Monthly Archives: June 2010

We’re in the midst of a weeklong series based on Acts 26:14—“It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” On Monday we discovered the meaning of the oxgoad.  Today we will meet the Master of the oxgoad, the Lord Jesus Himself, and discover three important truths.

1.  YOU WERE PLANNED FOR – Ephesians 1:3-4

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.”

There are countless children who have been born to parents who did not plan for them.  This is never true of the children of our heavenly Father; every child has been planned for by God.  There are neither surprises nor accidents in God’s economy.  Even the sinful acts of man are used by God for His glory.  “You meant evil against me,” Joseph told his brothers, “but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive” (Genesis 50:20). Knowing that both your salvation and the sin that made salvation necessary were planned for by Almighty God makes the goad glorious. 

2. YOU ARE PAID FOR – 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?  You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.  So glorify God in your body.” 

Every child of God has been purchased by the blood of the King of kings and Lord of lords.  The kingdom of the Savior is a kingdom of sacrifice, and this unthinkable sacrifice is as history-altering as it is life-changing.  “You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers,” Peter explained, “not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18-19).  When you truly understand the price that was paid for you and your sin, by the One who knew no sin, the goad does not sting so badly.  In fact, the further His goad prods you toward dying to your own selfish desires, the more you come alive to Christ and your calling.

3. YOU WILL BE PROVIDED FOR – Philippians 4:19

“And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

Note well that God did not promise that your every “want” will be supplied.  Much of what we “want,” we certainly do not need.  In fact, it would be detrimental to our walk with Christ and our witness in this world if we were to get everything we think we want.  God knows the story of our lives from beginning to end; indeed, all the days ordained for us were written in God’s book before one of them came to be (Psalm 139:16).  God is writing our stories and making them fit into His bigger story; He knows what is best for us!

How perfect is the leading of the Prince of Peace, who planned for us, paid for us, and provides for our every need in both life and death!  He inflicts just the right amount of pain to keep us moving in the direction He has called us to go.  Knowing that gentle, loving, nail-scarred hands hold our oxgoad makes all the difference in the world in how we receive its proddings and respond to them.  This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT…AMEN!

“It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”

What exactly does that phrase mean?  “Kicking against the goads” is not something we hear often in our day-to-day conversation!  And yet, in Acts 26:14 the master Teacher delivers a powerful life-lesson in His exquisite, parabolic style that is simple, straight-forward, self-explanatory, and designed to sanctify every blood-bought saint.  Throughout this week we will examine this verse, with the goal of gleaning three powerful truths:

• Part I – The Meaning of the Oxgoad
• Part II – The Master of the Oxgoad
• Part III – The Message of the Oxgoad

It is my prayer that every proud sinner who reads these messages will it be brought to his or her knees in thanksgiving for the One who did for us what we could never do for ourselves.  Nowhere is that work more necessary than in the life of the chief sinner—me!

Part I – The Meaning of the Oxgoad

1^st – The oxgoad is a long pole or stick with a pointed piece of iron fastened to one end.  In the strong hands of a loving master, the ox is gently prodded, guided, steered, and driven in the desired direction when plowing the fields.  When a stubborn ox attempts to kick back against the goad that is causing it discomfort, the ox will actually inflict more pain, driving the pointed end deeper into its flesh.       

2^nd – The oxgoad is designed for an ox and for no other beast.  When Jesus likened the proud Pharisee Saul (and every child of God) with a brute beast, Saul’s heart likely pounded with incredible indignation.  By birth a Jew, by citizenship a Roman, by education a Greek, “as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless” (Philippians 3:6 NASB), Saul was a Pharisee of Pharisees.  He sat at the top of the spiritual “food chain” in Jerusalem, and now Jesus of Nazareth is comparing him to a bovine!

However, when you consider this for a moment, you realize that the comparison to an ox was actually a greater insult to the beast!  Oxen did exactly what God created them to do—serve and glorify the One who created them.  Oxen bend their necks to the yoke and to the one true God, who has placed man over them as ruler and lord.  Man is the only creature who refuses to submit to the revealed will of his Creator.

