Tomorrow is Sunday, and Lord willing, we will have the opportunity to gather and worship Him!
Let me say that again — we will have the OPPORTUNITY to worship Him, gathered with other believers and pointing to Him with all that we do.
Why?
God is worthy! Revelation 4:11 says, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”
God is holy! Psalm 29:2 says, “Ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name; worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness.”
God is the mighty Creator! Psalm 95:6 says, “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, out Maker!”
God is good, steadfastly loving, and eternally faithful! Psalm 100:4-5 says, “Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise! Give thank to Him; bless His name! For the LORD is good; His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations.”
God is great and powerful — worthy to be praised! Psalm 96:4-5 says, “For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the LORD made the heavens.”
God is worthy to be praised because He is the Savior! In Isaiah 43:11, He tells us, “I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior.”
Our God — Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords — is worthy to receive worship and praise and honor because He is the Redeemer! In Titus 2:13-14, Paul tells us that we are “waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works.”
So, about that OPPORTUNITY tomorrow where, should the Lord let us wake, we GET to worship Him: what will you do with it?
We saw in the verses above that our God is not like the “worthless idols” of this earth — the vain things that charm us and distract us from Him. He is good and loving and sovereign and mighty, and He saves and redeems us. We can be sure that there are many frightening and concerning things going on around the world today, but none of them — NONE of them — frighten or concern our God because He has already won the victory and is undefeatable!
The words of Jesus’s words to His disciples at the end of John 16 when I think of the things that frighten me in the news and in my social media news feed of late — and these words move my heart to worship despite fear — they move me to comfort despite rising anxiety and unsurety. Listen to the words of our King:
I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.
I feel those words in my soul — “take heart; I have overcome the world.”
That’s my God.
That’s my King.
He cares for us and has provided for us.
He has already — that’s right, past tense — “overcome the world”.
And tomorrow, we are going to celebrate Him and worship Him and praise Him and read His Word and preach His Word and make much of Him because He is God and He is worthy to be praised.
Won’t you gather with us?
Here are our Scriptures & songs:
Scripture | Romans 6:4-8 —
4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
Song | Washed Clean — Scripture Inspiration: 2 Corinthians 4:4, Ephesians 1:17-18, Matthew 11:28-30, Romans 8:2, John 8:34-36, Psalm 51:2, Psalm 51:7, Jeremiah 33:8, 1 John 1:9, Titus 3:4-5, Proverbs 16:18, Proverbs 3:34, Ephesians 2:1-2, Acts 26:18-19
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Song | What He’s Done — Scripture Inspiration: Matthew 7:33, Mark 15:22, Luke 23:33, John 19:7, Matthew 26:26, Colossians 1:19-20, 1 Peter 1:19, John 8:36, Isaiah 53, Psalm 147:3, John 3:16, John 15:13, Romans 8:5-8, 1 John 1:9-2:2, Acts 4:12, 1 Corinthians 15:21-22, Hebrews 2:14, Philippians 2:5-11, 1 Corinthians 15:50-57, Revelation 4:1-11, 1 John 5:4, Revelation 17:14, Revelation 5:12, Philippians 4:8
17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. —
22 Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. 25 For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality. 4:1Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.[1]
📖 Revelation 3:7–13We’re back!After a few months off, The King is Coming returns in 2026 with one of the most encouraging letters in Revelation — Jesus’s message to the faithful church in Philadelphia. In a world filled with opposition and weakness, Jesus opens a door no one can shut.In this episode, Keith Harris and Jamie Harrison explore:✔️ Jesus’s identity as the Holy One, the True One — God Himself✔️ What the “key of David” means and how Jesus alone opens and shuts✔️ The debated phrase “I will keep you from the hour of trial” — and how to read it biblically✔️ Why “little power” doesn’t disqualify faithfulness✔️ How being kept through the trial glorifies Christ’s strength in us✔️ What it means to be a pillar in God’s presence foreverThis church had no rebuke — only encouragement. And Jesus’s call still stands today: “Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.” (Revelation 3:11, ESV)🔗 Missed earlier episodes in the series? You can click here to catch up and listen from the beginning.✍️ If you’d like to see a written version of this podcast, complete with footnotes and cross-references, you can find it here.
Today’s Bible study has put me through the wringer. As I have said many times over, these Bible studies are not just for you but that they work on me first. It hit me as I type this final version that there is a great irony to how it has taken me so long to finish this Bible study. This Bible study is on what it means to be adorned with Christ in our vocations, and one of my vocations being an English teacher, one would think that the irony of me being unable to find the time to serve the Lord in writing this Bible study is because I have been working much more than usual. More than realizing the irony, though, is me sitting here and pondering whether my hard work of the last month or so has been “as for the Lord” or “for men” (Colossians 3:23).
For me, work has always been an easy idol. I like to work. I thrive when I get to multitask (with a reasonable number of tasks). I like the feeling of accomplishment I get when a task is complete, or a project goes well. Both of my vocations stem from God’s calling on my life and involve helping people in various capacities. Getting to see people receive needed help, whether it be the lightbulb clicking on when a student learns something or helping someone seek Christ, gives me an indescribable feeling. But, if I am not careful, I will take on more and more and more until I lose myself in the work.
I need accountability in this area, and I have people who are committed to helping me strike a correct balance in this area of my life so that I do not overindulge. I know I am a workaholic. I must be careful because I am a teetotaler and will add and add and add until I burn myself out. I know this because I have been there, having burned out and swapped careers just before my 30th birthday. It is part of the reason that I believe the Lord has allowed me to slowly ease back into pastoral ministry. I had to divorce my identity from my work and let Him define me in light of who He has made, is making, and will make me to be.
So, to answer my earlier question – and unfortunately confess to y’all, dear Sojourners: I have leaned more toward working for man than God as of late. Knowing that is, as they say, half the battle. Now, is the time for repentance.
Lest you think I am exaggerating because work is a good thing invented by God, too much of it or having it out of the balance of rest that exhibits faith in Jesus’s strength over my own reveals that I am not bearing fruit accordingly, namely the self-control that comes from being in Christ (Galatians 5:22-23). Look at a few passages of Scripture that illustrate this:
Proverb 25:16 – If you have found honey, eat only enough for you, lest you have your fill of it and vomit.
