“Likewise, you younger submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble. 6. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.”
“Likewise” refers back to Peter’s admonition to the elders of the church to not consider themselves as “lords over God’s heritage.” They had authority, but they were to apply it humbly. The younger men were told to submit themselves to the elder. Peter followed that up with “all of you be subject to one another.” In Christ’s church all people are to act humbly toward all others and recognize the necessity of some to have authority as leaders. The important concept that is stressed in these two verses is the importance of humility in the church. Verse 6 gives us the essence of that importance. Peter admonished them: “humble yourselves…” Humility is not just an important Christian concept, it is an important part of the Christian’s lifestyle. Proverbs 16:18-19 reminds of this: “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. 19. Better it is to be of a humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud.” The Lord Jesus Christ lived the spirit of Proverbs 16:19 as revealed in Philippians 2:5-7: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus: 6. Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7. But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.” In Mark 10:44-45 Jesus told His disciples, “And whosoever of you will be chiefest. Shall be servant of all. 45. For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life as a ransom for many.” There are many other references to humility in the Bible. Moses was referred to in the Bible as being humble. We are in “high cotton” when seek to live humbly, for we place ourselves in the tradition of Jesus. If we want to be humble, we just need to look to Jesus and He will show us what humility is. It is important that we humble ourselves. As we read on, however, we see that we are not to just humble ourselves, but to humble ourselves under the “mighty hand of God.” Peter wrote, “Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.” “Therefore” is important here. What it means is that if we are to live humbly we will have to submit ourselves to the “mighty hand of God” – to His power. We are not called upon to live the humble life on our own. We turn ourselves over to our powerful God and He helps us live humbly. If we would be under anybody’s “hand,” it is important that it be under “the mighty hand of God.” We can live humbly under God’s mighty hand because our security is in Him and not in the world. Christian humility is not the result of an inferiority complex. To the contrary, it is the result of putting our faith in the Lord Jesus and letting Him be number one in our lives. If our security in ourselves is involved with our security with Jesus, we can live humbly and not be worried about bruised egos. The humble life is not the life of a doormat, but it is the life of a person of faith. The next point in this text is what makes it all-important: “….that He might exalt you in due time.” The question is, do we want to be exalted by the world or by the Lord? There is nothing wrong with reaping rewards in this life, if we remember that those rewards are not our greatest rewards. Here is what Jesus said about the matter in Matthew 23:11-12, “But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant, 12. And whosever shall exalt himself shall be abased (humbled); and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.” That brings us back to what Peter wrote in 5:6, “….and He shall exalt you in due time.” Notice that Peter wrote that God will exalt us “in due time.” We are not to live humbly in order to just be exalted, but that we will be exalted in God’s time. We are reminded here to live humbly and be patient, because in due time, which I interpret to mean God’s time, we will be exalted. The bottom line is that the humble life is a God-pleasing life, and the prideful life is not God’s will and does not please Him. Let’s strive to live humbly before God and man, not as doormats, but as servants of God. Bro. Joe
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“Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart. 35. Direct me in the path of your commands for there I find delight. 36. Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain. 37. Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word.”
