Monthly Archives: August 2016

John 19:18-22 – There’s Two Kinds of People

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

 

Summary:

When they crucified the Lord between one thief who believed and one who didn’t, it pictures how the world is divided into two kinds of people, saved and unsaved, with the Cross making the difference.

Bible critics say it is a discrepancy when the different gospel writers say that the sign Pilate posted on the cross said different things (Mt.27:35-37; Mark 15:26; Luke 23:38; John 19:19). But people remember different details of events that they have witnessed. Plus, the title was in three languages (John 19:20), so perhaps these three languages would account for these three slight differences in what the writers say the sign said.

Pilate no doubt nailed the title to the Lord’s cross. This means that had you been there that day, you would have seen his title, but you wouldn’t have seen what His Father nailed to His cross (Col.2:14). So what was this “handwriting of ordinances” that He nailed to the cross? Well, Exodus 32:15,16 says that the ten commandments were written in the “writing” of God.

But why did the ten commandments need to be blotted out (Col.2:14)? It was because the Law was “against us.” It demanded perfect obedience all the time (Gal.3:10). Colossians 2:14 says it was “contrary to us,” and the word “contrary is used in Acts 27:4 when the wind was blowing Paul away from his destination. People think that the Law is the wind beneath their wings, lifting them to heaven because they are keeping it so well, but on the contrary, it was given to condemn us and show us our need of a Savior.

So people think that the Law will be their defense on Judgment Day, when it will actually be their accuser. With that in mind, it is interesting that Pilate’s sign is called His “accusation” (Mark 15:25,26). The only thing Pilate could find to accuse Him of was saying He was king of the Jews. That should have been His defense. Who would crucify their king? So the thing that should have been His defense was His accusation. In the same way, people think the Law will be their defense because they keep it so well when actually it will be their accuser (John 5:45).

But if the law was our accuser, why’d God nail it to His cross? Because God laid our sins on Him and accused Him of breaking the Law we broke.

Was Christ king of the Jews? Of course! So what Pilate wrote was a copy of the Word of God that he translated into three languages. I believe God used his translation to save one of the thieves. Both started out railing on Him (Mt.27: 41-44), but one ended up expressing faith in His “kingdom” (Lu.23:42). How’d he know the Lord would have a king-dom? I believe he saw Pilate’s sign and asked the Lord if He were a king, giving the Lord a chance to witness.

What’s that tell you about the power of God’s Word, that even though it was copied and translated by an unbeliever God used it? And what’s that tell you about the new Bible versions, some of which were copied and translated by unbelievers? Some say you can’t get saved out of anything but a KJV, but this is limiting the power of God’s Word.

It doesn’t say they took “some” of His garments (John 19:23), so He was probably naked. He bore the shame of spiritual nakedness we should have borne (Rev.3:17,18), and the “contempt” (Dn.12:2) of God and angels. And the contempt of men (Isa.66:23,24 cf. Ps.22:6).

But if they cast lots for His coat, why did they rend His clothes? Well, the details of the Lord’s life were well known (Acts 26:26), so the soldiers probably heard that those who touched his clothes were healed (Mt.14:35,36), so they probably tore them up so each of the four soldiers could have one so they could heal people for a price!

The seamless coat that couldn’t be divided was a picture of His robe of righteousness that couldn’t be compromised. It was the kind of coat that priests wore (Ex.39:22,23). In the kingdom, the Jews will be issued a similar perfect robe of righteousness (Isa.61:10) so they can be “a kingdom of priests” (Ex.19:6)

The Source of Destruction – 2 Thessalonians 1:9-12

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

 

Summary:

The destruction at the Second Coming of Christ will come “from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power” (v.9). It is called “everlasting” destruction because after the flames destroy the Lord’s enemies they will ignite the lake of fire (Deut.32:22). Hell is in the center of the earth (Mt.12:40), and the Lord went to the comfort side when He died, known as paradise (Lu.16:19-31 cf. 23:43). But after the Lord paid for the sins of the people in paradise it was moved to heaven (IICor.12:4) and the torment side of hell is the only place left in the heart of the earth. The flames of the Second Coming will make it an open pit as the fire rises to the bottoms of the mountains (Deut.32:22).

We know Deuteronomy 32:22 is about the Second Coming because the previous verse predicts how God would use the foolish nation of the little flock to provoke Israel to jealous-y (v.21 cf. Mt.23:43 cf. Lu.12:32; IPe.2:9,10). It worked (Mt.27:17,18), but God hoped it would provoke them to re-pent and believe, not crucify the Lord. But God knew they wouldn’t, so He predicted the fire of the Second Coming would come next (Deut.32:22). The lake of fire was “pre-pared” for “the king” (Isa.30:33), i.e., the devil (Mt.25:41).

When the Lord comes in flaming fire God will advise the unsaved to hide “for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty” (Isa.2:10,19,21). Doesn’t that sound like Paul’s description of the destruction that will come “from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power”? The lost will see Him come “with power and great glory” (Mt.24:30).

The unsaved will be “afraid” but also “surprised” (Isa.33: 14), especially unsaved Jewish “brethren” who’ll think the Lord is “glorified” in them during the Tribulation (Isa.66:5) But the Lord will “come to be glorified in His saints” (IIThes.1:10). When He judges the lost and spares the saved He’ll be glorified in His saints “in Israel” (Isa.44:23).

But Paul says He’ll also be “admired in all them that believe” in that day because his testimony “was believed” (IITh.1:10). This is where we come in! When God spares us the fire of the Second Coming with the pre-trib Rapture the Lord will be glorified in us too. Remember how Paul worked us into Israel’s promise of vengeance (Isa.49:25 cf. IITh.1:5,6)? Here he works us into God’s promise to be glorified in His saints in Israel.

Paul prays God will count us worthy of being spared this wrath (IITh.1:11). In his first letter he begged the Thessa-lonians towalk worthy of this calling (2:11,12), which is what grace is all about. The Colossians had the Lord, Paul exhorted them to walkworthy of Him (Col.1:9,10), the Thessalonians had the hope of the pre-trib rapture, Paul prayed they’d walk worthy of it. But in his second epistle he prayed God would count them worthy of it by rapturing them before the Tribulation.

But if the pre-trib rapture was a sure thing, why’d Paul pray for it? He was praying according to the revealed will of God, as he did in IThessalonians 5:23,24. Hezekiah did too (IIKi.20:1-5), reminding God of His promise in IKings 2:4 that he couldn’t die childless since he’d been good. God hadn’t forgotten the promise, He wanted to see if Hezekiah would remember it and pray for it. He delights when we pray according to His will, and that’s what Paul is doing in praying God will count them worthy of the pre-trib rapture.

This will “fulfill all the good pleasure of His will” (IIThes. 1:11). His “good pleasure” for Israel concerned Jerusalem (Ps. 51:18) in the kingdom (Lu.12:32). The Lord taught the Jews to pray for this (Mt.6:10). His good pleasure for us is the pre-trib rapture, and Paul prayed for it. He also prayed God would fulfill “the work of faith with power, i.e., the work of His faithfulness(cf.Col.2:12) in rapturing us with power.

When the Lord keeps His promise to rapture us before the Tribulation, He will be glorified in us (IITh.1:12). God is always glorified when he keeps His promises! He will be glorified in Israel when He keeps His promises to her, but He’ll also be glorified in us when He keeps His promises to us.

Everybody Thinks They’re Innocent – 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

 

Summary:

When the Lord comes “in flaming fire” (v.8) He will take vengeance “on them that know not God” (v.9). Plenty of people knowabout God but don’t know Him. Eli’s sons didn’t know the Lord (ISam.2:12), even though the sons of a priest surely knewabout Him. What’s that mean?

Well, the generation that came after Joshua surely knew about the Lord and what He’d done for Israel, so how can God say they didn’t know Him or His works (Judges 2:8-10)? They’d heard about the Red Sea crossing and the fall of Jericho’s walls but didn’t believe them, and so didn’t believe in the God who performed those great works. If the generation after the Holocaust can doubt it happened, the generation after the Red Sea crossing can doubt it too. “The priests…that handle the Law” surely knew about the Lord (Jer.2:8), but God says they “knew Me not.” The only con-clusion we can make is that when the Lord comes to take vengeance “on them that know not God” it means on them who are not saved because they didn’t obey the gospel.

People that don’t know God tend to persecute those who do (Ps.79:6,7), and now that we’re part of His people, the Lord will one day avenge us too, as well as answer this prayer.

