October 6, 2013
Let’s turn to Philippians 2:9a. The “wherefore” follows the death of the cross. Jesus was born in Bethlehem. “Thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.” Read vv. 9 - 11. We sing praises to the blessed One that bore it all, in obedience to the desire of God the Father. We must give glory to the Lord and God our Father!
Hymn 293 – A little ship was on the sea
Prayer
In our hymn, Jesus’ disciples were in a storm and they were unable to help themselves. They called out to Jesus, and He helped them. In life, there are situations that we are unable to do anything about. I read a story recently about a family whose mother lost a filling while at an amusement park. They prayed and the Lord helped them find it. A filling is something so small: it would be pretty hard to find, but we can turn to the Lord and He will help us in these situations. Today, we will be continuing with King Jehoshaphat. He turned to the Lord for help when he was in an impossible situation.
2 Chronicles 20
When Jehoshaphat returned from the battle with King Ahab, he was met by a prophet of God. He told Jehoshaphat that he shouldn’t have gone to battle with the wicked King Ahab. Before this, Jehoshaphat’s reign had been quite peaceful, but after his war with Ahab, he had more battles to fight.
News came to Jehoshaphat that several countries were coming to fight against him. Jehoshaphat and all of Judah fasted and prayed to God for help. Even though he didn’t do the right thing in going to battle with Ahab, we see that he did the right thing here. When he prayed, he acknowledged what the Lord had done for them previously and that they didn’t have the power to fight the enemies that were coming against them. Jahaziel stood up and told the people of Judah not to fear, because the battle was the Lord’s. David said something similar when he went to fight Goliath. He recognized that it was the Lord that was fighting the battle through him. Jahaziel goes on to say they wouldn’t have to fight, because the Lord was going to fight for them. For us, we are told that the Lord will never leave us or forsake us. We have the assurance that He is always ready to protect us.
Even though Judah had been told that God was going to fight for them, it still took faith to go out to battle. Jehoshaphat encouraged Judah to have faith. As they went out to battle, they sang; this showed that they had peace and faith in God. Miraculously, the armies that were coming against them started to fight against each other, until they were all dead. God had fought for them; but not only that: He provided for them. There was so much spoil that it took three days to collect it all.
We see that God protected Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat had prayed, “Lord help me.” We can pray anything: “Lord save me,” “protect me,” and so many more. May we be reminded to look to the Lord for protection when we are in a situation where we don’t know what to do!
Acts 2:37 - 47
What had these people heard? Peter told them that Jesus was both Lord and Christ. Jesus had been approved by God, and yet some of these people had decided that He was not fit to live. God had not only decided that Jesus was to live, but that He deserved to be Lord and Christ.
Peter’s words pricked the hearts of these people. The Holy Spirit convicted them, and not just their consciences were pricked, but there was a work in their hearts as well. Saul of Tarsus was told, “It is hard for you to kick against the pricks.” He must have had a working of conscience. With this blessed working of both heart and conscience, these people asked Peter, “What shall we do?”
Well, their condition wasn’t helpless, although they were in sin. Peter told them, “Repent!”, without a word about believing in Jesus. What’s repentance? One definition is: ‘being sorry enough to quit’. Another is: ‘taking God’s side against yourself’; in other words, agreeing with God that you are bad. The Prodigal Son realized that he had done wrong, and repented. In a nutshell, the Gospel is “repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ”. We need to press to people the point that they are sinners in line for judgement, and then tell them what they can do about that.
Peter also told the crowd that they needed to be baptized, placing more emphasis on it in connection to salvation than we do today. Why was that? It was because Peter was dealing with Jews. Christianity was new, and baptism is identifying yourself with Christ and His death. It is cutting off, leaving behind, separating yourself from your old life. These people had to repent, and then have the faith in Christ to identify with Him in baptism. They would then be brought into the blessing of having the Holy Ghost.
What was the promise of the Holy Spirit that Peter was referring to? The Old Testament has a lot of promises—we looked at one from Joel the other week—but Isaiah 44:3 is an especially clear and precious promise in connection with the Holy Spirit. Peter was probably referring to these Old Testament writings.
Peter continued to testify—proclaim what he had seen and experienced—and exhort—encourage in a specific direction—the people. The result was that three thousand people were added “unto them”—which is in italics, indicating that it was added to the King James to give meaning. Verse 47 says “added to the church”, and some places say “added to the Lord”, which is precious.
In stark contrast, the day that the law was given (Exodus 32), it killed three thousand men. Here in Acts it’s the first day of the week, the first day of the Day of Grace, the first day of the Church Period—this is where Christ’s Body all began.
These people—some of whom may have said of the Lord, “We will not have this man to reign over us!”—gladly received Peter’s words. Jesus was now their Lord and Christ. They were saved, in the Church, and—as we’ll see—their behaviour was changed. They got right with God, were filled with the Spirit, and wanted to go on in activities that have characterized believers down through the ages. They continued steadfastly!
Hymn 106 – O Christ in Thee my soul hath found
Prayer