Carried Along

 

When it comes to how we understand the Bible, there are several different opinions. Some believe that the Bible is nothing more than the words of a handful of people who were starting a man made religion, while others believe the words of the Bible are nothing less than the words of God Himself. The latter position holds to the idea of inerrancy, that the Bible is absolutely free from errors (there are varying degrees of belief in inerrancy, but I am a firm believer that what is inspired is surely inerrant). 

 

Perhaps the best clue we have to the claim for inerrancy is found in II Peter 1. There we read “Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (v.20-21).” The King James Version says these men spoke as they “were moved by” the Spirit. I want to focus on that word moved or “carried along” in the English Standard Version. 

 

One of the best ways to get an understanding of what a word means in this situation is to see how the same Greek word was used elsewhere. A good help to us is the word’s appearance in Acts 27:15 where Luke described their shipwreck: “And when the ship was caught and could not face the wind, we gave way to it and were driven along.” The “driven along” at the end of the verse is the same verb Peter used to describe the process by which men wrote the Bible. Derek Thomas wrote about this word, saying, “These men…were not simply prompted or led by Him, but by carried by Him. When someone is carried, he is set down at the destination of the carrier.” 

 

Benjamin Warfield added, “What is ‘borne’ (carried along) is taken up by the bearer and conveyed by the bearer’s power, not its own, to the bearer’s goal, not its own.” Luke and everyone else in the ship were completely at the mercy of the wind. They lost all control of themselves and would wind up only where the wind sent them (interestingly, the same word for wind gives us the Holy Spirit). 

 

Peter’s point, then, is that the men God used to write the Bible were the instrument in the hand of the Holy Spirit. Yes, their human hands physically penned the words on the paper, but the message came from God. The men who wrote knew they were writing; they were not in a trance or mere secretaries transcribing a dictation. But the finished product was exactly what God wanted recorded. It was not Paul’s opinions, Micah’s musings, or David’s daydreams. It is Holy Scripture, something breathed out by Almighty God, written by men, and preserved by the church for thousands of years. We can trust what we read because what we read was written by our Lord. 

 

Goodbye 2020

 

It is almost time to say goodbye to the year 2020. This has been a year for the books, hasn’t it? When 2019 was winding down you might have had some big plans for the new year. As you watched the ball drop and sang  Auld Lang Syne, you might have been excited about a clean slate and a new decade. Perhaps you made some resolutions about what you were going to do better. “2020 is going to be my year,” you might have said. 

 

And maybe it was. But I’d be willing to bet this wasn’t the year you hoped it would be. When I was a kid I decided to run for President in 2020 because I would turn 35 this year. Obviously I didn’t. Think about all that we endured this year: we are still in a global pandemic; we were quarantined; our record-high economy came to a screeching halt; people have worked from home; school abruptly ended, and many are doing virtual school; churches closed or went online or into parking lots; businesses closed for good; we have gone through extended periods without being able to visit loved ones, and we have lost too many; we have endured record setting highs, lows, and wetness; we had an earthquake and murder hornets; we had civil unrest all summer, preceded by acts of hatred and violence. And then there was the election. 

 

Did I leave anything out?

 

We use the expression that we are having “one of those days.” 2020 has been one of those years. As we prepare to close the book on this year and ring in 2021, many are jokingly saying they hope it is a better year than 2020 (“Hey, it can’t be any worse!”). And in all seriousness, I hope that 2021 is a great year for everyone reading this. 

 

This year has been a reminder that things do not always go according to plan. I am not suggesting that we should not have plans; I love the old adage that says, “to fail to plan is to plan to fail.” Having a plan is a good thing, but sometimes life happens and our plans fall through. As Robert Burns famously wrote, “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” We should make plans, but we do so understanding they may just go awry. It might be God that is spoiling our plans. 

 

Paul planned to go to Asia to preach the gospel—a noble plan indeed. But then, in an event commonly referred to as the Macedonian Call, Luke wrote, “And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us (Acts 16:9).’” Paul’s plan went awry, but it was God shutting the door. Because God spoiled Paul’s plan, he went instead to places like Corinth and Philippi, and we have some great books of the Bible because of it. 

 

If 2020 hasn’t been you’re year, it may be tempting to try to erase it from your memory and just chalk it up tp being one of those years. Or, like Paul going to Macedonia, we can try to look for something good that came from it. Did you spend more time with your kids than normal? Did you reevaluate your priorities? Did you learn to make do with a little less? Did you watch more church services online? Did you cry out to God like you didn’t do when your job was safe and the economy was booming? Did you get to share the message of hope through Jesus with someone who was desperate? 

 

Hindsight is always 20/20, and soon 2020 will be hindsight. It is easy to join the chorus of complainers, but lets always look for blessings instead. As long as Jesus is on the throne, there is plenty of bright side to see.

