“What Are You Doing Here?”

Posted on April 17, 2017 by russellmckinney

Elijah had recently experienced one of the greatest victories of his life in defeating and executing Queen Jezebel’s 450 prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:17-40). Afterward, he probably hoped that Jezebel would admit defeat and stop her attempts to convert all Israel to Baalism. Perhaps he thought she might even surrender herself to him. At the very least, he maybe figured that she would fear him enough to leave him alone as he went about his ministry.

Jezebel, however, didn’t respond in any of these ways. What she did was turn downright nasty. Instead of fearing Elijah and leaving him alone, she went gunning for him. Rather than go into hiding, she went on the offensive. When she got word that her 450 prophets had been executed, she sent a messenger to Elijah, who was in Jezreel at the time. In regards to all those dead prophets, the message was: “So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time” (1 Kings 19:1-2).

Now the ball was in Elijah’s court. What would he do? I’ll tell you what he did: He ran for his life! Not only did he flee, he took off dead south and didn’t stop until he got to Beersheba (1 Kings 19:3). That was a trip of about 100 miles. To understand the depths of his fear, you need to understand that Queen Jezebel and her king, Ahab, ruled over Israel’s northern kingdom (called Israel). Mount Carmel and Jezreel were located in that northern kingdom. Beersheba, on the other hand, was located far south, down in Israel’s southern kingdom (called Judah). As a matter of fact, Beersheba was about as far as Elijah could have gone and still been in Judah. The point is, he ran as far as he could in the complete opposite direction!

Upon Elijah’s arrival in Beersheba, he went another day’s journey into the surrounding wilderness and sat down under a tree. There he prayed and asked God to take his life (1 Kings 19:4). When God didn’t do that on cue, Elijah laid down and went to sleep under that tree. Obviously, the man was physically exhausted by that time.

Elijah awoke at the touch of an angel, with the angel saying to him, “Arise and eat.” Since the angel had provided him with a cake of bread and a jar of water (1 Kings 19:5-6), the prophet did as he was told. After eating and drinking, he then went back to sleep.

Later, the angel came back a second time and the whole process was repeated. Unfortunately, however, now that Elijah was physically refreshed, he resumed his fleeing by embarking upon a journey of forty days and forty nights to Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19:7-8). Mount Horeb was another name for Mount Sinai, the mountain upon which Moses had received the 10 commandments (Deuteronomy 5:2), and it was located even further south, way down in the Sinai Peninsula region between Judah and Egypt.

You see, Elijah was still trying to get as far away as he could from Jezebel in the north. Interestingly, though, it doesn’t take forty days and nights to make the 200-mile trip from Beersheba to Mount Horeb. Basically, Elijah’s trip took double the time it should have taken. Why was that?

The best answer seems to be that there was a spiritual component to the trip. Just as the Israelites had once experienced a spiritual failure and been sentenced to forty years of wandering in the wilderness before being allowed to claim their promised land of Canaan (Numbers 14:1-45), Elijah spent some time wandering around in that same wilderness. Perhaps his trip time was doubled because he was spending so much time in hiding as he continued to duck and dodge a Jezebel who couldn’t possibly have been that far south but was still dominating Elijah’s thoughts. That’s what becomes of us when we get out of God’s will and let fear dominate our lives. We wander around aimlessly as the wasted days imperceptibly turn into wasted weeks, months, years, and decades.

Finally, at last, Elijah arrived at Mount Horeb, where he spent the night in a cave. It was in that cave that God spoke to him with the question, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:9). The story then continues on from there, but I won’t go any further into it because I’ve now reached the application point of this post. All I’ll say is that once God got Elijah back focused upon ministry, He commanded him to go to the Wilderness of Damascus and anoint Hazael as king over Syria (1 Kings 19:15). Not surprisingly, the Wilderness of Damascus was located in the north, up in the area of Jezebel’s kingdom. If Elijah needed proof that every step he had taken southward had been a step taken out of God’s will, that was it.

So, in closing, let me ask you the following questions: Where do you find yourself right now? Are you in God’s will for your life right where you sit or are you someplace south of it? Are you doing what He has called you to do or have you abandoned your calling and find yourself wandering around aimlessly in some wilderness somewhere?

I hope that you currently have more in common with the Elijah of Mount Carmel than the Elijah of Beersheba and Mount Horeb, but if you’ve allowed some “Jezebel” to push you south of where you need to be, let me encourage you to take this post as a wake-up call. God is asking you, “What are you doing here?” And the best answer that you can give Him in response is, “I’m out of your will, Lord, but I’m going to fix that starting right now.”

