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A Good Example of the Value of Learning NT Greek

August 1, 2013

Learning NT Greek is a valuable tool that helps a believer understand better what God has said to him. John 4:14 provides a good example of that value:

Joh 4:14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

Joh 4:14 ὃς δ᾽ ἂν πίῃ ἐκ τοῦ ὕδατος οὗ ἐγὼ δώσω αὐτῷ, οὐ μὴ διψήσῃ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα· ἀλλὰ τὸ ὕδωρ ὃ δώσω αὐτῷ γενήσεται ἐν αὐτῷ πηγὴ ὕδατος ἁλλομένου εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον.

But whoever should drink from the water that I (emphatic) will give him will by no means thirst forever [or you could say, ever]; but the water that I will give him will be in him a well of water springing up to eternal life [my literal translation].

Whereas the English text has the promise that Jesus sets before the Samaritan woman as whoever drinks of the water that He will give him “shall never thirst,” the Greek text is stronger because it has both emphatic negation (οὐ μὴ διψήσῃ [“shall never thirst” or “will by no means thirst”]) and three words that the English does not translate: εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα.

These three words are a Greek idiom that means “forever.” Jesus’ promise to the woman of the water that He would give her was such that whoever would drink of it would by no means thirst forever! [1]

Also, the Greek text has an emphatic pronoun (ἐγὼ) that emphasizes Him as the Giver of this water. Jesus was thus using an emphatic pronoun, emphatic negation, and a Greek idiom to declare that a person who would drink the water that He gives would by no means ever thirst after he drinks of that water!

[1] Cf. the NET Bible note for this part of the verse: “NET Notes (Joh 4:14) ³⁵tn Grk “will never be thirsty forever.” The possibility of a later thirst is emphatically denied.”

In Biblical Greek, Biblical Languages

Revelation 3:10 and the Rapture Debate

July 27, 2013

Although interpreters today extensively debate whether Revelation 3:10 is a promise of the Rapture, I believe that a straightforward reading of the text in its context provides a clear answer:

Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.

Jesus’ Messages to the Seven Churches

The glorified Jesus commanded the apostle John to write letters to seven churches in Asia Minor: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea (Rev. 2-3). He directed John to write to “the angel of the church” in each city, which refers not to angelic beings but to the pastor of the each church (Rev. 2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14).

Although it was addressed to a specific church, each letter was also for all the other churches in John’s day because it included the following statement: “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches” (Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). Furthermore, each letter is also for all churches of all time because saith is a present tense verb that communicates what the Spirit continues to this day to say to every church.

The Message to the Church in Philadelphia

The sixth letter begins by pointing the pastor of the church in Philadelphia to the unique authority of the glorified Jesus (Rev. 3:7). It then communicates Jesus’ knowledge of their deeds (Rev. 3:8a) and His directives to them to behold two realities, one concerning the present (Rev. 3:8b) and one concerning the future (Rev. 3:9).

A key promise (Rev. 3:10), a key declaration (Rev. 3:11a), and a key directive (Rev. 3:11b) comprise the teaching that pertains most directly to Rapture debate. The letter ends with a glorious promise to those who overcome (Rev. 3:12) and a command to everyone who has an ear to hear the Spirit’s message to all the churches (Rev. 3:13).

The Teaching of Revelation 3:10

Revelation 3:10 informs the pastor about what Jesus will do for him because he has persevered in keeping Jesus’ word:

Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.

Jesus promised to keep him “from the hour of temptation,” a reference to a specific time that He explained would “come upon all the world.” The promise is one of exemption from that time when the entire world would experience that temptation.

Jesus also explained that this time would be a period when the entire world of people “that dwell upon the earth” would be tried. Here Jesus declared that all those who would suffer during that period would do so in a specific physical location (“upon the earth”).

The natural reading of all these statements points to a promise that exempts the pastor from that time of temptation because he would no longer be physically located among “all the world” of people “that dwell upon the earth” at that time!

Jesus was thus not saying that He would protect the pastor on the earth during that time while the rest of the world that also dwells on the earth would go through the hour of temptation. Instead, Jesus promised to keep him from that time that would try everyone in the world who then dwells upon the earth!

