Praying with Zion

Sing praises to the LORD, who dwells in Zion! (Psalm 9:11)

Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. (Psalm 149:2)

There are many psalms that speak of Zion. It is where the LORD establishes His anointed Son as King over Israel and the nations¹. It is the where He has chosen to dwell². It is the place of the help, strength and salvation that comes from the LORD³. It is where the LORD establishes justice for His people and the whole earth⁴. It is where the people of the LORD appear before Him⁵. It is where the LORD shows His mercy and favor⁶. It is where the LORD is revealed in His glory⁷. It is where the LORD commands His blessing⁸.

Zion is Jerusalem, the city of God. For the psalm writers, there is no other place like it. It is “the joy of the whole earth” (Psalm 48:2). There we find the temple, revealing the presence of the Lord and the place where God rules and reigns over His people.

As we have heard, so we have seen
In the city of the LORD of hosts,
In the city of our God:
God will establish it forever. Selah.
We have thought, O God, on Your lovingkindness,
In the midst of Your temple.

(Psalm 48:8-9)

After the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah were carried off into exile, Jews began to believe that there must be a heavenly Jerusalem, just as the psalm writer spoke of a heavenly temple: “The LORD is in His holy temple, the LORD’s throne is in heaven” (Psalm 11:4). It is this heavenly city that endures forever and so fulfills the promise of Psalm 125:1, “Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever.” So the prophets begin speaking of a new city and a glorious temple (for example, in Ezekiel 40-48, Isaiah 54:11-14 and Zechariah 2).

In the New Testament, we find this promise beginning to be fulfilled through King Jesus the Messiah and the new covenant He brings. By the end of the book, in Revelation 21, we see the New Jerusalem descending, joining heaven and earth together as one.

For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar — for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children — but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. (Galatians 4:24-26)

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant. (Hebrews 12:22-24)

He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. (Revelation 3:12)

Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband … And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. (Revelation 21:2, 10-11)

All who believe on King Jesus the Messiah, who belong to Him by faith, are a colony of heaven, citizens of that city that is above. We are not waiting to be airlifted out of the world but for the New Jerusalem to come down. And we ourselves are now the temple, the dwelling place of God on earth (see 1 Corinthians 3:16 and 1 Peter 2:5).

So now when I pray the psalms and come to the ones about Zion, I recognize my place in the New Jerusalem, the Jerusalem that is above and will one day be fully revealed on earth. The city “whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10), the “better” and “heavenly” city the Old Testament saints longed for (Hebrews 11:16), and which New Testament believers also earnestly desire and seek (Hebrews 13:14).

(1) Psalm 2; 149:2 (2) Psalm 9:11; 76:2; 132:13 (3) Psalm 14:7; 20:2; 53:6; 110:2 (4) Psalm 48:11; 50:1-4; 122:1-5 (5) Psalm 84:85-87 (6) Psalm 102:13 (7) Psalm 102:16 (8) Psalm 128:5; 133:3; 134:3

Random Thoughts

Some thoughts culled from my random file. Some have occurred to me in moments of quiet reflection, some in discussion with others. For your edification, inspiration and/or amusement.

• I give thanks for the waves the Father makes for me to ride, the wind of the Spirit to fill my sails, and the peace the Lord Jesus speaks over my life.
• Prayer is not a business meeting, or placing an order with God’s customer service agent. It is part of a life-giving relationship with the one who made you.
• “And we have known and believed the love that God has for us” (1 John 4:16). Yet, even if we have not believed it, God's love for us is greater than our unbelief ~ He loves us still. How great is our joy when we know and believe that love.
• Important distinctions get lost when people react instead of respond. To react requires nothing more than emotion, but to respond requires careful thought.
• There are two kinds of people I avoid: Those who want to be accountable to me ~ after all, who am I? And those who want me to be accountable to them ~ after all, who are they?
• Accountability can quickly devolve into rules and regulations, no longer about relationship, but someone with a checklist by which to evaluate everyone around. When it is no longer about encouraging and building up the members but about controlling them, it becomes simply a means to power for the ego-driven.
• The Epistles don’t negate the Gospels; the Gospels don’t negate the Epistles. If we ever think that one negates the other, it is only because we are reading one of them wrong.
• When one’s interest in “social justice” becomes, as so often seems to be the case, a matter best left for the State to handle, then I think both “social justice” and the State have become forms of idolatry.
• “Social justice” is not a matter only for individuals. There are many forms of interconnectedness, including family and local community, as well as the Church. To whatever extent the State may represent interconnectedness, I do not think it is the highest form or the most efficient or effective form.
• One thing we have to ask is who gets to define “social justice,” and how and by whom it is to be implemented. The State? A political party or movement? A denominational structure? Individual conscience?
• The Christian faith teaches us to give of ourselves for the sake of others; it does not teach us to take what belongs to someone else in order to give it to another. Christian charity gives and serves; it does not commandeer others for the sake of our own agenda, however good we may think our agenda is. When we take from others what they have not offered, that is called stealing, something about which God says, “Thou shalt not.”
• The tithe Abraham offered Melchizedek was a voluntary one, and one God honored — Abraham received a blessing. I would not go so far as to call it a “norm,” but it is certainly a worthy example for Christian giving. I believe God still honors the tithe today, even as He did back then, quite apart from the Law.
• Tithing is based on increase, what comes into your hand. If you have not experienced increase, there is nothing to tithe on. But it is still possible to give. There are a lot of ways we can give of ourselves for the sake of others. For example, through acts of service, through our prayers for others, through kind words to others. If our heart is to give and serve, God blesses.

The Secret of Ministry is Falling in Love with People

Georgian Banov, of Global Celebraton, bringing 5,000 Gypsies their favorite meal, fatted sheep stew. Georgian and his wife, Winnie, have fallen in love with the people.

Pondering 1 Thessalonians 2:6-17 in preparation for a Bible study group I teach, I was struck by just how much the apostle Paul loved the Jesus believers at Thessalonica — they were very much like family to him. See how he speaks of his and his ministry team’s relationship with them.

• Like children. “We were like young children among you” (v. 7 NIV). “We became as infants in your midst” (LEB). Other versions, like the NKJV, say, “We were gentle among you.” Paul and his team tenderly identified with the new believers there, and were as gentle as children with them.
• Like a mother. “Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, so we cared for you” (vv. 7-8 NIV).
• Like a father. “For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into His kingdom and glory” (vv. 11-12 NIV).
• Like brothers. “For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of God’s churches in Judea” (v. 14 NIV).
• And in their absence, like orphans. “But, brothers and sisters, when we were orphaned by being separated from you for a short time (in person, not in thought), out of our intense longing we made every effort to see you” (v. 17 NIV).

