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Sharing the love of Jesus Christ

Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. (John 4:21–23)

When the apostle Paul stood up and preached on Mars Hill, he told his hearers that they were worshipping a Creator they did not know. They lacked understanding. Then he said, “The One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you” (Acts 17:23).

A view of Athens from Mars Hill. Photo: Glen Jackman 2002

While we often refer to the gospel as a message, we need to understand something as Christians: in reality, preaching the person of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We are magnifying the Saviour so that people will flee to Him for mercy, and when they do, their status changes—from His enemy to His friend. Jesus asked the woman to believe Him. While sceptics often look down on believers with disdain, we know that believing has life-changing ramifications.

If you believe that you are drinking poison cool-aid, you will stop. Beliefs govern our actions and believing the gospel changes our eternal destiny.

Today ​you and I may be with people who ignorantly believe in an idea of God. They may lack knowledge. How can you have ​the ​courage to share the truth of Jesus Christ’s love like Paul did? You must convince yourself from scripture to clarify your assurance that you have eternal salvation in Jesus Christ. Then with the same scriptures, you can share the biblical truths as did the apostles in the early days after Christ’s death and resurrection.

Father, today let me see unbelievers or confused believers through your ​loving ​eyes. Help me be prepared to share your grace with others in love that generates hope and faith.

Inspired by: Jesus in Red: 365 Meditations on the Words of Jesus

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God gave them up

I invite you to turn with me to Romans and to chapter 1 and to follow along as I read from the sixteenth verse through to the end of verse 25. Romans 1:16. We’re becoming familiar with these words, and purposefully so, so that we might follow the line of Paul’s great declaration concerning the nature of the gospel and why it is so important. And he writes,

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”

All that we need is you, Jesus. Now, as we turn to the book which tells us all about you, grant that we might meet you in its pages, that we might hear your voice as its word is spoken, and that our hearts may become the throne room in which you take your rightful place. For we ask it in your name, Lord Jesus. Amen.

In her book The World Turned Upside Down, Melanie Phillips, who is an English journalist and columnist and someone that we have had dealings with in the past when she was here as our guest, she writes as an agnostic but an observant Jew. And in that book, which she wrote, I think, probably ten years or more ago now, she observed then, “Society seems to be in the grip of a mass derangement.” There is a “sense that the world has slipped off the axis of reason”—thus posing the question, “How is anyone to work out who [has the answer] in [the midst of] such a babble of ‘experts’ and with so much conflicting information?”[1] She then sets out the case that “there has been a departure from reason and [from] logic because,” as she writes, “objectivity has been replaced in large measure by ideology.”[2]

And I started to reread the book this week. I read it some time ago. And I was struck again—and I went looking for this—but I was struck by the absence in her writing. As I say, she writes as an observant Jew, and many of the points that she makes are profoundly helpful. What is missing in her analysis, as far as I can see, is any recognition of Genesis chapter 3. She mentions Genesis with a fair amount of emphasis, but there is no mention of chapter 3.

And that is a significant absence. Because chapter 3 of Genesis actually provides the answer to the question that she poses. How is it that the world that God has made in its entirety and in its perfection, pronouncing upon his creation that everything was good—how is it that within a matter of a few verses, in turning to chapter 4, everything has gone haywire? Why is it that now in chapter 4 we have murder, we have the breakdown of relationships, we have corruption, we essentially have madness?

And, of course, that’s the question that people are asking. People are asking this question all the time: “Why is the world the way it is? Why is it that if this good and all-powerful God that you want to talk about at Parkside is actually as good and as powerful as the Bible claims, why is it that all of this chaos ensues? Why the suffering? Why the sadness? Why the mayhem that has been represented in our news broadcasts even in the week that has passed?” And the answer is in chapter 3.

Now, we’re not doing a study in Genesis at the moment. But I was asked to address this at the Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy this past Thursday. And since I had to study it, you might as well be the beneficiaries of a few observations.

Adam and Eve, instead of trusting God—you can read it for homework—instead of trusting God, they believed a lie. They believed a lie. And as a result of that, the world was no longer as God had made it but now became the world as man had spoiled it by sin. What was it that they had done? Well, they had actually rebelled against God. They essentially said by their actions, “We know what’s best for us. We can figure it out from here.” They have made the determination, in accordance with the lie that the serpent gave to them, that somehow or another, God wants to deprive them of that which would make them all that they might become. And in believing that, they were banished from the garden, they were alienated from God, they no longer enjoyed God’s friendship, and they had no means of reentry into the garden—unless, of course, God himself would provide that way of reentry.

And, of course, we have the first hint of how God is going to do that right there in Genesis 3:15, where

the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”[3]

Now, Paul is going to address this. In fact, he is addressing this, essentially, in the verses that we are focusing on now. But he puts it succinctly by the time he gets to chapter 5 and right around verse 18 and 19. He writes, “For … by … one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous”[4]—thus commenting on the fall of man into the predicament which is true of the entirety of humanity. That’s what the Bible says, whether we like it or whether we don’t.

Everyone needs the gospel. It’s very straightforward. It’s a gospel for everyone.

Now, with that by way of introduction, look at Romans 1:24. Hopefully you kept your finger there. “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity”—or a better word might be “uncleanness” (I think the King James uses “uncleanness”; I don’t recall)—to uncleanness, “to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!”

Now, what we’re doing here in the second half of Romans 1 is essentially viewing God’s world through the lens of God’s Word. We’re looking to the Word of God to explain the world of God. Or, better still, we are seeking to see the world in light of the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are understanding the world in its predicament in light of God’s provision in the person of Jesus for a world that has turned upside down. And that’s why we began a few weeks ago reminding ourselves that Paul was “eager”[5] to proclaim this good news, because, by way of rehearsal of what we know, he says he’s “not ashamed” of this gospel, because it is a gospel for “everyone.” For “everyone.”

Now, we need to remember this. Why is it a gospel for everyone? Because everyone needs the gospel. It’s very straightforward. It’s a gospel for everyone. It’s a gospel for atheists and agnostics, for Jews, for gentiles, for Buddhists, for Hindus, for Muslims, for the lost and the lonely, for the happy and the successful, for those who’ve figured out their gender and those who can’t figure out their gender. It is a gospel for the whole world.

