Believers Armed and Dangerous

The Holy Spirit is the most difficult of the three Persons of the godhead to collect information on since He is the Author of the Bible and is too humble to reveal Himself directly (2 Pet. 1:21).  The Bible was written to reveal Jesus, after all (Luke 24:27; John 20:31).  With that difficulty in mind, here’s what I’ve found.

Sometimes we forget the Holy Spirit is a Person just as is Jesus and the Father and like the Father, He is purely Spirit.  He speaks (Ezekiel 2:1; Acts 13:2).  He teaches us (John 14:26), He directs actions (Acts 15:28), He can be lied to (Acts 5:3-4), He intercedes for us (Rom. 8:26-27), He is omnipresent (Ps. 139:7-10), omniscient (1 Cor. 2:10-11), omnipotent (Luke 1:35), and He is identified as God (Acts 5:3,4).

So, the Holy Spirit is a Person, God Himself, and third Person of the trinity.  But how does He act in our lives?  Actually much of our relationship with God is dependent upon the work of the Holy Spirit.  He seals us the moment we accept Christ as our Savior (Eph. 1:13), and we are sealed until we receive our inheritance in the kingdom of God.  The Holy Spirit is a gift to believers from the Father (Luke 11:13).

Because of this, we live in a wonderful time, we Christians.  In Old Testament times, the Holy Spirit could be taken from the believer (Judges 16:20; Ps. 51:11).  Samson saw this as the Lord withdrew His spirit, and Samson fell into the hands of the Philistines.  Today, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit, and He will not leave us (John 14:16).  At the point of salvation, the Holy Spirit enters into us (1 Cor. 6:19) and seals us to Him.

Mary was “found with child from the Holy Spirit.”  So, the Holy Spirit was instrumental in Jesus’ conception.  Jesus baptizes us with the Holy Spirit (Matt. 3:11).  And, of course, we are to make disciples in the name of the Holy Spirit along with the Father and the Son (Matt. 28:18). 

The Holy Spirit descended on Jesus in bodily form at His baptism (Luke 3:22).  He was filled with the Holy Spirit while He walked the earth, and it was the Holy Spirit which led Him into the wilderness to be tempted (Luke 4:1).

When we are pressed to explain the gospel, the Holy Spirit will give us the words (Mark 13:11).  This is a comfort for me when I talk with someone who has ideas that differ from my own.  There have been times when the Holy Spirit has given me just the right thing to say, the right passage to share, the right experience to touch the non-believer.

God, including the Holy Spirit, is not willing that any should perish (1 Tim. 2:3-4).  As the Holy Spirit leads us to pray, we can be assured prayers for the lost are heard.  We are certainly praying in God’s will.

There is also such a thing as blasphemy of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 12:32; Mark 3:29; Luke 12:10; )   which Jesus says those who speak this are guilty of the eternal sin and will not be forgiven.  Blasphemy against the Son will be forgiven but not blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.  I’m not sure why that is.  It’s not speaking of believers since Spirit filled believers cannot speak against Jesus (1 Cor. 12:3).

Why is this important?

In a very real sense, we owe the majority of what we know about Jesus and the Father to the Holy Spirit.  He moved the writers of Scripture to record the 66 books of the Bible for us.  Then, when we study it, He is the One Who explains it to us and inspires us by it.

As Christians, it is important to understand Who the Holy Spirit is and how He works with us, in us, and through us.  He is the power of God in us (Acts 1:8).

The God Who spoke and the entire universe we see came into existence lives in us in the Person of the Holy Spirit.  Of whom shall we be afraid?

Maybe it would be a good idea to start discussing the Son by looking at the time before He, the second Person of the Trinity, was the Son.

Before He became known as the Son, Jesus was known as the Word (John 1:1, 14).

We saw in an earlier blog that the first and second Persons of the trinity were not always identified as the Father and the Son:

Heb 1:5   For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”? Or again, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son”?

