Series

Life Sketches Series – Worship God

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Racial prejudice is nothing new. It has existed in the world for thousands of years. In fact, we read about racial prejudice clear back in the book of Genesis, thousands of years before the time of Christ. In the time of Christ, racial prejudice between different nations and races of people was as strong as ever. Two groups of people prejudiced against each other were the Jews and the Samaritans. Once when Jesus asked a Samaritan woman for a drink, “The woman of Samaria said to Him, ‘How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?’ For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans” (John 4:9).

During the conversation, the woman wanted Jesus to tell her where to worship, in Jerusalem according to the Jews, or the mountain where the Samaritans believed was the right place to be. Those kinds of prejudices have continued right up to the present day, not just among Jews and Samaritans, or Jews and Gentiles, but also between various Christian groups, so much so, that we find many instances of two nations, both calling themselves Christian nations, at war with one another.

Racial prejudice is a terrible thing which Jesus addressed more than once during His time here on earth. Jesus had just entered Capernaum, a city that had become a headquarters for His work, where many of His most mighty and powerful miracles had been worked. The Bible records that a centurion, a Roman soldier who was over a hundred other soldiers, “pleaded with Him, saying, ‘Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘I will come and heal him.’ The centurion answered and said, ‘Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, “Go,” and he goes; and to another, “Come,” and he comes; and to my servant, “Do this,” and he does it.’ When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel’ ” (Matthew 8:6–10)!

Jesus then made a statement that to the Jews around Him was absolutely astonishing. This text shows us that many of the people that we tend to be prejudiced against are going to be saved but the people that have prejudice will be lost. Notice what it says in Matthew 8:11, 12: “ ‘I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ ”

Here Jesus addressed, very directly, the problem of racial prejudice. However, the disciples were slow to learn the lesson. Jesus told them again just before He ascended that they were to take the gospel, not just to the Jews, but even to other nations that the Jews despised. Jesus said, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem …,” to the Jews, “… and in all Judea …,” to the Jews, “… and Samaria …” to the Samaritans, “… and to the end of the earth… ,” the Gentiles (Acts 1:8).

But the disciples were Jews. This prejudice had been received as a part of their society and culture since birth. When you have learned something and believed it all of your life, it is difficult to change your beliefs. So, the disciples preached the gospel to the Jews, but they were slow to learn the lesson that they were also to preach it to the Gentiles, not just to some Gentiles, but to all the Gentiles to the end of the earth.

Jesus had no racial prejudice toward people of other nations. He had the same love and compassion for people of all races. Another Roman centurion is mentioned in Acts 10:1–4: “There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment, a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people, and prayed to God always. About the ninth hour of the day [3 p.m.] he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, ‘Cornelius!’ And when he observed him, he was afraid, and said, ‘What is it, lord?’ So he said to him, ‘Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God.’ ”

God knows about every detail of every life. Cornelius’ generous deeds did not go unnoticed by God. He does not miss anything. Every good deed you do to help your fellow men, God knows about. He saw that Cornelius was an honest man who feared the Lord and wanted to do what was right. He did not know the gospel and he did not know about Jesus or the sacrifice that had been paid on the cross of Calvary that could take away all of his sin and the sins of his family and make it possible for him to have eternal life. But he was a God-fearing man and the Lord decided that He would arrange for this man to receive more light.

If you are living up to all the light that you have, then you put yourself in a position so that God can reveal to you more spiritual truth. But why should God send more light to anyone who is not living up to the light that they already have? The important thing to consider is not how much spiritual light you have, but that you are living up to the light you do have. Cornelius was living up to all the light he had.

The Lord said to Cornelius, through the angel, “ ‘Now send men to Joppa, and send for Simon whose surname is Peter. He is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea. He will tell you what you must do.’ And when the angel who spoke to him had departed, Cornelius called two of his household servants and a devout solder from among those who waited on him continually. So when he had explained all these things to them, he sent them to Joppa” (verses 5–8).

Part of the reason for the awful racial prejudice that exists in the world is our difference in habits and culture. This was one of the main reasons for the prejudice that existed between the Jews and the Samaritans and between the Jews and the Gentiles. The Jews looked upon the Gentiles as unclean, and it is true that the Gentile world was steeped in every kind of sin. Sin is what makes a person spiritually unclean. The Gentiles were involved in idolatry. The Jews had received the law of God and had received information on how abhorrent idolatry is to Him.

Notice what it says in Deuteronomy 4:15–19: “Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure: the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, the likeness of anything the creeps on the ground or the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth. And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the Lord your God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage.”

The Lord had said, “Watch out that you do not get involved in idolatry.” The Jews abhorred idolatry. It was idolatry that caused them to incur Babylonian captivity before they had learned that lesson. The Greeks and the Gentiles were steeped in worshiping all manner of idols. Not only that, but God, the Creator of the human body, has a right to tell us how to take care of the human body and how to live. He gave instructions in the law written by His finger about how to live for our best benefit. He gave us perfect freedom within the boundaries of this law, but said that there are certain things that are not acceptable.

The 7th commandment says to not commit adultery and spelled out through Moses exactly what that meant (see Leviticus 18, 20; Deuteronomy 22). It does not mean just stealing someone else’s spouse.

The Jews understood, but the Greeks did not. The Greeks knew it was wrong to steal someone else’s wife, but were not concerned about having sexual relations with someone else who was not married—fornication. The Jews and the Greeks had these barriers because of their differences in habits and because of the sins with which the Gentile world was permeated.

Another issue was food. God gave to the children of Israel laws concerning what they should eat and what they should not eat (see Deuteronomy 14; Leviticus 11). The Lord had told the Jews which foods are permitted and which foods are unclean: “You shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creeps; nor shall you make yourselves unclean with them, lest you be defiled by them. For I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore consecrate [sanctify] yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy. Neither shall you defile yourselves with any creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (Leviticus 11:43, 44).

The disciples were Jews and they were very strict in the observance of these food laws. They were also commanded, “It’s to be a law throughout your generations that you are to never eat blood or fat” (Leviticus 3:17, literal translation). The Gentiles ate anything, including the blood and fat. The Jews sacrificed their animals in a way that drained all of the blood to comply with their food laws. The disciples were familiar with all these laws and kept them. Peter had never disobeyed any, but now these men from Cornelius were on their way to Joppa and Peter does not know what is going to happen, but he is going to have a little surprise.

It says in Acts 10:9–16, “The next day, as they went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour [noon]. Then he became very hungry and wanted to eat; but while they made ready, he fell into a trance and saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth. In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. And a voice came to him, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ But Peter said, ‘Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.’ And a voice spoke to him again the second time, ‘What God has cleansed you must not call common.’ This was done three times. And the object was taken up into heaven again.”

Then Peter woke up and he did not understand what he had seen in the vision. He wondered what his dream meant. It says, “Now while Peter wondered within himself what this vision which he had seen meant, behold, the men who had been sent from Cornelius had made inquiry for Simon’s house, and stood before the gate. And they called and asked whether Simon, whose surname was Peter, was lodging there. While Peter thought about the vision, the Spirit said to him, ‘Behold, three men are seeking you. Arise therefore, go down and go with them, doubting nothing; for I have sent them.’ Then Peter went down to the men who had been sent to him from Cornelius, and said, ‘Yes, I am he whom you seek. For what reason have you come?’ And they said, ‘Cornelius the centurion, a just man, one who fears God and has a good reputation among all the nation of the Jews, was divinely instructed by a holy angel to summon you to his house, and to hear words from you.’ Then he invited them in and lodged them. On the next day Peter went away with them, and some brethren from Joppa accompanied him” (verses 17–23).

So Peter goes to visit a Gentile, a Roman, a person against whom he has been very prejudiced all of his life. The Jews called the Gentiles unclean, but Peter was told that what God has cleansed, he was not to call unclean.

“The following day they entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting for them, and had called together his relatives and close friends. As Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter lifted him up, saying, ‘Stand up; I myself am also a man’ ” (verses 24–26).

This was the apostle Peter, a leading apostle. He enters into a Gentile’s house. This man wanted so much to hear what this man would tell him that he falls down and worships him, but Peter won’t allow it. The Bible teaches that not only are we not to worship Peter, not only are we not to worship anyone who could call himself a successor of Peter, we are not to even worship an angel.

John wrote in Revelation 19:10, “I [John] fell at his [the angel’s] feet to worship him. But he said to me, ‘See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.’ ” Notice, it was an angel from heaven who gave John the message, and when the apostle falls down to worship him, the angel told him not to worship him, but to worship God only.

This happens two times. Revelation 22:8, 9 says, “Now I, John, saw and heard these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. Then he said to me, ‘See that you do not do that. For I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.’ ”

Peter would not allow anyone to fall down and worship him; an angel from heaven would not allow anyone to fall down and worship him. But we are living in a world today where the whole world is full of idolatry—people worship. Today, people may not worship physical idols of gold and silver, maybe they worship living idols. If you are worshiping another human being, or an angel from heaven, then you are worshiping a living idol, but it is still an idol. Nothing or any person is to be worshiped, only the God of heaven.

Did you know that the second longest commandment in the law of God deals with idolatry? There are some commandments that in the Hebrew language are only two words long, the 6th and the 7th. But there are two that are much longer than the rest. These two are the commandments that have been almost universally broken by mankind, both by Christians and non-Christians alike.

Revelation 22:14 says, “Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.” God’s people have been commanded in all ages to be obedient, to be loyal, to be true to His law. God’s people in the last days will not be worshiping any idols. They will not be worshiping idols of gold or silver. They will not be worshiping philosophical idols. You can make an idol of philosophy, human intelligence, just as much as you can make an idol of wood or stone, or gold or silver. God’s people in the last days will not be worshiping living idols. There are some people who worship their spouses. Others worship religious leaders of various kinds. It all comes under idolatry. Peter would not allow a Roman centurion to worship him.

Revelation 22:14, 15 say, “Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.”

Do you want to be saved? If so, you must forsake all idolatry and worship God alone. Surrender your life to the Lordship, the sovereignty of Jesus Christ and follow Him as your Lord and Saviour. It is worth everything to gain eternal life. To have eternal life, all idolatry must be forsaken. There will be no idolatry in the Kingdom of Heaven. What is your goal?

(Unless appearing in quoted references or otherwise identified, Bible texts are from the New King James Version.)

Pastor John J. Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by email at: historic@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.

Opposing Forces

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The problem of racism is thousands of years old. The Bible repeatedly speaks about it. Is there a solution and would you accept the real solution if you found it?

Preaching to the Greeks in Athens, Paul said, “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:24).

Why is it then, if God has made of one blood all nations, that the different races or nations cannot get along? The reason is because we are listening to two different spirits. Notice what the Holy Spirit does for those that follow the Lord. It says, “He [Jesus] Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of  ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness by which they lie and wait to deceive, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ” (Ephesians 4:11–15, literal translation).

There you have a recipe for unity, how different peoples, different nations, different races can all be in harmony and unity. However, not all are listening to the same spirit. It is the Holy Spirit only that brings unity, not only in the church but also in the nation.

There was infighting in the church at Corinth. Paul indicates that some would preach another Jesus (2 Corinthians 11:4). Two Jesus, two beliefs—disunity.

There is more than one Jesus preached in the world today, just like there was back then. Many people say they believe in Jesus, but they don’t all believe in the same Jesus. There are two supernatural spirits seeking control of this planet. These two spirits are at enmity with one another. Everybody is under the control of one or the other. One is the Spirit of God and the other is an evil spirit.

Paul wrote that the other Jesus would preach a different gospel, one which they have not accepted—but they may well put up with it! Those listening to the voice of a different spirit will believe in a different Jesus, believe in a different gospel, and then there will be strife. We are all under the control of supernatural forces, whether we know it or not.

It says in Acts 14:1–7, “Now it happened in Iconium that they went together to the synagogue of the Jews, and so spoke that a great multitude both of the Jews and of the Greeks believed. But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren. Therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who was bearing witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.

“But the multitude of the city was divided: part sided with the Jews, and part with the apostles. And when a violent attempt was made by both the Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to abuse and stone them, they became aware of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe … . And they were preaching the gospel there.”

That still happens today. People who do not believe the gospel want to destroy those who proclaim it or believe it. There are several reasons for this. One is, when people proclaim the gospel and what it involves, those who do not believe do not want to accept the provisions it provides. They want to be saved a different way, their own way. There are many philosophies in the world today offering salvation through many different systems. But the Bible says, there is only one Person who can save you—Jesus, God’s dear Son.

Peter said there is no other name under heaven by which you can be saved (Acts 4:12).

So, after they had preached the gospel they fled. There were many that believed, but there also was a lot of opposition. Jesus had told them that if, when they preach, the people won’t believe, flee, shake the dust off their feet and go to another place. So they fled to another place. They went to Lystra and Derbe, and some terrible things happened there also. Saul, who later became the apostle Paul, was one of those who had consented to the stoning of Stephen. And in Lystra, eventually the apostle Paul was stoned himself. Thinking him to be dead, they dragged him out of the city but he was not dead.

The gospel, if it is not accepted, can stir up the worst passions in the human heart, because most people do not want to turn their life over to the sovereignty of Jesus Christ. They do not want to bring their life into subjection to the government of heaven, to the law of heaven. They want to live and do whatever they please. There are a lot of theologies today teaching people that you can be saved just the way you are.

The Bible does not teach that. The Bible says that if you are going to be saved, you must be changed, be born again and receive a new heart and a new spirit. There is no way you can be saved unless this miraculous change happens in your heart and in your mind. Jesus told this to Nicodemus in John 3.

The Bible says, “And in Lystra a certain man without strength in his feet was sitting, a cripple from his mother’s womb, who had never walked. This man heard Paul speaking. Paul, observing him intently and seeing he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice, ‘Stand up straight on your feet!’ And he leaped and walked” (Acts 14:8–10).

Right there in public a miracle is worked. A man, crippled from the time he was born, is instantly healed; he can leap and walk. Then it says, “Now when the people saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices, saying in the Lycaonian language, ‘The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!’ And Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker” (verses 11, 12). These were superstitious, heathen people hearing the gospel for the first time, but they had still imbibed much of their pagan philosophy so they got the priest of the Zeus, and they brought oxen and garlands to the gate intending to sacrifice with the multitudes and offer sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas, believing them to be gods.

Verses 14–17: “But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard this, they tore their clothes and ran in among the multitude, crying out and saying, ‘Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same nature as you, and preach to you that you should turn from these useless [vain] things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them, who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, giving us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.’ ”

With these sayings, they could scarcely restrain the multitude from sacrificing to them. During their journeys, the apostles ran into all kinds of faiths and religions. They were brought in contact with the Jewish bigotry and intolerance, with sorcery and blasphemy, unjust magistrates, superstition and idolatry. Now, these people wanted to sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas. Not being allowed to do that they became disappointed.

It is very interesting to see what happens when people are disappointed. It is often a time when they exercise very poor judgment. We often see it happen among young people. Somebody is jilted in a love affair, but something goes wrong and they flip. In a very short time, without adequate time to think things over, they marry somebody they do not know very well. Whether it turns out good or bad is a matter of conjecture, nobody knows. Often when a person is disappointed it is possible while under that kind of emotional situation, to make some very poor judgments. Especially is this the case if you have just experienced a death in your family or some traumatic event. It is very dangerous to trust poor counselors that encourage you to do something that, if you were in a different frame of mind, you would know it was not the wisest thing to do.

“Paul and Barnabas scarcely restrained them from offering sacrifices to them” (verse 18, literal translation). It says in verse 19, “Then Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there; and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead.”

These Jews persuaded the multitudes that Paul and Barnabas were not only gods, but they were doing these miracles by means of evil spirits of demons whom these men served. They denied that God had any part in this miracle that had been worked. These superstitious people were acquainted with demons because, in the pagan religions, they actually worshiped devils and were acquainted with the idea that there were good and evil forces in the world. Now, the very people who wanted to sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas as gods, were deceived into believing that this miracle was not worked by the God of heaven, but it was accomplished through demons and were about to destroy them.

This was the same class of people that formerly had accused Jesus Christ of casting out devils through the power of the devils. Matthew 12:24–28 says, “Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, ‘This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.’ But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: ‘Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.’ ”

The people were deceived by these Jews who were prejudiced against the apostles and against the gospel of Jesus Christ, into thinking that these were false teachers and had worked this miracle by the power of demons, just as was the accusation against Jesus. The characters of Paul and Barnabas were misrepresented so that the heathens thought that they were now worse than murderers and whoever should put them out of the world would be doing a service for God. So, the Bible says, “They stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead.”

It is still true today, that those who believe and teach the truths of God’s word, meet opposition from unprincipled persons who refuse to accept the truth and will not hesitate to prevaricate, and to even circulate the most glaring falsehoods, in order to destroy the influence and hedge up the way of a person, whom God has sent, with a message of warning to the world. There are many people who do not want to hear the message of warning, especially that message found in Revelation the 14th chapter, the three angels’ messages.

These warn that we are living in the hour of God’s judgment. Most people do not want to believe there is a judgment and that we are all going to be called to account for the lives that we have lived in this world. The multitudes decided to stone Paul. Immediately the experience of Stephen came vividly into his mind as he was one of those who had consented for Stephen to be stoned. Now he was to share Stephen’s fate and he remembered that man of God when he was being stoned said, “I see the heavens opened and I see the Son of man standing at the right hand of the throne of God” (Acts 7:56, literal translation)!

This could have been Paul’s last moments in this world. He was stoned until he was unconscious and the people thought he was dead and dragged his body outside of the city while the Christians who were around him mourned. You too would mourn if one of the leaders in your church was stoned to death and his or her body was lying outside the gate of the city.

As the Christians mourned over him, all of a sudden, he came to with rejoicing that he had been allowed to suffer for the name of Christ. “When the disciples gathered around him, he rose up and went into the city. And the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe. And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, ‘We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God’ ” (Acts 14:20–22).

Today, multitudes want an easy religion. They are not interested in a religion that involves hardship. They want to go to heaven as it is said, “sitting down.” But that is not the gospel, that is not the religion of the New Testament. Notice what Paul says about his experience in 2 Corinthians 11:23–26: “In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren.” This was the tribulation the apostle Paul endured. He encouraged the Christians to continue in the grace of God and said, “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.”

The apostle John was given a vision of the future when those who had endured these tribulations in the Christian walk inherited eternal life. He says, “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues [or languages], standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’ All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: ‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen.’

“Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, ‘Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?’ And I said to him, ‘Sir, you know.’ So he said to me, ‘These are the ones who come out of great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. … They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’ ” (Revelation 7:9–17).

The day is coming when tribulation will be over, but that is not in this world, that is in the next world. Jesus said to His followers, just before His crucifixion, in John the 16th chapter, verse 33: “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” Jesus has not promised to His followers that they would have no tribulation in this world. In fact, He said just the opposite. He said you will have trouble, but be of good courage.

Paul told the Christians, “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.” A vision was given to John the revelator in Revelation 7. Who are these people who make up the countless multitude from all nations who are saved? They are those who have come out of great tribulation.

We live in a world of suffering, pain, sickness, and death, and these things happen to Christians as well as non-Christians. God has not promised us a free ride in this world, but He has promised us something much better. He has promised to sustain us, to support us, and to help us in all of our tribulation.

In 1 Corinthians 10:12, 13 it says, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”

God has promised to “never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). He will support you and help you so that you will be able to endure the trouble that you have in this world.

(Unless appearing in quoted references or otherwise identified, Bible texts are from the New King James Version.)

Pastor John J. Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by email at: historic@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.

Life Sketches – Your Eternal Destiny

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For three and a half years while the disciples were with Jesus, watching Him lovingly minister day after day to the multitudes, they failed to learn to get along with each other. In fact, the night Jesus was betrayed, the Bible says, “Now there was also a dispute among them, as to which of them should be considered the greatest. And He said to them, ‘The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called “benefactors.” But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table?  Yet I am among you as the One who serves’ ” (Luke 22:24-27).

O, friend, herein is the secret to how you can resolve differences. Jesus promised them that after He ascended to heaven He would give to them a special gift that would guide them into all truth and solve all the problems that they had had for over three years—getting along. In Luke 24:49, it says, “Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”

Acts 1:8 says, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” So, when the Holy Spirit came upon them, what happened? “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place” (Acts 2:1). Jesus also promised in John 16 that the Holy Spirit would guide them into all truth, and when people are all guided into all truth, they have the unity of the faith. Paul says in Ephesians 4:1-3, “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

Unity and harmony takes work. Jesus told His followers that they must learn how to endure, to bear with one another, because they had differences of thought. They were going to need lowliness, gentleness, and longsuffering. But it is not enough just to have those things. The Holy Spirit must give gifts in the church that result in the unity of all Christian believers. Ellen White wrote, “Christ declares that our heavenly Father is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him, than earthly parents are to give gifts to their children.” Reflecting Christ, 304.

Notice how it is described in Ephesians 4:11–15, (literal translation): “He Himself gave some [gifts] to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness by which they lie in wait to deceive, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ.”

Notice, it is God’s plan for His believers to grow up to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, to come into the unity of the faith. And this can only be done as the Holy Spirit guides people back to Bible truth. Jesus said in His last prayer with His disciples before Gethsemane, “Sanctify them … ,” that is,  My followers, “… sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:17). The truth is God’s word, and when people come into harmony with it, they will be in harmony with each other. The reason there is not harmony in Christianity today is because Christians are not fully in harmony with God’s word.

Jesus said, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

Peter was appointed to take the gospel to the Jews, along with James and John, but Paul was especially appointed to take the gospel to the nations. It is never convenient to be a missionary, for it involves hardship. It also involves an expenditure of money, time, and resources. However, this has been the mission since then for those God has appointed as missionaries to those who do not know the gospel. Paul and Barnabas went out and began to preach the gospel in various places. One of the first places they preached after leaving Antioch was in Cyprus. It says of them, “Being sent out by the Holy Spirit” (Acts 13:4, first part).

Notice, when a person is filled with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit is going to send that person out as a witness for Christ. It was the Holy Spirit that sent out Barnabas and Saul. “They went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. … they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. They also had John as their assistant.

“Now when they had gone through the island to Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus, who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. This man called for Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. But Elymas the sorcerer (for so his name is translated) withstood them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith” (Acts 13:4, last part–8).

The devil has always had agents of various kinds to try to keep people, especially those having education, influence or leadership ability, from accepting the gospel. This has been the case for thousands of years. This sorcerer had closed his eyes to the truth of the Bible that had been available to him. This is a dangerous thing to do, for God may do something to get you to see the error of your ways. In doing such, a judgment came upon this man.

Acts 13:9–12 says, “Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, ‘O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord? And now, indeed, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time.’ And immediately a dark mist fell on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had been done, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord.”

The sorcerer was leading people away from the truth that the apostles were presenting. So they had to stand their ground and oppose him, not because they did not like him, but because he was leading other people to reject the gospel. That is more serious than most people realize. Peter said, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

It is a false idea that there are many ways of salvation. There is no other way. Only through the gospel of Jesus Christ can you be saved. Everything else leads to death and loss of eternal life, what the Bible describes as the second death (Revelation 20:14). In this world, we know something about death because it is all around us. We see death, we go to funerals, we have cemeteries, and we are very conscious of the frailty of life. However, for the saved, the death that is experienced in this world is only temporary.

In Acts 24:15, speaking to Felix, the governor, Paul said, “I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust.” He acknowledged that both he and Paul believed the same thing, that there is going to be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of the unjust. So, death in this world is temporary. But the big question is, after a person dies, in which resurrection will they participate? Will it be the resurrection of the just, or will they participate in the resurrection of the unjust? Everybody will be raised, but not all will be raised in the same resurrection. Some will be raised in the resurrection of the just and others in the resurrection of the unjust.

In Daniel 12:2, it says, “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt.” So, it is very serious to lead somebody to reject the gospel and teach them to distrust the Bible and the word of the prophets and the apostles, because if you do not believe, you cannot receive salvation. Jesus said, “He that believes on Me has everlasting life” (John 6:47, literal translation).

However, if you don’t believe, He said to the Jews, “You are not willing to come to Me that you may have life” (John 5:40). On another occasion Jesus said to the Jews, “ ‘I am going away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin. Where I go you cannot come.’ So the Jews said, ‘Will He kill Himself, because He says, “Where I go you cannot come?” ’ And He said to them, ‘You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe I am He, you will die in your sins’ ” (John 8:21–24). That is a very serious business. Death is not serious; death is of small moment, small account, to a person who is a Christian. It is just a moment of silence and darkness—a sleep. At the resurrection he will be raised; he will awake to everlasting life.

However, if you die in your sins because you do not believe, you have no hope. You will then be part of the resurrection of the unjust. For this reason, it is unwise to reject the gospel, and even more serious to lead somebody else to reject the gospel, because in doing that you rob them of their hope of an eternal inheritance.

In Acts 13:14, 15, we read that when Paul and Barnabas left that area “… they came to Antioch and Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down. And after the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them, saying, ‘Men and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.’ ”

They asked Paul and Barnabas if they had any exhortation to give to the people. Paul (Saul) replied that indeed he did and related the experience of the Israelites on their pilgrim journey from Egypt to the Promised Land as recorded in Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. “Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said, ‘Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen: The God of this people Israel chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm He brought them out of it. Now for a time of about forty years He put up with their ways in the wilderness. And when He had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He distributed their land to them by allotment.’ (See the book of Joshua.)

“ ‘After that He gave them judges for about four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet [described in the book of Judges]. And afterward they asked for a king; so God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years [described in 1st and 2nd Samuel]. And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, “I have found David the son of Jessie, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.” From this man’s (David’s) seed according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Saviour—Jesus—after John had first preached, before His coming, the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel (the first part of Matthew). And as John was finishing his course, he said, “Who do you think I am? I am not He. But behold, there comes One after me, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to loose” (John 1).

“ ‘Men and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to you the word of this salvation has been sent. For those who dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they did not know Him, nor even the voices of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath, have fulfilled them in condemning Him. And though they found no cause for death in Him, they asked Pilate that He should be put to death. Now when they had fulfilled all that was written [in the Old Testament] concerning Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb. But God raised Him from the dead. He was seen for many days by those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses to the people (1 Corinthians 15:6). And we declare to you glad tidings—that promise which was made to the fathers. God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that He has raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second Psalm: “You are My Son, today I have begotten You” (verse 7). And that He raised Him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, He has spoken thus: “I will give you the sure mercies of David” (Acts 13:34). Therefore He also says in another Psalm: “You will not allow Your Holy One to see corruption” (Psalm 16:10).

“ ‘For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption; but He whom God raised up saw no corruption. Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest what has been spoken in the prophets come upon you:

“Behold, you despisers,

Marvel and perish!

For I work a work in your days,

A work which you will by no means believe,

Though one were to declare it to you” ’ ” (Acts 13:16–41).

The Gentile people who were also listening to Paul’s discourse had never heard the story of Jesus or the gospel that their sins could be forgiven by believing, without animal sacrifices. “So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. Now when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God” (Ibid., verses 42–44).

But now something terrible happened—something that has existed for generations up to the present time. Some people feel that their race is superior and their nation superior to other races of people and look down upon others who are different from them for various reasons, even skin color. The Jews had that very problem—exclusivism. They became envious of the fact that now the Gentiles were going to be offered salvation and there would eventually be more Gentiles that would accept Jesus than there would be Jews.

It says, “But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy; and contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul. Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, ‘It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us: “I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, that you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth” ’ ” (Ibid., verses 45–47).

Friend, how is it with you? There are many people today doing the very same thing that the Jews did in this instance. They don’t like somebody in a church or in a certain place, so they reject the gospel. These Jews rejected the gospel because of racial prejudice. By rejecting the gospel, a person declares that they are unworthy of eternal life.

God will allow those who declare themselves to be unworthy of eternal life by rejecting the gospel of Jesus and refusing to believe in Him to have their choice, but it will be at an eternal cost.

Don’t ever forget that you choose for yourself your own eternal destiny.

(Unless appearing in quoted references or otherwise identified, Bible texts are from the New King James Version.)

Pastor John J. Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by email at: historic@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.

Life Sketches – From Sinner to Saint

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Sometimes we can make decisions in a moment of time that will affect our lives either for the better, so that we have abundant and lifelong happiness, or for the worse, so that our happiness is destroyed and often irreparable. The Bible records experiences of people with both outcomes.

After Jesus rose from the tomb on the third day, the Bible records ten different incidences of personal interviews He had with people:

  • Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons (Mark 16:9).
  • A small group of women who had come to the tomb Sunday morning (Matthew 28:9, 10).
  • Peter (1 Corinthians 15:5).
  • Two men on a road to Emmaus, the Sunday afternoon of His resurrection (Luke 24:15).
  • His eleven disciples (John 20:19; 1 Corinthians 15:5).
  • A group of over 500 at one time (1 Corinthians 15:6). When the book of Corinthians was written, Paul said the majority of those people were still alive.
  • James, Jesus’ step brother (1 Corinthians 15:7).
  • Jesus appeared a second time to the eleven (John 20:26).
  • Some days later, He appeared to seven of the disciples (John 21:1).
  • Paul, on the road to Damascus (1 Corinthians 15:8, 9).

When the apostle Paul met the Lord Jesus on the Damascus road, it was a momentary event that completely changed forever the course of his life. He was instantly transformed from persecutor into an apostle of the gospel after his personal interview with the Lord. This story of the conversion of the apostle Paul is still today one of the leading evidences of the Christian religion. While on a journey to Damascus to arrest Christians and bring them back, bound, to Jerusalem he was stopped in his tracks by a great light, brighter than the sun. He saw a glorious Personage in front of him that spoke to him, saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me” (Acts 22:7)?

Trembling, astonished, and inquiring what he was to do, Paul, being blinded by the light, was led into Damascus by the hand of those that were with him to wait on further instructions (see Acts 9:4–6). While in Damascus Paul was baptized.

Many years later telling his story to the Jews in Jerusalem, he said, “And since I could not see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of those who were with me, I came into Damascus” (Acts 22:11).

Later he related to King Agrippa some other things that the Lord told him on the Damascus road. The Lord said to him, “ ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’ Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” (Acts 26:15–19).

Paul was commissioned to preach, the result being that people were to have their eyes opened. “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them” (2 Corinthians 4:3, 4).

Every person who works in evangelism has this experience. When you read the Bible and pray that the Lord will help you to understand it, the meaning becomes so plain that you wonder how others can’t see it. Paul explains that it is the god of this age that dulls our understanding. This was the same experience for the Jews when Jesus was here. It says in John 12:39–41, “Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again: ‘He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they should see with their eyes, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.’ These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory.”

However, Jesus said, “I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness” (verse 46).

O, friend, do you have spiritual vision, or has your mind been blinded by the god of this world so that you cannot see? The Bible predicts that in the last days God’s professed followers will think that they can see, but they’re actually blind. Notice what it says in Revelation 3:17, 18: “Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.”

In Matthew the 15th chapter, speaking of the Jewish leaders, Jesus says, “Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch” (verse 14). Here is a description of a church member who doesn’t know the word of God for himself but hangs on every word of a clergyman or other supposed leader who is just as spiritually ignorant. They will both eventually fall in a ditch.

And the main reason for their blindness? Jesus says, “Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men’ ” (verses 7–9). The Jews thought they were keeping the commandments, but were actually breaking them with all their traditions (verse 6). The same happens today. Many Christians believe that they are keeping the commandments while in reality, they are just keeping them according to their own particular traditions.

Jesus said, “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? For God commanded, saying, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me has been dedicated to the temple,” is released from honoring his father and mother.’ Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition” (verses 3–6, literal translation).

In 1 John 2:7–11, the apostle John identifies who is in the light and who is in the dark and can’t see where they are going. He said, “Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”

O friend, how is it with you? The first four commandments say that you are supposed to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. The last six commandments say to treat your neighbor as yourself. If you hate your brother, you break the last six commandments of the law. If you don’t love God with all your heart, you break the first four commandments of the law. If you hate your brother, your eyes are blinded, you are in the dark, and you don’t understand where you are going or where you will end up.

Many people think they are on their way to heaven but will find out at the last that they have been travelling down the broad road that leads to destruction. They were deceived into thinking that through their traditions they were keeping the commandments of God when actually they were not. They claimed that they were keeping God’s commandments. They claimed that they loved God with all their heart, soul, and mind, and their neighbor as themselves, but not really.

The Lord commissioned the apostle Paul to open their eyes, so that they can see, and to turn them from darkness to light. A person is in darkness when he hates his fellow man because they also have been made in the image of God. Paul’s job was to turn them from the power of Satan to the light.

The Gentiles, those who were not Jewish, were not aware that by worshiping their idols and other gods they were giving homage to the evil one and were under the power of Satan. Paul told the Corinthians, “What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything? Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice [to their idols] they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons” (1 Corinthians 10:19, 20).

Demons are deceptive. They do not manifest themselves as the demons that they are. They claim to be angels of light. Notice what the apostle Paul says about this in 2 Corinthians 11:13–15: “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.” All who do not worship the true God, the Creator God, are worshiping demons that claim to be ministers of righteousness.

The Bible predicts that in the last days, there will be many people who accept false doctrines from false teachers. “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thessalonians 2:9–12).

O, friend, if you have pleasure in unrighteousness you are going to be deceived in the last days. John explains in 1 John 5:17 that all unrighteousness is sin. Sin is transgressing God’s law (1 John 3:4 KJV). So, having pleasure in unrighteousness is having pleasure in sin, or having pleasure in breaking God’s law. If you have pleasure in unrighteousness because you do not love the truth, you will be deceived.

Paul cautions the Christians to come out from all those practices so that they can turn from the power of Satan to the power of God. He cautions, “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.’ Therefore ‘come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.’ ‘I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty’ ” (2 Corinthians 6:14–18).

So, not only were their eyes to be opened, not only were they to be delivered from darkness to light, not only were they to be delivered from the power of Satan to the power of God, but also, when they turned to the Lord, they were to receive forgiveness of sins. Whom God forgives, He first makes penitent. He first gives repentance, so that they confess their sins. The Bible says there is one mediator between God and men (1 Timothy 2:5). There is only one Person in the universe that can forgive your sins. Peter said in Acts 4:12, literal translation, “Neither is there any other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” The Lord wants to save you, friend. He wants to deliver you from the power of Satan.

In 1 John 3:8–10 it says, “He who sins is of the devil (under the control or influence of the devil), for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.”

There is a goal to be reached at the end of the Christian journey. Your eyes will be opened and you will turn from the darkness of the power of Satan to live a new life in the light and power of God. You confess Jesus as your Lord and Saviour and invite Him to be Sovereign of your life so that you can receive the forgiveness of sins. Now you are ready to “receive an inheritance among those that are sanctified” (Acts 26:18, literal translation). To be sanctified means to be a holy person. The New Testament teaches that only holy people will be in heaven. It says, “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14).

Peter wrote the necessity of holiness when he said, “Because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’ And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear” (1 Peter 1:16, 17).

“Be holy; for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44). God wants to make you a holy person. “It is God who works in you both to will and do His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13, literal translation). He wants to open your eyes, turn you from darkness to light, deliver you from the power of Satan to the power of God so that your sins can be forgiven and so that you can receive, someday, an inheritance among those that are sanctified. You will be holy, too.

(Unless appearing in quoted references or otherwise identified, Bible texts are from the New King James Version.)

Pastor John J. Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by email at: historic@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.

Life Sketches – A Rich Fool

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Ironically, there is temporal gain in this world that later results in great loss, and there is also temporal loss that later results in great gain. A wise person considers the long-term effects of day-by-day decisions.

When Jesus was on earth, He taught that there were consequences to all decisions that may be completely different from what was expected. For instance, recorded in Matthew 16:24–26, literal translation, is this seeming paradox: “Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?’ ”

That is interesting, for the result is the opposite of what is expected. If you save your life, you will lose it, and if you lose your life for Christ’s sake, you will end up finding it. Jesus mentioned this several times (see also Mark 8:35 or Luke 9:24). If you find what you think is success in this world and have not denied yourself by taking up your cross and following Jesus, you may have gained the whole world, but you could eventually lose your own soul. Jesus asked, “What have you gained?” In light of eternity you have gained nothing because any gain on this earth is temporary.

However, there have been those who have apparently lost everything who will end up gaining more than they lost. Matthew 19:27–29 says, “Peter answered and said to Him [Jesus], ‘… See, we have left all and followed You. Therefore what shall we have?’ So Jesus said to them, ‘Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit ever-lasting life’ ” (literal translation). Jesus greatly rewards a hundred fold those who are prepared to put all on the line in order to follow Him.

The Bible gives many stories of people who made both decisions. There is nothing in this world more valuable than the offer of eternal life. In Luke 12:18–21 there is a story about a rich man who said, “ ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.” ’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

The apostle Paul, before he met the Lord on the Damascus road, was a zealous persecutor of the Christian church. In fact, he was on his way to Damascus with orders from the high priest in Jerusalem to take captive any that were found in the city of Damascus who were Christians and bring them back to Jerusalem bound for judgment and punishment when Jesus caught his attention in a mighty way.

It says in Acts 9:3–6, “… suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul why are you persecuting Me?’ And he said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ Then the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.’ … So he, trembling and astonished, said, ‘Lord, what do You want me to do?’ Then the Lord said to him, ‘Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.’ ”

After that encounter, Paul could not see anything for the light had completely blinded his eyes. So he arose and had to be led by the hand by his fellow traveling companions into the city. The Bible records that after a few days he was baptized by Ananias in the river. Paul was given back his eyesight; however, the vision that he had on the Damascus road affected his eyesight for the rest of his life.

After Paul’s baptism, he went back into the city to fellowship with the Christians. Now, instead of taking them prisoners, he shared with them his testimony of how, during his three days of blindness and fasting, he had reviewed in his mind the knowledge he had of the Old Testament prophecies. He now saw how the Old Testament prophecies pointed specifically to Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah and how everything fit perfectly together. He knew the time prophecies in Daniel and saw that Jesus had come at exactly the time predicted in Daniel 9. He connected the prophecies in the minor prophets predicting that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, and that He would be born of the lineage of David. He recalled from the prophecies in Isaiah that the Messiah’s work would be headquartered in the territory of Galilee.

The scales were lifted from Paul’s eyes, and through his blindness, he now understood that the prophecies in the Psalms and Isaiah predicting that the Messiah would be rejected by the Jews and that He would be killed as a criminal by His own people had been fulfilled. He knew well from memory the prophecies in the Psalms, and in Isaiah, and in Jeremiah, and the minor prophets, in Daniel, and the prophecies given by Moses concerning the Messiah. But now he was able to see how these prophecies pointed directly to Jesus as the Messiah.

With this new understanding, he began to preach. First, he preached to the Jews and showed them from prophecy that this Jesus, who had been put to death, was really the Son of God. His arguments from prophecy were so convincing and conclusive, and his preaching was attended by the power of God so much, that the Jews who opposed him were confounded and unable to answer him.

In Acts 9:20–22, the Bible says,  “Immediately he preached the Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God. Then all who heard were amazed, and said, ‘Is this not he who destroyed those who called on this name in Jerusalem, and has come here for that purpose, so that he might bring them bound to the chief priests?’ But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews that dwelt in Damascus, proving that this Jesus is the Christ.”

Paul showed them that his change of mind was not brought about by some impulse or fanaticism, but had been brought about by overwhelming evidence from Scripture.

As he presented it, he saw more and more clearly that Jesus was indeed the Son of God. There was no more argument, for all the Bible prophecies of the Old Testament proved it. Paul met such fierce opposition from the Jews in Damascus that he had to leave. Instead of being converted by the evidence presented, they developed an intense hatred of him. The same result is often true today. When the gospel is presented, some people accept it, but most people resist it and when the evidence becomes exceedingly powerful that what is being resisted is the truth, people develop hatred against the presenter. That has been true for thousands of years.

The same intense hatred was now exhibited toward Paul as was manifested before toward Jesus. Paul’s life in Damascus was in peril and he was directed by the Lord to leave there for a time, so he went to Arabia. In that land, he had opportunity for close contemplation and communion with God. He had time to search his own soul to deepen his repentance and to prepare himself by study and prayer for the work that he was about to engage in, which seemed to him to be too great and too important for him to undertake.

The Lord had already plainly told him that his work was to be among the Gentiles. To the Galatians Paul wrote, “When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem … ” (Galatians 1:15–18).

The time spent in Arabia was to him a time of great soul-searching, prayer, and study. He wanted to know for sure that his great sin against Christ and His followers had been forgiven. Jesus had told him that it was He whom Paul was persecuting. When you persecute a Christian, a person who is a real follower of Jesus Christ, not only by profession but in character, the persecution is accounted as being done to the Lord Himself.

In the book of Matthew Jesus pulls back the veil from the future and tells us what is going to happen when He returns to this world again. Matthew 25:31–33 says, “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.” Notice what He says to both groups. To the ones on His right side He says, “ ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ ” To those on the left side, He will say to them, “ ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me’ ” (verses 40, 45).

When Paul went back to Damascus preaching boldly in the name of Jesus, the Jews could not withstand his arguments. So they counseled together to silence his voice by force, the only argument left to a sinking cause. In 2 Corinthians 5:11, Paul says, “We persuade men.” The only force that the apostles used was the constraining love of Christ. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:14, literal translation, “The love of Christ constrains us.” That is the force that God uses, the force of His love. If that doesn’t draw you, then there is no other weapon that God will use to win you. Revelation 22:17 says, “And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.”

In the books of Daniel and Revelation, all persecuting powers are described as Satanic. God does not use compulsion, except for the force of love to draw and to attract. In Jeremiah 31:3, literal translation, the Lord says, “With an everlasting love I have loved you, therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.” But, the only argument left to a sinking cause is to silence the voice by force that cannot be silenced by persuasion or any logical arguments. When you look down through human history you find that this has happened millions and millions of times. If you cannot gain the best of your opponent by logic or reason, or persuade him of the righteousness of your cause, and he is determined to resist, the only thing left to do is to kill him. When you do that, of course, you reveal which side of the great controversy between Christ and Satan that you are on. There is a great controversy going on in our world between two supernatural powers, and the methods that we use when we deal with each other reveal which side of this controversy we stand on (see Revelation 12).

Unable to resist the wisdom spoken by Him, the Jews decided that they would kill Jesus to get Him out of the way. They did the same with the apostles. James was the first to be killed. They wanted to kill Peter, but his time to die was not yet and they were not allowed to do it. The Jews decided to kill Paul in Damascus and the disciples in Damascus did not know what to do. It says in Acts 9:23–25, “After many days were past, the Jews plotted to kill him. But their plot became known to Saul (Paul). And they watched the gates day and night, to kill him. Then the disciples took him by night and let him down through the wall in a large basket.”

After he made his escape from Damascus, Paul went to Jerusalem to see the great apostle Peter, who was with James, but there he met with a lot of trouble because the Christians would not receive him, remembering him as a persecutor. He had no way to even contact the apostles.

Paul had been away from Jerusalem for three years. He had many friends, acquaintances, and relatives living there and he thought that they would be excited about hearing the wonderful experience he had. He thought that they would accept Christ, too, but he misjudged his former friends and associates. Not only did they reject what he said, but their rage and anger against him knew no bounds. They sought to kill him. This is often the same reaction today when a person finds Jesus, the Pearl of great price, that is worth more than anything in the world. Often that person who is so excited to share their new love and hope in the One described as “altogether lovely,” the “Prince of Peace,” the only Person in the universe who can deliver you from the guilt of your sin and the power of sin, and put joy and peace and love in your heart, is met with ridicule and rejection.

When a person finds Christ, he knows he has found such a treasure so wonderful that he immediately wants to tell his friends, acquaintances, and relatives what he has found. But it is still true today, just as it was in those days, that the eyes of those who are perishing are blinded by the god of this world, so that they should not see the light of the gospel. The apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:3, 4, says, “If our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”

Not only did Paul meet with disappointment from his former fellow associates and friends, but the Christians would not accept him either because they were afraid that this was a set-up to flush them out and then destroy them. “When Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, and did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. And he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that He had spoken to Him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. So he was with them at Jerusalem, coming in and going out. And he spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the Hellenists, but they attempted to kill him. When the brethren found out, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him out to Tarsus” (Acts 9:26–30).

Throughout the ages, the person who knows the truth and wants to share it with others has been forced to flee because so many will not accept it. Paul was willing to stay in Jerusalem even if it meant giving his life to try to save his former associates. But while he was there, he said, “It happened, when I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, that I was in a trance and saw Him (Christ) saying to me, ‘Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, for they will not receive your testimony concerning Me.’ So I said, ‘Lord, they know that in every synagogue I imprisoned and beat those who believe on You. And when the blood of Your martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by consenting to his death, and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.’ Then He said to me, ‘Depart, for I will send you far from here to the Gentiles’ ” (Acts 22:17–21).

Although the Jews rejected the Lord Jesus, divine wisdom saw that there were multitudes in the Gentile world that if they heard the gospel would accept it. There are still people scattered here and there around the world who accept the gospel when hearing it.

Have you accepted the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you surrendered yourself to Him? Has He become the Sovereign of your life so that He can deliver you from the guilt and power of sin, and give you an inheritance among those that are sanctified? Have you found the real reason that you are here, the real reason for living? Do you have security for the future because you are following the One who never makes a mistake?

(Unless appearing in quoted references or otherwise identified, Bible texts are from the New King James Version.)

Pastor John J. Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by email at: historic@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.

Life Sketches – From Persecutor to Apostle

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How much evidence do you need before you are willing to commit to a settled decision? It is said that seeing is believing. However, there is even stronger evidence than sight and sound.

Peter, James, and John saw Jesus glorified on the Mount of Transfiguration. In 2 Peter 1:16, Peter says, “We did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.” Peter says, “We saw His majesty.” Not only that, he heard something. It says, “For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’ ” (verse 17). They both saw Him glorified and they heard a voice that came from the Father in heaven confirming His “Sonship.”

But then, Peter says in verses 18, 19, first part, literal translation, “We heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain … we also have the prophetic word made more sure …” a more sure prophetic word, a more sure word of prophecy, more sure than what? “More sure than what we saw, and more sure than what we heard.” Scripture plainly teaches that the prophecies in this book, are more sure, they are more certain and stronger evidence than what you see and what you hear.

Peter says, “We also have the prophetic word made more sure, which you do well to take heed as unto a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (verse 19, literal translation).

Before Paul’s conversion, he had that experience as well. He was lying on the ground when he saw Jesus Christ in His glorified form and heard His voice say, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” (Acts 9:5). And he said, “Lord, what do You want me to do” (verse 6, first part)? And Jesus said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and it will be shown to you what you shall do” (verse 6, last part, literal translation). And then the vision was over. Saul, trying to get up, finds that he is totally deprived of sight. The brightness of Christ’s glory had been too intense for his mortal sight, and when it was removed, the blackness of night settled upon his vision. He thought that his sudden blindness was punishment from God.

He had been a cruel persecutor of the followers of Jesus and now he finds himself groping about in darkness. His companions, in fear, amazement, and astonishment at what has happened to Saul, took him by the hand, and led him into Damascus. How different it was from what he expected. He thought he was going to enter this city to meet with ostentation, and applause, and honor, because of his position. But now, although he had come there to cause the Christians to be condemned and punished without mercy, and had determined that no Christian would escape his vigilance in entering their houses to seize the inmates and send them as prisoners to Jerusalem, how different it all was.

His world was turned upside down in a few minutes. Instead of wielding power and receiving honor, he was led as a blind man into town. He had caused many Christians to be cast into prison. Now he is effectively in prison himself. He cannot see anything. He is blind and has to be led here and there and waited upon, dependent upon the guidance of his companions.

Saul is helpless and tortured by remorse. He felt himself to be under the sentence of death, not knowing what the Lord was going to do with him. The Scripture says that he was taken to the house of a certain disciple by the name of Judas, and there he remained in solitude, studying in his mind the strange revelation that had broken up all his plans and turned his life upside down. The entire current of his life had changed suddenly. He spent there three days in total blindness.

Spending that time in repentance, reflection, and prayer, he did not eat or drink. He remembered with bitterness of mind how he had consented to the stoning of Stephen. And he remembered the evidence that he had seen in Stephen that there was a power higher than any earthly power that sustained Christ’s servant. He thought with horror of his guilt, that he was one of the ones who had consented, saying, “Stone this man.”

He had been controlled by malice and prejudice. He had closed his ears against the most striking evidence and continued in persecution of the Christian religion. At some time, every person who is a persecutor of the Christian religion must face the truth and reality. The Lord says in both the Old and New Testaments that the day is coming when every knee is going to bow down to Me, and every tongue is going to swear. Not because they will be forced to but that the evidence will be so overwhelming that they will see there is no other suitable solution, no other answer.

Saul at that time was in lonely seclusion. He had no communication with the church because they feared and avoided him; they knew what he was there for. They had been warned by believers in Jerusalem what he was coming there to do. Thus there was not any Christian who wanted to be anywhere near him. He was devoid of human sympathy as he pondered what he could do now with the Jews. He was a broken man, but he had a repentant spirit.

Notice what Jesus said in Matthew 21:44: “Whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.” As Saul, about to become the apostle Paul, was thinking about it, he was astonished, as every atheist and agnostic and unbeliever will be astonished someday. He was astonished at his former blindness, that he did not see the tremendous evidence of the Messiahship of Christ. In fact, he was astonished at the blindness of the Jewish nation in general. How could they reject Jesus, the promised Messiah, when all the Old Testament scriptures were fulfilled in His life? It all was plain to him now. He had not studied the scriptures for nothing. It all came back to his mind, even though he was physically blind. And he realized that it was prejudice and unbelief, which had clouded his perceptions and prevented him from discerning Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah of prophecy.

The same is still true. People are prevented from belief by prejudice, by settled unbelief, reinforced by their friends and associates, just as was Saul of Tarsus when friends and associates convinced him that Jesus was a fraud. This wonderful conversion of Saul demonstrates in a startling manner the miraculous power that Jesus Christ has to convict the mind and heart of man. Some people might say, “Well, why doesn’t Jesus do that for everybody?” Friend, Jesus knows people’s hearts, He knows how people would respond and He is not interested in forcing someone to believe who does not want to and chooses not to. Jesus knew the struggles that the apostle Paul had had night and day with his conscience.

O, friend, are you struggling with a guilty conscience? Are you kicking against the pricks and struggling to keep from making a decision to surrender to the sovereignty of Jesus Christ in your life? Do you know that Jesus cannot be your Saviour from sin unless He is also the sovereign and Lord of your life? The apostles made this very clear. He has been made both a Lord and a Saviour. Those are the two things you must believe in regard to Jesus Christ if you are going to receive salvation. He must not only be your Saviour from sin, but He must be the Lord of your life.

Saul said to Him on the Damascus road, “Lord [in other words, Master, Sovereign, Ruler], what do You want me to do? What shall I do?” Jesus said, “Arise and go into the city, and it will be shown to you what you shall do.” And now something astonishing happened. Jesus revealed Himself to Saul for the purpose of arresting him in his mad career. He would now make from what was a most unpromising subject an instrument to bear the gospel of salvation to all the Gentiles of the world.

Saul was overwhelmed by this revelation, Jesus of Nazareth, the One that he had been opposing, the One that he had arrayed himself against, was the Redeemer of the world, and there was no other way to be saved but through Him. He was overwhelmed by his sense of guilt.

Those were torturous days for Saul of Tarsus. What disposal was going to be made of him? What was the Lord going to decide in regard to his case? He knew that he had been the leading, most relentless persecutor of the Christian church. What was going to be his penalty? What was going to be his punishment? Could he be forgiven? He repented. It says, “Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and to him the Lord said in a vision, ‘Ananias.’ And he said, ‘Here I am, Lord.’ So the Lord said to him, ‘Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for, behold, he is praying. And in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, so that he might receive his sight’ ” (Acts 9:10–12).

Ananias had heard about who this man was, and even though this was the Lord of glory speaking to him in a vision, he began to expostulate, trying to reason with the Lord. Don’t we all do that at times? The Lord tells us what to do, He knows what we need to do, but we don’t think so. We think that it could not be quite like that, surely not that, Lord.

Notice what Ananias said: “Then Ananias answered, ‘Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call upon Your name’ ” (verses 13, 14).

So often, when Jesus sends us a message, we start reasoning it out, and say, “Lord, not that. No, no. I can’t do that. Not that road, Lord, not that direction, Lord, not that decision, Lord.” So often, Jesus doesn’t give a full explanation of what He wants us to do. Look at the life of Jesus when He was here. It happened repeatedly. Jesus did not explain, and people started to try to reason it out. Lord, Why do You say not to do that? Why do You say to do this? It is human nature to enquire why, but Jesus did not reason it out. He just gave this reply to Ananias in the vision, “But the Lord said to him, ‘Go’ ” (verse 15, first part).

When the Lord says to go, we need to go. Whether or not we understand why is not the issue. Whether we understand the consequences, we have nothing to do with them. The Lord will take care of the consequences. The Lord did not show Ananias that it was going to be safe to go. He was going to visit the persecutor, the one who had come to Damascus to seize all the Christians and put them in prison. The Lord said, “You go. Just go.” “The Lord said to him, ‘Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake’ ” (verses 15, last part, 16).

So, Ananias went to see the blind Saul. Verses 17, 18 say, “And Ananias went his way and entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, ‘Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.’ Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptized.”

The apostle Paul talks about this very thing in his letters. The scales fell from his eyes and now he could see. Notice what he said in 2 Corinthians 3:12–16: “Since we have such great hope, we use great boldness of speech—unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadfastly at the end of what was passing away. But their minds were hardened. For until this day, the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.”

When you turn to the Lord you may not understand everything. You may have a veil over your eyes. You may not see anything clearly, but Paul says, the scales are going to fall from your eyes, the veil is going to be taken away. You’re going to be able to see. You’re going to start to understand what you are reading, when you read God’s word.

There are even Christians today who say they cannot understand the Old Testament, yet the Old Testament provides the foundation for the Christian church. The Christian church is built on “… the foundation,” Paul says, “… of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:20). When you turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away. “… the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Corinthians 3:17).

O, friend, has the veil been removed from your eyes so that you can see clearly and understand spiritual things when you read the Old and the New Testaments? Paul has promised, when you turn to the Lord, the veil will be taken away. You’ll start to see. Do you want that experience to happen to you?

(Unless appearing in quoted references or otherwise identified, Bible texts are from the New King James Version.)

Pastor John J. Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by email at: historic@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.

Life Sketches – Kicking Against the Pricks

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Sometimes people will experience a life-changing event that will completely turn their life upside down and they know that life as they knew it will never be the same again. Such events are described in the Bible, and there is a life-changing event that everyone must experience if they are going to have eternal life. However, not everybody experiences it in the same way.

The stoning of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was a pivotal turning point in the history of the Christian church. Before that event, the apostles preached the gospel almost exclusively to the Jews. In fact, we do not have a record of the apostles preaching the gospel to non-Jews up until that time. But, after the stoning of Stephen, it is very clear in the book of Acts that the gospel then went to the Gentiles.

This opening of the gospel to the Gentiles met with severe opposition, for the Jews did not want the Christian church to exist. In fact, they set out to destroy it so that there would be no Christians left. One of the chief persecutors was a man by the name of Saul of Tarsus. The first mention in Scripture of this man is at the time of the stoning of Stephen. It says, “They (the Jews) cast him (Stephen) out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul” (Acts 7:58). In Acts 8:1, first part, it says that “… Saul was consenting to his death.”

“Saul of Tarsus was present [at Stephen’s trial] and took a leading part against Stephen. He brought the weight of eloquence and the logic of the rabbis to bear upon the case, to convince the people that Stephen was preaching delusive and dangerous doctrines … .” The Acts of the Apostles, 98. “At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison” (Acts 8:1, second part–3).

Saul tried to destroy the Christian church by putting Christians in prison and having the leaders killed to stop the spread of what he deemed to be a terrible so-called heresy. Now, Saul was greatly esteemed by the Jewish nation because of his zeal. He, a learned and zealous rabbi, had become a member of the Sanhedrin counsel. He was a mighty instrument in the hand of Satan, used to carry out the rebellion against the Son of God.

However, things would soon change. The very person who was the leading persecutor of the Christian church would become the leading Christian apologist, the leading Christian apostle and proponent of the Christian religion. This story is stranger than fiction. It is a story in which we see that there is Someone mightier than Satan, who had selected the very person who led the persecution of the Christian church to become the leader of the Christian religion. This man would later write more than half the books of the New Testament.

The Bible records Stephen’s death this way: “He, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, ‘Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man (Jesus Christ) standing at the right hand of God’ ”(Acts 7:55, 56)! It says that, “all who sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as the face of an angel” (Acts 6:15).

Stephen died, but he did not die a defeated man. He died a conqueror. He said, “I see the heavens opened.” He said that he saw the Son of Man “standing at the right hand of the throne of God.” Saul and the Jewish leaders could not stand to hear that, for it was contrary to their beliefs, especially the Sadducees who taught that there was no such thing as a resurrection from the dead. When Saul witnessed this man’s faith, it shook him.

“The mind of Saul was greatly stirred by the triumphant death of Stephen. He was shaken in his prejudice; but the opinions and arguments of the priests and rulers finally convinced him that Stephen was a blasphemer; that Jesus Christ whom he preached was an imposter, and that those ministering in holy offices must be right.” The Story of Redemption, 268.

Saul was a man of decided mind and determined purpose and he became very bitter in his opposition to Christianity that he considered now to be a delusion. He had it entirely settled in his mind that the views of the priests and the scribes were right, and his zeal led him to voluntarily engage in persecuting the believers. He made havoc of the church, going everywhere, and putting men and women in prison. He caused the Christians to be dragged before judicial councils. Some were imprisoned and some were condemned to death without evidence of any offence, except the fact that they had faith in Jesus.

Having to travel to Damascus upon his own business, Saul decided that he would accomplish a double purpose. He would obtain letters from the high priest to be read in the synagogues that would authorize him to seize all who were suspected of being believers in Jesus and send them by messengers to Jerusalem, to be tried and punished. So he set out, as recorded in Acts 9:1, 2: “Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way (Christians), whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.”

He set out on his way full of the vigor of manhood and the fire of a mistaken zeal that has possessed millions upon millions of men and women down through the ages. When you study history, you find very often the worst persecutors of all time have been those who believed that what they were doing was for the glory of God. The cry of persecutors for thousands of years has been, “We have to get rid of these people so that they won’t deceive the rest of the people in the world.”

Saul and his companions had to travel over a desolate, dry desert region to reach their destination. But as they neared Damascus, they looked upon the fertile land, beautiful gardens, fruitful orchards, and cool streams. It was a very refreshing scene on which to look after such a wearisome journey.

“As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’

“And he said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ Then the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads [pricks].’ ” (Acts 9:3–5).

The scene was one of greatest confusion. The companions of Saul were stricken with terror, and almost blinded by the intensity of the light. They heard the voice, but they did not see anybody. To them it was all unintelligible and mysterious, but Saul, lying prostrate on the ground, understood exactly the words that were spoken. He saw before him a Being brighter than the light of the sun, and the image of that glorified Being was indelibly marked upon his mind, and His words struck home to his heart with appalling force. A flood of light poured into his darkened mind, revealing his ignorance and error. He saw that while he had imagined himself to be zealously serving God in persecuting the followers of Christ, he had actually been doing the work of Satan. He saw his folly in resting his faith upon the assurances of the priests and rulers.

Oh, friend, are you aware that there are millions of people today, who can give you no other reason for what they believe than that it was told them by some religious teacher? They have never checked in the Bible for themselves to find out if what they believe is true? Where is your faith? In the word of man, or the word of God?

Is your faith founded in an intelligent knowledge of the word of God, that you have studied and read for yourself, or is your faith just anchored in what somebody has said, or what some group of people have said? That was the problem with Saul. His faith had been in what the religious leaders had told him. His faith was in the religious leaders that he talked to himself. He thought that these “holy men” would not be wrong.

Millions of people through the ages have been misled by placing their faith in men that they called “holy,” that led them directly contrary to what the Bible says. Jesus, talking to the Jews about this very problem, said, “Search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me” (John 5:39). They were reading a book about Jesus and when He was there they did not recognize Him.

These priests and rulers in sacred office had great influence over the mind of Saul, and they had caused him to believe that the story of the resurrection was an artful fabrication of the disciples of Jesus. But now, he had seen Jesus Christ Himself, a glorified being, brighter than the light of the sun. And then suddenly, the forcible sermon of Stephen was brought again to his mind. He now understood the truth of the dying words that Stephen had exclaimed and that the priests and rulers had said was blasphemy.

In those few moments of illumination, Saul’s mind reacted with remarkable rapidity. Your mind can work very rapidly in certain situations. Perhaps you have met people who just before a car accident, or before some other traumatic event, have later recalled, “My whole life history went before my mind.” It is an event like that which happened to Saul of Tarsus. He traced quickly through prophetic history and realized that in the Old Testament it was predicted that the Messiah would be rejected by the Jews. He knew those prophecies in Isaiah. He thought through the prophets of the Old Testament who had predicted the crucifixion of Jesus. He knew those prophecies in the Psalms.

He thought through the prophecies predicting the resurrection of Jesus. He also knew the prophecy in the Psalms that predicted the ascension of Jesus upon high, with a multitude of captives that had been freed from captivity. He saw that all this had been foretold by the prophets, and proved that Jesus Christ really was the Messiah. He remembered again the words of Stephen, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” And he knew then that the dying saint whose death to which he had consented had looked upon the kingdom of Glory. In a moment, the scales had been lifted from his eyes and now he understood.

What a revelation it was. It was light, clear but also terrible. Christ was revealed to him as having come to earth and having fulfilled his mission, being rejected, abused, condemned, and crucified by those that He came to save, but also as having risen from the dead, and having ascended into the heavens. In that terrible moment, Saul remembered that the holy man, Stephen, had been stoned with his consent. It was through his instrumentality that not only Stephen, but other Christians, had met their death by cruel persecution. “So he, trembling and astonished, said, ‘Lord, what do You want me to do’ ” (Acts 9:6, first part)? That is never a bad question to ask. “Lord, what do You want me to do?”

“Then the Lord said to him, ‘Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do’ ” (verse 6, last part). Jesus had spoken to him. There was no doubt in his mind who this was. The person had identified Himself as Jesus. He said, “I’m Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” He knew now. He knew that this Jesus was the Messiah, that He was the One who had come to this world to save anyone who was willing to be saved from sin and give them the opportunity to have eternal life.

He was the Consolation, the Redeemer of Israel. While on earth, Jesus had often used parables and symbolic language to explain the truth to people. He also now used a familiar object to illustrate His meaning in talking to the man that became the apostle Paul. Jesus said to him, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the pricks.”

Those forcible words illustrate a truth that everyone in this world someday will know and understand. There are still millions of people in the world who are kicking against the pricks. They think that if they can get enough people to kick, and kick hard enough and long enough, they will be able to destroy the Christian religion and maybe all the Christians as well. Jesus’ words reveal the fact that it is hard for you to kick against the pricks of your own conscience.

There are many stories of people who were atheists, communists, socialists, of various non-Christian religions who had persecuted Christians and then become converted. There is the prick of seeing the effect of the Christian religion on human beings as no other religion can have and the prick of their own conscience.

The fact is that it is impossible for any man or for any group of men to stop the onward progress of the truth of Christ. The truth of Christ is going to march on to victory and triumph, and every effort by any man or any group of men to stop it, will simply result in injury to the opposer.

In the end, the persecutor will suffer far more than those whom he has persecuted, for, sooner or later, his own heart will condemn him for what he has done.

The Saviour, Jesus Christ, had spoken to Saul through His servant Stephen, whose clear reasoning from the Scriptures could not be controverted. The learned Jew had seen in the face of the martyr the reflected glory of Christ. “Everyone that saw Stephen, saw his face as if it were the face of an angel.” He had witnessed not only Stephen’s forbearance, but the forbearance of other Christians toward their enemies. He had witnessed their forgiveness of their persecutors. He had also witnessed the fortitude and cheerful resignation of other believers in Jesus while they had been tormented and afflicted and still others who had yielded up their lives as martyrs, rejoicing that they might give up their life for the truth’s sake.

All this testimony had appealed to Saul of Tarsus and had put conviction on his mind, causing him to struggle against it night and day. One reason some people become persecutors is because they are struggling against the conviction of their conscience, and to be free they fight those who bring the conviction. Saul’s education, his prejudices, his respect for priests and rulers and his pride of popularity had braced him to rebel against all the voice of his conscience and the grace of God.

He had believed that Christians were deluded fanatics, but now Jesus had spoken to him with His own voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”

Oh, my friend, how is it with you? The way that you treat your fellow men is recorded in the books of heaven as the way you treat Jesus. Are you kicking against the pricks or are you ready to have a life-changing event that will turn you around 180 degrees and send you in the direction of eternal life?

(Unless appearing in quoted references or otherwise identified, Bible texts are from the New King James Version.)

Pastor John J. Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by email at: historic@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.

Life Sketches – The Only Way

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Although the New Testament clearly says that all Israel will be saved, the real question that needs to be answered is, Whom does God consider to be part of Israel today?

The prophets in the Old Testament clearly predicted the coming of the Messiah. His birth place, where He would appear as well as when and how He would die were all predicted. When the Messiah would appear, the glory of the Lord would be revealed to all the earth. When these prophecies were fulfilled in the life and ministry of Jesus, through both His teachings, and His many miracles, the evidence was plain and clear to all the world that God had sent His Son into the world for their salvation. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead in the midst of a huge concourse of people, it was an evidence that could not really be gainsaid that here was a miracle that had never been performed before. Here was a person who had the ability to call the dead from their graves.

Jesus demonstrated that He was the resurrection and the life, that He had power over death, that He had come into the world for their salvation. He did not promise the people eternal life immediately. He said, “If you believe in Me, though you die, you will live. The one who believes in Me, I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:40, literal translation). The evidence was overwhelming that through a belief in Jesus Christ of Nazareth as Lord and Saviour there was a way out of the tomb. But, the Old Testament prophets also predicted that the Messiah would be rejected by the Jewish people. (See Isaiah 53).

It was predicted that He would be crucified. (See Psalm 22.) He would be resurrected again and would go back to heaven. When Jesus came, and the Jews rejected Him, He told them what was going to happen to them: “Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the Scriptures: “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?” Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.’ ” (Matthew 21:42, 43).

He said, “You will no longer be God’s chosen people because you have rejected the majesty of heaven. You have rejected the only One who gives you eternal life.” There is only one person in the universe who can give you eternal life. Notice what Jesus said in John 5:40 speaking to the Jews. He says, “You are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” He is called, “The Prince of Life” (Acts 3:15). The apostle Peter made the following statement to the Jews: “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

There is no other way, the New Testament says, to have eternal life. There is no other way to escape death, the grave, except through Jesus Christ. He is the One who is the life-giver, He is the one who created the world (John 1:10). He is the One who upholds everything in the universe by the word of His power (Hebrews 1:1–3). He is the only One who can give you eternal life. If you reject Him, John said, you have lost everything for, “This is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:11, 12). It’s that simple. The one who has the Son of God has life. The one who does not have the Son of God does not have life. There is no one in the universe who can give you eternal life except Jesus Christ.

There are people in heathen countries who are following the voice of the Holy Spirit, perhaps unknowingly, but who are living up to all the light that they know. They will have eternal life, but that eternal life is through Jesus Christ.

When the Jewish people rejected Jesus Christ, they rejected all means of salvation. If you do not know about Christ but are living up to the all the light you have, you can be saved. But if you reject Christ who is “… the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), if you reject truth, you are rejecting all possibility of having eternal life. So Jesus said to the Jews that the kingdom of God was going to be taken from them. It was to be given to a nation that would bring forth the fruits of it.

Even when they crucified Christ, the kingdom of God still was not taken from them right away. They were given even another opportunity to repent. On the Day of Pentecost while Peter preached to the Jews who were gathered in Jerusalem from all over the world, He told them that they were responsible for the crucifixion of the Majesty of heaven (Acts 2:22, 23). They were pricked in their conscience and said, “What shall we do” (verse 37)? “Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and be converted, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’ ” (verse 38, literal translation).

Jesus taught that nobody could be saved if they did not receive the Holy Spirit. (See John 3.) In mercy, the Jewish people were still offered salvation even after that. However, they became so bitter and vehement in their opposition to Christ that eventually they were willing to kill anyone who was a Christian. In fact, the first Christian martyr was Stephen the deacon. The Jews stoned him to death for telling them the truth of the gospel. While giving his last sermon and realizing his death was inevitable, Stephen said to his persecutors,

“ ‘You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.’ When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, ‘Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’ Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at Him with one accord; and they cast him out of the city and stoned him” (Acts 7:51–58).

Stephen was stoned for witnessing to them the gospel, and after that, the gospel went to the Gentiles. (See Acts 8.) The Jews could still be saved individually, but as a nation they were no longer God’s chosen people. Jesus was very clear that the kingdom of God was going to be taken away from them because they rejected the One who is the way, the truth, and the life. They rejected the Majesty of heaven.

So, who is Israel now? Who are His chosen people now? It is not the Jewish nation, for they have not accepted the Messiah even to the present day. They are not God’s chosen people, according to the New Testament.

The promises of salvation given to Abraham by God are all conditional on obedience. The Jews are in need of the gospel just like all the rest of us and can be saved.

Who is Israel today? It says in Galatians 3:26, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” These are the people that have been baptized in the name of Christ. They are now Christians. He says that if you have done this, then you have put on Christ.

Verse 28: “There is neither Jew nor Greek.” Notice, it doesn’t matter whether you are a Jew or Greek or what nationality you are. What matters is, Have you been baptized into Christ? Are you a Christian? “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female.”

A sharp distinction was made in the old covenant in the law of Moses, between males and females, but those distinctions, the apostle Paul says, do not apply anymore. He says there is no distinction between a Jew and a Greek, or between a servant or a slave and a free person. There is no distinction between a male and female.

It is amazing that even with this plain instruction in the New Testament even Christians can’t seem to get it figured out. In the eyes of God all are equal. There are no differences, for all are one in Christ Jesus, whether a Jew or a Greek, a male or a female, slave, free, whatever you may be. All are one in Christ Jesus. Notice verse 29: “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

O, that is a wonderful verse. Paul says that if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed; you are Abraham’s children; you are Israel, heirs to eternal life according to the promise of God.

John the Baptist tried to teach the Jews this. He said, “Do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones” (Matthew 3:9).

Jesus made the same truth clear in John 8. He acknowledged that the Jews were Abraham’s children according to the flesh, but it is not being a child according to the flesh that matters. Notice what the apostle Paul wrote to the Christian church in Rome: “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is that circumcision that which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God” (Romans 2:28, 29).

It is not outward profession that matters. It is the one who has the circumcision of the heart, circumcision representing the cutting away of sin from the life. This is not a new teaching. If you go back to the Old Testament, you will see that the prophets pleaded with Israel continually saying that the children of Israel needed to circumcise their hearts and cut sin out of their lives.

“For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect, because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression. Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (as it is written, ‘I have made you a father of many nations’) in the presence of Him whom he believed— God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did” (Romans 4:13–17).

So, we may ask the question again, Who is Israel today? Everyone who has been baptized into Christ comprises modern spiritual Israel. They are the new covenant Israel. If you want to become part of God’s chosen people, under the new covenant, then you need to be baptized in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. You need to acknowledge the sovereignty of Jesus Christ in your life. You need to acknowledge Him as your Lord and Saviour so that you can become part of Israel today.

Notice what Paul says in Romans 9:6–8: “It is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, ‘In Isaac your seed shall be called.’ That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.”

Who is Israel today? Israel today are all those Jews or Gentiles who have been baptized into Christ, who have acknowledged Christ as their Lord and Saviour and who are following Him, who acknowledge the sovereignty of Christ, that is, the Lordship of Christ, and that He is their Saviour from sin. Remember, there is nobody else in the universe who can give you eternal life. There is no one else in the universe who can take your sins away. John said, “He that has the Son has life and he that does not have the Son does not have life.”

But something terrible has happened since these wonderful things were written. Today, most of the Christian world is under a delusion just as big as the Jewish world was in the days of Christ. John predicted in Revelation 12:9 that the devil would deceive the whole world in the last days.

There is a deception upon the Christian world today that is similar to the one that was upon the Jewish world in the days of Christ and the apostles. It is the belief that trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour from sin sets you free from the ordinances or decrees or laws pointing forward to the work of Christ in the Christian dispensation, as the apostle Paul clearly stated in Ephesians 2 and Colossians 2. But, the book of Revelation predicts that the devil will deceive the entire world. (See Revelation 12:9; Revelation 13, 16, 18, and 19.) How does the devil deceive the Christian world today?

The Jewish world was deceived when it refused to accept the Redeemer of the world. The Christian world profess to accept the Redeemer of the world, but then they say there is no more need to keep His law because grace sets you free and you don’t need to worry about that anymore.

The idea that grace sets you free from keeping God’s law is addressed by almost all the apostles. Paul says, “That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:4). Then he says in verse 7, “Because the carnal mind (the unconverted person) is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.  So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

The apostle Paul is very clear in both Romans 6 and 8 that the Christian is under obligation to keep the law of God. The apostle John talks about it also. “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, ‘I know Him and does not keep His commandments,’ is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:3, 4). John spells out clearly what sin is, who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil.

Notice what John says: “Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother” (1 John 3:4–10).

How could you state it any more plainly than that? The apostle Peter talks about the very same thing when he says, “For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: ‘Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth;’ who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed” (1 Peter 2:21–24).

Peter says that if you are a Christian, you have died to sin and you live for righteousness. In other words, you do not continue in breaking God’s law, for sin is breaking God’s law.

James is just as clear as any of the other Bible writers. In James the 2nd chapter he not only spells it out, but he says that according to God’s ten commandment law we are going to be judged. The standard of the judgment is God’s law—the ten commandment law—which is not ten separate laws but just one law (Exodus 24:12).

Notice what James says: “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder.’ Now if you do not commit adultery (the 7th commandment), but you do murder (the 6th commandment), you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty” (James 2:8–12).

The New Testament is clear. Paul, Peter, John and James all said that obedience to the law is necessary for salvation. In fact, it is spelled out in the book of Revelation that at the end of the world the whole world is going to be divided into two classes: those Christians that keep the law of God and those Christians who do not keep the law of God. What class are you going to be in? The class you choose will determine your eternal destiny.

Notice what it says in Revelation 12:17: “The dragon (the devil) was enraged with the woman (the church), and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring (the last church), who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

God’s people in the last days will keep His commandments. In Revelation 14:12, it says, “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” God’s people in the last days of earth’s history, according to Revelation 12, 13 and 14, will be those who keep God’s commandments. They will not be people that say, “Well, I believe in Christ, therefore I can live any way I please.”

O, friend, what side are you going to be on when the world comes to an end? Will you be part of those who are Christians in deed and not just in name?

(Unless appearing in quoted references or otherwise identified, Bible texts are from the New King James Version.)

Pastor John J. Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by email at: historic@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.

Life Sketches – The Called

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The New Testament teaches that all Israel will be saved, but the question is, Whom does God account as being part of Israel today? The apostle Paul said that not everyone who thinks he is part of Israel really is.

In the first part of the Bible, the Torah, written by Moses, tells the children of Israel of the curses, the awful things that will happen to them if they are not obedient. We read in Deuteronomy 28, verses 36 and 37, “The Lord will bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods—wood and stone. And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the Lord will drive you.” He goes on to explain in more detail what is going to happen. These curses that were pronounced by Moses upon the children of Israel, if they would not be obedient, were fulfilled.

“All the leaders of the priests and the people transgressed more and more, according to all the abominations of the nations, and defiled the house of the Lord which He had consecrated in Jerusalem. And the Lord God of their fathers sent warnings to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending them, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy. Therefore He brought against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, on the aged or the weak; He gave them all into his hand” (2 Chronicles 36:14–17).

Verses 19, 20: “They burned the house of God, broke down the wall of Jerusalem, burned all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all its precious possessions. And those who escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon, where they became servants to him and his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia.”

The reason for this is that the words of Jeremiah the prophet would be fulfilled. Jeremiah predicted that Israel would be taken captive to Babylon and they would stay there for 70 years, before coming back again. In other words, a whole generation would pass. It would be their children and grandchildren that would be able to return to the land of their fathers, on condition that they would be obedient and not go again into idolatry.

One of the people that was taken from Judah into the land of Babylon was a young man by the name of Daniel, who wrote a book in the Old Testament bearing his name; Daniel lived to be a very old man, until the end of this 70 year period. In Daniel 9:2 it says, “In the first year of his reign,” referring to Darius the Mede, “I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.”

Daniel knew that these 70 years were about up, and he began to pray a long prayer, starting in verse 4: “I prayed to the Lord … and said, ‘… we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments.’ ” He notes in verse 7 that they have been unfaithful. As he continues his long prayer of confession on behalf of the children of Israel, in verses 8 through 14, he prays, “We have sinned against You.” “We have rebelled.” “We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord.” “All Israel has transgressed.” “We have not obeyed His voice.” He concludes in verse 15 with “We have done wickedly.” He makes a long prayer of confession on behalf of all the children of Israel, God’s chosen people, the descendants of Abraham and those that have accepted the faith of Abraham.

In answer to his prayer, an angel was sent from heaven. In the latter part of Daniel 9 it is recorded, “While I was speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God, yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering” (verses 20, 21).

This angel, Gabriel, in answer to Daniel’s prayer, had a special message and prophecy to give to him. He says, in verse 23, “At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved; therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision” (of the 2300 days). Verse 24, first part, says, “Seventy weeks are determined [cut off] for your people and for your holy city, to finish the transgression,” or it could also be translated, “to finish the rebellion.”

Daniel mentions several times in his prayer about their lack of obedience and because of this they had been taken captive, Jerusalem was destroyed, and it was a reproach and a byword to all the peoples of the earth. They said that these people claim to be God’s special people and look, they are scattered as prisoners of war, as servants and slaves all over the earth, and their nation is desolate. Their capital city and their temple is desolate. In Daniel’s prayer, he noted that the Lord had promised that their captivity would last for 70 years. Since the 70 years were about up, he wondered what was going to happen.

The angel said, “Seventy weeks are determined,” or cut off, “for your people and for your holy city, to finish the transgression …” in other words, to bring to an end the rebellion, “…to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness” (verse 24, second part).

It was during this 70 week period that everlasting righteousness was to be brought in. Everlasting righteousness can only be brought in by God Himself. The Bible is very clear that you and I do not have any righteousness of our own. As the result of the sin of our first parents, we have a sinful nature and cannot generate righteousness. The only way that we can have righteousness is if it is brought to us by somebody else who does not have a sinful depraved nature like we do.

In the 70 week prophecy, the angel predicts that during these 70 weeks, that everlasting righteousness is going to be brought in and the rebellion is to be finished. It says, “To bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy” (verse 24, last part). “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem, until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times” (verse 25).

This is one of the more astounding prophecies in all of the Bible. The angel says to Daniel, “From the time that the decree goes forth …,” in other words, from the time that the decree is implemented to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, until Messiah the Prince is going to be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks (or sixty-nine prophetic weeks). Sixty-nine weeks is four hundred and eighty-three days. That would be between one and two years of literal time. But when we study the prophecy carefully, by comparing it with Daniel 7 and 8, and the prophecies in Ezekiel and Numbers, we see that the angel is using a common symbolic usage of the word time as is done with other prophets.

For example, Ezekiel is told in Ezekiel chapter 4:4–6, literal translation, “Lie on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it. According to the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity. For I have laid on you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of days, three hundred and ninety days; so you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when you have completed them, lie again on your right side; then you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah, forty days. I have laid on you a day for a year.” Notice, every day in the prophecy equals a year of literal time. This is a common symbolic usage of the word time in both the books of Daniel and Revelation. In fact, when we start computing it this way, we find the prophecy works out exactly. If you do not use this measuring stick, then the prophecy not only doesn’t work out, but it doesn’t make any sense.

But when you use the measuring stick of one day of prophetic time to equal one year of literal time, the prophecy works out perfectly. There are differences between calendars among the different nations and ancient nations, but we will convert the time into our time and we use AD and BC. BC was the time before Christ, and AD is the time after Christ. We are living about 2,000 years after the beginning of time when Christ came.

When we go back to when this decree was issued, when it was implemented to go and restore Jerusalem, we find that it was in the later part of 457 BC.

If you are using simply literal time, then you should be looking for the Christ, the Messiah, to come approximately sometime in 455 BC. However, nobody appeared in 455 BC. But, if you use the prophetic measuring stick for prophetic time, and a symbolic time prophecy of a day of prophetic time equaling a year of literal time, you will be astonished at what you come up with, because, in the New Testament, we find in Luke the 3rd chapter, the exact time when Jesus was baptized. It was at His baptism that He was anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power. You can read about it in Acts 10:38.

When we look in Luke 3 we find that it happened in the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar, which began in the fall of AD 27. If you go from the fall of 457 BC, which was when the decree was implemented to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, until the time when Jesus was anointed; in other words, when He became the Anointed One, the Messiah, then you have a period of exactly sixty-nine weeks or four hundred and eighty-three years.

Mark 1:14, 15 says, “Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe the gospel.’ ” Daniel 9:25 had just been fulfilled. The Messiah had arrived, but for how long? In Daniel 9:26, it says, “After the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off.” There were 7 weeks and then 62 weeks, for a total of 483 days, or 483 literal years, which brings us to AD 27 in the fall when Jesus was baptized, recorded in Luke 3.

But then after that time it says that the Messiah was to be cut off, but not for Himself. “Then He [the Messiah] shall confirm the covenant with many for one week.” That’s the 70th week. “But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering” (verse 27), a week would be 7 years, the middle of the week would be 3 ½ years.

Did Jesus bring an end to sacrifice and offering, at the end of 3 ½ years after He was baptized? Yes, He did. Notice what it says in Hebrews 10:11–14: “Every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.”

Verse 18: “Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.” Jesus came and offered one sacrifice. It is by this sacrifice that people are saved. After this, there is no more offering for sin. That one sacrifice is sufficient to take away the sins of all those who believe in Him.

So, when Jesus offered His life upon the cross of Calvary as an offering for sin, that brought an end to sacrifices and offerings. Sometimes the Lord teaches us by what He says and sometimes He teaches us by what He does.

It says, in Matthew 27:50, 51, “Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split.” “The veil of the temple was torn in two.” What did that represent? Oh, friend, that showed that the way into the holy places of the heavenly sanctuary were now open to the believers, and the earthly sanctuary and the sacrifices of lambs, and goats, and bullocks had no more value, as Paul explains in Hebrews 10. The true Sacrifice had come. That happened in the middle of the 70th prophetic week, exactly 3 1/2 years after Jesus’ baptism. As you follow Jesus’ life there, you will find the first Passover after His baptism would have been the Passover in AD 28 (see John 2).

The 2nd Passover after His baptism would have been the Passover when Jesus went to the Jews and they had the huge argument in John 5. It’s very clear there that it was a feast of the Jews and this feast occurred after John 4, which had occurred just 4 months before harvest time.

Remember, Passover was harvest time. If you go then to the 3rd Passover after Jesus’ baptism, then you are at John 6, the feeding of the 5,000. That would be AD 30. And the 4th Passover after the baptism of Jesus was the time when He was crucified, during Passover time in AD 31, exactly as predicted in Daniel 9.

Jesus is the majesty of heaven. He is part of the Godhead. He is the One that made everything. What is going to happen to the people who won’t accept His lordship? They will not accept Him as the Messiah; they will not accept Him as their religious leader; they will not accept Him at all.

The details of Jesus’ life in this world were predicted throughout the Old Testament by the various prophets. For example, Daniel predicted when He would become the Messiah. We just read about that in Daniel 9. Micah predicted that He would be born, in Bethlehem (see Micah 5:2). Isaiah predicted where He would have the largest part of His ministry in Galilee (see Isaiah 9). Isaiah also predicted that He would be rejected by the Jewish people (see Isaiah 53; Psalm 69). His death on the cross was also predicted (see Psalm 22). The various details of Jesus’ life were all predicted.

What happens, then, to people, even God’s chosen people, if they reject God Himself, if they reject the Prince of Heaven, the Majesty of Heaven? (See Matthew 21:33–39.) It is a very interesting parable about the wicked vine dressers. The vine dressers represented the Jewish leaders, and the Son of the householder whom they killed represented Jesus Christ. The others that they killed represented the prophets and servants that had been sent to them. Verses 40, 41 say, “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will He do to those vinedressers? They said to Him, ‘He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease His vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to Him the fruits in their seasons.’ ”

“Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the Scriptures: “The stone which the builders rejected, [He] has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes”? ‘Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it’ ” (verses 42, 43).

Jesus, talking to God’s chosen people said, because you have rejected the Messiah, the kingdom of God is going to be taken from you, and it is going to be given to somebody else.

Then He says, “And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder” (verse 44). When would the kingdom of God be taken from them?

The kingdom of God, even after the crucifixion of Jesus, was not taken from the Jews right away. The apostles went first to Jerusalem to preach the gospel to give them even another chance. In fact, at Pentecost, Peter is talking to the people who are responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus, and he tells them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). There were many Jews who became Christians at that point in time, but, unfortunately, the majority of the nation did not. The leaders did not. In fact, their opposition to the gospel, their opposition to the idea of Jesus Christ being the Messiah, became so vehement, so fierce, and so bitter, that eventually, they came to the end of the line.

They stoned to death one of the Christian leaders. Stephen was the first Christian martyr. Before His stoning he said to them, “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you” (Acts 7:51). He accused them of becoming the murderers of the Just One who was sent to them saying, “And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, on whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers” (verse 52).

He was filled with the Holy Spirit and they were so angry that they gnashed their teeth and drew him out of the temple, and out of the town, and stoned him to death. When they were doing this, he said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” (verse 56)!

O friend, when Jesus is sitting down on His throne, that’s one thing, but when He stands up, that is a time of decision-making, a time of judgment. After that time the gospel went to the Gentiles and the Jews as a nation were no longer God’s chosen and special people.

(Unless appearing in quoted references or otherwise identified, Bible texts are from the New King James Version.)

Pastor John J. Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church of Seventh-day Adventists in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by email at: historic@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.

Life Sketches – Stephen the Deacon

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You and I do not see things the way God sees them. Very often what appears to us to be nothing but defeat is something that is going to bring victory in God’s cause in the end. That has been the experience many times throughout religious history. What appeared to bring defeat and disaster to Christianity often ended up being a great triumph of the Christian faith and recorded in sacred Scripture.

As believers were added to the church, the sick were brought into the street on stretchers in the hope they would be healed. The priests and rulers were filled with indignation and threw the apostles into prison, forbidding them to speak anymore in the name of Jesus. They were scheduled to come before the Sanhedrin for trial the next morning, but during the night, an angel from heaven came and released them and told them, “Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life” (Acts 5:20). They were brought before the council again, and told, “Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name” (verse 28)? But Peter and the other apostles said, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (verse 29). They became so angry when Peter told them that they were the ones responsible for crucifying Jesus, that they decided to kill them on the spot.

But Gamaliel, who was one of the learned rabbis among them, cautioned them and said, “Be careful: for if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing; but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it—lest you even be found to fight against God” (verses 38, 39). Unable to disagree with Gamaliel’s advice, it says in verses 40–42, “They agreed with him and when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.”

Ever since the beginning, the devil has constantly sought to stir up trouble among Christians so that Christ’s prayer for His church to be in unity and harmony would not be fulfilled. This was another attempt by the devil to destroy the church by arousing within it controversy and infighting. Resulting from these events was that from the ranks of those opposing the Christian faith, their most active and successful champion in persecuting Christians, came a man who would become the greatest champion of the Christian faith and write more than half of the books in the New Testament.

The early believers had accepted Jesus as the Messiah and believed that He had been raised from the dead. They were in Jerusalem at the time; so they could check the evidence, check the tomb where He had laid, and talk with those who were eyewitnesses. Paul says there were over 500 that had seen Christ after the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:6). These people were all in Jerusalem. So if you wanted to confirm the evidence that Jesus had been raised from the dead, you could easily find someone who had seen Him. The number of Christians was continually increasing, not only among those who were Hebrews, but also among people who were living there from other nations that spoke not Hebrew but the lingua franca of those days, the Greek language.

These early believers had been cut off from their family and friends. Jesus had said in Matthew 10:34–36, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and a man’s enemies will be those of his own household,” because some would accept the gospel and some would not.

Because of zealous bigotry many of the converts to Christianity had been thrown out of business  and exiled from their homes. Their relatives refused to allow them to stay at home because they were Christians. For espousing the cause of Christ they were destitute. They had no business, they had no source of livelihood, they had no place to stay. So it became necessary to provide this large number that were congregated in Jerusalem with homes and sustenance. Those who had money and those who had possessions cheerfully sacrificed them to meet the existing emergency. They sold their things and brought them to the apostles so that the rest of the Christians could be sustained.

Among the believers there were those who were Jews by birth, and also those who did not speak the Hebrew tongue. They were residents of other countries who used the Greek language. Between these two classes in the past there had existed distrust and even antagonism, but now, even though their hearts were softened and united by Christian love, yet the old jealousies were easily rekindled. Acts 6:1 says, “In those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a murmuring against the Hebrews by the Hellenists” that is, the Greeks, “… because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution” (literal translation).

Inequality would have been contrary to the spirit of the gospel. There was an alleged neglect of these Greek widows in the distribution of funds and food set aside for the poor. So, prompt measures were taken to remove all cause of dissatisfaction and the apostles summoned all the believers together for a meeting. They said that the time had come when they needed to be relieved from the task of apportioning food and sustenance to the poor and other similar burdens so that they could spend their full time preaching Christ. Verse 2 says, “The twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, ‘It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.’ ”

This saying pleased everybody and seven people were appointed as deacons. The word deacon comes from a Greek word diaconas which simply means a middle-class servant. So they appointed seven people to be the servants of the church, to take care of, to visit those that were poor, those that were sick, those that had financial difficulties, and any other need. After they had set these seven men before the apostles, they prayed and laid hands on them. It says in verse 7, “The word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.” Not only was there a growing number of people who believed the doctrines taught by the apostles and had checked the evidence and found out Jesus had risen from the dead, they also said that He is in heaven, and we have the evidence. We’ve talked to people who have seen Him and talked with Him after the resurrection. The number of Christians was multiplying very rapidly, not only among the Greeks and the Hebrew people, but among the priests, even the leaders of the Jewish religion. It says in verse 7, last part, “A great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.”

This turn of events caused more trouble. The leading priests and rulers witnessed the wonderful ministration of the power that attended the deacons and especially the leader, the one in first place, whose name was Stephen. Stephen made it plain that he was a student of the prophecies. He had also done great wonders and miracles among the people (verse 8). He was a Jew by birth but he could speak the Greek language and was familiar with the customs and manners of the Greeks. So he found opportunity to proclaim the gospel in the synagogue of the Greek Jews. There were learned rabbis and doctors of the law who engaged in public discussion with Stephen and tried to show that he was wrong, but it says in verses 10, 11, “They were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke. Then they secretly induced men to say, ‘We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.’ ” Some of the leaders had decided to figure out a way to kill him.

First of all, they hired false witnesses to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against the temple and against God.” They were filled with bitter hatred against this man because they couldn’t show in a public debate that he was wrong. Remember, the last resort of every false religion is force. If you cannot show that your opponent is wrong intellectually, the only way to win is to kill him.

Instead of yielding to the weight of evidence presented, they decided that they would silence his voice by putting him to death. They did not doubt that they could pursue such a course, since they had previously bribed the Roman authorities to ignore their nefarious deeds. They determined that they were going to risk the consequences at all events. So Stephen was seized and brought before the Sanhedrin council. Jews were brought in from surrounding countries to refute his arguments. There was a young man, also present, by the name of Saul of Tarsus. Saul was a theologian, trained at the feet of Gamaliel and one of the leading rabbis in Jerusalem. Saul took a leading part against Stephen. He brought the weight of eloquence, the logic, and the reasoning of the rabbis, to bear on the case, to convince the people that Stephen was preaching delusive and dangerous doctrines.

When Saul of Tarsus met Stephen at his trial before the Sanhedrin, he met somebody that he found out was as highly educated as himself, someone who had a full understanding of the purpose of God in the spreading of the gospel to other nations. Neither Saul of Tarsus, nor the council, nor anybody, was able to prevail anything against the clear, calm wisdom of Stephen. But even though they couldn’t win the argument by debate, they were vehement in their opposition and determined that they were going to make an example of him. They decided to satisfy their revengeful hatred by putting Stephen to death, hoping that would prevent other people, through fear, from accepting the doctrines he was teaching.

This fate has befallen thousands, if not millions of individuals since. False witnesses were hired and testified that they had heard Steven speak blasphemous words against the temple, saying we have heard him say that the customs are going to be changed.

Verse 15 says, “All who sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as the face of an angel.” He was there to answer for the crime of blasphemy, but a holy radiance shown on his face, and those that exalted Moses could have seen in the face of the prisoner the same holy light that radiated from the face of Moses when he came down from Mount Sinai. Many who saw this lighted countenance of Stephen trembled and veiled their faces, but their stubborn unbelief and prejudice never faltered.

Stephen was questioned as to the truth of the charges brought against him and he began to take up his defense in a clear thrilling voice that rang through the council hall (see Acts 7). He proceeded to rehearse the history of the chosen people of God in words that held that assembly spellbound. He showed a thorough knowledge of the Jewish economy, and explained the spiritual interpretation of it that was now made manifest through Christ. He made plain that his own loyalty to God and to the Jewish faith was still intact.

But he showed that the law in which they trusted for salvation had not been able to preserve them from idolatry. He connected Jesus Christ with all of Jewish history. He referred to the building of the temple by Solomon in Acts 7:47–50: “But Solomon built Him a house. However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says: ‘Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. What house will you build for Me? says the Lord, or what is the place of My rest? Has My hand not made all these things?’ ”

When Stephen reached that point, there was a tumult among the people, and the prisoner read his fate in the countenances of those before him. He perceived the resistance that met his words that were spoken under the dictation of the Holy Spirit. He knew that He was giving his last testimony. When he connected Jesus Christ with the prophecies and spoke of the temple as he did, they pretended to be horror-stricken. This was an evidence to Stephen, a signal to him, that his voice would soon be silenced forever. Even though he was just in the middle of his remarks, of his defense, he abruptly concluded it by suddenly breaking away from the chain of history and turning upon his infuriated judges. Acts 7:51, 52 says, “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murders, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.”

When he spoke those words, the priests and the rulers were beside themselves with rage. They became so infuriated with anger that they became more like wild beasts of prey than human beings. They rushed upon Stephen, gnashing their teeth, but he was not intimidated. He had expected this. His face was calm. He was ready for whatever they might do. The infuriated priests and the excited mob took him out of the temple, and as he was brought out from the place where they were going to kill him, Stephen looked up into the heavens and said, “ ‘Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’ Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul” (verses 56–58).

The rulers could not stand to hear what he had to say so they “stopped their ears.” They stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord, Jesus, receive my spirit.”

“Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not charge them with this sin.’ And when he had said this, he fell asleep” (verses 57, 59, 60).

The people who had accused him were required, according to their custom, to cast the first stones. These persons who cast the first stones laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul of Tarsus who had also taken an active part in the disputation and consented to the death of Stephen.

The martyrdom of Stephen made a deep impression upon all who witnessed it. It was a terrible trial to the church, but it resulted in the conversion of Saul. The faith that Stephen manifested, the constancy that he showed, the glorification of the martyr at the very time when the religious leaders were angry at him and were killing him, could not be effaced from the memory of Saul of Tarsus. Whole nights he spent struggling with this. How is it that at the very time when this man is being stoned to death, dishonored by men, a blasphemer teaching dangerous doctrines, he gives evidence that he has the signet of God upon his face. His words reach to the very soul of those who heard them, and remained in the memory of all the beholders, testifying that what he was saying was the truth.

Similar incidences have happened thousands or maybe even millions of times where force was used to get rid of someone whose arguments could not be refuted. The weight of evidence was too great; the only way to win the argument was to kill them. There had been no legal sentence passed on Stephen, but the Roman authorities could be bribed and they were bribed, by large sums of money to make no investigation of the case.

God’s way of dealing with people is to give evidence and then ask you to make your decision on the evidence. What is the weight of evidence? Are you making decisions on the weight of evidence? Or are you making decisions on the weight of money?

We live in a world where bribery has been used in order to get one’s way in courts of justice. This is a terrible thing when it happens even in Christian nations, because, if we do not make our decisions based on the weight of evidence, someday we will have to give an account of what we have done and why we have done it. Romans 14:12 says, “So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.”

Friends, that means you, that means me. We are each going to have to give an account of ourselves to God. Saul of Tarsus started having a hard time. He could not forget the scene of Stephen’s trial and subsequent death and he seemed to be angry at his own secret convictions that Stephen was honored of God at the very time when he was dishonored of men. In order to put this out of his mind he began more than ever before to persecute the church of God. He hunted them down, seized them in their houses and delivered them up to the authorities to be imprisoned and even killed. He became the terror of the Christians in Jerusalem. The Roman authorities made no special effort to stay the cruel work. They secretly aided the Jews, trying to pacify them. That has been the case in our world, over and over again for thousands of years. But soon unbeknown by Saul, everything was going to change in his life.

If you come to Jesus, everything will change in your life.

(Unless appearing in quoted references or otherwise identified, Bible texts are from the New King James Version.)

Pastor John J. Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church of Free Seventh-day Adventists in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by email at: historic@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.