Editor’s Note: Click here to access Part 1 of this article, published on October 29, 2024.

3. We look to Jesus because he looked ahead to the joy set before him.

For Jesus, the end was always in mind. He didn’t set his eyes like a flint merely to Calvary — no, all along he had his eyes fixed to what was beyond Calvary, beyond the cross. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:21 He who knew no sin became sin. Jesus didn’t just interact with sinners, go play in the sandbox for a few minutes, and get his hands a little messy. He became sin. He wore our shame. Anyone who has ever been scandalously caught, embarrassingly exposed, or sexually abused can identify with this concept of despising the shame. Sin that causes shame is disgraceful. It’s dirty-ing. That’s why most people who are raped feel the unprovoked urge to shower — they need cleansing. Jesus despised the shame of sin and sinners — how? By looking ahead at the joy set before him.

What was that joy? Some would say, “Being resurrected and back in fellowship with the Father.” Maybe. Others would argue, “The joy set before Jesus was going back to Heaven glorified.”

Doubtful. I think the joy that was set before Jesus, beyond the cross, was a pure and spotless Bride who would be arrayed in glory and grace! A people who once were not a people, brought near through his blood! Sinners who had been saved from the wrath of God, set free from their sin, no longer fearing death or judgment!

What was the joy set before Jesus? You, and me. A restored creation, a restored fellowship, a true union of Christ with his people. That’s what gave him hupomone (endurance) with every lash, every accusation, every agonizing breath. In our own race, we too get to enter into the joy of our Master, into a resurrection joy that no one can take from us.

Paul told the Ephesian elders that “none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy.” If our eyes are fixed on our failures, our pain, our despair, we will falter. We (like Peter) will find ourselves enamored with the wind and waves and find our feet slipping. We will one day be with our Lord, and no light or momentary trouble will compare in weight to the glory of that joyful bliss. So, we look to Jesus, who all along had the end in mind.

4. We look to Jesus because he’s now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Where’s Jesus now? He’s not hanging on the cross; he’s seated in glory. We, like the Hebrew Christians in the first century, might be going through trouble, but it isn’t the last chapter!

Ephesians 2 actually says those who are in Christ are already seated with him in the heavenly realms. We are already there! Romans 8 describes our salvation, and it almost seems like Paul is describing our glorification as “past tense,” as already happened!

Even today, Jesus is seated at the right hand of the throne of God, making intercession for us. Cross exchanged for crown. Have you forgotten, weary Christian, that that Day is coming? There are days when the Celestial City looks imminent, and other days when the finish line seems like it will never come. But we look to Jesus.

Verse 3 tells us why: “so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.”

This was a particularly encouraging word for the struggling Hebrew Christians who received this letter in the first century, but this verse isn’t just for them. Does fainthearted or weary describe your race as of late? You may even be wondering how you’re going to even finish this race?

You’re heavy laden, you’re weary, you’re discouraged, or you may even be in the darkest place of your spiritual life yet.

May I encourage you with something the Lord has shown me in the past year? In the last 12 months, I’ve had some of the toughest, if not darkest, moments of my entire life. Yet, even in the chasm of agony, the Lord has proven himself faithful. There were times I was tempted to drop out of the race, or say “Lord, I can’t go on,” but the Lord proved he is indeed near to the brokenhearted.

The Summer Games of 1992 in Barcelona had all the highlights we expect from the Olympics, with the skill and stamina of the human body on full display. However, it was that year’s 400-meter race that held one of Olympic history’s most shocking moments. Derek Redmond, the lightning-fast Brit who had won the 4×400 meter relay in the European and World Championships that year, was the favorite to win the 400-meter individual race. The men lined up, the gun sounded, and Redmond shot off from the starting line, quickly finding himself in the obvious lead. Rounding the turn into the backstretch, Redmond suddenly felt a sharp pain shoot up the back of his leg, causing him to fall face first onto the track. What happened next was nothing short of unpredictable and astonishing.

The pain Derek felt was his right hamstring tearing. As medical attendants began approaching, Redmond fought to his feet. “It was animal instinct,” he would say later. He tried to keep running, but could only resort to hopping, in a crazed attempt to finish his race. When he reached the final stretch, suddenly a large man in a T-shirt erupted down from the stands, hurling aside a security guard as he ran to Redmond, embracing him. Who was this determined fan? It was none other than Jim Redmond, Derek’s father. He told his weeping son, “You don’t have to finish the race,” to which Derek replied, “Yes, I do, Dad.”

With compassion, Jim looked at him and said, “Well, then, son, we’re going to finish this race together.” That’s exactly what they did. (You can Google this. It was captured on video, and it’s emotional and powerful!) Fighting off security men, Derek’s head sometimes deep into his father’s shoulder, they slowly approached the finish line all the way to the end. The crowd watched — first perplexed — then, rising to their feet, they began to cheer, with some weeping. Derek didn’t walk away with the gold medal, but he walked away with an incredible memory of a father who, when he saw his son in pain, left his seat in the stands to help him finish the race.

That’s what our God has done for us. He didn’t yell from the stands for us to “get to work” or “do better; try harder”! That’s not the Gospel. He stepped down, and picked up broken, weary sinners, and completed the work he promised to begin. Since we’re surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let’s also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let’s run with endurance the race that’s set before us, looking to Jesus.

Beloved, he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ. So, keep running. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. One day, your eyes will meet his face to face, and you and I will hear those words, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Master.” Even so, come Lord Jesus.

The Bible often likens our Christian life to running a race, and it’s a great metaphor for a few reasons. First, running, like the Christian life, is grueling! Running our race as Christians may be simple, but it’s not easy. The race metaphor is also helpful because it’s step by step. It’s moving somewhere. It’s progressive. Something’s wrong if our Christian life looks like running endlessly on a treadmill in some random garage, living the same year thirty times over and over.

Thankfully, we’re going somewhere! We’re being sanctified, we’re (hopefully) gaining ground, moving toward Christlikeness, becoming more like Jesus — and there’s a finish line! Also, Paul loved to use this race metaphor to remind us we’re not running someone else’s race. What a good reminder — I don’t need to be someone else — I can run my race. The race metaphor is so instructive for those starting their life pursuing Jesus and seeking to live wholeheartedly for him.

Which brings us to Hebrews chapter 12. The book of Hebrews addresses Jewish believers (hence the name, Hebrews) who were likely facing persecution and social pressure to abandon their faith in Jesus and return to the comfort of their traditional Jewish religious practices. In many ways, Hebrews reads like a sermon, which in my opinion was most likely an actual sermon preached by Paul and written down/recorded by Barnabas. (But if you disagree, I won’t die on that hill — please don’t @me!)

If Hebrews was a sermon, it would be a sermon all about the supremacy of Christ, how Jesus is greater, Jesus is better:

• He’s better than a written word of prophecy or the angels (ch 1).
• Jesus is better than man’s dominion over creation (ch. 2).
• Jesus is better than Moses or Joshua (ch. 3-4).
• Jesus is better than the high priests (ch. 5), the old covenant (ch.8), the tabernacle or sacrifices (ch. 9-10).
• He’s better than any of our heroes of the faith, because he’s the pioneer and perfecter of faith itself, bringing to completion what they all longed for and pointed toward (ch. 11).

Then we come to chapter 12 verse 1, which gives us a “therefore.” Therefore, in light of all of these truths, these proofs of how Jesus is superior to the promises and types of the Old Testament, the practical application is for us as believers to look to Jesus, to Christ alone. Look at verses 1-4:

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founderand perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and isseated at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

Notice that even though there’s a great cloud of witnesses cheering us on, we’re not looking at them. There may be a finish line, but we’re not looking at that. According to verse 2, where are we looking? To Jesus!

There are four reasons that the Hebrews (and all believers) should look to Jesus as we run our race of faith:

1. We look to Jesus because he’s the founder and perfecter of our faith.

The Greek word “founder” in verse 2 could very well be translated the trailblazer, the pioneer, or the forerunner. Jesus is the founder, but he’s also the perfecter. He not only inaugurated (past-tense), but he also will complete (future tense) our faith — not just in a universal sense (i.e., that our faith as Christians is in Jesus) but also in a personal sense. Philippians 1:6 says he who began a good work in us will complete it!

Think about those in the hall of faith, just one chapter prior. Abraham’s faith, filled with lapses of lying and Hagar, is now perfected. Samson’s faith, marred by sinfulness and selfishness and childish riddles and bad haircuts, is now perfected. David’s faith, strong in his youth but marred by scandal in his later years, is now perfected. Let’s not even get started with Jacob, Gideon, Solomon, or Jesus’ disciples!

We look not to ourselves to run this race but to the One who founded and will perfect it in us. So many Christians act like Jesus’ three final words from the cross were not “It Has Finished,” but instead, “It Has Started.” In other words, they live as though Jesus merely kicked off the Christian faith with his substitutionary death — but now the real work, the deepwork, the behind-the-scenes grit and grind are up to us!

Isn’t it an incredible encouragement that the One who has the power to rise again and promises to come again is the same One who promises to also be with us to the very end of the age? That same resurrected King Jesus is the One perfecting your faith.

Growing up, I was a tall kid, so my mom and dad felt that should translate to being good at basketball. Haha, the joke was on them — I was terrible! But as I stood in the driveway taking shot after shot, which (let’s be honest) was brick after brick, my mom would say those three annoying words no kid wants to hear: “Practice makes perfect!” Not in the Christian life!

Practice doesn’t make perfect — Jesus makes perfect! Your final glorification isn’t dependent upon you. Isn’t that wildly wonderful, good news? Jesus began it, and Jesus will complete it. So we look to Jesus because he’s both the origin as well as the outcome of our faith.

2. We look to Jesus because he endured the cross.

Did you notice a few variants of the word “endure” throughout verses 1-3? Look again:

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

The root Greek word we translate here as “endured” or “endurance” is hupomone (ὑπομονή). It means “to remain under” — but not in the sense where the believer is just muscling through turmoil by lying down to be willingly trampled. No, hupomone is a patient endurance that meets adversity head-on and overcomes obstacles with hope and joy. It’s neither unprepared nor surprised by trials, but rather expects them. David Guzik says, “A runner must be stressed to gain endurance. Sailors must go to sea. Soldiers go to battle. For the Christian, tribulation is just part of our Christian life.”

What exactly did Jesus endure, compared to what we must endure? Let’s not forget, or only talk about this around Easter: Jesus endured the cross — a Roman crucifixion — which was so devastatingly brutal that the word excruciating was itself derived from the word crucify. What Jesus endured included the entire hour described in John’s Gospel as soon as Jesus left the upper room. In the garden, in agony, as Jesus prayed for the Father’s will to be done, his facial sweat glands began rupturing blood, a medical condition known as hematohidrosis which is caused by intense stress. Jesus endured the betraying kiss of a close friend who sold him out, then watched his dearest friends abandon him as he was arrested by the temple guard. Jesus then endured false accusations, beatings, having his beard plucked out, being struck in the face, being stripped naked, being subjected to 39 lashings by leather whips most likely embedded with bone and glass, causing his back, legs, stomach, upper chest, and face to become disfigured.

As he was mocked by Herod, and later by Roman executioners, Jesus was clothed in purple robes and then stripped of them again, after his blood would have congealed and stuck to the fabric. Jesus endured a crown of spiked thorns which would have been pummeled into the soft tissue of his skull, and Jesus then endured being nailed to the exposed cross timbers of a tree, where over the course of many hours he would have bled out and eventually asphyxiated. Jesus’ cause of death was a ruptured pericardium after six hours of enduring brutal torture and execution.

The philosopher Seneca asked, “Would any human being willingly choose to be fastened to that cursed tree, especially after the beating that left him deathly weak, deformed, swelling with vicious welts on shoulders and chest, and struggling to draw every last, agonizing breath? Anyone facing such a death would plead to die rather than mount the cross.”

As if all of that physical torture wasn’t enough, it was the fearsome wrath of God that Jesus faced spiritually, as it was poured out upon him to its very dregs. We know the hymn:

It was my sin that held him there / Until it was accomplished!
His dying breath has brought me life / I know that it isfinished!

This is what Jesus endured. This is what he ‘hupomone-d’, what he “remained under.” But notice verse 3 also says, Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. So Jesus not only endured the cross, but he also endured such hostility from sinners. It wasn’t enough that Jesus went willingly to such a horrific death, but it was all for hostile sinners! He endured hostility from the religious leaders who were jealous and wanted him killed. He endured hostility from his own people, who wagged their heads at him as they passed by Golgotha. He endured hostility from the Romans, who mocked him as King, yet also witnessed his death as truly the Son of God. He endured hostility from a punk teenager named Pilgrim, who, in his stupidity, kept rejecting the God who graciously allowed him to be raised in a Christian home and was obstinate in his teenage rebellion.

That’s what Jesus endured. What are we to endure? Does anything compare with what Jesus endured? Forgive my indifference when our prayer requests are that we are getting impatient in traffic! Verse 1 tells us what we endure: the race set before us. We lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely. We look to Jesus who endured so that we may not grow weary or fainthearted. The writer of Hebrews reminds us in verse 4 that it hasn’t gotten too extreme yet in our race: “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” Is that true? You may have had to endure some insane tribulation (and I don’t in any way intend to make light of that), but you haven’t shed your blood yet, have you? Then keep running! Keep looking to Jesus! He’s the One who endured the cross. So we look to him, especially when we face hostility from sinners.

A few summers ago, our family drove across the country and ended up visiting Yosemite National Park for a few days. On the final day, we parked at Tunnel View (which gives you the best views of the entire park; seriously, Google it!) which is literally just a stop on the side of the highway. Many people were coming and going, and a few stopped to jump out of their cars — which happened to still be running — only to snap a quick picture and keep moving on to the next stop. It was quite shocking to me how quickly people came and went, believing that twelve seconds was sufficient to take in one of the most stunning portraits of God’s creation on the planet. Some things are so astounding, breathtaking, and beautiful that they need more than just a quick glance or a fading Instagram story!

As Christ followers, many of us can manage to read through the entire book of Acts, or Romans chapter 8, or other significant passages where the Holy Spirit is mentioned throughout the Scriptures and commit the same error as those rushed tourists at Yosemite. However, a longer, second look is needed. Let’s investigate four realities of the Holy Spirit every believer must understand:

1. The Holy Spirit was Promised.

Acts chapter 2 takes place after the resurrection of Jesus, after his multiple public sightings for at least forty days, as well as after his ascension. There are 120 or so believers who were told by Jesus himself to wait in Jerusalem for the promised Holy Spirit, whom Jesus had said they would be baptized with not many days from now. He explained that the Holy Spirit would bestow the church with the necessary power to be his witnesses in both the city of Jerusalem, the greater area of Judea, and even to those outside of their racial or ethnic comfort zone (Samaria). This would not be a merely localizedreligion — this would extend beyond Jew to Gentile, and beyond Jerusalem to even the farthest corners of the earth.

Acts 2:1 says, “When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.”

This is the Feast of Pentecost, exactly fifty days after the Passover when Jesus died at Calvary. This feast was an occasion when the Israelite farmers brought their first fruit offerings of grain to Jerusalem, where there would be much festivity, as well as the reading of the book of Ruth. So there are about 120 believers all in one place, and notice what happens next:

2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

We get the “firstfruits” of the Spirit’s empowering witness right in the next few verses:

5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.

This was not gibberish; these were literal, recognizable, uttered languages. This was astounding because the ones who were precisely speaking other languages and dialects were simple Galileans — not necessarily the university grads in the community!

7 And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, 11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians — we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” 12 And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”

The misunderstanding that they may be drunk came from those who heard multiple languages being spoken that they couldn’t understand. But as James and John begin speaking of the mighty works of God, the Elamite and Libyan both perk their heads up and say, “Oh wait — they’re not babbling like a bunch of drunks — I can understand them!” So Peter stands up and begins to share the Gospel, saying (verse 15):

For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: “ ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh”

Peter says this isn’t from the influence of too many mimosas; this is a fulfillment of that verse in Joel which we all know: God has promised to pour out his Spirit in the last days, and we’re seeing that promise come to pass!

This isn’t the only place the Spirit was promised by God. Jesus promised the Spirit in John 7:37-38 when he described living water flowing from the heart of the one who believed in him — a reference to the Spirit who hadn’t yet been given. In John 16, Jesus promised the Spirit would come and that he would guide us into all truth. There are many more that time won’t permit, but we praise and thank the Father and the Son not only for promising the Spirit, but being faithful to sendthe Spirit to the church.

2. The Holy Spirit is a Person.

John 14:16-17 says, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”

We refer to the Holy Spirit as the third “person” of the Trinity. When we refer to people, we use personal pronouns, therefore the Holy Spirit should never be referred to as “it.” Some call him the “Holy Ghost,” but I think even that terminology can imply an impersonal force, or wind. Part of what was called ‘the Arian heresy’ was to imply that only the Father was truly God and that Jesus was a created being, thus the Holy Spirit was merely an essence. The Jehovah’s Witnesses propagate this false teaching, but Scripture is pretty clear: the Holy Spirit of God has knowledge (1 Cor 2:10-11), a will (1 Cor 12:11), a mind (Rom 8:27), he loves (Rom 15:30), reveals (Acts 13:2), intercedes (Romans 8:26), teaches (John 14:26), guides (Acts 16:6-7), can be grieved (Eph 4:30), insulted (Heb 10:29), lied to (Acts 5:3), and blasphemed (Matt 12:31-32). These can only be referring to a person.