The Flow Thought from Revelation 3:10 to Revelation 3:11-13

Right after the statements in Revelation 3:10, Jesus said, “Behold, I come quickly” (Rev. 3:11a). The flow of thought communicates that the pastor was to look for His coming quickly to keep him from the time of temptation that the entire world of people that dwell on the earth will experience in that hour of temptation.

As he awaits Jesus’ return, the pastor would have to hold fast to what he had so that no man would take his crown (Rev. 3:11b). In the flow of thought, Jesus’ statements emphasize the importance of the pastor’s holding fast to his confidently looking for Jesus to come quickly to keep him from the time of temptation that will come on the entire world of people that dwell on the earth at that time.

Jesus’ subsequent promise to the pastor that he who overcomes would be a pillar in the temple of His God and never go out from it again (Rev. 3:12) fits perfectly in the above explanation of the flow of thought from Revelation 3:10 to Revelation 3:11. At the very time that all those who are on the earth go through the time of temptation, the ones who overcome will be with Jesus in the temple of His God!

They will be there because Jesus will have raptured them out of the earth to be with Him forever! Revelation 3:10 is clear teaching to all the churches of all time about the coming Rapture of the Church!

“Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown” (Rev. 3:11).

In Discipleship, Exposition, Interpretation, Theology

Guitar Music for “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” as a Chord Melody Solo

July 25, 2013

Here is a PDF that provides the guitar music for playing My Country, ‘Tis of Thee as a chord melody solo in the key of F.

In Guitar Music

Glorious Hope for the Fallen: The Story of Rahab!

July 12, 2013

Scripture does not explain when, how, or why Rahab became a harlot. What Scripture does present about her life, however, displays in a wonderful way the glorious hope that God’s redemption provides for the fallen.

Salvation from Perishing

Hearing what the Lord had done in bringing the Israelites through the Red Sea and how the Israelites were destroying surrounding peoples, Rahab the harlot came to fear the Lord as the true God (Josh. 2:9-11). By faith, she hid two spies who were sent by Joshua to spy out Jericho (Josh. 2:1-21).

Because of what she had done, the Israelites spared her and her entire household when they utterly destroyed Jericho (Josh. 6:17, 21, 23, 25a). Not only was she saved from perishing, but also she continued to live among the Israelites thereafter (Josh. 6:25b).

Rahab went from being a pagan to being a believer in the living and true God! She also became one of the relatively few Canaanites who were allowed to live and become one of His people.

Marriage, Motherhood, and a Glorious Posterity

Rahab was not just spared from unbelief and perishing; she also went from being a harlot to a being married to a prominent Israelite man, Salmon (Matt. 1:5), who was the son of Nahshon (1 Chron. 2:11; Matt. 1:4), a “leader of the sons of Judah” (1 Chron. 2:10)![1] God thus graciously redeemed her from her unbelief, spared her life, rescued her from the horrors of harlotry, and exalted her to marry into a leading family among His people!

Because Salmon was a member of a leading family, he would certainly have known of Rahab’s past. Yet, he still chose to marry her after she had been initially redeemed. Doing so, he became a gracious agent of God’s glorious continuing redemption of her life!

Moreover, through her marriage to Salmon, Rahab became the mother of Boaz (Matt. 1:5), who became the kinsman-redeemer to Ruth (Ruth 4:13-22)! God thus not only gave Rahab the joys of marriage and motherhood, He also used her son to redeem the life of Ruth, a virtuous Moabite woman who came to trust in the God of Israel, even as Rahab had!

Beyond that, Rahab became the great, great grandmother of King David (Matt. 1:5-6a), and ultimately, she became a foremother of Jesus the Christ (Matt. 1:6b-17)! God redeemed Rahab from harlotry and gave her a glorious posterity of which she could never have imagined!

Mentioned Three Times in the New Testament

Long after Rahab had lived her life and died, God exalted her in another way that she never had any possibility of expecting would ever happen—in addition to the record of her life in the book of Joshua, three New Testament books speak of her in key passages! God thus glorified Rahab in a way that few other women in history have experienced!

In his genealogy of Christ, Matthew writes, “And Salmon begat Booz [Boaz] of Rachab [Rahab]” (Matt. 1:5). Rahab has the unique distinction of being one of only five women named in this genealogy!

