Author Archives: Joe

Random observations on The Seven Churches of Asia minor

Posted on by
Reply

(14th article on the Seven Churches of Asia Minor)

FALSE REPUTATION.  Back then as now, people fake their credentials in order to fool the gullible.  

I’ve known of people to create Christian testimonies and pass themselves off as having had a sordid past.  Why? To manufacture empathy, perhaps, or to impress the more timid souls in church who would never venture to live such a ragged, rugged life.

There were a lot of impostors in these seven churches.  Consider…

In the church at Ephesus, they had people who called themselves apostles and they were not. (Revelation 2:2).  Who were they fooling?  They were trying to fool the membership of the church. God’s people are known to give great honors and generous gifts to those they esteem highly.  These impostors wanted the reward they were not entitled to.

In Smyrna, they had people who called themselves Jews and were not, but were actually a synagogue of Satan.  (2:9).  (Who would know this better than the Lord of Heaven and earth, who knows the secrets of everyone’s hearts!)  Who were they fooling?  Themselves and no one else.

Thyatira had a woman whom Jesus calls a Jezebel.  She called herself a prophetess, but was a deceiver.  (2:20)  Who was she deceiving?  Perhaps herself,  but clearly a good number of people who were in big trouble if they did not wake up and repent.

The Sardis church had a reputation that they were alive, but they were dead.  (3:1)  Who were they fooling?  The chamber of commerce, probably.

Continue reading →

The most revolutionary, world-changing thing the Lord Jesus ever said

Posted on by
5

“Love your enemies.”  (Matthew 5:44 and Luke 6:27),

“Father, forgive them.  They know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

This article is in two parts.  The first part is an illustration of the principle; the second part explains the revolutionary principle from our Lord.

Part One. 

He sat on the upper deck of the United States warship Missouri and watched the so-called Peace Proceedings that put an end to the Second World War in the Pacific.  General Douglas MacArthur, representing the United States, said something which brought a sneer to his lips.

Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.”

Fuchida’s historian writes: “Fuchida listened skeptically.  He had doubted his own emperor when he spoke of everlasting peace, and he didn’t believe the general now.  no, he thought, you are wrong, MacArthur. Peace isn’t coming to the world.  more trouble is coming.”

Mitsuo Fuchida knew that war is the natural state of mankind. People are selfish, and their interests conflict. As long as people have lived on earth, there have been wars, and there will be wars until the end.  It’s natural and normal.  There’s no way to end it.

Then one day months after the war’s end, Fuchida was talking to some former POWs who had just returned from internment in the United States. That’s when he began hearing of another way.

Some of those imprisoned in the U.S. told of a young American social worker named Peggy Covell who had been so kind to them, even though the Japanese were her sworn enemies

On one occasion, Fuchida learned the reason for her kindnesses.

Continue reading →

The people of God are special: Handle with care

Posted on by
1

“I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14).

Before the mediator delivered his decision in a church lawsuit which had been kicked into his domain, the adjudicator said, “I am well aware that in rendering my decision, I am dealing with the fine china of people’s lives.”

We interpret that to mean he was taking great care to get it right, knowing that people could be hurt, lives could be shattered.

We appreciate those who exercise such caution and wish the crazy driver on the highway would be as thoughtful.

Every pastor who stands in the pulpit on the Lord’s Day to proclaim God’s word would do well to keep that in mind.  You are dealing with people destined for eternity, souls for whom Christ died, those who were loved from the foundation of the world.  People indwelt by the Holy Spirit, redeemed by the blood of Christ, commissioned by God to do His work in the world.

They are His children and we are to be careful.

Continue reading →

My suggestion to the pastors….

Posted on by
1

“From Miletus, (Paul) sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church.  And when they had come to him, he said  to them, ‘You know, from the first day that I came to Asia, in what manner I always lived among you, serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears and trials which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews; how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house….” (Acts 20:17ff)

I’ve been asked to speak to the pastors.  I’m delighted with the assignment.

Being a lifelong pastor–well, almost; I was called into the ministry 58 years ago this April–this is my group.  I have loved pastors all my life, literally, going back to the earliest memory of my childhood.  When I hear of a pastor being honored by God’s people, I rejoice.  And when I hear of one being turned out into the cold by God’s people–as I heard this week; abruptly, no severance, nothing!–I hurt as though they had done this to me personally.

Two invitations have come in recently which I hope is going to start a new trend.

Dr. Will Wall is the director of missions for the Pine Belt Baptist Association, which is the Hattiesburg, MS area.  Dr. Barry Joiner holds the same position for the Concord-Union Baptist Association in the Ruston, LA area.  Without either knowing what the other was doing, they each issued the same invitation: Spend time with a meeting of their pastors to talk about “things.”

Will’s invitation is for Monday, February 4.  Barry’s invite is for September 19.

I encourage these leaders to invite pastors to submit subjects or questions or issues they’d like me to tackle.  And I’ll add my own.

Here are questions that have been raised, for me to address….

Continue reading →

If there is a God and God is like Jesus, then, what’s the problem?

Posted on by
1

“Come now and let us reason together” (Isaiah 1:18). 

“Why should it be thought incredible by you that God should raise the dead?”  (Acts 26:8).

If there is a God, and if this God is the omnipotent Creator of the universe, then a thousand questions are settled.

–If God is God, then raising the dead should be no big deal.  After all, He made the universe of nothing and made humans from the dust of the earth, so anything after that should be a piece of cake.

–If this God exists, then the Person of Jesus Christ with all that Scripture affirms about Him is completely logical.  Jesus said, “No one has been to Heaven except the One who came from there, even the Son of Man,” referring to Himself (John 3:13).

–If God is God, then a Virgin Birth is no more miraculous than any other birth, which is to say, every birth is a miracle of the highest order.  Ask any new parent holding their treasure for the first time.

–If God is God, then the miracles Jesus worked during His earthly years were little more than child’s play.  Turn water to wine, feed thousands with a child’s lunch, heal the blind, raise the dead.  This is the God who spoke the worlds into being (Hebrews 11:3). What’s the problem?

Continue reading →

What Paul said to young pastors still applies.

Posted on by
3

“Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity” (I Timothy 4:11-12).

Most of us started preaching when we were young.

We automatically made a ton of mistakes.  it just goes with the territory, and no young minister should beat himself up over it.

Young preachers can  be shallow, silly, arrogant, sloppy, and most of all ignorant.   I’ve been a young preacher and at one time or the other, was all of those.

When I began preaching, as a college student, I filled my messages with slang and preached a lot of things I’d heard and thought about (but not thought through!), but very little from the Word.

I didn’t know enough of the Word to be able to preach it.

When I began preaching, I searched the Scripture for texts which would lend themselves to my shallow, superficial type of preaching.  I wanted catchy phrases, clear and picturesque sentences which would encourage me to venture out with creative ideas of my own, which I would then attempt to adapt to scripture (!).

I didn’t know any better.  I had never made an attempt to learn the Scriptures, but had heard messages from all over the place, many of them the very kind of preaching I was now attempting.  To say I’d not had exemplary role models is an understatement.

My college preparation had been for the classroom, not for the pulpit. I had not been to seminary.   And even after I got to seminary, I didn’t suddenly become mature and wise and smart.

I’m still working on that.

Continue reading →

How God called me into His ministry (My personal testimony)

Posted on by
1

“Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?  Then said I, ‘Here am I, Lord. Send me.”  Isaiah 6. 

“I was not disobedient to that heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19). 

I was 21 years old and a senior in college.  Our church was having a revival of the type you never hear about any more:  Two weeks long with over 400 people saved.  Pastor Bill Burkett baptized 250 of them.  On Tuesday night of the second week, the living God found me singing in the choir during the invitation.  “Jesus Paid It All.”  We were singing it non-stop as the flow of people to the altar seemed unending.  (We sang the same invitational song every night, so there’s no question on what we were singing!)

Suddenly, it felt like a curtain was being opened in my mind.  And the voice of God, that strong presence that I would come to know intimately over a long ministry, registered His presence and His message:  “I want you in the ministry.”  A thought completely new to me.  Something from outside, yet inside me.  Surprising, unexpected, not my voice.  But just as surely, I knew it was the voice of God.

It felt right.  Assuring.  Powerful.

I thought, “If this is really the Lord–and I know it is–it’ll still be here tomorrow night and I’ll go forward and announce it to the church then,” as was our custom.  And just that promptly the answer came: “This is the Lord and you know it is the Lord and there is no point in waiting.”  I remember thinking, “That’s true.”  I stepped out of the choir, walked down to the floor level, took the hand of Pastor Burkett and said, “God has just called me into the ministry.”  I have no memory of what he said.  He presented me to the congregation a few minutes later, along with all those who had come to be saved.  My friends came by to speak to me.

I was the only one surprised.

Continue reading →

Laodicea: The complacent caboose! (Last of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor)

Posted on by
Reply

(Thirteenth of our articles on the Seven Churches of Asia Minor.  Revelation 1-3)

“And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write: ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the beginning of the creation of God:  ‘I know your works….'”  (Revelation 3:14ff).

Pastor Jim Phillips (North Greenwood Baptist Church, Greenwood, MS) was telling the congregation last Sunday night about his ordination into the ministry over 30 years back.  As he knelt for the laying on of hands–an interminable period when deacons and ministers slowly file by, placing hands atop his head and whispering words of challenge, encouragement or a prayer–finally, it was Pastor Frank Pollard’s turn.  He whispered words Jim would never forget:  “I’m the last; you can get up now.”

Not exactly what he’d been expecting.

Laodicea is the last.  The final stop on our tour of seven interesting churches of the western half of present-day Turkey.

You can get up now.

Certainly the first of the seven churches–Ephesus which had lost its first love–and the last–Laodicea, lukewarm and repulsive to the Lord–are the most unforgettable.  And probably the two most like ourselves and our own churches.  So many of our churches today imitate Ephesus and go about their work routinely and robotically, forgetting to love one another, while others imitate Laodicea in being neither fervent nor frigid but somewhere in the sickening in-between.  The Lord is neither impressed nor amused.

The city–

We’re told Antiochus II founded the city and named it for his wife Laodice.  It had much going for it:

–It was a rich city, the center of banking for the surrounding region.

–It was a manufacturing center noted for the quality of its black wool.

–It was a medical center.  The local medical school produced an eye salve much in demand.

Three Roman roads converged there.  And when an earthquake devastated the city, the fathers rejected Rome’s offer to fund the rebuilding and and took care of it themselves.  There was also a large Jewish population here.

Continue reading →

Philadelphia: “What’s stopping you?” ( Sixth of the 7 churches of Asia Minor)

Posted on by
1

(twelfth article in our series on the Seven Churches of Asia Minor)

“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These things says He who is holy, He who is true, He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens: ‘I know your works….'”  (Revelation 3:7ff) 

When the Lord begins a conversation by telling you He is holy, He is true, and that He has the keys–always a symbol of authority!!–then, you and I had better listen up because He has something mighty important in mind.

What He had in mind was this church with great assets moving out and doing significant things in the Kingdom.

The Lord said to this church, “When I open a door, it stays open.  And when I close one, no one can open it afterwards!”  How wonderful–and how ominous–is that!

This church–

Called the missionary church.  The excited church.  The church of the open door.  The faithful church.  The church at Philadelphia goes by all kinds of names and titles.  It and Smyrna are the only two of the seven churches without black marks by their names.  Professor Ivan Parke (Mississippi College) says, “You would love to receive their mail!”

How about a church named “Brotherly Love.”  Contrast this with the church at Ephesus that had left its first love.  Evidently, Philadelphia believers are living up to their name since the Lord said nothing negative to them.

The city of Philadelphia–

Even a child knows the meaning of that name:  “The city of brotherly love.”  What might come as a surprise to some is that the city was founded by a brother in honor of his brother  whom he did indeed love.

Continue reading →

Sardis: “The Zombie Church!” (Fifth of the 7 churches of Asia Minor)

Posted on by
Reply

(eleventh article in our series on the Seven Churches of Asia Minor.  Revelation 1-3)

“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write:  ‘These things says He who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars: ‘I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive–but you are dead”  (Revelation 3:1ff).

A seminary student once told me the only thing he feared was zombies.  I said, “Zombies?  Zombies!! They are figments of someone’s warped imagination, friend.  There is no such thing.”  But I may have been wrong.  We might have a zombie church in the city of Sardis.  Let’s look at it.

The church is known by various names in commentaries: The Liberal Church; dead church; lazy, clueless, and “The weak church, one on life support.”

Jesus had only rebuke for this congregation.

The city—

Sardis was some six hundred years old.  It’s glory was its past.  It was wealthy but degenerate. It had been a capital city and administrative center for the Persian government, but was in decline now.

Five roads converged on Sardis.  That was great for commerce. The area was noted for its colored woolen fabrics.

Twice in its history the city had been defeated because its citizens were too lazy to defend themselves.  Located 1500 feet about the surrounding plain, the city should have been impregnable.  but it wasn’t.  The two times it was defeated (529 BC by Cyrus and 216 BC by Antiochus), the watchmen were asleep.  So the city had a false sense of confidence.

The citizens worshiped a nature god named Cybele (pronounced as though it were Sybil).

The church–

Had a better reputation than it deserved.  One writer said it was located at the corner of Self-Satisfaction and Complacency Streets.  Know any churches like that?  Pity their pastors!

Continue reading →