All of this adds up to one of the key ingredients for a ministry that touches lives and changes the world. It is about falling in love with the people. For God Himself is love and He has fallen deeply in love with us. His desire is that we should not only love Him with all that is in us but that we should also love one another with all out love.

Praising God Before the Elohim

I will praise You, O LORD, with all my heart;
Before the “gods” I will sing Your praise.
I will bow down toward Your holy temple
And will praise Your name
For Your unfailing love and Your faithfulness,
For You have exalted Your solemn decree
That it surpasses Your fame.

(Psalm 138:1-2 NIV 2011)

As I began my time with the Lord this morning, I was suddenly impressed to sing the common doxology to the familiar tune of the “Old Hundredth.” So I picked up my guitar and began strumming the chords and singing the words. I looked toward the icon of the baptism of Jesus, which so beautifully depicts the Trinity: The voice of the Father in heaven saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” and Jesus the Son, standing in the baptismal waters, and the Holy Spirit descending upon Him like a dove. And I sang to the Lord, repeating the words of the doxology again and again.

Then I turned to my prayer book (I use The Paraclete Psalter), to the psalm laid out for today. But along the way, my eye fell on Psalm 138, and I was caught up by it. So I began to pray it:

I will praise You, O LORD, with all my heart;
Before the “gods” I will sing Your praise.

Let me get technical for just a moment. The Hebrew word for “gods” is elohim. It is the word that is usually used to refer to God Himself. But, clearly, that is not its use here because the psalm writer is speaking to God in the first person, but he refers to the elohim in the third person.

Elohim is a plural form, and so it can be translated as “gods.” It can refer to angels, as it perhaps does in Psalm 8:5, “For You have made him [man] a little lower than the angels,” where the Septuagint translates the Hebrew word elohim with the Greek word angelos.

Or it can refer to judges, as it appears to do in Exodus 21:6 and Exodus 22:8-9. This could be how the psalm writer uses it in Psalm 82:1, where God judges among the “gods,” who were themselves supposed to judge justly, but had failed to do. God warns them, “You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High. But you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes” (Psalm 82:6-7). So, here elohim could refer to kings and rulers and heads of state, who were supposed to bring justice to the people God entrusted to them. It could also refer to the principalities and powers, the fallen spiritual entities who so often influence the political and cultural affairs of humanity.

But, back to what happened in prayer this morning: As I began praying Psalm 138, I suddenly found myself standing in the courts of the Lord, to do what I had just read — to praise God with all my heart, singing it before the elohim. I saw them as angels, parted on either side of me and waiting for my song to begin. Peter says that the angels long to explore the mysteries of the gospel and the salvation of humanity (1 Peter 1:12). And that is how I sensed them here.

I found myself overwhelmed as I stood in the clearing and in the silence of that moment. But as the psalm writer says in Psalm 138:3, “When I called, You answered me; you greatly emboldened me.” And I knew it would all be alright.

Now, it was obvious what the song should be, because I had been singing it just moments earlier in what had turned out to be a practice session for this encounter. And now I realized why that hymn had “popped” into my head — God had placed it there especially for me to offer for His pleasure in a “command performance.” So I lifted my voice and began to sing, softly at first and with some trembling:

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

As I sang, I began to realize that I was offering this praise to God not only before Him and His angels, but also in full view of the principalities and powers, reminding them of their defeat at the cross. For that is what always happens in the spiritual realm when the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are worshipped and adored. And I was aware that our worship calls even to all the kings and queens of the earth and the rulers of nations, who will all one day bow, whether willingly or not, before God. The hope of the psalm writer is that it will be willingly:

May all the kings of the earth praise You, LORD
When they hear what You have decreed.
May they sing of the ways of the LORD,
For the glory of the LORD is great.

(Psalm 138:4-5 NIV)

That is my hope, too, as I sing to the LORD with all my heart before the elohim.

All Things Made New

Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?”

Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3-5)

The kingdom of God makes all things new. Because King Jesus makes all things new. “Then He who sat on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new’” (Revelation 21:5).

So, all who want to be a part of Jesus’ kingdom must be made new, too. This came as quite a shock for Nicodemus and the religious establishment of Jesus’ day.

Still does today.

Developing Vital Relationship with God and Others

Here’s a definition I heard years ago about evangelism — telling the good news about Jesus the Messiah and the kingdom of God — and I think it is true about Christian ministry in general:

Evangelism is what happens when you have a vital relationship with God and a vital relationship with someone else.

I think Christians have often tried to domesticate evangelism by making it a program, or a script that we run through with people like a sales pitch. If you’ve ever been cornered, you know what I talking about. But it is really about developing vital relationships.

First is having a vital relationship with God. However, a lot of times we want to domesticate that relationship, to domesticate God and fit Him into our little box. But He is bigger than an hour or two on Sunday morning, bigger than a daily prayer or devotional, bigger than our own little home and our own little concerns and our little lives. Gloriously bigger! The more we come to know Him and the amazing things He wants to do in the world, the more we are vitalized, energized, our heartbeats coming into rhythm with His.

But we must also develop vital relationship with others. That is how God made us to be in the beginning. For God Himself is vital relationship — the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in a relationship of love with each other that is thoroughly full and complete. Yet, out of the divine love relationship among the Persons of the Trinity, God created the heavens and the earth, to share the overflow of their love, and vital relationship, with humanity.

To use an analogy, when I come into vital relationship with others, they will not only know me, they will know about my wife, because I am in vital relationship with my wife. Or think of some of the grandparents you know, and how eager they are to talk about their grandchildren. That’s because they are in vital relationship with those children. Likewise, when I am in vital relationship with others, they will know about the Lord Jesus, because I am in vital relationship with Him.

There are thousands of ways we can develop such relationships with the people we are naturally around everyday as we are out in the world. This is true not only on the individual level but also at the level of involvement with the larger communities of which we are a part. For example, the realms of family, education, government, business, media and the arts are all areas in which we can develop vital relationship with others.

