1 Timothy 5:16

There will be genuine need in the church. Paul emphasises this three times. “Honour widows who are truly widows” (5:3).“She who is truly a widow…” (5:5). “Care for those who are truly widows” (5:16).

How do we know who to help and who to support? The Bible is a wonderfully practical book, and Paul shows us the path of wisdom through two principles:

1. God’s first provision is through the family
“If a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household” (5:4; see also 5:8, 16).

Three times in this passage, Paul makes it clear that God’s first provision for a person in need is through the family. Caring for ageing parents and grandparents isn’t easy, but it brings joy to the heart of God. God said “Even to your old age… I will carry you” (Isa. 46:4). And when you care for an ageing loved one, you reflect the heart and the promise of God.

2. God’s first priority is a godly life
“She who is truly a widow… has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day, but she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives” (5:5-6).

Paul describes two kinds of widows, one who puts her hope in God, and the other who lives for pleasure. The church should not give in a way that supports or enables an ungodly lifestyle.

So here are two practical questions to consider: What provision has God made for this person? What commitment has this person made to God?

There will be times when God provides through the kindness of His own people. Responding to the promptings of the Spirit so that a person in need experiences God’s provision is a wonderful ministry that glorifies Him.

Who will experience the help of God through your kindness this week?

1 Timothy 5:8

The seventh distinctive of a gospel-centred church is gospel compassion. Paul is urging the church to cultivate a culture of caring and serving.

The Bible is full of God’s compassion for His children, especially those who do not have others in this world who care for them.

Listen to the testimony of Moses: “He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing” (Deut. 10:18). An entire book of the Bible is given to the story of three widows, Ruth, Orpah, and Naomi, and how God provided hope and a future for them.

One day Jesus saw a crowd gathered around a widow whose only son had died: “When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her” (Lk. 7:13). Literally, “He was moved to the core of his being.” By His divine power, He raised the young man to life and gave him back to his mother.

The Gospels are full of the affection of Jesus for those who have the least in this world. From the earliest days, this ministry of compassion has been a distinguishing mark of faithful churches.

In Acts 6, we read about a daily distribution of food to widows in the church, and here in 1 Timothy, we have half a chapter devoted to this marvellous ministry.

If you are a widow or are struggling with the unique pressures that come to a single mother, know that you have a special place in the heart of God.

Ask God to give you His heart of compassion for those in need around you.

1 Timothy 4:10

Many people are confused about how to live the Christian life. Two misunderstandings have caused much of this confusion.

1. The “hard labour” version says: “We toil and strive.” This version says that the Christian life is one great effort to try and live a godly life. Many people live here. There is no power or energy working in them. There is very little joy. These folks have an air of defeat. They secretly feel that it is impossible to live a godly life.

2. The “no labour” version says: “We have our hope set on the living God.” This version says, “There is nothing we Christians can do. We have to let go and let God.” Many people live here. They become passive. They do not fight against sin. They say, “It’s all up to God.” And they sound spiritual but they do not make progress.

3. The “gospel life” version says: “We toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God.” Gospel life is the active pursuit of godliness through the power and presence of Jesus Christ in you. “I engage in this struggle. I press on toward the prize with hope because Jesus Christ lives in me.”

You believe in Christ. You know He has mighty power. But perhaps He seems like a friend far away. You feel defeated. You feel that you are fighting alone. You lose hope.

You need to hear the gospel. Jesus Christ is not saying to you, “I will be your powerful friend, but you need to fight your own battles.” He is saying, “I will engage in this fight with you. I will be your Saviour!”

Are you more likely to follow the “hard labour” or “no labour” or “gospel life” version of the Christian life?

1 Timothy 3:16

Godliness—a God-centered life—is not a system or a programme. It is a person. The mystery of a fully God-centered life lies in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. The mysteryof godliness is Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is godliness in the flesh. He has lived the God-centered life. And our hope of living a godly life is in Him. Jesus Christ is the object of our faith and the sourceof our life.

Most of us get the first part of that. But let’s focus on the second. Being a Christian is more than believing in Jesus. It is the life of Jesus Christ in you by the Holy Spirit.

Paul speaks about “the word of God fully known”—that is, everything God has for you—“the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints… Christ inyou, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:25-27).

Christ in you! Faith is more than believing Christ. Faith unites us with Christ so that we are in Him and His life is in us. Faith possesses Christ. Faith receives Christ (Jn. 1:12).Faith feeds on Christ (Jn. 6:54). Christ is your life, and “your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3-4).

Jesus gave us a wonderful illustration of this: “I am the vine; you are the branches” (Jn. 15:5). Godliness is in Him and godliness flows from Him. It grows in us as we grow in Him.

Jesus Christ is the mystery of godliness. That means your hope of godliness is found in Jesus Christ.

How would you explain in your own words that Jesus Christ is the source of your godliness?

1 Timothy 3:16

The sixth distinguishing mark of a gospel-centred church is gospel life. How are we to make progress in character and competence? How are we to become the kind of people who will be effective in getting God’s global mission done?

Godliness (a God-centred life) is the central theme of 1 Timothy 4. “Godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (4:8). How can we live a godly life?

First, we must beware of false paths to godliness. Paul says, “Some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons” (4:1). How do these demons lead people away? “Through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared” (4:2). The work of demons is advanced through false teaching in the church!

Paul gives a specific example: They “forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods” (4:3). The early world was saturated with sex and food. Life was about the body. Not much has changed.

You can see how some people would say, “Since there is so much sin bound up with sex and food, we are against that. Deny yourself and you will become more godly.” But Paul says, “That’s completely wrong! It’s a false path to godliness. You can’t love God more by enjoying life less.”

Paul reminds us that “everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving” (4:4).

Ask God to give you discernment about false teachings that might lead you away from a godly life.

1 Timothy 3:2–7

Paul outlines three areas of core competence for church leaders: doctrinal, personal, and spiritual.

Doctrinal: able to teach
“An overseer must be… able to teach” (3:2). “[Deacons] must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience” (3:9). Not all elders will be preachers. But they must grasp the truth and be able to apply it to their own lives and the lives of others. They must be able to refute false doctrine (1:3). It is the special calling of elders and pastors to make sure that the Word of Christ is central in the church.

Personal: able to manage
“He must manage his own household well” (3:4). Every home has pressures and problems. The key is a man’s ability to manage his own life and to give leadership to his own family. An effective leader begins by learning to manage his own family well. Are his finances well managed? Is his home well ordered? Do his children respect him?

Spiritual: able to stand
“He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up… He must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil” (3:6–7). Paul identifies two primary pressures in spiritual warfare: First, pride is the enemy within. Do you know the grace of God enough to handle success with humility? Second, disgrace is the enemy outside. Satan wants leaders to fall into public disgrace so that he can use it to harm the church.

You may be wondering, “Who is sufficient for these things?” Christ may never call you to be an elder or deacon. But He can form the character and competence of an elder or deacon in you.

Ask God to help you pursue the character and competence that will be most useful to Him.

1 Timothy 3:2-3

What kind of people should we trust and follow as leaders? Here are three traits to look for, cultivate, and thank God for.

Wise judgment
“Sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable… not a drunkard.”Look at the decisions in a person’s life. Do they bear the marks of wisdom? Look at what a person has said or done and the positions they have taken in times of difficulty. Do you see wise judgment? Usefulness in serving others flows from effectiveness in controlling yourself.

Healthy relationships
“Not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome.” An elder cannot be weak. He must be able to confront, but he must have compassion and sympathy that reflects the spirit of Jesus. Some people carry conflict within them. They stir up trouble. So look at a person’s relationships. Do you see gentleness? Or do trouble and conflict follow them?

Moral integrity
“The husband of one wife… not a lover of money.” This does not mean that a person has to be married to lead. A person must be celibate if single and faithful if married. Aleader must also be faithful with finances. The most obvious evidence of this is that he is a generous giver. The effective Christian leader is marked by sexual and financial integrity.

It is sometimes said that character is what you are in private.That’s only half the story. The character of a Christian leader is both private and public. It includes being “above reproach” (3:2) and being “well thought of by outsiders” (3:7). Thisis more than a private holiness of the heart. It’s the way our lives are seen by others.

How do you see these traits reflected in your leaders?How can you cultivate them in yourself?

1 Timothy 3:1

The fifth distinguishing mark of a gospel-centred church is gospel character, that is, the character and competence of a Christian leader.

Most of us are not called to be an elder or a deacon, so you may wonder, What does this have to do with me? Here are three answers:

1. Discernment: What to look for
The biblical pattern is not to make people leaders and then hope that they will rise to it. It is to look for people who show the character and competence of effective leaders. What should we look for in the leaders we elect, the pastors we call, and the missionaries we send?

2. Direction: What to aim for
Every Christian should cultivate a desire for maximum usefulness to Jesus Christ. Should you do theological training? Should you be in full-time ministry? Should you serve overseas? The first things to pursue are right here in 1 Timothy. They will make you a better parent, business leader, teacher, or volunteer. These are the qualities God seeks in the life of every Christian.

Maybe you have not been able to do what you wanted to do. You would like a second chance. Jesus came to restore what was lost, and to recreate what was destroyed. What we learn here can be your future even if it has not been your past. Perhaps God will ignite a desire in you to maximise your usefulness for Christ and a passion to move in that direction.

3. Gratitude: What to give thanks for
If your church leaders follow the principles of 1 Timothy, do not take this for granted. Ask God to increase your thanksgiving for His abundant goodness in the gift of godly leaders.

How might God be prompting you to maximise your usefulness for Him?

1 Timothy 2:3–6

This is a marvellous statement of God’s redeeming purpose in Jesus Christ. Does “all” mean “every single person”? Or “all kinds of people”? It seems clear that “all” means “all kinds of people.” Here are three reasons:

1. That’s what all means in verse 1. God does not expect us to pray for every single person in the world but for all kinds of people.
2. The Bible never suggests that every person will be saved. Some will enter everlasting life and others everlasting destruction.
3. The word ransom (2:6) means the payment of a price. If Christ paid for the sins of every single person, hell would be filled with people whose sins had already been paid for.

Christ gave His life to ransom “all kinds of people.” There will be people like you in heaven. So why not you? There will be people of your personality type, so why not you? There will be people from your race and language group, so why not you? There will be people who were once caught up in every kind of vice but who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ. So why not you?

“There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (2:5). That means that Christ is the mediator for you.

God wants people like you to be saved. Christ gave His life as a ransom for people like you.

If you have not yet trusted Christ as your Redeemer, why not do so today? If you come to Christ, He will never turn you away (John 6:37).

1 Timothy 2:1-2

Paul is speaking about the place of prayer in public worship. This is increasingly out of fashion. But God has given this ministry to the church. If Christians do not pray for the world, who will?

A gospel-centered church is not about us, it is about the gospel. God our Saviour wants “all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2:4). Our worship must reflect God’s heart for the world.

Pray for all people (2:1)
When churches give up on intercessory prayer in public worship, it is usually for one of two reasons. One is that the pastors give up. The other is that the people don’t care. Effective public prayer involves your faith, your compassion, and your heart reflecting the heart of God for the world.

Pray for kings and all in high positions (2:2)
All the rulers in Paul’s time were pagans. Yet Paul says that Christians should pray for our rulers, and that we should do it with thanksgiving! Notice what we are to pray for those in government: “that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” (2:2). Our objective is not that politicians will change society. It is that we should live in peace so that the gospel will change society.

John Chrysostom said, “No one can feel hatred towards those for whom he prays.” If we pray for our leaders in the nation or in the church, it will affect the way we speak about them. You can disagree with them, but you will not be cynical or unkind about them. You will pray for God’s blessing on them. You will rejoice in any success that God gives them.

This kind of praying is good and pleases our God and Saviour.

How important has intercessory prayer been in your own life?

1 Timothy 2:1

The fourth distinctive of a gospel-centred church is gospel ministry. We share Christ’s passion for the world.

The gospel did not come to us so that it could end with us. Christ trusted it to us so that we could bring it to others. A gospel-centred church is a missional church with a passion to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to all people. This is the theme of 1 Timothy 2. Paul speaks about:

• A ministry of prayer for all people: “I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people” (2:1).
• A ministry of the Word to all people: “I was appointed a preacher and an apostle… a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth” (2:7).

So we have the ministry of the Word and prayer. Why do we do these things? What are we preaching and why are we praying?

• The atoning death of Christ for all people: “There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all” (2:5-6).

Then you have a strange jump. Paul speaks about men arguing. But notice that it is in relation to the prayer ministry. “The men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarrelling” (2:8).

We are called to a ministry of gospel praying and gospel proclaiming to all people. This mission flows from the atoning death of Jesus. It is our sacred trust, and it must not be hindered by arguing or disputing.

We are called to gospel ministry: We share Christ’s passion for all people.

Where do you sense God urging you to grow? In the ministry of prayer? Or in the ministry of the Word?

1 Timothy 1:14

Sometimes all we can see is our sins and our failures. But we also need to affirm what God is doing in us. You are not yet what you will be. But you are not what you used to be either. God has poured grace, faith, and love into your life.

The grace of God is being poured into your life
“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost” (1:15). Paul does not say, “I was the foremost.” He says, “I am the foremost.” We do not live on grace (past tense). We stand in grace today. Not one of us lives a single day in a way that merits access to heaven. Our righteousness is found in Him! Right now, the grace of God is being poured out on you abundantly in Christ.

The gift of faith is being poured into your life
“By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8). Paul says earlier that he acted “in unbelief” (1:13). He resisted Christ. Where did His faith come from? It was the gift of God.

The love of Jesus is being poured into your life
“The grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 1:14). Love is found “in Christ Jesus.” Paul says, “I was an angry man. I was hurting others, and the love of Christ was poured into my life!”

How did you come to love and trust Jesus when the natural condition of your heart is to resist Him? God’s grace has overflowed on you along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

Faith affirms that with thanksgiving: His grace has reached me. I live in this grace. It has been poured out abundantly on me!

Affirm God’s grace by thanking Him for His overflowing grace, faith, and love in your life.

1 Timothy 1:13

You may know someone who is bored with their Christian life. There isn’t any joy in it. They will agree that Christ came to save sinners. But if you were to ask, “Oh, which sins of yours has Jesus forgiven?” they would be stuck for an answer.

If you can’t think of anything that needs to be forgiven, you won’t have much love for Christ, you won’t feel much need of the cross, and you will quickly become bored with your faith.

Remembering your sins is important. But use discretion in sharing your past sins with others. Some people may be helped by knowing how Christ redeemed you. Others would be better helped by not knowing. Consider the degree of trust, the depth of the relationship, and the maturity of the other person in discerning how much to share.

Paul’s sins were public. Everyone knew what he had done. And he uses that for the glory of God. Paul is not afraid to face his past sins. He is not in denial. He makes no excuses. He knows that he is a sinner. The gospel produces this kind of honesty.

Satan will be happy for you to forget your sins. Because if you do, you won’t love Christ much, and you won’t grow much either. But when you remember your sins, he will try to tell you what a failure you are. But there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1)!

Let the memory of your sins be a means of magnifying God’s mercy. Paul says: “Look at what I was! If God’s mercy can save me, you can be confident in His ability to change your life, and the lives of others, no matter how broken or resistant they may be.”

Have you become bored with the Christian life? Let the memory of your sins magnify God’s mercy.

1 Timothy 1:15

The third distinguishing mark of a gospel-centred church is gospel salvation. We are sinners, saved by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ. Grasping this will help us to grow in humility, gratitude, and joy.

Here we have one of the great New Testament statements of the gospel: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1:15). “The saying is trustworthy.” So, you can stake your life on it. It is also “deserving of full acceptance.” That means we need to buy into this fully, without reservation or qualification. This is the gospel, and Paul says keep this front and centre in the church.

Jesus came: That’s the incarnation. God entered this world as a man in Jesus Christ. He came to save sinners. That’s the atonement. He did not come to tell us how to live or to change society. He came to give His life as an atoning sacrifice. Christ did not come to tell us what we have to do to be saved. He came to save us. That is the good news.

Paul gives testimony to his own experience. He tells us about his sins and God’s grace in his life. And then Paul explodes with praise! “To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen” (1 Tim. 1:17).

Every Christian has a story of God’s grace. Your story may not be as dramatic as others, but if God has saved you from hell and made you His child and now inhabits your life by His Holy Spirit, then you have an amazing story to tell. Your testimony can be glorifying to God, strengthening to you, and useful to others.

Who could you encourage with your testimony?

Galatians 5:14

Christ calls us to live a life of love (Eph. 5:2). The Old Testament law spells out what that means. It means honouring your father and mother, not committing adultery, and telling the truth. We all need this instruction. We are not so wise that we know what a life of love is.

Read the New Testament backward
Use the law to spell out what a life of love actually means. For example, Jesus calls you to be generous (1 Tim. 6:18). What does that mean? Look at the Old Testament, where God’s people gave a tenth of their income back to the Lord. Use the law to inform your pursuit of generosity.

Read the Old Testament forward
The law is a sign that points forward. You see this in the pattern of the Sermon on the Mount, where Christ quotes the law and then takes it further. “You have heard that it was said… but I say to you…” (see Mat. 5:21-43). In every case, Jesus goes further than the law.

The law says, “Do not murder.” Jesus says, “I’m taking you further. I want you to forgive your brother in the power of the Holy Spirit.” The law says, “Do not commit adultery.” Jesus says, “I’m taking you further. I want you to pursue purity of heart in the power of the Holy Spirit.” Jesus is telling us how to use the law properly.

Are you making a proper use of God’s law? Do you know what it is for? To restrain you from evil. To lead you to Christ. To point you to a new life, lived in the power of the Spirit, and compelled by the love of Christ.

Try your hand at reading the New Testament backward and the Old Testament forward.

1 Timothy 1:9

What is the proper use of the law for a Christian believer? The way you answer this question will shape the character of your life, your home, and your church. Here are two proper ways to use the law.

1. The law restrains rebels from evil
“Lawless and disobedient” (1:9) is what we are by nature. The law restrains rebels by threatening punishment. Good laws act as a deterrent.

If you are a parent, think about your home. When your daughter is born, she brings joy and delight. She is also a little rebel bent on crowning herself as lord. You need rules with punishments to restrain her from evil.

That’s why we need some laws in the church. Why can’t we say, “The only rule here is that we love one another”? There’s too much sin in all of us for that to work.

2. The law leads sinners to Christ
“The law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now… we are no longer under a guardian” (Gal. 3:24-25). Our instinct is to think we deserve heaven. But God uses the law to wake us up to reality: “God owes me nothing. What I deserve is hell.”

The law was “our guardian” (3:24), a teacher to get you to Christ. This is God’s purpose. You need to know that, because when the law convicts you of sin, Satan sees an opportunity. “You see that you are a sinner,” he says. “You’re right. And there is no hope for you.”

The proper use of the law is to lead you to Christ. Do you see the mercy and grace of God to you in Christ? Let the law lead you to Christ.

Have you come to Christ? Let the law lead you to Christ.

1 Timothy 1:8

The second distinctive of a gospel-centred church is gospel freedom. In other words, we are drawn by grace, not driven by law.

It’s clear that there were difficulties in the church at Ephesus. Some were confused about the role of the Old Testament law in the life of a Christian believer. That’s not surprising. This is a difficult issue.

Paul says two things: (1) The law is good, and (2) you have to use it properly. Here are two examples of the improper use of the law.

1. Using the law for self-justification
That’s what the rich young ruler did. He recited the Ten Commandments, and he said, “All these I have kept from my youth” (Mk. 10:20). He took a superficial look at God’s law and said, “I live a really moral life, so I must be good with God.” That is a terrible use of the law!

2. Using the law for self-sanctification
Some folks have the idea that Christ forgives your past sins and opens heaven for your future joy, and that in the middle it’s up to you to live a good life. So find out what the law says and do it.

Here’s the problem: The law can tell you what to do. It cannot give you the power to do it. The law is powerless because it was weakened by the sinful nature (Rom. 8:3). That’s the problem with all legalism and moralism. It is so limited, so calculating, so self-righteous.

The gospel does not bring forgiveness, heaven, and the law. It brings forgiveness, heaven, and the Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who sanctifies, not the law.

Of these two improper uses of the law, which is easiest for you to fall into?

1 Timothy 1:5

“Love that issues from…” Where does love come from? How does love grow? How can you become a loving person, and not a divisive one, at work, in your home, and in the church?

Love comes from a pure heart
The word pure means “undivided.” James says the “double-minded” man is “unstable in all his ways” (Jas. 1:8). Set your heart on things above (Col. 3:1). Ask God to give you a stronger faith in Christ, a deeper love for Christ, and a firmer hope in Christ. Then you will be able to love.

Love comes from a good conscience
This means a conscience that is at rest with God. Is there a known sin in your life that you have allowed to remain? Your conscience is not at rest. It’s making you an angry, divisive person. It’s the root of your complaining spirit. Come clean with Christ. Be washed and receive a clean conscience. Then you will be able to love!

Love comes from a sincere faith
A sincere faith means that you really trust Christ. You don’t just talk about it. You trust Him whatever is happening—when you lose a job or get a new job, at the wedding and at the funeral. Peter says your trials prove that your faith is genuine (1 Pet. 1:6-7).

If you receive these gifts today, you will be able to love! You will be able to love your wife, your children, and people who are difficult. You will love the church. Most of all you will love the Lord Jesus Christ who loved you and gave Himself for you.

Which of these three areas might be holding you back from truly being able to love?

1 Timothy 1:5

The first distinguishing mark of a gospel-centred church is gospel faith. We want to be about God our Saviour and Jesus Christ our hope—rooted in His truth, growing in His love. Nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.

But some people will be distracted. “Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion” (1:6). It’s rare that anyone decides to abandon the truth. It happens gradually.

There are four warning signs that a person is in danger of wandering away from the truth. Let’s look at them in the form of questions.

1. Am I always looking for something new?
Certain persons “devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies” (1:4). People who are deeply rooted in Christ are satisfied in Him, but if you’re always looking for something new, you could wander from the truth.

2. Do I like to talk while avoiding action?
Certain persons “have wandered away into vain discussion” (1:6). These folks are full of pious talk that masks an unholy life. If you see the Bible as ideas to be discussed rather than truth to be obeyed, you could easily wander from the truth.

3. Do I want to teach more than I want to learn?
Certain persons “desiring to be teachers” (1:7). These folks want to teach others but don’t really want to learn themselves. If you love to teach but do not love to learn, you are in danger of wandering.

4. Does my confidence exceed my knowledge?
Certain persons “desiring to be teachers… without understanding” (1:7). These people are supremely confident, forceful, high-handed. But Paul says they do not know what they are talking about.

If you find yourself answering “yes” to any of these four warnings, ask God to help you get back on the path to truth.

1 Timothy 3:14-15

Here, Paul tells us what his letter is about. It has been given by God to tell us what He is looking for in the church—what we are to pursue, how we are to behave, and what we are to be about.

People talk about what they are looking for in a church. But what is God looking for? It’s not for us to decide what’s important and then look for Bible texts to support our passion. We start from the Bible, where God tells us what is important to Him, so that we can follow after His passion.

Sometimes, a few people have a particular passion. They want the whole church to be about what they are about. That always leads to division. If Jesus Christ is not the centre of your affection, you will become a divisive person in the church.

Paul says, “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). We are not here to advance our own cause. We are here for Christ! For the gospel!

Why is this so important? “The aim of our charge is love” (1 Tim. 1:5). The only way to have real unity is by keeping Jesus Christ and His gospel at the centre. We are to put down deep roots into God’s Word. We are to grow in our life in Christ. We are to bear fruit around the world.

The book of 1 Timothy spells out for us ten distinctives of a church that stays focused on Jesus and the gospel.

Are you more interested in talking about what you want in a church, or in hearing what God wants in a church?

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Knowing that you will one day be raised and given a resurrection body, how should you live in your present body?

Recognise that you are wholly owned by Jesus Christ. Christ has the right to determine where you live and what you do. He bought you with His own blood, and over every area of your life Jesus Christ says, “Mine.” You are not your own. Your life is His to spend, and the great calling of your life is to glorify Him.

Be done with everything that defiles your body or soul. “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 7:1). Paul could have appealed to laws, but instead he appeals to promises. He is going for a higher motivation.

Use your mind in a way that glorifies God. Don’t pollute your mind. Fill your mind with what is pleasing to God. It’s the same with your body. Don’t use your body as a vehicle for sin (Rom. 6:13). Use your eyes, ears, hands, and feet in ways that honour Christ. Let your tongue speak words of kindness and your hands be a means of helping, not hurting others.

Are you living in your body as if it belonged to you, or as if it wholly belongs to Christ?

Romans 6:5

The resurrection body will be imperishable and glorious. How else will it be different from our present bodies?

Your body will be powerful: “It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power” (1 Cor. 15:43).

Donald Macleod says that the resurrection body is going to have more energy, more stamina, more athleticism, more speed, more coordination, and more durability than it ever had—because we’re not going to need the body less, we’re going to need it and use it more.

Think about what this will mean for all of our friends who have physical challenges that have restricted their lives in this world. What will it mean when finally and fully Jesus’ words will come true in all of their fullness? The blind will see, the deaf will hear, and the lame will walk.

