Paul said he was constantly concerned about the welfare of the Christians in all the Churches
2 Corinthians 11:28 ‘Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches’
Through Paul’s ministry, Ephesus becomes the 2nd most important Missions Church, only behind Paul’s home Church – Antioch in Syria Acts 19: 10
From Paul’s Letters to the Corinthians, we can see the stress that he was suffering
2 Corinthians 1:8 ‘We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself’.
Do you know what causes stress? = Over-load
Do you know what relieves stress? = Sharing the work-load, working together as One
In much of Christian literature today there is an over emphasis on elevating Man, of making Man central in all that Christianity is about; today we have a very different belief of what it means to be a Christian than the bulk of people have believed in previous centuries.
One essential difference is the truth of the Sovereignty of God.
Do you really understand how you actually became a Christian? Do you believe the world can be ‘Christianized’?
These questions, and others, stem from how we look at the matter of the Sovereignty of God.
Randomness
You need to understand that God actually chose you to know Him.
So often we have the teaching that emphasize that we are the ones to be educated into what Christianity is all about, and then we can choose to become a Christian and then join a Church. However the Bible constantly speaks about the fact that it is God Who does the choosing.
This truth leads to a deepening of our sense of salvation assurance and builds a courageous belief in God’s mighty plan for our life.
Your salvation is not random, you are known by God, and the purpose that God has for your life is planned.
Random means acting without purpose or plan, resulting in an undetermined outcome.
When saying God doesn’t do random, this means that God doesn’t act randomly
Imagine sitting in a room full of people attentively listening to me as I hold some tennis balls in my hand: I turn away from the audience and then lob balls over my head in all directions. The result would be that I have no idea where the balls will land, who will or will not catch them. There is the possibility that no one will catch them, which is random.
Consider that according to ‘scientists’, billions of years ago there was nothing, then suddenly there was a big bang! As a result, life began as a random collision of particles, then a single cell as formed. That cell grew (over billions of years of course) into an organism and after a while this organism grew into an amphibian…which grew into a monkey…which grew into Mankind.
And according to science we are to believe that we should have a random view of life too, a life without purpose or plan. If we believe this, then, should we not accept that mankind is doomed to become extinct as it continues to evolve into something else? In contradiction to their own belief, evolutionary scientists believe we have reached the pinnacle of our evolution.
A life without purpose or plan though means that we are living a life falsely trusting in…chance, luck, fate, fortune, coincidence, accident, astrology, false gods, karma, and a ‘we will wait and see what happens next’ attitude, all of us subject to the randomness of the Universe.
A belief in the randomness of life actually equals belief in a life without God and many Christians have unknowingly been affected by this belief, feeling that God is remote and even absent from their life, having little or no sense of assurance of their salvation. ‘Maybe I am saved or maybe I am not’.
They live their lives without purpose or plan, having no idea what God wants them to do with their life.
However, as a Christian you should know that God loves you, because He chose you. He chose you to be saved and He has an amazing purpose and plan for your life.
God doesn’t do random, He acts with a purpose and plan in your life with an outcome in mind.
From the Bible we read of many accounts of the choosing by God of nations and people, but in particular consider passages from the letter to the Ephesians. Remember that this letter is to Christians not to the entire world. Ephesians 1: 1-14 ‘…by the will of God……Grace and Peace to you from God….Who has blessed us….for He chose us…. He predestined us to be adopted as His sons….in accordance with His pleasure and good will….glorious grace, which He has freely given us… in Him we have the redemption….in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us….He made known to us the mystery of His will which He purposed in Christ…in Him we were also chosen being predestined according to the plan…everything in conformity with the purpose of His will….you also were included in Christ….the gospel of your salvation…..having believed you are marked in Him with a seal….guaranteeing our inheritance…God’s possession…to the praise of His glory.’
There is nothing random in the truth of these verses, only the Sovereignty of God; God’s purpose and plan, with a predetermined outcome. He chose us and therefore our salvation is assured.
Now consider a scene where a person takes an object, say a small wooden cross, and walks over and gives it to a particular person. It is not thrown to them, not thrown randomly in their vicinity; it is given to them, freely and without conditions attached. This shows a deliberate act, a deliberate choosing, a deliberate seeking out of the person to give it to, and a deliberate outcome.
Consider now that God chose you to know Him. He chose you to be filled with the fullness of Christ. He chose you and gave his Son, Jesus, to die on the cross. And as you live for Him you will be a blessing to your Church, your friends, your family, and your associates and live a life to the full.
The Sovereignty of God
God is all knowing and all powerful, acting with purpose and plan with predetermined outcomes over all things.
You may ask, ‘What about my rights, don’t I get a say about what happens in my life’?
Let us explore the matter further.
God’s sovereignty is based on the fact that God made all things and owns all things and can do whatever He pleases with His Creation, us.
Consider the story of Job in the Old Testament. Job 41:11, ‘Everything under heaven belongs to Me’, and Job 41:11b, ‘I am in charge of all this, I run the universe.’
God allowed Job to suffer, for a particular purpose. His friends all tried to persuade Job that his loyalty to God was in error. Even his wife tried to dissuade him. Yet Job continued to honour God, and after a period of suffering Job had his life and wealth restored to even greater than what he had previously.
Did Job get a chance to exercise his rights? Of course he didn’t. He had shown that he lived a life that honoured God before a series of disasters happened to him. He had learnt that God had been with him before and trusted, though at times faintly, that God would still be with him in the future. His faith was eventually rewarded.
God in His Sovereignty raises up and blesses nations, kings and people.
King Solomon honoured God and was raised up to be a light to all the nations around him. Even today we talk about the wisdom of Solomon.
The Hebrew people (Israel) andChinashare the oldest, and time wise, the longest history and culture of the Nations of the World; both began about 2,700 BC.
Many of the first great leaders of China recognised the same Sovereign God as the Hebrew people did. The Hebrews called Him YHWH, The Chinese called Him Shang Di. With a Godly Emperor on the throne, the Chinese nation was blessed (as wasIsrael), but when an un-Godly Emperor was on the throne, the nation suffered, (as didIsrael).
From 2,700 BC – 700 BCChinawas blessed with mainly good Emperors and from 700BC – 1300ADChinawas not blessed as previously because it had weak Emperors.
During this 2000 year period the knowledge of the Sovereign God almost disappeared and gave way to Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism. Yet today in the Forbidden City inBeijingthere are records of ancient ceremonies that clearly show a part of the history ofChinathat has almost been forgotten.
Even after the period of Maoist control and the persecution of Christians, there are millions of Christians inChinatoday. These numbers are growing daily and Shang Di is being honoured once again.
God’s Sovereignty can also bring down and curse nations, Kings and people that oppose him.
King Nebuchadnezzar opposed God and became very proud of his own accomplishments. God brought him down and caused him to live like an animal for a period of time. However, when he submitted to God, then God raised him up again, Daniel 4:31-37.
During the time of the Israelites period inBabylon, Daniel, the ‘man of God’, spent time as a slave. He was thrown into a den of lions because he refused to dishonour God. Supposedly the lions would kill and eat him, yet God had other plans for Daniel and exercising His Sovereignty, he shut up the lion’s mouths so that Daniel was safe. The King then released him and showed honour to God. The king also had those people who had falsely accused Daniel to be fed to the lions where they were eaten, Daniel 6.
God has a sovereign plan and has control over all worldly powers.
We read in Acts 17:26-27 that ‘from one man, Adam, He made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole earth…God did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him…’
How does the Sovereignty of God affect our salvation?
As we have seen, God sovereignly rules over nations, kings and people. Equally, He can do the same awesome things in individual lives, your life.
It is only His power that can save us from total destruction which has been caused by Sin. This Sin has affected mankind since the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
In Ephesians 2 we read that we are ‘sons (and daughters) of disobedience’ and that we are ‘dead in our transgressions and sins’. We are constantly ‘indulging the desires of the flesh and mind’. Since the temptation by Satan, all people have inherited a natural tendency to sin from birth.
Every person prior to salvation is naturally opposed to the truth that we are in fact ‘sinners’. The secular world insists that children are born ‘good’ and it is only sociological and psychological factors that cause people to act badly and all that is needed to achieve perfection is to develop self esteem and have a positive outlook. The result is a prideful, positive sinner.
There are many religions such as Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism and Islam, where the emphasis is on good works and finding acceptance with their god or gods.
Prior to our salvation, however, Sin had made us totally, entirely and completely corrupt, ‘You were dead in your transgressions and sins.’ This means not just weakened, but totally dead, unable to help ourselves. Consider that it takes but a drop of poison in a glass of water to contaminate the whole glass. This totality doesn’t mean we are as evil or bad as we can be, for it is obvious that there are many considerate and loving people that are not Christians. It means that every part of us, body, mind and soul are contaminated from birth to some degree by Sin. Because of this we are incapable of saving ourselves.
Think about being in a vehicle and being stuck in deep mud. The more you spin the wheels, the deeper you become stuck. It takes help from a force outside of the mud area to get you out. It is impossible to get out on your own accord.
This is what being a slave to Sin is like. We need outside help to be free, an outside help that is Sinless!
Not only having a natural tendency to sin, people constantly indulge in sinful acts, large and small. The sinner is addicted to Sin.
Just as an alcoholic is addicted to alcohol, and sinner is addicted to sinning.
Just as an alcoholic can’t stop drinking, a sinner can’t stop sinning.
Just as an alcoholic craves for alcohol, a sinner craves and lusts for the pleasure of sinful living.
Just as an alcoholic is enslaved by alcohol, a sinner is enslaved to Sin.
Just as an alcohol destroys the alcoholic, so Sin destroys the sinner.
We are powerless to save ourselves from the total destruction that Sin causes in our lives.
Only the Lord Jesus Christ can save us.
The way of salvation is through believing in and receiving Jesus Christ as your Saviour, as your Rescuer. In John 1:12 we read, ‘to all who receive Him, to those who believe in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.’ If you feel that you understand this and want to be saved, this is proof that God is gently urging you to respond. God does this because He has made it very clear that He chose us for salvation. In Ephesians 1:4 we read, ‘God chose us from the foundation of the world.’ The Bible says that God calls those whom He wants to save and He did this before the foundations of the world were made.
In choosing you God made you willing and able to receive salvation.
‘What about my free will; if God has chosen us to be saved, then we cannot help but be saved, we will be saved in spite of what we do, so just live life and accept that we will be accepted into heaven regardless!’ This is the way some people think.
In contrast we read that God draws us. He wants us to respond, and opens up situations where we hear the message loud and clear. It may take time to respond positively. Meantime, if we don’t, He keeps gently drawing us until we realise that we can never know peace until we stop rebelling and accept His calling. Consider what was said to Paul on the road toDamascus, ‘…it will turn out badly for you to keep kicking against the goad (to offer vain and perilous resistance).’ Once Paul submitted his life, he turned round from killing Christians to become a leader amongst them.
This calling is by grace, it is not through faith alone, it is not of our own free thinking, but rather the free gift of God. Jesus said, John 6:44, ‘No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent me draws him.’
In The Message TM it says, ‘You are not in charge here. The Father who sent Me is in charge. He draws people to Me – that’s the only way you’ll ever come.’
In Acts 16:12-15 we read ofLydia. The Lord opened her heart to respond to the message that was being presented by the Apostle Paul. The outward message matched the inward call; she believed fully and was baptized immediately as a true believer.
Likewise, our responsibility upon hearing the Gospel is to believe and respond to that call.
In choosing you, God gave you salvation without condition or any qualification on your part.
Many ‘faith’ groups over the years have wrongly added conditions to the Gospel; such things as, you have to speak in tongues just like us, tithe a certain amount each week, worship with us only on a Saturday, wear certain clothing, isolate yourselves from the ‘world’ and perform to increasing expectations of success.
