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ONLY Scripture – Sola Scriptura

The HOLY BIBLE IS: The written word of God from scripture.

What do I do with this?

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

– 2 Timothy 3:16-17 NIV

Daily we must remind ourselves that God IS. Daily we must recall that Jesus not only died on the cross for our sins (and oh so many of them), but that Christ rose from death in the body and spirit and Christ Jesus IS. Daily we must seek relationship between our living spirit breathed into us by God with the Holy Spirit sent to us as our counselor by Jesus. The Holy Spirit of the Living God near to our soul, IS.

All of this seems well and good as we carry our Bibles into a worship service or open the Bible in the privacy of our homes. Yet once we return from worship or Bible study we encounter the woes and trials of everyday life, the challenges of everyday relationships.

Don’t we ever-so-briefly ask of our Bible verses and stories: “What do I do with this?”

“All Scripture is God-breathed” or “All Scripture is breathed out by God.” or “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.”

We know it. God said it. But what do we do with it?

Think of our everyday life as a brief journey to a place of which we have only dreamed.

How do I get there? (I don’t even truly know where I am now?)

I know God wants me in a different place today than where I failed so miserably in sin yesterday. I am lost and have no GPS. In fact, once I leave church or the security of home (though I know this place is a brief shelter for this breathing, decaying flesh of mine), I not only have not sense of God’s direction, I can not even find weak signal of God’s voice speaking direction into my daily life.

Genesis 12:

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. ²And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

⁴So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

Just suppose you have retired comfortably in your hometown or near to your family and making an amazing promise, GOD asks you to just pick up and move. Will you go?

I have little understanding of Abram and his lifestyle millennia ago. Yet what same application do I see to my own life when it seems everything must change from how I have always seen my life?

Everything must go forward in some new direction. How do I get there? Who will help me along the way? What will I find in this new place? I am blind to any knowledge of the challenges ahead, the place where I will go and what I will do when I get there. (And what does Abram have to do with me in this fast-paced life even two millennia after the Cross of Christ?)

Again scripture provides an answer and encourages us to apply scripture to our every day life.

Galatians 3:4-6 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?

7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

Sure, I can teach someone scripture or sit under some teaching to the church which I like; but can I apply to the lesson of my life the Voice of the Lord’s Spoken Word?

If God asks me to leave everything behind for the unseen promise of hope, will I have the faith of Abraham to hear and obey the voice of the LORD?

How many times has the LORD asked you to do something after you were in the comfortable place?

Or again, how many times have your own misguided plans brought you to your knees before the LORD asking, ‘Where did I go wrong? What do I do now… Lord? Where do I go with this? Show me the way… please… Lord?’

And ALL is silent… No answer. And again we cry out to the LORD.

And the Lord is faithful in His answer. Yet we do not like it. It is not the ‘comfort’ we expected. In fact, it makes us even more uncomfortable and will require even more faith than we believe possible – faith to ‘believe God’ and have it counted as righteousness.

What next? (Isn’t that always the question from the comfortable place or the house of desperation?) What next, Lord?

To be continued…

May 4, 2015
Even unto the end of the world

The Great Commission

¹⁶Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. ¹⁷And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. ¹⁸And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

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Jesus IS. His resurrection after death on the cross proved his place in history and the mercy of God’s intervention in time by His sacrifice for our sins.

Many events, teachings and miracles were yet to take place between Resurrection Sunday and Pentecost fifty days later, when the risen Christ was taken up into the clouds of heaven in the same manner He will return.

Matthew 28 [above] closes the Apostle’s Gospel with just a brief outline of the commission of Jesus to all who believe. Matthew witnessed the risen Christ as detailed in other gospels. He makes no attempt of evidence for the truth of the resurrection the Apostle had himself witnessed. Matthew simply presents the great commission of Jesus’ command to go into all the world and preach the Good News (the Gospel).

Jesus had assured Matthew and the Twelve, “lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” KJV

In troubled times even unbelievers speak of the ‘the end of the age’ or ‘the end of the world.’ We see and hear false fantasy about the terrible coming of the Lord to judge all creation, although the world would leave out God and Jesus Christ from their fantastic explanations.

