Comma Conference: 1 John 5:7-8

 

JTR

The Vision (9.11.26): Great Storm, Great Calm, Great Awe

 

Image: Summer evening, North Garden, Virginia.

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Mark 4:36-41:

The record of Christ stilling the storm in Mark 4:36-41 has been a comfort to many believers over the years, as they have encountered their own storms.  It might be the storm of losing a job, of failing in a business, of having conflict with a parent, spouse, or child, of losing a loved one, of serious illness, of facing deep spiritual discouragement, depression, or despair.

The adjective “great (Greek: mega)” is repeated three times in this passage. There was a “great [mega] storm of wind” (v. 37), a “great [mega] calm” (v. 39), and a “great [mega] fear or awe” (v. 41, where the AV reads, “they feared exceedingly”) in the aftermath.

From this account we gain the application that we are to rely upon Christ in all the circumstances of life and never doubt his tender concern for us.

We should first consider the comfort of the fact that the Lord Jesus was awakened by the cries of his disciples in their distress.

Matthew Henry observed, “When Christ seems as if he slept in a storm, he is awakened by the prayers of his people; when we know not what to do; our eye must be to him (2 Chron 20:12); we may be at our wit’s end, but not our faith’s end, while we have a Savior to go to.”

Sadly, even our prayers to Christ in distress can take on that complaining tone of the disciples, “Master, carest thou not that we perish?” (v. 38).

Christ himself taught his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount not to be overcome by worry (Matthew 6: 25-34).

Someone said, “Worry is an old man, with bended head, carrying a load of feathers which he thinks are lead.”

Another wrote,

Fear knocked at the door.

Faith answered.

No one was there.

Peter exhorted that we are to be “Casting all our care upon him; for he careth for you” (1 Peter 5:7).

Christ told his disciples that every hair upon their head were all numbered by the sovereign Father (Matthew 10:30).

Some years back I read a devotional book titled Jesus is Victor by Corrie Ten Boom, the Dutch believer whose family was sent to a concentration during WW2, where her aged father and beloved sister would both die.

She writes of her initial imprisonment which included four months of solitary confinement in a dark dank cell:

Once I stood with my back against the wall with my hands spread out, as if to try to push away the walls that were closing in on me.  I was dead scared.  I cried out, “Lord, I’m not strong enough to endure this.  I don’t have the faith!”

Suddenly I noticed an ant roaming the floor of the cell for days.  I had just mopped the floor with a wet rag, and the moment the ant felt the water on the stones, he ran straight to his tiny hole in the wall.

Then it was that the Lord said to me, “What about that ant?  He didn’t stop to look at the wet rag or his weak feet—he went straight to his hiding place.  Corrie, don’t look at your faith; it is weak, like the tiny feet of that ant.  Don’t dwell on the treatment you might receive from these cruel people.  I am your hiding place, and you can come running to Me just like that ant disappeared into that hole in the wall (pp. 79-80).

Let us remember that though the Lord may permit great storms, he also provides great calm, that issue in great awe.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

J. A. Alexander on the increase yield of the good ground seed in Mark 4:8, 20

 

X Post:

Interesting comments by J. A. Alexander in his 1864 Mark Commentary on the increase yield of the seed that falls on the good ground as “some thirty, some sixty, and some an hundred” (Mark 4:8, 20).

Interestingly enough, in his comments on Mark 4:8 Alexander suggests that gains at this proportion are “moderate and modest” if not low: “The productiveness ascribed to the nutritious gains in this place is by no means unexampled either in ancient or modern times. It is indeed a moderate and modest estimate compared with some recorded by Herodotus, in which the rate of increase was double or quadruple even the highest of the three here mentioned, and the recent harvest in our western states affords examples of increase greater still.” Later in his comments on Mark 4:20 Alexander’s focus is not on the measure of the yield, but the “proportional diversity” of the rate. The notes in the MacArthur Study Bible on Mark 4:8, however, offer a different evaluation: “An average ration of harvested grain to what had been sown was 8 to 1, with a 10 to 1 ratio considered exceptional. The yield Jesus refers to are like an unbelievable harvest.” When Grok is asked if a 100 to 1 ratio is good for wheat, it says: “Yes. 1:100 is high for wheat. The standard seed-multiplication ratio used by seed-certification agencies for wheat is 1:20. That is the figure expected in ordinary commercial production. You can get ratios closer to 1:80–1:100 (occasionally even higher) only in special seed-increase plots that are planted at a much lower seeding rate than a farmer would use for grain. Those plots sacrifice yield per hectare in order to stretch a small quantity of expensive nucleus or foundation seed as far as possible. In a normal wheat field grown for grain, 1:100 would be an unusually high return.” In context with the parable of the mustard seed in Mark 4:31-32, in which the mustard seed “less than all the seeds” produces a plant “greater than all herbs,” it would seem best to think the yield of the seed on the good ground would be high rather than moderate of modest. So, was Alexander just wrong here? Can his view be justified? What was he thinking? If the harvest was "moderate and modest," what is the spiritual point about the good ground yield?

JTR

WM 392: LANIER on the PA as a NON-CANONICAL "TRUE STORY" & the MODERN EVANGELICAL CRISIS of EPISTEMOLOGY

 

JTR

The Vision (9.4.26): The Secretly Growing Seed

 

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Mark 4:26-34.

“And he said, so is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground… and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how” (Mark 4:27-28).

“It is like a grain of mustard seed, which… is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: but when it is sown, it groweth up... and shooteth out great branches…” (Mark 4:31-32).

What do we learn from our Lord’s parables of the secretly growing seed (Mark 4:26-29) and the mustard seed (Mark 4:30-32)?

First, we need to apply this teaching to our understanding of Christ’s kingdom. It is here, but not yet.

The Lord is sovereign over his own work. His kingdom is here, and it is secretly growing, just like that seed in the parable. It is his work. He will bring the fruit when he is pleased to do so and according to his timetable. Rest assured, however, a harvest time is coming.

Sometimes the present kingdom can look to us like such a small and weak thing. No bigger than a mustard seed. But it has a great God behind it. And when he is pleased it will become a mighty branch and a resting place for men from many nations.

As the prophet Zechariah asked, “For who hath despised the day of small things?” (Zech. 4:10).

That is the view from the macro-scale, but we can also apply this, secondly, to the micro-scale.

You may look at the seed sown in you and see little growth and no fruit, and you may despair.

You may look at the small seed sown in the lives of loved ones, children, friends, and neighbors, and ask, Where’s the fruit?

We are reminded today to put our trust in the Lord. The kingdom is like a secretly growing seed. It is small as a mustard seed. But it is a great God’s work, and he who began this good work will be faithful to complete it. Consider the words of James:

James 5: ⁷ Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.

⁸ Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

All the aches and pains and disappointments will indeed be ended at the time when Christ comes again with power and great glory. It will be the time of the final harvest, the final resurrection. So, let us take heart, fellow pilgrims. Let us be steadfast, unmoving, always abounding in the work of the Lord.

He is lisping this to us in ways we can understand and untangling it for us in ways we can grasp, as he did to the first disciples in parables (Mark 4:33-34).

The kingdom has come in Christ’s incarnational ministry. It is here right now. And it will be here one day in ways greater than we ever could have asked or imagined.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

René Pache (1904-1979) on "Escaping the Trap of Subjectivism"

 

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"For all practical purposes, everyone who makes a distinction between Scripture and the Word of God accepts biblical criticism, often in its most radical form. With this, every word of the text can be, and is indeed, subjected to question. All the knowledge which modern theologians have... and that which they call 'the Word of God'--all of this comes from the very words of the Bible. But if those words are not sure or are not worthy of confidence, must one then keep searching his own mind for certainty? How can anything definite be made out of this nebulous communication, seeing it is not the words themselves which speak to us? Moreover, the Word perceived will be variable from one person to another, even from one great theologian to another...."

-The Inspiration and Authority of Scripture, 260-261.

WM 391: 8 Problems with Dr. Lanier's Chart on the PA as a "Floating Tradition"

JTR

The Vision (8.28.26): Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel?

 

Note: Devotional taken from last Sunday's sermon on Mark 4:21-25.

And he said unto them, Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? and not to be set on a candlestick? (Mark 4:21)

In his explanation of the parable of the sower, Christ told his disciples that the “good ground” was those who heard the word, received it, and brought forth fruit (Mark 4:20).

He followed this up with figurative teaching about a lamp or light that should not be hidden.

The simplest and most sparsely furnished first century home would have had these basic items, an earthen lamp, a basket, and a mat that rolled out into a bed.  The Lord Jesus is saying that when it is night a man does not take the candle or lamp and hide it under a bushel basket or under his bedding, but he puts it on a candlestick or lampstand.  And the higher you put it the more it illumines the room.

The Lord Jesus is here speaking about the responsibility of believers (good ground hearers) to be a source of light and truth in the world.  They have been given insight that others do not have.  They are glowing with the knowledge of the gospel and of Christ. This is not be hidden or obfuscated.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ made a similar point:

Matthew 5: ¹⁴ Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

¹⁵ Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

¹⁶ Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

We sometimes sing the children’s song based on this parable: “This little light of mine, I’m gonna to let it shine….”

In John’s Gospel there is an account of a man named Nicodemus, a Pharisee and a “ruler of the Jews” who came to Christ “by night” (3:1-2). Later there is mention of another man named Joseph of Arimathea whom John describes as “being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews” (John 19:38).

John records that when Christ was crucified and died on the cross, it was indeed Joseph who went to Pilate and asked for the Lord’s body for burial (John 19:40-42). John also notes that Nicodemus was there helping him (v.39).

Witnessing the cross work of Christ made these men finally cast caution to the wind and let their light shine, as they made it publicly known, whatever the consequences, that they were his disciples.

In John Calvin’s day there was a group of Frenchmen who had privately embraced the gospel but publicly and outwardly had remained in the Roman Church. Calvin wrote several tracts calling these men “Nicodemites” and urging them to declare outwardly what they had confessed inwardly.

Are we “good ground” hearers of the Word? Have we heard and received that Word, and are we bearing kingdom fruit?

If so we must not hide the light but set it as high as we can that others might see and be drawn to Christ.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle