Blog Archives - WELCOME TO THE JOY OF TROY

November 20, 2021

11/20/2021

Jesus' Mission Plan, Part 1

        But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Acts 1:8

    Jesus had a plan. A successful mission is not something that just happens. It needs thought, direction, and power. The first step in Jesus' massive plan was for His followers to be fully equipped for their daunting task. That would take not only knowledge, which He had supplied them with while He was on earth, but divine power.

    The Greek word for "power" is dynamis, from which we derive our word "dynamite." I vividly remember a trip I took across the desert of southern California nearly 50 years ago. What caught my attention was a blinding flash on a mountain some miles in the distance. Next, I saw a huge cloud of dirt and debris. At that point the first sound waves shook my car, and I realized that I had witnessed a mighty explosion. The explosive agent in that case had undoubtedly been dynamite. Dynamite is a form of dynamis or power. Paul ties the gospel message to that same force when he writes that "the gospel...is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes" (Rom. 1:16, NIV).

    One reason that he is not ashamed of the gospel is that it is backed by God's power. And one thing the apostle makes crystal clear in the early chapters of Romans is that people are unable to save themselves from the hold of sin. No matter how hard they try, they can't free themselves from its ravages. That's where God's power comes in. He can do what we cannot.

    That truth applies to both the saving of sinners and the spreading of the truth of the gospel. And it is the Holy Spirit who is God's agent in those tasks. The work of the Spirit undergirds all true Christian evangelism. Without the Spirit there is no dynamis.

    That brings us to part 2 in Jesus' mission plan. He calls His Spirit-empowered followers to be His agents or witnesses. Here we find another important Greek word, martys, from which we get the English word "martyr." Originally the word stood for someone bearing witness in a court of law. But in the New Testament it came to mean one who witnessed or bore testimony to the truth of the gospel of Christ. Eventually it signified someone willing to die rather than give up Jesus and the preaching of His message.

    God is still calling people to be His witnesses in power. Today He is summoning me and you personally.  How shall we respond?

November 19, 2021

11/19/2021

The Waiting Time

        You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I sent the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high. Luke 24:48, 49, RSV.

        To them he presented himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days, and speaking of the kingdom of God. And while staying with them he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, "you heard from me, for John baptized with water, but before many day you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit" Acts 1:3-5, RSV.

    Luke ends his Gospel and begins his history of the early Christian church in Acts of the Apostles with the same thought. Namely, that Jesus charged His followers not to move forward in His Great Commission to them to take the gospel message to the world until they had received the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish the task.

    That was just the advice they needed at that time. Filled with the excitement of the Resurrection, the natural thing would be to rush out and tell others about the greatest truth in history.

    But Jesus recognized that they were not ready for action yet. He realized that even though they had the truth of the gospel message, they still lacked the power to preach it successfully. "The Savior knew that no argument, however logical, would melt the hearts or break through the crust of worldliness and selfishness. He knew that His disciples must receive the heavenly endowment; that the gospel would be effective only as it was proclaimed by hearts made warm and lips made eloquent by a living knowledge of Him who is the way, the truth, and the life. The work committed to the disciples would require great efficiency; for the tide of evil ran deep and strong against them. A valiant, determined leader was in command of the forces of darkness, and the followers of Christ could battle for the right only through the help that God, by His Spirit, would give them" (The Acts of the Apostles, p. 31).

    One of the most difficult truths for genuine believers to grasp is that waiting is often more important than action. Too many of us are like Peter. We jump into action before we know exactly what we are doing--we charge ahead without the power to accomplish the task.

    Waiting time must always precede exploits. Study, prayer, discussion, and sharing wisdom are important. The time for action will come after we have the Spirit's power and direction and wisdom to carry out our Lord's mission according to His will.

November 18, 2021

11/18/2021

An End That Is a Beginning

        Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw Him, they worshipped Him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always even to the end of the age." Matt. 28:16-20, NKJV.

    Matthew's concluding paragraph finds the resurrected Jesus meeting with His disciples and apparently some of the more than 500 who saw Him in His resurrected body before He ascended. That meeting began in worship and ended in service.

    We should note several things about verses 16-20. First, those present worship Jesus, but some doubt. With the hesitating Thomas having finally accepted the resurrection of Jesus, the 11 disciples were definitely among those who worshipped Him. The doubters were evidently some of the more than 500 witnesses to the Resurrection who had not seen Him up to that time. But the fact that the disciples and others worshipped Jesus is important. For Jews to take that step meant that they had accepted His full divinity as an equal with the Father.