But salvation is free and without conditions, through the death of Jesus Christ alone.
Consider the thief of the cross to whom Jesus said, ‘today you will be with me in paradise’; the thief performed none of the above conditions.
God chooses whom He wishes and at a time when He ordains. Some are called when very young, some when very old, many in-between. He chooses rich and poor, beautiful and ugly, intelligent and handicapped. No person can ever say who is or isn’t called at any particular moment, only God knows. History shows clearly that on some occasions thousands can come all at the same time, yet on other occasions only a handful. It is God’s planning, not ours.
Grace
As we have already seen, we cannot save ourselves. Therefore how do we get saved and be made free?
The answer is that Christ died as a substitute for us on the cross. He paid our Sin debt in full. He was punished on our behalf. ‘Here they crucified him with two others, one on each side, and Jesus in the middle’, John 19:17-18.
The fact of Jesus’ crucifixion was also recorded by the secular historians of the time, Josephus being one of them (a Roman contemporary historian).
It is only as we dig deeper do we find the true extent of the full horror of Sin and the wonder of our salvation. Mankind, naturally, doesn’t like the truth that says he cannot save himself; he rebels against someone else doing something for him, especially when it is done freely.
Naturally, we don’t actually hate Sin itself, but we do hate what it does to us. God, on the other hand, hates Sin for itself.
Consider that the results of committing adultery are very painful for everyone involved. Outwardly people may say it doesn’t affect anyone and is nobody else’s business. Yet it involves all those both directly and indirectly. For example, if there are children involved, then their behaviour at school can deteriorate and start misbehaving which affects the teachers and other children. Then there is the collection of other relations, and if they live in a small community, then it can also affect what happens there as well.
God sees what is in people’s hearts, the deep rooted Sin itself which produces the adultery, He hates that. The Bible states very clearly that ‘the wages of Sin is death’, Romans 6:23. A simple act or series of acts brings death to a worldly relationship, and also to an eternal relationship.
God is a just God and must insist that there are consequences for actions. Therefore all living people having sinned are perfectly justified in being punished for their Sin (in thought, word or deed). Many people ask ‘why should I be punished?’ A more accurate question would be, ‘why shouldn’t I be punished?’
God in His capacity as a Just and loving God supplied the answer in that He ordained that Jesus should take on the Sin of all those who believe, and die as a just punishment for them, making all those who have sinned, justified completely before God and brought into a right relationship with Him.
Christ’s death on the cross, atoned for our Sin, it paid the price for our Sin, and it allows us to be declared guiltless in the eyes of God.
In the Old Testament times this act was prefigured in a ceremony when the priests would take two animals, a goat and a sheep and would lay their hands on the goat and symbolically lay the sins of the people on it. The goat was then led away into the desert thus symbolising the taking away of the Sin of God’s people.
The sheep was killed and its blood sprinkled over the ‘mercy seat’ (the lid of the Ark of the Covenant) inside the House of God.
The blood covered the sins of the people, consequently, on the Day of Atonement; the Sin of the people was both taken away and covered.
On the cross, Christ did both. He both covered and took away our Sin, Hebrews 13:12. ‘He, Jesus, was crucified outside the city gates.
Matthew 26:28, ‘This is my blood…which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins’.
Therefore, in the cross we see God’s provision for the sinner; all who believe are saved without question. John 10:28 ‘I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish: no one can snatch them out of My hand.’
All who believe are free from the need for religious performance,
Galatians5:1, ‘It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.’ All who believe are individually known and loved by God, Galatians 2:20, ‘I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave himself for me.’
All who believe have an inner assurance or certainty of their salvation, 1John 5:10, ‘The one who has God has the witness in himself…in order that you may know that you have eternal life.’
The Holy Spirit
How exactly do we receive this provision today? After all, Jesus died two thousand years ago!
The answer is that after Jesus died, He rose again, then went back to Heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to be in our lives.
Many people have been turned off the idea of the Holy Spirit, because in older translations of the Bible He was called the Holy Ghost. As ‘modern’ people, we of course don’t believe in ghosts, so therefore we say that we cannot believe there is such a thing as the Holy Spirit.
Most people totally misunderstand the function of the Holy Spirit.
Often we can think of the Holy Spirit as the ‘feel-good factor’ of a gathering, comradeship, the type of worship, the ‘vibes’ that we get from feeling part of something; such as dancing, raising ones hands in worship, speaking in tongues, or hearing people ‘prophecy’.
Compare these actions with people at a musical concert where many of the same things happen. Music can stir the heart and produce deep emotions within us, bring tears to our eyes and give great contentment.
But the Holy Spirit is so much more than this. The Holy Spirit is a Person, part of the Godhead, Who is sovereignly active in our salvation, applying the benefits of that salvation in our lives.
The Holy Spirit intervenes upon our life of Sin and rebellion in order to save us.
Isaiah 53:6, ‘All have sinned and gone astray: each of us has turned to his own way’. We have previously mentioned Saul, who persecuted the church, confessing to being a ‘blasphemer and a violent aggressor,’ until the Holy Spirit intervened. In 1 Timothy 1:14 we read Paul’s own words in relation to this, ‘…the grace (the saving activity of the Holy Spirit) of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly.’
This does not mean that the Holy Spirit overpowers us into submission! Rather, the Holy Spirit softens our hearts and makes us willing to be saved. He wills us to want to be in His will.
You hear many people say ‘I have decided (chosen) to be a Christian’, yet in reality God had first chosen them and moved them to make that decision.
Sin holds us captive in spiritual death with an inability to free ourselves; it is the Holy Spirit that frees us from that captivity.
Consider the time of slavery 250 years ago. Slaves were powerless to free themselves. They could only be freed by a compassionate ‘liberator’. InEnglanda Christian, William Wilberforce, was used by God to abolish the slave trade. Commercial interests opposed him, yet through the work of the Holy Spirit in his life and in others, slavery was finally and officially abolished.
John Newton, who had spent years as a captain on a slave trading ship, was a blasphemer and renegade against God, yet the Holy Spirit touched him, leaving his profession he became a Christian minister. He was used by the Holy Spirit to support Wilberforce. Newton knew what it was to be freed from the slavery of his own Sin and understood the words of Paul in Ephesians 2:4-5, ‘ But God, when we were dead in our transgressions (Sin), made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).’
It was John Newton who wrote the words of Amazing Grace.
‘Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind but now I see.’
In recent time people have changed the word ‘wretch’, to ‘soul’, happy to be seen as a soul, but not as a wretch, still trying to deny their natural Sinful condition.
The Holy Spirit creates a new life within us, a miracle of new birth, ‘If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come’, 2 Corinthians 5:17.
How can a person be born anew?
This same question was asked by a Jewish teacher, Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a man who was thinking, he was searching, the Holy Spirit had touched him and he took the opportunity to talk to Jesus one night.
From his Jewish position it was all about earning the acceptance of God to obtain salvation, yet Jesus was telling him that salvation was not earned by good behaviour, religious lifestyle or special exemptions because of a religious title, Jesus said that salvation was by rebirth alone.
The agent of the new birth is the Holy Spirit. As God created the Universe and all that is in it, He creates the new life in the heart of the believer through the Holy Spirit, where once there was death.
The Holy Spirit is Sovereign and moves to impart new life within whomever He wishes; the Holy Spirit is a Person, not a force.
Can we lose our salvation; this question is at the core of many ‘Christian’ cults and religious organisations. They will say that you can lose your salvation by not observing all the rules and regulations that they have added, man-made impediments to free grace.
Remember the thief on the Cross? The thief did nothing except believe, yet was assured of a place in paradise with Jesus.
Eternal Life
Do we instantly receive a ‘good life’?
This all depends on whether we look at ‘good life’ from a Christian point of view, or from a worldly point of view, (a view generally opposed to God).
For many people a ‘good life’ means comfort, material riches, and wonderful health, but when the ‘good life’ fails they get angry at God, turn away and never come back.
Concerning a Biblical view of the ‘good life’, James 3:13, ‘Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by his deeds done in humility that comes from wisdom.’ A ‘good life’ refers to our lives being a blessing to others!
But of course the Christian life is a very good life, a life like no other. I have never met anyone who has ever regretted becoming a Christian who was truly born again.
Do we receive a ‘terrible life’?
No, God never promised to give us a ‘terrible life’, although there are occasions in our Christian life when we suffer. Unfortunately some people become very angry at God and leave the Church because of a terrible episode in their life.
God allows suffering in our lives, at times, in order that we will grow in our love and dependence upon Him. He is Sovereign and could stop our suffering instantly, yet He knows that we will mature because of it. No child likes discipline, yet it is necessary for a child to learn lessons in order to grow into a responsible adult. 1 Peter 4:19, ‘So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.’
Do we receive ‘temporary life’?
No, God never promises us ‘temporary life’. This is a belief that you will be saved and go to Heaven only through your own continuing efforts, sometimes expressed like this; ‘your salvation can be lost because of your poor commitment to our church or to God’, or, ‘you are saved only as long as you comply with our defined views on God and church life.’
This is conditional salvation, like a conditional life insurance cover. If you stop paying the premiums, then your cover is terminated. This belief leads to a guilt ridden existence, depression, fear, brokenness and joyless people. Our Sovereign God never teases us with salvation by performance or instalments.
On the contrary, as a Christian, you are ‘work in progress’, what He began in you, over time, He will complete. There are many passages in the Bible that refer to growing, being nurtured and finally attaining the goal.
Do we receive ‘eternal life’?
Yes, this is the life that God promises us, 1 John 2:25, ‘And this is the promise that He has promised us – eternal life.’ Eternal life is a life that is secure forever in the care of God. He drew you through the Holy Spirit after having chosen you. He arranges times and seasons for your growth, and He secures you for eternity. John 10:27-28, ‘My sheep listen to my voice: I know them and they follow Me. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish: no one can snatch them out of My hand.’
You are sovereignly chosen by God the Father for your salvation; you are unconditionally loved and forgiven by Christ the Son through the shedding of His blood on the Cross atCalvary, which paid for your Sin. You are renewed by the Holy Spirit through the new birth and as you live through your earthly days you can have the assurance of knowing that you can never lose your salvation.
God doesn’t do Random.
God is in control of the world and all that He has made. He has a plan, of which we can only glimpse aspects of, but being renewed by the Holy Spirit and committing to Him we can grow in that understanding. We may never understand why He allows some things to happen to some people or even to some nations, but by having a faith in His eternal purposes we can rest assured at all times about what tomorrow will bring.
Being thus assured, we can show God’s love for us, to others, by being available to serve those around us, caring, loving, helping, comforting and building others up in their faith.
He finds a small Group of Disciples there and asks them… Acts 19: 2 ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
Even today, many Christians do not understand the Holy Spirit, let us consider His work in the Life of the Believer
When people believe in Jesus, the Holy Spirit creates new life within them John 3: 5 & 7
These Disciples at Ephesus had received New Life
But there is another work of the Holy Spirit and this is what the apostle Paul wasreferring to
The other work is the baptism with the Holy Spirit
The baptism with the Holy Spirit empowers Believers to become witnesses for Jesus Acts 1: 4-5 & 8
Some people receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit at the same time they receive new life Acts 10: 44-48
Usually, people receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit some time after they receive new life
120 Believers in JerusalemActs 2: 1-4
Samaritan Believers Acts 8: 14-17
Saul who was later called Paul – the great Apostle Paul Acts 9: 17
The Ephesian Disciples Acts 19: 3-7
The baptism with the Holy Spirit is available for every Believer
Jesus said this…John 7: 38-39 “Does anyone believe in Me? Then, just as Scripture says, streams of living water will flow from inside him.” When he said this, he meant the Holy Spirit. Those who believed in Jesus would receive the Spiritlater.
So, have you received new life?
And have you received the baptism with the Holy Spirit?
revdotdavid 