mission

A soldier in active service (2 Timothy 2:4)

POST OVERVIEW. A devotional study of 2 Timothy 4:2.

No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. – 2 Timothy 2:4 (NASB)

SOLDIER. Paul’s instructions in this verse are directed very narrowly to a specific kind of person. The exhortation that follows is first of all exclusively for soldiers. Only soldiers are being addressed. If you are not a soldier, this verse does not concern you. In Paul’s mind, the world is made up of soldiers and not-soldiers. Here he is writing to soldiers.

What is a soldier? What does Paul have in mind? The definition of soldier here would need to connect with the preceding verse where Paul tells Timothy to “suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2:3). A good soldier, then, is a disciple of Jesus who willingly suffers hardship for Jesus’ sake. “Suffering hardship” means consistently making choices according to the instructions and the intentions of the soldier’s commanding officer in disregard of any consequent personal pain , loss, dishonor, or sacrifice. The good soldier of Christ Jesus does not seek hardship, but neither does the good soldier avoid it. Rather, the presence or absence of hardship has been removed from the good soldier’s consideration.

So in this verse Paul is addressing those who are soldiers according to these terms. Are you a good soldier of Christ Jesus? What is your attitude toward voluntary hardship? Is your obedience to the Lord conditioned by what it will cost you? Only good soldiers need to read on.

But actually there does exist another group of disciples whom we could call “the not-yet soldiers.” These are those disciples who long to be “good soldiers,” who long to shed the rags of timidity and to discard the false safety of compromises and small disobediences and instead to put on the mantle of a soldier and charge out into the mission where your only concern is obedience to the King. If you have a burning desire to become a good soldier, then let Paul’s words fan your desire into a flame (Psalm 37:4; 2 Tim. 1:6).

We have spent some time defining a (good) soldier of Christ Jesus (2:3) because we need to determine if 2 Tim. 2:4 is written for us. Paul is not writing to all believers here, because not all believers are “good soldiers” according to this definition. Paul would desire that all disciples were soldiers, but the reality is that all are not, so Paul makes his first “cut.”

A SOLDIER IN ACTIVE SERVICE. But now Paul introduces another qualification to further narrow the funnel. As Paul knows that, among disciples, there are soldiers and there are not-soldiers, so also there are soldiers in active service and there are soldiers not in active service. So all “not-soldiers” have been excluded and now all soldiers not in active service are cut from the team.

What does it mean “to be in active service?” In a military sense, a soldier in active service is one who has been trained and equipped to be useful as a soldier and who has subsequently been deployed by his commanding office to accomplish a specific mission. His identity as a soldier compels him to be in active service and impels him toward the front lines. He lives for a mission. This is a military soldier in active service.

What, then, is Paul’s message or instruction when he speaks to Timothy as a soldier of Christ Jesus? What is the image that comes to mind for the disciple of Jesus who longs to be a soldier “in active service?” It turns out that the analogy between soldier and disciple works very well. Like the soldier, the disciple is aware that he has been deployed by his commanding officer, the Lord Jesus Christ, to accomplish the specific mission of the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20). His identity as a disciple of Jesus compels him to be conscious of his Commander’s mission and impels him to proclaim Jesus to the world as His witness (Acts 1:8). The disciple lives for the gospel. For the disciple in active service, Christ is his life (Phil. 1:21; Col. 3:4). He longs to be useful to the Master, prepared for any good work (2 Tim. 2:21).

DOES NOT ENTANGLE HIMSELF IN THE AFFAIRS OF EVERYDAY LIFE. Now we come to the heart of the verse and to the vital instruction that Paul is going to give to Timothy and to all disciple-soldiers in active service. Paul’s words are at once an exhortation and a warning. “Soldier, never entangle yourself in civilian affairs.”

IDENTITY. You are not a civilian, you are a soldier. Therefore, you are to live the life of a soldier, which is a life of discipline, self-control, rigor, and training.

The affairs of civilian life will dull your preparedness and distract you from your mission. Once you have tasted the ease, comfort, luxury, and safety that are part of the everyday life of a civilian, your zeal for pleasing the Master as a soldier who is dangerous to the enemy will begin to erode. The danger of everyday life is that you begin to resent the hardship of the soldier’s life. When the Commander calls you to a new mission, He finds that you are no longer eager to follow orders that involve hardship or risk. Ease and luxury and, most dangerous of all, safety begin to be values, and duty and suffering for our King gradually lose their appeal.

The life of a soldier is a life stripped down to the bare essentials. “But godliness is actually a means of great gain. If we have food and covering, with these we will be content” (1 Tim. 6:6, 8). The life of a disciple is a simple life. “Make it your ambition is to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands” (1 Thess. 4:11). As disciples of Jesus, we do not want to be “led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:3). As the disciple grows better equipped and more useful to the Master, the complications of his life are willingly sloughed off and discarded as unnecessary weight.

PLEASE THE ONE WHO ENLISTED HIM AS A SOLDIER. The soldier’s purpose is to “please the one who enlisted him as a soldier” (2:4). Getting involved in the entanglements of everyday life will cause you to lose sight of your purpose, to question your purpose, and to compromise your purpose. The sweetness of pleasing the Master by being dangerous to the domain of darkness gradually loses its satisfaction.

The soldier needs to remember the words of Hebrews 12:1: “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus.”

CONCLUSION

The disciple of Jesus is a soldier in active service, joyfully enduring hardship as he battles the domain of darkness, proclaims the glories of Christ, and avoids the entanglements of the world.

Soli Deo gloria rmb 11/1/2023 #677

Purpose flows from Identity for the disciple of Jesus

POST OVERVIEW. Developing the idea that Purpose is downstream from Identity. That is, Identity is primary and Purpose is derived from a clear Identity. These concepts of Identity and Purpose and how they operate in discipleship are topics in my upcoming book on the subject of discipleship and of discipling others.

