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Philippians 1:1-11 · Thanksgiving and Prayer

1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons:

2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ--to the glory and praise of God.

A Guide for Growth

Philippians 1:1-11

Sermon
by Maxie Dunnam

My friend, Don Shelby, minister of First United Methodist Church in Santa Monica, California, has told a moving story which introduces the sermon today. It happened when Don was a pastor in San Diego. One weekday morning, on arrival at the church, he was called to the sanctuary.

The custodian wanted him to see a strange offering which had been placed at the very center of the altar. Upon examination they discovered it to be a pair of brown corduroy trousers, a belt, a white T-shirt, a pair of tan suede boots, and a note. There were blood stains on the shirt and on the note. The note had been written on one of the pledge cards which they had placed in the pews for that year’s Loyalty Sunday. A name was written large and under lined three times. Then the plea, also underlined, “Please listen to God.” On the reverse side an address had been written and also a phone number. Where a signature was called for, a name was signed. Don made a call to the number listed and reached a young man, the one who had written that note. This young man of 19 years, after a long wandering in a wasteland of drugs, dropping out of sight, severing contact with his family, and getting involved in one mess after another, had come home. The night before he finally reached bottom.

There had been a struggle on the streets, a fight and an almost fatal beating. After making sure the victim of his uncontrolled assault was going to be all right in the emergency room of a nearby hospital, this young man came by the church, found an unlocked door and went into the sanctuary. He said he stayed there the rest of the night, praying and pondering. He asked God to forgive him and to show him the way to go. He said all at once the presence of God became very real. He knew he had been forgiven. A wonderful peace came. He committed himself to follow Christ. He determined to make things right which he had messed up. To symbolize his commitment, he had put on some clean clothes he had in his bed roll and left the others as a kind of offering, giving God his old life. He said he walked out the door a new person with a new vision and a new hope.” (The Communicator’s Commentary, Volume 8, pp. 221—222).

It is a dramatic symbol - clean clothes to symbolize new life. Paul also used dramatic words. “Put on the new man,” he said in Ephesians 4:24. Listen as he tells Christians what the case should be: “You have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the p an who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of God who created him.”

In our primary scripture lesson this morning from Ephesians 5, Paul used the term “walk” six times in this one epistle. The “walk of the Christian” is Paul’s way of talking about the distinctive marks of those who, having put on Christ, are seeking to grow up as Christians. So we continue to talk about Christian growth today. Last Sunday, we asked “Where do we Grow From Here?” We contended that from wherever we are in our Christian walk, if we are to grow, three things are essential. One, we must decide to grow. Two, must discover our gifts, and three, we must devote ourselves to the church.

Today we narrow the focus even more. I want to propose a guide for growth. Now this is not an all encompassing word - but it’s enough for anyone of us to give our lives to - at least for a season. In Ephesians, Paul talks about “walking in newness of life.” What I’d like to do is play our second scripture lesson from Philippians 1 off this passage from Ephesians 5 - putting the two together as a guide for growth. Let’s focus then on the Philippian passage, verses 9-11 of Chapter 1 and share from the American translation:

“And it is my prayer that your love may grow richer and richer in knowledge and perfect insight, so that you may have a sense of what is vital, and may be men of transparent character and blameless life, in preparation for the day of Christ, with your lives filled with fruits which pf’ uprightness produces through Jesus Christ, to the honor and praise of God.”

I focus on this passage because the call is so clear, and it is a challenging guide for growth. Here is the guide in outline form:

One, Love that grows richer and richer in knowledge and perfect insight;
Two, A sense of what is vital;
Three, Transparent character;
Four, Fruits which uprightness produces

Look at these guides for growth.

LOVE THAT GROWS RICHER AND RICHER IN KNOWLEDGE AND PERFECT INSIGHT

Paul puts this first because this is where it belongs - in first place. He also put it first when he talked with the Ephesians about the Christian walk. Recall verse 2 of Ephesians 5: “And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given him self for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God

We need that – desperately – not the mushy kind of sentiment that often goes under that name, not the sensuous sex neurosis of the Playboy variety, not the coddling, indulgencies of undisciplined, irresponsible relationships. But discerning love – love that grows richer and richer in knowledge and insight. The kind of love Jesus defined in this fashion:

“Greater love has no man than this – that he lay down his life for a friend.”

That kind of love means caring. It means listening. It means laying aside some of our selfish wants and desires and entering the other person’s world. It means getting off the ego trip that too many of us are on and finding our identity in sharing relationships. Nothing is more difficult, yet nothing is more necessary. Love creates real things; selfishness creates isolation. Love makes relationships; selfishness makes estrangement. Love inspires open hands offering gifts; selfishness is a grasping hand, hording gifts.

So this is a guide for growth – Learning and protecting love that grows richer and richer in knowledge and insight.

Paul’s next petition for the Philippians is a second guide for growth: “That you may have a sense of what is vital.” That’s the way the American translation has it. The King James Version says, “Approve things that are excellent. Phillips says “Be able to recognize the highest and the best.” The New English Bible calls it, “The gift of true discrimination.” I like the American version best. It is so straight forward and down to earth: “That you may have a sense of what is vital.”

More than 200 years ago, Isaac Watts described life in a poem, “Insignificant Existence:

“There are a number of us who creep -
Into the world to eat and sleep;
And know no reason why we born,
But only to consume the corn,
Devour the cattle, fowl and fish,
And leave behind an empty dish.”

Rather sad, isn’t it? Extreme and condemning? Yes. Now most of us have more purpose than that - and we are not nearly that selfish outwardly. But that’s not the point. The point is that even living good lives we will miss what is most vital. We even do it in the church. Let me illustrate:

Colin Morris is one the leading Methodist preachers in England. A few years ago he was serving as a missionary in Zambia. One day a Zambian dropped dead not a hundred yards from the front door. The pathologist said he’d died of hunger. In his shrunken stomach were a few leaves and what appeared to be a ball of grass. Nothing else. In the mail that same day the Methodist Reporter journal of British Methodism, was delivered to Mr. Morris. The magazine was electric with indignation, consternation, fever and fret at the postponement of the final report of the Anglican— a Methodist Unity Commission. Until that morning, Mr. Morris, President of the United Church of Zambia, had enjoyed the war that was being waged over church union in Britain. But the inconguity of concerns was brought into sharp focus. Cohn Morris saw the world and the task of the church through the eyes of a man, who died of starvation, and concluded, the world is not “perishing for lack of stronger, better organized Churches. It is perishing for lack of bread. That little man was a well—publicized statistic. He was one of the two out of three members of the human race who are not asking with bated breath ‘Is that Service really reordination?’ or ‘How will The Methodist Conference vote?’ They ask a simpler question, ‘Where does my next meat come from?” The bread they are interested in is not that, covered by a fair lined cloth, over which the theologians argue, but the other sort that eases a gnawing pain in the belly.”

We need to discover a sense of what is vital. Something at the heart of life keeps reminding us that it is God “in whom we live and move and have our being.”

This is what Malcolm Muggeridge witnesses to in his beautiful autobiography: “All I can claim to have learned from the years I have spent in this wonderful world is that the only happiness is love, which is attained by giving, not receiving; and that the world itself only becomes the dear inhabitable dwelling place it is when we who inhabit it know we are migrants, due when the time comes to fly away to other more commodious skies.”

A sense of what is vital!

III

Now the third petition: “That we might be men of transparent character.”

“Sincere and without offense,” “Pure and blameless” are other ways of translating it. But again, the American translation gives a special meaning – “That you may be men of transparent character.”

See how that fits into Paul’s description of the Christian walk as he shared that description with the Ephesians. Listen to him in verses 5 through 7 of Chapter 9:

“For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolator, has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes on the sons of disobedience. Therefore, do not be partakers with them. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of Light.”

That’s forceful isn’t it? “You are light in the Lord. Walk as children in the light.” So the image as a guide for growth is this: persons of transparent character. Isn’t that a striking phrase? “Persons of transparent character.”

It’s a modern word - as modern as the most up-to-date psychological movements. A Florida psychologist, Sydney M. Jourad, wrote a book a few years ago entitled The Transparent Self. In that book he made the case for what the title suggests.

Persons alone, of all living forms, are capable of being one thing and seeming another. Not even those animals and insects and fish which nature expertly camouflages can do this: “Seeming” at will. But man can. You remember that famous line from Shakespeare, “And this above all, to thine own self be true, and …thou canst not be false to any man?” Jourad rephrases it, “And this above all, to any other man be true, and thou canst not then be false to thyself.” This is what Paul was talking about – an openness, a transparency that will not allow you to be one thing and seem another.

Our growth is too often stymied because we are not open enough to allow other people into our worlds, to challenge us, o call us into question, to identify our phoniness, to tear way our masks, and cut through our pretensions.

“We make ourselves a place apart
Behind light words that ease and flaunt,
But O, the agitated heart
Til someone really finds us out.” (Robert Frost, Pretensions)

We need human relationships in which we know and are known. Lacking such relationships we play games of hide-and-seek with one another. If you don’t believe that’s true think for a moment. How many people know you? Fellows, do your wives really know you – your weaknesses as well as your strengths? Women, have you let your husbands into your world of feeling lonely and useless, your frustration at not being able to make a contribution beyond the bounds of your own family? Parents, do your children know you? Really? Are there any persons beyond the family circle that have been invited into the most private room of your life?

A completely new sense of wholeness and meaning, acceptance and appreciation comes to us when we can live in that kind of relationship with others - beginning with perhaps just one other, and then expanding that circle in which you know and are known. It’s a key to growth - to be persons of transparent character.

Paul adds the last guide for growth in his final petition. He prayed that from the Philippians would come fruits of righteousness. Or again as the American translation has it, “fruits which uprightness produces through Jesus Christ.” In our Ephesian lesson, verses 9 and 10, Paul says,

“For the fruit of the spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth, proving what is acceptable to the Lord.”

At least that means this. True Christianity, true growth in the spirit cannot be separated from moral disciplines; and to use an old-fashioned word - it can separate “good works.”

Now I know it is not popular to talk that way these days. Our emphasis on freedom has brought a kind of anathema to talk about morality and good works. But listen to Paul in verses 3—5 of Ephesians 5:

“But fornication and all uncleanness or coveteousness, let it not even be named among you, neither filthiness nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, are not fitting. For this you know, that no fornicator, no unclean person, nor coveteous man, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ.”

It may be, in fact this is my assessment of the solution - we are adrift as we are in our nation and in the world today because we’ve not been able to cast aside a rigid, narrow, straightjacket approach to Christianity which repulsed most of us, and yet keep a sense of responsibility and the moral demands that are part and parcel of the gospel.

This means that we must deal with the fact of sin in our lives, and God’s call to righteousness. To seek to evade fact of sin, or to water it down, is contrary to the gospel. Winston Churchill is one of my favorite people. I think that the reason I admire him so much is to speak——but his directness. In an interchange with Lady Astor one evening at a party, Lady Astor said to him, “Winston, if you were my husband I would put poison in your tea.” Churchill immediately responded, “Lady Astor, if you were my wife I would drink it.” That’s directness and that’s the kind of directness we need in proclaiming the gospel.

Throughout the 35 hundred years of recorded history we have sought to deal with sin in other ways – we have sought to eliminate sin. Science evolution, education, technological advances, psychiatry and psychology not altered our human nature. We are as much sinners today as we were when Adam and Eve shared that apple against God’s will. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ can change our hearts. Until we recognize our sinfulness and accept the grace of Christ as the answer to our predicament, like Adam and Eve also, we are outside of Eden.

The heart of the Christian experience is to confront our own sinfulness and to desperately desire deliverance from it. It is the Christian walk to stay aware of our sinful nature, and to keep increasingly sensitive to the fact that what is good in us comes only through the grace of Jesus Christ - his righteousness in us, growing as fruit of the spirit.

Changed lives are the essential result of the Christian walk - changed action, changed habits, changed attitudes - all of which issue in “fruits which uprightness produces.”

Rehearse what we have been. Our guide for growth – the signposts for our Christian walk are in the four petitions of Paul’s prayer for the Philippians. One, that our love may grow; Two, that we may have a sense of what is vital; and Three, that we may be persons of transparent character.

All of this is reflected in our lives by fruits which uprightness produces. We can go on that – as a guide – can’t we?

ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc., Collected Sermons, by Maxie Dunnam

Overview and Insights · Letter Opening (1:1–11)

Paul and Timothy, both “servants of Christ Jesus,” greet all the believers in Philippi along with the “overseers and deacons” with grace and peace from God. Most believe these particular church leaders are mentioned because they are chiefly responsible for raising the financial gift sent to Paul or because they are involved in the problems of disunity.

When Paul thinks about the believers in Philippi, he thanks the Lord (1:3). He is grateful for their “partnership in the gospel” (1:5) and remains confident (as we should also) that God will continue to work in their lives until Jesus returns (1:6). Paul’s strong emotional attachment to the Philippians stems from their gracious support of him, even during his imprisonment (1:7). They are tru…

The Baker Bible Handbook by , Baker Publishing Group, 2016

Philippians 1:1-11 · Thanksgiving and Prayer

1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons:

2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Commentary · Paul’s Apostolic Salutation and Prayer

The opening verses of Paul’s letters often introduce the major themes of the epistle that follows, and Philippians is no exception. Although Paul follows the letter-writing conventions of his time, he is not limited by them and uses them to further his purposes in writing. So in the opening sentences of the Letter to the Philippians, Paul presents the great theme of the Philippians’ partnership with him in the gospel that will characterize the entire epistle. He also introduces the idea of humble service for the sake of the gospel, which is one aspect of true partnership in the gospel.

1:1–2 · Address and salutation: Paul begins the letter with a standard epistolary greeting: he introduces himself as the writer, names the recipients of the letter, and then adds a short personal note. But even in this standard introduction Paul manages to introduce a strong sense of Christian purpose and a warm and joyous tone with his blessing: “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (1:2).

In this introduction, Paul lists Timothy along with himself, not as a coauthor but as a companion (see Phil. 2:19–23). Timothy was probably with Paul in Rome at the time this letter was written. By mentioning Timothy’s name with his own, Paul both gives honor to Timothy and shows the Philippians how important they are to him and the church in Rome. Not only does Paul himself love the Philippians, but he is also closely associated with others who care for them (see Phil. 2:20). Paul also mentions Timothy and himself because he intends to use both as examples of true gospel workers later in the letter. Unlike in most of his other letters to churches, Paul does not refer to himself as an apostle but as a “servant.” Here Paul presents himself and Timothy as those who are “servants of Christ,” who became a servant for the sake of the church (see Phil. 2:6–11). There is no indication in this letter that there is a dispute over whether Paul is an apostle or whether or not he has authority to instruct and rebuke the Philippian church. His relationship with this church and his authority are assumed. By calling himself and Timothy “servants,” Paul is also calling the Philippians to be servants and is setting the stage for his call for humility in the Philippian church. This is a call for unity that is rooted in service to Christ and will later be demonstrated by the examples of Christ, Paul, Timothy, and Epaphroditus (2:6–3:21).

Paul then proceeds to address the congregation, calling them “saints [NIV “holy people”] in Christ Jesus” (1:1). Calling them “saints” also marks them as God’s people. The use of “in Christ Jesus” reminds them that it was not through their own strength and holiness that they became God’s people but because of what God has done in Christ. Paul then addresses two groups of people within the Philippian church: the overseers and deacons. Neither of these terms is uniquely Christian; Paul borrowed them from the Greco-Roman world and redefined them. The term “overseers” is often translated as “bishops.” These “overseers” were not bishops in the sense that we know them today. There were multiple “bishops” in each church who functioned as leaders within the church. The word “deacon” was often used in the Greco-Roman world to refer to those responsible for distributing food and goods. Paul uses the term here to refer to those within the Philippian congregation who are responsible for managing and distributing food and goods to the poor and needy. It is likely that Paul is thanking these people because they helped organize the aid sent to him with Epaphroditus (see Phil. 2:25).

Paul concludes his greeting by wishing the Philippians “grace” and “peace” (1:2). He first wishes them “grace,” which is the unmerited favor of God, and then “peace,” which is the result of God’s grace at work in the lives of the believers. Paul’s blessing is a reminder that “grace” and “peace” come not from him but from God the Father through Jesus Christ.

1:3–8 · Paul’s thanksgiving and confidence:Paul moves from his customary greeting to a time of thanksgiving and prayer. He not only thanks God when thinking of the Philippians but prays for them with joy in spite of his position in prison. Paul claims that the reason for his joyful prayer and thanks to God is that the church at Philippi has partnered with Paul in the work of the gospel (1:5). This “partnering” is best understood in terms of their fellowship with Paul in his proclamation of the gospel. The Philippians have joined Paul in the mission of the gospel with their words, their hearts, and their deeds. Thus, Paul is thankful for their love and for their financial support in his imprisonment. This fellowship that Paul shares with the Philippians has been long and fruitful. In fact, Paul states that they were in fellowship from “the first day.”

While Paul is still in chains and standing trial, he is confident about the future of the Philippian congregation. He is confident not only because of their desire to proclaim the gospel but also because neither the church worldwide nor the church in Philippi is dependent solely on Paul. They are part of God’s church, and Paul is confident that God, who is faithful, will continue to work in the hearts of the Philippians and transform them, regardless of whether or not Paul is present. Since God “began a good work” (1:6), Paul trusts in God’s faithfulness to continue the work. This attitude is a clear expression of Paul’s humility in the face of his situation. He does not puff himself up as important and irreplaceable in the mission of the gospel. He is first and foremost confident in God’s plan and in God’s power, not in his own importance in God’s plan. God’s work in the Philippian church will continue until it is completed on the day Christ returns (1:6); because God is in control, he has a plan, and he is always faithful.

Paul goes on to open his heart to the Philippians, telling them how much he cares and how he holds them deeply within his heart (1:7). Not only does he feel this way, but his affection for them is understandable because they are sharing in God’s grace with him. This verse is a reference to the gifts of aid the church at Philippi sent to Paul. Paul is imprisoned in Rome, yet the Philippians are sharing in his suffering through their prayers, love, and financial aid. By sharing in Paul’s suffering, they also share in the grace Paul is receiving from God as a result of that suffering. Here Paul begins to offer himself as an example to the Philippians, an example that he will fully delineate in 3:1–21. Paul’s life and word proclaim the gospel, even from behind bars, as he continues “defending and confirming the gospel” (1:7). Paul is fighting for the sake of the gospel when he is on trial; but regardless of what he is doing, the Philippians have been there for him, and he holds them in his heart no matter the physical distance between them. Paul ends with an oath testifying to his compassion and desire to be present with the congregation (1:8).

1:9–11 · Paul’s apostolic prayer:After telling of his love for the Philippians and of his thankfulness for their generosity, Paul proceeds to pray for them. Although such prayers are standard features of first-century letters, Paul uses this prayer to advance his pastoral concerns for the Philippians. He begins his prayer for the Philippians with a supplication for the congregation to grow in love and discernment and then states the purpose of this love: a life of holiness. He first prays that the Philippians abound in love and the truth of the gospel (1:9). Love and discernment go together for Paul. He calls the Philippians to love in such a way that their love is founded on truth and understanding. Paul desires for the Philippians to have this love and discernment so that they may live a life of holiness and obedience to God, so that they may “be pure and blameless for the day of Christ” (1:10). This life of holiness is itself a proclamation of the truth of the gospel, and Paul calls the Philippians to live up to that calling. In the final part of his prayer, Paul tells us the characteristics of this holy life. It is first and foremost filled with the “fruit of righteousness” (1:11). This fruit is the outworking of love, which finds its ultimate source in communion with Jesus Christ. He is the source of the fruit that will show itself in the Philippians’ lives if they abound in love. More than that, Christ is the supreme example to follow on their path to holy living. One hallmark of a holy life is that it gives glory and praise to God (1:11). Praise and glorification of God is the goal of right discernment and correct conduct.