Posted in Adversity, Angels, Backsliding, Change, Choices, Courage, Depression, Disobedience, Faith, Fear, God's Will, God's Work, Ministry, Obedience, Persecution, Problems, Service, Trusting In God, Worry | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

They Should Have Known

Posted on April 15, 2017 by russellmckinney

Consider the following passages (all from the N.K.J.V., emphasis mine):

  • From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. (Matthew 16:21)
  • Now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, “Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead.” (Matthew 17:9)
  • Now while they were staying in Galilee. Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him, and the third day He will be raised up.” And they were all exceedingly sorrowful. (Matthew 17:22-23)
  • Now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again.” (Matthew 20:17-19)
  • Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written: ‘I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee” (Matthew 26:31-32)
  • And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He spoke this word openly…. (Mark 8:31-32)
  • Then they departed from there and passed through Galilee, and He did not want anyone to know it. For He taught His disciples and said to them, “The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. And after He is killed, He will rise the third day.” (Mark 9:30-31)
  • And He strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.” (Luke 9:21-22)
  • Then He took the twelve aside and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished. For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again.” (Luke 18:31-33)
  • Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” (John 2:19)

As we read these passages, it’s hard to understand why the apostles didn’t expect Jesus to resurrect. Even if they didn’t believe His predictions when they first heard them, shouldn’t they have expected Him to rise again once they knew He had been betrayed, arrested, condemned, scourged, and crucified? I mean, once everything else He had predicted had come to pass right on schedule, the only item left on the “to do” list was to rise again on the third day.

It’s not that I can’t understand why none of the apostles were camped out at Christ’s tomb awaiting His resurrection. After all, they were living in fear of being arrested and crucified themselves and weren’t about to be where any Roman soldiers were. But how was it possible that even when they heard that Christ’s tomb was empty, they still didn’t believe He could have resurrected?

According to Luke 24:11, the words of the women “seemed to them like idle tales, and they did not believe them.” You see, Peter and John, upon hearing the women’s report, didn’t say, “He must have arisen; let’s go find Him.” Instead, they ran out to the tomb in an attempt to figure out what had happened (John 20:1-9). Checking out the scene is not the same thing as believing.

Later that day, when the resurrected Jesus appeared to the apostles, the group was terrified and thought they were seeing a ghost. It wasn’t until Jesus showed them His hands and feet and ate with them that they believed it was actually Him (Luke 24:36-43). Unfortunately for Thomas, he wasn’t present for that appearance, but when he heard about it, he said, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe” (John 20:25). As we know, Jesus obliged him a week later (John 20:26-29), but Thomas’ attitude certainly characterized the fundamental unbelief all the apostles had concerning Christ’s promise to rise again.

What makes their unbelief all the worse is the fact that even Christ’s enemies understood that He had promised to resurrect. As a matter of fact, the chief priests and Pharisees went to Pontius Pilate and asked that guards be placed at the tomb until the third day had passed (Matthew 27:62-66). Even though these religious leaders didn’t believe that Jesus would resurrect, they remembered that He had said, “After three days I will rise” (Matthew 27:63) and were suspicious that some of His disciples would steal the body and tell everybody that He had arisen. Isn’t it interesting (and sad) that those Jewish religious leaders remembered Christ’s promise to resurrect but His disciples forgot it?

I really can’t say why the apostles had so much trouble believing that Jesus would resurrect. But their unbelief surely arrived early and stayed late. In Mark’s gospel, the first time Jesus tells them He is going to be killed and rise again three days later, Peter immediately rebukes Him for saying such a thing (Mark 8:31-32). Jesus, in turn, rebukes Peter by saying, “Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men” (Mark 8:33).

You would think that hearing Peter called “Satan” would have alerted the apostles that Jesus was serious when He said He was going to be put to death and rise again, but just one chapter later (Mark 9:31), when He tells them again, they still can’t buy it. Mark 9:32 tells us they didn’t understand Christ’s words but were afraid to ask Him for clarification. No doubt they didn’t want to be called “Satan” like Peter had been when he had disputed Jesus on the same subject matter.

In the end, of course, all the apostles (except Judas Iscariot) not only believed that Jesus had arisen but went out and changed the world with that truth. We are left to wonder, though, what would have become of them if they hadn’t been able to literally see the risen, glorified Jesus with their eyes. You and I have never had that privilege, have we? And yet, we are called to believe every bit as much as they were. While that can be too tall an order for some people, for those of us who have stepped out in faith and believed in not only the resurrection of Christ but, more importantly, the resurrected Christ, we know that our belief is well placed because Jesus fellowships with us each day, not just Easter Sunday.

Posted in Belief, Christ's Death, Christ's Resurrection, Doubt, Easter, Resurrection, Salvation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Was Jesus Crucified on Thursday?

Posted on April 13, 2017 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.

Posted in Christ's Death, Christ's Resurrection, Easter | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Was Jesus Crucified on Wednesday?

Posted on April 11, 2017 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 sunset 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 sunset 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 , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

The Judgment Seat of Christ

Posted on April 7, 2017 by russellmckinney

It has been said that Satan gives his rewards up front, while God gives His on the back end. This raises the question, “How does God give His rewards?” The answer is: the judgment seat of Christ. The judgment seat of Christ is the place in heaven where each Christian will stand to receive the rewards of how he or she lived the Christian life on earth.

Please understand that the judgment seat of Christ is not about salvation gained or lost. It is about heavenly rewards gained or lost. Salvation comes by way of God’s grace through faith (belief) in Christ and has nothing to do with works (Ephesians 2:8-9). At the moment of salvation, the believer is forgiven of all trespasses (Colossians 2:13), guaranteed no condemnation (Romans 8:1), and saved from God’s wrath (Romans 5:9). After that moment, though, there is a Christian life to be lived, and one day the Christian will give account for how that life is lived.

