Read the full transcript of Bible teacher Zac Poonen’s sermon titled “The Triumphant Spirit of a True Christian” which was delivered on September 8, 2024.
Listen to the audio version here:
TRANSCRIPT:
So, I’d like you to turn to Romans in chapter 8. The gospel of God is the very first verse in Romans. Romans 1:1 says “the gospel of God.” Gospel means good news, and the gospel is explained step by step by step all the way up to Romans 8, how it affects us in our life, and then after that it speaks about the body of Christ, concluding with Romans 16:20, which says “the God of peace will crush Satan under our feet.”
I want to speak today about Romans 8:37-39, which is the concluding part of the personal gospel. The rest is about the body of Christ and Satan being crushed. But if you have really experienced the new covenant gospel, and I want to tell you something, the vast majority of born-again believers that I have met have not experienced it. I would say 90% have not experienced it.
Understanding True Christian Experience
They are born again, their sins are forgiven, but they do not experience Romans 8. They do not experience Romans 6:14 either. But if you really experienced it, this will be your constant song of triumph in all these things. What are these things?
Verse 35: Tribulation, Distress, Persecution, Famine, Nakedness, Peril, Sword. Sword means your head being chopped off or injured. Now if you look through that list, I don’t know that any of us have experienced any of those things. Maybe a little distress, but Tribulation, Distress, Persecution, Famine, Nakedness, Peril, Sword.
Early Christian Suffering
But he says “we are put to death all day long, a sheep to be slaughtered,” that’s how the early Christians faced.
In all these things, these people said they were being put to death all day long, like sheep to be slaughtered. This is how the early Christians lived for 300 years. And these are our brothers and sisters, they are rejoicing in heaven today. So Paul says, and we should be able to say these also, “in all these things, we don’t just conquer, we overwhelmingly conquer through Christ who loved us.”
God’s Love and Christ’s Sacrifice
Our foundation is only one thing, that I have a God in heaven who loves me immensely, more than anyone on earth, and he proved that love not just in words, but by sending his son to die for us, and to go to hell for us. Three hours on the cross, Jesus experienced hell. “Why have you forsaken me?” There’s only one place in the universe where God forsakes people, that is hell.
And you know, when Jesus spoke about hell, he said there was a rich man, he called it a place of torment. He said, “can you get me a drop of water?” That’s why when Jesus finally, at the end of three hours, you know what Jesus said? “I thirst.”
Christ’s Experience of Hell
Why did he say that? Because he has experienced the fires of hell for three hours, just like the rich man in hell said, “I’m thirsty.” Jesus said at the end of the cross, “I thirst.” That is another proof that what he experienced on the cross was hell.
So if you want to understand the love of Christ for you, understand that he spent three hours in hell. And because of this, we overwhelmingly conquer. So the wonderful thing that happened on the cross was Satan was defeated thoroughly. I’m convinced, verse 38, that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Call to Spiritual Growth
My dear brothers and sisters, if you cannot say those three verses every day of your life, I want to say to you lovingly, you’re coming short of God’s standard. I’m not trying to get anybody under condemnation. I just want to say, some of you should have been in the 10th grade by now, you’re sitting in the kindergarten or second grade. I’m just trying to challenge you, don’t sit so long in the kindergarten.
That’s all I’m saying. Move on. That’s exactly what you would say to your child if he or she was sitting in the kindergarten for 10 years. In each grade we should be one year.
Invitation to a Devoted Life
Move on. Move on. Some of us have been believers for a long, long time. Dear, I want to invite you to this life, ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit, say “Lord, I don’t want anything of earth to pull me down.”
I want to be a totally devoted child of God. And I tell you, it’ll make your life different, it’ll make your home life different. And I can say that my home life is a foretaste of heaven already. It’ll be like that for you.
Our children will grow up in the fear of God. Every one of them, all your children will be saved and will grow up in the fear of God and be useful to the Lord. That is God’s will for us. It doesn’t mean we won’t have, as long as we live on this earth, we have to suffer sickness and pains in our body.