Your body will be godly: “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body” (15:44).

We are using the word “godly” here, because the word “spiritual” is often misunderstood. The resurrection body is a physical “flesh and bones” body. When Paul speaks about a “spiritual body,” he is talking about a body that is fully responsive to the Holy Spirit. In the resurrection body, you will never feel or think or say, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Your resurrected body will be as eager to do the will of God as your redeemed spirit.

Here is what you have to look forward to in the new heaven and new earth—a glorious and powerful body that is adapted to life forever, and that is fully responsive to the Holy Spirit.

Do you feel the limitations and weaknesses of your body? Take heart that your resurrected body will be fully and powerfully responsive to the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 15:51-52

The transformation of the body you have now into the body you will have will be instantaneous. What do we know about this new resurrection body? There will be continuity, but also changes.

Your body will be imperishable: “So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable” (15:42).

Lazarus was raised from the dead (John 11), but the body he came back in was the same body, not a resurrection body, which meant that at some point he would have to go through the whole miserable business of dying again. But Jesus rose in the power of an endless life (Heb. 7:16), and He’s never going to go through death again, and neither will you in the resurrection. Your resurrection body, like His, will be a body that will never die.

Your body will be glorious: “It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory” (1 Cor. 15:43).

Think about the face of Moses, when he came down the mountain after he had been in the presence of God. His face was shining (Ex. 34:35). Why? Because he had been in the presence of the Lord of glory. Now think about the transfiguration of Jesus (Mark 9:2-8). He went up the mountain with Peter, James, and John, and their faith was strengthened with a preview of the future glory of Jesus. There will be a brightness, a radiance, and a glory, not only around you, but in you in the resurrection body.

Meditate on the glory of the resurrected Jesus and how you will share in His resurrection.

Philippians 3:20-21

The human body is lowly. The human body, at its strongest, is still fragile. Even if you are really fit, and you get hit by a car, you will be in trouble. C. S. Lewis said, “When you are learning to ride they give you unimpressive horses. Only when you are ready for it are you allowed an animal that will gallop and jump.” Wait until you see your upgraded physical body!

Your body will be transformed. The resurrection of the body is a truth that cannot be grasped apart from the work and the power of Christ. The credibility of this great truth is that Christ demonstrated His power to raise His people by rising Himself! Every Christian says, “Yes, the Saviour has given me a new heart.” But He will also give you a new body. It will be the completion of His redeeming work in your life.

Your resurrection body will be like Christ’s glorious body. This means it will be a physical body. You will not be a disembodied ghost or spirit in the new creation. The reason you won’t spend eternity floating on the clouds is that bodies don’t float. Jesus said, “A spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:39). The resurrection body has “flesh and bones” because it is a physical body.

What are you most looking forward toabout your resurrection body?

Romans 8:22-24

All religions have some belief in life after death. But the resurrection of the body is unique to Christianity. Only Christians have a risen Saviour. At the heart of our faith is the great truth that the tomb was empty, that the corpse of Jesus was raised to life, and that all who belong to Him will share in His resurrection.

The resurrection of the body is the crown jewel of the Christian faith. It is a truth to be treasured and put on display for all to see. We should be proud of this and commend it to the world. It is a promise to excite our interest, a hope to anticipate with joy. The resurrection is the purpose for which you were created by God and redeemed in Christ. It is a tragedy that many Christians do not have a firm grasp on this wonderful truth.

The redemption of the body is the hope in which you were saved. The great purpose of God is not to save a part of you (your soul), but the whole of you (your body/soul unity). Christ made you—body and soul, and He will redeem you—body and soul. He will do it in this order: soul now, body later. All that God has made is good, and all that God has made He will redeem.

On a scale of 1 (weak) to 10 (strong), how firm is your grasp of the resurrection of the body?

John 1:14

God became a man in Christ Jesus. The body of Jesus was like ours. He grew in strength—from a baby, to a child, to a man—and He knew what it was like to be hungry, thirsty, and weary.

The first heresy, the first false teaching that the early church had to contend with, was not the denial that Jesus was God, but the denial that He was man. In that culture, people got to thinking, How could God, who is pure spirit, possibly get mixed up with something as base as the human body? There was a nervousness about the Son of God taking on human flesh, but that is precisely what the Bible teaches. That’s why you find in 2 John 7: “Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh.”

If the Bible said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word remained spirit,” we would have to limit God’s interest in our lives to the things of the spirit like prayer, meditation, and Bible study. It would mean that God was concerned with your heart but not with your home, with your spirit but not with your schedule, with your character but not with your activity.

But the Bible doesn’t say, “the Word remained spirit,” it says, “the Word became flesh”! God entered the world of noisy kids and pushy parents, the world of overcrowded schedules and unscrupulous traders, the world of relentless pressures and unending demands. When Jesus went to the cross, He died, not only to save your soul, but also to redeem your life—every part of it!

What are some areas of your life that you wonder if God is interested in? Why?

Genesis 2:7

God made the body of Adam from the dust of the ground, and then He breathed the breath of life into this body. So, Adam was the union of a body and a soul. This is the reason that the Bible sometimes speaks about death as an “enemy,” because death is the undoing of our nature. It is the tearing apart of what God has joined together.

If a mobile phone is not connected to a network, it cannot fulfil the function for which it was made. The same can be said for the network. The fact that there is a cellular network is of no value to you if you do not have a phone. It is the joining of the two together that makes this wonderful gift of telecommunication possible.

Our bodies, as we experience them now, are very different from the bodies that Adam and Eve experienced as they were created by God in the garden. Their original bodies did not age, and they were not subject to disease, pain, or death. All of that came with the entrance of sin into the world. Sin has affected every area of our lives.

God created your body as much as He created your soul. And sin has ruined us in body and soul. But what God has made, He will redeem, and that means your body as well as your soul.

Think about the effects of sin, personally, on your body and soul. Can you imagine what it would mean for God to redeem them?

Revelation 21:6

In the light of what we have been learning about heaven, here are two things to reconsider:

First, if you are holding back from full commitment to Jesus: However hard it is for you to come to Christ in repentance, however hard it is for you to look to Him in faith, however costly it may be for you to confess Jesus as Lord of your life, you cannot ultimately lose.

No one in the presence of Jesus regrets following Him, not even those for whom it cost their lives! What are you holding onto now that is so good it would be worth missing out on all that the people of God will share with Christ in the new heaven and new earth?

Second, if God is calling you to walk on a difficult path: John Newton tells the story: “Imagine a man on his way to New York. He is in a carriage drawn by a horse, and he is on his way to receive a million-dollar inheritance. A mile outside New York, the wheel on his carriage breaks, so he has to walk the last mile to get his million-dollar inheritance. And all the way to New York he grumbles because his carriage is broken. What would you think of such a man?”

In Christ, you are on the last mile of your journey to inherit the new heaven and new earth, and you will find strength for the journey as you anticipate the joy that lies ahead.

Do you need strength for your journey? Anticipate the joy that lies ahead for you, Christian.

Revelation 21:2

There will be no marriage in heaven (Matt. 22:30), but we will still be male and female, because that is how God created us and it was good. The gift of marriage was given to point to something greater that God has in store for all who love Him.

Marriage, at its best, is a pointer to the joy that we will find in Jesus Christ and that Christ will find in His people in the new heaven and new earth. Even if you have an unhappy marriage, you have some sense of what marriage should be.

Christ is the bridegroom, and He brings His people into union with Himself. This shared life will be with God Himself, and the joy will go on increasing. The joys you experience in life remain in your memory so that you continue to derive happiness from them.

Jonathan Edwards says that it will be the same in eternity. Think about what that will be like when you have been in heaven for a million, million ages…. “Your knowledge will increase to eternity; and if your knowledge, your holiness; for as you increase in the knowledge of God, you will see more of his excellency (beauty), and the more you see of his excellency, the more you will love him, and the more you love God, the more delight and happiness you will have in him.”

All your experiences of joy in this life point to the ever-increasing joy that will be yours in Christ for all eternity. This is an “Amen!” moment.

Revelation 21:8

Precisely when God is telling us about the new heaven and new earth, He also tells us that He will separate all that is evil from His people and from His creation—the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars.

All these are descriptions of character. This does not mean that all who have been guilty of these sins will be excluded from heaven. But there are men and women who do not turn to God in repentance. They do not look to Jesus Christ for forgiveness and cleansing. They do not see a need for a Saviour, and so they die in their sins.

Bishop Ryle says, “Most men hope to go to heaven when they die; but few, it may be feared, take the trouble to consider whether they would enjoy heaven if they got there.”

Here is the tragedy of sin: The sinner could not be happy in heaven and, at the same time, cannot be happy in hell. Sin is a complete dead end. It leaves you with no place to go. Sinners will want to be out of hell, but they will not want to be in heaven.

The new heaven and the new earth will be the home of righteousness: “Nothing unclean will ever enter it” (21:27). If it is the home of righteousness, and nothing unclean will ever enter, how could we be there? Only through the cleansing that comes from Jesus Christ.

Do you see your need for a Saviour?

Revelation 21:4

If these things are passing away, then your eternity in the new heaven and new earth will not be spent doing any of the following three things.

1. You will not spend eternity grieving over your past sins and missed opportunities. We will never forget that we were sinners because we will always be finding joy in the Lamb who was slain, the Son of God who redeemed us by the shedding of His blood. We will know ourselves to be redeemed sinners—not in a way that will bring pain or regret, but in a way that will cause us to magnify and glorify Christ for all that He is and for all that He has done.

2. You will not spend eternity carrying baggage from difficult relationships. Even at our best, Christians are so far from what we will be that it is sometimes hard for us to imagine broken relationships completely restored and deep wounds completely healed. But God is able to do more than we could ever ask or imagine.

3. You will not spend eternity nursing any grudges. In heaven, every Christian will be made perfect in repentance and in humility. There will be, in all of us, complete ownership of all sin that is ours and complete repentance from the heart. At the same time, every Christian will be perfect in forgiveness—no grudges. There will be a giving and a receiving of forgiveness among God’s people that will position all of us for a life of harmony in the new heaven on earth.

What a happy day it will be when we no longer grieve the heart of God and no longer bring pain or disappointment to our brothers and sisters.

What are some past sins, regrets, or painful baggage you would like to be free from?

Revelation 21:4

Notice what will be gone, subtracted, taken away in heaven. All these things—death, mourning, and pain—are passing away. You will not find or experience them in the new heaven and new earth. Let’s consider them one at a time.

Death: Nobody in the new heaven and new earth will ever die. No one will grow old. No one will become sick or ill. There will be no need for hospitals or for emergency services. You will never attend a funeral there.

Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” (John 11:25), and “Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (11:26). Because there is no more dying, there will be no more mourning, no more saying goodbye.

Mourning: Nothing in your future life will bring you sorrow, fear, sadness, or disappointment. When you share this life of joy, nothing will ever happen that would cause you to cry. What about tears from the past? There are tears on earth that even those who love us most cannot wipe away. But God will wipe every tear from our eyes.

Pain: There will be no more aching bones. The resurrection body is made of flesh and bones (Luke 24:39), but the flesh will not wrinkle and the bones will not ache. Instead of diminishing, your resurrected body will be rejuvenated with new strength and new capabilities.

Soak in these promises until they restore your hope.

Revelation 21:5

Life in the new heaven and new earth will not be less than the life you have now. It will be more!

The word “new” can be used in two ways. The first is to say, “I’m moving to a new house.” You are in a different place, and there is no continuity between your old house and your new house. The second is to renovate your house. It is an old house and everything in it needs to be redone. So, you do a total refurb, and when you are done you say, “Everything is new!” And that is exactly what God says: “I am making all things new” (21:5).

Here is the great promise: When God has removed sin and all its effects from His people, He will then remove all the effects of sin from His creation so that the new earth will become a fit place for God’s children to share a life of unclouded joy.

Think about the joys of life in this fallen world—the joys of music, sports, the arts, science, technology, travel, food, and friendship. None of that will be less. All of it will be more, as you enjoy life in the resurrection body on the new earth. All that God has made is good, and when He redeems it, He will make it better than it was before.

God is going to remake the heavens and the earth. He will merge heaven and earth into a perfect place that will be our home forever. This is the reason why we can speak of heaven when we talk about the new heaven and new earth, because heaven will fill the earth.

How does the promise of a “new” heaven and “new” earth affect the way you think about the world around you?

Revelation 21:1

Satan’s master strategy is to have people think that what lies ahead will be far less than what we have now. He wants you to believe that your life would be less if it were in God’s hands.

If you believe that the life you have now is better than the future life you could have in the presence of God, it will be like trying to hold onto sand as it slips through your fingers.

People sometimes talk about “living your best life now.” But living your best life now is only possible for a person who is going to hell. For the person who is going to hell, this life is as good as it is ever going to be. But if you are headed for life in the new heaven and the new earth, how could you possibly live your best life now? Your best life lies ahead of you.

When a couple plans a wedding reception, they go for a tasting. They taste the meal that will be served on the great day. But the tasting is only a sample. It is preparation for the great event toward which the bride and groom are counting the days. All that you enjoy in this life, and all that you have in Christ in this world, is just a foretaste of the joys that are to come.

Have you been living your life as if the best is now, or as if the best is yet to come?

John 17:24

Will we see our believing loved ones in heaven? Yes. But here’s the bigger question: Will Jesus see His believing loved ones in heaven? Yes!

When Jesus was preparing to go to the cross, He prayed this prayer: “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory” (17:24). In other words, Jesus was saying, “I want them with me, and I want them to see my glory!”

Christian believer, the greatest assurance you can have of heaven is that Jesus wants you there! He went to the cross to get you there. He lives at the right hand of the Father to bring you there. And one day, when you arrive in heaven, His prayer will be answered—you will see His glory.

The apostle John says, “We shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). We will see Jesus Christ risen, triumphant, and victorious. That is why we will say with all the redeemed: “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Rev. 7:10).

What is your reaction as you consider this prayer that Jesus prayed?

1 Thessalonians 2:19 And 4:16-18

Seven witnesses from the Bible point to our knowing one another in heaven, and here are our sixth and seventh witnesses.

Witness #6 – Paul and the Thessalonians: “What is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you?” (1 Thess. 2:19).

Paul says that believers whom he loved and served on earth will be his joy and crown in heaven. So, the special relationship forged between Paul and these believers on earth will continue in heaven. He is saying, “You have been my joy on earth, and you will be a joy to me in heaven.”

Jonathan Edwards takes up this theme: “The special affection that the saints have in this world toward other saints, who are their friends, will in some respect remain in another world.” Christians who knew and loved each other on earth will know and love each other in heaven.

Witness #7 – The reunion of believing loved ones: “The Lord himself will descend from heaven… And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words” (4:16-18).

Paul is writing to believers who are grieving over their own friends and family members who have died. Their grief isn’t about death in general, but about the death of their loved ones in particular. He offers them this comfort in their sorrow: We will be “caught up together with them” to meet the Lord (4:17). The whole point is that Christian believers have the comfort of knowing that they will see their loved ones again. Christians never say goodbye!

As you remember those who have died in the Lord, look ahead in hope to being reunited with them in heaven.

Seven witnesses from the Bible point to our knowing one another in heaven, and here are our fourth and fifth witnesses.

Witness #4—Moses and Elijah: “Behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him [Jesus]” (Matt. 17:3).

When Moses and Elijah appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration, they did not have the resurrection body. Even now, Jesus Christ is the only One in the universe who has the resurrection body. Moses and Elijah are in heaven with the rest of the believers, eagerly waiting for the resurrection body, which they will get when Christ comes again in glory.

So, when Moses and Elijah appear on the mountain, they are spirits—souls made visible. We do not know how Peter, James, and John knew they were in the presence of Moses and Elijah. But we do know that they recognised Moses and Elijah, even in advance of the resurrection body.

Witness #5—The gathered souls in heaven: “You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect” (Heb. 12:22-23).

The writer to the Hebrews reminds us of the great truth that the church gathered on earth is at one with the church gathered in heaven. He speaks of “the spirits of the righteous made perfect,” that is, the souls of believers in the presence of Jesus.

These souls are gathered in “the assembly of the firstborn.” This is a description of what is happening in heaven right now: The spirits of the righteous made perfect are gathered. Gathered means community, and community means relationship, and relationship means identity and knowledge right now in the presence of Jesus.

Reflect on and rejoice in this glimpse of what is going on in heaven right now.

Seven witnesses from the Bible point to our knowing one another in heaven, and here are our second and third witnesses.

Witness #2—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: “Many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 8:11).

Notice the clear identity of these men – Abraham is Abraham in heaven, Isaac is Isaac, and Jacob is Jacob. They retain their distinct identities. We do not become nameless, anonymous spirits in the presence of Jesus. Abraham is enjoying the company of his son and his grandson. Jacob is enjoying the company of his own father and his grandfather.

Also, notice what Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are doing: They are reclining at a table. They are eating and drinking. You have identity, relationship, conversation, and sharing a meal. And many will come from the east and west and join them! In other words, many others will enter into the same joy and the same experience.

Witness #3—Jesus and the disciples: “I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom” (26:29).

Notice the same clarity here: Jesus will drink the cup in His Father’s kingdom with His disciples. The eleven, who shared the Last Supper with Him on earth, will drink the cup again with Jesus in heaven. These disciples are named and they are known.

Reflect on the unique identities of loved ones and rejoice that they will continue into eternity in the presence of God.

Revelation 7:9

The distinct identity of every person in this vast crowd is maintained. They are from every tribe, nation, and language. The distinct individuality of every one of God’s people is preserved. What makes us different no longer divides.

This speaks directly to the question: Will we know one another in heaven? Yes! You will still be you. We will all be like Christ, but each of us will reflect His likeness through our own individuality.

That means we will know one another in the resurrection. The disciples knew and recognised Jesus in His resurrection body. But even before Jesus returns and we receive our resurrection bodies, we have good reason to believe that the same will be true of us.

Seven witnesses from the Bible point to our knowing one another in heaven, and at least some of them point to believers knowing one another immediately after death.

Witness #1—David and his son: “Now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me” (2 Sam. 12:23).

King David had a little boy who died in infancy. When the boy died, David said, “I shall go to him.” There’s more here than David saying, “I will go to heaven when I die.” He says, “I will go to the boy! I will see him! I will be reunited with him in heaven.” That is a wonderful assurance for every Christian parent who loses a young child.

Have you ever wondered if we will recognise and know one another in heaven?

Revelation 7:15

God will shelter—literally, spread His tent—over His people. Imagine a massive piece of canvas that will be shaped into a tent. He shakes it out so that it falls over all His people, in a way that none of them are outside. It is the most beautiful picture of inclusion.

Where do you feel completely at home? Where is the place you can say, “This is where I belong”? That feeling is a foretaste of what you will experience in the presence of the Lord. Some people struggle to feel at home in this life. Some don’t feel completely at home in the church or in their own families. Some don’t feel at home in their own bodies.

Whatever your struggles are in this life, if you are in Christ, the day will come when you know that you are completely at home. When God spreads His tent over you, you’ll say, “This is where I belong! I was made for this place!”

To be at home means that you will be yourself. In heaven you will find yourself saying, “I am more myself than I have ever been before.”

In heaven, you will serve the Lord as you always wished you could. You will be at peace with yourself as never before. You will be at peace with all your brothers and sisters in Christ, and you will be at peace with God. You will be at home.

Where do you feel most at home in this life? How might that be a foretaste of being at home in heaven with God?

Revelation 7:9-10

John sees a vast crowd—in the immediate presence of Jesus Christ—standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They are dressed in white robes that speak of complete purity. They have palm branches in their hands—a symbol of victory. These people are celebrating total victory, which they ascribe to God Himself.

What they are experiencing there in heaven is very different from what we are experiencing here on earth. We live this life in a fallen world where God is dishonoured, righteousness is spurned, and evil casts a shadow of pain and destruction. We are up against the pull of the flesh. The direction of that pull may change, but the struggle it brings never goes away. And we have an enemy—the devil—who, though he can never finally succeed against us, will never give up.

So, we continue to live a life of repentance and faith. Repentance, because we never get beyond the awareness of our own sins and failures. Faith, because we walk by faith and not by sight. And we do these two things with the help of the Holy Spirit.

The Christian life is a struggle, but it will not always be so. John sees believers in the presence of Jesus. They are celebrating victory. Their long struggle is over. Their battle has been won.

How might this glimpse of eternity encourage you to persevere in faith today?

Revelation 6:9-10

There is a good–better–best pattern to the Christian life.

• To be in Christ is good. No matter how bad things get in this world, if you are in Christ, you are blessed with every spiritual blessing (Eph. 1:3).
• But to be with Christ is better by far than anything you’ve ever known, can know, or will ever know in this world.
• And for every Christian, even those who are in heaven now, the best is yet to come.

In Revelation 6, the souls of believers in the presence of Jesus are experiencing the better. Yet these believers are crying out to God, “How long?” (Rev. 6:10). How long until the evils of this present world and the sufferings of God’s people are brought to an end? How long until King Jesus returns in glory, and we get to come with Him? They are told that they must wait (6:11).

Herman Bavinck, the great Dutch theologian, has a fascinating comment on the experience of believers in the presence of Jesus: “They have a past which they remember, a present in which they live, and a future which they are approaching.”

One day the Father will say to the Son, “That’s it! Go wrap this up and bring my children home.” Jesus will come in glory. Our loved ones who have gone ahead will be with him, and we will be forever with the Lord” (1 Thes. 4:17).

When Jesus returns, every child of God will receive a resurrection body, and we will live on the new heavens and the new earth, and experience God’s best forever and ever. Amen.

As you think about loved ones who have died in Christ, remember that the coming of Jesus is getting nearer.

Mark 12:25

How so? In what ways will we be like the angels in heaven?

Angels are spirits without bodies, though they occasionally appeared to people in the Bible with a temporary body. But God has given us life in this world through the union of a body and a soul. And death is the separating of the soul from the body.

So, the activity of angels gives us a model for thinking about the kinds of things that believers can do in the presence of Jesus while they are waiting for the resurrection.

Angels see, and so do believers in heaven: “In heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 18:10).

Angels speak, and so do believers in heaven: “The voice of many angels… saying with a loud voice, ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing!’” (Rev. 5:11-12).

Angels rejoice, and so do believers in heaven: “There is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10).

Angels worship, and so do believers in heaven: “There was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!’” (Luke 2:13-14).

Angels inquire, and so do believers in heaven: “Things into which angels long to look” (1 Peter 1:12).

As you think about loved ones who have died in the Lord, take heart, take heart that they are actively engaged in the presence of Jesus.

Philippians 1:23

Jesus said to the thief, “Today you will be with me in paradise”—immediate, conscious enjoyment of the presence of God!

Now, some have seized on the fact that the Bible sometimes describes death as sleep (1 Cor. 15:51) and have suggested that the souls of believers go to sleep when they die. Please remember that what sleeps is not the soul, but the body. The body is laid to rest until the resurrection. But the soul is very much alive in the presence of Jesus.

Some people latch onto the idea of soul sleep because it is easier to imagine unconsciousness than it is to imagine the life of a soul without a body. But unconsciousness is not the promise of Jesus. Enjoying His presence is. Paul said, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). In other words, Paul is saying, “I get more when I die, not less.”

You are blessed in this life with every spiritual blessing in Christ. There is no way in the world that unconsciousness is better than that. What is better by far is that your faith will be turned to sight. Your pain, grief, failure, and persecution will be over. You will sin no more, and with your spirit made perfect, you will consciously enjoy the presence of Jesus.

To be with Christ is better than all you can experience in Christ now. It is better than anything you have ever known, and anything you can know in this world. It is better by far.

*Do you feel that you will get more when you die? Why or why not?*

Luke 23:43

What was death like for the thief? And what does the experience of a Christian believer look like immediately after death?

Jesus promised that the thief would be with Him, and He said that it would be today. In other words, Jesus was saying, “For you, death will be an immediate translation into the joyful presence of the Father in heaven. You will be with me!”

Jesus died before the thief, and He committed His spirit into the hands of the Father. So, when the thief died, he went immediately into the presence of Jesus. After all that he’d been through, there was no post-traumatic stress for him in heaven, no wounds from the past, and no fears for the future—only complete healing in the presence of Jesus.

The experience of the thief is a prototype for the death of every believer. “We would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8).

When a believing loved one dies and you wonder, “Where are they now?” your first answer should be: “With Christ!” You will draw great hope from the clarity of this answer. They are away from the body—that is why we lay the body to rest—and they are at home with the Lord.

Have you (or has someone you know) recently lost a loved one?

Luke 23:34

Today the thief is in heaven and the reason he’s there is not because he was without sin, or that he lived a good enough life. The thief is in heaven because Jesus paid the price for his sin and gave him eternal life. What Jesus did for the thief, He is able to do for you.

But remember, there were two thieves, and while one was saved, the other was lost. Both of them had the same need and the same opportunity. Both of them were next to Jesus. Both of them heard Him pray, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Now think about the difference between them: While one turned to Jesus in repentance and faith, the other remained at a distance. You may be thinking, I don’t want to make a commitment right now. I’ll think about this later.

If you make that choice, one of two things will happen: Either you will come to repentance and then wish you had come earlier, or your heart will harden toward Jesus, and you will never come to Him at all. So come to Jesus in faith and repentance now.

