Five Bottles of Wine

Posted on April 28, 2025 by russellmckinney

An elderly woman who lived in the north of England hadn’t been able to truly pray for years. She needed to pray, even wanted to pray, but each time she tried to pray her mind went to five bottles of wine. Those were the bottles she had once stolen when she had been employed as a housekeeper for a wealthy estate in the English countryside.

Her reasoning for the theft had been, “This family has such an extensive wine cellar, they’ll never miss just a few bottles, especially bottles of an inexpensive vintage.” And she had been correct in her assessment. Years had now passed and she had long since moved on from that job, but no mention had ever been made of the missing bottles. She had enjoyed the wine in the months following the theft and was obviously long since clear from any threat of charges being brought against her. What she wasn’t clear from, though, was the conviction she came under every time she tried to pray.

Finally, she reached a breaking point and visited a local pastor who counseled her to go back to the estate, confess her theft, and make monetary restitution. She protested by saying, “But the lord of the estate died some years ago and there is no one there now who would even remember me.” The pastor said, “Well, did he have an heir?” The woman answered, “Yes, a son.” To that the pastor replied, “Then go to that son, confess the theft to him, and make your monetary restitution to him.” The woman, however, recoiled at such a thought and went away sad.

After a sleepless night, she returned to the pastor and said, “I really do want to do something that will enable me to pray again, but I just can’t go back to that estate and do as you ask because it would be too humiliating. What if I take the amount of money the wine was worth and use it as a contribution to the church?” A greedy pastor might have jumped at that offer, but this man was a genuine servant of the Lord, and so his answer was, “No, God doesn’t want your stolen gift.”

Several more days passed, and each one brought an even greater conviction and burden upon the woman until she could no longer stand her situation. So, she got in her car, drove out to the estate, introduced herself to the son, made a full confession of her sin, and extended a satisfactory amount of repayment to him. He thanked her for her honesty and graciously refused to accept the money, but she was so insistent that he finally accepted the repayment only to satisfy her. Then the woman returned home and, for the first time in years, prayed the way she was meant to pray.

It is from this simple little story that I offer one self-evident lesson: If some past sin that you have committed against someone is standing between you and God, you must do whatever God requires of you to make things right. Have you wronged someone? Do you owe that person a sincere apology? Do you owe him or her some kind of restitution? Then consider the following passages (all from the N.K.J.V.) as your application to this post:

If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear. (Psalm 66:18)

Isaiah 1:15: When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. (Isaiah 1:15)

Isaiah 59:1-2: Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear. (Isaiah 59:1-2)

Micah 3:4: Then they will cry to the Lord, But He will not hear them; He will even hide His face from them at that time, Because they have been evil in their deeds. (Micah 3:4)

Posted in Aging, Confession, Conscience, Conviction, Doing Good, God's Will, Guilt, Making Restitution, Prayer, Reconciliation, Sin | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Flesh & its Drag Effect

Posted on April 25, 2025 by russellmckinney

“…The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41, N.K.J.V.)

For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other… (Galatians 5:17, N.I.V.)

We pastors are forevermore trying to build momentum in a church. If we have good attendance for Sunday School one Sunday, we want to build on that. If we have good attendance for a worship service, we want to build on that. If we have a good service all the way around, we want to build on that. Unfortunately, however, just about anything can be a momentum killer in regards to church. For example, bad weather (rain, wind, cold, ice, snow) can kill momentum by way of services that either get cancelled altogether or at least altered, and good weather can kill it by way of church members heading out of town for weekend getaway trips, full-fledged vacations, family outings, travel ball, etc.

But why is it so hard to build momentum in a church and keep that momentum going anyway? It’s because the human race is a fallen race. That means that sin comes easily to us and spiritual endeavors don’t. Even born-again Christians who have God the Holy Spirit dwelling inside them still struggle with their inborn sinful nature. The Biblical term for this Adamic nature is “the flesh.” It’s “the flesh” that rebels against praying. It’s “the flesh” that rebels against studying the Bible. It’s “the flesh” that rebels against living a holy life. It’s “the flesh” that rebels against giving. It’s “the flesh” that rebels against witnessing. And, yes, it’s “the flesh” that rebels against attending church.

When I think about the fact that sin comes easily to us while spiritual endeavors don’t, my mind goes to that story from Exodus 17:8-16. Moses and the Israelites have recently experienced God miraculously parting the Red Sea, sending them manna from heaven, and causing water to gush from a rock. They are on their way to Mount Sinai, where they will receive the law and build the Tabernacle. Before they get there, though, the Amalekites hit them with an unprovoked sneak attack.

The attack causes Moses to hastily organize Israel’s first army, with Joshua being tapped to play the role of general. The next day, while Joshua and Israel’s army march out to retaliate against the Amalekites, Moses heads to the top of a hill that overlooks the battle site. From that vantage point, his job is to intercede for Israel with God. This intercession is publicly evidenced by him holding up his rod.

And what happens? As long as Moses is able to hold up that rod, Israel surges ahead in the battle, but when he grows tired and the rod drops, the Amalekites surge ahead. Finally, Moses’ two aides (Aaron and Hur) get him a stone to sit upon and they themselves support his hands so that he can keep holding up the rod until the sun goes down that afternoon and Israel’s victory is ensured.

What’s noteworthy about that story is the fact that the Bible never mentions Joshua and the other soldiers getting tired in the fight. It does, however, speak of Moses getting tired in his interceding. So, the lesson is: The more spiritual the endeavor, the harder it is physically. 

You’ll find this out anytime you commit yourself to doing something for the Lord. Oh, you might start out with a bang, but then you’ll learn that it takes more and more effort to keep your momentum going. It might even seem as if the entire world is conspiring against you to knock you back into line. That’s when you’ve got to dig in, straighten your back, and redouble your commitment. That’s how you can overcome the drag effect “the flesh” inflicts upon you to keep you spiritually inert.

Perhaps you are right now planning to make some spiritual change in your life. Or perhaps you’ve already begun that change. Or maybe you are well past the beginning stage and have already hit a wall with your change. Regardless of the stage in which you find yourself in the cycle, please hang in there. Yes, the spiritual lesson is true that the more spiritual the endeavor, the harder it is physically. But there is vast difference between hard and impossible, and you can outdo “the flesh” if you show some stick-to-it-iveness and ask the Lord to strengthen you. You see, just as He wanted Moses and the Israelites to win their battle, He wants you to win yours as well.