The Baker Illustrated Bible Commentary by Gary M. Burge, Baker Publishing Group, 2016

Prescript

The prescript, or introductory salutation, of an ancient letter regularly contained three elements: (a) the name of the sender or senders; (b) the name of the recipient or recipients, and (c) a word of greeting or good wishes. Examples abound from letters of the New Testament period, in Greek and in Latin, both literary and nonliterary; earlier examples are the extracts from the official correspondence of the Persian court quoted in the book of Ezra; compare Ezra 7:12, “Artaxerxes, king of kings, To Ezra the priest, a teacher of the Law of the God of Heaven: Greetings.” This pattern is followed here, as in all the NT letters: Paul and Timothy are named as the senders and “all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi” as the recipients, and the word of good wishes is “grace and peace.”

1:1 Paul is the sole author of the letter, even if Timothy’s name is conjoined with his in the prescript. Immediately after the prescript he says, “I thank my God” (not, as in Col. 1:3, in a letter where Timothy’s name similarly appears along with Paul’s in the prescript, “we … thank God”). Later in this letter Timothy is referred to by name in the third person (2:19).

Timothy is associated with Paul in the prescript as a gesture of friendship. He was with Paul at the time of writing and may even have taken down the letter at Paul’s dictation. He was well known to the Philippian Christians, having been a member of the missionary team that first brought the gospel to their city (his presence is implied, though not expressly asserted, in the narrative of Acts 16:11–40).

Timothy was a native of Lystra in Lycaonia, the son of a mixed marriage, since his mother was Jewish and his father Greek. He was brought up in the Jewish faith but was not circumcised in infancy. During Barnabas and Paul’s first visit to his home town (Acts 14:8–20) he was converted to Christianity. When Paul passed that way again a year or two later he was impressed by Timothy’s spiritual development, which was attested to by senior Christians in Lystra and Iconium. He decided to enlist Timothy as a junior associate in his apostolic ministry but circumcised him first to regularize his anomalous religious status: as the son of a Jewish mother he was no Gentile Christian but a Jew in everything but circumcision. Both Paul and he knew that his circumcision made no difference to his status in the sight of God, but it was intended to remove what would have been an absolute barrier to any relations on Paul’s part with synagogue authorities (Acts 16:1–3). Timothy willingly joined Paul and served him devotedly as his aide-de-camp—how devotedly can be gathered from Paul’s appreciative words in 2:20–22.

Paul and Timothy are described as servants (lit., “slaves”) of Christ Jesus. In Romans 1:1 Paul introduces himself as “a servant [lit., ‘slave’] of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God.” In addressing the Philippians Paul had no need to stress his apostolic authority as he did in addressing the churches of Galatia and Corinth: there was no disinclination to recognize his authority in Philippi, as there was in those other churches.

It has been argued that the term “servants” here does not bear the common sense of “slaves” because the Greek word (doulos) is used in LXX (the Greek version of the Old Testament) of someone whom God uses for a special ministry or through whom he speaks, like Moses (Neh. 10:29), Joshua (Josh. 24:29), David (Ps. 89:20 [LXX: 88:21]), Jonah (2 Kings [LXX: 4 Kingdoms] 14:25), each of whom is called “the servant (Gk. doulos) of the LORD.” The readers of Paul’s letters, however, would more readily have taken him to mean that he was the “slave” of Christ in the humble sense that the word normally had among them. No doubt Paul did esteem it a high honor to be the servant of Christ, but he implied by his choice of the word meaning “slave” that he was totally at the disposal of his Master. Yet for that very reason his words and actions carried his Master’s authority, and in his bondservice to that Master he realized perfect freedom.

The recipients of the letter are called saints or “holy people” (those whom God has set apart for himself)—a very common designation for Christians in Paul’s letters (cf. Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 1:1; Eph. 1:1; Col. 1:2). The designation (Gk. hagios) goes back to OT times: when God made a covenant with the Israelites after delivering them from Egypt, he called them “a holy nation” (Exod. 19:6) and charged them, “be holy, because I am holy” (Lev. 11:45). This charge is carried over into the NT and laid upon the people of the new covenant. The Christian usage may also have been influenced in some degree by Daniel’s description of the elect remnant of the end time as “the saints of the Most High” (Dan. 7:18, 22, 27). It is Daniel’s description that Paul probably has in mind when he says that “the saints will judge the world” (1 Cor. 6:2).

He writes, then, to all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi—that is, to the whole church in that city. His earlier letters are explicitly addressed to churches in various places (cf. Gal. 1:2; 1 Thess. 1:1; 2 Thess. 1:1; 1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 1:1); he varies his wording in his later letters to churches (cf. Rom. 1:7; Col. 1:2; Eph. 1:1). He describes them as being in Christ Jesus. This indicates that those who believe in Christ are united to him: the new corporate life into which they have entered is their share in his resurrection life. The idea is much the same as that which Paul elsewhere expresses by speaking of believers as members of the body of Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 12:12f., 27; Rom. 12:4f.).

Among those to whom the letter is sent special mention is made of the overseers and deacons. The Greek words so translated came later to have the official sense of “bishops” and “deacons” (these English words are in fact derived from the two Greek words). Paul and his colleagues encouraged the development of qualities of leadership in the churches that they planted. Where the rank and file were slow in giving proper recognition to those members who displayed such qualities, they were urged to do so; the potential leaders might indeed be mentioned by name (as in 1 Cor. 16:15–18). There was no one official designation for church leaders in the Pauline churches. In Thessalonica they are called “those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you” (1 Thess. 5:12). It may have been the Philippian Christians themselves who referred to their church leaders as episkopoi, “those who exercise oversight” (the same term is applied to the elders of the Ephesian church in Acts 20:28 to express their responsibility as spiritual shepherds). The deacons (Gk. diakonoi) would be those who performed any service in the church. In the Pastoral Letters their duties are more formalized (cf. 1 Tim. 3:8–13).

The reason for the special mention of the overseers and deacons is uncertain. Many expositors, from Chrysostom on, have suggested that they were specially responsible for sending Epaphroditus with a gift to Paul. F. W. Beare thinks it probable that Paul wished to bring Epaphroditus’s services to the attention of the leaders. E. Best envisages the possibility that Paul had received a letter statedly sent from “the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons,” and took up this form of words in his reply, rather pointedly refraining from giving himself any title but “slave of Christ Jesus.”

When, about fifty years later, Polycarp wrote to the Philippian church, it was still administered by a plurality of leaders, to whom he refers as “elders” (To the Philippians 6:1; 11:1).

1:2 At this stage in the prescript of a Greek letter the writer would normally wish the recipients “joy”; in a Latin letter he would wish them “good health.” Paul inherited the Hebrew (and general Semitic) usage that wished the recipients “peace” (Heb. shālôm), but he regularly amplifies this to “grace and peace.” This may have been a form of words current in benedictions in synagogue or church. In a Jewish apocalyptic work from later in the first century, a letter purporting to have been sent by Baruch to the tribes of Israel deported by the Assyrians is superscribed “Mercy and peace” (2 Baruch 78:2). Peace is the sum total of all blessings, temporal and spiritual, and grace is the source from which they come.

The grace and peace that Paul invokes on his correspondents is almost always derived from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The close coupling of Christ with God in such expressions bears witness to the place Christ occupies in Paul’s thought. As the risen and exalted one he has been invested by God with the designation “Lord”—“the name that is above every name” (2:9)—and wears a heavenly humanity (1 Cor. 15:45–49). God and Christ are entirely at one in the procuring and bestowal of salvation. The unconditioned good will to human beings that has been manifested in the saving work accomplished on the cross is indiscriminately called “God’s grace” (e.g., Rom. 5:15) and “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ” (e.g., Phil. 4:23). Similarly, the state of life into which that saving work brings believers—peace with God and peace with one another—is indiscriminately called “the peace of God” (4:7) and “the peace of Christ” (Col. 3:15).

Additional Notes

1:1 On Paul’s circumcision of Timothy see M. Hengel, Acts and the History of Earliest Christianity, p. 64.

On the phrase servants of Christ Jesus see K. H. Rengstorf, TDNT, vol. 2, pp. 261–80, s.v. doulos, etc. (especially 276, 277). G. Sass, “Zur Bedeutung von doulos bei Paulus,” ZNW 40 (1941), pp. 24–32, concludes that for Paul this is a title of honor.

On the expression the saints in Christ Jesus (cf. 4:21) see O. E. Evans, Saints in Christ Jesus: A Study of the Christian Life in the New Testament. See also the chapter “The Corporate Christ” in C. F. D. Moule, The Origin of Christology, pp. 47–96.

In the Pastoral Letters the terms episkopos and presbyteros are still used interchangeably, and there were apparently several officers so designated in one church (cf. 1 Tim. 3:2; 5:17; Titus 1:5, 7); their qualifications are set out in detail. The next occurrence in extant Christian literature of episkopoi and diakonoi coupled together as here is in Didache 15:1. Elsewhere in the Pauline letters the people here called episkopoi are referred to as proîstamenoi, exercising “leadership” (Rom. 12:8; cf. 1 Thess. 5:12), which, however, is not a technical title. See J. B. Lightfoot, “The Christian Ministry,” in Philippians, pp. 181–269; F. J. A. Hort, The Christian Ecclesia, pp. 211–13; E. Best, TU 102 = SE 4 (1968), pp. 371–76; B. Holmberg, Paul and Power: The Structure of Authority in the Primitive Church as Reflected in the Pauline Epistles, pp. 100, 101, 116, 117.

Introductory Thanksgiving

The prescript of Paul’s letters is regularly followed by an introductory thanksgiving. Galatians is an exception: there was little cause for thanksgiving in the current situation of the Galatian churches. The priority Paul normally gave to thanksgiving is made explicit in Rom. 1:8: “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you.” The present thanksgiving reflects “Paul’s sense of close fellowship with his Philippian friends” and is “unusually earnest” (O’Brien, p. 19). As elsewhere, Paul’s giving of thanks is closely interwoven with prayer.

1:3 The indicative I thank is used also in the introductory thanksgiving of Romans 1:8; 1 Corinthians 1:4; 2 Tim. 1:3; Philemon 4 (the plural “we thank” in Col. 1:3; 1 Thess. 1:2; “we ought … to thank” in 2 Thess. 1:3). In 2 Corinthians 1:3 and Ephesians 1:3 (as also in 1 Pet. 1:3) we have the more liturgical form “Praise be to [lit., ‘Blessed be’] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The very thought of his Christian friends in Philippi and other places gives Paul cause for gratitude to God.

1:4 Paul’s introductory thanksgiving is repeatedly linked with the assurance of his constant prayer for the friends to whom he writes (cf. Rom. 1:9; Eph. 1:16; 1 Thess. 1:2; 2 Tim. 1:3; Philem. 4). One gets the impression that he could never think of them without praying for them; but over and above that, he prayed for them regularly and systematically both as individuals and as churches.

It is not certain whether the words in all my prayers for all of you should go closely with the following clause (as in NIV) or with the preceding clause I thank my God … for you, in which case they would stand in parallel construction with every time I remember you. The repetition of all and every time/always (one and the same root in Greek) is noteworthy; it is a characteristic feature of Paul’s style throughout his correspondence and not least in this letter. There are four occurrences in verses 3 and 4, which could be brought out in the rendering: “I thank my God for you in all my remembrance of you at all times in all my prayer for you all.”

His statement that he prays for them all with joy introduces a recurring note in this letter (cf. 1:18, 22; 2:2, 17, 18, 28, 29; 3:1; 4:1, 4, 10). In contrast to many of his other churches, the Philippian church gave Paul almost unmixed joy as he contemplated it. Evidently it harbored neither such subversive teaching as had earlier found its way into the churches of Galatia nor such ethical libertinism as was defended by some members of the Corinthian church.

1:5 What calls forth his grateful joy more particularly here is the energetic wholeheartedness with which the Philippian Christians had cooperated with him in the gospel since first he visited their city. While he was with them several of them had “contended at my side in the cause of the gospel” (4:3) and after his departure they continued their active witness. They prayed for him regularly (v. 19); they maintained contact with him through messengers like Epaphroditus (2:25–30); they sent him gifts as opportunity offered—indeed, one of Paul’s reasons for sending them this letter was to thank them for a gift that Epaphroditus had brought from them; here he briefly anticipates his fuller acknowledgement of it in 4:10–20. They participated generously in the Jerusalem relief fund that he organized in his Gentile mission field during the closing years of his Aegean ministry: in 2 Corinthians 8:1–5 he gives warm commendation to the liberal giving of the Macedonian churches (among which the Philippian church, of course, was included).

The fact that their cooperation in the gospel had continued without intermission until now suggests that nothing was happening among the Philippian Christians to cause Paul serious disquiet.

1:6 Their eager partnership in Paul’s gospel ministry was a sure sign of the work of grace that had begun to be accomplished in their lives when they first believed the saving message. Paul voices his conviction that he who began a good work in them, will carry it on (cf. 2:13) until it reaches its consummation at the advent of Christ. Similarly in 1 Thessalonians 5:24, after praying that the readers may be preserved “blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,” Paul and his companions affirm, “The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.” Salvation is God’s work from first to last; therefore, where it has truly been inaugurated, it will certainly be completed.

The day of Christ Jesus, called “the day of Christ” in verse 10 and in 2:16, is the time of Christ’s expected appearing in glory (cf. 3:20). The expression is taken over from the OT “day of the LORD”—the day when Yahweh, the God of Israel, would vindicate his righteous cause and put down all injustice, wherever it might be found, first and foremost among his own people (cf. Amos 5:18–20). But now, by divine investment, “Jesus Christ is Lord” in the most august sense that the word can bear (2:11); the day of the LORD is therefore the day of Christ Jesus. In a Christian context it is the day when the lives and actions of the people of Christ will be assessed. Each believer’s “work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light” (1 Cor. 3:13); therefore, final judgment must “wait till the Lord comes” and must not be anticipated by those whose knowledge of the unseen motives and personal circumstances of others is at best imperfect (1 Cor. 4:5). Above all, the day of Christ Jesus is the time when the salvation of believers, already inaugurated, will be consummated. Like their Thessalonian brothers and sisters, the Christians of Philippi had learned “to wait for his [God’s] Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead” (1 Thess. 1:10), and to rejoice in the “hope of salvation” because they had been chosen not to endure the divine retribution to be visited on the ungodly at the end time but “to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:8, 9). For believers, then, that day would be light and not darkness (by contrast with the warning of Amos 5:20 that to some it would bring “darkness, not light”).

Additional Notes

1:3 On introductory thanksgivings in Paul’s letters see P. Schubert, Form and Function of the Pauline Thanksgivings, and P. T. O’Brien, Introductory Thanksgivings in the Letters of Paul. Such thanksgivings have been identified in papyrus letters of the same general period: “Paul was therefore adhering to a beautiful secular custom when he so frequently began his letters with thanks to God” (A. Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, p. 181, n. 5).

The verb here is eucharisteō (as in Rom. 1:8; 1 Cor. 1:4; Philem. 4); cf. eucharistoumen in Col. 1:3; 1 Thess. 1:2; eucharistein opheilomen in 2 Thess. 1:3; charin echō in 2 Tim. 1:3; eulogētos ho theos in 2 Cor. 1:3; Eph. 1:3.

The words every time I remember you (Gk. epi pasē tē mneia hymōn) might be rendered “every time you remember me” (if hymōn is subjective, not objective, genitive); cf. Moffatt: “for all your remembrance of me.” P. T. O’Brien thinks it “best to understand the phrase as a reference to the Philippians’ remembrance of Paul by means of their monetary support on several earlier occasions” (Introductory Thanksgivings, p. 23). If this is maintained, then Paul mentions three reasons for this thanksgiving: their remembrance of him, their continuous partnership in the work of the gospel (v. 5), and his confidence that this good work will be carried on to the end (v. 6). On the other hand, in every other place where Paul refers to “remembrance” (mneia) in his introductory thanksgivings, it is he who remembers the readers (Rom. 1:9; Eph. 1:16; 1 Thess. 1:2; 2 Tim. 1:3; Philem. 4). In the only other occurrence of mneia in his letters it is indeed his readers’ remembrance of him that is meant, but not in an introductory thanksgiving (1 Thess. 3:6).

1:5 The clause because of your partnership is literally rendered “because of your participation (koinōnia).” It understands “participation” in an active sense, of the Philippians’ sharing in Paul’s gospel ministry, and this is certainly right. However, H. Seesemann, Der Begriff Koinōnia im Neuen Testament, pp. 73f., 79, argues for a more passive sense, of the participation of believers in the saving blessings of the gospel: “your participation in the gospel” is thus a circumlocution for “your faith.”

Interlude

A transition from the thanksgiving of verses 3–6 to the intercession of verses 9–11 is provided by these personal words in which Paul addresses the Philippians directly and speaks of his deep affection for them.

1:7 They have shown themselves so much at one with him that “it is only natural” (Moffatt) that he should feel about them as he does. The grace of apostolic ministry had been divinely granted to Paul (cf. Rom. 1:5), but he rejoices when his converts share it with him. Their “partnership” in his gospel witness meant much to him when he was free to move around; it meant, if anything, even more to him now that he was in chains. It should not be inferred from the NIV rendering that his opportunity for defending and confirming the gospel was greater when he was at liberty than in his present restricted situation. He had come to accept that the interests of the gospel required him to be where he was right then: while he was under house arrest he knew himself to be at the post of divinely appointed duty “for the defense of the gospel” (v. 16) and he looked forward to the rare opportunity of defending and confirming it before the highest officers of state when his case came up for hearing shortly. So long as he was in the place where God intended him to be, the ministry with which he had been entrusted would prosper. This assurance was strengthened in him by the steadfastness with which his Philippian friends showed themselves to be his partners in his imprisonment and in his continued gospel witness.

1:8 In moments of intense emotion Paul was prone to invoke God as his witness (NIV, God can testify; cf. Rom. 1:9; 2 Cor. 11:11, 31; 1 Thess. 2:5). Here the emotion is deep affection. The calling of God to testify does not suggest that some of the Philippians needed to be assured of this; Paul is never reticent about his love for his converts (cf. 2 Cor. 12:15; Gal. 4:19; 1 Thess. 2:8). But the terms he uses in addressing the Philippians “show a depth not plumbed elsewhere” (O’Brien, p. 29). He longs for all of them with the affection of Christ Jesus—it is an utterly selfless affection. “As it is not Paul, but Jesus Christ, that lives in Paul, so it is not by Paul’s heart, but by the heart of Jesus Christ, that Paul is moved” (Bengel, ad loc.).

The unity of the Philippian church in its relations with Paul is emphasized; they all shared in his ministry and they were all embraced in his heart’s affection.

Additional Notes

1:7 I have you in my heart (Gk. dia to echein me en tē kardia hymas) might equally well be rendered “you have me in your heart” (cf. NEB: “because you hold me in such affection”). Either rendering fits the context; perhaps the word order slightly favors the former.

The grace (Gk. charis) granted to Paul is mentioned again in 1 Cor. 15:10; Gal. 2:9; Eph. 3:7, 8, 9 (“this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery”).

The words defending and confirming the gospel (Gk. en tē apologia kai bebaiōsei tou euangeliou) might have a forensic connotation, in view of Paul’s impending appearance in court.

1:8 The phrase how I long for all of you represents the verb epipotheō, which Paul uses repeatedly of longing to see his friends, as in Rom 1:11, 1 Thess. 3:6, 2 Tim. 1:4 (the noun epipothia is used in the same way in Rom. 15:23); cf. Phil. 2:26 (of Epaphroditus’s longing to see his Philippian friends); 2 Cor. 5:2 (of Christians’ “longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling”). Here, however, it is used, without a dependent infinitive, of Paul’s affectionate yearning for his friends (cf. 2 Cor. 9:14, of the deep love which, as Paul hopes, the Jerusalem church will conceive for his Gentile converts at the reception of their gift; also 2 Cor. 7:7, 11, where the noun epipothēsis is used of the Corinthian Christians’ feeling for Paul). See C. Spicq, “Epipothein. Désirer ou chérir?” RB 64 (1957), pp. 184–95; Notes de Lexicographie Néo-Testamentaire, 1 (Fribourg: Editions Universitaires, 1978), pp. 277–79.

With the affection of Christ Jesus, lit. “in the bowels of Christ Jesus,” the bowels (Gk. splanchna) being used, as frequently, of the seat of the emotions (like “heart” in v. 7); cf. 2:1.

Intercessory Prayer

The introductory thanksgiving, which itself included an element of prayer, is now followed by an intercessory prayer (strictly speaking, a prayer report). The subject matter of this prayer is identical with the subject matter of the letter as a whole; here are concentrated the main concerns to which Paul gives fuller expression throughout the letter.

1:9 This is my prayer: which catches up “I pray” in verse 4 (although a different Greek word is now used), may mean “I am praying at this moment” (which was no doubt true in any case) or (more probably) “I pray for you regularly, and this is what I pray for,” that your love may abound more and more. For Paul, “the fruit of the Spirit is love” before all else in the lives of which he takes possession (Gal. 5:22); “God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 5:5). If such love increases among the Philippian Christians, it will remove those threats to their unity of heart and purpose that arise from occasional clashes of personality and temperament. Paul returns to the subject in 2:2, where he urges his readers to make his “joy complete by … ‘having the same love.’ ”

This love, he trusts, will be accompanied by knowledge and depth of insight. Paul was not blind to the dangers of emotion uncontrolled by intelligence. He was resolved, by his own account, to pray and sing “with my spirit, but … also … with my mind” (1 Cor. 14:15), and he was equally concerned that he and his converts should love in spirit and mind alike.

It is love that fosters the growth of true knowledge and discernment or spiritual perception. “Knowledge,” divorced from love, “puffs up,” whereas “love builds up” (1 Cor. 8:1). But if love is indispensable, knowledge and depth of insight are necessary. The truth of the gospel is liable to be subverted where ignorance and faulty judgment provide a foothold for the unsound teaching against which the Philippians are put on their guard in chapter 3.

1:10 When so many competing forms of doctrine and ways of life are presented for acceptance (as they certainly were in the eastern Mediterranean world of the first century), true knowledge and depth of insight will enable Christians to discern what is best (for the expression cf. Rom. 2:18). This might mean “to know what is good or expedient” as against “empty subtleties and speculations” (Calvin, ad loc.) or (as the NIV rendering suggests) to discern “the best among the good” (Bengel, ad loc.). Both kinds of discrimination are necessary. Such discernment comes with mature experience. A classic NT text on this is Hebrews 5:14, with its reference to spiritually mature people “who through practice are able to distinguish between good and evil.” Without this faculty of discrimination one could not develop “a sense of what is vital” (Moffatt). It is the effect, not of a logical process of moral philosophy, but of growing insight into the character and will of God.

It is important in view of the day of Christ, the day of review and reward for his people (cf. v. 6), that they should be pure and blameless. They cannot be so on that day unless they lead pure and blameless lives here and now. Choosing what is best therefore includes pre-eminently choosing what is ethically best. Similarly the prayer in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 that God may keep his people “blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” involves his making them “holy in every way” at this present time.

1:11 The fruit of righteousness that Paul desires to see reproduced in the Philippians’ lives is essentially identical with those graces which, according to Galatians 5:22, 23, make up the “fruit (or ‘harvest’) of the Spirit.” These qualities are the spontaneous product of the new life implanted within them, a life based on “the righteousness that comes from God” (3:9). It is because of their union with him by faith that they will display the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ and which was manifested perfectly in his own character and action. There is no room for self-congratulation here.

In such lives God will be glorified. The words to the glory and praise of God are part of the construction of the sentence, but at the same time they serve the purpose of a doxology concluding the period of thanksgiving and prayer.

Additional Notes

1:9 On intercessory prayer in Paul’s letters see G. P. Wiles, Paul’s Intercessory Prayers.

My prayer: Gk. proseuchomai, whereas in v. 4 the noun deēsis is used. The more general sense of prayer is expressed by proseuchomai (with the noun proseuchē); deēsis (with the verb deomai) denotes the petitionary element in prayer. See 4:6.

Knowledge renders Gk. epignōsis (a compound of gnōsis), used in NT only of moral and religious knowledge. GNB adds the adjective “true,” which is probably intended to convey the force of the prefix epi-; “the compound epignōsis has become a technical term for the decisive knowledge of God which is implied in conversion to the Christian faith” (R. Bultmann, TDNT 1, p. 707, s.v. ginōskō, etc.).

Depth of insight renders Gk. aisthēsis (“perception”), not found elsewhere in NT. Here it denotes moral insight; cf. aisthētēria (“sense organs”) in Heb. 5:14 of the moral faculties trained “to distinguish good from evil.”

1:10 Pure renders Gk. eilikrinēs (“unmixed” and therefore pure), here (as in 2 Pet. 3:1) in the moral sense (cf. the noun eilikrineia in 1 Cor. 5:8; 2 Cor. 1:12; 2:17). The adjective rendered blameless is aproskopos, which may have either an intransitive force (“not stumbling”) or a transitive force (“not causing others to stumble”), the reference in the one as in the other being ethical. The force is probably intransitive here; in 1 Cor. 10:32 it is transitive (NIV: “do not cause anyone to stumble”). The only other NT occurrence of the adjective is in Acts 24:16, where it is used of Paul’s “clear conscience” (NIV).

1:11 For fruit or harvest used in an ethical sense cf. Prov. 11:30; Amos 6:12; Eph 5:9; Heb. 12:11; James 3:18. Here the fruit or “harvest” of righteousness (Gk. karpos dikaiosynēs) might conceivably be the fruit which consists in righteousness (dikaiosynēs being construed as genitive of definition), but it is more in accord with the analogy of similar expressions and with Pauline thought to understand it as the fruit which springs from the gift of righteousness or justification that God by his grace bestows on believers. While the participle filled (Gk. peplērōmenoi) is commonly treated as passive, there is a good case for taking it in the middle voice, as in NEB: “reaping the full harvest of righteousness” (cf. G. B. Caird, ad loc.).

There is a curious variant at the end of v. 11, where instead of to the glory and praise of God the “Western” codices F G (with Ambrosiaster) read “for glory and praise to me,” and P46 reads “for the glory of God and praise to me.” The reading “to me” must be understood in the sense of 2:16 (“in order that I may boast on the day of Christ”); even so, it is out of place here, although J.-F. Collange (ad loc.) thinks it “surprising enough in character to be original” (he compares “praise” in a similar eschatological context in 1 Cor. 4:5).

Understanding the Bible Commentary Series by F. F. Bruce, Baker Publishing Group, 2016

Dictionary

Direct Matches

Bowels

An approximate literal meaning of Hebrew and Greek terms used to refer to the seat of the emotions (sometimes translated as “intestines” or “stomach”). The literal meaning is apparent in a few passages (Ezek. 7:19; 2 Chron. 21:15 19; Jon. 1:17; Acts 1:18). More often the terms are used to refer to a variety of strong emotions (Jer. 31:20; Lam. 1:20; 2 Cor. 6:12; Phil. 1:8; Philem. 7). Elsewhere the words refer to the womb or are related to progeny (Gen. 25:23; 2 Sam. 16:11; Isa. 49:1).

Christ

The founder of what became known as the movement of Jesus followers or Christianity. For Christian believers, Jesus Christ embodies the personal and supernatural intervention of God in human history.

Birth and childhood. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke record Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem during the reign of Herod the Great (Matt. 2:1; Luke 2:4, 11). Jesus was probably born between 6 and 4 BC, shortly before Herod’s death (Matt. 2:19). Both Matthew and Luke record the miracle of a virginal conception made possible by the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:18; Luke 1:35). Luke mentions a census under the Syrian governor Quirinius that was responsible for Jesus’ birth taking place in Bethlehem (2:1 5). Both the census and the governorship at the time of the birth of Jesus have been questioned by scholars. Unfortunately, there is not enough extrabiblical evidence to either confirm or disprove these events, so their veracity must be determined on the basis of one’s view regarding the general reliability of the Gospel tradition.

On the eighth day after his birth, Jesus was circumcised, in keeping with the Jewish law, at which time he officially was named “Jesus” (Luke 2:21). He spent his growing years in Nazareth, in the home of his parents, Joseph and Mary (2:40). Of the NT Gospels, the Gospel of Luke contains the only brief portrayal of Jesus’ growth in strength, wisdom, and favor with God and people (2:40, 52). Luke also contains the only account of Jesus as a young boy (2:41–49).

Baptism, temptation, and start of ministry. After Jesus was baptized by the prophet John the Baptist (Luke 3:21–22), God affirmed his pleasure with him by referring to him as his Son, whom he loved (Matt. 3:17; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22). Jesus’ baptism did not launch him into fame and instant ministry success; instead, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where he was tempted for forty days (Matt. 4:1–11; Mark 1:12–13; Luke 4:1–13). Mark stresses that the temptations immediately followed the baptism. Matthew and Luke identify three specific temptations by the devil, though their order for the last two is reversed. Both Matthew and Luke agree that Jesus was tempted to turn stones into bread, expect divine intervention after jumping off the temple portico, and receive all the world’s kingdoms for worshiping the devil. Jesus resisted all temptation, quoting Scripture in response.

Matthew and Mark record that Jesus began his ministry in Capernaum in Galilee, after the arrest of John the Baptist (Matt. 4:12–13; Mark 1:14). Luke says that Jesus started his ministry at about thirty years of age (3:23). This may be meant to indicate full maturity or perhaps correlate this age with the onset of the service of the Levites in the temple (cf. Num. 4:3). John narrates the beginning of Jesus’ ministry by focusing on the calling of the disciples and the sign performed at a wedding at Cana (1:35–2:11).

Galilean ministry. The early stages of Jesus’ ministry centered in and around Galilee. Jesus presented the good news and proclaimed that the kingdom of God was near. Matthew focuses on the fulfillment of prophecy (Matt. 4:13–17). Luke records Jesus’ first teaching in his hometown, Nazareth, as paradigmatic (Luke 4:16–30); the text that Jesus quoted, Isa. 61:1–2, set the stage for his calling to serve and revealed a trajectory of rejection and suffering.

All the Gospels record Jesus’ gathering of disciples early in his Galilean ministry (Matt. 4:18–22; Mark 1:16–20; Luke 5:1–11; John 1:35–51). The formal call and commissioning of the Twelve who would become Jesus’ closest followers is recorded in different parts of the Gospels (Matt. 10:1–4; Mark 3:13–19; Luke 6:12–16). A key event in the early ministry is the Sermon on the Mount/Plain (Matt. 5:1–7:29; Luke 6:20–49). John focuses on Jesus’ signs and miracles, in particular in the early parts of his ministry, whereas the Synoptics focus on healings and exorcisms.

During Jesus’ Galilean ministry, onlookers struggled with his identity. However, evil spirits knew him to be of supreme authority (Mark 3:11). Jesus was criticized by outsiders and by his own family (3:21). The scribes from Jerusalem identified him as a partner of Beelzebul (3:22). Amid these situations of social conflict, Jesus told parables that couched his ministry in the context of a growing kingdom of God. This kingdom would miraculously spring from humble beginnings (4:1–32).

The Synoptics present Jesus’ early Galilean ministry as successful. No challenge or ministry need superseded Jesus’ authority or ability: he calmed a storm (Mark 4:35–39), exorcized many demons (5:1–13), raised the dead (5:35–42), fed five thousand (6:30–44), and walked on water (6:48–49).

In the later part of his ministry in Galilee, Jesus often withdrew and traveled to the north and the east. The Gospel narratives are not written with a focus on chronology. However, only brief returns to Galilee appear to have taken place prior to Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem. As people followed Jesus, faith was praised and fear resolved. Jerusalem’s religious leaders traveled to Galilee, where they leveled accusations and charged Jesus’ disciples with lacking ritual purity (Mark 7:1–5). Jesus shamed the Pharisees by pointing out their dishonorable treatment of parents (7:11–13). The Pharisees challenged his legitimacy by demanding a sign (8:11). Jesus refused them signs but agreed with Peter, who confessed, “You are the Messiah” (8:29). Jesus did provide the disciples a sign: his transfiguration (9:2–8).

Jesus withdrew from Galilee to Tyre and Sidon, where a Syrophoenician woman requested healing for her daughter. Jesus replied, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel” (Matt. 15:24). Galileans had long resented the Syrian provincial leadership partiality that allotted governmental funds in ways that made the Jews receive mere “crumbs.” Consequently, when the woman replied, “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table,” Jesus applauded her faith (Matt. 15:27–28). Healing a deaf-mute man in the Decapolis provided another example of Jesus’ ministry in Gentile territory (Mark 7:31–37). Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ took place during Jesus’ travel to Caesarea Philippi, a well-known Gentile territory. The city was the ancient center of worship of the Hellenistic god Pan.

Judean ministry. Luke records a geographic turning point in Jesus’ ministry as he resolutely set out for Jerusalem, a direction that eventually led to his death (Luke 9:51). Luke divides the journey to Jerusalem into three phases (9:51–13:21; 13:22–17:10; 17:11–19:27). The opening verses of phase one emphasize a prophetic element of the journey. Jesus viewed his ministry in Jerusalem as his mission, and the demands on discipleship intensified as Jesus approached Jerusalem (Matt. 20:17–19, 26–28; Mark 10:38–39, 43–45; Luke 14:25–35). Luke presents the second phase of the journey toward Jerusalem with a focus on conversations regarding salvation and judgment (Luke 13:22–30). In the third and final phase of the journey, the advent of the kingdom and the final judgment are the main themes (17:20–37; 19:11–27).

Social conflicts with religious leaders increased throughout Jesus’ ministry. These conflicts led to lively challenge-riposte interactions concerning the Pharisaic schools of Shammai and Hillel (Matt. 19:1–12; Mark 10:1–12). Likewise, socioeconomic feathers were ruffled as Jesus welcomed young children, who had little value in society (Matt. 19:13–15; Mark 10:13–16; Luke 18:15–17).

Passion week, death, and resurrection. Each of the Gospels records Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem with the crowds extending him a royal welcome (Matt. 21:4–9; Mark 11:7–10; Luke 19:35–38; John 12:12–15). Luke describes Jesus’ ministry in Jerusalem as a time during which Jesus taught in the temple as Israel’s Messiah (19:45–21:38).

In Jerusalem, Jesus cleansed the temple of profiteering (Mark 11:15–17). Mark describes the religious leaders as fearing Jesus because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching, and so they “began looking for a way to kill him” (11:18). Dismayed, each segment of Jerusalem’s temple leadership inquired about Jesus’ authority (11:27–33). Jesus replied with cunning questions (12:16, 35–36), stories (12:1–12), denunciation (12:38–44), and a prediction of Jerusalem’s own destruction (13:1–31). One of Jesus’ own disciples, Judas Iscariot, provided the temple leaders the opportunity for Jesus’ arrest (14:10–11).

At the Last Supper, Jesus instituted a new Passover, defining a new covenant grounded in his sufferings (Matt. 26:17–18, 26–29; Mark 14:16–25; Luke 22:14–20). He again warned the disciples of his betrayal and arrest (Matt. 26:21–25, 31; Mark 14:27–31; Luke 22:21–23; John 13:21–30), and later he prayed for the disciples (John 17:1–26) and prayed in agony and submissiveness in the garden of Gethsemane (Matt. 26:36–42; Mark 14:32–42; Luke 22:39–42). His arrest, trial, crucifixion, death, and resurrection followed (Matt. 26:46–28:15; Mark 14:43–16:8; Luke 22:47–24:9; John 18:1–20:18). Jesus finally commissioned his disciples to continue his mission by making disciples of all the nations (Matt. 28:18–20; Acts 1:8) and ascended to heaven with the promise that he will one day return (Luke 24:50–53; Acts 1:9–11).

Compassion

Love for those who suffer. The OT often refers to God’s compassion, especially toward those who, because of their sinfulness, deserve the opposite treatment. In Exod. 33:19 Yahweh takes pity on the Israelites after they have rebelled, making an idol for themselves and praising it for their deliverance. He renews his covenant with them, but he reminds them of his sovereignty in doing so: “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion” (cf. Rom. 9:15).

The NT points to God’s compassion at significant junctures in the Gospels and the Epistles. Jesus himself has compassion for the crowds who “were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matt. 9:36). He takes pity on the crowds, healing their sick and feeding them miraculously (14:14 21; cf. 15:32). The same connection between compassion and healing occurs in Matt. 20:34; Mark 1:41, this time on an individual level. The apostle Paul underscores this attribute of God, raising it to a title of sorts. The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is “the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort” (2 Cor. 1:3). James says that the Lord is “full of compassion and mercy” (5:11), and John depicts God as one who will wipe away every tear caused by persecution and trial (Rev. 7:17; 21:4). Because God is always dealing with broken sinners, his compassion for them coincides with his love (see Ps. 145:8); and this rescuing of the guilty sets an example for his people. They must go and do likewise, loving the unlovely, unwise, and even unrighteous.

Father

People in the Bible were family-centered and staunchly loyal to their kin. Families formed the foundation of society. The extended family was the source of people’s status in the community and provided the primary economic, educational, religious, and social interactions.

Marriage and divorce. Marriage in the ancient Near East was a contractual arrangement between two families, arranged by the bride’s father or a male representative. The bride’s family was paid a dowry, a “bride’s price.” Paying a dowry was not only an economic transaction but also an expression of family honor. Only the rich could afford multiple dowries. Thus, polygamy was minimal. The wedding itself was celebrated with a feast provided by the father of the groom.

The primary purpose for marriage in the ancient Near East was to produce a male heir to ensure care for the couple in their old age. The concept of inheritance was a key part of the marriage customs, especially with regard to passing along possessions and property.

Marriage among Jews in the NT era still tended to be endogamous; that is, Jews sought to marry close kin without committing incest violations (Lev. 18:6 17). A Jewish male certainly was expected to marry a Jew. Exogamy, marrying outside the remote kinship group, and certainly outside the ethnos, was understood as shaming God’s holiness. Thus, a Jew marrying a Gentile woman was not an option. The Romans did practice exogamy. For them, marrying outside one’s kinship group (not ethnos) was based predominantly on creating strategic alliances between families.

Greek and Roman law allowed both men and women to initiate divorce. In Jewish marriages, only the husband could initiate divorce proceedings. If a husband divorced his wife, he had to release her and repay the dowry. Divorce was common in cases of infertility (in particular if the woman had not provided male offspring). Ben Sira comments that barrenness in a woman is a cause of anxiety to the father (Sir. 42:9–10). Another reason for divorce was adultery (Exod. 20:14; Deut. 5:18). Jesus, though, taught a more restrictive use of divorce than the OT (Mark 10:1–12).

Children and parenting. Childbearing was considered representative of God’s blessing on a woman and her entire family, in particular her husband. In contrast to this blessing, barrenness brought shame on women, their families, and specifically their husbands.

Children were of low social status in society. Infant mortality was high. An estimated 60 percent of the children in the first-century Mediterranean society were dead by the age of sixteen.

Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean societies exhibited a parenting style based on their view of human nature as a mixture of good and evil tendencies. Parents relied on physical punishment to prevent evil tendencies from developing into evil deeds (Prov. 29:15). The main concern of parents was to socialize the children into family loyalty. Lack of such loyalty was punished (Lev. 20:9). At a very early stage children were taught to accept the total authority of the father. The rearing of girls was entirely the responsibility of the women. Girls were taught domestic roles and duties as soon as possible so that they could help with household tasks.

Family identity was used as a metaphor in ancient Israel to speak of fidelity, responsibility, judgment, and reconciliation. In the OT, the people of Israel often are described as children of God. In their overall relationship to God, the people of Israel are referred to in familial terms—sons and daughters, spouse, and firstborn (Exod. 4:22). God is addressed as the father of the people (Isa. 63:16; 64:8) and referred to as their mother (Isa. 49:14–17).

The church as the family of God. Throughout his ministry, Jesus called his disciples to follow him. This was a call to loyalty (Matt. 10:32–40; 16:24–26; Mark 8:34–38; Luke 9:23–26), a call to fictive kinship, the family of God (Matt. 12:48–50; Mark 3:33–35). Jesus’ declaration “On this rock I will build my church” (Matt. 16:18) was preceded by the call to community. Entrance into the community was granted through adopting the values of the kingdom, belief, and the initiation rite of baptism (Matt. 10:37–39; 16:24–26; Mark 8:34–38; Luke 9:23–26, 57–63; John 1:12; 3:16; 10:27–29; Acts 2:38; 16:31–33; 17:30; Rom. 10:9). Jesus’ presence as the head of the community was eventually replaced by the promised Spirit (John 14:16–18). Through the Spirit, Jesus’ ministry continues in the community of his followers, God’s family—the church. See also Adoption.

Fellowship

The common experience/sharing of something with someone else.

The close and intimate fellowship that the members of the Trinity experience with one another (John 10:30; 14:10; 16:14 15; 17:5) is something that Jesus prays for his people to experience themselves (17:20–26). He asks that believers “may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (17:21). Just as the Father is in Jesus and Jesus is in the Father, believers are described as being in both the Father and the Son. The stated purpose for such fellowship is twofold: that the world may know and believe that the Father has sent the Son, and that the Father loves believers even as he has loved the Son (17:21, 23). Central to this fellowship between God and believers is the sharing of the glory that the Father and the Son experience (17:22). Jesus expresses similar truths in John 15:1–11 when he speaks of himself as the true vine and his followers as the branches who must remain in him because “apart from me you can do nothing” (v. 5).

Paul frequently speaks of the believer’s fellowship with Christ, even though he rarely uses the word “fellowship” to speak of this reality. It is God who calls the believer into fellowship with Christ (1 Cor. 1:9), but such fellowship involves both the “power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” (Phil. 3:10). When believers celebrate the Lord’s Supper, they are participating in the body and blood of Christ (1 Cor. 10:16–17). Far more frequently, Paul expresses the concept of fellowship with Christ by his use of the phrase “with Christ.” Believers have been crucified, buried, raised, clothed, and seated in the heavenly realms with Christ (Rom. 6:4–9; 2 Cor. 13:4; Gal. 2:20–21; Eph. 2:5–6; Col. 2:12–13; 3:1–4). They also share in the inheritance that Christ has received from the Father (Rom. 8:16–17) and one day will reign with him (2 Tim. 2:12).

The fellowship that believers have with one another is an extension of their fellowship with God. John wrote, “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). Just as walking in darkness falsifies a believer’s claim to fellowship with God, so also walking in the light is necessary for fellowship with other believers (1:6–7). Paul strikes a similar note when he says, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?” (2 Cor. 6:14–15). The point is not to avoid all contact with unbelievers (cf. 1 Cor. 5:9–10), but rather that the believer is so fundamentally identified with Christ that to identify with unbelievers should be avoided.

From the earliest days of the church, believers found very tangible ways to demonstrate that their fellowship was rooted in their common faith in Jesus. Immediately after Pentecost, “they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. . . . All the believers were together and had everything in common” (Acts 2:42–44). This common experience led believers to voluntarily sell their possessions and share with any who had a need (2:45; 4:32). This meeting of very practical needs was motivated by a common experience of God’s abundant generosity in freely giving his Son (Rom. 8:32). The self-sacrificial sharing of resources became a staple of the early church (Rom. 12:13; Gal. 6:6; 1 Tim. 6:18) and provided an opportunity for Paul to demonstrate the unity of the church when he collected money from Gentile churches to alleviate the suffering of Jewish Christians in Judea (Rom. 15:26–27; 2 Cor. 8–9).

Fruit

Literally, fruit is the seed-bearing part of a plant. It constitutes an important part of the diet in the ancient Near East. Common fruits are olives, grapes, and figs, though many other varieties of fruit are also available, including apples, apricots, peaches, pomegranates, dates, and melons. Fruit trees play a prominent role as a food source in God’s creation and preparation of the garden of Eden (Gen. 1 3). The law prohibits the Israelites from cutting down their enemy’s fruit trees (Deut. 20:19). The abundance of fruit trees characterizes the land that God has prepared for Israel (Deut. 8:8; Neh. 9:25) as well as the final restoration (Ezek. 47:12; Joel 2:22; Rev. 22:2).

One aspect of fruit is that it grows from a plant. This use of the term is often extended to represent what emerges from something else. Thus, fruit may represent offspring, whether human or animal (Deut. 7:13; 28:4), one’s actions (Matt. 7:16–20), the result of one’s actions or choices (Prov. 1:31; 10:16; Jer. 17:10), or words coming from one’s mouth (Prov. 12:14; Heb. 13:15). In the NT especially, producing much fruit symbolizes performing deeds that are pleasing to God (Matt. 3:8; 13:23; Mark 4:20; John 15:16; Rom. 7:4; Col. 1:10). Those who live by the Spirit produce the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22–23). The apostle Paul speaks of the first converts in a particular region as being firstfruits, probably referring to their conversion as the result of the gospel being preached in the area (Rom. 16:5; 2 Thess. 2:13).

Glory

The tangible presence of God, experienced as overwhelming power and splendor. The main Hebrew word referring to glory, kabod, has the root meaning “heavy” (1 Sam. 4:18), which in other contexts can mean “intense” (Exod. 9:3; NIV: “terrible”), “wealthy” (i.e., “heavy in possessions” [Gen. 13:2]), and “high reputation” (Gen. 34:19; NIV: “most honored”). When used of God, it refers to his person and his works. God reveals his glory to Israel and to Egypt at the crossing of the sea (Exod. 14:4, 17 19). He carefully reveals his glory to Moses after Israel’s sin with the golden calf in order to assure him that he will not abandon them (33:12–23).

In the NT the glory of God is made real in the person of Jesus Christ (John 1:14; Heb. 1:3). He is, after all, the very presence of God. When he returns on the clouds, he will fully reveal God’s glory (Matt. 24:30; Mark 13:26; Luke 21:27).

Gospel

The English word “gospel” translates the Greek word euangelion, which is very important in the NT, being used seventy-six times. The word euangelion (eu = “good,” angelion = “announcement”), in its contemporary use in the Hellenistic world, was not the title of a book but rather a declaration of good news. Euangelion was used in the Roman Empire with reference to significant events in the life of the emperor, who was thought of as a savior with divine status. These events included declarations at the time of his birth, his coming of age, and his accession to the throne. The NT usage of the term can also be traced to the OT (e.g., Isa. 40:9; 52:7; 61:1), which looked forward to the coming of the Messiah, who would bring a time of salvation. This good news, which is declared in the NT, is that Jesus has fulfilled God’s promises to Israel, and now the way of salvation is open to all.

Grace

Grace is the nucleus, the critical core element, of the redemptive and sanctifying work of the triune God detailed throughout the entire canon of Scripture. The variegated expressions of grace are rooted in the person and work of God, so that his graciousness and favor effectively demonstrated in every aspect of the created realm glorify him as they are shared and enjoyed with one another.

The biblical terminology informing an understanding of grace defines it as a gift or a favorable reaction or disposition toward someone. Grace is generosity, thanks, and good will between humans and from God to humans. Divine expressions of grace are loving, merciful, and effective. The biblical texts provide a context for a more robust understanding of divine gift. The overall redemptive-historical context of grace is the desire of the eternal God to bring glory to himself through a grace-based relationship with his creation. The Creator-Redeemer gives grace, and the recipients of grace give him glory.

Harvest

The harvest was a major event on the yearly calendar of Israel’s agrarian society (Lev. 25:11; Judg. 15:1; Ruth 1:22; 2 Sam. 21:9 10). Life was dependent on the harvest. As a result, God set certain rules with respect to the harvest to help the Israelites keep proper priorities. Every seven years and every fiftieth year, the people were to give the land a rest (Exod. 23:10; Lev. 25:20–22). The people were to rest on the Sabbath, even during the harvesttime (Exod. 34:21). Some portions of crops were to be left in the field so that the poor might have food (Lev. 19:9; 23:22; Deut. 24:21). The people were to acknowledge God as the source of the harvest by offering the first of the produce (Lev. 23:10). Celebrating the harvest was commanded (Exod. 23:16; Deut. 16:15; Isa. 9:3). Planning for the harvest was a mark of wisdom (Prov. 6:8; 10:5; 20:4). Even as a good harvest was the blessing of God (Ps. 67:6; Isa. 62:9), so a bad harvest was a curse from God and the plight of a fool (1 Sam. 12:17; Job 5:5; Prov. 26:1; Isa. 18:4–5; Jer. 8:13, 20; Joel 3:12; Mic. 6:15). Failure to acknowledge God for the harvest was a sin (Jer. 5:24).

The harvest is often used in Scripture as an analogy. The prophets talk about the negative harvest of idolatry (Isa. 17:11). Israel is called the firstfruits of God’s harvest (Jer. 2:3). Hosea uses the idea of harvest to indicate that God’s people have a future (Hos. 6:11). In the Gospels, the harvest is used as an analogy for those needing to hear the good news (Matt. 9:37–38), for the end times (Matt. 13:24–30; Rev. 14:15), and for a lesson about unfaithful leadership (Matt. 21:33–46; 25:24). In the remainder of the NT, the harvest analogy usually refers to Christian growth and salvation (Rom. 1:13; 1 Cor. 9:10–11; 2 Cor. 9:10; Gal. 6:9; Heb. 12:11; James 3:18).

Heart

Physiologically, the heart is an organ in the body, and in the Bible it is also used in a number of metaphors.

Metaphorically, the heart refers to the mind, the will, the seat of emotions, or even the whole person. It also refers to the center of something or its inner part. These metaphors come from the heart’s importance and location.

Mind. The heart refers to the mind, but not the brain, and in these cases does not involve human physiology. It is a metaphor, and while the neurophysiology of the heart may be interesting in its own right, it has no bearing on this use of language. Deuteronomy 6:5 issues the command to love God with all one’s heart, soul, and strength. When the command is repeated in the Gospels, it occurs in three variations (Matt. 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27). Common to all three is the addition of the word “mind.” The Gospel writers want to be sure that the audience hears Jesus adding “mind,” but this addition is based on the fact that the meaning of the Hebrew word for “heart” includes the mind.

The mental activities of the metaphorical heart are abundant. The heart is where a person thinks (Gen. 6:5; Deut. 7:17; 1 Chron. 29:18; Rev. 18:7), where a person comprehends and has understanding (1 Kings 3:9; Job 17:4; Ps. 49:3; Prov. 14:13; Matt. 13:15). The heart makes plans and has intentions (Gen. 6:5; 8:21; Prov. 20:5; 1 Chron. 29:18; Jer. 23:20). One believes with the heart (Luke 24:25; Acts 8:37; Rom. 10:9). The heart is the site of wisdom, discernment, and skill (Exod. 35:34; 36:2; 1 Kings 3:9; 10:24). The heart is the place of memory (Deut. 4:9; Ps. 119:11). The heart plays the role of conscience (2 Sam. 24:10; 1 John 3:20 21).

It is often worth the effort to substitute “mind” for “heart” when reading the Bible in order to grasp the mental dimension. For example, after telling the Israelites to love God with all their heart, Moses says, “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts” (Deut. 6:6). Reading it instead as “be on your mind” changes our perspective, and in this case the idiom “on your mind” is clearer and more accurate. The following verses instruct parents to talk to their children throughout the day about God’s words. In order for parents to do this, God’s requirements and deeds need to be constantly on their minds, out of their love for him. Similarly, love for God and loyalty are expressed by meditation on and determination to obey his law (Ps. 119:11, 112). The law is not merely a list of rules; it is also a repository of a worldview in which the Lord is the only God. To live consistently with this truth requires careful, reflective thought.

Emotions and attitude. The heart, as the seat of emotion, is associated with a number of feelings and sentiments, such as gladness (Exod. 4:14; Acts 2:26), hatred (Lev. 19:17), pride (Deut. 8:14), resentment (Deut. 15:10), dread (Deut. 28:67), sympathy (Judg. 5:9), love (Judg. 16:15), sadness (1 Sam. 1:8; John 16:6), and jealousy and ambition (James 3:14). The heart is also the frame of reference for attitudes such as willingness, courage, and desire.

Judgment

Of several Hebrew words for “judgment,” two are important here.

The word shepet is used of God, who brings the judgments upon the Egyptians in the plagues (Exod. 6:6; 7:4; 12:12). Ezekiel prophesies God’s judgment on Israel and other nations (e.g., Ezek. 5:10; 16:41; 25:11). The word is also applied to human beings, as the Syrians execute judgment on Israel (2 Chron. 24:24).

The most frequent noun is mishpat. Abraham is noted for mishpat, “judgment/justice” (Gen. 18:19). God by attribute is just (Gen. 18:25); he shows justice toward the orphan and the widow (Deut. 10:18) and brings judgment on behalf of the oppressed (Ps. 25:9). At the waters of Marah, God makes a judgment, an ordinance for the people (Exod. 15:25). Similarly, the mishpatim, “judgments/ordinances,” become law for life in Israel (Exod. 21:1). In making judicial judgments, the Israelites are to be impartial (Lev. 19:15), and they are to use good judgment and justice in trade (Lev. 19:35; Prov. 16:11). Israel will be judged for rejecting God’s judgments (Ezek. 5:7 8) and worshiping false gods (Jer. 1:16). Those accused of crime will come to judgment/trial (Num. 35:12). The children of Israel come to their judges for judgment (Judg. 4:5). God will bring each person to a time of judgment regarding how his or her life is spent (Eccles. 11:9).

One key word in the NT is krisis. It has a range of meaning similar to mishpat. In the NT, judgment is rendered for thoughts and words as well as deeds (Matt. 5:21–22; 12:36). Future, eschatological judgment is a key theme for Jesus (Matt. 10:15; 11:22, 24; 12:42), Paul (2 Thess. 1:5), and other NT writers (Heb. 9:27; 10:27; 2 Pet. 2:9; 3:7; 1 John 4:17; Jude 15; Rev. 14:7). Jesus himself will be the judge (John 5:22). The only way to avoid condemnation is by having eternal life in the Messiah (John 5:24).

Another key word in the NT is krima. It may refer to condemnation (Matt. 7:2; Rom. 3:8) or to judgment, again including the eschatological judgment (Acts 24:25). Krima is the word most frequently used by Paul. He also often presents judgment as already realized (e.g., Rom. 2:2–3; 5:16). In the later epistles judgment may be realized as well (2 Pet. 2:3; Jude 4). James points out that not many should presume to be teachers, because they will be judged more strictly (James 3:1).

Paul

A Pharisee commissioned by Jesus Christ to preach the gospel to Gentiles. His Jewish name was “Saul” (Acts 9:4; 13:9), but he preferred using his Roman name, especially when he signed his letters.

By our best estimates, Paul spent about thirty years preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ (AD 34 67)—a ministry that can be divided roughly into three decades. The first decade of his ministry (AD 34–46) has been called the “silent years,” as we have few details from Acts or the Pauline Epistles about his activities. For example, we know that he preached in Damascus for a while and spent some time in Arabia (a total of three years [Gal. 1:17–18]). He made a quick trip to Jerusalem to meet Peter and James the brother of Jesus. Then he returned home to Tarsus, evidently preaching there for several years, until Barnabas brought him to Antioch in Syria to help with the ministry of this mixed congregation of Jews and Gentiles (Acts 9:26–30; 11:25–26). In the second decade of his ministry (AD 46–59), Paul spent most of his life on the road, an itinerant ministry of preaching the gospel and planting churches from Cyprus to Corinth. For most of the third decade (AD 59–67), Paul ministered the gospel from prison, spending over two years imprisoned in Caesarea, another two to three years in a Roman prison (Acts ends here), released for a brief time (two years?) before his final arrest and imprisonment in Rome, where, according to church tradition, he was executed.

During his itinerant ministry, Paul traveled Roman roads that led him to free cities (Ephesus, Thessalonica, Athens) and Roman colonies (Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, Troas, Philippi, Corinth). Founding churches in urban centers afforded Paul more opportunities for ministry and for his work of making and repairing tents. Traveling within the borders of the Roman Empire also provided a better chance of protection as a citizen. At first, Paul and Barnabas covered familiar territory: Cyprus (Barnabas’s home region) and Anatolia (Paul’s home region). Then, with successive journeys Paul and other missionary companions branched out to Asia Minor, Macedonia, and Achaia. Some of the towns that Paul visited were small and provincial (Derbe, Lystra); others were major cities of great economic and intellectual commerce (Ephesus, Corinth, Athens). In the midst of such cultural diversity, Paul found receptive ears among a variety of ethnic groups: Gauls, Phrygians and Lycaonians, Greeks, Romans, and Jews. Previously, Paul’s Gentile converts had worshiped many gods (local, ethnic, and imperial), offered sacrifices at many shrines and temples, and joined in all the religious festivals (often involving immoral and ungodly practices). After believing the gospel, Paul’s predominantly Gentile churches turned from their idolatrous ways to serve “the living and true God” (1 Thess. 1:9). Their exclusive devotion to one God quickly led to economic and political problems, for both Paul’s converts and the cities of their residence. No more offerings for patron gods, no more support for local synagogues or the imperial cult—Paul’s converts were often persecuted for their newly found faith by local religious guilds (idol makers!) and civic leaders courting Roman favor (Acts 17:6–9; 19:23–41; Phil. 1:27–30; 1 Thess. 2:14–16). Indeed, Paul often was run out of town as a troublemaker who preached a message that threatened both the Jewish and the Roman ways of life (Acts 16:19–24; Phil. 3:17–4:1). It is no wonder that Paul’s activities eventually landed him in a Roman prison. It was only a matter of time before his reputation as a “lawbreaker” caught up with him (Acts 21:21). But that did not stop Paul. Whether as a prisoner or a free man, Paul proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ until the day he died.

Paul was a tentmaker, a missionary, a writer, a preacher, a teacher, a theologian, an evangelist, a mentor, a prophet, a miracle worker, a prisoner, and a martyr. His life story reads like the tale of three different men: a devout Pharisee, a tireless traveler, an ambitious writer. He knew the Scriptures better than did most people. He saw more of the world than did most merchants. He wrote some of the longest letters known at that time. To his converts, he was a faithful friend. To his opponents, he was an irrepressible troublemaker. But, according to Paul, he was nothing more or less than the man whom God had called through Jesus Christ to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Philip

(1) The tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, regions northeast of Palestine, at the time when John the Baptist’s public ministry began (Luke 3:1). (2) One of Jesus’ twelve apostles (Matt. 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:14; John 1:43). Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from Bethsaida (John 1:44). It was Philip who introduced Nathanael to Jesus (John 1:45 48). John’s Gospel mentions Philip three times subsequent to chapter 1 (6:5–7; 12:20–22; 14:6–10), in the last instance recording Philip’s shortsighted request for Jesus to show the Father to the apostles. (3) One of seven men selected by the Jerusalem church to care for the distribution of food to its widows (Acts 6:1–6). This man, also known as Philip the evangelist (21:8), shared the message of Jesus Christ in a city of Samaria, performing great miracles (8:5–13). Philip later explained the good news of Jesus to an Ethiopian eunuch whom he encountered (8:26–38). After Philip baptized the eunuch, “the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away” (8:39). Philip then preached in several towns, finally arriving at Caesarea, where he settled (8:40). Years later, Paul stayed in Caesarea with Philip and his four prophesying daughters (21:8–9).

Philippi

A city in northeastern Macedonia, approximately ten miles from the Aegean coast. The city had its share of trade, being on the Via Egnatia, the main east-west route from the Adriatic through Thrace. The city lay on the plain between the mountains in the north and the sea to the south.

Luke identifies Philippi as the chief city of its division in Macedonia and as a Roman colony (Acts 16:12). Paul arrived in Philippi around AD 50 52 after receiving a divine injunction to spread the gospel there (16:9–10). There was a small Jewish population, but not enough for a synagogue (16:13), so the Jewish women of the city would go to a place beside the river to worship Yahweh. Paul brought the gospel to them there, and the first convert was a God-fearing woman, Lydia (16:14). The church established there was predominantly Gentile.

Paul came through the city again on his third missionary journey (Acts 20:6). As far as we know, this was the last time he saw the church, though he wrote back with thanks and instruction in his letter to the Philippian church.

Pray

In the OT there is no language or understanding comparable to modern ways of talking about prayer as conversational or dialogical. Prayer does not involve mutuality. Prayer is something that humans offer to God, and the situation is never reversed; God does not pray to humans. Understanding this preserves the proper distinction between the sovereign God and the praying subject. Therefore, prayers in the OT are reverential. Some OT prayers have extended introductions, such as that found in Neh. 1:5, that seem to pile up names for God. These should be seen as instances not of stiltedness or ostentation, but rather as setting up a kind of “buffer zone” in recognition of the distance between the Creator and the creature. In the NT, compare the same phenomenon in Eph. 1:17.

A presupposition of prayer in the OT is that God hears prayer and may indeed answer and effect the change being requested. Prayer is not primarily about changing the psychological state or the heart of the one praying, but rather about God changing the circumstances of the one praying.

The depiction of prayer in the NT is largely consistent with that of the OT, but there are important developments.

Jesus tells his disciples to address God as “Father” (Matt. 6:9; cf. Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6). Prayer to God is now to be made in the name of Jesus (Matt. 18:19 20; John 14:13; 15:16; 16:23–26).

Prayer can also be made to Jesus (John 14:14), and such devotion to him in the early church is evidence of his being regarded as deity. Unlike anything prior in the OT, Jesus tells his followers to pray for their enemies (Matt. 5:44). Jesus and his followers serve as examples (Luke 23:34; Acts 7:60).

The Holy Spirit plays a vital role in prayers. It is by him that we are able to call out, “Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6). The Spirit himself intercedes for us (Rom. 8:26). Our praying is to be done in the Spirit (Eph. 6:18; Jude 20; possibly 1 Cor. 14:15).

Jesus encourages fervent and even continual or repeated prayer (Luke 18:1–8), but not showy or repetitive prayer (Matt. 6:5–8).

Jesus becomes the model of prayer. He prays before important decisions (Luke 6:12–13) and in connection with significant crisis points (Matt. 14:23; 26:36–44; Luke 3:21; 9:29; John 12:27). He offers prayers that are not answered (Luke 22:41–44) and prayers that are (Heb. 5:7). Even as he tells his disciples to always pray and not give up (Luke 18:1 [which is also the meaning of the sometimes overly literalized “pray without ceasing” in 1 Thess. 5:17 NRSV]), so he himself wrestles in prayer (Luke 22:41–44; Heb. 5:7). He has prayed for his disciples (John 17; Luke 22:32), and even now, in heaven, he still intercedes for us (Heb. 7:25). Indeed, our intercession before God’s throne is valid because his is (Heb. 4:14–16).

Righteousness

Righteousness is an important theme in both Testaments of the Bible. The concept includes faithfulness, justice, uprightness, correctness, loyalty, blamelessness, purity, salvation, and innocence. Because the theme is related to justification, it has important implications for the doctrine of salvation.

Being careful to avoid imposing Western philosophical categories onto OT texts, we may say that the core idea of righteousness is conformity to God’s person and will in moral uprightness, justness, justice, integrity, and faithfulness. Behind the many and varied uses of righteousness language in the OT stands the presupposition that God himself is righteous in the ultimate sense (e.g., Ezra 9:15; Isa. 45:21; Zeph. 3:5). Righteousness is the expression of his holiness in relationship to others (Isa. 5:16), and all other nuances of righteousness in the biblical texts are derived from this.

Related to humans, righteousness is often found as the opposite of wickedness. Righteousness often occurs in evaluative contexts, where it relates to proper conduct with respect to God, the order of the world as he created it, the covenant, or law (e.g., Deut. 6:25). God reigns in righteousness and justice (e.g., Ps. 97:2), and humans should align their conduct with this righteous reign. Righteousness can be expressed as personal integrity with phrases such as “my righteousness” (2 Sam. 22:21, 25; Ps. 7:8) and “their righteousness” (1 Sam. 26:23). Unrighteousness is found in poetic parallel to injustice (e.g., Jer. 22:13); the unjust are parallel with the wicked (Ps. 82:2).

Righteousness language is more rare in the Gospels than one might expect in light of OT and Jewish intertestamental usage. These references fit with the Jewish setting: righteousness is required of God’s people, and unrighteousness is to be avoided. Righteousness is proper conduct with respect to God or Torah (Matt. 21:32) in contrast to wickedness (Matt. 13:49). Righteousness could be conceived as one’s own (e.g., Luke 18:9) and has its reward (Matt. 10:41). While the specific terms related to righteousness are infrequent in the Gospels, the broader concept of conformity to God’s will is widely apparent in calls for repentance, personal moral uprightness, mercy, and concern for the marginalized. The NT Epistles continue these general strands of the concept. Righteousness is related to personal conduct (1 Thess. 2:10; 1 Tim. 6:11; 2 Tim. 2:22; 1 Pet. 2:24) and is contrasted with wickedness (2 Cor. 6:14); it is a matter of doing, not knowing (Rom. 2:13). An example of righteousness in doing is the kindness shown by the prostitute Rahab, who hid the Israelite spies (James 2:25).

The NT does signal some new dimensions related to righteousness. In the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5 7), Jesus extends the requirements of righteousness to conformity to his own teaching and directives, a shocking display of authority. In his mission to call sinners rather than the “righteous” (e.g., Mark 2:17), Jesus implicitly questions the righteousness of the “righteous.” In similar manner, personal righteousness in terms of a righteousness of one’s own is negative in the NT (Rom. 10:3; Phil. 3:6; cf. Luke 18:9).

The NT continues the OT theme of righteousness as it relates to God himself. God is righteous (John 17:25; Rom. 3:5; 9:14; Heb. 6:10; cf. Matt. 6:33). His judgments are righteous (Rom. 2:5), and his commands and laws are righteous (Rom. 7:12; 8:4). God is a righteous judge (2 Tim. 4:8). His saving activity is righteous; he does not compromise his own justice in justifying the ungodly (Rom. 3:24–26). The righteousness of God is contrasted with human unrighteousness and wickedness (Rom. 3:5; James 1:20). Since God reigns over creation in righteousness, human conduct should conform to that standard (e.g., Rom. 14:17). Jesus is also noted as righteous (Acts 3:14; 7:52; 22:14; 1 Pet. 3:18; 1 John 2:1, 29). He fulfilled righteousness in the absolute sense of demonstrating complete conformity to the nature and will of God (e.g., 1 Pet. 3:18). He also fulfilled God’s righteousness in the sense of his saving activity toward humans (e.g., 2 Pet. 1:1).

Timothy

First Timothy, along with 2 Timothy and Titus, is known as one of the apostle Paul’s Pastoral Epistles. These letters have earned this designation because they were addressed to pastors and deal with particular problems that they were facing in their respective churches. This letter was addressed to Timothy, whom Paul affectionately called “my son,” most likely because the apostle had led him to faith in Christ (1:18; cf. 1:2). At Paul’s urging, Timothy took on the role of providing leadership to the church in Ephesus (1:3), which had been infiltrated by false teachers (1:3 4). Paul wrote this letter to Timothy, instructing him to rebuke the false teachers in the church and to fight the good fight of faith (1:18). The apostle concisely summarized the major theme of this letter by saying, “I am writing you these instructions so that . . . you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth” (3:14–15).

Witness

The English term “witness” occurs in both Testaments numerous times, with a wide range of meanings. One common meaning relates to someone who gives legal testimony and to the legitimacy of that testimony (Num. 35:30; Deut. 17:6; 19:15 16, 18; Prov. 12:17; Isa. 8:16, 20). Throughout the NT the term occurs primarily in the context of someone bearing witness—especially God—or testifying to something (Rom. 1:9; 2 Cor. 1:23; Phil. 1:8; 1 Thess. 2:5, 10), though it also has a forensic dimension in regard to one who establishes legal testimony (e.g., Acts 6:13; 7:58; 2 Cor. 13:1; 1 Tim. 5:19; Heb. 10:28).

Central to the concept of witness is the truthfulness of the witness. This was a vital component of the OT concept of witness. Thus, in legal proceedings a lone witness was insufficient to establish testimony against anyone (Deut. 17:6). This principle carries over into the NT (cf. Matt. 18:16; 2 Cor. 13:1). Such truthfulness was so significant that the ninth commandment expressly forbids bearing false witness (Exod. 20:16; Deut. 5:20; cf. Prov. 19:5, 9).

Truth-telling was not something that the people of Israel were called to merely among themselves. They were to be God’s witnesses to the nations (Isa. 43:10; 44:8). As witnesses of God’s existence and holiness, they were called to be separate from the nations (Exod. 19:6) and to be a light to them (Isa. 49:6). Tragically, Israel failed in this responsibility and was deemed “blind” (Isa. 42:19).

The NT continues the concept that the people of God are to be God’s witnesses. John the Baptist is commissioned “to testify concerning that light” (John 1:7). It is in this context that Jesus later declares himself to be “the light of the world” (John 8:12; 9:5). Jesus himself is the exemplar of a “faithful witness” (Rev. 1:5). And his followers, whom he has designated as “the light of the world” (Matt. 5:14), are then called to bear witness to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).

“Witness” is also employed in terms of a legal testimony regarding what one has seen. That the disciples were intent on establishing such legal testimony is evident in their stipulation that the person to replace Judas Iscariot be someone from among those who had been with Jesus from the beginning of his ministry to his ascension, so that “one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection” (Acts 1:22). This forensic aspect of witness appears in the close of the Gospel of John: “This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true” (21:24). Paul demonstrates this forensic concern for witnesses when he references Peter, the Twelve, some five hundred others, and himself as among those who have witnessed the resurrection (1 Cor. 15:3–8).

Throughout Revelation there resides a direct link between Christians bearing witness and suffering, and perhaps dying, as a consequence of this witness. This is evident in the mention of Antipas, who was martyred, and is then designated as “my faithful witness” (Rev. 2:13). Also, the two unnamed witnesses in 11:1–12, who explicitly function as witnesses, are the subject of attack and are eventually murdered. Their murder occurs only after they have finished “their testimony” (11:7).

It is this association of persecution and martyrdom that likely leads to the second-century employment of “martyr” as a designation for those who bear witness to Christ to the point of death.

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1. The Pauline Salutation

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At least a dozen of the twenty-seven New Testament books of our Bible were written by one man, the Apostle Paul. These books are in the form of letters written to his fellow-Christians, giving them instruction and encouragement. There is one sentence which appears in everything Paul wrote, in each of his epistles. It is this: "Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ."

Paul always used this salutation in greeting the people he loved and cared about. And it is altogether appropriate for us as we meet and greet one another. I suppose each of us has some wish for the well-being of all the others, and of all the wishes we may wish for one another, perhaps none is more fitting than this one - the wish for the grace and peace of God.

So today I would borrow that warm and personal word of the Apostle, and by means of it greet you and welcome you to the experience we share in this hour: "Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ." Nothing can better express what we hope will result from our worship here - that in each heart there will be peace and, for the needs of each of our lives, the grace of God.

2. Second Coming Nonsense

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Staff

The first perversion of the doctrine of the second coming of Christ is perpetrated by those I'm going to call "prophecy mongers." You know these people. They come with their charts and graphs, with their predictions and projections, claiming to have special insight into the workings of God in the world, so that they're able to cue us in on just where we are in the divine timetable. And somehow, every political event of the past fifty years fits neatly into their scheme of things. But Jesus said that no one not even himself knew the day or the hour of his coming, but only the Father.

But there is another distortion of this doctrine that is equally vitiating although in comes from a completely different direction. Here I refer to those who, far from exaggerating the eschatology of Jesus, want to minimize it because they are embarrassed. They rationalize it or demythologize it or spiritualize it, so that they can embrace Jesus and his teachings without getting all the supernatural trimmings that go with it. The fundamentalist and the rationalist share a common assumption about the second coming. They both assume that this is teaching we can easily understand and exploit and have at our disposal, so that it no longer threatens us, no longer hangs over our heads like Damocles's word, ready to fall upon us and shatter our pretty pretensions into a thousand smithereens. The fundamentalist over explains the second coming, and so takes away its mystery, while the rationalist explains it away, robbing it of its meaning.

Jesus said, "Keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour." It is here at the point of waiting that most of us have our greatest difficulty.

3. When the Play Is Over

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Gary L. Carver

This is how C.S. Lewis understands the doctrine of the Second Coming of our Lord. He said that when the author appears on the stage, you know the play is over. That's good isn't it? When the author appears on the stage - the play is over. No one has ever claimed that this planet earth was intended to exist forever. Scientists call it "the second law of thermodynamics,"The energy supply of this planet will eventually come to an end, which means that a conclusion of life as we know it is inevitable. The concept of the Second Coming merely affirms that such a conclusion will be purposeful. The drama of history is not going to just fizzle out or end in a whimper! It is going to come to the kind of climax that he who conceived the drama wants for it, and it means that he who has begun a good work in you will bring it to the best of conclusion.

4. In the Know

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Michael Horton

One of the earliest and most potent threats to early Christianity came from the heretical group known as the Gnostics. Blending elements of Christianity, Greek philosophy, and oriental mysticism, the Gnostics denied the orthodox view of God, man, and the world, and Christ. The apostle John included them in the camp of the Antichrist.

The Gnostics were so called because of their view of revelation. The word gnosis is the Greek word for "knowledge." In many cases the Gnostic heretics did not make a frontal assault against the apostles or against the apostolic teaching of Scripture. In fact, many of them insisted that they were genuine, Bible-believing Christians. It wasn't that they rejected the Bible; they just claimed an additional source of knowledge or insight that was superior to or at least beyond the knowledge of Scripture. The "Gnostikoi" were "those in the know." Their knowledge was not derived from intellectual comprehension of the Scripture or by empirical research, but was mystical, direct, and immediate. God "revealed" private, intuitive insights to them that carried nothing less than divine authority.

Here is a typical Gnostic statement: "We cannot communicate with God mentally, for He is a Spirit. But we can reach Him with our Spirit, and it is through our Spirit that we come to know God….This is one reason God put teachers (those who are really called to teach) in the church to renew our minds. Many times those who teach do so with only a natural knowledge that they have gained from the Bible and other sources. But I am referring here to one of the ministry gifts. Those who are called and anointed by the Spirit to teach. God has given us His Word, and we can feed upon that Word. This will renew our minds. But He also puts teachers in the church to renew our minds and to bring us the revelation of the knowledge of God's Word." (Kenneth E. Hagin, Man on Three Dimensions (Tulsa, Okla.: Faith Library, 1985), 1:8,13.)

Notice that this quotation does not include a direct assault on the Bible. The Bible is recognized as God's word. But in order to understand the Bible we need something beyond our natural mental ability. We need the Spirit-anointed teachers to "bring us the revelation of the knowledge of God's Word." This is a typically Gnostic statement, but the quote is not from Valentinus or any of the other early Gnostics. It is from the pen of a modern missionary of Gnosticism, Kenneth E. Hagin. It is from Hagin's Man on Three Dimensions. Hagin's theology echoes the tripartite epistemology of early Gnosticism (man as having three separate entities: body, soul, and spirit).

Robert Tilton also claims a direct pipeline to divine revelation: "God showed me a vision that almost took my breath away. I was sucked into the Spirit . . ., caught away . . . and I found myself standing in the very presence of Almighty God. It just echoed into my being. And he said these words to me. . . exactly these words . . ."Many of my ministers pray for my people, but I want you to pray the Prayer of Agreement with them" . . . I have never seen the presence of God so powerful. This same anointing flooded my Spirit-man . . . It's inside of me now, and I have supernatural faith to agree with you. From that day forth, as I have been faithful to that heavenly vision, I've seen every kind of miracle imaginable happen when I pray the Prayer of Agreement with God's people." (Robert Tilton, newsletter from Robert Tilton Ministries, Word of Faith World Outreach Center, Box 819000, Dallas, TX75381.

It seems that in Robert Tilton the church is blessed with a twentieth-century apostle whose visions of revelation exceed that of the apostle John and whose miracle powers surpass that of the apostle Paul. If we are to believe Tilton's astonishing claims, there is no reason we should not include his writings in the next edition of the New Testament.

Paul Crouch of the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), has revelatory dreams and has warmly embraced the neo-Gnostic dogma. His network has become a prime distribution center for the growing movement. Kenneth Copeland also receives phrases from God in "his spirit."

5. Speaking for the Lord

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James Packer

Paul considered himself Christ's ambassador. What is an ambassador? He is an authorized representative of a sovereign. He speaks not in his own name but on behalf of the ruler whose deputy he is, and his whole duty and responsibility is to interpret that ruler's mind faithfully to those to whom he is sent.

Paul used this "ambassador" image twice both in connection with his evangelistic work. Pray for me, he wrote from prison, "that utterance may be given me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak" (Eph. 6:18-20). He wrote also that God "gave us the ministry of reconciliation...So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God" (2 Corinthians 5:18-20).

Paul called himself an ambassador because he knew that when he proclaimed the gospel facts and promises and urged sinners to receive the reconciliation effected at Calvary, he was declaring Christ's message to the world. The figure of ambassadorship highlights the authority Paul had, as representing his Lord, as long as he remained faithful to the terms of his commission and said neither less nor more than he had been given to say.

6. THE ART OF EXPRESSING LOVE

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John H. Krahn

The sharing of human warmth and affection is something which we all desire and need. Loving and being loved is one of the staples of human existence. Although love and physical affection enhance each other, too often the concept of love is too narrowly defined and even misconstrued when one makes physical affection synonymous with love. It simply is not! The art of expressing love is a very broad, inclusive, endeavor.