There was a burning desire in the heart of the psalmist to draw closer to the Lord and to go away from the things of the world. This is a struggle that all people who want to live for the Lord have. We know that which is eternal is superior, and we do not want our eyes, hearts and minds to focus on mundane and earthly things. I say that it is a struggle because we live in a world of “things” and they can turn our minds and hearts away from the Lord. The psalmist gives us here a formula for focusing on eternity. The psalmist appealed to God for a new understanding of God’s law. (Remember that the law was the scripture that they had in the psalmist’s day.) In the same way, we should focus on God’s word. The problem in the lives of a lot of Christians and in their churches is that their Bibles are gathering dust on the shelf while they enjoy all of the “things” we have today. The psalmist did not know the power of “things” like we do today. Satan and the world will call us away from God’s word to focus on the world around us. The apostle John warned us about this in 1 John 2:15-16: “Love not the world, neither the things in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” This is not a new problem, and it is not a problem that will go away until God establishes His final kingdom. Like the psalmist, we have to live in the tension between the mundane and the eternal, and it is God’s word that helps us focus on that which is eternal. We also need an understanding of God’s word. With his new understanding of the law, the psalmist promised to focus on it with all of his heart. This is what the Lord wants of us as well. We need to pause occasionally and ask ourselves what, or who, is in control of our hearts. What has your whole heart? Does your heart belong to the latest fashions and fads offered by the world, or does your heart belong to the Lord. If we want to serve God with our whole hearts, we will need to stay in His word, just as the psalmist stayed in the word that he had from God in His day. If we want our hearts to be in the right place, we cannot abandon God’s word. The greatest commandment according to Jesus and Paul is to “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind and strength.” If the Lord is not in control of our hearts, His word will not be important to us. In order to focus on eternity we need to focus on the Lord Jesus Christ and on His word to us in the Bible. The psalmist wrote: “Direct me in the paths of your commands, for there I find delight.” What we delight in will determine where our focus will be. Finally, the psalmist wrote: “turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain. Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word.” I think that the psalmist felt that he was beginning to get more concerned about “selfish gain” than he was about living for the Lord and doing the Lord’s will for his life. He wanted his eyes turned “away from worthless things.” In comparison to eternity all of the things of the earth are worthless. There is not one “thing” on this earth that is eternal. The world and all of its “things” are passing away. All of the prizes and baubles that we seek will pass from view into the ash bin of history. This is not to say that there are not things that we need in order to maintain life. It is not that “worthless things” cannot be used by us. The point is that the focus of our lives should not be on them, but on the Lord Jesus Christ, His word and His will for our lives. Pause today and ask yourself where your focus is! Bro. Joe “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? 37. Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? 38. Whosever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous generation: of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when He comes in the glory of his Father with His holy angels.”
Recently, Mary and I were watching a telecast on Trinity Broadcasting Network, called “Billy Graham Classics.” The telecast that we saw was first shown in 1986. It was great to see and hear a younger Billy Graham preach. He preached on the text that I have printed above. He pointed out that we have a body and a soul. The body will die, but the soul will live on. Billy pointed out that a thousand years from today our souls will still exist either in heaven or hell. If the soul is eternal, how can we lose it? People lose their souls by going into eternity without Jesus. We do not lose the soul per se, but without Jesus a soul is lost forever in hell. It is only through faith in Jesus that our soul wins – so to speak. After Billy’s sermon, I reread the scripture and saw something that I have not noticed before. In verse 38, Jesus said, “Whosever therefore shall be ashamed of me and my words….of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed.” What I have missed in previous readings is the adverb “therefore.” This word refers back to verses 36-37. The point is that we can lose our souls eternally by being ashamed of Jesus and His words. If we are ashamed of Jesus and His words, we will not hear His message of salvation for ourselves. I have heard people say about the gospel of Jesus that it was not for them. Perhaps, these people would be ashamed to admit their need for a Savior. We hear it said today that we should do “whatever works” for us. The thinking is that If being ashamed of Jesus, and refusing to hear His word, works for you, then you do not need Jesus or His gospel. If Jesus and the gospel does not work for a person, what in the world will? If we are ashamed of Jesus and His words, it means that we have been intimidated by this “adulterous and sinful generation.” Even in the days of Jesus, people succumbed to popular culture. It is much the same now as it was then. Those who know such things, tell us that our culture is similar to first century culture, which was predominantly pagan. If we are not moving toward paganism today, I don’t know what we would call it. The epitome of pagan culture was in the city of Rome. Paul told the church in Rome in Romans 1:15-16, “So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. 