So, it seems the Father and Son relationship did not always exist.  Jesus also became obedient to the Father at the time of the incarnation:

Phil. 2:8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Then Jesus, the man, was conceived in Mary’s womb while still retaining his divine nature.  He was always God.  He emptied Himself of the use of His attributes and so, as we saw in the previous blog, used the power of the Father to perform the miracles He did while on earth (John 14:10).

Jesus is a man.  Jesus got hungry, He got thirsty, He had the hiccups, He walked and talked just as we do.  If a doctor examined Him, he would find nothing odd.  Jesus is the perfect man.  Jesus is also God.  Still, when He called Himself the Son of God, He was saying “I am equal with the Father” (John 5:18; 10:33). 

Matthew calls Him God (Matt. 1:23), John identifies Him as God (John 1:1,14; 5:18).  Peter identifies Him as God (2 Peter 1:1).  Paul identifies Him as God (Titus 2:13), The Father also identifies Jesus as God (Heb. 1:8).  The Jews understood this and attempted to kill Him.  Jesus, the man, died on the cross, but His divine nature did not.

Notice, I said Jesus is a man, present tense.  Jesus still maintains His human form in heaven though He has had the use of His divine attributes returned to Him by the Father (John 17:5).  The evidence of His giving up the use of His divine attributes is that before the resurrection, He didn’t know when He would return (Mark 13:32).  Afterward, He did seem to know when He was returning, though, but didn’t want to share it (Acts. 1:6-7).

Jesus was raised in the same body that died on the cross (Luke 24:39; John 20:26-28; 1 Cor. 15:1-11).  He ascended in His same physical body (Acts 1:1-11).

He went to the cross willingly for the joy of having His joint heirs, you and I, join Him in heaven (Heb. 12:2).  The death of Christ releases us from the Old Testament Law.  Paul uses the example of a married woman who is bound by law to her husband, but when her husband dies, she is released from that law (Rom. 7:1-6).  In a similar way, Jesus’ death releases us from the Law.  In the very next chapter, Paul points out that there is a new Law, the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus which frees us from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:1-4).

He now sits on the throne of heaven which He shares with the Father and we will share Jesus’ throne (Rev. 3:21).  We will stand before Jesus no matter whether we are God’s children or not (2 Cor. 5:10).  Those who know Christ personally will receive a reward (Rev. 11:18).

Why is this important?

To get a better idea of just Who Jesus is is to better understand the God we worship in the Person of Christ.  He is the God of the universe equal in all ways with the Father and the Holy Spirit other than Jesus and the Spirit are voluntarily submissive to the Father.

Jesus gave His life gladly to pay the price for us to join Him in His kingdom.  All that is required is for us to turn our lives over to Him through a simple prayer, to make Him Lord of our lives.

Jesus shares the Father’s throne and sits at His right hand.  We will stand before Jesus one day either for reward or condemnation.  As we saw in an earlier blog, God is holy.  The unholy cannot stand before Him and share His kingdom.  They must be cast out.

Even those who might think their works will save them will not enter His kingdom unless they also have taken advantage of the price Christ paid for them on the cross (Matt. 7:21-23; 25:46).

Please understand these blogs on the basic teachings are simplified.  There are volumes upon volumes written about even one of these topics.  If you’re interested in these teachings, there are more in-depth writings of all scales from introductions such as Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis to more scholarly works like those of Wayne Grudem.

Who is God the Father?

It is difficult to separate the persons of the Godhead into Father, Son, and Holy Spirit sometimes.  In the Old Testament God is never called “The Father.”  The universal general terms “God” and “Lord” are used along with the specific name “Yaweh” which would include all three Persons.  Only once in a while do we see more than one Person spoken of as God: Isa. 44:6, Genesis 18 and 19, Amos 4:11 for example.

Probably one of the easiest ways to understand Who God the Father is is to look at how He relates to the other two Persons of the Trinity. By agreement with the Son and the Holy Spirit, He is the primary or ruling Person of the godhead. Both the Son and the Holy Spirit are voluntarily submissive to His will.

