by Steve McCranie | Aug 14, 2023
The Lost Discipline of the Love Feast – Part 4
The parallels between the underground church in China and the early church of the first three centuries are striking. Both suffered intense persecution, being declared enemies of the state. Both responded by holding fast to the foundational tenets of their faith theologically and in practice (Acts 2:42). And both did more than just survive— they thrived. So much so that Constantine was forced, among other reasons, to issue the Edict of Toleration, and later the Edict of Milan,¹ because of the growing number of believers in the empire. Scholars estimate that by the end of the third century, over 10% of the Roman population were Christians, not counting a vast number of slaves.²
Fast forward seventeen hundred years and we have the same scene played out in our time, only bigger. Instead of the persecution by the Roman Empire, we see the grand persecution of the church under Mao’s People’s Republic of China beginning in 1949 when atheism was established as the official state religion. Soon, missionaries were expelled from China, churches and schools were closed, their property confiscated, and pastors and church leaders were imprisoned or condemned to labor camps.
No longer was there freedom of religion or assembly or the right to worship. Instead, like the early persecuted church, believers were forced underground to practice their faith. And the results of China’s state-wide treatment of Christianity was “legendary,” says Paul Hattaway, director of Asia Harvest. He continues, “For thirty years, they have shown the world how to be the church Christ intended.”³ Some estimates suggest there are more Christians in China than Communist Party members, totaling over 150 million and growing by over 30,000 per day. In fact, it is reported that over half of all believers in China choose to worship in an underground church than in one approved by the state. Let that sink in for a moment.
The Underground Church in China
How did this happen so fast? And how did the underground church in China grow so quickly under persecution when the church in the West has seen decades of decline over the same period? What are we missing that they have found? Or what do they know and practice that we have conveniently forgotten?
The history of Christianity in China is marked by periods of rapid growth amidst brutal persecution. Ever since the communist takeover in 1949, Christians in China have faced oppression from the atheist government and have been forced to worship underground, or in homes, buildings, or barns, anywhere away from the watchful eyes of the state. Yet the church continues to grow at an astonishing rate, unparalleled in modern history, primarily through underground house churches operating illegally outside of state control. Through courage, faith, perseverance, and the willingness to adapt to change, these unheralded believers have found innovative ways to live out the Gospel, even in adversity. The underground church in China may be a prototype of the future church in America. But we’ll write more about that at a later time.
Believers met in homes, apartments, barns, or anywhere they could gather without being noticed, since public meetings often led to arrest and imprisonment. Yet, they persevered and adapted, just like the early church. House churches were free to share their faith as they desired without any state interference. They could properly train leaders without the government dictating what was taught, much like Bonhoeffer’s “illegal” seminary for the Confessing Church in Finkenwalde. They could worship the Lord as the Spirit moved, without coming under cultural and governmental scrutiny. Again, just like the early church while facing Roman persecution. And their commitment to each other and their faith in the Lord became contagious to a generation seeking something real, something they could believe in— which may explain the rapid growth of the underground church that lived in obscurity and poverty.
But the question for us is not the extent or degree of state persecution the church in China experienced, but what they did to shine so bright during times of great satanic darkness. How did they allow their light to shine so “they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:16)? What was life like for them in the underground church? And why do over half of the believers in China today still choose the underground church over the visible state-sanctioned church?
What is Worship Like in an Underground House Church?
As in the first three centuries, the underground church in China met primarily in homes or other isolated locations, usually at different times on different days of the week. By meeting in homes, the underground church could share full meals with one another, echoing the agape or love feast practiced by the early church but forgotten for centuries. Re-establishing the love feast as a foundational aspect of their worship together was one of the first things the underground church did— and they established it for the same reason the Lord instituted the practice in the first place (Acts 2:42). For them, the love feast served the same purpose it did centuries ago, binding believers together in the intimate spiritual unity and love only a relationship with Christ could bring, while strengthening their joint submission to Christ and each other (John 17:21).
Eating together in their homes allowed members to know each other deeply and care for each other as a family. Sharing stories, struggles, hopes, and prayers during the feast forged deep emotional bonds vital in keeping the church together while suffering persecution. Participation in the love feast required sacrificial giving by those with more financial means to freely and joyfully supply the physical needs of those in the body of Christ with less (Rom. 12:4-5). For poor Christians in house churches in China, the weekly love feast might be the only decent meal they would eat all week. And the unity, love, selflessness, and care shown through the feast gave them hope and spiritual strength to endure hardship the rest of the week. Just as in the early church, the shared meal reinforced that believers belong to one another as members of Christ’s body as children of God (Rom. 8:16-17). It was a tangible demonstration of the family of God caring for its own. And it is how the church was meant to function from the beginning. Still not sure? Then read it for yourself in Acts 2-6.
Both the early church and the underground house churches in China rely on the power of this communal meal to unite them in a steadfast spiritual community— all for one, and one for all as brothers and sisters in Christ.
“What Have You Learned, Dorothy?”
If the greatest revival of Spirit-empowered church growth in the last century has taken place under great trials and suffering of the underground church in China, and if the greatest apostasy and compromise of His church has taken place in Europe and the United States, which have freedom of religion cemented as part of their cultural charter and churches and cathedrals on almost every street corner— and if the underground church went back to the basics of the faith, back to Acts, in practice and belief— then it would appear they may have discovered the Holy Grail of Christian living, of pleasing God, of living the surrendered, sanctified life, which is taking God at His Word and not altering or changing it for tradition or convenience sake. One long sentence, I know.
And if any of that is true, and I am convinced that it is, then we have much to consider as the church in the West. There is apparently much we must do as His church that we no longer consider relevant in our version of church today. And there is much we must stop doing as His church that we should have never started in the first place. This means everything, and I mean everything, about church and our accepted relationship with Him must be re-examined under the light of His Word and not based on our cherished traditions.
One last thing before closing. Please don’t think this is all about a meal, far from it. The meal, the love feast, is just the vehicle God uses to bring us together as one in His church. It’s not about adding a meal to our crowded Sunday service. It’s about the meal serving as an opportunity for us to become more like our Lord. To do that, our attitudes about each other must change. Our acceptance of fellowship as being nothing more than a surface-level conversation with casual friends over a chicken dinner must change. We must desire to be more than what we are today if we expect Him to move in our midst. But I think we already knew that, didn’t we?
Can you see why the enemy worked so hard to remove the love feast from the arsenal of tools the Lord used to create men and women of God in His church? And can you see why we are in the lukewarm, Laodicea shape we are in today (Rev. 3:16)?
But all that can change. It doesn’t have to stay the same.
And it can begin with you this Sunday.
Notes
1. The Edict of Toleration, issued in 311 AD by Emperor Galerius, granted some rights and tolerance to Christians, ending official persecution, while the more expansive Edict of Milan in 313 AD, under Constantine I and Licinius, provided full religious tolerance and rights to all religions, establishing Christianity as an accepted religion in the Roman Empire.
2. Stark, Rodney. The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History. Princeton University Press, 1996. p.6 – “By a hundred years after the Crucifixion of Jesus, Christianity had achieved significant penetration of the urban centers of the Roman Empire, reaching approximately 6 million adherents by 300 AD, or about 10 percent of the Empire’s population.”
3. “The fortitude of the Chinese house church is legendary. For thirty years, they have shown the world how to be the church Christ intended.” – Paul Hattaway, director of Asia Harvest ministry, quoted in “The Heavenly Man” by Brother Yun (2002).
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by Steve McCranie | Aug 9, 2023
The Lost Discipline of the Love Feast – Part 3
The last few posts talked about the “agape” or “love feast” and centered on it as a fulfillment of the mandate given by the Lord for His church in Acts 2:42. Just to jog your memory, let me share the four practices the early church devoted themselves to that allowed the Spirit to move in them as He did:
And they continued steadfastly in (1) the apostles’ doctrine and (2) fellowship, in (3) the breaking of bread, and (4) in prayers – Acts 2:42.
