CHILDREN OF THE COVENANT

 

 After nearly five decades of  ministry I have heard at least a hundred different sermons about Jonathan and his armor-bearer as told in 1 Samuel 14. Pastors, evangelists and teachers have all used this story to excite and encourage the faithful to step out and do exploits for God. Much of the preaching has focused on the results of Jonathan’s rather outrageous approach to a very difficult situation. The story unfolds with Jonathan and his bodyguard killing twenty Philistines and sudden, unexplainable terror striking the rest of the Philistine soldiers; in fact, their fear was so intense that they fled the scene.

 

Truly exciting, faith-inspiring stuff! The story, however, left me with a nagging and not very intellectual question: “What in the world possessed Jonathan and inspired him to believe that he and his friend could take on the entire enemy army? Was he filled with faith or did he have a death wish?” On top of everything, Jonathan was being disobedient to his father, Saul, who was encamped several miles away with his men and did not seem to be willing to engage the enemy. 

 

Was Jonathan just a high-spirited boy blessed with the good fortune of having an adventure turn into a massive display of God’s power? I don’t think that is what is at work here. The picture we are given of Jonathan in other passages shows him as an intensely loyal and deeply spiritual young man. Jonathan was loyal to his family, to his friends and to his God. He had no illusions about his father and he seemed to work to keep Saul from committing far more grievous mistakes than he did.

 

When Jonathan said, “Come, let us go over to the Philistines garrison on the other side”

(1 Samuel 14:1), what was at work here? Why would Jonathan say and do this? We are given a clue in verse 6 when Jonathan said to his attendant, “Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised.”

 

Jonathan was doing more than making a rather tawdry comment about the Philistines. Yes, the word “circumcised” does mean what you think it does but also a little bit more. Jonathan was saying, “These enemy warriors do not live under the truth or the promises that we do. Our God has agreed (covenanted) to fight for us and against them, no matter how many of them there are. God is not restrained in achieving victory just because there are two of us and thousands of them. We are children of the covenant that God established and extended to all generations and He will fight for us! This is our land and they have no business here! We are the children of the covenant (circumcised) and they are not!”

 

All of that is wrapped up in the word uncircumcised? Yes, it is, and for me it helps to explain why this story is here in the Bible and why it is important for me to understand it as more than just an exciting war story.

 

Jonathan had grasped the meaning of being a child of the covenant, of understanding that his God had entered into an everlasting agreement to be there for His people, that God was committed to blessing, caring for and fighting for His people.

 

Genesis 17 tells about God establishing the covenant with Abram: “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of many nations. . . . I will make you exceedingly fruitful . . . And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendents after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God” (Genesis 17:4-8). The physical sign of the everlasting covenant was circumcision.

 

This is a powerful truth that seemed to elude Saul as he camped miles away from the Philistines and seemed unwilling to fight. God had made the descendants of Abraham a powerful promise but Saul just didn’t get it and was reluctant to step into the fight for what God had promised. Just a short time later the scene would repeat itself in the Valley of Elah when again the Philistines, this time championed by Goliath, would render Saul and the whole army impotent, unwilling to go into the fight. In the Valley of Elah it was David who said, “Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them” (1 Samuel 17:36). There again, David was rehearsing the terms of the covenantal agreement.

 

David and Jonathan, children of the covenant! David and Jonathan, forerunners for us who are also children of the covenant, the everlasting covenant that finds its completeness in the New Covenant

I DON'T BUY THAT RUBBISH!

 

Jesus was getting ready to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem and because the disciples wanted to help with the preparation, they asked Him, “Where will you have us go?” (Mark 14:12).

Sound like a familiar request? At some time everyone who is serious about following Jesus asks Him, “What would You like me to do? How can I be of service to You and Your Kingdom?”

Jesus responded to the disciples, “Go into the city, and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him” (Mark 14:13, NKJV). Rather unusual directions!

The disciples went into the city and saw the man with the jar of water and followed him to where he entered a house. Heeding the instructions of the Lord, the disciples followed the man into the house where he showed them a large upper room “furnished and prepared” (see Mark 14:15-16).

At first Jesus’ directions don’t seem to make a lot of sense but they will. Our primary responsibility is to hear the voice of the Lord, be obedient, and follow one step at a time whether we fully understand or not.

When the Lord gives directions and we follow them, we can be assured that there is a place already prepared for us to do His service. He will have a way to lead us to that part of the vineyard where He knows we can be useful.

"The disciples . . . went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them" (Mark 14:16, NIV).

As I read this passage a few days ago and thought about the uniqueness of how Jesus instructed His disciples, I decided to see what one of my favorite writers and commentators had to say. I was stunned to read his explanation of the Lord’s instructions. He asserted that the Lord was able to give these instructions because He had made a secret, unrecorded trip to Jerusalem months earlier and set things up with the water jar carrier and the owner of the house.

I sat bewildered for a couple of moments looking at the commentator’s writings on this passage and then I had a deeply spiritual thought I can sum up in one word: “Rubbish!”

I was disappointed in this commentator because of what appears to be his desire to minimize or eradicate any element of the supernatural in the leading and direction of God for His people. He obviously wanted to “explain” how this event took place and take away any thought that God would supernaturally lead His people. Apparently, in his thinking, we just don’t need that anymore, and that generated my deeply spiritual response. 

This kind of thinking tends to come from those who have buried the gifts and operation of the Holy Spirit and most everything supernatural in a casket somewhere near the end of the Apostolic Age. This is the thinking of those who are afraid of anything that looks as though it might encourage Christ-followers to think that God still moves in supernatural ways on behalf of or among His people. This group seems to want to minimize the value and importance of the Holy Spirit. This kind of thinking leads to cessationism and the blindness that it brings. 

I still have great admiration for the commentator and will continue to refer to his writings but I am disappointed in his attempt to discount anything supernatural.

God does supernatural things today! He still heals people and still works miracles. God still guides people supernaturally and the Holy Spirit still empowers us for life and ministry.

In his excellent book “The Kingdom Triangle,” J. P. Moreland speaks very clearly to the church about the importance of understanding the supernatural elements of the Kingdom of God. Moreland is a Christian philosopher, theologian and former pastor. He is also a former cessastionist who has cautiously moved away from that position into an understanding of the Holy Spirit’s work in the present age. “The Kingdom Triangle” is one of the few books that I will ever recommend to you in this blog.

In his book Moreland issues a call to recapture the drama and power of Kingdom of God living. He provides a penetrating critique of current worldviews and shows how they have ushered in a crisis in society. He lays out a strategy for the Christian community to regain the potency of Kingdom life. Drawing insights from the early church, Moreland outlines three essential ingredients for this revolution: Recovery of the Christian mind; Renovation of Christian spirituality; and Restoration of the power of the Holy Spirit. The latter chapters on the power of the Holy Spirit are just incredibly good. 

I have watched the Lord do supernatural things for my whole life as a follower of Him. I watched as the Lord opened the eyes of a man born blind as we were sharing the gospel with him. The Lord sovereignly healed the man, as nothing had been said about healing or the miraculous. I am not sure who was more surprised, the man or us! The power (dunamis) of the gospel (Romans 1:16) is so much more than our feeble minds can conceive!

Does God still speak to us? Does He sometimes lead us in ways that stagger our understanding? Does God still do the miraculous and are you open to His supernatural interventions? You must answer those questions for yourself!

 

IS ANYTHING TOO DIFFICULT FOR GOD?

“Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:14, ESV).

God asked Abraham and Sarah this question in response to a crisis in their life. Actually it was more than a question; it was a response to their impatience and to Sarah’s attempt to manipulate the promise of God.

Twenty-four years earlier, God had spoken to Abraham: “Go from your country . . . to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation” (Genesis 12:1-2, ESV). In obedience Abraham took his wife and his nephew Lot and stepped out in faith to follow God’s leading. They came to the land of the Canaanites and God said to Abraham, “To your offspring I will give this land” (verse 7).

Years went by but no children came. Abraham was frustrated and it bursts forth in Genesis 15:2-3 when he complained to God, “What good are all your blessings when I don’t even have a son; you’ve given me no children.” Sarah decided to take things into her own hands and tried to manipulate the promise of God. Her presumptive idea was that Abraham would father a child by one of her servants. Sarah’s inappropriate action and Abraham’s seeming agreement would give birth to a mistake that continues to have tragic implications to this very day, as Sarah’s servant would have a child who became the father of the Arab nations.

Both Abraham and Sarah are now past the point of having children in the natural. It is twenty-four years past the initial promise and hope has died in Abraham. It is at this point of despair that God reveals Himself to Abraham and says, “I am Almighty God (El Shaddai); walk before Me and be blameless. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you . . . and you shall be a father of many nations” (Genesis 17:1-2, 4, NKJV).

In Genesis 18 we are given an additional look at God’s patient dealing with Abraham. Abraham has an encounter with the Lord (Genesis 18:1) that culminates with the Lord saying to him and Sarah, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son” (18:10).

Sarah was hidden but was listening to the conversation. When she heard this statement she broke into laughter and said to herself, “I’m old and worn out and so is my husband! I can’t have children” (see 18:12).

“The Lord said to Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh and say, Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord?’” (18:14).

At this point the story takes an interesting shift away from the apparent inability of the couple to reproduce and focuses on their doubt. God causes this refocus by asking the question, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” This question shifts the attention from man’s inability to God’s ability. 

The Hebrew word for hard is sometimes translated “wonderful or incomprehensible.” Another way of expressing the meaning of this verse would be, “Is there anything so wonderful, so incomprehensible that God cannot do it?”

The Lord then went on to say, “At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son” (18:14). 

Promises require patience on our part. “For you have need of endurance (patience), so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised” (Hebrews 10:36, ESV). There is always an appointed time for the fulfillment of a promise or a word God has spoken to us. Our presumption is not going to change His timing. We are to wait for it! That does not mean to lie back and do nothing but to be actively engaged in prayer, in faith and in the purpose of God for our life. “The vision awaits its appointed time. . . . If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come” (Habakkuk 2:3, ESV).

Sarah denied laughing, because she was afraid. We tend to think of Sarah as being immature in her faith and we chide her for that. Yet, when we are confronted with an impossible situation that would require the fulfillment of an immense promise, we react in much the same way Sarah did by saying things such as, “I don’t know if that could ever happen!” If we were honest we would admit that we were afraid or fearful that God could not or would not do what He had promised. Honesty requires humility and we do not live in a humble generation!

One year later this couple whose bodies were past the point of being reproductively fruitful had a son, Isaac, who became the father of Jacob, who was the father of the twelve tribes of Israel. The promise that God had made to Abraham twenty-five years earlier was fulfilled. The odds of their having a child at this point in their lives were, in the natural, insurmountable but, “Is there anything so wonderful, so incomprehensible, that it is too difficult for the Lord?”

MAN ON THE RUN - PART 2

In my last blog, we looked at the story of Onesimus, the runaway slave of Philemon. The powerful change that came into Onesimus’ life is captured in Paul’s statement in verse 11, “Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me.”

We have to speculate about how Onesimus got with Paul in Rome. In the previous article I raised the question, “Is it possible that Onesimus ran away from his employer, Philemon, because he was attracted to the message of Jesus but for unexplained reasons would not or could not respond in that environment?” The beauty of the story is that he did get to a place where he could respond and the results were dramatic.

Paul’s personal letter to Philemon is affirming and gracious. He calls Philemon his “dear friend and fellow laborer” (v. 1). He assures Philemon of his constant prayers on his behalf and compliments his wonderful testimony of love and faith (vv. 4 and 5). And then in verse 6 Paul makes this somewhat provocative statement:

“I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.”

It seems that as he writes to share the news about Onesimus, Paul also has a corrective word for Philemon. Is it possible that the church in Colosse had become primarily a believers’ fellowship gathering and that little or no evangelism was taking place? Is it possible that Onesimus ran away because no one in the Colossian church had invited him to know the Lord?

Some would say that is just speculation but I don’t think so. I believe Paul was lovingly addressing a problem in the Colossian church. One of the fundamental truths of church life is, “as the head goes, so goes the body.” Philemon was one of the keys leaders of the church that met in his home and if Philemon was not sharing the message of the gospel, and that had become his way of life, you can mark it down that was the way of that church.

Paul appeals to Philemon with a very rational argument. He maintains that as we share our faith, we gain a fuller understanding of all that Christ died to provide for us (see v. 6).

When my wife and I lived in Plano, TX, our home sat on the south side of a small man-made lake, one of four small lakes in a chain. Because they are man-made, it was a struggle to keep them full of water, so the homeowners’ association installed a recirculation system. The water in the lakes flows from east to west and then is pumped back to the eastern end. Problem solved? Well, not quite! In our warmer climate, it is difficult to keep recirculating water fresh. Health and vitality in lakes happens when there is a strong flow of fresh water coming in one end and an outlet on the other; it is the flow of new water that keeps the lake fresh and the water clean and clear. Because of the lack of fresh water in our small lakes, chemical additives had to be put in the lakes to keep them free from unwanted weeds and algae. (Wow, there’s an insight here about what the contemporary church is doing to try and stay fresh without evangelism!)

The same is true with the spiritual man. If life is mostly one of recirculation, then the water is going to become murky and strange things are going to start growing.

Paul’s challenge to Philemon was couched in delicate terms because the Colossian church was not one that he began and, in fact, he had never been there. His challenge, however, was clear: “For you to fully realize who you are in Christ, you must begin sharing your faith with others.” Why would he say this? Because Philemon was not doing this!

The lack of evangelism in the church is a tragedy. When the church stops sharing the gospel to those around it, people pass into eternity without Christ and the blame lies with the church and the people who make it up. Because of the failure to share the gospel, the church grows stagnant and that makes it even more repulsive to the world. Stagnant water is smelly, and germs and disease begin to grow.

The argument that this generation will not hear the gospel in the style in which it was presented forty or fifty years ago is valid— and I agree wholeheartedly. The shouting, sweating, Bible-thumping days are gone—and thank the Lord they are! But the gospel is still as powerful today as it ever was. Has heaven shut off all creativity? Are there no new ideas left? If there are no fresh ideas flowing, it’s because we have shut off the intake valves!

The church of Acts was not a church of big events; it was primarily a church filled with people who made it their lifestyle to share the gospel with their neighbors. Paul did not go around the Mediterranean world holding big crusades. He went to an area, found a few people who responded to the message of Christ, taught them, formed a church, and moved on. Paul lovingly challenged Philemon with this because he knew that the spiritual vitality and future of the Colossian church was in jeopardy.

MAN ON THE RUN

  

Onesimus was a man on the run. He had robbed his employer, run away from his job, and was trying to elude the law. In many ways, Onesimus was like the postmodern generation that is now reshaping the cultural landscape of our world. They are not committed to much of anything and they are willing to jettison at a moment’s notice pretty much anything that asks for commitment. Their word is not their bond and loyalty is not a concept they embrace tightly. They are a generation on the move — on the run. They are also a generation hiding from the law. Illegal drug use among postmodernists is at an all-time high.

Onesimus was such a man. Who was he? In many ways he is the central character in the shortest book in the Bible, Philemon. He had been a servant in the employ of Philemon before he robbed his employer, broke his word, and ran away.

Paul’s letter to Philemon is an appeal and a statement, written from one friend to another. Paul wrote to his friend to tell him that Onesimus was with him in Rome. Philemon lived several hundred miles away in Colosse and the Colossian church addressed in Paul’s earlier, beautiful letter, met in his home.

We really don’t know how Onesimus ended up in Rome and how he connected with Paul. So let me speculate. Paul had never been to Colosse, but it appears that Philemon had journeyed to Ephesus and Paul had led him to faith in Jesus Christ there. Since the Colossian church met in Philemon’s home, I am quite certain that Onesimus had heard a lot of teaching on Jesus and the Christian life. And he had heard Paul mentioned again and again as the man responsible for bringing the message of Life to the Gentiles.

I believe that Onesimus knew where Paul was and ran away with the intention of finding him. Is it possible that Onesimus was running because he was trying to get to something that he found attractive and yet could not get where he was? I don’t know what it was that hindered him but he ran away to get to the message of Life!

There is a fascinating amount of wordplay in this short book of Philemon. The name Onesimus means “useful.” When Paul refers to Onesimus in verse 11, he first describes him as “[he]who once was unprofitable” or useless. The verse goes on, “but now [is] profitable to you and to me.” The man whose name meant “useful” had never lived up to his name. Instead, he had been useless but now had become useful. What an incredible statement! What had taken place?

Again we are given only glimpses but they lead us to some conclusions. Either Paul or one of his team in Rome had led Onesimus to faith in Jesus and he had experienced the power of the gospel. His conversion was so strong and so complete that his “before” and “after” life stood in sharp contrast to each other. His absolutely useless life and behavior had been transformed by the power of God into a life that Paul describes as profitable, useful.

Perhaps we need to be reminded again of the power of God that is unleashed when we share the gospel with someone. Paul said it this way to the church at Rome: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). The word power in the Greek is dunamis, from which the word dynamite is derived.

The unleashing of the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ in Onesimus’ life had blasted him out of his old life and into the fullness of a new and profitable life in Christ. “The old is gone, the new has come” (see 2 Corinthians 5:17).

I do not fully embrace a lot of the theories kicking around in the church today. These theories analyze the culture and project it onto the presentation of the gospel. I agree that much of the methodology of the past is no longer relevant but what I do not agree with is the limp-wristed presentation of the message of the gospel prevalent in many churches. Is it any wonder that many in the church are confused and over forty percent of evangelicals think that Jesus is not the only way to get to God? When the message is so watered down that there is no way for people to respond, that is just clearly wrong. Has the gospel lost its power? No, but some of the messengers have lost their way!

The testimony of Onesimus is that the gospel of Jesus Christ can change a life completely. A life that by all accounts was wasted and useless can be completely changed by the power of God.  The useless life becomes a life of focus, meaning and usefulness.

Every time you share the gospel, the potential exists that the dynamite of God’s power will envelope that person. Go ahead, light the fuse!

P.S.  Church history tells us that after Timothy served as the Bishop of the church in Ephesus, the next Bishop was named Onesimus! How about that for something useless becoming useful?