David Prays in the Assembly

(1 chronicles 29:11-13) 

“Yours o lord is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty of the splendour for everything in heaven and on earth is yours. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honour come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name”

1Ch 29:10  Therefore David blessed the Lord before all the assembly and said, Be praised, adored, and thanked, O Lord, the God of Israel our [forefather], forever and ever.

1Ch 29:11  Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and the earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and Yours it is to be exalted as Head over all.

1Ch 29:12  Both riches and honor come from You, and You reign over all. In Your hands are power and might; in Your hands it is to make great and to give strength to all.

1Ch 29:13  Now therefore, our God, we thank You and praise Your glorious name and those attributes which that name denotes.

David exalts the LORD.

Therefore David blessed the LORD before all the assembly; and David said: “Blessed are You, LORD God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever. Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, the power and the glory, the victory and the majesty; for all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and You are exalted as head over all. Both riches and honor come from You, and You reign over all. In Your hand is power and might; in Your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all.”

a. Therefore David blessed the LORD before all the assembly: The generous giving made David rejoice and praise God. It wasn’t for the sake of the wealth itself, but because it demonstrated that the hearts of the people were really interested in God and in His house.

b. Blessed are You, LORD God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever: This is the first time in the Bible that God is addressed directly as a Father over His people.

i. Jesus taught His disciples to pray beginning with this phrase, our Father (Mat 6:9-13). Jesus may have had this passage in mind when teaching His disciples about prayer, because there are other similarities between the two passages.

ii. “This verse supplies the conclusion to the Lord’s Prayer: ‘For thine is the kingdom’ (Mat 6:13, KJV).” (Payne)

c. Both riches and honor come from You: David could say this as a man who had a life full of both riches and honor. He knew that those things came from God and not from David Himself.

David said, Blessed, &c. — David was now full of days, and near his end, and it well becomes the aged children of God to have their hearts much enlarged in praise and thanksgiving. The nearer we come to the land of everlasting praise, the more we should speak the language and do the work of that world. Thine is the greatness and the power, &c. — Thus David praises God with holy awe and reverence, acknowledging and adoring, 1st, His infinite perfections; not only that he is great, powerful, and glorious, &c., but that his is the greatness, power, and glory; that he has these perfections in and of himself, and is the centre and fountain of every thing that is excellent and blessed. 2d, His sovereign dominion, that he is the rightful owner and almighty possessor of all. All that is in heaven and in earth is thine — And at thy disposal, by the indisputable right of creation, and as Supreme Ruler and Commander of all. Thine is the kingdom — And all kings are thy subjects; and thou art to be exalted and worshipped as head above all — 3d, His universal influence and agency. All that are rich and honourable among mankind have their riches and honours from God. This acknowledgment David would have the princes to take notice of, and join in, that they might not think they had merited any thing of God by their generosity; for from God they had had their riches and honour, and what they had returned to him was but a small part of what they had received from him. Whoever are great among men, it is God that makes them so; and whatever strength we have, it is God that gives it us. Let no flesh, then, glory in his presence; for of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever! Amen. 

THE LAST PRAYER OF DAVID

IN order to do justice to the chronicler’s method of presenting us with a number of very similar illustrations of the same principle, we have in the previous book grouped much of his material under a few leading subjects. There remains the general thread of the history, which is, of course, very much the same in Chronicles as in the book of Kings, and need not be dwelt on at any length. At the same time some brief survey is necessary for the sake of completeness and in order to bring out the different complexion given to the history by the chronicler’s alterations and omissions. Moreover, there are a number of minor points that are most conveniently dealt with in the course of a running exposition.

The special importance attached by the chronicler to David and Solomon has enabled us to treat their reigns at length in discussing his picture of the ideal king; and similarly the reign of Ahaz has served as an illustration of the character and fortunes of the wicked kings. We therefore take up the history at the accession of Rehoboam, and shall simply indicate very briefly the connection of the reign of Ahaz with what precedes and follows. But before passing on to Rehoboam we must consider "The Last Prayer of David," a devotional paragraph peculiar to Chronicles. The detailed exposition of this passage would have been out of proportion in a brief sketch of the chronicler’s account of the character and reign of David, and would have had no special bearing on the subject of the ideal king. On the other hand, the "Prayer" states some of the leading principles which govern the chronicler in his interpretation of the history of Israel; and its exposition forms a suitable introduction to the present division of our subject.

The occasion of this prayer was the great closing scene of David’s life, which we have already described. The prayer is a thanksgiving for the assurance David had received that the accomplishment of the great purpose of his life, the erection of a temple to Jehovah, was virtually secured. He had been permitted to collect the materials for the building, he had received the plans of the Temple from Jehovah, and had placed them in the willing hands of his successor. The princes and the people had caught his own enthusiasm and lavishly supplemented the bountiful provision already made for the future work. Solomon had been accepted as king by popular acclamation. Every possible preparation had been made that could be made, and the aged king poured out his heart in praise to God for His grace and favor.

THE TIMELESS CROSS!

"How much more shall the Blood of Christ, who through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" — Heb 9:14.

WHAT IS the meaning of that great word eternal?

 Too often it is employed as though it were synonymous with everlasting. But the two words stand for two very different things. Everlasting conveys the idea of the duration of time; whereas eternal stands for the quality and character of the existence referred to, which is absolutely timeless.

 The eternal is that which is not measured by duration, which has no succession of years, which cannot be described as past or future. It is the dateless present, and can only be used, therefore, of God, the I AM, because He lives in the eternal now. He never was and never will be anything that He is not at this present moment, and only that which partakes of His Being can be termed eternal.

When, therefore, we are told that our Lord offered Himself to God through the Eternal Spirit, we must believe that in the Cross there was this element of Timelessness. Our Lord was the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8). The Cross of Christ has been contemporaneous with all the generations of mankind, and it is this attribute of Timelessness which gives the Cross its perennial power. There is a sense in which Christ is always being wounded by our transgressions, bruised by our iniquities, chastised for our peace, and bearing the stripes that procure our healing.

The Cross of Christ stands with open arms to welcome every sinful soul. The nails are not rusted or blunted by the years that have passed since they were driven into the flesh of Christ our Lord.

 And as we humble ourselves, and submit our proud and selfish soul-life to be nailed with Him to the Cross, in the power of the Eternal Spirit, out of suffering comes life to those to whom we minister, as we serve the Living God, and we can say with the Apostle: "Death worketh in us, but life in you." (2Co 4:10-12).

PRAYER

We bless Thee, Lord Jesus, that Thou didst not withhold Thyself from the Cross. Enable us by the Eternal Spirit to surrender our life to Calvary, that Thy risen life may become manifest in our mortal flesh. AMEN.

The Temptation of Jesus

Let’s look at The Lord’s temptation time!

Luk 4:1-15.   Now Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wild.

For forty wilderness days and nights he was tested by the Devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when the time was up he was hungry.

The Devil, playing on his hunger, gave the first test: "Since you're God's Son, command this stone to turn into a loaf of bread."

Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy: "It takes more than bread to really live."

For the second test he led him up and spread out all the kingdoms of the earth on display at once.

Then the Devil said, "They're yours in all their splendor to serve your pleasure. I'm in charge of them all and can turn them over to whomever I wish.

Worship me and they're yours, the whole works."

Jesus refused, again backing his refusal with Deuteronomy: "Worship the Lord your God and only the Lord your God. Serve him with absolute single-heartedness."

For the third test the Devil took him to Jerusalem and put him on top of the Temple. He said, "If you are God's Son, jump.

 It's written, isn't it, that 'he has placed you in the care of angels to protect you;

they will catch you; you won't so much as stub your toe on a stone'?"

  "Yes," said Jesus, "and it's also written, 'Don't you dare tempt the Lord your God.'"

That completed the testing. The Devil retreated temporarily, lying in wait for another opportunity.

Jesus Begins His Ministry

Jesus returned to Galilee powerful in the Spirit. News that he was back spread through the countryside.

 He taught in their meeting places to everyone's acclaim and pleasure.

Luke 4:1-15

The last words of the foregoing chapter, that Jesus was the Son of Adam, bespeak him to be the seed of the woman; being so, we have here, according to the promise, breaking the serpent's head, baffling and foiling the devil in all his temptations, who by one temptation had baffled and foiled our first parents. Thus, in the beginning of the war, he made reprisals upon him, and conquered the conqueror.

In this story of Christ's temptation, observe,

I. How he was prepared and fitted for it. He that designed him the trial furnished him accordingly; for though we know not what exercises may be before us, nor what encounters we may be reserved for, Christ did, and was provided accordingly; and God doth for us, and we hope will provide accordingly.

1. He was full of the Holy Ghost, who had descended on him like a dove. He had now greater measures of the gifts, graces, and comforts, of the Holy Ghost than ever before. Note, Those are well armed against the strongest temptations that are full of the Holy Ghost.

2. He was newly returned from Jordan, where he was baptized, and owned by a voice from heaven to be the beloved Son of God; and thus he was prepared for this combat. Note, When we have had the most comfortable communion with God, and the clearest discoveries of his favour to us, we may expect that Satan will set upon us (the richest ship is the pirate's prize), and that God will suffer him to do so, that the power of his grace may be manifested and magnified.

3. He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, by the good Spirit, who led him as a champion into the field, to fight the enemy that he was sure to conquer. His being led into the wilderness, (1.) Gave some advantage to the tempter; for there he had him alone, no friend with him, by whose prayers and advice he might be assisted in the hour of temptation. Woe to him that is alone! He might give Satan advantage, who knew his own strength; we may not, who know our own weakness. (2.) He gained some advantage to himself, during his forty days' fasting in the wilderness. We may suppose that he was wholly taken up in proper meditation, and in consideration of his own undertaking, and the work he had before him; that he spent all his time in immediate, intimate, converse with his Father, as Moses in the mount, without any diversion, distraction, or interruption. Of all the days of Christ's life in the flesh, these seem to come nearest to the angelic perfection and the heavenly life, and this prepared him for Satan's assaults, and hereby he was fortified against them.

4. He continued fasting (Luk 4:2): In those days he did eat nothing. This fast was altogether miraculous, like those of Moses and Elijah, and shows him to be, like them, a prophet sent of God. It is probable that it was in the wilderness of Horeb, the same wilderness in which Moses and Elijah fasted. As by retiring into the wilderness he showed himself perfectly indifferent to the world, so by his fasting he showed himself perfectly indifferent to the body; and Satan cannot easily take hold of those who are thus loosened fRom. and dead to, the world and the flesh. The more we keep under the body, and bring it into subjection, the less advantage Satan has against us.

II. How he was assaulted by one temptation after another, and how he defeated the design of the tempter in every assault, and became more than a conqueror. During the forty days, he was tempted of the devil (Luk 4:2), not by an inward suggestion, for the prince of this world had nothing in Christ by which to inject any such, but by outward solicitations, perhaps in the likeness of a serpent, as he tempted our first parents. But at the end of the forty days he came nearer to him, and did as it were close with him, when he perceived that he was hungry, Luk 4:2. Probably, our Lord Jesus then began to look about among the trees, to see if he could find any thing that was eatable, whence the devil took occasion to make the following proposal to him.

