What Makes Jesus Unique? No one else made the claims that He did, He is alive...............
All the great religious leaders of history have one thing in common: they are dead. Only one man has risen from a grave never again to taste death. Jesus Christ died, was buried, remained in the grave for 3 days, then was raised to life again.
Jesus is unique. He is the only one proven to be the Son of God because God validated His Kingship and accepted His payment for our sins all with one incredible stroke: He raised Jesus from the dead!
Paul opens his letter to the Romans with this evidence about who Jesus is:
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which He had promised before by His prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. Romans 1:1-4
Because Jesus Christ is very much alive, five things are true right now that wouldn’t be true if He were just another dead religious leader like Confucius, Mohammed or Buddha.
Because Jesus was raised from the dead and is alive…Prayers are answered, We can talk to Jesus 24/7
Comments (2,857)
We are constantly amazed at the need for the Word of God throughout Asia. We have the great privilege of providing the Scriptures to believers who are unable to access them. Our co-workers recently met this 84-year-old believer in Myanmar (Burma), who shared her astonishing story:
"I was born in December 1931. My parents were very poor so I started first grade when I was 13 years old. There was only one Bible in our village and it belonged to our pastor. I really wanted to have my own copy, so I have been praying to God for a Bible since 1945, when I was 14. Whenever I saw the Bible in the pastor's hands, I really wanted to have my own, so I kept praying.
"I was very hungry for the Word of God and I desperately wanted to read it, but there were no Bibles available. This was truly heartbreaking for me and I became so discouraged that for a time I stopped praying to have a Bible. But then someone gave me the Book of Mark. I was elated and I read it whenever I could. I almost memorized the whole book, and it strengthened my faith. By the grace of God, today I received the full Bible from you for free. This is amazing. Only God can do this. He has answered my 71 years of prayer for a Bible. The Lord is so good to me. My favorite Scripture is Psalm 23. I send my thanks to all who donated, supported and brought this precious Bible to me. I will always read it. God bless you all."
Twenty years ago community changed my life. A lot of people know that drugs and partying are part of my testimony, but I don’t often talk about the reason I fell into the party scene so many years ago. It was simple, really.
I wanted community.
I went to the most expensive, exclusive school in Macon, Georgia, and I didn’t fit in. When I transferred to a new school in seventh grade, I discovered a community that was far more welcoming. It just so happened to be the drug community;
One of the harshest realities of turning to Christ and abandoning the drug scene was the loss of my entire community. I cut ties with every friend in my life simply because my recreational pursuits had changed. I didn’t go to the parties anymore. Or throw them. But by then I recognized the power of community. I knew I’d never be able to walk this road alone. So I invited a random group of guys over, and I started a Bible study. Once more, community changed my life. This time, for the better. It was my first experience of a Christian small group, and I didn’t have a clue what to do! But God grew us. And somewhere along the way, He lit a fire in my heart. I told God that one day I wanted to lead more people to Him than I had led away from Him.
Why Do We Avoid Community?
If the community is so influential—whether for good or evil—why do we get skittish at the thought of a Christian community? In my experience, it usually boils down to these three reasons—the biggest drawbacks to the Christian community:
Reason #1: It will cause you to be uncomfortable with your sin.
I get it. When you join a group of people to talk about Jesus, it can get uncomfortable. The community has a way of exposing inadequacies that are hard to stomach. I remember the first time Jeanne and I joined a group of believers in a small group as a newlywed couple. One of the couples shared how they never raise their voices when they fight. I left that meeting thinking two things: I will never go back and how is that even possible?! We went back and realized we weren’t as holy as we thought we were. But we also learned that everyone struggles. The same couple who doesn’t shout during fights, eventually shared their struggles in other areas.
It’s hard to grow in holiness alone. Hebrews 10:24-25 urges believers not to give up meeting together, and to spur one another on to love and good deeds. Community is the place where we speak into each other’s lives, challenge sin, ask questions, listen, encourage, and grow.
Reason #2: It will cause you to be vulnerable.
There is a difference between transparency and vulnerability. Transparency means you open up about your life. This is fairly easy to do. It’s easy to talk about going through a difficult time five years ago. But vulnerability is different. When someone is vulnerable, they open themselves up for judgement. They talk about the things that are currently going on in their lives, or the things that continue to hang over them to this day.
Years ago professor John Powell created a chart of five levels of communication ranging from social pleasantries, to reporting the facts, to sharing personal opinions, and then feelings, and finally what Powell terms “peak communication” where there is total openness and honesty. When you avoid vulnerability, you forgo awkward, potentially embarrassing moments. But you also forgo the chance to be truly known and loved by others. The reason the #metoo movement grew to viral proportions is because there is power in those two words. Few things are more comforting than sharing that vulnerable, painful, dark, confusing thing and hearing someone else say, “Me too.”
Reason #3: It will cause you to sacrifice.
Finally, spending time with others for the purpose of discipleship is costly. Everybody is busy. Everybody has multiple commitments and priorities in life. Still, every week across our campuses, countless people open their homes, pay for babysitters, cook, clean, and say “No” to other things in order to be part of a Grace community. It’s a sacrifice, but it’s also an investment.
The truth is, we’re always willing to sacrifice for investments we deem worthy. We sacrifice immediate comfort to invest in future retirement. We sacrifice freedom to invest in child-rearing. Sometimes we sacrifice our marriages to invest in our careers. Or we sacrifice our reputation to invest in our sin. Sacrifice and investment go hand-in-hand, so the real question is—are your investments worth the sacrifice? Are they wise or are they backwards? Are you sacrificing eternal rewards to invest in temporary fulfillment? Or are you sacrificing temporary rewards to invest in becoming more like Jesus?
Jim Elliot is famous for saying, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” And boy, did he put his money where his mouth was. Elliot died a martyr, seeking to reach the lost. He gave his life—something perishable that he couldn’t keep anyway—to gain something imperishable—eternal rewards that will never be taken from him. Jim Elliot was no fool.
What about us? Community is not for the faint of heart. It’s hard and even costly. But then again, the best things in life always are.
By Mike Tenney author page.
I-Believe-In-God-But-Not-Religion
According to the most recent surveys of religion in America, somewhere between a fourth and a third of Americans describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious.”
Many of my friends identify this way. Their beliefs fall on a wide spectrum from “I believe in a higher power with whom I communicate and pray,” to “I think I believe in God but why would I bother going to church?” Some even admire and follow many of Jesus’ teachings specifically but don’t claim membership in any particular faith community or tradition.
When we’ve talked about their skepticism regarding organized religion, they often express sentiments along the lines of:
“Religion just seems like a lot of rules;”
“The people are self-righteous and hypocritical;”
“I don’t like what the Church teaches regarding politics, money, or moral issues;”
“How do I pick just one religion? There are so many, which is the right one? And if I pick one, am I then saying that I think all the other religions are wrong or going to hell?”
Yet despite all these reservations, my friends tell me they sense within their heart they belong to something bigger than themselves. As a high school teacher of theology and religious studies, I’ve walked with many teens and young adults as they’ve struggled to reconcile their desire for God with the shortcomings of religion and the humans who comprise them. Here are some lessons I’ve learned from those conversations.
Feed the fire;
The most spiritually alive people are the ones who never stop searching. If you have questions, ask them. If you want answers, pursue them. Read, study, discuss, pray, worship. You aren’t the first or the last person to walk this journey, and the overwhelming majority of human experience tells us that there are real answers to be found.
Most traditions teach that God is infinite, mysterious, and inexhaustible — but that we can still learn and know a great many things. Mathematics and numbers are infinite — we will never know all there is to know about them — yet we can still learn algebra and calculus. The same is true of God: we can come to know him even if He’s a mystery.
So, as the Good Book says, “Seek and ye shall find.” This is important whether you are religious or not. The ongoing search helps the spiritual seeker to find answers and keeps the religious person from settling into stale ritualism.
Self-righteous suicide;
One of my college friends stopped going to churs in the middle of our freshmen year because he said he couldn’t stand the people. According to him, the church-goers were either hypocrites — at church on Sunday after binge-drinking and random hook ups on Saturday — or blind sheep just doing what they were taught by their parents.
His experience caused me, as a religious person to ask myself: Am I self-righteous? Am I a hypocrite who talks the talk without walking of the walk? Am I mindlessly clinging to comfortable traditions? Am I letting others do the thinking for me?
At the same time, there’s also a voice in my head asking me: Can’t I still learn from imperfect people? Aren’t I also imperfect and hypocritical in some ways? Couldn’t I reach out in service, rather than look down in judgement? Am I letting other people’s shortcomings stand between me and my spiritual growth? Isn’t learning to love and be loved by imperfect people part of the spiritual journey?
Being part of a team;
Perhaps this is why so much of St. Paul’s writing (1 Corinthians, Ephesians, and Galatians especially) focuses on teaching imperfect people to navigate community conflicts: the conflict is part of the point of the community.
Down through the years, this community has developed a vast tradition of writing, music, art, and architecture from which we can learn and grow. And as frustrating as community can be, it can also be an amazing support system. A strong community:
· prays for and with you; celebrates spiritual milestones with you;
guides your conscience on important personal and social issues;
accompanies you on journey;
benefits from your gifts and contributions;
gives you opportunities to step into leadership roles;· teaches you; picks you up when you fall down; corrects you when you go astray;
…the list could go on. Sure, I may be able to find some of these on my own, but to really go deeper in the spiritual life, I need community and they need me.
Spiritual AND religious;
A wise spiritual mentor once told me that religion without spirituality is dead, and that spirituality without religion is lost.
Without a vibrant personal spirituality, religion becomes a mere tradition — blind obedience going through the motions. Religion becomes what Jesus referred to as “whitewashed tombs” — pretty on the outside but a rotting corpse on the inside.
Without a strong religious community, spirituality becomes entirely about me — my own thoughts, desires, and whims. Spirituality becomes me shaping God in my image, rather than the other way around.
Wherever you are on your spiritual journey, God bless you. I encourage you and pray for your ongoing search. Here’s an ancient prayer from St. Benedict — one that I believe anyone can pray no matter how religious or unreligious you may be. I invite you to find a quiet moment to read and pray it with an open heart and mind.
Quote graphic about belief in God Explore More
Here are 4 benefits of intermittent fasting that go beyond bodily health.ARTICLE
4 Ways Fasting Benefits Your Spiritual Health
Discover the effects of prayer on your mental health.ARTICLE
How Prayer Affects Your Mental Health
God winks help me know I'm headed in the right direction.
