Category: john

Posted in anna, jesus, john, moses

Ahijah was not too old, Jeremiah was not too young, John was not too remote, Amos was not too low…to be used by God

Posted on by elizabethprata

I’m reading 1st Kings. Still. LOL. I am up to chapter 14. In that chapter there is an old prophet called Ahijah. Jeroboam’s wife was told to disguise herself and go see him.

“Jeroboam’s wife did so. She arose and went to Shiloh and came to the house of Ahijah. Now Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were dim because of his age. And the Lord said to Ahijah, “Behold, the wife of Jeroboam is coming to inquire of you concerning her son, for he is sick. Thus and thus shall you say to her.”” (1 Kings 14:4-5)

As I read the bible I like to picture the scene. I am picturing Ahijah’s humble home, likely at dusk. If Jeroboam’s wife didn’t want to be seen, she would likely have gone when it was dusk or dark. So Ahijah’s house is dark, a few lanterns around. And he’s sitting there, in a rocking chair maybe, in the living room, enjoying the air and listening to the breeze or maybe the village around him.

Maybe he was thinking, ‘I am old and I cannot be used. I am old and used up’. Maybe he was thinking that because he was blind, the LORD would have no further use for him.

But it was not so.

“But when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be another? For I am charged with unbearable news for you.” (1 Kings 14:6)

Despite his age, which the Holy Spirit deliberately included in the bible, despite his disability of blindness, which the Spirit deliberately included too, Ahijah was charged with a task. He had a personal charge from God to deliver the message. He did not flinch from it, despite it being unbearable. Really, is there worse news to give than the LORD has marked your son and your family for death? But Ahijah was charged with an important prophecy to deliver. It came true a few years later.

Despite Ahijah’s age and blindness, The LORD used him.

Anna was old also. Luke 2 records this

“And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.” (Luke 2:36-38).

Let’s guess, given the era, that Anna married at age 15. She was married 7 years and then became a widow. So from age 22 to 84 she was a widow devoting herself to the LORD- in the temple. As the years droned on, and then the decades, I wonder what Anna thought. We do know that at least for over 60 years, she worshiped. And then, she saw Israel’s redemption! And she “spoke to all” who were waiting Israel’s redemption. From the mouth of a widow the Lord used her to speak to all of Him.

Apostle John lived a long and important life. He followed Jesus, he was witness to the resurrection, he pastored a church, he nurtured hundreds in Christ, wrote a Gospel, wrote the epistles of John, and then he was sent to the Island of Patmos.

A more forbidding place there cannot be. It is Mars-like in appearance, rocky and hot, barren and isolated. It’s only 13 square miles.The Romans used it and islands like it as a modern day rendition- it was a place where legally, political and religious detainees didn’t exist. John was exiled there for the word of Jesus (Revelation 1:9). He was by that time well over 90 years of age.

I wonder what John was thinking. He was very old, and all his old Apostle friends had been killed. His younger friends had been killed or scattered too. Maybe he was sitting on the beach, looking out, thinking, “This is it, the Lord will not use me any more. I am here on this island and remote from the world. There is no one even to preach to.”

The bible records, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”” (Revelation 1:9-10).

John was charged with writing the monumental book of Revelation. The climax, the conclusion of all that the LORD intends, the end of history and the hope of the coming of Christ, was given to John to see in vision and then to write.

Despite John’s remote location, the Lord used him.

Isn’t it funny, the Lord used Moses, a murderer. Despite the fact that Moses stuttered, or had some kind of articulation problem, he was used as God’s mouthpiece as the most famous prophet in all the bible.

“But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”” (Exodus 4:10-12)

Despite Moses’s character and stuttering, God used him.

Jeremiah’s age was no barrier to being used. Just as Ahijah or Anna was not too old, Jeremiah was not too young.

Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” 7 But the Lord said to me,

“Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’;
for to all to whom I send you, you shall go,
and whatever I command you, you shall speak.
8 Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you to deliver you,
declares the Lord.”” (Jeremiah 1:6-8)

Shepherd and fig-grower Amos was used by God, despite his lowly station in life. Shepherds were considered low, as noted here by MacArthur:

“Shepherds spent most of their time in the fields away from society and had no influence to speak of. In modern terms they were blue-collar workers largely unnoticed by those in power. Shepherds were in the lower classes of society.”

“So Amos answered Amaziah, ‘I was not a prophet or the son of a prophet; rather, I was a herdsman, and I took care of sycamore figs.’ ” (Amos 7:14)

So we see that despite age, ability, character, location, or socio-economic status, the Lord Jesus can and will use you. You could be young and just starting out, like Jeremiah, or old and seemingly finished, like Anna or Ahijah- but Jesus can use you. Gender doesn’t matter either, He used Mary, Rahab, Anna, Miriam, Lydia, Huldah… His power will flow through you and enable you.

“But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;” (1 Corinthians 1:27)

If you are weak but being used of God, you are operating from a position of the strongest in the universe. Any and all persons in Christ with the Spirit in them will be used of God for His purposes. Any time, any where, there is no retirement rocking chair mentality. He uses you every day and despite your protestations over your age, location, status, or disability- He uses you. If He chooses you for a certain task, He will enable you to finish it.

“For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.” (1 Corinthians 1:26)

The one thing these all had in common, was that they loved the Lord. Do you love Him? I hope you do. Jesus is the unique individual of the universe, distinct in holiness and perfection.

Posted in bible, discernment, john, truth

False teachers deceive, deny, and depart: Discernment from 1 John

Posted on by elizabethprata

In reading 1 John 2, the warnings about false teachers are so vividly clear. Isn’t the bible amazing, that the readers in our time would benefit just as much from this living document, as those in John’s time, 1,900 years ago, did?

It wasn’t long before false teachers were infecting the church with false doctrine, perverting the Apostles’ teaching. Actually, they came in right away.

We are no different today. False teachers sway the unwary and pollute the church with their man-made philosophies. Humans are human. Just as there were believers and liars then, there are believers and liars now.

I love the preacher’s tendency to alliterate their bullet points from their sermon outline. Alliteration is a tactic often used by public speakers to help listeners remember the main points by making the first word of each point begin with the same letter. As a speech communication major and a rhetorician at heart, I love the alliterative device. (As long as it is not overdone). Phil Johnson is Executive Editor of John MacArthur’s Grace to You and a pastor himself. The two men were engaged in a Q&A recently and they had a loving and laughing exchange about alliteration. Phil begins:

In fact, my favorite, you did a sermon once from Matthew 27 on the miracles that occurred during the crucifixion. And you had…you had doubly alliterated every point. There were like six or seven points, I forget how many miracles there were, but I do remember your outline because it had to do with the tearing of the curtain in the tabernacle and you called that “sanctuary desecration,” and then there was the supernatural darkness and when you got to the earthquake you called it “soil disturbance.”

Well yeah, that’s the best I could with an S D for an earthquake.

If you guys use that, make it “seismic disturbance,” or something.

Yeah, well why didn’t I think of that? That’s why you edit my books.

I was reading 1 John chapter two this week. I keep going back to it. The Spirit has grabbed a-hold of my brain and grabbed a-hold of that chapter and is not letting go. So anyway I’m reading and the flow of the chapter floats to my mind in sort of a picture. A picture of a list. An alliterated list, lol.

John warns the flock that false teachers will engage in:

Deception.

“I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you.” (1 John 2:26).

John uses the word planao for deceive. Planao means properly, “go astray, get off-course; to deviate from the correct path (circuit, course), roaming into error, wandering; (passive) be misled.”

Perhaps they go off-course like this, metaphorically speaking–

We get so involved with examining our bag of candy that we wander off the path before we know it. John was telling the flock that there were some who were trying to nudge them off the path, and they were using deception to do it. For some gullible ‘believers’, it is like giving candy to a baby.

At this stage of his life, John was quite advanced in age. He made oblique reference to this in his letter, calling the flock “little children” or “children” many times.

“Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.”

In speaking to them as children, John was being fatherly in his shepherd office. He was also reminding them that deception has one source: demons. The antichrist spirit is behind all false doctrine. All. Beware of their deceptions.

Denial

The second “D” that came to my mind as I read the chapter is Denial.

“Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.” (1 John 2:22)

Deceivers deny the Christ. Now, some undoubtedly denied Christ outright, they still do that today. But remember, John is speaking of false teachers within the church, and who were successful in leading some away. If they deny Him outright, they are very easy to spot, no? So how does a false teacher deny Christ? Perhaps by denying He was born of a virgin. Perhaps by denying He lived a sinless life. Perhaps by saying He was a really good teacher but…that’s it. Perhaps by saying that He is truth but that there is more truth to be had in visions and dreams and personal revelations. In other words, that His truth is not authoritative as spoken in the bible.

So the false teachers deny His authority. They deny His attributes; such as His sinlessness, or His wrath or His deity. (“God is love, He won’t judge…”). False teachers deny, deny, deny. And this is important: they make you doubt what you know.

The scene below is from the 1960s movie A Guide for the Married Man. It is where we got the quote, “deny, deny, deny.”

Departure

False teachers do what they do to draw you away from the center point which is Jesus. Anything they can do to divert your focus, nudge you off the path, they will do it. If they go, it proves they were never of the faith.

“They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.” (1 John 2:19).

Some will always find false doctrine a treat, a candy sweetness they wrongly assume is as sweet as Jesus. It is not, but they still seek after it, and false teachers know this and deceive in order to draw out those who are willing to be drawn. It is one way the Lord purges His flock. John 15:2 says that He cuts off the branch that bears no fruit- He prunes.

But it is still traumatic to lose congregants who follow after the false ones. It is heartbreaking. But go they will and it is one way the Lord makes something good from something bad. The branch always buds more flourishingly after the dead weight is cut off.

Not just the congregants depart. The false teachers depart too. They see each church as a field with assets and once they strip it of all riches, they move on. How many alien movies have we seen where the alien invaders’ plan is to strip-mine the earth for all its minerals, or humans, and leaving the planet a wasteland, move on.

It is the same with false teachers. They strip-mine the weak of their money or their time or their heart, and scooping up their booty, leave with spiritual devastation in their wake.

False teachers deceive, deny, and depart. Beware. The New Testament is full of warnings about false teachers. If you study the bible, you will read and heed the warnings, because you will be getting filled with the truth! The truth is the best and only barometer of falsity. It is the sure thing.