“To everything there is a season, and time to every purpose under the heaven….4. A time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance…7. A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak….12. I know there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life. 13. And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.”
For the last few days, I have had Ecclesiastes chapter 3 running through my mind. This morning I sat down and gave it a thorough reading, and what you are about to read is the result of that meditation. I think that overall, Solomon is telling us to accept life as it comes - as if we have a choice. We can plan our lives, and attempt to avoid all the pitfalls, but the good will come as well as the pitfalls. We just need to meet life head on and live it to its fullest. In verse 1 we are told that there is a season for everything, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” The word that stood out to me here was the word “purpose.” It is for sure that life will not always be as we want it, but if we realize that God has a purpose for our lives, that is, that He is involved in our lives, we will be able to meet the good and the bad with faith and courage. If we realize that God is in the equation, we will be more careful about how we live. Verse 4 tells us that there is:“A time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance.” The way this is worded we are led to understand that we do not have a choice in the matter. Indeed, there will be times when we will weep and mourn. We like to think that those times will not come, but inevitably they will. My point here is that if we see God working His purpose in our lives, we will not “hesitate,” but will meet those times head on. This also tells us to go ahead and weep and not try to keep a "stiff upper lip,” but to accept the time of weeping and mourning as part of our lives. But there is also a “time to laugh”and a “time to dance.” When those times come, we should really laugh and really dance. The bad times in life should not keep us from really enjoying the good times to laugh and to dance. Again, if we see God’s purpose at work in our lives, we will be able to fully rejoice. Verse 7b tells us that there is “a time to keep silence and a time to speak.” This is one piece of advice that we should all take. I would word it this way: “There is a time to shut up, and a time to speak up.” Real godly wisdom is to know the difference between the two times. As one who has spoken out of turn a few times in my life, I can say that the better part of wisdom is to shut up until there is really something to say. Again, we can focus on God’s purpose for our lives. Some wise person said that God gave us two ears and one mouth. This means that we should listen twice as much as we talk. I can imagine that you, like me, have had times in your life when you wish that you had followed this admonition. I have found that when I trust God in what to say, my advice has been good and was well-taken. Another good thing to learn in the matter of speaking up is that just because we think it we do not have to say it unless it will do some good. Finally, verses 12-13 tell us: “I know that there is no good in them, but for a (person) to rejoice, and do good in his/her life. And also that every (person) should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.” God has gifted us with the capacity to enjoy life in all of its ups and downs, and to rejoice. That, too, is part of God’s purpose for your life and mine. Let’s do it. Amen Bro. Joe
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“And (Abraham) believed in the Lord, and it was counted unto him as righteousness.”
Genesis 15:6 is famously referred to in Galatians 3:6. Abraham is a central Bible character, because he became the father of the Jews. In fact, the whole Old Testament after Genesis 12 is a history of the descendants of Abraham. In fact Jews, Christians and Muslims claim Abraham as their ancestral father. We can learn a lot from this man of God. The first thing that needs to be pointed out is that Abraham was a regular human being. He was not an angel. What I love about the Bible is when it shows us the “heroes of the faith” it shows warts and all. When we read the account of Abraham we discover that when he obeyed God and went into Canaan, when a famine came he went to Egypt out of the will of God. While there he lied and called his wife Sarai, his sister. He was half right because she was his half sister. Another example is his relationship with his wife’s handmaiden, Hagar. He was given permission by Sarai but he didn’t have to do it. All of this, and other things, point out that the father of our faith was a human being. But even considering all of that, the Bible shows us that he was a great man of God. Despite our humanness, we can be servants of God. To be sure, Abraham was forgiven for his sins, as we can be too. Genesis 15:6 and Galatians 3:6 tell us that Abraham was a man of faith. In Genesis 12:1ff, Abraham was called by God to leave his home in Ur and go to Canaan, which he eventually did after his father’s death in Haran. It took faith for Abraham to leave everything that he knew in his homeland to take a trip to a country that he had never seen, and would never claim as his own country. In Hebrews 11:8-10, we read this about Abraham: “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go into a place which he would after recieve for an inheritance, he obeyed; and went out, not knowing where he went. 9. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country; dwelling in tabernacles (tents) with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. 