Christ's Authority

Only Jesus can heal someone without even being present to do it. Matthew and Luke both record an instance in which Jesus declared someone would be healed, and later the person was found to be well. In Luke 7:1-10, Jesus is approached by some people on behalf of their leader, a Centurion in the Roman army. They are asking for Jesus to come heal one the servants of this soldier, and Jesus agrees to go.

On the way to where the Centurion was they were greeted by more of his servants, this time asking Jesus not to come heal the man, but to simply issue the command to do so. According to the Centurion, he was not worthy to have Jesus enter his house, and he believed the miracle could occur even without Jesus being present. Jesus is moved by the great display of faith: He was on the way to heal the man, but the Centurion was willing to risk everything. If Jesus never came to the house, the servant might not get better, but in faith the Centurion trusted that Jesus would come through. And He did.

This Centurion was used to sending people on missions; as the name suggests, he had a hundred men under his command. His job depended on him being able to give the word and trust that the order would be fully carried out; he could not waste time following his men to make sure they were doing things right. His authority demanded that his words be carried out. This Centurion recognized that kind of authority in Jesus (albeit on a different level). All Jesus had to do was speak the word and the command for healing would be carried out, and that is exactly what happened.

That is the authority of Christ. When He spoke in a boat, the wind and seas obeyed Him. When He spoke at Creation, all the elements rushed to obey. When He gave the word, the Centurion’s servant was instantly better. That same power is still present today. When we call out to Him for forgiveness or salvation, He answers the call without delay.

If there is something in your life that seems too big for you, have the faith of the Roman Centurion. Take it to the Lord in prayer, because nothing is impossible with God.

“When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him, and turned around and said to the crowd that followed Him, ‘I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!’”

Luke 7:9

A Cool Coincidence

Have you ever heard of the North American walnut sphinx? It is a moth caterpillar that has one of the coolest defense mechanisms in all of creation. God equipped this insect with a nice camouflage, but birds are still able to track them down and eat them. The walnut sphinx has been nicknamed the accordion worm because of the way it compresses its body lengthwise when it is under duress. The moth has tiny holes called spiracles that allow air to exit its body while it is compressing, and the sound of the rushing air creates a whistling sound.

Here is the cool part: the whistling sound emitted by the walnut sphinx sounds exactly like the alarm call of the very songbird that is trying to eat it. When the songbird hears the mimicked alarm call, he thinks a fellow bird is warning him of nearby danger, and the bird flies away. It has been said that this moth whistles while it irks. The whistling sound has clocked in at 80 decibels, which is louder than the average volume at which humans talk.

In an evolutionary journal called Scientific American, Christopher Intagliata described this phenomenon as “A cool coincidence, for sure.” That five-word sentence tells you all you need to know about the difference in Darwinian evolution and belief in the biblical account of a Creator God. The evolutionist is confronted with dozens of examples of intelligent design (I have written frequently about it in these columns), and they must conclude it is “a cool coincidence.” When the evidence points towards God, they so badly want to be the god of their own lives that they dismiss intelligent design as a coincidence (usually while saying Christians don’t get science). The science points a Christian towards God, but causes the evolutionist to settle for “a cool coincidence.”

It is a cool coincidence that the amount of gravity on our planet does not cause us to fly away, but neither does it crush us. It is a cool coincidence that Earth’s distance from the sun neither scorches us nor freezes us. It is a cool coincidence that Earth rotates in such a way as to give us day and night, as well as seasons, and we get just enough of each.

I don’t have to believe in millions of coincidences. I don’t have enough faith to believe in evolution. It is so much easier to trust in a Sovereign God that fine-tuned this universe, our bodies, and everything else to run just right. I don’t believe in coincidences; I believe in Creation.     

God is in Control

Last week we looked at the consequences of Jonah’s sin—how he “went down” in a spiral because he was running from God. But I also believe it is important to concentrate on how God acted during Jonah’s tailspin. The prodigal prophet may have thought he was in control of things while he was running in the opposite direction of Nineveh, but even in his disobedience he could not thwart the plans on the Almighty.

In 1:17 the narrative reads, “Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” The Lord prepared a fish. This was not a freak accident or a random event, but was providentially orchestrated by God Himself. Did He prepare the fish from scratch just for this occasion, or had God been preparing the fish for years? Was it a special kind of fish that did not exist? We do not know, but we know where it came from. God was in control, and He prepared the instrument that was going to get Jonah’s attention.