1 Corinthians 9:25 – Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.
Titus 2:11-12 – For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.
We will revisit these later on as we seek to apply our passage today, but it should be clear here that too much of a good thing can be bad – and yes, God invented work, so it is (or at least it was meant to be) good when done according to His Word and will.
In Genesis 2:15, we see that God put Adam into “the garden of Eden to work it and keep it”. This is not so much a mandate as it is a role or calling for Adam, and as his descendants, we have roles and callings as well. Initially, this work was easy for Adam as he was tasked with naming the animals in Eden and later his wife. God gave Adam the task of being “fruitful” and multiplying in order that the earth would be filled in Genesis 1:28, which the Bible describes as a part of God blessing them. These tasks were good and enjoyable – and probably much less of the toil we associate with work because, at the time, there was no sin in the world, no death (Genesis 1:31, Romans 5:12). Once the Fall occurred when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3:6), death and sin began to reign in the earth (Romans 5:17), and God cursed the ground, the very same ground that Adam had been tasked to keep and work (Genesis 3:17-19). Adam’s sin took that good and fruitful work and turned it to toil with the addition of pain and thorns and thistles and sweat and dust (Genesis 3:17-19). Work went from something that was good and revolved around the role God assigned and calling He gave as a blessing and introduced the toil and fruitless labor that we know all too well.
This is why we need Colossians 3:22-4:1. Because of the Fall, the image of God in us has been marred by sin, but God, when He saves us, begins conforming us to the image of His Son Jesus rather than the world around us (Romans 8:29, 12:1-2). We saw this earlier in Colossians 3:9-10 when Paul told the Colossian church (and us) that we are to be putting “off the old self with its practices” and putting “on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator”. We need Colossians 3:22-4:1 to see what we need to take off and what we need to put on. We need to understand that God has placed us in our vocations as His ambassadors and missionaries (2 Corinthians 5:19-20) and ask the Lord to let our work be adorned with Christ rather than conformed to this fallen world.
Bondservants, Obey in Everything Those Who are Your Earthly Masters (vv. 3:22-25)
On the surface, this passage is about slaves obeying their masters. That is what it is about.
What This Does NOT Mean
As we covered in our study of Philemon, the God of the Bible is not associated with the slavery that comes to mind from colonial America or present-day human trafficking. You can look back at the Appendices from that Bible study and see God’s stance on the treatment of slaves and on the ungodly horrors visited on people in chattel slavery and around the world today; He is against such things. When the Holy Spirit breathed this out and had Paul to write it down, He was not condoning chattel slavery or human trafficking – plain and simple (see Appendix III — Bible Passages Condemning Practices Related to Chattel Slavery and Modern-Day Slavery/Human Trafficking). So, operating under the presupposition that what Paul is talking about here is not that[2], let’s dive in and see what He does mean here.
What Does It Mean, Then?
The word translated “bondservant” in the ESV is the Greek word doulos. It can – and probably should – be simply translated as slave, but there is a connotation[3] in the present that is wrapped up in the sinful atrocities of chattel slavery as well as in the continued sinful treatment of African Americans in the century plus following the Civil War in the Deep South. Bondservant does not really have a connotation and allows for the denotation, or definition, of what God has for us here. That word doulos refered to a slave, “one who is in a permanent relation of servitude to another” where their will is “altogether consumed in the will of the other”, and it references one being “bound to serve”.[4] It is closer to the modern understanding of an indentured servant than it is to modern understanding of slavery.
It would be a cop-out and over-generalization to say that this is all that there was, especially throughout the Roman empire and around the world at that time. There were wicked masters, and when they were bad, they were terrible. Some slaves were severely mistreated. But there were those who served out their debt and returned to regular life. There were even some who would seek to remain in the service of their master after their debt was paid. Roman slavery was associated with vocation. These bondservants could be teachers or builders or whatever skills they had that could generate enough revenue to pay off their debt. In some cases, it was quite like work releases for people who are incarcerated today – or even in the way trustees are given responsibility or management oversight.
The emphasis here is less about the way they were taught and more about how those who found themselves bonded to a master and have confessed Jesus as Lord will serve. The emphasis is on their service rather than the quality of their master. Their service is to be marked by obedience “in everything” (Colossians 3:22). Their service is to flow out of sincere hearts and their fear of the Lord rather than “by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers” (Colossians 3:22). Whatever was required of them was a call to “work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men” because they were “serving the Lord Christ” and receiving the only reward that mattered from Him (Colossians 3:23-24). Those who are saved have submitted themselves to Jesus as Lord – as kurios, the Greek word for the master of a doulos. And this is what their heavenly Lord and Master required of them – what He requires of us.
Now, did this mean that they refused to be paid or for their debt to be worked off? Absolutely not. What it meant was, if they were in Christ, the fruit borne by their lives reflected an inheritance greater than any paycheck and that their redemption by the blood of Jesus meant more than being redeemed from earthly servitude. This also does not mean that they are above punishment if they did wrong because, with God, “there is no partiality” and “the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done” (Colossians 3:25). This would also cover if an earthly master required a sinful act from their slave or bondservant. Just like we looked at in the relationships of fathers to children and husbands to wives, being in service to God above all means that we refuse to bow to the call of the world and sin even and especially if it means punishment or persecution (1 Peter 2:20-23). To clarify, this would not include the way a wicked master would punish but is meant to help us understand that, even for saved people, there are consequences for sin.
To be adorned in Christ as one works and serves means that they are serving the Lord above all, no matter their vocation. It means that Jesus has a plan for your vocation that goes beyond what you can see (Ephesians 2:10)! It means your quality of work matters, not because of your earthly masters or bosses but because you belong to Jesus and He has set you apart to shine His “marvelous light” in your workplace and find opportunity to “proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness” (1 Peter 2:9).
Masters, Treat Your Bondservants Justly and Fairly (v. 4:1)
Since slavery was an integrated part of the Roman Empire and the Colossian church clearly had masters in her members, like Philemon, it is important for God to set a standard for how those masters would operate. This extends to those in both vocational authority and other areas of oversight or administration.
What Does It Mean, Then, to Be a Master Who is Just and Fair?