10. For he looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” This is the same Abraham that I wrote about in the first paragraph. I did not do that to put Abraham down; rather, I did it to encourage you to see that no matter what you have done in the past, if you will turn to God and seek His forgiveness, He can use you. The only perfect person that ever lived on this earth was Jesus Christ – period. In Isaiah 41:8, Abraham was given a great compliment: “But you Israel, are my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham, my friend." If you go by that verse too quickly you will miss the compliment. God told His prophet, Isaiah, that Abraham was His friend. To be called anybody’s friend is a compliment, but when God calls you His friend that is more than a compliment, it is a cause for rejoicing. What made Abraham a friend of God? Among other things, when God called him to go to Canaan, He went. We call this obedience. It is important that we obey God in our lives. We need to obey Him in our daily lives in all of the little things that we do in life. We need to obey Him when He calls us to special service as He did Abraham. What if God called you to be a missionary in some foreign country? You might say, “Who me?” You are as qualified as Abraham was if God has called you to this special service. I hope you get my point here. God calls people to do what He knows they can do, and He qualifies them to do whatever it is that He has called them to do. The point is that even if Abraham had not been qualified to do as God told him to do, God would have qualified him to do it. Whatever service God calls us to, from the most menial in the eyes of the world, to the most important, God qualifies us to do it and it is important because it is of God. Bro. Joe “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving-kindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. 2. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 3. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.”
These verses are the heart-cry of a man grieving over his sins. The man is David, and the sins are those pertaining to Bathsheba and her husband Uriah. You probably know the story of how David committed adultery with Bathsheba, and when she told David that she was pregnant, to make a long story short, he had her husband killed in battle. I think that you will agree that David had a lot to be forgiven for. He committed adultery, he committed murder, and then he tried to lie his way out of it. Thus, we have these verses in our Bible. I was thinking about these verses this morning, and it occurred to me that David wished that this had never happened. As the old saying goes, “If wishes were horses, we would all take a ride.” There was nothing that David could do to undo what he had done, and he, just like us, was not allowed “do over’s.” When David asked God to “blot out (his) transgressions,” he meant for God to help him forget, to blot it out of his mind. All David could do, and all that we can do, is to seek God’s forgiveness, accept forgiveness when it is given and move on. David did what we can do, and that is what will follow in this article. In seeking God’s forgiveness, David asked for God’s mercy. “Mercy” and “grace” are two words that we do not want to be taken out of the Bible. Since we can’t undo past sins, the only thing that we can do is to throw ourselves on God’s mercy. One thing that strikes me about these verses is David’s sincere sorrow over what he had done. When we seek God’s mercy, we need to be sure that we sincerely know that we need His mercy. This was no empty plea that David was making to God. If we want to experience the mercy of God, we must have sincere sorrow for what we have done. I remember when my parents caught me doing something that I should not have done that I would plead for mercy, not because I was really sorry, but because I had been caught red-handed. (Don’t think too harshly of me, you probably did the same thing.) After we get a little more mature, we learn that being sorry for getting caught is not enough. I sense in David’s plea in these verses a sincere need for God’s mercy and forgiveness. You can’t undo anything from your past, but you can sincerely seek God’s mercy and He will give it – as He did for David. We have to remember when we seek God’s mercy and He gives it that this does not erase the consequences of what we did. David could not uncommit (I know, computer, that this is not a word, shut up, I just made it up.) adultery; he could not bring Uriah back to life, nor could he unlie. (Shut up computer, this is my article.) David’s kingdom was never the same again, and he had to face many hardships after his adulterous fiasco. Another thing that we have to do is to accept God’s discipline in our lives. But that is not a bad thing. We find the answer to that in Hebrews 12:6-8: “For whom the Lord loves, He chastens (disciplines) and scourges every son whom He receives. 7. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father does not chasten? 8. But if you be without chastisement, where all are partakers, then you are fatherless children and not sons.” If you have been disciplined for sin rejoice you are a child of God. The best thing for us to do is to beware of the temptations that we face daily, and refuse to succumb to those temptations, and then there will be no need to “undo.” Let us rejoice that our God is a God of mercy, and that He will not let us off, but that He will keep us on! Bro. Joe “A faithful man (or woman) shall abound with blessings: but he that makes haste to be rich shall not be innocent.”