Dear believer in the risen Christ, let us examine the comfort of the loving Son, Jesus, who suffered for your sins and for mine. Let us examine the comfort of knowing that Jesus IS. Let us know with certainty that Jesus IS not only with Matthew and the other Apostles; even now, Jesus IS with you and with me.

Jesus had appeared to Matthew and the others many times. He had eaten with them even after the resurrection. He taught them as He always had, even explaining how His crucifixion had to fulfill scripture of the Old Testament (the Bible before Christ). Jesus IS and the Apostles understood even after Pentecost, Jesus IS. Whatever happens, Jesus IS. I, GOD, have taught you; you, therefore, teach the world what I have taught!

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. – Matthew 28:18-20 KJV

The Apostle John, the only Apostle who would not be martyred for preaching the Gospel, reveals even more witness of how Jesus IS always with him and with the Apostles and with those who believe.

John 20: ESV

¹⁹On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

²⁰When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

²¹Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”

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Again, the great commission to the Apostle John and the Twelve. The reassurance and proof of the resurrection of Jesus, the Christ of God, continues:

²⁶Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said,“Peace be with you.” ²⁷Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.”

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John adds a statement of other proofs he does not present in his Gospel. (Some of these are later revealed by Peter and others to Mark and Luke). No Gospel explains Jesus’ reasons any better than the Apostle John. John closes his gospel stating his purpose.

The Purpose of This Book

³⁰Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; ³¹but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Do you believe Jesus IS the Son of God?

Do you believe Jesus IS with you always, even to the end of the world?

Acts 1: ³He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

¹⁵In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said,

¹⁶“Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. ¹⁷For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.”

²⁴And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen ²⁵to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” ²⁶And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

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Peter does not pray to the Father, Peter prays to the Lord. Peter does not pray to a Jesus who was, Peter prays to Jesus who IS One with the LORD GOD, Father and Holy Spirit!

He is the same Lord Peter addressed as Lord after the resurrection asking, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” [Acts 1:6] Peter prays to Jesus, his personal Lord and Savior – Jesus, his teacher and adviser.

Peter preached at the festival of Pentecost by the power of the Holy Spirit. The LORD spoke the Good News of the resurrection of Christ Jesus.

Teachers of the Law and officials of the Temple recognized that no fishermen and common disciples of Jesus could have such power of God and knowledge of scripture. (Some would later become followers of The Way.)

Acts 2:

¹⁷“‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh…

²¹And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

²²“Men of Israel, hear these words:

Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— ²³this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

²⁴God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it…”

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No fisherman or tax collector (like Matthew) has such power to persuade, even with scripture if God has not ordained it and anointed these men with the fire of the Holy Spirit. How could an unlearned fisherman know or understand the power of such scripture? How could God choose such lowly men as Prophets to speak His very Word?

Only in Christ Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit.

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³⁶Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

³⁷Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

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What will you do, learned twenty-first century man? What must you do, educated twenty-first century woman? What shall we do in this day, now that we have read, heard and understood the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Good News for all men and women until the end of the world?

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³⁸And Peter said to them,

“Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

³⁹For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

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Yes, the promise is for not only the Nations (the gentiles), but for the generations; for we are ‘the children far off, those whom the Lord our God calls to himself.’

Matthew, John and the Gospel writers offer witness and many proofs; yet it is by faith the Lord calls you.

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⁴⁰And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”

⁴¹So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

April 18, 2015
You are my Son

Acts 13:

“‘You are my Son,
    today I have begotten you.’

³⁴And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way,

“‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’

³⁵Therefore he says also in another psalm,

“‘You will not let your Holy One see corruption.’

What do you think: When you run to the place where the body should be, do you have faith in the resurrection?

The dramatic events and turn of expectations at that last celebration of the Passover in Jerusalem must have been traumatic for the Apostles, dear friends and followers of Jesus of Nazareth. The turn of the triumphal entrance with crowds of believers and followers digressing into the stealth of an arrest in the night, trial away from the crowds and manipulative sentence of cruel punishment and humiliation of bloody death on a cross must have terrorized the hearts of all who believed that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the King promised by scripture.

