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Luke 21:25-28

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Luke 21:24

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Colossians 1:9-14

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Selected Scriptures

We are in a final message on the short series on shepherding and it’s just a, just given the briefest outline on the chief duties of pastoral ministry. And as I’ve said to you before, I’m kind of teaching my own job description to you to show you from God’s Word what pastors are responsible to do. This is job description for pastors, elders, shepherds, overseers, bishops, if you want to use that word, that’s the word for overseer, Bishop.

But so far in this series, we’ve talked about the shepherd’s instruction and the shepherd’s exhortation. That’s the previous weeks, today the topic is the shepherd’s protection. The shepherd’s protection. This is how the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Good Shepherd, John 10:11 and verse 14 as well, he is also the chief shepherd of the sheep, 1 Peter 5:4.

This is how Jesus Christ uses, us under shepherds, his elders, his pastors. He uses them to protect his church. And why would his church need protection? Well, a lot of ways to answer that question, but just in view of our topic, when shepherds do their job, when they provide sound instruction from God’s Word, when they exhort people to forsake their sins and walk in righteousness, well, that draws fire from the enemy.

God uses the faithful shepherding in the instruction and exhortation to unify a church, to grow the body strong, to make it effective and fruitful and Satan don’t like that. The enemy does not like an effective church and so he opposes it and he has, he’s very wiley; finds many different ways to attack.

We understand though the attack come, though it comes through people, though it comes through trouble from people, whether it’s the culture around us, or people who rise up within us, or whatever the issue is, false doctrine, people who, who, teach that, and past that, or bad lifestyles; whatever it is, we understand because the Bible tells us this, that our struggle is not ultimately against flesh and blood. The persecution, and struggle, and suffering, and, and, pressure comes with a face. We have to look beyond the face. It’s not the face that’s the issue.

There is a spiritual battle going on behind the scenes, and it’s a very real battle. It’s against demonic spiritual forces that are too much for us. I mean, we being flesh and blood, we are no match for the angelic realm and the demonic realm. But our God is with us. That’s why we, he tells us, “take up the full armor of God. It’s so we can resist in the evil day.” It’s so that we can stand firm.

We know how to fight this battle. We know how to fight the battle because of the instruction that’s given to us through the local church, because of the exhortation we received through the Shepherd’s ministry. We know to put on the full armor of God. We know what it is, we know how to do it. We know how to fight the battle. So what brings the battle is the very thing that strengthens us to fight the battle. I love how God uses the one to do the other all the time.

Before we get into our outline, as I’ve kind of done through this series, I just want to start by laying out my thesis statement. Also for this, I’ve done it with the instruction of the shepherds, with the exhortation of the shepherds. Now I’m going to do it with the protection of the shepherds. Here’s the thesis statement we’ll follow: Shepherds protect the flock of God from the harmful influence of stumbling blocks. Stumbling blocks, that is, those who cause people to sin in doctrine or in practice.

Shepherds protect the flock of God from, har, the harmful influence of stumbling blocks, that is, those who cause people to sin in doctrine or in practice. That’s our thesis statement. We’re going to work through an outline, as we’ve done, and as we work through this outline on the shepherd’s duty to protect the flock, I want to start first with the consequences of not protecting the flock. Here’s what’s at stake.

Here’s the consequences of an unprotected flock. And after that, we’re going to focus in our second point, focus the lens on those who are in need of protection. And then thirdly, finally, we’ll see how it is that shepherds protect the flock, what tools they use, what structures are in place in order to protect the flock of God.

So point one, let’s talk about what happens, number one, when pastors don’t protect. Just write that down in your outline if you want to number one, when pastors don’t protect. And turn in your Bibles for this point, to Ezekiel chapter 34.

Ezekiel chapter 34, this is where God indicts Israel’s shepherds. He names their sin, pronounces judgment on them, and points to the restoration of the good shepherding to come to his flock in Jesus Christ. Ezekiel 34, the indictment on Israel’s shepherds, their failure, which points to the restoration of true shepherding, good shepherding in the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ.

We’ll start with Ezekiel 34:1 to 6. “Then the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, Son of Man, prophecy against the shepherds of Israel, prophecy and say to those shepherds, Thus says, Lord Yahweh, woe, shepherds of Israel who’ve been shepherding themselves. Should not the shepherd shepherd the flock? But you eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool. You sacrifice the fat sheep without shepherding the flock.

“Those who are sickly you have not strengthened, and the diseased you’ve not healed, and the broken you’ve not bound up. The scattered you have not brought back, nor have you searched for the lost. But with strength and with severity you’ve dominated them. They were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and then became food for every beast of the field and were scattered. My flock wandered through all the mountains and on every high hill. My flock was scattered over all the surface of the earth, and there was no one to seek or search for them.”

Lest we misconstrue the imagery here, misconstrue the text, you need to understand this is a kind of an extended metaphor, using shepherds and sheep, to kind of refer to Israel’s leaders and then those who follow the leaders. This is condemning Israel’s leadership, because it’s devolved into false shepherds. Shepherds that brutalize the sheep don’t care for the sheep at all. That’s not a shepherd. So they’re false. They’re shepherds in name only.

But in condemning the shepherds in this text, we want to understand the members of the flock are not all innocent. Okay, so we’re not looking at bad evil shepherds and innocent victims, sheep. There is a victim thing set up here, but notice, “my flock was scattered” in verse, in verse 6, “my flock wandered through all the mountains and on every high hill.” That is an allusion to the idolatry that was taking place among the sheep of Israel, worshiping and sacrificing under every tree and on every hill, every high hill.

You know, do you see in the list of the kings, in kings and Chronicles, this, this king was kings of Judah. This king was, was righteous, followed the ways of David, but he had this against him, he didn’t do away with the high places. The high places where the people would go and sacrifice and do their own thing and conduct their own worship. So we want to understand that the, the, members of the flock, it’s a mixed flock and it becomes a more mixed flock, the more faithless and unfaithful the shepherds are.

Remember, in Israel, both people and priests, leaders, followers were guilty of vile idolatry. It’s portrayed here. We’ll see it even further in Ezekiel 34. The sheep are not all, the sheep are not all just innocent victims. The sheep are sinners too. That’s why they need shepherds over them. But they need true shepherds, not false shepherds.

They need true shepherds to lovingly corral them and correct them and guide and direct them into green pastures and buy still waters. These leaders have not done that. They’re too busy trying to profit from their position, using the goods of the flock to advantage themselves. They fleece the flock, the, whether that means overtly taking money and, and, improving their own financial position, or it could even mean just gaining respect and esteem; being, being, treated with deference by people as they walk through the city, holding positions and prominence, places of respect in the community.

Many people don’t care about the money. In fact, they use the money to get those very things to be respected and flattered by men. So while the shepherds are tending to themselves, these sheep are sickly, diseased, broken. All those are images to portray people who are in bondage to sin, dominated by sin, sick with sin, diseased with sin. It’s, it’s, the sin is affecting all the systems of their body. They’re having a systemic shutdown in their body leading to eventual spiritual death.

So as a result, the sheep, because they’re sick, they’re sin addled, they’re scattered, divided, separated, they’re not together and as a unit, they’re not together in a safe flock. They’re wandering apart, isolated from each other in ones and twos and threes, going here, going there and distanced from the flock; they’re lost, unsafe, and prey for wolves.

Look at verses 7 to 8, “Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of Yahweh: ‘As I live,’ declares the Lord Yahweh, ‘surely, because My flock has become a plunder, My flock has even become food for all the beasts of the field for lack of a shepherd, and My shepherds did not seek for My flock, but rather the shepherds shepherded themselves and did not shepherd My flock.’”

Spiritually speaking, sheep left to themselves without a diligent shepherd instructing them, reproving, rebuking, exhorting them, correcting them, they are plunder. They’re food for the hireling of the flock, the one pretending to be a pastor. They are prey for all absolute wolves. They’re beasts of the field. They’re victims of disease. They, they bring upon themselves self-inflicted wounds that bring injury to their hearts, their souls. They have lifelong consequences from that.

Again, all this metaphor for spiritual danger, the consequences of people left to themselves, uncorrected but merely affirmed, placated, flattered, but not truly confronted or cared for. Left to themselves, they can’t escape the snare of sin. They can’t get rid of the alluring tastes of an unhealthy diet. They can’t turn away from the enticement of deceptive voices calling to them, wooing them, bringing, bringing, them into dangerous places. They can’t turn away from the looking at the bad example and bad advice of unqualified men and unqualified shepherds.

All of us are sheep like this. Your under shepherds, your pastors and elders, we too need to discern and listen to good voices, good shepherds before us. We do. We, we don’t, we don’t freewheel it, think we’re independent voices. We trust good and godly faithful shepherds and pastors, who’ve come before us. We stand on their shoulders. We learn from their, their writings. We learn from their testimony and their example.

We’re sheep ourselves, every single one of us. We need to understand our sheep in danger of being led astray. It’s for good reason that our God characterizes us as sheep. We need help. We’re prone to wander like lost sheep. The Psalmist who wrote Psalm 119:176; 176 verses on the word of God, on the love of God, of the Word, 176 verses.

In the final verse, he confesses this, in humility and in truth, he says after writing so much excellent poetry on the Word of God and the God of the Word, and extolling him and his power and his care and his love, and how much he wants to follow after him, he says this in the very last verse, “I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant.” Are we any better than that Psalmist? Are any of us pastors, elders, leaders, any better than the psalmist? We are not.

We can survey both testaments of Scripture and see how Jeremiah in the Old Testament pronounces woes on unfaithful shepherds and false prophets of Israel. Jesus in his time has pronounced woes on the scribes and the Pharisees. We’ve studied through that in Luke’s Gospel. But we can survey both testaments of Scripture and see that God reserves a special judgment for any man who would take up the mantle of leadership, but is not qualified to be there. How dare he do that?

Why is God reserving serious special judgment for false shepherds, those who are unqualified, ungifted, not called? Because unqualified leadership has the appearance of faithfulness, has the appearance in the title of leadership. He offers his very presence, offers refuge and protection, promises spiritual provision. But sheep who flee to that voice, and that man, and that title, they find that man to be a crumbling wall, not fortified, not strong, not protective.

They find him to be a fruitless tree, having nothing. But like the fig tree that Jesus cursed, representing Israel’s leadership, nothing but leaves, no fruit, no sustenance. It finds them to be coming to those kind of false titular shepherds; shepherds in name only, find them to be waterless springs bringing parched lives and souls, no life-giving water.

For sheep who follow false shepherds, it leaves a lasting mark and so God says starting in verse 9, “Therefore you shepherds hear the word of Yahweh: ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will seek My flock from their hand and make them cease from shepherding the flock. And so the shepherds will not shepherd themselves anymore, but I will deliver My flock from their mouth.”” The picture there is wolves eating the flock.

“‘I’ll deliver My flock from their mouth so that they will not be food for them.’ For thus says the Lord Yahweh, ‘Behold, I Myself will seek My sheep and care for them. As a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his sheep which are spread out, so I will care for My sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered on a’” cloud, “‘cloudy and gloomy day.’”

Skip down to verse 14. He says, “I’ll shepherd them,” in a, “in a good pasture, and their grazing ground will be on the mountain heights of Israel. There they will lie down on good grazing ground and be shepherded in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I will shepherd My flock. I will make them lie down,” declares the Lord Yahweh. “I’ll search for the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken, strengthen the sick; but the fat and strong I will destroy. I will shepherd them with judgment.”

There are obviously eschatological tones, prophecies, promises set in that section, but skip down to verse 23, because I want to draw your attention to where God identifies his appointed shepherd who will care for his sheep. Verse 23, “Then I will establish over them one shepherd,” just one, “My servant David, and he will shepherd them; he will shepherd them himself and will be their shepherd. And I, Yahweh will be their God, and My servant David will be Prince among them; I, Yahweh have spoken.” What a comfort. And we’ve seen that come to pass on the pages of Scripture.

For us, that prediction, that promise is past tense. We look back and see the Lord Jesus Christ, who’s the Good Shepherd, the great Shepherd, and we say fulfilled. Jeremiah 23, also another woe against Israel’s shepherds. We see that Christ there is pictured as sending out under shepherds to do his bidding.

So there’s one shepherd, the Son of David, Jesus the Christ, but he employs under shepherds underneath his rule. He puts them into service to tend his sheep. He says in Jeremiah 23, “I will also raise up shepherds over them, and they will shepherd them, and they will not be afraid any longer,” nor, “nor be terrified, nor will any be left unattended.”

So the fulfillment of God’s promises to give his people true shepherds, that starts with Jesus. He calls, sends his apostles out to do the shepherding work and that continues to this day, as he calls and sends shepherds into local churches; the pastors, the elders to tend his lambs, shepherd his sheep, instructing them, exhorting them, so that they protect the flock of God. That’s how this works.

Now the failure of, of these false shepherds to do their duty, to fulfill their responsibility to protect the flock, this leaves the flock vulnerable to beasts of the field, so ravenous wolves who will eat them, but also any other predator that seeks an easy meal. But there is another danger that God identifies here in Ezekiel 34, which is another consequence of not protecting the flock.

There’s one shepherd, the Son of David, Jesus the Christ, but he employs under shepherds underneath his rule. Travis Allen

Go back to verse 17, Yahweh says this again. This is in his monologue here, “As for you, My flock, thus says Lord Yahweh, “Behold I will judge between one sheep and another.” Think about the Matthew 25 sheep and goats separation. Okay, all those goats appear to be in the same flock, and then Yahweh comes, in, in Christ to execute judgment, and he separates the sheep from the goats, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. This is that.

“‘Behold, I will judge between one sheep and another, between the Rams and the male goats. Is it too slight a thing for you that you should be shepherded in good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pastures? Or that you should drink of the clear waters, that you must foul the rest with your feet?

“As for My flock, they must be shepherded on what you tread down with your feet and drink what you foul with your feet!’ Therefore, thus says Lord Yahweh to them, “Behold, I, even I will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you push with side and with shoulder, and,” thrust all, “thrust at all the sickly with your horns until you’ve scattered them abroad, therefore, I will save My flock, and they will no longer be plunder; and I will judge between one sheep and another.”

An unprotected flock, because of shepherding failure becomes an abusive flock dominated by the rich, powerful, selfish, those indifferent to the weak and the needy. Abuses arise as male goats butt the ewes and the little lambs. The fat sheep shove the lean sheep aside and push them aside with their powerful shoulders and hit them with their horns, in order to take more and more for themselves.

This is a picture again of people wealthy, powerful, proud, self-centered. When they enter into the flock, they expect preferential treatment. They get preferential treatment out in the world because of their wealth and their power. They expect it here. They consume time and attention. They make demands while giving nothing. With critical spirits, they’re ever ready to complain. They’re never humbling themselves, confessing their sins, repenting. They devour and suck resources dry. They always demand more.

This metaphor is so apropos for the congregation of Israel in the days of Moses, in the days of the prophets. We see that it’s so apropos for the people of Galilee and Judea in the days of Jesus and his Apostles. This has happened again, and again, and again throughout history. False shepherds infiltrating the early church, their teaching lifestyles influencing the church, reproducing more of their kind within the church, and turning the church into an abusive setting, an abusive environment.

And folks, it’s happening in our own day too, as false believers grow in numbers because of the proliferation of false gospels, sub-Christian gospels. Many people just saying I love Jesus; Jesus saved me from my sins. But there is no heart change, no fruit. They continue on in the fruit of the flesh wearing a nice face, but their hearts are not changed. They grow in numbers in a church, gain influence in churches, turn church after a church into these abusive flocks, and when the abuse absolutely metastasizes, and destroys, and kills that body, they move on to another flock and repeat the process.

So it is an important duty of pastors, elders, to watch out for false sheep, the proud and arrogant, the self-centered and the greedy, those who may at first appear to belong to the flock, but in due time their true character becomes manifest. And when it becomes manifest, something must be done.

When the pastor confronts the proud male goats, the fat sheep, they whine and they bleat, they bite the hand that’s offered to help, they stir up trouble among the rest of the sheep, and they consume an inordinate degree of time, and energy, and attention, but they do not care at all. There’s a telltale sign that they do not belong there, that they are up to no good. That is, a shepherding duty is to protect who becomes a shepherd, in order that there may be faithful shepherds who love the flock, who fear God, and see their duty, and then protect the fold, protect the church from these kinds of influences.

With that in mind, I’d like you to turn to Matthew 18. As we consider a second point and think about who it is that pastors must protect. Let’s consider the, the true victims of these shepherding crimes. What happens when pastors fail to protect and who is hurt by that? Number two: Who pastors must protect? Matthew 18.

Most of us are reasonably familiar, I think, with the section of Matthew 18 in which Jesus commands us to practice corrective church discipline. Matthew 18:15 and following, 15 to 20 really is the section. In a healthy church, we understand the church discipline is going on all the time and it’s going on all the time in a very positive sense called formative church discipline.

Formative church discipline is just, in the sense of making disciples and continue to teach, and instruct, and exhort toward godliness and helping people, put the, put the truth into practice, helping them to grow in the wisdom in the application, the truth. That’s just formative church discipline. It doesn’t feel any negative or corrective, because we all want to grow in holiness. So that’s forming us. It’s shaping us. We do that together, making disciples, helping one another grow.

Also though, there are times when we get crossways with the one talking to us about the truth, could be a friend or could be a family member, could be someone in leadership, as well, who corrects a, a sin issue, corrects a lack of wisdom, a foolishness or whatever. And then we don’t see it the same way we get crosswise. We gotta resolve that conflict, right? That’s called corrective discipline to deal with any unrepentant sin in the body. And that’s what Matthew 18:15 to 20 is all about.

What we can sometimes fail to realize is Matthew 18:15 to 20 is embedded firmly in Matthew 18, which is a, a broader context. So the context for corrective discipline actually starts back in the first verse which is really about the protecting power of Jesus and concern of Jesus to protect his sheep from stumbling blocks.

Take a look at the first six verses here, “At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, ‘who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’” Now, this is shortly after the Transfiguration or Transfiguration where Peter, James, and John see Christ in power in his kingdom glory on the mountain.

They’re there with Moses and Elijah who also appear there, and they’re talking with Jesus about his eventual ascension into heaven from Jerusalem. So these three have really learned a lot. They’ve been exposed to a lot. Jesus remands them to silence until after his resurrection.

But you know, being, you being you and me being me, you know that, as they walked among the other men, walked among the Twelve, they’re like, we got to see that and you didn’t. It creates a little bit of competition, one upmanship among the disciples.

So the disciples came to Jesus and said, who then is the greatest of the kingdom of heaven? You know what Peter, James, and John are thinking? Jesus is going to look at us and say, that’s you guys. He didn’t do that. Verse 2 says, “He called a child to himself and set this child before them and said, ‘truly, I say to you, unless you’re converted and become like little children, you’ll never enter the kingdom of heaven.’”

What is that to say? It’s to say that children who especially in this society were never viewed by anybody, as having anything to offer. All they are is just food machines. They’re costly. They, they can’t even plow a field. I mean, what’s a little child going to do? He doesn’t have anything to offer. All he does is take up my time.

It’s not until that kid gets out of that kind of young stage, past the time when he might be crippled by disease or, or, or die. The infant mortality rate was very high. Child mortality rate very high in these times. And so get past that time and get him to actually, him or her to do something in the field or in the home and become productive and then he becomes a contributing members, member of society. Before that, nothing to contribute.

Jesus says unless you become like a little child, realizing that with your spiritual situation you have nothing to contribute to your salvation. You’re utterly dependent like a little child. A little child may know it or may not. We all know it though, become like that. Verse 4, “Whoever therefore will humble himself as this child. He is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it is better for him that I heavy a millstone be hung around his neck, and that he’d be drowned in the depth of the sea.”

Wow, I can’t imagine a worse way to die. I’ve gone down into depths of the ocean before with a weight belt and my ears unable to clear and that is really really painful. A heavy millstone that was used for crushing grain moved around by a donkey or an oxen. This massive upper millstone fastened around somebody’s neck and then cast into the depth of the sea would cause the victim to descend at such a rate he could not clear his ears, no matter how hard he tries, he tries, he causes eardrums to burst leading to all the atmosphere after atmosphere of crushing pressure, come, to come into the inner ear, inner ear causing severe pain, adding excruciating pain on the way to a terrifying death by drowning, and suffocation, and maybe even crushing because of the depth and the pressure. Wow, that is really, really strong language from our Lord.

When he says, I don’t want any of my little ones to stumble. You know what? He really means it; any of these little ones who believe in him. Talking about true believers here, not the false sheep, not the fat sheep, not the goats. True believers. Jesus is very serious in this warning about his concern to see them protected. Look at Matthew 18:7 to 9, “Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks!” Man, there are a lot of stumbling blocks out there.

Woe to them, “for it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; nevertheless, woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes! And if your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it’s better to enter life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feet, be cast into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out, throw it from you. Better for you to enter life with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into the fiery hell.”

Notice the context of cutting off any an offending hand or an offending foot or tearing out an offending eye. Notice that it’s different here than in, maybe, Matthew 5:29. In Matthew 5:29, the context there is about battling a lust. So do whatever you can to avoid being tripped up by your own lust. Just take extreme measures. I mean, he’s not literally talking about it mutilating yourself. He’s just talking about take whatever measures you can to deal with your sin. That’s not the context here. The context here is about avoiding, at very great cost, even if it means searing pain, crippling lifelong disability. Do whatever it takes so you don’t become a cause of stumbling for any other true believer.

Now back to our thesis statement at the beginning. Shepherds protect the flock of God from the harmful influence of stumbling blocks. Many stumbling blocks in the world, many that the shepherds need to be watching out for. Those who cause people to sin in doctrine or in their practice. If your hand causes stumbling by what you do, by what you practice, by what your hands are involved in. If your feet cause stumbling by where they go, what you mobilize them to pursue and cause stumbling. If your eye, by what your eye desires, by what it seeks, by what it takes in, this is a call to self-watch, isn’t it? So that you don’t run afoul of the great shepherd of the sheep.

It is a lie of our present age that you can do sin and it doesn’t affect anybody else. Jesus is exposing the lie. And I think it’s no accident that in Matthew 5, he’s talking about your lust and doing whatever it takes to deal with your lust. Take care of it internally first. Make sure it’s gone because if you don’t and that lust continues to brew and to grow and to leaven your whole life, you know what happens in Matthew 18? You start becoming a stumbling block to other people.

Be sure your sin will find you out. It does come out. There is no such thing as private sin. It’s all going to affect somebody. That’s what Jesus is saying here, calling us to self-watch, so that we don’t run, so we don’t run crossways with the Good Shepherd of the sheep. He’s serious about this. So causing one of these little ones who belonged to Jesus to stumble because you persuaded them to believe some false doctrine or tolerate it and follow some sinful practice; just ask you a series of questions and think about this.

Can giving someone a bad book? Oh, like Jesus calling, pointing them to some edgy podcast, turning them on to some entertaining but heretical television series like The Chosen? Can that cause stumbling? Can tolerating sin, overlooking bad doctrine, or worse, by toying with it, entertaining doubts, encouraging people to doubt, question God, challenge God, be angry at God, dialoguing with error, flirting with weird doctrines, can that cause a sheep to stumble?

Can harboring resentment and bitterness in your heart, excusing a heart of anger, nursing your hurts and offenses, can that seep out of a poisoned heart and inject poison into others and cause them to stumble? Can your behavior, lifestyle preferences, priorities, pastimes, what you allow, what you indulge in so-called liberty issues, can that cause one of these little ones to stumble?

Can sharing gossip, spreading slander, sharing false reports with others, can this cause a believer to stumble, doubt or become confused? What about sowing discord, causing disunity, division, sowing doubt in godly leadership, can that cause stumbling? Jesus says don’t you do it, don’t dare.

It’s only those who fear the Lord who care about this. Those with no fear of God that governs their heart, they scoff at this warning. They think you’re making too much out of it. Let’s keep reading. Jesus says in verse 10, “see that you do not despise,” any of these little ones, “one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven continually see the face of My Father who is in heaven.”

As the angels are dialed in by looking at the fear of God and knowing their own duty to protect these little ones, they get it. Verse 11, probably not in the text. It’s put into brackets in some passages here, but “[for the Son of Man has come to seek and save that which is lost.]” And then he goes on.

And that verse does fit here, even if it was added by copyist. He says, “What do you think? If a man has one hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go search for the one that is straying? And if it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than the ninety-nine which have not gone astray.”

Well, “in this way, it is not the will of your Father who’s in heaven that one of these little ones perish.” In light of what we read earlier from Ezekiel 34, I, I know you see the connection between this and Ezekiel 34. Jesus is the Good Shepherd, who Ezekiel 34:16, he does the will of the Father. He says, “I’m going to seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken and strengthen the sick. He is the Good Shepherd who will care for his little ones and protect them and those who cause his little ones to stumble. The fat and the strong I will destroy. I’ll feed them with judgement.”

Beloved, I want you to understand this is the thinking that frames our shepherding. This is what frames our thinking as shepherds. This is what drives our concern. And it’s not that any of us pastors or elders here are fearful of being cast into a fiery hell. We obviously want to avoid such a fate at all costs. But the stronger motivation for us, it’s not craving fear. It is a God-given spirit generated love for God and his flock.

We love the Lord Jesus Christ, and so when, when he takes special attention for people like this, man, we love what he loves. We want to do what he does, want to be part of that process of protection. Oh, but we also love these little ones, these sheep, those who are prey, those who are prone to wander. We understand that; we’re just men of flesh like everybody else.

So we get it; if we want to help folks, you just need to understand God has given us the love of Christ in our hearts for all of you, for the flock of God, for believers young and old, rich and poor, wise and foolish. By the Holy Spirit we’ve become partaker of the love of Christ, and we really do care to see his people, his true sheep, his little ones cared for, and tended, and well fed, and well watered, safe and sound, that they can grow up healthy, strong, and bring glory to God.

Let me give you a short list of people whom pastors watch over and protect. First, pastors start by watching themselves. We’re sheep. We got to watch over our own souls, got to guard our own hearts for signs of drift. 1 Timothy 4:16, “pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; and persevere in these things, for as you do this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.”

Pastors got to watch themselves. Pastors, next, number two, have to watch over individual sheep and make sure individual sheep are not being deceived and being slipping away following prey to the world, the flesh, and the devil. Jesus warns in John 10. John 10 is an awesome passage. I just, I debated on whether or not to just preach that, but I go back to it.

I just have limited time, but Jesus warns in John 10:10, he says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. He doesn’t enter into the sheep hold through the sheep gate.” That is he, he avoids the qualification issue, he avoids the calling issue. He avoids the appropriateness of his being there. He hops the fence through some other means and makes himself a shepherd.

And we got a lot of self-appointed shepherds out there, a lot of people being promoted into eldership. They have no business being there. They’re not qualified, they’re not gifted, they’re not trained. They, they have, they have no business being there. Thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. He strikes the weak sheep wandering at the outskirts of the fold, wandering into dangerous briars that that attach themselves to the soul and pull them away.

Just insert a, insert a footnote here, how is it that pastors practice a constant self-watch while they are at the same time also watching over the flock of God? Simple. We follow the priorities of Peter that he gave in Acts 6:4, prayer and ministry of the Word. Prayer and ministry of the Word.

Pastors have to be men like Ezra. Ezra 7:10, “Who had set his heart to study the law of God and to practice it and to teach his statutes and judgments in Israel.” You know what Ezra did first, he tended to himself, his own heart. He studied the Word of God so that he would grow and, in, out of his growth, then he turns and teaches the statutes and judgments in Israel.

He teaches what he knows by experience. He teaches what he has practiced for himself. He teaches the comfort of God for people because he’s been comforted. He teaches the warnings of God because he’s felt the warnings. We’re engaged in a spiritual warfare, so those of us called to lead from the front on the battlefield have to know the nature of the battle. We have to recognize the strength and the superiority of enemy forces. We have to see the contrast with our own weakness and vulnerabilities. And we have to look to the God who has all power and all wisdom.

With that battle ready mindset, we put on the full armor of God every single day. And we pray for our fellow soldiers as we help them follow our example and do the same thing. So point one: Pastors looking after themselves, Point two: Pastors looking after individual sheep. They’re one and the same.

Third, pastors watch over the local church. And what I mean by that is not individual people, but the corporate body. We have to watch over, attend to the health and the morale of the whole church. We build toward a collective discernment together, a corporate maturity. That’s Ephesians 4:11 to 16. You can jot that down and read it later. But just as a disease can enter into a flock of sheep and afflict it and cause the sheep to become sick, sometimes causing a lifelong weakness, disease, even death, so also like a spiritual disease, unhealthy trends, ungodly habits of speech, unrighteous practices, these things destroy a local church and harm it’s witness.

And so in the local church, pastors protect the doctrinal purity of the church from false teachers and false teaching. We live in a hyper connected age and so false doctrine is entering into the homes and the hearts of church members all the time without a visit from a visible, physically present false teacher. It’s coming through the Internet; so hard for us to deal with. But we take Paul’s warnings, warnings from Jude and Peter about the damage that’s caused, to by impure doctrine entering the church. And we’re trying to be watchful, helpful.

Pastors also must protect not just the doctrinal purity of the church, but the practical purity of the church from influences of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Whether members are led astray and enticed by their own lusts, or whether they’re disobedient people who are influencing them to stray, wander, experiment, sinful habits, and sinful attitudes, whatever the case. Following after cultural trends, following after what’s cool, what’s accepted in society, John says, do not love the world or the things in the world, don’t love it, turn away from it. Love the father only.

Pastors protect not just the doctrinal purity of the church, the practical purity of the church, but also the unity of the church, and the harmony of the church, so that the church stands firm in one spirit. Philippians 1:27, “With one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.” And he says this in verse 28, Also “in no way alarmed by your opponents – which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you and that too, from God,” to protect the unity and the harmony of the church.

And we not only strive together, one mind, one Spirit, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, but we also, we don’t worry about those people who are opponents, who oppose, who cast aspersions on the church, those who criticize and ridicule, those who eventually in this age are going to start to persecute. We’re not worried about our opponents. That’s just a sign of destruction for them. But it’s an affirmation of salvation for you who continue to follow in that environment.

We have to guard against divisions in the body. 1 Corinthians 1:10, those who cause division, Titus 3:10, so that no bad influences, no false doctrine, no lovers of iniquity, no bad actors come and destroy the unity of the harmony of the church for which Christ died to make them.

One fourth thing the pastors protect is the witness of the universal church. How do we practice? How can we be responsible for the witness of the universal church? That’s about doing our part in our local church so our local church doesn’t cast a bad witness on the church universal, so that when people look at our church, they say that’s what the church of Christ universally should be. And they don’t look at our church and say, oh, this is a sin loving, sin tolerating church. This is a culturally affirming church. And that’s what the body of Christ universally is.

So we have to, this is about the affirmation, cooperation, participation with cultural movements, maybe even with other churches, sometimes withholding that affirmation of other churches because they’ve drifted, or perhaps warning about the weakness, decline, falseness of other churches, or on the other hand, affirming them, affirming them. So when pastors don’t protect, the ones that they’re charged to protect are harmed, caused to stumble, led into sin, whether doctrinally or practically.

This leads us to a Third Point number three: How pastors must protect, how pastors must protect. So we think about the duty to protect the flock. Shepherds grow in obedience to and wisdom in following several biblical practices and doing these things, maintain these habits in our ministry, protecting these several practices of church life.

This is how Christ protects his church. First, pastors protect baptism and membership. Baptism and membership. Scripture says the church of Jesus Christ is comprised of believers who are regenerate, born again, spirit filled. That’s it. Those are the occupants of this set we call the church: Regenerate, born again, spirit filled.

The church is a community of those God chose to partake of the new covenant inaugurated in the shed blood of Jesus Christ. We’re those who have received, according to Ezekiel 36:26, for those of all of, us have received a new heart, new spirit from God or possessed by the Holy Spirit of God, verse 27. And that is evidenced in a new walk, that is evidenced in a new way of living, as we obey God’s statutes and ordinances, as we have an ever-increasing fruit of the Spirit in our lives, Galatians 5:22.

So when you see people who profess Christ, who don’t walk in obedience, live however they want to, when you see people who don’t bear the fruit of the Spirit, but actually have the works of the flesh coming out of their hearts, revealed in times of pressure, tension, trial, that’s when their hearts erupt. There’s a problem with that profession. There’s a problem with our profession if that’s happening in times of tension, and testing, and trial.

So as pastors, we do our level best to avoid baptizing unbelievers. We, we don’t receive unbelievers into church membership, not knowingly anyway. We do our best to protect the process of examining candidates for baptism, applicants for church membership because brutish goats, falt, false sheep, they wreak havoc in a body, as we’ve already talked about. Our Lord, the vine dresser has various ways of pruning the vine and cutting off these nutrient sucking branches that are fruitless and lifeless.

And that brings us to second thing the pastors protect is the communion and local fellowship. They protect the communion table and the fellowship that it represents. So we protect the first of our Lord’s ordinances, baptism that governs who we allow and disallow into membership. We also protect the second ordinance, the Lord’s table, communion; which is a symbolic meal. And the communion table portrays the basis of the church’s fellowship, which is spiritual participation in Christ.

What undergirds or upholds our regular celebration of the Lord’s Table is a practice of discipline, church discipline. Often we hear the reference to church discipline. We’re thinking about the negative side of disciplines, the discipline, the corrective side, and that kinda, kinda raises our adrenaline level and stirs internal tension because we have to address uncomfortable, unpleasant stuff.

But as we’re in Matthew 18, part of your Bible’s already warmed up. You can look at verse Matthew 18:15, “If your brother sins, go show him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you’ve won your brother.” Yay, won your brother. You’ve actually sought the lost sheep, found him, brought him back, and there’s great rejoicing in your heart and in heaven as well.

“But if he doesn’t listen to you,” verse 16, “take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every fact may be confirmed. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. If he refuses to listen even to the church, let them be to you as the Gentile, the tax collector.” Those who refuse to humble themselves and repent may no longer fellowship with the local church, may no longer partake at the Lord’s Table, not until they repent.

It is shocking to see how few evangelical churches practice corrective church discipline, how few pastors have the stomach for it. They readily admit it’s in the Bible. They even claim to agree with it, but either ignorantly or willfully, they refuse to practice it. They just don’t have the stomach for it these days. Many pastors don’t confront people who are sinning, won’t teach people how to confront sin. They skirt around that duty.

They justify themselves in doing so, by kinda misappropriating the concept of grace, perverting any resemblance to biblical grace. They say we just want to be gracious with people, and that just helps them feel justified in their conscience, that they can avoid a comfort, an uncomfortable confrontations with proud sinners. You never have to deal with the blowback.

Churches like that, pastors like that are not doing their duty to protect the church, and they will be held accountable by God for that negligence, whether it’s due to cowardice or, preg, pragmatism or whatever it is. But the arms of the fellowship are open wide to all who walk humbly before the Lord, who submit themselves to the authority of God’s Word.

And this is the vast majority of the church, partaking of the church’s formative discipline, receiving the pastor’s instruction and exhortation, receiving the exhortation and teaching that comes out of the, the, different teaching venues in the church and that’s taken up among the entire congregation. And, and we encourage one another day after day and exhort one another.

That’s formative church discipline. It’s happening all the time, happening very positively in our midst. So baptism, communion, protecting the church’s entrance ordinance, and fellowship ordinance, ensuring by God’s grace there’s a regenerate membership and a humble, submissive, obedient membership.

Third thing the pastors protect is ordination and eldership. Ordination and eldership or ordination and leadership. Paul tells Timothy in first, 2 Timothy 2:2 find faithful men. He says, “the things you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses. Entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others,” also.

It is a lie of our present age that you can do sin and it doesn’t affect anybody else. Jesus is exposing the lie. Travis Allen

Takes time to see faithfulness, doesn’t it? In his first letter, 1 Timothy 3:1 to 7, his letter to Titus, in Titus 1:5 to 9, Paul lists the qualifications a man has to fulfill to serve as an elder. He has to be tested, examined. It takes time. Close observation of his life, gain sufficient knowledge of his life, marriage, family, overall testimony, his habits, his thinking, his disciplines, taking the necessary time, guarding against showing partiality. These are vital, vital for making a right judgement about a man’s, a man’s calling and qualification to ensure that the church is well served by good, godly, qualified leaders and not abused by bad, unqualified, neglectful leaders.

Go over to 1 Timothy 5, we want you to look at this 1 Timothy 5 verse 17 and following. Paul says this again, so critical to move carefully with men who are coming forward for leadership duty. Paul says the elders, 1 Timothy 5:17, “the elders who lead well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor at preaching the word and teaching.

“For the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle the ox while it is threshing,’ and ‘the labor is worthy of his wages. Do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses. Those who continue in sin, reprove in the presence of all, so that the rest also will be fearful. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God, and of Christ Jesus, and of his elect angels, to observe these instructions without bias, doing nothing in partiality. Don’t lay hands upon anyone hastily, and thereby share responsibility for the sins of others; keep yourself pure.”

So critical to move through the process of considering someone for leadership. Slowly, as careful as we are, they’re still going to be mistakes made, hidden things not seen, not revealed until later. So Paul says in verses 24 and 25, “The sins of some men are quite evident, going before them to judgement; for others, their sins follow after.” But if their sins follow after on the basis of two or three witnesses, deal with the sins, that is the process of church discipline.

That is, elders cannot be shielded from the process of church discipline just because they’re in leadership. Follow the process. He goes on and tells Timothy same thing with, with, good works. Good works are quite evident. Those that are otherwise cannot be concealed. If our Lord was betrayed by Judas Iscariot, who was one of the Twelve men whom he himself appointed, if the future of Hymenaeus and Alexander’s apostasy was hidden from Paul as those men arose in leadership in Ephesus and had to be, he had to leave poor Timothy to deal with it because their sins were exposed and he had to deal with them.

Well, then who are we to believe that we could screen everyone perfectly, right? We just need to deal with what we know and what we see. We just need to be faithful to what we see. Don’t need to go searching for it. Paul says here it’ll come up and when it comes up deal with it. Nevertheless, the process of protecting the eldership is used of the Lord and it’s used to weed out those who would endanger the flock, identify, elevate those who will love and serve the Lord in his flock as his under shepherds.

Always in our minds is the warning of Paul to the Ephesian elders. You can write this down. Don’t need to turn there, but Acts 20 verses 28 to 31, as he’s parting from them, leaving Ephesus to go back to Jerusalem where he’s going to be arrested and then held in Caesarea for two years, then put on a boat, sent to Rome and be held there in imprisonment.

He knows he’s not going to see these guys again. He says, “Be on guard for yourselves,” in Acts 20:28, “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood.” And then this, “I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and even from among your own selves’ men will arise, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore, be watchful.”

He’s saying be watchful about external threats and internal threats. Be watchful. “Remembering that night and day for a period of three years, I didn’t cease to admonish each one with tears.” If it happened then to Timothy and Paul, it’s going to happen now to the likes of us as well. And Paul continues in that section, telling the elders to observe his example. It’s a reliable pattern to examine men for leadership. Again, that observation takes time, impartial judgement.

A fourth thing pastors protect in the church and structures is their affirmation and partnership. We have to protect the fellowship of the church, internally and externally, and we have to also protect the fellowship between churches and among ministers and with institutions and organizations. As pastors and elders, we have to be careful who we’re affirming, what we’re affirming.

Because, especially in a media saturated modern world, Christians need help to sift through the myriad of voices that are always vying for their attention, calling for their vote, calling for their affirmation, calling for their participation. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6:14, “Don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers, and that’s about spiritual partnership and fellowship, joining common cause with unbelievers, which here refers to religious unbelievers in religious tasks, religious endeavors.

So pastors and elders have to avoid affirmations, associations, partnership, participation of a religious nature that cause Christians to stumble or confuse Christian witness to the watching world. We can’t bring a reproach upon Christ. Now, that’s a lot and I know that it was a lot to try to digest. You’re probably going to have to go back and listen again and just take some notes and think. But I can just assure you that is only the briefest of surveys on pastoral ministry.

The subject of pastoring has, has, has filled volumes upon volumes that I’m just working my way through over time in my ministry. I just tried to summarize you a few of the chief duties of a biblical shepherd to instruct, exhort, protect the flock of God in the abiding judgement of church history.

I really am saying nothing than what faithful shepherds of the past have said and what they have practiced, the legacy of their lives and their ministries, all that we study and follow. I cannot tell you, though, how much opposition us pastors face and pastors in any faithful church face, as they pursue their duties in these difficult days.

And also how much we are loved and appreciated by God’s people who are often wandering for sometimes years through vast waterless places, spiritual deserts, where there is in this country, by God’s judgment, a famine in the land for hearing the Word of God. And they wander here and there looking for a faithful church. And they, when they land on one like ours, like others, we know, they’re so grateful. They’re in such deep need and they know it for instruction, and exhortation, and protection.

But we are polarizing figures for sure. Pastors, elders, faithful are lightning rods in the culture. There’s a dividing line and this is an experience that we grow to understand that Paul wrote about in 2 Corinthians 2:14 to 16. Here’s what he says, he says, “Thanks be to God, who always leads us in his triumphal procession in Christ. And he manifests through us the aroma of the knowledge of him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one, the aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma,” of life or, “from life to life.”

There are many today, it’s really less among the irreligious, among the atheists, among the worldly, the secularized, it’s, it’s really more among the religious that they react angrily when they sense the fragrance of, fragrance of, Christ in a pastor’s ministry. I’ve watched this for decades as a Christian, as well-known courageous shepherds like John MacArthur or RC Sproull or lesser known but equally faithful shepherds, like Tom Askel, Don Green, Moses Estrada, Russ Brewer; others are treated with suspicion, hostility, disdain.

They’re the subject of malicious attacks and terrible slanders. What’s their crime? Telling the truth. Staying faithful to their calling, just trying to be the best pastor that they can, to love people, love God, love his people. But the strategy of the enemy is always to discredit faithful pastors. Just as the scribes and the Pharisees tried to do with Jesus, to trouble the sheep, turn them away from following after the ministry of faithful men. Because Satan loves to mangle souls.

The tactic in our modern day is to portray these pastors as unloving, harsh, abusive, which is diametrically the opposite of what they truly are, who God knows them to be, who the faithful know them to be. But there are many today who are doctrinally weak, biblically illiterate, religious hypocrites who are unable to attack the sound exegesis coming out of the pulpit. They have no interest in the truth anyway.

So what they do is they react against the exhortation because the exhortation is what presses them, exposes their will, and confronts their sins. They react in suspicion, and fear, and anger. They become hostile, they strike out and they disrupt others in the flock. They start crying, abuse, and unloving. They begin a character assassination campaign to show this guy to be unloving, ungracious.

None other than John Piper identified this more than 15 years ago in something he wrote; he stated this quote. “Not feeling loved and not being loved are not the same. Jesus loved all people well and many did not like the way he loved them.” End Quote. We’ve seen that over and over in the Gospel of Luke, haven’t we? Led to his crucifixion, didn’t it?

John Piper continues with this. He says, “I have seen so much emotional blackmail in my ministry, I am jealous to raise a warning against it. Emotional blackmail happens when a person equates his or her emotional pain with another person’s failure to love. They are not the same. A person may love well and the beloved still feel hurt and use the hurt to blackmail the lover into admitting guilt that he or she does not have.

“Emotional blackmail says, if I feel hurt by you, you are guilty. There is no defense. The hurt person has become God. His emotion has become judge and jury. Truth does not matter. All that matters is the sovereign suffering of the aggrieved. It is above question. This emotional device is a great evil. I’ve seen it often in my three decades of ministry and I’m eager to defend people who are being wrongly indicted by it.” End Quote.

That’s spot on from John Piper. Emotional blackmail is how proud, wicked goats, false sheep in our woke grievance oriented time, everybody pulling out and playing the victim card. They use this tactic to undermine and malign good men, faithful shepherds, faithful pastors. They’re the aroma of death to those people, those faithful pastors. But among those who are being saved, a fragrance of Christ to God, an aroma from life to life.

And in this true pastors and shepherds find such great joy and satisfaction. It’s because we believe that we speak and through speaking in our ministry, through your ministry as well, so many are saved and sanctified to the glory of God. Many hear the Word of God, walk in blessed obedience to the Word. They learn to practice the wisdom and the fear of the Lord. They grow in holiness and this leads them into the blessedness of God to share in this communicable attribute of blessedness of God, to share in his divine happiness and joy. That is what we want as faithful shepherds for all of Christ’s sheep.

Paul continues in 2 Corinthians 2:17. He recalls his, he recalls his calling; he reaffirms that. He says, who’s sufficient for these things? Who’s sufficient? For we’re not like many who peddled the word of God, but as from sincerity, as from God in the sight of God, we speak in Christ. What do we speak in Christ, words of instruction, words of exhortation, which together provide protection. That’s how we inform, the, the, protection informs and directs how pastors are exercising their oversight.

We administrate the Church, protect any of Christ’s little ones from stumbling, and in this whole process, through imperfect men, God still gives grace and he gives the increase, and he adds blessing upon blessing and joy upon joy, leading us all into satisfaction and gratitude as we walk forward in abundant joy and have full, effective, fruitful lives, and a good stewardship that we can offer to him in the end. It’s what it’s all about, pleasing our God, doing his will, loving him with all of our hearts, soul, strength, and mind. Let’s pray.

Our Father, we’re so grateful to you for appointing the Lord Jesus Christ to be the Good Shepherd. Where men have failed repeatedly, failing in their kingship, failing in the priesthood, failing as prophets, failing as mediators, failing as shepherds and leaders. In the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no failure whatsoever but absolute perfection. And by your grace, by your Spirit, you have united us to Christ.

We all partake of his shepherding ministry. He who laid himself down for the flock, who died to save his own people, He’s shown himself to be trustworthy in every way. Help us never to doubt him. Help us to identify the voice of the Good Shepherd in those under shepherds, in whatever church they are, and to come to that voice and to trust those ministries. Help us to turn away all that would defile, all that would cause stumbling, and let us fix our gaze upon Christ, his Word, his Spirit, and your face, father. For the sake of your glory we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, we pray, and by the power of the Holy Spirit and in his ministry in our lives, we pray. Amen.

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Well, we have the joy, the privilege of returning today to a short topical series that we’re doing on shepherding as we look to launch our fall shepherding plan that we’ve talked to you about over the past number of months, and I don’t know how long it’s been. We started introducing some of that, but we look forward to getting to shepherd you better, more faithfully according to God’s Word, and by God’s grace and with your help, we’re going to do just that.

So we wanted to launch that plan with a brief survey on the nature and the character of pastoral ministry. As I said last week, I’m sort of preaching to you my job description, so you can hold me and the other elders accountable to what Scripture teaches. And you’re going to find in this morning’s message that there’s a little bit of accountability that will reflect back on you as well.

Last week we surveyed the shepherd’s instruction. This week it’s the shepherd’s exhortation, exhortation. And we’re going to begin with our Lord’s Great Commission. So if you have your copy of God’s Word, you can turn in your Bibles to Matthew 28, Matthew 28.

And while you’re turning there, I’m going to give you just a kind of a brief, a simple definition of, exhortation, in case you’re not familiar with that word or you, you know it, but you’re not, it’s kind of fuzzy for you what exhortation is or means.

Simply put, we could say exhortation refers to how we compel someone to do something, to encourage maybe a certain action or a certain kind of action using persuasive speech. You can compel someone at the point of a sword. You can compel somebody with a gun, but this is not that. This is compelling somebody with speech, using persuasive speech.

The common verb for exhort or encourage is parakaleo, parakaleo, literally, to come alongside. That’s the para part of that word and then kaleo is, to call or to command, even. So it’s to come alongside and call, to come alongside someone and command them. So it’s compelling someone to action using speech, and it can vary, that speech can vary in strength.

I’ll just use a few synonyms all within the semantic range of parakaleo and you’ll see what I mean. Parakaleo can refer to, we could use the word comfort someone, appeal to someone, entreat or, yeah, or appeal to someone. All those are soft. You can hear the softness in that kind of a language, gentle terms of comforting someone, but it’s all with an encouragement aspect.

And quite frankly, this is what pastors, elders, church leaders, this is how we want to interact using this range of, this is the wider semantic range of parakaleo, we’d like to stay right here with all people at all times, in all situations, about all things.

We want to stay in the, the comfort and the gentle encouragement, and the little bit of persuasion, and the comfort that can be applied in shepherding. And there are many opportunities for shepherds to do just that. We at, at the heart, we are not just gentle men, but growing in gentleness and meekness of Christ. And we love interacting with the sheep, with the people, in a spirit of gentleness.

Some people, however, in some situations, in some circumstances, and at some times require a little bit sterner stuff. So think about in parenting, you want to just tell your child, Hey, could you go clean your room? Yeah, Mom, I want to do that! I’m so, I’m so thankful to go clean my room. And after I’m done cleaning my room, I’m going to go to that field of daisies and pick you a bundle and bring them to you because I love you so much. And after that, I’m going to help you with the cooking. And then I’m going to help with the…

That’s what you want to see in your kids, right? What do you get? Aww, mom. And so mom turns it up a notch, doesn’t she? I said, Go clean your room. Mom, you’re always making me do stuff. It’s not fair! You know what? Get up there. I’m going to spank your little bottom. Mom, I’m not doing it. Okay, now the real gun comes out: Wait ‘til your father gets home, right?

We understand this in parenting. And it’s the same kind of thing sometimes in pastoring. And if we turn up the dial on this language, this word group, turn up the dial on the, the compelling pressure, you might say, that we have to add in our speech, parakaleo can mean, to urge, encourage or strongly encourage, to call upon. So when you hear and you know it’s your duty as a Christian, you know I’m trying to persuade you to do what’s right. That’s the idea.

And it’s not even sounding at this point too strong, but we can turn it up even further on the dial with the pressure. And we’ve got words within the semantic range of parakaleo that convey an even higher and a stronger, a more urgent degree of compelling pressure. And there’s a severity or an urgency in the language or in the tone.

You can see some of this coming out in the book of Hebrews. All the warning passages in Hebrews are of this nature, kind of at the top end of that nature, sometimes strong rebukes coming to people in the church, even in Paul’s letters as well. He says, “Shall I come to you in a, with a rod or with a spirit of gentleness?” I mean, you, you pick. I want to come in a spirit of gentleness. But I’m, I fear that I’m going to have to come, when I come to your church, I’m going to have to come with a rod of correction and reproof.

So we speak of encouraging strongly or beseeching or pleading, even. There’s an emotional element. Or even the word admonishing. Admonishing is a, is a strong form. It’s kind of a, to exhort with a bite. So sometimes that encouragement comes, it feels like it’s a sting. It comes with some sharpness due to situational urgency or the immediacy of the moment.

Again, back to a parenting analogy. If I see, if I look up and see my toddler has wandered into the middle of the street and there’s a semi-truck be, bearing down, speeding in his direction, a soft appeal in a, in a low, quiet tone would not only be inappropriate, but it would be out-and-out unloving and unthinkable for a parent to do that.

The only appropriate, loving kind of speech in that situation, obviously, is a strong, loud command of admonition. Get out of that street now! Right? The child may come over, tears streaming down the face and wondering, What? I was just playing with my ball. And when you turn them around and see that semi-truck whoosh past, crush the ball, you know, all of a sudden he understands.

Pastors, elders, shepherds, overseers, all those synonyms for the same office in the church. They’re chosen by God, called by Christ, gifted and qualified by the Holy Spirit to the work of not only instruction, as we talked about last week, but also exhortation, to speak with this kind of command and this kind of tone, whether it’s a very gentle tone or much stronger tone as well. It’s all within the range.

As I did last week, let me give you just a thesis about the shepherd’s duty to exhort. We could say shepherds exhort the flock of God from a foundation of biblical, doctrinal, theological truth, that’s last week, so that Christians love, serve, and obey God with all their heart, soul, strength, and mind.

That’s the aim of our instruction. That’s the goal, is love from a pure heart, a pure conscience, and a sincere faith. Shepherds exhort the flock of God from a foundation of biblical truth, doctrinal theological truth, so that Christians will love and serve and obey God with all their heart, soul, strength, and mind.

And as I said, our exhortations, different voices, different tones, different levels of intensity or severity, all depending on the situation, all depending on the condition of the one to whom we speak, sometimes depending on the response of the person to whom we speak.

But we’re always to exhort in love, always to exhort in a spirit of meekness, even to the hardest of hearts, still a spirit of meekness, but also in a voice of authority, and always with an expectation that a Christian will obey the word of God, always with that expectation of obedience.

This is why the writer to the Hebrews says in Hebrews 13:17, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account, and let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would not be profitable for you.”

Paul says something similar in 1 Thessalonians 5:12. He says, “We ask of you, brothers, that you know those who labor among you.” The word, know, there, is in the sense of regard them, respect them, and respect their duty, respect their purpose, acknowledge that, listen to it. That’s the idea of know, there.

It’s a, it’s a broader than just kind of having an intellectual comprehension of something. It’s actually knowing and appropriating that and then responding, prop, appropriately. So, “We ask of you brothers that you know those who labor among you and have charge over you in the Lord,” some translations say, “who rule over you in the Lord,” “and admonish you, that you regard them very highly in love because of their work.”

In place of the word exhort, parakaleo, Paul speaks of the elders admonishing, which is the word noutheteo. Noutheteo is a strong exhortation. So it’s that, that stronger degree of exhortation. Now you get in the territory of admonition. This is regular and normal in a healthy church. This is something practiced in a healthy church.

This is something that healthy church members not only expect and count as normal, but they actually really appreciate exhortation and words like this of encouragement and, and pleading and urging and compelling because they know they need it. I need this.

The Proverbs is filled with wisdom for young people to seek this out, to seek out the wisdom of elders and the comfort and the encouragement and the correction and the exhortation of those who are older and wiser than them so that they’ll grow, so that they, too, will pass from simple-mindedness to a heart of wisdom, from a, a lack of the fear of the Lord to walking in the fear of the Lord. That’s the idea, here.

It’s sad to say, but, and I think you understand this, the voice of exhortation has gone missing in most evangelical churches today. The voice of authority by exhortation has gone missing from Gospel proclamation itself. It’s missing from preaching, including so much of what’s falsely called, expository preaching. It’s missing from discipleship. It’s missing from counseling.

There’s a saying that “soft preaching makes hard hearts, and hard preaching makes soft hearts.” That saying is true. But I want you to understand, when I use the word, hard, to refer to preaching, I don’t mean promoting unkind preaching, harsh, severe, scolding preaching. That’s horrible stuff. That’s browbeating stuff.

Just talking, when I say, hard, I’m using the word to, as a synonym for strong preaching with this exhortative element in it. It’s in reference to this very aspect of exhortation, which really, if it’s true preaching, if it’s biblical preaching, as you read from the prophets and the Apostles, it ought to be in every single sermon. We ought to be calling people to a verdict, pressing the conscience, not leaving them as they are, but demanding change, pushing them toward further and further degrees of repentance and holiness.

If it’s not in every sermon, the sermon is merely a lecture. It’s just something even less serious, like a speech or a pep talk or a Ted talk or group therapy. It’s just, instead of a pastor, you’ve got a coach, a life coach, therapist, someone speaking soothing words and making you feel good.

That is not what preaching is, but that’s what passes for so much preaching today. “Sermons,” I’ll put that in air quotes, sermons like that, and especially when the preacher, you know, in our more conservative circles, moves kind of superficially through huge, massive chunks of texts, like preaching.

It’s valid sometimes to preach a whole chapter in one sermon. Most of the time that’s the standard fare that people get, is chapter after chapter every single week, or maybe a whole book, or maybe massive sections, never, always hitting the wave tops and never going down into the troughs to really dig in and see what exactly is there. And they call that expository preaching just because they move consecutively through a book.

Such sermons, without any exhortation at all, they just create generations of church-goers who are wise in their own eyes and reject correction. Instead of adults, they’re more like spoiled children who are never exhorted, never admonished, never corrected, never told, “No.”

Why has exhortation gone missing? What has silenced the voice of command in the pulpit today? Many answers to that, but if we just say it simply, the church has followed the world. Leaders no longer lead. They follow. It’s the same today as in Hosea’s time. Like people, like priest; pastors just putting their finger into the wind and figuring out which direction the cultural winds are blowing, and they go that way.

That’s why there’s been, since 2020 especially revealed, so much compromise, so much caving in to the culture, so much just lining up and saying nothing that the word of God says that would be out of step with the mode of the day. Pastors are more inclined now to conform to their people and cater to them and pander to them and flatter them and never risk saying anything that would offend.

We are in a leadership crisis, and all of a sudden I’m catching myself right now preaching another sermon. I need to not preach that sermon, but come back to this matter of exhortation. That’s what this moment calls for. Maybe I’ll preach the other one another time.

But I just wanted to give you a, a sense of a definition of exhortation, give you some examples, give you just a sense, also, of kind of the crisis in our time of an anti-exhortative day that we live in, an anti-authority time, a revulsion of any corrective coming from the front, coming from a leader.

Sometimes I wonder if leaders don’t speak with a voice of authority because they’re just as compromised as the people to whom they’re speaking. They’re just as immersed in sin and the culture and the distraction and the entertainment and the worldliness as everybody else. So it’s one of those, I’ve got a log in my eye; better not speak to the splinter in anybody else’s. I’m just going to speak the nice stuff of the text. Anyway, I’m still preaching that other sermon. Sorry about that.

Let me come back to the point and give you a point to write down for today’s, eyel, outline. Just two points in today’s outline, but the second one has a bunch of sub-points, so I’m cheating. So two points. Number one, by exhortation, sinners are saved and sanctified. By exhortation, sinners are saved and sanctified.

I’m not pointing to the power in any human being, in any sinful man, in any sinful leader, in any sinful, imperfect preacher to have such a strong exhortation that his exhortation alone saves anybody or sanctifies anybody. I’m speaking about the preacher, the pastor, the elder. Oh, and by the way, all Christians who have, must also exhort. I’m speaking about them being a conduit of God’s saving and sanctifying power, his saving and sanctifying grace.

The more empty the conduit of himself or any other gunk, the more clear it is as a channel for life-giving water, life-giving air, whatever grace of God is coming through that channel. Get it? That’s what we are, that’s what we are. So we’re not looking to the vessel; we’re looking to the power of God but the vessel’s usefulness in exhortation.

And I want you to look at the Great Commission, starting here in Matthew 28. Look at verse 16. I’ll start reading there. “The eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated, and when they saw him, they worshiped him.

“But some doubted, and Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to keep all that I commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’”

In obedience to Christ’s command, the Twelve have gathered on the mountain, unnamed mountain, here, but Christ often delivers very important things on mountains, getting them alone. This is after the resurrection. And they receive from Jesus their commission. As Apostles, they receive their marching orders.

And just understand that as Apostles, these men do not receive the commission for themselves alone. These are not just individual Christians with their individual devotional life coming up and receiving some word from Christ for them personally, individually.

No, they speak, not, not even as a small group. It’s not just for them as a small group, and once they’ve died or whatever God has done with them, that commission is over. No, these men represent the church. Ephesians 2:20 says these men are the foundation stones of the church, which, with Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.

So the Apostles serve a representative function here on this mountain. They receive this, kri, commission from Christ as representatives of the universal church, the universal church that started in Acts chapter 2 and continues on to this very day. So it crosses generations and time spans and,and geography and cultures, two millennia running now.

All individual churches, then, are instantiations of the universal church, and by instantiation, take the word, instant, that’s the idea, or an instance. Every true, local church is a concrete instance of the abstract reality of the universal church.

You can’t walk into a universal church of all times, and all generations, and all cultures, and tribes, and tongues, and languages, and nations. You can’t walk into that place. It’s not in a particular place or in a particular time. That’s why I say it’s an abstraction, but it’s a reality.

No, we’re talking about these local churches, ones you can walk into, like this particular local church. Not a building, but a body. But you see in that smaller local body the larger universal body of Christ put on display.

Christ’s commission, then, gave to these eleven Apostles, representatives of his universal church, he gave to them a commission that is particularized and instantiated in every true local church, at every time, in every place until Christ returns.

So the commission is not for individual Christians, each acting alone. It’s not for individual Christians acting autonomously under their own authority, on their own initiative. The commission is carried out in the context of local churches and under local church authority. Ordinances like baptism and communion are the purview of local churches, led by elders who are overseeing the Great Commission work.

That’s why it’s inappropriate for someone to just grab somebody and baptize them in their pool in the backyard, on their own initiative or on their own authority. That has to happen through the local church.

This is why the Lord’s Supper is not practiced among a bunch of buddies up in the mountains over hunting or whatever, or fishing, passing around some wine and saying, We’re doing the Lord’s Supper. That’s not the Lord’s Supper. It’s not practiced under the authority of the local church with qualified, called elders, and church body around. That’s not baptism, the Lord’s Supper.