Posted in Addiction, Adversity, Alcohol, Backsliding, Bible Study, Change, Church, Church Attendance, Commitment, Depravity, Dieting, Doing Good, Drugs, Gambling, Giving, Gluttony, Lust, Perseverance, Prayer, Problems, Sin, Temptation, The Tongue, Witnessing | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Special Antenna

Posted on April 23, 2025 by russellmckinney

As a Christian, I sometimes get frustrated with people who just can’t seem to grasp spiritual issues. No matter how many Bible passages I cite, how many illustrations I use, or how eloquently I explain a subject, these folks simply can’t catch what I’m throwing. All I get in return from them is either confusion (“I don’t understand”) or apathy (“I don’t care”). Honestly, it’s like I’m speaking a different language.

The truth is, I’m not speaking a different language, but the information I’m sharing can only be heard on a different frequency of communication, a frequency that must be accessed by way of a special antenna. It’s sort of like these new cars that include the factory option of an antennae for Sirius XM Satellite Radio. Tonya and I own a Kia Soul and a Ford Focus that both have that option.

When you purchase a new vehicle that has the Sirius satellite antenna built into it, you get a few weeks of Sirius XM programming as a free trial. We’re talking about a slew of radio channels, each one playing only music from a specific genre, with no static and no commercials. Yeah, put me down for that. I immediately fell in love with the ’70s and ’80s channels (the songs of my younger days), and so now we pay the monthly charge to receive the Sirius XM programming. But if our vehicle didn’t have that Sirius XM antenna, we couldn’t hear any of that programming, even though it gets broadcast 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

In 1 Corinthians 2:11-14, the apostle Paul says to the Christians of Corinth:

….no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (N.K.J.V.)

What Paul is talking about is the fact that God the Holy Spirit dwells inside the body of each Christian. This indwelling takes place the moment the person places saving belief in Jesus, and it creates the “born again” experience inside the individual as the person is spiritually reborn. And do you know what else the indwelling Holy Spirit does? He becomes the antenna through which the person can tune in to the broadcast signals that God is sending down from heaven. In that way, the indwelling Holy Spirit is the Christian’s special antenna.

But, of course, the majority of people aren’t Christians and therefore don’t have the Holy Spirit living inside them. Paul calls these people “natural,” as opposed to born-again Christians who are, in a sense, “supernatural” because of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling. Herein lies the breakdown in communication between the two groups. As Paul puts it, “…the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

Believe me, I’ve tried to have spiritual conversations with people who surely classified what I was saying as “foolishness.” You know that’s what’s happening when they look at you with either that deer-in-the-headlights look or that one where every blood vessel in their face is about to burst. The first look will cause them to get away from you as quickly as possible, and the second one will cause them to want to come across the table at you. As you might guess, neither option creates understanding and agreement.

Oh, and there’s one other problematic aspect about this ongoing spiritual frequency crisis: Even born-again Christians can operate like “natural” people if those Christians choose to ignore the indwelling Holy Spirit. One thing about Tonya and I having Sirius XM programming in our vehicles is that we can choose to turn off the feed. To do that all we have to do is either turn off the radio altogether or set it to a mode where it plays music from a CD, an iPod, or regular AM/FM radio. You see, even though each of our vehicles has an antenna for Sirius XM, we can choose not to use that antenna. Well, Christians do this same kind of thing when they don’t listen to the indwelling Holy Spirit. It’s not that He vacates their bodies; it’s just that His voice is muted.

So, Christian, don’t walk around receiving only the signals the “natural” person can receive when you have a whole other antenna, a “supernatural” one, inside you. Don’t blindly follow the masses further and further out of God’s will when you can show spiritual discernment and plunge deeper and deeper into God’s will. Don’t settle for listening to the world’s static and commercials when you can listen to God’s crystal-clear, commercial-free broadcasting night and day. And, lastly, don’t expect lost people who can only act “natural” or fellow Christians who’ve muted the Holy Spirit to understand you when you talk about spiritual matters. That’s just not a frequency they are picking up.

Posted in Backsliding, Communication, Discernment, Discipleship, Evangelism, God's Guidance, God's Work, Personal, Salvation, The Holy Spirit, Truth, Witnessing | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Oak Tree’s Fall

Posted on April 21, 2025 by russellmckinney

In the center of a town stood a giant oak tree that had been planted there many decades earlier to mark the founding of the town. The tree was massive and had proven that it could withstand any storm. Through wind, rain, sleet, and snow, it had held its ground. Through spring, summer, fall, and winter, it had remained. The tree was an abiding symbol of strength for the townspeople, and they had come to think of it as an object lesson for the strength of the town.

Then one day an unimpressive little storm blew through the town and to the horror of the townspeople brought down the giant oak. Because such a thing seemed unimaginable, an investigation was immediately begun. A tree expert was brought in to examine the felled giant. Everybody in the town wanted to know what could have possibly happened to their tree.

It didn’t take long for the expert to render his verdict. Years earlier, the tree had become infested with a certain type of boring worm that systematically destroys oak trees from the inside out. The end result was a severely damaged tree that was much more susceptible to wind. Had the townspeople been paying closer attention to their tree, they could have stopped the infestation before it was too late. But that window of opportunity had long since passed.

Like those worms that eventually brought down that oak, something that initially appears small and inconsequential can get into your life and ultimately cause your fall. An adulterous affair starts with playful flirting. Drug addiction starts with, “I’ll try it just this once.” Murder starts with hatred in the heart. Theft starts with coveting what someone else has. These facts hold true for one and all, whether the person be a Christian or not. The process is nothing less than sin’s universal way of incessantly creeping, gradually poisoning, and finally destroying.

To keep this process from playing itself out in your life, you must be vigilant to guard yourself. Don’t dabble with sin. Don’t toy with it. Don’t rationalize it or try to minimize it. See it for what it is: a boring worm that won’t stop until you are lying on the ground from it. Only by remaining vigilant and resisting sin’s allure can you remain tall and strong.

Most readers will finish this post and never think about it again, but my guess is that some readers will be brought under conviction over “worms” of sin they have allowed to bore into their lives. If you are such a person, let me urge you as strongly as I can to take the post as your warning from God and deal with your sin. If you have never made the decision to believe in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, look to Him, the divine One who died on a cross so that all your sins might be forgiven. By believing in Him, you will not only experience complete forgiveness but also be given the strength to repent of your sin and resist it going forward. On the other hand, if you know Jesus as Savior, what you must do is access the spiritual strength He has already given you by way of the indwelling Holy Spirit and put that strength to use by repenting of your sin.

You see, your tree doesn’t have to fall. If, however, you refuse to deal with your sin, you can expect a great crash at some point. It will simply be a matter of waiting on the right storm to blow your way and send you toppling. Friends, neighbors, and family members will hear about your fall and wonder what happened, but what they won’t know is that the fall began many months or many years earlier. It just took your “worms” time to get their job done.

Posted in Addiction, Adultery, Alcohol, Anger, Backsliding, Christ's Death, Conviction, Covetousness, Desires, Disobedience, Drugs, Forgiveness, Gambling, God's Judgment, Guilt, Idolatry, Jealousy, Lust, Lying, Pride, Rebellion, Repentance, Salvation, Sex, Sin, Sowing and Reaping, Temptation, The Tongue | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Easter Bells

Posted on April 19, 2025 by russellmckinney

But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. (1 Corinthians 15:20-23, N.K.J.V.)

In March of 1799, the Austrian campaign of Napoleon’s French army was in full swing. One army of French forces was led by General Andre Massena, while Austria’s troops were led by General Franz Jellacic. It is from these days and these military maneuvers that an often-cited story comes.

As the story goes, on March 23rd, 1799, which was the eve of Easter that year, Napoleon’s troops, led by General Massena, were poised to take the town of Feldkirch. The town was located on the outskirts of Austria and was home to somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000 citizens. Some accounts place the French troops camped atop the heights that surround Feldkirch. Other accounts place them camped six miles outside the town.

With their town seemingly without hope, the citizens of Feldkirch were desperate for a plan, and their town council convened a meeting that night to try to formulate one. Since everyone agreed that it was useless to fight the approximately 18,000 soldiers of Massena’s army, a suggested plan involved a delegate, carrying a flag of truce and the keys to the town, being sent to the French camp. The thinking was that perhaps a voluntary, total surrender might cause General Massena to show some degree of mercy by not killing the women, children, and elderly. If Massena was especially merciful, maybe even the town itself could be spared a complete looting.

That plan, however, was tabled when the town’s revered elderly priest said, “My brothers, this is Easter. Cannot God, who arose from the dead, protect us in our distress? Shall our first act in this calamity be to forsake him? Let us go to church as usual and trust God for the rest.” The members of the council, being devout Christians, chose to put the priest’s plan into action. As for what supposedly happened next, there are two versions of the story. I’ll give you both versions so that you can decide which one you favor. No matter which version you prefer, the story’s purported outcome remains the same.

According to one version, the next morning, Easter Sunday, the citizens flocked to their churches and the church sextons carried out the custom of ringing the church bells loud and long in celebration of Christ’s resurrection. The French army, not realizing the day was Easter Sunday, took the ringing of the bells to mean that the Austrian army had marched into Feldkirch during the night and the bells were being rung in celebration of it. Based upon this assessment, General Massena ordered a retreat and the town was saved.

But according to another version of the story, General Massena knew that it was Easter Sunday and in a ploy to make the citizens of Feldkirch believe he was sparing them in honor of the day, he withdrew his troops. As this version goes, the withdrawal was supposed to be a temporary one done as a way of getting the people of Feldkirch to abandon all their defenses so that a later attack would result in less French soldiers being killed. That plan failed, however, when the dawn of Easter Sunday revealed to the citizens that Massena’s troops had retreated. In celebration of what they believed to be a miracle of deliverance, the citizens then joyously rang the church bells, which in turn caused Massena to make the withdrawal permanent because he believed the bells were being rung to celebrate the arrival of the Austrian army to defend the town.

Now, did any of this actually happen? Well, I’m no expert, but historians do tell us that General Andre Massena was ordered by his superior, Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, to lead the French Army of Helvetia in an attack on the town of Feldkirch in late March of 1799. Furthermore, those historians tell us that after French defeats at the Battles of Ostrach and Stockach in those same days, the French military machine was forced to recoil and regroup. Perhaps, then, somewhere in all of that recoiling and regrouping, the old story of how the ringing of the church bells on Easter Sunday saved the town of Feldkirch really did take place. Admittedly, it’s kind of hard to believe that such a story could have sprung up for no good reason.

One thing is for sure: We Christians should let the bells of our praise ring out in celebration of the fact that Jesus is alive and has delivered us eternally from the forces of sin! Of all people on earth, we should feel the most joy and hope because even though we will surely be forced to live through some difficult times in this life, our everlasting victory is secure because of Christ’s resurrection. Not only will we get to spend eternity in perfect bliss with Him, we will get to spend it in a glorified body that is just like the one He has had since He arose from the dead that first Easter Sunday.

So, Christian, are you having difficulty this Easter season? Is your situation desperate? Then let the bells of your heart ring out loud in praise to Jesus! Remember that He lives and stands ready to help you not only in eternity but in your times of trouble here on earth (Psalm 46:1). Like those church bells of Feldkirch sending those French soldiers into confusion and retreat, your praise of Jesus in times that are dark and foreboding will send Satan’s soldiers into confusion and retreat. Remember, we don’t praise Jesus so that we can become victors; we praise Him from victory that we already have because in all things (even things that are truly awful) we are more than conquerors through Him (Romans 8:31-39). Happy Easter!

Posted in Adversity, Attitude, Christ's Resurrection, Church, Church Attendance, Depression, Easter, Eternity, Fear, Joy, Praise, Problems, Resurrection, Trials, Trusting In God, Worry | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Was Jesus Crucified on Thursday?

Posted on April 17, 2025 by russellmckinney

Jimmy DeYoung was quite a guy. He lived in Jerusalem and was a world-renowned journalist, conference speaker, author, and expert on Bible prophecy. He was seen on the Day of Discovery television program, was heard on all kinds of radio stations and internet sites, and had his own website (prophecytoday.com), a website that is still in operation even though DeYoung himself has been dead for several years now.

Our local Baptist Association once hosted DeYoung for a week-long series on Bible prophecy, and one night he did a question-and-answer session before he preached. Since the auditorium was packed, and people had far more questions than he had time to answer, I didn’t even attempt to ask him my question. It didn’t have anything to do with prophecy anyway and therefore might not have even been appropriate for the setting.

And what was my question? Well, during that period of my life I was mulling over the information that I shared in my previous post (Was Jesus Crucified on Wednesday?) about a possible Wednesday crucifixion. So, I wanted to get DeYoung’s thoughts on the matter. Fortunately for me, each night after he preached he stood at the door of the auditorium and shook hands as the people filed out of the building. That was my chance. As I shook his hand that night, I leaned in close to his ear and asked, “Was Jesus crucified on Wednesday or Friday?” A big smile came across his face as if he was pleased that someone had asked that question. He looked me straight in the eye and said, “Thursday. Look it up.” Naturally, I went straight home and did just that.

According to the Thursday interpretation for Christ’s crucifixion, Jesus was crucified Thursday and His body was buried late Thursday afternoon just before sundown. His body laid in the tomb for the brief time before sundown that afternoon (with sundown beginning a new day according to the way the Jews counted time), continued to lie in the tomb the entirety of Friday and Saturday, and then the resurrection took place sometime early Sunday. If we classify that brief period of time Thursday afternoon before sundown as a full day — and the Jews did count any part of a day as a full day — then a Thursday crucifixion can be made to literally fulfill the Matthew 12:40 prophecy about three days and three nights. The three days and three nights would have been Thursday afternoon (day 1) and the entirety of Thursday night (night 1), the entirety of Friday day (day 2) and the entirety of Friday night (night 2), and the entirety of Saturday day (day 3) and the entirety of Saturday night (night 3), with Jesus resurrecting sometime shortly before Sunday’s morning’s dawn.

Like the possibility of a Wednesday crucifixion, the possibility of a Thursday crucifixion rests upon us correctly identifying the type of Sabbath that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were trying to beat to get Christ’s body buried before the Sabbath began. If that Sabbath was the typical weekly one that began at sundown on Friday afternoon and lasted until sundown on Saturday afternoon, Jesus was crucified on Friday. Case closed. If, however, the Sabbath in question was one of the other Sabbaths the Jewish law required, discussions can be had concerning either a Wednesday crucifixion or a Thursday one. This explains why the advocates for a Wednesday crucifixion date or a Thursday one heavily emphasize the fact that John 19:31 calls the specific Sabbath in question a “high day,” which might be taken to mean that it was different than the typical weekly Sabbath even though every weekly Sabbath was also, technically, a “high day.”

According to the Thursday crucifixion interpretation, there were actually two Sabbaths the week of Christ’s crucifixion. The first one began at sundown on Thursday afternoon and lasted until sundown on Friday afternoon. That was the Sabbath that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were facing, the one required by the beginning of The Feast of Unleavened Bread, which began immediately following the Passover (Leviticus 23:4-8, 39). The second Sabbath was the weekly one that began at sundown on Friday afternoon and lasted until sundown on Saturday afternoon.

Along these same lines, since John 19:14 calls the day of Christ’s crucifixion “the Preparation Day of the Passover,” advocates for a Thursday crucifixion contend that the Last Supper that Jesus shared with His apostles was not a Passover meal. As evidence for this assertion, they point to the fact that no lamb is mentioned as being a part of that meal. Only bread and wine are specifically mentioned (Matthew 26:26-30; Mark 14:22-26; Luke 22:17-20).

So, as we can see, the case for a Thursday crucifixion does seem to make sense in certain ways, just as the case for a Wednesday crucifixion does. However, just like the case for a Wednesday crucifixion, there are some problems with the Thursday interpretation. Here are four of them:

  1. As I explained in the previous post about a Wednesday crucifixion, it’s a real stretch to make the term “the commandment” in Luke 23:56 refer to anything other than the 4th commandment about keeping the weekly Sabbath. According to that verse, a certain group of women followed Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus to the burial site to see where Christ’s body was buried, returned to prepare spices and fragrant oils to anoint the body when the Sabbath was finished, and then rested on the Sabbath according the commandment. That verse’s specific use of the singular term “the commandment” immediately takes our minds to the 4th of the Old Testament law’s famous 10 commandments (Exodus 20:1-17). That 4th commandment was the command to keep the weekly Sabbath as a day of rest. Therefore, while it’s true that the Old Testament law instructed the Jews to make Sabbath days of the first and last days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, it seems unlikely that those commands would be described as “the commandment.”
  2. Even though it is accurate to say that a lamb is not specifically mentioned as being a part of Christ’s Last Supper, multiple passages make it clear that the meal was indeed a Passover meal. For example, in Matthew 26:17 the disciples ask Jesus, “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?” Likewise, in Matthew 26:18 Jesus talks about the house where He will keep the Passover with His disciples. Additionally, Mark 14:12-15 and Luke 22:7-13 use the same language in reference to the meal. Clearly, Christ’s Last Supper was a Passover meal.
  3. If we are going to apply a hyper-literal approach to the words “three days and three nights” in Jesus’ quote from Matthew 12:40, we should be consistent in applying that same approach to the rest of His words from that quote. But that is where the approach shows itself to be lacking. I say that because Christ’s body wasn’t literally buried “in the heart of the earth.” It was, instead, buried in a cave-like tomb above ground. Therefore, the entire quote can be interpreted as being an idiomatic expression that served as Christ’s way of emphasizing that He would resurrect on the third day. This might explain why Matthew 12:40 is the one and only place where the phrase “three days and three nights” is used in reference to Christ’s crucifixion. In all the other references, the terms “three days” or “third day” are used.
  4. In Luke 24:21, two of Christ’s disciples specifically refer to the day of His resurrection as being “the third day since these things (the events of His crucifixion) happened.” That fits perfectly with the idea that Jesus was crucified on Friday. Again, according to the way the Jews reckoned days, any part of a day was counted as one day. That makes the late afternoon hours of Friday before the Sabbath began “the first day,” Saturday “the second day,” and resurrection Sunday “the third day.” A Thursday crucifixion, on the other hand, makes resurrection “the fourth day.” Even worse, a Wednesday crucifixion makes it “the fifth day.”