To discover how to be really good at expressing love, we must look to God - the greatest of all lovers. God’s love for us is not regulated by our response. It is always reaching out towards us. God doesn’t love us because we are so loveable. God doesn’t need to love us. Rather, we are in need of his love. In sending his Son Jesus, God demonstrated what true love really is. True love is a willingness to give yourself to another person, not for your sake but for his sake. Love regulated by another person’s response is not love at all.

Love, in its purest form, is outwardly-directed rather than inwardly-directed. When another person’s burden becomes more important than your burden, that is the beginning of love. Love is from God. Paul recognizes this as he writes in 1 Thessalonians 3:12, "And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all men ..." The Lord gives us the ability to increase our ability to love.

Want to know how to become a better lover? Open your heart and welcome in the fullness of God’s love. Let the perfect love of God within you express itself to people around you. A strong vertical love affair with God produces a strong horizontal love affair with others.

7. Spiritual Teaching Gifts

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Dr. Earl Radmacher

The following is an attempt by Dr. Earl Radmacher and Gordon McMinn to identify and define spiritual gifts centered around teaching.

Prophecy: setting before people the Word and wisdom of God persuasively.
Encouragement: drawing alongside to comfort, encourage, rebuke, and lead someone into insight toward action.
Teaching: laying down in a systematic order the complete truth of a doctrine and applying it incisively to life.
The message of wisdom: Locating formerly unknown principles as well as combining known principles of God's Word and communicating them to fresh situations.
The message of knowledge: Arranging the facts of Scripture, categorizing these into principles, and communicating them to repeated or familiar situations.
Service Gifts. Contributing: Giving most liberally and beyond all human expectation. Mercy: Being sensitive or empathetic to people who are in affliction or misery and lifting internal burdens with cheerfulness.
Helps: Seeing tasks and doing them for or with someone in order to lift external burdens.
Distinguishing spirits: Detecting a genuine or spurious motive by distinguishing the spirit-source behind any person's speech or act.
Evangelism: Communicating the gospel with power and persuasiveness as well as equipping the saints for evangelism.
Leadership Gifts. Leadership (executive ability): Standing before people and inspiring followers by leading them aggressively but with care.
Administration (legislative ability): Standing behind people to collect data, set policy, and develop plans which will guide a course of action with wisdom.
Faith: Seeing through any problem to the Ultimate Resource.

What about the so-called sign gifts, such as healing and speaking in tongues, referred to in today's text? To us, Hebrews 2:4 suggests that they were intended to be confirming signs for the Apostles, and ceased with them. Others feel they are still for today, but if so, one thing is clear: they are given sovereignly by the Spirit for specific purposes and are the exception, not the rule.

8. Do As You Please

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Michael Horton

The radical gospel of grace as it is found throughout Scripture, has always had its critics. Jimmy Swaggart once said that by trusting in God's justifying and preserving grace, we would end up living a life of sin before long and thus, lose our salvation and be consigned to hell. Paul anticipated that reaction from the religious community of his own day after he said, "Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more" (Romans 5:20, NKJV). So he asked the question he expected us to ask: "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" (6:1) Should we sin so that we can receive more grace? In other words, "If people believed what you just said in Romans 5, Paul, wouldn't they take advantage of the situation and live like the dickens, knowing they were 'safe and secure from all alarm'?" That's a fair question. But it reveals a basic misunderstanding of the nature of God's saving grace. Paul's response is unmistakable: "Certainly not? How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?" (Romans 6:2, NKJV).

Someone confronted Martin Luther, upon the Reformer's rediscovery of the biblical doctrine of justification, with the remark, "If this is true, a person could simply live as he pleased!"

"Indeed!" answered Luther. "Now, what pleases you?"

Augustine was the great preacher of grace during the fourth and fifth centuries. Although his understanding of the doctrine of justification did not have the fine-tuned precision of the Reformers, Augustine's response on this point was similar to Luther's. He said that the doctrine of justification led to the maxim, "Love God and do as you please." Because we have misunderstood one of the gospel's most basic themes, Augustine's statement looks to many like a license to indulge one's sinful nature, but in reality it touches upon the motivation the Christian has for his actions. The person who has been justified by God's grace has a new, higher, and nobler motivation for holiness than the shallow, hypocritical self-righteousness or fear that seems to motivate so many religious people today.

9. Obedience Is the Gateway for Love

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Jennette F. Scholer

Shortly after arriving at the Keller household, Annie Sullivan wrote, "I am convinced that obedience is the gateway by which knowledge, yes and even love, enter the mind of the child." With this remarkable insight, Sullivan had the courage to teach Helen to obey - to sit at the table, to eat properly, to fold her napkin. It was by first learning obedience that Helen learned the concept of language and also grew to love her teacher.

Annie Sullivan's words speak to us as we reflect on Zechariah's and Mary's questions. "Obedience is the gateway by which knowledge, yes and love, enter" our minds. It is in acts of obedience that we grow in the knowledge and love of God.

10. We Are Dying All the Time

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Todd Weir

The truth is parts of us are dying all the time. You probably just lost half a million or so cells just reading this sentence. We all lose about 100,000 cells per second. Fortunately, just as many cells are being reproduced in a healthy body. Healthy bodies have this constant cycle of dying cells and rebirth of new ones. Some scientists say that we are regenerated every seven years, which is an enormous relief to me. Apparently, cells that don't die off in the normal cycle are a real problem. These cells are related to diseases like cancer and become problematic because they get in the way and block healthy development of the body.

This is true in the spiritual and emotional life as well. "Those who love their life will lose it, but those who love their lives for my sake will save it." (Luke's words are better here because there is so much more at stake than heaven in these words.) Our failure to let go and let some things die is a primary spiritual disease, for new life can't come without some death. The failure to forgive leads to death of relationship while anger and bitterness ravage the spirit like a cancer. Holding on to regrets strangles hope before it can lift us to new life. Trying to control events and other people leads to frustration, excessive stress, and exhaustion. Forgiveness and letting go of control are spiritual exercises in the art of dying so that new life may abound.

11. Faith and Power

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Larry Powell

Mark 4:37-41 is one of the many passages in the Bible which has been set to music. "Master, the tempest is raging! The billows are tossing high! The sky is o’er shadowed with blackness ..." You recognize it. From childhood, we have sung the words to "Peace Be Still" and have loved to lift the refrain which concludes, "they all shall sweetly obey thy will ..." Two primary elements are underscored in both the scripture and the hymn: the power of Christ and faith in Christ.

The Gospel according to Mark characterizes the ministry of Jesus as being a succession of "mighty works," indicative of his Sonship. Actually, the stilling of the storm is only the beginning of a series of incidents portraying the power of Christ. After the storm experience on the Sea of Galilee, Jesus and the disciples came to the other side of the sea into the country of the Gerasenes. Here they encountered a man who lived among the tombs, crying out in travail both day and night, inflicting injury upon himself and striking fear into the hearts of all who chance to see him. Frequently, he had been subdued and bound with chains, but such was his deranged agony that he tore away the fetters and ran about the tombs as a wild man. In a great display of power, Jesus freed the man from his torment (5:13) and "all marveled. Then, crossing to the other side of the sea, Jesus encountered a certain Janus, a ruler of the synagogue, who prevailed upon him to accompany him to his home and heal his daughter" (5:23). On the way to the home of Janus Jesus was "touched" by a desperate woman who had hemorraged for twelve years and, according to Mark 5:29, so great was the power of Jesus that the woman was immediately healed simply by touching his clothing. Not to be minimized here is Jesus’ statement to the woman; "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed from your disease" (5:34). Now the word comes that during the interval, Janus’ daughter has died. Reassuring Janus, Jesus said, "Do not fear, only believe." Approaching the house Jesus observed a gathering of people loudly mourning the death of the girl. Everyone was asked to wait outside the house save the little girl’s parents and the disciples who had been selected to accompany Jesus to the house, Peter, James, and John. "Taking her by the hand, he said to her, ‘Talitha cumi’ which means ‘Little girl, I say to you, arise.’ And immediately the girl got up and walked" (5:41-42).

Power! That is the theme of Mark’s section dealing with three successive miracles of Jesus. Read again the refrain of "Peace, Be Still" and see how it applied to each of the three incidents. See also the summons for faith. The disciples were scolded for their lack of faith, the woman with the issue of blood was rewarded because of her faith, and Janus was encouraged to intensify the faith he already had exhibited by falling at the feet of Jesus. Desperation characterizes all three encounters, and all three contain the enacted teaching that the power of Christ is but half of the whole; the other half, which taps this power, is faith. Ironically, it would appear that we, too, learn the lesson best in times of desperation.

12. The Mysteries of the Universe Solved

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Staff

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Senior, was a doctor. As such he was very interested in the use of ether. In order to know how his patients felt under its influence, he once had a dose administered to himself. As he was going under, in a dreamy state, a profound thought came to him. He believed that he had suddenly grasped the key to all the mysteries of the universe. When he regained consciousness, however, he was unable to remember what the insight was. Because of the great importance this thought would be to mankind, Holmes arranged to have himself given either again. This time he had a stenographer present to take down the great thought. The either was administered, and sure enough, just before passing out the insight reappeared. He mumbled the words, the stenographer took them down, and he went to sleep confident in the knowledge that he had succeeded. Upon awakening, he turned eagerly to the stenographer and asked her to read what he had uttered.

This is what she read: "The entire universe is permeated with a strong odor of turpentine."

13. The Bristlecone Pine

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Carlyle Fielding Stewart (adapted)

In the Western United States there is a tree called the "Bristlecone Pine." Growing in the mountain regions, sometimes as high as two or more miles above sea level, these evergreens may live for thousands of years. They are is among the longest-lived life forms on Earth. The older specimens often have only one thin layer of bark on their trunks. Considering the habitat of these trees, such as rocky areas where the soil is poor and precipitation is slight, it seems almost incredible that they should live so long or even survive at all. The environmental "adversities," however, actually contribute to their longevity. Cells that are produced as a result of these perverse conditions are densely arranged, and many resin canals are formed within the plant. Wood that is so structured continues to live for an extremely long period of time.

But the pines can grow faster, die younger, and be less resilient. You know how? Richer conditions. The harshness of their surroundings, then, is a vital factor in making them strong and sturdy. With grace accept the hardships that come into your life. Dare we say that rich conditions produce poor Christians. In Hebrews we read that chastening produces "the peaceable fruit of righteousness" (KJV). For those not rooted in Christ, suffering can be decimating. As Christians we claim glory out of suffering.

14. Doomsday Prophets

Illustration

Steven A. Peay

In the early part of the nineteenth century a farmer by the name of William Miller began reading his Bible with an eye to the book of Revelation. He came to the conclusion in 1818 that in 25 years or so, probably in March, the second advent of the Lord would come. He got ordained, started preaching, and many followed him especially in the area of upstate New York he came from which was dubbed the "burned over district" since the fires of revival had burned there so often. March of 1843 and of 1844 came and went, "the great disappointment," and the great exodus of many who were waiting for Christ to come back some having even sold all they had. Miller and a small group of followers came to the conclusion that a purification had occurred, in heaven, and that they should be keeping the Sabbath day on Saturday here. Thus, the Seventh Day Adventists were born. Later the prophetess Ellen White, Miller's spiritual successor, would move her headquarters to Battle Creek, Michigan. There her protégé, Dr. John H. Kellogg, a vegetarian, would develop the corn flake, partially because of a desire to use Old Testament dietary laws, and make the city the cereal capital of the world.

An out-of-work men's clothing salesman from the north side of Pittsburgh had a religious experience that made him look to Christ's second coming. Charles Taze Russell studied the Bible for the "signs of the times" and decided that the second advent had occurred in 1874 and everything would come to an end in 1914. World War I almost gave some credence to Russell's "millennial dawn " and imminent Battle of Armageddon, but his claim that "millions now living will never die" just didn't hold. Russell died in 1916. His successors, now calling themselves Jehovah's Witnesses, have not been quite so specific about the end, but they'll still talk to you about it. By the way, they're also still convinced that the Watch Tower Society will someday rule the world.

Over the last twenty years the writings of Hal Lindsey (The Late Great Planet Earth and MANY spin-offs) have had the Second Coming on many people's minds. Lindsey bases his views on the writings of two late nineteenth century writers, John Nelson Darby and C. I. Scofield (of reference Bible fame), which espouses a very particular view of the end. It's called 'dispensational premillennialism' which means that there are a series of dispensations, ala Joachim of Flora, which will come to pass and then the Church will be taken to heaven (raptured), there will be the "great tribulation" and then the thousand year reign of Christ (the millennium) will occur. There are other schools of thought, post-millennialism, amillennialism, and so forth. I have come to the conclusion that I am an "aha-millennialist." When it happens, I'll say "Aha! Jesus is Here!"

15. Afternoon Tea

Illustration

Ruth Bell Graham

In one of F. W. Boreham’s books, he tells of an old Scottish woman living alone and very poor.

But she carefully tithed what little she had and gave to the church. When unable to attend service, she expected a deacon to drop by and collect her offering. The deacon knew well she could not afford it, but knowing also that she would be deeply offended if he did not collect it, he was careful to stop by.

It was late afternoon one day when he made his visit. Old Mary was sitting near a window having tea.

“The tithe is on the mantel,” she said, greetings over. “Won’t ye sit and have a cup of tea?”

The deacon sat, and when Mary passed him his cup, he looked down in surprise and exclaimed:

“Why, Mary! It’s only water ye have!”

“Aye!” said old Mary. “But He makes it taste like tea!”

16. Touch the Unsaved

Illustration

King Duncan

Years ago in a church prayer meeting, there was a faithful old deacon who always used the same phrase in his public prayers. He would pray: “O Lord, touch the unsaved with Thy finger.”

One night however, after leading in prayer as he often did and repeating that old phrase again (“O Lord, touch the unsaved with Thy finger.”), he abruptly stopped praying. Afterwards, one of the members thinking that maybe the deacon had become ill, took him aside and asked if anything was wrong, was he ill.

“No,” replied the deacon, “I’m not ill. But something seemed to say to me, ‘Thou are the finger.’”

17. History Is Going Somewhere

Illustration

William Barclay

William Barclay wrote in his book The Mind of St. Paul:

"The great value of the doctrine of the Second Coming is that it guarantees that history is going somewhere. We cannot tell how it will happen. We cannot take as literal truth the Jewish pictures of it which Paul used. We need not think of a physical coming of Christ in the clouds, or a physical trumpet blast. But what the doctrine of the Second Coming conserves is the tremendous fact that there is one divine, far-off event to which the whole creation is moving; there is a consummation; there is a final triumph of God."

18. Staying Ready

Illustration

Maxie Dunnam

There is praise here for the servant who is ready when the Lord returns, and He is going to return. We don't know when or how, but you can't read the New Testament faithfully and miss that message.

Do you remember that hilarious scene in one of Peter DeVries' novels? A character named Stan Waltz is terrified by the deafening night-time explosion of a fireworks factory in the town. Persuaded by his wife, who belongs to a fundamentalist Christian sect, that it is the second coming of Christ, Stan hastily baptizes himself under the cold water faucet in the kitchen, just in case.

Some people relate to the Second Coming in that fashion. And in some quarters of the church, there is almost perverted pre-occupation with the issue.

19. A Salty Condition

Illustration

Michael P. Green

Suppose we pour a measure of salt into a container of pure water. The salt affects every drop of the water to the extent that all the formerly pure water becomes salty. From that time on, every bit of water drawn from that container is salty and no pure water can be drawn. This is similar to the depraved condition of man. The first sin was an act, one act that brought sin into the human race. Since that one act the very bloodstream of the human race has been polluted.

20. Negative Repeats

Illustration

Dr. Clarence Bass, professor emeritus at Bethel Theological Seminary, early in his ministry preached in a church in Los Angeles. He thought he had done quite well as he stood at the door greeting people as they left the sanctuary. The remarks about his preaching were complimentary. That is, until a little old man commented, "You preached too long."

Dr. Bass wasn't fazed by the remark, especially in light of the many positive comments. "You didn't preach loud enough," came another negative comment; it was from the same little old man. Dr. Bass thought it strange that the man had come through the line twice, but when the same man came through the line a third time and exclaimed, "You used too many big words" this called for some explanation.

Dr. Bass sought out a deacon who stood nearby and asked him, "Do you see that little old man over there? Who is he?"

"Don't pay any attention to him," the deacon replied. "All he does is go around and repeat everything he hears."

21. A Vision of True Love

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

Visions have great clarity. One of the oldest members of his church, Al was at the retirement center, the Good Samaritan, with his wife Cora, demented through Alzheimer's. Old Man Lunde, as he was affectionately called, would go to the retirement center every day with a bowl of ice cream to give to his wife of many decades. By the time that Al drove from his home over to the retirement center, the ice cream would be melted. Old Man Lunde took that melted ice cream on a spoon and fed Cora as if she were a newborn baby bird. As he put the melted ice cream into her mouth and patted her on the cheek, there was no haze, no fog, no trees. What was seen was the genuine love of God between a man and a woman. Their love was true and that quality of love was from God. It was a vision. True love…in the flesh…right before the eyes of anyone witnessing the moment. Holiness. Pure holiness. Goodness. Pure goodness. It's a love that anyone should want in their marriage.

22. GOOD SEX

Illustration

John H. Krahn

Winston Churchill was a member of a Master of Ceremonies club. He won every time there was a contest. He could speak on any topic at any time. They thought they had him one day when without notice they gave him the topic, "Sex." He rose and said, "Gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure," then he sat down.

Sex as mere physical gratification can be fun in many instances. I would imagine that an affair can be quite exciting ... at least for a time. Although sex is most pleasurable, it is only good in the confines of marriage. In this context and in this context alone is sex permissible in God’s sight. God only permits good sex.

"Thou shalt not commit adultery," God says to us. To adulterate is to add a foreign substance and thus spoil something that is intended to be pure and holy. It is perversion of the good by mixing it with something less. The result of such mixing pollutes, weakens, and often destroys that which God created pure and holy.

As people all of us are vulnerable to bad sex. Many have a sexual problem. For some it is lust, for others it is having affairs, sleeping with a girlfriend or boyfriend, or reading pornographic literature.

To overcome our problem, we must first admit we can’t handle our weak flesh alone. Then we should come to God and honestly say, "Help me, Lord." And he will, because he loves us. Jesus will help us see people as love-objects rather than as lust-objects. In Christ the goal of dating becomes a relationship of giving, not taking. The Lord helps us restrict sexual intercourse to marriage because it is his intention that we become "one flesh" in a total union which includes mind, spirit, will, and body.

Save sex for marriage. After you’re married, keep it in the confines of marriage. It is a beautiful gift from God ... don’t misuse it ... keep it good.

23. Four Views of the Gospels

Illustration

Jerry Goebel

In this single chapter there are four views of the same God: A coin lost through no choice of its own; a sheep that strays because it hasn't the sense to know better; a boy who chooses to get lost but learns the hard way what real love means; and a brother who rejects pure love and chooses hatred and self-righteousness when he could have known pure joy. Which story am I living out today?

Herein is what many theologians call; "the Gospel within the Gospel," and others have simply called; "the best short story ever written." Here is a concept that rocked the theological world and bears the true heart of God; a God who searches for the lost and is wounded when we stray. Here is a dramatic clash between the judgmental religious who believed that God longed to obliterate the sinner and God's only son who came to die for us while we yet sinners.

Which God do I offer to others? The glaring truth is that the God I introduce to others is the same one I will someday meet.

24. With Privilege Comes Responsibility

Illustration

Don't take a position of leadership in church unless you are prepared to be honest, pure, and loving in your lifestyle. Leadership is a privilege, and with privilege comes responsibility. God holds teachers of His truth doubly responsible because we who lead are in a position where we can either draw people toward Christ or drive them away from Him. This is illustrated in the life of the famous author Mark Twain.

Church leaders were largely to blame for his becoming hostile to the Bible and the Christian faith. As he grew up, he knew elders and deacons who owned slaves and abused them. He heard men using foul language and saw them practice dishonesty during the week after speaking piously in church on Sunday. He listened to ministers use the Bible to justify slavery. Although he saw genuine love for the Lord Jesus in some people, including his mother and his wife, he was so disturbed by the bad teaching and poor example of church leaders that he became bitter toward the things of God.

Indeed, it is a privilege to be an elder, a deacon, a Sunday school teacher, or a Bible club leader. But it is also an awesome responsibility. Let's make sure we attract people to the Savior rather than turn them away.

25. Five Needs to Meet

Illustration

How do you motivate people to produce, to do a better job? The answer, say motivational experts, is by fulfilling these five needs:

Economic security. Workers should feel that their time and effort will be fairly rewarded.
Emotional Security. Management must create a climate in which employees "trust" their superiors, and feel that their jobs contribute to a worthwhile goal.
Recognition. Employees should feel that good work will be appreciated and praised.
Self-expression. We live in a democracy, and none of us should feel that we surrender that heritage when we enter our place of employment. Employees should have the right to communicate ideas, suggestions, fears, and opinions to their superiors without fear of retribution.
Self-respect. This is simply the need to be treated as an individual, as a human being not a statistic.

26. Dead Works

Illustration

Stephen Craig Jennings

Simply changing outward behavior is not repentance. We at times change our behavior for self-centered reasons. Sometimes we change in an attempt to atone for my sins. Such change will only make my sinfulness more sinful.

This is the basis for the reference in Hebrews of repenting from ‘dead works'. A dead work is a work that is not done with the leading and empowerment of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Hence any good work a non-Christian would attempt is a dead work. And many types of good works that Christians do could be devoid of the Spirit's leading and empowerment.

A dead work is giving to charity because it is a good tax break.
It is going to church because it is good for my business reputation or my resume or my politics.
It is tithing because I am afraid God will ‘get me' if I don't.
It is sending my kids to a Christian school, not because I want them to learn the truths of the Christian faith and surrender their lives to the Lordship of Christ, but because there they will run in the right crowd.
It is the giving up of a sinful habit, not because I want to be controlled by the Spirit of God instead of the habit, but because the habit inhibits my performance at work and is harming my professional reputation.

In all these ways, I have actually changed, but the change has not accomplished what Jeremiah said was impossible:

Can the Ethiopian change his skin
or the leopard his spots?
Then also you can do good
who are accustomed to do evil.

27. Luther on Signs of Christ's Coming

Illustration

Martin Luther

These words by Martin Luther should stand as reminder to us all that end times forecasting is worthless - unless you are viewing the "End Times" as the whole period after His Resurrection. First published in 1522, the excerpts are the 6th and 7th paragraphs of his sermon titled: Christ's Second Coming: or the Signs of the Day of Judgment; and the Comforts Christians Have From Them:

I do not wish to force any one to believe as I do; neither will I permit anyone to deny me the right to believe that the last day is near at hand. These words and signs of Christ compel me to believe that such is the case. For the history of the centuries that have passed since the birth of Christ nowhere reveals conditions like those of the present. There has never been such building and planting in the world. There has never been such gluttonous and varied eating and drinking as now. Wearing apparel has reached its limit in costliness. Who has ever heard of such commerce as now encircles the earth? There have arisen all kinds of art and sculpture, embroidery and engraving, the like of which has not been seen during the whole Christian era.

In addition men are so delving into the mysteries of things that today a boy of twenty knows more than twenty doctors formerly knew. There is such a knowledge of languages and all manner of wisdom that it must be confessed, the world has reached such great heights in the things that pertain to the body, or as Christ calls them, "cares of life", eating, drinking, building, planting, buying, selling, marrying and giving in marriage, that every one must see and say either ruin or a change must come. It is hard to see how a change can come. Day after day dawns and the same conditions remain. There was never such keenness, understanding and judgment among Christians in bodily and temporal things as now - I forbear to speak of the new inventions, printing, fire-arms, and other implements of war...This compels me to believe that Christ will soon come to judgment...it must soon break in upon them.

Note: If the link is still active here is the full sermon: http://sermons.martinluther.us/sermons2.html

28. Don't Be Too Cheap with the Seed

Illustration

Jack Exum

A farmer was entertaining some visitors to his farm. His spread included some twenty-five hundred acres. They asked him how he planted the seed. He reached in a bin and pulled out an ear of corn. Then he proceeded to pop out the kernels one by one as he walked along, demonstrating the planting process. The farmer then said, "Do you believe that?"

No, sir! was the reply.

Why not? the farmer asked.

"Well for one thing," one of the visitors said, "there's that big machine sitting over there."

"You're right," said the farmer. He then took them to the distributor that was some thirty feet wide. "We take that double tandem truck, fill it with certified seed, back it up to the distributor, open the slots, and pour in the seed." He went on to say, "If you're ever going to be cheap, don't be cheap with the seed."

One bushel of seed invested yields thirty bushels of grain harvested in a good year. Thirty to one—not a bad return, if you are ready to believe and willing to invest.

God says, "Believe Me, trust Me, try My plan, prove My ways, and see the kind of harvest I will give." So Paul guarantees this principle of truth in the Scripture with the promise, "And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work."

All grace, all ways, all sufficiency, all things! There are four promises in one breath. Knowing it is one thing, believing it is quite another.

29. Pop Quiz: Advent

Illustration

Matthew T. Phillips

On Friday, a teacher told his class that he was going to give a surprise quiz the following week. One clever student—we'll call him Jamie—went home and thought about this pop quiz. He didn't know the subject very well, and was upset that he was going to miss his whole weekend to study. Jamie tried to figure out what day the quiz might be. First, he noticed that it couldn't be Friday, because if they got to Thursday and hadn't had the quiz yet, then everyone would know it was on Friday, and the teacher had said it would be a surprise. Friday is out. Well, now the text couldn't be on Thursday, because if they got to Wednesday with no quiz then everyone would know the quiz was on Thursday, because Friday was already ruled out. Thursday is out too. By the same logic, the test couldn't be on Wednesday or Tuesday. That left Monday as the only possible day, so a test given that day wouldn't be a surprise. Jamie figured out there was no way for the teacher to give a surprise pop quiz, so he spent his weekend playing with his friends, going to church and youth, and watching Monty Python movies. Anyone want to guess what happened? The teacher gave the quiz on Wednesday morning, Jamie was surprised, and he failed.

Did I tell this story just to embarrass Jamie? Certainly not. We read Jesus' prophecy about his second coming, especially the part about the present generation not passing away before all these things come to be, and we reason that since, as far as we understand, part of the prophecy was not true, we should just read this all as a nice set of symbols. That part about expecting the master to come home and keeping awake—we don't really need to do that, because he hasn't come back in the past two thousand years. The odds are pretty good he won't come back this year either. Well, the odds were pretty good Jamie wouldn't fail the pop quiz.

30. Changed from the Inside Out

Illustration

King Duncan

God equips us for God's service though scripture. Paul writes to young Timothy, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."

How does the Bible rebuke, correct and train in righteousness? An old parable says it best.

An elderly man lived on a farm in the mountains of eastern Tennessee with his young grandson. Each morning, Grandpa was up early reading from his old worn‑out Bible.

His grandson, who wanted to be just like him, tried to imitate him in any way he could. One day the grandson asked, "Papa, I try to read the Bible just like you but I don't understand it, and what I do understand I forget as soon as I close the book. What good does reading the Bible do?"

The grandfather quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and said, "Take this coal basket down to the river and bring back a basket of water."

The boy did as he was told, even though all the water leaked out before he could get back to the house.

The grandfather laughed and said, "You will have to move a little faster next time," and sent him back to the river with the basket to try again.

This time the boy ran faster, but again the basket was empty before he returned home. Out of breath, he told his grandfather that it was "impossible to carry water in a basket," and he went to get a bucket instead.

The grandfather said, "I don't want a bucket of water; I want a basket of water. You can do this. You're just not trying hard enough," and he went out the door to watch the boy try again.

At this point, the boy knew it was impossible, but he wanted to show his grandfather that even if he ran as fast as he could, the water would leak out before he got far at all. The boy scooped the water and ran hard, but when he reached his grandfather the basket was again empty. Out of breath, he said, "See Papa, it's useless!"

"So you think it is useless?" The old man said, "Look at the basket."

The boy looked at the basket and for the first time he realized that the basket looked different. Instead of a dirty old coal basket, it was clean.

"Son, that's what happens when you read the Bible. You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read it, it will change you from the inside out."

31. The Tragedy of the Unprepared Life - Sermon Starter

Illustration

Brett Blair

There's a true story that comes form the sinking of the Titanic. A frightened woman found her place in a lifeboat that was about to be lowered into the raging North Atlantic. She suddenly thought of something she needed, so she asked permission to return to her stateroom before they cast off. She was granted three minutes or they would leave without her.

She ran across the deck that was already slanted at a dangerous angle. She raced through the gambling room with all the money that had rolled to one side, ankle deep. She came to her stateroom and quickly pushed a side her diamond rings and expensive bracelets and necklaces as she reached to the shelf above her bed and grabbed three small oranges. She quickly found her way back to the lifeboat and got in.

Now that seems incredible because thirty minutes earlier she would not have chosen a crate of oranges over the smallest diamond. But death had boarded the Titanic. One blast of its awful breath had transformed all values. Instantaneously, priceless things had become worthless. Worthless things had become priceless. And in that moment she preferred three small oranges to a crate of diamonds.

There are events in life, which have the power to transform the way we look at the world. Jesus' parable about the ten virgins offers one of these types of events, for the parable is about the Second Coming of Christ. But Jesus doesn't come right out and say this. Rather, he let's the story describe it for him. The woman on the sinking Titanic understood, in the light of her current circumstances, that she must make preparations for living on a lifeboat. Diamonds would not suffice, only the precious resources of an orange were good enough. Likewise, in this world where Christ may return at any moment, the parable warns, we must be ready.

Weddings are one of these kinds of events. And every time I have a wedding, I admonish those in the wedding to be ready, to make a special effort to be ready on the day of the ceremony. I plead with them to arrive early and be dressed and ready to go. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't.

Jesus' parable about a wedding, is told not from the vantage point of the bride and groom, but of the ten young maidens who had been invited to the happy occasion, five of them were foolish, said Jesus, five of them were wise. What was the measure of their wisdom? In a word, their readiness to be a part of the event. All of the young women had oil in their lamps, but five had an additional supply.

This is, of course, foreign to our concepts of weddings today. Weddings in our society are announced for a specific time and place, and if things are late in getting started, those invited guests begin to fidget a bit. But in first century Palestine, a wedding could happen anytime within several days. The uncertainty was considered a part of the excitement of the wedding. The bridegroom hoped to catch some of the bridal party napping. But fairness required that some announcement be made, so just before the big event a messenger was sent through the streets shouting: Behold the bridegroom commeth." The alert ones in the wedding party would respond, and the others would be left behind.

In Jesus parable, the cry came at midnight. This was often the case; most bridegrooms chose to come late at night. The sleeping attendants were awakened. It was then that they realized that they did not have enough oil in their lamps to get through the night. Panicked, they attempted to borrow some from the other bridesmaids. But they responded, "If we give you our oil, there won't be enough for us. Hurry out to the dealers and buy some yourself." So the five foolish maidens hurried out, but by the time they returned the door had already been closed. They knocked on the door and pleaded to be a part of the festivities, but the groom said: "If you belonged at this event you would already have been present." Jesus concluded: Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

What is this parable suggesting to us? I would like to make a few suggestions…

1. Some things cannot be borrowed.
2. Some things cannot be put off.
3. We can miss out on great opportunities.

32. The Event of Many Reasons

Illustration

Gary R. Habermas & J.P. Moreland

There are well over three hundred verses that deal with the subject of Jesus' resurrection. Here are different ways that the New Testament uses and treats the resurrection:

A sign for unbelievers (Matthew 12:38-40); cf. John 20:24-29)
The answer for the believer's doubt (Luke 24:38-43)
Serves as the guarantee that Jesus' teachings are true (Acts 2:22-24; 1 Corinthians 15:12-20)
The center of the gospel itself (Romans 4:24-25, 10:9; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4)
The impetus for evangelism (Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 10:39-43)
The key indication of the believer's daily power to live the Christian life (Rom. 6:4-14, 8:9-11; Phil. 3:10)
The reason for the total commitment of our lives (Rom. 7:4; 1 Cor. 15:57-58)
Addresses the fear of death (John 11:25; 1 Cor. 15:54-58; cf. Hebrews 2:14-15)
Related to the second coming of Jesus (Acts 1:11; Revelation 1:7)
A model of the Christian's resurrection from the dead (Acts 4:2; 1 Cor. 6:14; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)
Provides a foretaste of heaven for the believer (Philippians 3:20-21; 1 Peter 1:3-5)

33. Bearing The Cross

Illustration

Richard A. Jensen

At long last, Laura McDermott had fulfilled her lifelong dream. All she could ever think of doing with her life since she was a kid was to be a doctor. Now no one in the McDermott family had ever been to college before, let alone medical school. Her parents, therefore, were constantly reminding her of the obstacles in her path. "Are you sure you know what you are getting into?" her parents would quiz her periodically. Laura's friends pointed to other obstacles. "Are you sure you want to put yourself through that much schooling? It's really hard work. Is it worth it?"

Laura McDermott persisted. She got through college and medical school. Laura McDermott was a doctor at last. She had lived her dream. But the dream soon turned into a nightmare. Dr. McDermott was hired to work with a group of physicians. That's exactly as she had imagined it. She would be one of two general practitioners in a group which included many specialists as well. An ideal work environment she thought. And it started out well. Soon enough, however, problems began to emerge.

The first problem that faced Dr. McDermott was that she was one of only two women doctors on the clinic staff. The other G.P. was a man with a few years' experience. It became clear to her quite soon that he was getting far more referrals than she was from the other physicians at the clinic. What was even worse, however, was that when she referred patients to some of the specialists they would quite often check out her referral with the other G.P. Her peers clearly did not trust her judgment.

Laura did not know what to make of this situation. Was it because she was young that this happened or because she was a woman? She tried to find out. She asked hard questions around the clinic. But she got no straight answers. It was like a conspiracy of silence had formed around her. Dr. McDermott was devastated.

The other problem was that she just didn't like some of the doctors with whom she worked. They were just not nice people she thought. Friction was in the air at the clinic all the time because of the personalities that worked there. It was not a good work atmosphere. She hated to go to work each day. The whole situation was just awful.

The situation got so bad, in fact, that Dr. McDermott just had to talk to somebody about it. At her church she had met and made friends with another woman about her age, Doris Pagel, who worked for the local chamber of commerce. Laura thought that Doris might have some insights for her about the kind of people that made up their town. Maybe she had the situation figured out all wrong. She hoped Doris could help.

Dr. McDermott took Doris Pagel out for dinner one night and told her sad tale. Doris' first reaction caught Laura by surprise. "Nobody ever said being a doctor would be easy," she said. Laura assured Doris that she knew that. It's just that so many other things had entered the picture that surprised her with the reality of just how hard it was for her to serve God by living out her vocation as a doctor.

"Well you know," said Doris, "I read somewhere that we don't choose our own crosses. God just lays crosses upon us in the midst of our attempts to serve. Through our struggles God is often at work molding us into the kind of person God wants us to be.""

34. Without You We Are Sunk

Illustration

Billy D. Strayhorn

A little boy offered up a Thanksgiving Day prayer for the family and prayed: "Dear God, this is Jimmy. Thank you for Thanksgiving and Christmas and all of the holidays. Thank you for the turkey and dressing and Mom and Dad and even for my little sister, even though some times she can be a pain. Thank you for books and TV and game boy. Thank you for loving us. Oh, yeah. And take care of yourself, God. Because without you, we're sunk. Amen."

No matter what timetable we come up with. No matter what schedule or interpretation of schedules we come up with for the Second Coming, God is still in control. Jesus said, "But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."

As an heir, claim that promise, too. We're simply called to be aware and keep watch through saying, "Yes," to the King.

35. The Absurdity of the the Resurrection

Illustration

Thomas Long

In John Updike's A Month of Sundays there is a story that illustrates the absurdity of the the resurrection and maybe the story is more about beleif in it is a bit absurd: Clint Tidwell is the pastor of a church in a small Southern town, and one of his blessings and one of his curses is that the 80-year-old owner and still-active editor of the local newspaper is a member of his congregation. The blessing part is that this old journalist believes Tidwell to be one of the finest preachers around, and, wishing the whole town to benefit from this homiletical wisdom, he publishes a summary of Tidwell's Sunday sermon every Monday morning in the paper. The curse part is that this newspaperman, though well meaning, is a bit on the dotty and eccentric side, and Tidwell is often astonished to read the synopses of his sermons. The man owns the newspaper; nobody dares edit his columns, and the difference between what Tidwell thought he said and what the editor actually heard is often a source of profound amazement and embarrassment to Tidwell.

Tidwell's deepest amazement and embarrassment, however, came not when the newspaper editor misunderstood the Sunday sermon but, to the contrary, when he understood it all too sharply and clearly. It was early on the Monday morning after Easter, and Tidwell, in his bathrobe and slippers, was padding out the carport door to retrieve the Monday newspaper. The paper was lying at the end of the driveway, and, as Tidwell approached, he could see that the morning headline was in "second coming" sized type. What could it be? he wondered. Had war broken out somewhere? Had the local bank failed over the weekend? Had a cure for cancer been discovered? As he drew close enough to focus on the headline, he was startled to read the words, "Tidwell Claims Jesus Christ Rose From The Dead."

A red flush crept up Tidwell's neck. Yes, of course, he had claimed in yesterday's sermon that Christ rose from the dead, but golly, was that headline news? What would the neighbors think? I mean, you're supposed to say that on Easter, aren't you, that Christ rose from the dead, but that's not like saying that some person who died last week had risen from the grave, is it? Suddenly, as he looked at the screaming headline, what had been a routine Easter sermon had Tidwell feeling rather foolish.

Indeed, it is foolish the foolishness of the gospel. Those who gather on this Easter Day to sing and say that "Jesus Christ is Risen Today" do so not because we have proved anything philosophically, discerned some mystical key to the Scripture, or found some unassailable piece of historical evidence. We believe in the resurrection because the beloved disciple, the forerunner of all Easter faith, believed and passed the word along all the way into the present, prompting frail folks, like Tidwell and like us, to say what we believe: "I believe in Jesus Christ, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, crucified, dead and buried. He descended into hell -- and dare we believe it? Dare we wager everything on it? -- rose again on the third day."

36. Enough

Illustration

King Duncan

Gregory L. Fisher in Leadership magazine tells of teaching a class at the West African Bible College. One day the class was discussing the Second Coming of Christ. A student asked Fisher a question that took him by surprise. The question was this: "What will he say when he shouts?"

The student said, "Reverend, 1 Thessalonians 4:16 says that Christ will descend from heaven with a loud command. I would like to know what that command will be."

