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Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Philippians (Part 3) (4-29-07)
Philippians Part 3
Bible Study Time 4-29-07
Bible Study Time 4-29-07
The past couple of weeks, we’ve been talking about Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Last week, we looked specifically at the circumstances of three people who were probably among the believers there at Philippi.
Lydia had been associated with the Jewish assembly in Philippi. She was obviously one who was attracted to the Jewish Law, but she was rescued from the bondage of the Law when she put her personal faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
The fortune-telling slave girl may have become a believer after she was set free from the demon that had empowered her and enslaved her at the same time. In connection with the slave girl, we talked about the fact that demons use deception to keep unsuspecting souls in bondage, and even when demons speak the truth, there is always a subtle lie lurking beneath the surface.
Then there was the jailer who was set free from the destructive influence of the world, and this morning, I’d like for us to spend a little more time thinking about this jailer and the fact that all believers need to separate themselves from the evil influences of this world. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he asked:
2 Corinthians 6:15-17 (NKJ)
15 . . . what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?
16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people."
17 Therefore "Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord . . . "
The Philippian jailer was a man who was very dedicated to his job, and he was completely loyal to his employers, but when he entered into a relationship with Jesus Christ, he could see that there is a higher calling for those who know the Lord.
This jailer had accepted Christ after witnessing the unwavering faith of Paul and Silas. After surviving an earthquake and discovering the prison doors open, he assumed that his prisoners had escaped. He drew his sword and was about to take his own life to avoid the wrath of his employers.
But then, he heard a voice calling to him from inside one of the cells. It was the voice of the Apostle Paul, saying, “Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.” Then the Bible says that the jailer:
Acts 16:29-34 (NKJ)
29 . . . called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.
30 (Then) he brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
31 So they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household."
32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.
33 (And so the jailer) took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized.
34 Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.
It’s clear that when this jailer accepted Christ, he was immediately set free from the negative, dominating, and sometimes terrifying influence of the world. As a result, he was free to serve others in a way that was pleasing to God. This jailer took Paul and Silas out of that jail, and then he took them to his own house where he fed them and tended to their wounds. What a difference the Holy Spirit makes in our lives.
The Lord Jesus told his disciples that no one can serve two masters. We have to choose between God and the world. If we choose to submit to the world, we will live in a state of fear which is inspired by the devil, himself. After all, the devil is the power behind the course of this world.
Under the influence of an irrational fear, the Philippian jailer thought that he had no choice but to kill himself. He thought that his life was over, but notice what happened when he dedicated his life to God. Acts 16:35 says:
Acts 16:35 (NKJ)
35 And when it was day, the magistrates sent the officers, saying, "Let those men go."
The jailer had had not reason to fear. God’s resources are unlimited, and He is able to supply all of our needs according to His riches in glory. The devil uses all of his power to try to intimidate people, but God is still in control. I’m sure the jailer never expected God to work in this way.
Acts 16:36-38 (NKJ)
36 So the keeper of the prison reported these words to Paul, saying, "The magistrates have sent to let you go. Now therefore depart, and go in peace."
37 But Paul said to them, "They have beaten us openly, uncondemned Romans, and have thrown us into prison. And now do they put us out secretly? No indeed! Let them come themselves and get us out."
38 And the officers told these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans.
Uh huh, who is it that is afraid now? The power brokers of this world were now the ones who were terrified. Those who love the world will live in fear because they know how easily circumstances can turn against them.
Acts 16:39-40 (NKJ)
39 (So) they came and pleaded with (Paul and Silas) and brought them out, and asked them to depart from the city.
40 So (Paul and Silas) went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia; and when they had seen the brethren, they encouraged them and departed.
What a testimony Paul and Silas were able to bear before this jailer. They were able to encourage him to fear only the Lord and to trust the Lord in all circumstances. Praise the Lord, our heavenly Father is the ultimate judge, and Nahum said:
Nahum 1:7 (NKJ)
7 The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows those who trust in Him.
Paul was a man who knew what it was like to serve the power brokers of this world. Before his salvation, he had lived his entire life trying to please a group of powerful and ruthless Pharisees. He had been willing to adopt their values as his own, and he had been willing to do whatever they expected him to do.
Actually, in Galatians, Chapter 1, Paul acknowledged that he had been more successful than many of his peers in his attempts to please the power-hungry Pharisees, and in the process, he had managed to put together quite a resume. In Philippians 3, Paul said:
Philippians 3:4-6 (NKJ)
4 . . . If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so:
5 (I was) circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee;
6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
Paul said, I worked so hard to please all the people that I had to please, and everything was going so well. It was going so well, that is, until I met Jesus on the road to Damascus. But when Paul saw the light of Jesus Christ and heard His voice, he suddenly realized that his resume was going to be worthless on the Day of Judgment. So Paul told the Philippians that:
Philippians 3:7-10 (NKJ)
7 . . . what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.
8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ
9 (I want to be) found in (Christ), not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;
10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death,
Oh, the excellence of the knowledge of Christ! Paul was set free from the bondage of the world. He would no longer have to struggle so hard to be conformed to this world. In this liberty, Paul wrote to the Romans and said:
Romans 12:2 (NKJ)
2 . . . do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Truly, we have no reason to fear the whims of the power brokers or the threats of the devil:
2 Timothy 1:7 (NKJ)
7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
We have no reason to fear:
Romans 8:28-29 (NKJ)
28 (For) we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son . . .
We no longer have to be conformed to this world. Instead, we are free to be conformed to the image of Christ even as Christ brings us into conformity with His death. Jesus said:
Matthew 16:25-27 (NKJ)
25 "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
26 "For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
27 "For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.
First and foremost, the work that God requires of us is that we believe in Jesus Christ. At one point in Jesus’ ministry, the crowd asked:
John 6:28 (NKJ)
28 . . . "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?"
And Jesus said:
John 6:29 (NKJ)
29 . . . "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent."
After we are saved through faith in Christ, then God calls us to serve the Lord with the expectation of reward. Paul said:
1 Corinthians 3:10-15 (NKJ)
10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it.
11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,
13 each one's work will become clear; for the Day (of Jesus Christ) will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is.
14 If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.
15 If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
Notice that our reward someday will be based on the manner in which we built upon the foundation that was laid by the Apostle Paul. Paul said that Jesus Christ is the foundation and there is no other foundation. But Paul said that he is the one who laid that foundation, and he did so by revealing to the world that Jesus was not just a man who died a martyr’s death. But Jesus was actually the Son of God who came into the world to lay down His life and shed His blood to provide the atonement for all sin. This is the doctrinal foundation which was laid by the Apostle Paul.
Therefore, Paul said that all of us who have followed after Paul will someday be judged and rewarded according to what we do with this revelation. If we exalt and uplift the blood of Christ as our only means of atonement and redemption, then we are building with gold, silver and precious stones. But if we deny the gospel and go around telling people that they have to earn their way to heaven by doing good works, then we are building with wood, hay and stubble. It is a fact worth considering that only the gold, silver and precious stones will endure the fire.
Today, the world has no use for the doctrine of the shed blood:
1 Corinthians 1:18 (NKJ)
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
1 Corinthians 3:18-19
18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seems to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.
19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God . . .
We have to choose whether we will follow God or whether we will follow the world. The choice we make will have far reaching consequences for us and for the people around us. It’s clear that in the mind of Paul there was no middle ground on this issue. We either serve the Lord or we serve the world. The Apostle John agreed, saying:
I John 2:15-17 (KJV)
15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time. It’s been a pleasure studying with you, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Church links:
Lydia had been associated with the Jewish assembly in Philippi. She was obviously one who was attracted to the Jewish Law, but she was rescued from the bondage of the Law when she put her personal faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
The fortune-telling slave girl may have become a believer after she was set free from the demon that had empowered her and enslaved her at the same time. In connection with the slave girl, we talked about the fact that demons use deception to keep unsuspecting souls in bondage, and even when demons speak the truth, there is always a subtle lie lurking beneath the surface.