Because man is made in the image of God, he has an inherent need for both Identity and Purpose. These ideas have been the subjects of many works of philosophy and psychology as people have tried to unlock the key to a life of meaning, because without a clear Identity and an invigorating Purpose, we seem to be adrift without a rudder. Also, as followers of Jesus we want to know how these ideas work in the life of a believer.

First, we need to understand that Identity must precede Purpose. This is true, by the way, for all people, not just for the disciple of the Lord Jesus. A clear personal Identity is necessary for anyone to have a compelling Purpose, and since very few people have such an Identity, the vast majority of people in the world have no compelling Purpose for their existence.

In stark contrast to the world, when a person initially trusts in Christ for salvation, he immediately obtains the Identity of “Disciple of the Lord Jesus.” And from this spectacular Identity flows an entire life of Purpose. The primary Purpose of the “Disciple of the Lord Jesus” is to conform their life to the description of a disciple given in the pages of Scripture. In other words, the disciple is to grow and to change so that their inward and outward selves are in accord with the characteristics of the disciple of Jesus given in the Bible. Having been made righteous in God’s sight by his faith in Jesus, the disciple of the Lord Jesus is to grow in sanctification so that his practical righteousness is progressively conformed to his positional righteousness. The disciple of Jesus has been wrapped in a robe of righteousness (Isaiah 61:10), and now his Purpose is to conform what is wrapped with the robe of the wrapping.

The raising of Lazarus in John 11 pictures this for us. Jesus’ friend had been dead four days, so he was extremely dead. But when Jesus called Lazarus by name, “the man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings” (John 11:44). After Jesus called him, Lazarus was as alive as he would ever be, but he was also bound with the grave wrappings and had his face wrapped with a cloth. He was alive, but he was also encumbered with wrappings and was effectively blind. So Jesus commanded the people, “Unbind him, and let him go” (11:44). Lazarus was fully alive, but for him to function as a living person, he needed someone to remove the wrappings so he could walk and see.

In a similar way, we were “dead in transgressions and sins” (Ephesians 2:1-3). But when the Holy Spirit called us through the gospel and we responded with repentance and faith, at that moment we were both as justified as we would ever be and as unholy as we would ever be. We were wrapped in God’s robe of righteousness (Isaiah 61:10) and, at the same time, wrapped in all the grave clothes of our former life of sin, righteous by position but unrighteous by practice. In this state, our Purpose becomes apparent. We are to make every effort to remove the “grave clothes” of our former life and put on every one of the “clothes” of the disciple of Jesus that we see modeled or commanded in the Scriptures (Ephesians 4:22-24).

We see another example of this in the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20. The risen Lord Jesus Christ gives His church her mission for the remainder of this age when He says, “Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (and) teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, (even) to the end of the age.” Although this passage has immense importance for the mission of the church, we also see here a clear prescription for how the disciple grows. “Go, make disciples,” in this context means, “Preach the gospel and gather those who believe in Jesus.” Now, those who profess faith in Jesus are to be identified as disciples by being baptized as a public profession of their faith. Therefore, water baptism gives the disciple his Identity as a disciple of the Lord Jesus. What flows from this Identity? Those who have identified as disciples of the Lord Jesus have the Purpose of observing (i.e., doing) all that Jesus commanded His disciples to do, and the church has the mission of teaching these disciples to obey. Once again, we see that Identity as a disciple of Jesus leads to the Purpose of growing in obedience and holiness.

SUMMARY. What we are saying is that, once a person has committed to the Identity of “a disciple of the Lord Jesus,” the discovery of Purpose is not complicated. In fact, the disciple of Jesus can immediately embark into their Purpose of becoming who they already are. The disciple’s Purpose does not need to be invented or created, but rather is discovered discipline by discipline and repentance by repentance as he becomes more conformed to the biblical description of a disciple of Jesus.

Soli Deo gloria rmb 8/7/2023 #666

The Lord answers a prayer for usefulness

This morning was a little cool, with perhaps a hint of fall already in the air. My wife and I had traveled to Pennsylvania to visit our grandchildren and their parents, and I was out for an early trot-walk around the small town and the college campus to talk to the Lord and to review some of my Scripture memory.

My first thoughts had been of man’s urgent need for something of eternal importance in his life. While the things of this earth may give satisfaction and fascination for a time, sooner or later a person needs to have something of permanence on which they can stand. At some point in life, the question arises in your head, “Is this all there is?” Is this job, this indulgence, this activity, this hobby, this relationship, this family, this ambition, this bucket-list, this vacation, this travel, this goal, this dream, this fill in the blank – Is this a life that justifies my existence? Surely this is the question that God places inside each of us. And at that moment I simultaneously praised God for allowing me to know Jesus Christ and was saddened by all the myriads of people who do not know Jesus and who are thus perishing. Only the life that knows and loves the Lord Jesus Christ has any connection with eternity and any permanence and significance.

The next thought that I had was amazement at the way my very unremarkable and unimpressive life has unfolded. The Lord has truly hidden me in the shadow of His hand (Isaiah 49:2), making sure that there was very little noteworthy about my accomplishments so that I could continue to function under the radar. Perhaps the most prominent example of this is my professional “career.” I began my career as an engineer with IBM, which at the time (1982) was Forbes’ most respected company in the world. Within five years I had squandered that auspicious start and was working for a failing software company. A few years past as I moved from one job to another. Finally, in 1996, just when it looked like I was in a position to stay long-term in a dead-end job, I resigned in order to go to post-Soviet Russia for three years as a “missionary.” (1 Samuel 17:48; Jeremiah 40:1-4) When I returned from Russia, the Lord eventually gave me a position as a Buyer at a company that printed lottery tickets (Jonah 1:1). After several rounds of surviving layoffs and employee cutbacks, I again resigned so that me and my new family could move to Charlotte to complete my seminary degree (2007). When graduation from RTS yielded no direction and no open positions (it was the disastrous year of 2008), the Lord opened up a door at Wikoff Color Corporation, where I stayed till the end of my career in January of 2020. My career reveals no success and no happiness. I disliked virtually every position that I held and was unsuccessful at them all. I never grossed more than $65K in any calendar year and frequently made a lot less. There were many times of unemployment and I twice resigned from my job to pursue a Kingdom opportunity, which meant that during my working “career,” I spent six full years engaged in or recovering from those two resignations. I began my work lifetime as a degreed engineer who had turned down offers at Exxon, Harris Corporation, and a third company to work at IBM, then the most admired company in the world. Thirty-eight years later, I finished my work lifetime as a “Purchasing Manager” at Wikoff Color, a dying ink company in Fort Mill, SC, and very possibly the worst run company in the world. The Lord had ordained that I went from best to worst in my working career!

