Two Minutes With The Bible

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The Peace of God
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


“Peace with God” is one thing; “the peace of God” is another. To enjoy the latter, we must first experience the former, for the peace of God, ruling in our hearts, is the result of “peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

St. Paul declared by divine inspiration that “[Christ] was delivered for our offences and was raised again for our justification” and that “therefore, being justified by faith,” we, who once were at enmity with God, may enjoy “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 4:25; 5:1). The result of “peace with God” is “the peace of God,” the peace that He gives to His own amid all the troubles of life. This is why the Apostle wrote to the Roman Christians:

    “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing” (Rom. 15:13).

While only those who are at peace with God can — and should know “the peace of God,” it does not follow, however, that all those who are at peace with God necessarily enjoy “the peace of God.” Believers can enjoy “the peace of God” only as they practice Phil. 4:6:

    “BE CAREFUL [ANXIOUS] FOR NOTHING; BUT IN EVERYTHING, BY PRAYER AND SUPPLICATION, WITH THANKSGIVING, LET YOUR REQUESTS BE MADE KNOWN UNTO GOD.”

As we follow these instructions the promise which follows will certainly be fulfilled.

    “THE PEACE OF GOD, WHICH PASSETH ALL UNDERSTANDING, SHALL KEEP YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS THROUGH CHRIST JESUS” (Ver. 7).

As believers in Christ “we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28.). Therefore we should not be constantly overwhelmed and defeated by the adversities of life, but should heed the exhortation; “Let the peace of God rule in your hearts” (Col. 3:15).

    “NOW THE LORD OF PEACE HIMSELF GIVE YOU PEACE ALWAYS BY ALL MEANS” (II Thes. 3:16).

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Glorious Deliverance
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


In I Thes. 1:10, the Apostle Paul, by divine inspiration, assures believers that the Lord Jesus Christ has “delivered us from the wrath to come.” He refers, of course, to deliverance from the penalty of sin. But in other passages he declares that we are also delivered from the power of sin.

In Col. 1:12,13, for example, he gives thanks to God “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.”

This deliverance, and the glory of our heavenly position and blessings in Christ, we may enjoy experientially now, by grace. Rom. 6:14 says: “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law but under grace.” This does not mean that it is not possible for the believer to sin, but rather that it is possible, in any situation, not to sin. Thus the same passage in Romans goes on to say that we should not yield ourselves as servants to sin, but to God, who, in grace has broken sin’s power over us.

Finally, the believer in Christ will one day be delivered even from the presence of sin, for at our Lord’s coming for us “we shall all be changed” (I Cor. 15:51). Believers should long for Christ’s coming for them, not merely because these bodies of humiliation will then be glorified, but because from that moment on they shall never again be tempted or defiled by sin. What a change that will be!

In II Cor. 1:10 the Apostle includes all three tenses of the believer’s deliverance. Here he tells how God has “delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver, in whom we trust that He will yet deliver us.” This is why he could write to the Philippians about his confidence that “He who hath begun a good work in you will perform [complete] it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6).

Some may not feel the need of deliverance now, but we all need deliverance from sin and its results. If you have not yet experienced this deliverance, why not place your trust in Christ who died to “deliver us from the wrath to come.”

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What About 'Heaven Is For Real'?
by Pastor Ricky Kurth


As the Lord said, “no man hath ascended up to heaven” (John 3:13). We know that later, when Paul was stoned to death (Acts 14:19), he was “caught up to the third heaven” (II Cor. 12:2), but this was so he could continue to “come to visions and revelations of the Lord” (v. 1). Now that the Bible is complete, there is no need of any further revelations from God, and so there is no need for anyone to be caught up to heaven and return.

The only reliable information about heaven is found in God’s Word. After describing the vision of the kingdom of heaven that the Lord gave him, Peter added that the Word of God was “more sure” than what he had seen with his own eyes (II Pet. 1:16-19).

It’s tempting to think that this boy’s experience will persuade people to believe, but Abraham was right: “if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead” (Luke 16:31).

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A Challenge For Our Parents
by Pastor Paul M. Sadler


Scripture Reading:

    “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”
    — I Corinthians 15:58

Probably the most commonly asked question of a seven year old is, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Usually the little one is so frozen with fear that the one inquiring must resort to a form of interrogation: “a doctor, lawyer, policeman; I know, a fireman!” These are noble professions indeed, but why are children almost never encouraged to pursue the ministry? Is the Lord’s work any less meaningful? Are the callings of pastor, evangelist, missionary and Christian counselor unworthy of our children's consideration? Parents do well to remember that there is no higher calling in life than the Lord’s service.

Sadly, our young people are so preconditioned to aspire to worldly professions that the ministry is not even a viable option. Timothy’s mother had no way of knowing whether or not God would call her son into full-time service. But to her credit, she trained Timothy from a small child in the Scriptures to prepare him for the things of the Lord. Shortly after his conversion to Christ, he was called into the ministry where he delivered many from a Christless eternity (II Tim. 1:6).

During those formative years we need to encourage our young to seek the face of the Lord as to what area of Christian service the Lord might use them. Perhaps you have a quiver full of teenagers who don’t know what vocation to pursue. What better place to search for an answer than to have them attend the Berean Bible Institute here in Milwaukee.

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Melting Hearts
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Melting hearts, in Scripture, are consistently associated with discouragement and fear. Note a few examples:

    “And he also that is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, shall utterly melt…” (II Sam. 17:10).

    “Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man’s heart shall melt” (Isa. 13:7).

    “The heart melteth and the knees smite together…” (Nah. 2:10).

Christians, therefore, should not pray for melted hearts, as so many do. There are too many believers with melting hearts now! Indeed, men of God, down through the ages, have always found it a real task to keep the hearts of Christians from melting. Fear can easily become cowardice and cowardice, like courage, is extremely contagious. For this reason God explicitly instructed the military officers of Israel to announce to their armies:

    “What man is there that is fearful and faint-hearted? let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren’s heart faint as well as his heart” (Deut. 20:8.).

If ever God’s people needed confidence and courage it is in the day of crisis — especially spiritual crisis — in which we live. Here Paul’s word to the Ephesian believers is appropriate:

    “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against [wicked spirits] in high places” (Eph. 6:12).

Thank God! While the opposition of our adversary during “this present evil age” calls for special courage and steadfastness of heart, God has made particular provision for us, for He has given us more light on His Word than was given those of former ages and we can meet the enemy with “the whole armor of God.” Moreover we have God’s Word through Paul, that battle-scarred warrior:

    “God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, His prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God” (II Tim. 1:7,8.).

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The Cause Of Retarded Growth
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


In the physical realm retarded growth may be due to some mishap or may be simply one of the results of the curse, having no direct bearing on the behavior of the parents, and certainly not of the child itself. In the spiritual realm this is not so. God has made abundant provision for every child of God to grow to spiritual manhood, and Paul rebukes the Corinthian believers for not having grown.

The trouble with the Corinthians was that they did not have much appetite for the Word; they did not have a passion to know and obey the truth, for the babe in Christ who “desires” the pure milk of the Word will surely “grow thereby.” This was the trouble with the Hebrew believers too, for when the Apostle would have gone further into the great subject of Christ as “an High Priest forever after the order of Melchisedec,” he was forced to write:

    “Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull [Gr., nothros, slothful] of hearing” (Heb. 5:11).

This is precisely the cause of the carnality among believers today. During World War II there were several occasions when parents came to the writer with letters from their sons in the armed forces, explaining that a code had been arranged by which “Johnny” could let them know to which theatre of war he had been sent, but that now it was difficult to understand his letter. Together we would sit down and study the letter in detail in an effort to make out exactly what it was that “Johnny” was trying to make his parents understand.

Such interest and concern over a letter from “Johnny”! And appropriately so, but do the majority of believers show such interest in the Word of God to them? They do not. They are satisfied with “the simple things,” with knowing only a few passages which “warm their hearts.” This is the root cause of the spiritual immaturity in the Church today.

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The Riches Of God
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Some years ago there came to this country a very poor young man. He found a job in the timber lands of Wisconsin. Being industrious he gradually accumulated some timber acreage of his own. Soon be began to prosper, and after a few years he invested in a lumber milling industry. It was not long after that until he owned more than one mill. This led him to expand into northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. Before long he was very rich, investing in timber acreage in the far northwest and eventually owning valuable land by the thousands of acres, the very finest timber in the country. At the time of his death neither he nor his relatives nor friends knew what he was worth financially, so wealthy had he become.

When the time came for him to die, however, he could not take one cent of his riches with him, for as I Tim. 6:7 says: “We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.”

It seems difficult for most men to learn that “a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth” (Luke 12:15). They close their ears to the words of wisdom spoken by our Lord:

    “Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal” (Matt. 6:19, 20).

The truest, most lasting riches of all are referred to in II Cor. 8:9 where the Apostle Paul says:

    “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich.”

And these riches may be had by faith — by accepting them as a gift, for “the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).

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Moses And The Prophets
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Now our Lord, when on earth, encouraged, indeed He even challenged His audiences to “Search the Scriptures” for themselves (John 5:39). Indeed since God revealed Himself and His plan of salvation in the written Word, we are responsible, each one for himself to study the Scriptures. When the rich man Dives begged Abraham to be allowed to go and warn his five brothers about the horrors of hell, Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them”. And when the rich man urged that a word from him would be more effective, Abraham answered, “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead” (Luke 16:29,31).

Don’t depend upon your clergyman, my dear friend, to interpret the Scriptures for you. See for yourself what God says in His Word. For “every one of us shall give an account of himself to God”, says Romans 14:12. And it won’t be enough in that day to say, my minister or my priest told me so and so. You are responsible, you, to search the Scriptures for yourself, to see whether these things are so.

Why don’t you search the Scriptures, especially the epistles of Paul, our apostle. For it is Paul who says, “For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the Apostle of the Gentiles [Nations], I magnify mine office” (Rom. 11:13). Learn in his epistles this mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you the hope of glory and how it is that Christ’s death on Calvary’s cross can save you.

    “In Whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:7).

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The Body's Bodily Resurrection
by Pastor Kevin Sadler


    “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept” (I Cor. 15:20).

To carry the news of the Battle of Waterloo to England, a ship signaled to a man on shore, who relayed the word to another on a hill, and so on across Britain.  The first word, “Wellington,” was signaled.  The next word was “defeated.”  Then a fog closed in, and the message was interrupted.  Across England, people wept over the message: “Wellington defeated.”  Then the fog lifted.  The communication continued with two additional words: “the enemy.”  And Englishmen celebrated the victory.

There was great sorrow when the body of Jesus was carried from the cross to the tomb.  The signal seemed to say, “Jesus Christ defeated.”  But three days later the fog lifted and it was announced, “Jesus Christ defeated the enemy!”  Through Christ we have complete victory over our enemies of sin, death, and Satan, and we have new life, a glorious hope, and the certainty of our own resurrection one day.  But the subject of resurrection in God’s Word is one that needs to be rightly divided.

    “But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming” (I Cor. 15:23).

In the fifteenth chapter of I Corinthians, Paul speaks of the resurrections, both prophetic and according to the revelation of the mystery.  In verses 23-28, Paul outlines the prophetic “order” of resurrections, and he begins with Christ’s.  As Paul spoke of the gospel of salvation in verses 1-4, he made it clear that Christ’s resurrection was prophesied: “He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (I Cor. 15:4 cf. Psa. 16:10).  In verses 20 and 23, Paul refers to Christ’s resurrection as being the “firstfruits,” meaning that His resurrection is a foretaste of what is to come.  Christ’s bodily resurrection guarantees the great harvest of bodily resurrections yet to come for both the kingdom saints and the Body of Christ.

Notice though how Paul says “they [not “we”] that are Christ’s at His Coming” (I Cor. 15:23), speaking of the resurrection of the prophetic saints after Christ’s second coming.  These saints will be raised and ushered into the earthly, millennial reign of Christ.  This is the “first resurrection,” and it includes all the saved from the prophetic program, or in other words, all the saved from the past, prior to this dispensation of grace, and all the future martyred Tribulation saints.  As Revelation 20:6 states,

    “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.”

Following the thousand-year Kingdom, when Christ “must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet” (I Cor. 15:25), comes the time when “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” (I Cor. 15:26).  After the Great White Throne, “death and hell” will be “cast into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:14) and “there shall be no more death” (Rev. 21:4).  The second resurrection, or “resurrection of damnation” (John 5:29), of all the unsaved of all ages will take place at this time, when they will be fitted with bodies to endure everlasting punishment.

After Paul gives this prophetic sequence of events regarding resurrection, in verse 51 he brings up a secret coming and a secret resurrection that wasn’t ever before revealed.

    “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (I Cor. 15:51,52).

The “first resurrection” and this secret resurrection are two different resurrections.  The prophesied “first resurrection” will take place after Christ’s prophesied second coming.  The secret resurrection will take place at Christ’s secret coming, the Rapture (I Thes. 4:13-18.).  This coming of Christ and its resurrection is part of the “revelation of the mystery” (Rom. 16:25), the message which had been hid in the mind of God and revealed first to the Apostle Paul (Eph. 3:1-9).  All the previous resurrections, such as Christ’s resurrection, the first resurrection, and the resurrection of damnation were all revealed in the Old Testament (Isa. 53:10; Dan. 12:2), but not the resurrection of the Body of Christ.

Notice how the personal pronouns change from “they” to “we” here as Paul applies this coming of Christ and resurrection to the Church, the Body of Christ: “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed” (I Cor. 15:51).  The Rapture is the bodily resurrection day for the Body of Christ only, which is not referred to or revealed outside of Paul’s letters.  The Rapture and its secret resurrection is part of the mystery program while the second coming and its first resurrection belong to the prophetic program.

    “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body” (Phil. 3:20,21).

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Sanctified Service
by Pastor Ricky Kurth


In Hezekiah’s day, “the priests had not sanctified themselves sufficiently” (II Chron. 30:3), and “the Levites were more upright in heart to sanctify themselves than the priests” (II Chron. 29:34). Imagine that—men who wanted to serve the Lord, but who didn’t want to sanctify themselves; that is, they didn’t want to set themselves apart unto God (Ex. 13:2 cf. v. 12).

How about you? Are you long on wanting to serve the Lord but short on wanting to set yourself apart as holy unto Him? If so, you should know that “this is the will of God, even your sanctification” (I Thes. 4:3). The Lord gave Himself for the Church “that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word” (Eph. 5:25,26). Why not determine to bury yourself in God’s Word, with the goal of learning how to be as pure as He died to make you now, in this life (Titus 2:14), and become “a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use” (II Tim. 2:21).

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Our Great Commission
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Much is said of the “great commission” which our Lord gave to His apostles just before His ascension. We wonder whether our readers have ever examined the various records of this commission carefully.

This “great commission” does not say one word about “the preaching of the cross” or “the gospel of the grace of God”. The “gospel” which they were sent to preach was very evidently the same “gospel” they had been preaching — the Gospel of the Kingdom — only they could now declare, as Peter did at Pentecost, that the King had risen from the dead and would still some day occupy the throne of David.

The “great commission” demanded faith and baptism for the remission of sins (Mark 16:15,16); it included the power to heal the sick and work miracles (16:17,18.), but it did not include the glad message that “Christ died for our sins” (I Cor. 15:1-3). At Pentecost, when Peter began to carry out this commission, he rather blamed his hearers for the death of Christ and when, convicted of their sins, they asked: “What shall we do?” he did notsay: “Believe on Christ who died for your sins.” He rather commanded them to “repent and be baptized every one…for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38.).

But after Christ and His Kingdom were again rejected, God interrupted the prophetic program and sent Paul forth to proclaim “the preaching of the cross” and “the gospel of the grace of God”. In II Corinthians 5: 14-21 this apostle proclaims “the love of Christ” who “died for all” and instructs us as to our“great commission”:

    “And all things are of [provided by] God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, AND HATH GIVEN TO US THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION;

    “To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself… AND HATH COMMITTED UNTO US THE WORD OF RECONCILIATION” (II Cor. 5:18,19).

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What We Believe
by Pastor Paul M. Sadler


Scripture Reading:

    “Who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.”
    — II Corinthians 3:6

We have been hearing from a good number of our readers who are confused, perplexed and even concerned over the doctrine of the New Covenant. Apparently there are a number of strange teachings floating around the Grace Movement on this subject, which has given rise for alarm among some of the brethren.

It is our firm conviction that the Body of Christ falls under the umbrella of the New Covenant. Paul clearly teaches in Romans that we are partakers of Israel’s spiritual blessings (Rom. 15:27 cf. Eph. 1:3-14). There is absolutely no possibility that this could refer to anything other than the New Covenant. One thing that should never be overlooked, however, is the fact that Israel received it by promise whereas we are the glad recipients of it by grace (Jer. 31:31 cf. Titus 2:11).

As we know, one of the principal blessings of the New Covenant is the blood of Christ. This particular element can never be divorced from the covenant nor should it be. We have often said that if the Body of Christ has no connection to this covenant whatsoever, then our Savior must return a second time to die for the Gentiles. To us this is unthinkable. Christ died “once for all” (Heb. 10:9-12). Furthermore, the New Covenant shows that there is a connection between the two programs of God which highlights His eternal purpose. Surely, He is Lord of all.

Who could fail to see that Paul charges us to remember the blood of this covenant until the Lord comes: “This cup is the New Testament [Covenant] in my blood: this do ye… in remembrance of me. For as often as ye [Members of His Body] eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He come” (I Cor. 11:23-26).

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Paul, The Master-builder
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


In I Corinthians 3:10, the Apostle Paul declares by divine inspiration:

    “According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise [instructed] master-builder, I have laid the foundation,and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.”

In what sense was Paul the master-builder of the Church, and what “foundation” did he lay? Did he not himself say that “other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ”? Yes, he did — and in this very passage! He sought to lay no other foundation than Christ, but God had chosen him to proclaim Christ in a new way.

Some years previous our Lord had asked His disciples: “Whom say ye that I am”, and Peter had instantly replied: “Thou art the Christ [Messiah], the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16). This is how believers in general had recognized Him at that time (John 1:49; 6:69; 11:27; 20:31). Indeed, the Messianic kingdom was to be established upon Christ as God’s anointed Son (Messiah means “anointed”).

But with the raising up of Paul, God began to form “the Church which is Christ’s body” (Eph. 1:22,23; Col. 1:24,25). This is the Church of today, and it is founded, not on Christ as King, but as the exalted Lord and Head of the “one body” (I Cor. 12:13).

Paul does not present Christ as Messiah, but as Lord. In Romans 10:9 he declares:

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as LORD, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” Again in I Corinthians 12:3: “No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit”. And again in Philippians 2:9-11, he declares that God has highly exalted Christ and given Him a name above every name, “that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”.

Have you confessed Him as your Lord and Saviour?

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A Prayer We Never Pray
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Down through the centuries many sincere believers have uttered this prayer: “Come, Lord Jesus; come quickly,” but we have not joined them in this.

Lest we be misunderstood, we hasten to explain that we, personally, long to see and be with our blessed Lord, and did we think only of ourselves we would have Him come now, without further delay.

But this continued absence of our Lord in grace is the special subject of Paul’s epistles, as Peter states:

    “AND ACCOUNT THAT THE LONGSUFFERING OF OUR LORD IS SALVATION; EVEN AS OUR BELOVED BROTHER PAUL ALSO ACCORDING TO THE WISDOM GIVEN UNTO HIM HATH WRITTEN UNTO YOU;

    “AS ALSO IN ALL HIS EPISTLES, SPEAKING IN THEM OF THESE THINGS…” (II Pet. 3:15,16).

How gracious has our Lord been in delaying His return for His own and the judgment to follow! How gracious to extend the day of grace until now! Now that we are saved we would fain be with the One we love and long for, but how grateful we should be that He waited for us, and how eager we should be to win others to Him while He waits still longer!

As we consider the lost about us, therefore, we cannot implore the Lord to “come quickly,” though His coming for us is indeed a “blessed hope,” and we remain on the alert for it to take place at any time.

In this connection it is interesting to observe that the prayer, “Come, Lord Jesus,” and its counterpart “How long!” are both “tribulation” prayers, uttered by saints (not of the Body) who will live during that dreadful time of God’s wrath. Both are found in the Book of the Revelation and both in connection with our Lord’s return to earth to judge and reign, and not in connection with the rapture. In both Revelation 2:5 and 2:16 our Lord says: “Repent…or else I will come unto thee quickly,” i.e., to judge. In Revelation 3:11 He writes to the church at Philadelphia, but again in warning: “Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” Revelation 22:7 and 12 are used in the same way, indicating that in that day only those who are “overcomers” will long for the Lord to come and put an end to the world’s rebellion. Thus John closes the Revelation with the declaration: “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly”, and the response: “Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Verse 20).

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A Forward-Thinking Man
by Pastor Ricky Kurth


Recently, Fox News told of a 13-year-old girl who got in trouble at school for wearing a shirt that said, “Virginity Rocks!” The back of her shirt was equally delightful and showed that she was one very forward-thinking young lady. It read, “I’m loving my husband, and I haven’t even met him yet!”

This sweet girl’s wonderful testimony reminded me of how the Lord Jesus showed that He was one very forward-thinking Man when He prayed to God about His eleven disciples:

    “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word” (John 17:20).

Most Bible commentaries maintain that the Lord was talking about you and me, and all of the other members of the Body of Christ who had not yet believed on Him at that time. The problem with this view is that you and I didn’t believe on Christ through the words of the twelve apostles. We believed on Him through the words of the Apostle Paul! Paul is the only biblical writer who presents salvation by grace through faith in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:25). If someone introduced you to Christ using the words of the twelve apostles, they had to read Paul’s gospel into their words, for he is the only biblical writer to preach the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ as the gospel that must be believed in order to be saved (I Cor. 15:1-4).

So who were those who were saved through the word of the apostles? Well, the twelve preached their word at Pentecost, which tells us that those who believed through their word were all Jews, for they were the only people that Peter addressed on that day (Acts 2:14,22,36). So in praying for “them also which shall believe through their word,” the Lord was praying for future Jewish believers. Of course, this means that He had only Jewish believers in mind when He went on to pray for these future saints.

    “That they all may be one…that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me” (John 17:21).

Here again, the commentaries all contend that the Lord was talking about us. After all, didn’t Paul say of Christ, “He is our peace, who hath made both one” (Eph. 2:14), speaking of how Jews and Gentiles were all “baptized into one body” (I Cor. 12:13). The commentaries insist that this is what the Lord had in mind when He prayed “that they all may be one.”

But we’ve already seen that this couldn’t be what the Lord had in mind, since those who believed on Him through the word of the apostles were all Jews. So why was He praying that the Jews might be made one?

Well, if you know your Bible, you know that there came a time in Israel’s history when the ten northern tribes broke away from the two southern tribes and formed their own kingdom (I Kings 12). While God allowed this, He had no intention of letting His people be divided forever! To illustrate this, God instructed Ezekiel to take a stick and write “Israel” on it to represent the ten northern tribes, and then to take another stick and write “Judah” on it to represent the two southern tribes, then to join them together and “make them one stick” (Ezek. 37:15-19). He was told to do all this to illustrate God’s plan to take Israel and Judah and “make them one nation” (v. 22). This, then, is the oneness for which the Lord prayed in our text.

Was His prayer answered? You know it was! At Pentecost, “there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews…out of every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5). “And all that believed…were together…continuing daily with one accord…with…singleness of heart” (Acts 2:41-46).

Of course, the Lord had a purpose in mind for praying for the reunion of Israel’s two houses. It was, as He said, “that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me”; and when the reuniting of Israel’s two houses continues in the millennial kingdom, their oneness will cause the world to believe on Christ.

Do you think this will work today? That is, when the world sees the oneness that we have in Christ, do you think maybe they might want in on it? I know for sure that it works the other way! When we bite and devour one another, the world about us finds this most UNattractive. Brethren, do you know who does the most to keep people from believing on Christ? It is not murderers, rapists, and thieves; nothing that men like that do keeps men from believing. No, it is Christians who can’t get along with one another, and who present a poor testimony to the world in other ways, that keep men from believing on Christ. Why not determine right now that as a Christian you are going to “walk worthy of this calling…that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you” (II Thes. 1:11,12).