The way that Paul wrote it here is pretty clear who is in charge: “knowing you also have a Master in heaven” (Colossians 4:1). Earthly masters who are saved imitate their heavenly Master, their Lord Jesus Christ. I do not want to oversimplify this, but it means you are going to be different than most masters, the vast majority of bosses.
In the case of Roman slavery, it could have been a call for them to lose revenue by not having debts paid back because their Lord was calling them to free slaves – completely contrary to the culture around them (see Appendix II — Bible Passages Discussing the Release of Slaves). In the case of vocational authority today – being a boss or having oversight/authority over people, it means that you are called to bear fruit of God’s Spirit being in you. Earthly leaders and bosses like to lead with intimidation, but Jesus was a servant leader. He did not hesitate to humble Himself and wash His disciples feet. Saved bosses can lead by serving and humility as well. Earthly bosses can threaten and demoralize, but Jesus lifts up the lowly. Saved bosses can do the same.
Now, does this mean that a boss or leader who is saved is a pushover and allows their employees to run rough-shod over them? Absolutely not! Jesus holds people accountable for their actions. Jesus is a Master who has expectations for His people, but Jesus is consistent with who He is as He disciplines and corrects. So, if you are an earthly boss and Jesus is Lord, you do not conform to the ways of this world for material or vocational gain; no, you allow who His Spirit has transformed and is transforming you into – how He is conforming you back to the image of God in Christ – set the course for how you deal with people.
In a sense, those bosses who are saved and adorned in Christ function in regard to Christ as Paul describes a bondservant to serve. Saved bosses have a “sincerity of heart” stemming from their fear of the Lord (Colossians 3:22). They “work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord [they] will receive the inheritance as [their] reward (Colossians 3:23). They serve the “Lord Christ” (Colossians 3:24).
The remainder of Colossians 4:1 highlights what that looks like as Paul tells the masters that they should treat their bondservants “justly and fairly”. This is where the tough part of leadership comes in. If an employee has committed some sort of infraction that necessitates firing them, a godly master fires them. If there is a process that is to be followed to do so, the process is followed. This would prohibit office politics and replace it with a yearning to be just and fair as Jesus has been just and fair with them. In some cases, where grace and mercy can be shown, this calls for that, too – all in balance with how the Word teaches us and the Spirit of God leads, and all contrary to the way that this fallen world operates.
Wrapping Up
So, what does that look like? If you are like me, you look at some of this and it seems like this is a good way to get taken advantage of or to sign up to get a lot of extra junk to put up with at work. It is important to remember that our work is not our identity. Jesus gives us an identity in Him by redeeming us from the power of sin and death, rescuing us from the wrath of God, and eternally adopting us into His family. And we get to be adorned with Him and bear His family name into whatever vocation He has for us.
Here are some principles to consider:
Do everything for the Lord (v. 3:17). Whatever your job and whatever your task, work as if Jesus Himself had tasked you with it. This gives work meaning and views it in light of the Kingdom of God and not in whatever earthly kingdom you are employed at.
Work with sincerity and integrity (v. 3:22). Employees should not work merely for status and approval but should consistently act with the understanding that their ultimate accountability is to God.
Work heartily and diligently (v. 3:23). Workers should put their best effort into their work, recognizing that this is part of the calling of their Lord Jesus Christ. This calls for a strong work ethic – not a calling for workaholism – because the work is as to the Lord not men.
Focus on eternal rewards rather than temporal ones (v. 3:24). Earthly compensation matters. It does. It is a big reason why we have and need jobs. The Bible is not against us earning wages and even says if you do not work, you do not eat. But there is more to working than a paycheck. There is an inheritance from the Father for those who serve Him. This mindset helps maintain perspective, especially if your work environment is challenging or worse. If you work for a paycheck or merely for retirement, there are limits to your service. If you work for the One who has made a place for you in heaven (and based on His merit, not yours), your perspective changes.
Be accountable for what you do wrong (v. 3:25). Remember, God is a just God and is pro-discipline. An earmark of being in Christ is repentance. One of the best ways you can exhibit what Jesus has done in you through His salvation is by repenting when you have messed up. This is not a popular viewpoint, but even if your wrongdoing costs you your job, your standing with Jesus is based on His righteousness not your own — which is good news: God is pro-grace!
If you have authority over employees, treat them justly and fairly(v. 4:1). Treat employees as Jesus treats you. It really is that simple. No amount of earthly success or status is worth conforming to the world when Jesus has transformed you into something better.
Realize you are accountable to God (v. 4:1). This is true for believers whether you are a boss or an employee. If you have confessed Jesus as Lord, He is your master. He calls the shots. What He says goes. And serving Him even at the expense of losing a job is worth it. He will still be here when all of this passes away.
Do not let work become an idol (Proverb 25:16, 1 Corinthians 9:25, Titus 2:11-12). It is easy to get into the mindset that because you work as unto the Lord that you cannot quit or stop. The God who ordained work also ordained rest. He did not bring us from death to life in Him for our lives to be wrapped up in our vocations. Jesus gives us wisdom and self-control. While He may call some people to a single vocation and calling for their whole lives, He does not do that with everyone. Follow Him and be willing to change or quit if that is what He has for you. At the same token, be willing to dig in where you are if that is what He has for you.
This has not been my favorite Bible study. I have had to take a step back and realize that I am susceptible to getting my work life out of whack, even when I thought I had it all worked out. The good news is Jesus is the God who saves and a Lord who is active in the lives of His servants. No matter how many times I mess up, I can approach His throne and receive grace and mercy, which He has in an inexhaustible supply.
What about you? I do not mean to meddle, but I exhort you, dear Sojourner, to look at your life and your work and test it according to the Word of God. How can you apply this and shine more brightly His marvelous light rather than working in such a way that you hide the light of Christ.
Know this: I am praying for you and asking God to work in and through your work.
Those God has saved have a wonderful privilege and opportunity. We GET to gather and worship Him. We GET to serve Him. We GET to tell others about Him and all He has done. And with all we GET to do, there is great opportunity to point people to Him!
