A People for His Name

Witnesses of His Resurrection

June 24, 2011

The book of Acts opens with Luke relating to us how Jesus appeared repeatedly to His disciples over the 40-day period between His resurrection and His ascension (1:3). Luke then provides a key account of one of His appearances to them (1:4-11).

At that time, Jesus commanded His apostles to “wait for the promise of the Father” (1:4). The record of the subsequent conversation between Him and His disciples (1:6-8) concludes with His declaring, “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 Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (1:8).

What did Jesus mean when He instructed them that they would be witnesses unto Him everywhere in the world? To answer this question properly, we should allow the book to interpret itself by following the flow of thought in the book concerning the witness of the apostles.

The next occurrence of the word witness is at the conclusion of Luke’s record of Peter’s authoritative direction concerning the replacement for Judas (1:15-22): “Beginning from the baptism of John unto that same day that He was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of His resurrection” (1:22). Here Peter, who was present when Jesus declared the statement that Luke recorded earlier concerning the apostles being witnesses unto Him (1:8), reveals to us what was central in their being such witnesses—they were to be witnesses of His resurrection!

The first account of apostolic evangelistic testimony to Jesus (2:1-40) confirms this interpretation. In his message on Pentecost, Peter powerfully testified to the resurrection of Christ (2:24-32).

Every subsequent lengthy record of apostolic evangelism also highlights apostolic proclamation of His resurrection (3:15; 4:10; 5:30; 10:40; 13:30-37; 17:31). These accounts show that testimony to the Resurrection was part of the essential content of all the major evangelistic messages of both the Christ-appointed leaders of the Church, Peter (Acts 2, 3, 4, 5, 10) and Paul (Acts 13, 17).

Based on this data, as well as much other Scripture (e.g., Luke 24:46-48; 1 Cor. 15:1-15) we can be certain that Christ would also have us to be witnesses of His Resurrection!

In Evangelism

For Whom Should a Preacher Preach?

June 23, 2011

In most cases, a preacher will be preaching to a mixed audience of both genders and people of widely different ages and levels of both spiritual knowledge and maturity. Given this great diversity in his hearers, for whom should he preach?

Should a preacher construct and deliver his sermon in such a manner that his entire audience equally will be able to follow and understand all that he says? Although such a goal may initially seem a worthy thing to aspire to, is such a goal really what a preacher should aspire to? What’s more, how attainable is such a goal and what would a preacher have to sacrifice to attain such a goal?

In order for young children and even less mature believers to understand his entire message to the same extent that adults who are very mature believers would understand it, a preacher would have to greatly simplify nearly everything he would say. Such simplification would make thorough and accurate handling virtually impossible for much of Scripture.

My current thinking is that the preacher should not aim for equal understanding for his entire audience. Rather, he should preach as much of the text as he can as thoroughly as he can, making sure that his major ideas are so clear that as many people as possible will understand them.

In his development of his message, however, the preacher should not overly simplify what he says merely for the sake of simplicity. Such an approach may often result in many of the more mature and knowledgeable believers in his audience profiting little from his preaching.

Although God intends for all believers to profit from His word, it is impossible that all of them will profit equally. Believers at different levels of understanding will profit at differing levels from the Bible; the preacher should understand that the same would be true for his preaching as well.

The preacher, therefore, should aim to profit believers at all levels, and the best way of doing that is to preach thoroughly and accurately whatever text or texts he preaches. Beyond that, he should pray that God would illumine and enlighten the minds of his hearers.

Having prayed, prepared, and ministered in such a manner, the preacher should trust God to give understanding to his hearers at levels that will be suitable for each one.

In Ministry, Preaching

"Read Therein All the Days of His Life"

June 22, 2011

God’s instruction to His people about when they would come into the land that He had promised to give them (Deut. 17:14) and seek to set a king over them concluded with vital teaching (17:18-20). In these three verses, He declared and explained the necessity of the king’s daily interaction with His words.

The king would have to “write him a copy of [God’s] law in a book” (17:18). He then would have to have the copy with him and read in it “all the days of his life” (17:19a-b).

Through such lifelong daily interaction with God’s own words, the king would learn to fear God, as he should, “to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them” (17:19c-d). His reverence and awe for God developed in him by reading God’s words every day of his life would direct him to obey God comprehensively.

Such comprehensive obedience would serve vital purposes in his life: it would keep his heart from becoming “lifted up above his brethren” (17:20a); and it would ensure that he would not deviate from God’s commandments in any way (17:20b). Being humble with respect to his brethren and walking obediently along the straight way of God, he would prolong his reign and that of his children over Israel (17:20c).

From this teaching, we should learn the necessity of our feeding on God’s Word all the days of our lives. Only through such feasting on Scripture itself will be able to fear God, comprehensively obey Him, be humble, and walk in His ways, as we should.

For us to enjoy the quality and length of life that God intends for us, we must richly partake of His words every day and allow that partaking to accomplish all His purposes in our lives. Doing so, our descendants and we will be what God wants us to be: “A chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that [we] should show forth the praises of Him who hath called [us] out of darkness into His marvellous light” (1 Pet. 2:10)!

Let us read our Bibles all the days of our lives with these things in mind.

In Bible reading

Understand What You Can

June 21, 2011

After 20 years of reading the Bible through every year, I am more convinced now than ever before that it is a trap to think that not understanding everything in my reading means I should stick to studying or reading a particular passage or book until I do understand everything and not worry about reading through the whole Bible. What’s more, I fully believe that we should expect throughout our lives that God would keep on showing us great and wondrous things out of His Word that we have never seen before.

I can attest to many times even in recent years that God has shown me significant truths out of passages that I have read and studied intensively for years. In light of my experience, I encourage every believer to focus on understanding what he can and not be overly troubled about what he does not understand in his reading of Scripture.

Yes, we should try to understand as much as we can, but seeking such understanding should not be at the expense of profiting from the entire Bible year after year.

In Bible reading

Answered Prayers 6/20/11

June 20, 2011

Yesterday morning, I was quite discouraged because I had no upcoming opportunities to preach in my schedule, my employment situation was still not good, and some other concerns were weighing on me heavily. God ministered to me through the services yesterday and provided me with much encouragement, for which I am thankful.

Today, He mercifully provided me with a seemingly good prospect for additional tutoring for at least the next two weeks or so! Better than that, a pastor contacted me about ministering at his church this coming Sunday, and I also received some other good news concerning my efforts to get more preaching opportunities!

God willing, I will be tutoring a new high school student in chemistry for 4 hours this week, and I will be teaching SS and preaching twice on this Sunday. Praise God for answered prayers!

In Prayer

"Shall Be Saved . . . Save Yourselves"

June 19, 2011

At Pentecost, the apostles were “all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4). In Jerusalem, there were “Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven,” (2:5) who heard them speaking to them in their “tongues, the wonderful works of God” (2:11).

In response to some who mocked the apostles by saying, “These men are full of new wine” (2:13), Peter authoritatively explained that they were “not drunken” (2:14-15). He explained that rather God had poured His Spirit on them, as the prophet Joel had prophesied (2:16-21).

Because his hearers were devout Jews, Peter’s lengthy citation to them of this important OT prophecy communicated much more truth to them than just what the words that are recorded directly express. To these men who already knew the teaching of the book of Joel and no doubt much else that is in the OT, this citation forcefully confronted them with the truth of God’s future judgment in the Day of the Lord.

Peter ended his citation by saying, “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (2:21). The flow of thought shows that this statement concerns salvation from the judgment that the Lord would bring in His Day.

Keeping this teaching in mind is vital for interpreting aright Luke’s final remark about Peter’s ministry at Pentecost: “And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, ‘Save yourselves from this untoward generation'” (2:40). In view of his earlier teaching, this lengthy exhortation for his hearers to save themselves must be understood as having in view their being saved from the judgment to come on “this untoward generation” in the Day of the Lord.