Then there was the jailer who was set free from the destructive influence of the world, and this morning, I’d like for us to spend a little more time thinking about this jailer and the fact that all believers need to separate themselves from the evil influences of this world. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he asked:
2 Corinthians 6:15-17 (NKJ)
15 . . . what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?
16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people."
17 Therefore "Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord . . . "
The Philippian jailer was a man who was very dedicated to his job, and he was completely loyal to his employers, but when he entered into a relationship with Jesus Christ, he could see that there is a higher calling for those who know the Lord.
This jailer had accepted Christ after witnessing the unwavering faith of Paul and Silas. After surviving an earthquake and discovering the prison doors open, he assumed that his prisoners had escaped. He drew his sword and was about to take his own life to avoid the wrath of his employers.
But then, he heard a voice calling to him from inside one of the cells. It was the voice of the Apostle Paul, saying, “Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.” Then the Bible says that the jailer:
Acts 16:29-34 (NKJ)
29 . . . called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.
30 (Then) he brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
31 So they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household."
32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.
33 (And so the jailer) took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized.
34 Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.
It’s clear that when this jailer accepted Christ, he was immediately set free from the negative, dominating, and sometimes terrifying influence of the world. As a result, he was free to serve others in a way that was pleasing to God. This jailer took Paul and Silas out of that jail, and then he took them to his own house where he fed them and tended to their wounds. What a difference the Holy Spirit makes in our lives.
The Lord Jesus told his disciples that no one can serve two masters. We have to choose between God and the world. If we choose to submit to the world, we will live in a state of fear which is inspired by the devil, himself. After all, the devil is the power behind the course of this world.
Under the influence of an irrational fear, the Philippian jailer thought that he had no choice but to kill himself. He thought that his life was over, but notice what happened when he dedicated his life to God. Acts 16:35 says:
Acts 16:35 (NKJ)
35 And when it was day, the magistrates sent the officers, saying, "Let those men go."
The jailer had had not reason to fear. God’s resources are unlimited, and He is able to supply all of our needs according to His riches in glory. The devil uses all of his power to try to intimidate people, but God is still in control. I’m sure the jailer never expected God to work in this way.
Acts 16:36-38 (NKJ)
36 So the keeper of the prison reported these words to Paul, saying, "The magistrates have sent to let you go. Now therefore depart, and go in peace."
37 But Paul said to them, "They have beaten us openly, uncondemned Romans, and have thrown us into prison. And now do they put us out secretly? No indeed! Let them come themselves and get us out."
38 And the officers told these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans.
Uh huh, who is it that is afraid now? The power brokers of this world were now the ones who were terrified. Those who love the world will live in fear because they know how easily circumstances can turn against them.
Acts 16:39-40 (NKJ)
39 (So) they came and pleaded with (Paul and Silas) and brought them out, and asked them to depart from the city.
40 So (Paul and Silas) went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia; and when they had seen the brethren, they encouraged them and departed.
What a testimony Paul and Silas were able to bear before this jailer. They were able to encourage him to fear only the Lord and to trust the Lord in all circumstances. Praise the Lord, our heavenly Father is the ultimate judge, and Nahum said:
Nahum 1:7 (NKJ)
7 The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows those who trust in Him.
Paul was a man who knew what it was like to serve the power brokers of this world. Before his salvation, he had lived his entire life trying to please a group of powerful and ruthless Pharisees. He had been willing to adopt their values as his own, and he had been willing to do whatever they expected him to do.
Actually, in Galatians, Chapter 1, Paul acknowledged that he had been more successful than many of his peers in his attempts to please the power-hungry Pharisees, and in the process, he had managed to put together quite a resume. In Philippians 3, Paul said:
Philippians 3:4-6 (NKJ)
4 . . . If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so:
5 (I was) circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee;
6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
Paul said, I worked so hard to please all the people that I had to please, and everything was going so well. It was going so well, that is, until I met Jesus on the road to Damascus. But when Paul saw the light of Jesus Christ and heard His voice, he suddenly realized that his resume was going to be worthless on the Day of Judgment. So Paul told the Philippians that:
Philippians 3:7-10 (NKJ)
7 . . . what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.
8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ
9 (I want to be) found in (Christ), not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;
10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death,
Oh, the excellence of the knowledge of Christ! Paul was set free from the bondage of the world. He would no longer have to struggle so hard to be conformed to this world. In this liberty, Paul wrote to the Romans and said:
Romans 12:2 (NKJ)
2 . . . do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Truly, we have no reason to fear the whims of the power brokers or the threats of the devil:
2 Timothy 1:7 (NKJ)
7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
We have no reason to fear:
Romans 8:28-29 (NKJ)
28 (For) we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son . . .
We no longer have to be conformed to this world. Instead, we are free to be conformed to the image of Christ even as Christ brings us into conformity with His death. Jesus said:
Matthew 16:25-27 (NKJ)
25 "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
26 "For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
27 "For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.
First and foremost, the work that God requires of us is that we believe in Jesus Christ. At one point in Jesus’ ministry, the crowd asked:
John 6:28 (NKJ)
28 . . . "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?"
And Jesus said:
John 6:29 (NKJ)
29 . . . "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent."
After we are saved through faith in Christ, then God calls us to serve the Lord with the expectation of reward. Paul said:
1 Corinthians 3:10-15 (NKJ)
10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it.
11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,
13 each one's work will become clear; for the Day (of Jesus Christ) will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is.
14 If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.
15 If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
Notice that our reward someday will be based on the manner in which we built upon the foundation that was laid by the Apostle Paul. Paul said that Jesus Christ is the foundation and there is no other foundation. But Paul said that he is the one who laid that foundation, and he did so by revealing to the world that Jesus was not just a man who died a martyr’s death. But Jesus was actually the Son of God who came into the world to lay down His life and shed His blood to provide the atonement for all sin. This is the doctrinal foundation which was laid by the Apostle Paul.
Therefore, Paul said that all of us who have followed after Paul will someday be judged and rewarded according to what we do with this revelation. If we exalt and uplift the blood of Christ as our only means of atonement and redemption, then we are building with gold, silver and precious stones. But if we deny the gospel and go around telling people that they have to earn their way to heaven by doing good works, then we are building with wood, hay and stubble. It is a fact worth considering that only the gold, silver and precious stones will endure the fire.
Today, the world has no use for the doctrine of the shed blood:
1 Corinthians 1:18 (NKJ)
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
1 Corinthians 3:18-19
18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seems to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.
19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God . . .
We have to choose whether we will follow God or whether we will follow the world. The choice we make will have far reaching consequences for us and for the people around us. It’s clear that in the mind of Paul there was no middle ground on this issue. We either serve the Lord or we serve the world. The Apostle John agreed, saying:
I John 2:15-17 (KJV)
15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time. It’s been a pleasure studying with you, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Church links:
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Philippians (Part 2) (4-22-07)
Philippians (Part 2)
Bible Study Time 4-22-07
Church links:
Bible Study Time 4-22-07
After hearing in a vision the call of the man from Macedonia, the Apostle Paul knew that God was calling him to take the message of God’s grace to the people of Macedonia. As he crossed the Aegean Sea on his way to Philippi, he could not have imagined, apart from divine revelation, the impact that he was about to have on western civilization. It took over three hundred years, but ultimately the Christian religion became the dominant force in the Roman Empire. Even after the barbarians destroyed the Roman Empire, the influence of the Christian religion lived on.
Christ was crucified in 33 A.D., and then for nearly three hundred years, believers suffered under terrible persecution. The citizens of the Roman Empire were astonished and deeply moved when they saw the confident joy of those believers who steadfastly declared their faith even as they were thrown to the lions or burned at the stake. As time went on, more and more people joined the ranks of those who were willing to die for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Constantine became the Emperor of the Roman Empire in 306 A.D, and in 313 he issued the Edict of Milan, which guaranteed freedom of worship for Christians. This opened the door for the gospel to spread freely throughout the empire.
Well, this spreading of the gospel can be traced right back to the time when the Apostle Paul first went to Philippi. Lydia was the first to believe Paul’s message, and she did so at a prayer meeting down by the riverside.