There are two Bible passages that mention the judgment seat of Christ by name. The first one is Romans 14:10-12, where the apostle Paul writes to the Christians of Rome:

But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written: “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. (N.K.J.V.)

The second passage is 2 Corinthians 5:10, where Paul writes to the Christians of Corinth:

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. (N.K.J.V.)

The term “the judgment seat of Christ” in these passages translates the Greek word bema. In the Greek way of life, a bema was a raised, throne-like platform upon which the judges stood at athletic games and gave out rewards at the end of the games. Over time, bemas also became places where orators addressed not only the citizens but the courts of law. In the Greek court system, each of the two parties in a dispute would be granted a bema upon which to stand as they presented their arguments. The original bema was in Athens, Greece, at Pnyx Hill.

Because the Romans held the Greek way of life in high esteem, they incorporated many of its elements into Roman society. This included the concept of the bema. Pontius Pilate was sitting on a Roman bema in Jerusalem when He judged Jesus (Matthew 27:15-26, John 19:13). Herod Agrippa I was surely sitting on a bema in Caesarea as the people of Tyre and Sidon appeared before him and he gave a public oratory, after which God struck him dead (Acts 12:19-24). Paul appeared before Gallio, a Roman proconsul, at a bema in Corinth (Acts 18:12-16).

Under the inspiration of God (2 Timothy 3:16), Paul played off the concept of the bema to describe how each Christian will ultimately stand before Jesus in heaven to either be granted certain heavenly rewards or denied them. In 1 Corinthians 3:11-15, Paul uses the illustration of fire consuming wood, hay, and straw, but not being able to consume gold, silver, and precious stones, to explain the difference between works that are worthy to receive eternal reward and those that aren’t. Again, though, the clear teaching of the passage is that no one loses salvation at the judgment seat of Christ. As Paul puts it, even those whose works all get burned up will be saved “as through fire.”

But what kind of rewards are we talking about? Well, just as “crowns” (olive wreaths) were placed upon the heads of victorious athletes at the Greek/Roman type of bema, crowns will be handed out at the judgment seat of Christ. The New Testament names five of these crowns. They are:

  1. the crown of life (James 1:12, Revelation 2:10): This crown is given to the Christian who endures temptation and remains faithful to Christ, even unto death.
  2. the imperishable crown (1 Corinthians 9:24-25): This crown is given to the Christian who exhibits discipline, temperance, and self-control in all areas of life.
  3. the crown of righteousness (2 Timothy 4:8): This crown is given to the Christian who lives life in personal holiness, being constantly hopeful and anticipatory of Christ’s appearing.
  4. the crown of glory (1 Peter 5:4): This crown is given to the Christian pastor who does a good job of shepherding the flock that God has entrusted to him.
  5. the crown of rejoicing (1 Thessalonians 2:19-20): This crown is given to the Christian who wins others to Christ.

While it is possible that these “crowns” should not be understood as literal, it is much more likely that they should be. In Revelation 3:11, Jesus says to the Christians in the city of Philadelphia, “Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one take away your crown.” Likewise, in Revelation 4:4, John sees the 24 elders (who symbolically represent the entirety of the church) around the throne of God, and the elders have crowns of gold upon their heads.

But when does the Christian stand before the judgment seat of Christ? The New Testament indicates that it will be immediately following the Rapture of the church. Consider the following passages (boldfaced emphasis mine):

  • In 1 Corinthians 4:5, Paul says, “Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, Who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God.”
  • In Luke 14:13-14, Jesus promises His followers that they will be “repaid at the resurrection of the just.” (The resurrection of all Christians happens at the Rapture.)
  • In 2 Timothy 4:8, Paul says that he will receive his crown of righteousness on “that Day” (the day of Christ’s appearing in the Rapture).
  • In Revelation 22:12, Jesus says, “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.”
  • In 1 Corinthians 15:58, a verse which ends a section on the subject of the Rapture, Paul says, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

Evidently, the judgment seat of Christ is exclusively for the Christians of the church age. This would explain why the judgment doesn’t occur until after the Rapture, which ends the church age. It would also explain why John said to Christians, “And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming” (1 John 2:28). If this understanding of when the judgment seat of Christ takes place is correct, it means that the Old Testament believers, the tribulation period believers, and the kingdom age believers receive their eternal rewards in some way other than standing before Christ’s bema.

Furthermore, I would point out that the judgment seat of Christ will involve every nook and cranny of the Christian’s life, right down to the Christian’s motives for doing things. In Colossians 3:23-24, Paul says, “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ. But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality.” As for the Christian’s motivations being judged, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4:5 that the Lord will “expose the motives of men’s hearts” (N.I.V.).

It should also be noted, however, that Christians won’t wear their crown or crowns for very long in eternity. Earlier I mentioned that the 24 elders of The Revelation symbolically represent the entirety of the church in heaven. It is significant, then, that John (in Revelation 4:9-11) watches as shortly after the Rapture (Revelation 4:1-2) those elders cast their crowns before the throne of God in praise to Him.