1. He tempted him to distrust his Father's care of him, and to set up for himself, and shift for provision for himself in such a way as his Father had not appointed for him (Luk 4:3): If thou be the Son of God, as the voice from heaven declared, command this stone to be made bread. (1.) “I counsel thee to do it; for God, if he be thy Father, has forgotten thee, and it will be long enough ere he sends either ravens or angels to feed thee.” If we begin to think of being our own carvers, and of living by our own forecast, without depending upon divine providence, of getting wealth by our might and the power of our hands, we must look upon it as a temptation of Satan's, and reject it accordingly; it is Satan's counsel to think of an independence upon God. (2.) “I challenge thee to do it, if thou canst; if thou dost not do it, I will say thou art not the Son of God; for John Baptist said lately, God is able of stones to raise up children to Abraham, which is the greater; thou therefore hast not the power of the Son of God, if thou dost not of stones make bread for thyself, when thou needest it, which is the less.” Thus was God himself tempted in the wilderness: Can he furnish a table? Can he give bread? Psa 78:19, Psa 78:20.

Now, [1.] Christ yielded not to the temptation; he would not turn that stone into bread; no, though he was hungry; First, Because he would not do what Satan bade him do, for that would have looked as if there had been indeed a compact between him and the prince of the devils. Note, We must not do any thing that looks like giving place to the devil. Miracles were wrought for the confirming of faith, and the devil had no faith to be confirmed, and therefore he would not do it for him. He did his signs in the presence of his disciples (Joh 20:30), and particularly the beginning of his miracles, turning water into wine, which he did, that his disciples might believe on him (Joh 2:11); but here in the wilderness he had no disciples with him. Secondly, He wrought miracles for the ratification of his doctrine, and therefore till he began to preach he would not begin to work miracles. Thirdly, He would not work miracles for himself and his own supply, lest he should seem impatient of hunger, whereas he came not to please himself, but to suffer grief, and that grief among others; and because he would show that he pleased not himself, he would rather turn water into wine, for the credit and convenience of his friends, than stones into bread, for his own necessary supply. Fourthly, He would reserve the proof of his being the Son of God for hereafter, and would rather be upbraided by Satan with being weak, and not able to do it, than be persuaded by Satan to do that which it was fit for him to do; thus he was upbraided by his enemies as if he could not save himself, and come down from the cross, when he could have come down, but would not, because it was not fit that he should. Fifthly, He would not do any thing that looked like distrust of his Father, or acting separately from him, or any thing disagreeable to his present state. Being in all things made like unto his brethren, he would, like the other children of God, live in a dependence upon the divine Providence and promise, and trust him either to send him a supply into the wilderness or to lead him to a city of habitation where there was a supply, as he used to do (Psa 107:5-7), and in the mean time would support him, though he was hungry, as he had done these forty days past.

[2.] He returned a scripture-answer to it (Luk 4:4): It is written. This is the first word recorded as spoken by Christ after his instalment in his prophetical office; and it is a quotation out of the Old Testament, to show that he came to assert and maintain the authority of the scripture as uncontrollable, even by Satan himself. And though he had the Spirit without measure, and had a doctrine of his own to preach and a religion to found, yet it agreed with Moses and the prophets, whose writings he therefore lays down as a rule to himself, and recommends to us as a reply to Satan and his temptations. The word of God is our sword, and faith in that word is our shield; we should therefore be mighty in the scriptures, and go in that might, go forth, and go on, in our spiritual warfare, know what is written, for it is for our learning, for our use. The text of scripture he makes use of is quoted from Deu 8:3: “Man shall not live by bread alone. I need not turn the stone into bread, for God can send manna for my nourishment, as he did for Israel; man can live by every word of God, by whatever God will appoint that he shall live by.” How had Christ lived, lived comfortably, these last forty days? Not by bread, but by the word of God, by meditation upon that word, and communion with it, and with God in and by it; and in like manner he could live yet, though now he began to be hungry. God has many ways of providing for his people, without the ordinary means of subsistence; and therefore he is not at any time to be distrusted, but at all times to be depended upon, in the way of duty. If meat be wanting, God can take away the appetite, or give such degrees of patience as will enable a man even to laugh at destruction and famine (Job 5:22), or make pulse and water more nourishing than all the portion of the king's meat (Dan 1:12, Dan 1:13), and enable his people to rejoice in the Lord, when the fig-tree doth not blossom, Hab 3:17. She was an active believer who said that she had made many a meal's meat of the promises when she wanted bread.

2. He tempted him to accept from him the kingdom, which, as the Son of God, he expected to receive from his Father, and to do him homage for, Luk 4:5-7. This evangelist puts this temptation second, which Matthew had put last, and which, it should seem, was really the last; but Luke was full of it, as the blackest and most violent, and therefore hastened to it. In the devil's tempting of our first parents, he presented to them the forbidden fruit, first as good for food, and then as pleasant to the eyes; and they were overpowered by both these charms. Satan here first tempted Christ to turn the stones into bread, which would be good for food, and then showed him the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, which were pleasant to the eyes; but in both these he overpowered Satan, and perhaps with an eye to that, Luke changes the order. Now observe,

(1.) How Satan managed this temptation, to prevail with Christ to become a tributary to him, and to receive his kingdom by delegation from him.

[1.] He gave him a prospect of all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, an airy representation of them, such as he thought most likely to strike the fancy, and seem a real prospect. To succeed the better, he took him up for this purpose into a high mountain; and, because we next after the temptation find Christ on the other side Jordan, some think it probable that it was to the top of Pisgah that the devil took him, whence Moses has a sight of Canaan. That it was but a phantasm that the devil here presented our Saviour with, as the prince of the power of the air, is confirmed by that circumstance which Luke here takes notice of, that it was done in a moment of time; whereas, if a man take a prospect of but one country, he must do it successively, must turn himself round, and take a view first of one part and then of another. Thus the devil thought to impose upon our Saviour with a fallacy - a deceptio visus; and, by making him believe that he could show him all the kingdoms of the world, would draw him into an opinion that he could give him all those kingdoms.

[2.] He boldly alleged that these kingdoms were all delivered to him that he had power to dispose of them and all their glory, and to give them to whomsoever he would, Luk 4:6. Some think that herein he pretended to be an angel of light, and that, as one of the angels that was set over the kingdoms, he had out-bought, or out-fought, all the rest, and so was entrusted with the disposal of them all, and, in God's name, would give them to him, knowing they were designed for him; but clogged with this condition, that he should fall down and worship him, which a good angel would have been so far from demanding that he would not have admitted it, no, not upon showing much greater things than these, as appears, Rev 19:10; Rev 22:9. But I rather take it that he claimed this power as Satan, and as delivered to him not by the Lord, but by the kings and people of these kingdoms, who gave their power and honour to the devil, Eph 2:2. Hence he is called the god of this world, and the prince of this world. It was promised to the Son of God that he should have the heathen for his inheritance, Psa 2:8. “Why,” saith the devil, “the heathen are mine, are my subjects and votaries; but, however, they shall be thine, I will give them thee, upon condition that thou worship me for them, and say that they are the rewards which I have given thee, as others have done before thee (Hos 2:12), and consent to have and hold them by, fRom. and under, me.”

[3.] He demanded of him homage and adoration: If thou wilt worship me, all shall be thine, Luk 4:7. First, He would have him worship him himself. Perhaps he does not mean so as never to worship God, but let him worship him in conjunction with God; for the devil knows, if he can but once come in a partner, he shall soon be sole proprietor. Secondly, He would indent with him, that when, according to the promise made to him, he had got possession of the kingdoms of this world, he should make no alteration of religions in them, but permit and suffer the nations, as they had done hitherto, to sacrifice to devils (1Co 10:20); that he should still keep up demon-worship in the world, and then let him take all the power and glory of the kingdoms if he pleased. Let who will take the wealth and grandeur of this earth, Satan has all he would have if he can but have men's hearts, and affections, and adorations, can but work in the children of disobedience; for then he effectually devours them.

(2.) How our Lord Jesus triumphed over this temptation. He gave it a peremptory repulse, rejected it with abhorrence (Luk 4:8): “Get thee behind me, Satan, I cannot bear the mention of it. What! worship the enemy of God whom I came to serve? and of man whom I came to save? No, I will never do it.” Such a temptation as this was not to be reasoned with, but immediately refused; it was presently knocked on the head with one word, It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God; and not only so, but him only, him and no other. And therefore Christ will not worship Satan, nor, when he has the kingdoms of the world delivered to him by his Father, as he expects shortly to have, will he suffer any remains of the worship of the devil to continue in them. No, it shall be perfectly rooted out and abolished, wherever his gospel comes. He will make no composition with him. Polytheism and idolatry must go down, as Christ's kingdom gets up. Men must be turned from the power of Satan unto God, from the worship of devils to the worship of the only living and true God. This is the great divine law that Christ will re-establish among men, and by his holy religion reduce men to the obedience of, That God only is to be served and worshipped; and therefore whoever set up any creature as the object of religious worship, though it were a saint or an angel, or the virgin Mary herself, they directly thwart Christ's design, and relapse into heathenism.

3. He tempted him to be his own murderer, in a presumptuous confidence of his Father's protection, such as he had no warrant for. Observe,

(1.) What he designed in this temptation: If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down, Luk 4:9. [1.] He would have him seek for a new proof of his being the Son of God, as if that which his Father had given him by the voice from heaven, and the descent of the Spirit upon him, were not sufficient, which would have been a dishonour to God, as if he had not chosen the most proper way of giving him the assurance of it; and it would have argued a distrust of the Spirit's dwelling in him, which was the great and most convincing proof to himself of his being the Son of God, Heb 1:8, Heb 1:9. [2.] He would have him seek a new method of proclaiming and publishing this to the world. The devil, in effect, suggests that it was in an obscure corner that he was attested to be the Son of God, among a company of ordinary people, who attended John's baptism, that his honours were proclaimed; but if he would now declare from the pinnacle of the temple, among all the great people who attend the temple-service, that he was the Son of God, and then, for proof of it, throw himself down unhurt, he would presently be received by every body as a messenger sent from heaven. Thus Satan would have him seek honours of his devising (in contempt of those which God had put on him), and manifest himself in the temple at Jerusalem; whereas God designed he should be more manifest among John's penitents, to whom his doctrine would be more welcome than to the priests. [3.] It is probable he had some hopes that, though he could not throw him down, to do him the least mischief, yet, if he would but throw himself down, the fall might be his death, and then he should have got him finely out of the way.

(2.) How he backed and enforced this temptation. He suggested, It is written, Luk 4:10. Christ had quoted scripture against him; and he thought he would be quits with him, and would show that he could quote scripture as well as he. It has been usual with heretics and seducers to pervert scripture, and to press the sacred writings into the service of the worst of wickednesses. He shall give his angels charge over thee, if thou be his Son, and in their hands they shall bear thee up. And now that he was upon the pinnacle of the temple he might especially expect this ministration of angels; for, if he was the Son of God, the temple was the proper place for him to be in (Luk 2:46); and, if any place under the sun had a guard of angels constantly, it must needs be that, Psa 68:17. It is true, God has promised the protection of angels, to encourage us to trust him, not to tempt him; as far as the promise of God's presence with us, so far the promise of the angels' ministration goes, but no further: “They shall keep thee when thou goest on the ground, where thy way lies, but not if thou wilt presume to fly in the air.”

(3.) How he was baffled and defeated in the temptation, Luk 4:12. Christ quoted Deu 6:16, where it is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God, by desiring a sign for the proof of divine revelation, when he has already given that which is sufficient; for so Israel did, when they tempted God in the wilderness, saying, He gave us water out of the rock; but can he give flesh also? This Christ would be guilty of if he should say, “He did indeed prove me to be the Son of God, by sending the Spirit upon me, which is the greater; but can he also give his angels a charge concerning me, which is the less?”

III. What was the result and issue of this combat, Luk 4:13. Our victorious Redeemer kept his ground, and came off a conqueror, not for himself only, but for us also.

1. The devil emptied his quiver: He ended all the temptation. Christ gave him opportunity to say and do all he could against him; he let him try all his force, and yet defeated him. Did Christ suffer, being tempted, till all the temptation was ended? And must not we expect also to pass all our trials, to go through the hour of temptation assigned us?

2. He then quitted the field: He departed from him. He saw it was to no purpose to attack him; he had nothing in him for his fiery darts to fasten upon; he had no blind side, no weak or unguarded part in his wall, and therefore Satan gave up the cause. Note, If we resist the devil, he will flee from us.

3. Yet he continued his malice against him, and departed with a resolution to attack him again; he departed but for a season, achri kairou - till a season, or till the season when he was again to be let loose upon him, not as a tempter, to draw him to sin, and so to strike at his head, which was what he now aimed at and was wholly defeated in; but as a persecutor, to bring him to suffer by Judas and the other wicked instruments whom he employed, and so to bruise his heel, which it was told him (Gen 3:15) he should have to do, and would do, though it would be the breaking of his own head. He departed now till that season came which Christ calls the power of darkness (Luk 22:53), and when the prince of this world would again come, Joh 14:30.

Christian’s have been given Authority over the Devil and demons!

Luke 10:19.   Behold! I have given you authority and power to trample upon serpents and scorpions, and [physical and mental strength and ability] over “ALL”

the power that the enemy [possesses]; 

and nothing shall in any way harm you.

Luke10:20.   Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are enrolled in heaven. [Exo 32:32; Psa 69:28; Dan 12:1]

By following Jesus example;  the best way to defend yourself against the Devil is to know the Word of God and to speak it out loud against the lies he bombards our minds with. The Mind really is the battle ground.

When the devil tells you God doesn’t love you and you will never amount to anything,

Go to war using the Word of God.

Get out your Word Of God , your Two Edged Sword and use it!

Talk back to the devil, loud and clear, saying, “I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus” (see 2Corinthians 5:21) God has a good plan for my life” (see Jeremiah 29:11);

And “Nothing can separate me from the love of God “ ( see Romans 8:35-39)

Trust God - know that you are more than a Conqueror through Christ as you confidently declare 

‘The Truth Of His Word’!

Through CHRIST;  I have authority over the devil.

V20.   In this rejoice not,.... That their power was enlarged, or that they had, the same as before:

that the spirits, evil spirits, devils, are subject unto you; and come out of men at your command; rejoice not so much in this, or chiefly and principally; not but that it was matter of joy both with respect to the gift bestowed upon them, and the benefits men received by it, and the glory that was brought to Christ through it;

but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven; in the book of life, called the Lamb's book of life, written from the foundation of the world: in divine predestination to everlasting glory and happiness: which shows that God's election to eternal life is of particular persons, of persons by name; that it is sure, and certain, and immutable, being in opposition to what is written in earth, Jeremiah 17:13, that the knowledge of this may be attained to, through the grace of God, the revelation of Christ, and the witnessings of his Spirit; and that this is matter of the greatest job, since it is the foundation and security of all the blessings of grace and glory.

Luke 10:17-24

Christ sent forth the seventy disciples as Luke 10:17-24

Christ sent forth the seventy disciples as he was going up to Jerusalem to the feast of tabernacles, when he went up, not openly, but as it were in secret (Joh 7:10), having sent abroad so great a part of his ordinary retinue; and Dr. Lightfoot thinks it was before his return from that feast, and while he was yet at Jerusalem, or Bethany, which was hard by (for there he was, Luk 10:38), that they, or at least some of them, returned to him. Now here we are told,

1. What account they gave him of the success of their expedition: They returned again with joy (Luk 10:17); not complaining of the fatigue of their journeys, nor of the opposition and discouragement they met with, but rejoicing in their success, especially in casting out unclean spirits: Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. Though only the healing of the sick was mentioned in their commission (Luk 10:19), yet no doubt the casting out of devils was included, and in this they had wonderful success. 1. They give Christ the glory of this: It is through thy name. Note, all our victories over Satan are obtained by power derived from Jesus Christ. We must in his name enter the lists with our spiritual enemies, and, whatever advantages we gain, he must have all the praise; if the work be done in his name, the honour is due to his name. 2. They entertain themselves with the comfort of it; they speak of it with an air of exultation: Even the devils, those potent enemies, are subject to us. Note, the saints have no greater joy or satisfaction in any of their triumphs than in those over Satan. If devils are subject to us, what can stand before us?

II. What acceptance they found with him, and how he received this account.

1. He confirmed what they said, as agreeing with his own observation (Luk 10:18): “My heart and eye went along with you; I took notice of the success you had, and I saw Satan fall as lightning from heaven.” Note, Satan and his kingdom fell before the preaching of the gospel. “I see how it is,” saith Christ, “as you get ground the devil loseth ground.” He falls as lightning falls from heaven, so suddenly, so irrecoverably, so visibly, that all may perceive it, and say, “See how Satan's kingdom totters, see how it tumbles.” They triumphed in casting devils out of the bodies of people; but Christ sees and rejoices in the fall of the devil from the interest he has in the souls of men, which is called his power in high places, Eph 6:12. He foresees this to be but an earnest of what should now be shortly done and was already begun - the destroying of Satan's kingdom in the world by the extirpating of idolatry and the turning of the nations to the faith of Christ. Satan falls from heaven when he falls from the throne in men's hearts, Act 26:18. And Christ foresaw that the preaching of the gospel, which would fly like lightning through the world, would wherever it went pull down Satan's kingdom. Now is the prince of this world cast out. Some have given another sense of this, as looking back to the fall of the angels, and designed for a caution to these disciples, lest their success should puff them up with pride: “I saw angels turned into devils by pride: that was the sin for which Satan was cast down from heaven, where he had been an angel of light I saw it, and give you an intimation of it lest you, being lifted up with pride should fall into that condemnation of the devil, who fell by pride,” 1Ti 3:6.

2. He repeated, ratified, and enlarged their commission: Behold I give you power to tread on serpents, Luk 10:19. Note, To him that hath, and useth well what he hath, more shall be given. They had employed their power vigorously against Satan, and now Christ entrusts them with greater power. (1.) An offensive power, power to tread on serpents and scorpions, devils and malignant spirits, the old serpent: “You shall bruise their heads in my name,” according to the first promise, Gen 3:15. Come, set your feet on the necks of these enemies; you shall tread upon these lions and adders wherever you meet with them; you shall trample them under foot, Psa 91:13. You shall tread upon all the power of the enemy, and the kingdom of the Messiah shall be every where set up upon the ruins of the devil's kingdom. As the devils have now been subject to you, so they shall still be. (2.) A defensive power: “Nothing shall by any means hurt you; not serpents nor scorpions, if you should be chastised with them or thrown into prisons and dungeons among them; you shall be unhurt by the most venomous creatures,” as St. Paul was (Act 28:5), and as is promised in Mar 16:18. “If wicked men be as serpents to you, and you dwell among those scorpions (as Eze 2:6), you may despise their rage, and tread upon it; it need not disturb you, for they have no power against you but what is given them from above; they may hiss, but they cannot hurt.” You may play upon the hole of the asp, for death itself shall not hurt nor destroy, Isa 11:8, Isa 11:9; Isa 25:8.

3. He directed them to turn their joy into the right channel (Luk 10:20): “Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you, that they have been so, and shall be still so. Do not rejoice in this merely as it is your honour, and a confirmation of your mission, and as it sets you a degree above other good people; do not rejoice in this only, or in this chiefly, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven, because you are chosen of God to eternal life, and are the children of God through faith.” Christ, who knew the counsels of God, could tell them that their names were written in heaven, for it is the Lamb's book of life that they are written in. All believers are through grace, entitled to the inheritance of sons, and have received the adoption of sons, and the Spirit of adoption, which is the earnest of that inheritance and so are enrolled among his family; now this is matter of joy, greater joy than casting out devils. Note, Power to become the children of God is to be valued more than a power to work miracles; for we read of those who did in Christ's name cast out devils, as Judas did, and yet will be disowned by Christ in the great day. But they whose names are written in heaven shall never perish; they are Christ's sheep, to whom he will give eternal life. Saving graces are more to be rejoiced in than spiritual gifts; holy love is a more excellent way than speaking with tongues.

4. He offered up a solemn thanksgiving to his Father, for employing such mean people as his disciples were in such high and honourable service, Luk 10:21, Luk 10:22. This we had before (Mat 11:25-27), only here it is prefixed that in that hour Jesus rejoiced. It was fit that particular notice should be taken of that hour, because there were so few such, for he was a man of sorrows. In that hour in which he saw Satan fall, and heard of the good success of his ministers, in that hour he rejoiced. Note, Nothing rejoices the heart of the Lord Jesus so much as the progress of the gospel, and its getting ground of Satan, by the conversion of souls to Christ. Christ's joy was a solid substantial joy, an inward joy: he rejoiced in spirit; but his joy, like deep waters, made no noise; it was a joy that a stranger did not intermeddle with. Before he applied himself to thank his Father, he stirred up himself to rejoice; for, as thankful praise is the genuine language of holy joy, so holy joy is the root and spring of thankful praise. Two things he gives thanks for: -

(1.) For what was revealed by the Father through the Son: I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, Luk 10:21. In all our adorations of God, we must have an eye to him, both as the Maker of heaven and earth and as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in him our Father. Now that which he gives thanks for is, [1.] That the counsels of God concerning man's reconciliation to himself were revealed to some of the children of men, who might be fit also to teach others, and it is God that by his Son has spoken these things to us and by his Spirit has revealed them in us; he has revealed that which had been kept secret from the beginning of the world. [2.] That they were revealed to babes, to those who were of mean parts and capacities, whose extraction and education had nothing in them promising, who were but children in understanding, till God by his Spirit elevated their faculties, and furnished them with this knowledge, and an ability to communicate it. We have reason to thank God, not so much for the honour he has hereby put upon babes, as for the honour he has hereby done himself in perfecting strength out of weakness. [3.] That, at the same time when he revealed them unto babes, he hid them from the wise and prudent, the Gentile philosophers, the Jewish rabbin. He did not reveal the things of the gospel to them, nor employ them in preaching up his kingdom. Thanks be to God that the apostles were not fetched from their schools; for, First, they would have been apt to mingle their notions with the doctrine of Christ, which would have corrupted it, as afterwards it proved. For Christianity was much corrupted by the Platonic philosophy in the first ages of it, by the Peripatetic in its latter ages, and by the Judaizing teachers at the first planting of it. Secondly, If rabbin and philosophers had been made apostles, the success of the gospel would have been ascribed to their learning and wit and the force of their reasonings and eloquence; and therefore they must not be employed, lest they should have taken too much to themselves, and others should have attributed too much to them. They were passed by for the same reason that Gideon's army was reduced: The people are yet too many, Jdg 7:4. Paul indeed was bred a scholar among the wise and prudent; but he became a babe when he became an apostle, and laid aside the enticing words of man's wisdom, forgot them all, and made neither show nor use of any other knowledge than that of Christ and him crucified, 1Co 2:2, 1Co 2:4. [4.] That God herein acted by way of sovereignty: Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. If God gives his grace and the knowledge of his son to some that are less likely, and does not give it to others whom we should think better able to deliver it with advantage, this must satisfy: so it pleases God, whose thoughts are infinitely above ours. He chooses to entrust the dispensing of his gospel in the hands of those who with a divine energy will give it the setting on, rather than in theirs who with human art will give it the setting off.

(2.) For what was secret between the Father and the Son, Luk 10:22. [1.] The vast confidence that the Father puts in the Son: All things are delivered to me of my Father, all wisdom and knowledge, all power and authority, all the grace and comfort which are intended for the chosen remnant; it is all delivered into the hands of the Lord Jesus; in him all fulness must dwell, and from him it must be derived: he is the great trustee that manages all the concerns of God's kingdom. [2.] The good understanding that there is between the Father and the Son, and their mutual consciousness, such as no creature can be admitted to: No man knows who the Son is, nor what his mind is, but the Father, who possessed him in the beginning of his ways, before his works of old (Pro 8:22), nor who the Father is, and what his counsels are, but the Son, who lay in his bosom from eternity, was by him as one brought up with him, and was daily his delight (Pro 8:30), and he to whom the Son by the Spirit will reveal him. The gospel is the revelation of Jesus Christ, to him we owe all the discoveries made to us of the will of God for our salvation; and here he speaks of being entrusted with it as that which was a great pleasure to himself and for which he was very thankful to his Father.

5. He told his disciples how well it was for them that they had these things revealed to them, Luk 10:23, Luk 10:24. Having addressed himself to his Father, he turned to his disciples, designing to make them sensible how much it was for their happiness, as well as for the glory and honour of God, that they knew the mysteries of the kingdom and were employed to lead others into the knowledge of them, considering, (1.) What a step it is towards something better. Though the bare knowledge of these things is not saving, yet it puts us in the way of salvation: Blessed are the eyes which see the things which we see. God therein blesseth them, and, if it be not their own fault it will be an eternal blessedness to them. (2.) What a step it is above those that went before them, even the greatest saints, and those that were most the favourites of Heaven: “Many prophets and righteous men” (so it is in Mat 13:17), many prophets and kings (so it is here), “have desired to see and hear those things which you are daily and intimately conversant with, and have not seen and heard them.” The honour and happiness of the New Testament saints far exceed those even of the prophets and kings of the Old Testament, though they also were highly favoured. The general ideas which the Old Testament saints had, according to the intimations given them, of the graces and glories of the Messiah's kingdom, made them wish a thousand times that their lot had been reserved for those blessed days, and that they might see the substance of those things of which they had faint shadows. Note, The consideration of the great advantages which we have in the New Testament light, above what they had who lived in Old 

Testament times, should awaken our diligence in the improvement of it; for, if it do not, it will aggravate our condemnation for the non-improvement of it.he was going up to Jerusalem to the feast of tabernacles, when he went up, not openly, but as it were in secret (Joh 7:10), having sent abroad so great a part of his ordinary retinue; and Dr. Lightfoot thinks it was before his return from that feast, and while he was yet at Jerusalem, or Bethany, which was hard by (for there he was, Luk 10:38), that they, or at least some of them, returned to him. Now here we are told,

1. What account they gave him of the success of their expedition: They returned again with joy (Luk 10:17); not complaining of the fatigue of their journeys, nor of the opposition and discouragement they met with, but rejoicing in their success, especially in casting out unclean spirits: Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. Though only the healing of the sick was mentioned in their commission (Luk 10:19), yet no doubt the casting out of devils was included, and in this they had wonderful success. 1. They give Christ the glory of this: It is through thy name. Note, all our victories over Satan are obtained by power derived from Jesus Christ. We must in his name enter the lists with our spiritual enemies, and, whatever advantages we gain, he must have all the praise; if the work be done in his name, the honour is due to his name. 2. They entertain themselves with the comfort of it; they speak of it with an air of exultation: Even the devils, those potent enemies, are subject to us. Note, the saints have no greater joy or satisfaction in any of their triumphs than in those over Satan. If devils are subject to us, what can stand before us?

II. What acceptance they found with him, and how he received this account.

1. He confirmed what they said, as agreeing with his own observation (Luk 10:18): “My heart and eye went along with you; I took notice of the success you had, and I saw Satan fall as lightning from heaven.” Note, Satan and his kingdom fell before the preaching of the gospel. “I see how it is,” saith Christ, “as you get ground the devil loseth ground.” He falls as lightning falls from heaven, so suddenly, so irrecoverably, so visibly, that all may perceive it, and say, “See how Satan's kingdom totters, see how it tumbles.” They triumphed in casting devils out of the bodies of people; but Christ sees and rejoices in the fall of the devil from the interest he has in the souls of men, which is called his power in high places, Eph 6:12. He foresees this to be but an earnest of what should now be shortly done and was already begun - the destroying of Satan's kingdom in the world by the extirpating of idolatry and the turning of the nations to the faith of Christ. Satan falls from heaven when he falls from the throne in men's hearts, Act 26:18. And Christ foresaw that the preaching of the gospel, which would fly like lightning through the world, would wherever it went pull down Satan's kingdom. Now is the prince of this world cast out. Some have given another sense of this, as looking back to the fall of the angels, and designed for a caution to these disciples, lest their success should puff them up with pride: “I saw angels turned into devils by pride: that was the sin for which Satan was cast down from heaven, where he had been an angel of light I saw it, and give you an intimation of it lest you, being lifted up with pride should fall into that condemnation of the devil, who fell by pride,” 1Ti 3:6.

2. He repeated, ratified, and enlarged their commission: Behold I give you power to tread on serpents, Luk 10:19. Note, To him that hath, and useth well what he hath, more shall be given. They had employed their power vigorously against Satan, and now Christ entrusts them with greater power. (1.) An offensive power, power to tread on serpents and scorpions, devils and malignant spirits, the old serpent: “You shall bruise their heads in my name,” according to the first promise, Gen 3:15. Come, set your feet on the necks of these enemies; you shall tread upon these lions and adders wherever you meet with them; you shall trample them under foot, Psa 91:13. You shall tread upon all the power of the enemy, and the kingdom of the Messiah shall be every where set up upon the ruins of the devil's kingdom. As the devils have now been subject to you, so they shall still be. (2.) A defensive power: “Nothing shall by any means hurt you; not serpents nor scorpions, if you should be chastised with them or thrown into prisons and dungeons among them; you shall be unhurt by the most venomous creatures,” as St. Paul was (Act 28:5), and as is promised in Mar 16:18. “If wicked men be as serpents to you, and you dwell among those scorpions (as Eze 2:6), you may despise their rage, and tread upon it; it need not disturb you, for they have no power against you but what is given them from above; they may hiss, but they cannot hurt.” You may play upon the hole of the asp, for death itself shall not hurt nor destroy, Isa 11:8, Isa 11:9; Isa 25:8.

3. He directed them to turn their joy into the right channel (Luk 10:20): “Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you, that they have been so, and shall be still so. Do not rejoice in this merely as it is your honour, and a confirmation of your mission, and as it sets you a degree above other good people; do not rejoice in this only, or in this chiefly, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven, because you are chosen of God to eternal life, and are the children of God through faith.” Christ, who knew the counsels of God, could tell them that their names were written in heaven, for it is the Lamb's book of life that they are written in. All believers are through grace, entitled to the inheritance of sons, and have received the adoption of sons, and the Spirit of adoption, which is the earnest of that inheritance and so are enrolled among his family; now this is matter of joy, greater joy than casting out devils. Note, Power to become the children of God is to be valued more than a power to work miracles; for we read of those who did in Christ's name cast out devils, as Judas did, and yet will be disowned by Christ in the great day. But they whose names are written in heaven shall never perish; they are Christ's sheep, to whom he will give eternal life. Saving graces are more to be rejoiced in than spiritual gifts; holy love is a more excellent way than speaking with tongues.

4. He offered up a solemn thanksgiving to his Father, for employing such mean people as his disciples were in such high and honourable service, Luk 10:21, Luk 10:22. This we had before (Mat 11:25-27), only here it is prefixed that in that hour Jesus rejoiced. It was fit that particular notice should be taken of that hour, because there were so few such, for he was a man of sorrows. In that hour in which he saw Satan fall, and heard of the good success of his ministers, in that hour he rejoiced. Note, Nothing rejoices the heart of the Lord Jesus so much as the progress of the gospel, and its getting ground of Satan, by the conversion of souls to Christ. Christ's joy was a solid substantial joy, an inward joy: he rejoiced in spirit; but his joy, like deep waters, made no noise; it was a joy that a stranger did not intermeddle with. Before he applied himself to thank his Father, he stirred up himself to rejoice; for, as thankful praise is the genuine language of holy joy, so holy joy is the root and spring of thankful praise. Two things he gives thanks for: -

(1.) For what was revealed by the Father through the Son: I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, Luk 10:21. In all our adorations of God, we must have an eye to him, both as the Maker of heaven and earth and as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in him our Father. Now that which he gives thanks for is, [1.] That the counsels of God concerning man's reconciliation to himself were revealed to some of the children of men, who might be fit also to teach others, and it is God that by his Son has spoken these things to us and by his Spirit has revealed them in us; he has revealed that which had been kept secret from the beginning of the world. [2.] That they were revealed to babes, to those who were of mean parts and capacities, whose extraction and education had nothing in them promising, who were but children in understanding, till God by his Spirit elevated their faculties, and furnished them with this knowledge, and an ability to communicate it. We have reason to thank God, not so much for the honour he has hereby put upon babes, as for the honour he has hereby done himself in perfecting strength out of weakness. [3.] That, at the same time when he revealed them unto babes, he hid them from the wise and prudent, the Gentile philosophers, the Jewish rabbin. He did not reveal the things of the gospel to them, nor employ them in preaching up his kingdom. Thanks be to God that the apostles were not fetched from their schools; for, First, they would have been apt to mingle their notions with the doctrine of Christ, which would have corrupted it, as afterwards it proved. For Christianity was much corrupted by the Platonic philosophy in the first ages of it, by the Peripatetic in its latter ages, and by the Judaizing teachers at the first planting of it. Secondly, If rabbin and philosophers had been made apostles, the success of the gospel would have been ascribed to their learning and wit and the force of their reasonings and eloquence; and therefore they must not be employed, lest they should have taken too much to themselves, and others should have attributed too much to them. They were passed by for the same reason that Gideon's army was reduced: The people are yet too many, Jdg 7:4. Paul indeed was bred a scholar among the wise and prudent; but he became a babe when he became an apostle, and laid aside the enticing words of man's wisdom, forgot them all, and made neither show nor use of any other knowledge than that of Christ and him crucified, 1Co 2:2, 1Co 2:4. [4.] That God herein acted by way of sovereignty: Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. If God gives his grace and the knowledge of his son to some that are less likely, and does not give it to others whom we should think better able to deliver it with advantage, this must satisfy: so it pleases God, whose thoughts are infinitely above ours. He chooses to entrust the dispensing of his gospel in the hands of those who with a divine energy will give it the setting on, rather than in theirs who with human art will give it the setting off.