What had happened? (No disciple could have imagined that it would have turned out like this.) He said so many things during those three years, but it is inconceivable to even the faithful mind that the Son of God would not now win back the Kingdom promised by God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. What happened?

“You will surely die,” says scripture.

Yes. We will all surely die and so did Jesus! Even Lazarus, who Jesus raised from the dead and the young daughter of Jairus and son of the widow at Nain – those Christ raised from death – even they will die once again. The disciples of Jesus all knew this; yet in considering the resurrection they never considered the consequence of death which precedes. Eternal life! (What will it be like?) Yet first, death – even death on a Cross.

The women had seen His tomb empty. The Apostles had raced to the empty tomb only to find the wrappings of death left in the darkness, as if removed like a change of clothes. Then Jesus appeared, alive, in many forms and at many times! He IS risen and the Lord sends us to witness to the world this great love of God our Father. The Kingdom has come.

Even a once skeptical unbelieving leading teacher of Scripture met Jesus on a road to Damascus. In fact, Saul of Tarsus not only teaches Jews of the dispersion throughout the Roman Empire some thought Jesus would overthrow; Paul (his new God-given name) is an Apostle to the gentiles.

Paul, who travels at great risk even of his own death if caught by those who pursue him, comes to city after city preaching the gospel of the love of Christ Jesus for Jew, Greek and Roman. Paul, confirmed by the Apostles and Barnabas in Pisidia, the town of Antioch, later preached what the Apostles did not understand until after the risen Christ opened up the scriptures for them.

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Acts 13

And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. ¹⁵After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.” ¹⁶So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said:

“Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen. ¹⁷The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. ¹⁸And for about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness. ¹⁹And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. ²⁰All this took about 450 years. And after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet.

²¹Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. ²²And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’ ²³Of this man’s offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised.

²⁴Before his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. ²⁵And as John was finishing his course, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but behold, after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’

²⁶“Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation. ²⁷For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. ²⁸And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death,they asked Pilate to have him executed. ²⁹And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb.

³⁰But God raised him from the dead, ³¹and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people.

³²And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, ³³this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm,

“‘You are my Son,
    today I have begotten you.’

³⁴And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way,

“‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’

³⁵Therefore he says also in another psalm,

“‘You will not let your Holy One see corruption.’

³⁶For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption, ³⁷but he whom God raised up did not see corruption.

³⁸Let it be known to you therefore, brothers,that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, ³⁹and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. ⁴⁰Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the Prophets should come about:

⁴¹“‘Look, you scoffers,
    be astounded and perish;
for I am doing a work in your days,
    a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.’”

⁴²As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath.

⁴³And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God.

⁴⁴The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. ⁴⁵But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. ⁴⁶And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. ⁴⁷For so the Lord has commanded us, saying,

“‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles,
    that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

⁴⁸And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.⁴⁹And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. ⁵⁰But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. ⁵¹But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium. ⁵²And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

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It’s all there in the Bible. The disciples of Jesus knew these scriptures. Yet like us, they wanted to understand God’s word applied in their lives in a way less painful and more victorious.

“Son of David,” they shouted. Surely God would establish a Kingdom even more glorious than that of David and Solomon. And imagine: a Son of God who would rule forever – a Son of Man like us. (Could He die?) God the Father will put the Son in charge. All will be resurrected to the Kingdom of the Son of God! He will be judge of all souls and rule with the righteousness of the Father.

We will surely die. Even the Apostles died. Paul died. All died. Your loved ones and your ancestors have died. You will die. I will die. Yet, finally we see a light from the darkness of death – a resurrection of the soul and a redemption for our sin.

This is the gospel of Jesus Christ, that all who believe in him will be forgiven our sins. By grace we are given life eternal, which we do not deserve. Yet because of God’s love for us, the victory of the Cross changes everything.

Has your faith in the Son changed your life, knowing your hope after death?

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

The risen Christ; Jesus, their crucified friend, had to explain scripture and the victory of His resurrection over sin and death to His beloved and amazed Apostles. (It’s all there in the Bible for you to read even to this day.)

Do you believe it? While it is yet today, why not live for Christ? For to die is gain.

April 14, 2015