February 24, 2008
Scripture:
A thought came to me while our brother was reading in Mark 12. Read vv. 6 & 7: “Having yet therefore one son, his wellbeloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son. But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be our’s.” We read this and say, “What wicked husbandmen; what murderous criminals. They wanted to kill the heir and steal the inheritance.” And yet, it struck me, that is almost what happened … almost. Man did not kill the Lord, He gave up His life; and what happens? Those that believe by faith are made co-heirs with Him. Oh, this goes beyond love; it goes beyond words!
EG Hymn 48 – There is life in a look,
Prayer
I have a plant here (drawn on the white board); if I want to keep this plant alive, what does it need? It needs water and soil; it will also need light and air. These things are necessary for plants to live. If you think about it, we as people need most of these to live as well. The reason I wanted to look at this is because as we look through Creation, we should see if God made the things necessary for life on earth. Today, we will look at Day 2 of Creation; read Genesis 1:6–8. We saw in Day 1 how God made light, which is one of the things on our list. The key words in Day two are firmament and waters. The firmament is like the air, the atmosphere, the sky above us. But it sounds as though God put water on the earth and above the earth; is there water above us? We know that the clouds hold water; but how much water is up there? Well, think of this: the park up at the end of Badger Drive is about 400 x 200 feet. In a good rainfall, we probably get about an inch of rain, so imagine an inch of water covering the whole park. I calculated the weight of that much water (a cubic foot of water weighs 62.4 lbs.), and it turned out to be about 720 tons of water. How much is that? It’s about 720 Honda Accords. That’s a lot of water. But where does it all go? Some of it soaks into the ground, some of it runs into streams, and the rest is evaporated and goes back into clouds … to rain on us again. That is the cycle God created on Day 2: the water and the sky. We said this is a type of salvation: Day 1 is the coming of light and the exposing of our sin. Day 2 is the choice between living above or below (the two natures).
I Peter 4:12–16
V. 13 talks about suffering, while v. 14 talks about reproach, or insults; are they both the same thing? Not really: v. 13 is talking about taking part in Christ’s sufferings. We obviously cannot—nor is there a need for us to—enter into His atoning work for us. But there was the suffering that came as a result of his changing environments. Can you imagine the difference between the environment of Heaven and the environment of earth? There is no comparison! We can see in this world around us all the sin, suffering, and sadness. The Lord came into this world and was bombarded with all these things on every hand. He was thrown into all the sorrow of this world after coming from a place where all is pure. These Christians were experiencing some of this world’s environment: they were being persecuted, suffering physical torture similar to the Lord’s. In this respect, they were suffering with Him. In v. 14, it is different: they are suffering for Him. This is suffering reproach: nasty comments directed at you because you are a Christian. Yet, we are to rejoice in suffering; how is that possible? We are not rejoicing at the suffering, but at the consequences. The greater our suffering is, the greater our reward in Heaven will be; these things are tied together.
As we mentioned, v. 14 is suffering for our testimony; and yet we should be happy. The Lord, in the Sermon on the Mount, said, “Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven” (Matthew 5:12). We are almost promised that, as Christians, we will suffer. Yet these verses are very upbeat. It is interesting to note that it mentions that we have the Holy Spirit; this is surely a large part of our being able to rejoice in suffering.
V. 15 tells us what we should not suffer for: “as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer …” Oh, you say, I’m not in those categories … but the verse doesn’t end there: “… or as a busybody in other men’s matters.” That’s a little close to home.
Paul mentions his sufferings in 1 Corinthians 4; after listing some things that happened to him, calls them “our light affliction” (v. 17). It’s good to remember, these things are just temporary; our glory will be for eternity. The suffering reminds us not to settle down and enjoy this world. Yet Satan wants to use these trials to destroy us; but with the Holy Spirit we can conquer.
EG Hymn 361 – There is a happy land,
Prayer