Lydia was a Gentile business woman who had converted to the Jewish religion. She had no doubt been attracted to the one God of the Jews and to the moral teachings of the Law, but when she heard that she could receive the forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life by simply believing in Jesus’ work upon the cross, she believed.
Paul also came into contact with a slave girl who could predict the future through the power of a demon. We can probably assume that she became a believer after she was set free from her this demon. Her masters, however, were not too pleased when she lost her power to predict the future so they brought Paul and Silas before the local magistrates, and Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown in jail. That night at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing praises to God when all of a sudden there was a great earthquake which shook open the prison doors.
The jailer was apparently rendered unconscious by the earthquake because the Bible says that when he woke up, he saw the prison doors standing wide open. Naturally, He assumed that the prisoners had escaped so he drew his sword to kill himself. Just as he was about to end his life, he heard a voice calling out from inside the cell. It was the voice of the Apostle Paul, saying, “Do not harm yourself. We are all here.” The jailer was so moved when he heard these words that he ran into the cell, fell down trembling, and asked, “What must I do to be saved?”
Paul’s answer was one which was so simple and so direct. There was no laundry list of things to do in order to be saved. He didn’t have to join the church, or be baptized in water, or take communion, or speak in tongues. Paul simply said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”
These three people were set free by the grace of God. Jesus said:
Luke 4:18 (NKJ)
18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed;
Paul said:
2 Corinthians 3:17 (NKJ)
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
Lydia was set free from the bondage of the Law. As a proselyte she must have recognized the beauty of the Law, but after trying to live by the Law, she could probably identify with Paul’s frustration with the Law. In Romans 7, Paul said:
Romans 7:8-10
8 . . . sin (took) opportunity by the commandment, (to produce) in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead.
9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
10 And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.
Romans 7:18-19
18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.
19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I do.
Romans 7:22-23 (NKJ)
22 . . . I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Paul told Lydia that she could be set free from the bondage of the Law, for:
Romans 8:1-4 (NKJ)
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,
4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
The Bible says that when Lydia heard the good news of Jesus Christ:
Acts 16:14 (NKJ)
14 . . . The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.
Only the Holy Spirit can open our hearts to the truth of God’s word. By nature, we resist the gospel, but the Lord is able to open our hearts and prepare us to receive the liberty that is ours in Jesus Christ.
Lydia was set free from the bondage of the Law, but the slave girl was set free from the bondage of a demonic spirit. The record of Acts 16:16 says:
Acts 16:16-18 (NKJ)
16 Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling.
17 This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, "These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation."
18 And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." And he came out that very hour.
The other day, I was talking to a couple of boys who were in junior high. They were very impressed with the movie, Constantine. One of the boys started talking about the movie and the other one said, “Oh yeah, man, that’s a really cool movie.”
Well, I had watched a little bit of the movie because I thought it might be about the Emperor Constantine, but I was surprised to see that it was all about a man who had the power to cast out demons.
One of the boys described the scene in the movie where Constantine forced a demon into a mirror, and then threw the mirror out the window of a high rise building. When the mirror hit the ground, it was smashed into a million pieces and the demon was trapped forever in another dimension.
I was amazed at the influence this movie had on their thinking, but I was able to share with them what the Bible says about God’s way of dealing with demons today. If you look at Paul’s description of spiritual warfare in Ephesians, Chapter 6, it’s evident that every piece of armor for the believer is based on the truth of God’s word.
The boys agreed that demons can’t stand the truth because their power is based in the lies they tell. The devil is the father of all lies, and his schemes are all based on lies. His lies are often very subtle as we see in this account of the slave girl. The Bible says that the slave girl followed Paul around, saying:
Acts 16:17 (NKJ)
17 . . . "These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation."
Now, that was the truth, wasn’t it? So where’s the lie? The lie is in the subtle message that one can serve the Lord and serve the devil at the same time. Fortune telling was strictly forbidden by God in the Law, and because Paul knew the truth of God’s word, he knew that this girl was telling fortunes by the power of the devil.
Paul wanted everyone to know that no one can serve two masters, and he knew that this girl was going to have to be set free from her demonic influences if she was going to truly worship the Lord.
Based on Paul’s teaching concerning spiritual warfare in Ephesians, Chapter 6, I think we can safely assume that Paul’s preaching of the gospel would have ultimately silenced this demon, but the Holy Spirit told Paul to cast out this demon to confirm Paul’s message through a bold demonstration of God’s power. The Bible says that Paul turned and said, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” So, the demon came out, and all the people could see that Paul was truly a man of God.
Today, we don’t have to go around casting out demons because we have the completed word of God. Hebrews says that:
Hebrews 4:12-13 (NKJ)
12 . . . the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Now notice.)
13 . . . there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
No demon can hide in the light of the word of God, and no demon wants to be exposed by the word of God, so they flee when the word of God is exalted. No demon wants to be around the word of God.
Now, there are two ways that God uses His word to deal with demons. First, God has given us pastors and teachers to teach us the word of God. They are the ones that God uses to help us interpret the Bible correctly. Through them we learn to rightly divide the word of truth. This drives out a lot of demons right there because many of the lies of the devil are based on misinterpretations of the word of God.
Secondly, once we have a good foundation in rightly dividing the word of truth, we can truly open our hearts up to the Holy Spirit as we study the word of God on our own. This personal time of Bible study is critical because it’s during that time that the Holy Spirit can tear down our own false assumptions and misconceptions. There is no creature that is hidden from God’s sight, and when we open our hearts to the word of God, we won’t have to worry about casting out demons.
So, Lydia was set free from the bondage of the Law, and the slave girl was set free from the bondage of a demon, but the jailer needed to be set free from the influence of the world. The jailer was guarding Paul and Silas as they were praying and singing hymns to God, but then at midnight:
Acts 16:26-34 (NKJ)
26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were loosed.
27 And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself.
28 But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, "Do yourself no harm, for we are all here."
29 Then (the jailer) called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.
30 . . . he brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
31 So they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household."
32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.
33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized.
34 Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.
This jailer was obviously a man who was very dedicated to his job. He could not stand the thought of being seen as a failure in the eyes of this world. But when he put his faith in Christ, he was set free from that burden. All of a sudden, he realized that what God thinks is really the only thing that matters.
Paul instructs us to obey those who are in authority, but he says that we should do all things heartily as to the Lord and not as unto men for we know that the reward of the inheritance will come from the Lord.
God never wants any of us to do anything half-heartedly. Moses said:
Deuteronomy 6:5 (KJV)
5 . . . thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
When we put the Lord first and serve Him whole heartedly, we know that He will bless our efforts, and He will give us the reward of the inheritance.
As the Apostle Paul crossed over into Europe, he took with him the message that sets people free. In these three converts at Philippi, we see freedom from the Law, freedom from demonic oppression, and freedom from the world.
We hear a lot about freedom in America, but there is no real freedom apart from faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Hopefully, as we share the gospel of Jesus Christ with those around us, more and more people will learn the truth of Jesus’ words:
John 8:36
36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.
Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time. It’s been a pleasure studying with you, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
Christ was crucified in 33 A.D., and then for nearly three hundred years, believers suffered under terrible persecution. The citizens of the Roman Empire were astonished and deeply moved when they saw the confident joy of those believers who steadfastly declared their faith even as they were thrown to the lions or burned at the stake. As time went on, more and more people joined the ranks of those who were willing to die for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Constantine became the Emperor of the Roman Empire in 306 A.D, and in 313 he issued the Edict of Milan, which guaranteed freedom of worship for Christians. This opened the door for the gospel to spread freely throughout the empire.
Well, this spreading of the gospel can be traced right back to the time when the Apostle Paul first went to Philippi. Lydia was the first to believe Paul’s message, and she did so at a prayer meeting down by the riverside.
Lydia was a Gentile business woman who had converted to the Jewish religion. She had no doubt been attracted to the one God of the Jews and to the moral teachings of the Law, but when she heard that she could receive the forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life by simply believing in Jesus’ work upon the cross, she believed.
