Heaven

Shouting in Silence

In Matthew’s gospel account, we read of the events that took place as Jesus was arrested and sent before Caiaphas, the high priest:

Mat 26:59-63  Now the chief priests, the elders, and all the council sought false testimony against Jesus to put Him to death,  (60)  but found none. Even though many false witnesses came forward, they found none. But at last two false witnesses came forward  (61)  and said, “This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.’ ”  (62)  And the high priest arose and said to Him, “Do You answer nothing? What is it these men testify against You?”  (63)  But Jesus kept silent. (emphasis mine).

We’re told a few verses before how Peter was following at a distance to see what was going to happen. No doubt, he was concerned about the situation and what they were doing to Jesus. What do you imagine was going through his mind as he watches Jesus be questioned and ridiculed? I imagine him silently imploring Jesus to answer their questions, to tell them who He was and why He taught the things that He taught. “Tell them Lord, oh please, tell them!” But Jesus kept silent.

Consider what had happened before, when Jesus was brought first before Annas the high priest:

Joh 18:19-22  The high priest then asked Jesus about His disciples and His doctrine.  (20)  Jesus answered him, “I spoke openly to the world. I always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where the Jews always meet, and in secret I have said nothing.  (21)  Why do you ask Me? Ask those who have heard Me what I said to them. Indeed they know what I said.”

Jesus makes the point that it is no secret at all who He is and why He’s here. Ask anyone, and they’ll tell you! But look what happens….

 (22)  And when He had said these things, one of the officers who stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, saying, “Do You answer the high priest like that?”

Their hearts were darkened. They were dead set against Jesus and His teaching. It would make no difference if He had elaborately explained everything to them…again!

Perhaps the silence of Jesus takes on more meaning when we look to what Isaiah had prophesied regarding Him:

Isa 53:7  He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.

Have you ever considered why Jesus endured what He did, in silence? Do you ever stop and think about why Jesus had to face this abuse and the torment of the cross?

Heb 9:27-28  And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,  (28)  so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.

For you. He did it for you.

God’s love for us, His creation, was shouting through the silence of Jesus.

The Nature of Man

2 Corinthians 4:16 “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.”

There is a strong belief today among many people that mankind is just another animal, no different than a dog or a monkey. Yet scripture teaches us otherwise. In the verse above, Paul confirms that there is something unique about our makeup that distinguishes us from the rest of the animal kingdom. He speaks of the inward man and the outward man. What does he mean? Let’s go back to the account given in Genesis chapter 1 regarding the creation of man.

Genesis 1:26,27 “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness: let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. 27 So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him: male and female He created them.”

So we see the creation of man having something additional than that of the animals that were created. Man was created in the image of God. Not meaning that we physically look like God, but that we have His “likeness”. We have an eternal spirit. This is what Paul called the “inward” man. Paul refers to the spirit of man in 1 Corinthians 2:11, “For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?…”

Unlike the animal kingdom, we have two aspects of life: physical and spiritual. The former is temporary, while the latter is eternal. Our spirit will remain living even after our physical body has perished. We are God’s special creation. We are created in His likeness. While we must tend to our physical life, we must also have concern for our spiritual life.

The Hebrew writer wrote “Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?” (Heb. 12:9) As children, we receive discipline and correction from our earthly fathers that help us to grow and mature and be successful in our earthly life. But what about our spiritual life? Do we make ourselves subject to the discipline of God so that we may grow and mature spiritually?

Death occurs when the spirit is removed from the body. Our physical body will return from where it came (Genesis 3:19). Ecclesiastes 12:7, “Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it.” Physical death is the first death. But, it is not the end as some would have you believe.

Jesus said in Matthew 10:28, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Man is able to kill the physical body but cannot kill the soul. As stated earlier, the soul returns to God who gave it. God will determine the fate of the soul, and he will determine that fate based upon how we lived our lives while existing on the earth. Therefore, we must tend to our spiritual life while we exist physically upon this earth, knowing that physical death is not the end.

Matthew 16:24-27, “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.'”

A judgment day is coming. Hebrews 9:27, “And as it is appointed for man to die once, but after this the judgment.” We will be judged according to how we lived our lives before our physical death. Did we live according to God’s will? Or, did we neglect God and do whatever our physical bodies willed us to do? This will determine whether we have an eternal existence in the presence of God, or whether we will live on in everlasting torment having been separated from God forever. So the answer to the all important question that is asked by most people, “What is my purpose for living?” is answered for us by our Creator.

Ecclesiastes 12: 13,14, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all. 14 For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.”

Jesus is #1
Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay

For any endeavor to succeed, we must set our priorities accordingly. When starting a new business, you must prioritize how you spend your time and your money in order to achieve success. In preparing for the big game, you must prioritize your time and training if you want to have the best chance at winning.

Setting your priorities is not only important for success in your physical life, but also for your spiritual life. Where would God have us place our priorities? Did Jesus teach us what our priorities should be?

Jesus taught in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (emphasis mine) We are to seek out God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness first. It should be our top priority in life. Do we have an example of what that looks like? Look at Hebrews 11:9, “By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise;”. The Hebrew writer is speaking about Abraham, who was instructed by God to gather his things and his family and leave his home to go to a place he was unaware of. He obeyed God without question and did as he was instructed. He was putting God first.

Have you ever considered this: Jesus refuses to occupy any other position in one’s life other than 1st place. And why would we put Jesus first?