King David, possessing much greater self-awareness than Saul of Tarsus, freely confessed, “When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you” (Psalm 73:21-22).

As we close out Part I, here are just a few examples of oxgoads God uses in the lives of His people:

Sermons; suffering; doctrine; difficulty; adversity; affliction; godly counsel; holy confrontation; conviction of the Holy Spirit; financial reversal; business failure; academic probation

You might like to take some time to identify other oxgoads you have kicked against in the past.  What was the result of your rebellion?  Did you find that your pain actually increased as you resisted?  What would you do differently today?  Remember, all Scripture, rightly understood, is an oxgoad—both to the sinner and the saint.  This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT…AMEN!

Paul wrote to Timothy: “You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:1).  It is instructive to note what Paul did NOT say here; he did not urge Timothy to be strengthened by what I call the 5 P’s . . .

• Power
• Position
• Prosperity
• Prestige
• Pleasure

Paul’s instruction was clear.  Timothy was to be strengthened by the grace of God.  This grace, which all Christians have been given, is as undeserved and unmerited as it is unlimited.  Flowing directly from the Fountainhead Himself, the grace of Christ is without measure and readily available to all who trust in Him.

The problem for many Christians today is that they do not understand the role of grace after salvation (being raised from death to life) and prior to glorification (eternally received into the presence of the King).  This period of time in between is called sanctification; it is the time you are actually running your race.  Sanctification is the process of growing up into Christ, and this too is all of grace.  We don’t begin the race in grace, finish the race in grace, but run the race in our own strength.  We have not been called by God to run by the sweat of our own spiritual strength.  Galatians 3:3 makes this perfectly clear: “Are you so foolish?  Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”

Everything about the Christian life is based on God’s grace.  The race begins in grace, is run in grace, and is finished in grace.  Along the way, every physical and spiritual blessing we receive flows from His inexhaustible reservoir of grace.  We strive in grace, we suffer in grace, and we succeed in grace.  It is all of grace!  Yet we are the ones called by God to run our own race.  We will give an account to Christ at the end of time regarding how well or how poorly we have run (2 Corinthians 5:10).  The only way we will succeed in this is by knowing it is all of grace.  You see, it is grace that motivates us to continue running when we would rather not. 

So regardless of where you are right now in the race that God has set before you, whether you feel like you are loping downhill or trudg0ing uphill, the final outcome of your race has already been settled by the cross work of Christ.  He who began your race has promised to complete it (Philippians 1:6) and His promise is not conditional.  It is not based on your performance along the way.  The “score” has been settled by your Lord, who hung on that cross for you.  When He said, “It is finished!” (John 19:30), He meant what He said!

 God neither grants nor withholds blessings based on your performance in the race.  It is always based on what Christ has already accomplished on your behalf.  This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT…AMEN!

We have a tendency to think when we are faced with suffering and sorrow we are undergoing an experience unknown to the truly committed child of God.  Not true, beloved, not true!  Suffering is a shared experience.  Even the heroes of the faith faced suffering and sorrow of every kind and needed comfort from the King.

In Acts 18:9 we read, And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent.”  Here we see that the greatest of all the apostles needed comfort in time of need.  Fear was not foreign to the faithful.  Comfort is needed by every child of God.  Moses needed the comfort of God time and time again.  Whether facing Pharaoh, the raging waters of the Red Sea, or on his 40 year death march, Moses continually needed the comfort of God.  Samson needed the comfort of God while the thousand he slew with the jawbone of an ass lay dead on the ground.  David the giant-slayer needed the comfort of God while on the run from King Saul.  After one of the greatest victories recorded in Scripture, Elijah needed the comfort of God as he cried out for his own death.  Peter who denied his Lord three times needed the comfort of God to get back up and feed His sheep. 

Comfort is necessary because the story of our King is a story of suffering.  And your story is part of His story.  From being thrown out of the Garden (Adam and Eve) to thrown in prison (Peter and Paul) suffering is woven into the fabric of the lives of God’s people.  Suffering is a result of sin and where there is suffering, there is comfort from the King with a promise of something even better.  RENEWAL!  In every moment of suffering and sorrow we have the promise of the King that the best is yet to come.  All things will be made new and there will one day be no move tears, sorrow, or suffering.  Receive His comfort today and know that He will not rest until you are brought safely home.  This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT…AMEN!

