Two Journeys

Job moves from anger to despair about God as his legal adversary and his prosecutor in court and yearns for a mediator now found in Christ.

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In this eleventh episode of the Peter Podcast Series, Andy and Wes discuss 2 Peter 1:1-11. They focus on the virtues that Christians must do in order to have assurance of their faith and election. We are not saved by works, but works of righteousness are part of our ongoing sanctification.

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When the apostle Paul met the resurrected Savior on the road to Damascus, he changed from actively persecuting Christians to actively preaching the gospel.

Turn in your Bibles to Acts Chapter nine. This is a sacred day, a day of celebration for Christians all over the world as you just heard me pray. A day in which we celebrate the mighty resurrection of Jesus Christ over the grave. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the single most powerful event that has ever happened in human history. What do I mean by that? Well, what is power? What do we mean by power? Well, it's the ability to make changes, to change things, to have an effect. A powerful machine is one that can move heavy objects. A powerful explosion is one that can produce instantly massive change. A powerful engine is one that can move a massive freight train, great distances. A powerful rocket can lift a payload from the surface of the earth to an orbit 22,000 miles up in the heavens. A powerful speaker is one who can produce a massive effect in the hearts of all of his hearers. A powerful ruler is one whose decrees make significant changes in the lives of millions of people. A powerful invention is one that changes the way people do something all over the earth from then on. That's what we mean by power.

And I say to you that there is no single event in the history of the human race as powerful as the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It changed the eternal destinations of a multitude greater than anyone could count from every nation on earth and every generation that there's been since then. That's the big picture. But it's hard for us limited human beings to drink in something of that magnitude. The dimensions of an infinitely powerful action like the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Our minds go numb with the implications. We can't really take them in.

"There is no single event in the history of the human race as powerful as the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."

Recently, I was reading an account of the Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin, one of the greatest murderers in the dark annals of human history, and he was purported to have said in 1947, “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.” Well, that's incredibly cold of him, but yet there's a dark kind of truth to that. Why does it seem to be true? It's because our minds boggle easily. We can't really take in the dimensions of something that big. We can't expand to grasp the mass of significance of a million lives snuffed out and all of those that remain to grieve over them. But let's turn that whole image around. The same dynamic may work in reverse when it comes to the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The book of Revelation, chapter seven, gives us a vision of the finality of the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth. We have in visionary form information about the success of the gospel, and John saw a multitude greater than anyone could count from every tribe and language and people and nation. And they're standing there in Revelation 7 in white robes, and they're celebrating the resurrection victory of Jesus. They have been cleansed of their sins and they will be there for all eternity celebrating that resurrection victory.

How can our minds expand to take in all that? Perhaps we need to take that wicked logic I just mentioned from Stalin and use it to our advantage in a glorious meditation. Let's zero in on what the resurrection of Jesus Christ did in the life of one man, one man, Saul of Tarsus. What change did the resurrected glory of Jesus work in his life? What did it affect in his mind, and his heart, his soul, his standing with God, his lifestyle, the course of his life direction from that moment on? Let's look at that. That meditation is in front of us this glorious morning, and I think it will be all we can handle. Amen? So, let's meditate on that by the power of the Spirit, salvation of one man is a glorious triumph of God's grace. The salvation of a multitude greater than anyone could count, each one of those saved by the same sovereign grace is a story it will take eternity to plume the depths of, and we'll have it, praise God. But this morning, let's just look at one.

So how radical was the change in this man Saul of Tarsus? We're going to begin looking at the context, and the context is the book of Acts as the second volume of a two volume set written by one author. I'm going to group that two volume set in headings; the gospel accomplished, the gospel applied, and the gospel assaulted. So that's the beginning to set the context. There's a story that you just heard read comes in the book of Acts is two volumes set, written by the doctor Luke. So the book of Luke is the gospel accomplished, and then the book of Acts, we see the gospel applied progressively to individuals and then assaulted right from the start. 

Now, the word gospel is good news, good news, and the good news must start with the bad news. If we don't understand the bad news, we can't understand why this is such good news. And the bad news is our sinfulness, our rebellion against almighty God, our violation of his laws in detail, and our just condemnation under the wrath of God, under his righteous judgment for those sins, the impossibility of us doing anything to affect that situation, we cannot save ourselves, this terrifying natural condition of people is the black backdrop against which that glorious glittering diamond of the saving life and death and resurrection of Jesus shine so brightly. So you need to understand that bad news so we can understand the good news. For Christ came to accomplish our salvation by his life, death and resurrection. That story is told in the 24 chapters of the Gospel of Luke, how he was born of the virgin Mary, lived a sinless life, did all these incredible, astounding miracles, taught these amazingly perceptive parables, and then died a substitutionary death on the cross, and then was raised from the dead on the third day and showed himself to witnesses. That story, the Gospel of Luke, the book of Luke is the gospel accomplished. 

Then we have the gospel applied, the achievements of Christ's resurrection, his death and resurrection would mean nothing if they were not applied to us individually by the Holy Spirit. Just like the blood of the passover lamb had to be actually painted on the doorpost in the crosspiece to save the Israelites from the avenging angel, so also the blood of Jesus spiritually must be applied to us. And that happens when the gospel message goes forth and is proclaimed and individuals hear it and believe it, moved on by the Holy Spirit, transformed by the working of the Holy Spirit, they are forgiven of their sins and become new creations. That's the gospel applied, and that's what is going on in the book of Acts. Christ's people were mobilized by the Holy Spirit to be his witnesses. The Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out from on high, and the people of God then poured out into the streets of Jerusalem, crowded for the festival, and Peter preached a mighty gospel message. And that first day of that preaching 3,000 were added to the number of the church in one day, and then more and more people believed as the gospel kept being preached, proclaimed, kept spreading to more and more people. The gospel was being applied.

But we also see in the book of Acts of gospel assaulted or attacked. From the very beginning, the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ has been resisted. It's been opposed. The very same Jewish leaders who conspired to kill Jesus, who hated Jesus and arrested him and condemned him into death now began doing the same thing to his followers who are preaching in his name. Now, one of those zealous persecutors of the church in the early stages was a man named Saul of Tarsus. And it says in Acts 8:3, “Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison.” So, who is this man, Saul of Tarsus? He was trained in Judaism, we learned later in the Bible in the New Testament, by one of the greatest Jewish teachers of the day, Gamaliel. He was on fire out of nationalistic pride and self-pride for Judaism and he showed his zeal, especially in destroying Christians.

He'll say in a later testimony in Acts 26:9-11, he says, "I too was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And that is just what I did in Jerusalem. On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the saints in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. In my obsession against them, I even went to foreign cities to persecute them." Well, that's who Saul of Tarsus was. That's what he was doing. He was following a rage filled path and as Acts nine opens that path was leading him to go to Damascus to destroy the church there. He had obtained letters from the Jewish High Council in Jerusalem to deliver to the synagogue rulers in Damascus so he could persecute Jews that believed in Jesus there. 

So look there as the account begins, verse one and two. Acts 9:1-2, it says, “Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.” That was his mission. That's what he was doing. And he was passionately engaged, breathing out murderous threats. That's how he began that day. But he was about to have an encounter with the risen Lord Jesus Christ. It would change his eternal destination and powerfully affect 20 centuries of Christians that would follow. So let's look at this encounter in four steps. First, the resurrected Jesus confronts Saul. Second, the resurrected Jesus convicts Saul. Third, the resurrected Jesus converts Saul. And then fourth, the resurrected Jesus commissions Saul. So we're going to just walk through the account in those four headings.

First, the resurrected Jesus confront Saul. Look at verses three and four, “As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’” So this man, as I said, was seething with rage at Christ and at Christians breathing out threats and murder. And suddenly Jesus breaks in to his life. He confronts Saul. He stops him in his tracks. He meets him and stops him and knocks him to the ground with his glory. Now friends, Jesus is always the initiator in salvation. It always starts with him through the Holy Spirit. He seeks and saves the lost. He goes and looks for them and finds them. So Jesus effectively stood in Saul's way and would not let him take another step, would not let him go any further on what he called that broad road that leads to destruction. And there was a blinding light from heaven. Look at verse three, “As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.” We find out in his later account that that light was brighter than the sun. Acts 26:13-14, “About noon… as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. We all fell to the ground.” 

Now, before this moment, you need to know, Christ had already been working on Saul of Tarsus. It was a process that was going on. Later in Acts in that same testimony we get a sense from just one little phrase that Jesus says to Saul, that is omitted here in Acts nine, but it's part of what actually happened. Acts 26:14, Saul saying, "I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’” What an interesting phrase, to kick against the goads. Goads were it seems sharpened stakes or sticks put by the farmer as he's using a yoke of oxen, let's say, or donkeys, to keep them from kicking back whenever the master went with the straps to tell them to urge on and plow on, and some would be fractious and kickback, and their heels I guess would be met by that sharpened stake, and they would learn quickly not to do that. It would bring pain to kick back at the master.

And Jesus was saying, “I have been putting goads in your life, and you're kicking at them.” What are these goads? We don't know, but I can imagine what they were. I would think almost certainly encounters with other Christians, and the things those Christians said that Saul couldn't shake. I would imagine the men and women, he was dragging off to prison how they behaved at that time, the things they would say to him as he would force them, he said, to try to blaspheme. I think that means to blaspheme the name of Jesus and say, Jesus is cursed or something like that. They wouldn't do it. And they just honored and loved Jesus, and they would say things. I think especially this man, Stephen, who had says in Act six was debating with members of the synagogue of the freed men, Jews from Syria, and Cilicia. That's Paul's home area, Saul's home area. That's where he came from. And it said that they could not stand up against Stephen's wisdom of the spirit by which he spoke. So I think Stephen was bringing biblical evidence of the fulfilled prophecies and the full story of Jesus from the Old Testament. And Saul couldn't refute him. He couldn't win, and so he just wanted him dead. But the truths were burning, I think, in his mind. But Saul was kicking against him trying to fight him. And what's so beautiful is that God the Father is at work sometimes years, I would say years before people are converted, working on them, putting pieces in place, putting things in place in the mind and the heart. Jesus said in John 6:44, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.” 

If you're a Christian today, the Father drew you, pulled you like a gravitational pull, like a magnetic attraction. How? By truth, by love. These things pulling you to Jesus. And that's what was going on, I think in Saul's heart, but he was kicking, he was fighting. But let me tell you something, God the Father always wins that. He always wins. Amen? Grace is sovereign and triumphant, and he never loses. So when the Father draws me, Jesus says, “All that the Father gives me will come to me.” It's impossible for them to resist in the end. And so the drawing and the painful kicking in the goads, that was going on.

All right, second, the resurrected Jesus convicts Saul. Essential to our salvation is the conviction of sin. You need to stand before God's judgment seat guilty, rightly condemned of your sins. Jesus said in Luke 5:31-32, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Saul needed to be crushed in conviction. He was counting on his own righteousness. He was thinking he was perfectly obeying God's law. He was thinking he doesn't need a savior. But then this encounter and these few words from Jesus shredded all of his self-righteousness, just shredded it. Look at Acts 9:4-5, “He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ ‘Who are you Lord?’ Saul asked. ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied.” I can hardly imagine what this did to Saul's mind, what this did to his heart. To see the Lord revealed with blinding light from heaven, heavenly glory and a heavenly aspect in power, and to hear these terrifying words from heaven, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Persecute?” “You're opposing me. You're fighting me.” And then this tortured question, “Who are you Lord?” Isn't that fascinating? “Who are you Lord?” The word Lord meant everything to Jews. That's the word they use for God. There is one God and only one God, but he's saying, “I don't know who you are. Who are you Lord?” And then the words came that crushed Saul's former life forever. “I am Jesus.” Those words. Let me think about that. What would that have done to him, to his worldview? “The one you are persecuting.” This was the name Saul hated more than any other name on earth, but now the same Jesus is appearing in heavenly glory. Resurrected glory, clearly alive after his death, after his crucifixion, clearly alive, and he's accusing him of being his enemy. “To attack Christians”, Jesus was saying, “is to attack me.” And so he convicted him.

Thirdly, the resurrected Jesus converts Saul. You know, it had already begun. I told you about the gouds and I told you about the drawing. It had already begun, but it was done when he said, “Who are you Lord?” Don't you think at that moment it was done? “Who are you Lord?” “I'm Jesus.” Fundamental of our salvation, Romans 10:9, “If you confess with your mouth, [what?] ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Do you see how all the pieces were right there? “Who are you Lord?” “Jesus.” Jesus is Lord, and he's clearly risen from the dead. Everything that Saul needed for conversion was right there, and he'd called him Lord. Now he's going to be led by the hand into Damascus. Look verse 8:9, “Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.”

Well, we find out later what he was doing for those three days. He was fasting, we know that, but he was also praying, and he was receiving at least one vision. Look at verses 10 through 18. It says, “In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called him in a vision, ‘Ananias!’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ he answered. The Lord told him, ‘Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.’ ‘Lord,’ Ananias answered, ‘I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. And he has come here with authority from the chief priest to arrest all who call on your name.’ But the Lord said to Ananias, ‘Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles in their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer from my name.’ Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, ‘Brother Saul, the Lord —Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here — has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.’ Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized.” 

So, what's going on for those three days? He's fasting, and praying, receiving visions from Christ, information and then we find out in the book of Galatians, other places, he's learning the gospel, directly revealed from heaven. He's learning the gospel. He's learning who Jesus was, the dimensions of Jesus. I can't imagine the sense of glory, of the heavenly light shining still in his mind's eye. I think it put a picture of beauty and virtue that was infinitely attractive to him and he wanted more of it for the rest of his life, he wanted to know Christ. He still wants to know him. He's in heaven learning more and more about Jesus. We'll never finish. You're never, even in heaven, going to get to the point where you’re like, “I got it. I got all of Jesus.” That will never happen. But the taste, as the scripture says, “Taste and see that Lord is good,” he's learning the glory of God in Christ and learning the gospel. That was what was going on. 

So, Jesus confronted Saul, Jesus convicted Saul, and Jesus converted Saul. And then fourthly, the resurrected Jesus commissioned Saul. Saul's life was forfeit from that moment on. Saul knew he deserved to die. He could feel it. “You're persecuting me. You deserve to die. You're my enemy.” But instead, the Lord commanded him to serve him, and he would serve him from that day forward for the rest of his life. Verse six, “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” Do you see the kingly authority in those words? Not, “What I'm recommending for you. You'll be told what you must do” And the Lord told Ananias what Saul's mission would be, and its cost. Look again at 15-16, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”  

Now, Saul would be better known as Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles. He would live the holiest life perhaps of any man that ever lived other than Jesus. He would, in my opinion, suffer more than any other Christian in church history. I don't think anybody else can carry his shoes when it comes to prolonged, comprehensive, painful trials and suffering. He would travel relentlessly preaching the gospel from village to village and city to city and everywhere he went, he was viciously opposed and also saw conversions and fruit, savagely persecuted everywhere he went. And his writings would last long after his death and would be instrumental in the conversion of countless hundreds of millions. He could not imagine the effect of the book of Romans as he wrote it and what it would do to Augustine, what it would do to Martin Luther, what it would do to many others whose names we don't even know who read Romans and were converted by it because of what Paul wrote. And all of this came from this one moment. This moment that a man previously seething with murderous rage is instantly transformed to a new man.

All right, so what lessons can we take from this account? Let's begin with something I've already alluded to, and that is God's irresistible sovereign grace in conversion, the radical transformation of Saul's heart. I want to zero in on Saul's heart and his life from darkness to light. I want to talk about Saul before and after in four different areas. Saul concerning Jesus before and after. Saul's views in his heart concerning himself before and after. Saul's views concerning Christians before and after. And Saul's view concerning the rest of his life before and after, life direction. Let's look at all four of those.

First, concerning Jesus. He was converted concerning Jesus. Saul of Tarsus hated Jesus of Nazareth, that morning hated him. He considered him a false teacher. He considered him a deceiver of the people. He knew his teachings to be foolishness, and blasphemous, offensive. He considered Jesus' miracles to be fakes, deceptions or work by the supernatural power of Satan. He hated Jesus' claim to be God in the flesh, considered it to be utter blasphemy. And how much more of this one that the Christians were claiming to be the son of God, to be nailed on a Roman cross, to die under the curse of God. Absolute blasphemy. How could that even be possible? How could the king of the Jews, this son of David, who is meant to establish a worldwide Jewish kingdom, lose to the Gentiles and die on a Roman cross? How could he die under the curse of God for it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree? So how could that even be? Seething hatred for Jesus, but that was before his conversion.

After his conversion, he loved Jesus Christ more than any person on the face of the earth. I'm not saying he loved it more than any other Christian. I'm saying he loved Jesus. Jesus was the most delightful, appealing, attractive person to Saul. He had seen Christ’s infinite power. He had seen his love. He had seen his beauty in some kind of a glorious instant, a kind of a supernatural communication to his mind and heart. The glory of the Son of God filled his soul even though his eyes were blinded. The beauty of the Son of God, his ineffable power, his perfect wisdom, his tender kindness to him as a rebel, as an enemy, the gentleness with which he called him, he could see in some mysterious, infinite way, Jesus is both lion and lamb altogether, like John would later see. And when he said, “Who are you Lord,” he already knew who Jesus was. Jesus was Lord. God in the form of a man. The Son of God, the Son of Man, perfectly one. The deity of Christ was obvious from his heavenly positioned as heavenly glory and the sound of his voice. Therefore, the death of Jesus must have been something other than what he supposed it was. It was not blasphemy that the Son of God died under the curse of God. It was his salvation. The perfect completion of the animal sacrificial system where substitutes died for sinners. Jesus had become a curse for us. 

Well, that brings us to the second point concerning himself. He was converted concerning himself. Before his conversion, Saul of Tarsus was self-righteous. He was proud of his Jewish credentials. He was a son of Abraham. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews. He was of the tribe of Benjamin. He was a Pharisee by conviction and by choice. He was proud, proud, proud. He was excelling in Judaism beyond any Jew of his generation, so he said. Thoroughly trained by Gamaliel under the law, his obedience to the law in his mind was sufficient to save him from all of his sins. It was perfect for his own salvation. And he was getting extra credit because he was in his zeal hunting down Christians and persecuting them. Very few Jews had that level of zeal for the God of Israel. Well, that was all before his conversion.

After his conversion, all of his righteousness was exposed as a nasty, stinking, filthy garment clinging to his skin as it were. He realized it was filthy. He faced his own condemnation as eternal banishment to hell. He was actually God's enemy, not God's agent. And his pride was revealed as the spiritual millstone around his neck dragging him down to hell. His heart was opened up by the light of Christ's purity. And the comparison was stark between Christ's purity and his own so-called righteousness. And his heart was laid bare, and inside his heart was revealed depths of corruption that he never knew were there, earthly lusts, earthly ambitions, earthly murders, earthly greed. He thought he had obeyed God's law from childhood. And now he realized that God's law actually stood opposed to him and was condemning him because it probed the inner recesses of his heart and revealed secret corruptions, covetousness of all types. And he realized that he was actually dead even while he lived. This darkness was revealed on the road to Damascus by the light of Christ's pure glory. And Saul turned and disgust away from his self-righteous achievements, and left that vile stinking garment of his self-righteousness on the ground there, the road to Damascus. And he was clothed in a robe of perfect, brilliant righteousness and holiness from Jesus, his savior. And in that robe of imputed, gifted righteousness, he has stood from that moment until now, perfectly righteous in the sight of God. 

Concerning Christians, he was converted. Before his conversion Saul hated Christians. He was breathing out threats and murder against them. He hated them so much. He felt nothing but contempt for Stephen as Stephen was dying even though his face was like the face of an angel. It didn't mean anything to him. Saul thought he was worthy of death. And so it was concerning the men and women that he was, think about this, dragging off to prison. Imagine dragging a woman to prison and feeling you're justified in doing it. He hated these people. That was his true conviction. There were no doubts, no hesitation, no pity in his mind, just violence, murder, threats. That's what filled his heart toward both Jesus and all his followers. “They deserve death.” And he was very willing to see that they got it. 

Well, that was before his conversion. After his conversion, Saul understood right off the connection between Jesus and his people. “Why are you persecuting me?” “Who are you, Lord?” “I am Jesus, the one you're persecuting.” So, there is the heavenly head and then there is the body of Christ, his people on earth, and he loves them, and he will fight for them and protect them. And then in those three days, while he was fasting and praying, he had a vision of a Christian man named Ananias, who is going to come and give him some unspeakable gifts. He was going to lay his hands on him and restore his physical sight. That's a gift. What value can he put on that? He was blind. But Ananias will come and heal you physically. But more than that, when he places his hands on you, you'll receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will rush into you. He's already ministered too by the Holy Spirit, but in those days there was this dramatic on rushing of the Spirit that would happen, and that was going to come through the touch of a Christian. 

Look at verses 17 and 18, “Placing his hands on Saul, he said, [listen to these words], ‘Brother, Saul, the Lord— Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here-- has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.’ Immediately something like scales fell from Saul's eyes and he could see again. He got up and he was baptized,” water baptized. He’d already been baptized in the Spirit. Now he's water baptized and brought into the church. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit came in direct connection with the hands of a Christian brother. And Saul was not on his own in this world. He had now been adopted into a vast family of brothers and sisters, and he still loves them. He's still in that fellowship. 

And he would go to the church in Jerusalem. And at first they were shrinking back and afraid of him of course. But Barnabas, another brother, put his arm around him, brought him in, spoke for him, represented him. And for the rest of his life, the brothers and sisters in Christ would be unspeakably precious to this man and they to him. He would love them. They would love him. As a matter of fact, there are some of the most heart rendering scenes you'll ever see in the book of Acts when Saul is kneeling and praying on a beach with some believers, and they cannot say goodbye to him, but he's already said he knows he'll never see them again in this world. And they were weeping, and he loved them, and they loved him.

Fourth, he was converted concerning his future life. The rest of his life was going to be different. Before his conversion, Saul was ambitious for the usual worldly things. He was zealous, and energetic, and passionate, and nationalistic for Judaism. And he says he was advancing in Judaism, but I believe he was also becoming rich and powerful by means of Judaism. These were the most powerful men in the Jewish nation, and he was their favored son, and he was on a fast track. You know what I mean by that? A fast track to power, and prestige, and possessions. That was the life he had. That's where he was headed. But in one instant all of that changed, by the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ Paul will say in Galatians, “By that, the world is dead to me and I to the world. We agreed. The world and I agree, the world's dead to me and I'm dead to the world.”

And the world wanted him dead. And his loyalties all changed. The Sanhedrin, they weren't his allies, they were God's enemies. They hated Jesus. Saul was about to burn every bridge that he had been building through his career. He's going to burn them all. Went to Damascus and began preaching Jesus. And they heard about it back in Jerusalem and he became their enemy. The rest of his life now was forfeit to the plans and purposes of King Jesus. He now considered, as he’d say in another place, his life worth nothing to him. If only he could finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given him, the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace. “My life means nothing to me.” And it's the very thing that was said in this text. “This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings, and before the people of Israel.” The end of Saul's mission, Paul's mission as apostle to the Gentiles would be to testify in the court of Caesar, Nero we believe, concerning the gospel.

Imagine preaching the gospel to megalomaniac Nero. “Nero, you need to repent and believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins.” Complete boldness. “This man is my chosen instrument.” Then he said, “I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.” How much? How much? How much? You can imagine a heavenly conversation, Paul saying to Jesus, “Is this enough suffering?” “No, more.” “How about this? Is this enough suffering?” “No, more and more and more.” That was what his life was, from prison to prison, from riot to riot, from persecution to persecution and yet through it all, eternal fruit coming from that life, Jesus said, unless a kernel of wheat falls at the ground and dies, it remains a single seed, but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit, and that was Saul for rest of his life. That's radical change, isn't it?

And the center of it all I believe is the light, the bright light. Yes, there was a physical blinding light, but there's another light. Paul writes about it in 2 Corinthians 4:6. And it is the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ. It says, “For God, who said ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” What does that mean? God is glorious. He's marvelous. And he shines in his Son, Jesus. “Do you not see it?” He's saying. And then on the road to Damascus, he could see it. He could see it with his mind's eye. The eyes of his heart were enlightened, and he could see the beauty and the virtue of God in Christ. And for the rest of his life, he yearned to see that more and more taste and see that the Lord is good. He saw how good Jesus is and wanted to drink that in for all eternity.

So what about you? What about you? Has the resurrected Christ confronted you? Has the resurrected Christ convicted you? Has the resurrected Christ converted you from what you were to a new creation? And has the resurrected Christ commissioned you? Do you have a mission in life? And if so, you are called on in your own way to be a witness to Christ, crucified and resurrected the people that God brings in your life. And when that happens, isn't it encouraging to know that based on this story, God can convert anyone anytime he wants? If he can convert this man, he can convert anyone. So we're talking about powerful government leaders that are leading lives of open rebellion against God. He can convert people who have been drenched in a sinful lifestyle up until the day that they had that encounter that converted them. He can convert wayward grown children that are walking in disobedience to the way that they were brought up. He can convert them like that. He can convert anyone. He can convert people from other religions. He can do anything anytime. That's the power of Christ to convert. And that's the commission we have as you go out and see that power at work in the lives of people around us.

One final comment and I'll be done. I would say just speaking for myself, the greatest joy in my life, the most important powerful thing that's ever happened to me is my own conversion. I was converted when I was 19. I was a junior at MIT and I was converted, sitting under a tree at a retreat. And the Lord came into my life by the Spirit and he's never left. And that's the greatest joy that there's ever been in my life. The greatest grief in my life is that my heart is not yet fully transformed. I still, just like all of us, battle indwelling sin. The very thing that I hate, I do. The very thing that I yearn to do, I don't do like I should. As the hymn puts it, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Isn't it marvelous that another work is coming for all of us Christians that will be spectacularly powerful and in an instant, he will change your defective, change-full, divided hearts and you will spend eternity perfectly loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. I'm looking forward to that. How about you? Close with me in prayer.

Father, thank you for this incredible story of what you did to one man. Lord, we know that you've done it to countless hundreds of millions all over the world, and we can't wait to see the stories in heaven, to meet the brothers and sisters to find out what the gospel's done in 20 centuries. God, I pray that you would help us who are Christians, first of all, just be thankful for the converting grace that came in our lives. Second of all, to yearn, to be willing to pay the price of suffering so we can see the same thing happen in the lives of others. And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Andy Davis preaches an Easter sermon on Acts 9 - the conversion of Paul. There have been so many lives impacted and transformed by the resurrected Christ. We will spend eternity learning about all of these, but the book of Acts allows us to focus in depth on the transformed life of the Apostle Paul. When he met the resurrected Savior on the road to Damascus, he changed from actively persecuting Christians to actively preaching the gospel.

The post A Life Transformed by the Resurrected Christ (Easter Sermon) appeared first on Two Journeys.

Pastor Andy Davis preaches a Maundy Thursday sermon. This is a topical look at the Passover, the Lord's Supper, and the Heavenly feast.

Father, when you assembled your people after the Exodus at Mount Sinai, when you assembled them, you spoke to them and they heard you speak the voice of Almighty God and that people trembled with fear and they pleaded that such a voice would never speak to them again, but that Moses would go up into the mountain and hear the word of God and then come down and tell it to the people. And you said what the people said is good. Oh, that their hearts would always fear me as they do today. And so you opened up the office in Israel of Prophet and through Moses and through subsequent prophets and the apostles, you've given us the written word of God and you've also given us the counselor, the Holy Spirit, the comforter who guides us into all truth. I pray that now as we study your word and understand it, that you would move by the power of the Spirit and you would enable me to say only those things that are true and helpful and beneficial, and be with all of us as we meditate on your word. That we would not be dull in our understanding, that we would not be blind spiritually, but able to see the truth in the words that we study. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

All of us have been invited by God to sit at table with him for a feast. The messengers carrying that invitation are going out to the ends of the earth and the royal summons has come to the people of the earth to join him in this feast. Now it's easy for us earthly people to have only an earthly comprehension of such a royal feast. We've seen pictures of the way that the royals of Europe perhaps have done coronation, feast or banquets or state formal dinners. We've read about other lavish imperial feasts throughout the history of the worlds, those astonishing feasts at the greatest emperors in history threw for themselves and for their guests with exotic meats and delicate sweets and with the aroma of spices carried by caravan from the Orient, attended by splendidly dressed dignitaries wearing silk robes and drinking wine from golden goblets, such as the image that comes to our minds naturally of lavish feasts. Those feasts usually end up in gluttony and debauchery.

The feast that Almighty God calls us to as infinitely superior to these. It's a pure and holy feast. And so that we would understand our present condition and the future world to which he is calling us. In his kindness, cross redemptive history, he's given us two symbolic feasts. He's given to his chosen people, two symbolic feasts, one of them old and fulfilled, the other one newer and being fulfilled. That first symbolic feast that God gave his chosen people was in the old covenant. It's the feast of unleavened bread, the Passover, the newer, the second symbolic feast that God has given to his chosen people is at the centerpiece of the new covenant, the Lord's Supper, the blood of the covenant of our savior, Jesus Christ. Both of these I call symbolic. They're merely types and shadows of an eternal reality that is yet to come.

A reality of an eternal feast, a heavenly feast that we must travel to get there. We must adorn ourselves properly and dress properly to get there, and we must prepare ourselves for it. And that's part of our purpose tonight. The feast and the kingdom of heaven at the table of Almighty God in his eternal kingdom is a feast of heavenly food. I don't really know what that means, but it's going to be rich and wonderful. It's a feast of heavenly drink, which Jesus eludes to in the text you just heard a moment ago. It's a feast of heavenly music, heavenly singing. It's a feast of heavenly entertainment and of heavenly fellowship such as we can hardly imagine. The centerpiece of the feast is the host of the feast Almighty God who has summoned us and has prepared us. Let's look at these two symbolic feasts briefly as we prepare to take the Lord's supper tonight.

First symbolic feast, the Feast of Passover. It was given to the Jews in the Old Covenant, one of their three annual feasts. All Jewish males required to come three times a year, and this Passover feast was a feast of the spirit, not a feast of the belly. Why do I say that? Well, what were they to eat? Well, the food was not as would satisfy the palate, ordinarily. It was a feast of unleavened bread and of bitter herbs. Unleavened bread is hard, like a cracker. Leaven makes bread, fluffy and light, easy to eat and delectable. Think of exquisite French pastries that perhaps you've enjoyed before, like a croissant or think of fluffy, light, fluffy cakes. The leaven makes the bread rise in the oven and fills it with air pockets that just makes the cake melt in your mouth. But God required unleavened bread, and he required, he demanded that all of the leaven be removed in the houses of his people as a symbol.

The leaven being a symbol of the evil influence of the paganism that surrounded them of the gods and goddesses of the nations that surrounded them. They had to get rid of the yeast from their homes. God also demanded that they eat bitter herbs as part of this symbolic feast, bitter herbs to represent the bitterness of their life in slavery, their lives and slavery in Egypt were made bitter. Imagine putting bitter herbs in your mouth and the bitterness filling your mouth as you chew those leaves. And what that bitter taste symbolized; the life made bitter by their bondage, their hard labor in making bricks for their Egyptian overlords and masters. Unleavened bread, bitter herbs. And how were they to eat it? Well, they're commanded to eat it in haste as if they were fleeing from an enemy that was pursuing them. Exodus 12:11 says, "This is how you were to eat it with your cloak tucked in your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand, eat it in haste."

It is the Lord's Passover. That's why I say it was not a feast with the belly, it was a feast of the spirit. It was not pleasing to the senses and essential to the ongoing celebration of that feast as well as for the second symbolic feast was memory, a sense of the history of what God had done in the past on their behalf of remembering. They were to do this Passover every year, year after year, as a reminder to the people, specifically of the Lord's deliverance, not only from the Egyptians, but also from his own hand. Exodus 13:14 "In days to come, when your son asks you, what does this mean, say to him with a mighty hand, the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed every firstborn in Egypt, both man and animal."

The Passover was a continual reminder, not only of the way that the Egyptians had enslaved them and how God had delivered them from bondage to Egypt, and how he also delivered them from Pharaoh's powerful pursuing army at the Red Sea, real deliverances by his mighty hand and outstretched arm, but also of the far greater threat to their lives, both physical and eternal. And that is the wrath and judgment of God himself. Because that very night the angel of the Lord went out throughout all of Egypt and struck down every firstborn of Egypt. And it is clear that he would also have struck down the firstborn of Israel if it had not been for the Passover lamb that was sacrificed for them. After destroying Egypt with nine dreadful supernatural plagues, the tenth and final plague, most dreadful of them all, the plague on the firstborn. Now as dreadful as that plague would be, God made it plain that even that was a mercy to the people of Egypt. For he had said in Exodus 9:15 to Pharaoh, "By now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would've wiped you from the face of the earth, all of you."

Now, God had warned the Israelites and the instruction about the Passover that this same final plague, the tenth plague, hung over their heads as well every bit as much. Well, that was plain in the commands concerning the Passover lamb. Exodus 12:21-23, it says, "And Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said of them ‘Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb and then take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on the both sides of the doorframe. Not one of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning. When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, He will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and He will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.’”

The terrifying threat is right there in the words. Not one of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning. Oh, those words are fraught with danger, aren't they? There is a place of refuge, your home inside the bloody door. Inside that place is refuge, outside, there isn't. And then again, substitutionary atonement built into these words, “When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and the sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.” Now, in redemptive history, the Passover lamb that was sacrificed that night, the night of the exodus, was the first animal sacrifice in the history of the Jewish nation under Moses. Animal sacrifice has been done in the time of the patriarchs, but this was a new era about to be instituted, the covenant. The old covenant under Moses and that Passover sacrifice was the first, and that animal sacrifice would be the centerpiece of the religion of Israel at the very center, the tabernacle, later the temple, an animal sacrifice. Now, the clear lesson of all of this is that your sins are your greatest problem, and the just and holy wrath of God is your greatest threat. And salvation is available only through the principle of substitutionary atonement, the transfer of guilt from the people onto the substitute whose blood was poured out for their forgiveness.

Now, the Jews were to observe this symbolic feast every year, but it was just a type, just a shadow. The reality was to come later.

The second symbolic feast is the Lord's supper. Jesus and his disciples as law-abiding Jewish people observe the feast of unleavened bread in the Passover. Matthew 26:17, "On the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?” And at that Passover meal, the night before Jesus died, he established new symbolism, a lasting symbolism. In Luke 22:19 it says, "And he took bread and gave thanks and broke it and gave it to them saying, ‘this is my body given for you, do this in remembrance of me.’” And then in verse 20 of Luke 22, "In the same way after the supper, He took the cup saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you." This is clearly the language of substitutionary atonement.

“This is my body given for you. This is my blood poured out for you.” The substitutionary atonement, which the Jews have been well aware of all those centuries. Now the symbolism taken and connected with that last supper, and Jesus therefore is the fulfillment, the perfect final fulfillment of the Passover lamb. It's not an accident that he died at that time. It was ordained by God, orchestrated by God. The beginning of John the Baptist, identification of Jesus, the first time he saw Him, he pointed at him and said, "Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." And Paul said in 1 Corinthians 5:7-8, "For Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us keep the feast."

Now, this was necessary because of the limitations of the animal sacrificial system. The law, Hebrews 10, is only a shadow of the good things that are coming, not the realities themselves. For this reason, it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who drawn near to worship. If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would've been perfect, cleansed once for all and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. And then a verse later, it says, "It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins." All of those animal sacrifices and that very first one that night, the night of the exodus were just symbolic. They're just types and shadows. They were not effective in removing the sins of any people. Jesus's death is effective for removing our sins. Hallelujah. And we are to remember that tonight. To think about it tonight, Hebrews 7:27. It says, concerning Jesus, "He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself." Those words are so powerful. Once for all, never to be repeated again. And again, in Hebrews 9:13, it says that “The blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanses our conscience from acts that lead to death so that we may serve the living God.”

And so this is the fulfillment of all of those animals sacrifices offered for centuries through the death of Jesus. So the night before He died, Jesus established a new symbolic feast and it'll be centered on a new covenant made in his blood. As we read just a moment ago, Matthew 26:28, "Jesus took the cup and said, this is my blood of the covenant,[my blood of the covenant,] which is poured out for the forgiveness of sins." It's called very plainly in the book of Hebrews, the new covenant, the old one, obsolete, the new one, the perfect fulfillment. And that new covenant gives better promises than the old covenant, and it gives us a better hope than they ever had in the days of the old covenant. It's centered on that perfect final sacrifice of Jesus whose blood effectively takes away sins for everyone who believes in Him.

And the Lord's supper he established to be continually enacted and memorialized. He said, "Do this in remembrance of me." Paul wrote later "whenever you do this," et cetera. So this would be something that we would do again and again. But it also is symbolic only. It's it is itself a type and a shadow. It's just symbolic. It's not an actual sacrifice as some people wrongly believe. Not the actual body and blood of Jesus, but the words that Jesus speaks are Spirit and they are life, and they feed our faith, and they strengthen us for the journey to the real feast that's coming, the future feast that's coming, that heavenly feast. Now, the Passover prepared the people for a better feast that was coming even in their day. I think everyone knew that a meal eaten like that with bitter herbs, unleavened bread, eaten in haste was not a feast, but they were going out of the land of bondage into the promised land, said again and again to be a land flowing with milk and honey. Says in Deuteronomy 8:7-9, "For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land. A land with streams and pools of water with springs flowing into the valleys and hills, a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey, a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing."

And they were going to feast there. They were going to eat. Harvest harvests they didn't plant and drink from grapes that they didn't plant and they were going to live in houses they didn't build in the promised land. But even that land, as wonderful as it was, and as richly supplied from the reigns of heaven, as it was still not the final resting place for the people of God. They had that land on probation. They could only keep it if they kept obeying the law of Moses, if they kept obeying the commands and the real problem hadn't been addressed yet. They still had hearts of stone, not the hearts of flesh. They had not been transformed. They still had the problem of sin. In the same way, the Lord's supper itself symbolic, it is itself a type and a shadow of a future promise land and a future feasting that none of us have come into yet.

And we know that because there's this sense of a future looking that we have with the Lord's supper. It says in 1 Corinthians 11:26, "Whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." That word, “until” says we're looking forward looking ahead to the second coming of Christ. And again, as Jesus said in the text you just saw in Matthew 26:29, "I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day I drink it anew with you in my father's kingdom." That is a heavenly feast and the location is in that future world, what he calls “in my father's kingdom”, as other scriptures reveal the new heaven and the new earth and the feasting at the table. He had clearly predicted in Matthew 8:11, “Many will come from the east and the West and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.”

And that's going to be marvelous. We're going to feast together. And He said, "I will not drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom." So we're going to retain our identities. Abraham will be Abraham, Isaac will be Isaac. Jacob will be Jacob. Those sitting with Jesus that night would drink with him and eat with him because he said he would do it with them and he would drink in some mysterious way. I don't know the full implications of that word anew. What is wine made anew? I don't know. We'll have to find out when we get there. Is it made of new grapes? I have no idea. I don't know what new heaven, new earth grapes are. I don't know what kind of eating and drinking we'll be doing. I do know that Jesus ate in his resurrection body, and we'll have real resurrection bodies and sit at real tables and feast.

How marvelous will that be! Well, we need to prepare ourselves for that future Heavenly feast and the Lord's Supper helps us prepare. We need to prepare ourselves now for the Lord's Supper. Well, how do we do that? Well, we need to begin by examining ourselves. You can't go to the feast without being properly dressed. And so you need to put on the proper clothing for that feast. And so you need to examine yourself to be certain that you're properly attired. First Corinthians 11:29 says that “You have to examine yourself.” Each one should examine himself, 1 Corinthians 11. And so look at yourself because if you eat and drink in a manner unworthy, you're actually eating and drinking judgment on yourself. The cup of blessing becomes for you a cup of cursing. That's how important it is to be certain that you recognize the body and the blood of Christ by faith and that you yourself have been rescued from the wrath of God.

Picture yourself almost like a modern-day Israelite. You have to come inside that house and come under the blood of the lamb of God to be protected from the wrath of God that all of us deserve for our violations of his law. So examine yourself. Are you in the faith? Have you trusted in Christ as your Lord and Savior? Examine yourself to this end and examine yourself also to see how you're living out your faith. Are there any sins that are plaguing you? Any sins that are assaulting you? That have a grip on you? Is there anything in your life that you need to cut out of your life? Jesus said, "If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off, throw it away. It is better for you to life with one hand than have two hands and be thrown in the fire of Hell."

What has a grip on you that you need to cut out of your life? Is there any pattern of sin? And then is your soul healthy? Are you feeding daily on the word of God? Are you communing daily with God in prayer through the Holy Spirit? Are you confessing your sins? Do you have a time with Him every day, of Bible intake and prayer and confession of sin and worship? Is your soul healthy? And as we come to the Lord's Supper now, are we coming with a reverent attitude and with a serious heart? We are too light and frothy about spiritual things, so often. Thomas Watson said this, "Our spirits are feathery and lights like a vessel without ballast, which floats upon the water but does not sail. We float in our holy duties even when we're about to deal with God or are engaged in matters of life and death."

We should realize that God's eye is upon us even now, especially as we approach the table. Are we coming to the Lord supper with intelligent hearts? Have we been trained scripturally to understand the doctrine of the Lord's supper and to not be swept away by false teaching and by superstitions, but to understand really what's going on in this spiritual meal? Are we coming with faith and we coming finally with truly longing hearts, with hearts burning within us to have it an intimacy with God? If you come cold, you'll get nothing. But if you come hot, believing and trusting, then your soul will be strengthened and blessed. Let us pray.

Father, we thank you for the truth of the Word of God, which stands under the symbolism that we have just partaken in. And that is that Jesus, once for all, has given his body and his blood that we might be completely forgiven of all of our sins. And that someday you're going to drink with us anew in your Father's kingdom and we're going to partake and none of your sheep will be lost, not one. And we thank you for that. But in the meantime, Lord, we need to strengthen our faith, feed our faith by the ministry of the Word and by this ordinance. We pray that you would take the truths that we have enjoyed and learned and reviewed tonight and thought about tonight, and press them deeper into our souls by the powerful ministry of the Spirit. In Jesus name I pray, amen.

Pastor Andy Davis preaches a Maundy Thursday sermon. This is a topical look at the Passover, the Lord's Supper, and the Heavenly feast.

The post A Foretaste of the Heavenly Feast (Maundy Thursday Sermon) appeared first on Two Journeys.

In this tenth episode of the Peter Podcast Series, Andy and Wes discuss 1 Peter 5:1-14. They talk about the conclusion of 1 Peter and the commands Peter is giving to the church.

The post Peter Episode 10 – Healthy Church Life in a World of Suffering appeared first on Two Journeys.

Job complains to his friends about their betrayal and lack of support. We need love and humility when speaking to those who are suffering.

The post Job’s Complaint Against Man and God (Job Sermon 6) appeared first on Two Journeys.

Pastor Andy Davis preaches a sermon on Job 6-7. These chapters contain Job's response to his friends and to God and talk about the state of Job's heart in response to his long-term suffering.

One of the great questions that we, as Christians, have to ask as we come to the book of Job week after week is just God's intentionality in giving us this book with all of its details. And as I meditated on that, I was brought in my mind to the statement Jesus made to his disciples the night before he was crucified. When he said, "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." It shows the compassion of God through Christ that he not leave us alone in our strife, that he not leave us alone in our afflictions, but he has a heart of compassion for us. And in that text, Jesus was talking first and foremost of his own post-resurrection appearance that he would give them evidence of his triumph over the grave. But in a larger sense, in that chapter, he is talking about the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the counselor, the comforter who would come and would guide his people into all truth.

And that counselor, the comforter, would illuminate the word of God, the scripture. That's his primary means of counsel, his primary means of giving us comfort. And at that time, some of the great books of the Bible hadn't even been written yet, the New Testament, hadn't even been written yet. The Old Testament had been given to the Jewish people, including this book of Job. And he, the Holy Spirit, inspired that in its time, but he understood every generation of redemptive history. And I believe that he inspired this book of Job to enable God's people in every generation to suffer well. To go through affliction well for his glory and for their own benefit, maximally to derive the benefits of the afflictions that God gave. So, he gave us this book of Job and it's mysterious because it's a perfect record of a very imperfect conversation.

It's a perfect record of an imperfect man, a righteous man, a godly man struggling as no man had ever struggled before or since in that particular way. And his words are recorded for us. And so I believe that the Holy Spirit wants us to both, in some cases, imitate Job, and in some cases learn by contrast to not be like Job. And we're going to walk through that even this morning as we look at Job six and seven. One of the things we learn about suffering is that suffering goes on far longer than we want it to. It's possible to suffer well for a short time, a kind of a sprint of suffering. We can do that. But chronic suffering, long term grinding suffering is beyond the natural endurance of any human being. Eventually our resolve begins to waver and crumble as the trial bears on and bears down on us.

At the first moment of the crisis, we can respond with great spiritual energy, great determination, great valor. Ordinary men physically in an emergency have been given an incredible amount of physical strength to lift a car up off a loved one, a child or a wife. It's incredible what they can do at that moment. Or a wounded soldier in a battlefield can be grievously wounded and still function almost as though he has no wound. He's able to rescue others, et cetera. But then once that moment has passed and he receives the surgeries that he needs to survive, and then he has to go through the rehab, even a day of pain can be something he can barely face. How can you see that? How can you have that incredible valor and courage on the battlefield and then have a hard time going through a day of rehab months later? The same is true of shocking emotional loss. The death of a child, let's say, comes with a numbing shock to it. The hours and days that immediately follow the tragedy pass by like a blur. Friends come and the grieving parents say all the right things, but they don't really feel them. They're really numb. They go to bed with their heads spinning. It seems like they're getting through the funeral day and the immediate bereavement with admirable faith and trust in the Lord. But then the days become months. And the couple still has to walk by the child's bedroom and see framed photos on the wall and have a bookmark that they made on Mother's Day tumble out of the Bible. And the sight of that little piece of paper feels like a javelin to the heart and fresh waves of pain come. And this time, perhaps the reactions are not so pious, not so polished, not so admirable. So it was with Job.

As we move deeper into this book, we're going to see his responses to his friend's words. This morning we're going to begin with his response to Eliphaz’s first speech, which we looked at last week. As you remember, Eliphaz came to Job somewhat gently with, in some senses, right doctrine, but applied it wrongly. His basic thesis, as you remember, was plain. Job 4:8, “Those who plow evil and those who sow trouble, reap it.” You reap what you sow. Trouble comes because of sin. God is sovereign, he actively rules over the earth, and nothing happens for no reason. You reap what you sow. Therefore, the shortest route back to prosperity is to acknowledge your sins to God and make your appeal directly to him, Job 5:8, he said, "But if it were I, I would appeal to God. I would lay my cause before him."

That was Eliphaz’s counsel, based on his sound, long-standing observation of the way things work in this world. But Eliphaz’s doctrine of sowing and reaping, however true in general, is false in its application to Job. The fact is that the law of sowing and reaping only explains some of the outcomes that we observe in human life. Actually, as is clearly the case with Job, we know it's the case with Job, some great evils can come upon those who have no great sin in their lives. And as we'll discuss, God willing, in future chapters in Job, some great prosperity can come on those who are desperately wicked and no judgment seems to come in this life. So that's Eliphaz, now it's time for Job to respond. Now, as we're going to track over the, God willing, the number of weeks Job's dialogue with his friends, eventually Job's statements are going to display Job's heart at its worst.

We've already seen, to some degree, Job at his best right away. And we'll see him that way again, but different at the end of the book. But in the meantime, we have a journey to travel and I think the Holy Spirit in his wisdom wanted to show us that journey so that we would hear the words that he said at that time. And so it's best for us to walk through them together. These complaints of Job are going to intensify as the chapters unfold. And it starts today with Job six and seven. Now I break these two chapters of Job's words into two main headings. They don't fit perfectly either chapter, but they'll give us a general sense. Each of those will have three portions in chapter six, Job basically complains against his friends. And in chapter seven, Job complains against his God. So a summary, what Job wants from his friends is loyal kindness and compassion. And what Job wants from God is either forgiveness or for God to leave him alone or kill him before he sins like he feels like he's about to do. So that's what we're going to see. 

Let's begin chapter six: Job's complaints against his friends. But he begins in 6:1-7 by rehearsing the magnitude of his suffering, the magnitude of my suffering. Look at verses 6:1-7, “Then Job replied: “If only my anguish could be weighed and all my misery placed on the scales! It would surely outweigh the sand of the seas—no wonder my words have been impetuous. The arrows of the Almighty are in me, my spirit drinks in their poison; God's terrors are marshaled against me. Does a wild donkey bray when it has grass, or an ox bellow when it has fodder? Is tasteless food eaten without salt, or is there flavor in the white of an egg? I refuse to touch it; such food makes me ill." So Job says his vexation, his anguish is heavy. It presses on him like a weight, like a massive boulder on his chest.

He uses overwhelming exaggeration to describe his anguish. It will outweigh, he says, all the grains of sand on every seashore on earth. It's not surprising he says, therefore, that his words are so rash, so impetuous. It's not surprising that he’s saying things that should not be said. It's like the overwhelming weight of sorrow is pressing on his soul. And these deep, hidden perspectives are bubbling to the surface and he can't help himself. The things he's saying and the things he's going to say ordinarily he would squelch them or cover them and not say them, and no one would know he was even beginning to think them. But they're coming out now. Trials come and they seem to draw things out from deep within our souls that we didn't even know were there, sinful thoughts, sinful attitudes. But suffering people, when they're going through it, can easily give themselves permission to say whatever comes to mind, whatever they want.

He wants his friends to know that it's easy for people who are not going through that kind of suffering to judge people who are. He's going to say that more clearly in a later section. He says that the arrows of the Almighty have penetrated him, poisonous arrows. He's lying wounded on the battlefield of life with arrows sticking out of his body, and those arrows were shot by God. “It's God's terrors which are arrayed against me, like a mighty besieging army; as I look out over the parapet of my soul, I see the vast power of God arrayed against me!” Job speaks of a beast, the wild donkey that runs free, the massive ox that stands still. When they have what they need, when their bellies are full, they're happy, they keep quiet. But, he's saying, in my case, I can't even eat the white of an egg, even just bland food makes me want to vomit. This is the magnitude of my sorrows, O my friends.

Second section. I wish I could die before I sin. Look at 6:8-13, “O that I might have my request, that God would grant what I hope for, that God would be willing to crush me, to let loose his hand and cut me off! Then I would still have this consolation—my joy in unrelenting pain—that I had not denied the words of the Holy One. “What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What prospects, that I should be patient? Do I have the strength of stone? Is my flesh bronze? Do I have any power to help myself, now that success has been driven from me?”

So he's saying my deepest desire right now is just to die. I want to get out of this world before I blaspheme God. God has struck me to the ground with his poisonous arrows, savage blows. Why doesn't he just finish me off? All I have left in this world to cling to is that I have not, up to this point, blasphemed the Holy One, blasphemed his words. My wife even came to me and said, "Curse God and die." But even at that moment, I refused to charge God with any wrongdoing. I actually worship God. I actually praised him. And when he struck me a second time with a foul disease, even then I did not accuse God of wrongdoing. But as this trial wears me down as day passes into day, as month rolls into month, I feel a growing internal rage. I feel a growing resentment within me.

I do not want to even begin to put it into words for then I would sin and I haven't done that yet, but it's coming. I can feel it. So I just, all I want is for God to just finish me off. I can't go on like this for much longer. I'm just a frail man. I'm just flesh and blood. I'm not made of stone. I'm not made of bronze. I'm going to begin to crumble before your eyes if this keeps going on, and the dark thoughts that I feel growing inside my heart will soon bubble to the surface. It would be better for me to die than to sin. The trial is wearing this man down. He's losing strength of soul. Now that's the word to us. Your trials, whenever God chooses to give them to you, will go on longer than you want them to go on. And Job's an example of what happens when that goes on.

Now, he turns his bitter guns on his treacherous friends. This is 6:14-30, says effectively, you, my friends, are treacherous when you should be loyal and sympathetic. Verses 14-17, "A despairing man should have the devotion of his friends, even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty. But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams, as the streams that overflow when darkened by thawing ice and swollen with melting snow, but that cease to flow in the dry season and in the heat vanish from their channels." So, Job, with his friends, he uses terms of friendship, calls them friends, he actually speaks of them as brothers. That's what makes their demeanor toward him, their words toward him so painful. When they should be loyal, when they should be sympathetic, they're treacherous instead.

And the image that he uses here is one of streams in the desert called wadis in the desert. In the springtime, when the mountain ice and snow melts, they gush full. The streams are bursting with cool, clear water, but then the hot season comes. When you really need water, you could imagine a wanderer in the desert knows there's a wadi up just over the next dune. And he gets over there and there's this dry river bed, and there's no water in it at all. Caravans that run from cities like Tema and Sheba and Arabia rely on these streams in the desert. And if they come on them in a time of extreme need and they find nothing but dust and sand, they might even die. So it is, he's saying, with you, my treacherous friends, that's what you're like for me. Like I'm a man dying of thirst, and I come to what I thought was a wadi, or I come to an oasis, and there's no water there. That's what you are.

They have fallen short of loyal kindness. The Hebrew word is hesed. It's a powerful one, important word. And this is where rubber meets the road with friendship. Friend in need, that's what we're talking about. That's what he is. And if friendship does not prove itself at a time like that, then what is it for? So he makes an open appeal for their sympathy. Look at verses 24-30. He says, "Teach me, and I will be quiet; show me where I have been wrong. How painful are honest words! But what do your arguments prove? Do you mean to correct what I say, and treat the words of a despairing man as wind? You would even cast lots for the fatherless and barter away your friend. But now be so kind as to look at me. Would I lie to your face? Relent, do not be unjust; reconsider, for my integrity is at stake. Is there any wickedness on my lips? Can my mouth not discern malice?" So he asks for their counsel. If you think I have sinned, then show me my sin.

And he says, "How painful are honest words!" I can say there are some of you folks that need to hear that more than others. Some people just blunder in and say what's on your heart. I know it's going to be hard to hear, but you need to hear this, and off it goes. Others are a little more circumspect, a little more careful. But he says, "How painful are honest words!” They're cutting me like a knife. But actually you can't prove any of your accusations because they're not true. There's no evidence at all for my sins, my great sins. So Job begins to get aggressive with them at this point. He's angry at them and he says that they would cast lots over the blameless and barter away a friend. We picture other stories in the Bible like what Joseph's brothers did when they sold him as a slave to the Midianites, carried him into Egypt, or, even worse what Judas did, trading in Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, this betrayal.

That's what he feels. And then he concludes by saying, look at my face. Say it to my face. Look at me. What have I done wrong? Can you say these things to my face? Like they've turned away from him. He begs them to relent, to stop their accusations of him because his integrity is hanging on this. And he makes, not for the last time, the plain assertion that he's innocent of their suppositions. He's innocent of great sin. Chapter six.

Now let's look at chapter seven. Here, Job complains toward God, although not right away, it rises and grows in this chapter. First, he talks about life on earth. Effectively in 7:1-6, he says, "My days are both too long and too short." “My days are both too long and too short.”

Look at 7:1-6, "Does not man have hard service on earth? Are not as days like those of a hired man? Like a slave longing for the evening shadows, or a hired man waiting eagerly for his wages, so I have been allotted months of futility, and nights of misery have been assigned to me. When I lie down I think, ‘How long before I get up?’ The night drags on, and I toss until dawn. My body is clothed with worms and scabs, my skin is broken and festering. “My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle and they come to an end without hope." So, Job here laments the plight of all human beings, what life is like for all of us.

Man, he says, has to endure hard service on the earth, like a slave who works all day long yearning for the sun to go down and for the shadow, the coolness of the night. Or like a hired man who, every moment of the day, all he's thinking about are the few coins he's going to get at the end of the day, he has no joy in his labor. But with those few coins that he gets at the end of the day, he's going to be able to buy some food and some provisions for himself and his family. And he's going to go home, he's going to bring those provisions to them, they're going to eat and go to bed. That's their day. And the next day he's going to do it all over again. That's what life is like for human beings. And that's what life feels like to Job now. He just wants it to be over. Do you see that? I mean, he just wants the day to end. When he lies down, though, all he can think about is when the night will end because he has insomnia and nightmares. So all day long, he's waiting for night when he can have some rest, but all night long, he's not sleeping because of the terrors of his heart and he's waiting for day.

But then the day is no better because all day long, his skin is festering with worms and agony, so it's strange. The days seem very long, but then he says his life is fleeting, flying away, he says swifter than a weaver's shuttle. Think about how a loom was set up with strings up and down, and then the weaver throws that shuttle across from right to left. And it's just that quick, it's gone. This image is used a number of times in the Bible, but it's talking about the transitory nature of life. Life is a mist. It's a vapor that appears for a little while, and then it vanishes. It's strange though, in the midst of this suffering, time is playing tricks on him. Which is it Job? Are the days long or are they short?

I remember hearing this once, and it struck me as true, depending on what you're going through. The days are long and the years are short. I think the older you get, the more you know that that's true. What does that mean the days are long? It means there are certain days that you think will never end. They just will never end, and then suddenly it was seven years ago that day. "Soon," he says, "the tapestry of my life will be finished and God will cut me off the loom and fold me up and begin working on another tapestry, and I'll be done. That's what my time is like, and I can make no sense of it at all."

Part two chapter seven. “Remember, O God, I'm not going to be here much longer." This is verses 7-10, "Remember…that my life is but a breath; my eyes will never see happiness again. The eye that now sees me will see me no longer; you will look for me; but I will be no more. As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so he who goes down to the grave does not return. He will never come to his house again; his place will know him no more." So Job now definitely turns his attention to God and begins talking to God. And he's calling on God to remember how frail and fragile he is. Psalm 103:14 says, "For he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.”

Effectively he's saying to God, "How much more of this do you think I can take? It is evident to me that I will never see any pleasure again, ever. I'm done with pleasure. All the things that I ever enjoyed have been ripped away from me and I'll never enjoy them again. So if there's nothing left for me on earth, but pain, realize, O Lord, I'm effectively as good as gone already.” Ironically, at the end of the book, he's going to have all of these things restored to him, and it seems that he takes pleasure in it. It's good to know, isn't it, that when you're going through a time like this, you think you will never be happy again, can never be happy again. That's what Job felt. So Job says to God, remember that I'm going to soon be gone and you're going to look for me and you're not going to find me. And the place where I live won't even remember me. My life is a mist. It's a vapor that appears for a little while and then it'll be gone. And once I die, I'm going to be gone forever. And you will never see me again.

Third part 7:11-21. "You, my God, are terrifying me when you should forgive.” So Job here turns directly to God and brings his complaint right to God. He's going to use bitter sarcasm. And he's going to begin to question the attributes of God, his goodness, his mercy, and justice. This questioning of God will increase as the book goes on. And it is the very thing that he's going to repent from at the end of the book, but the seeds of it are right here.

Look at verses 11-16, "Therefore I will not keep silent; I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep, that you put me under guard? When I think my bed will comfort me and my couch will ease my complaint, even then you frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions, so that I prefer strangling and death, rather than this body of mine. I despise my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone; my days have no meaning." So Job says, "I cannot keep silent. I've got to say what's coming out of me." He must voice his deep distress. He's got to talk about it, he says. Interesting, there's a Psalm that says, "Set a guard over the door of my mouth." He doesn't want any guard over the door of his mouth. He wants to say what's on his mind. And he wonders why God feels it necessary to deal so powerfully and vigorously with him.

He says, am I a monster of the deep, like one of these primordial beasts that all the ancient stories said God conquered to create the universe? This kind of thing, like a sea serpent. Am I a cosmic enemy of God that I have to be captured and put in chains with a guard over me night and day? Am I that dangerous? Am I that much of a threat to your mighty throne, oh God? Now how could that be? In the midst of my disease? I go lie down on a bed. And even when I do that, all that happens is more agony. It's like you will not give me a moment of peace, not even at night, now that night terrors come. All those nightmares, the night terrors, they leave me in a cold sweat. I wonder what new things you're going to do to me. It's as though these nightmares are the evening's guard details set over me to make sure that I don't have a moment's peace. Other times I try to breathe and I'm strangled by my agony as I'm panting trying to catch my breath, but I actually wish I would not catch my breath. I'd rather just strangle and die. I hate my life. There's nothing good for me in life. And I wish you would just leave me alone.

Look at verses 17-21, "What is man that you make so much of him, that you give him so much attention, that you examine him every morning and test him every moment? Will you never look away from me, or let me alone even for an instant? If I have sinned, what have I done to you, O watcher of men? Why have you made me your target? Have I become a burden to you? Why do you not pardon my offenses and forgive my sins? For I will soon lie down in the dust;  you will search for me, but I will be no more." So Job finishes lament by wondering what God gets out of staring at human beings so intently. Why do you care so much about us, God? You're exalted high above the heavens. The heavens, even the highest heavens, can't contain you. All the nations are before you like grass hoppers and like dust on the scales and like a drop of water from the bucket.

So why do you zero in on me? That's what whole nations are like. Why do you care about an individual little peon, a flickering flame with nothing left to offer? Why do you stare at us? Why do you examine us? Why do you test us? Why do you orchestrate trials specifically tailored for our lives? I feel naked before your gaze, O God. Your staring at me makes me terrified. Would you please, for a moment, turn your gaze away? Look somewhere else. At this point, Job seems to become increasingly disrespectful of God in some sense. He says, “If I have sinned, what have I done to you, O watcher of men?”

It's like he's charging the ineffable, the infinitely glorious, highly exalted God with being weird to care so much about a tiny black ant running around in some little hill somewhere. The bottom line is simple. If you are so mighty and so powerful, and if I'm so little and so insignificant, then why should my sins, whatever they are, trouble you so much? Why don't you just forgive me? Soon I'm going to die anyway. Why not just give me a moment's peace in your merciful forgiveness before I sink back into the dust from which I came? It's Job chapter seven.

All right. So what are some lessons for us? Timeless lessons for us as we look at Job through these two chapters. I'm going to take the last lesson first.

The last lesson is we infinitely matter to God. It's actually immeasurable how much we matter to God. The fact is God is a watcher of men. Intently. David celebrates it in Psalm eight. He says, "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you're mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?" He's marveling over that God can do both. The fact is God is actually so exalted that he can do both. He can spin all the planets and make certain all the stars are in place and care about little you. It's actually a reduction of God to think that God can't do both. God is so busy spinning the planets he has no time for me. That's just not true. God is infinitely majestic and infinitely attentive to details, including you.

He does. Psalm 139 celebrates this actually. Psalm 139:1-6 says, "O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain." Later in that Psalm, Psalm 139, he says, "How marvelous are your thoughts concerning me, how vast the sum of them. Were I to number them, they would outnumber the grains of sand in the seashore." So different image, but there it's incredible that God has that many thoughts about me. It's actually very comforting when you know that God means you nothing but good, and he has completely figured out your life.

Secondly, our sins are eternally consequential. They cannot be minimized. They should not be minimized. It is actually not a small thing that we, individual human beings, created in the image of God, created to love God and to serve him with all of our hearts, with all of our souls, with all of our minds and strength, rebel against him, violates those laws. It is not a small thing. It's infinitely consequential.

Thirdly, our sins are atoned for by God's faithful love in Jesus Christ. That's the good news. I will not stop looking at the book of Job through the lens of the cross in the empty tomb. Every week we're going to do it. I'm not going to be disrespectful to Job. I'm just going to say in different ways, I think we can do better.

I think we're called on, after the resurrection of Christ to do better. We'll talk more about that in later sermons, but our sins have been atoned for out of the unfailing covenant love of God, that God set his love on us in Christ Jesus. “In love, he predestined us to be adopted as his sons and daughters. And it was out of love that he sent has only begotten a son into the world. John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." And Jesus said it of himself, "Greater love has no one than this, that he laid down his life for his friends." So the real question I'm asking you, my dear friend listening to me now, is have you known the forgiveness of God through faith in Jesus Christ?

Have you found that forgiveness for yourself? Your sins are eternally consequential. The wrath of God against sin is real, but Jesus came and paid that penalty of wrath on the cross for sinners like you and me. And all we have to do is trust in him, and our sins will be forgiven.

Fourth, Jesus is therefore the perfect friend. Job's friends did fail him. They did not display that covenant love, that hesed. But Jesus is more than just a friend that sticks closer than a brother. His loyalty to us will never end. He shed his blood for us to take away our sins and by his Spirit he's able to say, "Surely I will be with you always, even to the end of the age." Hebrews 13:5 says, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." So God, through his son, and the Son, through the Spirit, walks with us through every trial.

As Isaiah 43 says beautifully, "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze."

Fifth, God knows how much we can take. Remember when Job is saying, "I'm not stone. I'm not bronze." He's saying to God, "God, you have miscalculated here." It's like God's a civil engineer who designed a bridge and then ran an armored division over it. And it's like one of those little country bridges, you know, and you can hear the structural members creaking and cracking and about to go. That's what Job's saying to God. It's too much. But God actually knows better than we do how much we can handle.

We would always go lightly on ourselves, don't you think? If you got to sit into the pain of redemptive suffering and strap yourself in and wire yourself up, and then you controlled the level from zero to a hundred, what would you choose? Pastor, I'd be about 0.1, maybe one if I were really feeling virtuous and when God's dialing it up to 50 and 60, he knows what you can take. And he knows that the trial will not do you harm ultimately. God is faithful, “He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear, but with the temptation will make the way of escape.” 1 Corinthians 10:13.

Sixth, sound theology must be supplemented with humility and love. This is Job's response to his friends. We can do better than his friends. I think we should cherish sound theology at this church. We should cherish it, but be careful how you use it.

Think about those words, “How painful are honest words!” That's why it says in Ephesians 4:15, "Speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head." We have to combine truth, biblical truth, with tenderness, compassion, humility, with the fruit of the spirit. Put those together.

So seventh, friends should do better than these men. When you go to counsel, speak humbly about your own sinfulness. Realize you're no better. If the person you're counseling confesses great sin to you and thinks this is why they're going through this great trial, don't minimize that. Don't think that's unbiblical or impossible. Don't say that. But just realize you're just as sinful as they are. Point them to the cross. Point them to the empty tomb and to the faithfulness of God. If they don't, if they're suffering similar to Job, although not as righteous as Job, but they're not aware of any great sin, but they're going through this great trial, it's a chronic illness, or some other great trial, then don't do what Job's friends did. Believe them, the judgment of charity and be a good friend, walk through it with them. 

And then eighth, sufferers should not give themselves permission to blaspheme God. Job 6:2-3, "If only my anguish could be weighed and all my misery placed on the scales! It would surely outweigh the sand of the seas—no wonder my words have been impetuous." Later, he says, I will not guard my mouth. I'm going to say what's on my heart. Well, here's the thing, I've seen as a pastor again and again people who get angry at God and vent on him for a while and feel that they're justified in doing so. Let me say, first of all, God never does anything wrong ever.

Second of all, it is not actually therapeutic for you to vent. What you should do is draw near to the throne of grace that you may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. It's right for you, in the book of James, where you're going through suffering of many kinds to ask for wisdom. I don't know why this is happening. Show me what it is you're seeking to achieve in my life and in my family. What are you doing? That's perfectly valid. But don't blaspheme. Don't question the justice of God. Don't come against him. I feel like this is the final lesson of the book of Job is to trust God, no matter what he chooses to do with your earthly life.

Close with me in prayer. Lord, thank you for these chapters. They're not easy to hear, but we thank you for how you and your wisdom have given us these words so that we can take them seriously, understand what was going on in this man's heart, in his life. And to realize that you don't mean us harm, O Lord, but you're going to bring us through sufferings and trials and afflictions that we would not choose for ourselves. Prepare us, O Lord, in advance, to suffer well. We thank you for the wisdom that you showed in John chapters 13-16 of telling your disciples ahead of time the sufferings they were going to go through so that when they went through them that they would continue to believe in Jesus. Lord, give us that preparation now through these sermons so that when the time comes, we will suffer well for your glory. In Jesus’s name, Amen.

In this ninth episode of the Peter Podcast Series, Andy and Wes discuss 1 Peter 4:12-19. They focus on the suffering that Christians will experience and the reaction they should have to it.

The post Peter Episode 9 – The Blessings of Christian Suffering appeared first on Two Journeys.