16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes: to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Paul was not intimidated by Rome’s pagan culture and we should not be intimidated by our pagan culture. Why should we be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which will enable us to live a better life, and spend eternity with Jesus in heaven? What is the result of being ashamed of Jesus and “His words”? Jesus said, “Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation: of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” This is how people “lose their souls.” Their shame keeps then away from the hope of eternal life, and their souls are lost forever. Being lost means to be separated from the Lord Jesus Christ forever. Don’t be ashamed of Jesus “and His words.” If you haven’t received Him as your Savior, do that now by confession of your sins and by inviting Jesus into your life. (Revelation 3:20 is a good illustration of this transaction. Read it.) If you know Him by faith, share the good news with someone who needs it. Bro. Joe “(Jesus) went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except that I drink it, thy will be done.” (Matthew 26:42)
Then said Jesus, "Father, forgive them: for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34) “I pray not that you should take them (His disciples) out of the world, but that you should keep them from evil.” (John 17:15) I need to be careful when I use Jesus as an example. There are those who say that Jesus came only as an example of what people can be if they really try. This is about as New Testament as “Alice in Wonderland.” Jesus did not come only as an example. He came to die on the cross as a perfect sacrifice for our sins, rise from the grave, ascend to the Father, so that those who put their faith in Him will be saved. It is true, however, that Jesus does set a good example for us in all areas of our lives. In the three texts above, Jesus set the example for us in prayer. In Matthew 26:42 Jesus gave us an example of a prayer of surrender. This is His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus was not asking the Father to save His life. Jesus was not afraid to die. In fact, He told His disciples several times that He would die outside of Jerusalem. The “cup” that Jesus prayed about was the cup of the sins of all people. The wrath of God was poured out on Jesus on the cross. He took the wrath that would be for all people. People avoid the wrath of God by giving their lives to Jesus by faith. Jesus was not afraid of the Father’s wrath. Jesus had never experienced sin, because He lived a sinless life, but on the cross He would experience the wrath that sin brings. At that moment in Gethsemane Jesus surrendered Himself to die on the cross for our sins. He set the example for us, for we need to surrender our lives to God’s will as well. We should not always seek what we want in life, but we should seek what God wants. We should surrender to the will of God even if it means that we might suffer. Those are hard words, but the example of Jesus shows us the importance of them. Pray your own prayer of surrender today. In Luke 23:34, Jesus gave us an example of prayers of forgiveness. Before dying on the cross, Jesus prayed, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” In the Lord’s prayer, Jesus told us to pray that God would forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Forgiveness of others is not just a doctrine of the Christian faith, it should be an integral part of the Christian’s lifestyle. We should have what I call a habit of forgiveness. I know that this is not easy, but it is necessary for a fulfilling Christian life. We cannot keep unforgiveness in our hearts and be close to God. Churches have fellowship problems because we do not forgive one another, even for the minutest of slights. When we hold a grudge against someone, we need to remember Jesus’ prayer, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” Pray a prayer of forgiveness today. In John 17:15, Jesus gave us an example of prayers for each other. He asked that God not take His disciples out of the world, but that He would keep them from the evil one – the devil. We need to pray for each other, that we all might live victorious lives. The best way to defeat the devil in our own lives, and the best way to help others defeat the devil, is to pray that the Lord will help us overcome the devil’s temptations. Actually, the Lord is the only recourse we have in our battle with the devil. We cannot defeat him on human strength and will power alone. In the New Testament, demons always immediately obeyed Jesus. It is Jesus and our faith in Him that helps us win the victory over the devil. There are other examples that Jesus gives us in prayer, but these are three of the most important that I know about. Follow Jesus’ example in prayer and gain the victory that you need. Bro. Joe “Lord, teach us to pray.” Jesus’ disciples saw the value of His prayer life and they wanted to learn to pray as He did. If Jesus needed to pray, they certainly needed to pray, and so do we. Prayer is not something that we should take lightly, for it is our pipeline to the Lord. When we pray in the name of Jesus, we are opening up the power of heaven in our lives. Prayer is always important.