No matter what dispensation you are in, the gospel has to be obeyed. Under the kingdom program for the Jews the gospel was faith plus works, and even some priests were “obedient to the faith” (Acts 6:7), the faith of Acts 2:38, the work being baptism. But that was the faith that had to be obeyed in the nation Israel. God then raised up Paul “for obedience to the faith among all nations” (Ro.1:5), with a message of faith without works that had to be obeyed “from the heart” (Ro.6:17). When told to bring a sacrifice Abel obeyed from his hands, and when told to go to the promised land Abram obeyed from his feet. But when the message is faith without works, “with the heart man believeth unto righteousness” (Ro.10:10) and are saved without works.

After the flaming fire of the Second Coming ends the lives of the unsaved the “everlasting destruction” begins (1:9). Since Paul never mentions “hell” some grace believers are Universalists, but he mentions eternal punishment here. If you reject the sacrifice of Christ for your sins you must become a “sacrifice” to pay for your sins (Mark 9:47-49). It starts when God sacrifices men at the Second Coming (Zeph.1:7,8) for His guests, the birds (Rev.19:17-19).

Besides Universalists who say all will be saved, some say the unsaved will be punished in Hell but just for a while and then released. But if “everlasting” doesn’t mean ever lasting then God is not everlasting (Gen.21:33; Rom.16:26), and neither is your everlasting life (Jo.5:24).

Annihilationists say men will be punished by being snuffed out of existence. But the Bible doesn’t say the effects of the destruction are everlasting, it says that the destruction is everlasting. The destruction is hell (Pr.27: 20).When an un-saved man dies at the Second Coming (or any time for that matter) he goes to Hell (Lu.16:22,23) until Hell is emptied into the Lake of Fire (Rev.20:14). We know they aren’t annihilated by this fire because a thousand years after the beast and false prophet are thrown in they “are” still there (Rev.19:20;20:7-10). Annihilationists say the beast doesn’t burn up because he is not a mere mortal, but God calls him a “man” (IIThes.2:3; Ezek.28:2), and if we say False Prophet is more than a man because he will work miracles, we have to say the apostles were also more than men

The lost must stay in hell eternally because they can never finish paying for a sin against an eternal God (Mt.5:22,26; 18:34,35), so their smoke must go up “forever”(Rev.14: 11) Annihilationists argue the smoke is the memorial of when they were snuffed out, but it says “the smoke of their torment ascendedeth up forever.” An annihilated man can’t be said to have “no rest,” that only makes sense if they have no rest from their torment. How can an annihilated man suffer everlasting contempt (Dan.12:2)? If all the lost cease to exist equally, how can there be degrees of punishment (Mt.11:24; Lu.12:47)? If suffering in captivity is worst than being snuffed out (Lam.4:6), why would God give the unsaved the lesser punishment for committing the greatest sin, sin against their Creator?

There’s a Bad Moon on the Rise – 2 Thessalonians 1:6-8

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

 

Summary:

“Eye for eye” (Ex.21:24) is criticized by the world as too harsh and merciless, and that God was unrighteous to implement that kind of law, but God says that tribulation for tribulation is “a righteous thing” (1:6).

“Recompense” means repay (Romans 12:19 cf. Heb.10: 30). Men complain about this brand of justice, but what could be more fair than recompensing tribulation to those that trouble God’s people (Rev.13:10)?

Paul wasn’t talking about just any tribulation, but the Great Tribulation. We know this because the Second Coming will follow the Tribulation, and that’s what Paul talks about next in this passage (1:7,8).

God knows that in the Tribulation, more than ever before, men will say God’s judgments aren’t fair, that they don’t deserve them, so the Book of Revelation, that describes the Tribulation, insists that they are (16:3-6; 19:2).

What does this say about the doctrine of eternal punish-ment? If God’s judgments have always been fair through-out history, do you think He’ll abandon that principle when it is time to punish the unsaved?

There is a dispensational aspect to Verse 6. It sounds a lot like Isaiah 49:25, which is spoken to the Jews, the seed of Abraham, fulfilling Genesis 12:3. So why is Paul saying things like that to us, i.e., that God will recompense tribulation to those that trouble the Body of Christ?

Paul says a lot of things like that. He applies Hosea 13:14, which is about Israel’s resurrection (13:9-14), to us (ICor. 15:51-55). That’s one of the ways he uses the Old Testa-ment, he applies the principles. There is no sting in death for the believer no matter what dispensation you are in, and if you mess with God’s people you mess with Him, no matter what dispensation you are in. Although now that the dispensation of grace has fully set in He will delay recom-pensing tribulation to persecutors till after the Rapture.