We often hear about something being “the best that money can buy.” In America we really believe in things that money can buy. Malls and Wal-Mart’s stay busy all of the time selling things. This is not bad within itself; after all, commerce has made us the great nation that we are. But there are some things that are priceless and they all come from God. You can’t go to a store and buy the real blessings of God. If God put a price tag on them, even Donald Trump or Warren Buffet could not afford them. The fact is that there is no amount of money that can buy the real blessings of God. Let’s look at a few, none of which will probably surprise you, but we need to be reminded of them. Salvation is one of those great blessings that we cannot buy. In fact, we are told in 1 Corinthians 6:20 that God purchased it for us: “For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and your spirit, which are God’s.” We were bought with the price of the precious blood of God’s Son. We could not buy ourselves out of sin; God had to act in His great love to bring us out of sin. We are saved by the free grace of God’s Son. Salvation is free, but it is not cheap. Jesus paid a great price on the cross to save us from sin. This should cause us to “glorify God in (our) body and (our) spirit." If you are saved, stop reading and glorify God. If you aren’t saved, run to Jesus right now, confess your sins and invite Jesus into your heart and life. Heaven is one of those great blessings that we cannot buy. Imagine that we die and get to the gate of heaven, and we look for the price of admission. The price should be great because of the price that Jesus had to pay to get us there. I can’t believe the price that people pay today to get into baseball and football games. It takes several hundred dollars to get a seat at a major sports event. If we had to pay to get into heaven, no one would be able to afford the ticket. The price of admission into heaven could be posted on the gate: “Price of admission is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.” It was by faith in Christ that we were able to gain admission into the gates of heaven. That brings me to another of God’s blessings that money cannot buy – faith. We are saved by faith, but that is not where it stops, for we are sustained by faith. It is faith in Jesus that takes us over the hard places of life. When we are gravely ill, or facing some other hardship, we cannot buy ourselves out of it, but our faith can certainly get us through it. We can pay for medical treatments, but we cannot pay for the blessing of the presence of Christ in our lives. His presence is made real and vital by our faith in Him. If you want to really understand the glory of God, live by faith in Him, take steps of faith that will show you what only God can do, and you will be truly blessed. Having faith in God is much better than having the money in the bank to buy whatever we want. Another of the great blessings of God that we cannot buy is Christian fellowship. I remember hearing a country song about thirty or forty years ago that claimed: “Me and Jesus got our own thing going.” We were saved as individuals, for each of us has to come to Jesus by faith, but once we are saved we become a part of the great fellowship of God’s people. I like to think that when I read the Bible I am fellowshipping with the saints of old as well as the saints who are alive now. Some of my great blessings in life have come from the Christians that I have known over the years. There is nothing sweeter than real Christian fellowship, and we cannot buy ourselves into it. Learn to enjoy the fellowship of God’s people. I told you that none of these would be new to you, and probably did not surprise you, but I want to ask you to pause now and rejoice in these things that money cannot buy. Bro. Joe “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.”
Paul wrote his second letter to Timothy when he was imprisoned in Rome and was about to be martyred. There is a sense of urgency throughout this book, because Paul knew that he would soon be gone from the scene, and the work would depend on young men like Timothy. He was encouraging Timothy to stay faithful and to use the gifts that God had given him to carry out the purpose that God had for him. In encouraging Timothy in this way, he reminded him of the spirit that God had given him, which is a spirit that he has given us as well. There is a sense of urgency today and we need to be reminded of the spirit with which we are to witness and minister to the world. First, we need to be reminded that God has not given us a spirit of timidity. This means that we are not to be intimidated by the world, for the world has no interest in our faith and doesn’t care about the work of the Lord. People who have no interest in the gospel will try to shame us and shut us up. We need to remember that “greater is He that is in you, than he is in the world.” Don’t be timid and ashamed of what God has done in your life so that you can share it with those who need it. Second, we are told that we have been given a spirit of power. We could also say that we have been given the Spirit of power. (Note the capital S) In Acts 1:8, just before His ascension, Jesus told His disciples: “But you shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the world.” That same power was given to Timothy and it has been given to us. Jesus did not leave His disciples desolate, as He promised, because He gave them the Holy Spirit to work from within them. He did the same for us. We have the power of the Holy Spirit in us too; therefore, we should go forth, serving the Lord in that power, using whatever gifts He has given us through His Spirit. Third, we have been given a spirit of love. (Isn’t it amazing how many times that word pops up in the Bible?) The spirit of love that we have been given is the same love that was portrayed in John 3:16. In other words, we have been given a spirit of God’s kind of love. This means that we are to face the hostile world with a spirit of love and not a spirit of defensiveness and arrogance. Indeed, we are to love the world as God loves it, and yearn for people to be saved. I do not mean that we should never get angry at some of the things that go on in the world, but we are not to let that anger turn to hatred and loathing. If we really believe the gospel, we believe that it is not God’s will that any should perish. Perhaps, we need to occasionally check our “love quotient,” and see if we are using that God-given spirit. It’s not always easy, but it is always necessary. Fourth, we have been given a spirit of self-discipline. I like the KJV translation of this, which is that we have been given a spirit of a “sound mind.” This means that if we are in our right mind, we will develop a sense of self-discipline that will keep us from being caught up in the rebellious spirit of the world. I know that it feels lonely sometimes trying to live for Jesus in a world that has no interest in Him, but that does not excuse us from practicing our God-given self discipline. It would be easy at times to just say, “What the heck…everybody else is doing it (whatever “it” is).” The good thing is that our self-discipline does not just depend on our weak selves, for we have the power of the Holy Spirit to enable to stay away from the evils that would side-track us and destroy our witness. Take a look at your life and prayerfully consider how you are doing in these disciplines. Bro. Joe “But God who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us, 5. Even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ, (by grace are you saved).” 8. For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.”
I have to admit that I borrowed my title for this article from a book by the same title that I read years ago. It was written by R. Lofton Hudson, who was a famous Baptist author at that time. The idea of the book was that grace, though it is a beautiful female name, is much more than the name of a woman. In my opinion, it is the most important word in the Bible. It is from the Greek word Karis (or Charis) that means “unmerited favor.” It means that God gives us favor in spite of the fact that we do not deserve it. Without grace none of us would be able to go to heaven, for we “have all sinned and come short of the glory of God.” First, we need to understand that grace does not give us an excuse to live in sin. Some people take grace to mean that because of God’s grace we can do whatever we want to do. Paul wrote about this in Romans 6:1-2: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2. God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” According to this, God’s grace in our lives should make us better people, not worse sinners. I frequently read of people who seem to think that grace canceled all of the moral commands in the Bible. In fact, some people seem to think that we need to ignore the rest of the Bible and look only to the Jesus of their imaginations for how we should live. That is an insult to the life and ministry of Jesus. It is also a gross misunderstanding of the teachings of Jesus and of the meaning of grace. Second, we need to understand that we need grace. I don’t mean that we just need grace; I mean that we really, really, really need grace. As written above, the Bible teaches that we have all sinned, we have all gone astray. When we reach the age of accountability, whatever age that is for each person, we are lost in sin until we trust Jesus as our Savior. We are guilty of sin, even though we might have lived exemplary lives. We are not saved by living exemplary lives, but we should certainly live like that when we are saved. Ephesians 2:8-9 reminds us that we are saved by grace: “not of (ourselves): it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast.” We cannot save ourselves. If we could, we could brag about what we did to be saved. It was grace that caused Christ to shed His blood on the cross in order for us to be enabled to be saved. It is by the grace of God and faith in Jesus Christ that we are saved. At that point we become “a new creation: old things are passed away; behold all things have become new." This means that by grace we have been changed. Third, we need to understand that being saved by grace through faith does not make us perfect. We will sin, but we won’t look at it the same way. Sin will bring guilt into our lives, and by grace, God will forgive us for our sins. 1 John 1:8-10 gives us this good news: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10. If we say that we have not sinned, we are calllng Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” We are certainly not encouraged to sin, but we are encouraged to get rid of it by seeking God’s forgiveness. The promise is that He will always forgive us. If you are living in guilt today, you might need to ask for God’s forgiveness. If you have honestly sought His forgiveness, He has been faithful and just to forgive you, and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. You do not need to live with the guilt anymore. Grace is the means by which God forgives us, saves us and cleanses us from sin. Without grace we would all be lost in sin. If you haven’t already claimed it, claim that grace now. Bro. Joe “Now if Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13. But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: 14. And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. 15. Yea and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ: whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.”
The cross has become the primary symbol of the Christian faith. We cannot diminish the importance of the cross to our faith, but without the resurrection the cross would lose its meaning. When Christ arose, the cross took on a profound new meaning. The cross was not the final word, for Christ arose and defeated death. Through Christ’s blood we are saved and cleansed, but it is the blood of the living Christ, not the blood of a dead Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:12-15 reveals the importance of the resurrection. The concept of resurrection is important. There were people in Corinth who were preaching that the whole concept of resurrection was false. The idea was that when a person dies that’s it – it is all over. This is why Paul wrote in verse 19: “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” If this concept of the resurrection was false, then Christ was still dead. This is unthinkable. The resurrection is important in Christian preaching. In verse 14a, Paul wrote: “And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain.” It would be impossible to preach a good news message about a dead Christ. In fact, there would be nothing to preach, and all Christian preaching would have died at Calvary. The resurrection is important to the Christian’s faith. In verse 14b Paul wrote: “(And if Christ is not risen) your faith is also vain." It would be impossible to have faith in a corpse, which is what Christ would have been if He had not risen. We are “saved by grace through faith” because Christ rose from the grave. We are sustained in our faith in Christ because He is alive and still at work in our lives and in our world. We have joy in our faith in Christ because He is alive. We have power due to our faith in Christ because He is still alive. This is why we can sing: “He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me along life's narrow way. He lives, He lives salvation to impart. You ask me how I know He lives, He lives within my heart.” The resurrection is important to the Christian’s witness. In verse 15, Paul wrote that if Christ is not alive, “we are found false witnesses of Christ.” We have a witness to the world because Christ is alive. In all four gospels, and in Acts, Jesus commanded his disciples, and us to witness to the lost both near and far. It is a biblical doctrine. The whole basis of our witness is that Christ is relevant to people’s lives. A dead Christ would certainly be an irrelevant Christ. Christ can save us and work in our lives through the Holy Spirit because He is still alive. Imagine trying to tell people about a man named Jesus who died two-thousand years ago and had never been seen nor heard from since then. Such a witness would certainly fall on deaf ears. It is of ultimate importance that we can call people’s attention to the empty tomb. The empty tomb is the sealing of the whole gospel story. All of Jesus’ healings, and other miracles, would be empty without the empty tomb. Thank God! We have a message about our living Savior. We can gladly sing: “Up from the grave He arose, with a mighty triumph o’er His foes. He arose a victor from the dark domain, and He lives forever with the saints to reign. He arose! He arose! Hallelujah, Christ arose.” We can gladly sing this great old hymn because it carries the weight of eternal truth. It is good news to a lost and dying world. Let’s tell them about it. Bro. Joe “God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
Unbelievers have no idea why Paul would write such a thing. After all, the cross was the most inhumane method of capital punishment that man ever devised. They also wonder why we would glory in the cross. This point is that to glory in the cross, you have to believe biblical prophecy, and the gospels in the New Testament. There are some very good reasons why all Christians can glory in the cross. I will list three of them. It was on the cross that salvation was made possible. Jesus is referred to as the “lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” (Revelation 13:8) Isaiah prophesied about the suffering servant in Isaiah 53:6-7: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 7. He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as sheep before her shearers is dumb, so openeth not His mouth.” Paul wrote about this in Ephesians 2:15-19: “Having abolished in His flesh the enmity even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of two one new man, so making peace. 16. And that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: 17 and came an preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were near. 18. For through Him we both (Jew and Gentile) have access by one Spirit unto the Father. 19. Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcititzens with the saints, and of the household of God.” There is much more about the cross in the New Testament, but these should suffice to prove the point. It was on the cross that God’s great love for human beings was revealed in all of its glory. In John 3:16, Jesus told of the extent of the Father’s love: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Jesus knew that the cross was in His future, even as He said these loving words. In His earthly ministry, Jesus revealed the love of the Father by His love for people. The New Testament portrays Jesus as One who loved everyone, the rich and poor. He saved the wealthy Zacchaeus and bragged on the widow who gave all that she had at the temple. Matthew 9:36 reveals the great love and compassion of Jesus: “But when (Jesus) saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.” Jesus revealed great love when He healed the sick, raised the dead, calmed the sea and fed two multitudes with just a few loaves and fishes. Then when Jesus died on the cross, He gave proof of the love portrayed in John 3:16. I once heard Billy Graham say that Jesus was saying from the cross: “I love you! I love you! I love you!” It was on the cross that Satan’s eternal fate was sealed. He did everything that he could to keep Jesus from the cross. In the temptations given in the gospels, the devil tried to get Jesus to short-circuit his destiny on the cross by proving Himself without it. Jesus would not succumb to this. I think that it was the devil who tempted the people to try to make Jesus a king. Jesus would not allow that to happen. 1 John 3:8 says: “He that commits sin is of the devil; for the devil sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested (revealed) that He might destroy the works of the devil.” John also pointed out in 1 John 1:9 that “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. That is why Paul could write that he gloried in the cross and that is why we glory in it as well. Bro. Joe “Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you: 2. And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith. 3. But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.”