Paul also came into contact with a slave girl who could predict the future through the power of a demon. We can probably assume that she became a believer after she was set free from her this demon. Her masters, however, were not too pleased when she lost her power to predict the future so they brought Paul and Silas before the local magistrates, and Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown in jail. That night at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing praises to God when all of a sudden there was a great earthquake which shook open the prison doors.
The jailer was apparently rendered unconscious by the earthquake because the Bible says that when he woke up, he saw the prison doors standing wide open. Naturally, He assumed that the prisoners had escaped so he drew his sword to kill himself. Just as he was about to end his life, he heard a voice calling out from inside the cell. It was the voice of the Apostle Paul, saying, “Do not harm yourself. We are all here.” The jailer was so moved when he heard these words that he ran into the cell, fell down trembling, and asked, “What must I do to be saved?”
Paul’s answer was one which was so simple and so direct. There was no laundry list of things to do in order to be saved. He didn’t have to join the church, or be baptized in water, or take communion, or speak in tongues. Paul simply said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”
These three people were set free by the grace of God. Jesus said:
Luke 4:18 (NKJ)
18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed;
Paul said:
2 Corinthians 3:17 (NKJ)
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
Lydia was set free from the bondage of the Law. As a proselyte she must have recognized the beauty of the Law, but after trying to live by the Law, she could probably identify with Paul’s frustration with the Law. In Romans 7, Paul said:
Romans 7:8-10
8 . . . sin (took) opportunity by the commandment, (to produce) in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead.
9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
10 And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.
Romans 7:18-19
18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.
19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I do.
Romans 7:22-23 (NKJ)
22 . . . I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Paul told Lydia that she could be set free from the bondage of the Law, for:
Romans 8:1-4 (NKJ)
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,
4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
The Bible says that when Lydia heard the good news of Jesus Christ:
Acts 16:14 (NKJ)
14 . . . The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.
Only the Holy Spirit can open our hearts to the truth of God’s word. By nature, we resist the gospel, but the Lord is able to open our hearts and prepare us to receive the liberty that is ours in Jesus Christ.
Lydia was set free from the bondage of the Law, but the slave girl was set free from the bondage of a demonic spirit. The record of Acts 16:16 says:
Acts 16:16-18 (NKJ)
16 Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling.
17 This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, "These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation."
18 And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." And he came out that very hour.
The other day, I was talking to a couple of boys who were in junior high. They were very impressed with the movie, Constantine. One of the boys started talking about the movie and the other one said, “Oh yeah, man, that’s a really cool movie.”
Well, I had watched a little bit of the movie because I thought it might be about the Emperor Constantine, but I was surprised to see that it was all about a man who had the power to cast out demons.
One of the boys described the scene in the movie where Constantine forced a demon into a mirror, and then threw the mirror out the window of a high rise building. When the mirror hit the ground, it was smashed into a million pieces and the demon was trapped forever in another dimension.
I was amazed at the influence this movie had on their thinking, but I was able to share with them what the Bible says about God’s way of dealing with demons today. If you look at Paul’s description of spiritual warfare in Ephesians, Chapter 6, it’s evident that every piece of armor for the believer is based on the truth of God’s word.
The boys agreed that demons can’t stand the truth because their power is based in the lies they tell. The devil is the father of all lies, and his schemes are all based on lies. His lies are often very subtle as we see in this account of the slave girl. The Bible says that the slave girl followed Paul around, saying:
Acts 16:17 (NKJ)
17 . . . "These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation."
Now, that was the truth, wasn’t it? So where’s the lie? The lie is in the subtle message that one can serve the Lord and serve the devil at the same time. Fortune telling was strictly forbidden by God in the Law, and because Paul knew the truth of God’s word, he knew that this girl was telling fortunes by the power of the devil.
Paul wanted everyone to know that no one can serve two masters, and he knew that this girl was going to have to be set free from her demonic influences if she was going to truly worship the Lord.
Based on Paul’s teaching concerning spiritual warfare in Ephesians, Chapter 6, I think we can safely assume that Paul’s preaching of the gospel would have ultimately silenced this demon, but the Holy Spirit told Paul to cast out this demon to confirm Paul’s message through a bold demonstration of God’s power. The Bible says that Paul turned and said, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” So, the demon came out, and all the people could see that Paul was truly a man of God.
Today, we don’t have to go around casting out demons because we have the completed word of God. Hebrews says that:
Hebrews 4:12-13 (NKJ)
12 . . . the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Now notice.)
13 . . . there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
No demon can hide in the light of the word of God, and no demon wants to be exposed by the word of God, so they flee when the word of God is exalted. No demon wants to be around the word of God.
Now, there are two ways that God uses His word to deal with demons. First, God has given us pastors and teachers to teach us the word of God. They are the ones that God uses to help us interpret the Bible correctly. Through them we learn to rightly divide the word of truth. This drives out a lot of demons right there because many of the lies of the devil are based on misinterpretations of the word of God.
Secondly, once we have a good foundation in rightly dividing the word of truth, we can truly open our hearts up to the Holy Spirit as we study the word of God on our own. This personal time of Bible study is critical because it’s during that time that the Holy Spirit can tear down our own false assumptions and misconceptions. There is no creature that is hidden from God’s sight, and when we open our hearts to the word of God, we won’t have to worry about casting out demons.
So, Lydia was set free from the bondage of the Law, and the slave girl was set free from the bondage of a demon, but the jailer needed to be set free from the influence of the world. The jailer was guarding Paul and Silas as they were praying and singing hymns to God, but then at midnight:
Acts 16:26-34 (NKJ)
26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were loosed.
27 And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself.
28 But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, "Do yourself no harm, for we are all here."
29 Then (the jailer) called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.
30 . . . he brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
31 So they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household."
32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.
33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized.
34 Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.
This jailer was obviously a man who was very dedicated to his job. He could not stand the thought of being seen as a failure in the eyes of this world. But when he put his faith in Christ, he was set free from that burden. All of a sudden, he realized that what God thinks is really the only thing that matters.
Paul instructs us to obey those who are in authority, but he says that we should do all things heartily as to the Lord and not as unto men for we know that the reward of the inheritance will come from the Lord.
God never wants any of us to do anything half-heartedly. Moses said:
Deuteronomy 6:5 (KJV)
5 . . . thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
When we put the Lord first and serve Him whole heartedly, we know that He will bless our efforts, and He will give us the reward of the inheritance.
As the Apostle Paul crossed over into Europe, he took with him the message that sets people free. In these three converts at Philippi, we see freedom from the Law, freedom from demonic oppression, and freedom from the world.
We hear a lot about freedom in America, but there is no real freedom apart from faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Hopefully, as we share the gospel of Jesus Christ with those around us, more and more people will learn the truth of Jesus’ words:
John 8:36
36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.
Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time. It’s been a pleasure studying with you, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
Church links:
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Philippians (Part 1) (4-15-07)
Philippians (Part 1)
Bible Study Time 4-15-07
Church links:
Bible Study Time 4-15-07
In the first chapter of Philippians, Paul writes to his dear friends at Philippi to encourage and instruct them. He identifies himself as a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and says:
Philippians 1:1-2
1 To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi . .
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
It’s no coincidence that Paul begins his greeting with the word grace because it was the message of God’s grace which had brought Paul into contact with the people of Philippi.
About ten years had passed since Paul first went to Philippi to share the gospel of the grace of God, but as Paul wrote this letter to the Philippians, he called himself a bondservant of Jesus Christ because he was under house arrest in Rome.
It must have been very comforting to Paul to realize that the believers there in Philippi had loved and supported him all through the years. In the good times and in the hard times, they were there ministering to Paul and ministering with Paul.
As Paul wrote to the Philippians, he probably thought back on the time when he first went to Philippi. There were very few Jews who lived there so they didn’t have a synagogue. They simply met for pray out by the river.
Sometime after Paul arrived in Philippi, Paul went to one of their prayer meetings, and it was there at that meeting that God opened the heart of a woman named Lydia. Paul probably shared with her some of the things that we find in his early letters. I can just picture Paul saying something like:
Galatians 2:16,19,20 (NKJ)
16 " . . . a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.