Christ is speaking, as he says, “with all authority,” universal authority that’s been granted to him by the Father, and he commands the church, when he commands the church, he commands the church to do one thing, universal church, about one thing, each particularized instantiated local church also about one thing. One verb, one main verb, here, one main command: Make disciples. Make disciples, that’s the verb.

And the disciple-making mandate encompasses two great works, two great works: baptizing and teaching, baptizing and teaching. Implicit in these two great works, essential to them, as we talked about last week, is instruction.

To fulfill the first work of the disciple-making mandate, the obedience of Trinitarian baptism, we must instruct non-Christians in Christian theism. We must instruct, instruct non-Christians in theology proper, so that they know the God with whom they have to do. They understand this God is a Trinity, one God in three Persons.

We instruct non-Christians about the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ, his deity, his humanity, his two natures in one Person, Christ. We instruct them about his offices of prophet, priest, and king. We instruct non-Christians about his teachings and his miracles, his claims, his commands.

We instruct non-Christians about his substitutionary atonement, how he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, how he satisfied God’s wrath for our sins, and he had satisfied God’s demand for perfect righteousness.

We tell non-Christians about demands of discipleship, Luke 9:23. If anyone wants to follow Christ, he must deny himself. That’s the first prerequisite. It’s the end of you. You take up your cross, that is, you’re, it’s the end of you, to death. And you follow him as the Lord every day. That’s the deal, that’s the command.

We instruct non-Christians about the consequences of not following Christ, which is eternal judgment, punishment in Hell. We also instruct non-Christians about the consequences of following Christ, all the blessings in Christ and the promises that are “yes and amen in Christ,” the adoption as sons, citizenship in heaven, eternal life of inheritance and blessedness and holiness, to be like Jesus Christ, to know God, to know Christ and the fellowship of his suffering and the attainment of his glory, to share in his glory.

So having been instructed, these non-Christians, some of them whom God has chosen, whom Christ effectually calls, whom the Spirit regenerates to new life, who then exercise saving faith in this message that they have been taught and understood, the result of a well-instructed, obedient faith, results in Christian baptism.

Not that baptism saves. Baptism is the external symbol and representation and sign of what’s happened internally. So salvation happens. It’s faith unto justification. God justifies them by faith. He declares them righteous. He immediately sanctifies them in the sense of setting them apart to himself.

He plucks them out of error and into truth, puts them into truth. He takes them out of darkness and puts them in the light. He takes them out of unrighteousness and sin and wickedness and enslavement to Satan and the flesh and the world, and he makes them slaves of Christ, where they are beloved, cared for, treated as not just a slave but a friend, to signify the change that takes place in them by the Holy Spirit, invisibly, mysteriously, but truly. They are then baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

All that to say, quite a bit of instruction that goes into this, right, implicit in this first great work of making disciples. This isn’t just about handing them a tract and saying Sayonara.

The instruction leads to a call to conversion, calling the sinner to repent of sins and believe in the Gospel that they’ve understood and that bears the fruit of obedience, which is to put faith in Christ and repent of sins. And it results in the obedience in Christian, Trinitarian baptism, which is the entrance ordinance into the local church.

Let me make this more explicit to our point today. Always accompanying the instruction of the Gospel is exhortation from that instruction. You see that. It’s the call to repent and to believe. It’s to press the sinner’s conscience that, you’ve got to make a choice. It’s calling them to the verdict. It’s calling them to obey the Gospel. We not only instruct sinners, we exhort them. We command them to repent and believe and be baptized.

So that’s the first great work of making disciples that leads to the fruit of baptism. What about the second work of disciple-making? Is there instruction in that work, too? Is there, is it accompanied by exhortation? Does it lead to obedience? Absolutely. You bet! Christians are to, according to what Jesus says there, they’re to “teach them to keep all that I commanded you.”

Teach them. What’s the pronoun referring back to? The new disciples, baptized Christians. And it’s teaching them to do what? To keep: the verb tereo, to keep, to observe, to practice, to obey, to maintain, to pursue, to be obedient to. So disciples, these disciples are to be, after being baptized, they’re to be taught to keep not just baptism as a commandment, but all of Christ’s commandments.

So here’s the pattern: instruction, which is a lot and exhortation, which is driven by love and concern for the sinner, concern for the Christian, concern for the disciple. And that instruction with exhortation in evangelism leads to action, which is the obedience of baptism, which signifies salvation. Instruction and exhortation in discipleship also leads to action. It’s the obedience of keeping all that Christ has commanded, which is, we just call sanctification.

God has ordained that the instruction in the faith, the instruction in sound doctrine, the instruction in the truth, is to be effective unto salvation and sanctification. And to do so, he says, he shows, it must be accompanied by exhortation. Christian instruction always presses the conscience, always calls for a verdict, always calls for submission.

You say, well yeah, but what about if there’s no human instrument there? What if it’s just the sinner alone with his Bible? I would submit to you that by the Holy Spirit, that sinner alone with his Bible is also being called to a verdict. There’s an exhortation coming in a spiritual form, maybe not mediated through a human being, but there’s still exhortation accompanying the instruction. The instruction is not just a dead letter; it is alive. It is “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword.”

God has ordained that we as a church, as Christians, participate in the disciple-making process by instructing and exhorting. Both things we do. Both things are in the Great Commission. You can see this in the ministry of Moses and the prophets of old. You can see it in Christ and his Apostles and prophets in the New Testament. You can see it in the pastors. You can see in the Christians in the New Testament.

It’s rife in the New Testament, hardly needs to be proven, but again because we are, exhortation has fallen on hard times in our day and people don’t like to be told what to do, and they’ve got a private life and a public life, and they’ve got a, a home life and a church life and don’t ever mix the two. I say the Bible tears all those walls down and says, No, exhortation is appropriate. You need the voice of authority in your life. I need to be told what to do. I’m not asking for applications right now, but we all need to be told what to do, don’t we?

John the Baptist, Jesus the Christ, both came preaching, and they led out with exhortation: Repent, and then instruction, “for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” You see that? Likewise, Peter used the voice of command at Pentecost, exhorting his fellow Jews in Acts 2:38, after giving them instruction, after elevating the instruction to their conscience being pained.

He also said, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.” What had happened just previous to that? They were cut to the quick. They were troubled in their hearts, and they cried out for that exhortation, Brothers, what must we do? We on whom the guilt of the Savior’s death, the Messiah’s death, has landed on us. We’re covered with his blood. We’re guilty, guilty, guilty. Peter, what do we do? I’ve got relief for you, a word of exhortation, “repent, be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins.”

Ask this question: Why is exhortation necessary in the first place? I mean, why didn’t John and Jesus and Peter simply provide instruction and leave it at that? Why not just leave it to every individual to make up his and her own mind without any pressure, without any coercion, without any fear-mongering? Why not just do that?

Well, for those who are not fallen, for those who are without a sin nature, instruction is enough. But that’s a very small, exclusive group, isn’t it? A group of only one. For Jesus, we see this. Ever since childhood, instruction was enough. All he needed to do was just read the law and say, Yes, I want to follow that God! He’s my Father. I love him with all my heart, soul, strength and mind. I can’t wait to get up and do his will every single day. Behold, is written of me, Behold, I have come to do your will.

Instruction was enough for the pure heart of our Lord Jesus Christ to seek God always. It stirred him with greater and greater love for God always. It stirred him to worship and serve the Lord with gladness and joy. “It was for the joy set before him that he endured the cross and despised the shame,” right?

But outside of that exclusive group of one, there’s the rest of us, those of us who are fallen, those of us who are born into sin, those who experience the continual influence and draw of the sin nature, those who are tempted by the world, the flesh and the devil, those who feel this all the time. We require exhortation. Instruction must be with exhortation; otherwise, it just doesn’t register through our hard hearts and our stopped-up ears.

God has chosen this exhortation, the voice of command, the call to obedience, to penetrate and provoke our hard hearts to stir and to awaken our dull and sometimes sleeping consciences. Instruction targets the intellect, and that is a large part; the chief work of a pastor’s regular ministry is the instruction in the Word of God every single Sunday, throughout the week as well. But exhortation targets the will, and it exposes the affections.

So by instruction and exhortation, God penetrates the sinner’s hard heart to inject the truth deep inside of him in order to save and to sanctify. By instruction we’re taught and we’re informed. But by exhortation, our wills are confronted and challenged and provoked and moved.

Instruction must be with exhortation; otherwise, it just doesn’t register through our hard hearts and our stopped-up ears. Travis Allen

And when we resist in our will, well, then, it exposes our affections, what we really want and don’t want, what we love and what we really kind of hate. By exhortation we’re called to consider our duty to hear, listen, consider, so that we will submit to what we’ve been taught, so that we will respond in obedient faith and repentance unto life.

That’s exhortation in the Great Commission. By exhortation, sinners are saved and sanctified. We praise God for the exhortation of the Gospel, don’t we? None of us would be sitting here without the ministry of exhortation.

To connect this with what we learned last week, we come to a second main point. A second main point is, number two, by exhortation, pastors shepherd the flock. By exhortation, pastors shepherd the flock. And as I said, I have a few sub-points about the role of exhortation in pastoral ministry, how the shepherding ministry functions. So let’s consider a letter A, B, and C; letter A, B and C.

Let’s consider exhortation to show, A, that it is, that it’s a thing; letter B, why it is; and letter C, what exhortation encompasses. So exhortation: it is, why it is, and what it encompasses.

Letter A: exhortation, the fact that exhortation is, the fact that exhortation exists as a key duty of the pastorate in the administration of the shepherding office. What Christ commanded the church through the eleven apostles, through the prophets in the New Testament, is delivered to believers in the local churches by those whom he called, gifted, qualified, as we have read in Ephesians 4:11.

We see the ministry, the gifts that Christ has given to the church of the Apostles and the prophets. Their ministry has passed. We have it right here written down in the New Testament.

But then with, that leaves us with three other gifted offices in the church: the evangelists, and the pastors, and teachers. The means of delivering the truth, the evangelists, the pastors and the teachers. Instruction and exhortation in the ministry of the evangelists, the pastors, and the teachers.

Christ gave evangelists to churches to equip Christians for the evangelism part of the Great Commission. They provide instruction and exhortation that’s all focused on Gospel proclamation. So you think about some of the key apologists that you have learned from. They’re really strong in Soteriology, understanding how to discern the Gospel over and against other false versions of the Gospel or over and against other religions and other cults.

And they help you to evangelize the lost in your life. You, if you have Mormon family members or Jehovah’s Witnesses friends or a Buddhist co-worker or you know some, you know, sub-Christian professing person in your workplace or whatever it is, you often tap into the work of the evangelists, read their books, listen to their podcasts, watch the videos, The Way of the Master, things like that to help you, to strengthen you so that you can go out and be effective in your evangelism ministry.

They’re strong in the theology of conversion, what are signs of conversion and are, what are false signs of conversion as well. They strengthen your discernment. They help you to clarify the Gospel and, by the way, they are key in helping you to rejoice in the Gospel, to see what a great work God has done in his sovereign work of calling you to repentance and faith in Christ.

But Christ has also given pastors and teachers, and they equip the church more broadly in all matters of life and godliness so disciples will grow to maturity and advance in holiness and strengthen in discernment and become fruitful in their disciple-making in their life, wherever that is.

It’s the job of pastors and teachers to instruct and exhort in sound doctrine, and in the Greek construction in Ephesians 4:11, it shows that pastors and teachers are very closely aligned, so close that some see those two roles, pastor-teacher, as a single office, just pastor, dash, teacher, pastor-teacher. That’s the office.

I don’t believe those terms refer to a single gift, role, or office. Pastor is one, teacher is one. But still they are so closely aligned, united in purpose, have significant crossover. So I understand why people come to the other view that both pastors and teachers, and evangelists as well, they instruct and exhort the church.

Of the three, evangelist, pastors, teachers, only pastors in that list are synonymous with elders, shepherds, overseers. Evangelists, and teachers, they may well serve as elders, and some often do if they are called to that office and gifted and qualified to that office.

But you’ve got some evangelists who have online ministries, or you have some teachers who are seminary professors and not necessarily serving as elders in their church. It’s not inappropriate. It’s understandable. Only pastors synonymous with elder and shepherd and overseer. Shepherds, overseers, pastors, all the same thing. This is all synonymous, as we’ve said before.

We also understand from Scripture that evangelists and teachers augment the work of pastors, and pastors conduct the work of evangelists and teacher in their ministry. Paul told Timothy to do the work of an evangelist in fulfilling his ministry. So you’re to do the work of an evangelist, also to, you know, to train the church to evangelize, to give them discernment about the Gospel. Pastors also have a teaching gift to instruct the church in sound doctrine.

But it’s pastors who are uniquely gifted, uniquely called. They’re different than evangelists and teachers. They’re uniquely to exhort the church. All Christians exhort, but pastors are to set an example for exhorting the church.

Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:13, “Give your attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching.” Interesting, he puts exhortation first before the teaching. He told Timothy, 1 Timothy 6:2, “These things teach and exhort.”

Famously, 2 Timothy 4:2, “Preach the word, reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction.” Paul told Titus, as we just read earlier, to “appoint men as elders who hold fast to the, the faithful word,” Titus 1:9, “in order that he may be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and refute those who contradict.” “These things,” he says in second, in Titus 2:15, “These things exhort, speak, exhort, and reprove with all authority, and let no one disregard you in that work.”

Pastors, uniquely gifted, called by Christ, set apart for this; qualified by God, made sufficient to this task, recognized by the church, ordained by other elders, they’re called to the work of exhortation in their teaching, in their preaching, to command the conscience, to call for a verdict, to call people to obedience. And in so doing they set an example for the flock.

So that’s letter A. Letter B: Why is exhortation necessary? I’ve already touched on this a bit. Why is exdor, why is exhortation necessary, though, in the pastoral work, in the pastoral administration? Why must the shepherd add the voice of authority, exhortation, to the chief work of instruction?

I want to take what I said earlier and expand it into several reasons, five reasons, actually. I’ve written down five reasons. So I’m, I’m, I’m doing a sub-sub-point. I’m going deep, deep, deep into this, right? Why exhortation? Five reasons why exhortation’s necessary in the pastoral administration.

First, first is to stimulate growth by regularly challenging the will, which tests the understanding of the truth. Why do we exhort as pastors? Why are we called to do that? We stimulate your growth by regularly challenging your will.

And by doing that, I’m testing the understanding of the truth. Do you understand it or do you not? I mean, how do you know whether someone has assimilated the truth? How do you know if they truly learned? It’s not a matter of what people say, what they profess to believe, what they’re able to recite, what they can understand intellectually.

You know if they really do assimilate the truth and understand it by what they do, right, how they live. If you tell somebody, the end of the world is coming in thirty minutes. Thirty minutes, so make your peace with God, evangelize your family because it’s coming, what, 29 minutes from now; if they sit and look at you like, you’re a nut, they don’t believe you, right? They have not assimilated that truth.

You press them even further. You, you muster up all the charismatic emphasis and compelling work and speech and everything that you can and show them evidence and signs within five, ten minutes and tell them the clock is ticking. And all of a sudden, they say, okay, I get it that you really believe this. I, I believe you, I understand, I get it. But then they go and do nothing.

Have they really taken in what you’ve said? Intellectually apprehending the truth, that’s step one in learning, right? You can’t believe if you don’t understand. You can’t repent if you don’t really get what you’re repenting for.

Practicing the truth, though, living by, submitting to the truth, setting your priorities by the Word of God and by the truth, that is how you know whether or not someone has learned the truth, right? It’s not merely what someone says; it’s how they live that matters.

And if the will is not engaged, then the manner of life and the priorities don’t change. And we’re even right to question the assimilation of the truth, whether they really understand. We say Christ is coming again, and Christ is going to hold us to account. Do we live that way? Or do we live like everybody else? Exhortation tests the will, causes us to really think, do we really understand this? Does it really change our lives?

If it doesn’t, then we have not assimilated the truth. And why is that important? Second reason we exhort, second is to warn professing Christians that profession is not enough, that hearing or even apprehending the truth intellectually is not enough.

As I just said, we must live it out. Truth must change us. It has to radically reorient everything in our minds, our hearts, our lives, our priorities. It changes us from the inside out. Obviously that takes time, but man, that happens right at regeneration and continues a work on until glory.

Why do we have to warn? Why do I have to use this voice of warning in exhortation? Because Jesus said Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus says true Christians are “those who do the will of my Father,” and many are going to come to him on Judgment Day making very sincere claims, even pointing to remarkable works not, and they’re doing it to his face, and Jesus is going to respond to them, “I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.”

How we live matters. Paul says in Romans 2:13, “The hearers of the law are not just before God, but the doers of the law will be justified.” James also, he says this in James chapter 1, James chapter 1, verses 22 and following:

“Become doers of the word and not merely hearers, who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he’s like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror, and once he’s looked at himself and has gone away, he immediately forgets what kind of person he was.”

So many of us can be like that, and what do we need from our fellow Christians? What do we need from our pastors? A word of exhortation to stop us from doing that, to cause us to stand up and take notice. It’s happening; I did it. Become doers of the Word.

“The one who looks intently,” that’s key, “intently at the perfect law, the law of freedom, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer, but having become a doer of the word, this man will be blessed in what he does.”

Not like the other man, who lives under really a curse, a curse of looking at the law, but superficially, hearing the Word of God preached to him, but only superficially. “Ah, these prophets, they heal the wounds of my people, but lightly. They preach peace, peace, but there is no peace.” That is a judgment upon a land. It’s a famine in hearing the Word of God, and it’s a famine and a removal of exhortation that awakens the conscience to the demands of the truth.

Persuasion by exhortation, by admonition, it challenges a disengaged will. When the intellect is properly instructed, when the will is challenged, something else happens. The heart is exposed along with the desires of the heart, along with the affections of the heart. What we really want in life and what we really want to avoid, that’s exposed when our will is challenged.

And it leads to another reason that exhortation is necessary. This would be number three, and I’m going to make for you wait for it until next week. Because I just looked up and I noticed, and someone, unless someone has monkeyed around with that clock and is playing a really cruel trick on me, it’s already noon. And would you believe I’m only halfway through my notes? I love you so much I want to keep preaching, and I love you so much that we’re going to call time right now. Let’s pray.

Our Father, we do love you, and we thank you that we love you because the love that you have granted to us is from you. It’s placed in our hearts, according to Romans 5:5, by God the Holy Spirit. And by your Spirit and by your Word, you grow that love and fan it into a flame until we are white hot with zeal for you, love for you, love for Christ, and love for your people.

We recognize that there are times when a wet blanket, so to speak, is thrown upon that flame, even endangering it to being doused and put out if it were not for your hand of grace, protection to lead us back. You do protect us and you do lead us back by this ministry of exhortation that we participate in, here in the local church. And we’re thankful that you have made us members of this body, where exhortation and admonition and correction and encouragement and comfort and urging and pleading is happening all the time. I know because I hear it all the time.

Father, I’m so grateful to belong to you, and at the times when my heart even grows cold, there’s someone there with a word of exhortation and a word of encouragement, even a word of admon, admonition and correction, to help put me right again, to throw off the world and the flesh and the devil, and to give myself once again wholly unto you.

Father, I pray that you, by your Spirit and by your Word, would do a mighty work in us, that we would be those who love the truth, not just to be intellectually stimulated by the truth, but that we would love to walk in the truth, to be doers of the Word together, to encourage and exhort one another day after day, as long as it, as it is called today, lest any one of us should be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin and apostatize.

Please protect us, please encourage us, strengthen us, comfort us, exhort us, and edify us. And let us do that together as the day approaches for your glory. Father, we pray in the name of Christ. Amen.

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Rather than jumping back into Lukes’ Gospel and our study of Lukes’ Gospel, we’re going to do, as I mentioned, a short series on shepherding, series on pastoral ministry. This is going to be more of a topical than an expositional series, just a three-week series. I trust it will be faithful to the exegesis of Scripture and the doctrine of Scripture. But over the next three weeks, what I would like to do is speak to you about the shepherd’s instruction and the shepherd’s exhortation and the shepherd’s protection.

I don’t intend to give you everything that a pastor does because there’s so much to, to cover. But at least these three things I felt would be good little headings for our just short series on shepherding: The shepherd’s instruction, the shepherd’s exhortation, and the shepherd’s protection.

So it’s how the shepherd or pastor, elder, overseer, if you will the word Bishop, synonymous terms, by the way, all described in the same office, the same role. So what is the call of God on a pastor to instruct, to exhort, to protect the flock of God? Because after all, that is his calling, his role, his duty before God, and his responsibility before all of you. So there’s a sense in which I’m going to be, for the next three weeks, preaching my own job description.

I’m going to be putting myself out there so you can see what I’m accountable to. And I trust that you will, in love and gentleness, hold me accountable to that job description, that you’ll pray for me and the other elders and pastors in the same regard, that we would live up to what God has called us to do.

I’d like to begin this morning by having you turn to the end of John’s Gospel, end of John’s Gospel, chapter 21. And we’ll start in verse 15 of John 21. In John 21, we get to listen to a post, this is how I like to call it, a post resurrection leadership meeting. Post resurrection leadership meeting where Jesus meets with his eleven Apostles. Remember Judas Iscariot, he departed from the twelve making them eleven. That would be rectified in Acts Chapter 1 with the choosing of Matthias.

But right now it’s eleven Apostles and this meeting happens in John 21 after a good breakfast on the beach, which is where I think all leadership meetings should be held; on the beach, over fresh caught fire-roasted fish. Elders, let’s make that a habit, all right. But it’s in this setting that Jesus addresses Peter directly to restore, to single him out from among the other Apostles and restore him back into ministry and get him back on track. And he does this in the presence of the other ten.

So Jesus is asking Peter three questions, three questions that expose Peter’s heart. And as I said, he does so in the presence of the other ten Apostles. The three questions that he asked Peter elicit from Peter a believing response. And all three of those questions and those three responses overturn Peter’s three denials, showing that the denials of Peter are not true; Peter’s true self, so to speak. They’re not his regenerate self. That’s not really who Peter is.

It’s the truth that he proclaims in his love for Jesus Christ, that’s the truth of a regenerate heart, regenerate life. Peter’s answer is a test to the reality of a regenerate heart, to a sincere faith and love for Jesus Christ. That’s the truth about every believer. And so now having reestablished that, overturning Peter’s denials, Christ then recommissions him to the work. Look at John 21:15 to 17, “So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”

“More than these,” might have referred to the other disciples, might have referred to fishing, what he had turned back to; probably refers to the other disciples. You, do you really love me more than these other disciples, as you’ve affirmed. “And Peter said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.’ So he said to him, ‘Tend my lambs.’ He said to him again a second time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ He said to him, ‘yes, Lord, you know that I love you.’ He said to him, ‘Shepherd my sheep.’ He said to him, the third time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ And Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ And he said to him, ‘Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’”

As much as I would like to camp out in this text for the rest of the hour, contemplate the richness of this text, the need of this hour requires us to focus on the language of Christ’s Commission in particular: Tend my lambs, shepherd my sheep, tend my sheep. The word, tend, in this translation. Tend, Jesus uses it there in verse 15 and verse 17. It’s the verb Bosko.

Bosko and that pictures a shepherd or a herdsman, who’s watching over a flock and tending the sheep as they graze. The shepherd makes sure that the sheep are safe for the express purpose, so that they can eat, so they can eat in safety, so they can eat without fear of wolves or predators coming upon them.

The word that Jesus uses in verse 16, shepherd my sheep, is the verb, poimaino, which emphasizes the shepherd’s work of leading the sheep, guiding the sheep, caring for them. It is a verb with all kinds of implications; especially, administrative implications is a lot of administration in the pastoral work, as pastors track the health, the growth, the maturity of the sheep. As the pastors track the, the gifts of the sheep or the gifts of the flock to the church and are good stewards of the gifts of the flock, so much involved in this, shepherd my sheep command.

Some of you may feel a bit nervous about pastors asking questions about your spiritual lives. Poking around a little bit, investigating your thinking, trying to figure out why you think the way you, things you do. The trying, trying to understand what it is you believe or don’t believe. What you really trust in, what you don’t, how you spend your time, your money, your priorities, what they are. What they are.

That might seem a little bit intimidating to some of you, but then when you stop and realize that this is what Christ has chosen and called pastors to do. This is not our decision to put ourselves in that role in your life, it’s Christ’s decision. And he makes that decision to give you the gift of pastors and shepherds for your good, for your health, for your spiritual benefit, and for your growth, which leads to your spiritual joy.

If you can stop and remember that. And especially when the difficult questions come, when it feels a little uncomfortable, when the pastor’s getting into your kitchen, so to speak, maybe you’ll be better inclined to let us in a little bit further because it’s what Christ has chosen. And you say, oh, but you’re not Christ. You’re an imperfect man, granted, but this imperfect man and the others like me are the ones that Christ has chosen to put into your life, and even through imperfections, by his providence to lead us and shepherd us into truth, into greater greener pastures.

Such a one is Peter, clearly an imperfect man. He gives all of us pastors a bit of relief, as we see his failures recorded on the pages of Scripture. But Peter is restored by the Lord, by the Lord who is omniscient, the Lord who sees all things. He restores him, drawing out the confession of his love for the Lord. “Lord, you know all things.” You’re omniscient. And that means, as you can see directly into my heart and my love, as feeble as it is, as frail as it can be, as imperfect and unstable as it is at times, “you know that I love you.” You know that that’s in the depth of my heart. You put it there.

Having drawn out that confession, Jesus then recommissions Peter, puts him back on task to attend to his calling and to attend and to shepherd Christ’s sheep, which I’m going to tell you is an all-consuming task, to shepherd the sheep. Near the end of his life, after Peter had been in ministry for more than 30 years, he exhorted his fellow elders. He said, “as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and a partaker also of the glory that’s to be revealed; shepherd, the flock of God among you, exercising oversight.”

The main verb in that exhortation, poimaino, shepherd, that is the same verb Jesus used in John 21:16 to recommission him. And Peter tells his fellow elders in 1 Peter 5 how to shepherd, how to exercise oversight, and how not to. He says you’re to exercise oversight, you’re to shepherd the flock of God, exercise oversight willingly, not under compulsion. You’re not pressed into service.

You do this because you’re running after it, because you rejoice to do it. Those are the kind of men who are called; you do it eagerly, not for dishonest gain. There’s nothing else motivating you. Money, fame, notoriety, you don’t, you don’t care about any of that stuff. You’re eager to shepherd the flock of God. You’re also shepherding and exercising oversight, not as someone on your high horse or up in your ivory tower, but you’re among the flock. You’re examples to the flock, not lording it over them, but counting yourself as a sheep among sheep.

Shepherding souls goes way beyond what is required for shepherding literal sheep. Some people make that metaphor, try to stand up and walk on all fours, so to speak. I mean, shepherding, it’s a great metaphor. It’s a wonderful metaphor because it conveys the basic character of the work. It’s an all-consuming day and night task. It’s about hard, often thankless, mostly inglorious work.

But there’s way more to know about shepherding than just observing a literal shepherd, in a literal field with literal flocks of sheep. It’s not just about that, as the New Testament makes very clear, there’s more to know, more to see, to understand what’s required. As those Christ chose and called to shepherd his sheep, to see how the gifts and the abilities the Spirit has given to them are to be employed, we look to the rest of the New Testament.

We fill in the definitions, and the meaning, and the metaphor from the rest of the Word of God. We find in Christ, Christ himself, the supreme example of shepherding, and then we learn from the examples of the Apostles. We go back to the prophets and the priests of the Old Testament and see the continuity from old to new and how people are cared for, and taught, and instructed.

We can learn from faithful shepherds in the history of the Church and see how they interpreted the New Testament, and interpret the Scripture, and how they engaged the task in their own time, as they pursued faithfulness to the Lord. But ultimately, we have to go back to the direction and the instruction of Jesus Christ by his Spirit in his Word, in the ministry of the Apostles and the prophets, all recorded for us in the New Testament.

Shepherd my sheep, is the verb, poimaino, which emphasizes the shepherd’s work of leading the sheep, guiding the sheep, caring for them. Travis Allen

Just as I read earlier, Paul told Timothy, 1 Timothy 3:15, “I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.” Us pastors, shepherds, elders and really all of you following our example, that’s what we are, the church, the household of God, the Church of the living God, that is the called-out ones, where the living God is making himself known and heard and obeyed. We are the pillar in support of the truth. We uphold it by proclaiming it, by teaching it.

So for today, we’re gonna consider the shepherd’s instruction. The shepherd’s instruction. This is the pastor’s chief duty, which is to feed the flock, which means really the preaching and the teaching of the Bible and its doctrine. I’m going to give you my thesis statement up front on the chief of all shepherding duties. Preaching, teaching, instruction, and that’s to say this: Shepherd’s instruct the flock of God by the public preaching of Scripture and by the public and private teaching of Scripture, doctrine, and theology.

I’ll say that again, Shepherds instruct the flock of God by the public preaching of Scripture and by the public and private teaching of Scripture, doctrine, and theology. Now based on my thesis, the task of the pastor sounds, hopefully to you, it sounds exceedingly simple, doesn’t it? Just preach the Bible and then teach the Bible and its doctrines and its theology.

It’s, I’m not being facetious here when I say it’s a simple task. It is a simple task. It’s exceedingly simple because it’s straightforward. We have a Bible. We have the truths of each individual passage of Scripture, and then we take subjects on Christ or the Spirit or the Word or God. We gather all the texts, rightly interpret it into doctrinal understanding of Scripture, what the Bible teaches about this doctrine or that doctrine, and then we want to synthesize all those doctrines so it’s in a, it’s in a coherent, cohesive, non-contradictory system of understanding called a theology: systematic theology.

It is simple, it’s straightforward, it’s hard. Pastors really have a simple, straightforward task. But though our task is simple, as I hope it’s just plain common sense; something like that consumes the life of the pastor. It’s an all-consuming life dominating from call to death task. This is what Paul said at the end of his life, having done this simple task for his whole entire life since his calling, since his salvation. He said, “I’m already being poured out.” He pictured himself as a drink offering liquid.

Liquid has no power of its own. The wine poured out before God, it’s subject to the pourer, it’s subject to and whatever, it has no power of its own. Its power is in its substance. It’s being poured out. He spent himself in this simple task, and he did it for his entire life. Why is this simple, straightforward task so hard? What makes it such a challenge for us as pastors, shepherds, elders? Let me give you a few outline points you can track along,is.

All that’s my introduction, by the way. So you can’t judge my time and time starts now, as I get into the first point. Number one, why is it so hard? What makes it a challenge? Because there is a constant need. Number one: there’s a constant need for instruction. The constant need for instruction makes this an all-consuming lifelong day and night, it is not 40 hours in the work week, it’s 80 hours. It’s 120 hours.

It’s three full time jobs, doing this work, the constant need for instruction. And it’s particularly difficult, I think any pastor would tell you this throughout church history, it’s particularly difficult in, out of season times, for the Word of God. We’re aware of this, but I think it bears pointing out, we are a nation under God’s judgement right now, aren’t we?

And believe me, folks, this reality that we are a nation under divine judgement has massive implications for the pastoral ministry, because listen, a people that’s under the judgement of God, they don’t think well, they don’t listen well, they don’t learn well, because they’re disinclined to submit to authority. They’re filled with pride, not humility. They’re opposed by God and under his curse and judgement. They reject accountability.

They’re distracted by temptation, polluted by sin, compromised by love for the world. Paul speaks of those that God handed over like this in a society in Romans chapter 1, with this degrading, declining levels of judgement of him handing them over first to sexual impurity because of idolatry, in Romans chapter 1. Lacking any humility, repentance, God hands them over to further impurity, to be enslaved to inordinate desires, unnatural desires, not men for women, women for men, but now men for men and women for women, as we see.

And then lacking repentance, not waking up to the condition of their sinfulness, God hands them over further, Romans 1:28, “And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to an unfit mind.” Other translations render that a depraved mind or a debased mind, to do those things which are not proper. We got one party in our political system that is seeking federal funding so that we can, so that we can mutate our children to conform their outer selves to what they think their inner selves are. That is a debased mind.

Paul’s lists in Romans, one of those things which are not proper starts with what controls them. He’s speaking about the inside; internally, he’s talks about unrighteousness. You can turn there if you like and see it for yourself. But those things which are, which are not proper starts with what controls them on the inside. Their thinking is controlled by unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, which is another way of saying covetousness. They covet. They desire what other people have, what’s not been given to them.

They’re controlled by evil, they’re envious, murderous, striving, they’re deceitful, they’re malicious. All that’s going on the inside and it from those controlling sins of the heart, Paul then moves to external behaviors. He talks about gossip, slander, arrogance, violence, boasting, and disobedience to parents. When you see those behaviors and you wonder what is driving that, back up in the list, and look at the first list. A heart of unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice produces that bad fruit.

The sins controlling them on the inside create external behaviors that not only come to characterize them but also degrade them further and dull their minds, making them more like wounded, diseased, rabid animals than rational men and women. They are Romans 1:31, “without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful.” And further, in verse 32, “they give hearty approval to those who are just like them.” They want you to join them not only in tolerating their sin, not in affirming them in their sin, but joining them in celebrating their sin. In other words, they have warped sympathies.

They take up the cause and the complaint of sinners, not the cause of the righteous. They sympathize with men in their sins and all their complaints, and they rebel against the cause of the righteous. They rebel ultimately against God. Now, can you reason with people like that, those who have debased minds? Can you dialogue with them?

Can you engage in dialogue? Those who are characteristically untrustworthy, are they good dialogue partners? Are they sincere? Honest and open with you, playing by the same rules as you’re using in a conversation. More to the point, when you take them to the authority of God’s Word, which is what as a Christian we must do. We’re not the authority. Society and its rules are not the authority. It’s not a collective consciousness that determines our laws and rules and everything else.

God and his absolute standard of law is the authority. And so when we inevitably take them to the authority of God’s Word, for those who have rejected the most basic and primary authority of their lives, which is parental authority, for those who are characterized by disobedience to their own parents, they have a heart disposition to rebel against authority.

So what do you do with people like that? What does the Bible tell us to do with people like that? We’re not to reason with them, dialogue with them, we’re not even to debate with them. You know what we’re to do? Preach to them. We’re to proclaim the truth of God’s Word. We are heralds of the gospel, preachers of the law. We’re prophetic. We’re declaring, thus saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord in the law, and it’s the consequences for you violating it and here is the offer of the Lord of his grace, if you’ll bow the knee, humble yourselves, repent, and believe.

We preach law and gospel. We preach the word. It’s what John the Baptist came doing, isn’t it? He came preaching the Kingdom of God. He said, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Jesus Christ after him, first words recorded about him, “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” and all those and only those whom the Holy Spirit has regenerated by his invisible work that give external evidence of that new birth by believing, and obeying, and by following.

So for those who are regenerate, saved by divine grace unto faith and repentance. Let’s ask another question. Has there been any effect of this Romans 1 decline in our nation? Has there been any effect of that decline on them? Even regenerate people have. Let’s ask it more personally. Have we been affected by the culture that we’ve been saved out of? Have you been affected? Has your mind been affected? Has your thinking been affected? Have your sympathies been affected by the world that you live in? Any lasting results of that?

If the answer to those questions is not yes and maybe not, Amen, but oh me, oh my. If the answer to those questions is not yes, of course we’ve been affected, then we have to ask, well then what need is there for repentance? What need is there for my sanctification? What is the issue with me anyway? Why am I not absolute perfection in my thoughts, my words, behavior, actions?

We have to go right back to, oh yes, we’ve been nurtured, and raised, and weaned, and cultivated, and groomed in this world around us, and we enter into the church. It doesn’t always just drop at the door. Paul reminded Titus of this when he commissioned him to go and appoint elders in Crete. He said those who enter the front door of your church in Crete, Titus, “one of themselves a prophet of their own, said this about his countrymen, ‘Cretans are always liars, evil beasts and lazy gluttons.’” And Paul says this testimony is true. You ever met a Cretan, right? So for this reason, “reprove them severely so they may be sound in the faith.”

One tragic consequence of the judgement of God on our nation. Those who are granted by divine grace, faith to believe in Christ, and repent of their sins. Those who are saved from this wicked and depraved generation, they have so much to overcome in simply learning the truth, just to absorb what’s here. Isaiah lamented to his people, calling them out of sin, to repent and to return to Yahweh

In Isaiah chapter 1, verses 4 to 6, he cried out with a prophetic lament. “Alas, sinful nation, people heavy with iniquity, seed of evildoers, sons who act corruptly.” Just make a comment there. If he’s preaching to the seed of evildoers and the sons, well, then there’s generations before those people who produce them. There’s generation after generation of sinful thinking, and sinful patterns, and sinful habits. Isaiah continues, he says, “They’ve forsaken Yahweh, they’ve spurned or despised the Holy One of Israel. They’ve become estranged from him. And the whole head is sick. The whole heart is faint from the sole of the foot, even to the head. There’s nothing sound in it, only bruises and welts and raw wounds. Not pressed outer bandage, not soften with oil.”

Listen folks, sin leaves a mark. The practice of sin cuts deep grooves in the mind, establishes deep, lasting patterns of thinking and feeling. Feelings jump out to the fore of the sinful mind so that feelings create habits and patterns of acting and reacting. It’s very subtle and deep seated. Sick heads, faint hearts, unsound souls, they don’t learn well. Learning requires discipline of the mind, and humility before the truth, and submission to the authority of the truth. Yes, it is true, regeneration changes everything.

Salvation changes everything. It results in faith that receives the saving grace of God. Justification is a radical, fundamental change of standing before God. It’s a legal standing that changes everything. But the process of sanctification that starts at the moment of justification, at the moment of regeneration, that’s just begun. New birth by the Spirit, which produces new life in Christ. It’s called new for a reason. It is indeed new, as in like an infant new. The infancy of a new believer exists within a very old body, some of us older than others, one that has a past, a body that has a history.

Many Christians who enter the doors of the church, they enter in, and I can hear the rattle of bones from all the skeletons that they think are hidden in the closet but are actually dragged in carts behind them. There’s a sin nature for Christians to overcome in all of us, and in some there are deeply ingrained patterns of thinking, habits of acting and reacting that are decades in the making, difficult to undo.

This is why, beloved, we love to preach the gospel to the children here. We want to see the children in our families come to know Christ Jesus as Savior and Lord from a very early age. We want them to be instructed in the, in the faith, in the goodness of God, to see his wisdom and trust him even in things they don’t understand. We want them to know Christ. Children here, listen, we love you. We want you not to be saved later in life like some of us were.

We don’t want you to have a remarkable testimony filled with how deeply you were lost in sin so that you could be saved from it. We want you to have a, a, continuity between early trust in your parents regarding them, loving them. A continuity that goes right into trusting God as your father, Christ as your Savior and Lord. Because sin has a, it affects and distorts your thinking. It hurts your mind. We want you to be spared from so much. So the preaching, teaching, years of repenting and obeying the truth, that is how an infant believer grows up into maturity in Christ. It takes time and instruction is essential.

Let me make one more brief point before moving on to another point. Comes from Amos 8:11 and 12, “Behold, the days are coming, declares Lord Yahweh, when I will send a famine on the land, not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, but rather for hearing the words of Yahweh. And people will wander from sea to sea, and from the north and even to the east, and they will go to and fro to seek the word of Yahweh. They will not find it.”

Judah in the days of Amos was under divine judgment, and that divine judgment was a withholding of the words of Yahweh. Judah had refused to heed the words of the prophet, as the previous chapter demonstrates. And so because they won’t listen to Amos, because they won’t listen to the prophets that he sent by his grace, God’s going to silent the prophetic witness in Judah, just shut their mouths, which is a terrible judgment, removing prophetic witness, silencing of people who will tell you the truth.

Similar thing has happened in our own country. And like in Amos, it’s not a famine for bread or a thirst for water. There would be a kind of grace in that judgement because taking away our food and our water is going to drive us to our knees because of the sake, for the sake of our body, to humble ourselves before the God who gives food and gives water.

Oh no, we’re a sleepwalking people. We’re comfortable, got plenty of bread, lots of stuff to dip it in, plenty of meat to go with it, plenty of not just water but all kinds of flavored drinks, and we’re content and satisfied, and comfortable and at ease. And it’s called somnambulism, Sleepwalking.

The famine we’re involved in now is for hearing the words of Yahweh. So many of these little infants who have been born, regenerated by God’s grace, born again in the context, many of them in weak churches taught by unqualified pastors, preached to by ignorant preachers. These little infants, they grow a little in the Word. They learn enough to become dissatisfied with weak preaching, break free from some Bad Religion, maybe have a bad experience or two that makes them kind of discontent, and disgruntled, and uproots them, and unseats them from relationships, and drives them, purges them from that church.

So they’re spit out and wandering. They start wandering, seeking the Word of God, but they don’t find it. Just like these people in Amos 8. And along the way, as they wander to and fro looking for the Word of God but not finding it, they pick up bad ministry patterns. They absorb false models. They operate by bad paradigms. They learn unbiblical expectations. But they don’t know it.

They’ve all kinds of wrong models of what preaching should be, of what church should be like. They come in and their judgement is on the forefront of their mind, criticizing everything they don’t like in the church. Some of them think they know a whole lot more than they do just because they spotted error in one church or context. A spiritual pride sets in and creates yet another obstacle for them, learning and growing.

And when, by God’s grace, they finally arrive in a sound church with sound teaching from biblically qualified shepherds, they’re like the victims of starvation who cannot digest food. They’re bloated, but they’re empty, malnourished. They recoil the taste of food. They assume they know best how to feed themselves and how to nurture themselves; they don’t. Takes time to heal, and to learn, and to get healthy enough to grow and to grow up strong.

Nevertheless, it’s a diet of the pure milk of the Word and the meat of the Word that they so desperately need. They need truth, and they need a lot of truth. They need the whole truth and they need it constantly, all the time. They need to sit still with a submissive heart under the Word, preach to become accustomed to proclamation, accustomed to the hard work of learning well, to realize that they’ve got to exercise a mental muscle that they have let lie dormant for years. They got to, turn, tune their ears and their hearts to the pattern of sound words and sound doctrine.

And they have to learn that the church service is about studying. Truth is the essential thing, so the Christians can learn to know who God is and what he’s like. So the Christians can learn to obey God, to revere him, to magnify him, to rejoice in him, to love him with all their heart, soul, strength, and mind. And then they can walk in obedience to him because they love him so dearly. They want to be counted, and known, and recognized as God’s children. Nothing gives them greater pleasure.

So that’s the constant need for instruction, which brings us to point two, point two and these points get shorter as we go. Point two: The chosen agents of instruction. The chosen agents of instruction. God answers the constant need for instruction to his people by supplying the church of Jesus Christ with chosen agents to give them biblical instruction. We could go several places, but I would just call your attention to a verse or a chapter that we have looked at a lot in our church and it’s Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians chapter 4, starting in verse 11, “Christ gave some as Apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ.” And on it goes. The time of the Apostles and prophets came to an end at the end of the first century, at the end of what we call the Apostolic age, the product of their ministry. The Canon of the New Testament was complete at that time, when John put his pen down at the end of Revelation 22.

The ministry of the evangelists, pastors, and teachers is to take that Apostolic prophetic truth in the New Testament and the entire Word of God, all that’s inspired by God the Spirit, infallibly written in the New Testament by men, superintended by the Spirit in the original autographs, those choice agents, the evangelist, pastors, and teachers, they proclaim the truth by preaching and teaching.

These agents of instruction, chosen agents of God, evangelist, pastors, and teachers, chosen servants of Christ, are set apart, called to this special work, equipped by the Spirit with gifts suited to the work qualified by God’s grace. According to 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, recognized as called, as gifted, qualified by the church, recognized by the church, so that they then are ordained and deployed by the elders of the church.

Says in this Titus chapter 1, these qualifications are as follows; for this reason, Paul tells Titus, “I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you.” Note, in every city, plurality of elders. “Namely, if any man is beyond reproach, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, who are not accused of dissipation, or rebellion. For the overseer must be beyond reproach as God’s steward, not self-willed, not quick tempered, not addicted to wine, not pugnacious.” That is, he likes to come to blows, he likes to fight.

“Not fond of dishonest gain, but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, righteous, holy, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to reprove those who contradict.”

That last verse, in particular, kind of gives insight into why God has chosen men as agents of instruction and not women. It’s because of this, not only the teaching instruction role, kind of the demand for abstract thought, a preference for abstract thought, but also this exhortative role that makes relationships second to purity, and holiness, and principle.

It’s 1 Timothy 2:12 to 14, God lays out the reason for choice of men for this office, for this role. He goes back to the created order and says it’s because of the order of creation and it’s because of the wisdom of design where God distinguished them male from female. There’s no time right now to develop the thought, but it’s just vital that public instruction of Scripture and doctrine and all the exhortation from the public, from the pulpit, from the teaching venues come from men, not women.

No matter what cultural winds are blowing, no matter who that offends, we must not offend the God who gave us the Word, that’s primary. We sympathize with him and his interests, not the culture. And believe me, those cultural winds enter into the lungs of men and women in the church. They enter into our church still blowing out these cultural winds. They may even agree in principle, say, yeah, men preachers, get it. But sometimes they can resist the practice, and sometimes verbally, sometimes quite demonstrably.

At one point during a time of potential discouragement for Timothy, Paul reminded Timothy that he is a chosen agent of divine instruction for the church. 1 Timothy 4:14 Paul tells Timothy, “don’t neglect the gift within you which was given to you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the council of elders.” And what was the ordained for Verse 13 previous verse, “until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture.” The reading in that time came with explanation as well. So we’re talking about an expository ministry.

Shepherd’s instruct the flock of God by the public preaching of Scripture and by the public and private teaching of Scripture, doctrine, and theology. It is their primary job. Travis Allen

Give attention to public reading of Scripture or an expository ministry, to exhortation and to teaching. Why? So people can learn the truth and obey it, so they can be sound worshippers of God. Paul tells Timothy in verse 15 that though he’s been given a gift, he has a stewardship of that gift. He’s responsible to develop it. He tells Timothy, “take pains with these things, be absorbed in them so your progress will be evident to all.”

The gift of preaching and teaching has to be developed, like any natural gift or talent that you have, it has to be developed, otherwise it, it sits dormant. It has to be trained, and educated, and advanced by study, and reading, and meditation, and then by constant practice. Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:15, “Be diligent, Timothy, to present yourselves approved to God as a workman who need not be ashamed.” Why? Because “you’re accurately handling the word of truth.”

Interesting in that verse, Paul uses a verb that kind of reminds us of his role, his secular role as a tent maker. He uses a term that calls about cutting it straight. Cut the word of God straight. Be accurate. Pastors are to be lifelong learners, students. They’re students of language, ancient language, dead languages. At the very least, they should be competent in Hebrew and Greek. And then even as they advance further, they advance into Latin, which sadly has gone by the wayside. Used to be taught in schools all the time.

I’ve gone back to school, as you guys know, and there’s just a, a lament at the postgraduate level at how Latin’s been tossed by the wayside. So now in my 50s, I got to learn in Latin. Do you believe this? Learning reformation languages, languages on the continent of Europe. All so we can read in the original primary sources, read in those texts so we can be good students. Knowing languages and understanding those things brings us into lexicography and grammar and syntax. Basic tools, but vital for exegesis, for doing history appropriately according to a good methodology for doing theology.

We’re students of history. We reach back into history. We learn about warfare, politics, international relations, commerce, economics, empire, nations, socio cultural settings, factors that lead to changes among peoples and among societies. We learn about botany. We learn about food. We learn about customs, habits. We’re students of people, whether it’s people grouped into tribes, tongues, and nations, or people in families, people as individuals.

We’re students of our own hearts first, knowing what leads to sin or to righteousness. Understanding the word by the word, the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Knowing both mortification and vivification. What leads to what we need to kill in our lives and what needs to come alive and fuel our studies for ourselves and for others.

As students of God in Christ, we’re always pressing further into deep communion with the Triune God, which is a confrontation all the time, his purity and holiness with our sinfulness. And we’re on our knees all the time confessing sins, seeing our weakness, seeing our need, crying out to him for help, to worship him, just to worship him rightly, in spirit and in truth; worshipping him in the excellence of each of his divine persons.

Michael Allen says, quote, “Theology is hard intellectual work.” Man that’s true. He goes on and says, “It demands not only intellectual but also moral and theological virtues for good execution.” He goes on to say, “Theology involves self-denial, counter man’s idolatry and thus needs wholehearted spiritual commitment.” End quote. Man, that is true. And I beg God for the help and the grace and strength just to exercise my mind every time I turn my attention to the Word of God and to reading.

Just reading, and study, and theology, and doctrine, which is why the pastor is always at war with his own heart to mortify the flesh, to put aside distractions and to be gentle with others in doing so. Not to be this holier than thou pious monk walking around as if he’s above everybody else, but no, acknowledging he struggles with everything that they do, as he fans into a white hot flame the gifts that God gave him, so he can burn brightly and loving God with all of his heart, and soul, and strength, and mind. May God help us.

Charles Bridges says, “The minister’s life must be a life of holy meditation and study. No man who neglects the Apostles exhortation to give attention to reading will long continue a profitable preaching to an intelligent congregation. The native resources, even of the most powerful minds, need to be replenished. Therefore, the preacher must not merely have been a man of reading. He must read still, or his sermons will be trite and barren of thought.” End Quote.

Trite and barren of thought, that is exactly what describes many of the so-called pulpits in this country and men who are of the other sort, who are constantly repenting and pursuing knowledge of the Holy to understand God, to understand themselves before God, to understand people, to understand the work. Men like that, in a constant lifelong pursuit of learning, are Christ chosen servants for your instruction beloved, for the glory of God, in service to Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Pastors and shepherds strive to be biblical, doctrinal, theological scholars, to know and love God, to love God’s people; preaching and teaching the truth. So we see the need for instruction, how God meets the need through these chosen agents who are themselves students, always learning. Here’s a Third Point: The common source of instruction. Common source of instruction. And I’ve already been hinting at this, so I’ll keep this brief. The common source of our instruction is the Word of God, Holy Scripture, the Holy Bible. And I call Scripture common, a common source, not to denigrate, spritz, Scripture or to make it less than holy, but rather because the Holy Bible is the authority that is common to us all.

When I preach from the Word, you can open up your copy of God’s Word and check my work. That’s what you’re to be doing. You’d be looking at your Bible and say, does that line up? Not, not, in a critical way, but just to say, does that line up? How am I understanding? Am I following his train of thought? This is why Jesus explained himself commonly in his ministry, explained himself, explained his teaching, often by going back and citing, and explaining Scripture.

He was not some maverick, just, here’s a new way, reject the Scripture of the Old Testament because it’s insufficient and follow me now. No! He said, everything I’m doing is in continuity with everything God’s always said; it’s your teachers. You’ve heard them say, but I say to you, you’ve heard them teach, but I say to you, here’s the truth of those texts. He was demonstrating continuity between his ministry and the Old Testament, showing the imprimatur or the approval of God and God’s authority on his ministry.

One illustration suffices, remember the disciples on the road to Emmaus, Luke 24, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, Jesus explained to them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures. You ever thought about why he did that? I mean, by the authority of his person, he being in the body of his resurrection, couldn’t he have just proclaimed to them, look at me, I was dead, I’m alive, listen to everything I’m saying. He could have done that. It would have been totally righteous, totally appropriate.

He takes him to the Scriptures, in like manner, preaching of the Apostles in the early church in the book of Acts, expositing texts from what we now call the Old Testament. Paul did the same thing during his ministry, as we see clearly in Acts 20:27. He says, “I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.”

I’m among those who thinks that the book of Hebrews is Paul’s preaching sermonic material, probably penned by the writer Luke. That’s my view. You could take me to task if you want to, another time. But I do think it’s Paul’s work and, it’s, Hebrews is so rich in the Old Testament, isn’t it? It’s beautiful, beautiful Greek language, which shows Luke’s hand, I think, the excellence of his Greek writing.

But it is Paul’s thought, even if he didn’t write the book of Hebrews or isn’t the mind or the, the, sermonic material behind the book of Hebrews. Look at how he teaches. He is a scriptural thinker, and so he says, “I didn’t shrink from declaring to the whole purpose of God? Other translations render that, ta boulē, the whole council of God, the whole council of God, the whole purpose of God, which is revealed and unveiled in the Scripture.

New, two Testaments of Scripture, what Paul calls the sacred writings. This power in this word has a power to affect regeneration. 2 Timothy 3:14, Paul told Timothy, “From childhood you’ve known the sacred writings which are able to give the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Jesus Christ.” God’s word is the only source of instruction with the power to save sinners from eternal hell and to sanctify them with transforming power, to change that life from what it was to what God intends it to be, like Christ.

Paul says, 2 Timothy 3:16 and 17, “All Scripture,” Old and New Testaments, “inspired by God, profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate.” That word, adequate, doesn’t mean, just so, so; artios, means capable, fully ready, totally fit, perfectly fit, equipped for every good work.

So use it, he says, 2 Timothy 4, “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearance in his kingdom.” And he loads it up, doesn’t he? Here’s my solemn charge: “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, wanting to have their ears tickled. They’ll accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, and they will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry.” Amen.

More to say. We’ll go to a fourth point, number four: The comprehensive scope of instruction. The comprehensive scope of instruction. Back to Acts 20, Paul reminds the Ephesian elders as he commends them to God in his grace. He says in verse 20, “I didn’t shrink from declaring to you anything profitable and teaching you publicly and from house to house.” Public instruction, house to house instruction, equals comprehensive instruction.

Paul’s example sets a pattern for pastors and teachers in the local church to provide comprehensive instruction in a common source, the whole council of God with a, com, comprehensive scope, or you might say several scopes. First, as I said, the comprehensive scope of venue, but also format. There’s public and private instruction. There’s the regular ministry, the Word from the pulpit, public and formal instruction of scripture delivered through preaching and teaching to the gathered church. That’s one venue, one format.

But there’s also the occasional ministry of the Word, provided as a need arises, whether in formal instruction of discipleship or counselling, or the more informal instruction of the same. This instruction comes in a more private setting, informally, from house to house, in homes along the way, and coffee shops, and Panera Bread, and offices, driving from place to place in a car. Public instruction, formal instruction, and private informal instruction. Comprehensive. That’s about the scope of venue, the format of teaching.

Second, there’s a comprehensive scope in the kind of content as well. Pastors and teachers that have preached the Scripture, but they also need to teach the doctrines of Scripture, the theology of Scripture. That’s, there’s preaching passages of Scripture. There’s also the teaching of its doctrines. Paul distinguishes doctrinal kind of instruction from preaching kind of instruction; technically preaching called the kerygmatic proclamation.

He distinguishes doctrinal instruction from preaching in several places in the New Testament, 1 Timothy 4:6, Paul calls Timothy to instruct, exhort the Christians in Ephesus and by so doing, he’d be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith, the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you’ve been following.

So doctrinal instruction, a body of truth that is recognized as authoritative; summaries of doctrinal truth, like we just recited this morning in the Apostles Creed. Paul returns to the authoritative nature of this doctrinal theological instruction several verses later. If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, doctrinal content, theological explanation, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing.

That’s why it’s essential for an elder, part of his qualification prior to being ordained, that he’s mature enough, sufficiently equipped and trained not only to handle texts of Scripture and preaching and teaching, but the doctrine theology of Scripture, so that Titus 1:9, “He can hold fast the faithful word and be able to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict it.” If you’re going to refute, if you’re going to correct, you got to know the truth. You got to know the doctrine of the truth.

Timothy also must, 2 Timothy 1:13, “Retain the standard of sound words which you heard from me.” That word, standard, means an outline that delineates the boundaries of truth. It’s a prototype against which all words and doctrine teaching are measured. So comprehensive scope of instruction applies to venue and format; the kind of instruction doctrine, preaching, theology.

Finally, the goal of instructions’ comprehensive too, from start to finish of the life. Paul tells Timothy, 1 Timothy 1:5, a verse you know. “The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith.” That points to a long-term goal of living by Christian wisdom, making advances in practical living and Christian maturity. The goal is love from a pure heart, good conscience, sincere faith equals mature Christian, grown up Christian.

So the shepherd’s instruction, public and private, biblical, doctrinal, theological instruction is both elementary, imparting knowledge of the truth and advanced growth into wisdom by practicing of the truth. Why is it that there’s all this emphasis on the truth? Why is it that God has specially chosen servants given to his body and they’re few in number, as James 3:1 says, “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren.” Just a few chosen for his churches.

Why is it that he dedicates certain lives to this particular task? That’ll be a lifelong task, that they will burn themselves out in the doing of it; in order to pour into other people in the church, to give them this truth. Because the Word of God has power, doesn’t it? My word, your word, the books we read, fiction books, movies, podcast, no power; ultimately no change.

What is it that has power to save the Sinner from eternal damnation? What has power to transfer the Sinner from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son? What has power to transfer a person from darkness to light, from error to truth, from unrighteousness, wickedness, and sin into righteousness, and purity, and holiness? There’s only one word that has that power, only one word.

God says of his Word, he says, “Is not my word like a fire? Is it not like a hammer which shatters the rock in judgement? The Word scorches, burns away all that’s false in the proud center.” Which is why when sometimes people who profess Christ start feeling the heat, they pull away. The Word of God is like a hammer that crushes and pulverizes, the liar in his lies, the hypocrite in his hypocrisy, the rebel in his rebellion.

But for the humble believer, for the obedient penitent, the Word of God is implanted by the Spirit of God in the heart. It’s able to save the soul, James 1:21. “The word is the power of God to those who are being saved,” 1 Corinthians 1:18. It’s no dead letter, but Hebrews 4:12, It’s a living word, alive, productive. It’s also active, effective, transformative.

God’s Word has power, called the heavens and the earth into existence. It created all that we see and know. And that’s why Jesus Christ himself is called the living and incarnate Word, because he has power. God’s Word has the power, the only power to save Sinners, to sanctify them till they conform to the image of his beloved son. And that is why the shepherds instruct the flock.

That is why the pastors and the teachers equipped the saints for the work of ministry, to do their work, that they are assigned by God, which is the ministry in and through the local church. Pastors and shepherds are preeminent slaves of Christ, setting an example for the rest of the slaves of Christ in the flock of God.

Beloved, you’re not your own. None of you who names the name of Christ is your own. You’re bought with a price. You’re bought with precious blood. Therefore, glorify God in your life, and with your body, and with your words, and with your eyes, with your hands, and your feet, with your mind, and learn.

In a few minutes, we’re gonna come to the communion table and partake of the Lord’s Supper together. In a view of that, I want to give you a list of questions that you can ask yourself so that you can do some self-examination before you partake of this fellowship ordinance laid before you. Hopefully these questions will help you to identify and then confess any sin that God brings to your mind. Repent of any ways that you have despised the truth subtly maybe, just by neglect, by indifference or maybe outward rebellion; any way that you have despised the shepherd’s ministry of instruction.

This is going to help you reflect on that, confess it, repent of it, but also to think about what God has given you in dedicated people who are dedicated to your good, and your instruction, and your growth, and your maturity, dedicated to your joy. So use this time, also these questions, also to think about the gift of shepherds, and pastors, and elders, and teachers, and evangelists to help you grow in sanctification. Let it be an occasion for you, for joy and gratitude.

Here’s some questions for you. Number one: Do you fear the Lord? Basic question. Do you revere his Word? And do you respect and honor the servants of the word? Number two: Have you treated God’s Word as holy, regarding it as the highest priority in your life? Does your attendance at church, and your attention in church, and your preparation for church, give evidence that you regard Scripture as holy?

Number three: Have you regarded your shepherds as gifts of God’s grace to instruct you in the Word of God? Do you regard God’s choice of them, in particular, not just shepherds in general, but these particular shepherds, and esteem them very highly in love, for, 1 Thessalonians 5:13 because of their work? Number four: Do you consider yourself in need of instruction? Are you a humble, dependent Christian, appreciating God’s gifts of grace that come through your local church? Or are you proud, independent, arrogant, wise in your own eyes?

Number five: Do you recognize the power of sin in your heart, the power of sin that disorders your inner life? Do you practice regular, honest self-examination to discern how often your feelings are out in front and in control, hijacking your heart? Stealing away the prominence of your intellect that directs your will. Do you make a habitual practice to self-examine, check your emotions so that a well instructed mind is the priority? So that your will disciplines and directs your inner life, so that your emotions follow your mind and your will, instead of being out in front?