Moreover, earlier, Peter had climaxed his message by declaring that God has made Jesus Lord (Acts 2:36). The flow of thought throughout the record of Peter’s ministry at Pentecost, therefore, shows that in his final exhortation (2:40), he challenged his hearers to be saved from the judgment that Jesus in His Day will bring as the One who has been appointed as Lord.

In Evangelism, Interpretation

Guitar Music for "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross"

June 18, 2011

Melody and chords for When I Survey the Wondrous Cross in my format for guitar.

In Guitar Music

Prayer for a Scammer

June 17, 2011

Recently, because of my being naïve and careless, a scammer succeeded in defrauding me of a fair amount of money. In keeping with the spirit of Jesus’ teaching to pray for those who wrong us (Matt. 5:44), I offer this prayer for the person who scammed me:

Heavenly Father, please deal with this person in such a way that he will repent of his sin of stealing before it is eternally too late. Let the wickedness of this wicked person come to an end.

If it would please You, so orchestrate the circumstances of this person’s life that it would be unmistakable to him that You have supernaturally intervened so that he “is snared in the work of his own hands” (Ps. 9:16) and thereby brought to repentance. Please also send someone into his life who will give him Your gospel concerning Your Son so that he will believe in Him and have his sins forgiven.

In Jesus name, Amen.

Mere Coincidence or Answered Prayer?

In Prayer

Jesus' Warning That Spammers Need to Heed

June 16, 2011

I have been blogging since February of this year and have learned much about writing, blogs, PHP, CSS—and the practices of spammers. Having to deal regularly with many spam messages, I think that spammers need to consider solemnly that Jesus taught, “Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment” (Matt. 12:36). He

emphasizes the importance of what people say by speaking of every careless word they utter. When people speak lightly without paying serious attention to what they are saying, the careless word, the word uttered without any thought of the effect that it will have on other people, then that word shows something of what they are, deep down . . . This makes it more significant than the person uttering it may think, and it will be taken into account on Judgment Day. Jesus is saying that in the end we must all give account of ourselves and that words we take lightly will then be seen to have meaning, for they show our innermost being.—Morris, The Gospel according to Matthew, 322; bold words are in italics in the original

Based on the content of the spam messages that I am receiving on my site, I believe that their authors are sadly storing up for themselves wrath from God in the Day of Judgment.

Every spam message that supposedly comments on a post but does not have anything to do with the post itself displays a failure to love one’s neighbor as oneself. Spammers fail to obey the Golden Rule of doing to others what they would want to have done to themselves.

May God grant spammers repentance of their multiplying idle words through their worthless messages that display their lack of love for their fellow man.

In Interpretation, Quotes

"With Many Other Words"

June 15, 2011

Following Peter’s message at Pentecost (Acts 2:14-36), his audience asked him what they should do (2:37) in view of what he had preached and the effect that his message had on them. Luke records Peter’s response to their request in two parts: (1) 2:38-39 and (2) 2:40.

In the latter, Luke tells us that “with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, ‘Save yourselves from this untoward generation.'” Because of Peter’s ministry on this occasion, including his lengthy final appeal, about 3000 people gladly received his word, and they were baptized (2:41a). In that same day, they were added to the apostles (2:41b).

Peter’s ministry included more than just proclamation of his message; he forcefully exhorted his hearers at length to respond properly to what they had heard. He thus exemplifies for us how we should minister the word to people: preach the message and then challenge people “with many other words” to respond correctly.

Based on this teaching, a lengthy invitation at the end of an evangelistic message should not automatically be viewed as a human expedient intended to manipulate people to respond. Although such an invitation could be abused by using it in a manipulative manner, we should not regard giving a lengthy invitation as an inherently unjustified practice.

In Evangelism, Ministry, Preaching

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