The writer of Hebrews commends her faith: “By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace” (Heb. 11:31). This commendation of Rahab, a former harlot, magnifies the wondrous redemption that God provided for her.

James cites Rahab as an example of someone whose justification was by a living faith that produced works: “Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? ²⁶ For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also” (James 2:25-26). This former harlot’s faith and works were thus exemplary, and God memorialized the glory of His redeeming this fallen woman by mentioning her explicitly in four books of Scripture!

Glorious Hope for the Fallen

The story of Rahab testifies to how great a redemption God has made available for fallen people! Although she once was a Canaanite harlot, she repented and believed in Yahweh as the true and living God.

Because she repented and believed in Him, He redeemed her life in ways that she could never have dreamed of when she was a harlot. Her story provides a glorious hope to fallen people whose lives have been ruined by sin—whether their own, of others, or both.

Moreover, Scripture’s silence about the circumstances of how she became a harlot suggest that God wants fallen people to turn their thoughts away from whatever may have caused them to fall and focus instead on the glorious possibilities of whatever God would see fit to do for them in His redeeming love for them. Like Joseph, who through God’s goodness to him was made to forget the injustices that he experienced at the hands of others (Gen. 41:51-52), God wants fallen people to be delivered from bondage to their past.

If you are a fallen person, God offers you this glorious hope through repentance toward Him and faith in Jesus Christ. Turn to Him in faith and He will redeem your life for His glory and your good, both in this life and the life to come!

[1] Nahshon was “Aaron’s brother-in-law (Ex. 6:23; AV gives ‘Naashon’), son of Amminadab and prince of Judah (Nu. 1:7; 2:3; 7:12, 17; 10:14; 1 Ch. 2:10)” (New Bible Dictionary, 809).

In Discipleship, Exposition

Reflections on God’s Incredible “Healthcare” Promise to Israel and Passages Related to It

July 9, 2013

Healthcare is one of the biggest concerns in the US today. All over our country, people long for better healthcare and seek means of improving their health.

Scripture has much to say about human health and factors that affect it. I recently read a remarkable “healthcare” statement in Deuteronomy concerning Israel that gripped me with a force that I do not remember having experienced before.

The Lord’s Promise to Take Away All Sickness from Israel

In one of his addresses about the Law that God gave to Israel, Moses included an incredible statement about what God would do for Israel if they were faithful to Him (cf. Deut. 7:11-12):

Deu 7:15 And the LORD will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee.

The fact that these promises were set before sinful humans makes it all the more intriguing to me. Imagine living in a country where no one was ever sick!

Tragically, Israel failed miserably to be faithful to God and never experienced the fulfillment of this blessed “healthcare” promise of having the Lord take away all sickness from her. Israel thus came short of a glory that God intended for her that was supposed to be a part of her distinctive excellence among the nations of the world.

Remarkable Parallel Teaching in Scripture Concerning Health Promises to Israel

Parallel teaching elsewhere in Scripture corroborates God’s intent to bless His chosen people in this remarkable way:

Pro 3:7 Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. ⁸ It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.

Pro 4:20 My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. ²¹ Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. ²² For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.

Proverbs 4:22 is especially striking because it declares that attention to God’s words would be health to the entire body of those who find them! Correlating Deuteronomy 7:15 with Proverbs 4:20-22 points to God’s continuing promise to bless with remarkable health those in Israel who would diligently attend to His Word and way.

Beyond these statements in Proverbs, reflecting on what God promised to Israel in Deuteronomy 7:15 seems to illumine many passages in the New Testament in a way that I have never appreciated before.

The Remarkable New Testament Record Concerning God’s Blessing Israel Concerning Her Health

The New Testament record of the lives and ministries of Jesus and His apostles includes many incredible statements about what God did for the health of people in Israel at that time:

Mat 4:23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

24 And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.

Mat 8:16 When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick:

Mat 9:35 And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.

Mat 10:1 And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.

Mat 12:15 But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence: and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all;

Luk 6:17 And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judaea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases . . . ¹⁹ And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all.

Act 5:16 There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one.

Act 10:38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.

At times, God even granted widespread gracious healing to people who were not in Israel:

Act 8:7 For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed.

Act 28:9 So when this was done, others also, which had diseases in the island, came, and were healed:

Taken together, these many passages document how God graciously granted healing to multitudes of people who had not been obedient to Him in the way that Deuteronomy 7:11-15 spoke of concerning the Israelites! Furthermore, God’s extending his gracious healing to non-Israelites encourages me to think that the most important healthcare measures that we could take in our country today would be to turn wholeheartedly as a nation to the Lord our God and heed His Word and all His ways.

In Health

Toward Fully Understanding the Golden Calf Incident

July 4, 2013

Exodus 32 records at some length the Golden Calf incident, an infamous account of idolatry among God’s chosen people Israel. Because both the OT and the NT refer to this account more than once (Deut. 9; Ps. 106; Neh. 9; Acts 7; 1 Cor. 10), we must carefully compare all six accounts in order to fully understand this incident.

In this article, I treat the first four passages (Exod. 32; Deut. 9; Ps. 106; and Acts 7). In future articles, I will treat the other passages and correlate all six passages carefully.

Exodus 32

While Moses was meeting with God on Mount Horeb (cf. Exod. 31:18), the Israelites corrupted themselves (Exod. 32:1-6). Instigated by the people (Exod. 32:1), Aaron participated in their making a golden calf (Exod. 32:2-4). He also made an altar and declared that there would be a feast to the Lord on the following day (Exod. 32:5).

On the next day, the people sacrificed burnt offerings and peace offerings to the idol and then sat down to eat and drink (Exod. 32:6a-b). They then rose up to play (Exod. 32:6c).

God informed Moses about what had happened and told him to go down quickly to the people whom he had brought out of Egypt (Exod. 32:7-8). He then asked Moses to leave Him alone so that He could destroy them and make of Moses a great nation (Exod. 32:9-10). When Moses interceded earnestly with the Lord for the people (Exod. 32:11-14), the Lord relented of His intent to annihilate them (Exod. 32:14).

While Moses was coming down the mountain (Exod. 32:15-16), at some point he met up with Joshua. When they were yet at some distance from the camp, Joshua heard the sound of the people shouting (Exod. 32:17a). He said to Moses that what he heard was the “noise of war in the camp” (Exod. 32:17b).

Moses, however, discerned that the sound was neither the sound of victory (Exod. 32:18a) nor the sound of defeat (Exod. 32:18b). He declared that instead it was the sound of the people’s singing (Exod. 32:18c).

Arriving at the camp (Exod. 32:19a), Moses saw the idol and the people dancing (Exod. 32:19b). He became incensed and quickly acted to destroy the idol (Exod. 32:19c-20).

He then confronted Aaron about his role in the incident (Exod. 32:21-24). He further observed that the people were publicly (cf. Exod. 32:25c) behaving in uncontrolled lewdness (Exod. 32:25a) because Aaron had failed to deal with them to restrain them as he should have (Exod. 32:25b). Through their openly being so wicked, they were bringing themselves into shame with their enemies in some unspecified manner (“Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies” [Exod. 32:25]).

In response to Aaron’s sinful inaction, Moses asked whoever among the people was on God’s side to come over to him where he was standing in the gate of the camp (Exod. 32:26a). All the Levites did so (Exod. 32:26b). He then instructed the Levites to go through the camp and execute many of their own people (Exod. 32:27-28).

In the aftermath of this infamous occasion (Exod. 32:29-34), Moses’ intercession spared the people from complete annihilation at the hand of God. God, however, did still plague the people “because they made the calf, which Aaron made” (Exod. 32:35).

Deuteronomy 9

Some years later, Moses commanded the people not to forget, but to remember how they had provoked the Lord to wrath continually in the wilderness from the day that they left Egypt to the day that they arrived across the Jordan in the wilderness in the land of Moab (Deut. 9:7; cf. Deut. 1:1-5). He then recounted what happened at Horeb with the golden calf (Deut. 9:8-21).

This recounting adds that the mountain was burning with fire when Moses came down (Deut. 9:15), which indicates that these people committed this heinous sin while in the very visible presence of God in His fiery glory. The Golden Calf incident, therefore, was an instance of high-handed, presumptuous sinning against God’s visible presence among His people!

Moses also adds in this recounting that God was so angry with Aaron then that He would have destroyed him had Moses not interceded for him (Deut. 9:20). This information that the Exodus 32 account does not supply shows Aaron’s great culpability for what he allowed to take place on that occasion.

Psalm 106

An unnamed psalmist provides a brief recounting of the Golden Calf incident (Ps. 106:19-23). He emphasizes that the people exchanged “their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass” (Ps. 106:20) and forgot God their Savior who did such great wonders for them in Egypt and in the land of Ham and by the Red Sea (Ps. 106:21-22).

This recounting explains how the Israelites robbed God of His glory when they made and worshiped the Golden Calf. They were spared from total destruction only because Moses, God’s chosen one, interposed himself between them and God (Ps. 106:23).

Acts 7

In his marvelous defense before the high priest and those who were accosting him (Acts 7:1-60), Stephen related at some length the life and ministry of Moses (Acts 7:20-41). He included a brief recounting of the Golden Calf incident (Acts 7:39-41).

He specified that the people were disobedient to Moses, repudiated him, and “in their hearts turned back again into Egypt” (Acts 7:39) when they told Aaron to make for them gods to go before them at that time (Acts 7:40). None of the previous accounts specifies this information about what the state of their hearts was when this incident took place.

Stephen then added more information that is also not provided in any of the preceding accounts—in their idolatrous worship, the people “rejoiced in the works of their own hands” (Acts 7:41). This revelation illumines the Mosaic statements about their playing (Exod. 32:6) and their singing and dancing (Exod. 32:18-19) by showing the idolatrous character of these activities.

Furthermore, Stephen’s ending his testimony about Moses with information about the Golden Calf incident highlights the importance of that event in the Mosaic part of the selective history of Israel that he testified to at this time.

Conclusion

Based on our study of these four passages about the Golden Calf incident, we learn the following truths

1. Scripture provides 57 verses about this incident in these four passages (Ex. 32:1-35; Deut. 9:8-21; Ps. 106:19-23; Acts 7:39-41). The large number of verses about the incident and the multiple reports about it show its importance in Scripture.

2. Stephen’s climaxing his testimony about Moses’ life and ministry to Israel with material about the Golden Calf incident highlights its importance.

3. By comparing all the passages together, we learn more about the horrific nature of what took place on this occasion. In spite of visible testimony to the presence of God with them, the people returned in their hearts back to Egypt and engaged in idolatrous worship that featured wicked public lewdness. Doing so, they not only robbed God of His glory, but also brought themselves into shame with their enemies.

In future articles, we will see that the importance of this incident is even far greater than what we have seen so far.

See the rest of the articles in this series under point 11 here

In Exposition, Music

Guitar Music and Audio for "Abide with Me"

July 3, 2013

Abide with Me is a classic hymn that is easy to play on the guitar because it has only seven different melody notes. This PDF provides the melody notes, chords, chord diagrams, and the first stanza of the hymn.

This PDF also provides a new feature that makes playing the melody simple: circled numbers above each note that tell you exactly where to play each note! All notes are played on the fret of first string matching the circled number except for the notes with circled numbers 2.1 and 2.3, which are played on the first and third frets of the second string, respectively.

Here is an audio mp3 of the melody of the song. You can play along with the audio to learn the melody. You can also practice strumming the chords as the accompaniment to the song while the melody is being played!

In Guitar Music

Is This One Key Reason That Many Christians and Churches Today Are Weak?

June 24, 2013

Acts 15 and 20 record two instances of ministry in the early churches that many Christians and churches today think would not be proper for believers in most cases. In many churches, such ministry would be strongly unwelcome, and many people would not tolerate it if their pastors or other ministers would choose to minister to them in this way.

A close look at these accounts, however, suggests that such ministry would be highly profitable for all believers in every church. The following treatment of these passages examines whether the lack of such ministry is one key reason that many Christians and churches today are weak.

Acts 15

Following the Jerusalem Council, the church at Jerusalem sent Judas and Silas along with Paul and Barnabas to Antioch (Acts 15:22). They sent with these men a letter that related the Council’s determinations (Acts 15:23-29).

Arriving in Antioch, these men gathered with the congregation there and brought joy to them through the encouragement that the letter provided (Acts 15:30-31). Because Judas and Silas were also prophets, they further ministered to the brethren (Acts 15:32).

Luke specifies that these two men “exhorted the brethren with many words, and confirmed them” (Acts 15:32). Through proclaiming a lengthy message to the congregation, these ministers encouraged and strengthened them.

In many churches today, however, long messages are not welcome. Some church leaders even assert that if you cannot say what you have to say in a fairly short amount of time (for example, some say messages should be about 30 minutes long), you are not properly ministering the Word to people.

The example of Judas and Silas in Acts 15 refutes such viewpoints and supports holding that believers today need lengthy messages to encourage and strengthen them. An account of Paul’s ministry in Acts 20 confirms this assessment about what we need as believers today.

Acts 20

In Troas, Paul and eight other men who had accompanied him (Sopater, Aristarchus, Secundus, Gaius, Timothy, Tychichus, Trophimus, and Luke; Acts 20:4 cf. “we” in Acts 20:6) met with other believers on the first day of the week to observe the Lord’s Supper (“break bread”; Acts 20:7a). Paul began preaching to them, with the intent that he would leave the next day (Acts 20:7b).

Paul prolonged his message until midnight (Acts 20:7c). Undoubtedly, Paul, therefore, preached to them for at least more than an hour and probably for much longer than that.

A young man named Eutychus fell asleep during Paul’s lengthy message and fell out the window from the third floor (Acts 20:8-9). Although the believers thought that he had died (Acts 20:9), Paul “fell on him, and embracing him” assured them that he was still living (Acts 20:10; cf. 20:12).

Amazingly, Paul then returned back upstairs to observe the Lord’s Supper with the brethren (Acts 20:11a) and then continued to minister to them “for a long while, even till break of day” (Acts 20:11b) and then departed (Acts 20:11c).

In most churches today, if a preacher were to preach for an hour before observing the Lord’s Supper with the congregation, many people in the churches would complain about the length of the message and many likely over time would stop coming to those churches. Paul, however, did not just preach for more than an hour before observing the Lord’s Supper with them—he continued to preach to them for quite some time after eating the Lord’s Supper with them!

What’s more, the near tragic fall of a young man in the congregation who fell asleep because of the length of Paul’s initial message did not deter Paul from further ministering to the believers after the young man had fallen. In most churches today, the occurrence of something even remotely similar to what happened with Eutychus would be prime evidence that many believers would use to argue strongly that the preacher should not preach so long that young people in the church fall asleep because of the length of the message.

Christians Today Need Lengthy Messages to Encourage and Strengthen Them

The scriptural record in Acts 15 and 20 of preaching ministry in the early church shows that the apostolic company believed that Christians back then needed lengthy messages to encourage and strengthen them. Similar indications of an apostolic viewpoint that people need lengthy ministry include the following:

(1) “And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation” [Acts 2:40], which shows that Peter continued preaching for a long time after preaching the message that we have recorded in Acts 2:14-39.

(2) “And I beseech you, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation: for I have written a letter unto you in few words” [Heb. 13:22], which reveals that the writer of Hebrews considered the entire book of more than 300 verses to be a brief message! What, then, must he have thought would comprise a lengthy message?

Based on this biblical data and the widespread consensus that the Church has great needs among its people today, I believe that a key reason that many Christians and churches are weak today is because they are unwilling to endure lengthy preaching of the Word. Let us allow these passages from Scripture to renew our minds so that we will eagerly embrace lengthy ministry of the Word to us from God’s appointed ministers whenever He directs them to minister in such a way to us!

In Exhortation, Exposition, Preaching

How Numbers 11:17 Helps Us Understand How to Bear One Another’s Burdens

June 21, 2013

Numbers 11:17 provides profound revelation about Moses that we are not given in any of the preceding accounts about Moses in the Pentateuch. It appears also to give us important insight about how we are to bear one another’s burdens.

God’s Provision of Seventy Elders to Assist Moses

Numbers 11 begins with a report of God’s judging His people for their complaining about some unspecified hardships that they were experiencing (Num. 11:1-3). Following that sobering account, Moses tells of how the mixed multitude and the Israelites complained about their no longer having some of the foods that they used to enjoy in Egypt (Num. 11:4-6).

After three verses describing the manna and what the Israelites did with it (Num. 11:7-9), Moses records how he himself complained to God about the difficulties he was having to endure because God had laid the burdens of all these sinning people on him (Num. 11:10-13). He told the Lord that he was unable to bear all these people alone because the burden of doing so was too heavy for him (Num. 11:14).

Moses even asked God to kill him because the strain was so great upon him (Num. 11:15)! The Lord responded by instructing him to gather unto him 70 elders from Israel and bring them into the tabernacle with him (Num. 11:16).

The Lord then made a striking statement about what He was going to do so that Moses would no longer have to bear the burden of the people by himself:

“And I will come down and talk with thee there: and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone” (Num. 11:17).

Saying this, He revealed key information about Moses that merits close attention for several reasons.

The First Revelation in Scripture That the Holy Spirit Was Upon Moses

Scripture first speaks of Moses in Exodus 2. From Exodus 2 to Numbers 10, Scripture provides far more information about Moses than about any other person—Moses is mentioned by name 394 times in these 76 chapters.

In spite of that wealth of Scriptural revelation about Moses, we are not told that the Holy Spirit was upon Moses until the statement recorded in Numbers 11:17. Undoubtedly, the Spirit was upon Moses and others long before the incidents that are recorded in Numbers 11 took place (cf. Is. 63:9-14), but for reasons about which we have no information, God chose not to reveal that fact in Scripture until this point.

The Holy Spirit Was the One Who Had Been Enabling Moses to Bear the Burdens of the People

Numbers 11:17 does not just teach us that God’s Spirit was upon Moses; it also shows us that the Spirit was upon Him to enable him to bear the burdens of the people. Sound theological reasoning would imply this truth even if we did not have this statement, but these words make that truth clear.

Moreover, because God had decided that He would provide 70 additional people who would help Moses bear those burdens from this point onward, He said that He would take of the Spirit that He had put upon Moses and put Him on them as well. Through their also having the Spirit upon them, they would have the enablement necessary for them to help Moses bear the burden of the people so that he would not have to do so alone.

The Holy Spirit Is the One Who Enables Us to Bear the Burdens of Others

The teaching of Numbers 11:17 reveals that the 70 men who would help Moses bear the burden of the people would do so through the Spirit’s being upon them. Based on that teaching, the closely parallel New Testament teaching in Galatians 5-6 suggests the same is true for us, as follows.

At the end of Galatians 5, Paul commands believers to walk in the Spirit so that they will not fulfill the lust of the flesh (Gal. 5:16). He reiterates that teaching with a mutual exhortation to walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:25).

He then commands those who are spiritual to restore anyone who is overtaken in a fault (Gal. 6:1). The flow of thought from 5:16-25 and the nature of this ministry to fellow believers requires spiritual in 6:1 to mean more than just a person who is a believer.

Rather, it means someone who is walking in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16, 25), being led by Him (Gal. 5:18), and manifesting His fruit in his life (Gal. 5:22-23). Only such a person is able to restore those who have yielded to temptation (implied in Galatians 6:1 by the words, “lest thou also be tempted”), even as the Israelites spoken of in Numbers 11:1-10 had fallen into complaining against God.

To such spiritual people, Paul further commands, “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2). This command appears to parallel conceptually the role that the 70 elders had in aiding Moses.

Through the Holy Spirit, We Must Bear One Another’s Burdens

Numbers 11:17 in its context compared with Galatians 6:1-2 in its context points to the key to our being enabled to bear one another’s burdens—the fullness of Holy Spirit’s work in us. Let us actively care for those who have been overtaken in faults by being the people of the Spirit that God commands us to be (Gal. 5:16-6:5)!

In Discipleship, Exhortation, Exposition, Theology

Praise Ye Our Father

June 18, 2013

Praise Ye Our Father is a simple song that I wrote today for my guitar students. Even though it is easy to play, it has a profound message!

It is in the key of G and only uses four chords (G, D7, Em, and B7). Here are a PDF (notes for the melody, chords, and chord diagrams) and an audio mp3 of the melody of the song.

You may use this song in a ministry context provided you do not change any of the words and you provide copyright information to anyone whom you distribute it. Please contact me for any other use of the song.

In Guitar Music, Music

Archives For Discipleship

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