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Cherish the Past, Celebrate the Present, Commit to the Future 4/9/00
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CHERISH THE PAST,
CELEBRATE THE PRESENT, COMMIT
TO THE FUTURE
EPHESIANS 4:11-16
JESUS CHRIST said, “I will build my church and
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
As a result of what our Lord has done, is doing, and will do to build His church we have reason to:
CHERISH THE PAST, CELEBRATE THE PRESENT, AND COMMIT TO THE FUTURE.
Ever since His resurrection, by His Spirit, He has been busy building His church universally and locally. I believe in the local church because it is what Christ called His “body.”
Some contemporary thinkers speak in grandiose terms of belonging to the church universal, that is, the invisible church. They profess they don’t believe in or belong to the local church. Their involvement is with the invisible church. To them I would like to say, “That is so wonderful that I would like to contribute some invisible money to help your invisible church.”
Those who declare their belief in the universal but not the local church need to go outdoors and look around. As they stand basking in the sun, they might say I believe in the sun universal. Take away the sun local and there would be no sun universal. Take away the local church and there would be no church universal.
I believe in the local church because Christ believed in it. I believe in the local church because the Greek word for church is used 85 times in the New Testament to refer to the local church.
It is spoken of by Christ as His “body.” To me one of the most distinct evidences of His love and sense of intimacy with the church is found in the life of Saul of Tarsus. Saul had been appointed by the Sanhedrin to investigate the accounts of the resurrection of Christ. The Scripture describes him on his way to Damascus to interrogate by intimidation and if need be death to Christians there who professed the resurrection. He is described as breathing out threats of cruelty.
Suddenly a heavenly light blinded him and he heard the voice of the resurrected Christ saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:4).
Saul was a brilliant young lawyer. Under these conditions can’t you imagine his immediately building his defenses. “Jesus, you said ‘Me.’ What do you mean ‘Me.?’ Its not you I am persecuting, its the church.”
Jesus: “Saul, that is Me!”
That is how intimate He feels about His church. I want to treat the local church with the same dignity and love I do its Head.
The church is also called the “bride of Christ.” I know there are some sick churches but I am not going to use them as an excuse to diminish my devotion to His church.
One of the first weddings I performed here has served as a graphic for me regarding this principle.
(DESCRIBE THE WEDDING WHERE THE BRIDE FAINTED.)
In Ephesians chapter 4 several illustrations are used to help our understanding of the church. One of the primary analogies found in the passage related it as being like a human body. Observe:
I. THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH Vs. 15
“Him who is the head – Christ” I like that. Christ is the control central of the church.
READ: Eph. 1: 20-23.
He is not only the Head “of” the church, He is the Head “over” the church. He is the Organic Head and the Authoritative Head.
II. THE HEART OF THE CHURCH Vss. 13, 14 & 11
The heart of Christ’s church is purity of doctrine and order.
A. Purity of Doctrine
For a multiplicity of diverse people to live together in harmony there must be accord in what is believed. The uncommon common denominator must be belief in the same Bible truths. This is a point of entry for Satan to work. Verse 14 describes tactics used by Satan’s ambassadors.
One is “trickery” or “slight of men.” The Greek word so translated is KUBLIA, literally meaning to play with dice. It is a reference to tricky words. One of Satan’s classic twist of words has to do with Christ Himself. There are cult groups if asked will say they believe Christ is the Son of God. But if pressed and asked if they believe Christ was God the Son, they must truthfully answer no. He was Immanuel, God with us.
Another deception is “cunning craftiness” and refers to ingenuity in inventing errors. In a crafty manner Satan did it in Eden. He added to and took away from the Word spoken by God. He still confuses congregations with doctrinal errors.
At this point I must bring in a detail that is a bit personal. Therefore, I am speaking of a principle and not a person. This principle is one of the most humbling in a pastor’s life.
B. Dedication of a Person
In verse 11 it is said “He Himself,” the reference is to Christ, “gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.”
Ideally, the pastor is Christ’s gift to the church. The church that receives the gift receives the Giver. The church that rejects the gift rejects the Giver. I praise the Lord for this beloved church that nearly 35 years ago received the person sent by the Lord to serve Him as pastor.
The last two titles used here are a reference to one person. There is a rule in Greek known as Granville Sharp’s rule. It states: “When two nouns in the same case are connected by the Greek word “and,” and the first noun is preceded by the article “the,” and the second noun is not preceded by the article, the second noun refers to the same person or thing to which the first noun refers, and is a further description of it.”
That means the expression “pastors and teachers” refers to one person fulfilling two functions.
This is the only time in Scripture the under shepherd of Christ is called “pastor.” The Greek word for it is POIMENAS and means shepherd. The root meaning is to protect, tend, and feed the flock. Bible teaching is one area of protecting and feeding.