Never before in the history of the Christian faith have we seen so many churches working so hard to fit in with the surrounding culture, rather than stand out for Christ.  Not to be outdone by the culture, we’ve entered into competition with it, and by the looks of the scoreboard, we are losing.  The divorce rates are the same both in and out of the church.  Materialism has a choke hold on the Christian as much as it does on the culture. 

The culture is changing the church.  We have been entrusted with the eternal and we have turned it into entertainment.  Our seeker-sensitive services entertain the senses but do not satisfy the soul.  Preaching to the felt needs of the “customers” we have wooed into the pews, we have watered down the whole counsel of God to the exclusion of sin, judgment, holiness, and the wrath of Almighty God.  More than twenty-five years ago, Francis Schaeffer rightly warned, “The evangelical church has accommodated itself to the world around it.” In doing so, we have become more “market-driven” than Master-directed. 

The Christian community is being shaped more by Hollywood than by God’s Holy Word.  We hear more and more Christians saying, “God’s desire for me is to be happy,” rather than “God’s desire for me is to be holy.”  Charles Spurgeon, the great Baptist minister, aptly observed, “He who marries today’s fashion is tomorrow’s widow.”   

Today’s church desperately needs countercultural Christians who refuse to be seduced, swerved, and shaped by Hollywood.  Pastor Tullian Tchividjian wrote in Unfashionable, “Faithfulness to Christ requires foreignness to the world’s trendy diversions.”  To be sure, there is a lot this world has to offer in the way of diversions―which are some of Satan’s sharpest darts. 

Let me ask you: Is the confession of your life being shaped more by Hollywood or God’s Holy Word? 

“Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God” (1 Corinthians 2:12).  We live in this world, but we are not to live like this world because we have received the Spirit of Christ.  We are to make an eternal difference in this world because we have been made eternally different.

The world doesn’t need more of this world; it needs more of the next!  No one will understand the things freely given us through the “teaching” of Hollywood, but only through the Holy Word of God―both professed and practiced by the people of God. That is the teaching that will give this world get what it needs most: a Savior who is ready, willing, and able to save sinners.  This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Have you ever thought of self-denial as a grace from God?  To be sure, Adam and Eve did not see self-denial as grace; they proved that when they opted for self-satisfaction!  Yet Jesus makes it clear that self-denial is a great grace from God: “He said to all, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me’” (Luke 9:23).  Self-denial, not self-satisfaction, is both the way and the walk of our Savior.  Remember, Adam and Eve got what they “wanted” when they chose the way of self-satisfaction; in doing so, they missed the only thing they truly needed . . . God!

God’s grace of self-denial is the rescue our Redeemer provides from the bondage of self-satisfaction.  When the most important thing in life is satisfying the self, we live only a fraction of the life God intended us to live.  The grace of self-denial leads us to the abundant life because the “stuff” of this world can never really satisfy our deepest need.  Only an intimate personal relationship with Jesus can do that, and this relationship will only be realized through the grace of self-denial.  Self-denial loosens our hold on the things of this world, freeing us to tighten our grip on “all things above,” leading to a previously unimagined life of satisfaction! 

Self-satisfaction is not the key to satisfaction in marriage; self-denial is.  Self-satisfaction is not the key to satisfaction in your job; self-denial is.  Self-satisfaction is not the key to satisfaction in your singleness; self-denial is.  Self-satisfaction is not the key to satisfaction in your church; self-denial is.  So where in your life have you been finding it hard to deny yourself?  And what has seeking your own satisfaction brought you? 

Jesus denied Himself in every way for you.  He who was rich became poor.  He who was a King became a criminal.  He who knew no sin became sin.  He who knew no death became the death of death.  Is there anything you cannot deny yourself for the One who has and will continue to do everything for you?  The pathway of self-denial is the pathway of self-satisfaction.  This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Blood bought believers in the Lord Jesus Christ generally come first to understand the grace of God as the unmerited and undeserved favor God bestows through His beloved Son.  We recognize the truth of Ephesians 2:8-9―“By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  This grace is the power of God to raise dead sinners to life.

