Verses 04-26-25 | Daily Devotions

A New and Right Spirit

Words from Jesus

2020-03-30

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.”—Psalm 51:10¹

Behold, I will do a new thing. Behold, I make all things new.² If you have the faith of a little mustard seed and you desire change and put your will on My side, you can trust that I will bring forth the newness of life that I have promised.

But in order to receive the new, you have to first let go of the past and forget the things which are behind. Forget past wrongs, hurts, and bitterness, and do not allow yourself to be distracted with things of the past that burden you. Even as I have wiped your slate clean, you can also determine to wipe the slate clean and begin anew.

Today is a new day, and I have created in you a new heart.—A new day, a new heart, a new and right spirit. I have given you a new approach and a new outlook. I make all things new, if you will just drop the garments of the past and take upon you My garments of newness of life. Give your heart to Me, and I will hold it above the waters that surround you and you will not sink. Your moments of sadness will be gone as the darkness disappears when the day has come, and as you walk in the newness of life that I give you through My words.

Today is a day to learn how to let the Holy Spirit lead and guide you. My Spirit seeks the humble and the lowly, and it dwells there with them. Lift Me up and I will draw people to Me.

Today is a new day, a day when My instruments allow themselves to be retooled and made into new vessels. I do a new thing in every age and new day; therefore, My pottery must be malleable and capable of changing. Not that it wasn’t fit for the purpose that it was made for, but it needs to be open to change to fit for a new purpose and a new day.

Receive My new anointing for a new day! I will work through you in every situation you face, and I will not fail you, for I am always with you. As you look to My Word, you will be strengthened and empowered, for as your days, so will your strength be. I know your frame and I remember that you are but dust, and I will always be with you. I will dry your tears and comfort your heart and assuage your grief, and I will give power when you feel faint and increase your strength when you have no might.³

You will see the manifestation of My love and anointing upon you. You will be blessed. You will prosper. You will feel loved. You will be empowered by My Spirit to love and reach those who are lost, weary, worn, and searching. You’ll be like the good Samaritan who takes the time to care for the lost, the needy, and the unloved. You will see them become transformed, like Lazarus raised from the dead, with new life, hope, and gladness.

Seeking and finding

“For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”—Matthew 7:8⁴

I have formed you and purposed you according to My will and plan for your life. From the foundation of the world you were predestined and called to fulfill My purpose. All you have to do is place yourself under the light that I beam down upon you and receive My anointing to fulfill My purpose for you.

Ask of Me and you will receive. Don’t cling to the shadows of your past, but reach forward in faith and trust that I will never stop giving if you will ask and open yourself to receive. Lift up your hands and receive My love. The supply is limitless, above and beyond all that you could ask or think.

You are My children and have been called for My purpose, and I will pour My Spirit and love on you, so that you in turn can pour it out on a wounded and needy world. You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people.⁵ I have chosen each and every one of you and ordained you from the foundation of the world to be like a city set on a hill. Others will know that you are My disciples because of your love for one another.

As you pour out My Word and love to others, I will pour in, and you will never run out. You can’t imagine how much love I have for you, for the lost, and for the world. I am counting on you to share that love and truth with others. I will never fail to pour forth more as you give and share with others.

Time is short, and I ask you to give out in the same measure you have received, even when it costs. Give freely as you have freely received, for the time will come when the lost and the lonely will not have any more time to receive My love. So give now while you have the opportunity.

It is My pleasure to give you the kingdom, so don’t worry or fear; I will provide all that you need. All you need to do is say yes! “Yes, I want Your love, Jesus. I want to be more like You.” All you need to do is to put your will on My side, and I will anoint and empower you to fulfill My will and purpose for you.

Just say yes to Jesus

“So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”—Luke 11:13⁶

Receive the anointing that I would pour upon you. Reach out and grasp it! Desire it and seek for the anointing of My love. You can receive it just as you would receive any gift from Me. You ask, you believe, and you accept the gift.

How do you enact it? One step at a time in one deed of love followed by another, followed by another. The raindrops on their own are small, falling from the air, but they reach the ground and bring forth flowers and trees and life; and as these raindrops are absorbed into the earth, so will your love be absorbed into the earth of this world and received by those that are so lost.

Each deed of love seems like only a raindrop, but they will grow and multiply, and one day My love and truth will fill the earth even as the waters cover the seas. So receive My anointing, and enact it day by day, step by step, deed by deed, word by word, and action by action. And as you put forth an effort to share My love with others, I will pour My strengthening love into you.

All you have to do is just receive by faith. Just say yes. As you open yourself up to receive My anointing, it will bring forth fruit in your life and in the lives of those about you, and those who hear the message that you share with them. This love, though seemingly small, is of great power and will change and one day overcome the world.

Originally published February 1995. Adapted and republished March 2020.
Read by Jerry Paladino. Music by John Listen.

¹ NRSV.

² Revelation 21:5; Isaiah 43:19.

³ Isaiah 40:29.

⁴ NLT.

⁵ 1 Peter 2:9.

⁶ NLT.

03 – The Heart of It All: The Holy Spirit

The Heart of It All

Peter Amsterdam

2013-05-28

The Holy Spirit and the Primitive Church

(For an introduction and explanation regarding this series overall, please see The Heart of It All: Introduction.)

In the first two articles in this series, we looked at how the Holy Spirit came upon certain individuals for specific purposes within the Old Testament and during the life of Jesus.

In the Old Testament accounts, the Spirit of God generally didn’t dwell permanently with individuals. With Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven, this dramatically changed. On the day of Pentecost, God the Holy Spirit entered into the lives of individual believers, empowered them, and remained within them.

Pentecost

The Gospel of Luke explains that Jesus had told His disciples He was going to send the promise of the Father to them. In the book of Acts, Luke states that this promise was the coming of the Holy Spirit, and that they would receive power when the Spirit came upon them.

Behold, I am sending the promise of My Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.^[1]

While staying with them He ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, He said, “you heard from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” …“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”^[2]

This astounding event happened ten days later on the Jewish Festival of Weeks, known to the Hebraic Jews as Shavu’ot and to the Hellenistic (or Greek) Jews as Pentecost. It’s called Pentecost because it falls on the 50th day after Passover. Shavu’ot celebrates the time of year when the first fruits were harvested and brought to the Temple, and also commemorates the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai.

Jesus’ crucifixion took place right before the Passover, and the Holy Spirit was poured out 50 days later on the day of Pentecost. Because this was one of the major Jewish festivals, Jews and converts to Judaism from all over the known world were gathered in Jerusalem.

The book of Acts relates what happened at this momentous event:

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they [the disciples] were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.^[3]

As promised, God’s Spirit was poured out upon the disciples, which immediately resulted in their receiving power which ignited their mission of reaching the world with the Gospel.

Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”^[4]

People from much of the Roman Empire heard the message on that day. In today’s geography, the list of countries given tells us that people from Libya, Egypt, Arabia, a number of cities in Turkey, Italy, Iran, Iraq, and the island of Crete, came together—due to either the sound of the mighty rushing of the wind or hearing the disciples speaking the various languages—and heard Peter preach about what had happened and proclaim salvation through Jesus.

Accounts of Holy Spirit Infilling

There are five other accounts of the Holy Spirit filling believers in the book of Acts. Some of these accounts are of an initial infilling and others are of a subsequent filling of those who had already received the Holy Spirit.

When Peter and John were going to the temple and they healed the lame man, a large crowd gathered and Peter preached, resulting in 5,000 converts. Peter and John were arrested, questioned, and threatened by the high priest and his father-in-law and others. Afterwards they met with other believers and told them what happened, and these believers rejoiced in prayer with them. When praying together, they were filled with the Spirit.^[5]

When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.^[6]

Here you see believers who are saved, and who have previously received the Holy Spirit, being filled with the Spirit again, giving them additional power to continue witnessing with boldness.

Another account of the Spirit being given to believers took place after Stephen had been martyred. The believers in Jerusalem faced strong persecution at that time, including from Saul the Pharisee, who later became Paul the apostle. Philip, one of those who was chosen to be a deacon earlier,^[7] left Jerusalem at this time and went to Samaria. He preached the Gospel, cast out unclean spirits, and healed people who were paralyzed and lame. This resulted in much joy and men and women being baptized.^[8]

The Jews did not consider the Samaritans to be Jewish, as they were descendants of the ten tribes of Israel who had been defeated and forcibly relocated to other lands by the Assyrians 700 years earlier. The Assyrians brought other people to populate the land, who intermarried with the remnant of Jews left in Samaria. As such, Samaritans were not considered to be pure Jews. Up until this time, the disciples had only ministered to other Jews. So when the apostles heard that Samaritans were becoming believers, they sent Peter and John to check out the situation. During that visitation, the newly saved Samaritans received the Holy Spirit.

[Peter and John] prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for He had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.^[9]

In this instance, non-Jews who were saved had not yet received the Holy Spirit, but did so when the apostles laid hands on them.

The next example of the Holy Spirit being given was after Saul, the persecutor of the early church, was confronted by light from heaven. Jesus spoke to Saul, asking why he was persecuting Him. Saul lost his sight, and following Jesus’ instructions spent three days in Damascus.^[10]

The Lord spoke to a disciple named Ananias, telling him to go to the house of Judas on the street called Straight, where he would find Saul. Ananias expressed concern, as he knew that Saul was persecuting Christians, but was told that Saul was a chosen instrument who would carry the name of Jesus to the Gentiles (Gentiles refers to any non-Jewish people), kings, and the children of Israel. Ananias did as he was instructed.^[11]

So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; and taking food, he was strengthened. For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”^[12]

In this instance, an enemy of the Christians is converted and then filled with the Holy Spirit when a disciple lays hands upon him and prays for him.

Acts chapter 10, verses 1–16, tells of Peter having the same vision three times, in which he sees animals, reptiles, and birds, which according to the Laws of Moses are unclean and shouldn’t be eaten. He hears a voice instructing him to “kill and eat” the creatures. Peter objects, but the voice says, “What God has made clean, do not call common (unclean or unholy).”

Immediately following these visions, some men—sent by Cornelius, a God-fearing Roman centurion—arrived and asked Peter to come to Cornelius’ home. If a Jew entered the home of a non-Jew, he became ritually unclean, so it would be unlawful for Peter to go into Cornelius’ home. However, due to the vision, Peter understood that God had revealed to him that he should go, that the “unclean” were to be looked upon as clean. So he went, entered Cornelius’ home, and shared the good news that Jesus and the Holy Spirit were available to all within the household, who received the message.

While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.^[13]

Cornelius and the others—all Gentiles—believed the message Peter shared with them and consequently they received the gift of the Holy Spirit. In this situation, Gentiles received the Spirit at the moment they believed in Jesus.

The fifth recorded instance of people receiving the Holy Spirit involves twelve disciples of John in Ephesus.

When the apostle Paul came to Ephesus, he found some disciples of John the Baptist. Paul asked them if they had received the Holy Spirit, to which they replied that they had never heard of the Holy Spirit. Paul told them about Jesus and they believed.

On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. There were about twelve men in all.^[14]

The Holy Spirit for All Believers

These accounts in the book of Acts portray the Spirit arriving in a variety of situations upon different people, both Jews and Gentiles, old and young, male and female, masters and servants. Certainly within the household of Cornelius, within the group of believers Peter and John prayed with, within the 120 in the upper room, there were men and women, servants, and people of all ages, just as was predicted by the prophet Joel.

It shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out My Spirit.^[15]

The outpouring of God’s Spirit upon ordinary people wasn’t something that was limited to the early church. Since that time, God’s Spirit has dwelt in countless believers over the centuries. In contrast with the Spirit’s presence within only a few persons in the Old Testament, since the day of Pentecost the Spirit has been, and continues to be, poured out upon all believers, as we receive the beautiful “promise of the Father.”

(To read the next article in this series, click here.)

Notes

Unless otherwise indicated, all scriptures are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

^[1] Luke 24:49.

^[2] Acts 1:4–5, 8.

^[3] Acts 2:1–4.

^[4] Act 2:5–11.

^[5] Acts 4:1–31.

^[6] Acts 4:31.

^[7] Acts 6:5.

^[8] Acts 8:5, 6, 12.

^[9] Acts 8:15–17.

^[10] Acts 9:1–9.

^[11] Acts 9:10–16.

^[12] Acts 9:17–20.

^[13] Acts 10:44–48.

^[14] Acts 19:1–7.

^[15] Joel 2:28–29.

Metanoia = A Change of Life

A compilation

2017-05-02

The term “metanoia” is derived from the Greek prefix meta, meaning “over,” “after,” or “with”—and nous, meaning “intellect” or “mind.” Translating literally, metanoia means a change of one’s mind or purpose. The term is generally used in two different contexts, both of which retain this literal meaning. In the Bible, the term is most often translated as “repent.”

The Christian scholar Tertullian (c. 160 – c. 225 AD) argued that, in the context of Christian theology, metanoia is best translated as “change of mind.” In this specific context, the change of mind may be taken to refer to the change from nonbeliever to believer. Furthermore, this particular kind of change of mind is expected to entail a wholesale change in the person’s behavior and disposition; the person who experiences metanoia is expected not only to embrace a pious attitude but to act accordingly. Hence the word “repent” refers to renunciation of sin in both thought and act.—Robert Arp

According to Mark’s gospel, John the Baptist went about “preaching a baptism of repentance [metanoia] for the forgiveness of sins.”¹ From Matthew’s perspective, the essence of the Baptist’s message was “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”² Metanoia here and elsewhere in the Bible means “not just a change of inward disposition but a complete turn-around of one’s life, with all that such a re-direction implies of the need for God’s help on the one side and of ethical conduct on man’s side.”—Lewis and Demarest

A change of mind and purpose

Simply put, metanoia is a word filled with remarkable meaning by the preaching of Christ and the apostles. … The word means “after-mind” and signifies a change of mind: thinking one way, but then afterwards thinking another. …

The gospel is what the change of mind is about. The preaching of Jesus and the apostles speaks to the nous [mind], and men change or don’t change their mind as they hear it. When a man changes his mind at the preaching of the gospel, he has experienced metanoia. Thus, the proclamation of metanoia at the beginning of the New Testament is the doorway into the entire rest of the doctrine of the New Testament: Change your mind! About what? Listen! A radical mind-shift in the religious world is about to happen … no, it is happening now… What we thought about God and the law and righteousness and forgiveness is all about to change. Hear! Metanoia and believe the gospel!

New Testament metanoia is a divine call to a radical mind-shift in the way men think about religion. Therefore “repentance” is an entirely unsatisfactory translation of the amazing word “metanoia,” which gives a completely different feeling to the preaching of Jesus and His apostles. Was the major proclamation of Jesus and the apostles “Repent! Feel sorry for your sins”? Or was it “Metanoia! Think a new way”! Do you see what a difference these two words make? Which one is in keeping with the gospel of grace as we know it from the New Testament? Not the first, but the second.

The gospel calls us to a new way of thinking about religion. Whereas men think that they are good, and that obedience to the law is the way of salvation, and that the law only requires partial obedience, and that most people won’t perish, Jesus calls us to believe that there is none good, and that no one will be saved by obedience to the law, because the law requires perfect obedience, and that is the broad road that leads to destruction. The apostles call us to believe that the cross of Christ is the power and the wisdom of God, the only way whereby we are saved, and live, through faith, while the world thinks that the cross is foolishness.—Eli Brayley³

Genuine repentance

True repentance is metanoia, Greek for a complete change of direction. Many people are sorry but never really change, like King Saul. Poor Saul never learned. He apologized and was sorry many times, but he never really repented, he never turned and went the other way. Saul would break down and weep before the prophet Samuel, but he didn’t weep because he was repentant; he wept because he was sorry he was about to lose the kingdom.⁴ He didn’t really confess and forsake his sin, the evil root beneath the outer show.⁵

Though King David also committed great sins, he had great repentance and a genuine change. Therefore God had great forgiveness for him. David sought God’s heart.⁶ David deeply loved God, and he really wanted to glorify God and please Him. God loved David in spite of all his sins and mistakes because David was willing to confess and change—and he went on to become one of God’s greats, in spite of himself.

So true repentance is not just being sorry: it is “metanoia,” a complete change of mind and heart and direction—a whole new man, a new personality, a new creature in Christ Jesus—born again! Only God can do it, but we must put forth the effort of a believing will.

You’ve had a genuine repentance when your heart is changed, your life is changed, you’ve had a complete change of mind. It means a complete turning around and going the other way!—Like when you’re driving your car down the street and you decide you want to go the opposite direction, you have to make a U-turn.

When you do, you’re doing exactly what the word “metanoia” translated in our New Testament means: “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand!”⁷ Do you know what Jesus was saying when He said that? He was saying, revolute your life—for the kingdom of God is at hand! He said, turn around and start going the other direction. You cannot keep on living the same way. You cannot travel the same way anymore. You cannot go back and be a slave of mammon and serve God. You cannot serve God and mammon. It’s impossible; Jesus Himself said it. You’ll either “love the one and hate the other, or hold to the one and despise the other.”⁸ Which are you serving?—David Brandt Berg

Repentance for salvation

When Paul calls for the elders of Ephesus to come to the island of Miletus, he tells them that he publicly and from house to house was “thoroughly testifying both to Jews and Gentiles repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.”⁹ Then, when standing before King Agrippa, Paul says, “I did not become disobedient to the heavenly vision, but I declared first to the ones in Damascus and Jerusalem, and unto all the region of Judea, and to the Gentiles, that they should repent and that they should turn to God, while producing works worthy of repentance (metanoia).”¹⁰ Paul is proclaiming the same message as that of John, Jesus, and Peter, continuing to present that repentance is necessary for salvation and that the fruit or works worthy of repentance (literally, a continuous process under the control of the Holy Spirit) indicate true repentance.

The Bible also teaches that repentance is a gift from God. In Acts 5:31, Peter and the other apostles tell the Sanhedrin, “God exalted this One to His right as Ruler and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.” Then, after Peter explains his calling from the Lord to go to the Gentiles with the message of salvation, his Jerusalem brethren respond by “glorifying God, saying, ‘Then God also gave to the Gentiles repentance unto life.’”¹¹

In our day and age, the condition of repentance is largely absent from the message of Christian salvation. Too often salvation is offered as a free ticket to Heaven, a ticket costing us nothing. However, the Bible teaches that both the call to repentance and the condition of repentance are absolutely necessary for the salvation process to take place: The verb form [of metanoia] expresses the call for the action of making the decision to change the direction of one’s life; the noun form metanoia states the condition necessary for salvation. Only when these two are present will the fruit of repentance follow. Simply put, a person must perceive that he needs a change in the direction of his life. He must make the decision for change, and then surrender his life to Christ, receiving Christ’s Spirit into his own spirit. Herein lies the cost, the surrender of his life. This is necessary because, as Biblical language makes clear, no person has the ability to change himself; spiritual change comes only from God. The good news is that repentance is God’s gift to all who surrender to Christ.—Bill Klein¹²

Published on Anchor May 2017. Read by Debra Lee. Music by Michael Dooley.

¹ Mark 1:4; Luke 3:3.

² Matthew 3:2.

³ http://www.timothyministry.com/2012/07/the-great-meaning-of-metanoia.html.

⁴ 1 Samuel 15:24–30.

⁵ Proverbs 28:13.

⁶ 1 Samuel 13:14; Psalm 51.

⁷ Matthew 4:17.

⁸ Matthew 6:24.

⁹ Acts 20:21.

¹⁰ Acts 26:19–20.

¹¹ Acts 11:18.

¹² http://www.studylight.org/language-studies/greek-thoughts/print.cgi?a=59.

The Early Church: A Study of Acts

David Brandt Berg

2017-09-11

The early church subsisted by sharing all things, having all things in common, and many of the early followers forsook all in order to preach the gospel. How do we go about following the example of the early church?

First of all, we must build on the right foundation—the Man Christ Jesus, the cornerstone. “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”¹

Second, we must build the building He wants: a building of living stones, made alive by His Spirit, founded on His truth, and joined together in His love. For “ye are God’s building,” “ye are the temple of God.”² The early church, the spiritual building He created, is our pattern; the early church in the book of Acts is our blueprint. Here was the ideal!

How did they do it? In studying this, we must remember that we are not the early church. We’re the latter church, the latest church, and the pattern God wants us to live by today is not exactly the pattern they lived by 2,000 years ago.

However, history repeats itself, and in every generation there is a parallel to the early church. As Solomon said, “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be: and there is no new thing under the sun.”³

There were two things that brought down the blessing and power of God on the early Christians. Number one, there was obedience, and number two, there was unity. “Then Peter … said, We ought to obey God rather than men … (for) we are His witnesses … and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey Him.”⁴

“And all that believed were together, and had all things common … continuing daily with one accord … with gladness and singleness of heart. … The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and one soul.”⁵ “And with great power gave the apostles witness, and great grace (or blessing) was upon them all.”⁶

Jesus’ last prayer was “that they all may be one … as we are one.”⁷ And when they worked together and cooperated together, He blessed them, strengthened them, and made them a testimony to the world.

Popularity and persecution

During those early days of the early church they needed numbers to get them started, a big push to get them rolling, sensational publicity to make them popular, and a wave of fame to noise them abroad. On the day of Pentecost “there were added unto them about three thousand souls.” Then on another day soon after, “about five thousand”; then “believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women,” and “the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly: and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.” From the very beginning “the Lord added to the church daily.”⁸

The original Christians might have been wiped out immediately after Jesus’ death if they hadn’t been so numerous. It says they were “having favor with all the people” and “the people magnified them.”⁹ This impressed the authorities to leave them alone, “for they feared the people,”¹⁰ until they could get better organized, taught, strengthened, grown up and ready for the bigger battles ahead.

Shortly thereafter, God scattered them throughout the world to salt the whole earth and enlighten all mankind with the gospel. “And ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”¹¹

What happened when the early church got too big for Jerusalem? Three thousand one day, five thousand another day, and God only knows how many thousands later! Tens of thousands of Christians living in both the temple compound and all over the city, scattered out in people’s homes, and getting so numerous that the Jerusalem church was splitting at the seams.

Did they voluntarily decide to send missionaries to Antioch? And to India with Thomas, and down to Ethiopia with Philip, and up to Asia with Paul? I’m sorry to say they did not! They were supposed to go out and reach the rest of the world. But they were enjoying a time of rapid growth and prosperity. It was as if they were saying, “We’ve got so many people now and God is with us; how wonderful it is!”

We know from the book of Acts that when they were their biggest and most powerful and most numerous, they were scattered throughout the whole of Asia Minor by persecution. “There was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria.”¹²

“Now when the high priest and the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these things (about the power and popularity of the church), they doubted of them whereunto this would grow.”¹³ “And when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus.” But “daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ,” and “the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly.”¹⁴

“Then they suborned men, which said, We have heard him (Stephen, a leader of the church) speak blasphemous words. … And they stirred up the people … and set up false witnesses … and they stoned Stephen.”¹⁵ Whenever you get big and powerful, you begin to threaten the security of the status quo! You endanger the establishment, and they will retaliate.

The Scripture says there’s a time for everything.¹⁶ There was a time for the early church to have its thousands all in one place at Jerusalem, to attract the attention of the whole world, and to start off the church with a bang—one big splash. But every wave of popularity and power comes to an end.

“Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen traveled as far as … Antioch.”¹⁷ It wasn’t long before they got together and cooperated up at Antioch and started the greatest missionary venture of their generation.

Teaching others to teach others

In Antioch “it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people,” and at Iconium “long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord.” In Corinth, “he [Paul] continued there a year and six months, teaching the Word of God,” and also at Ephesus “disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus … by the space of two years.”¹⁸

Jesus, Paul, and the early apostles put their emphasis on bigger cities and had their greatest successes in the major centers of population like the ones named above, from which their converts reached the surrounding territory themselves. As you can see by Acts 19:10, Paul spent only two years teaching in Ephesus, apparently without even leaving the school of Tyrannus, but the verse continues to say that “all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.”¹⁹

The procedure the apostle Paul practiced, which resulted in the evangelizing of all Asia and most of Europe before his death, by means of his own single-handed efforts and that of a few of his friends, was by training his converts to witness and carry on after he was gone.

During his first pioneering missionary venture,²⁰ it says after winning many converts in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra that, instead of deciding to gain more territory, Paul and Barnabas “returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, [and] ordained elders in every church.”²¹

Then, “some days after,” at the start of his second pioneering endeavor, “Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the Word of the Lord, and see how they do.”²² Then again it says, “After he had spent some time there” (in Antioch) resting up for a third journey, “he departed, and went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples.”²³

Paul set an example by establishing the churches, appointing elders in each, confirming them, instructing them, and training them until they could stand on their own. Then Paul left them, knowing they’d survive—by the power of God’s Spirit, in obedience to His commands, able to carry on—indigenous, self-supporting, self-governing, and self-propagating. Or better still, Christ-supported, Christ-governed, and Christ-propagating!

Paul’s method is best summed up in his counsel to Timothy: “And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.”²⁴

Personal evangelism

The method of Jesus and the apostles was most often personal evangelism on a small scale, depending on the effectiveness of a thorough personal witness and intensive individual training to multiply the number of converts by making everyone a soul winner, and not all in the same place.

Most of Christ’s sermons were really teaching lessons to a handful of individuals or small groups of His disciples or truth seekers, seldom to crowds. When He taught the Sermon on the Mount, it says, “he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him.”²⁵

“From thence [we went] to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and … on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a river side … and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither.” And in Athens, Paul disputed “in the synagogue with the Jews and with devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him.”²⁶

The large crowds they had were often not planned meetings, such as what happened to Paul in Athens after he had attracted quite a bit of notice with his message. “Then certain philosophers … took him, and brought him unto Areopagus (not unlike being brought to a big television talk show today), saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is?”²⁷ He gave them the message, but as soon as he was through, it says, “Paul departed from among them,”²⁸ and it’s not recorded that he ever went back.

The big crowds often come for the miracles, loaves and fishes, but they leave as soon as the going gets rough and the doctrine heavy. Just as they did when Jesus gave His famous “eat My flesh and drink My blood” sermon; they said, “This is an hard saying; who can hear it?” And “From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him.”²⁹

Wisdom and tact in delivering the message

In Ephesus, Paul “went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months. … But when [some] were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way … he departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of Tyrannus. And this continued by the space of two years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus … After these things were ended … there arose no small stir about that way.”³⁰ Then “Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced them, and departed.”³¹

When Paul walked into their synagogues to give them the good news, he called his fellow Jews “men and brethren,” not “wolves and vipers,” or he wouldn’t have gotten too far with his message! He tried to woo and win them, not blow and blast them; and by such wise behavior he usually managed to walk off with half their congregation by the time the other half rejected him and threw him out.

He would then move to the house of one of the followers and carry on there, teaching and establishing the new brethren and appointing elders over them, until the opposition raised such a stir that he was run out of town, leaving behind him a new community of believers.

United by His Spirit

The early church was not bound together by a dictatorial, hierarchical, centralized government, frozen together with formalities, but they were united by God’s Spirit, governed by His Word, and joined together in love, with a minimum of supervision by the apostles. Their unity was in the spirit and in love and in doctrine, not in highly technical organization.

Neither Peter nor Paul was a pope, dictating every move. They were too busy running around doing their own jobs, fighting their own battles, starting their own colonies, and winning their own disciples. They could only advise and counsel others from what they had already learned, but the people had to make their own decisions, with the help of the Lord by His Spirit.

May we learn from the example set for us by the early church! As we are faithful to give God all the credit all the time at every turn for every little thing, He will never fail to continue to prosper, empower, and keep you and fulfill His promises to you, just as He did for the early church!

Originally published August 1974. Adapted and republished September 2017.
Read by Gabriel Garcia Valdivieso.

¹ 1 Corinthians 3:11.

² 1 Corinthians 3:9, 16.

³ Ecclesiastes 1:9.

⁴ Acts 5:29, 32.

⁵ Acts 2:44, 46; 4:32.

⁶ Acts 4:33.

⁷ John 17:21–22.

⁸ Acts 2:41; 4:4; 5:14; 6:7; 2:47.

⁹ Acts 2:47, 5:13.

¹⁰ Acts 5:26.

¹¹ Acts 1:8.

¹² Acts 8:1.

¹³ Acts 5:24.

¹⁴ Acts 5:40, 42; 6:7.

¹⁵ Acts 6:11–13; 7:59; 8:1.

¹⁶ Ecclesiastes 3:1.

¹⁷ Acts 11:19.

¹⁸ Acts 11:26; 14:3; 18:11; 19:9–10.

¹⁹ Acts 19:10.

²⁰ Acts 13–14.

²¹ Acts 14:21–23.

²² Acts 15:36.

²³ Acts 18:23.

²⁴ 2 Timothy 2:2.

²⁵ Matthew 5:1.

²⁶ Acts 16:12–13; 17:17.

²⁷ Acts 17:18–19.

²⁸ Acts 17:33.

²⁹ John 6:60, 66.

³⁰ See Acts 19:1, 8–10; 21, 23.

³¹ Acts 20:1.

164 – Jesus—His Life and Message: John 16:23–33

Jesus—His Life and Message

Peter Amsterdam

2021-08-03

(You can read about the intent for and overview of this series in this introductory article.)

Having told His disciples that they would weep and lament at His departure from this world while the world would rejoice,¹ Jesus added that while they would experience sorrow for the present, He would see them again, and this would cause their hearts to rejoice with a joy no one could take away from them.² Jesus then continued to speak about soon-coming events.

In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.³

Jesus told His disciples that in that day, probably referring to after His resurrection and ascension to heaven, they wouldn’t need to ask Him questions, as they would understand what they did not yet understand. Their questions would have been answered.

There is, however, another kind of asking which would be needed and which Jesus commanded. While they wouldn’t need to ask questions about His departure, they would need to “ask” in prayer. This pointed forward to the time after Jesus’ resurrection when the Holy Spirit would be with them and would teach them.

The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.⁴

Jesus pointed to a coming change. Until then, the disciples had asked Jesus for things directly and they had prayed to the Father directly. However, they had not asked the Father for anything in the name of the Son. Jesus instructed them that from then on, they were to make requests of the Father in the name of the Son.

I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father.⁵

Jesus had been using figures of speech when speaking with His disciples. This could mean He was speaking in parables or using clever sayings of one kind or another. Either way, the understanding is that the meaning of what He was saying was not immediately understood, but rather needed to be searched for or thought about.

He referred to the hour that was coming when He would speak plainly about the Father. The disciples probably thought that Jesus was speaking of the present time, as shortly they would comment on how He was speaking plainly and without figurative speech. It is more likely that Jesus was referring to the time after His resurrection and ascension, as that was the time when things which were hidden or obscure would become clear to the disciples.

In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.⁶

Referring to that day confirmed that He was speaking of a future time after His return to the Father in heaven. Jesus implied that when that time came, the disciples’ relation to the Father would be closer and more direct than it was then. One author explains:

[Jesus] goes on to define what [you will ask in my name] means, or more precisely what it does not mean. It does not mean that He will intercede for them with the Father, or that He will somehow take their prayers and present them to the Father. On the contrary He says, “I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf.” … In that day, after He goes to the Father, He will no longer need to do so, for their own access to the Father will be immediate and direct.⁷

Jesus made the point that the Father loved them because they had loved the Son and believed that He came from God.

The concept that the Father loves believers because we love Jesus echoes what was said earlier in this Gospel. “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”⁸ In that verse, Jesus referred to believers obeying His word. Here (v. 27) Jesus refers to believing “that I came from God.” He acknowledged that the disciples believed that He came from God, which was made clear earlier in this Gospel when Peter confessed, “You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”⁹

I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.¹⁰

Jesus had just stated that the disciples believed that He came from God. He then expounded on the point, in a way making a summary of this whole Gospel. He came from the Father into the world and He would soon return to the Father. This echoes what He had said much earlier in this Gospel to those who rejected Him. “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.”¹¹

In this case, His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.”¹² The disciples had been silent since the middle of chapter 14, when Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?,”¹³ but here they once again speak directly to Jesus. They felt that they now understood clearly what Jesus had been telling them since He was “speaking plainly,” and to some extent this was true. However, until Jesus’ arrest, trial, crucifixion, death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven, and the coming of the Holy Spirit, they wouldn’t fully understand all that Jesus had told them.

Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.”¹⁴

This is the third time in this chapter that Jesus says the hour is coming. The first was the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.¹⁵ The second: The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech;¹⁶ and the third time He speaks of the hour when the disciples would desert Him.

In response to the disciples’ statement that they believed He came from God, Jesus questioned, Do you now believe? The disciples’ belief was real; however, it was “now,” meaning temporary. It would not stand the initial test of persecution. Jesus stated that the time had come that the disciples would be scattered, meaning that they would each return to their own homes, leaving Jesus alone to suffer and die on the cross.

Though the disciples would leave Him, Jesus said that He was not alone, as the Father was with Him. He made this point twice before, when speaking with the Pharisees at the Feast of Tabernacles.

Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.¹⁷

He who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.¹⁸

The Father had been with the Son throughout His ministry, and there was no reason to expect Him to desert Jesus as the disciples did.

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.¹⁹

Jesus ends His discourse by giving both assurance and warning. He sees the disciples having peace “in Me,” while at the same time having difficult times, spoken of here as tribulation, and as trouble, trials, suffering, and sorrows in other Bible translations. While the disciples lived in this world with all its challenges, tests, and tribulations, they also lived in Christ—which afforded them peace, because He has overcome the world.

(To be continued.)

Note

¹ John 16:20.

² John 16:22.

³ John 16:23–24.

⁴ John 14:26.

⁵ John 16:25.

⁶ John 16:26–27.

⁷ Michaels, The Gospel of John, 849.

⁸ John 14:23.

⁹ John 6:68–69.

¹⁰ John 16:28.

¹¹ John 8:42.

¹² John 16:29–30.

¹³ John 14:22.

¹⁴ John 16:31–32.

¹⁵ John 16:2.

¹⁶ John 16:25.

¹⁷ John 8:16.

¹⁸ John 8:29.

¹⁹ John 16:33.

185 – Jesus—His Life and Message: The Ascension (Luke 24:50–53)

Jesus—His Life and Message

Peter Amsterdam

2022-09-27

(You can read about the intent for and overview of this series in this introductory article.)

In this article we’ll look at the last few verses of the last chapter of the Gospel of Luke. Earlier in this chapter, Jesus appeared to His disciples. They were frightened, and thought they were seeing a spirit. Jesus showed them the wounds in His hands and feet so that they would know it was Him, and then He ate some food to show that He was not a spirit. We’re told that He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.¹ He went on to say, “I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”²

Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.³

The Gospel of Luke ends with Jesus’ ascension into heaven. Jesus left Jerusalem and led His disciples to Bethany, which is on the eastern slopes of the Mount of Olives, less than 2 miles (3.2 km) from Jerusalem. It was from there that He was taken up into heaven.

The book of Acts tells us the same thing.

He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me.”⁴

And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.⁵

The Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts both attest to Jesus’ ascension into heaven.

Some Bible commentators state that within the Gospels, only the Gospel of Luke describes Jesus’ ascension. While the Gospel of Mark includes the ascension (Mark 16:19), some commentators feel that the account in Mark is not an authentic part of Mark’s Gospel, but rather is a later addition. But even if Jesus’ ascension were only addressed in the Gospel of Luke, it doesn’t mean that it was unknown to the other New Testament writers. For example, in the Gospel of John, Jesus said to Mary, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”⁶ In the book of Acts, the apostle Peter speaks of Jesus being exalted at the right hand of God.⁷ In 1 Peter we read about Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.⁸ The apostle Paul wrote:

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.⁹

Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.¹⁰

Jesus’ ascension into heaven explains why there were no further post-resurrection appearances after 40 days. This 40-day period began with the resurrection of Jesus and ended with His ascension into heaven. One author explains:

In the transition from His earthly to His heavenly state, Jesus could perfectly well have vanished, as on other occasions, and “gone to the Father” secretly and invisibly. The reason for a public and visible ascension is surely that He wanted them to know that He had gone for good. During the forty days He had kept appearing, disappearing and reappearing. But now this interim period was over. This time His departure was final. So they were not to wait around for His next resurrection appearance. Instead, they were to wait for somebody else, the Holy Spirit [Acts 1:4]. For He would come only after Jesus had gone, and they could get on with their mission in the power He would give them.¹¹

Jesus’ ascension was also His vindication. It was the fulfillment of the prediction He made at His trial: From now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God.¹² He was condemned to death for making this claim; however, the ascension shows that His claim was true and His crucifixion was unjust. The Father didn’t reject Jesus’ claim; rather, the Son was received at the Father’s side. Jesus’ ascension was not just a departure from this world, it was also an arrival in heaven.

And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.¹³

After receiving Jesus’ blessing as He was carried up into heaven, the disciples worshipped Him. It’s no wonder that they did so, as they had seen Him be crucified and laid in a tomb, and a few days later saw Him alive again. He was with them for 40 days, teaching and instructing them, and then they watched as He ascended into heaven. Their response was to return to Jerusalem and to worship God in the temple, and in time, on the day of Pentecost, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to preach the message of Jesus in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.¹⁴

This brings us to the end of this series, Jesus—His Life and Message. I pray that this series has been a blessing to you.

Note

¹ Luke 24:45.

² Luke 24:49.

³ Luke 24:50–53.

⁴ Acts 1:3–4.

⁵ Acts 1:9.

⁶ John 20:17.

⁷ Acts 2:33.

⁸ 1 Peter 3:21–22.

⁹ Colossians 3:1.

¹⁰ Hebrews 9:24.

¹¹ John R. W. Stott, The Message of Acts (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1990), 49.

¹² Luke 22:69.

¹³ Luke 24:52–53.

¹⁴ Acts 1:8.

What We Have to Look Forward To

A compilation

2023-05-16

For Pastor Tim Keller, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is more than an abstract belief that good will triumph over evil one day. It’s a powerful, life-altering truth that gives him hope, peace, and comfort as he faces his own mortality.

(Note: Keller learned of his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer in May 2020 while writing his book, Hope in Times of Fear, which focuses on the transformative power of the resurrection.)

In April 2021, Keller told The Christian Post: “When you know you could die very, very soon, you realize that you basically live in denial of the fact of your death. When it suddenly strikes you, you have to ask, ‘Do I have the faith for this? Do I believe that the resurrection of Jesus Christ really happened and that if I die in faith in Jesus, I will know that resurrection too?’

“Here I am, writing a book about the resurrection, and I realized I only half-believed I was going to die. I went back and realized that in some ways, I also only half-believed in the resurrection—not intellectually so much, but all the way down deep in my heart. I realized I needed to have a greater, a deeper faith in the resurrection…” he continued.

While undergoing treatment for cancer over the next several months, Keller said he did both “intellectual and emotional work,” looking at the historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ while also immersing himself in prayer and in Scripture, asking the Holy Spirit to make it real to his heart.

“It took several months in which I had to take my abstract belief down into my heart to existentially and experientially know it and grow in assurance, and it worked,” he said. “If you are willing to embrace the truth of God’s Word and immerse yourself in it day in and day out, and then ask the Holy Spirit to make it real to your heart, He will.”

Most people, Keller contended, live in denial of death. But facing one’s own mortality and spiritual reality, he said, both changes the way we view our time on Earth and magnifies the transformative power of the resurrection.

“The things of Earth become less crucial. They’re not so important to you; you realize you don’t need them to be happy. Once I believe that, I start to enjoy them more. I don’t try to turn them into God; I don’t try to turn them into Heaven, which is the only thing that can really satisfy my heart,” he explained.

“You find that you have to really have a real spiritual experience of God’s reality so that the things of this Earth ‘grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace,’” Keller said, quoting the century-old hymn.¹

[In May 2022] The pastor told Christian Post that regardless of what happens, he was “ready for anything.”

“What the future holds, I don’t know. Pray that I would have years and not months left and that the chemotherapy would continue to be effective. But [my wife and I] are ready for whatever God decides for me. We’re spiritually ready.”

“I do know,” he added, “that the resurrection of Jesus Christ really happened. And when I die, I will know that resurrection too.”²—The Christian Post

Jesus’ resurrection means that death is not the end. That though my body may lie moldering in the ground, Jesus, whom the Father raised from the dead, gives me eternal life. Ultimately, we Christians believe, our bodies, too, will be raised from the dead.

And since Jesus is not dead, people can encounter Him today. You can know Him through a personal relationship. I could point to lots of people who can testify what Jesus has done in their lives to bring them from the brink of disaster to peace and meaning and joy. He changes people for good.—Ralph F. Wilson

The vision lasted only a few seconds, but it left a big impression. I had been talking with a friend, when suddenly I saw a glimpse into the future. We were hugging, laughing, and talking about our lives—and we were in Heaven. This has happened to me several times. Sometimes it has been with a close friend, and other times it has been with someone I had just met. In each case I was left with the profound feeling that friendships in Heaven are much deeper and more meaningful and longer lasting than the ones we enjoy in this life.

I find that thought very comforting, perhaps because I’m somewhat isolated and lonely in my present situation. I have always been gregarious and had many friends, and friendships have always been very important to me. But fibromyalgia has a way of making a hermit of even the most sociable person. The aching muscles, fatigue, and sleep problems that come with this neurological disorder leave me too sick to go out with friends or attend parties, and often too sick to even talk on the phone. What do I have to talk about anyway, when I live in such an isolated world?

And what about all of the people I met and helped in the course of my years of volunteer work before I got sick? Do they even remember me now? Are they thankful for my prayers, and have those prayers made a difference? Does my friendship still mean something to them? What’s left to show for those years? I’ve asked myself those questions while lying alone in a dark room.

But now, through this series of little visions, I understand better that this life truly is only a brief moment in time and that regardless of how things are going now, someday these friends and I will be together again in heavenly bliss. It will be like old times, except that then it will be in a perfect world where there is no more parting, pain, or sorrow.

And most wonderful of all, we’ll be face to face and heart to heart with the One who loves and understands us like no other, the One who lived and died for us and rose to life again that we might live together in His love eternally, the ultimate forever Friend, Jesus.—Misty Kay

“Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.”—Colossians 1:12

What is this inheritance?

It is a tearless state: God himself will wipe away all tears. Now He puts them into His bottle; then He will stop their flow.

But it is also a place. There is a heavenly “city.” This suggests the idea of locality, society, security; there will be sweet companionship.

It is a “fold” where all the sheep of the Good Shepherd will be safe: He who brought them there will guard them.

It is a “kingdom,” and there the glory of God will be revealed.

It is a “feast,” and there the bounties of the great Giver will be enjoyed.

It is a “garden,” an Eden, a paradise: and there will bloom, in immortal freshness, the most beautiful and fragrant flowers.

It is an inheritance in light.—Rev. Canon Money, adapted

Brief life is here our portion;
Brief sorrow, short-lived care;
The life that knows no ending,
The tearless life, is there.

There grief is turned to pleasure;
Such pleasure as below
No human voice can utter,
No human heart can know.

And after fleshly weakness,
And after this world’s night,
And after storm and whirlwind,
Are calm, and joy, and light.

And He, whom now we trust in,
Shall then be seen and known;
And they that know and see Him
Shall have Him for their own.

The morning shall awaken,
The shadows flee away,
And each true-hearted servant
Shall shine as doth the day.

There God, our King and Portion,
In fullness of His grace,
We then shall see forever,
And worship face to face.
—Bernard of Morlaix, translated by John M. Neale

I go and prepare a place for you, that where I am, there you may be also.—John 14:3

Published on Anchor May 2023. Read by Gabriel Garcia Valdivieso. Music by Michael Dooley.

¹ https://www.christianpost.com/books/tim-keller-on-cancer-death-and-the-hope-of-the-resurrection.html

² https://www.christianpost.com/news/tim-keller-cancer-update-gods-given-me-more-time.html

Easter Celebration

A compilation

2014-04-17

“He is not here, for He has risen” (Matthew 28:6).

When Jesus died on the cross, His work was done, and the Scripture says so; our salvation was won. He said, “It is finished.”¹ Finished!

When Mary Magdalene started to touch Him when He appeared to her by the tomb, He said, “Don’t touch Me yet, for I have not yet been to My Father.”²

He didn’t have to roll the stone away to get out, because He had a body which could have walked right through the stone! Why then did the angel have to roll away the stone?³ So that His disciples and the whole world could see that He was no longer there. The stone wasn’t rolled away so Jesus could get out; He could have walked right through the mountain or the stone. It was rolled away so that others could see that He was gone and He was really resurrected.

Knowing how much Mary Magdalene loved Him, He waited so that He could see her. She stayed there and wept, and when she saw this man whom she thought was the gardener, she said, “Please tell me where they’ve taken Him! They’ve taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid Him.” And He said, “Woman, why weepest thou?” After she gave Him a good look, she realized it was Jesus. So she started to embrace Him, but He said, “Wait, I haven’t yet gone to the Father.”⁴

We don’t know exactly why, but He was to go to the Father first. Perhaps because the Father wanted to be the first to embrace Him, the first to receive Him, the first to honor Him! It certainly was a matter of honoring the Father, the Son returning to the Father in heaven from whence He had come. But when He came back, which He did very shortly, He embraced them all, and He ate with them, drank with them, read the Scriptures with them, talked with them, and cooked for them.⁵ For 40 days He was seen by over 500 different people!⁶

Imagine the love of Christ, the compassion of Christ! He could have gone up with the Father and stayed there, but He wanted to come back and encourage them to prove that He was still alive and that He had really risen from the dead. He appeared to His disciples numerous times, and a total of over 500 people saw Jesus after His resurrection, so that it would be firmly confirmed that He was no longer dead and had been resurrected, so that the people would really know it and believe it.

He was willing to try to help convince some of the reasoners who were walking down the road to Emmaus, still wondering about the Scriptures, to show them that He was really the Messiah. He reasoned the Scriptures with them as they walked along. He was able to conceal His identity and convince them that Jesus was the Messiah, although they didn’t realize it was Jesus walking with them. Then they invited Him in to have supper with them, and as it was the custom to invite the visitor to break the bread and pray, He did so, and at that time revealed Himself to them and they were astonished.⁷

He spent 40 days and 40 nights on earth—encouraging His disciples and teaching them and encouraging their faith, proving that He had risen from the dead, so there would be no doubt about it. He walked through doors. He appeared and disappeared. He time-traveled or space-traveled. He did a lot of miracles while He was back here from the dead in His resurrection body. He did some very amazing things, but He also showed Himself to still be quite human. He ate with them, He drank with them, and He even cooked for them.

He walked through solid locked doors to prove that He was really a resurrected Lord and had a supernatural, miraculous, resurrection body. And also, I believe, to demonstrate to us what we are going to be like when we are resurrected from the dead, to encourage us.⁸—David Brandt Berg

What happens when a Christian dies is not a matter of speculation, but of certainty based on truth. Something tremendous happened in history that has taken the issue of life after death out of the realm of conjecture and moved it into verified fact. Paul openly and clearly states the reason for his confidence. “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.”⁹ The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a precedent for the resurrection of all those who are in Christ. In other words, our future resurrection is based on the historicity of Christ’s resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not a peripheral issue, but is central and crucial to the Christian faith. … The fact that Jesus is alive and makes His home in us doesn’t only change our perspective on the next life, but in this life as well, because until we are ready to face death, we will never really know how to live freely. The Christian faith is not about escapism, but about life here and now, lived in the love, strength and wisdom of the presence of Christ within us. In this, we have the assurance of the One who was raised from the dead raising us up to our eternal home with Him.—Charles Price

Sacrifice ceases to be a gauge for love when it becomes an instrument of exchange, part of a system of reciprocity in which persons are duly compensated for costs incurred. This is why Jesus states, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”¹⁰ In laying down his life at the Cross, Jesus offered himself in sacrifice of suffering that cannot be compensated (certainly not by us). Only the sacrifice of a suffering that cannot be compensated and does not ask to be compensated is a true gauge of love in a fallen world. … In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus beseeched the Father to let this cup pass from him if it were possible. But there was no other way. Our sin demanded the ultimate cost. It is a cost our Lord willingly paid. He paid it at the Cross. He bears the marks of the Cross to this day.—William A. Dembski

Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.—Pope John Paul II

A man who was completely innocent offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act.—Mahatma Gandhi

The resurrection completes the inauguration of God’s kingdom. … It is the decisive event demonstrating that God’s kingdom really has been launched on earth as it is in heaven. … The message of Easter is that God’s new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you’re now invited to belong to it.—N. T. Wright

Christian hope is faith looking ahead to the fulfillment of the promises of God, as when the Anglican burial service inters the corpse ‘in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Christian hope is a certainty, guaranteed by God himself. Christian hope expresses knowledge that every day of his life, and every moment beyond it, the believer can say with truth, on the basis of God’s own commitment, that the best is yet to come.—J. I. Packer¹¹

He, the Life of all, our Lord and Savior, did not arrange the manner of his own death lest He should seem to be afraid of some other kind. No. He accepted and bore upon the cross a death inflicted by others, and those others His special enemies, a death which to them was supremely terrible and by no means to be faced; and He did this in order that, by destroying even this death, He might Himself be believed to be the Life, and the power of death be recognized as finally annulled. A marvelous and mighty paradox has thus occurred, for the death which they thought to inflict on Him as dishonor and disgrace has become the glorious monument to death’s defeat.—Athanasius of Alexandria

I don’t care to inquire why they cannot believe an earthly body can be in heaven, while the whole earth is suspended on nothing.—Augustine of Hippo

No tabloid will ever print the startling news that the mummified body of Jesus of Nazareth has been discovered in old Jerusalem. Christians have no carefully embalmed body enclosed in a glass case to worship. Thank God, we have an empty tomb. The glorious fact that the empty tomb proclaims to us is that life for us does not stop when death comes. Death is not a wall, but a door.—Peter Marshall

How wonderful, how marvelous is Your love for us, dear Savior, to think You were willing to do all that and go through that for us! You didn’t really want to. You didn’t desire it, but “nevertheless not My will, but Thine be done.”¹² Not my will, but Thine be done. May these be the words and the thought and intent of the hearts of all of us.

Thank You for Your love, for being willing to go through all that. What a day of rejoicing that must have been when You rose and You realized it was all over. You had won the victory, the world was saved! You had accomplished Your mission. You had gone through the horrors of hell for us and death, agony, all of it, and it was over.

You rose in victory, joy, liberty, freedom from Your enemies and from the hands of men and the cruelty of men, never to die again. So that You could redeem us as well from the same, and prevent our having to go through it. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin. But who hath delivered us from the body of this death? I thank the Lord through the blood of Jesus Christ.”¹³ Thank You, Lord, for that glorious victory! In Jesus’ name, amen.—David Brandt Berg

Published on Anchor April 2014. Read by Jon Marc.

¹ John 19:30.

² John 20:17.

³ Matthew 28:2.

⁴ John 20:11–17.

⁵ Acts 1:3.

⁶ 1 Corinthians 15:6.

⁷ Luke 24:13–31.

⁸ Luke 24:30–43; John 20:19, 26, 30; Philippians 3:21.

⁹ 2 Corinthians 4:14 NIV.

¹⁰ John 15:13.

¹¹ Adapted.

¹² Luke 22:42.

¹³ 1 Corinthians 15:55–56; Romans 7:24–25.

The Message of the Crucifixion

David Brandt Berg

1984-04-09

Tonight around the world, hundreds of millions of Christians are celebrating the Lord’s Supper and the Lord’s Passion. On this night known worldwide as Good Friday, and all day long, there are many celebrations and observances of the Lord’s last day here on earth before His crucifixion. Literally hundreds of millions of Christians, at least professing Christians, have been celebrating this day, and especially this night. Some have been celebrating all week, beginning last Sunday with Palm Sunday, the commemoration of our Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

Thanks to that event, you and I were brought into the kingdom, and the kingdom moved its headquarters to the New Jerusalem on high. He was no longer a mere king of the city of Jerusalem and the little kingdom of Israel, but the king of the whole universe, the kingdom of God!

He was the King of kings and Lord of lords and the King of the entire universe, as well as the whole world and heavenly Jerusalem—rather than a mere earthly, physical, ancient little Mideastern city called Jerusalem. He became the king that He was and showed His power by dying on a cross, crucified like a common criminal! But even in that moment of His death, God showed His power that this was His Son in whom He was well pleased, as the earth shook and heaven thundered and people trembled at the manifestation of the wrath of God over their iniquity (Matthew 27:51).

The world is supposed to be more civilized now, but it’s not. Just read the news and look around you. Man is just as cruel and wicked as he’s ever been, to the point that he now stands on the brink of total destruction, prepared to destroy both himself and the world and all of God’s creation if God did not intervene and put a stop to it all. Which He will, thank the Lord, in order to salvage His creation, including man. He’s not going to allow man to destroy himself or God’s creation or His world. So don’t worry about atom bombs destroying the earth and blowing up the world!

Nearly the whole world is compelled to honor Jesus’ birthday and His death day, the two most outstanding events in His life, and yet one more, His resurrection day, to live aloft forever in an immortal, eternal body, which shall live forever—like us—in the heavens. “We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

Hundreds of millions of professing Christians around the globe—be they Catholic, Protestant, or nondenominational—are celebrating the last day of Christ’s life here on earth before His mortal death, as well as the Last Supper, which, incidentally, was not a sad occasion, but a happy occasion. The Feast of the Passover was a celebration; it was a fiesta in which the Jews were celebrating their salvation from death by the blood of a lamb killed in a certain ceremonial way that night, cooked in a certain ceremonial way, and eaten with joy and thanksgiving that the Lord had saved them from annihilation in Egypt.

The original Passover event of the Jews was a happy occasion, a feast, a holiday. Jews came from all over the world, and Gentile believers as well, to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem. It was a happy occasion, not at all sad. It was only going to be sad for one small group eventually, but at first it wasn’t necessarily sad. The Lord found them a place to have it by a miracle, and I’m sure provided the food for them, and they sat down and enjoyed a good meal. Then they had the so-called communion or Eucharist.

They even had lamb stew that night. We know it was a kind of soup, otherwise they wouldn’t have been sopping the bread in it (John 13:26). They drank wine that night too. And it wasn’t until they were through eating and drinking that the Lord suddenly took a little bit more of a sober bent and train of thought and began to predict what was going to happen and to somewhat solemnly lead them into a ceremony, one of the few that the Lord commended. It seemed to be something which He considered you would want to observe to commemorate His death. “As oft as ye do this, ye do it in remembrance of Me.” And Paul said, “Ye do show the Lord’s death till He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:25–26).

He was beginning to illustrate for them what He was about to do. That night His body was to be broken, scarred, torn, pierced, lacerated, horribly abused, His blood shed, and finally His life given. His body was broken for you.

He suffered pain and agony of the physical body, as some suffer today in sickness and in pain, that He might bear our sufferings in His own body, “For by His stripes ye are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). Not by His death on the cross, not by His final shedding of His blood in His life; that was for our salvation. But he had to suffer not only all his life for 33 years all of the things that we go through to sympathize with us and empathize and to feel what we feel, but final excruciating agony of the physical body to heal our human ills as well as save us from our sins.

He said, “Take, eat, this is My body which is broken for you.” “He bore our infirmities in His own body,” God’s Word says, “and by His stripes ye are healed.” And He said, “Take, drink, after the same manner the cup. This is My blood of the new testament shed for the remission of your sins. Drink ye all of it” (1 Corinthians 11:24–25; 1 Peter 2:24; Isaiah 53:5).

In other words, “I’m also going to suffer agony and pain and illness in My body to empathize with you and your physical troubles and distresses and afflictions to let you know that I know how you feel. I’ve been through it. I know the pain. I know the agony. I know the suffering! I’ve been through it all even worse than you. I know what you’re going through, so don’t worry.”

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all” (Psalm 34:19). He was as good as saying, “You need all these afflictions; you’re going to have to have them to keep you righteous. But I will deliver you from them all, one after the other, time after time.” You and I are no exceptions; we have our ups and downs, even discouragement sometimes.

The common people had heard Him gladly (Mark 12:37). Thousands upon thousands had heard and believed His message, received it, been healed, fed and loved Him. But where were they that night when the religious leaders and their paid mercenaries were shouting, “Crucify Him”? They must have been home watching television—they certainly weren’t there to stick up for Him. No doubt quite a few of them were even deceived by the lies and figured they had been deluded and deceived and it had turned out He was a false prophet. They thought He was true, thought He was right, but they were so easily deluded and deceived and misled.

The seed had fallen on shallow or stony ground, been choked out by thorns and bore no fruit, and they were led astray and led away (Matthew 13:7). Perhaps afterward some of them were sorry when they saw how far the enemies of Christ went and how horrible it was. Let’s hope they were convicted and repented and came back, and a lot of people did. There were lots of Christians led by the apostles and disciples who were left, so that on the Day of Pentecost 3,000 got saved with one sermon and a few days later 5,000 with one healing (Acts 2:41 and 4:4)!

The ground had been sown and watered and softened and prepared, so that even after Jesus was crucified, many were prepared to understand, comprehend, believe, and receive the whole truth, to then know that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, and receive Him as their Savior. Not just to follow a personality, a human being, His words, His miracles, His free meals, but to finally understand the deep spiritual meaning of it all, that He was the Messiah who had been expected to come for thousands of years!

Hundreds of millions of Christians are celebrating this night with soberness, solemnities, even tears, and in some places in the world with such extreme fanaticism that people are actually nailed to crosses, nails driven through their hands, lying on crosses, allowing themselves to be nailed to the cross like Jesus was and then hung there. Imagine, they do it trying to atone for their own sins, trying to suffer for their own sins. And all that suffering is in vain, because even if they died on that cross, it wouldn’t save them!

Jesus died for our sins; He’s the only one who could have done it. Only the Son of God could pay for your sins on the cross! Only God Himself in His Son could have taken your sins in His own body on that tree and borne the suffering of a dying sinner and taken your punishment for you and suffered for you. Only God could have done that in the person of His Son Jesus.

God’s message was: “Only I can save you; you cannot save yourself!” The message of God was very clear throughout the Old and New Testaments, especially the New Testament, but even in the Old Testament. Abraham was the father of the faithful because he was a man of faith, demonstrating faith that he couldn’t do it himself; he just had to have faith in God.

Tonight hundreds of millions of Christians around the world are commemorating the death of Jesus, and millions of others are hearing about it, knowing that this is a very special holy week for Christians. Virtually the whole world is hearing the message, and even if they’re not Christians, even if they’re of other religions, they know that this is the Christians’ holy week and this is its holiest night of all.

Considering the extent of communications and the dissemination of information today, probably the whole world, all countries, faiths, nationalities, and religions are hearing about this week and know that Christians are celebrating their holiest days of the year, and are at least getting a little tiny glimpse of the message of Christ or hearing about Jesus, even if they don’t understand it. Millions of Christians who understand the message of Christ and His death are choosing this week and this night to commemorate this event, and of all the nights in the year, it seemed that we should celebrate the Lord’s Supper tonight, on the night in which He and His disciples celebrated that First Supper.

Having already been saved, you know that drinking this wine is not going to save you, because you have already drunk of His salvation, His saving blood by faith. But this should encourage and affirm your faith and your testimony, and it is your witness that you have drunk of His blood in the Spirit, by the Spirit. You have received the blood of Christ as your atonement, His blood sacrifice for your sins. For even as Moses said, “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins” (Leviticus 17:11; Hebrews 9:22).

So we thank You tonight for this, Your sacrifice, Lord, Your blood shed for the remission of our sins, the New Testament in Your blood which was shed for us on that tree, that we are commemorating this night—Your suffering, Your love, that You died for us in our place, took our punishment for us. Instead of us dying for our sins, You died for them, Lord. We now attest and witness our faith in You and Your death for us and Your sacrifice of Your blood for our salvation to wash away our sins. We symbolize it as we partake of this cup. “This is My blood of the New Testament, this is My blood shed for you,” for our salvation.

Praise the Lord for the night that Jesus died for us! He not only died for us, but He went down into the bowels of the earth, three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, and He preached to the souls in prison down there to give them a chance to be saved too! Isn’t that wonderful? (Matthew 12:40; 1 Peter 3:19; 4:6; Ephesians 4:9).

Now we’ll be able to sing all those wonderful hymns about “up from the grave He arose.” Let’s not just remember the death of the cross; let’s not always be seeing just a Christ on the cross and a crucifix, the suffering and the death. We don’t have a Jesus on the cross; He left the cross. We have a bare cross. Jesus is no longer there! We don’t have a Christ in the grave. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:55).

We don’t have a dead Christ hanging there on a crucifix; we have a live Jesus living in our hearts!

Up from the grave He arose,
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes,
He arose a Victor o’er the dark domain,
And He lives forever with His Saints to reign.
He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah! Christ arose!
—Robert Lowry, 1874

He lives! He lives! Christ Jesus lives today.
He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way.
He lives! He lives, salvation to impart.
You ask me how I know He lives. He lives within my heart.
—A. Ackley

Since Jesus came into my heart,
Since Jesus came into my heart,
Floods of joy o’er my soul
Like the sea billows roll,
Since Jesus came into my heart!

Blest be the tie that binds—all of us, millions
Our hearts in Christian love.
The fellowship of kindred mind,
Is like to that Above.
—John Fawcett, 1782

Two by Two

Word Topics

1998-01-01

Definition: Two by two, in this context, refers to the need for teaming up with at least one more person to do the Lord’s work.

God did not intend for man to be alone.

Genesis 2:18 — And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
Ecclesiastes 4:7,8 — Then I returned, and I saw vanity under the sun. ⁸ There is one alone, and there is not a second; yea, he hath neither child nor brother: yet is there no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches; neither saith he, For whom do I labour, and bereave my soul of good? This is also vanity, yea, it is a sore travail.

Two by two is one of the basic principles by which Jesus and His disciples operated from the very beginning.

Mark 6:7 — And He called unto Him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits.
Luke 10:1 — After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before His face into every city and place, whither He Himself would come.
Acts 13:2,3 — As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. ³ And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
Acts 15:35-40 — [Paul and Barnabas, who were traveling two by two, split up because of differences, yet each of them chose another partner rather than go alone:] Paul also and Barnabas continued in Antioch, teaching and preaching the Word of the Lord, with many others also. ³⁶ And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the Word of the Lord, and see how they do. ³⁷ And Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surname was Mark. ³⁸ But Paul thought not good to take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work. [See also 13:13.] ³⁹ And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus; ⁴⁰ And Paul chose Silas, and departed, being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God.
2 Corinthians 13:1 — [Both in the Old and New Testaments, it was a legal obligation to have two or more witnesses:] In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. [See Deuteronomy 19:15; Matthew 18:16; Titus 5:19.]

Some of the goodfruit of working two by two:

Psalm 119:63 — [Helps keep us in the fear of the Lord and obedient to His Word:] I am a companion of all them that fear Thee, and of them that keep Thy precepts.
Proverbs 13:20 — [Enables us to learn from one another:] He that walketh with wise men shall be wise.
Ecclesiastes 4:9 — [Helps us accomplish more:] Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.
Ecclesiastes 4:10 — [Provides safety and aid:] For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.
Ecclesiastes 4:12 — [Provides greater strength:] And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Matthew 18:19,20 — [Increases our prayer power:] Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in Heaven. ²⁰ For where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst of them.
John 13:35 — [It’s part of our witness:] By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.

A few examples of what happened when the Lord’s servants didn’tgo two by two:

Genesis 3:1-6 — [Satan tempted Eve while she was alone, away from Adam:] Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? ² And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: ³ But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. ⁴ And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: ⁵ For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. ⁶ And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and [then went and] gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. [See also verses 13 and 14.]
Exodus 2:11,12 — [In an unguarded moment while alone, Moses slew an Egyptian:] And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren. ¹² And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.
1 Kings 19:1-5 — [Discouragement struck Elijah when he was without the strength and companionship of his servant, but an angel came to his rescue:] And [King] Ahab told [Queen] Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets [of Baal] with the sword. ² Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time. ³ And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there. ⁴ But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers. ⁵ And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat.
2 Samuel 11:1-5 — [David yielded to temptation while alone:] And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem. ² And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king’s house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon. ³ And David sent and inquired after the woman. And one said, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite [one of David’s mighty men who had gone away to battle]? ⁴ And David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in unto him, and he lay with her; for she was purified from her uncleanness: and she returned unto her house. ⁵ And the woman conceived, and sent and told David, and said, I am with child.
Luke 22:54-57 — [Peter denied the Lord when he was following afar off, alone:] Then took they Him, and led Him, and brought Him into the high priest’s house. And Peter followed afar off. ⁵⁵ And when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the hall, and were set down together, Peter sat down among them. ⁵⁶ But a certain maid beheld him as he sat by the fire, and earnestly looked upon him, and said, This man was also with Him. ⁵⁷ And he denied Him, saying, Woman, I know Him not. [See also verses 58-62.]

There are occasions when circumstances prevent us from having a companion with us. At those times, the Lord and His angels or ministering spirits are still with us:

Daniel 6:22 — [Daniel testifies to King Darius of how the Lord was with him while alone in the lions den:] My God hath sent His angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before Him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt.
2 Timothy 4:16-17 — [The Lord is with us even if others forsake us:] At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. ¹⁷ Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.
Matthew 4:1-11 — Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the Devil. ² And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was afterward an hungred. ^3a … The Tempter came to Him. … ¹¹ [After contending with the Devil by quoting Scriptures:] Then the Devil leaveth Him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto Him. [See also Mark 4:12-13.]
John 16:32 — [Jesus said of his arrest:] Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.
Acts 12:1-10 — [Peter had no companion in jail until the Lord’s angel came and delivered him:] And because he [Herod] saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.) ⁴ And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison. … ⁵ Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the Church unto God for him. ⁶ And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and the keepers before the door kept the prison. ⁷ And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands. ⁸ And the angel said unto him, Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And so he did. And he saith unto him, Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me. ⁹ And he went out, and followed him; and wist not that it was true which was done by the angel; but thought he saw a vision. ¹⁰ When they were past the first and the second ward, they came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city; which opened to them of his own accord: and they went out, and passed on through one street; and forthwith the angel departed from him.

Sometimes we must commune with God alone:

Exodus 24:12-18 — And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to Me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them. … ¹⁵ And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount. ¹⁶ And the glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day He called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud. ¹⁷ And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. ¹⁸ And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.
Mark 1:35 — And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, He went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.
Matthew 6:6 — But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

Several examples of teams of two which were mightily used of the Lord:

Exodus 4:10,14b,16 — [Moses and Aaron:] And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue. … ¹⁴ And He said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee: and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart. … ¹⁶ And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God. [See verses 10-16.]
Genesis 19:1-25 — [God sent a team of two angels to judge Sodom.] And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. …
1 Samuel 14:6,7,13,14 — [Jonathan, son of King Saul, and his armorbearer win a great victory over their enemies, who greatly outnumbered them:] And Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armour, Come, and let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised: it may be that the Lord will work for us: for there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few. ⁷ And his armourbearer said unto him, Do all that is in thine heart: turn thee; behold, I am with thee according to thy heart. … ¹³ And Jonathan climbed up upon his hands and upon his feet, and his armourbearer after him: and they fell before Jonathan; and his armourbearer slew after him. ¹⁴ And that first slaughter, which Jonathan and his armourbearer made, was about twenty men, within as it were an half acre of land, which a yoke of oxen might plow.
2 Kings 2:6 — [Elijah and Elisha, the two prophets:] And Elijah said unto him, Tarry, I pray thee, here; for the Lord hath sent me to Jordan. And he [Elisha] said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And they two went on. [See 1 Kings 19:19-21, which shows that Elisha first became Elijah’s servant, ministering to him, and later became a prophet himself, continuing Elijah’s ministry, and performing twice as many miracles as Elijah did!]
Matthew 17:1-3 — [God sent Moses and Elijah as a team to counsel with Jesus:] And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John His brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, ² And was transfigured before them: and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light. ³ And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with Him.
Revelation 11:3-12 — [The two witnesses and martyrs of Revelation are mightily used of God during the Great Tribulation:] And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. ⁴ These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. …

Adaptability

Word Topics

1998-01-01

Definition: The ability to change so as to fit a new specific use or situation.

Adaptability is an important and necessary quality for ministers of the Gospel.

1 Corinthians 9:19-23 — For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. ²⁰And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; ²¹To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. ²²To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. ²³And this I do for the Gospel’s sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.
1 Corinthians 10:33 — Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.

As situations and conditions change, we must adapt accordingly.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 — To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the Heaven.
Matthew 9:14,15 — Then came to Him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but Thy disciples fast not? ¹⁵And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the Bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.
Luke 9:3 and 22:35,36 — And He said unto them, Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece. ^22:35 And He said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing. ³⁶Then said He unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.

Jesus was the greatest sample of adaptability: The Son of God also became the Son of Man.

John 1:14a — And the Word [Jesus] was made flesh, and dwelt among us.
Philippians 2:5-8 — Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: ⁶Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: ⁷But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: ⁸And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
1 Timothy 3:16 — And without controversy great is the mystery of Godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
[See also Hebrews 2:14.]

Being adaptable often requires living above circumstances and conditions.

Philippians 4:11-13 — Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. ¹²I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. ¹³I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
[See also 1 Corinthians 4:9-13.]

Adaptability means being open and willing to do things God’s way.

Hebrews 6:3 — And this will we do, if God permit.
James 4:13-15 — Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: ¹⁴Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. ¹⁵For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
[See also Acts 18:21; Romans 1:9,10.]

Adaptability means being willing to be fashioned — or refashioned — according to the Lord’s will and plan.

Isaiah 64:8 — But now, O Lord, Thou art our Father; we are the clay, and Thou our Potter; and we all are the work of Thy hand.
Jeremiah 18:4 — And the vessel that he [the potter] made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Romans 9:20,21 — Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why hast Thou made me thus? ²¹Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
Philippians 2:13 — For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

Adaptability often requires humility.

Matthew 3:13-15 — Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. ¹⁴But John forbad Him, saying, I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me? ¹⁵And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered Him.
John 3:30 — He must increase, but I must decrease.
John 13:8-9 — Peter saith unto Him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me. ⁹Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.

Adaptability requires yielding your will and mind to God and His plans.

Romans 12:1,2 — I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. ²And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Romans 6:13 — Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
2 Corinthians 8:12 — For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.
1 Samuel 3:18b — It is the Lord: let Him do what seemeth Him good.
Matthew 6:10b — Thy [God’s] will be done in earth, as it is in Heaven.
Matthew 26:39 — And He went a little further, and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me: nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt.
Luke 1:38b — Be it unto me according to Thy Word.

How to Go on the Attack

Quote Scripture, Pray, Praise, and Sing

David Brandt Berg

1985-11-10

There’s something about saying things out loud. It is a testimony to yourself and to the multitude of witnesses that surround us. My mother used to say, “Words are real things,” and you need to say them. Words can curse or words can save. “By your words you will be justified or by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:36–37). You have to give an account of your words.

Words are very important. The Lord hears them, the heavenly hosts hear them, you hear them, and the Devil hears them. It is very important that you use the words, even if you can only whisper them. I’ve told stories of how my mother fought the Devil. She even used her fists! She’d shove one fist out and quote Scripture, and then shove the other out like she was fighting, quote Scripture out loud and praise the Lord out loud.

Give no place to the evil one (Ephesians 4:27). If you get so busy quoting Scripture and praising the Lord, you won’t have so much time to think about your illness and problems. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee” (Isaiah 26:3). And while you’re quoting Scripture and praising the Lord, if your mind is centered on the Lord and stayed on Him, then He is the one you are thinking about, and you can’t think about both things at once.

So keep thinking about the Lord and praising the Lord and quoting Scripture. That takes concentration. You have to think about it. You have to keep your mind on the Lord and your mind on the Scripture and on your praises, even sing. It’s a testimony even to the Lord that you are really trusting Him, that you have faith in His Word.

That’s how my mother got healed in the first place, quoting Scripture out loud. She could only whisper it, but she whispered it. Gradually she noticed her voice was stronger and her hands were up praising the Lord. As long as you keep thinking about your pain and concentrating on your pain, then it’s your pain you’ll have! But if you get your mind on something else, it won’t be as bad.

There is just something about saying the words that really crystallizes your resistance and causes the devils to flee. They hate to hear the Word. Just saying it in your mind is good, but sometimes it is just not quite enough. You just need to say it out loud. Besides, if others are listening, it is a declaration to them that you are trusting the Lord, that you have faith in His Word. It’s a testimony and a witness to them. It even encourages them to know that you’re trusting the Lord and have faith in His Word and you really believe those scriptures. Just keep quoting them even if you can only whisper them. It takes more concentration and it occupies more of your mind and your consciousness if you have to say it out loud, quote it out loud, and praise the Lord out loud.

You need to go on the attack. Be positive and show that you have faith in the Word, faith in the Lord, faith in praise—a sign that you really trust and you really believe. It’s like a declaration of faith. And when your mind is occupied with that, you can’t be occupied with your suffering and your pain. There’s just something about it that seems more powerful than just thinking it.

It’s the Word. It’s the declaration. You’re claiming it and it really occupies your mind and your heart. The Lord can hear you, the Devil can hear you, and a great cloud of witnesses can hear you. It’s your declaration of faith! It shows your confidence in the Word and your belief in praise. It’s like they say, “You believe in prayer as much as you pray. You believe in praise as much as you praise. You believe in the Word as much as you quote it,” and you need to do it at least loud enough that you can hear it yourself, and the Lord can hear you too.

There is power in the Word! You need to say it with your mouth. “Thou shalt confess with thy mouth that Christ is Lord” (Romans 10:9). “With my mouth will I make known Thy faithfulness unto all generations” (Psalm 89:1). Not just thinking it in your head; that’s not enough. You’ve got to put it into words and say it.

I never saw my mother get the victory just by thinking the words or thinking prayer. You can do that too under some circumstances, but when you’re having a real battle with sickness or something, you’ve got to go on the attack and really fill your mind and heart and your mouth with declarations of faith and praise and prayer and scriptures—the Word. You have to use your mouth to say the Word. You’ve got to use your mouth, and then that becomes a testimony not only to yourself but to others as well.

There are a great cloud of witnesses who are always watching us, trying to help us, but you need to declare your faith openly and loud enough at least that you can hear it yourself (Hebrews 12:1). It’ll keep your mind and your mouth occupied with the Word and with prayer and praise. It really helps to occupy your mind and your heart and especially your mouth, as well as your spirit. Even though nobody can hear you but yourself, it will do you a lot of good.

“By thy words shalt thou be justified and by thy words shalt thou be condemned” (Matthew 12:37). We have to give an account of every word. You’ll be accountable for every idle word, but you’ll be given credit for every good word. Forget this suffering-in-silence business. It does me good just to hear my own voice quoting Scripture and praying and praising the Lord, even if it is only in a whisper.

When it comes to the Devil, words are sort of like bullets or death rays, and they just blast the Devil! They’re part of our offensive weaponry, the Word. It describes the armor of a Christian—it says the sword of the Spirit is the Word (Ephesians 6:10–17). It’s sharper than any two-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12).

You need to wield it out loud so that at least you can hear it, and then that helps to occupy your mind and it helps to confirm your own faith. There is just something about saying it out loud. You need to declare your faith and fling it in the face of the Devil. Just throw fiery darts of scriptures at him out loud in prayer and praise. He hates that, because it is a testimony to you even if you’re all alone. And if there are others present, it is a testimony to them.

It is a declaration that you are trusting the Lord and that you have faith in the Word, and you need to use your own words as well as God’s Words. Praise the Lord out loud, pray out loud, quote scriptures out loud, sing, pray in tongues, say something, do something. And if it doesn’t do anybody but you any good, at least you can hear it.

Quote scriptures and sing and pray and praise the Lord and talk in tongues. Keep your mouth busy and your mind busy and it keeps your ears busy, too. It’s like a vicious cycle against the Devil and it’s a saving cycle for you. Just keep it in circulation. Keep it going! Say it and hear it and think it, and say it and hear it and think it, and keep it going!

Keep your mind and your mouth and your ears so busy, they don’t even have time to listen to the Devil. He just talks up that pain and aggravates it, and the more you concentrate your mind and your heart on your pain and your headache and your eye ache and your backache or whatever it is, the more it magnifies it, aggravates it, and the more you think about it. But keep your mind and your mouth and your heart and your ears busy with the Word. Do it out loud, and quote scriptures and sing, pray, praise, talk in tongues, anything to keep your mind and heart and your mouth and your ears and your eyes busy.

Whatever you do, keep your mouth busy and your ears busy and your mind and heart busy praying and praising and quoting and singing and talking in tongues. You can’t be concentrating and thinking and worrying about your pain or your problems while your mind, heart, spirit, mouth, tongue, ears and eyes and everything are busy with the Word. If you don’t know much Scripture to quote, then read it, but read it out loud. It will keep your mind and heart and mouth and tongue and ears busy with nothing but the Word, and you won’t have time to think about your headache and your pain and your problems.

A lot of times that’s why I get up early in the morning instead of lying here silently in bed thinking about all the things I ought to be doing and about all my problems and worries and whatnot. I get up and I do something. That’s another thing: keep active, keep busy, what they call “work therapy,” and keep your hands busy if you can’t do anything else. But all the time be talking to the Lord and praising—talking in tongues, praying, quoting scriptures and singing.

If you can keep your actual physical body busy with the Word, including your tongue and your mouth and your eyes and your ears and your thoughts, then you won’t have time to think about your problems. You won’t have time to think about your worries or your pains if you’re concentrating on the Lord. He promised, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee” (Isaiah 26:3).

One of the best ways in the world to keep your mind stayed on the Lord is to talk to Him. Praise Him. Pray. Sing. Talk in tongues. Quote His Word. Keep busy. Keep yourself occupied in every way, including working with your hands, your feet, or whatever you have to do so that you’re thinking about other things and not about your pain or your problems. Keep your mind, your heart, your spirit, your tongue, your mouth, your ears, your eyes, even your hands, so occupied with prayer and praise and Scripture and song and the Lord, that you haven’t even got time to think about your pains and your problems. Keep your mind on the Lord.

“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus” … thou shalt be healed (Romans 10:9). That’s a good scripture to remember. We usually use it for salvation, but it works for everything, including healing. “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead”—see, that’s faith in His resurrection power, which is healing—“thou shalt be saved,” or healed.

Quote Scripture and talk to the Lord and praise the Lord. There’s something about it; just hearing your own voice seems to help you! There’s just something about words.

We wouldn’t have salvation today, we wouldn’t know anything about Jesus if somebody hadn’t used words. It’s the words that did it, and they’ll do it for you—even your own words. Your own prayers and praises and scriptures, quoting out loud and singing and talking in tongues, will save you. The Lord uses it. It’s a manifestation of your faith, a declaration of faith.

As long as you’re saying those words and you’re hearing those words and your mind is occupied with making those words, and your heart and your spirit are involved, then you can’t think so much about your pain and about your problems. Say it! Do it! Hear it! See it! Speak it!