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

Acts 4:12 “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Jesus is the only way to salvation. It cannot be had through any other person. He paid the heavy price for our sins so that we could have the hope of having Heaven as our eternal home. We must be in Christ and abiding in His doctrine if we want to have salvation. Therefore, Christ must be our priority.

How can we know if Jesus is our priority?

Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (emphasis mine)

Do our actions reflect that we are following the word of God? Do others see the love of God in us? Are we striving to imitate Christ in all that we say and do? If not, we had better take a look at our priorities! God’s word is what will judge us in the end (John 12:48). We need to make it a priority to prepare for that judgment!

What condition is your soul in today? Are you lost? Or, are you saved? It is a matter of your priorities.

Do Not Love The World

In 1 John chapter 2 verses 15 through 17, God’s word reveals the following message:

1 John 2:15-17 NKJV
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. [16] For all that is in the world-the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life-is not of the Father but is of the world. [17] And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

To gain a fuller understanding, we can correlate Galatians 5:19-21:

Galatians 5:19-21 NKJV
Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, [20] idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, [21] envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

What is it that we are not to love? That which is of the world, namely the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. The lust of the flesh would certainly encompass all the works of the flesh that are condemned in the passage cited in Paul’s letter to the Galatians, which I would point out is not an all inclusive list of sins that will keep us out of heaven.

Simply put, if we live our lives solely focusing on what our flesh desires, we will keep ourselves from the blessings of God and ultimately inherit eternal punishment once our earthly life is finished.

Sin takes many forms and we need to be able to recognize it in order to abstain from it. The Bible says:

Romans 12:21 NKJV
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

The works of the flesh should give way to the fruits of the Spirit.

Galatians 5:22-23 NKJV
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, [23] gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

This world that we live in is evil. But if we abide in the doctrine of Christ, we can overcome and conquer death just as He has.

John 8:51 NKJV
Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death.”

Do not love the world. Love the WORD!

The Bucket Religion

Man has devised for himself all manner of beliefs for as long as he has been in existence on this earth.  Among these beliefs is what has been termed the “bucket” religion.  Essentially, this is the belief that as long as your good outweighs your evil, you will gain entrance into heaven.  So, say you have two buckets, one carrying all of your good deeds and the other carrying all of your bad deeds.  The goal is to have your “good” bucket full and your “evil” bucket not as full as your “good” bucket.  As long as you’re a good person, as evidenced by your full “good” bucket, you will be admitted into the kingdom of heaven.  It sounds good in theory, right?  After all, God is good and wants all of his children to have heaven as their home, right?  Surely, if I’m a good person God will not send me to be punished for eternity.  There are problems with this belief and one could take a lot of time to address each one.  For the sake of this post, we will focus on perhaps the greatest illustration that we find in Scripture that argues the case against this belief.

In the book of Acts, we read of a man named Cornelius.  He is described as “a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God.” (Acts 10:2)  Later in the chapter, he is further described as “Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation” (Acts 10:22).  We can therefore gather from this text that Cornelius was indeed a “good” person in every sense of the word.  So was Cornelius destined to enter the kingdom of heaven on account of him being good?  The answer is no!  If you read the whole of chapter 10, Cornelius was instructed by an angel to send for the apostle Peter.  Peter, at the same time, was given a vision by God describing to him that salvation was not only meant for the Jews, but also the Gentiles, of which Cornelius was one.  Peter came to Cornelius’ house, where many had gathered, and he preached the gospel to them.  They heard the gospel, believed the gospel, and were baptized into Christ.  This wouldn’t have been necessary if the bucket religion were true.

The Bible instructs us to hear the Word, believe the Word, repent of our sins, confess Christ before men, and have our sins washed away in the waters of baptism.  This puts one into Christ, who is the only way to the Father (John 14:6).  We must be in Christ to inherit that upper kingdom promised to those who love Him.  It’s great if you’re a good person, I commend you.  But don’t stop there!!  We must be obedient as well.

Running The Race

The idea of life in general being a race isn’t a new one.  It’s a race that we begin at birth when we enter this world, and we work hard towards the goals that we set before ourselves.  We’ve all heard of the term “rat race”, and certainly life does sometimes feel like a rat race, where we are just working and working, going through the motions to achieve success.  The apostle Paul used the analogy of a race while speaking to the church at Corinth.  Found in 1 Corinthians 9:24-25, Paul writes, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize?  Run in such a way that you may obtain it.  And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things.  Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.”  

There is one point I want to make that goes along with the analogy of the Christian race.  There are many TV evangelists that mislead their followers by preaching what can be referred to as “health and wealth” type of sermons.  They urge their followers to just ask Jesus into their hearts (sinner’s prayer) and make a pledge (almost always a monetary gift) to their organization and God will bless them with health and wealth.  It would seem that being a Christian is just that easy.  Send in money and you will be saved.  But is that true?

Let’s think about Paul’s race analogy.  If living a Christian life is a race, that would imply that one would have to put forth effort in order to win that race and have the reward of Heaven as their eternal home.  Have you ever known a competitor who is running a race to remain on the starting line at the sound of the gun and win that race?  It just can’t happen.  Those competing must put forth an effort, work hard to compete in that race in order to obtain the prize.  Living a Christian life is no different.  The Bible lays out the work that a Christian must do to obtain the reward of Heaven.  One can’t simply believe and be saved, as that is equivalent to standing on the starting line while the race goes on.  Belief in Christ, repenting of sins, confessing Christ before men, and being immersed in the waters of baptism is only the beginning of the Christian’s “race” toward Heaven.  Do not be deceived by those who would have you believe otherwise.