteous life

Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.
John 4:34

 From the moment Jesus was born, He began living a life of absolute sinless perfection (1 Peter 2:22), always doing His Father’s will perfectly (John 6:38), always suffering as the servant sent to save (Isaiah 52:13–53:12).  Think about it:

He was born without dignity to an unwed mother.  In a stable.  Laid in a feed trough.  Attended by barnyard animals.  Visited first by shepherds (near the lowest in the socio-economic food chain). Visited by Gentiles from afar (while nearby His own people were disinterested).  The Roman ruler, Herod, wanted Him killed while He was still a baby.  His family fled to hide in Egypt to save His life.  He returned to Nazareth, a place so lowly that people commonly said, “Can any good thing come from Nazareth?” 

Then obscurity—obscurity for 30 years working as a tradesman in Joseph’s carpentry shop.  Every day of those thirty years, even in mundane obscurity, Jesus lived righteously.  To what end?  To earn God’s reward reserved for the righteous. No one else had ever earned it.  No one else ever will.  Why?  Because no one can. Why?  Because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).  All but Jesus, that is.  He labored to earn the reward of righteousness—so He could give it to the people He came to save.

Then, at age 30, again, at just the right time, Jesus ventured out of the carpentry shop to begin a three-year public ministry unlike that of any other.  Many people who lived previously were types of Christ in small isolated ways—but none of them was truly like Him.  He only always did the Father’s will.  Perfectly.  In everything.  All the time.  Without complaining.  Why?  He was earning the reward of righteousness with which He would one day robe His Bride: the people He came to save.

It was time for the Deliverer

It was time for the Deliverer. Why was that the right time?  Because that is when God sent Him.  God’s timing is always right.  God only always does everything right and at exactly the right time.

Jesus was born of a virgin.  That is not just a nice aspect of the Christmas story.  It is a connection with what God told Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden when they sinned. 

Genesis 3:14-15  So the LORD God said to the serpent: "Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life.  15  And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel."

God promised that the Seed of the woman would come, and although the devil would bruise His heel, He would bruise the devil’s head.  Three items of note:

1. The Deliverer would be the Seed of the woman.  In God’s Word, the sin nature is passed down to all human beings through the father.  Romans 5:12 says that sin came to all by one man, Adam.  Sin was passed from father to child ever since.  But the Deliverer was to be the seed of the woman—having no human father, and thereby, having no innate sin nature.  It is essential that the Deliverer not be disqualified by sin.  If He had any sin of His own, when Jesus died, He could only die for His own sin.  To die for the sins of another—much less many others, the Deliverer had to be sinless.  He was born sinless and He lived sinless, and He died sinless.
   It is essential that the Deliverer be born of a woman and have no human father.  That is a physical impossibility.  Not for God.  And being unique in all of human history, it establishes Jesus as the Deliverer unlike any other person we might be tempted to look to.

2. The devil would bruise the Deliverer’s heel.  This indicates injury, but not destruction.  The devil bruised Jesus’ heel a number of times, ultimately on the cross, but Jesus overcame even death when He rose from the dead.

3. The Deliverer will bruise the devil’s head.  This indicates a mortal blow.  A fatal injury.  Defeat and ultimate destruction.  This is what Jesus the Deliverer did when He rose from the dead, defeating sin, death, Hell, and the devil, for those He came to save.  (In Romans 16:20 Paul speaks of Jesus “crushing the devil.”)

That Jesus was virgin-born is more than a nice part of the Christmas story, it uniquely qualifies Jesus to be the one and only Deliverer who would be bruised by the devil, but who would destroy the devil and His works.

The waiting ended

But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law… Galatians 4:4

Last time we chronicled the waiting that was prolonged throughout the Old Testament.  God promised a Deliverer who would rescue His people from the fall—that is from sin, death, and Hell.  The OT reminds us that when God promises, He delivers, no matter how long it takes.

