The first thing to strike me in this chapter is the realisation that Paul did not see himself as a prisoner of Rome but ‘’of Christ Jesus’’ (1). He was so aware of the sovereign control of the Lord Jesus Christ over all his life that he knew there was no accident about his current circumstances. He also saw that his suffering was not pointless but purposeful: ‘’for the sake of you Gentiles.’’ God would bring good out of bad. (See also 13). His ministry was not about him, but it was for others (2). ‘’This is why I, Paul, am in jail for Christ.’’ The Message.
The thought of what God was doing in the church (2:11-22) gave Paul cause to pray: ‘’For this reason…’’ (1). But then he didn’t get round to the prayer for another several verses (14). We too can know what Paul knew, that through Jesus we have free and confident access to God in prayer. So verses 2-13 are in ‘brackets’. Paul was slightly distracted and began to write about the ministry God had entrusted to him to bring Gentiles into the same church community as Jews. Verse 6 is a summary of chapter 2:11-22. Paul saw his ministry as being totally due to the ‘’grace’’ of God (2 and 7). It was not something he deserved (8). There was a genuine humility about Paul, and he recognised he was completely dependent on God’s ‘’power’’ (7) and that his ministry was a sacred trust. He was ‘’a servant of this gospel’’ (7), and it was a ‘’gift’’ to be able to serve. ‘’ I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities.’’ The Message. The content of his ministry was a ‘’mystery’’ (4, 6 and 9). This does not mean something closed but something wide open – an ‘open secret’, now revealed by the Holy Spirit. It’s about how God is shaping ‘’one body’’ centred in Christ (11) and comprising Jewish and Gentile believers in Him. Paul’s ministry was primarily about preaching the gospel to the Gentiles so that they could come into God’s new society. ‘’I got the inside story on this from God himself…The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives (what I’ve been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board.’’ The Message.
The church God is building on Christ is ‘Exhibit A’ of God’s ‘’manifold wisdom’’ (10). I once heard that this can mean God’s ‘many coloured’ wisdom. That seems significant when you think that God is building a multi-ethnic; multi-cultural community in Christ. Whether ‘’the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms’’ (10) are angels or demons or both, is not clear. But certainly in the church spiritual beings see a demonstration of God’s immense wisdom. ‘’Through Christians like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels!’’ The Message.
Prayer: Thank you Lord that I am included in your plan, and that I have been brought into your new society. I am amazed at your goodness and grace.
As we saw yesterday, God’s judging work would prepare the way for what Derek Kidner calls a ‘’kingdom of converts.’’ We can be judged for our sins, or we can repent and be forgiven. We get to choose (20).
God’s Spirit and His Word go together. There cannot be a genuine work of the Holy Spirit that dismisses or undermines the importance of the Bible. In a truly Pentecostal or Charismatic church, God’s Word will be honoured and taken seriously. The Scriptures will be searched. They will be faithfully, meticulously and systematically taught.
As a prophet of God, Isaiah was speaking Spirit inspired words. Here God gives him the encouragement that these words will be repeated by his ‘’children’’ and ‘’their descendants from this time on and for ever.’’ (21). There will be an enduring impact.
God’s Word should be in our ‘’mouths’’. We need to speak it to ourselves and to others. It is important to speak in line with it and according to it; to allow God’s wonderful Book to shape our speech. ‘’We must receive the Holy Spirit, and we must utter the words which He puts into our lips.’’ F.B. Meyer: ‘Great verses through the Bible, p.291. Meyer goes on to quote Acts 2:4: ‘’All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak…’’ I heard a preacher say that when a bath gets full, the water goes out through a hole called an ‘overflow’. He went on to say that we are all fitted with an ‘overflow’. It’s a little hole beneath the nose called a ‘mouth’. He argued that if you work your way through the book of Acts you will find that when anyone got filled with the Holy Spirit, they overflowed, in some way, through the mouth.
‘’Here God gives His people two great covenant gifts, His Spirit and His words, and they will not depart from His people. These two gifts are given to us today – through Jesus Christ, God’s greatest gift of all.’’
‘’In verse 21, God says His Spirit and His words will not depart from the people’s mouth (see Joshua 1:8). Neither will they depart from the people’s hearts, because the new covenant will be written on their hearts (Jeremiah 31:33). Heart and mouth go together; the mouth expresses what flows from the heart (Matthew 12:34; 15:18; Romans 10:9-10).’’ Tom Hale: ‘The Applied Old Testament Commentary, p.1064.
Prayer: Thank you Lord for your mercy to the genuinely repentant. Thank you too for the gift of your Spirit and your Word, showing us a new direction to walk in, and giving us the power to do so.
Ephesians 2:1-10
We have to remember that when Paul wrote his letters he did not use chapter or verse divisions. These were added later to help us find our way around the Bible. So Paul’s flow of thought continues on from what we have seen at the end of chapter 1. The power available to the church is essentially the same power that lifted Jesus out of a graveyard and placed Him on the throne of the universe. That is some strength, and our first encounter with it occurred when God sovereignly and graciously moved in our lives to bring us to life out of a state of spiritual death. We actually shared Christ’s resurrection, and that is one way of looking at Christian conversion (John 5:24). We ‘’were dead’’ (1, 5) but that is now past tense. God ‘’made us alive with Christ…raised us up with Christ…’’ (5, 6). The ‘’But God’’ at the heart of this passage has been called ‘’a mighty adversative’’. The big change hinges on this. God has graciously and mercifully and lovingly and kindly stepped in to rescue us from our spiritual enemies (4, 5, 7, and 8). Mercy and grace have been defined like this: ‘’God, in His mercy, does not give us what we do deserve; and God, in His grace, gives us what we do not deserve.’’ Everyone who belongs to Christ can truthfully say, ‘I am what I am by the grace of God. I was stone cold dead and deserved to stay dead. But the Lord came to my tomb, just like He turned up at Lazarus’s, and He called me out into life and daylight.’ (You will see how Paul hammers the point that it is God’s ‘’grace’’ that lies behind this miracle.)
So who are these spiritual enemies who hold us in a vice-like grip until Jesus rescues us? They are the world, the flesh (i.e. the sinful nature) and the devil. All three are mentioned in ( 1-3). I heard a story about a robbery that took place involving three people. During the day, one of them managed to secrete himself away inside the target premises. At night, when everyone else had gone home, he just opened the door and let his two accomplices in, and together they made off with the valuables! Sin is an ‘inside job’. The sinful nature, on the inside, opens up the entryway when the devil comes knocking, using the world as bait. We are sinners by nature and practice, and therefore we are spiritually dead in the sense of Ephesians 4: 18: ‘’separated from the life of God’’. Sin brings death. We are born in sin, and what we are by nature we quickly become by choice. So we need to be rescued by God because only He can provide a resurrection, and nothing other than resurrection life will do. So, we can say:
• We have evacuated the grave with Jesus
• We are enthroned with Jesus (6). Just think, if we are in Jesus and sharing His throne, the devil and all demonic powers are beneath our feet too (1:21ff.)
• We are exhibits for Jesus (7), displaying the kindness of God. It’s interesting that the ‘’we are God’s workmanship’’ of (10) literally means God’s ‘masterpieces’; we are His works of art. The painting does not glorify itself. People admire the painting but rightly give all the credit and praise to the artist.
What a remarkable change in our personal situations. When you live under the strong influence of the world, the flesh and the devil, you live a ‘’dead’’ life of sin, and so you are under the ‘’wrath’’ of God (3b). You are destined to face His judgment and condemnation. But what a difference the mercy and grace of God make. When God intervenes, your entire trajectory changes. You no longer ‘follow’ the ‘’ways of this world’’ (2), which are really the ways of the devil and the flesh (2, 3). Rather, you move in a whole new direction which is set for you by God Himself (10).
Prayer: Lord I marvel at your grace in my life. It truly is ‘amazing.’
Isaiah 56
‘Beat you to the prayer meeting!’ What God says is important is important! Two things stand out in this chapter as particularly vital:
- The Sabbath: Although we are not under the law, the Sabbath principle remains an important one for believers now. On this subject I can recommend an excellent book by Pete Scazzero entitled ‘Emotionally Healthy Spirituality.’ God has built into the order of the universe the need for margin in our lives. Without this we will try to cram too much in, and our health will suffer.
- Prayer: In fact, we could say corporate prayer – the prayer meeting: ‘’…and give them joy in my house of prayer.’’ (7). Because many Christians do not correlate joy and prayer in their thinking, the prayer meeting remains ‘the Cinderella of the church’, as one writer dubbed it. It is unloved, unappreciated and neglected. But what joys await us in God’s ‘’house of prayer’’. Some of them are intimated in this chapter:
- The joy of acceptance (3, 6). We Gentile ‘’Foreigners’’ have been ‘’brought near through the blood of Christ’’ (Ephesians 2:13). Because Jesus is our ‘Burnt Offering’; our ‘Sacrifice’ (7), we are ‘’accepted in the Beloved’’ (Ephesians 1:6).
- The joy of holiness (7a). Between the ages of 17 and 18, because of a house move, I travelled to school every day of the week on the bus, and I liked to go upstairs for the better view. Of course, that was where smoking was permitted. Although I was not a smoker myself, my coat wreaked of tobacco smoke. As we live in this world, even though we try to avoid its filthy, sinful pollution, this is the atmosphere that encircles us; the air we breathe. In some ways we are touched by it. But in prayer we inhale the clean fresh air of God’s Holy presence. It’s like being at the peak of a high mountain where the air is so pure. In holiness there is true pleasure. Compare this with Israel’s blind guides who were seeking their pleasures in fleeting things; in poor and pale substitutes. You might say they weren’t just sitting amid the smokers; they were themselves smoking! God had much better things for them on His ‘’holy mountain’’ ; in His ‘’house of prayer’’. But this they rejected, to their own ruin, and that of their people. It is a part of the church’s very identity to be a temple of prayer.
- The joy of praying people into the Kingdom (7b, 8). We Gentiles have been joined to believing Jews in the House of God. But the Lord has still more to gather ‘’besides those already gathered’’. We can know the joy of partnering with God to pray them in.
- The joy of knowledge and understanding (10, 11). There is insight and perspective given to those who seek the Lord. Israel’s ‘’watchmen’’ missed out on this. They were playing when they should have been praying. The need for praying leaders in the church will never go out of date. What joy it is to us when God imparts His wisdom and revelation. If you stay in the smoky atmosphere on top of the bus and never climb prayer mountain your vision will inevitably remain foggy.
The ‘’house of prayer’’ belongs to God, but He calls us to it. Real and lasting joy cannot be divorced from prayer. I have reached a point in my life where I cannot conceive of the joyful life apart from having prayer at the heart of everything. God-centredness and joy go together.
Prayer: Lord pour upon us the Spirit of prayer so that we want to come to your ‘’holy mountain’’.
Isaiah 55: 8-13
‘Let it snow…’ (And let it rain too!) God doesn’t think or work as we do. He is God, so His thoughts and ways are inevitably ‘’higher’’ than ours (8, 9): ‘’As the heavens are higher than the earth’’. So the question is, ‘How will these high thoughts and ways come down to affect us at ‘ground-level’? The answer is, ‘By means of God’s ‘’word’’ ‘(10, 11). His ‘’thoughts’’ and ‘’ways’’ are revealed in His Word. That Word is like ‘’the rain and the snow’’ which falls ‘’down from heaven’’ and is productive in this world, causing growth and fruitfulness. It may seem to be wasted, but it isn’t.There is a huge, indeed immeasurable, gulf between God’s infinite Mind, and our puny, finite minds. How can that be bridged? By means of God’s refreshing Word. The Bible doesn’t tell us everything there is to know, but it does reveal everything God wants us to know; all that we need to know in order to be saved by Him.
So, we can be encouraged by these thoughts:
- God’s prophetic Word is effective: God was going to restore the exiled captives among His people (12, 13). He had said this again and again through Isaiah. What He had said, that He would do. In fact, from our perspective we can say ‘This He has done!’ In these verses we can also catch a glimpse of the ultimate coming of God’s Kingdom, and this He will do. God’s speaking and His working cannot be separated; His Word is as good as His act.
- God’s written Word is effective: It is like rain and snow falling on our hearts, changing the inner (and outer) landscape, making us fruitful and beautiful. People don’t always like rain and snow, and as God’s Word falls on us it can sometimes feel like being caught in unpleasant weather. But His Word goes to work on us and changes us – even when we are not aware of anything much happening.
- God’s preached Word is effective: Generations of preachers have drawn strength from these words. They have visited this well; this oasis in the wilderness and found refreshment. How many times have we heard these words quoted in prayer meetings? They are true. We can count on them. We may not see results from our preaching. Or, we may not see all possible results. But results there will be if we are preaching God’s Word and not using a ‘snow machine’. It’s got to be the real thing.
‘’Just as rain and snow descend from the skies and don’t go back until they’ve watered the earth, Doing their work of making things grow and blossom, producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry, so will the words that come out of my mouth not come back empty-handed. They’ll do the work I sent them to do, they’ll complete the assignment I gave them.’’ The Message.
Prayer: How I thank you Lord that your Word is ‘’living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates…it judges…’’ (Hebrews 4:12). Thank you that it works effectively in our lives to change us into the likeness of Christ.
Isaiah 55:1-7
‘’Come…Listen…Seek…’’ Verse 2 poses a relevant question: ‘’Why do you spend your money on junk food, your hard-earned cash on cotton candy?’’ The Message. This has relevance for every day of the year, but it seems especially pertinent as we approach another Christmas. The festive round of over-indulging on drink, food and presents is about to begin. Come 2nd January, people will find that they are no more satisfied than they were last year, or any other. The binge will once more lead to the same disappointing results: feeling flat, fat, and broke (and even in debt.) And all through the year we give our time and efforts to things that cannot fill the inner void. ‘’ Why be content with that which is not real food, which does not truly satisfy? The question is addressed to the Jewish exiles in Babylon, who were becoming complacent; they were getting comfortable in Babylon. And the Lord asks them: Are you really satisfied with the things Babylon has to offer? Is this all you were created for?’’ Tom Hale: The Applied Old Testament Commentary, pages 1058, 1059.In this passage God calls His people to find their deep, true satisfaction in Him alone. The words, originally addressed to the exiles in Babylon as we have seen, have relevance to us today. We are called away from obsession with things that do not fulfil to a profound God-centeredness. The invitation says:
- ‘’Come…’’ (1). Four times in the first verse you read this word. God calls us to come to Him, and our spiritual hunger and thirst will be freely The cost to God was incalculable (Isaiah 53), but the gift to you and me is free. As you read these words in Isaiah, you may also call to mind the words of Jesus (John 4: 10, 13, 14; 7:37-39; Revelation 22:17; John 6:35). What Jesus said must have had a significant Old Testament resonance in the ears of those who heard Him. When God appeared on earth in human form He was still saying ‘’Come’’. It’s been pointed out though that it is hard to give spiritual blessings to those who don’t want them; to give the good news of the gospel to those who are disinterested. There must be ‘thirst’. ‘’Hey there! All who are thirsty, come to the water! Are you penniless? Come anyway-buy and eat! Come, buy your drinks, buy wine and milk. Buy without money-everything’s free!’’ The Message.
- ‘’Listen…’’ (2b, 3a). See also ‘’Give ear’’ and ‘’hear’’. If we come to God we must also listen to Him, if we are to benefit from being near Him. We have to ‘apply’ ourselves to His truth (as we saw a couple of days ago). ‘’Pay attention, come close now, listen carefully to my life-giving, life-nourishing words.’’ The Message.
- ‘’Seek…’’ (6, 7; see Jeremiah 29:13, 14). A life of going hard after God begins with repentance and continues down that road. It is not enough to deeply desire God’s blessings; we have to also want to progress in His ways. There is wonderful promise here for the truly repentant. But there is also an urgency; a warning that the ‘door of the ark’ will not always be open. There is a day of opportunity that will pass. So, now is the time to seek the Lord.
If we come to God, listen to Him and seek Him, turning from all He shows us to be wrong, He will make our lives ‘missional’ (5). He will attract people to Himself through us (see Titus 2:9, 10). Ultimately, the promise to David is worked out in Jesus (3; see Acts 13:34), who will bring people from all nations to Himself through the witness of His people (Matthew 28:19.)
Prayer: Lord God, I very much want to take you up on your invitation. So I come to you in order to hear your voice and obey. Please help me to do so.
Proverbs 23:10-18
Spiritual application: A friend of mine spoke about the pastor of a thriving church. When asked about the ‘secret’ of his success, this Christian leader replied, ‘I am a serious reader of the Bible.’ It was the only answer he felt he could come up with. God mightily uses people who take His Word seriously. There is much about our culture that is trite, and many Christians have a superficial relationship with the Bible. They are by no means ‘serious’ readers. They skim-read it, if they look at it all. There will come a point where the Bible will read you, if you will allow it. But it is less likely to happen if you’re just skating across the surface. Application is required for best results (12). But application is what we feel (and what we say) we don’t have time for in these busy, busy lives of ours. The poet, Davies, wrote, ‘What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare?’ The people who get the most out of the Bible take the time to ‘stand and stare’. Or, they sit and stare. Maybe, even, kneel and stare. Whatever their physical position, they give God’s Book the space to work deeply on them and change them. This is not just about gaining head knowledge; like cramming for exams. It is about opening your ‘’heart’’ as well as your ‘’ears’’. What is said in this twelfth verse about proverbs/wisdom literature, can (and I believe, must) be extended to include the entire Bible. But in this sound-bite culture, that fosters short attention spans, application does not come easily.
If we take God’s Word seriously, here are some things that will ensue:
- We will take justice seriously (10, 11): This proverb is about respecting the property rights of others; not unjustly taking their land. We have regard for those rights out of fear of God. He is the God of justice. ‘’For they have a powerful Advocate who will go to bat for them.’’ The Message. God cares for the vulnerable, and you don’t want to Have Him for an opponent.
- We will take discipline seriously (13, 14): A clear sign that our society has moved the ‘’ancient boundary stone’’ of God’s Word is seen in the erosion of proper, loving discipline in the home and the classroom. In too many ways and at too many times children are allowed to rule. Things have been turned on their heads. It’s madness! Furthermore, the consequences are immeasurably bad. The Bible does not advocate cruelty, but there is a right application of discipline that brings wisdom (15, 16). The word ‘’withhold’’ (13) causes me to think that it is a form of robbery if we fail to discipline our children. We owe it to them to bring correction. ‘’Don’t be afraid to correct your young ones; a spanking won’t kill them. A good spanking, in fact, might save them from something worse than death.’’ The Message.
- We will not envy the people around us who close God out of their lives (17, 18). Through God’s Word we are given perspective and insight. We are enabled to see life clearly; to see through to the true nature of things. Why be jealous of people who are going to end up in Hell? Why would anyone want to change places with them? People who are going to ‘’be left with an armload of nothing.’’ The Message.
- Our lives will be saturated in reverence for God. We will be ‘’zealous’’ in fearing Him – wanting His honour and glory above all else.
Prayer: Lord God, people have given their lives to make it possible for me to read the Bible. Help me, then, to read it with the utmost seriousness.
Psalm 109:21-31
The psalms show that we can be ‘honest to God’.
This is a vulnerable prayer (22): There are times when we need to admit that we’ve been cut and we are bleeding. If you attempt to suppress the hurt it will come out in some other way. The best thing we can do with our wounds is to bring them into the presence of God for His healing. ‘’Do thy friends, despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer? In His arms He’ll take and shield thee. Thou wilt find a solace there.’’ I wonder if the writer of that much-loved hymn had this psalm in mind when he wrote those beautiful words. As we saw when we looked at the first part of the psalm, there were people who were being bad to David, when he had only ever done good to them. No wonder he was in pain. This was a gross injustice.
This is an intense prayer (24): I read about the ‘Full gospel church’ in Seoul , Korea. At the time it was internationally known as the largest church in the world. They had a place called ‘Prayer Mountain’ – a prayer centre up in the hills behind the city. I remember reading that when the Christians in that church had a problem, many of them would go to ‘prayer mountain’ for a few days. They would book themselves into a rather spartan room, with not much in the way of furniture (or heating!). And they would pray and fast, and come away with answers. Some Christians today look askance when you mention fasting, but Jesus did say ‘’When you fast…’’ (Matthew 6:16), and it remains a legitimate and important form of prayer. Somebody once said to me, ‘It’s your body praying.’ There come times when you may need to set yourself to ‘pray through to breakthrough’ and fasting may be part of that.
This is a prayer for God’s glory (27): David desired a work of God that would be for the glory of God. He wanted the Lord to intervene and for everyone to see that He had done this. ‘’Then they’ll know that your hand is in this, that you, GOD, have been at work.’’ The Message. ‘’His desire is not simply for a solution but for such a solution as is unmistakably an act of God and a public vindication of spiritual reality (31).’’ J.A. Motyer: ‘New Bible Commentary, p.560
This is a confident prayer (28-31): David had full expectation that God would do what he was asking of Him.
‘’For the believer, in every situation, another set of factors operates. However numerous and vicious foes may be, however trying and disastrous our circumstances, there is always But you, O Sovereign Lord…’’ J.A. Motyer: ‘New Bible Commentary, p.560.
Prayer: Thank you Lord that when the outlook is gloomy the ‘up look’ is always bright.
Ephesians 1:15-23
It is a remarkable thought that Jesus has been made to be ‘’head over everything for the church.’’ (Underlining mine.) He has been put in that topmost position for our sakes, and this has application to prayer.
Many years ago, when I was a pastor at ‘Bridge Street Church’ in Leeds, I arrived early one evening for a men’s meeting. I found the door to the cellar open, and there was a light on. So I made my way down the steps to see who might be there. But before I set eyes on anyone, I heard the voice of the church’s head usher. He was a lovely, practical man, whose heart was in serving the Lord. What came to my ears was the sound of someone pouring out his heart to His Saviour. I beat a hasty retreat. I felt I was trespassing on sacred ground. I probably learned more about him in those moments than at any other time. When you overhear someone praying, you feel their heartbeat. What’s that saying? ‘’What a man is on his knees before God, that he is and nothing more.’’
In today’s reading we stumble across Paul on his knees, and we get to take his pulse. I find it challenging to think how persistent Paul was in both praise and prayer (16, 17: ‘’I have not stopped giving thanks…I keep asking…’’ ) Paul saw positive qualities in the believers he was writing to (or, rather he had ‘’heard’’ about these characteristics) and He thanked the triune God who was shaping their lives and prayed for yet more of His transforming activity. Do you remember what I said yesterday about the Trinitarian format? Well, here it is again. The Son, the Father and the Spirit are mentioned in (16, 17). So what did Paul ask?
- That they would know God better (17): He knew that this could only happen by virtue of ‘’wisdom and revelation’’ imparted by the Spirit;
- That they would have insight into the future God has prepared for them (18a): He prays for heart knowledge of this ‘’hope’’;
- That they would know how rich they are because of God (18b – OR, how rich God is because of them; see Deut.32:9. It is not totally clear whether this ‘’glorious inheritance’’ is ours or His. Of course, both realities are true, regardless of the meaning here.)
- That they would know the power available to the church (19-23). Remarkably, this ‘’incomparably great power for us who believe’’ is like the power that raised Jesus from the dead and put Him on the throne of the universe. ‘’All this energy issues from Christ: God raised him from death and set him on a throne in deep heaven, in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule. And not just for the time being, but forever. He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ’s body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.’’ The Message. Remember that God gave Jesus all this power and control ‘’for the church’’.
‘’Thou art coming to a King; large petitions with thee bring. For His grace and power are such, none can ever ask too much.’’
Prayer: Thank you Lord for the stupendous power available to us.