And so, here, Christian, is your motivation for living the Christian life in such a way as to receive a “full reward” (2 John 8) at the judgment seat of Christ. By doing so, you will be able to cast the most crowns you can possibly cast in that moment of ecstatic praise and worship to God. Again, the judgment seat of Christ is not about getting into heaven. It is, instead, about you being allowed to experience heaven to its fullest measure. Heaven will be sweet for everybody, but it will be the sweetest for those who have served the Lord most faithfully during their lives on earth.

Posted in Adversity, Character, Christ's Return, Coming Judgment, Commitment, Discipleship, Doing Good, Eternal Security, Eternity, Faithfulness, God's Work, Grace, Heaven, Perseverance, Resurrection, Reward, Salvation, Sanctification, Service, The Judgment Seat of Christ, Witnessing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

God’s Fiddle

Posted on April 3, 2017 by russellmckinney

Bob Jones Sr., who founded Bob Jones University (a Christian university in Greenville, S.C.), used to tell the story of a student from North Carolina named Dorothy. Dorothy came from a family that wanted nothing to do with Jesus Christ and she had played the fiddle in a dance hall band before becoming a Christian. Once she had gotten saved, however, Dorothy had started thinking of her “fiddle” more as a “violin” and had determined that she would play it exclusively for the Lord. As for her attending B.J.U., she had decided to attend there because the preacher who had held the revival in which she had gotten saved was a “preacher boy” at B.J.U. Also, the school had a good music program and a reputation for having godly students and a godly staff.

Dorothy had been on campus about three months when she walked into the office of Bob Jones Sr. one day and said, “Dr. Bob (as Jones was affectionately known), I want to talk to you. I do not have the joy I ought to have as a Christian and I wonder if you can help me find the trouble.” Jones was fairly amazed at the confession because he considered the young girl to be one of the most spiritual in the entire freshman class. Nevertheless, he promptly set himself to the task of figuring out what was going on with her.

He first asked Dorothy if she had any obvious sin in her life other than the momentary sins that crop up in every Christian’s life from time to time. Dorothy answered, “No, not if I know my heart.” Next, he moved on to the issue of Dorothy’s family and learned that she hadn’t heard from them since she had arrived on campus. Not only had her family wanted her to attend the state school in her hometown in North Carolina, they had warned her that if she attended the Christian B.J.U. it would result in a complete break from them. Sadly, they had been true to their word.

As bad as that was, though, Dorothy didn’t believe that being alienated from her family was her real problem. After all, she had known that the alienation was coming and had still made up her mind that B.J.U. was God’s will for her life. No, something else was gnawing at Dorothy, robbing her of her Christian joy. So, Bob Jones Sr. kept probing and somehow discerned that the problem had to do with the girl’s lack of complete surrender to the Lord.  

Seizing upon this insight, he brought up the subject of Dorothy’s fiddle and asked what was going on with her playing. Dorothy said, “Don’t you know I told you I was going to play it just for the Lord? It’s is the Lord’s now.” “That’s fine,” said Jones, “your fiddle is God’s and you are going to play it for Him. But suppose God tells you to keep your fingers off His fiddle. How about that?” Dorothy, in her shock, barely managed to get out the question, “You mean not play?” “Yes, I mean never play another note,” said Jones. “But Dr. Bob,” she said, “you don’t think God wants me to give up my music, do you?” Clearly, Jones had struck a nerve with this line of questioning.

It was then that he began to explain himself. He said, “Dorothy, I don’t think that God wants you to give up your music. He gives us talent to be trained and used and invested. But it may be that He wants you to lay this ‘idol’ on the altar. It may be that He knows you love music too much. It may be that He knows that music is taking His place. Suppose it is more for His glory for this instrument to be mute than to be breathing out melody? How about that, Dorothy?” Dorothy, breaking into tears, replied, “Dr. Bob, I could not live without my violin. I will use it for the Lord, but I just couldn’t give it up!” Jones concluded, “Dorothy, I think we have found your trouble.”

The following day Jones studied Dorothy as he watched the student body sing a congregational hymn in chapel. Whereas most of the students had faces that beamed like the sun, she looked thoroughly miserable. And that pattern continued in chapel for the next two days. On the third day, though, as Jones put it, “I could hardly see her face for her mouth – she was smiling all the way across. I thought, “She has settled it!”

Later that day Dorothy walked into Jones’ office again, and this time she laid her cherished instrument on his desk. “Dr. Bob,” she said, “I want you to see God’s fiddle. If He wants me to play it, I will play it for His glory. But if He says, ‘Don’t touch it again; do not ever play another note,’ that is alright, too. I love Him more than I love music or anything else.”

And did God ever let Dorothy play His fiddle again? Of course, He did. God never wanted her to lay aside the talent He had given her. He only wanted her to resist the temptation to cross over into idolatry with her music. You see, whatever else God is, He is jealous. In Exodus 34:14, He even says, “My name is Jealous.” That means that He won’t allow anything to come between Himself and His servant. So, Christian, whatever your particular “fiddle” happens to be, don’t ever let it rise to a place higher than God in your life.

Posted in Balance, Brokenness, Desires, Discipleship, Disobedience, Dying To Self, God's Name, God's Will, God's Work, Idolatry, Joy, Music, Obedience, Priorities, Sanctification, Service, Submission, Talents | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

When God Doesn’t Make a Way

Posted on April 1, 2017 by russellmckinney

My previous post was entitled “God Can Make a Way” and was based upon the story found in Acts 12:1-19. That post focused upon how God made a way of escape for Peter as Peter sat in a Roman prison awaiting execution the following day. Now, with this follow-up post, I want to take the same story and use it as evidence that there are times when God, for reasons known only to Him, doesn’t make a way.

