“How long you been here,” he asked.

“About an hour and half,” I responded.

“Oh so you are almost done.”

“Well, yeah,” I replied confidently.

With that he said he was going to set his bag down and he left the gym. Ten minutes passed and he hadn’t come back yet, so I assumed he had left. I started to feel like I had done something wrong but at the same time, I had planned on leaving at 9:30. I also felt like it might have been an opportunity to share the gospel with someone, so I gave him 10-15 minutes and still, he had not returned.

So I changed my shoes and packed up, returned the basketball, and exited the student center. Much to my surprise, he was walking back.

“What happened, man,” I pondered out loud.

“I had to move my truck to the right parking lot,” he returned.

We started talking and I find out his name is Jerry, and he is a student at Southeastern, taking evangelism and some other course. He asked me what I was doing at Southeastern and I shared with him my passion for the OT. I, in turn, asked him what he was doing. His response: “I just want to go into as many prisons as I can… and share Christ with people like me.” The first part was understandable, but I couldn’t help but be curious as to what he meant when he said, “people like me.” He looked and seemed like a normal guy in every sense of the word. I asked him what he meant, and he looked at himself up and down, grabbed his pants and shirt and then his hat while saying, “People like me,” he said smiling.

I understood.

Jerry’s real name was Paul. Well, not really. In the NT, however, we see that Paul has a tremendous burden for people like him, that is, his Jewish brethren. Sure Paul was charged with taking the gospel to the Gentiles, but Paul always had a burden for his kinsmen, his fellow Jews. Paul even wished himself condemned if that meant they would be saved, for he says, “For I could wish that I myself was accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh (Rom 9:3 ESV).” Jerry had a burden for people like him.

I thought about the encounter in the moments after we parted ways and I was struck with a sense of wonder, primarily, wonder at multifaceted nature of the kingdom of God. No doubt Jerry felt a certain sense of mission as much as I do, but for each of us that mission to carry the gospel was down two different paths. The thought popped into my head that Jerry is my brother in Christ, my family, and all that is encapsulated within that statement amazes me.

Here is a 26 year-old, white male and a 6′ 3 black man who have never met before, but we are brothers, on different paths to fulfilling the same mission, extending the glory of God to the ends of the earth by making Him known among those who have yet to hear and yet to believe. One is studying Hebrew, reading Dead Sea Scrolls, doing Aramaic vocabulary cards, and reading about Uruk beveled-rim bowls, all the while leading a youth ministry, with the hopes fulfilling the Great Commission in some scholarly capacity. The other is taking evangelism and OT in order to be bettered prepared to go into prisons and preach the gospel to as many captives as possible, also with the hopes of fulfilling the Great Commission.

In what kingdom, in what universe, in what reality is this possible? It is one of the great realities of the Kingdom of our God and his Christ.

For some reason, from secular anthropology or a misplaced sense of pride, we feel superior earlier humans from biblical times and that somehow they were too dumb or uncreative enough to use such techniques. When we envision biblical characters, its often as dumb, simple, bearded nomads who just weren’t scientific enough, or, they weren’t able to be scientific because of their simplistic minds. When one reads the Scriptures from a literary analytical approach, one at least sees that there is indeed intentionality, borrowing, adapting, selection and arrangement.

What this means is that the OT is viable. It is alive. It communicates in and through literary techniques, but more importantly, the OT speaks today. Stories are rarely ever written or told for the sole purpose not to affect future generations. Some of the stories we most remember as kids are the stories our parents told us, perhaps even about their parents. These stories often had an illustrative purpose or a moral truth which our parents wished to impart to us. The same is reasonably true with the Scriptures, but they do not just convey moral absolutes or cute stories, the OT, rather, is a story that communicates a meaning that is valid and, dare I say, authoritative for today.

What this meaning is and how to elucidate it is not the purpose of this article. I do, however, wish to again highlight what intentionality means practically. It means that what we read in the OT was chosen, intentionally, and what we do not read is left out intentionally. This is not to say that the text of Scripture does not point to outside realities for this seems nigh impossible to defend for the text certainly was written at certain times and within certain cultures.

Why all the fuss about intentionality? First of all, because it is easy to forget. “No,” you cry out in response, “I certainly always remember the intentionality of the author(s)!” Really? Bravo. I hope that I am not the only one, however, who has been reading through Leviticus and almost had to paste piece of paper on the wall in front of my desk with the word “INTENTIONALITY” printed on it as a reminder! The point is that even, yes, Leviticus was chosen and incorporated into this text we have today. The second reason is that intentionality affects how we respond to the Scriptures. Intentionality displays communication and communication is two-way: communicator and listener. This, I believe, is what we are referring to when we say that “God spoke to me through his Word” or some variation of this phrase. Thus with intentionality a dialogging takes place between the reader and, ultimately, the Author.

I have heard a few sermons on this text and I have preached or taught on this text numerous times (especially around Easter — go figure!). Yet I also find that am also guilty of neglecting Paul’s exhortation at the end of 1 Cor 15, an exhortation that is no doubt rooted in the glorious truth of the resurrection.

In 1 Cor 15:56-57, Paul writes, “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” This can be the summation of what Paul has just said. The resurrection means victory through Jesus Christ. Immediately following Paul’s summation, however, is the following exhortation: “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not vain” (1 Cor 15:58).

“Therefore,” Paul says. In other words, “in light of the fact that Christ is raised form the dead,” and “in light of everything I have just written to you about the resurrection and how you have victory through the Lord Jesus Christ,” Paul exhorts the Corinthians to be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord their labor is not in vain.

I want to concentrate on that last phrase. Paul wants the Corinthians to: (1) be steadfast; (2) be immovable; (3) always be abounding in the work of the Lord; (4) know that in the Lord their labor is not in vain. What Paul is saying to the Corinthians (and to us) is that while we strive to be steadfast, while we strive to be immovable, and while we strive to abound in the work of the Lord we are to know that in the Lord our labor is not in vain. In other words, when we are doing 1-3, Paul says we should constantly remember #4.

Does this not change everything? Laboring for a result that may or may not come to pass can be tedious and arduous, but knowing that your labor is not in vain changes everything, does it not? It means that the tiredness, the heartache, the lack of sleep, the stress, the joy, the work of ministry and “the word of the Lord” are not in vain.

Why is the labor not in vain? First, because in the Lord our labor is not in vain. Second, because of the resurrection.

If you are a believer of Jesus Christ, you (hopefully) believe in the resurrection of Jesus. You believe in the Scriptures that testify to this truth. The resurrection is the foundation for all that you believe (Remember: Paul says that if Christ was not raised our faith would be in vain). I exhort you, as does Paul, to let the truth not just be the foundation (surety) of your faith but the foundation (surety) of your labor, knowing that your labor is not in vain.

“What Your Pastor Wish You Knew About Him” by Dan Burrell

Click here for Part I and here for Part II.

In the Greek text, a relative pronoun (which we would translate “which”) is usually used to refer to something previously mentioned (called an antecedent). In other words, we are again asking the question, “What did Paul say that the Colossians had heard of before?” The closest word that is possible is the word hope (v. 4).[1] So to answer the question, Paul is referring to hope! Paul says, “You have heard of this (hope) before in the word of truth” (v. 5).

But we cannot stop here for Paul goes on to write that this hope was heard in the word of truth, the gospel. In technical terms, the phrase “the gospel” serves as an appositional phrase. An appositional phrase is a phrase that renames a noun. Perhaps an example is in order.

“Bob went to visit with his friend Joe, the judge.” In this sentence, “the judge” serves as an appositional phrase to rename or restate something about the noun “Joe.” So this tells us not only that Joe is Bob’s friend but also that Joe is a judge. This is what Paul does when he writes that hope was heard of before in the word of truth, the gospel. Paul is renaming or restating the word of truth, calling it “the gospel.” Paul says that the Colossians had heard before (or previously) of the hope laid up for them in heaven when they heard the gospel. In other words, there is hope in the gospel!

This language of “word of truth” and “the gospel” occurs in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians where he writes that in Christ also, when they “heard the word of truth, the gospel of their salvation, and believed in Christ, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit” (Eph 1:13).

Believers should take comfort in the fact that there is tremendous hope in gospel, hope that is laid up for us in heaven. Moreover, Peter tells us that God “caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you (1 Pet 1:3-4). Back in Eph 1:14, the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of a believer’s inheritance until we acquire possession of it.

Let this truth sink deep–there is hope in the gospel! Perhaps your spiritual life is slow and methodical; let it be revived by knowing there is hope in the gospel! Do you feel as though there is no hope? There is hope in the gospel! Or maybe you feel as though the fervor of your love for God has waned. Let this truth resound in your heart that there is hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ!

[1] The relative pronoun is an accusative, feminine, singular. While “love” is a feminine, singular noun and a likely antecedent, “hope” is in closer proximity and therefore the more likely antecedent. So here Paul says that “hope” is heard in the gospel (although other texts certainly show that love is communicated through the gospel).