Not only does Jesus want the rose of those abused by sin, but so should we want to minister to those whose lives have been wrecked by their bad choices. Paul led to Christ sinners at Corinth who are shunned, or mocked, or humiliated in some legalistic churches. Read the list of sinners in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Paul embraced and won to Christ:Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
If Jesus and Paul did not make these unacceptable sinners the butt of their jokes or ridicule why do we? I have a pastor friend who had parents of a homosexual son in his church. The parents finally got their son to come and hear the guest evangelist who was preaching in a service. But the evangelists took off on homosexuals whom he called queers along with other degrading names, The evangelist enjoyed lots of laughs and “amens.” But he not only broke the hearts of those parents, he drove away that son not only from the church but the gospel. God help us to have the attitude of Jesus toward sinners who are like that all used up and broken rose: “Neither do I condemn you go and sin no more.”
Paul Hartog argues convincingly no! What is ironic about the Calvinistic view of limited atonement is that Calvin did not hold to it. Here is a quote from Calvin’s commentary on Galatians: “God commends to us the solution of all men without exception, even as Christ suffered for the sins of the whole world.” Paul Hartog has written a new book on Calvin’s view of atonement where he documents Calvin’s view. Click here for a PDF http://www.baptistbulletin.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/a-word-for-the-world.pdf
Hartog asks, does this mean that the provision of Christ’s sacrifice is limited to the elect alone, since God eternally intended to apply Christ’s work ultimately to the elect alone? No, because Calvin seems to coordinate a universal provision of Christ’s sacrifice with the general call of the gospel: “God commends to us the salvation of all men without exception, even as Christ suffered for the sins of the whole world.” Calvin affirms, “Although Christ suffered for the sins of the world, and is offered by the goodness of God without distinction to all men.”
Unlike some later authors, such as Tobias Crisp, Calvin did not espouse a notion of “eternal justification.” According to Calvin, until one is united with Christ by faith (which the Spirit efficaciously forms in the elect through the Word), one is not justified. In order that the redemption of Christ may be effectual and useful to us, we must renounce our former life” (Calvin, 1 Peter 1:18, The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews and the First and Second Epistles of St Peter, 248).
Contrast Calvin’s own words with Leahy: “For Calvin, with Bible in hand, Christ died for all without distinction, not all without exception” (Leahy, “Calvin and the Extent of the Atonement,”). Citing the Lukan genealogy of Jesus, Calvin notes that “the salvation provided by Christ is common to all mankind. For Christ, the Author of salvation, was begotten of Adam, the common father of us all.” Jesus is “Redeemer of the world . . . since He was there, as it were, in the person of all cursed ones and of all transgressors, and of those who had deserved eternal death . . . and bears the burdens of all those who had offended God mortally.” Calvin’s “Last Will” refers to “the blood of our great Redeemer, as it was shed for all poor sinners.” According to Calvin, it is “incontestable that Christ came for the expiation of the sins of the whole world.” The footnotes for all this documentation is in the book in chapter 12.
David Jeremiah opens his book on angels entitled, What The Bible says about Angels, “In a doctor’s office one fall day last year, I was told I had cancer. I’m sure you’ll understand when I say I was fearful. It was one of those times when I would have cherished having an angel with me in the room, assuring me everything would be okay. In the months that followed I felt the same fear when I prepared to have surgery on two occasions. An angel’s hand holding mine as I was wheeled into the operating room would have been treasured comfort. But as far as I knew, I’d never seen an angel. Never. Did that mean something was wrong with me? Why did other people have that privilege? Wasn’t I spiritual enough?” (page14).
But near the end of David Jeremiah’s book he (page 188) summarizes my thoughts: “But if this is disappointing news to you, and you’re dismayed to think there may not be a specific angel responsible for your protection, you need not jump up in fear to check the locks on your doors and windows. There’s plenty of evidence that God himself is looking out for you.”
Dateline did an expose on Faith Healer Bennie Hinn. The expose revealed his lucrative ministry, 200 million a year, and also the heartbreak he brings to people who go to his healing services and are not healed because they are to severely handicapped. The expose also uncovered his false message that it is God’s will for all people to be healed and not be sick. It was not God’s will to heal eight year old Grace Brulotte, of Fernie, British Columbia who couldn’t walk because of arthrogryposis multiplex congenital. Today she is a budding artist and singer.
At Bennie Hinn’s website he states: “God’s will for us to walk in divine health and a right relationship with Him is emphasized throughout His Word.”
This misconception that it is not God’s will for any person to be sick or poor is part of their Prosperity message. What about Jesus? Jesus was homeless and was murdered. Jesus did not experience a Prosperity Gospel.
In Acts 9:32-42, the apostle Peter heals two people who would be rejected by Bennie Hinn’s screeners. In 9:32-35, Peter healed a paraplegic at Lydda. In 9:36-42, Peter healed a dead woman at Joppa, by the name of Dorcas, i.e., he raised her from the dead. Let’s ask and answer three questions about divine healing and faith healing that you might be asking as we contrast divine healing that God has always performed and the faith healing movement: Why could the apostles heal severely handicapped people or even raise the dead? How did the apostles heal? What about healing today? Can we expect paraplegics or quadriplegics to be healed?