(2.) For what was secret between the Father and the Son, Luk 10:22. [1.] The vast confidence that the Father puts in the Son: All things are delivered to me of my Father, all wisdom and knowledge, all power and authority, all the grace and comfort which are intended for the chosen remnant; it is all delivered into the hands of the Lord Jesus; in him all fulness must dwell, and from him it must be derived: he is the great trustee that manages all the concerns of God's kingdom. [2.] The good understanding that there is between the Father and the Son, and their mutual consciousness, such as no creature can be admitted to: No man knows who the Son is, nor what his mind is, but the Father, who possessed him in the beginning of his ways, before his works of old (Pro 8:22), nor who the Father is, and what his counsels are, but the Son, who lay in his bosom from eternity, was by him as one brought up with him, and was daily his delight (Pro 8:30), and he to whom the Son by the Spirit will reveal him. The gospel is the revelation of Jesus Christ, to him we owe all the discoveries made to us of the will of God for our salvation; and here he speaks of being entrusted with it as that which was a great pleasure to himself and for which he was very thankful to his Father.

5. He told his disciples how well it was for them that they had these things revealed to them, Luk 10:23, Luk 10:24. Having addressed himself to his Father, he turned to his disciples, designing to make them sensible how much it was for their happiness, as well as for the glory and honour of God, that they knew the mysteries of the kingdom and were employed to lead others into the knowledge of them, considering, (1.) What a step it is towards something better. Though the bare knowledge of these things is not saving, yet it puts us in the way of salvation: Blessed are the eyes which see the things which we see. God therein blesseth them, and, if it be not their own fault it will be an eternal blessedness to them. (2.) What a step it is above those that went before them, even the greatest saints, and those that were most the favourites of Heaven: “Many prophets and righteous men” (so it is in Mat 13:17), many prophets and kings (so it is here), “have desired to see and hear those things which you are daily and intimately conversant with, and have not seen and heard them.” The honour and happiness of the New Testament saints far exceed those even of the prophets and kings of the Old Testament, though they also were highly favoured. The general ideas which the Old Testament saints had, according to the intimations given them, of the graces and glories of the Messiah's kingdom, made them wish a thousand times that their lot had been reserved for those blessed days, and that they might see the substance of those things of which they had faint shadows. Note, The consideration of the great advantages which we have in the New Testament light, above what they had who lived in Old Testament times, should awaken our diligence in the improvement of it; for, if it do not, it will aggravate our condemnation for the non-improvement of it.

Christ Is All!

Col 3:11 [In this new creation all distinctions vanish.] There is no room for and there can be neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, [nor difference between nations whether alien] barbarians or Scythians [who are the most savage of all], nor slave or free man; but Christ is all and in all [everything and everywhere, to all men, without distinction of person]. 

The whole purpose of God’s eternal Plan, of the redemption on the cross and of the King upon the throne in Heaven and on Earth, Is that Christ be all, and in all!

In the salvation of sinners, in the absolution and sanctification of the redeemed, in the building of the body of Christ, in the caring for people, even in the most sinful of all people, in these words of Paul which have authority:  “Christ is all, and is in all.”

Maybe while reading the daily passages during the last thirty days, you have wondered whether complete salvation, as I have spoken about it, is perhaps not meant for you.  You feel too weak, too unworthy, too unreliable.  But the fact is, when you accept a Leader and Guide to take care of all your meds.   Believe with all your heart that Jesus said He will always be with you.   Accept His presence every day.   It does not matter how you feel.

However sinful you are, meet with the Lord Jesus in your inner sanctum and He will reveal Himself to you.   Tell Him how unworthy you are, and trust Him to help you and support you.

Wait in faith for Him until you can rejoice in Him.

If necessary read more this 

The Offense of the Cross

Then is the offense of the cross ceased — Gal 5:11

Paul Longed for the Salvation of the Jews

One thing which marks the ministry of Paul is how he lovingly yearned over the Jews. With a quenchless and intense desire, he prayed that they might be brought into the fold. Never did mother so long for the saving of her son as Paul longed for the saving of his countrymen. He was willing to suffer anything or everything, if only his people Israel might be won.

It is when we remember that deep longing that we realize what the cross meant for Paul. For the great stumbling block of faith to the Jews—the offense that made the Gospel of Christ smell rank to them—was, as our text indicates, the cross. Take that away, and it would be a thousand times more easy to win the Jews to the acceptance of the Lord. Say nothing about that, just slur it over, and you would take half the difficulty out of the way of Israel. Yet in spite of his yearning to see Israel saved, that was the one theme which Paul would not ignore. God forbid, he says, that I should glory save in the cross of Jesus Christ my Lord. There is a great lesson there for Christian teachers and for all who are trying to advance Christ's kingdom. The more earnest and eager they are to have men saved, the more willing are they to go to all lengths to meet them. And that is right, for we must be all things to all men—to the Jews as a Jew, to the Romans as a Roman; but remember there are a few great facts we cannot yield, though they run counter to the whole spirit of the age. It were better to empty a church and preach the cross than to fill it by keeping silence like a coward. It were better to fail as Paul failed with the Jews than to succeed by being a traitor to the cross. Religion can never be a pleasant entertainment. When the offense of the cross ceases, it is lost.

The Cross an Offense to the Jews

Now I want to make it a little plainer to you why the cross was an offense to the Jews and to put things in such a way that you may see at once that the same causes are operative still.

It Blighted All Their Hopes

First then, the cross was offensive to the Jews just because it blighted all their hopes. It shattered every dream they ever dreamed, every ideal that ever glimmered on them. No telegram of news full of disaster, plunging a man into unlooked-for poverty—no sudden death of one to whom the heart clings, laying a man's life in ruins at his feet—not these more certainly shatter a man's hopes than did the cross the vision of the Jews. They had prayed for and had dreamed of their Messiah, and He was to come in power as a conqueror. "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight"—you can almost hear the tramp of victorious feet. That was the light which burned in the Jewish darkness; that was the song which made music in their hearts. Then in the place of that triumph, there comes Calvary. In place of the Christ victorious, Christ crucified. And was this the Messiah who was to trample Rome, pierced in hands and feet by Roman nails? To the Jews a stumbling block: you cannot wonder at it when every hope they had formed was contradicted. Yet in spite of it all Paul preached Christ crucified, and that was the offense of the cross.

Now I venture to say that that offense of Calvary is just as powerful now as it was then. If I know anything about the ideals men cherish now and about the hopes that are regnant in ten thousand hearts, they are as antagonistic to the cross as was the Jewish ideal of Messiah. Written across Calvary is sacrifice; written across this age of ours is pleasure. On the lips of Christ are the stem words, I must die. On the lips of this age of ours, I must enjoy. And it is when I think of the passion to be rich and the judgment of everything by money standards; of the feverish desire at all costs to be happy, of the frivolity, of the worship of success; it is when I think of that and then contrast it with the "pale and solemn scene" upon that hill that I know that the offense of Calvary is not ceased. Unto the Jews a stumbling block—unto far more than the Jews: unto a pleasure-loving world and a dead church. Therefore say nothing about it; let it be; make everything interesting, pleasant, easy. Then is the offense of the cross ceased—and with it the power of the Gospel.

Second, the cross was an offense to the Jews because it swept away much that they took pride in. If there was any meaning in Calvary at all, some of their most cherished things were valueless. The Jews were preeminently a religious people, and this is always one peril of religious people. It is to take the things that lead to God and let the heart grow centered upon them. There was the ceremonial law for instance, with its scrupulous abhorrence of defilements. No one who has not studied the whole matter can ever know what that meant to the Jew. And there were the sacrifices smoking upon their altars, and the feasts and festivals and journeys to Jerusalem. And there was the temple, that magnificent building, sign of their hope and symbol of their unity. At least let this be said of that old people, that if they were proud, they were proud of worthy things. It is better to be proud of law and temple than to be proud of battleship and millionaire. Yet all that pride, religious though it was—that pride, deep-rooted as the people's life—all that was swept away like autumn leaves if there was any meaning in the cross. No more would the eyes of men turn to Jerusalem, no more would sacrifices fill the altars, no more was there room for ceremonial law if the Son of God had died upon the tree. And it was this crushing into the very dust of all that was dearest to the Jewish heart that was so bitter an offense of Calvary.

A Man Must Come with Empty Hands

And today has that offense of the cross ceased? Has that stumbling block been removed out of the way? I say that this is still the offense of Calvary, that it cuts at the root of so much that we are proud of. Here is a woman who strives to do her duty. God bless her, she does it very bravely. Here is a student proud of his high gifts. God prosper him that he may use them well. But over against reliance upon duty and all attempts of the reason to give peace, there hangs the crucified Redeemer saying, "No man cometh unto the Father but by me." Here is the offense of the cross in cultured ages. It is that a man must come with empty hands. He must come as one who knows his utter need of the pardoning mercy of Almighty God; and in an age like ours that leans upon its heritage and is proud of its magnificent achievement, that call to unconditional surrender is the offense of evangelical religion. We are all tempted to despise what we get freely. We like a little toil and sweat and travail. We measure the value of most things not by their own worth, but by all that it has cost us to procure them. And Calvary costs us nothing though it cost God everything; the love and the life of it are freely offered; and to a commercial age and a commercial city there is something suspicious and offensive there. Ah sirs, if I preached salvation by good works what an appreciative audience I could have. How it would appeal to many an eager heart! But I trample that temptation under foot, not that I love you less but that I love Christ more, and I pray that where the gospel is proclaimed, the offense of the cross of Christ may never cease. I do not believe that if you scratch a man you will find underneath his skin a Christian. I do not believe that if you do your best, all is well for time and for eternity. But I do believe—

Not the labors of my hands

Can fulfil Thy law's demands;

Could my zeal no respite know,

Could my tears forever flow,

All for sin could not atone:

Thou must save, and Thou alone.

Third, the cross was an offense to the Jews because it obliterated national distinctions. It leveled at one blow those social barriers that were of such untold worth in Jewish eyes. It was supremely important that the Jews should stand apart; through their isolation God had educated them. They had had the bitter-sweet privilege of being lonely, and being lonely they had been ennobled. Unto them were committed the oracles of God; they were a chosen nation, a peculiar people. The covenants were theirs, theirs were the promises, the knowledge of the one true God was theirs; until at last, almost inevitably, there rose in the Jewish mind a certain separateness and a certain contempt, continually deepening, for all the other nations of mankind. They had no envy of the art of Greece. They were not awed by the majesty of Rome. Grecians and Romans, Persians and Assyrians —powerful, cultured, victorious —were but Gentiles. There is something almost sublime in the contempt with which that little nation viewed the world. Then came the cross and leveled all distinctions; it burst through all barriers of nationality. There was neither Jew nor Gentile, Greek nor barbarian, but Christ was all and in all. Let some wild savage from the farthest west come to the cross of Christ pleading for mercy, and he had nothing less to do and nothing more than the proudest Jew who was a child of Abraham. One feels in an instant the insult of it all, how it left the Jew defenseless in the wild. All he had clung to was gone; his vineyard-wall was shattered: he must live or die now in the windswept world. And this tremendous leveling of distinctions—this striking out Jew and writing in humanity—this, to the proud, reserved, and lonely people, was no small part of the offense of Calvary.

At the Cross, All Distinctions Are Obliterated

Now I would not have you imagine for a moment that Christ disregards all personal distinctions. If I sent you away harboring the thought that all who come to Christ get the same treatment, I should have done Him an unutterable wrong. In everything He did Christ was original because He was fresh from God into the world, but in no sphere was He so strikingly original as in the way in which He handled those who came to Him. So was it when He was on the earth; so is it now when He is hid with God. There is always some touch, some word, some discipline, that tells of an individual understanding. But in spite of all that and recognizing that, I say that this is the "scandal" of the cross, that there every distinction is obliterated, and men must be saved as lost or not at all. You remember the lady from a gentle home who went to hear the preaching of George Whitefield? And she listened in disgust to a great sermon and then, like Naaman, went away in a rage. "For it is perfectly intolerable," she said, "that ladies like me should be spoken to just like a creature from the streets." Quite so: it is perfectly intolerable—and that is the stumbling block of Calvary. Are you who may be cultured to your fingertips to be classed with the savage who cannot read or write ? It would be very pleasant to say No—but then were the offense of the cross ceased. A friend of mine who is a busy doctor in a thriving village not ten miles from Glasgow was called in the other day to see a patient who, as was plain at the first glance, was dying. And the doctor, a good Christian, said, "Friend, the best service I can do you is to ask, Have you made your peace with God?" Whereon the man, raising his wasted arm and piercing the questioner with awe-filled eyes, said, "Doctor, is it as bad as that?" I want to say it is always as bad as that. I want to say it to the brightest heart here. You do need pardon and peace with God in Christ as much as the wildest prodigal. Accept it. It is freely offered you. Say, "Thou, O Christ, art all I want." And then, just as the wilderness will blossom, so will the offense of the cross become its glory.

THE GOD WHO IS, THE GOD WHO WAS, AND THE GOD ABOUT TO ARRIVE

Rev 1:1-20.     Prologue.   A revealing of Jesus, the Messiah. God gave it to make plain to his servants what is about to happen. He published and delivered it by Angel to his servant John.

And John told everything he saw: God's Word—the witness of Jesus Christ!

How blessed the reader! How blessed the hearers and keepers of these oracle words, all the words written in this book! Time is just about up.

Greeting to the Seven Churches

I, John, am writing this to the seven churches in Asia province: All the best to you from THE GOD WHO IS, THE GOD WHO WAS, AND THE GOD ABOUT TO ARRIVE, and from the Seven Spirits assembled before his throne,

 and from Jesus Christ—Loyal Witness, Firstborn from the dead, Ruler of all earthly kings. Glory and strength to Christ, who loves us, who blood-washed our sins from our lives,

Who made us a Kingdom, Priests for his Father, forever—and yes, he's on his way!

Riding the clouds, he'll be seen by every eye, those who mocked and killed him will see him, People from all nations and all times will tear their clothes in lament. Oh, Yes.

The Master declares, "I'm A to Z. I'm THE GOD WHO IS, THE GOD WHO WAS, AND THE GOD ABOUT TO ARRIVE. I'm the Sovereign-Strong."

VISION OF THE SON OF MAN

I, John, with you all the way in the trial and the Kingdom and the passion of patience in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of God's Word, the witness of Jesus.

It was Sunday and I was in the Spirit, praying. I heard a loud voice behind me, trumpet-clear and piercing:

 "Write what you see into a book. Send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea."

I turned and saw the voice. I saw a gold menorah with seven branches,

And in the center, the Son of Man, in a robe and gold breastplate,

hair a blizzard of white, Eyes pouring fire-blaze,

both feet furnace-fired bronze, His voice a cataract,

right hand holding the Seven Stars, His mouth a sharp-biting sword, his face a perigee sun.

I saw this and fainted dead at his feet. His right hand pulled me upright, his voice reassured me: "Don't fear: I am First, I am Last,

I'm Alive. I died, but I came to life, and my life is now forever. See these keys in my hand? They open and lock Death's doors, they open and lock Hell's gates.

Now write down everything you see: things that are, things about to be.

The Seven Stars you saw in my right hand and the seven-branched gold menorah—do you want to know what's behind them? The Seven Stars are the Angels of the seven churches; the menorah's seven branches are the seven churches."

No Secrets from God

https://youtu.be/xqS3opuRFLY

If anyone belongs to Christ, there is a new creation. The old things have gone; everything is made new! — 2Co 5:17

Have you been there? Have you felt the ground of conviction give way beneath your feet? The ledge crumbles, your eyes widen, and down you go. Poof!

Now what do you do? … When we fall, we can dismiss it. We can deny it. We can distort it. Or we can deal with it…

We keep no secrets from God. Confession is not telling God what we did. He already knows. Confession is simply agreeing with God that our acts were wrong…

How can God heal what we deny? … How can God grant us pardon when we won't admit our guilt? Ahh, there's that word: guilt. Isn't that what we avoid? Guilt. Isn't that what we detest? But is guilt so bad? What does guilt imply if not that we know right from wrong, that we aspire to be better than we are… That's what guilt is: a healthy regret for telling God one thing and doing another.

A Gentle Thunder

The Clear Boundaries of the Kingdom

The clear boundaries of the Kingdom

The Bible’s “resurrection chapter,” 1 Corinthians 15, contains a rich repository of many critical biblical truths. Verse 50 in particular focuses on our present humanity and mortality. This human, flesh-and-blood physical existence was never intended to be an end in itself; it serves only as a training ground for the Kingdom.

Notice what the apostle Paul wrote here: “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God; nor does corruption [decay] inherit incorruption.” Our human bodies age and run down over time. We simply cannot exist permanently in the material flesh. In fact all physical matter, however long it takes, remains in a process of change toward disintegration and decay.

So, then, how can we enter and become a part of the spiritual Kingdom of God? How does God make it possible for flesh-and-blood, mortal human beings to enter that Kingdom? 

Paul outlines the solution in the next few passages of 1 Corinthians 15: “Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep [in the grave], but we shall all be changed —in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead [in Christ] will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (verses 51-53).

In a similar account in 1 Thessalonians 4 Paul corroborates these awesome truths. “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord …” he writes. The truths that follow in this passage are not his personal ideas, but rather teaching obtained directly from Jesus Christ.

Continuing, he says: “We who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep [in death—with no consciousness at present]. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven … with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (verses 15-17).

However, we will not be able to meet Christ this way while still existing as human flesh. “For our [Christian] citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly [ fleshly, perishable ] body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able to subdue all things to Himself” (Philippians 3:20-21). Jesus is God along with the Father! They know how to accomplish the transformation. We don’t!

Jesus Christ will do for us what we simply cannot perform for ourselves. But there remains something we can and must do in intimate partnership with God and Christ: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13). We have to embark on a series of necessary spiritual steps to overcome the obstacles in our way.

Thank you Joseph Grennell for this word from the Lord! 

Could I put it on my blog ‘yourkingdomcomeyourwillbedoneonearthasitisinheaven?’

THE GREATNESS OF JESUS CHRIST

Thanksgiving and Prayer- The Preeminence of Christ 

Col 1:3-23.  Our prayers for you are always spilling over into thanksgivings. We can't quit thanking God our Father and Jesus our Messiah for you!

We keep getting reports on your steady faith in Christ, our Jesus, and the love you continuously extend to all Christians.

The lines of purpose in your lives never grow slack, tightly tied as they are to your future in heaven, kept taut by hope. The Message is as true among you today as when you first heard it. It doesn't diminish or weaken over time.

It's the same all over the world. The Message bears fruit and gets larger and stronger, just as it has in you. From the very first day you heard and recognized the truth of what God is doing, you've been hungry for more.

It's as vigorous in you now as when you learned it from our friend and close associate Epaphras. He is one reliable worker for Christ! I could always depend on him.

 He's the one who told us how thoroughly love had been worked into your lives by the Spirit.

Be assured that from the first day we heard of you, we haven't stopped praying for you, asking God to give you wise minds and spirits attuned to his will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works.

We pray that you'll live well for the Master, making him proud of you as you work hard in his orchard. As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work.

 We pray that you'll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy,

thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us.

 God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He's set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much,

the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating.

The Preeminence of Christ

We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created.

For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him.

 He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment.

And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body. He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he's there, towering far above everything, everyone.

So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding.

Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the Cross.

You yourselves are a case study of what he does. At one time you all had your backs turned to God, thinking rebellious thoughts of him, giving him trouble every chance you got.

But now, by giving himself completely at the Cross, actually dying for you, Christ brought you over to God's side and put your lives together, whole and holy in his presence.

You don't walk away from a gift like that! You stay grounded and steady in that bond of trust, constantly tuned in to the Message, careful not to be distracted or diverted. There is no other Message—just this one. Every creature under heaven gets this same Message. I, Paul, am a messenger of this Message.

Colossians 1:1-29

A. Greeting and giving of thanks.

1. (Col 1:1-2) Paul greets the Christians in Colosse.

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

a. Paul: According to the custom of writing letters in that day, the author’s name is given first. Therefore the author was Paul; he wrote the letter while in Roman custody (Col 4:3; Col 4:10, and Col 4:18), probably from Rome and around A.D. 63.

i. Paul probably wrote the letter because of the visit of Epaphras from Colosse (Col 1:7). It is likely that Paul himself had never visited the city (Col 2:1).

b. An apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God: Paul was qualified to write this letter of instruction to the Colossians, though he had never met them personally, because he was an apostle. 

i. “The literal meaning of apostolos is ‘one sent’; but at its deepest level it denotes an authorized spokesman for God, one commissioned and empowered to act as his representative.” (Vaughan)

ii. And Timothy our brother: Timothy was an honored companion of Paul, but he was not an apostle. “Though Timothy is here joined in the salutation, yet he has never been understood as having any part in composing this epistle. He has been considered as the amanuensis or scribe of the apostle.” (Clarke)

c. To the saints and faithful brethren: When Paul addressed the saints, he did not separate some Christians from others in the Colossian church. Every true Christian is a saint. However, Paul may make a distinction with the phrase faithful brethren. He may refer to those who haven’t embraced the false teaching that concerned Paul so much in this letter.

d. Who are in Colosse: The city of Colosse was probably the smallest and least important city that Paul ever wrote to. It might surprise us that Paul would turn his attention to the Christians in Colosse at a time when he had so many other concerns. Yet he apparently thought the situation in Colosse was important enough for apostolic attention.

i. Paul wrote because there were problems among the Christians in Colosse, but the doctrinal problem - sometimes described as “The Colossian Heresy” - is difficult to precisely describe. It probably was a corruption of Christianity with elements of mystical and legalistic Judaism perhaps combined early Gnosticism.

ii. The first century religious environment was much like our own. It was a time of religious mixing, with people borrowing a little from this religion and a little from that religion. The only difference was that in the first century, one joined a group who did the borrowing. In our modern culture one does the borrowing one’s self.

iii. Whatever the problem was precisely, Paul dwelt on the solution: a better understanding of Jesus. Knowing the real Jesus helps us to stay away from the counterfeit, no matter how it comes packaged.

e. In Colosse: The city of Colosse is not even mentioned in the Book of Acts. All our Biblical information about the church there comes from this letter and a few allusions in the letter to Philemon.

i. From these sources we learn that Epaphras was responsible for bringing the gospel to the Colossians (Col 1:6-7). He was a native of the city (Col 4:12), and also got the message out to neighboring towns in the Lycus Valley like Hierapolis and Laodicea (Col 4:13).

ii. Perhaps Epaphras heard the gospel himself when Paul was in Ephesus. As Paul taught in the lecture hall of Tyrannus, all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord (Act 19:10). It would not be surprising if some people from Colosse heard the gospel at that time.

iii. Historically, Colosse was a prosperous city, and famous (along with other cities in its region) for its fabric dyes. Yet by Paul’s time the glory it had as a city was on the decline.

iv. Adam Clarke adds an interesting comment: “That this city perished by an earthquake, a short time after the date of this epistle, we have the testimony of Eusebius.” Tacitus also mentioned this earthquake, which happened around A.D. 60.

f. Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ: Paul’s greeting was familiar but heartfelt. “Grace is God’s unconditioned goodwill toward men and women which is decisively expressed in the saving work of Christ.” (Bruce)

i. This letter - full of love and concern, written to church Paul had neither planted nor visited - shows the power of Christian love. Paul didn’t need to see or meet or directly know these Christians in order to love them and be concerned for them.

2. (Col 1:3) Paul’s habit of prayer for the Colossians.

We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,

a. Praying always for you: Though he had never met most of them, the Christian of Colosse were on Paul’s prayer list. He prayed for them not only often, but always.

b. We give thanks: When Paul did pray for the Colossians, he did it full of gratitude. Perhaps those who pray the most end up having the most reasons to thank God.

3. (Col 1:4-8) Why Paul was thankful.

Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth; as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.

a. Since we heard: Paul was thankful for their faith in Christ Jesus and their love for all the saints. Genuine faith in Jesus will always have a true love for God’s people as a companion.

b. Because of the hope: Paul was thankful for the hope laid up for them in heaven. He was thankful when he considered the destiny of the Colossian Christians.

i. We notice the familiar triad of faith, hope, and love. These were not merely theological ideas to Paul; they dominated his thinking as a Christian.

c. Which you heard before in the word of the truth: Paul was thankful that their eternal destiny was affected by the truth of the gospel, brought by Epaphras (as you also learned from Epaphras).

i. Epaphras is described as a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf. This doesn’t mean that Epaphras was superior to the other Christians in Colosse. The word minister does not mean “superior”; it means “one who serves.”

d. And is bringing forth fruit: Paul was thankful that the gospel was bringing forth fruit over all the world, even while Paul was in a Roman prison.

i. The phrase “in all the world” was “A legitimate hyperbole, for the gospel was spreading all over the Roman Empire.” (Robertson)

ii. “The doctrine of the Gospel is represented as a traveller, whose object it is to visit the whole habitable earth . . . So rapid is this traveller in his course, that he had already gone nearly through the whole of the countries under the Roman dominion, and will travel on until he has proclaimed his message to every people, and kindred, and nation, and tongue.” (Clarke)

B. How Paul prayed for the Colossian Christians.

1. (Col 1:9-11) Paul petitions God on behalf of the Colossians.

For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;

a. To ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will: First, Paul prayed that they would have a knowledge of His will, informed by a true spiritual understanding. To know God and what He requires of us is our first responsibility.

i. “If you read this epistle through, you will observe that Paul frequently alludes to knowledge and wisdom. To the point in which be judged the church to be deficient he turned his prayerful attention. He would not have them ignorant. He knew that spiritual ignorance is the constant source of error, instability, and sorrow; and therefore he desired that they might be soundly taught in the things of God.” (Spurgeon)

b. That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him: Second, Paul prayed that they would live according to the same knowledge they received, living out a walk worthy of the Lord.

i. This is a familiar pattern, repeated over and over again in the New Testament. Our walk is based on our knowledge of God and our understanding of His will.

c. Being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. This is how we can be fully pleasing to God and how we can have a worthy walk.

i. This is an echo of Jesus’ thought in Joh 15:7-8: If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

ii. “ ‘Fruitful in every good work.’ Here is room and range enough - in ‘every good work.’ Have you the ability to preach the gospel? Preach it! Does a little child need comforting? Comfort it! Can you stand up and vindicate a glorious truth before thousands? Do it! Does a poor saint need a bit of dinner from your table? Send it to her. Let works of obedience, testimony, zeal, charity, piety, and philanthropy all be found in your life. Do not select big things as your special he, but glorify the Lord also in the littles - ‘ fruitful in every good work.’” (Spurgeon)

d. Strengthened with all might: As we walk worthy of the Lord, His strength is there to help us meet all of life’s challenges, and to endure and overcome problems with circumstances (patience) and people (longsuffering) with joy.

2. (Col 1:12-14) Paul’s specific thanks to the Father.

Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

a. Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us: In the divine administration, the Father is mentioned in connection with the broad sweep of His plan of redemption. He is the Person of the Trinity who initiates the plan of the ages.

b. To be partakers of the inheritance of the saints: It is the Father who qualifies us, not our own works. We gain this as an inheritance, instead of earning it as a wage.

c. He has delivered us from the power of darkness: Christians have been delivered from Satan’s domain. The word has the idea of a rescue by a sovereign power.

i. Another place where this same phrase for power of darkness is used is in Luk 22:53, where Jesus spoke of the darkness surrounding His arrest and passion in the same terms. “These words refer to the sinister forces marshaled against him for decisive combat in the spiritual realm.” (Bruce)

ii. The power of darkness may be seen in its effects, and for those who have been delivered . . . from the power of darkness these effects should be less and less evident in the life.

• The power of darkness lulls us to sleep.

• The power of darkness is skilled at concealment.

• The power of darkness afflicts and depresses man.

• The power of darkness can fascinate us.

• The power of darkness emboldens some men.

iii. “Beloved, we still are tempted by Satan, but we are not under his power; we have to fight with him, but we are not his slaves. He is not our king; he has no rights over us; we do not obey him; we will not listen to his temptations.” (Spurgeon)

d. And conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love: According to Barclay, the word we translate conveyed had a special significance in the ancient world. When one empire conquered another, the custom was to take the population of the defeated empire and transfer it completely to the conqueror’s land. It is in this sense that Paul says we have been conveyed into God’s kingdom. Everything we have and everything we are now belongs to Him.

i. The Son of His love is a Hebraic way of saying “God’s dear Son.”

e. In whom we have redemption through His blood: Redemption has the idea of release by a legal ransom. The price for our release was paid by the blood of Jesus.

i. This is one reason why pleading the blood of Jesus - in the right sense, not in a magical or superstitious sense - has such great significance in spiritual warfare. It shows the “receipt” of our lawful purchase as redeemed people.

ii. One of the great sticky questions of theology is to whom was the price paid? Some say it was to God that the ransom price was paid, but we were prisoners of Satan’s kingdom. Others say it was to Satan that the ransom price was paid, but what does God owe to Satan? This question probably simply extends the metaphor too far.

f. The forgiveness of sins: The word translated forgiveness is the ancient Greek word aphesis, most literally rendered “a sending away.” Our sin and guilt is sent away because of what Jesus did on the cross for us.

i. “It thus speaks of the removal of our sins from us, so that they are no longer barriers that separate us from God.” (Vaughan)

3. (Col 1:15-20) Paul’s meditation on the person and work of Jesus.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

a. He is: Paul started out thanking the Father for His plan of redemption (Col 1:12). He couldn’t do that without also thinking of the Son, who is the great Redeemer.

i. Most scholars think that Col 1:15-20 came from a poem or a hymn in the early Church that described what Christians believed about Jesus. This is entirely possible, but can’t be proven one way or another.

b. He is the image of the invisible God: The word translated image (the ancient Greek word eikon) expressed two ideas. 

• Likeness, as in the image on a coin or the reflection in a mirror. 

• Manifestation, with the sense that God is fully revealed in Jesus.

i. If Paul meant that Jesus was merely similar to the Father, he would have used the ancient Greek word homoioma, which speaks merely of similar appearance. The stronger word used here proves that Paul knew that Jesus was God just as God the Father is God. It means that “Jesus is the very stamp of God the Father.” (Robertson)

ii. “God is invisible, which does not merely mean that He cannot be seen by our bodily eye, but that He is unknowable. In the exalted Christ the unknowable God becomes known.” (Peake)

iii. According to Barclay, the ancient Jewish philosopher Philo equated the eikon of God with the Logos. Paul used this important and meaningful word with great purpose.

c. The firstborn over all creation: Firstborn (the ancient Greek word prototokos) can describe either priority in time or supremacy in rank. As Paul used it here, he probably had both ideas in mind, with Jesus being before all created things and Jesus being of a supremely different order than all created things.

i. Firstborn is also used of Jesus in Col 1:18, Rom 8:29, Heb 1:6, and Rev 1:15.

ii. In no way does the title firstborn indicate that Jesus is less than God. In fact, the ancient Rabbis called Yawhew Himself “Firstborn of the World” (Rabbi Bechai, cited in Lightfoot). Ancient rabbis used firstborn as a Messianic title: “God said, As I made Jacob a first-born (Exo 4:22), so also will I make king Messiah a first-born (Psa 89:28).” (R. Nathan in Shemoth Rabba, cited in Lightfoot)

iii. “The use of this word does not show what Arius argued that Paul regarded Christ as a creature like ‘all creation’ . . . It is rather the comparative (superlative) force of protos that is used.” (Robertson)

iv. Bishop Lightfoot, a noted Greek scholar, on the use of both eikon (image) and prototokos (firstborn): “As the Person of Christ was the Divine response alike to the philosophical questionings of the Alexandrian Jew and to the patriotic hopes of the Palestinian, these two currents of thought meet in the term prototokos as applied to our Lord, who is both the true Logos and the true Messiah.” (Lightfoot)

v. “Prototokos in its primary sense expresses temporal priority, and then, on account of the privileges of the firstborn, it gains the further sense of dominion. . . Whether the word retains anything of its original meaning here is doubtful.” (Peake)

d. For by Him all things were created: There is no doubt that Jesus is the author of all creation. He Himself is not a created being. When we behold the wonder and the glory of the world Jesus created, we worship and honor Him all the more.

i. Comets have vapor trails up to 10,000 miles long. If you could capture all that vapor, and put it in a bottle, the amount of vapor actually present in the bottle would take up less than 1 cubic inch of space.

ii. Saturn’s rings are 500,000 miles in circumference, but only about a foot thick.

iii. The star Antares is 60,000 times larger than our sun. If the sun were the size of a softball, the star Antares would be the size of a house.

iv. If the sun were the size of a beachball, and put on top of the Empire State Building, the nearest group of stars would be as far as way as Australia is to the Empire State Building.

v. A star known as LP 327-186 is a so called white dwarf. It is smaller than the state of Texas; yet it is so dense that if a cubic inch of it were brought to earth, it would weigh more than 1.5 million tons.

vi. The earth travels around the sun about eight times the speed of a bullet fired from a gun.

vii. There are more insects in one square mile of rural land than there are human beings on the entire earth.

viii. Bees make their own air conditioning. When the weather gets hot, and threatens to melt the wax in the hive, one group of bees will go to the entrance of the hive, and another will stay inside. They will then flap their wings all together, making a cross draft that pulls the hot air out of the hive, and draws cooler air inside

ix. A single human chromosome contains twenty billion bits of information. How much information is that? If written in ordinary books, in ordinary language, it would take about four thousand volumes.

x. According to Greek scholar A.T. Robertson, all things were created has the idea of “stand created” or “remain created.” Robertson adds: “The permanence of the universe rests, then, on Christ far more than on gravity. It is a Christ-centric universe.”

e. Whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers: As will be demonstrate in the rest of the letter, the Colossian Heresy seemed taken with an elaborate angelology, which effectively placed angels as mediators between God and man. Paul emphasized that whatever ranks of spirit beings there may be, Jesus created them all and they all ultimately answer to Him.

f. He is before all things . . . who is the beginning: Centuries after Paul wrote a dangerous - yet popular - teacher named Arius claimed that Jesus was not truly God, and that there was a time when He did not exist. Paul rightly understood and insisted that Jesus is before all things and is Himself the beginning.

i. “As all creation necessarily exists in time, and had a commencement, and there was an infinite duration in which it did not exist, whatever was before or prior to that must be no part of creation; and the Being who existed prior to creation, and before all things-all existence of every kind, must be the unoriginated and eternal God: but Paul says, Jesus Christ was before all things; ergo, the apostle conceived Jesus Christ to be truly, and essentially God.” (Clarke)

g. In Him all things consist: The idea that Jesus is both the unifying principle and the personal sustainer of all creation.

i. “Hence, God, as the Preserver, is as necessary to the continuance of all things, as God the Creator was to their original production. But this preserving or continuing power is here ascribed to Christ.” (Clarke)

h. Head of the body, the church: This describes Jesus relationship to the church. Here, head probably refers to Jesus’ role as source of the church, even as we refer to the head of a river.

i. That in all things He may have the preeminence: This is a fitting summary of verses Col 1:15-18.

i. Adam Clarke on Col 1:16-17: “Now, allowing St. Paul to have understood the terms which he used, he must have considered Jesus Christ as being truly and properly God. . . . Unless there be some secret way of understanding the 16th and 17th verses, which God has nowhere revealed, taken in their sober and rational sense and meaning they must forever settle this very important point.”

j. Fullness: This translates the ancient Greek word pleroma, and was really just another way to say that Jesus is truly God. 

i. The word fullness was “a recognized technical term in theology, denoting the totality of the Divine powers and attributes.” (Lightfoot, cited in Robertson)

ii. According to Vincent, pleroma was used by the Gnostic teachers in a technical sense, to express the sum-total of divine powers and attributes “Christ may have been ranked with these inferior images of the divine by the Colossian teachers. Hence the significance of the assertion that the totality of the divine dwells in Him.” (Vincent)

iii. “The Gnostics distributed the divine powers among various aeons. Paul gathers them all up in Christ, a full and flat statement of the deity of Christ.” (Robertson)

k. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell: The ancient Greek word for dwell is here used in the sense of a permanent dwelling. There is an entirely different word used for the sense of a temporary dwelling place. Paul wanted to emphasize the idea that Jesus was not temporarily God, but is permanently God.

i. “Two mighty words; ‘fullness’ a substantial, comprehensive, expressive word in itself, and ‘all,’ a great little word including everything. When combined in the expression, ‘all fullness,’ we have before us a superlative wealth of meaning.” (Spurgeon)

ii. Once it pleased the Father to bruise Him (Isa 53:10); now it pleases the Father than in Him all the fullness of God should dwell.

iii. “Thus the phrase in Him should all the fullness dwell gathers into a grand climax the previous statements - image of God, first-born of all creation, Creator, the eternally preexistent, the Head of the Church, the victor over death, first in all things. On this summit we pause, looking like John, from Christ in His fullness of deity to the exhibition of that divine fullness in redemption consummated in heaven.” (Vincent)

iv. The fullness has been put into Jesus Christ. Not into a church; not into a priesthood; not into a building; not into a sacrament; not into the saints; not into a method or a program, but in Jesus Christ Himself. It was put into Him as a “distribution point” - so that those who wanted more of God and all that He is could find it in Jesus Christ.

l. And by Him to reconcile all things to Himself: Jesus’ atoning work is full and broad. Yet we should not take Col 1:20 as an endorsement of universalism.

m. Through the blood of the cross: Again we notice where the peace was made. We don’t make our own peace with God, but Jesus made peace for us through His work on the cross.

i. However, we should not regard the blood of the cross in a superstitious manner. It is not a magical potion, nor is it the literal blood of Jesus, literally applied that saves or cleanses us. If that were so, then His Roman executioners, splattered with His blood, would have been automatically saved, and the actual number of molecules of Jesus’ literal blood would limit the number of people who could be saved. The blood of the cross speaks to us of the real, physical death of Jesus Christ in our place, on our behalf, before God. That literal death in our place, and the literal judgment He bore on our behalf, is what saves us.

4. (Col 1:21-23) How the greatness of Jesus’ work touches the lives of the Colossians.

And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight; if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.

a. Who once were alienated: The ancient Greek word translated alienated (apellotriomenous) is literally “transferred to another owner.” This transfer of ownership, from God to Satan and self, has affected us in both mind and behavior.

i. Belonging to the race of Adam, we are born alienated from God. Then as individuals, we each choose to accept and embrace that alienation with our wicked works. 

ii. Once were alienated: This means that in Jesus we are no longer alienated. The difference between a believer and a non-believer isn’t merely forgiveness; there is a complete change of status.

b. Yet now He has reconciled: God’s answer to the problem of alienation is reconciliation, initiated by His work on the cross (reconciled in the body of His flesh through death). In the work of reconciliation, God didn’t meet us halfway. God meets us all the way and invites us to accept it.

i. One may use two different ways of understanding human need and God’s salvation.

• We can see God as the judge, and we are guilty before Him. Therefore, we need forgiveness and justification. 

• We can see God as our friend, and we have damaged our relationship with Him. Therefore, we need reconciliation. 

ii. Both of these are true; neither one should be promoted at the expense of the other.

iii. The phrase body of His flesh is redundant. Paul wanted to emphasize that this happened because of something that happened to a real man on a real cross.

c. To present you holy, blameless, and irreproachable in His sight: This is the result of God’s work of reconciliation. Taken together, these words show that in Jesus we are pure and can’t even be justly accused of impurity.

i. The idea of presenting us holy and blameless before God may recall the terminology used when priests inspected potential sacrifices. We are presented to God as a living sacrifice.

ii. A desire to be saved means a desire to be made holy, blameless and irreproachable, not merely a desire to escape the fires of hell on our own terms.

d. If indeed you continue in the faith: Those truly reconciled must truly persevere. Paul’s main focus is continuing in the truth of the gospel (continue in the faith . . . not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard). It is important for Christians to continue in godly conduct, but we are not saved by our godly conduct. So it is even more important for Christians to continue in the truth of the gospel, because we are saved by grace through faith.

i. “If the gospel teaches the final perseverance of the saints, it teaches at the same time that the saints are those who finally persevere - in Christ. Continuance is the test of reality.” (Bruce)

C. What Paul did for the Colossians.

1. (Col 1:24) Paul suffers for their sake.

I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church,

a. I now rejoice in my sufferings for you: Paul wrote this from a Roman jail. He was able to see that his sufferings worked something good for others, so he could say that his sufferings were for the Colossians and other Christians.

b. And fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ: This word afflictions is never used of the suffering of Jesus on the cross. Most commentators see this as a reference to the affliction Jesus endured in ministry. These afflictions are not yet complete, and in this sense Jesus still “suffers” as He ministers through His people.

i. “Paul attaches no atoning value whatever to his own sufferings for the church.” (Robertson)

ii. “The term ‘afflictions of Christ’ is never associated with the redemptive suffering of Jesus upon the cross. It speaks, rather, of those ministerial sufferings which Paul bears because he represents Jesus Christ.” (Lane)

c. For the sake of His body, which is the church: Paul did not suffer for himself in the way that an ascetic might. Instead he suffered for the sake of the body of Christ.

i. Ascetics focus on their holiness, on their spiritual growth, and on their perfection. Paul followed in the footsteps of Jesus and was an others-centered person. Paul found holiness, spiritual growth, and maturity when he pursued them for others.

2. (Col 1:25-26) Paul is a servant of the church, revealing the mystery of God that was once hidden.

Of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.

a. Of which I became a minister: Paul was a minister - that is, a servant of the body of Christ, the church. He did not take this position on his own initiative, but according to the stewardship from God. God put Paul into this position, he did not put himself.

b. The word of God, the mystery which has been hidden: In the Biblical sense, a mystery is not a riddle. It is a truth that can only be known by revelation and not by intuition. Now it can be known, because it now has been revealed to His saints.

i. Hidden from ages and generations: This reminds us that there are aspects to God’s plan that were not clearly revealed in the Old Testament. The specific mystery Paul refers to here deals with many aspects of the work of Jesus in His people, but especially the plan of the church, to make one body out of Jew and Gentile, taken from the “trunk” of Israel, yet not Israel.

ii. “The mystery is this: that God had designed to grant the Gentiles the same privileges with the Jews, and make them his people who were not his people. That this in what Paul means by the mystery, see Eph 3:3, etc.” (Clarke)

3. (Col 1:27) Part of the mystery: that Jesus would actually indwell believers.

To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

a. This mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you: The wonder and glory of the abiding, indwelling Jesus was not clearly revealed in the Old Testament, especially that He would abide in the Gentiles. Therefore, this aspect of the work of Jesus in His people was a mystery that wasn’t revealed until the time of Jesus and the apostles.

i. “This is the crowning wonder to Paul that God had included the Gentiles in his redemptive grace.” (Robertson)

ii. This means that God is revealed to us in Jesus. Classic theologians use the Latin term deus absconditus to refer to the “hidden God,” the God than cannot be clearly seen or known. The Latin theological term deus revelatus refers to the “revealed God.” In Jesus, the deus absconditus has become the deus revelatus.

b. Christ in you, the hope of glory: This is the Christian’s hope of glory. It isn’t our own hard work or devotion to God, or the power of our own spirituality. Instead, it is the abiding presence of Jesus: Christ in you.

4. (Col 1:28-29) Paul’s motto for apostolic ministry.

Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.

a. Him we preach: This was the focus of Paul’s preaching. He didn’t preach himself, or his opinions, or even lots and lots of entertaining stories. He preached Jesus.

b. Warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom: Paul wanted the whole gospel for the whole world. He wouldn’t hold back in either area - it was for every man, and he presented it in all wisdom.

i. Some translate the word warning as “counseling.” The ancient Greek verb nouthetountes means, “To impart understanding,” “to lay on the mind or the heart.” The stress is on influencing not only the intellect, but also the will and disposition. It describes a basic means of education. 

ii. The work of warning - or helping to impart understanding - was a passion for Paul in ministry (Act 20:31). It is also the job of church leaders (1Th 5:12) and of the church body in general (Col 3:16), providing that they are able to admonish others (Rom 15:14).

c. That we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: The goal of Paul’s ministry was to bring people to maturity in Christ, and not to dependence upon himself.

i. “Therefore, the aim of this epistle, and, indeed, of all apostolic work is admonishing and teaching every man toward the realization of perfection in Christ, because that issues in the perfecting of the whole Church.” (Morgan)

ii. This work was for every man. In contrast, the false teachers at Colosse “believed the way of salvation to be so involved that it could be understood only by a select few who made up sort of a spiritual aristocracy.” (Vaughan)

d. Striving according to His working which works in me mightily: Paul’s work was empowered by God’s mighty strength. But God’s strength in his life didn’t mean that Paul did nothing. He worked hard according to His working.

i. “The word ‘struggling’ [striving], whose root can mean ‘to compete in the games’, carries, as of then in Paul, the idea of athletic contest: Paul does not go about his work half-heartedly, hoping vaguely that grace will fill in the gaps which he is too lazy to work at himself.” (Wright)