Or maybe you fear that it is too late for you to turn to Him. Remember the thief on the cross. It was not too late for him, and it is not too late for you. The time for you to turn to Jesus, ask of Jesus, and trust in Jesus is now. Early is better than late, but better late than never.

Lord, I confess that I am a sinner and that I do not deserve to enter your heaven. But I believe that you died on the cross for me, so I ask that you remember me and bring me into your kingdom. I trust your promise that those who come to you will never be cast out.

Luke 23:43

This is the promise of the Saviour to every person who places their trust in Him. So turn to Him, ask of Him, and take Him at His word.

Trusting Jesus will involve trusting Him in three very challenging circumstances:

1. Trusting Jesus in the darkness
Immediately after the thief trusted Jesus, “there was darkness over the whole land” (23:44). This darkness came in the middle of the day, and it lasted for three hours.

Put yourself in the shoes of the thief. You have just trusted your hope of heaven to Jesus. Then you are plunged into darkness, and you hear Jesus crying out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). The thief must have wondered, What in the world is going on?

There may be times in your life when you experience great darkness. Don’t be surprised by this. You can depend on the promise of Jesus as surely in the darkness as you can in the light.

2. Trusting Jesus in your pain
The pain of crucifixion got worse by the hour, as wounds in the hands and feet widened, and as fever raged through the body. So, the thief experienced more physical pain after he trusted Jesus than he did before.

Anyone who suggests that trusting in Jesus will lead to a pain-free life has not yet come to terms with what the Bible teaches. You will have to trust Jesus in the darkness, and there may be times when you have to trust Him in pain.

3. Trusting Jesus at your death
You will also have to trust Jesus, as the thief did, when the moment of death comes for you. The way to die is the way to live. Forget what you have done or failed to do for Jesus and trust wholly in what Jesus has done on the cross for you.

Is there anything keeping you from trusting in Jesus?

Luke 23:42

This was an audacious request. The thief did not say, “I know I’ve made some mistakes, but nobody’s perfect, and I’ve done a lot of good things in my life.” He said, “We are receiving the due reward of our deeds” (23:41).

This man asked Jesus with honesty and humility. He faced the fact that he was a sinner. He had sinned against God and against his fellow man. And we are like him. We have failed to do what God has called us to do, and we have done what He has told us not to do.

This is precisely why Jesus went to the cross, where He became the sacrifice and the substitute for sinners. “The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). Jesus carried sins into His death, so that you would not have to carry them into yours.

We don’t like to ask. We prefer deals: “Here is something that I can do for you. And there’s something I would like you to do for me.” And our first instinct when it comes to God is to think in terms of a deal. If I pray… If I go to church… If I’m generous… If I live a good life… God will get me into heaven.

But here’s what happens if you come to God that way—you go through life feeling God owes you, and you hang your future on a deal that doesn’t exist, because God doesn’t make deals.

Asking means that you come to Jesus with empty hands, knowing that there is nothing you can offer Him. You are casting yourself upon His mercy and looking to Him for grace.

What the thief did was deceptively simple. He began to fear God. He recognised his sinful condition. And he asked Jesus to save him.

Have you ever tried to make a deal with God? Have you ever come to Him empty-handed?

Matthew 27:44

One thief continued to hurl insults at Jesus, but a change came over the other. The Bible calls this change repentance. Every change has a beginning, and the story of the thief shows us where repentance begins.

The thief had been hurling abuse at Jesus, but then a stillness came over his soul as he thought about what lay ahead: Why am I fighting against God? What sense does this make when soon I will stand before Him and give account for my life?

Turning to the other thief who continued to hurl abuse at Jesus, he said, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?” (Luke 23:40).

The thief had some knowledge of God, but he had not given weight to God in his life. If he had, he would not have become a thief. Instead, he pushed away God’s claims on his life and went his own way. And the further he moved away from God, the less his conscience bothered him.

But now he was on the brink of eternity, and the fear of standing before God gripped him. This fear is the beginning of turning to God and it leads to recognising Jesus Christ as your king.

Turning toward Jesus, the thief said, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom” (23:42). The thief recognised that Jesus is a king: If he is a king and he is going into death, maybe when he gets to the other side, he can do something to help me.

To the person who recognises that He is a king, Jesus says, “You will be with me in paradise” (23:43). How can you be sure of heaven? Turn. Fear God and submit yourself to Jesus as your king.

Has repentance begun for you?

Luke 23:32

The day you die may be a long way off, but nothing is more certain… it will come. One day you will wake up and it will be your last day on earth. What will happen to you then?

The story of the thief on the cross tells us how we can be sure about heaven. We are not told much about this man, except that while he was hanging on the cross next to Jesus, he said to Him, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And then Jesus said to this criminal, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise” (23:42–43).

It is natural for us to think that people get into heaven by living a good life, but the thief had not done that. He was a criminal, and his crimes were such that he was sentenced to death.

This man clearly had not lived a good life, and he knew it. The thief did not dispute the justice of his sentence, in fact, he said, “We are receiving the due reward of our deeds” (23:41).

This man was out of time. With his hands and feet nailed to the cross, he couldn’t begin to do good works, and yet Jesus said to him: “Today you will be with me in paradise”!

This contradicts the mindset that says, “In order to get into heaven, I’ve got to live a good enough life to please God.” The thief clearly didn’t do that. So, how did he get in?

The good news is that if it was possible for this man to get into heaven, you can too. The story of the thief shows us how, and it can be summarised in three words—turn, ask, and trust.

Have you given much thought to how a person gets into heaven?

Luke 12:19–20

Sooner or later, your last day on earth will come. It may come this week, this month, or this year. Or it may be a long way off for you. But one day you will wake up, and whether you realise it or not, it will be your last day. And what will happen to you then?

Jesus speaks to us about heaven. He came into the world so that people could go there. Nothing matters more than that you should get into heaven. It matters more than your work, your business, or your money.

Jesus told a story about a man who was all wrapped up in his work. Business was booming. He was working on a plan for expansion. There’s nothing wrong with expanding your business, but this man said something very interesting: “I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods” (12:18).

This man was a planner. But God said this man was a fool, because in preparing for the future he missed the biggest part. You plan for a future that may last 10, 20, or 30 years after you retire. But then what? One day you will leave this world and all that you have. To plan and prepare for the few years you have in this world is good and wise, but to neglect the eternity that lies beyond this world would be the greatest folly.

Ask yourself, “How well am I prepared for the future that lies beyond this?”

Jonah 2:9

Perhaps you would say today, “I’m not sure that I have been saved.” Or, “I’m not sure that I am being saved.” Or, “I’m not sure that I will be saved.” In your heart of hearts, you wonder: If salvation comes from the Lord, what can I do? Doesn’t this leave me without hope?

No. It is precisely the opposite. When Jonah says, “Salvation belongs to the LORD,” that opens the door of hope for you! How are you going to have faith? How are you going to love God more than yourself? How are you going to overcome sin and live a holy life?

You cannot do these things in your own power, but God can do them for you and in you. The Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross because you cannot reconcile yourself to God. He sends His Holy Spirit because you cannot give yourself spiritual life. And He promises His presence and power because you cannot overcome sin by yourself.

Salvation comes from the Lord, and when you see that, you will gather courage to come to Him and ask Him to save you. Get your eyes off yourself and your own inability to change. Get your eyes fixed on the Lord and His ability to save. The Lord saved Jonah. Why should you not ask Him to save you as well?

Here’s how C. H. Spurgeon ended his message on this great text:

“Everybody here has a soul to be saved or a soul to be lost. You will be lost forever, unless God shall save you… Down on your knees! Cry to God for mercy. Lift up your heart in prayer to God now! May this be the moment when you will be saved. You can have peace with God now. Ask, and it shall be given, seek and you will find. Come to Christ and be accepted in God’s dearly loved Son.”

Could this be the moment when you will be saved?

Galatians 2:20

What difference would it make if you came to see, like Jonah, that salvation comes from the Lord? Here are three ways this conviction will change your life:

1. It deepens our worship
God set His love on us before we were born. David says, “In your book were written… the days that were formed for me” (Ps. 139:16). While Paul says, “The Son of God… loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). Jesus came to save people with names and faces, and one of them was you. God sent His Spirit to work in your heart and draw you to Christ.

2. It strengthens our assurance
If your salvation boils down to a decision to follow Jesus, how do you know that you can keep it up? All you could do is give it your best shot and hope you make it. But salvation comes from the Lord. The Lord who died to save you lives to keep you, and He will never let you go.

3. It motivates us in prayer and evangelism
You may know people who need Jesus. But the problem is that they are not interested in Him. If salvation is simply a matter of human choice, there’s no hope for them, because they aren’t going to make that choice. But, if God is free to swoop in, uninvited, and lay hold of them and bring them to faith, then that would give you hope. This motivates us to both prayer and evangelism. If God swoops into people’s lives through the gospel, then we can pray for them, and we can look for opportunities to share the gospel with them.

When Jonah said, “Salvation belongs to the Lord,” he was saying more than “God makes salvation possible.” He was saying, “God saves!”

Who do you know who needs Jesus? Pray that God will save them and watch for opportunities to share the gospel with them.

Ephesians 2:8

Consider how the Bible talks about salvation in the past, the present, and the future:

1. Completed Transaction (this is often called justification)

“By grace you have been saved through faith…” (Eph. 2:8). The Bible often uses this kind of language. “Since we have been justified by faith…” (Rom. 5:1). It’s a done deal. How have you been saved? Christ died for your sins. Christ rose for your justification (4:25). God counts all your sin as if it were Christ’s and all Christ’s righteousness as if it were yours. Your salvation is a completed transaction that comes from the Lord.

2. Continuing Process (this is often called sanctification)

“The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18). Your salvation has begun, but it is not yet complete. You still struggle with the flesh, and fail in many ways. Yet God has not left you in defeat. You are being saved, and that comes from the Lord. It is a lifelong process in which God is always at work to make you like Jesus. Your salvation is a continuing process that comes from the Lord.

3. Future Hope (this is often called glorification)

You, “who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Pet. 1:5). Our future hope of salvation comes from the Lord. When Jesus returns, God will make his dwelling with us and there will be no more death, mourning, or pain (Rev. 21:3-4). God will say, “I am making all things new” (21:5).

The Lord has saved you, the Lord is saving you, and the Lord will save you. Salvation-from the beginning to the end—comes from the Lord!

Pray and thank God that your future, final, eternal, glorious salvation comes from Him.

Jonah 2:1

Jonah is a wonderful model for us here. Notice, he gives God all the glory for his salvation. “Salvation belongs to the LORD!” (2:9).

C. H. Spurgeon says, “Jonah learned this sentence of good theology in a strange college…. Most of the grand truths of God have to be learned by trouble; they must be burned into us with the hot iron of affliction, otherwise we shall not truly receive them.”

We have been talking about how Jonah had been avoiding a God-centred life, but now we see how utterly God-centred Jonah became. Jonah 2 is a song of praise in which God gets all the glory for Jonah’s salvation.

From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. Notice how Jonah speaks directly to God, using the words “you” and “your”:

“I called out to the LORD… and you heard my voice.
For you cast me into the deep… all your breakers and your waves passed over me.
I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’
You brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God…
My prayer came to you, into your holy temple…
I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you... Salvation belongs to the LORD!” (2:2-9).

God saves!

Have you been giving God all the glory for your salvation? Or have you been taking some of the credit for it because of your response?

Jonah 2:5-6

If salvation is something we do for ourselves with moral effort, good works, family values, and the Ten Commandments, then why did Jesus have to die on the cross? God sent the fish because Jonah couldn’t save himself. And that’s why God sent Jesus.

God saves desperate sinners
“To the roots of the mountains I went down” (2:6). What happened when Jonah believed? His problems got worse. Jonah hit rock bottom. He is absolutely hopeless, and then God sends the fish. “Yet you brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God” (2:6).

God saves repentant sinners
“Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you” (2:8-9). Salvation from sin involves faith and repentance. Repentance is turning away from whatever had God’s place in your life before, while faith is turning to the Lord: “But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you” (2:9).

Think about this: Praise and thanksgiving flowed out of Jonah while he was still in the fish! (2:1). Why? Jonah worships in the belly of the fish because he knows that God is saving him. And that’s all he needs to know.

God saves guilty, believing, desperate, repentant sinners, and He is ready and able to save you!

Are you still trying to save yourself, or are you filled with worship today because you know that God is saving you?

Jonah 2:2

Maybe you have the idea that you need to clean up your life before God can save you. That’s like saying, “If you swim to shore, God will send you a lifeboat!” Jonah shows us a better way.

God saves guilty sinners
“You cast me into the deep… your waves passed over me” (2:3). Inside the fish, Jonah thinks, “God did this. God sent the storm.” Behind the human events, Jonah sees the hand of God.

Some people see their lives as strung together by chance. They feel that they are lucky or unlucky. Others see their lives as controlled by other people. They feel that they are victims. Other people see their lives as controlled by themselves. They feel that they are heroes. But Jonah knew God was at work, exposing his guilt and rebellion.

Owning our sinfulness means getting beyond the idea that we deserve something better from God. God saves guilty sinners. Believing the gospel begins when you own your guilt before God.

God saves believing sinners
“I am driven away from your sight” (2:4). It isn’t easy to ask God for help when you know you have sinned. Jonah felt God was no longer interested in him. He felt he was beyond forgiving.

What he says next is amazing: “Yet I shall again look upon your holy temple” (2:4). That is a marvellous statement of faith. God was for Jonah even when He was against him! And God is for you even when He is against you.

God saves guilty sinners. God saves believing sinners. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).

*Do you feel like you need to “swim to shore” before God will save you? Or can you accept that He loves you even while you are a sinner?*

Jonah 2:9

If you want to emphasise something important, you could put it at the beginning, like in a headline; in the middle, like in a climax; or at the end, like in a conclusion.

If you want to sum up the book of Jonah in one sentence, it would be when Jonah says, “Salvation belongs to the LORD!” (Jon. 2:9). God brought Jonah to the place where he wanted people to know what God had done in his life. And when he did, he put a song of praise right at the centre. For that reason, we’re coming to this great chapter at the end of our study of Jonah.

We’re going to look at Jonah’s remarkable testimony to God’s grace. Jonah disobeyed God, but God sent a storm, and Jonah told the ship’s crew to throw him in the sea (1:12, 15).

Then we have this remarkable statement: “The LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights” (1:17).

Some suggest that this is just a parable to teach us lessons about God, but Jesus said, “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” (Mat. 12:40). The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ were historical events, and Jesus speaks about what happened to Jonah in the same way. What happened to Jonah belongs among the miracles.

What does this have to do with us? Jonah writes this song of praise to tell us how God saves sinners. The message of Jonah 2 is simply this: God saves guilty, believing, desperate, repentant sinners.

Are you inclined to view the story of Jonah as a parable or as a miracle of grace? Why?

Jonah 4:11

Imagine that you are responsible for parking at the Super Bowl. Your job is to clear the parking lot as quickly and as safely as possible.

When the game ends, you motion the front row forward. Nothing happens. You walk over to the first car, and the driver says, “I got in the car, and everything went dark. I can’t drive. I’m blind.”

You go to the next car, and the driver says, “I got in the car, and some guy slapped these handcuffs on me. I can’t drive. I’m bound.”

You move to the third car, and the driver is slumped over. He is dead.

People are blaring their horns, but you have compassion. Why? Because you understand the problem.

There is a kind of Christianity that is angry with the sinful world. A kind of preaching that rails against the evils of our times and seems to find pleasure in doing so. It is angry because it does not understand the human condition.

By nature, we are blind, bound, and dead. We cannot see the glory of Christ. We do not have the power to stop sinning. And we will not come to Christ and follow Him.

That’s true of every person. Reflecting on the human condition will help you to grow in compassion. It will make you less like Jonah and more like the Lord, who has compassion on people who cannot tell their right hand from their left.

On a scale of 1 (angry) to 5 (indifferent) to 10 (compassionate), reflect on your attitude toward the sinful world, and especially toward those in your life who currently reject God.

Jonah 4:4-11

Here are three ways we can grow in compassion:

1. Rejoice in God’s unique creation
Every person you meet is God’s unique creation. When you see someone on a train, at the store, or in school, say to yourself, God cares about this person, and He has placed me next to them. This doesn’t mean God will save all people. It does mean that He cares about all people, even His enemies. Try to show kindness to all people, especially those whose beliefs or behaviour may offend you. When you show compassion to all, you reflect the heart of God.

2. Reflect on our human condition
Here are three ways the Bible describes our human condition:

a) Spiritually blind (2 Cor. 4:4). It is not just that unbelievers don’t want to see. They cannot see the glory of Jesus or the wisdom of God’s law. b) Spiritually bound (Jn. 8:34). Sinners may be able to change the form of their sins, but they cannot stop being sinners. c) Spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1). By nature, we are unresponsive to God. Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (Jn. 6:44).

3. Engage in Christ’s redeeming mission
When the king heard God’s Word, he sat down, he repented, and he said, “Let everyone turn from his evil way… God may… turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish” (Jon. 3:6, 8-9). Jonah also sat down. He “went out of the city… and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city” (4:5).

Although the king is a new believer, he is actively pleading with God for the salvation of his city. While the prophet, who is a mature believer, is sitting outside, passively watching. Hearts grow cold on the sidelines of ministry, because compassion is more than a feeling. It is love in action.

What step could you take today to cultivate more compassion for a lost world?

Jonah 3:10

Here we have a wonderful window into the heart of God. He relented and had compassion on the Ninevites… and that made Jonah angry! Jonah said, “I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful…” (Jon. 4:2). But Jonah was not a gracious and merciful prophet.

God was concerned about the city. He said, “There are 120,000 people in Nineveh, and these people matter to Me!” But Jonah was concerned about the vine. The Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labour, nor did youmake it grow” (4:10). The contrast is striking. Jonah was concerned about the vine. God was concerned about the city.

We are all concerned about the vine—our jobs, homes, investments, and health. We are concerned about the things that bring us comfort and joy. But do we share God’s concern for our cities? It is easy to be deeply concernedabout the vine and yet unmoved by the plight of millions who face eternity without Christ.

Ask God to give you are heart for the cities andfor those who do not yet know Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 12:3

Think about the vine, the worm, and the wind in the life of our Lord Jesus.

Jesus chose twelve disciples and called them to be with Him (Mk. 3:14). He had the comfort, joy, and blessing of their companionship. He sent them out and their ministry was blessed with such success that he said, “I saw Satan fall like lightning” (Lk. 10:18).

Then the worm came. The disciples, who had brought Him comfort, joy, and blessing, all forsook Him and fled. Judas betrayed Him with a kiss, Peter denied Him with a curse, and Jesus was plunged into sorrow and loss.

And then the east wind blew. Jesus was scourged, mocked, and crowned with thorns. He was nailed to the cross, and He was plunged into total darkness. And, in His affliction, pain, and distress, He cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mat. 27:46).

Why was Jesus forsaken? Because Jesus bore your sins in His body on the tree. The Son of God loved you and gave Himself for you. He endured the worm and the wind so that you could be brought into an eternity under God’s vine.

Can you see God’s love for you in Jesus?

Jonah 4:6-8

It’s easy to see why God provided the vine for Jonah. God is good. All good gifts come from Him. But why did God send the worm and the wind? What possible good could come from that?

It’s helpful to understand two important Bible words: Justification is how God forgives us through Jesus. Sanctification is how God makes us like Jesus. The first is an event, the second is a process.

God provides for our sanctification through gifts that bring joy, trials that bring sorrow, and experiences that bring pain. God used the worm and the wind to save Jonah from a vine-centred life—from loving God’s gifts more than the God who gives them.

Here are two signs that you may be living a vine-centred life:

1. You are angry with God
“I do well to be angry, angry enough to die” (4:9). Jonah was first angry about Nineveh (4:4). And now, the anger is back. The vine masked Jonah’s problem. Family, friends, money, and success can do that. But, if your greatest joy is in the vine, you will live a vine-centred life. And when the vine is gone, you will be angry toward God.

2. You are losing your reason to live
“It is better for me to die” (4:8). Jonah found such comfort and joy in the vine that when it was gone he no longer felt he had a reason to live. The extraordinary thing is that Jonah is saying this to God who is the reason to live! If your greatest joy lies in God’s gifts rather than in God Himself, then when the gift you cherish most withers, you will lose your reason to live. The reason to live is not the gifts but the Giver.

Do you see any signs that you may have slipped into living a vine-centred life?

Jonah 4:5

Put yourself in Jonah’s shoes. You are feeling miserable and resentful. And here you are, sitting in the sand outside a city you really don’t like. The sun is beating down on you, so you make a shelter. Then God steps in.

The Vine
“The LORD God appointed a plant… that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort” (4:6). The vine was a gift from God, an expression of His kindness. Notice, Jonah was “exceedingly glad because of the plant” (4:6). God’s gift brought comfort, joy, and blessing.

The Worm
“God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered” (4:7). Jonah woke to find that the vine had been chewed up. “God, what are you doing? One day you pour out your blessing, the next day you take it away!” The worm brought sorrow, loss, and disappointment.

What is your worm? You want children, but a child is not born. The person you love is taken from you. Your ministry sees success, but then the worm destroys your good work. The Lord gives. The Lord takes away. That’s what Jonah is learning, and it’s painful.

The Wind
“God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint” (4:8). It’s bad enough to lose your vine. But now the sand was blowing into Jonah’s face, and the sun was beating down. “God, if you are going to take my vine, you might have done it on a cool day.”

What is your vine? Your worm? Your wind? Think about the gifts of God that bring you comfort, joy, and blessing, and thank God for them.

Romans 9:14-15

Here are three common reactions to the grace of God:

1. God’s grace makes some people angry
Some folks believe that God must treat everyone the same, opening the door of salvation and waiting to see who will come in. But the Bible speaks of a greater love, in which God takes the initiative. Why did God set His love on you? Because He loved you. No other reason. God extended this saving love to Nineveh. Why Nineveh? Our God does whatever pleases Him (Ps. 115:3). And that made Jonah angry.

2. God’s grace makes some people worship
If you are a Christian, why is it that you believe and someone else in your family does not? Here’s why you believe: God set His love on you. He drew you to Himself. He gave you new life, and you did nothing to deserve it! Apart from God’s grace, you would never have come to Christ. Let God’s grace lead you to worship. You will find yourself asking, “Why me?”

3. God’s grace makes some people pray
If all God could do is open the door of salvation and then leave it up to us, there would be little point in praying for the lost. The reason we pray is that God takes the initiative. If God can swoop into your life uninvited, He can do that for others as well.

God’s grace will either make you angry or lead you to worship and prayer. God gently led Jonah away from being angry about grace and into worship and prayer, which is why he ends his great song of praise with “Salvation belongs to the LORD!” (Jon. 2:9).

Are you more inclined to be angry, worshipful, or prayerful in response to God’s grace?

Jonah 4:2

Why is Jonah complaining to God? What is going on in his heart? “That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish.” This is a marvellous example of undermining your own repentance.

Jonah repented, and God forgave him, but now Jonah wants to explain why he went to Tarshish. He feels that there was some justification, some defence for what he did. As soon as you start explaining why you sinned, you undermine your own repentance.

Repentance says, “I did this. I am sorry, I take full responsibility, and I trust myself to the mercy of God.” Self-justification says, “You need to understand why I did this. There is a good reason. Let me explain my disobedience.”

A great struggle goes on in every human soul between repentance and self-justification. You think, “Well, there’s another side to this. Look at the pressure I was under, the lack of support. It would have been amazing if I hadn’t fallen!”

Does this sound familiar? A man has an affair. He repents. He takes responsibility, and he says he is sorry. But later, he begins to explain himself. And the explanation undermines the repentance.

There’s a subtle change going on in Jonah. He used to see himself as a sinner who finds hope in God. Now he sees himself as a man who can explain the wrongs in his life before God!

“I went to Tarshish, and I know that was wrong, but actually, God, it’s your fault! If You judged the wicked like You should, there wouldn’t have been a problem, but I knew that you are a God who relents from sending calamity. That is why I was so quick to flee.”

When you feel that there is an explanation for your sins, you undermine your own repentance, and you will become angry toward God.

Can you think of a time when you undermined your own repentance with explanations?

Jonah 4:2

Let’s begin by noting something that Jonah did right. “He prayed to the LORD” (4:2). In chapter 1, Jonah was unhappy with God, and he ran from the Lord. In chapter 4, Jonah was unhappy with God, and he prayed to the Lord. That’s progress.

But Jonah’s prayer is a complaint against God—not just about what God does, but about who God is! “I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” He is quoting one of the great statements of the character of God. It comes from Exodus 34:6-7, and it was regularly repeated among God’s people as an expression of praise.

But Jonah turns it back to God as a complaint: “God is too slow in dealing with evil.” The people of Nineveh were wicked, and they would return to evil even if they stopped for a time. Jonah was sure of this, and he was right!

A later generation of Ninevites destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel with great brutality. The book of Nahum lays out the excruciating evil that could have been avoided, if only God had destroyed Nineveh. Jonah saw this coming, and God’s mercy made him mad!

Haven’t you wondered about God’s strange providence in ordering the world? Think of the evil and suffering that could have been spared if God had wiped out Hitler or Stalin or Bin Laden early in life. Yet He let them live! Why?

Reflect on the ways God has been gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love in your own life.

Jonah 4:1

You would think that a man who had seen miracles of grace in his own life and in his ministry would be full of praise and thanksgiving. Here we see something different.

Jonah was a mature believer. He was a prophet. He was a missionary. You would think that he would be filled with joy in serving God. But he is angry and frustrated and out of sorts with the God he served.

Jonah was not the only one to experience this. Asaph was the director of worship for King David. He says, “My feet had almost stumbled.” Why? “I saw the prosperity of the wicked” (Ps. 73:2-3). It seemed that God was kinder to His enemies than to His friends! So, Asaph said, “All in vain have I kept my heart clean” (73:13).

There is a particular darkness that can come to those who work hardest in the Lord’s service. Resentment towards God is the special temptation of mature believers who serve Him well. It is easy to feel that God owes you.

How is it that we can experience God’s grace in our own lives and ministry and still struggle with the God we love? How is it possible to be in the middle of a great work of God and yet to find no joy in it?

Jonah shows us one of the most common ways in which a mature believer can avoid a God-centred life. You serve God and end up resenting the God you serve.

If you have sacrificed much for Christ, you are likely to experience this trial. And you need to know how to deal with it. We will see how this resentment grew in Jonah’s life and how God dealt with Jonah to deliver him from it.

When have you felt this temptation of resentment towards God?

Jonah 3:5

What happened in Nineveh was remarkable. This kind of transformation does not always happen when we bring God’s message. Why not?

There’s God’s Word, and there’s God’s man or woman, but there is also God’s time. You can’t force that. But you can pray for it. You never know when He is going to change a person’s life.

Some may say, “We should just sit back and let God do what He wants to do in His own time.” No! Revival is God’s gift. Evangelism is His command. We don’t sit back and wait for God’s moment. We follow Jonah’s example. We bring God’s Word, and we pray that in His mercy He will move in the hearts of those who hear.

Some question if there was a genuine revival in Nineveh. One generation later, the Assyrians invaded the northern kingdom of Israel, and God’s people scattered. A century later, Nineveh was destroyed. That’s what the prophecy of Nahum is about—God’s judgement on the city.

In heaven, you will meet many people who lived in Nineveh during the time of Jonah. But you may not meet many who lived there a century later. When Jonah went to Nineveh, it was God’s time for that great city.

All we can do is offer all that we are and all that we have for the advance of the gospel in our time. Every generation stands responsible before God for what we have done with the sacred trust of the gospel.

Are you sitting back and waiting for God’s moment, or are you offering all you have for the advance of the gospel?

Luke 11:30

Did Jonah tell the people of Nineveh about his own experience? It seems likely he did, for two reasons:

1. The words of the king
“Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish” (Jon. 3:9). Where did the king get that idea? How would he have had any hope in the mercy and compassion of God? If the king knew Jonah’s story, he could say, “If God saved Jonah, perhaps He will have compassion on us.”

2. The words of Jesus
“As Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation” (Lk. 11:30). How was Jonah a sign to the Ninevites? Jesus says, “Just 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” (Mat. 12:40). If being in the fish was a sign to the Ninevites, Jonah must have told them about it with a passion born from his own experience:

“Let me tell you what happened to me! When God called me to come here, I did not want to come. So, I got on a boat headed for Tarshish, but God sent a storm. I felt sure I was finished. But the God whose judgement I deserved saved me. He sent me to tell you that your wickedness has come before Him, just as mine did. Forty days and Nineveh will be destroyed.”

God never wastes a thing. He can use your failures, your trauma, your shame, the desperate moments of your life to advance the gospel.

Is there a failure in your own life that God could use to reach others?

Jonah 3:4

Nineveh was a large city. People in the great cities of the world live relentless lives. We are consumed with what is happening now: running businesses, raising families, enjoying sports.

Jonah arrives and says, “Let me tell you what’s coming. Forty more days and Nineveh will be destroyed.”

Authentic gospel preaching always engages people with eternal issues. That is where Jesus began: “The kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mk. 1:15). Paul begins Romans with the awful reality of God’s judgement: “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men” (Rom. 1:18).

Jonah begins there too: “Forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” Whatever you are doing now, there is God, and there is eternity, and it is nearer than you think.

This probably wasn’t the only thing that Jonah said. But it was the core of his message, and everyone knew it. God burned that one sentence into the hearts of the people of Nineveh.

Cities change when people hear the Word of God.

Even if people are not converted, hearing the Word brings an awareness of God into the culture, and “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (Prov. 1:7). More than that, where God’s Word is heard, lives will be changed. “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17).

So many people in our cities are comfortably absorbed in their daily lives and do not think about eternity. It would be a good thing if more of them heard God’s Word.

How might you share God’s Word in your city?

Jonah 3:1

It was not a foregone conclusion that Jonah would go to Nineveh when God called him a second time. Nothing had changed in Nineveh, so Jonah still had at least four objections to overcome:

1. Fear
The Assyrians were still known for terror and torture. Jonah still had to face his old fears.

2. Shame
Jonah had failed the Lord greatly. His sin had been exposed, and he must have wondered, “How can God use me?” Jonah had to get over his shame to obey God’s call.

3. Self-Interest
The Assyrian army was the greatest threat to God’s people, and Nineveh was one of the great Assyrian cities. Jonah feared that God would have compassion on Nineveh (4:2).

4. Unbelief
Can God really change a wicked city through one man speaking God’s Word? Nineveh had not changed, but by grace Jonah had, and when God’s Word came the second time, Jonah rose obediently and went to Nineveh (3:3).

What happened in Nineveh was an extraordinary work of God. The Ninevites believed God, and they declared a fast and put on sackcloth (3:5). Even the king sat in sackcloth in the dust (3:6) — an expression of humility and penitence before God.

The king issued a proclamation that everyone “call out mightily to God… [and] turn from his evil way... God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish” (3:8-9). By any standard, this is an amazing transformation.

Which of these four barriers to obedience are you struggling with now?

Jonah 1:16

Here are three things we learn from the ship’s crew about pursuing a God-centred life:

1. Turn to God and ask Him for mercy
“They called out to the LORD” (1:14).
The crew saw that their religion was worthless. They abandoned all other gods. What mattered was finding peace with this God who made the land and the sea, who sends storms, and who speaks through prophets to save them! So, they cried, “O Lord, let us not perish for this man’s life… for you… have done as it pleased you” (1:14). In other words, “Lord, have mercy on us!”

2. Abandon self-rescue and stake your life on Jesus Christ
“They picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging” (1:15).
These men saw their guilt in the sacrifice. Yet to their amazement they found salvation through the sacrifice. “We crucified the Son of God—that’s our guilt. Yet He laid down his life as a sacrifice to placate God’s wrath for us—that is our salvation.”

3. Pledge your redeemed life to Jesus Christ
“They offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows” (1:16).
Many people make vows to God in the middle of a storm. These men made vows to God after He delivered them. That shows a real change of heart. These men knew that they had come back from the dead. And their new life had been bought with a price (Jonah’s). They felt that they were no longer their own, so they pledged their redeemed lives to God.

Which of these steps could you take today?

Jonah 1:12

How did Jonah know that the sea would become calm if the crew threw him out of the boat? There can only be one answer: God revealed it.

When Jonah’s sin was exposed, God’s silence was ended, and Jonah spoke as a prophet again. This prophetic word was a command from God: “Sacrifice Jonah and you will be saved.” The sacrifice of Jonah will be the salvation of the crew.

Notice that the crew’s first instinct is to refuse the sacrifice: Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land” (1:13). Feel the weight of this picture. God has spoken through the prophet. But these men think they can save themselves without the sacrifice!

The strength of this impulse to refuse the sacrifice is significant. A deep-seated pride in the human heart says, “We can make it through the judgement of God. We’ll just row harder.” That is the polar opposite of a God-centred life!

When the crew realised that they could not beat the storm, they turned in their desperation to what God had said through the prophet. They staked their lives on the sacrifice of Jonah.

God’s storm is stronger than you are. You can’t overcome sin enough or make yourself good enough to survive God’s judgement. The storm of His judgement will wreck you unless you are saved by the sacrifice of Someone else.

That is why Jesus Christ came into the world. That is why He went to the cross. He was cast out as a sacrifice to calm the wrath of God on your behalf. He died on that cross so that you should survive God’s judgement against sin.

Has pride been causing you to “row harder”? What will it take for you to stop refusing Jesus’ sacrifice?

Jonah 1:4

Notice, it was God who sent the storm. In Jonah’s life, the storm was an intervention to save him from a life wasted in disobedience. At the same time, God was stepping in to redeem the ship’s crew who knew nothing about Him. Even God’s judgements are a means of His mercy.

Each crew member “cried out to his god” (1:5). A lot of “gods” were being asked to help, but it wasn’t making any difference. So, the captain said to Jonah, “Call out to your god… that we may not perish” (1:6). He was saying, “Our gods haven’t done anything—why don’t you try yours!”

But the problem was that Jonah could not pray. How can you pray to God when you are actively disobeying His word? Christians running from God are of no use to lost people in a storm. Maybe you can see yourself in Jonah here.

Jonah was the only one who knew God, but he was immobilised by sin. So God exposed Jonah’s sin in an unusual way: The sailors cast lots to learn “on whose account this evil has come upon us… and the lot fell on Jonah” (1:7).

If God exposes your sin, it is because He loves you (Heb. 12:6). When God exposed Jonah’s sin, it was the beginning of hope for Jonah and for the entire crew.

Jonah told them about the God of the Bible. When the crew got a glimpse of Him, they said, “What shall we do?” (Jon. 1:11). How can we pacify God’s anger? That is the single most important question in the Bible. If God is against us, we have no hope. What can we do?

How have you seen God’s mercy and His loving hand at work even in your fiercest storms?

Jonah 1:3

When Jonah refused God’s call, he knew that God would no longer give him prophetic revelations. If he made up his own prophecies he would be a false prophet. If he stopped prophesying, his rebellion against God would be exposed.

So, his choice was either to obey God or to quit being a prophet and start over in a new place. That is what Jonah decided to do. He “found a ship going to Tarshish” (1:3). If you decide to go to Tarshish, there will always be a ship to get you there! If you decide to disobey God, you will always have the opportunity to do so.

C. H. Spurgeon told of a man with a violent temper. The man would get angry, then he would lose his temper, and then he would throw something. Spurgeon said, “What struck me was not that he got angry, nor that he threw something when he was angry. But that whenever he was angry there was always something at hand to throw.”

Never trust circumstances when you are resisting God’s Word. There will always be opportunities to make your sin and rebellion worse. Thank God that’s not the end of the story. Jonah’s sinful heart was taking him away from God, but God was intent on bringing him back.

Jonah tells us how the ship’s crew became God-centred believers. In their remarkable story, we have one of the clearest pictures of the gospel in the Bible. The gospel is about the storm and the sacrifice—the storm of God’s judgement and the sacrifice by which we can be saved.

Think of a circumstance that gave you an opportunity to disobey God. What was your thinking? Why might you choose differently in the future?

Jonah 1:3

Jonah avoided a God-centred life. He had planned where he wanted to live and what he wanted to do, and when God disrupted his plan, he quit.

If your plan becomes more important than God’s plan, you cannot live a God-centred life. What if God calls you to a different life for the sake of people who need to hear the Gospel? Here is how you can live a God-centred life:

1. Recognise what you are doing now is only for a time
The world wants you to believe that everything is secure and permanent. But your home, your work, and the people you love are yours only for a time. Hold lightly to what you are doing now. It will not be forever.

2. Keep your dreams on the altar of God
God is free at any time to disturb your dreams and to give you a new calling. While God planned for you to be here today, He may have you doing something you never imagined a year from now.

3. Practise making yourself available to God
The more comfortable you are in life, the more difficult it will be for you to obey God’s call. Keep your heart in a place where you can say, “If there’s something else You want me to do, Lord, I’m ready and willing to do it.”

Have you ever asked God if He wants you in cross-cultural ministry? Have you asked how you can be most useful to Him? Or is it all about you? Practise making yourself available to God.

Jonah 1:1, 2

Jonah was already running from God at the beginning of his story, but even after God used him to evangelise an entire city he was still out of sorts with God.

The book of Jonah was likely written later in Jonah’s life as he looked back on his ministry. He tells us, “God used me remarkably, but I spent much of my life avoiding the God I was serving.”

This was a man who spoke the Word of God. His prophecies came true. He walked in the presence of God, spoke the Word of God, and was filled with the Spirit of God.

But then God said, “Arise, go to Nineveh” (1:1, 2). It’s hard for us to grasp how shocking this must have been. The Assyrians were known for their brutality, and Nineveh was described by the prophet Nahum as “the bloody city, all full of lies and plunder—no end to the prey!” (3:1).

Jonah was settled and secure in what he was doing for God, and God said, “Go to Nineveh!” We all have dreams for our families, our finances, our futures. Then God breaks into the plan. Suddenly, your life is not what you thought it would be.

When God stepped into Jonah’s plan, his heart was revealed. Jonah’s self-centredness was hidden under the surface of his successful ministry, but it was exposed when God called him to start something new.

Can you think of a time when God exposed self-centred motives in your own heart?

Jonah 2:9

Today’s title might seem a little strange: How to Avoid a God-Centred Life, but that’s what Jonah was doing for a huge part of his life! This month we’re going to look at eight different ways Jonah tried to avoid a God-centred life, so we can avoid making the same mistakes he did.

The book of Jonah tells a simple story: God called Jonah to go and preach in a pagan city, but he got on a ship and went the opposite direction. When Jonah was thrown overboard, God provided a fish to rescue him. Jonah decided he had better do what God said, and the people of Nineveh repented and were saved.

Here are three things you can expect to find in the story of Jonah:

1. Expect to see yourself in Jonah
God used Jonah to change a whole city. But instead of being happy about it, Jonah was angry, dissatisfied, and out of sorts with God. Those who throw themselves into the service of Jesus often experience inner conflict more intensely than others. The more useful you are to Christ, the more intense your struggles.

2. Expect to be disturbed by God’s passion for the world
Nothing is more disturbing to a comfortable faith or a comfortable church than God’s passion for the world. God called Jonah to leave the life he loved to reach the people God loved. God’s call revealed the selfishness of Jonah’s heart. God’s passion for lost people can turn things upside down in your life and in His church.

3. Expect to be surprised by God’s care for His servants
If God cared only about the work, He could have ditched Jonah and sent someone else. But God cared about Jonah. In God’s mercy a great city was saved from judgement, but the city gets very little attention in the book. The book is about God’s patience and perseverance and perseverance with Jonah. God cares more about you than about what you are doing.

*Where do you expect to be most challenged by Jonah’s story?*

Jude 24

Try to imagine what this will be like.

First, you will be presented before God’s glorious presence… blameless. The word translated “blameless” is the same word that was used to describe a sacrificial animal in the Old Testament that was acceptable to God. It had to be blameless, without defect or fault.

Can you imagine yourself faultless? Every one of the effects of sin will be healed. Now you are like a burned stick pulled from the fire. Sin has done damage to us all, but when you are presented to God, you will be healed from every scar, every wound, every effect of sin.

Your mind will be faultless. You will know God even as you are known. Confusion, uncertainty, and doubts will be gone forever. You will be faultless in your soul. Fears will be gone. You will love God with all your mind and strength. Your desires will be undivided.

Your body will be faultless—no more pain, disease, or medication. You will live at the height of your redeemed and perfected physical powers. And you will be able to offer yourself fully to God. You will reflect the perfect Lamb of God who loved you and gave Himself for you. You will be in a position to offer your whole self to God, who will embrace and welcome you.

Second, you will be presented by God the Son to God the Father with great joy! Imagine what the joy of God is like. Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before Him (Heb. 12:2). He saw the joy of the last day, and it was so great that He counted it worth the agony of the cross. When He looked at the cross and He looked at the joy, He said, “It’s worth it!” If His suffering was so great, what must this joy be like?

God “will exult over you with loud singing” (Zeph. 3:17). Try and imagine this.

Jude 24

God is able to give you victory over the power of temptation. Do you believe this?

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. (1 Cor. 10:13)

What temptation do you think Jesus is not able to deliver you from? This really goes to the heart of whether we believe the gospel. Some of us simply do not believe that Christ can break the power of cancelled sin and set the prisoner free.

Think about a boxing title fight. There is always a great deal of “trash talk,” and nobody was better at this than Muhammad Ali, who said about himself, “I float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.” Imagine his challenger saying, “He is much bigger and faster than me. He punches harder. And, besides, he’s the champ. I don’t really have a chance.”

This is how some of us talk when it comes to sin. It’s the language of unbelief. You need to make up your mind if you believe in the God who is able to keep you from falling. Many people believe that Jesus can forgive their sins, but they’re not convinced that He can give them victory over temptation.

We sometimes say, “You can talk the talk, but you have to walk the walk.” That’s true, but here is a new spin on that phrase: “If you want to walk the walk, you have to talk the talk.” Don’t talk defeat before you even get in the ring. Sin shall no longer be your master. The Spirit of God lives in you. God has put you in a position to fight, so use the power He’s given you. Fight!.

*Are you fighting your sin? Or are you trying to walk the walk without talking the talk?*

Jude 24

This doesn’t mean that when you become a Christian you will never fail. We all fail in many ways. But God is able to keep you from falling.

When Jesus was going to the cross, He said to Peter, “Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail” (Luke 22:31-32). Peter did fail. He denied the Lord three times. He called down curses upon himself. But the prayers of Jesus were answered. Peter’s failure was not final.

If you have fallen into serious sin, you need to know that this is not the end. Imagine two climbers scaling a sheer cliff face. They are roped together. As they are climbing, one of them slips and falls. If he was climbing alone, he would have fallen to his death. But he is roped to his friend, and his friend is in a secure position.

Being a Christian means that you are roped to Jesus Christ. If you have fallen you need to know what kind of Saviour you have. If you fall, He is able to hold you. Your fall will not overwhelm Him. He will not cut the rope. He will not let you go.

Maybe you can picture yourself dangling. Get back on the rock face, and start climbing from where you are. Failure is never final in the Christian life. The Saviour looks down and He says, “Get back on the wall and follow me.” That’s what Peter did after his big failure, and God used him in wonderful ways. God is able to keep you from falling when you have failed.

Have you failed big-time? Will you get back on the rock face today and follow Jesus?

Jude 25

Jude says that there is only one God, and this God is the Saviour God. Now if God is the Saviour, what does this saving look like? There are three dimensions.

1. God is our Saviour from sin’s penalty
When you came to faith in Jesus, God forgave your sins. He freed you from guilt, condemnation, and hell: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). This is the beginning of your salvation but is not the end.

2. God is our Saviour from sin’s power
When you become a Christian, you are no longer under sin’s power: “Sin will have no dominion over you” (Rom. 6:14). Think of it like a boxing match. Before you came to Christ, sin was your master. Your hands were tied and you were blindfolded. You were defenseless. You were in no position to fight back. But now, in Christ, God has put you in a position to fight. He takes off your blindfold and frees your hands. You are on an entirely different footing. Though you will bear the scars of battle, in Jesus Christ you will prevail.

3. God is our Saviour from sin’s presence
Imagine yourself in the ring. You have been sparring for ten rounds, and you’ve landed some blows, but your opponent just won’t go down. He just keeps coming back. That’s a picture of your battle against temptation. The longer the fight goes on, the more you long to see the enemy hit the canvas. One day he will. When Jesus comes again in glory, sin will be knocked out. Your battle will be over, and you will receive the crown of victory.

God is our Saviour. He saves us not only from sin’s penalty but also from its power, and one day He will save us from its presence. Which of these is clearest to you now?

Jude 24

Jude has been telling us that we need to watch ourselves, because we live this Christian life in the body, but we are also to find our rest in God.

Verses 24 and 25 are all about God. That’s significant because the first six workouts have been all about you: “But you, beloved, [build] yourselves up in your most holy faith” (Jude 20).

Notice where the responsibility lies: Who is to do this? You are. Who is to pray in the Holy Spirit? You are. Who is to wait for Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life? You are. Who is to reach out in ministry that is merciful and snatch others from the fire? You are. Who is to hate even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh? You are.

It is a great mistake to say that the Christian life is all up to God. He calls you to do these workouts. And if you do them, you will grow. If you do not do them, you will be like a spiritual lazy person. God will not do these things for you. He has called you to do them.

A lot of Christians spend years waiting for God to do something to make them grow. That is a terrible mistake. Don’t expect God to do what He has told you to do. You do it.

Are you waiting for God to make you grow, or are you busy doing what He’s told you to do?

1 Corinthians 11:28

Make it your regular practice to give your soul a thorough examination to see if there is anything displeasing to God hidden inside you. There are several ways of doing this. As you read the Bible, note anything that displeases God and ask yourself, “Do I see any evidence of this in me?”

Don’t ask vague questions like “Are there any sins in my soul?” Go hunting for specifics. Here is a checklist of some sins that could easily infect you: taking God’s name in vain, crude or vulgar conversation, enjoying unclean jokes, cruelty toward others, especially those who are weak, cynicism, greed, and bitterness. These are as deadly to your soul as cancer is to your body.

Let’s consider pride for a moment. Peter said, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (1 Pet. 5:5). It doesn’t say that God “ignores” the proud. It says that He “opposes” them. He puts up His hand, and He says, “You aren’t going anywhere.” The proud person thinks he is achieving all kinds of marvellous things. But, actually, he never makes any progress. On the last day there will be little of lasting value to show for his work.

The humble receive grace from God. So, there are going to be some surprises in heaven. Jesus said, “The last will be first, and the first last” (Mat. 20:16). We may well find ourselves wondering why so many people we have never heard of are receiving such rich rewards while others who we thought were front-runners in the kingdom seem to be empty-handed.

If pride or greed or lust or self-pity or bitterness or cynicism are anywhere in us, then they must be identified, confessed, and destroyed. That’s the language of the New Testament: “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you” (Col. 3:5).

Will you take a few moments now and examine your soul using a passage from the Bible like the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20)?

Jude 23

When you reach out to others in ministry, you need to be very careful that you do not end up falling into sin yourself. Jude uses the word “fear.” You need to have a healthy fear lest you fall into the same sins as somebody else you are reaching out to.

The Bible speaks of two kinds of fear. There is an unhealthy kind of fear. You should not be afraid of your enemies or of danger or of those who kill the body, but there is also a healthy kind of fear. You should fear God, and you should fear being stained by the corruption of this world.

This fear of falling into sin arises from a healthy scepticism about yourself. If you have understood the Bible rightly, you will be fully confident in Jesus Christ and deeply sceptical about yourself. Our culture gets this backwards. We are confident in ourselves and doubtful about Christ. That is why we don’t have the fear of falling into sin.

Notice the beautiful balance of Scripture here. In verse 24, Jude says that Jesus “is able to keep you from stumbling.” We have a Saviour who is able to protect us from the devil and to keep us from falling into his snares. But, at the same time, Jude says that we must watch ourselves. We need to be on our guard so that as we live in this world, we do not become conformed to it.

If you don’t watch yourself, don’t expect Jesus to keep you from falling. This truth is like a bicycle with two wheels. You need both, and if you lose either one, you won’t make much progress.

In your daily life are you more conscious of your need to watch yourself or of Jesus’ ability to keep you from falling?

Jude 23

Those who can see that they’ve been burned know what the fire can do, and they reach out to others in the flames. That takes courage. You can’t do ministry without being burned. There is no pain-free ministry.

There is an old story about an African village. One night there was a fire in a wooden building, and the whole family who was sleeping there died, except for a tiny baby boy. As the fire flared up, a stranger rushed in and carried the child to safety, and then vanished into the night.

In the morning, the village elders had to decide what should be done with him. No one knew how the child had escaped, but all felt it would be a privilege to adopt this child whom the gods had smiled on. So, the elders argued with one another about who should adopt the child until a young man stepped forward and insisted that it should be him. When they demanded to know why, he showed them his hands—they were burned.

After Jesus died and rose from the dead, He came to some discouraged believers and showed them His hands and His side. Jesus went into the fire for you. He endured the pains of hell for you. All so that you could be snatched like a burning stick from the fire!

This Jesus, with scars in His hands, comes to those He has rescued and says, “Take up your cross and follow me.” Take up your share of the pain and cost of ministry in this fallen world.

Are you trying to do ministry without being burned? What is keeping you from taking up your cross and following the One who went to the cross and laid down His life for you?

Jude 23

If you’re going to be useful in ministry, you need to have a proper understanding of yourself and what God has done for you. Sin has damaged us all, but the Bible makes it clear that sin has done deeper damage to you and to me than staining our lives. It’s changed our nature. Like wood that’s been in a fire, sin burns. It consumes.

The Bible makes it clear that we’re sinners because we sin. It also teaches that we sin because we’re sinners. Behind our wrong actions, there is a damaged nature. Your greatest problem is not your behaviour. It is your nature that gives rise to your behaviour. Sin goes deeper than clothing stains or graffiti; it’s like wood burning.

Here is an appropriate way to describe a born-again, spirit-filled, I-read-my-Bible-every-day kind of Christian: “I am a burned stick” (see Zech. 3:2). That’s not the only thing the Bible says about you, and it certainly is not the most flattering thing, but the Bible makes it clear that you’re a burned stick. You’re a charred piece of wood, and you’ve been snatched from the fire.

One day you will be completely free from all the effects of sin in your life, but that will only happen when Christ comes again. Until then there will always be a charred side to you. When you understand that, it will help you to grow in humility, and it will also help you to grow in compassion and patience with others.

Can you see how you have been charred by your own sin? Thank God for snatching you (or ask Him to snatch you) from the fire. Can you name one person in your life who is being burned by his or her own sin? Bring this person before God right now.

Jude 22

“Those who doubt” would include those whose faith has been undermined and those whose faith has not yet been fully formed. There are many people like this today.

How are we to minister to folks who are confused about their faith? Jude says, “Do this with great compassion.” There’s a big difference between the child who struggles to do what’s right and the child who refuses to do what’s right. And there’s a big difference between the person who struggles to believe and the person who refuses to believe. Wonderfully, God can tell the difference.

Your ministry will be more effective if you can learn to be merciful to those who doubt. Imagine a lady who is widowed and six months later she is still struggling with questions. Her friend is losing patience with her, and so she says, “You should be over this by now. Are you going to trust God or not?”

Now imagine a middle-aged person who knows very little of the Bible but feels that he believes and that he wants to grow. So, he finds his way into a Bible study group, and someone in the group says about his church background, “Oh, dear! You wouldn’t learn very much there.” Don’t forget—God has placed many people around you—some whose faith may be unformed, and some whose faith may have been undermined.

Be compassionate toward those who don’t have the insight that you have. Remember, another person may struggle with a particular frailty that you know nothing about. Don’t expect other people to grasp in a week what you took twenty years to learn!

What “doubting” person is in your life right now?How can you show them mercy?

Jude 22–23

If you want to live a healthy Christian life, you need to learn to wait. The obvious question is, What does God want us to do while we are waiting?

The answer is that we are to give ourselves to ministry. God calls us to ministry. There are people in need all around us. So, from now until the day when Jesus comes or calls for us, we are to give ourselves to the work of ministry.

Jesus said, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me” (John 4:34). You will find that God sustains you in your walk with Him as you give yourself to serving others. Maybe you are already doing this. Serving is part of who you are. If not, the best form of spiritual exercise for you would be to get out and do something that ministers to somebody else.

If your spiritual life is to be healthy, you need to build up your faith, you need to pray, and you need to keep yourself in God’s love. These are the private spiritual disciplines. But a healthy Christian life is more than just Jesus and me.

If all you have is a relationship with Jesus in which you know sweet times of prayer and study, then your Christian life is out of balance. It is not healthy. Spiritual health involves this dimension of ministry in which your life touches the lives of others.

A wise pastor once talked about “irrigating your soul in the joys and sorrows of your people.” Your own soul will be watered as you enter into the joys and sorrows of another person.

Be intentional about building this into your life. Look for ways to bring the blessing of God to others, to lighten somebody else’s load. Let there be someone who, at the end of today, has reason to thank God for you.

How could you be more intentional about ministry to others?

Jude 21

The people who bring menus to your table at a restaurant are called waiters or waitresses. They have no other agenda but to wait on you. They take your order, bring your food, and then make sure everything is all right.

Some people think God exists to wait on us, but the Bible tells us that our calling is to wait on Him. The purpose of our lives is to make ourselves wholly available to Jesus Christ, the guest of honour, who has come into this world.

Maybe you’ve had this experience. You go to a restaurant, and every time the waitress comes to your table, she wants to tell you another episode from her life. That’s inappropriate. The waitress is there to serve the guests. No one would be surprised if her manager soon let her go.

Jesus is the perfect model of waiting on God: He delights in the will of the Father, and He’s ready to do it even when it involves a cross. He says, “Don’t expect a trouble-free life. Expect joy and disappointment, pleasure and pain, unfathomable mysteries, unanswered questions, unresolved problems, and unfinished business. Will you take up your cross in all that and follow me?”

Think of the great disappointments of your life—the heartfelt prayers not yet answered, the great longings of your soul not yet satisfied. You can think of every one of these as invitations to come into God’s gym. He is saying to you, “You want this to be over. I want to make this useful.”

Evaluate your love for God. Are you moving toward or away from Jesus’ perfect model of waiting on God?

Jude 21

When Jude talks about waiting, the obvious question is, Don’t we already have God’s mercy? Yes. Don’t we already have Jesus Christ? Yes. Don’t we already have eternal life? Yes!

If we’ve already received these things, why does Jude tell us to wait? This is teaching us something important: All that you can experience in the Christian life is only a taste of what Christ has in store for you.

The Holy Spirit is a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come (2 Cor. 1:22). If you buy a home, the down payment is only a tiny fraction of your mortgage. Everything you experience of God in this life, every good gift from His hand, every blessing, and every pleasure is only a tiny advance on what God has in store for you.

Use the disappointments of life (the waiting) not only to detach yourself from the pursuit of paradise in this world, but to cultivate a healthy anticipation of what God has promised: “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4).

What will life be like when the mercy of Christ brings you to everlasting life? Your body will be redeemed from the curse. Your relationships will be redeemed from the taint of sin. Your soul will be free to serve God as you always wished you could. All creation will be redeemed from the curse. You will be completely at home in the presence of God.

What is one disappointment that has you waiting right now? Pray about how it could help you detach yourself from the pursuit of paradise in this world.

Jude 21

Patience is what you need when things have not worked out as you hoped. Somewhere deep within every heart there is a dream of life as we want it to be. That dream is placed in your heart by God. The word “wait” reminds us that the dream will never be fulfilled in this life.

Our first parents were driven out of the garden of Eden. Paradise was lost, and the dream can no longer be fulfilled here because this world is under a curse. This is very hard for many of us to grasp. We easily become confused into thinking that we’re in paradise now.

Imagine buying a sign that says: “This is not paradise.” You might hang it over your front door. It would remind you that you’ll never have “the perfect family.” That would take a lot of pressure off everyone. Some couples ought to put that over the door to their bedroom. Perhaps you need to put it in your car. It would be a great sign to place over the entrance to your church.

The problem for many of us is that we expect more than God has ever promised in this life, and we’re constantly disappointed and frustrated. So, we run up massive debts, only to find out that paradise is beyond our grasp. You cannot create paradise in this world. The sooner you discover this, the sooner you will be able to break free from the pursuit of the advertiser’s dream.

When God calls you to wait, it is a wake-up call to reality. There are discoveries of God’s grace that you can make while you are waiting that you could never make if the longing of your heart was fulfilled. You cannot grow in patience when what you long for is given. The moment it becomes yours, the opportunity to wait for it and to grow has been lost.

Where could the reminder ,“This is not paradise”, most help you right now?

Jude 21

Once you see how important the theme of waiting is in the Bible, you’ll have new motivation to exercise this neglected area of the Christian life. Here are five passages on waiting:

Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him. (Ps. 37:7)

I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope. (Ps. 130:5-6)

They who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength. (Is. 40:31)

You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven. (1 Thes. 1:9-10)

Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. (Heb. 9:28)

Waiting seems to be a complete waste of time, so we often look for something to do while we’re waiting. That’s why there are magazines in the doctor’s waiting room. We try to fill up the time with something useful.

We think of waiting as something to endure in order to get what we want. But God speaks about waiting as the way we grow when we don’t have what we want. Waiting is not wasted time.

Waiting can be the greatest growth opportunity of your life.

What are you waiting for right now? Do you see this waiting as the greatest growth opportunity of your life, a waste of time, or something else?

Romans 5:5

In one of the books by American author, Garrison Keillor, about Lake Wobegon, he describes a rather awkward teenager growing up in a small town. The lad gives a speech at his high school graduation, and afterwards somebody comes up to him and says, “Nice speech!” But he can’t receive a compliment.

“Oh no,” he says, “I was just rambling. I didn’t know what I was talking about. I was just glad when it was all over.” He couldn’t receive a compliment because inside he was a monster starving for a compliment. He didn’t want somebody to say, “Nice speech.” What he really wanted was for someone to fall at his feet in worship.

That’s the problem with some of us. We are so consumed—either with our own pain or with our own perfectionism—that we’re unable to hear the Word of God. So, when God tells us that He loves us, we just brush it off.

When the apostle Paul prays for young believers, do you know what he asks God for? He asks that God would give them the power to grasp the “breadth and length and height and depth” of the love of Christ (Eph. 3:18). That is a great way to pray. Ask God to give you the capacity to contain a greater sense of His love for you.

“We are so consumed—either with our own pain or with our own perfectionism—that we’re unable to hear the Word of God.” To what degree is this true of you?

Galatians 2:20

Some time ago, a pastor from England went to India to deliver a series of evangelistic messages. When he arrived, there were posters hanging all over town advertising the evening meetings at which he would be speaking.

The posters were supposed to read: “The visiting pastor from England will bring the evening messages.” But instead, there was a typo, and the posters actually said: “The visiting pastor from England will bring the evening massages.”

The work of the preacher is to massage the Word of God into the soul until it changes what you think and feel. But some of us who have experienced very little love earlier on in life, or who are perfectionists by nature, tend to have great difficulty in feeling that we are truly loved by God.

If this is true of you, then you need this workout: Start to memorise and personalise Bible passages that speak directly of the love of God. Massage them into your mind until they begin to loosen up your heart: “God shows his love for me in that while I was still a sinner, Christ died for me” (Rom. 5:8, author’s paraphrase).

Allow God to tell you that He loves you. This is the Word of God. This is what God is saying to you. Learn to listen to what He says.

Identify a Bible passage or two about God’s love that you’d like to personalise and memorise.

1 John 4:10

One way to work God’s love into your mind is through the Lord’s Supper. At the very centre of Christian worship, God has given us this exercise to keep us in spiritual shape.

We come to a table where we receive bread and wine. They direct our attention to the cross, where Christ’s body was broken, and His blood was shed for you.

God uses the supper to tell us that He loves us. Here is an old hymn that used to be sung at the Lord’s Table: “Give me a sight, O Saviour, of your wondrous love to me. The love that brought you down to earth to die at Calvary. O make me understand it, help me to take it in. What it meant to you, the Holy One, to bear away my sin.”

Come to the table with open eyes, open ears, and a believing heart. The body of Jesus was broken for you. The blood of Jesus was shed for you. Christ invites all His people to take the bread and eat it, to take the cup and drink it. This love that was poured out touches you.

You may go through days when you find it difficult to feel the love of God. Go back to the cross, and say with Paul, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32).

How might you approach the Lord’s Supper differently in the future?

Jude 21

The Bible talks about the love of God in a number of ways:

1. Providential love is God’s kindness to His enemies as well as His friends. God’s enemies will come under His judgement, but right now they receive good gifts from His hand. Why do good things happen to bad people? Answer: God’s providential love.

2. Saving love is God reaching out to us: “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Whoever believes is no longer God’s enemy, but His friend. That’s God’s saving love.

3. Covenant love is God’s unshakeable commitment to His own people. God bound Himself to Israel: “I will be your God, and you shall be my people” (Jer. 7:23). Then His people broke that covenant. But God will never let go of His own people. That’s God’s covenant love.

4. Disciplining love is how God forms the likeness of Christ in His children: “The Lord disciplines the one he loves” (Heb. 12:6). The wicked do not experience this love. God allows them to go their own way, but He intervenes with loving discipline when His children go astray.

5. Affirming love is the joyful affirmation the children of God experience when they’re walking with Him. There was no discipline in the garden, Adam and Eve simply enjoyed life under the smile of God. But when they sinned, they found themselves outside of God’s affirming love.

The love of God is free, unchangeable, unconditional, unmerited, and unearned. At the same time, Christ calls us to remain in His love, and we do that as we walk in obedience to Him.

What do you know about the love of God?

Jude 20

Another way to pray in the Spirit is by using the Lord’s Prayer (Mat. 6:9-13). Martin Luther structured his entire prayer life around the Lord’s Prayer:

1. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. (6:9)
Luther prayed that God would be honoured in his own life, and in the church, and in the nation where he lived.

2. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. (6:10)
He prayed for the advancement of God’s kingdom, and he prayed for what is true, just, and right.

3. Give us this day our daily bread. (6:11)
He prayed about his own daily needs, and for the needs of others that he was aware of—money, energy, peace, direction, patience, and guidance.

4. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. (6:12)
He prayed about his own sins, and he asked for God’s help in forgiving the wounds that were inflicted on him by others.

5. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. (6:13)
He asked God to help him identify the activity of Satan, and then he called on God against all of it that he was able to see.

That covers the whole of life. You could pray these five headings every day for the next year, and you would always find something fresh, and you would be praying in the Spirit because you’re praying in line with Jesus Christ.

Take a few moments and try praying through the Lord’s Prayer yourself. Compare this with your normal routine for prayer.

Jude 20

The Bible contains some marvellous prayers that were breathed out by the Spirit of God. You will find many of them in the book of Psalms.

The whole Bible was written as men were carried along by the Holy Spirit, and as you fill your mind with God’s Word, you will begin to think God’s thoughts after Him.

If you learn to form your prayers from the Bible, you will be praying in a way that reflects the heart and mind of God. You might like to begin with the Psalms:

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked…
Help me to recognise advice that is dishonouring to You today and not to follow it.

…nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. (Psa. 1:1)
Lord, keep me from cynicism today. Keep me from looking at any wrong path.

His delight is in the law of the LORD. (Psa. 1:2)
Lord, help me to love You and to love Your law. Help me to see the blessing of walking in Your way, and to have new joy in doing that.

Turning the Scriptures into prayers will help you keep your prayers fresh. Every day you will see something new. More than that, your mind will be guided into the thoughts of God.

This is the difference between eastern mysticism and Christian prayer. Mysticism says, “Empty your mind so you can pray.” God says, “Fill your mind so you can pray.”

Let an open Bible guide your praying, and you’ll find that you begin to think God’s thoughts after Him as you pray in the Spirit.

Does your prayer life tend more toward eastern mysticism or Christian prayer?

Romans 8:26

Imagine a teenage computer geek writing software in his basement: “How can I get this in the hands of the people at Microsoft?” He doesn’t know anyone there, and he has no idea how to introduce his ideas to them. Who knows how many requests they receive in a day.

One day there’s a knock at the door, and a man in his late sixties, with grey hair and glasses is standing there. “Hi, I’m Bill Gates…” The next thing this teenager knows, he’s sitting at his laptop with Bill Gates at his elbow.

“Let me tell you,” says Bill, “where Microsoft is headed. Move your work in that direction, and maybe we can be partners.”

When this young man eventually sends his proposal to Microsoft, he sends it with great confidence, because he knows that what Bill Gates has prompted, Bill Gates will receive.

God comes to every believer and teaches us what to pray. When that happens, we can pray with confidence, because what the Spirit has prompted, the Father will receive:

This is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. (1 John 5:14)

Sometimes we’re like the geek working in the basement. But true prayer involves the Father, the Son, the Spirit, and you. There’s a profound sense in which you never pray alone.

Think about the geek’s confidence before and after he talked to Bill Gates. Does your confidence in prayer typically look more like one or the other?

Jude 20

Once you’ve grasped that there’s one God, and that He’s not whoever you want Him to be, the next question is “How do you come to Him?” That depends on what you want to receive.

The Bible uses the picture of a throne to help us understand. There is one God, but more than one throne. That’s easy for us to understand in the United Kingdom. There is one king in Britain, but he has several thrones, and each throne relates to a different function.

Likewise, there is one God, but He has more than one throne. There’s a “great white throne” (Rev. 20:11), where God administers justice. And there’s “the throne of grace” (Heb. 4:16). You can come to the great white throne any way you want. But if you want to come to the throne of grace, you need to come through Jesus.

The Bible tells us to hold firmly to the faith we profess (Heb. 4:14) and to approach the throne of grace with confidence so we may receive grace to help us in our time of need (4:16). Access to the throne of grace comes through our great high priest, Jesus the Son of God.

So “in the name of Jesus Christ” isn’t a tagline at the end of our prayers. It’s foundational. We’re invited to come to the Father through the Son. So, if you’re looking for grace, there’s no other way to pray but in the name of Jesus, because God’s grace comes to us through Him.

When you pray, are you coming to God any way you want? Or through Jesus? What difference does it make?

Jude 20

Imagine meeting with your minister at church. The minister places a number of envelopes in front of you and says, “We can talk about anything you want. But here are some envelopes with questions written on them. Go ahead and pick one.”

The topics range from faith to spiritual growth to fellowship, but you choose the envelope on prayer. The question on the envelope reads: “How would you describe your prayer life?” and inside there are a number of cards with various words—some positive, some negative.

You choose two cards to describe your prayer life: “Irregular” and “Aimless.” Many Christians today would agree, and say, “I’m doing okay in the Christian life, but I’d have to admit—I’m out of shape when it comes to prayer.”

Sooner or later, you will come to a situation in which you will want to call on God to help you. The first question is “Which God?” If you say, “There is only one God,” who is He? And how can we know Him?

Until you’ve settled this matter, your praying will not get very far off the ground. Here’s the reason: If God is whoever you imagine Him to be, then when you go to pray, you are just talking to yourself, or to a figment of your imagination, and that’s not much help.

There is one God, and we can know Him and pray to Him, because He has made Himself known to us through Abraham, Moses, the prophets, the apostles, and supremely in Jesus Christ.

How would you describe your prayer life? (Aimless? Vibrant? Irregular? Consistent? Shallow? Growing? Other?)

Hebrews 12:2

Faith grows by looking at Jesus. Faith becomes strong as you fill your mind and soul with how trustworthy He is.

Imagine yourself as a younger child, attending a professional sporting event with your family. Your parents get tickets about twenty-five rows from the game. The people are packed in like sardines, and they’re standing in front of you, so you find it very difficult to see.

You eventually find a solution. Instead of sitting in your chair, you stand on it. It’s a bit shaky, but it’s the best way to get a glimpse of your favourite players in all their glory.

That’s how you must read the Scriptures and come to worship if you want your faith to grow. You must come looking for a glimpse of Jesus and asking the Holy Spirit to open up the Word to give a fresh glimpse of Him to your soul.

Some of us come to church, and to the Bible, like a little boy or girl standing behind a crowd of taller adults. We never see anything, and we no longer expect to see anything. Other people are catching a glimpse of Jesus, but we don’t see it.

If you will come to worship and to the Word with great expectation, you will move from reading about Jesus to knowing Him. You will find yourself feeding on Him, and your faith will grow.

On a scale of 1 (very low) to 10 (very high) what is your expectation of “catching a glimpse of Jesus” in worship? How about in your Bible reading?

Jude 20

Faith is like a muscle. It grows strong when it is used. If you want to develop a particular muscle, you pull or push against a weight. Faith grows when it has to push against a great burden.

That’s what happens when God allows trials in your life. You lose your job, a relationship ends, or the bottom line of your business is the wrong colour, and suddenly you’re in the gym. This is the moment. God is handing you the weights.

When God allows you to face difficulties, He is calling you to exercise faith. This is how faith grows, by being exercised under pressure. When you find yourself saying, “I don’t know how I’m going to get through this,” this is the moment to exercise your faith in God. This is the moment to walk by faith and not by sight.

You will not grow in faith if every time God puts you in the gym, you just sit there until the session is over. If you don’t pray and you don’t exercise the muscle of faith, when you come out of the trial your faith won’t be any stronger than when you went in. You went through the trial, but you missed the opportunity for growth.

When God puts you in the gym again, ask Him for eyes to see when it happens, and seize the moment. Come to God and say, “This time, I am going to trust you. Strengthen my faith and cause me to grow.”

When was the last time God put you in the gym? Did you exercise the muscle of faith? If so, how? Or do you feel as if you missed an opportunity for growth?

Jude 20

Jude is talking about the same faith here that he mentions in verse 3: “The faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” You can build up your faith by affirming what you believe. That’s why Christians throughout the centuries have recited creeds in their worship: “I believe in God the Father, maker of heaven and earth…”

C.H. Spurgeon preached to vast crowds in London over a hundred years ago. When the time came for him to enter the pulpit, he often felt completely overwhelmed. So, as he climbed the steps into his pulpit, he would say to himself, “I believe in the Holy Spirit.”

You might want to say that when you go into a job interview or another situation that you find overwhelming. Maybe Satan keeps reminding you of some failure in your life. You have confessed this. You have repented. But the enemy keeps bringing it to your memory. Affirm your faith: “The blood of Jesus cleanses me from every sin. I believe in the blood of Jesus.”

The Psalms are full of affirmations of faith in God. He has given us these affirmations to help us build ourselves up in the faith. The world, the flesh, and the devil are constantly assaulting our minds with lies, doubts, and questions.

So feed your mind with affirmations of what you believe: “Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!” (Ps. 107:1). Affirming your faith by confessing what God has revealed will cause your faith to grow. It is like fresh air to the soul.

What are some Bible passages that you keep going back to? Which verses have helped you over the years to affirm your faith?

Jude 20

There will be times when you seem to be making little progress, and you wonder, “What’s wrong with me? Am I a Christian at all?” Jude says, “You need to build up your faith.” How do you do that?

Satan loves to point out how puny, pathetic, and embarrassingly small your faith is. You should counter by recognising that the faith you have—however small—is a miracle, a gift from God, and by giving thanks for it.

When you begin to thank God for what He’s done and for what He’s doing, you’ll find that the cloud lifts and your faith begins to grow. If you cannot see anything God is doing—in your life or in the lives of other believers—the problem is not with God, the problem is with your eyesight: “My Father is working until now” (John 5:17).

Faith is like a bulb that is planted in the ground and then gets a pile of dirt dumped on it. You’d think that would be the end of its life, but the miracle is that it survives and grows. Think of everything arrayed against your faith. How did your faith survive all the unanswered questions, all the bitter disappointments, and all the exhausting struggles of your life?

The amazing thing about your faith is not that it is weak, but that it exists at all. There is only one explanation: The faith that you have, however weak, is the work of Almighty God. Thank God for that miracle. Recognise what God has done, and your faith will begin to grow.

What is God doing in your life? If you can’t see anything right now, try to identify a few unanswered questions, disappointments, or struggles your faith has survived.

Jude 3

Evangelicals often emphasise spiritual life and the importance of the new birth. We rejoice when people give testimonies of how they came to faith in Christ. But spiritual life is no guarantee of spiritual health. You may be spiritually alive, but are you spiritually fit?

We know what it’s like to be out of shape physically. What does it look like when we’re out of shape spiritually? Here are some symptoms:

• Loss of vigour and vision: Lethargy creeps in.
• Loss of enjoyment of God, the Word, and worship: Your experience of the nearness of God or of brokenness of soul is a memory, but it is no longer a living experience.
• Loss of gratitude: You worry about what God has not given you, rather than rejoicing in what He has given.
• Loss of spiritual hunger and thirst: “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God” (Ps. 42:1). This is a soul that is in good shape.
• Loss of compassion: The needs of others are a burden to you; you become impatient with their faults, and you feel frustrated at their lack of progress.

These are some of the symptoms of a soul that is out of shape. There is only one way to deal with the problem and that is to get into God’s exercise room.

Rank these symptoms on a scale from 1 to 10: “1” means you see no signs, “5” means you see regular signs, “10” means you see signs of this symptom on a daily basis.

Jude 20

Jude’s message is very simple: Keep yourself in spiritual shape. It is also very practical, because Jude breaks this down into seven workouts for a healthy Christian life.

You may be committed to some kind of fitness programme. You may work out with a coach or a personal trainer who gives you an exercise routine to help you get in shape.

A good exercise routine will get you working on different muscle groups: “This one is for your abs. This one is for the quads,” etc. In any routine we’ll be drawn to some exercises, and we’ll be tempted to skip others that we don’t like doing. Remember, it’s usually the ones that you tend to skip that you most need to do.

As with any good coach, Jude’s instructions are simple. Imagine yourself standing in the middle of a field with Jude as your coach. He’s been telling us what we’re up against. Then he says to the team, “But you…”

1. Build yourself up in the faith.
2. Pray in the Holy Spirit.
3. Keep yourself in God’s love.
4. Learn to wait.
5. Reach out to others.
6. Watch yourself.
7. Rest in the triumph of God.

These verses are a gold mine of how to live the Christian life in a world of doctrinal confusion and moral compromise. Let’s work with this trainer, Jude, to get ourselves into spiritual shape.

Of the seven workouts Jude has for us, which one is your strongest area, and which one is your weakest area?

Jude 4

The book of Jude was written to a group of believers who were discouraged because of a growing number of church leaders who were marked by moral compromise and doctrinal error. Jude describes the quality of leadership (verse 12) in many churches:

• Shepherds who feed only themselves. These pastors were trusted to care for God’s flock, but they were more interested in their careers.
• Clouds without rain. These leaders seemed to be walking with God, but they were spiritually dry. A conversation with one of them would leave you with nothing for your thirsty soul.
• Blown along by the wind. These leaders took their direction from culture. Their minds were filled with marketing and management, but devoid of a living communion with Jesus Christ.
• Without fruit and uprooted. These pastors’ lives were filled with fruitless activity. The reason it was fruitless is that it was not deeply rooted in the work of God’s Spirit.

This is a powerful description of how ministry gets compromised. Jude is writing late in the first century. The first generation of Christians is almost gone. The torch is being passed to a new generation. Jude says: Even in “church world,” faith is being eroded, reshaped, and repackaged.

You are going to have to decide: Are you going to contend for the faith that was once and for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3)? Or are you going to settle for a faith that is shaped to suit your lifestyle and culture?

What are some characteristics you would expect to find in the person who is “contending for the faith?” How about the person who is “settling for a faith?”

John 18:37

Pilate had so many voices ringing in his ears. He had the voice of his wife, who said to him, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream” (Mat. 27:19).

Much louder were the voices of the chief priests who had handed Jesus over to him. Pilate also had the voice of his own conscience. Three times he declared that Jesus was innocent (Jn. 18:38; 19:4, 6).

And then there was the voice of Jesus declaring to him, “I am a king, but My kingdom is not of this world. I came into the world to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to Me.”

Whose voice are you listening to? Are you listening to the voice of past hurts? The voice of anger and frustration? The voice of unbelief? The voice of pride and ambition? The voice of shame and condemnation? The voice of fear? None of these voices will bring you help or hope or healing.

Listen to the voice of Jesus. He says, “My sheep hear my voice” (10:27). “Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice” (18:37).

You listen to Jesus by hearing the words He speaks in the Bible. Get in the habit of opening your Bible and soaking in the truth that Jesus came to reveal. You will find strength, life, hope, and healing as you listen to Him.

Whose voice are you listening to?

John 18:38

Some suggest that this was a genuine question, but Pilate didn’t wait for an answer. It seems that he spoke these words as an exit line. Pilate asked, “What is truth?” And he said this as a judge charged with bringing justice.

Imagine yourself standing in a court of law on false charges, and your only hope is that the judge will uncover the truth.

The judge asks if you have anything to say. You reply, “Well, I have come to this court to bear witness to the truth.” But the judge snaps back, “What is truth?” How can you have justice if there is no such thing as truth?

Pilate miscarried justice because he did not believe in the truth
But Pilate was not the only judge in this conversation. Jesus said, “The Father... has given all judgment to the Son” (Jn. 5:22). Two judges stood face to face, one from earth and the other from heaven.

Jesus will bring justice because He knows the truth
He said, “I came into the world to bear witness to the truth” (18:37). There is a realm in which the whole truth is known, so there is a realm in which justice will be done.

Normally a judge hears evidence to discern the truth. But on the last day, Jesus will not be seeking the truth. Jesus will bring justice because He already knows the truth completely.

If you know your own heart at all, you know that you’re a long way from loving God with all your heart and from loving your neighbour as yourself. This is the reason we all need to humble ourselves and embrace Him, so that when the day of justice comes, we will have a defence.

Is your heart prepared for the day when Jesus will come to bring justice?

John 18:37

Jesus tells us here that there is a realm where all truth is known. It is not in this world. Jesus came into the world to “bear witness to the truth.”

The Bible tells us that in this world, we know “in part” (1 Cor. 13:12). That is why we often feel that we are only getting part of the story. Where on earth is the truth fully known?

Jesus tells us here that there is a place where truth is known. God knows the truth. He knows every thought, word, and deed of every person. God knows the truth about all that is, has been, and will be.

One of the most encouraging signs in our world is that there is a new hunger for truth in many hearts. We’ve been told for a generation that there is no such thing as “the truth.” There is only “your truth” and “my truth.” How can there be justice if there is no such thing as the truth?

If there is such a thing as “the truth,” there can be a conversation about what it might be. We can pursue the truth and seek after it together. We can disagree, we can debate.

But if there is only “your truth” and “my truth,” discussion becomes difficult. To question “your truth” feels like a personal attack. People are so deeply divided that it is hard to have a reasonable conversation.

If you long for the truth, you are not far from the Kingdom of God. If you hunger and thirst for the truth, you will be drawn to Jesus. He came to bear witness to the truth. The truth of who God is. The truth of who you are, of what life is, and of how your life can be blessed.

In what ways have you sensed that the world’s idea of “truth” is lacking?

John 18:37

This is the last statement of Jesus about why He came into the world. The chief priests have brought Jesus to Pilate’s house, and Pilate has to make a decision about Him.

The religious leaders “began to accuse him, saying, ‘We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king’” (Lk. 23:2). So Pilate’s first question to Jesus is, “Are you a king?” Are you the king of the Jews?

Pilate is a secular ruler. To him, the word “king” means a monarch who rules over a particular country. If Jesus had said, “Yes, I am a king,” Pilate would have been misled into thinking that Jesus was a rival to Caesar.

So Jesus asks, “Do you say this of your own accord?”—that is, are you using the word “king” in the way that the Romans use it?—“Or did others say it to you about me?” (Jn. 18:34).

Jesus is challenging Pilate to make his own investigation into the truth. “People say many things about me. But here I am, right in front of you. Make your own investigation! Don’t simply echo what other people think. I am a king. I have a kingdom. But you cannot put a geographical limit on it. You cannot put a historical timeframe on it. It spans generations.”

“King,” as it is normally understood, is not a big enough word to describe Jesus. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. The Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ transcends all other kingdoms.

Have you made your own investigation into the truth of who Jesus is?

John 8:12

If you follow Jesus, you will never be in total darkness.

He may lead you through some dark places. One day, He will lead you through the darkest valley, the valley of the shadow of death. But even there, He will walk with you.

His light will shine in the darkness, and the darkness will not overcome it. Follow Jesus, and you will be able to say with David, “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?” (Ps. 27:1).

What does the future hold for you? None of us knows.

Is it possible that you will face a serious illness? Yes, that’s possible. But if you do, you will have the light of life.

Is it possible that your children will face some great trial or trauma? Yes, that’s possible. But if they do, they will have the light of life.

Is it possible that our whole world could descend into chaos, greater than any of us have known before? Yes, that’s possible. But if it does, we will have the light of life.

If you are facing a time of great darkness, hear what the Lord Jesus Christ says to you today: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (Jn. 8:12).

Think of someone who is going through a difficult time. How could you encourage them with the reminder that Jesus is the light in the darkness?

John 12:35

There is a profound sense in which these words of Jesus speak to us today. The light of Jesus comes to us through the Scriptures, and each of us has it for “a little while.” What will you do with the light you have received?

Suppose that you and some friends decide to explore a cave. It is like a labyrinth. Every few yards there is a fork, and you have to decide, left, right, or straight. After a couple of hours, you and your friends are lost. Your torches grow dim and go out. Darkness has overtaken you.

Hours pass. You and your friends sit in silence. Then, someone sees a point of light. As it comes closer, you can see a person. A bright light shines from his helmet, but it’s as if his whole face is full of light. He says, “Follow me.”

As the man begins to move, the light around you becomes less, and if you want to have the light you need to follow Him. “Come on!” you say to your friends. “We have to follow the light!”

“But who knows where he will lead us?” one of them says. “I’d rather try and find my own way out.”

“But without Him you’ll be stumbling around in the darkness,” you say.

A shadow is coming over your friends, and soon it will be over you. You have to make a choice. What will you do? “Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you” (12:35).

What will you do with the light you have received?

John 12:46

The human story can be described in four eras. And in each of them, the light of Jesus shines in a different way.

Moonlight
“You search the Scriptures... and it is they that bear witness about me” (Jn. 5:39). In the Old Testament era, Jesus was there, but He was not seen directly, like the light of the sun reflected by the moon. The law shows us why we need Jesus. The sacrifices show what we needed Him to do. The promises show what He would accomplish when He came.

Floodlight
“I am the light of the world” (Jn. 8:12). The coming of Jesus Christ was like a burst of light in this dark world. But men loved darkness rather than light. Jesus was opposed at every stage of His ministry. It should not surprise us when we find that the world is a dark place.

Starlight
“Be blameless and innocent... in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights” (Phil. 2:15). Christian believers who hold fast to the Word of Life shine like lights in the world. God’s plan is that people will see the light of Christ through His people.

Sunlight
“The sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings” (Mal. 4:2). One day, we will see the full light of the sun. The Lord Jesus Christ will return in power and glory. “Night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light” (Rev. 22:5). We will live in the light of the presence of the Lord forever.

In what ways can you be starlight to the world around you?

John 10:10

What does a more abundant life look like? It is a life with:

More peace. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you” (14:27). Jesus can give more peace than any of us has yet received.

More love. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (15:13). Jesus has more love to give than any of us has yet known.

More joy. “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (15:11). Jesus can give more joy than any of us have yet experienced.

More faith. “Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith” (Heb. 12:2). Jesus can give more faith than any of us has yet exercised.

More repentance. Repentance is the means by which we become more like Jesus, saying “no” to worldly passions and “yes” to upright, self-controlled, and godly lives. Jesus can give a deeper repentance than any of us has yet discovered.

More strength. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). Jesus can give more strength than any of us has yet enjoyed.

More hope. “This I call to mind and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lam. 3:21-23). Jesus can give us the hope that we need.

Which of these blessings do you feel you need more of right now?

John 10:10

Jesus came so that you may have life. If you are in Christ, you have it. Life is in Christ, and if Christ is in you, life is in you.

But Jesus does not stop there. He adds these four marvellous words: “and have it abundantly.” What does this mean? It would be easy to say, “Jesus wants you to have a life of total fulfilment, health, wealth, and satisfaction. He came so that everything you want could be yours.”

But that would be a complete misunderstanding of this verse. Believers get sick, experience loss, and know disappointment. Most of all, if we follow Jesus we must be ready to deny ourselves and take up our cross every day (Mat. 16:24). So, what does “and have it abundantly” mean? It means that Jesus Christ has more to give than any of us has received.

This life that Jesus gives makes it possible for us to face loss, difficulties, and disappointment. If you have suffered loss from thieves, these words are especially for you. Jesus came so that you would have all you need, for all that you face.

Don’t be satisfied with a small measure of life—a little faith, a little peace, a little joy. Jesus Christ has more to give than any of us has received!

How do you get more? The same way you got what you have in the first place—by coming to Jesus. “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened” (Mat. 7:7-8).

What does it mean to you that Jesus came so that you would have all you need, for all you face?

John 10:10

Picture your life as a house. You are sitting in your living room, and there is a knock on the door. You pull back the curtain to see who is outside.

Jesus says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Rev. 3:20).

If you fear that Jesus may be a thief and that your life will be less if you let Him in, you will bolt the door. “If I let Him in, He will take away my freedom to do what I want. He will kill off what I enjoy.”

But if you were to see that Jesus came to give you life, you would pull back the bolt and open the door. So, hear these words of Jesus: “I came that they may have life” (Jn. 10:10).

Now someone may say, “Well, I have life already. I have good friends. I am content. I am happy, and I don’t need Jesus.”

But here’s the thing: God gives us life, but we don’t hold it in our possession. Life can be taken from us in any number of ways—cancer, an accident, or an act of violence.

But for Jesus, it is different. John says, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (Jn. 1:4). Life is in Jesus. He holds it as His own possession.

Jesus knocks on the door of your life. He is not a thief. He has come so that you may have life, and when you believe that, you will open the door.

Have you opened the door of your life to Jesus? When you see what He can give, you will freely and gladly open the door and welcome Him in.

John 10:10

Notice that alongside Jesus, who has come into the world to bring life, there is also a thief who comes to steal. The thief takes away what was yours and leaves you with less than you had.

The thief has also come to kill and destroy. Once you had faith and hope and joy, but your faith is now a flickering candle. Your hope has been crushed. Water has been poured on the flame of your joy. You find yourself saying, “Something within me has died.”

We live at a time when many people are moving away from faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. There’s always a story behind this, and if you have enough trust to ask, you may open the door to a fruitful conversation. “Who stole what you had?” This is a really important question, and by asking it, you may help a person who is losing faith.

How are we to deal with thieves? Jesus said, “All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them” (Jn. 10:8). If you listen to thieves, they will take away everything of value.

If you’ve been robbed of faith, hope, love, or joy, you will likely find that you’ve been listening to the voice of a thief. Your recovery will begin when you listen to a different voice—the voice of Jesus—and the first thing He says is: “Learn to recognise those who steal, kill, and destroy.”

Have you been listening to the voice of a thief? Do you feel that something within you has died?

John 6:39

Someone might hear that Jesus has come into the world, and say, “So what? What difference is that to me?” Here are two reasons to rejoice:

1. Rejoice in the goodness of God
Suppose that this world was ruled by some dark power who sought our destruction. Suppose that this enemy sent his son to get his will done. There would be no Christmas. How could we celebrate the birth of one who came to destroy us?

Instead of “I have come down from heaven to do the will of him who sent me,” we would hear, “I have come up from hell, and this is the will of him who sent me: that I should save nothing of all that he has given me, but tear it down on the last day.”

However dark this world may seem, it is not ruled by some dark power. God in His abundant goodness offers eternal life to every person.

2. Rejoice in your security as a believer
You may wonder, “Is it possible that after all my believing I may finally be lost? Could it be that my faith was not strong enough? Could it be that my repentance was not deep enough? Could I come up short?”

No! It is the will of the Father that the Son should lose nothing of all He has been given. Your arrival in heaven does not depend on your feeble grip on Jesus but on His firm grip on you.

Do you believe that Jesus Christ came into the world not to condemn you but to save you? Do you believe that if you come to Him, He will never cast you out? Why would you run from a Saviour like this?

John 6:40

Maybe you are not sure if what God wills is really for you. Let’s consider the words of Jesus together:

“This is the will of my Father…”
Some of us could be described as strong-willed. Once you get hold of something, you won’t let it go. How strong is the will of almighty God? When He determines to do something, nothing will stop Him.

“Eternal Life”
Jesus tells us here what God has determined to do. God has a gift and He wants you to receive it—the gift of eternal life! This is more than life that never ends. Eternal life will be forever blessed, because it will be a life in the presence of God.

“Everyone…”
The Father’s will is that everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ will have eternal life. Everyone! You can’t get more inclusive than that.

“Everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him…”
God offers eternal life, but there is something for you to do: “everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him” (6:40). The first statement is explained by the second. To look on the Son means to believe in Him. To trust who He is, what He has done, and what He has promised.

“…should have eternal life”
You might say, “I used to believe, but I have wandered away. It’s too late to come back.” Listen, it is the will of the Father that everyone who believes in the Son should have eternal life.

You might say, “I have sinned in a dark and twisted way, and I don’t feel that there’s a way back to God.” Listen, it is the will of the Father that everyone who believes in the Son should have eternal life.

Everyone! There is no question about the will of the Father.

Is there something keeping you from God? Listen, it is the will of the Father that everyone who believes in the Son should have eternal life.

John 6:38

How did Jesus get the will of God done? Here are two ways:

Jesus came down from heaven
Notice Jesus tells us that He came “down from heaven.” His life did not begin in the manger. Before He lay in the arms of Mary, He was at the right hand of God the Father in heaven.

He says, “I have come down from heaven.” No prophet, no religious leader could ever say this. Heaven was and is His home. Why did He come down from heaven?

Jesus was ready to do whatever it took to get the Father’s will done
Jesus’ mission is to get the will of God done: “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Mat. 6:10). Jesus is telling us, “This is why I came into the world. I came to do the will of Him who sent me. He gave certain people to Me. And His will is that nothing given to Me will be lost.”

Jesus went to the cross in order to get the Father’s will done. In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus said, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Mat. 26:39).

Jesus went to the cross. He laid down His life as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of all who would believe, and that is how the will of God to redeem the people He had given to His Son was accomplished.

Take in the wonder of Jesus willingly coming down from heaven to face the cross for us so that God’s will would be done.

John 6:38-39

Here is another reason Jesus came into the world: to do the will of the Father. Jesus gives us an inside look at God’s will for every believer.

1. All who come to the Son are gifts from God the Father
If you are a believer in Jesus, you are a gift from God the Father to His Son. Here’s how you can know that this is true: All who have been given by the Father come to the Son. So if you have come to the Son, you know that you were given by the Father.

2. No one who is given to the Son will ever be lost
Jesus says, “I have guarded them and not one of them has been lost” (Jn. 17:12). Not one of them has been lost! On the last day, Jesus will stand in the presence of His Father with all who believe around Him and say, “Here I am, and the children you have given me” (Heb. 2:13).

3. Everyone the Father gives to the Son will be raised on the last day
At death, the soul is separated from the body. For a believer, to be away from the body is to be with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8). But that is not the end for the body. Jesus says He will “lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day” (Jn. 6:39).

Jesus came to bring you—body and soul—into His presence forever. Your body will be restored and raised to a new level modelled on the resurrection body of Jesus.

“And this,” says Jesus, “is the will of God.”

Thank God for the reassurance that if you come to Jesus, the Son, it is not simply your decision. It is also God’s will.

Luke 5:32

Why doesn’t everyone respond positively to Jesus’ call to follow Him? Here are three different ways people respond:

1. I am too good to need repentance
Let’s accept for a moment that you are living a good moral life. Are you sure that you have nothing to repent of? Does your conscience never trouble you? Have you loved God with all your heart and have you loved your neighbour as yourself?

Stop kidding yourself! “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). That’s why Jesus came: “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners” (Lk. 5:32). So, if you keep insisting on your own righteousness, Jesus has nothing to offer you.

2. I am too bad to find repentance
Aren’t you glad that Jesus did not come to call the righteous? None of us would be called. And if none of us were called, none of us would follow. And if no one followed, no one would ever be changed.

Jesus said, “I have come to call sinners to repentance.” You can put your finger on that word “sinners” and say, “This means that Jesus calls me!” Jesus came to bring grace for you. He came so that change would be possible for you. He came so that the joy of a new life could be yours.

3. I will follow Jesus and pursue repentance
Change happens in the company of Jesus, so follow Him. Trust yourself to Him, and you’ll have the joy of discovering what He can do with your life.

Which of these three would you say has been your response to Jesus?

Luke 5:29

What comes to mind when you hear the word repentance? Do you imagine humiliation, shame, and being hard on yourself?

Here are three things about repentance that people often find surprising:

1. Repentance brings joy, not regret
If repentance is being hard on yourself, why would Jesus say that there is joy in heaven whenever a sinner repents (Lk. 15:7)? Repentance is something to celebrate! That’s why Levi’s first act is to hold a feast.

Repentance is not a miserable journey of self-loathing and regret. Repentance brings joy in heaven, and if there is joy over repentance in heaven, there will be joy in repentance for you.

2. Repentance happens, not before, but as you follow Jesus
Some people have the idea that you have to clean up your life, get your act together, and get rid of your baggage before you can follow Jesus. That would be a barrier that none of us could ever get over. Repentance happens in the company of Jesus. The message is not “Repent so that you can follow Jesus.” It is “Follow Jesus and you will be able to repent.”

3. Repentance is not a one-time thing, it actually deepens over time
Here is a helpful definition of repentance from J. I. Packer: “Repentance is turning from as much as you know of your sin, to give as much as you know of yourself, to as much as you know of your God.”

Packer’s definition helps us to see that as you see more of yourself, more of your own sin, and more of God, your repentance will deepen. As your repentance deepens, you will become more like Jesus. And, as you become more like Jesus, your joy will increase.

What would keep you from beginning, or travelling further along the path of repentance today?

Luke 5:28

This was an irreversible decision. Peter, Andrew, James, and John had a trade to return to, but the Romans would not have welcomed back a man who left his tax booth.

Jesus called Levi to a completely different life—not to add believing in Jesus to his old way of life, but to leave his old life for something new. When you follow Jesus, here’s what you will have:

A new identity
This man was known as a tax collector. Now he would be known as a disciple. People would remember what he had been, but it would no longer define him.

A new community
When Levi held a party in Jesus’ honour, he had a long invitation list. But he became part of a new community. The other disciples would never have had anything to do with Levi before, but they became his brothers.

A new mission
Jesus came to call sinners to repentance. That became Levi’s mission too. Jesus came to do the will of the Father. Levi’s new mission was the same.

A new name
Levi is better known by another name—Matthew—and most likely it was Jesus who gave it to him. Matthew means “Gift of God.”

This brings us to something wonderful: Levi was used by God to compile the Gospel of Matthew. Who better to keep records of all that Jesus did?

Levi could never have known what Jesus would do with his life, and the only way to discover what Jesus can do with your life is to step out in faith and follow Him. Are you ready to become more than you are right now?

Which of these do you most long for: a new identity, a new community, a new mission, or a new name?

Luke 5:27

Notice that this command of Jesus is completely open-ended. “Follow me.” What will this mean for Levi? Jesus gives no specifics.

When students are looking around universities, the admissions department will say, “Here’s our course. And here are all the marvellous facilities we have on campus. And here’s what we can offer by way of bursary or future career options.”

If you are being recruited for a job, human resources will say, “Here is the mission of our company, and here is where you can contribute. And here are the salary and benefits. There is a great future for you here.”

But there’s nothing like that here. Just two open-ended words: “Follow me.” To follow Jesus is to share His life. It involves going where Jesus goes, doing what Jesus does, believing what Jesus says, suffering what Jesus suffers, and finding joy in who Jesus is.

It’s easy to see what following Jesus meant for the disciples during His ministry on earth. But the gospels make clear that following Jesus is to be the pattern of our lives now that Jesus has ascended into heaven.

The last words of Jesus that John records are His words to Peter, “Follow me!” (Jn. 21:22). The call of Jesus to us is the same as His call to these first disciples: “Follow me.”

How will you respond to Jesus? Are you willing to go where Jesus goes, do what Jesus does, believe what Jesus says, suffer what Jesus suffers, and find joy in who Jesus is?

Luke 5:27

Why would Jesus choose a man like Matthew the tax collector to be a disciple? Wasn’t it obvious that a man like this, known for his collaboration and corruption, would be a liability?

Luke tells us that the Pharisees “grumbled at his disciples, saying, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’” (5:30).

The disciples were probably asking the same question: “Jesus, why don’t you stick with fishermen? We may not have a fancy education like Levi, but we are known as hard-working people who earn an honest living.”

So why did Jesus call Levi? “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Lk. 5:32).

The call of Levi is a marvellous sample of grace. Jesus calls the least likely, the least deserving. To Levi, who had practised extortion, Jesus said, “Follow me.” To the thief on the cross, a violent man, He said, “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Lk. 23:43).

And who would have imagined that Jesus would call Saul of Tarsus, who hated Christians? He described himself as a blasphemer, persecutor, and violent person. “But I received mercy.” Why? Because “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:13, 15).

That’s grace! “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak... to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised... so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (1 Cor. 1:27–29).

If there is hope in Jesus for Levi, the thief on the cross, and Saul of Tarsus, there is hope in Jesus for you and for every person you will ever meet.

Reflect on Jesus’ choice to call the least likely and the least deserving.

Luke 5:32

Luke records the story of Levi, who became one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. His is a remarkable story. We are told that Jesus “went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth” (5:27).

The fact that Levi was a tax collector tells us two things about him. The first is that he was brilliant. He was likely an educated man who spoke three languages—Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. He would have been a skilled accountant who kept meticulous records.

Second, Levi was part of a system riddled with corruption. Tax collectors were local people who worked for the Roman regime. They were hated because they collaborated with the oppression of Roman rule and because they were notorious for extortion.

Why would anyone collaborate with the oppressor? Well, there was a great deal of money to be made. Tax collectors could add a surcharge that they kept for themselves.

Levi had chosen a path for making a lot of money and enjoying a comfortable life. He had no conscience about adding to the burden on his neighbour to make life better for himself.

We are told that Jesus “saw” this man “sitting at the tax booth” (5:27). Jesus saw him in action. What the tax collectors did was a breach of the eighth commandment, “You shall not steal”; the ninth commandment, “You shall not give false witness”; and the tenth commandment, “You shall not covet what belongs to your neighbour” (Ex. 20:15–17).

Levi was actively engaged in breaking the commandments of God, as much as a man robbing a bank, lying in court, or taking another person’s life. But Jesus said to this man, “Follow me.”

How would you have reacted to this man taking advantage of poor and vulnerable people?

Matthew 10:37–38

Jesus is speaking here about a family member who puts pressure on you to stop following Jesus. Will you listen to Jesus who says, “Follow Me”? Or to a loved one who says, “Give Him up”?

Jesus tells us how to make this decision. We must count the cost, and there are two sides to this calculation.

1. Count the cost of following Jesus
“Whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me” (Mat. 10:38). A cross will always be present in your life. The cross may change, but in every season there will be some cost in following Jesus.

2. Count the cost of not following Jesus
“Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father... but whoever denies me... I also will deny” (Mat. 10:32). One day, Jesus will return as Judge on the Day of the Lord. To some He will say, “Enter into the joy of your master” (25:23). To others He will say, “I never knew you; depart from me” (7:23).

When you make your decision, make it in the light of the day of Christ’s return. When you ask, “Am I going to confess Him before men?” You must also ask, “Do I want Him to confess me before the Father?”

If you follow Him, He will say of you on that day, “He’s Mine! She’s Mine!” And you, by His grace, will enter into the world of peace and love that God has prepared for all who love Him (1 Cor. 2:9).

Have you counted the cost of following Jesus? And of not following Him?

Matthew 10:34

Jesus never endorsed or promoted violence. The gospel can never advance by violence or conquest. So, what did Jesus mean when He said that He came to bring a sword? The meaning of any passage of Scripture will often become clearer when we look at the context.