Verse 7 is an exhortation as well as a prediction. We will be resting when the Lord comes in flaming fire (v.8), but we can rest in that prediction now. Paul was already resting in the midst of his tribulations (IICor.11:23-33 cf. 4:8), and he is telling the Thessalonians to rest with him (1:7).

How troubled will the persecutors be? The Lord will come “with His mighty angels” (1:7), one of which wiped out 185,000 men in one night (IIKi.19:35). The “angel of the Lord” is sometimes a theophany, but not here (IIChron. 32:21). Notice it doesn’t say He’ll come with “some” of His mighty angels, indicating He’ll come with all of them, “an innumerable company” (Heb.12:22).

And we don’t have to guess what their mission will be, they will gather out of God’s kingdom all that “offend” (Mt.13:41). Hey, that’s what the persecutors were doing to the Thessalonians, that’s what “offend” means (cf.Mt.18:6).

In addition to His mighty angels, the Lord will come “in flaming fire” (1:8), fire that is His, not the angels’ (Ps. 21:8,9; Mt.3:11). The flaming fire will come from the Lord’s mouth (Isa.30:33). If you can breathe warm air on your hands to warm them, imagine what He can do! If you can’t imagine, see Revelation 11:3-5. He’ll slay the wicked “with the breath of His lips” (Isa.11:4).

Of course, Revelation 19:11-15 says He’ll smite the nations with a sword that will come out of His mouth, not fire. A two-edged sword (Rev.1:16), the Word of God (Heb.4:12). But remember, God’s Word is “like a fire” (Jer.23:29).

Men won’t be able to say God didn’t warn them, for He made His Word a fire in the mouths of the prophets (Jer.5:14). If they didn’t receive Jeremiah’s words, they got burned up, and if men don’t receive the Word today they may have to face His fire (Mal.4:1).

When He comes He’ll be taking “vengeance” (1:8 cf. Deut.32:35,41) for the blood of His servants (Deut.32:43), as here in IIThessalonians 1:6. I’m sure He is in a hurry to avenge them, but so are they! (Rev.6:9,10).

I Don’t Mean to Brag – 2 Thessalonians 1:4-6

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

 

Summary:

The Thessalonians were enduring persecution so patiently Paul boasted of them to others. You wouldn’t think it would be okay to boast about yourself though (Pr.27:2). Of course, when David boasted (Isa.17:34) he was boasting about what the Lord could do through him (v.45,46). And when Paul boasted (IICor.11:5) he too was boasting about the Lord too (10:8).

It must be okay to brag about others, though, since Paul did it (1:4). If it wasn’t, Solomon would have said “don’t let another man praise thee” (Pr.27:2). Of course, when we praise men in spiritual areas, we are praising the Lord for what He is doing through them. That’s why Paul praised the Thessalonians. Beloved, it is not a natural thing for faith to grow amidst tribulations (1:4). It’s natural for faith to be shaken instead of growing, or Paul wouldn’t have warned us not to let it happen (ITh.3:3). So when their faith grew, Paul knew it was the Lord’s doing!

How’d Paul know they were enduring tribulation with “patience”? Because most of them weren’t impatiently quitting their jobs! Some were thinking, “Instead of going to work and making myself vulnerable to persecution, why not hide and be safe?” We know this because Paul directed their hearts “into…the patient waiting for Christ” and then went on to talk about working for a living (IIThes.3:5-10).

“Manifest” (1:5) means not secret (Lu.8:17). A “token” is a sign (Ex.12:13; Mark 14:44). So Paul is saying the persecutions the Thessalonians were receiving was a sign of the righteous judgment of God, a manifest token or an obvious sign, that when God judges the persecutors He will do so in righteousness.

God is always eager men know that when He judges, He does so righteously, so He let men know He conducted a thorough, personal investigation of Sodom before snuffing out so many lives (Gen.18:20). And throughout the Old Testament said things like what we find in Psalm 19:9, to make sure men knew His judgments are righteous.