As for the question of how we can reconcile Jesus eating the Passover meal the night before He was crucified with the fact that John 19:14 describes the day of the crucifixion as being the preparation day of the Passover, there is a simple answer. That answer is: The term “the Preparation of the Passover” refers to the preparations that had to be made for the typical weekly Sabbath, the Sabbath that fell during that year’s Passover celebration. You see, due to the fact that the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread began immediately following the Passover Day (Leviticus 23:4-8; Exodus chapters 12 and 13), the Jews used the general term “Passover” in reference to the entire 8-day period. With this in mind, John 19:14 can be read as: “Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover (week)…” Every week, the Jews had to prepare extra food ahead of time to eat on the Sabbath day because they weren’t allowed to work on that day. Because of this, Friday day (before the Sabbath began at sundown) was commonly thought of as the Day of Preparation (Mark 15:42). Conversely, there is no historical record of the day before the singular day of Passover ever being called the Day of Preparation.

And so, in the end, these four serious problems with the Thursday interpretation, in addition to this simple explanation of the term “the Day of Preparation,” are more than enough to keep me from believing that Jesus was crucified on a Thursday. Despite my profound respect for Jimmy DeYoung and his ministry, I just can’t go along with him on this one. To me, the Friday interpretation just makes the most sense.

Really, though, if we get right down to it, let’s just be glad that Jesus died for the sins of the world on any day of the week and then arose from the dead! As a matter of fact, if Joseph, Nicodemus, and those women had been thinking correctly about Jesus resurrecting, they wouldn’t have even bothered to anoint His body. Even Jesus Himself, while He was still very much alive, had classified the anointing of Mary (the sister of Martha and Lazarus) via her alabaster flask of costly oil as all the anointing He would need for burial (Matthew 26:6-13). Consequently, there was no real need to fixate on all the details of getting Christ’s body buried because there was a resurrection right around the corner. Sadly, though, those early followers of Christ really didn’t believe that Jesus was going to do what He had promised to do: arise.

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Was Jesus Crucified on Wednesday?

Posted on April 14, 2025 by russellmckinney

The worldwide consensus opinion is that Jesus was crucified on Friday. This explains why the Friday before Easter has come to be known as Good Friday. There are, however, some minority opinions on the subject. This post will explore the possibility of a Wednesday crucifixion. Just for the record, well-known preachers such as William Graham Scroggie, R.A. Torrey, John R. Rice, Bill Rice, Jack Hyles, Howard C. Estep, and Dave Breese, just to name a few, have taught a Wednesday crucifixion.

Those who contend that Jesus died on Wednesday rather than Friday primarily base their contention on a highly literal interpretation of Matthew 12:40, where Jesus references Jonah 1:17 in saying:

For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (N.K.J.V.)

According to the interpretation, for Christ’s body to be in the tomb three days and three nights, and then be resurrected before daylight on Sunday morning (Matthew 28:1-8, Mark 16:1-8, Luke 24:1-7, John 20:1), He had to die on Wednesday and be buried just before sundown. Since the Jewish “day” started at sundown rather than sunrise (see Genesis 1:5,8,13,19,23,31), the Jewish Thursday began at sundown. Therefore, according to the interpretation, the three nights and three days of Christ’s resurrection played out as follows in terms of the Jewish way of reckoning:

  1. Night and Day #1: Christ’s last breath was breathed around 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon, and His body was laid in the tomb just before sundown on Wednesday afternoon. Since the Jewish Thursday began at sundown of what we would call Wednesday afternoon, the body was in the tomb all that night (our Wednesday night) and all the following day (the Jewish Thursday day as well as our Thursday day) until the Jewish Friday began at sundown on what we would call Thursday afternoon.
  2. Night and Day #2: Christ’s body was in the tomb all night for the Jewish Friday night (our Thursday night) and all the following day (the Jewish Friday day as well as our Friday day) until the Jewish Saturday began at sundown on what we would call Friday afternoon.
  3. Night and Day #3: Christ’s body was in the tomb all night for the Jewish Saturday night (our Friday night) and all the following day (the Jewish Saturday day as well as our Saturday day) the next day until the Jewish Sunday began at sundown on what we would call Saturday afternoon. Jesus could then have arisen anytime before daylight the following morning (Sunday morning).

Those who hold to this interpretation also cite all the passages where the term “three days” is used in reference to Christ’s resurrection, with the assumption being that the term must refer to literal 24-hour days. Here is a listing of those other passages: Matthew 26:61; Matthew 27:40; Matthew 27:63; Mark 8:31; Mark 14:58; Mark 15:29-30; and John 2:19.

At first glance, these passages seem to build a pretty strong case for a Wednesday crucifixion. There is a problem, though, with forcing the term “three days” to mean 72 hours. That problem is the fact that the New Testament uses the term “third day” even more than it uses “three days” in reference to Christ’s resurrection. You see, there is a subtle but important difference between saying that Jesus arose after three days and saying that He arose on the third day. The passages that say He arose on the third day are as follows: Matthew 16:21; Matthew 17:22-23; Matthew 20:19; Mark 9:31; Mark 10:34; Luke 9:22; Luke 18:23; Luke 24:21; Acts 10:38-40; and 1 Corinthians 15:3-4.

The Luke 24:21 passage is especially relevant to our question. In that verse, two followers of Jesus walk and talk with the risen Jesus even though they don’t recognize Him. And what is it those followers say to Him? After explaining to Him that Jesus had been condemned to death and crucified, they say:

“But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened.” (Luke 24:21, N.K.J.V., emphasis mine)

Remember now that those men were having that conversation with the resurrected Jesus on Sunday. That means that if Jesus had been crucified on Wednesday, Sunday would have been the fourth day. Thursday would have been the first, Friday the second, Saturday the third, and Sunday the fourth. This, you see, is the problem with requiring that Christ’s body be in the tomb three full days and three full nights. By necessity, it places Christ’s resurrection on the fourth day rather than the third, and that simply isn’t what scripture teaches.   