Picking up the narrative of the OT’s people of God waiting for God to fulfill His promise, we are reminded that God delivered the Jewish nation of Judah (south).  He brought them out of Persia (formerly Babylon) to Jerusalem in Judea in three waves. 

The first wave was led by Zerubbabel.  Was Zerubbabel the Deliverer?  No.   

The second was led by Ezra.  Was Ezra the deliverer?  No.

The third was led by Nehemiah.  Was Nehemiah the deliverer? No.

And the people waited.

The returning exiles waited as God sent them prophets. And then God stopped sending them prophets. And the people waited—in silence. For another 400 years…

But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law Galatians 4:4

It was time for the Deliverer. Why was that the right time? Because that is when God sent Him. God’s timing is always right. God only always does everything right and at exactly the right time.

Waiting for God's promised Deliverer

But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law… Galatians 4:4

God’s plan was established before time began—in eternity past, in the Covenant of Redemption established between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. RC Sproul explains the Covenant of Redemption:

The covenant of redemption is the agreement made between the members of the Trinity in order to bring us salvation. We find allusions to it in several biblical texts. Under this covenant, the Father plans redemption and sends the Son in order to save His people. The Son agrees to be sent and to do the work necessary to save the elect (John 10:17–18), and the Spirit agrees to apply the work of Christ to us by sealing us unto salvation (Eph. 1:13–14). (emphasis added) ~RC Sproul

How long ago was eternity past? It is impossible to imagine. The history of man is a history of waiting for the unfolding of God’s promises to be fulfilled in time and space. Though the wait seems painfully long at times, what God has promised, He will deliver in the fullness of His good timing.

God created the heavens and the earth—including man, in the image of God.  Then man sinned, rejecting God’s rule. Then God promised that the Seed of the woman would come and deliver fallen Adam and Eve.  Then Adam and Eve waited.

Maybe Eve thought Cain was the Deliverer. He was not. He was a murderer. And Eve waited.

Maybe Eve thought Seth—the son God gave after her son, Abel, who was murdered—was the Deliverer. He was not bad like Cain, but he was not the Deliverer. And Eve waited.

In Genesis 5, though the people reproduced generation after generation, death reigned as each generation passed.  And everyone waited.

Sin became so rampant that God decided to destroy all of mankind—except for Noah and his family. Maybe Noah was the Deliverer? God delivered Noah and his family, but Noah was not the Deliverer. More waiting.

Then God promised to make a great nation from Abraham—and Abraham waited. No children. And Abraham waited.

God gave Isaac, who was not the Deliverer, and Jacob, who was not the Deliverer, and Joseph who was a type of the Deliverer, but Joseph was not the Deliverer either. Meanwhile, the people waited.

400 years passed. God’s people are in bondage in Egypt. “Where is the Deliverer?” And the people waited.

God raised up Moses. Moses was a type of the Deliverer, but he was not the Deliverer.  And the people waited.

Neither was Joshua.  And the people waited.

Neither were any of the judges. And the people waited.

The people were tired of waiting so they demanded a king just like the kings of the godless people around them. God gave them a king. Truly, Saul was not the Deliverer.  And the people waited.

David sure looked like the Deliverer. He was an arch-type of the Deliverer, but he was not the Deliverer.  Neither was David’s son, Solomon. And the people waited.

And as they waited, the nation of Israel was divided and fell down a rabbit hole into sin. God gave Israel (north) into the hands of their enemies, the Assyrians. Judah (south) likewise sinned and was given over to their godless enemies, the Babylonians. In captivity, the people waited.

The wait continues next time…

Jesus and Malachi

The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes; And to Him shall be the obedience of the people. Genesis 49:10

The last book of the OT is Malachi.  Malachi, like so many prophets, called God’s straying people back.  Even after the exile and the restoration, God’s people settled back into old habits.  Bad habits.  Very common habits.  What were these habits?