These are all ways individual Christians can become more involved in the life of the community and develop vital relationships. But the local church, as a corporate body, can also develop vital relationship with the community in the same ways. For example, my son and his wife are part of a church in Ybor City (Tampa, FL). The church is only about eight years old, but they have, almost from the beginning, been developing a vital relationship with Booker T. Washington Elementary School, reaching out on the level of meeting practical needs. They have also been developing vital relationship with the Ybor community — the people of Ybor — and its culture. They are currently working on a project to develop vital relationship with the arts community there.

Now, let me be careful to say that vital relationship is not a means to an end; it is a sufficient end itself. It has no agenda; it is its own agenda — to know, love and fellowship with others, to live life together. But it is the nature of such relationships that we each share what is most important to us, that we may give ourselves openly and honestly and receive each other more fully. And so we give life to one another.

A Tale of Three Kings in the Psalms

The king shall have joy in Your strength, O LORD;
And in Your salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!

(Psalm 21:1)

This psalm is called “a psalm of David.” Which mean it was written by him, or about him, or perhaps in the Davidic style. As we see from the first verse, this psalm speaks of “the king” and the joy he has in the strength and salvation that comes from the Lord.

There are many psalms which speak of God as King, but there are also many that speak of the king of Israel — of David, and the descendants who would sit on his throne. As I pray through the psalms, which is one of my spiritual practices, whenever I read about the king, as in Psalm 21, I am always aware of three kings to whom it rightfully applies.

• First, there is David himself, whom God anointed to be king over Israel. And God made a promise that a descendent of David would reign on that throne forever. Of course, it soon became apparent that David and his heirs often fell far short of the glorious things that were ascribed to the king of Israel.
• The second king is Jesus, the Son of God who became human. In His humanity, He is a the son of David who fulfills the promise God made to David. He is the Messiah, whom God anointed to be King over Israel and the nations forever. He is the divine embodiment of everything the psalm writers were longing for.
• The third king is … me. Actually, it is all who know King Jesus and belong to Him by faith. Paul says that God has raised us up with Him and seated us with Him, and Jesus is seated on His throne at the right hand of the Father (Ephesians 1:19-22 and 2:4-6). In King Jesus we, too, are made “kings and priests” to God our Father (Revelation 1:6 and 5:10).

When I come to those places in the psalms where God makes promises concerning the king and the king responds to God, I see a this three-fold overlay: King David, King Jesus and me. King David and I find our highest identity and fulfillment in King Jesus, and through King Jesus receive the full blessing of God.

So it is in Psalm 21:1, “The king shall have joy in Your strength, O LORD,” I find David and Jesus and me, taking great joy in God because we have all experienced the strength of the Lord in amazing ways. “And in Your salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!” We “whirl and twirl for joy” (the word here for “rejoice” indicates to “spin”) because of the salvation God has worked on our behalf. For David and me, He worked that salvation through Jesus (Hebrew, Yeshua), whose very name means “salvation” (yeshuah). And He worked salvation for Jesus by raising Him from the dead.

You have given him his heart’s desire,
And have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah.

(Psalms 21:2)

God never refused the desire of David’s heart. For David delighted himself in the Lord, and the Lord gave him the desires of His heart (Psalm 37:4). Because David delighted in the Lord, his desires were God-shaped desires.

God also never refused the desire of Jesus’ heart. “For the Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand” (John 3:35). What was the desire of Jesus’ heart? “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). And God heard Him, for “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19).

And God will not refuse the desires of my heart or yours. “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). King Jesus has given us this promise: “Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13). “In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God” (John 16:26-27).

So now, as the psalm writer continues, see what God has done for David, for King Jesus, and through Him, for you and me:

For You meet him with the blessings of goodness;
You set a crown of pure gold upon his head.
He asked life from You, and You gave it to him —
Length of days forever and ever.
His glory is great in Your salvation;
Honor and majesty You have placed upon him.
For You have made him most blessed forever;
You have made him exceedingly glad with Your presence.
For the king trusts in the LORD,
And through the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved.

(Psalm 21:3-7)

Reading the Bible with Church History

As we read and study the Bible, it is important to have a good grounding in Church history, because it will help us realize that there is not a straight line from the way we read Scripture and understand Christian theology today back to how the apostles originally taught and understood it in the early church. There have been a multitude of twists and turns along the way.

When we do not know anything of the history of the Church or the historical development of Christian theology, it becomes very easy for us to think that we are merely reading Scripture for ourselves, because we are unaware of how much our own reading and theology has been conditioned, influenced and shaped by century upon century of hermeneutical and theological developments.

The more we understand the history of the church and of theology, the less we will be susceptible to reading Scripture in a simplistic way (that is, a way that is overly simple and reductionist).

Exploring the Gospel ~ Psalm 98

Psalm 98 is gospel-shaped. That is, although it has its own historical setting in the story of Israel, it finds its greatest fulfillment in the gospel — the good news about the kingdom of God and of Jesus, God’s anointed King.

Sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things!
His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.

(Psalm 98:1)

The gospel is not just a new song but the new song, the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel. Jesus began His ministry by announcing the gospel: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). The gospel is the ultimate expression of God’s purpose for the world, from beginning to end: “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:1-2).

The LORD has made known His salvation;
His righteousness He has revealed in the sight of the nations.
He has remembered His mercy
and His faithfulness to the house of Israel;
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

(Psalm 98:2-3)

In the gospel, God has brought His salvation into the world not only for Israel’s sake but for all the nations of the earth. That is why, after the resurrection but before He ascended to His throne at the right hand of the Father, Jesus said to His disciples, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations” (Matthew 28:18-19). And the apostle Paul, even as he was under house arrest in Rome, teaching and testifying about the kingdom of God, said, “Therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles [Gr. ethnos, nations], and they will hear it!” (Acts 28:23-28). Add to this the intriguing fact that the Hebrew word for “salvation” in Psalm 98:2-3 is yeshuah, which in name form is Yeshua, the Hebrew name for Jesus.

Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth;
Break forth in song, rejoice, and sing praises.
Sing to the LORD with the harp,
With the harp and the sound of a psalm,
With trumpets and the sound of a horn;
Shout joyfully before the LORD, the King.
Let the sea roar, and all its fullness,
The world and those who dwell in it;
Let the rivers clap their hands;
Let the hills be joyful together before the LORD.

(Psalm 98:4-8)

In announcing the good news about King Jesus the Messiah throughout the earth, God has revealed His salvation to the nations. It is cause for celebrating with shouts of joy and loud praises to God. Even creation itself is depicted as getting in the act — the seas roar, the rivers “clap their hands,” the hills are full of joy — because its own redemption is at hand. “For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:19-21).

For He is coming to judge the earth.
With righteousness He shall judge the world,
And the peoples with equity.

(Psalm 98:9)

The Lord Jesus has ascended to His throne at the right hand of the Father, where He rules and reigns with all authority over heaven and earth. But there is coming a day when He will return to judge the world. Paul spoke of that day in his sermon to the philosophers on Mars Hill, in Athens. He proclaimed to them the God they did not know, that He has “appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man [Jesus the Messiah] whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:31).

Often, when people think of God judging the world, they imagine a hail of fire and brimstone raining down and leaving behind a scene of death and desolate ion. In that portrayal, God judging the world means God destroying the world.

Not so. As we saw above, creation is not waiting to be destroyed and put out of its misery. It is waiting to be delivered, set free from the bondage of corruption, to experience the glory and freedom of the redeemed as God brings His plan to completion. When King Jesus comes to judge the world, it is make everything in the world the way it was always meant to be. His righteousness, which is to say, His rightness, sets everything right.

That is the joyful anticipation of the gospel. The kingdom of God has come into the world, with Jesus as God’s anointed King. And when He returns the kingdom will be found in completeness —heaven on earth — the will of God being done on earth just as it is in heaven.

Let all the earth come and sing and shout for joy because of this good news.

Random Thoughts

Some thoughts culled from my random file. Some have occurred to me in moments of quiet reflection, some in discussion with others. For your edification, inspiration and/or amusement.

• The Bible speaks much about the love of God, but it also speaks much about His holiness and justice, about hell and judgment. Can we explain it all out, about how all this comes together in God, or how it all plays out? I expect not. There are a number of things God has given us to know, and apparently a number of things He has not. Can we live with not knowing exactly how His love and judgment work together? Can we live with the mystery of what He has not given us to know and go with what He has given us to know?
• God can certainly teach us things in the midst of sickness and poverty, and even bring good out of them. But the teacher He has appointed for us is the Holy Spirit, not sickness and poverty.
• God is not glorified by our sickness but by healing us in Jesus’ name. He is not glorified by our poverty but by the provision He has made for us according to His riches in glory in Jesus the Messiah. Our sickness and poverty do not please Him, but faith pleases Him. And faith is a matter of believing God, taking Him at His Word, even concerning healing and provision. In the midst of sickness, He is pleased when we believe Him for healing. In the midst of poverty, He is pleased when we trust Him for provision.
• A man many appear to be prospering outwardly, but if he is not prospering in his inner being, his outward prosperity will not endure. When it folds, he will fold with it. But a man who is prosperous in spirit will endure even if all outward prosperity be taken away.
• Jesus is the True Light who gives light to every person who comes into the world, so that no one is without a witness that is adequate to lead them to salvation. The real question, then, becomes about how they are responding to that witness. God will not hold anyone accountable for more light, or less, than He has given them.
• The gifts of the Spirit were not meant to be merely “validation for the message.” They are manifestations of the kingdom. Jesus didn’t heal the sick and cast out demons because He needed to validate His message ~ He was manifesting the kingdom of God on earth.
• The kingdom of God is the will of God being done on earth as it is in heaven. There is no sickness in heaven, so the manifestation of the kingdom of God on earth in regard to sickness is healing. Likewise, the manifestation of the kingdom in regard to demonization is expelling the demons.
• Many people today, including many Christians, think of hope as speculation: “Maybe so. Maybe not. We’ll see.” But in the Bible, hope is a matter of expectation. Hebrews 11:1 tells us that “faith is the substance of things hoped for.” That is, faith is the substance, or underlying reality, of what we are expecting. Faith is believing the promise of God, expecting that it will eventually come to pass. The facts of the world (the way the world is at present) must eventually line up with the truth (the promise God has made). Faith is expecting it to be so.
• I have been single and I have been married. I’ve known both sides of the coin. No doubt, the responsibilities inherent in marriage and family shape the way I look at life. I am committed in particular relationships in this life (till death do us part, in regard to marriage, and my children will always be my children). I am not just Jeff, I am somebody’s husband and somebody’s father, so following and honoring Christ in those roles is very important. My wife and my children are the ones Christ has set before me, and if I am going to be faithful to Him I must be faithful to them.
• God is a God of order. But our order is not necessarily His. So what sometimes might seem out of order to us is just God establishing His order. Likewise, if God’s ways sometimes are confusing to us, it is because we started out confused and God is trying to straighten that out in us.
• There are many facets to the gospel and many ways to reach out to people with it. The best way is the one that is needed at the time by the person you are reaching out to. But the more we understand the bigger picture of the gospel, the more we will understand what it means in a particular situation. DISCLOSURE: I am still learning the gospel and I expect it will take me the rest of my life.
• I don’t understand the bigger picture of the gospel to mean that people are basically good. People are basically broken, and that brokenness manifests is so many ways. The good news of the bigger gospel is that Jesus does not just address God’s wrath toward our sin, but He defeats all the powers that stand against us and hold us in bondage, and restores us to God’s original purpose in creating us in this world (Genesis 1:26-28). It is a healing, not just of ourselves, but of our relationship with God, with each other, of creation and our relationship with creation. The bigger gospel means that not only is my brokenness healed, but that healing can begin to manifest now, in this life, bringing forth the fruit of the Spirit. We go from faith to faith and glory to glory. The darkness is fading away because the true light is already shining. I love the bigness of the gospel because it is the solution to my brokenness.
• Life is not fair. But God is faithful.

A Clean Heart, A Steadfast Spirit

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

(Psalm 51:10)

Here is David, confessing his sin and repenting before the Lord. He longs to walk in rightness (righteousness) but he knows he cannot do it on his own. He needs God to do a work in him, to create a new heart and a faithful spirit within him.

My daily practice includes praying from the psalms. Whenever I come to Psalm 51, and this verse in particular, I am reminded that God has indeed answered this prayer, and He has done it through the gospel, the good news that Jesus is King over all. It is the fulfillment of a promise God made through the prophet Ezekiel, who came a few centuries after David:

For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. (Ezekiel 36:24-27)

This is the “born again” experience we read about in John 3, in Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus. It is being born of “water and the Spirit” (John 3:5). God cleanses us, creates in us a new heart, a clean heart, and renews a steadfast spirit in us by giving us His own Spirit to dwell within us. The fruit of the Holy Spirit, who is always at work in us, is “love, joy, peace, … faithfulness” (Galatians 5:22-23).