God didn’t leave us as orphans; Jesus would ask the Father for another Helper — a Person like himself. This means that the Spirit is a distinct and co-equal person of the Trinity. The Scriptures tells us that the Holy Spirit is:

• Involved in creation (Genesis 1:2)
• Involved in the incarnation (Luke 1:35)
• Involved in salvation (Ephesians 1:13-14)
• Involved in the resurrection of Christ (Romans 8:11)
• Involved in judgment (Acts 5 — Ananias & Sapphira)

How did the person of the Holy Spirit work in your salvation? Titus 3 says:

3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

Paul tells Titus that this was their state prior to salvation: mentally and morally corrupt, lacking both sense as well as sensibility. Before we were in Christ, we were empty-headed, empty-hearted, deceived, enslaved, oppressed, and subjugated to malevolence and hostility. Though Paul and Titus use the pronoun “we,” he wasn’t referring only to them! This is the natural state of all unbelievers. Then we come to a radical breakthrough in verses 4-5:

4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy,

In stark contrast to the envy and hatred espoused by the unbelieving world, the good, loving, kind God — whom Paul emphasizes is our Savior — broke into our lawless, rebellious state of confusion. God didn’t measure our good works on one side of the scale hoping to outweigh our wickedness — NO! He didn’t tell us to look within ourselves for the answers, as if meditation, self-realization, or the enneagram would save us. God isn’t a cheerleader on the sidelines motivating us to save ourselves, because that’s impossible. We need something more than a motivator — we need a Mediator — someone to look upon our sad state of spiritual plight and come to our rescue. Paul says God appeared, and he saved us — and it wasn’t because of our works but according to his own mercy. Then notice what Paul tells Titus:

by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

There’s a radical, new beginning in the life of the previously dead-and-disobedient when Jesus Christ justifies us (which means to declare us righteous before a holy God). Notice Paul uses the same term for Jesus that he just did for God — “our Savior.” We can’t save ourselves; we must yield completely to Jesus our Savior: He has justified us by his grace and has made us inheritors of the hope of eternal life. But how did this new life begin? Paul explains to Titus that this spiritual birth happens when the Holy Spirit has been given to us. Notice we have the person of God the Father in verse 4, the person of Jesus the Son in verse 6 — and the person of the Holy Spirit here in verse 5.

Paul tells Titus the washing of regeneration and renewal came to us through the person of the Holy Spirit, whom God poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ. ‘Washing’ describes our baptism into Jesus Christ — our identification with Jesus in his death, burial, and resurrection — which is spiritual, but we commemorate this with the outward, visible sign of water baptism which speaks of an inward cleansing from the old flesh. All who are saved in Christ have been renewed and regenerated by the person of the Holy Spirit.

3. The Holy Spirit is a Provider.

There are many activities or ministries that the Holy Spirit provides to our spiritual life — but here are eight:

• Convicts (John 16:8-15)
• Regenerates (John 3:1-8; Titus 3:5; I Peter 1:23-25; James 1:18)
• Seals (Ephesians 1:13-14, 4:30)
• Indwells / baptizes believers (I Corinthians 6:19; Romans 8:9; John 14:16; I Corinthians 12:13)
• Gifts (I Corinthians 12:7-11)
• Guides (John 16:13-15)
• Produces fruit (Galatians 5:22-23)
• Fills (Ephesians 5:15-21; Galatians 5:16)

Notice the progression here: the Son proceeded from the Father, and the Holy Spirit of God proceeded from both the Father and Son to be poured out on God’s people — convicting us before we were saved, but then regenerating us, sealing us, dwelling within us and baptizing us into Christ. The Holy Spirit gives us gifts which allow us to minister to his people, and guides us to be effective for his kingdom. The Holy Spirit produces the fruit of Christ’s character as we abide in him, and fills us with the strength to walk in a manner pleasing to him.

In the fourth and fifth stanza of Come, Holy Spirit, Come! (Joseph Hart, 1759), we sing these words:

‘Tis Thine to cleanse the heart,
To sanctify the soul,
To pour fresh life into each part,
And new-create the whole.
Dwell, therefore, in our hearts;
Our minds from bondage free;
Then shall we know and praise and love
The Father, Son, and Thee.

God has been faithful to give his church the Promise of the Holy Spirit, which has nothing to do with unbiblical experiences, or feelings, or fluff — but has everything to do with the Person of the Holy Spirit, so that we would receive the Provision of the Holy Spirit — resulting in us experiencing the Power of the Holy Spirit.

4. The Holy Spirit gives Power

Jesus told his disciples in Acts 1:8 that they would receive “power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses…” Apart from the Holy Spirit’s power, the disciples would never have been empowered nor emboldened to share the triumph of Christ’s resurrection with those who had never heard. But the empowering doesn’t only involve the Christian’s mission. The Spirit’s empowerment begins much sooner, and closer to home. Romans 8:1-9 walks us through this transformative enabling in our sanctification.

Just as every Christian is “in Christ,” the Holy Spirit dwells within every Christian! 1 Corinthians 6 and other passages teach us that our bodies are the Spirit’s temple. God’s Holy Spirit dwells within us, giving us renewal, and when we set our mind on the Spirit we experience life and peace. This is how we live and walk — with the presence of the Holy Spirit residing within us. He has been poured out upon us and now indwells all believers. The word for a person who doesn’t have the Holy Spirit is ‘unbeliever‘! Every Christian may not speak in tongues (1 Cor 12:30 makes that easily clear), but every Christian — every single one — has the Holy Spirit. That’s both indisputable as well as comforting.

Doesn’t it strike you that the defining attribute of the Spirit of God is his holiness? Of all the adjectives to put in front of “Spirit” — it’s HOLY that God wanted us to truly grasp. He is set apart, and when we submit our lives to the work of the Holy Spirit, he produces renewal and enables us to walk in fruitful obedience.

What else does the power of the Spirit give us? In the midst of a corrupted, confusing, groaning creation, we have at least two important things:

Assurance

The Holy Spirit assures us of our sonship by adoption, testifying for us and to us that we are indeed God’s children. He has indeed not left us as orphans; God’s Spirit settles the debate in our hearts when our conscience condemns us. Like the new believers at Pentecost, we too have the firstfruits of the Spirit — the deposit given at the beginning of the harvest which guarantees that there’s much more to come. One day, we will exchange cross for crown, suffering for glory, and the not yet will merge with the already as we see the final redemption and restoration of the new heavens and new earth, with Christ consummating his glorious kingdom. For this, we have a sure hope, even though we don’t see it.

The Holy Spirit also gives the believer: Assistance

The word Jesus uses to describe the Spirit is “Paraklete,” our alongside-Helper. He helps us in our human, limited frailties to pray for God’s will even when we can’t find the right words. He picks up where human words and human knowledge fail, and he prays for us! We aren’t left to ourselves to pray, and thankfully, we aren’t left to ourselves to save ourselves. He has already foreknown, predestined, called, justified, and glorified us.

So we have assurance and assistance in our sanctification — available to us as the Holy Spirit takes up his rightful residence within us.

J.I. Packer said, “All who are realistic about themselves are from time to time overwhelmed with a sense of inadequacy. All Christians time and again are forced to cry, “Lord, help me, strengthen me, enable me, give me power to speak and act in the way that pleases You, make me equal to the demands and pressures which I face!”

Within Romans 8, we learn that belonging to Christ means to have the Spirit, but being in Christ isn’t to escape pain, pressure, or suffering. Some preach that message, “Come to Jesus and you will stop suffering!” But we know the truth of the Gospel is an invitation to “come and suffer with Christ.” In this broken and fallen creation, we will suffer. But even in the suffering, the Holy Spirit assures us of our sonship and assists us in our weakness — so in the battle we’re enabled to become more than conquerors.

Amy Carmichael once penned these thoughts:

“Sometimes when we read the words of those who have been more than conquerors, we feel almost despondent. I feel that I shall never be like that. But they won through step-by-step by little bits of wills, little denials of self, little inward victories by faithfulness in very little things. They became what they are. No one sees these little hidden steps. They only see the accomplishment, but even so, those small steps were taken. There is no sudden triumph … That is the work of the moment.”

I would add — that’s the work of the Spirit! In the small moments, when no one is around, we must yield to the Spirit’s work, the Spirit’s help, the Spirit’s guidance, the Spirit’s power. He is our divine Helper, given to the church to make us more like Jesus.

After taking a longer, second look, are you experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit in your life, believer? Are you working out your salvation in your own strength, or relying on the holy provision God has given us in the person of his Spirit? May we echo the same prayer Robert Hawker prayed:

“Blessed promise! Holy Spirit, make it happen in and upon my soul, day by day. Bring me under the continued baptisms of your sovereign influence, and cause me to feel all the sweet anointings of the Spirit sent down upon the hearts and minds of your redeemed. These are the fruits and effects of Jesus, the promise of God the Father. Yes, blessed Spirit, cause me to know you in your person, work, and power:

“I need you day by day as my Comforter.
I need you as the Spirit of truth, to guide me into all truth.
I need you as the one who reminds me of the Lord Jesus, to bring to my forgetful heart all the blessed things he has revealed to me.
I need you, as the witness of my Jesus, to testify of my wants, and of his fullness to supply.I need you as my advocate and helper, in all my infirmities in prayer.
I need you as the deposit of the promised inheritance, that I may not faint or lack faith to hold on and hold out in every dark season.
I need you, Lord. I cannot do a moment without you, nor act in faith, nor believe a promise, nor exercise a grace, without your constant hand on my poor soul.
Come then, Lord, I beg you, and let me be brought under your unceasing baptisms. Shed abroad the love of God my Father in my heart, and direct me into the patient waiting for Jesus Christ. Amen.”

References

https://hymnary.org/text/come_holy_spirit_come_let_thy_bright_bea
https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/resources/keep-in-step-with-the-spirit/
Tim Hansel, Holy Sweat, 1987, Word Books Publisher, p. 130

Have you ever noticed that our society celebrates everything? In September alone, we celebrated “Random Acts of Poetry Day” (September 6), “Video Games Day” (September 12), “White Chocolate Day” (September 22), “Punctuation Day” (September 24), and every parent’s favorite—”Quiet Day” (September 12). Somehow my kids missed that last one.

But October 31–what many people celebrate as Halloween–should be remembered by Protestant Christians as the day we celebrate a huge moment–when a monumental change occurred in the Church.

We call it “Reformation Day“–because on that day, 503 years ago, a German monk, pastor, and seminary professor named Martin Luther published 95 complaints against the Catholic Church practice of selling reductions to the penalty of sin (called indulgences). In a sense, Luther had the boldness to share what the Church should and shouldn’t be.

What Was Wrong

Imagine coming to church, but you don’t learn to lean on the Bible and base your life accordingly. Instead, you had to rely on tradition and opinion and simply follow all the rules someone made up.

Imagine coming to church and never hearing the Gospel preached. Ever.

Imagine coming to church and being able to buy forgiveness. Literally.

Imagine coming to church where getting kicked out meant that you were going to hell. There was no salvation at that point—just the expectation of condemnation.

Imagine coming to church where the leader was also a political ruler who was incredibly corrupt–so that all the church was doing was done to facilitate its main purpose, to generate money, and was wicked to the core.

Such was the Catholic Church’s health when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg.

Martin Luther wasn’t the only one who felt appalled by the condition of the Church. Many others were concerned with where the Church had gone, desiring to come back to a place that honored God and return to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Five Big Ideas

The Reformers believed differently than the Catholic Church. They distilled their core beliefs into what we call the “Five Solas.”

Imagine being asked to sum up your identity in five words. It sounds relatively easy–but try doing it. What if you had to distill your LinkedIn profile down to merely five identity descriptors—what words would you eliminate? How would you adjust your Instagram or Facebook profile, your Match or eHarmony profile (no, I’m not judging), or your Tinder profile? (Ok, now I’m judging ; ) What five words would best characterize you? Imagine having to do that same exercise, but not summing up yourself: imaging summing up all of orthodox Christianity using only five identity words. That’s precisely what the Reformers did when they sought to distinguish themselves from Catholicism.

What are the foundations of the Gospel? What would be the pillars that uphold it?

The Reformers wrestled with this question, in large part, because at the time, the Church was broken. Whatever your thoughts are about it, the Catholic Church was a mess at best, or absolute apostasy and a brainchild of Lucifer at worst. The Catholic Church had departed from the foundations of the faith, believing many things outside the scope of Scripture. They held Church tradition on par with the Bible. They taught that other mediators could forgive sin. They had a different take on how one is justified–made right–with God. The church itself was the dispenser of divine favor–so if you found yourself politically outside of the church for any reason, you were excluded from the divine favor of God.

Enter the Reformers

The Reformers wanted to get back to the basics: back to the pillars of the faith. Thus, we have their Five Solas of the Reformation. “Sola,” of course, means “only.” The idea is that we need these alone for the basics, the pillars, the foundation, of the Gospel.

Christ | Scriptures | Grace | Faith | Glory of God

The message of the Protestant Reformation was that our faith is in Christ alone, revealed through the Scriptures alone, by grace alone, through faith alone, to the glory of God alone.

Think about these statements for a moment.

Christ: the only mediator. Scriptures: the only message. Grace: the only means. Faith: the only method. The glory of God: the greatest meaning.

Let’s consider the Five Solas for a moment:

Christ Alone: Jesus is the only mediator. Because Jesus is the sole meditator between God and man, salvation is possible only by His atoning death and triumphant resurrection. Jesus Christ is not only necessary for salvation but sufficient to save to the uttermost. That means that no amount of human works or merit can contribute to Christ’s finished priestly work. The all-sufficiency of Christ means, by implication, that we are insufficient of ourselves. We can do nothing to save ourselves.

Scripture Alone: The Bible is the only message (or foundation). The Bible alone is the highest authority for governing issues of life and doctrine. We don’t just listen to church tradition or the priest’s opinions. Sola Scriptura doesn’t mean the Bible is our ONLY authority–but it is the highest. Though there are many authorities in our lives, who or what has the greatest authority? Is it Scripture or our experiences? Do we submit the Bible to our business principles, or vice-versa? If the Bible contradicts something we believe, do we abandon the erring belief, or do we neglect the Word of God?

Grace Alone: Grace is the only method. There isn’t a special act or condition that man does to be saved–it is a sovereign act of God on behalf of sinners. It isn’t a birthright, but the grace of God. Grace was spoken about by Paul more than any other biblical writer, about 100x. We can’t understand the essence of Christianity apart from a proper understanding of the grace of God. Pastors who preach sermons from Scripture yet do not understand the grace of God are like pilots who don’t understand the essence of flying. That means they are putting all of the passengers at risk.

Faith alone: Faith is the only means. It isn’t by works that we are saved, or through church attendance, but by faith in Jesus. So the good news of the Gospel is that we do not have to wait for righteousness to be accomplished in us before God counts us righteous before Him. No, God declares us to be justified solely based on Christ’s imputed righteousness.

The glory of God alone: The glory of God is the greatest meaning, the greatest ambition in creation. The reason we exist is to give glory to God. All glory and honor are due to God alone. We don’t give glory to a man, a church, a denomination, a pope, etc. We give glory to God, and everything we do is for Him. The focus–or you could say the win–is that God receives all preference, honor, worship, and adoration in and through our lives.

On October 31, every year, as children are (usually) dressing up in costumes, the Protestant church is praising God for the boldness of Luther and others, for the return to the Gospel and the importance of building our lives and doctrine from the Holy Scriptures. Every year we can celebrate by thanking God for the work of His Holy Spirit in reforming the church to honor Him and to share this message of reconciliation with a lost and needy world.

The Five Solas and Today

We who have been born-again are a part of a great tradition, but the Reformation work isn’t finished. We live in a time when the Church of today is falling into apostasy and compromise. The Church didn’t conquer Rome in the first millennia: Rome conquered the Church. And today, it may not be Rome that seeks to corrupt the Church. The philosophy of this age: secular humanism and postmodern thought, coupled with a feel-good message that appeals to the senses and is soft on doctrine, is working to conquer the Church of our generation.

Scripture alone is no longer sufficient for man. Many are turning to pragmatism and human wisdom for insight. Many modern sermons emphasize a “do better, try harder” moralism rather than the glorious Gospel of Christ’s finished work–and that by His grace through faith, we are saved. We glory in our accomplishments, our attendance, our budgets, our campuses, and our social media influence–rather than delighting in Christ alone for the glory of God.

And yet, with every generation since the incarnation of Christ, it has taken bold men and women of the faith to stand up and be willing to speak the truth even when there is great opposition. For centuries, people were silent as the Church drifted further and further from God’s design, and it took someone like Luther (and others) to stand up and stop it.

May we celebrate the Reformation by being absolutely sold out for the Gospel–being willing to die proclaiming the truth about Christ!

May we be willing to offer our lives to the Lord and worship Him above ourselves or others!

May we have the boldness of Luther to stand up among the people of this generation and speak the truth, living our lives for God’s glory alone, resting in the grace of God, trusting Christ, building our doctrine and life upon the unchangeable Word of God, until we see Him face to face!

“I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen.” -Martin Luther

If anything is certain over the last few months, it is that the predictability of ministry has been anything but certain! Because of the COVID-19/Coronavirus pandemic, people around the globe have been asked (or ordered by their respective governments) to shelter in place, practice social distancing, work, and school from home, and avoid any and every crowd that consists of over 10 people. The very community we long to be meeting together with is now suggested to be a perceived threat to our health. This has caused most churches to transition to online services, pastors to preach to empty rooms and into a camera lens, and the gathering together of God’s people in person to be restricted to viewing their church’s streaming content from their own homes.

Church budgets simultaneously pay utility bills to keep lights and a/c on in empty buildings, while finding new line items to make room for camera, sound and lighting upgrades. Every pastoral team suddenly found themselves attempting to be video producers. Every home fellowship either was postponed, or moved to video conference calls–where our koinonia has been digital, virtual, and fumbled. If that weren’t difficult enough, our economy went into a tailspin and many congregants were unable to make their bill payments–so our benevolence funds have been tapped, maxed, or exhausted. People in our communities are frightened, anxious, and desperate for hope–and yet are seemingly unable to congregate with the body of Christ and hear the transforming hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In short, we long to meet together again!

Many states are reopening and establishments such as restaurants, gyms, and movie theaters are safely accommodating their customers and patrons as they open back up for business. And though the church never ceases to be “closed”–whether due to a pandemic or due to a government decree–we do praise God for the amazing opportunity to be gathered together again with the saints to worship God and be equipped. However, there are some challenges ahead that we should be prepared for. Here are five best practices for the reopening of local churches after the coronavirus pandemic:

1. Give people options.

There are many Christians who are not living in a paralyzed panic–but who are genuinely “high risk.” They may have pre-existing conditions that put their health at risk. They may be a caretaker for someone who is high-risk. They may have a family member who lives with them that is more susceptible to disease. Whatever the unique cases may be, there are plenty of people in each and every church who will not have the flexibility, freedom or peace to immediately gather again in-person. We need to make sure we extend an online viewing option to them for the foreseeable future. There are many great resources out lately for churches to offer an online option–do some research and keep it simple!

2. Give people reassurance.

Make sure the congregation knows that the building(s) you will be meeting in will be sanitized and disinfected in between gatherings. Ensure that seats are spread out or partitioned to allow for social distancing. You may have to move to an additional service in the meantime to accommodate a smaller crowd in a bigger room–but in this season (and in every season for visitors!) people will appreciate a little distance or empty seats around them.

3. Give people grace.

As we begin to meet again, one of the new social norms we will be adjusting to is the face-to-face greeting. In the past, a handshake or hug was an expression of welcome or affirmation (or for the first-century church, a holy kiss!). Today, people may misinterpret a fist-bump or an elbow bump as a rude gesture. If someone goes to hug another churchgoer who is not comfortable with physical contact yet, this can create a tense exchange that can leave people with misunderstandings and awkwardness. We need to champion grace in this season: grace for those who don’t want to shake hands, and grace for those who want to hug every friend they’ve missed for two months. The more we can communicate grace from the pulpit in these confusing times, the better.

4. Give people clarity.

Each church should take the necessary time with their leadership teams to have a clear strategy for reopening. What is the timeline for your gatherings? If there is a limitation on size, what kind of registration will we be offering, and where online will this registration be found? What are the next steps for people to give financially, serve the body, or respond to the call to receive Christ? Will we have health screening, hand sanitizer, masks? Will there be children’s ministry, or will we be having a family service for the foreseeable future? What safeguards have been put in place for volunteers, and what are the options for future home fellowships? The more clarity we provide, the less confusion and frustration we will experience as a church community.

5. Give people hope.

More than ever, our communities need the hope of their sins forgiven and their standing with God to be made right. They need to know that God is sovereign, good, and in control. They need to know that in His great love for us, He sent His Son to put on humanity and take their place, receiving the wrath they deserved. As the world scrambles for a vaccine as a relief from the threat of sickness and death, we have the true answer for the brokenness of sin: Jesus Christ! So as the church begins to gather again, give more opportunities in your church than ever before for unbelievers to repent and trust Christ. Take the time now to plan out new believers’ classes and evangelism training for your congregation. Spurgeon said, “The fact is, brethren, we must have conversion work here. We cannot go on as some churches do without converts. We cannot, we will not, we must not, we dare not. Souls must be converted here, and if there be not many born to Christ, may the Lord grant to me that I may sleep in the tomb and be heard no more. Better indeed for us to die than to live, if souls be not saved.”

Let’s be the city on the hill that is ready to draw a dying and desperate world to the hope that is only found in Christ.

Let’s be ready to “open” and to gather together again in-person with God’s people.

Let’s thank God for this sovereign interruption–even as it has wrought incredible difficulty, challenges, and even death for many–as part of God’s wise and trustworthy rule continues to provoke our praise, gratitude, and submission. In our current cultural moment, can anything be more essential than that?

_{Pilgrim Benham is a contributor of the Expositors Collective, a growing network of pastors, leaders and laypeople, which exists to equip, encourage and mentor the next generation of Christ-centered preachers. Our two-day intensive training seminar is designed to give young preachers exposure to both intentional training as well as hands-on experience and feedback in a peer/facilitator setting. Our next seminar is on February 21-22 in Las Vegas. Register at expositorscollective.com.}

Often at church, when we do an Old Testament character study, we compare ourselves to that character, and then the moral of the story or sermon becomes “Dare to be a Daniel,” or “Have faith like Abraham” or “Don’t blow it as Lot did.” Now those aren’t wrong in themselves–they aren’t incorrect, but they are incomplete. We could be tempted to study David’s life (for example), and look at our outline like this:

• Saul Rejected as King (I need to be a better Saul)

• David & Goliath (I need to slay my giants like David)

• David & Saul (I need to respect my elders the way David did)

• David & Jonathan (I need to be a good friend who sticks closer than a brother)

• David & Mephibosheth (I should show kindness to those with disabilities)

• David & Bathsheba (I should be a better Bathsheba and dress modestly)

What ends up happening is that I become the centerpiece of the story: I’m the hero. But is that true? Am I the master of my fate; am I the captain of my soul?

Do I need to be a better Bathsheba, or do I need to realize that I’ve been wooed and violated by the world? Yet Jesus doesn’t cover up sin by shedding others’ blood to cover His guilt; He died and covered my shame and guilt through His own shed blood.

Do I need to show kindness toward disabilities like David does to Mephibosheth, or do I realize that I am crippled in my sin and deserve the full wrath of God? Yet Jesus calls to me, beckons me to come and then carries me to His table to display His grace and kindness to me.

Do I need to be a good friend like Jonathan, or do I need to realize that to be a friend to this world is enmity with God? Yet Jesus is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Do I need to slay my giants, or do I realize that I am incapable of defeating sin and death? Yet Jesus came and defeated our impossible foe with a single blow.

A True and Better David

You see, I don’t need to be a better David. There is already a true and better David who is the Son of David–and His name is Jesus Christ.

In John 5:39-40, Jesus said, “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” Jesus confirms that the Scriptures testify about Him.

Hebrews 10:7 says, “Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come–In the volume of the book it is written of Me.” The Bible is about Jesus; the Old and New Testaments are the revelation of Jesus Christ. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Verse 14 affirms: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” Jesus is the Word (the Bible) made flesh. The Old Testament gives us over 300 prophecies concerning Jesus, both literal and implied. He is to be born to a virgin, in the town of Bethlehem, from the tribe of Judah. He would come riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, to heal the brokenhearted and the blind, lame, sick and raise people from the dead. Thousands of years before 33 A.D., we hear that He would be betrayed with a kiss, crucified, take our punishment, His clothing gambled over; He would be crucified with sinners and buried in a rich man’s tomb.

The Scriptures testify of HIM! So when I read the Bible, I need to realize who I am in the grand narrative of the Scriptures. I’m a blind beggar who can’t change my condition by trying to be a better person. I am desperate and thirsty, seeking refreshment and purpose as I draw water from a well that will never satisfy. I am the one who has spiritually committed adultery, and in the midst of my accusers, comes One who brings deliverance and salvation, not by abolishing the law, but fulfilling it.

So that means when I read the narratives of Scripture, I see myself rightly.

Seeing Myself Rightly

I’m not Noah who needs boldness to preach righteousness among a corrupt generation; I’m a doomed sinner facing the sure wrath of God who needs to enter through the Door of the ark and be saved.

I’m not Jonah who needs to be a good missionary and go where God sends me; I’m among the Ninevite people who were certain to be destroyed. God’s plan all along was to send Jesus in the belly of the earth for three days, and yet come, representing God to me!

I’m not Esther who needs to be prepared for such a time as this; I’m among a people who will perish by the threat of death if it weren’t for One who intercedes on our behalf, though it cost His life.

I’m not the Good Samaritan who needs to care for my neighbors; I’m the one who was beaten by this world and left for dead. Yet the One whom I never would have expected has come to heal my wounds and pay the price I owed.

May we understand the Bible the way it was meant to be understood: not from my subjective and customized, personal perspective, but from a Christ-centered, Christ-honoring, Gospel-revealing perspective. May the Word of God reveal the God of the Word in the person of His Son, Jesus.

^{The CGN International Conference is focusing on this year’s theme, “Commissioned: Urban Ministry in a Post-Everything World,” on June 24-27, 2019. Visit cgn.calvarychapel.flywheelsites.com for more information.}

Henry David Thoreau once described cities as “millions of people being lonesome together.” Have you ever considered how important cities are theologically? It is fascinating when you begin to realize God’s heart for cities.

Let’s take a brief journey and unpack just how important cities truly are to the glory of God:

The Scriptures begin in a garden and end in a city. The Bible begins in the book of Genesis with the creation of a glorious garden in Eden and culminates in the book of Revelation with the city of Jerusalem coming down, a new heaven and new earth.

The cultural mandate in Genesis 1:28 is an urban mandate. Timothy Keller writes:

“Even in the midst of the garden setting of Genesis 1-2, [urban] perceptions emerge. A perfect creation completed by God and unmarred by sin stood poised to begin its historical development. And in that setting God calls Adam and Eve and their future descendants to rule the earth and subdue it (Genesis 1:28). This calling has been aptly termed the cultural mandate. It is a calling to ‘image God’s work for the world by taking up our work in the world’ (Spykman 1992:256). But it could just as easily be called an urban mandate.”

God’s plan for cities was twisted by sin. So much so that cities can be built specifically to express our independence from God and “make a name for ourselves.” Babel is literally and figuratively the apex of sin in Genesis 1-11. Timothy Keller says:

“The quintessential City of Rebellion is Babel. It’s the original sin city. The first skyscraper is built in clear defiance of God. The original mandate of God to humankind was to be ‘miners’ of all the riches of creation. They were to turn to the natural resources of the physical universe and the personal resources of their own creation in the image of God. They were thus to be culture builders, developing science and art and civic life, building civilization that glorified God as its source and ground. Now we have a city dedicated to ‘mining cultural riches’ for human glorification and to show its independence of God.”

God responds to this apex of sin in Genesis 11 by graciously calling a man named Abram in Genesis 12, through whom God would bless all nations. Contrary to the rebellious city of Babel, Hebrews 11:10 says Abraham “was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.”

When Israel entered the Promised Land, God appointed 48 specific cities to be set up. Keller continues: “Compassion, justice and righteousness were to mark the teaching to come from these forty-eight cities. They were to be Torah centers of instruction by the Levites… They were to exemplify the larger Israel’s vocation to be a holy nation, a kingdom of priests (Ex 19:5-6).” Some of these cities were cities of refuge, where people could seek asylum when they committed specific acts like manslaughter.

The geographical center of God’s activity on earth in the Old and New Testaments was not just a region or a country, it was a city – Jerusalem.

Psalm 107 shows the sorry state of someone without a city, and God’s grace in placing people within cities: “Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in; hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way till they reached a city to dwell in” (Psalm 107:4-7).

Jesus was born in a small village, but the expansion of His ministry clearly moved in an urban direction, ultimately journeying to the great city of Jerusalem.

Jesus’s love for the city is expressed not only by his death but in his tears. Keller again says, “Reading through the Gospels, we find only two times when it is recorded that Jesus wept: once over the death of his friend Lazarus, and a second time over the city of Jerusalem. The spiritual condition of the city moved the heart of Jesus. He himself was born in a village but died in a city.”

The spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ was strategically aimed at cities. When you study the book of Acts, you see a particular mission strategy aimed not primarily at suburban or rural contexts, but in the larger metropolitan and cosmopolitan areas beyond Jerusalem.

Paul’s missionary journeys and his ensuing letters were focused almost exclusively on the major influential cities of Asia Minor. Even at the end of Acts, we read of Paul’s great desire to journey to the most influential city of the day, Rome.

Our eternal dwelling is neither open countryside nor cloud-based, but an urban setting. Abraham sought the city “whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10). Revelation 21 describes and depicts the apex of God’s redemption, as a city! His redemption is building us a city – the new Jerusalem…and the current Jerusalem, The Holy City would be the shadow of the great city to come, where Jesus would reign eternally on David’s throne.

Fascinating, isn’t it?? In fact, when you start studying this, you find that the word city is cited some 1,250 times in the Bible – 160 times in the New Testament (polis in Greek) and 1,090 times in the Old Testament (ir in Hebrew).

The Greek word for “city” (polis) is where the words “polite” or “polished” come from. Greeks considered people who didn’t live in the city to be unpolished and impolite. The Latin word for city (civitas) is where we get the word “civilized.” For the Romans, to live in the city is to be civilized, whereas people in the country were uncivilized.

The city is home to both the politician and the poor, the collegiate and the criminal, the businessman and the beggar. People throughout time have both fled to the city for refuge, protection, commerce, philosophy, education, fashion, political power, judicial decisions, and industry and fled from the city for serenity, solitude, and retirement. The city is a melting pot of diversity—not merely in race—but also in religion, theology, politics and socioeconomic differences. Those who live in the city are bound by its successes and failures, must live an integrated life where they eat, live, work and play all in one unified territory.

In 1900, 10% of the world’s population was urban. By 2005, more than 50% of the world’s population had become urban. And the trend is accelerating. 2007 was the tipping point, where for the first time in all of eternity, more people lived in cities than in rural areas. And that trend will never reverse.

HOW SHOULD WE THEN LIVE?

4 WAYS CHRISTIANS IN THE CITY MUST LIVE

1. Intentionally, not Accidentally

That encompasses how we pray, where we work, play, shop and recreate. Do you work intentionally to best steward the Gospel in the context of your city? Would you be willing to switch professions in order to better steward the Gospel? Those who live in the city must live with a Gospel intentionality. Whether we are on public transportation, in an Uber, working in a co-op or grabbing artisan coffee with other professionals, we should have a focus on bringing Christ into the dark places we encounter on a daily basis.

2. Distinct, not Divorced

Think of how we typically approach the world. Christians are so freaked out about the world, and I understand it. There are evil people out there, and germs, and we have to do SOMETHING. But notice how we approach the world. It’s usually one of four ways:

Lighthouse: The rhetoric these Christians use is that the church, like a lighthouse, is a shelter from the rocky, dangerous and pervasive evil that lurks all around, like a ship in a harbor. The lighthouse beckons all those desiring to live righteous lives to come and seek refuge from the storm. The church, therefore, acts as a functional bunker protecting the church from the sin (and the blessings) of the city. The church as a lighthouse has difficulty bringing redemption to the city because it is not participating in the cultural, social, political, economical, educational or philosophical amenities the city prescribes. Often these churches will have their own private schools, their own soup kitchens, their own ministries that attempt to bless the city; but they fail to come alongside civic programs that are making great strides, simply because these lie outside of the established church. The emphasis is to be a shelter from the city.

Picket Line: Taking the mentality a step further, the church as a picket line sees the city as wicked, depraved and beyond repair or redemption. This church would reject anything the city contributes like art, music, education or holistic civic programs as beyond redemption and erroneously work against the city, rather than embracing what can reflect the goodness and glory of God. Christians who live this way galvanize themselves and create a dividing wall of hostility, often taking strong political stands in both moral and nonmoral issues. The emphasis is to be separate from the city.

Mirror: On the other end of this continuum is the church that acts as a mirror to the city. This church takes all its cues and commands from the current culture. It is the church that only longs to be relevant at the price of Biblical truth, to be comfortable at the cost of being righteous, to be ecumenical at the expense of having convictions. Christians who “cut/ paste” the world’s system have difficulty expressing the redemptive nature of the Gospel and rather emphasize a social gospel that lacks a spiritual Gospel. The emphasis is to be the same as the city.

City on a Hill: Jesus employed this analogy to speak of His preference to how Christ followers should live in culture. A city on a hill stands out and cannot be hidden or separated from the world. It is a high and lofty ascent of splendor, holiness and majesty. It is a beacon of hope for those in darkness, despair or lost on a weary journey. In the midst of our city, we are to stand out as a city within a city, one that stands apart and is desirable and redeeming to all those who reside nearby.

In fact, go back and reread what Jesus said about being salt and light (Matthew 5:13-16). Jesus wasn’t saying we need to be saltier and more lit. He said we already are the light of revelation and redemption in a dark place. We are the preservative agent that brings flavor to a dull and dying world. We don’t have to try harder—intrinsically this is who we already are.

3. Attentive, not Oblivious

How many of your coworkers grew up in Christian homes? What is God doing in your neighbors’ lives to draw them closer to Christ? Who in your classroom is in a place right now that could use steady, persevering prayer on their behalf? We must be attentive, not oblivious in the context God has placed us in.