According to Hebrews 1:5, The Father and Son became known as such when the Son agreed to become subject to the Father and take the submissive role of a Son.  According to Phil. 2:5-8, this took place when Jesus emptied Himself, took the form of a man, and became obedient to the point of death.  All three Persons were equal in every way including rank before this, and this was done for our benefit.  More on that when we look at the Son.  John 14:28 tells us the Father is now positionally above the Son.  Of course, they are still equal in all other ways.

John 14:16-17 tells us the Holy Spirit is sent by the Father, therefore He is submissive to the Father as well.  So, we have a hierarchy in the trinity. All three are called God as we saw in the last blog, but the Father is the Head to the other two Persons of the trinity now (1 Cor. 11:3). Again, this was not always true.

So, how did the Father act in the ministry of Jesus?  When Jesus walked the earth, He could do nothing unless the Father empowered Him to do so (John 5:19).  It was the Father doing the works through Jesus. 

It was the Father who sent the Son and announced Jesus as His Son at His baptism (Matt. 3:17; John 5:37, 8:28-29).  So, the Father has set His seal on the Son (John 6:27).

The Father is very active in our salvation.  It is the Father Who draws all to the Son (John 6:37; 14:6).  No one can come to the Son otherwise (John 6:44).  All who have heard and learned from the Father come to Jesus (John 6:45).

Everything Jesus did, He did by the power and in the name of the Father (John 10:25)

The Father charged Jesus to die on the cross and raise Himself from the dead.  (John 10:18).  Jesus did this willingly, of course, for the joy that was set before Him for doing so while despising the shame (Heb. 12:2).

It is the Father who raises the dead (John 5:21).  And, when we stand before Christ’s judgment (2 Cor. 5;10) it is the Father Who will honor us and it is He who has many mansions for us (John 12:26; 14:2).

We often see the Father as a wrathful God, an angry God, waiting for us to step out of line.  One reason Jesus came to earth was to dispel that idea.  Jesus is the exact representation of the Father (John 14:7-9).  So, the Father is just like Jesus, loving, caring, merciful, and just.  After all, Paul includes the Father and Jesus in his greetings as the source of peace and grace (Rom. 1:7).

The Father was active in raising Jesus from the dead (Rom. 6:4; Gal. 1:1)

His love is immeasurable.  After all, it is the Father Who adopts us as children of God (Rom. 8:15; 1 John 3:1).

Why is this important?

As Christians, we need to know the God we worship as clearly and personally as possible.  Anything less is unfair to Him.  Understanding just who the Father is is a major step in understanding who God is, why He sent His son, and how He love us.

Next time, we’ll look at the Son and all that involves in a few hundred words.  May the Father bless you all this week as we see Him in His glory.

The Trinity.

Because we are humans and are mostly restricted in our communication by our language, we find it hard to find a word for a singular Being Who exists in three Persons.  There aren’t any other beings like Him, so we think of the word “God” as singular with the understanding the singular Being is plural in Persons.

We have the same problem with describing animals.  Because an animal is female, we call it “she.”  Using the pronoun makes us think the animal is a person when they aren’t.  They are conscious and some animals can even make decisions, dream, etc.  There may well be a soul in the animal, but it is not a person, a self-aware being.  It doesn’t think about what it’s thinking about so far as we can tell.

Because we are limited by our language, we almost universally think “Father” when the word “God” is used.  We’re wrong when we do that.  When we read “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” we think the Father did it.  Scripture shows all three Persons of the Trinity were involved.  The Father is the Creator (Isa 64:8).  The Son is Creator (Col. 1:15-17).  The Holy Spirit is Creator (Job 33:4).  Yet God is the Creator (Gen. 1:1).

All three Persons of the godhead were also active in the resurrection of Christ.  The Father raised Jesus (Gal. 1:1).  Jesus raised His own body (John 2:18-22).  The Holy Spirit raised Jesus (Rom. 8:11).  And, God raised Jesus (Rom. 10:9).

Each Person is identified as God individually.  The Father is God (John 6:27).  The Son is God (Titus 2:13).  The Holy Spirit is God (Acts 5:3-4).  Yet there is only one God (Isa. 44:6)

So, God is not singular as our singular pronouns describe Him and as He often is described in Scripture, He is a singular being existing in three Persons.

The term “God” is even used by God to distinguish more than one Person.  In Amos 4:11, God overthrows Sodom with fire from the Lord in heaven.  God was in a physical form at the time talking with Abraham (Genesis 18-19).  In Isa. 44:6, two Persons are identified as YHWH, the divine name.  In Hebrews 1:8 God calls Jesus God.

So, we see from Scripture God is a singular Being but plural in Personages.  God is therefore a communal Being Who likes fellowship.  He shows that in existing in three Persons who interact and in His desire to fellowship with us, His creation.

God is what we call omnibenevolent.  He is infinitely good.  As such all that He says and does is good as well.  There’s an old question you may have heard: “Does God say something because it’s good, or is it good because God says it?”  The answer is that it’s good because God says it.  He is by nature the ultimate objective standard of morality, of goodness, so if He says it, it’s good.

God is truth.  We know this because truth does not contradict itself.  God is not contrary to science.  Science points to His creation, to the order He placed in the universe, to the wonders and beauty the universe contains.  He has exposed Himself to us in His creation and in His Word.  We can learn much about Him by looking at what He has done and said.

We can learn much from God by listening to how He wants us to behave.  He is humble (Phil. 2:5-8), so He wants us to be humble.  He is love, so He wants us to love all peoples.  They are all those for whom Christ died. 

Why is this important?

By definition, our faith is centered around God and Who He is.  If we have a wrong concept of God, we are wrong enough to be lost.  As the song says, “Our God is an Awesome God.”  He is the greatest we can imagine and then some.

Much of what I’m writing about today is a repetition of topics from the last few years, but I think we need to be reminded of the basic beliefs of the Christian Faith.  Jude 3 says we are to earnestly contend for the faith once and for all delivered to the saints.  We need to have a fairly deep understanding of what that faith is if we are to “earnestly defend” it.

This is the first installment in a series on some of the whos, whats, whys, and hows of Christianity.

What is God?

Notice, I didn’t say “Who is God?”  We all know God is loving, just, merciful, longsuffering, and all that is good.  Those are all traits of God, but what sort of Being is He?

We know God is Spirit (John 4:24), He’s Holy (Ps. 99:9), He is one Being (Deut. 6:4), He also exists in three Persons (Gal. 1:1; Titus 2:13; Acts 5:3-4).  He is eternal (Heb. 1:8), God is light (1 John 1:5), He is love (1 John 4:8), He is omnipotent (Jer. 32:17), omniscient (1 John 3:20),

Implications!

Because He is love, He is merciful, gracious, patient, loving, and faithful (Ex. 34:6).  Because He is spirit, no one has seen Him (John 1:18 – more on this later).  Because He is holy, no unholy thing or person can exist in His presence (Heb. 12:14).

There is a lot packed into the previous two paragraphs.  Let’s look at some of this:

Let’s look at God being Spirit and as such is invisible.  The Bible also speaks of God being seen by several people, and Jesus, being God, was seen by multitudes.  How can this be.

God needs to take on a physical form to be seen by humans.  A poor example of what it is to be spirit is to link it to infrared light.  The human eye can’t see it, but we know it’s there.  In a similar way, God is spirit, He is here.  We know He’s here, but we can’t see Him.  So, He took human form in Genesis 18 to speak with Abraham.  He did it again in Gen. 32:22-32 when He wrestled with Jacob.  But, best of all, God showed Himself to us when He took on human form as Jesus (Phil. 2:5-8).

So, when someone says” Jesus can’t be God because no one has seen God,”  He certainly can be.  We haven’t seen His divine nature, His God nature, His disciples only saw His physical form, His human nature.

Because God is holy, we need some sort of system by which we can approach God.  He set up a system of sacrifice for us long ago to cleanse us by transferring our sins to another so those sins might be paid for.  In the Old Testament, this was done through animal sacrifice.  In the New Testament, a perfect holy Person was sacrificed to pay for all time the payment needed to make sinful man holy enough to stand before a holy God.

The consequence of this is that those who will not accept the payment of their sin by Jesus’ sacrifice cannot stand before a holy God and, thus, must be cast out.  God doesn’t send people to hell.  They are going there because of the sin, the unholiness, of their lives.  They cannot stand before God that way and must have a sacrifice paid, a ransom for their lives, before they can stand holy before a holy God.

God doesn’t send people to hell.  He has set up a system by which He offers admission to His presence and exclusion from eternal punishment.  It is up to the individual human to accept it, though.

Roman’s 8:15 provides an parallel to this as it describes a Roman adoption process.  In the Roman culture, a child could be adopted if the father made all the arrangements.  He would hire all the caterers, officials, and invite the guests.  The entire ceremony except for the close was done by the prospective father.  All the child needed to do was turn to him at the end of the ceremony and say “Abba,” “Father.”  He simply needed to identify himself as a child of the Father.

God has made all the arrangements.  He has performed the ceremony and only waits for the child to turn to Him and say “Father.”  With that, the child becomes a child of the Father.

In the Roman culture, a natural child could be disowned.  An adopted child could never be disowned.  We who have said “Abba” are secure.  We are sealed by the Holy Spirit for eternity with Christ (Eph 1:13).

Why is this important?

I’ve been teaching a class on Bible study methods, and one of the important points of Bible study is you should understand the passage well enough to be able to explain it to others.  I think that’s a good practice in learning the basic doctrines of our faith.  We should be able to explain it fully to others.  It is for this reason this series is important.

We often have difficulties in understanding Christianity not to mention sharing it with others.  I’m hoping this will help. Our God is an infinite God.  We can never know Him fully this side of heaven.  We can, though, understand quite a bit.  That’s why He’s told us about Himself in His Word.  What we can know, at least the basics, we should know well.

A few years ago I was asked to be on a panel of Christians who were to answer questions given by Muslims.  There were three of us.

I should say first that Muslims do not have a certain hope of entering heaven.  Even if they lead a pious life observing every ritual, rite, and pray five times a day, there is still no guarantee.  God can just say “I don’t like your haircut” and send you to hell.

During a lull in the conversation, one Muslim asked “Do Christians really believe they are guaranteed a place in heaven?”

There was another lull as others on the panel wondered what to say.  I said “Yes.  If you turn control of your life over to Christ, you are guaranteed a place in heaven.”  The Muslims in the audience looked at me like I had two heads.  Then the Imam asked a question to get us off the subject.

Is our salvation certain?  Is it guaranteed?  A lot of us will doubt our salvation.  Just how certain are Christians that we will go to heaven when we die?  John tells us we can be sure:

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 John 5:13)

So, we can know for sure we have eternal life.  Paul tells us in Romans that The Holy Spirit testifies to us that we are saved:

Rom. 8:16  ¹⁶ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

Peter says it is through Jesus we must be saved:

Acts 4:12  ¹² 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.”

So, we have the definite testimonies of Peter, John, and Paul that say we can be certain of our salvation.  But, what about doubt?  Can we lose that salvation once we receive it?

Again, in Romans, Paul says this:

³⁸ For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 8:38-39)

Why is this important?

Most Christians doubt their salvation at one time or another, but there is no need to doubt.  God has promised our salvation if we turn control of our lives over to Him and accept Him as our Lord.

James says the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea and should not expect anything from the Lord.  We need to understand our salvation is eternal and permanent.  We are sealed by the Holy Spirit.

¹³ In him [Jesus] you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴ who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.  (Eph. 1:13-14).

We receive eternal life at the moment of our conversion.  Eternal life doesn’t end by definition.  If God removed eternal life from you, it was never eternal and God would be a liar.

