Introduction⁵⁷

This week will be one of those few unforgettable landmarks of life. People will remember where they were and what they were doing when word of the explosion of the space shuttle reached them. The explosion cost our nation seven of our astronauts, one of whom was a school teacher, who was planning to teach from space. In the eloquent speech of our president, and from the words of many others, two predominant themes emerged as the week went on.

The first theme was the preciousness of human life. While millions of dollars of equipment were destroyed, including an expensive satellite which was to be launched from space, there was almost no mention of these financial losses, because of the sorrow and grief at the loss of seven precious human lives. We were assured by NASA officials that the safety of the crew was the top priority, and that no other considerations would in any way be allowed to jeopardize the lives of the crew of the shuttle.

The second theme was the importance of space exploration. It was clearly stated that space exploration is a dangerous task. Lives had previously been lost, and it was grimly accepted that more lives would someday be lost in the conquest of space. In spite of the near certainty that lives would be lost in exploring the universe, the determination to continue pursuing this goal was reiterated frequently and with resolve.

The relationship between these two values fascinates me. As precious as human life is to Americans, we have openly stated that we are willing to sacrifice human life if need be in the conquest of space. The goal of space exploration, then, is so important that what we value most highly—human life—will be sacrificed.

This illustrates the important role which goals play in our lives. Those goals to which we attribute great importance and value become the basis for making sacrifices. Because our nation views the conquest of space to be of utmost importance, we sacrifice great amounts of money and even human life in the pursuit of this goal.

The subject of our message is covetousness. On the surface, covetousness may not seem to be related to the subject of goals. We will see, however, that what we covet becomes our goal. If we covet the wrong things, we will have the wrong goals, and we may thus sacrifice things of great value in our effort to attain what has little ultimate and eternal value.

I believe that as we study this 10th and final commandment we will discover that we will learn a great deal about coveting. In fact, as my title suggests, we may learn a great deal more about coveting than we really wish to know.

My approach will be to first characterize the coveting which the Bible condemns. This will help to explain why coveting is sin, as well as to enable us to better identify those forms of coveting which have become a part of our own lifestyle. Next, we will consider coveting as a goal, and seek to learn why the Bible calls covetousness idolatry. Then we will seek to learn how our Lord addressed the evil of covetousness in His teaching. Finally, we will seek to discover how coveting corrupts our lives and the means God has provided to cure us of this evil.

The Characteristics of Coveting

As we search the Scriptures we learn that the coveting which is forbidden in the Tenth Commandment (and elsewhere in the Bible) has certain characteristics, which make it possible to identify this evil in it various forms:

(1) Coveting is a desire. It is a matter of the heart, an attitude, a matter of strong emotion. As such, coveting is somewhat unique among the evils condemned by the commandments. The evils prohibited by the other commandments were such that one could be tried and found guilty of committing a certain act. This act was based upon attitudes, of course, but a society cannot convict people for what they are thinking and feeling. The final commandment is a forbidden feeling, as it were, not a forbidden act.

(2) Coveting is a strong desire.⁵⁸ Coveting is a desire, a motivation so strong that the one who covets something will have it if there is any way possible to do so, even if it involves evil. Coveting is a consuming desire, which is highly competitive. It is an evil attitude, which will likely lead to an evil act. Coveting is a kind of conspiracy in one’s soul to commit evil.

(3) The coveting which the Tenth Commandment condemns is the desire to have something which one does not have, or which one does not think he or she has enough of. In brief, coveting wants more. It is not content with what it already has, no matter how much that might be. As Habakkuk put it, “He enlarges his appetite like Sheol, And he is like death, never satisfied” (Hab. 2:5).

Ecclesiastes also describes the futility of the man who is discontent with what he has:

There was a certain man without a dependent, having neither a son nor a brother, yet there was no end to all his labor. Indeed, his eyes were not satisfied with riches and he never asked, “And for whom am I laboring and depriving myself of pleasure?” This too is vanity and it is a grievous task (Ecc. 4:8).

(4) Coveting wants not only what one does not have, but what one cannot have. Coveting wants what is forbidden, that which belongs to another and which cannot be obtained. It is possible, of course to buy a neighbor’s animal, but not his wife. The assumption here, I believe, is that what we covet is what we cannot have, that is, what our neighbor either cannot give up (like his wife, or his land), or what he will not give up.

(5) Coveting is a deliberate desire, of which one is conscious, and for which one is responsible. The coveting which this commandment forbids is one for which the individual is responsible. In effect, the individual is held accountable for discovering the sin, and for dealing with it. This is necessary because no other human being can know our thoughts. God thus holds us responsible for what we determine in our hearts and minds.

(6) The coveting which the commandment prohibits is a well defined desire. Coveting must be distinguished from lust. Lust is a general desire. Greed is a lust for money and possessions. Coveting is a specific, focused desire, a desire to have a particular thing, which belongs to a particular person. Greed may desire money or material things; coveting desires our neighbor’s car, or his house, or his wife. Coveting is lust well defined and specifically focused. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor” (Exod. 20:17).

(7) Coveting is a selfish desire, which is willing to gain at the expense of others. The covetousness which is condemned is that which wants what one’s neighbor has. This kind of covetousness is clearly self-centered.

Do not weary yourself to gain wealth. Cease from your consideration of it. When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings, Like an eagle that flies toward the heavens. Do not eat the bread of a selfish man, Or desire his delicacies; For as he thinks within himself, so he is. He says to you, “Eat and drink!” But his heart is not with you. You will vomit up the morsel you have eaten, And waste your compliments (Prov. 23:4-8).

(8) Coveting is a devious desire that is complex and complicated, which is often well concealed. The heart, we are told, is deceitful and desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9). We must expect that covetousness, which is a matter of the heart, is deceitful and deceptive, and that it may be well disguised.

(9) Covetousness is a detrimental, destructive, desire. One of the reasons why covetousness is condemned is because of its consistently detrimental effects. There are several dimensions of this destructive impact of covetousness.

First, covetousness hinders the generosity which God requires of His people.

“If there is a poor man with you, one of your brothers, in any of your towns in your land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand from your poor brother; but you shall freely open your hand to him, and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks. Beware, lest there is a base thought in your heart, saying, ‘The seventh year, the year of remission, is near,’ and your eye is hostile toward your poor brother, and you give him nothing; then he may cry to the LORD against you, and it will be a sin in you. You shall generously give to him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all your undertakings (Deut. 15:7-10).

So I thought it necessary to urge the brethren that they would go on ahead to you and arrange beforehand your previously promised bountiful gift, that the same might be ready as a bountiful gift, and not affected by covetousness (2 Cor. 9:5).

The one who is covetous wants more, and thus he or she will certainly not be inclined to give of what they already have. Covetousness is the number one enemy of generosity. Think about it for a minute. How many occasions have you had to give to someone in need, and as you were thinking about doing so, into your mind comes a specific item that you have always wanted, which you know you will have to give up if you are generous. Covetousness thinks of generosity as a threat to the accumulation of things which are strongly desired.

Second, covetousness is destructive and dangerous because it is often the motive for offenses against one’s neighbor. The man who covets his neighbor’s ox is likely to steal his neighbor’s ox. While coveting does not always lead to sin, sin most often begins with coveting. Thus, the Scriptures speak of coveting as the source of many evils:

“When I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shinar and two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold fifty shekels in weight, then I coveted them and took them; and behold, they are concealed in the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath it” (Josh. 7:21).

“Woe to him who builds his house without righteousness And his upper rooms without justice, Who uses his neighbor’s services without pay And does not give him his wages, Who says, ‘I will build myself a roomy house With spacious upper rooms, And cut out its windows, Paneling it with cedar and painting it bright red.’ Do you become a king because you are competing in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink, And do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him. He pled the cause of the afflicted and needy; Then it was well. Is not that what it means to know Me?” declares the Lord. “But your eyes and your heart Are intent only upon your own dishonest gain, And on shedding innocent blood And on practicing oppression and extortion” (Jer. 22:13-17).

“And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as My people, but they do the lustful desires expressed by their mouth, and their heart goes after their gain” (Ezek. 33:31).

Woe to those who scheme iniquity, Who work out evil on their beds! When morning comes, they do it, For it is in the power of their hands. They covet fields and then seize them, And houses, and take them away. They rob a man and his house, A man and his inheritance (Micah 2:1-2).

And He was saying, “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts and fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man” (Mark 7:20-23).

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt any one. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death (James 1:13-15).

Third, the covetousness of a person is also self-destructive. A covetous person destroys himself, as well as others.

The hope of the righteous is gladness, But the expectation of the wicked perishes (Prov. 10:28).

Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, But righteousness delivers from death (Prov. 11:4).

The righteousness of the upright will deliver them, But the treacherous will be caught by their own greed. When a wicked man dies, his expectation will perish, And the hope of strong men perishes (Prov. 11:6-7).

Do not let your heart envy sinners, But live in the fear of the LORD always. Surely there is a future, And your hope will not be cut off. Listen, my son, and be wise, And direct your heart in the way. Do not be with heavy drinkers of wine, Or with gluttonous eaters of meat; For the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty And drowsiness will clothe a man with rags (Prov. 23:17-21).

A man with an evil eye hastens after wealth, And does not know that want will come upon him (Prov. 28:22).

“Will not all of these take up a taunt-song against him, Even mockery and insinuations against him, And say, ‘Woe to him who increases what is not his—For how long—And makes himself rich with loans?’ Will not your creditors rise up suddenly, And those who collect from you awaken? Indeed, you will become plunder for them. Because you have looted many nations, All the remainder of the peoples will loot you—Because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land, To the town and all its inhabitants. Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house To put his nest on high To be delivered from the hand of calamity!” (Hab. 2:6-9).

Nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:10).

(10) Covetousness is a deified desire—idolatry. The Ten Commandments began with a prohibition of idolatry, and they end with a prohibition of covetousness, which is called idolatry:

But do not let immorality or any impurity or greed even be named among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience (Eph. 5:3-6).

This text tells us that the covetous man is an idolater. Thus, we have come full circle. The last commandment takes us back to the first commandments, condemning idolatry. But why is covetousness called idolatry? We will now explore the reasons why covetousness is called idolatry.

The Relationship Between Covetousness and Idolatry

Coveting is especially significant because it is a “root sin,” from which all kinds of other evils flow:

But godliness actually is a means of great gain, when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. And if we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang (1 Tim. 6:6-10).

Just because coveting is the root of all kinds of evil, we must be very careful not to conclude that all coveting is evil. The term “covet” for most of us is a loaded one, suggesting only evil desires. In the Scriptures, however, “covet” may be used both positively and negatively. One may covet in a good sense or in a bad sense, depending on the context in which the term is used.⁵⁹ Our Lord strongly desired (He desired with desire, Luke 22:15) to eat the Passover with His disciples. Paul strongly desired to know Christ more intimately (Phil. 3:7-14), to be with those whom he loved in the Lord, as well as for their spiritual well-being and growth (cf. Phil. 1:7-11). Paul also encouraged the Corinthian saints to covet the better spiritual gifts:

But earnestly desire the greater gifts. And I show you a still more excellent way (1 Cor. 12:31).

Therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak in tongues (1 Cor. 14:39).

The covetousness which the Bible prohibits is restricted to the illicit strong desire to possess what one doesn’t have, which rightfully belongs to another, and which we cannot rightly obtain. Thus, we should not conclude that all coveting is sin, only that misdirected desire is evil. What, then, is the good which we should covet, and why is other covetousness evil?

The answer can be found by employing a bit of biblical logic. I will first develop this line of logic, and then show this to be the teaching of our Lord:

(1) It is only wrong to covet what God has denied us, or what is of little value. In the Tenth Commandment God has forbidden us to desire those things which He has not given and which we cannot rightly have. Coveting is only evil when we covet the wrong things.

(2) W covet most what we value most, what we believe to be good. Coveting is a reflection of our value system. No person covets what he believes to be of no value. We do not covet our neighbor’s garbage, we covet those possessions of our neighbor which we value highly. I have never known a man who coveted another man’s wife, whom he thought to be ugly and undesirable. We covet most those things which we value most.

(3) What we covet most we will sacrifice to obtain. We will sacrifice those things which we value less to gain those things we value most. Thus, whatever a man covets is something he will make sacrifices to attain. What he will sacrifice is determined by what he most values, for ultimately a man will sacrifice most anything for what he values most highly.

There are some times in life when the hard choice of giving up some things in order to keep others is imposed upon us unwillingly. Sometimes these choices are agonizing. I remember one of my college professors telling of his days as a prisoner of war in a Japanese P.O.W. camp during the Second World War. The prisoners were all to be marched up into the mountains, to a remote camp. Each prisoner was granted 20 pounds of goods to take along. All the prisoners were instructed to go around in a circle, placing in the center those items which they were disposing. The problem was that when one man cast off an item, another decided he liked it more than what he had, so the event turned into a giant swap meet, which the Japanese soldiers eventually had to terminate.

The point is that life imposes these agonizing choices upon us, so that we must give up some things to attain others. What we value most determines what we are willing to give up. In the case of exploring space, this is a goal of such value, our government has determined that we will sacrifice life to attain it.

(4) If God is the greatest good and of infinite value, then we men should covet having fellowship with Him, and make whatever sacrifice is required to attain and enjoy it. If we once agree that God is the greatest good, then He must be man’s highest goal. Whatever sacrifices a man must make to know God and have fellowship with Him is worth the price.

(5) To covet anything more than God, is to place that thing we covet above God, which is idolatry. Coveting anything above God is making that thing our god. It is assigning to that thing ultimate value and worth. That which has ultimate value and worth in our eyes is our god, it is our idol. Thus, covetousness (which assigns highest value to things, rather than to God) is idolatry.

Coveting is a crucial matter because it assigns value to certain things, and at the same time is willing to sacrifice other things to attain what is coveted. This is what our Lord taught in the New Testament. This can be demonstrated by considering several New Testament texts.

Matthew 13:44-46 “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it.”

Our Lord here taught that what one recognizes to be of great value he will seek to attain, and that he will pay a high price to do so. In the context, it is clear that it is the kingdom of God which is the treasure which men should sacrifice anything to attain. He is the kingdom personified, so that it is Jesus Christ who is most precious, for whom men should be willing to give up all to gain.

Luke 12:13-21 And someone in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” But He said to him, “Man, who appointed Me a judge or arbiter over you?” And He said to them, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.” And He told them a parable, saying, “The land of a certain rich man was very productive. And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’ So is the man who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

The point which our Lord makes here which is of particular importance to our study is that what we covet (possessions, things) are not the essence of life. In the words of our Lord, “… not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions” (v. 15).

In the gospel of Matthew, our Lord puts the matter even more pointedly:

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If any one wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it. For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matt. 16:24-26).

Life, Jesus taught, eternal life, is not attained by gaining, but by giving up. The gaining of things, even the whole world, does not gain one life. To gain everything at the cost of one’s soul is a bad bargain. Thus one must give up his own life to gain it; one must give up the gaining of things in order to gain his own soul.

Matthew 6:19-24 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The lamp of the body is the eye; if therefore your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

At the outset of His ministry our Lord warned of the danger of covetousness.⁶⁰ Covetousness (an “evil eye”) could corrupt a person. The covetous person becomes the slave of possessions, and thus one must choose between serving God or money, for he cannot serve both (v. 24). The way for a person to cause his affections to turn toward the kingdom of God is to have his treasure there, and the way to have one’s treasure in heaven is to “lay up treasures in heaven” by using money to help others, rather than to indulge self.

What our Lord taught in a general way in Matthew chapter 6, He applied specifically to the rich young ruler:

Mark 10:17-22 And as He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and began asking Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments, ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said to Him, “Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up.” And looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess, and give it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But at these words his face fell, and he went away grieved, for he was one who owned much property.

It is of great importance to note that our Lord loved this man. Some seem to think that our Lord was brushing this man aside, or that He asked something excessive and unnecessary. My conviction is that Jesus acted entirely out of love and that what He required was both necessary and beneficial. To what ever degree we identify with the grief of this man at the words of our Lord we reveal the same kind of covetousness which kept him from heaven.

The issue which Jesus raised with the “rich young ruler” was that of “goodness,” occasioned by the words of the man himself. He had called Jesus “good teacher.” Jesus pressed him to define this goodness. Our Lord pointed out that God alone is good in any absolute sense. Had this man really believed that Jesus Christ was good in the same way that God is good, then he would have to admit that Jesus Christ was God. Had He acknowledged Christ as God and as (ultimate) good, he would have had no problem giving up everything to follow Him, just as the man who found the pearl of great price gladly sold all that he had to obtain the pearl.

This man believed that he was a Law-keeper. Jesus cited every Law of the Ten Commandments which related to one’s relationship to his neighbor, save one. The one commandment which our Lord did not mention was the Tenth Commandment, the commandment which forbade coveting. It is this evil which our Lord exposed when he commanded the man to sell all that he possessed and to give the proceeds to the poor. Had the young ruler sold his goods and given the proceeds to the poor, his heart would have turned from earthly treasure to heavenly treasure. Jesus was urging him to redirect his heart by divesting himself of his worldly riches, which had become his highest good, and thus his god. The man who began by thinking of himself as a Law-keeper now had to accept the fact that he was not willing to forsake covetousness, and was thus a Law-breaker.

The rich young ruler’s problem was, at its roots, a problem with his values, with what he believed to be good, and what therefore constituted his goal in life. He was willing to serve Jesus in addition to serving money, but he was not willing to sacrifice his money to serve God. Consequently, this man went away sad. Because he coveted money, he served money as his highest goal, the highest good. Because he served money, he sacrificed his soul, his relationship with God. How tragic this story is.

Conclusion

Understanding coveting gives us a very practical insight into the pathology of sin, and thus a means of avoiding the evils which stem from coveting. Many Christians have puzzled at how a mature brother or sister in Christ can throw off the teachings of the word of God and pursue some blatant sin. Surely one who knows Bible doctrine so well could not fall prey to such obvious sin. The explanation is frequently found in an understanding of coveting and its relationship to one’s ultimate goals. Once our heart is turned toward that which is forbidden as our highest (or at least most desirable) goal, we are willing to sacrifice whatever we value less to attain it.

It is seldom lack of knowledge of what is right (or wrong) which is the reason for man’s sin, it is his decision to desire the wrong things, and to whatever is necessary to have them. When a man decides to forsake his wife and family it isn’t that he doesn’t know its wrong, it is that he has no commitment to do what is right. The reason why we do the wrong thing, knowing it is wrong, is because we want (covet) it more than we covet what is right. Coveting what is wrong causes us to be willing to sacrifice what is right to attain what we want, even if it is sin.

The bottom line is simply this: sin is more often a problem with our heart (coveting) than it is a problem with our mind (knowledge). Solomon knew more than any man who ever lived, and yet his heart was turned to foreign wives, until finally his heart was turned from God by his foreign wives (1 Kings 11:1-8). Such is most often the case. We sin, not because we don’t know better, but because we desire to have what is wrong more than we desire to know God and to serve Him. It is indeed tragic that Solomon did not take his own advice: “Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life” (Prov. 4:23).

One of the most common reasons why men refuse to submit to Jesus Christ and to follow Him is because they cannot commit themselves to Christ and continue to covet things. Covetousness and Christ are two different masters, and many men do not wish to forsake their coveting for Christ. This is because coveting has made things their god, and God (in Christ) will not take second place to things.

Unlike Christ, Christians today attempt to lead men to Christ by minimizing the cost of following Him. Throughout Jesus’ life, He refused to minimize the cost of discipleship. Jesus refused to commit Himself to those who were uncommitted (John 2:23-25). He gave no encouragement to those who would have half-heartedly followed Him (Luke 9:57-62). He said that those who would follow Him would have to deny themselves and take up their cross (Matt. 16:24).

Why is it, then, that we try to make discipleship so undemanding, so easily attained? Why are we reluctant to ask men and women to give up everything to follow Him? Why are we so timid as to only ask people to follow Christ conditionally? The great travesty of this is that it demeans the worth of our Lord. It suggests that He is not worthy of a total sacrifice of self and of self-interest. It is no wonder so many fall away, when they finally realize the high price of discipleship.

Let me make the gospel as clear as I possibly can. There is nothing you can do, no sacrifice you can make which will ever be sufficient to earn salvation. All our righteous deeds are like filthy rags, the Bible tells us (Isa. 64:6). There is nothing we can do to earn God’s favor, for we are dead in our trespasses and sins. We are helpless and hopeless, apart from God’s grace (Eph. 2:1-3). The gift of salvation is free to the sinner, but at great cost to God—the death of His only Son (John 3:16). To receive the gift of salvation, all one has to do is to acknowledge his sinfulness, his lost condition, and receive by faith the death of Jesus Christ in his place. You need only trust in the righteousness of Christ which you receive by faith in His death, burial, and resurrection in your place.

Having said that we cannot earn our salvation by self-sacrifice or good works does not mean that discipleship is of no personal cost or sacrifice. The Scriptures clearly stress the high cost of discipleship, and we dare not minimize it. When we recognize Christ as the “pearl of great price” we should be willing and ready to sacrifice anything and everything in order to follow Him. Let us never lose sight of the self-sacrifice which our Lord requires for discipleship.

Covetousness is something which our culture seems to value, and which the church has become accustomed to, even catering to it instead of condemning it. I honestly believe that if coveting were to immediately cease in America, our economy would be in shambles. Madison Avenue incites us to covetousness, and credit buying enables us to buy what we don’t need and can’t afford. If coveting stopped, our economy would collapse. Coveting therefore seems to be one of those “sacred sins” which we dare not tamper with.

Competitiveness is another of the foundational elements in American society. We will hardly consider hiring or promoting anyone who does not have great ambition, but at its roots, ambition is built upon the competitive desire to do better than his neighbor so that we can have what he or she has: their position, their prestige and power, and their pleasures.