I am reminded of Paul in Philippians 3. He lists all of the reasons he has “for confidence in the flesh” in vv. 3-6. He was one of God’s chosen people. He bore the sign of the old covenant in circumcision. He could trace his heritage all the way back — “tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews”. And on top of all of that, he had been a zealous Pharisee to the point of persecuting the Church and fully righteous based on man’s understanding of the law.
On paper, he had everything.
In the eyes of religious men, he was perfect.
But what matters is his (and our) standing before God.
Look at how Paul shows us that he thinks on his former lofty status:
“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness of God that depends on faith….” (vv. 7-9)
He willingly lost — set aside, trashed, cast away — all of that worldly standing because of “the surpassing worth of knowing Christ [as] Lord”! All of those things that took all of his life to attain were cast aside in a moment when he found something — someONE — better!
What about you?
Once Paul met Jesus, all of the good he thought he had was like filthy garbage or fecal matter (look up that word for “rubbish” in the Greek if you don’t believe me). If you claim Christ, are you carrying His gospel and proclaiming Him or are you walking around carrying garbage or worse?
Here’s a challenge, Christ Community fam: think of one person you know that you are not sure (or maybe you are sure) whether they know Christ as Lord; pray for them, asking God to give you courage and opportunity to share Him and invite them to come with you Sunday; and do it — invite them!
Bringing folks to church is not sharing the gospel, but it is a sweet thing to point people to the One who saved you. It is a good way to tell folks that you don’t have it all together and that, because of the “surpassing worth of knowing Christ”, you put your faith in Him, believed in Him and confessed Him as Lord (Romans 10:9-10)!
John will be preaching from the Word. We will be reading from the Word together and singing about and to Jesus according to the Word.
16For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. 18Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because He has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people love the darkness rather than the light because their works are evil. 20For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
5And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that He can open the scroll and its seven seals.” 6And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. 7And He went and took the scroll from the right hand of Him who was seated on the throne. 8And when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9And they sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are You to take the scroll and to open its seals, for You were slain, and by Your blood, You ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, 10and You have made them a Kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”
Do you ever feel like you are living in between two realities — like there’s a tension in where you are and where you want to be?
In a sense, all of us are, especially if you are saved. There is the reality of what Jesus has done in dying for our sins and raising again (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). There’s the reality of when His Spirit convicted us of our sin and we turned — repented — from our sin and put our faith and trust in Jesus (John 16:8, Acts 2:38)….
Those who are saved know and understand that reality. They understand that confessing Jesus as Lord and believing He is risen is an eternal-life altering moment (Romans 10:9-10). And with that comes the assurance that Jesus is alive and reigning despite the way this world is going (Ephesians 1:20-21, Colossians 1:17-18). There is assurance that Jesus cannot be defeated. There is assurance that Jesus has promised to return for His Bride, the Church, in victory and bring her to be with Him forever and ever (John 14:3, Revelation 19:7-9). There is assurance that He who promised is faithful (Hebrews 10:23).
But living in between those bookends is tough. Salvation is already and, at the same time, not yet. There is a tension because we struggle with sin inside us and without us (Romans 7:21-25). There is a spiritual battle being waged (Ephesians 6:12), and with it comes pain and struggle and sorrow and danger and mourning and threat and…well, that list can go on and on, can’t it?
I’ve been thinking about that tension a lot this week, and, thankfully, the tension drove me to Jesus in His Word. Let’s look at the bookends of Romans 8 to see just how faithful and powerful our God is!
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
God tells us here that, for those who are in Christ, there is NOW “no condemnation”. If Jesus has saved you, you are saved. He has paid the death penalty for your sin and given you His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Before He saves us, we are captives of our own sin yet we have no idea. We had a sort of sad Stockholm syndrome with our sin and could not see that our captor — the sin that we so enjoyed and pursued — was actively trying to kill us. But Jesus comes in as a powerful warrior King and rescues us from our captivity. He rides in and paid the price to free us. As the old hymn says, He sought us and bought us with His redeeming blood. Death and sin no longer own those He saves. He bore our sin and paid our price by His death to set us free and give us His life.
This is a powerful bookend — a significant beginning where our lifeless corpse, killed by the wages of our sin, is filled with life better than anything we could even hope for. But the life we have is still in a world where death and sin is rampant. The Fall is everywhere and still falling. There are temporal dangers that bring fear and reminders of captivity. They breathe threats that we still deserve condemnation. And our physical bodies, despite our eternal life, are decaying and dying.
Here in the middle is a scary place to be sometimes.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ is the One who died — more than that, who was raised — who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or danger, or sword?
These rhetorical questions are helpful here in the tension of living eternal life in this fallen world.
The accuser can throw our sin in our faces all he wants to. Our past can testify against us as vehemently as it wants to. If God is for us, none can stand against us. He gave His Son to save us and will not withhold His grace. There is no condemnation because Jesus justifies those He saves — justifies in the present-tense because Jesus is alive and seated at the right-hand of His Father and actively interceding for us!
So, in the midst of fear — in the midst of those frightening things Paul listed in v. 36: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, danger, death by the sword — the answer to the question of “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” is a clear and definite NO ONE!
If Jesus has saved you, the world can throw its worst at you, and its greatest threat — death — is your greatest reward. Death brings those who are in Christ TO Christ (Philippians 1:21-23). I don’t know about you, but that comforts me. I don’t have to survive to thrive. Jesus has saved me, so I thrive in Him and eternally no matter what happens here (John 10:28-29, 1 Peter 1:3-5). The greatest threats in the midst of tension are merely part of a testimony of what Jesus is bringing me through, even and especially when I can’t see it right now (Romans 8:28)! I can know that because my Savior lives and reigns and intercedes for me even now (Hebrews 7:25, Romans 8:34)!
How about you?
Are you in Christ?
If not, I invite you to call out to Him to save you (Romans 10:13)! He is still that valiant warrior King — the God who saves! He delights in reconciling sinners to Him (Zephaniah 3:17, 2 Corinthians 5:18-19)! He has the power to bring you from dead in sin to alive in Him (Ephesians 2:4-5).
If you are in Him, I invite you to breathe a sigh of relief because God has got you no matter what (John 16:33, Psalm 46:1-2). One way or the other, He is bringing you to Him (2 Corinthians 4:16-18), so let the things of this earth pale in comparison to His light and glory (Colossians 3:1-4)!
I invite you all to gather with us tomorrow at Christ Community as we sing to and about Jesus, all He has done and is doing. John will open the Word and point us to Jesus, the living Word of God (John 1:1, 14).
I can hardly wait.
In the midst of the tension between salvation and eternal life, we are going to remind each other of what He has done and can do — get a glimpse of what it will be to stand around His throne and worship Him — the Lamb who was slain, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ — forever and ever (Revelation 5:5-6, Titus 2:13).
21But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
9But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. 10For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. 11For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, 12saying,
“I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.”
13And again,
“I will put my trust in him.”
And again,
“Behold, I and the children God has given me.”
14Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
It is so easy to look to the sadness and wickedness of the world (and even our own hearts) and be discouraged. Really, downtrodden is the word that comes to mind for me — like we are being walked over by so much evil, trampled by this fallen world and our own sin, weary under the burden of it all. But this is not a burden we can — or were meant — to carry.
Listen to the good news Jesus has for us in Matthew 11:28-30:
Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.
Jesus offers us the opportunity to lay our burdens on Him and be sustained by Him (Psalm 55:22). We can cast our anxieties on Him, and He will lift us up “because He cares for [us]” (1 Peter 5:6-7).
So as we approach Sunday, the first day of the week, the day when God’s people gather around the world in celebration of the resurrection of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, you may find yourself burdened and exhausted. You may feel that you have to paste on a smile to come and gather with His people in worship or that you have to do something to make yourself worthy or right.
No, no, no.
Heed Jesus’s words in Matthew 11:28-30 and come to Him. Bring your weariness and trouble to Him. Bring your downtrodden self to be lifted up by Him. Bring your sin to be forgiven by Him. Come to Him.
Your face my be pointed down by the troubles and trials of this world, but, as the psalmist said, lift your eyes to the hills and see from whence your help comes. Your “help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:1-2). Lift your eyes and await Jesus, our coming King who will return to gather His Bride, His Church, to Himself as surely as He returned from death and the grave.
That’s good news!
And that’s the King we will be singing to and about tomorrow. That’s the great God and Savior we will be reading about and John will be preaching about.
Hear my prayer, O LORD; give ear to my pleas for mercy! In Your faithfulness answer me, in your righteousness! Enter not into judgment with Your servant, for no one living is righteous before You.
For the enemy has pursued my soul; he has crushed my life to the ground; he has made me sit in darkness like those long dead. Therefore my spirit faints within me; my heart within me is appalled.
I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that You have done; I ponder the work of Your hands. I stretch out my hands to You; my soul thirsts for You like a parched land. Selah
Answer me quickly, O LORD! My spirit fails! Hide not Your face from me, lest I be like those who go down to the pit. Let me hear in the morning of Your steadfast love, for in You I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to You I lift up my soul.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.
This week has been long and tough, and I am in need of time spent with my brothers and sisters in Christ in worship of Him — “our great God and Savior” (Titus 2:13).
While this week has been long and tough, that does not necessarily mean that it has been bad. This ain’t that kind of post. No, it’s been long and tough, ultimately, in a good way. I am as filled with joy as I am tired.
I have gotten to be back with my school kiddos from last semester, and it has been a joy to me. They have grown and matured over the summer and teaching them again fills my heart with joy (and makes my knees hurt, too). A part of me has switched back on that has been idle for a few months. A part of my heart has been opened, almost as if it were a room that has been vacant has been opened and its curtains pulled back to let in the light and the dust covers pulled free. My classroom is open for business.
I am relearning the balance of vocation and ministry as well as getting back into the swing of being husband and father through all of it. This is not complaining. Balance is tough, but it is good. To paraphrase Popeye, I am who I am, and who I am is just me — rough edges as well as smooth. It is a joy to balance because all of these areas are part of who God called me to be in Him, and as I am His, so I am in all of it.
In the midst of the joy, there has also been sorrowful joy. My friend and mentor — one who helped me learn how to rightly divide the Word of God and who instilled in me what it is to faithful break down the Word of God in preaching — passed away. Bro. David Miller was unique and special to many. He was a mentor and friend to hundreds of preachers over the years and wanted no fame or glory for it as he was a self-proclaimed Country Preacher At-Large. He fought battles for orthodox Christian belief and biblical teaching in Southern Baptist life that were of vital importance but found time to invest in young preachers (in experience not necessarily age) with study resources and education, of which I am the least. He gave example in his preaching of teaching the deep things of the Word with clarity and making sure that we take the time to break them down that they can be understood. His life was a testimony to the grace of Jesus.
I came across an interview he did with Todd Friel and Wretched Radio, and I would like to share with you the way he explained salvation (I am providing the biblical cross-references because I don’t want you to take Bro. David’s word for it but to see what God’s Word says):
“We have no ability of our own to repent and believe (John 6:44, Ephesians 2:8-9). However, we can avail ourselves — if you are not a Christian in this room today you can avail yourself of the means of grace (Isaiah 55:6-7, Acts 17:30). You can bend your knee, and you can bow your heart (Philippians 2:10-11). And you can call upon the Lord (Romans 10:13). And you can beseech the the Lord for mercy, confess your sins, and trust Him to do a work of regeneration in your heart (Ezekiel 36:26-27, Titus 3:5, 1 John 1:9) — to give you, to infuse into you an inclination to turn from sin with godly sorrow and to believe the the gospel (2 Corinthians 7:10, Mark 1:15).
“That’s salvation.
“That gets you started.
“That’s salvation in the past tense (2 Timothy 1:9). This repenting and believing results in justification (Galatians 2:16). The Lord will clear you of guilt, declare you to be innocent, and give to you the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1, 2 Corinthians 5:21). He’ll take the practical — not the intrinsic — the practical righteousness of Christ, His having fulfilled the Law as a substitute for sinners (Matthew 5:17, Romans 8:3-4), God will write that down on your account (Philippians 3:9). This will provide positional sanctification for you (1 Corinthians 1:30, Hebrews 10:10). When God looks upon you thereafter, He’ll see you as being in Christ, in possession in the righteousness of Christ (1 Corinthians 5:17, Philippians 3:9). You’ll never have any righteousness of your own; your righteousness will come from Christ (Isaiah 61:10).”
