Why Send for Peter?

According to the common understanding, good people go to heaven, only very bad people go to hell. According to the common understanding, a person who prays and worships often, and who gives to help the needy is certainly a saved person.

There is a biblical character who prayed and worshipped often. He gave to the needy. His name was Cornelius and his story is told in Acts chapter ten and eleven. He is called a “devout” man and is said to be one who gave to the poor and who worshipped and prayed continually (Acts 10:1-2). According to most people, he must have been a “saved” person. Most modern preachers would welcome him into their churches. But according to the Bible, Cornelius needed to send for Peter so that he could hear “a message by which you will be saved” (Acts 11:14).

So, evidently, being devout did not save him. Evidently, worshipping, praying, and giving alms did not save him. Evidently there was a message he needed to hear and respond to before he could become a saved person.

Do not blame me, I did not write the Bible. If you want to argue, you are arguing with God, not with me.

Unless the gospel message has been heard (Acts 11:14) and obeyed (1 Thess 1:8), even devout people are not saved. Cornelius needed to hear the message. So do we; so do our neighbors.

Word and Worship

"...the word of God is not bound." (2 Timothy 2:9, ESV)

The situation we currently face, not being able to assemble as a church, is unusual for us. Never before in my life have we a faced a situation where assembling for public worship is not possible. But while we have not faced this situation before, many Christians have faced it. In the Soviet Union from 1919 to the 1980s, and in China from 1947 even unto today, the inability to openly gather for worship has been a reality. Other historical examples could be named - going back to the early days of the church. So what we currently face is not really new, although it is new to us.

We are, or should be, better equipped to deal with this situation than our brothers and sisters in other places and in ages past. We have, or ought to have, Bibles and hymnals in our homes. Many of us also have recorded hymn singing available in one form or another. These are all blessings that were not enjoyed by those who resisted Nero, or Stalin, or Mao.

Many of us have extra time available as a result of the current health crisis. How are we using that time? While we cannot assemble for worship, we can worship. While we cannot assemble for Bible study, we actually ought to be able to study the Bible more than ever.

Who knows? Perhaps through this crisis some will learn the joy of household worship and personal Bible study.

Will It Last?

“For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:18, ESV)

I used to say that I would never buy a Ford from a Chevy dealer, nor a Chevy from a Ford dealer. I figured that if a person had received good service from a car, he would get another one like it. But, as a coworker pointed out, I was assuming that people look for quality. In truth most are buying style, not quality. That statement holds true for far more than cars.

When it comes to religion, many are more interested in style than in truth.

What are we seeking when we assemble for worship -- a feeling, an emotional experience, or truth?

If you seek experiences – something you can touch, taste, or see, you can get that in lots of places. But, as the above quoted text points out, the empirically tangible is doomed from the start. The great and lasting realities are not the ones we experience with our senses. It is not the message delivered with a pyrotechnic show that lasts. Do not look for the church with music that makes your ears ring. Look for the church that teaches the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

About thirty years ago, the wife of a certain televangelist was quoted as having said, “It feels so good, I don’t care if it is true.” She died about a dozen years ago. Shall I put it plainly? I think I should. Unless she repented of it, she will have an eternity in which to regret that ungodly attitude.

Jesus was about truth, not style. He wants us to feel strongly about the truth, once we know it is truth. He does not want us to believe or to proclaim something because it feels good to us.

The true faith (like many truths) will hurt at first, but feel good, eventually and eternally. A feel-good faith will leave you empty for eternity.

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6-8, ESV; see also Rom 1:18-2:8 and 2 Thess 2:1-12)

An Ordinary Day

“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much” (Luke 16:10, ESV)

On a day in July of 1985 Sam Shewmaker gathered his family, and those staying in his house, around the dining room table at his home in Lusaka, Zambia. Before beginning the meal, he read from a little book titled My Utmost for His Highest.

I rather suspect that Sam Shewmaker has forgotten all about that day. It was just a normal day in his life. He was just doing what he normally did. But here I am, thirty-five years later, remembering the event. This morning I took the book My Utmost for His Highest off the shelf. As I did so, I remembered the day when I first heard of the book. A year after hearing Sam read from it, I purchased my own copy. I have made use of it many times through the years.

Oswald Chambers, the author of the book, died in Egypt 100 years ago. I am not sure where Sam Shewmaker is now. But Chamber’s book, and Shewmaker’s use of that book, continues to have an influence on me.

This is not meant as an ad for the book. I write this not to promote that book, but to promote the value of the little things we say and do. A man leading his family in a few minutes of worship at his home in 1985 is still having an effect 35 years later. We heard no voice from heaven that day, the angels did not sing, the sky was not opened. It seemed to be just an ordinary day. It was just an ordinary day. But ordinary days make a difference. Little things that we do, or fail to do, may be remembered by someone decades from now – long after we have forgotten them.

We will have seven days this week. The odds are, they will seem to be ordinary ones. But ordinary sometimes turns into extraordinary, often without our even realizing it.

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going” (Ecclesiastes 9:10, ESV).

No Asterisk

Those of you who are sports fans have already heard the news. The 2017 Houston Astros cheated. Their only World Series title was gained by dishonest means. The commissioner of baseball has decided not to void the Astros’ win, but there will always be an asterisk by their name in the list of champions (at least in people’s minds). The Astros did not earn it fairly by their own skill. They are allowed to keep their World Series rings, but deep down they all know that they do not deserve them.

What a shame.

My name is in the book of life. I do not deserve to have it there; but it is there. There is no asterisk by my name, just a cross.

Ephesians 2:8-9 (ESV) “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Ephesians 2:13 (ESV) “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV) “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Colossians 2:11-14 (ESV) “In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”

To the Lord Belongs Aram

“For to the LORD belongs the capital of Aram, as do all the tribes of Israel” (Zech. 9:1 NRSV).

I am not a Hebrew scholar, so I cannot say with certainty which translation of Zechariah 9:1 is most literally correct; but I get the impression that the translation given above does a good job of getting the intended point across. Every nation belongs to the LORD. Everyone matters to God. Everyone answers to God. Just as Israel belongs to the LORD, so do the Arameans of Damascus. I hope that you believe that. It is the teaching of scripture (see also Acts 10:34-35 & Rom 3:29-30).

This fact should bring us comfort. The kings of Damascus did not see themselves as being under the LORD’s authority. They were doing their own will; but the LORD so worked things out that they ended up accomplishing the LORD’s will in the end. So it is today. We do not have good political leadership in this nation, or anywhere that I know of on earth. But the capital of America (Canada, Britain …) belongs to the LORD just much as the tribes of Israel do. He can accomplish his will through them. I do not know how he does it; I do not know when he does it; but know that he has done it and will do it again.

This fact should also motivate us to our task. We have a commission to fulfill (Mt 28:19-20). That commission is not to get a certain leader elected, but to get a particular message proclaimed, and we are to proclaim it to all. The Arameans, the Africans, the Asians all belong to the Lord just as much as the Americans. J.M. McCaleb was right when he penned the words, “Of one the Lord has made the race, through one has come the fall. Where sin has gone must go his grace, the gospel is for all.”

This fact should also sober us regarding our responsibilities. We are all going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10). It does not matter if we are rich or poor, male or female, black or white, Asian, African, or American. Someday we will answer to him. Are we ready for that day?

Age is not the Issue

David was a youth when he defeated Goliath (1 Sam 17:33). Jeremiah was a youth when he was called to be a prophet (Jer 1:6). Timothy was a youth when Paul left him to care for the church at Ephesus (1 Tim 4:12). We are never too young to serve the Lord.

Moses was 80 and Aaron 82 when they were called to lead the people out of Egypt (Ex 7:7). Caleb was 85 when he conquered Hebron (Jos 14:10). Anna was at least 84 when she told everyone about the birth of Jesus (Lk 2:36ff). We are never too old to serve the Lord.

August 3 of last year marked fifty years from the first time I led a song in public worship. Next year will mark fifty years since I preached my first sermon. It seems unlikely that I will still be able to sing or preach fifty years from now, but if I am able, I hope you know what I will be doing. Age is not the issue.

Health is sometimes an issue. Often, as we grow older, we just cannot do what we would love to do. But age is not the issue.

Last summer, the church lawn was mowed by a 90-year-old. At Cascade Christian, E.W. McMillian was still teaching Bible classes at the age of 90.

Lack of training can sometimes be an issue. I heard a really good lesson given by a teenager a few years ago, and a really terrible lesson given about the same time by a man in his fifties. The youth had taken advantage of opportunities to learn, the older man had not.

What is our issue? We might have a health issue; we might have a training issue; we might have an attitude issue, but we do not have an age issue. Our God is timeless. Age is never an issue with him. It is never too early and never too late to serve him.

Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them” (Ecclesiastes 12:1, ESV).

So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come (Psalm 71:18, ESV).