What we Christians tend to forget is that the story in Acts 12:1-19 features not one but two apostles. Yes, Peter is in there, but so is James (the brother of John). And while Peter experiences a marvelous delivery from death, James surely doesn’t. Acts 12:1-2 says:

Now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church. Then he killed James the brother of John with the sword. (N.K.J.V.)

The Herod spoken of here is Herod Agrippa I, who was the grandson of Herod the Great. Herod the Great, infamously, was the Herod who ordered the children of Bethlehem to be put to death in his attempt to kill the young Jesus. Herod Agrippa I was also the nephew of Herod Antipas, the ruler who ordered the beheading of John the Baptist. Needless to say, the Herods were a despicable family. It isn’t so surprising then that Agrippa I ordered the execution of James, thus making James the first of the apostles to be martyred. The words “with the sword” seem to indicate that James was beheaded.

The only reason given for James’ execution was that Agrippa I “saw that it pleased the Jews” (Acts 12:3). This particular Herod was known for doing things to win favor with the Jews over whom he ruled. Obviously, the death of one of the strongest leaders in the early Christian church would have pleased the Jewish religious elite. Peter’s death would have pleased them all the more, but they didn’t get to enjoy that one.

Why, though, did God sit up in heaven and watch the sword take James? Were there no angels in Jerusalem that day? Was it because the execution happened so quickly that the Christians in Jerusalem didn’t have time to offer up enough prayers for James’ deliverance? Or was it something else?

Many commentators note a possible tie-in between James’ martyrdom and the fact that he and his brother John, with the help of their mother, had once requested that Jesus grant them prominent thrones — one on His right hand and the other on His left — in His kingdom (Matthew 20:20-23; Mark 10:35-45). In response to that request, Jesus had asked the brothers, “Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” In their foolish overconfidence, they had answered, “We are able.” Warren Wiersbe, in The Bible Exposition Commentary, says of that answer:

Of course, they did not know what they were saying, but they eventually discovered the high cost of winning a throne of glory. James was arrested and killed, and John became an exile on the Isle of Patmos, a prisoner of Rome (Rev. 1:9). Indeed, they did drink of the cup and share in the baptism of suffering that their Lord had experienced!

While I don’t dismiss the possible tie-in between James’ martyrdom and that request he and John had once made, I’m not going to say that it was the sole reason why God allowed James to be killed. For the record, Warren Wiersbe didn’t take his explanation that far, either. As evidence of that, He went on to say:

Why was James allowed to die while Peter was rescued? After all, both were dedicated servants of God, needed by the church. The only answer is the sovereign will of God, the very thing Peter and the church had prayed about after their second experience of persecution (Acts 4:24-30).

J. Vernon McGee, in his Thru The Bible commentary, offers the same explanation when he writes:

I’m sure there were many who asked, “Why in the world was James put to death and Peter permitted to live? Why would God do that?” Many ask that same question today. The answer is that this is the sovereign will of God.

I think it is G. Campbell Morgan, though, who speaks to my heart the most on this whole subject. Therefore, I’ll offer an extended quote from his The Acts of the Apostles. He writes:

It is impossible to read the story and declare that God’s government can be finally explained. Why did God permit James to be slain, and deliver Peter? Why did He allow Herod to arrest James and slay him; and then, to use the word that is always indicative of our human limitation, miraculously deliver Peter? There is no answer to these questions. I also have seen James slain when I thought we could not spare him. I also have seen a man full of fire and enthusiasm and force removed swiftly and suddenly, by a way of pain; and I have said, “What is God doing? His is a government which does not attempt to explain itself finally to watching men…

…God did not deliver James, but immediately afterwards He delivered Peter. That reveals the fact that if He can deliver Peter, He could have delivered James. There is infinite comfort in that; the comfort of the revelation of the fact that One who could deliver Peter, and in wisdom did so, was equally wise when He did not deliver James. Life can never be perfectly understood in the process of its living; we must wait. Just beyond the gleam and flash of the sword, and the overwhelming agony of the moment, James came to the explanation.

Perhaps you, too, have seen times when you could put no rhyme or reason to what God was doing. Why did He allow this? Why did He cause that? Why didn’t He prevent this? Why didn’t He stop that? I can assure you that I myself have been there on numerous occasions. Unfortunately, however, I haven’t been able to come up with any more answers than Warren Wiersbe, J. Vernon McGee, and G. Campbell Morgan did. God just does what He does, and He doesn’t concern Himself very much with explanations that satisfy our human reasoning.

One thing I have learned is that if you absolutely have to have all the answers and explanations before you will serve God, you will NEVER serve Him. It’s that simple. In many ways, God is an easy Master to serve, but in other ways He isn’t. Sometimes the only word you’ll receive from Him is, “I’ll explain later,” and He’ll fully expect you to keep forging ahead with Him even as that explanation tarries. Even worse than those times are those in which you don’t even get, “I’ll explain later.”

I realize that posts such as this one do not make for easy reading. I mean, everybody wants to hear that God can make a way, but who wants to hear that He doesn’t always do it? And yet, oddly, this is the only type of word that speaks to that dark place in my soul, the one that harbors all my questions, doubts, and fears. I wonder, does that make me abnormal or normal?

As I live in this world that is awash in books, sermons, devotions, and blog posts about Peter’s angelic deliverance, I’m told as a preacher that it’s only the upbeat, positive theme — the one where the Christian wins, experiences deliverance, gets healed, and becomes rich — that resonates with individuals. But I’m an individual myself, a Christian no less, and I’ve seen plenty of times in my life when I related much more to James than to Peter when I read Acts 12:1-19. And my guess is that I’m not the only one who can say such a thing. It’s just that we are afraid that if we dare lower our shield of outer spirituality and start asking hard questions about why God did or didn’t do something, someone might think less of us as a person or a Christian.

I for one am beginning to retrain myself in regards to how I read the Bible. That’s why I no longer do a blow-by of the execution of James as I race ahead to the deliverance of Peter. I also don’t ignore the fact that those soldiers who guarded Peter ended up executed themselves simply because they couldn’t outdo an angel and keep Peter in prison. Tell me, were those deaths the “sovereign will” of God or were they exclusively the will of Herod Agrippa I? You see, that line gets very blurry very quickly. Like I said, if you have to have all the answers and all the explanations before you will serve God, you will never serve Him. I don’t know why He sometimes makes a way and other times doesn’t. All I know is that walking with Him in the dark still beats walking without Him.

Posted in Adversity, Angels, Belief, Bible Study, Death, Disappointment, Discipleship, Faith, Faithfulness, Fear, God's Omnipotence, God's Omniscience, God's Sovereignty, God's Will, Human Life, Justice, Patience, Persecution, Perseverance, Personal, Prayer, Prayer Requests, Preaching, Problems, Scripture, Suffering, The Bible, Trials, Trusting In God, Waiting | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

God Can Make a Way

Posted on March 30, 2017 by russellmckinney

One of the better-known stories from the book of Acts involves an angel breaking Peter out of a Roman prison. The story is found in Acts 12:1-19. Herod Agrippa had Peter arrested with the intention of trying him and executing him to gain favor with the Jewish religious leaders. However, lest he stir up the Jewish population to riot, Herod couldn’t carry out that trial and execution during the Jewish feast time of Passover and the following seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Consequently, Peter was left to languish in prison, awaiting his trial and certain execution, until the weeklong Feast of Unleavened Bread was completed.

Peter was kept in chains and guarded by four tetrads of Roman soldiers. Each tetrad consisted of four soldiers and the tetrads worked in rotating shifts. When Peter laid down to sleep at night, he slept in chains between two soldiers while two other soldiers guarded the prison door. His situation couldn’t have been more dire.

All that Peter had working in his favor were the constant prayers the church in Jerusalem were praying on his behalf. As things turned out, though, those prayers were enough as on the night before Peter’s trial and execution, God sent an angel to lead a jailbreak. While Peter was sleeping, the prison suddenly became filled with light as the angel appeared. The angel struck Peter on the side to awaken him, caused the chains to fall from his hands, told him to put on his garments, and then supernaturally walked him straight out of that prison without any guards seeing them. When Peter and the angel got to the iron gate that led out to the city of Jerusalem, the gate opened all by itself. The angel then accompanied Peter down the adjoining street before departing from him.

After the angel’s departure, Peter made his way to the nearby house of Mary (the mother of Mark) and knocked on the door. A group of Christians were gathered at Mary’s home to pray, and no doubt the top item on the prayer list that night was Peter’s scheduled trial and execution the next day. The way the story unfolds is somewhat humorous as it takes a while for Peter to convince those Christians that it’s really him and that they should open the door. They could believe that the man knocking on the door was Peter’s angel but they couldn’t believe it was actually Peter himself!

There are several details that are worth noting from this story. Here are four of them:

  1. Peter was sleeping soundly on the eve of his trial and execution. The angel actually had to strike him to awaken him. Obviously, Peter was at perfect peace either with living or dying. He must have had the same attitude that Paul would later express in Philippians 1:21: “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
  2. Even though Peter, along with the other apostles, had previously been broken out of prison by an angel (Acts 5:17-42), Peter wasn’t expecting a repeat jailbreak that night. As evidence of that, he didn’t initially think the angel was real or that what was happening was actually taking place. Instead, he thought he was experiencing a vision. He didn’t realize that his jailbreak had literally occurred until he was out on the street and the angel had departed.
  3. The fact that those Christians had real trouble becoming convinced that it was actually Peter who was standing at their door proves that prayers prayed with imperfect faith can still produce the desired results if the requests are God’s will.
  4. The next day, after Herod Agrippa I had thoroughly questioned the soldiers who had been assigned to guard Peter, he had them put to death. We aren’t told if the entire group of sixteen were put to death or if it was just the four who were on duty the night of the escape, but either way it makes for an unpleasant part of the story. I can’t imagine that those Christians who prayed so earnestly for God to rescue Peter realized that their prayer request would lead to the deaths of at least four men. While I don’t mean to imply that those Christians were wrong to ask God to rescue Peter, all of us need to understand that our prayer requests, if granted by God, might produce unintended consequences – sometimes unpleasant ones.

