by Steven Clark Goad

Al, & Company. Several have privately emailed me wishing my best arguments for the conditionalist position regarding the punishment of the wicked. Here they are. First I will ask some rhetorical questions that almost answer themselves. Then I will give you my best shot at convincing you of the biblical position in as few words as possible. This is a labor of love and not done because I relish being marked for promoting some so-called heresy.

Our present traditional view of hell, borrowed from Catholicism and paganism, is no more biblical than their doctrine of limbo. Consider.

Rhetorical Questions

Why does Jesus’ reference to those in danger of the fire of hell not mention that it will be “eternal” tormenting (Matthew 5:22)? And why do we make words such as “destroy” mean different things unless it is to support a preconceived doctrine (Matthew 10:28)? If Satan is not to be feared because he can only destroy our bodies, then why are we told to fear HIM who can “destroy” both soul and body in hell, especially if we won’t be “destroyed”

(Matthew 10:28)? Why do we assume the word “destroy” in this verse means the exact opposite of its normal meaning? Why do we assume “destroy” here means to live on and on and not be destroyed?

Why does not the translation of words meaning grave (Sheol & Hades) and garbage pit (Gehenna) into the same word “hell” not signify the deliberate tampering of Scriptures by translators? What if they had done that with other completely separate words with different meanings and translated them into the same word? For example, what if our Bible translators took the Greek words for “marriage, wine, spirit, and house” and translated them into the single noun sandle? Why would translators take a Greek noun (Gehenna) referring to a specific place and translate it into another noun, the same noun used for the grave and death and Tartarus? Is anyone as baffled by this as I am?

Why can we not see that the fire of Gehenna (hell) that was unquenchable and where the worm (maggot) thrived describes the valley of Hennom that Jesus alluded to when he said being lost would be like being tossed into that consuming garbage dump (Isaiah 66:24; Mark 9:48)? Why cannot believers understand that “unquenchable” fire meant fire that would not go out until that which is consuming or “destroying” is gone? Why do so many of us perpetuate the notion that Gehenna is a symbol of “torture” rather than a place of punishment and destruction? How can we escape the idea that maggots consume the dead? How can serious Bible students make the Greek word for “maggot” mean some part of human beings that lives on and one eternally?

Why does the traditional teaching on hell refute the clear teaching of Peter that everything we know will be “burned up” and “destroyed” (2 Peter 3:10-12)? Why does Malachi refer to the evil ones as “stubble to be burned up” with nothing left if evil ones are to somehow be tortured unendingly by a loving God (Malachi 4:1)? If Paul clearly teaches that those who do not know God will suffer “everlasting destruction” why do tranditionalists teach that it won’t actually be destruction but will be never-ending, eternal “destroying” (2 Thessalonians 1:9)?

Why can’t intelligent people differentiate between “destruction” and “eternal life in a state of perpetual torture and destruction”? How is it possible for thinking and studious minds to refute the very teaching of the apostle Peter who write of the “destruction of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:7)?

Isn’t it clear that even in his parabolic teachings Christ presents what represents the “evil unbelievers” (the chaff & tares) being burned up by unquenchable fire (Matthew 3:12; 13:40)? Is it not clear that FIRE IS NEVER
USED BY GOD TO DEPICT CONTINUAL TORMENT AND TORTURE OF SO-CALLED “ETERNAL” SOULS?

Why won’t thinking minds admit that the “eternal fire” that burned up Sodom and Gomorrah (Jude 7) is not now burning but only burned until that which it was destroying was ultimately consumed? Isn’t this one of many examples where the word “eternal” does not mean “never ending”? And why on earth does the writer of Hebrews describe God as a “consuming fire” rather than a “torturing/tormenting fire” (Hebrews 12:29)? Why cannot clear thinking minds see that the story of the rich man and Lazarus cannot successfully be appealed to as grounds to teach eternal torment, for it is a
parable with people still living on earth that need to be taught the gospel (Luke 16:19ff)?

Does not Paul teach that the “destiny” of the enemies of the cross is “destruction” (Philippians 3:19)? Why do some force “destruction” into “eternal life” in a state of torture? Have some of us been brainwashed so thoroughly that we miss these evident and clear truths? Does not Peter clearly teach that undiscerning blasphemers will be destroyed just like the beasts that perish (2 Peter 2:12)? Why does the traditional position on hell (Gehenna), a word referring to an open and continually burning city garbage dump, continue to mislead and diametrically change the meaning of clear passages that teach God will ultimately consume his enemies? Is it not because Satan, from the beginning in the garden of Eden, told Eve that she would “not surely die” and we have been perpetuating this doctrine of the devil ever since? Why are we so afraid to accept Scripture’s clear teaching that eternal life is conditional (1 Corinthians 15:54) and “immortality” is not a given but rather a gift? Why are we eager to keep spewing the very false doctrine that goes against the very nature of God as one who is just and will do right?

If God is going to torture the very ones he created in
his image and loved so dearly that he allowed his only begotten son to die in their places and knew beforehand would not accept his grace, surely the Bible would teach such, would it not?

Is there one single Scripture that teaches humans are “immortal souls” unconditionally, souls that will live on forever and forever either in the blissfulness of heaven or the torturing torment of a Gehenna fire that will never go out and will not consume what is put into it? Isn’t it strange that God would refer to the lake of fire as the “second death”? Why did he not know to call it the “eternal burning of those created in his image”? Isn’t it because such false teaching cannot be found in all of Holy Writ?

In summation, isn’t it strange indeed that false teachers have taken a “real place” (Gehenna) referred to by Jesus himself as a metaphor of destruction and have changed in into another made up/fabricated “real place” (hell) where souls (spirits, living beings, whatever) will be tortured unendingly by a loving heavenly Father?

If Gehenna is a metaphor of “hell” as it is traditionally taught, isn’t it a poor one, for Gehenna (the Jerusalem city dump of Jesus’ era) was a real place of destruction and consummation with no torment and no torture involved, while “hell” is a made up place of torment and torture with no destruction at all? Is this twisted thinking the height of misguided thinking?

Is Satan pleased with all of this? Surely it isn’t wrong to ask; is it?

Hell, You Say?

The traditional concept of hell originated in the minds of pagan philosophers and has been assimilated into the church at large, along with purgatory, prayers to saints, and other like doctrines, via Roman Catholicism. The false teaching that hell is a place where eternal souls are tormented and tortured forever and ever, unendingly, by a just God, was opposed by Protestant reformers such as Luther and Tyndale as well as restoration leaders such as Moses Lard. Hell and other pagan teachings were introduced into our Bibles by scholars mistranslating four words some 57 times in the King James Version: Hades, Sheol, Gehenna, Tartarus. The mere “translation” of four different words into one single word alone should cause red flags to go up in discerning minds. No wonder we have such outlandish misconceptions regarding the state of the wicked and unbelieving dead after judgment.

Lest someone suppose I have a hidden agenda or wish to change the unchangeable, allow me to say here and now that I am a believer in heaven as well as hell. I just don’t believe what has been falsely taught regarding hell all these centuries since the New Testament was penned. Jesus warned against holding to the traditions of men (Mark 7:8). We are not compelled to
believe what men say the Bible says regarding hell (Gehenna) or any other biblical subject, but only what the Bible actually teaches about it.

Some of the catch phrases that we often hear when dealing with this matter are surprisingly unbiblical. The terms “eternal hell” and “endless punishment” and “immortal soul” cannot be found in all of Scripture. Jesus spoke of “eternal punishment” but he never hinted of continual eternal torture of souls that live on and on in some state of anguish and torment.

There is a great deal of difference between “punishing” and “torturing” someone. If we punished a child for disobedience we might spank him or take away some privileges or even ground him for days and weeks. Under the Old Law, children were stoned for disobeying their parents. They were never tortured, however. If we held fire to a child’s hands who was caught stealing and kept the fire there until blisters were present someone might suggest that we had stepped out of the realm of punishing into the realm of torture.

There are four words in our Bible translated into a single English word, “hell.” These are: 1) Sheol, 2) Hades, 3) Gehenna, 4) Tartarus (found only in 2 Peter 2:4 in reference to the abode of “the angels that sinned”). Most scholars realize that the Hebrew “Sheol” and the Greek “Hades” refer to the grave or the abode of the dead. It is the word “Gehenna” that has us ensnared in a cloud of misunderstanding. Gehenna was the place outside of Jerusalem that was the city dump. It was located in the valley of Hinnom and was continually burning up the trash, garbage, and even corpses of criminals and animals. It was a place of filth and consumption. The flames and smoke were continually belching up their destruction of the refuse tossed into it.

Along with the flames were maggots that were ever gnawing at the carcasses, thus the expression from Mark 9:48 “the worm that does not die.” Jesus, in describing the future of those who were disobedient and wicked, chose to use the most horrifying of descriptions to paint a picture of the awfulness of it.

When heaven is described in Scripture, or the Holy City, words are used that convey preciousness to us: gold, pearl, living water. When speaking of the ugliness of being cast out from God’s presence forever, the most frightening words to human ears and eyes are used to describe it: outer darkness, lake of fire and brimstone, bottomless pit, burning chaff, et al. What scares us the most? Being burnt. Being alone in total darkness. Falling. So our Lord chose words to convey the horror of being lost and cut off from God.

When Satan began his lying with us in the Garden, he began with a promise that flew in the face of what God had spoken. God said that if our original parents ate of the forbidden tree they would “surely die.” Satan came along and altered the word of God by inserting a single word of his own. “You will NOT surely die.” And in our traditional view of hell we have been parroting Satan’s lie once again. We tell people the exact opposite of what God has said.

God calls the state of the ungodly the “second death.” But we presume to edit God and tell people they will not really die, but that they will live on in constant agony and torture. Jesus clearly taught us to “not be afraid of those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can DESTROY BOTH SOUL AND BODY IN HELL” (Matthew 10:28). Jesus uses the word “destroy.” We correct him, as well as God and the Holy Spirit, and substitute the words “live on and on and on.” Whom shall students of God’s word believe? God’s word even makes a distinction between the soul and the body and hints that we need to fear the God who can “destroy” both. He didn’t say to “fear him who can torment and torture the soul and/or body.” He didn’t say to “fear him who can inflict pain to the soul and/or body unendingly without mercy.”

Jesus teaches that God will destroy both soul and body in hell, but we mimic Satan and say, “Oh, no!” We have been teaching that God will keep us alive forever unconditionally and heat up the flames and darken the darkness and keep the pit open so that we will be tormented and tortured forever. There is not one Scripture that teaches such in all of the Bible! Find it. It is a doctrine that found its origin in Paganism, Phariseeism, and Catholicism and adopted by most of Protestantism, but not one taught by our Savior.

In a recent conversation with the esteemed Professor Emeritus Jimmy Allen, of Harding University, I was informed that he was “rethinking” and “restudying” his traditional understanding of hell. He shared with me more than confidentiality will allow me to repeat at this time, but brother Allen sent me a copy of a paper by Moses E. Lard, printed in 1879 by the title “Do the Holy Scriptures Teach the Endlessness of Future Punishment?” Lard, in a magnificent word study on the Greek “aion” draws many of the conclusions I have outlined here. I am indebted to brother Allen and share the Lard lecture simply to point out that this understanding isn’t new or something a few harebrained fanatics have thought up recently to stir controversy.

No, this teaching that I am presenting goes back to the Bible itself. When someone says to me, “Goad, you have gone liberal,” I am happy to respond with a smile, “No, brother. I haven’t gone liberal, but I have gone biblical.” As Charles Hodge often instructs his readers, “The familiar we must view more closely.”

Then how have we been duped all these years? Glad you asked. We have taken as literal, figurative expressions. And we have made figurative, literal expressions. The fire that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah was said to be “eternal,” but it is no longer burning. The result of the fire was eternal, not the burning itself. The fire of Gehenna, from which Jesus made his point of destruction, is no longer burning in Jerusalem, in spite of the fact that it was called everlasting (aion). The “results” are forever, not the consumption itself.

“Eternal” and “everlasting” do not always mean “never ending.” For example, it was spoken of the Passover (Exodus 12:24), the Aaronic priesthood (Exodus 29:9), Caleb’s inheritance (Joshua 14:9), Solomon’s Temple (1 Kings 8:12,13), and Gehazi’s leprosy (2 Kings 5:27), to name just a few, but these are all completed. Why do we understand the accommodation of words in some contexts but ignore them in others? The punishment of the wicked will be directly commensurate with their level of disobedience and administered without partiality by a just and merciful God, of this we may be sure. In Matthew 25:46, Jesus has the goats cast away in to “eternal punishment” not “eternal punishing.” Big difference!

Solomon wrote, “Will he not repay such person according to what he has done” (Proverbs 24:12b). Peter wrote, “It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them” (2 Peter 2:21). God is the one who will punish the wicked and evil doer. He doesn’t need our help.

Satan tells us to tell others that they “will not surely die.” But consider what God has to say about those who are disobedient. “The way of the wicked shall PERISH” (Psalm 1:6). “God’s fire will CONSUME the wicked” (Psalm
21:9). David said of those who lacked understanding that they are “like the beasts that PERISH” (Psalm 49:20). David calls death the “land of OBLIVION” (Psalm 88:12). “God will DESTROY them for their wickedness” (Psalm 94:23). Solomon wrote, “When the storm has SWEPT AWAY, the wicked are GONE” (Proverbs 10:25) and “…the lamp of the wicked is SNUFFED OUT” (Proverbs 13:9; 24:20).

God is never pictured in Scripture as an eternal tormentor. He is not a God who “tortures” those he loves. That is not good news. But he has promised to punish and “destroy” those who are not in his grace. “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume [emphasis, scg] the enemies of God”

(Hebrews 10:26,27). This familiar verse reminds us again to look more closely at what we think we understand. There are nuggets of truth hidden from us because of our preconceptions. This verse we have used to beat up people with concerning attendance at our assemblies. We have practically ignored the details of what God will do with those who turn from him. God is not a torturer of his own creation, but rather “our God is a CONSUMING fire” (Hebrews 12:29).

Satan and the church perpetuate the idea that we will live on and on and on in spite of the truth that Christians “put on” immortality at the resurrection. Our immortality isn’t like God’s; it’s conditional. Only God is immortal in the true sense of that word (1 Timothy 1:17; 6:16). Human are mortals. We haven’t always been as God has. We are created beings. We will not always be, unless God so wills it. Consider the wise man’s words: “I also thought, ‘As for men, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. Man’s fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless. All go to the SAME PLACE; all come from the dust, and to DUST ALL RETURN. Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth” (Ecclesiastes 3:18-21). Shall we edit Solomon while we are at it?

Satan told our ancestors they would not surely die. We continue to tell the ungodly that they will live on and God will torture them without end. Scripture teaches us “this will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish (not torture, scg) those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction (not everlasting destroying, scg) and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power” (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9). Satan, the Catholic church, and many of us continue to teach, “There will be no actual destruction. There will be no second death. There will only be never-ending horrendous torture and torment by our loving Father in heaven.” Absurd!

John the baptizer taught that Jesus would “burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:12). Who is represented by the chaff? The wicked, of course. Peter makes it extremely clear, unless we are wearing
prejudicial glasses and have closed minds, that “by the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:7). It is not God’s will that we perish. He desires to save us. “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

Even the golden text of the Bible reminds us of our possible perishing if we do not obey the gospel of Christ. Jesus said, “…should not perish” (John 3:16). How much plainer can it be than in the words of Peter again when he writes that “the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar, and the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be burned up. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be” (2 Peter 3:10-12).

The old hard-line traditionalists point out that eternal life for the godly will last forever. So, too, the consummation and destruction of the ungodly will last forever. But nowhere is it taught in Scripture that “destruction will not be destruction” but rather “continual destroying and torture and agony and pain without end.” The Greek word “aionios” which is translated “eternal” refers to the end result of a process rather than the destroying process or agent itself. It means the unsaved perish, yes perish, and theresult is forever. Jude 7 has Sodom destroyed by “eternal fire” yet we realize there is no fire at the site of Sodom presently. The “destruction” of the twin cities was eternal, not the “destroying.” They are not now being destroyed, are they?

Long ago Isaiah wrote: “And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night or day; the smoke thereof shall go up forever…” (Isaiah 34:9). In this text the prophet is discussing the DESTRUCTION of Edom. Edom is now DESTROYED. No smoke ascends at that particular locale today. Why? We know why. Because the “result” of the smoke going up is forever, not the smoke and burning itself.

Jeremiah speaks of Judah’s coming destruction. “Then shall I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched” (Jeremiah 17:27). If one visits Jerusalem today, they do not find a fire that is still burning (unless we spiritualize this text to suggest the continual conflict between those Semitic cousins who are still throwing rocks at each other after all these centuries). UNQUENCHABLE FIRE SIMPLY MEANS FIRE THAT WOULD NOT BE PUT OUT UNTIL THAT WHICH IT WAS DESTROYING WAS UTTERLY CONSUMED.

Does God teach in his word that evil people will be punished? Yes. Does the Bible tell us of those who have lived ungodly lives being held accountable for their disobedience and willful sin? Of course. And Scripture even hints of degrees of reward and punishment. We trust that God will punish in exact correctness and fairness those who are not among the redeemed. He will reward those who are found in his marvelous grace just as his holy and divine will decides. And I realize that these truths will mess up a lot of sermon outlines. So be it. I threw my old erroneous sermons on hell in the fire. They were consumed. Good riddance.

Can any caring person think of a scenario where it would be okay to hold a blowtorch to the eyes of another person (say a Saddam Hussein, Adolf Hitler, Richard Speck, Jeffrey Dahmer, Nero, Stalin, Osama Bin Laden) for as long as strength allowed? Certainly this would be looked upon as a heinous and barbaric act. Yet we paint a picture of God who will do far worse than that to billions and billions of individuals and never stop doing it. When we sit across the table from some poor soul who has just been taught of Jesus’ redeeming love and now knows how to receive God’s forgiveness, is it good news to tell him, when he asks, and he often does, where his beloved grandmother will be, or his child, or his wife who has passed on? “Yes, John, it doesn’t sound like the God I have been describing to you, does it.
But, believe me, it is part of the good news of Christ. Your grandmother and everyone in your family who has not done what I’ve told you to do will burn forever and ever in a fire that will never go out.” Readers, this is simply incredible. It is a Satanic distortion of clear truth and an unnecessary stumbling block put in the paths of the very ones we attempt to convert. How cunning the devil still is. And we are his pawns when we teach such ungodliness.

It’s difficult to accept new truth, especially when we have presumed to pretty well know it all the first time we figured things out for ourselves or borrowed our belief systems from our instructors. It is even harder to admit that we have been wrong about matters we must admit we have not thoroughly studied and worked out for ourselves. This truth did not come easily to me. I swallowed unquestionably what was taught to me by those whom I thought loved me. They did love me. They only taught what they had been taught. We presume often, don’t we, that we are above being fooled. But are we?

What shall we do with this newfound knowledge? Shall we hide with is in a closet like I did for years? Shall we fear repercussions form those in seats of authority? Yes. For a while some of you will do this. But eventually we shall have to deal with the reality that our Holy Father in heaven is not some maniacal torturer of his own precious creation. What good news this is! If I am mistaken about this, you would be my friend to show me how wrong I am. I do not have a monopoly on truth. But I am open to learn new truth if someone can teach me more perfectly the way of the Lord.

God bless you in the consideration of this material.

Steven Clark Goad <’)))><

Mud thrown is ground lost.

BOOKS: Kicking Against the Goads – Gullible’s Travels – This Present Chaos – A Unity Cordial – A Man Named Kelsey – The Road to Calvary Is Not A Cul-de-sac – The Day Uncle Louie Met Al Capone – “The Drunk Was Right!” -
Seeking Asylum In the Savior

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The angel said, “Don’t be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy, a joy that is for everyone.” The angel then told them of Jesus’ birth and told them where to find him.

Just as suddenly as the angel appeared, then there appeared a multitude of heavenly beings with the angel. These heavenly beings were praising God, declaring, “Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth among men with whom He is pleased.”

Question: why was heaven celebrating? What was heaven so thrilled about? Why did the fact of Jesus’ birth fill them with such ecstasy?

I. Didn’t they know? Didn’t they understand?
A. Did they not realize what Jesus’ birth set in motion for Jesus?
1. Did they not know that he was born in poverty, would be raised in poverty, and would live his entire life in poverty?
a. Once a scribe came to Jesus and said, “I will follow you wherever you go” (Matthew 8:19,20).
b. Jesus replied, “The foxes have dens and the birds have nests, but I don’t even have a place to sleep.”
2. Did heaven not know that his own brothers would refuse to believe in him?
a. Once his brothers asked him why he was not going to Jerusalem to the feast of Tabernacles (John 7:1-4).
b. Jesus was such a controversial figure in Jerusalem that there was a serious desire by some to kill him.
c. It was not yet time for him to die, and for that reason he was in Galilee.
d. His brothers said:
i. “Why don’t you go down to Judea so your disciples can see the things that you are doing?”
ii. “You should not be doing these things secretly–you need to show yourself to the world.”
e. They were urging Jesus to place his life in danger because they “were not believing in him.”
3. Did heaven not know that even his own family would think that he was crazy?
a. Early in his ministry Jesus was attracting such huge crowds that he could not even eat a meal.
b. Mark 3:20,21 states that when his own people heard this, that they went to take custody of him saying, “He has lost his senses.”
4. Did heaven not know that Jesus would have powerful enemies in high places who would complicate his ministry and make his life as miserable as they could?
5. Did heaven not know that he would be betrayed by one of the twelve men who lived and worked with him? Did heaven not know the agony Jesus would endure when one of his best friends denied that he ever knew him?
6. Did heaven not know the humiliation and abuse Jesus would confront in his trials–the being slapped, the being mocked, the being spat upon?
7. Did heaven not know the pain he would endure in his scourging when he was stripped of his clothes, tied to a post, and beaten with a leather whip?
8. Did heaven not know the emotional and physical agony he would endure for hours as he was crucified?
B. Didn’t heaven know all this? Yes, heaven knew this.
1. Well, if heaven knew, what were they celebrating? What is the joy about?
2. How could they be so excited, so happy, so filled with praise if they knew that this baby just born would be successful only if he confronted and endured all this?
3. This is hard for us to understand, isn’t it?
4. What if you knew immediately after your child’s birth every bad experience, every trauma, every serious sorrow, and every pain that your newborn would face–including the fact that he or she would die a tragic, painful death? If you knew all of that, would it affect the your joy on the day of birth?
a. The birth of a child that we love and want is such a euphoric, joyous event in our prosperous, free society because of our ignorance.
b. We look into the face of that tiny infant and see nothing but hope, and dreams, and good things to come.
c. At that moment it is as though trouble could never touch that new life sleeping in his or her innocence.
d. Yet, the truth is, trouble touches and afflicts every life.
5. After a birth, we can rejoice and celebrate because of our ignorance; after Jesus’ birth, heaven rejoiced and celebrated in full knowledge of what was to happen.
a. Heaven knew everything that awaited this infant in his human experience.
b. And with that knowledge, heaven rejoiced.
II. Do you understand that? We need to. We need to in order to properly, fully appreciate all that God has done and is doing in Jesus the Christ.
A. They were not rejoicing at the prospect of Jesus’ ordeals and pain; they were rejoicing because of what God and Jesus would accomplish through his ordeals and pain.
1. Heaven rejoiced because God was very near complete success.
a. The plan that God set in motion the day that Adam and Eve rebelled had begun its final phase.
b. They rejoiced because God’s objective was at hand–perfect redemption from evil, total forgiveness of sins, complete salvation would soon be a reality.
2. Heaven rejoiced because God’s complete victory over Satan was within God’s grasp.
a. Satan had been thrown out of heaven.
b. Soon the power of death, which was Satan’s power and control over a human’s life, could be destroyed.
3. Heaven rejoiced because after the cross would come the resurrection when Jesus would be Lord and Christ, and Satan would be in defeat.
a. Hebrews 12:2 states that Jesus endured the cross and looked with contempt upon shame because of the joy that lay beyond the cross.
b. It was the joy beyond the cross that caused heaven to rejoice.
4. Heaven rejoiced because the birth of this child meant that at last there could be peace among people with whom God was pleased.
a. Jesus was born to create the opportunity for us at last to be at peace with God, and also to be at peace with each other because we are at peace with God.
b. The natural product of being at peace with God through Jesus is being at peace with everyone who has made peace with God through Jesus.
c. Being at peace with God teaches us and shows us how to be at peace every one else who is in Jesus Christ.

An angel told Mary that she had conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:26-38), and an angel told Joseph not to be afraid to marry her (Matthew 1:18-25). Angels rejoiced and praised God when Jesus was born. Angels came and ministered to Jesus when his temptations in the wilderness concluded (Matthew 4:11). When Jesus prayed with such intensity in the Garden of Gethsemane that he sweated as though he were bleeding, an angel came and strengthened him (Luke 22:43). An angel rolled the stone away from Jesus’ tomb when he was resurrected, and told the women who made their early morning visit to the tomb, that Jesus was not there, that he had arisen (Matthew 28:1-7). Immediately after Jesus ascended back into heaven, heavenly messengers promised Jesus’ disciples that Jesus would return in the same manner that he left (Acts 1:10, 11).

From the moment Jesus entered this world to the moment Jesus left this world, heaven took great interest in all that occurred in Jesus’ life. Heaven rejoiced when he was born, and rejoiced again when he returned. Revelation 5:9, 10 states that all the creatures of heaven bowed before the resurrected Jesus and sang this song:

You are worthy to take the book and to break its seals; for you were slain, and purchased for God with your blood men from every tribe and language and people and nation. And you have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.

Just as Paul wrote in Philippians 2:5-11, I thank Jesus for not clinging to his equality with God, for emptying his divine self into the form of a human slave taking upon himself our humanity. I thank Jesus for humbling himself as a human in total obedience to God, obedience that even accepted death on a cross.

I thank God for exalting him, for giving him a name, a title, the Christ, which is the most powerful and significant name ever given anyone. I thank God that the day will come when every being in heaven and every person who has ever lived on earth will bow before Jesus. And that everyone, voluntarily, will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And in that moment, God will be appropriately glorified for all that He has done in making our salvation a reality.

Just as heaven was personally and directly involved in Jesus’ life from the moment he was born through the time of his resurrection, if you choose to place your life in the resurrected Jesus, heaven will be personally and directly involved in your life–from the moment you are born into God’s family through the time of your resurrection. Jesus was born to create your opportunity to choose. Jesus was raised from the dead to give you that choice. It is your choice. If you choose life in Christ, heaven will rejoice again.

Used with permission from David Chadwell, West-Ark Church of Christ

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If you are a returning listener I want you to know that you are part of something much bigger than any of us. You are part of a family of those in Jesus Christ who want to understand what the Bible is really saying to us, saying to you. What is your role in this great plan called life? Let’s find out together as we study the Bible and listen to the great plan of God. I know you’re out there. Almost 110,000 Podcasts and 158,000 audio Bible downloads show that. I pray for all of you. I ask you to pray for me and for this Podcast as well so we can help wrap it around the world and bring the great news of Jesus Christ to everyone we possibly can.

I am starting to get back into the swing of things here and have a lot of great Podcasts lined up for everyone. Today’s is an important message in many ways; it is one you have probably heard a variant of. I want to show you that God brought Sin to Himself through Jesus so that he could overcome it at the Cross. I have heard it preached before; and maybe you have to that God cannot stand to look at sin? So he had to abandon Jesus at the cross. This doesn’t make sense to me as God has never been afraid of sin as we will go over after the message today. In short; God went looking for Adam and Eve in the garden, who was looking for who and not afraid of sin in the process? I think it’s time we moved past the good cop/bad cop strategies we have been taught in the past. It doesn’t resonate with the all powerful who loves us so much that He gave His only begotten Son for us, to draw us into an intimate relationship with Him.

Also, a quick reminder to download all 21 MP3 chapters of Wayne Jacobsen’s book “The Naked Church.” Go to www.godsmessageontheweb.net in the right pane or under the question mark (?) in the menu. I encourage you to download all of these audio book chapters and listen to this very important message. It’s a personal relationship with our “Father” God that really matters the most. Not anything that you could ever do for yourself. Resist the urge to make yourself right before God and accept the fact that you can never be right before God without what He did for you through Jesus on the Cross.

It is really great to have you visiting with us today. This world can be such a busy place. It distracts us all from the reality of what we are doing on this Earth. Try to remove all the cares of the day as we study God’s great plan of salvation for us.
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AND GOD SAID “IT NEVER HAPPENED”
(Part 2)

Through much of this century, one of the common topics of discussion in the church has been what is right. Countless sermons have been preached on what is right. We could not estimate the number of arguments that produced confrontations about what is and is not right. Many debates were conducted to defend what was right.

Any in depth discussion of the concept of “right” is lengthy and complicated. However, we commonly approach our concepts of “right” as though “right” is simple and easy to discuss. To the person defending what he is convinced is “right,” “right” is always simple.

Our human concerns about “being right” commonly focus on what is correct. “Right” is centered in correctness–correct organization, correct teachings, correct practices, correct information, correct positions, correct reasoning, and correct conclusions. In our devotion to correctness, we defend right organization, right teachings, right practices, right information, right positions, right reasoning, and right conclusions. This concept focuses on “right” as compared to “wrong.”

So, from human perspectives, the discussion of what is right is a simple discussion. We often think it is as simple as opposing and rejecting what is wrong.

God’s concern about “right” does not focus on correctness. God’s concern about “right” focuses on much more important, much more serious than our human preoccupation with correctness. God’s basic concern regarding “right” involves guilt. Specifically, it involves human guilt.

While Christians are commonly concerned about correctness, God is concerned about human guilt.
I. God is right; that is fundamental to God being righteous.
A. His rightness and his righteousness are affirmed by the fact that God is free from all evil.
1. No form of evil is in or associated with God.
2. God is not right because of His power; God is right because there is no evil in God.
B. Because we misuse our wills, all people are evil.
1. Certainly, evil exists in people in different degrees and different forms; but all people have an enormous amount of evil in them.
2. But no person who possesses and uses his will is free from evil.
3. Therefore, all people have guilt.
C. Therein lies God’s basic problem in His association with people.
1. God is totally free from all evil.
2. All people have evil.
3. Because people are evil, they have guilt.
4. So how can a God who is right because He is free from evil associate with people who are guilty because they are incapable of being free from evil?
5. This is the basic work of justification: making people who have guilt “right” before the God who is free from evil.
II. For God to make a person “right,” God has to destroy the person’s guilt.
A. How does God destroy guilt when people are guilty?
1. This is the condensed version of what God does to make guilty people right:
a. God placed all evil committed (and to be committed) by people in the body of Jesus as Jesus died.
b. In that act, God made Jesus to be sin.
c. Every person who will trust and accept what God did in Jesus as he died is forgiven.
2. Forgiveness provided through Jesus’ blood literally destroys the sin.
a. By destroying the sin, God destroys the guilt.
b. Because the evil and the guilt of the forgiven person is destroyed, the person is right before God because he or she has been forgiven.
3. Every person needs this solution to guilt.
B. God’s primary concern in our becoming “right” centers in words and concepts that declare the destruction of our guilt.
1. We are cleansed from our sins; they are washed away by the blood of Jesus.
2. We are purified, made free of sin, through the blood of Jesus.
3. We received atonement through Jesus’ blood; the function of atonement is to remove sin.
4. By using the innocent blood of Jesus, God:
a. Redeems us–frees us from Satan by purchasing us for Himself.
b. Sanctifies us–sets us apart from evil for himself.
c. Justifies us–makes us right; looks at us as though the evil did not occur.
5. We are right because our guilt and evil have been destroyed in Christ.
a. We focus on correctness, the issue of right versus wrong.
b. God focuses the destruction of evil in us; the issue of guilt versus forgiveness.
c. God justifies us by destroying our guilt.
III. I want to share some things with you from the book of Romans (and we could share the same things from the book of Galatians).
A. I have a very specific objective tonight.
1. We are not trying to do an in depth study of these scriptures.
2. I am encouraging you to deepen your understanding of justification in Christ.
B. In the letter called Romans, you encounter the same problem that you encounter in many of the New Testament writings: the enormous misunderstanding that existed between Jewish Christians and non-Jewish Christians.
1. In the first two chapters of Romans Paul demonstrated that every person needs a means to be right before God that does not depend on human achievement.
a. Paul did a fascinating job of showing that humans cannot make themselves right before God.
b. We cannot make ourselves right by morals or by keeping laws.
c. Every human attempt to do so is based on human achievement, and all attempts result in our becoming extremely wicked or very judgmental.
2. The first scripture I call to your attention is Romans 3:19-25. Please take a Bible and read the verses as I paraphrase the central thoughts of the verses.
a. Many Jewish Christians were deeply offended by the true teaching that all people are saved by God’s grace.
i. “We have known the living God for 1400 years, and we had God’s law all that time.”
ii. “If now God saves people by grace, what was the purpose of all that? It is not fair. Being God’s people all those years means nothing.”
b. Verse 19: The primary purpose of God’s law was to make every person accountable before God. The focus of law is accountability, not forgiveness.
c. Verse 20: No one can be made right before God through law; law can only make us aware of the evil in us.
d. Verse 21: God created a means for people to be “right before God” that has nothing to do with law; in fact, the law itself declared that God would do this.
e. Verse 22: This new means of being right before God came into existence through Christ, and every person who trusts Christ can receive it.
f. Verse 23: Every person has failed God, every person is guilty of evil, so every person needs this new means of being “right before God.”
g. Verse 24: This new means of being right before God perfectly expresses God’s grace through the redemption that is possible in Christ to justify any person–make any person right before God.
h. Verse 25: That is precisely why God sent Jesus–Jesus came to die in our place so his blood and our faith in him could make us right before God.
3. The second scripture I call to your attention is Romans 4:1-8. Paul was still talking to the Jews attempting to help them understand.
a. Verse 1: The beginning of the Jewish nation was Abraham: why was Abraham right before God?
b. Verse 2: If Abraham was right before God (justified) because of his acts of obedience, then he had reason to take credit for his righteousness.
c. Verse 3: But Genesis 15:6 states that God considered Abraham to be righteous because of his faith.
d. Verse 4: If a person is right before God because of his deeds, then he earned righteousness; it is not the gift of God’s grace.
e. Verse 5: But if a person is right before God because he trusts God’s justification, then he is righteous because God made him righteous.
f. Verse 6-8: This is not a new understanding; it is as old as King David who wrote in Psalms 32:1,2:
i. Blessed is the person whose sins are covered through forgiveness;
ii. Blessed is the person that God refuses to hold accountable for his sin.
4. The third scripture I ask you to examine is Romans 8:31-34.
a. Being a Christian brought many hardships and suffering to those people.
b. Paul wrote that no matter how much they suffered, they could be absolutely certain that God never stopped loving them or deserted them.
c. Verse 31: God is greater than anything that exist; there is no enemy of the Christian that is greater than God.
d. Verse 32: God proved that He will do everything necessary to secure our salvation when He allowed His own son to die for us.
e. Verse 33: No one can use your guilt to separate you from God because it is God who justifies you. If God makes you right before Him, no one can make you wrong before Him.
f. Verse 34: If God refuses to condemn you, you cannot be condemned. It cannot happen because Christ died and was resurrected to return to God and intercede for you.
5. Romans 8 is the most powerful expression of the importance of justification for each of us.
a. God destroyed our guilt when we surrendered in faith to Jesus Christ.
b. Our guilt does not exist because we are justified; we are guilty, but God used Jesus to make us right before Him.
c. Satan cannot accuse us as he accused Job because of what God does for us in Christ.
d. Though we are not and never will be perfect, though we will always make mistakes, Satan cannot charge us or condemn us.
e. Why? Because God justifies and Jesus intercedes.
f. When Satan attempts to charge or condemn us, God’s response is simple: it never happened.
g. This is only reason that God refuses to see our sins: God destroyed our sins and our guilt with forgiveness in Christ.