Nevertheless, despite my personal failures in my working career, the Lord has also ordained that Lisa and I are basically financially independent at this stage in our life. We are “amply supplied” (Phil. 4:18). What this means is that I can devote my time to my discipleship activities and my writing projects. The Lord has given me so many opportunities to pour out my life for others and has given me the desires of my heart (Psalm 37:4). What an amazing God! The things impossible for people are possible for God (Luke 18:27).

All of these thoughts were flooding my brain as I walked past the college campus with the result that I was almost giddy with joy. As I praised the Lord for all that He had done, I offered up a prayer and asked that He would make me more useful. “Lord, glorify Yourself by making me more useful to You.” And so I walked on and crossed Main Street and headed for home.

As I strolled down the sidewalk, I was glancing to my left at the houses and at any people I might see in them. One house stood on a hill above the sidewalk and on the front porch of the house there sat a middle-aged lady. Because of the porch rail, I could only see from her shoulders upward, but that was enough for me to notice that her head was bent forward as if she was reading or possibly writing. I walked a few paces past the house, then stopped and looked back, for it occurred to me that she might be reading her Bible or journaling and, if she was doing that, then maybe I could encourage her. So I turned back and walked to where I was just below the porch and called to her.

“Excuse me, but are you reading or journaling or what?”

“I am actually doing both.” “What are you reading?” “Well, actually I am reading my Bible.” “Oh, that’s great! Where in the Bible are you reading?” “I am reading Ezekiel.” “Wow! I love Ezekiel! I am reading in Ezekiel now, too. Where are you in Ezekiel?” “I am reading in chapter 34 where the Lord tells how He will shepherd His people.”

“That is really good. I especially love Ezekiel 33. Do you remember verses 1-9 of chapter 33 where the prophet talks about the watchman? Do you know who the watchman is?”

“No, who is the watchman?”

“The watchman is you and me. We are the watchmen. Do you know why? We are the watchman because there is a sword coming upon the land and we need to warn the people that the sword is coming and they must escape. So, we must warn them of the coming sword of judgment. Well, enjoy your reading.” And with that I waved my hand and continued my walk.

Then it hit me. The Lord had answered my prayer for usefulness! Not five minutes before I had asked Him to make me more useful and He had answered my request by putting that woman on the porch and then testing me to see if I would take the opportunity to actually be useful. He was asking me if I was I alert to His answer to my prayer. Was I willing to be useful? Praise God, He not only tested me, but He also allowed me to pass the test. I had prayed to be more useful and, five minutes later, He had allowed me to be useful. I had encouraged my sister in Christ and had (possibly) spurred her on to love and good deeds. I had helped her see more from Ezekiel than she probably had seen before. I had been useful! Praise the Lord!

Soli Deo gloria rmb 8/2/2023 #665

And the day of vengeance of our God (Isaiah 61:2)

POST OVERVIEW. The second part (see #646, 5/2/2023) of a study of Isaiah 61:1-2 as quoted by Jesus in Luke 4 when He was in Nazareth. This one on “The day of vengeance of our God” (61:2).

In our last post (#646, 5/2/2023), we had begun to discuss Isaiah 61:1-2 and to consider why Jesus had quoted part of these verses when He was in His hometown of Nazareth in Luke 4. In that scene in the gospel of Luke, Jesus announced that He was the promised Messiah and that His appearance was ushering in “the favorable year of the LORD” (Luke 4:19). Now for a long time God’s mercy will welcome believing sinners into His kingdom as sons and daughters. With the first advent of the Messiah, today is “the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2).

But we see from Isaiah 61:2 that the favorable year of the LORD will not last forever. The favorable year will end and then there will come “the day of vengeance of our God.” It is understanding this day of vengeance that will be our focus in this post.

THE WORK OF JESUS’ FIRST ADVENT

But before we explore the day of vengeance which will occur at Jesus’ second advent, I want to consider the nature of His first advent. Why did Jesus’ earthly ministry during His first appearance have the character that it did?

The main point to be grasped is that, for there to be a “favorable year of the LORD,” Jesus had to perfectly accomplish the work He had been given to do in His Incarnation. Jesus was not merely born in Bethlehem, but much more than that, He was sent by the Father to fulfill His mission. The Son of God was sent from heaven to accomplish the work of atonement that He had been given to do (John 17:4). In His life, He was to fulfill the Law (Matt. 5:17) by perfectly obeying it so that He could be a sinless sacrifice for the sins of His people (Hebrews 10:10, 12, 14). When He had perfectly obeyed the Father in His suffering and had humbled Himself to the point of death on a cross (Phil. 2:8), He was able to shout the victory cry, “It is finished!” (John 19:30)

Τετέλεσται!

So, Jesus did not come in His Incarnation to judge the world (John 3:17) but came to be a ransom for many (Mark 10:45) so that many would be saved through Him.

THE GOOD NEWS

The good news is that Jesus has accomplished His work of atonement and has made it possible for sinners to be reconciled to a holy God. Now through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ anyone who believes will be saved from the wrath of God.

With His death on the cross, Jesus finished His work of atonement.

Now, during “the favorable year of the LORD,” the church has been given the work of making disciples and of proclaiming the gospel to the ends of the earth.

But on the last day, Jesus Christ will appear in His awesome Second Coming to execute His work of judgment. This will be the terrifying “day of vengeance of our God” (Isaiah 61:2), and it is to this subject we now turn.

