The Acts of the Apostles 57

Subtitle: Following up with Jesus

Acts 14:21-28.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on October 1, 2023.

Today we will see Paul and Barnabas finish their first missionary trip, which went to the island of Cyprus and then central Asia Minor (current Turkey).

Luke doesn't give us a sense of how long they took on this whole journey, but the overall timeline of Acts would put it around the magnitude of around a year.

The whole emphasis of sharing the Gospel with Gentiles as well as Jews is something that blossomed in Syrian Antioch.  Yet, another persuasion was also blossoming in Judea.  This persuasion would eventually become the source of the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15.  Paul and Barnabas did not teach Gentiles that they had to obey the Law of Moses in order to follow Jesus.  However, some groups from Judea believed that Gentiles had to be circumcised and taught to keep the Law of Moses in order to be saved.

That will be our topic next week.  For now, let's look at our passage.

The Gospel is preached in Derbe (v. 21)

Verse 20 ends with Paul and Barnabas leaving Lystra (where Paul had been stoned and left for dead) and going to a town called Derbe, which was approximately 65 miles east of Lystra.

In verse 21, we are told that they preached the Gospel to the city.  We are told very little about this, and can assume that they would have preached at a synagogue first, if there was one in the town.  Regardless, the reference to "the city" implies more than preaching in a synagogue.

It would be interesting to know when the Gospel first made it to each city or region in the world.  Many places that are extremely godless now have had great moves of revival in the past.  Derbe itself is now a region controlled by an Islamist State and dominated by Muslims.  You would not know that the apostles Paul and Barnabas had seen a great move of God there.

We are told that they made many disciples.  There is no mention of resistance, but it seems unlikely that everyone in town believed.  In light of the prior stoning in Lystra, we can say they only had normal resistance.  We should also note that there is no sense of Jews and people of the cities that they had visited following them.  More than likely, they believe Paul to be dead and will not find out until much later that he survived.

We should pause on the word disciple for a minute.  It is not enough to give intellectual assent to who Jesus is.  True belief will be seen in a person becoming a disciple, a student, of Jesus.  It is good to believe the report about Jesus, but this information is meant to transform your life.  You are now a student of Jesus.  You may be out of your studying years, and tell yourself that you don't read books.  However, when a person (even a non-reader) comes to believe on Jesus, they will want to know everything they can about him.  This means reading the Bible.  In the case of Derbe, there may have been only one copy of the Scriptures in town.  Thus, it would be important to gather together and read the Scriptures so that all could benefit from God's Word and learn about Jesus.  It is time to stop being a man-child who pursues his flesh and begin stepping into the maturity of seeking the truth about Jesus.

However, discipleship is more than knowledge.  It is essentially about relationship.  By the Spirit of God dwelling within us, we can develop a relationship with Jesus through prayer and the Word.  We also are in relationship with the Church of Jesus, and we benefit from those who have come in before us who are further along in their maturity and discipleship.

Discipleship is a life-long journey of growing in our knowledge and experience of becoming like Jesus, and learning to do his will.  There are ups and downs, bumps and smooth days, but all along, the character of Christ is being formed in us.  In fact, we should recognize that even the term "student" is somewhat misleading for a 21st-Century American Christian.  In the times of Christ, a disciple was someone who moved in with a master.  Each day the master would show you things, but it was always in response to what the day held.  The wisdom of the master would be both taught and caught.  It was never seen as a pure information download.

The Christian life is this process.  We will not become a "master" ourselves until we are resurrected; only then will we be perfectly like Jesus.  We are unable to physically sit at the feet of Jesus, but by the Holy Spirit, we are able to come to him through the word and through prayer.  I spiritually come before his feet in order to learn.  Each day we wrestle with the Lord Jesus about our life, what the word says, and what the Lord would have us do.  Other believers are intended to be a help to us in this process.  We can cut ourselves off from other Christians by telling ourselves that they are all hypocrites.  However, even properly dealing with a hypocrite will help you become more like Jesus than becoming a hypocrite yourself by abandoning the gathering of the saints.  When Christ says to a man to come and follow him, that man always finds others who responded around Jesus.  You cannot separate the two.

Verse 21 also tells us that they decide to return to the places where they had preached.  We are not told what the reasons are for returning back to Antioch.  They may have been running low on supplies, or winter may have been approaching.  For whatever reasons, they determine to go back to Antioch of Syria, and they determine to retrace their steps.

We should note that several of the towns had pushed them out rather abruptly.  It may be that they felt like the heat would have died down by now, and they had some more things they needed to do and say to the believers that were left in those towns.

Paul and Barnabas follow-up with the new believers (v. 22-28)

Surprisingly they go back to Lystra where Paul was stoned, then to Iconium, Pisidian Antioch and then down to the coast at Perga and Attalia.  They don't appear to focus on new evangelism, but rather on strengthening the believers who were there.  They help them to establish a strong foundation so that the church will continue.

When we share the Gospel with people, it is important to follow-up with those who have responded positively.  The Gospel is not only about relationship with Jesus.  It is also about relationship with God's people.  It is how we show that our love for Jesus is real.

By the way, we have the right and authority to share the Gospel with anyone on this planet because Jesus himself has given it to us.  However, that also begs the duty we have to determine exactly how God has gifted us to participate in spreading the Gospel.  So, telling others about Jesus is our duty to those who don't know.  Whereas, follow-up falls in this category of the duty that develops when a person has become a brother or sister in the Lord, a familial duty.

Verse 22 tells us that they strengthened the souls of the disciples.  Internal strength of heart and mind are continually assailed by our own flesh, by the world around us, and through the spiritual interference of the devil and his forces.

Jesus tells us to take possession of our souls by patience (Luke 21:19).  Of course, possession may immediately make us think of evil spirits, but the emphasis is more on a plundered inner life.  Through lusts of the flesh and the pride of life (in short, through sin), we can become a slave to many things without being actually possessed.  These strongholds in our thought-life and in our heart become a seething cauldron of all kinds of sin.  We become controlled by our flesh, and even by the culture that we have grown up in.  This puts the devil indirectly in control of us.  Jesus was purposely using the Promised Land image for our soul.  When we are being delivered by God, He will bring us to a place where we can take full possession of our soul and serve God without being in bondage to sin.  This takes trusting God to help us fight against, and tear down, strongholds of sin in our life.

Just like every one of those cities in Canaan had fortified walls and need to be torn down for Israel to take possession, so they would need to then fortify cities again against the attack of future enemies.  Christians need to learn how to guard their mind and heart against the deeds of the flesh, the corruption of culture, and the slick sales of the devil.  Through prayer, reading the word, fellowshipping with believers, and listening to the Holy Spirit, we are enabled not only to take possession of our soul, but to also fortify it against the attacks of the enemy.  Furthermore, we can help new Christians to take possession of their souls and fortify their life against the devil and his schemes.

This is why the Scripture speaks of the gifts of the Holy Spirit being distributed among God's people as He sees fit.  We need each other because this is how God has designed for us to be strengthened.  He is making us a new people of God without specific ethnic and geographical lines.  We are related by the blood of Jesus.  No matter how different the culture of their birth, a Christian can have fellowship with any believer in the world because the same Lord, Spirit, Word, etc. reigns in us both.

This is what Paul and Barnabas were doing.  They were sharing their gift of knowledge about God's plan through Jesus, the doctrine they should hold fast to, and the purpose of God in their life.

We are also told that they were "exhorting them to continue in the faith" (vs. 22).  In John 15, Jesus used the analogy of a vine to represent the relationship that a disciple needed to have with him.  We need to remain in him (a living connection) in order to stay alive spiritually and to bear fruit.  This is a living relationship and a new way of life.  This is not about a one time declaration, i.e., saying the "magic words," and moving on..  It is not about simply being on "Team Jesus."  I can say I am on the team, but only those who are drawing spiritual life from Him truly belong to Him.  We need to hold on to that.  We are going to be tested even more in the years ahead.

Essentially, Paul and Barnabas are saying to us to stay in the faith no matter what!  Don't let the enemy twist your thinking around and lose faith.  There will come days when your flesh says that it is very inconvenient for you to be so religious.  It may desire to compromise, or it may be offended and want to quit completely.  Regardless, don't walk away from Jesus.  Keep wrestling with him by faith and seeking his help to continue on.

Lastly, verse 22 tells us that they told them that they must enter the kingdom of God through many tribulations.  Like I have said up unto now, there is resistance in this life to staying in the faith.  In fact, even sinners have resistance in life.  You might as well fight for the right things and receive a blessing out of it, instead of kicking against the goads of the Holy Spirit and being destroyed by our own choices.

Some of the resistance you face will be the same kind of things that all other believers encounter.  Thus, others who have faced things you are facing can encourage you on how to continue in faith.  Yet, sometimes there are things that are very unique in our life.  These times of tribulation put the squeeze on us in ways that not everyone will understand.  I think of the image of a tube of toothpaste.  What oozes out of me when tribulation puts the squeeze on my inner faith?  Let us recognize that there will be a mixture of some sorts.  God is using tribulations to refine us.  It is our job to recognize the bad stuff that comes out of us, and by faith go to war against that sin with the Spirit's help.

Notice that they use the word "must."  It is a necessity that we have tribulations.  The world is full of difficult things, but there are even more when you refuse to run with the world in the same flood of delusion that they are.  Many will despise you for it.  Yet, part of staying in the faith is accepting that you will have to face tribulation.  In fact, if you haven't had anything difficult attack your faith yet, then you may want to start preparing your inner defenses because it will come multiples times over the course of your life.

It is also interesting that Paul places entering the Kingdom of God in the future.  We go through many tribulations in order to enter it.  Yes, we are already a part of the Kingdom of God spiritually, but Paul is specifically looking ahead to the time when Jesus Christ comes back to earth and sets up a Thousand Year reign.  The righteous will be resurrected an enabled to participate in this blessed time for the earth.  In those days, Jesus will have put down one of our big problems (our spiritual enemies) by putting Satan and his cohorts in the Bottomless Pit.  He will also deal with another one of our problems by raising up an administration of glorified saints.  No government on earth today is run by glorified saints.  Rather, they generally become halls of corruption fleecing the people under their power.

God does not remove every tribulation from the life of those whom He loves.  Think on Abraham, Moses, Joseph, David, and especially Jesus.  Rather, He uses the tribulation to refine us and make us shine like the stars.  So, don't blame God when tribulations come.  Rather, see tribulations and trials for what they are.  Firstly, they are the things the devil is trying to use to keep you from entering God's Kingdom, and second, they are the very fires in which God fashions you into the image of the Son of His Love, Jesus.  Yes, this life has difficulties, but God has an age planned in which all the righteous of every age will be glorified and blessed together!  Hallelujah!

We are also told that they helped the churches to appoint elders.  The churches would need some structure in their group so that they will be able to navigate the days and trials ahead.

The word "elders" comes from a Greek word at the root of the terms Presbyterian, or Presbyter.  It does speak of age, but the implication is more on the wisdom and experience that one has.  We might better think of it as the spiritually mature.