God had already prepared Jonah to be a prophet, and then prepared him to preach to the Ninevites; his disobedience was not going to keep the Lord’s message out of Nineveh, so God prepared a great fish. Earlier He had prepared a storm that was used to toss Jonah overboard so that the fish He prepared could swallow him. Since surviving inside the stomach of a fish is not possible, there would need to be some miraculous preparations taking place for that as well. Later in this letter God prepared a plant to grow to give Jonah shade, and then He prepared a worm to eat the plant. Through the entire story God is in control.

 That is an important lesson for us to keep in mind as we live life. Jonah is not just a story about a prophet taking God’s message to a pagan nation, or about a crazy fish that happened to eat a man and spit him out on dry land. It isn’t a coincidence. God is sovereign and nothing happens that He does not either author or allow. We cannot stop Him, and He does not need our permission. Your life may feel like things are coming unraveled sometimes, but it may just be that God is preparing something that we cannot see.

Gideon: God's Warrior

When we think about Gideon we may remember him as a warrior who led a small band of soldiers to defeat the Midianites. We also may think about him putting out a fleece, seeking a sign from God that he really was God’s chosen leader for a special mission. We think highly of Gideon because of what he did, and what God did through him, even reading a quick reference to him in the Hebrews 11 Hall of Faith. Gideon became a might warrior for God, but he did not start out that way.

The Angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon in Judges 6:12, telling him “The LORD is with you, you mighty warrior.” When we read those words we may get the impression that he was a hotshot young general with a bright military future, the heir apparent to Israel’s next leader. But the text gives us a small clue that Gideon wasn’t exactly Joshua 2.0. The preceding verses say Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress to hide from the Midianties. The winepress was used to smash grapes, not thresh wheat. Gideon used a strategic location—a cave—because he was so scared of the Midianties. He hardly looks like a mighty warrior.

While we often use the phrase “put out a fleece” to refer to trying to discern God’s will, Gideon’s use of the fleece was more an act of fear. God already told him he would be used to defeat Midian “as if they were one man,” so the fleece was not necessary, especially when he put the fleece out the second night. Gideon did not need to discern God’s will, he just needed to obey it. Again, this doesn’t look like a warrior. And yet, that is exactly what God called him.

It is incredible that God called Gideon something that he wasn’t. Not yet. God knew that Gideon would become a warrior, but at the time he was scared, secretly threshing wheat in cave, and stalling when God called Him. I believe God looks at us and calls us what we can be, not what we are right now. What does God call you?

You may be a new believer, but God sees that you will one day be a mature Christian. You may not be serving in your local church, but God sees you teaching a class, driving a bus, or keeping the nursery. You may not feel like God can use you, but He knows exactly what He can do through you. He took a scared Gideon and turned him into a warrior; what can He do through you? Trust Him, and He might just amaze you.  

Jonah's Downward Spiral

The story of Jonah most likely makes us think of the big fish that swallowed the prophet. And why not? It is a great story because people are not commonly eaten by fish, and even if they are, they don’t live to tell about it. It really is the ultimate fish story, but instead of Jonah telling his buddies about the big fish he caught, he could tell them about the fish that caught him. When we think of Jonah we think of the big fish, and when we share the story of Jonah it is usually to teach that God gives second chances: Jonah ran from God when he was called to preach in Nineveh, but he got another chance when the fish vomited him out in—of all places—Nineveh.

But Jonah is about more than just the grace of God. This short book also gives us a picture of what sin does in the life of a believer. Notice this repetition of the word down in Jonah: instead of going to Nineveh he went down to Joppa; after getting a boat to take him the opposite direction of God’s will, he went down into the inner part of the ship; from there he laid down and took a nap; he was thrown overboard and went down into the water and down into the belly of the fish. Had Jonah not been tossed out of the ship, it too would have gone down during the storm. As Dr. Eric Bargerhuff said of this passage, “Sin doesn’t lift you up, it only brings you down, and Jonah is circling the drain.” He found himself in a whale of trouble.

Because of Jonah’s disobedience he went on a downward spiral that took him into the bowels of a fish. When Jonah was summoned by God to testify in Nineveh, he could have obeyed and avoided all the headaches, and the stomachache for the fish. If he would have known that his rebellion would take him into the heart of a storm, into the fury of his shipmates, and into the belly of a fish, he would surely have obeyed to begin with. You have probably heard the old adage that “sin will take you farther than you want to go, cost you more than you want to pay, and keep you longer than you want to stay,” and that is certainly seen in Jonah’s life. I’m not saying that if you disobey God you will end up as fish food, but I do believe disobedience to God is always the wrong choice. Whatever God may be leading you to do, learn the lesson of Jonah and obey Him the first time.