What a beautiful picture of the gospel of Jesus Christ — that Jesus paid the price for our sins and made a way for us to be saved by grace through faith in Him! Jesus saves, not based on any ability to earn it, and that is good news as all we are able to earn is death and condemnation because of our sin.
This hits different knowing that the “pasts tense salvation” Bro. David talked about is present tense for him now. His faith has been made sight. He spent decades confined to a wheel chair in a body that failed him gradually since he was sixteen, but now he has a new body. More than that, the surpassing worth of knowing Christ is paid in full as he knelt before his Savior face-to-face.
Tomorrow at Christ Community, Lord willing, we are going to gather in worship of our resurrected King, Jesus Christ. We are going to rejoice in the truth of His gospel — that He died for our sins, was buried, and rose again just as the Bible shows us (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). We are going to read His Word and hear His Word preached. We are going to lift our voices and sing to and about Him.
Jesus is the source of my joy, and I hope He is the source of yours as well. There is no pain He can not salve and no sinner He cannot save.
If you are not a Christian and reading this, seek Him while He may be found. Call upon Him to save you. Confess Him as Lord, believe He has risen, and He will save you. He promised He would for all who do so, and He who promised is faithful.
If you are a Christian and reading this, seek Him still. There is coming a day when all of the sad things of this earth will come untrue. The last tears will be dried by His nail-scarred hand, and there will be no more sorrow or mourning or pain because everything will be made new and we will dwell with our God forevermore.
Either way, YOU are INVITED to gather with us tomorrow and sing, read, and hear the gospel. YOU are INVITED to gather in worship of the King of kings. YOU are INVITED to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.
1And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience — 3among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, 5even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved — 6and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
8For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepares beforehand, that we should walk in them.
The Bible teaches us that it is good to meditate on God’s Word so that, as the Lord told Joshua, we “may be careful to do everything written in it” (Joshua 1:8). To meditate on it means that we are doing more than reading or comprehending it because we are dwelling on it, allowing it to stay on our minds and hearts throughout the day. This is a practice the Bible attributes to those who “delight” or “love” God’s Word and want the words of their mouths and meditation of their hearts to be pleasing in the sight of God (Psalm 1:2, 19:14, 119:97).
Meditation Monday is an opportunity for us to take a short passage of Scripture — no more than a few verses, consider what it means, and store it in our minds so that we think on it throughout the day and it make its way into our hearts and lives.
Here is today’s passage:
Psalm 119 is all about God’s Word. It is 176 verses long and has 22 sections (one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet). It is a very long poem of adoration and worship to God for giving His Word and providing His people with it. There are eight words the psalmist uses to talk about the Word of God: law, testimonies, ways, precepts, statutes, commandments, rules, and, of course, word. We are going to be spending a while on Mondays looking at some highlights from Psalm 119 to help train our minds and hearts to meditate on God’s Word.
Today’s passage helps us understand how viewing life in light of eternal life can help keep us from focusing on “worthless things”.
If we are not careful, we can get caught up in all of the evil and darkness of this world and begin to feel like all that is light, good, or godly is being extinguished. Hopelessness takes root easily because we cannot see a way forward and it seems like the forces for good are few and weak in the face of overwhelming evil. But that is not the case. How can I say that with assurance? To use the words of the beloved children’s song: “The Bible tells me so”:
There are many Bible passages that I could give, but two from John’s gospel are very clear and comforting:
John 1:1-5 — “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
John 16:29-33 — “His disciples said, ‘Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.’ Jesus answered them, ‘Do you now believe? Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.’”
In these verses we get needed perspective and an illustration of our need for God, through His Word and His Spirit within us, to turn our eyes from the “worthless things” of this world toward the “life” that comes from His “ways”. The darkness is not powerful enough to extinguish the light because Jesus is the Light of the world (John 8:12)! He is God and has already “overcome the world”!
If our eyes are fixed on our social media feeds and news outlets, we will be in constant fear, but if our eyes are fixed on Jesus, there is no need to fear. You might be tempted argue against this, but it is the Bible that defines what is worthless and what is worth focusing on. The things above where Jesus is are where our eyes and focus should be fixed (Colossians 3:1-3). The “worthless things” are here below.
So, meditate on God’s Word today and find life in His ways.
Actually, I’ve been excited all week because we have been having VBS at Christ Community Church! The theme of the week has been “Start the Party: Celebrate the Good News” and has been filled with celebrations of Jesus inviting people to follow Him — to come to Him! He’s STILL inviting people to come to Him to be saved, and that’s good news worth celebrating!
What does it mean to be saved?
Imagine someone swimming who has gone out over their head and is drowning. They can’t swim their way out, so they cry out for a lifeguard or someone to help them. If, thankfully, the lifeguard hears them and is able to rush to their rescue and pull them to safety on the shore, that person has been saved from drowning.
That same principle could also apply to someone who is stuck in a burning building and has fallen unconscious from smoke inhalation. Firefighters are called to the building and find them laying there. The firefighters pick up this totally helpless person, carry them out of the building, and get them the medical attention they need. The firefighters and paramedics have saved this person from danger and death.
In that same way, God provided Jesus to save or rescue sinners who put their trust in Him. That’s what being saved is: sinners putting their faith (trust/belief) in Jesus and asking Him to save them. No matter what we have done or who we are, Jesus can save us.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
Why do we need to be saved?
You might look at the illustration of the person drowning or trapped in a burning building and think that makes sense for them but not see yourself in any danger or in need of being saved. We need to be saved from the consequences of our sin, namely death (Romans 6:23). Sin is anything we think, say, or do that goes against God and what He has declared right.
The Bible teaches us that all of us have sinned (Romans 3:23), that “none is righteous, no not one” (Romans 3:10). The word used for sin in the Bible is an archery term that describes missing the bullseye, except it’s not quite that simple. God’s righteous standard is the bullseye, but we aren’t exactly aiming for the bullseye. In our sinfulness, we are aiming at whatever we want, thinking, saying, or doing whatever we want.