So, through the testimonies of at least three apostles and the Holy Spirit who moved them to say so, our salvation is certain.  Revel in it, praise God for it, live in the assurance of your eternal life with Christ.

¹¹ And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end,  (Heb. 6:11)

Have you noticed how many lies there are in the world?  I ran into one this week that I hadn’t heard for decades, Armstrongism.  This “brand” of Armstrongism is called the Reformed Church of God (RCG).  There are a few of these spin-off groups from Herbert W. Armstrong’s Worldwide Church of God (originally The Radio Church of God), but this is the newest I’ve seen.

Like most cults, Armstrongism denies the Trinity, the bodily resurrection, and salvation by grace.  The RCG has a little different spin on the Trinity, though.  They believe God is a binity where God is only two Persons, the Father and the Son, and all people who have ever lived can become a part of the godhead. 

That’s just one of the lies with which Satan has filled the earth.  There are a plethora of lies out there but only one Truth: If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (Rom. 10:9)

Satan’s lie is your spiritual choices are a sort of buffet selection.  You can take what you want and leave the rest.  Jesus says there is only one way:

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)

Some of Satan’s lies sound almost biblical and can draw people away.  I spoke with a widow of a Baptist pastor who was about to join the Watchtower Organization.  She had been to Bible College where she was trained to study the Bible, yet she didn’t apply what she had learned to what the Jehovah’s Witnesses were telling her.  She called me when I had my ministry in California and asked me to talk with her before she was baptized into the organization.

She told me the Witnesses had shown her all these things in Scripture that contradicted everything she used to believe.  “But, what they said was right there in Scripture.  How could I deny what they were telling me?”

We spent a while going over the passages they had shown her and the passages they hadn’t that put those in context.  She began to cry over her deception, cancelled her book studies with the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and started looking for a Bible-based church.

If there are lies out there that can convince even a Bible school graduate, the widow of a Baptist pastor, a woman who had heard the gospel for years, if there are lies that can convince her, there are lies that can convince many of us who are unprepared.

Yes, there are lots of lies out there, lots of paths leading to destruction, but there is only one Truth.  We need to know the Truth so well, we can easily spot a lie, a counterfeit.

I learned a long time ago truth is consistent.  Falsity is not.  So, if we find contradictions in some worldview, religion, new idea someone is presenting to us, we can know it’s not true.  Many of Satan’s lies are not easily discerned, though.  They are often quite convincing.  

Why is this important?

God’s peace protects us.  His peace comes from knowing Him and the Truth of His Word.

⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

⁸ Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. ⁹ What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. (Phil 4:7-9)

As Christians, we need to keep our hearts and minds on God.  But what of the lost?  How can they be protected?  That’s where we come in and the Spirit that lives in us.  It is our commission to go and tell people of the Truth, of the worldview that does not contradict reality. The Truth of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

There’s a tradition amongst Christian churches on Easter morning.  When greeting a fellow believer, you say “He is risen.”  The fellow believer responds: “He is risen indeed.”  But how do we really know Jesus rose from the tomb?

Did you know the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth from the dead is the best documented ancient event in history?

We have thousands of copies of excellent ancient documents written by eyewitnesses and describing the resurrection of Christ.  These would include the majority of the New Testament documents.  Even Revelation mentions Jesus’ resurrection:

¹⁷ When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, ¹⁸ and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.  (Rev. 1:17-18)

Copies of these documents number in the thousands (more than 5,000 copies of the New Testament manuscripts in Greek alone and more than 19,000 copies of the New Testament manuscripts in other languages. This itself is astounding, but there’s more.

The Roman historian Tacitus, writing around 115 a.d., mentions the Christians worshipping Christ and that they taught He was raised from the dead.  Remember this was written just a few years after the death of the Apostle John who, as an apostle, was to keep the faith pure.  The faith and belief Tacitus records is the faith and belief we see today.

Another Roman historian, Josephus, writing at the end of the first century, recorded the following:

“Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man if it be lawful to call him man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure.  He drew over to him many Jews, and also many of the Greeks.  This man was the Christ and when Pilate had condemned him to the cross upon his impeachment by principal man among us, those who had loved him from the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive on the third day, the divine prophets having spoken these and thousands of other wonderful things about him.”

Besides these documents, there are testimonies of lives changed by the resurrection story.

Paul was a murder of Christians and sought to destroy the faith yet miraculously, his life was changed and his alliances reversed through meeting the resurrected Jesus.

The conversion of James, the Lord’s half brother is another example.  He was a doubter but became a believer and bishop of Jerusalem after seeing the risen Christ (1 Cor. 15:7).  He was martyred for his faith in the resurrected Christ.

All of the New Testament except John’s writings was completed and circulated by 70 a.d. while there were still thousands living who had seen and heard Jesus and hundreds who had seen Him after the resurrection (1 Cor. 15:3-11).  These writings were never discounted by those who heard Jesus and followed His teachings because they were accurate accounts.

There are other proofs: the very existence of the early church in the city where Jesus was crucified.  The fact hundreds were willing to die in the arena as a testimony of the risen Jesus of Nazareth within three decades of His resurrection is another.

The greatest evidence of the risen Christ is indeed the changed lives of millions of men, women, and children who have placed their trust in the Man who rose from the dead nearly 2,000 years ago.

Why is this important?

Christianity is based solely on a truth claim, the claim of a miracle, some say a very difficult miracle to prove. Skeptics may say “It can’t be true because it’s not possible.  They’ve never seen a man who has been pronounced dead and three days later has come back to life.  The body begins to decompose almost immediately.  It just can’t happen.”

It’s not so difficult to prove, though.  The executioner who had killed hundreds of criminals and most certainly could recognize death came to Jesus’ cross and pronounced Him dead.  So, there is no doubt Jesus died on the cross.  Eyewitnesses who saw Jesus die also saw Him alive, spoke with Him, and touched Him three days later:

 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— ² the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— ³ that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. ⁴ And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete (1 John 1:1-4)

¹⁶ For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty (2 Peter 1:16)

There is no doubt about this.  We have documented eyewitness accounts, accounts from skeptics, and the evidence of changed lives due to the resurrection of the Man Jesus.  So, when someone says “He is risen” to you on Easter you can reply with full confidence, “He is risen indeed!”

And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. ³ Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. ⁴ But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” (Acts 6:2-4)

Sometimes we bite off more than we can chew.  My wife and I once left a church not because the church kept asking us to do things but because we kept saying yes.  Eventually, we were so overloaded; we had no time for the things God wanted us to do.

As Christians, we all want to serve our Lord.  We hear a driving sermon encouraging us to do more and we start volunteering.  But that may put us where God doesn’t want us.  We need to be selective.  It’s not that we need to do less for Christ.  We need to do everything we’re called to do.

Sure there are lots of things we can do generally without a particular calling.  Church clean up days, stacking chairs, greeting, ushers, directing cars in the parking lot are all things most everyone can handle and should if they are able and available.  Unfortunately, though, the old saying that 20% of church members do 80% of the work is still true.  So, the 20% take on more than they are called to do and get burned out or neglect their calling.

Bruce Wilkinson in his book “The Seven Laws of the Learner” tells a story of needing to fire a woman in his company who just wasn’t doing her job.  He decided to let her “fire herself” by asking how her job was going.  “Oh.”  She said.  “I love my job,” and she continued to tell Wilkinson all the things she had been doing.  He said he wanted to give her a raise when she was finished, but none of what she listed was included in her job description.

Will we stand before God and share a list of the things we’ve done for Him, and see His list for us is very different?  That is a constant concern of mine and should be of every Christian.  I know where God has gifted me.  I work happily doing that.  He has called me to a ministry unique to me just as He has for you.

Why is this important?

We reach a point as Christians where we need to start evaluating the things we agree to do in church.  We can’t just ask, “Is this something which will forward God’s kingdom,” and if it is, we volunteer without praying first.  We need to pray.  God has jobs for you, me, and for every other Christian.  He may have someone else He wants to use in that job, but we are taking it away from that called person by volunteering.  Doing so also takes time away from the job we’re called to do.

God has lots of places we can minister in His kingdom.  Did you know, He has the roster for those positions filled?  God has assigned individuals for particular jobs.  These folks just may not be doing those jobs.  God is waiting for them to listen to His call. 

I may catch some heat from some of my pastor friends for this.  They are sometimes desperate for a warm body, any warm body, to fill a particular position.  But, I don’t believe that’s God’s plan.  His HR department has all the jobs assigned.  Do yours, and let others do theirs.  If we do everyone else’s work, we will become weary in well doing and may even become bitter.  If you’re weary, you may be taking on more than you are called to do. 

So, like the apostles in Acts 6, we should spend our time doing what God has called us to do and leave the other tasks to those who are called to do those.

I was asked an interesting question this week:  “Why does God want us to kick someone out of church after just a couple of unheeded warnings but forgives each of us time and time again for our sins?”

It would be good to look at just what the church is.  It is the Bride of Christ, a group, a family of believers, that gather together for instruction, fellowship, and assistance.  If someone with ungodly motives comes into the church, he can mislead many.  Scripture warns us about such people:

2 Peter 2:1  But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

So, there are people who come into the church to mislead others.  Sometimes they do this purposely, but most often they do it unknowingly.  We have people in the church who are sincere but are sincerely wrong.  Sometimes these people are not apparent at first, and it takes the more mature Christians in the church to identify them.  A new or unschooled Christian might not know better. 

Last week I talked about how the church handles division and disrupters.  There’s a process, and that process is meant to correct the offender, see him repent, and bring him back into the fold.  But there are people who will not accept discipline and must be asked to leave the local body.

Sin and error in the church bring division.  They hurt the bride of Christ.  Jesus is very protective of His bride and will come against those who would try to corrupt her.

Christian individuals are to turn to the church for the reasons given above.  When an individual Christian hears something new or doesn’t sound right, that person’s responsibility is to first check it against Scripture then speak with a church leader about it.  Iron sharpens iron.  We’re here for one another.

In the early church, there were traveling preachers.  The culture was such that they would be welcomed into a local Christian’s home to stay for as long as the preacher was in town.  Other Christians would join with him in an evening meal and talk about the faith.  This served two purposes.  First the local church leaders could hear what this man had to say and endorse or correct what he taught.  If he was teaching error, he would be asked to leave.  Secondly, he would bring news and teachings from other Christian bodies.  Again, though, the local leaders would examine these teachings to accept or reject them.  This is the church in action, protecting and instructing the body.

The Christian individual, on the other hand, is also God’s pride and joy.  They are learning and growing in Christ as they are being sanctified.  We are going to make mistakes.  Jesus knows that.  He’s a man as well as God the Son.  He was tempted as we are and can identify:

¹⁸ For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. (Heb. 2:18)

For the Christian individual, God is constantly working in us.  He is making us more Christ-like.  Because we carry the sin nature and will until the day we die, God knows are apt to sin.  Upon our confession, he forgives us.

Why is this important?

Sometimes we think it’s kind of unfair of God to forgive us our sins but hold the false teacher or disrupter responsible for their actions.  Know that it is fair.  God is both protecting His children and His Bride.

We need to think of the church as more of a hospital and a school.  We go there for healing and instruction.  Without proper precautions, infection is much more likely to spread there.  Those who would infect us may not be repentant and must be kept from contaminating the Bride.

So, as Christian individuals, we must keep an eye out for new teachings.  Dr. Walter Martin used to say “New truth is almost always old heresy.”  Beware of new stuff. 

These false teachers can even use Scripture to seemingly support their views, but Christians must beware.  Scripture can be twisted.

And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, ¹⁶ as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. (2 Peter 3:16)

Back to the original question, a false teacher is an attack on the church, the Bride of Christ, sinful behavior is a character flaw.  God deals with each differently.  He loves His church and loves His people.  He wants to keep both pure.