So now when I pray this psalm and come to this verse, my prayer is not a plea but a praise for what God done. And I yield myself to the Spirit of God and what He is doing in me.

What is the Fear of the LORD?

The Bible speaks often of the “fear of the LORD” and commends it as the beginning of knowledge and wisdom (Proverbs 1:7; Proverbs 9:10). But what does it mean to “fear” the LORD? Here is a brief survey of the Old Testament about that:

• To keep His commands (Deuteronomy 6:2; 17:19; 31:12; Psalm 111:10)
• To walk in all His ways, love Him, serve Him in sincerity and truth (Deuteronomy 10:12; Joshua 24:14)
• To praise and worship Him (2 Kings 17:36; Psalm 22;23)
• To depart from evil (Job 28:28: Proverbs 16:6)
• To hate evil, including pride and arrogance as well as evil conduct (Proverbs 8:13)
• To be in awe of Him (Psalm 33:8)
• To hope and trust in His chesed — the mercy, love and kindness of the LORD (Psalm 33:18)
• To sanctify the LORD and regard Him as holy (Isaiah 8:13)
• To come to His goodness (Hosea 3:5)

To live in the fear of the LORD is to live in absolute awe of God and trust Him implicitly, to love what He loves and hate what He hates, to treasure His favor above all things and avoid His displeasure at all costs, to take pleasure in His word, His will, His ways and His works and to honor them in everything you do.

The fear of the LORD is not a terror for those who belong to Him and walk in His ways, only for those who live contrary to Him. I liken it to standing at the rim of the Grand Canyon — it’s a breath-taking view but you want to be careful that you don’t fall in. Or the healthy respect a lineman has for the power of electricity — if he does not work with it carefully, it can kill him.

The phrase, “fear of the Lord,” is found only one time in the New Testament and is coupled with the supernatural comfort that comes from the Holy Spirit: “Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied” (Acts 9:31). This privilege belongs to the people of God.

(See also The Fear of the LORD: Experiencing God's Fullness)

Love God. Love People. Don’t Hold Back.

Someone asked Jesus, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus answered, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:36-40).

Allow me to offer this paraphrase:

Love God. Love People. Don’t hold back.

God My Source

As they make music they will sing, “All my fountains are in You.” (Psalm 87:7 NIV)

God, You are my source, my never ending supply. Not only the source for my material needs, my food and my finances, the “what shall we eat, what shall we drink, what clothes shall we wear” stuff of life.

More than that, You are the source of my peace, my wholeness, my well-being.

You are the source of my wisdom and my understanding. You are the source of my vision and my dream. You are the source of my inspiration and creativity.

All my fountains are in You. And I give You praise.

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Personal Confessions from the Psalms
Prayers and Affirmations for a Life of Faith, Happiness and Awe in God
by Jeff Doles

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Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

Faith is Relationship

In the Bible, faith is not merely a belief, it is a relationship. It is not how we respond to a proposition; it is how we respond to a person. That person is God — Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The author of Hebrews says, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). Notice, the word, “comes.”

It is not enough to believe that God is. The devil believes in God. As James says, “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe — and tremble!” (James 2:19). The demons have a belief about God, but they have no faith in Him.

Faith is not merely believing that God is. Many people believe that but have no faith. Faith is coming to Him. It is in coming to God that we move from a proposition to a person, from a belief to faith, and enter into a relationship with God.

And that makes all the difference.

Ascension: Daniel’s Vision Fulfilled

I was watching in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed. (Daniel 7:13-14)

Jesus often referred to Himself as the “Son of Man.” This was not merely a way of indicating His humanity but, more than that, has great eschatological significance. It identifies Him in terms of God’s final plan for the world.

In Daniel’s vision, the scene shifts to heaven in verses 13 and 14. The Son of Man is the one who comes with the clouds of heaven and appears before God the Father, the Ancient of Days. This is not the Second Coming, when King Jesus will come down from heaven. This is the Ascension, when Jesus was carried up with the “clouds of heaven” (see Luke 24:51 and Acts 1:9).

In the vision, the Son of Man is given “dominion and glory and a kingdom.” It reaches to all the peoples, nations and languages of the world so that all on earth should serve Him. Matthew’s gospel account does not describe for us the actual ascension, as does Luke’s, but it does show us the essence of it. We see this at the end of the book when Jesus comes to His disciples and announces, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth” (Mathew 28:18). This language portrays the significance of the ascension: glory, dominion and kingdom.

The dominion that is given to the Son of Man in Daniel’s vision is a dominion that last forever. Nothing can destroy it, nothing can prevent it from filling the earth. This is similar to an earlier vision in Daniel, where Daniel interprets the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar dreamed of a great image that had a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet a mixture of iron and clay. These represented a succession of kingdoms. Daniel vividly describes what happened next:

You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. (Daniel 2:34-35)

The stone “cut without hands” is of divine origin and corresponds to the Son of Man in Daniel 7. It completely smashes the great image — the kingdoms of the earth — and continues to enlarge until it becomes a great mountain that fills the earth. And now Daniel gives the interpretation of this final scene:

And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold — the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure. (Daniel 2:44-45)

This is the kingdom of God, the dominion given to the Son of Man. It cannot be destroyed but will fill the earth and endure forever. Notice that it does not first appear as a great mountain but as a stone. By the end, though, it becomes a great mountain that fills the whole earth. So it is with the kingdom of God and the dominion of the Son of Man. The Lord Jesus has ascended to heaven and been given all authority, glory and dominion. And, in the words of Paul, “He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet,” at which time He will deliver the kingdom to God the Father, “when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power” (1 Corinthians 15:24-25). What has begun with the Ascension will end when King Jesus comes again.

Ascension: The Good News That Our God Reigns

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” (Isaiah 52:7)

In Isaiah 52, God speaks of a coming day when He would comfort and deliver His people, establish peace and reign over them. In the Septuagint, an ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, the word for “brings good news” and “brings glad tidings” is euangelizo (to evangelize) and refers to preaching the gospel. God’s promises was that one day there would come one who would proclaim the gospel, the good news that “Your God reigns.” At the end of that chapter, God speaks of “My Servant,” which is a reference to the Messiah. “Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently; He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high” (v. 13). All of this is fulfilled in the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ to His throne in heaven. God has exalted Him, given Him the name that is above every name and made Him Lord over all.