What went before
Jesus said to His disciples, “Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake” (Mat. 10:17-18). The sword is in the hands of those who oppose Jesus, and it is raised against His disciples.

What comes after
Then Jesus told His disciples that those who oppose us will include some in our own families. “I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother… And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household” (Mat. 10:35-36).

Perhaps you have a son or a daughter who has walked away from faith in Jesus. And now there is a tension between you. The effect of the coming of Jesus has been a distancing between you and someone you love!

Think about this in the life of Mary. At the temple, Simeon said to her, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also)” (Lk. 2:34-35).

How Mary must have grieved over the hatred of the world toward Jesus. The coming of Jesus brought a sword that pierced the soul of Mary. His coming will bring a sword for us too.

How have you experienced a “sword” against you because of Jesus?

Isaiah 2:4

Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace” (Mat. 10:34), but these words are really good news. Here’s why: God has promised that one day, there will be peace. Crime and violence will cease. A world of wars will give way to a world of love.

When will that day come? “He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples… nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Is. 2:4).

When will there be peace on earth? When God judges between the nations and decides disputes for many peoples. The Bible refers to this as “the Day of the Lord.”

When Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace,” He is saying, “The Day of the Lord has not yet come.” If Jesus had come to judge between nations, He would not have come as a baby. He would have appeared in a blaze of glory, with an army of angels.

So here is the most basic question of Christmas: Why was Jesus born as a baby? Because He did not come to “judge between the nations” or “decide disputes for many peoples.”

He did not come to judge the world, but to save it. He came to make a way in which sinners like us (who would never be qualified to enter the world of peace and righteousness that He will bring) might be saved.

He was born as a baby, He went to the cross, and He rose from the dead so that when He does come to judge and settle disputes, we may be saved.

Aren’t you glad that when Jesus came into the world the first time He came as a baby, instead of in power and glory?

Matthew 10:34

Jesus, the master teacher, again anticipates a misunderstanding. “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth.” It would be entirely natural for those who believe in Jesus to think that was why He came.

God had promised a day when a Messiah would come, a child would be born, a son would be given. The government would be on His shoulders, and His name would be “Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Is. 9:6).

When Jesus was born, angels said, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace” (Lk. 2:14). So, it would be natural for believers then and now to think that the coming of Jesus should mean peace on earth. But Jesus says, “Don’t expect that. Do not think that I have come to bring peace.”

We need to hear these words of Jesus. Two thousand years have passed since He was born, years filled with wars and violence. When we sing Christmas carols and hear the angels’ song about peace on earth, we might reasonably think, These are nice sentiments, but they are a long way from the world in which we live today.

If Jesus came to bring peace, the last two thousand years have been a spectacular failure. But Jesus is clear: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth.” If you thought that the birth of Jesus would lead to a world of peace, that would be a misunderstanding.

If you are honest, have you found yourself feeling disappointed that Jesus has not brought peace to the world?

Romans 8:3-4

This is good news. The reason Jesus came is that you may be able to live a new life that is pleasing to God. And this life is made possible for you by the power of the Holy Spirit.

A man was serving time for theft. In prison, he heard the good news of Jesus Christ and was wonderfully converted.

When he was released, the man knew that he would face a great struggle. Most of his old friends were thieves, and it would not be easy to break the pattern of his old way of life.

On his first Sunday of freedom, he slipped into a church. The Ten Commandments were on a plaque at the front, and his eyes were drawn to the command that seemed to condemn him: “You shall not steal.”

That’s the last thing that I need, he thought. I know the battle I’m going to have. As he kept looking at the plaque, the words took on a new meaning.

He had read these words as a condemning command: “You shall not steal!” But now it seemed that God was speaking these same words as a liberating promise: “You shall not steal.” God was promising that the Holy Spirit would make it possible to overcome his old way of life.

When you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, God will give you His Holy Spirit so that you can live a life that is pleasing to Him. His power will make the difference between a struggle in which you are destined for defeat and a battle in which you will have ultimate victory.

In what area of your life do you need to believe God’s promise of victory through the power of the Holy Spirit?

Romans 8:3-4

It is a wonderful truth that Jesus fulfilled the righteous requirements of the law for us. But what Paul says here is that God sent His Son into the world so “that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.”

How is that possible? How can you live the life to which God calls you? Perhaps the greatest misunderstanding of the gospel is that Jesus was simply a good moral teacher who told us how to live. And that if we want to please God, we must follow His teaching.

Maybe you are saying to yourself, “If I really focus and exercise self-discipline, I can live a life that’s pleasing to God.” That’s what the Pharisees did. But if you try this, you’ll soon find that it is unsustainable.

You are trying to be something that you are not, and sooner or later, you will say, “I can’t do this anymore. I have to do what I really want to do.”

The only way you can live the life to which Christ calls you is if righteousness becomes your deepest desire. That is why Jesus said to Nicodemus, “You must be born again.” You are trying to live a righteous life, but unless the Holy Spirit brings you to a new birth, you “cannot see the kingdom of God” (Jn. 3:3).

Christ calls you to pursue a life of love, a righteous life, and that is only possible by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Have you been trying to please God in your own power?

Matthew 5:20

This is an astonishing statement. The scribes and the Pharisees devoted their entire lives to the pursuit of righteousness. How could our righteousness ever exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees?

Jesus was scathing in His critique of the Pharisees, first, because their righteousness was arrogant. The Pharisees liked to pray where they could be seen. Jesus said to His disciples, “When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret” (6:6).

The Pharisees liked people to know what they were giving. Jesus said to His disciples, “When you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing” (6:3–4).

Then Jesus was critical of the Pharisees because their righteousness was external. “You clean the outside of the cup... but inside they are full of greed and self–indulgence” (23:25). Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart.

It would be easy to say, “This is why we need to trust Jesus as Saviour, so we will have His perfect righteousness, which is far better than that of the Pharisees.” This, of course, is true. But it’s not what Jesus is saying here.

Jesus is calling His disciples to the pursuit of a righteous life, a righteousness that is better than the Pharisees, a righteousness that is humble and that comes from the heart.

Can you see some ways in which the righteousness that you are pursuing may be arrogant or external?

Matthew 5:17

Jesus came into the world to fulfil the law and the prophets, and He did so in His life and in His death.

1. In His Life
Isaiah said that a virgin would conceive and bear a son (Is. 7:14). And when Mary bore Jesus, that prophecy was fulfilled. Micah said that the One who would rule and shepherd God’s people would come out of Bethlehem (Mic. 5:2, 4). And when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, that prophecy was fulfilled.

Jesus fulfilled the prophets in His life. And Jesus fulfilled the law in His life. “He who sent me is with me… I always do the things that are pleasing to him” (Jn. 8:29).

By God’s grace, we can sometimes do the things that please the Father, but only Jesus could say, “I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” He fulfilled—lived out—all that the law requires in His life.

2. In His Death
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’” (Gal. 3:13). The prophets spoke about a suffering servant who would be “pierced for our transgressions” (Is. 53:5).

In Psalm 22, David depicts a man whose hands and feet are pierced, who is mocked, whose garments are divided by casting lots, and who cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Jesus fulfilled the prophets in His death. And Jesus fulfilled the law in His death. The law prescribes blessings for obeying God’s law and curses for breaking it. We have an obligation to the law that we have not fulfilled. And that brings a curse.

But Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the law in His life, and He paid the penalties of the law in His death.

What if Jesus hadn’t fulfilled the law or the prophets?

Matthew 5:17

A good teacher always anticipates misunderstanding, and here, Jesus corrects a false assumption about why He came into the world.

Perhaps you have thought the message of the Bible is that we are all sinners, but Jesus paid the price of our sins, so now we can get on with our lives much as we did before. This would be a complete misunderstanding.

Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets.” Then He says, “Truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished” (5:18).

One day, heaven and earth will pass away, and God will create a new heaven and a new earth. This old planet will finally be released from its pain and its groaning.

When that day comes, the law will pass away because its work will be done. The righteous will be declared “not guilty,” and the wicked will be condemned.

When that day comes, the prophets will pass away because all that they predicted will be accomplished. Faith will be turned to sight: God will be with His people, and He will wipe away our tears (Rev. 21:3–4).

When “all is accomplished” (Mat. 5:18), the law and the prophets will pass away, but until that day, the law and the prophets remain. The law stands as God’s definition of righteousness. God tells us what a good life looks like, and it would be a complete misunderstanding to think that because Jesus came, we have no more duty towards the law of God.

How have you been thinking about the role of the law in your life?

John 1:14

At Christmas, we celebrate the coming of Jesus Christ into the world. God came down from heaven and entered our world. Why did Jesus come? The entire New Testament answers that question.

Paul tells us that Jesus came to reconcile us to God. “In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them” (2 Cor. 5:19). John tells us that “the Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world” (1 Jn. 4:14).

Hebrews tells us that He came to “destroy the one who has the power of death” and to bring “many sons to glory” (Heb. 2:10, 14). Revelation tells us that He came to ransom people for God “from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Rev. 5:9).

Does Jesus Himself ever speak directly about why He came into the world? Yes. Perhaps the best-known example is “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (Jn. 10:10). What a marvellous promise!

On other occasions, Jesus speaks indirectly about why He came: “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Lk. 19:10). “The Son of Man came... to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mk. 10:45).

But there are seven occasions where Jesus tells us directly and personally why He came into the world. Three of them are recorded in Matthew and Luke. Four of them are recorded in John. Over the next month, we are going to hear from Jesus’ own words about why He came into the world.

Of the many reasons mentioned today, which one sounds most important to you right now?

Mark 1:40

This man knows that Christ has the ability to make him clean, but does He want to? So the man comes to Jesus and asks. He begs Jesus—on his knees.

There’s humility here. This man is not saying, “Why did you let this happen to me? You owe me.” And he isn’t saying, “Jesus, if you do this for me, I’ll do something for you.” What does the Son of God need that you can give to Him?

Some people are so absorbed with themselves that they’re always asking, “Why should I be interested in Christ?” This man sees the real question: “Why should Jesus be interested in me?”

If you come to Jesus thinking that you are offering something to Him, you will never receive anything from Him. Come to Christ empty-handed. Ask Him to give you what you do not have. Then you will be in a position to receive.

Maybe you are thinking today, I need to be forgiven. I feel insecure. I lack purpose. I feel powerless. I wish someone would rescue me. I lack joy. I certainly don’t feel very glorious.

Get to the point with Jesus today. Many people do not receive from Him because they never get to the point of making the ask. Cut through the fog of a vague faith that makes little difference to your life. Bring Jesus to the point of your need. Then ask him!

Ask Jesus to give you what you do not have. And as you ask, believe in Him and trust Him to change you. And He will answer, “I am willing!”

Are you ready to ask Jesus to do for you all that He has promised to do? Come to Jesus today. His good and perfect will includes your good and His glory.

In every one of Jesus’ promises, He tells us something about our relationship with Him.

1. Yoke yourself to Christ: Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you (Mat. 11:28–29).
2. Come to Christ: All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out (John 6:37).
3. Follow Christ: Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men (Mat. 4:19).
4. Obey Christ: If you love me you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever (John 14:15–16).
5. Confess Christ: Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven (Mat. 10:32).
6. Trust Christ: Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me (John 14:1).
7. See Christ: I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory (John 17:24).

You can build your life on the rock-solid promises of Jesus Christ.

Is there something about your relationship with Jesus that you’ve been avoiding or neglecting?

Let’s review the rock-solid commitments that Jesus Christ has made to us:

1. He will give you rest
“Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mat. 11:28). This is the promise of forgiveness. Jesus will reconcile you to God and cleanse you.

2. He will never drive you away
“All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37). This is the promise of security. Jesus will never give up on you. You were in the Father’s heart before the world began. Christ died to save you, and He lives to keep you.

3. He will make you useful
“Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Mat. 4:19). This is the promise of purpose. When you come to Jesus, your life gets caught up in the sweep of God’s redeeming purpose for the world. Jesus said, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you” (John 20:21).

4. He will confess you to the Father
“I also will acknowledge [him] before My Father who is in heaven” (Mat. 10:32). This is the promise of salvation. The reason there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus is that He claims us as His own. Those who are with Him have nothing to fear.

5. He will give you the Holy Spirit
“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth” (John 14:16). This is the promise of power. We need to know what God calls us to do, and we need the power to do it.

6. He will bring you into heaven
“If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself” (John 14:3). This is the promise of joy. Christ opened heaven’s doors through His death and resurrection.

7. He will show you His glory
“I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory” (John 17:24). This is the promise of glory. We are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Eph. 1:3).

Which of these promises do you need to lean into today?

John 17:24

Will you see Jesus’ glory with your eyes, or will you simply understand it more fully in your mind? One of the great Puritan writers, Thomas Manton, says it will be both.

There is a glorified eye as well as a glorified mind. Job said, “Though... worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God” (Job 19:26, KJV). You will see the Son of God as the disciples saw their risen Lord.

But there’s more! Angels do not have bodies, they are spirits, and spirits do not have eyes. And yet, angels always behold the face of the Father in heaven (Mat. 18:10). So not only will we see Christ’s glory with our eyes, we will perceive and know and grasp His glory with our minds.

F. F. Bruce, in his commentary The Gospel of John, points out that the disciples had seen the divine glory in the incarnate Word on earth (John 1:14). But he says, “They will see it [Christ’s glory] more fully when they live in the presence of the glorified Lord—not, perhaps, because he will then be endowed with more of that glory but because they will be better able to behold it.”

Isn’t this what Paul was getting at when he said, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Cor. 13:12). Praise the Lord! One day we will see Him face to face!

Is seeing Jesus your great aim in life? How are you pursuing Him this week?

John 17:24

John 17 records the prayer of Jesus, immediately before His suffering. This prayer is divided into three parts: First, Jesus prays for Himself (17:1–5). Second, Jesus prays for His disciples (17:6–19). Third, Jesus prays for all believers (17:20–26).

John 17:24 is part of our Lord’s prayer for us. Here is something amazing to think about: the Son of God, on His knees, praying for you. Did you know that Jesus prayed for you?

“I do not ask for these only [the disciples only], but also for those who will believe in me through their word” (17:20). If you believe the apostolic message, if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you have trusted your life to Him, this prayer is for you.

Jesus describes believers another way here: “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me” (17:24). Who are those “whom you have given me”? We already know: “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37).

Those who come to Christ, those who believe the apostolic message, are the gift of the Father to the Son. And here we have Christ, on His knees praying for us. Now what does Jesus Christ pray for us? He wants us to be with Him and He wants us to see His glory.

What is your response to Jesus’ prayer here?

John 17:24

The Son of God is saying to the Father, “I want these believers, those You have given Me, to be with Me in heaven.” Jesus wants you in heaven.

Jesus is about to go to the cross. He is going to wear the crown of thorns. Nails will be driven into His hands and His feet. He is going to be plunged into utter darkness. If you were to ask Him, “Jesus, what do You want to get out of this? Why are You doing this? What is all this about?” He would say to you, “I want those the Father has given Me to be where I am.”

Being with Christ is the greatest joy of heaven
There will be so many things for us to do and to enjoy in the new heaven and the new earth. But being with Jesus will be your greatest joy. Christ Himself will lead you into the joys and splendours of heaven. “For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water” (Rev. 7:17).

Paul said, “To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). If you live for this world, to die is loss, because everything you lived for gets left behind. But if you live for Christ, to die is gain, because you get more of Christ, you go to be with Christ, and that is far better.

On a scale of 1 to 10—(1) unmoved to (5) sceptical to (10) elated—how do you respond to Jesus’ words here? Why?

John 14:3

Jesus explained the purpose of His death and resurrection when He said, “I am going to prepare a place for you.” That’s why He went to the cross. That’s why He went to the grave. That’s why He rose on the third day.

Jesus did these things to open heaven for His people. He did it to remove all that would keep us out, all that would stand in our way of entering everlasting life. And Jesus says to us: “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself” (14:3).

Suppose you are buying a new car and you would like a particular model, with particular options, and a particular colour. So, the dealer says to you, “We don’t have that one in stock right now. I can order one for you. We’ll have it transferred. It will be here in a couple of days. But I need you to pay for it up front.” If you have paid the full cost of purchasing the car, you will come back to that dealer to receive what you’ve purchased and take it home.

Jesus Christ laid down His life to purchase you. You can be certain that He will come back to take you home.

On a scale of 1 to 10—(1) fearful that He won’t; (5) haven’t thought about it much; (10) confident and joyful—where is your level of confidence that Jesus is coming back to take you to heaven? Spend some time reflecting on John 14:3.

1 Thessalonians 4:17

Jesus will take all His people to the Father’s house. He gives you His word on this, and He will do it in one of two ways.

If you die before Christ comes, He will take you to the Father’s house without your body: “We would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). You will receive a new body when He returns.

If you live until Christ comes, He will take you to the Father’s house in the body, which will be transformed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye (1 Cor. 15:51).

Either way, if you die before Jesus comes or you live until He comes back, it is Jesus who is taking you to the Father’s house.

Paul tells us how: “The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord” (1 Thes. 4:16-17).

Jesus is coming back for us! It may or may not be in your lifetime, but He will surely come. What a day that will be. Come, Lord Jesus!

Can you begin to imagine how Jesus will fulfil His promise to take you to heaven?

John 14:2

We are not to imagine Jesus working around the clock to get heaven organised before the second coming. If He can create the cosmos out of nothing with a word, then He can get heaven ready for believers with a single command.

When Jesus says that He is going to prepare a place, it means that through His going, the place will be prepared. He is going to the cross; He is going to the grave. He is going to die; He is going to rise. And it is through His death and resurrection that He opens up the way for us to enter the glory of the Father’s house.

Imagine you’re playing in the Rugby World Cup Final. You’ve just been passed the ball, and for a moment, the pitch opens up in front of you—there’s a real shot at a length-of-the-field try. The crowd is cheering and your heart pounds as you begin to run. But then you see them—massive defenders coming at you—their names are Law, Sin, and Death. Then there is another one—bigger, meaner, and uglier than the others—Satan himself. There is no way you can get past these guys. They stand between you and the try line, and you know that they will flatten you before you get there.

But then—out of nowhere—a teammate comes running towards them. They are looking to take you out, but your teammate comes and takes them out, opening your way to the try line. This is what Jesus has done for us on the cross. “I go to prepare a place for you.” Sin and death can no longer keep you out!

In your own words, what does it mean that Jesus went to prepare a place for you?

John 16:33

Where do people get the idea that if you follow Jesus you can expect a life that is free from failure, disappointment, and loss?

This is precisely the opposite of what Jesus Himself said. Jesus confronted His disciples with the realities of life: “In the world you will have tribulation” (16:33). Then He established their hope in another world: “I go to prepare a place for you” (14:2).

If your hope is established in this world, you will be shattered by failure, disappointment, and loss. What are you going to do when you experience a loss that cannot be replaced in this world, a disappointment that remains for a lifetime, or a failure that changes the course of your life?

Jesus is establishing His disciples in a faith that can stand through the misery of personal failure, the sorrow of gut-wrenching disappointment, and the pain of irreplaceable loss.

But, in order to do that, Jesus must establish their hope in another world: “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Cor. 15:19). Here’s our hope: “In fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (15:20). Jesus’ answer to our failure, disappointment, and loss lies in the Father’s house.

Don’t we have the Holy Spirit now? Doesn’t Christ say that the Spirit is with you and in you? Yes, and the Spirit is a deposit guaranteeing what is to come.

Where is your hope? Is it based in this world or in the world to come?

John 14:1-2

When Jesus says, “Let not your hearts be troubled,” He is not saying, “I will make this world a better place for you. It will get better over the centuries.” Or “As you get older, the experience of failure, disappointment, and loss will recede.”

This fallen world will always be what it is—a fallen world. With all its blessings and joys, our experience of life in this world is scarred with failure, disappointment, and loss. So, Jesus establishes our hope in another world. Sin, disappointment, and loss are woven into the fabric of this world. Any attempt to suggest that we can live in this world without them is naive at best. Grasping this truth will bring stability to your faith.

Some Christians are thrown into confusion when suffering comes. They feel that since they have faith they should somehow be insulated from failure, disappointment, and loss. And when a crisis comes, they lose their moorings. The foundations of their faith are shaken. They lose themselves in questioning how God could allow this to happen. But Jesus is telling us that the world, as it is now, is not the way it will always be. He is preparing a much better place for us.

How does it help you to know that this world is not all there is?

John 14:23

The Bible speaks in several places about Jesus living in us. In Ephesians, Paul prayed that “Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (Eph. 3:17). And in Colossians, Paul spoke about “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). Knowing that Jesus is with you and in you by His Spirit, here are three encouragements to take with you today:

1. You are never alone.
There is no greater truth than this when you experience loneliness. Jesus does not say, “I will visit you from time to time.” He says, “I will make My home with you.” Christ will be at home with you until you are at home with Him.

2. You are called to obedience.
The truth of God’s presence in your life is the greatest incentive to holiness. When Paul had to deal with some folks at Corinth who had opened the door to obvious sin in their lives, He said to them: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you?” (1 Cor. 6:19). “So glorify God in your body” (6:20).

3. You have strength for today.
This is the truth that you need when you feel washed out, exhausted, and your own strength is gone. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is with you and in you!

Which of these did you most need to be reminded of today?

John 14:17

Suppose you go to the doctor, and you are diagnosed with some serious condition: “This will need treatment, and there are two ways we can go. The first is surgery, but there is an alternative, and it’s noninvasive.”

At this point, most people would be focusing on the second option. Most of us would like to avoid surgery, if at all possible. We want the noninvasive option, and if that’s not possible, then give us the minimally invasive option.

We naturally think the same way about faith. We would like to have a minimally invasive faith. But notice what Jesus says here about the Holy Spirit: “He lives with you and will be in you” (14:17). Now that’s invasive! The Spirit of God will live with you and will be in you.

What does a noninvasive faith do for you—believing that there once was a man called Jesus, that He was God, and that He rose from the dead? How does that make a difference in your life? How can that comfort you in suffering? How can that give you strength to face the world today?

Jesus said, “The Holy Spirit will be with you and in you.” Jesus gave Himself for us on the cross. Jesus gives Himself to us by the Holy Spirit.

We participate in all that Jesus has accomplished for us by the Holy Spirit. The work of Christ does indeed “invade” every aspect of the true Christian’s life.

How have you seen change in your life since you became a believer in Jesus? Has this change been noticed by others as well?

John 14:16-17

How do we know the presence of Jesus in our lives today? In what way is He with us? And how exactly does He help us?

After Jesus rose on that first Easter morning, He appeared to His disciples multiple times over a 40-day period. Then He was visibly taken up into heaven as the twelve disciples watched (see Acts 1). After He returned to the Father in heaven, the resurrection life of Jesus was communicated to the first disciples by “another Helper,” the Holy Spirit.

Notice what Jesus says here about the Spirit: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper” (John 14:16). The disciples already had Jesus as their helper. But now Jesus is returning to the Father, so when Jesus talks about “another Helper,” He is telling the disciples that this helper will do for them what Jesus had done for them. This helper is the Spirit of truth and He will be with them forever (14:17).

Jesus Christ has ascended to the right hand of the Father in heaven where He intercedes for us. But He is present with us by His Holy Spirit.

When are you most aware of Jesus’ presence with you?

Matthew 10:32

Obedience to Jesus here is not simply calling yourself a Christian. The hardest days of your life will be your greatest opportunity to confess Him. Here are five ways to confess Jesus:

1. Confess the glory of Christ in costly obedience
The Bible tells the story of Mary pouring perfume on Jesus’ feet. Mary could not think of a better use for this treasure, so she poured it on Jesus, and in doing so, she confessed His glory.

2. Confess the presence of Christ in loneliness
Paul writes from prison about friends who let him down (2 Tim. 4:9-11). But instead of turning his disappointment into bitterness, Paul confessed Christ: “But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me” (4:17). What are you going to do when other people let you down?

3. Confess contentment in Christ under financial pressure
When Paul faced financial struggles, he might have said, “Why did Jesus allow this?” Instead, he used his need to confess Christ: “I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:12-13).

4. Confess the sufficiency of Christ in sickness & pain
When Paul faced “a thorn in the flesh” (2 Cor. 12:7), he pleaded with the Lord to take it away. But the Lord said, “No.” So Paul used his own pain to confess Christ: “[Jesus] said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (12:9).

5. Confess the sovereignty of Christ in sorrow & loss
Job’s wealth was plundered, his children died, and his wife said: “Curse God and die” (Job 2:9). But Job said: “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (1:21). Your confession of Christ in trouble will reverberate through heaven and hell forever.

Is there an opportunity for you to confess Christ in your circumstances today?

Matthew 10:32

If you only read this verse in isolation, it might sound like Jesus is saying that salvation is by works: “If you do this for Me; I will do that for you.” But this is not the message of the gospel.

We are saved by the blood of Jesus, not by an act of confession. There is no redeeming power in confessing Christ. Redeeming power lies in the Christ who is confessed. This Christ becomes ours by faith, and our confession is one evidence of faith in the Christ who saves us.