 

 

Stubbing Your Toe

Have you ever stubbed your toe? Of course you have. It’s terrible, isn’t it? The worst, in my opinion, is stubbing the pinky toe. When the Florida Gators basketball team was playing in the 2000 National Championship game, I jumped off the couch in celebration at one point and stubbed my pinky toe on our coffee table. If I think about it, I can still feel the pain coursing through my body twenty years later (it was almost as bad as the pain of losing that game!).

Stubbing a toe hurts, and that is why it is such a fitting analogy for lack of unity in the church. You might not have heard somebody make that analogy, but the Greek language does that for us. You see, Acts 2:46 says the new church members were together “day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, [and] they received their food with glad and generous hearts.” I want you to think about that phrase generous hearts. 

In Greek the word generous literally means, “without rock, smooth, simple, or single.” Without rock? How does “without rock” turn into generous hearts? When everyone was getting along, things were nice and smooth; there were no rocks to make the path difficult, and no one was stubbing their toe. The opposite is to have a rocky road and many stubbed toes, including pinky toes. This is the scene depicted by lack of unity in the church. 

When church members fight with one another they are casting stones into the path where they are liable to be kicked by other people. They are creating an environment where people have to watch their step at all times. There are no generous hearts (or singleness/simplicity of hearts in the KJV and NKJV). 

What kind of path are you creating? Are you smoothing out the road by your actions, or are you laying down a rock bed? You can smooth the path by being forgiving, merciful, gentle, meek, loving, patient, and understanding. You can add rocks to the path by being selfish, hateful, bitter, unforgiving, and forcing people to take sides with a “my way or the highway” approach.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers (Matthew 5:9).” Peacemakers remove the rocks from the path and help other people get along. Nobody wants a stubbed toe, so let’s not add any rocks to this world’s already rocky road. 

The Hand in the Glove

We use gloves for a number of different reasons. We may wear gloves when we work with tools like a shovel or rake so that we don’t get blisters or splinters; we may wear gloves when we work on our cars to keep our hands clean; we may wear gloves when we work with raw meat so that we don’t get sick. Many professionals wear gloves—mechanics, surgeons, crime scene investigators, burglars. OK, maybe that last one is a bad example. 

As useful as gloves are, they are worthless on their own. Just because I own a pair of gloves doesn’t mean that the gloves will rake my leaves or change my tire. On their own gloves are just material. Once I put my hand inside the glove it seemingly comes to life, and the glove is limited only by my own abilities. I like to think of the Holy Spirit as being the hand inside the glove. We are the glove, and even though there are a lot of jobs for us—a lot of ways in which we can minister—on our own we are powerless. Once we are saved and filled with God’s Spirit there is no limit to what we can accomplish; we are entrusted with a spiritual gift, and we are empowered to use that gift for the kingdom of God. On our own we can do nothing, but through Him all things are possible. 

In Acts 1:8 Jesus told the disciples, “You will receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses..” When the Holy Spirit comes on us, when the hand enters the glove, we get power. Notice that it is a power that does something. The Holy Spirit does not enter us just for something to do, but because He has something for us to do. Jesus mentioned being witnesses for Him, and that can be accomplished in a number of ways. We can be witnesses through preaching and teaching, through showing mercy, through helping others, through giving, and through living the everyday Christian life. The fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit help us to do just that. 

Is there a hand in your glove? Is God’s Spirit giving you the power to do something for Him? If the answer is no, you need to give your life to the Lord and allow Him to use you. If the answer is yes, then I hope you are using your gift, letting the Spirit use you in order to make an impact in God’s kingdom. 

Our Weakness, God's Power

On Easter Sunday in 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte’s army was camped on the hills above the border town of Feldkirch, Austria, poised to attack. The citizens knew they could not survive the attack, and could only hope that the Austrian army would come to their rescue in time. The town council held an emergency meeting to decide whether to try to defend themselves or surrender. Fighting looked like a suicide mission, but surrender is never a popular option.

The pastor of the town church stood up to address the frightened people. He is reported to have said, "Friends, we have been counting on our own strength, and apparently that has failed. Since this is the day of our Lord’s resurrection, let us just ring the bells, have our services, and leave the matter in His hands. We know only our weakness, and not the power of God to defend us." The people agreed with their pastor, and they began to ring the church bells in celebration of the resurrection, and to let people know the service was still on. 

When Napoleon’s army heard the sudden peal of the church bells, they assumed that the Austrian army had arrived and was ready to fight. Before the service ended, Napoleon was in full retreat, and there was not a Frenchman to be found.

