Notes of Faith April 28, 2022

Jesus was a carpenter (Mark 6:3) —or some kind of construction worker (the Greek word can also refer to a mason or smith). But long before He learned to work with wood, He was an artisan. With His hands, He brought order from chaos. The apostle John opens his account of the life and ministry of Jesus with a fascinating bit of narrative poetry.

 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

— John 1:1–5

Modern industrialized religion and polluted, watered-down, self-help pseudo-spirituality too often miss this. The Word wasn’t just from God; the Word was God. The Word wasn’t part of creation; it was the vehicle of creation. The Word is not just bright or one good source of light among many; the Word is the light, and it is life. It is so pure and true and good that no darkness can overcome it! The Word isn’t a proof text used to support a point; it isn’t a political system or a fund-raising mechanism. It is not a step-by-step guide to self-discovery or spiritual superiority. It is a beacon drawing us toward itself. This is amazing stuff.

This is the stuff of art.

This Word —logos in the Greek —is Jesus. Jesus has been creating things with His hands since the very beginning. In complete and perfect community with the mysterious triune nature of God, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, Jesus brought light into darkness. God spoke, and Jesus was His Word. Through Him, all things were made. All things!

I’ve been scuba diving in sixty feet of water and seen tiny creatures that need not be as elaborately colored or intricately designed as they are. Everything on this planet screams, “Creation!” Jesus crafted the mountains, the seas, the deserts, the animals, the plants, and even human beings according to God’s perfectly wise plan. Then He gave us free will and the ability to imagine and dream. He created us “in His image” —a mysterious statement that at least partly points to our ability to be junior creators. We can’t speak something out of nothing, but He does invite us to participate in the ordering of our world.

He honors our attempts to create. Whether it’s bread, coffee, music, a painting, or a community, when we create, we follow in His steps.

In bodily form, Jesus kept on creating. He was a winemaker, a community builder, an architect, a healer, and a storyteller. He was a bread maker and a fishmonger. He drew pictures in the sand that saved a woman’s life. His creative power was so intense that the sick were healed with just a thought. He spit in the dust, made some holy mud, and opened a man’s eyes.

My favorite creative act of Jesus was gathering blue-collar workmen and marginalized women and crafting them into a force that would change the world. He built a church —and if you’ve had a bad experience with contemporary churches, I invite you to replace the word church with community (Grace Brethren, yes!)—that subversively sought out, honored, and served the unlovely, the diseased, the broken, and the dead.

It breaks my heart to hear people say they love Jesus but have no use for the church. Yes, many of the corporate, industrialized aspects of the modern church bear more resemblance to the local megaplex or department store than they do to a countercultural group of ragged lovers and servants, but deep down, the church is something Jesus established. I believe today He longs to call out to her in her manufactured tomb, like He did to His friend Lazarus, “Come out!” I have experienced dead church.

I have felt queasy whenever harsh, ignorant, attention-starved charlatans make their way on to the TV screen and say all kinds of nonsense in God’s name. I’ve cringed as politicians cheapen the gospel, cherry-picking it for their petty purposes and ignoring the difficult bits. I’ve railed against hypocrisy, even as I regularly must repent of my own. I’ve tasted stale, hardened white bread when what I needed was the bread of life. I’ve sipped the vinegar of bitterness, hatred, and fear when what I needed was the rich wine of salvation. I realize many modern churches get more wrong than right.

But when I return to Scripture, I am reminded that when Jesus called me out of my tomb, He placed me in a family He calls church.

My deep need for belonging —I believe Jesus put it there as a homing beacon to call me to Him.

I’ve also noticed how deeply ingrained my identity as a consumer is. When I complain about the problems of the church —the manufactured nature, the corporate aftertaste —I do so as a consumer who wants his money back. The more I’ve worked to see my primary and highest calling in relation to other believers as a servant, the more my capacity for grace and patience has expanded.

Jesus invites me to be creative —to speak order into the chaos of community. To be the church by living a life that is deeply committed to other flawed and difficult people. I feel His hands sanding my rough edges and binding me irrevocably to His people.

Church is art, or at least it should be. If yours isn’t, maybe you should roll up your sleeves before heading for the exit.

After Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, the Holy Spirit came to embolden, empower, and galvanize the tiny group of shaky disciples Jesus had left behind. The first chapters of the book of Acts describe the early church as a people transformed. They shared all they had, giving to any in need; they gathered in their homes and in the temple; they ate together, prayed together, and devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles. I realize this account is descriptive and not necessarily prescriptive, but I don’t think it takes much of a theological leap to see that the underlying values were communal, not individual. Truth was proclaimed and argued, and people were fed and healed. Ever the artisan, the Holy Spirit crafted a living, breathing body out of many disparate and damaged parts.

In Eden the Father spoke a word and made Adam from the dust and breathed the breath of life into his lungs. In Acts, the Father spoke a word and through His Spirit assembled many different people (members) into one new body, then breathed life into His church. That’s art!

Excerpted from Jesus, Bread, and Chocolate by John J. Thompson copyright  John J. Thompson.

When we create (no matter what it is), we follow in Jesus’ footsteps! When we dig into the community of believers and contribute, interact, build relationships, serve, fellowship, and eat and pray together, we follow Him as well.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 27, 2022

Lamb and Lion Ministries

Can we take the books of Genesis and Revelation literally?

Most people today, even many Christians, do not accept the plain sense meaning of these bookends of the Bible. Instead, they spiritualize their interpretation, arguing that the plain sense meaning of Scripture is not its true meaning. The result is that the beginning and end of the Bible are the two most abused areas of God’s Word, having been spiritualized into meaninglessness. We believe this results in a travesty to one’s understanding of God and His plan of salvation.

This Epic Battles series is meant to combat this abuse of God’s Word. Our hope is that through it you will gain an appreciation for the literal interpretation of the Bible. And, we also hope that you will gain the wonderful realization that Genesis and Revelation are not at odds, but that these books complement each other. God’s plan for the ages is meant to be understood and that is meant to provide us with hope in these challenging days.

In our first episode, Eric Hovind of Creation Today Ministries addressed a controversial debate in Genesis: “A Literal Global Flood.” (It’s one of my all-time favorite “Christ in Prophecy” episodes, so check it out!)

In this week’s second episode of our series, I’m going to swing to the other end of the Bible to address a controversial debate in Revelation: “A Literal 1000-Year Kingdom.” I’m seeking to prove that a literal interpretation of the Bible reveals that Jesus Christ will, in the future, physically rule over this earth for a thousand years. And, the takeaway that I want you to get from this is — knowing our future in Christ’s victory is meant to bring you both joy and hope.

The following excerpt skips ahead a little past Nebuchadnezzar’s dream where God foretold the end of failed human government due to the return of King Jesus and picks up in the middle of my biblical exposition of what life will be like living during the Millennial Kingdom.

A Time of Joy

One of the aspects that really touches me about the Kingdom of Christ is how it’s going to be a great time of joy. Jeremiah 31:13 says, “Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old, together; for I will turn their mourning to joy, I will comfort them, and make them rejoice rather than sorrow.” The Kingdom of Christ is defined as a time of peace and righteousness and justice, but it’s also a time of great happiness and childlike joy.

Zechariah 14:16-18 adds: “And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain.” The Feast of Tabernacles will be instituted across the entire world so that Jesus gets to have all of His people come at least once a year to visit Him. And, if they neglect Him, well He shuts the rain off for a little while as a kind of reminder for them to return.

A Time of Peace and No War

Not only will the Kingdom of Christ be a time of great joy, but it is also going to be a time of peace with no war. Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3-4 tell us: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. But everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.” Hosea 2:17-18 adds, “Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth, to make them lie down safely.”

How long has mankind tried to end war and failed? And yet, during the Kingdom of Christ, it will be a time of true peace with no war. Just think about it: no soldiers, no weapons, no hatred towards our fellow man. Consider how much of our nations’ budgets go to war production and weaponry when the money could be used for building and caring for its people. What a tremendous time it will be when you don’t have to fear for your life due to endless wars!

The Animals at Peace

Nor will mankind have to fear the animal kingdom, for the animal kingdom will once more be at peace with humanity. Isaiah 11:6-9 and 65:25 reveal: “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain.”