With covetousness so interwoven into the fabric of our society, one would expect that the church would be condemning covetousness, especially among the saints, as the Old Testament prophets did. This is seldom the case. Instead, the church treads softly on matters of covetousness.

Worse yet, the church has come to accept covetousness as one of the “givens” of our culture, and has gone so far as to capitalize on covetousness by appealing to this illicit desire to motivate people to serve and to give. The “gospel of the good life” is one form of this error. We tell people that if they “do things God’s way” God will wonderfully bless them and prosper them. We tell people that God’s desire is to prosper everyone, if they will simply follow God’s prescribed guidelines for success. We appeal to men’s covetousness when we present the gospel, making it sound as if discipleship were the key to success and prosperity. We minimize the cost of discipleship or its demands of self-denial and self-sacrifice. We speak only of its benefits and blessings.

When we speak of the benefits of discipleship we often refer to those passages which promise us that God will grant us the desires of our heart (cf. Ps. 37:4). In our carnality, we tend to think of these “desires” as the things which we covet. The commandment not to covet is a command to clean up the “desires of our heart” so that our desires conform to God’s word (cf. James 4:3).

We do not ask Christians to give sacrificially, without any expectation of return, we speak of giving as a sure-fire investment, for which the giver is certain to gain back many fold. Whenever we attempt to induce people to give because of the returns they will receive, we are appealing to the ungodly motivation of covetousness, not the Christian motivation of sacrifice. We cease talking of treasures in heaven, and talk only of treasure here and now. I am sad to say that I know of very few Christian ministries which ask people to contribute without promising to give something (a book, a tape, a “cloth”) in return. In doing so we are in danger of appealing to people’s covetousness, not their commitment to Christ. God help us in this area.

The church should therefore be calling Christians to self-sacrifice, but all too often it is the church which is characterized by self-indulgence. The Laodicean church of the Book of Revelation (3:14-22), for example, was very comfortable, but also very complacent and self-satisfied. We, too, are very much like the Laodicean church, I fear, and rather than calling the saints to commitment and self-sacrifice, we are caving in to the covetousness of our society.

Put negatively, the Tenth Commandment, confirmed by the commands of the New Testament, is teaching us that we should put off coveting, that we must cease from making anything but God our God. Positively, this commandment is urging us to cultivate a hunger for God, the kind of hunger which characterized the psalmist when he wrote, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for Thee, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?” (Ps. 42:1-2). It is the kind of godly coveting on which our Lord pronounced His blessing: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matt. 6:6). It is the orientation toward heaven and heavenly things which the apostles urged the saints to cultivate:

Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things, For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself (Phil. 17-21).

If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory (Col. 3:1-4).

I believe that more than any other of the Ten Commandments, the Tenth Commandment exposes the depth of our depravity, the seriousness of our sin. Our Lord used this commandment to convict the rich young ruler of his sin. Paul confessed that this commandment “wiped him out” also:

What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. And I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive, and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me. So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good (Rom. 7:7-12).

May I ask you very candidly my friend, does this commandment forbidding covetousness condemn you, just as it did Paul? Have you ever experienced the kind of coveting for God which we find in the psalmists and in the godly men and women of the Bible? Then I urge you to come to the cross of Christ, where the commandments were nailed to the cross in Christ (Col. 2:14). Jesus Christ bore your guilt, shame, and punishment. He died in your place, and was raised for your justification (declaration of righteousness), if you will but receive Him. Once loosened from the bondage of sin and self-interest, you will find an appetite for God you never knew.

And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost (Rev. 22:17).

My Christian friend, may I ask if you still have that same desire you once had? Can you honestly say, with the psalmist of old, that you thirst for God as a deer pants for water? I must admit to you that I have been convicted in my study this week of my own coldness of heart, of my own lack of strong desire for God. There is a way back, for God knows that our love for Him can grow cold. Let me close by suggesting some of the means God has provided for rekindling the flame of our desire for Him.

(1) First, pray that God will renew your heart, and that He will give you a passion for fellowship with Him. David, whose sin with Bathsheba began with covetousness, prayed this prayer, which can just as easily apply to us: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Thy presence, And do not take Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation, And sustain me with a willing spirit” (Ps. 51:10-12).

(2) Second, saturate your heart and mind with the word of God, which will expose impurity and which will give you an appetite for the things of God:

Teach me, O Lord, the way of Thy statutes, And I shall observe it to the end. Give me understanding, that I may observe Thy Law, And keep it with all my heart. Make me walk in the path of Thy commandments, For I delight in it. Incline my heart to Thy testimonies, And not to dishonest gain. Turn away my eyes from looking at vanity, And revive me in Thy ways. Establish Thy word to Thy servant, As that which produces reverence for Thee (Ps. 119:33-38).

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do (Heb. 4:11-12).

(3) Third, work at your worship of Him, for it is in our worship that we are reminded again of His worth, of His purity and perfection, and thus of Him as our ultimate goal, both to know and to serve.

(4) We must begin to “take up our cross” of self-denial, while at the same time putting off our self-indulgence.

(5) Finally, we should practice sacrificial giving. By thus “laying up our treasures in heaven” we will begin to experience that our hearts will follow our treasure, and begin to focus on heaven and not earth, on Christ and not things.

May God grant that each of us may covet Him, for His glory, and for our good.

57 The key texts for a study of coveting in the Bible are: Gen. 6:5; Exod. 18:21; 20:17; Deut. 5:21; 15:7-10; Josh. 7:21; Ps. 119:33-40; Prov. 11:6-7; 21:25-26; 23:1-8, 17-21; 28:22; 30:7-9; Ecc. 4:8; Jer. 22:13-17; Ezek. 33:31; Micah 2:1-2; Hab. 2:4-9; Matt. 6:19-24; 13:44-46; 16:21-27; Mark 7:20-23; 10:17-22; Luke 12:13-21; 16:14; Acts 20:33-35; Rom. 7:7-11; 8:5-8; 1 Cor. 5:9-13; 6:10; 12:31; 14:39; 2 Cor. 9:5; Eph. 5:3-6; Phil. 3:17-20; 4:11-13; Col. 3:1-7; 1 Tim. 6:6-10; Heb. 13:5-6; James 1:13-15; 4:1-2.

58 Cf. Proverbs 21:26, where the “craving” mentioned is literally a reference to the fact that the sluggard “desires desire.”

59 “The word used for ‘covet’ can also refer to a good rather than an evil desire (cf. Ps. 19:10 KJV …). But here [Exodus 20:17] it is used in a negative sense.” W. H. Gispen, Exodus (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1982), pp. 198-199.

60 The “bad eye” of Matthew 6:22 and 23 is, I think, synonymous with the “evil eye” of Deuteronomy 15:9 and Proverbs 28:22 (contrast Prov. 22:9). An “evil eye” is a symbol, a figure of speech, for a man’s looking on the things of another with the hope that he can have them. In other words, the “evil eye” is covetousness.

Introduction¹

I remember receiving a phone call from a new believer in Jesus.  After he came to faith, he developed an appetite for the Word of God.  He began at the Gospel of Matthew and began working his way through the New Testament.  When he had a question, he would call me or someone else for an answer.  I was not surprised when he called one day, but I must admit that I was a bit concerned.  My friend was about to make a confession, and I was not sure I wanted to hear it.  Was there a serious moral failure, a relapse back into some former sin?  I was about to find out.

My friend continued, “I read the Gospel of Matthew, and then Mark and Luke, but I was so eager to get to Acts, I skipped John.”  I assured my friend that this was not a serious problem.  I would wish that each of us were as eager as my friend to immerse ourselves in this great book of the New Testament.  In this introductory lesson, I will attempt to point out some of the unique contributions of this book, and thus to motivate you to commit yourself to a serious and consistent study of Acts in these next few months.

A Word about the Author of Acts

Most of you are probably aware of the fact that the Book of Acts is the second of two volumes, the first of which is the Gospel of Luke:

1 Now many have undertaken to compile an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 like the accounts passed on to us by those who were eyewitnesses and servants of the word from the beginning. 3 So it seemed good to me as well, because I have followed all things carefully from the beginning, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know for certain the things you were taught (Luke 1:1-4).²

The Book of Acts simply continues the account where the Gospel of Luke left off:

1 I wrote the former account, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after he had given orders by the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 To the same apostles also, after his suffering, he presented himself alive with many convincing proofs. He was seen by them over a forty-day period and spoke about matters concerning the kingdom of God (Acts 1:1-3).

By the second century, Luke was recognized as the author of both Luke and Acts.  No serious challenge to this conclusion has been made.  Luke is named three times in the New Testament, and from these references, we learn something about him.

Our dear friend Luke the physician and Demas greet you (Colossians 4:14).

23 Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you. 24 Mark, Aristarchus, Demas and Luke, my colaborers, greet you too (Philemon 1:23-24).

From these two texts, we learn that Luke was a physician and that he was a fellow-laborer with Paul.  From the Book of Acts, we learn that Luke accompanied Paul on some of his journeys.  This is evident by the so-called“we”passages in Acts (Acts 16:10-17; 20:5-15; 21:1-18; 27:1-28:16).

In Acts 16, we can see that Luke must have joined Paul and his other co-workers in Troas.  This would mean that he was present when Paul received his Macedonian vision.  Luke thus accompanied Paul and the others to Philippi.  He was also with Paul in Troas, when the church gathered and Eutychus fell from the window and was taken up dead.  Was it Dr. Luke who pronounced this young man dead, making his healing even more emphatic?  We find Luke with Paul as he was in Caesarea, on his way to Jerusalem.  Luke would have heard the ominous prophecy of Agabus, warning Paul of what awaited him in Jerusalem.  Did he agree with those who urged Paul not to go?  Finally, we find Luke with Paul on his journey to Rome.  He was there with Paul when their ship was broken up on the rocks.  He witnessed Paul’s miraculous deliverance from the snake bite and the healing of the father of Publius.

We assume from the final chapters of Acts what Paul makes absolutely clear in his final epistle:

10 For Demas deserted me, since he loved the present age, and he went to Thessalonica. Crescens went to Galatia and Titus to Dalmatia. 11Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is a great help to me in ministry (2 Timothy 4:10-11, emphasis mine).

Luke was not only Paul’s companion and coworker in ministry; Luke was a man who faithfully stood with Paul to the end.  I can respect what a man like this writes, inspired by the Spirit of God.

The Unique Contribution of the Book of Acts

Some of you will recognize that I have written on the Book of Acts before.³In this earlier effort, I outlined a number of reasons why the Book of Acts is important.  This time, I would like to approach this matter from a slightly different perspective.  I would like to suggest what it would be like if there were no Book of Acts.  What would it be like without the Book of Acts?

First of all, our Bibles would be smaller.  When combined with Luke’s first volume, his two accounts – Luke and Acts – take up over one-fourth of the real estate of the New Testament.  If the importance of a subject is indicated by how much space is devoted to it (I call this the “law of proportion”), then Luke’s writings must be significant.