God planned to judge their persecutors with the Tribulation (1:6). You see, a token is often a sign of a covenant (Gen.9:12,13; 17:11), and their persecutors were Jews (Acts 17:1-8). The Jews had a covenant with God called the Law, a covenant that said God would punish them if they were bad. Their persecution was a sign of their rebel-lion against God, so it was a sign that when God judges them with the Tribulation He will do so in righteousness. This is similar to how Daniel mentions God’s righteousness three times in speaking of how God judged Israel with the captivity (Dn.9:7-14). God would have beenunrighteous if He didn’t judge them when His covenant with them said He would if they rebelled against Him.

The “kingdom” here was the kingdom of God in heaven, the one your body can’t go to without being “changed” (ICor.15:50,51). But the subject of II Thessalonians isn’t just the Rapture, it is the pre-trib rapture. So Paul is talking about going to the kingdom of God in heaven in the pre-trib rapture. What made them worthy of this? Well, what made their persecutors worthy of the Tribulation? They had a covenant with God and they broke it. What made the Thessalonians worthy of the pre-trib kingdom instead? They never broke the law that they were never under (Rom. 6:15), so they were worthy of the rapture. God would be unrighteous to make them go through the Tribulation.

That’s what made them worthy of the pre-trib kingdom, but Paul is talking about being counted worthy of it. If the Rapture had come in Paul’s day, and they were taken, that would count them worthy of it, and when the persecutors were left, that would count them worthy of the Tribulation.

If that confuses you, compare how Paul told slaves that had believing masters to count their masters worthy of all honor (ITim.6:1). Since slaves in those days were mostly men who racked up too much debt and had to work it off, their masterswere worthy of their honor, but slaves had to count them worthy of it by serving them faithfully. In the same way, the Thessalonians were worthy of the pre-trib kingdom, and when the Rapture took them and left their persecutors, they would becounted worthy of it.

The Signature of Paul – 2 Thessalonians 1:1-3

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

 

Summary:

Since this epistle is from Paul (1:1) that makes it different from all other New Testament epistles, which were to the Jews (e.g. James 1:1). But now that Israel has lost her favored nation status with God, she is now just another one of the nations, so Jews today must look to the apostle of the nations for their instructions (Rom.11:13).

“Silvanus” is a the full name of Silas, the man beaten and jailed with Paul in Philippi who then helped Paul found the Thessalonian church. As cowriter of the first epistle (1:1) Silvanus is part of the “we” (2:2), and there was no Silvanus in Philippi, only a Silas. So Paul mentions Silas in this opening salutation since the Thessalonians knew and loved the man who suffered with Paul and then helped found their church, along with “Timotheus” (v.1).

“In God the Father and the Lord” (1:1) is a reference to their position in Christ.” We are born into Adam but are baptized into Christ when we get saved (ICor.12:13; 15:22)

“Grace” means “gift” (Eph.2:8). We saved by grace, but Paul extends these saints more grace because grace is God’s panacea, His answer for every problem in life. It is the answer to the carnality of the Corinthians (ICor.1:3), the legalism of the Galatians (Gal.1:3), and everything in between, and that runs the gamut of all of our needs.

Paul offers “peace” to these saints who already had peace with God (Rom.5:1) because it is easy to think that you have lostyour peace when you sin. So Paul opens this epistle by extending them peace to remind them that they didn’t make their peace with God by being good and so they couldn’t lose their peace by being bad, and the same is true for us.

The word “bound” (1:3) means “under legal or moral obligation.” The Greek word is translated “debt” or “owe” elsewhere. Paul felt he owed a moral debt to God to thank Him that the faith and love of the Thessalonians had grown because He had prayedthat their faith and love would grow (IThes.3:10-12). No wonder he said he was bound to thank God for them “as it is meet,” for it is not meet or fitting to not thank God when He answers prayer.

How does faith grow? By the Word (Rom.10:17)! So they grew their faith by studying the Word. So why would Paul thank Godthat they had studied? Well, you thank God for food because without the rain He sends (Mt.5:45) food won’t grow, and you thank Him when faith grows because it wouldn’t grow without Him. Many men study the Word and don’t believe in the deity of Christ, His virgin birth, or that they’d be happier in life if they followed His rules.

Their charity or love also grew, and this too was of God, for many men study the Word and get puffed up (ICor.8:1), which makes them look down their noses at others that don’t know as much as they do, not love them, so Paul was bound to thank God their love had grown as well.

They already loved others with a love that stretched beyond their borders, but Paul prayed their love would increase more(ITh.4:9,10). He was never satisfied with anyone’s spiritual state, and we shouldn’t be with ours either!