Pilgrim’s Guidebook, 11: The Books of the Bible, Part 10

Pilgrim’s Guidebook

Based on the writings of TFI.

2023-09-04

New Testament Division: Prophetic Books

The Book of Revelation

Revelation is the main prophetic book in the New Testament. There are some other Bible prophecies throughout the other books of the New Testament, and some of those books deal with Bible prophecy, but Revelation is the only book of the New Testament devoted entirely to Bible prophecy, like the prophetic books of the Old Testament.

Revelation: Glimpse into future, Jesus’ ultimate triumph

The Apocryphal Books

When the Old Testament books were compiled during the second and third centuries A.D., there was some argument amongst the religious scholars as to whether certain of the books available to include were inspired or not. The scholars were split on the issue; some of them thought these books in question were inspired, and some of them thought they were not. Some thought they were fairy tales, and some thought they were just history. These particular books are included in the Catholic Bible, but not in the Protestant Bible. They are called the Apocryphal Books, and you’ll find them in the Catholic Bible right in the middle between the Old and New Testaments. “Susanna” is one of them, “Judith,” and the “I and II Maccabees,” etc.

Don’t confuse “apocryphal” with “apocalypse”—the Catholic name for revelation. “Apocryphal” is the name of the several books in the middle of the Catholic Bible, which are interesting reading and historical.

Based on the writings of TFI. Illustrated by Didier Martin.

Pilgrim’s Guidebook, 12: Bible Chronology

Pilgrim’s Guidebook

Based on the writings of TFI.

2023-09-04

Basic Bible Timeline

The first event is creation. Then the Flood happened in possibly 2500. The next important date was the birth of Abraham, estimated at 2000 BC.

We’re jumping every 500 years, so the time of Moses was about 1500 BC, which was about the time of the Exodus. The days of David were about 1000 BC.

Another important date, almost 500 years later, was the fall of Jerusalem. It was 586 BC, and that is an exact date to remember. It’s a very important date, because it had to do with the coming of Christ. It was prophesied that after Jerusalem fell and they went into captivity, they would be in captivity for 70 years, which takes you from 586 to 516.

Later on, in 454 BC, Artaxerxes of Persia also issued his commandment to Nehemiah to go back and help to rebuild Jerusalem. (See Daniel 9:25.)

Daniel prophesied that Christ, the Messiah, would be born an exact number of years later. There were to be 70 “weeks” total, but 69 from the going forth of the edict to build Jerusalem to the cutting off of the Messiah. (See Daniel 9:25.) 69 weeks is the same as saying 69 x 7 years, which equals 483 years. Subtract 454 BC from 483 years and you get 29 years left. Jesus was born in 4 BC according to the Roman calendar, and He died at the age of 33. So according to the Roman calendar, Jesus died in 29 AD—exactly the number of years after the proclamation by Artaxerxes allowing the captive Jews to return and rebuild Jerusalem, that Daniel prophesied was when the Messiah would come.

Another date that is important to know about is 722 BC, the date of the fall of Samaria, when the ten tribes were taken into captivity by Assyria. (See 2 Kings 2:9–11.)

The death of Paul the Apostle is the next important date to know because it ended the Apostolic Era. The death of Paul was in 66 AD, which was during the time of Roman persecution. God must have wanted to spare him from the next major event in 70 AD—the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans.

The next major date in Christian history is the death of John the Beloved, or John the Revelator as he’s also called. John died in 90 AD. He lived a long time, and died as an old man, a natural, peaceful death, on the island of Patmos.

Now we go away from Bible history and into Christian history to bring us up to modern time. About 500 AD the Western Roman Empire fell.

1000 AD to 1100 AD is considered the middle of the Dark Ages, a time when it is believed that science and knowledge didn’t advance a lot. About 500 years later, what brought man out of the Dark Ages? The Renaissance occurred in the 1400s, and the Reformation followed the Renaissance in the 1500s.

The date when the King James Version of the Bible was finished was 1611.

Summary of Bible time periods and important dates:

About 2500 BC The Flood

About 2000 BC Abraham

About 1500 BC Moses

About 1000 BC David and the Kings

722 BC Fall of Samaria

586 BC Fall of Jerusalem

4 BC Birth of Jesus

29 AD Death of Jesus

66 AD Death of Paul the Apostle

70 AD Romans destroy Jerusalem

90 AD Death of John the Revelator

About 500 AD Fall of the Western Roman Empire

About 1000 AD Dark Ages

About 1500 AD Reformation

1611 AD Translation of the King James Bible

Timeline of the 70 Weeks* of Daniel 9:24–27

Labels:

454 BC

Jesus dies at 33

69 weeks (483 years) ends with cutting off of Messiah

29 AD

Artaxerxes of Persia issued his commandment to Nehemiah to go back and help to rebuild the city in 454 BC. (See Daniel 9:25.)

Jesus born in 4 AD

Last “week,” seven years of antichrist’s rule

* This word that’s translated as “weeks” in the King James Bible is the Hebrew word shabua, which literally means “seven.” Therefore, a better translation of this would be “seventy sevens,” instead of “seventy weeks.”

As we proceed to read and understand the prophecy and its fulfillment, it becomes evident that these seventy sevens are seventy sevens of years, with each “week” representing a period of seven years, for a total of 490 years.

Based on the writings of TFI. Illustrated by Didier Martin.

Pilgrim’s Guidebook, 08: The Books of the Bible, Part 7

Pilgrim’s Guidebook

Based on the writings of TFI.

2023-09-04

New Testament Division: Historical Books

The Four Gospels and the Book of Acts

The second major division of the Bible as a whole is the New Testament. It is divided into minor divisions. First come the four Gospels, followed by the book of Acts. These first five books are similar to the Old Testament because they’re historical. The first four are the history of the life of Jesus, and then Acts is the history of the Early Church.

The Book of Acts

The first thirteen chapters of Acts were a blueprint for the Church—God’s plan and the way He intended the Church to operate and act and do. He calls it “The Acts of the Apostles.” It’s a fascinating book, and you’ll find a lot in there that maybe you never noticed before, such as how the early church was started and organized; how they formulated certain policies and certain plans of action, what they resulted in, and how the ultimate end result was always witnessing and winning people to Jesus.

Matthew: Jesus, the Messiah (written to the Jews)

Mark: Supernatural power of Jesus

Luke: Jesus, the Son of Man

John: Jesus, the Son of God, salvation

Acts: Formation of the Early Church

Based on the writings of TFI. Illustrated by Didier Martin.

Pilgrim’s Guidebook, 10: The Books of the Bible, Part 9

Pilgrim’s Guidebook

Based on the writings of TFI.

2023-09-04

The Apostle Paul

Before Paul got saved, he was a rabbi, a teacher, and a leader of the Jewish religion. He went around arresting and persecuting Christians, trying to make them deny their faith in Jesus.

After Paul got saved, he became an advocate of love, grace, and the mercy of God. He taught that nobody could earn salvation by keeping the Old Testament laws and regulations.

Paul was the greatest leader of the Early Church. He proclaimed salvation by grace through Jesus Christ alone. He didn’t just preach to the Jews, but he also went to the gentiles—those who were not Jews—and thousands and thousands were converted to the Church.

Whenever Paul went to a new city he went straight into the synagogue—that was his method—and he laid it out clear to them: “You’re either for Jesus as the Messiah, or you’re against Him, and that’s it!” He got kicked out because the unbelievers were in charge of the synagogue.

Paul got tired of preaching to the Jews because they wouldn’t believe in Jesus that he finally gave up on them and said, “From henceforth I go to the Gentiles” (Acts 18:6).

The epistles Paul wrote are very deep, legal theology, written with big words which can be difficult to understand. But Paul was a scholar, and he was trying to interpret the Gospel for the sake of lawyers and brilliant minds and Jewish scholars like himself, like the Pharisees and the scribes. Paul was trying to explain Jesus and salvation to them in language and arguments that would appeal to the scholars.

Based on the writings of TFI. Illustrated by Didier Martin.

Pilgrim’s Guidebook, 06: The Books of the Bible, Part 5

Pilgrim’s Guidebook

Based on the writings of TFI.

2023-09-04

Old Testament Division

Prophetic books

We can divide the prophets into major and minor prophets. Those called the major prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel. Lamentations was written by Jeremiah. Then come the minor prophets, and they run through Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament.

For 300 years there were no prophets, no prophetical books, all the way until the time of Jesus’ birth and ministry on earth.

Major Prophets

Isaiah: Messianic and other prophecies of the future

Jeremiah: Last effort to save Jerusalem through surrender

Lamentations: Weeping over the desolation of Jerusalem

Ezekiel: God’s presence and The David to come: the Messiah

Daniel: Kingdoms of this world: past, present, and future

Minor Prophets

Hosea: Hosea urges a return to God

Joel: Prophecies of judgment; prophecies of the Endtime gift of prophecy

Amos: Warnings of God’s judgements on Israel

Obadiah: Destruction of Edom; universal judgement

Jonah: A message of destruction and mercy to Nineveh

Micah: Bethlehem to be the birthplace of the Messiah

Nahum: Destruction of Nineveh; rebuke against war

Habakkuk: “The just shall live by his faith”

Zephaniah: Day of the Lord at hand; all nations to be judged

Haggai: Rebuilding of the Temple

Zechariah: Rebuilding of the Temple; Messianic prophecies

Malachi: Final message to a disobedient people

Based on the writings of TFI. Illustrated by Didier Martin.

Pilgrim’s Guidebook, 07: The Books of the Bible, Part 6

Pilgrim’s Guidebook

Based on the writings of TFI.

2023-09-04

The Major Prophets

The book of Daniel is a short book with only 12 chapters. The other major prophet books are longer. So how come the prophet Daniel was considered a major prophet? Do they judge by the size of the books? No.

The importance of the prophet is judged by what he predicted. Apart from the story of Daniel that is covered in the book of Daniel, there are more specific prophecies about the future in the book of Daniel than there are in the other major prophet books. Daniel prophesied very little about Israel of his time or even shortly after his time; in fact, the book of Daniel is mostly about the prophecies of the distant future.

What kind of a prophet was Isaiah? Isaiah was the Messianic prophet, because he prophesied mostly about Jesus, both about His first coming and about His second coming. There are more prophecies about the millennium in the book of Isaiah than anywhere else in the Bible.

Jeremiah was concerned mostly about the Jews as a people and nation—their history, their fall, their future, and even about the Jews returning to Israel.

Ezekiel also prophesied about the Jews, specifically the fall of the Jews. But he had many prophecies regarding the distant future, particularly about the antichrist, the battle of Armageddon, and the Holy City.

Based on the writings of TFI. Illustrated by Didier Martin.

Pilgrim’s Guidebook, 04: The Books of the Bible, Part 3

Pilgrim’s Guidebook

Based on the writings of TFI.

2023-09-04

Old Testament Division

Historical books

The Bible is very well organized and was put in a certain order to make it easier to understand.

The first five books have long been in the same order you find them in the Bible, since the days of Moses. These five books are called “The Pentateuch” or “The Books of Moses.” They were also spoken of by Jesus and others as the Law.

There are a whole lot of other books in the Bible, and when they decided to put them all in one book, they wanted to try to get them well organized, so how do you suppose they did it? Partly chronologically and partly according to content.

The first 17 books (including “The Books of Moses”) are about the history of the world, the history of God’s people, the history of God’s dealings with man, and the history of the Bible. All the first books from Genesis through Esther are historical books.

Genesis: History of mankind and the Hebrew nation

Exodus: Wilderness wandering; Laws of Moses

Leviticus: Laws of the Hebrew nation

Numbers: Journey to the Promised Land

Deuteronomy: Laws of the Hebrew nation

Joshua: The conquest of Canaan led by Joshua

Judges: First 300 years in the land

Ruth: Beginning of the Messianic family of David

1 Samuel: Organization of the kingdom; Samuel; rise and fall of Saul and King David

2 Samuel: Reign of David

1 Kings: Division of the kingdom; Solomon; Elijah

2 Kings: Elisha; divided kingdom; Jerusalem captured

1 Chronicles: Reign of David

2 Chronicles: History of southern kingdom; into captivity

Ezra: Return from captivity in Babylon

Nehemiah: Rebuilding Jerusalem

Esther: Escape of Israelites from being destroyed

Based on the writings of TFI. Illustrated by Didier Martin.

Pilgrim’s Guidebook, 05: The Books of the Bible, Part 4

Pilgrim’s Guidebook

Based on the writings of TFI.

2023-09-04

Old Testament Division

The Pentateuch and the Talmud

What does the big Greek word Pentateuch mean? It means five books. These books are also called “The Torah,” or they are commonly called in the Old and New Testaments “The Books of the Law.” They were written down by Moses and are also therefore called “The Books of Moses.”

Do you know what the Talmud is? The Talmud is made up of commentaries on the Bible. Right in the middle of a huge page there’s a tiny scripture about one or two verses out of the Bible, and all the rest is footnotes—writings of the various great rabbis about one little scripture. That’s what the Jews spend most of their time studying, the Talmud. They call them Talmudic schools and Talmudic studies.

Poetical Books

What comes after the historical books? Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. Those five books are called the poetical books, the poetry of the Bible, five books of poems. They were put together because they were used largely in devotional services and read for devotions and sung. When the people got together for inspiration and songs, they would use these beautiful poetical books.

Job: Sufferings and tests bring humility

Psalms: Praises of David and promises to David

Proverbs: Wisdom and sound advice from Solomon

Ecclesiastes: Vanity of earthly life

Song of Solomon: Love relationship of Jesus and His Bride

Based on the writings of TFI. Illustrated by Didier Martin.

Pilgrim’s Guidebook, 01: Why Is the Bible Important?

Pilgrim’s Guidebook

Based on the writings of TFI.

2023-09-04

The Bible is very well known and the most famous book that has ever been published. Most people at least have heard about it, and a lot of people respect it, and there are over two billion people who believe in it! So if you can quote the Bible, or if you can find verses in the Bible to show to people you are speaking to, a lot of people will believe it.

And even for the people who pretend not to believe it, the Word is powerful just the same and very convicting!—”Sharper than any two-edged sword,” full of the power of the Spirit and very convicting.

“For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires” (Hebrews 4:12 NLT).

The Bible is an inexhaustible source of wisdom and knowledge, out of which you constantly find “treasures new and old.”

It’s thrilling when we discover something old that was there all the time that we had never noticed or fully understood before.

The Bible is the Holy Scriptures—the original Word of God that man has had for thousands of years. Parts of that Bible we’ve had for at least 3,500 years since the days of Moses.

“Every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old” (Matthew 13:52).

Paul said, “How are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? Faith comes by hearing the Word of God”.¹ So when your faith depends on your knowing the Word of God, it is very important for you to study it.

Matthew 4:4: Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Psalm 119:11: I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

Psalm 119:130: The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.

Psalm 119:105: Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.

2 Timothy 2:15: Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

¹ Romans 10:17

Based on the writings of TFI. Scripture taken from the New International Version unless otherwise stated.

Illustrated by Didier Martin.

Pilgrim’s Guidebook, 02: The Books of the Bible, Part 1

Pilgrim’s Guidebook

Based on the writings of TFI.

2023-09-04

If you are going to use the Bible as a tool, and you are going to use passages and verses out of the Bible to make a point or to give the truth to people, you will need to know the names of the books of the Bible. You will also need to know where to find them if you are going to teach someone about God’s Word.

There are 66 books in the Bible, written by many authors, but inspired by God. He used men to record them.

There were about 40 men whom God used to write the Bible, because quite a few books were written by the same man. For example, the first five books were written by Moses, five books were written by John and many books were written by Paul. The Bible has 66 books and about 40 authors.

But more important than the men He used to write the Bible is the Author of the Bible who inspired them. God Himself!

OLD TESTAMENT

17 historical books

5 poetical books

17 prophetic books

NEW TESTAMENT

5 historical books

21 epistles

1 prophetic book

Based on the writings of TFI. Illustrated by Didier Martin.

Activated, March 2005: Special Easter Edition (Part 3)

Endtime Insights: Pre-Tribulation or Post-Tribulation Rapture?

By Scott MacGregor

The term “Rapture” is not found in English-language Bibles, but made its way into Christian terminology as a transliteration of rapiemur (from rapio, or raptio), the Latin word used by Saint Jerome in his Latin Vulgate translation of 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, which describes how the saved from all ages, both dead and living, will be “caught up” to meet Jesus in the air at His Second Coming.

One of the major controversies regarding Endtime Bible prophecy concerns when Jesus will return to “rapture” all those who have received Him as their Savior. Will it be before or after the coming three-and-a-half-year period of worldwide trouble known as the “Great Tribulation”?

Those who believe in a pre-Tribulation Rapture contend that Jesus will return in secret to whisk all born-again (saved) Christians out of this world and into Heaven. Depending on when they believe the Tribulation starts, this would be either at the beginning of the Antichrist’s seven-year rule or at its midpoint.

Central to this pre-Tribulation doctrine are several Bible passages that liken Jesus’ Second Coming to a thief in the night, and also the supposition that the Second Coming and the Rapture are two different events.

Regarding His return, Jesus told His disciples: “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of Heaven, but My Father only. … Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matthew 24:36, 40-44).

Here we have Jesus coming like a thief and people going up to Heaven in the Rapture at the same time. There is no indication that these are separate events.

In another “thief” passage, the apostle Paul states: “Concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape” (1 Thessalonians 5:1-3).

“Sudden destruction” and the labor pain analogy make it clear that Jesus’ return will be a shocking, woeful experience for those not taken—certainly not the secret, stealthy Rapture of pre-Tribulation doctrine.

The point that both of these “thief” passages are making is that Jesus’ return will be sudden and unexpected, so we need to watch the signs of the times and keep our hearts right with Him so we’ll be ready.

A third “thief” passage that is often applied to the Rapture is, in context, a specific warning to Christians in the city of Sardis, in Western Asia Minor (modern Turkey) who lived in the apostle John’s day. Jesus says, “Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you” (Revelation 3:3).

There is a lesson in this passage for us too, of course, and it is the same one that the previously quoted “thief” passages make: We need to keep our hearts right with Jesus so we’ll be ready to face Him when we die or are caught up with Him in the Rapture.

A fourth “thief” passage that is sometimes added to the mix isn’t referring to the Rapture at all, but rather the destruction and re-creation of Earth’s surface and its atmospheric heavens about 1,000 years later, at the end of the Millennium: “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10).

Now let’s look at some of the passages that support the post-Tribulation Rapture theory.

Just prior to His “thief” analogy, Jesus told His disciples: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:29-31).

Jesus placed His return after the Tribulation period—then His angels will gather His elect, all those who have received Him as their Savior, in the Rapture. He couldn’t have made that point clearer!

In addition, the apostle Paul explains that the Antichrist will already be in power and “sitting in the temple of God” when the Rapture happens, and we know from other passages that this happens after the Antichrist breaks the “holy covenant,” which triggers the Great Tribulation: “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day [Jesus’ return] will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin [the Antichrist] is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).

Paul also states that it will happen when the last trumpet sounds—the same trumpet Jesus referred to in Matthew 24:31: “The Lord Himself will descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we [saved] who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). “Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52).

And finally, it is clear from the prophecies in the books of Daniel (c. 538 bc) and Revelation (c. 90 ad) that the saints—all those who have been born again—will be around in the Tribulation, because the Antichrist will war against them. In fact, several passages are even very specific about the length of this period.

“I was watching; and the [Antichrist] was making war against the saints, and prevailing against them, until the Ancient of Days [God] came, and a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom. … He [the Antichrist] shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time [three and a half years]” (Daniel 7:21-22, 25).

Yes, the Great Tribulation is going to be a trying time, but God will turn it to our good and help us come through it victoriously. Concerning that time, Daniel writes: “The people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits. And those of the people who understand shall instruct many” (Daniel 11:32-33).

The Great Tribulation will also be a time when many people will turn to the Lord, as those who know their God and understand what’s happening will manifest great powers and win to God’s eternal kingdom many of those who are disaffected with the Antichrist and his regime. The Tribulation trumpets will signal judgments on the wicked—not the just, who will be under God’s seal of protection during this time.

“These [the great multitude standing before the throne of God and Jesus] are the ones who come out of the Great Tribulation” (Revelation 7:14). In other words, they were there during it. God will deliver His own out of trouble, not from it!

The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

Feeding Reading: The Easter Prophecies

Old Testament prophecies fulfilled in Jesus’ last days on earth, and His death and resurrection

Triumphal entry in Jerusalem on a donkey
Zechariah 9:9
Mark 11:7-8
John 12:13-15

Betrayed by a friend
Psalm 41:9
Mark 14:10, 43-45

Betrayed for 30 pieces of silver
Zechariah 11:12
Matthew 26:15

Betrayal money returned for a potter’s field
Zechariah 11:13
Matthew 27:3-10

Judas’s position to be taken by another
Psalm 109:7-8
Acts 1:16-26

Accused by false witnesses
Psalm 27:12
Matthew 26:60-61
Mark 14:57

Offers no defense
Isaiah 53:7
Matthew 26:62-63
Matthew 27:12-14

Struck and spat upon
Isaiah 50:6
Matthew 26:67
Mark 14:65
John 19:1-3

Hated without reason
Psalm 109:3-5
John 15:24-25

Soldiers divide His garments and gamble for His clothing
Psalm 22:18
Matthew 27:35

Pierced through hands and feet
Zechariah 12:10
Luke 23:33
John 20:27

Executed with malefactors
Isaiah 53:12
Mark 15:27-28

Agonized in thirst
Psalm 22:15
John 19:28

Given gall and vinegar
Psalm 69:21
Matthew 27:34, 48
John 19:29

No bones broken
Psalm 34:20
John 19:32-36

His side pierced
Zechariah 12:10b
John 19:34

Deserted momentarily by God
Psalm 22:1
Matthew 27:46

Vicarious sacrifice
Isaiah 53:4-6, 12
Matthew 8:16-17
Romans 5:6-8
1 Corinthians 15:3

Buried with the rich
Isaiah 53:9
Matthew 27:57-60

Deserted by His followers
Zechariah 13:7
Mark 14:27
Matthew 26:56

Resurrection
Hosea 6:2
Psalm 16:10
Psalm 49:15
Luke 24:6-7

Other dead raised with Him
Isaiah 26:19
Matthew 27:52-53

Ascension to Heaven
Psalm 68:18
Luke 24:50-51
Acts 1:11
Ephesians 4:7-10

Christ at the right hand of the Father
Psalm 110:1
Mark 16:19
Hebrews 1:2-3

Live the Golden Rule

From Jesus with love

I once told My followers, “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Matthew 7:12). So many problems would be solved if people would live by that simple rule. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it is the smart thing to do. When you do it—even when it’s to your own hurt at first—it eventually comes back to you in the form of more love and other good things in your own life. When you build your life and character on treating people the way you want to be treated, it’s inevitable that they will return the favor by treating you with respect and kindness. But it starts with you.

You have opportunities every day to spread goodwill. You face choices every day in which you can either do what is best for yourself or best for someone else. Sometimes it can be difficult to do the right thing, especially when the person you’re dealing with hasn’t done right to you. You may not feel others deserve to be treated with love and kindness or that they are worth the sacrifice, but I didn’t say, “Do to others as they do to you.” My code for living is far above that normal perception of fairness. I want you to live on a higher plane. Anyone can be nice to those who are nice, but the person who can be nice to those who aren’t is the bigger person and more blessed by Me.

Activated, March 2005: Special Easter Edition (Part 2)

We Owe Jesus Everything!

Jesus was willing to die for us to save us, and He wants us to be willing to sacrifice to help Him save others (1 John 3:16). He bought and paid for us with His own blood. We’re His property; we belong to Him now. Jesus saved our souls for eternity, so of course we should do what He asks of us, which is to try to win as many others as we can.

Jesus didn’t go halfway to the cross for us, or almost all the way; He went all the way and gave His whole life for us. The main job He came to do was to die on that cross, and so the main job we’ve got to do is to bear our cross. He said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it” (Luke 9:23-24).

We can only find the fullness of faith that we seek in the path of complete obedience, when we’re really willing to take up our cross and deny ourselves, yielding our pride and our will to follow Jesus. Then He will give us the power to follow as we surrender to Him.—D.B.B.

Prayer for the Day

Jesus, I thank You so much for loving me. Your mercy is so great, incomprehensible, indescribable, and it is renewed for me every morning. You don’t remember my mistakes and sins from day to day. As soon as I tell You I’m sorry, You cover them over with Your love and mercy. You give me a brand-new start and encourage me to try again. Such love!

God’s Forgiveness: Never Say Never

One day Sharon and I met Debbie, and after talking for a while, Sharon asked Debbie if she would like to receive Jesus. She said she would, but halfway through the prayer Debbie raced off, on the verge of tears and apologizing profusely. “Jesus could never forgive me for my sins!” she shouted back at us.

I ran after her, took her by the arm, and said emphatically, “Yes, He can!”

She argued that He couldn’t and wouldn’t, and burst into tears. I also burst into tears over her obvious anguish, and we went back and forth for a few moments—her insisting that Jesus couldn’t forgive her and me insisting that He would—until finally she explained that she had had an abortion.

I quoted a few promises from the Bible that said plainly that she would be forgiven if she would only ask for and accept it. We talked for a long time, and in the end she prayed with me to receive His forgiveness. She had been carrying this burden for many years, but Jesus lifted it the moment she asked Him to!—Debby Blettner, Australia

A friend of ours introduced us to his brother, Marco, and our conversation eventually turned to God’s love and forgiveness in Jesus.

“I belong to the other guy!” Marco replied, meaning the Devil.

And he looked like he did—at least at that moment. He was having a hard time talking or concentrating, and was probably either on drugs or drunk. Whatever the case, it was obvious that he was very unhappy and needed the Lord. We knew that if he would just pray with us to receive Jesus as his Savior, that would be the first step toward the Lord solving his problems.

“It’s impossible for me to change,” Marco would say every time we told him that Jesus loved him. “I’m too bad a sinner!”

Several of his friends were standing around, and they were quick to agree. “He’s too messed up,” they said. “He really needs help, but he’ll never change.”

Marco said he needed to get some fresh air, and we followed him outside. Away from his friends, we assured him once more that the Lord loved him personally, regardless of anything he had ever done. Marco’s eyes filled with tears, and he said he wanted to receive Jesus.

He repeated a short prayer after us, asking Jesus to come into his heart and forgive him for all the wrongs he’d done.

When we saw him a week later, he was like a different man!—Estevão and Ruth, Brazil

What Jesus Said on the Cross

By Curtis Peter Van Gorder

Everything that Jesus said on the cross was a different expression of His love. His Words spoken then still move people today.

Love for enemies

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

“Them” were the Roman soldiers who had been following Pontius Pilate’s orders when they nailed Jesus on the cross to die. They had been following orders, but they had also been cruel and vicious in their mocking and whipping, proving what was in their own hearts. “Them” were also those in the misguided, manipulated mob that had called for Jesus’ death and forced Pilate’s hand—the same common people who had hailed Jesus as their King only a few days earlier (Mark 15:6-14; Mark 11:8-10). How cruel, how awful, how unjust! How could Jesus say that any of these people didn’t know what they were doing? To a certain degree they had to, but they didn’t realize the enormity of what they were doing—that they were killing the Son of God.

In asking His Father to forgive those who had turned on Him and those who had carried out His execution, Jesus actually spoke in their defense, and in so doing proved in the most powerful way possible that He believed what He had taught: “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). Despite the shame and pain the Romans heaped on Jesus, He forgave them. He also forgave those who had turned on Him. Now He wants us to have that much love, that much forgiveness.

Love for sinners

“Today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43).

Jesus spoke these words to the repentant thief who was crucified beside Him.

The following true story shows the present-day effect of these words.

A couple in Mexico was robbed of their credit cards, papers, and cash. Some friends prayed with them that they would be able to overcome the trauma of the theft and that the stolen items would be recovered.

A week later the couple received a thick envelope in the mail. All of their valuables were inside. So was a note, which was signed, “From a repentant robber.” There also was a drawing of three crosses. The cross on the right was circled. Jesus’ mercy and forgiveness still change people today.

Love for family and friends

“Behold your son! … Behold your mother!” (John 19:26-27).

Jesus spoke these words to His mother and to John, the closest of His disciples, as He looked down on them from the cross. Jesus understood the void that the end of His earthly life would leave in each of theirs, and that they could each help fill that void for the other. Jesus loved them so much that even in the midst of His most trying hour, He saw the needs of His loved ones and did something about it.

Thereafter, John cared for Mary as his own mother, and Mary loved John as her own son.

Jesus needs our love

“I thirst!” (John 19:28).

Last Christmas some friends and I did a program at a center for the handicapped that is run by the Missionaries of Charity, the Catholic order that Mother Teresa founded. I noticed a large banner on the wall that read “I thirst,” and I asked why they had chosen these two last words of Jesus.

“That cry of Christ has become our rallying cry,” one of the sisters explained. “Shortly before she passed on to her heavenly reward, Mother Teresa said, ‘His thirst is without end. He, the Creator of all, pleads for the love of His creation. He thirsts for our love. These words, “I thirst,” do they not echo in our souls?'”

Love for God

“My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).

Did Jesus doubt God’s love as He died? Had God forsaken Him? These words always troubled me until I read the following explanation from David Berg:

“What caused Jesus the greatest agony on the cross was not our sins, because He knew that we were going to be forgiven and saved. What broke His heart was thinking that His Father had turned His back on Him. Jesus went through an experience that, thank God, we will never have to go through—not just crucifixion, not just the agony of the body, but the agony of mind and spirit, feeling that God had actually deserted Him. ‘My God, My God,’ He cried out, ‘why have You forsaken Me?’ (Matthew 27:46). Had God forsaken Him? Yes, momentarily, that He might die the death of a sinner, without God.

“Jesus took upon Himself the sins of the whole world on the cross (1 Peter 2:24), and these sins separated Him from His Father. He voluntarily gave Himself to die in our place—He loves us that much!”

Love for you and me

“It is finished!” (John 19:30).

What was it that He finished? On the same evening that Jesus hung on the cross, the Passover lamb was being sacrificed. Like the blood of the lamb saved the Hebrew people from destruction in Egypt, Jesus’ blood—the ultimate Passover sacrifice—redeems us from the power of sin and death.

When He died on the cross His work was done, and our salvation was won!

Love’s reward

“Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit” (Luke 23:46).

Jesus, help us to trust our lives to You and live to please You, like You trusted Your life to the Father and lived to please Him. Then what a day of rejoicing that will be when we see You face to face and enter into our heavenly reward—eternal life and love with You and the Father!

Curtis Peter Van Gorder is a full-time volunteer with the Family International in the Mideast.

Celebrating Easter—Why the Resurrection Makes All the Difference

Peter Amsterdam

2022-04-11

As we celebrate Easter, we are celebrating God’s way of bringing salvation to us. In His love for humanity, God made a way for us to enter into an eternal relationship with Him, and the means was through His Son coming into the world, living as a human being, and laying down His life for us. Jesus did just that. He came into this world out of love, lived as we live, and gave Himself over to be crucified. His death made it possible for us to truly know God and to live with Him forever.

Jesus was God’s Son. We know this because of the account of Him given in the Gospels, and through the rest of the Bible. He did and said numerous things which spoke to the fact that He was God’s Son. His resurrection from the dead, which we celebrate every Easter, was proof that He was all that He said He was—that He was the long-awaited Messiah, and that He was God the Son.