In the end, though, the main thought that I’ll leave with you from this story is this: God can make a way where there seems to be no way. If He chooses to do so, He can fix your situation by natural means or by supernatural means, and He can do it by using people or angels. Whatever problem you are facing right now, it’s probably not as potentially fatal as the one Peter faced as he lay there asleep in that prison that night. And yet, God made a way for him where there didn’t seem to be a way. So, don’t underestimate what God can do. Remember that He is still on the throne, His angels still walk among us, and He still responds to prayer.

Posted in Adversity, Angels, Belief, Death, Faith, Fear, God's Provision, God's Sovereignty, God's Will, Needs, Prayer, Prayer Requests, Problems, Suffering, Trials, Trusting In God, Worry | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Man Who Had to Lose His Eyes to See

Posted on March 28, 2017 by russellmckinney

It’s a shame that many people won’t become spiritually broken unless some type of tragedy happens to them. Samson is a classic case in point. He was Israel’s strongman, the champion of the tribe of Dan and the slayer of Philistines. He was a man of faith (Hebrews 11:32-33) who served as one of Israel’s Judges for twenty years during the era before Israel had a king (Judges 15:20). He was fearless and daring, a true legend in his own time. Unfortunately, he was also unbroken, narcissistic, quick tempered, and downright scandalous.

When the Angel of the Lord (an Old Testament, preincarnate appearance of Jesus) appeared to Samson’s barren mother, Manoah, and told her she was going to give birth to a son, the Angel instructed her that the child should be a Nazarite from the womb (Judges 13:5). This meant that Samson was to live his life under the Nazarite vow that was a part of the Mosaic law (Numbers 6:1-8). Anyone taking this vow was required to separate himself completely from the fruit of the grapevine. This included separate from all alcoholic beverages, vinegar, wine, grape juice, fresh grapes, and even raisins. A Nazarite was also supposed to let his hair grow uncut and keep far away from the dead bodies of not only people but also animals. Typically, someone taking this vow would uphold it for thirty days. According to the Angel of the Lord’s word to Manoah, however, Samson’s vow was to last for the duration of his life.

The truth is, though, that Samson never seemed to mind ignoring his Nazarite vow. As evidence of this, he ate honey from a nest some honey bees had built inside the carcass of a lion he had killed earlier (Judges 14:5-9). He even gave some of the honey to his father and mother without telling them that he had broken his Nazarite vow by reaching inside the carcass to get that honey.

Even worse, Samson simply could not contain his lust for non-Jewish women. His trouble with such women began when he got engaged to a Philistine girl from Timnah. This engagement violated the Mosaic law’s prohibition against Jews marrying women from idolatrous races (Deuteronomy 7:1-3).

Samson was actually fortunate that the girl’s father married her off to Samson’s best man before her marriage to Samson could be consummated (Judges 14:1-20). But Samson didn’t see it that way. Instead, he took his revenge by setting ablaze the Philistines’ grain fields, vineyards, and olive groves (Judges 15:1-5). That, in turn, led the Philistines to burn both the father and the girl to death for causing them trouble with Samson (Judges 15:6).

The Philistines also tried to arrest Samson so they could put him to death, but he used the jawbone of a freshly dead donkey as a weapon to kill 1,000 Philistines (Judges 15:15-17). Of course, Samson using that jawbone meant that he again violated his Nazarite vow by touching yet another dead body. I guess we can classify that victory over the Philistines as God hitting a straight lick with a very crooked stick.

Some years later Samson went to the Philistine city of Gaza and had sexual relations with a harlot (Judges 16:1). The Philistines laid in wait to kill him the following morning, but he arose at midnight and easily escaped them by performing another miraculous display of strength (Judges 16:2-3). Ah, but Samson just couldn’t stay away from those forbidden women, and it wasn’t long afterward that he fell in love with another one. Her name was Delilah, and she would prove to be his undoing (Judges 16:4).

It was Delilah who betrayed Samson by nagging him into telling her the secret of his strength, lulling him to sleep, and calling for a man to sneak in and cut off his hair (Judges 16:5-20). The lost hair symbolized Samson’s lost God-given strength, and that lost strength allowed the Philistines to capture him, bore out his eyes, and make him a chained, pitiable object of public humiliation (Judges 16:21). Ironically, however, that was the tragedy that finally led to Samson’s spiritual brokenness and allowed him, with his dying act, to kill more Philistines than he had killed over the course of his entire life. (Judges 16:22-31). Summing up the situation, we might say that Samson had to lose his eyes before he could finally see clearly enough to do his greatest work for the Lord.

There are several spiritual principles that we can glean from Samson’s story, but here is perhaps the best one: Even if you are a servant of the Lord, you can’t dabble with sin and not eventually pay a price. Like a coiled rattlesnake, sin will strike you sooner or later and in so doing get you with its poison. As the old saying goes, sin will take you where you don’t want to go, keep you there longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you can afford to pay. Consider this post a warning to you if you think you can play around with sin and not get burned. Samson had to lose his eyes before he could see the truth, and may the same not be true with you.