The Church is like a family.  Most of these people had been Christians for the same number of days.  However, there was a range of their prior experience.  Some had been devoted Jews who had studied the word of God and were waiting for Messiah.  Others may have been worshipping Zeus last week, and had no clue about what the Scriptures said.  They both may be saved on the same day, but one will be further ahead than the other.  Of course, this is a simplistic example that should not be pressed to strongly.  Sometimes people have been a Christian for decades, but have very little spiritual maturity to show for it.

In fact, we have an example of an "elder" so-called showing a dearth of spiritual maturity in Third John.  There a man named Diotrephes who "loves to have the preeminence among them."  Elders are not called to be kings and rulers over believers.  Rather, we should see them as older brothers who can help us younger siblings along.  Our day will come.  Anyone who is an elder today was not an elder 30 or 50 years ago.  The key is familial relationship that is fueled by the a love for Christ.  This becomes a strength to a church when it is properly done.

God in His wisdom will always provide mature believers to a church.  When I became a Christian, there were people there to help me grow.  Yet, we can come under the judgment of God when we walk in our flesh and choose elders who are not truly spiritually mature.

It may sound like Paul and Barnabas "appointed" these men unilaterally.  However, the word translated as appointed has the sense of raising the hand as if in a vote.  More than likely, they talked to the people about what was required of elders and what type of person would best qualify.  Then, the group as a whole would determine who best fit that category.  We should not read into it a democratic system, but neither is it autocratic on behalf of the apostles.  They are there to help the church not make a foolish decision.

Finally, they make it back to the coast of Asia Minor, and instead of going back through Cyprus, they go directly to Syrian Antioch, where they started.  These are the people who had prayed for them before going and no doubt while they were gone.  It was good for them to hear the testimonies of what God did through Paul and Barnabas in the cities where they went.

Of course, we never know the full effect of our efforts in the Lord, but we do not want to diminish the importance of people hearing the Gospel.  Whether they believe or not, a door of faith has been put in front of them.  They will know about it from then on, and hope will be possible.  We shouldn't diminish people responding in faith.  This is always an amazing miracle of God in the heart of an individual.

I think about the many people who poured into my life as a young kid.  They had much reason to feel like their teaching and prayers were falling short.  But eventually, God would get ahold of my life, praise the Lord!  That would be good news to my grandma and my mom.  How many people come to death's door while they still have an adult child running from Jesus.  They have to cross that threshold asking God to help their child.  "Okay, God, they are in your hands!  I'm leaving here, but please put my child on someone's heart!"  Some of those prayers are still being answered today, even though those people are in heaven.  Yet, it thrills the heart of any mom to hear the story of a son getting right with Jesus.  It gives them hope while they live in this life. 

The problem with open doors is that they eventually shut.  Right now we have an open door for faith in our world, but that day can shut for us as individuals, nations, and as a world.  May God help us to be faithful to share the Gospel while there is still time to work!

Following up audio

Refusing to Repent

Mark 1:14-15; Matthew 11:20-24.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on October 10, 2021.

Repentance in the Bible is not just a word that means to change your mind.  The etymology of the word breaks down into that concept, but the biblical texts make it clear that a change in mind needed to include a change in action, i.e., a real change of mind that involved remorse over error and desire for the righteousness of God.

When we think about the Garden of Eden, we see that Adam and Eve are place in a paradise and have perfect fellowship with God.  However, they are cast out of this paradise because they rebelled against God.  On top of this separation, a curse is placed upon the world, Adam and Eve, as well as the devil.  The Bible calls mankind to repentance, and proper repentance will involve turning away from our ways, and back to God and His ways.  When we do that, God helps us to get back “home.”  Yes, a person may have never been a believer when they turn to faith in Christ, but in a very real sense, salvation is coming back home where we were meant to be and what is good and right.  Only God can help us know how to get back home as an individual or humanity as a whole.

Easier said than done, eh?  Let’s look at our first passage today.

Jesus calls us to repentance

When Jesus started preaching, he called people to repentance (vs. 15).  In fact, repentance was the core of the message that he proclaimed.  He is essentially saying, “Change your mind and believe God’s Word!”  We will come back to this in a moment.

First, let’s ask ourselves, “How many things am I doing because I don’t really believe what God’s Word says?”  This is important because many people who say they believe in God’s Word fail to actually do what it says.  When you ask them why, it always boils down to some kind of excuse.  “God can’t expect me to …”  Anything that follows those words is just me rejecting God’s Word.  Let’s put that on the back burner for a bit and let it simmer.

In the first century AD, the times were changing.  They were changing specifically because God was beginning to do something different.  Israel’s service under the law was coming to an end.  They needed to step into a “mature son” status.  You see, God’s goal is not for mankind to be laboring under 613 laws on into eternity.  Like parents giving their children a bed time, it is not their intention that their kids will always go to bed at 9 PM, or whatever, when they become adults.  Instead, they hope to train them in good habits so that they can make good decisions for themselves later.  This is the picture of a mature son, one who is able to step into the family business and even run it, without running it into the ground.

The times were changing for the Gentiles too.  For over a millennium, they had been stumbling in the dark of false religion, worshipping false gods, and chasing false hopes.