Even the animals will be at peace with each other and with mankind. Although, I have to admit, I think the lions are probably going to be quite depressed at that time as they’re back to eating grass again! (jk) But, there will be very bountiful grass for them to find because…

The Bountiful Land

Amos 9:13-14 tells us, “‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘When the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows seed; the mountains shall drip with sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.” And, Zechariah 8:12 reveals, “For the seed shall be prosperous, the vine shall give its fruit, the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew — I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these.” And, Isaiah 4:2 describes, “In that day the Branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious; and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and appealing for those of Israel who have escaped.”

The Kingdom of Christ is defined as a time of great bounty and unlimited food. There will be no hunger or poverty at that time.

Zechariah 14:8 describes, “And in that day it shall be that living waters shall flow from Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and half of them toward the western sea; in both summer and winter it shall occur.” And, Ezekiel 47:8-9 adds: “This water flows toward the eastern region, goes down into the valley, and enters the sea. When it reaches the sea, its waters are healed. And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live.”

The Dead Sea is so salty that nothing can live in it. It sits at the lowest elevation in the world. It’s also the deadest body of water. But, during the Kingdom of Christ, the waters will flow into it again. Life will flow into the Dead Sea! It’ll become alive once more. Just imagine fishermen out there fishing on what was once known as the Dead Sea.

The Plains of the Earth

Considering the geography of the Kingdom of Christ, the Bible indicates that the earth will be all plains. Look at Isaiah 40:4-5, “Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low; the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth.” Revelation prophesies how during the Day of the Lord four tremendous earthquakes will level the mountains and make the islands move from their positions. A strong possibility exists then that the Kingdom of Christ will be a land of plains with Jerusalem as the only exalted mountain.

Long Life

Long lifespans add another welcome characteristic of the Kingdom of Christ. Isaiah 65:20-23 describes: “No more shall an infant from there live but a few days, nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days; for the child shall die one hundred years old, but the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed. For as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of My people.” Remember that people before the Flood lived for hundreds and hundreds of years, and during the Kingdom of Christ — the same thing. People will live hundreds of years again, except those who choose evil, for they will die young.

Isaiah 33:24 foretells, “And the inhabitant will not say, ‘I am sick’; the people who dwell in it will be forgiven their iniquity.” And, Isaiah 35:5-6 exclaims: “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing.” Sickness and disability will not be an issue during the Kingdom of Christ. The curse that God had put on the planet when mankind rebelled at the Garden of Eden will be partially lifted. Oh, how the Creation so looks forward to that time!

Satan Bound

What a wonderful time to live knowing that Satan will be bound! Revelation 20:1-3 tells us: “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things, he must be released for a little while.”

While Satan is bound for a thousand years, he cannot deceive anybody. Revelation 20 reveals two things about the Kingdom of Christ. One, when Jesus returns at the Second Coming, He’s going to throw Satan into the Bottomless Pit. So, mankind will not be tempted by demonic activity during the Kingdom. Two, we also learn that Satan must be released for a little while at the end of those thousand years. So, we learn that the Kingdom of Christ will last for exactly a thousand years. That’s where the Kingdom of Christ gets the label “Millennial Kingdom” as “milli” means “1,000” and “annum” means “years,” so “a thousand years.”

Satan Defeated

It’s at the end of the millennium when Satan is once and for all defeated. Revelation 20:7-10 explains: “Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, and to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”

So, for a thousand years, Christ has been reigning physically on this earth and Satan has remained in a prison. But, near the very end, Satan will be let out for a short time. Those children who will be born to the Tribulation Saints still get to choose Jesus or not. Sadly, many will turn to Satan as a lightning rod and will follow him. They will attempt to overthrow Jesus in Jerusalem. But, Jesus sends fire down and evaporates the rebels. Satan is then cast into the Lake of Fire, which is Hell, where our old Adversary will finally receive God’s justice for all of eternity. Satan is finally defeated and he can no longer hurt anybody anymore.

Final Judgment

We have now reached the point in world history when the unredeemed mankind receives their final judgment. Revelation 20:11-15 explains: “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the book. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the Lake of Fire.”

Hell is the Second Death. Anyone not found written in the Book of Life will be cast into the Lake of Fire. Satan’s been defeated and sentenced to Hell. It’s now time for God to judge those who died in rebellion against Him. So far they’ve been sentenced in Hades awaiting judgment, and at that time they’ll be resurrected. They’ll then stand before God’s Great White Throne. They will be judged by their works, but they’ll be missing the one and only work that matters — the saving work Jesus did on the cross. They never accepted Jesus Christ as Savior nor the saving work He accomplished on the cross, that He alone did, and their names will not have been written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. They, like Satan and his demons, will be sentenced to Hell.

And that’s when we get to the sum of all things. First Corinthians 15:24-28 foretells: “Then comes the end, when He [Jesus] delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He [Jesus] must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death… Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.”

The Kingdom of Christ has lasted for a thousand years. Finally, at long last, all of Christ’s enemies have been defeated, including Death. King Jesus then hands over the Kingdom to the Father. And that’s when the Redeemed enter the Eternal State (but that’s a story for another time.)

The Plain-Sense Interpretation

When I read the Bible for its plain sense meaning, it tells me these things concerning the Kingdom of Christ:

That the Jews have to be regathered back to the land of Israel.

That the world must endure the horrors of the Day of the Lord.

That Jesus has to return physically to conquer.

That the Gentile world order has to be destroyed.

That the world is judged so only the faithful will enter the Kingdom of Christ.

That Jesus rules and reigns as King and Priest from His temple in Jerusalem.

That King David and the resurrected saints fill the roles as governors and mayors.

That the Jews serve as an exalted priestly people.

That all of the world’s inhabitants know Jesus and worship Him.

No war between man or beast exists, but only peace and bounty.

Lifespans are counted in the hundreds of years.

Satan is bound in a pit for a thousand years and does not tempt people, that is until the very end when he is released and permanently defeated.

Now I ask you: Has any of this happened or is happening now? No, of course not!

But, there are some who would answer, “Yes, this all has to happen, but it already has or will happen spiritually.” Well, no matter if you take a literal interpretation of the Bible or an Amillennialist’s spiritualized interpretation, we agree on two things: one, that Jesus Christ is coming back for His saints; and two, that the Redeemed will spend eternity with God.

A literal interpretation of the Bible or a spiritualized interpretation? Should the Bible be interpreted literally or symbolically?

Is there a literal Davidic King? Yes, Jesus Christ. Is there a literal throne? Yes, it’ll be in Jerusalem. Will there be a literal Kingdom? Yes, it’ll last for a thousand years and then on into Eternity. Amen! The Bible says yes and so it will be.

When it comes to interpreting the Bible, do so then by the Golden Rule of Interpretation: “When the plain sense makes sense, look for no other sense, lest you end up with nonsense.”

A literal interpretation of the Bible reveals that Jesus Christ will, in the future, physically rule over this earth for a thousand years. Knowing that Jesus Christ’s victory is coming should bring us great joy and happiness for today. It should lead us to a life excited about the Kingdom that is to come. Christians are already residents of that Kingdom, and it is coming to full fruition soon.

You may ask yourself: “How can I become a citizen of the Kingdom of Christ?” Well, it requires that you have accepted Jesus Christ as the Savior and Lord of your life. You can’t live in that Kingdom unless you follow the King.

Now, for those who are Christians, we can already find great joy and hope knowing what wonders await them. But, for those who have rejected Jesus Christ, they cannot claim that hope. They have the Lake of Fire waiting for them in the end. They’re the citizens of the Second Death.

For those of you who have not accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, now’s the time to do so. Listen to the Holy Spirit’s tug inside your heart, pulling you to accept Jesus as your Savior. Then pray from your heart something like: “Dear, Jesus, please forgive me of my sins. I know I am a sinner. Please forgive me and be my Savior and the Lord of my life.” And, Jesus will do just that. Your sins will be forgiven. The guilt will be washed away. The Holy Spirit will reside in you. And then, you too will become a citizen of the Kingdom of Christ.

Read your Bible!  Take the truth it speaks literally first, then listen to the symbolism if taking it literally does not make sense.  If God loves us and wants us to know Him and have relationship with Him, He will not keep revelation of Him hidden in mysteries.  He has revealed Himself in His Word and through His Son, Jesus, through whom we can be reconciled to God, forgiven, redeemed, and be given eternal life.  Seek Jesus.  See Jesus.  Open your heart to truth and know the God who gives life!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 26, 2022

What Is Lost When We Only Pray Alone?