4. Toward Need, not Toward Comfort

God’s desire is that Christians would be in the city, to be a light shining in the dark places of crime, fear, injustice, poverty, disease and brokenness. His followers, living as His ambassadors, will model His communicable attributes and speak of His unfailing love and grace expressed in the cross of Christ. As salt, Christians can preserve and bring flavor to the bland rhetoric and empty philosophies of this age. We can love our God and our neighbors as ourselves, as we surrender our rights and desires and lay down our lives to bless the city.

Does God want to do something great in our lives? Perhaps. Does He want to do something great in our city? For sure. And He desires to use us collectively to further His kingdom. So we have to wake up to this reality and stop sleeping in the light and hiding out like a terrified cell group.

Aaron Coe, a former NAMB missionary church planter and current executive director of the Send NYC church planting advocacy organization in New York, said a key factor is that Christians simply need to return to the cities with their families and influence:

“If people move back in, live out the gospel, see people come to Christ and plant churches, then we’re going to start to see massive transformation happen. We’ve got to cast that vision, let people know that there are opportunities…it’s not for the cities’ sake, it’s for the whole nation’s sake. Because what happens in the city…so goes the rest of the country.”

May we see the need and be willing to plant our lives, the Gospel, our families and even new churches in the hardship, joy and beauty of urban centers.

“For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17).

If the church of Pergamum is an example of the compromising church that is taking the first kiss toward sin, then the church of Thyatira is the church that has completely gone to bed with idolatry and is suffering the life-threatening side effects of immorality. The longest letter written by Jesus to the seven churches was necessary to correct what could very well be the most corrupt of all the churches.

We are studying the seven churches of Revelation chapters two and three. In chapter one, we saw John the Apostle, exiled to the island of Patmos, in which he turned around to see Jesus in His unveiled, resplendent glory, with a message to seven distinct churches in the region of Asia Minor. These were seven literal churches, who needed to heed the words Jesus brought to them. But these words also apply to every church in history and to the greater body of Christ at large.

We’ve already heard Jesus speak to the churches of Ephesus, Smyrna and Pergamum. And now we are going to hear Him speak to the church of Thyatira.

If you are taking note, there is a very helpful outline to follow along and better understand each of the seven churches. In each letter, we have been learning more about each distinct city, along with a characteristic of Christ from Revelation one. Jesus gives almost every church a commendation, a criticism and a correction, as well as a crown for the one who overcomes.

CITY

A few things about Thyatira are very important. First, it was the headquarters for many ancient guilds: the potters, tanners, weavers, robe makers and dyers guilds. It was actually the center of the dyeing industry (no pun intended). Remember Lydia, the seller of purple, in Philippi? She became Paul’s first convert in Europe. Acts 16:14 tells us that Lydia was from Thyatira. Apollo, the sun god, was primarily worshiped here.

It sounds pretty significant, but actually, it was the smallest and most unimportant city Jesus spoke to. The elder Pliny dismissed Thyatira with the almost contemptuous phrase, “Thyatira and other unimportant cities.” It is interesting that this is seemingly the most insignificant church of all the seven churches, but Jesus had the most to say to them.

How does Jesus address them? Look at the characteristic of Christ in verse 18.

CHARACTERISTIC OF CHRIST

“These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass.”

This is not the introduction the Thyatirans were hoping for. Jesus says He is the SON OF GOD, giving His authoritative place in the Trinity. Then, He refers to His eyes, which are like blazing fire, seeing all things we think are unseen. His feet are like burnished bronze, like a refining fire melting brass. When Jesus says there is fire in His eyes, He isn’t talking about a romantic stare with eyes of deep passion. It means eyes that see through the pretenses, eyes of judgment. Our culture doesn’t particularly like the idea of someone looking at us with judgment, but Jesus’ penetrating gaze is ultimately to heal, not condemn. He also has feet of brass or bronze. Bronze is always Biblically symbolic of judgment. It’s like when your parents used to call you by your first, middle and last name; you don’t know what is coming, but whatever it is, it’s gonna be bad, right?

So why is Jesus coming to judge this church? Look at the commendation of Jesus in verse 19.

COMMENDATION

“I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first.”

1) Works:
This fellowship had hard workers that were known for their actions, not just their beliefs.

2) Love:
The church at Thyatira, in contrast to Ephesus, had love for many people. In fact, they are the only church that Jesus commended for having love. But this could prove to be a downfall.

3) Faith:
Their deeds and love were motivated by their faith in Christ.

4) Service:
This church was heavily involved in ministry and in serving others.

5) Patience:
They had patient endurance/steadfastness.

6) Doing More:
Their latter works exceeded the first. That means they were growing in their faith, not just resting in something God did for them in the past.

I look at the church today, and I wonder if the same commendation could be said of us: We have great deeds, love, faith, service, persevere. We are doing more now than ever. Someone may read Jesus’ words up until this point and stop there and think, “Ok, wow, that church should get a straight A!

But sadly, there is a criticism, and it is a scathing rebuke by Jesus that basically flunks this church.

CRITICISM

“Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works (Revelation 2:20-23).

Wow, that’s heavy. Sadly, the church in Thyatira had (if you can believe this!) too much love. (That is actually an incorrect statement, and I’ll clarify what I mean in a moment!) Ephesus was strong in doctrine but lacked love. Thyatira was strong in love but weak in doctrine. They weren’t willing to disagree with anyone about doctrinal heresies.

One person has said:

“It’s common for churches to be polarized in one of these two extremes. Either they will have full heads and empty hearts, or full hearts and empty minds. Either polarization is deadly. God demands both love and sound doctrine” (see 1 Timothy 1:5).

Table salt is a compound, a mixture of two elements: sodium and chloride. Both of these elements are poisonous by themselves. Sodium, an alkali metal, can be explosive if added to water, and chlorine is by itself a highly poisonous gas. If you ingest either sodium or chloride alone, you will die. But if you put them together properly, they become sodium chloride: common table salt.

So too, doctrine and love must be found together. One without the other can lead to a dangerous imbalance. But combined they provide flavor and health to the body of Christ.

Some would say this church was strong on love and weak on doctrine. But I question that exact definition. Because if we understand love correctly, would we really say they loved too much? I believe they bought into the lie that says you can love someone without truth. But love without truth isn’t love. It’s infatuation. It’s concession. It’s masqueraded hatred. Because if I truly love someone, I’m not going to withhold truth from them which would lead to their destruction. If I do, that means I’m indeed loving: I’m loving myself and my comfort, but I’m not truly loving the other person.

Jesus said the church in Thyatira TOLERATED Jezebel. Now obviously no one would name their daughter Jezebel (that’s like naming your kid Pilgrim or something:). No, Jezebel here is a symbolic name. She represents the despicable woman from 1 Kings. If you remember, king Ahab was basically the most evil and dirty and demonic king that ever reigned in Israel, and he married this evil woman Jezebel.

And as soon as he married her, Ahab began to serve and worship Baal, the false god that was constantly a thorn to Israel. Jezebel led people to commit sexual immorality and to offer their food to idols. And Ahab, toward the end of his life, developed a sudden thread of a conscience, after he heard what God had to say. You can read about it in 1 Kings 21. But as long as he was with Jezebel, he was tempted to sin gravely against the Lord.

Jesus said that Jezebel was committing sexual immorality and was teaching and seducing people to do the same. Someone reading this blog post may say, “Well I don’t struggle with that, so I’m good!” But before we think we are off the hook, Scripture calls idolatry the same thing as spiritual adultery, like an unfaithful wife leaving her husband. So Jezebel in a sense represents things in our life that lead to idolatry–to worshiping things instead of God.

Jesus says He is graciously giving her time to repent–like He gives all of us–like Ahab had time and actually DID repent. Yet this Jezebel in Thyatira didn’t change her ways, so He would cast her onto a sickbed. Notice that He says that people who commit adultery with her will also face consequences, in this case–dead children–meaning more consequences of their sin.

Jesus said that if they did not repent, they would eventually die. And notice He says all will know that, “I am He who searches the minds and hearts.” Literally that means the hearts and kidneys. To the ancient Jews, the heart was the seat of the intellect, and the kidneys were the centerpiece of emotion. He’s saying, “I know every thought and feeling you have” (Psalm 139:23-24)

Note with me that the perennial problem with the church of Thyatira was that they tolerated Jezebel’s doctrine. Ephesus was commended, back in verse two, for not “tolerating wicked men, but testing those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.” Here Thyatira is criticized for allowing sinful heresy into the body of Christ.

Though Thyatira would get an A+ on a lot of areas, there was one area that made them flunk the exam.

In a word, the church was tolerant. First, there is:

1. A desire to fit in with the culture

How does a church that is solid suddenly become tolerant of heresy and sin? It isn’t always sudden, actually. We are growing up in a culture that embraces POSTMODERNISM. What is postmodernism? It is a whole system that basically teaches that we can’t really know anything for sure, that truth changes, and as long as you believe it personally enough, it is true for you. In other words, there is no absolute right and wrong, and if you can’t allow me to believe what I believe, you are racist or a bigot, and you are intolerant.

Allan Bloom said:

“Openness – and the relativism that makes it the only plausible stance in the face of various claims to truth and various ways of life and kinds of human beings — is the great insight of our times. The true believer is the real danger. The study of history and of culture teaches that all the world was mad in the past; men always thought they were right, and that led to wars, persecutions, slavery, xenophobia, racism and chauvinism. The point is not to correct the mistakes and really be right; rather it is not to think you are right at all.”

I’ve heard this same idea echoed in a million and one college dorms, Starbucks, news reports and community groups. It is the issue of absolute truth and tolerance. So we have to desire to please Jesus, not just fit in with the culture around us.

2. A failure to rightly define sin

We no longer call sin what it is: lawlessness, rebellion, treason, spiritual adultery, breaking God’s laws and commands. We start wanting to use new words that don’t sound so offensive. So we stop saying, “sin” and start saying “struggle,” or “disease,” or “disorder.” While we’re at it, we start coming up with new definitions of other words, even the word “tolerance.”

In D.A. Carson’s book The Intolerance of Tolerance, he brings us back to the original word “tolerance” as it was defined in the dictionary. You could say we now have “Old Tolerance and New Tolerance.”

“The traditional/modernist use of tolerance: ‘I may disagree with you, but I insist on your right to articulate your opinion, no matter how stupid or ignorant I think it is.'”

But New Tolerance is very different. The United Nations Declaration of Principles of Tolerance in 1995 asserts: “Tolerance involves the rejection of dogmatism and absolutism.”

Does this mean that we have no right to hold conflicting things to be dogmatically true? The national Lambda Chi Alpha position says,“The definition of the new tolerance is that every individual’s beliefs, lifestyle, and perception of truth claims are equal. There is no hierarchy of truth; your beliefs, and my beliefs are equal and all truth is relative.”

Hint: by definition that means that “tolerant” people are intolerant of Christians.

3. Forsaking absolute truth for relativism

Thankfully Christians still believe in absolute truth, right? Actually, I was discouraged to see these sad statistics that were just released recently by the Barna Research group:

Only 44 percent of born again adults are certain that absolute, moral truth exists. Barna also discovered that only 9 percent of born again teenagers believe in absolute, moral truth.

D.A. Carson, again, explains that:

“Now tolerance means that you must not say that anybody is wrong. You have to say that all positions are equally valid.”

4. Moving close handed issues into open handed ones

The Christian believes there are open handed issues and close handed. And we must never, EVER begin to open the close handed issues for debate.

This begins with questioning a foundational, Biblical doctrine. Then the questions get considered, and suppositions get formed. Then those turn into arguments to defend. And before you know it, we have a full blown heresy. I like what C.S. Lewis said,

“An open mind, in questions that are not ultimate, is useful. But an open mind about ultimate foundations either of Theoretical or Practical reason is idiocy. If a man’s mind is open on these things, let his mouth at least be shut.”

Many scholars believe Jezebel was encouraging the church to join the trade guilds of Thyatira, even though that would mean giving honor to the guild god or goddess which included participating in the festivals where they sacrificed food to idols. She wanted the church to embrace the world even if that meant fully compromising your beliefs to reach people with “love.”

5. Failing to take a stand for truth

What does the Bible say about how we should react to heresy?

Here are a few verses:

“Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in so doing have wandered from the faith” (1 Timothy 6:20-21, NIV).

“Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly” (1 Timothy 4:7, NIV).

“For there are many rebellious people, full of meaningless talk and deception, especially those of the circumcision group. They must be silenced…rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith” (Titus 1:10-13, NIV).

“But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless” (Titus 3:9, NIV).

Did you catch how Paul instructs us to do with heretic doctrine and those who teach it? Turn away, have nothing to do with, silence them, rebuke them, avoid their teaching. Kind of the opposite of what the word “tolerate” means, doesn’t it?

I believe we are in danger of doing the same thing: tolerating a bunch of ridiculous beliefs, because, like Thyatira, we are too scared or too “loving” to speak the truth. We are afraid we will lose our friends or the argument, so we sit idly by and allow ignorance and even heresy to infiltrate the church.

Martin Luther King Jr. said it best when he said:

“There comes a time when silence is betrayal…Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

I believe we live in a day when the church tolerates Jezebel.

May we boldly stand for truth: absolute truth. Keeping the close hand closed. Rightly defining tolerance. Standing up for truth even when we stand out compared to our culture.

CORRECTION

“Now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden.”

Jesus called Jezebel’s practice a “doctrine.” He described it as “the depths of Satan.” What does that mean?

Smyrna was attacked by a synagogue of Satan. Pergamum dwelt where the throne of Satan existed, but those churches had resisted Satan. Thyatira, on the other hand, had fallen into the deep things of Satan. Notice in verse 24 that Jesus said this to “the rest.” There were some in the church that wouldn’t put up with false teaching, and Jesus said,”I put on you no other burden.” That should be our response. Don’t put up with heresy.

“But hold fast what you have till I come.”

I love that! Jesus doesn’t give us any big command or burden; He just says, “Whatever you already have, just hang onto it; I won’t lay some big heavy command on you.” I think sometimes we think God has this huge laundry list of DO’s and DON’Ts for us, and we just have to barely hang on by a thread, trying to impress Him. He says to the weary soldier, “just hold the line, don’t let go; I’m not laying more weight on you than what you already have.”

Some reading this blog may barely be hanging on. You feel like giving up or giving in. And Jesus says, “Just hold fast what you have. Don’t let go. I’m coming quickly.”

For those in Thyatira with sound theology and robust doxology; nothing more is needed! Just hang on to truth and your love of Jesus! Now notice the reward.

CROWN

“And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations—‘He shall rule them with a rod of iron; they shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels—as I also have received from My Father.”

Here Jesus references Psalm 2, another reference to judgment. In Thyatira there was a big pottery guild, and Jesus is saying He will give us authority, like He was given from the Father to rule over the nations. We don’t need to be afraid that we are some minority that is on the losing team. We have been given authority, and truth will win in the end! Jesus has all authority, and those who oppose His authority will be crushed in judgment.

“And I will give him the morning star.”

Satan is known as the morning star in one reference, and Jesus is saying, “This world might think it has the brightness and the beauty, but I will give the overcomers the true morning star, the judgment AND the illumination, MYSELF.” Jesus is referring to Himself, as a bright star of the morning.

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”’

The name “Thyatira” means sacrifice or sacrificial offering. Isn’t that interesting? They as a church were willing to sacrifice their faith on the altar of compromise. And what began as a small compromise into a little false doctrine quickly became them sacrificing truth in order to accept others. Abandoning what is true for what is convenient.

In 1979 Arthur Leff, a Yale law professor spoke at Duke University and expressed how torn human beings are over this issue of absolute truth and the desire for it and the hatred we feel for it.

Here’s what HE said:

“I want to believe—and so do you—in a complete, transcendent, and immanent set of propositions about right and wrong, findable rules that authoritatively and unambiguously direct us how to live righteously. I also want to believe—and so do you—in no such thing, but rather that we are wholly free, not only to choose for ourselves what we ought to do, but to decide for ourselves, individually and as a species, what we ought to be. What we want, Heaven help us, is simultaneously to be perfectly ruled and perfectly free, that is, at the same time to discover the right and the good and to create it.”

The reality is, truth is found not in a principle but in a person. Jesus said, “I am the Way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Just minutes before being crucified, Jesus said to Pilate in John 18:37-38:

“‘For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.’ Pilate said to him, ‘What is truth?’”

Imagine that: The One who had the words of truth, better than that, was filled with the Spirit of truth, better than that, embodied the belt of truth, the One, unlike Moses through whom the law came, who was incarnate in the world bearing grace and truth, better than that, He WAS the Truth, was standing right in front of Pilate, who in a single question dismissed the discussion with a wave of his hand.

There aren’t multiple ways to God. There is only one way, and His name is Jesus. He is the door. He is the bright morning star. Rather than sacrifice truth on the altar of acceptance like this church, Jesus was instead betrayed, cast out and nailed to a tree. He made the ultimate sacrifice, so that we could know the truth.

Do you know Him? Do you have ears to hear Him?

Underneath this large oak tree in my yard there is not much grass growing because of the leaves that fall in the autumn, but for the last few years, a large percentage of weeds would grow quickly and provide green ground cover during the spring and summer. And thankfully, they were green. They appeared to the naked eye as grass. But in actuality, they were weeds.

Some friends of ours happened to have some extra sod, and they offered it to us. We found a patch by our porch that would work perfect with some sod, so we laid a bunch of new grass down and began watering it and maintaining it. It was green, healthy and beautiful. At the same time, these ground cover weeds under the oak tree were spreading everywhere. Eventually, they found their way into our sod–the good grass.

At that point, I had a decision to make. Do I take the time to pull up the weeds and protect the grass? Do I put the effort and attention needed into removing what is unhealthy in order to preserve what is healthy? The answer was yes and no. Yes, I began to remove weeds, but no, not fast enough and not long enough. The weeds eventually took over and snuffed out the good grass.

That’s what happened to the church in Thyatira. Church history records that by the second century, they were no longer in existence. They didn’t repent. They didn’t heed these words.

Is there an area in your life–which seems maybe small or insignificant–perhaps it is doctrinal or practical, or on the border of sinful–and you aren’t paying attention to it? Like Pergamum, are you beginning to compromise your beliefs or your behavior?

We can keep tolerating sin, but one day, its destructive effects will take hold of us. Like carcinogenic toxins, sin will slowly kill us, one day at a time, one bad decision after another. My prayer is that we will stand for truth, keep His word to the end and be the church that is known for speaking the truth in love.

^{Enjoy the complete #modernchurch series!}

I was surprised by the following true story:

The location: Pearl Harbor The date: Sunday morning, December 7, 1941. Three hundred and fifty-three Japanese airplanes began swarming all around the harbor. Within a couple of hours, America lost eight battleships, six major airfields, almost all planes and 2,400 men. What began at 7:50 a.m. was supposedly a surprised attack. But these are the startling facts:

That morning, 50 minutes earlier, at 7 a.m., while the Japanese warplanes were 137 miles (50 minutes) away, two US soldiers on a small radar station in the Pacific scanned the screen and saw dots appearing, until the whole screen was filled. These soldiers notified their youthful supervisor, a lieutenant. No other officer was around, that being a Sunday.

The lieutenant thought these must be planes from California, and without another thought, said these crucial words: “Don’t worry about it.” There would have been time to scramble the planes at Pearl Harbor, prepare the battleships and shelter the men, but this lieutenant, at the most responsible moment of his career, failed the nation with the words, “Don’t worry about it.”

In our own lives, is there something that could wreak havoc–spiritual destruction in your life–and yet you dismiss it away, thinking, “Oh, don’t worry about it! It’s just a ‘little’ sin”? It is nothing big.” That is what we call spiritual compromise. Pearl Harbor may have been prevented if someone took the warning seriously. But because they didn’t, they said, “Don’t worry about it,” and numerous lives were lost.

Many of us may have an area of spiritual compromise in our lives as we read.

Compromise. We hear that word in politics, and we think that it is a good thing. Recently, we had a limited federal government shutdown. I heard media personalities asking the question: “When will the Republicans and Democrats reach a compromise on DACA, so we can move forward together?” Compromise: It sounds like a good thing, at least in politics. What about compromise in relationships? Compromise in marriage is not only important, it is necessary. Think of married couples going shopping together, and you’ll understand the importance of compromise.

My wife Jenn tends to shop in slow motion, like she’s leading a group of children on a field trip. There is very little attention span, lots of bathroom and snack breaks, and generally you move about .5 miles an hour. On the other hand, in a mall I’m more like a Navy Seal team on a rescue op. It’s an in-and-out mission–we’ve got to make the clothing extraction. I’m running in, almost at a frantic pace, checking the sign to find the location of the store I need; then I’m mapping out the most strategic route to find the fastest shortcut, and I’m in the store and out with my jeans in about 18 seconds, while the cashier is thinking, “Did you see something?”

So when my wife and I go shopping, we have to use this word “compromise.” I have to slow down, and simultaneously, Jenn has to speed up. We both compromise our strategies and generally enjoy our life and marriage much better that way (plus Amazon doesn’t hurt…) In politics, relationships and business agreements, compromise is important. But in our moral and spiritual lives, when we use the word “compromise,” this is a very negative thing.

Tony Evans said:

“Compromise is the cancer of the church, and we must rid Christ’s body of it. While Christians can compromise on preferences, they cannot compromise on principles. We can’t be one way on Sunday and another on Monday. This is a major problem among Christians in America today. We don’t take a stand. We don’t keep our standards. We merely shift to satisfy society.”

There was a church in Asia Minor that was beginning to take those slippery steps. Today we’re going to study the church that met in the city of Pergamum. John the Apostle was on the island of Patmos and turned around to see Jesus in all of His unveiled glory. And Jesus said, “write these things down” and then spoke a word for seven churches in Asia Minor. With each of these messages, we see the following outline:

. A City

. A Characteristic of Christ

. A Commendation

. A Criticism

. A Correction

. A Crown

The City of Pergamum

Pergamum was a religious epicenter. We’ve already looked at Smyrna–the commercial center–and Ephesus–the political center– but then there was Pergamum, the religious center. It was quite an impressive city, built high on a mountain and a very strong tower of defense. In fact, the name, “Pergamum,” means “citadel,” or “lifted up” or “high.” It had beautiful views of the country around it. Usually high places invoke a sense of wonder, awe and meditation, and the religious cults took advantage of that fact. Pergamum can also mean “marriage.” The church there was married to Christ but were allowing spiritually adulterous thoughts to creep in.

As soon as you walked into the city, you would see the imposing temple to Athena, right inside the city gate. Then there was the great temple of Caesar Augustus and also Hadrian’s temple.You look a little farther and oh, there’s the large altar to Zeus with an idol on it near the king’s palace. If that wasn’t enough, look along the side of the mountain, and you’re sure to see the temple of Dionysius, the goat god of wine. He is depicted with horns, but his upper part as a man and his lower part as a goat, with cloven feet and a tail.

When you think of the spiritual oppression with all of these temples all gathered in the same vicinity, it is no wonder that Jesus refers to this area as “the throne of Satan.” The word “parchment” derives its name from Pergamum. In fact, the people there so appreciated books, they had a library of 200,000 books second only to the library of Alexandria. Though they were immersed with piles of literature and parchment, only one divine paragraph was needed to heal them!

Characteristic of Christ

“These things says He who has the sharp two-edged sword.” Interestingly, Jesus refers to the church that is beginning to compromise back to His mouth, where the sharp, two-edged sword was extending out from. When you think of “sword” in the Bible (mentioned 404 times), in the New Testament, it is almost exclusively–though not entirely–used in the context of the Bible/the Scriptures/the Word of God.

Commendation

“I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. And you hold fast to My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.

First, Jesus says “I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is.” What does “Satan’s throne” mean?

If you polled the average person and asked them, “Where is Satan’s throne?” They would invariably, unequivocally say “HELL.” Or Las Vegas or maybe even Washington, D.C. But in John’s day, Jesus would say it was in Pergamum. “Satan’s throne” was most likely referring to the large throne of Zeus, which was located in Pergamum. Interestingly, this throne was discovered by the German engineer, Carl Humann. Humann excavated the throne stone by stone and took it to Berlin, where it was reassembled in placed in the Museum of Pergamon. In 1930 the museum opened with the throne as its centerpiece. Eventually, the altar caught the eye of Albert Speer, the new chief architect for the Nazi Party. Germany’s new chancellor, Adolf Hitler, had commissioned him to design the parade grounds for the party rallies in Nuremberg. For inspiration, Speer turned to the Pergamon Altar.

Can you imagine living in the midst of “sin city?” Having the throne of Satan right down the street from you? You may not have a literal throne that you can point out, but we still dwell in the midst of a sinful people. Jesus knows that where we live in this world can prove difficult. He who dwelt in the dregs of Nazareth understands the difficulty of living in the world but not of it.

Notice the second commendation:

“You Hold Fast to My Name”—they weren’t selling out, as a whole. They remained true to God, even though they were right there in the midst of incredible evil. The verb “hold fast” (krateo) means to “grasp forcibly,” or in this figurative use, “to remain firm.” In Revelation 2:1, Jesus “holds the seven stars” as He watches over the churches and here the believers “hold fast” to His name. “My name” points to their adherence to the deity of Christ. In the midst of a pluralist society, much of the church refused to bow the knee to the false gods among them.

Willing to die for the faith—they were even willing to die for what they believed, and Jesus points out an example: Antipas—Jesus’ faithful martyr—whose name means “against all.” Antipas was the first recorded martyr of Asia. Some people believe he was slowly roasted to death in a bronze kettle during the reign of Domitian. His name represented the convictions he lived by: He would not give in nor compromise. Even if he had to be “against all,” he would not bend the knee to spiritual compromise.

So you have this great positive report from the Lord Jesus Christ. You have a wicked city but a faithful group who were willing to DIE for what they knew was right. So what’s the deal? Is that all Jesus had to say to them? No, there’s still a problem. Look at the criticism in verse 14.

Criticism

“But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate” (Revelation 2:14-15).

What? Not the high and lifted up citadel of Pergamum! I thought they had it all together! Perhaps at first glance. They were in the midst of evil all around them, and they were willing to die for their beliefs. But it was their behavior that was bringing them down.

Jesus mentions the doctrine of Balaam. Balaam was a prophet that Balak, the king of Moab, wanted to hire to pronounce judgment on Israel. But Balaam opened his mouth to speak for the Lord, and all he could do was utter blessings on Israel. And Balak said, “No, please don’t do that! Utter curses, not blessings.” And Balaam said, “Well, there’s no way I could do that. Even if you were to give me say, $10,000 in cash and five wives; I could never do that!”

So then again, he pronounced blessings, instead of curses, and Balak says, “No, utter curses, not blessings,” and this happened three times. Balaam said, “Hey, I said, ‘even if you offered me $10,000 in cash, I still couldn’t do that!” Then the very next verse we see that suddenly the children of Israel began to get involved in sexual immorality with the Moabite women, and God sent a plague and 24,000 of them died. What happened? Elsewhere in Numbers it says that Balaam gave them that advice.

It doesn’t say this in Numbers, but we can read between the lines. It seems Balaam was hinting at something with the money suggestion, and said, “Look, I simply can’t utter curses, but I do know these Israelite guys really well. They seem to be tempted easily by the seductive Moabite women. So bring a bunch of the women around to persuade the men to commit sexual immorality, and then God Himself will curse them; and we’re all happy: I get paid. I don’t have to lie when I prophesy. You get your curses, and we all go home happy!”

Balaam was the prophet for profit. His advice led the Israelites to compromise–and sin–and thus, his counsel was successful. Balaam’s counsel became the prototype for all false teachers.

Peter said this about false teachers:

2 Peter 2:15-19 (ESV)

“Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness. These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.”

So what is the doctrine of Balaam? It is to compromise what we know is morally upright for what is expedient. It’s to put stumbling blocks in front of people, things that will trip up our walk with God. For the church of Pergamum, it began by eating food sacrificed to idols; and then eventually, the slippery slope led to spiritual idolatry.

What about the teaching of the Nicolaitans? As we learned with the church of Ephesus, the Nicolaitans were followers of Nicolas, who apparently taught that you were free in Christ to do whatever you wanted to, with no consequences, a license to sin. There was a separating of the leadership and the laity–a hierarchy of superiority versus the everyday man or woman.

So the combined hybrid teaching of both Balaam and the Nicolaitans was that you could compromise your behavior and mix in what the world is doing, yet at the same time, have the reputation of being a lofty, high stronghold of authority and religious superiority.

What a sad indictment on the church. There may be some among the visible church that have compromised what they know is wrong, because either they thought they were free to do it, or there were no consequences, or because it looked fun or exciting, yet at the same time, maintaining the guise of spiritual superiority toward others.

The church of Smyrna was unbending toward compromise, even under intense persecution, but the church of Pergamum wanted to maintain their lofty standing while still allowing sin to creep in.

One official in India purportedly said off the record one time: “Don’t persecute the Christians, or they will become strong and spread. Instead, wherever you find Christians grouped together, build cinemas, drinking halls, night clubs and gambling dens, and they will destroy themselves.”

All too often this is the case. We worship Jesus on Sunday morning and put on the Christian radio station posture, and then go home and worship pleasure, or money, or success or self the rest of the week.

Spiritual compromise isn’t choosing other gods to worship INSTEAD of Jesus. It’s trying to include other gods along with our worship of Jesus.

Plenty of people are bowing down to other idols. The problem is when Christians purport to bow down to Jesus and then also choose to bow down to other gods. It’s compromise. It’s the way of Balaam.

D.L. Moody said: “Christians should live in the world, but not be filled with it. A ship lives in the water; but if the water gets into the ship, she goes to the bottom. So Christians may live in the world; but if the world gets into them, they sink.”

Compromise says, “I know I shouldn’t, but why not?” Compromise chooses to either ignore or belittle judgment that comes upon wrong behavior. You could define spiritual compromise as: Accepting a lower moral standard to live by that lessens or deadens your spiritual effectiveness. In spiritual compromise, you begin by taking a step, then another step and then another step in the direction away from your convictions and eventually toward destruction.

Sin begins in the mind, develops in the heart and comes to fruition in the body. All sin can be traced back to an initial moment of compromise.

What if the world decided to compromise one percent. That’s all? Here’s what would occur:

Verizon would have no cell service for 14 minutes each day. One point seven million pieces of first class mail lost each day. Thirty-five thousand newborn babies dropped by doctors or nurses each year. Two hundred thousand people getting the wrong drug prescriptions each year. Unsafe drinking water three days a year. Three misspelled words on the average page of type. Two million people would die from food poisoning each year. In fact, there are:

Five Slippery Steps to Spiritual Compromise:

1. A failure to purpose in our hearts ahead of time to do the right thing.

2. Underestimating evil (including the failure to recognize temptation).

3. Rationalizing.

4. A failure to consider the costly consequences.

5. A sudden, deliberate choice to give in to sin.

The best example of this sort of compromise in the Bible is Lot. Lot got into an argument with Abraham over the land because they had their own sheep, cattle and farmers, and the land wasn’t big enough for them both. So Abraham was a godly man and said, “Look out onto the land, and choose where you want to dwell.” And Lot looked, and Genesis says that he saw that the land was fertile and pleasing to the eye, so he set out for that land. What land was that? The plains near Sodom and Gomorrah. So Lot went out. You would think he would have stayed as far away from Sodom and Gomorrah as possible. But his eye was appeased, and so often it is with our eyes that we see something we want; and we head toward it. We didn’t actually do anything wrong yet, but we are taking a step closer to it, putting ourselves in danger and harm’s way. So his tents were pitched TOWARD Sodom.

The next we read about Lot, he was IN Sodom. Not only IN sin, but at the city gate, in the most prominent place, fully engulfed in culture, politics and all that Sodom had to offer. He couldn’t get out easily. His family thought he was joking when he tried to convince them to leave. That is the most saddening: Your compromise will usually affect others.

Correction

“Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.”

What does that mean? If you look back in verse 12, Jesus wanted to identify Himself to this church as, “He who has the sharp, double-edged sword.” The sword is coming out of Jesus’ MOUTH. This kind of sword is used in judgment. If you do not repent of your compromise, Jesus says, “I will come with judgment and My Word, and you will reap what you have sown.” God is offering the church of Pergamum (and you and I) a chance to repent of our compromise. But not only that, He also offers a crown–a reward for those who overcome.

Crown

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it”’ (Revelation 2:17).

Manna is the bread, the supernatural spiritual sustenance that God alone provided miraculously. And Jesus promises this, along with a white stone. This stone, also called “Tessera,” had many usages in the ancient Near East

(1) It could be used for a ticket to special banquets.

(2) It could be used to vote for acquittal by a jury.

(3) It could be used as a symbol of victory for an athlete.

(4) It could be used to show the freedom of a slave.

Notice that all of these represent something amazing about Jesus.

. Jesus provides Access to a banquet feast.

. Jesus brings Acquittal from the penalty of sin.

. Jesus brings Victory over sin and death.

. Jesus has Redeemed us from the curse of the law.

Many ladies had on their left hand a very expensive and beautiful stone. It was given to them by someone who loved them deeply, and probably given sacrificially, at great cost. That stone represented a relationship with someone. Amazingly, Jesus offers us a white stone, and on that stone is a name written which no one will know except the one who receives it. Jesus desires a marriage relationship without compromise-with intimacy and fellowship-with provision and an identity found in Him. And it is promised to those who overcome.

Are you already heading down the slippery slope of spiritual compromise? You may need to purpose in your heart not to sin. Or you may need to start heeding the warnings around you and start taking serious what is tempting you. Or perhaps you may need to put safeguards in place to protect your heart and mind. Perhaps someone reading this needs to repent and confess that they have given in to compromise.

Dr. Laurence M. Gould, president emeritus of Carleton College, once said this:

“I do not believe the greatest threat to our future is from bombs or guided missiles. I don’t think our civilization will end that way. I think it will die when we no longer care. Arnold Toynbee has pointed out that 19 of 21 civilizations have died from within and not by conquest from without. There were no bands playing and flags waving when these civilizations decayed. It happened slowly, in the quiet and in the dark when no one was aware.”

Does that describe you? Is there spiritual apathy that has crept in to your heart; and like the lieutenant at Pearl Harbor, you find yourself saying, “Don’t worry about it”? Are you in need of the Word of God to come and speak to your divided heart? My prayer is that you will hear the Word of God, and you will heed the Word of God. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying…” ( Revelation 2:7).

^{Enjoy “Lessons from the Church of Smyrna” & “A Letter to the Modern Church” by Pilgrim in this series.}

Enjoy “A Letter to the Modern Church” by Pilgrim Benham in this series on the seven churches in Revelation.

….

The theologian Michael Stipe (the lead singer of R.E.M.) said it best, “Everybody Hurts.” Let’s just face it: Life is full of heartache. In my short life, I’ve seen a lot of pain and suffering: A member of my family was sexually, physically and emotionally abused as a child and teen. My little sister, born with a cleft pallet in her lip, blind and deaf, with extra fingers and toes and lots of physical deformities, only lived six short months before going to be with Jesus. My other sister lost her full academic scholarship at a prestigious arts school because of a simple mistake on the tuition scholarship paperwork. A family member forgot who people were with the symptoms of dementia and eventually passed away. Our son was born premature three weeks early from a placental abruption and my wife was mere seconds from hemorrhaging to death. Just in the last five years, our family has been the victim of a hit and run; another time we hydroplaned and crashed our car on a wet bridge over a river on the interstate; and just recently, we’ve had financial setbacks that have caused our family to have to seek the Lord and wonder how we are going to pay some bills.

Think about the tragedy in your own life: People who have let you down, friends who you thought were friends who stabbed you in the back, that promotion you deserved was given to someone else, the car that died on the freeway and left you stranded, your bank account that was literally down to dollars, and you didn’t know what you would eat next or losing that loved one tragically before you felt it was their time to go.

As you read this and nod your head, let me encourage you that you’re among friends. Life is full of suffering. In fact, suffering is inevitable.

One person said:

“Christians, of course, use spiritual language to minimize suffering constantly, even their own. The need to exonerate God in the midst of tragedy–even to shove Bible verses in a person’s face can be just as harmful as saying something actively discouraging, as if God were small enough to be invalidated by our individual suffering.”

What should our reaction be to pain and difficulty? We learn much by looking at the church of Smyrna, spoken to by Jesus in Revelation 2:8-11. In this section of Scripture, Jesus is speaking to John the Apostle, who has been exiled on the island of Patmos. Jesus has come to reveal Himself–literally to unveil Himself–thus the book is called not “Revelations” but “Revelation” for it is one singular revelation of the person and work of Jesus over and in His creation. Jesus has a message for seven distinct churches in Asia Minor. These were literal churches with a congregation and pastors, and so Jesus has a word for them. But this is also applicable to all churches, to every church and even to us today almost 2,000 years later. For each of the churches that Jesus addresses, we see He seems to emphasize a City, a Characteristic of Christ, a Commendation, a Criticism, a Correction and a Crown.

The City of Smyrna

The city of Smyrna was located around 35 miles north of Ephesus and was established by Alexander the Great. Of the seven cities Jesus addresses, Smyrna was considered by far to be the most beautiful. It was known as “the glory of Asia” and was a very beautiful and important city in the Roman empire, thought by many to be the birthplace of Homer, where a temple was erected in his honor.

What is interesting is that “Smyrna” is the Greek word for “myrrh” which means “bitter.” Myrrh is a small fruit just larger than a pea, and it’s known for the fragrance it gives off when it is crushed. Myrrh was one of the three gifts that the Magi brought to baby Jesus, along with gold and frankincense.

Now at first glance, myrrh would have seemed a little random as a present at a baby shower. Gold would be the appropriate gift for the Messiah King, a gift appropriate for royalty. Incense as well: a wick that would be lit and would give off fragrant smoke in the presence of the king–a picture of the priesthood. But myrrh might have seemed a little random. Myrrh was one of the ingredients used in the anointing oil that the priests used in the temples. It may have seemed completely pointless as a gift for Jesus, but under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Magi gave the myrrh as a symbolic gift, a gift that really was appropriate for Jesus: being crushed and giving off an aroma that would be pleasing to the world.

How significant! Smyrna was where these believers were feeling the pressure, the squeeze of persecution all around. Many of them would be crushed, but Jesus assures them that their sacrifice is a fragrant offering to Him.

The Characteristic of Christ

“And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write, ‘These things says the First and the Last, who was dead, and came to life.”

Here, Jesus chooses to describe Himself as “The First and the Last,” a reference to chapter one where He called Himself the Alpha and the Omega. The Alpha is the first letter in the Greek alphabet, and the Omega is the last letter. In English, you could hear Jesus saying, “I am the A, and I am the Z.”

Now I’m not a cyclist, but I have been cycling quite a few times and always seemed to regret it! When cycling in a group, you need a strong front rider who can see what is up ahead and warn those behind of the coming rocks and bumps and hazards in the road, set the pace and take the brunt of the wind resistance. But, the person in the “caboose” position also needs to be an experienced rider, who can speak encouragement to those getting weary and help them stay in the race. In like manner, Jesus is ahead of us saying, “I’ve been through suffering and death, and I’ll lead you along the way,” but He’s also behind us saying, “You can do it; don’t give up!”

Not only is He the First and the Last, but He also identifies Himself as the One, “who was dead and came to life.” What an encouragement for people facing persecution, suffering, pain and even martyrdom! To know that Jesus died and came to life again gives us incredible comfort when we face pain in life.

Smyrna had been a Greek colony as far back as 1,000 B.C. Around 600 B.C. it was invaded and destroyed by the Lydeans, and for 400 years there was no city there at all. Just ruins. Then around 200 B.C. Lysimachus had it rebuilt as a planned and unified city. It was built with streets that were broad, straight, sweeping and beautifully paved. The city had experienced death and had literally been brought back to life.

The Commendation & Criticism

Jesus’s commendation is significant because He has no criticism!!! Verse nine says:

“I know your works, tribulation, and poverty (but you are rich); and I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.”

Jesus said He knew four things about them:

1. Jesus knows their performance.

“I know your works:” That is the same phrase Jesus used when speaking to the church of Ephesus. The church in Smyrna likewise was working as unto the Lord, and Jesus recognized their ministry.

Some of us from time to time may wonder if the Lord knows our works. Some of us have been serving Him for decades, and we don’t want the recognition from man or from the church; but we just wonder, “Does the Lord see or know or care what I’m doing for His kingdom?”

I love this encouragement from Hebrews 6:10:

“For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.”

God sees. God knows. God won’t overlook it.

2. Jesus knows their pain.

The Greek word can be translated: tribulation, affliction, trouble, anguish, persecution, burdens. I would add the word pain. Jesus is saying, “I know you look afflicted and poor, but I consider you rich!”

Why does it seem to take suffering to remind us that God is sovereign and will work everything out for our good and His glory?

Business leader Allan Emery tells of accompanying his friend and mentor to visit a hospitalized employee. The patient lay very still, his eyes conveying anguish. His operation had taken eight hours, and recovery would be long and uncertain.

“Alex,” said Ken quietly, “You know I have had a number of serious operations. I know the pain of trying to talk. I think I know the questions you are asking. There are two verses I want to give you—Genesis 42:36 (“All these things are against me”) and Romans 8:28 (“All things work together for good to those who love God”). We have the option of these two attitudes. We need the perspective of the latter.”

David Jeremiah adds, “The choice is this: to be beat up or to be upbeat. The perspective you choose will color your life completely and thoroughly—will it be gentle tones of grace and providence, or harsh slashes of despair and emptiness?

We need to have a Biblical view of suffering. Just consider myrrh, of which the city of Smyrna was named after. When you anoint something, you put something over it. You anoint someone with oil, it means you put oil over them, on them, and it runs down their forehead and covers them. When the myrrh fruit was crushed, it gave off an aroma and was also used to anoint the priests. Think about that: The same oil that was once bruised and crushed ended up becoming something that qualified a man to stand in the gap for sinners and intercede for them. If you have suffered, you are now someone who can use that pain as a way to minister to others. What an appropriate gift for Jesus by the Magi: gold (for a king), frankincense (for a burial) and myrrh (to anoint a priest). We are most effective after we have been greatly bruised and broken–and an aroma that is pleasing to the Lord rises from our suffering.”

3. Jesus knows their poverty.

In fact, Jesus states that they are actually rich. The word for poverty means abject or absolute poverty. They had absolutely nothing. That was because of the persecution they were facing. Jesus is not unaware of our helpless state, both spiritually and otherwise.

4. Jesus knows their persecution.

“And I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.”

The Jews in Smyrna were particularly against Christianity. Remember, at this time, Christianity was considered a sect of Judaism. The Jews knew the Christ-followers were different, but to the Roman empire, there wasn’t a lot to distinguish Jew from Christian. Eventually, that changed. Rome considered Judaism to be an ancient religion, whereas when Christianity was eventually distinguished from it, the Roman empire looked with disdain on this new religion. It definitely didn’t help that Christians replaced the buzzphrase of Caesar worship, “Caesar is LORD” with “Jesus is LORD.” Needless to say, it’s doubtful you’re going to make a lot of friends when you are abandoning the mandated worship of the state.

Jesus is saying that when you are facing slander and trouble from people, don’t forget who is really your adversary. It’s not the person in front of you, it’s Satan!

Paul reminds us in Ephesians 6:12 that, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

You’re not fighting against your coworkers, your professors, your in-laws, your clients, that one antagonist guy in the office, the people slandering you on their blog, or through that email they sent you—your struggle isn’t against flesh and blood! It’s against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms!

The Correction

“Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation 10 days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.”’

Jesus’ correction for them is to not fear. They were about to have 10 days of tribulation, including prison. This could have literally been 10 days, or as some have said there were 10 Caesars that violently persecuted Christians during this time, and it may refer to them. Either way, what is most important is that their suffering would be temporal. This promise would encourage them that there was an end in sight to their suffering.

It wasn’t some fairy-tale Christian-produced movie where everything works out perfectly and is neatly wrapped up before the credits. Jesus isn’t sugar coating hardship. He’s telling them it is about to get worse, a lot worse, even resulting in death. Notice there is no promise of an end to the suffering, only a reward for suffering.

The Christians had a choice, to compromise or be faithful. You see, Caesar worship was required by Rome. If you worshiped Caesar, you would be allowed to go to a hearing where they would grant you a certificate and say, “Caesar is my God,” and they wouldn’t touch you from that point on. If you didn’t have a certificate, they could question you and certainly if you said, “I don’t bow to Caesar; I bow to Jesus Christ,” that would be a threat to Pax Romana, the peace that Rome kept with a sword, and you would be at risk for execution.

Some Christians said, “Come on, just lie and go get the certificate and spare your family! It doesn’t mean anything to you anyway; it’s just telling them what they need to hear.” Other Christians said, “No way, I’m not compromising whom I worship. If they want to take me to my death, to my death I will go.” And so there was this conflict. What would you do?

Many of us would run from suffering because of fear, and we would just lie and get the certificate to spare our lives and the lives of our families.

But Jesus here says, “Don’t be afraid; don’t run!”

The Crown

Sometimes we are surprised by our suffering. It seems to come out of nowhere. And sometimes it seems like it will never end. But we aren’t to be surprised. We are to be ready. We are to endure to the end, even if that end includes death. Why? Because Jesus promises a crown. For the Smyrnese, it would be the crown of life–to not be hurt by the second death.

“Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.”’

The crown of life here is reminiscent of the athletic crown of leaves given out to those who won the agony of a competition. They would be rewarded for being victorious. “Oh death, where is thy victory, where is thy sting?” Because of Someone who conquered, we don’t have to be afraid of death. And that Conqueror’s name is Jesus, the One who died and who came to life again.

Consider Jesus, and the suffering He endured. “Gethsemane” means “olive press.” It has the same meaning that myrrh does. Jesus had to suffer, to give His life as a ransom for many. He did so for others, for you and me.

Peter, who was eyewitness to Jesus’ suffering, uses this as the motivation for you and I in our sufferings:

“Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God” (1 Peter 4:1-2).

“Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power forever and ever. Amen”(1 Peter 5:8-11).

There is no such thing as the perfect church. Someone once said you’ll never find the perfect church–and if you do, don’t start attending there because you are imperfect, and you’ll ruin the perfect church!

Jesus had something to say to seven distinct churches in Asia Minor, almost 2,000 years ago–as He relayed His message to the Apostle John who was exiled off on the rocky island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea. With each of these seven churches, Jesus had something to communicate, and they all needed a remedy. That remedy was, and still is, the same remedy for every church. It is JESUS!

Just a quick glance at the seven churches shows us what they were struggling with (adapted from David Hocking):

Ephesus: Neglected Priorities
Smyrna: Satanic Opposition
Pergamos: Religious Compromise
Thyatira: Immoral Practices
Sardis: Spiritual Apathy
Philadelphia: Lost Opportunities
Laodicea: Material Prosperity

With almost all of these churches, there will be a commendation, a criticism and a correction.

There will be a characteristic of Christ (borrowed from Revelation chapter 1) that Jesus customizes about Himself in His address. There will also be a crown that will be offered to the church if they will overcome their sin and adversity. We will be looking at each of these seven churches and the cities they were planted in, to understand both their implications on the modern church and what we can learn individually and corporately from their feats and failures.

Today we turn our attention to the first of the seven churches: Ephesus.

The City

Ephesus was a major port city on the western coast of Asia Minor center for seaborne trade and the hub of the region’s road system. It was a thriving urban community of more than 250,00 to 300,000 people, very similar in population size to Anaheim, New Orleans, Honolulu, Cleveland or Tampa. By the late 1st century AD it was the fourth largest city in the Roman Empire. The Romans made Ephesus an administrative center for the province of Asia.

World renowned religious shrines, a spacious theater, stadium and elegant public buildings gave Ephesus an integral place in the cultural life of the entire region.

But don’t get the idea that Ephesus was a nice, clean administrative mecca! It was a city with rampant paganism–including the worship, manufacture and sale of fertility idols of the goddess Artemis/Diana (the goddess of the hunt)–whose idol was depicted with dozens of breasts. As you walked through the streets of Ephesus, there were little idols of breasts everywhere the eye looked.

Ephesus had a huge volume of occult arts & practices. Their temple to Artemis/Diana was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world and its largest religious structure. Paul had founded a church there, and Timothy was their pastor. They had the benefit of God working powerfully in this dark city, known for its worship of Diana. This was where people brought their handkerchiefs and aprons that touched Paul, and they were healed; and Demetrius the silversmith started a riot because he thought he would lose money from his business for Artemis (Acts 19). This was a city with both great opposition and a great move of God’s Spirit.

The Characteristic of Christ

Revelation 2:1: “These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands.”

It is believed by many that the seven lampstands are the churches, but also the Church at large. This is reminiscent of the Jewish menorah, at Hanukkah. We as Christians are to be the light of the world, a lampstand burning for others to see. Notice that Jesus is holding the Church, and He’s walking among us. These two ideas are a picture of intimacy: Jesus is both holding the Church in His right hand (the hand of blessing), but He is also walking among us. He isn’t far off, distant, untouchable, unreachable; you don’t have to dial long distance to speak or hear from Him. He’s right here among us–among you and I–and He wants us to be at peace in His presence. Theologically that is the balance between His transcendence and His immanence. God is transcendent: above His creation; yet He is also immanent: present and with us.

What a great picture of Jesus’ steadfast love. He desires intimacy, love, relationship with us. He wants to be near. Now let’s read the commendation.

The Commendation

Revelation 2:2-3: “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary.” Also notice verse six: “But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate” (Revelation 2:6).

Jesus commends them for three things:

Their Duty: They were hard-working, busy ministers. You could nickname them “the church of Saint Martha”! Lots of work–but busyness in a church doesn’t always mean the Spirit is at work. Often when things are simple, you can focus your energy on what is most important, things like Acts 2:42 instead of all the flurry of things some churches expend all their energy doing. But Jesus was commending them for their hard work.

Their Doctrine: The church at Ephesus could not bear those who were evil. They would vet, test and confirm if someone was true or false according to Biblical orthodoxy, and if they were false, the church would have nothing to do with their teaching. The word “bear” is the same word used of Jesus carrying the cross. This church could not bear the weight of bad doctrine. They couldn’t carry it. They wouldn’t tolerate it. The church of Ephesus knew their doctrine; they knew what they believed. Would that the church of Jesus Christ today be more like Ephesus on that point! Many Christians today can’t even explain the Gospel plainly, or communicate sound doctrine.

Thirdly, Jesus commended Their Determination: They were persevering and hanging in there despite a lot of hardship, oppression and suffering. Jesus says, “You have not become weary.” That’s amazing! They were the marathon runners of the church! Many people give up as soon as there is a problem in their faith, but not the church of Ephesus.

So, with all of these positives, can’t Jesus just stop there? I mean, isn’t that a great church to be a part of? Doesn’t matter if you are doing amazing things for God, if you have separated yourself from God. What would Jesus say as a word of criticism to this upstanding, doctrinally-sound church?

The Criticism

Revelation 2:4-5: “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.”

The church at Ephesus had their doctrine down, but no devotion. Later we’ll see that Thyratira has the love down, but no doctrine. We need a good balance of truth and love. People that are all truth with no love tend to forget that they too were once a sinner, and God’s love and mercy saved them. People with too much love and not enough truth tend to embrace everyone and fall for anything because they don’t stand for something. The church in Ephesus was a busy, successful church—but they were so busy they had forgotten God.

They knew what doctrines to believe, but they had neglected who the doctrines point to! Jesus says, “You have left your first love.” You’ve forsaken it. The church as a group had lost the intimacy they once had with God. Interesting that they lived in a city known for its worship of Artemis/Diana, who was known as the goddess of the hunt, of children and animals. She was very independent and frivolous and was known for not being faithful to her husband, though she was considered an eternal virgin. Interesting! Ephesus, known for worshipping a goddess that would have no intimacy with a man, had a church that had lost its intimacy with Christ!

The Correction

Revelation 2:5: “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.”

Remember. Repent. Return.

Remember where you used to be with Jesus. Repent–turn back. Acknowledge and own up to the fact that you have fallen away. You haven’t lost your first love. You’ve left it. You’ve drifted. You’ve allowed other things to creep in. Then return to those things you did when you first fell in love with God. When’s the last time you lost track of time when you were spending it in God’s word, in worship or in prayer? If we don’t change, there is another “R”: Remove—Their lampstand would be removed, implying immediate judgment. This could mean that their witness would cease to exist—the light would fade away. Sadly, that’s exactly what happened. Jesus came and removed their lamp–their influence–their witness to their city.

Within time the church at Ephesus died out. Just 30 years earlier, Paul had ended his letter to this church with this admonition:

“Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible” (Ephesians 6:24).

Thirty years after Paul wrote that to them, their undying love had died. Their love incorruptible had become corrupted. They had turned their back, forsaken God, even though they still did all of these things in His name and were known for their deeds. They had left their first love, and they needed to repent and turn back. That is what all of us need today: a fresh look at our priorities and our love for the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Crown

Revelation 2:7: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”’

The crown–the reward–is the right to eat from the tree of life in God’s garden. Adam and Eve were never given that right, because they forsook their first love and disobeyed in rebellion against God. If they did eat, they would be forever stuck in that state of separation from God.

So He banished them from the garden after they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Today, if we would overcome our cold hearts for God, and return to our first love, He will allow us access one day to the tree of life, and that intimacy can once again be restored. Isn’t that incredible? God wants intimacy with you. He is always there; it is we who turn away and lose our love. He loves you completely and will never lose His love for you.

The Modern Church

In like manner, we can leave our first love, the Lord Jesus. In fact, there may be many more than this, but here are four ways that we leave our first love:

1. We replace LOVE with LAW.

We think erroneously that God wants us to simply follow a list of principles and that equates to a relationship. Now I have to be careful here because Jesus did say in John 14:21 that, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me.” Obviously the best expression of love for God is to obey His commands. But the danger is when we equate love with merely principles. We begin to set up rigid rules and guidelines and then start serving God out of duty, not out of desire. We can see lots of people doing things out of obligation: military, employees, salesmen, spouses, love relationships. Family Feud asked people to “Rate your marriage on a scale of 1-10.” They surveyed 100 people, and the top answer was rated at a one. That’s what happens when we leave our first love. It’s obligation, not love. Does that describe you today in your relationship with God?

2. We replace LOVE with EMOTION.

Sometimes we feel that we must experience goosebumps or some type of “word from the Lord'” to “feel” the love of God. Charles Spurgeon said: “Deep waters run silently. Great feeling is dumb: There is a frost of the mouth when there is a thaw of the soul.”

Does that mean we should never express our emotions? Of course not! God created us with emotions, so we would be minimizing the Imago Dei if we suppressed any and all emotions. Jesus wept over Jerusalem, had compassion for the crowds who were unshepherded, drove out in anger the money changers from the temple. We read in Scripture that the Holy Spirit can be grieved. These are all emotional responses, and we would be truncating our love for God if we were always suppressing joy or sadness. But we shouldn’t base the quality or reality of our love simply on how we raise our hands, pray our prayers, or cry our tears. I love this quote from Dr. M. Scott Peck:

“Genuine love is volitional rather than emotional. The person who truly loves does so because of a decision to love. This person has made a commitment to be loving whether or not the loving feeling is present. It if is, so much the better; but if it isn’t, the commitment to love, the will to love, still stands and is still exercised. Conversely, it is not only possible but necessary for a loving person to avoid acting on feelings of love. I may meet a woman who strongly attracts me, whom I feel like loving, but because it would be destructive to my marriage to have an affair, I will say vocally or in the silence of my heart, ‘I feel like loving you, but I am not going to.’ My feelings of love may be unbounded, but my capacity to be loving is limited. I therefore must choose the person on whom to focus my capacity to love, toward whom to direct my will to love. True love is not a feeling by which we are overwhelmed. It is a committed, thoughtful decision.”

Have you replaced love for emotion? Have you left your first love?

3. We replace LOVE with LABOR.

This was prescriptive of the church in Ephesus. They had gotten so tied down with their heretic-hunting that they forgot that church is where people experience the love of God and the love of God’s people. How many pastors take a day off from the ministry (or two!) and spend it simply enjoying their families? How many husbands take a consistent date night with their wife? How often does a family sit down and enjoy a meal together without technology? How many families spend time in devotions together? What we tend to find in the church is that people are inundated with diligent, assiduous busywork. How many of us stand exposed as being bogged down in the busywork of Christianity instead of choosing what is better?

4. We replace LOVE with INDIFFERENCE.

We become numb to the things of God because they become familiar. Instead of keeping our zeal for the Lord as we serve Him, we get bored by the same old same old. When there is disinterest in your heart for the things of God it is time for a renewing of your mind! The church of Ephesus had warm hands but cold hearts. Does that describe you today in your relationship with God?

I was shocked by the relevance of this story to our current condition in the world: Muynak was once a thriving fishing port on the Aral Sea. But today, according to James Rupert of the Washington Post, Muynak sits on the edge of a bitter, salty desert. Sand dunes are strewn with the rusted, hollow hulls of a fishing fleet that once sailed high above on the surface of Central Asia’s fountain of life.

Things began changing 30 years ago when Stalinist planners began diverting the Aral’s water source to irrigate the world’s largest cotton belt. No one, however, envisioned the environmental disaster that would result. Weather has become more extreme; the growing season has been shortened by two months, and 80 percent of the region’s farmland has been ruined by salt storms that sweep in off the dry seabed.

What happened at Muynak parallels the history of the church of Ephesus. Once a thriving spiritual community, the Ephesian believers diverted their attention from Christ to works done in His name. They had lost sight of what was most important in their relationship with Christ— their love for Him.

Perhaps that is where the modern church is today. Forgetting the height from which we’ve fallen, we need to repent that we may experience times of refreshing from the Lord once again. We must return to our first love and remember that He first loved us. That first love–that pure love–the love that never let you go–the love that accepts you even now–with all of your rebellion and coldness toward Him–is available for each of us. We may not find the perfect church–but we have certainly discovered perfect love.

We aren’t sure exactly who wrote the book of Hebrews. Some say it was Paul the apostle, but that is doubtful. Others say Barnabas—or because of the writing style, perhaps it was Luke or even Apollos—but we don’t know for sure.
The letter reads more like a sermon—a sermon that was written and shared among believers in the first century and now throughout eternity.

The theme of Hebrews is simply the idea that Jesus is better.

You begin to read through looking for that theme, and you find that Jesus is better than the angels; Jesus is better than men; He’s better than Moses. Jesus’ rest is better than a Sabbath day’s rest. Jesus is better than the high priest. Jesus’ new covenant is better than the old. Jesus’ sacrifice is better than the blood of bulls and goats. Then we get to chapter 11, and we see that faith in Christ is better than the temporal things of this world. All throughout the letter of Hebrews (or the sermon of Hebrews), we get this reminder that Jesus is utterly better than anything in creation or in the ceremonial law.

The Hebrews “sermon” begins and ends without stating who wrote it, or exactly to whom it was written. But when we get to chapter 12, we get a glimpse of why this letter was written. The writing style begins to change from trying to argue and convince that Jesus is better, to exhorting the readers to not give up. In chapter 12, Hebrews transforms from an apologetic argument to a motivational appeal. And what is at the centerpiece of this appeal? The one and the same argument that has been at the center of the rest of the letter: Jesus.

What were the listeners tempted to give up? Why did they need all of these proofs that Jesus was better than Judaism? Because they were a fledgling band of Jewish Christians who were wavering in their faith. They were looking at the sacrifices, the feasts, the worship in the temple, the patriarchs and the benefits of their Jewish heritage, and as they were beginning to face difficulty, there was a temptation to go back or to get slowed down, to get tripped up in the simple task of following Jesus.

So when we get to chapter 12, we are given a few reasons why we shouldn’t ever give up or give in. It may not be Judaism that is calling out to you as you are reading this, but certainly something. Whether you are aware of it or not, the land mines are out there—the trip wires have been laid to cause your feet to stumble or to take you out of the race. So how do we stay the course?

The answer is more simple—and profound—than you’d imagine.

Hebrews 12:1 says: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

Notice the word “therefore” in verse 1. The writer says “since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses.” The word therefore bridges the chapter divide that was added much later in church history. If we go backward and rewind to chapter 11, we read about an impressive list of Bible characters, all placing their faith in God and yet not fully receiving what they were hoping for.

We read about everyone from Abel to Abraham, from Moses to Rahab. Gideon’s there, barely. Barak made it, even if you didn’t vote for him. Samson, kind of the Crossfit Champion of the Bible—we doubted him—but he made it. Jephthah’s there. I know–you were crossing your fingers and said in your heart, “But what about Jephthah?” David, Samuel, the prophets and the writer says this is Hebrews 11:33-38:
Who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

Intentionally, the writer of Hebrews says in chapter 12 that since we are surrounded by this cloud of witnesses, we should begin to run with perseverance. If we don’t understand this correctly, it can seem intimidating. The word “cloud” here is a mass of living beings. It is a huge cloud of those who are witnesses to faith in the Lord.

But when we hear that there are witnesses, we may have the wrong idea in mind.

I grew up with this fear that the cloud of witnesses are all watching us from heaven and either sort of cheering us on or creepily watching and booing us.

I picture myself trying to resist temptation. And there’s David kind of clapping and hollering, and then suddenly I’m starting to give in to the temptation; and I stop and just look up. There’s my great grandma kind of yelling out, “BOOO YOU’RE THE WORST!!” There’s the Apostle Paul face-palming, and Peter is pointing and laughing; while Adam and Eve are just shaking their heads in disgust. Is the great cloud of witnesses watching me? If they do, they probably are having a hard time looking because I’m awful.

But that isn’t the idea—even remotely. The idea here is that they bear witness to faith. They have gone before us on this exact path, and their lives declare a loud testimony that can’t be ignored. They are “witnesses.” The word for witness is the Greek word martus, where we obtain the word “martyr” from. It means one who testifies, or can testify, to what he has seen or heard. The early church testified to the resurrection of Jesus Christ; they were witnesses, even unto their deaths. They aren’t as much spectators of our race as they are ones who have run before us and can testify that faith is worth it.

They aren’t as much watching as they are telling, bearing witness. Can you hear their united chorus, from Abraham to the prophets, calling out to us: “DON’T QUIT! KEEP RUNNING! STAY THE COURSE! IT IS WORTH IT! FINISH WELL!” John Calvin said that we are so surrounded by this dense throng, that wherever we turn our eyes, many examples of faith immediately meet us.

Hughes remarks:
The scene is a great coliseum. The occasion is a footrace, a distance event. The contestants include the author and the members of his flock and, by mutual faith, us. The cloud of witnesses that fills the stadium are the great spiritual athletes of the past, Hall of Faith members – every one a Gold Medal winner. They are not live witnesses of the event, but “witnesses” by the fact that their past lives bear witness to monumental, persevering faith that, like Abel’s faith, “still speaks, even though he is dead”.

We are running a race, and we need to run to win or at least finish the race! So because of this great throng of people who have gone before, the writer of Hebrews says “therefore do three things:” throw off, run and look.

1. Throw Off

The word for “throw off” is a Greek word that means to place aside, to put aside out of the ordinary way. It is the same word used in Acts 7 when those who stoned Stephen laid their robes—placed them aside—at the feet of Saul. When Herod had John the Baptist arrested, he put him aside.
The runners in the Grecian games that this is referring to actually did not wear much clothing. Can you imagine someone wearing a heavy trench coat that would weigh them down or a scarf or a tunic that suddenly gets caught in a tree branch?
Clothing itself would hinder and hamper the runner. This verse tells us to put aside two things in our race: what entraps you (sin) and what entangles you (the sin). Like wearing a trench coat in a 5k, things like sensuality, jealousy, dishonesty, covetousness, criticism, laziness, hatred, lust or pride will weigh on us and slow us down. The New Testament describes a list of things we should put off (though this is not exhaustive): the deeds of darkness, our old self, falsehood, anger, malice, slander, abusive speech, filthiness, guile and hypocrisy. All of these things weigh us down, or entrap us. But secondly, we are to lay aside “the sin,” singular. There are sins—plural—that always have the ability to slow us down. But one sin in particular can trip us up. And it is the sin of unbelief. It easily entangles us. So we are to place it aside. Take our pride, our lust, our anger and our unbelief, and lay them aside like an outer coat. Put them away!

A.W. Pink said, “The racer must be as lightly clad as possible if he is to run swiftly: all that would cumber and impede him must be relinquished. Undue concern over temporal affairs, inordinate affection for the things of this life, the intemperate use of any material blessings, undue familiarity with the ungodly, are ‘weights’ which prevent progress in godliness. A bag of gold would be as great a handicap to a runner as a bag of lead!”

2. Run

Paul asked a rhetorical question in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, ESV:
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”

We are not to run aimlessly. We aren’t to lose heart and quit. We are to run the race. The word “race” is the Greek word agon, where we obtain our word “agony” from. The idea is conflict, difficulty, struggle. Paul uses this word constantly in his writing. But we are to run with two emphases, which greatly encourage me: first, we must run with perseverance and secondly, we must run the race marked out for us.

Perseverance is the Greek word hupomone. Barclay points out that this word, “Does not mean the patience which sits down and accepts things but the patience which masters them…It is a determination, unhurrying and yet undelaying, which goes steadily on and refuses to be deflected.”

We have to be willing to run to the very end. Our race will be agonizing. But being passive won’t win you the race. Husbands and wives need to persevere in their marriage. Young people need to persevere in their faith. Grandparents need to persevere in their prayers. We need to run our race with endurance. This isn’t a sprint! It is a marathon!

We must run with perseverance, but we must also run our own race. Runners use a phrase known as their “Personal Best.” The idea is that you have clocked the fastest time you’ve ever recorded for that distance. You don’t run with someone else’s time chip. You run your own race. You aren’t running your father’s race. You aren’t running your children’s race. You aren’t running another pastor’s race. Run your own race! But run it with endurance. It isn’t about who finished the race FIRST…it is simply about finishing the race!!

3. Look to Jesus

Hebrews 12:2-3 says, “Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

This is having vertical vision in our horizontal race. We “fix our eyes” on Jesus. The word here means to look away from all else and to look steadfastly, intently toward a distant object. The idea is to direct one’s attention without distraction. We are only effective in the race to the degree that we keep our eyes on the right object: the Lord Jesus, not ourselves!
Spurgeon said, “As the wife of the Persian nobleman said, when her husband asked her what she thought of Darius, that she had not looked at him, she had no eyes for any man but her husband, so the Christian has no eyes for any but Christ,- ‘looking unto Jesus,’-keeping his eye always upon him, and so running the Christian race.”

Peter didn’t have the ability to walk on water because he practiced—but because his eyes were on Jesus. Once he took his eyes off Jesus, he not only noticed wind and waves, but he began to sink. Jesus is the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. He is the object of our faith, but He is also our EXAMPLE. He began it; authored it, but He also will help us complete it. Jesus endured the cross. Jesus scorned the shame. He endured opposition from sinful men, and He sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Jesus sat down AFTER He endured. Too many Christians want to take a seat when they need to take a stand.

Corrie Ten Boom said:
Look around and be distressed.
Look inside and be depressed.
Look at Jesus and be at rest.

And she said that after enduring a Nazi concentration camp.

When you look backward, you see Jesus on the cross.
When you look upward, you see Jesus at the right hand of God, interceding for you.
When you look forward, you will see Jesus coming again for His Bride.

Annie Johnson Flint, who lost both of her parents as a young girl, was overcome with arthritis and confined to a wheelchair most of her adult life. Even with crippling and painful condition, she still wrote many hymns, poems and letters. One of those hymns is called “I See Jesus:”

I See Jesus
I don’t look back: God knows the fruitless efforts,
The wasted hours the sinning, the regrets;
I leave them all with Him Who blots the record,
And mercifully forgives, and then forgets

I don’t look forward, God sees all the future,
The road that, short or long, will lead me home,
And He will face with me its every trial,
And bear for me the burdens that may come.

I don’t look round me: then would fears assail me,
So wild the tumult of earth’s restless seas;
So dark the world, so filled with woe and evil,
So vain the hope of comfort or of ease.

I don’t look in; for then am I most wretched;
Myself has naught on which to stay my trust;
Nothing I see save failures and short-comings,
And weak endeavors crumbling into dust.

But I look up — into the face of Jesus,
For there my heart can rest, my fears are stilled.
And there is joy, and love, and light for darkness,
And perfect peace, and every hope fulfilled.

As the cloud of witnesses endlessly proclaim a vibrant testimony about Jesus, may we keep our eyes on Him alone until the race is run and the battle is won.

Recently I had the opportunity to meet with dozens of Calvary pastors from around the country in New York City for a special time of prayer and fellowship. Our time together was marked by a noticeable thirst to see God’s kingdom come and will be done in our cities as it is in heaven. Though primarily focused on those ministering in the East and Northeast, the meeting was designed for pastors around North America to gather and seek the Lord for His church. It was powerful, memorable and refreshing for everyone there.

One of the main takeaways for all of us was a quote that Pastor Brian Brodersen shared. He quoted author and Desiring God contributor, Ann Voskamp, who had recently tweeted, “Know your Lord. Know your lane.” What ensued was a robust dialogue for hours about how important it is to have an intimate relationship with God and to be acquainted and comfortable in the calling He has for us.

KNOW YOUR LORD

In Philippians 3:8-11, Paul says, “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

In these verses, the apostle Paul compared his spiritual inventory before Christ—an impressive religious résumé by most standards—with refuse. In comparison to knowing Christ, Paul said all that religion offers should be thrown away as if it were unclean excrement. He said that his one desire was to simply know Jesus and the power of His resurrection, suffering and death.

Nothing compares to knowing our Lord. Jesus corrected busy Martha and drew attention to her sister Mary who had “chosen what is better” (Luke 10:42). What was Mary doing? She was sitting at the Lord’s feet. For Martha, the focus was on effort, work and tasks that were done in such a way that Jesus would be served. For Mary, the priority was spending time getting to know Jesus, not merely serving Him. Our ministry should flow out of our relationship with the Lord. Moses’ face was radiant after spending time in the presence of God (Exodus 34:29). Peter and John were identified by the religious leaders as “having been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). The highest priority for a pastor is to cultivate his relationship with God. We are messengers, not professionals. That means we must seek the King to receive from Him before we dare to speak for Him.

Spurgeon said it powerfully:

“If you want to serve God, as I trust you do, I charge you first be careful of your own souls; do not begin with learning how to preach, or how to teach, or how to do this and that; dear friend, get the strength within your own soul, and then even if you do not know how to use it scientifically, yet you will do much, The first thing is, get the heart warmed, stir up your manhood, brace up all your faculties, get the Christ within you, ask the everlasting God to come upon you, get him to inspire you, and then if your methods should not be according to the methods of others it will not matter, or if they should, neither will it be of consequence, having the power you will accomplish the results. But if you go about to perform the work before you have the strength from on high, you shall utterly fail. Better things we hope of you.”

Jesus said in John 17:3, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Peter ends his second epistle with these words, “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen” (2 Peter 3:18). May we make the priority to know our Lord like never before and grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior!

KNOW YOUR LANE

Obviously this is a reference to driving. When we drive, we stay in a particular lane for a particular amount of time. Often on my commute to work, I will see people frantically changing lanes to try and move ahead of the pace of traffic. But if you know what lane you need to be in, you can rest content to stay in your lane. When we “know our lane,” it means we understand who we are, and what God has called us to do and be. We aren’t striving to find and do ministry; we are serving the Lord exactly where He’s called us to be.

As a man and a minister, it is critical to know my calling. Paul opens up his first letter to Timothy by introducing himself as: “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope” (1 Timothy 1:1). Paul explained to Timothy that he was called an apostle only by the command of God. An apostle is simply one who is sent. Paul didn’t ordain himself. He didn’t send himself. He was sent by the command of God. This clear call, traced back to the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-9), would encourage Paul in the future, should he ever grow discouraged or distressed.

Later, he said this to his young protégé in the faith: “And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief” (1 Timothy 1:12-13).

Paul could trace his calling into ministry back to the Lord Jesus. He didn’t enter the ministry under obligation, coercion or out of greed. He entered the ministry out of obedience. That is how all of us are to enter ministry!

In his final letter to Timothy, Paul’s “lane” was clearly delineated: “…To which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day” (2 Timothy 1:11-12).

Paul knew his lane. He was a preacher, an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles. He had all the spiritual past of someone well-equipped to minister to the Jew, but the Lord had opened specific doors for him to turn his attention to the Gentiles (Acts 18:6). Do you know your lane?

Some people struggle with “lane envy.” They want to be in someone else’s lane. They want someone else’s ministry, influence, church or life. Paul certainly could have argued with God about his calling: “But Lord, I would prefer to reach my fellow Jews, like Peter!” Instead, Paul understood that he was appointed on purpose for a specific purpose. When he rested in that, the Lord was glorified and the church advanced.

When we know our lane, we then have the capability to stay settled and content—knowing that the Lord is using us for His glory and our joy. Our unique gifts, personalities (and even quirks) can be redeemed and used to build His kingdom. We can advance the work of God doing what we love and are spiritually gifted to do. When we don’t know our lane, we stumble and struggle and squander precious years and energy while our real mission gathers dust.

Do you know your lane? Do you know your Lord?

I will never forget the day I received the hospital bill in our mailbox. I was having a particularly cheerful day up until that moment. As I reached in and perused the typical “junk” advertisements for a car lot sale, coupons for Memorial Day closeouts and an invitation to an exotic getaway cruise to the Caribbean, I began opening a letter addressed to my wife and I from the hospital. She had given birth to our son who was born two months premature due to a placental abruption. Thankfully, he was home and healthy, thanks to the incredible work of the nurses and doctors of the neonatal intensive care unit. We knew our insurance would be covering most of the bill, but here was the final verdict in my hands at last. I opened the letter and almost collapsed. It stated that our insurance refused coverage, and we owed the hospital around $115,000! Needless to say, I decided the Caribbean cruise could be our escape from the country before we had to pay the money…

For the entire day, I paced the house frantically. I prayed constantly. I spoke with my wife, and our conversation was vigorous and stressful. I texted my friends and asked them to intercede for us. I looked at the letter over and over again with contempt, asking God why He would do this to us. That day stands in my life as a textbook example of anxiety. And little did I know it would all change with a simple phone call later that evening…

Consider the things that make you and me anxious.

Finances, health, relationships, public speaking or losing something. Maybe it is the fear of something much more ordinary, like traffic or the to-do list in front of you today. Many people are anxious about failing or even succeeding. They begin worrying about the outcomes of situations, and then allow that worry to consume them. Eventually, their heart rate and blood pressure rise. They eat less (or more!) and unhealthily. They lose sleep. They grow exhausted and lash out at people they are in relationship with. Soon their thoughts consume them and cripple them. The peace that could be theirs is void, and every day becomes another futile exercise in fear. Some people turn to medication or therapy to help them cope with the difficulties. And it all stems from anxiety.

The Scriptures aren’t silent about anxiety.

Paul tells the Philippian church plainly: “The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:5b-7).

Did you catch that? “Do not be anxious about anything.” That pretty much sums it up! We aren’t to allow our minds to succumb to anxious thoughts but to bring our concerns in prayer and gratitude to the Lord. And we are promised that His peace (which is far greater than the peace that comes from understanding) will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.

I’m reminded of the time Jesus’ disciples were faced with almost certain death. They were in a boat crossing the Sea of Galilee. This sea has a reputation for fierce squalls appearing virtually out of nowhere and becoming life-threatening within minutes. When this happened, notice what Jesus was doing:

“And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, ‘Save us, Lord; we are perishing.’ And he said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?’ Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?” (Matthew 8:23-27).

The disciples had every “right” to be anxious. Matthew points out that the storm was “great,” and that the boat was being swamped by the waves. This wasn’t a small storm, this was a strong tempest that had the potential to capsize the boat and drown all 13 of them. Because of that, they had every right and reason to be worried. No doubt they were probably trying to steer the boat safely, protecting themselves and seeking to expel the water that had swamped the boat. But what was Jesus doing?

Jesus was asleep. As the wind was howling, the waves were rising, the water crashing, the disciples screaming, the storm threatening, Jesus wasn’t worried. He was at rest. The disciples woke Him up and asked Him to save them. His response is telling: “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” That seems like an easy question to answer. “Why are we afraid? Because of certain death! Because of the wind! Because of the waves! Because our boat is about to sink!” But Jesus gets to the root of fear and anxiety: It is rooted in a lack of faith.

Anxiety is, in its truest definition, insubordination. It is a lack of faith.

Think about it, when we are anxious, we are placing our faith, rest and peace in circumstantial providence, not in sovereign providence. We think that by worrying about a problem, we will solve it. Worrying solves the problem no faster than ignoring it. Both of these are unbiblical responses and will only lead to hardship. We must submit it to the Lord.

We have a choice with every anxious thought to either bear it on our shoulders, ignore it and hope it disappears, or to cast it on the Lord, knowing He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7). Today, as you are reading this, what are you anxious about? Are you dealing with the problem or pretending it will go away? Are you harboring worry and fear in your mind or bringing the problem to Jesus? The disciples may have been afraid, but I like that they brought their concern to Jesus. Immediately, He rebuked the winds and the sea, and Matthew says “There was a great calm.” Is Jesus concerned about your problem? Is He capable of handling it?

The night I received the hospital bill, I made a phone call to our insurance company. Apparently there had been a billing glitch, and they apologized and said to disregard the bill. They would fully cover it! I fell out of my chair and ran around the room exclaiming God’s goodness. I had wasted an entire day stressing about an issue that didn’t even exist. I learned a valuable lesson that day: My job is not to live as a practical atheist, attempting to best God at His work. I needed to simply submit and rest and trust that either this was Him testing me or proving me, but even if we owed triple that amount, He would be glorified in and through our lives.

If we are subordinate to God’s authority and provision in our lives, we won’t step out of order and bear the responsibility of the outcome of our situations. God is sovereignly working all things for His glory and our ultimate good, and we need to trust that. If we will submit to His Lordship and rest, we will like Jesus be at peace in the boat no matter what storms rage around us. Even if that boat ends up being a cruise ship to the Caribbean.

I wasn’t always a pastor. I remember the first job I had in college, working for my uncle at his car lot in a questionable part of town. I drove my old ’86 Dodge convertible to work each day and always parked it with the top down on the side of the car lot because if I parked it on the lot, someone would make me an offer way below what it was worth to me. One day I went to get something out of the back seat and noticed my stereo had been stolen! I looked on the floorboard and console and noticed Skittles scattered everywhere (those small bite-sized addicting candy samples of the rainbow).

Looking outside of the car, I found more Skittles scattered on the ground. So, being the Sherlock Holmes that I am, I got in my car and began to follow the trail of Skittles. Sure enough, when I came around the corner, following the crime trail, I found the perpetrators: a group of neighborhood street teens who were walking down the road with backpacks (probably filled with the spoils of their other victims), and unbelievably, some of them were indeed eating Skittles! Busted! Red-handed! I gassed the ignition and pulled up to a screeching halt and almost leapt from my convertible. For a split second I almost blurted out “citizens arrest!!” but decided not to, against my better judgment. In the end, they feigned ignorance and then quickly cut down a side street before I could give them a pat down and at least get the rest of the bag of Skittles for my trouble. Needless to say, I never saw my stereo again.

In a word, I was robbed. I never saw it coming. I was happily enjoying my tunes one day, and the next I was buying 28 D-batteries to power up a boombox to put in the passenger seat, so I at least had some 90s DC Talk to jam to on the way to work.

Has this ever happened to you? No—not ripped off by some candy-toting teens…but robbed? As pastors, leaders or servants in the church, we serve in a space where something very important can easily be robbed from us: our joy. It is so critical that we take time to evaluate, recenter our perspective and ensure that we are ministering from a place of overflowing joy.

If we were to go on a quick journey through the Scriptures, it wouldn’t take long to be reminded again of the joy it is to know the Lord and minister the gospel to the ends of the earth.

THE PARABLE OF THE TALENTS

Let’s start at a familiar passage and reminder of our stewardship:

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey” (Matthew 25:14-15).

This may be a very familiar parable, but don’t miss the context: Jesus is speaking about the kingdom of heaven. This is Matthew 25, and in the thick of what is called the Olivet Discourse, that powerful prophetic discussion that Jesus has with His disciples on the Mount of Olives after leaving the temple where Jesus had been teaching. One of His disciples was overwhelmed by the beauty of the temple and made a remark about the stones and the architecture. And Jesus’ immediate response was unnerving. He basically said, “Yeah these are great…for a few more years…before each stone will be torn down.” And that response prompted the disciples to ask when the Lord Jesus would return and what the evident signs accompanying His return would be for them to pay attention to.

This is a parable told right after the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, and right after Jesus said, “No man knows the day or the hour.” He’s speaking about the end, about His second coming, about the kingdom, about eternity. And when He uses the word “talents,” we’ve kind of mistaken the idea behind that word. In fact, the English use of “talent” for a natural or supernatural aptitude is believed to have come from this very parable! But the Greek word is talanton and simply means a sum of money or a weight. Most scholars regard a talent as equal to about 6,000 denarii. That means one talent is about 20 years salary. Your life savings, in effect, is in just one talent.

So Jesus’ parable describes a master traveling to a far country, calling His servants and delivering a life’s worth of stewardship to him. One receives five-lifetimes worth, if you would. Another receives enough to stretch two-lifetimes. And one was given enough to do a life’s worth of work. We all know where the story goes from here:

“Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them” (Matthew 25:16-19).

We know of course that the master commends the first two men who invested the incredible amounts that were stewarded to them, and the master then condemns the third man who buried the one talent given to him. I always thought the third guy got a bad wrap—at least he didn’t lose the one talent! It may have been buried, but it wasn’t lost! The two other servants could have made a bad investment…what did he do so wrong?

If we understand the context, Jesus isn’t talking about money, and it is a stretch to say He’s speaking about earthly talents bestowed from above like being able to play the ukulele or juggle bowling pins. Jesus is speaking about a life’s investment. What will we do with what was given to us as our life’s trust? Will we bury it—do nothing but stow away what has been entrusted to us with the short time we have on this planet? Or will we invest it and grow it so that it yields a harvest? However, something jumped out at me recently when reading this parable. There’s a phrase I hadn’t noticed before. Look at what happens with the one who received the five talents and earned five more…notice what the master says to him:

THE JOY OF YOUR LORD

“So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord'” (Matthew 25:20-21).

“Enter into the joy of your Lord.” Obviously a picture of heaven—because later to the one who squandered his life’s trust, he was cast out into darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. So this joy is something descriptive of heaven—it is the joy OF YOUR LORD. It is something that we enter into, and Jesus started the parable saying this is what the kingdom is like. When we are taking what is entrusted to us, and using it for His glory and others’ good, there is in a sense an entering into the joy of our Lord.

Perhaps that describes you as you are reading this. You’ve been ministering in your own strength, out of duty and not delight. The work you are doing for the Lord is not a “get to,” but a “got to.” The Lord wants to refresh you in His presence with a renewed mind and desires for you to minister from the overflow of a deep abiding relationship with His Son, in whose presence there is fullness of joy.

George Bernard Shaw points out:

“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one: the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap, and being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.”

JOY THROUGHOUT SCRIPTURE

Throughout the Scripture there is a wealth of verses that describe to us the joy that is ours, and for a moment we have an opportunity to enter into the joy of our Lord. I have found these generally fall into two categories: His part (meaning promised joy from above), and our part (meaning what our response is due to His nature and work in our lives). Take a few moments to read these verses and be encouraged at the joy that is ours in Christ:

HIS PART

• “In Your presence is fullness of joy”– (Psalm 16:11).
• “Weeping may remain for the night, but joy comes in the morning”– (Psalm 30:5).
• “Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation”– (Isaiah 12:3).
• “The LORD your God in your midst, the Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing”– (Zephaniah 3:17).
• Jesus said, “I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance”– (Luke 15:7).
• We are promised that Messiah will give us, “Beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified”– (Isaiah 61:3).
• “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full”– (John 15:11).

OUR PART

• “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord”– (Psalm 100:1).
• “Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous! For praise from the upright is beautiful”– (Psalms 33:1).
• “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep”– (Romans 12:15).
• “But let the righteous be glad; Let them rejoice before God; yes, let them rejoice exceedingly”– (Psalm 68:3).
• “Rejoice in the Lord always. (in case you have a short attention span, he says) Again I will say, rejoice!”– (Philippians 4:4).
• “What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice”– (Philippians 1:18).
• “Glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the LORD!”–( I Chronicles 16:10).
• “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy”– (I Peter 4:12-13).
• “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience”– (James 1:2-3).
• “But Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end”– (Hebrews 3:6, NKJV).
• “Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You”– (Psalm 51:8-13).
• “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, My soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels”– (Isaiah 61:10).
• “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God”– (Hebrews 12:2).
• And perhaps the most timely verse of all for we who labor in a field sowing the seed of the Word and praying for it to land on fertile ground to reap a 100-fold harvest: Psalm 126:5-6 reminds us that, “Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”

Spurgeon said, “There is a marvelous medicinal power in joy. Most medicines are distasteful; but this, which is the best of all medicines, is sweet to the taste, and comforting to the heart. This blessed joy is very contagious. One dolorous spirit brings a kind of plague into the house; one person who is wretched seems to stop all the birds from singing wherever he goes . . . [But] the grace of joy is contagious. Holy joy will oil the wheels of your life’s machinery. Holy joy will strengthen you for your daily labor. Holy joy will beautify you and give you an influence over the lives of others.”

May the joy of the Lord be our strength once again. May His presence guide us, for in His presence is fullness of joy. My prayer is that we will enter into the joy of our Lord…not necessarily through an untimely death—but by joining in His kingdom’s advancing work wherever we are, to the ends of the earth.