In Paul’s first epistle he thanked God for their faith and love and hope (ITh.1:2,3), but doesn’t mention their hope here. Their hope was not just the Rapture (Tit.2:13), it was the pre-Trib rapture, that God will call us home before the Tribulation. Because of the tribulations the Thessalonians were enduring (1:4), they had begun to believe that they were in the Great Tribulation. But Paul had said “we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22), and had told these very Thessalonians the same when he was with them (ITh.3:3,4).

The troubles of the Tribulation are all sent from God. Even those that come from Satan are just God using him as a chastening tool. Your troubles do not come from God, they are not “acts of God” as the insurance companies claim. But you serve a God that can bring good things out of your troubles (Romans 8:28), good things like patience, experience and hope (Rom.5:3,4).

John 19:14-17 – The Preparation

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

 

Summary:

If the Lord ate the Passover (Mr.14:16) before getting to Pilate (15:1), how could “the preparation of the Passover” come after He stood before Pilate (John 19:14)? Passover was so close to the feast of unleavened bread they were sometimes lumped together (Lu.22:1). But if the Lord was before Pilate “about the sixth hour” (Jo.19:14), how could they have crucified Him in “the third hour” (Mark 15:25)? Mark was talking about the time of day, John meant it was the sixth hour of the preparation. It is crucial to know these answers if you want to defend the Bible to critics.

To say they preferred someone like Caesar to Christ as their king was bad, but we do the same when we decide to live in sin. There’s a reason Paul says sin shouldn’t “reign” over us (Rom.6:12). Only kings reign, so when we choose to live in sin, we are saying, “We have no king but sin.” There’s a reason Paul says we shouldn’t let sin “have dominion” over us (Rom. 6:14). Only kings have dominion (Dn.11:3).

There’s a reason Paul says to let the peace of God “rule” in our hearts (Col.3:15). When we wrong Him, He doesn’t let it disturb His peace, He forbears and forgives, and asks us to let His peace rule our hearts when someone wrongs us. Only a king rules (Ezra 4:20). So when you let vengeance rule your heart instead, you are saying, “I have no king but vengeance.” You are always going to fall into sin, but you shouldn’t let it reign as a king in your life.

Since saying those words, Israel hasn’t had a king of their own since, and won’t till the Lord comes (Ezek. 21:26,27).

John leaves out Pilate’s hand-washing (Mt.27:22-26). This action is a figure of speech, even in our own day, meaning you wish to absolve yourself of responsibility of some-thing. Many of our expressions come from the Bible, but Pilate drew this from earlier in the Bible. When it wasn’t known who killed a man, the elders of the closest city were responsible to sacrifice a heifer to pay for his blood (Deut. 21:1-4) to satisfy God’s justice and make them innocent of that blood, enabling them to wash their hands of it (5-9). But as usual, God’s truth got perverted by the world. Just washing his hands didn’t exonerate Pilate, who knew the Lord was innocent and should have released Him.

But if Pilate didn’t want the blame for His death, the Jews were willing to accept it (Mt.27:22-25). Of course, they sang a different tune after the Lord’s resurrection (Acts 5:28). But we do the same thing when we are tempted to sin and know we’ll reap what we sow, but we still say “Bring it on.” When it comes time to reap, though, we’re all, “You’re trying to make me reap what I sowed!”

John omits how they made Simon carry His cross behind Him (Lu.23:26). He was chosen at random and “com-pelled” to carry it (Mt.27:31,32). Normally men are identified as “son of,” but he was called “father of Rufus” (Mr.15:21) because Rufus later got saved (Ro.16:13).

Simon was a type of Tribulation Jews who will have to take up their cross and follow Him (Mt.10:38), the specific cross (Mark 10:21) of being willing to die for others as the Lord did (Mark 8:31-34; Lu.9:22,23) by being willing to give them food and clothing when the beast issues his mark, even if they will die without those provisions (IJo.3:16). This is why, in speaking of taking up your cross, the Lord often added that they had to be willing to lose their lives (Lu.9:23-25) by selling whatever they had to give the money to help others (Mark 10:17-21). In carrying the end of the Lord’s cross, Simon symbolized those who had to take up their cross to “follow” Him.