19 "For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God.
20 "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Being a Jewish proselyte, Lydia may have understood some of the shortcomings of the Law. How she must have rejoiced to think that she could be saved by God’s grace through simple faith in the gospel.
Well, what was the gospel? Obviously, it was the gospel which Paul presented in the first four verse of I Corinthians 15, where Paul said:
1 Corinthians 15:1-4 (NKJ)
1 . . . I declare to you the gospel . . .
2 by which also you are saved . . .
3 . . . that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
This was the gospel of the grace of God which had been hidden in the scriptures from the time that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, but now this gospel was being revealed to Jews and Gentiles alike through the Apostle Paul.
But Paul’s ministry in Philippi was really sort of an extension of his earlier ministry in the region of Galatia six years earlier. At that time Paul had gone into Galatia with Barnabas to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.
As Paul and Barnabas traveled from city to city, they always went to the Jewish synagogues first. There in the synagogues, Paul would explain the Old Testament passages which spoke of the Messiah’s death and resurrection. Then He would present Jesus as the One who fulfilled all of these prophesies.
It was important for Paul to prove from the Old Testament that Jesus was the Messiah. That’s why, when he gave the gospel, he would say, according to the scriptures. Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures. Christ was buried and then rose again the third day, according to the scriptures.
The fact that Paul went to the Jews first in every city provides evidence that he was presenting Jesus as the Messiah, the One who had come to establish the kingdom. In those early years, Paul said that he was a minister of the New Covenant and the earthly kingdom is definitely promised in connection with the New Covenant. When Jeremiah predicted the coming of the New Covenant in Jeremiah 31, he said,
Jeremiah 31:34 (NKJ)
34 "No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."
Some teach that we are in the kingdom today, that God never intended anything more than a spiritual kingdom in connection with the New Covenant, but if that were the case, we would not have to teach our neighbors about Jesus Christ because everyone would already know Jesus Christ.
If we study carefully the prison epistles such as Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, we can see that in our present age, God has temporarily set aside the kingdom program of the New Covenant. When the Church which is the Body of Christ is raptured and taken up into heaven, then God will once again offer the New Covenant to Israel during the tribulation period, and then Jesus will return to the earth to establish the kingdom.
One of the fascinating aspects of the New Covenant is that it always did include the salvation of Gentiles. The Old Covenant Law only allowed for the acceptance of Gentiles who were willing to submit to the Law and essentially become as a Jew, but the New Covenant provided for the salvation of Gentiles who did not submit to the Law.
Therefore, when the New Covenant went into effect after the cross, God called Paul to be the Apostle who would go to the Gentiles. Accordingly, when Paul was on his first missionary journey, he went to the Jews first, but when they refused to believe in Jesus, he would go out from the synagogue to share the gospel with the Gentiles.
When the Jews saw that God was saving the Gentiles and doing wonderful miracles among them, they became jealous. But instead of turning to God in faith, they began to persecute Paul and all those who believed.
After Paul and Barnabas returned to Syria from their first missionary journey, it wasn’t long before some of the believing Jews were telling the Gentiles that they would have to submit to circumcision if they wanted to be saved.
Paul and Barnabas strongly disagreed. They could see that if the Gentiles submitted to circumcision, the Jews would view the believing Gentiles in exactly the same way that they viewed the unbelieving Gentiles who had joined the Jewish religion. It would diminish the value of their faith in the work of Christ upon the cross. Therefore, in Galatians 2:21, Paul said:
Galatians 2:21 (NKJ)
21 "I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain."
Then in Chapter 5, he went on to say:
Galatians 5:1-3 (NKJ)
1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
2 Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.
3 And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law.
Well, some were probably having a hard time understanding why Paul was being such a stickler on this issue. After all, even Paul said in Galatians 5:6 that:
Galatians 5:6 (NKJ)
6 . . . in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.
So what difference would it make if someone got circumcised? Paul could see that it would make all the difference in the world, especially for future generations. Can you imagine how different our faith would be today if Paul had failed to take a stand on this issue?
If Paul had caved in on this issue, there would be no such thing as Christianity today. We would all be a part of the Jewish religion, and very few of us would see the significance of the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross of Christ would be a mere figure of speech.
Unfortunately, today, there are many within the realm of Christianity who still pay more attention to the rituals and ceremonies than they do to the cross of Jesus Christ. Many do not know that salvation comes through faith alone in the work of Christ upon the cross. The implications and the consequences of neglecting the cross of Jesus Christ have been devastating, not only to the Christian religion but to the individuals who have missed the true gospel of Jesus Christ.
Praise the Lord, Paul stood firm for the liberty which was provided for us by the blood of Jesus Christ. When the Jews told the Gentiles that they had to be circumcised to be saved, Paul and Barnabas went down to Jerusalem to defend the grace of God. In Acts, Chapter 15, we read that Peter spoke up and told about how God had saved Cornelius even though Cornelius was uncircumcised, and then the Bible says that:
Acts 15:12 (NKJ)
12 . . . all the multitude kept silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul declaring how many miracles and wonders God had worked through them among the Gentiles.
Ultimately, the Jewish leaders concluded that the Gentiles were being saved by God’s grace apart from the works of the Law, and what a victory that was for the gospel of the grace of God.
Well, after this meeting in Jerusalem, Paul decided to go with Silas and Timothy back to the region of Galatia to encourage and instruct the believers there. After doing so, they continued on to the western border of Turkey where God gave Paul the vision of the man from Macedonian who was calling for help. In response to this vision, Paul went to Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens and Corinth, and from these churches, the gospel spread throughout the Roman Empire and then ultimately throughout western civilization.
More and more people today seem willing to acknowledge the fact that it was the preaching of Paul in Europe that ultimately shaped the world in which we live today. From an historical perspective, it was the preaching of Paul that laid the foundation for what would become the Christian religion, and the Christian religion has been the primary force which has shaped western civilization.
Regardless of this fact, however, it seems that very few people are willing to acknowledge the special message that was given to Paul. For the most part, the Christian religion lumps Paul in with Jesus and the Apostles, and they try to pretend that they all preached the same message. But nothing could be farther from the truth. Paul always emphasized the uniqueness of his message and his ministry. In Romans 2:16, Paul said, there is coming a day:
Romans 2:16 (NKJ)
16 . . . when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.
Paul closed his letter to the Romans, saying:
Romans 16:25 (NKJ)
25 Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began
In Galatians, Chapter 1, Paul said:
Galatians 1:7-8 (NKJ)
7 . . . there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.
8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.
Indeed, someday, all of the people of our present age will be judged according to Paul’s gospel. When the people of our present age are judged, they will not be judged according to the gospel of John 3:16. John 3:16 says that whosoever believeth in Jesus Christ will not perish but will have everlasting life. But that is not the gospel by which we are saved today. John 3:16 brings salvation only to those who see John 3:16 in the light of Paul’s gospel.
Most of the false religions of the world today will tell you that they accept and believe that Jesus was the Son of God, but they do not believe that He died on the cross or that He arose from the dead. Some believe that Jesus ascended into heaven without dying.
They totally reject Paul’s gospel, and that’s sad because someday they’ll be judged according to Paul’s gospel. They will be saved only if they believe that:
1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (NKJ)
3 . . . Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
When Paul went to Philippi to share the gospel of the grace of God, I doubt that he had any idea as to the historical significance of what he was doing, but in reality, Paul was not concerned with changing the course of human history. The only course Paul was interested in was the course which God had laid out for him. Toward the end of his life, Paul said:
2 Timothy 4:6-8 (KJV)
6 . . . I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
Over the course of Paul’s ministry, he traveled about 13,000 miles, and most of that was on foot. Paul’s ministry changed the world forever, but that was not his goal. Paul’s goal was to share the gospel of the grace of God, which changes lives and brings salvation to all who believe.
Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time. It’s been a pleasure studying with you, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
Philippians 1:1-2
1 To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi . .
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
It’s no coincidence that Paul begins his greeting with the word grace because it was the message of God’s grace which had brought Paul into contact with the people of Philippi.
About ten years had passed since Paul first went to Philippi to share the gospel of the grace of God, but as Paul wrote this letter to the Philippians, he called himself a bondservant of Jesus Christ because he was under house arrest in Rome.
It must have been very comforting to Paul to realize that the believers there in Philippi had loved and supported him all through the years. In the good times and in the hard times, they were there ministering to Paul and ministering with Paul.
As Paul wrote to the Philippians, he probably thought back on the time when he first went to Philippi. There were very few Jews who lived there so they didn’t have a synagogue. They simply met for pray out by the river.
Sometime after Paul arrived in Philippi, Paul went to one of their prayer meetings, and it was there at that meeting that God opened the heart of a woman named Lydia. Paul probably shared with her some of the things that we find in his early letters. I can just picture Paul saying something like:
Galatians 2:16,19,20 (NKJ)
16 " . . . a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.
19 "For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God.
20 "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Being a Jewish proselyte, Lydia may have understood some of the shortcomings of the Law. How she must have rejoiced to think that she could be saved by God’s grace through simple faith in the gospel.
Well, what was the gospel? Obviously, it was the gospel which Paul presented in the first four verse of I Corinthians 15, where Paul said:
1 Corinthians 15:1-4 (NKJ)
1 . . . I declare to you the gospel . . .
2 by which also you are saved . . .
3 . . . that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
This was the gospel of the grace of God which had been hidden in the scriptures from the time that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, but now this gospel was being revealed to Jews and Gentiles alike through the Apostle Paul.
But Paul’s ministry in Philippi was really sort of an extension of his earlier ministry in the region of Galatia six years earlier. At that time Paul had gone into Galatia with Barnabas to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.
As Paul and Barnabas traveled from city to city, they always went to the Jewish synagogues first. There in the synagogues, Paul would explain the Old Testament passages which spoke of the Messiah’s death and resurrection. Then He would present Jesus as the One who fulfilled all of these prophesies.
It was important for Paul to prove from the Old Testament that Jesus was the Messiah. That’s why, when he gave the gospel, he would say, according to the scriptures. Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures. Christ was buried and then rose again the third day, according to the scriptures.
The fact that Paul went to the Jews first in every city provides evidence that he was presenting Jesus as the Messiah, the One who had come to establish the kingdom. In those early years, Paul said that he was a minister of the New Covenant and the earthly kingdom is definitely promised in connection with the New Covenant. When Jeremiah predicted the coming of the New Covenant in Jeremiah 31, he said,
Jeremiah 31:34 (NKJ)
34 "No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."
Some teach that we are in the kingdom today, that God never intended anything more than a spiritual kingdom in connection with the New Covenant, but if that were the case, we would not have to teach our neighbors about Jesus Christ because everyone would already know Jesus Christ.
If we study carefully the prison epistles such as Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, we can see that in our present age, God has temporarily set aside the kingdom program of the New Covenant. When the Church which is the Body of Christ is raptured and taken up into heaven, then God will once again offer the New Covenant to Israel during the tribulation period, and then Jesus will return to the earth to establish the kingdom.
One of the fascinating aspects of the New Covenant is that it always did include the salvation of Gentiles. The Old Covenant Law only allowed for the acceptance of Gentiles who were willing to submit to the Law and essentially become as a Jew, but the New Covenant provided for the salvation of Gentiles who did not submit to the Law.
Therefore, when the New Covenant went into effect after the cross, God called Paul to be the Apostle who would go to the Gentiles. Accordingly, when Paul was on his first missionary journey, he went to the Jews first, but when they refused to believe in Jesus, he would go out from the synagogue to share the gospel with the Gentiles.
When the Jews saw that God was saving the Gentiles and doing wonderful miracles among them, they became jealous. But instead of turning to God in faith, they began to persecute Paul and all those who believed.
After Paul and Barnabas returned to Syria from their first missionary journey, it wasn’t long before some of the believing Jews were telling the Gentiles that they would have to submit to circumcision if they wanted to be saved.
Paul and Barnabas strongly disagreed. They could see that if the Gentiles submitted to circumcision, the Jews would view the believing Gentiles in exactly the same way that they viewed the unbelieving Gentiles who had joined the Jewish religion. It would diminish the value of their faith in the work of Christ upon the cross. Therefore, in Galatians 2:21, Paul said:
Galatians 2:21 (NKJ)
21 "I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain."
Then in Chapter 5, he went on to say:
Galatians 5:1-3 (NKJ)
1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
2 Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.
3 And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law.
Well, some were probably having a hard time understanding why Paul was being such a stickler on this issue. After all, even Paul said in Galatians 5:6 that:
Galatians 5:6 (NKJ)
6 . . . in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.
So what difference would it make if someone got circumcised? Paul could see that it would make all the difference in the world, especially for future generations. Can you imagine how different our faith would be today if Paul had failed to take a stand on this issue?
If Paul had caved in on this issue, there would be no such thing as Christianity today. We would all be a part of the Jewish religion, and very few of us would see the significance of the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross of Christ would be a mere figure of speech.
Unfortunately, today, there are many within the realm of Christianity who still pay more attention to the rituals and ceremonies than they do to the cross of Jesus Christ. Many do not know that salvation comes through faith alone in the work of Christ upon the cross. The implications and the consequences of neglecting the cross of Jesus Christ have been devastating, not only to the Christian religion but to the individuals who have missed the true gospel of Jesus Christ.
Praise the Lord, Paul stood firm for the liberty which was provided for us by the blood of Jesus Christ. When the Jews told the Gentiles that they had to be circumcised to be saved, Paul and Barnabas went down to Jerusalem to defend the grace of God. In Acts, Chapter 15, we read that Peter spoke up and told about how God had saved Cornelius even though Cornelius was uncircumcised, and then the Bible says that:
Acts 15:12 (NKJ)
12 . . . all the multitude kept silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul declaring how many miracles and wonders God had worked through them among the Gentiles.
Ultimately, the Jewish leaders concluded that the Gentiles were being saved by God’s grace apart from the works of the Law, and what a victory that was for the gospel of the grace of God.
Well, after this meeting in Jerusalem, Paul decided to go with Silas and Timothy back to the region of Galatia to encourage and instruct the believers there. After doing so, they continued on to the western border of Turkey where God gave Paul the vision of the man from Macedonian who was calling for help. In response to this vision, Paul went to Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens and Corinth, and from these churches, the gospel spread throughout the Roman Empire and then ultimately throughout western civilization.
More and more people today seem willing to acknowledge the fact that it was the preaching of Paul in Europe that ultimately shaped the world in which we live today. From an historical perspective, it was the preaching of Paul that laid the foundation for what would become the Christian religion, and the Christian religion has been the primary force which has shaped western civilization.
Regardless of this fact, however, it seems that very few people are willing to acknowledge the special message that was given to Paul. For the most part, the Christian religion lumps Paul in with Jesus and the Apostles, and they try to pretend that they all preached the same message. But nothing could be farther from the truth. Paul always emphasized the uniqueness of his message and his ministry. In Romans 2:16, Paul said, there is coming a day:
Romans 2:16 (NKJ)
16 . . . when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.
Paul closed his letter to the Romans, saying:
Romans 16:25 (NKJ)
25 Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began
In Galatians, Chapter 1, Paul said:
Galatians 1:7-8 (NKJ)
7 . . . there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.
8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.
Indeed, someday, all of the people of our present age will be judged according to Paul’s gospel. When the people of our present age are judged, they will not be judged according to the gospel of John 3:16. John 3:16 says that whosoever believeth in Jesus Christ will not perish but will have everlasting life. But that is not the gospel by which we are saved today. John 3:16 brings salvation only to those who see John 3:16 in the light of Paul’s gospel.
Most of the false religions of the world today will tell you that they accept and believe that Jesus was the Son of God, but they do not believe that He died on the cross or that He arose from the dead. Some believe that Jesus ascended into heaven without dying.