Never, never, never think that you are right before God because you are good or that you are obedient. If you want to know the reality of your guilt, ask Satan. If you want to know the proper consequences for the evil in your life, ask Satan. You are not right before God because you have not sinned. You are right before God because God destroys your sin. He forgives you. He justifies you.

If God has washed your sins away with baptism, stop worrying about guilt. Turn loose of it. Focus on serving God.

Have your sins been destroyed?
Have you discovered this freedom?
Have you given yourself to Christ?
Used with permission from David Chadwell, West-Ark Church of Christ
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That is the end of our Bible lesson for today. Let’s look briefly at what Jesus really did for us on the cross. Please pray about this and I believe you will see the truth here.

Mercy not Sacrifice: If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. (Matthew 12:7) The following is a quote from mercynotsacrifice.blogspot.com You can also find this in the transitions series on llifestream.org and in the book by Wayne” He Loves Me” available for free at his web site in PDF and at great bookstores everywhere.

I stumbled upon Wayne Jacobsen when I was researching different atonement theories last year. The Cross as Cure Not Punishment came up in the google search results. It is part 4 in a series of talks called Transitions. He also talks about this in his book He Loves Me.

….the unanswerable questions should invite us to reconsider our distorted view of the cross. Since Adam’s fall we have come to picture God not as a loving Father inviting us to trust him, but an exacting sovereign who must be appeased. When we start from that vantage point we miss God’s purpose on the cross. For his plan was not to satisfy some need in himself at his Son’s expense, but rather to satisfy a need in us at his own expense.

And it was not his plan to satisfy the requirements of the Law…nor is the atonement about the fulfillment of the OT sacrificial system. Later on in the book he says….

But I am deeply bothered by the thought that in some way God was able to separate himself at the cross. The popular understanding of the cross seems to be that God the Father executed wrath on God the Son while standing at some discrete distance.

Such thinking not only denies the essence of God’s nature but then distorts what happened at the cross. Paul wrote that “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ…” God was no distant observer, but a participant. He didn’t send Jesus to do what he would not do; but God himself acted through Jesus to bring about our redemption.

Some have taken Jesus’ cry that his Father had forsaken him to mean that at the darkest moment, the Father had to turn his back on the Son. God cannot bear to look on sin, they argue, so that when our sins were laid on him, God had to turn his face away from his Son.

God has never run from sinful humanity. He didn’t hide from Adam and Even in the Garden. They hid from him as he sought them out. It is not God who cannot bear to look on sin, but that we in our sin can’t bear to look on God. He’s not the one who hides. We are. God is powerful enough to look on sin and be untainted by it. He has always done so. He did so at the cross.

I could not agree with this more. God was IN Christ reconciling the world to himself. Kind of hard to turn his head away if he was (as the Amplified renders it) personally present. And is not our great God omnipresent? Is there anywhere he is not? How is it then that he could not look upon sin? Even if I make my bed in hell, behold, he is there? He has been looking on sin throughout the ages. He personally (in the incarnated Christ) walked among sin on a daily basis.

God is not a wimp…he is not too delicate to look upon sin. He does not have to turn away from sin and in fact there is no hell hole too dark, no evil place too wicked…nowhere that he will not go to rescue his children. The Cross should show us that….

He didn’t just deal with our sins, but with the very nature of sin itself. By allowing sin to touch his person through the Son, he would be able to prevail in himself over that which we were powerless to fight. Through the physical body of Jesus, sin came face to face with the power of God, and as we shall see, God prevailed over sin completely.
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This of course is my standard closing line. I am going to be experimenting with changing this over the next few Podcasts to give a more fluid feel to the lesson. Of course my point is to try and point out that you need a personal relationship with God for this all to work, right? I get that. And I hope you do as well. I wonder sometimes if I come off too harshly when I go through this. Your thoughts are welcome.

God gave us His word for his believers and you can count on the fact that he gave us the correct word. The Holy Spirit selected the precise words in our Bible, “not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Spirit teaches”, 1 Cor. 2:10?13.

The Holy Spirit never used the word “church” or any word which could correctly be translated “church”. The Holy Spirit used the Greek word “ekklesia”. A correct English translation would be assembly, congregation, the called out, my people, my flock or other words meaning the people of God.

In an effort to convey the correct idea, the first English translations did not use “church”,

William Tyndale’s translation used “congregation” which incurred the anger of the Catholics and the Church of England. Miles Coverdale, “The Great Bible” 1539, also used congregation. Alexander Campbell, “The Living Oracles” 1826, used “congregation” and Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible and others used “assembly”.

Why is the Greek not correctly translated in the King James Version? For the same reason they gave us “Easter” and “baptism”, because a correct translation would contradict their organizations and practices. At the time of the KJV translation, the Church of England and the Catholic Church had developed into institutional organizations which had man made rulers and had interposed their institutions as a mediator between man and God. The KJV was authorized by King James himself in 1604. One purpose for this translation was to combat prior translations which had correctly translated the Greek “ekklesia” into congregation or assembly.

The KJV translators were given 15 rules to follow. Three of those rules were: Rule 1. Alter the Bishop Bible as little as possible. (The Bishop Bible was an English translation made in 1566 also in an effort to combat prior translations) Rule 3: Old Ecclesiastical words will be kept, that is, “church” is not to be translated “congregation”. Rule 4: Words commonly used by ancient fathers and the Faith are to be kept.

What is the meaning of this? “Do not translate into words which would be in conflict with our current organization and practices”. so we got Easter instead of Passover, baptism instead of immersion, deacon instead of servant, presbytery instead of elder and church instead of congregation or assembly. They correctly translated “ekklesia” into congregation or assembly when it was used in reference to non-religious gatherings such as in Acts 19:32, 39, 41.

Christian is the only proper name given by inspired writers, Isa. 62:2, Acts 11:26, 1 Pet. 4:16. “Ekklesia” as used by the Holy Spirit means assembly, congregation, the called out, God’s people or those belonging to the Lord. Like “baptism” we may use “church” if all understand all the facts. However its use usually does not make the true meaning of the Holy Spirit’s “ekklesia” clear”.

I want you to know that no matter what your Faith is you are welcome here. My beliefs are based in the book of the Holy Bible. What I would like to point out is the Bible plainly states on many occasions including the very first Sermon in Acts Chapter 2: 14-39 that baptism is a necessity. I encourage you to read the entire chapter so you can see I am not picking a verse from here and there to make my point. I am reading from the most Holy Bible and telling the greatest story ever told.

Peter say’s at the conclusion of the Sermon in Acts chapter 2 verses 36-39 as quoted from the Message Translation “”All Israel, then, know this: There’s no longer room for doubt—God made him Master and Messiah, this Jesus whom you killed on a cross.”

Cut to the quick, those who were there listening asked Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers! Brothers! So now what do we do?” Peter said, “Change your life. Turn to God and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, so your sins are forgiven. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is targeted to you and your children, but also to all who are far away—whomever, in fact, our Master God invites.”

You need to hear the good news of Jesus Christ and what he did for you. Hearing this righteous word brings the belief in Christ which is necessary for your salvation. Once you believe you must repent of your sins. Once you repent you must confess your Faith by making a public confession that Jesus Christ is the son of God. And be immersed (baptized) to receive the remission of your sins.

If you have a comment please email feedback@godsmessageontheweb.com , my name is Greg McAbee. Also be sure to check out Brian Hardin daily at www.dailyaudiobible.com and Wayne Jacobsen at www.lifestream.org.
Let’s pray together:
Most merciful God,
We confess that we have sinned against you
in thought, word, and deed,
By what we have done,
And by what we have left undone.
We have not loved you with our whole heart;
We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.
For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ,
Have mercy on us and forgive us;
That we may delight in your will,
And walk in your ways,
To the glory of your Name. Amen.

Good Day and God bless you.

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The second case involved a violent act of hatred. Again, the judge saw the broken, grieving defendant. Again he declared that he wanted to see the defendant and the plaintiff in chambers without counsel. Again the defendant remorsefully acknowledged his guilt and expressed his sorrow. Again the judge mediated a resolution. Then the judge reentered the court room and declared, “I rule that this alleged crime never occurred. Case dismissed.”

The third case involved a wanton act of disregard for human life. Again, the judge saw the broken, grieving defendant. Again, he declared that he wanted to see the defendant and the plaintiff in chambers without counsel. Again, the defendant remorsefully acknowledged his guilt and expressed his sorrow. Again, the judge mediated a solution. Then for a third time the judge entered the court room and declared, “I rule that this alleged crime never occurred. Case dismissed.”

The immediate outcry was loud and furious. How dare the judge ignore the law! How dare he disregard the rights of the victims! How dare he bypass the judicial process! How dare he conduct himself in such an outrageous manner! His behavior was inexcusable and indefensible! He was unfit to be a judge and should be removed from the bench at once!

And we joined in the outrage that demanded the judge be removed from the bench.

I. How can we become “right” in God’s eyes?
A. If you think about that seriously, it seems an impossibility.
1. God is perfect; we are imperfect.
2. God is sinless; we are sinful.
3. Evil has never been a part of God; evil is always a part of us.
B. How can the God who sees all deeds and knows all hearts ever look at us as though we were “right?”
1. God knows everything each of us does.
2. God knows everything each of us thinks.
3. God sees and knows all evil in every person–even when we don’t!
4. How can we be made “right” in God’s sight when we are powerless to eliminate all evil from our lives and our hearts?
C. We are “made right” in God’s eyes when God justifies us.
1. When God justifies us, God makes us right.
2. God will justify any person who:
a. Believes that Jesus is God’s Son.
b. Trusts what God did through Jesus’ death and resurrection.
c. In that faith responds to God by allowing God to place him or her in Christ.
3. Incredibly, when God justifies us, He not only makes us right, but He also declares us to be right.
II. One of the common failures of religious people is found in the fact that we want to make ourselves “right before God. ”
A. We do not want to trust God to make us right; we want to make ourselves right.
1. We want to be confident of our salvation because we are “right;” we did the “right things;” and we made ourselves “right.”
2. Ask a person who believes that he or she is right before God this question: “Why are you confident that you are ‘right before God?’”
a. “I am right before God because of the commandments that I obeyed–obedience made me right.”
b. “I am right before God because of my accurate knowledge and understanding–knowledge made me right before God.”
c. “I am right before God because of the terrible sins that I do not commit–refusing to do terrible, evil things makes me right.”
d. “I am right before God because I live a good life–a good life makes me right.”
3. Are those things important? Absolutely! If I am a Christian:
a. I must obey God.
b. I must grow in my knowledge.
c. I must refuse to do evil things.
d. I must live a good life.
B. But do those things–obedience, knowledge, avoiding terrible evil, and living a good life–make me “right before God?”
1. No.
2. Why? For this reason: when I am the most obedient me, the most knowledgeable me, best me that I can be, I still am not perfect, I still have evil in my heart, mind, and life.
3. Only God can make me right; only God can justify me.
III. Consider three examples that involve justification in the gospel of Luke.
A. The first example is the incident that caused Jesus to give the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37)
1. An expert in the teachings we call the Old Testament came to test Jesus–this egotistical know-it-all came to prove that Jesus was a fraud.
2. So he asked Jesus, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
3. Jesus answered by asking, “You are the expert–you tell me.”
4. Being a know-it-all, the expert could not keep his mouth shut.
a. He answered, “Love God with all your being and love your neighbor as yourself.”
b. Jesus said, “You are correct. Do that and you will have eternal life.”
5. Now the know-it-all was in a terrible situation–he just condemned himself.
a. He had not loved his neighbor as himself.
b. He put himself “on the hook” and needed to get himself “off the hook.”
c. He wanted to justify himself–he wanted to make himself right.
d. He was certain that he could use his knowledge to do that; ask Jesus for an answer that he could reject by using his knowledge.
e. He asked, “Who is my neighbor?” He implied that he could not obey that commandment because the word “neighbor” could not be defined.
6. That is when Jesus told the parable of the good Samaritan.
a. A man who was despised by the Jews saved the life of a Jew who had been robbed and beaten.
b. This Samaritan made personal sacrifices to take care of the Jew.
c. That was after two important Jewish religious leaders walked by the injured Jew and did nothing.
7. Jesus asked the expert, “Which of these three people was his neighbor?”
a. The expert said, “The man who showed him mercy.”
b. Jesus said, “If you want to love your neighbor, go do what he did.”
8. The expert tried to use his knowledge to justify himself, and he failed miserably.
B. The second example is found in Luke 16:14,15 and involved the Pharisees.
1. Jesus had given an unusual lesson on the necessity of using material things to achieve eternal purposes.
2. It says that the Pharisees who loved money ridiculed Jesus.
3. Jesus then made this statement: You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God.
a. Just like the religious expert, these Pharisees tried to justify themselves.
b. They tried to make themselves right by using the opinions and conclusions of people.
i. If the judgment and consensus of people said that they were right, that made them right.
ii. Religious human approval made people right.
iii. So, if I win the religious approval of other people, that makes me right.
c. But Jesus said there is a deadly flaw in that reasoning: the things that religiously impress people are the things that God despises.
d. Commonly, that which wins people’s approval is offensive to God.
4. Their attempt to justify themselves also miserably failed.
C. The third example is found in Luke 18:9-14 and involved a guilty, greedy, dishonest Jew who collected taxes for the Romans.
1. The parable was given to a specific group: people who trusted in themselves.
a. These were religious people who were certain that they were right because they made themselves right.
b. They also had zero respect for people who failed, who made mistakes.
c. They looked with contempt at people who failed to measure up to their standards.
2. This is what Jesus said to them:
a. Two men went to the temple to pray, one was a Pharisee and one was a guilty, greedy, dishonest tax collector.
i. Fact one: the temple was the holiest place on earth to pray, the place that let you come directly into God’s presence.
ii. Fact two: Jewish society considered the Pharisee to be the finest example of knowledge and devotion to God.
iii. Fact three: greedy, dishonest tax collectors were regarded to be among the most evil people in the nation.
b. The Pharisee was sure that he was right–he thanked God that he was not like swindlers, unjust people, adulterers, or this tax collector.
i. He recited his religious virtues.
ii. To express humility before God, he did not eat two days a week.
iii. He continually gave ten percent of everything he had to God.
c. The guilty, greedy, dishonest tax collect was ashamed to raise his head.
i. Filled with a sense of unworthiness, he stood back.
ii. He beat on his chest.
iii. All he prayed was, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”
d. Jesus said one of these men left the temple area justified.
i. God made the tax collector right because he humbled himself.
ii. The person who believes that he makes himself right is arrogant.
iii. God rejects the arrogant and exalts the humble.
Does that seem right to you? Does it seem wrong that God refused to look at the classic religious type as “right” and that He made someone guilty of awful things to be “right?”

Did God do that because the religious people had knowledge, obeyed, and showed commitment to religious practices? No. Did God do that because a man was guilty of greed and dishonesty? No.

Any person who trusts in himself and believes that he makes himself right will not be justified. Any person who sees and acknowledges his own wickedness and turns to God, trusting God and not himself, will be justified.

How? God justifies a person by redeeming and forgiving. He frees the person from Satan and destroys the sin. Only because God redeems and forgives can the person be right. Our efforts to make ourselves right always fail. Faith in what God does for us through the death and resurrection of Jesus always succeeds.

This is what happens. When a believing, repentant sinner turns to God in the faith of surrender, the Great Judge takes the person with his or her guilt into his chambers. He uses the blood of Jesus to mediate a solution. Then he declares, “I rule that the evil never occurred. This person is now my child. Case dismissed.”

Why are you right?
I would have you obey God.
I would have you grow in your knowledge of the Bible.
I would have you refuse to do evil things.
I would have you live as good as you can live.

But always remember that you are [or can be] right before God
. . . only because of the Cross.
. . . only because of the blood of Christ.
. . . only because God cleansed you.

You will never be right because of what you have done.

Used with permission from David Chadwell, West-Ark Church of Christ

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With all the differences God handled successfully in the first century, we need to allow God to teach us that He can handle ours. It was we, not God, that decided He could not handle our differences in the church. It was we, not God, who decided our differences were too much for God to handle.

Let us begin with a very brief review of our past lessons. First, we examined our concept of unity. We noted that God’s concept of unity includes diversity. Second, to illustrate God’s concept of unity, we noted the differences between Jesus the Son and God the Father when Jesus prayed John 17. Third, we noted from Ephesians 2 that even though Christians did not fully understand what God had done for them in Christ, God still did it. God’s achievements in Jesus Christ do not depend on human understanding or human permission!

Today, we want to go to Romans 14 for a third illustration. We want to begin by reading Romans 14:1-23. Please read with me or listen carefully as I read. (I am reading from the New American Standard Translation.)

Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions. One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God. For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall give praise to God.” So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God. Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this—not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother’s way. I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil; for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then let us pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another. Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense. It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother stumbles. The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin.

I. We want to begin by noting one of the disagreements between Jewish Christians called Judaizers and gentile Christians.
A. Please understand that the understanding of Jewish Christians like Paul were the exception, not the common situation.
1. People like Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, Aquila and Priscilla, etc. were Jewish Christians who grasped what God did in Jesus’ death and resurrection.
2. They never taught Jews to abandon their Jewishness, but to see their past and God’s promises to them in the past as being fulfilled in Jesus Christ. (Consider such passages as Acts 21:19-24 and 22:3, 12, 17.)
3. However, never did Paul teach gentiles that they had to adopt Jewish practices.
a. Gentile salvation did not, in any way, depend on the Jews’ covenant responsibilities with God.
b. There was an unfolding of God’s work, not a rejection of God’s past work.
c. Jews who believed in Jesus Christ were to understand this unfolding so that “all families of the earth” (Genesis 12:3) could find God’s salvation blessings in Jesus Christ.
B. Judaizers did not see how gentiles could possible come directly to God through Jesus Christ without first being indoctrinated into Judaism (the Jewish religion).
1. Unconverted gentiles had the wrong concept of divinity–they worshipped idols, not the one true living God.
2. Unconverted gentiles did not know the correct concepts of worship.
3. Unconverted gentiles did not have the right values reflected in their moral values, in their concepts of right and wrong.
4. Unconverted gentiles did not know the correct way to live.
C. The Judaizers’ solution:
1. “Allow us to destroy their heathen concepts.”
2. “Allow us to teach then the right concepts of God.”
3. “Allow us to teach them the right way to live.”
4. “Allow us to circumcise them.”
5. “Then–and only then–will they be ready to come to God through Christ.”
D. The Judaizers’ concept:
1. “Let us destroy all that is wrong in them first.”
2. “Then they will be prepared to learn how to be alive to God through Jesus Christ.”
E. To show you parts of this view from scripture, I direct your attention to Acts 15.
1. In Acts 15:1, 2, some Jewish Christians came from Judea (the area of Jerusalem and the first church) and taught gentile Christians (the brethren) in Antioch: “”Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”
a. Note circumcision is a salvation issue.
b. Note this was taught to gentiles who were Christians or brethren.
c. Note that not even Paul and Barnabas (who has just converted gentiles to Jesus Christ) could stop this incorrect teaching.
d. Note the question had to be referred to Jerusalem and to the apostles and elders.
2. In Acts 15:5 when the issue arrived in Jerusalem, some Pharisees who believed in Jesus Christ said: “It is necessary to circumcise them, and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses.”
3. After a thorough discussion of the matter, after James announced it was unnecessary for gentiles to be Jewish proselytes before becoming Christians, James suggested that the Christian leaders write gentile Christians a letter to confirm the decision. In the letter (Acts 15:24) this statement is declared:
“Since we have heard that some of our number to whom we gave no instruction have disturbed you with their words, unsettling your souls . . .”
a. Note there were some Jewish Christians who claimed to represent the Jerusalem church leadership, but did not.
b. Note these people said that those who were not circumcised according to the custom of Moses could not be saved.
c. These people were saying it was not enough to come to God through Jesus Christ.
II. I hope you have your Bibles and can follow me in your Bible–turn to Romans 14 and first consider the first 12 verses.
A. Verse one introduces us to two different kinds of Christians Paul wished his readers to consider: the Christian who is weak in the faith and (by implication) the Christian who is strong in the faith.
1. First, consider the Christian who is weak in the faith.
a. The purpose of possessing knowledge is to judge others by his or her understanding and the standards that come from that understanding.
b. He or she is a vegetarian; for faith reasons meat is not eaten.
c. To him or her, there are special religious days–like the Sabbath, or Pentecost, or the Passover.
d. He or she thought his or her evaluation of other Christians determined if the other Christians were acceptable to God or unacceptable to God.
2. Second, consider the Christians who were strong in the faith.
a. He or she understands that the purpose of knowledge is to provide the person a lifestyle–another person is not acceptable or unacceptable to God because of another’s opinion.
b. He or she eats anything, including all meats, and we are talking about the person eating anything for faith reasons.
c. To him or her, no day had religious significance over any other day–what a Christian does on the Sabbath, or on Pentecost, or on the Passover was not religiously significant.
3. Basic understandings affirmed by Paul:
a. Rule one: one is not a Christian for the purpose of passing judgments on another Christian’s religious conclusions.
b. Rule two: we are not judges of other Christians, but servants of the Lord.
c. Rule three: God understands why a Christian does what he or she does, even when his or her behavior differs from other Christians. God through Christ can and will make both Christians endure–even if they differ from each other.
d. Rule four: understand the motive prompting the act of the Christian.
i. If a Christian is a vegetarian or a meat-eater, even thought they act differently, they do what they do for the same reason–to honor God!
ii. If a Christian observes a special religious day or does not, both do it for the same reason–to honor God!
4. Paul’s conclusion is powerful: the Christian’s objective is to be alive in Christ (remember Galatians 2:20–”I have been crucified with Christ . . . and Christ lives in me.”)
a. The objective is to die to self.
b. The objective is to die to my former lifestyle.
c. The objective is to be alive in Christ.
d. God will take care of the judging, so you take care of the serving by being alive in Christ.
B. “Paul, what is going on?”
1. First, you need to understand worship practices in the first century (and before).
a. Worshippers of a god, including Jews, sacrificed to the god they worshipped.
b. As a part of the worship act, the worshipper ate part of the sacrifice (see 1 Samuel 1:4-8, and also consider the Passover lamb).
c. Evidently, what happened in Rome was the fact that Jewish Christians did not know if the meat at the meat market had been sacrificed to an idol or not, so to avoid sacrificial meat, they became vegetarians.
d. Gentile Christians said what one ate did not matter because idolatrous gods did not exist, so they ate anything sold in the meat market.
e. God knew why both did what they did.
f. What we would regard as an expression of spiritual strength (vegetarianism for faith’s sake) Paul said was spiritual weakness.
2. Second, we need to understand how difficult it is to leave past religious practices.
a. We all carry some baggage from our religious past into our practices as a Christian.
b. For the person in Judaism, it was demanding to give up 1500 years of acts and standards when they became Christians.
i. There were important religious reasons for living as they lived–they kept the Sabbath and Passover at God’s instruction, there were certain things they did not eat because of God’s instructions, even their clothing (such as the wearing of tassels) was influenced by God’s instructions.
ii. How do you go against God to obey God? That understanding was not simple! To understand Jesus Christ as a divine fulfillment of divine promises was not simple! It is easy to trust one’s obedient acts rather than the God behind the acts!
3. So Paul told the Christians in Rome to leave each other alone!
a. God knew why they did what they did! (Is that not wonderful–even for us?)
b. So Paul said serve Christ instead of judging humans in Christ!
C. Now consider Romans 14:13-23 and note Paul’s stress.
1. “If you want to judge someone, judge yourself!”
a. How?
b. Do not let your actions make it harder for another person to be a Christian.
2. One is not better or worse spiritually because of the food the person eats.
a. However, that is not the point.
b. Christianity involves something much more important than what you eat.
c. Love, righteousness, peace, and joy are much more important than food.
i. So do not tear down God’s kingdom for foods’ sake.
ii. Devote yourself to encouraging other Christians.
iii. Do not cause other Christians to stumble even if what you are doing is correct.
iv. Encourage Christians to live in honor of their conscience.
v. Do not allow your convictions to cause trouble for other Christians.
If we treated each other with respect within our congregations, how much more would we be respected in our communities? If we allowed other Christians to disagree with us but honored their consciences, how much internal peace would we experience?

Our Christian conscience differences do not trouble God. God in Jesus Christ reveals such differences will not prevent Him from saving us. Those differences trouble us. God can handle our differences and make all of us stand. We are the ones who cannot handle differences.

The matter that deeply concerns God among Christians is judging each other. Our conscience differences do not trouble God if we do not use conscience differences to judge each other.

In the early restoration movement, a common statement made was: “In matters of faith, unity. In matters of opinion, liberty. In all things, love (charity).” Can you still declare that? How well do you know the difference between a faith matter and an opinion matter? How do you show love when differences exist?

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After considering the last two sermons, some of you might think this preacher is completely crazy. It is possible that you have been challenged to consider some things you have never considered before.

Generally, in religious matters, we do not like to consider thoughts that we have never considered before. We find great comfort in believing that someone or some group within our religious movement has everything all figured out. All we have to do is “plug in” and we are okay. We do not have to think, or to ask questions, or to understand–all we have to do is to “plug in” and we are fine. It is not a matter of “believing” but a matter of “doing.” We just need to be very careful to “do” the correct things.

It is true that all we have to do is to “plug in,” but we “plug in” to Jesus Christ, not to human conclusions. “Plugging in” to Jesus Christ means we have to think, we have to ask questions, and we have to understand. In fact, thinking, questioning, and understanding are continuous pursuits as we increase our knowledge of Jesus Christ. We never stop focusing on Jesus Christ as a person reflected in the teachings of the Bible. We never stop learning what the crucified, resurrected Jesus did and does for us.

As we continue our pursuit of God’s concept and definition of Christian unity, let us begin by reading Ephesians 2:11-22.

Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands—remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

I ask you to consider, accurately, this scripture, but with a perspective that may be different to you.

I. Let’s begin by acknowledging that the Roman world of the first century was a very different world from our world of today.

A. Things we take for granted did not even exist then.

1. Individuals did not have personal Bibles.

a. Printing had not even been invented yet.

b. Throughout the first century, the New Testament was being written–some Christians died before it was all written.

c. No one, including Paul, could ask his audience to turn to a book, chapter, and verse and follow his reading.

B. Do you realize what that means?

1. There were no English translations–in fact, English did not yet exist as a language!

2. There were no commentaries, no concordances, no church bulletins, and no brotherhood papers.

3. The printing press had not yet been invented and paper as we know it did not exist.

4. Everything had to be learned in a congregation basically by verbal communication.

C. Common concepts of deity were different.

1. At first, all Christian converts were Jewish or converts to Judaism (consider Acts 2:10)

a. The first clear spread of Christianity to the gentile world is in Acts 10.

b. The first gentile congregation we read of was in Antioch in Acts 11:19-24.

2. At some point in the first century, there were more gentiles than Jews who were Christians.

a. Remember Jews did not have social contact with gentiles (see Acts 10:28).

b. Thus when there were more gentiles who were Christians than there were Jews who were Christians, it created an extremely interesting dynamic of intercultural exchanges.

3. Most converted gentiles came from an idolatrous background.

a. Some believed there were many gods, and many of those gods came from families of gods.

b. Some believed in fate–what was going to happen would happen, and the gods were unlikely to change it.

c. Many believed gods were more likely to harm people than help people, so people had to be very cautious in getting a god’s attention.

d. Often the morality teachings of a god were quite different to Jewish or Christian moral teachings–one god was worshipped by getting drunk, and fertility gods were often worshipped by sexual intercourse.

D. The Jewish concepts of deity were commonly quite different to gentile understandings.

1. A devout Jew said only one God existed and was to be worshipped.

2. A devout Jew believed the actions of God could be changed by repentance and prayer.

3. A devout Jew understood God was to be profoundly respected, but He cared about His people.

4. A devout Jew understood things such as drunkenness and fornication did not worship God, but offended God.

E. Jews and gentiles worshipped in differing ways, ate different foods, and lived different lives that followed different teachings and traditions.

1. Can you imagine how difficult it was to get Jews who became Christians and gentiles who became Christians to respect each other?

2. If you define unity as alikeness, can you understand the major challenge to alikeness in those circumstances?

3. And we think it is a major challenge to achieve a sense of unity when we have African-American Christians, Hispanic Christians, Laotian Christians, Native American Christians, and Caucasian Christians right here, right now in one city, in one building, and basically in one society!

F. If unity is alikeness produced through human achievement, unity is an unlikely challenge!

II. Now look closely at the text we read at the beginning–Ephesians 2:11-22.

A. Paul began by acknowledging the enormous gulf that separated Jews and gentiles prior to Jesus’ death.

1. One of the main contributors to that gulf was the Jewish practice of circumcision.

a. Jewish circumcision was commanded of the Jewish people by God as a symbol of the covenant God established with the descendants of Abraham through Isaac.

i. God said to Abraham in Genesis 17:9-12:

God said further to Abraham, “Now as for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: every male among you shall be circumcised. And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you. And every male among you who is eight days old shall be circumcised throughout your generations, a servant who is born in the house or who is bought with money from any foreigner, who is not of your descendants.

ii. Circumcision was a physical act that symbolized Israel’s solemn agreement with God.

a. If a Jew was not circumcised. he was not a part of God’s covenant people (Genesis 17:14).

b. A devout Jew in the first century could not imagine anyone being in relationship with God without being physically circumcised.

c. Therefore devout Jews could not see any way uncircumcised gentiles could be in relationship with God.

b. Before God’s accomplishment in Jesus Christ, gentiles were in a horrible situation. Look at verse 12.

i. They had no Messiah.

ii. They were not a part of the nation of Israel.

iii. They had no covenant with God.

iv. They had no hope.

v. There was an impossible gulf between them and God.

c. However, that all changed with Jesus Christ. (verse 13)

i. Because of what God did in Jesus Christ, gentiles are near God.

ii. Because of what God did in Jesus Christ, gentiles have a choice to make that can produce relationship with God.

d. Why? What is it that God did in Jesus Christ that makes this powerful difference to gentiles?

i. Through Jesus Christ God created peace between Jews who believe in Jesus Christ and gentiles who believed in Jesus Christ.

ii. God made Jewish and gentile believers one new man in Christ.

iii. God did not establish this new peace between Jewish and gentile believers through the application of the Law and God’s covenant with the Jews–God did it through Jesus Christ.

e. What was God’s objective in Jesus Christ for Jewish and gentile believers in Jesus Christ?

i. He wanted to reconcile both of them into one spiritual body to God through Jesus’ cross.

ii. Did gentile believers have to become Jewish or did Jewish believers have to become gentile? No!

iii. Would believing in Jesus Christ make Jewish and gentile believers alike in all things? No!

f. Then what was God’s objective?

i. God’s objective in Jesus Christ was to produce peace between Jewish and gentile believers.

ii. It was to give both of those groups the same Spirit of the same God.

iii. It was to make gentile believers in Jesus Christ a full part of God’s family.

iv. It was to give gentile believers a foundation in the apostles and prophets.

v. It was to give gentile believers Jesus Christ as the spiritual corner stone of their spirituality just as God did Jewish believers.

vi. It was to make both, Jewish and gentiles believers, into God’s living temple so they, together, could be the place where God’s Spirit lived.

III. The point I want you to see: did gentile believers (or Jewish believers) understand what God had done in Jesus Christ? No!

A. Gentile converts to Jesus Christ did not have to do things in the ways Jews did those things in order to be Christians–see Acts 15:1-29.

1. Did all Jews who believed in Jesus Christ understand that? No!

2. Did all gentiles who believed in Jesus Christ understand that? No!

3. Did the people to whom Paul wrote in Ephesians understand that? No!

4. Did the fact that these Christians did not understand (and, in many instances, refuse to accept what God did in Christ) prevent God from doing what He intended to do in Jesus Christ? No!

B. Pay careful attention to what Paul wrote:

1. In verse 13, gentiles “have been brought near.”

2. In verse 14, Jesus “is our peace.”

3. Verse 14. God “made both groups one.”

4. Verse l5 speaks of the peace God made between Jewish believers and gentile believers as a divine achievement.

5. Verse 16 speaks of the reconciliation into one body as an accomplished fact.

6. Verse 18 speaks of access to God’s Spirit as an accomplished fact.

7. In verses 19 through 22, all that God achieved for gentiles and Jews in Jesus Christ is spoken of as accomplished fact.

C. Even though Jewish and gentile believers did not comprehend all that God did in Jesus Christ, God still did it.

1. Making one new man out of both groups of believers was not dependent on their full understanding.

2. The one new man God made existed even if they did not understand.

3. It was and is a divine accomplishment because of what God did in Jesus Christ; it is not a human achievement.

4. The human challenge was NOT to wait until both groups reached a full understanding and alikeness, but the human challenge was to place their confidence in what God did in Jesus Christ.

5. Even though they were different, placing their trust in Jesus Christ unified them through God’s act, not through their alikeness!

6. Thus people who were different in many ways were united in Christ.

We conclude by reading two statements from Paul.

To the Roman Christians, Paul wrote:

For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness. (Romans 12:4-8)

To the Corinthian Christians, Paul wrote:

For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. (1 Corinthians 12:12-14)

The only two things your two feet and your two ears have in common is that they are parts of the same body, answerable to the same head.

Used with permission from David Chadwell, West-Ark Church of Christ

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Were I to ask you about God’s concept of Christian unity, where would you begin in order to explain God’s concept to me? What do you think should be the first scripture I should understand if I am to grasp God’s concept of Christian unity? What scripture exists regarding God’s concept of Christian unity I must know to have the foundation concept of Christian unity?

I would guess the scripture many would cite is John 17:11-23. This is part of one of Jesus’ last prayers. In John 17, Jesus approached God the Father with this prayer shortly before he went with eleven of the twelve disciples (who were his apostles) to Gethsemane to pray and to be arrested.

There are three basic subjects Jesus prayed about in John 17. First, Jesus prayed about himself, and particularly his relationship with God. Second, Jesus prayed about the eleven, and particularly their future. Third, Jesus prayed about everyone who believed in him as a result of his teachings and the teachings of these men. In Jesus’ prayer, he particularly prayed for the oneness of those who believed, which we understand to be a prayer for the unity of Christian believers.

Most Christians regard this prayer to be the foundation of God’s concept of Christian unity. Please read with me or listen carefully as I read from the gospel of John, chapter 17, verses 11 through 23. I am reading from the New American Standard translation.

I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are. While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled. But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.