Number six, Do you see the church as a training center and the primary purpose of Sunday services, to worship God from the heart by learning and studying? Do you see sermons as targeting the intellect so the mind can inform the will and the affections and the emotions? And finally, number seven: Do you come to listen for the purpose of obeying the Lord of the Word? Do you seek knowledge for wisdom, that is, to imitate Christ by practicing the truth? Or do you seek knowledge for intellectual stimulation? Just some intellectual ear tickling entertainment.

Beloved, as you ask and answer questions like those for yourself, some of those things may sting your conscience and that’s why God has given Christ to come to him. As we think about him in the symbol of the bread and the wine come before his table, think about his sacrifice for our sins. But some of these questions you’re going to answer in the affirmative that I do think rightly about the church, about the word. Let that hearten in you, beloved, because that didn’t come from you. That’s a gift of God to you. Blessed are you because your eyes see, your ears hur, hear, your heart understands.

Maybe you’re like Peter. You failed at times, yes, but you cry out to the omniscience of God, and you say, Lord, you know all things. You know I love you, you know I love you. Take refuge and comfort in him. Give your heart fully to him and your mind. May all this help you reflect on your duty to submit to the Word and its instruction; leading you during our time of communion to confess, repent of any sinful thoughts, habits of thinking, and then to give thanks for God and his kindness to instruct our minds in the Word, because that is what results in a heart that loves God, with all the heart, soul, strength and mind, and loves neighbor as self.

Our Father, we give you thanks in the name of Jesus Christ and because of the inner working of the Holy Spirit. First to regenerate us and give us new life. Ears to hear your word, eyes to see the truth and see Christ as majestic and holy. A heart to understand the Word because of the spirits work to cause us to be born again to the living hope, to new life, to faith, and repentance in Christ. Give you thanks in the name of Jesus Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Father, because you’ve given us life and truth, you’ve given us understanding. You have opened up your mind to us, the depths of your mind, and your understanding. All that you’ve prepared, that eye has not seen, nor ear has not heard, nor is the heart of man understood, but all that you’ve prepared for those who love you, you’ve revealed to us in Christ. We merely need to learn to be instructed.

Pray, Father, that as we think about the body and the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ symbolized in the bread and the cup, that we give attention to our souls and orient our lives for the rest of our lives to be good learners of truth, to receive instruction, to be humble learners so that we could be obedient followers of Jesus Christ. And share not only in the sufferings that may come, but the glory that’s to follow. We thank you for this eternal life. This changes us from the inside out. Pray that you would help us in our time of reflection, confession, and gratitude, and praise in this time of the Lord’s Table in Jesus name. Amen.

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Hebrews 12:4-11

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James 3:17-18

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James 3:14-16

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James 3:13

Today we’re in the book of James. So if you’d open your Bibles to James chapter 3, James chapter 3, we’re continuing on in this book, and it’s a new section of the book from the last time I was up here. We’ll be beginning to look at the section which is in verses 13-18 of James chapter 3.

We saw, if you remember maybe a month ago or so, the first 12 verses in this chapter were on the importance and the power of the tongue, the way we speak, and the need for Christians to be in control of their tongue, to use it for the good and the growth of others, and also the glory of God.

Like every section that we’ve seen in James, there is a sense in which that section as well as this section is about what true and false faith looks like. There is a way that one with true faith is in control of their communication and uses it for good, and a warning to those who do not control their tongue and not control their speech and what it might say about them.

The section we’re going to begin to look at today at the end of James 3 flows naturally out of the discussion on the tongue. It does not just come out of nowhere, as many liberal scholars kind of see it. They want to take James and make it a connection of a bunch of loose teachings all compiled together and thrown together in this letter.

But that’s not what it is. As we’ve seen in other places in the letter, there are not only connections between the two topics logically, but also with James’ use of connecting vocabulary. We’ve talked about how James is very careful to use these connecting words to keep people from maybe coming to the assumption that this is just a bunch of random stuff thrown together. We’ve talked before about how James uses these linking words from section to section to help remind us that though this letter contains many different topics, he does intend for it to be seen as a unified document of helpful, sanctifying instruction in righteousness that’s all connected.

So you can see if you’re looking there with your Bibles open, you can see a few of the linking words. The use of the word “bitter” in verse 14 seems to be there to specifically link to its use in verse 11. While it’s a good adjective to use to describe jealousy, as it does in verse 14, it is likely chosen from other adjectives in order to link the two sections together. Remember, if you’re just reading the whole letter in one sitting and not breaking it up over weeks and months, you’ll have just read that word a few seconds ago when you see it again here, so you’ll make that connection.

Similarly, the closing section in 1:12 uses an agricultural illustration to describe what should naturally be produced from the Christian life when it comes to our speech. And this section in 13-18 closes with a similar metaphor illustrating the natural fruit of righteousness that is the product of peacemakers who have sown in peace.

This is the type of thing that James does throughout the letter, again weaving together these similar words, phrases, metaphors to demonstrate that, yes, many different topics, but all linked together under one broader subject. Our thinking, our actions, they’re to line up to help us to understand what it is to be a faithful follower of Jesus Christ, all coming together again to show us what one who is not double-minded looks like, what one who lives out in their life, in their actions, the same faith that they claim to have with their words.

So we see the literary linking there. But logically, it also makes sense that this section on wisdom would come directly after the section on the taming of the tongue because whether or not you have a controlled tongue, whether or not you are able to govern your conversations in a way that glorifies God, or in a way that does that forest-fire-level damage, is directly related to whether or not you possess true wisdom.

So if we had difficulty really applying the instruction from the last section on the tongue, or actually any section in James for that matter, what we’re going to be looking at today in this important section at the end of the third chapter might just be what we need the most in order to help us be obedient to the rest of the teaching in the book. Indeed, I can promise you that if you will dedicate yourself to striving after the wisdom that comes from God, you will not be able to help but become more sanctified in all of the other ways that we have seen in James and that we will continue to see.

So with that as an introduction, let’s go ahead and read verses 13-18 of James 3 together. “Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good conduct his works in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not coming down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic.

“For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder in every evil practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruits, without doubting, without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”

What we see in this passage is that James is personally challenging this community on their understanding of wisdom. Notice he says in that first verse, “Who among you,” “Who among you,” indicating that he probably knows that there are people in this community who might think of themselves as wise and understanding, possibly some of their teachers and leaders, but whom he clearly seems to see as those who need to rethink that in their lives.

So in this section, he challenges them on their understanding of wisdom. And then he explains the characteristics of the two types of wisdom: the wisdom that comes from above, and wisdom that does not come from above but rather is earthly and natural and demonic. And we’re going to break up this section over these next three weeks in a similar way.

Today we’re going to think about what wisdom is, what wisdom is, why it’s important, its value, where it comes from. And then next week we will look at earthly wisdom and what characterizes it. And finally we will look at the wisdom from above and what characterizes it.

So today we are really only going to spend our time in verse 13 and actually spend a lot of our time in other passages, flipping around to some of the important passages of Scripture that will help us to gain a more complete understanding of what James kind of expects his readers to already have in their minds.

So we’re going to break this verse up today, verse 13, into two points, two main outline points: number one, the question of wisdom; number one, the application of wisdom. The question of wisdom and the application of wisdom. So point number one, the question of wisdom, and we see this right there in the literal, rhetorical question that James asks at the beginning of verse 13: “Who among you is wise and understanding?” “Who among you is wise and understanding?” He asks a question that, maybe for a moment, lets people begin to consider whether or not they fall into that category, whether or not they’re wise and understanding, based on their own understanding of wisdom.

And that brings up the question to us, also. And it’s actually a good thing for us to think about and introduce the subject to us. How do we define wisdom? How does our culture define wisdom? What does a wise person look like?

There’s a bit of a different question in our social media Internet culture than it might have been at other times in other generations, probably more so now. Back then it was an issue, too, but even maybe more so now. Many of us typically equate wisdom with some sort of superior intellect. That’s the easy thing to go to, almost like a synonym for being really, really smart.

We watch YouTube videos of our favorite, you know, political commentators, or sometimes we see Christian apologists, and we watch them kind of seamlessly handle these arguments and then put the person who’s questioning them to shame, right? “That guy’s wise. He knows what’s going on.” It’s a combination of having knowledge and then wielding that knowledge, which is actually a pretty good definition if you’re thinking about wielding knowledge the right way. But so often we mean how you handle that knowledge in demonstrating that you have the superior viewpoint, the superior argument.

And what is worse in our culture is that if you’d ask most people whether or not they believe themselves to be wise, they would most likely give a negative answer because everyone kind of knows that wise people don’t say they’re wise. They don’t boast. That kind of takes away what you said.

However, because of how saturated, again, with Internet access, instant access to information, everything else out there, we live in a culture where even though no one would claim they believe they are wise, they all run around acting like it, speaking and acting with authority on subjects that they have relatively little experience in. We do it all the time. We see it all the time. We’re saturated in this type of thinking.

You need only to go to the comments section of almost any post, any post, anyone you see, everywhere. It’s kind of fun to read all of the experts commenting on the Trump assassination attempt this week. Just so many people know exactly what was going on, there. You see those things.

Or better yet, read the customer review section of almost any product. It’s kind of funny to read a review of someone who would almost certainly not call himself wise, but nonetheless is able to give the most confident, most definitive review of a particular appliance that they’ve owned one time, or a Pizza Hut location that they visited once. They’re just, “This is the truth. This is what’s going on, here. Trust me.”

It’s even worse to read reviews of churches online. People feel so confident in their wisdom and understanding about how a church should be, what it should look like. They feel emboldened to lead others in not ever attending this particular one “because I, in my wisdom, have done this for you. And here you go.”

They give no biblical warrant, no Scripture cited, just a review that gets to, again, have the same place, it gets to have the same weight as anyone else, a review from some all-knowing 22-year-old who hasn’t been a part of a church in years, has only visited this particular one once, but can speak definitively about whether or not this is a good church and can confidently call others to “follow me. I have this knowledge which I’ve gained from, from literally hours of experience or because I read a book on the subject, or I took a class, or I read an article, or I listened to a podcast.

“I have this knowledge, and now I am ready to live it out, to live it out humbly and help others who don’t have that knowledge or maybe even those poor people who have studied it way more than me, but sadly somehow still don’t quite have the grasp on it that I was able to come to quite easily.”

The prophet Isaiah spoke of this problem in the culture that he lived in, an issue which is only magnified here in the Internet age. In Isaiah 5:20-21, he says, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and understanding in their own sight.”

The same issue, the same problem of being wise in one’s own eyes, that’s always existed in humanity. It’s always been there. But now, in a culture that is handcuffed to the Internet, it’s able to be on display with arrogant hearts much more quickly and clearly than before. There was a time when you’d have to, you know, spend some time with a person before you could make the judgment that they’re wise in their own eyes. And now you can just read a comment.

We’re immersed in this today. We’re a culture who is wise in our own eyes, making decisions, important decisions in life, in politics, in our interactions, in our relationships based on a totally self-contained, self-learned wisdom, so-called wisdom and understanding.

And it’s not because most of us, at least most of the time, are trying to substitute darkness for light. We’re not trying to substitute sweet for bitter, but we’ve come to have an unearned trust in our own instincts, our own feelings, no matter how uninformed or biblically based they might be or might not be, and then we kind of live our lives accordingly.

When our wisdom and understanding that we’ve become pretty settled on and comfortable with gets challenged, what we typically like to do is something we call “counsel-shopping.” “Oh, I don’t actually know the answer to that. Let me go find someone, somewhere, who believes the same thing as me, who will back up the view that I’ve been comfortable with in order to keep doing what I’m doing.”

We’ll find someone maybe close to us, or maybe through a Google search. It doesn’t matter if we know them or not as long as they can help us better articulate and excuse our own thinking and our own convictions, and answer the questions that are challenging the views that we want to keep having. Then we will defer to their wisdom, trust them, trust the one who already agrees with us. That’s where we go for wisdom.

So before we look into what wisdom truly is, it is important for us to just step back and gain a right perspective of how immersed we have been in false understandings of wisdom and understanding, and that it is almost impossible for you to live in this culture and not have been affected in any way. In fact, if you would say that that’s not the case for you, “I have lived in this culture, and I haven’t been affected in any way,” that sounds like someone who’s wise in their own eyes. So you’re in the category, too.

So looking back to our passage for today, we see that James uses the words “wise and understanding” in his question, “Who among you is wise and understanding?” And he uses those words that are often joined together in other places in the Bible in talking about wisdom. They were in the Isaiah 5 passage that I just read from. They are in many other places. They’re often joined together, but they’re probably used here more for the sake of emphasis.

Even though they’re different words, there’s a little bit of nuance that’s worth pointing out. The word that is used for “understanding,” here, this is actually the only place in the entirety of the New Testament where this particular word is used and translated as “understanding.” It’s a word that means “to be skilled” or “to be well instructed” or “to be an expert on something.” So there’s a little bit of overlap. And James’ imperative in verse 13 is strengthened with that extra information because possessing skill or being an expert should lead to the proper application of knowledge, which is wisdom.

But in order to know the full strength of what James is saying, here, it is necessary that we know what James would have expected his audience to have in their minds about wisdom, and what it is, and where it comes from, and its value. He doesn’t define wisdom, here. He merely describes what it should look like, how it should be shown. True wisdom is something that can be shown.

So we see implications of wisdom in James’ answer to his rhetorical question, but it isn’t defined clearly; and a big part of that probably does have to do with his audience. It’s a Jewish congregation, as we’ve talked about before, who has a lot more familiarity with the biblical understanding of wisdom than a typical Gentile congregation might have who are immersed in Greek philosophy. So it’s important for us to make sure that we have a biblical understanding of wisdom before we get into the rest of the passage. The foundation of wisdom that he would expect to be in place in the minds of his readers is necessary for us to have also.

So necessary, in fact, that I was looking to see John MacArthur’s sermons on this passage, and he used two whole sermons before he even got into verse 13, just going through the Old Testament teaching on wisdom. But everything that James says on the wisdom from above and earthly wisdom hinges on and is strengthened through really understanding what wisdom is biblically and where wisdom comes from.

Wisdom, true wisdom, comes from God. It’s because God is wisdom. Josh Oedy

Wisdom, true wisdom, comes from God. It comes from God. And I know that’s not surprising, but we need to think about why is that? It’s because God is wisdom. He’s not merely the giver of wisdom. He is wisdom. Wisdom is not merely something that God possesses. Wisdom is who God is. It is an attribute of God. He is wisdom in its perfection, in its totality. Last week in my equipping hour class, we, we talked about this a little bit when we were talking about divine simplicity. God is not the sum of his attributes. He is his attributes in perfection. Wisdom is an attribute of God.

It’s not just that God, again, possesses the most wisdom; it’s not merely that he is the most wise. He is all wisdom. And it’s not that God created wisdom. Wisdom just exists in him. God cannot be more or less wise. He does not grow in wisdom. He doesn’t become, again, wiser as time goes on. He is perfect wisdom. And anything or anyone whom we would call wise can only be so insofar as they are emulating the character of God.

So he doesn’t merely see the virtue of wisdom and then apply it perfectly, whereas we can only apply it partially or finitely. Wisdom exists because God exists. It’s who he is, not an ideal or virtue that he lines his character up under. So therefore, to grow in wisdom and to grow in godliness are the same thing.

To see this further, to help us really get a grasp on what biblical wisdom is, turn in your Bibles to Proverbs 8, Proverbs 8. It’s almost Proverbs 8 and 9 because they really go together, but we’re just going to go through Proverbs 8. This is one of the most famous sections of Scripture on wisdom. In Proverbs 8 and 9 we see wisdom personified. So what’s going on in Proverbs 8 and 9, what’s being represented by the author, is the concept of wisdom, wisdom itself being personified, describing itself and pleading with the reader to answer her call, to seek after her, to seek after wisdom.

So Proverbs 8, we’ll just slowly go through this together. Proverbs 8, let’s look at verses 1-11. First, “Does not wisdom call, and discernment give forth her voice? At the top of the heights upon the way where the pathways meet, she takes her stand; beside the gates at the opening to the city. At the entrance of the door, she makes a shout: ‘To you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men. O simple ones, understand prudence; and O fools, understand a heart of wisdom.

“‘Listen, for I will speak noble things; and the opening of my lips will reveal upright things. For my mouth will utter truth; and wickedness is an abomination to my lips . . . There is nothing twisted or crooked in them. They are all straightforward to him who understands, and right to those who find knowledge. Take my discipline and not silver, and knowledge rather than choicest find gold. For wisdom is better than pearls, and all desirable things cannot compare with her.’”

So here we see in this poetic chapter how God thinks of wisdom, and therefore how we ought to also. Just in these verses we see that it is the greatest thing that we can desire, according to this passage. It is upright and true; it has nothing to do with wickedness. So to seek wisdom is to simultaneously flee from evil. The discipline that wisdom requires is greater than silver. The knowledge of wisdom is greater than fine gold. It says it’s better than pearls.

In fact, it says anything that you could ever desire, anything, is not even comparable with her. It’s not even comparable. So it’s not saying that it’s just better than any of those things. It’s saying not comparable. It’s not like, would you rather have $100 cash or $150 in gift cards, and you have to sit around and think and decide, “One of these is better than the other, which one?”, where you have to think and compare. No, it’s not comparable. It’s like, would you rather have a million dollars or get punched in the stomach? It’s like that type of comparison.

Wisdom is what we should desire above everything else. The way it talks about wisdom and our desire for it is the same way that the Bible talks about how we should desire and value God and the knowledge of God. Ah, that’s the point. God is wisdom. It’s what we should desire above everything else. If we desire wisdom, we desire God. The two things go together.

Verses 12 through 16: “I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion. The fear of Yahweh is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the mouth of perverted words, I hate. Counsel is mine and sound wisdom; I am understanding, might is mine. By me kings reign, and rulers mark out righteousness. By me princes rule, and nobles, all who judge rightly.”

So here we see that with wisdom comes perfect discernment, the fear of God, and the hatred of evil. With the pursuit of wisdom, temptations to sin lose power as wisdom is pursued because as you pursue wisdom, evil is no longer something that you want to do but no, you shouldn’t. But now it’s something that you hate and want no part of. Pride and arrogance flee from wisdom; “the mouth of perverted words,” it says, is despised. So there’s the connection to that last section in James 3. The pursuit of wisdom and bringing your speech under control go hand in hand.

It’s only through the pursuit of wisdom that true and good leadership and governance take place. So those aspiring in our culture to be influencers should take heed because it’s only through the pursuit of wisdom that righteous leadership, righteous influence, takes place. If you pursue wisdom rather than influence, you will have both. If you pursue influence apart from wisdom, you will only bring about destruction.

Continuing on, verse 17, “I love those who love me; and those who earnestly seek me will find me. Riches and glory are with me, enduring wealth and righteousness. My fruit is better than fine gold, even pure gold, and my produce better than choice silver. I walk in the path of righteousness, in the midst of the pathways of justice, to give those who love me an inheritance of wealth, that I may fill their treasuries.”

So here we see the promise of wisdom and the blessings of wisdom. Those who love wisdom will be loved by wisdom. In other words, love of wisdom results in receiving the benefits of wisdom. Those who earnestly seek wisdom will find wisdom. Notice, wisdom is found by those who earnestly seek. That means that they put an effort into it. It’s hard. You, you dig for it, as other passages in Scripture talk about it. You work for it.

It’s more than reading one article. It’s more than listening to one podcast, watching one infomercial when you can’t sleep. You don’t just have it when you visit a church one time or think you have a good perspective on how church should work because you’ve seen it done in a way that worked for you, even if you haven’t really bothered to talk to anyone else or a pastor about it, even if you can’t make a biblical case. You may have an opinion, but don’t confuse that with wisdom.

It says, “‘In wisdom lie riches and glory, fruit that is better than gold, better than choice silver. Those who love wisdom have their treasuries filled and are given an inheritance of wealth.’” And while wisdom will certainly have applications for physical wealth, I mean you’re more likely to have more money if you’re wise, this clearly isn’t speaking merely of physical wealth, because it says that its fruit, its produce, is better than silver and gold. It’s better than silver and gold. So not only is wisdom more valuable than riches, what it produces is more valuable for you than riches.

And then bringing us back to what is the source of wisdom, look at verses 22-31: “Yahweh possessed me at the beginning of his way, before his deeds of old. From everlasting I was installed, from the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth. When there were no depths, I was brought forth, when there were no springs heavy with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills I was brought forth; while he had not yet made the earth and the fields outside, nor the first dust of the world.

“When he established the heavens, I was there, when he marked out a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when the springs of the deep became strong, when he set for the sea its boundary so that the water would not pass over his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth; then I was beside him, as a master workman; and I was a daily delight, rejoicing always before him, rejoicing in the world, his earth, my delight is in the sons of men.”

So here we see exactly what we were just talking about earlier, that wisdom exists in God. It is present during creation. To avoid confusion, it does say, “‘From everlasting I was installed.’” So the idea is, once again, that wisdom has always been present in God. When it says, here, that it was “brought forth,” wisdom was brought forth during the creation of the earth, it’s because, though it is everlasting, though it is always in God, even before creation, wisdom can only be seen, can be shown in the action of God.

In his creation, we can now see the wisdom of God as his sovereign power works out his perfect knowledge in creation. So though wisdom has existed perfectly and eternally in God, it was not possible for it to be made known or to be shown until God’s action. And that is very helpful for us to keep in mind because action and not mere intellect, that is important when it comes to the accurate definition of wisdom that our passage in James requires.

So when it comes to thinking of a good definition for the wisdom of God coming out of Proverbs 8 and other passages that we don’t have time to go to, but how we’re to think about what we just read, rather than making up my own definition, I was tremendously helped by definition that Joel Beeke gave. Let me read it to you.

“What then is God’s wisdom? It is that aspect of the divine life by which God is infinitely skilled to create the world and rule it well as its righteous Lord. Wisdom is the riches of God’s royal intelligence by which he directs all things to his glory, even using the unbelief of some people for the salvation of others. Wisdom is God’s infinite knowledge at the service of his holy will.”

“Wisdom is God’s infinite knowledge at the service of his holy will.” We are to see the perfect wisdom of God on display as all that he has created perfectly and precisely accomplishes that which it was created for, in order to bring about the perfect end that he has desired to ordain.

And as we observe this and think about all that is being said here, and the purpose of Proverbs 8 and 9 to drive us toward a desire for that wisdom as well, look at how this chapter ends. “So now, O sons, listen to me, for blessed are they who keep my ways. Hear discipline and be wise, and do not neglect it. How blessed is the man who hears me, to watch daily at my doors, to keep watch at my doorposts. For he who finds me finds life and obtains favor from Yahweh. But he who sins against me does violence to his own soul; all those who hate me love death.”

So this attribute of God that exists in him perfectly, through which he has brought everything into existence, fulfilling its perfect purpose, wisdom, this same wisdom, beckons us to pursue it, to seek it out. This is the key to the blessed life. In fact, we’re told that if we find wisdom, to find wisdom is to find life and to obtain favor from God. But to reject wisdom, to hate wisdom, is to love death. So we should leave a passage like Proverbs 8 with a desire to somehow be able, oh, if we only could tap into the wisdom of God, to be able to have this unbelievable treasure, at least in some measure ourselves. So how do we do that? Where do we go?

Well, Proverbs 4:7 says, “The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom, and with all your acquiring, acquire understanding.” Again, we see wisdom and understanding linked, but the point, here, is that it’s a command. A command: “Get it. Get wisdom. Acquire it.” It’s not something that just happens to you. It’s something that you go after. The CSB renders it this way: “Wisdom is supreme—so get wisdom.”

Just because you are getting older doesn’t mean you are necessarily getting wiser. Very sad. Even though the Bible often links age with wisdom, it doesn’t just mean it automatically happens. The life lived in pursuit of wisdom is the one who grows in wisdom as they grow in age.

This brings us to an important question, a critical question that we all need to ask ourselves. Do we really desire wisdom? Do we really desire wisdom? Do we really want it? If we desire it the way that we are implored to in Proverbs 8, if we really believe that this is the key to the blessed life, this is the key to obtaining favor with God, that to reject wisdom is akin to loving death, if we really believe that, if we really want it, then it stands to reason that we would be willing to work for it, to discipline ourselves toward that end, to dig, to search.

The problem is that most of us, if we’re honest, we don’t really want it as bad as we might say we do, or as this passage indicates we should. We aren’t really willing to put in the effort. Of course, we’ll say that we want it. We’d sound even more foolish if we said we didn’t. But in truth, when we say we want wisdom, most of us mean it something like we want wisdom the same way we want a birthday present. “I’m excited for it. Give it to me.”

Wisdom equals the fear of the Lord. The way that we gain wisdom is through the fear of the Lord. Josh Oedy

But when we’re told it actually requires some effort, some discipline, we I find that we maybe don’t actually want it that much. Now we’ll just say, “Tell me more about this present. Is it worth the effort?” If we’re honest, most of us aren’t necessarily pursuing wisdom so much as we are just trying to do enough to not be foolish. There’s a difference.

It’s usually less important for us to be seen as wise than it is for us to just not to be seen as fools. That speaks even more to our pride, more to our arrogance. No one likes that feeling of being in a conversation, not knowing what everyone else is talking about, so we maybe guard what we say, try and make a joke, just nod our heads.

We tend to treat biblical wisdom the same way, not so much pursuing it. “Only if the occasion requires am I going to put some effort into this.” Not so much pursuing it, but just wanting to make sure we’re not foolish. So, “I need to know enough so that I can kind of sound like I know what I’m doing here in this Christian life,” or “I’m embarrassed that, you know, something was brought up. My kid asked a question that I don’t know the answer to, don’t know how to respond to it. So I’m going to look into it enough that I’m no longer a fool about this particular thing.”

But we’re called to acquire wisdom and not merely to rid ourselves of foolishness. Do you really desire wisdom? Is this something you actually long for? Do you believe what the Bible says about it? Do you really believe what the Bible says about it, or do you not?

I’m going to move on in the assumption that we do, but make sure you go back to this question throughout the week as you prepare to study the rest of this chapter. Maybe work through Proverbs 8 and 9 again. Look at other passages on wisdom. Really challenge yourself, “Do I really believe the Bible on this? It’s pretty clear how valuable wisdom is. And is that evident in the effort I’m putting into it in my life?”

So we are to actively go after wisdom, but where is it found? Well, we know the answer to that. James 1:5 tells us if we pray, we pray to God. If we lack wisdom, we pray, we ask God. Proverbs 2:6 says, “For Yahweh gives wisdom,” Yahweh gives wisdom, “for from his mouth come knowledge and discernment.”

Turn to another passage in Job, more of the wisdom literature. Job 28, starting in verse 12, where Job asks this same question. Job 28, starting in verse 12: “But where can wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Man does not know its worth, and it is not found in the land of the living. The deep says, ‘It is not in me,’ and the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’

“Pure gold cannot be given in place of it, nor can silver be weighed as its price. It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, in the precious onyx or sapphire. Gold or glass cannot meet its worth, nor can it be exchanged for articles of fine gold. Coral and crystal are not to be mentioned; and the acquisition of wisdom is above that of pearls. The topaz of Ethiopia cannot meet its worth, nor can it be valued in pure gold.

“Where then does wisdom come from? And where is the place of understanding? Thus it is hidden from the eyes of all the living and concealed from the birds of the sky. Abaddon and Death say, ‘With our ears we have heard a report of it.’”

So you see a lot of the similarities in Proverbs 8. We see that nothing is valuable enough to purchase wisdom. “God understands,” verse 23, “God understands its way, and he knows its place. For he looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens. When he set weight to the wind and meted out the waters by measure, when he set a limit for the rain and a course for the thunderbolt, then he saw it and recounted it; he established it and also searched it out. So he said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to turn away from evil is understanding.’”

The fear of the Lord is wisdom for us, beloved, and the corollary, “to turn away from evil is understanding.” Both things go together. Wisdom equals the fear of the Lord. The way that we gain wisdom is through the fear of the Lord. This is a common refrain of Scripture. This is something that would have been present in the minds of the original readers of James as they heard our passage read.

It’s all over Scripture. Psalm 111:10: “The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom.” Proverbs 1:7: “The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge. Ignorant fools despise wisdom and discipline.” Proverbs 9:10: “The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

One who fears the Lord will be wise. The fear of the Lord means that he is the one whom you regard above all else. It’s not necessarily a physical fear that keeps you always walking around scared that he might smite you at any time, but it’s not actually as disconnected from that idea as a lot of people tend to make it. They quickly dismiss it. “That’s not what God means by fear of the Lord. Don’t be scared he’s going to kill you.”

The fear of the Lord is actually directly connected to the fact that he could, that he can, that this is the God who holds all things under his sovereign control, understanding that he is ultimate over all. He is eternal and all powerful, and anything and everything that is of any true meaning, any true importance, is from him, is of him. He is the sovereign Creator and King over the entirety of his creation, and he has spoken, and he has given us instruction.

The right response to these truths should be an appropriate fear of the Lord and the beginning of wisdom. This fear of the Lord will of course lead to walking in wisdom because it has been said, and I’m not actually sure who originally said this, but “If you fear the Lord, you will fear nothing else.” If you fear the Lord, you will fear nothing else. And if that is in fact the case, then his pleasure and joyful, grateful obedience to him will direct your life and your day-to-day decisions, and you will be walking in wisdom.

If the fear of the Lord directs your life and your decisions, you will be walking in wisdom. And this is, again, just kind of scratching the surface of the Old Testament revelation of what wisdom is, where it comes from, how to gain it. We could go to a lot more places, but for now, this will suffice.

This concept of fearing the Lord as the beginning of wisdom leads us nicely into our concluding point, here. So you can flip back to James now, as we look again at verse 13. We see that James gives an instruction for the one who might think that they could maybe hear that question, “Who is wise and understanding among you?” And then maybe, “It’s me.” It gives instruction for that person. “Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good conduct his works in the gentleness of wisdom.”

Just as he has argued previously that true faith must be seen, so, too, wisdom is something that must be shown. Any claim that one might have to wisdom should be seen in the life and demeanor of that person. The one who is wise and understanding isn’t the one who has the most knowledge. It’s not the one who can answer the most questions. It’s not the one who gives the best advice, even, or the one who can just silence his opposition.

It’s the one whose life proves it. The word translated as “conduct” here, the word anastrophe, is a word that refers not just to an event in one’s life, but how they are always behaving. That’s what “conduct” is, here. It could also be translated as, and it is in some places, as “way of life.” The idea is that the person with wisdom should be able to show it through a lifestyle that is marked with good works that are done in the gentleness of wisdom, not just pointing to a certain time when they did a good work, or maybe even a few of them, but a life that is lived in them. “Oh, you think I’m not wise? But remember that one time when I did that one wise thing?”

Because wisdom has its source in God and therefore any time we do anything that is in line with his decreed will, we act wisely. That’s not the same as being wise. It’s a lifestyle of wisdom. It’s possible for us to make wise decisions that we feel good about and that are maybe right without falling into the category of one who is wise and understanding.

Don’t get confused on that. A truly wise and understanding person lives this life of good works in the gentleness of wisdom. They don’t have to answer the question: “Yes, I am wise and understanding.” It’s just evident to those who are around them. Since biblical wisdom can only be seen in a lifestyle, this means that we notice this. This is important. This means that we really can’t describe many of the people who have a great influence in our lives as wise. They may be wise, but we don’t really have enough evidence. We don’t have all the facts we need to know for sure that they are.

Again, in this media-saturated society, a lot of the people who have the most influence on our lives are people whose lives you’ve never actually seen. You may see little snippets. They might say a lot of things that sound wise. They’re polished and edited and thrown on YouTube. But we really can’t know with any certainty if we’re really receiving counsel from the wise. Maybe we can measure their words against Scripture and see if the words have wisdom in them.

But this leads us to the point that if we’re going to actually follow wise counsel, the primary influences in our lives will be those whom we know and whose lives we are able to observe. The only way we can be certain that we are receiving the counsel of the wise is if we can see their lives. Proverbs 13:20: “He who walks with the wise will be wise.” Walking with the wise is different than just seeking out wise advice to follow.

Since wisdom has to do with actions and lifestyle, the only way to truly gain wisdom, not just wise advice but to gain wisdom, is to watch and imitate a lifestyle. We gain actual wisdom from others by looking at how they live and imitating them, not merely applying advice every once in a while. Again, we may be able to Google an answer from our favorite online pastor or website, and it may even be helpful, and it may even be based in wisdom. But if we truly desire wisdom and not just occasional good advice, not just help, not just Bible answers, then it will lend to the practice of walking with the wise. A Google answer might help you in a moment, but it won’t help you to live in such a way that those desperate moments when you need advice come around less and less and less. Only wisdom can do that.

Hebrews 13:7: “Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you, and considering the result of their conduct,” same word as our passage, “imitate their faith.” Look at their life. Imitate it. This makes so much sense because the reason we need wisdom is because we know we are going to go through times of difficulty and trials. That’s been clear as we’ve looked at James. Those times are coming.

God has ordained those times for us. If everything in life were easy, we wouldn’t actually need wisdom if you think about it. But true wisdom will be on display the most and is most evident in a believer during times of trial. And it is also the time when wisdom is most needed. So as you watch the life of a God-fearing man or woman as he or she endures a trial or goes through a time of testing, you learn wisdom. “He who walks with the wise, will be wise.”

So wisdom is shown in a lifestyle of good works; and these works, if they come from true wisdom, we’re told, will be gentle. True wisdom is described as gentle. It bears the marks of meekness. Again, this would run counter to the beliefs of those in the surrounding Greco-Roman culture and many in our day who believe that meekness is a sign of weakness.

Probably true for us a little bit, where it can be easily thought that someone who’s truly wise, that leads to power. Wisdom leads to owning someone else in an argument, or maybe not the goal, but certainly a byproduct of wisdom is making someone else look like they’re less than you, almost like this confident arrogance as you dismiss the foolish arguments around you. If the opposite of wisdom is foolishness, then the understanding is that the one who is putting the fool in his place, he’s the one who’s wise.

But according to this verse, gentleness is an essential characteristic of wisdom. In fact, there is no wisdom apart from gentleness. Where there is no meekness, there is no wisdom. Wisdom is seen not in responding to that which is harsh with that which is devastating, but responding to that which is harsh with that which is soft and kind.

One commentator pointed out that “one who is truly wise will have a constant disposition in their relationship with others of being giving and forgiving.” That’s just the constant, that’s the air you breathe. That’s how you walk. Giving to those around them, quickly forgiving those who offend them, this is the true mark of wisdom.

This is different than being timid or shy, which is how we often think of meekness. It takes real strength to live like this because it requires a great amount of discipline, a great amount of self-control to not respond and live the way you are naturally inclined to live, which is not gentle, just self-seeking.

Gentleness is a constant mark of the Christian life throughout the Bible. Galatians 6:1: “Brothers, even if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness.” Ephesians 4:1-2: “Therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, exalt you to walk worthy of the calling which you have been called with all humility and gentleness.”

Colossians 3:12: “So as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” Titus 3:1-2: “Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to slander no one, to be peaceable, considerate, demonstrating all gentleness to all men.”

Finally, in 1 Peter 3:14-15 we read, “But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not fear their fear, and do not be troubled, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you.” Make a defense, “yet with gentleness and fear.”

In Matthew, we shouldn’t be surprised by this, in Matthew 11:29, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is wisdom incarnate, described himself as “gentle and humble in heart.” So in light of these things, it makes total sense that true wisdom is marked by gentleness. Someone who is not described as gentle cannot also be described as wise.

We should not be surprised about any of this since it is the fear of Lord that is the beginning of wisdom. One who fears the Lord is one who knows his place, one who understands that the justice of a holy, sovereign God should have him spending eternity under the terrible wrath of God, and having been spared this through Christ Jesus, and knowing that, carrying that around with you all the time, it should be impossible to not be someone who is marked by gentleness.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. True wisdom is something that is lived out, that is seen, that is shown. It’s demonstrated in a lifestyle marked by good works and the gentleness of wisdom. And that’ll lead us over the next two weeks into the body of the passage, which will show us just what type of living is connected to what type of wisdom.

But as we prepare for those verses, be asking yourselves this week, “Do I truly desire wisdom?” Look at some of these verses again. Is that really your heart’s desire, enough so that you’re willing to sacrifice for it, that you’re willing to put in effort for it? Let’s think about those things this week, beloved.

Father, we thank you so much for your Word, for what it shows us: the manifold wisdom of God put into words for us to read. Lord, I pray that this church would be one that pursues wisdom, that each of us would, each of us individually, we would have a desire to pursue wisdom and that corporately, it would be seen that that is our desire, that we might spur one another on towards this wonderful pursuit.

I pray that you would now help us as we prepare to come to the Lord’s Table, that we would think well about Christ, the wisdom and power of God, that we would think well about that: Christ, the wisdom and power of God on display on the cross, and the unbelievable wisdom of God that we see in the Gospel, the mercy of God, the justice of God perfectly on display for our good and your glory, that that would be on our mind as we head into communion, now. We pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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Hebrews 12:1-3

Last week we started a two-part message out of Hebrews chapter 12, which I entitled Let us run to Jesus. Let us run to Jesus. And if you would turn in your Bibles back there to Hebrews chapter 12. And by way of introduction this morning, I just want to maybe take a snapshot from the book The Pilgrim’s Progress. Many of you may be familiar with that, some of you may be less familiar, but The Pilgrim’s Progress is about a Pilgrim named Christian who leaves the city of destruction and he begins his pilgrimage on the way to the Celestial City. It is a metaphor or an allegory of the Christian life, the race that we have to run on the way to eternal blessedness in heaven.

But in The Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian, the main character, after fleeing the city of destruction, he comes to the foot of the cross where he casts down his burden of guilt, and sin, and shame, before the cross; metaphor for his salvation. He sees the glory of the cross and what Christ has done, and he casts his burden down, recognizing his sin before the Lord. He moves on from there, and along the way he meets friends and foes on the road to the Celestial City.

And at one point in the story, Christian is with his friend Faithful, whom he has found along the way, and they come to the town of Vanity. And there in the town of Vanity is the Perpetual Fair, or the Perpetual Carnival you might think of, called Vanity Fair. This town must be passed through in order to get to the Celestial City by all pilgrims, and they come to the town of Vanity, which was placed there and the fair was placed there by enemies of the pilgrims in order to distract them, dissuade them from continuing their journey to the Celestial City.

At this fair, in this city, are all kinds of desirable goods. All kinds of desirable merchandise are sold, such as houses, lands, titles, jobs, positions, honors, lusts, achievements, entertainments, distractions, and all sorts of delights, everything you could imagine. And within this city, the residents of the city, they entice the pilgrims with promise of husbands, promise of harlots, wives, children, servants, silver, gold, precious stones, whatever else one Pilgrim might dream of attaining. And to put the icing on the cake, there’s the promise that all of this comes with a relatively low cost.

And if you decide to stay for a while in the city of Vanity, there are rows of houses. You can pick which one you want to buy. Rows of houses for each kind of person. If you want to live on the block with a bunch of introverts, you live on that block. If you want to live on the block with everybody else who’s like you, you just pick where you want to live, where you are comfortable, where everyone agrees with you in every way.

But the purpose of Vanity Fair was to distract the pilgrims with the promises of the world, to draw them away with seduction of comfort and ease so they’re deterred from continuing on in their journey to the Celestial City. And John Bunyan writes this of the pilgrims going through the city, tempted by these things. He says, “If the pilgrims were called upon to buy their merchandise, they,” that is, the pilgrims, “would put their fingers in their ears and cry, ‘Turn away my eyes from beholding vanity.’ And then they would look upwards signifying that their desires and concerns were in heaven. They would turn their eyes away from all the worldly things, back up to heaven.”

Here in Hebrews chapter 12, if you’re not there, turn there now. Hebrews chapter 12, the author is teaching us to do something very similar as to what the pilgrims would do in Vanity Fair. The author of Hebrews is teaching us, teaching us fellow pilgrims, how to navigate Vanity Fair, which we have, as Americans, we have to navigate every day. The author of Hebrews instructs us how to navigate this Vanity Fair and remain faithful, or really, how to navigate any life circumstances and remain faithful to run the race that is set before us.

So with that, let’s read Hebrews chapter 12 verses 1 to 3. “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, laying aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. “For consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself, so that you will not grow weary, fainting in heart.”

The author of Hebrews, here, he exhorts us to run, and he gives us several points on how to do that, with a final command to consider him; consider Jesus. So we have two points from this text to encourage us to live this life in obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ: walking, running this race, and doing it in a manner worthy of the calling with which he has called us. And I know, you like me, we want to run this race well. We want to finish well.

And so we are exhorted by the author of Hebrews with two commands: Let us run and let us consider. Those are our two points for this morning. We began point one, last time: Let us run. That is his main point in verses 1 and 2. Let us run and then all the other phrases and participles tell us how to go about running this race of life well; the things that we need to do, in order to run well.

So we had four sub-points: Let us run by reminding ourselves, by unburdening ourselves, by exercising ourselves, and by focusing ourselves. We covered the first two last time, but let’s just review them briefly. Many people here today who weren’t here last week, but let us run by reminding ourselves, on burdening ourselves, exercising ourselves, and focusing ourselves. That first sub-point, let us run well by reminding ourselves, came from the first part of verse 1 in chapter 12. “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us.”

Last week we read the entirety of Chapter 11, because with this phrase, he’s pointing back to the entirety of that chapter, which lists a whole bunch of Old Testament saints who ran the race faithfully, who exemplified Christian character, but more than that, revealed that God continues to be faithful throughout history to his saints who run. He reminds us by this that we stand shoulder to shoulder with all of these faithful men of old who bore witness to the truth.

We stand shoulder to shoulder with them as we bear witness to the truth. And we ought to be encouraged, because we stand in the company of such men. And if you have ever gone running, you know that going with someone, even a seasoned runner, to spur you on, it is a huge encouragement. When you try to run and you run alone, you’re, there’s the constant temptation to stop, to give up. But when you run with someone, they only encourage you to keep going.

If you run with someone else, neither of you wants to be the first one to quit, right? So you keep going. Same thing here, just examples to us of fellow runners in this life of faithfulness to encourage us to continue to run. And as we run, as we regularly look to them as examples for encouragement, we can really rest and trust in God who was faithful to them. He is faithful now, and he will continue to be faithful to his people to the end. So we run well by reminding ourselves of all of those who have gone before us.

But second sub-point B: We run well by unburdening ourselves. The author of Hebrews tells us, “Laying aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, let us run.” So we run well by unburdening ourselves. As we, as Americans, as we navigate Vanity Fair, where there’s all kinds of pleasures of the world to distract us from the race that we are running, we will inevitably buy some of the merchandise, so to speak. And the author of Hebrews reminds us that we are running a race that we need to cast off anything that we have picked up that weighs us down, that keeps us from running at our full potential. More than that, we are to throw off any sin that easily entangles.

All sin, entangles us and keeps us from running this race faithfully. But more than anything, the thing that will stop us in our tracks as runners is this specific sin of doubt and unbelief. We must believe as pilgrims on this road, running this race, that the Celestial City is far better than Vanity Fair. And if we doubt the existence of the Celestial City, we’re going to be enticed to build a home in Vanity Fair and stay a while.

We will, if we doubt; stop running. We’ll set up shop in Vanity Fair, if we believe the lie that there is no Celestial City. But there’s really no reward at the end of the race. More than anything, that’s going to stop us in our tracks. We are to cast off every weight that weighs us down in this race. We are to put off the thought that there is no reward. We are to trust what the Lord says, “that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him,” who run to him. We are to unburden ourselves by these weights and doubts. We are to remind ourselves of God’s faithfulness.

Now, thirdly, picking up where we left off last time, we are to run well by exercising ourselves. This comes from that little phrase after, let us run; Let us run with endurance. Let us run with endurance, “with,” is not the typical translation of this Greek preposition. This Greek preposition is dia, which is usually translated as, through, but it indicates here a marker of the circumstances whereby something is accomplished. That is to say, the running of the race is going to be accomplished by endurance.

Some older translations use the word, patience, but patience often evokes the idea of passivity or non-resistance. That’s not the idea with this word here. This is the idea of persevering, to holding up under a burden, a severe strain. It’s an active thing, actively enduring, actively straining, actively struggling. Throughout the book of Hebrews is the themes of endurance and falling away, play a central role. We talked about that last week.

These ideas are repeated throughout the book, and this same word, in noun form, is actually used two more times in our text there in verse 2, “Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross,” and verse 3 as well, “He who has endured such hostility by sinners.” It’s a often repeated theme and word throughout Hebrews. And last week we read a portion of Hebrews chapter 10, because that began this final exhortation section of the book. But I want to return there for a moment just to make this point on endurance.

So flip back just a page or two to chapter 10. Last week we read verses 19 to 31, which was really the warning section that ended with, “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” But here I want to read the following section regarding his focus and exhortation to endure, which is leading up to the text that we have. It’s, it’s, important for the context. So let’s just begin in chapter 10, verse 32, we’ll read through 39.

But the author of Hebrews says, “But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and afflictions, and partly by becoming shares with those who are so treated. For you also showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted with joy the seizure of your possessions, knowing that you have for yourselves a better and lasting possession.

We run well by keeping our focus on Jesus, who kept his focus on his prize, which was us. Bret Hastings

“Therefore, do not throw away that confidence of yours which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.” It’s that same idea of running with endurance to receive the prize. “For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay. But my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in Him. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.”

So let me just summarize this by saying, and you can flip back to chapter 12. The author of Hebrews is exhorting the reader to run by exercising him or herself or you might say, he tells us to run by exercising our faith. We run well by continuing to run in exercising our faith, by continuing to run in faith. That’s how we endure. We run by not stopping. And if we think about it, how do we prepare to run a marathon? Does one to prepare, does one prepare to run a marathon just by resting and eating or is it by exercising oneself? A spiritual life is the same. We run by exercising our faith every day, by continuing to run every day.

We run by exercising our faith every day. Just as he wrote to the people here, they had endured much hardship in the past. Great persecution, seized, their property seized. He exhorts them to keep on running. Beloved, even when we want to stop, lay down in the flowery bed of ease on the side of the path, we must push ourselves to continue to run. As I mentioned earlier, if you have ever gone running, you know there’s a constant temptation to stop, to slow down, to stop altogether. For some of us, like me, that happens about 10 seconds after I start running. Maybe for some of us before we ever even start.

But I think as we run this Christian life, we are too prone to give ourselves excuses for not persisting in faithfulness. We persist in spiritual faithfulness for a while, whether that’s in devotions or prayer, service, stewardship and then we often think we deserve a reprieve. I’m not talking about physical rest. Our bodies need physical rest and reprieve; talking about spiritual faithfulness, spiritual disciplines. And I think many tend to reward themselves with wares from Vanity Fair. And they justify their reprieve pointing to a season of faithfulness.

I’ve run faithfully for the last 10 miles. I can take a break for a while. For example, one might think that because they’ve been faithful in prayer or reading or even going to church for a season, that, that they need a break. I deserve a reprieve from these things. My beloved, we will not run well if we constantly reward ourselves with rest and reprieve from faithfulness. We’ll run well, if we keep running well, if we keep exercising our faith every day.

So beloved, the author of Hebrews here writes to us, and by extension us, as he writes to his fellow believers back then. But he writes to us to let us know that we will run well by persisting in running. Let us run with endurance, actively struggling and bearing up under the temptation too slow or to stop. So we run well by reminding ourselves of those faithful saints who came before, of God’s faithfulness to them, his faithfulness to us, that we run shoulder to shoulder with them.

We’ll run well by unburdening ourselves. We’ll run well by continually, daily, regularly exercising ourselves. And finally, sub-point D, we will run well by focusing ourselves. Look at Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2. So he exhorts his reader, “Let us run fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Beloved, we will run well by fixing our eyes on Jesus. Fixing our eyes on Jesus is the main modifier here of this verb, to run, the command to run, the exhortation to run. But then the rest of this verse here modifies this participial phrase, “Fixing our eyes on Jesus.” But let’s start with the phrase itself, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.” The word order here in the Greek is actually, I think it involves a bit of literary genius on the part of the author.

Let me explain what I mean by that. The original text reads “Fixing our eyes on the Jesus,” but fixing our eyes on, the Jesus, but he separates the, “the,” there and, Jesus, and it’s tied together. We don’t, we don’t have the things in English to make this make sense in English because they have case, number, gender, to tie things together. But it’s fixing your eyes on Jesus, on the Jesus, and in the Greek, he separates the article, the, and, Jesus, and he puts, Jesus, at the very end of the sentence and in between there he inserts, “the author and perfecter of the faith” Jesus.

So if you’re writing in your notes, it might be best to write it this way, “fixing our eyes on the,” and then put a long EM Dash in there, “the author and perfecter of faith,” and then another long EM Dash, “Jesus.” And the reason that I think this is a bit of literary genius is the author has put with the article there. He’s put Jesus up front and at the end, splitting those things up. He puts Jesus at the end and inserts, in between there, this long sentence of, “the author and perfecter of the faith.” Separates, it puts, Jesus, way at the end, as if we’re running this long race of faith and Jesus is at the very end and we’re to keep our eyes fixed on him.

And the verb, fixing our eyes, it’s an intensified form of the verb, to see. It means here to direct one’s attention without distraction, to look with undivided attention by looking away from everything else and looking to Jesus. It’s also a durative present participle, meaning we are to ever look away to Jesus. We are constantly looking to him, focusing our eyes on him.

But this participle here, it gives us the supreme motivation for running. We run with endurance; we shed every weight; we lay aside every entangling sin for the certainty of attaining that goal, Jesus. This is our motivation for running. We lay aside every weight, we put off every sin, and we keep our eyes on Jesus as the ultimate prize. As we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, we will be reminded that he is the author and perfector of our faith. We will be reminded that he has marked out our course from before time began. He’s marked out our race.

And particularly as we think about this today, this one who marked out our course, everyone’s course, he is the Good Shepherd, who is faithful to lead his sheep home to himself. That this Jesus, who we keep our eyes fixed on, he is the sustainer of life, who’ll uphold you to the end of your race. We are reminded that when we keep our eyes on him, we have the most glorious prize awaiting us.

Many commentators at this point argue that the main point here of the author is to put Jesus forward as a perfect example for us. They argue that Chapter 11 was for the same purpose, to give us many examples of faith and here Jesus is the ultimate example, the perfect example of faith that we should follow. And I do agree with that. But I agree, also, with one other commentator who points out that we must not reduce this reference to Jesus as a mere example to follow.

This is not a, strictly a case of Jesus lived perfectly and bore up under his trial. He ran his life faithfully. So you can follow his example, too. That kind of thing can actually be terribly discouraging at some point in life. Sometimes in life it can feel a bit like someone coming to you and saying, hey, look, Superman can do this. You can do it too. You can follow his example, too.

This is not just, Jesus endured, so follow his example. It is that, but the author of Hebrews here, tells us how Jesus endured, that we might follow him in his footsteps. And I think that’s where the, the, focus was first, how Jesus endured; it was for the joy set before him.

Look at that in verse 2, “Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross.” The author of Hebrews has over and over exhorted his audience, his readers to endure. Now he tells us here how Jesus endured such a horrendous treatment of the cross. It was for the joy set before him. Jesus endured the horrors of the cross for the joy set before him.

It is our example, but it is more than that. What was the joy Jesus focused on in enduring the cross? Many people, many commentators point to the fact that he was trying to glorify God in all of this. Yes, that is true. Many people point to the fact that Jesus wanted to return to glory with the Father, to return to the joy he had with him in eternity, as it’s mentioned in John.

But I would argue, Jesus had all those things from eternity past, the thing that he had yet to accomplish was the redemption of his people. And it might sound a bit sappy to say that while Jesus hung on the cross, he had you on his mind. But it is true. The joy that was set before Jesus, the chief joy that he had, yes, was to glorify God, but he died to save you and me. That was the joy that was set before him, that he did not have from eternity past.

Immediately in his humanity on earth, that was a joy that was set before him, to accomplish our redemption. Beloved, saving you and me, this is the prize that the son won by taking God’s wrath. He won a people for himself. He received men as gifts to which the Father gifted back to him as his prize. He won a redeemed people for himself, for all eternity, to the glory of the father. But with Jesus here, his humanity, pointing us to Jesus the man, not Christ, his title, not his divinity, but his humanity. It’s intensely personal.

You are to keep your eyes fixed on Jesus because that’s how Jesus endured, keeping his eyes fixed on you, his prize. So in that sense, Jesus is our perfect example. We run well by keeping our focus on Jesus, who kept his focus on his prize, which was us. And if you look back at Hebrews Chapter 11, that’s also what marked some of the faithful saints of old.

Last week we noted the importance of 11 verse 6. Chapter 11, verse 6, where it says, “For he who draws near to God must believe that He is and He is a rewarder of those who seek him.” That is to say, if you’re going to run to Jesus, you have to believe that he exists and that he will reward those who run to him. This is what characterized all the men on the pages or on the lines that follow that text.

But look particularly at Chapter 11, verse 24 to 26. Moses is an example of this. It says in verse 24, “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God then to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, regarding the reproaches of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward.” How did Moses endure? He kept his eyes focused on the reward. He looked away from everything else to the reward.

And in kind of summary fashion, the author of Hebrews indicates that this is true of all the Old Testament saints. Look at verse 32. Read this section from 32 to 39, “And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I recount Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, as well as David and Samuel and the prophets who through faith conquered kingdoms, performed righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong from weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

“Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection; and others experienced mockings and floggings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with a sword. They went about in sheepskin, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, mistreated (of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in desolate places and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised.”

None of these Old Testament saints received what was promised, namely, the promise of a Messiah, of a king who would rule in righteousness, ultimately to save them from their sin. But they all endured by keeping their eyes focused on that promise that they had yet received. We have the benefit and the clarity of the revelation of Jesus Christ, but we stand shoulder to shoulder with these Old Testament saints, when we run to Jesus, keeping our eyes fixed on him. That’s how we will endure. That’s how we will run well.

So these men are examples of this, and Jesus is the perfect example of this. But I don’t think this is the primary emphasis of the author putting Jesus before us to keep our eyes fixed on him. The author of Hebrews puts Jesus before us. We’re to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, not because he is our perfect example, not only because he’s our perfect example, but because he is our reward.

We keep our eyes fixed on Jesus because at the end of our race, when our faith has been perfected and we are glorified, we get to spend eternity with him in eternal blessedness, eternal happiness, eternal joy, as we commune with our savior. We can’t even really imagine the depth of peace and pleasure that we will have in perfect fellowship with Him.

But Paul does say that marriage points to this mystery. And I think in part for this reason, in Ephesians 5:32, there have been many people, even seminary professors, who have just, this is to help explain the pleasures that we’ll have in heaven. But there have been many people who have tried to argue that there will be marital physical intimacy in heaven that a husband and wife enjoy on this earth because some people just can’t imagine life without such physical intimacy. Our entire country is, is, fixated on this.

But Paul says that the marital bond and the blessings and the pleasures of marriage, God gave them to point us to the mystery of Christ and the church. So just like Jesus is God’s son, he is so without any physical connotations, because God is spirit. But Jesus being God’s son points to the intimacy of the relationship that they have, like a father and a son. So too we are likened to the bride of Christ, who will one day be united to him perfectly in heaven in the marriage supper of the Lamb. But again, this is without any connotations of a physical relationship.

But it does point to the fact that the pleasures we will enjoy in perfect fellowship with Christ, they will far surpass any pleasures that we enjoy in our marital relationship now, in every respect. So if you enjoy your marriage and you can’t really imagine the life without your spouse, well, there is a greater, a fuller reality in heaven in perfect communion with Christ. And whatever you do enjoy in your marriage now, pales in comparison to what you will enjoy in eternity with Christ.

Marriage is a blessing with many pleasures, but they are nothing, beloved, nothing in comparison to what we will enjoy in heaven. And just as many young couples who are looking toward marriage, we have a couple of those young couples here looking toward marriage. And in anticipation of that, they grow in anticipation as the day draws near, longing for it to come, keeping their eyes fixed on it, trying to make sure everything is ready for it and prepared.

So too, beloved, we are to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, our goal, our prize, awaiting his return and we ought not to settle for the lesser pleasures of this life. So for the joy of receiving Christ as our reward, let us run, beloved, enduring whatever we must to win Christ, for there is no greater prize than Christ himself. So Jesus is the perfect example for how we are to endure, but he is also our prize and our perfect prize. We endure by keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, just as he kept his eyes fixed on his prize.

But the author of Hebrews goes on also to tell us something else of Jesus’s endurance that is instructive for us. Verse 2, it says that he was despising the shame. Despising can do, and I think this is often how I thought about it, referred to looking down on something with contempt. But here it actually means, to consider something not important enough to be an object of concern when evaluated against something else. That is to say, when Jesus looked at the pain and the shame of the cross, he evaluated the shame of the cross in light of his reward, and he considered the shame of the cross nothing.

Let us run, despising the pain and the shame of following Christ, considering Jesus infinitely more valuable, disdaining our present trials in light of eternity. Bret Hastings

Jesus, when he considered the reward of redeeming his people from slavery to sin, he scoffed at the shame of the cross, laughing, so to speak, as if it was nothing in comparison to what he would gain. This is like if someone came to you and they said, I’ve got this mansion. You can have this mansion of mine, but you have to pay a dollar for it. Is that a hard decision? We would despise that dollar very quickly, cast that dollar aside to this person in comparison for what we would gain for it.

And again, this is right in line with what the Old Testament saints did. Again, Moses in verse 26, “he regarded the reproaches of Christ as greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.” Or the summary statement in verse 35, “Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection.” The Old Testament saints were willing to be tortured for a greater reward. They despised their torture, considering it as nothing in comparison to the reward of resurrection and eternal life. So they endured.

This is precisely how Paul encouraged several churches to think, to despise mistreatment and trials for the reward that we have in heaven. But just as an example of this; turn, turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and we’re going to read just a, a, section out of the end of 2 Corinthians 4. We already read Romans 8, where Paul encouraged them by saying, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” He wrote to the Church of Rome with that. Paul despised his suffering and taught churches to do the same.

But 2 Corinthians chapter 4, let’s pick it up in verse 13, Paul says, “But having the same spirit of faith, according to what was written, ‘I believed therefore I spoke,’ we also believe, therefore we also speak, knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of things to abound to the glory of God.

“Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For our momentary, light affliction is working out for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked.

“For indeed while we are in this tent we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a pledge. Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body,” we are present, “we are absent from the Lord– for we walk by faith, not by sight– we are of good courage and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be present at home with the Lord.

“Therefore we also have our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” Paul’s afflictions, we know, were anything but light: Multiple shipwrecks, floggings, beatings, and the like. Yet like Christ, Paul looked at those with disdain, and he considered them light in comparison with the eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. And how did he do that? By looking at the things that are unseen, the things that are eternal, namely perfect fellowship, perfect peace, and blessing with Jesus Christ.

Let us run well, beloved, by fixing our eyes on Jesus, and we will endure if we compare him rightly, this prize that we have to win at the end of the race. If we compare him with our current trials or the pleasures of this world. Let us keep our eyes fixed on him. We will endure, if we keep our eyes fixed on him. Let us run to Jesus as our reward. And whatever we have to go through in this life, whatever temptations we flee, they will be nothing compared to our prize in Jesus Christ.

Finally, in verse 2, the author notes, that this Jesus sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. This is just to give us certainty of our future reward for the one who authored and perfected our faith, though we still wait for the perfection. If he authored our faith, if he was the pioneer in resurrection, well then, our reward is certain. Just as he most certainly is enjoying his reward now at the right hand of the throne in heaven, so will we. Beloved God is. He exists, and he rewards those who run to him, of this you can be certain.

That brings us to the end of point one: Let us run. We’ll run well by reminding ourselves of the faithful men and women who have gone before us, the faithful God who carried them along. Let us run well by unburdening ourselves of every weight and sin that trips us up and drags us down. Let us run well by exercising our faith every day, bearing up under the strain and the stress of running. And we run well by focusing ourselves on Jesus, our prize, who endured and continued enduring his race, looking to the joy of his reward, despising the shame, considering his reward far superior to the shame of the cross.

And he most certainly received his reward. So we shall too beloved. And that brings us to point two: Let us consider, if you go back to Hebrews chapter 12 verse 3, says, “For consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself so that you will not grow weary fainting in heart for,” that little word, for, is a coordinating conjunction in Greek, that further explains. It indicates what’s coming is further explaining what came before.

The previous point of the author was to exhort us to run, but with a heavy emphasis on focusing on Jesus, keeping our eyes on Jesus. And I think the author here, he makes this entirely separate point, just in case we missed the emphasis of the last section. He doesn’t want us to miss that we are to look to Jesus. He tells us here, what he tells us here, further explains how we might keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. The author here commands the listener, consider him. Consider him: this word, consider, it’s the only place that’s used in Scripture, in this particular intensified form, and it means, to reason with careful deliberation.

