By your patience possess your souls —Luke 21:19

When a person is born again, there is a period of time when he does not have the same vitality in his thinking or reasoning …

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Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? —Romans 8:35

God does not keep His child immune from trouble; He promises, “I will be with him in trouble . . .” (Psalm 91:15). It doesn’t …

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The apostle Paul said that he was, “not ashamed of the gospel …” (Romans 1:16) yet there seems to be many Christians who are ashamed of the Gospel.

There are parts of the Gospel message that people genuinely do not like. When they hear these biblical truths, they object to them, or scoff at them. They think the Gospel is ridiculous or offensive. The world’s response to the Gospel can make a Christian embarrassed, ashamed, or reluctant to share the Gospel.

The world generally does not like hearing the following:

1. All have sinned and deserve God’s judgment.
2. God’s judgment for sin is eternity in Hell.
3. God has every right to judge mankind.
4. God loves mankind and provided one way for man to be forgiven. There is only one way to Heaven.
5. Jesus said that He was, “The way, the truth, and the life, and that no man could come to the Father except through Him” (see John 14:6).
6. God put on flesh, walked among us, died on a cross, was raised three days later, and ascended to Heaven.

Theologically and philosophically, there is much that the unbeliever disagrees with and mocks. That kind of opposition can make a Christian ashamed to share the Gospel.

There are other things that can cause a Christian to be reluctant to share the Gospel. 

There is much within Christendom and what is wrongly called Christendom that does not represent my heart, and of which I am discouraged by or ashamed of.

1. People with signs that say, “God hates gays.”
2. Church scandals and high profile pastors who sin and do not repent.
3. Churches that beg for money.
4. An overemphasis on politics, including mudslinging and name calling done in the “name of Jesus.”
5. The fact that much of the church universal is known for what it is against rather than what it is for.

There are many such things within Christendom or Churchdom that do not represent the heart of God, or represent me, and yet I find myself guilty by association in the eyes of many. That can unfortunately cause a Christian to be ashamed to share the Gospel.

Yet the apostle said that he was not ashamed. There was much in his world that might have caused him shame regarding the Gospel, and there is much in our world as well. 

How do we “not be ashamed” of the Gospel?

Paul gives us the answer in the same verse.

Regarding the Gospel, Paul says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.”

Who is not ashamed of the Gospel? The one who believes it, has been changed by its power, and is being changed by its power. That is the one who is not ashamed of the Gospel.

The Gospel may be foolishness or offensive to many, but to me, it is life-giving, powerful, hopeful, encouraging, equipping, providential, and protective. It is real to me and is increasingly real to me with every year that passes. The Gospel has become precious to me. How could I be ashamed of it?

I liken this to my experience with chiropractic. Some say that chiropractors are quacks, that they are not real doctors, that they just keep you coming back, and that nothing ever improves. 

But I say, ”I am not ashamed of chiropractic”! Why do I say that? Because I have been going to chiropractors for 30 years and have experienced the benefits of chiropractic care. Are there bad chiropractors out there? Sure there are. Say what you want about chiropractics, I am not ashamed. Chiropractic works, and my life testifies to that.

In an infinitely greater way, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel” in spite of the wrong representations of Jesus; in spite of church failures, in spite of pastoral failures, in spite of name calling and mudslinging; in spite of it all.

Jesus has NEVER done anything that would cause me to be ashamed of Him. The Gospel has saved me, has changed, is changing me, and shall deliver me into glory.

The one who believes and keeps believing the Gospel, experiences the Gospel, and is changed by it, is the one who is not ashamed of the Gospel. 

Focus on believing the Gospel, and you won’t be ashamed of it. 

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We see the pictures from time to time – heart-rending pictures of thousands of people suffering under the tragedy of famine. In such desperate times, the world often mobilizes to bring food to these troubled regions, and often disaster is prevented from becoming catastrophe.

The Bible reminds us that there is another kind of famine: “I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord” (Amos 8:11). Notice carefully the nature of this famine. It is not a lack of God’s Word, but a famine…of hearing the words of the Lord. It isn’t that God’s Word isn’t available, but that it is not listened to. It is not a case of God withholding His revelation; but of people being in such a state that they do not see it, they do not hear the words.

It is true that there may be times where there is a famine of God’s Word, either through the neglect or the unfaithfulness of those who have the responsibility to present God’s Word. But that isn’t what Amos meant. This is a problem with the hearer, not with the preacher. The preacher may have his own problems to deal with and to answer for before God; but the hearer may have his own problems also.

1 Thessalonians 2:13 describes the right way to hear the Word of God: “When you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.” They received the word, they welcomed the word, they regarded it as the word of God, and they allowed it to work effectively in their life. That is effective hearing.

Amos continued his warning: “They shall wander…seeking the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it” (Amos 8:1). When we push away God’s Word for a long time, we may find ourselves in the place were we shall not find it even if we wanted to. This makes us remember that the ability to hear God’s Word and to benefit by it is a gift from God, and it is a gift that should not to be despised.

Jesus alluded to this principle in a parable: “Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given. For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.” (Mark 4:24-25) When we seek God, it generally becomes easier to find Him. When we push away God, it generally becomes more difficult to hear and to receive His Word.

Is there famine in your life right now? Perhaps you find it easy to blame the pastor or the preacher, and you think that if they only preached better sermons, you would enjoy a great spiritual feast. But have you looked at your own life, your own attitude? Perhaps the famine in your life is a famine of hearing, and the problem is with you. You owe it to yourself to seek God on the matter. It would be terrible to stay in a problem and to blame others when the problem is really with you. The bread is out there – get your hearing right and enjoy the feast.

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Look at the birds of the air . . . . Consider the lilies of the field . . . —Matthew 6:26, 28

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin”— they simply are! Think of the sea, the air, the sun, …

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“Then Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the children of Israel, one man from every tribe; and Joshua said to them:“Cross over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and each one of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, that this maybe a sign among you when your children ask in time to come, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ Then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenantof the Lord; when it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be for a memorial to the childrenof Israel forever” (Joshua 4:4-7).

Every year at Calvary Everett (CE) I take a week to share a message about the miraculous works God has done in our church since we began in 2008. Every year God is doing something new in the life of our church, so I entitle these true stories “Memorial Stones.” To me a memorial stone is best defined as a work that God accomplished in our lives which only He can get the credit for. A person may have taken a step of faith by God’s prompting, but then God came and did what only He could do. Let me share just a few of the memorial stones from our first couple of years as a new church.

Back in 2008, Lynn and I sold everything that wouldn’t fit in the back of our Nissan Quest before we made our move to Everett. We were literally starting over. We planned on spending a few months at my parents’ vacant home (two hours away) and homeschooling our kids. It wasn’t a great plan but it was our only plan. Just a few days before we left California though, my dad sent me an email with a link to a fully furnished lake house near Everett. It was the $900 a month that caught our eye. We drove the van straight there and the owners handed us the keys. It was really that simple. We enrolled our kids in a nearby Christian school a week later and they even offered us a pastor’s discount! Talk about rolling out the red carpet.

In the summer of 2008 before we moved to Everett from Costa Mesa, I saw a picture of what looked to be a great facility online and called the leasing agent. This was my very first call. It turns out that the agent who answered the phone had attended a men’s retreat that I had spoken at many years before. He asked me on the phone, “Is this Ken Sutton?” I didn’t even have to make another call because Calvary Everett began in that building four months later.

After three months of meeting on Sunday evenings, we decided to move to Sunday mornings which required a whole new location. I had seen that a Christian college had just moved into the downtown area of Everett, so I gave them a call. The lady that was responsible for the facilities rental took my information and then at the end of the conversation said “we have been praying for you for months Ken; I attend a nearby Calvary Chapel”! We moved in 60 days later.

The move to Sunday mornings was going to be a financial step of faith. We needed thousands of dollars just for the deposit and first month’s rent among other things. God was going to have to provide very quickly but based on what I perceived to be an open door, we prayerfully moved ahead. It was just a few weeks before our move that I got a call from a man I cannot remember having ever met. He needed to meet that night and said it was urgent, so we agreed to meet at a Costco, of all places. An hour later as I stood outside looking for a man that fit his description, he walked up to me, shook my hand and handed me a check … for $10,000. He said that he felt prompted by God to help the church with our move and then he left, we didn’t even have a hot dog and soda together. I only saw him a few more times after that but God used that brother in a wonderful way.

These are just a few (of many) of the memorial stones in the life of our little church. But I realize that they are multiplied over and over again in the lives of every individual who knows Christ. Just like our own history with God … You have a miraculous history with God. This last Easter, Calvary Everett showed a video of a few testimonies by people in our church. They were stories of God’s redemption from the aftermath of abortion, drug abuse, and even imprisonment. It was the highlight of our service! You can watch the video at www.pluckedfromthefire.com.

Here’s my question to you though; what are your memorial stones? In your personal lives and in the life of your church? I would love it if you would share them with me right here on Calvarychapel.com. What has God done in your life that only He could get the credit for? I look forward to hearing from you and being blessed by what God has done!

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It came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven —Luke 24:51

We have no experiences in our lives that correspond to the events in our Lord’s life after the transfiguration. From that moment forward His life …

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I think one of the most intriguing topics in the Bible is what’s commonly called the Great Tribulation. There are few topics that are more debated and argued. Some followers of Jesus think that the tribulation was fulfilled in 70 AD, with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple. Others think we are currently in the tribulation. And still others, such as me, believe that while this world has seen much suffering and destruction, the biblical data indicates conclusively that the tribulation is a yet future period which will occur on earth.

No matter which perspective you come from on the timing of the tribulation, a key passage for consideration is Mathew 24. With no disrespect intended toward those who believe the tribulation already has, or currently is occurring, I must admit it is mindboggling to me how either position could be believed, considering Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 24. Let’s take a look at five things Jesus teaches us about the tribulation in this passage.

The Tribulation is Real

As Jesus says plainly in verse 21, “there will be Great Tribulation …” In Jesus’ view of the tribulation (the only one that really matters), the tribulation isn’t fantasy, sensationalism, or eschatological obsession; it was a coming reality. 

The Tribulation is the Fulfillment of the Seventieth Week Prophecy of Daniel 9

We see this from verses 15 and 21: “Therefore, when you see the ‘abomination of desolation’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place … then there will be Great Tribulation.”

Jesus was quoting from Daniel 9:25-27. This passage prophetically speaks of the coming and crucifixion of Jesus, as well as some events having to do with the Great Tribulation. Again, we believe these verses speak of the Great Tribulation because Jesus specifically says they do in Mathew 24:15 & 21. As you do the math, it becomes clear from the passage in Daniel nine that 69 weeks would occur between the “time of the going forth of the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem,” and the time when the Messiah would be “cut off, but not for Himself.”

“Weeks” in context refer to weeks of years (69, seven-year cycles). Daniel is telling us that 69, seven-year periods would come to pass beginning on the date the command was given to restore Jerusalem. After 69 series of seven-year cycles was complete (483 years according to the Jewish calendar), the Messiah would be executed for crimes He did not commit and wrongs He had not done. This command was issued in 445 BC. And when you move forward in history from 445 BC, for a total of 483, 360-day years (in accord with the Jewish calendar), you come to the year 33 AD, the very time Jesus Christ was crucified and “cut off, but not for Himself,” but for the sins of the world.

As you read through the latter portion of the prophecies in Daniel 9, it becomes clear that after the execution of Messiah, there was to be another week (seven-year cycle), during which the events Jesus referred to in Matthew 24 as occurring during the Great Tribulation, would be fulfilled. So what’s the point? Daniel 9 predicts at least two things. One, the exact year the true Messiah would come and be crucified for other people’s sins. And two, the events that would occur in the final seven-year cycle (70^th week). Jesus referred to the events of the 70^th week of Daniel in Matthew 24 as the Great Tribulation. This means the Tribulation, according to Jesus, is the final seven-year cycle described by Daniel.

The Tribulation is Global

In verse 22 of Matthew 24, Jesus strongly implies this: “And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.” The judgments of that time, and their global scope are such that, if God did not relent, “no flesh” would survive. That means no human, animal, or any such flesh would exist if God didn’t stop the catastrophic events. The judgment of the tribulation will threaten the existence of all life throughout the globe, because its scope will include the entire globe. That is the most natural reading of the text, and it lines up exactly with what we would expect if the events of Revelation 6-19 are really descriptive of the tribulation period.

The Tribulation is Ultimate Devastation 

As Jesus notes in Matthew 24:21, during the real tribulation, the magnitude of events and destruction will be, “such as has not been since the beginning of the world, until this time, no, nor ever shall be.” The world had already seen the epic destruction of Noah’s flood before the time Jesus was speaking these words. That means, according to Jesus, that the real tribulation has to be more intense than even the global flood! That’s the only way it could fit the description of being worse than anything “since the beginning of the world, until this time, nor ever shall be.” 

The Tribulation Immediately Precedes the Second Coming

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days … the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:29a and 30-31). According to Jesus’ doctrine of the Great Tribulation, “immediately after,” those days, He will come again.

Conclusion

If Jesus tells the truth, and the Great Tribulation is real, global, ultimate devastation, which is immediately followed by His Second Coming, I can only conclude that it is not history or current, but absolutely future. As bad as the events of 70 AD were, they didn’t threaten to extinguish the life of all flesh on the earth, didn’t even come close to comparing to the carnage of the Holocaust (let alone the global flood of Noah), and they were not “immediately” followed by the Second Coming. The only way to make Jesus’ words in Matthew 24 be contained and fulfilled by the events of 70 AD alone is to allegorize them, and twist them to the point of strangulation to fit a preconceived eschatological position we want to find in the text, before letting it speak plainly to us. To paraphrase David Guzik, he said, “Every position has problems to deal with in interpreting Matthew 24, but I like my problems a lot more than those who hold other views.” 

Sound Off

This is an in-house discussion amongst the family of the body of Christ. We shouldn’t kill each other over our differences. But our differences do matter. What do you think? Graciously and honestly share your thoughts in the comments!

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. . . you may be partakers of the divine nature . . . —2 Peter 1:4

We are made “partakers of the divine nature,” receiving and sharing God’s own nature through His promises. Then we have to work that divine nature …

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Ever since the beginning of the GOP campaign for a presidential candidate, I have had people asking me if it was biblically permissible for a Christian to vote for a Mormon. I was asked that question at least twice this past week.

To be sure, irreconcilable theological issues separate Christians and Mormons, and if we were talking about appointing a person to a position of spiritual leadership, then a Christian could not agree with such an appointment without violating the clear teaching of Scripture.

But I do not believe that the same standard applies when considering someone for public office. As has been said, “We are not electing a Pastor in Chief, but a Commander in Chief.” Rather than expecting our elected officials to hold to a specific theological position, I believe we are to look for people whose worldview is most compatible with the worldview presented in the Bible.

Notice that I said most compatible. The Bible itself speaks of two ways that God has revealed Himself to man. One is by what we call general revelation; the other is special revelation. General revelation comes to us through nature: creation and conscience. Special revelation comes through the Law, the Prophets, Jesus Christ, and the Apostles. If we mandated that our civic leaders conform to special revelation, in essence we would be requiring that they be Christians in order to hold public office. Nothing in the New Testament supports that idea. Although the New Testament tells us that the governmental authorities are appointed by God and are ministers of God (Romans 13:1-7; 1 Peter 2:13-14), it is also clear that the authorities being referred to were not Christian, and in most cases, far from it. The New Testament references were primarily to Rome: Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius, Nero, et al. 

Now I am not saying that we couldn’t or shouldn’t desire our leaders to be actual Christians; but the Scriptures do not require that. After all, most of the time and in most places, the option of electing Christians to office has rarely existed. Even in the United States, which many have considered a “Christian Nation,” we have had very few men who were Christians, in the biblical sense of the term, serve as president. You could probably count them all on one hand. Yet, we have had many good men, from Washington to Lincoln to Reagan, whose theological views were ultimately inconsistent with special revelation, i.e. biblical Christianity. Nevertheless, because they all believed in a Creator and moral absolutes, i.e. general revelation, they served the nation well.

So, what should we be looking for in our civic leaders? Not those who affirm the Apostles Creed necessarily. As I said, that option usually doesn’t exist anyway. But we should be looking for those who affirm that there is a God who created mankind in His image, gave us laws to live by (i.e. the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount), and will hold us accountable for our actions. In essence, what we are talking about, and what I believe we should be looking for as believers, is someone who truly holds to the Judeo-Christian worldview. That is the correct view of reality, and those who govern according to that view will most benefit the nation.

Although Mormonism and Christianity disagree on special revelation and are therefore two different religions, they agree on general revelation and therefore have the Judeo-Christian worldview in common. 

Can a Christian vote for a Mormon? I believe the answer is yes. Should a Christian vote for a Mormon? That is a question only you, the individual voter, can decide. 

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