Where is the best text to preach about the resurrection? Not where you think it is.
I think the place to start is Revelation chapter 12. There John paints a picture for us of a woman in labour. She is crowned with the sun, moon and stars. The woman represents the covenant line of the Messiah, just like in the dream Joseph had that got him into all that trouble.
She brings forth the child destined to rule the nations with a rod of iron. Genesis 3 and Psalm 2 show this is Jesus.
Why is it that God delays? I have thought about this a lot the last several years, as we have gone down a long and often very hard path seeking God’s plan for the next phase of our lives. Does God not care about the situation we are in? Does he not see our desperation? Does he not hear our prayers?
The other night, I was reading that extraordinary story in the Gospels where the disciples were straining at the oars for hours, making little progress. All of a sudden, Jesus showed up, walking across the waters. They took him into the boat, and by supernatural intervention, they instantly reached the other side of the lake.
Like so many Bible stories, we read this one with the end in mind. We already know what’s going to happen. But we forget that those guys in the boat had no idea whether Jesus was going to show up for them or not. They were almost certainly desperate. They were probably near the end of their strength. They were likely terrified of drowning. And you can be sure they had been praying.
But their prayers had not been answered.
What do you think they were thinking? Probably most of the same things we are thinking when God fails to resolve our crisis when we think he should.
But the question we should be asking ourselves is not “Why is God delaying?” but “What is God doing?”
Sometimes God is taking the extra time to bring elements of his plan for us together which are at present unseen to us. The whole world does not revolve around you or me. Other people and circumstances are involved too, and have to be brought into the picture.
Sometimes he is saving us from things we at first asked for. How many times have you thanked God he did not give you that job, that relationship, that accommodation, that place of ministry you asked him for?
Often, he is simply changing and refining us as we pray, because in the process we are drawn closer to him through our seeking of him. Hopefully we discover it is more important to seek God than the thing we are asking for.
For all these reasons, we then look back and thank the Lord that it worked out the way it did.
The fact is that God does not delay at all. The word “delay” implies that something that should have taken place now does not take place until later. But God’s timing is as perfect as all of his ways. What seems to us to be delay is actually God working out his perfect plan for us.
So if you are caught up right now in what to you is a very much in-your-face delay, may I suggest you follow the advice James gave to those who were experiencing the same kind of thing: ask God for wisdom (James 1:5). Ask God what he is doing in your heart and circumstances. Ask him for patience. Cast yourself on him. Cry out to him. But don’t give up.
Because the very point at which you feel like giving up is often the moment God breaks through. When we are at our most desperate is when he receives the most glory for what he does, because everyone knows it is him, not us who has done it.
And when God moves, he often does so with great speed. Isaiah put it this way: “I am the Lord; in its time I will do it quickly” (Isaiah 60:22).
I read that verse the other night. And I read it just at the point where God had intervened in our lives in an extraordinary way, which in a matter of weeks resolved issues we had been facing for years.
More of that next week…
We are at war! Jesus warned us about it: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10a). The question is not whether the attack will come, but when and how. The answer, when the attack does come, is to focus not on the attack or on the enemy, but on the Lord. Isn’t it encouraging that Jesus brought his statement to a triumphant conclusion: “But I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10b)? A while ago a merchant in Toronto got so tired of shoplifters he took the law into his own hands, apprehended a thief and held him until the police arrived -- then got charged for assault! Fortunately the judge saw things differently and acquitted him. The enemy comes continually into our lives to shoplift -- and worse. We don’t have to wait until the police arrive. We have a hotline to the Lord. This does not mean that everything will always run smoothly for us, but it does mean that we can avoid a lot of unnecessary grief if we learn to follow God’s directions for conducting this war.
