Paul - the beast becomes beast-catcher

At the end of Acts 7 and beginning of Acts 8 Paul, then called Saul, is the beast who opposes the church. He spends his time "ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison." 8v3.
In Chapter 9 Christ knocks him off his horse and he stumbles around blind. This encounter converts him and notice in 9v18 "something like scales fell from his eyes". The beast loses his scales. He then becomes the primary focus of Acts in the second half of the book as the gospel goes to the gentiles. This Jewish beast becomes the key evangelist of the gentile world. Who is the head of the gentile world? Who is the most ferocious beast of all who will so terribly persecute the church? Caesar in Rome. Acts ends with Paul travelling to Rome to tame the beast. Whilst he may have ended up dying there, his ministry and the church he supported there becomes the seed for the conversion of Constantine years later and the formal Christianisation of the Roman world. God in his sovereignty can use the greatest opponents of the gospel and by converting them use them to win over the world.

The significance of Golgotha

Nothing in the Bible is incidental. So what is the significance of Jesus being crucified "at Golgotha (the place of the Skull) " according to Mark 15v22?
Rev 12 tells us that the serpent in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3 is that great dragon Satan.
God's promise to Eve in Gen 3v15 that her seed will strike this beast's head and he will only bruise his heel sounds far from impressive if we think of it only as a tiny snake. Eve could have crushed it's head herself. But if it is a mighty beast then bruising its unreachable head sounds far more impressive. How will mankind ever conquer Satan, sin and death?
When David, God's great king, encounters the mighty beast of a man Goliath in 1 Sam 17 we learn some important things. Goliath is about 10 feet tall and he is from Gath. A beast of a man.
How does David kill him? By bruising his unreachable head with a stone and then chopping off his head and bringing it back to Jerusalem 1 Sam 17v54. Because Jerusalem was the holy city this would have been hung outside the city, not inside. Where?
Gol-Gath-a. A contraction of Goliath of Gath. The place of his giant skull.
So Jesus, the Son of David, comes along and dies at Golgotha, there defeating and disarming the mighty Leviathan Satan Col 2v13-15 and putting him to shame. How? By his feet being BRUISED and pierced on the tree as he dies for our sins winning forgiveness and redemption and new life for sinful mankind.
Joshua 10v24 says that defeated kings were humiliated by the victors placing their feet on the losing Kings' necks. Jesus, the victorious King's feet at the cross rest on The Place of the Skull. Death has been defeated by Jesus!
Hallelujah!

Amazing Bible teaching - Jim Jordan & Biblical Horizons

I have just been introduced to an American Bible teacher called James Jordan and whilst I’ve only listened to a dozen talks or so I must say it is the most electrifying Bible teaching I have ever heard in my life. Despite going to Bible college for several years listening to Jordan makes me realise how narrow my understanding of the Bible has been previously and how much more seriously I must take every word – especially Old Testament imagery and themes. It feels like the blinkers have fallen off my eyes and I’ve seen the vistas of how rich God’s word truly is. Get hold of this stuff – there’s nuggets every 5 seconds!
The website is www.wordmp3.com and his section is under “Biblical Horizons”. Start with his teaching on Biblical worldview – the Garden of God. There is a free sample of talk 1 of this set at
http://www.wordmp3.com/ministry/?id=bh
I truly believe God’s word has the power to transform this world and so we must get this rich teaching into as many hands/ears as possible.
His website is http://www.biblicalhorizons.com/

Job's basic point

The contrast between the discussion in the heavenly realms in Job 1 and what is discussed by Job and his 'comforters' in the following chapters is the key to understanding the book and the best way into finding strength in the midst of suffering.
The discussion in heaven in the opening of the book is "If Job suffers will he sin?" i.e. will suffering lead to sin. See 1v10-11 "You have blessed the work of his hands...But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face."
But the whole discussion between Job and his friends is over whether sin has led to his suffering. Do you see the opposite? Not does suffering lead to sin, but does sin lead to suffering.
Job's 'comforters' are firmly entrenched in the doctrinal position that suffering is always caused by sin, therefore Job must have sinned because he is suffering. But Job again and again affirms his innocence and is baffled by his suffering.
Jesus says in Luke 13 when asked about some people that had suffered,
"Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."
Suffering is not necessarily because of any sin in our lives but simply part of a cursed world and affects everyone. (notice Jesus describes everyone as sinful, rather than some good or bad)
What should concern us is what was discussed in heaven in Job 1 and what Jesus reaffirms here - when we suffer, will we sin and curse God? How we respond to suffering is what matters. Knowing that it was not necessarily our sin that caused it is a comfort. Job and Jesus point us to what our concern should be - how we respond - are we bitter about it or concerned to still honour God? And Jesus points us to the correct perspective - the eternal one. We may be suffering now, but there is the hope of a a place where there will be no suffering or pain - the bodily resurrection to be with Jesus in glory on the final day. The key question then is whether we are ready for that, to which Jesus says make sure we repent and so don't perish instead on the final day.

Cessationism's hermeneutic

Just dawned on me the bizarre hermeneutic that cessationism uses:
"Now that the Bible canon is complete we can't trust what the Bible says e.g. 'eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophecy', 'don't despise prophecy' etc."
So because the New Testament is now complete we can't trust what it says???? Isn't this just liberalism by the back door by the very evangelicals that claim the Bible is their primary authority?
The Briefing (March, p11) recently quoted Mark Driscoll's comment "I had been basically a theological cessationist and a fan of fundamentalist straw-man attacks on charismatic Christians. It wasn't until some years later, however, that I came to see the cessationists' interpretation of 1 Corinthians 12-14 as the second worst exegesis I have ever read, next to that of a Canadian nudist arsonist cult I once did some research on."
Nice one Mark, and nice one The Briefing on being willing to quote this.
Mark's point is something I've thought for a while since being encouraged by a conservative to read O.Palmer Robertson's 'The Final Word' on cessationism which is the worst exegesis I have ever seen in my life.

An attack on the fabric of the Godhead

Doing a recent talk on the Trinity led me to consider this idea.
What is the devil trying to achieve thru tempting Jesus in Luke 4?

Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness is not so much an attack on him alone but on the very fabric of the Godhead. If Jesus had not 100% obeyed the Father, then the will of the Trinity would not have perfectly overlapped and potentially the relation between Father and Son would have been torn apart. (impossible of course!)
Even at the cross the Godhead is not torn apart, whilst the Father’s wrath is born by the Son, the Father is still perfectly delighting in the Son’s obedience and the Son is still perfectly submitting to and delighting in God’s will to redeem mankind.
So the devil tries to separate the Trinity through the Son disobeying. But at the cross, the Son is willingly separated from the love of the Father in obedience to the Father.

Our servant God

Just been reading John 13 in my quiet time. One of the things that struck me most was that all the way through the passage Judas' imminant betrayal of Jesus is mentioned and then it struck me... it's one thing for Jesus to demonstrate servanthood by washing his disciples' feet... but he must have also washed Judas' feet! That's something else. Such grace to wash in service the smelly feet of the man who he knew was to betray him. But that is the Christian God - he sends rain on the good and the wicked. That is our gracious God, truly worthy of worship. He continues to give when we don't deserve it one bit.

Rowan Williams a disgrace

I listened with increasing horror to Rowan William's discussion with John Humphreys on Radio 4's programme - "my search for God" last week.
Mr Humphreys explained how he used to have a simple faith as a child but 40 years of reporting on the horrific things that go on in this world has destroyed that faith. He can no longer believe in a good all-powerful God.
Mr Humphreys asked basic questions like "how can we know if God is there?". What horrified me was that Rowan Williams didn't mention Jesus once in the whole 30 minute interview. (It was Mr Humphreys who mentioned him at one point!). It become abundantly clear that Dr Williams is a theist and his answers certainly weren't Christian. Rather than pointing Mr Humphreys to God's self-revelation in the God-man Jesus Christ Dr Williams subjectively talked of a sense of knowing God. He also denied the Bible's teaching on the afterlife suggesting we have an eternity to come back to God whereas the Bible clearly teaches that our choice is in this life (e.g. the Rich man and Lazarus - Luke 16v26. The rich man wants to leave hell but is told "between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.")
Why does Rowan Williams think he knows better than Jesus and so cause John Humphreys in his honest searching to stumble? What a disgrace!