THE DAY OF VENGEANCE OF OUR GOD

Jesus did not mention this day of vengeance in the synagogue in Nazareth, but all the Scriptures make clear that there will certainly be a day of judgment at the end of the age and the Scriptures will certainly be fulfilled. There will be an end to the favorable year of the LORD and a beginning to the day of vengeance. The time of mercy and grace and compassion will pass away and the day of wrath and fury and recompense for all wrongs will come upon the world like a flood and like thief in the night, and there will be no escape.

The Bible has much to say in Old Testament and New about this day of vengeance, this “day of the LORD.” These awesome scenes of powerful destruction are given to the unrighteous as warnings to drive them to repentance (Romans 2:4-9). The wicked should fear the judgment of the Lord and flee from the wrath to come (Luke 3:7).

And Jesus Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords is the One who will execute the judgments of that day. Jesus is the One who will tread the great wine press of the wrath of God (Rev. 14:19). Jesus is the One who will carry out the wrath of the Lamb on the great day (Rev. 6:16-17). Jesus is the Rider on the white horse who is called Faithful and True (Rev. 19:11). On that day He will strike down the nations with His sharp sword and will rule them with a rod of iron, and He will tread the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty (Rev. 19:15).

The day of vengeance of our God is the same thing as the day of the LORD in the Old Testament prophets. The prophet Joel tells of a day of darkness and gloom, of clouds and thick darkness. This is a day that comes as destruction from the Almighty. Blood and fire and columns of smoke. In Micah, the Lord declares, “in that day I will execute vengeance in anger and wrath on the nations which have not obeyed” (Micah 5:15). Nahum declares, “The LORD is avenging and wrathful. The LORD takes vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserves wrath for His enemies” (1:2). “The hills dissolve. Indeed, the earth is upheaved by His presence (1:5). Who can endure the burning of His anger? His wrath is poured out like fire” (1:6). Zephaniah cries out, “Near is the great day of the LORD, near and coming very quickly (1:14). A day of wrath is that day, a day of trouble and distress, a day of destruction and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom (1:15). Their blood will be poured out like dust and their flesh like dung” (1:17). And time would fail me if I listed all these passages in the prophets.

This “day of vengeance” is the same thing as “that day” in many passages in Isaiah. In Psalm 110, the Lord (“Adonai” in the Hebrew; this is Jesus) “shatters kings in the day of His wrath. He judges among the nations. He fills them (the nations) with corpses. He will shatter the chief men across a broad country” (110:5-6). In 2 Thess. 1:7 during the day of vengeance, “The Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God.” When describing Jesus on the day of judgment, the author of Hebrews says, “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (10:31), and later he says, “Our God is a consuming fire” (12:29).

SUMMARY. The message is clear. Jesus has died and Jesus has risen and He has given sinners a season of mercy when they can repent and a reason for hope if they will believe in Him. Yes, Jesus has died and Jesus has risen, but Jesus is coming again. Now is the day of salvation, for when He comes again, He will come in terrifying vengeance.

Soli Deo gloria rmb 5/3/2023 #647

The favorable year and the day of vengeance (Isaiah 61-1-2)

POST OVERVIEW. A study of Isaiah 61:1-2 in the context of Jesus’ quoting of this passage in Nazareth in Luke 4. This article sets the context of Jesus’ quote and considers the meaning of “the favorable year of the LORD.” The first of a two-part series.

¹The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
Because the LORD has anointed me
To bring good news to the afflicted;
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to captives
And freedom to prisoners;
²To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD
And the day of vengeance of our God. – Isaiah 61:1-2

After His baptism, as the Lord Jesus was beginning His earthly ministry, He went to His hometown of Nazareth and, in the synagogue on the Sabbath, the Lord read a short passage from Isaiah 61 (bolded and italicized above) and sat down. Most in the synagogue would have been familiar with Isaiah and many would have known this specific passage, but no one in the synagogue would have ever suspected what happened next. Jesus then said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:16-21).

ANNOUNCING THREE TRUTHS

It is hard to overstate the significance of what Jesus has just announced. By quoting this prophecy from Isaiah, Jesus establishes three enormous truths. First, since this prophecy from Isaiah is certainly Messianic, Jesus is unambiguously declaring Himself to be the promised Messiah, the Anointed One predicted by the Old Testament Scriptures. But second, Jesus is announcing that He is inaugurating a period of “good news to the afflicted” and of “binding up the brokenhearted.” Jesus proclaims that there will be a time of “liberty to captives,” of “freedom to prisoners,” even “the favorable year of the LORD.” The long-awaited Messiah has come and He is ushering in a long time of the Lord’s favor, a time when sinners can be reconciled to their holy God. We now know that, with the coming of Jesus the Messiah, the gospel age has begun, the time when the nations will be gathered in, when the church will go out and make disciples, and when the name of Jesus will be proclaimed to the ends of the earth.

But there is a third truth that Jesus has announced, even though He intentionally avoids mentioning it. When a Jewish rabbi was reading a well-known passage of Scripture, he would often stop his reading before the end of the passage that he wanted to teach. The rabbi did this because he expected his hearers to complete the passage in their own mind. Here, Rabbi Jesus stops His reading with “the favorable year of the LORD,” but He expects His hearers to complete the reading in their mind. Thus, there is “the favorable year of the LORD,” but there is also “the day of vengeance of our God” (Isaiah 61:2b). The third truth that Jesus announces here in Nazareth is that, as surely as there will be a “favorable year of the LORD,” there will also be “a day of vengeance of our God.” It is on the second and the third truths that I want to comment.

THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE GOSPEL AGE

By announcing “the favorable year of the LORD” and “the day of vengeance,” Jesus has moved the conversation into the realm of end times and of eschatology. And eschatology is the subject of this post. As stated above, “the favorable year” refers to the long time of the gospel age when the church goes into the world and among the nations proclaiming the good news of salvation to people of every tribe and tongue and nation so that the elect can be gathered in. The crucified and risen Lord Jesus has commissioned His church (Matt. 28:19-20) to ride out with the gospel, “conquering and to conquer” (Rev. 6:2), as His witnesses (Acts 1:8) to the ends of the earth till the end of the age. And because this is an immense task, the commissioned church will have a long time to accomplish its mission. The unity of Scripture is displayed in the fact that “the favorable year” of Isaiah 61:2 corresponds to “the thousand years” of Revelation 20. During this long time of relative peace, the fury of God’s wrath against sin is held back and the offer of salvation to sinners is extended. During this figurative “year of favor,” “the vilest offender who truly believes, That moment from Jesus a pardon receives.” Wretches with sins red like crimson are, by repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus, made white as snow (Isaiah 1:18). Those who “were fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, thieves, drunkards, and revilers are washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:9-11). The church proclaims that “the blood of Jesus God’s Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Jesus has come, Jesus has died, Jesus has risen, and now for a long time God’s mercy welcomes believing sinners into His kingdom as sons and daughters. Yes, now is “the acceptable time, the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2).

But the favorable year of the LORD will not last forever. The favorable year will end and there will come “the day of vengeance of our God.” This day of vengeance will be the topic of the next post in this series.

Soli Deo gloria rmb 5/2/2023 #646

How have you impacted the kingdom of God?

This post is simply a series of questions that seek to evaluate the disciple’s fruit and his impact. Are you bearing fruit or producing good works (Eph. 2:10) for the Kingdom? What will be your legacy?

REGARDING SATAN’S AWARENESS OF THE DISCIPLE’S ACTIVITY

Does your name get mentioned in Satan’s war room?
Does Satan even know your name?
Are you a target for Satan’s attack? (Consider Job 1, 2)
Do your prayers frighten Satan? By their frequency? By their power?
Is your witness for Jesus something that Satan feels compelled to silence?
Are you on Satan’s radar screen?
Are you on Satan’s “10 Most Wanted” list?
Does Satan consider you dangerous to his cause?
If you died today, would Satan breathe a sigh of relief or would he not notice?
Does your witness for Jesus keep Satan up at night?

GENERAL KINGDOM WORK, FRUIT, AND LEGACY

If you died right now, would the cause of Christ on earth be lessened?
What kingdom work are you planning for the future?
What kingdom work are you currently executing (i.e., it is on your calendar)?
Will your efforts for Christ bear thirty, sixty, a hundred fold? (Matthew 13:8)
Would those seeking to persecute followers of Jesus be able to find you?
If Jesus gave you two talents at your conversion, what would you show Him when He returned/when He asked for an accounting (Matthew 25:14-30)?
Are there people who have heard the name of Jesus because of you?
How is the kingdom of God different because you have lived?
Is heaven well acquainted with your voice because of your prayers?

The point of these questions is to emphasize that the disciple has been called to bear fruit for the Kingdom (John 15:5, 8, 16).

“My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be My disciples.” – Jesus Christ in John 15:8

The disciple’s goal is to be useful to the Master (2 Tim. 2:21). How will your life bear fruit for Jesus? How will you be useful to the Master?

What questions would you add to this list?

Soli Deo gloria rmb 4/10/2023 #639

My selfishness and Jesus’ compassion (Mark 10:49-52)

POST OVERVIEW. A post displaying a sinner’s sudden outburst of selfishness contrasted with Jesus utter selflessness and compassion. Our biblical text is Mark 10:49-52.

AN ASTONISHING SELFISHNESS

We received my sister-in-law’s invitation to my niece’s bridal shower on Saturday, a mere eight days before the shower was to take place. We live in Charlotte and the shower was going to be on Sunday afternoon at 2PM in Lexington, SC. (Lexington is a short distance from Columbia.) A quick check on Google Maps showed that the venue was only about 90 minutes from Oakhurst Baptist Church. Yes, attendance at the bridal shower would require a quick departure from church right after the service, but it was definitely doable.

Now, Lisa does not like to drive on the interstate, and she especially does not like to drive alone on the interstate. When we travel any distance from Charlotte, the driving always falls to me. And I enjoy driving us wherever we go, even if it is the almost ten hours to Grove City, PA, to see our grandchildren. Lisa expects me to drive and I expect to be the driver. That is just how it is.

So, when Lisa gently asked me if I would be willing to drive her to the bridal shower in Lexington, SC, on Sunday afternoon only 90 minutes up the road, it was reasonable for her to expect a pleasant and affirmative reply. After all, I have vowed to love her till death do us part. She is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She is my one-flesh life partner and the woman whom I seek to “love as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her” (Eph. 5:25). That Sunday afternoon was wide open on our calendar and I even have a brother in Columbia and I could visit with him while she was at the shower. There was every reason in the world for Lisa to expect me to say that I would be delighted to drive her.

Ah, but “every reason in the world” did not take into account my selfishness. In fact, to my shame and chagrin, the words that came out of my mouth displayed that my selfishness was alive and well within me and could burst out at the worst possible moment. So, instead of giving my wife the gracious answer that she deserved, selfish me said, “Well, sweetheart, I guess you will need to drive down there by yourself.” Yes, I actually said that to my wife. Why did I say that? I can only speculate that, at that moment, I was feeling particularly selfish and mean, and I wanted to keep my Sunday afternoon open for my own use. But, regardless of the explanation or the reason why, sinful selfishness had boldly stepped onto center stage.

This episode is admittedly an astonishing display of human selfishness, but it is by no means unique. All the descendants of Adam have been ruined by the fall and so all the descendants of Adam must constantly be on their guard against sudden outbursts of selfish-ness and against eruptions of a myriad of sinful behaviors. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), and truly, we are “inventors of evil” (Romans 1:30).

A CONTRASTING UNSELFISHNESS AND COMPASSION

But there has been one Man who walked among us who was completely other, who never felt or expressed the faintest hint of selfishness nor ever sinned against any of the commandments of God in the slightest way. His was perfect obedience from manger to cross, always doing the things that were pleasing to the Father (John 8:29). In Mark 10:49-52, we see in Jesus a display of unselfishness and compassion for others that is truly divine and that stands in stark contrast to our outbursts of fleshly selfishness. Let’s look at our Savior as He has compassion on Bartimaeus.