But the point often overlooked is these four practices of the early church were not four separate and unique things they did at different times and maybe on different days. Nor were they separate and individual parts of a combined worship service. They were the four key elements that made up their worship service, the sum parts of the whole, indivisible from each other and of equal importance. One practice did not eclipse the others.
Think about our church services today. When we come together, we are often presented with a bulletin or playbill outlining the separate things we will do during the service and the order in which they will happen. First, an opening prayer. Then, some announcements. After that, maybe some congregational singing followed by a Scripture reading. Next, the “special music” performed by someone other than the congregation followed by a sermon or message of some sort. Then we have a closing song, a benediction, and somewhere between these parts, we take up an offering to keep the lights on. Whew, I get tired just thinking about it.
If you come in late, you can check the bulletin and see precisely what is next and what you may have missed. It’s all linear in nature, first to last, from the opening prayer to the closing benediction, with no surprises. And the order is cast in stone, printed on paper or projected on a screen, with no deviations allowed. Each line represents a single individual act of one long play. And you can clearly see where one act ends and the next one begins.
But that’s not how Acts 2:42 plays out. In the early church, the four practices the church “continued steadfastly” in were all integrated as one, like a cake baked with four ingredients. You cannot separate the eggs from the sugar, but the combined result was pleasing and satisfying, as church should be. During their worship time, they embraced the preaching of God’s Word, and there was a time for prayers, both corporate and individual. Their entire service centered around a shared, common meal, the agape or love feast, which also included the celebration of the Lord’s supper.
This format the church in Acts devoted themselves to led to their unprecedented spiritual growth in record time. And the results? Breathtaking. Read them for yourself in Acts 2-6. It looks like we have strayed far from this mark today.
This prompts the question: Why did the church change if God ordained the church to function under the example of Acts 2:42? Why don’t we do now what worked so well in the past? What happened to the church “continuing steadfastly” in anything, especially the four abovementioned things?
Logic and the Definition of Insanity
During our study of the seven letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, we concluded that each letter prophetically describes church history in advance. And in each of these letters (or ages of church history), the Lord has something to say to them and us. Sometimes what He says is good— and sometimes, well… not so good.
When we did an overview of these letters, we discovered two of them the Lord said only good things about (Smyrna and Philidelphia), and two of them the Lord said nothing good about at all (Sardis and Laodicea). The rest was a mixture of things He both praised and rebuked them for (Ephesus, Pergamos, and Thyatira). So logically, it would seem we would want to follow or emulate the practices of the church in the ages our Lord only commended and praised, and run far and fast from the methods of the church in the ages our Lord condemned and rebuked, which would be Sardis and Laodicea, the latter being the church age we live in now. If the following statement is true, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results,”— then the opposite must also be true, “Insanity is expecting the same results yet refusing to do what brought success in the first place.” For some reason, we embrace this truth in all areas of life, except the church.
The Persecuted Church in Smyrna
During the first two centuries of the church, it faced unbelievable persecution. Jesus said, in His letter to the church of Smyrna¹ (representing the church age from about 100 AD to the Edict of Toleration in 312 AD):
“Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life” – Revelation 2:10.
The phrase, ten days, points to the ten waves of state-sanctioned persecution the church suffered.² And the Lord admonished these early Christians to remain faithful, even unto death. But faithful to what? To Christ, His kingdom, and the gospel? Of course. To their “common salvation” and the “faith which was once delivered to the saints”?³ Absolutely. To the church practices and disciplines instituted by the Lord in Acts 2 and elsewhere in Scripture for their growth, unity, and power? Undoubtedly.
And if you read the letter, you will find the Lord characterized the church during this time as experiencing “tribulation and poverty,” yet He called them “rich” (Rev. 2:9). How is that possible? For a church living as foreigners and strangers in this world (Heb. 11:13) without buildings, staff, age-segregated programs, media presentations, multi-campus mega-churches, live-streaming, movie studios, publishing houses, or radio stations, how could they be deemed rich? Simple. They understood Jesus’ words when He proclaimed, “One’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses” (Luke 12:15). What the persecuted church lacked in material things, they made up for in spiritual riches— big time.
They were faithful amidst suffering, like Paul and Silas singing praises to the Lord while beaten, bleeding, and unjustly imprisoned in Philippi (Acts 16:23-25). They were rich in fellowship (koinōnia), love, and trust in the Lord to “supply all their needs according to the riches in glory of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19). They counted it all joy to embrace the greater blessing of patience that trials and persecution inevitably bring (Jas. 1:2-4). And they had an eternal perspective, being promised the “crown of life” for their patient endurance (Rev. 2:10).
But don’t let the obvious slip past you. The persecuted believers also remained devoted to the practices God gave them to foster unity, trust, loyalty, partnership in the gospel, and a sense of oneness and family stronger than blood (John 17:21). They lived as children of God and as part of the family of God (Rom. 8:16-17). And all this experience of oneness centered around worshiping the Lord, as strange as it may seem, while sharing a common, communal meal God had prescribed for the edification and sanctification of His church. It’s hard to believe something so simple as a meal could be so important.
But that is how things are with our God. Have you noticed?
But What Happened to the Love Feast?
Satan and the flesh operate from the same playbook. He never changes. And he is not very original, but quite proficient in his deception skills. So the enemy starts to attack whenever the Lord institutes something to build His church and strengthen the body of Christ. And once God speaks, and Satan counters with the question, “Has God indeed said?” (Gen. 3:1), we have a choice. It’s the same choice offered Adam and Eve in the garden, and it’s the same choice we face every day. Will you trust and follow the commands of the Lord, no matter how trivial and unimportant they may seem to you at the time? Or will you trust your own heart (Prov. 28:26), lean on your own understanding (Prov. 3:5), follow your own reasoning (Isa. 55:8-9), and do what seems right in your own eyes (Prov. 21:2)?
In effect, this was the choice presented to the church in the spring of AD 312 when Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Toleration and, not long after, the Edict of Milan. These imperial decrees granted full rights and freedom of religion to Christianity and soon propelled the once persecuted faith to the most favored status of religion in the Roman Empire. Not too shabby for a bunch of former rebels who worshiped a dead carpenter from Nazareth who, with the stroke of a pen, were no longer on the Top Ten Most Wanted List.
Now, what will the church do? Will they follow the practices and purity of their faith that allowed them to thrive during almost twenty decades of persecution? Or would they run after the wealth and cultural acceptance their newfound notoriety and freedom gave them? I think you know the answer. But how the early church came to choose its course of action may surprise you.
Their compromise gave birth to the next of Jesus’ seven letters to His churches, the letter to the church at Pergamos, which, by the way, means “mixed marriage.” Ah, a fitting picture of the marriage of the pure bride of Christ to the unholy Roman empire, wouldn’t you say?
We will look more into the collateral damage of this unholy union, this mixed marriage, next time. But one last thing, it was during this phase of church history the love feast met its sad demise.
But more on that next time.
Notes:
1. The name Smyrna means “crushed, suffering, or myrrh.” Fitting, don’t you think?
2. The ten phases of persecution the church suffered under a succession of Roman emperors are:
Nero (AD 64-68): Nero infamously blamed Christians for the Great Fire of Rome. He subjected them to various brutal executions, including burning them alive.
Domitian (AD 81-96): Domitian saw Christians as political rebels. Under his rule, Christians were exiled, including John, the author of Revelation.
Trajan (AD 98-117): Trajan set a precedent where Christians were not to be sought out but were to be punished if accused and found guilty.
Hadrian (AD 117-138): Hadrian’s policy was similar to Trajan’s, but there was an increase in mob violence against Christians.
Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius (AD 138-180): Christians were seen as enemies of the state and endured great sufferings, including the martyrdom of Polycarp, a disciple of John.
Septimius Severus (AD 193-211): Severus sought to unify the empire under the sun god, leading to increased persecution of Christians who refused to conform.
