Blog - Page 93 of 141 - Christ Church

Kirkers Read 12: Generational Hand-Off

Ben Zornes on August 21, 2018

This week we wrap up the book of Hebrews and read through Paul’s pastoral letters to two young pastors (Timothy and Titus). Whenever I read the book of Hebrews, I’m reminded of that verse in Luke 24:27 which describes Jesus’ words to the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus, “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” One of the big picture things going on in Hebrews is putting the glory of the Mosaic Law under the brighter light of Christ. There are some a pieces of art that once put under a black light the variegated colors become more vibrant and the whole painting comes alive in a way that it doesn’t under normal light. Hebrews is like that with the Law of Moses. It takes all those OT patriarchs, sacrifices, and types and shines the light of Christ upon them exposing that, all along, they were all intended to show forth His glory.

In Paul’s pastoral letters we see a profound picture of what it looks like to hand off the faith. He tells Timothy to “guard the deposit entrusted to you (1 Tim. 6:20).” In Titus 2, Paul commissions Titus to make sure that older women are teaching younger women to godly women, and for young men to be exhorted by older men to be godly men. In 2 Timothy 2:2 he instructs Timothy to commit the Gospel “to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” In essence, the sin of covenant presumption which often was the bane of the Israelites, must be hunted down and expelled from the Christian church. Notice in that last verse that Paul is telling Timothy to raise up men who can then raise up other men to be faithful to proclaim and teach the Gospel; that’s four generations of discipleship.

Finally, as we wrap up the Summer Bible Reading challenge over the next two weeks, remember Paul’s words and, by God’s grace, emulate them, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith (2 Tim. 4:7).” The best way to show forth Christ and impart Him to the next generation is to fight a good fight.

Grace & Peace: Revelation 108

Douglas Wilson on August 14, 2018

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11).

“And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Rev. 20:7–10).

Just a few verses before, we were told that Satan was locked up in the Abyss such that he would no longer be able to “deceive the nations.” That this was the nature of his restriction is reinforced here—when he is released from his prison at the end of the thousand years, he goes out and resumes his lying activities. Once again, he deceives the nations.

So at the very end of the long period of Christian ascendancy, Satan is permitted to lead the nations astray again. The nations involved are described as being at the “four quarters of the earth,” meaning all the nations hither and yon. The name given to them is taken from Ezekiel 38 and 39. In Ezekiel, this referred to an unbelieving and savage nation from the north. The prophecy there is against Gog, the prince of that people, and Magog, the people themselves. When they attacked Israel (in overwhelming numbers), they were nevertheless defeated. Thus they serve as a fitting type for this international version of the same kind of thing. One time the old Israel was assaulted by Magog, and Magog was overthrown. And here, the new Israel is assaulted by an international Magogian confederacy, and they too are thrown down immediately.

Satan’s deception was initially successful, in that he was able to gather an army like the “sand of the sea.” One question might be why God allows for something like this after the world was successfully evangelized. The best explanation appears to be that He is showing us that salvation is all of grace. After centuries of gospel glory, it would be easy for men to start taking credit for what the gospel alone accomplished, and so God illustrates for us the fact that apart from grace, the human heart remains exactly what it has always been—by nature an object of wrath.

So after a long period of gospel glory, Satan is permitted one last attack on the object of his malice, which is the Christian church. This is pictured by two images—the “camp of the saints” and the “beloved city.” The camp of the saints brings the period of the wilderness to mind, and the beloved city is talking about the New Jerusalem, the Christian Church. Both descriptions are of God’s beloved people, the apple of His eye. Because the church of the faithful will at that point be located all over the earth, we see the enemies of God going up “on the breadth of the earth.” Christians will be attacked in the same way that the Jews were attacked by Haman in the Persian empire—attacked, that is, in every town, every city, every province, and every nation.

But the outcome of this attack is not in doubt. This is an attempted murder, not a murder. The faithful are surrounded, and so they have a full opportunity to trust the Lord. But the Lord will defend His people, and will rain down fire on the enemies of God. I don’t believe there is any reason to assume the fire here is merely figurative. “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess. 1:8). I take this destruction of Satan, and of “Gog,” and of “Magog,” as the Second Coming of Christ.

The beast and the false prophet had been thrown into the lake of fire, the final death, sometime earlier. Now Satan is consigned there—no longer in the Abyss, he is now in final death. In that place, he is tormented day and night forever and ever. This is as good a place as any to mention that Satan is not the king of Hell. Jesus is the ruler of Hell, and Satan is in torment there.

“In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea” (Is. 27:1).

Kirkers Read 11: Distance Learning

Ben Zornes on August 14, 2018

We’re closing in on reading the entire New Testament in thirteen weeks. Finish strong, and continue to cultivate this discipline in your life. You will certainly never regret time in God’s Word. As we look at this week’s reading you’ll note that you’ll be blazing through four different epistles and get a third of the way through another one.

What is striking when you read through these shorter New Testament books is that these are letters written to real congregations and people. One thing to pay attention to as you read the epistle is to keep a keen eye out for what issue(s) Paul is addressing. Then remember, none of this is in a vacuum. There are current events and cultural influences which must be address and combatted and that is exactly what Paul––a master builder (1 Cor. 3:10)––sets out to do, time and time again. As he mentions in Philippians 3:1, it is “no problemo” to write the same things repeatedly.

God, in giving us His Word, wants us to learn and grow via distance learning. We are now 2,000 years removed from the writing of these letters, but still they exhort us, reprove us, and spur us onward in knowing Christ. Never forget that the whole goal of the Bible is that you would know Christ. Not just know about Christ, or know things about Christ. But know Him. Christ is the Sun of the Solar System of Christianity. Every revolves around Him. In Philippians 3:7-11 we have, what I like to call “the Mt. Everest of Paul’s writing.” For Paul, this is what it is all about: “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 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 and be found in Him, 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; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

Grace & Peace: Revelation 107

Douglas Wilson on August 9, 2018

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11).

“And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years” (Rev. 20:4–6).

And so John saw multiple thrones, which we should understand as being located in Heaven. They are most likely the thrones of the 24 elders, which have already been mentioned (Rev. 4:4). In addition we also see the martyrs, who were assembled earlier under the heavenly altar (Rev. 6:9). In that earlier place, they were crying out for a vengeance that had not yet happened. “How long?” But now that the great blow has fallen, bringing an end to the old Judaic aeon, these martyrs enter into their share in the rule of the world, in and through Christ. The martyrs are identified as those who refused to participate in the worship of the beast, or of his image, and who refused to accept his mark upon their heads or hands. In this image of their martyrdom, they had been beheaded, which meant that the heads that refused the mark were separated from their bodies—but when that beheading occurred, their heads were unblemished by that particular corruption. They lost their heads, but they were undefiled heads.

Having entered into glory, they continued to live on, and they participated in the reign of Christ over all the nations of men. They are kings and priests together with Him.

What does John mean by “this is the first resurrection”? I believe the best explanation is that the first resurrection is the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the second resurrection is the general resurrection of the dead at the end of all human history. John’s expression in v. 6 points toward this understanding. The first resurrection is something that we are blessed to “have part” of. Christ rose from the dead as the first fruits of those who had died (1 Cor. 15:20)—His resurrection was the first fruits for others. In another place, He is described as being the firstborn from among the dead (Col. 1:18)—again, His resurrection was a resurrection that others were to participate in. When we are converted, by faith we are made partakers of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. He was raised to life for our justification (Rom. 4:25). “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection” (Rom. 6:5). If we are baptized, we are baptized into His death, and it is not possible to be baptized into His death without participating in “newness of life” (Rom 6:4).

John also adds the detail that the “rest of the dead” would not be raised until the thousand years, which is the Christian aeon, was completed. I take this as referring to the resurrection of the unjust, the resurrection of the unbelievers. That there is such a resurrection is plain in Scripture.

“And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust” (Acts 24:15).

“Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (John 5:28–29).

So every believer who is truly converted throughout all church history is made a partaker of the resurrection of Jesus, the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them—which means they can look forward to the general resurrection as a great hope. In addition, they are included in the reign of Christ over the nations, which is taught in multiple other places. For just one example, consider this: “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6). And so the shared rule with Christ is not limited to first century martyrs. It applies to every believer who trusts in Christ at any point in the millennium.

There is no need to take the reference to this millennium, this one thousand years, as a literal one. This is a symbolic number, in a symbolic chapter, in a highly symbolic book. Throughout Scripture, it is used as a place holder for a very large number—the number of hills where God owns the cattle (Ps. 50:10), the number of enemy soldiers that one Israelite will pursue (Josh. 23:10), and the number of generations with whom God keeps covenant (Deut. 7:9). And references to a thousand years are also obviously figurative. “For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night” (Ps. 90:4; cf. Ecc. 6:6, 2 Pet. 3:8).

Kirkers Read 10: Truth in Tension

Ben Zornes on August 6, 2018

As we head into week ten of the Summer Bible Reading Challenge, we will be reading through 2 Corinthians and the epistle to the Ephesians. Particularly with 2 Corinthians it is important to keep something vital in mind, these letters are written in the thick of profoundly difficult situations. Paul isn’t writing a letter to perfect saints, in perfect churches, in perfect cities, from the comfort of his armchair, pipe in hand, Bach playing in the background… although Paul strikes me as a classic rock kind of guy, but that’s beside the point…

It is apparent that the rebuke of the incestuous man of 1 Corinthians 5 produced quite the kerfuffle. It produced, on the whole, godly repentance and sorrow (2 Cor. 7:8). However, after Paul’s visit (after the writing of 1 Corinthians) the offender plainly was continuing to gripe and wrangle causing Paul to write again (2 Cor. 2:3-4). Put yourself in Paul’s shoes; this was not a pleasant situation. It was tense, difficult, and likely painful for Paul, the congregation, the man being rebuked, and the larger body of believers who were acquainted with the situation. Remember that as you read. These truths about our reconciliation with God through Christ (2 Cor. 5), the ministry of reconciliation we’ve been given (2 Cor. 5-6), the precious promises we’ve received (2 Cor. 7:1), the nature of true repentance (2 Cor. 7), grace in sufferings (2 Cor. 12), are all rising in the midst of a profoundly difficult controversy. To top it off, after this letter, once Paul returned again to Corinth to continue to sort out this and the other issues facing that church, he wrote the book of Romans. The deep truths presented in that epistle are in the context of practical Christian living, in the midst of the rough and tumble of pastoral ministry.

Similarly, we see in the book of Ephesians the presentation of the rock solid foundations of the Christian faith (chapters 1-3) leading to the practical execution of those truths in the Christian’s daily life (chapters 4-6). We must never think that our doctrines and ethics sit on opposite ends of the cafeteria. They ought to be best friends. This is all a simple reminder that in reading Scripture we not only learn about who God is, but we are exhorted to put what we learn about God into action by imitating Him!