Another objection to a Wednesday crucifixion involves the weekly Jewish Sabbath day, which began at sundown on Friday evening and ran until sundown on Saturday evening. The gospels plainly teach that Christ’s body had to be removed from the cross and buried hastily because the Sabbath was about to begin and a body could not be left hanging on a cross during a Sabbath (Mark 15:42-43; Luke 23:50-54; John 19:31). Obviously, if the Sabbath in question was the typical Sabbath, it makes for a slam-dunk case that Jesus was crucified on Friday.

That’s why those who teach a Wednesday crucifixion must have an alternative interpretation of this Sabbath. And they do have one. According to them the Sabbath the burial of Christ’s body had to beat was not the weekly Jewish Sabbath but was, instead, a Sabbath that was associated with the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Let me explain. The Jewish Passover always began at twilight on the 14th day of Abib (Abib was changed to the name Nisan after Israel’s Babylonian captivity). This was the first month of the Jewish calendar year (Exodus 12:1-2,6-14; Leviticus 23:4-5; Numbers 28:16). Then, at sundown the day following the Passover, the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread began (Exodus 12:15-20; Leviticus 23:6; Numbers 28:17).

Now, the thing to note about the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread is that the seven days began and ended with Sabbath days of rest (Exodus 12:16; Leviticus 23:6-8; Numbers 28:16-25). No matter what day of the week the first and last day fell upon in any given year, those days automatically became Sabbath days. This raises the question: Was the Sabbath that followed Christ’s crucifixion the weekly Sabbath (which had to begin at sundown on Friday afternoon) or was it the Sabbath of the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (which could have begun at sundown on Wednesday afternoon)?

As you might guess, those who preach a Wednesday crucifixion say the Sabbath day in question was the one that began the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Furthermore, they assert that John’s gospel even tells us that the Sabbath was the one associated with the Passover/Feast of Unleavened Bread rather than the normal, weekly one. Here are the verses they quote:

Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” But they cried out, “Away with Him, away with Him! Crucify Him…” (John 19:14, N.K.J.V., emphasis mine)

Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.” (John 19:31, N.K.J.V., emphasis mine)

Well, here once more we are faced with some verses that seem to point us toward a Wednesday crucifixion. But, again, things aren’t so cut-and-dried. In particular, Luke 23:56 is especially problematic for anyone who says the Sabbath involved with Christ’s crucifixion and burial was not the regular, weekly Sabbath that began Friday evening at sundown. That verse says of a group of women:

Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils. And they rested on the Sabbath, according to the commandment. (Luke 23:56, N.K.J.V., emphasis mine)

That verse’s specific use of the singular term ” the commandment” immediately takes our minds to the 4th of the famous 10 commandments (Exodus 20:1-17) that served as not only the opening to the Mosaic law but also the moral heart of the entire body of law. That 4th commandment was the command to keep the weekly Sabbath as a day of rest. So, while it’s true that the Mosaic law instructed the Jews to make Sabbath days of the first and last days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, it is a real stretch to refer to those instructions in the singular as “the commandment.” To the contrary, that singular term much more easily fits the 4th commandment. And if that’s the commandment to which those women were being obediently restful, it blows the theory of the crucifixion Sabbath being something other than the typical Sabbath completely out of the water.

Well, I could continue in my description of the argument for a Wednesday crucifixion — and there are other points of debate and other verses to cite — but I’ll stop here. I trust, though, that I’ve already offered enough for you to not only catch the gist of the argument but also understand the argument’s strengths and weaknesses. And as you’ve probably surmised by now, I agree with those who conclude that the weaknesses cancel out the strengths. Don’t get me wrong, the idea of a Wednesday crucifixion certainly makes for an interesting study, one to which I’ve devoted more hours than I can recall. But when all the studying is said and done, I just can’t sign off on the idea.

Someone might ask, “So, how do you explain Christ’s words from Matthew 12:40, where He says that He will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth?” I explain them by taking them as an idiomatic expression that served as Christ’s way of emphasizing that He would resurrect on the third day. Really, if God wanted us to fixate on a hyper-literal, wooden interpretation of that particular phrase, why didn’t He mention it more than once in the New Testament? I mean, all He had to do was replace each use of the terms “three days” and “third day” with “three days and three nights.” That would have done the trick to convince us of a Wednesday crucifixion. But He didn’t do that.

Along the same lines, we can’t even take the words “in the heart of the earth” hyper literally, can we? After all, Christ’s body wasn’t really buried in the ground, was it? It was buried in a cave that was above ground. Consequently, if there is some wiggle room in how to interpret “in the heart of the earth,” why can’t there be wiggle room in how to interpret “three days and three nights”? And when that wiggle room keeps us from bending over backwards to spin alternative interpretations onto otherwise easily understandable passages, I think we should use it and let the Bible read simply wherever it can.

Posted in Christ's Death, Christ's Resurrection, Easter | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The Best Position for Praying

Posted on April 12, 2025 by russellmckinney

Three ministers were engaged in a conversation on the subject of prayer. Naturally, they all agreed that prayer was vital, but the debate was about which bodily position works best for praying. As they commented back and forth, a telephone repairman, who happened to be in the room that day working on the phone system, listened quietly. (Obviously, this illustration comes from that prehistoric time before cell phones existed.)

One minister said, “In my opinion, the position of the hands is the key to praying. I always clasp mine together. This helps focus my attention. Also, I make sure that my joined hands are pointed upward toward heaven. This is a symbolic act indicating that I want my prayers to rise to God’s ears.”

The second minister said, “Well, I’ll grant you that praying with your hands clasped together and pointed upward makes sense, but these things should be done while the person is on their knees. Praying on your knees shows that you are approaching God in humility. It’s actually an act of worship because you are kneeling before Him as you pray.”

The third minister said, “No, no, you are both wrong. The best position for praying is lying completely prostrate upon the floor, with your face on the ground. Praying from that position is you saying to God, “Lord, I am nothing and You are everything. I don’t even have a right to gain an audience with you. Because of your mercy and grace, though, I humbly submit my request.”

It was then that the repairman thought he could add something to the conversation. He said, “Gentlemen, I hate to interrupt men such as yourselves when you are debating a topic as important as this one, but if you are interested, I’ll tell you the position I was in when I prayed my most emotional and powerful prayer.” Now the repairman had the ministers’ full attention, and they replied almost in unison, “Yes, please tell us.” The repairman said, “Okay. At the moment I prayed the best prayer I have ever prayed, I was dangling upside down by my heels from a telephone pole, suspended forty feet off the ground!”

The moral of this story is simple: Genuine need in your life leads to genuine praying. Show me a person who is praying a canned prayer they’ve heard the pastor pray in church, and I’ll show you a person who doesn’t have a genuine need. The fact is, when things get serious in your life, your praying will get serious.

I don’t know where this post finds you, but if some problem, situation, or circumstance currently has you dangling upside down by your heels, feeling like you are suspended forty feet off the ground and ready to drop to your demise, I advise you to pray. You say, “But I’ve already prayed about it, and nothing has happened.” Fine, then pray again, and again, and again, and again. Keep praying until something does happen.

If you like praying with your hands clasped together and pointed toward heaven, then pray from that position. If you like praying from bent knees, then pray from that position. If you like praying from a prostrate position on the floor, then pray from that position. If you like praying with your eyes closed, then pray from that position. If you like praying while you are lying in bed at night, then pray from that position. If you like praying while you are walking, then pray from that position. If you like praying while you are driving, then pray from that position. Of course, I wouldn’t suggest praying with your eyes closed from those last two positions! But you get the point. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Why? Because the best position for genuine praying will always be a position of genuine need.

Posted in Adversity, Fear, Needs, Prayer, Prayer Requests, Problems, Trials, Trusting In God, Worry | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

A Lesson Learned From a Poor Widow

Posted on April 10, 2025 by russellmckinney

Monetarily speaking, the greatest giver of all time was not a rich industrialist who made his billions and then contributed a portion of his wealth to philanthropic efforts. Instead, it was a poor widow who placed two small coins in the treasury of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. Her story is told in Mark 12:41-44 and Luke 21:1-4.

The Greek word that is used to describe each of her offertory coins is lepton. This was the smallest coin in circulation in Israel. In our American economy, such a coin would be the equivalent of one-eighth of a penny.

The plural of lepton is leptra. In the Roman empire under which the Jews lived, the widow’s offering of two leptra was the equivalent of one-sixty-fourth of a Roman denarius. Since a denarius was the average daily wage for a worker, the poor widow would have had to repeat her offering 63 more times just to reach the monetary equivalent of an average day’s pay for a Roman.

In his commentary notes on the story, Herschel H. Hobbs explains that the widow gave her offering in The Court of the Women, the part of the Jewish Temple complex that was devoted to women. He goes on to say there were thirteen receptacles in that Court. Those receptacles were called “trumpets” because of their shape, and each “trumpet” was designated to receive specific offerings for specific purposes.

What the widow didn’t know was that she was being watched as she placed her two leptra inside the appropriate receptacle. On that day, Jesus was sitting on the other side of the Court watching people come and go and place their offerings inside the receptacles. When He saw the widow contribute her scant offering, He called the chosen 12 over to Himself and told them that she had contributed more than anyone else who had given to the Temple treasury.

How could that be? Well, according to Jesus all the others contributed out of their abundance while she contributed out of her poverty. As a matter of fact, He went so far as to say that she contributed her entire livelihood. That means that when she left the Temple that day, she didn’t have any money whatsoever to her name.

Tell me, if you had been in that woman’s place, do you think you would have been tempted to not give any offering at all? Even if you were determined to contribute something, would you have been inclined to contribute just one lepton and hold back the other one? I’m sure that thought would have crossed my mind,

And it’s not like that widow could depend upon a husband to meet her future financial needs, either. Consequently, for her, placing both those coins in that receptacle was an act of real faith. It was her acknowledgement that if her needs got met, God would have to meet them. Even if she did hold down some type of job (which was certainly not a given in that culture), her job obviously didn’t pay much.

Now, there are numerous spiritual lessons that we can glean from this story, but for the purposes of this post I just want to leave you with one. It goes like this: As far as the Bible’s records goes, this woman lived her entire earthly life and never knew that Jesus not only noticed her offering but praised it to the skies. You see, that widow’s offering is like the myriads of good deeds that Christians do around the world each day. These deeds go completely unnoticed and unrecognized by the world, but they rate high marks with Jesus and earn great rewards in eternity.

So, Christian, take heart in this and keep faithfully serving the Lord. He really is watching, and all those behind-the-scenes good things you are doing for Him really are getting noticed. Even more than that, in eternity He’ll reward you for them with eternal blessings beyond your wildest dreams. Remember, nothing ever goes unnoticed by Him. Sure, that can be a bad thing when the subject is sin, but the flip side is that it can be a great thing when the subject is holy deeds.

Posted in Commitment, Discipleship, Doing Good, Dying To Self, Eternity, Faith, Faithfulness, Giving, God's Omniscience, God's Work, Heaven, Humility, Ministry, Money, Needs, Reward, Sacrifice, Sanctification, Service, Sowing and Reaping, Stewardship, Trusting In God | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Bigger Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Better

Posted on April 7, 2025 by russellmckinney

The idea that divine favor manifests itself by way of worldly success goes back a long way. History shows us two things about the races of antiquity. #1: They all worshiped some form of god or plurality of gods. #2: They all believed that when your god (or gods) liked what you were doing, it would be evidenced by things going well for you in life. And the items on the list of evidences were always the same: rain, abundant crops, plenty of food, protection from enemies, victory over enemies, health, women bearing children, and good times in general.

But we don’t have to consult history to understand this, do we? The fact is that most people around the world today still believe this basic premise about God. For that matter, my guess is that most CHRISTIANS believe it.

Let’s say that we polled each Christian right now and asked the question: “How do you know when God is pleased with a person’s life?” What answers would we get? Undoubtedly, those answers would typically involve health and wealth, not necessarily in that order.

Similarly, in terms of how God makes His favor known upon a local church or a national denomination, the answers would involve “big” things: big attendance, big offerings, big budgets, big buildings, big reputation, etc. This especially holds true here in America, where we Christians have concocted a bizarre potion that combines religion and consumerism to create our own version of church. As we tend to see things, the bigger the church or the denomination, the more God is blessing it. In other words, if you want to find where God is really working and pouring out the highest levels of His favor, follow the crowd.

Of course, the problem with this basic premise is that even a cursory study of the Bible disproves it. Consider the following ten classic examples:

  1. God didn’t start the human race with hundreds of people. He started it with one man: Adam.
  2. God didn’t save the human race from the flood by loading thousands of people into an ark. He did it by loading the immediate family of one man, Noah, into an ark.
  3. God didn’t mass convert an existing race of people and call them the nation of Israel. He started with one man, Abram, and started a brand-new race.
  4. God didn’t use a large number of people to sustain Israel in the midst of an unprecedented seven-year famine. He used one man: Joseph.
  5. God didn’t raise up a team of elders or an army of soldiers to lead the people of Israel out of their Egyptian bondage. He raised up one man: Moses.
  6. God didn’t send a team of prophets to bring about a mass revival in the city of Nineveh. He sent one prophet: Jonah.
  7. God didn’t save all the Jews in Medo-Persia from certain extinction by organizing thousands of them to protest. He saved them by using one woman: Esther.
  8. God didn’t send the Messiah into the world by way of a vast army. He sent Him by way of one teenage girl: Mary.
  9. Jesus didn’t begin His missionary efforts in the Samaritan city of Sychar by calling together all the citizens of the city. He began by having a conversation with one citizen: the woman at the well.
  10. God didn’t impart His singular revelation about the future to a team of apostles. He imparted it to one apostle: John.

Continuing with this theme, God’s chosen nation of Israel in Old Testament times was small in comparison to other nations. Even when Israel was at its zenith under King Solomon, its size wouldn’t have come close to rivaling the coming sprawling empires of Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. Israel rose to prominence because God fought for it, not because it was so spectacular in geographical size.

Similarly in the New Testament, Jesus chose 12 men to be His apostles. That number stood in contrast, for example, to the 70 men of the powerful Jewish Sanhedrin Council. Also, the churches described in the New Testament were house churches (Romans 16:3-5; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Colossians 4:15; Philemon 1:1-2; James 2:1-4), with the sum total of all the house churches in a single city constituting the “church” of that city (1 Corinthians 1:2; 2 Corinthians 1:1; 1 Thessalonica 1:1; 2 Thessalonica 1:1; Revelation 2:1; 2:8; 2:12; 2:18; 3:1; 3:7; 3:14). Church buildings accommodating large congregations didn’t come into existence until Emperor Constantine “Christianized” the Roman empire in the 4th century.

The New Testament’s only mention of a church of thousands being assembled together in one place occurs in the days immediately following the birth of the church, when the entire church was content to abide in Jerusalem. Those Christians met daily in the outer court of the Jewish temple because that was the largest meeting place in the city (Acts 2:46; 5:42; Luke 24:52-53). They started with approximately 3,000 members (Acts 2:41), grew to approximately 5,000 (Acts 4:4), and kept growing from there (Acts 5:14, 6:7). However, it should be noted that even though those Christians met daily in the temple, they did their “breaking bread” (a reference to Communion, the Lord’s Supper) from “house to house.” (Acts 2:46; 5:42). 

As might be expected anytime you get that many people trying to work together as one, problems arose. First, a Christian couple named Ananias and Sapphira sold a parcel of land they owned but did not contribute the full sale price to the church treasury. Normally, that kind of thing wouldn’t have been an issue, but the early church in Jerusalem operated by way of a communal system in which the members voluntarily sold their possessions and gave all the profits to the church treasury. The apostles oversaw that treasury and took from it to distribute as each Christian had need (Acts 2:44-47; 4:37). So, by contributing only a portion of the profits from that land sale, Ananias and Sapphira lied about their offering. What followed was the exposing of their deceit, which resulted in God striking both of them dead (Acts 5:1-11) as the church’s first examples of the committing of the sin unto death (1 John 5:16-17; 1 Corinthians 11:30).

A second problem arose when some of the church’s Greek-speaking Jews registered a complaint against some of the church’s Hebrew-speaking Jews. The complaint was that the Greek-speaking widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. This charge may or may not have been legitimate, but either way it served as the impetus for what some believe was the first “deacon election” as seven qualified men were chosen to oversee the daily distribution (Acts 6:1-7).

It is obvious, however, that the Jerusalem church was a unique situation and wasn’t intended to be God’s ideal for what churches should look like going forward. For one thing, as I said, those thousands of Christians all sold their possessions and put the earnings into a communal treasury for the apostles to oversee and use to meet the needs of the church members. Not only was that setup completely voluntary on the part of those church members, no other mention of such a setup is made in regards to any other church in the New Testament.

For another thing, it couldn’t have been God’s will for all those Christians to permanently remain in Jerusalem under that big church umbrella because Jesus had clearly left instructions for His followers to go into all the world and preach the gospel (Mark 16:15-16; Matthew 28:16-20; Luke 24:44-49). Looking back through the lens of history, it seems obvious that this was one of the reasons why God allowed them to be uprooted by way of intense persecution. That persecution began with Peter and John being arrested (Acts 4:1-22) and culminated in Stephen being stoned to death (Acts 7:54-60).

Following Stephen’s stoning, a young Jewish zealot named Saul of Tarsus took the lead in persecuting the Jerusalem church, and the unrelenting persecution inflicted by him and others finally forced many of the Jerusalem Christians to flee the city and scatter to Samaria and other regions of Judea (Acts 8:1-4). Not surprisingly, the verses that immediately follow that scattering find Philip preaching Christ in Samaria and many Samaritans believing in Christ and being baptized (Acts 8:5-25). Clearly, such an expansion of the gospel was what God had always had in mind, but it never would have happened had Phillip and all the rest of those earliest Christians remained in Jerusalem as one local church.

You say, “But Russell, don’t you believe that God can bless a large congregation and use it in His service?” Yes, I do. I’m not suggesting for one moment that large congregations are automatically wrong in God’s eyes any more than I’m suggesting that every small congregation is automatically right in His eyes. The point I’m trying to make is that we Christians need to lose the mentality that bigger must make better, might must make right, and affluence must make godliness. Friends, it just doesn’t work that way. That’s what human nature teaches, not what the Bible teaches.

Posted in Church, Deacons, Evangelism, God's Work, Greed, Ministry, Money, Persecution, Prosperity, The Sin Unto Death, Worship | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments