“In the world you will have tribulation…” JOHN 16:33b. There are over 100 references in the KJV for the word “trouble”. Twenty six references for the word “tribulation(s)”
For the Christian who acknowledges GOD’s sovereignty over their lives as LORD, we understand nothing happens to us apart from His will (either for His purpose or with His permission). We sometimes struggle with the “why” question when we realize that GOD could have prevented such trials and tribulations but chose not to.
When reflecting on the life of Job and his complaints to GOD, there is never an answer to the question “why”! There may not be an answer that we with our finite minds could understand, and even if we did understand it, it probably wouldn’t bring much comfort anyway.
Rather than asking “why” what if we ask “what…” as in “what lesson do You want me to learn through this experience, LORD?” Because of the fact that He allows bad things to happen to us means He intends on teaching us some valuable lessons that will build our faith and strengthen our relationship with Him:
ROMANS 5:3-5
3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
And the grace and comfort we receive from the LORD during such troublesome trials and tribulations (that sometimes seem interminable!) are precious resources that GOD expects us to “pay forward”!
2 CORINTHIANS 1:3-5
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.
The last verses from Chapter One:
PHILIPPIANS 1:29-30PHILIPPIANS 2:1-2
29 For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, 30 having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me.
1 Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
Always learn what a “therefore” is there for! The experience of suffering for Christ’s sake ensures a supply of consolation in (and from) Christ – His comforting love, fellowship with the very Spirit of GOD, attitudes of affection and mercy towards others.
Sharing mutual experiences is a very bonding phenomenon, and during times of stress, hardships, suffering of any sort, we draw from each other’s support. This is particularly true among the saints of GOD, who are indwelt by the Spirit and enduring persecution. Church history provides replete examples of this. We enjoy a unity through this like nothing else can, and that’s because it’s born through the Spirit of GOD.
EPHESIANS 4:1-6Note the source of our unity – it’s the Spirit of GOD. I’m not opposed to ecumenical movements per se (it depends on their objectives and the parameters of their concord). But most of them emphasize an organizational structure devised by the wisdom of people, whereas with the Spirit of GOD, there is an organic structure designed by true wisdom of the LORD!
1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all (see PSA 133:1; also consider EPH 4:11-17 where the methods and means of “unity in the faith” are described).
As stated at the beginning of this study, the theme of this epistle is “joy in the midst of suffering”. That seems extremely counterintuitive, I grant you, but when we consider that the LORD is near those of a broken heart as they cry out to Him (PSA 34:17-18; 145:18; ISA 57:15), it makes sense. Peace is real when the Prince of Peace reigns undeterred (when we surrender to Him unconditionally):
COLOSSIANS 3:14-15Love is mentioned twice in verse 1 and 2 in our text in Philippians, and joy in vs. 2. Love is in fact the bond of perfection (that is, completeness, maturity). Where there is carnal bickering, strife, arguing about non-essential issues (even the essentials), the evidence of immaturity is obvious. When we forebear and forgive one another, where “endeavoring to keep the unity” (certainly not at the expense of doctrinal truth however!) there is the kind of spiritual growth that the LORD is looking for.
14 But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. 15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.
Among many ecumenical circles there is the cry for “unity at all cost” which is dangerous to say the least. Why? Because that assertion is almost always accompanied with “Let’s put aside doctrine, because doctrine is divisive”. That is most certainly true! It divides between truth and error! Doctrine means “teaching” and teaching in the Scriptures is inspired by Almighty GOD –we don’t want to “put aside” GOD’s teachings!
PHILIPPIANS 2:3-4
3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
This is the kind of spiritual maturity that the LORD loves! As with any father, our Abba loves to see His children getting along! Vss. 3-4 have to do with body ministry, the interrelationship among the saints. We are to firstly be Christ-centered, secondly others-centered, and in “lowliness of mind esteem others” which puts us last.
This is the secret to J.O.Y. = JESUS First, Others Second, Yourself Last. Most of us know that we can be most miserable when we are so focused on self. This is why the LORD directs us to focus on Him, His Word, fellowship with Him through the Holy Spirit – as well as ministering to and having fellowship with others.
Also: consider that every part of your body serves the rest of the body. There’s not one part of your anatomy that serves itself. There is one tragic exception however: cancer will rob everything from the body, including its life! One can look at it as biological selfishness.