We are constantly blessed to read field reports from the hundreds of evangelists we support throughout Asia. One recent report grabbed our attention. In a remote area of Laos (a Communist country sandwiched between China, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia), our coworkers came across a village with a demon-possessed man who had been tormented by evil spirits for years. The locals had given up all hope and had built a thick wooden cage (see picture) to restrain the man and to protect themselves from his violent attacks.
When the evangelists saw the caged man the compassion of the Lord came upon them. They prayed for him in the Name of Jesus, and the dark forces that had bound the man for years were demolished. The change in the man’s life was so dramatic that many villagers demanded to know the God who had done this great miracle. As a result, 34 people accepted the Lord Jesus Christ and are now meeting together in a house church, including the man who had been so wonderfully set free. Hallelujah!
These workers in Laos are among hundreds of Asian evangelists we support through the Asian Workers' Fund. We currently have dozens who need support. We invite you to join us as we help them take the Gospel to the unreached.
Nepal - Jesus Raised my Son back to Life!
“I was born into a Hindu family. We prayed to many idols and also worshipped nature. I had heard about Christianity but didn’t understand why it was any different from other religions. My wife and I had a son. While I was away working as a driver he fell sick and was admitted to hospital. I rushed back home but by the time I arrived my beloved son had died.
Two evangelists heard the sad news and visited us. In her desperation, my wife asked them to pray for our son so that their God might raise him back to life. Before praying, they asked us to close our eyes. I did not believe it, so I kept my eyes open. To my surprise, I saw the two Christians pray very intensely. When they finished their prayer my son sat up. He was alive! My heart leaped with joy to see this great miracle. I left my sins behind and became a lover of Jesus Christ. I committed my life to Him and received His wonderful salvation. I am now burdened to tell other unreached people what God has done in my life.”
Miracles don't happen in civilized countries as much as they do in countries where there is a lot of illiteracy or idolatry. Why is this? because we have access to God's word the Bible. The Lord needs to use miracles to reach some people who have never heard of Jesus or can not read, etc.
I read about a woman living in Indonesia, she was given a little red Bible, to her astonishment she could read it, but nothing else.................jenny
THE FAIRYTALE;
They say opposites attract. That was certainly the case for me and my husband, Gary. I was introverted and studious. He was outgoing and popular. We never ran in the same circles, so it was unusual that we met the night of our high school baccalaureate. My girlfriends thought it would be funny to leave me stranded at a local restaurant, and Gary came to my rescue, all handsome smiles and easy laughter. And so began a summer romance that ended when he headed to Marine Corps boot camp and I left for college. Over the next four years, the handwritten letters were constant. Some of them were simply a summary of our week, others were full of hopes and dreams, and all of them made me feel connected to Gary in a way that today’s social media will never achieve. I had my doubts that Gary would leave the service and settle down, but I had decided he was the guy I wanted to marry.
So, a year after college graduation when he proposed, the fairytale romance should have been complete—except that I had ignored the one thing about us that was opposite and should have overshadowed all the rest. I was a Christian and he wasn’t (2 Corinthians 6:14). I think at the time I thought I could change that. After all, he had so many other great qualities. Gary was and is an amazing protector, provider, and above all, loyal (the perfect spouse for an Enneagram six who values security, commitment, loyalty, and responsibility).
THE DARK DAYS;
Gary left the service, we married, and the first year was great. However, the next ten years would be difficult. The things Gary struggled with seemed to be magnified without the presence of the Holy Spirit. I hated confrontation, so I kept the peace. But inside, I found myself placing the blame on his spiritual condition instead of allowing God to show me my own. I longed for spiritual leadership and wanted my kids, a son, and a daughter by now, to have a Christian home. But the more I expressed these desires to my husband, the more inadequate Gary felt, the more hopeless I felt, and the harder marriage got.
At the end of this difficult season, Gary told me that he hated his job, that he was returning to full-time military service, and we would be moving. “Moving?!” I may not have been in a Christian marriage, but I was near Christian friends and family, I had found a church home, and my kids were in a Christian school. How could we move now?
THE LIGHT;
It was at this point that God in His mercy spoke to my heart in a way that was totally clear. Despite Gary’s unbelief, I was bound to this man in a covenant that God wanted me to honor. I felt called to submit to my husband just as Christ submitted to the will of the Father and died for me, and to show Gary who Christ is by loving him unconditionally (Philippians 2:3-8). I must confess that there might have been some questioning. “God, surely you don’t want to move us away from the only Christian relationships we have? Gary’s not saved so whatever he wants to do can’t possibly be your will, right? Are you doing this because I married him even though I knew I shouldn’t?”
Wait a minute. Had I ever repented? What did repentance even look like in this situation? Repentance means turning from your sin, but I couldn’t turn away from my marriage, could I? To be clear here, no. God wanted me to confess the sin and turn to Him so that He could restore my marriage, a marriage that God fully intended for me to devote myself to, even after marrying an unsaved spouse (1 Corinthians 7:12-14). But what God really wanted was for me to focus on being the wife I needed to be instead of trying to make my husband the man I wanted.
This is where God’s blessing began. At the moment of repentance, He changed my heart instead of Gary’s, and our marriage benefited.
Repent if you married your unsaved husband as a Christian. I realize that you may have married your unbelieving husband as an unbeliever yourself. Or, you may have married thinking he was a Christian. But if, as a believer like me, you fell head over heels and married knowing your husband was not saved, take time to get things right with God.
Like many women who marry in disobedience, I thought I would forever be reaping what I had sowed (Isaiah 59:2). But God is a God of forgiveness and restoration (Romans 8:1). Repentance will repair your intimate relationship with Christ so that He can be your strength for what is ahead.
Recommit to loving and serving your husband more, not less. Your husband’s spiritual condition is not an excuse to criticize or judge his actions or to assume yours are superior because you are saved. God still sees him as the head of your home, and joyfully acknowledging this opens the door for God to bless your marriage. Your husband’s lack of faith is a call to love unselfishly. It will be painful at times, but this is how he will see Christ in you (1 Corinthians 9:19).
You don’t have to agree with every decision, and it is okay to express your concerns or offer counsel. But do so in a way that shows respect. And, assuming that your husband is not asking you to compromise the higher authority of Christ, defer to your husband’s judgment. For me, this meant apologizing for things I didn’t really think I had done to keep the peace, being loving and kind even if he wasn’t, and biting my tongue when I thought he was doing something he shouldn’t. When your spouse isn’t saved, you can’t be his personal Holy Spirit. It will only create a stumbling block for the gospel (1 Peter 3:1-2). Ask God daily for His strength to be this kind of wife because you won’t have it within yourself (I John 4:19).
Reserve time for church, but be present for your husband. One of the biggest issues in our marriage was church. I needed friends and church family to pour into me spiritually since my husband was not. I also wanted my children to be in church, but Gary didn’t want to go. It is easy for resentment to take root when you are constantly ditching your husband for a church function or Christian friends. One of your husband’s primary needs is for companionship.
There were times when God gave me peace about staying home in order to spend time with my husband so that he didn’t feel like he was “competing” with the church. Many of those times, God showed up in a special way in my personal Bible study in order to keep me spiritually full (Psalm 63:1-4).
Recruit Christian friends in a way that includes your husband. Often when a husband is not saved, it is natural to surround yourself with Christian girlfriends who can sympathize and offer support and prayer. After our move, I realized that I wasn’t the only one who had left friends and family behind. I found a few close girlfriends who had husbands I knew Gary would have things in common with and started inviting couples over for dinner.
These Christian men talked about motorcycles and hunting instead of immediately trying to evangelize Gary. Before long, Gary was going to church with us in order to hang out with the guys, but the exposure to God’s Word began to do its work (Romans 10:17).
Rely on Christ, not your husband, to meet your needs. Even in a Christian marriage, your husband will not meet all your needs, nor you his. God wants you to ultimately depend on Him above all others. Nurture your relationship with God so that He can provide you with the strength and wisdom needed to love your unsaved spouse.
Jesus wasn't the only one believed to have risen from the dead. Stories of resurrection appear in ancient cultures around the world.
Release your husband to God. Ultimately, your husband’s relationship with Christ is his responsibility, not yours. You can be the perfect spouse, but your husband will not come to Christ until he is drawn by the Holy Spirit, then responds to the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:14). Your responsibility is to love him and pray for him. I know these are hard words to hear, but God can still use you to bring peace to your home and happiness to your marriage, despite your husband’s unbelief.
God will bless your commitment to love your husband. Even though I cried many times at the thought of not seeing Gary in heaven, God did a work of restoration in my marriage. In the process, God gave me hope despite the possible outcome (1 John 3:17).
THE REST OF THE STORY;
I didn’t win my husband to Christ. A year after our move, Gary found out he would be going to Iraq. As an engineer, I thought he would be building roads and bridges. Instead, I found out three months in that he was working with a unit to find and disarm roadside bombs to clear routes for our troops. The nightly tears and prayers began. “Lord, protect him. Please let him know you!” My prayers intensified when six months in his compound were bombed while we were on a Skype call together: “Lord please, don’t take him yet. Give him another chance to know you.” Then, ten months in, his convoy truck was hit: “God, please save him!” God did save him, both physically and spiritually. There in the desert, 7,000 miles from home, Gary met Jesus. After 18 months of service, my husband came home a changed man. Not because I won him to Christ but because God in his mercy and providence was faithful. My marriage isn’t perfect now that my husband is saved, but now we have the joy and blessing of serving God together.
God, Life & Purpose;
God loves you and wants you to experience His forgiveness and healing from your past hurts and circumstances. God designed you uniquely and gave you specific gifts and talents to fulfill His purpose for your life. With His help, you can be guided into a life filled with joy and satisfaction.
God Loves You;
God loves you and wants you to know Him so He can fill you with peace and give you real-life -- forever. "God loved the people of this world so much that He gave His only son, so that everyone who has faith in Him will have eternal life and never die." Jesus said, "I came so that everyone would have life, and have it in its fullest."
Since God planned for us to have peace and life, why are we so far from God?
We are Separated from God;
Since the beginning of time, we have chosen to disobey God and go our own way. We still make this choice today. This results in separation from God. "All of us have sinned and fallen short of God's holiness." Sin is choosing to say do or think things that are against God’s plan. "The result of unforgiven sin is death. But God’s gift is eternal life given by Jesus Christ our Lord." There is only one way to reach God.