How did they get in that situation?  When 8 humans stepped off Noah’s ark, all mankind knew the truth of God.  Over the years, different families began to wander away from the truth of God, until they were seduced to reject God’s command and build a tower to the heavens.  In an attempt to connect with “gods” other than the true God, they rebelled against the King of Heaven.  This brought judgment and scattering.  Like the casting out of the original parents, the Gentiles are cast out of favor with God.  He gives them over to their faulty thinking, and the doctrine of demons.  They end up in a place of letting go of the truth and embracing lies, walking in darkness, and their minds debased.  God was gearing up to change this through Jesus.

Israel and the Gentiles were actually in the same boat spiritually.  We would expect the Gentiles to be lost and far from God, but Israel had the truth of God and gave lip service to it.  Yet, Israel had become lost like the blind nations around them.  They did so by layering their own reasoning over the top of God’s Word.  Little by little they had created a false system that only paid precious little tribute to the blazing truth delivered by Moses.  Yet, despite this, God was ready to bring the grace of truth to them.  Always remember this, in your life, or the life of a nation, the world, there always comes a day when God steps in.  He does so to change the situation.  The question is, “What will you do in that critical time?”  Listen, friend, none of us can change ourselves, but we can believe God when He purposes to change us.  This is what Jesus, and John the Baptist, were doing.  They were telling people to come and receive from God the grace of the changing of their situation.  They could go from being lost without hope, eating pig slop, in destitution, to coming home to the Father where they belonged.

Jesus tells us to repent, and believe in the Gospel.  The Gospel, the good news, is that both Jews and Gentiles can now enter into the Kingdom that God had promised through the prophets.  It was happening in their day!  Imagine how incredible this must have sounded.  For 400 years before John the Baptist, Israel had not had a true prophet give them a new word from God.  For 600 years, they had been under the thumb of the Gentile powers.  Even before that, their kings had been mostly evil and the nation languished under the lack of righteousness and favor from God.  It was during this time that God promised Israel through His prophets that an Anointed King would come forth to save Israel and even the Gentiles.  He would fix all that is wrong with the world under the administration of a global messianic kingdom.  However, precious few qualified to enter this kingdom because most people had quit truly believing.

Israel and the Gentiles represent two classes of people.  Those who have the truth, some believing, but most not.  And, those who are trapped in the lies and ignorance that they have inherited from their father, who inherited it from their father, on and on.  Both classes can be boiled down to the essential problem: they are not believing God.  So, the bad news is that our sins separate us from God and His coming Kingdom, but the good news is that we can participate in it if we will repent.

The key to the Kingdom promised by God is to repent and believe Him.  Change your mind about all the ways in which you have not believed Him, and start believing Him in your life.

Repentance is a little different for each one.  A gentile would have to leave his religion and embrace a new religion, the truth.  Whereas, an Israelite would have to let go of some tradition, but others they would keep.  In essence, they would get back to the simple truth of God’s Word instead of following the human reasoning of rabbis.

In the first century AD, God was giving a new prophecy, a new decree.  The Law of Moses was ending with its sacrificial system, dietary laws, and laws of cleansing.  It was time to enter the Kingdom of God.  No one would get in (gets in) because of their race, religion, or pedigree.  Jew and Gentile alike can only get in through repentance and believing God’s call to enter the Kingdom.  Particularly, He requires all men everywhere to believe that Jesus was sent by Him to be the Anointed King over that Kingdom.  To believe this is to become something radically different than you were the day before.

Now, let’s go to Matthew 11:20-24.

Jesus rebukes the squandering of grace

When you don’t take advantage of grace, you don’t realize how important it was when you had it.  Like the prodigal son, most in Israel had wasted the immense grace that God had given them as a people.  They were headed the wrong way and would miss out on the Kingdom if they didn’t change.

Jesus points out that the cities of the Galilee had received a large measure of grace in the fact that Jesus did most of his ministry and miracles in them.  If you were to plot the ministry of Jesus geographically and by amount of time, you would see that the cities of the Galilee received the lion share of it.  Why?  Most likely because Jerusalem rejected him and tried to kill him when he went to it and its surrounds.  The grace of God was there for them, but they kept pushing it away, and therefore others received more grace than they would have.

It is not enough to be the recipient of a lot of grace.  We can make our prayers focus on asking for more grace, but we should be careful.  What are you doing with the grace that He is giving you?  Are you pushing it away like Jerusalem, or are you sucking it up like the cities of Galilee and yet not truly believing in Jesus?  The cities of Galilee were fortunate because of the hardness of other cities, but that just puts them in a place of being even more accountable.

Jesus warns Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum that they are headed for a harsh judgment.  There are two aspects to the judgment of God.  There are temporal judgments that happen throughout life and attempt to draw us back to God.  Like a shot across the bow, they are to get our attention, and warn us of a greater judgment looming over us.  The second aspect is eternal judgment.  This is a final judgment and it is too late to repent when you receive it.

These temporal judgments are times when God holds us accountable for our choices, good or bad.  I believe that America is in such a time.  We are under the temporal judgment of God.  What we do today, repent or continue in obstinacy, will determine what we experience next.  Yes, this is a dangerous time because choices have consequences.  However, even now God is offering us grace by showing us how great our sin has become.

Clearly, Jesus is looking ahead to the eternal judgment because he speaks of Sodom.  Sodom was no longer in existence.  There could be no more temporal judgments for Sodom.  She was in Hades awaiting the Judgment Day in which they would receive their eternal judgment.

So, what is meant by this statement?  “It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.”  I believe it is left cryptic on purpose.  It is intended first to shock the hearer, and second to warn them of harsher judgment.  How could it be harder for a person from Capernaum to survive The Judgment Day than a person from Sodom?  And, what would that look like; what does that mean?  Again, it is not spelled out.  However, the power is in neutralizing that inane ability of people to look at others and think they are better than them for all the wrong reasons.  Sodom is surely in big trouble when it comes to The Judgment Day, but Capernaum was in even bigger trouble.  Are the cities of America in any less trouble?

We didn’t have the physical ministry of Jesus like they did, but we have received far more grace than Sodom, and many other cities of this world.  In fact, we should not take credit for the great amount of grace we have received.  Like Capernaum, we have received such great grace because it was actively being rejected and pushed away by other places.  To have received great grace is to be held to a much higher standard at Judgment Day because God is just and hands down judgments that are righteous.

Repentance is better late than never.  We have received a great light.  The Gospel has been powerfully preached all across this great land.  However, we have been rejecting the truth of Christ and his rule.  We have been refusing to enter the Kingdom of God as decreed by the Father, and we have attempted to blaze our own path to an alternate Kingdom of our own making.

The Kingdom of God is both present and not yet.  Those who truly believe can participate spiritually in the Kingdom of God, while we await the physical return of Jesus.  Meanwhile, we live out our faith in Jesus through daily repentance.  To enter the people of God is to join a group of repenters, penitents.  The problem is that we are blind to all the ways we are rebelling against God’s truth.  In His grace, He works by His Holy Spirit to open our eyes.  Thus, we are to be walking in repentance daily.  Always humbly keeping our eyes on Him.

I hope that you are part of the repentant remnant in this land that is believing God.  The beauty is that during temporal judgments you can still repent and believe God.  If you tarry too long, temporal judgments become eternal judgments for some.  Even now, many are dying and entering into eternity.  What will their judgment be?  Those who believe God will do the works of faith, the works of God.  May the Lord help us!

Repent audio

The Things that God Hates 8: One Who Sows Discord among Brothers

Proverbs 6:16-19; 1 Corinthians 3:1-4; Matthew 5:9-12.

This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on October 3, 2021.

This morning, we will look at the last thing on the list of things that God hates in Proverbs 6.  It ends with describing a person who sows discord, or strife, among brothers.

God hates the sowing of discord among brothers

This image of sowing begs the question, “How does one sow discord, strife, and conflict among brothers?”  Or, we could also ask it this way.  “Just what does a discord seed look like?”

Perhaps it is simply a question about another person in their absence, perhaps about their motives, or a remark about them.  We might tell a story about them that we have heard, maybe even completely slandering them.  It might be less aggressive by stirring up the irritations that others already have against the absent person.  We really are only limited in this hated sin by our imagination, and people have honed this craft to an art.

Today, I want to look at the passage in 1 Corinthians 3 to bring out some things involved in this issue.  Paul is speaking to the conflicts and strife that were going on in the church at Corinth.  He puts his finger on their main problem: spiritual immaturity.  Though a person cannot become any more saved than they are, we may or may not become spiritually mature.

Paul pictures spiritual maturity as receiving nourishment from God’s Word.  Just like a newborn baby cannot digest complex foods and must drink milk, so a new Christian cannot immediately digest much of God’s Word.  They need to feed on the simple milk of the Gospel until they have grown enough to take in the deeper things of God.  The proper effect of God’s Word will be spiritual growth, as opposed to remaining carnal, or focused upon the flesh and its desires.  Thus, spiritual maturity involves putting off carnal motivations, carnal thinking, and the actions that come with them, and putting on the mind of Christ taught within God’s Word.  A spiritually mature person has motivations and thinking that come from God and His Word.  They do the actions that have good spiritual impact upon themselves and others.  Many in the Corinthian church were sowing seeds of conflict among the body of Christ, and Paul knew that this was breaking God’s heart, something that He hated.

Though spiritual immaturity is the main problem for the Corinthian church, there are other possible reasons why a person might sow discord.  A person may simply not be saved.  Jesus speaks in a parable (Matthew 13:24-40) about his enemy sowing “tares” in among the wheat.  These would be people who are carnal because they are not born again by God’s Spirit.  They have not been regenerated spiritually.

Of course, this is often the first accusation against others when you are carnal.  It is easy to always believe the other person must not be saved when there is conflict.  The spiritually mature person recognizes that even godly people can disagree on issues.  However, we would be asleep at the wheel if we didn’t recognize that the external Church has many tares that have been sown into it by the enemy, and some of them are leaders.

Sometimes the sowing originates within the group as we have described, and sometimes it comes from outside of the group.  Paul spoke of this in his farewell message to the elders of the Ephesian church.

“For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.  Also, from among yourselves, men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves.  Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.”  -Acts 20:29-31 (NKJV)

The savage wolves can come in among you, but they can also be government leaders giving decrees that cause problems in the group.  It is easy to miss the true source of conflict and only see the surface reasons.  It is important for us to step into spiritual maturity by checking our own motives first.  Line them up against God’s Word so that they can be purified.  Then, look for any deeper causes for the conflict that are not readily obvious.  Conflict always pushes us to rush our judgments, but this is not the will of God, nor the character of Christ.

In the end, we must learn to see through the schemes of the devil.  Our true enemy is him and his evil spiritual forces.  They are arrayed against the Church, and they use all manner of people: power hungry secular leaders, spiritually immature believers, con-artists, false prophets, etc.  The devil has schemes and a mode of operating that become more evident as we spiritually mature.  Whether whispering into the ear of Cain about his brother Abel, or catching Ahab’s eye with Jezebel, his strategies are generally the same, but his tactics are manifold.

So, what does God love?  Let’s go to Matthew 5:9-12 for that.

God loves those who promote peace between others

Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God.  Jesus, the Unique Son of God, came to earth on a peace mission, and so we are sent forth as his ambassadors also offering peace.  We are to speak peace from God to those we meet.  It is when we have peace with God that peace with one another is possible.  Do not fool yourself.  True peace is not possible among those who reject God and His Anointed One, Jesus.

There is a kind of anti-peace that is promoted by the antichrist system of this world.  The anti-peace is not a peace at all, but it can result in a cessation of some strife.  The Pax Romana (peace of Rome) protected many nations from invasion by others.  However, they were always under the strife of Roman rule, and were conquered by them in the first place.  If this is your definition of peace, then you can keep it.

True peace is built upon the foundation of a healthy fear of God and His judgment.  It is not a fear that God will be capricious, but that God will not be mocked or fooled.  He is not swayed by our words to Him.  He judges in truth, reality.  Anti-peace is built upon the foundation of the fear of man, and the powers of this earth.

Jesus said that if you stand for true peace with Him, then the world will hate you.  The world offers a false gospel that delivers a false peace.  Look around you.  You see groups trying to build Utopia without God, without truth.  Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5:3, “When they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman.  And they shall not escape.  But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief!”

When Jesus says that we shall be called “sons of God,” he leaves off just who will call us sons of God.  In fact, the next two verses talk about persecution.  Who is the “they” who will revile and persecute the peacemakers?  It is the world and all those who are one spirit with the false peace.  Christians are makers of true peace, and thus God is not ashamed to call them His sons, but the world that loves false peace uses worse epithets for us.  This persecution will come from outside of the Church and from within it.  It has always been so.  The early Jewish believers in Jesus the Messiah were persecuted by other Jews who claimed to love God.  In the Middle Ages of Europe, Christians were often persecuted by other Christians who had power and authority, both religious and secular.

Don’t kid yourself.  A new morality is being raised up even today that is not of God.  Slowly, but surely, many denominations and Christians are moving from God’s Truth, to the anti-truth.  May God help us not to be caught up in our conflicts with one another and lose sight of the true enemy and his tricks.  The enemy is even now coming after believers that cling to the old ways of Jesus.  The heat is being turned up.

Ultimately, Jesus promises a reward for those who promote true peace and pay the price for it in persecution.  Not only will they be called the sons of God by him, but a day of manifesting just who are the sons of God is coming.  We will share in the glory of Christ as he returns to earth in order to set up the kingdom that God has given him. 

Now, your reward comes from the one you are serving.  If we serve ourselves, and thus the world, we will receive the world’s rewards.  The world will call us peacemakers and sons of God, but it will all be a lie.  For those who fear God and work for true peace, God has a reward that outweighs any difficulties, tears, and trials on this earth.

Yes, in some ways, we are already sons of God who are participating in his kingdom.  However, the terminology is “reward.”  Rewards are handed out after a contest, or project.  Jesus is pointing us to a point after the Resurrection in which we will stand beside him in his kingdom, a true utopia that will last for 1,000 years.  The world that has rejected God’s peace offer sees His peace emissaries as those who are obstructing the peace that they envision.  Christian, you must get used to being labeled by this world the opposite of what you truly are.  No, it is not fair, but it is part of the path ahead of us.  We can ignore their aspersions against us not in a sinful obstinacy, but in a steadfast, faithful determination to please our Lord Jesus!

Sowing Discord audio

How Many Camels Can Fit through a Needle?

Mark 10:23-31.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday March 01, 2020.

In our passage this morning, we have the famous statement of Jesus that involves a camel going through the eye of a needle.  It is given right on the heels of the rich young ruler whom Jesus challenged to sell all his possessions and follow him.  We are told that the young man went away sad because he had a lot of wealth.  We should have that young man walking away from Jesus dejected in our minds as we hear these next words from Jesus.  The young man wanted eternal life and Jesus told him what he needed to do to get it.  Yet, he balked at such a drastic action.

I would like to deal with the idea of a camel going through an eye of a needle up front, so that we can focus on the main point when we get to it.  I am sure that needles and their holes were larger due to the technology employed.  Regardless, it is my contention that Jesus intended this to be a statement of impossibility.  Over the years, various ideas have surfaced as to alternate meanings.  All of them reduce this from a statement of impossibility to one of great difficulty. 

The most famous attempt involves a gate into Jerusalem called the camel gate.  It was apparently so small that the only way a camel could enter is to be unloaded and to crawl on its knees.  This is a great image for coming to Jesus.  However, the problem is that there is no first-hand evidence that this is true.  The Bible makes no mention of such a gate, and the earliest reference to such a gate that scholars have found is somewhere in the 10^th or 11^th century AD.   This gap of a millennium should cause us to balk at jumping on the camel gate band wagon.

Others have pointed out that the word for camel is just one letter different from a word for a rope made from camel hair.  Of course, there is no evidence that any manuscripts used this alternate word.  It is nothing but speculation that cannot be put forth as the true interpretation.

It seems obvious to many others that Jesus is employing simple hyperbole.  Camels going through the eye of a needle is impossible pure and simple.  Just like the Pharisees straining out gnats and swallowing camels, the absurdly impossible is used to press a point that we won’t actually believe or take seriously.  Let’s look at our passage.

It is hard for the wealthy to enter into God’s Kingdom (23-27)

The rich man may still be in their sights as he trails off over the horizon.  Here, Jesus uses the moment to teach an important thing to his disciples.  Jesus makes a statement that it is hard or difficult for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God.  I believe that Jesus is connecting the Kingdom of God back to the young man’s desire for eternal life.  Though they are two different concepts, they are very connected.  Those who have eternal life will participate in the coming Kingdom of God, in which the Messiah of God rules over the earth from Jerusalem.  They are one and the same.  We are not just talking about a reward here, but, even more foundational, also salvation.  This is a statement of difficulty that catches the disciples by surprise.