Spiritually speaking, jealousy, unforgiveness, selfishness, bitterness, gossip, pride are all a cancer in the church, that includes marital and family relations. Such things are just as dangerous as cancer in the body. We are in need of the Great Physician to perform surgery on us. We need to lay down on His table and submit to His operation. As a member of the body of Christ you, me, all of us connected to each other – what affects you, affects me and vice versa.
Repentance, turning away from these things, dying to self, and letting the LORD conform us to His likeness is all that’s needed! Which brings us to the next three verses.
PHILIPPIANS 2:5-7
5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
If the LORD of glory humbled Himself, who are we to maintain our obstinate pride, selfishness and a desire to esteem ourselves as “worthy” of anything?
This passage from vs. 5-11 is among the most powerful portions of Scripture in the entire Bible; it stands to reason that its focus is on the LORD Jesus Christ! The word “let” is found a time or two in other New Testament books (ROMANS has 11 references to this word), but here in Philippians we see 16 references to the Greek word katecho. “To hold fast, firmly, to keep, to seize [upon]” is the most common of renderings. We are to keep this mind, to hold firmly the same mind that is also in Christ Jesus.
Apostle Paul desires to convey truths and exhortations that he hopes the Philippian saints will hold firmly onto!
The “mind” of Christ is the Greek word phroneo, meaning “frame of mind, mindset, mental attitude or disposition, encompassing thoughts, the understanding, feelings and the overall way one approaches and reacts to life’s circumstances. This is not merely about intellectual agreement concerning the mindset of Christ, His holy disposition, but also a deep conviction that compels us to action!
Keep a firm hold on the same mindset, the attitude, the understanding, the feelings that are found in the mind of Christ – and in keeping this, the inevitable result will be a deep conviction that moves us to action (Here are references where the LORD Jesus was explicitly “moved with compassion”: MATT 9:36; 14:14; 18:27 (by type in parable); MARK 1:41.
However, to me it’s a foregone conclusion that everything He did was an act of love, compassion, a yearning to touch His creation and bring healing, restoration, regeneration (as in salvation).
What speaks of unconditional love more than the LORD Jesus’ willingness and action to step out of the glorious, holy heavens where He has been adored, worshiped, revered by all the saints there, and angelic hosts of heaven only to visit this “planet Rebyl” with its terrible curse of sin, a world of sinners who for the most part mocked, ridiculed, blasphemed and rejected Him.
He set aside, stripped Himself really of His glory and power, walking through life as one of us, knowing hunger, thirst, weariness, loneliness – the struggles in life that we all face. He not only lowered Himself in becoming human (I doubt we’ll ever understand the implications of this radical lowering of Himself! The Eternal GOD becoming a human being??) but lowered Himself more in utter humility by becoming the least of us – a servant of YHWH not to be served, but to serve (ISA 42:1; 52:13; MATT 20:28).
Yet He lowered Himself even further than this!!
PHILIPPIANS 2:8
And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
After 45 years in the LORD (as of June 1980) it still brings me to tears when I think of the greatness of His love, the insurmountable and vast depths, heights, width and breadth of His tender, generous, magnificent, limitless, almighty love:
EPHESIANS 3:17-19It was Love Incarnate that hung on that bloody, roughhewn cross, pierced through with merciless iron stakes after being brutally bludgeoned. Crimson ribbons of His flesh stripped off of His body with savage scourges that could literally disembowel a person.
17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height-- 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Scripture is clear in the original Hebrew that our precious, gentle JESUS was so marred, so misshapen by those brutal Roman soldiers that He couldn’t even pass for human (ISA 52:14)!
When Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of the Christ came out (and we’ll be foregoing the doctrinal errors contained in it), I was sitting in the audience with three young people seated directly in front of me and when the film was over, one of them turned to the others and asked, “Do you think it really was that bad?”
“Oh, you know Hollywood,” answered one of the other two. “They always exaggerate!”
I politely interjected and stated that I was a student of the Bible for twenty four years (at that time) and having an understanding of the Hebrew words used in such passages as ISAIAH 52 & 53, what we saw in this film was a definite understatement compared to the real-life event!
What the film didn’t (and probably couldn’t) portray in any meaningful way was that spiritual aspect of the Crucifixion of Christ where He assumed all the sins of all humanity as well as the fullness of GOD’s holy, righteous wrath against the sum total of those sins that Christ bore. On top of all that, Christ also suffered the separation of fellowship with His Father that He experienced from all eternity!