The sin offering was supposed to be killed on the altar and the body burned outside the camp, and the Lord should have been sacrificed on the altar (Ps.118:26,27) with His body later burned outside the camp. Instead, He was killed on “the place of a skull” (Jo.17), outside Jerusalem, where the fire of God’s wrath fell and made Him a burnt offering, on a cross, the death of a criminal. This was a reproach, so Trib Jews will have to go forth to Him “without the camp, bearing His reproach” (Heb.13:11-13). He died as an evil-doer and Trib Jews will have to bear that reproach(Lu.6:22)

A Worry-Free Life

Posted on by Pastor Paul M. Sadler

“Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life?…For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that” (James 4:13-15).

The desire of James’s heart was that his readers would humble themselves before the Lord and not be presumptuous when they planned for the future, nor to worry about it. We might call it worry-free planning! We all probably know someone who gets worried when they don’t have something to worry about! Believers also struggle with this problem, but the Scriptures state, “Be careful [anxious] for nothing” (Phil. 4:6). In our contemporary language we would say, “Don’t worry about anything.” The Greek root word behind the term “careful” here is merimna, which means to pull in different directions or a distraction. This is exactly what worry will do to you: it will tear you apart, both emotionally and physically. Worry always dwells on the future in regard to what may or may not happen. It mulls over every worst-case scenario imaginable until you are tied in knots. We might say it this way: the past belongs to the ages, the present belongs to us, but the future belongs to God.

Worry is a sin! It focuses on the future, which is divine ground. The only suitable way to deal with it is to find a biblical solution to the problem. Thankfully, the Scriptures provide for us the key to living a worry-free life. This age-old problem that can be traced back to the Fall has a simple solution. In fact, the antidote to this venomous attack is the same in every age. We find it noteworthy that the Lord Himself dealt with this matter as He prepared the disciples to carry out the Great Commission.

“Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life,  what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns;
yet your heavenly Father feedeth them” (Matt. 6:25,26).

We are creatures of habit! We like the security of having a roof over our heads and knowing where we’re going to have dinner tonight. The same was true of the disciples, with this exception: the Lord had uprooted them from their comfort zone and transplanted them in His field of service. When He called them, they left their families and livelihoods to follow Him. At first it seemed the right thing to do, but the more they thought about their decision, it left them with a feeling of insecurity. In short, they were worried sick! What will we wear when the weather turns inclement? Who’s going to provide our meals today, and tomorrow, and next week? Goodness gracious, we completely forgot about our families! Who’s going to supply that need? Worry always has a way of producing more questions than answers.

Sensing their apprehension, the Lord said, “Take no thought for your life.” “Take no thought” is another way of saying, “Don’t worry about what may or may not happen!” Life is more than food and drink and clothing; they were to be more concerned about the spiritual things of God. If God can provide for the birds that fly above, which neither plant nor harvest, surely He is able to supply the needs of His laborers. We must bear in mind that, if God foreordained the Cross in His determinate counsel (Acts 2:23), and the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world (I Pet. 1:19,20) in accordance with His foreknowledge, surely He knows every need of the disciples, not to mention ours, in advance (Matt. 6:32).

“Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” (Matt. 6:34).

This passage is the Lord’s solution to the problem of worry. They were not to concern themselves with tomorrow’s circumstances, simply because those were beyond their control. It is natural to be concerned, but they weren’t to allow their concern to deteriorate into worry that consumed them because it would only serve to disrupt their service for Christ. Our Lord speaks of two days: tomorrow, a reference to the future, which belongs to God, and today. While it is impossible simply to turn off unwarranted concern, they were to redirect it. “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” In other words, there were enough troubles to deal with in any given day without concerning themselves with tomorrow. The answer to the sin of worry is to trust in God and focus on resolving the problems that are facing you today (Phil. 4:19).

John 19:7-13 – Reducing the Charge

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

 

Summary:

The Jews originally charged the Lord with treason (Lu.23:2), but Pilate didn’t feel threatened (23:3,4) because if He were a king, His subjects wanted to kill Him, not crown Him. Besides, Pilate already investigated the charge of treason against the Lord and dismissed it (Luke 23:13,14). So the Jews switched from charging Him with claiming He was a king to claiming He was a god (John 19:7).