This is a thoughtful, effective consideration. He commands us: Consider Jesus. If you are maybe wondering, how do I fix my eyes on Jesus? That’s the metaphor. How do I fix my eyes on Jesus? Well, you engage in thoughtful consideration of him. This means that we are ever putting before our own eyes, Jesus; whether that’s in the reading and studying of him in our prayers, but the reading and studying of him, first and foremost in the Gospels.

That’s why the Gospels write, the authors wrote them, that we might see who Jesus is; keep our eyes fixed on him. So we’re to look to him, we’re to conform our life to him as we see him there on the pages of Scripture. But beyond that, we can read many other books that exegete further and elaborate on the truths of the Scriptures and Jesus’ person and work. And one of the books that has aided me in this is that big white book we have in the, the bookstore called Biblical Doctrine.

I know many of you have this book, but if you have it, you should read the section on Soteriology, and Christology, on the Salvation in Christ. It’s really, not a difficult read. It’s very devotional actually, but it will put before you, the person and work of Jesus Christ, in a way that will evoke your worship. We ought always to be putting the Lord Jesus before us, keeping our eyes fixed on him, and I would commend that just as one resource to you on how to do that.

Don’t be intimidated by the size. Just read, the, those sections out of that. But I seriously encourage you to do that. I read through that and it’s just absolutely devotional and evoking of worship. If you haven’t been at Grace, or even if you have been at Grace, since Travis got here, go back and listen through the sermons on Luke or listen to the Pillar of Truth podcast where we replay those.

Travis is, is, superb at drawing out of the text who Jesus is, drawing out his characteristics, how we need to imitate his character as our Lord. But we don’t want to miss the point of the author here. Let us consider Jesus thoughtfully, contemplate him, his person, his work, him who endured such hostility by sinners. Maybe today and this point in time in particular, as we are considering the events that happened yesterday, and maybe we’re constantly looking at, it, news feeds to see any updates or more details. That’s really how we ought to be considering our Lord far more important.

But let us, beloved, think deeply upon Jesus with careful deliberation to what he endured for us, what he did to secure our salvation. We can’t pay anything for our salvation, but it did cost Jesus his life. We now owe him ours in return, out of love for the joy that we have, will have in eternity. For everything else compared to knowing Christ, Paul says, is rubbish. Philippians 3:8, “I count all things to be lost because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ.”

Beloved, let us fix our eyes on him. Consider him that we might despise everything else in this world as rubbish. So the author says, consider him. And then he tells us the purpose of this at the end of verse 3, “so that you will not grow weary, fainting in heart.” Maybe some of you in running your race, we all go through seasons where we feel like fainting. Maybe you’re there now. You feel weary and you feel like fainting and giving up. You feel as if the road that the Lord has marked before you today cannot be travailed. You feel as if you cannot go on. Maybe you’re fearful about the road ahead, anxious even.

Beloved, take your eyes off of your own despair, your eyes off of the road ahead, and fix your eyes on Jesus, “the author and perfecter of your faith,” remembering that is he has given us the Spirit as a down payment. The same father who carried Jesus through all of his struggles and trials, through the greatest trial of the cross, it is the same father who carries you, sustains you. Turn your eyes to him.

Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, study him, meditate upon him, endure long in your prayers to him. Keeping your eyes fixed on him, you will have the strength of heart to go on, and if and when you are weary, we can be encouraged by other men. But ultimately that’s not where we’re going to find our strength. Looking to other men, looking to mere examples, looking at the road ahead, focusing on the weights that we need to cast aside, the sin that can really only discourage us more. Focusing on those things will only give us reason for fainting even more.

But beloved, if we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, look to him as your reward. Be refreshed every day knowing that Jesus Christ is pleased with you. Every step of faithfulness, every step you take in this race of life and faithfulness, he’s pleased by. Remember, that when you feel like fainting, he is pleased with every step, and eventually, step by step, keeping your eyes fixed on the prize, he will bring you home, and you will receive that crown of eternal life and blessedness with him.

So let us run, beloved, reminding ourselves, and burdening ourselves, exercising ourselves, focusing ourselves. Let us run, despising the pain and the shame of following Christ, considering Jesus infinitely more valuable, disdaining our present trials in light of eternity. Let us consider them as Paul did, light momentary afflictions in comparison to the eternal weight of glory and blessedness that we will experience with Christ for eternity. Beloved, let us run.

Join me in a word of prayer. Father, we are as mere men without strength. We cannot run of our own strength, though we try. We end up fainting and falling, and then in the discouragement of stumbling, we only rise, looking to you, looking again to your forgiveness, looking again to our perfect blessedness, the reward that we have waiting for us. Lord, may we this day run with strength supplied by your Spirit. May we run with endurance, keeping our eyes fixed on you.

I pray in particular for those going through trials right now, Lord, that you give them extra grace, a double dose of grace today, and power and strength to continue on. That you would help them set everything else aside in their minds and keep their eyes fixed on you. Help them to consider the reality of their present circumstances, in light of eternity. Though they are significant trials here in this life, when we compare them to eternity, they are nothing; though they are still significant on this earth.

Lord, we pray that you would help uphold them, endure them for those not going through trials. Lord, we pray that we would not give ourselves to the temptation of pleasures in this life, that we would keep our eyes fixed on you, the prize, and walk every day faithfully until we reach that celestial city, until we reach the end of our race to enter into your loving embrace for all eternity. Lord, we pray by the power of your Spirit that you help us do this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

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Hebrews 12:1-3

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Ephesians 6:18-20

Our topic for today is prayer, and it’s not just about prayer, but about the essential role of prayer and spiritual warfare. I’m following up on last week’s sermon on the full armor of God. As I mentioned at the end of our time last week, I wanted to do a focused time on prayer this morning because if we make no progress in our praying, we will make no progress in our fighting, either. Prayer is what brings divine power onto the battlefield.

So we will begin today where we ended last time. I’m going to start by reading all that we covered last week, Ephesians 6:10-20. So if you have your Bibles, turn to Ephesians, chapter 6. Find your way to verse 10, and we’ll set the context for today’s topic, which is about combat prayer, combat praying. Ephesians 6:10-20. Paul says, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the might of his strength. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.

“Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. In addition to all, having taken up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one, also receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying at all times with all prayer and petition in the Spirit, and to this end, being on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, as well as on my behalf, that words may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the Gospel—for which I am an ambassador in chains—so that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.”

This passage is referred to as the passage on the “Full Armor of God.” It’s appropriately titled that way because we see that term show up a couple of times in the passage. It’s also called the Believer’s Armor. I like that title because it reminds us that this armor belongs to believers and to believers only. It’s believers who are covered in the full armor of God. This is how God covers his people. This is how God covers Christians with his own armor, which is the armor of virtues, virtues of truth and righteousness and reconciliation, peace, faith. The sword of the Spirit is the word of God itself. All these things are the armor for the believer and for the believer only.

And I just say that by way of reminder, so that we’re, we know who we’re talking about and we know who Paul is writing to. He’s writing to believers in the Ephesian church. These are people who have acknowledged before a holy and righteous God their sinfulness, their lack of any qualification to come before God at all because of their sins. They are those who see that there is an eternal gap between themselves and a holy and righteous God, and that they are under his condemnation, just condemnation, because they’ve sinned against him. They know that they are not qualified. They know that they do not deserve any favor from God whatsoever. They know that they don’t deserve to be a part of his church, don’t deserve to be numbered among his people, don’t deserve anything from God because of everything that God has already done for them, giving them life, breath, strength, goodness, family, joys, pleasures. All these things they have taken from God. They’ve not honored God as God or given thanks, and because of that, they are guilty and rightly condemned before a holy, perfect, righteous God.

And so they are left before him, helpless, without any hope in and of themselves, without any hope on this earth except that God has sent his one and only Son, Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, very God of very God, as we just confessed this morning in the Nicene Creed, sent his Son Jesus Christ to be the Savior of all who repent and believe, all who acknowledge their sin before a holy and righteous God, all who bow the knee before Jesus Christ. God has seen fit to grant those salvation. He opens their eyes to the truth of their standing before him, opens their eyes to their true condition, that they are sinners in need of a, of a righteous Savior in Christ, and they turn and put their faith in Christ. And God is pleased to draw them near, to reconcile them through this Gospel of peace that Paul writes about in this passage.

And when God saves a sinner, and when God reconciles a sinner to himself, it’s not part way; it’s all the way. It’s a full embrace. It’s a full invitation to the entire storeroom of heaven, to all the treasures of heaven, to the armory of heaven, to pick and choose, pull all the things that God has for us to be used for our benefit, for our holiness, for our sanctification, for our growth to maturity. There is nothing that explains a church like ours or any individual Christian, true Christian, there is nothing to explain that person, their miraculous salvation and transformation by God through his Spirit and through his Word, nothing explains that except God himself. And so Paul writes to people who have counted themselves not righteous in and of themselves, but righteous in Christ. Paul writes to them and tells them about the panoply of God, the full armor of God that is available to each and every Christian. And we must clothe ourselves in that full armor every single day, every single day.

If we take note of Paul’s command language in this passage we just read, the imperatives in the text, we see that he begins with two exhortations. “Be strengthened in the Lord,” verse 10; and then “put on the full armor of God” in verse 11. The purpose of being strengthened, of putting on the full armor, as we see in verse 11, verse 13, is to resist in the evil day and to stand firm. So as we said last week, as we noted, this means resist temptation, do not give in to sin, do not fall into sin, but continue moving forward in righteous obedience. That’s the command.

And this makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? For battlefield imagery, for the Christian life, for any endeavor, it makes perfect sense because sin is what undermines everything. Take the most gifted, talented, equipped, trained; take the most accomplished and fruitful life, insert just one little scandal into the mix, and everything comes crumbling down, doesn’t it?

We’ve seen manifold evidence of this in our time. We know that if a man or a woman fails to attend to his heart or her heart, fails to attend to her thoughts or her tongue, or his habits, fails to do that by constantly weeding and cultivating the garden of the heart, constantly feeding the fruit of the Spirit with the Word of God as Moses warned Israel before entering in to possess the blessings of the Promised Land. He told them, “Be sure your sins will find you out.” Nothing is hidden for long in God’s economy.

So God has loaded us up, here, as Christian soldiers, giving us resources that we need to resist temptation and to stand firm. He opens up the armory, as it were, shows us his own armor and says, Go ahead, put it on. You’ll find it’s a perfect fit. And when we do put on his armor, we are covered with divine virtue, which is divine power, which provides comprehensive protection for any attack from the enemy.

There are two exhortations in that armor section, verses 14 and following. There’s one in verse 14 and one in verse 17. We’re to “stand firm,” verse 14, by putting on several pieces of armor, and the main command, there, to stand, and then three participles follow it: “having girded,” “having put on,” “having shod.” And that’s telling us how we’re to stand. And then in verse 17, we are to take, in my translation, here, it’s receive, but it’s translated, take. We’re to take the helmet, take the sword. And it’s, then there’s another participle, there; it’s by praying that we enter into the battle. So the main command is take. And then the participles of verse 18, there are two of them, praying and being alert. That is how we go into the battle. That is how we do battle. That’s how we engage the enemy, praying and being alert, or you could say praying and being watchful.

Those are not so much weapons that we carry as they are the ways that we use the weapons, being prayerful, being watchful. We’re constant, instant, and strategic in our prayerfulness and in our watchfulness. That’s how we fight the battle. And those happen to be, those three words, outline points for this morning. The First, we’ll start with that first word, which is constant. If you’d like to write this down in your notes, number one: Combat prayer is constant. Combat prayer is constant.

We get the idea of constant prayer, as you can see in verse 18, when it says “praying at all times.” That means constant prayer, “praying at all times, with all prayer and petition in the Spirit.” Four times in verse 18, Paul uses a word for prayer. Two times it’s the word proseuche, which is a comprehensive word for prayer of all kinds. And two times he uses the word deesis, which is the more specific word, which is entreaty or supplication. So praying at all times with all kinds of prayers; so thanksgiving, praise, petition, you might even say imprecation, you know, imprecatory prayers, as well, but then specifically praying entreaties, supplications. We’re to be praying at all times, constantly giving thanks, making requests, entreating God, and with specific requests at all times in the Spirit for all the saints. And then verses 19-24, specific saints as well, those specific saints who are on special assignment.

I mentioned last time that Paul, when he came to this topic of prayer, he left the metaphor behind to speak about prayer because it sort of defies metaphor. Prayer is as essential to the Christian’s spiritual warfare as communications to the soldier’s physical warfare. We talked about prayer being like battlefield communications, like a field radio or a satcom radio. It’s the way we keep in contact with command, or keep in contact with headquarters, or keep in contact with our air support or a medevac or a quick reaction force.

But unlike battlefield communications, which is a two-way communication, prayer is obviously one-way communication. In prayer we speak to God, but God does not speak to us in prayer. Prayer is not listening to the voice of God or listening for that still, small voice or some impression, throwing it out there, laying out a fleece, and seeing what God does to, to show himself to you. Prayer’s not like that. It’s not anything like that. We hear from God when we read the Word. If you want to know what God says or what God thinks about things, read your Bible. Prayer is us speaking to God, responding to God because he has already spoken to us in Scripture, so we respond in prayer.

Prayer is the means that God has ordained through which he chooses to act. Oftentimes, you can see in a church when many people have the same concerns on their heart, and they come together and start talking about it, and then they start taking these, these matters before the God in prayer and pray and show concern before God. It’s often the case, God is putting that on the hearts of his people. He’s moving them to prayer because he’s about to act, and he’s about to answer the very things that they are praying for. He involves us in his work as we engage in this ministry of prayer.

God has given prayers as the means by which he involves us in his work, but it’s also the means by which he sanctifies us. It’s us exercising faith. It’s us exercising love for one another. We do one another the greatest kindness when we pray for each other. It is not like, I’d do more for you, but I can’t, so I guess all I can do, really, is pray. That’s not the attitude. It’s, I can pray for you, and that is really all you need as divine resources to help you. And if there are any other needs I can meet which are kind of a lower level, I’ll help with that, too. But I’m going to pray. I’m going to pray because God is at work on your behalf.

Prayer is the vehicle for calling out for God’s help. It’s the way we express praise and gratitude for God’s faithfulness whenever he gives us his help. The two brief points I want to make about the constant nature of combat prayer, in specific, praying as a matter of spiritual warfare, first of all, we need to make sure that we’re always ready for prayer. And secondly, so that we can be always praying. That makes sense, right? We need to make sure we’re always ready for prayer so that we can always be praying.

So first, be always ready for prayer. Just as the comm guy in a platoon has to make sure, very certain, that his radios are always working before he goes into combat, that they’re fully tested, they’re ready to use in battle, he’s used that equipment before, he’s put up antennas before, he knows what he’s doing, he knows how to get a signal, he knows how to get comms. So vital. In fact, if a radio man can’t get comms as he goes into the field, you know what they do? Abort the mission. It’s that vital. That’s what they’re supposed to do, anyway, no matter what the movies tell you. But the guy, the comm guy has got to make sure that that radio is always ready.

In the same way, the Christian has to make sure his life is always ready for the purpose of prayer. And to figure out how we’re to do that, we simply need to look back at the metaphor that Paul has already provided for us, that we’ve already worked through. Think about it. To be prepared to pray well, we need to have our armor on. We need to pray with our armor on. It’s inseparable. We are to pray while wearing the full armor of God. And we can make this obvious by being explicit and lifting the virtues out of their metaphors. And going back to verse 14, we obey the command to stand firm in the manner that Paul described, our minds girded with truth, all the loose ends tied together with what is true, not what we want, not what feels good, not what everybody’s saying, not with the flow of the crowd, not the impulses of my own heart. No, it’s truth that ties everything in.

And so if we are equipping ourselves that way, binding ourselves that way, we are going to pray according to the truth, not our own feelings, not our selfish desires, not our ambitions, not our anger, not our resentments, not our bitternesses. If we don’t bind ourselves with truth, combat prayer is combat ineffective. Our vitality, these parts, the chest and gut parts of our life must be guarded by righteousness like a breastplate.

We live in an obedient, pleasing way before God. That’s what we aspire to. That’s what we’re always pursuing, especially in the secret, hidden places of our lives. Psalm 66:18, the psalmist says, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.” You ever think about that? If your prayers are being heard by God, it’s based on whether or not you regard and hold iniquity in your heart. If you don’t deal with sin the way you should deal with sin, if you’re giving in to unrighteousness in some way, in some habitual way, and you’re giving excuse for it, God’s not listening to that prayer coming from that kind of a heart. No commitment to righteousness, no effective prayer, either. Your radio’s not working.

And then we must be standing firmly on the Gospel, with our sins forgiven, covered in the righteousness of Christ, at peace with God if there is to be effective prayer. If you’re somehow taking credit for your own salvation, if you think that you are by your righteousness maintaining your right standing with God, and you’re not covered completely in the righteousness of Christ at all times, and that is the basis of your standing before God, that’s going to compromise your prayer life, too.

Faith, in particular verse 16, absolutely critical to being ready to engage in effective praying, because to pray you must have faith. “For he who comes to God must believe that he is,” Hebrews 11:6 says, “and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him,” which is why the writer says, “Without faith, it is impossible to please him.” Or, you might add, Without faith, it is impossible to pray. I’d say there’s no other practice in the Christian life that more draws upon your faith than prayer.

We’re speaking to invisible God, not visible man. We’re not hearing an audible voice in response. God guides us, directs us by his Spirit, but all that in the moment can be invisible and imperceptible to us. Prayer is a regular exercise in faith. It’s believing God. It’s trusting in the promises of his Word. It’s believing that the warnings of his Word are also true and that he may discipline the disobedient believer.

We take all those things seriously. If you go through all the other virtues in verses 14-15, the prayer of faith must be bound with truth and fidelity to Scripture, the integrity of the heart. The prayer of faith aims at a life of righteousness because we stand in the shoes of the Gospel of peace, objective peace of reconciliation with God, subjective peace of a clear conscience before God, the tranquility of mind that comes from peace with God. The prayer of faith forces regular confession of sin, doesn’t it, keeping short accounts with God, so our sin does not prevent our close communion and intimate fellowship with our God.

Wearing the helmet of salvation gives us confidence and clear headedness in the midst of battle so that we can pray. We want to think in the middle of spiritual warfare and think on the battlefield. That’s when you need your mind clearest the most, so that you can think well to execute the strategy, execute the plan, and in need of resources, going back to headquarters and asking for the help that you need. That’s why we wear that helmet: to keep our head, our noggin, our grape not squashed in warfare.

We’re only going to be good looking at “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God,” we’re only going to be skillful in the use of the Scripture when we’re prayerful. The Holy Spirit is the illuminator of the Word of God. We need his help all the time as interpreters of Scripture. There’s no advancing in the knowledge of God, in the knowledge of the truth, in the wise use of the Word of God apart from prayerfulness.

Now if the radio is working, if we have readied ourselves by putting on the full armor of God and wearing this, walking around in it, then everything’s ready for prayerfulness. And if the radio is working and it’s not going to do much good in the hour of need if you don’t pick up the handset when it’s time and hit the PTT button, that’s a fancy military acronym that means push to talk, PTT, if you don’t pick up the handset with a working radio and start calling in air strikes or call for a medevac or call for a QRF, whatever it is you need, if you’ve got a working radio ready and you don’t pick up the handset and push to talk, nothing’s going to happen. You must pray. You must pick up the radio and speak.

So second, we need to be always praying, as Paul says, “at all times and in the Spirit.” At all times, in good times and bad times. Oftentimes, you know that we do pray more in bad times than good, right? I mean, think how that would be for you as a friend to another if the only time he comes to you is when he needs to dig into your pocket and get your money because he needs some more money, he’s having trouble; the only time he comes and talks to you is when he’s having difficulty in his marriage or his relationship. Whatever it is, he’s blown it in some way, and the only time you are talked to by this person who calls you a friend is when things are bad.

Thankfully, God is unlike us. He doesn’t get hurt feelings; He doesn’t end the friendship. He doesn’t say, you know what, this friendship seems a little bit one-way? But just be mindful of that, that you come to God in both good times and bad, in foul weather and fair weather, too. Honor him as God for the good things. Give him thanks. Demonstrate how much he means to you by talking to him throughout everything in your life, whether good or bad. Pray to him in favorable seasons and unfavorable seasons. Pray to him in hardship and in ease. Pray to him in comfort and discomfort. Pray to him when you feel healthy as much as when you feel sick. Pray according to the fruit of the Spirit. Pray in all the virtues that are to clothe the Christian soldier for battle as Paul has unfolded here.

I’m going give you just a few examples of this, and let’s kind of wake you up a little bit by having you turn some pages, okay? Let’s, we’ll, we’ll stay close. I won’t have you turn too many pages. We’ll just go back a few pages in Ephesians, and I just want you to, I just want us to survey together some of Paul’s prayer reports in his epistles, starting with Ephesians 1:15. Ephesians 1:15. And I just want you to see that Paul himself is not only ready for prayer with a working radio, but he’s always praying, and he likes to talk about how he’s always praying. Why? Because he wants to show how spiritual he is as an Apostle for Jesus Christ? No, it’s just a flow of his life. Out of that flow of his life, what’s natural for him to talk about, it’s instructive to us, isn’t it? We learn a lot by reading Paul’s prayer reports in his epistles.

Look at this one in Ephesians 1:15 to the first half of verse 19. He says, “For this reason, I, too, having heard,” of the faith in the lo, “of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints,” what’s that? Evidence, evidence of conversion. “Having heard of these things,” your faith, your love, “I do not cease giving thanks for you while making mention of you in my prayers.” Like, My thankfulness, that’s just part of my larger prayer life for you Ephesians. And here’s what I’m praying: “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the full knowledge of him, so that you, the eyes of your heart having been enlightened. Again, I know you’re Christians. I know that you’ve been regenerated. I know you have eyes to see, ears to hear. I want you to know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches, of hi, of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of the might of his strength.”

Like a general in Christ’s army, Paul is praying for his fellow soldiers, and he goes to the commander-in-chief, and he thanks God for the troops. And then he makes requests of the commander. He makes requests from headquarters that these troops have spiritual wisdom, that their hearts are enlightened, that their, their, hope comes from a place of deep conviction, that they have assurance in God’s riches, which is in infinite supply, and they have confidence in the surpassing greatness of God’s power that is available to every soldier on the field. Can you see in the context of spiritual warfare why that would be so encouraging, that somebody, a leader, is praying for you like that?

Combat prayer is not only constant and instant; it’s also strategic.

Travis AllenTurn a page or two to the right. Look at Ephesians 3:14, same kind of, same kind of prayer report, here. Ephesians 3:14-19, “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, and he would give you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being firmly rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and the length, and the height and the depth, and to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God, strengthened in divine power, rooted and grounded,” full assurance of the love of our Commander-in-Chief. It doesn’t do me much good to think my President loves me. But to know my God, who is omniscient, who sees everything, who is in every place because he is omnipresent, because he is the eternal, infinite God, to know that that commander-in-chief loves me personally? You can’t knock me down. I’m untouchable. I’m invincible in my commander’s army.

Paul prays, verse 14, “For this reason.” What reason is that? So that we don’t lose heart, whether these Ephesians losing heart at Paul’s afflictions or for any other reason. So we don’t lose heart when, when, someone, in our, among our number stumbles and falls. So we don’t lose heart when, when, when there’s, when there’s dissension in the ranks. So we don’t lose heart when we’re attacked by the world. So we don’t lose heart. His prayers are so that we don’t lose heart. They’re to equip us in our battles in this spiritual warfare. They’re for our doctoral understanding. They’re for our theological stability, because armed with the truth of Scripture and the doctrines of Scripture and the theology that runs from cover-to-cover of Scripture, when we’re armed with those things, we are steadfast, firm, immovable, untouchable.

Turn to the next letter, the letter to the Ephesians, or the Philippians, Letter to the Philippians, and look at Philippians just right there in the beginning, Philippians 1:3, “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all because of your fellowship in the Gospel from the first day until now.” Paul gives thanks in joy for the fellowship of the troops. Anybody who’s served in the military, those who had good experiences in the military, but anybody who’s had a, served in the military among some kind of a unit where you really got to know those guys and really got to serve and work hard with somebody and suffer with somebody, you know that there’s a depth and a bond, there, that is irreplaceable. You, you can’t find it really anywhere else in life. There’s just something special about being in the ranks of others, others who are soldiers, others, others who are fighting a fight.

So he gives thanks in joy for the fellowship of the troops. That’s how he’s thinking about these Philippians. They fill his heart with joy. They’re joined together with him in common cause. They’re partnering together in the common mission of the Gospel itself. Is there any greater cause to fight for? Is there any greater work to invest in? Is there any greater endeavor in life? There is not. And this informs his prayer life in verse 9, “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more, in full knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere, without fault, until the day of Christ, having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”

The driving energy of every Christian soldier is love, and the more we have love for one another, like a soldier loving his fellow soldier to his right or to his left, he’ll die for that guy to his right or to his left. Will he die for the principles of the war? Will he die for the principles of democracy? Is he, is his head filled with the Constitutional documents as he marches to face an enemy in Afghanistan? No, it is not. What is his mind filled with? This guy to my right, and this guy to my left that I’ve suffered with, that I love, that I care for. I’ll die for that guy.

Driving energy of every Christian soldier is love: love for our commander, love for the army that we’re in, love for the church that we belong to, love for our brothers and sisters. And it’s not a love that is feeling-oriented only. There are feelings there, but it’s a love that’s not ignorant, but informed. It’s a love that’s not gullible, but as Paul says there, discerning. It’s a thoughtful love. It’s a love that’s driven by the mind, from which flow all the affections of the heart, and the will that drives all action and all communication.

Next letter, turn over to the letter to the Colossians. Colossians, chapter 1. Again, Paul’s prayer report, Colossians 1:3-8, gratitude for the troops; verses 9-12, prayer for the troops. Look at the gratitude. “We give thanks to God,” chapter 1, Colossians, verse 3, “We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints.” This is really cool because Paul to date had not been to Colossae. He really had heard of this. He’s got second-hand knowledge about the Colossian church and how they’re doing. He’s heard about it from Epaphras.

But he prays like he’s met them, like he knows them, because he knows what caliber of people they are because God has made them that way. They’re the same, they share the same traits in common with every other soldier that’s enlisted into Christ’s army because it’s the same Spirit that, bry, binds us all together. It’s the same Lord Jesus Christ who is our commander-in-chief. He’s the head of the church. So he feels like he knows them, and really he does. “So ever since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, the love which you have for all the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the Word of truth, the Gospel which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and multiplying, just as it has been doing in you since the day you heard and,” unner, “understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow slave, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf, who also informed us of your love in the Spirit.”

Paul can identify these Colossians, again whom he had not met yet, as soldiers in the same army. He sees the evidence of regeneration, of salvation in them, evidence of virtues of faith, love, and hope. He sees the abundant fruitfulness coming out of their lives and out of their church that’s affected the region with the Gospel witness. And so, verse 12, for this, or shu, I should say verse 9, “For this reason also,” as a comrade-in-arms, “for this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the full knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and multiplying in the full knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who’s qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.”

Again, the prayer of this Apostle, this general in the army. He’s a foundation stone in the church of Jesus Christ, and as such, he’s a model for all spiritual leadership in the church, not only for pastors and elders, but all Christians as well, as they pray for one another. He prays for knowledge, prays for wisdom in the application of knowledge. He plays, he prays for understanding because soldiers in this army are to be thoughtful soldiers, not only acquiring knowledge, but also by using knowledge skillfully, wisely, for the obedience of the commander-in-chief. That means your expectations about coming to church is that you’re coming here for training.

I like to call that section, Ephesians 4:1-16, the church, the local church, it’s the training center for the Christian life. That’s what we come here for, is to be trained, not to be entertained. I hope you’re entertained a little, but not much. I want your mind to be informed. I want you to be trained in godliness. The goal in gaining and using knowledge is to please our commander-in-chief, to be a useful soldier in his army, to be strong, steadfast, patient.

Some soldiers I’ve met before, some people I’ve served with, they’re like petulant little children. They’re complaining about everything: complaining about the food, complaining about the orders, complaining about waiting. And believe me, in the military you do a lot of waiting. It’s called hurry up and wait. Hurry up and get there so we can wait more and then wait for hours. Usually in the blazing sun is how they usually like to have you wait on the tarmac, sun beating down on you while you’re fully equipped in hundreds of pounds of gear, and you melt and bake; sit there waiting for a plane to show up or something like that. And then you get on the plane, and it’s more waiting. You sit there and cook inside of a tube for a while. So believe me, if you’re one of those soldiers that jump out of an airplane, you’re very motivated by the time you open the door to get out of that plane.

See, there’s a, there’s a method in the madness. They’re training you to have the right attitude. But so many people, so many soldiers, so many sailors, I was in the Navy, so I know sailors, complaining all the time, whining, groaning, moaning. You think, I mean, if, if the enemy hears this stuff, he’s, it’s, it’s just going to encourage him. Stop it! Joyful soldiers, that’s what we’re to be. Not reluctant to mix it up at all. No! We’re ready to get into this fight. We’re ready to go get some. Now, we could keep going through the epistles. That’s enough for now. I’ll leave you to make more discoveries on your own. We need to keep moving. But you should do that. Go through Paul’s prayer reports and you’re going to see this constant prayer. Combat prayer is constant, and that’s what prepares us for the next point: to be instant in prayer.

Second point, if you write this down, combat prayer is instant. Combat prayer is instant, and you can go back to Ephesians chapter 6. We pick this up in verse 18, where Paul uses that second participle, “being on the alert,” or in other translations it’s “staying alert” or “keeping alert” or “being watchful.” Again, just to remind you, the main command in verse 17 is take. Take, followed by the two participles, “praying” and “being alert” in verse 18. So, “take the helmet of salvation,” “take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,” but then do that by “praying and being alert,” verse 18. That’s how we head to the battlefield. That’s how we engage the enemy.

If we’re in constant prayer, praying at all times in the Spirit, we are prepared to be instant in prayer as well. You say, What’s, instant, mean? Well, I’m using the word, instant, as an adjective, here. According to an older usage, instant means to be immediate, to be present, to be at hand, because to be effective in battle when the attack comes, you must respond immediately with the call for help. It doesn’t do any good for the attack to come, to see that there’s an overwhelming number of enemy troops coming at you, and to be fumbling around. Where’s that radio? Where’s that handset? What? No, you need to have it at hand. You need to be ready. You need to be dialed in. You need to be in comm, in, in, comms at all times so that you can be instant when the need arises.

Same thing in prayer. When the attack comes, a prayer must be immediately at hand, an ever-present resource as we turn to. It’s not one of those prayers that when trouble comes, you say, Okay, I’ve heard this before. God, I know it’s been a long time since we talked. I know it was the last time I got into trouble that we talked, so kind of overlook that, but I really need your help now. Christians are those who are on familiar terms with the One who’s at the other end of the line. Praying at all times, we’re instant in prayer. Prayer, then, is immediately available at a moment’s notice. We turn to it readily, instantly, because we know the true effect of bringing that resource into the battlefield.

So we’re to be “praying at all times with all prayer and petition in the Spirit.” And to this end, that is the context of spiritual warfare, enemy assaults, sneak attacks to get us to fall into temptation, fall into sin, the goal for us is to resist in the evil day and to stand firm. So “to this end, being on the alert,” Paul says, “to this end, with all perseverance and petition,” not just for yourself, “for all the saints.” The word for “being on the alert,” literally, it means to stay awake, it means to be awake, stay awake, be alert while you’re awake. Stay on the lookout. It’s kind of like a guard standing duty at his guard post. He’s to stay awake, but not just stay awake daydreaming. He’s to stay awake being alert, with his eyes peeled for enemy activity. He’s watchful.

This is the mentality that Jesus refers his Apostles to in Matthew 26 verse 41. If you’d like to turn over to Matthew 26, we’ll be right back in Ephesians 6, but, so hold a place there and then go to Matthew 26, and we’ll start at verse 38. But in Matthew 26:41, there’s a word that’s used for, watchful. It’s a different word, same concept, different word. But in Matthew 26, we’ll start in verse 38. Jesus is just hours away from being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Here in the Garden of Gethsemane, he separates from most of the disciples except for his closest men, that inner circle of Peter, James, and John. He pulls them away for the purpose of fighting in prayer with him. They’re in an exclusive company, aren’t they? They’re marked out for special privilege. They’re a four-man unit to go and make comms with headquarters for the purpose of a spiritual battle.

And when Jesus gets to the spot for prayer, he tells his close friends what’s on his mind, verse 38, “My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death.” Guys, this is grave, this is serious. Remain here. Keep watch with me. In other words, Be watchful, men; the enemy is at hand. He’s upon us. Stand guard with me. Jesus is fully awake. He’s completely aware. He’s alert. He’s instant in prayer. All of his senses are pinging. He starts pleading for the Father’s help to go fight the battle that he was about to enter. He’s our example, isn’t he? That’s how we’re instant in prayer, praying as he did, whether it’s in the wilderness resisting the temptations of the devil, or he’s in the garden facing untold depths of anxiety.

What about the disciples? What are they doing while he goes over there and prays? Sleeping. Sleeping. They didn’t get it, did they? They had no idea of the battle that was about to break forth in the spiritual realms. No idea. Do we blame them? Would we do better? Let’s just say it that way. No, we would not do better. They walked for three years with Jesus. They didn’t do better. We wouldn’t do better. But do we blame them? Well, we have to. Why? Because he commanded them, stay awake, keep watch, pray with me. Did they disobey a direct order from their commander-in-chief? They did. They had no idea what was going on around them.

Verse 40, Jesus rebukes them. He comes to the disciples, finds them sleeping, says to Peter, “So you men could not keep watch with me for one hour?” Then he says, leaves that indiscretion, that failure behind, and he says to them, “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit is willing.” I mean, I know you all, all you guys are warriors. All you guys have lion hearts. All you guys are in this with me. I know, I know the Spirit is willing, but as you’ve just demonstrated, the flesh is pretty weak, isn’t it?

The flesh will be your undoing. The flesh is going to compromise you every time. Pay attention to that Puritan pastor- theologian John Owen. He wrote an entire treatise on that one verse, Matthew 26:41, “Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation.” Many have been helped by his treatise called On the Mortification of Sin in the Believer’s Life. I’ll attempt to just summarize the principles, here, and illustrate what it means to be instant in prayer through this discipline of watchfulness in prayer.

Let me run this through Paul’s war metaphor. Imagine it’s you, whoever you are. You’re no longer at your job, at your desk, in your home, and you’re no longer doing any of those things. You’re patrolling through a forested area in bad-guy country because you’re a member of a small unit on a special mission, a squad-sized unit, only eight of you there, totally surrounded by hostile forces, and all of them looking for you, intent to hunt you down and kill you or even better, capture you alive, take you back to somewhere dark, and torture you and then kill you, maybe make a video in the process. You’ve been moving all night; now it’s time to stop before day breaks, before the light comes. You spread out a bit, set a perimeter, get yourselves dug in. Your squad’s all going to take shifts, half of you getting rest and the other half standing watch.

Halfway through your watch, you spot movement through the trees. You look more intently, and you verify you see enemy troops out there. You don’t know their number, but they’re beyond your perimeter, and the danger seems to be lurking out there and moving maybe even closer to you. So what do you do? Multiple choice question for you. What do you do? Do you-choice number A—bum rush the enemy, rushing at the soldier that you saw, screaming like a wild man, firing full auto with your gun, chucking grenades until that guy lies dead on the ground? Is that your option? If you watch Hollywood movies, you would choose that option, and you would be wrong.

But let’s think about that. Let’s, let’s “what-if” this option just a little bit. What if that guy you saw isn’t alone? In hostile territory, that has to be assumed, doesn’t it? You’ve just managed by your rush at the enemy, you just managed to alert all the enemy troops that are hunting for you for miles around because you’ve been firing your weapon on full auto and throwing grenades. You knucklehead. Now everybody knows where you are. What if he or his buddies kill you? Or worse, what if they shoot you, then take you captive? It’s not about you anymore, is it? It’s about your whole squad. Now they’re waking up in this whole chaos. You’re gone. They hear noise, shooting, you yelling like a banshee. They don’t know what’s going on.

Okay, that option didn’t work. Let’s try something else, option B. Do you leave your comrades behind because half of them are getting some much-needed rest? It’s been a long night. They’re tired. You wouldn’t want to wake them. So you sneak outside the wire. You stalk, your prey like a ninja, come up from behind him and silently take him out. That sounds good, too, very Hollywood, a different kind of Hollywood. Let’s “what-if” this second bad option. You’re never as stealthy as you think you are, ever. What if you make noise and compromise your position? More to the point, you’ve left the strength, the protection of your squad behind. You’re isolated outside your own perimeter, and now you’re even more surrounded by the enemies that are out there. This is bad. Two bad options.

I could go on with bad options. I won’t do that. I’ll point you to the one option I’m trying to drive you to, letter C. I’ve whittled down the options. You see the enemy out there. You see movement. You know there’s troops. You know you’re being hunted. What to do? Get on your squad radios, get everybody awake, alert your buddies. Depending on the enemy’s strength and numbers, the best option might be to get your radio man to call for a gun run or an air strike, bring in one of those awesome Apache helicopters or one of those AC130 gunships and just light up the whole forest. Just turn the forest into a desert. Just knock down all the trees.

I know that’s not “green” of me to say that, but we could put those trees to good use in some way, printing paper, whatever. Make sure you obliterate that enemy by using superior firepower, which is only a phone call away. Why take a chance? Listen, if you’ve done something like that, you’ve done your job as a watchman. You have done your duty as a guard. You’ve stayed awake. You’ve been alert. You’ve saved your entire squad. And what’s better, you fought smarter, not harder. You let the big guns do the work. You neutralize the threat without even having to fire a shot.

You see the analogy to prayer, don’t you? And this is John Owen’s point, which is unpacking Jesus’ point: the need for watchfulness to fight against the enemy’s temptations. Jesus doesn’t say, Watch, and when you see temptation, go and dabble with it. He doesn’t say, watch, and when you see temptation, go take a walk or do something active. Maybe those things are good to do. What does he say? He says, “Watch and pray that you don’t enter into temptation.”

That’s your action because the point is to resist in the evil day. It’s to stand firm, not to enter into temptation, which in and of itself is sin. Just to enter into the temptation is sin. And that leads to even more sinning. It leads to falling. It leads to compromise. And once you’re compromised, guess what? Your entire squad’s compromised, your place on the line is compromised, and there’s a hole for the enemy to drive a truck through.

So when you see the enemy, when the conscience fires to warn you about a temptation that’s enticing your soul, whether it’s a particular lust, whether it’s a sense that you have been slighted in some way, whether it’s a perceived offense against you, whether it’s an occasion for bitterness, whether it’s a bit of juicy gossip, just a tidbit, whether it’s the temptation to slight somebody’s character, whatever it is, if you’re standing watch as Jesus told his disciples to stand watch, as Paul exhorts us to do, you’re awake, you’re alert, you’re looking out for just such an attack. It doesn’t take you by surprise. Nothing can take you by surprise because you’re always watching. You’ve been waiting for this.

Now that it’s come, you entertain no illusions of your own ability to fight a temptation in your own strength. But you know Someone who does. So you get on your radio, also known as prayer, call for help, and you rain down the power of divine omnipotence on the head of your tempter, send him lurking into the bushes. You ask God to obliterate that temptation and every thought of that temptation that you know you’re too weak to face. You ask him to fight your battle for you. It’s in prayer that you raise the shield of faith “with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one,” not just a high percentage. All. You’ll watch his fiery darts fall to the ground harmlessly as you praise God for his mighty, almighty power. And then you’re back to your post to keep watching, being prayerful because you love watching the enemy get obliterated.

Paul writes, “…to this end, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.” And then he’s quick to add in verse 19, Oh, and don’t forget to pray for me, too. Beloved, I’ll just say this, make a brief comment, and move on to the next point. Don’t forget to pray for your leaders. Don’t forget to pray for your pastors, your elders. I’ve been under authority as well, and I know how tempting it can be to criticize your leaders, take up offenses against your leaders, gossip about their weaknesses, amplify all their shortcomings and faults.

It’s really easy to criticize leaders, which is why Paul says in a number of places in Scripture, but I like this one in 1 Thessalonians 5:12, he says, “We request of you, brethren.” I love how soft he is with that language. He didn’t say, I implore you, I exhort you, I command you, I demand. He says, “We request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction, that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work.”

There’s no better way to foster an attitude of loving appreciation for your leaders than to pray for them, that God would uphold them by his power, that he would protect them from enemy attacks. The fiery darts of temptation hit your leaders, too, and sometimes the enemy is on full auto with fiery darts at your leaders, firing darts of temptation, distraction, discouragement. Don’t give any aid to Satan. Don’t help his ongoing efforts to take down Christian leaders. Oppose him, loving your leaders through prayer. It was Spurgeon who said, “No man can do me a truer kindness in this world than to pray for me.” I hope that’s your thought, too, and I know for so many of you, that is. So encouraging.

Now, being on the alert is not only about a negative watchfulness; it’s also about a positive watchfulness as well. There’s an advancement aspect to staying alert and being prayerful. So here’s a third point, number three, combat prayer is not only constant and instant; it’s also strategic. Strategic. Believe me, I spent some time thinking about how I can make, strategic, into a word that ends with, ant, so it would just beautifully kind of sync up with the other two points, but I couldn’t do that. So combat prayer is strategic. That’s the way it is.

Now taking everything we’ve surveyed so far, let’s carry all that into verses 19 and 20, being fully protected, verses 14 and following, taking the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit into battle, praying constantly, instant in prayer because we’re watching for enemy attacks, we also watch for opportunity. Be praying and watching, as it says as well, “on my behalf,” Paul says, “that words may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the Gospel for which I’m an ambassador in chains, so that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.”

As I said last week, our participation through prayer is what turns each of us into force multipliers in spiritual warfare. From the least to the greatest, from the youngest to the oldest, from the simplest thinker to the most complex and intelligent, calling on God is how every single saint gets into the fight. Earlier in the letter, in Ephesians 5:15 and following, Paul calls attention, you can turn there if you’d like to, Ephesians 5:15 and following, Paul calls attention to the time and the occasion and the moment. He says, “Therefore, look carefully how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,” and here’s why you want to be wise: You’re “redeeming the time because the days are evil.” Another way to translate, redeeming the time, is to take advantage of every opportunity, “because the days are evil.” On account of this, don’t be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Over in 1 Thessalonians 5:4 and following, Paul gives a similar exhortation, similar wording. You can turn there if you like and read it for yourself. It’s so interesting because this is the other text in the New Testament epistles where Paul uses this armor of God imagery. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 4, “You, brothers, are not in darkness, that that day would overtake you like a thief, for you are all sons of light and sons of the day.” That is to say, You’re awake, you’re alert, you’re watchful. So “You are sons of the light, sons of the day. We are not of night nor of darkness. So then, let us not sleep as others do, but let us be awake and sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night. Those who get drunk get drunk at night. But since we are of the day,” here it is, “let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.”

And we could keep on reading, but let’s stop there to draw attention to the point, that in both, in Ephesians 5 and 1 Thessalonians 5, Christians are to be those who are fully awake, alert people, those who are always paying attention to their surroundings, to their environment, to the social context even, the cultural context, political context. Know the world you live in. Know the struggles and the travails of the people around you. Be aware. Read the room, as they say.

We know we live in a battleground, and when we know that, it sets our expectations about life, that things are bound to be hard because warfare is not easy. We’re going to take some casualties. We’re going to take some shots. Unwise, foolish people are those who live for pleasure, those who are here to entertain themselves and distract themselves to death, those who expect everything around them to conform to them and their needs and their desires, who want to spin the world around their demands.

Wise Christians, they don’t set expectations like that about the world. They know it’s fallen. They know the people around them are fallen. Even the saints in the church are redeemed sinners: capital S, capital I, capital N, capital N, capital E, capital R, capital S. If you’ve ever been sinned against by a Christian, it hurts, but yeah, but it shouldn’t surprise you. Wise Christians are awake, alert, sober-minded, watchful, so we can be effective in praying. Wise Christians know their Bibles. They understand the will of the Lord. They’re actively looking to make the best use of time and redeem every single opportunity.

And Paul doesn’t want us to guess about how we can pray most effectively for him, and by extension for all those who serve the churches of Jesus Christ in leadership. He asks the church to pray that God will give him words, meaning here utterance, speech. Whenever he opens his mouth, he wants the language and the manner of expression to be God-giving, given. And that is what every true pastor wants. It’s what every preacher wants. He wants his mouth to be a conduit of divine truth, and not only in content, but also in intention of the text, in mood, in its tenor, in its love, in its tone.

Most of all, Paul prays that he opens his mouth in boldness, “so that in proclaiming the mystery of the Gospel, I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.” The Gospel, the announcement of the grace of God for sinners, who will reconcile to himself in Christ all who bow the knee to Jesus as Lord over all, that’s a message that’s only fitting to speak about with boldness, freely, with joy, without any equivocation, without any drawing back, but with deep conviction, full-throated Gospel proclamation, and Paul’s praying for that.

You think of anybody on this earth, apart from the Lord Jesus himself, who was bold. I can think of John the Baptist. I can think of Elijah on Mount Carmel, and I can think of the Apostle Paul. They’re in my top three. Why would he be praying this? Paul reminds them, I’m, “I’m an ambassador in chains.” The last thing we expect our ambassadors serving overseas to have to do is to be in chains, to be put into a prison cell. I mean, that would be the height of offense, wouldn’t it? The height of offense is for one of our ambassadors overseas to be diminished in any way, to be insulted, to be treated shabbily, let alone to be hunted down, captured like an animal, and thrown into a cage. But that’s Paul. I am an ambassador for the Lord Jesus Christ. I am an ambassador of the King of all the earth. And what’s up with this? I’m in chains.

And he anticipates standing before the Emperor of the Roman Empire, who at this time in history, by the way, is Emperor Nero. Caesar is Nero, not one of our presidents. Nero, who had no problem taking from the rich and everybody else in society to fund his escapades, his immorality, his sin, his vileness, his capriciousness, his violence. Think about using the vehicles of government to turn that as a weapon against your enemies, your political enemies. The Caesars had no problem with that at all. No qualms, before such a reprehensible, power-hungry leader; capricious, vile, violent, a bold proclamation of a higher Lord than Caesar. That’s what Paul’s about to preach.

We understand the reason for his request, here. Not everyone wants pastors to preach the Gospel boldly, freely, with deep conviction. As we’re all fully aware, the times that Paul predicted in 2 Timothy 4:3, those times are upon us. Those are the times we live in. He said, “The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their desires.” I always find it interesting, he doesn’t necessarily say false teachers, just teachers, “in accordance with their desires.” Could be false teachers, could be professing Christian teachers who are a lot softer on the ears, softer on the demands.

We’ve got a world of that around us. The Internet has provided unprecedented access to ear-tickling teachers, allowing people to “accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires.” And all those teachers out there create unreasonable standards of comparison. When people sit here and listen to their pastor, and then they go online and listen to everybody they like to listen to, they start comparing. You can’t help but do that. It stirs up rebellion in the heart, discontent in the pew.

Listen, the only way for faithful churches to resist the incoming tide of those who 2 Timothy 4:4 says “will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths,” the only way for faithful churches to resist this tide, which is very powerful around us, is to pray. It’s not to preach angrier sermons. It’s not to scold everybody for going on the Internet. I go on the Internet, okay? I go on the Internet. The other pastors go on the Internet. The elders go on the Internet. We love good Internet preaching, teaching, podcasts. We love to listen to that. We are careful about our diet. We’re careful about how much we take in. We’re careful that we don’t listen so much that we stop being readers.

So I don’t want to be going on an angry screed against Internet preaching and stuff like that. I just want to tell you that the way you resist this tide is not by, by becoming legalistic in any way; it is to become more intent on prayer. Pray that God would help us, protect us, protect our leaders, protect our members, protect our unity, protect our harmony, fill us with gratitude, fill us with joy, joy in Christ, joy in our salvation.

Pray that for your leaders. Pray for the pastors that you love, that you know from your past. Pray … because they’re all under attack, especially in these evil times.

Travis AllenWhat are we to pray for in that same passage where Paul’s giving that warning, 2 Timothy, chapter 4? What are we to pray for? That pastors and teachers would fear God and obey Paul’s command, that solemn charge he laid on the conscience of Timothy, 2 Timothy 4:2: “Preach the word. Be ready,” or the word translated in the old English is, be instant, “in season and out of season.” “Preach the word, being instant in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction.” Pray that for your leaders. Pray that for your, for the pastors that you love, that you know from your past. Pray that for faithful pastors that we’re connected with because they’re all under attack, especially in these evil times.

Beloved, I know for a fact there are many in this church, many outside the church who are doing exactly that. They’re praying. They’re praying, praying fervently as good soldiers in spiritual warfare against all the enemy’s designs to stifle the truth, to discourage, distract, divide this church. They’re praying for other churches in the same way as well. We’re all in this together.

You want to know how to apply this sermon? Because you can, and you must, put this into practice for the rest of your life as a Christian who’s engaged in spiritual warfare. You’ve been enlisted into the army. You can’t get out of it. It’s a lifelong enlistment. You don’t want to get out of it. Truth is benefits are awesome.

Here’s how you apply it. All you have to do is take the outline points from this sermon and turn them into points of application. And let me just tell you, by the way, that’s how you apply every sermon that we preach. I don’t make outline points just for you to follow the thought, have little hooks to hang your thoughts on and know where we are and be organized. But it’s also so you can have that little summation of the point beyond it, so you can turn that into an application point. That’s your job. It’s to learn how to apply the sermon that you listen to every Sunday, to apply that in wisdom, apply this in prayer. Let’s do that together.

First, pray constantly. Here’s how you apply it. Pray constantly. Pray habitually. Pray as an ongoing habit of mind and of practice of daily life. I like what William Gurnall said; he wrote this: “What bread and salt are to our table, that’s what prayer is to the Christian in all his undertakings, enjoyments, and temptations. Whatever our meal is, bread and salt are set on the board.” This is a time he’s writing before all of our concern about cabor, carbohydrates and high cholesterol and all the stuff I really don’t care about. I like bread and salt on my table, too.

Keep reading. “Whatever our meal is, bread and salt are set on the board; and whatever our condition is, prayer must not be forgot. As we dip all our morsels into salt and eat them with bread, so we are to eat every grace, season every enjoyment, mingle every duty, and oppose every temptation with prayer.” Be always ready for prayer. Be always praying. Put on the full armor of God every single day and then by praying every day, throughout the day, about everything at all times in the Spirit.

Your closest, most intimate companion, even if you are a married person, your closest companion is the Spirit of God indwelling you, the Lord Jesus Christ who is over you and with you, who said, “I will never leave you or forsake you” and your God, whom he represents and brings to you and you to him, you’re in his presence at all times. Enjoy the fellowship of the triune God that you have. And pray. Pray constantly.

If you need help building a pattern for prayer, just like we did today, just go through the prayers in Scripture. Start with the Lord’s Prayer. That is such a framework for a healthy prayer life. Start there, stay there until you kind of get the sense and pray like that, Matthew 6:19-13, Luke 11:2-4. And then, as just as we did, learn from Paul’s prayer reports and his epistles how to pray. Pray through those things for yourself.

Second application point: Pray instantly. Pray instantly, immediately, at the very first sign of enemy activity, at the very first sign of opportunity. Pray because you’re watchful, because you’re alert and aware. You’re praying for yourself. You’re praying for your brothers and sisters as comrades-in-arms in the same fight. You’re praying for your pastors, elders, shepherds, that we all resist in the evil day and stand firm. And you’re praying for opportunity as well, open doors.

William Gurnall says, “If a Christian is careless in praying, then he is weak in hearing, loose in his walking, and he shall find that he miscarries in all his enterprises, he’s ensnared in all his enjoyments, he’s baffled with every temptation, and discomposed at every affliction that meets him. And the reason of all this is because our strength both to do and to suffer comes from God.” Christian, be instant in prayer. We have to pray, pray constantly, pray instantly, watchful at all times for any sign of, weaknes, weakness, but also every opportunity.

So third, pray strategically. Nothing is more strategic in advancing the cause of God and his kingdom than the proclamation of God’s mighty Word. You want to be strategic; you want to be effective; you want to make a true mark in this world with your life? You cannot do better than unleashing the almighty power of God by praying that his Gospel goes forward freely, with deep conviction, with all boldness, without hindrance, without equivocation, without softening the hard edges. It’s full force. Pray for the pastors of this church, pastors of other faithful churches as well. And by doing so, we will resist in the evil day and stand firm together. Bow with me for a word of prayer.

Our God, it is our desire to do what this passage calls us to do. It’s our call to arms to put on the full armor of God and then to be prayerful soldiers, marching into the battle, taking the field, and expecting that you are always present, always there to help us in every time of need. Whether we’re under attack or whether we’re seeing opportunity, we just pray that you would give us strength, encouragement, joy, gratitude.

It’s just the, the privilege that we have of being numbered in your army, of calling our commander-in-chief, friend and Savior, of calling you, the infinite, immortal, eternal God, our Father, and calling the Holy Spirit our, our truth teacher, our guide, the illuminator of the truth, and our Comforter. We know that the Spirit and the Lord Jesus Christ pray for us at all times, bringing our requests to you before the throne of grace, and we pray that you would involve us as a church in that ministry as well, that we’d be used by you in this army to good effect. Pray that your will would be done in each and every life here in our church as a, as a body.

We pray for other faithful churches around the country as well, men whom we admire, esteem, respect, follow. We pray that you would strengthen them. So many names I don’t want to mention now, but they’re on my mind, Lord. And I know there are, are people in this congregation who regard other teachers as well. And we just pray that you would lift them up, strengthen and protect them. Don’t let them fall into scandal. There’s been so much of that. We ask that you protect all of us. Help us as a mighty army to go forward, taking hill after hill, advancing the cause of the Gospel, that your name, God, would be glorified in the name of Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

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Ephesians 6:10-20

It’ll come to as no surprise to any of you when I say that we are living in some contentious times. Wars, battles, fights and talk of the same, it’s common, isn’t it? It’s constant in the culture. It’s like white noise. It’s become so constant: wars, battles, and fights all the time. We’ve actually got actual wars, they’re in the news and headlines all the time, kinetic and violent, like Israel and Hamas, Russia and Ukraine. Those are just two of more than a hundred wars and armed conflicts that are going on in the world right now. We’re also hearing talk about culture war, cyber war, media war, sounds like 1960s, race war. All this stuff is in the headlines. Battles are being waged against cancer, against disease, and for victims of all kinds, battles. Fights are being fought: the fight for mental health, the fight for psychological well-being, the fight for rights, the right to privacy, the right to free speech, and all kinds of rights are being talked about that we need to fight for.

As individuals, as members of society, as employees in the workplace, as citizens in a nation, we can find ourselves involved in various wars and battles and fights throughout various seasons of our lives and for various reasons. Not all battles, not every battle is ours to fight, but there are some wars and there are some battles and fights that are our duty, our duty not just as citizens, but our duty as Christians. And the Lord will give us wisdom about what we should and should not be involved in.

But there is one war from which no Christian is exempt, and it is the war that is at the root of all warfare in this world and all conflict. This is the war that we are called to fight as Christians every single day. It is the most real war of all that we’re called not only to fight, but to win.

So to see our call to arms as Christians, I’d like you to turn your Bibles to a very familiar portion of Scripture. It’s the letter of Ephesians, in Ephesians chapter 6, verse 10. This is the passage that many young people growing up in church learn from a very young age, on the full armor of God, the full armor of God in Ephesians 6:10-20. The Ephesian letter is one of the four prison epistles. It’s called one of the prison epistles because Paul wrote this letter literally from his prison cell in the imperial city of Rome. Twice he refers to himself as the “prisoner of the Lord” and at the end of our text this morning in Ephesians 6:20, he calls himself “an ambassador in chains.” He’s quite literally in prison.

He’s quite literally thinking about warfare because Paul had, as constant companions, Roman soldiers. Ever since he was in Jerusalem, ever since he was in Caesarea, imprisoned there for a couple years, ever since his voyage to Rome, he’s been in very close proximity to soldiers. He’s even been proclaiming the Gospel to Caesar’s Praetorian Guard. Never one to waste a trial, but always redeeming the time and taking advantage of every opportunity, Paul found in the soldier’s equipment, armor, his weaponry an apt illustration of the Christian life. And no doubt he’s reminded of texts like Isaiah 59, which we read earlier, about God himself as a warrior entering in and winning salvation for his people. And so he sees that what God wears as weaponry and armor, he gives to his people to wear as well. And so he finds in the soldier’s equipment an illustration for the Christian life.

He’s written a full epistle of encouragement and exhortation to the Ephesian church, and that letter to the Ephesian church is going to make the rounds to all the churches of Asia Minor. And Paul realizes, then, an opportunity that he has, here, to prepare the churches for the inevitable attack that is going to come to these Christians when they put into practice everything that he’s taught them in this letter. If they practice what he has written, they’re going to get attacked.

Think about it. Christians, God by his sovereign choice, God by his redeeming grace, God by his election, God by his favor that he’s shown to us, he has made us inveterate enemies of Satan when he elected us by his grace. When he united us with Christ, he made us a foe to all of Christ’s foes. He put us on his side. And we read about all that in chapters 1-3, what God did to save us and bring us into his own family, into his household.

We are devoted to maintaining unity and harmony in the local church and maturing in doctrine and practice, as Ephesians 4:1-16 says, and that the enemy does not like. As Christians, we’re growing in the practice of repentance, as Ephesians 4:17-32 says. We are repenting all the time. We’re identifying thoughts, attitudes, thinking that needs to be abandoned. The enemy doesn’t like that. He likes us to think wicked thoughts. He likes us to be self-centered. He likes us to be proud and not humble. And so when we practice that, the enemy doesn’t like it.

Ephesians 5:1-21, Christians are to walk in holiness and love and wisdom. Christians are to play their positions in marriage and in the family, in Ephesians 5:22 all the way through chapter 6, verse 9. They live out the faith in the home and in the world, and when the enemy sees us doing what is written and prescribed by the Apostle Paul, not only in this letter but in other parts of Scripture, when we follow the Lord Jesus Christ, from the perspective of our ancient enemy, Satan, people like that are the most dangerous people on the planet.

On the other hand, there are Christians, professing Christians, who are lazy, distracted, in love with the world, caught up in worldliness, concerned about themselves and not really others, Christians who prefer to pursue selfish ambition, Christians who go to church, show up, do the stuff, but their hearts are really elsewhere. They are no threat to the enemy whatsoever. He has really no need to waste any resources fighting against them, because they’re no bother to him in any of his operations at all. They’re like the soldier who should be on the front line, aiming his weapon at the enemy, but instead of being there in place, being depended on by his brothers and sisters down the line, he’s off in the woods somewhere, wandering around; he dropped his gun, took off his helmet looking at the trees, distracted by things. Why should Satan worry about that one?

The true Christians, those who love God, those who live in constant gratitude for eternal salvation, those who are devoted to the Apostles’ teaching, those who are eager to love and obey the Lord Jesus Christ, those who are humbled before God, meek before others, the enemy opposes those kinds of Christians at every single turn. He sees those kinds of Christians as threats that need to be neutralized, taken out of the fight. And that is what brings us to this text: Paul’s warning order, his call to arms so that Christians engage in the real war, to fight, to win and stand firm when Satan attacks.

I’ve got three points for you, starting with the first section there, Ephesians 6:10-13. And you might just write down if you’re taking notes: The nature of our warfare, the nature of our warfare. That’s Ephesians 6:10-13. Before we run to the front as soldiers in Christ’s army, it’s crucial that we understand the enemy. It’s essential that we know what’s at stake, how to define winning and losing, what our assets are, what the enemy capability is. This is mental preparation for combat, you might say, and this is going to set us up for success when the enemy attacks, which he most certainly will. If you are following what Paul writes in Ephesians 1-5, you’re going to be a threat, and you’re going to be engaged by the enemy. You’re going to be targeted; you’re going to be on his hit list. And so we need mental preparation for what’s about to come to us, right?

Ephesians 6:10-13, follow along. Paul writes, there, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the might of his strength. Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.”

There are several questions that Paul answers here, like, Who’s our enemy? What is the aim in battle? What’s the goal? What does success look like? And then, What resources do we have to achieve our aim in battle? You can just write down three subpoints, there. Let’s first start with the enemy. We’ll start with the enemy, here. The commander in chief, Paul, identifies him in verse 11 as the devil, and then in verse 12 he introduces the enemy forces. And just some brief observations; obviously, I’ve only got an hour. I can’t get into every detail here, though I’d like to.

But some brief observations on the enemy forces: First, we see it’s not a flesh-and-blood war against flesh-and-blood human armies. It’s not primarily political or social, though the spiritual war does affect the political and the social and the cultural. But the real war is with spiritual enemies and demonic forces that are arrayed against us, and we can just make some observations about them. They’re not flesh and blood. They’re spiritual. They’re invisible enemies. We can see they’re not chaotic. They’re not spinning here and there, but they are highly organized and ranked. They march in step. They have an authority-submission structure.

They’re not few; we also know from other parts of Scripture they’re not few, but they are many, legion, in fact, upon legion. They’re not weak, but they are powerful because they are supernatural. If they’re not flesh and blood, then they are not natural. They are supernatural, and so that means they’re stronger than we are. And they are not benign forces. They’re not innocent. They’re not even neutral. These spirits are malignant, malevolent, evil, defiling forces, and they’re personal.

The terms that are used here—“rulers, powers, world forces, spiritual forces”—they’re not synonyms. They are defining different things in the structure. Paul tells us there’s a rank structure; there’s a hierarchy among these demons, increasing degrees of prominence and authority among the demon hordes. They traverse terrain that is unknown to us, unseen by us. They wander through unseen places between heaven and earth, what some refer to as the sub-celestial, that’s below the heavens, and the supra-terrestrial, that’s above the earth. There’s this space they inhabit, and they move back and forth between it.

The demonic army, highly intelligent, well-organized, supernaturally powerful, able to see what we can’t see; so it’s beyond night vision and heat signature. And this was definitely the advantage of US forces fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan in the recent 20-year war that we had, that we could see when the enemy couldn’t. We could see at night. We can attack them when they can’t see us. They don’t know what’s coming. They don’t know there’s a Predator drone above them that’s about to rain down fire, and so we can catch them unawares. Well, it’s even worse in the spiritual warfare because this enemy has got the capability to see spiritually, to attack from spiritual realms, which means that for us, every attack that comes from them to us is a sneak attack.

The real war is with spiritual enemies and demonic forces that are arrayed against us.

Travis AllenThat’s just a quick overview of the enemy forces. Second, what is the aim in our daily battle with these spiritual forces of evil? What’s the aim? Our aim in spiritual warfare, our goal in the battle, pretty clear from two explicit statements there in verse 11 and verse 13. In verse 11, it’s “that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.” By the language that Paul uses, we’re supposed to face the enemy head-on. We’re to confront the attack. On every level of the hierarchy, we’re to be engaged against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world rulers. When the enemy comes, Paul says, we are going to be struggling against him, verse 12. And the word struggling, there, is the word for wrestling. It’s talking about hand-to-hand combat. It’s a word that could be, in today’s terms, translated as grappling or like Brazilian jujitsu. It’s down on the mat. It’s face-to-face with your enemy. It’s very personal, very intimate, up close and hard.

Another statement of our aim or our goal in spiritual warfare is in verse 13: “that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.” What’s this, evil day, language? Is Paul talking about some end-times battle, fighting demons belching forth from from the black abyss? Is this some type of Left Behind book or This Present Darkness? Remember the Peretti novels? We’re slashing demons? No, that’s not what he’s talking about. Is this a call to bind Satan, cast out demons in the name of Jesus? No, it’s not that either.

What’s the opposite of resisting? Giving in. What is the opposite of standing? Falling, right? Paul is using martial language, military language, a call to combat to illustrate the true gravity of giving in to temptation and of falling into sin. The fiery darts of verse 16: Darts penetrate, and then the fires of temptation go to work, and they burn with enticement until the victim succumbs and sins. That’s what’s going on here.

Satan and all of his demonic hordes and all the hounds of hell, listen, they cannot destroy God’s elect, whom he reconciled to himself by the cross and by the righteousness of Christ. And if you have any questions whatsoever about that, you need to read the great chapter of Paul in Romans 8, especially the latter part of the chapter, Romans 8. If you read that, and you still have questions and doubts about whether or not you’re protected truly from the enemy or can ever be lost and ever fall forever away from God, after reading that chapter, if you still have questions, come and talk to me. Come and talk to one of us here at the church and let us help you through that. But Satan and his demonic forces cannot ultimately destroy God’s elect because they belong to him. They’re united to Christ. They can’t touch Christ. They can’t touch his people, either.

So unable to destroy God’s people, unable to possess those who are already fully possessed by the Holy Spirit, what is Satan able to do to us? How does he engage with us? How does he fight against us? Well, he tries to make God’s people sin. Why? Why is that his strategy? Because he wants to neutralize them. He wants to use their sins to separate them from God in their conscience, not positionally, that can never happen, but relationally, which does happen. Every time we sin, there’s a dark cloud that comes over our mind and our conscience, and we pull away and we retract from our God, who loves us, who calls us, child, who wants us to be near. He wants to use sin that we commit to pollute us and darken our consciences and drive a wedge between us and our Father. That’s his tactic. That’s his strategy.

You may remember in Numbers 22-25 the story of King Balak of the Moabites, who called on Balaam the false prophet to come and curse the Israelites. And when Balaam was unable to curse Israel because God protected them, and overcoming him by the Holy Spirit to speak true prophecies of protection and blessing upon Israel, he was overpowered by the Spirit. So Balaam took a different approach. He counseled Balak the king in a different plan. Hey, I know. In order to get that little reward money you promised me, let’s get Israel to sin. Let’s get Israel to sin. That’ll work because then God will judge Israel for you. You don’t even need to lift a finger. It’s the same strategy for us.

If Satan’s goal, then, is to get us to give in to temptation, to fall into sin, to no longer resist, but to give in, to no longer stand but fall, so that he neutralizes our effectiveness, so he pollutes our conscience, so that he defiles us, so that he distracts us from our mission, so he discourages us from living the Christian life, then what’s our goal? What’s our goal? Do not sin. Do not sin in your thoughts, your attitudes, in your heart, in your will, in your imaginations, in the grumbling and complaining of your heart, in the way you speak or think about other people. Don’t sin.

In the way you interact with people, don’t sin. In the way you live your life and set your priorities of your life, don’t sin. Stay on mission. Make progress in holiness. That’s the goal. Keep trusting God. Keep obeying Jesus Christ. Keep making disciples. In other words, keep on pursuing the faithful obedience that Paul wrote about from Ephesians 1:1-6:9, that whole section. Do that. That is standing firm. Stay on mission.

So how do we do that? This is the third question just in this first section, here. The third question: What hope do we have when we’re on the defense all the time? What, what hope do we have when we face sneak attacks from an invisible enemy? He’s not using night vision, heat signature, he’s not doing any of that. He’s actually seeing us spiritually and moving in ways that we can never even see or detect. How do we deal with sneak attacks from an invisible, superior enemy? What’s our resource?

The truth is, when we understand the resources at hand and at our disposal, when we really get this as Christians, we realize Satan does not stand a chance. His attacks are fruitless. His efforts are worthless, futile. The thesis verse of the section, verse 10, says it all: “Finally,” here’s the secret, “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.” In a war with a non-flesh-and-blood enemy, a spiritual enemy of demonic forces, we would be nuts to think that we have the resources in ourselves, natural human intellect, ingenuity, wisdom, cleverness, strength, political prowess, whatever it is, we’d be nuts to think we have the resources to fight a non-flesh-and-blood enemy ourselves, in our own strength and our own power, because this fight is on a whole different plane. It’s in a spiritual realm, and we would be fools to think that the weapons of our warfare are carnal. They are not carnal.

But if we’re strong in the Lord, as it says here, this one-of-a-kind, unique person of Jesus Christ, the only one who possesses both a divine nature and a human nature in one person, he’s omnipotent God and at the same time perfect man, if we’re strong in the strength of his might, Satan and all the hosts of Hell, they don’t stand a chance, do they? The command that Paul lays down here, it’s kind of unique in the way he puts it, the way he writes it.

The command is not in the active voice: John hit the ball. It’s in the passive voice: The ball was hit by John. It’s a passive voice command, and it’s not a one-time act of obedience. It’s a call to repeated action here. It’s something that we do daily, if needed, hourly. Sometimes in a great fight, moment by moment, literally, he says here, the way he constructs this in the language, he says, Be being continually strengthened in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

So the passive voice, to be strengthened, it reminds us and it highlights the fact that this is not our strength. It’s the Lord’s strength. And the present tense, Keep on being strengthened, highlights the reality that we have a constant need, a daily need, as I said, and sometimes an hour-by-hour and a moment-by-moment need for his strength. Do you sense that need? Do you have the sense of your own need every single day that you need the Lord and his strength? Because if you don’t have that sense, you’re already neutralized. You’re the soldier wandering around, drop the weapon, drop the helmet, drop the shield, everything. You’re wandering around the woods. You do not understand what you’re a part of. Do you sense your daily need? I sure do. I really do.

And what can we do when we sense our need but respond in humble prayer, praying after the pattern of someone like Augustine in his Confessions, who said, “Give what you command and command whatever you will.” “Tell me to charge whatever hill, take whatever mountain, fight whatever enemy. Just give me what I need, whatever you’ve commanded me, equip me, provide for me, help me.” That’s the attitude of a Christian.

Obedience to the command requires fear. There’s a healthy fear of the threat that we have from our enemy, yes; but more importantly, it’s the fear of the Lord to turn away from evil. There’s a greater fear, a deeper fear we have. It’s a reverence for the holiness of God, and that brings obedience to the command. Obedience to this command to be strong and strength of his might also requires humility.

We have to know that our strength in and of ourselves is utterly insufficient to resist any temptation. It’s insufficient to keep ourselves from falling into sin. His strength is what we need so desperately. We need it every day. Obedience to the command requires trust. We have to believe that the Spirit who has issued the command through Paul has the ability and the willingness to give us what we need so we can stand firm, resist temptation, not fall into sin, but actually keep on the march, obeying his will.

To encourage you in these virtues, fear, humility, trust in the Lord, and to motivate you to seek his strength daily, moment-by-moment, hour-by-hour, consider the kindness of our Lord. He is willing and able and joyful to give us what we need every time we ask it. Some people bemoan their station. They look at what God has put in their lives by his good and faithful wise providence, and they think it’s too much for them. I can’t handle this. I can’t handle this. Whenever you feel that way, it’s a good sign because that’s the point you’re supposed to realize: I can’t handle this. That’s a good lesson for you to walk through all the time. Feeling overwhelmed, feeling overcome, it’s not a terrible thing. It’s what you do next.

Do you isolate and complain? Do you lash out, get angry? Do you feel resentful of what God has put into your life and the station that’s yours by his grace and his kindness? Or do you go to him and ask? Do you seek his help? Do you search the Scripture for the help that you will find there? Because God has given us his wisdom on the pages of Scripture. Do you seek more mature Christians who will come to you and actually confront you and tell you, You know what, your attitudes are wrong, here, and you need to repent. I’ve been there. I need to repent, too. Let me show you what I did. Let me encourage you to do that because we have a God who loves to be asked for help.

Consider these words from the Puritan pastor William Gurnall. He writes this, “Which, think you, speaks more love and condescension for a prince to give a pension to a favorite on which he may live independently by his own care,” that is, for a prince who’s got somebody he’s going to care for, and he just dumps upon them everything they’ll need forever. Does that speak great love and condescension? Maybe.

But what about this? Gurnall says, “or for this prince to take the chief care upon himself and come from day to day to this man’s house, and to look into his cupboard, and see what provision he has, and what expense he’s at, and so constantly to provide for this man from time to time?” That is, the prince entering into your home every day, opening up your cupboards, looking in your kitchen, seeing what you need, looking at your bank account, looking at your statements. Gurnall goes on to say, “Possibly some proud spirit that likes to be his own man or loves his means better than his prince would prefer the former, but one that is ambitious to have the heart and love of his prince would be ravished with the latter.”

Which one are you? Do you say, God, give me what I need for the rest of my life and don’t bother me any further? Or do you say, God visit me and my heart and my house every day. Show me my need, and let me ask you for your wealth, for your resources to help me; but come again tomorrow and the next day and the next day, because I love you more than your stuff. Which one are you? This is how our God attends to us in giving us his Son, isn’t it, in granting us his Holy Spirit to show us our need every day, commanding us to come to him. William Gurnall continues, he says, “The great God comes and looks into our cupboard to see how we’re laid in, and he sends in accordingly as he finds us. Your heavenly Father knows you have needed these things, and you shall have them. He knows you need strength to pray and to hear and to suffer for him. And in the very hour it will be given.”

I mentioned the Cortezes and Isabel. When she first found out about this and was waiting for a full diagnosis and then kind of a decision on what the treatments should be, she admitted to me, “I’m scared. This is frightening. I don’t know what I’m going to do.” And yet her Lord visited her in her moment of need and has strengthened this woman to make her not just an example of a Christian, but an example of a very mature Christian who now gives thanks for the trial and gives thanks for the process, that though it’s going to be grueling and painful and fatiguing and take every ounce of life out of her, her Lord is there to give her everything that she needs.

What is the need of the hour, every hour? It’s protection from our enemy, to resist the enemy, to keep from falling into sin so that we keep walking righteously, we keep pleasing the Lord. This leads us to a second point, number two if you’re jotting down notes: the weapons of our warfare. We talked about the nature of our warfare, now the weapons of our warfare. The word that’s translated there, full armor in verse 11 and verse 13, panoplia, a panoply. You’ve heard the word, panoply. It joins together two words: pan, which means, all, and then the word hoplon, the word for the equipment of warfare. In studying history, you may have heard the word, hoplite, before, that’s the the heavily-armed Greek soldier. That’s this word hoplon, hoplite.

The individual pieces of his equipment are listed here in verses 14-17. Now anybody who’s studied history knows that not everything that the Greek or Roman soldier wore into battle was listed here in Ephesians 6. Paul’s not intending to give an itemized list of his equipment. He doesn’t put on greaves or shin guards or, you know, javelin and spear. Those were all essential pieces of equipment in warfare back in those times. But he puts down the pieces of equipment that best illustrate the virtues that we need in the Christian life.

As Paul begins in verse 14, he pictures the soldier dressing for battle in his tent before he heads out to the battlefront. Look at verse 14. It says, “Stand firm, therefore, having gird your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the Gospel of peace.” And we see the point, don’t we? Paul is using the pieces of a soldier’s armor to illustrate the spiritual protection that God provides for those who walk in Christian virtues. It’s living in the sincerity of the truth. It’s living in righteousness. It’s walking in the confidence that the Gospel of peace gives us. When we live to please God, God becomes our ever-present champion. He is our secret weapon who obliterates all of our enemies.

So we’re looking at the imagery of a soldier in this section getting ready for battle, getting ready for the day’s warfare. He’s in his tent, and he girds himself, straps on his body armor, and then he puts on his footwear. Let’s break that down a bit. For the soldier in those days, the belt fastened all the loose folds of his flowing tunic, fastened all those folds of the tunic to his body and allowed him to move about freely, rapidly, without any hindrance. And then the belt also didn’t just strap him down and keep him tight, but it also provided a platform for all the other equipment that he would attach to himself. So body armor, the pad beneath the body armor, the dagger, the sword, all that was attached to his belt.

So like the soldier’s belt, the truth is what keeps all the loose ends of our Christian thinking tucked in, organized, tightly bound. The doctrinal truths of Scripture, the theology of God’s Word, the deeper this goes, it provides a sound and sure platform for every other virtue of the Christian life. Those who don’t think according to the truth, their minds and their emotions and their thinking is all over the place. It’s loosely flowing, not strapped down. That’s what the truth is supposed to do to us, and it provides a platform for every other virtue to grow from.

The most important piece of armor, you could say, just vitally speaking, the most important piece of the inner armor, it protects all the vital organs is the breastplate. In modern terms it’s called, you know, that plate that covers over the essential organs. And for the Christian, what protects our vitals is righteousness. Righteousness protects us from taking any life-ending blow. Listen again to William Gurnall, he says, “For the devil, Christian blood is sweet to his tooth.” He’s talking about the blood of martyrdom, there. “For the devil, Christian blood is sweet to his tooth, but the blood of the Christian’s godliness is far sweeter. He’d rather, if he could, kill that than them. He would rather draw the Christian away from his godliness or his righteousness than to butcher him for it.”

As we said earlier, this is the exact strategy the devil had that he taught to Balaam and to Balak. Rather than pronouncing a curse upon Israel, which they could not do, they were able to make Israel accursed, which they could do by their engaging in sin with the women of Moab and then watching God judge them for it. Gurnall says, “The devil counts that the complete victory. He’d rather see saints defiled with unrighteousness and sin than defiled with blood and gore. Persecution, he has learned, only mows the church, which afterward comes up thicker for it. It is unholiness that ruins it.”

The final preparatory piece of equipment for the soldier, what he’s to put on before he leaves his tent, it’s his footwear. Verse 15: “Having shod your feet with the preparation of the Gospel of peace.” Some translations say “readiness of the Gospel of peace.” Soldiers in that day wore sturdy, hobnailed, cleated boots secured with leather strapping around their feet, their ankles, and up their calves. If they were engaged in cold-weather campaigns, their footwear was stuffed with wool or was lined with fur. For the soldier, proper footing on the battlefield is the difference between life and death, between standing and falling, between striking a deadly blow or being struck by one because you’re off balance. For the Christian, the footwear pictures our preparation, or a better translation is our readiness or our stability. It’s the readiness that comes from the Gospel of peace.

The Gospel of peace, we’re talking, there, about not the feeling first, but we’re talking about the status, primarily. The Gospel of peace is an objective peace with God, the end of his hostility against us for our sins because of the cross of Christ. That is what stabilizes us whenever we’re under attack: to know that God has saved us, to know that our sin is forgiven and it’s gone, to know that Christ’s righteousness covers us that’s what stables us. That’s what enables us to stand firm and fight, have courage, be bold. The Gospel of God’s objective peace with us because of Christ provides a foundation for our subjective sense of peace, so necessary on the battlefield. When a soldier is at peace with a quiet conscience and a settled heart, he makes good decisions, he fights intelligently, he stands firm.

It’s how a soldier, this whole picture, here, in the very first portion, these first three pieces, this is how a soldier gets dressed in his tent. This is how he readies himself for the day of battle, for facing the enemy. And this is how a Christian readies himself every single morning. We’re not passive about this. We’re intentional. We’re active. It’s a conscious commitment, through diligent prayer and by intentional planning, to walk in truth and walk in righteousness because of the Gospel of peace. It’s how we live.

So girded up vital areas, protected footwear securely fastened, the soldier then leaves his tent, and he grabs two more pieces of equipment and one weapon. Look first at the shield of faith in verse 16, “In addition to all,” or that could be translated, above all, high priority here, “take up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” It’s not an overstatement to say that the shield was the soldier’s most important piece of defensive equipment on the battlefield. With the proper use of the shield, one could literally hide naked behind his shield and survive any attack. That is how comprehensive the protection of the shield was.

This is why the shield was the most prized piece of equipment above all other pieces on the battlefield. Gurnall says, “The soldiers counted it a greater shame to lose their shield than to lose the field, and therefore went under the very foot of their enemy. They would not part with it, but esteemed it an honor to die with their shield in their hand. The charge of one mother that she laid upon her son going into the wars when she gave him a shield was that he should either bring his shield home with him or he be brought home upon his shield. She’d rather see him dead with it than come home alive without it.” End quote.

To drop and lower the shield in the battlefield, it doesn’t just expose a single soldier to danger; it puts the whole line of soldiers at risk. The whole squad, the whole platoon, the whole company is at risk with one weakness in the line. It creates a vulnerability that can be exploited by the enemy, and that’s why it’s better to come home dead on top of the shield than to come home alive without it. Dying with honor is better than living with the shame that you let your whole platoon down and got others killed.

In the way you interact with people, don’t sin. In the way you live your life and set your priorities of your life, don’t sin. Stay on mission. Make progress in holiness. That’s the goal.

Travis AllenPre-eminent above all the soldier’s gear, the shield is the most fitting picture for the pre-eminence of faith. Faith is that which provides comprehensive protection for the Christian in every single battle over a lifetime of warfare. And the stronger we are at lifting that shield, which is heavy, I mean, the literal word for shield in the Greek is door. It’s like a door. It’s like a small door you hide behind. It’s heavy to lift that thing, and sometimes they had to soak that thing down with water to extinguish flaming arrows in battle. You have to be strong. That means you have to lift. That means you have to get strong for battle. We’re not talking about preening guys who strut around the gym. We’re talking about hardened soldiers on the battlefield who know what it is when their life is on the line, and the life of their buddies is on the line. It’s comprehensive protection. It’s hard to lift it. You have to exercise.

Faith is like that. It’s hard to lift because we live in a flesh-and-blood reality where everything is seen, where everything is visual, everything is tangible. We can touch it. We feel it. Faith requires vision that is beyond this world. It’s trusting that what is unseen is more important than what’s seen. It’s looking to the invisible God and depending upon his stated promises. That’s what lifting the shield is. And you can be weak at it, and you can be strong at it.

The stronger we are in exercising faith, the more protection for us and the more protection for others around us, too. Why is that? Because protected by faith, strengthened in faith, all the other graces and all the other virtues of the Christian thrive and grow to maturity, and they blossom and bear fruit. It’s comprehensive protection that ensures comprehensive growth in the Christian life.

For lack of faith, the mightiest mind, the most superior intellect, the most gifted among us, that person can fall, be led away into sin and into apostasy. But conversely, by faith, the very weakest saint among us can send the demons fleeing and be protected from sin and error and unbelief. All they need to do is just get behind that shield.

Faith protects the life of the Christian from every attack of the enemy. How is that? Because faith brings our God into the battle. He is our fortress and our shield. Bret was preaching that last week in Psalm 144. God is our fortress. God is our shield. God is our refuge. When we hide behind him, he’s pleased to step up and extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one and to mash the enemy with his big, powerful hand. So Christian, never drop your shield. Don’t lower it one inch. Prefer to be carried dead on top of your shield to the very gates of heaven than to live without it.

So fully equipped with belt, body armor, combat boots, protected by the shield, it’s time to grab our helmet, grab our rifle or our sword, go out and meet the enemy. Fully protected, now we are ready to go take the field, to meet the enemy, and to see God do some damage. Look at verse 17: “Also receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” Notice that unlike previous pieces of armor, the helmet and the sword do not illustrate Christian virtues, but Christian gifts. As a soldier in God’s army, you already possess a helmet of salvation. You already hold a sword of the Spirit. All you need to do is take them into battle and use them. They’re yours.

With the head protected, the soldier has confidence to face the enemy and engage in combat. With the head protected, the soldier has clarity of mind to make good decisions. That’s why the helmet represents salvation, the assurance of eternal life by which the Christian has full confidence, total clarity to think in spiritual warfare.

What about the final piece, the sword of the Spirit? The sword is the most defining piece of a soldier’s equipment, isn’t it? After all, what is a soldier without his sword? And when you see someone holding a sword or walking around with a weapon, you know they’re part of the military or part of law enforcement. It means something, doesn’t it? This is a defining piece of equipment. One has said, “A pilot without his chart, a scholar without his book, and a soldier without his sword are all alike ridiculous. But above all these, it is absurd for one to think of being a Christian without the knowledge of the Word of God and some skill to use this weapon.”

The sword that’s referred to in verse 17 is the Roman short sword. It’s called the machaira, very light in weight, razor sharp, about 18 inches long or so, double-edged for cutting. It was tapered to a point for thrusting and stabbing. It is the perfect weapon for close-quarters battle, which was all that warfare back then. Once they broke through the line with the javelins and spears or missiles that were fired into the line, once it got personal and up close, which is what this warfare is talking about, it required close-quarters combat, and that’s what this sword is for.

It’s the same imagery, same word used in Hebrews 4:12: “The the word of God is living and active. It’s sharper than any two-edged, ” here it is, machaira, “sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, joints and morrow, able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

It’s very sharp, very penetrating like a scalpel on the battlefield. This razor-sharp precision weapon, it does require training and skill for effective use, right? We understand this, that in the hands of the immature or the unwise, those who are unskilled in handling such an exceedingly sharp weapon, the sword can do great damage, collateral damage, and cause friendly fire. But in the hands of a well-trained, skilled, experienced swordsman, it’s mighty, through God, to the pulling down of strongholds.

Think about the privilege that we have, here. The Spirit’s sword is the Word of God, and God is pleased to put this very special weapon into the hands of each of his soldiers. What an honor and what a privilege to wield this infinitely powerful weapon. Think about God’s wisdom in giving us this privilege as his people, as his soldiers. He is the one who’s chosen his Spirit to dwell in every single believer, and this means that he has armed each and every one of us with this weapon. That means the Holy Spirit has not just one sword in his hand, but he has many swords in the hands of many swordsmen, all of whom he controls.

The Spirit is the one who trains us to use the sword. He directs us for example and for instruction to the master swordsman, Jesus Christ, who is an expert in wielding the sword. The Scripture becomes to us like a series of training videos, always showing us Christ, always showing us how to wield the sword of the Word of God. We just need to observe. We’ve been doing that, haven’t we, through the Gospel of Luke, watching our Lord as a master swordsman cut his way through every enemy challenge.

In peacetime, a soldier becomes very familiar with his weapon. He learns to break it down, clean it, knows its specs, rate of fire, max effective range. He can tell you, especially the Marine Corps, they can tell you everything about that weapon. I remember being on a boat with Marines, and I’m watching this particular Marine that I have in my mind, and he was breaking down and cleaning his weapon every single day. We hadn’t gotten to the battlefield, yet. In combat, though, the soldier becomes an expert with his weapon. Why is that? Obviously, because he uses it all the time, and he uses that weapon as if his life depends on it. He makes sure that that weapon is always functioning, always shooting accurately. He’s getting better and better, more proficient with his skills. He’s practicing all the time, and when he’s in combat, he’s not practicing. He’s doing it for real. He knows his weapon, and he shoots accurately.

And that is just one of the benefits in spiritual warfare, of engaging in the fight, of resisting in the evil day and standing firm against all the devil’s schemes. God uses in our lives an aggressive, evil, malevolent, cunning enemy always intent on taking us down. He’s using that enemy to train us, to turn us into battle-hardened soldiers, mature and strong in Christ, who know how to wield the sword, following the pattern of the master swordsman, Jesus Christ himself.

So beloved, get up every day of your life, secure your minds in the truth. Let the truth revealed by God, accurately interpreted, let the truth be the judge of all right and wrong, of all good and bad. Don’t let tradition or what I’m used to, or what feels right, and all that stuff. Truth is the key. Does it line up to the truth or does it not? That’s the issue. And truth must be understood, right? You’ve got to know what it means. Commit yourselves to righteousness as defined by the truth of God’s Word, not according to the culture, not according to your own personal sense of justice. Righteousness is defined by God’s Word. Commit yourself to that, obedient to the Lordship of Christ.

Let the Gospel of peace with God secure your hearts and minds so that the subjective peace of God guards your hearts and minds in the evil day. Lift the shield of faith every single day as if your life and the life of your teammates depends on it, because it does. Your faith strengthens the soldiers around you. When you drop your shield, it weakens those around you, too. So believe God, trust his Word without any doubt, without any hesitation. That is the main work of the Christian. It offers total protection, comprehensive protection against every flaming arrow from the evil one.

And then, beloved, fully protected, charge into your day to do the work of the Lord with a helmet of salvation to give you confidence and clarity of mind in making wise decisions, and become an expert swordsman by constant use, not an expert about the technical issues of all the Word of God. That’s important to know, but that’s not how you use your weapon. You wield the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, with skill and accuracy because of constant, daily use.

When you’re prepared like this, you link arms with your comrades in arms. You become an effective member of the team to carry out your strategic role in warfare, which brings us to a third and final point, very brief point here, and I’ll expand on this point a little bit more next week. Number three, it’s the practice of our warfare. We’ve talked about the nature of our warfare, the weapons of our warfare, and now the practice of our warfare, number three.

Notice how the practice of our warfare involves, verses 18-20, a lifelong, always maturing habit of prayer. Look at verses 18-20. We’re to be “praying at all times, with all prayer and petition in the Spirit, and to this end being on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, as well as on my behalf,” Paul says, “so that words may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the Gospel, for which I’m an ambassador in chains, so that in proclaiming it, I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.”

By this point, as you can see for yourself, Paul has left the metaphor of the soldier’s armor behind, and he speaks directly about prayer. There’s no mistaking his intent. He’s calling Christian soldiers who are mentally prepared, properly dressed, ready for a battle to engage in spiritual warfare, to go on the offensive by all prayer and petition in the Spirit, by staying alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and for Paul in particular, for the success of his apostolic mission.

If Paul had continued the metaphor here, what is analogous to prayer in terms of modern warfare, I think, is communication, say, the role, the vital role on the battlefield of a field radio or these days satellite communications. Because far more potent and deadly than an individual soldier with a rifle is an individual soldier with a radio. Higher power, something coming from the sky, raining down lethal firepower.

I just finished reading a book about the highly trained, skilled men of the Air Force Combat Control teams, the CCT. These are men who embed with Tier 1 special operators, like the army’s Delta Force and Navy SEAL Team 6. They’re capable of all kinds of things, including air traffic control for bombing runs on the battlefield, gun runs from all kinds of aerial platforms, fast moving jets, AC-130 gunships, attack helicopters and the like. These men, the CCT, the combat control teams, these men are the definition of force multipliers. They’re able to move quickly and stealthily with small units of four to six men, but they bring an outsized influence of firepower on the battlefield by raining death and destruction on the enemy ground forces.

Beloved, you who are Christian soldiers engage in this spiritual warfare. That is who God has called you to be, force multipliers. That’s what God has called you to do. And from the youngest Christian child to the oldest, say most feeble senior saint, from the frailest grandmother to the most physically capable among us, “by all prayer and petition in the Spirit, staying alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,” you are the ultimate force multiplier when you engage in spiritual warfare in prayer.

Do not underestimate this weapon, this power. Those who do not pray do not understand what we’re engaged in. You need to pray and pray thoughtfully, intentionally, according to the truth, according to righteousness, according to the Gospel of peace, according to faith, according to salvation, according to the word of God. Pray. You are bringing divine power, firepower, into the battlefield. You’re unleashing the omnipotent power of God on spiritual forces. You are obliterating all obstacles that stand in the way of God’s will and God’s Gospel.

This is how, back to verse 10, this is how we’re to “be strengthened in the Lord and in the might of his strength.” His unstoppable power is brought to bear when we pray. And just very quickly looking at this section, what are we praying for, and for whom are we praying? First, we’re to pray for all the saints, your comrades in arms around you, your brothers and sisters who are fellow soldiers in Christ’s army. Pray for church members. Pray that they would be intentional and diligent and habitual about putting on the full armor of God along with you, to stand firm, to resist in the evil day, to keep standing firm. Pray for one another.

Second, according to this text, we’re to pray for specially chosen servants of Christ, such as those whom Paul identified back in Ephesians 4:11: “He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers.” We know the time of the Apostles and the prophets is past, but they were men, weren’t they, chosen specially by Christ. They set the revelatory and doctrinal foundation of the church, and their mission was successful. And we have the results of their ministry and their mission recorded right here in the New Testament. So everything that the Apostles and prophets have provided is with us now, that we need for life and salvation.

But there are other specially chosen servants of Christ whom Paul mentioned. He talked about the evangelists and the pastors and the teachers, those specially gifted men given to the church to equip the saints, Ephesians 4:12, for the work of the ministry. They, like Paul, are called to open their mouths and to preach the truth accurately and to preach it boldly. It’s after the pattern that was set by Paul, set by the other Apostles. These men are chosen by God for a very special assignment, namely to use their words with wisdom and faithfulness and maturity, but to use their words, opening their mouths to proclaim the mystery of the Gospel, the doctrines of the church, the theology of conversion, of repentance, of sanctification, of Gospel ministry. These men are commanded to speak and exhort and reprove with all authority, Titus 2:15 says. They’re to let no one disregard the truth that they’re charged by God to administer to the saints.

So, Grace Church, you are chosen by God to be force multipliers through your prayers. Are you doing that? Are you putting your faith and love into daily practice by praying for one another, for the needs of your brothers and sisters in this church? Or is your heart only sensitive to yourself and your own concerns and quite cold toward others? Ask the Lord to reveal that to you, to help you with that.

Are you praying for the men that God gave you, specially chosen gifted servants of Christ, your pastors, elders, so that they will make known to you without partiality, without fear, with total courage, make known to you with boldness the mystery of the Gospel? Do you welcome the truth preached clearly? Do you welcome exhortation, even confrontation from your pastors and elders and other Christians?

Because listen, a church that suits up for battle in the full armor of God, a church that prays for one another with all prayer and petition in the Spirit, a church that prays for its pastors that in proclaiming the truth to you, they may speak boldly as they ought to speak, listen, that is a healthy church, strong in the Lord. It’s a church with its members that stands firm, that resists the devil, that advances the cause of Christ and his Gospel. It’s a healthy church, filled with healthy church members who are force multipliers on the battlefield. Let that be us, Grace Church. Let that be us. Let’s pray.

Our Father, we thank you for this clear word from the Apostle Paul about a Christian suited up in the full armor of God and doing on the battlefield what he’s called to do, to wield the sword of the Spirit and to pray for one another as soldiers in the Christian army, but also to pray for the leaders in the Christian army under the Lord Jesus Christ, under the commander in chief of all the forces of the hosts of the Lord.

And we pray that you would use us, and I know we’re using militant language and military language, but this is talking about Christian virtue, Christian grace, gifts given to the Christian that we might grow and be strong and be steadfast to resist all temptation and enticement, to turn away from all distraction; that we’d put our faith fully in you and have a clear-eyed vision to the Lord Jesus Christ to follow in his steps, to listen to his commands and obey him with joy; and that we would be on the battlefield with good effect.

We pray that you would save and sanctify many through the bold, clear witness of the mystery of this Gospel that’s proclaimed through the members of this church, and we pray that you would do a mighty work among us. Help us, each and every one, to put on the full armor of God and to resist in the evil day and to stand firm. For your glory we pray this, Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, and obviously, by the power of your Spirit who indwells each one of us, we pray. Amen.

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Psalm 144

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James 3:5-12

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James 3:1-5

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James 2:18-26

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James 2:14-17

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Selected Scriptures

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Luke 21:23-24

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Luke 21:20-24

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Luke 21:20-24

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Luke 21:14-19

Luke 21, I have got a lot to cover this morning, so I’m going to violate all the principles of good homiletics, forego any introduction, so we can just get through the section that we started last week on persecution. I know you’ll forgive me for that violation of homiletics, because you’re Christians and you are prone to forgive. In the, in Olivet Discourse that we’re working our way through, in Luke 21, Jesus is answering, his, the questions that his disciples asked in Luke 21:7, “Teacher, when, therefore will these things happen? And what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?”

As we’ve learned, the disciples are asking about the Second Coming, about the Lord’s Second Coming. They’re asking about the times at the end, the consummation of all God’s promises to Israel, which they’ve hoped for, prayed, or longed for. They want to see that happen. They’ve been living and that expectation, especially as the Messiah has come. Now they’re seeing that there may be a time gap and they’re trying to understand this and they ask their questions.

So starting in verse 8, running down through verse 36, Jesus not only answers their questions, he predicts the events that happened just prior to the end, just prior to his Second Coming, and he prepares them to live in the last days. I’m using that language of the last days intentionally, because the last days is a technical term in the New Testament, referring to the time between the ascension of Jesus Christ to heaven, where he is right now, bodily, at the Father’s right hand, waiting for the Father to send him back, John 14, for the rapture; to rapture his church, bring the church to himself.

So it’s really this time that we’re living now, the church age, this is the last days. And one feature of this time, this is kind of what we’re, we’re, working our way through right now. One feature of this time, as we see in Luke 21:12 to 19, is this persecution. Persecution, the suffering of persecution. We’re going to start our reading in verse 8, all the way through verse 19. This is Jesus’ answer, “He said, ‘See to it that you are not deceived, for many will come in my name saying, “I am He,” and, “The time is at hand.” Do not go after them. And when you hear of wars and disturbances, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end does not follow immediately.”

That’s the time he’s referring to; is the time of the great tribulation, the beginning period of the tribulation. What the other two writers, Matthew and Mark, refer to as the beginning of birth pains. Verse 10, says, “Then he continued saying to them, ‘Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.

“‘But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake. It will result in an opportunity for your testimony. So set in your hearts not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute. But you will be betrayed, even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, and you will be hated by all because of My name. Yet not a hair of your head will perish. By your perseverance, you will gain your lives.’”

If you want a concise summary of verses 8 to 11, you can go back and listen to last week’s introduction; the introduction for last week’s sermon, that’ll bring you up to speed. But what I want to do now is just continue on and pursue the outline that we started last time. The keywords I gave you: Purpose, power, pain, and promise.

Four words: purpose, power, pain, and promise. Those are the four keywords in the outline point. So we only got one, to one of them last time. The Lord is preparing his disciples to face persecution, which they will endure in the early church. We see the Book of Acts basically is a big long illustration of multiple examples of this taking place in the early church. And really what characterizes the time in the early church through the Book of Acts continues on through our day as well. It was obviously more severe at times in the early church, very severe.

In ten, ten waves of persecution that happened throughout the Roman Empire until 313, the Edict of Milan, under the Emperor Constantine, when Christianity really became the official religion of the Roman Empire. But even from that time to the current day, in various places in the world, at various times, there has been hostility and persecution against the church, against Christians and it’s because of Christ’s name.

Not all that’s called persecution against Christians is truly persecution against Christians. We’ve got to be definitional and define the term, Christian. If we have some aberrant group or some non-Christian group or some sub-Christian group; Mormons out on, on, their mission or Roman Catholics who have anathematized what the Sripture teaches about justification by faith and true salvation. Eastern Orthodox, other different groups, who are undergoing some kind of a persecution, some kind of a rejection of them, and a, and a even violent opposition to them. That is not persecution in the biblical sense. It’s not being pursued for the sake of Christ’s name.

So we want to be careful that we define our terms. I want, and I’ve been praying for you. I’ve been praying that the Lord would use this time in this section of Scripture to strengthen you, to embolden your heart so that you never, never shrink away from any persecution that might come to you. Any suffering for the sake of Christ’s name. But instead, you will, with humble boldness, stand firm and proclaim the gospel that saved you; the hope of your salvation in Christ. And I know that God will give you that strength.

They also. I’m also praying for those in our midst who are not Christians. I want to see those who are not Christians be convicted by the Spirit, of sin and righteousness and judgment in their own lives, and that they give themselves to God in repentance and faith, because the time is short. The time is short. So as the Lord prepares, not only his disciples, in this text, but as he prepares us to face persecution without any fear, without any anxiety, but quite the opposite. As he fills our heart with confidence, and strength, and comfort, joyful anticipation, we will endure whatever he has chosen for us to face.

And so we return to the first point, that we started last time, number one: The purpose in persecution. The purpose in persecution. That’s verses 12 to 13. “But before all these things,” that’s verses 8 through 11, “these things.” “But before all these things they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake. It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony.”

We saw, last time, that those verses 12 and 13 are inseparable. They’re grammatically linked together, so that the, the, sense is that, even on the one hand, that they will lay their hands on you, persecute you, and all the rest; on the other hand, it will lead to an opportunity for your testimony. That is to say, the persecution and the testimony are connected. This is all according to plan. It’s actually the exact pattern we read about in the life of our Lord, as we’ve been studying this gospel of Luke.

We study all the gospels. We see that the, the, enemies of the Lord laid their hands on him, and they persecuted him to the point of death by crucifixion. It’s led to him winning our salvation. He died on the cross that we might be forgiven of our sins. He, he was raised from the dead because death could not hold him down, because it was not right that one who is sinless, perfect in every way, would remain in the grave; because he merited God’s favor, and he received God’s favor; as God raised him from the dead and he triumphed over death in the grave and he’s won salvation for his people, for Jew and Gentile alike.

And now this suffering that has led to his death has turned into an opportunity for the testimony of the gospel throughout the world, throughout every time, in every single place, this gospel has been proclaimed. Even his people testified before Jew and Gentile authorities alike, they did what was completely unexpected. In overturning their expectations that their arrest and persecuting them would cause them to shut up and go away, be afraid and cower. But just as their Lord did what was completely unexpected, accomplishing the redemption of his people, him being the prototype, him being the, the, start of this entire Christian movement, he set the pattern for the Lord’s people, the believers in the Jerusalem church.

Luke traces the record of them in the Book of Acts. In fact, as I said, the Book of Acts is one long illustration of this: That persecution leads to an opportunity for Christian testimony; over and over and over again, we see that. We talked about that last week; Acts 4:1 to 8, Acts 5:17 to 21, Acts 6:8 to 12, Acts 8:1 through 8. On and on it goes through the Book of Acts. We see illustration after illustration of this persecution leading to an opportunity for testimony.

The persecution that Jesus describes, which comes about end of verse 12, it comes about, “for My name’s sake” is a very clear indication that everything is going according to plan. It will lead, verse 13, to an opportunity for your testimony. So when this happens to you, when you are doing what’s righteous, when you are, when you’re living out a transformed life before the unbelieving world, when you’re speaking truth, when you’re holding people to account to Scripture, and it leads to instead of appreciation, instead of praise of God, appreciation of you, God’s servant, when it leads instead to persecution, don’t think you’ve done something wrong. Instead, know that you’ve done something right.

As Peter says, in 1 Peter 4, don’t, “let none of us suffer as an evil doer.” Let’s not suffer for being jerks, right? Let’s suffer for righteousness’ sake and we can rejoice in that. It will lead for an opportunity for our testimony. Our, our teaching the gospel, preaching the gospel, living a holy life, pursuing sanctification in the world, that may sometimes lead to persecution, but so what? Because persecution leads to a testimony; further testimony, further opportunity to speak the truth.

The verb translated; It will lead to an opportunity. It will lead to an opportunity, that’s a single verb in the Greek. Takes six words, English words to translate that: It will lead to an opportunity. It’s apobainō. Apobainō, it literally, we could translate that, to go away from, and, and that sounds, to go away from, it will lead to go away from. It sounds like an odd choice, at first. Going away from something, seems like avoidance rather than taking it up as an opportunity.

But the, but the verb, apobainō, it really pictures someone who has been like, on a ship at sea, going oversea on a long arduous voyage. Someone who finally arrives, after that voyage, at his destination. So the ship pulls into port, is tied to the dock, gangplank is lowered down to the dock, tied, secured, and the traveler’s able to disembark from the vessel and go away from it. Okay, so that’s the picture. It’s a picture of arriving. And then having arrived, you’re now able to get off the ship to go ashore and to move off into why you planned the journey in the first place. You go off into an opportune direction.

So this is a word that pictures anticipation, excitement over the opportunity. What started out as a hard, arduous, long sea voyage; and back then, it’s not like booking a cruise on Princess Cruises. It was not that at all. It was, those ships were small, the cabin space was small, and hot, and stuffy, and dank, and stinky, and you were cramped, and there wasn’t good food.

It’s not at all what we see today, so don’t think cruises. It’s not this. Isn’t, journey at Sea was no fun at all, and often times it ended in terrible tragedy and death. Yet it’s because of what comes after. What is unpleasant, turns into an opportunity. That is, how to think about persecution; being ferried along by those who pursue you, and arrest you, and put you in jail, to await local trials, synagogues, regional trials before governors, or even national trials before kings. That is as unpleasant as a long, difficult journey at sea. But what comes at the end of that journey is a great opportunity to be of use to the Lord.

The Lord is preparing his disciples to face persecution, which they will endure in the early church.

Travis AllenThe Lord intends to give the persecuted Christian this gift. That’s how you need to see persecution, as a gift. This opportunity for testimony, that you get to, you’re counted worthy to testify for God, to God, about the goodness and glory of God in his saving grace. You get to do that before more people, before people you would have never met. You get to be there and testify to the majesty of Jesus Christ, to speak about his Lordship, his kingship, to, to, to speak about the perfect sufficiency of his atonement, to speak about his resurrection, the fact that the tomb is empty and nobody can explain that except the writers of Scripture.

You get to speak about his ascension into heaven, his ruling from on high, his soon return to rule over the earth, and his coming in judgement. And to warn people that they can get right with God and bow the knee before him, if they’ll humble themselves and put their faith in Christ. Now maybe you have not thought about Christian persecution like that before, maybe does the persecution and suffering seems frightening or scary. It is, of course, unpleasant, perhaps even painful.

But I understand why you may not have seen persecution as an opportunity, before, in the past, but now you know better. So you can walk out of here boldly, with confidence and courage because of what Christ has said. When our suffering is in Christ, when it’s for his name’s sake, suffering is the path to glory. That was the case for our Lord Jesus Christ, who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despised shame, and has now sat down at the right hand of God. It’s the, it’s the same case for the saints before and after Christ.

One of the texts I thought of reading for this morning’s Scripture reading is Hebrews Chapter 11. Hebrews Chapter 11, the Hall of Faith, Hall of Fame, and Hall of Faith. You see what people have endured for the sake of Christ, for the sake of the glory to follow. So before and after Christ’s suffering and persecution allows the world to see God’s power on display.

That is why, think about it, that’s why he put his treasure of the gospel into us, jars of clay. Because those jars of clay really are not that valuable, in and of themselves. In fact, they’re meant to be broken. And when they’re broken open, that treasure shines forth, so you could see the glory of the gospel inside. So Jesus is saying, yeah, persecution is coming, but it is all part of the plan. It’s all part of the plan.

Persecution presents an opportunity for your testimony. So it’s your testimony, so it’s nothing to fear. Persecution is not an obstacle to avoid. It’s an opportunity to be embraced. Now how can we have this kind of strong confidence, this kind of assurance? Because Jesus said, I’m going to help you, I am going to help you. This is Point two: The power in persecution.

Point two: the power and persecution, verses 14 to 15. We’re armed, mentally armed, prepared mentally by understanding God’s purpose in persecution. And so, now, we’re ready for him to prepare us, because mentally we’ve got our, we’ve got our minds around this. We’re thinking right. And now that we’re thinking right, we’re ready and eager for him to prepare us for persecution and to see his power in persecution. Look at verse 14, “So set in your hearts not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute.”

Three observations about the Power that God gives us when we face persecution for the sake of Christ’s name. There’s three observations about the power here, how it comes to us, where it comes from, and what it does. So we’ll talk about the conduit, the source, and the effect.

First, the conduit of God’s power. The conduit of the power of God that, he makes available to us and the persecution is the conduit of faith. Faith, which is a gift of God. Faith strengthens us with the confidence of an assured heart, and a steadfast heart. Remember, biblically speaking, the heart has a threefold function. It has an intellectual function, it has an emotional function and it has a volitional function; so the mind, the emotions, and the will. That’s why we say that the heart is the mission control center of the life, because of these three functions, the intellectual, the emotional, and the volitional function.

This is really critical to understand for all people, because all people, including unbelievers, have a heart. They’ve got an intellect and emotions, and they’ve got a will. But the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked for the unbeliever. The unbeliever can’t know his own heart. That’s what Jeremiah 17:9 says. But for the born again, regenerate believer in particular, it’s crucial for us, critical for us to understand; that the process of our hearts, it makes all the difference for us to understand these three functions of the heart. Because when the heart receives divine grace through faith, faith is the channel of that divine power, that enables us to stand and to endure even during times of persecution.

In the Christian, intellectually the heart apprehends the truth, receives the truth, apprehends the truth, ascends to the truthfulness of the truth, the verity of the truth, the validity of the truth. Emotionally, the heart responds to the truth with righteous affections. The heart responds to the truth, with, by loving the truth and embracing the truth, eager to receive the truth, eager to do the truth, and even, cors, corresponding to that, emotionally the heart responds to what the truth teaches by hating sin, by having a revulsion to sin, and all that is against God. That is also part of the emotional function of the heart.

And then volitionally, it’s the heart. It’s informed by the intellect. It’s motivated by righteous affections, both a love for truth, a love for all that’s righteous, and a hatred of all that’s unrighteous. That’s what actually provokes our repentance, to put off evil behavior and put on good and righteous behavior; so formed by the intellect, motivated by righteous affections, it’s the heart that wills to pursue the truth. So when facing persecution, for Christ’s name’s sake, the only way to obey what Jesus says there in verse 14, when he says, “So, set in your hearts,” it’s not a suggestion. That is a command. He says, “Set in your hearts.” And the only way you can obey that command is by faith.

By faith. The threefold nature of faith opens up the channels of grace to the threefold functions of the heart. Faith becomes the conduit of divine grace. It’s that which channels the power of God to empower the threefold functions of the heart. Faith settles the mind. It calms the emotions. It steadies the will. And all of this drives us through even the most difficult of circumstances, including persecution for the sake of Christ.

So with a settled mind, calmed emotions, the steadied will, to what point and what purpose are all these? Jesus says there, “Set in your hearts not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves.” Notice that he does not say don’t defend yourselves, but rather don’t rehearse for that. Okay. There’s a difference. The verb there, to prepare beforehand, refers to premeditation, the idea of rehearsals. You know, actors do rehearsals. Performers practice their rhetoric, their mannerisms. Lawyers prepare speeches for the courtroom.

Why all that? Well, because all three, all these examples, they’re anticipating the performance. They’re anticipating the challenge. They’re anticipating the courtroom. Whatever that is. They need to prepare. They need to rehearse. They need to get ready, because they’re expecting to go through that. They’re expecting to have to be on stage. They’re expecting to be in the middle of a courtroom and have to make their case. Someone’s life may depend on that.

Disciples of Jesus Christ, though, they need no such premeditation. They need no such prior preparation. Why? It’s because we don’t need to think as Christians. No! Obviously, we do! Jesus is assuming, in this, that we are living as Christians, that we are always girding up our minds with the truth; that we all are, always, like Paul says, in Ephesians 6:10 to 20, we’re always putting on the full armor of God every single day. We’re always wanting to be saturated with the truth, growing in the truth, pursuing sanctification.

That’s all, a given, for the Christian that Jesus says no premeditation necessary, no prior preparation, no rehearsal necessary for the sake of trials of persecution in particular. Why is that? Because he doesn’t want his people, his disciples, walking around on edge, fearful, on guard all the time. Persecution is something that comes to us often, as a bit of a surprise. So when it comes, don’t worry, God will help you. You don’t need to fear it. You don’t need to stress for it. You don’t need to rehearse for the moment.

This is one of those tests that you come into the testing area, not having any, prear, prior study other than everything you’ve ever actually lived through. And then God will bring what you’ve already put into your life. He’ll bring that out in that moment, for that time. The verb, to defend, this is the verb, apologeomai. For which we get our word apologetics, apology. So the word does not mean, saying sorry. It doesn’t mean apologizing.

It means, to give an adequate answer, to offer a fitting, or appropriate argument; to make a defense. That’s why I never tell my kids growing up. Hey, apologize to your sister. Because what I’m just telling him to apologize to your sister is really give a defense to your sister for why you smacked her in the head. You know, that’s not what I want to teach my kids to do is defend themselves and give an excuse or a reason for why they did a wrong thing. I want to teach them instead to confess their sins and ask for forgiveness.

Apology, is to make a defense. That’s what the word is here. And the verb, apologeomai, is often used in a courtroom context where the situation warrants that a defendant has to answer charges made against him. So to defend yourself against unjust charges, that’s a righteous thing to do. This is what persecution for Christ’s sake always is, by the way. This is always appropriate because any persecution we receive for Christ’s sake is not warranted. It’s not. It’s not a good thing. It’s not a righteous thing.

It’s unrighteous for the ungodly to persecute us for the sake of Christ. When we speak the truth of Christ, it’s a good and godly thing. It’s for their benefit. It’s for God’s glory and for their good. Why would they persecute? Well, because they hate Christ. They hate the one we’re Speaking of. They hate the God that we serve. They hate anyone who represents him. But we are supposed to make a defense when the persecution comes to us for the sake of Jesus name. Because this is our opportunity after all, for our testimony.

Peter says the same thing in 1 Peter 3:15, that we’re to, “sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts.” That is, we’re to set Christ apart in our hearts as our Lord, obeying him from the heart. That is, as we go through the persecution or we go through anything, we’re to answer according to the truth. We’re to speak according to the truth. We’re to do what he says. We’re to do it in the way that he says it. It includes setting him apart as Lord. We obey him from the heart.

It includes his instruction here in Luke 21:12 to 19. “And we’re always to be ready,” Peter says, “To make a defense,” or to make a defense, give an apology, an apologetic, “to all who ask us to give an account for the hope that is in us,” and especially so in times of persecution. So is Jesus commending us, commending to us, kind of a cavalier attitude about persecution, about facing persecution? No, he’s not telling us to be flippant about it.

I mean, obviously in this prophecy about the end, he says, “But before all these things,” let me tell you something important. So obviously he’s not flippant about persecution. He’s giving us these verses, this section to prepare us for it. So it’s not flippant. It’s just that we know power, that our persecutors and tormentors are going to face. We just know that whatever they do to us, whatever persecution they bring us through, whatever they cause us to suffer, they have no idea of the power that God has given to us to give them an answer. They have no idea of the judgment that they will face. They have no idea about the consequences of their actions. That’s why Jesus could pray on the cross. Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing.

We look with our persecutors in the same way, and say, man, they have just, they just have no idea. Father, forgive them, but just excuse this, because I really want to get the gospel to them so they understand you. We know where that power comes from. We know its source. I’m gonna give you secondly, the source of the power. The source of the power in persecution is God Himself.

Our hearts are assured and steadfast, because we stand by God’s grace, by his power, not our own, not our own power, not our own strength, but in his. And we believe the promise of the God, who said, I am with you, I will help you, I am there with you. Jesus said, beginning of verse 15, “For I will give you a mouth and wisdom.” It’s emphatic there, ego doso. I myself will give to you, or better, I myself will surely give you a mouth and wisdom to overcome your opponents.

Now, here in Luke 21:15, we see that Jesus is the source of the power. “I, myself will give you a mouth and a wisdom.” But comparing this with, as we did even last time mentioned it, when we compare with parallel teaching in Matthew and Mark, we find out that the entire Godhead, each member of the Trinity, is at the source of this power. You don’t need turn there for the sake of time, but just jot it down; Matthew 10:19 to 20, which is a parallel section to this teaching, here.

Matthew 10:19 to 20, we see that the father is the source of the power. Jesus says, “when they deliver you up, do not become anxious about how or what you will speak for it shall be given you in that hour what you are to speak. For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.” Mark 13:11, Same thing; the Spirit here is the source of the power though. Different person in the Trinity, “When they arrest you, deliver you up, do not be anxious beforehand about what you are to say. Say whatever is given to you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but it is the Holy Spirit.” Jesus says much the same thing in Luke 12:11-12, “When they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities do not become anxious about how or what you should speak in your defense.” There’s that word again, apologeomai. “Or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”

And now we read in, 21 verse 15, the son, Jesus, himself is the source of the power, “For I will give you a mouth and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute.” Again, what is the power for? It’s to speak and to think and especially in the most harrowing of situations like this, when there is no earthly reason to expect someone would speak and think, well. You say, I’m kind of like Moses, I don’t, I ah ya, choose somebody else. My brother Aaron can speak really well. I’m not eloquent. Don’t put me in that situation.

Don’t do that. By the way, if you keep reading, you’ll find out that God just kind of got a little irritated with Moses. So don’t, don’t do that for yourself. But listen, he’s telling us right here. Even when you go through the most difficult, it doesn’t matter if you’re not eloquent. In fact, he takes pleasure and joy in using the least eloquent among us for the most difficult of situations. Why? Because in that case, everyone knows it’s not that person. It’s God getting the glory. It’s God working in them. It’s God’s power at work. That’s what the power’s for.

Even the most difficult of circumstances like persecution, and there’s no earthly reason, no human reason, to expect that this person will perform well, and speak well, and reason well. Well, that’s exactly when we see God’s power shine forth in what we say and how we say it. We see this in Christ all through his earthly ministry, as you look beyond suffering to glory.

He was always demonstrating, I, this is something that I marvel over with every text I go through. It’s just been such a joy for me to observe the Lord Jesus Christ, who in every situation was absolutely perfect, brilliant beyond human explanation, how he could silence every single one of his enemies. And these are not stupid people, but he makes them look foolish, every single time. The most brilliant people on the planet, and Jesus tied them up in knots every time.

That’s what he will give his people. That’s what he does give his people. He demonstrated the power to think truthfully, to speak truthfully with unstoppable speech, irrefutable arguments. Jesus saw way past, in that moment of suffering and persecution. He saw way past his death, his burial, past his resurrection. He saw to the time of his ascension. This age of victory, that’s what he’s speaking about now. This victory age, when he shares this power with his people. He’s seated there at the right hand of the Father, even now. He’s reigning in heaven from on high, and he sends his Holy Spirit to indwell us, to empower us for this unstoppable, irrefutable testimony, in times of persecution.

That’s what he promised, the end of the Great Commission. Behold, he gives the Great Commission, “to go make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, then teaching them to observe everything I’ve taught you from the first day till now.” And then he says, this promise, “Behold, I’m with you always. I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

This whole church age that I’m talking about, that could be characterized by this, the flaring up of persecution throughout this age. Don’t worry, I’m with you. You see how I handled all the trouble, all the persecution? I came through it and there was glory. I’m going to help you, too. I’m with you. Again in Hebrews 13:5, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.” Which means that we can respond and confidently say the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? Nothing.

The abiding presence of Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, is really nothing less than the abiding power of the Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus says, “I will give you a mouth and wisdom.” A mouth and wisdom. So words, that’s the mouth; words, speech, ability to communicate in the moment. And then wisdom is using knowl, knowledge and words in a right way. So it’s correct speech. It’s applying the knowledge of revealed truth, that’s what wisdom is, applying it righteously in a, in a, fitting way and appropriate for the moment. It’s, it’s, it’s fitting and meet for the argument that’s required in that time.

So a mouth and wisdom; sound words, valid arguments. And the source of this power for testimony and persecution is the Triune God. The Father decrees our testimony, as we confess this morning; he decrees all things, including our testimony in the moment of persecution, the Son authorizes our testimony, and the Spirit empowers our testimony. The Triune God is working through us in times of persecution. So, we said, the conduit of this power from God is faith. The source of this power is the Triune God.

Let’s thirdly, talk about the effect of the power, what it does, what it accomplishes. The effect of the power, as we see here, is this unstoppable, irrefutable testimony. End of verse 15, “God will give a mouth and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or to refute.” You say, you know, I’ve been in little debates with people at school and times of witnessing and things like that, and I’ve gotten tongue tied. I haven’t had good answers. How does this apply?

Well, let me tell you how it applies. If you’re in that testimony, that time of sharing the gospel down on campus and all of a sudden, those students you’re talking to get offended, turn, turn away, run to the administration, the administration calls the police and the police come and arrest you and throw you in jail. And then they, they put you in jail, and you’re there till your, your time of trial, and they bring you to your trial. Okay? Now you can look at this promise and say, oh, I can expect this is what’s going to happen.

Faith settles the mind. It calms the emotions. It steadies the will. And all of this drives us through even the most difficult of circumstances, including persecution for the sake of Christ.

Travis Allen But don’t look at the fact that you don’t always get your words right, in an, in a gospel encounter, in an evangelism encounter, and say, I don’t think this is true. That’s not what it’s talking about. It’s talking about times of persecution. Persecution, the word being, pursue you for the sake of Christ, because you have lived holy, spoken righteously to them. If you’re arrested, thrown in jail, you’re called into the court and you have to give an answer to the judge, or you have to give an answer to the king, or the governor, or the Sanhedrin or, whoever it is; gotta go down before the Weld County Commissioners and give an answer for why you’re proclaiming the gospel on the UNC campus. Whatever it is. Okay. Then, this is when you can count on God strengthening you, giving you, “a mouth and a wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute.”

Why can you be confident that none of your opponents will resist and refute this? Because the words and wisdom are of God, and anything that comes from God cannot be resisted, cannot be refuted. If you speak God’s word, it’s over for them. Proverbs 21:30 says, “There is no wisdom, no understanding, and no counsel against the LORD.” None. There’s an 8th century monk called, The Venerable St. Bede, and he summarize this thought actually from this text with a little Latin Limerick. Let me see if I can pronounce this poorly for you. “Vos ad certamen acceditis, sed ego prælior, Vos verba editis, sed ego sum qui loquor.” You Latin speakers would know that it says this. “You go to the battle, but I am victorious. You publish the words, but I am the one who speaks.” That’s what this is teaching.

We saw this when we studied the 20th chapter of Luke, the scribes and the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Herodians, all these enemies and opponents of Christ, which were the religious leaders of the time. They all tried in vain to refute Jesus, calling to account for the authority he was using. They came out there to attack him, try to tie him up with his words, hand him over to the governor. They all fell silent.

Every single one of their attacks failed. They thought they were ambushing him; it turns out they were the ones who fell into their own ambush. And same thing throughout the Book of Acts. The opponents of the early church, the apostles, the Christians, all of them fell silent. And what did they do when they had, when they ran out of arguments? They just resorted to more violence. When everybody, somebody is violent against you, they have lost.

Fox’s Book of Martyrs, every home should own a copy of Fox’s Book of Martyrs. It’s fantastic to read the different stories of martyrdom. It describes, in those early, in the early chapter the martyrdom of Stephen, who was the first martyr of the Christian age. And then following Stephen, all the apostles, then Mark, then Luke, then Paul, then Barnabas.

Read the history of the official Roman imperial persecution, started with Nero in AD 67, all the way through Diocletian in AD 303. The imperial persecution ended with, with, Emperor Constantine, when he enacted the Edict of Milan in AD 313 and in the language of that edict, it said, “The Christians have the free power to follow the religion of their choice, in order,” that is all that, “that all that is divine in the heavens may be favorable and propitious toward all who are placed under our authority.” End Quote.

You can hear the politician in him. He wants to curry the favor of all gods, whatever God, whatever this Christian God, because it’s favorable for our land, it’s favorable for the people we, we, rule. Even with that Edict of Milan, we know that Christian persecution didn’t end there. Did it? It continued through the centuries in different ways, in different forms, in different places, at different times; continues to the present day.

God has decreed that persecution should be to an opportunity for our testimony. So it’s doesn’t matter what a decree of man says. God has decreed this for our testimony. So having given his disciples the right perspective on persecution, having shown them where, the, how the power comes to them, where the, what the source of that power is, the effect of that power, Jesus needs to let them know, kind of the bad news, where the arrows of persecution are going to penetrate to the very deepest parts of us.

So point number three is the pain in persecution. The pain in persecution, verses 16 to 17. The real pain in persecution is not the loss of reputation. It’s not being marginalized. It’s not being made fun of. It’s not loss of jobs, loss of opportunity. It’s not loss of property. It’s not imprisonment. It’s not pain in physical suffering, torture, and even death. The real pain in persecution is who brings it and by whose hand it comes.

Look at verse 16, “But you will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends. They’ll put some of you to death and you’ll be hated by all on account of My name.” Three main verbs in this section measure the pain in persecution. You go to the doctor. He says, hey, tell me the pain you’re experiencing, level 0 to level 10, and you say 9. Here the pain of persecution is measured in its depth and its height and its breadth.

First, the depth of the pain in persecution is in relational betrayal. Relational betrayal, that cuts to the heart. Verse 12, They, “Jesus said, ‘They will lay their hands on you. They will persecute you, handing you over to the authorities for My name’s sake.’” Because you stand with Christ and for Christ.

Here in verse 16, Jesus tells us who the, they are, who will be responsible for starting the process of your arrest and your persecution, who will deliver us over to the authorities. It’ll come through betrayal. It’ll come through close relations. It’ll come through treachery of family members and close friends.

Roman historian Tacitus, born in AD 56, he lived to around AD 120 and he wrote of events that were very close to this time. He tells about Nero burning Rome and then scapegoating the Christians and blaming them for it. They were all, the Christians, considered by Romans, considered by the pagans to be following a pernicious superstition. He considered them, and Romans considered the Christians, to be a disease, and Tacitus writes this: He says, “First confessed members of the sect were arrested and next on their disclosures, vast numbers were convicted.”

On their disclosures: In other words, they arrested certain confessed members of the Christian sect, professing Christians, and then they turned on other Christians. They disclosed who their family and friends were, and then vast numbers were just, just, grab a few, put enough pressure upon them, turn the screws a bit, and they’ll give up their friends and relatives. They were convicted, he says for hatred of the human race.

That’s how the Romans viewed Christianity, as a hatred of the human race. It’s not too far from what we’re experiencing in our time, either. As Christians speaking the gospel and teaching the truth about sin and repentance, we’re tell, we’re told now, that we’re doing psychological harm to those who cannot handle. They need a safe space away from us, because what we’re saying is so psychologically disturbing and can even drive them to horrible things like suicide or drug use or alcohol use.

It was during the COVID-19 response. It was common for some, even some professing Christians to tell everybody that wearing masks and getting vaccinated was loving one’s neighbor, and not to do so then was unloving. That is hatred of the human race. It’s happening today? It’s not just non-Christians who treat us like this, those who are consciously opposed to Christ, who will persecute Christians; false Christians too. Those who think that they are Christians, but they’re not. They will turn on true Christians. They’ll betray them to authorities.

This happens during times of social persecution, upheaval against Christians. These false brethren are the ones that Isaiah writes about, in Isaiah 66:5, “Hear the word of Yahweh, you who tremble at His word:” So you true Christians, you true believers, listen to what Yahweh says. “Your brothers who hate you, who exclude you for My name’s sake.” They’ve excommunicated you. They’ve gotten rid of you. They, “Have said, ‘Let Yahweh be glorified, that we may see your joy.’”

Just go along with the flow. Love your neighbor, vaccinate, wear a mask, don’t talk about sin and repentance, don’t force people to change what they can’t change, go along with it, that we may see your joy. We just want to see you happy again. Ever since you’ve gotten into this Christian thing, your glum, and you’re talking about sin and judgement and all these bad things. Listen, lighten up. Yahweh promises, in Isaiah 66:5, “But they will be put to shame.” That is, in the recompense of divine judgement.

False Christians, Non-Christians too, they really become irritated with holy living, don’t they? They really become irritated with irrefutable wisdom from Scripture. And so, when they’re unable to refute the wisdom of biblical arguments, they stop arguing and start persecuting. If they can’t silence us by reason, they will shout us down. They’ll censure us, silence us, which may mean death for some.

That leads into the second thing, the height of the pain. We see here, for some, the height of the pain is physical death. It’s notable that of the four apostles that are named in Mark 13:3, these are the ones who came to Jesus, named as the ones coming to Jesus with questions; Peter, James, John, and Andrew. That’s two sets of brothers, Peter and Andrew, James and John.

Three of those four died as martyrs. The first to die is James, the great, John’s older brother. He died in AD 44, just ten years after the stoning of Stephen, the first martyr of the church. He was beheaded. James was beheaded by Herod Agrippa, who hoped to ingratiate himself to the Jews with this action. John Fox tells the story of James’s accuser, who witnessed how James faced his death. Fox says, quote, “His accuser was brought to repent of his conduct by the apostles. Extraordinary courage and undauntedness. His accuser fell at his feet to request forgiveness, and he professed himself to be a Christian on the spot. It was resolved that James shouldn’t die alone. And so the two were beheaded together.”

Andrew, he’s one of the ones who came to Jesus with these questions. He preached the gospel all around the Mediterranean, also in Greece and southern Greece. And in AD 60, in the city of Odessa, the wife of a Roman provincial governor was converted to Christianity through Andrews’ preaching and testimony. The enraged governor, once he found out his wife had converted to this sect, he had Andrew arrested, scourged, and crucified.

And to mock him, and mock the religion, and the cross, that he proclaimed, the governor had the two ends of the cross fixed transversely into the ground to resemble an X. It’s known as Saint Andrew’s Cross. Even, today it’s emblazoned on the flag of Scotland, since Andrew is the patron Saint of Scotland. And so now we see the Governor’s attempt to disparage the Christian faith has today become a symbol to honor Andrews’ martyrdom. Quite an ironic twist.

Peter’s martyrdom, also well known. He died under Nero’s persecution in Rome in AD 64; around there. According to Saint Jerome, Peter considered himself unworthy to be crucified in the exact manner as his Lord, and so he was granted his request to be crucified upside down, head down, feet up, and that still, Saint Peter’s cross is still portrayed that way, upside down.

And John was the only apostle who did not, and only, only, one of these four, the only apostle of these four who didn’t die a violent death. AD 95, he was banished by the Emperor Domitian to the Isle of Patmos, where he received the revelation from Jesus and wrote that down. So the two sets of brothers, Peter and Andrew, James and John, John is the one who outlived them all. In fact, John is the one who survived all twelve of the apostles. He lived into his late 80s or early 90s, died of natural causes in Ephesus during the reign of Emperor Trajan shortly after the year AD 98.

The martyrdom of most of the apostles is one of the reasons that we have to see that these apostles listening to this, on this particular occasion, they represent believers in the church age. It’s not just them, to whom Jesus speaks, because look at the limitation that Jesus gives in verse 16, “They will put some of you to death.” Not all of you, not most of you, not even many of you, just some of you. So if Jesus is speaking to the twelve only, about this persecution, he’s talking about only them and their lives. He would have said they will put all but one of you to death.

It wasn’t just some of the apostles martyred, it was most of them. It’s also tr, so obviously, it’s, he’s speaking to them, but, he’s, they’re representing others. It’s also true we can’t see the apostles as representing only the Jews who died during the destruction of the city of Jerusalem in AD70, because at that time more than 1.1 million Jews died during that Roman siege. That’s not just some Jews, that’s the entire non-Christian Jewish population of Jerusalem; 1 to 200,000 in the population of Jerusalem, plus the hundreds of thousands of Jewish pilgrims, who visited for the feast, and they were caught there when the Romans surrounded the city and besieged it.

So again, these apostles and disciples to whom Jesus speaks, they’re representatives of believers. At some points throughout this section of the Olivet Discourse, they represent Jewish believers who are living in the tribulation, as we see in the previous section. But in this case, they represent church age saints; Christians like you, like me, living now.

So for Christians living in the church age, the depth of the pain in persecution, what really cuts us to the heart is due to relational betrayal. Just as Jesus was kissed, betrayed, by Judas, his close friend, the one he shared bread with, the one he travelled with, the one who was trusted by all the apostles, so much so that he kept the money bag and yet he betrayed them all. That’s the depth of the pain in persecution is by whose hand it comes.

The height of pain for some is going to be physical death. Mindful of what Jesus told him in Luke 21:16, “That only some will be put to death,” Peter says this, in 1 Peter 3:14, he said, “Even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness,” even if you should like, in that remote possibility you might suffer. And he’s writing to a, to a people under persecution, going through fiery trials, he says, “But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness.” The verb is in the optative mood, which is very rare in the New Testament. It’s a mood of kind of remote possibility. Could happen. Probably won’t. Could.

He’s writing to believers who are living under Nero’s persecution. He’s telling them not to be surprised at the fiery ordeal among them. 1 Peter 4:12, “As though some strange thing are happening to you.” This is planned. So consider Peter’s words as you listen to Tacitus describe; remember the Roman historian Tacitus? He describes Christians who suffered under Nero, derision accompanied the end of these Christians. They were covered with wild beasts’ skins, and torn to death by dogs. They were fastened on crosses, and when daylight failed, they were burned to serve as lamps by night.

Nero had offered his gardens for the spectacle, and gave an exhibition in his circus, mixing with the crowd in the garb of a charioteer, were mounted on his car. Hence, in spite of a Guild, which he had earned the most exemplary punishment, there arose among the Pagan Romans a sentiment of pity, due to the impression that they were being sacrificed not for the welfare of the state, but to the ferocity of a single man, that is Nero.

That is to say, Tacitus could recognize that Nero’s persecution of the Christians, him scapegoating them for the burning of Rome, and how viciously he treated them, and the guilt of his conscience, just loading on more and more; more suffering, and persecution, and death, and cruelty upon the Christians. His plan failed, because the rest of Rome started to see he’s not persecuting them because they’re guilty. He’s persecuting them because he’s guilty. And still, Peter says suffering for the sake of righteousness, even severe persecution unto death, that is a remote potential for most Christians.

Most of us, we will live relatively normal lives. We’ll live in relative peace and security, as we are now. Which one of you is suffering like that? Being chased by hounds, pursued at the point of a gun, or the edge of a sword? We’re not. No bullets are flying; no new holes that we didn’t wake up with. Even though some of us may be persecuted to the highest degree, even to death.

So the depth of pain, the height of pain, that brings us finally to the breadth of pain in persecution. The breadth of pain. The breadth is in universal hatred. Universal hatred, I think, that this is probably the hardest for many of us Christians to accept, because when we’re not living in a time of acute suffering, that is being hunted down the streets, losing jobs, being thrown into prison, slaughtered in gladiatorial games, we can easily interpret the intolerance of the world as friendliness. It’s not.

Jesus tells us to make no mistake. In verse 17, he said, “You will be hated by all because of My name.” You will be hated by all, even those who smile at you at the grocery store. “You will be hated by all because of My name.” Same level of warning comes the very next night, John 15, verse 18, and following, “If the world hates you, know it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you’re not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this, the world hates you. Remember that I said to you, ‘a slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you,” also. Make no mistake. oh, but if they kept my word, they’ll keep yours also.

Most of the time, as you and I, as Christians, as we move through the world, we go to work, we make a profit for our employer; as good citizens we enter the marketplace, buy and sell. We do what others do around us to provide for our families, just like they do with theirs. We’re kind to others. The fruit of the Spirit shines forth in our lives, and people really like that. They like our friendliness.

In fact, sometimes they enter into the Chur, people with bad motives enter into the Church and take advantage of Christian friendliness; happens all the time. With people who are not as, who are not close to us, we appear to be nice people, friendly, mild mannered, well behaved, productive citizens. Gospel teaches us to live in exactly that way, to live virtuous lives. The more the gospel transforms our lives, the more exemplary our lives become, the more attractive we are to other people.

But the closer people get to us, when they find out what explains the transformation of our lives, the attractiveness of our speech, of behavior, why we’re like that. What explains the change? What explains the difference? They’re either drawn even closer to find out about true salvation, or they’re repelled from us in total offence. There’s really no middle ground. The closer that they get, the line that’s already there in the sand starts to appear more clearly.

It’s through our lives and behavior, though, that God spreads the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Christ in every place. As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2:14, “We’re the fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and also among those who are perishing; to the one,” we’re the aroma, “We’re an aroma from death to death, and to the other an aroma from life to life.”

So the closer people come, the more they know of the gospel that has saved us and transformed us. That is when they react. Some react with gratitude for the knowledge of Christ and salvation. If they kept my words, they’ll keep yours too. Others react, though, with anger and hostility, which is what explains what Jesus predicted in verse 16, that parents, brothers, relatives, friends, husbands, wives, cousins, family members, they will turn against us. They’ll betray us. It’s not because of us, per se. It’s because of what we represent. It’s because of who we represent.

Oh, they’ll blame us for sure. They’ll never blame him. They’ll call us judgmental, though. pharisaical. They’ll speak all kinds of slanderous lies about us. Sinner’s hate having their sins exposed. They hate being confronted. They hate being called to repentance. They always want to find some way to let themselves off the hook. Roman citizens, they used to slander the early Christians by calling them cannibals, because of the Lord’s Supper. They partake of the body and the blood of the Lord.

It’s they, they, they slandered them as sexually immoral, because the Christian said, we’re going to the love feast. They used lies like that and really, intentionally misconstruing the truth, because they knew. But they use that intentional misconstruing of the truth to justify their hatred of Christians and their persecution of Christians, which was entirely unjustifiable. But that is what proud sinners always do. Rather than humble themselves and repent of their sins, they shift the blame. They shift the focus off themselves, speak of themselves as the victim and everybody else, all the Christians as their persecutors. They disparage others, slander them, misconstrue their words and accuse them of wrongdoing.

And Jesus wants us to know, in no uncertain terms, “you will be hated by all because of My name.” Do not misunderstand him on this point, beloved. Do not walk through life with a Pollyannaish view that if you’re just nice to them, they’ll be won to Christ. They need a, they need a deep confrontation with their sinfulness against God, with coming judgment, with the, with the prospect of eternal hell lying before them.

They need to understand they’ve sinned against the Holy God, they’re condemned underneath his wrath, and it’s only Jesus Christ in whom they’ll be saved. The construction of the verb, “you’ll be hated by all because of my name,” shows a progressive ongoing nature of the hatred of Christians. So Christian again, do not be fooled. Now, even in spite of this, the pain in persecution, we’re not to walk around in fear and anxiety. We’re not to walk around frightened by everyone we meet as a potential tormentor. Looking at the grocery store checkout person and saying, man, that she’s going to be turning the screws on my thumbs. We’re to walk around humbly, but boldly, because of what we’re promised.

Final point. Very short one. Final point, just briefly: The promise in persecution, verses 18 and 19. The promise in persecution. Jesus promises us, “Yet not a hair of your head will perish. By your perseverance” or your endurance, hypomonē, “you’ll gain your lives.” We notice that in, in verse 16, Jesus said, “They will put some of you to death.” In verse 18, “Not a hair on your head will perish.” That, that’s not a promise, you’re going to die with perfect hair.

It’s a common metaphor: Not a hair of your head will perish. It’s a common metaphor for safety. Often, it’s a physical safety. You can see that in the Old Testament. 1 Kings 1:52, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, has that. Acts 27:34, Paul promises all the, the, sailors on the ship, when the ship is going to break apart, he says, if you’ll trust God and just do what I say not a hair of your head will be. It’ll be wet, but it won’t perish. Right?

Here in this context though, Jesus is talking, he’s using the same metaphor, but he’s talking about spiritual safety. The word, lives, is the word, psyche. Psychos in the plural. The basic translation of, psychē, is soul, so that’s what he’s talking about. Here, the point is to portray the soul as the whole of human life. So he’s saying, even if your body should die, your life consists of more than your body and you will not lose your life.

“Don’t fear those who can kill the body and after that there’s nothing they can do,” Luke 12. Tell you who to fear. “Fear the one who, after killing the body, can cast your, both body and soul into hell.” That’s who your to fear. He’s emphatic on this point. He uses a verbal mood here in, in, conjunction with an emphatic denial, which, taken together, denies even the, the, potentiality of Christians who forfeit their souls; can’t happen, at all. It’s an emphatic and very vigorous statement of the eternal security of the believer par excellence.

There’s no stronger way, in the language, to say your soul is safe. You will live forever. Same idea, Luke 9:24, “Whoever loses his life for my sake, he is the one who will save it.” God is sovereign over our lives. Our lives are precious to him. He’s ordained the day of our, our birth, day of our death, every day in between. Indeed, Jesus says in Luke 12:7, “The very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t fear,” not a hair will be lost. God’s purpose in persecution is so that we speak about our testimony of his saving grace in Christ Jesus, the one who died for the sins of sinners, that they would repent of their sins and put their faith in Jesus Christ and live new lives that bring glory to God, that do true good to people.

God’s power in persecution, it’s to give us words and wisdom that are sufficient to the task and to the moment, so that the power is not explainable, because of us, or through us, or because of us. It’s clearly because of him. All of it, to bring glory and honor to him. Even in the pain of persecution, think about each of those points. God has a purpose in the pain, as well. Peter says, that “the fiery ordeal comes upon you.” He says, “for your testing to prove the quality of your faith,” not to destroy you, but to prove you, to strengthen you, to bring you through that fire.

And, and the, the, the faith that is more precious than gold, even though it’s tried by fire. When it’s tried by fire, true gold is purified, it’s not destroyed. Tested with the prospect of physical death, true faith does not shrink back. It endures under the trial, because God has made us invincible, truly invincible. Tested with the pain of intimate betrayal, we find that true faith doesn’t prefer anyone else, even close family members, to Christ. We would rather stand with Christ, and fall with Christ, and die unto Christ, than betray him who saved us from our sins. He is that precious to us.

He’s a friend that’s closer than a brother. Tested with the pain of universal hatred, the world hating God and hating Christ and because we represent God and Christ, they hate us too. And yet tested with that pain of universal hatred, true faith clings so closely to the Lord Jesus Christ, that though Mother and Father abandoned me, yet I will hold fast to him. He’s the one who has loved us and gave himself for us. If I should be counted worthy to die for his name’s sake, the worst thing that could happen to me, immediate glory. Death takes me to, immediately transports me, to the presence of Christ, the one I love.

God’s promise in persecution is really our soul’s salvation. And so Peter goes on to say that to the degree that you share in the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing. Beloved, rejoice if you endure suffering for his name’s sake, or persecution. Keep on rejoicing, so that at the revelation of his glory you may rejoice with exaltation. If you’re reviled for the name of Christ, you’re blessed, because the spirit of glory that is glorifying God, revealing him, revealing who he is, and the Spirit of God rests upon you. That’s why you suffer. That’s why they’re persecuting you. It’s because you look more and more like him. Amen.

Is that good news? Let’s pray. Our Father, thank you so much for this, the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. We thank you for raising him up and sending him to be the savior of our sins. Sending him to us. We’re so grateful for his teaching, the illumination of the truth by your Spirit. We thank you for this precious word that we have that, shines forth the path to glory, and it does come through suffering and persecution.

We pray that, if this does come to us, in our time, in our church, it should help us to stand firm and to endure to the end. Because we know your plan for this. It’s for our testimony. It’s for our good. It’s for our strength, for our growing. It’s so that you may be glorified in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, the one we love. It’s in whose name we pray. Amen.

The post God’s Plan for Persecution, Part 2 appeared first on Grace Church Greeley.

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Luke 21:12-13

Well, we are back in Luke 21 today, and so you’ll want to turn in your Bibles to Luke 21, if you’re not already there. This fascinating teaching from our Lord on the End Times and in this section, that we’re gonna get into, or what we’ve been in really is our Lord speaking about events in history, and time, and really the future; that span, the time between his post resurrection, ascension into heaven, all the way to his glorious return at the Second Coming.

There are many of you who are staying current with our Bible reading plan, our Bible reading program for our church and if, so you’ve just finished reading Luke 21. But for, but for some of you maybe, it’s maybe you’re out of, kind of, a little bit behind; maybe it’s been a couple weeks since you’ve looked into this, so what I’d like to do is just begin by reading this whole section of Jesus’ answer starting at verse 5, Luke 21:5.

I’ll start reading from there, “And while some were talking about the temple, that it had been adorned with beautiful stones and dedicated gifts, he said, ‘As for these things which you are looking at, the days will come in which there will not be one stone left upon another which will not be torn down.’ So they questioned him, saying, ‘Teacher, when, therefore will these things happen? And what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?’ And he said, ‘See to it that you are not deceived, for many will come in my name saying, “I am He! And, “The time is at hand!” Do not go after them. And when you hear of wars and disturbances, do not be terrified, for these things must take place first, but the end does not follow immediately.’

“Then, he continued, saying to them, ‘Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. But before all these things they will lay their hands on you, and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake. It will result in an opportunity for your testimony. So set in your hearts not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute.

“‘But you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, and you will be hated by all because of My name. Yet not a hair of your head will perish. By your perseverance you will gain your lives. But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is at hand. And then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are in the midst of the city must leave, and those who are in the countryside must not enter the city; because these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled.

“‘Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days; for there will be great distress upon the land, and wrath against this people, they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive,’” into the nations, “‘into all the nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

“‘And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth anguish among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting from fear and the expectations of the things which are coming upon the world; For the POWERS OF THE HEAVENS will be shaken. And then they will see THE SON OF MAN COMING IN A CLOUD with power and great glory. But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.’

“Then he told them a parable: ‘Behold the fig tree and all the trees: as soon as they put forth leaves, and you see it for yourselves,’ you, ‘know that summer is now near. So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away. But be on,’ your, ‘guard, so that your hearts will not be overcome with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day will not come upon you suddenly like a trap; for it will come upon all those who inhabit the face of all the earth.

“‘But keep on the alert at all times, praying earnestly that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.’” Now that is Jesus’ answer; all of that in response to the questions that his disciples asked him back in verse 7. “When, therefore, will these things be? And what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?”

As we’ve seen, as we’ve studied, and talked about these things, that term encompasses the future of Israel, its entire eschatology. It includes the Second Coming. It includes the end of the age. It’s speaking about the age of fulfillment, as God fulfills promises of restoration that he made to Israel. But before things get better, which is after the glorious return of Christ, things are going to get worse, a lot worse. There will be, in the future, this unprecedented time of tribulation on the earth, unlike anything the world has ever seen.

Jesus begins there in verse 8, speaking about the events of the first half of the tribulation. They themselves are a prelude to the end, but not them, in and of themselves, signs of the end. It’s not yet the end. There will be false messiahs. There will be human conflict, war, social chaos. There will be the consequences that result from war, like famines and plagues. There will be geological disturbances like earthquakes, cosmic disturbances like terrors, and then great signs from heaven. And yet with all of this Jesus’ message to believing Israel is this first, it’s this: Do not be deceived. Do not be misled. Don’t be led astray by the audacious claims of those who come claiming to be Messiah.

Don’t go after the many false Messiahs who rise up, who come in Jesus’ name, who claim to be the Christ, who claim to be the Second Coming of Christ himself, and that the end is upon them. Don’t follow them. And though they come, as they will, accompanied by false prophets and show great signs and wonders, according to Matthew 24:24, “they will mislead, if possible, even the elect.” So powerful, all, are all these signs, Jesus says, even so, even though many will be deceived and follow after them; you don’t do that.

He also says, to believing Israel, don’t be terrified. A very strong word there for terror, with a very strong injunction. Don’t be terrified by conflicts, verses 9 and 10. Don’t be terrified by catastrophes, in the first part of verse 11. Don’t be terrified by any calamities, whether earthquakes, or terrors or great signs from heaven. To date, none of what Jesus has described in verses 8 through 11 has happened yet, in human history.

Now it is true that there have been isolated instances of each and every one of these phenomenon. Even before the time of Christ, there were false Messiahs, there were wars, social chaos, earthquakes, famines, plagues. If we go back to the Exodus, we see terrors and signs from heaven. None of that has been on the scale that Jesus has predicted here. None of that has been with the frequency or with the intensity that Jesus has predicted here.

Nothing has engulfed the world such as to warrant this very strong language that Jesus uses and the strong injunctions that he gives his disciples. In verse 8, “See to it.” Be on the lookout so, “that you’re not deceived.” And then in verse 9, “Do not be terrified.” Do not cower in crave and fear, like the rest of the world. Nothing has risen up like that to tempt even believers to this level of deception, or to this level of mass hysteria, and worldwide panic and terror.

If you need to be reminded of the level that Jesus is speaking of, just revisit the sixth chapter of Revelation as Jesus breaks the seals on the scroll and he unleashes, the four horsemen of the apocalypse. We saw there, that 1/4 of the earth’s population dies in a very short span of time; just within a few years. Nothing like that has ever happened in the world up, to this point. Not in the decades before Jesus; not in the decades between Jesus’ ascension in AD 33, and the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. And not at any point since, in history, has anything like this, on this scale happened.

But once they do start to happen, Jesus wants believing Israel to know, all believers to know that these things, according to Matthew 24:8 and Mark 13:8, they are merely the beginning of birth pains. But the end is not yet; all these things must take place by necessity of the divine plan. But the end does not follow after immediately. Now look at verse 12, because Jesus at this point, in his prediction, puts down the telescope and he picks up the binoculars. He turns from looking to the very far future, and now he shifts the focus to talk about the nearer future. For these disciples, it will be a future of coming persecution followed by Jerusalem’s destruction.

Jesus is going to go back after talking about Jerusalem’s destruction in verses 20 to 24, he’s going to go back to the distant future, pick up the telescope again in verse 25; he’s going to return to the theme of signs from heaven, that he left off in verse 11, and that connects to the signs in verse 25,in sun and moon and stars, turbulence in the seas, celestial powers shaken to such a degree and extent that, that people faint from fear and dreaded anticipation all over the world.

All those things are just a prelude to the final sign, which is the sign, the true sign of Christ’s return, verse 27, when all “will see the SON OF MAN COMNG IN A CLOUD with great power and great glory.” It’ll be just as lightning flashes from the east and to the West and everybody sees it. Nobody misses it, but there is a lot of history that needs to happen, first.

Verse 12, if you’re taking notes, this is the outline that we’ll follow for this section, which we’ll cover this week and next week, and I hope not the weeks after, but we’ll see. We’ll see. But if you’re taking notes, here’s the outline we’re going to follow for this section from verses 12 to 19, and you just jot these points down and we’ll come back to them. First of all, in verses 12 to 13: The purpose in persecution. The purpose in persecution verses 12 and 13, “But before all these things they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing before kings and governors for My name’s sake. It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony.” That’s the purpose in persecution, verses 12 and 13.

Then secondly: The power in persecution. The power in persecution, verses 14 to 15, “So make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves, for I will give you an utterance and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute.” That’s the second point: The power in persecution. What’s the power? “I will give you.” It’s the power of God. The power of Christ. As we’ll see, it’s a Trinitarian power at work in persecution, to hold us fast, to cause us to endure, to cause us to accomplish God’s purposes, and persecution to give an opportunity for our testimony to the Gospel.

Number three, third in our outline: The pain in persecution. The pain in persecution, verses 16 and 17. The pain and persecution is not the persecution itself, but it is why the persecution is happening. Look at it there, “But you will be delivered up, even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, and you’ll be hated by all on account of My name.” There’s no deeper pain is there then betrayal. Pain in your family as they hand you over and the loyalty and the love that you feel and the affection you feel for your family, when they don’t love your Lord and the Messiah and they hand you over, deliver you over to authorities. That is the pain in persecution. It’s to see the hand by which it comes.

But finally, the promise in persecution, number four, verses 18 to 19, “And yet in all of this not a hair of your head will perish and by your endurance you’ll gain your lives.” Now, it may, it may seem like a contradiction that some of you “will be put to death and yet not a hair of your head will perish.” We’ll get to that when we get to that. But understand that we’re talking about eternal salvation, “not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance, you will gain your lives.”

So, the purpose, the power, the pain, the promise in persecution that is the outline for verses 12 to 19, that we’re going to follow. It’s going to take us a couple of weeks to get through those verses, so just be patient. But before we jump into this outline and start to move forward, I want to make a few introductory remarks. Just stick with me. It’ll take just a few minutes. But this is kind of a, a, utility here and that I need to address at some point. So it might as well be now.

I want to show you, first of all, the relationship of these verses to the other synoptic gospels, Matthew and Mark. Let’s start by turning over to Mark’s Gospel, just to see the relationship of these verses, that we’ve just gone through in this outline, verses 12 to 19 in Luke 21. And to show how it connects with Mark 13 and the words there; Mark’s Gospel, turn to Mark 13 verse 9 and you can see how Mark parallels Luke.

What we’ve covered in Luke, so far, as Jesus begins to answer his disciples, in Luke 21:8 through 11, as we’ve just read through about the beginning of the tribulation. This prediction of coming persecution, verses 12 to 19, in the near future, persecution of his disciples that they’re going to experience personally; we have that same order of events in Mark’s Gospel in Mark 13:5 to 8, that parallels with Luke, 21:8 to 11.

And then we read this starting in verse 9, which also parallels Luke, “but see to yourselves.” So he tells them about the events of the great tribulation, and he says, “but see to yourselves; for they will deliver you to the courts, you will be beaten in the synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for My sake, as a witness to them. And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all the nations. And when they lead you away, delivering you up, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say, but say whatever is given to you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but it is the Holy Spirit. And brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child and children rise up against parents and have them put to death. And you’ll be hated by all because of My name, but the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.”

The same pattern we read in Luke, isn’t it? Note here, once again, the involvement of Jewish authorities in the persecution, as well as, gentile authorities. But notice the Jewish authorities, the reference to the synagogue. There will be universal hatred; a hatred that is as remote and far removed from you, as governing authorities, but also very close and intimate, as close as family members. You’ll be hated by all, and yet true faith endures. True faith finds salvation in the preserving of the soul before God. Same pattern in Mark and Luke.

Right, now turn to Matthew’s Gospel. Go over to Matthew in chapter 24. Matthew sounds similar to Mark and Luke, but this section of Matthew, it is a bit different and I’ll show you that. Matthew 24:4 to 8, we see that Jesus begins his answer, and as Jesus begins his answer and talks about the end and the beginning of the tribulation, that’s parallel to Luke 21:8 to 11, parallel to Mark, 13:5 to 8; ground we’ve covered already. So far so good.

When we come to Matthew 24:9, what seems at first glance to be much the same or similar, on closer inspection we find that it is different than Mark and Luke. Look at Matthew 24:9, “Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. And at that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and deceive many.

“And because lawlessness is multiplied, most people’s love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be proclaimed in the whole world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” Notice that there is no mention of what Luke recorded of being delivered up to the synagogues. There’s no Jewish persecution talked about here. There’s no mention of what Mark recorded of being beaten up in the synagogues. Again, no Jewish authorities and Jewish persecution involved in Matthew’s section.

Here in Matthew, there is no Jew-on-Jew persecution. It’s all Gentile on Jew persecution; nations against the Jew persecution; betrayal, yeah, that’s gonna go on, treachery, lawlessness, love growing cold, that’s all there. But the hostility is coming from the nations and it’s coming against believing Jews. So in Matthew’s account, he records Jesus’ predictions about the great tribulation from the start of his answer, in verse 4, all the way to the Second Coming, verses 29 to 31. The whole thing is talking about the great tribulation and, the just, so just before the son of man comes, verses 29 to 31.

Believing Jews who will live through the tribulation period, their endurance and their testimony is going to result in the universal proclamation of the gospel. And it’s a gospel, here noted, as the gospel of God’s kingdom, preaching that gospel of Psalm chapter 2, preaching that gospel to the whole world as a testimony to the nations. In other words, these Jews living at that time in the tribulation are gonna proclaim to the entire Gentile world, listen, you had better repent. You had better bow the knee, because our Messiah is returning to set up his kingdom.

So “kiss the Son,” now, Psalm 2, bow your knee before the King who’s coming, “lest he be angry with you.” Yes you. Lest you perish in your rebellion. You’d better put your eyes on him. Humble yourself before him. That’s how Matthew differs from Luke and Mark. His entire record of the Olivet Discourse focuses on the great tribulation and the Second Coming. Mark tracks with Luke through the verses in this section, Luke 21:9-12 and 19, but, then it fat, then he fast forwards. Mark does fast forward past that tribulation and persecution section, fast forwards to the great tribulation and tracks with Matthew from then on. Luke differs from both Matthew and Mark, because he covers not only the persecution against believers, but also covers the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, which is different than Matthew and Mark.

Luke 21:20 to 24 is about the destruction of Jerusalem and then he moves ahead to the events surrounding the Second Coming from there. Now you’re going to want to go back on the website and listen to everything that I said again, and to go through it slowly, so that you can track with what I’ve said. I realize that the first time of hearing it is sometimes hard to track with and follow the argument, but you will be able to follow the argument, if you go back, write a few things down as you listen.

Listen to the, to the recorded sermon. But since you are in Matthew’s Gospel, turn back a few pages and let me show you something that is very familiar. Go to the 10th chapter of Matthew. Remember Matthew? Remember Matthew, chapter 10 is when Jesus summons his 12 disciples. He names them there at the beginning of the chapter, and he gives them power and authority over unclean spirits to cast them out. He gives them power and authority to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.

And then he sends them out with instructions to visit not the Gentiles, not the Samaritans at this point, but stick to visiting the villages of Israel preaching this message: The kingdom of heaven is at hand. And then he says this; look at Matthew 10, verses 16 and following, “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. But beware of men, for they will deliver you over to the courts and flog you in their synagogues; and you,” you, “will even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.

“But when they deliver you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.” In Luke it was, “I will give you.” In Mark, it’s “the Holy Spirit who will speak through.” Here, it is “the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.” Trinitarian power in persecution. Verse 21, “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one,” who has in, “who has endured to the end, who will be saved. Whenever they persecute you in this city, flee to the next; for truly I say to you, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes.”

All of a sudden, it’s turned into an eschatological passage; the coming of the son of man. Not only does that sound strikingly similar to what we read in Mark 13:9 to 13, and then our texts Luke 21:12 and 19, but notice that last statement, “You won’t finish going through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes.” That final statement there, in verse 23, had spoken two years or so before the Olivet Discourse. It’s spoken in the region of Galilee. Clearly, Jesus had been warning them about this coming persecution for a long time. This is material that he has been speaking, repeatedly, throughout his ministry to his disciples, comes up again in the Olivet Discourse; means he’s alluded to the tribulation before. He has spoken of his second coming as well, and yet, how slow of heart they are to believe, how dull they are to understand what Jesus has said and predicted.

Now, with all this in mind, let’s go back to Luke 21, Luke 21 verse 12. Let’s just give you two more introductory notes. I’ve talked to you about the relationship between the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, and how all these things kind of, kind of play out in each of those contexts. But now I want to give you a note about the timing of verses 12 through 19, because clearly Jesus has said, “but before all these things.” So there is a, a timing issue and the timing that Jesus is warning his disciples about, the time of the coming persecution, this persecution is going to start soon after he ascends into heaven, soon after he sends the Holy Spirit to the church in Acts chapter 2.

In fact, as we are going to see, a little later, the entire book of Acts, that’s the sequel to Luke’s Gospel; so it’s Luke Part 2. It portrays the beginning of the fulfillment of everything that we see in Luke 21:12 to 19 and trace it all the way through the book of Acts, and persecution of the Jerusalem authorities. And, by the way, in Jerusalem it was not just Jewish authorities that were there in Jerusalem, but Jew and Gentile. Jewish authority of the Sanhedrin, but also Gentile authority through the governor, the Roman governor in this case here, Pontius Pilate. But then there are other Roman governors beyond that.

All that persecution from authorities in Jerusalem, whether Jew or Gentile, all that came to an abrupt end when the Romans besieged the city of Jerusalem in AD 66 and then sacked the city and raised it to the ground in AD 70. And that’s what we’re going to see next, in Luke verses 20 to 24, the destruction of Jerusalem. It’s besieging. It’s being surrounded by Roman armies. It’s being destroyed, and sacked, and razed to the ground, that puts an end to Jerusalem authorities persecuting the Church.

But even Jerusalem’s destruction, though it brought an end to temple worship, to temple sacrifice, the entire Jewish system of false worship that rejected its own Messiah, even though all that ended in AD 70, the persecution of Christians did not end in AD 70. Has it? We have a little book called, Fox’s Book of Martyrs. I don’t know if you’ve ever read from that, but you should.

You should get yourself a, every, every home should have a copy of Fox’s Book of Martyrs and read from it from time to time. But we can see that the Romans continued persecuting the Christians for the next two centuries. And sometimes they did it systematically, sometimes as a part of their, their, campaign or their administration. But ever since then, even at the end of the official persecution of Christianity by the Romans in 313 by Emperor Constantine, ever since then, even after the decline of the Roman Empire, persecution has erupted in various places around the world, at various times in history, under various circumstances.

We know persecution against Christians continues to this very day, in different parts of the world. So that’s important because what we study about persecution in this section, though it started with the Jerusalem church, this becomes a prototype for all churches and all Christians who will ever experience persecution.

All throughout the church age, any Christian, any church that experiences persecution because of the sake of the name, because of the sake of Jesus’ name. This is the prototype of how we endure, how we pass through, how we think about persecution. Not all churches are gonna face this level of persecution, at every church, and every place, and every time. Not all Christians are gonna face this level of persecution. But for any church, any church, any Christian that faces persecution, the persecution that came upon the 1st century Jerusalem Church sets a prototype for all Christians throughout the church age, from the 1st to the 21st century, until Christ comes to rapture the church. Whenever that happens. When he takes us home to be with him, this is the paradigm.

So Jesus’ words of comfort and encouragement, the way that he prepares his disciples to endure persecution, revealing God’s plan for persecution. This prepares all his people, at all times, wherever they live in the world, whenever they live on the timeline of church history, however, they face that persecution. If and when it comes, they will face it knowing the plan. They’ll face it with courage. They’ll face it with confidence. They’ll face it with deep conviction.

One more introductory note to give you, just about the context, and this helps us see the purpose of this section. Why is it that Jesus pulled out the telescope at the beginning of his answer and looked to the very far future, and then put down the telescope, picked up the binoculars and talked about what was gonna happen next, to them? Why did Jesus stop in his prediction about the birth pains and the tribulation before the end, prior to his Second Coming, and then turn and speak directly to his disciples about the coming persecution? Why? Because his disciples did not see any of this coming at all.

It doesn’t matter how many times he predicted his own suffering, his rejection, his betrayal, his arrest, his, his death at the hands of the Romans. Doesn’t matter how many times he promised persecution would be coming to them and that they’d need the confidence and the power of the Holy Spirit to, to help them through this. Their operative eschatology was that the coming of Messiah meant, next stop glory for us.

They believed, now that Jesus the Christ has come, and now that they have made their travel, their journey all the way up to Jerusalem, now that they’ve arrived in Jerusalem, and now that Jesus has taken over the temple, they think, man the king is, he’s just around the corner. He’s going to vanquish his enemies, he’s going to set up his kingdom, he’s going to restore Israel’s rightful place over the nations of the earth and Christ is going to reign on David’s throne. And by the way, there will be some thrones around him where we’ll sit.

So the Lord is wanting them to understand it’s gonna get worse. It’s gonna get way worse before it gets better. It’s gonna get worse for you. Not only has it been granted to them to believe, but also to suffer for the sake of his name. Philippians 1:29, it’s true for all of us, “the faith that has been granted to us by God.” In the same sentence that says, “the faith has been granted to us by God,” says, “the suffering that we share in Christ has also been granted to us as a gift.”

These disciples are going to share in their Lord’s suffering, and so Jesus needs right now to start strengthening them. He needs to prepare them for the suffering ahead. In fact, on the very next night, after the Discourse on the Mount of Olives, on this particular occasion, the very next night, remember, Jesus brings the 12 together in the upper room. That’s the night of his betrayal. And they’ll leave the upper room, go back to the Mount of Olives. And that’s where, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Judas brings the Roman cohort to arrest him. But he brings the 12 together before that in the upper room, and he says to them, John 15:18, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you’re not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’” Listen, “‘if they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.”

The purpose in persecution: persecution will lead to an opportunity for your testimony. Jesus says in Luke 21:13 “this persecution will lead to an opportunity for your testimony.”

Travis Allen & JesusIt’s coming. Beloved, those are words, the Church has lived by ever since the days of the apostles and as true today, they are, as the day that Jesus gave them to the apostles in the upper room. This is how we live. This is what we expect from the world. It’s most painful, isn’t it? When this hatred from the world enters into our families, enters into our homes, separates parents from children, brothers from sisters, grandparents from grandchildren, grandchildren from grandparents, Right? This hatred is so hard to take, so painful.

These first disciples had to have their minds reoriented and renewed by Jesus’ prediction of this coming persecution. We too, we also need to have our minds reoriented, renewed, girded up by the truth, so that we can endure suffering in our time, so we can live faithfully in our time and persevere in obedience to Jesus Christ. Naturally, we do not like being hated, do we? None of us likes that. We don’t like being hated by, every, anyone.

We really like to be liked, but we have to accept this fact that those who do not obey the gospel of Jesus Christ, those who reject the lordship of Christ over their lives, those who refuse to fear God and keep His commandments, and those who refuse to revere God’s word, if we stand for Christ, if we stand with Christ, they will hate us, and it will be your own flesh and blood that does it. That’s the most painful, as this passage shows us even family members will hate us. He said this on many occasions. This is not new.

So this section that we’re gonna go through verses 12 to 19, particularly relevant, immediately applicable, to all of us as Christians in every single age. Okay, let’s dispense with the introduction. That’s, I’m not in my outline yet, so my time hasn’t started. Really. I’m. I’m good to go. All right, first point, first point; let’s start to, just, at least cover a couple of these verses for today.

Okay, first point: The purpose of persecution. The purpose in persecution. Look again with the text, verses 12 to 13, “But before all these things.” What things? Before the things he just talked about in verses 8 through 11, before all the, the, beginnings of the birth pains of the tribulation. “Before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake. It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony.”

According to the construction in the Greek language here, it’s very clear that Jesus keeps the prediction of, of, suffering in persecution, and the purpose of the persecution conjoined; they’re one thought. So on the one hand, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, but on the other hand, join to this prediction of persecution not to be separated from it, it, that is the persecution will lead to an opportunity for your testimony.

See what Jesus is saying here, how he speaks about persecution? He’s saying, yeah, yeah, it’s coming, persecution’s coming. But no worries. I got it all figured out. It’s part of the plan. We got it scripted. The Father has written it down. It’s in stone. It’s going to happen to all of us. In fact, I’m going to go first. Persecution’s coming; Jesus says, but it’s nothing to be afraid of. Embrace persecution. Embrace suffering. Because, listen, it is not an obstacle to be avoided. It is an opportunity to be embraced. Persecution is something to rejoice in. That’s why in the Beatitudes, he says, “When you’re persecuted for the sake of the name, rejoice and be glad for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

“Fix your eyes on Jesus.” Right? Hebrews 12:2. He “the author and perfecter of our faith, for the joy set before Him,” he, “endured the cross.” He “despised the shame.” He “sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Persecution, suffering even to the point of a shameful death by crucifixion; not an obstacle to be avoided. No, instead, it’s an opportunity to embrace.

So, having said that, let’s isolate that first part in verse 12, which is the prediction of persecution. Two main verbs just state the fact of the persecution. They will lay their hands on you and will persecute you. Two main verbs lay their hands on you, persecute you. And then there are two participles that describe the persecution. They’ll be delivering you and bringing you. Okay, so the fact of the persecution, they’ll lay their hands on you. The word, epiballō, it describes a violent movement of the hands. So not just put their hands on you, not patting your back, not giving you a side hug, This isn’t even a fist bump. They will throw their hands on you is the idea. They will grab you. They will forcibly put their hands on you to grab you and force you to go where you don’t want to go.

Same thing, same verb, by the way, used of the scribes and the chief priests back in Luke 20 verse 19 says, “the scribes and the chief priests tried to lay hands on him that very hour.” It wasn’t hands of appreciation; it wasn’t hands of affirmation. No, they had hoped to catch him in something, saying something against Rome, so they could hand him over to the governor for punishment. Same thing here. They’re gonna lay their hands on you and they’re gonna deliver you over to the synagogues. They’re gonna cast you into the prisons and they’ll bring you before kings and governors. So that’s the first word, is the fact that persecution, they’re gonna lay their hands on you.

Secondly, the common word for persecute is used there, diōkō. Diōkō: It, it refers to a violent, hostile pursuit of somebody. It’s basically chasing after them. Just picture it. You know, bullies chasing after a kid down the street. The kid runs and hops over fences and everything. These bullies are just surrounding him and running and running and running, chasing, going after them, pursuing them, trying to catch them. And they want to grab them and order that they can then drive that person away, drive that person out, expel them, sometimes even kill them, as it is in the case with Jesus.

So that’s the idea here, chasing you down, grabbing you, getting their hands on you to persecute you. Jesus says this is what they’re gonna do to you. To what end? It’s for, the end of delivering you to the synagogues and the prisons. Here, the word delivering you is a legal, technical term for passing someone along in the judicial process. So it means to, basically, to turn you over to the authorities; authorities here represented by synagogues and prisons. Synagogues refers to the Jewish authorities, prisons refers to Gentile authorities.

We know this, in our study of Luke’s Gospel, that synagogues, Jesus often was in synagogues every single week on the Sabbath. He found himself in a synagogue. But they were not just places of worship, they’re more like community centers, and they had something going on all through the Jewish week. Wide range of functions in the synagogue that serve the local community. It was the heart and soul, really, of the Jewish community.

Ever since the days of the Babylonian exile and onward, the synagogue was the heart of Jewish life, in the towns and the villages surrounding Jerusalem. So the synagogue was a place of instruction on the Sabbath, for reading Torah, reading and explaining the prophets. But it was also, even during the week, it was where tradition was passed down from one generation to the next generation; instructing on the market days when, when, when parents would bring, bring, their, their product to market or their whatever trade they were involved in. When they brought that into town or when they brought their crops from the field into town to sell it and trade.

Typically on Mondays and Thursdays, they would come in and then they would bring their children into the synagogue and they would send their children in there for instruction; for school, basically, it was like a homeschool program. Homeschool augmenting program, that’s basically what it was. So, vital tool the synagogue was for the enculturation of the coming generations, to teach them the, the law, the prophets, the traditions, all those things handed down.

So very important, the synagogue was for worship, instruction, acculturation, education of the coming generation of the Jews. Synagogue was also the place for the administration of the community and for the adjudication of civil matters, settling disputes. Judges were there. The synagogue ruler would act as an ultimate judge in his area. The synagogue had the authority to include and to exclude. It had the authority to approve and to censure its citizens. Jesus actually alluded to this function in Luke 6:22, when he said, Blessed are you when men hate you and when men ostracize you, or the word is also, exclude you, when they cast insult to you, spurn your name as evil for the sake of the son of man, blessed are you.

Reference to ostracizing, excluding that is the power Jesus is speaking of, of, the synagogue to excommunicate people from the community. The verb, aphorizō, refers to separation; means to push someone outside of a boundary. And that’s the idea in excommunication. Synagogue: If you’re living in that community, that synagogue, excommunication, that is a big deal. That is a serious issue. One commentator says, “the usual sentence was for 30 days. If there’s an offence and you’re actually excommunicated from the community, 30 days being excommunicated, where the excommunicant might not come back within four cubits of anybody in that society.” Wow.

Person’s treated like a leper, unclean, judged, ousted from the synagogue, no social contacts with friends and family, no physical contact with others. And if that offending behavior continued and persisted, there was a summary judgment. That 30-day sentence could be extended to a permanent excommunication.

Excommunications a huge deal, because it forbade the whole community, for, from trading or interacting at all with that person. No buying or selling, no inviting them over for a meal, no family gatherings. Caught off completely, they might as well be dead. The writer of the Hebrews describes this level of persecution that happened to some Jewish Christians. It’s kind of exactly as Jesus predicts here, Hebrews 10:32 and following, “but remember the former days.” Now this is a second-generation Christian, those who received the gospel from the apostles, early prophets.

This is a second generation. “Remember the former days when, after being enlightened, you endured great conflict and sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and afflictions, and partly by becoming sharers with those who are so treated. For you also showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted with joy the seizure of your possessions, knowing that you have for yourselves a better and lasting possession.”

It’s a Trinitarian power at work in persecution, to hold us fast, to cause us to endure, to cause us to accomplish God’s purposes.

Travis AllenSuffering, reproach, afflictions, seizure of property, even imprisonment, the writer continues, and as he continues, we can kind of hear an echo once again of the encouragement that comes from Jesus in our passage. He says, “Therefore do not throw away that confidence of yours, which has a great reward. For you,” you, “have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise. For yet in a very little while, he who is coming will come, and will not delay. But my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in Him. But we’re not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.”

Synagogues and prisons: Luke 21, they’re joined together here in the Greek construction in such a way that they represent just this united authority, hostile authority. Synagogues represent Jewish authority; prisons represent gentile authority and the Roman prisons, they imprisoned the accused. They made the accused wait to stand before an adjudicating authority, mentioned here as kings and governors. And when they, when they were waiting, it was basically in jail waiting for their trial. They waited behind bars; waited in a prison cell.

It’s exactly, by the way, what happened to the Apostle Paul, starting in Acts 21:27 and following, and all the way basically to the end of Acts. In Act 21, he goes back to Jerusalem against the warnings by prophets that said, you’re going to be, you’re going to be seized there, you’re going to be arrested there, you’re going to be thrown into prison. He said, yeah, I’m going anyway. He was seized by an angry mob at the temple. He was dragged off out of the temple. He was beaten by the mob and the Roman, Roman, tribune, the governor, had to intervene with his cohort of soldiers and centurions.

They arrested Paul. In this case it was for his safety. But from then on Paul is remanded to Roman custody. He’s imprisoned first in Jerusalem, then for two years in Caesarea Philippi, and then finally he’s sent away to Rome to await his day with Caesar. Now, as I said here in Luke 21 verse 12, by the Greek construction Jesus uses, he’s keeping these two authorities joined together. So whether we’re talking about Jewish authority or Gentile authority, they are one in purpose. They’re united in hostility. They oppose the one name, verse 12, “for My name’s sake.”

These are enemies of the name. Why are they enemies of the name? Because that name represents a king, a king who has command over them. The Book of Acts is an extended illustration that shows the fulfillment of what Jesus predicted in this section. And I’d like you to turn to the Book of Acts. Just go over there and we’ll kind of start making our way through some of this, in the Book of Acts. Because it’s just, it’s absolutely fascinating to see how specifically these illustrations kind of apply to what Jesus has said in Luke 21:12 and following.

We can’t unpack everything, but we can start to do that in, say, Acts chapter 4. Remember, in Acts chapter 3, Peter healed the lame man in the temple. They’re at Solomon’s Portico, that seems to be where the Christians hung out. And the healing of this lame man in the temple remember, Peter said, “Silver and gold have I none, but what I do have, I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ.” Arise, get on your feet. Walk. He was “walking and leaping and praising God.” Right?

That healing gave an opportunity for Peter and John to preach the Gospel and the resurrection. Look at verses, chapter 4, right after that section; chapter 4, verses 1 to 3, “Now, as they were speaking to the people, the priest and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them, being greatly agitated because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they laid hands on them and put them in jail until the next day, for it was already evening.” There’s a lot to that story. Okay? We’re going to come back to that.

We work our way through the Book of Acts. Probably next year, maybe year after. Maybe we’ll start the Book of Acts. I’m just kidding. It’s going to take a while to get through Luke, but we will come to the Book of Acts. But notice what happens next in verse 4, the same expression, laid hands on them and then throw them in jail until the next day. It’s already evening. “But many of those who had heard the message believed, the number of the men came to be about five thousand. Now it happened that on the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem; and Annas the high priest was there, and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of high-priestly descent.”

Basically, you got a, a, colloquium of the Sanhedrin. “When they placed them in their midst, they began to inquire by what power and what name, have you done this? And then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit,” exactly as Jesus has promised, “said to them, ‘Rulers and elders of the people,’” and on he goes to preach the gospel. Again, look ahead at Acts chapter 5, Acts chapter 5, and you can find your way to verse 17; as a result of the Ananias and Sapphira incident, kind of the first death to come upon, a death of judgement, to come upon the early Church. Great fear came upon the whole Church in verse 11, but also more ministry in the temple.

Verses 12 to 16, again, it was happening at Solomon’s portico. That was a place to be. Preaching was there. Healing was there. And then this, as it says in verse 17 of chapter 5, “But the high priest rose up, and those with him (that is the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with jealousy.” “They laid hands on the apostles,” there it is again, “and put them in a public jail.” Once again, exactly as Jesus said. The Sanhedrin’s attempt to stop the apostles was then thwarted by the Angel of the Lord who conducted a prison break and a prisoner extraction.

I love this. This is my kind of OP, verse 19, “But during the night, an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the prison.” Didn’t even have to use explosives, just opened the doors of the prison and taken them out; “said, ‘Go stand and speak to the people in the temple the whole message of this life.’ Upon hearing this, they entered into the temple about daybreak and began to teach,” again.

Just as Jesus said in Luke 21:13, “this persecution will lead to an opportunity for your testimony.” Turn the page. Go to Acts Chapter 6, verse 8. We got one of the early prototypical Deacons. Prototypes of the Deacons, “Stephen,” Verse 8; “full of grace and power,” he’s “doing great wonders and signs among the people. But some men from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, including both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and Asia, they rose up, and they were arguing with Stephen. But they were unable to oppose the wisdom and the Spirit by whom he was speaking.”

So that promised not just for the apostles, but also for this Deacon, “the Spirit by whom he was speaking. Then they secretly induced men to say, ‘We’ve,’ heard from him, ‘heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.’ And they stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes, and they came up to him, and dragged him away, brought him to the Sanhedrin.” Same thing.

Now we know from the rest of the story, Acts Chapter 7, Stephen doesn’t come out of this trial alive, but again testifies about the gospel of Jesus Christ. He testifies before the entire gathered Sanhedrin, the Jewish authorities. It’s an absolutely incredible moment. Guess what? The pre-converted Saul of Tarsus is there. He’s hearing all this. He’s, he’s, he, he, gets in on the act. He’s not only there to guard the, the, cloaks and the coats of all those who are stoning Stephen, but he gets into the act, going to lay his hands on the Christians to persecute them, and drag them before the authorities. He becomes a part of this story. On the wrong end of the story, he’s one of the persecutors.

Look at Acts chapter 8, verse 1. There’s, Saul, “in hearty agreement with putting Stephen to death. And on that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout all the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.” Oh, no, they’re scattered. Oh, no, they’re driven away from their homes. But, “some devout men buried Stephen made loud lamentation over him. But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, dragging off men and women, delivering them up into prison.”

But again, what resulted from that? Oh no, I’ve lost my home. Oh no, I’m driven away. “Therefore,” verse 4, “those who had been scattered went about, proclaiming the good news of the word. Philip went down to the city of Samaria, began preaching, preaching Christ to them. The crowds, with one accord, were giving attention to what was being said by Philip, and they heard and saw signs which he was doing.” And, “in the case of many who had unclean spirits, coming out of them, shouting with a loud voice; and many who had been paralyzed and lame were healed. So there was a great joy in that city.” Revival breaks out.

I mean, I don’t mind losing my house. Can I be a part of that? The, emeny, enemies of the gospel, which in this case early on included Saul himself, Saul of Tarsus. The enemies of the gospel intended harm, one to shut down the voice of those who speak in the Savior’s name. But it’s futile. It’s useless to oppose this movement. Just as Jesus said, “It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony.” He says, It’s all a part of the plan. It’s going completely according to how God the Father has mapped this out. This is exactly how it’s supposed to happen. We could keep going through the Book of Acts, and we will one day; we’ll have to leave it there for now.

The entire record, as I said, of the Book of Acts, just keeps unfolding this fulfillment of Jesus prediction and suffering, and it keeps demonstrating God’s purpose in persecution, which is to provide an occasion and an opportunity to give a testimony of the saving power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And friend, as we drive this to a close, I’m just going to ask which side of this equation are you on? Do you stand with Saul of Tarsus, the Sanhedrin, all the power brokers of governing authority, in your time, in your community? Will you stand opposed to the son, to the Christ who will come again, in, but this time in judgement? Or will you suffer, the, for the sake of Christ’s name? Will you take your stand with him? Will you receive the opprobrium, the contempt, the hatred of the unbelieving world? Will you gladly receive it; rejoicing to suffer for his sake to be persecuted for his name, so that you can have an opportunity to testify to the saving power of Christ?

You’re only gonna suffer for him, if you know him. There are many people who claim to know Jesus Christ, but when push comes to shove, they fade away. When the heat is turned up and persecution comes, you find them peeling away at a heartbeat. I mean, it only took a, a, pseudo virus, a pseudo pandemic to, to, cause many churches, just to shut down altogether and say, you know what, it’s not worth it. It’s not worth it.

I feel like that was a blessed test run for us as a church. 2020, 20 was a great year. I love 2020. It was like 2020 Vision. 2020 was a great time for true vision. Do you see clearly, or do you need glasses, or are you blind? You’re only going to suffer for one you know personally. You’re only going to be loyal to the one you know as Savior and Lord, the one who is your friend, the one you spend time with.

Have you received the saving grace of God through saving faith? Because it’s only believers, only the redeemed who’ve been reconciled to God, and only they who may be counted worthy to suffer for his name’s sake. Friend, if that’s not you, put your faith in him today. Bow with me in a word of prayer.

Our Father, we thank you for your marvelous plan that demonstrates your perfect wisdom; a plan that you decreed from before the foundation of the world, that is being unfolded as we see on the pages of Scripture being unfolded in Jesus Christ. We thank you that the greatest work of history was done at the dividing line of history in the first coming of Jesus Christ, that powerful time of Jesus’ life and ministry, his death, burial in the tomb, his resurrection from the dead, all those things have set a dividing line in the point of history, so that we even, we even number our calendars differently because of it.

The whole day of worship was changed from the Sabbath to the Lord’s day, Sunday, the first day of the week, which the day in which he rose from the dead. This one perfect life has made all the difference, and we pray that even today it would make a difference in some who do not yet know you, haven’t been reconciled to you because of Christ. Would you be pleased to save a few more that they may bring glory to your name through gratitude and joy and joining the rest of us in the proclamation of the gospel. And would you help the rest of us to see the implications of the fact that we serve a sovereign God who’s declared the end from the beginning, and has, and governs everything on the way through by his perfect providence.

Would you help believers here, to see how to apply this to their lives, that they may never worry or be anxious again. Because even the worst that could happen to us, which is our physical death, that’s the very best that could happen to us, because it transports us immediately into your presence, in the presence of our beloved Savior. Please glorify yourself in Christ through us. In his name we pray. Amen.