Let that truth settle for a moment. Do you know of anything that is necessary for the entire world apart from the air that we breathe? Nobody would make that claim, would they? I don’t know of anybody, really. No religious leader would make that claim. But that’s what the Bible says.

And the reason that the gospel is needed by all is because all of us are in a hopeless and a helpless situation. We are, all of us, under God’s wrath—verse 18. Now, there are no exceptions to this. Paul is making his case all the way through into chapter 3, and he’s going to say, “Whether you are an irreligious gentile or whether you’re an observant Jew, it doesn’t matter. Here’s the problem: God has acted in such a way that the whole world will have its mouth stopped by way of argument or defense. And it will become apparent that the whole world is accountable to God.”

Now, this is something that is largely unpalatable. You don’t hear much of it in the press. You won’t, certainly, hear it in many congregations, because everybody wants to be liked and to be affirmed, and that’s true of the pastors as well. And so why get into stuff like this? There are many other things that we could talk about. But here we have it: that God’s anger is on account of our wickedness—our wickedness, whereby, as we’ve seen earlier, we suppress the truth. We refuse to acknowledge the truth we know. And we saw that in the last couple of studies: that this has been made known to us. Even the invisible qualities of God, his power and his divinity, are clearly perceived in the things that have been made.

Let me just take a brief discursus here for a moment and speak to some of our young people, who are increasingly living in a world where the idea of rationality is peculiarly on the side of science, and you are being told routinely that if you want to get into the realm of faith, then you must leave the realm of rationality and move into a strange category. This is challenged on every front, and not least of all by some who, in the course of their lives, have made the pilgrimage from atheism to theism.

For example, Antony Flew, in our generation: a fairly militant philosopher of an atheist. And in the course of thinking, in the course of using his brain, in the course of processing information, he has left atheism behind, and he has become at least a theist, a God believer. I don’t know. So is it like, a bit, the first part of C. S. Lewis’s conversion, where he moved from atheism to theism, before he actually comes to trust in Jesus? I don’t know where Flew is in relationship to that. But Flew makes the point that “to hold that reason … accounts for everything in the universe”—this is him—to suggest the idea that “reason … accounts for everything in the universe is profoundly unreasonable.” He says “the scientific atheists … overlook the most important aspect of all: the ineffable”—which is a word from a hymn—“the ineffable mysteriousness of self-consciousness, which is the ‘most obvious and unassailable and the most lethal’ argument against the materialist worldview.” The self, he writes,

cannot be explained in terms of physics or chemistry. These cannot explain phenomena in nature such as the code-processing systems of information in the cell; the fact that these have goals such as reproduction; or subjective awareness and conceptual thought. The only coherent explanation is that these are “supra-physical” phenomena—and these can only have originated in a “supra-physical” source.[6]

So he says,

[It is] simply inconceivable that any material matrix or field can generate agents who think and act. Matter cannot produce conceptions and perceptions. A force field does not plan or think. So at the level of reason and everyday experience, we become immediately aware that the world of living, conscious, thinking beings has to originate in a living Source, a Mind.[7]

Melanie goes on,

But scientific materialism holds that religion can be given no quarter whatever and that matter somehow created itself. Far from upholding reason, science itself has therefore become unreasonable. And so, in the name of scientific reason, many scientists are now departing from their own rules. Detached from its conceptual anchorage, science effectively turned man into God and decided that truth was only what science declared it to be.[8]

Now, that brief discursus is simply to say to some of you who live in a world that I don’t inhabit, which is a scientific world: just think, and process information, and don’t allow yourselves to be driven into a corner under the disguised notion that somehow or another, rationality exists only in the realm of scientific endeavor. This is not a matter of irrationality. It is not a matter of leaping into the dark. This is a matter of leaping into the light, as it were, as the truth begins to dawn.

And that’s why—you can see he goes on to say, verse 22—behind a facade of wisdom, “they became fools.” “They became fools.” It’s so foolish, says Paul, to bow down to idols of our own making—to create something and then take it in your bedroom and to say, “Oh, dear little thing, please help me with my exams. Please help me with my life. Please help me with my MRI. Please…” Have you lost your mind? What are you doing in there with that thing? He says it’s insanity, isn’t it? Idols of our own making, replacing God. Essentially, we replace God with ourselves. Because we don’t want God to be God. “Why don’t you believe in God?” “I don’t want to believe in God.”

And here’s the grave thing. Here’s the gravity of all of this. For those of us who are praying and coming to pray tonight for friends and loved ones who are on a different plane when it comes to these questions, here’s the gravity of it: we do not understand, or we are unprepared to accept, the helplessness of our situation. Despite everything that is going on in our world at a macro level between the nations, and down at the tiny levels, and in the chaos of all that was taking place with this unsolved quadruple murder this week—all of this is there. And still mankind says, “No, no, no, no. We’ll be able to fix it.”

Shakespeare was ahead of the game in so many ways, wasn’t he? Remember, after Hamlet has learned that he has now been entrusted with the responsibility of avenging his father’s murder—his father has been murdered by Hamlet’s uncle—you remember what he says? “The time is out of joint.” “The time is out of joint. O cursèd spite that ever I was born to [put] it right!”[9] Everything seems to be broken.

And we feel, actually, in ourselves, in our self-confidence, that actually, no matter how messed up it might be, there’s nothing we can’t fix. It’s quite surprising, really, isn’t it, when you think this was written to first-century Rome? And here we are, all these thousands of years later, and the immediate application of what he’s writing here in the twenty-first century proves unassailably the fact that we cannot fix it. The succession of governments, whether Republican, Democratic, Conservative, Labor, whatever they might be: here we are, proving the fact that neither by education nor by legislation—nor, actually, by totalitarian domination—are we able to fix the fundamental problem that is before us.

We’re actually like some people who, having a chest cough as I do, decide that they have no interest in going for a scan, no interest in having an MRI, for fear that the predicament is actually more dangerous than one is prepared to face. So they say, “Well, if I don’t find out about it, then I don’t need to really worry about it, and therefore, it won’t really have any impact at all.” (Incidentally, I’m not remotely worried about this cough, but I just… Of course, I think you’re aware of the fact. So that wasn’t a personal anecdote there.) But we don’t want to come into the light of God’s Word, do we? We don’t want to have him scan us, because we might find out that he’s absolutely right.

