Bible Study With Jairus

Bible Study with Jairus - Revelation 2-Part 4

Christians Can Defeat the Spirit of Jezebel by Reigning with Christ

The three main roles portrayed in the Old Testament are Priest, Prophet, and King. All of God’s people were called to draw near to God, like priests. All God’s people are invited to have God reign as king in their lives. This was God’s will for Israel, but they were afraid to speak directly to God, as a priest would. They asked Moses to speak to God instead of them (Deuteronomy 5:27), giving up their responsibility as priests. They also rejected God as their king and wanted to have a king like other nations, which God allowed (1 Samuel 8:7).

Kings complement priests and prophets complement kings. When the Israelites refused to draw near to God as priests, God raised up a king, David, to shepherd His chosen people. When the king (David) fell into sin, God sent a prophet (Nathan) to help him get back onto the right path of loving God.

Herein lies the key to Revelation 2. The letter to the church in Thyatira in Revelation 2 mentions the Spirit of Jezebel and the Spirit of the False Prophet. I believe these spirits are related to the failure of Ahab, Jezebel’s husband, to be a good king. When Christians stop acting like kings, false prophets like Jezebel will come in and make the king worse. But during these times of failure, there will also be true prophets, like Elijah, who will come in and anoint new kings, like Jehu, and defeat false prophets and ungodly kings. Elijah and Jehu worked together to prophesy against King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. They also helped fulfill these prophecies of judgment.

This is true not only in the Old Testament but also in the spiritual reality of the New Testament. The Spirit of Jezebel is operating in the church to produce bad kings like Ahab who cannot manifest the power of Christ. Meanwhile, the spirit of the true prophet Elijah is also operating to make people repent. As Malachi 4:5-6 (ESV) says, "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction."[1] When people refuse to accept the words of the true prophet, God will strike the land with a decree of utter destruction. The Lord’s discipline of the unrepentant people in the church of Thyatira resembles the judgment mentioned in Malachi. The Lord will first send the spirit of Elijah to call believers to repent. But when they refuse to repent, God's judgment will come upon them.

When Christians neglect to get close to God, they lose their first love and their priestly status. This is what happened to the church in Ephesus. After a believer overcomes persecution and the spirit of death (church in Smyrna) and the teaching of Balaam (church in Pergamum), he/she gradually matures to the stage of reigning in life. If he/she continues to grow up into the Head, Christ, he/she will be given power over the nations, to rule them with a rod of iron. These believers will be rewarded with Christ, the morning star (Revelation 2:26-28). Believers will also become morning stars since they are the reproduction and manifestation of Christ. This is the heart of the spiritual warfare that took place in the Church in Thyatira. The purpose of the trials in the church of Thyatira was to produce victorious Christians who could reign victoriously in their spiritual lives as they rule and discipline the nations with a rod of iron.

Progressive Spiritual Growth Demonstrated in the Letters to the Seven Churches

As I mentioned before, the seven churches in Revelation could either represent seven churches in different time periods or seven different kinds of churches in the same time period. Through an inspiration from the Holy Spirit, I believe that the seven churches represent the concept of progressive spiritual growth. The progression of themes from the first church to the seventh shows God’s continually unfolding work as the church of Christ bands together and builds one another up through God’s help and discipline. On the other hand, the letters to the churches show the different evil spirits that continue to ensnare sinners, weaving a spider-like web. Throughout the section, the aspect of growth and the aspect of opposition continue building cumulatively. The church will progressively grow into the mature Body of Christ and produce many overcomers, represented by the male child in Revelation 12. Meanwhile, the evil kingdom will continue growing until it manifests as Babylon the Great, producing false prophets and antichrists. The two kingdoms are like two trains, constantly gaining new passengers, both headed towards a final collision point, which is the Battle of Armageddon. Armageddon is a defining moment in the history of mankind, and even in the history of the universe. Since Armageddon is so important, we can’t claim that the rest of the Bible has nothing to do with Armageddon. It's all very relevant and tied together. God’s letters to the seven churches are His battle cry that summons His chosen people to participate in the battle of Armageddon.

These letters also prepare and perfect them spiritually for the upcoming battle. The seven letters describe seven aspects in which the churches need to spiritually prepare. It also mentions seven spirits of God and seven stars in Jesus’ hands. Jesus Christ’s seven character qualities provide seven essential provisions for the churches. He judges and exposes the evil spirits’ deception in seven key ways. These difficult exposures will help the church realize its own shortcomings so it can repent, access the seven characteristics of God, and manifest Him fully on earth.

The work of the Holy Spirit and the work of the evil spirits are both increasing in intensity from the first letter to the church to the last. The intensification of one is closely linked to the intensification of the other. God wants to make the church into the body of Christ, a pure bride without blemish. Meanwhile, Satan and the evil spirits want to make the church into the great prostitute, Babylon the Great. Therefore, Satan constantly enlists new and more powerful evil spirits to join his team in opposing the church. But God continues to help the church overcome the attacks of these evil spirits. Through his provision, he helps them overcome trials.

First, the churches and believers overcame the temptation to lose their first love (Ephesus). Then, they overcame persecution and the fear of death (Smyrna). They fought against the teaching of Balaam (Pergamum). Finally, they have arrived at the fourth stage described in the letter to Thyatira. Believers had to learn to resist the attack of the Jezebel spirit in the church. Just as the Israelites experienced more than forty trials in the wilderness, the church also experienced at least seven trials in Revelation 2-3. Trials always bring lessons of faith. We journey through the wilderness to a Holy Spirit-filled place of blessing. The church in Thyatira had matured to a point where it could confront the attacks and trials of the Jezebel spirit. If they could overcome the test of the Jezebel spirit, they would be able to rule the nations with a rod of iron.

The progressive spiritual growth demonstrated in the letters to the churches can be compared to levels in a video game. After you’ve completed the first level, the enemies in the second level will be even more powerful. But after you defeat the enemies in the second level, you will become stronger. We complete increasingly difficult levels in the “game of life” designed by God to eventually select those who are worthy of an eternal reward. People often say that the greater your anointing from God, the greater will be the attacks from evil spirits. But the greater the spiritual opposition, the greater the anointing that God gives to overcome these attacks. As the Chinese say, “the good always triumphs over evil.” The letters to the churches demonstrate the progressive spiritual growth of the church throughout history.

The Lord Has Eyes Like a Flame Of Fire and Feet Like Burnished Bronze

As the web of evil thickens like a spider web, unsuspecting believers will become prey. Let’s compare evil spirits to spiders. Evil spirits catch sleeping believers and tangle them up in their sticky webs of sin and false teaching. To these believers, Jesus reveals Himself as “the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.” (Revelation 2:18) Evil spirits can deceive some believers, but they cannot deceive the Lord whose "eyes are like a flame of fire.”  The reference to “feet… like burnished bronze" refers to the Lord's judgment. Whether his judgment is against evil spirits or against believers who refuse to repent, God's judgment is severe.

In some ways, the church in Thyatira seemed to be doing well. They were told “I know your works, your love and faith and service, and patient endurance,” and their latter works exceeded the first. (Revelation 2:19) So why did they later accept the teaching of the Jezebel spirit and false prophets? The Jezebel spirit uses these false prophets to do its evil work. The false prophets lure believers to commit sexual immorality and worship idols (Revelation 2:20). The Lord gave these false prophets of Jezebel a chance to repent. But Jezebel refused to repent (Revelation 2:21), so God judged her and threw her onto a sickbed (Revelation 2:22). Those who committed adultery with her and refused to repent were also thrown into tribulation (Revelation 2:22). God would strike down Jezebel’s children (her followers), so that the church would know that "I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works." (Revelation 2:23).

What happened that led some believers to follow the Jezebel spirit? We know that the Jezebel spirit is against the spirit of Elijah. And the spirit of Elijah "will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers.” So the church must have "turned her heart away from the heavenly Father" in order to be deceived by the Jezebel spirit. This explanation makes sense. There are many things that might have turned the believers’ hearts away from God. Here are some possibilities:

• Busyness, both ministry busyness and secular busyness. This may have been what the Lord was referring to in verse 19. The church’s schedule was full of works, love, faith, service, endurance, and latter works that exceeded the first. When we are overly busy, we may unknowingly build new idols. even When our ministry is successful, our service to God may become an idol in our lives. Such idols keep our hearts away from God, thereby providing a bridgehead for Jezebel's false teachings to attack us.

But not all the Thyatirans were deceived. There were some who were not in the know, who simply loved the Lord. To these people, the Lord said, "To the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden." (Revelation 2:24).

Overcoming Hidden Weaknesses

We all have hidden weaknesses. These hidden weaknesses include greed, sexual immorality, and the desire for power, money, and fame. As we embark on the path of loving the Lord, we experience unceasing attacks from evil spirits and temptations from the world. John defines the world as “the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life." (1 John 2:16). What eventually makes us fail is the weakness of our inner life that we are often unaware of. These unconscious weaknesses give the enemy a chance to attack us. As the saying goes, “Nothing happens for no reason.” Our goal is to be free from weaknesses, so we can proclaim with Jesus that evil has no claim on us (John 14:30).

We can only be victorious if we overcome first our sins, then the world, and finally our flesh, our ambition and our status. A worship leader I like very much talked about his experience with cheating. His weakness was revealed to the world, which prompted him to do things that he later regretted. After Ravi Zacharias, a well-known apologist died, it was exposed that he molested women. He mentioned that he was under a lot of pressure and could not solve the troubles caused by these pressures, so he turned to molesting women to comfort himself. Many American Christians admit to turning to sex, drugs and pornography in an attempt to find solace when facing pressure from the world. These are the hidden weaknesses we need to overcome. We must allow God to continue to work in our unsanctified souls through prayer and fill us with the love of Christ and the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

In the process of overcoming our weaknesses through the love of Christ, we often encounter hindrances. The sin of the flesh trips us up and we are encumbered by the strongholds of evil spirits within us. It is difficult to overcome these weaknesses. This was Paul's experience in Romans 7. He said that he kept on doing the evil he did not want to do but didn’t do the good he wanted to do. But the story doesn’t end in chapter 7. In Romans 8, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus set Paul free.

For a long time, I have been struggling to overcome a certain weakness of my flesh. I have frequently prayed for victory but have often failed. This weakness took root because I was poor when I was young. The spirit of poverty built a stronghold within me. I have never been able to overcome the attacks of the spirit of greed. I have prayed so hard, asking God to help me.

Then one night, I had a strange dream. I dreamed that I was flying while stepping on a ball made of dirt. As I stamped my feet to shake off the dust from my feet, I proclaimed with a loud voice, "I will certainly be able to overcome the world and all its attractions through Jesus Christ who strengthens me." Although I often struggle and fail to overcome these weaknesses, I do not give up on praying for victory. I often pray that the Holy Spirit of God will fill me more, so that the unsanctified part of my soul will be sanctified by the life of Christ, and I will experience the baptism and filling of the Holy Spirit in greater abundance. Although I am still fighting against the weakness of my flesh and the stronghold of the evil spirits inside of me, the Holy Spirit promises that with Jesus Christ strengthening me, I will surely overcome the world and all its attractions.

But I know that like the Israelites, many believers cannot defeat the enemy and drive the enemy out. When they hit a plateau in their spiritual life or when they experience more obstacles from the strongholds built by the evil spirits, they give up. The weaknesses continue to dwell among them, becoming a snare. Similarly, if we fail to overcome our spiritual weaknesses through the power of the Holy Spirit, we will experience the same snare. The failure of the apologist Zacharias is just one example of this concept. A person may be outwardly successful in his career or spiritual ministry, but still fail in his inner life and testimony.

In addition, our spiritual victory is inseparable from the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The "Holiness Movement,” birthed the Pentecostal Movement. This denomination is deeply influenced by the teaching of John Wesley's "Second Blessing.” These believers not only pursued belief, salvation, and satisfaction in Christ, but also pursued sanctification, victory, and a “second blessing” from God. As they pursued a second blessing of victory, some experienced the baptism and infilling of the Holy Spirit, leading to the start of the modern Pentecostal Movement. As I have mentioned several times, I was saved in a Local Church Movement where I pursued inner growth. But I observed that many believers could not overcome their spiritual difficulties because they did not have the supernatural help that only came through the Holy Spirit’s baptism.

Conclusion

The letters to the seven churches in the Book of Revelation illustrate the progressive spiritual growth of the church. Just like the Israelites made forty-two stops in the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land, each church experiences many trials along the way. These trials will make the church more mature, building us into a mature bride of Christ which can overcome the evil spirits and Babylon the Great.

[1] All Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted.

Bible Study with Jairus – Revelation 2 Part 3

The Work of Evil Spirits in The Seven Churches

The book of Revelation reveals that the church and the Body of Christ will judge the evil spirits who cooperate with Satan to deceive and snare people and drag them into hell. First Corinthians 6:3 says that believers will judge angels, and we will also execute God's judgment upon Satan. After the birth of the male child in chapter 12, God eventually threw Satan in the lake of fire (Revelation 20:12). This is the ultimate destiny of Satan and the evil spirits. That’s why Satan and the evil spirits are strongly opposing the church’s maturity and the maturity of the bride, because the church’s maturity signals the beginning of their final judgment. For this reason, Satan has sent all kinds of evil spirits into the churches to oppose the victory and maturity of the church. These evil spirits tempt believers and try to snare them into sin and deception.

The letters to the seven churches in Revelation 1-2 not only reveal characteristics of Christ, but also reveal the work of Satan and the evil spirits in every church. By exposing their works, Christ judges not only the church, but also the work of the evil spirits in the church. For example, Jesus not only exposed the lack of love in Ephesians, but he also exposed the evil spirit of indifference operating in their midst. Jesus said that in the end times, "lawlessness will be increased, [and therefore] the love of many will grow cold." (ESV, Matthew 24:12)[1]. When lawlessness increases, righteous things are suppressed, people's expectations are not met, and love grows cold. This is the result of the work of the spirit of indifference in the church. Jesus exposed the spirit of indifference in His letter to the church in Ephesus. When the evil spirits’ tricks are exposed, their defeat will not be far away.

Evil Counterfeits

The Bible reveals three major realities about the world:

1. God’s nature and work

When we study the Bible we must learn about God, Satan, and ourselves. The book of Revelation is no exception. In the letter to the church in Ephesus, these three things are revealed.

Humans are an object of contention between God and Satan. We were created by God to worship Him, and lead everyone to worship Him. This was once Satan’s role. This is why Satan hates us so much. Satan tempts us to sin and tries to convince us to follow him so he can rob us of our worship of God.  We were created as mirrors and vessels. We reflect the light of Christ, see his face, and become like Him, or we accept Satan’s infusion of sin and the disguise of sin.

In the letters of Revelation to the seven churches, there are five major things we can learn.

1. The characteristics of Christ

To simplify even more, these chapters discuss the characteristics of God, the acts of Satan, and the condition of man.

When we think about the church, we often focus on God’s work and on people’s positive testimony or negative witness. But we often ignore the work of evil spirits. And evil spirits will never stand idle. They will design all kinds of snares to lure believers into sin. So we must pay attention to the work of the evil spirits.

The Work of Evil Spirits

How can we learn about the work of Satan and his evil spirits? This is not an easy task. Many liberal theologians don't even acknowledge the existence of Satan and evil spirits. There are also some church members in the United States who think that evil spirits only exist in the third world where idols are still prevalent. But this is not the case. Evil spirits also exist in American churches.