Second, the absence of the Book of Acts would diminish the contribution of the remaining New Testament epistles.There would be a significant historical gap between the events of the Gospels and the writing of the New Testament epistles.  How would we know why the church at Corinth suddenly appears as the recipient of two preserved epistles?   Where did this church come from?  It is the Book of Acts that provides this information.

These words of Peter would have little impact on us, apart from the Book of Acts:

12 Dear friends, do not be astonished that a trial by fire is occurring among you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice in the degree that you have shared in the sufferings of Christ, so that when his glory is revealed you may also rejoice and be glad. 14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory, who is the Spirit of God, rests on you. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or thief or criminal or as a troublemaker (1 Peter 4:12-15).

The Gospels do not leave us with a very positive impression of Peter.  He denied his Lord three times rather than risk dying with Him.  But when we read the Book of Acts, we find a transformed Peter.  He now stands before some of the same people who orchestrated our Lord’s crucifixion and says,

22 “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man clearly attested to you by God with powerful deeds, wonders, and miraculous signs that God performed among you through him, just as you yourselves know— 23 this man, who was handed over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you executed by nailing him to a cross at the hands of Gentiles. 24 But God raised him up, having released him from the pains of death, because it was not possible for him to be held in its power. . . . 36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know beyond a doubt that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:22-24, 36).

13 “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our forefathers, has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate after he had decided to release him. 14 But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a man who was a murderer be released to you. 15 You killed the Originator of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this fact we are witnesses!” (Acts 3:13-15)

When commanded not to teach in the name of Jesus, Peter responded,

29 But Peter and the apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than people. 30 The God of our forefathers raised up Jesus, whom you seized and killed by hanging him on a tree. 31 God exalted him to his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. 32 And we are witnesses of these events, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him” (Acts 5:29-32).

It is the Book of Acts that certifies Peter as a man who is qualified to speak on the subject of suffering for the name of Jesus.  Thanks to Acts, Peter’s exhortations carry much more weight than if Acts had not been written.

Beyond Peter and his epistles, the situation is even more dramatic with Paul and his writings.  Paul was a man well known by the Christian community – as a persecutor of the church:

10 Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias,” and he replied, “Here I am, Lord.” 11 Then the Lord told him, “Get up and go to the street called ‘Straight,’ and at Judas’ house look for a man from Tarsus named Saul. For he is praying, 12 and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and place his hands on him so that he may see again.” 13 ButAnanias replied, “Lord, I have heard from many people about this man, how much harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem, 14 and here he has authority from the chief priests to imprison all who call on your name!”(Acts 9:10-14, emphasis mine)

When Paul writes, he writes with the full authority of an apostle:

From Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Sosthenes, our brother (1 Corinthians 1:1).

1 Am I not free?Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? 2 If I am not an apostle to others, at least I am to you, for you are the confirming sign of my apostleship in the Lord. 3 This is my defense to those who examine me. 4 Do we not have the right to financial support? 5Do we not have the right to the company of a believing wife, like the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas? (1 Corinthians 9:1-5, emphasis mine)

37 If anyone considers himself a prophet or spiritual person, he should acknowledge thatwhat I write to you is the Lord’s command(1 Corinthians 14:37, emphasis mine).

For this gospel I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher (2 Timothy 1:11).

For I consider myself not at all inferior to those “super-apostles” (2 Corinthians 11:5).

11 I have become a fool. You yourselves forced me to do it, for I should have been commended by you. For I lack nothing in comparison to those “super-apostles,” even though I am nothing. 12 Indeed, the signs of an apostle were performed among you with great perseverance by signs and wonders and powerful deeds (2 Corinthians 12:11-12).

Apart from the Book of Acts, how would we know and heed Paul’s instructions as those of a true apostle?  In Acts, we have three accounts of his conversion and commissioning (Acts 9, 22, 26).  We see not only his desire to associate with the saints, but also his willingness to suffer as a Christian.  It is the Book of Acts that certifies Paul as a true apostle to the readers of the New Testament.  We might dare say that it is in the Book of Acts that Paul “earns his stripes” (literally) as an apostle of Jesus Christ.  And so it is that we can read:

From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear the marks of Jesus on my body (Galatians 6:17).

The theological issues addressed in the epistles would be without background or context, except for the fact that Acts describes the origin of some of these problems. Let me simply list some of the issues the church faced in New Testament times (many of which persist as potential problems today):

The relationship of the Old Testament to the New⁴

The explanation of how the ethnic makeup of the church is more Gentile than it is Jewish⁵

The relationship between Israel and the church⁶

The relationship between Jewish and Gentile believers in the church⁷

The relationship between Gentile saints and Judaism (do you have to be Jewish to be Christian?)⁸

The influence of Judaisers or Jewish heresies in the church

The roots of many of these problems can be found in the Book of Acts, so Acts helps us to understand the problems that are addressed in the epistles.

Without the Book of Acts, we would be hard pressed to find an example of the apostolic preaching of the gospel.  Think of the many rich sermons we find preached by the apostles:

Acts 2:14-36Peter’s powerful sermon at Pentecost

Acts 3-4Peter’s preaching (as a result of the healing of the lame man)

Acts 7Stephen’s powerful sermon, which sums up the Old Testament in terms of Jewish unbelief

Acts 10Peter’s gospel message at the home of Cornelius

Acts 13:13-41Paul’s sermon at (Pisidian) Antioch

Acts 17:16-31Paul’s preaching at Athens

Acts 20:17-34Paul’s message to the Ephesian elders

Acts 26Paul’s appeal to Agrippa

The examples of the “apostolic preaching of the cross” are found in the Book of Acts and virtually nowhere else (at least in the form of a preached sermon).

Keys to the Book of Acts

I would like to suggest some “mental hooks” which may help you think through the message of the Book of Acts.  These appear to be some of the key themes of the Book of Acts, which are intertwined throughout the book.

Transition

Many changes are documented as one reads through the Book of Acts.  Consider the following areas of transition:

There is the transition from a primarily Jewish church in Jerusalem to predominantly Gentile churches elsewhere.Initially, the church in Jerusalem was almost exclusively Jewish (with perhaps some proselytes as well).  This was not entirely coincidental, for in time it became evident that the Jewish believers (which appears to include the apostles) were opposed to evangelism among the Gentiles.  We see this in their response to the salvation of those at the home of Cornelius, when Peter preached the gospel to them:

1 Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles too had accepted the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers took issue with him, 3 saying, “You went to uncircumcised men and shared a meal with them” (Acts 11:1-3).

It might appear that their only concern was that Peter (along with those Jews who accompanied him) had defiled himself by eating with these Gentiles, but this can hardly be the case.  Notice their response after Peter explained how all this had come to pass:

18 When they heard this, they ceased their objections and praised God, saying, “So then, God has granted the repentance that leads to life even to the Gentiles” (Acts 11:18).

Now notice the following verse:

19 Now those who had been scattered because of the persecution that took place over Stephen went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the message to no one but Jews (Acts 11:19).

It was not the apostles who were at the forefront of Gentile evangelism; it was an unnamed, unknown (to the Jerusalem Jewish believers, it would seem) group of Hellenistic Jewish believers who spread the gospel to the Gentiles.  They didn’t seem to grasp the fact that this was frowned upon by the Jerusalem Jewish brethren, or they simply refused to abide by such narrow thinking.  There is absolutely no question but what unbelieving Jews adamantly opposed taking the gospel to the Gentiles.⁹In spite of these obstacles, the gospel was taken to the Gentiles, and thus more and more predominantly Gentile churches were planted.  It was Paul’s practice to take the gospel“to the Jew first,”but when this message was rejected, Paul turned to the Gentiles (see Acts 18:5-7).

There is also the transition from opposition by the Pharisees in the Gospels to opposition that is led by the Sadducees in Acts.  When comparing the frequency in which the terms “Pharisees” and “Sadducees” (singular or plural) occur in Luke and Acts, one can see an indication of the transition from Pharisee-inspired resistance to the gospel in the Gospels to Sadducee-initiated resistance in Acts.¹⁰It is not really difficult to understand how this change came to pass.  The Pharisees opposed Jesus because He claimed to be God, and because they considered Him to be a law-breaker – particularly a Sabbath-breaker.  They probably were motivated to oppose Him because He was so critical of them:

20 “For I tell you, unless your righteousness goes beyond that of the experts in the law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).

Matthew 23 contains an even more strident denouncement of the Pharisees, because of their hypocrisy.  It is no wonder they opposed Jesus.

Jesus made it very clear that He would rise from the dead, as the great and final sign proving the validity of His claim to be Messiah:

38 Then some of the experts in the law along with some Pharisees answered him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights” (Matthew 12:38-40).

The Pharisees were very aware of His claim that He would rise from the dead, which is why they took such efforts to secure His tomb:

62 The next day (which is after the day of preparation) the chief priests and the Pharisees assembled before Pilate 63 and said, “Sir, we remember that while that deceiver was still alive he said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ 64 So give orders to secure the tomb until the third day. Otherwise his disciples may come and steal his body and say to the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead,’ and the last deception will be worse than the first.” 65 Pilate said to them, “Take a guard of soldiers. Go and make it as secure as you can.” 66 So they went with the soldiers of the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone (Matthew 27:62-66).

The resurrection seems to have “taken the wind out of the sails” of the Pharisees.  They are strangely silent in Acts (compared to the Gospels), and in fact, some Pharisees appear to be very cautious about condemning the apostles:

33 Now when they heard this, they became furious and wanted to execute them. 34But a Pharisee whose name was Gamaliel, a teacher of the law who was respected by all the people, stood up in the council and ordered the men to be put outside for a short time. 35 Then he said to the council, “Men of Israel, pay close attention to what you are about to do to these men. 36 For some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men joined him. He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and nothing came of it. 37 After him Judas the Galilean arose in the days of the census, and incited people to follow him in revolt. He too was killed, and all who followed him were scattered. 38 So in this case I say to you, stay away from these men and leave them alone, because if this plan or this undertaking originates with people, it will come to nothing, 39 but if it is from God, you will not be able to stop them, or you may even be found fighting against God.” He convinced them, 40 and they summoned the apostles and had them beaten. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus and released them (Acts 5:33-40, emphasis mine).

Here Gamaliel, a prominent Pharisee, cautioned the Sanhedrin about opposing the apostles.  Later on, the Pharisees somewhat come to Paul’s defense when the Sanhedrin meets once again, this time to try Paul on charges of defiling the temple:

6 Then when Paul noticed that part of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, he shouted out in the council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. I am on trial concerning the hope of the resurrection of the dead!” 7 When he said this, an argument began between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. 8 (For the Sadducees say there is no resurrection, or angel, or spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.) 9 There was a great commotion, andsome experts in the law from the party of the Pharisees stood up and protested strongly, “We find nothing wrong with this man. What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?” (Acts 23:6-9, emphasis mine)

Thus, it is the Sadducees who take up the cause of opposing the gospel and the apostles in Acts:

While Peter and John were speaking to the people, the priests and the commander of the temple guard andthe Sadducees came up to them(Acts 4:1, emphasis mine).