I like the way that Feldkirch pastor thought. All we know naturally is our own weakness, not the power of God. As Christians we should learn to understand more of God’s power, especially the fact that He has given that power to us. In Acts 1:8 Jesus told the disciples they would receive power once the Holy Spirit came upon them (which we now have as soon as we are saved), and Paul alluded to that same Holy Ghost power in Ephesians 1:19-21. His prayer was that the church would come to know “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.” 

That Greek word for power in both verses is dunamis, and it gives us our English word dynamite. No, Paul was not thinking of TNT when he wrote those words, because that did not exist. But when TNT was invented in 1867, the word dynamite was chosen because it accurately described the power that it held. That is the idea behind the power we have as believers. We have dynamite power to preach with boldness, pray, understand our Bibles, let our light so shine, and witness for Christ. We do not need to ask God for this power, because it is already within us as soon as we put our faith in Jesus. The question is not, “Do you have power,” but “Are you using your power?” 

Something New

Wise King Solomon famously said, “There is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9).” He continued by adding, “Is there a thing of which it is said, ‘See, this is new’? It has been already in the ages before us (v.10).” 

There is nothing new under the sun, and that applies to theology as well. It troubles me when I hear people talking about their church or their pastor who always have a “new” message. I have heard people say things like, “At that church, its always the same old thing.” Please don’t misunderstand me; I am not talking about preaching timeless truth in a fresh way, for that should be our goal. Neither am I talking about bringing something to light, such as a cultural nuance that may help 21^stCentury Westerners understand 1^stCentury Middle Eastern life. That information may be new to us when we first hear it, but the truth of the message is not new. It is dangerous when we become bored with the gospel and go out searching for something new. 

Sermons on grace, mercy, love, the Golden Rule, heaven, sin, repentance, the cross, or the empty tomb should never get old to us. According to the Talmud, “One who repeats his lesson a hundred times is not like him who repeats it a hundred and one times (Hagigah).” In other words, the more we study the Bible, the more sermons we hear on the same topic, the better we will become. The Talmud continues: “He who studies the Torah but does not review it is like one who plants and does not harvest.” In the Jewish culture, the Bible was committed to memory by constant recitation. 

The Shemah of Deuteronomy 6 (that God is one, and we should love Him with all of our heart, soul, and might) is to be spoken of when we lie down and rise up, when we sit down and walk. The truths of God’s Word produce a harvest in our lives when we not just read them, but when we constantly review them. That is the idea behind Psalm 1, which says the blessed man is one who meditates on God’s law both day and night. We need to chew on God’s Word just as a cow chews the cud. Have you ever seen a cow that was not chewing? Every time I see one she is chomping on a bite of food. That is the picture the psalmist was painting, and it is how we are to reflect on the things of God. 

The Greeks loved to hear something new (Acts 17), but they did not give the words much reflection. Any new message or deity would tickle their ears, but it would go in one and right out the other. We need to reject any ear-tickling “new” doctrine, and instead constantly reflect on the timeless theology that God recorded for us in His Word. 

Pentecost Sunday

Sunday, May 20^th, is Pentecost Sunday. For many Christians, especially Baptists like myself, we tend to shy away from recognizing this special day because of its association with speaking in tongues or other [Charismatic] gifts of the Spirit (I am personally a cessationist, believing some of those gifts were for the Apostolic Era and have since passed away). Regardless of a person’s take on spiritual gifts, Pentecost Sunday should be celebrated by all who profess the name of Jesus.

The word Pentecost means fifty days because it is celebrated fifty days after Resurrection Sunday (technically it is forty-nine days by our calendar, but the Jewish calendar measured days from sundown to sundown). The official name of Pentecost is the Festival of Weeks because it was originally set to be observed seven weeks after the first grain harvest of the year. More importantly, Pentecost is also called The Season of the Giving of the Law, for on Pentecost Jews reflected on Moses receiving the law on Mt. Sinai.

Do you remember what happened when Moses was given the Torah? He descended the mountain only to find the Jews worshipping a golden calf that his brother helped fashion, a glaring object lesson to the fact that they could not keep the very law Moses was holding. As a result, 3,000 idolaters lost their lives that day.

In Acts 2, seven weeks after the Resurrection, Luke notes, “the Day of Pentecost was fully come.” In Greek, Luke was saying that this was the Day of Pentecost, a momentous fulfillment of a day that would never again be the same. The Holy Spirit descended on the assembled believers, and Peter preached a message with a newfound boldness. Do you remember how many were saved that day? 3,000.

(The Apostles began to speak in tongues. This is glossa in Greek, the word from which glossary is derived; it can only refer to known languages. People came from around the world to celebrate the Festival of Weeks, and the Spirit allowed the Apostles to preach in the languages that were represented in Jerusalem that day. Any other conclusion is not fair to the original Greek.)

