Weakness and Trembling

Posted on by korgrocker

“For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified. I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling. And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God.”
1 Corinthians 2:2-5 NLT

What sort of man was Paul? We know from his dramatic Damascus Road conversion that he became one of the most, if not the most, successful evangelists that Christianity has ever known. Prior to this he was a very zealous Pharisee, intent on the destruction of this new sect called the Way for good and all. Paul, then named Saul, first appears in the Bible in Acts 7:57-58 during the stoning of the first martyr, Stephen. “Then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting. They rushed at him and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul”. Paul was thought to have been born between 5BC and 5AD, and he was beheaded around 65AD in Rome. Although named Saul in the Hebrew, he had a Greek name, Paul (probably Paulus as he was a Roman citizen), and this appears in Acts 13:9, “Saul, also known as Paul, was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he looked the sorcerer in the eye“. But there are many more details about Paul scattered through the book of Acts and the Epistles he wrote. It is his character and his assertation that he first came to the Corinthians “in weakness—timid and trembling” that seems to be at odds with this fiery man who terrorised the early Christians. 

Did Paul lack confidence or was he suffering from an illness of some kind when he first encountered what was to become the Corinthian church? In person he seemed to be less impressive than he would appear from his writings. In fact some in the Corinthian church had a complaint. 2 Corinthians 10:10, “For some say, “Paul’s letters are demanding and forceful, but in person he is weak, and his speeches are worthless!”” In the culture of his day, and in that part of the world, public speeches were usually delivered with great oratorical skills, but Paul wrote, “Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit”. That implied that he had the skills to deliver a message in a clever way, calling on all his wisdom and knowledge, but instead chose not to, relying on the Holy Spirit to speak through his words. Paul presented a masterful speech in the presence of King Agrippa and the local governor Festus, which we can find in Acts 26, and at the end we read, “At this point Festus interrupted Paul’s defence. ‘You are out of your mind, Paul!’ he shouted. ‘Your great learning is driving you insane’”‭‭ (Acts 26:24). So although Paul had the capability, he was led by the Holy Spirit to say to the Corinthians just what was necessary. Jesus told the first disciples that when the Holy Spirit came,  ” … he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment” (John 16:8). We pilgrims should note that it is our responsibility to deliver the Message of the Cross and then allow the Holy Spirit to bring conviction.

But enough of Paul. What can we pilgrims learn from the way Paul presented the Message of the Cross? First of all was Paul’s dramatic conversion, and that left him with a deep love of Jesus, and all his zeal was then focused in spreading the Gospel. How is our love of Jesus? How zealous are we in carrying out the Great Commission? Questions that of course receive answers of all shades from different people. We know that our testimonies of the time when we met Jesus are each unique in their own way, but they all converge at the foot of the Cross, on that day when we believed Jesus’ message, what He had done for sinners, and that led to pilgrims everywhere putting their faith in God. I know some Christians who have come to that point in their lives, accepting the Message of the Cross, but who then stop there. People like that were around in Paul’s day, and he warned his protégé Timothy “They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!” (2 Timothy 3:5). Paul called such people as having a “counterfeit faith”. There is a question I have referred to before, and that is “if you were arrested for being a Christian would there be sufficient evidence to convict you”? There was more than enough evidence to convict Paul, and he suffered greatly for his faith.

How do we present the Message of the Cross, the Good News about Jesus, to those we meet? With Paul it was initially with “weakness and trembling”. It doesn’t matter what we know and what our background is. Paul wrote, “Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful” (1 Corinthians 1:26-27). And so when we talk to others about Jesus, doing “weakness and trembling” is ok. We may be rejected and vilified but that is ok too. So was Jesus, and He was the Son of God. Paul was even imprisoned and worse for sharing the Gospel. a simple message delivered through our “weakness and trembling” is all that is required.

Dear Heavenly Father. Thank You for Your presence in our lives and for helping us as we tentatively share Your Good News with those around us. We know that the time is short and we press on as Your Spirit leads to the next generation of believers. We love You Lord. Amen.

Conviction of Righteousness

Posted on by korgrocker

“But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me. Righteousness is available because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more. Judgment will come because the ruler of this world has already been judged.”
John 16:7-11 NLT

The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, will come after Jesus has left this world. We know what Jesus promised to believers – Jesus said, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth ….” (John 14:16-17a). But Holy Spirit also has a mission to unbelievers. Previously we considered the ministry of conviction of sin, and now come to the second part of His ministry, the conviction of righteousness. God’s righteousness is absolute. His standards are far above those of human beings, and human efforts can never attain to them without God’s help.

In human terms, righteousness relies on a set of rules, regulations and morals, which, if kept, lead to a claim of self-righteousness. But if we bring our rules, regulations and morals to God and allow Him to show His spotlight of truth upon them we soon find that, in fact, they do not come anywhere near the standards that God requires. Isaiah wrote, “We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind” (Isaiah 64:6). We may feel that what we do, or how we behave, falls into the category of righteousness, but Titus 3:4-5 says differently, “But— When God our Saviour revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.”

The Pharisees believed that if they completely kept to the Law of Moses then they would become righteous in God’s sight. But Paul wrote otherwise, “For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are” (Romans 3:20). In Matthew 5:20 Jesus said, “But I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!” I’m sure those religious leaders were quite upset by Jesus’ words.

The Holy Spirit convicts people of their lack of righteousness by pointing them to Jesus. He was, and is, the only Man who has ever been totally righteous. He is God’s only standard of righteousness. He is the only source of truth, and is the only way to Father God.

Dear Lord Jesus. We worship You, the only Source of sinless righteousness. Only You are the way, the truth and the life. Amen.


Conviction of Sin

Posted on by korgrocker

“But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me. Righteousness is available because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more. Judgment will come because the ruler of this world has already been judged.”
John 16:7-11 NLT

The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, was hovering in the wings, waiting for the time when Jesus left this world. He told His disciples that it was best for them if He went away, but I can just imagine them wondering about what all this means. You see, we pilgrims today have the benefit of hindsight, but the disciples were heading into, what was to them, unknown territory. They heard what Jesus said, but His words took them well outside their knowledge and comfort zones. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would do something about sin, righteousness and judgement. He would  “convict the world” on all three counts. In a court of law, a convicted person is then sentenced to some form of punishment. But the conviction that comes from the Holy Spirit is the exposure of the truth, showing unbelieving people that they are wrong and God is right.

This world is a sinful place, steeped in evil and wickedness. Sin first entered this world in the Garden of Eden and things have only worsened since. But I have met people who are convinced that they are not sinners because they claim to be “good people”. They say they don’t engage in what they perceive as sinful practices, like drinking excessively or taking drugs or going to places or doing things, they shouldn’t. In fact, they say, they do a lot of good work, befriending people, donating to the poor and charities, working in food banks, and so on. But none of this will mitigate their sin. Paul wrote in Romans 3:23, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard”. Imagine that God’s pass mark, His “glorious standard”, was 100%. We then take a test that assess our sinlessness. And it may be that someone gets 50%. Another might even achieve 60%. Or another person, a bit of a rogue, might only get to 20%. But the results are the same – these three people are all defined as sinners because they didn’t reach the pass mark – 100%. And God has no time for a person’s excuse that he is better than another person – Paul said “everyone has sinned”.

We pilgrims know that we can preach the Gospel with passion and authority, but a sinful person will laugh at us, well, that is, until the Holy Spirit takes over, bringing conviction of sin. The gateway to repentance comes because the Holy Spirit will show a person that his or her lack of belief in God is sin. It is not the responsibility of us pilgrims to get people saved. The Holy Spirit will do that in a much more effective way. We deliver the message. The Holy Spirit brings conviction of sin. It may be that we have to persevere with our message, grasping every opportunity to present it, but the listeners have a choice, in the same way that we did before we became believers.

Father God. You have a plan for the salvation of mankind and we are Your willing messengers, sharing the Good News with the unbelieving people around us. Please lead us to the right people. In Jesus name. Amen.

Faith

Posted on by korgrocker

“For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile. This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.””
Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭16‬-‭17‬ ‭NLT

Paul wrote in our verses today that “This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith”. It’s all about faith. We know that we cannot put the Gospel under the spotlight of a human machine, to inspect its constituent parts. To disinter how it is made. We cannot undertake a human experiment to prove that there is a life after death. We pilgrims believe the Good News. Unreservedly. We know intuitively that it is true. And although we sometimes may have doubts and wonder in amazement how something so good could be true, we always fall back on our faith in the One who said it will happen.

Even when we receive a negative response to our attempts in sharing the Gospel, there is no shame in trying. When we tell someone about the Good News of Jesus, we are venturing into another dimension, where values are different. A spiritual message to a natural person will fail to connect, most of the time. To someone struggling to survive in their natural life, particularly in today’s climate of increasing interest rates, food cost inflation, inability to see a GP, and so on, the thought about where we end up after death to them perhaps seems somehow irrelevant. So we need to remember that the Good News is more than a few words. The Apostle James wrote, “What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?” (James 2:14-16).

Our faith in God transforms the way we disseminate the Good News. We do not communicate a few dusty and lifeless sentences in the hope that, somehow, they will acquire life in the telling. We have the Holy Spirit within us, cheering us on, bringing our faith and enthusiasm into the light of day, transforming the devil’s gloom with the glorious light of the Gospel. Bringing hope into the lives of the hopeless. Our words will be dripping with the very Words of God Himself, as we, in faith, simply share our own stories of how we met our wonderful Saviour, Jesus. We need to remember the work of the Holy Spirit in the sharing of the Good News. We read in John 16:8, “And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment“. We do the sharing. The Holy Spirit brings conviction to the hearer. Also, we must not be afraid of bringing relevant Scriptures into stories. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires“. And if the person with whom we are sharing has practical needs, part of our sharing is to help them in any way we can.

Paul finishes these verses in Romans 1 with a reference to Habakkuk 2:4. The prophet Habakkuk was disturbed by his observation that God was going to use the cruel Babylonians to judge the Israelites. He cries out, “O Lord my God, my Holy One, you who are eternal— surely you do not plan to wipe us out? O Lord, our Rock, you have sent these Babylonians to correct us, to punish us for our many sins“. (Habakkuk 1:12). And God replied to him, “Look at the proud! They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked. But the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God“. (Habakkuk 2:4). In the end, we pilgrims live in the light of God’s righteousness, as we continue close to the One who gave us the Good News. We live a life that will never end.

Dear Father God. On our knees we worship You today. Deeply grateful for all You have done for us. Amen.