Understanding Paul’s Thorn
The Apostle Paul himself had a sickness which he tried desperately to get out. He called it, he said the devil gave it to him. And he prayed and prayed and prayed and the Lord said, no, you, that thorn in the flesh that he had, the Lord never took it away. He said, “because Paul, I’m using you so much, I’ve got to keep you humble, otherwise you’ll be puffed up.”
The Danger of Pride
I want to tell you what you should really be afraid of, not the devil, definitely not. He was defeated on the cross, not death, because death was conquered by Jesus Christ. I’ll tell you what you should be afraid of, pride, more than anything else. And the sad thing is, most believers are more afraid of the devil and of death and earthly sufferings and financial shortage, more than pride.
The Root of Sin
You know, the first sin in the universe was pride. It was not financial shortage, it was not sickness, it was pride. And I believe it was pride that made Eve think that she knew more than God to go and reach out and take that tree of knowledge when God had said, don’t do it. Anything I do, when God says, don’t do it, don’t lust after women, and I do it.
It’s pride, absolute pride, which causes you to lust with your eyes. When you lose your temper and you don’t seek to control it, pride is the cause of it. If you, God, Jesus came to lay the axe to the root of the trees, and then the tree will stop producing fruit. The fruit of sin will not come when the root of pride is cut.
Learning Humility from Jesus
That’s why Jesus said, you know, he never told us to learn how to preach from him. He never told us how to learn how to sing. Jesus also sings. We read in Hebrews 2 that he’s the song leader in the church.
And just before he went to the cross, he sang a hymn, it says, in the Gospels. But the one thing Jesus told us to learn from him, Matthew 11:29, “learn from me for I am humble.” How many of you have come to Jesus and said, “Lord, teach me humility.” He is the professor of humility.
You go to the Internet, many of us to learn so many things. Let me invite you who are so clever and so many other things to come to Jesus to learn humility. Learn from me. Think if you had to do some course, which is essential, though, otherwise you’d lose your job.
If you got to go through this course for the next three months, otherwise you lose your job. How hard and strongly and efficiently we will study. I want to invite you to seek to learn humility with greater earnestness than that. Because God’s grace will come upon you then and it will rain upon you.
Personal Testament: Remembering Ian Robson
God’s grace is the most powerful force in the universe. I want it to save me from the most dreadful thing of all sin. So it says here also that none of these things can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And I thought of that this morning because many of you know my closest coworker, Ian Robson.
CFC started 50, nearly 50 years ago, 49 years ago, 49 years and one month almost in my home when just the two of us families came together because we were thrown out by the Baptist Church for preaching the baptism in the Holy Spirit. That’s how CFC started. And when we started meeting, we were just two of us, two families. Well, early this morning, the Lord took Ian Robson home to himself about seven hours ago.
But he went home triumphantly. He was in great pain. He was sick for a number of months, and I was frequently in touch with him on video and praying and talking and he was very cheerful. But he was in whenever he was in pain, he had to rest and he had a wonderful family that took care of him right up to the very end.
And then early this morning, our time, it is Sunday afternoon in India. Very quietly, the Lord called him home. But whenever I spoke to him twice, I told him a couple of days ago, I said, “Ian, when you meet Jesus, tell him this, that I’m very thankful that he, Jesus, allowed Ian to be my coworker for 50 years. Please tell him that.”
And I believe Ian has already told him that. So I’m very happy that he’s told him that. And he’s rejoicing with him. And I’m sure he’s met his wife who went to be with the Lord a couple of years ago.
The Early Days of Ministry
So I want to tell you a little bit about how Ian and I work together. We were both very, very poor. We were extremely poor in the church, started with very poor people. Almost everybody came by bus or by bicycle to the meeting.
Ian Robson himself would ride a bicycle and come to the meeting. We couldn’t afford anything because I was in the Navy. I had a scooter, two wheel scooter, which I rode for 48, 42 years in India. Oh, we couldn’t afford anything else.
But we were happy and we struggled along financially, but spiritually rejoicing on top of the world. And God slowly added and for six years we met in our home. And we were despised by others. A lot of people despised us for preaching the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
And many others spread false rumors about us. They would publish tracts saying the head of the serpent was in my house, that the devil’s throne was there and all types of things. We get, the Lord told us, keep quiet. So that’s how our work began.
And we rejoice today when we see the work having spread through so many countries, with so many churches and more than two, three hundred elders that we have appointed to lead all these churches. And the wonderful thing about all these two, three hundred leaders of our churches is that not one of them receives a salary. From day one, neither Ian Robson nor me, we decided to serve the Lord with whatever little we had and struggled along and we would not receive a salary. Not only that, in all our more than a hundred churches, we never taken an offering for 50 years.
Our Financial Principles
We never passed a bag around, just like here. We saw in the Bible that Jesus sat next to an offering box where a widow came and put two coins. And so we said, we’ll keep an offering box because Jesus has sanctioned that. That’s why in every church of ours, we have an offering box.
And also it’s not very prominent. We don’t keep it up in the front door. We keep it in the front table. We keep it in some corner.
And the Lord has provided our need. We don’t have any sponsors, but we have helped thousands of people who are in need. Widows, orphans, educating children in college when their parents can’t afford it because our church leaders don’t take a salary. So the offerings that people put, we have some wealthy people in our churches by Indian standards and all the offerings go to help the poor exactly like Jesus did.
Facing Opposition with Joy
So I want to say that it’s been a tremendous testimony in India that those who despised us 50 years ago now see that God has done a work. I say that to your encouragement. When you start the Christian life, don’t worry if people misunderstand you, your relatives. Of course, my relatives and Annie’s relatives and all despised us so much, they turned away from us and have been against us for many, many years.
But Jesus said that also in his own house. Nobody believed in him. So don’t weep for yourself if your relatives turn against you. Just rejoice and leap for joy like Jesus said.
Remembering Ian’s Last Days
The one thing I wanted to mention to you about Ian, you know, some people called me today and said, “I hope you overcome your grief.” I said, I don’t have any grief to tell you honestly. I’m rejoicing in the Lord as to where my brother is. I had grief when he was in suffering and pain and the tears I shed were not today, but in the previous days when I was talking to him and he was groaning in pain, many times in great pain that he had to take, you know, intravenous injections to overcome that pain.
So he was in a lot of pain the past few days. And that was the time I really felt sad and sorry for him, but not today. I’m rejoicing because he’s in the presence of the Lord. And what I want to say is a little bit about our work together.
50 Years of Unity
We have, first of all, we have worked together for 50 years nearly, including the one year that we were in the Baptist Church. It is 50 years, more than 50 years. He and I have worked together. And here’s what I want to tell you.
In all these 50 years, we have never broken fellowship for a single day. And I say that in the presence of Jesus, who’s here in our midst today. The Lord Jesus knows that, not for a single day. And that’s not because he just blindly submitted to me.
He would sometimes say, “but Zach, I don’t agree with you there.” I say, “fine, let’s pray about it and talk about it.” And sometimes I would say, “okay, Ian, we’ll do it your way.” Sometimes he’d say, “Zach, I think we’ll do it your way.”
Different Backgrounds, One Spirit
I’m saying we work together, not zombies, he was not a zombie, far from it. But his ministry was very different from mine. His personality was very different. He belonged to a community called the Anglo-Indians.
That means their ancestry, somebody came from England. Many people came from England to India because they ruled India. So in Ian’s ancestry, one of his maybe grandfather or something was an Englishman. And probably married an Indian, and that’s how they’re called Anglo-Indians.
Breaking Cultural Barriers
And the interesting thing is, we have a number of Anglo-Indians in India. There are hundreds and thousands of them. I come from a part of India called Kerala. And in my knowledge, I do not know in my entire life of an Anglo-Indian and a person from Kerala working together in peace in any church in the whole country.
We are completely different, just like the Jews and the Gentiles. You know how the Jews would get up in the morning and say, “I thank God I’m not a slave, and I thank God I’m not a Gentile.” That was their attitude. And the difference between Anglo-Indians and the people from Kerala, from where I come from, is exactly like that.
Many communities on Earth are like that, so much against each other. They never work together, they mind their own business. And isn’t it interesting that God took two of us from two completely communities that don’t get along in the country, and put us together to lead this church, and to work together for 50 years, and live in perfect peace to demonstrate the power of the gospel, that not only forgives our sin, but makes two people one. And that has been a demonstration to others in our churches, how unity is as important as forgiveness of sins.
The Battle for Family Unity
That’s why we used to have so many family meetings in our churches. Because we felt the unity between husband and wife is another thing that’s constantly being attacked by the devil everywhere. And as we approach the end, the attack on families is much more. I tell you, many of you probably have experienced it.
Some way, subtle way, the devil tries to come between you and your wife, between you and your husband, with a little misunderstanding. Some stupid, silly thing that’s worth nothing, the devil magnifies it, makes it big in your eyes, and a distance comes between you and your partner. How the devil makes fools of people who call themselves believers. Absolutely amazing.
The Path to Better Relationships
I want to encourage you to turn around from that and say, “Lord, I want to believe there’s a better life possible.” And always the problem is that we blame the other partner. “I’m trying to do my best, but she is not, or he is not.” That is the height of conceit.
If the only person who could have said that is God. “I tried to do my best, but these human beings are so unresponsive.” If he said that, that would have been correct. But for you or me as a human being to say that about another human being, that is the height of arrogance.
It is to put ourselves in the place of God, to tell your wife or husband, “you don’t understand me, that’s why you cause these problems.” You think only unbelievers talk like that? It’s not just words. Sometimes you can keep a distance from your wife or husband by a certain mood.
God’s Unconditional Love
There was a certain refusal to talk. Imagine if God treated you like that. Think of those stupid things we have done in our Christian life. And think if one day I turn to the Lord and God says, “no, I’m not going to talk to you,” where would you and I be?
Follow the example of Jesus. Treat others the way God has treated you. So, as I said, he and I have been of very different personalities. When God called us together, God called him out of his job.
The Beginning of Our Ministry
He was in the Indian Railways and I was in the Indian Navy. And we didn’t know each other till about a one year before we came together, he brought us together. And in Acts 13, we read about the first two people whom the Lord called to demonstrate that unity in ministry. There were others who were called by Jesus himself, you know, after the day of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit.
The Power of the Holy Spirit
Before the day of Pentecost, you know, at the Lord’s table, they were always arguing who’s the greatest. And everybody said, “oh, after listening to Jesus saying, learn from me for I am humble and gentle,” they still were arguing who’s the greatest. Everybody thought “I’m the greatest.” And then the Holy Spirit came and baptized them in the fire of God.
And that’s in Acts chapter 2. And there was this powerful message, anointed message, where 15 minute message, 3,000 Jews were converted. I mean, to convert one Jew itself is a miracle. Imagine 3,000 Jews getting converted.
Unity in Ministry
There’s a baptism in the Holy Spirit, the anointing of the Holy Spirit. It makes a tremendous difference. That’s what made Peter powerful and anointed. And as someone has said, they were, it says here, Peter stood up with the 11 in Acts chapter 2.
That’s how it should be, the Acts 2:14. “Peter took his stand with the 11.” That means the other 11 said, “hey, this is our spokesman. We are not in competition with him.”
Everybody tried to push the other person forward and say we’ll put Peter forward. Imagine you have a church where everybody’s willing to stand back and push the other person forward. “I don’t want any prominence. Let Peter have the prominence.”
The Power of Unity
Amazing. And then when that chapter is over, you see this unity there in Acts 3:1. I don’t know whether you noticed it. “Peter and John were going up to the temple.”
Now, Peter and John were both fishermen, but they were in two rival camps. Peter was in his, they were fishing in the same lake, but not for the same team. John had his team with his father, and Peter had his team with his brothers. But once they were baptized in the Holy Spirit, all those earthly differences disappeared.
The First Missionary Journey
And the first thing you read is Peter and John, that’s the unity. And then the time came to reach out to the rest of humanity. This was only among the Jews. And that we see in Acts 13, the first missionary journey, in the top of my NASB, it says here, the first missionary journey.
The Importance of Fasting and Prayer
This is the beginning of outreach to the rest of the world. And it says here, the Lord said to those people when they were fasting, verse two, “while they were praying to the Lord, worshipping the Lord,” ministering means worshipping the Lord and fasting. Fasting is a very important part of what Jesus taught, the apostles practiced. And in the early days of our church in Bangalore, we regularly fasted and prayed.
The Power of Fasting
Many people were baptized in the Holy Spirit in times of fasting and prayer. But sometimes we had a national holiday, and we never thought of going for a picnic. We didn’t have the money, first of all, thank God. So we would meet together in my house, nine o’clock in the morning till three o’clock in the afternoon, we’d fast and pray, particularly that everyone would be filled with the Holy Spirit.
And we had wonderful times of prayer that brought us unity. And many were filled with the Holy Spirit as well. So here also they were worshipping the Lord and fasting. You see how fasting comes every now and then in the New Testament and the Gospels and the Acts.
God’s Call to Ministry
And while they were fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I’ve called them.” This is the way God called us also. Ian Robson and I also used to fast and pray numerous times for about six months prior to our being thrown out by the Baptist Church. They were thrown out by the Jews and we were thrown out by the Baptist Church.
That’s how they came together and that’s how we came together. But I remember those days when we fasted and prayed and said, “Lord, we want you to meet with us because we are desperately needy.” He was a defeated Christian and I was a defeated Christian. And we wanted to seek the Lord for victory because it was a dishonor to the Lord when a person calls himself a Christian and he’s defeated in his life, when his family life is in the same quality of life that the average non-Christian has.
Transformation Through Prayer
What gospel do we have to give to them? So that’s why we fasted and prayed and the Lord saw we were earnest. And it went on for six months before the Lord met with both of us in a wonderful way. And our whole life was transformed.
And then I believe as I look at Barnabas’ temperament, and Ian Robson’s temperament, and Paul’s temperament, and my temperament, we saw that Barnabas and Paul were completely different in their temperament. And those are the people God brought together. I’ll tell you what Barnabas was like. That was not his name, by the way.
The Story of Barnabas
I hope all of you know that this is not his name. You read in Acts chapter 4, his name was actually Joseph. Barnabas, you read about Acts chapter 4, he came from a place called Cyprus, an island called Cyprus. And that is the place where we first went for the missionary journey also.
Acts 4:36, “Joseph, who was a Levite of Cyprian birth,” he was from Cyprus. The apostles, he was called Barnabas because the apostles changed his name. Barnabas means ‘bar’ in Hebrew means son, bar. Nabas means of encouragement.
The Ministry of Encouragement
So bar nabas means the son of encouragement. Now why in the world would the apostles change somebody’s name? Because they saw this man when he was filled with the Holy Spirit. He would just go around encouraging people everywhere.
It’s amazing to have that ministry. And you know when Paul, Saul of Tarsus, was converted on the Damascus road, and came and joined the Christians, all the Christians say, “hey, this guy’s a spy. He’s a spy of the chief priests. Don’t welcome him.”
They kept him at a distance. You know who went to call him? Barnabas, son of encouragement. He went and welcomed Paul and said, “I trust you, Paul,” and introduced him to the others.
The Need for Encouragement
And that’s how Paul got welcomed into the church. So that is a unique ministry Barnabas had. And that was so necessary. You know, through the Christian life, there’s so much of opposition and problems we face in our life, in our workplace, in our home, that we need many people, many Barnabases, sons of encouragement, those who have the ability to encourage people.
I’m sure all of you will acknowledge that you need encouragement. You face problems in your work. Sometimes you’re married to someone who’s not a wholehearted Christian. Or you live in a place or you work in a place where they’re opposed to Christians.
The Warning Against Unbelief
We need encouragement. There’s nobody who doesn’t need it. Every one of us needs encouragement. I’ll show you the verse that says that in Hebrews and chapter three.
Don’t think you’re a weak person when you acknowledge that you need encouragement. Every one of us needs it. Hebrews 3 verse 13. Hebrews 3:13. He says, first of all, verse 12. “Brothers, take care.” Hebrews 3:12. It’s possible that some of you can develop an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.
When you say evil, you think of a man who’s committing sin. No, the evil here is unbelief. And evil, unbelieving is one word. Evil, unbelieving heart. That means the unbelief is the evil there. And some pressure can come upon a person’s life. And he begins to lose faith. “Is there a God in heaven?”
The Challenge of Faith
I’ve been praying for so long for my child to be healed and it didn’t get healed, it died. And that’s the only child I have. Can you imagine what a believer faces when they face something like that? Especially when we pray for something for our children and nothing happens.
And we pray and pray and pray and pray and say Jesus cares for us and all that, but nothing seems to happen. Then unbelief can come in. Little doubt or little distance from God, you know. We keep a distance as if you’re trying to tell God, “if you don’t answer me, well, I’m not going to be so close to you.”
The Importance of Daily Encouragement
Take care, brethren, that that unbelieving heart can make you fall away one day from the living God. Therefore, what’s the solution? Verse 13, encourage one another, how often? Every single day.
What a word that we need encouragement every single day. So that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Now, you may say, “well, I’m not falling away.” Don’t be satisfied, dear brother, sister, let me speak very plainly.
Growing in Faith
If you’re satisfied with not falling away, you’re like a kindergarten student who says, “I’m still in the kindergarten after 20 years, but I’ve not failed. I’m getting 100% in math. I’m getting 100% in English. I know I’m in the kindergarten for 20 years, but I get 100% every subject every year.”
Are you going to be happy with your child who’s in the kindergarten every year and getting 100%, 100%, 100%? You can boast, “my child’s getting 100%.” Which class is he? Kindergarten.
How long has he been there? Only 20 years. That’s how so many believers are. The Christian life is a battle.
The Balance of Correction and Encouragement
Take heed that you don’t fall away from the living God. So what’s the solution? Encourage one another. If you look back at our life, many of us have been very quick to correct.
To correct your husband, to correct your wife, to correct your children. Correct children? Need it. I want to ask you, when was the last time you encouraged your child? Corrected? If I ask you, I’m sure all of you can tell me when you corrected your child last. When was the last time you encouraged your son or daughter? I appreciate what they did.
The Spirit of Encouragement
Praise them for something good. When was the last time you encouraged your husband or wife? Not just in words, but in some way. Here it says you got to do it daily.
Well, Barnabas was like that. It had become part of his nature. Filled with the Holy Spirit. Not to be a great preacher.
Barnabas was not a great preacher. But he was an encourager. And Ian Robson was exactly like that. Everybody in CFC Bangalore will say, he has spent hours and hours and hours counseling people individually.
Different Ministries, One Purpose
When they are in need, different people. There would have been no CFC without him. But Paul was very different. I’m sure Paul also encouraged people.
You read some of his letters. You find there is a lot of encouragement in Paul’s letters. But there’s some very strong correction in Paul’s letters too. Very strong sometimes you read.
The First Mission Journey
His rebukes. And here’s one example. They decided when they united to go to Barnabas’ hometown for their ministry. So they sailed.
It says they both sent out by the Holy Spirit. Acts 13 verse 4. And they came to… They sailed for Cyprus. It says in verse 4. “Sent by the Holy Spirit, they sailed to Cyprus.” That’s Barnabas’ hometown. And when they came there, they found verse 6, a magician called Bar Jesus, verse 6.
Confronting Opposition
And there was a pro-council, the leader of that, governor of that place. This man summoned Barnabas and Saul. And Elimas, the magician, was opposing the pro-council from the faith, trying to turn him away. “No, no, don’t believe.”
These guys are preaching some strange doctrine. And look what Saul does. He turns to this man and says, look at his language. Filled with the Spirit, he says, “you full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of righteousness.”
“Will you never stop making crooked the straight ways of the Lord? Now the Lord is going to smite you and you’ll become blind for a time.” And immediately, a mist and darkness fell upon him. And he went about seeking those who would lead him by the hand.
Different Approaches to Ministry
The result was the pro-council, verse 12, believed. Do you think Barnabas would have done that? If Barnabas had gone to this magician, he’d have put his arm around him and said, “hey brother.” He’s not his brother, but he called him brother.
“Let me have a chat with you. You know, let’s be a little mild about all this now. I mean, let Paul speak.” Nothing would have happened.
The Balance in Church
The pro-council would not have believed. So you see how there was a need for that word of rebuke, which solved the problem there. In the church, we need Barnabas’s and Paul’s. That’s the balance.
The Glory of God
And I’ll tell you why I say that, because the church is a place where the glory of God has to be seen. The same glory that was in Jesus. The glory of Jesus is described in John 1:14. Whenever you read the glory of God, the glory of God, in the Old Testament, it was just a bright light.
Understanding God’s Glory
And for many, many years, I used to think of the phrase, the glory of God. Oh, I want to see the glory of God, a bright light. I’ve never seen one. Till I discovered that was Old Testament, the new covenant, the glory of God is seen in people.
In Jesus, where John 1:14, full of grace and truth, where there’s a beautiful combination of grace and truth is the glory of God. So in Barnabas was the grace and Paul was the truth. Combined together was the glory of God. That’s how Jesus manifested it throughout his life.
Jesus’s Example of Grace
You know, for example, here’s one of the greatest examples of grace that Jesus manifested. He would put his arm, I believe he put his arm around many people, lepers and blind people. He would go out of his way, led by the Holy Spirit to some place where some blind man was sitting or where there were lepers and he would heal them. And he was always like that.
The Woman Caught in Adultery
And the classic example is when the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery to him. He said “this woman was caught in adultery. And the law says she must be stoned.” Actually, the law says you must bring both the man and the woman.
Both must be stoned, but they didn’t bring the man probably because the man is a friend of theirs. They say we let him go. But Jesus did not argue about that. “Where’s the man?”
The Law and Grace
1,500 years before that day, when the Pharisees brought the woman, 1,500 years before that day, Jesus from heaven had spoken to Moses and said, “write down my law. A man and woman who commit adultery must be stoned to death.” Who gave that law? Jesus from heaven.
Now that Jesus is here on earth, confronted with the same law that he gave, 1,500 years earlier. Is he going to keep the word of God? He says yes. “He who is without sin, throw the first stone.”
Mercy Triumphs Over Judgment
Everybody left, except one person. There was still one person standing there. Jesus, without sin. And the first command was stone them to death.
But the second command is, “the one who is without sin, throw the stone.” And Jesus disobeyed his own command. He did not stone her. There’s a verse in James 2:13 which says, “mercy triumphs over judgment.”
Jesus’s Heart of Mercy
This is the Jesus we worship. He’s not eager to stone us to death. He’s eager to save us. And sometime when you think you deserve to be stoned to death, remember that incident where the command says stone him to death and Jesus says no.
He says, “has no one condemned you?” The woman says “no one” and Jesus says, “I don’t condemn you either.” I hope you’ll hear that word in your heart also. “I do not condemn you.”
Jesus’s Righteous Anger
Whenever you feel condemned. Go to that story in John 8 and hear the words of Jesus, “I do not condemn you.” I felt times like that in my life where I said, “Lord, I failed you so badly.” And I hear Jesus saying, “I don’t condemn you.”
That has taught me to have the same attitude to other people. But the same Jesus who would not stone this woman and who went out of his way to heal lepers and blind people and put his arms around them. With that same arm, he once took a whip and chased those who were making money out of the temple. See John chapter 2, verse 14, Jesus found in the temple people selling oxen and sheep.
The Temple Market Scene
They were meant for sacrifice. They were not selling them for to make a profit there for themselves. They were saying these people need oxen and sheep to be sacrificed and we’ll supply it here. They don’t have to go to the marketplace and get it.
We supply it in the temple. So, of course, we got to make our profit. That’s another thing. And you have to pay more than in the marketplace because you got to go all the way to the marketplace and buy it.
And if you want to get it here, it’s a little expensive, but you’ve got to pay for that. And so many poor people were buying because they came from all over Israel to Jerusalem and they had to pay whatever the Pharisees charged for these items. And they were making so much money. The money changers are sitting with all that money on their tables.
Jesus’s Righteous Action
And Jesus, listen to this verse 15. He made a scourge of cords. He didn’t. There was no rope available.
So he tells his disciples, “go and get some small bits of rope from here and there.” And then it took some time. Can you see this picture of the disciples going and buying little bits of rope and wondering what they wanted for. And Jesus takes, he says, “these things are not strong enough.”
And he sits there. I have pictures in my mind, Jesus sitting at that temple and twisting it all. And it says he made a scourge of cords. Have you ever thought of when you read the Bible, do you use your imagination?
Jesus sitting there and taking all these little ropes that the disciples brought and twisting it all, twisting it all, making a really strong rope. And the disciples are wondering what in the world is he doing with this? And remember, this is the beginning of his ministry. The previous thing is the marriage in Cana.
And this is immediately after the marriage in Cana, right at the beginning of his ministry. And it says he drove them all out of the temple. I don’t believe he whipped any man, but he whipped all the sheep and opened the cages for all the doves and all to fly away. And the tables of the money changers, he overturned the tables, it says in verse 15, with all the money running.
The Balance of Grace and Truth
I’m sure the children had a big laugh and were excited to see all this and said, “stop making my father’s house a place of business,” verse 16. That is the other aspect of Jesus’ ministry. One is the comforting aspect represented by Barnabas. And the other is this, the aspect of truth represented by Paul.
And John 1:14 says grace and truth manifest to the glory. And in the Christian church, there’s always been a need for grace and truth for the ministry of Barnabas and Paul. And we don’t claim to have been that same category as Barnabas and Paul, but that was the temperament that he and Robson and I had. He was like Barnabas, an encourager, and I was like Paul, ruthless.
The Power of Partnership
And I wouldn’t spare anyone. But we worked together, and I’m very thankful that I had a co-worker all these years to balance me, and he had a co-worker to balance him. If either of us worked on our own, CSE would have been destroyed long ago. Not because we lived in sin, but because we would act according to our temperament.
God’s Purpose in Differences
Why has God put you, husband and wife, together who are different? So that there’ll be a balanced development of your children at home. We learned to value one another. Ian and I learned to value one another.
At times, sometimes he submitted to me, and sometimes I submitted to him. And that’s how we moved forward. And I’m very thankful that God brought him to be my co-worker. It was not my choice.
A Testament of Faith
It was God’s choice. And I’m very thankful that he could endure to the end for 50 years, and though he died with a lot of pain, and I wept at that time, but now when I heard this morning that he’d gone to be with the Lord, I tell you honestly, I spoke to his children, and I said, I’m rejoicing. And they’re rejoicing too, because they were so relieved that he’s free from his suffering, and he’s gone to be with Jesus. And he has thanked Jesus, I believe, for making me his co-worker with him.
Final Reflections
Praise the Lord for God’s goodness. I want you to pray for that family. There will naturally be a certain amount of grief. We can’t avoid it when a loved one departs.
But it’s a grief accompanied with triumphant, like we read in that verse just now. Thanks be to God who makes us more than conquerors in every situation. And let me just show you this in closing. Did you notice what it says in Romans 8?
The Victory Over Death
I read through it quickly. When it says here, “I am convinced,” verse 38, that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. What is the first thing mentioned? Romans 8, verse 38, death.
I am convinced that death cannot separate me, verse 39, from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, and I can certainly say that. And that’s, though he’s been my co-worker for 50 years and been very, very close. I can honestly say I rejoice in the Lord, that he’s rejoicing in the Lord’s presence today. That’s the power of the gospel.
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