They totally reject Paul’s gospel, and that’s sad because someday they’ll be judged according to Paul’s gospel. They will be saved only if they believe that:
1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (NKJ)
3 . . . Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
When Paul went to Philippi to share the gospel of the grace of God, I doubt that he had any idea as to the historical significance of what he was doing, but in reality, Paul was not concerned with changing the course of human history. The only course Paul was interested in was the course which God had laid out for him. Toward the end of his life, Paul said:
2 Timothy 4:6-8 (KJV)
6 . . . I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
Over the course of Paul’s ministry, he traveled about 13,000 miles, and most of that was on foot. Paul’s ministry changed the world forever, but that was not his goal. Paul’s goal was to share the gospel of the grace of God, which changes lives and brings salvation to all who believe.
Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time. It’s been a pleasure studying with you, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
Church links:
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
The Resurrection of Christ (4-8-07)
The Resurrection of Christ
Bible Study Time 4-8-07
Church links:
Bible Study Time 4-8-07
Luke says that Jesus came riding into Jerusalem on the colt of a donkey with the people shouting, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord.” During that week that followed His triumphal entry, Jesus spent many hours teaching in the temple, and of course, the religious leaders were there plotting and scheming to trap Jesus in His words. They were determined to put Jesus to death.
Toward the end of that week, Jesus and His disciples went to the upper room to observe the Passover. During the Passover meal, Jesus passed a cup of wine and said, “This cup is the New Covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.”
The New Covenant was about to be ratified by the blood of Jesus, and the New Covenant was that which was going to make possible the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and then ultimately the worldwide kingdom of righteousness and peace.
The New International Version of the Bible says that when Jesus and His disciples were about to partake of the Passover meal, Jesus said, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”
Doesn’t that seem strange? That Jesus would be eager to partake of that which would signify His death. But Jesus was indeed eager to fulfill the purpose for which had come into the world. He had come into the world to save sinners, and it would be His death, burial and resurrection which would make that possible. Romans 5:7 says:
Romans 5:6-8 (KJV)
6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
After the Passover meal, Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, and then He was taken before the chief priests. When He admitted that He was the Son of God, they accused Him of blasphemy and took Him to Pilate.
They asked Pilate for permission to put Jesus to death, but Pilate found Jesus innocent of any crime that would be worthy of death. When the chief priests and Pharisees continued to insist that Jesus be put to death, Pilate sent Jesus to Herod. When Herod also found Jesus to be innocent, he sent Jesus back to Pilate. Therefore,
Luke 23:13-18, 20-24 (NIV)
13 Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers and the people,
14 and said to them, "You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against him.
15 Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us; as you can see, he has done nothing to deserve death.
16 Therefore, I will punish him and then release him."
18 (But) With one voice they cried out, "Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us!"
20 Wanting to release Jesus, (however), Pilate appealed to them again.
21 But they kept shouting, "Crucify him! Crucify him!"
22 For the third time he spoke to them: "Why? What crime has this man committed? I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore I will have him punished and then release him."
23 But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed.
24 So Pilate decided to grant their demand.
And so it was that Jesus was crucified between two thieves, and while he was hanging there on the cross, darkness came over all the land from noon until 3 o’clock in the afternoon. It was during this three hour period of time that Jesus paid the penalty for our sins.
Mel Gibson’s movie, The Passion of the Christ, shows the intense physical suffering that the Lord Jesus endured before He went to the cross, but as horrible as that physical suffering was, it was His spiritual suffering which was by far the greatest.
At the end of that three hours of darkness, Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” This reveals the intense spiritual suffering which results from being separated from the love of the Father.
We as human beings can not understand or comprehend what it is like to be totally separated from the love of God. God loves all people, whether they are saved or unsaved and we all reap the many benefits of God’s love. The sunshine and rain fall upon the saved and the unsaved because God loves us all.
But, praise the Lord, those of us who have put our faith in Jesus Christ will never have to know what it’s like to be separated from the love of God. We won’t have to experience that because Jesus experienced that for us. As Peter said, “He bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness.”
It’s sad to say, but unsaved people will someday know the agony that Jesus went through there on the cross. The reason we preach the gospel today is that the love of Christ constrains us to warn people of the judgment that awaits all those who refuse to believe in Jesus Christ and His finished work upon the cross.
At the end of that three hours of darkness, Jesus said:
John 19:30 (NKJ)
30 . . . "It is finished!" And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.
After the soldiers verified that Jesus was actually dead, Joseph of Arimathea took the Lord’s body and buried it in a tomb. Jesus was crucified on Friday, and His body was buried shortly before the Sabbath began at 6 o’clock on that Friday evening.
Then, according to Matthew, at 6 o’clock on Saturday evening, after the Sabbath was over, the chief priests and Pharisees made arrangements with Pilate for a soldier to guard the tomb of Jesus. Matthew says that they sealed the tomb as they placed the guard at the tomb’s entrance. But, as we know, their efforts to keep Jesus inside that tomb were to no avail. Luke 24 says:
Luke 24:1-9 (NKJ)
1 Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning (certain women) came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.
2 But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.
3 Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
4 And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments.
5 Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead?
6 "He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee,
7 "saying, 'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.'"
8 And they remembered His words.
9 Then they returned from the tomb and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.
Later, Jesus actually appeared to two of His disciples as they walked on the road to Emmaus, and then He appeared to the rest of the disciples as they were all gathered together in one place in Jerusalem. At that time:
Luke 24:36-39, 44-46 (NKJ)
36 . . . Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, "Peace to you."
37 But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit.
38 And He said to them, "Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts?
39 "Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have."
44 Then He said to them, "These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me."
45 And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.
46 Then He said to them, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day,
Jesus Christ had indeed been raised from the dead, and in this event, we see the greatest miracle of all time. Through His own power, as the God of creation, He brought Himself back from the dead. It was as He had said, “I lay down my life that I may take it again. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.”
Because Jesus Christ conquered death, we too have the sure hope of victory over death. In I Corinthians 15, Paul said:
1 Corinthians 15:19-20 (NKJ)
19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.
20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Paul said that the hope of the resurrection belongs to all those who believe the gospel. Again, in I Corinthians 15 Paul said:
1 Corinthians 15:1-4 (NKJ)
1 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand,
2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you-- unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
Sometimes Christians read these verses and assume that this has always been the gospel by which people have been saved, but that is not the case. The disciples were saved by the gospel, but they did not even understand the fact that Jesus was going to be killed and then raised from the dead. Luke 18 says:
Luke 18:31-34 (NKJ)
31 Then (Jesus) took the twelve aside and said to them, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished.
32 "For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon.
33 "They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again."
34 But they understood none of these things; this saying was hidden from them, and they did not know the things which were spoken.
If the disciples of Jesus did not understand that Jesus was going to be killed and then raised from the dead, then they were certainly saved by a different gospel. Today, one has to understand and believe that Jesus died for our sins and that He was raised from the dead.
The gospel for that period of time was introduced by John the Baptist, who spoke of Jesus and said:
John 3:35-36 (NKJ)
35 "The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand.
36 "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."
This was the gospel message for that day, and we see it again in Matthew 16 where the Lord asked Peter, “Who do you say that I am?” In other words, “What do you believe about me?” In response, Peter said, “Thou are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Again, this was the gospel message for that day.
When Jesus spoke to Martha, He said, “I am the resurrection and the life,” but what was Martha’s response? Martha said, “I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God.”
Even after the resurrection of Christ, the apostles did not understand the spiritual significance of the resurrection. To them, the significance of the resurrection was simply that Christ was no longer dead. They told the people that Christ was alive and that if they would repent, Christ would return to the earth to bring in the times of refreshing, the restitution of all things.
Even as long as seven years after the resurrection of Christ, Philip told the Ethiopian that if he believed with all of his heart, he could be baptized. To this the Ethiopian replied, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
That’s what they had to believe at that time in order to be saved, and that was the gospel message until the Apostle Paul revealed the true spiritual significance of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He said that Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, was buried and then rose again the third day according to the scriptures, and he said, “This is the gospel by which you are saved.”