More difficult to comprehend is the grace described in various places in the Scriptures, including 2 Corinthians 12:9―“He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  The grace set forth in this context is not the unmerited and undeserved favor of God found in salvation; here Paul is describing the divine enabling “grace,” or power, given to the believer through the Holy Spirit.  In a word, it is grace for your race, the race you are to run by the enabling power of the Holy Spirit.

When God said His grace was sufficient for the race set before us, He was also saying we were insufficient to run His race by ourselves.  We were never designed to run alone.  Before the fall, Adam and Eve were created dependent upon God for everything.  We are mistaken if we believe our dependence upon God began when man fell in the garden.  We were made by God for God, and the only thing that changed after sin entered the world was our desperate need for rescue by our Redeemer.  The grace that puts us into His race at salvation is the same grace that keeps us in the race throughout our lives.  The Bible makes it clear that we cannot complete in the flesh what began in the Spirit.  Paul rebuked the Galatians for that very notion: “Are you so foolish?  Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3.) No, we are not sanctified by our own power, but by His: “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). 

It’s important to note that God’s grace is sufficient for the running of the race to completion―NOT the running of it without challenges!  To be sure, everyone would prefer to run when the sky is blue, the clouds are fleecy, and the temperature is a comfortable 75 degrees.  But we are called to run in all types of weather and over all kinds of terrain.  God gives us precisely the amount of grace we need to run our race, one day at a time.

The weaker we are, the more God’s grace works in our lives.  “When I am weak,” Paul said plainly, “then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).  The world glories in self-sufficiency; we are to glory in our Savior.  At this level of living, we receive all the grace we need to face the challenges and struggles of the day.  Trouble at the office . . . grace for the race.  Difficulty in marriage . . . grace for the race.  Rebellious children . . . grace for the race.  Struggles in your single life . . . grace for your race.  Challenges in your church . . . grace for your race. 

Paul understood that God’s grace was completely sufficient to carry him through to the end of his race.  You will remember that Paul was forced to live out his life with a “thorn,” after praying to God three times for its removal.  Whatever this thorn was, it was painful enough that Paul asked God to remove it three times.  Yet God chose instead to provide Paul with the grace he needed to carry this burden while ministering and writing nearly two-thirds of the entire New Testament.  Instead of focusing his painful problem, Paul held fast to God’s providential power, given through the Holy Spirit.

Whatever burden you are carrying today, God has given you all the grace you need―if you will but look to Him.  This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT…AMEN! 

Today’s blog is right out of the Sunday school lesson I taught yesterday morning.  The lesson was rooted in Acts 20:35―“In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”  After class a number of people suggested that the lesson would make a great sermon.  If that is true, the highlights should make for a pretty good blog entry!  I’ll let you decide.   

Let me ask you a question: Where in the Gospels did Jesus say, “It is more blessed to give than to receive”?  Well, if you were to conduct a word search, the correct answer is: none of them!  Yet the entire tenor of the teaching of our Lord was rooted in this wonderful beatitude.  Remember, all of the beatitudes of Jesus are not confined to the Sermon on the Mount.  Paul suggests that this was part of the oral tradition by using the word “remember.”  Furthermore, John made it clear that not all of what our Lord said and did is recorded in Scripture. “Jesus did many other things as well,” the apostle explained.  “If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written” (John 21:25).

When we fail to see the greater blessing in giving than receiving our, lives are marked by consumption rather than contribution . . . by getting rather than giving.  To be sure, it is the nature of the child of God to give what I like to call the 4 T’s―Time, Talent, Treasure, and Truth (God’s Word).  At this level of living we are ministers of God’s grace, providing an accurate reflection of Him.  When we are more focused on giving than receiving, we become channels of grace in the lives of others. 

So how are you doing in this area?  Do you find greater blessing in giving or receiving?  The poet wrote:

Not what I get, but what I give, this be the gauge by which I live.  Not merely joys that come my way, but the help I give to those astray.  Not the rewards of money or fame, But the load I lift in Jesus’ name.  This is the pay at the end of the day, not what I keep, but what I give away.

Who in your life right now needs your time, talent, treasure, or the truth of God’s Word?  We are never more like Jesus than when we are busily engaged in the act of giving.  This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT…AMEN!

Today is the third of our 3-part message on Treasure Hunters.  Jesus cautioned His disciples, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).  In this brief but penetrating passage, Jesus sets forth four powerful truths that relate to treasure hunting.  Today we will complete our message with the third and fourth truth.

TRUTH #3

The third truth is framed in the divine “abstain/advance” imperative from Jesus.  Jesus warns us to abstain from pursuing earth-bound little kingdom treasures and to advance in the direction of pursuing heaven-bound big kingdom treasures.  The Apostle Paul passed this truth on to his young assistant, Timothy: “Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed” (1 Timothy 6:17-19).

TRUTH #4

The fourth truth makes it clear that what we pursue and possess ultimately pursues and possesses us.  It is a matter of the heart; “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

It was a matter of the heart for both Adam and Eve.  With hearts made for God, they both sought to satisfy their deepest longings in something other than God, something that could never satisfy them, and all humanity has been on a downward spiral ever since.  Satan promised Adam and Eve something they already had—life, and instead they received something they were never intended to experience—death.  This is always the result of chasing after the wrong kind of treasure.  The promise on the front end is attractive and enticing, but at the end of the day, it inevitably leads to some kind of death. 

When we hunt for treasure outside of the only treasure that was meant to satisfy us, we are never satisfied. “The Preacher,” author of Ecclesiastes, is considered by many scholars to be none other than King Solomon, whose vast accumulation of wealth eclipsed that of any other Israelite king, yet his heart was led astray from God. His testimony is illustrative:

Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun (Ecclesiastes 2:10-11).

Apart from God, everything is hollow, empty, and woefully less than God’s best for our lives.  Settling for something smaller than God is settling for a life smaller than God intended for us to live.  It is living a life for nothing bigger than life itself.  C.S. Lewis rightly observed in Mere Christianity:

If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were those who thought most of the next.  The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who build up the Middle Ages, the English who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with heaven.  It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have becomes so ineffective in this one.  Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’; aim at earth and you will get neither.

 It all comes down to identifying what we are living for in this life.  When we seek the treasures of earth, we live for nothing more than the life we are living.  When we seek the treasures of heaven we live for something so much more than the life we are living.  Living in the light of eternity causes us to pursue treasures that create eternal investments.  This is living a life shaped by Christ and His kingdom, which brings a satisfaction that transcends anything we could ever find in the pursuit of anything smaller than God Himself.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Today is the second of a three-part message on Treasure Hunters.  Jesus cautioned His disciples, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).

In this brief but penetrating passage, Jesus sets forth four powerful truths that relate to treasure hunting.  On Monday I outlined the first truth―that everyone is a treasure hunter. Jesus assumes treasure hunting as a mark of all humanity; we are all seeking value. Today we will confine our focus to the second truth.

TRUTH #2

The second truth is found in the two different classes of treasure we may pursue: earthly and heavenly . . . carnal and spiritual . . . important and unimportant . . . little and big . . . temporal and eternal.  We always have two choices in treasure hunting; we can hunt for the stuff we want or the stuff God wants for us.

It’s important to note that we could, in fact, be pursuing the treasure God wants us to pursue, but for the wrong reasons, like personal power or self-centered glorification.  A church elder, for example, who enjoys the prestige of authority rather than the fulfillment of serving is pursuing godly treasure, but with the entirely wrong motive!  Another wrong (but not uncommon) motive for pursuing godly treasure is found in the Christian who is seeking the applause and praise of man for his charitable deeds.  The ultimate goal here is status, not service―shrinking your life down to the size of your life and nothing more. 

As treasure hunters we not only need to be pursuing the right stuff, we must be pursuing it for the right reasons.  At this level of living, we are being shaped by the Savior in all we desire, decide, and do.  We have been created to seek treasure that truly matters, treasure which is rooted in a right relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.  We simply cannot deny the powerful pull of both classes of treasures, earthly and heavenly.  The one that rules your heart will ultimately shape your life.  NEVER FORGET THAT…AMEN!