1. Why Could the Apostles Heal?
The apostle Peter performed such spectacular healings because he had the apostolic gift of healing. The same gift that Bennie Hinn claims to possess and all Faith Healers. The apostles had the same gift of healing Jesus possessed. In Mark 2:1-12, Jesus healed a paraplegic much as Peter did in Acts 9:32-35 at Lydda. In Mark 5:37-41, Jesus raised the dead much as Peter did in Acts 9:36-42 at Joppa.
A. The apostolic gift of healing is no longer operative because God is no longer dealing directly with the Jews
Jesus and the apostles healed so the unsaved Jews would believe their message that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. The gift of healing was a sign gift. Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:22 says that the Jews require a sign because they lack faith to believe God’s messengers. This description was not a compliment. Jewish Nicodemus said to Jesus: “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher from God: for no man can do these miracles that you do, except God be with him” (John 3:2). The same truth was preached by Peter in Acts 2:22: “You men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you.”
This spiritual weakness of lacking faith and needing a sign has characterized the entire history of the Jews beginning in Exodus 4. When God called Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt, Moses said, “they will not believe me” (4:1). God gave Moses the gift of sign miracles “that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers has appeared unto you” (4:5). One of those sign miracles was the sign gift of healing. God said, “Put now your hand into your bosom or shirt. And he put his hand into his shirt: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow. And God said, Put your hand into your shirt again. And he put his hand into his shirt again; and plucked it out of his shirt, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh” (4:7).
B. The apostolic gift of healing is no longer the authenticating sign
This authenticating sign of healing is longer needed. Israel as a nation is now temporarily rejected because they rejected Christ as their Messiah. We also have the completed canon of Scripture (1 Corinthians 13) . Today the authenticating sign of a correct message is not healing but adherence to correct doctrine. This is the new litmus test as Paul defends in Galatians 1:6-9.
C. The apostolic gift of healing is no longer valid because there are no more apostles
When the New Testament was nearly completed the gift of healing was already waning. Paul who healed many people in 2 Timothy 4:20 wrote, “Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick.” The answer to the first question, “Why could the apostles heal?” is they had the apostolic gift of healing. Paul told the Corinthians “truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you” (2 Corinthians 12). Because there are no more apostles who saw the resurrected Christ and were taught by Him, there is no longer the apostolic gifts.
2. How Did the Apostles Heal?
The apostles healed just like Jesus but not like the Faith Healers. The apostles and Jesus healed anywhere, completely, extreme cases, and the dead.
A. The Apostles healed anywhere.
Peter healed in homes in Acts 9. Faith Healers must be on TV or have staged platforms with screeners to accept only people who have backaches and headaches. Why do Faith Healers not go to hospitals and move from room to room and sick patient to sick patient.and start healing? They could if they had the apostolic gift of healing.
B. The Apostles healed completely.
Peter’s healed paralytic walked away. Faith healer Kenneth Hagin in his book “How to Keep Your Healing” tells of a pastor who supposedly was totally healed of deafness in a large healing meeting. But by the time the meeting was dismissed, he couldn’t hear a thing. Hagin writes, “He put his hearing aid back on.” Hagin explains why some healings don’t last: “If you don’t have enough faith in you to hold on to what you have, the devil is going to steal it away from your” (Kenneth Hagin. How to Keep Your Healing, Tulsa: Rhema, 1989, 20-21). Peter did not ask the paralytic man in Acts 9:32-35 if he had faith. Obviously, dead Dorcas could not exercise faith.
In contrast to Tabitha being called a disciple in the second healing by Peter in Acts 9, Aeneas is not. Most likely Aeneais was not a believer. MacArthur writes, “There are no examples in the New Testament of believers being healed (though Lazarus, Dorcus, and Eutychus were raised from the dead) (MacArthur. The MacArthur NT Commentary, Acts 1-12, 281). These unbelievers did not have faith to be healed.
C. The Apostles healed extreme cases.
Jesus healed extreme cases in Matthew 4:23 “Jesus went about healing all manner of sickness” and 9:35 “Jesus went about healing every sickness” not just high blood pressure or bursitis. The people healed in the New Testament were acutely sick or handicapped with blindness, paralysis, or deafness to verify they were healed by Jesus and the apostles. Healing was a sign gift. The healing had to be visible and verifiable. The apostles were not screeners for Jesus so the handicapped could not be seen by Jesus. The opposite was true.
D. The Apostles healed the dead.
Peter raised Dorcas, Paul raised Eutychus. Jesus raised three people. If Faith Healers have the apostolic gift of healing why do they get sick and die. Faith healer Oral Roberts died. Faith healer Kathryn Kuhman battled with heart disease for 20 years before she died of heart disease in 1976. Why do Faith Healers not go to cemeteries during the day and raise the dead from graves and Funeral Homes in the evenings and raise the dead from coffins? They could if they had the apostolic gift of healing.
3. What about Healing Today?
A. God can still heal.
Sometimes we are accused of not believing in healing if we do not believe the apostolic gift of healing is operative today. This is incorrect.
This is Mark Driscoll’s argument for the gift of healing for today: Some say that healings ceased in the first century; that they didn’t exist thereafter; that this happened in the early church and it’s not for us. Well, we say God is the same yesterday, today and forever. God doesn’t change. People’s needs don’t change and additionally, there’s nowhere in Scripture that says that healing will stop, right? They infer it from one section in 1 Corinthians 13, we’ll get to in a few weeks, but there is no evidence in Scripture that healing was just for, you know, 70 years or 100 years. There’s no evidence of that whatsoever.
This is a misrepresentation by Driscoll. We believe God still heals when it is His will. We just do not believe in Faith Healers like Bennie Hinn or the apostolic gift for today.
1) We believe God heals through confession of sin according to James 5:16: “Confess your sins one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed.”
2) We believe God also heals through prayer. Peter prayed in Acts 9:40 before he raised Dorcas to life. James 5:13 asks, “Is any among you afflicted?” Then answers, “Let him pray.”
3) God heals through doctors. In Matthew 9:12, Jesus said, “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.” We are not like those who attend faith healing churches and believe going to a doctor is a lack of faith.
In March of 2009, Greg and Jalea Swezey saw their 17-year-old son Zachery fall ill. He was bedridden for days with a fever, diarrhea, and vomiting. The family summoned church elders from Olympia who anointed the ailing teenager’s body with olive oil and prayed over him. But — surprise, surprise — this was no substitute for a good old fashioned appendectomy, a relatively safe and simple procedure that has reduced the mortality rate for appendicitis to less than 2 per 1,000,000 cases. Zachery, a high school junior who played basketball, wrestled, and participated in band and choir, died with his parents sitting at his bedside . Most rational people would head to the hospital in that situation, but the Swezeys are the textbook definition irrational. They are members of the Church of the Firstborn, and believe in “faith healing” — praying to a higher power to cure sickness, rather than relying on the scientifically-proven power of modern medicine (The Daily Weekly reported). Skeptics and Atheists love these stories. But these fringe examples do not represent Biblical Christianity.
Paul instructed sickly Timothy to “Drink no longer water but take a little medicine for your stomach’s sake and your often infirmities” (1 Timothy 5:23). Luke who recorded many miracles in the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles was a physician. Obviously he was not against going to the doctor. When we are sick or our children are sick we should go to our medical doctor and pray to our Great Physician.
B. God doesn’t always heal.
God can still heal. But believers who love God get sick. There are four cases of sick believers beyond the book of Acts. Three of the four were not healed. Epaphroditus was sick nearly unto death but got better (Philippians 2:27). Timothy had to take medicine for his sickness (1 Timothy 5:23). He was not healed. Trophimus was not healed by Paul (2 Timothy 4:20). Finally, the apostle Paul was sick with a thorn in his flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7). Paul prayed three times for healing and God said, “No.” But God supplied him with sustaining grace instead so that the power of Christ would rest upon him. In other words, Paul would not have accomplished what he did had he been well. God’s strength was made complete in Paul’s weakness.
Joni Eareckson Tada has been a quadriplegic for 36 years as a result of a swimming accident when she was 17 years old.. She was interviewed by Christianity Today.
She begins every morning with a two-hour routine—washing, dressing, exercising. She needs at least seven helpers each week just to meet the day. Joni Eareckson Tada can do very little for herself—not turn over in bed, not brush her own teeth, not apply makeup. She was 17 when she broke her neck, so most of her life has been spent in this condition, dependent on others for the most basic daily functions. Joni not only requires two hours in the morning to get ready for the day but she also requires two hours to go to bed each night. Since her body will tolerate the strain of sitting up for only so long each day, she needs to be prone by eight o’clock, sleepy or not.
She wrote in her book, A Step Further, about her hope and prayer for healing,
On a rainy afternoon in the early summer of 1972, about fifteen people gathered together in a tiny oak church not far from my home. The group consisted of close friends, family, and church leaders whom I had called together to pray for my healing. By the time our brief service was over, the rain had stopped. Exiting through the front doors of the church, we were greeted by a beautiful rainbow in the misty distance. It gave me just one more reassurance that God had heard our prayers. God had indeed heard . . . but He did not heal. By Stephen Davey in a sermon on Acts 9:32-42
The list of her accomplishments as a handicapped believer is staggering. She paints by holding the brush between her teeth. She has authored best sellers. She hosts a daily radio program. She speaks regularly. She has been a strong advocate for the disabled. Joni was a presidential appointee to the National Council on Disability for over three years. Like Paul and his thorn in the flesh, Joni has experienced the power of Christ on her life because she has accepted God’s will for her life which has not included healing.
God can heal, but if He chooses not to heal His grace is all sufficient and His strength is complete in our weakness and we will can uniquely experience His power unlike those who do not suffer.
Dr. Paul Brand revealed the gift of pain in his lifelong work with people who suffer from Hansen’s disease. We know this disease by another name – leprosy.
While the word “leprosy” conjures images in our minds, of stubby fingers, ulcerated wounds, missing legs, and distorted facial features, in actuality, leprosy is not the direct reason for those visible effects.
Hansen’s disease slowly destroys its victims simply because they do not feel pain; they have a defective pain system. The disease primarily acts as an anesthetic which numbs the pain cells of hands, feet, nose, ears, and eyes. While most diseases are feared because of their pain, Hansen’s disease is deadly because its victims feel no pain. The destruction of fingers, eyes, feet, and other limbs follows simply because the warning system of pain is gone.
For instance, in villages in Africa and Asia, where Dr. Brand has worked, a leper will reach directly into a fire to retrieve a dropped potato. Nothing in his body told him not to. Patients at Dr. Brand’s hospital in India would work all day gripping a shovel with a protruding nail, or they would extinguish a burning wick with their bare hands or walk on splintered glass.
Patients can slowly go blind, only because their eyes never felt the discomfort that causes the rest of us to blink. A patient will turn an ankle, tearing tendon and muscle, but simply adjust and walk with a crooked leg, until the rest of his leg is ruined and infected.
No wonder Dr. Brand once said, “Thank God for inventing pain.”
Philip Yancey, Where Is God When It Hurts (Harper Paperbacks, 1990), pp. 14, 23, 24.
John MacArthur gave this well-known, but needed to be repeated incident from the life of Charles Spurgeon. “Many years ago five young college students made their way to London to hear Charles Haddon Spurgeon preach. Arriving early at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, they found the doors still locked. While they waited on the steps, a man approached them. ‘Would you like to see the heating apparatus of this church?’ he asked. That was not what they had come for, but they agreed to go with him. He led them into the building, down a long flight of stairs, and into a hallway. At the end of the hallway he opened a door into a large room filled with seven hundred people on their knees praying. ‘That,’ said their guide (who was none other than Spurgeon himself”, ‘is the heating apparatus of this church’ (The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, Acts 1-12, page 285).
It is a story about a fairly foolish fellow from Los Angeles named Larry Waters. I cannot help but believe that his family is still in shock and a little embarrassed. Larry’s boyhood dream was to fly. So, when he graduated from high school, he joined the Air Force in hopes of becoming a pilot. Unfortunately, poor eyesight disqualified him. When he was finally discharged, he had to satisfy himself by watching jets fly over his back yard.
One day, Larry had a bright idea – he decided to fly. He went to the local Army/Navy Surplus Store and purchase forty-five weather balloons and several tanks of helium. The weather balloons, when fully inflated, each measured more than four feet across. At home, Larry securely strapped the weather balloons to his “sturdy” lawn chair. He anchored the chair to the bumper of his jeep and inflated the balloons with the helium. He climbed on for a test, while it was still only a few feet above the ground. Satisfied it would work, Larry packed several sandwiches and a six-pack of Miller Lite, loaded his pellet gun, figuring he could pop a few balloons when it was time to descend, and went to his lawn chair. He tied himself in, along with his pellet gun and provisions.
Larry’s plan was to lazily float up to a height of about thirty feet above his back yard, after severing the anchor, and in a few hours, come back down. Things did not quite work out that way. When he cut the cord anchoring the lawn chair to his jeep, he did not float lazily up to thirty or so feet, but instead, he streaked into the LA skies as if shot from a canon. He did not level off at thirty feet, but instead, leveled off at 11,000 feet. At this height, he could not risk shooting any of the balloons, lest he unbalance the lawn chair. He stayed there drifting for more than fourteen hours.
Then, Larry really got into trouble. He found himself drifting into the primary approach quarter of the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). A United Airlines pilot first spotted Larry. He radioed the tower and described passing a guy in a lawn chair with a gun. Radar confirmed the existence of an object floating 11,000 feet above the airport.
LAX emergency procedures swung into full alert and a helicopter was dispatched to investigate. Night was falling and the off shore breeze was beginning to flow. It began to carry Larry out over the ocean with the helicopter in hot pursuit. Several miles out, the helicopter caught up with Larry. Once the crew determined that Larry was not dangerous, they attempted to close in for a rescue. However, the draft from the blades would push Larry away whenever they neared.
Finally, the helicopter ascended to a position several hundred feet above Larry and lowered a rescue line. Larry snagged the line and was hauled back to shore. As soon as Larry was brought back to earth, he was arrested for violating air space. As he was led away in handcuffs, a reporter dispatched to cover the daring rescue, asked him why he had done it. Larry stopped, turned, and replied, “Well, a man just can’t sit around.”
Stephen Davey told this story as the introduction to his sermon The God of Lost Causes at Wisdom for the Heart
Dr. Walter Cavert reported a survey on worry that indicated that only 8 percent of the things people worry about were legitimate matters of concern. The other 92 % were either imaginary, never happened, or involved matters over which the people had no control. If worry is your problem, Paul gives us a three-fold remedy if you are plagued with worry:
1. Pray instead of worry
2. Feed the mind properly
3. Practice Biblical principles
1. Pray instead of worry (Philippians 4:6-7)
Paul simply instructs us to stop worrying about the problems of life and start praying about them. Practically, you can fulfill this verse by making a Worry List and write down the problems you are worrying about. Then take your pen and mark through the word Worry and write above it Prayer. I challenge you right now to convert your Worry List into a Prayer List.
Worry is not the same as concern. We should be concerned for others as Paul described Timothy in Philippians 2:19-20. Paul said concern for others should characterize the Body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12:25: “the members should have the same care or concern one for another.” Worry is selfish which hinders us from ministering to others.
Worry in self-concern. This is what Paul is condemning. This is what Jesus forbad in Matthew 6:25-33. Stop worrying about your life, what you eat, what you wear. But seek first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you.” Worry is selfish which hinders us from laboring for the kingdom of God.
You might say, “Well I just a worry wart. My mother or my day was a worry wart.” Does that give us the right to disobey God’s Word? What if your mother or day had been an alcoholic?
2. Feed the Mind Properly (Philippians 4:8)
The average American is bombarded everyday with at least 1500 advertisements from all to the media outlets: internet, TV, newspapers, magazines, and billboards. Each advertisement is an attempt to control our thinking. If they can control our thinking, they can control our actions and ultimately our pocketbooks.
MacDonalds has convinced millions of 3 and 4 year olds it is more fun to eat a Happy Meal than a Kid’s Meal at Burger King. MacDonalds beats Burger King four to one. Four kids persuade parents to pull in MacDonalds and purchase a Happy Meal and drive past Burger King.
Not only has the media succeeded in controlling our minds about their products but also about morality and religion. Homosexuality is no longer sodomy but an acceptable alternative lifestyle. As a result the younger generation has a totally different view of homosexuality. Perhaps our legalistic churches who have ridiculed them as “qreers” from the pulpits have also aided and abetted the secular media.
For example, you can view the YouTube of pastor Charles L. Worley of Provdence Road Baptist Church who preached for the concentration of homosexuals behind electric fences and the ultimate death of “queers and homosexual.” It is no surprise our young people are turned off by churches. God hates the sin of homosexuality but His Son died for them just as He died for every sinner. Why not corral all adulterers, drunkards, or theives behind electric fences and not just homosexuals?
A much more Biblical approach on YouTube is Matt Chandler’s message, “Jesus wants the rose.”
A. Paul tells us What to think about: “Think on these things.”
Someone called this list “The briefest biography of Christ.” Paul fires off a quick catalogue of worthy objects. The Word of God is the best source of what to think about. Paul’s list of what could be a list of Christ’s attributes is similar to David’s description of the Word in Psalm 19:7-9. Look up these two references and see the similarities between the attributes in Paul’s list and David’s list. In computer science the principle is GIGO or “Garbage In, Garbage Out.” A computer processes the information it is given. The expression “Garbage in, garbage out” became famous when used by the defense lawyer Johnnie Cochran in the O. J. Simpson murder trial. Cochram argued that the mountain of blood evidence was tainted by sloppy technicians and racist police and therefore the evidence was contaminated.
Same is true with human computers or our minds. Paul’s next point tells us how to not feed our minds garbage.
B. Paul tells us How to think: “Think”
A. T. Robertson says, “think” means to put your mind on these things just mentioned. It is not the mere flash of thought like the flitting of a sparrow, but the deliberate and prolonged contemplation as if one is weighting a mathematical problem.
The word “think” is one of Paul’s favorite words to teach the doctrine of imputation. God has imputed or put on our record in heaven the righteousness of Christ. He has not put on our record in Heaven our sins according to Romans 4:3 and 4:8. The application of this in Philippians is to think on the blessings of God and not our sins. Think on the successes God has given you and not your failures. Paul practices this in 3:13-14. Our sins have been forgiven and forgotten by God and so why we should dwell on them and think about them and be defeated by them?
The writer of Proverbs knew the value of proper thinking when he wrote 23:7: “As a man thinks in his heart so is he.”
3. Practice Biblical Principles (Philippians 4:9)
Thoughts lead to actions. Alexander MaClaren phrased this truth uniquely, “Just as the thunder follows on the swift passage of the lightning, so my acts are neither more or less than the reverberation and after the clap of my thoughts.”
A. Practice according to instruction “the things, which you have both learned, and received, and heard.”
Again, it comes back to Biblical thinking preceding proper actions. The Philippians had heard Paul preach. Now if they receive and learn from that preaching and teaching they can act right. In Romans 10:17, Paul taught how to overcome worry, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.”
B. Practice according to example “and seen in me, do.” Get the right people in your inner circle. Because our closest friends feed our minds with either positives or negatives.
Conclusion: If we practice these three remedies, the result will be, “the God of peace shall be with you.” Even if you are in the storm of your life, the God of peace is with you. Isaiah promised, “You (God) will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you” (Isaiah 26:3). Jesus promised, “If you know these things happy are you” (John 13:17).
Someone described many Christians who struggle with worry acting and looking like the duck who appears to be sitting quietly and calmly on a placid lake, but underneath he is paddling like crazy. Looks are deceiving. How are you on the inside? If you are struggling on the inside seriously apply these three great remedies to your life.
The evening I got saved at Gospel Baptist Church, a godly deacon came up to me and said, “Now you need to get baptized.” What he was saying in essence is, “You need to get started off on the right foot in your new Christian walk.” Paul had several persons in his life as well who encouraged him to get started correctly and biblically. The first person was Ananias.
Paul travelled to several important places in his early years as a new believer and at each of these locations he took his first baby steps as a babe in Christ. All believers need to take these same baby steps to grow as newborn babes in Christ.
In Acts 9:18-31, we will highlight the first 10 years of his Christian life from the age of 35-45. Paul travelled Jerusalem to Damascus, Arabia, Damascus, Jerusalem, and finally to Tarsus. Maybe you have been saved for awhile and you need to jump start your walk with Christ. For example, maybe you need to be baptized or start seriously studying God’s Word, or start witnessing to unsaved friends, or fellowshipping with strong believers. Paul’s example can encourage you.
1. He was Baptized at Damascus (Acts 9:18-21)
A. He was baptized and joined the church in 9:18. Paul received his sight and was immediately baptized even before he ate after three days of fasting. He took care of his spiritual needs before his physical needs. Why is this important? Because this is what Jesus taught in Matthew 28:19-20.
B. He joined a small group in the church in 9:19. Why is this important? Because Jesus created a small group with His 12 disciples and Paul also surrounded himself with a spiritual support group of godly friends. The best way to fulfill the “one another” commands in the NT is through small groups.