We celebrate Pentecost Sunday because it is a reminder that we are under grace, not law. No one is good enough to keep the law for salvation, but because God’s Spirit now fills believers, we are saved by amazing grace.      

Luther’s Five Solas

After Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the Castle Church door he became a marked man in all but his hometown of Wittenberg. The dangers he faced afforded him the time to devote himself to the study of Scripture and the writing of his books and commentaries. As the Reformer continued to grow in his understanding he ultimately developed his “five solas (sola means only or alone in Latin).”

Sola Scriptura. Luther concluded that everything a person needs to know in order to be saved is be found in Scripture alone. As Paul noted in Romans 1:16, the gospel “is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes.” As the English Reformers would later declare in their Thirty-Nine Articles, if something is not written in Scripture, it “is not to be required…or necessary for salvation.”

Sola Gratis. Martin Luther realized that salvation is by grace alone, as clearly stated in Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace you are saved…” Were it not for the grace of God no human could ever have the opportunity to be saved. No saved person can boast of their salvation unless they are boasting in God’s grace.

Sola Fide. Ephesians 2:8 continues, “you are saved through faith…” Luther learned that grace is God’s part, but we must respond in faith alone. Buying indulgences, confession before a priest, making pilgrimages, and observing the mass cannot save a person; it is only by grace through faith.

Solus Christus. Neither grace nor faith would be possible were it not for the finished work of Jesus on the cross. Acts 4:12 says, “There is salvation in no other, for there is no other name [than Jesus] under heaven by which we must be saved.”

Soli Deo Gloria. Everything must be done for the glory of God alone (1 Corinthians 10:31). Even our salvation brings God glory, but the warped actions of the priesthood glorified man in place of God. Luther fought to put the focus on God alone.

If Martin Luther could speak to you today, he would want you to make sure your salvation is founded on Scripture alone, because of grace alone, with you responding in faith alone, based on the work of Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.

    

You will be my Martyrs

In Acts 1:8 Jesus gave the disciples instructions to follow after the coming of the Holy Spirit: “You will be witnesses for me in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.” Those words are familiar to most churchgoers, but what might not be as familiar is the history of the word witnesses. 

The word that Jesus used has become our English word for martyr. Although martyrs have become synonymous with those who die for their faith, the word originally just meant witness; but when so many of those witnesses began to die for their faith in Jesus, the word took on new meaning. As Alec Ryrie puts it in his book Protestants, martyrs are “believers who bear witness to their faith in the most vivid and unanswerable way, by choosing to die rather than to renounce it (p.85).”  

Martyrdom became such a badge of honor throughout the Medieval Period that Martin Luther once wondered if God was displeased with him because he had not been executed for his faith. Being put to death for their Christianity meant that they were worthy to die in a manner similar to their Lord.  It was during this time that John Foxe wrote his book that would later become known as Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.

Unfortunately Christian persecution and martyrdom still occur in many countries. I don’t want to minimize that, but the majority of Christians around the world and throughout history will not be killed for their faith; in America Christian martyrdom is virtually unheard of. I certainly hope I will never die as a martyr, but I have been called to be one. The Greek word martyr, translated witness, means, “one who bears witness of the truth.” It is a legal term for those who have been compelled to state what they saw.

In other words, we have been served a subpoena by Jesus, called to bear witness of the truth. Let’s be His martyrs and tell the unsaved world the truth about Jesus.   

False Statements in the Bible

Does the Bible contain false statements? Of course it does! It might surprise some of you to hear me say that, but please let me point out four undeniably false quotations found in Scripture.

Ananias and Sapphira each made a false statement in Acts 5; after selling property and making a donation to the church, they withheld a portion and lied about the price. Peter asked, “Did you sell the land for this price?” The wife replied, “Yes, for that price.” That lie was a false statement, and they paid dearly for it.

Job’s “friend” Eliphaz the Temanite also made a false statement in Job 4-5 when he concluded that Job’s suffering was a punishment for some secret sin he would not confess. The truth was that God allowed Job to be tested, and he passed the test.

A third false statement can be found in Isaiah 14:14: “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High.” That lie was spoken by Lucifer, who thought he could challenge El Elyon, the Most High God. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Finally, the Bible contains this false statement: “There is no God (Psalm 14:1).” While Descartes may agree with such a claim, we need to remember that the above quote is attributed to “the foolish man.”

I hear from critics who like to remind me that the Bible contains false statements; sure it does. It accurately contains false statements made by fools, liars, fair-weather friends, and the devil himself. But the Bible is never inaccurate in what it says. If the Bible says it, you can take it to the bank. There may be critics and scoffers out there trying to make you doubt, but we have faith. When your faith in the Bible may waver, just read it a little more; after all, “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17).”