Jesus referred to Himself as the Son of Man over seventy times throughout the Gospels. While on occasion He stated that He was the Messiah, He generally didn’t refer to Himself as such. The title of Messiah carried with it preconceived ideas in the minds of the people of His day and expectations of a political nature. Continually claiming to be the Messiah would most likely have prematurely brought Him problems with the Jewish leaders as well as the Roman government. It would also have brought up the stereotypical ideas about the Messiah which were prominent in those days—someone who would throw off the shackles of the Roman oppressors and physically free the Jewish people.

By referring to Himself as the Son of Man, a non-messianic title from the book of Daniel that the Jews of Jesus’ day were familiar with,¹ Jesus was using a title which allowed Him to speak modestly about Himself and to include aspects of His mission such as His suffering and death, which weren’t considered part of the Messiah’s role. At the same time, in line with what is said in Daniel, it enabled Him to express His exalted role, while avoiding the messianic misconceptions of the time. In using the title Son of Man, Jesus could speak of His mission on earth—which included His suffering and death, His second coming, His role in judgment, and His glorious future—without using the politically charged title of Messiah.

Within the Gospels, Jesus was the only one who used the title Son of Man in reference to Himself. He used the title to claim the authority to do what only God could do, such as forgive sins. “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—He then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.”²

He also referred to Himself this way when telling His disciples about His coming crucifixion and resurrection on the third day. He spoke about the Son of Man giving His life as a ransom, teaching that His death was a vicarious sacrifice, that He was laying down His life for the salvation of others. “As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, ‘The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day.’ And they were greatly distressed.”³

Jesus foretold that as the Son of Man, He would lay down His life for us: “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”⁴ And so He was crucified, died, and was buried—and then rose from the dead. Because He rose, we have affirmation that His heavenly Father set His seal upon Him, and that His sacrificial atoning death has given us eternal life.⁵

Another way in which Jesus used the phrase the Son of Man was when speaking of His second coming, when He will return to the earth to establish His rule and to pronounce judgment. The book of Daniel speaks of “one like a son of man” coming on the clouds of heaven. This reference to a human-looking figure with authority, glory, worship, and an eternal kingdom evokes an image of power normally reserved for God.

I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.⁶

When Jesus speaks of His return, He refers to what Daniel saw in his vision. He explains that He will come “in the glory of His Father, coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, seated on a glorious throne, at the right hand of Power.”⁷

He also speaks of the time of judgment which He will preside over, as His Father has given Him the authority to execute judgment. “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.”⁸ These claims Jesus made about executing judgment are extraordinary—far beyond what any human could or should claim. However, Jesus, as the Son of God, has this authority, and His claims were validated by the fact that God raised Him from the dead.

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus is referred to as the Son of God, both by Himself and by others. His Sonship is woven throughout the Gospels, especially in the things He said about Himself. From the Gospels we understand that He existed eternally with the Father before the creation of the world as the Logos, the Word of God, and that He made all things. The Logos then became flesh, in the person of Jesus, who through the life He led taught us about God and His love.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made. … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.⁹

We are told of His Sonship in the birth narratives, where His paternity comes directly from God through the conception of the Holy Spirit, and therefore He is called the Son of God.¹⁰ He was named Jesus, which means “Yahweh is salvation”—Yahweh being one of the names by which the Jewish people know God.

When Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the River Jordan at the beginning of His mission, the voice of God stated that Jesus was His Son. “When Jesus was baptized, … He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on Him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’”¹¹ Close to the end of His mission, when He was transfigured, God once again declared that He was His Son.¹²

Jesus had a unique relationship with the Father through knowing Him as only His only begotten Son could. The Father has also “given all things into His hands.”¹³ When asked by the Jewish leadership if He was the Son of God, He answered in the affirmative: “The high priest asked Him, ‘Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?’ And Jesus said, ‘I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.’”¹⁴

The statements Jesus made about Himself and His relationship to God, claiming to be equal to God, at times accepting worship,¹⁵ and claiming to do the work of the Father were seen as outlandish and blasphemous. The Jewish religious leaders who considered Him a false messiah came to the conclusion that He needed to die so that the Romans wouldn’t destroy the nation because of Him.¹⁶ While the Jewish leaders didn’t have the authority to kill Jesus themselves, they were able to have Him crucified by the Roman authorities. The supposed false messiah who claimed to be God’s Son was crucified, and the problem was seemingly taken care of.

But then … He rose from the dead. And His resurrection proved that all He said He was, all the authority He claimed to have—the messiahship, the power and dominion, the judgment, and His Sonship—was genuine. He is who He said He was.

Had Jesus not risen, had there been no resurrection, then everything that God’s Word says about Him would be false. Our faith, as Paul said, would be worthless.¹⁷ But the resurrection proves that our faith is of inestimable worth. It proves that Jesus is God the Son.

Because of the resurrection, we are assured that through belief in Jesus we have eternal life. That’s what Easter is all about. That’s why it’s a day to praise and thank Him for His sacrifice, for laying down His life for us. That’s why it’s a day to worship God for the wonderful plan of salvation which He enacted. That’s why Easter is a wonderful day to make a personal commitment to share the good news that Jesus is risen and His free offer of salvation is available to all who will receive it. Happy Easter!

Originally published April 2014. Excerpted and republished April 2022.
Read by Jerry Paladino.

¹ Daniel 7:13–14.

² Matthew 9:6 ESV.

³ Matthew 17:22–23 ESV.

⁴ Matthew 20:28 ESV.

⁵ John 6:27.

⁶ Daniel 7:13–14 ESV.

⁷ Matthew 16:27, 24:30, 26:64.

⁸ Matthew 25:31–32.

⁹ John 1:1–3, 14 ESV.

¹⁰ Luke 1:31–32, 35.

¹¹ Matthew 3:16–17.

¹² Matthew 17:5.

¹³ John 3:35.

¹⁴ Mark 14:61–62 ESV.

¹⁵ Matthew 14:33.

¹⁶ John 11:47–50.

¹⁷ 1 Corinthians 15:14.

Happy Resurrection

By Ariana Keating

When I was eight or nine, my family bought Franco Zeffirelli’s six-hour miniseries Jesus of Nazareth (1977) on video and we spent quite a few Sunday mornings slowly going through the series, learning about the life of Christ. During the last hour, Jesus’ trial and crucifixion are portrayed. I knew the basic story, having heard it retold each Easter for as long as I could remember, but seeing it portrayed so vividly was a different matter. I watched with horror as Jesus was tried, mocked, beaten, and crucified. Watching Jesus die was too much to bear. My heart broke and tears flowed.

My mother saw my anguish and pulled me near. “But honey,” she said, a smile lighting up her face, “the best is yet to come. He is alive!”

Sure enough, after that terrible death came His glorious resurrection, and with it all my anguish was washed away. After we had finished the video and our discussion, I drew a picture of Jesus smiling down from Heaven. I was so thankful that the greatest story ever told had a happy ending!

I believe day-to-day life is a bit like Easter. We experience disappointments, sorrow, and pain, but through our Savior we can find sweet relief and “resurrection.” Our troubles won’t last forever. In those moments when we feel like we are dying, when we feel burdened and full of sorrow, we need to remember that the “best is yet to come.” Just as Jesus’ death was not the end, only the beginning, so the problems of life that threaten to undo us can signal a new beginning, the turning of a new page. That’s Easter—the joy of starting again.

“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die” (John 11:25-26). “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

Happy Easter! Happy resurrection!

Ariana Keating is a member of the Family International in Thailand.

“We Shall Be Changed!”

What Your Resurrection Will Be Like

By David Brandt Berg

“Behold, I tell you a mystery,” the apostle Paul wrote to a group of Christians in the Greek city of Corinth. “We shall not all sleep [be dead], but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet [Jesus’ Second Coming]. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we [who are alive] shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. … Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?'” (1 Corinthians 15:51-55).

Paul also said that our spirits are immediately present with the Lord when we die (2 Corinthians 5:8), so in this passage he is explaining the bodily resurrection of the dead. It’s pretty hard to explain how a spirit can rejoin a body that’s been in the grave for years—possibly even hundreds or thousands of years—and come to life and be perfectly whole, even better than it was before. Paul says it’s going to be like the difference between a seed and what the seed becomes once it has germinated and grown to maturity (1 Corinthians 15:36-44). How are you going to explain that transformation?

Our resurrection bodies are going to be new and different, and yet they’ll be close enough to the ones we have now that we’ll recognize each other: “Then I shall know just as I also am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12). The disciples recognized Jesus after He was resurrected, but not always. He was different enough that sometimes they didn’t recognize Him (Luke 24:13-16,31; John 20:14-16). That was either because He didn’t want to be recognized at the time, or because He was more beautiful and more perfect, because He had a new spiritual body that would never die—and that’s the kind of body you’re going to have! You’re going to be like Jesus was and is now, since His resurrection. He “will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious [resurrection] body” (Philippians 3:21).

Were Jesus’ followers able to see Him after He was resurrected? Yes! Were they able to usually recognize Him? Yes! Did He walk and talk with them? Yes! He even cooked for them and ate and drank with them (Luke 24:43; John 21:9-14). Jesus was able to do all these normal, natural things, and in your new resurrection body, so will you. Think of that!

But that’s not all. You’ll also be able to do some things you can’t do in your natural body. When His followers were in a locked room for fear of those who had crucified Him, Jesus walked right through the locked door (John 20:26). Another time, when He had finished talking with two of His followers on the road to Emmaus, He “vanished from their sight” (Luke 24:31). You’ll be able to walk through walls and doors and appear and disappear, just like Jesus did. You’ll also be able to travel from one place to another, not merely at the speed of sound or light, but at the speed of thought.

“We shall all be changed!” The main thing that’s going to be changed is your body, but if He’s going to change your body, He’s certainly going to change your clothes. You’ll be clothed in a robe of light, a robe of righteousness (Isaiah 61:10). Just think, no matter where you are or what you’re doing, you’re suddenly going to notice a wonderful change and look to see that you’re wearing a beautiful new robe of righteousness!

Actually, you may be so preoccupied with what’s happening in the sky—lightning and thunder and Jesus appearing in the clouds—that you may not even notice what you’re wearing. But you’ll sure feel different because you’ll “be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump” (1 Corinthians 15:52). At the sound of that trumpet you’re going to be raised from the dead, if you are dead, or raised from the earth if you’re still living.

In another epistle, Paul writes: “I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14). That includes you, if you’ve received Him! It also includes all of your departed family members and friends who are saved. So don’t worry that you’ll never see them again; you’ll meet in the air. What a family reunion—the biggest ever!

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

Celebrate Easter!

A compilation

2017-04-13

Easter commemorates the event that is at the heart and soul of your faith, the foundation of your faith. It’s the knowledge that, because I died for you and rose again, we’ll never be separated—not by sin or shortcomings or any human weaknesses.

It’s also the heart and soul of your happiness—the happy-to-the-core kind that lives on in your heart and spirit no matter what is happening in your life. It’s the wonderful peace that comes from knowing you’re saved, you’re free, and you’ll live with Me forever. It’s an unchangeable factor in a constantly changing world.

Easter is always a good time to get back to the basics of your faith. A time to not only thank Me for the gift of salvation, but also for the beautiful and intimate gift of our personal relationship, which came about because of My sacrifice and My Father’s great love for humanity.

What comes to mind when you think of Easter? Depending on where you’ve grown up—your background and culture—it can be many different things. For some, Easter brings thoughts of white lilies and a sense of starting over—regrowth, rebirth—because My resurrection wiped the slate clean of sin. For others it’s visualizing Me on the cross and experiencing an overwhelming sense of gratitude at the price I paid for humanity’s freedom. For others it’s about forgiveness. For others it’s a time to celebrate family, friends, and all the blessings that life has brought. It’s about all these things and more.

Celebrate Easter! Think about My love for you, which is so great that I was willing to die for you, to sacrifice all for you.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy

The miracle of Easter is that because Jesus didn’t remain in the grave, we don’t have to either! We don’t have to suffer death, the payment for our sins in hell, or eternal separation from God. Jesus took that punishment for us, and then rose in new life! And His new life can be inside us, giving us hope and peace, as we are filled with His love. He arose! And we who believe were also born anew. Hallelujah!—David Brandt Berg

Because He rose, I too shall rise,
Shall rise and walk and dance and sing;
And there shall be no grief, no pain,
Nor any tears, remembering!
—Martha Snell Nicholson

The Easter season is a wonderful opportunity for Christians everywhere to unite as we praise our living, risen Savior! I think that Pope John Paul II expressed the Christian perspective on the resurrection so well when he said, “We are the Easter people and ‘hallelujah’ is our song!”

When we celebrate Easter, we commemorate one of the most wonderful—and important—days in all history. I say “one,” because without both the day of Jesus’ birth and the day of His death, there never could have been that day that He arose in victory! Jesus’ sojourn on earth and those milestones were a complete package. His birth, death, and resurrection were like a domino effect. One event caused the other to happen, and without the preceding event, the next one could not have taken place. All had to be fulfilled in order to produce the final victory. There had to be the agony of the cross in order for there to be the joy of the empty tomb.

Jesus’ birth and resurrection are happy, joyful events—and we love to hear about them and celebrate them! At the same time, we know there was the pain, the heartache, the sacrifice, the fierce fight against evil, the afflictions, the temptations. There was the great agony and bitter sorrow that our Savior endured for us during His life and final days. But these were all necessary for the ultimate victory to be won.

Even though Jesus was a “man of sorrows” who was “acquainted with grief,” He also laughed and danced and sang! He brought joy to those around Him! The deep pain in His life did not overshadow the great joy.¹—Maria Fontaine

Sing, my heart, for He is risen,
Christ is risen, Christ is risen!
Let the mountains shout for gladness,
Let the hills break forth and sing.
Let the seas make known His message,
Let the stars tell out the story.
Let the world proclaim His glory.
He is Lord and He is King!
—Louis Mertins

When I was dying on the cross, I felt forsaken. But when I rose from the dead, everything was new, everything was different, all the pain was forgotten. There was no remorse or sorrow, because the anguish of dying was consumed by the joy of My resurrection. The pain of death was swallowed up by victory.

Easter is a holiday celebrating victory, triumph, and overcoming. So think about the good things I have brought your way. Think on the good, the positive. It’s a day to forget any sorrow or pain or discouragement, and to focus on the joyful and the victorious.

Remember the great love I have for you—the love that led Me to give My life for you, and the love that gave Me the power to rise up in new life, also for you.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy

Crown Him the Lord of life!
Who triumphed o’er the grave;
Who rose victorious in the strife,
For those He came to save.
His glories now we sing,
Who died, and rose on high;
Who died, eternal life to bring,
And lives, that death may die.
—Matthew Bridges

I once heard someone say that he thought Easter ought to be made the premier Christian holiday, ahead of Christmas. That’s not likely to happen, of course, but he presented an interesting line of reasoning.

If Christmas gives us reason to hope, he argued, Easter gives us cause to celebrate. Christmas marks the arrival of the long-awaited promise, but Easter marks the ultimate fulfillment of that promise. Christmas marks the beginning of the earthly life of the King of kings; Easter marks His coronation as the Savior of mankind.

The Easter advocate went on to make an even stronger case for Easter being a joyous occasion, not a sad and solemn one. His argument here was simple: Jesus wants it that way. He wants us to marvel at His love and sacrifice and celebrate His resurrection, not mourn His death. (I couldn’t have agreed with him more on that.) He quoted Jesus three times to back up this claim:

Before His crucifixion Jesus told His disciples, “If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going to the Father.’”² And a little later, “Your sorrow will be turned into joy. I will see you again and your heart will rejoice.”³ And finally, when Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were the first to see Jesus after His resurrection, the first thing He said to them was ‘Rejoice!’”⁴

Easter is almost here. Let’s be Easter advocates and make it the happy occasion He wants it to be. Let’s celebrate! Let’s praise God and Jesus for the victory! Jesus lives! And because He lives, we will too—forever!—Keith Phillips

Published on Anchor April 2017. Read by Jason Lawrence.
Music by John Listen.

¹ Isaiah 53:3; John 15:11, 17:13.

² John 14:28.

³ John 16:20, 22.

⁴ Matthew 28:9.