That is how we should understand the words of Jesus here and how we should understand these familiar words: “If you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9). Redeeming power lies in the Christ who is confessed, not in the act of confessing.

Jesus is not talking to unbelievers, but to His disciples.
Notice, this whole chapter is about Jesus speaking to those who have already made a commitment to Him: Jesus “called to him his twelve disciples” (Mat. 10:1). This isn’t evangelism—calling unbelievers to confess Christ. This is for Christians. He’s challenging us.

Jesus is not talking about something easy, but something hard.
When you first hear this verse, it sounds like an easy thing to do. Here’s the Lord Jesus Christ, and what does He want me to do? “Everyone who acknowledges me…” (Mat. 10:32). So, that’s what we have to do—we have to acknowledge Jesus and accept that He’s the Saviour and say we believe in Him—nothing terribly difficult about that… until you consider the context.

Are you tempted to interpret these kinds of sayings in the Bible as things you must do in order to be right with God? Why or why not?

Matthew 10:32-33

The word ‘acknowledge’ (or confess) in the Greek is homologeo. Homo means ‘one’ and logeo means ‘word.’ Put them together and it means “to be of one word,” or to say the same thing.

Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). So, to confess Jesus is to say, “Jesus is my way and my truth and my life.” You believe it. You own it. You do not say, “This is what Jesus says, but I have a different view.” Or “I’m not so sure about that.” You say, “I follow Him as my Lord. I listen to Him as my Teacher. I trust in Him as my Saviour.”

Maybe there was a time when you said to God “I’m done with you.” Maybe you made some kind of commitment that was the opposite of faith in Christ. What does this mean for you now?

Peter denied Jesus three times, and afterward he wept bitterly. Then, after the resurrection, Jesus spoke with him. He did not say, “Peter, I’m sorry, but you’ve denied Me, so now I’m denying you.” He forgave Peter and restored him, not only to fellowship, but even to ministry.

So, we can be confident that Jesus was not saying, “If you have ever denied Me, you are gone forever.” Jesus was saying: “If you continue to deny Me, I will deny you.”

If the second part of the verse means, “If you continue to deny Me, I will deny you,” then clearly this is how we should understand the first half. Jesus was not saying “If you ever said that you believe in Me, then you’re okay.” He was saying, “If you continue to confess Me before men, I will confess you before My Father in heaven.” Jesus is calling us to a confessing life.

Have you been denying Jesus? Are you ready to begin confessing Him?

Matthew 10:32–33

If you were to make a list of the greatest days of your life, you’d probably have a few to choose from. They would likely include graduations, weddings, birthdays, and retirements.

But Jesus speaks here about a day so momentous that it will outshine any other day of your life. One day you will stand in the presence of God, and on that day, you will see the Son of God. You will hear His voice. He will speak to you.

On that day, the Son of God will either confess you or deny you. To confess you means He will say to the Father, “This is [put your name here], and she belongs to Me.” To deny you means the Son will say to the Father, “This is [put your name here], and he has nothing to do with Me.” Every person will hear the Son of God say one of these two things.

Jesus makes it clear that what He says about you then is tied to what you say about Him now: “Everyone who acknowledges me before men [that’s what you say about Jesus now], I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven [that’s what He will say about you then], but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” (10:32–33).

What are you saying about Jesus now with your thoughts, words, and actions?

Matthew 4:19

For centuries Evangelicals have had a clear understanding of the message of the gospel. The message is the incarnation and the atonement. God became man in Jesus Christ. Christ died on the cross for our sins and broke the power of death by His resurrection. This Christ offers forgiveness of sins and peace with God, new life by the power of the Holy Spirit, and entrance, not into the hell that we deserve, but into everlasting joy in the presence of God.

Evangelicals have also had a clear understanding of the mission of the gospel. The mission is to proclaim this gospel to people in every culture, inviting them to receive what Christ offers by coming to Him in faith and repentance, trusting Him as Saviour, and following Him as Lord. But there is an inherent offence in this gospel-the uniqueness of Jesus as Savior, the guilt of our sin, and the judgment of hell-nobody likes these things.

Liberalism did not accept the inspiration and authority of the Bible, so it selected certain truths and discarded others. The message of liberalism is not the incarnation and the atonement. It is the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of men. God loves you and we need to love each other. That's true, but you don't need an incarnation or an atonement for that. You don't need repentance and faith in Christ for that. There's no hell to be saved from in that.

A new message led to a new mission. Liberalism changed the church's mission from individual salvation to cultural transformation. Instead of saying, "Our ministry is to lead people to repentance and faith in Christ through the gospel," they say, "Our mission is to change society."

Jesus says, "I will make you fishers of men." God's method of changing society is to change the individuals who compose it.

What is your response to the message and mission of liberalism?

Matthew 4:19

Here are seven observations suggested by Jesus’ analogy of fishing.

1. Some people are really good at fishing, but anyone can do it.
You don’t have to know much about fishing to catch a fish, and God gives some people special gifts of evangelism, but every Christian can play a part in drawing other people to Jesus.

2. Fishing requires great patience.
You throw out a line or a net, and then you wait. Many of us have loved ones who we long to see won to Christ. Fishing requires great patience.

3. Fishing teaches how to deal with discouragement.
The disciples had toiled all night, and they caught nothing (Luke 5:5). Anyone who enjoys fishing has a story like this. You haven’t caught anything today? Get up early and go out again tomorrow.

4. Christ invites us to come fishing, not go hunting.
Some Christians sound more like hunters than fishers. But there is an art to fishing, and Peter gives us wise counsel: speak with gentleness and respect (1 Pet. 3:15).

5. The church is a fishing boat, not a pleasure boat.
It’s easier to have a ministry that is about ourselves. But Jesus does not say, “Follow me and I will take you on a delightful cruise.” He says, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

6. Fishing is hard and sometimes dangerous work.
Have you seen the television programme Deadliest Catch? Fishing is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. Read the book of Acts and you will see that pioneer evangelism is up there too. The best fishing is often done in the most difficult waters.

7. There’s great joy in catching fish.
Have you ever seen someone looking miserable about a fish they just caught? Of course not! Catching fish is fun, and there is far greater joy in seeing a person come to faith in Jesus.

Which of these observations is most helpful to you?

Matthew 4:19

What did the disciples gain from three years of following Jesus? What will you learn from following Jesus that will make you effective in bringing people to Him?

A new interest in people
The disciples lived in a world of fish, nets, and boats. But Jesus brought them into a world of people. They didn’t like the crowds at first and wanted to send them away. They stood in the way of children and tried to stop people from other cultures from coming to Jesus. Yet, after following Jesus, these men gained a new interest in people. Peter, a fisherman, became a shepherd to the flock of God. Where did he learn this? From following Jesus.

A new clarity about Jesus
When Jesus calmed the storm, the disciples said, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mk. 4:41). After three years of following Him, Peter was able to say, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mat. 16:16). But they still did not see that He must die for sins and rise again on the third day. They continued to follow Jesus, and on the day of Pentecost, Peter threw out the gospel net and the Spirit brought 3,000 souls to Christ that day (see Acts 2).

A new confidence in God’s power
Following Jesus, the disciples saw lives changed. They saw those who were possessed by evil spirits, set free; those who were sick with various diseases, healed. They saw what God can do, and their faith in Him grew.

Ask God to increase your love for people. Ask Him to give you more clarity about Jesus. Or ask Him to increase your confidence in Him.

John 6:37

Jesus says, “Whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” Not now, not in the future, not ever.

Not only is this a marvellous incentive for sinners coming to Christ, it is a wonderful assurance for believers who have come to Christ. “Whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”

The Son will not cast out any who come. They are the gift of the Father. That is why they’ve come. The Father never gives unwanted gifts. The Father gives them, and the Son keeps them.

Do you ever wonder if Christ will tire of you when He sees how weak your faith is? Never! Do you wonder if He might lose interest when He sees how slow you are to change? No! Never!

You need to hear this when you have fallen into temptation and Satan says, “Well, there’s not much Christ can do with you now.” Look to Christ. He says, “I will never cast you out.” There will never come a time when He will say, “I am done with you.” No! Never!

What happens if you get Alzheimer’s at the end of your life, and you get confused, and you’re not clear about your faith? Do you think you could be lost? No! Never! “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (6:37).

What do you most fear would cause God to turn away from you? Tell Him and reflect again on Jesus’ words here in John 6:37.

John 6:37

When you move toward Jesus, He is there for you, ready to receive you. He won’t drive you away. The word comes is in the present continuous tense. “Whoever is coming.” “Whoever is on the way.” Think of the prodigal son on his way home. He hasn’t arrived yet, but he’s on the way.

If you are stirred with some sense of your own need today, if you feel drawn to Christ, you can be sure that the Son of God sees you coming. His arms are stretched out to receive you. He says to you, “I won’t drive you away.” You have every reason for hope in Jesus Christ today.

Use this as an incentive in coming to Jesus. We don’t know how fast the prodigal son walked back to the Father, but he may have walked slowly. He probably expected a long lecture on wasted money and wasted years. Maybe that’s one reason he stayed away so long. But now he is desperate, so with his head hanging he begins the long trudge home.

Put yourself in his shoes. You expect to be raked over the coals, and you hear a voice calling your name. You look up and your father is running toward you—his arms reaching out, tears running down his face. When you see that, you will run too.

When you see the love of God, you will gather the courage to repent. As you come to Christ, look ahead of you. You will see the outstretched arms of Jesus. “Whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” Once you have come to Jesus, look back and see, look back and see the eternal love of the Father, who gave you and drew you to the Son. “All that the Father gives me will come to me” (6:37).

Do you need to look ahead or look back today?

John 6:37

The first camera was on God the Father who gives certain people to His Son. The second camera is focused on the sinner who is coming to Jesus.

Jesus invites all people to come to Him: “Whoever comes to me…” You cannot get more inclusive than that. The great truth that the Father gives certain people to the Son never excludes a person who wants to come to Christ. If you have an interest in coming to Christ, you can take that as a sure sign that the Father is working in your life.

Those who come to Jesus see something great in Him. John Bunyan wrote a whole book on this one verse. He asked the question: What have you found in Christ?

Bunyan’s point is simple. Those who come to Christ are drawn to Him. That means that we see something in Him that is compelling to us. The world sees little of value in Christ, but to us who believe, Christ is the treasure in the field, the pearl of great price. What have you found in Him?

Bunyan makes this point: What Abraham found in Christ made him ready to leave home and go to another country. What Moses found in Him made him glad to give up the comfort of a palace in Egypt and suffer with the people of God. What Daniel found in Him made him live with integrity in a godless world, even when it meant being thrown in a den of lions.

What have you found in Christ? Coming to Christ involves seeing something in Him that draws you. You see a love that compels you, a purity that draws you, a glory that lifts you.

What you see in Christ weans you from your sins. It makes you tired of living for yourself. You find yourself saying, “I want to be holy. I want to be forgiven and at peace with God. I want to live for Christ and give my whole life to this Saviour who loved me and gave Himself for me!”

What have you found in Christ?

John 6:37

Jesus speaks about believers as the Father’s gift to Him. The Father gives people to the Son.

The people who are given to Christ come to Him. Who are these people the Father has given? How do we know who they are? They are the ones who come to Him. They come because they are given.

How do these people come? “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (6:44). The Father gives certain people to Jesus. He draws these people to Christ, and they come to Him.

How many who are given to Jesus actually come to Him? All of them! “All that the Father gives me will come to me” (6:37). Nothing can stop these people from coming to Christ.

We get used to working with percentages. How many contacts turn into sales? How many students end up graduating? How many aeroplanes arrive on time?

It is a common practice for airlines to overbook their flights. The logic is simple. In any group of a hundred people who have tickets, there will be some who, for various reasons, don’t make it to the airport. The airlines assume that a certain number of people will drop out.

If we ask how many of the people God gives to His Son actually come to Him, the answer is: 100 percent. On the last day, Christ will stand in the presence of the Father, and He will say, “Behold, I and the children God has given me” (Heb. 2:13).

Jesus is not saying, “I’ve got most of them.” He is saying, “I’ve got all of them!” If you have come to Christ, you can have complete confidence in Him. He goes on to say that He will, “lose nothing of all that [the Father] has given me” (6:39).

How certain do you think Jesus wants us to be about this?

John 6:37

These are among the greatest words ever spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ. They take us to the heart of our salvation. Perhaps this simple illustration will help you to see why.

One of the joys of watching football on television is that you see more than you would see if you were at the game... and it’s often warmer.

When your team scores a goal, the replays show you what was happening from various points of view, so that you get a fuller picture of all that was going on. You see the play. Then you see it from the reverse angle. Then you see it from the camera on the goal line.

You are looking at the same event, but the different camera angles give you a fuller picture. Placed together, they show you things that were happening in the play that you would have missed if you only saw one angle.

This verse gives us three camera angles on the one event of our salvation. One camera is trained on the activity of God the Father: “All that the Father gives me...” A second camera is turned toward the sinner coming to Christ: “Whoever comes to me...” And a third camera is focused on Christ receiving the sinner: “I will never cast out...”

The Father gives, the sinner comes, and the Son receives. These are the three great movements of our salvation. Viewing these pictures side-by-side will help you to see more clearly what God has done for you in Jesus Christ.

Which of the three camera angles are you most familiar with?

Matthew 11:28-29

When Jesus says that you will find rest for your soul, He doesn’t mean sleep. He’s saying, “I will put an end to your inner turmoil. Bring your hurts and fears, your regrets and disappointments, your anxieties and your inadequacies to Me. Bring the pressures and troubles of your life to Me. I will give you peace that passes understanding. My peace I give you.”

This rest is Christ’s gift. It is not a process. It is not like a prescription or a formula that could be obtained from different sources. It is the gift of the living Christ to you.

J. C. Ryle in his book Old Paths says, “Rest such as this is the privilege of all believers in Christ. Some know more of it and some less; some feel it only at distant intervals, and some feel it almost always; few enjoy the sense of it without many a battle with unbelief, and many a conflict with fear. But all who truly come to Christ know something of this rest.”

Let the weight of your burdens draw you to the Saviour today. As your load becomes heavier, you have more reason to come to Him. The wearier you become, the more you need to yoke yourself to Christ. This is a marvellous way to view the pressures of your life. Use them as a reason to draw near to Christ today.

Will you take the Saviour at His word today? Will you come to Him and receive what He offers?

Matthew 11:28-29

Jesus is saying the same thing in two different ways. We know that because He makes the same promise: “I will give you rest…You will find rest for your souls.”

What do we have to do to find this rest? The condition is stated in two different ways. “Come to me,” and “Take my yoke upon you.” These are two ways of saying the same thing—come to Christ and commit to Him. Coming to Christ involves taking His yoke upon you.

The yoke was a wooden beam that tied two animals together so that they walked and worked in tandem. Be very careful who you get yoked to. In business, in friendship, and supremely in marriage, ask, “What am I tying myself to?”

Jesus says, “Bind yourself to Me. Walk with Me.” Coming to Christ means taking His yoke upon you. This sounds like it is going to be tough. Maybe you are thinking, I am struggling enough as it is, and now you are telling me that Jesus wants to put some yoke around my neck?

Do you think your life would be easier without Christ? Do you feel that if you cut loose from Christ, then your restless heart would finally be free? Are you afraid that if you follow Him, He will lay some great load on you? As long as you think this you will never come to Him.

Listen to what Jesus says: “I am gentle and lowly in heart… My yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (11:29–30). It’s the way of the sinner that is hard. To be yoked to Christ means that the Son of God pulls your load with you.

What could be better than to be yoked to Jesus Christ and have Him pull your load with you?

Matthew 11:28

Notice that there is something for you to do: “Come to me.” Either you will do this, or you won’t, and Jesus says your experience depends on this.

Jesus doesn’t say, “Practise spiritual disciplines.” He was speaking to the most religious people in the world whose faith had become a burden. They were doing their best to live godly lives, but they felt crushed by their own attempts at pleasing God.

Is that you? Are you burdened by the sheer pressure of trying to live a good life? Maybe you are doing your best, but your life is a relentless treadmill and you are weary.

Conservative wisdom says that you find rest by living a moral, disciplined life. Liberal wisdom says that you find rest by following the impulses of your own heart. But this rests on the massive assumption that your heart knows good from evil. Follow the impulses of your own heart and your life will always be restless.

You won’t find rest in spiritual disciplines or in your heart. Jesus says, “Come to Me and I will give you rest!” Why doesn’t He say, “Believe in Me and I will give you rest?” The word “believe” might leave the impression that it’s all in the mind.

When Christ says, “Come to me,” He indicates that there is movement. The prodigal son was in the far country until one day he said, “I will arise and go to my father” (Luke 15:18). That’s more than believing.

Were you under the impression that Jesus’ rest comes to you automatically, or only as a result of more effort (e.g. spiritual disciplines)?

2 Peter 1:3-4

For the next four weeks, we are going to look at what Jesus Christ is willing to do for us. Seven times in the Bible, Jesus specifically said He will do something for us.

• I will give you rest.
• I will never cast you out.
• I will make you fishers of men.
• I will confess you before My Father in heaven.
• I will give you the Holy Spirit.
• I will take you to be with Me.
• I will that you will see My glory.

These seven commitments that Jesus makes to us are rock-solid promises. When Jesus Christ makes a commitment, you can be certain He will keep it.

Make it your aim to pursue one of these as you read this month’s devotional:

1. If you are a Christian today, take a step back and see the scope of all that is yours in Christ. See the big picture, find joy in it, and thank God for it.
2. If you are not yet committed to Christ, perhaps you have been exploring these things, you have been drawn by them, and that is why you are reading this, but they are not yet yours. Discover all that Jesus Christ offers to you, and how you can receive it from Him.

Consider praying this prayer: Heavenly Father, help me cross the line from exploring to receiving, from investigating to believing, from observing to following. May all that Jesus is willing to do, become what He actually does in my life.

1 John 3:2

Notice that John uses the word “know.” He’s talking about assurance. So what do we know?

We know that we will see Christ
“We know that when he appears… we shall see him as he is” (3:2). The Christian life is a life of faith. We love, trust, and follow a person we have never seen. But it will not always be so. Jesus said, “I will come again.”

On the night He was betrayed, Jesus prayed, “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory…” (Jn. 17:24). And here John says, “We shall see him as he is.”

We know that we will be like Him
“We know that when he appears we shall be like him” (1 Jn. 3:2). Not only will we see His glory: We will share it. And that means that we will see a reflection of the Lord’s glory in each other.

Your spouse, if he or she is a believer, will be made perfect. Your family member with health struggles will be strong in body and mind. Your friend who fought with depression will be radiant with joy.

We know that we are children of God. We know that we will see Christ, and that we will be like Him. God wants you to live in the joy and peace of knowing that these gifts are yours. So, hear His promise: “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God” (5:1).

Spend some time thanking God for the promise that we will see Christ and we will be like Him.

Philippians 1:6

Sometimes we fail to recognise the work of the Spirit in our lives because His work in us is not yet complete.

Suppose you have a good friend who is a master craftsman. He wants to give you a new kitchen. Your old kitchen is a mess. Nothing is as you would want it to be.

There’s no one you would trust to do this work more than your friend, and so you move out while the work is going on, but at one point you decide to stop by to take a look. Your expectations are high.

But when you see your kitchen, you are disappointed. Wires are hanging out of the wall. The plumbing is not attached. Nothing is as it should be. You wonder, Maybe this isn’t the master craftsman’s work at all.

So you text your friend: “Looked at the kitchen today. Was very disappointed. Is this really your work?”

He replies, “All my work. All of it good. None of it yet complete.”

You could see that it was a work in progress. Yet you questioned the work that had been done just because there was more to do. Is this not precisely what we are tempted to do with the work of the Holy Spirit?

We think, I’m a long way from being the person God calls me to be. That is true! You are a work in progress. But the work is truly a work of the Holy Spirit of God. And while none of it is complete, all of it is good. So learn to recognise the work of the Holy Spirit in your life.

In what areas of your life do you see signs that the Holy Spirit is still at work? Thank the Master Craftsman that He will continue His work in you.

1 John 5:6

Here are two final observations about the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

6. The Holy Spirit bears witness to Jesus
“The Spirit is the one who testifies” (5:6). The Holy Spirit bears witness to Jesus by showing us how much we need Him. “When [the Helper] comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgement” (Jn. 16:8). And the Holy Spirit bears witness to Jesus by drawing us to Him. You have come to believe in Him, to love Him, and to follow Him. This is clear evidence of the work of the Spirit in you.

7. The Holy Spirit bears witness to us
“By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit” (1 Jn. 4:13). What an amazing gift! God could have chosen to post an angel outside your home to remind you every morning: “You abide in Him, and He abides in you!” But God chose instead that His own Spirit would dwell in the heart of every believer. God wants to give you assurance Himself. “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom. 8:16).

Some believers struggle with great uncertainty. Nothing that anyone says ever seems to help them. Assurance grows as you listen to the witness of the Spirit, so believe God, love God, obey God, and trust the Holy Spirit to bring peace and assurance to your heart.

Consider the amazing gift of having God Himself, through the Holy Spirit, bring peace and assurance to your heart.

1 John 2:24

Here are two more observations about the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

4. The Holy Spirit gives spiritual sight
“You have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge” (2:20). This cannot mean that believers know everything. It does not mean that true believers can never be deceived or make foolish mistakes. John is not saying that we don’t need to learn or that we don’t need wise teachers.

The point here is that the people who had left the church had been deceived about the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. To those who remain, he says, “I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it” (2:21).

Take in this truth: “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God... they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14). The Holy Spirit has been your teacher. He has given you spiritual sight.

5. The Holy Spirit bears witness to the Word
“If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father” (1 Jn. 2:24). God has given us His Word and His Spirit. The Spirit of God works in, with, and through the Word of God. And in the Word and the Spirit we have a double defence against the power of lies and deception.

As you open your Bible, pray your Bible, pray the words of the psalmist: “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law” (Ps. 119:18).

1 John 2:20

There is a special ministry of the Holy Spirit to assure us that we are children of God, and here are three observations about His ministry:

1. The Holy Spirit is sent by Jesus
“You have been anointed by the Holy One” (2:20). Christians are anointed with the Holy Spirit, and “the Holy One” who sends this anointing is Jesus Christ. He said, “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you...” (Jn. 15:26). Jesus is the Holy One of God, and He sends the Holy Spirit.

2. The Holy Spirit is given to all who are in Christ
“You have been anointed...” (1 Jn. 2:20). John refers to the gift of the Holy Spirit as an anointing. In the Old Testament, prophets, priests, and kings were anointed for service to God. It was a sign that the Holy Spirit would give the needed gifts, wisdom, and power for the work they were called to do. So, John is pointing to the wonderful reality that the Holy Spirit will give you all that you need to do and all that God calls you to do.

3. The Holy Spirit remains in all who believe
“The anointing that you received from him abides in you” (2:27). You don’t need to worry about the Holy Spirit being taken from you. The Holy Spirit is given to all of Christ’s people, and the Holy Spirit remains in all of Christ’s people. To those who believe, John says, you will remain in Christ because the Holy Spirit will remain in you.

What assurance do you find in knowing that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to you? That the Spirit provides all you need for the work God has called you to? That the Holy Spirit cannot be taken from you?

1 John 2:19-20

Here were people who had once professed faith, and then they abandoned the faith that they once professed. They left the church.

Abandoning the faith was evidence that these people were never true Christians. True faith perseveres, and continuing in the faith is the evidence that you really are a Christian: “We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end” (Heb. 3:14).

Most of us know someone who has walked away from faith, and it is deeply disturbing for two reasons. First, you grieve for the person. Second, it raises the question, What if that happens to me?

John answers the question by pointing to the fact that his readers had not abandoned their faith in Christ. Why had they stayed faithful when others walked away?

The answer is: the Holy Spirit. The reason you’ve stayed faithful through all the pressures, trials, and discouragements, the reason you still love and serve Jesus today is the presence and work of the Holy Spirit.

Do you know someone who has walked away from faith? How do John’s words encourage you to hold firm to the end?

1 John 3:19-20

The normal experience of the Christian life is that our hearts do not condemn us, but sometimes they do. Don’t make the mistake of accepting the verdict of your own heart. Why would you do that when you can appeal to a higher court? When your heart condemns you, bring your case before God. John gives two reasons for doing this.

1. God is greater than your heart
Your heart does not have the final word. God can overrule it. Your heart is like a lower court. God’s Word is like the Supreme Court. So, when your heart condemns you, bring your case to God.

Go to God and tell Him why your heart condemns you. Tell Him what you have done. Tell Him what you have failed to do. God sees what our condemning hearts sometimes forget: God justifies those who have faith in Jesus (Rom. 3:26). The verdict that matters is not the verdict you pass on yourself or others pass on you, it is the verdict of almighty God.

2. God knows everything
The fact that God knows everything might seem like a reason for not coming to Him. Other people see me at my best. But God has seen me at my worst. Why would I want to come before Him?

But God’s knowledge here is not a cause of fear and dread. It is a reason for hope and confidence. He knows what His Son has done for you. He knows what His Spirit is doing in you. He knows that you love Him.

Bring your case to God and let His word of grace to you in Christ silence the condemnation of your own heart.

When your heart condemns you, consider these words: “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn?” (Rom. 8:33–34).