Verse 3 NIV: “But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.” As always, Paul asks for prayer because of “unreasonable and wicked men.” These men were trying to sidetrack the Thessalonians from the true gospel of Jesus Christ. This has not changed one iota in the two thousand or so years since Paul wrote this. The great apostle was always aware that he did not have the strength within himself to preach the gospel, let alone overcome people who were trying to diminish the gospel. Paul knew, as we must, that he needed the Lord. He also knew that if the “word of the Lord (was to) have free course” it would be only by the power of God. We need to pray today that the “word of the Lord may have free course.” We live in a day when the Bible is unwanted in much of the public sector. We still have our freedom of religion, but that is being increasingly encroached upon. We need to realize that we can’t give the word of God free course, but God can. “Unreasonable and wicked people” have always tried to shut the word of God down. It didn’t just start in our time, but it is increasing in our time. If the word of the Lord is to have free course in our lives, we must read it, share it, and depend on the Lord to give it free course. In countries today, like China, where the Bible is prohibited, the word of God still has free course, because people are being saved there by the thousands. We can thank God for courageous Christians who keep it going, but it is the Lord who gives it free course. Paul gave three reasons why the Lord will give free course to His word First, it is because God is faithful. It seems sometimes that God has forsaken us. The psalms are filled with people crying out to God because things were not going well with them. But we need to always remember that just because we are not doing well at a particular time does not mean that God is unfaithful in His ministrations in our lives. If we will look back over all of the difficult times that we have passed through, we will discover in hindsight that God was faithful. I know this has been true in my life. His faithfulness is a constant reality in our lives. Paul certainly realized that as he went through all of his hardships. The Lord helped Isaiah to realize this in Isaiah 55:11: “So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but is shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” This is our promise too. Second, the word of the Lord will have free course because the Lord will establish, or strengthen us, and keep us from evil. If you aren’t aware that the quality of your life and the quality of your witness depends on the strength of the Lord, you certainly need to become aware of it. Whatever you do for the Lord, whether in the everyday world, or in your church, what you do needs to come from the strength that the Lord gives you. For example, when you teach a Sunday School class, you are not just giving people “head knowledge” of the Bible; rather, you are sharing the word of God with them that can change their lives. You will need God’s strength for that fact to get across to them. That applies to every age group in your church. Pray for the Lord’s strength as you seek to live His word in the world. It is also by His strength we are delivered from “the evil one.” You know who the evil one is: it is the devil. He wants to rob you of God’s strength, but He can’t overcome God in your life. Depend on God’s strength for Christian service and Christian living. Let us pray that “the word of the Lord may have free course,” in our lives, in community and in the world. Let’s make it a daily prayer. Bro. Joe “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these will he do; because I go unto my Father.”
What could Jesus mean that future believers would do greater works than the mighty works that He did? To my knowledge none of the disciples ever turned water into wine, or fed five thousand people with just a small amount of food. They did see miraculous things happen, and were used mightily in spreading the gospel, but they could not defy nature as Jesus did. What did Jesus mean when He promised greater works? Notice that he concluded this statement in verse 12: “because I go unto my Father.” What would happen when He went to the Father? Read John 14:16: “And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another comforter, that He may abide with you forever.” In John 16:7 Jesus said: “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but If I depart, I will send Him unto you.” The “greater works” that Jesus spoke of depended on the coming of the Holy Spirit to His people. We can interpret “greater works” as broader works than Jesus did in His earthly ministry. Jesus’ ministry was confined to Palestine and a few outlying areas. While He was on earth and before His resurrection, Jesus could multiply food, but He was never in different places at the same time. But after His ascending to the Father, He would send the Holy Spirit and the work would begin to spread around the world. Certainly, the disciples could not, and would not, make a claim that their work was better, or more powerful, than Jesus’ work, but it was more widespread. The Holy Spirit would refine and deepen their work. For example, in John 16:13-14 Jesus said: “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come. 14. He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.” The Holy Spirit would deepen the disciple’s understanding of what Jesus taught them while He was physically with them. He would also spread the glory of Jesus' name through the disciples. (Keep in mind that this promise applies to us as well as to the early disciples.) In Acts 1:8, just before He ascended, Jesus said: “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” These are the “greater works” Jesus spoke about. The gospel would not be contained in Jerusalem but would spread from there in concentric circles until it reached around the world. This was, and is, through the ministry and power of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers. We do not do better works than Jesus, rather, our work is more widespread because of the Holy Spirit. Let me illustrate this for you. After Paul was saved and the word began to spread into Gentile territory, a work was begun among the Gentiles in Antioch of Syria. Paul and Barnabas were ministering there before they were sent on what we call their first “missionary journey.” How did it happen? Read on in Acts 13:2-3: “As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate unto me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. 3. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.” They didn’t devise the idea of missions; it was the work of the Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit promised by Jesus. That was, and is, “the greater work.” Get excited now: we are part of this “greater work” too as we witness to the world and as we give to send others to other parts of the world. Wow! It’s personal. Rejoice! Bro. Joe |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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