John 19:31
Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.
The weekend of Jesus’ death is the weekend that follows the Passover. Jesus and his disciples celebrated the Passover on Thursday evening. It is now Friday afternoon, and the crowds that celebrated the Passover are still in Jerusalem. The celebration continues and the coming Saturday, the Sabbath, will be considered to be a very special Sabbath day.
Back onto the scene stride the Jewish religious leaders. Remember these guys? These are the same men who in chapter 18 were willing to lie, bribe, cheat, and manipulate in order to have Jesus unjustly put to death while they themselves were unwilling to enter the building where a gentile was staying. They were willing to break God’s law and murder an innocent man, but they did not want to be made ceremonially unclean so as to have to wait a month to eat the Passover.
We do not want to be like the religious leaders we see here. Instead of claiming to love God on the one hand while sinning against God on the other, we want to be people who love God with all our lives. We want to be consistent as we follow our Lord.
Why am I so hard on the religious leaders? The religious leaders go to Pilate and ask him to have the men killed quickly and taken down from the crosses. Why? They are following the command of Deuteronomy 21:23 which says that men who are hanged on trees must not remain over night so as not to defile the land.
Again, catch the irony. The men who just had the Messiah, the Son of God, put to death through political pressure and conniving, are now telling the governor that the men ought not hang on the trees over night, because that would be a dishonor to God in the land. They are hypocrites.
I urge you to examine your life. What kinds of evil do you too easily tolerate? What kinds of evil do you do while keeping your religious duties in check in other places? Don’t be like the Jewish leaders. Love God in every area of life. If you are a follower of God, he has the right to rule you in every area, not just the religious area of Sunday morning. Love God, and avoid religious hypocrisy.
Answering the Question of God’s Fairness (Job 37:14-24)
Job 37:14-24
14 “Hear this, O Job;
stop and consider the wondrous works of God.
15 Do you know how God lays his command upon them
and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine?
16 Do you know the balancings of the clouds,
the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge,
17 you whose garments are hot
when the earth is still because of the south wind?
18 Can you, like him, spread out the skies,
hard as a cast metal mirror?
19 Teach us what we shall say to him;
we cannot draw up our case because of darkness.
20 Shall it be told him that I would speak?
Did a man ever wish that he would be swallowed up?
21 “And now no one looks on the light
when it is bright in the skies,
when the wind has passed and cleared them.
22 Out of the north comes golden splendor;
God is clothed with awesome majesty.
23 The Almighty—we cannot find him;
he is great in power;
justice and abundant righteousness he will not violate.
24 Therefore men fear him;
he does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit.”
For most of the book that bears his name, Job has been complaining that God has not treated him fairly. Job has suffered, but he has not been living in rebellion against God. While I’m sure that Job knew he was not absolutely perfect, sinless in the depth of his heart, Job did know that he was always quick to repent, to offer sacrifice for his sins, and to obey God. Job had treated others rightly and been generous toward the needy. Why, then, was Job suffering? It was not fair.
Here at the end of the speech of Elihu, we see a completely different way of viewing the question. It is as if Job asked, “What color is the sky,” and Elihu answered, “Seven.” Elihu took the question of God’s fairness to Job in a completely different direction, and Elihu was right.
Elihu begins and ends his argument with one simple assumption: God is perfect. All that God does is right. It is God’s nature and character to be right. Were God to do what is wrong, God would not be God. But if God has done something, it by bent of fact, is right—completely and absolutely right.
If all that God does is right, what happens when we feel like what God has done is wrong? The answer that Elihu is trying to get Job to see is that our feelings, not God’s rightness, is what must be questioned. We do not know as much as God. We cannot do the things that God does. We did not create the heavens. We do not command the rain and snow. We cannot even find God if we search for Him. God is perfect. We are tiny, next to nothing, in comparison.
As the scene draws to a close, Job and Elihu look. A storm is approaching—the source for many of Elihu’s metaphors. Yet, there is something unique. In this storm, the presence of God is manifest. God is about to come and speak with Job. God is about to answer Job’s queries. How will Job answer? He will answer with the line of reasoning that Elihu has already taken. God will show Job that God is perfect and Job, little, tiny, puny Job, cannot possibly understand the deep workings and ways of the one and only true and holy God.
What about you and me? Is God unfair to us? Have we been treated unfairly by God. Do we try to make God prove that his ways are right? Do we try to examine God’s commands for the reasoning behind them? Do we try to subject God to our approval as if we have the right to sit in judgment over God’s decisions? Be careful. Be very careful. God is holy. We are not. God is omniscient. We are not. All that God does is right. We only do right when God helps us. Let us remember the holiness of our God and tremble at his awesome majesty. Let us bow before him and acknowledge that, regardless of what we can understand, his ways are perfect.
If You Could Ask God One Question – A Review
Paul Williams and Barry Cooper. If You Could Ask God One Question. New malden, UK: The Good Book Company, 2007. 123 pp. $8.99.
At times, the best way to help people to understand your point is to anticipate their questions and answer them. Paul Williams and Barry Cooper have taken this strategy in defense of Christianity in their book If You Could Ask God One Question. I received a copy of this book at Together for the Gospel in 2008, and only got down to reading it two years later. I’m glad that I took the time.
Williams and Cooper write in a very easy-to-read and easy-to-understand style. They use humor well. They illustrate appropriately. The chapters seem to fly by, even as the authors work to explain some of the most important basic principles of Christianity.
Without attempting an overview, I will simply mention that the authors deal with some of the following important concepts:
· The existence of God
· The reliability of Scripture
· The problem of sin
· The existence of hell
· Why Jesus had to die
· Why Christians obey God’s commands
· Life after death
· Followers of other religions
· Faith not blind delusion
· The problem of evil
· Sex
· God proving himself through miracles
· What God might ask us
If You Could Ask God One Question is a simple and yet strong explanation of the faith for those who have only just begun considering Christianity. It could also be a helpful book for brand new Christians who need to begin to understand some of the basic points of theology. Obviously, the book cannot reach the depths of a good theology book since it only spans 123 pages; but the topics it covers are important and generally dealt with in a helpful way. I would have no problem recommending this book for those who do not know what they think about Christianity and for those who are new in the faith. It would also be a find study book for small group discussion if a group would like to again cover some of the most important basics of the faith.
Purpose in Glory (John 17:24)
John 17:24
Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
In this last request in Jesus’ great prayer, he prays something that is an echo of what he prayed earlier.
John 17:1-5
1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
Jesus’ mission is about the glory of God. Heaven is about the glory of God. Everything God does is about the glory of God. The single most important thing in all of eternity is the glory of God. The only way that we will ever really be happy is when we experience the glory of God. And so Jesus prays that we be with him and experience his glory, glory that he has had with the Father from before time began.
You exist, created by God, in order to give God glory. Your life will be full when everything you do and everything you think is focused on God’s glory. Whenever you are less focused on God’s glory, your soul will be less satisfied. Whenever you are more focused on god’s glory, your soul will feel more complete. So, center your life on the glory of God, and you will find happiness. Find the purpose of your life in the glory of Christ.
Share the Gospel with the Word (John 17:20)
John 17:20
I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
After 19 verses of praying, Jesus makes a wonderful statement that should grip each of us who knows him. He is not praying simply for the eleven disciples who are standing with him in the Jerusalem night; he is praying for others. Specifically, he is praying for those who will come to faith in Jesus through the words of the eleven disciples. This is how we know that Jesus was praying for you and me.
When Jesus makes reference to the words of the disciples through which others will come to faith, there is no doubt that he is meaning the future testimony that these men will give. IN just a few short weeks, Peter will boldly stand in Jerusalem and testify to the resurrected Lord Jesus and will see thousands come to faith. But after Peter’s time, thousands upon thousands will come to believe in the Lord Jesus because of something even more significant than the speech of Peter or any of the other disciples. The words of the disciples that bring faith are kept for us, preserved in the word of God.
This is a very important truth for Christians to grasp. We all want people to come to know the Lord Jesus. We all want people to be saved. The way that happens, the way that people come to faith in Jesus, is through the word of God. People are saved when someone presents to them the truth about Jesus as it is revealed in the holy Scripture, God opens their hearts, and they believe. People do not come to faith because you are such a good person or because they see you do something right. People are saved when they are convinced by God of the truth of his word.
Now, if it is true that Jesus prays for those who will come to faith because of the word of the disciples, and if it is true that we now carry that word in the Holy Bible, and if it is true that we want people to be saved, it should be obvious what we ought to do. As believers in Jesus, we should be sure to help others to come to know Jesus by presenting them with the truth of God’s word. We should share Jesus, not with gimmicks and clever tricks, but we should share Jesus by sharing the truth found in the Scriptures.
It is through God’s word that people come to faith as God sovereignly moves. Why would we not want to keep sharing the Scriptures with others so that they too will come to faith. Yes, this means you need to learn to share your faith from the Bible; but so what? We can do that. It’s not hard. And the glorious reward is certainly worth the trouble. Christians, let’s help others to believe by sharing God’s word.
Jesus on Scripture
I came across the following in my perusal of If You Could Ask God One Question:
As far as Jesus is concerned, even the tiniest mark on the page of the Old Testament holds unique power. According to him, whether you call it “the Law”, “Scripture” or the “Old Testament”, one thing holds true: it comes from God, and its authority is unquestionable.
Paul Williams and Barry Cooper. If You Could Ask God One Question (New malden, UK: The Good Book Company, 2007), 22.
Lump of Clay (Job 33:6)
Behold, I am toward God as you are;
I too was pinched off from a piece of clay.
As Elihu began his speech challenging Job’s complaints, he speaks the line we see in 33:6 above. The point that Elihu was making was a simple one. He wanted Job to understand that he did not consider himself worth more or less than Job. He too was of the same stuff, the same substance as Job.
Elihu’s terminology, however, is fascinating. He says that he was pinched off from a piece of clay. Remembering that God created man from the dust of the earth, Elihu sees that both he and Job are made of the same common material.
If we grasped that we all are of the same stuff, pinched from the same clay if you will, perhaps we would be better at being loving and kind to one another. Perhaps we would realize that, whether we have accomplished much or little in life, we all come from the same place. We all have the same background. All of us, whether greatest or least, are dust that God has breathed life into.
Being a pinched off piece of clay should both humble you and give you great hope. It humbles us, as we realize that we bring nothing special into the world that is from ourselves. It also should give us great hope, as we realize that the only way we live is by the breath of God; however, we live because the breath and Spirit of God has enlivened us.
A Famine of the Word (Amos 8:11)
Amos 8:11
“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God,
“when I will send a famine on the land—
not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord.”
God predicted, in Amos 8, a terrible time of famine. As God tells us, he was not predicting a shortage of food. No, God was predicting something far worse, he was predicting an absence of the people hearing his word.
That sad silent time came upon the people of Israel. For 400 years after the time of the prophet Malachi, God sent no prophet to Israel. Until the rise of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, nobody in Israel heard any clear word from God. God’s silence would have been heart-wrenching to a true follower of his.
Funny, isn’t it, that we do not consider silence from God as a tragedy? Oh, I know, we would all say that we would hate the silence that God promised in this passage. But, really, do we? God has spoken to us. God has given us his very word, his very words. Every time we open our Bible, we hear is voice. Every time a preacher reads from the holy Scriptures, God’s word washes over us.
So, here’s the question. If the word of God is a treasure, if silence from God is a horror, and if we have the ability to hear God’s word in the Scripture and from the pulpit, how do we neglect it? The goal here is not to guilt anybody into anything. The point is to ask a pointed question. If we love hearing the voice of God, we must not neglect his word. Read it. Hear it preached. Memorize it. Obey it. Do not subject yourself to a famine by not hearing the word of God.
Get This Over With (Amos 8:4-7)
Amos 8:4-7
4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy
and bring the poor of the land to an end,
5 saying, “When will the new moon be over,
that we may sell grain?
And the Sabbath,
that we may offer wheat for sale,
that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great
and deal deceitfully with false balances,
6 that we may buy the poor for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals
and sell the chaff of the wheat?”
7 The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
“Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.
Much of the book of Amos is God’s promise of judgment for the northern kingdom of Israel. The people of the north were, on the whole, not seeking after God’s heart. They were willing to abuse and hurt others for their own selfish gain. God was rightly and justly furious with them for their neglect of his laws and his commands to love him and to love others.
In the middle of a section in which God is pronouncing judgments against the people for their actions, I notice something interesting. God points out that some of the people had a habit of waiting for the Sabbath day to be over so that they could get back to sinning. It is as if the people knew that they had to do the outward religious ritual, but they were not willing to let that have anything to do with how they lived their lives for the rest of the week.
In our culture, we do not tend to focus on Sabbath regulations. Christians observe the Lord’s Day on Sundays, but are not nearly so restricted as was the Hebrew community. Yet, if we are not careful, we will see similarities.
Often those connected to the Christian community will think that church attendance, being present for Sunday morning worship, is what makes a Christian OK with God. This is a false assumption. As God did not find it impressive when the people of Israel wanted the Sabbath to get out of the way so they could go on sinning, God is also not impressed with empty worship attendance that does not also lead to a changed life during the week.
Do you go to worship only to get it out of the way? Do you live one way for an hour-and-a-half on Sunday morning, but totally differently for the rest of the week? Do you think that your church attendance impresses God? Think again. God is not and has never been fooled by empty devotion. God wants our hearts to be his. God wants our lives to show love for him through sincere obedience.
Worship attendance is good. Sabbath keeping for the Israelite was good. But if there is no heart behind that action, the action is empty and meaningless. The solution is not to avoid worship. No, on the contrary, the solution is to repent. Ask God to change your heart. Ask God to help you to worship rightly. Then go out, live for Jesus, and obey from Day-to-day.
Grudem on Punishment and Our Suffering
One of the conversations that I have found myself having on occasion with counselees regards the issue of the punishment of God. A person will be suffering for one reason or another, and they will assume that their suffering is the punishment of God on their lives for something they did in their past.
Often I will try to help the person to recognize that, if they are in Christ, all the penalty for all of their sin has already been fully punished in Christ on the cross. Yet it is still hard for them to see that God is not adding some extra punishment to them.
Of course I understand that God chastens his children. He disciplines all he loves. But he disciplines us for our good and his glory. God never gives a Christian the penalty for his or her sin. That penalty was paid in Christ as our substitute.
I was happy, then, to come across the following in Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology regarding this very issue:
Throughout our Christian lives we know that we never have to pay any penalty for sin, for that has all been taken by Christ (Rom. 8:1). Therefore, when we do experience pain and suffering in this life, we should never think it is because God is punishing us (for our harm). Sometimes suffering is simply a result of living in a sinful, fallen world, and sometimes it is because God is disciplining us (for our good), but in all cases we are assured by Romans 8:28 that “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (nasb).
The positive purpose for God’s discipline is clear in Hebrews 12, where we read:
The Lord disciplines him whom he loves….He disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Heb. 12:6, 10–11)
Not all discipline is in order to correct us from sins that we have committed; it can also be allowed by God to strengthen us in order that we may gain greater ability to trust God and resist sin in the challenging path of obedience. We see this clearly in the life of Jesus, who, though he was without sin, yet “learned obedience through what he suffered” (Heb. 5:8). He was made perfect “through suffering” (Heb. 2:10). Therefore we should see all the hardship and suffering that comes to us in life as something that God brings to us to do us good strengthening our trust in him and our obedience, and ultimately increasing our ability to glorify him.
Wayne A. Grudem, Systematic Theology : An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 811.
Pastor Travis Peterson 