CONTEXT. To appreciate the magnitude of Jesus’ compassion toward Bartimaeus, we must observe the context of Jesus’ compassion. “They were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking on ahead of them” (Mark 10:32). And why is Jesus so intent on getting to Jerusalem? In another gospel, the Scripture says, “He was determined to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). Jesus was going to Jerusalem because He knew that a cross awaited Him. Jesus is on the most important mission in human history. In a little more than a week, there will be a bloody cross and an empty tomb and redemption promised will have become redemption accomplished. As Jesus leaves Jericho and heads up to Jerusalem, He must have been contemplating the horrors of bearing the Father’s wrath against all the sins of God’s people. Meanwhile, the crowd is oblivious to all this and talks excitedly about recovering the throne of David and restoring the Kingdom on earth. So, this is the context: Jesus with His mind fixed on Calvary while the crowd imagines a soon-coming conquest.

“And as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus was sitting by the road” (Mark 10:46). As Jesus strides ahead, intent on Jerusalem and on the end of His mission and as the crowd jostles and babbles, way in the background can be faintly heard the voice of a blind beggar. “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (10:47). When the crowd can no longer ignore him, they seek to silence him. “Be quiet, Bartimaeus. Jesus does not have time for the likes of you.” But Bartimaeus will not be denied. “If the Son of David is nearby, I will call till He answers.”

A blind beggar, covered with the dust of the Jericho road, has lifted a pathetic cry to the incarnate Son of God, who is bent on accomplishing His life’s mission. How will Jesus respond to this dust-covered nobody?

“Jesus stopped” (Mark 10:49).

God stopped?? Jesus momentarily interrupted His mission of saving the world to “STOP” and call to a blind beggar in Jericho? Now here is profound mystery! In another gospel account, it states that Jesus was “moved with compassion” (Matt. 20:34). But what kind of compassion is this that would stop the greatest mission in human history because of a blind beggar’s cry for mercy! But our Lord does more than just stop for the beggar. When Bartimaeus is brought near, Jesus gives him a blank check. “What do you want Me to do for you?” (Mark 10:51). The faith-filled man boldly asks for his sight to be restored. And, since Jesus is God, He immediately fulfills the man’s request. Having regained his sight, Bartimaeus begins following Jesus.

So, we see the remarkable contrast between the sinful, selfish creature and the compassionate, unselfish Creator. The creature (me, in this story) may manifest selfishness at any time, but our Savior always displays selfless compassion in even the most extreme circumstances.

CONCLUSION. The good news is that, after acting in ugly selfishness toward my wife, I realized my sin and went to Lisa to ask her for forgiveness. I admitted my selfishness to her and told her, after I had thought more about it, that I would be delighted to drive her to the bridal shower on Sunday. And Lisa forgave me. Praise the Lord that He has given us forgiveness!

Soli Deo gloria rmb 1/12/2023 #611

The need for a demanding definition of discipleship

POST OVERVIEW. This post points out the problems with a broad and shallow definition of discipleship and simultaneously argues for a demanding definition in which conscious, intentional effort produces growth in Christlikeness.

If the disciple is to progress in holiness, usefulness, and obedience in his walk with Christ, then his course of discipleship must be rigorous enough to produce these desired results. And the beginning of any course of discipleship is a clear understanding that discipleship is the means to bring about a desired end.

In Philippians 2:12, the apostle Paul commands believers to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” This is an excellent theme verse for your discipleship. “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” When? All the time. Where? Wherever you are. For how long? Till Christ returns or calls you home. To what end? To the end that you will be conformed to the holiness and usefulness and obedience of Christ. What falls under this idea of working out my salvation? As a disciple of Jesus, everything in your life is part of your discipleship. “Disciple” is your identity and discipleship is your activity. The disciple is consciously and intentionally and purposefully engaged in discipleship to the greatest of all ends, to be pleasing to Master, to be useful to the Master, to be holy like the Master, and to be obedient like the Master. I contend that a demanding definition of discipleship is necessary if we, as fallen and weak human beings, are going to use our limited days and our feeble energies to make serious progress in our journey toward Christlikeness.

THE PROBLEM IDENTIFIED

I have gone to some length already to set the bar high in terms of defining discipleship because my observation is that a vigorous definition of discipleship is hard to come by in American churches. My sense is that most American churches do not even have a concept of discipleship. The idea that all professing believers are expected to grow in Scriptural knowledge, in obedience to Scripture, in holiness, in usefulness to the church, and in their witness for Christ in the world is a foreign concept in most American churches. This is lamentable, but it is not about these churches that I am concerned right now.

There are other churches which do have a concept of discipleship, and which do desire to be engaged in it, but their definition of what constitutes “discipleship” is so weak that it will fail to produce any meaningful results in sanctification. An anemic definition will produce anemic results. One example I heard of recently had a course in the church that was named “Discipleship” but which was, in reality, simply a year-long Bible survey. While this might qualify as a basic component of a vigorous course in discipleship, to equate this Bible overview with discipleship falls well short of the mark. This situation is not good, and it is difficult to see how this attitude toward “discipleship” is going to produce any meaningful or lasting fruit. But I am not targeting this group of churches now, either.

Finally, there is a third group of churches that not only has a concept of discipleship, but their church leadership also intentionally seeks to lead the church into a culture of discipleship. But there is a common flaw even among these well-meaning, intentional churches, and it again comes down to the definition of discipleship. In a church that I have attended recently, the definition of discipleship was “doing spiritual good to another believer.” While this is not technically wrong, such a broad and benign definition brings with it the very real possibility that the disciples in your flock think they are engaged in discipleship when, in fact, they may be doing nothing more than fellowship. If the aim of discipleship is not clearly stated as persistently growing in Christlikeness in all aspects of the disciple’s life, then broad and shallow tactics and strategies will suffice, but you will find that the lives of the disciples in your flock will be little different from the world.

The following are some further comments on this theme:

Discipleship involves the EFFORT of the disciple himself. That is, each disciple’s spiritual growth in Christlikeness is his own responsibility. In Phil. 2:12, the apostle Paul commands every disciple to work out HIS OWN SALVATION with fear and trembling. So, discipleship is not a committee activity. Rather, I am personally responsible for working out my own salvation. Other disciples can certainly help me, but it is my responsibility before the Lord to grow in holiness, obedience, and usefulness. I can and should solicit the help of other disciples to help me with skills and knowledge, but the working out is up to me. In college, you could get assistance from professors or tutors or other classmates, but your grade in the class was your responsibility. It is the same principle with discipleship.
Discipleship is purposeful, meaning that the disciple pursues a particular course of action for the purpose of growing in a particular area of our walk with Christ. Examples might be attending an Equipping Class at your church on Evangelism to be a more effective witness for Jesus or memorizing a chapter of the Bible to hide the Word in your heart and to have that Scripture available for meditation at any time.
Discipleship implies there is a target or a reason for an action. Usually growing disciples will plan their discipleship activities and then be sure to execute those plans so that progress is sustained. Planning your goal-centered activities puts the theoretical on your calendar, but only execution of those plans allows you to reap the benefits of your planning. So, growth in Christlikeness occurs only where there is intentional effort in specific activities aimed at the desired end of spiritual growth.

Of course, this does not mean that there is no benefit or spiritual growth to be had in routine activities. It is certainly true that much is learned, and much growth can be obtained from small steps over a long period of time. The point I am emphasizing here is that true discipleship does not occur randomly or accidentally. A disciple does not accidentally memorize the book of Ephesians or randomly come to understand the doctrine of election.

Imagine that you desire to run a marathon and so you begin your training. If you are planning to run 26.2 miles, then you need a training plan strict enough and demanding enough to allow you to accomplish your desired goal. In that training plan, you do not consider walking from the parking lot into the grocery store to be a training activity. Why not? Well, there are several reasons why not, but one of the reasons would be that walking the short distance into the grocery store is not an activity done in order to run a marathon. It is not done with the marathon in mind and for the conscious purpose of completing the 26.2-mile marathon. A legitimate training activity is done with the goal of the training in mind. And so it is with discipleship. A disciple engages in discipleship activities because these, if executed diligently, will help me grow in Christlikeness. These activities will bring about spiritual growth in me and will enable me to accomplish my goal of being holy and useful and obedient.
A person who says they want to be a concert pianist, but whose only musical activity is thirty minutes a day on the guitar will not achieve their aim, no matter how convinced they are that their musical regimen is creating a pianist. And why not? It is because their regimen is too weak. Just so, if you desire to be useful to the Master, an effective ambassador for Christ, an example to other disciples, a person who passes on spiritual strength and encouragement to the succeeding generations, and holy as the Lord is holy, then you need a discipleship regimen that is capable of those desired results.
Discipleship requires the disciple to expend conscious effort. Paul commands each disciple to “WORK OUT your salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12). “Working out” anything requires effort. If you would “work out” your physical fitness with fear and trembling, you will be required to sweat and groan and endure some level of pain over a relatively long period of time. Your amount of progress is directly related to the degree of EFFORT. Just so discipleship requires conscious effort over a long period of time.

So, again, the main point I am trying to make here is that, if discipleship is going to be the grand adventure it is intended to be, the disciple must envision a grand end and must strive to reach that grand end via intentional, conscious, purposeful efforts. To be meaningful, your discipleship must be capable of bringing you to your desired destination.

SDG rmb 11/20/2022 #589

A race against time (Ephesians 5:15-16)

POST OVERVIEW. A meditation on the use of our time as a disciple of Jesus.

From the time the disciple is called to faith, from the moment he begins following Jesus, the disciple is in a race against time. What do I mean by this? After a person comes to faith in Christ, the believer gains a new awareness of the brevity of life and of its fleeting nature. Having passed from death to life (John 5:24), the follower of Jesus begins to understand that “childhood and the prime of life are fleeting” (Ecclesiastes 11:10), and that “now” is the only time he has. With the new eyes of faith, the believer sees that life can only be spent and that life is to be given away in service to the Lord and to others (2 Cor. 12:15).

The new believer also has a sense of duty that did not exist before, a desire to glorify the Lord with his life. There is now a God-given purpose to the disciple’s life that replaces the previous selfish ambitions. “To live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21) and with this compelling purpose comes a greater awareness of the finish line. “We must work the works of [the Lord] as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work” (John 9:4). The disciple is increasingly aware that, unless the Lord returns first, night is coming. There is coming a day when his race will have been run (2 Tim. 4:7), and the question will be, “Have I fought the good fight, have I kept the faith?” So, before that day, the disciple is eager to “walk not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of the time for the days are evil” (Eph. 5:15-16). In this sense, then, the disciple is in a race against time.

RACING AGAINST TIME TO DO WHAT?

With the unknown finish line coming irresistibly closer, what is it that the disciple is racing against time to do? Here are some of my own ideas.

Every disciple has been called to Christ to accomplish the good works which God prepared beforehand for him to do (Eph. 2:10) and so I desire to complete these good works before I am taken away by death or the Lord’s return.

There is a race against time to leave a legacy, to accomplish “a great work” that the Lord has given only me to do. Nehemiah was called to leave his job as a cupbearer to the king and rebuild the wall in Jerusalem. He said to his two nemeses, Sanballat and Tobiah, “I am doing a great work” and I cannot be distracted (Neh. 6:3). Gideon was chosen to defeat the Midianites (Judges 6-8). Joshua led the nation of Israel into the Promised Land. Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem. Noah built an ark. Perhaps God will be gracious to give me a great work as well. So, there is a race to leave my legacy.