Likewise, there is a transition from an emphasis on the “kingdom of God” in the Gospels and early Acts to “the church.”The expression,“the Kingdom of God”is found 31 times in Luke and a total of 49 times in all the Gospels combined.  It is found only six times in the Book of Acts and eight times in the rest of the New Testament.  On the other hand, the term“church”occurs only twice in the Gospels, both times in Matthew (16:18; 18:17), while it is found 19 times in Acts, and 88 times in the epistles.  One is therefore obliged to explain this transition.  It is probably best to turn to Romans 9-11 for this explanation.

There is yet another transition from Peter and the Jerusalem apostles in the first half of Acts to “Paul and his companions” from chapter 13 on.  It seems apparent that while Peter is dominant in the first half of Acts, he is overshadowed by Paul in the last half of the book.

There are geographical transitions as well in the Book of Acts.It has been noted by many that Acts 1:8 provides an excellent geographical outline of the Book of Acts:

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the farthest parts of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

The events of chapters 1-7 take place in Jerusalem and Judea.  Samaria is reached with the gospel in chapter 8, and from there it goes to“the farthest parts of the earth,”ending in Rome (chapter 28).

Watershed Decisions

Acts contains some of the landmark decisions of the early church, the implications of which are great.  These decisions are to the church what certain Supreme Court rulings (like Roe v. Wade) have been to our country, for good or evil.

The first decision came reluctantly, when the apostles reluctantly acknowledged that the gospel was for the Gentiles, as well as the Jews.  This entailed a recognition that our Lord had set aside the Jewish food laws of the Old Testament (see Mark 7:19; Acts 10:9-16; 11:4-12).  As we learn from Galatians 2:11-14, Peter had to be reminded of this fact.

We recently had a very practical object lesson regarding the way these food laws separate Jews and Gentiles.  This past week, several from our church went to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to assist Hurricane Katrina flood victims by serving (good!) food to the emergency medical personnel who were risking their lives in the rescue efforts, particularly in New Orleans.  We would serve up to 200 people or more, so you can imagine the impact of a few who observed the Jewish food laws.  They required not only different food, but they could use only certain cooking utensils, and the end result was that they cooked for themselves separately.  In no way do I wish to demean these devout folks for observing the rules of their faith; I simply wish to show how doing so separates folks.  Having this experience helped me appreciate the magnitude of the revelation that foods should no longer keep Jewish believers from sharing their faith with Gentiles.

A second watershed decision was that of the Jerusalem Council, as recorded in Acts 15.  The decision that the gospel should go to the Gentiles, as well as to the Jews, was reached in Acts 10 and 11.  In Acts 15, the question arose as to just what would be required of Gentile converts to the faith.  Some insisted that while the Gentiles could be saved by faith in Jesus as the Messiah, they must submit themselves to the Law of Moses.  In effect, in order to be saved, one must also become a Jewish proselyte.  Paul and Barnabas strongly opposed this requirement, and thus the Jerusalem Council was convened.  The end result was the decision that Gentile converts did not need to submit themselves to Jewish laws, but needed to observe a handful of prohibitions that would minimize offense to Jewish believers.  The implications of this decision were monumental, and the epistles will take this matter up in much greater detail.

Fulfillment

Another theme we find in the Book of Acts is that of fulfillment. There is, of course, the element of fulfillment in that Old Testament texts and promises are fulfilled in the Book of Acts.  Peter views the death of Judas as a fulfillment of Psalm 69:25.  Further, he believes that Psalm 109:8 will be fulfilled when they identify someone who will replace Judas (see Acts 1:15-26).  Peter’s sermon in Acts 2 is punctuated with Old Testament texts, which have been fulfilled in the Pentecost experience and in the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus Christ.  Later, in Acts 4, the saints in Jerusalem understand their persecution in the light of the Old Testament Scriptures, particularly Psalm 2.  Stephen’s sermon in Acts 7 is a concise survey of Old Testament history, with emphasis on Jewish resistance and rejection of God’s leaders and leadership.  Paul’s preaching also includes the element of fulfillment of the Old Testament (see Acts 13:41).

There is yet another aspect of fulfillment in Acts, and that is the fulfillment of Jesus’ words in the Gospels.  For example, we find the fulfillment of our Lord’s promises in John 14-16 regarding the coming and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  Luke also records our Lord’s instruction to wait for that which the Father promised (Luke 24:49).  We find the beginnings of the fulfillment of the Great Commission (e.g., Matthew 28:18-20).  We see Peter’s leadership as the fulfillment of our Lord’s words in Matthew 16:16-19.  We can also find the first fruits of our Lord’s warning to Israel that the kingdom will be taken from them and given to another people (Matthew 21:43), and of our Lord’s forewarning of coming persecution (John 15:18-21).  We see examples of our Lord’s promise of a Spirit-inspired response to unjust charges (Matthew 10:16-20).

These words are difficult to grasp when reading John’s Gospel:

12 I tell you the solemn truth, the person who believes in me will perform the miraculous deeds that I am doing,and will perform greater deeds than these, because I am going to the Father (John 14:12, emphasis mine).

But as we read through the Book of Acts, we can see what a great impact the gospel had on many Jews and even more Gentiles, because of the empowering work of the Holy Spirit in and through the apostles.

Prayer

It is fervent and persistent prayer in Acts 1 that precedes the coming of the Spirit in power in Acts 2.  Reference to prayer is found 31 times in the Book of Acts,¹¹more than any other New Testament book.  Prayer precedes nearly every significant event in Acts.  The lame man was healed as Peter and John made their way to the temple for prayer (Acts 3:1f.).  The church’s prayer for boldness was dramatically answered (Acts 4:23-31).  The apostles prayed and then laid hands on the seven“deacons”¹²they appointed to oversee the feeding of the widows, so that they could devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word (Acts 6:1-6).  Who can forget Stephen’s prayer, as he was dying:

59 They continued to stone Stephen while he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” 60 Then he fell to his knees and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” When he had said this, he died (Acts 7:59-60).

I believe that the conversion of Saul was an answer to this prayer.

Prayer played a significant part in the sending forth of Barnabas and Saul as the first missionaries from the church at Antioch (Acts 13:1-4).  Paul and those with him encountered Lydia at a place of prayer in Philippi, and thus she was the first recorded convert in Macedonia (Acts 16:13).  Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise just before the earthquake released them and paved the way for the conversion of the Philippian jailor and his family (Acts 16:22-34).  In the Book of Acts, when God’s people were moved to prayer, God did great and mighty works.

The Sovereignty of God

I have to admit that I did not recognize the sovereignty of God as a dominant theme in Acts the first time I taught through the book.  But the more I study Acts, the more I see that this is not the account of apostles and early saints who did everything right, thus prompting God to act.  Indeed, Acts presents flawed saints, through whom a sovereign God worked, often in spite of human failures.  And even when the apostles seemed to “do it right,” God chose to carry out His purposes in a different or somewhat modified way.  Let me seek to illustrate what I mean.

In Acts 1, Peter and those with him are prompted to fill Judas’ place as an apostle, and as a witness of our Lord’s resurrection.  The process appears to be a godly one.  They are prompted by Old Testament prophecies from the Book of Psalms.  They take action after prayer and discussion, when unity regarding their actions has been reached.  They nominate two men and leave the final selection to God.  What was done seems to be biblical and necessary.  And yet we never hear of Matthias again (by name).  He appears to play no significant role in the church.  But then in chapter 8, we are introduced to Saul, who is converted in chapter 9.  Saul, who becomes Paul in chapter 13, becomes not only an apostle, but the driving force behind the evangelization of the Gentiles.  The choice made by the apostles in Acts 1 appears to be overruled by God.  He will appoint His apostles His way.  We shall explore more about this in our next lesson in this series.

In Acts 6, we read of the appointment of the seven deacons, who are put in charge of the care and feeding of the widows in Jerusalem.  The problem was a serious one, threatening the unity of the church.  The solution that the apostles proposed appeared to be a wise thing to do. Highly qualified men (who all appear to be Hellenistic Jews) were selected and brought before the apostles, who commissioned them for this task.  The inference of the text is that the apostles appointed these seven men so that they, the apostles, could pray and preach – in other words, so that they could take the lead in evangelizing the lost.  The simple fact of the matter is that it was two of these“deacons”who became the frontrunners of evangelism, especially among those in Samaria and among the Gentiles.  Stephen became a powerful preacher (Acts 6:10), whose death precipitated such persecution that all the saints (except the apostles) had to flee Jerusalem (Acts 8:1-2), and thus take the gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 11:19-21).  Philip was sent to Samaria and was instrumental in the salvation of the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:4ff.).  And so it is that those who were appointed by the apostles to care for the widowsso that the apostles could minister the word of Godbecame more effective in their evangelistic ministry than the apostles they were to assist.

The “Great Commission” of Acts 1:8 is not carried out purposefully by the apostles who were given the commission, but it is carried out providentially by the persecution of Acts 8:1.  What the apostles didn’t initiate, God Himself initiated through the death of Stephen and the persecution of the church.

The sovereignty of God is also evident in the Book of Acts by the way He bestows His Spirit.  Acts illustrates what Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 12:

It is one and the same Spirit,distributing as he decidesto each person, who produces all these things (1 Corinthians 12:11, emphasis mine).

There is no simple “pattern” set down in Acts by which we receive the Spirit as the church did at Pentecost.  There is no formula that Christians can “plug in” in order to get what they desire.  God is sovereign, and He acts in sovereign freedom, as He wills.  Even when the church appears to “do it right,” God retains the right to do it His way, just so that men will recognize it is all of Him, and not of us.  He is the potter; we are the clay.  That is the way it is supposed to be.

Ways of Thinking through Acts

Before I close, I would like to suggest several “grids,” or ways of thinking through the Book of Acts.  There is, first of all, the geographical grid, which is set out at the beginning of the book:

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the farthest parts of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

I have already mentioned this, but we can see that the Book of Acts begins in Jerusalem and ends in Rome,“the remotest part of the earth”from a Jewish point of view.  We can thus see that our Lord’s Great Commission in Acts 1:8 is sovereignly accomplished in Acts, but in a very different way than anyone would have imagined.

Another grid would be to think of the Book of Acts in terms of its leading personalities.  The Book begins with Peter in the lead, along with John and their fellow apostles. But midway into Acts, we find that Paul has become the dominant personality in Acts, accompanied by his associates in ministry.

While the Book of Acts begins in Jerusalem with a predominantly Jewish church, it ends in Rome with a predominantly Gentile population.  The book begins with the proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus and the offer of the kingdom, and it ends with the rejection of the Jews in Rome and the refocusing of Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles.

I would suggest one final approach to the Book of Acts.  I believe that Acts is the repetition of the ministry of our Lord, accompanied by the repetition of the response of Judaism’s leadership to Jesus, as seen in the persecution of the apostles, the early church, and especially Paul.  Just as Jesus“set His face toward Jerusalem”(Luke 9:51, ESV, KJV, NKJV), so also Paul determined to go to Jerusalem, knowing what awaited him there (see Acts 21:10-14).

Conclusion

I hope these observations will convince you of the importance and relevance of the Book of Acts.  While we have four Gospels and numerous epistles, we have only this divinely-inspired account of the birth of the church and of the ministry of the apostles.  May God give you an appetite, a hunger, for this book.  And may we come to grasp more fully the crucial role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church (collectively), and in our lives (individually).

¹Copyright © 2005 by Community Bible Chapel, 418 E. Main Street, Richardson, TX 75081. This is the edited manuscript of Lesson 1 in theStudies in the Book of Actsseries prepared by Robert L. Deffinbaugh on September 18, 2005.  Anyone is at liberty to use this lesson for educational purposes only, with or without credit.  The Chapel believes the material presented herein to be true to the teaching of Scripture, and desires to further, not restrict, its potential use as an aid in the study of God’s Word.  The publication of this material is a grace ministry of Community Bible Chapel.

²Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the NET Bible. The NEW ENGLISH TRANSLATION, also known as THE NET BIBLE, is a completely new translation of the Bible, not a revision or an update of a previous English version.  It was completed by more than 20 biblical scholars who worked directly from the best currently available Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts.  The translation project originally started as an attempt to provide an electronic version of a modern translation for electronic distribution over the Internet and on CD (compact disk).  Anyone anywhere in the world with an Internet connection will be able to use and print out the NET Bible without cost for personal study.  In addition, anyone who wants to share the Bible with others can print unlimited copies and give them away free to others.  It is available on the Internet at:www.netbible.org.

³/seriespage/getting-ahead-god-acts-11-26

⁴See for example 2 Corinthians 3 and 4, the entire Book of Hebrews.

⁵See Romans 9-11.

⁶See Romans 9-11; Ephesians 2 and 3.

⁷See Romans 14-15.

⁸See 1 Timothy 1:7; Titus 1:10-14; 2 Corinthians 11, especially verse 22; Philippians 3; Revelation 3:9.

⁹This is evident in texts like Luke 4:16-30 and Acts 22:20-22.

¹⁰In Luke’s Gospel, the term“Pharisee”is found (singular and plural) 26 times.  In Acts, this same term occurs only six times.  In Luke,“Sadducees”is found once, while it occurs five times in Acts.

¹¹31 times in the NET Bible; 30 times in ESV; 29 times in NASV.

¹²The noun form used to designate deacons is not found in this text, but a form of the same root is employed to describe their function.

December 13, 2015

Since Paul is talking in our text about his ministry, I thought about titling this message, “How to be a Good Minister.” But I was afraid that if you saw that title in advance, you might think that it was a good week to skip church! Being a good minister may be interesting for seminary students or a group of pastors or missionaries, but what relevance does being a good minister have for those who are not in “full time” ministry?

The answer is, “It is extremely relevant for every Christian!” If you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, then you are just as much a minister of Christ as I am. The word translated “minister” (Col. 1:23, 25) means “servant.” Every Christian is a servant of Jesus Christ. Every Christian has been given spiritual gifts to use in serving the Master. “Church benchwarmer” is not one of the gifts! Every member of the body has a ministry to fulfill.

But maybe you’re thinking, “Okay, but I’ve never been to seminary and I’m not a full time Christian worker as you are. I can’t devote the time to serving the Lord that you do.” True, but the apostle Paul never went to seminary. And he made tents to support his ministry. But he saw his ministry as a stewardship given to him by God. He knew that he would give an account to God for the ministry that God had entrusted to him. And so he worked hard to be a good minister. He wanted to serve Christ well.

So should you. Perhaps you’ve never thought about it before, but the question, “How can I be a good minister (servant) of Jesus Christ?” should be on your mind often. One day soon you will stand before the Lord for judgment of what you have done with what He entrusted to you (Rom. 14:10; 2 Cor. 5:10). How did you use your time? How did you manage the money He allowed you to make? How did you use your spiritual gifts?

But perhaps you’re still thinking, “But my gifts are pretty insignificant. I never could prepare and preach a sermon, as you do every week. I’m not gifted as an evangelist. I don’t have millions of dollars to give to the Lord’s work. So I don’t have an important role in the Lord’s work.”

If that describes you, then you must be especially careful! In Jesus’ parable of the talents (Matt. 25:14-30), the master gave five talents (a “talent” was a large sum of money) to one servant, two to another, and one to the third. The man with five invested them and made five more. The man with two made two more. But the man with one hid it and gave it back to the master. The master called him a wicked, lazy, worthless slave and threw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The clear warning of that parable is that the servant with one talent is in the greatest danger of not using it for the master’s purpose. Not serving Christ at all is a sign that you don’t belong to Him. So even “one-talent Christians” should be vitally interested in the question, “How can I be a good minister or servant of Jesus Christ?” How can I serve Christ well? Paul’s answer here is:

We serve Christ well by exalting Him in every way.

Paul was writing against the backdrop of the false teachers who were infecting the Colossian church. They diminished the person and work of Christ, so Paul has exalted Christ as preeminent over everything that is. The false teachers no doubt knew that Paul had trained Epaphras who had brought the gospel to them. But to build themselves up, they probably tore Paul down. Perhaps they were saying, “If Christ is the Sovereign Lord of the universe and if Paul is His servant, then why is Paul in jail? Don’t follow a jailbird; follow us!”

So in verse 23, Paul mentions that he was made (or became) a minister of the gospel. In Colossians 1:24-29, he expands on that topic, showing how he exalted Christ in his ministry. In so doing, he shows us how we can serve Christ well in whatever He has given us to do for Him. I can only work through verse 27 in this message. Paul shows us how we can exalt Christ in trials (Col. 1:24); in our service (Col. 1:25); and in our message (Col. 1:26-27).

1. We exalt Christ in our trials by enduring them joyfully for His and His church’s sake (Col. 1:24).

Colossians 1:24: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.” This is a difficult verse for two reasons: It’s difficult to explain and it’s difficult to apply.

When you come to a difficult verse, the principle for interpretation is, always interpret the difficult verse in light of the clear. The difficult verse will never contradict the clear verses. And it is clear both in Paul’s writings and in the entire New Testament that Christ’s suffering on the cross was complete and sufficient for the salvation of all who trust in Him.

Jesus Himself proclaimed just before He died (John 19:30), “It is finished.” The atonement that He procured for sinners was complete. In Colossians 1:12-14, Paul makes it clear that in Christ we have an inheritance, we have been rescued from Satan’s domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of Christ, and we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. In Colossians 2:10, Paul says, “In Him you have been made complete.” He goes on to show that the death and resurrection of Christ resulted in all our sins being forgiven and in Christ’s complete victory over the powers of darkness. Many other verses in Paul’s writings and in the Book of Hebrews could be piled up to show that in terms of salvation, nothing was lacking in Christ’s sufferings. So this verse does not mean that somehow Christ’s suffering on the cross was insufficient for our salvation so that Paul or anyone else needed to complete it.

Paul isn’t talking here about salvation, but rather about service. The word translated “afflictions” is not used elsewhere in the New Testament of Christ’s sacrificial sufferings for our salvation (J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon [Zondervan], p. 166). So Paul does not mean and the New Testament never teaches that in some way we by our suffering must add merit to Christ’s sacrificial death that paid for our sins.

Then what does Paul mean by this statement? Many views have been suggested, but I think that two offer the best explanation. First, Jesus taught that His followers must suffer because of their identification with Him. He told the disciples (John 15:20-21),

“Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.”

In the Olivet Discourse, Jesus prophesied that before He returned, there would be a time of unprecedented suffering for His followers (Matt. 24:9, 21-22). In Revelation 6:9-11, the apostle John saw the martyrs in heaven, who were crying out, asking God how long would it be until their blood was avenged. The Lord told them (Rev. 6:11) to rest for a little while longer, “until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also.” So there is a sense in which Christ’s sufferings must be filled up or completed by His body, the church, before He returns. Because the church is His body, when any member suffers for His name, Jesus also suffers. As Paul learned on the Damascus Road, when he persecuted the church, he persecuted Jesus Himself (Acts 9:4).

But also, Christ’s sufferings do not need completion in terms of propitiation, but rather in terms of propagation. Christ’s death provided perfect atonement for all who believe, but people can’t believe unless Christ’s followers go everywhere proclaiming the good news. As Paul put it (Rom. 10:14), “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?” (John Piper develops this explanation in Desiring God [Multnomah Books], 1996 ed., pp. 223-238).

William Barclay offers a helpful illustration (Flesh and Spirit [Baker], pp. 80-81). He affirms that the work of Christ is done and completed. No one can add to it. But he supposes a great scientist or surgeon who has spent his life and ruined his health to find some cure for a disease. That discovery remains useless unless it is taken out of the laboratory and made available for people all over the world. Those who take it to others may have to sweat and toil and risk their lives to do it. They aren’t adding to the scientist’s work. But it may be rightly said that they are completing the sufferings of the scientist by taking his discovery to the far corners of the earth. The thing lacking in Christ’s afflictions is not the full salvation He secured on the cross, but the price that His followers must pay in the struggle against the powers of darkness to take the salvation Christ offers to every person.

But if that is Paul’s meaning, it is still difficult to apply to us American Christians because very few of us know what it means to suffer for the gospel of Christ. Our brothers and sisters around the world know it very well, as you are aware if you read “Voice of the Martyrs” magazine. The way things are going in this country, we may soon get our turn. But in addition to praying for and helping those in other countries who are suffering for Christ’s sake, how can we apply this here and now?

First, note that Paul is not only talking about suffering for Christ’s sake, but suffering joyfully. He was in prison and he tells the Colossians (1:24), “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake.” Paul rejoiced that his sufferings for Christ would help the new Colossian church to stand firm when they suffered. Our Lord also told us (Matt. 5:11-12):

“Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

His words give us a hint for how we can apply this short of being imprisoned or beaten or dying for our faith. If it comes to that, I trust that the Holy Spirit will give us the power to rejoice. But in the meantime, we should rejoice when people insult us and falsely say all kinds of evil against us because of Christ. Perhaps you’re teaching Sunday school or you’re on a worship team or you’re working behind the scenes to serve, and someone criticizes you or they even lie about you. They gossip to others, maligning your motives. What do you do?

I’ve seen wounded Christians quit serving the Lord. Some have even dropped out of church and in a few cases, stopped following Christ. I’ve seen pastors leave the ministry because of criticism. But what should you do? You may need to talk to the critic to try to get things cleared up and to be reconciled in your relationship. But first, you need to rejoice! Count it a privilege that you have been considered worthy to suffer shame for Jesus’ name (Acts 5:41). In some small way, you are filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions! When you endure trials joyfully for Christ’s sake and for His church’s sake, you exalt Him.

2. We exalt Christ in our service by doing it in the power of His Spirit as stewards appointed by Him (Col. 1:25).

Colossians 1:25: “Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, …” Twice (Col. 1:23, 25) Paul says that he was made or became a minister. How did this happen? Did Paul take an aptitude test where the results indicated, “You’d be good as a minister”? No! In Galatians 1:15, Paul says that God had set him apart from his mother’s womb.

In Acts 9 we read how it happened. As Paul approached Damascus where he planned to persecute and imprison Christians, a light from heaven flashed around him, he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying (Acts 9:4), “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” Saul asked (Acts 9:5), “Who are You, Lord?” The Lord answered (Acts 9:5b-6), “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do.” Then the Lord told Ananias to go and lay hands on Paul so that he might regain his sight. When Ananias expressed concerns about doing that for a known terrorist, the Lord replied (Acts 9:15-16),

“Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.”

That’s how Paul became a minister of the gospel: he was not a volunteer for Jesus; he was a conscript! It wasn’t Paul’s chosen career path. Rather, the crucified and risen Lord laid His hand on Paul and said, like the old Army posters, “I want you to serve Me!” Paul didn’t join God’s army; he was drafted!

Maybe you’re thinking, “Wow, I’m glad that the Lord hasn’t called me into the ministry!” But as I said, if you know Christ, He has called you into the ministry. He has called you to serve Him with whatever spiritual gifts, time, and resources He has entrusted to you. It may not be a calling to preach God’s Word, as Paul’s calling was. But whatever your gifts and calling, you can learn something from Paul’s statement that he “might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God” (literally, “make full the word of God”). In Romans 15:18-19, Paul refers to what Christ had accomplished through him in the power of the Spirit and then adds, “so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached [or, ‘fulfilled’] the gospel of Christ.” In 2 Timothy 4:17, he tells how the Lord strengthened him “so that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished.”

So the idea is, however God has gifted you, you will only fulfill your calling if you rely on the power of the Spirit and trust the Lord to accomplish His work through you. As Jesus said (John 15:4-5), it is only when we abide in Him as branches in the vine that we can bear much fruit. So view yourself as a steward appointed by Christ to do whatever He’s given you to do. Then do it joyfully in reliance on His Spirit, seeking to glorify the Lord who bought you and rescued you from the domain of darkness. Your ministry is not about fulfilling you, but about exalting the Lord.

So we serve Christ well by exalting Him in every way. We exalt Him in our trials by enduring them joyfully for His and His church’s sake. We exalt Him in our service by doing it in the power of His Spirit as His stewards because He appointed us.

3. We exalt Christ in our message by proclaiming God’s revelation about the indwelling Christ and the hope of glory for everyone who believes (Col. 1:26-27).

Colossians 1:26-27: “that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Paul calls his message “the mystery.” Probably he was playing upon a term which the false teachers used. They taught that you had to be initiated into their inner circle to understand the mysteries or secret truths which they would reveal to you. Paul says that the gospel message, especially that the Gentiles could be full partners along with the Jews, is a mystery; not in the sense that it is known only by a select few, but in the sense that it was formerly unknown, but now God has revealed it. The Old Testament predicted salvation for the Gentiles. But God had to reveal the previously unknown truth that the Gentiles would be fellow-heirs with the Jews, one body in Christ with them.

When Paul says, “Christ in you” (Col. 1:27), he means, in this context, “Christ in you Gentiles.” For Paul, this was a glorious truth, but I fear that we don’t appreciate it as much as we should. Before the cross of Christ which opened the gospel to both Jews and Gentiles on equal standing, Gentiles were at best second-class citizens in the kingdom. Gentiles could become proselytes to Judaism, but they could only enter into the court of the women and Gentiles in the Temple. They could not go into the inner court where the Jewish men went. There was a waist-high wall of partition which separated them. Before his conversion Paul was at the forefront of perpetuating this discrimination.

But once he was saved, God revealed to him that the Gentiles are fellow-heirs of the gospel with the Jews. The wall of partition is removed in Christ (Eph. 2:14). As he writes in Colossians 3:11, “there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.” Christ is in every believer and every believer is in Christ! And the church should be the place where those cultural walls of prejudice are torn down as a demonstration of the power of the gospel. We exalt Christ in our message when we proclaim that the glorious riches of the indwelling Christ are for every person from every race. Racial prejudice has no place in the church.

Paul says that the riches of the glory of the gospel is, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” I know that you all know that if you have believed in Jesus Christ, He dwells in you and you’re going to heaven. I know it, too. But do we really know it?

If we really knew that the living Christ was in us this past week and that we will soon be with Him in glory, would things have gone any differently? Would we have been impatient, frustrated, angry, grumbling, or depressed if we had stopped to consider that Christ is living in us and we’re destined to share His glory? Would we have spent our time as we spent it if we had been aware of His holy presence in our hearts and thought about being with Him in glory? Would we have grown cold in our devotion to Him and lacked the motivation to read His Word and to pray if we had felt the reality of Christ dwelling in our hearts and had our hope set on the glory ahead? Christianity is not primarily rules or religious ideas; it’s a personal relationship with the living, indwelling Christ, who has called us to share His glory. We exalt Him when we experience and proclaim that message.

Conclusion

Ever since my college days (many decades ago), I’ve had a recurring dream where it’s the end of the semester and I realize that I haven’t been going to a class or doing the assignments and it’s time for the final exam. I panic! It’s a nightmare!

If you know Christ, you’re enrolled in the course called “ministry.” There are assignments and there will be a final exam! Maybe before this message, you didn’t even know you were enrolled in the course. But now you know. Your grade will be based on, “Did you serve Christ well by exalting Him in every way?” Did you exalt Him in your trials by enduring them joyfully for His sake? Did you exalt Him in your service by doing it in the power of His Spirit as a steward appointed by Him? Did you exalt Him in your message by proclaiming that Christ indwells you and will indwell every person who trusts in Him and that He promises glory for every believer? Remember, you’re in the ministry now!

Application Questions

1. Should every Christian view his job as “tent-making” to support his ministry? Why/why not?
2. How should a new believer discover where God want him or her to serve?
3. How should we respond when we’re serving the Lord and catch criticism? What steps should we take?
4. Practically, how can we gain a deeper sense of Christ’s indwelling presence and of the hope of glory?

Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2015, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

January 3, 2016

We live in a time of unprecedented widespread deception. The past year saw 750 documented data breaches, stealing the private information of 178 million Americans. When identity thieves get your credit card numbers they can print up phony cards and take out cash or run up bills in your name. When they steal your Social Security number, they can file a tax form and steal your tax refund.

Telephone scammers prey on everyone, but especially on the elderly. The biggest scam is fraudsters who pose as agents of the IRS, telling people that they will be arrested or their property seized for back taxes if they do not pay up immediately. Another popular scam consists of people posing as employees of tech companies who tell you that your computer has a virus. They need remote access to your computer and your passwords so that they can “fix” the problems. And, for a fee, they will provide a year’s worth of “tech support.” (These statistics and examples are from an AARP email, 12/23/15.)

While these schemes can cost people financially, spiritual deception can result in a person’s eternal ruin. Satan has been employing his deceptive lies since the Garden. Warning the Corinthians about not receiving a false Jesus or a different gospel, the apostle Paul wrote (2 Cor. 11:3), “But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.”

Satan has used the false teaching of the cults to lure many away from the true gospel that the apostles preached. Invariably, these groups prey on unsuspecting, untaught people in evangelical churches. They use the Bible and claim to believe in Jesus as Savior and Lord. But they deny the trinity, including Jesus’ deity. They deny the gospel of Christ’s substitutionary atonement and salvation by grace through faith alone. Tragically, they lead their followers into eternal damnation.

As we’ve seen, false teachers were threatening the new Colossian church. They probably had not yet gained many followers—at this point Paul was still “rejoicing to see [their] good discipline and the stability of [their] faith in Christ” (Col. 2:5). But these wolves were mingling among the flock, so Paul was concerned. In our text, he gives them a dose of preventative medicine. He wrote these things “so that no one would delude [them] with persuasive argument” (Col. 2:4). To be forewarned was to be forearmed. Since the eternal destiny of precious souls is at stake, we need to heed his counsel on how to avoid spiritual deception. To sum up:

We avoid spiritual deception by being committed to a loving, Christ-centered church.

Before we explore Paul’s counsel, I mention that these verses could be expounded in a different direction. Paul is continuing to talk about his ministry (Col. 1:24-29). In Colossians 1:29, he said that he was striving according to God’s mighty power. In Colossians 2:1, he uses the same Greek word to tell his readers that he had a great struggle on their behalf, which he goes on to describe. So we could develop these verses along the lines of some vital principles for ministry:

(1) Heartfelt love and concern for the spiritual well-being of the church (including these people whom he had never met); (2) prayer (“struggle”) undergirding everything; (3) a strong emphasis on teaching the truth along with loving relationships; (4) being Christ-centered and Christ-exalting in such teaching; (5) warning newer believers about the danger of being carried away by false teachers who like to prey on the flock; (6) encouraging others to be disciplined and stand firm in Christ.

But you’ll have to work on those points on your own. I want to pursue the theme of avoiding spiritual deception, because it is no less a threat in our day than it was in Paul’s.

1. To avoid spiritual deception, recognize that it is a serious danger.

Over 40 years ago, Marla and I were mugged at gunpoint as we walked from our car to our apartment in Dallas, Texas. After that traumatic event, I never made that short walk without looking around for potential danger. I often saw women standing near where we were mugged, chatting together without a thought that they may be in a dangerous place. But after we were attacked, I was always alert and on guard. Even to this day, if I venture outside in a public place after dark, I keep my eyes open for possible attackers. If you’re unaware of potential danger, you’re more likely to fall prey to it.

The problem with spiritual deception is that it’s always more subtle and conniving than an armed, frontal attack. Paul warned that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light and his servants as servants of righteousness (2 Cor. 11:14-15). Satan doesn’t come in a red suit with horns and a pitchfork, laughing wickedly as he promises to take you with him to hell. He comes offering greater “light” on difficult issues. His servants are not outwardly, obviously evil. They pose as servants of righteousness, promising freedom, while inwardly they are enslaved by various lusts (2 Pet. 2:18-19). Jesus warned about wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matt. 7:15). Their disguise enabled them to mix among the flock, but their aim was to destroy for their own gain.

In our text (Col. 2:4), Paul warns about those who would “delude you with persuasive argument.” They were promising “deeper knowledge of mysteries” and “secret wisdom” that would help you in your Christian life. But they were promoting a message that appealed to the flesh. They claimed to have a deeper philosophy than the simple gospel of faith in Christ. They claimed to be holier than the apostles because of their self-abasement, rules, and severe treatment of the body (Col. 2:23). But they were promoting a religion that feeds pride, not the message of the cross.

It’s amazing how many different false teachings and teachers continue to prey on the Lord’s flock in our day. I recently saw an article on a “Bible study” group in Colorado where everyone smokes pot (which is legal there and coming here soon!). The members testified that studying the Bible in traditional churches had always been boring to them, but when they smoke pot, they see new insights and the Bible is much more interesting. And a local pastor is helping them study the Bible without confronting their drug use!

Beyond that, the cults are as active as ever, going door-to-door in our neighborhoods and recruiting people by appealing to their “strong family emphasis.” Among professing evangelicals, there are “churches” that gather in bars and sip cocktails while they discuss the Bible and current topics of interest. Seeker sensitive churches avoid mentioning anything negative, such as sin or judgment, which might make seekers feel uncomfortable. Rather than explain and apply the Bible, they show movie clips and give self-help messages about how you can succeed in your marriage or career. They picture God as our Good Buddy on the journey, a “life-coach” who is there rooting for us, even when we sin. If we’re oblivious to these and many other deceptive schemes of the devil, we’re more likely to fall prey to them.

2. To avoid spiritual deception, be committed to a loving church.

Let me be quick to add that “loving” isn’t the only criterion! The cults draw people in by showing them “love.” Perhaps the most egregious example was the Children of God cult, where the women used sex to lure unsuspecting men into the group. But other less flagrant examples abound, where the cults offer lonely people a sense of belonging and fellowship. So love is not the only necessary quality to look for.

But it is an essential quality. Paul’s heartfelt love and concern for these believers whom he had not even met is evident. Although not directly stated here, his concern for them is similar to his concern for the new Thessalonian believers, where he compares himself to a gentle, nursing mother and to a loving, concerned father (1 Thess. 2:7, 11). In Colossians 2:2, he expresses his desire or prayer for these dear people, along with the believers in Laodicea, “that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself ….” That reminds me of Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians (3:16-19):

… that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

In both prayers, Paul connects spiritual apprehension of God’s blessings in Christ with being a part of a loving fellowship of believers. F. F. Bruce observed (The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians [Eerdmans], p. 95), “Paul emphasizes that the revelation of God cannot be properly known apart from the cultivation of brotherly love within the community.” N. T. Wright (Colossians and Philemon [IVP/Eerdmans], pp. 94-95) explains, “Living in a loving and forgiving community will assist growth in understanding, and vice versa, as truth is confirmed in practice and practice enables truth to be seen in action and so to be fully grasped.” Our text implies three qualities of a loving church:

A. A loving church is a praying church.

Although it’s not directly stated, most commentators think that Paul’s great “struggle” for these believers whom he had not met was his struggle in prayer. He uses the verb related to that noun when he refers (Col. 4:12) to Epaphras, who is “always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers.” We get our word “agonizing” from this Greek word. It was used of wrestlers, straining every fiber in their bodies as they struggled to defeat their opponents. In Colossians 4:2-3, Paul specifically calls this church to prayer: “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us as well ….”

There are two things to take away from this. First, if you love people, you will pray for them. If they’re on your heart, you take them often before God’s throne of grace, asking Him to keep them from the many snares of this world and to help them to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. I encourage you to pray through our church directory. Even if you don’t know these people (Paul didn’t know the Colossians or Laodiceans personally), it puts them on your heart. When you meet them, there is an instant bond of fellowship if you’ve been praying for them.

Second, the word “struggle” implies that praying for others is not easy. If you find praying for others to be difficult, welcome to the process! As Paul says in Ephesians 6:12, we are doing battle against “the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

B. A loving church practices heartfelt concern for one another.

Paul’s heart of concern for these new believers oozes through this text, and he wants their hearts to be encouraged or strengthened as they are knit together in love. True Christianity is a matter of the heart or inward person. It’s not about outward conformity or appearance, but about love for God and one another from the heart. It’s not about keeping up an image or veneer of righteousness by rules, but rather about how we think and live when others aren’t looking.

C. A loving church seeks the highest good of each person, namely, to know Christ and grow in Him.

As we saw in Colossians 1:28, Paul’s aim was to present every person complete or mature in Christ. Love seeks the highest good of others, which is, that the person knows Christ in a saving way and that he or she is growing in Christ. Since sin always destroys people, love means that if you see a brother or sister in sin or straying from the Lord, you go to them in a humble, gentle spirit and seek to restore them to the Lord (Gal. 6:1). If you hear a fellow Christian saying things that are contrary to sound doctrine, you talk with him and try to reason from Scripture to show him his error.

So to avoid spiritual deception, be aware of the danger. Be committed to a loving church. There is safety when you’re in the fold with the other sheep. If you venture out on your own, the wolves are waiting!

3. To avoid spiritual deception, be committed to a Christ-centered church.

In chapter 1, Paul has shown that as the creator of the universe and the head of the church, Christ is supreme over all things. He said that the riches of the glory of the mystery that God has now revealed is, “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). In Colossians 2:2b-3, probably countering the false teachers who emphasized their secret knowledge of the mysteries of God, Paul comes back to that theme and says that he wants these believers to attain “to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” He also (Col. 2:5) commends their “good discipline and the stability of [their] faith in Christ.” Clearly, Christ and the gospel must be the center of a solid church. Note five things:

A. A Christ-centered church is a Bible-centered church.

The Bible is our only source of divine revelation about the person and work of Jesus Christ and the Bible is Christ-centered. The Old Testament points ahead to Jesus. As Alec Motyer asserts (A Christian’s Pocket Guide to Loving the Old Testament [Christian Focus], p. 19, 25), “Without the Old Testament, we could not know Jesus properly…. Without the Old Testament we would not understand our New Testament properly.” The Gospels tell us how God took on human flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. The rest of the New Testament interprets and applies the person, teaching, and work of Christ. The final book of the New Testament, the Revelation, points to His second coming in power and glory.

So if a church is not centered on the Bible, it is not centered on Jesus Christ. If a church does not teach the Bible on a consistent basis, you will not be equipped to withstand the deceptive schemes of the devil. In a genuinely loving church, you will receive sound teaching, both from the pulpit and from mature believers. Sometimes, sound teaching will confront where your life is not in line with God’s revealed will. Don’t dodge that! It’s easy to find churches that tell you what you want to hear to make you feel good. You need a church that, like a good doctor, tells you what you need to hear for spiritual health and growth (2 Tim. 4:1-5).

B. A Christ-centered church is a spiritually discerning church.

Discernment is a scarce commodity in modern evangelical circles. If you advocate discernment, you’ll be accused of being judgmental or intolerant. When I first came here 23 years ago, one of the elders told me that I was arrogant because I had titled one of my sermons, “What the Bible Says About Abortion.” When I asked him to explain, he said, “You can’t be dogmatic. You can’t say what the Bible says about anything. You can only state your opinion, but be open to other views.”

I agree that there are some secondary matters where we must not be dogmatic and I agree that we must be kind and gracious when we defend the truth (2 Tim. 2:24-26). But I disagree strongly that we must be tolerant and accepting of diverse views on clear biblical doctrines and moral issues. Without sound doctrine and biblically-based discernment, God’s people will be “carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming” (Eph. 4:14).

C. A Christ-centered church is growing to understand all the treasures of wisdom and understanding that are in Christ.

Paul says that full assurance comes from understanding and knowing God’s mystery, which is Christ (the best manuscripts omit, “of the Father”). When Paul says that Christ is God’s “mystery,” and that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are “hidden” in Him, he does not mean that these things are reserved for an elite, insider few. Rather, he is countering the false teachers, who appealed to people with their inside secrets. By “mystery,” Paul means truth that formerly was concealed, but now is plainly revealed for all to see. The Old Testament promised the coming Redeemer and King, but the specifics were blurry until Jesus came on the scene, much like we’re fuzzy on the details about end time prophecies that have not yet been fulfilled.

By saying that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are “hidden” in Christ, Paul is reflecting Proverbs 2:4-5, which says of wisdom, understanding, and discernment:

If you seek her as silver
And search for her as for hidden treasures;
Then you will discern the fear of the Lord
And discover the knowledge of God.

It takes some effort and diligence to mine out the riches that are in Christ. But the point is, He is our all-sufficient treasure for our every need. As W. H. Griffith Thomas states (Studies in Colossians and Philemon [Kregel], p. 78), “The only safeguard against error for the Christian is a full knowledge of Christ.”

D. A Christ-centered church practices unity on essential biblical truth, and loving tolerance on non-essentials.

“Knit together” sometimes means “instructed.” But it also means “knit or held together” (see Col. 2:19), which is probably the meaning here. But note that the unity is not divorced from understanding and true knowledge of Christ. As Paul states in Ephesians 4:13, 15, we are to attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God as we speak the truth in love.

There are core biblical truths that we must understand clearly and be willing to fight for and, if necessary, divide over or even die for. To compromise these truths would be to deny the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are other areas of doctrine and practice where godly people differ. While some of these areas are important for how we live, they do not jeopardize the gospel. We may debate these issues vigorously, but we must always regard the other person as a brother or sister in Christ and treat him or her with love.

E. A Christ-centered church is disciplined and stable in its faith in Christ.

“Good discipline” and “stability” picture a military unit that is disciplined in its fighting order, that has closed ranks so that the false teachers cannot break through. Sam Storms (samstorms.com) writes:

The word translated “good order” points to the well-ordered behavior of the Colossians. He has in mind lives that are aligned with biblical revelation, daily habits of life that reflect the values of Jesus, unwavering obedience to the will of God, no matter how unpopular or “unsuccessful” that may prove to be.

“Stability” is the opposite of trendy, flashy, or sensational. Stable churches don’t chase after the latest fad or church growth techniques. They don’t keep people hyped up with speculations about how close we may be to the rapture (because we can’t know exactly when Jesus will return). They don’t promote the latest self-help insights on how you can have a successful life, marriage, or career. Stable churches, frankly, are kind of boring! But we are to be stable in our faith in Christ. The biblical gospel is a sure foundation to guard us against spiritual deception.

Conclusion

In The Truth War [Thomas Nelson, 2007], John MacArthur argues that faithfulness to Christ demands that we fight for the truth of the gospel. But the modern evangelical church, swayed by the worldly emphasis on tolerance and “love,” has become apathetic to the whole concept of truth. In the introduction, he states (p. xvii), “Church leaders are obsessed with style and methodology, losing interest in the glory of God and becoming grossly apathetic about truth and sound doctrine.” He adds (p. xviii, brackets in original), “What we desperately need today are ‘shepherds according to [God’s] heart, who will feed [believers] with knowledge and understanding’ (Jeremiah 3:15; Acts 20:28-31).”

That’s what Paul was arguing for in our text. The enemy has many servants who are trying to delude you with their persuasive arguments to water down the truth about Christ. But you can avoid spiritual deception by being committed to a loving, Christ-centered church.

Application Questions

1. Most people join cults because of relationships or feelings, not doctrines. What are the practical implications of this?
2. Why are churches that emphasize love often weak on doctrine and vice versa? How can we lovingly hold firmly to the truth?
3. Discuss: Is it arrogant to believe that you know the truth on specific biblical issues?
4. How can we differentiate a major doctrine worth dividing over from a lesser doctrine where we need to show tolerance?

Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2016, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation