Archives: December 2005

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” (John 14:1-14 ESV)

The disciples had just been presented with the fact that Jesus was going where they could not follow. All of their spiritual life seemed to be going so well. They had the greatest Teacher that the world had ever known. He was pouring out His life into them. Perhaps for the first time in their lives, things seemed to be making sense. They finally had purpose. Then like a billow of dark clouds overtaking the sunny plains, Jesus says, “Where I am going you cannot come” (John 13.33).

Do you know what it is like to have the familiar parts of your life plundered? Do you know what it’s like to know in what the purpose of your life consists and to be totally unable to bring it about? Do you know what it’s like to enjoy the seasons of blessings only to be confronted with the valley of despair? Here we approach the Lord’s throne as timid children, “Lord You can do the impossible. I trust You unwaveringly. You have shown me the pleasant places and I know that You path will lead me there. But O God, forgive me, how will this be when I am so downhearted?”

So there might be a little bit of desperation that’s breathed out when Jesus tells His disciples, “Let not your hearts be troubled.” But before they can raise objections or voice concerns, Jesus tells them to trust—to believe. They have no trouble believing in God. But He encourages them to believe in Him just as they believe in God. The rest of these verses are giving by Jesus to help them, and you, to not let hearts be troubled. And all of it rests on who Jesus is and what He did for us.

Do not be downhearted that things are so hard for you down here. I’m sure you’ve said, “If only God would speak to me, I would have the strength to make it. If only Jesus would appear to me, I could stand firm.” Dear believer, God has given this word to speak to you. He has shown Jesus to you through the Word. Jesus may not be here, but He’s not here for your good—He’s preparing a place for you. Trust Him that He does not leave us to sit back and watch us wallow like fish out of water. He’s gone to make the house of joy ready for your arrival. But what if you’re like Thomas? What if you fear that you don’t know the way?

Jesus reminds us, “I am the way.” If you will follow Him, you shall never be led astray. He shall give you joy along the way with eternal happiness at His right hand forever as the goal. “I am the truth.” If ever there is doubt, suspicion, or fear gird yourself in the truth of Jesus Christ. All the falsehoods that would keep you from Him are exposed in the light of His Truth—His being. Stay close to Him. “I am the life.” Do not fear that the way and the truth may cost you a life. Christ Jesus has your life, and no one may pry it out of His hands. Belief in Jesus will take you to the goal of your lives—the Father in heaven.

And do not fear that Jesus had deceived you concerning the end of the journey. The Father is just as loving, precious, honorable, holy, righteous, and sovereign as Jesus has shown Him to be. If ever we doubt that we have seen the Father, Jesus reminds us that we are only to look at Jesus Himself. Jesus is that exact representation of the Father which is the giver of every good gift. Do not think that Jesus hides a frowning Father. The joy on Jesus’ face is merely reflection of infinite joy bursting from the Father. He longs to give gifts to those who trust in His Son. So what gift do you lack today? If the Father has given you His Son, Jesus Christ, how much more will He give you all things?

So know that Jesus’ departure and absence in your life is a means of turning this bed of pain into a harvest of good works. He has a purpose for you when others have said that you’ll never amount to anything. He has a love for you when others have given you nothing but the back of a hand. He wants to fold you into the most glorious work that the world has ever known. Will you believe Jesus for that? Do you think He can do what He promised?

God has put His glory on the line. If you are not made more and more in the image of His Son, then God does not glorify His Son and is not glorified through Him. So the Father is not going to cease the good work that He has begun in you until it is fully complete. He is going to change your worldview, desires, thoughts, and actions so that the Father may be glorified in the Son and His work. If you will believe Jesus He will create in you the desire to ask for things because you just know that’s what Jesus would have asked for. And when that happens, Jesus says, “I will do it. Anything, if it’s asked in my name, I will do it. If you will so follow me as to believe me, seek the place I have prepared for you, look full forward into my glory to see the Father, know that I am in the Father, do the works which I have done, then when you come to ask in My name it will be as though I will be asking it Myself. You believe in God believe also in me.”

“Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away the judgments against you; he has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil. On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: “Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak. The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing. I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival, so that you will no longer suffer reproach. Behold, at that time I will deal with all your oppressors. And I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth. At that time I will bring you in, at the time when I gather you together; for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes,” says the Lord.” (Zephaniah 3:14-20 ESV)

The Lord’s judgment on His people always comes with gospel. Just as soon as we read of the sweeping away of unrighteousness by God’s mighty zeal for His law, we also read of the mighty grounding of grace which has become a place of refuge for His people. So as the unrighteousness is washed away, the righteous people of God are firmly planted in the unshakeable ground of God’s faithfulness. His people are the strong trees whose roots are not destroyed in the storm of God’s wrath. God’s people are the ones whose limbs are burdened with the weight of judgment, but shall once again bloom bright colors in the spring of God’s gracious countenance. The believer has only to wait, for the Lord will be there to pick him or her up and to set the believer on the high grounds of eternal joy where no pain shall be longer found.

Israel did not have to wait until the day of the Lord had come in order to experience joy. And neither do we. If the hope of peace, health, wealth, and prosperity was the goal, then all of our joy would be postponed until the consummation of the kingdom. But Israel can sing, shout, rejoice, and exult in a reality which is the beginning of everlasting and ever-increasing joy—God, Himself. This is the hope of heaven: “The Lord your God is in your midst.” And all of those promises of grace that come along with the promises of judgment are meant to enable you to rejoice in that God. It shows that He’s serious about your joy. And we know that because He is serious about His joy (and His glory for that matter).

He is running His might through the gamut of judgment in order to save a people—to save a person, you. Why, and to what purpose? So that, of course, He might rejoice over them and you with gladness. Oh don’t think that you are His only source of joy. Being that Being which is the source of all eternal happiness and joy, He has no need of a people. But like all good fountains, springs, and sources, He has the tendency to burst the banks of His joy and pour over into fresh rivers of glory, honor, praise, and joy. He is so zealous for His joy that He will save a warring sinner—enabling that sinner to rejoice in Him and ensuring the increase of His own infinite joy.

That relationship of mutual benefit is one of perfect affections. The Lord longs to bestow His love upon us to such degrees that will make all of our amazing emotional highs, stimulating relational intimacy, pulse-pounding adrenal surges, overwhelming sexual experiences, and amazing lasting felicity seem to be the feelings of the stinging winter breeze and the crudeness of unwanted sand. We have before us such love that all other loves shall be forgotten. It is such a love that the Lord wants to bestow upon us that it shall quiet us. The love shall be so all-encompassing that we shall have no other need or want. We shall be so satisfied in the rapture of the love of God that our only want will be to never leave Him and our only need will be for Him to never forsake us. And then a wave of even more love will wash over us as we see all the more of His glory and we shall be like the voyager afloat simply rising with the tide of His love.

Our joy will be so complete in Him, that we shall rejoice and exult with all our hearts. And at that moment, I do not doubt that the universe will be shaken asunder. The foundations of the universe will ache and tremble at the sound of a rising melody of such beautiful perfection that that created world can scarce keep it in. It is the sound of that Inventor of music exulting in His beloved through song. The harmonious sounds shall only enrapture our soul more and more as we fall further in love with the Husband of our souls. His song will be one of His glory—how He took a wretch like me, and made me His trophy. It shall be a boast of the cross of Jesus Christ—in which He justified His right to bestow His love on every sinner. All creation shall have to stop and wonder at this God of song as He trumps the beauty of His grace and pushes the bounds of excellence with His marvelous song.

He will have removed the mourning from life. There shall be no longer enemies that malign, beat, kill, or reproach. There shall be a place where lame are made well, the outcast shall be included, and we nobodys shall have eternal significance. Forget all of the plans to be made much of on earth. On this day the Lord shall make you renowned and praised. All shall know who you are. In that day, passed will be the times when you walked down lonely streets with no one to call you friend. The days will come that you are like most the famous of celebrities here on earth. All shall know your name no matter where you go. They shall say, “There is the one on whom the love of God abides. There is the one who is the bride of Christ. There is the one in whom God delights and over whom He sings.”

“If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or my maidservant, when they brought a complaint against me, what then shall I do when God rises up? When He makes inquiry, what shall I answer Him? Did not He who made me in the womb make him? And did not One fashion us in the womb?” (Job 31:13-15 ESV)

In the portion of Scripture leading up to these verses, Job seems to be going through a moral checklist of different parts of his life. He seems to be seeking those places that he might have stumbled. By examining himself, he is trying discern the reason for his present circumstances or vindicate his own suffering as the suffering of the righteous. Job declares that he has not gazed lustfully at a virgin, he has not walked in falsehood, and he has not committed adultery. And when we come to verses 13-15, we find some very controversial topics being brought up by Job. But his responses to the topics are even more astounding.

He begins to discuss how he treats his slaves. Now we all wish that the text said something like, “I have not rejected the cause of my manservant or maidservant, because I freed them. I made their cause for freedom, my cause.” Of course, that’s not what he says. He simply states that he cared for them. They could bring no complaint against him. So we do not want to make light of that problem. Slavery was made unthinkable through men like William Wilberforce. And if we rightly receive this text, we also could the ones to make certain sins unthinkable. But what is astonishing in this text that makes me hopeful?

Notice that Job regards both the master and the slave as equal. This equality for all is seen in the sentence, “Did not He who made me in the womb make him?” This is a revolutionary idea that Job has here. Job does not have a higher station because he was born a free man, and although his slaves were born in slavery there is no lower station for them. The equality is preexistent even before birth and no matter the status at birth. This should radically free us in regards to racial reconciliation. Let us see that we are equal in the womb, equal in the image of God, and equal in our conception in sin. We all require the same necessities for life, breath, and everything—God. To reject the cause of our fellow menservants and maidservants is to reject the cause of equality. And that equality will not be reached apart from our unification to worship the Lamb of God here, and the joint worship of all tribes, tongues, and nations at His throne in the age to come.

It is equally amazing how that equality is based on God’s work in the womb. “And did not [God] fashion us in the womb?” God is doing something precious in the womb. He is not just sitting back waiting for the laws of nature to set in. He is the law of nature. He is at work in the womb. In the womb, He fashions, knows, and sets apart a little being in His image. Ought we to protect God’s work in the womb? If we can love the work that He does in justification, regeneration, sanctification, and glorification, we must love the work he does in “wombifacation.” God is doing a precious work which only He can do, let us be zealous to uphold the equality of those who God is fashioning in the womb.

The importance of this is seen in Job’s probing question, “When He makes inquiry, what shall I answer Him?” Job, apart from his present suffering, wanted a live of life of blamelessness in light of God’s judgment. Our greatest problems with our sin are our lack of satisfaction in God, lack of trust in His promises, and the lack of gravity with which we consider the holiness of God in judgment. When the Lord asks you what steps you took in order to facilitate the reconciliation of the races in social justice, what shall you say? When He demands to know if you spoke up for the justice of the unborn, what shall be your answer to Him? Perhaps today is a good day to sit down, like Job, and call yourself to account for what you have or have not done. In doing so, you might just make a revolutionary stand for the equality of someone who never would have had a chance.

“Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” (Revelation 3:19-22 ESV)

In the midst of Christ’s rebuke for Laodicea, the believer can find strength and grace in abundance. For the believer, the discipline of the Lord is a means of grace. It is that threat of judgment that drives the believer to the cross anew. Perhaps some of the believers at Laodicea had fallen in with the lukewarm professors of Christianity. The idea of “lukewarmness” is taken from the city in which the church is located. Having no source of water in Laodicea, the city was forced to pipe the water in—causing it to become lukewarm and near undrinkable. Not like the neighboring cities who had cold streams or hot springs, Laodicea’s water supply was dismal. And although the Laodicea church had professed to be rich, they were in fact like their water supply—dismal and about to be spit out.

Notice the warning goes out to all in the church of Laodicea, but the Lord reproves and disciplines those whom He loves. Do not begrudge the miserableness that comes to you when you have sought satisfaction in the world. In those times of wretched discipline, it is the Lord saying, “I love you. I’m going to keep you. Come back to Me.” The Father disciplines His children. Though the swat on the hand may sting the child’s hand and heart, it causes the hand to withdraw from the scorpion bed to which it was reaching.

Every Christian has seasons in which the Lord’s presence is absent in the believer’s life. The Bible has become another book on the shelf and dust has taken up residence on the spine. But the Lord stands at the door and knocks. He speaks and the sheep know the voice of the shepherd. Although the world yells at us not to open the door, we know that our Lover has returned to take us home. Although we may be at the house of our whoring sin, our Husband comes to reclaim His erring bride. We can only ignore the delightful sounds of our wooing Savior for so long till we repent in tears and anguish woes of “What am I doing? He loves me. He died for me. How shall I seek happiness and satisfaction in the arms of another when everlasting joy and happiness are mine to be found in His embrace?”

Notice how Christ comes not to war or fight, He comes to sit and eat. He comes to restore the fellowship that was broken through our treasonous sin. He comes to take the seat which no other can rightfully fill. He comes to take up the conversation upon His Father’s glory where last it was taken off. He comes to make sure that your suicidal neglect of food is remedied by sustenance in His presence. Christ comes to restore the relationship at the very spot where it was discontinued. There is no anger to be dealt with. There is no issue to be resolved. There are no frosty words of bitterness or fiery words of criticism. There is only that sweet closeness which was lost and is now restored.

Some believers miss the point of Christ’s intimacy with the church in this passage. They assume that Christ loves His children the same as the world, so they miss the fact that this statement of Christ standing at the door and knocking is referring to His relationship with the church. Notice the phrase in verse 14, “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea” or in verse 22, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Of course this is important in regards to how we understand God’s work of salvation. But the understanding of this passage is even more massively important in understanding how Christ loves us.

Christ loves us, who may be lukewarm, by reproving and disciplining us. This reproof and discipline breaks the heart of the believer and it drives him or her to the foot of the cross. There they plead again for grace, mercy, and forgiveness and they find it in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. They hear the knocking on the door, the voice of their Shepherd, and they open the door. This is the great doctrine of perseverance and eternal security. The believer will repent. He will open the door. And at that moment, if we are His, if we respond, if we hear His voice, we conquer! We conquer the sin that had tried to entangle us from reaching our Savior. We conquer the world that tried to entice into pursuing fleeting pleasures instead of obtaining everlasting pleasures at His right hand. We conquer to be seated with Christ on His throne. Brother and Sister, hear what the Spirit says today. Be zealous and repent, overcome and open the door today.