In Matthew 13:3, we read, “The sower went out to sow.” The Lord has given me a sack of gospel seeds to scatter and I want my sack to be empty before I am called home. So, there is a race against time to scatter gospel seeds.

There are so many who do not know about Jesus and His finished work on the cross and the salvation that He offers to lost sinners. But I do know Jesus, and it is a race against time to tell as many as I can about my great King.

From time to time, my fellow disciples can become discouraged by the trials and pressures of the world and by the evil in the world, and I am racing against time to encourage as many as I can, “to spur them on to love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:24). Also, I have been given gifts of teaching and so I am in a race against time to edify others with power from the Word.

When I came to Christ more than thirty years ago, I was morally polluted and had developed ungodly habits of life and thought and had a foul mouth. But God has been changing me day by day over these thirty years so that I have made progress in my sanctification. Now I want to display this ransomed life to the world to show God’s power to transform anyone into His useful instrument.

Finally, the Lord has entrusted me with significant financial resources and I am in a race against time to wisely spend the money entrusted to me so that I do not die with a lot of unused funds. The man in Luke 12 was a fool for building bigger barns and not being rich toward God. In the same way, I want to be generous in wise investments of the Lord’s money as a good steward.

So, I am racing against time to accomplish these things with my remaining years.

SDG rmb 11/15/2022 #586

The whole creation groans and suffers (Romans 8:22)

INTRODUCTION. A post considering the decay and lawlessness of the world and how the disciple of Jesus can ignore the noise of wickedness in the world and instead keep his eyes fixed on his own personal mission and calling.

“The whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now” (Romans 8:22). This verse shouts to us the reality that, though God created a “very good” world (Genesis 1:31), sin, introduced by the rebellion of Adam in the Garden, has ruined “the whole creation” and that same sin is now bringing about the gradual but inevitable and irresistible disintegration of the created order.

Even the most furious and persistent efforts of man, the most noble and well-intentioned, eventually (or perhaps suddenly) fall victim to the encroaching chaos. It is as if we are desperately building castles in the sand, knowing that soon the tide will bring the waves to wash over our moats and collapse our handiwork. Soon there will be nothing left except a fading elevated hill of sand on the beach.

Science knows this irresistible journey to disorder as entropy and has captured the essence of the Fall in the Second Law of Thermodynamics: “As one goes forward in time, the net entropy (degree of disorder) of any closed system will always increase.” What this means is that “everything put together sooner or later falls apart” (Paul Simon). According to the laws of our physical universe (which is a “closed system”), everything is moving inevitably toward disorder.

The Word of God, the source of all truth, uses other words to communicate this same idea. “The wages of sin is death.” “The whole creation groans and suffers.” “The day you (sin) eat of it, you shall surely die.” “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity!” “Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men.” “It is appointed unto man once to die and after this, the judgment.” The message is clear: When Adam sinned, the whole creation began an irreversible and irresistible descent into chaos and destruction. Not only that, but as man’s sin steadily increases in the world, and increases at an increasing rate, the extent (breadth) and the magnitude (depth) of the ruin will likewise increase. In short, sin is like a fast spreading cancer or like a voracious nest of termites eating away at the creation, and the damage is accelerating. But we know that this corruption and disintegration cannot go on forever. Instead, this increasing sin and evil and disorder will finally result in full destruction and collapse. History is linear, and the creation is hurtling toward a cataclysmic conclusion. Soon, as sin increases, Jesus Christ will return and claim His bride the church, and will judge the earth, and then the end will come.

But the question that I must answer is, “In light of this ever-increasing sin and evil and chaos in the world, what am I, as a disciple of Jesus, to do on a daily basis?” In other words, as the world becomes increasingly dark and as the corruption and wickedness in the world become ever more obvious and repugnant and threatening, how does the Bible call me to live? For it is certainly true that the disciple of Jesus experiences the corruption of this world along with everyone else. In Romans, Paul says, “And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of the body” (8:23). And so, we groan as we experience the sadness of a world determined to rebel against the Lord.

But while we groan as a natural consequence of our sadness and sense of loss associated with sin, as disciples of Jesus we must not dwell there. In fact, our groaning because of the ambient sin in the world must become for us mere background noise, a part of the context of life in a fallen world, like the temperature outside or the phase of the moon. The degree of sin and the wickedness of the sin committed will grow steadily worse, but that must not distract us from our purpose and our mission. “Evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Tim. 3:13), but we must continue to fix our eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2) and persevere in the mission that He has given us, both as His body the church and as individual disciples “working out our salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12).

A SUGGESTED STRATEGY

So, as I observe the world unraveling and the wickedness and evil growing deeper and wider, the best strategy for me personally is to ignore the details of our demise and to pay little attention even to the broader collapse and, instead, to focus my attention on my purpose and focus on the tasks and the works that the Lord has given me to do (Eph. 2:10). To accomplish this, my mind strives to find answers to “missional questions.” What does it mean for me to be Jesus’ witness (Acts 1:8) on a daily basis? How can I love my wife as Christ loved the church (Eph. 5:25)? How can I be a better sower of the gospel (Matt. 13:2-8)? How do I put to death immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (Col. 3:5)? How can I repent of my anger and replace it with peace, patience, kindness, and gentleness (Gal. 5:22-23)? What is my “great work” (Neh. 6:3) and how can I pour my energies into that? What does it mean to “make the most of the time” (Ephesians 5:16)? How can I be a better ambassador for Christ (2 Cor. 5:20) and a better fisher of men (Matt. 4:19)? There are so many ways that I can grow as a disciple of Jesus and be more useful to the Kingdom that I find there is no time to keep tabs on our rapidly decaying world.

Jesus said, “Let the dead bury their own dead” (Luke 9:60). In other words, don’t waste a lot of time worrying about the wicked (Psalm 37:1-2; Psalm 73). The world is certainly going to continue to plunge into chaos and disorder and lawlessness. The Bible has declared this as truth. So accept this truth and “press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14).

SDG rmb 8/15/2022 #558

Roy's Reflections

Musings and thoughts on biblical themes