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1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

My name is Josh Oedy. I’m one of the pastors here at Grace Church, and it is my joy and really a special privilege for me to be able to open the Word with you on this Resurrection Sunday. This is the day that Christians gather together in churches around the world, and we give special attention to the most significant event in the history of the world, the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

On Friday night we came together, and we were reminded of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. Jesus Christ, who is truly God, truly man, lived the perfect life that we never could. He never sinned in word or action or even thought. He kept the law of God perfectly. Yet he went to the cross. He took upon himself the full wrath of God that was due to each one of us, each one of us that have been called out and saved through Christ. And as we saw in Bret’s sermon, Jesus bore our sin and shame. He was punished so that we might have peace with God. He purchased a people for himself through his atoning death on the cross, and those who believe and trust in what Christ has accomplished have been justified. We no longer stand as guilty criminals before a holy and just God, but now we stand as reconciled, adopted sons and daughters of God, who stand confidently in the righteousness of Jesus Christ that has been imputed to us, just as our punishment has been imputed to him on the cross.

And the reason that we say Resurrection Sunday is a celebration of the most significant event in the history of the world is because God raising Jesus from the dead is the proof that God has accepted this sacrifice, that we can in fact be confident, if we have been saved, that we are justified, that we are now adopted children of God. We can be certain because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that God does not see us as objects of his just wrath, but sees us now in the righteous robes of his precious Son, Jesus Christ. Because of the victory of Jesus Christ over the grave, all who are in him are also now guaranteed a similar victory over sin and over the grave. If Christ were not raised, then he died in vain. Everything we talked about on Friday night meant nothing. We would have no hope.

And that’s what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:13-19. He says, “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God, that he raised Christ whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile. You’re still in your sins, and those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.”

If Jesus Christ has not been raised, then there’s no point in even coming here today. There’s no joy. There’s no hope. We would have nothing to look forward to on this day that would be any different from the hope of the rest of the world, the way the rest of the world celebrates this day. If we’re only here because of some religious belief or religious story, a nice fable about a dead man rising from the dead and not the historical reality of the bodily resurrection of Christ, then we might as well just celebrate like the rest of the world, just, you know, bringing about the end of our hopeless physical lives even quicker through those disgusting, glittery, candy-coated marshmallows in the shape of baby chickens. Miserable, hopeless existence. Nothing really to look forward to. This is where we would be. No hope, just living in a constant state of trying the best to distract ourselves with entertainment, distract ourselves with some misguided purpose, everything we can to keep our minds off of the eternal.

But as Paul goes on to say, “In fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” And this is why we celebrate this day. It is not just in remembrance of an amazing historical event. It’s not like the Fourth of July. No, it’s because it is this very historical event that changes everything, a historical event, something that did take place in real space and time, that has an ongoing effect for all of eternity. The reason this is so is because the one stark reality for every person in every culture and every time is death. Death is always looming there. It is the sober reality that it is always just beneath the surface of even the best days that we have, even the sweetest moments that we have. It is the one thing that awaits us all.

Everyone lives a life filled with various moments, some good, some bad, cycles of eating and working and resting, attending events, developing relationships, all of these things done with varying degrees of enjoyment or pain depending on the person or the life, but all of it done while waiting for that day, maybe earlier in life, maybe later in life, where the body finally wears out or is prevented from functioning any longer from some outside force. Then it’s over. Death is inevitable, and I know that doesn’t sound very cheery on a Resurrection Sunday morning. But the resurrection of Jesus really only shines its brightest when it is painted against the dark and grim reality of death. This is why this day is so special, because that which is thought of by most people as the end, or as the end of our physical journey, well, that’s put into proper perspective now through the resurrection of Christ.

So Paul said in that passage from 1 Corinthians 15 that I just read that the resurrection of Jesus is the “firstfruits of all who have fallen asleep.” And biblically, that term, “firstfruits,” it’s an agricultural term that refers to the promise of a full crop. If you have a plant growing in your yard and you’re wondering what it is, if it’s any good, if it’s going to be good or not, and then one day you check it and you find a single raspberry on that, then now the wondering is over because you can be sure that this is a raspberry plant and more raspberries are coming, right? That’s the picture of “firstfruits.”

That’s the picture here. Jesus Christ has conquered the grave. He was dead, but now he is alive; and because he emerged from the grave, we can also be certain that more is coming. More graves will be opened, more dead will rise. And that’s what we are going to be looking at today. We’re going to be talking about the implications, the fruit, of the resurrection. What does the resurrection mean for us? How should we think, and what should we do in light of this wonderful truth?

So today we’re going to look at four implications of the resurrection. We’re going to do that by examining this promised fruit of the resurrection of Christ, the resurrection of the believer. And we’re going to see that as we look at 1 Thessalonians, 4:13-18. So you can turn to 1 Thessalonians now. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. I’m going to have four points, four implications of the resurrection, and as I was looking at this passage, you guys, this is like a three-sermon passage. I ran this by Bret on Friday, the idea that, “Hey, it’s Resurrection Sunday! Maybe we should, you know, go to church more and have a longer service, maybe even fast through lunch.” But Bret lacks vision, and he probably has a lot of mercy for you guys, and we couldn’t pull that on you at the last moment.

But four points today, four implications of the resurrection that we’re going to pull out of this text. Number one, the resurrection grounds our hope. Number two, the resurrection redefines death. Number three, the resurrection secures our future. Number four, the resurrection demands a response. And I’ll go back through those as we go. But this section of scripture, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, happens to be probably the most famous passage on the Rapture of the church, so hopefully it will dovetail well with what we have been looking at in Luke 21.

So for those of you who are visiting, Travis, who was up here earlier, is our our regular teaching pastor, a very gifted preacher and pastor, but he’s been going through the gospel of Luke. Right now we’re in chapter 21, which is the famous Olivet Discourse, where Jesus teaches his disciples about the coming destruction of Jerusalem, as well as the far future about his Second Coming and the various signs and events that will immediately precede it.

And while the passage before us today is no doubt one of the most significant eschatological passages, and no serious study of the last things can be done without considering it, the reason we are looking at it this morning is because of the connection with the resurrection. In fact, again, even though we can learn a lot about the Rapture, here, the reason that this passage exists, as is clear when you read it, is because of a pastoral concern that Paul has for this young church in Thessalonica and their misunderstanding about the resurrection of the dead. It appears as though what’s going on here is that they are discouraged, these Thessalonian Christians, because of some confusion and concern about what will happen to those among them who have died.

So if you read 1 and 2 Thessalonians, you’ll see that they deal actually quite a bit with instructions and teaching and expectations regarding the last things, regarding the day of the Lord. And much of what we have seen in these letters in 1 and 2 Thessalonians seems to be Paul reminding them about and expanding on things that he must have been teaching them when he was with them. And he also seems to be answering questions that have been coming up and being communicated to him over those things that he was teaching.

And just like every pastoral Q & A, a lot of those questions are about end times. The church in Thessalonica was established by Paul and Silas during Paul’s second missionary journey shortly after leaving Philippi. You can read about that in the beginning of Acts 17. There’s debate about how long they were actually there actually with the Thessalonians. It might have been as little as four weeks. We know for sure it was at least four weeks, but it might have been as little as four weeks. Some speculate as long as six months, probably a couple months, 2-3 months is probably a pretty safe bet. But Paul had founded this church, and during the time that he was there establishing the church, he had apparently taught them a great deal about the coming of the Lord, about the rapture of the church and the resurrection of believers.

Most commentators agree that the context behind this particular section is that it has now been awhile since Paul was with them, and they have been this whole time expecting the return of the Lord. They’re expecting it to be soon. That’s what’s been communicated to them. He could come at any moment. He could be coming soon. But now, since it’s been awhile since Paul was there, and it hasn’t happened yet, they’re now becoming concerned because believing friends and family among them are dying, and they didn’t know what this would mean for them, for the coming of the Lord.

Apparently Paul had communicated just how wonderful this day would be, possibly reminding them of the same words of Jesus from John 14 that Travis just read earlier, that Christ was preparing a place for them, and that he would return for them and bring them to that place to be with him. And so they would have no doubt been excited about this, and they’re expecting it at any time, at any moment. In fact, we see this is exactly how they’re described. They have a reputation that has sounded forth that this is who they are. In 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10, Paul begins the letter saying, “For they themselves report [this is the report of those around you] concerning us, the kind of reception we had among you and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he has raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.” They are waiting for the Son. That is the description of them. They’re waiting for Christ to return to deliver them from that wrath that is coming, that Travis has been talking about, that Tribulation time.

But now it’s been awhile. It’s been awhile since they first heard this teaching, and maybe they hadn’t expected to lose anyone to death before the event, and this is now just dawning on them. What’s going to happen to these people? What about those who have died? What happens to them when the church is raptured? Do their beloved dead brothers and sisters in Christ, do they now miss out on this glorious event? Paul, in fact, in the section just before this, in 1 Thessalonians 1:4, he’s just commended them about their brotherly love for one another, even saying that they have no need for anyone to write to them about this subject. That’s how exemplary their love for one another is. And so the concern that we hear, here expressed by Paul, the concern that they have for their dying brethren, this is the manifestation of that love that they have for one another. What? Are they going to miss out on this event? Are they going to miss out on the Rapture? How is this going to happen for them?

So with that brief bit of context, with that in mind, let’s take a look at this passage together. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18: “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

So our first point today, our first point: The resurrection grounds our hope. The resurrection grounds our hope. So Paul starts out this section with a phrase that indicates a shift in subjects. He says, “We do not want you to be uninformed.” He uses phrases like that in other places, primarily Romans and 1 Corinthians, to indicate a total change of subjects, that he’s completely shifting directions from where he was before, a different subject from the previous section.

Commentators have pointed out that this section right here in 4:13-18, it begins the only section of the letter that appears to contain new teaching, as all of the other teaching blocks that we see in this letter contain reminder language, phrases like, “For you yourselves know, brothers.” Or even when you begin chapter 5, you can see it there: “Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you, for you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.”

So that kind of language is everywhere present in all of the teaching blocks in 1 Thessalonians. This is the first place that seems to contain new teaching. And here Paul is teaching something that he has not taught them yet; and apparently, again, it’s in response to their concern about what’s going to happen to the dead. And the reason he gives for this, the reason he gives for giving this teaching, is because he doesn’t want them to grieve like others who have no hope. Paul contrasts the way that believers should grieve over believers, with how other people who have no hope grieve.

And notice that this doesn’t say that we don’t grieve at all when someone we love dies. That’s not what it’s saying. We do grieve, but Christian grief is different. Christian grief is bound up in the fact that this person will be missed. This person will be missed. We won’t be able to see them whenever we want to anymore. We won’t be able to experience the joy of their company anymore. It’s not wrong to grieve in that regard. Paul even says in Philippians 2:27 that if Epaphroditus, who he identified as his brother and fellow worker, if he had died, Paul says, he “would have had sorrow upon sorrow,” not because he was concerned about where Epaphroditus would go, but because he would miss his companionship. That’s appropriate grief.

We grieve at the loss of a loved one if they are a believer because of the loss that we feel, or because of the love that we have for those who we know will miss that person the most. We do grieve about them, but we do not grieve for them, because we have hope. We’re not like those who have no hope. We know that because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that they are currently with the Lord, and they are more joyful now than they have ever been. We know that our goodbye to them, whenever that was, was not a final goodbye. It was just a parting, a parting for an extended period of time. We know that we will see them again.

So what Paul has in mind, here, is maybe what you would have in mind if you have ever been to the funeral of an unbeliever and compare that to one of the funerals for one of our church members. You know it’s a totally different experience, right? I mean, sure, whoever is officiating at that funeral, or maybe the family, they might try and say some stuff about how “they’re in a better place now,” or “we can be glad that they’re no longer suffering.” There’s no certainty. It’s just kind of wishful thinking, not knowing what actually has happened. At these funerals, there’s a palpable sense, you can feel it, of doubt, of concern about the unknown. It is a hopelessness, the desire to believe that there might be something else for that person, but no foundation for that desire. At best, it’s just a belief in belief, a belief in belief that they’ll see them again. No real hope, not like at a believer’s funeral.

And when we say “hope,” we don’t mean it like “I hope that what I want to happen is going to happen, and I hope that this other thing doesn’t happen.” It’s not like that. It’s not like we’re wishing for something that we just don’t know about. We have a confident hope, a confident hope, as in “I have placed my hope in something that is certain.” That’s what we read about in Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Our hope is assured because it is based on the word of God and the promises it contains. We have been promised that Christ rising from the dead is the firstfruits of those who have died. 1 Corinthians 15:22-23: “Just as by a man came death, by a man has also come the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”

So this first implication of the resurrection, it grounds us in resurrection hope whenever a brother or sister in Christ dies. It is why it is totally appropriate that when we do funerals for our church members here, it is a worship service. It is totally appropriate for that. Because of the resurrection of Christ, because of what he has done, we know that we are not saying goodbye to this person forever.

A few weeks ago, I was talking to our dear brother Ron Matthews on the phone. I wanted to see how they were doing settling in, getting plugged into a new church. It was an enjoyable, Ron Matthews type of conversation, and he’s talking, he’s asking all kinds of questions in that unique Southern accent, probably at a higher volume than is necessary. All kinds of questions about my family, about the church, about all of you guys. “How are things going? How’s this ministry? How’s that ministry?” He was joyful and excited about God, about God’s sovereignty, about opportunities he’s having to share the gospel.

And as I continued asking him how he was doing, after awhile he finally let on that he wasn’t feeling quite right, that he was probably going to see the doctor the next day. And the next day they did go to the doctor and found out that his cancer had come back in full force. And in order to not overwhelm Ron and Claudette, we appointed just one person to maintain communication with them. And within a couple weeks he was in heaven.

So this first implication of the resurrection, it grounds us in resurrection hope whenever a brother or sister in Christ dies.

Josh OedyAnd the other day I was in the office, and I was either talking to Travis or Bill. I can’t remember which one of you guys said this to me. But I was recounting that conversation, and I said something like, “I wish I would have known that that was the last time I was ever going to talk to Ron Matthews,” to which the quick response was, “It wasn’t.” That’s exactly right. That’s exactly right. That is the hope that we have. That’s the hope we have. We know that that isn’t true. What I said isn’t true. I’ll talk to him again. That’s the hope we have. And it’s also similar to the hope that you saw in Ron Matthews when he was dying, walking around this church. He had cancer. A lot of you didn’t even know it because he was thinking he’s going to die at any time but loving everyone here, so concerned, knowing that it’s just a temporary parting when that does happen. That’s the hope we have as Christians. We never say a final farewell to one another. We know that the last time we hold our loved ones in this life, if they are in Christ, it’s not the last time. It’s just maybe going to be a little longer between then and when you planned. Just a little longer gap than you had thought.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ grounds us in this hope, this certain hope, and it leads right into a second and related point: The resurrection of Christ redefines death. The resurrection redefines death. Look at verses 13, 14, and 15. Look at the language there. “But we don’t want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do, who have no hope for. Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.”

Each verse refers to the Christian dead as “asleep.” And “sleep” was actually a common way that death was spoken of metaphorically, even among unbelievers at that time, and it still kind of is today, because it kind of takes the sting out of it. It does become something truly sweet, truly special when the very word of God uses it in reference to those who are dead in Christ.

And before we continue, I need to make sure that we know that this is not teaching “soul sleep,” what some have termed just “soul sleep.” “Soul sleep,” that’s the wrong belief that some have, that when you die, your body and soul both sleep so that the next thing that you experience is the resurrection of the dead that we see in these verses that we’re looking at today. The Bible clearly teaches that upon death the believer is immediately with the Lord in heaven, not physically, true, but their spirit or their soul, it definitely is. This is what Jesus says to the thief on the cross, right? “Today, you will be with me in paradise,” though both of their bodies went into the tomb that day.

Paul is not confused about this, either. In Philippians 1:22-23, he says, “If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet, which shall I choose? I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.” You see that, there: To depart is to be with Christ. In 2 Corinthians 5:8, he says, “Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” Those are the two places your spirit can be, either with your body or with the Lord. To be absent from the body, to depart, is to be with Christ, is to be at home with the Lord. This is where every Christian you have ever known who has died now is: with the Lord. Their bodies might still be here, they might be decomposing somewhere, but they are described as “with the Lord.”

And we get a picture of this, it’s a really cool picture in Acts 7. You can turn there if you want. In Acts 7, at the end of this section where Stephen has famously kind of preached this summary of the Old Testament, and he’s been pointing towards Christ through that, and also rebuking the Jewish leaders at the time. We see this at the end, Acts 7:54-60: “Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. But he [that’s Stephen] full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven, saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’ But they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses lay down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,’ and falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ And when he had said this, he fell asleep.”

He fell asleep. That’s not a comment on the weak throwing arms of the people there. It means he physically died. He’s trusting Christ. He’s trusting the Lord to receive his spirit as his body falls asleep. That’s what’s going on there. Stephen understands that his spirit is about to be received by the Lord even as his body goes to sleep.

In the Bible, sleep is only ever used in reference to what the body is experiencing, never the spirit. This is just a wonderful picture of encouragement for the believer that points us to the real implications of the resurrection of Jesus in this text back in 1 Thessalonians. For the Christian, death is really nothing more than waiting for Jesus to wake our bodies up while we are already present with him.

And then also notice the distinction that he makes in verse 14, 1 Thessalonians 4:14: “For since we believe that Jesus died.” Paul does not use the metaphor for sleep when it comes to Jesus. Jesus died in every sense of the word. He physically died in his body, but he also faced the true death that we deserve in taking the wrath of God on himself that we should have all faced in a spiritual death for all of eternity in Hell, spiritual and physical death for all of eternity in Hell. Jesus took on himself, Jesus bore our sins on the cross so that we could be dead to sin and alive in Christ.

So there is a sense, when you think about this, in which the death and resurrection of Christ transforms death into sleep for the believer. Because Jesus died and rose, when the believer comes to the end of his life, he just goes to sleep. And the sleep of the body also implies that it’s going to wake up, the reminder that this is a real, bodily resurrection, not just merely opening our spiritual eyes in heaven. And this really does go against the way that most unbelievers, and even some who claim to be believers, think about the entirety of the afterlife. This is almost always just seen in terms of our disembodied souls just living on forever. But we are talking about a real, bodily resurrection, just as Christ experienced, a real, bodily resurrection in our bodies flowing out of the reality of the bodily resurrection of Jesus. This is in verse 14 exactly the ground that Paul uses to prepare to transition to the next point. He grounds it in this.

But before we get to that, we need to explain verse 14 a little bit. We need to spend a little bit of time on that because this verse makes a claim that is elaborated on in verses 15-17, and there are disagreements over its translation. But there are not disagreements over this: It is a first-class conditional sentence, meaning that the reality of the first clause necessitates the reality of the second clause. So “for since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so he will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.” Some translations say “if” at the beginning, “if we believe.” But that’s not implying that there’s some sort of uncertainty. Rather it is being used more like an if-then statement. “If this is true, then this other thing is true also.” So the translation of “since” might be more helpful because it does better communicate the certainty that Paul is displaying. “But since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.”

You notice what I did there because there is some difference of opinion among translators about whether or not the verse should read like the ESV does, like I just read, implying that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep through Jesus; or if he is saying, like the LSB reads, that he will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. And although there’s truth to both statements, the LSB probably is the better rendering here. So we should read it something like this: “God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.”

So what is being said, here, is in reference to the resurrection. Don’t get confused, don’t stumble over Paul using the word “bring,” here. Don’t read it, as some have, as something that chronologically precedes verse 15, kind of giving the idea that Jesus is bringing the souls of those who are in heaven with him when he descends from heaven, even though there is kind of a sense in which that is true also. But verse 14 is a statement that’s meant to stand on its own, and then verses 15-17 are an explanation of what that looks like. So you should think of the word “bring,” here, as kind of a synonym for “raise.”

The idea is he brings them from the grave. So the idea is that God will raise those who have fallen asleep in Jesus just as he raised Jesus. God will treat Christians the same way he has treated Jesus, by raising them from the dead. And pretty much all of the commentators pointed out that the reason that Paul might use the word “bring,” here, instead of “raise” is to help to shift the focus away from the individual event for each of us and into more the corporate event that we see pictured in the verses below, where all of the dead in Christ are brought up along with the living believers to meet him in the air. But as we look at the best way to render this verse and why it is the way it is, I don’t want us to get too off-track, here. But what is essential for us to see, and why that is important, is because it’s essential for us to see that God intends, like I just said, to treat believers the same way he has treated Christ. Just as Jesus died and rose, even so, it’s that condition there, even so, believers who die will also rise.

And that ground leads us to our third point: The resurrection of Jesus secures our future. The resurrection of Jesus secures our future. So as we just said, verse 14 serves as the ground, it serves as the foundation for what comes in the rest of the passage. Because Jesus died and rose again, those who believe in him will also rise from the dead. And now we see in verses 15-17 the glorious truth about what verse 14 will look like. And so as we read verse 15, we understand verse 15 now serves as a thesis for this teaching in 16-17. Paul makes a claim in this verse and explains it in 16 and 17. Look at verse 15 again: “For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.”

So Paul says, “For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord.” Paul is saying that what he is about to share, here, is teaching that he received from the Lord. This is not as some have thought, this is not Paul reiterating other teaching that we have from Jesus in the gospels somewhere. So some have tried to make the claim that Paul is just teaching the same thing as, as Jesus in the Olivet Discourse, particularly in Matthew 24 or Mark 13. But, and we don’t have time for this, but just a quick comparison would show you that while there may be a couple of shared words, the two events have far too many differences, like the thing that Travis has been calling us to do when we’re examining these passages. Don’t just look at what’s the same, Look at the differences, also. Far too many differences, the two events have far too many differences for them to be talking about the same thing. This is a special word from the Lord, now through Paul, teaching on the Rapture of the Church.

And by the way, Paul pointing out that this is “a word from the Lord,” it’s not to minimize everything else he has said, like, “This is a word from the Lord, and you can ignore the other four and a half chapters of this book.” That’s not what he’s saying. It’s just adding strength. It’s just adding confidence. It’s just adding comfort, adding to that comfort that he is trying to extend to these believers, that this is the plan of the same Lord who died and rose again, the same Lord who will come in the clouds. This is his word on this subject. And notice also that Paul includes himself among those who might be alive when Christ returns.

And again, this isn’t Paul saying, I saw some liberal commentators say that this is why we shouldn’t believe anything Paul says, this isn’t Paul saying that he believed for certain he was going to be alive at the return of Christ. It’s merely saying that since he is still alive at this time, he places himself in the category of people who might just get to experience it. He did believe he could be among them, because any believer who is alive should be believing that. And this points again to the doctrine of the imminent return of Christ, that Paul believed that Christ could return at any moment. By including “we,” here, Paul is saying that the Rapture that he’s about to teach on could happen at any moment. Maybe you won’t have to sit through the rest of this sermon.

The doctrine of the imminent return, this is one of the evidences that points us to the understanding of a Pre-Tribulational rapture. As we’ve seen in the last few weeks from Travis’ sermons from Luke 21, there are all these massive cataclysmic signs that must take place before the Second Coming of Christ, where he comes and actually sets foot on the earth and establishes his Kingdom. But the Rapture, what Paul talks about here in verse 16, that can happen at any moment. There are no signs needed for that to take place. Believers had the understanding, and you see this all throughout the New Testament, believers had the understanding that Christ could return at any moment, and this is the return they are talking about.

It seems evident that these Thessalonians seem to be actually surprised that they’re still here. They were expecting to be gone. They’re surprised to still be here, contemplating what happens to those who have died while waiting to partake in this wonderful event. And then here at the end of verse 15, Paul lets them know why they don’t have to concern themselves with that anymore, because “those who are left alive at the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep.” That’s the answer to their question, to their concern at the end of verse 15.

And now look again at verse 16: “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.” They’ll arise first. Our risen Lord Jesus Christ will descend from heaven. The Lord himself will descend from heaven. Jesus Christ in his resurrected, glorified body descends from heaven where he has been since ascending there in Acts 1. And we can remind ourselves of that passage. You don’t have to turn there, but Acts 1:6-11. “When they had come together, they asked him [they asked Jesus], ‘Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.’”

By the way, notice that he doesn’t say that’s not a thing anymore. He doesn’t say, “We’re not restoring the kingdom of Israel.” This is kind of dovetailing on what Travis has been talking about, that a day is still coming, that still seems to fall into the category of a day that has been fixed by the Father’s own authority. But he says, “‘It’s not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria into the end of the earth.’ And when he said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold two men stood by them in white robes and said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.’”

So he is taken from their sight in a cloud, and they keep looking up, they keep looking up trying to see him, and suddenly two men who are angels show up and ask, “‘Why are you still standing looking around?’” as almost as a rebuke to them, maybe even to us. Just like to stand around looking in the sky when Jesus has just given them a charge, given them work to do. And then these men tell his disciples, these angels tell his disciples that “‘this same Jesus will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.’”

This is where every Christian you have ever known who has died now is: with the Lord.

Josh OedyAnd here in this passage in 1 Thessalonians 4, this is Paul speaking of that day. He is giving more information about what that will look like, more information than the disciples originally got from the angels. And notice the emphasis is on the Lord himself, the Lord himself descending and gathering his people. It’s personal. “‘With a cry of command, with a voice of the archangel and the sound of the trumpet.’” There are varying views on whether or not these are three different things, or if the voice of the archangel and the sound of the trumpet was what’s meant by the cry of command. But no matter what, the idea is that this is a powerful, authoritative summons. That is what the word translated as “cry of command” is. It means a summons. It’s a strong military term. It’s an official order. He is summoning his people to himself. Jesus commands and summons those who belong to him to come to him, to meet him in the air.

And now, to the delight of these Thessalonians, we see that far from missing this event, far from missing the event, “the dead in Christ will rise first.” They’ll rise first. Here we finally see the term “dead” instead of asleep, again to remind us of the miracle that this truly is. But even though we see it here instead of “asleep,” we also see in that phrase the significance of this event. The reason that these dead respond to this is because they’re not just any dead. They are the dead in Christ. They are those whose earthly lives came to an end while in union with the resurrected Lord. Because they died in Christ, they have also been raised to live a new life in Christ, and the resurrection is promised to them.

And now we see in this verse the culmination of the significance of what we celebrate on this day. We see it fully here as the promise of the firstfruits of the resurrection are seen in the glory of the full harvest. Because Jesus has risen from the dead, this is the future for every one of us who die in him. We are united in him in his death and in his resurrection. So the resurrection of Christ secures the future of all of those who die in him, but also for those who are still alive on that day.

Look at verse 17: “Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.” “Then we who are alive will be caught up together.” The word for “caught up,” that’s the Greek word harpazo, harpazo. And that’s the Latin word rapturo, rapturo. This is where we get the word “Rapture” from. So when we say “Rapture,” this is what we’re referring to. It’s this event. Everyone who believes the Bible is the word of God believes in the Rapture, because it’s right there; it’s in the Bible. It’s right here in this verse. There might be differences in what you believe about it, but it’s right here.

And that Greek word harpazo is a forceful word. It means “to seize by force.” It means to seize by force with the purpose of removing, seize by force with the purpose of removing, to snatch away. On this day, all who are asleep in Christ and all who are awake in Christ will all together meet the Lord in the air. And those who are alive at this time, we don’t miss out on the benefits of the resurrection for ourselves.

Write this down, again we won’t turn there, but but look at the corollary passage on this event. In 1 Corinthians 15:50-55, we read this: “I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery,” as in something that was once not known now being revealed. “Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep.” There’s that “sleep” again. “But we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’”

Both dead and alive in Christ are changed in the twinkling of an eye. Those who have fallen asleep and those who have not, from a body that is dying to a body that now cannot die. That’s what we’re changed into: from a perishable body to an imperishable body. You will on that day instantly go from the “before” picture in those diet-pill commercials, those skin-wrinkle commercials, you go from the “before” picture to the best “after” picture imaginable in an instant.

On this day, God will raise the real, physical bodies of every Christian who has ever lived into their imperishable, immortal resurrection bodies. It doesn’t matter what state of decomposition they might be in. It doesn’t matter if their ashes have been spread across the entire earth by this point. The one who invented the atom will bring every atom back into the proper positions for every person who has ever died in Christ. He will do it. Just lacking the curse. The cancer will stay dead. No disease will find a home in that body anymore. The scars, the pain, the slipped discs in the back, crushed vertebrae, every imperfection. No more. That does not rise. Every remnant of the curse gone from our bodies forever.

On this day, everyone who is in Christ, present tense but still referring to the living and the dead, we will all be caught up together and meet him in the air. We will meet him in the space between heaven and earth, and then all of us, all of us now together with those same disciples, think of that, those same disciples who heard from Jesus’ own lips the comforting promise from John 14 that we read earlier. We get to experience the fulfillment of that promise together with them. “‘Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may also be.’”

He comes again and brings us up to himself, that where he is now, there we may also be, and that leads so nicely to that last promise for our future that is secured for us in the resurrection of Christ. Again, look at the end of verse 17. Rejoice in these words, beloved. On the day when we are caught up together, whether we are alive or dead on that day, those who are in Christ will meet him in the air. And from that day onward this will be true for us. “And so we will always be with the Lord.” This is the certain future that has been secured for all who are in Christ, been secured for us through his resurrection.

And that brings us to one final point: The resurrection of Christ demands a response. And that’s true whether you’re a believer or an unbeliever. First, if you’re here today, and I’m sure there’s some of you, and you’re not a Christian, maybe you know for sure you’re not one. You don’t deny that; you’re here as a favor to a friend or a family member, that the promise to go to lunch afterwards was to sit through this. Maybe that’s you. Maybe you’re not sure about it. Maybe you just don’t even really care about these things, yet.

Probably, there’s a good amount of you who are here that think you’re a Christian. I don’t know what you base it on. Maybe you base it on the fact that you said a prayer at one time in your life. Maybe it’s that you can intellectually assent to some of these things that we’re saying. Maybe you live a life that seems to stack up, you know, morally pretty well to other people. I don’t know what your reason is.

And there’s some of you young people in here, middle-schoolers, high-schoolers, kind of here because of your parents, maybe not really taking much that is said up here seriously. Maybe you’ve been messing around on your phone the whole time I’ve been talking. This is about the time when you’re probably looking at your watch, looking at your cell phone, wondering when this is going to be over, when you’re going to get lunch. “It’s 12:09. How long does this go?” Maybe that’s you.

If you fall into those categories, please, please, if you haven’t been listening at all, please listen now. It’s almost done. Just look again at the beginning of verse 14: “For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again.” Everything that we have said today, all the promises, all the benefits that come from the resurrection of Jesus Christ, they’re only for those who believe that he died and rose again. And again, I know there are a lot of you in the category who would answer, “Man, I do believe that!” I want to say to you, do you really? Do you really? Do you really believe all that is encompassed in the Christian creed, that Jesus died and rose gain, the reason for both things?

Because if you’re going to say that you truly understand that you’re a sinner before a holy God, that you recognize yourself to be guilty before him, that the just payment for your sin is an eternity in hell, and that’s why Jesus had to come to die for me to, live the perfect life in my place because I failed miserably. And then that he took the penalty, that he took the penalty of an eternity in Hell on himself, on the cross on your behalf; and that this God-man truly died and then was raised to life in a new glorified body, demonstrating that God has indeed accepted his sacrifice, so that now if you will turn from your sin, if you’ll repent and truly believe this, then God completely takes away your sentence of an eternity of a literal Hell, an eternity of literal Hell; and he gives you, in addition to that, he gives you the gift of a union in Christ, which is the promise of freedom from the power and penalty of sin in a glorified body in paradise for eternity, where you’re with him forever.

If you’re going to say that you truly believe that, and the result is a life of minimal commitment to this Lord, at best; if you’re going to say, “I believe all of that, and what it looks like for me is coming to church every once in a while, trying my best to pay attention; mainly, you know, pretty much doing what makes me feel good throughout the week. I mean for myself, entertainment, my own happiness. I’m disciplining myself every once in a while, but in the end, being my own boss.”

Friend, if that’s how this belief is manifested in your life, you don’t believe. Truly believing that Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead transforms you. Your life is totally changed. It’s one thing to say that you believe an airplane can take you to a certain destination, but that belief means almost nothing if you sit in the airport and watch it go to the destination you have no intention of being a part of. It’s not belief. Those who have no hope that we talked about earlier, those who have no hope, that’s not just a feeling that many unbelievers have. It’s also a category that everyone who does not truly believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus lives in all the time. You are one with no hope, whether you feel that way or not. Apart from this gospel, you have no hope. Oh, friend, please do not let this day go by without truly believing this gospel. And you can talk to any member in here, and they will fast for lunch if they have to, to talk to you about this great truth.

But the resurrection of Christ also demands a response from all those who do truly believe and rejoice in it also. That’s seen right there in verse 18: “Therefore, encourage one another with these words.” That’s a command for us. Christian brothers and sisters, as we go through this life gradually losing friends, losing family along the way, every couple of years a few less of us, we don’t grieve as those who have no hope. We don’t grieve as those who have no hope. We know that because Jesus died and rose again, it’s really just a long sleep that awaits us. And the one who sleeps will wake up at the proper time.

As Christians, we will never truly say goodbye to one another. All of our goodbyes, every single one of them, it’s just a farewell for now. All the hands that we once held, the necks that we once hugged, the voice that would bring a smile to your face every time you heard it after a long period of time, all those people that we love, one day, all of us, every one of us, we’re going, together, to remove the perishable, put on the imperishable. And on that day we will meet him in the air. And as Jesus reigns forever, as we’re about to sing, so we will also be with him forever. “Encourage one another with these words,” beloved. The only reason that we can joyfully and longingly say “Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus!” is because we can also say together with full hope and confidence, “He is risen!” Let’s pray.

Father, thank you so much, thank you so much for your word. Thank you for this word from the Lord as we read that Paul talks about, that you gave to Paul, so that we could know these truths, these things that we need to hear to remind us of the wonderful benefits that come through what we celebrate this day, the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, I pray that you would be gracious to any unbelievers in here today, those who know that they are and maybe those who are self-deceived, that you would open their eyes and they would see where they truly stand, that they have no hope, that they would repent and believe this gospel.

And I pray for the members of Grace Church, God, that we would live these truths out, that we would encourage one another in these things, that we would live and abound in resurrection certainty, knowing that this is our future, that this is certainly what awaits all who are in Jesus Christ, and that would motivate us properly to live for you now. There’ll be time for sleeping later. While we are awake, while we are here, that we would do the work of discipling, of evangelizing, growing your church; and Father that may that be true of us. It is in the name of the risen Lord Jesus Christ that we pray all of these things. Amen.

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Isaiah 53

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Luke 21:9-11

Well, as we come back to our study of the Olivet Discourse, I’d ask you to turn into your Bibles to Luke, chapter 21, Luke 21. If you have been with us over the past couple of weeks, you know that we’ve been looking at this first section of Jesus’ answer to the disciples’ questions, questions that are put to him in Luke 21, verse 7. The disciples in verse 7 ask Jesus, “Teacher, when, therefore, will these things be, and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?”

As we have learned in previous weeks, the key clarifications of the disciples’ questions have to do with the meaning of “these things.” “These things,” that’s the expression that’s used twice in verse 7. And we back up and look in the context for “these things” and what he’s referring to. We see, verse 6, that Jesus spoke of only one thing, there, not plural. He just spoke of one thing, singular. So it’s the prediction of the temple’s total destruction. One thing singular, not multiple things, plural. And so we know, by backing up into the context, that there’s more going on in the context than meets the eye.

Luke is the latest of the synoptic gospel writers. He wrote around AD 61. That is less than a decade’s time before the destruction of Jerusalem. That’ll become significant as we continue through the passage, but not yet. I’ll come to that and explain it when we get there in verses 20-24. But it is less than a decade before the destruction of Jerusalem that Luke writes this gospel. He wrote to the patron and actually gave the name of the patron in the beginning of his gospel: Theophilus. That’s the name to whom this gospel is addressed. But he knew that behind Theophilus would be a host of Gentile readers like us, and also Jewish readers.

But the Jewish readers, the Gentile readers, the readers of Luke’s gospel would have access to Matthew’s gospel, which was written earlier. In fact, it was written earliest. Matthew wrote about 10 years earlier, in the early 50s. Mark’s gospel, that’s mid-50s, so just a few years after Matthew’s. So when readers of Luke’s gospel, having this gospel in their hand, and they see the “these things” that are referenced, they’ve already read Matthew and Mark very likely. They consult those other two synoptic gospels, and they find in those gospels a historical background behind the disciples’ questions in Luke 21:7.

Not going to re-preach earlier sermons, but I’ll just list the disciples’ concerns just as a quick reminder of ground we’ve already covered. First, the disciples clearly know that the temple will be destroyed. Jesus just said that in verse 6. Illustrated in Luke 20, ground we’ve already covered, leaders’ rejection of the Messiah, all the challenging of his authority, all that we’ve covered there, it’s illustrated that the leaders have rejected their Messiah.

We go to the judgment and the indictment of Israel’s leaders in Matthew 23, a very long chapter covering that indictment and the judgment of Jesus upon those leaders of Israel; and then the sentencing in Matthew 23:38 about the destruction of the Temple. Jesus pronounced the destruction very clearly, as I said, in Luke 21:6. The disciples know the temple is going to be destroyed. That much is clear. We have no question about that. They didn’t have a question about what Jesus was saying. It was clear, plain, and obvious, and backed up by Matthew 23. They knew the reasons why, and they didn’t disagree with him. They just didn’t understand how this fit. They had a certain eschatology, a certain understanding of the way things would go, and this was throwing them off a bit.

So we come to a second thing that we’ve clarified. They came to understand, based on what had already happened, based on what we understand historically in the other gospels, they understand, now, that Jesus is going away. That full realization wouldn’t hit them until the next night, when Jesus takes them into the upper room and teaches them there. But he stated clearly in Matthew 23:39, after indicting the leaders of Israel, he said clearly in Matthew 23:39, “‘I say to you, from now on you shall not see me until you say, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”’” “‘You shall not see me until this happens.’”

Very hard, now, as the disciples are thinking about that statement. When’s that going to happen? It doesn’t look good from the kind of leaders that we see here. It does not look good for them. “When is that going to happen, that we’re going to see you again?” Jesus had spoken, as we mentioned I believe last week, he had spoken of his departure from Jerusalem at the Transfiguration, the departure that he was about to accomplish. He spoke on the Mount of Transfiguration with Elijah and Moses about that. As I said, he’s going to have more to say to the disciples. On the very next night after this Olivet discourse, the very next night in the Upper Room discourse, John 13-16, he not only reiterates his departure, he introduces, then, to them the mystery of the Rapture, about the Rapture of the church, John 14:1-3.

But this is not the way that the disciples thought everything would end. This is not the end that they had envisioned. And so they’re trying to piece this together. They’re good Bible students. They have studied the Scriptures. They understand the Scriptures. And they’re sitting there, thinking, as they’re coming down from Jerusalem into the Kidron Valley, back up into the Mount of Olives and finding their place to rest and calling it a night, maybe putting some food together. They’re thinking about these texts, and they’re thinking about what Jesus has said. And now they’re considering things in a new light, and they’ve got questions. The disciples are trying to make some connections between the Messiah’s departure, this destruction of the temple, his return, which would be the occasion of Israel’s repentance. His return where he comes not in judgment as is clearly going to be the case with the destruction of the temple, but it’s coming in salvation to rescue the nation of Israel from its enemies that have oppressed and dominated the land for centuries.

This results, thirdly, in the questions that they ask Jesus. We see them recorded, we see, obviously, Luke 21:7; we also see those paralleled over in Matthew 24:3 and Mark 13:4. I’m going to read Matthew’s fuller record of the question. “As he, Jesus, was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, ‘Tell us, when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?’” Ah, now we understand what “these things” referred to twice in their questions in Luke 21:7, now we understand what these things are: The Second Coming and the end of the age are included. And as we mentioned in the grammar, it’s inescapable, these are conjoined events as per the language, the Granville Sharp construction that’s there. That, by the way, is exactly how Jesus answers them, as if the end and the Second Coming are joined together as events that are side by side.

So the disciples, clearly in their question, they’re looking beyond the destruction of the temple, and they’re trying to figure out when God’s restoration promises to Israel are going to be fulfilled. They trust them. They believe in him thoroughly and completely. They just don’t understand how this fits together. It reminds you a little bit of when John, sitting in prison before he loses his head, he sends his disciples out to Jesus. “Are are you the one who’s coming, or should we expect somebody else? I’m trying to figure out the timing because I didn’t think I’d end up here in prison.” A very similar outworking of that thinking is going on with the disciples right now.

So that’s the point of departure for Jesus’ answer, which we read, starting in Luke 21:8. He starts out by saying this to them: “‘See to it that you be not misled or that you be not deceived. For many will come in my name saying, “I am he and the time is at hand.” Do not go after them.’” So we’ve covered that already in a couple weeks’ time, and over the last couple weeks I should say. It’s going to be at that time, after this massive deception is proliferated in the world on this massive scale, there’s a host of false messiahs who infect the world with their lies and captivate the world of unbelievers, as Matthew 24:24 says, “by signs and wonders.” This is the first of the birth pains that are coming, the first of the birth pains that introduce several others, which is our subject for today.

Jesus is concerned that his future disciples are not led away and carried away in this mass deception that’s coming upon the earth during the Great Tribulation. Remember, though he’s speaking directly to these disciples, his disciples looking at him face to face, they’re the ones who’ve asked him these questions, but Jesus is looking to them as representatives of a future believing Israel, those who do say, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” He’s thinking about them, the disciples who live in the future, the disciples who are alive at that time. And that means the Twelve are representatives of future Israel, a believing Israel, a repentant Israel, those who witness these events, and they are going to receive Jesus at the Second Coming, and they will experience the end that he’s talking about here.

So in addition to the danger of the deception spread by this host of false messiahs that’s coming, Jesus predicts a number of other disturbing events that will be going on during this time as the birth pains grow in intensity, starting in verses 9-11. But let’s just back up and start in verse 8, just see the whole answer as it starts. Jesus said, verse 8, “‘See to it that you are not deceived, for many will come in my name saying, “I am he,” and “The time is at hand.” Do not go after them. And when you hear of wars and disturbances, do not be terrified, for these things must take place first. But the end does not follow immediately.’ Then he was continuing saying to them, ‘Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues, and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.’” We have a break there in the text, as verse 12 says, “‘but before all these things’”; we’ll come to that next time.

As Jesus shifts his focus in verse 9, going from false messiahs who come first as the first of many birth pains, he turns his attention to what might be worrying signs of the end, false signs of the end, as it turns out, but his concern for his disciples shifts. The false Messiahs test the disciples in their discernment. The alarming events in the world, though, these are what test the disciples’ faith, whether or not they trust Christ’s word, whether or not their confidence is wholly and completely placed in God’s sovereign protection of them as his people. In either way, whether it’s the deception from false Messiahs or whether it’s the disasters that are coming upon the world, for the disciples, these are tests, tests intended to help them to grow, to strengthen them during a very difficult time.

We can learn from that, can’t we? We understand that every test that God brings into our life is also for our discernment, our growth and discernment, our growth and maturity, our growth and confidence in our faith, our strengthening of our faith. It’s exactly what God does with his people through every difficulty and hardship that we go through. That’s what he’s going to do with the saints at the end as well.

There’s a governing command for these three verses that we’re covering today. And the governing command for these three verses is this: “Do not be terrified.” “Do not be terrified.” It’s a good translation. The usual word for “fear” in the New Testament is the verb phobeo, the noun phobos. We get the word “phobia” from this, but that’s not the term here for “fear.” The term here is a more intensified term. It’s ptoeo, to terrify, to frighten, to alarm significantly. And in the New Testament, it’s found only in the passive voice, so it’s something that you’re being subjected to. So “to be frightened, to be terrified, to be alarmed, terribly alarmed,” it refers to a very deep sense of terror, a kind of craven fear that causes severe, lasting emotional distress. So it’s not just the event itself, but it’s what results from that event.

If any of you have had any traumatic event happen to you, something that you’ve gone through, victimized, and you still remember it now, and recall it, and it just sends shivers through your spine: That’s the sense of this word. Lexicographer Frederick Donker says the verb ptoeo refers to “what can cause profound anxiety over pending peril.” So it’s not just the fact of death; it’s the terrifying kinds of death that are coming, the ways to die. I don’t know about you, but I just want to pass in my sleep. I want it to be nice. I didn’t used to feel that way as a young man. I was kind of dumb and thought what a great way to go through some kind of a horrific, on-the-battlefield kind of death, you know, bullet-riddled body, haven’t shot up all my rounds, leading on the battlefield. Some kind of horrific thing like that. What a death in glory! And I think, “Man, what an idiot I was.” I like easy.

As you think about this, there’s nothing easy about this. Everything that’s coming, here, is something that grips you with a sense of like foreboding and doom. Not just death; it’s the kind of death that’s coming. Jesus does not leave us guessing about what might tend to frighten, tend to terrify, and in each case the message is the same: “Don’t be terrified.” He’s speaking to his people: “Do not be terrified.”

So as we move through the verses, here, we’re going to use Jesus’ command as kind of the theme for each of our points. Don’t be terrified by, number one, conflicts; number two, by catastrophes; and number three, by calamities. Conflicts, catastrophes, calamities.

First, number one, don’t be terrified by conflicts. Don’t be terrified by conflicts. What conflicts? Again, verse 9: “‘When you hear of wars and disturbances, do not be terrified, for these things must take place first. But the end does not follow immediately.’” What is war? War is armed conflict. It’s the word polemos, from which we get our word “polemic.” Polemic is a strongly critical attack. It’s the attack element that is the theme of this word. It’s an attack by force of arms. It makes a war a war. It is force of arms. Two or more parties are engaging with one another in armed conflict. It could be between nations and states, or it could be between groups within a nation, warring factions, warring tribes, clans. Whatever it is, it’s the force of arms aspect of that.

In the parallel accounts in Matthew 24:6 and Mark 13:7, Jesus says it this way: “‘When you hear of wars,” and not just disturbances, but “wars and rumors of wars, do not be frightened.” In this case, the word throeo, again, only in the passive voice in the New Testament, there in Matthew 24:6, Mark 13:7, the verb is throeo, to be inwardly troubled or alarmed or disturbed. So Matthew and Mark, they add “rumors of wars.” So talking not just about the reality of armed conflict, but also the potentiality of armed conflict, both of which, if you are maybe on that battle line, if it’s coming to you, both of those will cause anxiety. And it’s when you hear of those things and you know that war is coming, that the Huns are at the gate, so to speak, or the Turks are at the gate, whatever the case, both cause anxiety and fear.

In those gospels, Jesus says, “‘Don’t be troubled.’” Here in Luke’s gospel, the command is “‘Don’t be terrified.’” And so you might ask, well, which is it? Which did Jesus actually say? Which word did he use? Well, he gave both commands. He said both things. We need to understand that this is what we do with scripture and especially in the synoptic accounts, all three of these accounts. We know that Jesus said all that’s written there. He said more as well, but definitely all that’s there. We harmonize these things because each writer took from what Jesus actually said by the direction of the Holy Spirit, drawing on all of his teaching. And they wrote, each writer writing his account with a specific purpose in his writing. Matthew’s purpose, Mark’s purpose, Luke’s purpose, all of them have a distinct purpose. As we harmonize the three synoptic accounts, we get the fullest picture. We understand Jesus said both things. “‘Don’t be troubled,’” Matthew and Mark, and then “‘Don’t be terrified,’” Luke.

We’re not even close to the level of “wars and rumors of wars” that Jesus is predicting for the end of the age, the time that is just prior to the Second Coming.

Travis AllenSo wars, rumors of wars, armed conflict, actual armed conflict between groups, clans, tribes, states, nations, kingdoms, and also potential of armed conflict between all of those. In Luke 21:9, Jesus also warns them about, you can see in the NAS and the LSB, they translate the term, there, “disturbances,” “disturbances.” The word is akatastasia. It’s an intensified word that refers to social unrest, civic instability, civil disorder. The term encompasses a mob violence, a public uprising, disturbance, people rioting in the streets. We’ve seen something akin to this. Think just recently, during 2020, strange things were going on during that weird year. Think George Floyd riots and how Minneapolis was just turned into a battleground by its own citizens, BLM riots. Think Proud Boys versus Antifa and all the stuff that was going on there. Think of war protests, for some of you who are a little bit older who can remember the Vietnam War protests and how violent those things could become. Certain parts of the city you did not go to. This is that word: uprisings, often violent uprisings, civil unrest.

Now bear in mind again, we’re not even close to the level of “wars and rumors of wars” that Jesus is predicting for the end of the age, the time that is just prior to the Second Coming. What Jesus describes here in scripture is on a whole different level than anything we have seen. Why do I say that? Because, again, note the forceful language of Jesus’ command: “Do not be terrified.” Don’t be terrified. As I said, the verb ptoeo refers to a deep sense of terror that can tempt believers to that kind of terror, a craven fear resulting in severe and enduring emotional distress. The command, there, is to believers.

Remember back when, a couple years ago, when Russia invaded Ukraine and hearing the reports of churches there in Ukraine? They had no fear whatsoever. In fact, they were gathering resources from the West to do mission work to the refugees. There was no sense of craven fear, terror, or emotion. They were not tempted that way at all. It’s different, here. This command, “‘Don’t be terrified,’” is to believers. It’s to the ones who are saved, who are reconciled to God, who are confident in God’s sovereign will and God’s purpose, those who trust in the protection of an omnipotent God. When they hear about wars, actual wars and potential wars, when they hear about this social unrest and see it and the rioting and the violence in the streets, civil disorder, turmoil, this is going to be a time, these disturbances will be on such a level that even believers are going to have to exercise discernment and discipline over their wills, discipline over their emotions, to obey this command of Christ. This is the level.

I don’t know where you were or when you heard about the terrorist attacks on September 11 of 2001. I recently was in a conversation with someone who wasn’t born then, and I felt old immediately. But it’s true that not everybody in the country experienced the events of 9/11 like I did as I was on my morning commute into seminary, you know, 2,500 miles away from 9/11. What I experienced on that day as I heard about this was a level of indignation that made me want to drop out of seminary and rejoin my former military unit and go take some hurt and pain and discontent to the enemy for what they had done in attacking our country. I know that many people felt the same way, and the recruiters’ offices were packed with young men, young women who wanted to go and support their country during that time.

I know that not everybody experienced that day like I did. The citizens in New York City, citizens New Jersey, Washington, DC, I’m sure their emotions ran the gamut. But even in and among New Yorkers, it didn’t take long for any sense of terror or fear to turn to rage and anger. And their anger turned to resolve and their resolve turned to war. What happened on that day against our nation was an act of war, a terrorist attack, a strike, and it was an attack, we have to realize, in a long line of acts of war. Some people don’t realize that. They think that came out of the blue. It did not. There were signals of that for decades beforehand.

I realize that was an attack that shocked and awakened our nation, but from a longer historical perspective, it was really nothing new. The wars that kicked off after September 11, they, too, just additional chapters added to many volumes in the history of warfare that can fill entire libraries. In fact, you could say the history of the world, going all the way back to the very beginning, is the history of warfare. It’s of man killing man, clan killing clan, tribe against tribe, nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom. That’s been going on for a long time. I love the inimitable way that John MacArthur describes the point, quoting from him on this. He says, “If you ever study the history of the world, you study the history of war, the history of who conquers whom, who subjugates whom, who defeats whom, who wins, who loses, who triumphs, who advances, who retreats. The whole of human history is the history of war, civil war, border, war, tribal war, family war, revolutions, rebellions, military actions, terrorism, genocide, world wars. The only time there’s any peace is when everybody pauses to reload.”

It’s very true. In fact, I looked it up, and currently in the world today, there are more than 110 armed conflicts underway, as in right now. The Geneva Academy monitors armed conflicts around the world at all times and says this: “Some of these conflicts make the headlines, others do not. Some of them started recently, while others have lasted for more than 50 years.” By their data, more than 45 armed conflicts are going on right now in the Middle East and North Africa. More than 35 conflicts across the continent of Africa. Another 21 conflicts in Asia, 7 in Europe, 6 in Latin America. That’s current data going back even through the past year. But there have been armed conflicts going on throughout the history of the world, before and after the first century in every single part of the world. Most of them have gone unreported over the centuries and over the millennia.

Some say, as they come to passages like this, some say these conflicts are growing worse and worse. But frankly, and please don’t misunderstand me here, don’t take me to be callous or unfeeling at all, but I am not seeing that, that things are getting worse and worse right now. I’m actually seeing this as a continuity from the very beginning all the way through this current point. I mean, in my mind, the Taliban, Al Qaeda, ISIS, which took credit for the Moscow massacre that just happened the last couple days and killing 130-plus people and hurting a whole lot more, shooting up a theater. ISIS, they’re not any worse than the Assyrians who used to impale their victims on poles or made a grotesque pile of human heads and severed heads, a pile, a pyramid of heads at the entrance of cities. Is ISIS, Al Qaeda, worse than that? Or are they the same?

What about the Romans who used to crucify thousands of victims en masse? Or the Greeks who did it before them, and going back a long way, even as we think about more recent monsters like Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, modern maniacal dictators who are responsible for killing 100 million people or more? We need to stop and realize, when we look back across the centuries and the millennia, they are nothing new. Hitler, Stalin, Mao: They’re actually old-school rulers. They’ve got ancient mentalities about brutality and barbarity and violence. They’re not really squeamish about it at all. And that actually fits in with the wide swath of human history of how people regarded human life. Under any paganism, under any false religion, human life is disregarded. It is a culture of death wherever Christianity does not prevail. So these old-school rulers, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, what’s different about them? Modern weaponry? I’m not minimizing their cruelty, their criminality, their brutality. I’m not minimizing that all by any means. But I just want you to know they’re nothing new.

What Jesus predicts here, though, is nothing that the world has ever seen. He’s talking about a time of great tribulation, a world that’s cast into chaos after the rapture of the church. When all these people disappear to the eyes of the unbelieving in the world, chaos is going to ensue. It’s a world deceived, a world under a demonic spell, captivated by all the promises of false messiahs. And Jesus is predicting, here, a world that is ruled by fear, held in the grip of terror. All the people of the land living on a hair trigger, ready to take up arms just in self-protective conflict, ready to follow anybody who says, “I’ve got your problem solved, follow me.”

You can see this described in the figurative language of Revelation. I’ll ask you to turn to Revelation chapter 6 because that does parallel this in what Jesus revealed in Revelation to John. This is describing the same time, the beginning of the tribulation. You need to understand that the events of the tribulation run from Revelation 6 all the way to Revelation 19, culminating in the Second Coming. When Jesus comes, it puts it all to rest. But Revelation chapter 6:1-4, here, we’re just starting, Jesus says, this is the parallel with the beginning of the birth pains. If you’ve ever heard of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, this is where that expression comes from. Four horses, four horsemen, and it’s drawn, by the way, from the same imagery of Zechariah 1:7-11, same imagery there.

And the Four Horsemen, here, do not picture, I believe, don’t picture four individuals, but rather these are four, they’re pictured that way in figurative language as four individuals, but they’re actually four conquering forces that introduce the Tribulation: first, of coming to promise hope, but ultimately, very quickly bringing death. Various ways to view the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Obviously, this is contested ground. Now is not the time I’m going to be able to clarify everything for you here, answer all your questions. After all, we’re working through Luke’s gospel, not John’s Revelation. If you want to study Revelation, stick around for another decade or two. We’ll get there. Just got to be a little patient with me, that’s all. But I’m going to tell you what I think about some of this.

For now, look at Revelation 6:1-2: “Then I looked when the Lamb opened.” “The Lamb,” by the way, in the previous chapter we find out he is the only one worthy to open the scroll, to break its seals; and here he’s breaking the seals of the scroll before he unscrolls it and reads it. He’s breaking the seals, and he breaks seal number one. “I looked when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying, as with a voice of thunder, ‘Come.’ And then I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sits on it had a bow, and a crown was given to him and he went out overcoming and to overcome.”

Some people say that’s the Antichrist. I don’t think so. I don’t think the rider of the white horse is the Antichrist. I also don’t hold the opposite view, that some say that this is Jesus. I don’t see this as Jesus at all. Jesus does show up on a white horse at the end of the Great Tribulation, Revelation 19:11. That’s the Second Coming. He’s depicted, then, in a far different way than the figure of Revelation 6:2; and I will leave it to you to draw the number of contrasts that you can see there between Revelation 19 and Revelation 6:2.

But for several reasons I won’t go into now, I believe the rider on the white horse figuratively represents the false messiahs that Jesus warned about in our text in Luke 21:8. These are the false messiahs. They come impersonating the true Messiah, riding on a white horse like Jesus will eventually ride on. They come in his name. They claim to be the Messiah, proclaiming, “The time has come. This is the end.” So this is parallel to Matthew 24:5, Mark 13:6, Luke 21:8. And some notice, as they observe this rider on the white horse, that the horseman, I think they’re right about this, they see that the horseman holds a bow, but notice that there’s no mention of arrows. This points to the bloodless nature of their victories. Conquering, for the false messiahs, comes by their charisma, by their deception, manipulation, coercion of people.

Now false messiahs may not shed blood, but others aren’t so squeamish. Jesus said, “‘There will be wars and rumors of wars,’” but look at the next verse. “When he opened the second seal,” verse 3, “I heard the second living creature saying, ‘Come.’ And another, a red horse went out and to him who sits on it, it was given to him to take peace from the earth and that men would slay one another, and a great sword was given to him.” That portrays in figurative language exactly what Jesus predicted in the Olivet Discourse.

You can return there now. We’ll come back to Revelation 6, so keep a finger there, but go back to Luke 21:9. It stands to reason, since the same one who delivered the Olivet Discourse also gave John the revelation to record in the Book of Revelation, that these things are going to conjoin and going to interpret one another. But here in Luke 21, Jesus is assuring his disciples, present disciples and future disciples, “Don’t fear the massive uptick that you’re going to see at that time in warfare. Verse 9: “‘When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, wars and disturbances, do not be terrified, for these things must take place first, but the end doesn’t follow immediately.’”

Several points of interest before we move on. First, when Jesus says, “‘These things must take place first.’” That sentence in verse 9 begins with a coordinating conjunction, the word “day” in Greek, but it’s translated “and” as a coordinating conjunction. So it means that these things, wars and disturbances, connect back to the false messiahs from the previous verse. So all these things are the beginning of birth pains, false messiahs and wars and disturbances.

Second point to make, this is pretty subtle in the English, but in the Greek text it’s absolutely clear the word translated “must,” it’s the verb dei, by which Jesus indicates a divine necessity is at work, here. This is God’s purpose, God’s will unfolding. Back to the majority of uses of the word dei. The verb points to God’s sovereign work. It shows him, his invisible sovereignty behind the scenes that has ordained all the events taking place, bringing his perfect will to pass. It is the exact same expression and language in Matthew 24:6, Mark 13:7, Luke 21:9. All three accounts are consistent, perfectly parallel at this particular point.

Third thing to say, so we need to understand, false messiahs, wars, or wars: These things must take place first. “It is necessary” is another way to translate that. Necessary by what standard? By God’s will. That’s why it’s necessary. This must happen. So third thing we see: these false messiahs, the wars, social unrest, rumors, and more wars, all these are necessary preludes to the end, which Jesus clearly says in verse 9, “‘does not follow immediately.’” There is a time gap here. The other two writers record something similar, as Jesus saying it this way, not saying the end doesn’t follow immediately. Jesus said that as well, but he also said, “‘But the end is not yet.’” That’s what they translate. That’s what they give. Obviously, he said both things as we’ve already made that point.

Matthew and Mark, their comment that “the end is not yet,” that is to prevent an incorrect judgment on behalf of the disciples, on behalf of us, any of us who might think, “Oh, it’s getting real bad, Russians invaded Ukraine, there’s been attacks from Hamas on Israel. Therefore, this is the sign of the end.” We’re all supposed to take a step back, take a deep breath and say, “The end is not yet.” These things are not happening. Those are false signs. This is to prevent an incorrect judgment. And why would these disciples in particular need this warning? Because a very serious judgment is coming upon the city of Jerusalem in just a couple decades. As they’re reading it here, in AD 61 or 62 when Luke wrote, it’s less than a decade away. They need to take a deep breath and realize that even what happens in Jerusalem in AD 70, the end is not yet. That is not a sign that the end is coming, that the Second Coming is happening then.

What Jesus predicts here, though, is nothing that the world has ever seen.

Travis AllenIt’s followed by a subordinate conjunction, “for.” “For nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom.” That “for” is an explanation or a further elaboration of what he just said, same wording both accounts in Matthew and Mark. Luke doesn’t just say, “The end is not yet, for nation will rise against nation.” In Luke, he pauses the flow entirely, and he inserts his own voice as the narrator, and he breaks the flow of Jesus’ prophecy here with what may seem at first glance to be an unnecessary interruption.

But on closer inspection, as we reflect on this, we see that Luke is acting as a very good narrator, here, to emphasize Jesus’ purpose, to emphasize Jesus’ point; namely to see that verse 10, the international conflicts of nations and kingdoms, those are an extension of the “wars and the disturbances” of verse 9. In fact, everything that follows, earthquakes, famines, plagues, terrors, signs, in each case we need to insert “the end is not yet,” “the end is not yet,” “the end doesn’t follow immediately.” That’s how we need to read this. These are not the signs you were looking for. Remember “These are not the droids you’re looking for”? “These are not the signs you were looking for,” is what Jesus is saying.

“The sign,” by the way, just to give you a preview of coming attractions, “the sign,” verse 27, is the Son of Man, “like lightning that flashes from the east and is seen to the west,” everybody’s going to see it. He, himself, coming is the sign. Basically, what we need to realize here is that in the Great Tribulation time, all things are going to get really bad, worse than we’ve ever seen them. It’s going to seem like all hell is breaking loose, like the demonic has been unleashed on the earth, and certainly, the end is upon us, and the end, then, that Christ is on his way down. But as bad as these wars, rumors of wars, disturbances are going to get, as bad as it is for the population who experience this, none of these events are the end themselves. They are a prelude to the end, which is coming in a very short time.

So verse 10, notice that Jesus continues there, saying, “‘Nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom.’” Again, he’s not merely reiterating the wars and disturbances of the previous verse; he’s just simply expanding and broadening the scope. He’s elaborating, saying that the scope of this conflict is not just going to be local or regional; it’s going to be on an international scale. It’s not going to stay contained within borders of nations and kingdoms though it will be within the borders, but also border to border, nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom. So these international conflicts are going to kick off: warfare on a global scale, engulfing the entire world in armed conflicts in a massive, unparalleled level of bloodshed. That’s what’s coming in the Great Tribulation. Nations and kingdoms all going to war with one another. This is politics and diplomacy breaking down completely. This is a time when the fiery red horse and its rider “take peace from the earth.” It’s not just a local expression, “take peace from the land.” It’s the entire earth, there. It takes peace, that men should slay one another.

But again, Jesus tells his people, as bad as things will be at that time, “the end is not yet.” It doesn’t follow immediately; there’s a gap, and his message remains the same. Beloved, do not be terrified. Do not be gripped with the terror. Don’t be caught up in the same hysteria that is going to unfold around you.

The prophecy, as I said, continues in verse 10, but let’s turn this into a second point because of the shift in what can cause the fear and anxiety. We go from human conflict, and Jesus then reveals the acceleration of natural catastrophe, natural consequences of widespread warfare. So point number two, don’t be terrified by catastrophes. Do not be terrified by catastrophes. Jesus says, middle of verse 10, “‘and there will be great earthquakes and in various places plagues and famines.’” Guess what? These are not signs of the end, that the Second Coming is happening. They’re not signs of that, either. To the social, political chaos that he has just prophesied are going to be added natural disasters hitting the earth, and the first mentioned are massive earthquakes.

Now I discovered there are lots of earthquake data related websites, lots of study on earthquakes in the modern age and going back, and actually it’s amazing how they can go back into history and kind of piece together, it’s like detectives putting together Richter scale levels and all that kind of stuff. There’s so much that it would be unprofitable for our purposes to spend too much time on this, and I’ll just refer you, actually this time to Wikipedia. It’s got a good collation of data. You can go to the USGS website, but some of the font there is like, so small that you’re going to need thick, Coke bottle glasses to be able to read it. So peruse at your leisure.

But let me just stick with a few illustrations from the past 50 years about earthquakes. July 28, 1976. I was just a little six-year-old guy then, but it was an earthquake in Hebei, China, killed an estimated 250,000 people in that earthquake, official numbers. But perhaps as many as 700,000 people died in that earthquake, making it the deadliest earthquake of the 20th century, third deadliest in recorded history. December 26 of 2004. Maybe some of you remember this earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, measured 9.1 or between 9.1, 9.3 on the Richter scale, created a tsunami that killed about 230,000 people, but injured hundreds of thousands and displaced 1.2 million people in 14 countries of South Asia and East Africa. East Africa! It’s incredible, incredible tsunami. January 12 of 2020. I saw the evidence of this. An earthquake in Haiti measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale, but it killed between 100,000 and 300,000 people, injured another 300,000 people. Nearly 100,000 homes were destroyed, another 200,000 damaged; 1.3 million people displaced in that country. Obviously, that country is going through a terrible, terrible crisis right now. Following year, March 11, 2011, an earthquake in Sendai, Japan killed nearly 20,000 people, another 2,500 missing, 6,000 injured, 130,000 people displaced, hundreds of thousands of buildings, thousands of roads damaged and destroyed, bridges, railways destroyed or damaged.

But the highest death toll of any earthquake on record, according to the USGS website, January 23 of 1556. So we’re talking the 16th century, we’re talking Reformation days. This took place in Shaanxi, China, capital of Xi’an, where the terracotta warriors are buried with their emperor. Maybe you’ve seen the terracotta warriors. You can find them online. Very, very interesting backstory there. That’s the eastern starting point of the ancient trade route known as the Silk Road. But there was an estimated magnitude of 8-plus on the Richter scale, an earthquake that was felt more than 500 miles away. That’s an inland part of China, so it had to ripple through all the earth. Killed more than 830,000 people, 50% of the province’s population dead at that time.

There’s an ancient Chinese source that described the earthquake this way. It says this: “In the winter of 1556, an earthquake catastrophe occurred. Various misfortunes took place.” Listen to the description. “Mountains and rivers changed places.” We read about that in scripture, and we always think, “Is that just figurative language for for ‘really scary’?”. According to this, “Mountains and rivers changed place; roads were destroyed. In some places the ground suddenly rose up and formed new hills or sank abruptly and became new valleys. In other areas, steam burst out in an instant, or the ground broke and new gullies appeared. Huts, official houses, temples, city walls collapsed all of a sudden.” End quote. Those who heard in the surrounding region and other countries believed that that earthquake in particular was a divine punishment for the people’s sins. They connected the dots to God. There was a sign, they said, of that great calamity that appeared in the sky, a great comet of 1556, which they believed was the sign of the birth of the Antichrist. Isn’t that interesting? 1556. China.

As bad as that earthquake was, with the high, high death toll, as bad as other earthquakes have been, none of these are signs of the end either. They’re not signs that the Second Coming is happening, obviously. It’s easy to understand, though. I mean, if you’ve ever lived, I’ve been through some little minor, minor things, when we lived in California, but nothing bad. Every time that something would happen, people in California would say, “Well, you should have been here in ’94 when the Northridge earthquake took place. Felt like the end was coming.” That’s what they said. It’s easy to understand how people would think that if you’ve ever lived through such a devastating catastrophe, why people would be tempted to see the things that are happening as the signs of the end. And Jesus says here it is not. Something really bad is coming. Think about the massive death toll of a great earthquake. Dead bodies everywhere. The aftermath, too, as you go walking through the rubble, infrastructure is destroyed. You can’t get anywhere because roads are destroyed. Everybody’s cut off from everybody else. The production and distribution of energy resources cut off. Displaced population. No running water, no good plumbing, no proper hygiene.

And so, as we see in the text, along with natural catastrophes of earthquakes, people are going to suffer natural consequences of warfare and things like this, as well as these natural disasters, desperate times, widespread disease, unsanitary conditions leading to plagues. The word we’ve come to prefer in our day, evidently, is “pandemic.” Truly, a pandemic is coming, here. COVID, with whatever the death toll was, was nothing. Famines are going to come at that time due to God-ordained judgments, judgments like a lack of rain, blight on the crops, infestation of pests and insects. A food shortage is going to be exacerbated by the landscapes ravaged by warfare, fields of crops destroyed, not to mention the homes and cities flattened by the earthquakes, all that results in chaos.

Now, with all that cheery information in mind, go back to Revelation chapter 6. We see the same kind of language that Jesus uses there in his revelation to John as he shows John what’s going to happen in the end. And we see these phenomenon, same phenomenon here listed here, but in reverse order. We start with the famines, result of global warfare, ravages landscapes, disrupts farming and ranching. Warfare is bad on growth, slows or stops food production, distribution, especially as so much of the nation’s food needs to go to feed the armies. Look at Revelation 6:5-6: “When he opened the third seal I heard the living creature saying, ‘Come,’ and then I looked and behold, a black horse, and he who sits on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard something like a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, ‘One choinix of wheat for one denarius, three choinix of barley for one denarius, and do not harm the oil and the wine.’”

The best explanation for this third-seal judgment is massive inflation is going to hit the grain prices, the grain market. It’s going to hit the wheat and the barley, staple diet of most common people, most people, work-a-day people, but the luxury items already out of reach for most, especially in hard times. Those luxury items like the oil and the wine will not be touched. This famine is going to be unique in the history of famines, not only due to the severity, and it’s famines in various places by the way, so it’s happening around the earth. But it’s going to also be unique in the disparity, the results between rich and poor, dividing people further from one another. This is going to exacerbate class struggle, lead to further class warfare.

And when the body count piles up due to this unprecedented level of famine, then come diseases and plagues; as I said, known more commonly today as epidemics and pandemics. Look at verses 7 and 8: “He opened the fourth seal, and I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, ‘Come,’ and then I looked and behold, a pale horse, and he who sits on it had the name Death, and Hades was following him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth to kill with the sword, and with famine, and with pestilence, and by the wild beasts of the earth.”

We’ll stop there for a minute. The same judgment, language, and that prophecy comes from Ezekiel. We can see the same language in Ezekiel as God told Jerusalem’s leaders he’s not going to spare Judah and Jerusalem from judgment. Same four methods of judgment, Ezekiel 14:21, “my 4 severe judgments against Jerusalem: sword, famine, wild beasts and plague to cut off man and beast from it.” That actually happened in history in the three Babylonian invasions that ensued after that prophecy: 605 BC to 597 BC, 586 BC destroyed Jerusalem, Judah by the sword, by famine, by wild beast, by plague.

Those same judgments, those methods of judgment are going to be deployed again, but in the Tribulation period. It’s not going to just be to the city of Jerusalem, not just going to be to the land of Judah as it was in 605, 597, 586 BC. This time it’s going to kill a quarter of the population of the earth. These are staggering numbers. What are we at? About 8 billion people in the world today? Two billion gone because of this. Folks, I just need to reiterate the point here. The intensity of this, the severity of this, these events during the Tribulation, one-fourth of the world’s population dying in a span of just a few years? Nothing like this has ever happened in the world.

Obviously, nothing like this happened during the brief period of history between Jesus’ ascension in AD 33 up to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. So any preterist view of this is wrong. Nothing like this has happened at any point since then in world history, either. This is not just business as usual. What’s going to happen then is something very dramatic, very different, to where people around are going to be living in terror. Believers commanded, “Don’t be terrified. Don’t be terrified.”

So we’re still waiting for these birth pains to begin. They’re still future to us, but there’s more. The earth is going to convulse with great earthquakes during the Tribulation period. In John’s revelation, a massive one is coming, an unprecedented quake of unimaginable magnitude. We read about it in Revelation 6:12 and following, but before we read, let’s transition to one final point in your outline if you’re taking notes. Number three, don’t be terrified by calamities. Don’t be terrified by calamities. The beginning of birth pains, false messiahs, human conflict, warfare, bloodshed, followed by famines and plagues to include great earthquakes, they lead to Luke 21:11, “terrors and great signs from heaven,” and the message to the believers who will be living at that time, it is still this: “Do not be terrified. You believers, don’t be terrified.” You’re going to have to be intentional to heed that. You have to be disciplined to obey this because the chaos and the suffering is vast, and it’s unprecedented, and it is frightening, and the unbelieving are going to be gripped by terror. But the believing, you take refuge in your God. You take refuge in your God.

We’re going to skip over the fifth seal in Revelation 6, the cry for vengeance from the martyrs and the Tribulation. We’re going to look at the sixth seal that starts in verse 12. One great earthquake listed here, followed by terrors, great signs from heaven, which makes it parallel to Luke 21:11. But look at verse 12 and following in Revelation chapter 6: “Then I looked when he opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood. The stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. And the sky was split apart like a scroll when it’s rolled up. And every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong, and every slave and freeman hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the presence of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?’”

Remarkable, isn’t it, that the unbelievers of the world, even kings, great men, commanders, generals, rich, powerful, along with the poor and the weak, all of a sudden class divides are gone. All of a sudden, wealth distinctions gone. They are all equally terrified, slave and free. And everyone at that time will know for sure this is none other than the wrath of God and the wrath of the Lamb. Isn’t that fascinating? They’ve got theology. No heart of repentance. Sounds like some of the testimonies we heard in baptism this morning. All right. A lot of theology. No heart of regeneration, no repentance, no faith in God, no love for Christ. They cannot deny or explain away anything that’s happening. This is obviously divine judgment on a scale they’ve never seen ever. But even then, still no love of the truth, still no repentance for their sin.

Now with that in mind, let’s turn back to Luke 21, verse 11. Try to finish this last portion here. Jesus said, “‘Nation will rise against nation,’” verse 10, “‘kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes in various places, plagues, famines,’” and then, as if to separate them from the other birth pains, Jesus says, “‘There will be terrors and great signs from heaven.’” The word for “terrors,” there: phobetron, phobetron. Built from the typical word for fear, phobos. But this is the only time the word phobetron is used in the New Testament. It’s very rare. It means “horror,” it means “terror.” In this context it’s connected with signs from heaven. So it means terrible sight, horrific sight. The lexicographer Arndt translates this, “There will be dreadful portents and signs.”

Some assume “terrible sights and signs” from heaven are nothing more than, as one commentator explains this, he says, “By the signs from heaven we are to understand meteors, auroras, eclipses, et cetera, phenomenon to which the vulgar readily attach a prophetic significance.” End quote. So I guess we’re a world full of people looking at auroras. Aurora borealis, that’s what he’s saying is described here. That’s not the word. That is not the impression Jesus is giving. How would just looking at meteors, aurora borealis, eclipses of the sun, solar eclipses, lunar eclipses, how would that explain these beginning of birth pains to which vulgar pagans attach prophetic significance as tempting true believers to be carried along with the terror of pagans? How would it explain that?

I mean, it is one thing, isn’t it, for the superstitious and the pagan to attach prophetic significance to more common heavenly phenomena like meteors, auroras, and eclipses. It’s quite another thing, as we read in verse 25, to see the unprecedented effect of these signs on people. The word “signs” in verse 11 connects with the same word in verse 25. In fact, if you took out verses 12-19, you could read it in a flow, continues Jesus’ thought. Verse 25 continues Jesus thought from verse 11. He says, “‘There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” It’s not talking about boyfriend, girlfriend out on date night looking at the stars and saying, “Oh look, a shooting star!” This is something completely different.

So why, in the face of all these truly terrifying and frightening events and signs, how can Jesus say, “‘Don’t be terrified’”? How can you say that? Why does this command of our assurance make any sense? Because Jesus says in verses 27-28, “‘All these birth pains will eventuate in the joy of birth.’” In this case, the birth is a metaphor for the return of the Son of Man. This is what all believers, whether those who are returning with Christ from heaven, like the church who’s been raptured and does not go through any of this, or those who will receive Christ when he returns to the earth, Jew and Gentile who’ve gotten saved during the Tribulation time, and they receive Christ as he returns back to earth.

Listen, wherever you are on the timetable, this is the main event for every believer. This is what we long for. This is what we are waiting for, longing for, like the kind of anticipation that new parents have who are awaiting the birth of their first-born child. Once the birth pains start, the birth is not yet, but that birth is coming soon. Joy is at the other end of that pain.

So we come to the end of verse 11, and Jesus takes a pause here after verse 11 to speak to his disciples in their current situation. Instead of continuing on with the great signs, talking about the birth pains of the end leading to the great signs from heaven, the dismay that terrifies the nations, the things which are coming upon the entire world, Jesus pauses to speak a word of comfort to his disciples, disciples that are representing here all believers, but these disciples in particular. He speaks to them in verses 12-19 because they’re soon going to endure a great testing. Then he speaks to them about the judgment coming up on the whole of the Jewish nation in verses 20-24, and he warns them, there, to get out. He’s got an exit plan for them. He’s got an evacuation strategy for his people, and we’re going to see that the community of Christians in Jerusalem does exactly that. They do escape from Jerusalem, as history records.

But first, verse 12, before all these things, Jesus tells his disciples, “‘You’ll be arrested, you’ll be persecuted, you’ll be delivered over to synagogues, you’ll be thrown in prison, you’ll be brought before authorities.’” “But don’t worry about it. It’s all part of the plan. It’s all part of the plan for me getting the gospel out, for me putting you on a pedestal, on display, giving you a mouthpiece and allowing you to speak to many, many people about my gospel.” More about that next time. Powerful words of encouragement coming to the disciples. And we can take great comfort from them as well. But for now, that’s what we have time for. Let’s close in prayer.

Our Father, we are so grateful that you sent the Lord Jesus Christ to save us from our sins, so that we can be included in the commands that he gives not to be deceived, not to go after false messiahs, not to go after false teachers, to false prophets, deception, to be wary, but also the command to not be alarmed, to not be terrified, to not let anything trouble our hearts. As Jesus said to his disciples, “‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. For I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, you may be also.’”

Father, we pray for the rapture of the church, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray for your justice to be on display, for you to be fully glorified. We we want to see every knee bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. We would haste the day of the these events coming, but we realize what we prefer, what we long for, what we want in our time frame is not yours. And we trust you. We know that the fact that you did not send the Lord Jesus Christ a hundred years ago means that we have been saved. We, too, could be born into this world and see the glory of your Messiah. We could see the way that you dealt with our sins in the cross. We could see the perfections of Jesus Christ and realize what your commands of obedience really mean, how far they go, how deep they go, and how Jesus kept the law perfectly on our behalf. We see everything fulfilled in Him.

We trust you. We know that your timing in sending him the first time is perfect, and your timing in sending him the second time is also perfect. We trust you. We ask that you would help us never to be afraid, not to be misled or deceived, but instead to stand up and speak boldly the truth of your gospel to the people who so desperately need to hear it. We’ve heard the testimonies of five of them this morning in the waters of baptism, and every one of those testimonies reminded us of our own salvation.

We’re so grateful that you’ve forgiven us of our sin. We ask that you would save many more through the witness of this church and other faithful gospel-preaching churches, not only in our region but across this nation and across the world. Please use the turbulent times that we’re living in, as much convulsion goes on politically and everything else. We pray that you would help us to be faithful, to speak boldly and truthfully and lovingly to a world who so desperately needs your salvation. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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Luke 21:8

You can turn in your Bibles to Luke 21, Jesus’ prophecy about the End Times and about his return to earth; the Second Coming. This prophecy comes in response, as we’ve seen, to a question from Jesus’ disciples. Jesus had predicted the divine judgment that would come upon the city of Jerusalem and its temple, Luke 21:5 and 6, which results in questions that his disciples asked, in verse 7, about the end. And so, from verses 8 to 36, as Jesus the Messiah answers their questions about the end, about the signs of the times, he is speaking here from his prophetic office.

He’s speaking about the immediate future of these disciples, and he’s also speaking about the far future of the Jewish nation and about the restoration and redemption of believing Israel. And notice, we’ve pointed this out, but I’m going to point it out again, here, that Jesus starts and ends his prophecy by admonishing his disciples to stay awake, and to stay alert, and to be watchful.

Notice at the end of the prophecy in verse 36, Jesus says, but keep alert. “Keep on the alert at all times, praying earnestly that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place.” And strength, praying earnestly, you may have strength, “to stand before the Son of Man.” Speaking prophetically, the second person plural address to these disciples, he’s treating them as believing representatives of a future believing Israel. Obviously, he uses the second person plural address to speak to them, as those who will, some of them living through the destruction of Jerusalem, which he speaks about in verses 20 and 24.

So some things, in this prophecy, pertain to them in particular, but other things like standing before the Son of Man, that will happen in the far future. No matter which generation though, believers are to be characterized by watchfulness. So Jesus ends his prophecy in that way, and it’s the same way that he started it with this call to watchfulness. Take a look at verses 8 through 11, “He said, ‘See to it that you are not deceived, for many will come in my name saying, “I am he!” and, “The time is at hand!” ‘Do not go after them. And when you hear of wars and disturbances, do not be terrified, for these things must take place first, but the end does not follow immediately.’ And he continued saying to them, ‘Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.’”

And he stops himself and says, “but before all these things.” And he has particular things to say to these disciples. But the word is stay watchful. See to it you’re not deceived. Beware. The time of which Jesus speaks was known to Israel. It’s his disciples, the hearers of this prophecy, the initial hearers, they understand what he’s talking about. He’s Speaking of a time known to Israel, as in the words of Jeremiah the prophet, in Jeremiah 30 verse 7. It’s the time of Jacob’s trouble; the time of Jacob’s distress.

A time of distress and trouble for the nation, and it’s a time of distress and trouble that, from which and out of which, God will save the nation, Israel. He will not save them, apart from their repentance and their belief, that he will save them in their faith. In fact, just listen to these words. You can turn there if you want to, but Jeremiah 30 starting in verse 4, “These are the words which Yahweh spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah.” Notice the joining together of the of Judah and Israel that were a divided nation, both of them exiled at different times. And now he speaks concerning this united Israel and Judah.

“For thus says Yahweh, ‘We have heard a sound of trembling, of dread, and there is no peace. ‘Ask now, and see If a male can give birth. Why do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in childbirth? Why have all faces turned pale? Alas, for that day is great, there is none like it; and it is a time of Jacob’s distress, but he will be saved from it.’” ‘And it will be in that day,’ declares Yahweh of hosts, ‘that I will break his yoke from off your neck, and I will tear off your bonds; and strangers will no longer make them their slaves. But they shall be a slave to Yahweh their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.’”

So here’s David, David’s greater son, Jesus the Christ. He’s unpacking this time in his prophecy. He’s unpacking this prophecy of Jeremiah. He’s predicting how it’s going to unfold. And there’s gonna be more to say in the New Testament. There’s gonna be more to say in the Book of Revelation. But right now, in the Olivet Discourse, that is some of what he’s unpacking. We commonly refer to this time in verses 8 through 11, and also in verses 25 to 28, but we’ve heard of this as the great tribulation.

The disciples, in all Israel, would know this as the time of Jacob’s trouble. It starts in verses 8 to 11 and then finishes up in 25 to 28 and culminates in the coming of the Son of Man. Now the timing about all this is a point of great debate, which I don’t intend to obscure or pass over, at all. The nature of this debate, timing, we need to understand. Timing was at the very heart of the disciples’ questions too. They want to know when is this gonna to happen, What’ll be the signs? When will these things be, verse 7? What will be the sign, when these things are about to take place? They’re interested in the timing as well; just as we are.

And Jesus said, the time will begin, verses 8 through 11, with what we find in Matthew and Mark are called the beginning of birth pains. It’s the first half of the great tribulation. This is in the first of the pains that we see. The first of the birth pains is a proliferation of many false messiahs. Verse 8, “See to it that you are not deceived, for many will come in my name saying, ‘I am he!’ and ‘The time is at hand!’ Do not go after them.”

So we started last time into this verse with some observation questions who, what, when, where, why, and how. When we got to two of those last time, we’re going to, by God’s grace, finish up the rest today. Number one, who is Jesus warning and about whom is he warning them? Jesus. That’s our first point, which I mentioned last time. The Who, Jesus is warning his disciples. The twelve in particular are here, but there may be other disciples as well; but they are the representatives of believing and repentant Israel. They are the ones who will one day say, or the representation of the ones who will one day say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”

And the warning for them, as representatives of these future believers, and warning to them, in particular, see to it that you are not deceived. Then the end of the verse, do not go after these false messiahs. Don’t go after the many who will proliferate at the end and try to deceive. About whom is Jesus warning them. Notice it’s not about false prophets. Notice that it’s not about false teachers. The warning is about false messiahs, and that is a more specific and extremely audacious claim for any human being to make.

It’s the first half of the great tribulation. This is in the first of the pains that we see. The first of the birth pains is a proliferation of many false messiahs.

Travis Allen Some find it helpful to their view of eschatology to count any false prophet or any false religious leader as a messiah. But Jesus has not left that up to us to define how we want to. He actually uses the language of Messiahship; not false prophecy, not false leader, false teacher, but Messiah. So we’ll see that, in the second point, when we ask the question, the what question; What are the many doing?

What are they doing? Number two: They will be making messianic claims. I am he. It means, according to Matthew 24:5, it means, I am the Christ. It is a claim that is then connected by Luke with a divine timing, namely, “The time is at hand.” The messianic claim is a claim to be the messiah; who is stepping into the role, in the offices of the Messiah, as we talked about last time, as prophet, as priest, as king.

False messiahs’ claim to be messiahs, supplanting the true Messiah, aping the ministries of the offices of Christ. So false messiahs are going to assume the prophetic office of the true Christ. They act as revealers of the truth. They want to captivate, capture the masses with their lies. They claim to step into the prophetic role. False messiahs will assume the priestly office of Christ, claiming to kind of reconcile sinners to God, to mediate between God and mankind. They are usurping God’s place, usurping Christ’s true place, and stepping into it and saying that they are his representative. They come in His name.

False messiahs will assume the kingly office of Christ. They’ll come as political saviors, military heroes. They’ll, be, have amazing leadership, compelling charisma, captivating people with persuasive power. They will wield God like authority over people. And Jesus says in Luke 21:8, many will come that way. Many. Firstly, “the many will come in my name,” that is in the name of Jesus himself. Secondly, the many will come saying, “I am he!” That is, they will make a specific, deliberate claim to be the Messiah. And thirdly, the many will come saying, “The time is at hand.” That is a specific and deliberate claim to come and fulfill God’s prophetic promises.

All three of those elements are joined together, “in my name,” I am He, I’m the Messiah, and the time is at hand. All three of those things. There will be a high concentration of these false messiahs, and there will be messiahs like that, who come according to this description, that Jesus carefully gave us. Listen, the world has never seen that, at any stage in its history. Ever have, never seen that.

There are those who want to broad brush, paint with a broom, any and all false prophets, any and all false religious leaders, any and all false religious or political leaders. They want to look back through history and paint with a broom. They’re not following the carefully drawn lines that Jesus has put on the canvas for us. And people who do that trying to find false messiahs, who don’t call themselves messiahs, but they find them in history anyway.

When they do that, they confuse the issue and they confuse the church. And they do that by failing to give due careful attention to Jesus’ actual language; to the meaning of his actual words. And that is why future believers and all of us in the meantime, we have to be intentional to avoid deception. See to it, as in watch very carefully. Beware. Take heed. Believers have to be on the lookout for these deceivers, for their deceptions, because at that time, at this beginning time of the tribulation, there will be a very high concentration of many convincing false messiahs. If it were possible, they’d deceive even the elect. They’re that good.

Have we seen that in history? False messiahs, false christs, you need to understand, are on a whole different level of boldness and brazenness and deception. And we can understand that once the Church has been raptured, the tactics of Satanic deception are going to shift, adapting to the new situation, responding to this new environment, and finding a new opportunity to take charge of a narrative and convince the unbelieving world that they are the true messiah.

Now, I’ve, I’ve, said this, and I’m gonna say it again today, that not everybody sees the text this way, as I’m describing it. Which brings us to a third question, which is the ‘when’ question. When is this gonna happen? When, number three: When are they impersonating Christ? When are they impersonating him? And as I’ve said, this is a contested point. In fact, it is ‘the’ contested point about the Olivet Discourse, which is influencing how people interpret the whole discourse; also, John’s Revelation as well; other New, New Testament passages about the future.

There are some who believe that the future events Jesus is predicting, predicting, in the Olivet Discourse, those events they believe are fulfilled at the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. They’re called preterists. The, the, Latin term is prater, which means, past, so what they’re saying is that most, and some even, go so far as to say all of what Jesus predicted. But many say most of what Jesus predicted has already happened back in AD 70. This whole Olivet Discourse wrapped up in AD 70.

There’s a minority who are full preterists. Those who believe all prophecies, here, were fulfilled in AD 70, including, by the way, the Second Coming of Christ. So, if they believe that, and they are full preterists, in that way, that means they are not Christians. Because belief in a future Second Coming of Christ is a cardinal doctrine of the Christian faith, which means you can’t believe the Second Coming has already happened and still be a Christian.

The many, many preterists within our camp or within an evangelical camp say the same thing. They say, yes, if you are a full preterist and you believe the Second Coming has already happened, you’re not a Christian. So they have to, they have to draw the lines very carefully for themselves within the preterist camp. So the rest of those who true evangelicals are called partial preterists, they believe some or if not most of the prophecies about the end are not so much prophecies about the end of the world. But they’re prophecies about the end of Jerusalem, the end of Israel, and they are all fulfilled in AD 70.

Now, just to avoid being too wordy and, you know, getting my own tongue tied up in the language here, I’m gonna use the word preterist to refer to the Christians who are partial preterists. Okay? So I’m gonna use preterist just to speak of those. If they’re full preterist, they’re not Christians. But I’m gonna speak about the partial preterist. Just using the word preterist. Okay?

Amillennialists, those who believe that the 1000 years of Revelation 20 should not be taken literally, but should be taken instead as, as, figurative of a long period of time; they believe that the millennial kingdom is underway during the church age and that is called Amillennialism. They’re preterists. Postmillennialists, as well, those who also take the 1000 years of Revelation 20 as a figure of speech, of a long period of righteousness on the earth. And after that time, post, that long period of time, Jesus returns. They’re also preterists.

Both Amillennialists and Postmillennialists are preterists. They’re partial preterists. They claim that most of the events that Jesus predicted in the Olivet Discourse were fulfilled when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in AD 70. Now there are others, who are premillennialists, that believe that Jesus will come before the thousand-year reign on the earth. The Second Coming will come first and then the thousand-year reign on the earth, when Jesus sits on David’s throne and rules from the city of Jerusalem; literally, physically.

Some of these Premillennialists, they also teach that the events of verses 8 through 11 are being fulfilled now, in some way, in the church age and being ramped up; that this started in AD 33 or AD whatever, right after Christ’s ascension, and has, has, continued, and continues to grow with a strength, kind of like, some say, with labor pains. All this time of 2000 years is, man, that’s a long labor, right? So, regarding these false messiahs, in particular, let’s just limit our conversation today to just the false messiahs.

Just the first of the beginning of birth pains; the first pain being false messiahs. Regarding them, on the one hand, as Amillennialists and Postmillennialists, as preterists, they believed that there were a bunch of these false messiahs that popped up between Jesus’ ascension in AD 33 and the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. 37-year period of time, bunch of false, false, messiahs popping up everywhere. Okay.

On the other hand, there are some Premillennialists, who likewise believe, that a bunch of false messiahs popped up in the 1st century and have been continuing on through to today, and they’ve been proliferating and growing more numerous, more deceptive. Deceiving more, along with the other events in verses 8 through 11, they believe that that’s been happening from the 1st century and continue on through history up to this very moment and will eventuate in the tribulation.

I’m about to disagree, respectfully I hope, with both of those views, and it starts right here, Luke 21:8, in clarifying the nature of the false claim to messiahship. I hope you already know what the claim to Messiahship is. I’ve said it, but I’m gonna say it over again. But I’m gonna start with the preterist view, and I’m gonna try to refute the claim that a host of false messiahs showed up between the ascension of Jesus and the destruction of Jerusalem in the AD 70. And after I talk about that, I’m gonna deal with the idea that these messiahs, these false messiahs, not only started showing up in the 1st century, but have continued on to this very time.

So, starting with the preterist view, the first one. As I said, they say that the Olivet Discourse was mostly fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. And that means that they need to find evidence of what Jesus predicted here, verses 8 through 11, particularly the false christs. But they have to find evidence of what Jesus predicted. So false christs, war, social unrest, earthquakes, plagues, famines, terrors, and great signs from heaven. They need to find evidence of all of that between Jesus’ ascension AD 33 and Jerusalem’s destruction in AD 70; 37-year period of a very concentrated form of this stuff.

Now regarding the view of false messiahs in particular, before AD 70, there’s one well-known, well-regarded proponent of this view, J. Marcellus Kik, KIK, and he writes this quote, “History records but a few of the names of those who claim to be the messiah in the period from the ascension of Jesus Christ to the destruction of Jerusalem. Undoubtedly many were too insignificant to be recorded by historians.” End Quote.

I agree with Kik on that point. The history records, just a few names, and I’m about to quibble with the names that are recorded. But history does record just a few names, and I also agree with Kik that others were so insignificant as to be utterly disregarded by history. But it is that admission, that seals the fate of his view, that puts his view at complete odds with Jesus’ words in the text. The clear impression that Jesus is giving to his disciples, in all three accounts, by the way, Matthew 24:4 and 5, Mark 13:5 and 6, and Luke 21:8. The force of his imperative to, watch out, to see, to look for; to be intentional about the force of his imperative means that these deceivers are not only well known, but they are many, in number, and they are convincingly persuasive. So persuasive believers have to be on their guard. If it is otherwise, why should believers beware, be watchful, be, be, alert, to make sure they’re not deceived.

Matthew and Mark, tells us that these times are going to be marked by a powerful deception. Matthew 24:23 and following says this, Jesus warns them. “He says if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ don’t believe them. For false christs and false prophets.” Note the distinction there between the two; differentiating between two kinds of deceivers. On the one hand false christs, on the other hand false prophets. They will “arise and they will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. Behold, I have told you in advance,” Jesus says, it’s gonna be at this time.

It’s gonna seem that the whole world is following after this host of would-be messiahs. It is going to require a clear head, intentional watchfulness to exercise self-control and self-discipline, in order to resist the natural impulse to go along with the whole crowd, to go along with everybody, to agree with them. There are going to be so many, in these days, who are going to go astray following these many deceivers who claim to be the christ, the true messiah

Nevertheless, the preterists that I quoted earlier and many other preterists, they try to find candidates who could fit Jesus’ warning, those who live prior to AD 70, so that they can find a 1st century timeline, time frame, for this prediction to be fulfilled. Some possibilities, going to his book as a source, Simon Magus, remember the Samaritan magician from Acts chapter 8? That’s one of them. Another Samaritan named Dositheos, cited by origin. Josephus writes about Felix, the Roman governor of Acts 23 and 24, who, and Felix hunted down so-called messiahs, according to this source.

Another other preterists cite similar 1st century false, supposed false, Christs. I’m not going to get too far in the weeds with you on this, and I’m not going to read every single instance in text, but I certainly can cite my sources and let you have your own thrill of discovery to read it for yourself. But I have read the sources and I’m going to try to summarize some of this and not get too far in the weeds. But if I don’t refute these claims, they’re going to go unchallenged and the waters of eschatology will be muddied with this kind of an error. And I don’t want you to be misled. That’s in keeping with the text, right?

I don’t want you to be misled. So let’s start with Simon Magus. Simon Magus, Magus, which meant ‘great’ didn’t mean maggot, as some have said. It’s not Simon Maggot. Simon the Great, but widely recognized by Church history as the Arch Heretic. He is the prototype of all future false teachers. Some see him as the one of the earliest to blend Gnostic ideas with Christianity and he formed, really, a new religion. And you can read how Simon got his start in Acts chapter 8 verses 9 to 24. And what you cannot find, not only in Acts 8, but in other sources from the early church fathers, you cannot find any evidence that Simon claimed to be the christ, much less did he claim “the time is at hand.” You don’t see any evidence of that whatsoever.

There’s another named Menander of Antioch. Menander was Simon’s disciple, another early Gnostic teacher. Menander was also cited in some of these books as a false christ, but he never claimed to be the messiah either. Some preterists point to another Samaritan, Dositheos, as a false messiah. Dositheos was a contemporary of Simon Magus. He was something of a rival to him. Not only did he make no messianic claim, but hardly anyone was deceived by his teaching. Some cite Origin as giving evidence of the messianic pretensions of Dositheos. But when you go back and read Origin, you get a better picture of Dositheos and his followers. A much clearer picture. Origin says, “Even in former times they did not arise to any eminence and now they are completely extinguished so that it is said that their whole number does not amount to 30.” End Quote.

So ‘the many’ are not carried away by their deception, even though they were deceivers, false teachers; they weren’t false messiahs and the many were not carried away by their deception, much less believers. Believers were not on guard against them, just a few of them and their followers. They died out quickly. No danger at all, that, jus, Jesus disciples are going to be carried away with this massive deception.

All the early messianic figures modeled themselves not after Jesus, by the way, just this point of fact; these early so-called Messianic figures modeled themselves, not after Jesus, not after Messianic text of scripture, but rather, as Rudolf Meyer writes, their models quote, “Their models are the ideal ruler, Moses and Joshua, who according to the tradition led Israel out of the wilderness into the promised land.” End Quote.

So when they came trying to deceive people, they claim to be doing what Moses did, what Jesus did. And why would that be? Because right after Jesus was crucified, who wanted to say they were him. They’d rather deceive Israel, who just crucified Jesus. They’d rather deceive Israel by saying, we’re a reincarnation of Moses or Joshua. Meyer gives another example cited by preterists. And who’s another Samaritan? Mainly Samaritans are problems, aren’t they? You can understand why there was an antipathy towards Samaritans in the 1st century.

But nevertheless, those, there’s another Samaritan who came to prominence in AD 35; so very shortly after Jesus ascended into heaven. He came to prominence during the governorship of Pontius Pilate. Meyer says that this man wanted to quote, “Wanted to show his followers the temple vessels traditionally hidden by Moses on Gerizim.” Apparently, the miracle would prove that he was the initiator of the ideal mosaic age marked by the Tabernacle. So the procurator, that is the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, procurator, understood the movement thus and nipped it in the bud. Pontius, after Christ especially, did not want any more trouble from any people like this.

Preterists also refer to Theodas as a messianic figure. Gamaliel mentions Theodas in his Sanhedrin speech, as recorded in Acts 5:36 recorded by Luke. When you give, when you give more careful attention reading about him in Josephus, you find out that Theodas called himself a prophet, not Christ, not the messiah, but a prophet. He even claimed that he would divide the river and provide easy passage to his followers after the pattern of Joshua. So Theodas was a would-be Moses, or a would-be Joshua, not Christ.

Preterists also point to the Egyptian. He’s known as the Egyptian in Acts 21:38. This is the one the centurion kind of confused Paul with. When they arrested Paul in Jerusalem, they thought he was the Egyptian. Are you the Egyptian? And they, preterists, refer to him as possibly a false messiah. But Josephus himself says, “This Egyptian called himself a prophet.” Again, a prophet, not a messiah. Still, this Egyptian was successful in gathering tens of thousands of followers, so he did gather a number of followers after himself.

The Egyptian gathered his followers to Mount Olivet, of all places, said that at his command the walls of Jerusalem on the other side would fall down and he would lead his followers into Jerusalem as a type of Joshua’s Jericho conquest. He would repeat that miracle. When Governor Felix heard about it, he wasn’t having any of it; sent his troops killed about 400 of the followers and that others were captured or escaped, and that just disbanded the whole thing. The Egyptian himself fled, escaped as, Acts 21:38 attest to, and this Egyptian was never seen or heard from again.

So we’ve got Simon Magus, Menander of Antioch, Dositheos. We’ve got the Samaritan, Moses. We’ve got the Theodas. We’ve got the Egyptian. These are pretty weak candidates as so-called messiahs. In fact, they didn’t call themselves messiahs. Josephus doesn’t record them as messiahs. Other sources don’t call them messiahs, and they were hardly able to deceive, with the exception, notable exception, of the Egyptian, who did deceive tens of thousands. But they were hardly able to deceive any, but the most gullible of their time, the most disenchanted; disenfranchised. Certainly, nobody that believers would look at and say, huh, I wonder if that’s Christ.

The fact that some preterists, those who claim verses 8 through 11 and the Olivet discourses fulfilled at AD 70. The fact that some of these preterists cite these as examples of false messiahs, at the very least, means that they don’t give proper weight to what has been predicted by Jesus in Matthew 24:4 and 5, Mark 13:5 and 6, and Luke 21:8.

These pre-AD 70 deceivers did not convince very many at all. They didn’t put any believers in danger of going astray and falling after their deception. Why? Because they didn’t say they’re the christ. They didn’t come in Christ’s name. They didn’t say, “the times at hand.” They said, they’re false prophets. They came in the pattern of Moses and Joshua. They came with other badness to them, certainly, but nothing that’s going to deceive Christians. Godet summarizes, Frederic Godet says, “History, it is true, does not attest to the presence of false messiahs before the destruction of Jerusalem.” End Quote.

Alfred Plummer says the same thing. “We know of no false messiahs between the ascension and the fall of Jerusalem. They might be counted among the many antichrists of 1 John 2:18, but not as false christs.” End Quote. He’s right about that. I appreciate Plummer making the distinction, seeing the distinction in language. Words mean something. So that’s where preterists stop at AD 70. They feel that once they’ve made their case that they think there’s false messiahs prior to AD 70, going beyond AD 70 doesn’t really concern them, because everything, all their case, has been made and hinges on that point.

But there are some Premillennialists who believe the false messiahs, not only started then, and they cite some of the same examples, but they just keep-on-a-comin. They think verses 8 through 11 describe the time of the church age from the days of the apostles in the 1st century all the way to the current day, culminating in the tribulation. This is a very common, very popular view within Premillennialism, but I would say it is also an error and it is the cause of great confusion.

I don’t want you to be caught up in confusion. We go after AD 70 to, I’m gonna try to be as merciful as I can with you on some of this, okay, but some cite Simon Bar Kokhba, who is a messianic figure. Some of you have read about the Bar Kokhba revolt in AD 132 to 135. His revolt didn’t take place until nearly 100 years after Jesus; didn’t start till then. And Simon? It’s important to note that Simon himself did not claim to be the christ. Some of his rabbinic scholars or some rabbinic scholars, in that day, had hoped he was the christ, then made that claim for him. But he himself did not say he was the christ.

Rabbi Akiva associated Simon with Numbers 24:17, as the star out of Jacob. He held the sceptre that smites Moab. Another rabbi said there was a Haggai 2:21, “He’s going to overthrow thrones,” starting with this revolt of course, against Rome. The Bar Kokhba revolt ended in defeat in AD 135 when the Romans killed Simon at Betar, about five miles from Jerusalem; end of Simon. Rudolf Meyer says the period after the Bar Kokhba revolt, quote, “was hostile to all forms of the charismatic. A messianic prophet was officially quite inconceivable.” End Quote.

Well, why would that be? Because false messiahs get people killed, and people don’t like getting killed early. In these times, in the church age, people die following false messiahs. They’re actually not popular. Think David Koresh. Think Marshall Applewhite. Think people like that? Very few. What do I say? Crazies. Loonies. Disenfranchised. Disaffected people on the margins of society get caught up in some kind of a David Koresh kind of a thing. In fact, you could say the same thing about the decades immediately following the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. No one wanted to profess to be Christ. No one wanted to profess to be Israel’s Messiah because by popular vote in the land, that hadn’t worked out too well for him. Nevertheless, some soldier on.

They go on searching for false messiahs after the spectacular failure of the Bar Kokhba revolt, and I’m going to try to abbreviate this for the sake of time and sanity. But here’s a quick list. Moses of Crete in the 5th century, he convinced the Jews of Crete. Remember Crete is an island, Okay? And there he convinced the Jews of Crete to follow him as a New Moses, not a messiah, but as a New Moses, from Crete to Palestine on dry ground. I don’t know if you’ve looked at your map, but that is a long, long walk, even with dry ground. I’d rather fly. I’d rather, actually the ship be there, the water. Keep the water there. Let’s take a boat. But they left their possessions, and they waited for the appointed day that this Moses of Crete would give them and at the command of this Moses, they threw themselves into the sea. Many drowned, others were rescued. And Moses himself, he took off. He disappeared.

Serene in the 8th century. He was a Syrian Jew. Promised fellow Jews under his leadership they would expel the Muhammadans, that is, the Muslims, from the Holy Land. And when he was arrested by the Muslim Caliph Yazid, as the Jewish Encyclopedia notes, he declared that he had acted only in jest. I was only joking, just joking. Whereupon he was handed over to the Jews for punishment. All of his followers were received back into the fold upon giving up their heresy.

David Alroy in the 12th century, one of the few actually in history who did declare himself a messiah. He was born in Kurdistan, led a Jewish uprising against the Caliphate, claiming God sent him to throw off the Muslim yoke and march the Jews back to Jerusalem. His own father-in-law assassinated him in his sleep and the movement quickly died out.

I can go on to speak about Abraham Abulafia in the 13th century or the self-proclaimed prophet, not messiah, but Prophet Nissim ben Abraham. Abraham who was touched by an Angel. That’s actually the language, touched by an Angel. Maybe the TV program got its name from that, I don’t know. But there’s an Asher Lammlein, a self-proclaimed forerunner of the messiah. He, he, was a German. He convinced other Italians and Germans to fast, pray, give alms in anticipation of a messiah who, as it turns out, never showed up.

We could add names from the modern age as well, but the picture doesn’t improve much. Rhys Evans, the Welshman of the 17th century, Ann Lee of the Shakers, the female incarnation of Christ. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the awaited Mahdi, the likeness of Jesus. Sun Myung Moon, Jim Jones, Marshall Applewhite, Charles Manson claimed to be Jesus. Right. So many other nut cases and wackos; and after we scroll through page after page of a rogue’s gallery of false religious leaders, only a few of whom overtly claimed to be messiahs; we need to understand many did not. And though in some cases they were able to rally support for their political causes, their religious cults, they were for the most part abject failures.

I hope it is clear to you, just with this brief survey, that none of these tragic figures fit the picture that Jesus drew carefully for us in the Olivet Discourse. Those who try to find false messiahs before AD 70, those who try to find them showing up from the 1st century onward, as I said, they are failing to give due weight to the distinctively messianic nature of the deception that Jesus is describing here and the brazenness and the audaciousness of these particular deceivers. Instead, wrongly, they portray these deceivers as nothing more than run-of-the-mill false teachers, as just purveyors of a false kind of Christianity or a false religion, not only common throughout history, but mostly ignored and then scoffed at. These are the warnings that go unheeded when we don’t pay careful attention to Jesus’ language, His words.

Now, we do see warnings in the New Testament, don’t we? Against false teachers; against false teaching. The, the, New Testament is filled with warnings like that, but they are not the same as the warning that Jesus gives here in the Olivet Discourse. They’re not false messiahs. In fact, it is noteworthy that there are no other warnings about false messiahs anywhere else in the New Testament except in the Olivet Discourse, because false christs are not a feature of the church age.

They’re a feature of the time when the, when the focus shifts to Israel again, in the time of the tribulation. Warning against false teachers and false teaching, is about the interpretation of Christ. It’s the claim to represent Jesus. It’s a, it’s about the interpretation of the apostles and what’s written in the New Testament. It’s about representing them. It’s about preaching another christ, and another gospel, and another doctrine.

False messiahs will assume the priestly office of Christ, claiming to kind of reconcile sinners to God, to mediate between God and mankind. They are usurping God’s place, usurping Christ’s true place.

Travis Allen Paul summarizes the essence of false teaching that characterizes the church age like, like, this in 2 Corinthians 11:4. It’s preaching another Jesus. It’s receiving a different spirit. It’s preaching a different gospel. 2 Corinthians 11:13 says, the warning of false apostles, deceitful workers. They disguise themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, Paul says, “for even Satan disguises himself as an Angel of light.” Therefore, it’s not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. The satanic tactic of deception in the church age, since true Christians, since believers and that’s really the threat against Satan and his tactics, isn’t it? True Christians, true believers, we’re the ones he comes after.

But his tactic of deception in the church age, since believers regard the Bible as God’s word, since believers know Christ and Christ alone as “the way, the truth, and the life,” since believers see the Apostles teaching in the New Testament as the only true valid interpretation of the Christ. Well, satanic deception in the church age is a mimicry of Apostolic teaching. They disguise themselves as Apostles of Christ, as ministers of righteousness, and as angels of light.

But false messiahs, false christs, these deceivers are on a whole different level of boldness, brazenness, deception. And how do we explain this? We explain this because once the Church is raptured and taken away, tactics of Satanic deception are going to shift and going to adapt to a new situation and find new opportunity to deceive the masses. After the sudden disappearance of the Church, for which the world, the unbelieving world is going to need an explanation and the false christs step in to say, I come in the name of Jesus. I am He. The time is now.

It is an interesting feature of Luke’s account, as distinct from Matthew and Mark. Luke records Jesus’ warning about the time element. It’s not just, I am the christ, Matthew 24:5. It’s not just, “I am he!” Mark 13:6, but it’s also Luke 21:8, “The time is at hand.” What time would that be? It’s the word, Kairos, which in this context refers to an appointed time. Eschatologically, it’s the time of the end, joined with this messianic claim, this is the claim of the Second Coming. Leon Morris writes this, “The claim to messianic authority is followed by a prediction that the time, the end time, the time of national deliverance is near. The significance of these words should not be overlooked. Jesus was not predicting the end of the world within the lifetime of the men then living. He regarded those who make such forecasts as false prophets.” End Quote.

Just to remind you, Jesus said, many will come, not a few, not scattered here and there, many will come, and firstly, they will come in my name, that is the name of Jesus. Secondly, many will come saying, “I am he!” They will make a specific deliberate claim to be the Messiah. And thirdly, many will come saying, “The time is at hand!” It’s a deliberate, specific, deliberate claim to come and fulfill God’s prophetic promises for the end time. It’s the second coming. If we’re going to give weight to Jesus’ actual language and not make his words fit our particular eschatological scheme, we have to admit this hasn’t happened yet.

So we got, the who, the what, the when. Here’s the next question, and these points are gonna be exceedingly short in comparison to that one. Okay? But the next question, number four is: Where is messianic impersonation happening? Where’s it happening? These impostors will deceive many, which means there will be widespread deception by many false messiahs who will be massively effective. So, we’re not talking about tens or fifties or hundreds or even a few thousand here and there. We are talking about hundreds of thousands and millions of people and there will be no doubt that this time is on us.

There will not be three views, four views, eight views of the time. Everybody will have the same picture. They’ll look at this and they’ll say, ah, that’s what he was saying. Hard to be precise about the exact geographical location for messianic deception at the end of the age, but we get a hint from the next verse in verse 9, from “the wars and the disturbances,” social chaos, from the international conflicts in verse 10 and the language of various places in verse 11. And the worldwide nature of terrors and great signs from heaven in verse 11, looks like false messiahs. They’re gonna be popping up everywhere on the map during the Great Tribulation.

We read earlier from Matthew 24:23 and following. I didn’t finish that; stopped short of the geographic scope that comes next in the text, but let me back up and give you this. “If anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ Don’t believe them. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. Behold, I’ve told you in advance,” and then this according to Matthew’s account, “If, therefore, they say to you, ‘Behold, he’s in the wilderness,’ don’t go forth or ‘Behold, he’s in the inner rooms.’ don’t believe them. For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.” That is to say, it’s everywhere.

If the whole world will witness this coming of the Son of Man, then wherever people are in the world, every place in which there are wildernesses and inner rooms, then the deceptive parade of these false messiahs, and the deceptive claims, that now is the Second Coming, that’s going to be happening all over the world as well.

Next question number five: Why are they doing this? Why are they impersonating the Christ? What’s their motivation? I don’t think that’s hard to figure out. Why did the true Christ come? We look back to the true Christ and what he was coming for. We can kind of discern something of the false christ and what they’re coming for. Jesus came first to secure the redemption of his people. Luke 19:10. “He came to seek and save the lost.” Christ will come a second time to execute the full privilege of his people’s redemption. According to Matthew 24:31 and Luke 21:33.

Matthew 24:31, “He’ll send forth his angels of the great trumpet and they will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of the sky to the other.” Bring them back to Jerusalem. Luke 21:8, when these things begin to take place, straighten up, lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. So why did Jesus come to gather a people for himself? False christs are gonna mimic that. Why are they coming as false messiahs? Why are they impersonating the true Christ? “To deceive many, including, if possible, even the elect.” They’ll swoop in. They’ll gather people for themselves. They’ll win them over to their power and to their evil purpose. So that’s very brief.

But moving on; that’s the who, what, when, where, why? And then finally, number six: How? How are they able to impersonate Christ? What makes them convincing? What tactics do they employ? Remember, they’re convincing to many. This is a widespread deception. Everybody’s going to be on the bandwagon. By the time these come, there will be an Antichrist who comes, who sways the whole world. How does he get such popular vote? What makes him so convincing? Remember, not hundreds here and there. Not even thousands here and there. Not like the supposed false messiahs of history up to this point. We’re talking about many deceived; widespread popular form of deception. Everybody’s voting the same direction. No, two parties in those days. Or three, or four or eight, or whatever. One party; One vote. What’s the appeal?

Why would anybody in their right mind follow these deceivers Again? Matthew 24:24, Mark 13:22. “False christs and false prophets will arise and they’ll show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.” Signs and wonders, very convincing. Acts of power, very convincing. Those remaining on the earth after Jesus raptures his church, they’re gonna scramble, aren’t they, to dust off their bibles that their grandmothers gave them when they were kids. They’re gonna flip open the, cordon, concordance in the back, look up Second Coming references, and try to make sense of what’s happening in the world. But since they’re still unbelievers.

Since the many, the majority, of the world have no interest really in repenting of their sins, they’re gonna remain in the futility of their minds. Even though they’re fearful, even though there’s craven fear that’s gripping them, trying to figure out what’s going on, they’re gonna remain in the futility of their minds, darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, due to their hardness of hearts. And these are people who are ripe in that day for deception.

Paul writes about this time in 2 Thessalonians 2:9 through 12, is associated. This time is associated with the coming of the lawless one. In fact, it will precede the false Messiahs, will precede the lawless one. The Antichrist, the one in verse 9, “whose coming is in accord with the working of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders.” If he comes in accord with the working of all power, signs, and false wonders, then it means false signs and powers and wonders are already going on and the, the, Antichrist steps into that environment.

That’s parallel exactly with Matthew 24:24, Mark 13:22. And people of the world will be susceptible to verse 10, “The deception of unrighteousness for those who perish.” Why? “Because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.” So 2 Thessalonians 2:11, it’s for this reason because they don’t receive the love of the truth. They don’t love the truth. Just let that ring in your ears for a minute. They don’t love the truth. They don’t love the words. They don’t love the meanings. They have their own thing that they want to hold on to. Folks, we have to love the words.

We have to take the words of Christ seriously. They don’t “love the truth so as to be saved,” and so 2 Thessalonians 2:11, “For this reason God sends upon them a deluding influence, so that they will believe what is false, in order that they may all be judged, who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in unrighteousness.”

So, at the beginning of the tribulation, due to the reality of personal unbelief, in a state of unregeneracy, due to the power of satanic deception; signs, wonders movement unlike the world has never seen. This is not talking about Benny Hinn and Kenneth Copeland, this is not that. Due to the judicial power that strikes them, with divine judgment to put the unrighteous under the influence of powerful delusion, so that they will believe the lie. This is what the time before the rise of the Antichrist is going to look like. More importantly, this is what the world will look like right before the true Christ, the Lord Jesus comes again.

So what application can we draw from this? I’m just going to give you one, and it’s one I’ve kind of been already speaking about throughout the message this morning. But it’s this application: It’s really a heart application. It’s a mentality; it’s the way we think. We must pay close attention to what Jesus actually said, and let his actual language and his specific words have their due weight. Listen, we’re so quick, aren’t we, and ready and willing to do that in matters of justification and sanctification. Aren’t we? To pay careful attention to words that secure our salvation?

All the careful, precise thinking about the words of Scripture, the words of Jesus, the words of his Apostles, they result in the doctrines of grace. They give us great confidence and assurance in our salvation, that produce what we recite every Sunday morning in the London Baptist Confession of Faith. They produce beautiful doxological theology that grounds our, our lives and the assurance of the gospel, that lifts our hearts heavenward to see the true glory of our God and his Savior, Jesus Christ.

If we’re going to be accurate and precise about that language that leads us to that confidence and that clarity and that assurance, why don’t we apply the same thinking to everything in Scripture, including prophetic Scripture. Listen to the author of Hebrews, “For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable,” that is, he’s talking about the Old Testament, “and every trespass and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? That salvation first spoken by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by the gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will.”

That’s why at the end of time, in the great Tribulation, there are going to be false signs and wonders; because they gotta convince people and validate their message some way. Because the true Christ, when he came, God sent accompanying true signs, true wonders, true miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit to validate his messenger and his message. We gotta listen. Gotta pay close attention. Jesus, his apostles, those who heard him, they’ve written to us, haven’t they, by the Holy Spirit recording for us in this Holy Bible the very breathed out words of God.

So, beloved, resolve in your conscience before the all-knowing God, that you will not make the words of Jesus, the Christ, or the words of his prophets and apostles fit your preferred view, but that you will adjust your paradigm so it conforms to his revealed words. So, for example, when Jesus uses the term Messiah, don’t you think, of all people on the earth, that he knows the meaning and the force of the word Messiah. He uses it with intent. He’s able to distinguish between false teachers on the one hand, and false prophets on the other hand, and false messiahs; and he did, and he used it with intent.

So submit to what he said. Scrutinize whatever you read in history or theology or whatever you read in books or blogs or whatever you hear in sermons or podcasts. Submit it all to what he actually said. Make all those sources submit to his words, never the other way around. That is the only way to honor him and his words. It’s the only way to obey his command, to see that we’re not deceived. It’s by giving due attention to Jesus words. It’s to obey him and worship him as he truly is, the only true Messiah of God.

Let’s pray. Our Father, we thank you for anointing Christ and Christ alone for our salvation. To secure our redemption, to, by his substitutionary atonement on the cross, to secure our forgiveness, to cleanse us from all of our sins by his perfect life that he lived, his act of obedience to secure our justification, so that you could look down upon us.

And yes, you declare us to be forgiven, but even beyond that, you declare us to be righteous in Christ, that the fulfillment of all of your perfect will and law and truth and words, all the commandments and precepts, he obeyed on our behalf. So we don’t come, we don’t live this life, or walk this Christian life, relying on any perfection of our own. We don’t have any. We find ourselves falling so short every single day. We fail in many ways, but our confidence is not in ourselves. Our confidence is in him.

We thank you that words do have meaning, and it is in the meaning of those words and the relation that those words have to one another, in the syntax and sentences of Scripture, and how those sentences form paragraphs and thoughts and produce doctrines in a full, full orb Systematic Theology that grounds us securely in Your grace. We thank you for giving us our Messiah. We thank You for saving us from our sins. We thank you for guaranteeing the hope of eternal life for us in Christ. It’s in His name we pray and thank you. Amen.

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Luke 21:8

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Luke 19:41-44

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Luke 19:35-40

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Luke 19:31-34

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Luke 19:20-27

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Luke 19:11-14

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Luke 19:10

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Selected Scriptures

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James 1:5-8

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James 1:2-4

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James 1:1

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Luke 19:7-10

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Luke 19:1-6

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Luke 18:35-43

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Luke 18:31-34

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Luke 18:24-30

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Luke 18:18-21

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Haggai 2:10-23

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Haggai 2:1-9

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Haggai 1:6-15

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Matthew 2:1-12

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Philippians 4:20-23

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John 3:16

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Luke 17:5-10 Open your Bibles to Luke 17 and today we are following up on a two-part series. That we’ve called, My Brother’s Keeper, which is the first. It’s in the first ten verses Luke 17:1-10. After Jesus addressed the Pharisees at the end of the 16th chapter, we’ve seen that he has turned to his disciples and he speaks to them… The post My Brother’s Keeper, Part 3 appeared first on Grace Church Greeley.

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Philippians 4:10-13 The post Keys to Christian Contentment appeared first on Grace Church Greeley.

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Habakkuk 2:6-20 The post Faithful or Faithless? Personal Evaluation, Part 2 appeared first on Grace Church Greeley.

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Habakkuk 2:2-5 The post Faithful or Faithless? Personal Evaluation, Part 1 appeared first on Grace Church Greeley.

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Habakkuk 1:12-2:1 The post The Apparent Perseverance of the Unjust: The Perplexity of the Faithful, Part 3 appeared first on Grace Church Greeley.

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Habakkuk 1:5-11 The post Injustice Judged with the Unjust: The Perplexity of the Faithful, Part 2 appeared first on Grace Church Greeley.

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