The other term describing this person’s role is “teacher.”
One way purity of doctrine is to be preserved is by a pastor consistently working as a pastor/teacher. Thus he protects the flock from false doctrine and teaches them true doctrine.
Order is essential for unity in the church. The pastor must be under Christ’s authority and fully surrendered to it. The members of the flock must wilfully put themselves under the authority of the pastor/teacher and learn from him.
The humbling aspect for the pastor is to know some day he must give account to the Good Shepherd.
That keeps the under shepherd from any ego trips.
III. THE HARMONY OF THE CHURCH Vs. 16
A dad who had been away on a trip returned with a gift for his little girl. After visiting together for a while dad settled into reading the paper and the child to playing with her new game. Soon dad’s subconscious began to pick up on sounds of frustration coming from his little daughter. He put down his paper and got down with the child to show her how the game worked. Later at bed-time the child said, “It was a lot better game than I thought dad.”
If you get involved in a vibrant fellowship that teaches the Bible and is Christ-centered, one that is growth oriented, you will have cause to say, “Church is a lot better experience than I thought.”
The church is described as being like a human body with many functioning body parts. Body parts differ but each contributes in its own way. Imagine having two noses; one each where your ears are. Think about having one oval ear where your nose is. Each in its place fulfilling its function makes for a better body.
Observe in verse 8 that every member is given a gift by Christ. That is, a measure of grace that enables them to fulfill some function in the church. This is further defined in vs. 16.
The body is – – –
A. UNIFYING – “joined and knit together”
When one member of the body hurts, all hurt. Another wedding lives in my memory as an illustration of this.
Those fingers hurt so bad that my body sat up much of the night to keep them company. That is the way the body of Christ works.
B. SUPPLYING – “every joint supplies”
Christ has given you Spiritual gifts that enable you to contribute to His cause. No one need feel left out.
Reputedly there once was a church with four members whose names were Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. The church had financial needs and Everybody was asked to help. Everybody thought Somebody would do it. Anybody could have. Amid this confusion you know who did it? Nobody. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done. Then the church needed a work day, and Somebody was asked to help. Somebody got upset because Anybody could have done the job just as well and, after all, it really was Everybody’s job. In the end Nobody did it. Nobody did a good job. Thereafter, when there was work to be done Nobody could be counted on. Nobody visited the sick. Nobody gave generously. Nobody shared his faith. Finally the day came that Somebody left the church and Everybody and Anybody decided to follow. Guess who was left! Nobody.
C. EDIFYING – “effective working by which every part does its share”
In the word “edification” you can hear the word edifice which means a building. To edify means to build up. In this instance it means to build up spiritually. We are to do that.
If the average car has as many parts that don’t work as the typical church, it wouldn’t run down hill. Are you doing your part? “I’ve been a weight for long enough on the church’s back. From now on I’m going to take a completely different track. I’ll work and pay and pray and carry my load instead. And not have others carry me like people do their dead.”
D. MULTIPLYING – “causes growth of the body”
Dawson Trotman in “Born to Reproduce” gives this illustration of multiplication. If one Christian won one person to Christ and spent six months helping to mature that one before each of them won someone else, the world could be won in 16 years. At the end of six months, the two would become four. At the end of one year the four would be eight. Multiplying this conversion, maturing, conversion cycle every six months the total in seven years would 33,000 converts. If that process continued for sixteen years, the total would be nearly three billion converts.
To win our community it is not enough to add members, we must multiply.
Bon Voyage 10/22/00
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BON VOYAGE
ACTS 20:22 – 24
Jesus Christ, near the end of His earth walk
prayed, “I have finished the work which You gave me to do”
(John 17:4).
He then concluded that work by dying for our sins on Calvary. With His last breath He cried out to the Father, “It is finished!”
Jesus Christ deals in finished products. He has begun a good work in you. You are a project in progress. Be patient! Be patient with yourself and with others for they too are not yet complete but are in the process of being completed. Those who yield to Him will find: “He who has begun a good work in you WILL complete it” (Philippians 1:6).
You can confidently say: “I am not what I use to be; I am not what I ought to be; but praise the Lord, I’m on my way to becoming all that I was intended to be.”
If you consider yourself a project too great for Christ, consider one of His prime completed products, a most unlikely one, the Apostle Paul. He was one of the very ones who condemned Christ to death. He then was appointed chief investigator of the reports of the resurrection. His task was to disprove it. Instead the evidence of it led to his conversion followed by a life of service. His evidence of the resurrection made him willing to die for his belief in the resurrected Christ.
Paul, the investigator, later described himself as being “apprehended” by Christ for a purpose. Near the end of his earthly ministry he spoke of his service and its imminent closure. He spoke of:
I. COMMITMENT VS. 24
Paul said, “…nor do I count my life dear to myself…”
Those who spend so much of their time preening, pampering, and profiling themselves might find this hard to comprehend.
When there is a commitment to a cause the cause comes ahead of life itself. The Library of Champions for Christ is lined with biographies of persons who have been martyred for Christ. Some have died for Him, some have died while serving Him. They lived among us as persons whose lives were a token tribute to the one who gave His life for them. They were so careful for the cause and so casual of life.
He declared I want to “finish my race with joy.”
Who among us would not like to live a life of joy? It is possible with the right Biblical world view. Let’s come back to that in a moment. In light of this statement in Scripture and my own life- experience there are to me certain obvious observations.
A. LIFE IS A BATTLEFIELD NOT A PLAYGROUND
Spiritually we will each be either a casualty or a conqueror. Inevitably, you like every human being will have difficulties, disappointments, set- backs, suffering, and heartbreaks. In all of these you can be “more than conquerors.” That expression translates HYPER, meaning “more than” and NIKE, meaning “conqueror.” In Christ you are. In this world “you WILL have tribulation” Christ said. Expect it and learn how to deal with it. Remember that, momentarily it will be explained further.
B. LIFE IS A MARATHON NOT A SPRINT
The object is to finish the long course and finish it to the best of our ability. This calls for commitment to be followed by consistency. Christ didn’t save you to start the race but to finish it.
C. LIFE IS A SACRED TRUST
Life is short. Eternity is significant. If you give proper attention to where you are going the trip takes on a different meaning. A moment ago I mentioned we would come back to the concept of finishing the “race with joy.” To do so one must have an understanding of the joy spoken of. It is not a life lived in a care free zone. It is the capacity to see in your adversity the opportunity to become more Christ like.
If the object of your life is not to become more Christ like you are not going to experience that joy. If the object of your life is to become more Christ like you will find and express joy in adversity.
If the object of your life is not to become more Christ like your outlook will be in a perpetual dark whirlpool of every increasing negativism, pessimism, and complaining. The problems in your life will appear to be a grievous end in themselves rather than means to an end. The end being to become more Christ like.
LET ME SHARE MY TESTIMONY.
II. COMMENDATION VERSE 32
God and the “word of His grace” is “able to build you up.” Additionally, there is “an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”
“Sanctified” means set aside for a certain use. An illustration of this is two books. One is a how to book on how to build a house. The other is an inspirational novel about a family that lived in a house. The novel on the family will be of little use in knowing how to build a building. Conversely, the book on how to build a house will afford little or no inspiration. When used as intended both fulfill the function for which they were created, that is, sanctified; one to instruct and one to inspire.
When our Lord saved you He set you aside to become more Christ like. Thereafter, everything in your life is to be used to enable you to fulfill that for which you are set aside. That is, becoming more Christ like. If you miss that you miss your reason for being. Tragically most have missed it. For them life turns cold grey instead of sparkling with the colors of the rainbow as intended. This ties closely with the – – –
III. CHARGE VS. 35
Christ is quoted, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Most often that is associated with the giving of money and it is applicable. I want to appeal to this beloved membership to be more generous than ever in giving to the cause of Christ through this church budget.
There is a wider application of this text to incorporate all of life. Give your every asset and resource to Christ. That is what sanctification is. It is giving yourself to be set aside for His use in the broad sunlit uplands of victory, achievement, and accomplishment as well as along the perimeter of the valley of the shadow of death.
The more we give ourselves away in the service of our Lord the more blessed we are.
IV. CONCLUSION VSS. 36 – 38
After this final farewell Paul knelt and prayed with them. They wept and embraced and bid each other farewell. Bonvoyage! Have a good trip. He had just explained how to have a good trip on troubled waters.
You: A Thing of Beauty, A Joy to Behold Ephesians 2:8-10 8/6/00
Jesus Christ loves beauty. Therefore, He loves
you. Don’t discount that statement and thereby
diminish your own self-worth. Our beloved Lord is
identified as the creator of all things.
“For by Him all things were created that are in
heaven and that are on earth… All things were
created through Him and for Him… in Him all things
consist….” (Colossians 1: 6, 17).
In considering the enormity of “all things”
don’t forget one thing —- you. You are the product
of His creative genius and love.
Having just completed a 22-day tour of much of
Europe my eyes have feasted on beauty. Some of the
architectural beauty of old world workmanship leaves
one in open mouth amazement. The creative genius
that built Venice along enchanting canals is
dumbfounding. Edifices such as the Doge Palace, the
Cathedral of Milan, and the many castles perched on
mountain peaks excites the imagination. Their beauty
is remarkable.
The paintings of Da Vinci, Chotto, and
Michelangelo stretch ones appreciation for the skill
of the artists.
Even greater beauty is to be seen. From the
“Top of Europe,” the Jungfrau, one can look out on
the Eiger and other massive peaks of the Alps.
Driving across the Alps four times in two weeks left
me with an even greater appreciation of their
beauty. The only sounds heard from persons on the
bus were oohs, ahs, and deep sighs. An occasional
expression of awe could occasionally be heard such
as: “Wow! Look at that!” After crossing one of my
young friends commented, “I have heard people speak
of something being breath taking but that is the
first time I have experienced it.”
When our Lord, the Creator, built them He did a
marvelous work.
I had to come home to see one of the most
beautiful things in the world. I looked in the
mirror and there it was —- the wonderful me. Wait
a minute, before you brand that as an egotistical
statement. Listen to the message now in progress and
go look in the mirror and you too will be able to
say of yourself, “I am one of the most beautiful
things in the world.” You have the potential of
greater beauty than magnificent cathedrals, castles,
and mountains. Scripture says, “You are fearfully
and wonderfully made.”
You are a work in progress and perhaps the
greatest beauty is yet to be seen.
If the Holy Spirit is successful in doing in
your life what He wants to through this message you
will exit this hour with greater understanding of
yourself and fuller appreciation for the Creator and
His creative work in progress in you.
Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before
men, that they may see your good works and glorify
your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).
Christ has called none of us to be secret
disciples. We are called and commissioned to live
and work in such a way that our influence for Him
can be seen and felt.
Systems of religion have been developed around
the little word “works.” Actually there are only two
systems of religious faith. One is that salvation is
obtained by doing good works. The other is that we
are saved by the good work done by Jesus Christ on
our behalf.
Christianity is the one faith not based on a
system of good works. Even under the umbrella of
Christianity there are some denominations that have
not grasped this. Many who lean toward the Christian
faith still labor under the confusing concept they
have to do something to merit God’s favor.
We are not saved BY works but we are saved TO work.
Belief that salvation is by works makes God and
man both look bad.
It makes man look bad because it presents us as
doing everything we do in order to try to get
something for doing it. It robs us of the simple joy
of doing good works in Christ’s name out of
uninhibited joy for what He has done for us.
It makes God look bad because it represents Him
as a God who can be bought off or in effect bribed.
It makes Him appear as though He is an overlord who
awaits payoffs.
New life doesn’t result OUT OF good works but
it results IN good works.
No text brings the issue into clearer focus than Ephesians 2: 8 – 10.
I. THE CREATOR’S PLAN “We are His workmanship…”
The word “workmanship” translates the Greek
POIEMA. In that you can hear our English word poem.
From where does a poem come? It comes from the mind
of the poet.
We hear much today about self-esteem. It is a
beautiful school of thought and needs to be
addressed by Christians. Actually it can only be
addressed properly and fully from a Biblical
viewpoint. You have a right to self-esteem because
of this verse. As the poem comes from the mind of
the poet, so you are a product of the mind of the
loving God. You are a miraculous product of His thought.
I don’t understand why He made me like this.
Perhaps you have wondered the same about yourself. I
would have done me a little differently. However, I
gladly defer all design work to Him in light of two
things. He is wiser than I and knows what is best.
He is more loving than I and always does the best.
The most jarring TV commercial last Fall didn’t
say a word. It simply shows a series of people who
have one thing in common – a nasty injury or scar.
There’s a cowboy with a huge scar around eye, and
something wrong with the eye itself; a fellow with a
bulbous cauliflower ear; another with horribly
callused feet. There’s no explanation at all, simply
the Nike swoosh and “Just Do It.”
The ad has been analyzed and criticized widely
as being incomprehensible and extreme. But the key
to the controversial commercial lies in the
background music. Joe Cocker sings, “You are so
beautiful…to me.”
To these athletes – the wrestler with the
cauliflower ear, the surfer with a shark bite, the
bull rider blind in one eye – their injuries are
beauty marks. And to their fans, these athletes are
beautiful because of their scars. “Beauty is in the
eye of the beholder,” says Mike Folino, the ad’s
creator.
God’s grace is just as jarring and
controversial. Our beauty is found not in us, but in
him. He looks down at us – inured, blind, and
scarred – and sings, “You are so beautiful…to me.”
But wait, there is more to come. We have a
tendency to think of the physical us. He is
ambitious to create character. It is our true self
He is perpetually in the process of creating.
The village of Oberammergau in Germany is known
as the home of woodcarvers. These craftsmen are
schooled and skilled in their craft. My wife and I
added to our collection of nativities by purchasing
a lovely one piece depiction of Mary, Joseph, and
the baby Jesus. This lovely work of art was once a
part of a tree growing in the deep forest on a
lonely mountain side. At one point it was a
shapeless block of wood lying on the woodcarvers
floor. Then on his lathe he began to chip away on
it. Eventually tiny tools were used to finish the
craftsman creation.
If that wood had mentality and the capacity to
talk, if it had the attitude we often display, at
times it could have been heard to say to the carver,
“Hey, what’s going on here? Why did you chip away
that part of me I like? Don’t you love me?”
From the moment the block of wood was seen by
the carver he had in mind what he wanted to create.
Our loving Lord is no less a craftsman and no less a
visionary with you in mind. He knows exactly what He
has in mind for you. Some of the chiseling,
grinding, chipping, and sanding may not be
understood but the Craftsman is to be trusted. He
who has you in His hand has you in His mind as well.
Today our loving Lord has you in His workshop.
He has a more beautiful you in mind. As you allow
Him to work with you, it more clearly emerges.
The fact we are in His workshop should keep us
humble. We wouldn’t be there if we were perfect. He
is always in the process of perfecting us.
Confidence in the Craftsman results in
patience.
POIEMA can be translated “masterpiece.” If you
are a Christian, you are a masterpiece of God’s
handiwork. He is in the continuous process of
conforming you to the image of Jesus Christ. To have
wholesome self-esteem you don’t need power,
position, prominence, approval of a particular
person, or a degree. All these enhancements are
admirable, however, even without them you are a
masterpiece of God.
John 15:16 should cause you dignity and give a
sense of self-worth: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and
appointed you that you should go and bear fruit.”
Remember playing childhood games when sides had
to be chosen? Didn’t it always make you feel good to
be chosen. It meant you were approved, needed, and
wanted. Well, Christ has chosen you. That should do
something special to your self-esteem.
II. THE CREATIVE PROCESS “Created in
Christ Jesus”
When we, by faith, enter into union with
Christ, a new creature emerges. We are new creatures
in Christ. Old things pass away, ALL things become
new. A new life alien to the old life form emerges.
God wants to make you what He can contemplate
with delight. Every improvement He desires for you
brings Him joy and is for your good. Don’t forget
that last part. It IS for your good.
How this new spiritual creation comes to be is
explained in Ephesians 2: 8 & 9.
It is by grace. Grace means to give divine
favor. It means God
giving to us everything we need without us deserving
it. It means the blessing of God granted to us
without us meriting it.
We obtain this grace by faith. Some argue that
our faith is our work which merits God’s favor.
Think for a moment. When you are thirsty and
reach for a drink of water, what quenches your
thirst, your hand or the water? Your hand is only
the means of receiving the water. Our faith, which
has in it no merit, is simply the means of receiving
God’s unmerited favor.
The Lord chose one of the most common everyday
principles as the connecting point by which
salvation becomes ours. It is faith. It is a common
every day act in which we engage many times. Every
time you pop a top on a beverage can and drink from
it you are exercising faith. The public purchase and
consumption of any product is an act of faith. There
is really no such thing as a tamper-proof package.
Amusement parks are crowded with the faithful who
risk their lives on daring rides that are by no
means fail-safe. The idea of going on a blind date requires the
optimum of faith. The ultimate test of faith, from a
human vantage point, might just be marriage.
This faith that is basic to human nature is
what our Lord uses to draw us to Himself. If we can
have faith in the promises and potential of these
things, surely we can have faith in Him.
It is a gift of God. Gifts are purchased for us
by those who love us at no cost to us.
The gift of salvation, that is, a new life was
purchased as a gift for us by Christ when He
voluntarily paid the price on Calvary.
The expression “not of yourself” gives this
meaning to this passage: “this matter of being saved
by grace through faith is not of yourself” but is
the gift of God.
Faith itself is a gift of God. Therefore there
is no merit even in our faith.
This leaves no room for boasting. In self-
esteem there is no vaunted self-image. There is only
gratitude and gratification in how important we are
in God’s sight, as evidenced by what He has
done for us because we are of such worth to Him.
That is the basis of true self-esteem.
We sing, “Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe.”
That is good theology.
III. THE CREATOR’S PURPOSE “Unto good works”
Though our good works are without merit, they
are so important that God created us in order for
them to be done. They are the spontaneous result of
salvation.
Sometimes there are cynics who muse about being
saved once and for all and that they can do whatever
they want thereafter. Reality is that if a person is
really saved they hunger to do whatever God wants
thereafter. There is a good test of your salvation.
Are you ambitious to do what God wants you to do?
Jesus said, “Not everyone that says unto Me,
‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter into the kingdom of
heaven; but he that does the will of My Father which
is in heaven” (Matt. 7:21).
Jesus informed us that, “In this is my Father
glorified, that you bear much fruit” (John 15:8).
As you contemplate your life’s ministry, “Let
this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”
It was the mind of a loving and obedient servant.
Let your every thought be brought under the canopy
of that concept. Talk to yourself. Say to yourself:
Today I will think like a dynamic servant of
the Lord Jesus.
Clothes don’t make a person; thinking does.
Therefore, I will keep my thoughts open to the
will of God. God didn’t call me to a life of failure, but to
a life of success. This being so, I cannot fail as long as I
do His will, allowing Him to work in and through me,
motivating my every thought.
Because my God is a big God, I will think big with
confidence, knowing my thoughts can never be bigger
than my God.
Today I will think as the apostle Paul: “I can do all
things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil.
4:13).
BE patient with God. Creation takes time. Six
days were involved in the creation of the universe. God worked
in Moses for 40 years before He could work through
him. He worked in Joseph for 13 years before He
could work through Him. David was anointed king as a
young man but he went through years of exile before
coming to the throne. Paul spent three years in the wilderness
in order that God could work on him before He could
work through Him.
The text concluded “that we should walk in
them.” That means our lifestyle should be one given
to good works.
He who created us has also prepared for us good works.
The fact He has prepared good work for you to
do means that by getting involved in doing it you
will live a life free of boredom. It is the abundant
life of which Christ spoke.
He doesn’t expect the same from all persons. He
not only allows for our diversity He designed it. A
craftsman doesn’t expect the same from all products.
Wood, metal, stone, and alloys all have different
capacities. Likewise, so do we. Therefore, don’t
compare yourself to others. In doing so, you can
find some you are better than and become
egotistical. Inevitably you will find some better
than you and this can cause depression. By comparing
yourself to what God has in mind for you, there is
true self-esteem and stability.
Have you personally experienced His work for
you?
Are you allowing Him to work in you?
Will you, as never before, permit Him to work
through you?
Free Will
“God’s greatest gift to man in all the bounty He was moved to make throughout creation – the one gift the most close to His goodness and the one He calls most precious – is free will.”
Dante Alighieri in “Paradiso”
This is a simple succinct insight into a view of the “FREE WILL” of human beings as noted in Ephesians 1.
As they have done for centuries scholars continue to debate the issue. This is not an attempt to make such an important and complex issue seem simple. It is a brief insight into one aspect of the issue.
In a debate every point has a counterpoint. This is an attempt to make a point, not to deal with the counterpoint.
As a strategic sidebar to this issue God’s sovereignty must be acknowledged. His priority and preeminence is unimpeachable. What follows is predicated on the concept that God in His sovereign will determined to give human beings a free will. This is, “according to the good pleasure of His will” Ephesians 1: 5.
The issue was determined “before the foundation of the world” Ephesians 1: 4. Prior to the “cosmos” (KATABOLES) being created how, upon sinning, human beings could be redeemed was determined. God “predestined,” that is, He predetermined the destiny of individual humans. (Don’t stop here.)
Predestined translates the Greek word PROORIZO, which was a surveyor’s term meaning to “mark out a boundary.”
In the shaping of America surveyors went through a region of the South and marked off a boundary and designated all within that boundary as “Georgia.” All living within the boundary were Georgians.
Before the dawning of creation God marked out a boundary and said all who voluntarily enter it should be saved. That boundary is noted several times in Ephesians 1 as being “in Him,”
“In Him,” “in Christ,” “in Him,” and in verses 11 – 13 as, “in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.
In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.”
Those within the boundary of Christ are predestined to share His destiny. They are those who “first trusted in Christ,”those who “having believed” in Him should be saved.
Man’s ability to “trust,” that is, choose is attested to by the Scriptures that follow .
God in His sovereignty allows human beings the choice.
By God’s grace we determine the action. God determines the results.
God decrees. Man decides.
Throughout the Bible God is depicted as choosing. Being sovereign He obviously has a free will to choose who and what He pleases.
Starting with Adam and Eve, who chose between eating or not eating of the tree in the midst of the garden, human beings have been making choices. They would not have had this free will were it not given them by our sovereign loving God.
A classic example of free will is the charge given by Joshua to Israel, “…choose for yourselves this day who you will serve….” The people responded “…we will serve the Lord….” Joshua 24: 15 & 21 Meaning, we will of our own free will serve the Lord.
Logic makes it clear man has a God given free will. That logic is based on the fact that biblically and currently human beings make choices, therefore it can be concluded from this that man has the ability to chose.
God is sovereign. Again it deserves to be said, man would not have free will had not God acting in His free will, given it to him.
God in His grace and by His sovereign will elected, that is chose, to give man the right and ability to choose. Man therefore is a free moral agent responsible for his choices. The following Scripture passages show this principle to be logical.
Deuteronomy 30:19
“I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;
2 Samuel 24:12
“Go and tell David, ‘Thus says the LORD: I offer you three things; choose one of them for yourself, that I may do it to you.’”
1 Chronicles 21:11
So Gad came to David and said to him, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Choose for yourself,’”
I Kings 18:23
“Therefore let them give us two bulls; and let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it; and I will prepare the other bull, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it.
2 Kings 10:3
“…choose the best qualified of your master’s sons, set him on his father’s throne, and fight for your master’s house.”
Job 9:14
“How then can I answer Him,
And choose my words to reason with Him?”
Job 15:5
“For your iniquity teaches your mouth,
And you choose the tongue of the crafty.”
Job 34:4
“Let us choose justice for ourselves;
Let us know among ourselves what is good”
Job 34:33
“Should He repay it according to your terms,
Just because you disavow it?
You must choose, and not I;
Therefore speak what you know.”
Psalm. 65:4
“Blessed is the man You choose,
And cause to approach You,
That he may dwell in Your courts.
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house,
Of Your holy temple.”
Proverbs 1:29
“they hated knowledge
And did not choose the fear of the LORD…”
Proverbs 3:31
“Do not envy the oppressor,
And choose none of his ways;”
Proverbs 12:26
“The righteous should choose his friends carefully,
For the way of the wicked leads them astray.”
Isaiah 7:15
“Curds and honey He shall eat, that He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good….”
Isaiah 7:16
“For before the Child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that you dread will be forsaken by both her kings.”
Isaiah 56:4
For thus says the LORD:
‘To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths,
And choose what pleases Me,
And hold fast My covenant,’”
Philippians 1:22
“But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell.”
Luke 10: 42 “Mary hath chosen the good part….”
To “decide” is to chose as the king of Israel said, “So shall your judgment be; you yourself have decided it.” I Kings20: 40
“Bachar,” translated “chose” and its derivatives are used for: men choosing wives (Ge 6:2); Lot choosing the cities of the Plain (Ge 13:11); often of kings and generals choosing soldiers for their prowess (e.g. Ex 17:9; Jos 8:3; 1Sa 13:2; 2Sa 10:9; 17:1). The most important uses of bachar are these: of Israel choosing a king (1Sa 8:18; 12:13); of moral and religious choice: choosing Yahweh as God (Jos 24:15,22), or other gods (Jud 5:8; 10:14); the way of truth (Ps 119:30); to refuse the evil and choose the good (Isa 7:15,16); compare David’s choice of evils (2Sa 24:12).
Paul testified before Agrippa of the heavenly vision given him: “I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven.” Acts 26: 19. He had a choice and chose to obey.
To accept a thing indicates there was an alternative not accepted. This requires a choice. Accept, acceptable, acceptably, acceptance, acceptation, accepted, accepts, and accepting are listed 64 times in the Bible. Each act required a choice.
To “determine” a thing, a selection has to be made requiring a choice. “Determined” appears 30 times in the Bible.
To judge is to choose. Repetitiously persons in the Bible are said to have judged. Thus, they had to make a choice.
In all of these and more instances persons used their God given gray matter to exercise their will freely.
This and nothing else detracts from God’s sovereign will. He is free and able to do whatever He chooses. These and many other verses depict human beings as making choices. They would not have that ability were it not given them by our sovereign God.
It is the reader’s choice as to whether or not to chose this concept. The alternative is that things are arbitrarily imposed on persons by God. Conditions in the world make it impossible to believe their happening is the design and desire of our sovereign, righteous, and loving God.
The Easter Equation
MATTHEW 28: 1 – 6
JESUS CHRIST is the only person to have His epitaph announced by angels. Weeping women and mournful men came to the tomb in which His lifeless body had been placed. They came to bury their hope. They were there to say farewell to a dream, embalm the past, and to weep and mourn. These defeated and dis-spirited followers of Christ were representative of all of humankind hope.
They were met by angels at the tomb who said:
“Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus
who was crucified. He is not here; for He is
risen, as He said.”
It is always a joy to visit that empty tomb in Jerusalem. On the door recently placed at this entrance for security purposes is the inscription, “He is risen.” What an epitaph!
The resurrection is God’s “yes” to the world’s “no.”
The world says “no” you can’t live forever. The resurrection says “yes” you can.
The world says “no” you can’t live an abundant life. The resurrection says “yes” you can.
The world says “no” you can’t live optimistically and victoriously with hope. The resurrection says “yes” you can live with enthusiasm for your future.
The resurrection shouts of the reality that God has the capacity to correct life’s inequities. When your life seems lost in vicious violence and is subject to outbursts of hatred and bigotry, then the assurance offered by the resurrection says there is hope.
HE DIED
A sensual and sadistic Roman soldier lifter the shaft of his sharp steel spear toward the side of the suffering Savior, With a thrust he slit the skin, divided the flesh, pierced the pericardium and entered the heart. Christ was dead. The soldier himself said he was. The official Roman document defining the execution proclaimed He was dead.
These executioners knew how to push life right to the brink, hold it there, and push it over the brink of death in the most brutal manner.
Near Colorado Springs, Colorado, there is a road which winds through William’s Canyon to the Cave of the Winds. The pass through which it goes seems to get more and more narrow as your travel it. One passage is knows as “The Narrows.” As you draw near it, every indication is that you can’t make it through. Just before you reach it, there is a sign which states: “Yes you can – a million others have.”
Just when life gave every indication of having only a hopeless end, Christ arose–revealing it has an endless hope. You can make it because ONE has. Because HE lives we can live also.
The resurrection tells us that God is involved in our world. The resurrection factor is one the world can’t explain or explain away. The resurrection is God’s way of saying to you: “You really do matter to me.”
Easter is God’s AMEN
and
man’s HALLELUJAH!
The people who came to that tomb that morning were so preoccupied with what happened, that is, Christ’s death, that they were about to miss out on what was happening.
Just when they thought all was lost, the angel said: “He is risen.” Just when they thought all possibility of victory was behind them, the angel announced. “He has gone before you into Galilee.” Christ still goes before us to lead and guide.
HE IS RISEN
That fact on history’s horizon influences all others. Every argument against the literal bodily resurrection of Christ is philosophical. Every argument for the resurrection is historical.
Skeptics scoff at the historical reliability of the records of the resurrection, yet, accept less reliable records of secular events. What is known of Hannibal crossing the Alps was written 250 years later. New Testament documents were written within a lifetime of the event. Historians accept the history written by Thucydides (460 BC) and Herodotus (488 BC) which were translated from manuscripts written 1,300 years later from only eight copies. There are over 1,200 ancient New Testament documents. The records of the resurrection are reliable prompting the famous Greek scholar, Bishop Westcott to say, “Taking all the evidence together, it is not too much to say that there is no single historic incident better or more variously supported than the resurrection of Christ.”
Medical doctor Luke writing at a time when the people who were in Jerusalem at the time of the resurrection were still living said to them:
“You are witnesses of these things” (Luke 24:48).
Luke further said of the resurrection, “there are many infallible proofs.” This translates TEKMERION meaning “demonstrable proofs,” that is, much empirical evidence Acts 1:3.
Writing in that same time span the author of Acts (2:32) noted: “This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses.” Summarily the Apostle Paul wrote of some of these.
“Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, it you hold fast that word which I preached to you — unless you believe in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by the apostles, Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.”
I Corinthians 15: 1 – 8
James, one of those listed as a witness of His resurrection, was sibling of Jesus who did not believe in Him. That is, until the resurrection. On the even of the resurrection he is numbered among those in the upper room. Thereafter he became the head of the emerging church and died because of His belief in and teaching about the resurrection.
In the first century, a time when they should have known, belief in the resurrection was so broad spread and firmly believed that over 5,000,000 were executed because of their faith.
HE AROSE — they believed it enough to die for Him. That fact has added two new equations to the hopeless. Consider these three possible equations of life.
I. L + D + D = D
Life (physical life) plus spiritual death (the rejection of Jesus as Savior), plus physical death, equals spiritual death.
Physical life without the hope of eternal life makes for a hopeless life. German’s Count Otto Bismarck once said, “Without the hope of eternal life, this life is not worth the effort of getting dressed in the morning.”
II. L + L + D = L
Life (physical life), plus life (spiritual life), equals life eternal.
“…we shall be saved by His life” (Romans 5:10). “His life” is a reference to His resurrected life. Because He lives we shall live forever also.
“TIME”, “We have a great fear of dying and yet we are unable to face the reality of death.”
This we must deal with for Hebrews 9:27 says, “It is appointed unto man once to die.”
With Christ as Savior we can face death because He said, “Because I live you shall live also” (John 14:19).
Because of His resurrection there is a third potential equation:
III. L + L + L = L
Life (physical life) plus life (spiritual life), plus life (raptured or resurrected life), equals
life eternal.
The resurrection of Christ validates His claims to come again: I Thess. 1:10, “…wait for His Son from heaven, who He has raised from the dead, even Jesus Christ who delivered us from the wrath to come.”
Because He arose those of us who die before His next coming shall also be resurrected at His coming: “He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies” (Romans 8:11).
That is the ultimate Easter equation.
A summary of the Easter equation.
A. “Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture…”
B. “…He was buried…”
C. “…He arose again the third day according to the Scripture.
D. “…He was seen…”
Don’t you “see” what this means?
Two men came to the empty tomb that morning. One or the other of them represents you.
John, “the beloved.”
Peter, “the betrayer.”
Both went away believers. Regardless of which one typified you it is also possible for you to go away a believer following the Christ who goes before you.
HE IS ALIVE.