You see, sin is not an accidental miss of God’s bullseye because our aim is messed up with sin; no, our sin is us deciding we have a god-like ability to choose our own target or decide that what we want and the way we want to live is the bullseye. Imagine being at an archery tournament and, as the archers line up to take their shot, someone walks down the course, peels the target paper off of the designated holder, and walks over and just sticks it wherever they want. They could set it right in front of them a foot away or even tack it on to one of their competitors or simply take an arrow from their quiver and stick it straight through the middle. Would they win the competition? Absolutely not! You can’t have a moving target. And we do not get to decide what the standard is — what the bullseye is. God does.
That’s why the Bible describes all of us as sinners like this:
“…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God….” (Romans 3:23).
The “glory of God” is His perfection, His holiness, and because of our sin, we miss the mark completely.
Romans 6:23 tells us that the “wages of sin is death”. This means that our sin earns us death and that there is nothing we can do to earn our way out of it. Thankfully, though, that is not the end of Romans 6:23! Check out the full verse:
“For the wages of sin is death, BUT the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
God has made a way for us! Just as we saw above in John 3:16, we see that Jesus paid the penalty for our sin by dying in our place and offers us life instead. That little word “but” in Romans 6:23 shows us that we do not have to get the death our sin earned us because we can trust in Jesus and confess Him as Lord and receive His free gift of eternal life instead! That’s good news!
How can you be saved?
The only way for us to be saved is to turn from our sins (and the punishment — death — we deserve because of it) to Jesus and put of faith and trust in Him. We turn from our sin because we realize we are in trouble and deserve death because of them. We turn to Jesus because we realize that, just like the illustration of the drowning person or the one trapped in the burning building, we cannot save ourselves. We need a Savior. The problem is, there aren’t people lined up to save sinners. Jesus is different. Look at the beautiful picture of God’s love in Jesus from Romans 5:8:
“God demonstrated His love for us in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Jesus saves sinners.
To put or faith and trust in Him means that we believe that Jesus fully paid the penalty for our sins by dying on the cross and raising from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). It is trusting in what He has done for us, what He has earned. It is having faith that when He offers forgiveness, He means it and has paid the price to do it (Colossians 2:13-14)!
Here is how the Bible tells us we can be saved:
“if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” (Romans 10:9-10)
To be saved, one must confess Him as Lord, meaning we give our lives over to Him, trusting that He knows best and acknowledge He is God, asking Him to take charge of our lives. We tell Him that we believe He is who the Bible says He is: the Savior who died for our sins and rose again!
If we do this, not just saying the words but genuinely believing in Him and seeking Him, the Bible tells us that we are saved (Romans 10:13)!
That’s good news!
So, in the spirit of our celebration of that good news this week at VBS, I would like to offer you an invitation to come to Jesus — to look at your life and your sin and put your hope in Jesus. He is not a moving target but a loving and living Savior who wants to save. He is able to save.
That good news, really that “great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13), is why we do what we do every Sunday at Christ Community. He is the subject and recipient of all we sing about. He through His Word is the substance of all of our preaching. We cannot offer social capital or monetary benefit, but we GET to point people to the God of the universe who is mighty to save!
Won’t you gather with us this Sunday?
And if you have read this and know you are not saved, I want to invite you to come and talk with us as we would love to introduce you to our great God and Savior!
24Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, 25to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
15The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. 16But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in Him for eternal life. 17To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Sunday’s coming, and we GET to gather with our faith family and worship our resurrected King, “our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:14)!
I had started writing this but something changed. It sounded, well, less than genuine. The truth is I am not always excited or upbeat (crazy, I know). This extends to looking forward to gatherings, even gatherings with my faith family. I imagine you identify with that idea, that sometimes you are weary or anxious or depressed. Sometimes we grieve. Sometimes we just feel melancholy and gloomy.
But that melancholy does not extinguish the JOY that comes from being in Christ. The good news of the gospel is still good when the bad news or tough realities of the world set in. You see, all things bad have a gospel expiration date because one day, as the Jesus Storybook Bible puts it, all the sad things will come untrue.
Isn’t that a beautiful thought? The sad and bad of this world will simply end when we find ourselves dwelling with God as His people and Him with us as our God (Revelation 21:3)! The last tear on our face will be wiped by His nail-scarred hand, and mourning, crying, pain, and death will be done with forever and ever (Revelation 21:4)!
For now, though, tears exist. Mourning exists. Pain exists. Death exists. But GOD….
There are two passages on my heart that hold promises that carry me when that melancholy sets in.
I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.
This is part of Jesus’s last conversation with His disciples on the night before He was crucified. He told them that the time He had prophesied — the time of His death — was at hand. He promised them the Holy Spirit would come and comfort them. He told them of the tribulation and hatred the world would bring upon His people because of Him. He told them one of them would betray Him and that another would deny Him. He washed their feet, ate with them, and prayed for them. In the context of John 16:33, He had just told them that all of the sorrow that was coming in the next twenty-four hours and for the rest of their lives (and ours until He returns) would turn to joy.
Jesus promises two things in John 16:33. The first promise is tribulation. As the disciples noted in John 16:29, Jesus was no longer using any “figurative speech” with them but telling them straight up: “you will have tribulation”. No one wants that, but that terror comes untrue in the second promise: those who are His can “have peace” — they can “take heart” because He has already “overcome the world”!
Trouble comes. Trials come. Tribulation is a reality for His people. But Jesus had already overcome the world before He even died on the cross! Now, He has died and has risen, just as He promised.
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Jesus told His disciples to “take heart” on the night before His crucifixion. Here, we can see our resurrected Lord tell us to “take heart” in a different way. He has ascended and is on His throne, but He has not left us alone — lo, He is with us always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20)!
When troubles come and trials abound, even when melancholy clouds our joy, we can approach Jesus’s throne with the confidence that He has the grace we need — timely grace — and will mercifully help us in our time of need. We can run to Him with the same confidence of a little child scared in the night can approach their parents’ bed. No other king or leader is that approachable, but our King is!
So, even though my excitement wanes, my joy does not. My mood and my circumstances change, but my God does not (James 1:17)! The realities of the bad make the good news that much better.
We just have to remember in the midst of that that He who promised is faithful (Hebrews 10:23)!
That’s who we will be singing about and to this Sunday at Christ Community. We will have the opportunity to read from His Word and have His Word preached to us. We will GET to gather and hear our brothers and sisters lift their voices — not all happy but joyful nonetheless — and be lifted up and reminded of that glorious day when we stand before our King — our “great God and Savior Jesus Christ”, our “blessed hope” who “gave Himself for us to redeem us” (Titus 2:13-14)!.
And if we need to approach the throne of grace in prayer, there is time for that, too, and brothers or sisters who will approach with you because you are not alone!
15For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, 19and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might 20that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22And He put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 23which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
1O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! You have set Your glory above the heavens. 2Out of the mouth of babies and infants, You have established strength because of Your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.
3When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, 4what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
5Yet You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 6You have given him dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, 7all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, 8the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!
Have you ever heard someone ask: Do you want the good news or the bad news? Most of us have.
Sometimes people ask this question because there is simply just some good news and some bad news, and they want to offer folks the opportunity to choose which one they hear first. Most of the time, it offers the view that the good news could potentially cover up the bad news, almost like the perspective from the good news can lift us up from the bad news.
The news that “Sunday’s coming!” is kind of like that. We know that at the very least we are announcing that the day of the week when Jesus’s church gathers to celebrate His resurrection and worship Him, but part of that day of worship, part of meeting and worshiping together is to acknowledge that “the Day [of Jesus’s return is] drawing near” (Hebrews 10:25)! So, “Sunday’s coming!” for Christians is really an announcement that JESUS is COMING!
So, do you want the good news or the bad news?
This question has jogged my memory all the way back to when I was in third grade (an undisclosed amount of time ago). I, being the quirky and nerdy, geeky sort of guy that I am was of a similar sort back then, and it got me a certain amount of attention from larger stronger folks who thought that was weird. There was a certain amount of glasses-breaking beat-down sort of attention that happened fairly regularly, especially on the school bus. This garnered the attention of my principal at the time.
I remember one particular day after a rough and painful bus ride to school where I got called to the principal’s office. Naive as I was, I thought I was being called in to be given some relief — either to make the guys chill out on the beat downs for a while or to maybe at least put some distance between us for a beat down vacation. This wasn’t that. He wanted to know what I was doing to make these guys beat me down and wasn’t buying the story that my mere existence made them angry or that they found it entertaining to beat up on the littler guy.
He gave me a classic good news/bad news situation. He told me that he had called my daddy and that he was coming. It came as bad news that day because Daddy was working night shift and was not to be woken during the day. Waking him would surely mean trouble, especially since, as the principal told me, he had been called because he was sure I was stirring up trouble.
I remember being so scared that Daddy was currently on his way to the school. As the principal kept pressing for what he felt was the real untold story, he kept saying, “Your daddy is coming.” I was reminded of all of Daddy’s promises that getting in trouble at school would mean getting the same or worse trouble at home. I was reminded of all of the lessons on how to act and how to carry myself at school. My daddy loved me, and I had just about been convinced that his showing up at school that day was about the worst news I had heard at that point in my life.
Eventually, there was a knock on the office door, and the secretary ushered Daddy in. His facial expression was perturbed to say the least. He sat in the chair next to mine and the principal began his presentation of the facts as had been presented to me up to a point. Then, something unexpected happened. Daddy held up his hand, motioning for the principal to pause his tirade, and leaned over to me telling me, “Son, you can go back to class.”
That was unexpected. This wasn’t Daddy’s meeting. He had nearly absolute authority over me, but how would that work at school? Rather than waiting to find out, I swallowed the lump in my throat from fear and anxiety and walked out of the office into the hall and back toward class.
What happened next is seared into my memory — a core memory, if you will.
I heard my daddy’s characteristic whistle to get my attention. He was standing at the office door. He winked at me and waved.
You see, a wink was our thing. That wink came to mean many things over the years. It could be as simple as I-see-you or kind of an endearing look or, as it was in this case, everything’s going to be fine because daddy’s got you.
The bad news came untrue because “Your daddy’s coming!” (with the connotation of he’s going to get you) had turned to Daddy is here and he’s got you.
For some, JESUS is COMING could produce fear because they do not know Him. For those who are opposed to Him, the image is that of Revelation 19:11-21 — the rider on the white horse with a sword in His mouth ready to “tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty” (Revelation 19:15). He is coming in the full authority of “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Revelation 19:16) and in power and judgment will defeat those who “gathered to make war against Him who was sitting on the horse and against His army” (Revelation 19:19). Those enemies are to be “slain by the sword that came from the mouth of Him who was sitting on the horse” (Revelation 19:21), or as Martin Luther put it in the hymn “A Mighty Fortress is Our God”, felled with one “little word”.
That’s bad news.
It’s bad news unless you belong to Him, unless you are saved and given eternal life in Him (Romans 10:9-13, John 3:16, Ephesians 2:4-5). To face down the Lamb, Jesus Christ, the rider on the white horse — King of kings and Lord of lords — is a fearful thing. No one in His army will have to fight, Himself included. When He says, “It is done!” (Revelation 21:6), it is simply that — done. None can stay His hand. None can war against Him. None can flaunt His authority.
That’s good news.
It’s good news if you are with Him.
So, do you want the good news or the bad news?
The good news is that Jesus has made a way for us (John 14:6). The King of kings has left His throne and come to earth — to dwell among us (John 1:14), living the life we cannot live while dying the death we deserve (2 Corinthians 5:21). He left the glory of heaven to come to earth and deliver “us from the domain of darkness” and transfer us to His Kingdom by redeeming us and forgiving our sins (Colossians 1:13-14). For those who see Him as King, confess Him as Lord, believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead shall be saved (Romans 10:9-10). Again, that’s good news!
For those whom He has saved, “Sunday’s coming!” means that He has come and is coming again! It is a celebration because not even death could stop Him, that when He promises everlasting life He can give it because He is the Life (John 14:6).
For those whom He has saved, it is better than a wink and a wave telling us everything will be okay — Jesus lives tells us that we can “take heart” because He has already “overcome the world” — everything is already okay because He has already won (John 16:33)!
And that’s what we will be singing about Sunday at Christ Community — that’s WHO we will be singing TO: Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords! The songs we sing and Scriptures we will read will be pointing us to Him and praising Him for who He is and all He has done, is doing, and will do. John will preach to us from God’s Word and preach Jesus!
13He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Just Keith Harris 