What we’re being told here, what we’re discovering, is that we are rebels under the wrath of God. Our sins—the things we’ve done, the things we’ve failed to do—are simply the outward manifestations of our personal decision to suppress the truth about God and thereby to pursue whatever it is that we have decided to put in the place of God. And therefore, God’s wrath—God’s wrath—is being revealed in the present. Remember, when we were in verse 18, we noted that there is a day of wrath that is coming. Paul is not speaking about that—verse 18: “For the wrath of God is revealed.”

Now, how is the wrath of God revealed? Verse 24 begins to tell us. Here is how God’s wrath is being revealed in the present tense: “God gave them up.” This is the first of three “gave them ups”: verse 24, verse 26, verse 28. It’s the second of three exchanges: they exchanged the glory for things that creep, they exchanged the truth for a lie, and they exchanged normal sexual activity for that which is in the face of God. And in this the wrath of God is being revealed. The reason for God’s retribution—for retribution it is—is because of the ungodliness and the unrighteousness of men. Ungodliness, the vertical axis: “We want nothing to do with you, God.” Unrighteousness, on the horizontal plane: the chaos that ensues all around us.

Our sins—the things we’ve done, the things we’ve failed to do—are simply the outward manifestations of our personal decision to suppress the truth about God and thereby to pursue whatever it is that we have decided to put in the place of God.

God’s response to giving them up is not arbitrary. It’s not random. He is giving them up to what they have chosen. You will notice that he “gave them up in the lusts of their hearts.” “In the lusts of their hearts.” The things that they craved for, the things that they longed for in place of him, they were being given over to. “This is what you wanted. You wanted to put this in place of me, the living God? Then here you are.”

Now, there’s something that’s very, very important to notice here. Because there is no question that there is a cause and effect in the implications of responding to temptation and sinning and so on, when desire then meets with action and so on. I’m thinking of the book of James.[10] So, somehow or another, when this happens, this inevitably happens. And so, when you read that—“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their [heart] to [uncleanness], to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves”—this is not just noninterference on the part of God. The phrase “He gave them up”—“gave them up”—is not simply “He left them to themselves.” The phrase actually means being handed over to—“Here”—a more intensified and aggravated cultivation of the lusts of their hearts. This is so vitally important we realize: that sin in the religious realm is here punished in the moral realm. The unrighteousness emerges from the ungodliness. The progression that runs throughout the whole section is impiety, idolatry, immorality.

Now, if you think about this, just take any cultural period that you have lived through, and view the unfolding of things. Take the 1960s, for example: God is dead. God is dead. So what goes in his place? Whatever we want. And what happens is that we create idols of our own making. And suddenly, we live through one of the most immoral sexual revolutions that has taken place in the span of human history. And we now live as a result of what took place there: “I don’t care what’s right or wrong. You know, I don’t care about anything. Help me make it through the night”—and there the night into another night, and another night, in the darkness of the human soul, “the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.”

What he’s describing there is, if you like, a kind of communal immorality. A communal immorality: the degeneration of a culture, of a society, as it turns its back on God, puts gods, substitute gods, in its place—gods that cannot provide the things that the people long for in them, for we were made by God, for God, to trust God, to love God, to obey God; we were conceived within the context of God’s creative power in order that we might enjoy all that he has provided. “Here, you’ve got a whole garden,” he says. “Take it and enjoy it. I have made it for you in all of its fullness. But just prove to me that you trust me, and do this”—or, actually, “don’t do this”—“for one reason only: I am God. I am God. Leave it alone.”[11] “No.”

The Evil One comes, says, “You don’t want to believe that stuff.”[12] No, no, you can see what he’s doing. It’s the exact same thing I remember at school, when, in the ’60s at school, at the height of, you know, the unfolding of all kinds of sexual activities, the word on the street was “You know, if you can get out of that cage that you’re in, Begg, you can really have some fun. Why would you ever want to pay attention to that?” Hm.

Now, can I quote Melanie just one more time without you being annoyed? She doesn’t attribute the decline in sexual behavior to the judgment of God. No surprise, because she doesn’t pay attention to Genesis 3. But this is her observation. This is the observation of an observant, clever, Oxford-graduate columnist:

Sexual behavior [has now been] hauled out of the private realm and turned into enforceable public ‘rights.’ And because of the absolute taboo against hurting people’s feelings, the very idea of normative behavior had to be abolished so that no one would feel abnormal.

So behavior with harmful consequences for others or for society in general, such as sexual promiscuity or having children without fathers, was treated as normal. Correspondingly, those who advocated mainstream, normative values such as fidelity, chastity or duty were accused of bigotry because they made those who did not uphold [their] values feel bad about themselves … the ultimate sin. Alternative lifestyles became mainstream. The counterculture became the culture.[13]

“God gave them up.”

You see, we ought to be devastated by this. You see, when people focus on the idea… Let me put it in as graphic a way as I can. If you’ve got the impression that Jesus came to save you from your sins, that’s good, and that’s true. But let me tell you what Jesus came to do: he came to save you from God. He came to save you from the wrath of God—that you are by nature, I am by nature, a rebel without cause before Almighty God, who made me for himself. That’s my problem. The issues, the expressions, the manifestations are simply evidences of the core predicament: that we are in the wrong, and God is angry.

The reason why people are able to dismiss the gospel with such ease is because it is presented in such a casual way, as if somehow or another, it’s on your time and in your own way that you can silently file in and join up or whatever it might be—no idea, no idea of the fact that when you put your head on the pillow at night, you may never waken up in time again but in eternity, and you will enter into eternity under the wrath of God. That’s why he says, “Do not eat this. For in the day you eat of it, you will surely die.” In other words, there is judgment. And the serpent comes, and the voice of the Evil One says, “You don’t need to believe that stuff about judgment. You don’t need to believe that stuff about death.” “As in Adam all die, so in Christ … will [all] be made alive.”[14]

Now, I’m not going to pause here, you’ll be glad to know. But I want to make an observation for the future. I’m not planning on dealing with verse 26 on next Sunday, in the Thanksgiving Sunday. I may be dumb, but I’m not that dumb, so… And I’m not sure that I’m going to deal with 26 to the end of the chapter in the morning when I return to it. I think I will deal with it in the evening, ’cause I want to be able to handle it in a way that does not invade the privacy of parents with their children. But I will alert you to that as I choose. And the judgment, of course, is yours as parents.

But when you factor this notion of “the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves”—and I look at what is happening in my homeland in Scotland in the realm of gender and sexuality. The same is true in large measure here, but somewhat behind. Conversion therapy, whereby somebody would want to talk with someone about the nature of their dysphoria, would want to talk to somebody about the reason that God has made them—any notion of doing that, any notion of doing that—is described as being a harmful emotional, physical therapy that is used against the LGBTQ. That’s all that that is. It’s entirely negative. All right? Anytime you read it in the press, whatever you do, we must never be involved in those kinds of things. (This is not a comment on conversion therapy. I’m just making a point.) The flip side of it is that the drastic treatments offered to young boys and girls—puberty-blocking drugs, hormone treatments, sex-change surgeries—is presented as perfectly reasonable, sensible, and advances the cause of a rational culture.

Who makes these decisions? A man cannot become a woman, and a woman cannot become a man. It is the responsibility of the Christian to speak the truth in love, to speak it with compassion, but to speak it with conviction. Loved ones, we cannot start from the place of verse 18—“The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all [the] ungodliness and unrighteousness of men”—and then, when it comes to the actual points of application, fall back into a kind of stupefied dumbness. “God gave them up.” “God gave them up.”

And I want to say one other thing as well, and it’s this: this is the world in which we live. We live in this world now. Jesus was very clear in his High Priestly Prayer that his followers should not be taken out of the world, but they should be kept from the Evil One:[15] “I pray that you will sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. They need to understand what you have said, God the Father, and make sure that they lay hold of it.”[16] And so we recognize that here we are, living in this culture, and our boat—the boat of our Christian faith, if you like—is in the water, or the church is in the water, but the water mustn’t be in the boat.

What we mustn’t miss in this is the recurring emphasis in Scripture by the same apostle Paul, writing to the church about these very matters. In other words, Romans 1 does not exist on its own as a statement about the dramatic devastation that is represented in a world that has turned its back on God. He’s also writing to those who have professed themselves to be followers of the living God. And what does he say to them?

For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; [and make sure] that no one transgress[es] and wrong[s] his brother in this matter.[17]

That’s 1 Thessalonians 4.

You read him in Ephesians. When we studied Ephesians, we saw this: “Now this I say and testify in the Lord, … you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.”[18] Remember? That “they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” “You better not be walking in the futility of your minds.”

They[’re] darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to [the] hardness of [their] heart[s]. They[’ve] become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of [uncleanness]. … That is not the way you learned Christ![19]

See what he’s saying? In one sense, what he’s saying is “Don’t get up on your high horse on this stuff. You recognize this.” And I think if we’re honest, we need to recognize this too: that in many ways, we have become calloused. The impact of the frog-in-the-kettle thing? I could never have imagined, as a boy sixty years ago, hearing the amount of profanity that is heard, the extent of brutality that is in contemporary movies, the depth of immorality. This is our world. We live in this world. And if we’re not careful, because it’s only been heating up gradually, we find that we have actually found it funny to laugh at these things. We found it titillating to consider these things. We tolerated ourselves to a lifestyle that God never intended.

Be imitators of God, as beloved children. … Walk in love …. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not … be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let … no filthiness … foolish talk … crude jok[es], which are out of place, but … let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no 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 upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you[’re] light in the Lord. Walk[, live,] as children of light.[20]

In other words, the Christian in this contemporary chaos is supposed to shine as a light in the dark place. The Christian is not somebody who has a particular political bent. The Christian is not somebody who is on the side of this or on the side of that. The Christian is a follower of Jesus, the one who stands in the synagogue in Nazareth and said, “The Spirit of God is now upon me. He sent me to preach good news to the poor, to bring light into the darkness of the caves of people’s own rebellion,”[21] and so on. How is this manifested in our world? Well, it’s manifested in a world that has gone completely nuts by Christians who are prepared to do this.

Now, we need to stop. But notice, 25: “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie.” In other words, it’s Genesis. Notice something carefully: all the uncleanness is not the cause of God’s wrath; it is the evidence of his wrath. He gave them up to that which they had already determined was their idol, was their success, was their significance. His judgment lies in being given over to the destructive power of idolatry and of evil. That’s where the judgment of God lies. That’s why it’s revealed.

You look at the culture, and the world says, “I haven’t a clue what’s going on here.” It’s a long time since the Beatles sang, “[You]’ve got to admit it’s getting better, a little better all the time.”[22] Nobody believes that. They didn’t believe it then; they don’t believe it now. That’s for sure.

The Christian in this contemporary chaos is supposed to shine as a light in the dark place.

The behavior—and this is going to be important when we get to the closing verses—the behavior is not the root problem. The behavior is not the root problem. It is the ugly fruit of the exchange. “They exchanged the truth … for a lie.” And the manifestations of that decision are the evidence of God’s judgment upon humanity. He has revealed the righteousness which is through faith for all who believe in the context of the unrighteousness and the ungodliness which men and women, choosing to suppress the truth, have embraced.

God hands us over to disordered desires that end, eventually, in tragedy and in death. Every funeral that I’ve done for addicts—if you had spoken to them before they took that final dose, they would tell you, “I’m actually now held in a grip that I cannot liberate myself from. This has been my longing. This has been my craving. This has been my everything.”

You see, the lie is that God is a cosmic killjoy. The lie is that the things we choose to serve will set us free. The lie is that, for example, we were never made for monogamy. Just yesterday, in The Times, I read an article—a pathetic article—by an Oxford graduate entitled “Half the Fun of Married Life Is the Infidelity.”[23] Don’t get smart, now. Some of you watched The Bridges of Madison County. Some of you read the book. No. We find ourselves in between time and eternity, entrusted with a message that is wonderful in its fullness, set against the backdrop of God’s judgment. And it is an irony that we need to continually point out that the things that offer freedom actually enslave us.

Let me finish in this way: three Ps. Three Ps.

The response of the life that becomes aware of God’s amazing grace is, first of all, the response of penitence. Penitence. It was in the ’80s or ’90s that the people that started selling those things to hang around your neck—once you get to our age, my age, you’re supposed to have it in the bathroom in case you fall down, and the bell goes off. And I don’t have one yet, but I’m open to offers. But the line that became part of common parlance was “I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up.” “I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up.” That’s response number one. That’s Genesis 3. “We have fallen, and we can’t get up, unless you come and pick us up.” That is salvation. That’s response number one: penitence.

Response number two: praise. Look at how he finishes with a little, mini doxology: “Bless God. The Lord is blessed forever and ever.” He says, “You know, no matter how much people dishonor things, they cannot ultimately rob God of his honor and of his glory.”

So, penitence on the part of the one who comes to Christ, praise on the part of those who are in Christ, and postponement on the part of every one of you that wants to roll the dice and walk out believing that you’re in neither department one nor in department two. In other words, you want to do what some did after Paul preached in Athens: they said, “We will hear [you] again [on] this matter.”[24] Maybe you will. Maybe you won’t. “Now is the accepted time; behold, [today] is the day of salvation.”[25] There’s not a person in this room that does not need the gospel.

Let us pray:

Lord, in your mercy, look upon us, we pray. Grant that this wonderful, amazing good news, offered to all who believe, may find a resting place in our hearts. We realize that what you’ve made known of yourself is insufficient to put us in a right position with you. We need what Jesus has done upon the cross for that. So take us there, Lord. Help those of us who are proud to just come before you—drive away in the car and say to you, “God, I have fallen, and I can’t get up. Pick me up.” And then, for those of you who have come by your mercy to trust in you, then we say, “Let the amen sound from [the] people again.”[26] For we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.

[1] Melanie Phillips, The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth, and Power (New York: Encounter, 2010), x.

[2] Phillips, xi.

[3] Genesis 3:14–15 (ESV).

[4] Romans 5:19 (ESV).

[5] Romans 1:15 (ESV).

[6] Phillips, World Turned Upside Down, 335–36.

[7] Anthony Flew, with Roy Abraham Varghese, There Is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind (New York: HarperOne, 2007), 183, quoted in Phillips, 336.

[8] Phillips, 336.

[9] William Shakespeare, Hamlet, 5.1.

[10] See James 1:14–15.

[11] Genesis 2:16–17 (paraphrased).

[12] Genesis 3:4–5 (paraphrased).

[13] Phillips, World Turned Upside Down, 285–86.

[14] 1 Corinthians 15:22 (NIV).

[15] See John 17:15.

[16] John 17:17 (paraphrased).

[17] 1 Thessalonians 4:2–6 (ESV).

[18] Romans 4:17 (ESV).

[19] Ephesians 4:18–20 (ESV).

[20] Ephesians 5:1–8 (ESV).

[21] Luke 4:18 (paraphrased).

[22] John Lennon and Paul McCartney, “Getting Better” (1967).

[23] Phoebe Hennell, “Half the Fun of Married Life Is the Infidelity,” The Times, November 16, 2022, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/half-the-fun-of-married-life-is-the-infidelity-7zhzdvrfl.

[24] Acts 17:32 (KJV).

[25] 2 Corinthians 6:2 (KJV).

[26] Joachim Neander, trans. Catherine Winkworth, “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty” (1680, 1863).

Copyright © 2023, Alistair Begg. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations for sermons preached on or after November 6, 2011 are taken from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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The Cross – THE SUPREME MOMENT IN HUMAN HISTORY

The following is a sermon outline by Dr Charles Stanley. It’s very relevant to reflect on this text on Good Friday, a day we honour in memory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Take the time to consider the importance of this event of Christ dying for our sins, and allow God to bring us all under conviction.

KEY PASSAGE: Luke 24:13-26

SUPPORTING SCRIPTURE: Genesis 2:17 | Ezekiel 18:4 | Ezekiel 18:20 | Matthew 27:46 | John 1:29 | John 12:27-31 | John 19:30 | Acts 2:22-24 | Romans 1:18 | Romans 6:6 | Romans 8:1-3 | 2 Corinthians 5:6 | 2 Corinthians 5:10 | 2 Corinthians 5:17-18 | 2 Corinthians 5:20-21 | Philippians 3:21 | Colossians 2:13-15 | Hebrews 9:22 | 1 Peter 2:21-24 | 1 John 1:9 | Revelation 1:18

SUMMARY

If you asked a historian, philosopher, and scientist to identify the supreme moment in history, they’d all have different answers. But from God’s point of view, that moment was the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. As humans we can’t comprehend all that happened at the cross, but God has given us deeper understanding of what transpired in His Word.

SERMON POINTS

After the resurrection, Jesus appeared to two disciples walking on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-26). They’d been in Jerusalem and were aware of Jesus’ death and reported resurrection but were disappointed and confused about these events. Jesus responded, “You foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to come into His glory?” (vv. 25-26). Then He explained to them all that was written about Him in the Old Testament. Jesus was the only one on earth who knew what had happened, and His Word is still explaining it to us today.

God judged sin the day Jesus was crucified.

Because He is holy and righteous, the Lord hates sin. He warned Adam and Eve that they would die if they disobeyed Him (Gen. 2: 17), and He continues to warn us in the scriptures not to rebel against Him because His wrath “is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18).

In the Old Testament, God set up a system of animal sacrifices to deal with sin. According to Hebrews 9:22, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” But those sacrifices were insufficient. What was needed was a perfect sacrifice, and that’s what Jesus came to be. When John the Baptist announced Him, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

Christ was the only qualified sacrifice because He was perfect. On the cross, God “made Him who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). Jesus was our substitute who bore the guilt and penalty of our sins so we wouldn’t have to. This was all according to the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. He sacrificed His Son to bear the condemnation we deserved (Acts 2:22). Now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1).

Christ defeated Satan on the cross.

Shortly before His crucifixion, Jesus said, “Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out” (John 12:31). Even though Satan is still working powerfully in this world today, Jesus won the war against him on our behalf with His death and resurrection.

  • The devil cannot condemn us. Jesus Christ paid our sin debt in full. Since we’ve all sinned, we have a certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, but Jesus has canceled it, having nailed it to the cross (Colossians 2:13-15). At the cross, God disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Christ.

Satan is a defeated enemy even though he still tempts and attacks us. Christ’s victory over him guarantees that none of his accusations against us can stand because the record of our sins has been removed, and we stand in Christ’s righteousness. When we sin and confess, God promises to forgive and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). In fact, His blood is continually cleansing us every day of our lives. God will never condemn one of His blood-bought children.

  • Satan cannot make us sin. Christ defeated the power of sin in our lives. According to Romans 6:6, “Our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so we would no longer be slaves to sin.” Satan rules over unbelievers, and they have no power to defeat him, but he can’t make any believer sin. Yes, we sometimes do, but we have God’s supernatural power to resist if we’ll use it.
  • Satan cannot take our lives. Jesus alone holds the keys to death (Revelation 1:18). We are held securely by Him, and nothing happens to us apart from His permissive will. Death will eventually come, but God is the one whom the cross demonstrated how wicked Satan is. He tempted Jesus to come down from the cross and save Himself, yet despite the humiliation, abuse, and suffering, Christ did not revile in return, but quietly endured in obedience to His Father’s will, leaving us an example to follow in His steps (1 Pet. 2:21-23).

God reconciled us to Himself through Christ.

Reconcile means to bring back together two parties who were formerly estranged. Our sin has alienated us from a holy God, and there is nothing we can do to remedy the situation. But the Lord took the initiative to reconcile us to Himself by sending His Son to satisfy His righteous justice on the cross (2 Corinthians 5:17-18). Jesus bore the tidal wave of God’s wrath that we deserved so we wouldn’t have to. He was forsaken so we could be accepted (Matthew 27:46). Right before His death, Jesus cried out, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). Redemption and reconciliation were complete. Through faith in Christ, the enmity is gone, and as God’s beloved children, we’re clothed with the righteousness of Christ (2 Cor. 5:21).

RESPONSE

  • How has your understanding of the events on the cross been enlarged? What will you do in response to this supreme moment in human history?
  • In what ways have you believed Satan’s lies and accusations and allowed him power in your life that is not rightfully his?
  • The cross of Christ is the only way of salvation. Have you trusted in Jesus for reconciliation and forgiveness, or have you tried to add to His work on the cross to earn your acceptance?
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Jesus is able to save to the uttermost

Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. (ESV Hebrews 7:25)

As we approach Good Friday, and the weekend dedicated to remembering the cross of Jesus Christ and what He accomplished for you and me – for anyone who will repent of sin, and trust Jesus as Lord of their life. By accepting Him, you can have your name written in the Book of LIfe – you are forgiven and move from judgement into life eternal. And that eternal life was assured when Jesus rose from the grave on the following Sunday.

When  Jesus was resurrected, it is clear from scripture that he then became the High Priest and became our advocate with the Father.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water…For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. (Hebrews 10:19–22, 24 ESV)

As we learn to trust and obey, the Spirit works to conform our minds into the image of God – to the way to live on earth like Jesus. We may occasionally make a mistake and sin. Here’s where Christ’s advocacy as our High Priest is essential:

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. (ESV 1 John 2:1)

Jesus Christ is our mediator between God and man:

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, (ESV 1 Tim 2:5)

Jesus understands you. He lived as a man on earth as he ministered to the multitudes.

Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (ESV Heb 4:14-16)

Through Jesus Christ our High Priest, we, just like the early Christians who witnessed Christ’s death and resurrection, and further based their faith on Christ’s promise of salvation and eternal life — have the same hope offered to us. This refers to the personal, heart to heart relationship the Christian is expected to have with Jesus.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish.  (John 10:27–28)

Jesus is ready to forgive you. By His advocacy, we all have access in one Spirit to the Father, and we live through Christ’s Spirit united with Him and the Father, and we can live in newness of life in mind, body and soul in His kingdom now. (John 17:21)

For a deeper dive into the theology of Jesus Christ our High Priest you can access my in-depth study here: Jesus Christ, our High Priest

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God Is Bigger Than Your Worldly Troubles

Have you ever stopped to think how different life would be if we were still living in Eden? No broken relationships. No difficult pregnancies. No squabbles with spouses. No financial woes. No cancer. No feeling far away from God. (And this list doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface!)

Instead, we live in a world marred by the effects of sin. We daily face all kinds of pain, trouble, suffering, weeping, loss and despair.

The temptation is to blame our woes on God, but let’s be honest: The human race did this to itself. All God ever did was love us, and — when we rebelled — implement a plan to rescue us.

The promise above — a statement by Jesus to his followers — is a sobering assessment of the way things are. But it is also a hopeful reminder of the once and future Paradise for which we were created.

In light of such truth, author Elisabeth Elliot counsels us: “Refuse self-pity. Refuse it absolutely. It is a deadly thing with power to destroy you. Turn your thoughts to Christ who has already carried your griefs and sorrows.”

Our Sovereign Lord’s Promise 

Trials and sorrows are part of living in a fallen world. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33 NIV) 

This tells me that Jesus is promising me: I am bigger and more powerful than any worldly troubles you face. 1

Let’s Pray

Heavenly Father, trials and sorrows are a normal part of life. I don’t like this truth, but it reminds me of my need for you, God. I can take heart in the fact that you will have the final word. I praise you because you are powerful and sovereign over my life — even the hard times. Always keep me looking to you.

1 Once a Day Bible Promises

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Dangers and Delusion of Rationalization

…behold, you have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out. Numbers 32:23

When Joseph’s brothers saw him coming, they . . . made plans to kill him. . . . [But] Judah said to the others, “What can we gain by killing our brother? That would just give us a guilty conscience. Let’s sell Joseph to those Ishmaelite traders. Let’s not be responsible for his death; after all, he is our brother!” (Genesis 37:18, 26-27 NLT)

Initially, out of jealousy for their little brother, Joseph’s elder brothers proposed a plan to kill him. Then they altered their strategy of murdering him, rationalizing a lesser sin, to sell him into slavery to by-passing Ishmaelite traders. When you rationalize your plan to commit a lesser sin, it remains sin. At these times of temptation consider the consequences of your actions. When we justify in such times when deceived that a lesser evil is okay, we surrender our conscience from the guidance of the Holy Spirit to Satan. Rationalizing is, in many cases, delusion in disguise. We might think we are smart while acting in folly.

Begin to consider in what areas of life where you might be rationalizing sin that could lead to harmful consequences.