I honestly don’t think that, even in the eternal halls of heaven when we’ll have assumed our glorified bodies and minds, we’ll ever comprehend the full extent of what our LORD suffered at that Altar of the Almighty!
I strongly believe that as I kneel before my LORD and Savior on that Blessed Day, and I clasp His hands, I will weep with humble gratitude with my tears touching those scars of His. Those scars will be the only man-made things in heaven!
And now we witness the spiritual law of GOD, that those who will humble themselves before GOD, He will exalt them (in due time) to a place of honor (JAMES 4:10; 1 PET 5:6). Christ is our example in both cases – His humiliation and His honor (PROV 15:33).
PHILIPPIANS 2:9-11
Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name, which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
It’s fascinating to me when I think about heaven, and the fact that right now as you’re reading this, there is a Man, seated at the right hand of GOD the Father! Christ in all of His glorious holiness, power and majesty has been raised up from the grave, raised up further into the heavenlies, raised up to sit in the Father’s throne, placed in the highest place.
What astounds me further is that we shall be afforded the same kind of honor that the Father gave His Son, as Christ privileges us to sit with Him in His throne (REV 3:21)!!
Remember that Satan deceived Adam and Eve, promising them godhood, when in fact he stole from them the right of governance over the world (LUKE 4:6). He truly is a thief, a liar and a murderer!
Christ as the Kinsman Redeemer purchased back this world, gaining the title deed and ownership (REV 5:1-9). He declares this victory quite clearly:
MATTHEW 28:18This means that though Satan is still running things in this world, it’s been redeemed by Christ. In this sense, Satan is a kind of a squatter – he no longer has any legal claim to this world, he rules this world system only until Christ returns and lays claim to that which is His own (REV 11:15; 19:11-21). At that time the LORD will serve him an eviction notice!
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
After the Beast and the False Prophet are consigned to the Lake of Fire, Satan is then delivered to his incarceration in the abyss for 1,000 years. And I love how GOD handled this:
REVELATION 20:1-3Christ doesn’t do this job Himself; He doesn’t even have the General of the heavenly host – Michael the arch-angel do this. It seems it’s just some “angel” that is given this “key… and a great chain” and bound this proud and powerful cherub and escorts him to his prison cell. It’s as if the LORD says to this angel, “Take care of my light work, will you?”
1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2 He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; 3 and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while.
The image I get in my mind is someone like Steve Erkel (of “Family Matters”) taking hold of Hulk Hogan and dragging him off to jail!. Talk about humiliation upon this ambitious, self-aggrandized Lord of the kingdom of darkness!
Satan has one last chance to overthrow the reign of Christ once he’s released after his one thousand year prison sentence, but the army that he gathers of people (LUKE 19:14; PSA 2:1-3) who resent the holy and righteous reign of Christ Who rules with a rod of iron is summarily put down – burned to a crisp actually, and Satan suffers the ultimate humiliation by being cast into the Lake of Fire (Gehenna, the Second Death; REV 20:7-10).
Christ will receive worship from all humanity and the angelic race (both holy and evil): Every knee shall bend, and every tongue confess Him as LORD to the glory of GOD the Father (ISA 45:23; ROM 14:11; REV 5:13)!
These are all precious truths we must remember when we endure times of trial and tribulation, perils and persecutions. We aren’t living in this world for our own happiness, to fulfill our personal dreams and goals, to feather our nests and live on easy street.
We are called as disciples of Christ who will daily pick up our cross, deny self (LUKE 9:23), and let Christ have full reign over our lives (ROM 6:4-11).
We are called as soldiers who will “endure hardness” for the LORD’s sake – obeying the Captain of our salvation without question. We are called of GOD to train hard and rigorously in spiritual matters just as an athlete “agonizes” in his physical training. And like farmers who diligently work the fields, and persevere in plowing and planting prayerfully, sowing the Word of GOD in our lives, the lives of others, and bearing Gospel seed for the lost souls of the world.
Consider what soldiers, athletes and farmers all have in common in this brief article. And with all of our faithful service, the persecution and sufferings we endure, we have a kingdom that shall not pass away and an eternal inheritance (HEB 12:28; EPH 1:18; COL 1:12)!
We shall conclude Part One here and pick up in vs. 12 in Part Two!
No comments:
Post a Comment