We need to learn two things: what the tactics of the enemy are, and how to counteract them. In any warfare, this two-pronged approach is critical to success on the battlefield. It is no different on the spiritual battlefield. And let me underline this: these are not strategies to put in place the moment the attack comes. A successful army has discerned the strategies of the enemy long before any attack and put measures into place to counteract them. What coach goes into a game against an opposing team without studying that team’s strengths and weaknesses and devising a strategy to beat them? We can turn and cry out to God at the last minute, and he will hear us, but we will be much more effective in overcoming the enemy’s attacks if we have prepared our defence -- and our offence -- first.
Let me give you a useful tip how to do this. Paul begins his famous exhortation on spiritual warfare in Ephesians 6 with the word "finally." This is very significant. The advice on how to conduct spiritual warfare in the following verses is only the last part of a much longer section. Beginning at Ephesians 4:1, Paul gives a total (on my count) of 31 commands on how to live our life for God. Those 31 commands are the foundation for the successful warfare he describes in 6:10-17. If we have put our lives in order, we can be confident of success when the time of battle comes.
And don't be discouraged by the fact you're at war. The enemy only targets those who are a threat to his authority. The thief comes to rob, kill and destroy, but in the midst of the attack Jesus comes with his gift of abundant life.
Even though things may from time to time be difficult, and there will be moments when we feel despair, the truth is that, no matter what is happening externally, God is powerfully at work accomplishing His purposes. I think each of us can look back to times when things looked very bleak, times which were very hard for us, times when we were tempted to lose hope, yet God brought us through those times. And looking back, we can often see how He was working out His purposes through it all. Ask the Lord to open your eyes to how He has worked things in your life through times of battle which would never otherwise have happened. And ask the Lord to show you that attack verifies one thing: you — yes, you — are a threat to the kingdom of darkness. The enemy does not bother with those who do not threaten him.
And of course, just because battle is a reality does not mean it is constant. God provides times of rest between the storms. But we do live in a fallen world. Revelation 12:12 teaches that the devil has come down to the world “in great wrath” to do battle with the church from the time of Christ’s resurrection until the time of His return. He will not give up an inch of his territory without a fight. The battle is a given. But we are victorious in it. Attacking while attacked, inch by inch, we move forward, not backward. I pray God will encourage you daily by opening your eyes more and more to the ground that has already been gained.
There is no doubt that Paul faced severe attack — far more than any of us are likely to encounter. Yet for Paul, the reality of these ferocious attacks did not change his fundamental perspective on spiritual warfare, which is that we are besieging the enemy, not that the enemy is besieging us. How do I know this? The “weapons of our warfare” he refers to in 2 Corinthians 10:4 are in fact siege engines — powerful devices used to launch an offensive attack on a besieged city, in this case the fortress of Satan. Perhaps we can describe the process as “attacking while being attacked.” But this does raise a number of questions about spiritual warfare. Who is in control of the circumstances? How much do we have to suffer? To what extent will God protect us? Will we emerge victorious? These are legitimate questions. And we can give some brief answers, all from Romans 8. Who is in control? God is in control — otherwise He is no longer the sovereign God the Bible says He is, nor could it be truthfully said that He works all things together for good for those who love Him (Rom. 8:28). Even where the enemy is at work, inflicting damage on us as best he can, God is working over, through and in it all to bring about a bigger and better purpose, which sooner or later will become clear. There are times when we just have to hold on and trust Him.
As to how much we may have to suffer or to what extent He will protect us, the same chapter in Romans says, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” (Rom. 8:35). The fact is none of us can define the extent of what may come against us. One thing is for sure: it is hardly likely that this entire list of challenges — all of which (except possibly the sword) Paul personally experienced — will befall us. Yet none of them deterred Paul from following Christ, or made him feel that following Christ was not worth the price he had to pay for it. We cannot sit around worrying about whether we could withstand a trial that might or might not take place: “What would I do if this or that happened?” God does not give grace and strength for a trial until we are in the trial. The truth is God has promised that, no matter what happens, nothing will separate us from His love.
And finally, as to whether we will emerge victorious, the answer is clear: “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37). So let’s get on with the battle, and trust God with the results!
