Coming to the Still Waters

October 31, 2015 Reformation Day: Jesus Came Knocking Article by Jon Bloom Topic: Repentance Sometime around A.D. 95, Jesus, through the apostle John, came metaphorically knocking on the door of the church in Laodicea with an unsurpassed invitation: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” ( Revelation 3:20 ) Pulled out of its context, this verse can sound like Jesus was calling softly and tenderly. Paintings inspired by this verse tend to portray a gentle Jesus mildly knocking. In reality, he was anything but soft and tender, gentle and mild. This invitation came on the heels of a bracing rebuke and serious warning. Jesus was pounding on the Laodicean’s door with the urgency of emergency: “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I wi...

Today's verses are 2 Corinthains 10:12-18, which read,   v.12, 13 - For we are not bold to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves; but when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding.  But we will not boast beyond our measure, but within the measure of the sphere which God apportioned to us as a measure, to reach even as far as you. Paul has been asking the Christians in Corinth to make some discerning assessments of these two groups that say they are Christ's.  One group is the false prophets and the other group is Paul and his companions.  The false prophets were promoters of themselves.  They measured themselves and compared themselves with themselves which is a closed loop.  Paul and his companions measured themselves in "the sphere which God apportioned to us as a measure."   Who did God give us to measure our lives against?  Was i...

Today's verses are 2 Corinthians 10:7-11, which read,   v.7 - You are looking at things as they are outwardly.  If anyone is confident in himself that he is Christ's, let him consider this again within himself, that just as he is Christ's, so also are we. Paul addressed in the previous paragraph about dealing with the false teachers who were speaking against God and discrediting himself.  The false teachers were saying that Paul was walking in the flesh and he agreed that we all walk in the flesh but there is a difference.  God gives us weapons to deal with the flesh.  We take every thought captive and bring it before Christ and His word. Paul instructs the Christians in the church in Corinth to look at these false teachers "outwardly."   Look at their lives.  Look at their background.  Look at the facts surrounding them.  What is happening is that both Paul and the false teachers are saying that they belong to Christ and so...

Today's verses are 2 Corinthians 10:1-6, which read,   v.1, 2 - Now I, Paul, myself urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ--I who am meek when face to face with you, but bold toward you when absent!  I ask that when I am present I need not be bold with the confidence with which I propose to be courageous against some, who regard us as if we walked according to the flesh. Paul is asking the Christians in the Corinthian church for the reason to not have to be bold with them as he stands against the false teachers because they are already not listening or following them.  He wants to come with meekness and gentleness that he is asking of them as they both follow Christ's example.  To be meek is to have strength in a situation but it is a quiet resolve that doesn't lash out.  To be gentle is to give grace and patience in a situation with the truth not being lost.  Paul will have to face these false teachers and it would be better if...

Today's verses are 2 Corinthians 9:10-15, which read,   v.10-12 - Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness; you will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God.  For the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs to the saints, but is also overflowing through many thanksgivings to God. Paul is continuing to speak of the financial gift to the persecuted saints in Jerusalem.  Many of the church had lost support of work and that of their families when they made a public allegiance to Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God.  They were in need and that help was coming from God's people throughout the known world back to where the church had started.  There was still a tremendous gospel work to happen in that capital city with the gospel message so this was a very...

Go Kelli go with the opportunities that God is giving you!!!

Today's verses are 2 Corinthians 9:6-9, which read, v.6, 7 - Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.  Each one much do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. Paul has been talking to the Christians in the Corinthian church about the gift that they had been collecting for the saints in Jerusalem.  They had been the first to start collecting and they were very enthusiastic about it.  False teachers came in to discredit Paul and the gospel and they followed their lead.  It resulted in sin and also the stoppage of collecting for this need.  Paul writes a severe sorrowful letter to them pointing out the falseness of the false teachers and the sin that needed to be repented of.  They repented and good reports were coming back to Paul through Titus who delivered that letter.  Now Paul was sending ...

The Ultimate Question Eight chapters into the Gospel according to Mark is the fulfillment of the very first verse of that Gospel which reads, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”   Here is how that fulfillment unfolds. Jesus is walking and praying along the road with His disciples and He asks a couple questions of them.  The first one is “Who do people say that I am?”   Jesus is asking them for the word on the street; he is asking what His disciples are hearing;  and He wants them to articulate these opinions to make a point with His second question.  The disciples bring up the popular answer of the day that Jesus is John the Baptist raised from the dead.  The second most popular answer was that Jesus was one of the prophets like Elijah, Jeremiah, or others of olden times.  The Pharisee named Nicodemus who came to Jesus in the night said that the consensus of the religious order was that Jesus was a teacher from G...

Today's verses are 2 Corinthians 9:1-5, which read,   v.1, 2 - For it is superfluous for me to write to you about this ministry to the saints; for I know your readiness, of which I boast about you to the Macedonians, namely, that Achaia has been prepared since last year, and your zeal has stirred up most of them. Paul doesn't let this discussion on giving to this need go.  This is a relatively young church and this is the first big event that are participating in with service to others in need.  This service to those saints in Jerusalem would also serve to enhance the spread of the gospel because it showed how what started there in Jerusalem has now spread all the way to Corinth.  Paul has been speaking of the Corinthians and their willingness and eagerness to help to other young churches in the area.   v.3, 4 - But I have sent the brethren, in order that our boasting about you may not be made empty in this case, so that, as I was saying, yo...

