Author Archives: Pastor Ricky Kurth

Why Do I Have to Go to Church?

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

One Sunday morning, a wife went to wake her husband to tell him it was time to get ready for church. He replied, “I don’t want to go.” When she asked, “Why not?” he retorted, “I’ll give you two good reasons. First, the people of our church don’t like me, and second, I don’t like them.” His wife replied, “Fair enough. But I’ll give you two good reasons why you should go. First, you’re 39 years old, and second, you’re the pastor!”

Children sometimes dislike going to church, for they fail to understand the importance of regular church attendance. But this should not be the case for mature adult Christians. It’s true that we live in an age when God’s people can access sound Bible teaching by means of radio, television, the internet, and other venues. But none of these avenues of ministry can take the place of the warm, in-person fellowship that is found in the local church.

We know that the Apostle Paul understood the importance of such fellowship, for he wrote,

“Furthermore, when I came to Troas…I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother” (2 Cor. 2:12,13).

Paul speaks here of the serious adverse effect it had on him when he was deprived of the fellowship of a fellow believer who was very dear to him. And he begins these verses with the word “furthermore” because fellowship was also the subject of the preceding context, although this is not readily apparent. So let’s back up to verse 6 to see how the apostle began this discussion:

“Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many.”

Here Paul was speaking about the man who had committed unspeakable fornication in Corinth (1 Cor. 5:1), the one he said should be put out of the assembly (v. 2,13) lest sin like that spread like leaven throughout the congregation (v. 6). By the time he wrote his second epistle to the Corinthians, he was delighted to hear that they had followed his instructions and had disfellowshipped that brother. However, he was dismayed to learn that they were then refusing to restore fellowship to the man after he repented! That explains why Paul told them that the punishment they had dutifully inflicted upon the man was “sufficient,” and why he added,

“So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow” (2 Cor. 2:7).

The fornicator had obviously sorrowed unto repentance, or Paul wouldn’t have instructed them to forgive him and readmit him to their fellowship. But if they didn’t follow this second instruction as faithfully as they had followed his first one, there was a strong likelihood that this sorrowful brother would be “swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.”

Clearly, Paul understood how much the fornicator needed to be surrounded by the loving fellowship of his church. And whether the members of his church knew it or not, they needed the fellowship of the repentant fornicator! Paul made that clear when he said in verse 12, as it were, “Furthermore, even I Paul need fellowship,” adding that he had “no rest” apart from it. Surely if even the great Apostle Paul needed fellowship, it is certain that the Corinthians needed it too—and so do we!

I say all this because grace believers know that the Apostle Paul never commands us to go to church. Even if you believe that Paul wrote Hebrews, as some do, the exhortation we read in Hebrews 10:25 to assemble with the saints is not in the imperative mood in the Greek text, and it is not an imperative statement in English either. That means it is
not a command.

But while Paul never commands us to go to church, he assumes that we will want to attend church regularly. He prefaced a rebuke that he gave to the Corinthians with the words,

“For first of all, when ye come together in the church…” (1 Cor. 11:18).

Do you see how Paul just assumed that even the carnal Corinthians would want to gather together regularly with other saints to study God’s Word, sing His praises, and fellowship with one another?

If you are thinking, “Pastor, you don’t understand. My church is filled with knotheads, difficult people with whom I find it really hard to get along.” If so, that’s all the more reason to go to church! You see, you can never learn to demonstrate the grace of God in your life without difficult people to be gracious to! There is no better place to learn to reflect the gracious nature of God in your life than the local church.

The church is also a great place to learn how to demonstrate forgiveness, mercy, and longsuffering. I mean, if you never go anywhere where people give you grief, how are you ever going to learn how to display the same forgiveness, mercy, and longsuffering that God extends to us when we grieve Him?

And aren’t we talking about the greatest of God’s attributes? Don’t you want opportunities to display the mercy, longsuffering, and grace of God, and in so doing testify to the depth of the tremendous work that He has done in your life?

If you think about it, these grand attributes are actually the only attributes of God that we can display. Not a single one of us can demonstrate God’s omnipotence, His omnipresence, or His omniscience, but we can all learn to exhibit His grace—but only if we are surrounded by difficult people who test our ability to display these virtues.

When Paul declared that he had no rest in his spirit when denied the fellowship of Titus (v. 13), we know that this was an unrest that he felt deeply, for he prefaced his words by saying,

“Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ’s gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus…” (v. 12,13).

Here Paul implies that the absence of the fellowship of his coworker affected him so severely that he didn’t enter an open door of opportunity to preach the gospel. It is evident from this that the absence of his fellowsoldier’s fellowship must have shaken him to his very core. We know this to be so, for this is the only time Paul failed to enter an open door. Why do you think God would allow this dark blot on his otherwise unimpeachable record if not to teach us the importance of fellowship?

Take some time to read the stirring list of things that Paul endured in the ministry in 2 Corinthians 11:23-33. As you read each item in this poignant register, remind yourself that the beatings that Paul endured didn’t stop him from entering open doors, the stonings didn’t stop him, the shipwrecks didn’t stop him — NOTHING stopped him. But a simple lack of fellowship stopped him dead in his tracks.

This year it is stopping baseball players dead in their tracks. Sports analysts know that the encouragement of a stadium full of fans gives a team what’s known as “home-field advantage.” But the coronavirus concern that prompted major league baseball to ban fans from the stands has nullified that advantage. Home teams are only winning .505% more of their games than visiting teams, barely an advantage at all. Obviously professional athletes need the encouragement of their fans, and we need the encouragement of one another!

Our need of fellowship is just one of many reasons the Bible emphasizes the importance of the local church over and over again, in many different ways. We know that establishing grace churches is what God sent Paul to do, for he spent his life doing it. He then followed up that church-planting ministry by writing most of his epistles to local churches.

The local church is where the Scriptures are read (Col. 4:16) and taught (1 Cor. 4:17), and spiritual men are ordained to the ministry (Acts 14:23) to feed God’s Word to His people (Acts 20:28). It is where disputes among brethren are settled (1 Cor. 6:4) and the poor are given aid (1 Tim. 5:1-10). It is where the gospel is preached to the lost (1 Cor. 15:1-4) and saints are edified by the teaching of God’s Word (1 Cor. 14:12). It’s where spiritual leaders care for the spiritual needs of God’s people (1 Tim. 3:5), who in turn support God’s work in their area by giving of their finances (1 Cor. 16:1,2; Phil. 4:15). It is also the place where God’s people “show the Lord’s death til He come” by observing a communion service (1 Cor. 11:23-26), and it’s where the Lord’s servants serve Him and His people (Rom. 16:1). The local church is, in short, “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15).

So if you haven’t returned to church after the Covid-19 concern caused such a massive upheaval in the fellowship of God’s local churches, I would encourage you to rejoin your local assembly as soon as you feel comfortable doing so. I say this because I know that once our routine of going to church is broken, it’s sometimes hard to get back on track.

I know that it’s tempting to just sit home and watch grace pastors and teachers expound God’s rightly divided Word in the comfort of your own home. I thank God that these days even smart phones can ensure that the sound teaching of our grace pastors is no longer limited to those who can actually darken the doors of their churches. There are many stranded grace believers who depend on these infinitely valuable extended ministries to grow in the faith. But these avenues of ministry must never be allowed to take the place of participation in a living, breathing group of sanctified saints when it is available.

Many years ago, when contributing Searchlight writer Dave Stewart was pastoring a local church, some grace believers visited his church and explained that they lived nearby but didn’t attend his church, for they could learn the Word from the ministry of grace pastors and teachers who had online ministries. Dave replied (more graciously than this, I’m sure!), “Whatever gave you the idea that the reason to go to church is to see what you can get out of it? The reason to go to church is to see what others can get out of you, as you learn how to give of yourself to them and aid the Lord’s work in every possible way.”

And so it is. Even if you are not among the proverbial movers and shakers in your local church, your very presence there is an encouragement to other congregants—especially to your pastor! Nothing brings more cheer to the heart of a pastor who has spent twenty or thirty hours preparing his message than to look out and see grace believers who hunger to hear the Word taught. So why not make plans right now to return to the warmth of your church’s fellowship this Sunday. You’ll be eternally glad you did!

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What’s In A Name? – Acts 9:36-43

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Summary:

“Tabitha” (9:36) was a Hebrew name, the Greek Gentile translation of which was “Dorcas.”  All names have meanings, and Tabitha means “beauty,” while Dorcas means “gazelle.”  So both names mean kind of the same thing, for gazelles are beautiful animals.

But the meanings of names in the Bible often have spiritual significance.  This woman was a type of the nation of Israel.  You see, when the people of Israel did good works like they did under King Solomon, He made sure they were beautiful in the eyes of the other nations.  But when they did bad works instead, He allowed the Babylonians to destroy their beautiful city and take them captive (Lam. 2:13-15).

But they were beautiful as long as they were doing good works, as we see symbolized by Dorcas, whose name means “beauty,” and who is said to have been “full of good works” (9:36).  She lived in Joppa, another name for beauty, making it a symbol of Jerusalem.  She was beautiful and lived in a beautiful city—just like the people of Israel when they were doing good works!

But the beauty of Israel died when they got so sinful God allowed Babylon to destroy Jerusalem and take them captive, and it died again when they crucified Christ and stoned Stephen in Acts 7, something we see symbolized when Dorcas died here in Acts 9:37. God wanted to restore a beautiful kingdom to them, like they had when they were doing good works under Solomon (Acts 1:6), but all hopes of that died when they stoned Stephen, as depicted with Dorcas’ death.

The “upper chamber” they laid her in was a type of heaven.  That’s where all Israel’s hopes and dreams of the beautiful kingdom God wanted to give her went after they rejected it.  And that’s where they are to this day (I Peter 1:3,4), as we see pictured when they laid Dorcas in an upper chamber.  Their kingdom is vested there in Christ, as we see it vested in Christ on Palm Sunday (Lu. 19:38 cf. Mark 11:10).  We see this again when the Lord told some unbelievers the kingdom was within them (Luke 17:21).  He meant the kingdom they asked about (v. 20) was right in their midst vested in Him (cf. the words “within you” to Deut. 28:43,44).

When Dorcas died, her loved ones didn’t bury her, they sent for Peter to raise her from the dead (9:38-40).  That’s a pic-ture of how Israel’s hopes of a kingdom were dead, but they weren’t dead and buried!  All the nation needs is a resurrection—the kind we see pictured when Peter raised Dorcas!

When it says they brought Peter into that upper chamber (v. 39,40), that’s a picture of how the Lord went to heaven to get the kingdom and return (Lu. 19:12-15).  That’s where He went after He died and rose again, but someday He’ll return with the kingdom to raise saved Jews to enter it.  “Lydda” (v. 38) was the Greek form of the Hebrew city of “Lod,” which means nativity or generation.  That’s a picture of the re-generation of resurrection that the Lord will give the Jews when He returns (Mt. 19:28)—but only Jews who did good works like Dorcas!

Remember, we’re saved by faith without works (Tit. 3:5), but Jews under the law were saved by faith plus works of righteousness (Ps. 15:1,2) like animal sacrifices (Deut. 33:19 cf. Ps. 4:5; 51:19).  They also worked righteousness by obeying the sabbath, the feasts, and other parts of the law (Lu. 1:6).  Then the Lord added another work they had to do to be saved, sell all they had and give to the poor (Lu. 18:18,22).

That’s called an “alms” (Lu. 12:33 cf. Acts 3:2,3), and Dorcas is said to have done “almsdeeds” (9:36).  So she didn’t make coats and garments (v. 39) for herself, but for the poor to be saved, making her a type of Jews in the Tribulation (James 2:14-17).  Job was a type of this (Job 31:19-22).  He had to go through some tribulation, but was rewarded in the end, just as Jews will have to go through the Tribulation but will be rewarded in the end—if they did the good works of clothing the needy like Job and Dorcas did!

When it says Peter “presented” her to her family, that’s a picture of Jude 1:22-24, where Jews who had “compassion” on the needy and clothed them will be “presented” to the Lord and His host to enter the kingdom.

Video of this sermon is available on YouTube: What’s In A Name? – Acts 9:36-43

Apostles Without Quarters – Acts 9:32-35

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Summary:

The “quarters” in Verse 32 were the quarters of the Roman empire that Luke, the author of Acts, also referenced in Luke 3:1.  There the word “tetrarch” is a compound Greek word.  “Tetr” means fourth and “arch” means ruler, as when arch-angels rule over other angels.  Put them together and it means tetrarchs ruled over a fourth part of the Roman Empire.

The Bible isn’t a book of science, but when it touches on scientific things like this it is always scientifically accurate.  It took science 3500 years to learn that uncovered food get contaminated with germs, something God talked about in Numbers 19:15.  It also took science about that long to learn that “bloodletting,” such as the doctors performed on George Washington to help with his throat infection, was only letting his life slip away (Lev. 17:11).

The “saints” in those quarters were living, breathing believers, not dead people canonized by Rome.  The word “saint” is the noun form of the word sanctify.  If you are sanctified, you’re a saint—even the carnal Corinthians (I Cor. 1:2)!

The early part of Acts 9 is all about the conversion of Saul, who became the Apostle Paul.  In our last lesson we learned that with his conversion the focus in Acts begins to shift away from the 12 to Paul.  That’s because they were Israel’s apostles for Israel’s 12 tribes.  But when the Jews crucified the Lord and stoned Stephen they showed they rejected the kingdom that Peter offered them (Acts 3:19).  After that, Paul was given the new program of grace, so the focus in Acts shifts to him.

So here in Acts 9, we have to ask why Luke has gone back to talking about Peter (9:36).  The answer is: because God didn’t drop Israel like a hot potato!  Even though the nation had rejected the Lord, He kept reaching out to individuals within the nation (Rom. 10:21).

“Palsy” is the Bible word for paralysis (Mark 2:3).  Peter is going to heal this paralyzed Jew named Aeneas.  Aeneas means praise, and praise is what the nation of Israel was supposed to be.  They were supposed to be the source of praise to God on earth.  That’s why God created that nation (Isa. 43:21).  And someday in the kingdom, they will show forth God’s praise to the nations (Isa. 61:9-11).

But after the Jews rejected the kingdom by stoning Stephen in Acts 7, here in Acts 9 we see a symbol of what they had become instead.  We see a man whose name means praise suffering from palsy, or paralysis.  That’s a type of how God’s program to have the nation of Israel lead the nations in praise of God had bogged down and become paralyzed.

He was paralyzed “eight years.”  This happened 38 A.D., eight years after the Lord began his ministry (Luke 3:23).  So this paralyzed victim of palsy was a symbol of how Israel had been paralyzed since the beginning of the Lord’s ministry by their own unbelief.  The Lord did His best to raise them up from that paralysis, as we see symbolized in Matthew 9:6, but they crucified Him instead.

When Peter likewise healed a paralyzed Jew, it wasn’t to portray the spiritual healing that the Lord was offering Israel, as the Lord’s miracle of healing did.  It was to depict what God will do for Israel in the future.  That’s why this miracle was repeated.  God will someday make Israel a source of His praise in the earth after 2,000 years of spiritual paralysis!  When this man obeyed the Lord and made his bed after getting healed, that’s a picture of how Israel will begin to obey God after the Lord raises them up from their paralysis.

When they do, it will have an effect on the nations, as we see pictured when this healing had an effect on people (9:35).  “Lydda” is the Greek spelling of “Lod,” part of the people who returned to Israel after the tribulation of the Babylonian captivity (Ezra 2:1,33).  They picture what will happen after the Jews go through the Tribulation and return to the promised land after seeing God lift the paralysis of their nation.

We see more proof of this when “Saron” also turned to the Lord after seeing Aeneas healed (9:35).  “Saron” is Sharon, and Sharon will also turn to the Lord after seeing the lame man leap as an hart (Isa. 35:1,2,6)—just like Aeneas did!

Where Did Israel Get Sacrifice Animals in the Wilderness?

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

“When Israel was in the wilderness for forty years, where did they get the animals for their sacrifices to God?”

When Moses initially asked Pharaoh to let Israel go into the wilderness for just three days to sacrifice to God, Pharaoh asked, “who are they that shall go?” (Ex. 10:8). Moses replied, “We will go… with our flocks and with our herds” (v. 9).

The answer to your follow-up question, “Did they grow crops to feed those animals?” is that they were all grazing animals (Ex. 34:3) that fed on the grass found wherever they went.

When you also ask why they needed quails to eat flesh if they had those animals, we know that they didn’t eat their animals, for when they tired of manna and eggs from their flocks, “the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?” (Num. 11:4). God replied in anger,

“The Lord will give you flesh, and ye shall eat… a whole month” (v. 18,20).

Moses wondered how God was going to make good on that promise, and asked God, “Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them, to suffice them? or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to suffice them?” (v. 22). That shows that their animals wouldn’t have lasted a month if they started eating them. They milked their cattle, they didn’t eat them.

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What Do Good Guys Wear? – Acts 9:20-31

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Summary:

Why did Saul preach the kingdom gospel of “Jesus is the Christ” (v. 20 cf. John 20:31) instead of the gospel he later preached of “Christ died for our sins” (I Cor. 15:1-4)?  It’s important to know the answer, for those who say he preached the kingdom gospel early in his ministry say he preached the kingdom program in his early epistles.  That would mean Romans, Corinthians, Galatians and Thessalonians were written to Jews under the kingdom program and not to us.

But what would you preach if you were facing unsaved Jews in a synagogue who didn’t know Jesus was their Christ? Jesus is the Christ!  That’s where we must begin with unsaved Jews.  But that’s not all he preached, that’s all Luke wrote down.  Nineteen years later Luke said that’s still all he preached in Thessalonica (Acts 17:1), but we know he preached his gospel there too (Rom. 16:25 cf. I Thes. 1:5).  He preached that Christ died for us there (I Thes. 4:14; 5:10), so he probably preached that in Acts 9:20 as well.

So why didn’t Luke say he preached more?  He was writing as a historian, not a theologian.  The new program of grace was given to Paul, not him.  Paul’s theology is in his epistles.

Saul nearly died when he didn’t drink for three days (9:9).  He was strengthened a little in v.19 and more here (v. 22).  He proved Jesus was Christ to those unsaved Jews the same way he did in Acts 17:2,3, by proving their own Scriptures predicted Christ would die and rise again—like Jesus did!

They didn’t like his message so decided to kill the messenger (v. 23).  The phrase lie in wait (v. 24) refers to a secret ambush (Pr. 1:11).  Paul knew about this secret because he was a prophet (I Cor. 13:2) and prophets could know stuff like that (II Ki. 6:11).  The disciples helped him escape in a basket over the city wall (v. 25).  II Corinthians 11:32 tells us that they got the government to do their dirty work of trying to kill him, just as they convinced Pilate to execute the Lord.

The word “assayed” means to try (Heb. 11:29).  You’d think the disciples would know that anyone who had to escape those unsaved Jews in a basket was a legitimate believer, but they figured it was all a clever ruse to gain their confidence and trap them and kill them.

When Acts 9:26,27 says Saul went to Jerusalem and saw the 12, we know three years have passed (Gal. 1:13-18).  Now you’d think Saul would have wanted to see the 12 apostles right away, and maybe he did.  But the Lord would have steered him away from them lest people think he got his message from them and preached the same thing they did.

He didn’t!  God gave him a whole new message and pro-gram, the message and program of grace!  When Saul finally did meet with the 12, they didn’t tell him what they preached.  He already knew what they preached.  He wouldn’t have been killing them without doing his homework.  He killed them in all good conscience (Acts 23:1).  No, he told them what he preached (Gal. 2:1-7). We assume Saul spent those three years in Arabia learning the mystery, since it took the Lord three years to train the 12.

From Acts 9 forward in Acts, the focus shifts away from the 12 to Paul, and that begins here. That explains why Peter had the gift of prophecy in Acts 5:1-9 when he just knew Ananias and Sapphira were lying, but didn’t know Saul wasn’t lying here when he said he was a disciple.  He was beginning to lose his spiritual gifts!  Not all at once, for he’s about to heal a man and raise a woman from the dead.  But God had already taken away his gift of prophecy and given it to Paul.

How did Barnabas know Saul wasn’t lying?   We’re not told.  Perhaps he saw Saul use his gift of prophecy, or heard him preaching.  All we know for sure is that Saul hung out with the 12 in Jerusalem (v. 28) for fifteen days (Gal. 1:18).  Long enough to get the Grecians angry enough to kill him (v. 29).

When the churches had rest after Saul got saved (v. 30,31), that proves he was the main persecutor of the church.  And if God can save His worst enemy, that proves that He can save you, no matter who you are, no matter what you’ve done.  “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ…and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

Video of this sermon is available on YouTube: What Do Good Guys Wear? – Acts 9:20-31

Days of Future Past – Matthew 24:37-51

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Summary:

Right before the Lord comes to defeat the Antichrist and all the unsaved men who ally themselves with him, they’ll be eating and drinking like they always do (v.38) so won’t know when He’s coming (v. 36).

That phrase “eating and drinking” is associated with banqueting in the Bible, especially in conjunction with “giving in marriage” (v. 37).  Any father who’s paid for a wedding reception knows that!  But believers who don’t take the mark of the beast won’t be able to buy enough food and wine to eat and drink like that (Rev. 13:17).  And believers will think twice before marrying due to the Lord’s warning in Matthew 24:19.  Only unbelievers will feel safe enough to marry in the Tribulation, thinking Antichrist will give them “peace and safety” (I Thes. 5:2,3).

Believers will also be unable to plant and build (Lu. 17:26), for they can’t build or plant on land they’ve sold, and that’s what they’ll have to do to be saved (Lu. 18:18, 22 cf. Acts 4:34,35).

Now I know that “one taken and one left” scenario described in Matthew 24:40,41 sounds like the Rapture, but believers are taken to heaven at the Rapture (I Thes. 4:14).  Unbelievers are taken to judgment here, like Noah was (Mt. 24:39)—the  judgment of Armageddon (Lu. 17:36,37 cf. Rev. 19:17-20).

Some unsaved people will gather themselves to that battle (Joel 3:9-12), while Satan will hoodwink others into going (Rev. 16:13-16).  God will gather still other unbelievers to Armageddon in the “reverse Rapture” depicted here in Matthew 24.  We know God knows how to teleport people (Acts 8:39).  Acts 17:30-34 shows it will be “day” in some parts of the world when the Lord comes and “night” in other parts.

In Matthew 24:42 we see more proof the Lord isn’t talking about the Rapture here.  That verse sounds more like a warn-ing of a disaster than advice to prepare for a happy event!

The Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief in the night (Mt. 24:43,44), and if men are not ready they’ll suffer the same kind of serious damage as they do from a thief.  But if you’re not ready for the Rapture you just get Raptured!  Those who teach the “partial Rapture” theory say you’ll be left behind if you’re not worthy, but they base that on Luke 21:36.  But that’s talking about being able to “stand” before the Lord after the battle.  After the Lord defeats Antichrist’s armies, the worthy ones left standing will enter the kingdom (Mal. 3:1-3).  But all who believe will be raptured, not all who behave (I Thes. 4:14-17).

How will they get ready?  Well the Lord will expect them to be feeding His servants (Mt. 24:45).  If they don’t, they can’t be saved (James 2:15-17).  If they do, they’ll be “blessed” (Mt. 24:46) with the kingdom (Mt. 25:34-40).  The Lord’s “goods” (Mt. 24:47) are “all that He hath” in the kingdom (Lu. 12:44), the Gentile nations (Ps. 2:8).  He’ll rule over them (Rev. 19:15) with help from worthy Jews (Rev.2:26, 27).But you’ll be ruling over the angels in heaven (I Cor. 6:3).

Some Jews won’t be ready because they’ll believe the Lord’s coming is far off (Mt. 24:48 cf. Ezek. 12:27).  So while worthy people will be feeding God’s people, unsaved men will be persecuting them (Mt. 24:49).  They’ll be getting drunk and living it up—but not for long (v. 50,51)!

But eating and drinking and marrying is the opposite of what men will be doing before the Rapture (I Tim. 4:1-3).  That’s another way you know that Matthew 24 is not about the Rapture.   Only Paul talks about the Rapture.  It was a “mystery” (I Cor. 15:51-53) until the Lord revealed it to him.

But an old saying says not to let your roots in this world grow too deep, or you might not want to leave it when He comes.  The Greek word for “caught up” in I Thessalonians 4:13-17 is translated “take Him by force” in John 6:15.  Don’t make the Lord have to tug on you twice when He tries to take you away from this life and all the things you love by loving them too deeply.  Instead, be one of the ones who are honoring Him with your life, and serving Him with your words, your time, your talent, your money, and with every breath you breathe.

Video of this sermon is available on YouTube: Days of Future Past – Matthew 24:37-51

The Shortest Days in the History of the World – Matthew 24:22-35

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Summary:

How will the Lord shorten the days of the “great tribulation” (Mt. 24:21, 22) for the sake of the elect (those who will believe on Him during the Tribulation)?  It has to last exactly 1260 days (Rev. 12:6-12), three and a half years (Dan. 12:6, 7), 42 months (Rev. 13:2-5).  Some say He was going to make it last longer but shortened it to 1260 days.  But after Daniel said it would last three and a half years the Lord said the days “shall be” shortened, future tense.  No, He won’t shorten the number of days, He’ll shorten the days by doing the opposite of what He did in Joshua 10:12,13.

When those days come, false christs will claim to be Christ in hiding (Mt. 24:23-26).  The Lord told His disciples not to believe it because His coming will be like lightning (v. 27).  Lightning always gets our attention!  So He was saying when He comes everyone will know about it—specially if it starts in the east and goes all the way to the west!  But lightning that starts in the north and goes to the south would only reach the south pole, for after that it would be going north again.  If the Lord came like that, only half the world would see Him.  But lightning that comes out of the east and goes to the west has to circle the globe, meaning “every eye shall see Him” (Rev. 1:7).

Since lightning travels 3700 miles per second, some think the Lord was talking about the Rapture (cf. I Cor. 15:52).  But He compares this coming to what happens when eagles gather around a dead body (Mt. 24:28). That’s Armageddon (Rev. 19:11-21).  The Lord will use the birds of the earth as a sort of heavenly cleanup crew to cleanse the planet of the rot and stench of the dead before establishing His beautiful kingdom

But if this coming of the Lord is associated with Armageddon, that means it is a coming that will take place after the Tribulation—and that’s what the Lord went on to say (Mt. 24:29,30).  But Paul promises we’ll be raptured before the Tribulation (I Thes. 4:15—5:5) and escape that wrath (I Thes. 1:10; 5:9) by the “salvation” of the Rapture (Rom. 13:11).

Part of the “wrath” that the ones left behind will have to endure will fall when the stars fall (Mt. 24:30) to the earth (Rev. 6:12,13).  These can’t be literal stars. Stars are suns, and even one falling would incinerate us.  Stars in the Bible can be an-gels (Job 38:4-7). The ones that will fall are the fallen angels, the “powers” that rule “high places” (Eph. 6:12). That’s why “the powers of the heavens shall be shaken” (Mt. 24:30). There’s going to be a shakeup in the government of heaven.

Then the sign of the Son of man will appear in heaven (v. 31). Normally we can’t see into heaven because the “curtain” of the stars keeps us from seeing into the “tabernacle” of God in heaven (Isa. 40:22 cf. Heb.8:1, 2).  But God is going to peel back the curtain of the heavens “as a scroll” (Rev. 6:13-16) and they’ll see the Son looking slain (5:6), i.e., still bearing the wounds of Calvary.  Knowing that men like themselves gave Him those wounds, they’ll fear His wrath. That explains how they’ll see Him “sitting” and then “coming” (Mt. 26:64) instead of coming and then sitting in the kingdom.

People also think Matthew 24 is about the Rapture because people will be gathered with a trump (24:31 cf. I Thes. 4:16, 17). But God only uses angels with Israel (cf. Gal. 3:19). And right before angels gather saved Jews into the kingdom He’ll use them to weed out the tares of the unsaved (Mt. 13:38).

Knowing that the fig tree (Mt. 24:32, 33) is a symbol of Israel (Hos. 9:10), prophecy preachers got excited when the nations of the world created what is now known as the nation of Israel in 1948.  Some added the “generation” (Mt. 24:34) of 33 years to 1948 and predicted the Rapture would come in 1981.  But national Israel is represented by the olive tree (Ps. 80:8).  The fig tree represents religious Israel.  Adam used fig leaves to cover his sin, and covering your sin is the very definition of religion.  Antichrist will rebuild Israel’s temple and give them back their sacrifice system, something the Lord cursed (Mt. 21:18).  That’s the sign of the fig tree that will signal the Lord’s coming and the end of the world.

Don’t you love it when prophecy preachers try to determine the day of the Rapture from a passage that says you can’t know it (Mt. 24:35, 36)! Those that claim they know when He will return claim to know more than the Lord (Mark. 13:32)!

Video of this sermon is also available on YouTube: The Shortest Days in the History of the World – Matthew 24:22-35

Did the She Bear Kill Little Children?

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

“You have said that the she bear killed the children in 2 Kings 2:22-24 because of Israel’s sin (Lev. 26:14,22). Others explain those difficult verses by saying the Hebrew words for ‘little children’ referred to older kids, who may not have all died. Could this be so instead?”

If these were not little children, they were over the age of accountability. And since most older children are not saved, that would mean most of these children went to hell because of the sins of their nation. It is far more just to believe that they were little children who went to be with the Lord when they died.

And I don’t think there is any way to read that word “rob” (Lev. 26:22) and conclude those children didn’t die. Wild beasts don’t rob parents of their children by injuring them. They rob them by killing them.

The law was a covenant, which is an old word for a contract. If the people of Israel broke the terms of the contract, God was bound by the laws of justice and righteousness to keep His part of the contract and punish them in the manner specified in the covenant. If He didn’t, He could rightly be charged with breaking His Word and being unfaithful to His own covenant

Two Minutes with the Bible lets you start your day with short but powerful Bible study articles from the Berean Bible Society. Sign up now to receive Two Minutes With the Bible every day in your email inbox. We will never share your personal information and you can unsubscribe at any time.


One of the Greatest Prophecies in the Bible – Matthew 24:1-21

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Summary:

The 12 were overly impressed with the temple (24:1) even though Christ called it a den of thieves earlier and had just stormed out of it (23:37-39).  So the Lord told them it’d have to come down stone by stone (24:2).  The only buildings torn down like that had leprosy (Lev. 14:44), a type of sin.  When the Lord left the temple and went to the Mount of Olives (24:3), that should have reminded Jews of how the glory of the Lord did the same thing in Ezekiel 10:18.

The end of the world the 12 asked about (Mt. 24:3) began 2,000 years ago (Heb. 9:26), but was interrupted by the dispensation of the mystery (Eph. 3:1-3).

Daniel said the “everlasting righteousness” of the kingdom would come after 70 weeks (Dn. 9:24) of years (cf. Gen. 29:29) when the Lord returns to establish it.  You see, He meant the end of the world as we know it, the end of man being in charge of the world and Christ being in charge of it in the kingdom.  It was supposed to start after Christ came 69 weeks later (Dn. 9:25), but didn’t.  Daniel said that 70th week would be horrendous (9:25-27).  We know Matthew 24 is all about that week for the 12 asked about the end of the world.

It will start with “many” a false christ persuading unsaved Jews who rejected Jesus that they are the messiah Israel’s been looking for (24:5).  There’s always been wars and rumors of wars (24:6) so the Lord added there’d be “pestilences” (24:7).  That word means sicknesses (I Ki. 8:37), specifically epidemic sicknesses.  This has many thinking Covid-19 is a sign of the end.  Many are also quoting Leviticus 26:14,25 to say God is judging us for our sins, but we’re not under the law of Leviticus 26 (Rom. 6:15)!  When God starts sending pestilences a third of Israel will die (Eze. 5:12).

Others are quoting Psalm 91:3-8 to say God will spare Christians of pestilence even though He’s not!  Nothing but disillusionment and shattered faith can come from claiming promises that God made to Israel if they obeyed Him.

When a third of a nation dies the world will think the end is near, but the Lord said that’s just “the beginning of sorrows” (24:8).  The believers whom He said would be killed (24:9) are the 12 apostles, not us.  He expected them to live to see all this (24:34; Mt. 16:28), but the mystery interrupted things.

That didn’t make Him a false prophet, for Hezekiah said something that didn’t come true (Isa. 38:1-5).  But God told David if his sons were good that one would always sit on the throne (I Ki. 2:4). Hezekiah reminded God if he died childless that wouldn’t come true!  So God knew all along Hezekiah would live despite what His prophet said, and He knew all along that generation would die and not see these things in Matthew 24, even though the Lord said they wouldn’t.

In the Tribulation, believing Jews will be “betrayed” by unsaved Jews (24:10) of their own families (Mark 1:13-15).  It’s a cold day when even your wife might sell you out to the Antichrist (Micah 7:5,6), so the Lord said “the love of many shall wax cold” (Mt. 24:11,12).  But they’ll have to endure till the end of the Tribulation without selling out to the beast if they want to be saved (24:13).

After the gospel of the kingdom is preached in all the world the end of the world will come (24:14).  That gospel isn’t “Christ died for our sins” (I Cor. 15:3,4).  The 12 preached the kingdom gospel and didn’t know He’d die (Lu. 9:1,2; 18:31-34).  The kingdom gospel was the good news He was their king and ready to give them their kingdom (Mark 1:14,15).

We know Matthew 24:15,16 is halfway through Daniel’s 70th week because it sounds like Daniel 9:27.  The over-spreading of desolations has to do with the cherubim that overspread the mercy seat (Ex. 37:9).  Antichrist will cause the sacrifices he reinstated to “cease” by dying and rising (Rev. 13:1-3) and claiming to be their fulfillment.  The mercy seat will become “desolate” when Antichrist sits on it (II Ths. 2:7,8) because “desolate” means empty of inhabitants (Jer. 33:10) and God is supposed to inhabit the mercy seat (Ps. 99:1).

Tribulation Jews will have to move fast to escape the beast (24:17-29) and break the sabbath (v. 20). Worrying about that is more proof this isn’t about us who are not under the law!

Video of this sermon is also available on YouTube: One of the Greatest Prophecies in the Bible – Matthew 24:1-21

Show the Lord’s Death

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

After our Bible conference last fall in Alcester, England, my son Jesse and I did some sightseeing in London. As we waited for one of London’s legendary double decker tour buses to pick us up, I noticed that the Ritz Hotel across the street had some pockmarks on the exterior of their otherwise beautiful building. These marks didn’t look like the kind of deterioration that all buildings suffer from age. They looked more like the kind of damage that is inflicted when something impacts the building. That got me to wondering if those marks might be injuries sustained during the Blitz of London in World War II.

Sure enough, our tour bus driver later pointed out similar pockmarks on St. Paul’s Cathedral, and confirmed that they were indeed the result of shrapnel from the countless bombs that rocked the city during Hitler’s horrendous eight-month onslaught of England’s capital.

Our tour guide said nothing further about the marks, but I began to wonder why those damaged areas were never repaired. Surely a hotel as fine as the Ritz could easily have afforded to erase the scars of the Nazi barrage. And I have to assume that at some point the Church of England could have scraped together the money to restore the flagship church of their religion, and put the memory of that horrific bombing behind them.

The only conclusion to which I could come is that they don’t want to put it behind them. They don’t want to forget the suffering they had to endure as a city. They don’t want to forget the price they had to pay for the freedom from fascism that they continue to enjoy to this day. And it’s not likely that they will forget. Those pockmarks won’t let them.

That got me to thinking of how we’ll never be able to forget the price the Lord paid to save us from our sins. The pockmarks in His blessed face won’t let us. Isaiah describes how His face was brutalized (Isa. 52:14), and He retained those scars after He rose from the dead (cf. John 20:27). We know He continued to bear them even after He ascended into heaven, for in a vision of heaven John describes Him as “a Lamb as it had been slain” (Rev. 5:6). So once the Lord raptures us to heaven, His pockmarked face will “shew the Lord’s death” for all eternity.

But “till He come,” our apostle Paul says it is important to “shew the Lord’s death” in the communion service (1 Cor. 11:23-26). If God’s people didn’t tend to forget Him, He wouldn’t have had to keep telling His people in Israel not to (Deut. 6:12; 8:11,14,19). No wonder the Lord tells us to partake of the bread and the cup “in remembrance of Me” (1 Cor. 11:24,25).

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Ananias Passes the Test! – Acts 9:10-19

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Summary:

The Lord asked Ananias to go see Saul, who was persecuting Christ’s followers unto the death (Acts 9:10-17).  That was perhaps the hardest test of faith in the Bible, but Ananias was able to pass it because he was “a devout man” (22:12).

“Devout” is the adjective form of the word devoted, which means to take something that is yours and say it is the Lord’s (Lev. 27:16, 21).  That’s what Ananias did with himself before his hardest test of faith came.  That’s how he passed it.  Your hardest test may be yet to come, but you too can pass it if you devote yourself to the Lord in advance like he did!

Saul was “praying” (11) like you probably were right after you got saved.  I hope you never stopped!  Paul had to write “pray without ceasing” (I Thes. 5:17) because when grace believers learn God isn’t answering prayer in the miraculous manner in which He used to answer prayer, some of them cease praying.  Paul didn’t, and neither should we!  God still answers prayer through His Word working in His people.

A “vessel” (v. 15) is something you put things in to carry them from one place to another.  Your blood vessels carry life-giving blood and oxygen to the furthest extremities of your body so you can have life.  The Lord chose Saul to carry His name to the Gentiles so that they might have eternal life.

That means the Lord was calling Saul to a different kind of ministry than that to which He called the twelve, who were not sent to the Gentiles (Mt. 10:1-6). The Lord didn’t say that because He didn’t like Gentiles.  He planned to use the Jews to reach the Gentiles!  That means in time past Israel was God’s chosen vessel to bear His name before the Gentiles.

But when the Jews refused to be the ambassadors that God sent them to be among the Gentiles, He allowed them to be “swallowed up” of the Gentiles (Hos. 8:8), and instead they go “among the Gentiles” as His prisoners in Babylon instead of as His ambassadors.  God would have been pleased with them if they’d have obeyed Him, but when they didn’t, they became “a vessel wherein is no pleasure.”

God eventually let them out of Babylonian captivity.  But when He tried to use Israel to reach the Gentiles in the New Testament and they responded by rocking Stephen to sleep, that was the last straw.  God chose Saul to be His new chosen vessel to bear His name to the Gentiles.

But when Acts 9:15 mentions the Jews last, that means God is now reaching us Gentiles first and using us to carry His name to the Jews.  But His plan to use Paul and us to carry His name to the Gentiles was different from His plan to use the Jews to do it in many ways.  We see one very important way in Verse 16 when the Lord told Ananias that He’d show Saul how great things he’d have to suffer for Him.

When God used the Jews to reach the Gentiles, any suffering they had to suffer was of their own making!  God told them that if they obeyed Him that He’d protect them from sickness and their enemies.  But the Lord promised Saul—and us!—that we will suffer for Him (Acts 14:22).  But after all that the Lord suffered for us on the cross, it’s a privilege to suffer for Him to get the truth of the mystery out to the rest of the Body of Christ as Paul did (Col. 1:23,24).

The filling of the Spirit back then (Acts 9:17) empowered men to be able to speak in tongues (2:4) and heal the sick (5:15, 16).  But today it empowers us to thank God in “all things,” and empowers wives to submit to husbands and children to submit to parents and servants to obey their masters (Eph. 5:18-6:5).  That’s way more powerful!

Saul was baptized (Acts 9:18)—but not for the remission of sins (cf. 2:38).  We know he was saved before he was baptized, after he called Jesus “Lord” (Acts 9:6 cf. I Cor. 12:3).  Ananias asked him to be baptized because that was the only message he knew.  The new program of salvation without baptism wasn’t revealed to him, it was revealed later to Paul!

To make it so Saul could kick back with the disciples he’d come to kill (Acts 9:19) God had to change the nature of that “wolf” to get him to lay back with those lambs (cf. Isa. 11:6).  God can still do that today in the most violent of men.  He’s the answer to all the violence we’re seeing lately!

This sermon is also available on YouTube: Ananias Passes the Test! – Acts 9:10-19

Was Paul the Chief of Sinners?

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

“What did Paul mean when he said he was the chief of sinners?”

“…Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief” (1 Tim. 1:15)

When we think of sinners, we generally think of those who commit carnal, fleshly sins such as fornication and murder.  But the Bible speaks of another kind of sin, that of religious pride and hypocritical self-righteousness.  You’d think God would hate fleshly sins more, but when the Lord was here, He was kind and patient to sinners of that genre.  By contrast, He delivered blistering denunciations of the scribes and Pharisees for their religious pride and self-righteousness, and for their persecution of their Messiah.

But it doesn’t really matter which sort of sin is worse in the context of this question, for before he was saved, Paul was guilty of both varieties.  Murder is the worst sort of fleshly sins, and he was guilty of murdering God’s people.  But he persecuted them in religious self-righteousness, for “touching the righteousness which is in the law” he was “blameless” (Phil. 3:6).  This sinful combination certainly made him the chief of sinners.

In addition, the Bible word “chief” can mean most prominent, as it does when it speaks of “the chief singer” (Hab. 3:19) and “chief priests” (Ezra 10:5).  The word can also have the idea of leadership. “The chief man” on the island where Paul was shipwrecked (Acts 28:7) was probably the leader of those native people, and “Beelzebub the chief of devils” (Luke 11:15) was a reference to Satan, who is certainly the leader of all devils.

So in calling himself the chief of sinners, Paul was also saying that he was the most prominent leader of the world’s sinful rebellion against God (Acts 8:3; 9:1). That’s why God saved him, to prominently show His grace in him (1 Tim. 1:16), just as He judged Pharaoh, the world’s most prominent and powerful leader, to show His power in him (Exod. 9:16).

This might be why Paul used the present tense to say he was still the chief of sinners, even now that he was saved.  He was still the world’s most prominent example of the worst kinds of sinner saved by grace.

If you’re not saved, Paul’s story is solid Biblical proof that no matter who you are or what you’ve done, God can save you.  “Christ died for our sins…and…rose again” (I Cor. 15:3,4).  “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

Two Minutes with the Bible lets you start your day with short but powerful Bible study articles from the Berean Bible Society. Sign up now to receive Two Minutes With the Bible every day in your email inbox. We will never share your personal information and you can unsubscribe at any time.