When you pray, Jesus said, get by yourself, go into your room, shut the door, “and pray to your Father who is in secret” (Matthew 6:6). Sounds pretty straightforward. So we just pray alone, right? Wrong. We don’t pray only in secret; we pray together — something we see all over the book of Acts, for example (in texts like Acts 2:42; 4:31; 12:12; 13:3; and 20:36, to name a few). So, why do we pray together and not just alone? What’s added when we pray together? And what’s lost when we pray only by ourselves?

In 1981, Pastor John took up this question in a sermon on 2 Corinthians 1:8–11. There, Paul writes this testimony of his agonies:

We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.

And then Paul makes this request in verse 11, which is a little complex, so listen carefully: “You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.” Here’s Pastor John.

That’s a hard verse. I noticed Glen this morning had trouble reading verse 11, just like I did. He had to stop and make sure he had it just right because it’s a very complex sentence. I had to read verse 11 again and again, and I could not get the gist of verse 11 until I drew it on paper.

Line of Prayer

Now, follow with me the line of prayer. Keep one eye on the text, one eye on the line, and both ears on me.

The line of prayer begins with Paul, and he feels a need. That’s where prayer begins. His need was probably, “Oh, how I need to rely on God more. Oh, how I need to trust God for deliverance from all my adversaries more.” So what does he do? He sends out a line of prayer, “Help me,” horizontally to the Corinthians. “Help me by prayer.” And that’s stage one in the line of prayer.

Then the line of prayer curves up through the heart of the Corinthians as they hear the plea, and they look up to God and pray that God will, in fact, answer their prayers for Paul’s deliverance and for his faith. That’s stage two: the prayers of the Corinthians heading up to God.

Then the line of prayer enters the heart of God, who is there listening, waiting for the prayers of his people. And in response to the prayers of the many Corinthians, God sends down a gift — or a “blessing,” as the text says — to Paul. What blessing? Greater faith in God, greater dependence on him alone, and deliverance from his adversaries. That’s stage three in the line of prayer.

Now, just as many people heard the plea of Paul to help through prayer, so many people now see the answer to the prayers as they look. “Look: Paul got out. He got out of the Philippian jail. He got away from Ephesus. He made it all the way through Berea and Thessalonica. He’s coming down here to us. He’s going to make it all the way to Jerusalem with that money. He may make it to Rome, to the ends of the earth, and preach to the emperor. Praise God!” And that’s line four.

They see the answer to prayer, and that curves up through their heart in praises and thanksgiving, through many people, back to God. And that’s stage five in the line of prayer. And that’s where the text stops.

Spiraling Delight

But I think there is something implied in the text that’s not explicit, that is just a choice truth that I don’t want to leave out. Namely, if Paul chose to motivate the Corinthians to pray for him by pointing out that it would abound in many thanksgivings to God, then it must be a great delight to Paul to think about God getting so many thanks. And if it’s a great delight to Paul to see God being thanked, then that little dotted line that comes down from God is joy coming back into the heart of Paul as he sees God being thanked in response to the answer to many prayers. So that’s stage six that I’ve added.

In fact, I could go on adding stage seven, because God gets delight in Paul’s delight, and Paul gets delight in God’s delight in his delight. It’s just a great spiral on up into infinite joy someday, when there’s no more sin to clutter up that spiral. That’s the line of prayer.

Let me sum it up just briefly. Paul has a great need, and he feels it. He knows he’s coming into adversity. He said in Acts 20:23, “The Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonments and afflictions await me.” He needs help. “Help me, Corinthians.”

They hear the word, responding, “God, help Paul.” God looks down, “I hear the prayer. Here’s the help, Paul.” Paul is helped. He’s delivered. He’s free. He’s preaching. He’s full of faith. Who sees it? Lots of people see it. What do they do? Praise God. God has responded to our prayers, and the thanks go back to God, and he’s glorified. That’s the line of prayer. That’s what ought to be happening in this church again and again and again.

Many Prayers, Many Thanks

There are more lessons in this than I can begin to say this morning, but I want to mention two — two lessons from the line of prayer. The first is this. If you’re like me, you’ve probably asked yourself why it is that corporate prayer is important. Why pray in groups? Why pray publicly? Why not just close the door, like Jesus said — we should many times — and pray alone?

Why does Paul not simply pray, “God, save me from the enemies; God, fill me with faith” — and not write letters and tell other people to pray for him? Doesn’t he think God can answer his prayer? Is he lacking in faith? Are we weak in faith when we ask many people to pray for something?

That’s the kind of question I came to this text with, and I think the text gives a tremendous answer to why corporate and public prayer is so important. Why might God be more inclined to answer the prayers of many rather than the prayers of one? That’s my question.

And I think the answer begins like this: according to our text, the thing that’s different when many people pray — notice “the prayers of many” — is that the stage is being set for lots and lots and lots of thanks. The more people that are earnestly praying for some blessing from God, the more thanksgiving will ascend to God when that blessing comes.

Paul’s argument is very simply this: “You must help me by prayer so that many will give thanks when the prayers of many are answered.” The reason for praying at all is so God might be thanked when blessings come, and God loves to be thanked. God loves to be thanked. That’s the basic premise here for why this prayer becomes so effective. He loves to be acknowledged and praised as the giver of all good gifts.

Therefore, when we urge, when I urge you to pray for some need — four hundred people, say — I’m creating a situation in which the provision of that need will result in many, many, many thanksgivings, more than if each of us was praying privately.

“God loves to be thanked by many, and therefore, there is a power in church-wide prayer.”

And therefore, we tap into a tremendous incentive on God’s part, because God loves to glorify himself by doing what he must do to get as many thanks as possible, and that means answering the prayers of many people. God loves to be thanked by many, and therefore, there is a power in church-wide prayer because the more people there are praying for the spiritual life of our church, the more thanksgiving will ascend when God gives it.

Seeking Blessing Together

Now, the same reasoning that comes straight out of 2 Corinthians 1:11 also shows that we should not only pray in large numbers, but that we should get together in groups to pray. I’ll try to show you how that follows.

Picture two possibilities. One would be a dozen people, privately in their homes, praying for the release of Paul, say, from jail in Philippi. They pray. God answers and delivers Paul. They get word of it. They give thanks. God is honored. Great!

But suppose that those dozen or so people met together in a group, in a room, in a living room there in Philippi, just like the saints did in Acts 12 to pray for Peter’s release when he was in jail. Suppose they got together and prayed, and the fervor of each other’s prayer kindled each other’s fervor up to God. God released Paul miraculously through this earthquake, and they hear about it.

“When you and I experience a blessing that we’ve asked for together, your thanksgiving deepens and heightens mine.”

Then what would happen? The praises and the thanks would ascend, and is it not human nature — see if this isn’t true to your own experience — to feel gratitude more intensely when somebody you love is sharing the experience with you? Is that not human nature to feel the joy of gratitude more intensely when someone you love is feeling it together with you?

When you and I experience a blessing that we’ve asked for together, your thanksgiving deepens and heightens my thanksgiving, because it works like this: When the answer comes, I see the blessing coming from God. I see it, and I’m glad. I rejoice. But then I look down, and I see it reflected and magnified in all your faces, and my joy, therefore, is compounded, and my thanksgiving is greater. And God loves heightened and deepened thanksgiving, and therefore, he wants us to meet in groups to pray.

Therefore, we are setting ourselves up for tremendous spiritual blessing in this church when we gather in groups to seek God’s blessing on our church.

This came from an interview with John Piper.  I pray that you were encouraged to pray alone and with many together.  May God richly bless as we seek Him!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 25, 2022

Thoughts on Romans 7:14-25 – Is this Paul pre-Christian and after saving faith or is this the battle between the new nature giving life to the spiritually dead and the flesh that we still live in? – John Piper

Framing the Disagreement

The disagreement exists because, on the one hand, Paul says, “I delight in the law of God, in my inner being” (Romans 7:22), and he says, “I myself serve the law of God with my mind” (Romans 7:25) — which is hard to imagine as a description of pre-Christian Paul. That’s my opinion. It’s very hard to imagine that.

On the other hand, he says, “I am of the flesh, sold under sin” (Romans 7:14), or, “I do the very thing I hate” (Romans 7:15), and so on. My disagreeing brother would ask, Would a Christian say that? Would the Christian Paul describe himself that way — “sold under sin”?

So, there’s the problem, and I’m going to give nine reasons for thinking these are Paul’s description of his present experience from time to time, though not his total Christian experience.

1. ‘I’ in the Present Tense

The most natural way to understand Paul’s use of the first person I and the present tense is that he’s talking about himself and part of his life now as a believer. He uses I or me or my about forty times in this text, and he explains his situation in the present tense all the way through.

“I am of flesh,” “what I am doing I do not understand,” “I do the very thing I do not want,” and so on — present tense. On the face of it, then, it looks like he’s describing his present Christian experience. So, for the average person like me, it’s going to take a lot to say, “No, that’s not what is happening.”

2. Law in the Inner Being

Paul speaks about the law of God in this passage in a way that sounds like the way a Christian believer would talk about it — not the way an unregenerate Jewish man would talk about it. “I delight in the law of God, in my inner being” (Romans 7:22). Now, it’s this phrase “in the inner man” that sounds so much like the way Paul talks as a Christian about the Christian’s real inner self. I don’t think Paul would have said this about his pre-Christian self.

3. Inconsistent with His Past

The description of Romans 7 of Paul as a divided and sometimes tormented man in relation to the law doesn’t fit with the way he describes his experience before he was a Christian.

In his pre-Christian days, he is anything but a man who is torn because of any perceived failures to live up to the law of God. In Galatians 1 and Philippians 3, he describes himself as having undivided zeal for the law. So the Romans 7 Paul doesn’t fit with the way he described his pre-Christian experience.

4. More Than Fallen Flesh

I think Paul talks about himself in Romans 7 in a way that only a Christian could — a person with faith and with the Holy Spirit.

“In Paul’s view, the pre-Christian person is only flesh. Only a Christian is more than fallen flesh.”

For example, he says in Romans 7:18, “I know that nothing good dwells in me” — and then he qualifies it — “that is, in my flesh.” Now, if Paul is here giving a Christian assessment of his pre-Christian experience, then why does he add to the statement “nothing good dwells in me” the qualifier “that is, in my flesh”?

I think, in Paul’s view, the pre-Christian person is only flesh. Only a Christian is more than fallen flesh. He has the Holy Spirit, and that’s why Paul has to say that qualifier: “that is, in my flesh.” There is a good thing in me — namely, the Holy Spirit. So he’s not talking about the pre-Christian Paul, I think.

5. Parallel to Galatians 5

In Galatians 5:17, Paul uses language very close to Romans 7, but everyone agrees that in Galatians, it’s a description of Christian experience.

He says in Galatians 5:17, “The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other” — and now comes the phrase that sounds just like Romans 7, almost the same language — “to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” This is a description of the inner conflict of the Christian, and the language is so similar to Romans 7 — “I do what I don’t want to do; I don’t do what I want to do” — that I conclude Romans 7 is also Christian experience like Galatians 5.

6. Temporarily Enslaved To Sin

My sixth argument is an answer to the strongest argument against my view — at least that’s what some say it is. In Romans 7:14, Paul says, “I am of the flesh, sold under sin.” And my friends would say, “Would Paul really say, Piper, of a Christian that he is sold under sin?” The imagery is of being sold as a slave. Can a Christian ever say, “I am sold under the slave master of sin”? After all, Romans 6:18 says, “Having been set free from sin, [you] have become slaves of righteousness.”

Now, my response is that I don’t think Paul is saying the Christian lives under sin as a normal way of life — continually dominated and defeated by sin — but that in the moment of failure, sin gets the upper hand like a slave master temporarily getting control of a person who’s not really his. I think this because both in Romans 6:12 and Galatians 5:1 Paul warns Christians precisely not to submit again to the reign, or to the yoke, of slavery.

It’s a real possibility that Christians can see themselves as temporarily sold under sins. I don’t think that is a decisive counterargument.

7. Unbelievers Don’t Cry for Freedom

This is a response to the objection from Romans 7:24. Can a real Christian cry out, “Who will set me free from the body of this death?” To which my response is, Can a real Christian not cry out, “Who will set me free from this body of death”?

“The unbeliever does not cry out for release. He doesn’t. He is at home in it. This is a Christian cry.”

The body is not only diseased and dying and groaning, according to Romans 8, but it is also the staging ground for many evil desires, Paul says. It is regularly the base of operations for sin. The unbeliever does not cry out for release from this. He doesn’t. He is at home in it. This is a Christian cry.

8. Free from Captivity, Not Warfare

My eighth argument is the way others use Romans 8:2 — this is, I think, very powerful. It says, “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” Now, some say that this is a clear declaration that the warfare of Romans 7 is over because the phrase law of sin in 8:2 is used in Romans 7:23. The person in verse 23 is made “a captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.” But now, in Romans 8:2, we are free from the law of sin and death.

So, people conclude the person in 7:23 cannot be a Christian because the Christian is Romans 8:2, and he’s free from that. But I think, in view of all we’ve seen and in view of the exhortations in Romans 6, that to say we are now in Christ set free from the law of sin does not at all preclude the reality that from time to time the law of sin does indeed get the upper hand and must be repented of and renounced.

There is a freedom from it, but not an absolute freedom from its influence, which we can defeat with warfare in the Spirit.

9. Anticlimax in Romans 7:25

Romans 7 seems to reach its climax in verse 25, the first half of the verse. It goes like this: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” In other words, who’s going to deliver me from this horrible situation that I’ve been describing in these verses in Romans 7? Answer: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

This is often taken to mean that after all the failure of verses 14–25, Paul now arrives at a point of triumph and transition. He is moving from the defeated pre-Christian experience of Romans 7 to the triumphant Christian experience of Romans 8. But if that’s the way Paul is thinking, the second half of verse 25 is a colossal embarrassment and a stumbling block.

Verse 25 closes like this, which doesn’t at all fit this understanding of a big transition from Romans 7 to 8, with the fulcrum being the first half of verse 25. Just when this view expects a triumphant statement about how the divided man is finally united in victory and beyond conflict and entirely under the sway of the Spirit, what do you get in the second half of verse 25?

You get just what you would expect to get if Romans 7 is really about the frequent Christian experience of conflict and struggle. You get a summary statement of the struggling and divided life. It goes like this: “So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin” (Romans 7:25). What an anticlimax if the intention is to say that there’s this decisive break between chapters 7 and 8.

So, for these nine reasons, I think we should read Romans 7:14–25 as the description, not of the totality of Christian experience, but of the kind of discouragements and conflicts and defeats we often encounter as we do battle with sin.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 24, 2022

God saved Moses’ life and called him to lead the Israelites. ~Wendy Blight

TODAY’S READING: EXODUS 3

God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

—Exodus 3:14

As Exodus 3 opens, we find Moses in a most extraordinary encounter, standing next to a burning bush wrestling through his doubts with God.

1. Where else do we see God revealing Himself, or His will, accompanied by fire? See Exodus 13:21, Exodus 15:7, Exodus 19:18 and Malachi 3:2–3. What does Hebrews 12:29 say about God?

Why would God choose fire? Because throughout Scripture, God presents fire as purifying and refining. It separates the impurities and leaves what is valuable. Friend, when God brings or allows the fiery furnace of discomfort in our lives, it does not burn indiscriminately. It burns intentionally, to make us more like Him. We can trust that it is always for our refinement and never for our destruction. God knew Moses was about to walk with God’s people through some serious refining.

God also knew Moses lacked what He needed to step into His assignment. So, the fire was dramatic. Necessary. A powerful reminder of who God was, who Moses was, and who God was calling him to be.

In Exodus 3:11, Moses, who had been hiding as a fugitive for 40 years, questioned God’s assignment. Moses asked,

"Who am I that I should go . . . and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”

God simply replied,

I will be with you.

—Exodus 3:12

It is interesting that God doesn’t build up Moses’ confidence. He simply gives Moses a promise. He affirmed that He would be with Moses.

Moses asks for more assurance. Who exactly is it that will be with him as he returns to Egypt?

God then gives Moses a special revelation of who He is. God gives Moses a new name to call Him. God says, “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14). Though the meaning of this name is not completely certain, one possible meaning is “I will be to you all that I AM.”

How I love this name God has given Moses in the midst of the fear of the unknown! God knew what lay ahead for Moses. Moses did not. Through this name, God promised to be EVERYTHING Moses needed. Everything Israel needed to ensure that the nations around them knew that the Israelites’ God was the One True God.

2. How do the following New Testament passages undergird what we have learned in today’s reading? (Romans 8:35–37, 1 Peter 1:6–7, and James 1:2–4)

What a beautiful reminder that who we are is not nearly as important as who God is.

We need to ask where, or to whom, do we look to fill our longings? More specifically, we should pause and ask, in what or whom do we place our faith? In the things of this world? In idols, as the pagan nations did? In making a name for ourselves, like the ones who built the tower of Babel? Or do we place our faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? In Israel’s God? The One True God?

Friend, God, who is our great “I Am,” fulfills every longing of our hearts. Jesus carries this truth forward into the New Testament as He declares His many magnificent names. He is the Bread of Life sent so we never need to hunger or thirst again (John 6:35). He is the Light of the World so we never have to walk in darkness again (John 8:12). He is the Good Shepherd who will lead us so we never feel anxious, fearful, lost, or alone again (John 10:11). He is the Resurrection and the Life who guarantees abundant life here on earth and forever in Heaven with Him (John 11:25)

Take a few moments to ponder where you place your faith when you doubt, fear the unknown, or question God’s actions. Is your faith based on you or is it anchored in who God is? His character. His Word. His power. His very presence living within you.

“I am.”

“I am the bread of life.”

(John 6:35, John 6:41, John 6:48, John 6:51)

As bread sustains physical life, so Christ offers and sustains spiritual life.

“I am the light of the world.”

(John 8:12)

To a world lost in darkness, Christ offers Himself as a guide.

“I am the door of the sheep.”

(John 10:7, John 10:9)

Jesus protects His followers as shepherds protect their flocks from predators.

“I am the resurrection and the life.”

(John 11:25)

Death is not the final word for those in Christ.

“I am the good shepherd.”

(John 10:11, John 10:14)

Jesus is committed to caring and watching over those who are His.

“I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

(John 14:6)

Jesus is the source of all truth and knowledge about God.

“I am the true vine.”

(John 15:1, John 15:5)

By attaching ourselves to Christ, we enable His life to flow in and through us. Then we cannot help but bear fruit that will honor the Father.

Excerpted from 40 Days Through The Bible by Lysa TerKeurst and Proverbs 31 Ministries Team, copyright Lysa TerKeurst and Proverbs 31 Ministries Team.

 Just as He was for Moses, God is everything we need! Who we are is not nearly as important as who God is.  Put your faith and trust in I Am today.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 23, 2022

The descriptions in Revelation 21–22 of the new heavens, new earth, and new Jerusalem are literal—or they are images of an even more literal reality—and how wonderful is that? We will literally, physically, and bodily be with the Godhead, the godly personalities of the invisible realm, the saints of all the ages, and one another for eternity.

Wouldn’t it be a shame if we never recognized anyone? Is it possible we’ll be total strangers in paradise forever, that we’ll have everlasting amnesia?

No. It isn’t remotely possible—yet we sometimes wonder if we’ll know each other in Heaven. It’s an emotive question. Our relationships on earth mean more to us than anything else. I loved my dad and mom; I love my sister and her family; I miss my wife, and I cherish my daughters, their husbands, and all their children. These relationships are more valuable to me than any other single thing in this world apart from my relationship with Christ. I never want to lose these bonds of love. It doesn’t matter if I lose everything else on earth, I don’t want to lose those dearest to me. I want to be where they are, and I want them to be where I am.

Jesus felt the same way. In the upper room on the eve of His crucifixion, Jesus told the disciples,

If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

—John 14:3

He wanted His friends to be with Him, near Him, fellowshipping with Him forever. A couple of hours later, Jesus prayed an unutterably deep prayer just before His arrest.

Father, He said, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am.

—John 17:24

Jesus Himself—God of very God—wanted His friends and family to be with Him in eternity, where He was, so He could enjoy their fellowship and love. He feels as we do about our dearest ones. These passages in John 14 and John 17 clearly imply that one of the greatest joys of Heaven will be our everlasting reunion with those we love.

While the Bible doesn’t give us a verse saying, “You will know each other in Heaven,” it treats this reality like an obvious truth, simply assuming this is the case. There are a number of passages that make this assumption reasonable and clear.

John 20:19–23

The resurrection of Jesus Christ gives us our first glimpse in Scripture of what the glorified resurrection body will be like. John 20:19–20 says,

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’ After He said this, He showed them His hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

When Jesus rose from the tomb, He had the same identity and the same appearance He had prior to His death. The disciples recognized Him. They recognized His face and His features, they recognized His hands with the nail prints, and He even showed them His side. They recognized Him by the scar left from the Roman spear. He knew them after His resurrection, and they knew Him, though His body was now imperishable.

I’ve long believed that our resurrection bodies will have the appearance of our being in our early thirties. Jesus was about thirty-three when He rose from the dead, and Philippians 3:21 says He will “transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” Whatever our apparent age, we will be physically, mentally, and emotionally mature, and we will be recognizable as ourselves. The essence of our identity will not be lost through the process of rapture or resurrection. Our faults and failures will be gone, but I will still be me, and you will still be you—in the fullness of the perfection of Christ.

1 Corinthians 13:12

Another clue comes from 1 Corinthians 13. In the first several verses, the apostle Paul commended the virtues of love, and he ended the chapter by talking about its permanence. Love will continue after we die. Faith will not be needed in Heaven, and our hope will be fulfilled. But love will continue. Our relationships with those we love will go right on, and, in fact, be far better.

Now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

—1 Corinthians 13:12

In other words, “I know Jesus Christ now, but one day I’ll know Him better; I’ll see Him fully and I will know Him just as He knows me.” The implication is that we’ll also know each other better and love each other more fully in the future than we do now.

Right now, even the best of human relationships are imperfect. One day those of us who know Christ Jesus our Lord will see His face, reflect His love, and know one another even as we ourselves are known.

1 Thessalonians 4

Another helpful passage is in 1 Thessalonians. The Christians in Thessalonica were still learning the rudiments of Christian theology. They had questions about what happens when we die. Paul wrote,

Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will come down from Heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

—1 Thessalonians 4:13–18

The basis of Paul’s encouragement and comfort is that we’ll be together with those we love and with the Lord forever in heaven. Our fellowship with our Christian loved ones goes right on! We’ll pick up where we left off, and we will know even as we are known. We will recognize Him and others, even as they recognize us.

There’s no capping the encouragement this gives me!

2 Corinthians 4:13–14

In a similar vein, in 2 Corinthians 4:14, Paul wrote,

We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in His presence.

Paul knew something. He didn’t hope, think, speculate, or wish. He knew his body would be resurrected and he would be reunited with his Corinthian friends in the presence of the Lord. That gave him vast encouragement, and he repeated the same idea elsewhere in his letters to his friends and to other churches he established. For example, he called the Thessalonians “the crown in which we will glory in the presence of the Lord Jesus when He comes” (1 Thessalonians 2:19).

He fully anticipated an eternal friendship with those he had won to Christ.

Luke 16:22–31

In Luke 16, Jesus told about a neighborhood beggar who died and went to Heaven. But Jesus didn’t use the word Heaven. He used the phrase Abraham’s side, saying, “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side.” The passage goes on to talk about “Abraham . . . with Lazarus by his side” (Luke 16:22–23).

In other words, a dirty but God-trusting Middle Eastern beggar went to Heaven and found himself walking down the street side by side with Abraham, the greatest figure of the Old Testament. The whole story is based on the premise that we will know one another in Heaven. Though their earthly timelines had been separated by two thousand years, Abraham and the beggar knew one another and fellowshipped together.

I don’t know if they knew one another instinctively or if they were introduced to each other. I’m curious about this. When I get to Heaven, will I instinctively know my grandfather, who was a mountain preacher and died long before I was born? Or will he come up to me and say, “On earth, I was your grandfather”?

I don’t know, but I’m looking forward to knowing him, along with Abraham, the beggar of Luke 16, and all the other heroes of the faith. One small hint that our knowledge may be instinctive comes from the next passage.

Matthew 17:1–8

The transfiguration of Christ was the moment when Peter, James, and John caught a glimpse of the intrinsic, eternal glory of their Savior. Matthew 17:1–4 says,

After six days Jesus took with Him Peter, James, and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.

When Jesus came to earth, He left His throne and its eternal glory. He temporarily relinquished His splendor and some of His divine prerogatives. He entered humanity as a baby in a manger. But on this occasion during His earthly life, He was momentarily enveloped with a flash of His original and eternal glory. How amazing that two Old Testament heroes joined Him! Moses, Elijah, and Jesus all belonged to different epochs of human history. Moses dates to about 1400 BC, Elijah lived in the 800s BC, and Jesus lived in the first century AD.

Here we have three men whose earthly lives were separated by fourteen hundred years, and yet they all knew each other. They were standing there physically, fellowshipping and talking together. They were known by their same names, but they were glorified, energized, wrapped in light.

This is a sneak peek of Heaven!

So, yes, we’ll recognize our loved ones in Heaven. As someone once put it, we’ll certainly not be greater fools in Heaven than we are on earth. If we know one another now, we’ll certainly know one another in the soon-to-be.

Excerpted from The 50 Final Events In World History by Robert J. Morgan, copyright Robert J. Morgan.

What a life we have to look forward to forever!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 22, 2022

When I talk about the nature of saving faith, I share the Protestant and Reformed zeal to magnify the majesty and glory and all-sufficiency of God in Christ.

My heart leaps with joy when I read how Calvin exalted the glory of God as the main issue of the Reformation. He wrote to his Roman Catholic adversary Cardinal Sadolet, “[Your] zeal for heavenly life [is] a zeal which keeps a man entirely devoted to himself, and does not, even by one expression, arouse him to sanctify the name of God” (A Reformation Debate, 52).

This was Calvin’s chief contention with Rome’s theology: it does not honor the majesty of the glory of God in salvation the way it should. He goes on to say to Sadolet that what is needed in all our doctrine and life is to “set before [man], as the prime motive of his existence, zeal to illustrate the glory of God” (Ibid.).

“Saving faith glorifies Christ by looking away from self to Christ alone.”

The ultimate issue in saving faith is the glory of Christ. How, then, does saving faith glorify Christ? One answer is that faith is divinely suited, as a receiving grace (John 1:11–13; Colossians 2:6), to call all attention to Christ. Saving faith glorifies Christ by looking away from self to Christ alone — to his all-sufficiency, including his blood and righteousness, without which we could have no right standing with God. To which I say, with all my heart, Amen! Let us be willing to die for this. As many have.

But it gets even better. There is more glory to give to Christ as we receive him for justification.

Sight of Spiritual Reality

There are good reasons to think that Paul and other New Testament writers understood saving faith as a kind of spiritual sight of spiritual reality, especially the self-authenticating glory of Christ. For example, Paul contrasts believers and unbelievers by what they see and don’t see in the gospel of the glory of Christ:

If our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. . . . For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:3–6)

Unbelievers are blind to “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.” But for believers, “God . . . has shone in our hearts” to give that very light. Both groups hear the gospel story. Both grasp the historical facts of the gospel. But unbelievers can’t see what believers see in the gospel. Unbelievers are still walking by (natural) sight, not by faith (2 Corinthians 5:7). And natural sight looks at the gospel with no spiritual awareness of the glory of Christ in it. The natural mind (1 Corinthians 2:14), with its natural eyes, does not see what faith sees in the gospel.

But the case is very different with believers, who are described in verse 6. They experience the miracle of God’s light-giving new creation. They see what unbelievers do not see. God said, as on the first day of creation, “Let there be light!” And by that faith-creating word, God gives “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). When this happens, unbelievers become believers. This is the grand and fundamental difference between believers and unbelievers. Hearing the gospel, believers see the glory of God in the face of Christ.

Awakened from Boredom

Before the miracle of 2 Corinthians 4:6 happened to any of us, we heard the gospel story of Christ and saw it as boring or foolish or legendary or incomprehensible. We saw no compelling beauty or value in Christ. Then God “shone in our hearts,” and we saw glory.

This was not a decision. This was a sight. We went from blindness to seeing. When you go from blindness to seeing, there is no moment to decide whether you are seeing. It is not a choice. You cannot decide not to see in the act of seeing. And you cannot decide not to see as glorious what you see as glorious. That is the miracle God works in verse 6. Once we were seeing the gospel facts without seeing the beauty of Christ. Then God spoke, and we saw through the facts of the gospel the beauty of divine reality.

This seeing in 2 Corinthians 4:6 is conversion. It is the coming into being of a believer. Verse 4 describes “unbelievers,” and verse 6 describes the creation of believers. One group is blind to the compelling glory of Christ. The other sees the glory of Christ as it really is — compelling. Or to put it another way, believers are granted to see and receive Christ as supremely glorious. This is the meaning of becoming a believer, or having saving faith.

‘We Have This Treasure’

Now, how does Paul describe this experience in the next verse (2 Corinthians 4:7)? He says, “We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” The most natural meaning of this “treasure” in a jar of clay is what God has just created in us in verse 6: “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” The word this in verse 7 makes the connection specific. “We have this treasure.” He is not speaking in broad, general terms. He is referring to a specific treasure, “this treasure,” the one he just described.

It is not strange that Paul would use the word treasure to describe the glory of Christ in the human heart. Nothing would be more natural for Paul. He loves to think of Christ as the believer’s wealth, his riches, his treasure. He speaks of the “unsearchable riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:8), God’s “riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19), “the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7), and “the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). This was the heartbeat of his ministry, the meaning of his life. He saw himself “as poor, yet making many rich” (2 Corinthians 6:10) — rich with Christ!

What this means for our question, then, is that 2 Corinthians 4:6 describes the way a believer comes into being, that is, the way saving faith comes into being. It happens when God removes spiritual blindness and replaces it with a sight of the glory of God in Christ — the beauty of Christ, the worth of Christ, the divine reality of Christ. This miracle of spiritual sight is believing. That is, it is the receiving of Christ as true and glorious. In this miracle, the believer is simultaneously united to Christ. We “have” Christ. He is ours and we are his. Then to make things crystal clear, Paul calls this a “treasure” (2 Corinthians 4:7).

All-Sufficient, All-Satisfying

How, then, does saving faith glorify Christ?

It does so, to be sure, by turning us away from self to his all-sufficient blood and righteousness, without which we could have no right standing with God. Yes, the glory of Christ is at stake in protecting his righteousness from any intrusion of our own righteousness, compromising the sufficiency of his. So let the glory of Christ blaze in the all-sufficiency of his perfect obedience unto death, as the only ground of our acceptance with God.

But there is more glory to break out into view because of God’s design for faith alone to unite us to Christ. Second Corinthians 4:4–7 is one passage among many showing that what is at stake is not only the sufficiency of Christ’s work, but also the worth of it, the beauty of it, the all-satisfying glory of it. Or to be more accurate, what is at stake in the way we are justified is the shining forth of the worth of Christ himself, the beauty of Christ, the glory of Christ reflected in the justifying faith of his people.

In other words, God ordained for faith to be the instrument of justification not only to magnify the sufficiency of Christ’s living and dying obedience, but also to magnify his infinite beauty and worth. Faith is not an expedient acceptance of an all-sufficient achievement that I use to escape hell and gain a happy, healthy, Christless heaven. God did not design faith as the instrument of justification in order to turn the righteousness of Christ into a ticket from self-treasuring misery in hell to self-treasuring pleasure in heaven.

“Saving faith is not only the acceptance of Christ as all-sufficient, but also the embrace of Christ as our treasure.”

No. God designed faith as the instrument of justification precisely to prevent such utilitarian uses of the work of Christ. This is why saving faith is not only the acceptance of Christ as all-sufficient, but also the embrace of Christ as our treasure. Faith perceives and receives Christ — the sole ground of our justification — not only as efficacious, but as glorious. Not only as sufficient, but as satisfying.

Treasuring Trust

God is glorified when he is trusted as true and reliable. He is more glorified when this trust is a treasuring trust — a being satisfied with all that God is for us in Jesus. God designed saving faith as a treasuring faith because a God who is treasured for who he is is more glorified than a God who is only trusted for what he does, or what he gives.

Therefore, that God would design saving faith to include affectional dimensions, which I have summed up in the phrase treasuring Christ, is no surprise. For in this way, he built God-glorifying pleasure into the Christian life from beginning to end. It is there from the first millisecond of new life in Christ, for it is there in saving faith. Not perfect, not without variation, not unassailed, but real. And it will be there forever because in God’s presence is fullness of joy, and at his right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11).

John Piper (@JohnPiper)

Jesus is indeed a treasure!  We have received the glory of God and should respond in praise, worship and giving God more glory.  Though we live by faith and not by sight we shall see Him as He is one day in all His glory!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 21, 2022

What is the value of your soul to God?... God doesn’t forget even the small sparrow He has made. How then could He forget or abandon you?... So you never need to worry, for you are more valuable to God than anything else in the world.

—Luke 12:7 TPT

Discover...to find (something or someone) unexpectedly or in the course of a search.

True...real or actual.

Worth... deserving to be treated or regarded in the way specified.

The opposite of discover is ignore, neglect, overlooked.

The opposite of true is incorrect.

The opposite of worth his worthlessness, insignificance, uselessness.

Wow! That speaks volumes to me. God’s Word has so much to say about our true worth, meaning our worth as God sees us according to His Word. But, John 8:32 says it’s only the truth that we know that can set us free. And, in that freedom, it allows us to really find our true worth.

I’m always reading the Bible. I’ve always loved reading it. But, one day I felt a strong impression to stop reading and pause for a minute and just listen.

So I did and I got the sweetest impression to “read the Bible from the inside out.” I really thought that sounded strange, but I felt the Lord impressing me to “receive” His word from the inside out and allow that word to stir up my “most holy faith.”

I felt impressed to absorb and experience God’s Word from “His” perspective and not just my interpretation of it. Usually when I read, it’s like taking information on pages from the outside and processing it on the inside. But this was completely different. I felt like I was to see the word from His perspective inside out.

Psalm 139:13-14 says,

You created my inmost being;... I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful...

Suddenly, I began to think about myself, my situation, and my life in general from the inside out, from the way God created me to be, to think, to live. In spite of anything that has happened to me, my fault, someone else’s fault, or only Heaven knows how it happened, I began to “feel” and “think” of the scripture I was reading from the perspective of, “Why did God write this in this manner?” Then, it was like a lightbulb went off. It was because His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8).

His plans might not exactly be my plans or the plans others have for me, good or bad, but they are to give us hope. Jeremiah 29:11–13 NIV says,

For I know the plans I have for you... plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope in the future.

Wow! That may not be someone else’s plan for you and perhaps not the plans you thought off or yourself. But it’s God‘s plan for you. And who can top or even stop God‘s plan? Then it goes on to say you will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:13). That’s discovery! And when we discover God, I believe that’s when we discover our true self... our true worth.

People’s opinion of your worth may change. Your opinion of your worth may change. But when God said I am the Lord I change not, He doesn’t change. His Words doesn’t change. And as I read the Bible, His opinion of us doesn’t change from being His beloved creation, fearfully and wonderfully made. God loves us with a love so precious, so dear, so unexplainable that He calls it unconditional. It’s always there and never fails.

To me, God’s opinion is the most valuable opinion for us to discover our true worth. If He created us, He knows our worth better than anyone ever can or ever will.

So, I encourage you to discover your true worth and become the woman God created you to be. If you have ever feared, fallen, failed, hurt, missed the mark, or experienced anything that doesn’t seem to set you up for great success, consider giving all of that to God and ask Him to set you up for His success, the success He planned for you from the beginning of time. Allow God to teach you how to discover your true worth in Him... from the inside out.

I pray right here, right now for you to know that you are God’s precious creation... valuable to those around you, valuable to yourself, valuable to this world, and most of all valuable to God.

Note: All definitions are from Oxford Languages Dictionary. All antonyms are from Thesauras.com.

Written for Devotionals Daily by Lindsay Roberts, author of Discover Your True Worth.

 How do you feel about yourself? Has your self-esteem taken a nosedive over the years? Are you hardest on yourself and maybe give grace to others but not yourself? When we dig into the Word of God, we discover our true worth because to Him, we are precious!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 20, 2022

Article by David Mathis
Executive Editor, desiringGod.org

“They have taken the Lord out of the tomb . . . ” These words from a breathless Mary Magdalene were the first breaking of the news that Sunday morning. “. . . and we do not know where they have laid him” (John 20:2).

Just as Mary herself had run to inform Peter and “the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved,” they then ran together to check for themselves. That Jesus’s body was gone, they now believed. But somehow, even with Jesus’s words to them, on multiple occasions, about his coming death and resurrection (Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:33–34), they, like Mary, “did not understand” (Mark 9:32).

On this world-changing Sunday morning, Jesus’s closest disciples first assumed his body had been taken and laid elsewhere. “As yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead” (John 20:9). Must rise. In Jesus’s mind, and in the courts of heaven, and in the pages of holy Scripture, the suffering and subsequent resurrection of the Messiah were not just possibilities or likelihoods. These were not options. They were musts. Jesus had said it before, and later that day he would explain it again — that it was necessary, that it must have happened this way.

O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? (Luke 24:25–26)

Everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. . . . that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead. (Luke 24:44–25)

But when Peter and John first looked into the empty tomb, that necessity had not yet struck them. Fresh off the devastating grief of the previous two days — doubtless the two worst days of their lives — they still were coming to terms with his death, and assumed with Mary that he was still dead and “they” — some undefined group — had moved the body. Having seen the empty tomb, John reports, “the disciples went back to their homes” (John 20:10).

Only Mary stayed behind, and soon found Jesus alive. Then, with his commission, she “went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’” (John 20:18).

Christ Must Rise

However slow his disciples had been to understand the necessity of his suffering and rising, they soon became convinced — not just that he did rise (that was indisputable) but that he had to rise. It was necessary. It must have happened this way.

“Death could not hold him, restrain him, keep him. It was not possible. Christ, the Son, had to rise.”

Just fifty days later, when Pentecost came, Peter would preach this in public — not just the resurrection but its necessity. At the height of his sermon, Peter declares about his Lord — “this Jesus,” who was “crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men” — “God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it” (Acts 2:23–24). Death could not hold him, restrain him, keep him. It was not possible. Christ, the Son, had to rise.

Why, we might ask on this Resurrection Sunday, was it necessary? Why did Jesus have to rise? Acts 2, together with other New Testament texts, give us at least five reasons why the Son had to rise again.

1. To Make Good on God’s Word

First, the word of the living God was at stake. Through his prophets, God had long promised to send his people a climactically Anointed One, the Messiah, heir to David’s throne and rallying hope of Israel. And essential to that Messianic promise was an eternal reign (2 Samuel 7:13, 16). Not only would David’s line continue one generation after another, but one great heir was coming who would reign without end (Psalm 45:6–7; 102; 25–27; 110:1–4).

Even in his own lifetime, David himself had spoken of God not abandoning his soul to Sheol — and not letting his “holy one see corruption” (Psalm 16:10), which Christians, including Peter, came to see as one of many old-covenant anticipations of the coming Messiah’s resurrection. Which is how Peter argues in that first Spirit-anointed sermon (Acts 2:29–32).

God’s anointed king would fulfill the promise of God’s word. Jesus was, and is, that Christ. Therefore, it was impossible for him to be kept from that eternal reign. Not even the last enemy could keep him from it. Strong as the power of death may seem, it was, and is, no match for the omnipotent God working for his Messiah.

2. To Vindicate His Sinless Life

Jesus’s life was without sin. He was utterly innocent, and rising again vindicated his perfect human life. Death and Satan had no claim on him because Jesus had no “record of debt that stood against [him] with its legal demands” (Colossians 2:14). With respect to Jesus, Satan and his minions never had been armed; they had no hooks in him because he had no sin or guilt. Rather, in dying, Jesus gave himself, nailing to the cross our record of debt, because of our trespasses, and disarming the demons against us (Colossians 2:13, 15).

Luke sounds the note of Christ’s innocence again and again — three times in the mouth of Pilate, then again by the thief crucified next to him, and finally by the centurion who saw him breathe his last (Luke 23:4; 14–15; 22; 41, 47). Jesus’s innocence — that he did “nothing deserving death,” before man and before God — would be, as Paul celebrates, “vindicated by the Spirit” in Christ’s resurrection (1 Timothy 3:16).