Today's verses are 2 Corinthians 8:16-24, which read,   v.16, 17 - But thanks be to God who puts the same earnestness on your behalf in the heart of Titus.  For he not only accepted our appeal, but being himself very earnest, he has gone to you of his own accord. Titus was the one who delivered the severe sorrowful letter of exposing sin that led to repentance to the Christians in Corinth.  Titus is the one who brought back the news of their repentance to Paul.  Titus has grown in his love for the Christians in the Corinthian church.  As Paul writes to these churches that consist of a group of Christians, he also conveys the joy and thanks for each one individually as he mentions Titus specifically here.  You get the sense that Paul is concerned spiritually about the numbers of those coming to Christ but also the number one of each individual Christian and their walk with the Lord.  Paul sees that Titus is growing in the Lord and he g...

Today's verses are 2 Corinthians 8:11-15, which read,   v.11, 12 - But now finish doing it also, so that just as there was the readiness to desire it, so there may be also the completion of it by your ability.  For if the readiness is present, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. Paul has told the Christians in Corinth about the abundant giving of the impoverished churches in Macedonia for the needs of the persecuted saints in Jerusalem.  He reminds them that after they heard of the need that they were the first to start collecting for the need and also had such a desire to be of help to those in need.  The collecting for that need must have waned when the opposition of false teachers showed up who painted Paul in a bad light.  Now that they have accepted the Word of the God and received the letter of sorrow of exposing their sin that led to repentance, Paul encourages them to finish what t...

Today's verses are 2 Corinthians 8:7-10, which read, v.7 - But just as you abound in everything, in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all earnestness and in the love we inspired in you, see that you abound in this gracious work also. What are they to abound in beyond faith, utterance, knowledge, earnestness, and love?  Paul is instructing the Christians in Corinth to abound in their generosity to those who are in need.  It is great to hear that the repentance that came from that sorrowful, severe letter that Paul wrote to them brought them back to these qualities.  They were strong in their faith, so strong that they were uttering it to others.  They were studying the Word with earnestness and that was resulting in an increasing love for God and others.  Now this spiritual discipline of giving needed to be added to the others. v.8 - I am not speaking this as a command, but as proving through the earnestness of others the sincerity of you...

Today's verses are 2 Corinthians 8:1-6, which read, v.1, 2 - Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. The churches of Macedonia would have been the churches at Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea.  In the midst of great affliction to the message of the gospel in these areas for Christians and churches to stand for Christ and also in the midst of great poverty among them, they still were able to give to the cause of helping those Christians back in Jerusalem that were in even greater affliction and poverty.  Paul uses words that signify the extremeness of the matter at hand with "great, abundance, deep, and liberality."   When we think of persecution and opposition for the gospel of God and then add in deep poverty we usually don't think of abundance of joy...

Today's verses are 2 Corinthians 7:13b-16, which read,   v.13b-15 - And besides our comfort, we rejoiced even much more for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.  For if in anything I have boasted to him about you, I was not put to shame; but as we spoke all things to you in truth, so also our boasting before Titus proved to be the truth.  His affection abounds all the more toward you, as he remembers the obedience of you all, as he remembers the obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling. Paul had comfort from God in the midst of the opposition and persecution in Macedonia.  He had comfort in seeing the return of Titus to him.  He had comfort in hearing from Titus about the change in the Christians in Corinth in relationship to the letter written to them in sorrow.  Finally, he had comfort of doing what was right in the sight of God by writing that letter and experiencing them taking t...

Today's verses are 2 Corinthians 7:5-13a, which read,   v.5-7 - For even when we came into Macedonia our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted on every side:  conflicts without, fears within.  But God, who comforts the depressed, comforted us by the coming of Titus; and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you, as he reported to us your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me; so that I rejoiced even more. In the passage this morning we will see the humanness of Paul.  The stop in Macedonia is one of the reasons that he didn't come directly back to Corinth and rather sent Titus on to see how things were gong after the sending of a letter that we don't have.  His arrival in Macedonia wasn't any different than many of the towns he stopped in with the gospel of grace of God.  Opposition and persecution meet Paul and his companions as they pleaded with their words and deeds and sometimes feared for ...

Today's verses are 2 Corinthians 7:2-4, which read,   v.2 - Make room for us in your hearts; we wronged no one, we corrupted no one, we took advantage of no one. We can see here the depth of the attack against Paul and his companions.  His opponents painted Paul and what he said as "wrong" meaning to treat someone unjustly, "corrupted" meaning to harm someone's morals, and "took advantage" meaning at the other person's expense.  Paul appeals for a heart change of the Corinthians after listening again to him through this letter, examining how they lived their lives in their presence, and the words of Scripture.  They once had space in their hearts for Paul and his companions but because of other influences they have been squeezed out of that space.   v.3 - I do not speak to condemn you, for I have said before that you are in our hearts to die together and to live together. What the Christians in the Corinthian church did was w...

Today's verses are 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1, which read,   v.14-16 - Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?  Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?  Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols?  For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, "I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people." The context is very important here to understand what Paul is saying.  The Corinthian church was in the midst of a culture that was full of false religions, false prophets, and false idols.  As with today, they were trying to take Christianity and mesh it in with all those other false religions.  Paul speaks directly against this type of alliance.  The literal word used for "bound together" is "unequally yoked" and the s...