  • Have I joked crudely, even if it hurts another’s feelings?
  • Do I have a propensity for gluttony, drunkenness, sexual lust, anger, or slanderous gossip?
  • Have I ever told half-lies versus the whole truth?
  • Am I ethically divisive based on political leanings?
  • Do I advise others how to live even if it is against their conscience and thus viewed as sin?
  • Do I ever sidestep the plain truth of scripture that doesn’t fit my denominational group-think?
  • Have I ever rejected Christ as my Saviour?
  • Do I sway others  towards non-Christian ideologies unto ungodly living in this world’s culture?
  • Have I minimized Christ in the family to get along with my partner/spouse?
  • Have I often spoken of the faults of others without exhibiting forgiveness?

Let the Lord challenge you: Live such good lives among the unbeliever that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. (1 Peter 2:12)

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Demons lurk behind international warfare

Now in 2022, the war in Ukraine brings violent evil to the fore once again and threatens to reshape our global future in ways we can only imagine.

Human selfishness and greed are among the sins that spawn wars: “Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from? Is it not from your passions that make war within your members?” (James 4:1, NASB). Collectively, however, the scale of human suffering at the hands of others also seems to presume a dimension of cosmic evil that defies even our recognition of human depravity.

There are reasons for that. The Book of Daniel speaks not just of a succession of world empires but of the spiritual forces behind them. The angelic prince of Persia delayed an answer to Daniel’s prayers until Michael, Israel’s prince, intervened; the angelic prince of Alexander’s empire would follow (Dan. 10:13, 20–21; 12:1). God had sovereignly allotted times in history for various angels and their empires, but his angelic and human servants continued to work for his purposes until he caused them to prevail.

The Greek translation of Deuteronomy mentions that God appointed angels over the various nations, and Jewish thought increasingly recognized such heavenly rulers and authorities—what later rabbis called angels over the nations. These beings were typically hostile toward God’s people, but in the end, God would give the kingdom to his persevering people.

Because our king, Jesus, has already come, Satan has been defeated. His exaltation corresponds with the angel Michael’s heavenly triumph over the dragon (Rev. 12:7–8).

In explaining this story, scholars often invoke the World War II analogy between D-Day and V-Day. In D-Day, the success of the Normandy invasion decided the outcome of the war, and the defeat of the Nazi regime and its allies was merely a matter of time. Yet until V-Day—the final surrender of the Axis powers—battles continued and casualties mounted.

In the same way, all enemies—including the final one, death itself—will be subdued when Jesus returns (Ps. 110:1; 1 Cor. 15:25–26), but his servants face continuing battles until then.

In Ephesians, Paul emphasizes that Jesus is already enthroned above heavenly rulers and authorities (Eph. 1:20–22) and we are spiritually enthroned with him (Eph. 1:22-23; 2:6). In a letter that heavily underscores the unity between Jews and Gentiles in Christ’s body, this enthronement above angels of nations and empires means that our unity in Christ is greater than all the ethnic and national divisions fomented by such angels. Believers are no longer subject to the prince of this world (Eph. 2:1–3).

For Paul, this triumph over divisions has spiritual warfare ramifications, even for the interpersonal dimensions of our lives. In Ephesians 4, for example, denying the devil an opportunity means having integrity and controlling our anger (Eph. 4:25–27). In Ephesians 6:10–20, it means taking hold of the defensive armour of truth, faith, and righteousness, plus a weapon for invading hostile territory: the mission of the gospel.

The upside is that by faith we look forward to our Lord’s final victory over the world conflicts spawned by evil:

  • He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. (Isaiah 2:4)

  • “. . .in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.” — Daniel 2:44 KJV
  • “Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” — 1 Thessalonians 4:17-18 ESV
Excerpts from: Mark Johnson, Michael Heiser; and Louis Markos, Feb 26, 2022, Christianity Today
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The Gospel of God the Father

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:14-15)

The gospel of God (Mark 1:14–15) If the intratrinitarian love of God is a crucial theme within our text, we also need to draw together the wider themes related to the Messiah’s mission and how they illuminate the love of God. 1

In verse Mark 1:14 we are told Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news [gospel] of God. This wonderful phrase shows how Mark links the Gospel interchangeably to God or Jesus Christ (Mark 1: 1). In other words, the story of Jesus described above is very good news about God.

What is this good news? Perhaps I can explain it this way. There is a tension running through the prologue of Mark, and Mark 1:11 in particular, between the transcendence and immanence of God. Transcendence means that God is utterly distinct from his creation. Immanence captures how God is near and present, intimately involved within the world. Both are, in different ways, sources of very good news.

First, transcendence. In verse 11 God is in heaven, his ‘dwelling place: a different dimension of reality from the physical universe. It is only when heaven is ‘split’ open that the voice of God is heard. Mark’s description gives readers a glimpse of the glorious ‘otherness’ of almighty God. In other words, ‘behind the scenes’ God is reigning.

As the Son literally steps out of the Jordan in faith he is affirmed in his identity and mission. The Father is with him and anoints him with his Spirit. The presence of Father and Spirit remain with him in all the darkness to come. If the transcendent love of the Father and the empowering of the Spirit are good news for Jesus, they are also good news for Christians today. Obviously the parallel is not exact: Jesus has a unique relationship with his Father. He alone is the anointed king and Messiah. But there is encouragement here for us nonetheless. Jesus announces that The time has come … the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news! (Mark 1:15).

As Acts later makes clear, God has now poured out his Spirit for all who respond in faith and repentance to the good news of the resurrected Son (e.g. Acts 2:38). Therefore, whatever trials we face in our daily lives, the ‘otherness’ of our transcendent God is a source of hope and comfort. Whether we are wrestling with cancer, broken relationships, grief, spiritual opposition, injustice or long-term unemployment, we can be encouraged that this world is not all there is: it is the gospel of the transcendent God that will have the last word.

Second, God is also immanent (here with us). God loves Israel passionately. He is also deeply angered by sin. Neither is he passive. In Mark the dramatic arrival of Israel’s Messiah is God’s (utterly unexpected) means by which to heal the story of our broken world by God’s fulfilled promise to Israel – he is working within history to bring forgiveness and hope, via a king establishing his kingdom here on earth and who is powerfully present in the world through his Spirit.

Most astonishingly of all, he through the incarnation and mission of his beloved Son, God shows us his utter commitment to this broken world. Jesus becomes vulnerable to hunger and temptation in the desert. Ultimately, as a human saviour, he allows himself to be vulnerable even to suffering and death. God has, in Christ, and through the Spirit, ‘come down’ to us.