In this section of the prayer, Jesus prayed for the twelve and for all who would believe Jesus is the Christ.
I. Let me summarize the reading we just read in this way.
A. Follow me carefully:
1. I am dying and leaving this physical existence.
a. In my physical absence, I ask You to keep the twelve as You have preserved me.
b. May the twelve be one as You and I are currently one.
2. In my physical ministry, I kept the twelve in Your name.
a. I guarded the twelve, and none of the twelve were destroyed.
b. The only exception is the person who is to betray me.
3. I come to You before I die asking that they will understand Your purpose in my death so that these men (my twelve disciples) will have my joy.
a. I have given the twelve Your word.
b. The result is that people devoted to the physical world hate them because they are not devoted to physical existence.
c. They are like me, not like people devoted to physical existence.
4. I am not asking that You take them from physical existence.
a. I am asking You to preserve them from Satan (the devil).
b. I am asking You to make them holy (sanctified) by Your truth.
c. Your truth is reflected by Your word.
5. I am sending the twelve to people devoted to physical existence just like You sent me to people devoted to physical existence.
a. One of the reasons for me living a sanctified existence was to encourage them to live a sanctified existence.
b. A way for the twelve to know they are sanctified is by realizing they are like me.
6. However, my concern goes beyond these men.
a. My concern also includes their message concerning me and my teachings.
b. I want believers in what You are doing through me to be one in the same way the twelve are one and in the same way you and I are one.
c. It is only by believers being one in You and I that people devoted to physical existence will understand that You sent me.
d. The glory You gave me I have given to believers that they may be one in the same sense that You and I are one.
7. It is by me being in believers and You being in me that believers can be made mature (perfect) in unity (literally, into a unit).
a. When that happens, people devoted to physical existence will understand that You sent me.
b. People devoted to physical existence will also then understand that You love them in the same manner that You always loved me.
c. (Explain that even though Jesus was about to be tortured and painfully executed, this did not mean that God did not love Jesus. That is what people devoted to physical existence would think. Even today, experiencing preventable pain is considered to be the absence of love.)
8. Would you agree that this is an appropriate presentation of John 17:11-23?
a. If you need to read that scripture and think about it, please do so.
b. You are not being asked to accept these thoughts even if you disagree with the thoughts.
c. However, it is not enough for you to disagree–you must also come to an understanding of what Jesus said in this prayer.
B. The prayer affirms these things are possible.
1. The prayer affirms God and Jesus were and always have been one.
2. The prayer affirms that the twelve can be one in the same sense that God and Jesus are one.
3. The prayer affirms that anyone who believes that Jesus was God’s Messiah or Christ could be one.
4. The prayer affirms that the key to believers being one is their being in the Messiah or Christ.
II. May I now ask you to think about something you may or may not have noticed or considered before.
A. When Jesus prayed this prayer, he and God at that moment were one, but they were not alike.
1. Oneness did not mean identical alikeness.
2. Not even in the relationship between God and Jesus did oneness (or unity) mean identical alikeness.
3. If your basic concept and definition of oneness or unity means identical alikeness, you need to think.
a. You need to consider that your concept and definition of oneness or unity may not be God’s concept and definition of oneness or unity.
b. You need to discover God’s concept and definition.
c. You need to realize your concept and definition of unity may be based on a human assumption rather than revelation from scripture.
B. “What do you mean that God and Jesus’ concept and definition of oneness or unity are different? In what way were Jesus and God different when Jesus prayed John 17?”
1. Jesus could be tempted; God could not be tempted.
2. Jesus could suffer physical pain; God could not suffer physical pain.
3. Jesus’ will and God’s will were not the same (consider Matthew 26:39, 42, 44), though God the Father’s will was supreme and unquestioned by Jesus.
4. Jesus could be physically resurrected; God the Father never needed to be resurrected.
5. These things are called to your attention in order to make this statement: in all the ways the physical existence of a godly human is unlike the spiritual existence of God the Father, Jesus was unlike God the Father.
6. Yet, though Jesus and God the Father were NOT identical, Jesus and God the Father were one.
C. If God the Father’s definition and concept of unity begins with the concept of alikeness, unity never is a possibility in this physical world.
1. Consider these things:
a. If you read each of the four gospels, it becomes quite evident that each of these writers who were inspired by God retained their individuality.
b. Though Acts 10:10-16, 10:19, 20, 10:28 and 10:34, 35 make it clear that Peter understood that God accepted gentiles, Peter could yield to the temptation to reject gentiles (Galatians 2:11-14). [Read and set in context if there is time].
c. There are enormous differences in the practices of Jewish Christians as compared to gentile Christians, yet they all were one in Jesus Christ.
2. Unity exists, NOT because all in Christ agree on all personal preferences religious or otherwise, but because of what God does for all those who are in Jesus Christ.
3. The basis of unity is what God did in the torture, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus–NOT in the human achievement of alikeness.
D. The failure of Christians to understand this has produced the consequences Jesus said it would in John 17:21.
1. Those who are not in Jesus Christ do not take what we say seriously because of the way we treat each other when we disagree.
a. No one can be meaner or more lacking in compassion than Christians can be when they disagree with other Christians.
b. If you want to conduct an interesting experiment, ask a group of Christians to share the worst case of division among Christians they ever heard about–most everyone will recall an incident of incredible pettiness.
c. Then have the same group discuss the best reconciliation among disagreeing Christians they ever heard about.
i. There will be some.
ii. However, there will be far fewer examples of reconciliation than of division.
2. We are experts at destroying each other because we disagree!
3. Then we wonder why so many people refuse to take us seriously.
4. Reconciliation when we disagree should be natural to those who belong to Jesus, not division.
E. What is oneness in Jesus Christ and God?
1. It is confidence in what God did in Jesus at Jesus’ death and resurrection.
2. It is the understanding that the basis of forgiveness is an act of God.
3. It is the understanding that the basis of acceptance is an act of God.
4. It is the conviction that a divine act makes those who place their confidence in Jesus one–even when there are differences in culture and opinion.
5. It is the awareness that sanctification is a divine act, not a human achievement.
Christians need to understand in context 1 Corinthians 1:30, 31:

But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, that just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

It is not about us and our achievements, but it is about Jesus Christ and God’s achievement in him.

Used with permission from David Chadwell, West-Ark Church of Christ

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Let’s try to illustrate what I just said to see the problem as clearly as possible. For a few minutes, consider our concept of unity. Do you know what the concept unity is? Could you define unity? Are you certain your concept of unity is God’s concept? Are most of your declarations about what it means to be unified in a congregation or in the religious world based on your definition of unity, therefore based on your concept of unity? Is it your complete conviction that your definition (therefore your concept) of unity is God’s definition and concept?

To make your definition and concept specific, think with me congregationally. You are a member of a small congregation. That small congregation has outgrown its physical facilities. It has three choices. First, it can do nothing and begin shrinking (that is what usually happens when a congregation does nothing). Second, it can divide by mutual agreement and become two congregations. However, if it divides (a) some of the work the congregation does will have to cease because there will be no money to do that work, and (b) the new group will have to find or build new facilities. Or, (c) the congregation remains one congregation and builds facilities to meets its needs.

Some members want to do nothing. Some members want to divide. Some members want to remain one congregation, but build new facilities. Question: are they divided? Can the membership have different ideas about what to do and still be one?
I. Years ago when I was a boy, the scripture some would cite would be 1 Corinthians 1:10.
“Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.”
A. After citing this scripture, the person citing it would say, “There must be complete agreement on everything we decide to do!”
1. The reasoning would be this: “We are not of the same mind and judgment if there is not complete agreement!”
2. Really?
a. If there is not 100% agreement on the size of the new facility, are Christians in violation of the Christian responsibility to be one?
b. If there is not 100% agreement on the design of the new facility, are Christians in violation of Paul’s admonition to be one?
c. If there is not 100% agreement on the ratio of worship space to education space, are those Christians not one like Jesus and God the Father are one?
d. If there is a difference of opinion on color schemes, carpet, or other types of flooring, are these Christians in violation of unity injunctions?
B. If you are tempted to agree that there are some unity violations involved, consider some questions.
1. Question one: was Paul speaking of decisions such as our building decisions when he wrote this statement?
a. Was Paul speaking of personal preference matters?
b. Or, was Paul speaking of considerations involving Christ and baptism matters?
c. Before you give your answer, read Paul’s entire thought from verse 10 to verse 17.
2. Question two: since the congregation has no buildings and no New Testament writer wrote about buildings, how could Paul be talking about buildings?
a. The first century church was not defined by “where it met.”
b. The first century church was defined by the people who believed Jesus was the Christ.
i. Most Jews did not think Jesus was the Messiah (Christ) that God promised.
ii. Many gentiles had significant problems in believing in a resurrection (see Acts 17:32).
iii. Many thought that the teaching about a man who had been executed by Roman authorities and later was resurrected was too ridiculous to believe (see 1 Corinthians 12:22-25).
3. Question three: are you certain that your definition of unity is God’s definition? Are you certain your concept of unity is God’s concept?
a. Have you ever examined your unity definition and concept by the Bible, or did you begin in definition and concept with an assumption?
b. Have you ever read the Bible to discover God’s unity concept and definition to compare it to your definition and concept?
II. How does the concept of “unity means full Christian agreement” fit with what Paul did as a matter of practice that he stated in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23?
A. Paul’s evangelistic practice was to begin teaching a person where he or she was.
1. It was quite a different approach.
a. He did not teach as did a Jewish Rabbi who presented himself as an authority.
b. He did not teach as a gentile philosopher who was in search of wisdom, but who also wanted the student to realize how foolish his reasoning was.
c. He did not seek to “win” by winning a debate.
d. In no way was he “sold on Paul” and what he knew–advancing Paul was never his consideration.
2. Thus, Paul adopted the reasoning and approach of the person he taught.
a. If he taught a Jew, Paul thought and reasoned like a Jew.
b. If he taught a person devoted to the Law, Paul thought and reasoned like a person devoted to the law.
c. If he taught a lawless person, Paul thought and reasoned like a lawless person.
d. If he taught a weak person, Paul thought and reasoned like a weak person.
3. That tells us a lot about the Christian Paul.
a. He did not teach to advance Paul.
b. He knew a lot about Jesus Christ.
c. He knew a lot about people.
d. His purpose was the conversion of all kinds of people to Jesus Christ–regardless of what their life and religious background were.
e. He did not present himself as the authority in spiritual matters that demanded that everyone hear and accept what he said.
f. He wanted people to have faith in Jesus Christ by understanding, and that meant they began where they were before they believed.
B. Can you begin to imagine the variety of people he brought to Christ and what a diverse religious background those people had?
1. Do you realize what little in common all these people had?
2. The only thing they had in common was the common understanding that Jesus was the Christ and had removed their sins.
3. Paul brought Jews, people devoted to the law, people without law, and people who were weak to Jesus Christ–and none of them knew how to “do church” (a new concept) or had a common moral code.
4. These people had a lot to learn.
C. Now be very honest and definitely specific about your concept of unity, and then apply your definition and concept to this situation.
1. Would they all know what was involved in acting like a Christian? No!
2. Would they all have the same moral code? No–the background of some emphasized that getting drunk was moral, or committing fornication was moral, or lying was moral, or stealing was moral (consider Ephesians 4:25-32 as an example).
3. Would they even know how to treat each other correctly? No!
4. They all had a lot to learn about being a Christian! That is why we have much of the New Testament! Most of the New Testament is about how Christians live and act like Christians!
III. Now consider some very important questions.
A. Could these different people from differing religious and moral backgrounds be one in Christ?
1. My tendency would be to say no.
2. However, scripture says, “Yes!” if these people are in Christ.
B. Is their being one in Jesus Christ dependent on reaching total agreement on everything?
1. My tendency would be to say they must agree.
2. However, scripture says these people could disagree if they were in Christ.
C. Could they do things differently in their love for Christ and still be one in Christ?
1. My tendency would be to say no.
2. However, scripture says, “Yes!” if these people are in Christ.
D. May I anticipate your question: “How can that possibly be and unity exist?”
1. It can be and is because of what God did in Jesus’ death on the cross.
2. It is not the result of the person’s deeds, but the result of what God did in Jesus’ death.
3. Listen carefully to these scriptures.
4. The first scripture is 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 written by Paul to the Corinthian congregation.
For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

5. Also consider a statement from Peter made to Christian slaves in 1 Peter 2:21-24.
For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.

1. We want to be very clear.
2. We are not talking about the need for obedience.
3. We are not talking about the need for growth.
4. We are not talking about the human desire to justify evil.
5. We are saying God’s concept and definition of unity is basically a divine function, not a human achievement.

This is more than a one-sermon consideration. Today’s lesson is merely the beginning. As far as I am concerned, the first thing that had to happen is for you to examine honestly your concept of Christian unity. (a) We had to begin with you looking at your definition of unity, your concept of unity. (b) We had to begin with you acknowledging to yourself that this may be a much more complex concept than you have previously considered. (c) We had to begin with you giving yourself permission to examine scripture with an open mind.

If you do not give yourself permission to examine your concept by scripture, you will spend your time listening in a dedication to defending your views rather than hearing scripture and thinking.

The lessons following this will focus on scripture. These lessons will expect you to do two things: (1) listen and (2) think. The objective is not to entice you to agree with me or anything I present. The objective is to challenge you to grow closer to God and His concepts.

May people be moved closer to God by understanding what an incredible thing God did for us in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Used with permission from David Chadwell, West-Ark Church of Christ

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All over the world today, there is a vast renewal of interest in studying the Bible. Thousands of people are reading the Bible to find the answers as to where they come from, why they are here on earth, and where they are going after this life is over. Searching the Scriptures with an open and honest heart toward God will enable you to gain knowledge of God’s total plan for all of His people.

The Bible is divided into two major parts – the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament tells of the beginnings of the earth, of man, of sin, and of God’s way of salvation in Christ. Abraham was selected to become the father of the Hebrew nation and these people, when they were about seventy in number; they went into Egypt to live. There they grew, prospered, and became great in numbers.

The Egyptians made slaves out of them, but God led them out of Egypt through Moses, and after a while into the land of Canaan, which we know better as Palestine. God gave them His laws, including the “Ten Commandments”, and they became the chosen nation through whom Jesus Christ, the Son of God was born into human flesh, came into the world.

The Old Testament also gives us the many words of men called “prophets”, who foretold of the coming of Christ and of His spiritual kingdom on this earth.

The New Testament tells of the birth, life, death for our sins, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the fifth book of the New Testament, we read of the beginning of Christ’s kingdom or spiritual body. This book is called the “Acts of the Apostles “and shows us how men and women became Christians, or members of His body.

This means that when a person becomes a Christian, God adds that person to his “church” or assembly: thus, he does not have to look for a church to join, for the very same gospel obedience that made him a Christian makes him a “church” member.

The rest of the New Testament is made up of letters written to help show people how to live the lives that God would have them live. God would have every study the Bible to learn of Him and His Son, Jesus Christ, and to come to know Him in a personal way, as a friend and a savior.

Welcome to this study of the Bible. Remember that God speaks to each of us through the Bible. This makes it possible for each of us to know Him if we will but study and live what we learn.

My prayer for each of you is that you will be guided by the Bible and not by men. May God bless you richly with wisdom and understanding.

Are you a Christian? Are you saved? Do you have a close relationship with God? Are you willing to give up for Him the life of sin you now lead?

Questions

Someone is always asking us questions. The questions above are usually grouped with others, such as:
“What church do you attend? “
“Have you been baptized? “
“What kind of baptism did you have? “
“Are you willing to join a church in order to be saved? “

It is my hope that the material presented here will take some of the pressure off and allow you to deepen your relationship with God. Or, if you don’t know Him, free you to begin to know Him as your Father.

At any rate. I hope you will give this information a fair hearing and if you find yourself agreeing with it, use it to teach others and free them from bondage. You will find these teachings quite a bit different from those you’ve seen in the past. I pray that they help everyone to be free in Christ.

Are You Free?

This question is not asked very often, especially by church leaders. However, there are several references to freedom in the Scriptures. Let’s look at a few of them:
(Luke 4:17-21) The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
(John 8:31-36) To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
(2 Corinthians 3:17) Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
(Galatians 5:1) It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
Note that Jesus sets us free. Period. Sometimes real freedom is scary and men, afraid of this freedom, tend to make limits for themselves and others in order to regulate this freedom. God put only one limit on our freedom in Christ:
(1 Corinthians 8:9) Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.
(Galatians 5:13) You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.
(1 Peter 2:16) Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.
See? We are not to use our freedom for evil purposes that would hurt others. In many religions today, men tell us what to do or not to do in order to be pleasing to God. God Himself tells us what is acceptable religion in James 1:27.
(James 1:27) Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
It would seem that God wanted to keep the concept of religion simple so that all people everywhere could understand it at once, without a lot of teaching.

Are you a Christian?
To be a Christian is to be “of Christ “or to be a follower of Jesus. The word Christian is all inclusive. It needs no other word added to it for explanation or definition. Men have created denominations (churches) in order to separate and regulate those who profess to believe alike.
In reality, all faith is individual. No person believes exactly like another person. We all have a unifying point of faith and brotherhood: the Lord Jesus. He calls us to love and respect each other, but never to believe exactly alike. A person who has accepted Jesus as his or her personal Savior has done so just like all other Christians throughout history.
1. They have heard of Him.
2. They have come to believe He is who he says.
3. They have obeyed the condition he set down.
(Mark 16:15-16) He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
(Matthew 28:19-20) Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
See how simple? As you go through this world, teach others what you have been taught. Those who believe baptize (immerse) them making them disciples. Then help each other to live a life pleasing to God.

What Church do you attend?
Is this question important? Is there scripture that supports one church over all others, or does Scripture only speak of one church of which all believers are part? Is there any such thing as a “church? “ To answer the last question, it will require a short lesson in Greek.
In the original Greek in which the New Testament was written the word ekklesia has been translated church. However, this word never had the meaning that is meant by the word church as used today. Note the accepted definition as laid down by all leading Greek scholars:
EKKLESIA – A calling out, ie. a popular meeting, espec. a religious congregation (Jewish synagogue, or Christian community of members on earth, or saints in heaven, or both): – assembly, church
Notice that the most accurate definitions are – congregation and assembly. The least is church. The concept of the church today is that of a power structure with its leaders and rulers. This also means that there are those who are ruled. In the New Testament there are 114 passages that contain the word church. They are listed here to make it easy for you to find them. Read each one in its context then read them again, this time using the word assembly instead of church. Decide for yourself which you think is most accurate.

(Matthew 16:18) And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

(Matthew 18:17) And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.

(Acts 2:47) Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

(Acts 5:11) And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.

(Acts 7:38) This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:

(Acts 8:1) And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.

(Acts 8:3) As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.

(Acts 9:31) Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied.

(Acts 11:22) Then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem: and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch.

(Acts 11:26) And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.

(Acts 12:1) Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church.

(Acts 12:5) Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.

(Acts 13:1) Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

(Acts 14:23) And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.

(Acts 14:27) And when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles.

(Acts 15:3) And being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phenice and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles: and they caused great joy unto all the brethren.

(Acts 15:4) And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church, and of the apostles and elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them.

(Acts 15:22) Then pleased it the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; namely, Judas surnamed Barsabas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren:

(Acts 15:41) And he went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches.

(Acts 16:5) And so were the churches established in the faith, and increased in number daily.

(Acts 18:22) And when he had landed at Caesarea, and gone up, and saluted the church, he went down to Antioch.

(Acts 19:37) For ye have brought hither these men, which are neither robbers of churches, nor yet blasphemers of your goddess.

(Acts 20:17) And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church.

(Acts 20:28) Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

(Romans 16:1) I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea:

(Romans 16:4) Who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.

(Romans 16:5) Likewise greet the church that is in their house. Salute my wellbeloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ.

(Romans 16:16) Salute one another with an holy kiss. The churches of Christ salute you.

(Romans 16:23) Gaius mine host, and of the whole church, saluteth you. Erastus the chamberlain of the city saluteth you, and Quartus a brother.

(1 Corinthians 1:2) Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:

(1 Corinthians 4:17) For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every church.

(1 Corinthians 6:4) If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.

(1 Corinthians 7:17) But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk. And so ordain I in all churches.

(1 Corinthians 10:32) Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God:

(1 Corinthians 11:16) But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.

(1 Corinthians 11:18) For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it.

(1 Corinthians 11:22) What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not.

(1 Corinthians 12:28) And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.

(1 Corinthians 14:4) He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church.

(1 Corinthians 14:5) I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying.

(1 Corinthians 14:12) Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church.

(1 Corinthians 14:19) Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.

(1 Corinthians 14:23) If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad?

(1 Corinthians 14:28) But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, and to God.

(1 Corinthians 14:33) For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.

(1 Corinthians 14:34) Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law.

(1 Corinthians 14:35) And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.

(1 Corinthians 15:9) For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

(1 Corinthians 16:1) Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye.

(1 Corinthians 16:19) The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house.

(2 Corinthians 1:1) Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia:

(2 Corinthians 8:1) Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia;

(2 Corinthians 8:18) And we have sent with him the brother, whose praise is in the gospel throughout all the churches;

(2 Corinthians 8:19) And not that only, but who was also chosen of the churches to travel with us with this grace, which is administered by us to the glory of the same Lord, and declaration of your ready mind:

(2 Corinthians 8:23) Whether any do enquire of Titus, he is my partner and fellowhelper concerning you: or our brethren be enquired of, they are the messengers of the churches, and the glory of Christ.

(2 Corinthians 8:24) Wherefore shew ye to them, and before the churches, the proof of your love, and of our boasting on your behalf.

(2 Corinthians 11:8) I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you service.

(2 Corinthians 11:28) Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.

(2 Corinthians 12:13) For what is it wherein ye were inferior to other churches, except it be that I myself was not burdensome to you? forgive me this wrong.

(Galatians 1:2) And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia:

(Galatians 1:13) For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it:

(Galatians 1:22) And was unknown by face unto the churches of Judaea which were in Christ:

(Ephesians 1:22) And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,

(Ephesians 3:10) To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,

(Ephesians 3:21) Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

(Ephesians 5:23) For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.

(Ephesians 5:24) Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.

(Ephesians 5:25) Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

(Ephesians 5:27) That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

(Ephesians 5:29) For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:

(Ephesians 5:32) This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

(Philippians 3:6) Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

(Philippians 4:15) Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only.

(Colossians 1:18) And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

(Colossians 1:24) Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

(Colossians 4:15) Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church which is in his house.

(Colossians 4:16) And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea.

(1 Thessalonians 1:1) Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

(1 Thessalonians 2:14) For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews:

(2 Thessalonians 1:1) Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

(2 Thessalonians 1:4) So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure:

(1 Timothy 3:5) (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)

(1 Timothy 3:15) But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

(1 Timothy 5:16) If any man or woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve them, and let not the church be charged; that it may relieve them that are widows indeed.

(Philemon 1:2) And to our beloved Apphia, and Archippus our fellowsoldier, and to the church in thy house:

(Hebrews 2:12) Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee.

(Hebrews 12:23) To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,

(James 5:14) Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:

(1 Peter 5:13) The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you; and so doth Marcus my son.

(3 John 1:6) Which have borne witness of thy charity before the church: whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well:

(3 John 1:9) I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.

(3 John 1:10) Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church.

(Revelation 1:4) John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

(Revelation 1:11) Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

(Revelation 1:20) The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.

(Revelation 2:1) Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;

(Revelation 2:7) He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

(Revelation 2:8) And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive;

(Revelation 2:11) He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

(Revelation 2:12) And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges;

(Revelation 2:17) He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.

(Revelation 2:18) And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass;

(Revelation 2:23) And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.

(Revelation 2:29) He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

(Revelation 3:1) And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.

(Revelation 3:6) He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

(Revelation 3:7) And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;

(Revelation 3:13) He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

(Revelation 3:14) And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;

(Revelation 3:22) He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

(Revelation 22:16) I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

There are practices which almost all churches have in common – from the largest to the smallest. Hers is a list. Search your Bible and see if they are tradition or if they are found in Scripture.

1. Worship Services
2. The Collection
3. Placing of Membership
4. Sermons
5. Men only as Deacons
6. Deacon as an office

There are others to be sure, but I think this list will keep you busy for a while.

What do I do with my contribution?

I suppose that this will trouble most people at first. We are so used to placing money in the plate that we hardly know what to do with it otherwise.

The Bible calls for us to help those in need. We are commanded to help the orphan and the widow. (James 1:27). This can be done on an individual basis. To “ set aside ” originally meant to “ keep by ones side. “ Usually at home. No where in the New Testament is the concept found of Christians placing money in a church treasury.

(1 Corinthians 16:2) On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.

Money, like all things, was given to us, as Christians, to enjoy:

(1 Timothy 6:17) Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.

However, like all things, it was meant for our sole pleasure. God gives generously and gets much pleasure from it.

(Malachi 3:10) Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.

In concept and example we are taught that more pleasure is derived from giving than from receiving.

(Acts 20:35) In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”

In 1 Corinthians, the collection being made was to help the poor and needy in Jerusalem. It was not to be used for the pleasure of those saving the money. It was also not to be used for a building or for salaries.

When you use the money you earn (by God’s grace), spend it well. Get your money’s worth and remember that you are just God’s caretaker for all that you possess.

What works will I do?

Jesus listed one work when he was asked this question:

(John 6:29) Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

Other “works “that we do today will not be considered work if we follow this teaching. We will give to the poor, we will meet with other Christians often, we will teach, we will love the brothers and sisters.

All this will be what we are – not what we do. Can you see the difference?

Salvation, God’s gift to mankind

Spiritually, to be saved is the single most important thing that a person can desire. To be with Christ for all eternity: to be with loved ones forever: to be in a place of never ending love; is something that we have all dreamed of.

God made this possible when he chose to live and die in the person of Jesus Christ on a Roman cross. By being lifted up, He drew all those to Him who are willing to surrender their lives to His direction.

Those who willingly devote their lives to Him find that they are doing more than just following His directions; they find themselves developing a loving relationship with Him. They call upon Him as a friend in times of need and times of joy. He is their constant companion.

Now, if you have felt that God has abandoned you and that probably everyone else is enjoying this relationship but not you – don’t despair. God has promised never to leave you.

(Hebrews 13:5) Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

He is as good as his promise. We may not be aware of Him all the time, but He is there. I hope that this lesson has helped you to grow closer to Him.

This closing section tries to simplify our understanding of faith. It is intended to show you that you are not alone; and possibly ( hopefully) to strengthen your belief in God.

The gift is accepted through Faith

The Bible tells us more about the gift of eternal life in Ephesians 2:8-9

“You have been saved by God’s gracious love through faith. Salvation does not come from you: it is God’s gift. It does not come from human effort. If that were true, someone could brag about earning it.”

Notice that this scripture does not say that we are saved by grace alone but that we are saved by grace through faith. We must have enough faith in Jesus Christ to obey Him or God will not save us by His grace (Unmerited favor.)

Salvation by grace does not exclude obedience.

To help us understand that being saved by God’s grace does not exclude the necessity of obedience – the Bible declares in Hebrews 5:9 that:

“After Jesus was made perfect, he became the Source of eternal salvation for everyone who will obey him”

What is saving faith?

Faith is your first step. If someone doesn’t believe in God, he cannot please God, because the person who comes to God must believe that he lives. That person must believe that God will give rewards to the people who are searching for Him.

(Hebrews 11:9) By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.

Many people feel they have faith, without really knowing what faith is. It is not a mere intellectual believing, for the devils do that. James 2:19 declares:

“You say that you believe there is one God? That’s fine. The demons also believe this and shake with fear.”

Faith is trust and trust is faith. Webster defines faith this way:

1. Confidence or trust in another person or thing: faith in another’s ability.
2. Belief that is not based on proof: He had faith that the hypothesis would be substantiated by fact.
3. Belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion: the firm faith of the Pilgrims.
4. Belief in anything, as a code of ethics, standards of merit, etc.: To be of the same faith with someone concerning honesty.
5. A system of religious belief: the Christian faith, the Jewish faith.
6. The obligation of loyalty or fidelity to a person, promise, engagement, etc.: failure to appear would be breaking faith.
7. The observance of this obligation; fidelity to one’s promise, oath allegiance, etc: He was the only one who proved his faith during our recent troubles.
8. Christian Theology – the trust in God and in His promises as made through Christ and the Scriptures by which humans are justified or saved.
9. In faith, in truth; indeed: In faith, he is a fine lad.

OK, now that we have that out of the way, let’s see just how a simple definition of faith we can come up with. The major points of Webster’s definition are: confidence, trust, and belief.

Confidence: 1. full trust; belief in the powers, trustworthiness or reliability of a person or thing.
Trust: 1. reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc. , of a person or thing; confidence.
Belief: 2. confidence in the truth or existence of something not immediately susceptible to rigorous proof.

It would seem that to have faith in God would be to trust Him and believe what he says.

Learning to trust or have faith in something or someone always takes time. God called you to Him and He wants you to take the time to know Him. As a friend. Talk to Him about everything that happens to you.

You will find that He is very interested in your daily struggles and triumphs. He gives you strength to live for Him everyday if you but ask. He delights in your close walk with him (Psalms 149:4, Isaiah 65:19, Zephaniah 3:17.) Think about it: don’t you enjoy the company of those who you love? Aren’t you happiest when with them?

To have saving faith ask God. Then believe that he is concerned enough about you to guide you in this walk of faith. He wants you to be saved (John 3:16; 2 Peter 3:9). He will work harder in your behalf than you can ever imagine. If you but give Him a chance.

This does not mean that you will never have hard times. There will come the trials that are a part of living in an imperfect world. God will teach you to act during any crisis in a way that will bring Him the glory. Because it is from Him that your strength comes. He will shoulder the cares of living if we will learn to have faith in Him.

If we remember that without God, we would be nothing (Acts 17:28) then we will let Him take the foremost place in our lives.

Written by Mike Foster. Copy and Illustrations by Greg McAbee.
http://www.godsmessageontheweb.net/ http://wheniwokeupthismorning.com/

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I grew up in the church. For many years, I believed in the traditional view of Heaven and Hell—that souls are taken from the body immediately following death and are placed in either Heaven or Hell where they will spend eternity in bliss or unending torture. This is what most of the Christian church right now believes. For the last six or seven years, however, I have found countless scriptures that have changed my thinking considerably in this area. It seems to me that nearly the entire Bible teaches that eternal life is only experienced in Heaven, that Hell is a place of complete destruction and annihilation. There are many scripture passages that seem to clearly teach this, but there are others that admittedly seem to teach the traditional view as well. The Bible must never be thought to contradict itself, regardless of what simple meanings may be found in certain verses. When two positions seem to come at odds with one another, one must decide which view fits best in the overall interpretation of the Bible. Verses ought not to be taken by themselves but instead cross-checked against other scripture passages to decide what it is that the Lord is actually trying to teach us in His Word.

While some passages might seem to indicate one line of teaching and others seem to hint at a different one, there can be only one correct interpretation. Hell is either eternal or not—there is certainly no middle ground. After a great deal of research and reflection, I have come to believe very strongly in the unconventional doctrine of annihilation in Hell. The following is a study I have done to show why I feel that this is, in fact, the proper interpretation of the Word of God.

SCRIPTURAL SUPPORT FOR ANNIHILATION—

There are numerous scriptures that seem to clearly indicate that there is no eternal life for the wicked (not even in Hell). Here are quite a few that I found from the PC Study Bible after doing a search for the words “eternal life” in the concordance. These references are in Biblical order, and each is from the New American Standard Bible (Updated Edition) unless otherwise stated.
Matt 19:16—”And someone came to Him and said, ‘Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?’”

This man spoke of obtaining eternal life. It wasn’t as if he already possessed it. Preachers today would probably say to him “Son, you already have eternal life; it’s just a matter of where you will spend it.” But Jesus never said that.

Matt 19:29-30—”And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name’s sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life.”

They will inherit eternal life. This indicates that not everyone has it already.
Matt 25:46—”These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

This verse admittedly uses the phrase “eternal punishment,” but it is juxtaposed against the phrase “eternal life.” Death by annihilation in the Lake of Fire could certainly be called “eternal punishment” because it is eternal in its consequences. Death on earth is only temporal because everyone will be raised again at the resurrection. Death in the Lake of Fire, however, is eternal: there is no reversing it and no coming back from it. If Jesus meant for the punishment to last eternally, he probably wouldn’t have contrasted it with the phrase “eternal life” which is clearly meant only for believers. If Jesus had intended what most churches believe he did with this verse, he should have said, “Both the righteous and the unrighteous will go away to eternal life, but the unrighteous will spend it being tortured while the righteous spend theirs in paradise.”

John 3:16—”For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

This is the most quoted verse in the Bible and also one of the clearest accounts on the annihilation of the wicked. “…Whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John didn’t write that “…whoever believes in Him shall not have everlasting life in torment, but rather have everlasting life in Heaven.” The way most churches interpret this, they mentally replace the very clear word “perish” with something that means nearly the opposite: “never perish.”

John 3:36—”He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

John 4:14—”…but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

John 5:24—”Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”

Once again, the words “eternal life” and “life” are associated strictly with the righteous. The word “death” is reserved for the unrighteous, who will not go to Heaven. It takes a good bit of theological gymnastics to continually reinterpret these divinely inspired Words of God to mean the exact opposite of their natural meanings. Since when does “death” mean “eternal life away from God”? If John intended to say that, he should have used almost any other word instead of “death.”

John 6:40—”For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”

John 6:47—”Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.”

John 6:54—”He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

John 6:68—”and Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.’”

John 10:28—”and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.”

Rom 5:21—”so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Rom 6:23—”For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

This is another very popular verse which is quite clear in its teaching. “The wages of sin is death (not eternal life in torture), but the gift of God is eternal life…”

Gal 6:8—”For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”

Once again, “eternal life” is from the Spirit and “corruption” is reaped from the flesh.
Titus 3:7—”so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

1 John 3:15—”Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.”

No murderer has eternal life abiding in him. Most Christians claim that all people, saved and unsaved, have eternal life abiding in them, but this is certainly not what the scriptures teach.
1 John 5:11—”And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.”

Eternal life is only in God’s son. The unrighteous do not have the gift of eternal life.
All of the above scriptures were reached in a search for the words “eternal life” in the PC Study Bible. The search actually returned 42 occurrences of the phrase in the NASU version of the Bible. I did not incorporate every single verse because many were essentially repeats of verses I did include (for instance, some of the Gospels record virtually the same teachings of Jesus) and a few others were slightly less clear. However, in the entire Bible, there is not a single verse that records anything to the affect that “everyone has eternal life; it’s only a matter of where each will spend it.” Yet this is what most of the church today believes.

The same can be said of words like “immortality.” This word appears five times in the Bible, and in each one, it is said only of God or of the righteous.

Rom 2:6-7—”[God] will render to each person according to his deeds: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life…”

1 Cor 15:53—”For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.”

1 Tim 6:15-16—”He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality…”

Contrary, to popular opinion, the Bible never says that all people are born with an immortal soul. It says instead that only God has immortality, and He blesses whom He chooses with the gift of eternal life. The concept of the immortal soul is nowhere found in the Bible. According to Edward Fudge, William Robert West, and others, the belief is of pagan origin (accredited to many ancient teachers, especially Plato), and it worked itself into Christian theology by way of many of our “church forefathers,” who knew more of the teachings of Plato than they did of the teachings of Christ and were only partly converted.

ANNIHILATION IN SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY—

Before I discuss the problems I perceive regarding the traditional doctrine of eternal Hell, I think it’s necessary to show how the ultimate annihilation of unbelievers harmonizes with the rest of the doctrines of Christianity.

First of all, death has always been the penalty for wickedness. In the Old Testament, whenever people did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, they received the punishment of instant death—not torture. Just as Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire to punish their wrongdoing, so the Lord would be very consistent in His dealings to destroy on the Day of Judgment all those who have not repented.

Furthermore, Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty that we should have had to pay for our sins. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), and because all have sinned (Romans 3:23), we all deserve that death. Now that Jesus died on the cross in our place, are we saved from physical death on earth? Of course not. Christians die all the time. What then are we saved from? We are rescued from the second death that takes place in the lake of fire (Rev. 20:13-15). This is a perfectly harmonious account of the message of the cross, and there is no serious flaw in it when examined with scripture.

If death is truly the penalty for sin, as the Apostle Paul claims it is, then by dying on the cross, Jesus actually suffered the same consequence that unrepentant sinners will bear. In this way, he truly “took our place” on the cross so that we would not have to face this consequence of our sins. If on the other hand the wages of sin is not death but eternal infliction of unbearable pain, then Jesus’s temporary suffering did not even come close. Christians often emphasize the enormity of Jesus’s anguish on the cross, but if traditional teaching on Hell is at all accurate, His pain is not even an ounce of what most of the world is supposedly going to endure. If this is the case, He certainly did not take upon himself the penalty for our sin.

REVELATION 14:11—

“And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name” (Rev. 14:11).

This verse creates some questions in my mind. At first glance, it seems to say exactly what most Christians believe: that the wicked will be tormented without end in Hell.

I’ve heard the well-known conditionalist author Dr. Edward Fudge’s explanation of this verse. He claims that “smoke of their torment” implies complete and total destruction like smoke from the fire that consumed Sodom and Gomorrah. He also says that “they have no rest day or night” is indicative of the ceaseless nature that their punishment will take on for the time that they are punished (not necessarily forever). In other words, while they are being punished, they will not get intervals of rest like we all enjoy here on earth (even when you work all day, you still get to sleep at night). Instead, they will have no rest during this time, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will last forever.

But there is another explanation that i find to be more convincing than that of Dr. Fudge. To understand this argument, we’ll need to get a little bit of context by looking at the two verses leading up to verse 11.

A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he, too, will drink of the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name.” (Rev. 14:9-11, emphasis mine).

A Christian conditionalist named Scott McAliley read my article and pointed out to me that “to believe(as many do) that this is a figurative reference to everyone who failed to put their trust in God is to deny the plain language of Scripture that tells us that this is specifically a judgment on those who took the mark of the beast and worshipped him.” Indeed, this detail is frequently overlooked by traditionalists and conditionalists alike.

Furthermore, the verses clearly state this will take place “in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb.” If nothing else, this should be enough to prove that this penalty is not an unending, conscious, torturing one because observing such a punishment is not the way the angels or the Lamb (Jesus Christ) will choose to spend eternity. So the passage appears to say nothing of hell or eternity at all. Instead, it would indicate that those people who are still alive at Christ’s second coming who have worshipped the Beast and received his mark will be tormented and destroyed, in the presence of Jesus and the angels, by burning sulfur raining down from Heaven.

Now, there will certainly be plenty of people who don’t agree with this or Dr. Fudge’s interpretation of Revelation 14:11. Frankly, one would be hard-pressed to find a book of the Bible with more alternate interpretations than the book of Revelation. Some may insist that the verse seems to indicate the traditional view of Hell and appears to apply to all who die in their sins (not just those who take the mark of the Beast). Yet, does that immediately mean that the traditional view is correct? Does it mean that we should abandon the wealth of Biblical evidence for the annihilationist argument? Certainly not. The reason I say this is that the Bible must be taken on the whole. There are Christian cults all over the world who have come up with ridiculous, pagan beliefs, and every one of them draws support for their convictions from the Holy Scriptures. Like it or not, the Bible can be used to support some of the most unbiblical theology any of us can imagine. Scriptures must be cross-checked against the rest of the Bible for there to be some semblance of unity.

For instance, in Matthew 5:29-30, Jesus himself says, “If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you….If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you…” If these verses are taken by themselves, they obviously have the plain meaning that we should be gouging out our own eyeballs and cutting off our hands. The reason why so few Christians accept this most natural interpretation is because it’s absolutely outlandish and runs contrary to the rest of the Bible! We’re made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26), and our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19)! It would be ludicrous to believe that our Heavenly Father truly intends for us to dismember ourselves when we sin. Even if no scriptures could be found to deny the plain meaning of Matt 5:29-30, Christians would still disregard this interpretation on the basis of common sense and their knowledge of the character of God. And they would be right to do so.

So, I’m not about to claim that no support can be found for the eternal torture model of God’s final judgment, but I would definitely say that it stands in fierce conflict with the rest of the Word, with common sense, and with the character of God.

Besides that, the middle of Revelation is perhaps the most bizarre set of chapters in the entire Bible. There is a massive amount of symbolism and a plethora of strange, indiscernible visions that work like scrambled pieces of a puzzle. I would contend that “proof texts” taken from Revelation (especially those middle chapters) should automatically be called into question for this reason. And one more thing: the very book out of which this scripture (14:11) comes also has one of the clearest illustrations of annihilation in Hell in the entire Bible. Rev. 20:14-15 says, “Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

THE CHARACTER OF GOD—

Another major issue that must be addressed is on the character of the almighty God. Let us suppose for a moment that Hell is as the majority of Christian believers describe it—namely, a place of eternal torture. Hell is a place where those who have not prayed the prayer of salvation will be [or are currently being] tortured without end in the most unbelievably hideous way that any person could possibly imagine: excruciating fire that inflicts pain but does not destroy. It must not be avoided that this is in fact some reflection of the character of God.
God is the creator of all things. No one but God has the power to create. Satan did not invent this place of torment; God did. It was God’s design. God isn’t sitting up in Heaven with His hands tied wishing He had the power to change the system—it’s His own system! Even those who try to claim that God did not create Hell still have to accept that it is fully within His power to destroy it. If God didn’t create Hell, why does He allow most of His beloved creations to be tortured in it? It must be recognized that some of the culpability for Hell rests on God’s shoulders. What does this say about Him?

Clark Pinnock, professor of systematic theology at McMaster Divinity College, defends the annihilation doctrine with the assertion that “this ‘capital punishment’ view of the final judgment at least does not involve a deity who is endlessly vindictive and a new creation where heaven and hell exist alongside each other forever…. The traditional understanding of hell is unspeakably horrible. How can one imagine for a moment that the God who gave his Son to die for sinners because of his great love for them would install a torture chamber somewhere in the new creation in order to subject those who reject him to everlasting pain?” (Clark Pinnock, “Fire, Then Nothing.” Christianity Today v. 20. March, 1987, 40.)

I cannot think of a more devastating slander that could be associated with someone’s name than the one that Christians have attributed to God. Just think of the worst, cruelest, most wretched human beings in earth’s history: Attila the Hun, Benito Mussolini, Genghis Khan, Joseph Stalin, Saddam Hussein, and others. More than likely, Adolf Hitler was the first name to come to mind. But even the ruthless Hitler had not the heart to do the kind of things that are being accredited to the name of God. Nothing that his victims experienced can even come close to the pains that must be present in the common Christian perception of Hell. What is a year’s worth of hard labor compared with an eternity in burning flames? What is the murder of 16 million people when compared with billions being kept alive for no other purpose than to ceaselessly extract every ounce of pain from them for trillions upon trillions of agonizing years with no hope of ever escaping? If Hell is really as bad as this, then God has designed a system of judgment that involves far more horrendous practices than even the wickedest of men would ever dream of. What can be said about a God who would create such a place? Is this the God that we are supposed to share with others in what we call the “Good News”?

HAS ANYONE CHOSEN HELL?—

Christians often make statements to the effect that everyone makes a choice as to where they will spend eternity. If anyone thinks they have not made a choice one way or the other, they have in fact made their choice to spend eternity in Hell. To put it another way, this is the “default choice”—if no decision has been made to follow Christ, one will spend untold zillions of years being burned, but never consumed, by fire.

There is more than one serious problem with this idea. First of all, as everyone knows, no one in the history of the world has ever seen both options, carefully weighed out the pros and cons, and willingly chose to spend an eternity in conscious pain and torment. That would be absurd. Even in the case of those who say they would rather go to Hell—a very small minority of course—it is quite clear that they do not believe it to be what the traditional doctrine teaches. So while people have very clearly chosen to live for Jesus and receive eternal life as a reward, no one has ever chosen endless pain and suffering on purpose.

In some cases, people live their whole lives in selfishness, without any regard for the teachings of the Bible. It would be unscriptural to say that these people will spend eternity in paradise with Jesus, but does that mean that they have actually made the choice to go to Hell? Of course not. Many of them lived their lives sincerely believing that Heaven and Hell did not exist. In this case, they are not being punished eternally for the specific choice they made; they are instead being tortured forever for their ignorance. Can any one person’s unawareness really merit a sentence of such severity?

Furthermore, no one has ever chosen to be born. If this game of life, as traditionalists teach it, were understood by everyone, most would choose not to play. I would love to spend eternity in Heaven, but if there was even a small chance that I would end up in a pit of fire and burn forever without rest, I would rather not risk it. The alternative is just too horrible.

We did not buy a lottery ticket hoping to make it into Heaven. Everyone is placed on this earth and is not given clear instructions as to what he/she is supposed to do. Thankfully, many have figured out the most important things, but most have not. For those who don’t ever turn to Jesus for salvation, they deserve the merciful death of being consumed in the Lake of Fire. God was gracious enough to give them a temporary life on earth that they didn’t deserve, but in the end that life will be taken away. But since no one can decide whether or not to take a chance and be born, it would be ludicrous to say that they have actually chosen countless years of torment—they were merely ignorant of the truth.

ROMANS 9:14-24—

This next scripture passage deals with a subject that many shudder to mention: predestination. Christians have often raised questions as to whether or not this is proper biblical theology, and much of the church is divided on this issue. I believe it relates strongly to the subject of Hell as I will explain further in this section. Here is the passage:

What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.’ So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. You will say to me then, ‘Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?’ On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, ‘Why did you make me like this,’ will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory (Rom. 9:14-24).

In reading passages of scripture such as this, it becomes quite evident that the Apostle Paul did not believe in Hell in the same way that most Christians today think of it. Assuming Hell is a place where the soul is ultimately annihilated and swept from existence, these verses make complete sense. If God created someone, He is not obligated to give that person eternal life in His presence. He is the creator and is certainly entitled to bestow love and mercy on His creation or to destroy it if He so chooses.

Most Americans feel the same way of cattle ranchers. If a farmer cultivates a breeding ground for animals (cows, for instance), then those animals are born only because the farmer has made allowance for them. Without the farmer, many cows would have never come into existence in the first place. If the farmer, after years of receiving milk from one his cows, would like to then mercifully put the animal to sleep and take the meat from it, he is entitled to do this. If, on the other hand, the farmer feels that his giving the cow life entitles him to torture the poor animal every waking moment of his pitiful existence, that farmer is regarded as a cruel, sadistic, inhumane man, and his practices are abhorred by any self-respecting person.

If Paul understood Hell to be a place of unending, conscious pain and agonizing torture, Romans 9:14-24 would be cause for outrage. How could anyone call a God loving who would feel justified in creating people for the sole purpose of “demonstrat[ing] His wrath and [making] His power known” and ultimately allowing these people to suffer eternal torment in fire? If this passage is pondered objectively, I believe it makes far more sense to say that God intends for the wicked to perish instead of experiencing never-ending pain in Hell. This He has every right to do without compromising His goodness. He gives life, and He can take it away. But giving life and subjecting that life to ceaseless torture is something far below any decent human being, let alone the Author of love and mercy Himself.

DO WE DESERVE IT?—

For many years, the church has believed the eternal torture model of Hell. This has naturally prompted many to ask the logical question “Why would a just God feel the need to punish us so severely?” In other words, “What has any human being ever done that could possibly deserve such a harsh sentence? How can anyone say that there even exists such a crime as to merit this type of punishment?”

This is a very serious question that is not so easy to contend with. After all, there is no civilized society on the face of the planet that would willfully keep people alive over many years for the sole purpose of torturing them. Even when people are subjected to torture, it is usually to gain information from them or, at the very least, to serve as a warning for others. And even then, it is limited to a certain period of time—not for years or decades by any means. If wicked human beings are too merciful to consider such cruel methods of punishment even for a season, why would our Heavenly Father choose such an agonizing procedure that lasts for an eternity?
For years of Christian history, people have tried to find reason for how a loving, merciful God would feel justified in punishing wickedness in this fashion. The most popular explanation for this is accredited to St. Thomas Aquinas who stated that “Sins against an infinite God deserve infinite recompense.” Aquinas believed that sins committed against someone are proportionally as bad as the victim is good. In other words, if the inflicted party were a bad person who didn’t deserve to be treated well, then a crime committed against him would not be as serious as the very same crime committed against a kind, loving, hardworking citizen. And since God is infinitely loving, a sin against Him can only be made right with an infinitely long and harsh punishment.

Traditionalist Jeff Spencer makes the following assertions about the justice of Hell:
The eternal punishing of the unbeliever in hell also maintains the justice of God because… it is the punishment that fits the crime. Even though the sin was committed in time, it warrants an eternal punishment because the sin was against an infinitely holy God. Systematic Theologian William G. T. Shedd aptly states:

“Endless punishment is rational, because sin is an infinite evil; infinite not because committed by an infinite being, but against one….To torture a dumb beast is a crime; to torture a man is a greater crime. To steal from one’s own mother is more heinous than to steal from a fellow citizen. The person who transgresses is the same in each instance; but the different worth and dignity of the objects upon whom his action terminates makes the difference in the gravity of the two offenses.”

Theologian Norman Geisler concurs:
“Only eternal punishment will suffice for sins against the eternal God… Furthermore, no sin can be tolerated as long as God exists, and He is eternal. Hence, the punishment for sin must also be eternal.”

(Spencer, Jeff. “The Destruction of Hell: Annihilationism Examined” Christian Apologetics Journal, Volume 1, No.1, spring 1998. Copyright © 1998 by Southern Evangelical Seminary)
This argument has a few major problems associated with it. First of all, the idea that the severity of a crime is dependant on the “different worth and dignity” of the offended persons is a completely medieval notion that the Bible expressly teaches against. The Law of Moses was given largely in part to guide God’s people away from this erroneous doctrine. Through Moses, God clearly taught that, no matter who a person was, they could not kill another human being without consequence. When a crime is committed, regardless of how unloving the victim might be, the punishment had to be the same—an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. All throughout the Bible, God is shown to be no respecter of persons. He also counsels us against showing any favoritism (James 2, for example).

Secondly, the above argument fully avoids the real issue. Yes, God is an infinite God. I certainly don’t argue against that point. He is infinitely loving, infinitely holy, omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, and eternal. He’s all of those things, but what does it mean? Does God’s being infinitely holy really mean that even one small sin (the kind that Christians commit many times a day) is so offensive to Him that the only thing that can make it right is to suffer agonizing cruelty for trillions upon trillions upon trillions of years? Let’s just think for a moment about the logic behind this. After the first billion years or so, would an infinitely loving God really think “No, that’s not quite enough”? What practical meaning could the description “infinitely loving” even have if God can allow the never-ending anguish of billions of people and still deserve the title? Do we just call Him all of those nice things because we have to? Or is it because God really is loving, holy, etc.?

For many years, theologians such as Aquinas have worked hard to show how sin could deserve the fate of eternal torture. They explain that any sin deserves this penalty, and it’s only by God’s grace that some are saved from it. As much as they’ll defend their position, I doubt they would feel the same way if God gave everyone “what we deserve.” If we truly deserve it, then God shouldn’t have to provide a way out in order to be a just God. Would St. Thomas and others feel as good about the justice of sinners if they themselves were expected to pay for their sins in the same way? After all, we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). Could the Lord still be loving and kind if he provided no way of forgiveness—if every sinner went to Hell to experience unending torture, no matter what? This is, after all, what they claim everyone deserves. Would anyone feel that this sentence is just if they learned that, because of that first sin they committed, they would unquestionably be subjected to endless pain and torment with no way of escape? When looked at in this light, eternal retribution doesn’t seem quite as reasonable, does it?

On the other hand, annihilation still proves reputable. Of course we deserve this! We were only created by God’s grace anyway, so if God had chosen not to give eternal life to anyone, He would still be shown merciful for giving us the life that we had on earth. But thankfully, He has offered us more than what we deserve. He has given us His son, so that we might be forgiven of our sins and have the eternal life that we never could have earned on our own. When subjected to the same scrutiny, this annihilation model proves much more consistent.
When people use these arguments, I’m sure their intentions are good. But by employing all of this jargon about the infiniteness of our creator, what they are doing is clouding up simple God-given logic. Sin is sin. A crime is a crime. It doesn’t matter how nice and loving the victim is. Most people have no trouble understanding this because they already know it in their hearts to be true. Let’s suppose for a moment that a kind, holy, loving man had his wallet stolen. After a day, they found the criminal and allowed the victim to choose his offender’s sentence. Imagine if the kind, loving man used the argument “Because I am kind and loving, your sin against me was much worse than stealing from someone else. Therefore, the only punishment fitting for you is to spend 40 years in my torture chamber.” Wouldn’t that raise some doubts as to the loving nature that this man claims to have? How much more so, if the man could make the sentence 40,000,000,000,000,000 years or more?

HEAVEN vs. HELL—

In fact, I’m sure that most people, when they are honest with themselves, will admit that it would actually be better if God had not created someone at all than for them to be created and ultimately live out an eternity in perpetual conscious torment. But God did create people, and He created us all with a free will. We can choose to do right, and we can choose to do wrong. We can choose to repent of our sins, or we can choose to reject God. Apparently, people can even choose to reject God without knowing that they are doing so.

The Bible makes it extremely clear that not all people go to Heaven. In fact, it seems quite evident that the majority do NOT go there (i.e. the wide and narrow gates of Matthew 7:13). So from the moment of birth, essentially, the odds are against you. This is no surprise to God, of course. He knows the end from the beginning. He knows who will turn to Him and who will reject Him. Yet He still, in all of His infinite love and knowledge, forms people in their mothers’ wombs on a continual basis. And why not? Even if someone doesn’t come to a saving faith, they still had the opportunity to live out a number of years on earth. After this time, most people don’t make it, and they get exactly what they deserve: to be thrown into the Lake of Fire and obliterated from existence. The Lord mercifully gave them temporary life on the off-chance that they would choose eternal life in Heaven, and when they don’t choose it, He has every right to mercifully destroy them (thus returning them to their previous state of non-existence). There is nothing in this doctrine that violates the scriptures or the nature of God.

On the other hand, there are millions (if not billions) who will go to Heaven leaving loved ones behind. Many of these loved ones will choose—or have already chosen—the wide path that leads to destruction. How will the saved in Heaven come to terms with this? Imagine that someone you love dearly (like a sibling, spouse or a son or daughter) was taken into a foreign country as a prisoner of war. What if you knew that this loved one was being tortured ceaselessly each day and night? How would that affect your enjoyment of life in a free country? Could you even sleep at night knowing the pain he/she would be enduring? Now imagine that you had the opportunity to die so that he/she could be set free. Most would not give even a second thought—of course it’s worth it. If I were in the situation, I would instantly sacrifice my own life if only for the assurance that my wife could die and end the senseless torture that she was being made to endure. It doesn’t take a hero to feel that way. That’s just the nature of love. “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

Thankfully, most of us will never be faced with such a situation on earth, but what about Heaven? Could any of us really enjoy Heaven with the knowledge that our loved ones were currently suffering ceaseless pain in Hell and would be for an eternity? Not only that, but if traditional doctrine is correct, the God Who we’ll be praising forever is the very One Who invented this place of torment and created our friends knowing full well that they would reject Him and spend zillions of years in flames! And we’ll worship Him continually with the knowledge that He could, at any time, end their suffering yet chooses not to. Something is wrong with this picture.

PLEASURE vs. PAIN—

In our lives, we all make hundreds of little decisions each and every day. There are of course many different reasons for why we choose one option over another, but in almost every case, the decisions we make all boil down to one of two objectives. We are continually trying to seek pleasure and avoid pain. These are the two capital reasons for nearly every choice we ever make. However, the two are not equal in their influence. Whenever someone is given the exclusive choice between seeking pleasure and avoiding pain, they will almost invariably choose to avoid pain.

Case in point, imagine that you have the opportunity to enjoy $10,000,000 given to you each and every year for the rest of your life. But there is one small stipulation: you must first undergo one solid week of uninterrupted torture. Would you do it? Remember, you can live exactly as you’ve always wanted for the rest of your life—you get everything you want without working another day. What is one week of agony and torment when compared with the rest of your life in total bliss? Well, I’m sure it is quite clear to anyone reading this that one week of continuous pain can seem awfully significant. I for one wouldn’t give the offer a second thought. I’ll pass. I’m doing just fine, thank you. It frankly doesn’t matter how many years of pleasure there might be, that torture part is just a lot more substantial.

The reason I bring this up, is because I feel that it is a very vivid illustration of something which seems to be largely overlooked in traditionalist church doctrine. No matter how good Heaven may be, there is no amount of good that can make up for what the lost are supposedly going to suffer (or are currently suffering) in Hell. I’m sure, at any moment, that those enjoying Heaven would instantly give it all up if they were given the chance to die and save their loved ones from the torture. I believe that almost anyone, if they were to answer with total honesty, would actually feel that it would be better if Heaven never even existed than for there to be both a Heaven and an eternal Hell. I don’t take that statement lightly. How much happiness would it take for you to forget that dozens of people you love are being tormented in the worst way every second of their lives? Could someone truly say that any amount of delight in Heaven can make up for the never-ending, pain experienced by billions of people?

When people speak of God’s goodness, they naturally point to His treatment of the saved. None of us deserves Heaven, and yet God, in all of His loving kindness has chosen to grant this unbelievable inheritance to those who have turned to Him for salvation. This is very true. God is wonderful and merciful to do this. Likewise, it is completely consistent with the love of our Savior to give the wicked what they deserve as well. They certainly don’t deserve Heaven any more than we do, but they also haven’t chosen Heaven. What they deserve is exactly what they have chosen: essentially to make this temporal existence all that there is. They have lived for themselves thinking only of this life here on earth, so that is all they will get. At the resurrection, they will be cast into the Lake of Fire and be obliterated. There is no reason to think that the God who created them is under any obligation to keep them alive in Hell or to allow them into His kingdom.

But suppose that God did choose to keep them alive in Hell. He is still every bit as good to us (the righteous) as He is in the annihilation model, but His treatment of the damned takes a decidedly vicious turn. In speaking of the compassion of God, we can point to all of the nice things He is doing for the saved race, but how can we ignore what is going on in Hell? What if Adolf Hitler was responsible for donating millions of dollars to charitable causes? What if he, between periods of overseeing his concentration camps, spent his Saturday afternoons working at a homeless shelter? What if he was a generous father and a loving family man? Would that make up for his treatment of the Jews? How much good would Hitler have to do to be considered a sympathetic, loving, caring man in spite of the millions of the decent people he enslaved, tortured, and put to death? Surely there is no amount of good that can account for that!

Now, to add one more element to this scenario, remember that not everyone whom Hitler put to death would be declared righteous in God’s sight. We think of Hitler’s actions as absolutely horrendous, but if the church’s traditional view of Hell is correct, his victims hadn’t even experienced a taste of what was coming to them. They thought life at the mercy of the Nazis was bad enough, just wait until they are at the mercy of God—then they won’t be so lucky.
I want to make it clear that I’m not blaspheming God in any way. I am not speaking out against the God Who is. I am speaking against a concept of God that I believe is an atrocious slander to His name.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE?—

We’ve looked briefly at the dominant traditionalist line of reasoning for why human beings could deserve this kind of a punishment. Even if one accepts the flawed argument that our earthly sins merit a never-ending torture chamber, another question must still be examined: what is the point? Even if we do deserve everlasting Hell, why would God want us to experience that? What purpose is served by keeping people alive to torment them when it is too late for any of them to change their ways?

Every civilized society on earth understands this concept. No matter how terrible a convict may be, the worst that they may receive is the death penalty. Prisons are properly known as “correctional facilities” because they serve to correct the behavior of convicted criminals. Even in the case of a life sentence in prison, it exists for the purpose of dissuading other would-be lawbreakers away from a life of crime. In rare cases, the punishment of torture is exercised. Even then, it is either to retrieve information from someone or, at the very least, to serve as a warning to others. It is certainly not used for the sole purpose of making a criminal suffer—this would be inhumane.

Besides that, even if sinners did deserve this cruel and unusual punishment, is anything resolved through it? If sins against an infinite God deserved unending vengeance, does that mean that the sinners are somehow evening up the score by their suffering? After one hundred thousand years of ceaseless pain, are they any closer to having reconciled their sins against the Lord? Obviously not, if there is no end. If they cannot be made any more righteous by the flames or even pay a smidgen of the debt they owe, why on earth would God choose this fate for them to endure? If wicked, earthly, vengeful humans wouldn’t stoop to this kind of senseless infliction of pain, is it really proper to assume it of the all-loving creator?

OPTIONS—

Additionally, the typical doctrine of Hell cannot help but completely alter the motivation of new converts. Preachers ask people to come to Jesus and accept His loving gift of salvation, but what is really going through the mind of a sinner when they walk down the aisle after learning about Hell? While the message of Heaven is appealing, so much greater is the fear of spending eternity in a fiery pit. Regardless of how extraordinary it may be, the goodness of Heaven can never compare in magnitude with the ruthlessness of Hell.
So, if someone truly believes in the two fates, they may correctly decide to come to Jesus, but what is their heart’s motivation? Is it out of love for their Savior or out of fear of Hell? For most, it would clearly be the latter and rightfully so. Therefore, the choice they are making feels less like a choice and more like coercion. It is as if someone points a gun to your head and tells you that you must go somewhere or else be shot. You may choose to go, but it surely does not feel much like free will.

Allow me to make yet another analogy (I like analogies; what can I say?). Suppose for a moment that a wonderful man—Mr. Right—offers a marriage proposal to the woman he loves. “Marry me,” he says, “and I will give you a life like you’ve never dreamed of before. You will be loved with the greatest commitment and passion that any woman has ever known. I will give you the finest house with all of the wonderful things you’ve ever wanted, and you will be happy for the rest of your days!”

Now suppose the woman is very flattered by the proposal, but is uncertain about whether or not she is ready for such a commitment. Asking for a few more days to think it over, Mr. Right answers, “You are welcome to take more time, but it’s only fair that I warn you what will happen if you decline my generous offer. Your only option, other than spending paradise with me, is to be thrown into my underground dungeon, have your eyeballs plucked from their sockets, your fingers and toes cut off, and continually be burned with a soldering iron every hour, on the hour, for the rest of your life.”

What do you suppose would be going through the young woman’s mind at a time like this? I imagine that would change the way she feels about the man considerably. She might have previously accepted Mr. Right’s proposal because of her love for him, but is there much chance of that now? Surely not. If she takes him seriously, she’ll undoubtedly marry him, but not as much for love as out of genuine terror at the alternative.

Is this God’s way of doing things? Does God want His people to turn to Him out of fear that they will be tortured otherwise? Where is the love in that? If everyone really believed in this doctrine, wouldn’t that properly tarnish their concept of the Savior? I would imagine some might even have a hard time calling Him “Savior” at all. How merciful can it be to create a never-ending torture pit for everyone and then save only a few from it?

I should address a small issue at this time. There is a tendency in the Christian church to absolve God of any responsibility for Hell. After all, He isn’t the one torturing people, right? To these arguments, I must remind readers that regardless of who physically inflicts the pain, if God designed this system, He must accept a great deal of responsibility for it. God is of course the final authority on anybody’s destiny and can destroy lost souls or keep them alive at will. If He chooses to keep billions of people alive in unending punishment for their wrongs, we mustn’t speak as if there is nothing He can do to change things.

Contrast this to the annihilation model. According to this theory, those not found written in the Lamb’s Book of Life are cast into the Lake of Fire, which is the second death (Rev. 20:12-15). God created them in the first place and will destroy them in the end. These unsaved people get just what they have actually chosen. They lived life on earth as though there was nothing else to look forward to, and the wages of their sin is death. To say that they have willingly chosen everlasting burning is ludicrous, but it is clear that most people choose to live for this life alone. In the same way that they chose to live, they are essentially given no afterlife. However, some of us are saved from death in the Lake of Fire. We are saved from what we very clearly deserve.

Not many people would try to argue that we don’t deserve to die. After all, we were graciously given the life we have, and God has no obligation to keep us alive if He doesn’t want to. Never-ending torture, on the other hand, is a punishment we wouldn’t wish on our worst enemy. Therefore, to say that Jesus has chosen to save us from the death we deserve is very consistent with His merciful, loving nature. Then He really is our caring Savior.

CONCLUSION—

Support can be found through the Holy Scriptures to back up the case for eternal torture as well as the case for annihilation in Hell. In coming to a conclusion, therefore, one must take this to heart and study all of God’s Word to find which model fits best with the overall thrust of Scripture. From my study of the Bible, it seems to say much more about the death of the wicked than about their torture. Numerous verses use the terminology of life and immortality only when depicting Heaven while reserving words such as death, perishing, and destruction to describe Hell. Furthermore, there is not even one verse in the entire Bible that teaches the supposed “immortality of the soul” doctrine so prevalent in most Christian theology. Instead, it is made very clear that only God has eternal life, and He bestows immortality only to those whom He chooses—not to everyone. In reading the Bible for its plain meaning, there is no reason to feel obligated to believe that human beings will be kept alive in a never-ending, torturous Hell.
Furthermore, the Bible gives a very clear picture about the nature and character of God the Father and of His Son Jesus Christ. God is love. All His ways are good. He is more loving than any human being could ever hope to be. Everything in the Bible corroborates this. If on the other hand the doctrine of unending, conscious pain for the wicked is added to the message of God, He can no longer be considered loving in any practical sense. This view stands in absolute conflict with the loving character of the Almighty God as revealed in the Bible, and the two cannot co-exist.

There is also very little if any corroboration for the belief that human beings might deserve such a punishment. For years of Christian history, great theologians have worked out only meager rationalizations that don’t stand up to scrutiny. Similarly, the question of the purpose for such punishment is completely avoided in these arguments. There is no valid reason for a loving God to subject people to torture without end when no more good could possibly come of it.
Finally, it is my opinion that the belief in eternal punishment is a serious detriment to the entire message of salvation. It turns the “Good News” into bad news. Even when people turn to Jesus, it is not as much to embrace His loving gift as to avoid what they believe is the only other alternative. This significantly alters the way many view the Almighty God and causes countless others to cast doubt on the reliability of the Gospel.

The eternal torment model of Hell creates countless problems when set against the clear teaching of God’s character. Neither does it stand up to scrutiny in systematic theology. Lastly, and most importantly, the overall credo of scripture plainly teaches against it while frequently reiterating the vocabulary of death for the unrighteous. Keeping all of these things in mind, it seems overwhelmingly evident to me that the only consistent way to interpret God’s Word on this subject is to believe in the ultimate annihilation of unbelievers in the Lake of Fire.

Used with permission from Jeremy K. Moritz, http://jeremyandchristine.com

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His academic success presents him with an excellent job opportunity. But there is an unusual requirement. As his father, you must write a cover letter for his job application. The first thing the potential employer will see and read when he receives your son’s application is your cover letter. The cover letter is to answer one question: “How do you want me to look at your son?”

What would you write in your cover letter? Would you write, “Look at him as the success that he is. You can see his ability and potential by looking at his grade point average, his course grades, and the honors he received. Consider him as the talented, successful person that he is.”

Or would you write, “Look at him as though he were a failure. Let him bear the responsibility for every person who attended the university and failed, or dropped out, or caused trouble. Consider him as though he were the worst student who ever attended that university.”

I. The only person who did everything God wanted done exactly the way God wanted it done was Jesus.
A. I wonder if the full truth of that statement has registered with any of us.
1. No other human ever did that–not Peter, not John, not Paul, not any Christian.
2. Isn’t that amazing!
a. When we want to understand how God wants us to act, to think, and to feel, who do we listen to?
b. Are we not more likely to discuss what Peter, or John, or Paul said than we are to consider what Jesus did or said?
B. God accomplished something in Jesus that He accomplished in no one else.
1. Speaking of Jesus, Peter wrote “. . . He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, for by His wounds you were healed” (I Peter 2:24).
a. Our sins were placed on Jesus’ body as he died.
b. Only because our sins were placed on Jesus can we be healed spiritually.
2. Paul wrote of Jesus, “He (God) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
a. God made Jesus to be sin.
b. We have the opportunity to become God’s righteousness only because God made Jesus sin.
C. What ever does that mean? Our sins were placed on Jesus’ body? God made Jesus to be sin? What does that mean?
1. As Jesus died on the cross, God placed all human evil on his body.
2. Justice said, “Here are all the lies of liars and all the deceit of dishonest or weak people,” and God said, “Put them on Jesus.”
3. “Here are all the evils produced by rapists, spouse abusers, child molesters, and murderers,” and God said, “Put them on Jesus.”
4. “Here are all the evils associated with adultery, with fornication, with abortion, and with homosexuality,” and God said, “Put them on Jesus.”
5. “Here are all the evils associated with stealing, with violence, and with all criminal acts,” and God said, “Put them on Jesus.”
6. “Here are all the evils produced by hypocrisy, self-righteousness, pride, judgmental attitudes, conceit, prejudice, and self-justification,” and God said, “Put them on Jesus.”
7. “Here are all the evils produced by mean spiritedness, gossip, selfishness, self-centeredness, jealousy, wrath, hate, anger, and contempt,” and God said, “Put it on Jesus.”
8. “Here are all the evils created by promoting divisiveness, by being unloving, by encouraging strife and conflict, by wounding hearts and souls and minds,” and God said, “Put it on Jesus.”
9. And God said, “Put all human evil on Jesus; spare none of it; put it on Jesus in full measure.”
10. And, as Jesus died, God made him to be sin.
a. God looked at Jesus as he died, and God saw evil covering his innocent Son.
b. He saw all the evil of humanity covering His Son, and it was such a repulsive sight that it repelled God, and God turned away from His own Son.
c. And Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)
II. God paid for the right to do incredible things for us because God allowed Jesus to be sin.
A. For example, because God made Jesus to be sin, God can sanctify you and me.
1. The word sanctify means “to make holy.”
a. In making us holy, God sets us apart from that which is ungodly and evil.
b. In making us holy, God also consecrates us to Himself; He claims us as His own.
2. In a very real way, being sanctified means a change of ownership.
a. We belonged to Satan.
b. But God took us from Satan and set us apart for Himself.
B. The concept of sanctification was so clearly understood in the first century that the common name for people who belonged to Christ was saints.
1. The Bible writings called the gospels refer to people who followed Jesus as disciples.
2. But the book of Acts and the epistles referred to baptized believers by the word “saints.”
a. Fifty-six times those writings call baptized believers saints.
b. It was the common name for people who belonged to Jesus Christ.
3. Don’t you think that the name saints was wonderfully appropriate–the people God set apart for Himself?
4. They were not called saints because they were morally perfect; they were called saints because they had been sanctified–set apart for God in Christ.
III. If we had a better understanding of sanctification, we would have a better understanding of salvation.
A. Sanctification never meant or indicated moral perfection.
1. The sanctified, or saints, or Christians were not and are not morally perfect–or perfect in any other way.
2. Listen to the way that Paul addressed the troubled congregation at Corinth: “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling . . .” (1 Corinthians 1:2).
a. The church in Corinth, the Christians there, had been sanctified.
b. They were saints.
c. It certainly was not because they were morally perfect; it was because they were in Christ.
3. Later, Paul said to these saints, “I could not speak to you as spiritual men, but as men of flesh, as to babes in Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:1-3).
a. They were not capable of eating solid spiritual food.
b. Among their many spiritual problems were jealousy and strife.
4. Obviously, they were not morally perfect or spiritually mature, but they were sanctified.
B. God sanctified the Christians at Corinth when they were baptized into Christ.
1. An act of God sanctified them.
2. Still later Paul informed them that unrighteous people will not inherit God’s kingdom.
a. He listed some unrighteous people who belonged to Satan, who had not been sanctified–he named fornicators, adulterers, homosexuals, idol worshippers, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, people who were verbal abusers, and swindlers.
b. Then he said, “Such were some of you.”
c. Why were they no longer unrighteous people? Because they had become morally perfect? If you have read 1 Corinthians, you know that is not true.
d. Then why were they no longer the unrighteous? This is Paul’s explanation: “but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11).
3. They had been sanctified, they had been set apart for God, they had been made holy, and they needed to learn and understand what that meant.
4. They were people in transition.
a. They had been ungodly people.
b. God sanctified them.
c. Now they needed to learn and understand what it meant to be set apart to be God’s people.
5. They were not sanctified because they achieved perfection; they were sanctified because they were in Christ.
a. God did for them what they could not do for themselves.
b. But they needed to understand what God did for them in Christ.
c. And they needed to commit themselves to living like people who were set apart for God.
IV. When we enter Christ, God sanctifies us–He sets us apart from evil for Himself.
A. Because we are sanctified by God, we belong to God, not to Satan.
1. Rarely does a person comprehend what God does for him when he is baptized into Christ.
2. Even though most people do not comprehend sanctification, it still happens when the person is placed in Christ.
3. At that point the learning and understanding should begin.
4. At that point the life transition should begin.
B. Wednesday morning when we learned of Lou Porter’s accidental death, many of us went into shock.
1. Lou was a quiet, gentle spirit who touched more lives than we can imagine with her faith and her service.
2. I thank God that this congregation has been blessed from its beginning through her life.
3. Lou was an exceptionally kind, thoughtful person.
4. If Lou could give us a message this morning, one of the things she would tell us would be this: “Please learn this lesson now: we are not saved because were are good; we are saved because we are in Christ.
a. “We seek to be good people because we have been saved.”
b. “But we are saved because we are in Christ.”
c. “We are saved because God sanctified us.”
Every single person in Christ is saved. Why? Because God sanctified every person who enters Christ. By what right does God do that? By the right God gained when he placed all sin on the body of Jesus and made Jesus to be sin.