There are different theological explanations about the origins of evil spirits. But we know that the Bible discusses many different kinds of evil spirits, which seemingly rule over different regions and have different functions. Some evil spirits seem to influence politics, such as the spirit of Jezebel. Others seem to be spirits of adultery. The spirit of indifference tempts people to give up on changing the church, and the spirit of legalism shuts down passion for God and focuses instead on dogmatism. We will not be spending a lot of time discussing the sources and types of evil spirits. But we must know enough about the work of evil spirits to know how to spot and avoid their tricks, and to seek God’s wisdom to know how to deal with them. If we ignore or do not understand the work of the evil spirits, we will give them the opportunity to work in the church.

For example, the spirit of unforgiveness often use people’s unforgiveness to build unforgiving strongholds in their hearts. These strongholds will become the enemy’s bridgehead, hardening believers’ hearts towards God and causing them to lose their love for others. The Lord Jesus taught us many times that we must forgive others. In addition, if we watch sinful videos or commit sexual sins, it opens the door to the spirit of lust. These are some common ways used by the evil spirits at work.

Why Did the Church in Ephesus Leave Her First Love?

The spirit of indifference was likely at work in the church in Ephesus. Some theologians believe that the Nicolaitans in Revelation 2:6 were an arrogant group of privileged people within the church. They wanted to control the interpretation of the Bible and restrict the saints from functioning independently and reading the Bible on their own. They wanted a monopoly on God’s word. In many churches, a small group of privileged people does the majority of the work of the church. Only one pastor preaches the sermons every week. As a result, the other members begin to wither and lack functioning, allowing many people to lose their first love.

This type of behavior is damaging and breeds discouragement and indifference. As members of one body, believers are supposed to be connected directly to Christ, so he can provide for us. However, when a privileged group tries to control God's word and believers, members will lack the direct provision from Christ the Head. They will also lack training of their senses (Hebrews 5:14) and never grow past spiritual infancy.

The spirit of indifference operates in many churches, but many people are unaware of it. When we have been in a church for a long time and friction and misunderstandings continue to grow, we feel a passion to change things. But when a monopolizing group shuts us down, we slowly stop caring. We open the door to the spirit of indifference.

When I was small, I remember having a desire to attempt a certain task. But my family wouldn’t let me do it. “You are too young,” they said. I was sad, because I felt capable enough to do it. Since no one encouraged my passions and desires, I stopped bringing the subject up. I was frustrated and no longer talked about my wishes. In the same way, we often hear people in companies or even churches complaining, "I don't want to raise any opinions anymore. They are the ones who have the final say anyway. They don't listen to us at all." Many people are discouraged because their suggestions are not adopted. Therefore, well-managed companies attach great importance to the annual survey of employees. They collect their opinions and adopt reasonable opinions in response. Poorly managed companies, however, don’t usually pay attention to and adopt the opinions of their employees. Over time, they lose the loyalty of their employees. Jesus was right when He said, "For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light." (Luke 16:8).

When the monopolizing group focuses on its own interests and shuts down other believers, it prevents them from using their talents. These believers can easily become discouraged and disappointed. Even if they are unwilling to leave the church and their beliefs, they become negative and discouraged. They may even lose their first love.

Randy Clark, a teacher at my seminary, told a story that serves as an excellent example of this point. He mentioned that he leads an annual ministry team that preaches the gospel and serves the church in Brazil. One of his burdens has been to train believers to do the work Jesus taught: healing the sick and casting out demons. He believes that everyone can heal and cast out demons. But when he went to a Brazilian church and tried to do this, he was met with opposition from the pastor. The pastor said, “If you teach all the believers to pray and heal the sick and cast out demons, who will still need us?” The pastor opposed their attempts to train the believers in his church. “Please teach the clergy to do this,” they said. “But we do not want all believers to learn it.”

There are many reasons why believers can lose their first love (2:4). But one of the reasons may be the work of the Nicolaitans, which Jesus hates. It is no accident that this is mentioned here. In verse five, Jesus mentions that believers should remember from where they have fallen. And immediately following this statement, he mentions that he hates the works of the Nicolaitans (2:6). It logically follows that the Nicolaitans may have caused the Ephesian believers to lose their first love.

In historic Catholicism, only the clergy could read the Bible, and only the Pope could affirm the doctrine, which limited the enthusiastic growth of individual believers. After Martin Luther translated the Bible into the common language and the printing press made Bibles widely available, a great revival broke out! But unfortunately, the banal influence of the middle class is still circulating in the church today, even in the Protestant church and some Chinese churches. What a strange and unfortunate situation! When a new servant arises in the church, the long-standing church workers feel threatened. As a result, they begin to suppress these new servants. Evil spirits often take advantage of people's narrow-minded and selfish interests to restrict the growth and functioning of believers. This suffocates the growth of the Body of Christ.

Evil Spirits at Work in The Church In Smyrna

What types of evil spirits were at work in the church in Smyrna? To answer this question, we must return to the church in Ephesus. When a privileged group oppresses the rest of the church, as it may have done in Ephesus, some believers become discouraged. But other believers are able to overcome the persecution of this evil spirit. These faithful believers continue to love the Lord. They do not lose their first love. Now Satan is left with a conundrum: what should he do with these people? He decides to directly persecute them, just like he did with Job. Satan had attacked Job’s possessions, property, and family, but Satan had not failed to trust God. Satan concluded that direct persecution would cause Job to curse God. Satan said, "Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life." (Job 2:4). In the same way, Satan launched a direct attack on those who had survived his subtle attack of lovelessness.

The letters to the seven churches build on one another, just like the progressively difficult levels in a video game. After passing one level, the next level is more difficult. In the same way, trials can be progressively more difficult. John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress portrays a man named "Christian" who goes through increasing difficulties and trials in order to eventually reach his destination and find eternal life. In the same way, God allows believers to experience many difficulties on their way to the eternal city of God.

The religious spirit often oppresses believers and tempts them to lose their first love. If believers successfully overcome the religious spirit and stay true to God, Satan may attack them directly to see if they can pass the test. Anyone who can overcome the oppression of the religious spirit in the church will surely suffer persecution. But Jesus tells us that this tribulation will only last ten days. Those who overcome will receive the crown of life (2:10). Not everyone will experience persecution that leads to physical death, but many people will experience the mental and emotional persecution that Paul described in 2 Corinthians 1:8b-9a: “…We were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself, felt that we had received the sentence of death..." Many believers have experienced seemingly hopeless situations, yet they have also experienced the hand of the Risen Christ leading them through the valley of the shadow of death.

As you will recall, the theme of the book of Revelation is to usher in the victorious overcomers and the bride of Christ (chapter 12); judge Satan and his evil spirits; and bring in the New Jerusalem, the New Heaven and the New Earth. Our trials are like a fiery furnace, designed to smelt away the dross and make our faith more precious than gold (1 Peter 1:7).

The Evil Spirits Operating in The Church in Pergamum

Persecution is not always the most effective method of destroying believers. During the early years of the Roman Empire, Satan's persecution of the church reached its climax. Many Christians were burned at the stake or sent into the arena to fight with wild beasts. But instead of losing their faith, they became stronger. Their willingness to die rather than deny Christ strengthened other believers. The blood of the martyrs made Christianity spread more widely. The number of Christians increased even more. Satan saw that his methods were not universally effective. Though believers shrank back as persecution became more severe, still others became stronger.

What would Satan do next? Why not mix the tare with the wheats? He began to introduce the teaching of the Nicolaitans (2:15) and Balaam (2:14). Balaam was a gentle false prophet hired by Balak, King of Moab, to curse Israel. God would not allow Balaam to curse Israel, and blessings poured out of his mouth instead. When Balaam realized he could not call down curses on Israel, he used a trickier method. He could not change God’s attitude toward the Israelites, so he decided to change the Israelites’ attitude toward God. He sent Moabite and Midianite women to entice the Israelites into committing sexual sin. Since the Lord hates idolatry and fornication, the Israelites lost God’s blessings. God sent a plague to punish them. Although God eventually judged Balaam, the Israelites also suffered severely for their sin.

In the same way, Satan deployed a subtle tactic against the believers in Pergamum. The believers had not fallen for the trick of lovelessness (Ephesus), nor had they fallen for the trick of death and persecution (Smyrna). But perhaps he could lure them away with sexual sin and idolatry, like Balaam lured the people of Israel. Satan let loose the religious spirit, the spirit of death, and the spirit of confusion at the same time, allowing them to band together. Ecclesiastes 4:12 says, "And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken." What is true in the realm of goodness is also true in the realm of evil. Satan knew that if he could attack simultaneously from several angles, he could seduce more people. He sent several evil spirits to band together against the church. The cooperation of evil spirits and human sinners will eventually become Babylon the Great, which is a combination of religious, political, business and other systems which form a giant snare and attempt to drag the church into hell.

Facing such a united front of evil, believers must recognize that God’s word is even sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Hebrews 4:12). If believers do not know how to use God’s word as a sword (Ephesians 6:17) or how to put on the whole armor of God to fight against the enemy, they will become prey. Satan continues to use all kinds of evil spirits to weave a sticky net, like a spider web, to bind believers and restrict the church. Like flies that get caught in a spider’s web, some believers will fall prey to Satan and evil spirits. But while a spider's web is strong enough to catch insects, it’s no match for a human with a broom in his hand. In the same way, God’s word will easily conquer Babylon the Great.

Why do some believers get stuck in Satan’s spider webs and lose their spiritual vitality? It is because they lack the fellowship with the Lord. The teaching of the Nicolaitans keeps believers from having personal contact with God and His word. It causes them to lose their fellowship with Him and cut off their rich supply directly from the Head, Christ. Furthermore, it discourages them from repenting, asking for God’s forgiveness, and receiving the cleansing of his precious blood. When we fall prey to these beliefs, we get stuck.

However, when we draw close to God and study and meditate on His word every day, we will receive the hidden manna (2:17). We will experience spiritual transformation and become a pure white stone which will never be trapped by spider webs (2:17). We will receive a new name. God will know us personally (2:17). God will keep us through all trials. Although thousands of people fall before us, we will not be afraid of evil, because God will keep us safe (Psalm 91:7).

Conclusion

Despite Satan’s attempts to destroy the church, God's work continues forward despite all opposition. The tests and attacks by the religious spirit (Ephesus), spirit of death (Smyrna), and the spirits of idolatry, immorality, and confusion (Pergamos) only strengthen the church. As they choose to keep their first love, overcome death, and put away idolatry and false teaching, they build up the body of Christ. The church’s progress will eventually lead to the seal judgments and trumpet judgments. Many people will be judged, including the church, since judgment begins at the house of God (1 Peter 4:17). These judgments will further purify the church, separate the wheat from the tares, and reap an eternal harvest of souls.

The more the church matures, the more overcomers it will produce. The more Satan’s forces band together, the stronger the opposition. The train has left the station. The train of evil and the train of good are headed for a full-force collision at the battle of Armageddon.

[1] All Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted.

Bible Study with Jairus- Revelation 2 (part 2)

God’s Provision in Difficult Times

Today we will look at the first three letters to the churches in Revelation 2. As we’ve discussed, these seven letters are structured like a sandwich, starting with praise, followed by criticism, and finishing with encouragement. But we often overlook the opening sentence of each letter, which reveals something about the nature of Jesus Christ.

The first sentence of each chapter of the Bible is often the key to understanding the entire chapter and paragraph, as it reveals the Holy Spirit's summary of each chapter and section of the Bible. Therefore, we should pay special attention to the first sentence of each chapter and paragraph. This will help us understand the Bible better.

In the letters to the churches in Revelation, Jesus begins each letter with a revelation of a specific aspect of his character. This characteristic of Jesus is specifically related to the church’s unique trial or sin struggle.

For instance, the letter to the church in Ephesus first mentions that Jesus “holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands” (ESV, Revelation 2:1)[1]. Just like the Old Testament High Priest trimmed the wicks and added oil to make the golden lampstand shine brighter, Jesus trims the wicks of our hearts (removes our idols) and pours oil (the Holy Spirit) into our lives. First John 2:15 says, "if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him,” so we need Jesus’ help to remove these false loves. The seven stars in Jesus’ hands are the tools he uses to purify our hearts and make our lamps shine brighter.

The letter to the church in Smyrna mentions that Jesus is "the first and the last, who died and lived again" (Revelation 2:8). The letter goes on to discuss the characteristics of Jesus' resurrection and the ways His resurrection provides for the persecuted church. The letter to the church in Pergamum mentions "a sharp two-edged sword" (Revelation 2:12), which reminds us that "the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). This shows that the church in Pergamum had failed to keep the Lord’s word, leading to spiritual struggles. This church needed to learn to rightly handle the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15) and resist heresy and wrong teachings so their witness to Christ could truly begin to shine. Jesus reminded each church of an aspect of his character that could help them in their unique circumstances.

Our Specific Weakness Forces Us to Depend on a Specific Aspect of God’s Character

Not only do churches have different weaknesses, but every person has them also. We all wish we were perfect, but we each have different flaws and weaknesses. Did you know that each specific flaw and weakness in your life provides a unique opportunity to depend on Christ in a specific way? For example, a person who is good-tempered by nature doesn’t need to learn and experience Christ’s patience. But a person who has a short temper has a unique opportunity to learn His patience. When we frequently focus on and pay attention to Christ’s patience, we will gradually be transformed into his image. We will experience spiritual transformation and become patient people. Friends around us who know that we are quick-tempered by nature will be astonished when they see the transformation Jesus has provided. "Only God could have done this! He is real,” they will say. In this way, we will become effective witnesses for Christ—even more than naturally good-tempered people.

Many times, our past failures and struggles become an excellent opportunity to be a witness for Christ. For example, a former drug addict sinned who has trusted in Jesus Christ and overcome his drug addiction can be a very good witness to other drug addicts. A woman who transitioned to the opposite gender and later regretted it has a unique story to tell. She can bear witness to the pain of changing her gender after believing the lies of the enemy in a way that other people cannot. She can testify to the beauty of the gender that God created in a way that most could never do.

This brings us to a crucial question: Are our eyes focused on our own failures, or are we focused on God's provision in this area? Are we paying attention to the specific characteristics of God’s grace that we would have otherwise missed? I am not denying that our failures, weaknesses, and shortcomings cause pain to ourselves and God. I am saying that our primary attention should be on God’s specific characteristics that fill the specific gaps of our weaknesses. In this way, our lives will become a mirror that reflects the glory of the Lord, and gradually transforms us into His image (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Similarly, when many people read the letters to the seven churches, they focus on the shortcomings of each church, rather than on God’s provision to help the churches overcome their struggles. We must focus on the characteristics of God’s provision and reflect on the ways God’s character can help us in our own shortcomings. Only then can we gradually achieve God’s calling and His expectations for our lives. Remember, the first sentence of Jesus Christ's letter to the seven churches reveals an aspect of his character that can help the church with its unique struggles.

He Who Holds the Seven Stars In His Right Hand And Walks Among The Seven Golden Lampstands

One of the duties of the high priest in the Old Testament was to trim the wicks of the golden lampstand. When the wick itself starts to burn rather than burning the oil in the lamp, that wick must be trimmed so that it doesn’t start to smoke. Normally, when oil from the lamp penetrates the wick, the wick itself doesn’t burn—just like the flame in the burning bush did not burn the bush. When our hearts are full of God’s love and his oil, we flourish. But when our hearts love something else, our spirit will be not full of oil, and our fire will be dimmed or nearly extinguished. We will give off a burning smell. Therefore, just like the high priests in the Old Testament walked among the lampstands and trimmed the wicks in the sanctuary, the Lord Jesus will also trim the wicks of the church. As our heavenly High Priest, the Lord Jesus walks among our lampstands to trim away idolatrous love.

No one wants to be trimmed. The place where God prunes us is often the place that our flesh cherishes the most. But if God doesn't prune us, those earthly things we cherish will eventually steal our oil and diminish our fire. God’s pruning and discipline allow us to learn the lesson of obedience. The Holy Spirit is given to those who obey him (Acts 5:32), so God’s pruning allows us to be filled even more with the oil of the Holy Spirit.

Now let’s dig into the meaning of the seven stars in the right hand of the Lord Jesus. Although we know they represent the angels of the seven churches (Revelation 1:20), who are the angels? Are they literal angels, or overcoming saints? Are they seven aspects of Jesus’ nature that can help the seven churches know how to act here on earth?

We know that in the Old Testament book of Proverbs, "wisdom" is personified as a woman. Proverbs 4:8 says, "Prize her highly, and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her." Who is "her"? Yet Isaiah 11:2 prophesies of Christ with similar language: "And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord." In this passage, “wisdom" refers to the Spirit of God or to an aspect of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. The church is the body of Christ, and the seven churches are the seven manifestations of Jesus Christ, the head. Wouldn’t it make sense to say that the seven churches should manifest the seven divine characteristics of Jesus Christ or the seven aspects of the Holy Spirit?

For a moment, let’s set aside the idea that the seven stars are seven literal angels or seven overcoming saints. Wouldn’t it be strange to think of Jesus holding seven angels or seven believers in his hand? Wouldn’t it make more sense to see that Jesus holds seven manifestations of the Spirit or seven aspects of his personality: the High Priest, the Resurrection, the Word of God, the Judge, the Living Lord, the Holy One, and the True One, Amen? These characteristics of Christ correspond to the unique needs of each of the seven churches and are designed to help them be set free from their various weakness.

Holding the seven stars in His right hand, Jesus begins walking among the golden lampstands. He first illuminates a shortcoming of the church in Ephesus: they have forsaken their first love. The seven stars are not intended only for the church in Ephesus, but for all seven churches. Whenever the Bible mentions a principle, it is intended to be applied later as well. The seven stars are also mentioned in the letter to Sardis, so it’s clear that the seven stars are not only aimed at the church in Ephesus. Nor is the picture of Jesus walking among the golden lampstands aimed only at the church in Ephesus. At the same time, the picture of Jesus holding the seven stars in His right hand and walking among the golden lampstands is an excellent way to show how the problems of the church in Ephesus can be solved. The believers in Ephesus need to forsake the things that keep their hearts away from God, accept the pruning and discipline of the High Priest Jesus Christ, and return to their first love. They must be filled with the oil of the Holy Spirit so their golden lampstand shines brighter and is not removed from its place. If they harden their hearts and refuse to repent, God would remove their lampstand and they would lose their testimony.

The First, The Last; The One Who Died And Lived Again

When going through trials, believers and churches often ask, "God, where are You? Why do You allow these things to happen to me?" Jesus said, "In the world, you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33). Suffering and trials are inevitable, and they bring victory and maturity in a way that a comfortable life does not. A Chinese brother was imprisoned for several years for smuggling and distributing Bibles. Later, he was about to leave for China and immigrate to the United States. A Christian brother was seeing him off. He said, "If you can continue to love the Lord when you arrive in the United States, you will be victorious." The persecution brought about by suffering in China makes people more committed in their faith, while the comfortable life in the United States tempts them to become lax in their spiritual practice.

A dispensationalist view of this passage equates the church in Smyrna with the persecuted church in the early Roman Empire. This is true to a degree, but it’s also true that the persecuted church never goes away. The church will always be persecuted. Persecution and suffering are tools in the hands of God to help the church mature. Over the past few years, persecution of churches in Canada, the United States, and Europe has challenged the faith of many Christians. But it has also strengthened the faith of Christians in many European and American countries. Christians in Europe and the United States have been startled by the rampant oppression brought about by leftists and homosexuals, and they have tried to change this situation through political elections. But they encountered many setbacks. I still believe that the church in Europe and the United States will eventually awaken its power and bring about political reversals. But I also believe that persecution will continue to exist for a long time because God knows that persecution benefits the church. Just like cold weather helps plants grow deeper roots, persecution will help the church take root.

People's natural reaction to persecution is to be discouraged and disappointed. But we must learn not to focus on our political setbacks and failures, or on our enemies, or on our disgrace. Instead, we must focus on God’s provision and the aspects of his character that can meet our specific needs. Jesus is "the first and the last, who died and lives again." The church in Europe and America is currently experiencing a time of weakness and death. But one day, they will experience resurrection, and they will be able to testify even more powerfully that Jesus Christ is "the first, the last, who died and lived again." The churches in Europe and America will one day put their enemies to shame with the church’s powerful testimony of resurrection.

I experienced a time of emotional death and resurrection during my ten years of infertility. My heartbreak and tears were like an emotional death. I walked through the valley of the shadow of death. But I also experienced God’s resurrection power. We must believe that our suffering is short-lived. "We will have tribulation for ten days,” but we will eventually receive the "crown of life.” These rewards are not just something we will receive when we die. They can be experienced today.

Sharp Two-Edged Sword

The sharp sword mentioned in this passage refers to the word of the Lord, which is as sharp and decisive as a double-edged sword. When the church ignores the word of God, demonic teachings will prevail. When we deny that the Bible is the word of God or tamper with His word, we gradually allow the church to become Satan’s throne (2:13). What is Satan's throne? It’s a dominion of lies. God’s word is the truth, and when we ignore the truth, lies thrive.

When a church faces difficulty, it is facing the evil work of a specific evil spirit. For example, the church in Ephesus faced the spirit of indifference. Meanwhile, the church in Smyrna faced the spirit of death, and the church in Pergamum faced a spirit of error.

When the spirit of error operates in a church body, truth is distorted. When the truth no longer guides believers, the church will be plunged into darkness. Any believers who continue to hold onto the truth, will be persecuted by false and evil spirits working through false and religious believers. For example, Antipas of the church in Pergamum, who was called a faithful witness by the Lord, was persecuted and killed. The spirit of error always persecutes those who hold to the truth. For example, Jesus and Paul were persecuted by Judaism, and Martin Luther was persecuted by Catholicism.

A church can fail to keep God’s word in several ways. Some fail by allowing people to sin and commit sexual immorality, not taking God’s word seriously. This church loses God’s blessings because it holds to the teachings of the Nicolaitans and of Balaam. Other times, religious teachers hold a monopoly on the interpretation of God’s word, even prohibiting people from studying it for themselves. For example, Catholics historically would not allow lay people to read the Bible. Only the clergy could read the Latin Bible, and then the pope would teach doctrine to the people. God wants all believers to be able to read His word.

Fallen churches that have failed to learn and keep God’s word must repent. They must study and hold on to His word. If they do not repent, the Lord will come to them with the sword of His mouth. The sword in His mouth represents his words of provision and judgment. The church in Pergamum failed because it did not hold on to His word. But Jesus’ sharp double-edged sword, which represents the living Word of God, could bring health and wholeness to the church.

Recently, the Methodist Church, a large denomination in the United States, went through a major split. The reason for the split was that a liberal faction rejected the authority of the Bible and began to support homosexuality. The conservative faction advocated for biblical authority and opposed homosexuality. Even though this church’s inception was influenced by John Wesley, a large portion of the denomination has abandoned not only the traditions of John Wesley but also the Bible as a whole.

Conclusion

In the letters that Lord Jesus Christ wrote to the churches in Ephesus, Smyrna, and Pergamos, He provided specifically for their individual needs. To the failing and indifferent church in Ephesus, the Lord Jesus revealed that He is the High Priest who holds seven stars in His hand. Just like the Old Testament high priest trimmed the wicks with the scissors in his hand, the Lord Jesus will also prune us and restore us to our first love. To a church that had been threatened with physical death (Smyrna), Jesus Christ revealed that He is the resurrection. To a failing church that was abandoning the word of God (Pergamum), Jesus revealed that He is the living Word of God, like a sharp double-edged sword. When we focus on these characteristics of Jesus Christ, we will be transformed into His likeness. The key to victory is to look to and reflect on Christ, and not just look at our weaknesses.

[1] All Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted.

Bible Study with Jairus - Revelation 2

Transcending Time: The Concept of Time in Revelation

The book of Revelation is written in the past tense, which seems to indicate that the events it describes have already happened. But a lot of the prophecies in the book are still future; we are still waiting for their fulfillment. How can we understand the difference between time and eternity in the book of Revelation?

As we saw in our study of Revelation 1, a lack of understanding of Biblical symbolism can prevent us from understanding the book of Revelation. Similarly, a misunderstanding of the concept of time will limit our understanding of this magnificent book. However, through the Spirit, we can transcend time and space. This will greatly help us understand the book of Revelation.

The denomination where I was saved was strongly influenced by "dispensationalism," a concept taught by Darby and Scofield. These teachers believe that the seven churches mentioned in Revelation 2-3 represent seven different ages. The church in Ephesus represents the original, apostolic church; the church of Smyrna represents the persecuted church in the Roman Empire; the church in Pergamum represents the church’s downfall after the establishment of Christianity as the state religion; and the church in Sardis represents the church after the Reformation; the church in Philadelphia represents the great revivals and the rise of the Missionary Era; and the church in Laodicea represents the lukewarm end-time church. Based on this theory, God eventually had no choice but to judge the believers of this age. Only a few believers were victorious.

Teachings like this are circulating in many churches. Some of these teachings are correct, but often, these teachings are too limited by the concept of time. These seven churches may represent seven churches in different periods, but they could also depict seven different postures of the church in the same time period. Furthermore, these letters to the seven churches transcend time. They are the word of God through the Spirit to the church throughout history. Therefore, we must transcend the concept of time and understand the word of God through the Spirit.

How Linear Time Limits Our Thinking

Does the Bible record everything in chronological order? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. For example, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke may have been written in somewhat chronological order, but the story of John is not in chronological order. The stories of John's Gospel are structured to illustrate certain truths. John presents these truths one by one by combining different stories together. So what does the order of the letters to the seven churches convey?

On the one hand, these letters are structured in a certain type of chronological order, because some things have not happened yet, but will happen in the future. Yet the book of Revelation was written in the past tense; in the eyes of the author, it had already happened. How do we understand these time differences?

We know that Jesus was crucified on the cross 2,000 years ago, yet the book of Revelation says that He appeared "as though had been slain,” presumably recently (Revelation 5:6).[1] Later, the Bible says Christ was “slain before the foundation of the world" (13:8). Similarly, 1 Peter 1:2 says that Jesus Christ was "chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,” and verse 20 says, "Christ was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you." The Lamb existed long ago and will continue to exist in eternity. But he entered time and appeared to us at a specific time and place. Therefore, from this perspective, time is relative to us. If we imagine time as a circle, then outside time (the circle) is eternity, and inside the circle (time) is the realm where we live as material human beings. Generally speaking, we can’t break out of time, just like we can't go beyond the speed of light. But we know that if our speed approaches the speed of light, we will exceed the limitations of time. Einstein's theory of relativity explains this point of view. Similarly, we can break through the limitations of time in the spirit.

We often think that time is linear and sequential. This linear thinking creates a lot of constraints and hinders our understanding of many things. A linear thinker would say, “How can the Lamb be recently killed in Revelation 5 and killed before the foundation of the world in Revelation 13?” If we are limited by linear thinking, we will not be able to understand this paradox. Instead, it is helpful to think of time as a circle. Outside the circle is eternity, and inside the circle is time. The Lord Jesus said that He is the Alpha and the Omega, which are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. If we put all the letters of the Greek alphabet in a circle, this can represent time. When time is imagined as a circle, it will help us understand these dilemmas. If time is a circle, the starting point is very near the ending point.

On a school track, runners compete against each other on a circular track. As they run laps around the track, their positions change, and their perspectives on the starting line and finish line also change. For instance, when the runners start their race, the coach’s eagle looks huge; but when the runners are halfway around the track, the bird looks very small. Both are correct. It’s just that the runner’s vantage point has changed. In the same way, when the apostle John saw the slain Lamb in Revelation 5, he felt that He had just been slain, but when he ran forward to Revelation 13, he said that the lamb had been slain before the foundation of the world. This is because John was looking at the lamb from a different distance, perspective, and angle.

The Spirit Can Break the Limitations of Time

We must understand that the limits of time can be superseded. If the runners leave the track after the competition is over, they will be completely outside of the realm of the competition. Time is like a track, a boundary established by God inside which we can seek salvation and learn to know him here on earth.  

Here is another example. When NASA recently crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid during a test, it changed the orbit of the asteroid. Time is like the orbit of this asteroid. When hit by an external force, the orbit can change.

Time is also like Highway I-495 which runs around Washington, D.C. As long as we continue traveling on this highway, we circle D.C. But if we take any of the exits, we leave the circle. In the same way, we can exit time. How? We can leave the realm of time in the Spirit.

The Spirit can raise us up to a new realm of experience and give us a perspective that transcends time. When we are free from the limits of time, we can observe the events taking place within time. We will observe them from an outside perspective, like the spectators observe the people running in the track. From a high vantage point, we have a completely different perspective.

The content recorded in the Book of Revelation takes place within time, but the Book of Revelation helps us see from a perspective beyond time. If we try to understand it from within time, we will encounter limitations that lead to misunderstandings. For example, is the church within time or beyond time? On the one hand, Revelation tells the church of the church’s birth, growth, and development to spiritual maturity within time. On the other hand, the church is beyond time. The Bible says that "he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world" (Ephesians 1:4). So, did the Lord speak to the seven churches within time? Or beyond time? If it is within time, were these letters addressed to the seven churches in Asia in the time of the apostle John, or to the church today? Should we treat this timeline as linear or circular? A linear timeline is constantly moving forward and never repeats itself. Circular time is repetitive. Events can be constantly replicated. At the same time, if an event is beyond time, it is not constrained by the limits of time.

I believe that Dispensationalism is too limited in its concept of time. It is too linear. Even though in many ways, the historical development of the church seems to match up pretty well with the messages to the seven churches, in other ways it does not. The first two letters to the churches indeed seem to correspond to the original church which was persecuted by the Roman Empire and the compromising church that joined itself to the Roman Empire and the secular world. But after that, it’s more difficult to see the correlation. Dispensationalism correlates the church in Sardis to the church of Reformation, and the church in Philadelphia to the dispensationalist revivals. (Countless dispensational churches consider themselves to be the church in Philadelphia.) Does this mean that everyone who believes they are the church in Philadelphia will later experience the death and fall of their church, as happened to the church in Laodicea? I believe this view is a little too limited by linear thinking.

To a certain extent, church history is no doubt a linear development. But it is also a circle, a realm that can be viewed from inside or from outside. The attitudes of the seven churches in the book of Revelation continue to repeat themselves in churches at different times and in different places. God’s people continue to make mistakes, correct their mistakes, and learn, thereby becoming mature. We are God’s pottery; God is the craftsman; time is the furnace. The process of being refined in the furnace requires time. After we have been refined and have matured, time will no longer be necessary. We will enter eternity. During the refining process, our dross is discarded and our gold is retained. Dross represents things that dwell within time, and gold represents eternal things, or beyond time. Therefore, in the process of understanding the book of Revelation, we must see which concepts are temporary “dross” that dwells within time, and which ones are eternal “gold” that dwells beyond time. Time is the furnace that will refine us.

While reading the letters to the seven churches in the book of Revelation, it’s important to distinguish between the commands that are restricted to a certain time period and the concepts that are outside of time. There is a staggering contrast between these two. As I have said many times, Jesus’ letters to the churches are presented in a sandwich structure. The first part contains words of praise, the middle section contains words of reproach, and the last part contains words of encouragement. This structure is both outside of and within time. The entire Bible is structured like this. Before Adam's sin in Genesis 3, mankind was perfectly good; although they dwelt within time, people had no sin. The period of time before Genesis 3 also included eternity past, as mentioned in John 1. The middle portion of the sandwich contains Genesis 3 to Revelation 20. After this, Satan is thrown into the lake of fire, time comes to an end, and people will enter into eternity. The last section is the end of the book of Revelation, in which the eternal state resembles the pre-fall Garden of Eden. In a sense, the end of time returns to the beginning of time. The refining fire of time has ended, and time is done away with. Not only does time disappear, but “death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire" (Revelation 20:14). Time, death, and Hades are tools in the hands of God to help us enter eternity.

Time is Like Photography: Long and Close Shots

In my prophetic dreams, I have often been taken to heaven, where I have viewed heavenly scenes outside of time. But simultaneously, I continued to live in the material realm of time. How could I experience these spiritual realities while limited by my material body? These experiences taught me that I need to learn to switch perspectives with ease. On the one hand, I will live forever, and I am already beginning my eternal life right now. (Many people think that eternal life starts after death, which is incorrect. Eternal life starts the moment we are saved!) On the other hand, I am temporarily living my eternal life within the constraints of time. So I must be able to switch quickly back and forth between the two different perspectives. I often tell my wife about my dreams of heaven. She says, “You don't even sound like you are living in this world. When presenting your experiences and the things you have learned, you should take into account the different feelings and perspectives of the people around you.”

The Book of Revelation does a great job of speaking about spiritual, timeless realities while also speaking of earthly, time-bound events. These two narratives intersect and switch seamlessly back and forth. One moment, he is discussing things in the spirit, in heaven, beyond time. The next, he is speaking of temporal things on earth. We must be able to switch freely between these two perspectives, just like a camera lens switches freely between close and long shots. Therefore, when reading the book of Revelation, we must understand which events are earthly and which ones are heavenly; which ones are within time, and which ones are eternal. We must learn to see the church in the book of Revelation the same way a geologist sees a gold mine. A geologist does not classify a gold mine by the amount of soil that surrounds the ore, but by the amount of gold. The process in the Book of Revelation is the process of refining the gold to eliminate the useless rock and sand.

When we realize that God's will for the church lies outside of time and within eternity, we can understand our ultimate purpose and direction so that we don't get lost in our current experiences of suffering. And when we look at the temporal needs and weaknesses of the church, we will see the ways we need to be purified so we can cooperate with God's discipline, which removes our dross and makes us spiritually mature. When we read Revelation, we must constantly switch back and forth between these two different perspectives.

Glorious Eschatology

Dispensationalist eschatology and other similar belief systems seem to produce negative results. Many people are restricted by this type of linear thinking. They compare the seven churches in Revelation to the seven ages of the church. The last age is Laodicea, the lukewarm church. God will eventually come to judge the world, take to heaven all the overcomers in the church, and discipline other people. This explanation is partially correct, but it has an overly negative focus. According to Revelation, the last days are extremely glorious. The book of Revelation does contain negative events, such as various judgments, the acts of the evil spirits, and our rebellion; but it is also full of positive visions, encouragement, spiritual harvests, and victory. The appearance of the bride of Christ and spiritual overcomers in chapter 12 is the turning point in the book of Revelation. Later, with the help of God and the angels, the bride of Christ fights against Satan and his army and wins the victory. This not only brings in the glorious millennial kingdom, but also ushers in the end of the age, the new heaven and new earth, and eternity.

We must re-examine our eschatology because many people are deeply influenced by negative eschatology. As soon as there is a sign of trouble, such as disasters, wars, and darkness in the church, they immediately become discouraged, waiting for God to judge them and take them away. They give up trying. This is actually a trick of Satan.

The Lord Jesus taught his followers to pray, “May God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” If God had wanted us to fail in the last days, the Lord Jesus would not have needed to pray this prayer. God's will will eventually be done on earth as it is in heaven. As Habakkuk 2:14 says, "For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” (see also Isaiah 11:9). Isaiah 60:1-3 also says, "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising."

When the Israelites came out of Egypt, God used a pillar of fire to divide the Israelites and the Egyptians. The Israelites were in the pillar of fire and the Egyptians were in darkness. Whether we are in darkness or in the light of the pillar of fire depends entirely on whose side we are on. If we stand with God and God's elect, we will be illuminated by the pillar of fire. But if we stand with the enemy, we will be in darkness. Unfortunately, many of God's elect have been deceived by the enemy in the last days. They stand in darkness. If your eschatology is negative, dark, and escapist, you may have been deceived by the enemy. You need to pray that God will enlighten you so that you can stand with the right team. In the last days, we should rise and shine. We should not only “shine like a star,” as Daniel said, but also “shines brighter and brighter until full day”! (Proverbs 4:18)

[1] All Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted.

Bible Study with Jairus- Deuteronomy 7

Do You Have Idols in Your Heart?

In Deuteronomy 7, God gave the Israelites a command to kill all the Canaanites (7:2), but he also commanded the Israelites not to destroy them quickly, lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for them (7:22). I believe God’s first command shows the importance of our attitude, and the second command shows the importance of our method.

The theme of Deuteronomy is to teach the second generation of Israel not to worship idols. God says that idolatry and disobedience to God are closely related, even synonymous. For example, when Saul did not obey God's command to destroy the Amalekites, Samuel rebuked him saying, "Rebellion is equal to sorcery; stubbornness is equal to worshiping false gods and house gods" (ESV, 1 Samuel 15:23).[1] Rebellion is disobedience, and sorcery is idolatry. That’s why I say that disobeying God is idolatry.

To expose our idolatry, God often gives us a command that seems unreasonable in order to test our obedience. When we obey this difficult command, it shows that God is most important to us and there are no idols in our hearts. But when we refuse to obey Him, it shows that something else is more important to us than God.

It’s not difficult to understand why God told the Israelites to kill all the Canaanites. The Canaanites represent the strongholds of evil and idolatry in our hearts. We must remove such strongholds from our lives, throwing aside the sins that entangle us (Hebrews 12:1-3). Obeying God’s commands to conquer these besetting sins is often painful and difficult. If we can't overcome these entangling weaknesses, they continue to trap us and drag us into sin. God deals with our attitude as we remove the strongholds of sin from our hearts.

If our hearts are willing to obey God, He will help us overcome evil spirits and idols. This is a matter of method. Our attitude is important, but so is our method. Because of God's wise methods, we can eventually overcome evil spirits and idols.

Obedience To God Is the Criterion For Judging Whether We Have Idols In Our Hearts

As I have said many times, the structure of Deuteronomy is a sandwich. At the beginning, Moses praised the Israelites for learning the lesson of faith in the wilderness. At the end, he blessed the Israelites again. The middle section reiterates the contents of the law and teaches the Israelites not to worship idols. The Israelites learned the lesson of faith in the wilderness, but not the lesson about not worshipping idols. Therefore, God's next step is to test the Israelites and teach them not to worship idols. In addition to commanding the Israelites not to worship idols, God also tests them to see if they will obey His commands.

Let’s look at a few other times God tested people to see if they would obey him. In 1 Samuel 13, King Saul was waiting for Samuel to come and offer a sacrifice to God, but Samuel did not come on time. Saul waited a week, and his troops were beginning to desert him. So Saul decided to offer the burnt offering on his own. As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, Samuel came. Samuel rebuked Saul for not waiting for him. Saul then replied, “You did not come on time, the people were scattering from me. The Philistines had also mustered at Michmash to come against me at Gilgal.” (1 Samuel 13:8-12). Samuel said, "You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, with which he commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you." (1 Samuel 13:13-14).

Why was God so offended when Saul did not wait for Samuel to offer the sacrifice? Saul was a king, not a priest. Only the priest Samuel could lawfully offer sacrifices to God. Saul overstepped his authority by offering sacrifices.

Why did Saul decide not to wait for Samuel to come and offer the sacrifice? Because he was afraid of his people and of the enemy. His eyes were not fixed on God alone, like David's were. Instead, he reacted to his people’s preferences. Saul feared the opinions of his own troops and he feared his enemies, but he didn’t fear God.

God deliberately allowed Samuel to arrive late to see whether Saul would obey Him. If Saul decided to obey and wait on God in faith, it would mean that he magnified God above all other priorities. If Saul did not wait, it would show that he feared people more than God. Why did he fear people? Because he was afraid that they would desert him and stop supporting him as king. Being in power was his idol. Later, in order to keep his position of power, Saul tried to kill David on many occasions. This is proof that his position was his idol.

God also tested the Syrian general Naaman to see if he would obey a difficult, seemingly nonsensical command. Naaman had traveled all the way to Israel to ask Elisha to cure his leprosy. But when he arrived, Elisha didn’t even come out to speak to him personally. He just sent a messenger to tell him that if he bathed in the Jordan seven times, he would be healed. This angered Naaman. “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper,” Naaman said (2 Kings 5:11). Elisha’s behavior was completely different from what Naaman had imagined. Naaman said angrily, “Aren’t the rivers in Damascus better than Israel's? Why should I wash in the dirty Jordan river?” Naaman was angry, but his servant persuaded him to obey God. The servant convinced him that washing in the Jordan was an easy assignment; he might as well try it. So Naaman obeyed God, went to the Jordan river, and washed himself seven times. Because of his obedience, God healed him of his leprosy (2 Kings 5:11-14).

God's commands may sometimes seem unreasonable. As Pastor Bill Johnson used to say, “God often offends our minds to reveal our hearts.” His commands may seem unconventional and offensive. But our obedience to these commands reveals whether we are willing to obey God. And our obedience to God reveals whether or not we have idols in our hearts.

God’s command to exterminate the Canaanites seemed cruel and difficult to understand. But it would reveal whether the second-generation Israelites were willing to obey God or whether they were still loyal to their idols. The Canaanites represent evil spirits and idolatry and the strongholds they build in man. Therefore, God asked the Israelites to get rid of them.

God often uses the same method today to see if we will obey Him. His difficult commands reveal whether or not we have idols in our hearts. God wants to break down these strongholds. If we don’t obey him, these strongholds will entangle us.

Canaanites Represent the Strongholds of Evil and Idolatry.

The Canaanite towns were full of evil spirits and idolatries. God knew that their idolatry would rob the Israelites of their ability to worship God. If the Israelites were to unite with the Canaanites and marry their children, they would join their idolatry and be captured by the stronghold of evil. This is why God commanded the Israelites to destroy the Canaanites, not to marry their children, to break down their altars, to dash in pieces their pillars, to chop down their Asherah poles, and to burn their carved images with fire (7:3-5). The Israelites were to destroy every single idol of the Canaanites.

But the Israelites were reluctant to do so, just like we are often reluctant to give up the sins that entangle us. Why? Because we enjoy the pleasure of sin.

Let’s return to the story of Saul. Saul failed God’s first test when he did not wait for Samuel to offer the sacrifice. Then God tested him again. In 1 Samuel 15, Samuel told Saul that God wanted him to kill the Amalekites because they had resisted the Israelites with all their might when they came out of Egypt. Samuel specifically instructed Saul not to show mercy to the Amalekites, but to kill all men, women, children, and livestock.

Saul followed God’s instruction to fight the Amalekites, but he did not follow the command to destroy them completely. He spared Agag, the king of the Amalekites, and the best of the sheep and oxen. They destroyed everything in the city that was despised and worthless, but he saved the good things. Because of Saul’s disobedience, God sent Samuel to rebuke Saul. God said he regretted making Saul king. And he spoke the famous words equating idolatry and disobedience: "For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king." (1 Samuel 15:23).

Many times, our experiences mirror Saul’s. God commands us to completely destroy the sin that entangles us. We’re happy to destroy the sins that we don’t care about, but we hold onto the ones we enjoy. For instance, a brother said he was struggling to overcome the temptation to watch pornographic videos. Clearly, this is an entangling sin that should be destroyed completely.  So why is it so hard to destroy? Because we enjoy it so much. The main reason we cannot overcome a certain sin or weakness is that we still love it. If we truly hated it, we would be able to quickly overcome it.

Deuteronomy 7:25-26 says, "The carved images of their gods you shall burn with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. And you shall not bring an abominable thing into your house and become devoted to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest and abhor it, for it is devoted to destruction.” God knows we must hate sin in order to overcome it.

Lessons of Faith and Obedience in Our Spiritual Experience

As Christians grow spiritually, God teaches them lessons of faith and obedience. Like the Israelites, we must first learn the lesson of faith, and then move on to the lesson of obedience.

Learning the lesson of faith helps us get to know God, his goodness, and his sovereignty. God's goodness never changes, no matter how our circumstances may change. We will encounter storms in our lives, but the sun always shines above the clouds. In the same way, God’s goodness and sovereignty always shine above the difficulties of our lives. God made known his nature to Moses, and he will make known his nature to us (Psalm 103:7). When God appeared to Moses long ago, He revealed his goodness: "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness" (Exodus 34:6).

Moses knew God personally, spoke to the Lord face to face, and mastered the lesson of faith. But it took a lifetime to learn the lesson of obedience. Near the end of his life, Moses disobeyed God’s clear instructions when bringing water out of the rock at Meribah. God disciplined Moses and would not let him enter the land of Canaan (Numbers 20:12).

Like Moses, Christians today often learn the lesson of faith more quickly, and the lesson of obedience more slowly. The lesson of obedience is often harder than the lesson of faith. Personally, I experienced a difficult wilderness experience in which I learned the lesson of faith. Through ten years of infertility, I experienced God’s faithfulness and learned to trust him through suffering.

After God had taught me this lesson of faith, he began to teach me the lesson of obedience.  The Lord Jesus appeared to me one day and challenged me to obey Him completely. After being taken to heaven, I heard the Lord say, “Surrender to me completely.” I cried, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41) Through the mouth of a prophet, the Holy Spirit told me that I was too strong-willed and that I needed to learn to obey God. Many people and things in my environment made it difficult for me to obey. I was struggling so hard. I felt like I could not surrender. But the more disobedient I was, the more severely the Holy Spirit disciplined me. I was really suffering. It was hard for me to fight God’s will. When I finally surrendered to God, I realized that obedience is a blessing.

Unfortunately, there are many spiritual leaders who have attained great success and then fallen into great sin. If we observe carefully, we will realize that the root cause of their sin is that they failed to deal with some weakness in their spiritual life. After they become successful, they start slacking off spiritually. This weakness becomes a snare and traps them in sinful patterns. Whether it is David committing adultery with Bathsheba, or apologist Ravi Zacharias committing sexual assault, we can see that their weaknesses were not fully dealt with. They failed to totally destroy the evil strongholds of sin in their lives, just like the Israelites failed to totally destroy the Canaanites. After these men became famous and successful, their weaknesses came back to haunt them. The weaknesses became idols in their hearts. Eventually, they were trapped, snared, and overwhelmed by a lifestyle of sin.

When I first believed in the Lord, I asked God, “Why didn't You allow me to grow up in a Christian home? Why did you allow me to fall into so many sinful failures?” I felt very confused. But gradually, I came to understand that God sovereignly allowed these experiences for a reason. Because I had experienced failure, I had also experienced the process of breaking down idols and learning to obey God. The sins and weaknesses I experienced before salvation showed me the horrific nature of sin and exposed my weaknesses. I saw very clearly the evil strongholds in our family. Because of these early realizations, I believe I am less likely to fall into sin down the road when I’m in the process of fulfilling God’s call. I would rather have made mistakes and learned from them than fall into unsuspected sin later on in life. It’s better to have my sins exposed early, rather than exposing them later when they would do more damage to the people I am serving. I am truly amazed at God’s wisdom.

The earlier our sins can be exposed, the better. We don’t need to wait until later for our weaknesses to be exposed.

God’s Methods for Overcoming Evil Spirits

After our hearts and attitudes are dealt with, we need to wait for God's leading about the method for overcoming the specific sin we are struggling with. God will lead in different ways for different people, using different methods for different circumstances.

For instance, God gradually removed the Canaanite nations, commanding the Israelites not to destroy them too quickly, in order to prevent the wild beasts from growing too numerous for them (7:22). People generally interpret the beasts here as evil spirits. The Lord Jesus once told a parable about an unclean spirit coming out of a person. It could not find a place to go, so it returned to the person from whom it came. When it saw that the house was swept and put in order, it brought seven other spirits more evil than itself to dwell there. And the state of this person was worse than the first (Luke 11:24-26). The Canaanites represent the strongholds of evil spirits on earth. After destroying the strongholds and casting out the evil spirits, we must invite the baptism of the Holy Spirit into our lives so we can continue to experience transformation. If we do not grow spiritually, our freedom won’t last long. The power of sin may return, and we may still fail.

Conclusion

We must rely on the power and leading of the Holy Spirit to defeat the strongholds of idols and evil spirits in our lives. In this way, our weaknesses won’t be as likely to become snares in the future. Bless those brothers and sisters who are called by God to deal with their weaknesses and impurities so they can become God’s strong warriors.

[1] All Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted.

Bible Study with Jairus - Deuteronomy 6

Why do Christian Nations Fall?

Deuteronomy 6 raises some troubling questions. Why did the second generation of Israel fall after they arrived in the land of Canaan? By the same token, why do Christian countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States—which have been greatly used by God in the past—face widespread degeneration of their faith? Why do second-generation and third-generation Christians often abandon their faith?

Deuteronomy 6 gives us insight into this question. I believe that Christians begin to stray away from God, degenerate in their faith, and worship idols when they treat God’s grace and God’s word as commonplace. Instead, we must keep God's word in our hearts, continue to learn His word, and experience the truth of His word. We must teach God’s word to our children through our lives and actions. If we just lecture our children with surface-level rules but never internalize God’s word or experience His words personally, they will sense our hypocrisy. This will cause the next generation to inevitably stumble.

The Consequences of Apathy

In Deuteronomy 4, Moses previewed the future apostasy of the second generation of Israelites. He said, "When you father children and children's children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as to provoke him to anger." (ESV, Deuteronomy 4:25)[1]. The second generation of Israel would turn away from God and worship idols because they had “grown old in the land.” In other words, God's blessings had made them apathetic, arrogant, and proud. They needed God to change their environment to remind them to repent. Jeremiah 48:11-12 mentions the same concept: "Moab has been at ease from his youth and has settled on his dregs; he has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, nor has he gone into exile; so, his taste remains in him, and his scent is not changed. ‘Therefore, behold, the days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I shall send to him pourers who will pour him, and empty his vessels and break his jars in pieces.’” Because the wine was not constantly poured back and forth from jar to jar during the wine-making process, the lees had settled. In the same way, Moab had settled in ease and apathy. The lack of trials in their environment meant shortcomings and fallen nature were never challenged.

Is there hope? Can the second generation overcome the natural apathy of “growing old” in their Christianity?

Standing on the Shoulders of the First Generation

As we’ve discussed in previous lessons, the first generation of Israelites learned from the previous generation’s failure of faith. Rather than doubting God like the first generation did, they entered the promised land with faith.

However, they did not so easily learn from the first generation’s failures in the area of idolatry. They inherited the baggage of their ancestors’ idolatry. As second-generation Christians today, we should actively inherit the abundant heritage that our predecessors left to us. We need to “stand on the shoulders of giants,” as the saying goes. We should build on what they left behind. Their ceiling should be our floor. We need to not only inherit their positive abundance, but also avoid their mistakes.

Not all second- and third-generation Christians walk away from God. Historically, many second or third-generation Christians have been greatly used by God. For example, when I read the biography of Andrew Murray, I was deeply inspired. Andrew's uncle and father were both pastors. As a child, Andrew was sent to Holland with his brother to study theology, Hebrew, and Greek. After receiving a good education and training, he went to South Africa to become a pastor. There, he was greatly used by God. He knew the Bible very well and was spiritually mature.

When I compared my own biblical heritage to Andrew Murray’s, I realized that I had very little Biblical foundation. I was a first-generation and had received no Christian inheritance from my family. I was born into a family of idolaters. Before I was saved at age 27, I experienced the entanglement of sin and the flesh. Rather than receiving a deep Christian education, I was educated in the ways of the world. I felt gypped. I was deeply envious of Andrew Murray's experience. I thought, “If I could have been born into a Christian family and received a spiritual education as good as Andrew Murray’s, I might be more useful in God's hands.”

But that wasn’t the life path God chose for me. I later realized that God’s wisdom allowed me to experience these trials and tribulations so that I could better empathize with Christians who fall into sin. I realized that it was not too late to study the abundant heritage passed down to me through Christian books and resources from those who had gone before.

God wants us to pass on our spiritual heritage to the next generation, so that they can have a better starting point. We must share our experiences of faith and even our failures so they can learn from our example. We must learn how to teach the next generation well.

Lead the Next Generation by Example

I once saw a movie about a second-generation American Christian who rebelled against the hypocrisy she saw in her parents. Though the parents claimed to be generous when in church, they showed their true colors when at home. They refused to give a penny toward God’s work. Frustrated, the daughter donated the entire education fund left by her parents to the pastor. When her parents found out, they became very angry and tried to find a way to get the money back from the pastor. The pastor was also a money-grubber. He refused to return the money. He told the parents, "The money donated to the church is given to God and cannot be taken back." The daughter did not see a positive Christian testimony from her parents.

Later, the daughter met some unbelieving friends who were involved with a homeless outreach. She began volunteering with her new friends. The message of the movie is that unbelievers, including homosexuals, demonstrate more true love than Christians. When I watched this movie, I sighed. Unfortunately, this portrayal of American Christian society and family is not far from the truth.

In light of the sad condition of American Christianity, we must pay close attention to Deuteronomy 6. God commanded the Israelites to focus on his word and always keep it in their hearts. Only in this way could they pass his word on to their children. The formula portrayed in this chapter is: First study God’s word for yourself, and then pass it on to your children.

Deuteronomy 6:1-2 records the words that Moses taught the second generation of Israelites. "Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it.” Then Moses addresses the teaching of the next generation: “That you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long." This command encompasses both the second generation of Israelites and their children. Throughout the chapter, Moses first tells the second generation of Israelites how to obey and study the word of God, then instructs them about how their children and grandchildren should act.

Deuteronomy 6:5-6 says, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart." In these verses, Moses is addressing the second generation of Israelites. But in verse 7, he says, "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise."

In verses 8-9, Moses continued to speak to the second generation of Israelites: "You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” Forgetting God’s word is the first step toward our spiritual downfall. In verses 10-11, Moses reminded the people that their houses, fields, and produce in the land of Canaan were results of the grace of God, not their own effort. Moses reminded the second generation of Israelites in verse 12, "Then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." In verses 6:16-19, Moses continued to remind the second generation of Israelites that they should not put God to the test, like the first generation of Israel did in Massah. Moses reminded them that if they obeyed God's law, He would drive out all their enemies before them. In verses 20-21, Moses continued to talk to them about how to teach their children. He said, "When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.’"

This structure continues throughout the chapter. Moses first taught the second generation of Israelites, who were about to enter the land of Canaan, to obey the law of God. Next, he reminded them to teach their descendants. In my previous readings of this chapter, I had never noticed this generational structure. Now, with the help of the Holy Spirit, I noticed the way this passage is arranged and the truth it points to. Just like the second generation of Israelites, we need to study, understand and obey God’s word so we can teach our children to know and obey God’s word.

Abraham and Jacob: Two Generations Experience God in Different Ways

Moses knew that the second generation of Israelites would not study the law or obey it. He knew they would not teach their children well. Instead, they would fall into idolatry and turn away from God. Does this mean there is no hope?

I believe that there is hope for the second generation, even when they wander away from God—just like there was hope for Abraham’s son, Jacob.

Like Abraham, many first-generation Christians hear the call of God, leave the land of idolatry, and enter the Promised Land. However, second-generation Christians often have the reverse experience. Like Jacob, they start out in the Promised Land but later leave and return to the land of idolatry. Only there do they come face to face with God’s presence. It is normal for second-generation Christians to fall away, and God will arrange their circumstances so that they have an opportunity to turn back to Him. Each individual’s faith journey is unique. But each generation is cared for by God’s loving sovereignty. All things work together for good to those who love Him.

Like Abraham, I am a first-generation Christian who was saved from a land of idolatry. Abraham lived in an idol-worshiping city east of the river, but God called him to leave his homeland and follow Him to a place he did not know. Abraham followed God’s guidance by faith and finally entered the land of Canaan that God had prepared for him and his descendants. Like him, many first-generation Christians are entangled in sin, idolatry, and worldliness. But God’s presence attractively woos them out of sin and into the Promised Land of hope.

However, later generations of Christians often have the same experience as Jacob did. Although he lived in Isaac’s house and received his blessing, he himself did not know God. The God of Abraham and Isaac was not the God of Jacob. Jacob tricked his brother and stole his birthright. He then fled from his hometown and went to live with his idol-worshiping uncle. Years before, Abraham’s servant had brought Jacob’s mother, Rebekah, from Abraham's idol-worshiping hometown. After Jacob went to live with his uncle Laban, Jacob’s wife Rachel stole Laban’s household gods. Clearly, idols were still being actively worshiped in Laban’s household.

Jacob left to the land of promise and returned to the land of idols. He left God’s blessing in the land of Canaan and entered a land of oppression where he would be mistreated and deceived by his uncle for many years. But it was only through these unfortunate experiences that Jacob met God. In the vision of a ladder on the way to his uncle's house and in his experience of wrestling with God on his way back to the land of Canaan, Jacob came face to face with God Himself.

Each of us has a different experience with God. Like Abraham, some people start out in the land of suffering and idolatry, then meet God and enter the land of Canaan. However, others are born in the land of Canaan. Without a personal relationship with God, they walk away from his blessings and return to the land of idols. But God never leaves them alone. He is always with them, waiting for them to return to Him so they can truly know and experience Him.

Like Abraham, first-generation Chinese Christians suffer because of their sins and the oppression of idols and evil spirits. Then they encounter God and are set free.

Like Jacob, some people are born into Christian homes in Christian countries. They do not know God personally through experience. They fall into sin and walk away from God, but his mercy is still watching over them. Like Jacob, they will meet God in a dream and will wrestle with Him at the ford of Jabbok. He will bring them back to Himself.

Conclusion

A recent report by the Pew Research Center stated that at the current rate of decline, the percentage of Christians in the United States will drop below 50% of the population by 2070. This statistic has a far-reaching impact on American politics and society. The article argues that only a great revival can change this downward trend. When Steve Bannon shared the article, he asked a question: “Will the Great Revival change this trend?” When I reposted the link, I stated that I believe it is possible. I firmly believe that a great revival in the United States is coming; God has revealed this to me many times through prophetic dreams. I believe this downward trend will definitely reverse.

We must remember this truth: It was when Jacob was alone and miserable in the wilderness that he met God. In the United States, there are countless second- and third-generation Christians, and those whose families have been believers for many generations. Even if they turn away from God, His mercy toward them will never come to an end. They will eventually come face to face with their loving Savior.

[1] All Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted.

Bible Study with Jairus - Leviticus 11

The Spiritual Significance of The Law of Clean and Unclean Food

Leviticus 11 talks about God’s instructions for clean and unclean foods. God told the Israelites they were allowed to eat clean animals that had a divided hoof and that chewed the cud. Pigs have divided hooves but don’t chew the cud, so they are unclean. Camels chew the cud but don’t have divided hooves, so they’re also unclean.

We’ve been taught that a divided hoof represents a Christian's ability to discern between good and evil, and that chewing the cud represents Christians chewing on and pondering the Lord's Word. This is certainly a good spiritual explanation. But when the Lord told this to the Israelites, was He really thinking about how Christians would live and read the Bible thousands of years later? Perhaps we can make this current-day application, but I believe the instructions were primarily addressed to the Israelites at the time.

Christians also disagree as to why the Lord gave the Israelites these dietary laws. Some think that it was for hygiene and health considerations, while others focus on spiritual interpretations, such as the one given above. We certainly do not deny that God’s words in the Bible can have spiritual interpretations, but it’s also important to consider these words in context.

What was the context of God’s instructions about clean and unclean food? For one thing, these instructions come on the heels of an important statement about holiness. When Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu were judged by God, he told Aaron that he must be sanctified among those who came near to Him, and He must be glorified before all the people (Leviticus 10:3). In other words, God wanted those who were near Him to break free from the mundane and to live in holiness. In this context, God’s instructions about clean and unclean foods were given for the purpose of creating and maintaining holiness. Chapter 12 then deals with cleanliness after childbirth; chapters 13-14 discuss the cleanliness of a leper; and chapter 15 deals with cleanliness related to bodily discharges. God is dealing with the cleanliness of His chosen people step by step. The laws regarding clean and unclean foods were very important to helping the Israelites maintain holiness before God. God gave instructions about clean and unclean foods in hopes that the Israelites, who were near God, could be sanctified before Him.

Why Are There Clean and Unclean Animals?

Some say that unclean animals are scavengers who help clean up the environment, so they are not suitable for eating. For example, many fish without scales eat decaying animals at the bottom of the ocean to help clean up the ecosystem. This is beneficial to the ecological cycle. While this observation is generally true, it doesn’t apply in all cases. For example, camels and rabbits are unclean, but they eat grass. Perhaps we need to look deeper to understand the reasons God forbade the eating of certain animals.

After the fall of Adam, everything was defiled and affected by sin, even the animals. In the eyes of God, these unclean animals may have been defiled by their rebellion. But animals are not the source of uncleanness. Rather, after humanity rebelled against God, the whole earth was polluted; the animals were only one part of this pollution. The book of Hebrews says that even the heavens and the heavenly tabernacle needed to be cleansed by the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 9:23). Satan’s rebellion polluted even the heavens and the heavenly sanctuary. Such pollution is reflected on earth, defiling the animals along with humankind.

Some angels have fallen, while others have not. We know that at least two-thirds of the angels were kept from rebelling alongside Satan. We also know that Satan can tempt people to sin. Our question is, can Satan tempt animals to sin? Some speculate that originally, animals could speak and could converse with Adam. This speculation says that after Satan's rebellion, God may have removed animals’ ability to speak so they would not learn from man’s rebellion and curse God alongside Adam. If this speculation is correct, is it possible that some animals became unclean after Satan's rebellion? In Genesis 1, God saw everything that He made and said, "Very good" (1:31). So, does this mean that there is a possibility that God created all animals to be clean animals? And that some animals were tempted to become unclean after Satan's rebellion? We have no way of knowing because the Bible does not record it. But it's a reasonable guess.

Clean Animals Become Sacrifices to Redeem Unclean Animals

The first time God mentioned clean and unclean animals in the Bible was in Genesis 7. The Lord instructed Noah to take seven pairs of clean animals and one pair of unclean animals (a pair being a male and a female) onto the ark. After the flood receded, Noah took all kinds of clean animals and birds and offered them as burnt offerings on the altar he built. When God smelled the pleasing aroma of the sacrifice, He said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done, and the four seasons shall not cease.” These verses are very interesting. We see that because of man’s sin, the earth was cursed and all living creatures began to suffer alongside humankind. But then we see an interesting phenomenon. As Noah sacrificed the clean animals, God was satisfied and the curse was removed.

God allowed seven pairs of clean animals to be on the ark because he knew they would be needed as a sacrifice for redemption. Through his compassion and grace, he also allowed a pair of unclean animals to live on the ark. The clean animals were sacrificed to save the unclean animals.

It’s important to understand that it was not the burnt offering that pleased God, but the faith and obedience of Noah. Years later, when the Israelites rebelled against God and worshipped idols, the Lord clearly said, “I am not pleased with the sacrifices of the Israelites.” David also said in Psalm 51 that burnt offerings do not please God, but a broken spirit and a contrite heart do. The Lord Jesus explained that it’s not what goes into a person’s stomach that defiles a person, but the envy and strife that come out of one’s heart. Therefore, true cleansing comes when our hearts are right with God. When our hearts are cleansed, it leads to the sanctification of our souls and the hope of the eventual redemption of our bodies. A clean heart and spirit become a sacrifice so that our soul and body can in turn be saved.

So why did God give rules about clean and unclean animals? In addition to health considerations, I believe that God wanted to point to the meaning of sacrifice. Just as clean animals would become a clean sacrifice for unclean animals, God’s Perfect Lamb was offered on behalf of unclean people (Gentiles). Jesus was an unblemished sacrifice that took away sins forever. He was descended from Israel. He was born to redeem all unclean humans and animals. After the Lord Jesus was crucified and resurrected, He not only purified the heavens, but also mankind and all of the universe. That’s why God told Peter in a vision that all animals had been made clean. “What God has made clean, do not regard as common,” God said. Why? Because God's work of cleansing through Christ had already been accomplished on the cross.

The Relationship Between Sacrifice and Redemption

God wanted the Israelites to eat holy food in order for them to become holy. God separated them from the common Gentiles and made them clean so they could become an unblemished sacrifice, the channel through which Christ was born. Just as God allowed clean and unclean animals to live side by side on the ark, He allowed the Gentiles a chance to live alongside the Israelites. The Bible says that God makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust (Mark 5:45). God's special elective grace to Israel made them the first ones to be cleansed, but God's common grace allowed the Gentiles to survive as well. Eventually, the Gentiles would be completely cleansed because of Israel’s descendant, Christ.

But the Israelites did not understand this relationship. They exalted God's elective grace too much, while ignoring His common grace to the rest of mankind. They became so exclusive that when Paul mentioned that God had turned his grace to the Gentiles (Acts 22:22), the Jews were so angry that they wanted to kill Paul.

This principle is reflected not only in the relationship between Jews and Gentiles, but also in the church. Some Christians are like the Old Testament first fruits. They mature quickly, overcome evil, join the Bride of Christ, and turn into outstanding Christians. Yes, we should celebrate these “clean Christians.” But we must also realize that there are many Christians who mature later. These are also an important part of God’s kingdom.

Contrary to many Christians’ beliefs, heaven is not the end of a Christian’s growth toward spiritual maturity. I believe it is another beginning. Our life on earth is part of the process by which we pursue spiritual maturity, and we should cherish this process. But this does not mean that after arriving in heaven, those who are spiritually immature have no chance to continue to grow. This is a common error in thinking. On the contrary, many people's testimonies of heaven mention that in heaven, everyone is still reading the Bible. They still have the opportunity to learn and grow.

Of course, God cares about our quick maturity. But He also provides opportunities for those who mature late. Just like the clean animals on Noah's Ark and the Israelites in the Old Testament, the first believers who were cleansed in the New Testament will become a sacrifice for the latecomers, allowing all things to be redeemed. Paul mentions in the book of Romans, "For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.” (ESV, Romans 8:19-22). What is the pain of childbirth? The Israelites in the Old Testament experienced these labor pains. After thousands of years of training, they finally gave birth to Jesus Christ, who became the redeeming sacrifice of mankind. In the New Testament, the church also went through the pain of childbirth, giving birth to many other sons of God through Jesus Christ.

A Lesson from the Hoopoe

The hoopoe bird can teach us an important principle. It is the national bird of Israel. This bird is very beautiful, but it is very sloppy and dirty. In Chinese, the hoopoe bird is called "Smelly Aunt.” Despite its beauty, this bird does not pay attention to hygiene and thus is very smelly.

Perhaps the unclean birds and animals in the Bible represent man’s rebellion and fallen condition, and that’s why the Israelites are prohibited from eating them. On the one hand, they are beautiful, but on the other hand, they are dirty.

Perhaps this is also a picture of the human condition. We are created in the image of God, so we are beautiful. But humans have also defiled themselves through their rebellion, becoming unclean like the Hoopoe. Perhaps every unclean animal represents an aspect of man's uncleanness. Therefore, we need to cleanse ourselves. When we are willing to cleanse ourselves through trusting in Christ, we become a part of spiritual Israel, able to give birth to Christ who can redeem us.

Ignoring our physical diet leads to health problems like obesity. But ignoring our spiritual diet has even more serious consequences. If Christians do not pay attention to their spiritual cleansing, separating themselves from common, fleshly, and sinful pleasure and entertainment, they will be like the hoopoe bird. But when we pay attention to the cleanliness of our spiritual diet, we gradually become a clean sacrifice that can be used by God to help unclean people around us. Not only that, but we can also become the sons of God, revealing His glory and setting all things free. Perhaps the hoopoe is not in bondage by choice; like all of creation, it is in bondage because it was subjected to futility by the fall of mankind (Romans 8:20). I hope that in heaven or in the resurrection, the hoopoe will be absolutely beautiful and will no longer be sloppy and dirty.

I believe that the hoopoe is a picture of the spiritual life of many Christians. On the one hand, they are beautiful because they are saved by Christ. But on the other hand, they’re not focusing on holiness. They are as sloppy and dirty as the hoopoe.

May We All Cleanse Ourselves and Be a Blessing to Others So That God is Pleased

When we Christians cleanse ourselves from sin and focus on sanctification, it pleases God as he smells the aroma of our sacrifice. At the same time, our sacrifice can be used by God to be a blessing to others. By choosing the right spiritual food and breaking free from unclean things, we can become a clean sacrifice that pleases both God and man. If we are willing to cleanse ourselves and be put on the altar, God will send fire from heaven to bless our sacrifice greatly. And we will be a blessing to many.

Bible Study with Jairus - Leviticus 4

Leviticus 4 mentions different sacrifices that were used in several different situations. When the priest and the whole congregation sinned, they were to offer a bull, put its blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense, and sprinkle the blood seven times on the veil of the Holy of Holies. But when a leader sinned, he was to offer a male goat. And when a common person sinned, he was commanded to offer a female goat or a female lamb. In this case, the blood would be sprinkled on the brazen altar in the outer courtyard, not on the veil of the Holy of Holies.

Why do these differences exist? The differences in the sizes of the sacrifices and the location where the blood was sprinkled represented different degrees of redemption that were needed for different degrees of sins. This picture also reminds us that when we remove the hindrance of sin from our lives, our fellowship with the Lord will be more intimate. As God cleanses us from sin and helps us through our struggles, he reveals a way to deepen our fellowship with Him.

The size of the sacrifice and the location of the sprinkling of blood

Verse 4:2 says, “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, If anyone sins unintentionally in any of the Lord's commandments about things not to be done, and does any one of them..."  When an Israelite sinned unintentionally, he was commanded to offer a bull (verse 4:3). Verse 27 says, "If anyone of the common people sins unintentionally in doing any one of the things that by the Lord's commandments ought not to be done, and realizes his guilt..." Here, the individual was commanded to offer a female goat. Why this difference in offerings?

For an answer, we need to look at the third verse. Verse 3 says, "if it is the anointed priest who sins, thus bringing guilt on the people, then he shall offer for the sin that he has committed..." Following the progression of these verses, we can see that a priest’s sin would bring guilt on all the people of Israel. The same thing would happen when an individual Israelite sinned. Even though only one person sinned, whether a common Israelite or a priest, it would bring guilt on Israel as a whole. These sins were serious, and required larger sacrifices, such as a bull without blemish as a sin offering (verse 4:3).

Later, we learn that if a leader sinned unintentionally, he needed to offer a male goat without blemish (4:23); if a common person sinned unintentionally, he needed to offer a female goat without blemish (4:28). We can speculate that a male goat was worth more than a female goat, and a bull was worth more than a male goat. Therefore, these offerings of different values showed that different degrees of redemption were needed for different degrees of sins.

When a common person sinned unintentionally, the damage and harm he brought to the community were relatively limited. However, because a leader had greater power and influence, the negative impact of his sins was much greater than that of a common person. Hence, a leader’s sin required a larger sacrifice. In the same way, a priest was a representative of God. His sin would have an even greater negative impact. If a common person or priest sinned intentionally, it would bring guilt on the entire congregation. This was a more serious situation. Thus, offering a large sacrifice, such as a bull, was needed.

Let’s read the description of the place where the bull was offered and where the blood was sprinkled: "He shall bring the bull to the entrance of the tent of meeting before the Lord and lay his hand on the head of the bull and kill the bull before the Lord. And the anointed priest shall take some of the blood of the bull and bring it into the tent of meeting, and the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle part of the blood seven times before the Lord in front of the veil of the sanctuary.” (4:4-6).

The "veil of the sanctuary" was the thick veil that separated the Holy of Holies from the sanctuary. The altar of fragrant incense was located near this veil. In addition to sprinkling the bull's blood on the veil, the blood would be put on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense, and poured out at the entrance of the tent of meeting and at the base of the altar of burnt offering.

When a leader or a common person sinned, the blood would be sprinkled "on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and all the rest will be poured out at the base of the altar." In this case, the blood was not sprinkled on the veil, nor on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense. In other words, the blood was sprinkled near the outer courtyard.

The difference in the location of the sprinkling of blood showed that varying degrees of sin needed varying degrees of redemption.

Different sins require different degrees of redemption

Joshua 7 records the story of Achan's sin, which led to the Israelites’ failure to conquer the city of Ai. Achan’s sin brought guilt on the entire nation and caused them to lose the battle against Ai. Only one man sinned, yet his failure brought judgment and destruction to his entire family.

In Joshua 7:25 “Joshua said to Achan, ‘Why did you bring trouble on us? The Lord brings trouble on you today.’ And all Israel stoned him with stones. They burned them with fire and stoned them with stones.”[1] Clearly, one person’s sin can bring guilt to the entire congregation.

The Bible seems to indicate that there are differing levels of sin. The book of First John says that we should not pray for those who commit sins that lead to death (1 John 5:16-17). Achan, Uzzah, Ananias and Sapphira, and Judas were instantly killed for their sins. Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit. Judas betrayed Christ. These may be examples of sins that lead to death.

The book of Hebrews mentions that the blood of Jesus not only cleansed the sanctuary on earth, but also purified the heavenly sanctuary (Hebrews 9-10). This indicates that some serious sins, such as Satan’s rebellion, defiled the heavenly sanctuary. These sins against the heavenly Holy of Holies were judged severely.

Leviticus 4 is not discussing serious, intentional sins, but unintentional sins that are redeemable. Nonetheless, the extent of the redeeming sacrifice would vary according to the extent of the damage caused by the sin. Some people sin against the outer courtyard, some against the sanctuary, and some against the Holy of Holies.

Many people committed sins against the outer courtyard. All they needed to do was offer a goat, and the blood only needed to be sprinkled on the altar in the outer courtyard. Perhaps the sins of tax collectors and prostitutes would qualify as sins against the outer courtyard. Yes, they sinned, but their sin was unintentional. They did not know God yet. So Jesus treated them as His friends.

In Matthew 21:31, Jesus told the chief priests and elders of Israel, "The tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you." Jesus was saying that the tax collectors and prostitutes were more eager to believe in John the Baptist than the chief priests and elders were.

If a person sinned the sanctuary, he would sprinkle blood on the veil that separated it from the Holy of Holies. The sins committed by the chief priests and elders could be thought of as sins against the sanctuary. These religious leaders did know God, and the priests even served in the sanctuary. Yet they refused to believe in Jesus Christ, whom God sent to save them. Priests serve in the sanctuary. Jesus was greater than the temple (Matthew 12:6); yet the religious leaders did not believe in him. By refusing to believe in the Lord Jesus, they were rebelling against Him. In effect, they were sinning against the sanctuary.

On the other hand, a person who sins the Holy of Holies could be killed. Uzzah is a great example of this occurrence.

The sacrifices mentioned in this chapter remind us of our sinful nature. The bulls, male goats, and female goats offered by the common people were sacrifices that represented different levels of sinful behavior. There is a difference between the sinful nature and sinful behavior. The sins of the priests and the community can remind us of the sinful nature, while the sins of individuals can remind us of sinful behavior.

On the one hand, Christ took away our sinful nature and sinful behavior once and for all. This reality is fulfilled in the Spirit. But we also must constantly experience Christ’s redemption as we confess our sins to him. In the first two examples, the blood was sprinkled on the veil in front of the Holy of Holies, while in the third, the blood was sprinkled on the bronze altar in the outer courtyard. These sacrifices remind us of our sinful nature and sinful behavior, respectively.

In addition to ordaining different types of sacrifices for different types of sin, God also allowed different sacrificial animals for different financial abilities. He offered the people a “sliding financial scale.” God allowed his people to bring female lambs, which were worth less than female goats. Since each person had a different level of poverty or wealth, God took into account their finances when he ordained sacrificial offerings. This shows that God is gentle and compassionate.

Levels of Fellowship with the Lord

Why did God ordain different sacrifices for the sins against the outer courtyard, the sanctuary, and the Holy of Holies? With regards to the sin against the outer courtyard, we cited the example of the prostitutes and tax collectors.

Sinning against the sanctuary is explicitly mentioned in Numbers 18:1. Here it says that if someone enters the sanctuary in the wrong way, or served wrongfully in the sanctuary, Aaron would take responsibility.

God also mentions sins against the Holy of Holies. For example, Aaron’s two sons, Nadab and Abihu, offered strange fire to God (Leviticus 10:1-2). This was likely a sin against the Holy of Holies. As sons of Aaron, these men were candidates for the position of High Priest. But since they were not yet ordained as High Priest, they were not allowed to enter the Holy of Holies. When they offered strange fire, they sinned against the Holy of Holies and were consumed by the fire of God.

Uzzah also sinned against the Holy of Holies. Only the Kohathites were allowed to carry the Ark of the Covenant, and Uzzah was a descendant of Merari. Numbers 4 clearly states that the Merarites were only permitted to carry the items in the tabernacle as well as in the outer courtyard. Uzzah was killed for touching the Ark of the Covenant. Most likely, he sinned against the sanctuary or even the Holy of Holies.

The Old Testament is only a picture of the New Testament reality. This picture shows that the closer the relationship, the more relational harm we cause by our hurt and betrayal. A person who is far from the Lord doesn’t bring him as much harm. Unbelievers on the streets may speak disrespectfully against God. While I don’t condone this behavior, I believe that these words do not hurt God as much as if a loyal believer said the same words. Since these people have little connection with Him, he disregards their words.

But the closer you are to God, the more harm your sin brings to him. The words of your closest friends hurt more than the words of a stranger. When a couple first meets each other, they are strangers. Their words are not as hurtful. But when they have been married for a long time, their words of betrayal or distrust can do great harm to the relationship between a husband and a wife.

The same is true between us and God. When we do not belong to God, He demands less of us. He accepts anyone willing to come to Him for salvation. After we know him as Savior, when we sin unintentionally, we bring more hurt to God’s heart. But when we who know God intentionally sin against Him, He will treat us more severely. The differences in the size of the offerings and the places where the blood was sprinkled remind us of this truth.

The closer we are to the Lord, the higher are His demands of us. When we first believed in the Lord, he only corrected our external behavior. But as our fellowship with the Lord deepened, the Holy Spirit began to enlighten us about more subtle sins that took place in our hearts. He begins to show us sins we are less aware of, that dwell in our sinful nature.

Difficulties and the Answers They Reveal

God doesn’t make us aware of a problem without also giving us a solution. Often, that solution is hidden. But if we look for it, we will find it. Our different degrees of sins are our problem, and the different sizes of sacrifices are the solution. God provides a unique provision that matches each unique problem.

In the Local Church Movement, I learned a prayer method called Tabernacle Prayer. This type of prayer is also taught by David Yonggi Cho. In this method of prayer, the elements of our prayer match the items in the tabernacle, in the order a priest would encounter them when entering the tabernacle.

In this method of prayer, we would first go to the altar to confess our sins and remember Christ’s sin offering. Then we would go to the laver to experience the washing of the Holy Spirit and the washing of the water in the word. We reach the table of the bread of the Presence, where we eat, drink and enjoy the Lord. We receive power and illumination from the golden lampstand of the Holy Spirit, and then enter into intercession at the altar of incense. In the Holy of Holies, we experience the Lord Himself as our light, resurrection, food, and life.

Let me explain these specific steps in detail. When we come to the bronze altar in the outer courtyard, we need to offer sacrifices and sprinkle blood to remove our sins. In the Old Testament, the Israelites offered sheep and cattle, but in the New Testament, we are cleansed by Christ’s blood. During prayer, we imagine that we are sprinkling Christ’s blood on ourselves to cleanse us from all sin. We confess our sins to God, repent, and then ask Him to forgive us.

Once we are cleansed by the blood of the Lord, we approach the laver. In the Old Testament, priests washed themselves at the laver so they could serve God in holiness. After we are cleansed from our sins, we must remove the filth and contamination of the world so we can come near to God. We can imagine that we are washing ourselves in the water of the Holy Spirit, who cleanses us from defilement.

After we have gone through these two steps, we can imagine ourselves coming to the table of the bread of the Presence. Here, we eat God’s holy bread. His word is our food. At this time, we can pray through a verse of Scripture, meditate on it, digest it, and speak it aloud to ourselves.

As we do, the Lord’s words will give light. When the unfolding of God’s words gives light, it imparts understanding to the simple (Psalm 119:130). We have now arrived in front of the golden lampstand. The light of the lampstand reminds us of the light of God’s word. Both will illuminate the secrets of our hearts. Here, we check the intentions and motives of our hearts. What is our motivation for our thoughts, words, and deeds? We must examine ourselves in the light of the Lord.

The next step is entering into intimate fellowship with God through the altar of incense. The altar of incense represents intercession. Revelation 5:8 says that incense represents the prayers of the saints. Here, we enter into Abraham’s intercession for Lot. As we reach this point of intimacy with God, we let go of ourselves and begin praying for others.

As we continue to have fellowship with God, we pass through the veil into the Holy of Holies, where we meet God and hear Him speak above the mercy seat above the Ark of the Covenant (Numbers 7:89). To pass through the veil, we must experience the cleansing of Jesus’ blood. Not only do we need to be cleansed of our sinful behavior, but we must also be cleansed of our sinful nature. Jesus has cleansed us from these sins so we can enter into a deeper fellowship with God.

Inside the Ark, there is manna (which reminds us that the Lord is our food, the bread of heaven), Aaron’s rod that budded (reminding us of the resurrection), and a tablet with the Ten Commandments written on it (reminding us of the light of God’s word). This is the provision of God for our needs.

This prayer method allows me to personally experience God’s provision. Pastor David Yonggi Cho was asked, “How could you pray for hours when there is often nothing to pray for?” He replied that when he prays the tabernacle prayer, moving from the outer courtyard to the sanctuary and then the Holy of Holies, a few hours will quickly pass by without him noticing.

Let's return to the content of this chapter. In it, God revealed how to offer different sacrifices for different sins. Each different sin had a different sacrifice. Each problem had a unique solution.

In the same way, God will help us solve the unique and different problems that arise in our fellowship with Him. He will provide resolution to the various obstacles that hinder our fellowship with Him. Remember, whenever you face a problem or temptation, God will provide a unique solution that is perfect for your needs. When you face temptation, God will always provide a way of escape, so that you can overcome it (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Leviticus 4 mentions different levels of fellowship we can experience with the Lord. It shows us how to overcome each difficulty we face, so we can enter into deeper fellowship with him.

[1] All Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted.

Bible Study with Jairus – 1 Corinthians 14

God’s Principles Regarding Tongues and Prophecy

And how to apply those principles to specific situations

When discussing 1 Corinthians 14, several intriguing questions often come to the forefront. The first is, “Is it possible that speaking in tongues is not of the Holy Spirit?” Some people who oppose speaking in tongues say that some tongues are from the enemy. They believe that if you speak in tongues, you are cursing God. How can we make sense of these objections?

In extreme cases, these concerns may be valid. But generally speaking, tongues are a faith-booster. They help increase our faith. Speaking in tongues is also a way for the Holy Spirit to speak through us, so we don’t need to fear. Rather, we should follow Paul’s teaching: “Each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.” (ESV, 1 Corinthians 14:26).[1]

The second question that comes up in the study of this chapter is, “Why did Paul say that women should not speak in church?” (1 Corinthians 14:34). My answer is that we need to distinguish between universal principles of God and specific leading for specific situations. I think verses 1-26 are Paul's explanation of the general principles of prophecy and tongues, while verse 27 starts a section with specific instructions for the Corinthians’ situation. This section deals with specific details about tongues, prophecies, and women speaking in the church of Corinth. Matters of principle do not change with time and circumstances, but matters of leading do.

Let’s look at these issues a little more closely.

Where do Tongues Originate?

A woman was baptized by the Holy Spirit and began speaking in tongues because of my ministry. But she still felt confused about the issue of tongues. She said, “A pastor who spoke in tongues encouraged me to change how I spoke in tongues, meaning to pray in different tongue. But in my experience, I am only saying a few simple repeated words. Is this normal?” From my own limited experience, I feel this is normal. The tongues we first speak when praying in tongues may be very simple and repeated words, or simple words of praise to God. As Paul said, one of the functions of tongues is to praise or thank God. When Paul mentioned tongues in verse 17, he said, "For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up."

One of the functions of praying in tongues is to give thanks. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." The Bible says we should give thanks in all circumstances and that believers should be "giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 5:20). But in our actual experience as Christians, it is difficult to pray without ceasing and give thanks in all circumstances. We don’t give thanks to God the Father very often. This is why the Holy Spirit comes to help us, and one of the ways he does this is through tongues. Many times, we do not know how to pray, so the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words (Romans 8:26). This intercession is sometimes through tongues. When we pray in tongues, our spirit prays but our mind is unfruitful (1 Corinthians 14:14). When we pray in tongues, we give the Holy Spirit freedom to help us pray. We surrender our bodies, and our tongues, to the Holy Spirit in faith, and the Holy Spirit gives us the appropriate words in prayer through our tongues.

The woman also mentioned that some pastors reminded her that speaking in tongues may originate from evil spirits. They threatened her not to pray in tongues.

“Of course, it is possible that tongues originate from evil spirits,” I replied. “Sometimes we drive our cars into a ditch. But this does not mean that we cannot drive. I've seen some people who are just learning to drive who are scared to drive on the highway. But when they practiced more, they got the courage to do so. Why? Because their faith and their ability grew. The same goes for tongues. After our faith increases, we will receive an increased ability and more faith to pray in different prayer languages in tongues.”

Tongues is a faith booster

Receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a leap of faith. Many evangelical Christians who are against the baptism of the Holy Spirit worry that if they are baptized by the Holy Spirit, they will unintentionally accept evil spirits instead. This teaching originates in fear. Luke 11 clearly says that God gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask. “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13) It clearly says that the Father gives the Holy Spirit when we ask. If we ask the Father to baptize us with the Holy Spirit in the name of Christ, we will surely receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

All true Christians believe we are saved by faith. We have not seen the Lord, but we believe in Him. This is a leap of faith. Every one of us must go through such a leap of faith in order to be saved. Receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit is no different. It is the second leap of faith. After we have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, we need a third leap of faith: believing that when we open our mouths, the Holy Spirit will give us utterance (Acts 2:4). We are responsible for opening our mouths, and the Holy Spirit is responsible for giving us words to say. Because the tongues we speak are often words that our minds cannot understand, it’s easy to doubt this promise. When other people inject doubts into our minds—“What if the tongues I speak are from evil spirits?”—our faith will inevitably be shaken. That is why praying in tongues is a leap of faith.

Principles of Tongues and Prophecy

In 1 Corinthians 14:1-26, Paul explains universal principles about prophecy. These general principles do not change with time, place, or circumstances. For example, God is love. This is a basic principle. It will not change with time, place, or circumstances. But even though God is love, and He loves every one of His children, He leads us differently. This is the difference between God's principles and His leading. Let’s look first at the principles that Paul gives in verses 1-26.

What is the first principle of prophecy? It is that love and spiritual gifts, especially prophecies, are related. In the first verse, Paul continued the conversation on love that he started in 1 Corinthians 13. We need to pursue love, and we also need to earnestly desire spiritual gifts, especially prophecy. Many have spoken against the pursuit of spiritual gifts and prophecy, saying we should only focus on love. These people want only the fruit of the spirit (including love) and not the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are controversial. But that's not what Paul is telling us here. Paul explicitly mentions that we should pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.

What is the second principle of prophecy? It is that the purpose of prophecy is to build others up, comfort, and encourage them (1 Corinthians 14:3). We certainly need to pursue love in our lives. But how do we help others feel the love of God? This is where prophecy is indispensable. When we prophesy and disclose the secrets of others’ hearts, they will fall on their faces and say that God is really among us (1 Corinthians 14:24-25). Why? Because prophecy (including tongues that are interpreted) becomes a tool or a bridge that connects people to God's love.

The essence of the first principle of tongues is to talk to God and love Him. 1 Corinthians 14:2 says, "For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit." If the main purpose of tongues is to talk to God, then Paul's words "I speak in tongues more than all of you” (1 Corinthians 14:18), and “If we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you" (2 Corinthians 5:13) are very logical. Paul encourages everyone to pray and talk to God more, and praise God by speaking and singing with our minds or through the language of tongues or spirit (1 Corinthians 14:15). This is the first function of tongues. It is wrong to forbid or even discourage speaking in tongues, just because you cannot understand them. The first principle of tongues is to talk to God. This falls under the greatest command: "love the Lord your God with all your heart" (Matthew 22:37; Luke 10:27).

The second principle of tongues is to be considerate of others, especially those who don’t understand them. If others don’t understand tongues, you still need to give thanks and praise. But those who don’t understand the languages will not be built up and may even stumble. In such cases, those who speak in tongues should be restricted. When it’s absolutely necessary for them to speak in tongues, they should interpret what they say as much as possible (1 Corinthians 14:6-13; 14:16-19). This principle falls under the second command: "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Luke 10:27).

Matthew 22:37-40 records, "Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Here, Jesus clearly said that the two greatest commandments are to love God and to love others. When we pray in tongues and praise God, it shows we love God. “If anyone loves God, he is known by God" (1 Corinthians 8:3). When we avoid speaking in tongues on certain occasions out of consideration for others, it means we love and care for our neighbors. So these two principles about tongues are actually consistent with the very essence of Jesus’ teaching about the Law and the Prophets.

The principles of love and prophecy also fall into the categories of loving God and others. People who pursue love and utter mysteries to God in tongues are those who love Him; people who prophesy are those who love others. Speaking in tongues and praying means you love God; you worship and give thanks to Him. Interpreting tongues means you love others and have taken their needs into consideration so they can understand what you’re saying. Therefore, regardless of whether you’re pursuing prophecy or speaking in tongues, the fundamental principle is to love God and others. That’s why Paul strongly encourages us to interpret what we say while speaking in tongues. The purpose is to be considerate of others and show love to them. But that doesn't stop us from falling madly in love with God in private.

The third principle of tongues is to build ourselves up (14:4). We need to focus on growing spiritually, increasing our faith, and "building ourselves up in our most holy faith" (Jude 1:20).

In 1 Corinthians 14:26 Paul said, "What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.” I believe verse 26 is the conclusion of Paul's train of thought. He had stated some general principles about speaking in tongues, prophesying, and pursuing love towards God and others. Now, he summarizes his message: “Let all things be done for building up.” When we gather together as a church, we may use any method that builds others up.

Paul's Specific Leading on Tongues, Prophecy, and Women Speaking

From verse 27 onwards, Paul turns his mind to God’s specific guidance to the Corinthian church. Although this specific leading does not violate the basic principles mentioned in the first part, it will vary according to circumstances, time, and situation. Why do I say that from verse 27 onwards, Paul starts talking about God’s leading in a particular situation in the Corinthian church? Let's look at this verse. Verse 27 says, "If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret."

I asked everyone in the meeting, “Does this sentence show Paul's general principle about tongues, or is it a special leading for the Corinthian church?” I think it's a special leading. Think about it: how many believers were in the Corinthian church at that time? How long were their weekly gatherings? Let's assume there were 100 believers who gathered for three hours every week. In such a situation, it would be appropriate for only two or three people to speak in tongues. And it was best to interpret the languages being spoken.

Now suppose we are visiting the church of David Yonggi Cho in South Korea. There are hundreds of thousands of people holding meetings together for three days. Should there be only two or three people who speak in tongues in the church? In these circumstances, there would be plenty of time for more speakers to have a turn.

In other words, different circumstances call for different responses. We must interpret these verses in light of the general principles mentioned above, and we must focus on being considerate of others and loving our neighbors. The point of the passage is not the exact number of speakers that we must have in a given service, but that we should conduct orderly meetings that show consideration to others. We cannot always take God's words in their most basic and literal sense.

Throughout the ages, there has been a lot of controversy about how Christians interpret God’s words. One of the reasons is that it is difficult to distinguish which words reveal God’s principles and which give certain people some specific leading in a specific environment. We must not violate God’s principles, nor should we treat God’s specific leading as universal truth. For example, when Moses allowed the Israelites to divorce their wives, they mistakenly thought this was a universal principle of God. But Jesus clearly told them that this command was only given because they were hard-hearted at that time. But God did not intend it to be that way from the beginning. The principle established by God was, “What He has joined together, let not man separate.” (Matthew 19:3-8). The teaching on divorce was God’s specific leading, intended for a specific period of time. It was a concession made because of his patience with human weakness.

Is there a specific context to Paul's words in verses 27-40? I think there is. One Corinthian believer must have been wrongly exercising the gift of tongues and the gift of prophecy. Paul attempted to correct his behavior in this passage. Verse 28 says to keep silent if there is no one to interpret. Verse 29 says that when two or three prophesy, the others must weigh what is said. Verse 30 says that if a revelation is made to another, the others must give him a chance to speak, and the first person must keep silent. Verses 31-33 say that everyone can prophesy—but don't be confused, because the spirits of the prophets were subject to the prophets and God was not a God of confusion. Clearly, these words were meant to clear up confusion in regards to specific situations in the Corinthian church.

Similarly, the instructions about women not speaking in church meetings must have related to a particular situation in the Corinthian church and were not a general principle of God. In other places, Paul praised many of his female coworkers. For example, he praised Phoebe, a deaconess (Romans 16:1). The instruction about women was not necessarily a universal principle of God, but a special leading intended for the chaotic situation in the Corinthian church. When Paul talked about women being silent and not speaking in meetings, he even specifically mentioned: "Or was it from you that the word of God came? Or are you the only ones it has reached?" (1 Corinthians 14:36). It is not difficult to guess that there may have been some women in the Corinthian church who were too proud and even thought that the word of God had reached them only. So Paul's criticism may have been directed against this problem.

The second half of verse 34 says, "They should be in submission, as the Law also says." But this is not enough to prove that the law does not permit women to speak. The law does require women to obey men, but there is no law expressly stating that women should not speak. Even though the law originally stipulated that a woman could not inherit her father's land, Zelophehad's daughters appealed to Moses and God, and God added a provision just for them. If there was no man in the family, God said women could inherit the land (Numbers 27). Clearly, God's law does not discriminate against women.

Conclusion

In verse 39, Paul reminds believers to be eager to prophesy and not to forbid speaking in tongues. Verse 40 says that everything should be done decently and in order. This concludes this chapter. I’ll reiterate the difference between the sections in this chapter. Verses 1-26 talk about Paul's general principles on how to love God and others when exercising spiritual gifts such as speaking in tongues and prophesying. Verses 27-38 give specific leading based on the chaotic situation in the Corinthian church. In verses 39-40, Paul returns to giving general principles about prophesying and speaking in tongues. We must understand which sections contain God’s universal principles (which cannot be changed) and which contain His specific leading for certain circumstances. We must understand the way God’s Holy Spirit leads us in different circumstances. And we should seek to interpret God’s word in the most accurate way possible.

[1] All Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted.

Bible Study with Jairus - Acts 18

As we mentioned last time, Paul met Aquila and his wife Priscilla. They were Jews coming from Rome to Italy. Paul had already left Athens and they all came to meet in Corinth. I’ve said before that their meeting was a turning point in Paul's spiritual life. Why do I say that?We usually think that Paul is an apostle, so he is always better than others and there is no need for him to learn from others. This isn’t the case. All of us have a learning process. Even when the Lord Jesus was on earth, He needed to learn to grow in the grace of God and man.  Similarly, Paul also went through a learning process. In our study on Acts 17 last time, we mentioned that Paul may have made a mistake of being rash in Athens. He may have been influenced by the environment possibly having a negative rather than positive effect on evangelism. But in Acts 18, it shows the process by which the Holy Spirit further led and perfected Paul through the circumstances.

Let's take a closer look.

The Holy Spirit patiently leads us into God's will for our lives.

The Lord Jesus said that, “Everything is in the hands of the Father. No two sparrows will fall to the ground without His consent.” (Matthew 10:29). Aquila and his wife Priscilla had just left Rome to Corinth because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul also came to Corinth from Athens. Is it accidental that they met there? No. Everything is arranged by the sovereignty of God. The purpose was to let Paul be further perfected and receive help from others in his ministry.

There is some deeper insight here that the Holy Spirit allowed me to see while reading the Bible.  It takes time for a person to completely follow the Lord and walk on the predestined path that He has laid out for us.  However, often at the beginning we might not have a clear idea about what God’s will is or how to obey it; so we spend our time and energy following another path and are unable to unleash the gift that God has given us.  For example, If you are called to minister in music but you spend all of your time learning to paint because you didn’t follow your heart, it results in failure and has very little effect for the kingdom.  When you finally understand that music is your gift and you throw yourself into it, you will find that God has opened all the doors.  Another example would be if God called you to be a cartoonist but instead you studied finance because your parents wanted you to be able to support yourself.  When you realize that there is no joy in finance and you return to the industry you love, things will flow and you will be successful in the end.  There are many examples like this.

So was Paul like this?  In modern times we tend to over exalt Paul’s writings as though he could never be wrong.  Actually this isn’t the case.  Paul is human and has shortcomings. He was on a continuous journey learning to know God in a deeper way.  Even in his old age he admitted that he hadn’t completely taken hold of it, but forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, he presses on toward the goal (NIV Philippians 3:13-14).  This shows that Paul was continuously learning.

Let’s take a look at how Paul gradually learns to obey God's will and walk on the predestined path that God has planned for him.

When Paul recalls his experience of being called by God in Acts 22, he said that the Lord said to him, “Go, I will send you far away to the Gentiles." If you recall the contents of Acts 17, it   said in the beginning that Paul had passed through a couple of towns, and he went on to Thessalonica to preach the gospel in the Jewish synagogue. After being rejected, he went to the Jewish synagogue in Berea to evangelize. In the end, the Jews in Thessalonica had stirred up trouble and he was forced to go to Athens. He preached the gospel to the Gentiles in Athens, but was not very effective. But it doesn't matter. What matters is that Paul had made a great turn here. At that time, Paul didn’t exactly do what God told him to.. God's will for him is just what Jesus said to him, “I will send you far away to the Gentiles” (NIV, Acts 22:21). God chose him to be an apostle of the Gentiles, but he couldn’t bear the thought of not preaching the gospel to the Jews. If you look at his description in Romans chapters 9-11, he said that he would rather be cursed so the people of Israel could be saved. You can understand Paul's burden for the Jews. But unfortunately, this was not God's call for his life.

The Bible has explicitly stated that God called Peter to be the apostle to the Jews and chose Paul to be the apostle to the Gentiles (Romans 11:13, Galatians 2:8). This is very odd. If you were God, would you choose Paul or Peter to be the apostle to the Jews? If I was God, I might choose Paul because Paul is familiar with the Jewish scriptures and was taught by Gamaliel. He is even a Pharisee from the tribe of Benjamin. He was also circumcised on the eighth day. No one was more qualified and suitable than him. In contrast, Peter was a fisherman who had didn’t have a high level of education. There are scholars who say that Paul’s level of proficiency in Greek was far higher than Peter's. But God didn’t choose Paul to be the apostle to the Jews. Instead, he chose Peter to be the apostle to the Jews. For the Gentiles, I also think that Peter was more likely to be accepted because he was from Galilee where there were mostly gentiles, and Paul was a strict Pharisee. He was also enthusiastic to persecute the church. So naturally, Paul was more qualified to be the apostle to the Jews than Peter. But God didn’t arrange it like that.

There are people who believe that the reason why God arranged it that way is for us not to use what we are naturally good at. He wants us to do things that we are naturally not good at to force us to trust the Lord. We shouldn’t do things based on our ability, but by faith and the power of the Holy Spirit.

We all have fleshly and natural choices. Often it’s not that we don't know God's will and path for us. Rather, our flesh, human nature, and habits often hinder us so we have a difficult time quickly following God's call  . God understands us, so the Holy Spirit often patiently waits and leads us. But the Holy Spirit often tells us through the environment that "the road is blocked" encouraging us to   "turn back." The same is true of Paul’s experience here. We mentioned in the previous message that maybe because of Paul’s attempt to persuade people to accept the gospel through debate, it wasn’t very effective. But actually, our understanding at that time was not comprehensive enough. In this reading, we can see more light. It was not because Paul’s debate had gone wrong, but because Paul wasn’t living completely in God’s will so God blocked him in all aspects, making his evangelism ineffective.

Therefore, Acts 18 is a turning point. It is recorded in 18:5 - 6 that:

5 When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. 6 But when they opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”(NIV)

It was possibly here that Paul may have recalled what the Lord Jesus said to him, “I will send you far away to the Gentiles to preach the gospel.” He had just realized that God’s call to him was to become the apostle to the Gentiles. Even though he was reluctant to leave his fellow Jews  who had rejected the gospel, he had no choice but to go to the Gentiles. In this way, he was forced by the environment to go to the Gentiles to preach the gospel. It looks like he was forced by the environment, but actually it was all the wonderful leading of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, in Acts 18, it was definitely not accidental for Paul to encounter Aquila and Priscilla from Rome. Rather, it was arranged by God’s sovereignty. Think about it. When Aquila and Paul were weaving tents together, don’t you think they talked to each other? In the content of their chats, is it possible that Aquila talked about his life experience with the Gentiles in Rome and his experience of dealing with the Gentiles? there’s a good possibility some of that was talked about. Paul's experience of evangelizing the Athenians in the previous chapter was not very successful. Maybe one of the reasons is that he didn’t understand the Gentiles and was not familiar with how to preach the gospel to them.

Became like a Gentile to win the Gentiles

When some Western missionaries first came to China to preach the gospel, they adopted an aloof attitude, as if to say, we are preaching the gospel, you guys are barbarian idol worshippers, so you have to give up your faith and accept ours. Some of these missionaries often have deep relationships with Western colonizers and officials. They will therefore use Western diplomatic and military power to force the Chinese to open their ports and accept the gospel, which caused a lot of resistance from the local Chinese. Consequently,   preaching the gospel to them was not very effective. But when Hudson Taylor came to China to preach the gospel, he adapted to the Chinese culture. He dressed in Chinese robe and grew a pigtail like the Chinese. He   also lived with the Chinese. His living and eating habits were the same as those of the Chinese, sohis gospel work in China was very effective. He preached the gospel to many places in China.

  Paul’s experience of evangelism in Athens seems to be somewhat similar to the attitude of Western missionaries when they first arrived in China. Perhaps he was feeling superioras he wastrying to persuade these people to turn away from idols to Jesus Christ through debates. Unfortunately it didn’t work out well. Is it possible that after his failed attempts to evangelize that Aquila taught him how to witness to the Gentiles and inspired him?  I believe that Paul was able to get inspiration and learned something from his experience in Athens. He said in 1 Corinthians 9:20-22:

20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. (NIV)

From Paul's words, we can see that Paul had learned how to become a Gentile in order to win the Gentiles. He learned that he shouldn’t be aloof when he preached the gospel, and he shouldn’t persuade others to believe in the gospel through debate. Rather, he should humble himself and put himself on the level of the Gentiles, live and eat with them, and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in a language acceptable to them.

God's later confirmation

I   had a special experience recently.   I met a prophet who said that God wants me to be a U.S. citizen because this will help me in my service in the future. However, because I am a Chinese citizen and I also have a U.S. green card, it is more convenient to visit China plus I feel that the chance that God will call me to serve in China in the future is huge, therefore, I have been living in the US for a long time and not been naturalized as a US citizen. f  After hearing the prophets words I spent time in prayer but didn’t receive any confirmation from God.  I reluctantly submitted my application for US citizenship anyway.   Not long afterwards, I had a prophetic dream. I found that the Chinese characters on my Chinese passport were altered, and a lot of English letters were written, and I saw a seal falling down from above with the words "U.S. Citizen" above. I felt that this was Lord’s confirmation that the submitted application was directed by Him. The prophecy of this prophet may be correct. But when I prayed for God's leading, God never gave me any confirmation.

This was my own experience, but actually, I’m also explaining Paul's experience here. When Paul didn’t completely live in God’s will, he seemed to be running up against a stone wall everywhere he went. His evangelism in the synagogues in Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens was not smooth. Of course, the Lord told Paul before that God's purpose was to send him far to the Gentiles to be a witness for Him. So this was imprinted in Paul's spirit. Therefore, at the beginning of chapter 18, Paul met Aquila and his wife Priscilla who came back from Rome. This might further remind him of the command he heard from the Lord. When Paul swears to turn to the Gentiles from then on, he went next door to the house of Titius Justus. Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard Paul believed and were baptized (NIV, Acts 18-8:9). Afterwards, the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid, keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.” (NIV, Acts 18:9-10). I called this God’s later confirmation. When Paul finally walked on the right path that Jesus told him, Jesus appeared to him, confirming that he was walking in the will of God. We often have such confirmation in our spiritual experience. The Lord will give us a prophetic word in the beginning. The Holy Spirit will then secretly lead us, give us limitations and leading through the environment. And finally when we walk on the predestined path that God has laid out for us, God will often prove to us again that we are indeed walking on His predestined path.

Acts 18:11 records that Paul lived there for a year and six months, teaching God's words among them. This sentence is definitely not accidentally recorded here. Rather, the Holy Spirit further confirms that Paul came here to preach the gospel and live according to God’s will.

Of course, we are not saying that Paul could’nt preach the gospel to the Jews. In the latter parts of Acts 18, it’s even recorded that when Paul arrived at Ephesus, he went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. But I guess perhaps the emphasis of Paul's ministry had turned towards the Gentiles. In particular, chapter 18:19 records that after Paul had reasoned with the Jews in the synagogue in Ephesus, when they asked him to spend more time with them, he declined. This is a clear contrast to what is recorded in 18:11 where Paul stayed there for a year and a half.

Prior to this, Acts 18 also recorded that the Jews had attacked Paul, but the local official did not interfere. After this, Acts 18:18 (NIV) recorded that, “Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time. Then he left the brothers and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila”. But because of a vow he had taken, he had his hair cut off at Cenchrea before going to Ephesus. But he did not stay in Ephesus for a long time. He left to go to other places.

The matching of the different parts of the body to Christ's body

In 18:24, it started to introduce a Jew named Apollos. The Bible specifically mentioned that he was an eloquent man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. The Bible didn’t use these words to describe Paul. So looking at this description, Apollos had a gift that Paul may not have. In addition to Apollos' eloquence (that Paul may not have), it is specifically recorded that Apollos had vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ (NIV, Acts 18:28). These records are in contrast with the limited effects of Paul's evangelism before the Jews. These have indirectly proved that God's call to Paul was mainly for the Gentiles because God raised up people like Apollos to preach the gospel to the Jews, and it seems that their work was more effective than Paul’s.

Of course, the Bible has also recorded the limitations of Apollos, that is, he only knew the baptism of John. But Priscilla and Aquila, who were perfected by Paul, had helped explain the way of God to Apollos more adequately (NIV, Acts 18:26). This again shows that the principle of God's work is through the matching of the body; allowing different members of the body of Christ to match and complement each other.

Paul came to Ephesus again in Acts 19. There he found some disciples of Apollos' ministry who only knew John’s baptism; they didn’t know about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Paul prayed for them to be filled with the Holy Spirit. This   also paved the way in the beginning of verses 20-21, where he declined the invitation of Ephesians when they asked him to stay there for a while. Instead, he said that, "I will come back if it is God's will."  (NIV, Acts 18:21). It is something that the Holy Spirit mentioned specifically here so that Paul later can come back to help those who are under the ministry of Apollo’s.

Why did God arrange for Paul to come back later? What is the meaning and implication of Paul's making up for the lack of Apollos' ministry in Acts 19? Why is it that   Apollos’ ministry only knows John’s baptism and not the baptism of Jesus and of the Holy Spirit? This has   profound spiritual significance. We hope to continue sharing our understanding in the next reading.