The Father is well pleased Mark 1:11 to send his Son on such a mission because his endgame is blessing. Charles Wesley’s great words capture perfectly this paradox of the limitless transcendent love of God being embodied in his Son:

Love divine, all loves excelling, joy of heaven, to earth come down, fix in us thy humble dwelling, all thy faithful mercies crown. Jesus, thou art all compassion, pure, unbounded love thou art; visit us with thy salvation; enter every trembling heart.

All this tells us astonishing good news about the God we worship: Father, Son and Spirit. Mark, does not spell this out, but invites his readers to think of ‘God’ through a new lens. He is at once totally, transcendant ‘other’ and, at the same time, immanently ‘present’ in the beloved Son whose mission leads to the cross.

Richard Hays suggests that ‘if we have rightly followed Mark’s narrative clues about the identity of the one on the cross’, the most appropriate response is ‘reticent fear and trembling’—where ‘we stand before the mystery in silence, to acknowledge the limitation of our understanding, and to wonder’. We would be wise to take this into account as we live our lives here on earth in what is actually a probabtionary period before the Second Advent of Jesus Christ who will ultimenty judge each of us according to our ways, words and deeds.

Learn about God’s Love; The New Covenant Manifesto of God’s Love

1 The insight into the Trinity by Patrick Mitchell is highly recommended,:The Message of Love: The Only Thing That Counts, ed. Derek Tidball, The Bible Speaks Today (London: Inter-Varsity Press, 2019), 101–103.

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You can live in the Spirit of holiness now

The LORD himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.” (Exodus 14:14)

When Moses directed the Israelites to enter the promised land, he first sent spies to determine the layout of the land and potential enemy strength. Most of the spies expressed fear of the giants they saw in the land, referring to themselves in a demeaning note comparative to the giants as grasshoppers. They were downright scared puny! Moreover, they poisoned the minds of the Israelites to fear entering the land of promise – wherefrom milk and honey and giant grapes were brought back by the spies evidencing the fertility of the land.

With the majority upset, siding with the fear-mongering report, the Jews were doomed not to obey their marching orders from Moses, who took his lead from Yahweh God.

The minority report of two men, Caleb and Joshua, was overwhelmingly positive – let’s move forward into the promised land — we can overcome the giants — we have God on our side!  But it was not enough to open the deafened ears of the majority. For their stubbornness, which God viewed as a disobedient lack of trust in His ability to conquer and overcome, they would never cross the Jordan and enter the land. That entire generation of complainers would die right at their point of a call to radically act and be rewarded with the blessings promised and a bountiful land they could call home.

Significantly, Caleb and Joshua saw what all the other spies saw (Numbers 14:6). They saw grapes, and they saw the giants.  Nor did they dispute or deny that they were grasshoppers, but with the eye of faith, they ‘saw’ something else.  They were more conscious of God than they were of the giants, the grasshoppers, and even the grapes.  Caleb’s initial charge to the people was unequivocal: ‘Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it’ (Numbers 13:30). 1

The Israelites had just crossed the Red Sea and had seen how God destroyed the Egyptian army. Yet, they grumbled and defied the timing ordained by God to move into a place where with His help, it would have been impossible to fail if they’d demonstrated obedient trust.

This offers an object lesson typified by Joshua and Caleb’s clear-sighted trust and obedience in contrast with the whining populace of the then-current generation, who magnified the fear-mongering resistance to trusting God alone for victory.

Subsequently, entire corporate Israel – irrespective of Joshua and Caleb’s faithfulness – was adjourned by Yahweh to roam the desert wastelands until death. Their children would eventually enter 40 years later. For those fearful of failure in their walk with the Lord, we must learn a lesson to take courage, equip our minds and advance in the will of the Lord unto righteous living in His favour.  When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. (Psalm 56:3–4 ESV)

Those doomed to stay in one place are a type of Christians who never grasp the promise of God, that they can overcome the enemy, Satan and his demons, by the indwelling Spirit of God and live obedient and holy sanctified lives. Those who overcome will be prepared to meet the Lord with all his holy angels in the final reaping judgment at the second advent of Jesus Christ.

Many have experienced failure, often allowing Satan to tempt them to focus on their spiritual weaknesses. Here is an important scripture you can contemplate to encourage you to stand decisively like Joshua and Caleb, holding to the promises and doctrine taught by the prophets and the apostles. The apostle Peter made it clear that we are to adhere insightfully to the promises of God to overcome Satan’s temptations living obedient, holy lives.  His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. (2 Peter 1:3–4 ESV)

The prophet Daniel speaks of the necessity of heeding a serious call to submit to the Lord and live an obedient and holy life. (Daniel 12:10 NAS): Many will be purged, purified and refined, but the wicked will act wickedly; and none of the wicked will understand, but those who have insight will understand. 

1 A Radical Comprehensive Call to Holiness, Joel R. Beeke and Michael P.V. Barrett

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Taking Risk with Caution

Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. (Proverbs 3:6)

Scripture tells us “do not depend on your own understanding” when we have an idea of what plan to implement for a business career or venture, a vacation, or even sharing the Gospel with others — it is important to seek God’s wisdom first. (Proverbs 3:6)

Accepting a shared insight as to what hot stock to invest in, whom to join within a business partnership, or what health measures you should take in life, has led many to troubling outcomes. It is important to prayerfully submit your plans to God and do your own due diligence. Yes, you need counsel, first from the Lord, and as you seek wisdom from human mentors who are also committed to the Lord. (Proverbs 11:14; 12:15; 22:6; 14:16; 15:23)

Jesus taught that your results indicate the level of your acquired wisdom that agrees with the Lord. He cured many, raised the dead, and opened the eyes of the blind, yet the Jewish leaders accused him of being led by and given powers from the devil. They also chided him for befriending sinners. Jesus rebuked the leaders noting that wisdom is vindicated by her deeds for good or evil. (Matthew 11:19)

Also, it is impossible to understand biblical truths for example: that Jesus is one with God the Father, and that it is His Spirit that guides you into all truth:

All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. (Matt 11: 27)

All our greatest necessary insights into life – the truth, about Jesus and His Gospel, as well as all life’s strategies in line with His will, come via the Holy Spirit, as promised by Jesus. Righteous truth will come to a man or women who is obedient to the Word of God, and asks for guidance via the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth.

The world cannot receive him [Christ and His Spirit that leads], because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. (John 14:17, NLT)