Paul refers to this reality in his letter to the Jesus believers at Rome. In chapter 10, he says, “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (v. 9). Then he explains:

For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? (Romans 10:10-14)

This is about the preaching of the gospel. Then he refers to the text in Isaiah: “As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!’” (v. 15). What he describes in Romans 10 is the fulfillment of what God said in Isaiah 52. The good news of the gospel is the announcement that Jesus is Lord.

This proclamation was very politically charged, particularly in the Roman Empire, where Caesar was supposed to be the one who was proclaimed as Lord and King and the one who brought peace and salvation to the world. But the confession of the Church and the good news of the gospel declared that not Caesar but Jesus is Lord.

All who heard Paul preach understood this very well. We can see it in Acts 17, when Paul taught in the synagogue at Thessalonica and announced, “This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ” (v. 3). Though some of the Jews there believed the good news, many others rejected it. When those who rejected it saw that many Gentiles also believed the gospel, they gathered a mob to go after Paul, who had been staying at the house of a man named Jason. Not finding him there, they dragged Jason before the rulers of the city and said, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king — Jesus” (vv. 6-7).

Indeed, there is another King, and His name is Jesus. All authority has been given to Him in heaven and on earth, and God the Father has seated Him at His own right hand. That is the good news, the message that brings salvation to the world.

Ascension: God Has Made Jesus Lord

At Pentecost, fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and ten days after He ascended to His throne at the right hand of the Father, Peter preached to the Jews gathered in Jerusalem:

Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself: “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.’” Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." (Acts 2;33-36)

God has made Jesus Lord. That might sound unusual for many Christians because, after all, the confession of our faith is that Jesus is Lord — has He not always been so? How then can it be said that God has made Him Lord?

We often assume that the words “God” and “Lord” have the exact same significance. There are, however, important distinctions to be made. The confession that Jesus is Lord is not merely a statement about His divinity, an identification that He is God. More than that, it has special import in regard to God’s plan for renewing the world, and Jesus’ role in that plan.

Jesus has always been fully divine in His essence. He is the Word who was with God in the beginning, who is indeed God and who “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:1, 14). He has always been the eternal Son of God, the Second Person of the Godhead, the Holy Trinity. In the Incarnation, He became fully human, in addition to being fully divine, and it was then that He was called Jesus. But there came a point in history, and in His humanity, when God made Him Lord.

In making Jesus Lord, God fulfilled in Him the promise He made long ago to His people Israel. It was the promise that He would anoint one who would come redeem Israel, subdue the nations, set everything right in the world and reign forever. Jesus is that “Anointed One” — that is what is meant by Messiah or Christ.

Paul, in his letter to the believers at Philippi, speaks of how Jesus, though being in the form of God, took the form of a servant, in the likeness of humanity. As God who became man, Jesus further humbled Himself to the point of a humiliating death on the cross. But now listen as Paul describes the result of that great, and greatly surprising, act:

Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)

God has highly exalted Him. He has given Him the name that is above every name by appointing Him as Lord over everything in heaven, on earth and under the earth — every realm of existence. Paul says it a bit differently in the book of Ephesians, when he speaks of the mighty power of God, “which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come” (Ephesians 1:20-21).

Before Jesus ascended to His throne in heaven, He came to the disciples and declared, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). In regard to His divinity and His identity as the eternal Son of God, Jesus has always been sovereign over creation from the very beginning. But in regard to His humanity, He was given all authority in heaven and on earth.

In the time-space continuum of the world, then, there came a moment when God highly exalted Jesus the Messiah, gave Him all authority in heaven and on earth and made Him Lord over all. He appointed Him as the rightful ruler over everything — the King of the world. The Church identifies and celebrates that moment in history as the Ascension.

Ascension: At the Right Hand of the Father

Forty days after the resurrection, Jesus the Messiah, whom God anointed to be Lord over all, ascended to His throne at the right hand of the Father. Today is Ascension Sunday, on which the Church around the world celebrates that great redemptive truth. A simple search through the New Testament for the words “right hand” reveals the enormous significance of this event.

• But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest answered and said to Him, “I put You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!” Jesus said to him, “It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.” (Matthew 26:63-64)
• “If You are the Christ, tell us.” But He said to them, “If I tell you, you will by no means believe. And if I also ask you, you will by no means answer Me or let Me go. Hereafter the Son of Man will sit on the right hand of the power of God.” (Luke 22:68-69)
• Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” (Acts 2:33-35)
• The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. (Acts 5:30-31)
• But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” (Acts 7:55-56)
• Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. (Romans 8:34)
• And what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. (Ephesians 1:19-21)
• If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:1-3)
• Who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, (Hebrews 1:3)
• But to which of the angels has He ever said: “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool”? (Hebrews 1:13)
• Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2)
• There is also an antitype which now saves us — baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him. (1 Peter 3:21-22)

The ascension of the Lord Jesus connects to the messianic meaning of Psalm 110, which is often quoted in the New Testament concerning Him.

The LORD said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”
The LORD shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion.
Rule in the midst of Your enemies!
Your people shall be volunteers
In the day of Your power;
In the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning,
You have the dew of Your youth.
The LORD has sworn And will not relent,
“You are a priest forever
According to the order of Melchizedek.”
The LORD is at Your right hand;
He shall execute kings in the day of His wrath.
He shall judge among the nations,
He shall fill the places with dead bodies,
He shall execute the heads of many countries.
He shall drink of the brook by the wayside;
Therefore He shall lift up the head.

That day has already come and has already begun to be fulfilled. Jesus the Messiah has been seated at the right hand of the Father, far above all principality and power and might and dominion. “For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet.” (1 Corinthians 15:25-26). This work will be complete when King Jesus returns again at the end of history. Then the will of God will be done thoroughly and completely on earth as it is in heaven. “Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power” (1 Corinthians 15:24).

The Ascension of the Lord Jesus also has great significance for all who are His. Just as Jesus is at the right hand of the Father, those who belong to Him are seated at His own right hand. “Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world’” (Matthew 25:34). In Ephesians 1, Paul tells of Jesus’ enthronement at the Father’s right hand, but just a few verses later, in Ephesians 2, he speaks of what this means for all who trust in Him:

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-7)

God has made us alive together with Christ, raised us up together with Him, made us sit together in the heavenlies with Him. The Greek verbs here are in the aorist tense, which signifies completed action. In other words, this is not merely future promise Paul is talking about, it is present reality. Ascension Sunday reminds us that not only has the Lord Jesus been seated at the right hand of the Father, but in a very real sense, all who belong to Him by faith have now been seated there with Him.

Created to Be Like God

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26)

Put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:24)

In the beginning, God created humanity, not according to its own unique “kind,” as were all the plants or animals of sky, earth and sea, but in His own image and according to His likeness — that is, to be like Him. Another way to say this is that we were created to reflect and reveal the glory of God.

The problem is that mankind, in the person of the first pair, rebelled against God — and we have all been corrupted by that rebellion. Paul put it this way: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Though created to bear the glory of God, which is the highest calling, we fell short. But that is why Jesus the Messiah came, to restore us back to God, so that we might once again reflect His glory, “being justified by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24).

This is not automatic, however. We take hold of this grace, this redemption, this restoration, by faith in the Lord Jesus. We are new beings in Christ, who is in the process of making all things new. We are new creations, part of His new creation. In Him we are no longer the same beings we once were. So we must put off the old ways we used to live and think, and allow the Spirit of God to renew our thoughts and attitudes, will and emotions. And as the NIV says, we must “put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24).

Nicodemus and John 3:16

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

John 3:16 is one of the most well-known verses of the New Testament. It is regularly used in evangelism and is one of the first verses new Christians are encouraged to memorize. And who can forget “Rainbow Man,” with his multi-colored hair, holding a “John 3:16” sign at televised sporting events. Or Tim Tebow with the Scripture reference painted in his eye blacking.

Usually people hear or read John 3:16 outside of its context, as though it was somehow plucked out of thin air or wafted down on a cloud one day. But it is actually part of an encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus one night. And it comes toward the end of the discussion, as a climax to the conversation. It can certainly stand on its own, at a certain level, and many people have come to the Lord through it. It is wonderful news, even all by itself.

However, there is an even richer meaning that Nicodemus would have gotten from John 3;16. To understand it in the fuller sense in which it was originally intended, we need to go back to the beginning of Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus. Because the whole thing, from beginning to end, is all of one piece. So let’s take a brief look.

Nicodemus came to Jesus one night and said, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him” (v. 2).

Jesus responded in a way that did not address Nicodemus’ words but instead one that answered his need: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (v. 3).

Nicodemus was confused by this, but Jesus said it again, in a bit broader fashion. “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (v. 5).

Clearly, the theme of these statements is the kingdom of God. “Born again” is what people usually focus on in this part of the conversation. However, being “born again” is not the end toward which Jesus was directing Nicodemus. It is a necessary means to that end. The new birth is necessary in order to “see” and “enter” the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is the main concern, and it is through the new birth that one becomes a part of it.

The concept of the kingdom of God was not something new Jesus originated. It was the long held Jewish expectation that arose from the promises and prophecies God gave in the Old Testament. It was about the age to come, the messianic age, when God’s Son, the “Messiah” (which means “Anointed”), would be king over Israel and all the nations.

Psalm 2 portrays this promised reality. In Psalm 2:2, we read about the LORD’s Anointed, who turns out to be God’s Son (v. 7), and the one whom God would set as King over Israel (v. 6). To Him are given all the nations (v. 8) and they are called to submit to Him and serve Him with reverence and rejoicing (vv.10-12).

Now that kingdom had come into the world. It is what the preaching of Jesus was all about. Mark tells us, “Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel’” (Mark 1:14-15). His teaching was all about the kingdom and His miracles demonstrated the world-changing reality of the kingdom that was now at hand. As we can see from John 2:2, Nicodemus was not unfamiliar with the teaching and miracles of Jesus, and would no doubt have recognized that it was somehow concerned with the God’s promised kingdom.

Moving forward in John 3, we find that Jesus refers to Himself also as the “Son of Man.”

No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:13-15)

“Son of Man” is another title that has messianic and kingdom significance in the Old Testament. We find it, or example, in the book of Daniel, in a messianic passage about one who would come from heaven and whose reign would fill the earth:

I was watching in the night visions, and behold, One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed. (Daniel 7:13-14)

In view of the messianic kingdom theme that begins in verse John 3:3, when verse 16 speaks of God’s Son being given out of God’s love for the world, it has great messianic significance. God’s Son is the one God has uniquely anointed to be King over Israel and the nations — that is, over all the world.

“Eternal life,” in John 3:16, also carries this theme. We often think of “eternal life” as life that lasts a really, really long time (forever, in fact). And indeed it is. However, it does not tell us just about the length of that life. More importantly, it tells us about the nature of that life. The Greek words for “eternal life” are zoen (“life”) and aionion (“eon,” or “age”). Literally, it would be the “age life,” or the “life of the age.” But what age would that be? It is the age God had long promised His people: the age to come, the messianic age — the age of God’s kingdom.

In John3:3-5, Jesus said that one must be “born again,” born of the Spirit, in order to participate in God’s kingdom age. This new “birth” speaks of the life of that kingdom. It is the life of God’s kingdom age. In verse 16, Jesus explains how that new life comes: through faith in God’s Son (who is the Messiah, the one God has anointed to be king). Those who believe on Him receive the life of the age to come, which has now already broken into the world in this present age. It is new life that begins now and lasts forever, because the kingdom of God, which has now come into the world, will endure forever.

Raising the Dead

The Bible records a number of accounts in which someone who died was restored to life. In the Old Testament, Elijah brought the widow of Zaraphath’s son back to life (1 Kings 17:17-24). When the son of a Shunnamite woman died, Elisha raised him from the dead (2 Kings 4:25-37). A dead man who was thrown into Elisha’s grave was restored to life when his body came into contact with the bones of Elisha (2 Kings 13:20-21).

• The New Testament records three people Jesus raised back to life.
• The son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:11-15)
• The daughter of Jairus (Luke 8:40-56)
• Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, of Bethany (John 11:1-45)

Jesus also sent His disciples out with these instructions: “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons” (Matthew 10: 7-8). In the book of Acts, Peter raised Dorcas back to life (Acts 9:36-42) and Paul raised Eutychus back to life (Acts 20:7-12).

However, raising the dead did not end with Jesus and the apostles. It has continued down through the history of the Church. Here are some examples, abstracted from my book, Miracles and Manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the History of the Church.