Every one of us who accepts sanctification in Jesus must do something. Every one of us must learn and accept the responsibility of being set apart for God.

Incredible, wonderful news, best in the history of the world:
No matter what you have done, God can sanctify you.

There is no human evil that God cannot save you from if you understand that He made Jesus to be sin. Share in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus through baptism.
If God sets you apart for Himself, He expects you to then live as if you belong to Him and not behave as if you are Satan’s.

Used with permission from David Chadwell, West-Ark Church of Christ

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I. The concept of redemption is found throughout the Bible.
A. The Old Testament stresses the concept of redemption. Consider some brief examples.
1. Consider Exodus 21:28-30.
a. If your ox gored someone to death, the ox is killed and you are punished.
b. If you were warned that the ox was dangerous and the ox killed someone, the ox was killed and you were executed.
c. However, if the victim’s family accepted a money settlement, you can be redeemed–when you paid the settlement the execution was canceled.
2. Consider Leviticus 25:47-52.
a. If poverty was destroying you, you could sell yourself into slavery.
b. If you sold yourself into slavery, you could be redeemed at any time.
c. When a blood relative paid your owner the price of your freedom, and you were released from your slavery.
3. However, Numbers 35:30-34 states that a murderer could not be redeemed; a murderer must be executed.
B. In the Old Testament concept of redemption, two facts are obvious.
1. Fact one: Redemption released a person from punishment or slavery.
2. Fact two: one single, powerful, effective means of redemption did not exist; nothing could redeem all people from every form of punishment and slavery.
II. What about the concept of redemption in the first century world? What did people know and understand about redemption in the first century world?
A. The every day need for redemption was well understood.
1. The actual meaning of the Greek words translated “redeemed” literally meant “the price of release;” the basic New Testament meaning was “to buy with a price.”
2. Redemption was used in two common ways in their every day world.
a. It was the price you paid to release something used as a pledge or put in pawn.
b. It was the price paid to liberate a slave, to purchase freedom.
B. Let me make the every day reality of redemption very vivid.
1. Situation one had to do with prisoners of war.
a. Wars were often financed through selling the prisoners into slavery. These prisoners of war were slaves the rest of their lives.
i. Some times slave merchants followed the army to buy the prisoners.
ii. Commonly soldiers came from free families and often were educated.
iii. A prisoner of war sold into slavery had only one hope of ever being free again: only by being redeemed could he be free.
iv. Only if a family member could afford to buy him out of slavery would he be freed.
b. There are actual records of prisoners of war committing suicide because they knew no one could afford to buy them out of slavery, and they had rather die than be a slave.
2. Situation two had to do with a common slave.
a. A common slave’s only hope for freedom was buying his freedom.
b. A slave would never have enough money at any one time to buy his freedom.
c. But there was a way that he might buy his freedom.
i. He could go to a temple and arrange to make deposits at that temple.
ii. Then he would make any small amount anytime he could make it.
iii. It would take years and years of tiny deposits, but if he made deposits long enough, one day he would have enough to buy his freedom.
iv. He would take his owner to the temple, a priest would pay the owner the price of his freedom, and he was no longer a slave.
v. That was his day of redemption; he was “free of all men.”
3. But there was only one way that could happen: by redemption.
a. Redemption was the price of deliverance.
b. It was the only way that a person could be freed from barbarian slavery.
III. Keep slavery and redemption clearly in mind and listen:
A. Spiritually, every person was a slave.
1. Paul said in Galatians 3:13 that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law.
2. He said in Titus 2:14 that Christ redeemed us from all iniquity.
3. Every person was a slave either because of law or by the evil he committed.
a. The law condemned anyone who disobeyed the law, and every Jew disobeyed the law.
b. Every person, Jew and non-Jew, was guilty of evil.
c. So either by disobeying the law, or by wickedness, or by both, every person was a spiritual slave.
4. Jesus paid the price of redemption for every person; every person who disobeyed the law, and every person who was guilty of evil.
a. Only because Jesus paid the price of redemption could any spiritual slave be released from his slavery.
b. No spiritual slave could free himself.
5. In 1 Peter 1:18, Peter soberly reminded Christians, the redeemed, that the price God paid for their redemption was not money, was not silver or gold.
a. God, not a relative, paid that price.
b. The price God paid was the innocent blood of His own Son.
B. Think about the connection between slavery, consequences, and redemption; as you think, listen to these verses.
1. Romans 3:24–Christians are “justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
a. God destroys our sins through the redemption that is in Christ.
b. That redemption is a gift; it is God’s gift to us.
c. That gift exists because God is good.
2. 1 Corinthians 1:30–”By his (God’s) doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.”
a. By God’s doing you are in Christ.
b. You accepted Christ, but you did not place yourself in Christ–God did that.
c. God made Jesus wisdom to us.
d. God made Jesus the power to make us right before God.
e. God made Jesus the power to make us pure.
f. God gave Jesus as the price that freed us from our guiltiness.
3. Ephesians 1:7–”In him (Christ) we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace…”
a. There was only one price that could redeem us from spiritual slavery: the innocent blood of Jesus.
b. Without that blood, we are forever slaves, not only in this world but also in eternity.
c. In eternity, instead of being God’s sons and daughters at home with Him, we would be Satan’s slaves in hell.
d. Only because of Jesus’ blood can we be forgiven.
e. Only because God was good enough to pay the price can we be redeemed.
4. Colossians 1:13,14–God delivered us from darkness, and God placed us in the kingdom of his beloved son “in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
a. God took us out of the slavery of evil and God placed us in the freedom that exists in Jesus’ kingdom.
b. God did that by paying the price of our redemption.
c. The price of redemption gave us God’s forgiveness.
C. Now, does this verse have greater meaning to you?
1. In 1 Corinthians 6:19,20, Paul told the Christians in Corinth that Christians will not engage in sexual evil ; they will not justify sexual evil. He explained it in this way: don’t you understand that you do not belong to yourselves? “You were bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”
2. God bought me out of my slavery with Jesus’ blood.
a. I entered that slavery through my own failure and evil.
b. When I accept God’s redemption and continue to live and act like a slave, I insult God and abuse His goodness.
D. Listen again to this statement from Jesus in Matthew 20:28.
1. He was explaining why he came to earth.
2. He said, “The son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
3. He came to pay the price of redemption; he came to release us from slavery.
IV. This is redemption’s incredible blessing: redemption releases you from all the spiritual punishment, all the spiritual slavery, all the spiritual obligation, and all the spiritual liability that exists because of your evil.
A. Because of God’s forgiveness through Jesus’ blood, if you are in Christ, all your sin is totally, completely, forever destroyed.
B. If you live in Christ, the evil you that has been a part of you no longer exists.
C. You were Satan’s slave; now you are God’s son or daughter.
1. All spiritual consequence and guilt has been destroyed in Jesus’ blood.
2. Because God redeemed you, you are under no spiritual obligation to evil; you have no spiritual liability for forgiven evil.
3. In Christ you are released from your slavery, released from the slavery that you could not escape.
D. That is one of the incredible, glorious mysteries of our salvation.
Someone says, “David, I don’t like all this slave talk. I am not and never have been a slave. I am saved because of what I have done. I was baptized and I come to church. That saves me.”
I am sorry that you think that way. I am sorry for two reasons. First, you deceive yourself if you think you have never been Satan’s slave. Second, if you have never known your slavery, you have never experienced the joy of one of God’s greatest blessings. You cannot know or enjoy freedom until you know and accept your slavery.

Only two kinds of people do not rejoice in God’s redemption in Jesus Christ. The first are those who do not know their own sinfulness. The second are those who have never looked into hell.
The person who has seen his sins and looked into hell never stops rejoicing. He understands what God did when God redeemed him. She understands what God did when God redeemed her.

The greatest tragedy is one who is a slave to sin and never recognizes it.

Are you free? Have you accepted the price that has been paid for your freedom? Would you be free? The price has been paid by the innocent blood of Jesus. Enter Christ by being baptized into His death that His blood may destroy your sin.

Used with permission from David Chadwell, West-Ark Church of Christ

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Would you focus on a specific perspective? To many Christians, evil is the great beast that makes war against us. But the war is mostly mental stuff. That war mostly has to do with minds and emotions. We tend to think of evil is not solid or real. Just change the way people think and it goes away.

We tend to see evil as a benign force. It only troubles people if they chase it. Evil is really not that aggressive. Again, it is more philosophical and theological than real.

Then we hear that thirty-nine people living in another country are arrested for studying the Bible in a private home. Evil attacked. We don’t think so much of this evil being specific people or specific places. We think of it as this world wide, faceless force that exists everywhere that happened to cause problems in this situation.

And we are committed to opposing evil in the world. Our God hates evil. Our God allowed His Son to die to rescue people from evil. So we call out to God to defeat the evil. We take what initiative’s are available to us to defeat the evil. It is not bad people that we are opposing. It is not a government that we are opposing. It is evil.

So we pray, as we should. And we write letters to the ambassador, as I think is good and appropriate. And we pray and we write in hope, maybe even in expectation. When good people appeal to our good God in the desire for good things to happen, we do so in hope and expectation.

Then we learn that thirteen people are facing prison sentences that could run as long as five years. And we learn about the tragedy that these individuals and their families will experience. And we realized that the situation may not be resolved in a way that will rescue these people. And we are stunned. That is not supposed to happen. The evil is real in ways that we do not often consider.

I. I think that this is highly probable: it is easier for a person to be a Christian in the USA today than it has ever been in the history of Christianity.
A. Again, many of my Christian brothers and sisters might strongly object.
1. “No, David, it was much easier to be a Christian back in the 1950′s than it is today.”
2. Personally, I disagree–and I confess that is just my opinion.
a. We lived in greater isolation in the 1950′s–we were far more likely to be surrounded by people who shared our thoughts and values.
i. So the decision was made with greater ease and less need for change.
ii. In fact, there were times that the decision was simple and uncomplicated–it involved little more than your desire.
b. We don’t live in isolation today–we live right in the middle of the real world at home, at school, and on the job.
i. And it is a evil, complicated, real world.
ii. And the decision to be a Christian is not simple; it commonly involves much more than a simple personal desire.
3. The decision is not as simply made today, but there is more spiritual opportunity than has ever existed.
a. The Bible translated in ways that we can study and understand has never been more accessible to any generation.
b. Written literature that exists to increase our understanding of Christian living and Christian commitment has never been more extensive.
c. The applications of spiritual principles to the real problems of life have never been more abundant.
d. We have extensive information available to us in audio and video form.
e. What is available to us through computer technology is dumbfounding.
f. It has never been easier for any people anywhere in the world in any age to learn, understand, and apply the messages of Jesus Christ.
4. Let me verify those truths in a very practical way.
a. How many times have you said or heard someone say, “I wish I had know that 40 years ago!”
b. I would hesitate to guess how many times I have heard that statement.
c. The truth is this: we did not know or understand most of that information 40 years ago.
B. This incredible opportunity that surrounds us, this opportunity that we take for granted, has also created a illusion.
1. The illusion is that we can control evil.
2. We not only think that we can control evil in our society, but we also think that we can exercise control over evil virtually anywhere in the world.
3. We have become so comfortable with the conclusion that evil can be controlled that we are shocked when a situation occurs wherein we are powerless to control evil.
4. We have created a serious spiritual danger for ourselves.
a. We reason that if we have enough faith that we should be able to either defeat evil or control evil.
b. Thus, when a circumstance arises when we can neither defeat or control evil, it very easily becomes a faith issue.
c. We conclude that the reason evil is not defeated is because our faith is defective.
II. I want you to consider some key examples from the Bible that suggest two things: (1) evil is real and powerful and (2) people cannot control evil even when they have great faith.
A. Example number one: Joseph (Genesis 37,39-41)
1. Before Joseph was sold into slavery, he was a bratty, obnoxious teenager.
2. After Joseph was sold into slavery, he became a man who had an impressive value system and great faith.
3. Joseph learned very quickly that evil is real.
a. His brothers sold him into slavery.
b. As a slave, his owner’s wife tried to seduce him.
c. When he rejected her advances, she falsely accused him and framed him.
d. His owner believed the lies of his wife and threw Joseph in jail.
e. In jail his kindness and trustworthiness was forgotten.
f. Joseph lived for years suffering from horrible injustices because evil was real.
B. Example number two: Peter.
1. Peter was an outspoken, aggressive disciple.
a. Once he dared rebuke Jesus because he was convinced that Jesus had made a terrible mistake.
b. Once he declared that Moses and Elijah were equal in significance with Jesus.
c. Once he said nothing could cause him to desert Jesus.
d. Three times he declared to Jesus’ enemies that he had never met or known Jesus.
e. Years later after he had served as an apostle in the church for a long time, he made another very hurtful mistake–he refused to have fellowship with Christians who were not Jews.
f. Peter found out how real evil is.
C. Example three: Jesus, the only sinless person who ever lived.
1. Jesus never suffered any form of pain or hurt because of evil he had committed.
a. No suffering occurred in Jesus’ life as a consequence of ungodliness.
b. However, Jesus experienced enormous suffering.
c. Jesus suffered not because he was evil, but because evil was real.
2. In the course of his ministry he was verbally attacked, ridiculed, condemned, and subjected to numerous forms of injustice.
3. In the last 24 hours of his life:
a. He was betrayed.
b. He was abandoned by his best friends.
c. He was subjected to enormous humiliation and deliberate injustice.
d. He was innocent but convicted as though he were a criminal.
e. He was tortured.
f. He was executed in one of the most painful forms of death ever invented.
4. All of that happened to God’s own Son because evil is real.
D. Example four: Paul.
1. Before he became a Christian, Paul was a very religious, very sincere, very mistaken, very violent man.
a. Paul was a powerful instrument of evil, and evil used him effectively.
b. However, Paul did not have the slightest idea that evil was using him–he was totally convinced that he served God.
2. After Paul became a Christian, his life was a constant experience of suffering and imprisonment.
3. Listen to Paul’s own list of things that happened to him as a Christian (2 Corinthians 11:23-28).
a. Numerous times he was whipped, and no one bothered to count the number of lashes he received.
b. Often he was close to dying.
c. Five times the Jews beat him with 39 lashes, the recognized legal limit.
d. Three times he was beaten with rods.
e. Once he was stoned.
f. Three times he was shipwrecked, and one of those times he spend a day and a night on board the wrecked ship.
g. He listed 8 different forms of danger that threatened to kill him.
h. He talked about the physical sufferings produced by hunger, thirst, cold, and exposure.
i. He mentioned the stress and struggles he endured from churches.
4. And we can add to that list at least three times that he was in jail or prison, and the fact that he was executed.
5. Paul knew that evil was real.
III. I want to share something that you may disagree with; as I have often told you, it is perfectly okay for you to disagree with me.
A. Something increasingly distresses me in the church.
1. It distresses me that Christians spend so much time, energy, and effort fighting each other because we disagree.
2. It distresses me that we devote so much time and energy fighting other people who are seeking to do good, often good that we have never tried to do.
3. It distresses me that use so little effort, energy, and time to fighting evil.
4. At times it seems that we are more likely to oppose good than we are to oppose evil.
B. As I said last Sunday evening, God works in an astounding number of ways in our world, and many are ways that we never recognize, never know.
1. God surely uses hundreds of thousands of different people and hundreds of thousands of different ways to work His countless purposes in this world.
2. I certainly do not expect everyone to have my focus or my objectives–that could not accomplish all of God’s objectives.
3. But this is where I am.
a. It is the objective of many Christians to develop the means and approaches to control evil in our society, and I certainly believe God can and does use Christians who have that objective.
b. My passion, my desire is not focused in the mission to control evil.
i. My passion is to reach out to the people who are attracted to evil–in and out of the church.
ii. My passion is to use Jesus to rescue people who have been trapped in evil–in and out of the church.
c. My passion focuses on deliverance in Jesus Christ, not on the control of evil.
4. Whenever any congregation develops into a godly spiritual family that seeks to rescue people from the reality of evil, I believe that God will use that congregation powerfully.
a. When we redirect our energies away from fighting among ourselves and fighting those who seek to do good, and direct those energies to fighting the reality of evil, God will use us more powerfully than we have ever been used.
b. We will help Christ rescue more lives than we have ever helped rescue.
c. And we ourselves will more be alive in Jesus Christ than we ever have been.

It has never been necessary for godly people to control evil for God to use them powerfully. Joseph, Peter, Jesus, and Paul powerfully testify that this is true.

If your focus is to let Christ live in you, don’t think that there is something wrong with your faith or that God has failed when you find you cannot control evil. God will accomplish His intended purposes through you if you surrender to Him. Evil can never destroy your soul if you are alive in Christ. Will you come to the Savior?

Used with permission from David Chadwell, West-Ark Church of Christ

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The other said, That depends on the danger. Many times your hands can eliminate the danger faster than your legs can take you away from the danger.

The argument was on. Well, if you want to argue in that way, the ears must hear the danger before the hands can act.

That may be true, but the eyes can see the danger much faster than the ears can hear it.
The third man jumped into the argument. Both of you are talking about external factors. Internal factors are much more important. The brain is absolutely essential in all this. It tells the legs or the hands what to do. It interprets what the ears hear and the eyes see.

That is true, but if there are no muscles to respond to the brain’s orders, nothing would happen. The brain can interpret all it wants to interpret and give all the orders it wants to give. But if the muscles do not respond to the brain, the brain will be killed.

Well, let’s get real here. The muscles cannot do anything without the bones. Muscles are useless unless they have bones. The brain can give the orders and the muscle can receive the message, but if there are no bones, nothing happens The most that the muscles can do without bones is jerk.

Does that remind you of some of the discussions that Christians have? Just ask a talkative Bible class that has Christians with definite opinions, What is the most essential thing we must do to escape hell? Or, What is the most necessary thing we must do to be saved? Or, What is the most critical thing that must occur for the church to be Christ’s church? I predict that you will hear a very similar discussion.

I. This situation is not a frivolous matter; it places the spotlight on Christian thinking and Christian focus.
A. We seem to be obsessed with trying to decide what is the most important.
1. Some declare that knowing the word is the most essential thing that should be stressed.
2. Some declare that faith is the most essential thing that should be stressed.
3. Some declare that love is the most essential thing that should be stressed.
4. Some declare that obedience is the most essential thing that should be stressed.
5. Some declare that service is the most essential thing that should be stressed.
6. And everyone says that we do not have the proper balance in the things that are being stressed.
B. So what is the most essential?
1. Knowledge?
2. Faith?
3. Love?
4. Obedience?
5. Service?
C. Can you be spiritually alive and spiritually health without any one of those?
1. Can you have spiritual strength and spiritual health if you have knowledge without faith, emotion, or service?
2. Or if you have faith without knowledge, emotion, and service?
3. Or if you have emotion without knowledge, faith, and service?
4. Or if you have service without emotion, faith, and knowledge?
D. If you have two, do you need not be concerned about the other two, or if three do you need not be concerned about the other one?
E. Could I ask you to give thought to something ?
1. Don’t think about this for just a few minutes tonight as we discuss it.
2. Put it in your thoughts to chew on for a while.
3. Have you ever considered that this discussion about what is most important is our discussion, not the New Testament’s discussion?
a. Can you think of a scripture, placed in its proper context, when a New Testament writer says, “The most important thing in being a Christian is…”
b. Have you ever noticed that is discussion focusing on our debate, our concerns, our chosen emphasis?
4. Any religious group who is concerned about being correct biblically, who accepts scripture as God’s word and God’s authority, is vulnerable to this kind of thinking.
a. Concern for being biblical means that we want to place our emphasis where the New Testament places it.
b. That means that we must decide where the emphasis is placed.
c. Therein is the trap–we decide.
d. It is too easy to focus on an emphasis that addresses our personal concerns or problems created by our personal concerns.
II. Believe it or not, this is a very old problem, a problem that existed before Christianity existed.
A. The Pharisees were dedicated restorationists who had two basic goals.
1. They wanted to restore national and spiritual dependence on Old Testament scripture with a proper emphasis on the law of Moses.
2. They wanted to spiritually return the Jewish people to the “old paths”–literally their words.
B. In the process they were very concerned with placing the greatest emphasis on the most important commands.
1. One of the significant discussions and debates that they continued among themselves and with others was this: “What is the most important commandment?”
2. They recognized that all of God’s commands were not of equal importance.
a. Some of God’s commands took priority over other of God’s commands.
b. It was a practical concern: when obedience to God would result in contradictory actions, which command should be obeyed?
3. Let me give you an example of a situation that places God’s commands in conflict.
a. A neighbor runs into your house to escape some men who are trying to kill him. Realizing the danger, you hide him.
b. Before you can telephone 911, the men trying to kill him are at your door asking if you have seen him.
c. How many Christian commands or teachings do you confront in this situation?
i. Christians tell the truth; they do not lie.
ii. Christians are honest.
iii. Christians love their neighbors as they love themselves.
iv. Christians are committed to doing good.
d. Do you tell the men that he is not there and that you have not seen him, or do you tell them the truth and let them carry him away?
4. The Pharisees were concerned about addressing this kind of conflict, so they debated the priority of commandments.
C. So one of the questions that they asked Jesus was, “What is the greatest commandment?”
1. Have you ever considered the fact that Jesus never answered that question with giving the two greatest commandments?
a. They never asked him for number one and number two.
b. He never answered without giving them number one and number two.
c. That was no accident–number one would be abused and misapplied, if they did not accept number two.
2. What was Jesus’ answer?
Matthew 22:37-40 And He said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two comandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)
a. The first commandment:
i. Love God with all your heart–all your emotions.
ii. Love God with all your life.
iii. Love God with all your knowledge and understanding.
iv. The first thing you must do is love God, but love for God must be rooted in all your emotions, all your life, and all your knowledge and understanding.
b. The second commandment:
i. You must love people like you love your own self.
ii. If love for people is based in the same context that love of God is based (and it is), you love people with your emotions, with your life, and with your knowledge and understanding.
3. Pay careful attention to the balance, and the balance obviously is there because Jesus never separated these two commandments.
a. You cannot use loving God to justify not loving people.
b. If you do not love people, your love for God becomes meaningless.
D. The Pharisees’ concern for restoring the place of scripture in Israel was a correct, good concern.
1. Their concern to return people to the “old paths” was a correct, good concern.
2. However, in the pursuit of correct, good concerns they misplaced their emphasis.
3. Because of their misplaced emphasis they became the most formidable enemy of God’s own son while he was on earth.
4. I find that a terrifying understanding!
5. If we are not careful, we can become so concerned about restoring the church and doctrine that we become blind to the Savior.
III. So, which is the most important: knowledge, faith, service, or emotion?
A. May I make an observation and ask a question.
1. My observation: perhaps the answer to that question has much to do with whether you are running from hell or you are running toward God.
2. My question: which one of them is unimportant?
B. It is apparent to me that:
1. An ignorant Christian is easily deceived and led away from Christ.
2. A faithless Christian trusts himself and his deeds and is without a Savior.
3. An inactive Christian renders both his knowledge and faith useless.
4. An emotionless Christians goes through the motions, but has no true relationship with God.

Can I be spiritually alive without knowledge of scripture? Or without faith in the promises and power of Jesus Christ? Or without ministering to people as I serve God’s purposes? Or without genuine emotion for God, Christ, people, and God’s eternal objectives?

Perhaps the question is, “What is my concept of being spiritually alive?

Ephesians 4:11-13 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)

Do you need to flee from the wrath of God? Have you allowed Him to remove your sins by immersion into Christ? We want to encourage you to run toward God.

Used with permission from David Chadwell, West-Ark Church of Christ

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Could you list all the ways that you and your brothers and sisters were alike? Could you list all the ways that you and your brothers and sisters are different? Sure you can. In fact, in most instances, it would be easier to list all the differences than to list all the ways that you were alike as children. With some brothers or sisters, you would declare that you were completely different–there were no ways in which you were alike.

When all of you became adults, did all those differences disappear? Did all of you, as adult brothers and sisters, become exactly alike? As adults, some similar characteristics may have developed, but your differences remained, and always will remain. Each of your brothers and sisters are distinct persons with a personal package that includes a unique personality and distinctive abilities.

I. When a person becomes a Christian, that person establishes a relationship with God.
A. Scripture verifies a relationship comes into existence by using specific concepts.
1. A believing, penitent person’s baptism into Christ is a spiritual birth (John 3:3; 1 Peter 1:22,23; Galatians 3:26,27).
2. After baptism, the person is said to be a spiritual infant (1 Peter 2:1-3).
3. If that infant does not spiritually grow, serious spiritual problems develop (1 Corinthians 3:1-5).
4. The person is expected to continue the growth process until he/she reaches maturity (Ephesians 4;11-16).
5. All this growth occurs within the context of a spiritual family.
a. God is the Father.
b. Jesus Christ is the oldest brother.
c. Christians are brothers and sisters to each other.
B. Do you think all spiritual brothers and sisters are spiritually just alike?
1. Because we all are born into the same spiritual family, do you think we will have identical spiritual personalities?
2. Do you think all of us spiritually will look like and act like identical twins?
3. Do you think all of us will have identical strengths and abilities?
4. If, as baptized believers in Christ, we differ spiritually in many ways, does that mean we are not in the family?
C. There are two defining realities at work in every person who is a Christian, each person who is in God’s family.
1. The first defining reality is spiritual growth.
a. We do not all begin our spiritual growth at the same point of spiritual development.
i. Just as some infants physically are born with serious problems, some Christians are spiritually born with serious problems.
ii. The birth occurred, he or she is God’s child, and it is unthinkable that we should abandon this spiritual infant, but the problems are real.
iii. Spiritual growth and development does not begin at the same point for all of us; it does not occur at the same rate for all of us.
b. The rate of spiritual growth and the level of spiritual maturity is unique to the spiritual potential of the individual.
i. Ability factors and potential factors differ in us as physical individuals.
ii. Ability factors and potential factors differ in us as spiritual individuals.
2. The second defining reality are spiritual abilities, or, as scripture refers to them, spiritual gifts.
a. We understand that an ability is a gift that we were born with.
i. The potential of that ability was within us at birth.
ii. That ability will become useful and significant in a person’s life only if he or she develops it.
iii. But you only can develop the ability that you have, and that ability is a gift of birth.
iv. I would love to be able to express myself through music–but I was not born with the voice, the ear, nor the aptitude; I don’t possess that ability.
b. The same thing is true spiritually–spiritual abilities are potentials that we have when we are spiritually born.
i. That spiritual ability will only become useful and significant in a Christian’s life if he or she develops it.
ii. But the Christian can only develop the ability he or she has, and that ability is a gift of spiritual birth.
iii. Spiritually, we certainly were not all born with the same abilities.
c. Consider Romans 12:6-8–Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness. (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)
i. We have different gifts.
ii. God’s grace made those gifts possible.
iii. Prophecy, a form of teaching, is a gift.
iv. Teaching is a gift.
v. The ability to encourage (exhort) is a gift.
vi. Generosity is a gift.
vii. Leadership ability is a gift.
viii. The ability to use mercy to bring healing and hope is a gift.
ix. The Christian who possesses the gift can utilize the gift only if he develops it.
x. Paul’s point: develop the spiritual ability God gave you and use it effectively for God’s purposes.
xi. Focus on what you are able to do, develop it, and do it well.
3. We need an honest understanding of spiritual ability.
a. Some Christians may have many spiritual abilities, some Christians may have a few, and some Christians may have only one.
b. Christians must identify and avoid two false conclusions:
i. False conclusion # 1: “If I can do it, any Christian can do it.”
ii. False conclusion # 2: “Every Christian must work or serve in this specific way.”
iii. Both of those false conclusions wrongly assume that every Christian possesses the same specific spiritual abilities.
c. God knows what each one of us is capable of doing and being, and what is occurring in each of our lives spiritually.
i. I cannot see into your heart, mind, and life.
ii. It is impossible for me to know what is occurring in you.
iii. God sees what is happening in everyone of us; He and He alone knows our spiritual abilities and how we are using them.
4. Expectations based on comparing sons or daughters to each other are horribly unjust in a physical family; they are equally unjust in God’s family.
II. Every time I stand before you to teach or preach I am overwhelmed by the variety of spiritual needs that exist in our assembly.
A. Regardless of how few or how many are present, it is quite possible that no two persons here are spiritually identical or in identical spiritual places.
1. Some of you are battling enormous pain, and your struggle with that pain demands your total spiritual focus as you trust God for daily strength.
2. Some of you wage war every day with something that enslaved your life before you were born into God’s family.
a. It may be an attitude; it may be a behavior pattern; it may be a moral issue; it may be an addiction.
b. But each day you spiritually exist by trusting God’s strength, trusting God’s forgiveness, and continuing the war.
3. Some of you must focus your daily life on allowing God to help you escape the past.
a. Through no choice or fault of yours, you were the victim of a terrible experience years ago.
b. The wound was deep, and the scar is ever present.
c. Maybe no one knows what happened to you.
d. But it powerfully affected your thinking, your emotions, and your life, and you lean on God every day as you struggle with it.
4. Some of you rely on God to fight fear every day.
a. There are days that the fear seems to be bigger than you, bigger than life.
b. Each day it is a challenge: don’t let fear become bigger than God.
c. At times that fear terribly depresses you, but you are determined in your faith not to give the fear victory.
5. Some of you are really growing and developing spiritually, and you are hungry to grow faster than ever.
a. You are starved for the insights and encouragement that will help you grow faster.
b. You really want to be fed.
6. Some of you are filled with dreams and visions of what can be done for Christ and his kingdom (his rule in the hearts and minds of people).
a. You want those dreams to come true.
b. You are consumed with a desire to help people and touch lives.
c. Every day you can see how those dreams could become reality.
7. Some of you are very gifted, goal oriented, “make it happen” Christians.
a. The focus of your life is to “make things happen” for Jesus in our community and in our world.
b. Bible figures like Peter and Paul inspire you and fill you with the flames of spiritual ambition.
B. And every week my challenge is to try to say and teach things that will be meaningful and helpful to all of you.
1. I thank God that you give me that opportunity, and I accept it very seriously.
2. As I accept this opportunity each week, I do so with this awareness.
a. Everyone of us have different spiritual growth patterns.
b. Everyone of us have different spiritual gifts or abilities.
c. And God’s grace is working in each of our lives, just as our love as parents is working in each of our children’s lives.

So may I give you a challenge? Do all within your ability to encourage others as we grow and develop at different rates in different ways. See every Christian’s ability for what it is–a gift from God valued by God. Measure no other person’s gift by your gifts. No matter where another Christian is in his or her spiritual development, extend your hand of encouragement with your heart of love.

Don’t ever fail to encourage. Don’t ever fail to lift from the heart.
I am so happy we have a God. I am so happy we have a Savior.

God knows everything that has ever happened in my life. He knows my every weakness. He still loves me in spite of knowing every bad thing about me.

God says, “I take you like you are, where you are, because I have somewhere to take you.”
God is willing to risk your making mistakes. Sometimes we are so afraid of ourselves that we are afraid of dealing with life. God can use any ability you have for eternal purposes.

Will you believe the promises He has given you?

Will you allow Him to rebuild you?

Used with permission from David Chadwell, West-Ark Church of Christ

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We find elders as the friends of the prophets (2 Kgs 6:32; as the advisers of kings (1 Kgs 20:8; 21:11); as the colleagues of the princes in the administration of the affairs of the nation (Ezra 10:8). Every village and city had its elders. They met at the gate of the city and dispensed justice to the people (Deut 25:7). Elders formed a large segment of the Sanhedrin, the supreme court of the Jews, and are regularly mentioned along with the chief priests, scribes and Pharisees. In the vision of John’s revelation in the heavenly places there are 24 elders around the throne of God. Elders are woven into the very tapestry of Judaism, both in her civil and religious affairs.

The Christian Eldership! “To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder…” (1). An elder filled the basic office or servant position of the NT church. Paul’s custom was to ordain elders in every city and in every church established. During his first missionary journey, elders were ordained in every church (Acts 14:23). Titus is even left in Crete to ordain elders in every city (Titus 1:5). The elders seem to have had charge of the financial administration of the church, for it is to them that Paul and Barnabas delivered the funds sent to relieve the poor of Jerusalem (11:30). We find elders taking a leading part in the decisions of the Council of Jerusalem at which it was decided to fling open the doors of the kingdom of God to Gentiles. So much was this the case that at the Council the elders and the apostles are spoken of together as the chief authorities of the church (15:2). When Paul came on his last visit to Jerusalem, it was to the elders he reported, and it was the elders who suggested the course of actions to be followed (21:18ff).

One of the most moving passages in the NT is Paul’s goodbye address to the elders of Ephesus. We find there that the elders were the oversees of the flock and defenders of the faith (20:28,29). We learn from James that the elders had a healing ministry in the church through prayers and the anointing of oil (5:14). From the pastoral letters we learn that elders were rulers and teachers and by that time were also paid officials of the church (1 Tim 5:17). When a brother in Christ enters the eldership, no small honor is conferred upon him, for he is entering into the oldest religious position in the world, a functionary office whose history can be traced through Christianity and Judaism for four thousand years. And when a man enters the eldership, he takes on a grave responsibility, for he has been ordained as a shepherd of the flock of God and a defender of the faith. God bless our elders.

Perils & Privileges! “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock” (2,3). With great privilege comes enormous responsibility. The elder is to accept the service extended to him willingly, not because he has been forced into it by coercion. This doesn’t mean someone runs for the office. There is a sense in which it is by compulsion that a man accepts office and enters upon his Christian service or ministry as a shepherd of God’s household. “Necessity,” said Paul, “is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel of God” (1 Cor 9:16). Paul felt the tug and pressure of responsibility. He also said, “The love of God constrains me” (2 Cor 5:14). This can be said of elders today. They serve out of love that constrains them.

Money & Power! “Not greedy for money…not lording it over…” (2,3). It might be easy to see this position as one to gain somehow financially or to have some power over others. There are always those who will accuse others of their intent. Paul clearly declared that he coveted no man’s goods; that he worked with his hands to meet his own needs so he wouldn’t be a burden (Acts 20:33; 1 Thess 2:9; 1 Cor 9:12; 2 Cor 12:14). Paul mentions this so often as if it counter the charges that were made of others and might unfairly be made of him as an apostle. No brother should ever dare to accept an office of elder for what he can get out of it. Elders aren’t petty lord’s, but examples to follow. Milton’s Satan thought it “better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven.” Shakespeare spoke of men, “proud men, dressed in little brief authority, playing such fantastic tricks before high heaven as would make the angels weep.”

Any man who enters this office with the desire for pre-eminence over others, with the notion of exercising authority, with the idea of becoming sort of a little pope, has got his whole point of view upside down. Jesus spoke to this: “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mk 10:42-44).

An Elder to Fellow Elders! “A witness of Christ’s sufferings…” (1). Peter has the heart of an elder. He doesn’t speak down to them, but alongside them. He writes as one who has a personal memory of the sufferings of Christ. His poignant awareness came from personal experience with the Master. One of the most tragic sentences in the NT is: “And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter…and Peter went out and wept bitterly” (Lk 22:61,62). Perhaps some of us need to go out and weep bitterly over our own tragic decisions. In that look Peter saw the suffering of the heart of a leader whose followers had failed him in the hour of his greatest and bitterest need. Surely Peter knew of the Lord’s suffering that comes to Christ when men deny him; and that is precisely why he was so eager that his people be strong and loyal and faithful in service. Peter even describes himself as a sharer in the glory and he surely could speak from firsthand experience since he was at the transfiguration, and as Luke puts it, “When they awoke they behold his glory” (Lk 9:32). Jesus had promised his disciples a share in the splendor when the Son of Man should “come to sit on the throne of his glory” (Mt 19:28). Peter understood well the call of the Chief Shepherd for it was Peter who was asked by the Lord three times, “Do you love me” (Jn 21:15-17). The reward of love was the appointment as a shepherd. We have no apostles today. But we have shepherds who smell like sheep because they love and tend the flock.

Peter denied Jesus on three occasion. What a man of emotional contradictions—ready to die for his Lord one moment and swearing no association with him the next. Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love me?” Three times he asks this of Peter. Was it a reminder of the cock crowing after the apostle’s thrice denials? Perhaps. And as each time Peter answered in the affirmative, Jesus simply said, “Feed my sheep.” Three times Jesus said, “Feed my sheep?” Why? Because that is what shepherds do. That is what elders do.

Used with permission from Steven Clark Goad, Blythe Church of Christ

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Used with permission from David Chadwell, West-Ark Church of Christ

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But what is the “price” that Jesus had in mind? The New Testament repeatedly emphasizes that (1) we are saved by grace through faith; (2) we are not saved on the basis of human deeds; (3) we cannot earn our salvation; and (4) we cannot place God in debt to us. All that being true, what is this “price”?

Tonight let Jesus give us some important insights into the “price” by studying Luke 14. I encourage you to take your Bibles and follow with me as we study.

I. Understanding the situation is important.
A. Jesus was invited into the home of one of Israel’s prominent religious leaders.
1. The man was a leading Pharisee–a Pharisee who was a member of the Sanhedrin.
a. If the Sanhedrin was the Jerusalem Sanhedrin, the man was a nationally recognized scholar who was a member of their highest court.
b. This man invited Jesus and some guests into his home to eat.
c. It was an honor to be invited to have a meal in this man’s home.
2. It was a Sabbath day–the day that Jews honored God by not working.
a. The Pharisees strictly honored the Sabbath by strictly doing nothing that could be considered work.
b. All human acts of work were divided into thirty-nine different categories.
c. Ask a Pharisee about any human act, and he would tell you if that act was an act of work that would violate the Sabbath.
B. Carefully note two facts.
1. First, note that Jesus accepted the invitation.
a. Jesus associated with all kinds of people and went into the homes and ate with all kinds of people.
b. He was so willing to associate and eat with anyone that he was criticized by the Pharisees because he associated with sinners and tax collectors.
c. Luke 5:29,30 records the occasion when Jesus attended a huge reception for tax collectors in Levi’s house–tax collectors were on the bottom of Jewish society because they had an earned reputation of dishonesty and greed.
d. In Luke 7:36-50 and in Luke 14:1-24 Jesus had meals in the homes of Pharisees, and this Pharisee was at the top of approved, religious society.
e. Jesus associated with everybody.
2. Second, note that Jesus had a teaching for everybody.
a. Everybody needed to learn something.
b. Depending on what they needed to learn, Jesus taught different people different lessons.
II. Carefully consider the lessons Jesus taught different people who were in the Pharisee’s home.
A. First, Jesus taught a lesson to the Pharisee who invited him and to the guests who were experts in the teachings of the Old Testament.
1. One of the guests was a diseased person; he visibly had signs of a person suffering from heart, kidney, or liver disease.
2. The Pharisees classified healing on the Sabbath day to be an act of work if the person healed was not dying that day.
3. Jesus did not ask them if healing was an act of work.
4. Jesus asked them, “Does it violate the law of Moses to heal someone on the Sabbath day?”
a. They did not answer his question.
b. So Jesus healed the sick man.
5. Then Jesus asked them, “If you had an animal that fell into a well on the Sabbath, would you pull it out of the well?” Their laws permitted them to do that.
B. Second, Jesus had a lesson for the invited guests.
1. Your seat at the meal indicated your importance, your social significance.
2. Each guest was busy trying to determine where he would sit.
3. They wanted the most honorable, privileged seat they could have.
4. Jesus taught them by using a parable.
a. ”When you are invited to a wedding feast, don’t take the most important seat.”
b. ”If you do, someone more distinguished than you will arrive, and you will be asked to move.”
c. ”You will be embarrassed in two ways: you will be disgraced in front of everyone, and the only seat available will be the most unimportant place at the feast.”
d. ”Sit down at the most unimportant seat, then you will be asked to move to a more important seat and be honored before everyone.”
e. ”The person who exalts himself will be humbled; the person who humbles himself will be exalted.”
C. Third, Jesus had a personal lesson for the Pharisee who was his host.
1. ”The next time you invite guests into your home for a meal, do not invite friends, relatives, or wealthy neighbors.”
2. ”They will repay you by later inviting you to pay you back.”
3. ”Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind–invite people who need your kindness and cannot repay you.”
4. ”If you do that, God will repay your deeds when the righteous are resurrected.”
5. Jesus said, “Instead of playing the social game of “who is who,” concentrate on helping people who need your help.”
D. One of the guests who heard Jesus’ statement said, “Blessed is everyone who eats bread in God’s kingdom.”
1. There were things in that statement that they understood that you and I would not see.
a. A very popular idea was that God’s kingdom would be an earthly kingdom.
b. A common symbol of the resurrection of the righteous was the banquet–in the same way that we use the idea of heaven they used the idea of the feast.
2. I don’t know what the guest was trying to do–he may have made that comment to break the tension or to ease the awkwardness of the moment.
3. Jesus responded by giving another parable about the feast , the Pharisees’ common concept of heaven.
a. In the parable a wealthy man prepared an enormous, expensive feast.
b. When the food was ready [remember slaughtering, preparing, and cooking took a long time in those days], the man sent a slave to tell all the invited guest to come.
c. The guests made excuses and refused to come.
d. The man was angry, and told the slave to go into the streets of the city and invite anyone he saw–including the poor, crippled, blind, and lame.
e. The slave did, returned, and told him that there was still room for more people at the feast.
f. The man said, “Go out into the countryside and invite anyone and everyone–my house will be filled for this feast.”
g. ”None of the guests that I invited will eat this meal.”
4. Jesus point: those who are at God’s feast truly will be blessed, but they will not be the people that you expect to be there.
III. When Jesus left the Pharisee’s home, the enormous crowd waiting on him followed him.
A. He turned to the crowd and said, “If you want to be my disciple, there are some things you need to understand.”
1. ”Your commitment to me must be more important than your family.”
2. ”You must not be ashamed to carry your cross and follow me.”
3. ”Just like a king that declares war, or a man who begins to build a castle, you need to count the cost before you begin.”
4. ”If you are to be salt, you must keep your saltiness–or you are not useful.”
B. There are sermons upon sermons in these statements.
1. He is not teaching that people who follow him must neglect their families to be faithful.
a. The New Testament is quite clear: Christians have special responsibilities in family relationships; denying those responsibilities make the Christian worse than a person who does not even believe in Jesus Christ.
b. He is teaching that our top priority in life is following Jesus.
2. The cross was a horrible symbol of shame and disgrace in that time.
a. Jesus said they must realize that following him would not lead them to earthly prestige and honor, but to public shame and disgrace.
b. Their desire to be his disciples was a commitment that was not afraid of shame or disgrace.
3. The salt statement basically declared that if they were not willing to be an influence for him, they were of no value to him.
4. Considering these realities, they needed to consider the cost of following Jesus and know that they were willing to pay that price.
IV. I want you to see something that is extremely important in this chapter.
A. This is not just a collection of parables and situations that were just thrown together for no reason at all.
1. Luke had a reason for placing these things together.
2. Notice that no one had it “all figured out” and had nothing to learn.
a. The Pharisee host had something to learn.
b. The experts in scripture had something to learn.
c. The guests had something to learn.
d. The “tension breaker” guest had something to learn.
e. The people waiting to follow him had something to learn.
f. It is obvious that the tax collectors and sinners in chapter 15 had something to learn.
3. Please note that they had different lessons to learn.
B. No one has all the answers, no one has it all “figured out,” no one has come to the perfect knowledge of all the right conclusions.
1. The roots that spiritually nourish and develop a Christian are not developed in a system that binds religious rules and requirements.
2. The roots that spiritually nourish and develop a Christian are developed by having a heart and mind that constantly grow toward the mind and heart of Christ.
3. There certainly are commands to be obeyed.
4. There certainly are things that are required of the Christian.
5. But maturing as a Christian is not as simple as listing the commands and requirements and doing them.
C. Let me illustrate the point in this way.
1. If Jesus visited with us, he would do the same thing with us that he did in the Pharisee’s home.
2. He would say to me, “David, you need to think about and understand this.”
3. He would say to the elders, “Men, you need to understand this.”
4. He would say to each group in this congregation, “What you need to understand is this.”
5. Truthfully, he would say to each individually, “This is the lesson you need to understand.”
6. And the lessons would not be the same for each of us.

Why? Because each Christian is growing in mind and heart closer to the mind and heart of Jesus, closer to the mind and heart of God. None of us, on this earth, will ever develop the mind and heart of Jesus and of God.

That is the “price.” We learn. We understand. We change. We develop. We mature. We become more and more Christ-like. And that is hard. That is the most difficult, expensive price that we can pay to belong to Christ. But that is the basic price of following Jesus.

As Christians, we must never be afraid to grow spiritually. We must never be afraid to learn anything scripture teaches us. We must never be afraid to understand anything that we did not understand in the past. As long as Christ and the Bible is the teacher, we must not be afraid.
As we grow, we are always leaving good growth for better growth.

Used with permission from David Chadwell, West-Ark Church of Christ

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Continue to pretend with me. After he leaves you, your close friend does get into trouble because he helped some people just like you. The trouble is so serious that he winds up in jail. In fact, you are convinced that one of the reasons he is in trouble is because he helped you.

And there is nothing you can do to help him. He is too far from you for you to be of personal encouragement to him. You would have no influence on the people who put him in jail if your were with him.

Then one day you get a letter from him. In the letter he is concerned about you. He is genuinely concerned that you are discouraged because of his problems. He wants you to know as fact it is okay that he is experiencing problems. He knew from the beginning he would have problems because he cared about and helped people like you. He saw his situation as a price he paid for helping people like you. He saw his opposition as a God-given task the Lord gave him to help others understand God’s intentions in Jesus.

His concern: you might be discouraged by his problems. The thing that encourages him most in his situation is knowing you are okay. He does not want his troubles to discourage you!

I ask you to listen to or read with me in Ephesians 3:1-13 and see if you can hear all of this in this passage of scripture.

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you; that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. Therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory (Ephesians 3:1-13).
I. Paul the Christian personally cared deeply about the people he taught.
A. When he understood that Jesus was resurrected, was the Christ (the Jewish Messiah), he was amazed that God was so patient with him to the point of forgiving him and letting him participate in God’s mission.
1. Listen carefully to what Paul the Christian said about himself and Jesus’ response to him in 1 Timothy 1:12-16:
I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.
2. In what way was Paul the sinner ignorantly acting in unbelief? He completely misunderstood Jesus! He did not know who Jesus was!
3. Listen to what he said about himself before he became a Christian in Acts 26:9-12:
So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them. And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities. While so engaged as I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests . . .
B. The transformation in Paul from violent opponent of Jesus to encourager of those who sought Jesus is astounding!
1. In the scriptures we just read, we see how violently Paul opposed Jesus and those who believed Jesus was the Christ when Paul did not understand who Jesus was and regarded the reports of Jesus’ resurrection as lies.
2. Listen to the contrast Paul made from the violent man who did not know Jesus was the Christ to the encouraging man who understood the work of God in Jesus. This statement is made to the Christians at Thessalonica concerning Paul’s behavior when he was with them. It is recorded in 1 Thessalonians 2:5-12.
For we never came with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness—nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, even though as apostles of Christ we might have asserted our authority. But we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children. Having so fond an affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us. For you recall, brethren, our labor and hardship, how working night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and so is God, how devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers; just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children, so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.
3. The change occurred in Paul because he finally understood God was at work in Jesus.
a. The same kind of transformation will occur in you when you understand that God is at work in Jesus.
b. You will continue to change, to grow closer to God’s character all your life, as you deepen your understanding of God’s work in Jesus.
II. For the reason of spiritual growth and development, Paul never left new Christians alone to struggle to understand their new life in Jesus Christ.
A. Do you remember the charge the resurrected Jesus gave to the apostles in Matthew 28:18-20?
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
1. I ask you to note four things.
a. The first thing: God through Jesus’ resurrection gave him all spiritual authority, so the resurrected Jesus had the right to give the apostles this charge.
b. The second thing: The charge Jesus gave the apostles was a worldwide charge meant for all people, not for a single nation nor a group of nations.
c. The third thing: the core of the charge was to go worldwide and make disciples.
i. Disciples are the followers of a teacher.
ii. They were to understand that Jesus was the teacherl; they were to follow him.
d. The fourth thing: Their message about Jesus would produce two results.
i. The people who wanted to follow Jesus would be baptized (baptism then meant immersion).
ii. The people who wanted to follow Jesus would observe Jesus’ teachings, his instructions on how to live, his commandments.
iii. These people would not prove they belonged to Jesus just by being baptized, but they would change the way they lived by following Jesus’ teachings.
e. Today, it is essential to teach people to be Jesus’ disciples, to teach people to allow Jesus’ teachings and values to determine how they live.
B. Paul cared greatly about the people he converted to Jesus Christ, and he did not leave them to struggle on their own to discover how to be disciples.
1. Sometimes persecution or other obstacles prevented Paul personally from remaining and being of assistance to people newly converted to Christ.
2. When that occurred, when Paul attracted so much opposition he was forced to leave, he would either leave part of his team to teach the converts, or he would send someone to check on them.
3. Often, that person was Timothy.
a. Listen to Acts 17:15, 16–
Now those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens; and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they left. Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols.
i. Paul was by himself in Athens.
ii. He was by himself because people who strongly opposed Jesus Christ came to Berea because Paul was teaching there.
iii. The new converts perceived Paul’s life was in jeopardy, so they escorted him–for his own safety–to Athens.
iv. But Silas and Timothy stayed in Berea.
b. Listen to 1 Corinthians 4:17–
For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church.
c. Listen again to Philippians 2:19, 20–
But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition. For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare.
d. Listen still again to statements Paul made in 1 Thessalonians 3 –
Verses 1-3: Therefore when we could endure it no longer, we thought it best to be left behind at Athens alone, and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s fellow worker in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you as to your faith, so that no one would be disturbed by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we have been destined for this.
Verses 6-8: But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us good news of your faith and love, and that you always think kindly of us, longing to see us just as we also long to see you, for this reason, brethren, in all our distress and affliction we were comforted about you through your faith; for now we really live, if you stand firm in the Lord.
e. To this same person, Paul wrote these instructions and encouragement in 2 Timothy 2:24-26:
The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.
4. It is not enough for a person to be baptized into Jesus Christ.
a. As important as that is, Jesus said it is not enough.
b. The baptized person must dedicate himself or herself to living as Jesus’ disciple by learning his values and teachings.
III. I want to end by directing your attention to today’s text we read at the beginning of this lesson, Ephesians 3:1-13.
A. First, I want to note how deeply Paul cared about these people.
1. Paul was Jewish by birth, and the people to whom he wrote were not Jewish by birth.
a. In Paul’s lifetime, and long before, that mattered a lot.
b. It mattered so much that typically devout Jews had only necessary interaction with non-Jews (gentiles).
c. Devout Jews worshipped the living God; gentiles generally worshipped idols or believed in nothing.
d. The lifestyle of Jews and the lifestyle of idol worshippers were quite different.
2. Paul, who had been very Jewish (Galatians 1:13, 14), understood through God’s revelation that God wanted to save gentiles as much as He wanted to save Jews.
a. That was not a popular understanding to have!
b. People never like their religious beliefs to change, and Paul’s understanding would result in a huge change.
c. Paul’s understanding was not accepted by many Jews, and it was not accepted by many idol worshippers.
3. Paul said he knew his understanding by God’s revelation meant trouble for him.
a. However, that trouble was okay.
b. He looked upon his understanding as a stewardship from God–God was in charge of the understanding; Paul was only responsible for handling this understanding responsibly.
4. Paul labeled his understanding “the mystery of Christ.”
a. He said this mystery had not been previously understood by people.
b. He said this mystery of Christ meant through the gospel (of God working through Jesus Christ), God could make Christians of gentiles as certainly as He could make Christians of Jews.
c. Paul’s responsibility was to tell everyone of God’s grace expressed in the resurrected Jesus.
d. Paul wanted everyone to understand what God did in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
e. Paul wanted everyone to see how wise God was.
i. He wanted everyone to see this was God’s eternal purpose, not some afterthought of God, not some crazy idea of Paul’s.
ii. Paul’s responsibility was to handle this understanding boldly and confidently.
5. Therefore, Paul did not want them to be discouraged because he was being opposed and physically suffering.
a. He did not deny what he endured was the result of teaching them.
b. However, he wanted them to understand that their continuing in Jesus Christ glorified what God did in Jesus.
The issue is not “is Jesus Christ opposed.” That has always been true. The issue is “are you willing to be a disciple of Jesus Christ?” Do you understand what God did in Jesus’ death and resurrection? Are you willing to let Jesus teach you how to live?

Used with permission from David Chadwell, West-Ark Church of Christ

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Much of the time this “seeing” has to do with learning.  Maybe a person’s focus was so given to something else that the “something else” is all he or she saw–he or she was so focused on one thing that he or she failed to see anything else.

Often this “seeing” is inconvenient. Once he or she “sees” the obvious, he or she can no longer ignore it. This “new to me” information demands that the person must do some additional evaluation of a matter that was already “settled” in the person’s thinking or view. Reevaluation is downright inconvenient!

Use today’s text as an illustration.

Before Jesus’ ministry, the Jewish people had God, God’s purposes, God’s objectives, and God’s ways figured out and settled for generations. There was not anything to learn. They just needed to evaluate all that happened by what they knew from past generations. They basically knew what kind of Messiah (Christ) God would send. They knew the basic nature of the kingdom God would establish. They knew the kind of rule God would institute. They knew they were God’s people, and God cared about them more than God cared about other people. The key to doing God’s will was convincing all other people to become a part of them as a proselyte. If everyone became just like them, everything would be okay.

Then Jesus began his ministry among the Jewish people. He was not what they expected as a Messiah. He spoke of a kingdom that was downright strange to them. He spoke of God’s rule in ways they found weird. He indicated that God was interested in people who were not “rules-keeping Jews.” He indicated they were not God’s objective, but a God-intended vehicle to God’s objective.

Thus many, especially the prominent ones, did what they were supposed to do. They evaluated Jesus. In their opinion Jesus just did not measure up to their expectations. So many of them rejected Jesus.

Thus began one of the major problems in the first-century congregations. Jewish Christians has a hard time understanding how gentile Christians could be saved without circumcision, following the law God revealed through Moses, and adopting Jewish ways of doing things. The most written about conflict (in scripture) among Christians in first-century congregations was this: how can Jewish Christians and gentile Christians possibly be one in Jesus Christ?

Listen carefully to our reading (or read with me) and see if you hear that problem in Ephesians 2:11-22: Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands—remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

I. There are several things in this reading you should note.
A. First, gentile Christians (which most of us are now) were in a really difficult situation spiritually before they became Christians.
1. They were not a part of the Jewish nation.
2. God had no covenant (agreement) with them.
3. God made no direct promises to them.
4. They had nothing to serve as a basis of hope in God.
5. They were strictly on their own, and that was a horrible situation to be in.
B. Second, the situation radically changed when God sent Jesus to become the Christ through the sacrifice of his blood.
1. Through Christ, God brought even the gentiles near to Himself.
2. Through Christ, gentiles had as much right to come to God as did Jewish people.
3. Through Christ, God made (please take note of the past tense) Jews who would accept Jesus Christ and gentiles who would accept Jesus Christ one.
a. Through Christ, God made a peace between both groups.
b. Through Christ, God destroyed any advantage Jewish people had through their past relationship with God.
c. Through Christ, God made both Jews in Christ and gentiles in Christ one body of Christ’s.
d. Through Christ, God reconciled both groups.
4. The key for both Jewish Christians and gentile Christians was the same key–Jesus Christ.
a. Understanding what God did through Jesus Christ allows Jewish Christians to be at peace in God and allows gentile Christians (no matter who they were or what their background was) to be at peace in God.
b. Jesus Christ was the access to God for both groups.
5. What does all that mean?
a. It means any non-Jew who lived in idolatry in the past was a stranger and alien to God.
b. However, with what God did in Jesus Christ, gentiles in Christ can be citizens in God’s kingdom and a part of God’s family.
c. It meant that gentile Christians had the Jewish apostles and Jewish prophets as their faith foundation and Jesus Christ as their faith cornerstone in the same way Jewish Christians did.
d. It meant God no longer lived in temples constructed by people.
i. Not the Jewish temple in Jerusalem.
ii. Not idolatrous temples.
e. Why? Because God now lived in the people who belonged to Him.
i. People who belonged to Him–whether Jewish Christians or gentile Christians–were formed by God into His new temple.
ii. God’s new temple is formed out of people who belong to Him, not out of stones and construction materials.
iii. In the new kingdom, God lives in people instead of in places.
iv. God’s people–wherever they are and whatever they are doing–are to be God’s temple, God’s presence (see 1 Peter 1:5-10 as Peter used the same concept).
II. There are several indicators that suggest there could be radical transitions in the way “we do church” in the future.
A. There already has been far more transition than most of us realize.
1. At the end of World War II, the Church of Christ was basically a rural church.
a. The majority of its members were poor people living on family farms.
b. The church building was usually located on some land someone gave from his farm for the purpose of having a building.
c. There was no air conditioning, primitive heating (by today’s standards), graveled parking lots that were small, and few adult class rooms.
d. There was no printed material to study, few people with college degrees, few full time preachers, no libraries, no education wings, few classrooms for children, few education programs, and no plans to improve or add to those things.
2. A preacher who had been to college was looked upon with suspicion.
3. There were all kinds of divisions that had happened, were happening, or would soon happen.
a. Should you do anything another church was doing?
b. What was your conviction on the millenium?
c. What translation of the Bible could a person use?
d. Was it scriptural to serve communion at the beginning of service?
e. Should congregations cooperate in any enterprise or endeavor?
f. Should you use only one cup in communion?
g. Was how long you preached and how many scriptures you used a matter of faithfulness?
h. Could women wear pants?
i. Could women come to church without a hat?
j. Could women cut their hair?
k. Could men grow beards? Get tattoos? Wear “long hair?”
l. Could you buy groceries from a store that sold beer or eat in a restaurant that served alcoholic beverages?
m. These were just some of the questions vigorously debated–we always have been a people who sharply defended our positions.
4. Today we are mostly an urban church with rural roots–family farms have disappeared, and we continue to struggle as we address urban needs and realities.
5. Today most of us prefer well trained preachers, we want better facilities, we want education programs, we want libraries, we have to have paved parking lots, and we plan creature comforts to be a part of any expansion we do.
6. Things will change in the future.
a. For the past 30 years we have been able to economically afford expansions, programs, and buildings–what happens when we cannot afford such things? How will that change what we do and how we do it?
b. (This is not at all the suggestion that we “hoard” what we have in a useless attempt to address the uncertainties of the future!)
c. For years we converted people with at least an understanding of Christian basics.
i. Not so now or in the future!
ii. An increasing number of converts will come from either no spiritual background or a background in a non-Christian religion.
iii. Increasingly, our congregations will be composed of people with needs and challenges that we have not dealt with in the past.
iv. Increasingly, members will struggle with views that are new to us who have been a part of congregations for three generations.
7. Politically, people who were viewed as Christians occupied a position of “favored status” in the past.
a. That is changing fast!
b. How will we react when we deal with opposition instead of encouragement?

As increased needs and challenges become our new reality, passages such as the one we focused on today will become more relevant to us. We will increasingly understand that unity is a gift God gave us in the death of Jesus which we seek to preserve, not a status we seek to achieve through human accomplishment. Just as God in Christ made gentile Christians and Jewish Christians one, God can and will make us one. Not because we all conform–we never will!! Not because we all agree on one lifestyle–we never will! It will exist because of what God did for us in Jesus’ blood.

First-century Christians needed to understand that when Paul wrote. Christians still need to understand that.

Used with permission from David Chadwell, West-Ark Church of Christ

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In no relationship is it more obvious that relationship skills are declining than it is in marriage. Troubled marriages outnumber stable marriages. Grieving marriages outnumber joyful marriages. Marriages in conflict outnumber marriages that cooperate. Marriages that show contempt outnumber marriages that express respect. More marriages fall to separation or divorce than rise to genuine contentment.

In talking with people whose troubled relationship causes them sorrow and anxiety, I hear this statement. “I am just so confused. I really tried to make things right. I tried to make him (or her) happy. But the harder I try, the worse it gets. I just don’t know what he (or she) wants.”
“I just don’t know what he (or she) wants.” That statement is an indicator statement. It places a finger on the pulse of misunderstanding. One of the reasons we function so poorly in relationships is because of this: we have a poor understanding about what is to occur in relationships. We want good relationships. We just don’t understand what is necessary to build a relationship. We don’t know what is expected.

That is true in both relationships with people and relationship with God.

I. In your relationship with God, do you know what God wants?
A. Probably many of us are confused in our relationship with God because we don’t know what God wants in the relationship.
1. We don’t feel close to God–in fact, when we need to feel our closest to God is often when we feel very far from God.
2. We feel like God is rejecting us instead of accepting us–when we struggle spiritually is also when we feel that God is disgusted with us.
3. When we talk to God, we either feel very stiff or very habitual in our prayers.
a. As we pray, we feel like we need to apologize for bothering God.
b. While we are very sincere in what we say, we always seem to say the same things in the same way.
4. We appreciate our salvation and we want God to be pleased with us.
5. We just don’t feel that we are making God happy.
a. We try to learn all that we are supposed to do, but knowing those things and trying to do them does not make us feel close to God–not as a child should feel toward his loving Father.
b. We try to attend worship and study assemblies faithfully; sometimes we feel close to God in an assembly, but many times we don’t.
c. We try to do what we are instructed to do–be baptized, take communion, worship–but sometimes we feel so empty, like we are going through the motions because we are supposed to.
B. If I asked you to explain your understanding of what God wants, what would you tell me? Certainly, you could answer that question in many different ways.
1. You might explain that God wants us to obey Him and discuss what we are to do to obey God.
2. You might explain that God wants us to worship Him and discuss meaningful worship.
3. You might explain that God wants us to help and serve other people and explain how we are to help others.
4. You might explain that God wants us to teach other people about Christ and explain the importance of being evangelistic.
5. You might explain that God wants us to help the church grow and mature and stress ways that we can do that.
6. You might explain that God wants us to help those who are spiritually weak or struggling and explain how we can help each other with our burdens.
C. I want you to carefully consider Paul’s answer to that question; listen as Paul explains what God wants in Titus 2:11-14.
1. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, (La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation) 1996.)
2. Let’s set the context of that statement.
a. Paul is writing a letter to a young preacher named Titus.
b. It is likely that Titus began his work as a preacher and missionary under the direction and guidance of Paul.
c. When Paul sent this letter to Titus, Titus was working with some young congregations on the island of Crete.
d. People living on Crete had an earned reputation for being wicked people who honored evil–some evil things were considered to be good.
e. The island also had an influential Jewish community that created some serious problems for Christians.
f. These congregations needed some stable leadership from mature, godly men.
g. Paul left Titus at Crete to set that leadership in place.
h. Titus needed to give careful attention to himself as he did that–to set leadership in place in a congregation is an enormous responsibility.
i. So Paul reminded Titus to give careful consideration to the way that he related to and interacted with the people in those congregations.
ii. He had some special instructions for Christians who were young women, young men, or slaves.
II. Then, in Titus 2:11-14, Paul explained what God wants when He saves people.
A. First, Paul affirmed that God created the opportunity for all people to have salvation.
1. Every person has the opportunity to escape an evil life and begin a new life.
a. Anyone could be forgiven.
b. Anyone could become God’s own son or daughter.
c. It was extremely important to remember this when working among evil people.
2. God’s goodness made salvation possible for anyone.
a. God was unrestrained in revealing His goodness.
b. God’s goodness was expressed as it had never been expressed.
c. That was what Christ’s coming, life, death, and resurrection were all about–giving God the right to reveal and express His goodness without restrain.
3. But notice (verse twelve) that God’s goodness or God’s grace instructs or disciplines (it trains people).
a. God’s goodness teaches the person who accepts it how to discipline himself or herself.
b. God’s grace is a gift, but if I accept the gift, it teaches me something.
c. These people had lived out of control lives before they became Christians.
d. God’s goodness made it possible for them to be Christians.
e. But God’s goodness did not give them permission to continue to live out of control lives.
f. God’s goodness intended to train them in how to live disciplined lives.
4. When people accept God’s grace to gain salvation, they are to allow that grace to teach them.
a. God’s goodness teaches them an essential negative lesson:
i. Renounce the life that was controlled or directed by ungodliness (feelings and thoughts that have nothing to do with God).
ii. Renounce the life that was controlled or directed by earthly desires (passions that only consider physical desires but have no concern for God).
b. God’s goodness teaches them an essential positive lesson:
i. In your real life circumstances, live sensibly–do not merely do what you feel like doing or what you think will give you pleasure and satisfaction; bring yourself under control.
ii. In your real life circumstances, live righteously (uprightly, doing what is lawful, doing what is right–remember the situation in Crete).
iii. In your real life circumstances, live godly (think and act in ways that are appropriate for the person who has decided to belong to God).
5. Why? Why will the person who accepts God’s salvation completely change the way he or she has lived?
a. Before he or she accepted God’s goodness, he or she lived for greed, lived for pleasure, lived to satisfy the desire that controlled his or her thinking, ruled his or her feelings, or made him or her feel good.
b. After accepting God’s goodness, he or she lived for something entirely different.
i. It was not even found in this physical existence and experience.
ii. He or she began to live for hope rather than gratification, the hope that existed because that Jesus Christ the Savior would return.
iii. That is when our great God will give us a good life that will not end.
iv. That is when we will experience the joy of being a part of His eternal glory.
6. God gave Jesus in death for us for two basic reasons.
a. The first was to redeem us from all our lawless deeds (again, remember the situation and circumstances at Crete in its lawless society).
b. We are pardoned; we are freed from all our past lawlessness.
c. The second was to bring into existence a purified people who belonged to God out of personal choice and desire.
i. That is what God has always wanted.
ii. That is what He wanted with Adam and Eve.
iii. That is what He wanted with the people of Israel.
iv. That is what He wants in Christians.
d. He wants a people who belong to him because they want to belong to Him, not because they have to belong to Him.
i. It is their first choice; it is their number one desire.
ii. No matter what they could own, no matter what opportunities they could have, no matter what they could do–belonging to God would always be their first choice.
e. Because they by choice belong to the great God whose goodness gave them a Savior and salvation:
i. They are consumed with the desire to do good deeds for others.
ii. They are consumed with that desire because their God gave them His goodness.

What does God want? He wants you to let His goodness train you: (1) train you to renounce ungodly desires and passions, and (2) train you to live under control while you do what is right and appropriate for people who belong to God. He wants you to live in hope as you look forward to the return of Jesus Christ. He wants you to belong to Him by choice and be consumed with a desire to do good.

A Christian who understands God’s grace does that. A Christian who does not do that has a lot to learn about God’s grace.

Used with permission from David Chadwell, West-Ark Church of Christ

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We all probably know more than one form of injustice that really irritates us. One of mine is being blamed and held accountable for something that I did not do.

It is your fault! You are the one who caused this! Not only did I not do it, but I was in no way involved in it. But you knew about it–this could not have happened without your knowing about it. And if you knew about it, you are responsible. I did not know it would happen. Well, I am sure that you could have stopped it if you wanted to. You have the power to stop things like this! I had no control over what happened. You can deny it any way you want to, but I know it is your fault! I know that you are the person who should be blamed!

This type of accusation occurs when the angry person has a fixed perception of you. His fixed perception of you interprets the meaning of everything that happens. He is hurting and angry. He needs someone to blame. And you are the person. He is certain that your knowledge, or your power, or your control, or your influence could have controlled the situation.

I would be surprised if there is an adult man or woman here who has not experienced that form of injustice.

But no adult has ever experienced that injustice to the extent that God has. Our reasoning is very simple. God knows everything. God even knows the hearts of people. Nothing happens without God’s awareness. And God has all power. Therefore God’s knowledge and power equals ability and opportunity. All that happens is God’s fault–if God does not want it to happen, it does not happen; if God wants it to happen it happens. If God simply permits it to happen, it is still God’s fault.

I. This certainly is not a new view of God–in fact, it is the first view of God to be held by man who did evil.
A. In Genesis 3 we are told that the evil one tempted the first woman to defy God.
1. The evil one very successfully played with her mind.
2. He questioned and suggested–he cunningly planted thoughts and ideas.
3. She followed her imagination to suspicion and to desire.
4. Temptation intensified desire, and intense desire led her to defy God.
B. Evil always seeks companionship.
1. From the context it seems that the first man listened as the evil one played with his wife’s mind and desires, and said nothing.
2. It also seems that he went with her to the forbidden tree.
3. When she ate the forbidden fruit, all she had to do was hand him a piece.
4. The first man was hardly an innocent victim who had no idea about what he was doing or what he was eating.
C. The awareness of evil had immediate impact on both of them.
1. They were immediately aware that they were naked.
a. Prior to the awareness of evil, nakedness was of no significance.
b. It was in no way bad.
c. It was in no way embarrassing.
d. It was in no way shameful.
2. But with the awareness of evil they experienced two emotions that they had never known–shame and fear.
a. In shame they tried to cover their nakedness.
b. In fear they tried to hide from the presence of God.
3. When they heard the presence of God, they hid.
a. God asked, “Where are you?”
b. ”We heard the sound of your presence, and we were afraid because we were naked, so we hid.”
c. ”Who told you that you were naked? Have you done what I told you not to do?”
4. This is the moment the “God, it is your fault,” injustice was created by a sinful human being.
a. The word “sin” means to miss the mark.
b. By yielding to their desires, they “missed the mark.”
c. God did not “miss the mark; “they “missed the mark.”
d. But the first man said that it was God’s fault that he “missed the mark.”
e. ”The woman you gave me picked the fruit and gave it to me to eat.”
f. Or, “God, if you had never given me that woman, this would not have happened.”
g. The simple truth is this: the first man ate because he choose to eat–it was his decision and his responsibility.
II. We have learned well, and we repeat well.
A. The first man’s conclusion was wrong.
1. He did not eat because his wife handed him the fruit.
2. He ate because he chose to eat.
3. He knew and understood what was expected of him, what he was not to do.
4. He knew the consequences of his choice.
5. He did what he chose to do.
B. It is not difficult for us to look at Adam, listen to his excuse, and shake our heads at such a lame excuse.
1. We commonly shake our heads in disbelief as people use the same lame excuse.
a. ”Boss, this accident is your fault–you gave me a job.”
b. ”Dad, this car wreck is your fault–you bought me the car.”
c. ”Wife, my overweight is your fault–you cook the food.”
d. ”Husband, my overdrafts are your fault–you told me to carry the check book.”
2. We lament the conditions in society that exist because so many people refuse to take responsibility for their actions.
3. Then we all use the same excuse when we unjustly hold God accountable for things God did not do.
a. ”God, it is your fault that the person I love is desperately sick.”
b. ”God, it is your fault that a drunk driver killed a family member.”
c. ”God, it is your fault that my family has fallen apart.”
d. ”God, it is your fault that I am in economic ruin.”
e. ”God, it is your fault that my world is falling apart.”
f. ”God, it is your fault that evil causes so much sorrow and suffering in our world.”
III. There was another key figure who played an essential role in bringing evil into the human experience–the crafty evil one.
A. He initiated the incident that resulted in Adam and Eve rebelling against God.
1. He fueled Eve’s suspicion and turned suspicion into distrust of God.
2. He deceived her into believing that there was value and reward in experiencing evil.
3. He effectively lied, successfully deceived.
4. It happened because the liar deceived.
B. Adam and Eve’s problem did not begin with God; Adam and Eve’s problem began with Satan.
1. Paul expressed spiritual concern for the Corinthian Christians with this statement: I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ (2 Corinthians 11:3).
2. In the same chapter Paul warned them about false prophets and reminded them that even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14).
3. Paul, in speaking of Eve, told Timothy the woman being quite deceived, fell into transgression (1 Timothy 2:14).
4. The problem was not created by God; the problem was created by Satan’s deception.
5. Speaking of Satan, Jesus said, Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies (John 8:44).
IV. Holding God accountable for Satan’s work in human life is simplistic and naive.
A. In this world, in human life, Satan and the forces of evil are powerful beyond our comprehension.
1. Peter called Satan our adversary and said that he prowls about as a roaring lion (lions roar when they are hungry and hunting) seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8).
a. Satan roams our world using evil to eat people.
b. He prowls this world looking for people to destroy.
2. Because Christ is more powerful than Satan, because Christ can resurrect to life and restore what Satan destroyed, Christians tend to look at Satan and evil as a “non-force” after a person chooses to belong to God.
B. Satan loves for us to do one to two things:
1. Blame God for what he does.
2. Doubt his power and disregard him as a significant force in Christian’s lives.
C. The war in human life between Christ and Satan, between righteousness and evil, is very complex and complicated.
1. While it is very real, we will always have more questions than answers.
2. We are asked to understand these things:
a. It was not God’s choice for evil to become a force in human life; it was the choice of humanity.
b. God cannot destroy evil as a force in humanity, not in time, not in this world.
c. God can destroy the eternal consequences of evil in any life through forgiveness.
d. While God can forgive and restore our relationship with Him, God cannot (in this life) remove all consequences as though evil never occurred.
D. Let me challenge you to think about something.
1. Satan deceived Judas and led him to betray Jesus.
2. Satan terrified Peter and led him to deny Jesus.
3. Satan turned the Jewish people that Jesus healed and blessed against Jesus to the point that they shouted for his death.
4. Satan deceived the men who knew the most about scripture to the extent that they had Jesus killed.
5. Satan was successful in getting Jesus nailed to a cross to suffer a painful, disgraceful death.
6. Satan led people to kill most of the apostles.
7. Satan led people to persecute and kill Christians.
8. Satan created all kinds of problems among Christians in the first century.
9. How can we look at all that and conclude that Satan and evil cannot cause suffering and problems in the lives of Christians today?

“Well, with all His power, God ought to put an end to Satan and evil in this world. He should stop what Satan is doing to people.” God can and God will. But there is only one way that God can use His power to destroy all evil. God can and will destroy all evil when He brings this world to an end. This physical world will cease to exist. The day of judgment will come. All will stand before God. Satan and all who served Satan will be confined to hell eternally. Evil will never touch the forgiven people of God again.

“Well, what is He waiting on?” He wants none to be destroyed eternally. He wants everyone to have maximum opportunity to repent. Because He wants more people to accept His forgiveness, He is delaying that moment (2 Peter 3:9). But that day is coming, and nothing can stop that day from coming.

If you want God to become a more powerful, helpful force in your life, learn to stop holding God responsible for Satan’s work.

Used with permission from David Chadwell, West-Ark Church of Christ

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We know that life’s major transitions always involve an inevitable moment. The moment when we must leave our childhood circumstances and begin an adult life is an inevitable moment. The moment when academic education ends and career begins is an inevitable moment. Death is an inevitable moment.

However, inevitable moments are not confined to major transitions. Inevitable moments constantly occur in our lives.

Perhaps the most common form of inevitable moments is decision. Making a decision of importance and consequence always involves an inevitable moment.

You are in your twenties. You have been in a serious dating relationship for three years. You became friends. You learned about each other’s lives and backgrounds. You love each other. You tell each other that you want to marry, want to live your lives as husband and wife. Setting the specific date for the wedding creates an inevitable moment. On that inevitable moment you cease to be single and immediately are married.

You have a career decision to make that involves a job opportunity. You investigated the situation thoroughly. You weighed the pros and cons carefully. You gathered all the available information and evaluated it carefully. You considered how the decision would affect your life and affect each member of your family. Then came the inevitable moment. The inevitable moment is the moment you accept or reject the opportunity.

This morning I want us to consider one of the classic inevitable moments in the Bible. It is found in Joshua 24.

I. Israel’s great leader, Joshua, demanded that Israel make an important, critical decision. He demanded that they face the inevitable moment.
A. Joshua has never been appreciated as he should be.
1. As a godly man in a nation of hundreds of thousands of people, he trusted and relied on God when only three people did.
a. He was one of the twelve spies sent into Canaan to scout the land and people before Israel began its invasion.
b. The twelve men returned astounded at the country’s prosperity.
c. But they were terrified by the walled cities and capable armies they saw.
d. Ten of the men said that Israel could not successfully invade and conquer the land.
e. Two men said that it could be done; they knew it could happen because God said it would happen.
f. In the entire nation, only Moses agreed with Joshua and Caleb.
g. Of all the Israelites who left Egypt, Joshua was one of only two adults who left Egypt as adults and entered the land of Canaan.
2. Joshua was unique in the nation of Israel.
a. He was selected by God to lead Israel as they invaded and conquered the land of Canaan.
b. As an adult, Joshua personally witnessed the plagues in Egypt.
c. As an adult, he personally experienced the escape from Egypt by night.
d. As an adult, he personally experienced crossing the Red Sea on dry land.
e. As an adult, he personally experienced all the events that happened in the wilderness over a forty year period.
f. As an adult, he led Israel into Canaan, and experienced the conquest.
g. He had seen it all as an adult; he had experienced it all as an adult.
h. So from the plagues in Egypt to the conquest of the land of Canaan, he had an adult perspective on everything that happened.
II. Joshua was a very old man when he called Israel together for his last speech–Joshua 24:29 states that he was 110 when he died.
A. In his last act as the leader of Israel, he called for a national assembly.
1. All the older men who gave guidance and counsel to each tribe were there.
2. All the heads of families or clans within each tribe were there.
3. All the judges who rendered decisions in each tribe were there.
4. And all the officers within each tribe were there.
B. Listen to Joshua’s last speech to the nation of Israel; the first part is as though God was speaking; the second part he speaks for himself.”
1. ”All of you are Abraham’s descendants, but Abraham’s ancestors lived far from here.”
2. ”In fact, in that distant place, his father, Terah, and his other relatives worshipped idols.”
3. ”It was I, God, who took Abraham from that distant place over 500 years ago and led him through this very land you are living in today.”
4. ”I gave Abraham Isaac for a son; and I gave Isaac Jacob and Esau for sons; and Jacob and his sons moved to Egypt.”
5. ”Four hundred years after Jacob moved to Egypt, when his descendants had become hundreds of thousands of slaves, I sent Moses and Aaron to lead them.”
6. ”I inflicted the ten plagues on Egypt, and I brought you out of Egypt.”
7. ”The Egyptian army, with horses and chariots, chased your fathers and mothers to the Red Sea, but I kept the army from attacking by separating them from you with darkness.”
8. ”I opened the Red Sea to let you escape, and I closed the Red Sea upon the army to destroy it.”
9. ”You lived in the wilderness for a long time.”
a. ”The Amorites tried to destroy you, but I would not allow that to happen.”
b. ”Balak tried to use Balaam to curse and destroy you, but I used Balaam to pronounce blessings on you.”
10. ”After you lived in the wilderness for forty years, I brought you into this land.”
a. ”The wicked people who lived here could not stop you.”
b. ”I fought with you and for you–and sometimes I fought for you when you did not even fight.”
11. ”The end result was that I gave you a land and country of your own.”
a. ”I gave you cities that you did not build.”
b. ”I gave you farms that you did not clear or develop.”
c. ”I gave you vineyards and orchards that you did not plant.”
C. Joshua then spoke for himself to the nation.
1. ”The inevitable moment has come; the moment of decision is here.”
a. ”You have every reason to reverence God and serve Him.”
b. ”You have every reason to do it in sincerity and truth.”
c. ”You have every reason to destroy your idols an never worship them again.”
2. ”You know all that God has done for over 500 years to give you this country.”
a. ”You have personally witnessed many of the things God did.”
b. ”You saw with your own eyes God at work in the wilderness and God at work in the conquest of this land.”
3. ”So it is time to decide.”
a. ”Make a choice.”
b. ”Either choose to serve the idols that Abraham’s ancestors served.”
c. ”Or choose to serve the God who brought you out of Egypt, through the wilderness, and into this country that you now own.”
4. ”Choose one or the other.”
a. ”You cannot continue trying to serve both.”
b. ”I have made my decision, and my family has made its decision.”
c. ”I have seen everything that happened from Egypt to Canaan.”
d. ”I know what God has done for us.”
e. ”You make your choice, but even if you choose to serve idols, my family and I are going to reverence and serve God.”
III. Joshua said to Israel, “The time has come for you to move up to a higher spiritual level.”
A. ”You have been on many lower spiritual levels.”
1. ”Spiritually, you were in the basement when you were slaves in Egypt.”
a. ”You did not know who the living God is.”
b. ”He used the plagues in Egypt to reveal His power and nature to you.”
c. ”He was not merely delivering you from slavery; He was moving you to a higher spiritual level.”
2. ”You were trapped between the Egyptian army and the Red Sea.”
a. ”You immediately forgot God’s power–you not only refused to trust God; you were certain that there was nothing God could do to help you.”
b. ”You said that God brought you out of Egypt to kill you.”
c. ”God open the Red Sea so you could cross, and God destroyed the Egyptian army in the Red Sea.”
d. ”He was not merely giving you safety and freedom; He was moving you to a higher spiritual level.”
3. ”In the wilderness God repeatedly tried to move you to higher spiritual levels.”
a. ”Your mothers and fathers resisted God; they did not want a higher spiritual level.”
b. ”Instead, they did things like building a golden calf and calling it their god.”
c. ”Because they refused to grow spiritually, they died in the wilderness.”
4. ”Now you are in the land that God promised them; it is yours.”
a. ”It is yours only because of all that God has done.”
b. ”You know what He has done.”
c. ”It is time for decision; it is time to move to a higher spiritual level.”
B. When Joshua said, “Choose the God that you will serve,” Joshua was saying much more than, “Bring an end to all idol worship.”
1. He was also saying, “God has blessed you more than you can imagine.”
2. ”Everything you have is the direct result of what God has done for you.”
3. ”You know how God has been at work in this nation and in your lives.”
4. ”With all that God has done, with all that you have seen and understand, it is time to move to a higher spiritual level.”
IV. It is time for us to move up to a higher spiritual level.
A. In the history of the world, it is unlikely that any people have ever been as blessed as we are.
1. We cannot grasp all the ways that God blesses this nation.
2. We cannot grasp all the ways that God touches and blesses our personal lives.
3. We cannot grasp all the ways that God blesses this congregation.
B. But we grasp and understand enough to realize that it is time for us as individuals and as a congregation to move to higher spiritual levels.
1. January 11 the elders will share with us ways in which they would like for the congregation to grow to new spiritual levels in 1998.
2. In your own life, isn’t it time for you to move to a higher spiritual level?
a. Do you want to? Would you genuinely like to be more mature in godliness?
b. What must happen in your life for you to move to the next level of spirituality?

Not just let it happen — but make it happen.

Do you really mean it when you sing that without Jesus you would be nothing?

Do you really mean that without Jesus you would be lost beyond imagination?

Why were you baptized into Christ? Was it for salvation from sin?

Why were you baptized into Christ from God’s perspective? The great desire of God for every single one of us is for us to be all that we can be in Jesus Christ. We will never know all that we could be till after we die and look back at life. May God open your eyes and let you see what you can be. All that God wants you to be is for your own benefit.

Have you had commitment to a new life?

Rise to the next spiritual level.

Used with permission from David Chadwell, West-Ark Church of Christ

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Life is often confusing. We are constantly trying to figure life out. Quite often we think we have succeeded. About the time we think we have life figured out, something occurs that makes us realize we still do not have life figured out.

God is often confusing. We are constantly trying to figure God out. On occasion we conclude that we have succeeded in figuring God out. Just as we come to that conclusion, something occurs that makes us realize we have not even come close to figuring God out.

Consider some thoughts today that hopefully will challenge you to realize that this confusion is not new and will never be resolved.

I. “Please let me introduce myself: my name is Thomas.
A. “When I walked with Jesus as one of the twelve, many people called me Didymus, my Greek name which means Twin (John 11:16).
1. “I became one of the select twelve men to follow Jesus when, up on a mountain, he called us out from a larger group of disciples (Mark 3:13-19).
2. “We were supposed to be with him daily to follow him and teach/preach with him.
3. “Eleven of us were Jesus’ apostles after Jesus’ crucifixion.
4. “Only Judas was not with us following Jesus’ crucifixion–he was so overcome with guilt because he betrayed Jesus that he committed suicide (Matthew 27:3-5)
5. “But, I am getting ahead of myself.
B. “It is humanly impossible for me to get you to feel what we twelve felt as we lived with Jesus every day.
1. “The multitudes that followed Jesus made the most popular athlete and the most recognized movie star look unpopular.
2. “Everywhere Jesus went there was an excitement, an expectation, an awe that was so real you could sense it as it overwhelmed you.
3. “That man was so popular and created so much reaction that he could not even hide to find some private time!
a. “If he went into a uninhabited area, if just one person saw him, soon there would be a crowd around him.
b. “Where he was going did not matter–people followed even if they had no food and water and the area was wilderness area.
c. “They would even carry physically sick people of every kind of sickness on mats (even paralyzed people!) in the mere hope Jesus would heal them.
d. “For miles and miles, for hours and hours people would carry those deathly sick or helpless as they searched for Jesus.
C. “You cannot believe what I saw with my own eyes and experienced in person!
1. “I was in a boat in a storm as waves created by the wind were flooding the boat (Matthew 8:23-27; Mark 4:36-41).
a. “The wind was howling and the waves white-capping!
b. “The boat was on the verge of sinking!
c. “All of us were terrified as we were certain we were going to drown!
d. “I saw Jesus stand up in that rolling boat knee deep in water and verbally rebuke the wind and the waves.
e. “I saw the Sea of Galilee become calm without a breath of wind blowing.
2. “I was in the boat the night when we spent most of the night rowing in a storm (John 6:16-21).
a. “I guarantee you that trying to row a large boat on a churning sea in the dark is one scary ordeal!
b. “I was there when we saw this strange figure walking on the waves!
c. “All of us were scared to death!
d. “But it was Jesus walking on the waves telling us not to be afraid!
e. “I saw that with my own eyes and heard it with my own ears!
3. “Day after day I watched Jesus heal hundred and hundreds of people of every kind of disease–even those caused by spiritual forces!
a. “There was never one kind of disease he could not heal!
b. “I watched him heal all types of sickness!
c. “I even saw him raise people from the dead!
D. “There were certain things all twelve of us knew.
1. “We all knew the kingdom God promised Israel for hundreds of years was on the verge of coming.
2. “We all knew the great Messiah God promised was on earth right then.
3. “We knew Jesus was the Messiah.
4. “We knew Jesus would rule from a throne in Israel and we would be part of his new government.
5. “We knew at last Israel would be restored to her past glory!
II. “However, some very powerful people in Israel were afraid that would happen.
 
A. “Most of these people were in the current religious government of Israel.
1. “Most of these people lived in Jerusalem; Jerusalem was their power base.
2. “When Jesus’ popularity kept growing, they become increasing aggressive and hostile.
3. “In time everything became quite tense when Jesus visited Jerusalem.
a. “Every time he came (near the time of his death), people expected a confrontation.
b. “The hostility and anger were enormous–Jesus’ presence divided the city every time he was there.
B. “When Jesus preached his ‘bread of life’ sermon, the situation became dangerous (John 6:22-7:1).
1. “Even all Jesus’ disciples, except for us twelve, were so upset they left never to return.
2. “He even asked us if we also were going to leave him.
3. “When we went back to Galilee, he refused to return to Judea because he knew the powerful people would kill him.
C. “Later, at the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus secretly returned to Jerusalem (John 7).
1. “After he arrived, he went to the temple area and began to publicly preach.
2. “The religious leaders who controlled the city and temple area sent some officers to arrest him.
a. “The officers returned without him.
b. “When asked why, the officers responded, ‘We never heard a man speak as he does.’”
3. “Later in the same visit, Jesus preached that God was his Father and was at work in him (John 8).
a. “Those who rejected his identity picked up stones to throw at him.
b. “Jesus hid, and slipped out of the temple area.
D. “Still later on a visit at the Feast of Dedication, Jesus’ enemies openly challenged him in a manner designed to turn people against him (John 10:22-42).
 
1. “They said, ‘Don’t keep us in suspense any longer; tell us plainly if you are the Christ.
2. “Jesus said he had told them, and they did not believe.
3. “Again, he declared God was his Father.
4. “Again, they picked up rocks to stone him.
5. “When they tried to seize him, Jesus slipped away through the crowd.
6. “This time things were so tense we had to go across the Jordan River into the wilderness area where John the baptizer began his work.

III. “From the day that Peter confessed Jesus was the Christ, the son of the living God, Jesus told us often that the rulers in Jerusalem would have him killed (Matthew 16:13-21).
A. “We regarded what he predicted as unthinkable and impossible if he just used a little common sense.
 
1. “The only place he had powerful enemies was in Jerusalem.
2. “The only people who were determined to kill him were in Jerusalem.
 
B. “With his popularity in Galilee combined with the power he possessed, he could not be killed if he just stayed out of Jerusalem until his enemies lost power and influence.
1. “Given his power even to raise the dead,
2. “Given his enormous popularity in many places,
3. “His enemies were sure to lose power and influence in time.
IV. “While we were hiding across the Jordan River, a messenger came to tell Jesus that his friend Lazarus was sick (He loved Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha very much).
A. “They lived in Bethany about a mile and a half from Jerusalem on the road to Jericho (John 11:1-16).
1. “For Jesus, visiting Bethany was extremely dangerous.
2. “The message simply read, ‘The one you love is sick.’
3. “All of us knew that was a request for Jesus to come heal Lazarus.
4. “We all were really scared Jesus would go back to the Jerusalem area because he really loved these people.
5. “However, he said, ‘This sickness is not for his death, but to glorify God and His son.’
6. “We breathed a sigh of relief and stayed there two more days.
B. “The third day Jesus said that it was time to go back to Judea.
1. “We all said, ‘Lord, your enemies are just looking for opportunity to kill you.
2. “Jesus said, ‘Lazarus is asleep, and I must go wake him up.’
3. “We said that if Lazarus was asleep he will be okay.
4. “Jesus responded, ‘Lazarus is dead.’
C. “Nothing made sense about this whole situation.
1. “In this climate a body began to decompose in a day or less–that is why people buried on the day of the death.
2. “Jesus had resurrected people who had just died, but we had never witnessed him raise a decomposed body!
3. “If Jesus went back to visit his friends, his enemies would surely know it and catch him.
4. “You could have cut our gloom with a butter knife!
5. “Finally I said, ‘Let’s all go back with Jesus and die together.’
V. “Unless you were there, you cannot possibly imagine what happened!
A. “First, Jesus actually raised Lazarus from the dead after Lazarus was dead for four days and you could smell the decay.
1. “All Jerusalem went wild for Jesus!
a. “Absolutely everyone was talking about the resurrection!
b. “Lazarus was living, talking proof of Jesus’ incredible power (John 12:12-19)
c. “The largest Jerusalem multitude to assemble welcomed Jesus into the city just as the kings of ancient times were welcomed.
d. “He was more popular than he had ever been!
e. “For a week, Jesus owned Jerusalem!
2. “We knew this was the moment!
a. “There was no way Jesus’ enemies were going to kill him now!
b. “Because he had the momentum, the nation and the throne was his!
c. “Nobody could stop him now!
B. “Then the worst living nightmare, the worst form of hell on earth broke loose.
 
1. “With none of us suspecting him, Judas left our last meal together to betray Jesus (John 13:21-30).
2. “Jesus gave us this last set of instructions which we found confusing.
3. “He told us he was going somewhere and we could not go with him.
4. “He even said we knew where he was going, so I asked, “How do we get there?
5. “All he said was, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life.’
C. “Though we were confused, it did not matter!
1. “We knew God was at work!
2. “We knew Jesus owned Jerusalem!
3. “We knew the nation wanted Jesus to be king!
4. “We knew nothing could stop God and Jesus now!
D. “However, Jesus grew more and more troubled.
1. “He went to pray, and asked us to go with him.
2. “All of us had drunk the Passover wine, felt confident, were relaxed, and went to sleep when we tried to pray.
3. “After Jesus prayed, Judas showed up with Roman troops and temple guards all of whom had torches and weapons (John 18:3).
4. “In confusion and fear, we fled!
5. “Then there were the horrible Jewish trials.
6. “Those were followed by the horrible hearings before Pilate.
7. “The mob was screaming for blood, there was the unbelievable scourging, and the awful mocking!
E. “Then there was the horrible crucifixion!
1. “There was so much hate there!
2. “And there were those sobbing, helpless women!
VI. “I do not know how to describe how I felt.
A. “My mind screamed, ‘God, where are You!’
1. “What was happening simply could not be God’s plan!
2. “All I could see was Satan at work!
B. “I knew it was over.
1. “There would be no kingdom.
2. “Jesus would not be king!
3. “The golden age of Israel would not be restored!
C. “We eleven were so defeated, so terrified!
1. “We expected them to kill us next!
2. “While I was out in the night, Jesus appeared to the others.
3. “When they excitedly told me, I replied that I would not believe it unless I felt the nail holes and the sword wound.
4. “Eight days later when I was with everyone, the resurrected Jesus came to us, looked me straight in the eye, and told me to feel the holes.
5. “All I could feel and say was, ‘My Lord and My God.’
D. “Only then did I realize that God had been at work all the time.”

Life will give all of us disappointments. There will be times when we see only evil at work. There will be times when it seems as if evil has won. But we must learn for ourselves that God is always there, always working.

Nothing was more evil and vile than Jesus’ crucifixion. Yet, God was not only there working–He won!

Jesus says to us as he said to Thomas, “Believe; don’t doubt!”

Used with permission from David Chadwell, West-Ark Church of Christ

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In the second lesson we focused on Jesus blessing Peter. We examined some of the good and bad things that happened to Peter after Jesus said, “Peter, you are blessed.” We noted that God used his successes and his failures to move him along the road to heaven.
Tonight, I want us to focus on Jesus’ statement to Peter, “I will give to you the keys to the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Do you enjoy the experience of having someone “read your mind”? Without expressing or explaining yourself, this person says, “I know what you are thinking. I know what you are concerned about. I understand what you want to accomplish.”

Excuse me. How can you know what I am thinking if I have not told you? How could you possibly know what I intend to accomplish if I haven’t discussed that information with you?
Do you enjoy talking to people who finish your sentences for you? You never finish anything that you start saying. This person always says it for you–or tries to.

Too often Christians “read God’s mind” without allowing God to tell them what He wants or intends. With good intentions, we stress some teachings while we neglect others. We are certain that we “know what God wants and intends.” It is as though we try to think for God and finish His conversations for Him.

I. When Jesus said, “Peter I will give you the keys to kingdom,” when Jesus told Peter that he would bind and loose on earth, I don’t know what Peter thought those statements meant.
A. I do know that Peter thought that Jesus came to be the physical king of Israel.
1. He thought that Jesus would actually sit on a throne in Jerusalem.
2. He thought that Jesus would be and fulfill Christ’s mission by physically ruling over the nation of Israel.
B. When Jesus gave Peter the keys to the kingdom, I don’t know what Peter thought that he would do with the keys.
II. To correctly understand Jesus’ promises to Peter, there are some things we need to know.
A. First, we need to know that Jesus did not make the promise of binding and loosing only to Peter.
1. Jesus was speaking specifically to Peter in Matthew 16:19.
2. But in Matthew 18:1 he was speaking to all the disciples as he answered their question, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
3. Speaking to all of them, Jesus said in verse 18, Truly I say to you, whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
B. Jesus gave the keys to the kingdom only to Peter.
1. Peter may have thought Jesus was giving him a privilege, but Jesus was actually giving him a responsibility.
2. All the apostles were given the responsibility of binding and loosing.
C. What did that mean? Did it mean that they used their own human, arbitrary choice to decide what the kingdom would be and do? Absolutely not. Kingdom decisions were not left to human reasoning, human opinion, or human desire.
1. Please turn in your Bibles to John 13: the last supper on the last evening of Jesus’ earthly life.
a. Only Jesus and the twelve were there on that occasion.
b. Matthew 26:20 states that Jesus shared that meal with “the twelve disciples.”
c. Mark 14:17 states that Jesus came to that meal “with the twelve.”
d. Luke 22:14 states that Jesus was at the table, “and the apostles with him.”
e. The conversation Jesus had in John 13, 14,15, and 16 was with the twelve disciples or apostles.
f. The specific promises were made to with whom he ate–to the apostles.
2. What did Jesus promise all twelve regarding their future teaching (excluding Judas who left to betray him)?
a. After washing their feet (John 13), he urged them not to be troubled by the events of the evening (John 14:1).
b. In 14:16 he promised that God would give them another Helper who would be with them forever–the new Helper would be permanent.
c. In 14:18 he promised that he would not leave them as orphans.
d. In 14:26 he promised that God would sent the Helper, the Holy Spirit, and this is what the Holy Spirit would do:
He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
e. The apostles would be taught by the Holy Spirit and have perfect recall.
f. In 15:26 Jesus promised he would send the Helper, who, when He came as the Spirit of truth, would bear witness of Jesus–the Holy Spirit would be Jesus’ witness to them.
g. In 16:13 Jesus promised that the Spirit of truth would guide the apostles into all truth, would reveal the things that He heard God speak, and would enable them to know the things that would happen in the future.
3. The apostles would bind and loose because they were guided by the Holy Spirit, taught by the Holy Spirit, could recall everything Jesus said, and were shown things to come by the Holy Spirit.
D. I think it is extremely important that we understand this:
1. Being guided by the Holy Spirit did not destroy their humanity, or their ability to make mistakes, or give them instant knowledge of all truth.
2. Remember our study of Peter’s life last Sunday night.
a. In Acts 10 Peter did not understand that Jesus wanted him to teach and baptize people who were not Jews–and it took a lot to convince Peter that he was supposed to do that.
b. Because Peter taught and baptized people who were not Jews, some Jewish Christians in Jerusalem hurt Peter, he became afraid of them.
c. Later, because he was afraid of these Jewish Christians, he broke fellowship with Christians who were not Jews.
d. He also encouraged other Jewish Christians to break fellowship with them.
e. Paul confronted Peter publicly to his face because Peter was wrong and was acting hypocritically (Galatians 2:11-14).
3. Peter had long been guided by the Holy Spirit when this happened.
a. Obviously, that guidance did not destroy his humanity.
b. Obviously, it did not instantly give him total knowledge of all truth–the process of the Spirit guiding him and teaching him was a continuing process.
c. Obviously, it did not destroy his human weakness.
d. Obviously, it did not destroy his human ability to make mistakes.
4. Something else is obvious: being human, weak, and making mistakes did not destroy the Holy Spirit’s ability to guide, teach, and direct Peter.
III. Now I ask you to think with me very carefully: Peter’s concept of the kingdom was not Jesus’ concept of the kingdom.
A. Peter opened the kingdom to all people who were Jews in Acts 2.
1. That day Peter first preached the good news about the resurrected Jesus being Christ and Lord, and he preached it to Jewish people from sixteen different areas of the Roman empire (Acts 2:8-11).
2. That day Peter taught Jewish people from all over the Roman empire.
3. That day Jewish people who resided all over the Roman empire had an opportunity to become Christians.
4. And that was fine with Peter–that fit Peter’s concept of the kingdom; it should be available to all Jewish people everywhere.
B. Peter first opened the kingdom to people who were not Jews in Acts 10.
1. Cornelius gathered his relatives and close friends to hear what Peter had to say (Acts 10:24).
a. An angel instructed him to send for Peter, and Cornelius did.
b. He was filled with expectation as he waited for Peter to come.
c. Before that day was over, Peter had taught and baptized these people who were not Jews.
2. Initially, Peter had a lot of difficulty understanding that he was to teach people who were not Jews.
a. That did not fit Peter’s concept of the kingdom–he had never envisioned the kingdom including people who were not Jews.
b. This was so foreign to Peter’s thinking that the Lord had to take unusual initiatives to open Peter’s mind and understanding.
3. When Peter finally understood this was God’s plan for the kingdom, many of the Jewish Christians did not understand it.
a. They fought the idea.
b. They were certain that this was not what God intended for the kingdom.
c. Many of these Christians never did understand.
d. They read God’s mind; they knew what God wanted and intended; they were absolutely certain.
e. They were certain, but they completely misunderstood God’s plans for the kingdom.
IV. Jewish Christians had an enormous disadvantage as they tried to understand the kingdom of Christ.
A. They mixed the concept of the kingdom of Israel with the concept of Christ’s kingdom.
1. They had great difficulty separating the concepts of the two kingdoms.
2. The way they looked at Israel determined the way they saw the church.
B. The contrast between Israel and the church is dramatic.
1. For example, the kingdom of Israel was formed around an institution and rituals.
a. The institution was the temple.
b. The rituals included animal sacrifices and sacrificial worship.
2. The kingdom of Christ is not formed around an institution or rituals.
a. There is no temple–each Christian is a living stone in the living temple of God (1 Peter 2:5).
b. There are no commanded rituals–Jesus is our complete sacrifice.
3. Another example:
a. The morality and ethics of Israel were based on and defined by laws.
b. The morality and ethics of Christianity are based on and defined by a Savior.
C. Many Jewish Christians did not want to open Christ’s kingdom to the world.
1. They wanted to keep the kingdom to themselves.
2. They wanted the kingdom to be what they wanted and only what they wanted.
3. They were more concerned about preserving their concept than they were expanding Christ’s kingdom–they did not realize it, but they were.
D. It is too easy for us to make their mistake.
1. Though the New Testament does not refer to the church as an institution, it is easy for us to make it an institution.
2. When we make the church an institution, It is easy for us to be more concerned about preserving our institution than expanding Christ’s kingdom.
3. It is easy to be more concerned about making the church what we want it to be than allowing the church to become what God intended his kingdom to be.

Peter discovered that using the keys to open God’s kingdom to people was much more difficult, much more complicated than he ever imagined. Even Peter who was guided and taught by the Holy Spirit struggled to understand God’s concept. Even when he understood, he found it very difficult time to help other Christians understand.

It still is difficult and complicated to keep the doors unlocked. It is hard to open our minds to God’s full concept of the kingdom. It is never easy to help each other understand.

One of our greatest challenges and most urgent challenges is to rediscover the importance of opening the kingdom all around us. May we never lock what Christ through Peter unlocked.

Used with permission from David Chadwell, West-Ark Church of Christ

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Most of us just took communion. That is a time when we should use our imaginations with gratitude. We are to focus our minds and hearts on Jesus’ death. As we eat a piece of the bread, we are to think about the physical body that Jesus surrendered to death for us. As we drink the grape juice, we are to think about the blood he poured out in death for us. It is impossible to do what Jesus asked us to do when we take the Lord’s supper unless we use our imagination.

I want you to use your imagination. This morning you and I are a part of the crowd that witnessed Jesus’ death. We are there. We see the whole thing from the moment they walk Jesus up to the place of his execution to the moment they take his dead body down. We are in the crowd that sees him die. Who do you choose to be? This morning you must choose to be one of those people. Which one of those persons do you choose to be?

Well, what choices do I have? Who was there?

I. Let’s look at the list of the people we know witnessed Jesus’ death.
A. There was a large (probably huge) crowd of people who were the public spectators that any highly emotional, unusual, public event attracts.
1. The people who lived in Jerusalem had been angrily divided over the identity, the work, and the teachings of Jesus for a long time (John 7:37-44; 9:16).
2. Often when he came to Jerusalem his presence caused huge public debates.
3. The week before Passover Jerusalem’s population literally overflowed as hundreds of thousands of pilgrims came to the city.
4. The publicly execution of a controversial man attracted a huge crowd.
5. In this crowd there were:
a. People who were delighted that the impostor was being killed.
b. People who always had been his enemy and opposed him openly.
c. People who loved him because of what he did for them.
d. People who expected him to become the next king of Israel.
e. People who openly were his followers, his disciples.
B. There were the Roman soldiers who executed Jesus (Matthew 27:35,36; Mark 15:24,25; Luke 23:36; John 19:23,24).
1. They escorted him to the cross.
2. They took his clothes off.
3. They stretched his arms and legs on the cross and nailed him to it.
4. They mocked him: “If you are the King of Israel, save yourself.”
5. And they sat and watched as he died.
C. There was the common jeerer, the heckler, the person casting insults (Matthew 27:39,40).
1. This was the person in the crowd who ridiculed Jesus as he died.
2. These were the kind of people who are against everything.
a. That is their role in life–to be against things.
b. About the only position they ever take is a position against.
c. They were against his miracles, against his popularity, against his teaching, against what he was doing, against how he did it, and against where he did it.
d. They were the kind of people who are thrilled when someone influential or someone powerful falls–and, in their eyes, Jesus had fallen.
D. There were the chief priests, scribes, and elders (Matthew 27:41-43; John 11:47,48).
1. The chief priests were the priests in charge of the Jewish temple.
a. They tried to discredit Jesus and engineer his fall for a long time.
b. They were among Jesus’ most determined enemies.
2. The scribes were the technical experts in the scriptures that we call the Old Testament.
3. The elders were the recognized men of wisdom and sound judgment.
4. All these men were confident that they had finally won and said:
a. ”He saved others, but he can’t save himself.”
b. ”If he is the King of Israel, let him come down, and we will believe.”
c. ”He said that he was God’s Son; let’s see if God wants him.”
E. There was the centurion, the Roman officer in charge of the execution (Matthew 27:54).
1. As he marched Jesus to the site of execution, he likely thought no more than, “We are executing one more Jewish man who caused problems.”
2. But after the sun stopped shining from noon to 3 p.m. and the earth quaked, in terror he said, “This man must have been the son of God!”
F. There were the women who followed Jesus (Matthew 27:55; Mark 15:40,41; Luke 23:49).
1. They included Jesus’ mother and his mother’s sister.
2. Mary Magdalene was there.
3. Many of the women who had followed him to minister to him and the disciples in Galilee were there.
a. As Jesus and the twelve men who followed him traveled about Galilee, they needed someone to help take care of things like cooking, washing, mending, and likely a multitude of needs that arose as they ministered to all those people.
b. They certainly could not pull into the nearest McDonald’s or take their wash to the cleaners.
c. Jesus was not embarrassed for these woman be a part of his work and tour–can you imagine what some people said about this unmarried man allowing all these woman to follow him from place to place?
4. Obviously these ladies loved, admired, and appreciated Jesus and his work.
G. Though it is not specifically stated, it is my personal opinion that there were many disciples who watched him die.
1. They could not believe what they were seeing.
2. They were sure that everything Jesus came to do would never happen.
3. The man who should have been king was dying.
H. Then, there were two robbers who were executed to the right and left of Jesus (Luke 23:33, 39-43; John 19:18; Mark 15:38; Matthew 27:41).
1. It seems that at first that they both ridiculed Jesus–when they were nailed to their crosses, they likely felt a lot of anger as well as a lot of pain.
2. ”If you are the Christ, save yourself and us.”
3. But one of these robbers became convinced, on his cross, that Jesus was the Christ.
a. He chastised the other for ridiculing Jesus: “Don’t you fear God? This man is obviously innocent.”
b. Then he said the most amazing thing to Jesus: “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
c. To which Jesus replied, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”
II. If you had to be at the cross, and you had to choose to be one of these people, who would you choose to be?
A. Would you be just a person in the crowd who blended in unnoticed?
B. Would you be one of the soldiers?
1. Could you hold an arm or a leg against the cross, or drive the spike, or help raise the cross?
2. Could you sit and jeer as you watched Jesus die?
C. Would you be one of the people who ridiculed, one of those who is against everything, one of those who finds pleasure in seeing other people fall?
D. Would you be one of the disciples who thought to himself, “The hope of Israel is dying! How he could have changed the world!”
E. Would you be one of those who had been healed, who thought, “This is truly a great man being killed! He was such a compassionate, godly person! He was what religion really should be about.”
F. Would you be one of the women who thought, “There has never been anyone like him, and there never will be another like him. He gave us dignity. He was not afraid or ashamed to let us follow him.”
G. Would you be his mother and watch your son die like that?
H. Would you be Mary Magdalene, one of his closest friends out of whom he cast seven demons, and watch your closest friend die?
I. Would you be a chief priest, a master religionist, a renowned theologian, and say to yourself, “We finally got rid of this evil man.”
J. Would you be a scribe, a true expert in the scripture, and say to yourself, “We finally got rid of this evil man.”
K. Would you be an elder, a respected religious man of wisdom, and say to yourself, “We finally got rid of this evil man.”
L. Would you be the robber who said, “If you are the Christ, do something!”
M. Would you be the robber who said, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
III. Of all the people who witnessed the death of Jesus, only one person realized Jesus’ mission was not destroyed.
A. Only one person:
1. Knew that Jesus would still be king in his kingdom.
2. Knew death could not destroy or stop Jesus.
B. Only one person looked at Jesus dying on a cross and saw God.
C. It was not:
1. The soldier who used the power of death.
2. The centurion who was terrified by the dark and the earthquake.
3. The negative jeerers who were delighted that Jesus could be killed.
4. The disciples who thought everything was lost.
5. The people who Jesus helped who were filled with regret.
6. The wonderful women who were devoted to this unique, compassionate man.
7. The chief priests who were powerful theologians.
8. The scribes who were experts in scripture.
9. The elders who were respected for their wisdom.
D. The only person who looked at Jesus and saw God was a robber, a thief, a reject, an outcast, a spiritual failure.
1. Only he saw God in Jesus, only he said, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
2. Only to this thief did Jesus say, “Today, you will be with me, in Paradise.”

If you had to be one of those persons who witnessed Jesus’ death, would you choose to be the only person who looked at Jesus and saw God?

Once Jesus told some of the religious leaders of the Jewish people, “Truly I say to you, the tax-gathers and harlots will get into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax-gatherers and harlots did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him” (Matthew 21:31,32).

In our words, dishonest people and prostitutes would enter the kingdom before religious leaders would because they heard about Jesus and believed.

A long time has passed since Jesus was crucified. You know and understand things that the robber never knew. You have spiritual advantages that robber never had. What do you see when you look at Jesus? Do you look at Jesus and see God?

What you see matters — always.

There is not a single aspect of your life in which it doesn’t matter. Your life contains great danger if you don’t see.

What do you need to understand?

You must look at the Cross and see God.

Many things matter, but nothing is more important than Jesus is the Son of God. All that you seek to be and do must begin with recognition that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Do you believe that? Do you see God in Jesus? Do you want His cleansing? Are you ready to be baptized into Jesus? Give value, one more time, to the death of Jesus. We invite you to Him.

Why keep Jesus waiting?

Used with permission from David Chadwell, West-Ark Church of Christ

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God’s most important objective in each of our lives is to bring us home to heaven with Him. God will use everything that evil does to us, everything evil does in our lives to move us closer to heaven. Evil works powerfully in this world, but God’s power in Jesus Christ is greater (1 John 4:4).

No matter what happens in our lives, not matter how much trouble and pain that Satan causes in our lives, Satan cannot destroy one single promise God made to us. Satan cannot stop God as He helps and sustains us in Jesus Christ.

Do we feel blessed? When do we feel blessed?

I. Last Sunday evening we studied an incident in the life of Peter in Matthew 16:13-23.
A. We learned this sobering truth: we create great spiritual danger for ourselves when we know facts and truths about God’s will, but do not understanding God’s purposes.
1. God revealed to Peter that Jesus was the Christ.
2. Peter understood that truth, that fact, but he did not understand God’s purpose in Jesus.
3. So shortly after understanding the fact that Jesus was the Christ, he rebuked Jesus when Jesus said that Jesus would be killed.
B. When Peter declared that Jesus was the Christ, the living God’s son, Jesus said, “Peter, you are blessed.”
1. I wonder what thoughts and hopes went through Peter’s mind when Jesus said, “Peter, you are blessed”?
2. The gospels reveal that all the disciples, including Peter, expected Jesus to establish his kingdom by becoming the actual king of the nation of Israel.
3. Since Peter thought Jesus would sit on a throne in the city of Jerusalem, I wonder what Peter thought when Jesus said, “Peter, you are blessed.”
a. I wonder if he thought about the wealth of Abraham and Job?
b. I wonder if he thought about the palaces of David and Solomon?
c. I wonder if he thought about the prestige and the power of Israel’s great kings–certainly Jesus would be the greatest king Israel ever had.
4. When Jesus said to Peter, “Peter, I am giving you the keys to my kingdom,” I wonder if he thought even more about the material blessings in his future.
C. Jesus said that Peter was blessed; that was fact; Jesus did not lie about that.
1. But Peter was blessed in ways that he could not imagine or grasp.
2. Peter could not begin to comprehend the great blessings of Jesus.
3. Personally, I doubt that Peter was capable of understanding the blessing that Jesus knew Peter would receive.
II. I want to think with you about some specific incidents that happened in Peter’s life after Jesus said, “You are blessed.” As we look at each incident, I want to ask the question, “Peter, do you feel blessed?”
A. Peter, did you feel blessed the last night of Jesus’ life?
1. Jesus said that all of the twelve would desert him that night (Matthew 26:31-35).
2. You said that even if you had to die with him that you would not desert him.
3. All the rest of the disciples said the same thing.
4. You meant what you said; you were serious in your statement and your commitment.
5. Later, while all of you were in the garden of Gethsemane, as many as 600 soldiers came to arrest Jesus (Matthew 26:47-52; John 18:10).
a. You had a sword with you, and you drew it to fight all those soldiers.
b. But Jesus told you not to fight, but to put up the sword, and you fled into the night.
6. Peter, as you ran from the garden did you feel blessed?
B. A little later you returned to a courtyard where the Jewish leaders placed Jesus on trial (Matthew 26:69-74).
1. You watched the trial and saw the injustice of the situation.
2. Jesus told you that you would deny that you knew him three times before dawn (Matthew 26:31-35).
3. As you watched the trial, you were recognized.
a. A servant-girl said that you followed Jesus, and you said in a voice that everyone could hear, “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
b. Than another servant-girl said that you were one of Jesus’ disciples, and you said with an oath, “I don’t know the man.”
c. Later, some bystanders said that you were one of Jesus’ disciples, and you cursed and swore saying, “I don’t know the man!”
d. Then you remembered what Jesus said, and you ran into the night weeping bitterly.
4. Peter, did you feel blessed when you denied knowing Jesus and fled into the night crying?
C. About two months later, you and the rest of the apostles were in the city of Jerusalem when the Holy Spirit came upon all of you (Acts 2).
1. A huge crowd of people gathered when they heard the unusual sound created by the coming of the Spirit.
2. At first, all twelve of you were speaking to the multitude in different languages as the Spirit guided each of you.
3. Then you, Peter, took control of the situation and preached to the whole crowd–you proved to them that Jesus was Lord and Christ.
4. This was in the same city, maybe in front of some of the same people, that just two months earlier you cursed and swore saying you did not know Jesus.
5. Peter, did you feel blessed when you preached that the resurrected Jesus was Christ and Lord?
D. Very quickly you became the most influential leader in this huge, new congregation in the city of Jerusalem.
1. You healed the lame man at the temple gate and created enormous interest (Acts 3).
2. When you and John were arrested for performing this miracle, you were the spokesman before the Jewish court (Acts 4:8-12).
3. You were the one who confronted Ananias and Sapphira when they attempted to lie to God (Acts 5:1-10).
4. You were so well known and respected in Jerusalem that people carried the sick to the sides of streets hoping that you would walk by so that your shadow would fall on them (Acts 5:15)
5. You were the one who spoke before the court again when all twelve of you apostles were arrested (Acts 5:26-32).
6. You were the one who healed a man named Aeneas in the city of Lydda–he had been paralyzed and in bed for eight years (Acts 9: 32-35).
7. When Dorcas died in the city of Joppa, you were the one who brought her back to life (Acts 9:36-43).
8. You were the best known and most respected Christian leader in the whole region.
9. Peter, did you feel blessed?
E. Then the Lord Jesus asked you to use one of the keys to the kingdom that he gave you.
1. Christ asked you to use that key in a way that you never would have imagined.
2. In fact, the Lord did a lot of things to convince you to do what he wanted you to do.
a. The Lord sent an angel with a message to a man named Cornelius, who was not a Jew (Acts 10:1-8).
b. This angel told Cornelius to invite you into his home to teach him.
c. Then the Lord, on the very next day, gave you the same vision three times, and the vision really confused you (Acts 10:9-16).
d. Then the Holy Spirit told you to go with the men who were looking for you because the Holy Spirit sent those men to you (Acts 10:20).
3. The next day, still confused, you visited with Cornelius (Acts 10:23-48)
a. You asked him to explain why he had invited you to come to his home.
b. After he explained, you finally understood that God wanted you to teach this man and his friends about Jesus.
c. As you were teaching them about Jesus, the Holy Spirit fell on them.
d. That is when you fully understood that they had the right to be baptized, and that is when you ordered them to be baptized.
4. Peter, when you taught and baptized these people who were not Jews, did you feel blessed?
F. News of what you did traveled to Jerusalem fast–the apostles and Christians throughout the whole region of Judea heard that Peter visited people who were not Jews (Acts 11:1-18).
1. When you came back, some of the influential members of the church were upset because you associated with people who were not Jews.
2. They confronted you and took issue with what you had done.
3. After they listened to your explanation, they quieted down when you told them that the Holy Spirit came on them just as it had on you.
4. But after your visit to Cornelius, after you allowed them to be baptized, Acts never again presents you as the leader of the Jerusalem church.
5. You did what Christ and the Holy Spirit told you to do, you used a key to open the kingdom to people who were not Jews, but Jewish people who were already Christians did not like it.
6. Peter, did you feel blessed when you did what Jesus wanted but your fellow Christians did not want it?
G. The fallout from Peter’s visit with Cornelius was very painful for Peter.
1. Later, he was visiting with the church in Antioch, with Christians who were not Jews (Galatians 2:11-14).
2. At first he was eating with these Christians and freely having fellowship with them.
3. Then some Christians came from the Jerusalem church.
a. They were from the same group who condemned Peter for visiting Cornelius.
b. Peter was afraid of them.
4. He stopped eating with Christians who were not Jews and refused to have fellowship with them.
5. He even convinced Barnabas and other Jewish Christians to stop having fellowship with Christians who were not Jews.
6. Paul told him publicly to his face that what he was doing was hypocritical and wrong.
7. Peter, did you feel blessed when this happened?
III. I want to call three things to your attention.
A. Number one: sometimes our suffering causes us to feel blessed, and sometimes our suffering causes us to be afraid.
1. There were times when Peter obviously felt blessed by his suffering.
2. Acts 5:40,41 is a specific example.
a. When all the apostles were arrested, the court wanted to kill them.
b. One member of the court (Gamaliel) convinced the court that would be a mistake.
c. Instead of killing them, the court whipped them (flogged them) and released them.
d. After the whipping, they left the court rejoicing because they were considered worthy to suffer shame for Jesus’ name.
3. But at times Peter did not feel blessed by the shame and suffering.
a. Peter did not feel blessed when Christians condemned him for visiting Cornelius.
b. That hurt Peter, and hurt him deeply.
c. When he visited Antioch Christians who were not Jews, he was afraid of some of the Jerusalem Christians who were Jews.
4. Sometimes shame causes Christians to rejoice, and sometimes it causes them to fear.
B. Number two: It is not unusual for some Christians to resent a Christian who does what the Lord wants him/her to do, but what they don’t want done.
1. The Lord and the Holy Spirit wanted Peter to teach people who were not Jews.
2. Some Jewish Christians in Jerusalem did not want Peter to teach them.
3. Peter paid a heavy price for doing what Jesus planned for him to do, a price that left him afraid of some Christians he may have converted.
C. Number three: The Lord used every experience in Peter’s life to move him along the road to heaven.
1. The Lord used the agonizing failures and the amazing victories to move Peter toward heaven.
2. There are some great moments on the road to heaven, and there are some agonizing moments of pain.
3. But the Lord uses all of them to bring us home to live with God.

One of our greatest challenges is to realize that God’s blessings are working with full power and strength even at those times when life is extremely painful. We want faith to mature in the understanding that God uses everything that happens in our lives to move us along the road to heaven.

If I could ask today, “Peter, do you feel blessed?” I know what he would say–and so do you.
Let’s walk the road to go Home.

Used with permission from David Chadwell, West-Ark Church of Christ

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Second, we exaggerate our personal loveableness by citing all our good qualities: “I am this, and I am that; I do this, and I do that; this person is blessed by me, and that person is blessed by me.”  Most of us tend to have a very good opinion of ourselves! If I convince you to look at only my good qualities, deeds, and characteristics, I can make you see a pretty good person.

Third, we exaggerate our personal loveableness by citing all the good things we do. “Look at all the good organizations I am a member of! Look at all the good things I do in those organizations! Look what I did for him! Look at the ways I helped her! Look at what I did for that family! Look at how much I give and what I give to!”

By doing those things, I can control the way you see me and all my goodness. Inevitably (if I succeed in determining the way you look at me), when someone else is in conflict with me, you say, “I do not see how anyone could have problems with (him or her). (He or she) is such a nice person and does so much good to so many!”

Do something (honestly with yourself) that likely will make all of us feel very uncomfortable. Honestly list all your worst characteristics (in your mind). Honestly admit to yourself all your weaknesses. Honestly confess to yourself all your flaws. Honestly admit how many times your wife or husband, your children, and your friends had to forgive you last month. Honestly admit to yourself your biggest goofs. Honestly admit to yourself what others would see if they saw you at your worst.

After doing all those things, ask yourself why should anyone love you?

Listen or read with me Ephesians 2:1-10: And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

I. Paul declared a deadly war raged (which has raged for a long time) and described those who were victims of that war.
A. Fifty per cent of the war is waged by what Paul referred to here as “the course of this world, the prince of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the sons of disobedience.”
1. Paul also referred to this force in Ephesians 6:12 in this statement: For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
2. Jesus said in John 12:31-32, Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.
3. Most of us would refer to this war as the war between good and evil.
B. Paul said there were two casualties in this war.
1. We need to understand that many casualties did not consider themselves casualties.
2. The first casualty was the person who was dead (spiritually) in his trespasses and sins, in context the non-Jewish person that Jews called gentiles.
3. The second casualty (in which Paul included himself) was the person who lived in lust and indulgence, in this context the Jewish person.
4. All the Christians to whom Paul wrote were in one situation or the other–they all needed God’s intervention when they were victims of the war between God and Satan.
C. God rescued all of them.
1. Their salvation (their deliverance from an impossible situation) occurred because God acted.
2. God acted for two reasons:
a. God by character is a merciful God.
b. This merciful God loved them with a great love.
3. How did God do this?
a. God made them alive with Christ.
b. In Jesus’ resurrection from physical death, God made it possible for all of them to be resurrected from their spiritual death created by their past errors and rebellion.
c. By what God did in Jesus’ resurrection, in Jesus Christ sitting at God’s right hand, they sit with Jesus–Jesus Christ perfectly represents those who accepted salvation.
d. And God through Christ will yet do something even more incredible for these people!
D. The emphasis must be (as it should be) on the fact that all of this occurred because God took the initiative in Jesus’ death and resurrection.
1. Salvation happened because of the goodness (grace) of God!
2. Salvation did not occur because anyone obligated God, or deserved God’s kindness, or created an indebtedness that God was forced to respond to.
3. Our salvation exists because God acted first in love for people–all we can do in any age is to respond to God’s kindness in love for Him.
II. I ask you to take particular note of some statements in Ephesians 2:10.
A. First, note Christians are God’s workmanship.
1. The people of the first-century lived in a day when things were made by the “know-how” and the “patient” hand of a craftsman.
a. There was no manufacturing, or mass production, or power tools and machines.
b. The craftsman:
i. Had to have the “eye” that “saw the possibilities and potential.”
ii. The craftsman had to take what was and transform it into what could be.
2. God had the “know-how” and “patient hand” to craft us into something that did not exist.
a. Christians are not mass produced–each person is unique with his/her gifts and abilities.
b. Christians are individually crafted by God in Jesus Christ.
i. God has the ability to see in each of us our possibilities and potential in spite of our failures, flaws, indulgence, and rebellion.
ii. God has the power in Jesus Christ to transform each individual into what he or she has the potential to become (no matter what I am, God has the ability to transform me!)
B. Note that God, the Craftsman, has created Christians for good works.
1. We exist physically and spiritually because of acts of God.
2. By God’s intent, we who are in “Christ” exist to do good (as defined by God).
a. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 5:16?
Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
b. The focus of doing good is people, people in and influenced by an evil world.
c. The objective of doing good is the glorification of God in this evil world.
3. Obedience to God in fulfilling our created purpose in doing good works is not an after-thought of God.
a. Before Jesus came, God’s intention was that those who accepted the resurrected Jesus as the Christ would do good works.
b. The lifestyle and focus of life of these people would be on doing good works.
c. They would be obedient to God in doing good (which involved a change of life focus) because they appreciated what God did for them in Jesus Christ.
4. The objective of people in Christ doing good works was not to attempt to obligate God to themselves through human deeds.
a. Those in Christ understand they are saved by God’s grace (goodness) given to them as a gift (an inheritance), not because God in any sense is obligated to them.
b. Those in Christ are merely showing their appreciation for God’s grace.
c. These people are merely fulfilling the purpose of the Craftsman who created them in Jesus Christ.
d. They dedicate themselves to doing good works in order to do what God intended them to do.
The object of Christian obedience is not and never has been earning anything. The idea that humans can place God in any form of obligation through any human act fails to deal with the reality of divine nature.

God is God–He can do what He chooses to do. God does not have to consult with us or depend on us in any divine act He chooses to take. God does not need us. We need God. A basic distinction between an idol and the living God is the independence of the living God. An idol has to depend on a human act for everything–it can do nothing independently. However, the living God is independent–He cares for Himself. We depend on Him for existence–He does not depend on us. That is Paul’s point in Athens to idol worshippers in Acts 17:24, 25 and 28, 29.

The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, “For we also are His children.” Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man.

Christians obey God to express appreciation for what God has done and continues to do for them in Christ. Christian obedience says, “Thank you,” to God. It is an expression of faith for those in Christ. It is not some form of hell insurance. If obedience is viewed as a means to obligate God, it is horribly misguided. Nor is obedience a way of getting God to act favorably toward us without our having to place trust in God.

Before we ever loved God, God loved us (Romans 5:8). There are two ways we show God our love for Him in what He did. First is by accepting Jesus as the Christ. Second is by obeying God as His children.

How do you express your love and appreciation for God in all He has done and does for you?

Used with permission from David Chadwell, West-Ark Church of Christ

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People are discouraged for many reasons. (1) For many, life is just plain hard. Circumstances they never once anticipated descended on them, consumed them, and created a personal crises for them. Unfortunately, these people are in congregations that are unaware–for whatever reason–of their struggle. Or their congregation knows their struggle and either offers no help or no encouragement. Or the congregation is a part of the reason for their struggle. So these people look at life, or at the congregation, or at both, and are disillusioned.

(2) Many look at individual Christians they previously respected, but now they see “feet of clay,” and these individual’s weakness or poor choices discourage them. That is why our faith in God should never depend on people. No human is perfect. Every human needs God’s mercy and grace.

(3) Many look at congregations and are discouraged because their home congregation is fractured. They look at “the groups” who are vying with each other for a position of control or ascendency. Their impression is that the church is more an institution than a relationship with God, more political than spiritual, or more about a sense of self-importance than serving. The result: they are disillusioned with the congregation.

(4) Many have a significantly flawed concept of unity, or a significantly flawed concept of God’s purpose in Jesus Christ, or a significantly flawed concept of the objectives of Christianity. The result: these people have significantly flawed expectations. What they expect to happen never happens, and they are disillusioned. Incorrect expectations was a real reason for Jesus’ rejection during the time of his ministry and death–it is nothing new.

Understanding discouragement is not new. Consider today’s text from Ephesians 1:15-23.  For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

I. The first thing I want to call to your attention is that Paul encouraged an imperfect congregation.
A. First, I want to produce a perspective–Paul did not write an epistle (letter) to a place just to be writing because he happened to have some time on his hands and nothing better to do.
1. In Ephesians (and other of Paul’s epistles), Paul wrote about problems that existed at the place where he wrote.
a. If that is correct (and I am convinced it is), many in the congregation did not understand the significance (importance) of Jesus Christ in 1:3-14.
b. They did not understand their dependence on God’s grace in 2:1-8.
c. They did not understand the relationship between grace and obedience in 2:9, 10.
d. They did not understand God’s gift of unity in 2:11-22.
e. They did not understand the importance of hanging in there in 3:12.
f. They did not understand that God’s power had little to do with human expectations in 3:17-21.
g. They did not understand God’s purpose for Christians in 4:1-16.
h. They did not understand they were to become the “new you in God” in 4:17-24.
i. They did not understand that the “new you” deliberately adopted a lifestyle that excluded lying, anger, stealing, ungodly speech, resistance to God’s influence in their lives, and an imitation of Jesus’ kindness instead of negative emotion in 4:25-32.
j. They did not understand they had to be influenced by God rather than the “movers and shakers” who “made things happen” in 5:1-14.
k. They did not understand they lived a lifestyle that rejected drunkenness in 5:15-21.
l. They did not understand the “new you” involved a lifestyle that included the way you treated the people closest to you in 5:15-6:9.
m. They did not understand the importance of wearing God’s armor in their personal struggle with evil in 6:10-20.
2. There are a lot of basic things they either did not know or did not know the importance of.
a. How would you like to be a member of that congregation?
b. How easy do you think it would have been to get spiritually discouraged in that environment?
c. Yet, in 1:1 Paul addressed them as saints who were faithful in Jesus Christ.
d. Do you think we have a lot to learn about Paul’s use of the word “faithful?”
B. Obviously, Paul did not restrict spiritual encouragement to individual or congregational spiritual perfection.
1. Again, let me call something to your attention.
2. First, they did not understand the meaning of unity at all.
a. That, to me, is obvious in 2:11-22.
b. They had no understanding of the fact that unity was a gift God gave in Christ, and their responsibility was to preserve that gift, not create the condition (see 4:3).
c. God made them one in the cross of Jesus Christ, and they did not know it (see 2:16)!
3. Second, it jumps out at me that some of them were continuing to steal as they did prior to becoming a Christian (see 4:28).
a. ”Steals” is present tense.
b. Some of these Christians stole prior to becoming Christians and continued to steal after becoming Christians.
c. They did not even understand that conversion involved accepting a new lifestyle!
d. They obviously had an enormous amount to learn about Christian existence after conversion–it was not easy to go from idol worshipper to Christian in their social environment!
4. Even though these people were Christians and received Paul’s encouragement, they had a lot to learn and understand.
5. How does that fit with your concept of Christian existence?
6. How does that fit with your concept of Christian encouragement?
II. There are some things in our text (Ephesians 1:15-23) that I want you note besides Paul’s encouragement because he heard of their faith in Jesus and of their love for other Christians.
A. First, I want you to note Paul’s prayer for them in 1:18, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints …”
1. He prayed that they would be able to see with their hearts.
a. They were too much like us.
b. They saw with their eyes, not their hearts.
c. They saw what their society saw.
d. They had to be trained to see with their hearts.
e. They had to be trained to see as God sees instead of the way their society looks at things.
2. Only if they learned how to see with their hearts could they know the hope of God’s calling.
a. Their environment in their society was pretty hopeless.
b. Only if they could see as God sees would they allow God to be their source of hope.
c. The reasons for God supplying hope would not even compute in their society–and so it is with ours!
3. Only if they learned to see with their hearts could they recognize the riches of the glory of their inheritance.
a. According to their society, God had no inheritance to give.
b. Society principally measures an inheritance in terms of money, of valuable possessions, and of property–none of which God offered.
4. The things God offered were:
a. A place to belong, to “fit in” for righteous people.
b. Forgiveness coupled with compassion.
c. Grace and mercy.
d. Kindness to people who had nothing to offer.
e. Those are things the heart sees!
f. If you cannot see with the heart, those things are impractical and foolish!
B. Verse 19 talks about the surpassing greatness of His power and the strength of His might.  “… [W]hat is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might …”
1. God revealed His power and might in two things:
a. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.
b. The resurrected Jesus being enthroned at God’s right hand–the most prominent place that the One who ruled could give.
2. In those two things God made Jesus Christ the most prominent human-divine being they would ever know.
a. He had the most important position they would ever know as humans.
b. He had the most important name they would ever know as humans.
c. He is Lord–the Ephesian Christians answered to him!
d. Jesus is God’s fullness who cares for God’s interests in every situation.
III. One final thought I want you to see.
A. Jesus represents God and His purposes, and each of us as Christians represent Jesus and his interests.
1. Just as people look at Jesus and see God,
2. People should be able to look at us and see Jesus.
B. Thus, even if I am a scoundrels, I still represent Jesus.
1. Because any Christian acts less than ideal, his or her behavior gives none of us a reason to discourage others.
2. Our imperfections and flaws provide no one a reason to live and act in ungodly ways.
C. Representing Jesus is a privilege that provides everyone of us a reason to be godly no matter how ungodly others behave.

The challenge for a Christian to be an encourager rather than a discourager is as big as God Himself!

Used with permission from David Chadwell, West-Ark Church of Christ

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I suspect all of us have received gifts. What concept do you think of when you think of the word “gift?” There are birthday gifts, Christmas gifts, welcome gifts, “thinking of you” gifts, various forms of appreciation gifts, various forms of accomplishment gifts like graduation gifts, various forms of event gifts like shower gifts, and various forms of need gifts like the gifts given in a disaster. There are all kinds of gifts people give.

My Webster’s Dictionary says a gift is a voluntary transfer of something from one person to another without compensation. That definition causes me to ask an interesting question: When does a gift cease to be a gift?

Let me give you a couple of illustrations. A few years ago there was a rather common saying in business circles: There are no free lunches. To accept a free lunch appointment from someone in business often meant you accepted a sense of obligation. The sense of obligation: I will be nice to you now, but I expect you to be nice to me later. The sense of obligation eliminated the concept of the lunch being a gift.

Even today sometimes a person or group is given something extremely valuable for one dollar. It may be a vehicle; it may be a building; or it may be some land. The value of that which is provided far, far exceeds the price of one dollar.

So I ask you some questions. Does a sense of obligation cause a gift to cease being a gift? If the value of that provided far exceeds the compensation, is that which is provided a gift? Is it a gift if it is a tax write-off? Is it a gift if there is in any way strings attached?

With these questions, consider our reading found in Ephesians 1:10-14, In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.

Now from the Message Translation.  I start reading in verse 7 to give you the full context of this great message.   Ephesians 1:7-14  Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.

 It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.
 It’s in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free—signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. This signet from God is the first installment on what’s coming, a reminder that we’ll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life.
 
I. The verses in our reading are actually (in the Greek) one sentence that has its beginning in verse 3.
A. It is one of 8 lengthy sentences in Ephesians, and one of the longest (202 words).
B. Some biblical scholars hate this sentence because it is so hard to follow.
C. Some biblical scholars love this sentence because of its lofty language.
D. I do not begin to compare myself with scholars who love or hate it–our thoughts will not focus on how to dissect this long sentence.
II. I want to call your attention to some words Paul used and their concepts which we need to note.
A. The first thing I ask you to notice is that this long verse declares how indebted people are to Jesus Christ.
1. He is our source of all spiritual blessing.
2. He made it possible for God to choose us.
3. He made it possible for God to adopt us.
4. He made our redemption and forgiveness possible.
5. He revealed to us the mystery of God’s will.
6. He is the summation of all God’s purpose in heaven and on earth.
B. And, in our reading today:
1. Christ made it possible for us to inherit from God.
2. Christ provided us hope.
3. Christ allows us to be God’s own possession.
C. One of the central concerns in the first century was the importance of Jesus.
1. There were many people (Jewish people) who were convinced they could do the will of God without Jesus.
2. There were also many people (in idolatry) that were convinced there were numerous others gods to appeal to that had nothing to do with Jesus.
3. Thus, in the first century, placing confidence in Jesus was a “big deal.”
4. Paul said the living God did things through Jesus that could not be done through anyone else.
III. Second, please note this long sentence extols God’s greatness.
A. First, note the relationship between God and Jesus.
1. It is a Father-son relationship, with God being the Father, and Jesus Christ being the son.
2. It is not a brother-brother relationship, but a Father-son relationship.
3. One of the objectives of Jesus Christ was to vindicate God’s greatness.
4. That surely is in keeping with the same writer’s point to the Corinthian Christians in 1 Corinthians 15:28, When all things are subjected to Him (Jesus Christ the Lord), then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One (God the Father) who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.
B. God the Father is the author (source) of all that was accomplished in Jesus.
1. Jesus, in life and death, just revealed the depth of God’s interest in and concern for us.
2. The final objective of all the good things done for us in Jesus is to praise the goodness of God.
a. For example, God adopts us, but God is able to adopt us through Jesus.
b. Or, God is the source of our eternal inheritance, but God through Jesus has the means to grant us the inheritance.
c. Thus, Christians can glorify God because of the wonderful things God made possible for us through Jesus Christ.
IV. There are some particular word concepts you are asked to note in today’s reading (Ephesians 1:10-14).
A. The first word called to your attention is the word “inheritance.”
1. An inheritance is a gift provided on the basis of qualification, not merit.
a. In our society, at death we can dispose of our possessions in any way we choose.
b. We can give our possessions to an institution, a cause, to someone not related to us, or to something that is not even human.
c. In an inheritance, the one who gives the inheritance chooses the conditions or qualifications.
d. In an inheritance, the gift is dependent on the will of the giver rather than the claims of the receiver or non-receiver.
2. To me, it seems ridiculous for any human to conclude any human act in some way obligates God.
a. We respond to God’s gift of Jesus.
b. We placed God under no obligation to give us Jesus.
c. We have salvation because God gave first, not because we did first.
d. I deeply appreciate this same man’s statement in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
B. The second word I would like to call to your attention is the word “predestined.”
1. Because of earlier concepts of predestination, many of us have developed a prejudice to the word “predestination.”
a. The earlier concept associated predestination with personal salvation–God determined whether a person would be saved or lost before the person was born, and there was nothing a person could do to change God’s decision.
b. However, there is a concept of predestination that has nothing to do with God determining a person’s salvation in a way that eliminates the person’s choice.
2. It is likely that most of you accept through faith that concept of predestination.
a. Consider some examples.
b. Do you believe God sent Jesus to this world? Is that not belief in a concept of predestination?
c. Do you believe God will cause an end the this evil world? Is that not belief in a concept of predestination?
d. Do you believe God will cause a judgment of all people to occur? Is that not belief in a concept of predestination?
e. Do you believe that God will finally destroy Satan? Is that not a belief in a concept of predestination?
f. In any one of those things or in all of those things do you believe there is anything humans or Satan can do to prevent some or all of those things from happening? Do you believe one or all of those things will happen because God wills them to happen? Is that not a form of or concept of predestination?
g. My objective is not to convince you to believe in something you reject. My objective is to challenge you to be aware of the fact that there is more than one concept of predestination.
3. There are certain things that God wills to happen that will happen at some point in human events because God purposes and intends them to happen.
a. Your salvation, your personal response to God is not one of them.
b. God willed that all who place their confidence in Jesus Christ and enter him will be saved in him–a person cannot be “in Christ” and fail to be saved.
c. In a general form of predestination, God wills that those in Jesus Christ will be saved–that is God’s desire.
d. However, the choice to be in Christ is yours–you choose to place your confidence in Christ.
e. Generally, God wills the salvation of all in Christ; specifically, God does not choose your response to Christ for you.
f. God wants everyone to turn from Satan, have confidence in Jesus, and be in Jesus Christ. As Peter once wrote in 2 Peter 3:9, The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
g. God wants all of us to be saved–that is His sacrificial intent.
h. If we refuse to enter Jesus Christ and place our confidence in him, that is our choice–not God’s.
C. The third word I call to your attention is the word “sealed.”
1. First, realize what he cannot be talking about.
a. For us, in a democracy and technological age, we likely think of plastic bags and freezing when we think about sealed.
b. In Paul’s age, our form of democracy did not exist, nor did plastic, nor did freezing as a form of food preservation.
c. Thus, Paul cannot be speaking of our form of government or preserving food by using a freezer.
2. Second, their form of government was centered in kings or emperors.
a. They did not have our secure means of communicating nor our secure way of communicating.
b. Thus if someone important wanted to send a secure message to someone, the message sender “sealed” his message with wax and put the imprint of his signet ring in the hot wax.
c. If the hard (cooled) wax and its imprint were unbroken, it meant the message had not been seen by others.
d. Thus the wax and imprint said, “This is the property of the sender, and it is intended for you.”
3. Paul said if they were in Christ, they were God’s property.
a. The imprint was God’s gift of His spirit.
b. That imprint was given to all in Christ (both Jew and gentile) in Acts 2 and 10, and to the individual who was baptized into Jesus Christ as verified in Acts 2:38 and Acts 5:29-32.
c. Christians had God’s imprint in them that said they were God’s property.
4. The person in Christ is not “on his or her own”–he or she is God’s property!
a. The existence of God’s spirit in Christians demonstrates God’s seriousness in granting that person His inheritance.
b. That Spirit is God’s pledge that He will give His inheritance to the person.
c. God will keep His promise to save those who are in Christ!
I hope you will not look at the lengthy sentence in Ephesians 1:3-14 only academically as one of Paul’s long, long sentences. When you look at what he said, I hope you will see these things:
1. The importance of Jesus Christ.
2. That our purpose and Jesus’ purpose was/is to honor God.
3. That God is earnestly committed to saving people in Jesus Christ.
4. That your salvation is precious and deserves your absolute commitment.

The central question: do you want forgiveness as badly as God wants to give you forgiveness?

Used with permission from David Chadwell, West-Ark Church of Christ

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