It was Paul who taught:
Romans 10:9 (NKJ)
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Today, if we put our faith in the finished work of Christ, we are immediately baptized by the Holy Spirit into the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. We not only have the hope of the resurrection of the body, but we can experience the power of the resurrection in our everyday lives. Paul said in Romans 6:
Romans 6:4 (NKJ)
4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Today, as we celebrate the resurrection of Christ, we can rejoice in the knowledge that anybody, anywhere can be saved by simply coming to Jesus and believing that He died for our sins and was raised from the dead so that all who believe might have everlasting life.
Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time. It’s been a pleasure studying with you, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
Toward the end of that week, Jesus and His disciples went to the upper room to observe the Passover. During the Passover meal, Jesus passed a cup of wine and said, “This cup is the New Covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.”
The New Covenant was about to be ratified by the blood of Jesus, and the New Covenant was that which was going to make possible the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and then ultimately the worldwide kingdom of righteousness and peace.
The New International Version of the Bible says that when Jesus and His disciples were about to partake of the Passover meal, Jesus said, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”
Doesn’t that seem strange? That Jesus would be eager to partake of that which would signify His death. But Jesus was indeed eager to fulfill the purpose for which had come into the world. He had come into the world to save sinners, and it would be His death, burial and resurrection which would make that possible. Romans 5:7 says:
Romans 5:6-8 (KJV)
6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
After the Passover meal, Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, and then He was taken before the chief priests. When He admitted that He was the Son of God, they accused Him of blasphemy and took Him to Pilate.
They asked Pilate for permission to put Jesus to death, but Pilate found Jesus innocent of any crime that would be worthy of death. When the chief priests and Pharisees continued to insist that Jesus be put to death, Pilate sent Jesus to Herod. When Herod also found Jesus to be innocent, he sent Jesus back to Pilate. Therefore,
Luke 23:13-18, 20-24 (NIV)
13 Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers and the people,
14 and said to them, "You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against him.
15 Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us; as you can see, he has done nothing to deserve death.
16 Therefore, I will punish him and then release him."
18 (But) With one voice they cried out, "Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us!"
20 Wanting to release Jesus, (however), Pilate appealed to them again.
21 But they kept shouting, "Crucify him! Crucify him!"
22 For the third time he spoke to them: "Why? What crime has this man committed? I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore I will have him punished and then release him."
23 But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed.
24 So Pilate decided to grant their demand.
And so it was that Jesus was crucified between two thieves, and while he was hanging there on the cross, darkness came over all the land from noon until 3 o’clock in the afternoon. It was during this three hour period of time that Jesus paid the penalty for our sins.
Mel Gibson’s movie, The Passion of the Christ, shows the intense physical suffering that the Lord Jesus endured before He went to the cross, but as horrible as that physical suffering was, it was His spiritual suffering which was by far the greatest.
At the end of that three hours of darkness, Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” This reveals the intense spiritual suffering which results from being separated from the love of the Father.
We as human beings can not understand or comprehend what it is like to be totally separated from the love of God. God loves all people, whether they are saved or unsaved and we all reap the many benefits of God’s love. The sunshine and rain fall upon the saved and the unsaved because God loves us all.
But, praise the Lord, those of us who have put our faith in Jesus Christ will never have to know what it’s like to be separated from the love of God. We won’t have to experience that because Jesus experienced that for us. As Peter said, “He bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness.”
It’s sad to say, but unsaved people will someday know the agony that Jesus went through there on the cross. The reason we preach the gospel today is that the love of Christ constrains us to warn people of the judgment that awaits all those who refuse to believe in Jesus Christ and His finished work upon the cross.
At the end of that three hours of darkness, Jesus said:
John 19:30 (NKJ)
30 . . . "It is finished!" And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.
After the soldiers verified that Jesus was actually dead, Joseph of Arimathea took the Lord’s body and buried it in a tomb. Jesus was crucified on Friday, and His body was buried shortly before the Sabbath began at 6 o’clock on that Friday evening.
Then, according to Matthew, at 6 o’clock on Saturday evening, after the Sabbath was over, the chief priests and Pharisees made arrangements with Pilate for a soldier to guard the tomb of Jesus. Matthew says that they sealed the tomb as they placed the guard at the tomb’s entrance. But, as we know, their efforts to keep Jesus inside that tomb were to no avail. Luke 24 says:
Luke 24:1-9 (NKJ)
1 Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning (certain women) came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.
2 But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.
3 Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
4 And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments.
5 Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead?
6 "He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee,
7 "saying, 'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.'"
8 And they remembered His words.
9 Then they returned from the tomb and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.
Later, Jesus actually appeared to two of His disciples as they walked on the road to Emmaus, and then He appeared to the rest of the disciples as they were all gathered together in one place in Jerusalem. At that time:
Luke 24:36-39, 44-46 (NKJ)
36 . . . Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, "Peace to you."
37 But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit.
38 And He said to them, "Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts?
39 "Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have."
44 Then He said to them, "These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me."
45 And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.
46 Then He said to them, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day,
Jesus Christ had indeed been raised from the dead, and in this event, we see the greatest miracle of all time. Through His own power, as the God of creation, He brought Himself back from the dead. It was as He had said, “I lay down my life that I may take it again. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.”
Because Jesus Christ conquered death, we too have the sure hope of victory over death. In I Corinthians 15, Paul said:
1 Corinthians 15:19-20 (NKJ)
19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.
20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Paul said that the hope of the resurrection belongs to all those who believe the gospel. Again, in I Corinthians 15 Paul said:
1 Corinthians 15:1-4 (NKJ)
1 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand,
2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you-- unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
Sometimes Christians read these verses and assume that this has always been the gospel by which people have been saved, but that is not the case. The disciples were saved by the gospel, but they did not even understand the fact that Jesus was going to be killed and then raised from the dead. Luke 18 says:
Luke 18:31-34 (NKJ)
31 Then (Jesus) took the twelve aside and said to them, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished.
32 "For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon.
33 "They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again."
34 But they understood none of these things; this saying was hidden from them, and they did not know the things which were spoken.
If the disciples of Jesus did not understand that Jesus was going to be killed and then raised from the dead, then they were certainly saved by a different gospel. Today, one has to understand and believe that Jesus died for our sins and that He was raised from the dead.
The gospel for that period of time was introduced by John the Baptist, who spoke of Jesus and said:
John 3:35-36 (NKJ)
35 "The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand.
36 "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."
This was the gospel message for that day, and we see it again in Matthew 16 where the Lord asked Peter, “Who do you say that I am?” In other words, “What do you believe about me?” In response, Peter said, “Thou are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Again, this was the gospel message for that day.
When Jesus spoke to Martha, He said, “I am the resurrection and the life,” but what was Martha’s response? Martha said, “I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God.”
Even after the resurrection of Christ, the apostles did not understand the spiritual significance of the resurrection. To them, the significance of the resurrection was simply that Christ was no longer dead. They told the people that Christ was alive and that if they would repent, Christ would return to the earth to bring in the times of refreshing, the restitution of all things.
Even as long as seven years after the resurrection of Christ, Philip told the Ethiopian that if he believed with all of his heart, he could be baptized. To this the Ethiopian replied, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
That’s what they had to believe at that time in order to be saved, and that was the gospel message until the Apostle Paul revealed the true spiritual significance of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He said that Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, was buried and then rose again the third day according to the scriptures, and he said, “This is the gospel by which you are saved.”
It was Paul who taught:
Romans 10:9 (NKJ)
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Today, if we put our faith in the finished work of Christ, we are immediately baptized by the Holy Spirit into the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. We not only have the hope of the resurrection of the body, but we can experience the power of the resurrection in our everyday lives. Paul said in Romans 6:
Romans 6:4 (NKJ)
4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Today, as we celebrate the resurrection of Christ, we can rejoice in the knowledge that anybody, anywhere can be saved by simply coming to Jesus and believing that He died for our sins and was raised from the dead so that all who believe might have everlasting life.
Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time. It’s been a pleasure studying with you, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
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