• Ireneaus records a church community that, through prayer and fasting, saw a dead brother restored to life. (ANF Vol. 1, Against Heresies, Book 2, Chapter 31, Section 2)
• Sozomen, in his Ecclesiastical History, tells of a pregnant women who fell from a height in the church and died on the spot but was restored to life at the prayer of the congregation. (NPNF Second Series, Vol. 2, Sozomen, Ecclesiastical History, Book 7, Chapter 5)
• St. Augustine, in his City of God, tells of a Christian woman of Caspalium who became ill and died but was restored to life. Also a young Syrian girl at Hippo, the son of a man named Ireneaus, and an infant that died — all brought back to life in the name of Jesus. (NPNF, First Series, Vol. 2, The City of God, Book 22, Chapter 8).
• Sozomen tells of a man who man who was brought back to life under the ministry of Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem. (NPNF Second Series, Vol 2. Sozomen, Ecclesiastical History, Book 2, Chapter 1)
• Martin of Tours restored to life a man who had hanged himself. (NPNF Second Series, Vol. 11, Suplicius Severus, On the Life of St. Martin of Tours, Chapters 7-8)
• Martin also brought a young boy back to life (NPNF Second Series, Vol. 11, Suplicius Severus, Second Dialogue, Chapter 4)
• John Cassian tells of a dead man raised again to life by Abbot Macarius of Egypt. (NPNF, Second Series, Vol. 11, Conferences of John Cassian, The Second Conference of Abbot Nesteros)
• Benedict of Nursia (the father of western monasticism) raised to life again a young monk who had died. He also restored the son of a country man back to life (from the Second Book of Dialogues, Chapter 11 and Chapter 32, by Gregory the Great)
• St. Dominic restored a man to life (Brewer, Dictionary of Miracles, pp. 80-81. Citing Edward Kinesman, Lives of the Saints, 1623)
• St. Vincent Ferrier is also recorded as raising the dead on a couple of different occasions. (Ibid, p. 86, citing Peter Ranzano, Life of St. Vincent Ferrier)
• John Welch, one of the Scottish Covenanters, raised a young nobleman back to life. (Howie, Biographica Scotiana)

Even today, many people have been brought back to like in the name of Jesus. (These examples are also cited in my book.)

• Archbishop Benson Idahosa, of Nigeria, restored to life an infant girl who had been dead for two hours. He also raised his wife who had been dead for over a half hour.
• British evangelist Smith Wigglesworth is said to have raised 13 or 14 people from the dead. Roberts Lairdon records one of these in his book, God’s Generals. Stanley H. Frodsham describes a few other in Smith Wigglesworth: Apostle of Faith.
• Roland and Heidi Baker, founders of Iris Ministries, tell of many who have been raised form the dead in Mozambique. They record some of these in their book Always Enough: God’s Miraculous Provision Among the Poorest Children on Earth. 
• Ben Peters, of Kingdom Sending Center, reports numerous modern-day resurrections in his book Resurrection: A Manual for Raising the Dead.
• David Hogan, founder of Freedom Ministries, an outreach to the peoples of Latin America, records numerous resurrections. Reports of this ministry estimate that out of 2,300 attempts, about three hundred have been raised from the dead.
• Early in 2002, Christ for All Nations, founded by evangelist Reinhard Bonnke, released a video called Raised From The Dead: A 21st Century Miracle Resurrection Story. It documents how Daniel Ekekchukwu, a Nigerian pastor who was fatally injured in an automobile accident, was certified dead and even embalmed, was miraculously restored to life after three days through prayer and faith in the name of Jesus Christ.
• James Rutz recounts that same incident in his book Megashift: Igniting Spiritual Power. He also gives several other examples of the dead being restored to life in Guatemala, Mexico, South Africa and India by the power of the Holy Spirit. One woman he interviewed, a sixty-year-old Dalit from New Delhi who converted to Christ, was involved in sixteen resurrections in the six years she had been in ministry.

Here are a couple of recent videos about Jesus believers bringing the dead back to life.


Miracle on Rama Cay Island from Global Celebration, the ministry of Georgian and Winnie Banov.


DEAD RAISER (Official Trailer) HD from Mountain Light Cinema.
You can find additional examples here. God is still doing what He has always done in His Church.

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Miracles and Manifestations of the Holy Spirit
in the History of the Church
by Jeff Doles

Preview with Amazon’s “Look Inside.”

Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

Faith Claims in Public

Someone has argued, publicly, that public arguments should not be based on faith claims. Sounds like he was making a public faith claim about public faith claims, in which case his argument is self-defeating.

Faith is an understanding. Faith is a decision one continually makes. Faith is a commitment. Christian faith is enabled by God: Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, and no one can confess, apart from the Holy Spirit, that Jesus is Lord. Because of the divine element involved, faith is more than merely a preference. Faith is also more than private, because it affects every area of one’s life, both private and public.

Everything comes down to faith claims because everything comes down to one’s philosophy, worldview, presuppositions or assumptions. Eliminate all faith claims and you eliminate all discussion about anything. It is important, then, to be able to identify what our philosophies, worldviews, presuppositions or assumptions are, to recognize what lens we are looking at the world through and how it might affect how we see.

Our presuppositions are not irrelevant. They are the foundations upon which we build the rest of our thoughts. They are the lens through which we view the world and identify this as “evidence” or that as “fact.” Not all presuppositions, assumptions or philosophies are equal, and they must each be evaluated. And, of course, not everyone will agree on what value is to be given to each. But everyone should be aware of their own presuppositions (actually, the complex of presuppositions they hold), and the nature of those presuppositions as being, ultimately, matters of faith.

I acknowledge my presuppositions as including a faith in the existence of God, that He has revealed Himself in the world and that He has given us revelation of Himself in a holy book. Others do not share those presuppositions but presuppose the opposite. However, if they claim to have knowledge that is not based on revelation, even that begins with presupposition. For example, it is a presupposition that there even is such a knowledge base apart from revelation, or of what that knowledge base consists. These are presuppositions of epistemology (principles of how we know anything).

Every truth claim is essentially a faith claim, a statement of what one believes, for whatever reason, revelatory or non-revelatory, to be true. Every claim to knowledge is likewise a faith claim, a statement of what one believes he knows. The man who is aware of his faith claims (philosophies, presuppositions, etc.) has an advantage over the man who is not.

Let every faith claim, then, come to the table and be analyzed. However, to analyze a faith claim one must first be aware of the faith claim they are bringing. The person I referred to above made a faith claim about faith claims and apparently did not even realize he was doing so. The result, in this case, was the incoherence of making public the faith claim that faith claims have no business being made public.