Prayer is important when we are going through tough times. What a comfort it is to know that all I have to do is to begin talking to God and immediately know that He is listening and has already given me a solution that I will discover in time. Sometimes it seems when we pray that God is not listening. We are going through some tough problems and they just continue on and on. It seems that God has not heard and is not acting on our behalf. We need to remember that these are the times when Jesus is “taking us to school.” I know that when I had a long period of illness, and it seemed that God wasn’t there, that He revealed to me that he was “taking me to school.” I will call it prayer school. There are things that God is working out in our lives that we were unaware of, and while God has our attention, He is revealing them to us and pulling these things from our subconscious minds to our conscious minds. There are things that we are aware of that we are not doing anything about, and, while He has our attention, the Lord is leading us to confession and repentance. Prayer is important when we have decisions to make in our lives. There are some decisions that are easy to make and we know that it is the right decision. There are other times, however, when the decision is not as clear cut, and we have to literally agonize before God before we can reach the decision. This is especially true when a decision will bring about a change in our lives and in the lives of our families. At these times, we need to know with assurance that we have God’s approval for that which will bring change, not just to us, but to our families as well. Perhaps you are reading this now because you have such a decision to make and you do not know which way to turn. I can assure you that God knows what the right decision will be, and He will lead and guide you to the right answer and will be with you in the process. It has always been interesting to me that Jesus in His infinite wisdom spent all night in prayer the night before He called out His twelve disciples, and with the exception of Judas, made them apostles who shared His word all across the Roman Empire and beyond. (Luke 6:12) If you have a decision to make, take it to the Lord in prayer, hear His answer and do what He tells you to do. I don’t know how, but you will know the answer when it comes. God has a way of making Himself clear to us in our minds and hearts. I have found this to be true and I know that you will find it to be true as well. Prayer is important when things are going well in our lives. When things are going well we have the tendency to relax and think that we can make it on our own. This is part of being human, but it is also part of the devil’s work. When everything is going our way, the devil will lull us to sleep if we let him. If we aren’t careful in these times, we will not pray as we should. If things are going well with you at the present time, go immediately to God in prayer, thank Him for the good times and ask Him to help you to stay away from temptation. When I was an Associational Missionary, and working primarily with pastors, I always told the preacher whose church was thriving that I had put him at the top of my prayer list. Why? Because the devil was aware of the successes of his church and was not happy about it. We need to take Paul’s advice in 1 Thessalonians 5:16: “Pray without ceasing.” I hope that you get the point that it is always important to pray. There is never a time when prayerlessness will make our lives better. Bro. Joe “I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people; and I will sing praises unto thee among the nations. 4. For your mercy is great above the heavens: and your truth reaches unto the clouds (skies). 5. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: and your glory above all the earth; 6. That your beloved may be delivered: save with your right hand, and answer me.”
These verses caught my attention this morning as I read Psalm 108. I have read these words hundreds of times, but they have never spoken to me as they did this morning. In my imagination, I see David composing this psalm, and the reality of who and what God is came to Him by the Holy Spirit, and he broke out in praise of God. Thank God that this psalm has been preserved for us to read. As David praised God, he gave reasons why we should praise the Lord. David began the extent of his praise. In verse 3, he wrote, “I will praise you, O Lord, among the people: and I will sing praises unto you among the nations.” David was not ashamed to praise God and would praise Him openly and in front of all of the people of the world. The Old Testament is primarily about God’s dealings with Israel, but occasionally, the “nations” will be mentioned. David knew that praise for God reaches across all national and international boundaries. The God we praise is the God of the whole world. Praise of almighty God is not limited to any one place, but should reach around the world. David praised God for His mercy and love: “For your mercy is great above the heavens; and your truth reaches unto the clouds.” God’s mercy has no limits, and His love reaches even into the heavens. One of the major themes of the Bible is God’s mercy. It is illustrated in the Old Testament with God’s dealings with Israel. Though His people had to be disciplined and became recipients of His wrath, God still loved them and had mercy on them – and still does. God’s mercy is illustrated in the New Testament by the coming of Jesus into the world to save all people who would come to Him by faith. God didn’t have to do any of this. God could have squashed us and gone on about His heavenly business, but He chose to have mercy and grace. God’s mercy and love are still realities today, and, as David did, we need to call attention to this fact. David called attention to God’s truth: “and your truth reaches unto the clouds.” The truth about God is that He is eternal – “from everlasting to everlasting.” His truth rises above the earth and soars into the heavens. The Bible’s main truth is that God created us, loves us, has mercy on us, and by His infinite grace will save us. Jesus pinpointed this truth in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by me.” It was always intended that God would save people by sending His Son into the world. His Son would live a perfect life and die as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. On the third day, He would rise from the grave, ascend to the Father and intercede for lost humanity. The Bible calls attention to this time and time again. We need to praise God that in a world where truth gets all tangled up in disorder, He has given us the truth through His Son. David called attention to God’s glory: “Be thou exalted O God, above the heavens: and your glory above all the earth.” God’s glory is entwined with His mercy and love for us. We know that God is the glorious God, because of what He has done for us. We miss this glory sometimes because we get bogged down in the problems and troubles of life and take our focus off of Him. We need to focus on God’s glory and we will see all of the things that we worry about from a different perspective. We will focus on God’s mercy and love for us, stop feeling sorry for ourselves, and praise the Lord Jesus Christ in all of His glory for what He did, is doing, and will continue to do, for us. Joe Beauchamp “And Jesus increased (grew) in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.”
We learn a lot about Jesus’ birth from Matthew and Luke, but we know very little about His life until He begins His ministry at thirty years of age. We call these “the silent years.” We do know that when He was twelve, Jesus went to the temple in Jerusalem with His parents and talked with the “doctors” there. We also know about His growth from what we read in the text above. The growth process of Jesus can set an example for us in our growth in the Christian faith. Jesus set the example, let’s see what His example tells us. Jesus grew intellectually: “and Jesus increased in wisdom…” Many people today think that to be a Christian you have to be ignorant. This is not true at all. Some of the most intellectual people I know about were and are Christians. I think of C.S. Lewis, who was a brilliant scholar and who knew his way around the “college crowd.” But his fellow intellectuals could not intimidate him when it came to his faith. Jesus' intellectual growth was not just in what we call "head knowledge." He increased in wisdom, meaning that Jesus did not just know things, but that He made wise decisions in His life. Jesus grew spiritually: “And Jesus increased…in favor with God.” Jesus did not just grow intellectually, but He also grew in His relationship with the Father. One of the problems today is that, though people grow intellectually, they do not grow in their relationship with the Lord. Despite the fact that Jesus was the Son of God, and as John wrote, “was God,” He would have studied the Old Testament in the synagogue school. If Jesus came to experience life as we know it, this had to be part of His personal growth. In Luke 2:40, we read that “The child grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon Him.” This is why Jesus was able to discuss spiritual things with the “doctors” in the temple. We are told that Jesus was “sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions. And all that heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers.” (Luke 2:40) This revealed His intellectual growth and His spiritual growth as well. This tells us that Jesus spent hours in prayer and in developing His relationship with the Father. Surely, if Jesus needed this kind of growth, we need it as well. How are you doing in your spiritual growth? Do you study your Bible? Do you “pray without ceasing”? Do you make an effort to love people? Do you really worship the Lord when you attend your church, or do you just attend and never let it touch your life? These are some questions that we need to ask ourselves, and for which we should seek positive answers. Jesus grew socially: “And Jesus increased….in favor with God and man.” It would be a mistake for us to grow intellectually and spiritually and not grow socially. Jesus learned how to get along with people and not always be at odds with them. This does not mean that everyone always agreed with Jesus and that He never corrected anyone. It means that Jesus loved people and wanted the best for them. He was not afraid of them, or of what harm they could bring into His life. One of the main elements missing in the growth of a lot of Christians is that they do not love people as Jesus did, and they do not get along with other people. This is a problem in churches today. People hear about our arguing and disagreeing over things that do not make any difference to God, and should not make any difference to us, and they are turned off. When you see a church that is growing, you know that its members are growing socially. At least give some thought to these elements of growth in Jesus’ life and apply them to yourself. Bro. Joe “How Can We Quench the Spirit?” 1 ,Thessalonians 5:19
“Quench not the Spirit.” At the end of Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, he gave some tidbits of advice to help them in their spiritual journey. Among these tidbits is the text printed above. Another translation of it is, “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire.” Notice that the S is capitalized, which means that Paul was writing about the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who sets us on fire for the Lord, and who enables us to live the Christian life and to witness to people about Jesus. In Acts 2, on the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit appeared as “tongues of fire” as He empowered them to witness. If we aren’t careful we can quench this fire in our lives and in our witness. How can we quench the Spirit and how can we avoid it? The ways that we can quench the Spirit are really quite simple. We can quench the Spirit without realizing it. The first way that we can quench the Spirit is to ignore our Bibles and fail to pray on a daily basis. Bible reading and prayer are two of the most important disciplines in our lives. Both prayer and Bible reading keep us close to the Lord, and make us aware of what He wants to do in our lives. We are told that the main problem in marriages is that husbands and wives do not communicate. The same is true in our relationship with Christ. We need to stay in communication with Him. Prayer and Bible reading are the main ways that we communicate with Him. We can quench the fire of the Spirit by ignoring the Bible that He inspired and by forgetting that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us and encourages us to pray. You need to maintain these disciplines in your life on a daily basis if you do not want to quench the Spirit. The second way that we quench the Spirit is by having bad, sour attitudes. Sourness in our attitudes affects us as well as others. This sourness comes from spiritual problems that we have within ourselves. We can find ourselves in a bad frame of mind without our having previously been aware of it. This is a work of the devil. He wants us to have bad attitudes so that we will be miserable, but beyond this, he wants us to have bad attitudes that will turn other people off as well. He wants us to have bad attitudes at home, at work, at play, and at church. Let’s consider the latter as an example. When we take our bad attitudes to church with us, we take the joy out of our worship experience. It is also true that bad attitudes are contagious. There is nothing that the devil likes better than to get God’s people aggravated with each other and focused on themselves rather than on God’s will. We need to tell ourselves that we need to stay close to the Lord and keep our attitudes in check. Again, prayer and Bible study can help us in this and keep us from quenching the Spirit with our attitudes. The third way that we can quench the Spirit is by ignoring the Leadership of the Spirit in our lives. We call it doing God’s will. God has a purpose, or purposes, for our lives in every aspect of our lives. We need to be aware of the Spirit’s leading in our parenting at home, in our relationships with our spouses and in our relationships at work. If we follow the Spirit’s leading in this way, we will be the “lights” that Jesus called us to be in Matthew 5:14: “You are the light of the world.” Our light will be dim, or extinguished if we are not aware of the leadership of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The Holy Spirit has given us gifts that we are to use in serving Him. These gifts are used in our churches and in our daily lives. If we are following His leadership, we will do what He wants us to do and the work that we do for Him at home, at work and at church will be effective. If we do not follow His leadership we will quench the Holy Spirit’s fire in our lives and we will be ineffective servants as well as being miserable people. There are other ways that we can quench the Spirit, but if we are aware of these things, we will be less likely to quench the fire of the Holy Spirit. Think about your life in reference to these three things. Bro. Joe “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man has found, he hides, and for joy thereof goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field.”
This verse comes in the middle of series of parables that Jesus was using to describe the kingdom of heaven. It portrays a man who came across treasure that someone had hidden in a field. He hid the treasure, then went and sold all that he had to buy that field. Jesus does not tell us what the treasure was, but it was surely precious for the man to put his whole livelihood on the line for it. However, we know what the treasure was that Jesus was illustrating. It was the kingdom of heaven. In this case, I will say that the treasure was the gospel of Jesus, which is our entryway into the kingdom of heaven. There are some good thoughts for us in this verse. The first thought that came to mind was that the gospel, good news, about Jesus coming to earth, dying on the cross for our sins, rising from the grave and eventually ascending to the Father is hidden treasure to many people in the world. We do not have to go to other nations to discover this. There are plenty of people in the USA who, though surrounded by churches of all descriptions, have no idea what the gospel is all about. This is why Jesus told us to “go into all the world” and spread the good news about what He has done. We can call it evangelism or missions, but it is important that we share the “hidden treasure” of the gospel with a world that is oblivious to what Jesus can offer. People think that the Bible and church are about religion and being religious. In fact, they think that those of us who believe in Jesus are odd and “on the wrong side of history,” as they are prone to say. We need to tell them that the “hidden treasure” is not about religion; rather it is about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Those of us who know about this “hidden treasure” should uncover it for the multitudes around us. The second thought that came to mind was that the gospel of Jesus Christ is not really hidden, but has been revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. Paul wrote about the mystery of the gospel. We usually think of a mystery as something that is unknown and that we need to try to uncover. What Paul means by mystery, however, is the reverse of this. He means that what had been a mystery in the past, was now made known through the coming of Jesus into the world. He described this for us in Colossians 1:26-28: “Even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest (revealed) to His saints: 27. To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28. Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Jesus Christ.” We have discovered and uncovered the “hidden treasure” of the gospel, accepted it and now, like Paul, we need to share it. The gospel need not remain hidden as long as there is one Christian left in the world. The third thought that came to mind was that the gospel of Jesus Christ is worth everything that we have. After he discovered the treasure in the field, the man went and sold everything that he had and went and bought it. That was a valuable piece of property for the man to lay everything on the line as he did. This means that the gospel of Jesus Christ is worth everything that we have as well. Jesus told the “rich young ruler” that what he needed to do was sell all that he had, give it to the poor and follow Him. We will not have to sell everything that we have, but we need to surrender to the Lord whatever it is that is holding us back from either finding the gospel or sharing it with the world. What are you willing to surrender in order to discover and/or share the “hidden treasure”? Bro. Joe “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
This is the most succinct definition of faith in the Bible. Until one has true faith in Jesus Christ, the things of the Spirit will not be real. 2 Corinthians 2:14 explains this: “But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.” God is the author of faith, and it is God the Spirit who makes spiritual things real to us; therefore, it is by faith that He makes Himself real to us. We occasionally read of someone who read the Bible and came away from it unconvinced. We wonder how it is possible that something so real to us would mean nothing to them. The answer is printed above from 2 Corinthians 2:14, “But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: they are foolishness unto him.” To the person who does not believe, does not have faith, the Bible is foolishness. Things like the Red Sea being divided, an ax head floating, or water being turned into wine are impossible and could not have happened. He/she is partially right, for without God these things would not be possible. After all, it was Jesus who said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” (Luke 18:27) We actually use faith every day. For example, each time we sit in a chair, we have faith that it will not collapse. Each time we ride across a bridge, we have faith in the engineering technology that assures us that the bridge will not collapse. When we get into our cars and drive anywhere, we have faith that we will reach our destination. But the faith that makes the unseen real is faith in Jesus Christ – period. We need to have as much faith in Jesus as we have in a chair. We need to trust Jesus when He says that if we will come to Him, He will “give us rest.” (Matthew 11:28) We live victoriously for Jesus when we realize that we can trust Him with our lives and in all of the events of our lives. This does not mean that everything will turn out like we want it to if we trust Christ. It means that however things turn out, we know that it happened for the best and we will be better off for it. Our faith is not real to us until we put it to the test. For example, when God led the Israelites out of Egypt, He did not lead them away from the Red Sea. He led them toward the Red Sea. There are other reasons for this, but I believe that God wanted the Israelites to see that they could trust Him when all else seemed impossible. When the Israelites had the Red Sea before them and Pharaoh’s army behind them, their only hope was in God. They had no avenue of escape until God did something to rescue them. God divided the Red Sea to allow them to pass over to the other side. (This event is in Exodus 14.) If God had not acted on their behalf, Israel would have been captured and returned to slavery in Egypt. The kind of faith that sees the unseen will launch out and follow the will of God, though what it is that God wants of us seems impossible. Instead of following the line of least resistance, we need to trust that God will act on our behalf and see us through. When is the last time you put your faith to the test? When is the last time the church that you attend put faith to the test? We do not realize all that God has for us because fear keeps us from acting on our faith. Churches do not realize all that God has for them, because they let fear keep them from moving forward. If we want to live victoriously for Jesus, we need to step out in faith, even when it would seem foolish to do so. Put your faith in Jesus and let Him show you that He can save you, or that He can get you through what you need to get through today. Faith in Jesus will not only make Him real to us, it will make all of the possibilities that He has for us real as well. Bro. Joe |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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