(1) They were given to religious formalism.  They were going through the motions, but without any real heart for God.  The people called on the name of the Lord, but they didn’t reverence the name of the Lord.  They gave the appearance of obeying God’s Law, but it was an external, no-heart obedience.  It was an obedience that constantly looked for loopholes.  Does that sound like any of us?  “How much can I get away with and still be saved?”

(2) They had a low view of marriage and divorce.  That is a serious error because from the beginning, marriage was intended by God to be a picture of the deep and heart-felt love relationship between Jesus and His people—(called His bride).  To treat marriage lightly, to divorce for no good reason other than the people were just tired of each other and couldn’t get along—portrays the love relationship between Christ and His bride in an altogether incorrect fashion.  Not to mention our culture’s current love affair with homosexuality, which completely distorts the picture—and marriage is never between two of the same sex in the Bible.

(3) The people became stingy in their giving.  God actually said they were “robbing Him” by not tithing.  God’s people are not to tithe because God needs our money.  Correctly understood, tithing is an act of worship—giving to God a small portion of the money He has graciously given us. It is an act of faith, trusting that He will provide for us as we worship Him with our money.

Dear people, it isn’t enough to give a “nod to God” while practicing heartless religion that doesn’t affect the rest of our lives—including such important issues as marriage and what we do with our money.  When God saves us, He saves us to be His—all His!

In addition, Malachi prophesied that a prophet like Elijah would precede the coming of the Deliverer, and that the Deliverer was coming.  And then there was silence—for 400 years!  We’ll see next time how God broke the silence…

From the time that the kingdom was divided until Jesus came was over 900 years. Many of those years were marked by evil, pain, and suffering.  How was that part of God’s plan to create a people to whom He could demonstrate His love?

How better for God to demonstrate His love than to love the most unlovely?

Jesus and Esther

You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.
John 5:39

Jesus can be found in every book in the OT.  He is more clearly seen in some books than in others.  Though I am not going to cover every book, I do want to draw our attention to two more.

The first is Esther.  Esther is the story of what God graciously did to preserve the exiles who did not return to Jerusalem in Judea with Ezra and Nehemiah.  That’s correct, some remained in Persia.

Persia? Yes, Persia.  Yes, Judah was conquered by the Babylonians, but 70 years later, Babylon was conquered by the Persians.  That means that the exile began in Babylon but ended up in Persia.

Why did any of the exiles remain in Persia when the Persians, who conquered Babylon, allowed the Jews to return to their homeland? 

First, let’s not forget that God’s early message to the exiles was essentially to settle in for the long haul: Build homes and have families.  After all, you are going to be in exile in Babylon for seventy years!’ So they did.  Persia was now home.

Second, let’s not forget that the exiles were there for seventy years.  That means many, if not most, of the people deported to Babylon had already died when the Persians allowed them to return to Judah.  For the vast majority of the exiles who were allowed to relocate to Judah, Babylon/Persia was the only home they ever knew.

Third, traveling to and rebuilding Jerusalem would be expensive, and arduous. Lest we forget, travel is a bit easier today than in 450 BC!

What has any of this to do with Esther and Jesus?

A sinister plot was hatched by an evil man named Haman to destroy all the Jews in the Persian Empire (which included those living in Judea, since it was part of Persia). Since the Deliverer was coming from the Jews—the Judeans in particular—Satan would have loved to destroy all of them. God thwarted Haman’s plan through a beautiful Jewish girl named Esther. The plan worked. God used Esther to save the Jews, through whom Jesus, the Deliverer, would one day come.

Some more lessons from the southern kingdom of Judah (3)

The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes; And to Him shall be the obedience of the people. Genesis 49:10

Like the prophets in Israel (north) the prophets in Judah (south) spoke of repentance, judgment, and the promised Deliverer. The prophets in Judah spoke even more about the Deliverer than the prophets to Israel in the north.  This is likely because the Deliverer was to come from Judah.