The Jews claimed He had to die for blasphemy like that (19:7 cf. Lev.24:16) because He claimed to be God’s Son (John 10:36) which made Him God (5:18). Hearing that his prisoner might be God spooked Pilate (19:8). He may not have believed in Israel’s God, but he believed in Roman gods, and he believed that they sometimes slummed among men (Acts 14:11,12). He was already afraid, figuring the gods may have warned him through his wife’s dream not to kill the Lord, and because no man ever spake like this man in interrogation (cf.John 7:46). Now that he heard the Lord might be God, he was “the more afraid.”

But he doesn’t ask who the Lord is, he asks where he was from (John 19:9). Now, he knows where he was from on earth (Lu.23:4-7), but he knew if He was a god He had to have “come down” from heaven (cf.Acts14:11), so he asked where He was from. The Lord didn’t answer (Jo.19:9) because He couldn’t deny He was God, but couldn’t say He was, lest Pilate release Him, and not let Him die for our sins.

The Lord reminded Pilate that his power of capital punishment was given him by God (19:10 cf. Gen.9:6). When we say that all government is ordained of God (Rom.13:1), people ask if Hitler’s power was God-given, but Nebuchadnezzar was no better (Dn.5:18,19), and Rome was worse. When Caligula ran out of criminals, he ordered spectators be fed to the lions. While it is bad when kings act that way, we know kings are ordained of God because were it not for kings every man would act that way (Judges 17:6). God didn’t create this evil world, but He knows how to regulate it. Some today claim that U.S. citizens are sovereigns to whom the laws don’t apply, but that means they can do what is right in their own eyes (Jud.21:25), and that’s a problem (Pr.21:2). “We the people” created a government consisting of rulers that we all agree to obey.

The “he” that “delivered” Christ to Pilate could be Judas (Mt.26:14,15). Pilate was condemning a stranger, but Judas condemned a friend, making his sin the greater sin. Pilate knew He was innocent, but Judas knew He not only didn’t do anything wrong, He had done a lot of good. Of course, the one who “delivered” the Lord to Pilate to die could be Israel’s rulers (Mt.27:1,2), or all the people (Acts 3:12), or Caiaphas (John 11:49,50). Verses like this make Christians hate Jews, but Pilate (a Gentile) “delivered” Christ to be crucified as well (John 19:15,16), as did God Himself (Acts 2:22) to save us (Rom.4:24,25).

The Jews had “the greater sin,” but Pilate had the lesser. He couldn’t just say he was doing his job, because his job was to acquit men like Christ whom he knew to be innocent. God will someday hold governmental leaders responsible for their sins and crimes.

You’d think being called a sinner would make Pilate mad, but he’s already feeling guilty for condemning an innocent man, so he sought to release Him (Jo.19:12). The Jews threatened Pilate with a charge of treason, and Pilate, knowing the Jews didn’t like him in the first place (Luke 13:1), didn’t dare anger them by releasing the Lord. It would be too easy for them to hire false witnesses and manufacture evidence against him. We know from the Mcarthy era in our country that when it comes to treason, it doesn’t always matter what you can prove. Just charging a man with treason can get you assumed guilty, and the political climate in Pilate’s day in Rome was similar.

So Pilate moved to his position in “the Pavement…Gabba-tha,” which means “an elevated position.” Judges generally sit above men. He is now ready to issue his verdict on the Lord, a verdict based on nothing more than a desire to avoid the charge of treason against himself.

Is Paul Addressing Believers or Unbelievers?

Posted on by Pastor Paul M. Sadler

“I’m confused! In Philippians 3:17-20, is Paul addressing believers or unbelievers?”

“17 Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example.

“18 (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the Cross of Christ:

“19 Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things)

“20 For our conversation [citizenship] is in heaven….”

Paul is addressing both groups! In verse 17 the apostle begins by encouraging those at Philippi who were saved to follow his teachings and manner of life. Notice, however, that he digresses in verses 18 and 19 to add a parenthetical thought. The reason the apostle pauses momentarily here is to point out that there were many who claimed to be Christians, probably for some type of personal gain, but he clearly exposes them to be enemies of the Cross of Christ. They lived to satisfy the desires of the flesh. Their god was food, and drink, and sex, as they gloried in their shame. They were consumed with earthly possessions, which blinded them to their need of the Savior. As a result, their “end is destruction!” Surely this could not be said of the believer. After Paul completes the parenthesis, he resumes with his initial train of thought, confirming our heavenly hope with the saints at Philippi, “For our citizenship is in heaven….”

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

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