C. He also started witnessing at Damascus in 9:20-21. Paul did not wait until he was thoroughly grounded in the Scriptures. Paul preached Jesus as the Son of God. This is the only time in Acts that this title is given to Jesus. Paul used it often in his epistles: (Rom. 1:3-4,9; 5:10; 8:3, 29, 32; 1 Cor. 1:9; 15:28; 2 Cor. 1:19; Gal. 1:16; 2:20; 4:4, 6;1 Thess. 1:10). Before his conversion, Paul thought Jesus was a blasphemer, now Paul knows He is the Son of God. He witnessed as a brand new believer. Paul was like the Samaritan woman in John 4:28.
I witnessed to the first person after I got saved on my 18th birthday. He was a high school buddy. Later I was able to win him to Christ. I had lunch with him several weeks ago and he reminded me of that.
2. He Grew Spiritually in Arabia (Galatians 1:17)
In between 9:21 and 22, Paul travelled to Arabia based on his testimony in Galatians 1:11-17.
A. Paul retreated to Arabia for spiritual growth to allow God to fully reveal the gospel to him as Paul discusses in Galatians 1:11, 12. Paul now read the OT with a new set of eyes.
B. Paul went to Arabia near Sinai according to Galatians 4:25. Paul states his visit to Arabia the context of not consulting with flesh and blood. Sinai would have been the appropriate place to retreat. Sinai was sparsely populated and here God gave the OT law (which Paul would have to rethink).
Many times new converts need to be reprogrammed in their thinking. They have to unlearn the importance of religious works and learn the importance of God’s grace. Paul had allot of religious baggage to unpack.
C. Paul grew in those 2 to 3 years as Acts 9:22 shows. He increased in spiritual “strength” and his ability to defend the faith. The word for “strength” is the same as in Ephesians 6:10. These two thoughts are connected. Paul grew spiritually strong which resulted in his defending the faith. In 9:20, Paul is a witness. Three years later after intense study, Paul is an apologists. He was able to “prove” that Jesus was the Messiah. When he was first converted he preached Jesus was “the Son of God.” This knowledge is absolutely necessary for salvation. But now three years later he is able to prove from the OT Scriptures that Jesus is the OT predicted Jewish Messiah. The word “proving” is the Greek word sumbibazon which means to join together. Paul joined together the OT prophecies concerning Christ with their fulfillment to prove Christ was the Messiah. Possibly he linked Isaiah 7:14 with the virgin birth of Jesus in Matthew 1:23 and the Micah 5:2 with Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem and Isaiah 53 with Jesus’ death on the cross.
Christians should “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15). The Mormon Church is filed with former Baptists. 40 percent of all Mormon converts are former Baptists. There are 231 Mormon converts each day from the Baptist faith.
D. Paul paid a price for his bold witnessing in Acts 9:23-25. Paul adds a few more details in 2 Corinthians 11:32-33 about his escape. Gentiles not just Jews were offended at Paul’s witnessing. He was lowered through a window in a house built on the wall to escape his martyrdom.
William Barclay put it this way: “No one persecutes a man who is ineffective and who obviously does not matter. George Bernard Shaw once said that the biggest compliment you can pay an author is to burn his books. Someone has said, ‘A wolf will never attack a painted sheep.’ Counterfeit Christianity is always safe. Real Christianity is always in peril. To suffer persecution is to be paid the greatest of compliments because it is the certain proof that men think we really matter” (The Acts of the Apostles, 77).
3. He Fellowshipped with Strong Believers in Jerusalem (Acts 9:26-29)
Jerusalem is where it was happening spiritually. Jerusalem was the epicenter of a great revival. In Galatians 1:18, Paul tells us that he wanted to go to Jerusalem to meet Peter the spiritual leader of early Christianity. Paul saw the need to have spiritual friends and mentors in his life. But Paul was initially not welcomed (Acts 9:26). The disciples were possibly afraid Paul was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Maybe Paul had been in hiding for three years so he could secretly invade the church.
Barnabas was the successor of Ananias in Acts 9:27. Where Ananias left off Barnabas picked up. Barnabas was living up to his name in Acts 4:36: Son of Encouragement. Paul adds in Galatians 1:15-17 that Barnabas introduced Paul to Peter and James. Paul was able to spend 15 days with Peter, the leader of the church.
Barnabas did not hold Paul’s past against him. Barnabas was not like us when someone gets saved or starts coming to church whose background is not perfect as if our background is perfect. We are more like the Pharisees in John 8 who wanted to stone the woman caught in adultery instead of like Christ who accepted her and said, “Neither do I condemn you go and sin no more.”
Barclay makes another good application: “The world is largely divided into people who think the best of others and people who think the worst of others; and it is one of the curious facts of life that ordinarily we see our own reflection in others, and we make them what we believe them to be” (page 78).
4. He Served God in Difficult Circumstances in Tarsus (Acts 9:30-31)
Just as the result of Ananias’ ministry in leading Paul to get baptized, join the church and a small group resulted in Paul witnessing, and the result of Paul’s spiritual growth in the Word in Arabia resulted in witnessing, the result of Barnabas encouragement resulted in Paul witnessing even more in 9:28-29.
Each time Paul witnessed, however, he had strong reactions against him. This time Paul has to be sent back home to Tarsus in Acts 9:30-31. These are the silent years in Paul’s life. Paul was in Tarsus for approximately 7-10 years. Back home Paul experienced rejection from his family. We learn this from another testimony of Paul’s in Philippians 3:8. Most likely Paul’s wealthy dad who was a staunch Pharisee who paid for Paul’s tutoring to become a Pharisee disowned his now Christian son. There was no Welcome Home Son banner hung across main street in Tarsus.
Paul also experienced rejection in his witnessing. Paul lists his sufferings in 2 Corinthians 11:23-24. The sufferings listed by Paul in 2 Corinthians 11 are not found anywhere Acts. These are called synagogue punishments. Paul probably preached in the synagogues in Tarsus and received from the Jews five lashings (40 stripes save one) which was a form of synagogue discipline.
Let’s think of the important people God used in Paul’s life:
1. Stephen was a witness to Saul of Tarsus in Acts 7.
2. Ananias was Paul’s first friend as a Christian who helped Paul take his first baby steps as Christian of getting baptized, joining the church and a small group.
3. Barnabas took over where Ananias left off and aided Paul’s continued spiritual growth.
This adds new meaning to Paul’s insight in 1 Corinthians 3:6, “I have planted, Apollos watered but God gave the increase.” Who planted in your life? Who watered what was planted? Whose ministry in your life has God given the increase? In whose life am I planting? In whose life am I watering so God can give the increase?
Why did 12 innocent movie attenders in Aurora, Colorado die at mid-night at the hand of a crazed gunman through no fault of their own? How could a good God allow such evil?
Elie Wiesel is a Nobel Prize winner, author, and Jewish survivor of Holocaust at Auschwitz wrote: “In the concentration camp, he was compelled to witness the hanging of two Jewish men and one Jewish boy. The two men died almost instantly, but the lad struggled for about a half-hour on the gallows. Someone behind Wiesel muttered, ‘Where is God? Where is He?’ Then a voice within him seemed to say, ‘He is hanging there on the gallows.’”[1] ”Where is God?” He is here! God is not remote, untouched, or uninvolved but in the fiery furnace with us. He is not only exaltedly transcendent but intimately immanent.
The skeptics have several arguments with the problem of evil and the existence of God.
First Argument of the Skeptic: How can God and Suffering Co-exist?
David Hume, the eighteenth century philosopher, is often quoted as articulating the problem of evil and the existence of God: “Is He willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then He is impotent. Is He able but not willing? Then He is malevolent. Is He both able and willing? Whence then is evil?”[2]
Does this argument solve the dilemma? Those who reject God say evolution is the alternative to the existence of God juxtaposed with suffering, rejection, hunger, and death. But is evolution problem free? Tim Keller exposes the weakness of that logic: “The evolutionary mechanism of natural selection depends on death, destruction, and violence of the strong against the weak-these things are all perfectly natural.”[3] If only the strong survive in evolution then the innocent suffer. So the elimination of God has not eradicated the suffering of the innocence.
Paul wrote that “All things (which has to include the evil of child molestation, death by drunk drivers, divorce, rape, murder, etc.) work together for good” in Romans 8:28. Paul did not say all these evils are good but that God can use evil for good. One preacher, R. A. Torrey, said Romans 8:28 was a soft pillow for a tried heart. During World War II, another prominent preacher called Romans 8:28 “the hardest verse in the Bible.” So which is it? I recently visited the emergency room at Forsyth Hospital and meet a wife who had just been dealt the devastating blow that her 44 year husband had died and her 13 year old son who sat by her side was visibly in shock. The mother-in-law said to me out in the hall of the hospital, “I see no purpose in this.” Is Romans 8:28 a soft pillow or the hardest verse in the Bible for this family? Which is it to you?
This strategic verse must be interpreted in the context of the entire book of Romans. The overarching theme of Romans is the Righteousness of God through the Gospel. In chapters 1-8, Paul develops this truth doctrinally.
In chapters 1:18-3:20, Paul argues like a defense attorney that all people are guilty sinners. Evil is not just in the world, evil is in each of us. The skeptic is hypocritical when he points out the evil of God allowing innocent people to suffer and die as if the skeptic has never cause an innocent person to suffer, like his parent, or his child or his spouse. Besides there are no innocent victims as Paul states in his concluding argument: “There is none righteous, no, not one” (3:10). C. S. Lewis said, “Natural disasters do not increase deaths, all of us will die.”
In chapters 3:21-5:21, Paul gives hope for the sinner in the doctrine of justification by faith alone.
In chapters 6-8, Paul demonstrates that the doctrine of sanctification is the result of justification by faith.
Chapter eight begins with “no condemnation” and ends with “no separation” for those who “walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit” (8:4). If you have been justified you will have a changed life which gives assurance. You and I can and must have this assurance in the midst of evil and suffering. In Romans 8:1-25, the whole planet is “groaning” and suffering under the curse. Sometimes when the earth groans there is an earthquake, or a hurricane, or a mudslide, or a tornado. That suffering gets closer home for the believer in Romans 8:26-27, where we come to such a low point of weakness we do not know how to pray.
In Romans 8:28-30, Paul declares that God has determined from eternity past our likeness to Christ (perfect sanctification) in eternity future and is presently using daily circumstances to painfully fashion that likeness.
Scripture’s Argument: God and Suffering must Co-exist.
What is the greatest example of suffering in human history? The Holocaust where six million Jews were massacred? The tsunami in December of 2004 which killed 250,000 people? The terrorist attack on 911 in which 2740 died? 12 movie attenders murdered at a Batman movie screening (including a parent’s little 6 year old girl)? As horrific as all of these tragedies were, there is one example that is in a class all by itself. That example is found in our chapter: “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh” (Romans 8:3).
The skeptic says that God and suffering cannot coexist, but Scriptures affirm they have to co-exist for there to be salvation from present sin and all future suffering.
Was God at the cross? The God/Man was on the cross: “God sending his own Son.”
Was suffering at the cross? Christ “in the likeness of sinful flesh” died for our sins.
Was evil at the cross? God “condemned sin in the flesh” of His Son.
God and suffering also co-exist in our lives. These daily circumstances include the “all things” of evil and suffering. The neuter plural adjective παντα “all things” has no restrictions. The Skeptic in you might be saying, “I wish Paul would have used the masculine. My masculine knight in shining armor just dumped me for another damsel in distress. Others of you are thinking, “I wish Paul would have used the feminine. There is this feminine doll on campus, and I am in love with her, but she doesn’t even know my name.” When Paul used the neuter he included “all things” including your masculine and feminine problems. God is in your suffering accomplishing His will. Maybe you were dumped so God can lead Mr. Right into your life. Maybe see doesn’t know your name now but when it is God’s time she will bear your name. Maybe, don’t take that statement as a prophecy or an absolute.
Second Argument of the Skeptic: Why did God make His Son Suffer?
Some today are accusing God of Divine child abuse. Instead of Sola Scriptura (only Scripture), their view is Sola Cultura (only culture). Just because there is injustice in society you cannot force that reality on the meaning of the cross. Did only the Son suffer at the cross. No! Did God drop his Son off on the doorstep of earth and abandon him?
Scriptures’ Argument: God suffered at the Cross.2 Cor 5:19 “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.” Can deity suffer? Yes! Those who teach that God cannot suffer teach the impassibility of God, that is, He is incapable of feeling pain. God is not only deity but personality. God the Spirit (who has no human body or nature like Christ) can be grieved. “Grieve” is a love word. Who can grieve a parent? The neighbor? The fellow employee? No! Only a child. We are made in the image of God who has intellect, will, and emotions. Romans 8:32 gives us a unique look at the suffering (not redemptive) of the Father at the cross.
The Skeptic in you might be asking, “Why is God making me suffer?” God is also with you in your suffering. God did not save you and drop you off on the doorstep of life and abandon you. God is mentioned twice in 8:28. Once “God” is an implied subject in 8:28. Here is how Paul wrote Romans 8:28 “and we know that to those who are loving God all things (“He” implied) works together for good.” We don’t have to guess as to why God is making us suffering or what is the “good” is in verse 28. The answer is in verse 29: So that we can be conformed to the image of God’s Son.
Someone defined “Providence as the Hand of God in the glove of my circumstance.” Just as God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, God in is you conforming you to the likeness of Christ.” Your pain, sufferings, troubles are not in vain.
Third Argument of the Skeptic: Why did God not create us where we could only choose Good?
Because He wants us to choose to “love” Him just as He chose to love us. You who are married, would you want to be married to Star Wars C-3PO? Maybe sometimes?
My wife and I are doing the 40 day Love Dare. We watched Fireproof and I bought two Love Dare books. I especially liked day three which was a Wednesday where we were to buy our spouse something during the day that told them that we were thinking of them. I bought my wife a Craftsman 3/8 socked wrench and told her that on Saturday we could take her new socket wrench and together change the oil and bound. Actually, I bought her a rose. She put the rose in a vase on the dining room table and bragged on its beauty everyday and it set there until the peddles wilted, turned black, and dropped off. Would it have meant as much if I were C-3PO and before I left for work that Wednesday she commanded me. “Bring home a rose for me?”
Dr. J. Robertson McQuilkin was formerly the president of Columbia Bible College and Seminary….He is a conference speaker and author of note. But none of those credentials exceed his exemplary and heart-gripping love for his ailing wife, Muriel. She has walked down the grim and lonely world of Alzheimer’s disease for the last twenty years. Dr. McQuilkin gave up his presidency and numerous other responsibilities to care for her and to love her. He has penned his emotional journey in one of the most magnificent little books ever written. At one point in the book he recounts this incident:
Once our flight was delayed in Atlanta, and we had to wait a couple of hours. Now that’s a challenge. Every few minutes, the same questions, the same answers about what we’re doing here, when are we going home? And every few minutes we’d take a fast pace walk down the terminal in earnest search of-what? Muriel had always been a speed walker. I had to jog to keep up with her!
An attractive woman sat across from us, working diligently on her computer. Once, when we returned from an excursion, she said something, without looking up from her papers. Since no one spoke to me or at least mumbled in protest of our constant activity, “Pardon?” I asked.
“Oh,” she said, “I was just asking myself, ‘Will I ever find a man to love me like that?’”[4] When I read this love story the thought hit me: Is God asking, “Will I ever find a believer to love me like that?”
The Scriptures say God created us to choose to love Him voluntarily, willfully, and sacrificially. Do we? There are answers for the skeptic in the world and in you in Romans 8:28. Let God encourage you and strengthen your faith through this powerful verse.
[1] Erwin W. Lutzer. Ten Lies About God (Nashville:Nelson, 2000) 75.
[2] Timothy Keller. Reason For God (New York: Dutton, 2008) 249.