ISAIAH is filled with prophecies of Jesus. Isaiah 53 tells of the sacrificial death of the Messiah for His people like no other OT passage.

But alas, after 345 years (136 years longer than Israel lasted), Judah finally sank into idolatry and sin to the extent that God pulled the plug on them as well.  In 586 BC, the Babylonians conquered Judah, destroyed Jerusalem, and Solomon’s magnificent temple.  The Babylonians also carried many of the Judeans into captivity in Babylon.  They left only the poorest and least likely to rebel in Judah.

Because God had promised that the Deliverer would come from Judah, and David in particular, God preserved Judah even while in captivity in Babylon. This is in stark contrast with the fact that Israel (north) was never reconstituted as a nation after their fall to the Assyrians.  Again, the reason? The promised Deliverer was to come from Judah/David, not from any of the northern tribes in Israel.

God sent the prophets Daniel and Ezekiel to the Judeans in captivity in Babylon to remind them of the Lord and that He would restore them to their land.  But at the risk of being redundant, God did not restore only Judah because they were any more deserving of such grace than Israel.  They were restored because of God’s promises regarding the Deliverer who was to come from Judah. That Deliverer is none other than Jesus.

Then after 70 years (through the prophet Jeremiah, God had promised that the exile would only be 70 years long before God would bring them back), God miraculously brought them back.

The returning exiles came back under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah. God sent additional prophets: Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi to the returning exiles to encourage them as they resettled and rebuilt Jerusalem and the Temple.  The stage was being set for the Messiah to appear, though it would be yet 400 years in the future.

More lessons from the southern kingdom of Judah (2)

The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes; And to Him shall be the obedience of the people. Genesis 49:10

The Messiah/Deliverer—Jesus—was to come from David’s family in Judah.  Since the Bible is the story of the Jesus the Deliverer, our attention regarding the nation of Israel needs to be primarily on Judah (in the south).

Remember: The united kingdom of Israel (under Saul, David, and Solomon) ended in 931 BC when the kingdom split in two.  Israel (in the north) was ruled by 19 kings over a period of 210 years. The kings of Israel were all bad. Their greatest evil was spiritual—idolatry.

Meanwhile, Judah—the tribe from which the Deliverer, Jesus, was promised to come—was not without their problems. Judah was ruled by 20 different kings—all descendants of David—over a period of 345 years.  Judah had both good and bad kings—nearly twice as many bad as good, but the good ruled for longer periods. Why? God blessed the godly kings.

Of the good kings in Judah, three stand out:

Jehoshaphat was the 4th of 20 kings in Judah. He was good, but not always wise. He made political and military alliances with evil King Ahab of Israel. Learn from 1 Corinthians 15:33 (CEV) “Don’t fool yourselves. Bad friends will destroy you.”

Hezekiah was the 13th of 20 kings in Judah. He was good, but his son was Manasseh. Remember: Manasseh, though he later repented, was the most ungodly of all the kings of Judah. Learn: No matter how godly a parent is (Hezekiah), there are no guarantees that one’s children will be saved. Let us therefore pray, pray, pray for our children and grandchildren!

Josiah was the 16th of 20 kings of Judah. He was good (God used him while still a teenager to lead a great revival in Judah). But he was unwisely ambitious. He got involved in a war that wasn’t his business, and was killed in battle at only 39 years of age. Learn: Zeal without wisdom can spell disaster.

Just as God sent prophets to the northern nation of Israel to call them to repentance, God sent prophets to Judah to call them to repentance when they were in sin. God sent more prophets to Judah than to Israel: Joel, Isaiah, Micah, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Habakkuk. Nahum (to Babylon) and Obadiah (to Edom). Like the prophets in Israel, the prophets in Judah spoke of repentance, judgment, and the promised Deliverer. The prophets in Judah spoke even more about the Deliverer (than did those in Israel) because the Deliverer was to come from Judah.

More on the prophecies about Jesus next time…