Fisher wanted to leave the question unanswered, to tell the student that they must not go past what Scripture has revealed, but his mind wandered to an encounter he had earlier in the day with a refugee from the Liberian civil war. The man, a high school principal, told him how he was apprehended by a two‑man death squad. After several hours of terror, as the men described how they would torture and kill him, he narrowly escaped. After hiding in the bush for two days, he was able to find his family and escape to a neighboring country. The escape cost him dearly: two of his children lost their lives. The stark cruelty unleashed on an unsuspecting, undeserving population had touched Fisher deeply. He also saw flashbacks of the beggars that he passed each morning on his way to the office. Every day he saw how poverty destroys dignity, robs people of the best of what it means to be human, and sometimes substitutes the worst of what it means to be an animal. Fisher says even now he is haunted by the vacant eyes of people who have lost all hope.

"Reverend, you have not given me an answer," the student demanded. "What will [Christ] say?"

The question hadn't gone away. "Enough," Fisher said in answer to the question. "He will shout, Enough! when he returns."

A look of surprise opened the face of the student. "What do you mean, enough?" And Fisher said firmly, "Enough suffering. Enough starvation. Enough terror. Enough death. Enough indignity. Enough lives trapped in hopelessness. Enough sickness and disease. Enough time. ENOUGH!"

37. The Creed of Chalcedon

Illustration

Staff

We, then, following the holy fathers, all with one consent teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a rational soul and body; coessential with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the mother of God, according to the manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one person and one subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ; as the prophets from the beginning have declared concerning Him, and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself has taught us, and the creed of the holy fathers has handed down to us.

Note: The Chalcedonian Definition is a declaration of Christ's nature, adopted at the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451. Chalcedon was an early centre of Christianity located in Asia Minor. The council was the fourth of the Ecumenical Councils that are accepted by Chalcedonian churches which include the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, the Anglican Communion and most Protestant churches. It was the first council not to be recognised by any Oriental Orthodox church; for this reason these churches may be classified as Non-Chalcedonian.

38. I Want You All to Get A’s

Illustration

Will Willimon

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard that cries out against our sense of judgment. We cannot help but puzzle and protest over the actions of the landowner. We cannot avoid the conclusion that this story is just not fair.

William Willimon gives the story a modern twist: First day of class the professor says, "Now class, this is a course in advanced mathematics. Your entire grade will be based upon your solution of a very difficult mathematical problem. And I want you all to do well. I want everyone to get an A. So I am going to go ahead and give you the problem. I urge you to begin work on it right away, because it is a real challenge."

You do not want to happen again what happened last semester. So you set aside some time every day to do work on the problem. But you are somewhat surprised when Jane, one of the girls in the class, comes up to you at a party a few weeks later and asks, "Didn't that math professor give us something to work on during the first class?"

You can hardly believe your ears. Is she in for a big surprise! She hasn't even begun to work on the problem!

"Could I come by some time and get the problem?" Jane asks.

But she never does and you are even more surprised when three weeks before the end of the semester, John bumps into you again, in the cafeteria and says, "Somebody said we were supposed to do something for that math class. I don't seem to have the problem. Could I get it from you? I plan to get started on it soon as I can."

There's no way she'll get it finished! Tough luck for her. You can't be responsible for these irresponsible types. Last day of the class. You have been working most of the night before but you have finished the problem. You purchase one of those blue, see through folders to contain your work. Professors love those. You are at the head of the line to proudly hand in your folder. The professor quickly glances at your work, "Good," she says, "good, looks fine. I think you have just earned yourself an A."

You are a bit surprised to see Jane in line behind you. She also has her work to hand in, though it is in a red folder. The professor takes her work, glances over it as well. "Good work Jane. See? You are good in math. Looks like you got an A."

How did she do it? You are about to find out. Jane says to the professor, "Well, you know I couldn't have done it without you. Thanks for all those afternoons that you spent with me. I've never had a professor who has been willing to spend four afternoons a week, coaching a student for hours. Thanks. You are a great teacher!"

What?

Then there's John. His work isn't in a folder. But there is a stack of papers in his greasy little hands. He thrusts it toward the professor. She looks at his papers and says, "John, excellent. You got the problem right, from what I can see. I'm sure you'll get an A."

"Well, er, thanks professor. And I want to apologize for what my roommate said when you knocked on our door last night. See, we've never had a professor in the dorm before. What time did you get home last night? It had to be about dawn. Thanks for all your help on the work."

There are murmurings of injustice in your heart. What is this? Is this any way to run a math class? You are incensed.

"What's the problem?" asks the professor. "Didn't I make clear, at the beginning of this class, that I wanted all of you to make an A. You got an A, the others also got an A. What's the problem?"

You look at your A. But somehow it doesn't feel like an A now that everyone has one, what with this professor and her midnight forays into the dorms and her spoon feeding everyone else. "Look at it this way," she says to you, "I'm a teacher. I teach. I want everyone to learn. They needed a bit of an extra nudge, you didn't. Why do you begrudge my generosity?

39. Hurry Hinders Ministry - Sermon Opener

Illustration

Staff

An ethics professor at Princeton Seminary asked for volunteers for an extra assignment. About half the class met him at the library to receive their assignments. The professor divided the students into three groups of five each. He gave the first group envelopes telling them to proceed immediately across campus to Stewart Hall. He told them that they had 15 minutes and if they didn't arrive on time, it would affect their grade. A minute or two later, he handed out envelopes to five others. They were also to go over to Stewart Hall, but they had 45 minutes. The third group had three hours to get to Stewart Hall. The students weren't aware of it, but the professor had arranged for three drama students to meet them along the way. Close to the beginning of their walk, one of the drama students had his hands on his head and was moaning aloud as if in great pain. About half way to Stewart Hall, on the steps of the chapel, the seminary students passed a man who was lying face down as if unconscious. Finally, on the steps of Stewart Hall, the third drama student was acting out a seizure. In the first group of students, those who had only 15 minutes to get across campus, no one stopped to help. In the second group, two students stopped to help. In the last group, the one that had three hours for their assignment, all of the students stopped to help at least one person. The professor had clearly shown these seminarians that hurry hinders ministry.

The disciples have been out on their own preaching, driving out demons, and anointing and healing the sick. When they return they gather around Jesus and report in. They had done good work and they must have been excited about the new authority they held in the name of Jesus. Jesus must have been excited to see his apostles too; he wanted to hear about their experiences, so he invites them to come aside. "Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while," Jesus said.

What is Jesus trying to get across to his disciples? He is trying to tell them and tell you and me that:

1. We Need to Take Time to Be Present to One Another
2. Saving Time Is Not Making Time
3. Let God Give You Time

40. The Senility Prayer

Illustration

Brett Blair

Have you ever felt unprepared? I mean for Christ's second coming? At times I know that if the sky cracked open and the trumpet sounded for the saints to be called home I would not be ready. Reinhold Niebuhr was a famous theologian known to most all us clergy. You perhaps are not familiar with him but you are familiar with his prayer:

God grant me the serenity,
To accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.

The world has adopted this prayer and made it powerless. Here's the rest of it...

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace.
Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it.
Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His will. [there's the power]
That I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with Him forever in the next. Amen.

We know it as the Serenity Prayer and it conveys an attitude I like very well. On many occasions I absolutely refuse to accept people I know I have no possibility of changing. On other occasions I don't have the courage to root out some sin from my life. Why? Cause I don't wanna'. And wisdom? Well, you know very well that's in short supply. The more I can adopt the attitude of the serenity prayer the more ready I know I will be for His coming.

But unfortunately many of us are like the elderly lady who in jest posted on her door in the retirement village the "Senility Prayer":

God, grant me the senility
To forget the people I've never liked,
The good fortune to run into the ones that I do like,
And the eyesight to tell the difference.

41. When the Bells Ring

Illustration

James Dobson

In my first film series, "Focus on the Family," I shared a story about a 5-year-old African-American boy who will never be forgotten by those who knew him. A nurse with whom I worked, Gracie Schaeffler, took care of this lad during the latter days of his life. He was dying of lung cancer, which is a terrifying disease in its final stages. The lungs fill with fluid, and the patient is unable to breathe. It is terribly claustrophobic, especially for a small child.

This little boy had a Christian mother who loved him and stayed by his side through the long ordeal. She cradled him on her lap and talked softly about the Lord. Instinctively, the woman was preparing her son for the final hours to come. Gracie told me that she entered his room one day as death approached, and she heard this lad talking about hearing bells. "The bells are ringing, Mommie," he said. "I can hear them."

Gracie thought he was hallucinating. She left and returned a few minutes later and again heard him talking about the bells ringing. The nurse said to his mother, 'I'm sure you know your baby is hearing things that aren't there. He is hallucinating because of the sickness."

The mother pulled her son closer to her chest, smiled and said, "No, Miss Schaeffler. He is not hallucinating. I told him when he was frightened when he couldn't breathe if he would listen carefully, he could hear the bells of heaven ringing for him. That is what he's been talking about all day."

That precious child died on his mother's lap later that evening, and he was still talking about the bells of heaven when the angels came to take him. What a brave boy!

42. Second Coming

Illustration

R. Geoffrey Brown

I would like to take you, if I could, to a graphic portrayal of the Word of God in a great cathedral in Milan. Come in out of the glare of the Italian sunshine, pass through the cathedral doors, and suddenly see stretching out before you, Europe's third largest cathedral where fifty-two marbled columns hold up the lofty, octagonal dome, with over 4,400 turrets and pinnacles. Statues of angels rise all about us, and the effect is one of an incomparable combination of grace and grandeur, beauty and vastness.

Up front behind the altar, like a window opening out of heaven, is one of the largest stained glass windows in the world. Depicted here is not an Old Testament scene. That stained glass window does not depict the resurrection of Jesus Christ the Lord, not his crucifixion or ascension. With tremendous imagery the window depicts the triumph of Jesus Christ the Lord, his second coming.

The afternoon sun strains in, turning the window into a sea of glass mingled with fire. You see the vials being outpoured, the trumpets, Michael and his angels in battle against the dragon, the great angel with the rainbow upon his head and one foot upon the earth and the other upon the heaven, declaring in the name of him who lives forever and ever that time shall be no longer. Bound with a chain, Satan is thrown into the bottomless pit at last. The great white throne glows in the sunlight.

Most impressive of all is the great, white horse. Upon the horse sits a still greater rider with the armies of heaven behind him. He comes to set everything straight at last for everyone of us who has hoped in him, and for everyone who has been subjected to the pain and prejudice of living for Jesus Christ in a world seemingly gone mad.

43. The Prayer of Cyrus Brown

Illustration

Sam Walter Foss

Years ago Sam Walter Foss wrote a poem expressing the unimportance of the posture of prayer. He called it, The Prayer of Cyrus Brown:

"The proper way for a man to pray,"
Said Deacon Lemuel Keyes
"And the only proper attitude
Is down upon his knees."

"Nay, I should say the way to pray,"
Said Reverend Doctor Wise,
"Is standing straight with outstretched arms
And rapt and upturned eyes."

"Oh, no, no, no,"
said Elder Slow,
Such posture is too proud.
"A man should pray with eyes fast-closed
And head contritely bowed."

"It seems to me his hands should be
Austerely clasped in front
With both thumbs pointing toward the ground."
Said Reverend Doctor Blunt.

"Last year I fell in Hidgekin's well
Headfirst," said Cyrus Brown,
"With both my heels a-stickin' up
And my head a-pointin' down.
And I made a prayer right then and there,
The best prayer I ever said,
The prayingest prayer I ever prayed,
A-standin' on my head."

44. Song of the Vineyard

Illustration

Larry Powell

Three observations about Isaiah’s "Song of the Vineyard":

1. It was a song. That is to say, it was a marked variation in the prophet’s manner of proclamation. Isaiah was an eloquent, forthright orator, not a balladeer. It has been suggested that the reason for this temporary departure in style may have been the circumstances at that particular time. Deuteronomy 16:13-16 describes the carnival-like atmosphere which occurred in the ancient Feast of Booths. Some commentators have surmised that Isaiah rendered this specific message at such an occasion, in a manner consistent with the mood of the observance. However, there was perhaps another reason for the message being contained in a song.

It has been told that Arkansas’ own Jimmy Driftwood was once a teacher in the public school system. It seems that in the course of his instruction, he was given the unenviable responsibility of teaching American History to an especially rowdy, belligerent group of students who either misbehaved or daydreamed throughout his lectures. Driftwood, a singer and songwriter, decided to undertake an experiment. He set a portion of the history lesson to music and somehow managed to get his maverick charges to sing along with him. "In 1814 we took a little trip, we went with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip." When the song was finished, the class remembered it, continued to sing it throughout the day and days following, and enjoyed having learned about the Battle of New Orleans in a way they could remember. Novel, yes, but the message was clearly conveyed and, just as importantly, remembered. Perhaps there is more significance to Isaiah’s "Song of the Vineyard" than first meets the eye.

2. The Song was a parable. God had planted Israel as a vineyard on a high place. He anticipated a magnificent yield. God had cleared the land of impediments to growth (Canaanites and others), planted premium vines, and set a watchtower over the vineyard. But alas, the harvest turned out to be sour fruit.

3. The song was the basis for Jesus’ Parable of the Vineyard. Compare Isaiah’s song of the vineyard with Mark 12:1-12. For both accounts, Jeremiah 2:21 provides a fitting epilogue: "I planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine?"

45. Natural Disasters and The Second Coming

Illustration

Brett Blair

Some folk in Seattle were sure the end of the earth would come in the year 2000. Earthquakes. Floods, wars, and tornadoes will devastate the earth, they said, by the year 2001. They had planed to build an airship so they could escape. I wish I knew what these people are doing right now. Whatever good or ill lies ahead in life we need not worry about some human device to reassure us. In His own good time "the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout" and "we which are alive shall he caught up to meet him in the air." We have nothing to fear, and the only preparation we need to make is to stay close to the Lord Jesus and keep our lives pure.

46. Called Together

Illustration

Martin Luther

In his Large Catechism Martin Luther describes the church: "There is on earth a little holy flock or community of pure saints under one head, Christ. It is called together by the Holy Spirit in one faith. I was brought to it by the Holy Spirit and incorporated into it through the fact that I have heard and still hear God’s Word. In this Christian church we have the forgiveness of sins, which is granted through the holy sacraments and…the Gospel"

47. Out of the Darkness

Illustration

Out of the dark forbidding soil
The pure white lilies grow.
Out of the black and murky clouds,
Descends the stainless snow.

Out of the crawling earth-bound worm
A butterfly is born.
Out of the somber shrouded night,
Behold! A golden morn!

Out of the pain and stress of life,
The peace of God pours down.
Out of the nails the spear the cross,
Redemption and a crown!

48. Hell is Self-Worship

Illustration

Michael P. Green

Margaret Evening (pseud.) relates the following in her book Who Walk Alone (p. 38):

Many years ago I had a dream. It was one of the few coherent dreams that I have ever had, but it was so vivid that even now I can remember the details of it clearly.

In the dream, I visited Hell, where the sub-Warden showed me round. To my surprise, I was led along a labyrinth of dark, dank passages from which there were numerous doors leading into cells. It was not like Hell as I had pictured it at all. In fact, it was all rather religious and “churchy”! Each cell was identical. The central piece of furniture was an altar, and before each altar knelt (or, in some cases, were prostrated) greeny-grey spectral figures in attitudes of prayer and adoration. “But whom are they worshipping?” I asked my guide. “Themselves,” came the reply immediately. “This is ‘pure’ self-worship. They are feeding on themselves and their own spiritual vitality in a kind of auto-spiritual-cannibalism. That is why they are so sickly looking and emaciated.”

was appalled and saddened by the row upon row of cells with their non-communicating inmates, spending eternity in solitary confinement, themselves the first, last and only object of worship.

The message was clear. According to the teaching of the New Testament, Heaven is community. My dream reminded me that Hell is isolation.

49. One’s Proper Service

Illustration

Larry Powell

I read that a member of a United Methodist church in North Carolina was once convicted in court for disrupting church services because of his atrocious singing. It was in 1873 that William Linkhaw was hauled into county court in Lumberton, Robeson County, N.C., by fellow Methodists who charged that Linkhaw’s singing repeatedly created havoc during worship services. Not only was his voice offensive to the ear, but he was given to singing long after the rest of the congregation had stopped. Things had become so disconcerting that even the minister refused to sing. Consequently, Linkhaw was found guilty of a misdemeanor and ordered to remain silent in church. However, the state supreme court overturned the conviction, sympathetic to Linkhaw’s claim that singing was a part of his service to God. I was interested in this particular item because I well remember when an old fellow in my home church was asked to surrender his choir robe on the same grounds. As a boy, it struck me as rather ridiculous that those of us in the choir, many of whom could not carry a tune in a wheelbarrow, should presume to single out Mr. X. After all, he was an affable gentlemen who had been a member of the choir for probably fifty years. He was not a person of means and not physically able to participate in the church’s visitation program or serve on any committee. His days were spent sitting at home with his good wife who had been in poor health for as long as I could remember. He could however, do one thing for his church. He could manage to get away for a couple of hours on Sunday morning and sing in the choir. His service though, as precious as it was to him, was no longer appreciated. I suppose the rationale behind the choir’s decision was the Mr. X’s service was no longer "proper."

What is one’s proper service to God? In Isaiah’s day, the supreme service was considered to be "fasting." Widely practiced as a kind of personal purge and expression of humility, fasting was a common experience among the devout throughout the ancient world. The Israelites incorporated fasting in national religious life more prominently after Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians in 586 B.C. Unfortunately, the Jews mistook this particular gesture as a guarantee of spiritual righteousness; a kind of "automatic purification" which placed them blameless before God. Consequently, it was inconceivable to them that hardships would continue following their dedicated "service." When hardships would continue, they felt an explanation was in order: "Why have we fasted and thou seest it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and thou takest no knowledge of it" (58:3). Listen to God’s answer: "Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high" (58:3, 4). Their service was unacceptable. In a word, it was mechanical; in another word, it was self-serving. In still yet another word, it was presumptuous. The service which God seeks involves the extension of his love for others and in an attitude of praise. In the words of John Wesley, serving God means, "serving neighbors, whether they be friends or adversaries, doing good to every man and willingly hurting no man." Wesley practiced what he preached. He traveled about 225,000 miles, preached about 50,000 times to crowds small and large, often up to 20,000, occasionally facing hostile mobs and barrages of stone and mud. But he had a plucky, game spirit, going on to the next town, leaving his class and "bands" to multiply. The service of outreach performed by Wesley, even with our precise statistics and access to his faithfully kept journals, is measureless.

Isaiah scored the people of Israel for indulging in perfunctory rituals, mistaking them for "service." Instead, he laid down God’s prescription for service: "to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke ... to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him" (58:6-7).

William Linkhaw believed that a part of his service to God was to sing in the church choir. I am inclined to agree with him. His voice may have been off key, but his comprehension of service to God was not. What is your service to God?

50. Hearing the Voice of God

Illustration

John R. Brokhoff

How would you react if you really heard the voice of God? Once there was a man who had the habit of going to a barn every evening, taking off his hat, and saying, "Howdy God, I am here." Then he would begin to preach to an empty barn. Some pranksters plotted to pull a trick on him. They hid in the barn, and when he said, "Howdy God, I am here", with a deep voice they answered, "Howdy, Jim, I am here." Well, Jim dropped his hat and took off, and never again was he seen at the barn.

When we confront the holiness of Jesus as Peter did, we will have a sense of awe and unworthiness before the purity and perfection of Christ. Peter fell on his knees and said, "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man." Haven't we in the church lost something of this unworthiness in the presence of the holy Christ? It is not uncommon to hear no confession of sins in a worship service. If you come to the pure Jesus, why do you not instinctively say, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner"?

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