Maximinus Thrax (AD 235-238): Maximinus targeted Christian leaders specifically, executing many church pastors and leaders.
Decius (AD 249-251): Decius required all citizens to sacrifice to Roman gods, leading to widespread torture and execution of Christians who refused.
Valerian (AD 257-260): Valerian targeted Christian clergy, leading to numerous martyrs, including Bishop Cyprian.
Diocletian and Galerius (AD 303-311): Known as the Great Persecution, it was the most severe, resulting in thousands of Christian deaths, including mass executions.
3. Jude 1:3
4. The letter to the church at Pergamos represents the time from the Edict of Toleration in AD 312 until the recognition of Boniface III as the first Pope in AD 606.
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by Steve McCranie | Jun 24, 2019
Now, even FOX News is covering the inevitable. The following is from Doug MacKinnon and was posted on the FOX website on Sunday, June 23, 2019.
We will speak much more about this on our website beginning in mid-July. But for now, read this and consider what Doug says.
Will You Survive the Coming Blackout?
There are many never-ending debates between Republicans and Democrats. Impeach vs. don’t impeach; capital punishment vs. life in prison; wall vs. no wall; legalizing marijuana vs. not; self-driving cars vs. human drivers; Red Sox vs. Yankees; takeout vs. home-cooked; or Gone With the Wind vs. any other movie.
All of these issues are stunningly important, right up to the second where cataclysm falls and creates a nightmare scenario that so many fear.
That cataclysm is a complete loss of electricity and every mode of convenience and survival we take for granted.
The largest red flag on this issue in years just waved in South America. Last weekend, tens of millions of people in Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay found themselves in a complete blackout. In one moment, they had electricity. The next moment, they had none, and they were catapulted back to the 1800s.
Only much worse.
People in the 1800s were not dependent upon electricity for their jobs, money, communication, Internet, transportation, education, security, medical services, prescriptions, water, and very lives.
The national power grid of the United States is truly a mess held together with, as the joke goes, by not much more than “baling wire and chewing gum.”
The average age of large power transformers in the United States is 40 years. Seventy percent of all large power transformers are at least 25 years old. It’s little wonder that, according to data from the Department of Energy, the United States suffers more blackouts than any other nation in the developed world.
The overall system is so weak, so taxed, and so vulnerable that in 2003, over 50 million people in the United States and Canada were hit with cascading blackouts simply because a tree branch fell on a power line in Ohio.
Because the infrastructure is so antiquated, weather triggers multiple blackouts per year in the U.S. Blackouts which collectively cost the nation upwards of $30 billion in spoiled inventory, lost wages, and repair of the grid.
Unfortunately, weather is becoming the least feared trigger of a blackout. In the age of terrorism and increasing cyber-threats, our power-grid getting taken down by a hack is no longer seen as a question of “If it will happen,” but rather, “When it will happen?”
The U.S. government is so rightfully fearful of this, that last November, it ordered DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) to war-game a complete cyber take-down of the U.S. power grid.
An exercise they are now wisely running on a regular basis.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, just last year, hackers – strongly suspected to be Russian – gained access to a number of utility control rooms in the United States and got to the point where “they could have thrown switches.”
The DHS report further stressed: “Russian government cyber actors targeted government entities and multiple U.S. critical infrastructure sectors, including the energy, nuclear, commercial facilities, water, aviation, and critical manufacturing sectors.”
Aside from the Russians, the Chinese, North Koreans, other terrorist states, and even cyber-extortionists, are targeting our power grid on a daily basis.
That clock is ticking.
Unfortunately, much like any large terrorist attack, when an extended regional or national blackout hits, you and your family will be on your own. No one is going to ride to the rescue.
How will you survive?
In the blink of an eye, you will lose access to money, food, gasoline, communication, medicine, medical attention, heat, air conditioning, and security.
Gone.
Even though most don’t do it, residents of California and Florida are reminded every year to assemble their “two-week” survival kit. In California, it’s because of earthquakes. In Florida, it’s because of hurricanes.
Survival kits which include water, non-perishable food, medicine, first-aid kits, batteries, a radio, flashlights, candles, cash, a hand-crank charger, with smaller versions of all for your vehicle and office.
The federal and state governments should be issuing that same reminder to every citizen in the nation about the coming blackout. It truly is not a question of “if,” but of “when.”
A night on the town for a movie, dinner, a sporting event or a political debate is great fun until none of it matters and your survival is literally at stake.
Make a plan, because you will be on your own.
by Steve McCranie | Apr 3, 2017
The context of Psalm 3 deals with David’s great betrayal at the hands of his own son, Absalom, whom he dearly loved (2 Sam. 18:33). Absalom had driven his father from the holy city, Jerusalem, and was seeking to usurp his kingdom and take his life. David’s guilt as a failed father towards his rebellious son must have been unbearable. Adding to that the guilt of his own sin with Bathsheba and the murder of his close friend, and her husband, Uriah the Hittite (2 Sam. 11:15), may have caused David to feel Absalom’s actions were justified, a fitting penalty for the sins of David’s past.
The future looked bleak. There was division within his own family. To regain his kingdom he would have to wage war against his own son, forcing him to repay evil for evil to the one he loved. God was grieved and David was unsure as to what to do.
Our Focus
There is much for us to learn about God and our own problems in this psalm. Note, for example, what happens when we, like David, focus on our problems and what others say about our situation:
Psalm 3:1-2 – LORD, how they have increased who trouble me! Many are they who rise up against me. Many are they who say of me, “There is no help for him in God.”
But now, the focus has shifted from what is before us to our God and all He has promised. You can almost feel David’s faith begin to grow:
Psalm 3:3-4 – But You, O LORD, are a shield for me, my glory and the One who lifts up my head. I cried to the LORD with my voice, and He heard me from His holy hill.
As Corrie ten Boom once said, “There is no pit so deep, that God’s love is not deeper still.”
David realizes God has not abandoned him. He has cried out to his Lord, our Lord, and his voice had been heard. God was still on His throne and He still loved his son, David, no matter how desperate the circumstances. The same truth applies to each of us when we get our focus off our problems— the immediate, the overwhelming, and focus instead on what lasts— the Eternal, the Lord, the Sovereign One.
And the result of that change in focus? No more fear. Rest and peace in the face of turmoil. Confidence in Him and Him alone. “God’s got this. I’ve nothing to fear.”
Psalm 3:5-6 – I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the LORD sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.
After all, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31). Great question. Answer, no one. Not even Absalom.
This thought brings great courage to David. God is not finished with him yet. Today and tomorrow are just setbacks. But God’s plan endures to all generations.
Finally, that confidence is expressed in action. David, and each of us, find our prayers going from “Help me, please, for I am dying” to “Arise, O Lord” and do what You promised to do for your children.
Psalm 3:7-8 – Arise, O LORD; Save me, O my God! For You have struck all my enemies on the cheekbone; You have broken the teeth of the ungodly. Salvation belongs to the LORD. Your blessing is upon Your people
Did you get that? “Your (God) blessing is upon Your (God) people.”
The End from the Beginning
One final thought, did you notice all of God’s actions are recorded in the past tense (have struck, have broken)? That’s right. For the child of God, we can rest in faith knowing what God has promised to do has already been done in the eyes of the Lord. His Word never changes. If God promises to do something for us, in faith, it’s already done. It’s finished, established, completed, done. Time is a construct of man, not of God. He sees everything, past, present and future, in real time. Scripture calls that seeing “the end from the beginning” (Isa, 46:10). We simply have to rest, by faith, in the completed work of the Lord even though our eyes may see, for a time, something quite different.
David saw Absalom’s rebellion and his kingdom, the one promised to David by the Lord, ripped from his hands. But not God. None of that surprised Him. God knew how all of that was going to turn out and His knowledge of the future was not based on changing circumstances, but on what He had promised David in the past. What was currently happening, in God’s eyes, were merely details.
So we should also live our lives with the same focus on Him, with eyes of faith, seeing the truth of what God sees and not what our circumstances cause us to fear. The promises our faithful God has made to each of us are true, and will come to pass, regardless of how dark and bleak our circumstances may seem today. And living in the reality of this faith, to “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7), will give us the peace and assurance in Him that will help us know our Lord sustains us and gives us the confidence to proclaim, even in the midst of the battle, “I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around” (Ps. 3:6).
Psalm 3:8 – Salvation belongs to the Lord, Your blessing is upon Your people.
The “Your people” also include you and me, those chosen in Him “before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4). And His blessing is upon His people. Take a moment, stop fretting, and rest in that.
Pray for the Lord to open your eyes today to see the wonder of His grace and sovereignty in all things (Ps. 115:3) and to teach you how to live like children of the Most High God (Rom. 8:17). Which, as incredible as it sounds, you are.
Praise be His Name!
by Steve McCranie | Jan 4, 2017
We have previously talked about the importance of understanding our responsibility regarding the if / then passages in Scripture. In these, the promise of God (then) is contingent upon some completed action on our part (if). One always precedes the other. One is always contingent upon the other. When the if is satisfied, the promised then is realized. But the opposite is also true. If there is no if, there will be no then. If no condition is met, there will be no fulfillment of the promise. It’s Contract Law, 101.
For example, when Peter preached his powerful sermon on the day of Pentecost that ushered in the birth of the church, he closed his message with an if / then promise. Let’s look at this in context. First, Peter concludes his message with a statement about Jesus and their guilt in rejecting and crucifying Him.
Acts 2:36 – “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified (now it’s personal), both Lord and Christ.”
Then, under the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, the people cry out for an answer. They long and seek for salvation, some deliverance from the guilt of their sin.
Acts 2:37 – Now when they heard this (the words Peter just spoke), they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”
Peter answers their question with an if / then promise regarding repentance and salvation. They must do something (if) to receive salvation and the forgiveness of their sins (then). If they fail to do what is required of them (if – repentance), then salvation does not follow (then). Watch how this plays out.
Acts 2:38 – Then Peter said to them, “Repent (if – the condition they must meet), and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins (as an outward sign of their repentance and submission to Christ); and (then – the promise of salvation, the result of meeting the condition of repentance) you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Remember, the Holy Spirit is our proof of salvation. Ephesians 1 says we are “sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance” in Him (Eph. 1:13-14). Again, no Holy Spirit, no regeneration, no changed nature— no salvation. But you already know this.
Turn at My Rebuke
Yet even after salvation, we find the same if / then conditions and promises still apply in our lives today. This is especially true regarding the sins we commit as a believer and our refusal to repent of them and give them up in exchange for a deeper relationship with the Lord. Look at your own life. You and I have areas right now that we struggle with and refuse to submit to Him. But you also already know this. The end result of this inaction on our part is a grieving of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30) and a noticeable break in our fellowship with the Lord. Can you relate? Ever been there?
We even see this scenario played out for us in the first chapter of Proverbs. In this chapter, the young man (representing you and me) is warned by his father and mother not to forsake what he has been taught and to not consent when sinners entice him to sin (Prov. 1:10). The Lord then spends the next nine verses detailing the types of pressure each of us will face when we are tempted to sin. There’s peer pressure, greed, anger, violence, acceptance, excitement— it’s all there. Read it for yourself.
By the time we get to Proverbs 1:20, things change a bit in the text. Now we have wisdom, the personified wisdom of God, calling out to this young man with the message of repentance. In fact, we see wisdom calling out to anyone who will listen. Wisdom calls out in the “open squares,” in the “chief concourses” and “at the opening of the gates in the city” (Prov. 1:20-21). Wisdom is calling to everyone. To those who are lost, it’s a message of repentance unto salvation. To those, like the young man and you and me, it’s a message of repentance unto fellowship and a restoration of our intimate relationship with our Lord.
Wisdom’s message begins with a rebuke. It’s like incredulously asking, “Just how stupid are you?”
Proverbs 1:22 – “How long, you simple ones (foolish ones, naive ones, stupid ones, moronic ones), will you love simplicity (what is foolish, stupid, moronic)? For scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge.”
Wisdom asks each of us the same question: “How long, you foolish, moronic, stupid ones, will you love your stupidity? How long, you fools, will you be enamored in your folly?”
Just like those who heard Peter’s charge in Acts 2:36, we also ask the same question: “What must we do?” The answer is simple. But it’s an if / then answer. It requires something of us in order to receive something from the Lord.
Proverbs 1:23 – “Turn (if – the condition that must be met) at my rebuke; Surely (then – the results of meeting the condition) I will pour out my spirit (Holy Spirit) on you; (then) I will make my words known (yada) to you.”
The promise is that God would pour (to gush forth, to flow) out the Holy Spirit on those who turned (turn back, returned) and repented at the rebuke (correction, reproof, chastisement) of wisdom. And, as if it couldn’t get any better, He also promised to make His words known (yada) to those who repented and turned back to Him. The word “known” is yada in the Hebrew and means to know, or be known, in a loving, intimate, experiential way. The promise offered by the Lord is for Him to pour Himself out on us in the Person of the Holy Spirit and make His words become something we love because we have experienced them ourselves, first-hand, and have an intimate, loving relationship with Him. Does it get any better than this? Not for me.
But don’t get too excited. This wonderful promise is conditional. It’s the then side of the if / then equation. There is something that is required in order to receive the promise from God. Something each of us must do.
We must repent. We must turn at the rebuke or correction and chastisement of the Lord.
It means to go back to where we were with Him before we jumped ship to blindly go after the trinkets and toys this world offers. It means to embrace the eternal and reject the temporal, no matter how good the temporal may make us feel in the short run. It means placing ourselves back under the Lordship of Christ as the Sovereign One. We must repent of the selfishness of demanding our Christian life being about us, and not about Him. And we must vow to never view Christ as a genie in a bottle, always at our beck and call, whose sole purpose, according to us, is to make all our dreams come true.
Turn. Return. Go back. Repent.
But What If I Don’t?
I mean, what if I refuse to return to Him? What if I’m ok where I’m at and don’t want to go through the pain and hard times that come with repentance? What if I say, no?
I’ll close by letting you read what the Lord says about people who stubbornly refuse His rebuke. These are sobering words. Take them to heart. Because they are a warning from Him. Another if / then promise.
Proverbs 1:24-27 – “Because (if – the condition we have met) I have called and you refused, (if – the condition) I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, because (if) you disdained all my counsel, and would have none of my rebuke, (then – the result of our actions) I also will laugh at your calamity; (then) I will mock when your terror comes, (to what extent) when your terror comes like a storm, and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.”
But it gets worse. What happens when we reject the wisdom of the Lord and inevitably begin to experience all the “terror” and “destruction” that “comes like a whirlwind” (Prov. 1:26-27)? What happens when the Lord gives us what we want and allows us to experience the consequences of our own sin (Rom.1:24-28)? What happens when we’ve had enough of God’s chastisement, throw up our hands in defeat, and begrudgingly come to Him on His terms? What happens then? How will He receive us?
Read this carefully. These are sobering words.
Proverbs 1:28-30 – “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. (why) Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD, they would have none of my counsel and despised my every rebuke.”
These are some of the most frightening words in all of Scripture. They indicate there may come a time when our constant rejection of the Lord will dry up His grace. A time when heaven is quiet and, no matter how hard we try, we can’t find the grace from Him we took for granted for so long. The time may come, according to this if / then promise, when God allows us to experience the consequence of our sins and may give us exactly what we have asked for, what we have demanded— deliverance from Him.
Pray that day never comes.
And while you still can, turn at His rebuke and allow Him to “pour out my spirit on you” and “make my words known to you” (Prov. 1:23). Because when He does what He has promised in the verse, you will begin to experience heaven on earth.
Return to Him today.
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