3. To Confirm the Work of His Death

The resurrection also confirmed that Jesus’s death on the cross worked. It counted. It was effective. His dying declaration, “It is finished” (John 19:30), was shown to be true by his resurrection. Had he stayed dead, what confidence would we have that his sacrifice worked, that it was sufficient for us and all who believe? What firm hope would we have that he indeed was not only innocent of his own sin but that his death could count for us, in our place?

“The resurrection confirms that his death on the cross worked. It counted. It was effective.”

Paul writes in Romans 4:25 that Jesus “was delivered up” to death “for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” The resurrection shows that his work was effective — not only in covering our sins with his death, but in rising to be our righteousness — our justification — before the holy God. Which leads to another distinct but inseparable reason.

4. To Give Us Access to His Work

Not only did our sins require a reckoning — by Christ, outside of us — but we also needed to have access to his work, to have it applied to us. Potential salvation is not enough. We need actual rescue, which comes through the instrument called faith which unites us to a resurrected, living Lord.

However sufficient his self-sacrifice might have been to cover our sins, we have no access to that rescue if he is not alive that we might be united to him. But he is alive. As he says, “I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades” (Revelation 1:17–18). There is no great salvation for us if we are not united by faith to a living Lord to have the benefits of his work applied to us.

5. To Be Our Living Lord and Treasure

One final must or necessity is the final necessity: Jesus is alive to know and enjoy forever.

There is no final good news if our Treasure and Pearl of Great Price is dead. Even if our sins could be paid for, righteousness provided and applied to us, and heaven secured, but Jesus were still dead, there would be no great salvation in the end — not if our Savior and Groom is dead. At the very center of the Easter triumph is not what he saves us from, but what he saves us to — better, who he saves us to: himself.

Our restless souls will not find eternal, and ever-increasing, rest and joy in a Christ-less new earth, no matter how stunning. Streets of gold, reunions with loved ones, and sinless living may thrill us at first — but they will not ultimately satisfy, not for eternity, not on their own. We were made for Jesus. He is at the center of true life now, and he will be forever. If there is no living Christ, there is no final satisfying eternity. But he is alive indeed — to know and enjoy forever.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 19, 2022

Article by Scott Hubbard
Editor, desiringGod.org

Have you ever found yourself in a night so black that you nearly stopped hoping for morning?

Some guilt feels so deep that you wonder if you should just lie down and die. Some mental or spiritual midnights feel so thick, and the sky so starless, that a step in any direction seems useless. Sometimes, you not only walk through the valley of the shadow of death, but you collapse partway through, and don’t rise.

Maybe you’ve been there, as I have. Maybe you are there right now. If so, Holy Week offers a fellow failure, an anguished friend, a brother in the darkness. If anyone has tasted the bitter salt of midnight weeping, he has. And if anyone can testify to the miracle of dawn and the drying of tears, he can.

What was happening in those dreadful hours on Holy Saturday, as Peter, sobbing and beating his breast, remembered his three denials, remembered Jesus’s final look (Luke 22:61), remembered how it all ended, and yet somehow did not go hang himself like Judas? A scene from Maundy Thursday gives us the answer: the prayer of Jesus was holding him.

Against the accumulated powers of sin, Satan, and despair, a praying Christ was Peter’s only hope. And ours.

Satan Roars

Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat. (Luke 22:31)

Earlier in Luke’s Gospel, we read the foreboding words, “When the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from [Jesus] until an opportune time” (Luke 4:13). As night falls on Thursday, the time has come, and the devil knows it (Luke 22:53). And so, Satan, after devouring one of the twelve (Luke 22:3), roars for the other eleven.

For three years, Jesus had stood between Peter and the dragon’s mouth, keeping him, guarding him (John 17:12). But now he was leaving, and Peter, like Job before him, would discover how much his strength rested on the hidden shield of his Lord. For the first time, he would walk the valley without the familiar comfort of his shepherd.

Satan demands to sift the disciples: to throw them on the sieve and shake, shake, shake until Simon Peter was only Simon again — clay and not rock (Luke 6:14), a fisher of fish and not of men (Luke 5:10). Here is the real terror behind our darkest nights. We feel like we’re unraveling, as if our testimony is being told in reverse. We fear we’re falling back into a Christless past.

We would, if Jesus left us alone in Satan’s sieve. Thank God he doesn’t.

Jesus Prays

But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. (Luke 22:32)

What words could overcome the horror of “Satan demanded to have you”? These: “But I have prayed for you.” I have prayed for you, Peter. I, Jesus, the storm-stilling, sickness-healing, demon-destroying Son of God. I, Jesus, the Father’s beloved, his Chosen One, whom heaven hears with pleasure (Luke 3:22; 9:35). I, Jesus, have prayed for you.

Peter will still be put in the sieve. But Jesus asks that, in all the shaking, Peter’s faith will not fall dead to the ground. He asks for an ember to burn under the ashes of Peter’s failure — a secret comfort in his weeping, a buried warmth beneath his anguish, a hidden hope that would compel him come Sunday to sprint to the tomb rather than follow Judas (Luke 24:10–12).

“Your night, no matter how black, is no sure sign that your faith has finally failed and fled you.”

In all likelihood, Peter could neither see nor feel the ember. He may have felt inconsolable, sure that this darkness would never see the dawn. Maybe you feel similarly. Know this: Jesus has seen embers of faith in his saints where they saw only ash. Your night, no matter how black, is no sure sign that your faith has finally failed and fled you.

Jesus still held Peter, even from the tomb. So he holds all his people, even when a stone seems to have rolled over the heavens. And we can feel him holding us when we, like Peter, stubbornly refuse Judas’s despair, and labor to believe even on the bleakest Saturday.

In the coming hours, the sun’s light would fail (Luke 23:45). But in answer to Jesus’s prayer, Peter’s faith would not.

Peter Turns

And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. (Luke 22:32)

When Jesus looks at Peter, he sees the three denials hiding in his heart (Luke 22:34). But he also sees something deeper than his denials, a threefold “I love you” that will survive till Sunday, sustained by his own prayers (John 21:15–17). He sees a man who will plant his feet in the same footsteps of his denials, this time walking in the opposite direction.

And even now, Jesus wants Peter to see himself beyond the coming misery. And so, he doesn’t say, “if you have turned again,” but when. Peter’s perseverance does not rest on the slender thread of his own power, but on the unbreakable beam of Christ’s own prayers. And so it is for all Christ’s disciples. Our deliverance — whether from our own sin or from a darkness not our fault — may seem uncertain on our side; we wonder if our faith will fail along the way. But on Jesus’s side, our deliverance is as certain his own intercession (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25). If we are truly in Christ, our turning is a when, not an if.

And in the matchless mercy of Jesus, we will find, as Peter did, that he welcomes us back as not a slave but a son, reassured and recommissioned. “When you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” The one who was too weak to stand with Jesus will now strengthen others, his failure having fitted him for a wiser, humbler, more Christward ministry, resting on a power not his own.

Peter now knows the weakness of Peter, the strength of Satan, and the overpowering redemption of Jesus. And the restored Peters among us, who know the same firsthand, are often best suited to strengthen others.

He Prays for You

What might Jesus have prayed for Peter on that darkest of nights? We get a clue in John’s Gospel.

I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. (John 17:15)

“Don’t come undone, and don’t despair, if the sky above you looks black as Peter’s. Instead, hope.”

Jesus did not ask that Peter be removed from the world, where the devil prowls. Peter felt “the power of darkness” on Maundy Thursday (Luke 22:53), and the darkness nearly broke him. But Jesus did ask that Peter be kept from the devil’s devouring jaws. And the Father answered: Peter did not become a Judas.

We may find, too, that Jesus’s intercession does not keep us from nights whose darkness nearly swallows us. Don’t come undone, and don’t despair, if the sky above you looks black as Peter’s. Instead, hope. Pray. Huddle together with the other disciples and wait for Sunday morning.

In time, something will stir on the horizon of this midnight: a light beyond hope, a magic deeper than the misery of sin or the mercilessness of Satan. Jesus prays for you.

Read the gospel of John chapter 17 and know the love of Jesus as He prays for you to be protected from the evil one! What love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God!

Pastor Dale