Posted in Addiction, Backsliding, Brokenness, Character, Choices, Confession, Depravity, Desires, Disobedience, God's Chastening, God's Work, Personal Holiness, Rebellion, Repentance, Separation, Sex, Sin, Sowing and Reaping, Submission, Temptation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Why I Don’t Fill Out a NCAA Bracket

Posted on March 24, 2017 by russellmckinney

Well, it’s March, which means that a whole bunch of people will be enjoying the games of the NCAA basketball tournament. We don’t call it “March Madness” for nothing! For many people, half the fun of the tournament is trying to predict the outcome of the games by filling out a complete bracket even before the tournament begins. Some fill out their bracket as a harmless amusement, with no money involved. Others, however, bring gambling into the equation and thus rob the realm of college athletics of whatever innocence it still retains.

I myself don’t fill out a bracket. I did for years, but it’s now been quite a while since I filled out my last one. Back when I did do one, it was always just amusement to me. I never made $1 on a NCAA tournament game, but I never lost $1 either. At some point along the line, though, I stopped filling out a bracket. And what was my reason for stopping? I stopped because me worrying about my bracket was preventing me from enjoying the games.

I’m a North Carolina State fan. That goes back to when I was eight years old watching David Thompson, Tommy Burleson, Monte Towe, etc. win the 1974 NCAA tournament championship. I was also fully on board when N.C. State won the tournament in 1983, my junior year in high school. That was the “Cardiac Pack” team that seemingly tried to give their fans heart attacks by playing so many close games. I was one of those fans who experienced a lot of undue stress on my heart that March.

So, let’s say that N.C. State makes the NCAA tournament and plays Kentucky. On my bracket, I’ve got Kentucky winning and advancing to the next round, but with every fiber of my being I want N.C. State to win. This creates a conflict of interest for me as I sit down to watch the game. On the one hand, if N.C. State wins, I’ll be thrilled. On the other hand, that thrill will be dampened by that outcome messing up my predicted bracket. That dampening will be made even worse if I had Kentucky advancing two or three more rounds into the tournament.

Believe it or not, we are actually getting into a life principle here. The principle goes like this: As long as you remain emotionally detached from something, you can’t be hurt by it. You see, the potential for hurt only comes into play when you get personally involved in a situation and start investing feelings and emotion into it. This means that as long as I remain an uncommitted “island unto myself,” who just happens to be sitting and watching a basketball game, I can’t get hurt by the outcome of the game. But the second I start pulling for one particular team to win, I open the door for the possibility of me getting hurt.

At first glance, this appears to make me living as an “island unto myself” the better way to go. Ah, but the problem with living such a life is that it really isn’t God’s plan for me or anyone else. As Exhibit A of this, I submit the life of Jesus. If His life proves nothing else, it proves that God the Son was not content to sit in His ivory tower of heaven and keep Himself isolated from a human race that had become ruined by its progenitor’s fall into sin. That’s why Jesus opened Himself up to the potential for hurt by becoming a fetus in the womb of the virgin Mary, being born into this world, and living for 33 years in it.

And did Jesus get hurt by doing that? Yes, He did. As a matter of fact, He was put to death by way of crucifixion, something that wouldn’t have happened had He remained in heaven. Does this mean, then, that He made a mistake by getting personally involved with the human race? No. By getting involved, specifically by being put to death, He was able to make a way for anyone who voluntarily believes in Him as Savior to experience a heavenly afterlife of eternal bliss, happiness, and joy.

This is clear evidence that there is an upside to dropping your guard and getting emotionally involved. Sure, you might get hurt, but you might also do incalculable good. No one is denying that getting involved is a hit-and-miss proposition, but in the long run the pain and disappointments of the misses (as bad as they might be) can be outdone by the joy and blessings of the hits.

Of course, as I sit here and write this I’m struck by my hypocrisy. Remember that I said that I don’t fill out a NCAA bracket because I don’t want to become emotionally involved with the outcomes of the games and thus open myself up to the possibility of being hurt by those outcomes. That certainly keeps me all safe and snug as I sit in my living room and watch the games, doesn’t it? But is that really how to enjoy the NCAA tournament to the fullest? Surely it isn’t.

So, right now I’m thinking that I might actually fill out a bracket some year, maybe next March. I can see it all now. I’ll have N.C. State beating the Duke Blue Devils in the final-four round. Then they will beat the UNC Tarheels in the championship game. Yep, that will work. Sounds great. Hand me my pen.

Then again, N.C. State might not be good enough to even make the tournament next year. Truth be told, there’s a greater likelihood of that happening than there is of them beating Duke and Carolina to win it all. Uh oh, I think I already feel a tinge of hurt building inside me. I sure do wish that God would stop throwing me into the fray of life, expecting me to live life to the fullest, with its roller-coaster ride of ups and down, thrills and disappointments, joys and pains. If He’s going to do that, wouldn’t you think that He could at least make N.C. State a basketball powerhouse? That would definitely help.

Posted in Christ's Birth, Christ's Death, Current Events, Disappointment, Doing Good, Fear, Gambling, God's Will, God's Work, Human Life, Humor, Influence, Ministry, Personal, Salvation, Service, Sports, Witnessing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment