Timothy, This is How Christ Saves the Chief of Sinners - Paul's 3 Great Sins and 3 Praises (1 Timothy 1:12-14)

Read Paul's conversion in Acts 9

“I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus”

(1 Timothy 2:12-14, ESV)

The apostle Paul himself was living proof of the saving power of “the gospel of the glory of the blessed God” (v.11) which he preached. I imagine he burst into praise for what God had done in his life and made it all possible for him to preach the gospel “which [he] have been entrusted” (v.11). Here in verse 12, Paul gives thanks to Christ for 3 things that made him what he was:

First, he gives credit to Christ who give him “strength.” I recalls what Paul writes in Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” I often heard people whining, complaining and making excuses that they don’t have this and that, and so they never did anything great for God. This is sin! If we are God’s people, He has given you everything you need according to what God’s call you to be and do. Christ will enable you, He will give you strength. Second, Paul thanked Christ for counting him faithful. The Lord “judged me faithful.” Paul was faithful, intense and zealous Pharisee who persecuted Christians. But when Christ called him, he became faithful, intense and zealous apostle of Christ. Faithfulness – this is the one virtue that is essential in God’s work. Last of all, Paul praises Christ for the privilege of being in the ministry. Christ “appointing me to his service” or ministry. He was convinced he was in the place where God had put him. Dear preachers, missionaries, pastors, teachers and all ministers, are you convince that you are where you’re appointed to be? If yes, draw your strength from Him, be faithful to the end and praise Him for calling you in the ministry.

As I read verse 13, I thought that every Christian has things of the past that he wishes had never happened, Paul included. He must have felt that his conduct was the worst of all. Just as there were 3 things for which he thanked Christ, he now mentions 3 great sins he did in the past. First, Paul says he was a “blasphemer.” Before he became Christian, Paul (in his conscious, Acts 23:1) never blasphemed against the God of Israel, he was only against the Lord Jesus Christ. But after his conversion, he understood that his blasphemed against Jesus Christ is the same as blasphemed against God. He also says he was a “persecutor” (read Acts 8-9). He was there when Stephen, the first martyr was stoned and he was the one who ‘hunted’ Christians all over Israel and beyond. If you want to see how zealous Paul was in persecuting early Christians, I recommend you to watch TV series A.D. The Bible Continues, very well acted! Lastly, the worst of all, Paul was a man of evil-harsh-violent. The word is “insolent” or “injurious” which I’m not familiar with. He was evil both in his heart and in how he treated Christians. I bet Paul was not proud of these things but he did not minimize the magnitude of his sin.

But with all of these horrible sins, Paul “received mercy because [he] had acted ignorantly in unbelief” (v.13). “Acted ignorantly” because all of it were done not intentionally against God (when I studied Book of Leviticus, there is no provision made for wilful sin against God, but for sin through ignorance, there is! See Leviticus 15:27-31). Paul, an ardent student of the Scripture, should have recognized Jesus as the Messiah but he didn’t. He was an ignorant. He said of himself “the chief of sinners” (see 1 Timothy 1:16 and Galatians 1). “But I received mercy,” he said. Not just mercy, but also “the grace of our Lord” (v.14). Not just grace but grace “overflow” or “exceeding abundant.” I like to use the word “super-abounding” – grace abounding on top of grace! That like putting superlative on top of superlative! It is said that grace is when God gives us what we don't deserve and mercy is when God doesn't give us what we do deserve. Paul experiences mercy and grace. Eugene Peterson paraphrases verse 14 wonderfully: “Grace mixed with faith and love poured over me and into me. And all because of Jesus.” Hoahhh! Wow!

Are you a sinner? Worst sinner?

There is hope, come and see, Jesus is the Saviour!

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Jesus Lives WITH Us and IN Us Because of the Holy Spirit

“[Jesus said] “If you love me, obey me; and I will ask the Father and he will give you another Comforter, and he will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit who leads into all truth. The world at large cannot receive him, for it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you do, for he lives with you now and some day shall be with you… I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. But when the Father sends the Comforter instead of me – and by the Comforter I mean the Holy Spirit – he will teach you much, as well as remind you of everything I myself have told you”

(John 14:15-17; 25-26, The Living Bible)

A lot we can expound from passages above, but I just want to focus on the subject of the Holy Spirit here. Lord Jesus now promised His followers they would experience His presence more fully and intimately because the Father would send them the Holy Spirit. The expression “another Comforter” or “another Advocate” in some translations implies that Jesus was the first and the Spirit would be the same kind of “Comforter.” When Jesus would no longer be with the disciples physically, the Holy Spirit would be with them and in them, and He would “leads [them] into all truth.”

Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit (John 20:22) on the disciples just before His ascension, and the Spirit was poured out on all the believers at Pentecost (Acts 2) shortly after Jesus ascended to heaven. The Holy Spirit is the presence of God with and in the believers, helping them lives as He wants and building Christ’s church – that is, the gathering of all believers, not church building per se – on earth. In chapter 14, Jesus taught these truths about the Spirit: #1 He will be with us forever (John 14:16); #2 The world at large cannot and don’t want to receive Him (v.17); #3 He lives with us and in us (v.17); #4 He will become our Teacher (v.26) and; #5 He will reminds us of Jesus’ words a.k.a. God’s Word (v.26) [Also if you read Chapter 16, the Holy Spirit will convicts us of sin, shows us God’s righteousness, announce God’s judgement on evil, guide us into all truth, and brings glory to Jesus].

After Jesus’ crucifixion, burial and resurrection, all of these about the Holy Spirit came true. How about now? You see, Jesus did not leave the disciples – and us – alone. He is with us and in us. He is with us through His Spirit encouraging, assuring, convicting, guiding, enlightening and empowering. We need to depend on Him, listen to Him, and follow His lead. The question is: Are you living in the Spirit of Christ?

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

The evidence of Jesus’ Resurrection #6: The change in the Apostle Paul

Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus (from the movie, The Bible) 

One of the most telling examples of a person who saw Christ and whose life was transformed was the apostle Paul. He had been educated with the finest Jewish education, and he had a reputation as a well-trained and respected religious leader. Because of his position and his initial belief that Jesus and his disciples’ claims were false, he hated the new sect of Christian believers. In fact, he was present at the stoning of the first Christian martyr, Stephen (see Acts 6 and 7). Before his conversion, Paul was called Saul.

After a personal encounter with the Resurrected Christ who spoke to him (Acts 9), Paul realized that he had been fighting against the very One who had validated his universal authority through the Resurrection. The day that he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, Paul’s focus in life changed 180 degrees from the persecution of the budding Christian faith to becoming its foremost proponent and evangelist to the corners of the Roman Empire. Now Paul was fully convinced that the Resurrection was a true fact of history.

Paul’s reputation as a persecutor of the Church was so widespread that initially the Christians were afraid to accept him into their group. Eventually, Paul was imprisoned in Rome and martyred because he would not back down from proclaiming the message of the Crucified and Resurrected Christ. Paul was so convinced that the Resurrection of Jesus from the death unto life that he claimed the entire Christian faith rested on this one central truth of the Resurrection and its implications for all believers:

“And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead… And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep [died] in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits [the first to be raised to life forever] of those who have fallen asleep [died]” (1 Corinthians 15:14-15, 17-20).

The Church rapidly grew from a small band of disciples to a worldwide movement. Thousands of early believers – even Paul himself – were martyred for their faith in the first few centuries of Christianity. (Even today, Christians are persecuted for their faith). Know that they were not killing people because of their faith but being killed for their faith in Christ. The Resurrection of Jesus is truly one of the most attested events in history.

The evidence of Jesus’ Resurrection #6:
The change in the Apostle Paul

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Jesus on Forgiveness (What is an Unforgivable Sin?)

Jesus (just a pic) taught his disciple 

“Anyone who isn’t with me [Jesus] opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me. So I tell you, every sin and blasphemy can be forgiven – except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which will never be forgiven. Anyone who speaks against the Son of Man can be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, either in this world or in the world to come” (Matthew 12:30-32, NLT).

Discussions about forgiveness often get detoured by the question, “Is there a sin God can’t forgive?” Once this question has been raised, there is an almost inevitable corollary, “How to know I haven’t committed that sin?” Today’s passage certainly seems to declare that there is indeed an unforgivable sin. And blaspheming the Holy Spirit sounds suspiciously like a sin someone might commit simply by thinking about it.

So what does it mean to blaspheme or speak against the Holy Spirit? At the basic, personal level, those who worry about this probably haven’t done it! Someone who blasphemes the Holy Spirit isn’t interested in forgiveness.

Blaspheming the Holy Spirit involves invalidating or rejecting God’s most compelling move toward us. Once the Holy Spirit has appealed to us, God can go no further. If we are hardened against the approach, we have placed ourselves beyond reach of forgiveness, even if it’s offered. When Jesus described the Holy Spirit’s role in salvation, he said, “When [the Holy Spirit] comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s forgiveness, and of the coming judgment. The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me” (John 16:8-9). Unbelief in Christ is the sin we all commit and that the Holy Spirit works to convict us about. If we irrevocably turn from that conviction, we’re permanently lost. Therefore, we “will never be forgiven.”

Knowing what blaspheming the Holy Spirit is doesn’t give us the right to declare when anyone (even ourselves!) has done it. Only God ultimately knows about those who have blasphemed his Holy Spirit. Rather than worrying about offending the Spirit, we ought to invest more time in obeying the Spirit! Think about this: The Holy Spirit is God’s indwelling presence in us, starting from the moment of faith (Ephesians 1:13-14). Just as Jesus is Immanuel – “God with us” – the Holy Spirit is – “God in us.” He is not our conscience, dispensing common sense. He is the eternal wisdom – wholly God. Amen.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Promote Jesus, Not Politics

The religious leaders of the day attempted to trap Jesus by challenging him on his political stance. They asked him, “It is right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” Scripture tells us that Jesus saw through their duplicity, telling them to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.

Historically the church has struggled with the paradigm of two kingdoms: the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world. Trying to combine the two is like attempting to mix oil and water. Church history has been consistent on this matter. Every time Christianity has fallen into the trap of using politics to achieve its means, it has lost its power and effectiveness.

Relevant Christianity never loses sight of the reality that in the kingdom of God, everything is upside down when contrasted with the world’s pursuits. In God’s kingdom the greatest is the least; the first is the last; we are to love our enemies; and to be most effective, we are called to servanthood rather than to positions of political power and correctness.

John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard Church movement, once said that if people truly have a relationship with Jesus, they will always (want to) vote for the right things (“right” as in ethically and morally correct). He said that our job as followers of Christ was to promote Jesus, not political bias. Getting involved politically can potentially derail our effectiveness, causing us to lose focus on our true vision, thus weakening our cause.

As an involved participant in the Christian environmental movement, I have endeavoured to stay non-political. For me, the care of God’s creation is purely a biblical matter of obedient stewardship. The world has politically polarized an issue that should be of great concern to every human being. The global environmental condition is an issue that has become a primary cause of human suffering in developing nations.

Knowing that Christ has called his people to a ministry of compassion, mercy, and social justice, we cannot allow ourselves to be caught in the duplicity of religion and politics at such a crucial hour. Our effectiveness will come only through authentic biblical conviction and the faith to act on it.

By Tri Robinson

Pastor, Vineyard Boise, Idaho.

Quote from Unchristian by David Kinnaman and Fermi Project (Baker Books, 2007) pg. 175-176

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Stand like a Horse

“Let nothing come between you and God;

let God come between you and everything.”

(Unknown)

“Stand like a horse,” my secondary school teacher told me. I don’t know exactly what she meant by that. Maybe because I’m a skinny and weak kid I assumed she told me to be strong. Horse is not just strong but as I think about it now horse also represents stability, stamina, obedience and immoveable spirit. I’m not a feng shui guru, but in the matter of principle and spirituality, ‘Stand like a horse’ for me, mean stand for a conviction. (Do you know that horse can sleep standing up? Even while sleeping a horse can still standing up.)

It is important that people know what you stand for. It is equally important that they know what you won’t stand for. I read about Martin Luther the Reformer, in his loneliness, on his way to the Diet of Worms to appear before King Charles V and the Roman Prelate and all the princes assembled around, said,

“My cause shall be commended to the Lord for He lives and reigns who preserved the three children in the furnace of the Babylonian king. If He is unwilling to preserve me, my life is a small thing compared with Christ. Expect anything of me except flight or recantation. I will not flee, much less recant. So may the Lord Jesus strengthen me.”

Martin Luther did not say, “So may the Lord Jesus deliver me.” He did not say, “So may the Lord Jesus make it easy for me.” He actually concluded his response with the words, “Here I stand, I can do no other. So help me God.”

“Here I stand” what a conviction! Conviction is more than just a belief; it is a commitment to a belief. What you think, say, and do shows the level of your conviction. Convictions prepare you to effectively live a life of faith and to defend your faith when necessary. Keep your convictions sharp, and your life will be a great story of faith in God. In your conviction – stand like a horse!

Happy Chinese New Year 2014

May the Year of the Horse reminds you of your faith in Christ

Stand firm! Stand like a Horse!

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Saved by Smoking the Word

“That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved” (Romans 10:9-10, NIV)

Jacob Koshy grew up in Singapore with one driving ambition: to be a success in life, to gain all the money and possessions he could. That led him into the world of drugs and gambling, and eventually he became the lord of an international smuggling network. In 1980, he was arrested and placed in the government drug rehabilitation prison in Singapore.

He was frustrated beyond endurance. All his goals, purposes, dreams, and ambitions were locked up with him in a tiny cell, and his heart was full of a cold emptiness. He was a smoker, and cigarettes weren’t allowed in the center. Instead, he smuggled in tobacco and rolled it in the pages of a Gideon Bible. One day he fell asleep while smoking. He awoke to find that the cigarette had burned out, and all that remained was a scrap of charred paper. He unrolled it and read what was written: “Saul, Saul, Why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9)

Jacob asked for another Bible and read the entire story of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. He suddenly realized that if God could help someone like Saul, God could help him, too.

There in the cell he knelt and prayed, asking Christ to come into his life and change him. He began crying and couldn’t stop. The tears of a wasted life washed away his pain, and God redeemed him. He started sharing his story with the other prisoners, and as soon as he was released he became involved in a church. He met a Christian woman, married, and is now a missionary in the Far East where he tells people far and wide, “Who would have believed that I could find the truth by smoking the Word of God?”*

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

*quote from Jacob Koshy, “From Smoking the Word to Speaking the Word” in Gideon Testimonies from International Extension Countries (Nashville: The Gideons International, 1994), 59-60.

Die Today, Sure of Going to Paradise?

Imagine you die today

I have to admit it; I can be naughty sometime. “Are you sure of going to paradise?” I asked my friend. He replied, “I wish I could be sure… but there’s no way for me to know if I’m going there or hell. So I try to live a decent life – if God willing – I will go there”. “But”, I continued, “wouldn’t it be nice to be sure that if you died you would go straight to paradise?” “Be real! No one can be sure of going to paradise…” “I’m sure” I said. And then he asked how and left. He probably thinking but I was praying.

Jesus was led out to be executed on the cross together with two criminals. They were nailed. Jesus was scoffed by the religious leaders and mocked by the Roman soldiers. Even the other criminal dares to join the crowd! “One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed, ‘So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself – and us, too, while you’re at it!’ But the other criminal protested, ‘Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong’ Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom’. And Jesus replied, ‘I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise’” (Luke 23:39-42, NLT).

In essence Jesus answered him: I assure you (or ‘assuredly’. In Greek means ‘it is fixed’; ‘it cannot be changed’), today (‘that day’. Wow, that fast?!) you will be with me (Wow, with Jesus. What a privilege!) in paradise (Wow!). As soon as Jesus died and had finished taking the punishment that we deserve for our sin on the cross, as soon as he cried out, “It is finished!” (John 19:30) Jesus went immediately to his Father’s presence in paradise and the criminal who put his trust in and believe in Jesus went with him. His faith that saw beyond the present shame of Jesus to his coming glory saved him. The criminal confessed and repented of his sin (though there was no way for him to show the evidences of his conversion).

How can we get to paradise? Jesus is the way. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6) Life Application Study Bible rightly comments the verse: “As the way, Jesus is our path to the Father. As the truth, he is the reality of all God’s promises. As the life, he joins his divine life to ours, both now and eternity. Jesus is, in truth, the only living way to the Father”.

The faithful criminal don’t have to do good works, there was no way for him to put right the past, no money to give to the poor, no time to perform fasting, don’t have to be a special person, don’t have to be in a special place, don’t have to say special words or prayers, don’t have to have special accomplishments – all he have was faith in Jesus. By God’s grace through faith in Christ, he was saved (Note: Good works doesn’t save us, but we are saved for good works. True Christians will do good works if they really are being saved. Faith produces work).

Saved from what? He is saved (or set free) from the penalty of sin. He is saved (or delivered) from the power of sin. He shall be saved (or freed) from the presence of sin. One day Jesus Christ will come back to judge the world. On that day, he will punish those who rejected him, but those who trusted in him and followed his commands will be rewarded. He will deliver them from the presence of sin. And be with God.

I tell you, you can be sure of going to paradise.

I ask you, will you be there?

Will you confess your sin to God and give your heart and life to Jesus Christ?

“Entrance into paradise is a gift from God,
received through faith in Jesus Christ” (E.M. Hicham)

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Jim Elliot's Short Story and My Personal Plea for Evangelism

Jim Elliot’s Short Story

Philip James Elliot or widely known as Jim Elliot (1927-1956) was an evangelical Christian who was killed for his passion to spread the Good News about Christ. Before he was called to become an evangelist, he was an ordinary common man. He was a young wrestler, good looking guy, and had a tough body. He was also deeply spiritual young man. Every morning he arose at 5.00am or 5.30pm (most of his biographers said so) and read his Bible and made notes in his diary.

One day, in his praying about the people overseas, he thought to himself,

“Why shouldn’t I go? There is one minster for every 500 people in the United States and one for every 500,000 overseas. Why shouldn’t I go?”

And he went. He went overseas because of his concern for the lost souls. He was one of five missionaries killed while participating in Operation Auca, an attempt to evangelize the Waodani people of Ecuador. His body was found at the downstream river, along with those of the other men. Their dead were not tragic but triumph. Jim Elliot was murdered and die – yes – but his legacy continue until today and never die.

After his death, they found, scattered along the shore, a river-soaked diary. In it Jim Elliot had written, “Make me a crisis man, O Lord; not just a sign-post on the highway of life, but a fork in the road so that men who meet me will come to know Jesus Christ” Also in his diary he expresses his belief that work dedicated to Jesus was more important than his life: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose”. All these started when he asked God, “Why shouldn’t I go?”

A Personal Plea

Friends, my Christian friends, do you know? The 2010 Population and Housing Census Report revealed that there approximately only 9.2% Christians in Malaysia; within it only 8.8% of Bumiputra, 11% of Chinese, 6% of Indian and 12.1 % of other ethnics. 11.5% of the rural population and 7.6% of the urban population are adherents to Christianity.

With these percentages in mind, what does it tells you? For me, as I think about it and as I read and write Jim Elliot’s short story above, one heart-warming feet-moving word from Jesus comes to mind: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20, ESV) Jesus had issued a clear call and revealed His will to us; now ask yourself, “Why shouldn’t I go?”

I plea with you my concern Christian friends: GO and spread the Good News about Christ with His power, not by force and human authority; GO by the Spirit and the love of Christ, not by gun and sword; GO and be killed, not killing people; GO and joyfully proclaim the righteousness of God, not just sitting around in your comfort zone. Ask God, “Why shouldn’t I go?” – Malaysia needs the Lord.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

The Tug of Conviction in Our Hearts

A boy was once flying a kite and a passerby, looking up in the sky and not able to see the kite because of its height, asking him,

“What are you doing?”

“Flying my kite”, he replied.

“How do you know it’s there? You can’t see it”

The boy smiled, “I can feel the tug on the string”

Perhaps we can’t see God, but we can feel the tug of conviction He puts in our hearts, and we can go on faith believing His promises. But I was thinking, how to know His promises? How to go on faith believing? And the answer is: thru God’s Word, the Scripture. D.L. Moody’s famous quotes: “Some say that faith is the gift of God. So is the air, but you have to breathe it; so is bread, but you have to eat it. Some are wanting some miraculous kind of feeling. That is not faith. ‘Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God’ (Romans 10:17). That is whence faith comes. It is not for me to sit down and wait for faith to come stealing over me with a strong sensation, but it is for me to take God at His Word”.

Have faith in God and His promises

Faith that comes by hearing the Word of God

To strengthen the tug of conviction He puts in our hearts

To obey and love our Christ the Lord

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.