Five Minutes of Truth with Dr. Danny Purvis - A Weekly Devotional Podcast
This series seeks to reveal God's truth by examining lesser-known aspects of His Word. While theology can often be complex and overwhelming, we seek to try to make God's Word accessible by distributing it in bite-sized morsels. We here at Growth Project hope Five Minutes of Truth will inspire you to think, to explore His Word...but most importantly...to grow.
Rank #1: Does God say yes or no to us?.
When we ask God for something that He will always give us one of three possible answers? That’s right…three. Most people think He answers either yes or no, but stick around and we’ll talk about it, here on Five Minutes of Truth. Perhaps one of the most amazing and well-known of Jesus’ healings deals with an unnamed woman who simply longed to touch Jesus’ clothing. We know nothing about her except that she had been suffering from a bleeding issue for 12 years. This story, as recorded in the Gospel of Luke, states that the woman had “spent all she had on doctors yet could not be healed by any”. We are pretty familiar with her story. Seeing that Jesus was passing by surrounded by a throng of people the event as recorded in Mark’s Gospel tells us that the woman surmised “If I can just touch His robes, I’ll be made well”. Which is exactly what happened. She made her way through the crowd, touched a tassel on Jesus’ robe and was “instantly cured”. Jesus, knowing this had happened called the woman out of the crowd and asked her to tell this story which she did as “she came trembling and fell down before Him”. Jesus then does something unusual. In fact, in all of the Gospels, this is the only time He does this. He calls her “Daughter” but does so by using it as if it were her name…using it as a personal pronoun. Jesus commends her faith and that part of the story ends. But did you know that this story was, in fact, a part of a different story and a different request for Jesus to heal someone? Though this event is recorded in all three of the Synoptic Gospels, it’s the version in Luke chapter 8 that we are most interested in. If you back up just a few verses before the woman with the issue of blood is mentioned, we see the reason Jesus was walking near her in the first place. And it has to do with a plea from a man named Jairus. Jairus was a synagogue leader. Historical evidence seems to suggest that though this was a religious position, it did not mean that he was a Rabbi, Scribe or Pharisee. He was the overall leader of the synagogue sort of the way a CEO is in charge of their organization. It was a position of religious significance, cultural significance and power. It almost certainly meant that Jairus was also a very wealthy man. In fact, many believe that the Rich Young Ruler mentioned in the Gospels was also a synagogue ruler. So Jairus was a wealthy, religious, respected, powerful man in the local community. And his daughter was dying. Just before Jesus’ interaction with the bleeding woman, we see that Jairus came to Jesus and pleaded with Him to go to his house because his daughter “was at death’s door”. Jesus agreed, and began His journey with Jairus when He came across the woman who needed her own kind of healing. Now, let’s be clear. This could not have been an easy thing for Jairus to do. He was a member of the religious ruling class of the day. And for the most part, the religious ruling class of the day did not care for Jesus at all. In fact, it was this ruling class that would eventually ensure Jesus’ crucifixion. It was a risk for Jairus to do this, but his little girl was dying. He had heard the stories of Jesus’ miracles, I’m sure he had sought out doctors to no help, and he was desperate. He asked Jesus to heal his daughter. Here is where it gets interesting. Jairus knew that time was of the essence. Jesus was going with him to his home. As a father myself, it had to feel like every step was not nearly fast enough. And so, in this rush to get Jesus to his home, what happens? Jesus stops. He not only stops, but He engages with a woman who had touched His robe and been healed. As a reader of the Scripture, we are overjoyed to hear the story of this woman…but what must Jairus have been thinking? He had to be going out of his mind seeing Jesus delay in going to heal his daughter. What would happen if they were too late? Every second must have felt like an hour. And it turns out, they were too late. No sooner than the conversation with the woman ended, did Jairus get the news he feared the most. Someone came from Jairus’ house bearing the bad news, “Your daughter is dead. Don’t bother the Teacher anymore”. Jesus then makes an extraordinary statement: “Fear not. Only believe and she will be made well”. What, you might ask, has this to do with what was said in the introduction? When we ask God for something, He gives us one of three answers. Sometimes He says ‘yes’. Sometimes He says ‘no’. And sometimes He says ‘wait’. Of the three, for all of us, ‘wait’ is the most difficult answer. But that’s because we don’t understand the wait. It’s never because He is too busy. It’s never because we have to take a number and wait our turn. It’s never because He forgot or has better things to do. It’s because there is something we have to learn about Him. Look more closely at Jairus. Jairus came to Jesus while his daughter was still alive. And so he must have been thinking that if he could get to Jesus before she died, there might be a chance. Jesus knew that his daughter would die before He got there…but Jairus didn’t. So Jesus needed to give him some hope. He stops to talk to a woman who had been sick for 12 years. The exact age of Jairus’ daughter. She had spent all of her money on doctors. I’m sure Jairus too spent a lot of money on doctors. He certainly didn’t run to Jesus at the first sign of sickness, that doesn’t make sense. While Jairus was worried about his daughter, Jesus actually calls the woman “Daughter”. Again…something that He never did in Scripture either before or after that. What does all of this mean? Jairus needed to understand the depth of Jesus’ power and Who He really was. It was clear from those who broke the bad news to him that Jairus had faith that Jesus could do something so long as his daughter lived. When they told him, “Don’t bother the Teacher anymore” Jairus had a choice. Trust Jesus or start mourning. He chose to trust Jesus. And I don’t think that would have been possible if he not seen Jesus’ miraculous interaction with the woman who had the issue of blood. That’s why Jesus said ‘wait’ to Jairus. Because that healing of the woman was as much for Jairus as it was for the woman. He will say ‘yes’ to us at times. He will even say ‘no’ to us at times. Often times He says ‘wait’. But the wait is never arbitrary. Even the waiting is for us so that we will be able to heed those words He spoke to Jairus when He said: “Fear not, only believe”. How cool is that? On behalf of myself, Robert Houghton and all of us here at Growth Project, keep reading God’s Word.
Rank #2: To rapture or not to rapture.
To rapture or not to rapture Did you know that Jesus’ most famous statements about the rapture were actually not about the rapture at all? Stick around and we’ll talk about it. Here on 5 minutes of truth. In the 70s it was Hal Lindsey’s “The Late Great Planet Earth”. In the mid-90s into the 2000s it was the “Left Behind” books and movies. Both focused on one of the more interesting aspects of theology known officially as eschatology. In layman’s terms? The study of end times. Here is what you may not know. That though there are many references to eschatology in the Bible, there may not be as much information there as you might think. And it is not often as clear as you might think. That would explain why likeminded Believers could hold positions on eschatology that are in direct opposition to each other and yet both claim they emanate from Scripture. If it were crystal clear, there would be much more of a consensus. One of the more interesting aspects of eschatology that spurs on a lot of debate is the concept of the rapture. The rapture is a leading theological construct among most evangelicals that suggests Believers (both dead and alive) will be taken by Christ “into the air” either before, during or after the great tribulation. If you’ve seen movie representations of this event, it is usually portrayed as a huge mass of people simply disappearing without a trace and with no explanation. The results of these disappearances include planes crashing because of the loss of pilots, cars crashing due to lack of drivers, and frantic families due to the loss of loved ones. The question is: Is this how the Bible says it will be? That is the question we always have to ask ourselves. Just because something seems to be believed by a large number of people, does that make it correct? It’s a good question to ask. What does the Bible say about the rapture? Very little to be honest. The most often cited passage is, of course, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. I this passage, Paul clearly states this about the rapture: “The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven…with the trumpet of God…the dead in Christ will rise first…then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air”. This passage is clear that there will be some event that seems to be related to our idea of the rapture. What we don’t know from this description could fill a wheelbarrow. There is no mention of the tribulation here as it relates to the rapture. Some believe it is, some believe that this event is for Believers to join Christ at His Second Coming. One of the most important questions we can ask is: What did Jesus say about the rapture? It is a good question. As I grew up theologically once I became a Believer, I was given an answer to that question. I was told by many people and heard it referenced by many more, that Jesus did, in fact, mention the rapture and His words are found in Matthew 24:40-44. Here in part is what Jesus says in this passage: “Two men will be in the field: one will be taken, the other left…two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken, the other left…watch for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming…for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect”. What do you think? Sure sounds like the rapture to me. One person will be taken and one person will be left behind. Just like one person in a car, one pilot on a plane, one loved-one in a family. For years I was told and heard others told that this was Jesus talking about the rapture. I was being told wrongly. That is not what Jesus is talking about here. In fact, this is an opposite analogy in relation to how it has been misrepresented. Context is key. Instead of starting at verse 40 in this 24th chapter of Matthew’s gospel, we need to read the beginning of the pericope which starts at verse 36. Jesus starts this analogy by referring back to, of all people, Noah and the events of the worldwide flood. If you remember, God used the flood to punish the rampant sin that had infected the entire earth. He chose to spare just 8 people: Noah and his wife along with Noah’s three sons and their wives. Using this event to make His point changes the meaning of the passage. Jesus says: “But as the days of Noah were, so also will be the coming of the Lord”. So He is saying that we must look at His analogy in the same way that we looked at what happened during the flood. He talks about how unaware the people were who were about to be destroyed by the flood and compared that to the day of the Lord. They were so unaware that “they did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will be the coming of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:39). And then Jesus launches into the analogy by saying that one will be taken and the other left…again…just like the flood. So, the ones taken away, in Jesus’ analogy, are the ones who were being punished while the ones left behind were the ones that belonged to Him. Just as Noah and his family were left behind because they belonged to Him. The opposite of what so many people teach about this passage. It’s easy for me to get mad at the people who taught me incorrectly all those years. But the fact is, I should have been looking in a mirror. Our theology can never dictate our exegesis. Our exegesis must dictate our theology. It was up to me to read God’s Word and discover His truth. Which is what I am telling you. Don’t take my word for any of this, simply invest in the exploration of God’s Word so that you can clearly see His truth. On behalf of myself, Robert Houghton and all of us here at Growth Project, keep reading God’s Word.
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