    Second, Jesus received "all authority...in heaven and on earth." Authority has been a major issue throughout the gospel story, and world dominion was the issue in the third temptation when Satan offered Jesus "all the kingdoms of the world." But Jesus had chosen the way of the cross. And because of His victorious life, death, and resurrection, He had "all authority" for dominion in "all nations" for all time. Jesus is truly Lord.

    Third, Jesus delegates His authority to His followers for the express purpose of enabling them to go into all the world to make disciples and baptize them in the "name" of the Trinity (name is in the singular, thereby indicating that the three Persons of the Godhead are united). Part of their commission is not only to teach the full message of Jesus, but also to observe His teachings. Obedience for Jesus was never an option. Christianity is not merely a change of belief, but a transformation in how people live. Fourth, Jesus will be with His church until the end of the age. He continues to be "God with us" (Matt. 1:23) as long as time shall last.

    With what has been called the gospel commission we have come to the end of the story of Jesus in Matthew. But the ending is really a beginning. The teachings in this verse would eventually stimulate Jesus' followers to take His message to the ends of the earth. It is a mission in which we twenty-first century disciples still participate. Christianity may begin in worship, but it always ends in service.

November 17, 2021

11/17/2021

A Tale of Two Fires

        So when they got out on the land, they saw a charcoal fire already laid and fish placed on it, and bread....Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast."...So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?" He said to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love You." He said to him, "Tend My lambs." He said to him again a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love Me?" He said to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love You." He said to him, "Shepherd My sheep." He said to him a third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love Me?" Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, "Do you love Me?" And he said to Him, "Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You." Jesus said to him, "Tend My sheep." John 21:9-17, NASB.

    It all began and ended around two charcoal fires. Before that first fire Peter was the most exuberant of the disciples, telling Jesus that he would never let Him down, that he would follow Him no matter where the path led--even to prison or death. He claimed that he was willing to lay down his life for Christ.

    And then came that charcoal fire, where the servants of the high priest and certain officers stood warming themselves (John 18:18). Peter joined them. Fateful move. Beginning at that fire he would step by step deny Christ three times, eventually cursing and swearing that he did not know Him. During the days and nights of agony that followed, Peter could never escape the genuine guilt of his betrayal. Life had lost its sparkle.

    The second charcoal fire reminded Peter of the first one. The very smell brought back memories. Jesus knew what he had done. God knew. John knew. And Peter knew. Not even the Resurrection itself could dispel his feelings of guilt and the haunting memory. Only revisiting the scene in a healing context would ever help.

    Around that second charcoal fire the number three is again significant. But this time it relates to three questions from Jesus and three agonizing responses from Peter. As the charcoal fire burns, the number three becomes a reminder of Peter's betrayal of the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). And, to Peter's inexpressible relief, the Lamb takes his sin away. But Jesus doesn't just say "It's all right, forget about it." No, three times He recommissions His fallen disciple to work for Him.

    There is something for each of us in this story. If we are awake at all to spiritual things, we will notice the smell of a charcoal fire in the air that we breathe. But there is also our Lord willing not only to forgive us but to restore us.

November 16, 2021

11/16/2021

Jesus Comes When We Need Him

        After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he revealed himself in this way: Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of the disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We will go with you." They went out and got into the boat; but that night they caught nothing. Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the beach, yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus....He said to them, "Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some [fish]." So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, for the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his clothes...and sprang into the sea. But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish. John 21:1-8, RSV.

    Why had they gone fishing? I can't say for sure. But I do know that when I am discouraged I like to just get away from it all, to find some peace and quiet. One of my escapes is to read beside a fast-running stream. Another is to go fishing.

    But these seven disciples may have had a deeper reason. The Crucifixion had destroyed their world. And while it is true that the resurrected Jesus had appeared to them twice already, they weren't altogether sure what to make out of life. They were still in a fog of confusion. And for Peter there was still that business of his denial that continued to trouble him day and night.

    Without any sure guidance for the future, perhaps the best thing to do was to get on with life. The world they knew was fishing. Seemed strange, going back, but they had families to feed. Perhaps they should settle down and do something sensible for a change. Like earning money.

    Good idea. But it didn't work. They fished all night with no results. But at dawn this "guy" shows up on the beach and starts asking them questions. They don't recognize Him at first. But as soon as He tells them where to get the fish and they get enough to feed the whole village with one cast of their net, they know exactly who He is.

    The troubled Peter immediately jumps into the water and swims to shore, even though he knew full well that he was abandoning his share of the work of getting the boat and its catch back to his six friends.

    Why? Because Peter was a tormented man who had sinned grievously and could hardly sleep at night. He needed healing but didn't know what to do about it. And then Jesus came.

    But then He always comes. No matter what you and I have done, Jesus makes Himself available to us for our healing and restoration. That is a part of His resurrection ministry. The good news is that He comes to us when we need Him.

November 15, 2021

11/15/2021

Pitiable, Foolish, Keyless "Christianity"

        If Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. 1 Cor. 15:17-19, NKJV.

    But," Paul goes on to say, "now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming. Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father" (1 Cor. 15:20-24, NKJV).

    A resurrectionless Christianity is the height of folly, making Christians, as Paul put it, the most pitiable of all people. People who claim the name of Christ without His resurrection have kept the husk but have thrown away the fruit. They are living a powerless falsehood.

    Yet that is exactly what some of the Corinthians had done. Paul's massive assault on the topic in 1 Corinthians sought to put them straight by highlighting the truth of the Resurrection and the foolishness of rejecting it--a path that leads to meaningless "Christianity."

    The interesting thing about the Corinthian crisis is that theologians and ministers reinvented it during the Enlightenment period, and it became a major plank in the belief system of the mainline Protestant denominations of the twentieth century.

    Modern people were just too smart to believe in such foolishness. Dead people didn't come to life. The disciples invented the idea to cover up their mistake. H. Richard Niebuhr summed up modernistic Christianity when he penned that "a God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross." And, he could have added, "without a resurrection." The result was a form of religion focused on ethics and doing good.

    The upshot was powerless churches that would eventually begin to shrink and die. They had thrown away the core of the biblical message. And with that one stroke, as I have said in my Apocalyptic Vision and the Neutering of Adventism, they managed to emasculate themselves.

    Such will be the fate of any movement that turns its back on the pillar truths that made it strong. And for all Christianity there is no more vital and important fact than the risen Christ.

November 14, 2021

11/14/2021

Centrality of the Key

        Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God--the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Through him we received grace and apostleship. Rom. 1:1-5, NIV.

    The words we want to focus on are "through the Spirit of holiness [Jesus] was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead." The Message renders verses 3 and 4 helpfully: "His descent from David roots him in history; his unique identity as Son of God was shown by the Spirit when Jesus was raised from the dead, setting him apart as the Messiah, our Master."

    If Jesus had come to earth and merely lived a good (even perfect) life and died a violent death, He would have been just one more noble and heroic person. But still dead like the rest of them.

    The good news, Paul reminds us, is about not merely another good man who came to an unjust end. To the contrary, His resurrection demonstrates Him to be the powerful Son of God. The good news is that Jesus lives to continue His work for those who have accepted Him. Thus His resurrection also stands at the center of Paul's gospel message. "Before that" event, Anders Nygren points out, Jesus "was the Son of God in weakness and lowliness. Through the resurrection He became the Son of God in power."

    Christ's resurrection, as I noted before, is the hinge of history. Without it Christianity would have never existed. It would have ended in a Palestinian grave, with a few frightened disciples trying to keep the memory of Jesus of Nazareth alive until they finally died or gave up in discouragement. William Barclay is right on target when he asserts that "one thing is certain--if Jesus had not risen from the dead we would never have heard of Him."

    But Jesus did arise. And that single fact transformed and energized His followers. His was a victory over death. And in the long run it signals the end of death itself. The Resurrection is the great victory of God the Father and Jesus over Satan and the forces and power of death. It demonstrates that God is truly in control.

    Without the Resurrection, Christianity would have nothing to offer the world but a few nice ideas. But with the Resurrection came power to the disciples and hope to a lost and suffering world.

    Praise God that Jesus has risen!

November 13, 2021

11/13/2021

The Key to Apostolic Power

        Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, "Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a cripple, by what means has this man been healed, be it known to you, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man is standing before you well. This is the stone which was rejected by you builders, but which has become the head of the corner. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." Acts 4:8-12, RSV.

    Is this the same Peter who a few weeks before was shaking with fear and hiding lest he be identified as a follower of Jesus? Is this the same person who cursed and swore that he didn't know Jesus and that he was not His disciple?

    Yes and no. Yes because he had the same body and name. But no because the cowardly Peter had been transformed, so much so that he now fearlessly addresses the powerful Sanhedrin, the governing body of the Jews, the very same group that had sentenced Jesus to death.

    Acts 4 continues on to say that the Jewish rulers "when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men,...wondered; and they recognized that they had been with Jesus" (verse 13, RSV).

    Not knowing what to do with the troublesome apostles, the Jewish leaders "charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, 'Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard' " (verses 18-20, RSV).

    Later, after the authorities imprisoned them for their faith, the transformed Peter and his colleagues, having been released miraculously, were found "standing in the temple and teaching the people" openly (Acts 5:17-25, RSV). When brought again before the Sanhedrin, "Peter and the apostles answered, 'We must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus whom you killed by hanging on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel for forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things" (verses 29-32, RSV).

    The preaching of Christ's resurrection provided the central certainty in the apostolic message. They no longer feared because they now served a risen Lord who had the keys of death and the grave.   Not even powerful people could do anything to them. Having seen the risen One, they knew what they were talking about. And no one could shut them up.

    Such is the transforming power of resurrection faith.

November 12, 2021

11/12/2021

Keys to the Grave

        Do not be afraid, I am the first and the last, the living one. I am he who was dead, and now you see me alive for timeless ages! I hold in my hand the keys of death and the grave. Rev. 1:17, 18, Phillips

    Do not be afraid." Those words are remarkably similar to Jesus' "Let not your heart be troubled" on the night before His crucifixion (John 14:1-3). In the earlier passage Jesus tied the reason not to fear to His second advent. He was going to prepare a place for them and would return so that they could be with Him. John 14:1-3 does not mention His resurrection, but it is obviously implied.

    Here in Revelation 1:17 and 18 mention the Second Coming is not in the verses. But we do find it in verse 7, in which John declares that Jesus will come in the clouds and that "every eye will see him" (RSV). He can return because He is "the living one" who "was dead" but is "now...alive."

    That is good news, but in the last part of verse 18 it gets even better. "I hold in my hand," declares the living One, "the keys of death and the grave." In ancient palaces the one who held the keys was an important person. That individual could admit or shut out people from the king's presence. The keys were a symbol of authority.

    It is in the light of that fact that we can evaluate Jesus' statement on having the keys of death and the grave. All kinds of people could put individuals to death. There is no secret to that. Just pull a trigger and you can send someone on a one-way trip to the cemetery.

    But the reverse is not so easy. It is impossible to bring people back to life, no matter how much money or power you have.

    That is where Jesus' victory over death comes in. His resurrection demonstrated for all time that He alone has the keys of death and the grave.

    As a result, His resurrection is a guarantee of that of His followers. Thus Christians have no need to fear. We serve a risen Lord! Nothing can happen to us that He cannot reverse--even death itself.

    He not only arose, but He is "alive for evermore" (verse 18, RSV). Jesus did not rise to die again, but is the "living one,...alive for timeless ages." And with His keys He offers that same eternal life to each of His followers.

    The final word: Fear not; we serve a risen Lord who will come again to provide His followers with life throughout the ages of eternity.

November 11, 2021

11/11/2021

Resurrection Power

        He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 1 Cor. 15:5-8, RSV.

    Paul has a burden on the topic of the Resurrection. So much so that he devotes what is probably his most extensive discussion on any single topic to Christ's resurrection and its meaning for our lives. The 58 verses of 1 Corinthians 15 are his tour de force on the Resurrection.

    But Paul was not alone in this opinion. All of the Gospels, the books of Acts and Revelation, and the rest of the New Testament highlight the fact that "He has risen!"

    Why? Because without that central fact we have nothing to believe in but a man who was a "nice guy" and had some good things to say while He was alive, but is now dead and powerless. That might be an adequate foundation for a philosophic school, but not for Christianity, a faith anchored in the reality that Christ lives and is a force in every believer's life. Because He lives, we as His followers have hope in both the present and the future.

    But the Greek world in which Christianity was born doubted bodily resurrection and even the value of the body itself. Thus we find the great pains the New Testament writers expended to demonstrate not only that Christ rose, but that He did so with a physical body that they could see and touch, a body that could even eat fish. He was not a phantom or a ghost or a disembodied spirit, but the risen Lord Jesus who appeared to hundreds of witnesses, some of them very skeptical.

    Paul himself had been one of those skeptics. To the pre-Christian Paul the resurrection of Jesus had been merely one more superstition cooked up by the disciples. His response to the "myth" was to stomp it out in a wave of persecution. And he did so until he himself met the resurrected Christ on the road to Damascus.

    After that the reality of the Resurrection became the central point of his life. Paul surrendered his life to the direction and power of his resurrected Lord. And Jesus used him mightily.

    The same resurrected Lord wants to take each of our lives and fill them with hope and energy and purpose. The only question is whether we will let Him.

    Lord, thank You for the possibility of resurrection power. I accept it this day for the direction and energizing of my life.