Jesus Christ Died for our Sins;
Jesus Christ is God's Son. He is the only One who can bring us back to God. Jesus died on the Cross and rose from the grave. He paid the penalty for our sins and bridged the gap between God and people.
"There is only one God, and Christ Jesus is the only One who can bring us to God." "Christ died once for our sins. An innocent person died for those who are guilty. Christ did this to bring you to God."
God has provided the only way – we must make the choice;.
We Must Receive Christ;
We must trust Jesus Christ to forgive our sins receive Him as our Savior and serve Him as our Lord. "As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believed in His name."
Would you like to give your life over to Jesus Christ right now? If so, you can pray the following prayer and accept Jesus as your Savior:
Dear Lord Jesus,
I know that I am a sinner and need Your forgiveness. I believe that You died on the cross for my sins and rose from the grave to give me life. I know You are the only way to God. So now I want to quit disobeying You and start living for You. Please forgive me, change my life, and show me how to know You. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Did you pray this prayer and ask Jesus into your life?
Updated 9:29 AM EDT, Sun April 9, 2022
Both Christian symbols are bookends to the Easter story. One symbolizes the tragic execution of Jesus while the other represents the Christian belief in his resurrection and the claim that death does not have the final word on him or his followers.
As millions of Americans celebrate the holiest day in the Christian calendar on Sunday, most will hear some variation of this Easter message — finding new life in unforeseen places.
But that message could also describe a surprising prediction about the future of Christianity in the US.
For years, church leaders and commentators have warned that Christianity is dying in America. They say the American church is poised to follow the path of churches in Western Europe: soaring Gothic cathedrals with empty pews, shuttered church buildings converted into skate parts and nightclubs, and a secularized society where one theologian said Christianity as a norm is “probably gone for good — or at least for the next 100 years.”
Yet when CNN asked some of the nation’s top religion scholars and historians recently about the future of Christianity in the US, they had a different message.
They said the American church is poised to find new life for one major reason: Waves of Christians are migrating to the US.
And they said the biggest challenge to Christianity’s future in America is not declining numbers, but the church’s ability to adapt to this migration.
Joseph P. Slaughter, a historian and assistant professor of religion at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, says people have been predicting the extinction of Christianity in the US for over two centuries, and it hasn’t happened yet.
A sparsely attended Good Friday mass in Cologne, Germany, on April 2, 2021.
A sparsely attended Good Friday mass in Cologne, Germany, on April 2, 2021.
Ina Fassbender/AFP/Getty Images
He pointed to Thomas Jefferson, one of the nation’s founding fathers, who predicted in the 1820s that Christianity would be replaced in the US by a more enlightened form of religion that rejected Jesus’ divinity and belief in miracles.
Instead, Jefferson’s prophecy was followed by a series of revivals, including the Second Great Awakening, which swept across America and reasserted Christianity as a dominant force in American life.
“I’d never bet against American Christianity — particularly evangelicalism,” Slaughter says, “and its ability to adapt and remain a significant shaper of the American society.”
What’s happening in Europe is the church’s nightmare scenario
If one only looks at the numbers, Slaughter’s optimism seems misguided. Virtually every recent poll about Christianity in America has been brutal for its followers.
About 64% of Americans call themselves Christian today. That might sound like a lot, but 50 years ago that number was 90%, according to a 2020 Pew Research Center study. That same survey said the Christian majority in the US may disappear by 2070.
The Covid-19 pandemic also hurt the church in America. Church attendance has rebounded recently but remains slightly below pre-pandemic levels. A 2021 Gallup poll revealed another grim number for Christians: church membership in the US has fallen below 50% for the first time.
In addition, a cascade of headlines in recent years have stained the church’s reputation, including sex abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Convention; the spread of White Christian nationalism; and the perception that the church oppresses marginalized groups such as LGBTQ people.
Church leaders in the US also have fretted about the rise of “nones.” These are people who describe themselves as atheists, agnostics or “nothing in particular” when asked their religious identity.
A billboard in 2010 in Oklahoma City, paid for by a local atheists' group called "Coalition of Reason."
A billboard in 2010 in Oklahoma City, paid for by a local atheists' group called "Coalition of Reason."
Sue Ogrocki/AP
“The interest of the nones will soon outweigh those of the religious right in just a matter of years,” Wray says. “Nones are going to vote as a bloc and they’re going to be pretty powerful. White evangelicals will eventually be eclipsed by the unaffiliated.”
Wray says those who are optimistic about the future of the American church underestimate how quickly Christianity can lose its influence even in a place where it once thrived. She cites what’s happened in the Republic of Ireland, an overwhelmingly Catholic country.
The Catholic Church prohibits divorce and was once so powerful in Ireland that the country wouldn’t legally grant its citizens the legal right to a divorce until 1995, says Wray, author of “What the Bible Really Tells Us: The Essential Guide to Biblical Literacy.” But Wray adds that she recently traveled to Ireland and discovered many of its citizens have left the religion. Churches are being closed and turned into apartment buildings, she says.
“People who went to mass every day stopped going,” she says. “There’s this cultural Catholic identity, but as far as practicing their faith, it’s just disappearing. So within a generation, that’s all it took. It’s just shocking.”
Why the American church’s future may be different than Europe’s
Most of the religious scholars CNN spoke to said the American church may find salvation in another demographic trend: the booming of Christianity in what is called the “Global South,” the regions encompassing Latin America, Africa and Asia.
The world’s largest megachurch, for example, is not in the US. It’s in South Korea. The Yoido Full Gospel Church has a weekly attendance of about 600,000 members.
Perry Hamalis spent time as a Fulbright Scholar in South Korea, where he personally witnessed the vitality of the Christian church in the Global South.
He says the church is not perceived in South Korea as an instrument of oppression, but one of liberation. When South Korea was colonized by the Japanese in the early 20th century, the church aligned with Koreans to protest.
“Christianity was looked at not as a religion of empire and of the colonizers, but as the religion of the anti-colonial movement and of pro-democracy,” says Hamalis, a religion professor at North Central College in Illinois.
The US has more immigrants than any other country. People from Latin America and Asia now make up the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the US, and many are bringing their religious fervor with them.
This migration is known as the “Browning of America,” a phrase describing a demographic shift that is expected to make White people the minority in the US by 2045.
Those who predict that the church in America will collapse often overlook how the migration of Global South Christians to America will revitalize the country’s religious landscape, scholars say. Christianity could rebound in America if White Christians embrace this one change, they say.
Tish Harrison Warren, a New York Times columnist, pointed out recently that Latino evangelicals are now the fastest-growing group of evangelicals in the US.
“We cannot assume that America will become more secular so long as the future of America is less white,” Warren wrote.
Some churches may discover that Jesus’ command to welcome the stranger collides with their definition of patriotism, Hamalis says.
“Many congregations don’t realize how much of their Christian identity is wrapped up with a kind of (Christian) nationalist narrative,” Hamalis says. “There’s nothing wrong with loving one’s country, but from a Christian perspective that ought to always be secondary to the mission of building the body of Christ and witnessing to the Gospel in the world.”
How Christianity could re-establish its dominance
There are other factors hiding in plain sight that point to the continued vitality of Christianity, others say.
For one, declining church membership doesn’t automatically translate into declining influence.
Consider some recent landmark events. White evangelicals played a critical role in getting former President Trump elected. Conservative Christian groups played a crucial role in the recent passage of state laws limiting LGBTQ rights. And the Supreme Court’s decision last year to overturn Roe vs. Wade was a massive victory for many conservative Christians.
And atheism remains a taboo in American politics. American voters still prefer candidates – including presidents Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden – who profess or evoke Christian beliefs.
“Christianity still holds a lot of capital in this country,” says Lee M. Jefferson, an associate professor of religion at Centre College in Kentucky.
“There has always been a popular notion that a religious community’s strength or influence is connected to numbers and attendance,” Jefferson says. “Even if there is ample space in cathedrals, Christianity will still hold some strong relevance in different landscapes in the US.”
Even the rise of the “nones,” the growing number of Americans who say they don’t care about religion, is not as much of a threat to the church as initial reports suggest, scholars say.
A growing number of Americans may no longer identify as Christian, but many still care about spirituality, says Hans Gustafson, author of “Everyday Wisdom: Interreligious Studies for a Pluralistic World.”
Maria Antonetty, foreground, joins others in a Spanish Easter service at the Primitive Christian Church in New York City on April 12, 2009.
Maria Antonetty, foreground, joins others in a Spanish Easter service at the Primitive Christian Church in New York City on April 12, 2009.
Tina Fineberg/AP
“Just because more Americans are disaffiliating with institutionalized religion — most notably Christian traditions — this does not always mean that people are becoming less religious,” says Gustafson, director of the Jay Phillips Center for Interreligious Studies at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.
“Many still practice spirituality: prayer, meditation… and sometimes even regularly attend religious houses of worship,” he says.
Among Americans with no religious affiliation, some still pray daily and say religion is very important in their lives, Gustafson says.
Evangelicals at an inflection point 'not seen in 100 years,' reverend says (2022)
09:34 - Source: CNN
He cites a surprising finding from a 2018 Pew Research Center study of religion in Western Europe. The study found that nones in the US are “much more likely” to pray and believe in God than their European counterparts, said Neha Sahgal, a vice president of research at Pew.
“In fact, by some of these standard measures of religious commitment, American ‘nones’ are as religious as — or even more religious than — Christians in several European countries, including France, Germany and the UK,” Sahgal wrote.
Despite the optimism of many religious scholars, the future of Christianity in America still seems uncertain. Poll numbers about the decline of religiousness in the US cannot be ignored, along with something more intangible: the frailties of human nature.
What if the US enters another xenophobic period and limits migration from non-White Christians?
What if progressive Christians prove unwilling to align with non-White immigrants who tend to be more conservative on issues of sexuality and gender?
A woven crown of thorns, depicting the one placed on the head of Jesus before his crucifixion, at Transfiguration Of Our Lord Ukrainian Catholic Church, in Shamokin, Pennsylvania.
A woven crown of thorns, depicting the one placed on the head of Jesus before his crucifixion, at Transfiguration Of Our Lord Ukrainian Catholic Church, in Shamokin, Pennsylvania.
Carolyn Kaster/AP
And what if some Christians still cling to the belief that America is supposed to be a White Christian nation, even if that assumption causes them to close their church doors to non-White immigrants who could be their salvation?
If that happens, an Easter morning symbol in American churches won’t just be an empty tomb, but empty pews.
But Hamalis, the religion professor who saw Christianity boom in South Korea, says Christians who fear that kind of future can take solace in the Easter message.
“From a Christian perspective, there’s nothing to fear because even death has been conquered,” Hamalis says. “When we are liberated from that fear, we can embrace the person who’s different from us, who speaks a different language or comes from a different culture. We can put ourselves out there in a way that we can’t if we’re just afraid.”
He and other scholars envision a vibrant future for Christianity in the US that’s shared by Warren, the New York Times columnist:
“The future of American Christianity is neither white evangelicalism nor white progressivism,” Warren wrote. “The future of American Christianity now appears to be a multi-ethnic community that is largely led by immigrants of the children of immigrants.”
If the American church can embrace this future and reverse its shrinking membership, it will have experienced its own resurrection.
John Blake is a Senior Writer at CNN and the author of “More Than I Imagined: What a Black Man Discovered About the White Mother He Never Knew.”
Remembering Pastor Cho Yong-gi
Pastor Cho Yong-gi, right, who built Seoul's Yoido Full Gospel Church into the world's largest megachurch before being tainted by corruption and other scandals, died in September. He was 85.
STEVEN BOROWIEC, Contributing writer
December 11, 2021 08:00 JST
SEOUL -- South Korea's megachurches have for decades attempted to balance huge wealth with claims to be agents working for the betterment of the poor and downtrodden. No church has embodied this duality more than Yoido Full Gospel Church, which was started in a tent in 1958 and grew to become the world's largest congregation.
Since the death of its founder in September, the church has been working hard to bolster its service to the poor at a time when interest in organized religion is waning as inequality is growing in part due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Pastor Cho Yong-gi founded the church in an area of Seoul where many displaced people were living in makeshift communities following the chaos of the Korean War. Thousands had lost or been separated from family members during the 1950-53 conflict and were attempting to put their lives back together amid the rubble of war.
Word of Cho's impassioned sermons, during which he sometimes spoke in tongues, spread quickly as he preached a gospel of prosperity, stressing to congregants that a spiritual connection to God would lay the foundation for success at work and happiness at home. He made deliberate efforts to grow his flock, setting goals for numbers of followers and tirelessly proselytizing.
Eventually, Cho's congregation reached 750,000 members, making it the largest in the world. This growth took place concurrently with South Korea's ascent from postwar poverty to one of the world's richer countries.
Cho died in September at age 85, after being hospitalized for more than a year following a brain hemorrhage. Born in the southern city of Ulsan in 1936, Cho found Christianity in the 1950s through contact with American missionaries.
A statement released by the United Christian Churches of Korea mourning Cho's death said that "by teaching about life changes and values of optimism, he gave people the hope and courage to conquer the world."
Cho's life is an apt metaphor for the past several decades of history in South Korea, a resource-poor country that quickly developed through hard work and a can-do spirit. Despite the country's exceptionally fast development, nowadays many Koreans feel like the system is rigged against them through an unforgiving economy, and fewer people have time for Cho's message of the power of faith and positive thinking.
Since his death, the church has pledged $84 million in aid for South Koreans affected by the coronavirus and received a sanctions exemption from the U.N. to construct a cardiac hospital in North Korea.
The public's turn away from Christianity is particularly pronounced among the young. A Pew Research study found that South Korea had far lower levels of religious affiliation among younger and older adults.
Also in recent years, the belief that it is possible to make one's own fortunes through hard work has tumbled. According to government data, in 2013, 53% of South Koreans younger than 30 believed that class mobility was possible. That number fell to 38% in 2017.
Despite the country's exceptionally fast development, nowadays many Koreans feel like the system is rigged against them through an unforgiving economy, and fewer people have time for Cho's message of the power of faith and positive thinking. ©
Young South Koreans looking to get ahead are more likely to spend their time studying or developing specifications than praying for prosperity. In their free time, TikTok and Instagram are more appealing as sources of entertainment than church attendance.
"Pastor Cho started his mass media mission 50 years ago in a large parking lot and accurately foresaw how the world would move and what ministries should do in the future. In today's way of speaking, he moved in a 'metaverse,'" said Chang Hun-tae, a professor and Director of the Institute of Culture at Baekseok University.
Though Cho's church and others have scrambled to adapt to life on the internet, streaming their services on YouTube and hosting online discussion forums, nowadays, the fortunes of Christian churches are waning in South Korea.
In addition to the increased competition for attention, another factor is scandals among the leaders of megachurches like Cho's, who have been accused of financial malfeasance. Cho himself was convicted of financial improprieties, such as misappropriating church funds, in 2017. In light of his religious activities, the court granted him a suspended sentence that allowed him to avoid prison.
Still, a 2013 press conference turned violent when a group of church elders called on Cho and his family members to step down from their high-ranking positions.
Also, the general perception of churches took a hit during the coronavirus pandemic, as many of the country's most serious cluster infections were traced to churches that were found to have flouted regulations or been less than fully transparent with investigating public health authorities.
In 1973, Cho moved his church to a hulking red-brick structure on the southern side of the Han River in the financial district of Seoul. The building, the epicenter of the world's largest congregation, embodies the church's aggressive evangelical posture, sitting as it does on a street corner at the top of a flight of stairs, to proclaim its gospel across the South Korean capital.
In a recent interview with local media, Senior Pastor Lee Young-hoon pledged to continue Cho's teachings, and their message of prosperity, as the foundation of the church with a particular focus on "nurturing the next generation."
"He successfully instilled hopes and dreams within the public which was also critical for the success of our church as a megachurch," Lee said of Cho. "We are tasked with succeeding and developing his legacy."
Yoido Full Gospel Church to celebrate 65th anniversaryPosted : 2023-05-15 17:01Updated : 2023-
The facade of today's Yoido Full Gospel Church in southern Seoul's Yeongdeungpo District / Courtesy of Yoido Full Gospel Church
The facade of today's Yoido Full Gospel Church in southern Seoul's Yeongdeungpo District / Courtesy of Yoido Full Gospel Church
From tent church to Korea's largest Protestant church
By Sah Dong-seok
Yoido Full Gospel Church will mark its 65th anniversary on May 18. Founded by Rev. Cho Yong-gi in 1958 in a tent, it has grown remarkably over a short period of time, and nowadays draws the largest number of believers in Korea for worship.
The church has a unique position in that it let Pentecostalism, a Christian movement that emphasizes the direct personal experience of God through baptism with the Holy Spirit, take center stage in the Korean Protestant world, where the Presbyterian denomination prevails. Senior Pastor Lee Young-hoon, who is leading the megachurch after Rev. Cho died in September 2021, has also become a leader of the Korean church circle, concurrently serving as the president of the United Christian Churches of Korea.
The number of Yoido Full Gospel Church members reached 500,000 at the end of 1985. The figure exceeded 700,000 in 1992 although many major churches in Seoul and its surrounding metropolitan areas became independent as local churches since the turn of the 1990s. Even as 20 branch churches broke away after Rev. Lee was elected the second senior pastor in 2008, the congregation of Yoido Full Gospel Church was as many as 570,000. If branch churches are included, the number of believers would reach nearly 900,000.
The facade of today's Yoido Full Gospel Church in southern Seoul's Yeongdeungpo District / Courtesy of Yoido Full Gospel Church
In 1958, Yoido Full Gospel Church was first founded as a makeshift "tent church" by Pastor Cho Yong-gi in northwestern Seoul's Eunpyeong District. Courtesy of Yoido Full Gospel Church
It is a remarkable growth comparable to the Miracle on the Han River. The church had a very humble beginning, though. Yoido Full Gospel Church began on May 18, 1958, with an inaugural service in the living room of missionary Choi Ja-sil's house in Daejo-dong, northwestern Seoul. At the time, only five people ? Rev. Cho who was then a preacher, missionary Choi who was Cho's mother-in-law, his three children and an elderly woman who came to avoid the rain while working in the field ? attended the service. But the anecdote of Rev. Cho, who raised his voice that day by saying, "I'm preaching, thinking that more than 1,000 people are sitting here," is on everyone's lips even today.
Rev. Cho's dream proved to be a vision, not a fantasy. The church grew rapidly. The tent church in Daejo-dong, which was built using American military tents, could accommodate no more people.
The church moved to Seodaemun in central Seoul, but as the congregation continued to grow, what caught the eyes of Rev. Cho was Yeouido (Yoido), an island on the Han River in Seoul. On Aug. 19, 1973, the first service was offered at the present chapel in Yoido. And on Sept. 23 of the same year, the dedication service of the newly built Yoido church took place with about 18,000 people attending. It was then that Yoido Full Gospel Church became what it is today.
The facade of today's Yoido Full Gospel Church in southern Seoul's Yeongdeungpo District / Courtesy of Yoido Full Gospel Church
The construction of Yoido Full Gospel Church at its present-day site in southern Seoul's Yeongdeungpo District was completed on Aug. 15, 1973. The church held its first service four days later
Under his leadership, the Holy Spirit Movement expanded throughout the Korean Peninsula as the church achieved its goal of planting more than 500 local churches. Rev. Lee, who took the helm of Yoido Full Gospel Church fully after Rev. Cho died in 2021, hopes to see the day when the door to North Korea opens so that the Holy Spirit Movement can continue to spread across the world.
In his speech for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day commemorative service in 2018, he preached, "I have a dream that one day little boys and girls from North and South Korea will join together as brothers and sisters." In fact, Rev. Lee has encouraged church leaders to constantly pray for the peaceful unification of the Korean Peninsula, hoping to be a messenger of peace not only within the boundary of Yoido Full Gospel Church but also globally.
Does anyone remember Jim-Tammy Baker? So much money came in that they could not resist taking some for themselves.
Too bad, I heard Jim preached one time in California and I thought he was very good.
Same here in the S. Korean church but a lot more. money is coming in there.
Satan is whispering all this money and it is because of You!
A sense of entitlement is set in their mind.
Satan says; You worked so hard you really earned it.
Hopefully and prayerfully the shoulders of the new pastor can carry the temptation.
A Muslim Imam finds Salvation in Jesus Christ
"On a recent trip, I stopped to have dinner at a roadside hotel. While I waited for my food, an Imam (Muslim priest) sat down across from me. We began a conversation, and when he heard my family name he realized I come from a Muslim background. Intense questioning ensued because I was now a Christian, and I asked him what he thought of salvation.
To him, salvation occurs when a Muslim makes a pilgrimage to Islam’s most sacred site in Mecca. I took Scriptures from the Qur’an and the Bible and showed him that blood sacrifices are required to obtain God’s forgiveness. I explained that it is now only through the blood of Jesus Christ that true forgiveness and salvation comes.
The Imam broke into tears as I shared the love of Jesus and I helped clarify all of his doubts about the Gospel. He found true salvation and was eager to share his new faith with other Muslims so they too can find the Truth!"
Don't turn your back on God. One day you will meet Him face to face. Turn around and seek Jesus Christ, before it is too late. Believe in Him, and you will receive forgiveness for all your sins and have peace with God!
Amazing Grace;
God has made the method of salvation so simple that everyone can obtain it. If you choose to believe in Jesus, God will be your Father and you will become His beloved child and be part of His heavenly and everlasting kingdom. The sacrifice of Jesus was the only way for God to bring us back to Him because our sin separates us. But Jesus was willing to take our sin, to serve our sentence and He died for that on the cross. Everyone who chooses to believe in Him are thereby justified, saved, and becomes a true Christian. God then sees you through Jesus and you are without any sin or guilt from His point of view. It is a free gift from God to each of us. This is an amazing grace; the innocent One was sacrificed to justify the guilty ones.
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” (John 1, 12)
Warning;
Every person has the right to know the consequence of turning away from God. It has to be told that God is a beloved Father for all those who receive Jesus as the Saviour, but it also has to be told that the one that turns away from Him, will one day meet Him as the Judge. At that point there will be no second chance, no possibility for repenting. The Gospels in the Bible speaks about two alternative outcomes after death; God’s kingdom or a place of hopelessness and suffering.
Jesus said; “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10, 28)
The time you spend on this earth is not even the blink of an eye compared to eternity, yet what you choose to believe in this life determines your everlasting destiny. It is your choice that determines where you will spend eternity. This is the most important decision you will ever have to make, so please consider it carefully.
“For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul.” (Matthew 16:26)
Just As You Are;
“That whoever calls on the name of the Lord (Jesus) shall be saved.” (The Acts 2, 21)
Jesus said; “Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11, 28)
And; ” I have come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19, 10)
Make A Choice;
But everyone must make a choice.
Jesus said: “He who is not with Me is against me.” (Matthew 12, 30)
Someone may wish to delay and rather become a Christian at an old age. That is possible. It is never too late to turn to Jesus as long as you live. However, you never know how old you will be when you will die, or if you will be prepared for your own death. And when you are dead, the door will be closed for all eternity and at that point there will be no second chance. Then it will be too late.
It should be strongly recommended not to delay the most important matter you will ever have to consider in your life.
“Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your heart…” (Hebrews 3, 7-8)
The Safety Net;
To turn to Jesus is like a person who is walking on a line far up above the ground (e.g. a tightrope walker in a circus), and then chooses to use a safety net underneath. Without the net, a fall will be a disaster. With the safety net underneath, the person will not get hurt in the case of a slip and fall but will be saved by the net. And it is just a matter of getting up and starting over again.
Jesus is that safety net and nothing can ever break the strength of that net.
“There is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans. 8, 1)
But without the net, without Jesus; every sin and mistake a person makes will have to be accounted for on the Day of Judgment; the day God judges all mankind. The outcome will be eternal separation from the love of God and from His kingdom, according to the Bible.
Jesus declared; “I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the Day of Judgment.” (Matthew 12, 36)
“And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” ( Hebrews 4, 13)
“He who believes in the Son has everlasting life, and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” (John 3, 36)
To become a Christian is a choice that you can express through prayer.
Praying is simply talking to God. He knows you. We suggest you pray the following prayer:
“Dear Jesus! I am sorry for the things I have done wrong in my life. I ask your forgiveness. Thank you for dying on the cross for me to set me free from my sins. Please come into my life and fill me with your Holy Spirit and be with me forever. Thank you, Jesus, Amen.”
Is this prayer the desire of your heart?
If yes, then we invite you to pray it,
and according to the promises of Jesus,
He will come into your life.
Yes, I have just said this prayer and I want to let you know
Being A Christian;
Believing in Jesus as the Saviour justifies a person one hundred percent. What God requires of you, He has given to you as a free gift through the sacrifice of Jesus.
But it is also the will of God that the one who has become a Christian will improve and make progress; turning away from what is wrong and becoming more like Jesus. Not for the purpose of being justified and saved, because you cannot achieve that by yourself, and as a Christian you already have been given this as a free gift. But because you are saved, in gratitude to God and Jesus who saved you when you did not deserve it.
To make progress as a Christian may feel like two steps forward and one step back, and sometimes two steps back and one step forward. The important thing is to always stay close to Jesus and never try to hide anything from Him. If you have done something you know is wrong, then confess and ask for His forgiveness. Jesus will be your safety net. And you will need Him as long as you live.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1, 9)
We strongly recommend that you also become part of a good Christian congregation/church in your local area; get fellowship with other Christians, share the Word of God, Communion, etc.
If you have never been baptized we also strongly recommend that you make contact with a Christian pastor or Christian congregation and let yourself be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
As the Bible says: ”Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (The Acts 2, 38)
The only sacrifice that God has accepted for human sin is the sacrifice of Jesus. And He proclaimed His acceptance of this sacrifice by resurrecting Jesus from the dead on the third day.
Paul the Apostle refers to over 500 witnesses that met Jesus after His resurrection, in addition to His disciples, and most of them lived for more than 25 years afterward. (1.Corinthians 15,6). Even more people witnessed His death, including the Romans who carried out the crucifixion.
After the resurrection, Jesus said to His disciples:
“These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me. And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. Then He said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and the repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations… And You are my witnesses of these things. “ (Luke 24, 44-48)
Predictions About Jesus;
The death and resurrection of Jesus was predicted by Jesus Himself several years before it happened. His life, death and resurrection were also predicted many hundred years earlier by the prophets of God. There is a total of 48 prophecies in the Old Testament about the Saviour that God promised to send to the world.
One example is from the prophet Isaiah that lived approx. 700 years before Jesus Christ was born as a human being (the following is just a short extract of the original):
“Yet it was our weaknesses he carried. It was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God for his own sins! But he was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace. He was whipped, and we were healed! All of us have strayed away like sheep. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the guilt and sins of us all.” (Isaiah 53, 4-6)
Highly Detailed Prophecies;
Many of the prophecies in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms written many hundred years before Jesus are also highly detailed. Some examples:
He would be betrayed by a friend (Judas) and the amount of money that He would be betrayed for; 30 pieces of silver (Psalm 41,10 & Zechariah 11,12), what this money would be used for after His death; ..”cast it unto the potter..”(Potter’s field) (Zechariah 11,13), His hands and feet would be pierced (the crucifixion) (Psalm 22,17), His legs should not be broken (Psalm 34,21), which was a standard procedure at the end of a crucifixion, instead His side would be pierced with a spear (Zechariah 12,10) including many other specific examples. All of this happened as it was predicted and written down many hundred years earlier (ref. Matthew 24,15 & 26,47-48 & 27,5-7, Luke 23,33, John 19,33-34). Most of the prophecies concerning His crucifixion and death were fulfilled by the Romans, who did not know anything about these old predictions.
Through the fulfilment of all the prophecies, God confirmed that Jesus Christ is the Saviour which He promised in the early days, and the way back to Him for all mankind.
“And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe.” (John 14, 29)
"I was brought up in a Hindu family. My wife and I have a son and a daughter. When I was young I loved the Hindu deities and I devoted my life to their service, becoming a priest in a famous temple. Although I prayed and blessed others every day, I had no peace or joy in my heart. I often prayed to my gods, but it was completely onesided. There was never an answer, which made me increasingly frustrated. Over time, I began to drink alcohol to help me cope and to forget my worries.
My religious duties became a mere ritual to me. During the day I served as a priest, and at night I consumed liquor in ever-increasing amounts. I became so addicted that I started going to bars and drunk openly in front of all. When I was intoxicated, I used to abuse and fight other people, and I became known as ‘the drunken priest.' I lost all respect from the people and I eventually lost my job in the temple.
Because of my addiction, there was no peace in my family. My wife used to cry and pray to our gods to change me, but they never answered.
One day I got such a severe stomach pain that I could not bear it. My wife prayed to our gods with tears, but again nothing happened. My pain increased. Finally, I was taken to the hospital. The doctors did several tests, but could not find the cause of my suffering.
When some Christian gospel workers visited the hospital, they found me lying on the bed in pain. They spoke to me with love and told me about Jesus, but I laughed because I knew that gods can't help. Despite my attitude, they confidently told me that Jesus could heal me if I trusted him.
I didn't know anything about Jesus and I had never prayed to him, but because of the severe pain, I asked them to pray for me. The moment they lifted up their voices to heaven, I felt as if the Almighty God Himself was listening to their prayers. It was comforting and soothing, and I could feel the power of God reducing my pain. After the prayer, while talking about Jesus, I was completely healed.
The Lord Jesus did this miracle in me—the drunken Hindu priest. On that day, the Lord proved to me that He is the God who can speak, heal, and save even a lost soul like me. I decided at that moment to become His servant. I accepted Jesus as my Savior and was baptized. The Lord healed me, saved me, and cleansed me, and now my entire family serves Him.
Today, I am an independent evangelist and pastor. I don't have enough money to buy the Scriptures, so I thank God for supplying Bibles and Gospels through Asia Harvest. I carry hundreds of Mark's Gospel to 30 villages and distribute them to people one by one. This distribution has helped me to start prayer groups and baptize many new believers. As a result, 98 families are now attending our church. This is all because of God's love and the power of the Scriptures.
We are now experiencing growing opposition from Hindu activists, who are furious that I tell the people, "Jesus is the only way to be saved!" By the grace and power of God, however, I plan to continue my ministry and do whatever I can to make our new believers strong in the Lord. Please pray for us, and thank you for your generous partnership in the Gospel.
Carey Nieuwhof
You hear it all the time.
I’m done with church.
I don’t really need to go to church…my relationship with God is personal.
I’ve had it with organized religion.
The church is a man-made invention, not God’s idea.
I completely understand why a growing number of people are bailing on church. Even people who used to lead in the church often stop attending (here are 9 reasons why church leaders do that).
While it’s easy to point to the significant exodus after the pandemic as a temporary blip, the truth is the exit has been happening for decades, even a generation or two.
We’ve spent a lot of time working through the issue of declining church attendance
I get it.
There are many explanations for why people stop going to church. The church is far from perfect. Life is complex. There are growing options. And the post-modern mind distrusts most things organized or institutional.
But as trendy as the idea of writing off the church may be, it’s a mistake.
While writing off the church passes as sophisticated thinking, it’s actually the opposite; what if it’s a simplistic and even reductionistic line of thinking that leads nowhere constructive?
While writing off the church passes as sophisticated thinking, it's actually the opposite.
The church isn’t even biblical, is it?
People argue the idea of church isn’t even biblical.
So let’s start with the basics;
First, if you’re a Christian, church is not something you go to. It’s something you are.
You can’t disassociate from the church as a Christian any more than you can disassociate from humanity as a person.
You don’t go to church. You are the church.
You don't go to church. You are the church.
Second, the church was not a human invention. Half-reading the New Testament with one eye closed will still lead you to the inescapable conclusion that the church was God’s idea.
In fact, most of the New Testament is not about the teachings of Jesus. It’s about the work of the church that Jesus initiated and ordained. I won’t fill this post with scripture verses that prove my point, because, quite frankly, you’d have to get rid of the majority of the New Testament to argue that the church was a parenthetical, made-up organization.
If you want to get rid of the church, you also need to get rid of Jesus.
You can’t have one without the other.
If you want to get rid of the church, you also need to get rid of Jesus. He created it.
Maybe what bothers you should actually amaze you
I understand that the idea of the church being imperfect makes some people despair.
But rather than making us despair, the fact that Jesus started the church with imperfect people should make us marvel at God’s incredible grace.
That God would use ordinary, broken human beings as vessels of his grace, and delight in it, is awe-inspiring. He’s proud of how his grace is beating through your imperfect but redeemed life and through the church (have you ever read Ephesians 3: 10-11?).
The idea that God would use you and me is pretty amazing. He had other options.
He could have spoken to the world directly, but instead, chose to use broken people to showcase his grace to a world in need of redemption.
The idea that God would use you and me is pretty amazing. He had other options.
For sure, the community is messy.
People sin. Leaders are sinful.
Most of the New Testament is not a story of an idealized church where everything worked perfectly all the time (just read 1 Corinthians any time you’re frustrated with your church).
The fact that Christ uses flawed people to accomplish his work on earth is actually a sign of his grace, not a sign of his absence.
The church’s story, as twisted as it gets at times, is a beautiful story of God’s grace, God’s power, and God’s redemption.
So, by the way, is your life, which reflects the story of the church more than you would want to admit.
The church gives the world a front-row seat to the grace of God
The ultimate consumerism isn’t going to church…it’s walking away from it
People criticize the church today as being consumeristic. And to some extent, churches cater to consumerism—often to our detriment. I agree that consumerism is a problem for Christianity.
But ironically, much of the dialogue about why people are done with church pushes people deeper into Christian consumerism than it pushes them into deeper discipleship: Here I am, all alone, worshipping God on my schedule when it’s convenient for me.
Listening to a podcast of your favorite preacher while you’re at the gym or on the back deck and pushing three of your favorite worship songs through your earbuds does not make you a more passionate Christ-follower.
It usually makes you a less effective one.
Disconnecting yourself from the community is actually less faithful than connecting yourself to a flawed community.
If you think the church today isn’t enough (and arguably, we need to reform it), then do what the early Christians did.
If you want a more biblical church…don’t gather weekly, gather daily. Before dawn.
Get up before the sun rises to pray together with other Christians before you go to work. Pool your possessions. Don’t claim anything as your own.
Be willing to lose your job, your home, your family, and even your life because you follow Jesus.
Then you’ll be more authentic.
And notice that the early church did indeed gather.
Gathering always leads to some form of organizing.
To pretend the church doesn’t need to be organized is as logical as arguing that society doesn’t need to be organized.
Because community is inevitable, organization is inevitable.
Our ability to organize and to accomplish more together than we can alone is one of the crowning achievements of humanity, and our ability to work together makes the Christian effort far more effective.
It’s also part of God’s design for how we should interact while we’re on this planet. Come to think of it, heaven is a community too.
My Childhood;
Even though my mother had a Christian upbringing as a child, and my dad became a Catholic when he was still single, religion was not encouraged nor talked about in our home.
Mom told me that she had been forced to go to Sunday school and had to memorize scriptures.
All her brothers and sisters, eleven of them, would be severely punished by their father if they had not memorized them correctly.
My dad became a Catholic before he was married, he was working in Limburg, in the South of Holland, where most people, including his family, were all Catholic’s.
I believe that dad felt he had to join and not because he wanted to. I personally never saw him going to church, not to any church for that matter.
So the Lord did not live in our home. My dad would tell us to find our own way.
We were always fighting and arguing as children.
My mother had put me in charge of the younger kids, as she did not like to get up early. I had to get the gang ready, make breakfast, and get them ready for school.
I would go to the bakery and ask for warm bread. The baker would tell me that he was not allowed to sell bread baked that morning, until 10 o’clock. I knew this very well.
Warm bread is not healthy for your stomach. I always got my way, as I would tell the baker, that if he didn’t sell it to me, I would go somewhere else.
We kids would “kill” that whole loaf of bread spreading on margarine so thick, that it left out teeth marks behind. The butter was melting on the warm bread. So very, very, goooood!
Since we had no central heating, I had to get the coal stove going.
That did not always go smoothly, especially when it was raining, so I would get some petrol and throw it upon the kindling.
Trust me that will get it going! That we never had a fire is a miracle. Sometimes the room would be full of smoke, and Mom would get out of bed, cursing and be mad at me.
Another time, the kids would come to her bedroom complaining; “Mom, Jenny says to do this, Mom, Jenny says to do that” She would come out of bed and let me have it.
If she really got mad she would backhand me one. What I have always felt was unfair, she never asked me which corner I preferred too land in.
Dad often had two jobs, so he was not home a lot. We would all be waiting for him when he finally climbed the stairs, to tell him what Mom had done and what Jenny had done. Poor man, that he never banged our heads together, is another miracle.
Can you believe a teacher telling this to ten-year-olds?
Oh my! In my mind, I saw myself inside a coffin alive with a lot of dirt on top of me, and not being able to tell anyone that I was not dead.
That thought would just paralyze me!
When I came home I told my sister Greetje that when I died before her, to get a large knife and stick it into me many times, to make sure that I was dead.
Poor girl for having been given such an assignment.
I read once that in England when someone was buried, a string was wound around their toes. It was attached to a bell above ground. If you were not really dead you could ring the bell.
I sure would have liked to have known about that then!
When I had questions and that was often, I would go to my Dad. He always had the answers for me even though he would often sigh, and tell me that I could ask more questions than ten wise men could answer.
I told Dad that I was afraid to go to sleep, and told him what my teacher had said about being buried alive.
I asked my dad: “What if I die in my sleep? Why do I have to die, I want to know why, Dad, why?”
The world will keep going and I won’t be a part of it anymore.
There will be new inventions and discoveries, and I won’t know about them. Why are we on this planet anyway, for what purpose?
If we all have to die one day anyway, it just makes no sense at all does it Daddy?”
Well, this was the day that I finally stumped my dad. He had no answer for me. All he could say was that even the queen had to die. I knew she was very important and that even she had to die impressed me.
For a little while, this thought comforted me, but not for long, as the subject just would not let me go.
In desperation, I went to my mother and told her what was keeping me awake at night.
I didn't want to die I told her. I didn't want to be buried six feet underground for then it was all over for me.
"Oh", mother said to me; "Is that what is worrying you? Well when you die, you become a little star.”
Now that was better! Better than lying in a coffin that is for sure. I would be able to see everything that would happen on planet Earth, I would still be a part of it all. Now I felt a lot better. I was happy with what my mother had told me, happy for a few days anyway.
I have a mind that never stops working.
I told my mom that I was worried about all the people that had already died, and the ones that still would die if there would be enough room for all those stars.
She said that only I could have come up with that one!
Jenny, Jenny He didn't do it. I looked under my bed and there was nothing for me.
I struggled to clear my mind as I had been in a deep sleep, when Monica woke me. I wondered what she was talking about.
What are you trying to say, honey?
There is no doll Jenny, there is no doll under my bed.
Ah, now I did remember. Monica wanted very much to have a dolly.
I had told her to pray and ask the Lord for it.
She had done so and now believed that He had not delivered as she thought He would, by putting the doll under her bed.
I tried to explain to her that God was not Santa Claus and that He works through people.
I could tell that this was too much for her to understand, she was only five years old.
That very afternoon her girlfriend, who lived next door, came over to the house. Lisa was very excited.
Monica, my dad just came home from a trip and look at what he brought me, a new doll, and if you want to, you can have my other doll.
Now Monica's eyes lit up and she looked at me with wonder, for she now understood that indeed, God works through people.
A very famous preacher, Hudson Taylor once said, Lord, That you will answer my prayer, I know!
What fascinates me every time is, How you are going too answer.
Passage: Acts 19:1-10 ...Speaker: Jeff Thompson
As we begin to follow Paul’s pivotal three years of ministry in Ephesus, we are reminded of the importance of yielding to the gracious revelation of truth by God. The alternative is a hardening of the heart, which produces disastrous results.
So, as we get into our study today, Paul has left Antioch, his home base, and he's on his third missionary journey. He's been traveling throughout central modern-day Turkey, visiting, strengthening, and encouraging the churches that he planted there during his first missionary journey. And here in Acts 19, Paul is going to return to the city of Ephesus, where he will enjoy three of the most profitable years of his ministry, a season many scholars consider to be the pinnacle of Paul's ministry. you'll recall that Paul left his dear friends Aquila and Priscilla in Ephesus when he briefly stopped there on his journey home.
At the end of his second missionary journey, they would host the first church in Ephesus in their home, and they were pillars of that young church. When Paul returns to the city here in Acts 19, it's reasonable to assume that he would have stayed once again with Aquila, Priscilla, and when his funding ran out, he would have worked part-time in their leather shop to make ends meet. So, let's take a look at Acts, chapter 19, verse one. While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled throughout the interior regions and came to Ephesus. Ephesus was the fourth largest city in the empire, and it was one of its wealthiest and most important.
It was known as the supreme metropolis of Asia. It embodied the power of the Roman Empire and the splendor of the Greek Empire that preceded it. Founded around 1400 BC, Ephesus had a population at this time of between a quarter and half a million people, which was massive at that time in history. The city boasted a magnificent theater that seated 24,000. It had good road and river systems and a bustling port, and these traits made it a natural hub for commerce and business, with enormous quantities of goods moving through the city daily.
As a result, it grew into a city of great affluence. People from all over the known world traveled through Ephesus, bringing with them their ideas, philosophies, and belief systems, and turning the city into a hub of superstition, magic, occultism, and paganism. The Ephesian population was multicultural and considered themselves more enlightened than most. They had a pluralistic spirituality, the view that all spiritual views and concepts are true and valid in some form because they ultimately all lead to God. They were comfortable with almost any deity, but extremely uncomfortable with the idea of one supreme God above all other gods.
That would be the idea of monotheism. We know of at least 50 gods who were worshipped in Ephesus, including the wildly popular god whose Roman name was Artemis. She was a goddess whose Greek name was Diana. Her glorious temple was so spectacular that it appears in Antipater of Sidon's Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was about four times the size of the Parthenon in Athens and was richly decorated by works of the greatest painters and sculptors of the age.
Artemis was most famous for the specific form of worship that she allegedly required. If you were an Ephesian man who wished to worship the city's protective mother, you would enter her temple and meet in private with one of the women who worked there as a sacred employee and worship with her. And you would pay the temple for her services and that money would go into the temple. Coffers if you were PAX Romana who chose to worship Artemis, you would soon be notified that it was your turn to serve in the temple as your act of worship.
The Greek philosopher Israelites commented that the morality of animals exceeded that of the people of Ephesus, perhaps because the city's most popular religions were all rooted in the pursuit of pleasure known as Hedonism. Then we read that he that's Paul found some disciples and asked them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? We'll learn later that this is a group of twelve men, and Paul and them cross paths somehow, and they get into a conversation about God. They even share with Paul that they were baptized years ago. But Paul can tell that something's a little bit off, and so he asks a clarifying question.
And the question behind Paul's question is, are you Christian? Because all Christians receive the Holy Spirit when they place their faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior. When Paul would later write his Epistle to the Ephesians, he would state plainly, when you believed you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit. Paul's suspicions were correct as we read no, they told him, we haven't even heard that there is a Holy Spirit. Paul learns these men are not Christians.
They are essentially Old Testament saints, even though it's the middle of the first century AD. Now, when I use the term Old Testament saint, I'm referring to someone who was a believer under the Old Covenant. Typically, in the times of the Old Testament, they were looking ahead in faith to a savior that God would send in the future. Whereas New Testament saints, new Covenant saints like us, we look back in time to the Savior God sent who was Jesus of Nazareth. So, these guys were not acquainted with the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
They were still living as Old Testament saints two decades after Jesus had fulfilled his ministry and returned to Heaven. So having established they were not Christians, Paul asks another clarifying question. He says, well, into what then were you baptized? He asked them. Into John's baptism. They replied, like Apollos, who we read about last week, that these men had responded to the teaching of John the Baptist, not John the Apostle John the Baptist.
As I shared last week, John the Baptist was a prophet who was given the mission of preparing Israel for the near arrival of the Messiah, the Savior sent by God to provide forgiveness for man's sins and reconcile him to God, bringing those who accept his offer of forgiveness into right relationship with God. John baptized people but with a different baptism to the one we practice in the church. John's baptism was a public declaration that a person recognized they were a sinner, needed forgiveness, wanted to be forgiven, wanted to repent, and desired to receive what the Messiah would soon offer. But John did not identify Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah until the Lord told him to. And that moment arrived when Jesus came out to visit him, and John declared, look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
In our previous study, we learned that Apollos had encountered John's ministry after John had identified Jesus as the Messiah. The group of John's disciples that Paul encounters here in Ephesus apparently encountered John's ministry before John had identified Jesus as the Messiah. And so there seemed to be two possible explanations for these twelve men. 'First possibility is they lived in Ephesus, and they had journeyed to Jerusalem to celebrate one of the feasts. While there, they had heard about the buzz related to John the Baptist ministry, and they went down to Bethabara to check it out.
Paul was familiar with the ministry of John the Baptist, and he had the joy of informing these brothers that the Messiah spoken of by John had indeed arrived, and it was Jesus. Paul would have then explained Jesus' perfect life, his ministry, his death, his resurrection, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the creation of the church. Theologically, it's a small but important point that when Paul realizes these men don't have the Holy Spirit, he doesn't teach them about the Holy Spirit, he teaches them about Jesus, because those who place their faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 1:13. We know these brothers were sincere seekers of God because we see their response in the next verse.
It says, when they heard this. So, when they heard the Gospel, they were baptized and then underline into the name of the Lord Jesus. Into the name of the Lord Jesus. The baptism we practice in the church is the one we see here. It's the public profession that we recognize Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah, the one and only Savior sent by God to provide forgiveness of sins to all who place their faith in Him.
And we have placed our faith in Him as our Savior. Not only that, notice what I had you underline, but we have decided to follow him as Lord the Lord Jesus. We now belong to him. He's both our savior and our master. He's the loved Jesus.
Verse six and when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them and they began to speak in tongues and to prophesy. Well, hang on a minute. If people receive the Holy Spirit when they place their faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior, and if Paul said that in Ephesians 113, then why do these disciples of John the Baptist only receive the Holy Spirit when Paul lays his hands on them? Excellent question. We should remember that many things are happening in the Book of Acts that are not normal.
The church is being established from scratch. This is a very special season of history, and God is doing some extraordinary things. He's also doing some normal things in extraordinary ways. The reason in play here seems to be to explicitly link the ministry of Paul to Pentecost and the ministry of the other apostles, clarifying that they preach the same Gospel and that those who respond to it receive the same Holy Spirit and become part of the same church. The external evidence of them receiving the Holy Spirit is the same as in Pentecost in Acts chapter two, where we read they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
And you'll recall the crowd that gathered around them in Jerusalem in Acts chapter two said we hear them declaring the magnificent Acts of God in our own tongues. That seems to be partly at least what's meant by the word "prophesy" in Acts 19:6. It seems they were speaking out praises and blessings to God. So, when they received the Holy Spirit on Pentecost in Acts chapter two, and here in Ephesus in Acts 19, the external evidence is the same, linking the two events together. And if you want more information about what tongues is, you can go to the website and watch or listen to the message I taught on that subject back in Acts chapter two, verse four.
And if you want more clarity on the events of Pentecost in Acts chapter two and what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit, or what the purpose is of being filled with the Holy Spirit, I'd again encourage you to go to the website, go back to some of those earlier studies we did in Acts Chapter Two, where we explain those things in detail. Now, thinking back to our previous study, you'll recall that Apollos had received the Holy Spirit. He was fervent in spirit. He was preaching with the power of the Holy Spirit, but he too had responded to the ministry of John the Baptist. So why did Apollos have the Holy Spirit, but the twelve disciples of John the Baptist in Ephesus didn't have the Holy Spirit?
What was the difference? The difference was that Apollos knew about Jesus specifically, and Apollos had placed his faith in Jesus specifically. We read that he was speaking and teaching accurately about Jesus. Apollos knew that Jesus was the Messiah. He just had some gaps in his knowledge about the full ministry and work of Jesus as the Messiah.
The twelve disciples in Ephesus didn't know about Jesus, and so they did not have faith in him specifically. And it is faith in Jesus specifically as Lord and Savior that is a prerequisite to receiving the Holy Spirit. And this speaks to an interesting question that some will raise. One of the classic questions that's been asked of Christianity is what about the man in the jungle? Meaning, what about the man, the hypothetical man who's part of a remote tribe, he's born in the jungle, he dies in the jungle, and in between, never has even the opportunity to hear the Gospel?
What about that man? Does he go to hell? In Romans one and two, as we've talked about many times, Paul explains that every person receives general revelation - revelation of God through creation and our moral conscience. Scripture clarifies that each person will be judged by Jesus based on how they responded to the revelation they received. And this has led some to ask, well, then why should we evangelize?
I mean, why should we share the Gospel if people who don't hear the Gospel can actually end up in heaven one day by just recognizing that creation points to a Creator and by doing what their conscience tells them is good and not doing what their conscience tells them is bad? Why evangelize? And here in Acts 19, we find part of the answer that they might receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, that they might be brought back into relationship with God now and experience all the rich blessings that come with being part of the family of God now and having the joy and peace and life of his spirit within you. Now, if we want good for people, we must share the Gospel with them. Additionally, if they receive the Holy Spirit now, they will have the power to live for Christ and bring him glory with their lives.
Verse seven, says now, they were about twelve men in all. And so, these men and their families would have then become part of the early church in Ephesus, in the house of Aquila and Priscilla. In Acts 18, verses 19 through 21 in the previous chapter, we read about Paul's first brief visit to Ephesus, where he entered the synagogue and debated with the Jews. When they asked him to stay for a longer time, he declined, but he said farewell and added, I'll come back to you again if God wills. They wanted to hear more from Paul, and the Lord did indeed will Paul to return.
And so, when Paul does, he picks up right where he left off. And we read in verse eight, that Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly over a period of three months, arguing and persuading them about the Kingdom of God. Now, remember, the Jews had a very different expectation for the Messiah. They believed he would free them from Roman oppression and restore Israel to a place of prominence among the nations. They believed that's what the kingdom of God would look like when it came, and that's what the Messiah would bring.
And it was really interesting. I was watching this morning William Lane Craig, who's probably the most eminent philosopher in the world today, 'strong Christian. He was on Ben Shapiro's show talking with him about why Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. And it was so interesting to hear Ben Shapiro, who's a Jew, repeating this exact thing. He's saying, Jesus can't be the Messiah because all Jews know that the Messiah is going to do things like restore Israel's prominence among the nations, free her from her enemies, and all these sorts of things, literally, that is still the present-day belief of Orthodox Jews.
And so, he was kind of surprised when William Lane Craig says, yeah, Christians know that. That's the Jewish expectation. We just believe that Jesus taught that, that expectation was not biblical. That's not what the Scriptures said in their entirety about the work of the Messiah. And so the essence of Paul's preaching to the Jews was the Gospel message and explaining how Jesus fulfilled all these Old Testament messianic prophecies, even though it didn't look like they thought it would.
It took a mighty, mighty work of the Holy Spirit to break through these deeply entrenched paradigms in the Jewish mind. Indeed, every time a Jew would turn to Christ in the early church, that was a miracle, because it took them making a 180-degree turn from the beliefs they had been raised in their entire lives. It took much arguing and persuading them about the Kingdom of God, but Paul faithfully lectured, answered questions, and engaged with those who challenged his teaching.
Verse nine. But when some became hardened and would not believe - underline hardened and would not believe, I'll come back to it - slandering the way in front of the crowd, he withdrew from them, taking the disciples and conducted discussions every day in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. You'll recall that the way was an early term for Christianity derived from Jesus' statement, I am the way, the truth, and the life. So, some of the Jews in the synagogue hardened their hearts and refused to respond to the Holy Spirit calling them through Paul's preaching. And these stubborn men quickly stirred up trouble and made Paul's ministry in the synagogue untenable.
This made me think about how often we struggle to accept when a paradigm we have about the Kingdom of God turns out to be wrong.
And how often do we respond in that one little area in a similar way, and we harden our hearts? I don't like that. I don't want to hear that. Let's talk about something else. Why are you slowing down your speech, Jeff?
Let's keep it moving. And when that happens, we face the same decision the Jews in Ephesus face. Will we embrace the glorious truth even if it looks different from how we think it should? Or will we just become hardened and refuse to believe, refuse to hear, refuse to. No, no. My old paradigm is working just fine for me, thank you very much.
One of the greatest truths that anyone who has followed Jesus for a long time will discover is that you have to be absolutely ruthless in how you deal with your thoughts, opinions, and emotions. You have to be absolutely ruthless over and over again. You have to go back to the questions. Is it true? And what has Christ commanded?
You have to say, it doesn't matter what I think, it doesn't matter what I feel, it doesn't matter what I want. Is it true? What has Christ commanded? You realize you must become ruthless in crucifying your flesh because the heart is more deceitful than anything else. And there's a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way of death.
If you're not aware, it is not natural to suppress one's opinions and desires and to instead exalt God's opinions and desires. It's not natural. It doesn't come easy, ever. That's why God gave us the Holy Spirit, to give us the power and the option to choose his way rather than our own. But even when we have the Holy Spirit, being led by Him is not a natural action for us.
We have to choose to be led by Him moment to moment, and we have to be ruthless in our rejection of our flesh. That desire to become ruthless grows from finally recognizing, just through reps and repeated failure, that my ways lead to death, but the Lord's ways lead to life. It comes from finally having the light bulb turn on one day and just notice the pattern that, hey, my ways tend to produce destruction and death in my relationships. My ways tend to produce death and destruction in my mental health and my daily life, and you name it. But the Lord's ways lead to life.
It's really weird. Like when I do things the Lord's way, I experience life, but when I do things my way, I experience not that. And it's super consistent. It's almost like there's some sort of law in play here. And when you finally get tired of seeing the results of doing things our way, and you respond to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, a desire, his birthed in you, and you begin to pray, lord, help me to be ruthless with my sin.
Please help me because I want life. I want you. There's only life or death in every area of life. All of us are trending in one of those two directions in every area of our lives right now - some faster than others, some slower. And, tragically, this group of stubborn men at the synagogue in Ephesus chose death. They chose to reject the truth and instead choose the path that leads to death. And this will mark Paul's last interaction with a synagogue in Luke's record. So, Paul takes those who had responded to his teaching with him, and he leaves the synagogue. He heads to the lecture hall of Tyrannus.
Now, this may have been a school owned by a philosopher named Tyrannus, or it may have simply been a public building where Tyrannus taught.
So, they developed a daily schedule very different from ours. They would typically get up with the sun and work from around 07:00 A.m. To 11:00 a.m. And then break for the hottest part of the day from around 11:00 A.m. To 04:00 p.m.
They would then resume work around 04:00 p.m. And go until 910 11:00 p.m. Before clocking out and staying up till one historical writer observed that in that part of the world at that time, there were more people asleep than awake at 01:00 p.m. And more people awake than asleep at 01:00 A.m.. Some New Testament manuscripts state that Paul taught in the lecture hall of Tyrannus during that midday break time when people would be off work, and many would be sleeping.
That would make sense as Tyrannus and his students would also be taking a break and the building would have been available. So, Paul's daily schedule for most of his time in Ephesus seems to have been he would work part-time, so he would work in the morning in Aquila and Priscilla's leather shop. And then from that midday time of about eleven to four, he would lecture in the hall of Tyrannis, and then in the evening he would minister in people's individual homes to their families and friends and neighbors. Paul was a beast. He just worked so, so hard from dawn till dusk.
He was a literal genius, a brilliant thinker and orator, and a man full of the power of the Holy Spirit. A testimony to those truths is that he was able to do so effectively evangelize Ephesus while lecturing in the hall of Tyrannus. He must have been so captivating that men would rather come and hear him than sleep. There's no greater compliment for a speaker than that. The Lord's providential hand is evident in that this lecture hall was a far better public venue than the synagogue because the whole city came to know where Paul could be found lecturing, and it was in a central, well-known, prominent location.
They could come and go day to day and know where they could hear Paul or drop by and ask him a question pretty much any day of the week. Now, when I say that Paul worked hard and that his ministry in Ephesus was effective, I am understating things, because look at the astonishing truth we read in verse ten. It says this schedule of Paul's went on for two years. And then get this so that all underline all the residents of Asia, both Jews and Greeks, heard the word of the Lord. That's astonishing.
Without ever leaving Ephesus, as far as we know, Paul converted enough people through his ministry to evangelize the entire province of Asia, all of central modern-day Turkey, and hundreds of thousands of people. They were so full of the Holy Spirit and love for Jesus that they took the message any and everywhere that they could, with astonishing results. I just can't even wrap my mind around that. Where are we going to Evangelize next? We're done here.
What do you mean? Like we're done? Like British Columbia? Like we're done. Everyone's heard the gospel.
It would be something like that. During this time, Paul's time in Ephesus, the churches at Colosse and Hierapolis, and probably all of the seven churches from Revelation two and three were planted. An incredible season of ministry in the province of Asia. I'm going to wrap up by just talking to two quick groups those who don't belong to Jesus, and those who do. If you don't belong to Jesus right now, the first step is still repentance as it was 2000 years ago
It's saying, I recognize that I'm out of relationship with you, God, and I recognize that is because of my sin. I want to turn from that sin, and I want to turn from being God over my life, and I want to turn my life over to you.
But it means forsaking all other gods, including yourself, it means recognizing that all roads do not lead to God. Jesus is the only way. And the only way that he comes into our lives is as both Savior and Lord, Savior and Master. We trade our lives for His. We get His and he gets all of us.
If that's not clear, it's a trade entirely to our benefit. Entirely to our benefit. And so, if you want to give your life to Jesus for the first time today, you want to enter into that relationship with Him, please come and talk to BJ or me in the coming time of worship. Seriously, just find us, tap us on the shoulder. We'll go out into the hallway where it's private and we just want to talk with you and pray with you and help you take your next step in your walk with God.
You can do it after the service too, but if you want to, don't wait. Come do it immediately in this coming time of worship. Now, if you do belong to Jesus, if you do belong to Jesus, let me lovingly remind you, brethren and exhort you, that we need to be ruthless with our sin. We need to be ruthless in the way we deal with our opinions, our desires, and instead choose the opinions and desires of God and beg Him to help us exalt them above our own. Are you tired of experiencing death and destruction in a certain area of your life that you know is being produced there because.
You're choosing your will over Christ's? Are you tired of what your sin in your flesh is doing to your relationships, and to your mental health? The answer is to repent, turn to Christ, and say, not my will, but Yours be done. That's the answer. Not trying to control it and re-steer it just a little bit, but to repent and say, Lord, I'm sorry. Help me to be ruthless. Your will be done. And because you have the Holy Spirit in you, guess what? You actually have the power to do that. You actually have the power to obey Christ and walk in the paths that lead to life, not only to say it, not only to say not My will, but Yours be done but to actually live it.
Because that's the power that God gives us through his Spirit.
It was the greatest miracle that ever happened to Brother Duan, and he would not have experienced it had his bus not broken down. Travelling from a northern to a southern province of China one chilly December day, he happened to be passing through Henan Province when the engine of the bus expired in its futile battle with the cold.
On a whim, Duan trudged off through the fields, leaving the other passengers huddled inside the bus. He was a house church leader in northern China. Now 77 years--old, he still had no home to call his own. The truth is, he was deeply depressed. He was on his way to mediate a dispute among church leaders and was weary of all the infighting that seemed to be harming the house churches. And he was lonely.
As he crossed the frozen field, Duan thought longingly of his beloved wife who had died years earlier. He wished she was alive to listen to him and give her sweet counsel. And then the thought of his little son came into his tired mind, and an even darker cloud settled over his heart.
He found a village and knocked on a door. A little cross was notched on the doorpost. "Is there anyone here who loves the Lord?" he asked. "I would love some fellowship tonight."
The door was opened by a man in his fifties, and Duan was warmly welcomed inside. His feet were washed in a basin custom of welcoming a stranger to their home, and he was fed hot congee and steaming vegetables. He noticed that the family members were excited. It turned out they would be traveling to a neighboring town to hear a dynamic Bible teacher from a large city. "What's his name" asked Duan. "Brother Wang," they replied.
As they made their way to the meeting, they told Duan stories about this mysterious Brother Wang. It was clear they loved him dearly, and one of the men explained why. "We once held a training seminar here and heard the police were coming to arrest us. Brother Wang helped everyone escape, except our main pastor. When the police arrived, Wang dared to bargain with them. He offered to go to prison if our pastor, whose wife was eight months pregnant, would be allowed to go free. The officers accepted his terms, and Brother Wang spent the next three years in prison."
"How old is Brother Wang?" Duan asked. When told he was in his early 40's, Duan's face showed great pain. "What's the matter?" he was asked. "Are you ill from your trip?" "No, I'm not ill," he replied, 'just very sad. I once had a son, whom I had known for just two months. He's dead now, but if alive he would have been 42 today. My wife called him the 'Christmas Child' since he was born at Christmas time. I called him 'Isaac,' because we had despaired for so long of having a child."
There was silence as they rode in the open cart under the stars. Brother Duan told the incredible story of how he and his wife had been evangelists in the 1950s. They refused to join the government-approved Three-Self church, and an unbeliever named Wu kept accusing them of political and criminal offenses. It was only a matter of time before they were imprisoned or killed, but what would happen to their baby boy?
One night, Duan's wife heard a strong voice in a vision, saying. "Give your son to your enemy." Knowing nothing about this, Duan read Genesis 22:2 the following morning: "Take your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you."
Sharing their impressions, the couple decided on a course of action that had caused Duan to wince in pain every day since. They gave their boy to Wu and his wife-who was childless-even as Wu arranged for the couple's arrest.
It wasn't until 1978, when Duan was released from prison, that he learned what had happened to his wife and son. She had died in the terrible famine of 1958, and his son had disappeared along with the Wu family