How can it be difficult for rich people to be saved?  They had been taught that good Israelites would be blessed by God with wealth.  Of course, they knew that wicked people could be rich, but our context is about an Israelite who has been observant of the Law of Moses his whole life.  Surely, the wealth of such a man was proof of God’s blessing, favor, and salvation.  This man is the poster boy for what all religious Israelites of the time would aim to be.

It is definitely easier for our age to swallow this statement.  We might be some of the first to say, “Right on Jesus.  Give it to those 1%-ers.”   Riches add temptation and hindrances to our hearts and minds that the lack of them do not.  Yes, riches can be a boon in life, but only if you aren’t a slave to them.  This is much easier said than done.  It is sad that many Christians in the West believe that they will be wealthy if they are truly pleasing God.  We must be very careful about such notions because Jesus never said that.  Yet, Jesus doesn’t stop there. 

They are amazed with this statement, so he turns around and gives them the statement again.  This time Jesus emphasizes that trust in riches is the problem.  As he said elsewhere, it is hard to serve wealth and God.  One of them will win your heart, and you will despise the other.  Our treasure is where our heart lies and the rich tend to have their heart in the wealth of this life.  They trust in riches in the way that they should be trusting in God.  They may desire eternal life, but they are unwilling to divorce their heart from their riches in order to come into relationship with the God of heaven.  Thus, Jesus has made a similar statement of difficulty regarding the salvation of rich people.

If Jesus had stopped here then it would have been a remarkable lesson to absorb for these first century Israelites.  However, Jesus then gives a metaphor that compares something that he has said is difficult to something that is basically impossible.  This is the metaphor of the camel.  A rich man being saved is not just a little difficult.  It is more difficult than a camel going through the eye of an actual needle (no one said the camel had to survive the experience).    That degree of difficulty can only be described as impossible.  Is Jesus really saying that it is basically impossible for rich people to be saved?  Yes, I believe he is.  Hang with me if you can.

We see Jesus using hyperbole in many places.  He told the Pharisees that they swallowed camels as a picture of the size of the false teachings that they had accepted all the while straining out, or rejecting, the smallest of deviations from the Law.  Yes, in the natural swallowing a camel is impossible, but theologically these Pharisees were doing it every day.  We are not intended to minimize the hyperbole, but rather see the contrasting items in a greater light.  The Pharisees were not just a little bit wrong.  They were hugely and absurdly wrong.  There is a part of us that laughingly thinks that we would rather take our chances when it comes to riches.  Like Topol in Fiddler on the Roof, we are tempted to state that if riches are a curse then may God smite us with it…and may we never recover!  Such things make for a humorous play or movie, but this is no laughing matter.  Jesus intends to put the fear of God in his disciples. 

Do I actually believe that being rich makes it so difficult to be saved that it is basically impossible, statistically a zero chance?  If it sounds shocking to you then you are in good company.  The disciples are even more amazed than before.  They whisper among themselves, “Then who can be saved?”  It reminds me of the time that Jesus taught on divorce.  By the time he was done, they were exasperated and stated, “If that is the case then it is better not to marry!”  Even religious communities can inoculate us to the pure or raw truth of God.  The teachings of their day pointed to the rich observant Israelite as a success story.  Were not the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob wealthy men?  Did not the Law of Moses promise wealth and bounty to Israel when they obeyed God?  Yes, all of these things are true.  Yet, we might ask ourselves this.  Did Abraham trust in his riches and cling to them rather than follow God?  Did his riches mean more to him than a relationship with the God of heaven?

It is similar to the wisdom of Solomon.  Many things that seem to be a blessing in this life only add a bigger burden to our task.  If your mission is to enjoy life the most you can then maybe riches can help.  However, if your goal is to come through this life with the assurance of eternal life then many things that we call blessings are actually making it harder.

The point is not that we shouldn’t have wealth or even wisdom.  Rather, we must be wide awake and alert to the difficulties that they present to us.  Jesus gives an answer to the question they are asking (that is, who can be saved), which seems to end up with the answer, no one.

It is interesting in verse 27 that Jesus doesn’t say, “With rich men this is…”  Yes, it can be assumed, but I believe he makes it general on purpose.  It seems that he is expanding the point of salvation being impossible for the rich.  We all have hindrances to trusting God, whether rich or not.  Is grasping hold of eternal life impossible for us as humans?  Our modern sensibilities want to jump in and say, “Of course not!  Don’t worry.  God has made a way.”  Yet, Jesus would rather that we face the hard facts first without mitigation.  The answer is not to diminish the difficulty of salvation by pointing to the grace of Jesus.  Rather, the answer is to absorb the revealing of just how impossible salvation is so that we can then see just how amazing grace is.  If sin is no big deal and if salvation is easy then the grace that God gives us is also no big deal.   No one can save themselves.  It is impossible.  You can do good works until you are blue in the face and it won’t fix your problem before God.  In the end, you will still be a person in love with things of this world more than God.

Jesus then turns the shocking statement on its head.  With God all things are possible, even the impossible.  If I am in relationship with God then my impossible situation now becomes possible.  This is a huge problem.  The average person on the street who isn’t a believer thinks that they are good enough that God sort of owes it to them to let them into his kingdom.  Sadly, many Christians today have an extremely low view of the grace of God because their view of sin is depraved.  God by definition is great at dealing with impossible things.  The Old Testament is full of impossible situations that God made possible.  Thus, salvation takes an intervention from God Himself, and even then, He only makes it possible.  Jesus had made salvation possible for the rich young ruler in that moment, but he went away sad that he couldn’t have eternal life and his love of wealth.

Yes, salvation is as simple as yielding to Christ, and yet as difficult as parting with all your wealth, or parting the Red Sea.  It is a spiritual work that will never happen without the help of God Himself.  Our story is about rich people, but they are not the only ones who find it difficult to obtain eternal life.  Be careful that the things of this world do not get between you and Jesus.  You can be sure of your eternal life, but it won’t be without its difficulties of dealing with temptations and getting rid of things that hinder your relationship with your Father in heaven.

The disciples had sacrificed things to follow Jesus (28-31)

True to form, Peter speaks out about their own condition.  They had left their various lives in order to follow Jesus.  Matthew 19:27 adds the question, “What will we have?”  Up until now, they had been talking about eternal life and participating in the reign of Jesus upon this earth.  Peter wants to know if they will be rewarded for leaving all of their stuff to follow Jesus.  Apparently, he had never thought of that as something righteous.  He had done it for various reasons, but some of it probably had to do with their fascination that the Messiah might actually be here!  They had unwittingly done the most important thing, which is often the case when we simply listen to the Spirit of God.

Jesus makes it clear that those who lose something in this life in order to follow him will be rewarded.  It is important to recognize that only 12 disciples were called to live with Jesus and follow him around all the time.  However, to believe in Jesus, to hear the call of the Holy Spirit, is every bit as real today as it was then.  I am going to have to let go of things in order to follow Jesus, and not just wicked things.  Many good things will have to be left in our wake if we are to stay fixated on trusting the word of Jesus and living the life that he has called us to live.  Yet, notice that Jesus is not promising them only “pie in the sky.”

He gives a list of things that people might have to leave behind in order to follow him: a house, or brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, a wife, children, or even lands.  The list is made of things and close relationships.  The point is not that you must leave your wife to follow Jesus, but that your choice to follow Jesus may not be reciprocated by your wife.  She may try to dissuade you, or hold you back.  She may even lay down an ultimatum, me or this Jesus you want to follow!  What a difficult decision to make, and yet it has happened many times over throughout history.  Oh, how many times family members have thrown down the gauntlet and said, “If you walk out that door to follow Jesus then you are no longer related to me!” 

The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 7 mentions the case of having an unbelieving spouse.  He counsels the believer to do their best in order to remain in the relationship, short of turning away from Christ.  There is nothing righteous about leaving people behind for selfish motives.  People leave spouses every day in order to follow their flesh. However, Jesus says “for my sake and the Gospel’s.”  That is the key.  We often do the unthinkable by sacrificing things and relationships to follow after sin and pleasure.  This is not that.  This is the choice that must be made when those things present themselves as obstacles to following the commands of Jesus.  An unbelieving spouse is not an obstacle to following Christ, unless they give an ultimatum.

Jesus states that these things and relationships that we lost will be obtained many times over in this life.  If you lose your parents to follow Jesus then you will find many spiritual parents in the group of his followers.  If you lose your job, house, or land (yes, this happens in many places throughout this world) then you will find a community of believers that will love you, shelter you, help you find work.  You will not necessarily own these things, and you will still need to keep your trust in Jesus, not Christians whom you think should give you something.  May God help us to learn to be a better family, a family that is motivated by the Spirit of God.  We are intended to be a blessing to one another in this life.

They will also receive eternal life in the age to come.  This may sound like a lesser prize in comparison to the earlier large list.  Yes, there is a reward in this life, but an even greater one in the life to come.  We will participate in Christ’s rule over this earth and we will have eternal life!  Incidentally, in Matthew 19:28, Jesus tells the 12 disciples that they will judge the 12 tribes of Israel, during the Kingdom Age.  Wow!  Now that is a promotion, from Galilean fisherman to leader of one of the tribes of Israel.  We, of course, do not have a specific word regarding our station and reward in the coming Kingdom.  However, that pales in relation to the fact that we will have eternal life with the One who is the author of eternal life, in fact who is eternal life itself.  What is important is that we will have come out the other side of this side road of obtaining the knowledge of good and evil.  And, in that moment, we will have healing from all that sin has done to us personally, and to us as a human race.  We cannot know the full freedom that we will experience in that moment, as we look at a whole world of endless possibilities and no wickedness in sight, both without and within!  Praise God for His indescribable gift!

Our passage ends with a proverb or adage that points out that many who are first in this life will be last in the age to come, and many who are last in this life will be first in the age to come.  If you were to poll the Israelites of the first century as to who would have the greatest reward, their list would look a certain way.  However, the real list will be created by God.  God does not judge by mere appearances.  By mere appearance, the rich man was high on the list, but his response to Jesus proves that he was not nearly as high as others would think, and even dangerously near the edge of missing out completely.

We must be careful of our judgments about how great people are.  We do not often judge the same way that God judges, nor can we.  Rather, we should let such things go.  I must quit worrying about what I am going to get, and simply work to be faithful to what the Lord is giving me to do today.  Learn to enjoy the work of God that is in front of you.  The work of the future will also have joys, but I needn’t worry about it when I am in relationship with the One who is eternal life itself.  Hierarchy in this life is fraught with impure motives and desires.  In that life, we can’t imagine what it will be like when your eyes are wide open to the evils of sin, and your flesh is not tainted by rebellion.  Oh, what a day that will be!

How many camels audio