Young People’s Blog

“And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel [young woman] possessed with a spirit of divination met us…the same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation” (Acts 16:16-17).

Paul and Silas had gone to the city of Philippi to preach the gospel, and they were there for quite a few days. During that time a young woman followed them, crying out that they were God’s servants, and showing people the way of salvation. Since the woman was possessed with an evil spirit (a demon), we might wonder why the spirit would tell the truth about Paul and Silas, and that they had come to Philippi to tell people how to get saved.

Does Satan really want people to get saved? No, he definitely does not. But Satan knows that God’s power is greater than his power, and he sometimes pretends to be part of the work of the Lord, in order to try and spoil it. This is exactly what happened there in Philippi, and we will see tomorrow what Satan did.

“For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith” (Mark 11:23).

Last week, on Saturday, I said that we would see another kind of mountain today. I have used a verse from Mark’s gospel, but it is in connection with the same incident we saw on Saturday—the fig tree withering away.

Sometimes in our lives there are situations that seem like mountains to us. They are so big that we feel that we cannot handle them. I remember one occasion, when I was in high school, and a number of bad things happened to me all at once. When I look back on them, they do not seem all that serious, but they seemed like mountains then. Maybe this has happened to you too.

When this happens to us, we can go to the Lord in prayer, and ask Him to remove the mountain. He may not remove it right away, but He is able to deal with difficult and complicated situations that seem like mountains to us. But we must go to the Lord in faith and trust Him to help us. He is willing to do this for us, if we ask Him.

“The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner” (Matthew 21:42).

When stone masons are building a house or some other building, they must choose the stones carefully. Sometimes a stone does not seem to them to fit anywhere, and they discard it. The Jewish leaders took the place of being builders in a spiritual sense, and the Lord Jesus did not fit into their plans. They did not want Him, and tried to get rid of Him.

But what has happened? The very stone that the builders rejected has become the most important stone in the building—the corner stone. God is also building, and the Lord Jesus is now the cornerstone of that building. Everything is placed into that building according to His position. His death on Calvary’s cross fitted Him to be the cornerstone of God’s building, and you and I who are saved are now also stones in that building.

Our verse today is quoted from the Psalms. See if you can find it in the book of Psalms. Away back in the Old Testament, God had said that His Son would be rejected, but that He would end up being the most important stone in the building.

“If ye have faith, and doubt not…if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done” (Matthew 21:21).

This verse appears in Mark’s gospel also, and it has caused a lot of discussion among believers. Did the Lord Jesus really mean that you and I should want to throw a mountain into the sea? No, for although God’s power could certainly do it, yet there would be no point to it.

In the sense in which this verse appears in connection with the drying up of the fig tree, I suggest that the mountain here refers to the Jews and their religion. Because they had rejected their Messiah, God was going to allow them to be driven out of their land, and scattered among the nations. The sea in the Bible often speaks of the nations of this world.

This actually happened, for about forty years after this, the Roman general Titus came against Jerusalem and besieged it. The temple was destroyed, many of the Jews were killed, and many more were taken captive and eventually sold into slavery. For almost 1900 years, the Jews had no place on earth to call home. The mountain was indeed removed, and cast into the sea. God was going to start something new (Christianity), and instead of expecting something FROM man, He was going to give something TO man.

On Monday, we will see another meaning to this word “mountain.”

“Now in the morning…He [the Lord Jesus] hungered. And when He saw a fig tree in the way, He came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforth for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away” (Matthew 21:18-19).

We might wonder why the Lord Jesus would bother to curse the fig tree, simply because He did not find any figs on it. I grew up on a fruit farm, and it was not unusual for a fruit tree to bear very little fruit for one year. But the next year it often produced a good crop. However, it was rare for a tree not to produce any fruit.

In this account, the fig tree is a picture of the nation of Israel, and in the broad sense, it is a picture of all mankind. We can produce plenty of leaves, which are only outward show, but we cannot produce any fruit for God in our natural state. Our old nature can do only bad things in God’s sight. That is why the Lord Jesus said, “Let no fruit grow on thee henceforth for ever.” After 4,000 years of testing, man’s trial was over; God knew He could not expect anything from man in his natural condition.

There was only one way that man could produce fruit for God, and that was if God in His grace gave him a new life in Christ. In this chapter (Matthew 21), the Lord Jesus was on His way to the cross, to suffer and die so that you and I could have a new life in Him.

“Neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption” (Psalm 16:10).

“But He, whom God raised again, saw no corruption” (Acts 13:37).

If the human brain is deprived of oxygen, brain cells begin to die in less than five minutes, and within ten minutes there will be severe permanent brain damage. But when the Lord Jesus died and was buried, His body lay in the grave for three days, yet there was no corruption in any part of it. This was miraculous, but it was God’s way of honoring His beloved Son. Although He died, and His body was really dead, yet no corruption occurred while He was in the grave. Then He rose again with a glorified body, and was seen by many for a period of forty days.

Sometimes people question the truth of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, but it is one of the most documented events in history. He was seen by many witnesses, and even the Jewish leaders knew that they were lying when they persuaded the soldiers guarding His tomb to say that His disciples came and stole the body while they (the soldiers) were asleep.

You and I do not belong to a dead Savior; we belong to a risen Savior!

“Then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine [teaching] of the Lord” (Acts 13:12).

If you read the account in this chapter of the visit of Paul and Barnabas to Cyprus, and especially their time spent in Paphos, you will see that a Jew, who was involved with demons, tried to persuade the deputy, Sergius Paulus, not to believe the gospel. But Paul used the power of God to make this Jewish “magician” blind for a while, to show him that God’s power was greater than Satan’s power.

However, when Sergius Paulus believed, it does not say that he was astonished at the power of the Lord, but rather at the teaching of the Lord. He was probably used to heathen gods of the Romans, and the power of Satan in the Jew who was connected with demons. But then he heard the gospel from Paul and Barnabas, and learned that he could have his sins forgiven, and have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. It was this wonderful truth that really impressed him, and won his heart. Have you accepted the Lord Jesus as your Savior?

“Now about that time Herod the king…killed James the brother of John with the sword. And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also” (Acts 12:1-3).

In the Roman Empire rulers were absolute, and could imprison or kill almost anyone they wanted. Herod killed James, and was going to get Peter too. But if you read the rest of the chapter, you will see that the Lord miraculously let Peter out of prison, and he lived quite a while longer. But why would the Lord allow James to be killed, and keep Peter alive?

We do not know the complete answer to this question, for the Lord does not always tell us why He did something. However, it would seem that James’ work was done, and that the Lord allowed him to be called home to Himself, just as He allowed a young man like Stephen to be stoned.

But the Lord had more work for Peter to do, and sent an angel to let him out of prison. God knows how to prepare His servants for their work, and He takes them home when their work is finished. Even today we sometimes see a fairly young person taken home to be with the Lord, and perhaps we wonder why. But we cannot question God’s ways; He always does what is right.

“They sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch…for he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith…Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul: and when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch” (Acts 11:22,24-26).

 God had begun a new work in the city of Antioch, and the believers in Jerusalem sent Barnabas to them, to encourage them in the Lord. But then Barnabas went to Tarsus to find Saul, and brought him to Antioch. Why would Barnabas do this? Barnabas had been saved some years before Saul of Tarsus, and he might have thought that he was perfectly capable of helping the new believers in Antioch.

However, we must recognize that the Lord has given each of us different gifts. Barnabas was evidently a loving, caring man, with a real heart for souls. Saul however (afterward Paul, the Apostle) was a teacher, and Barnabas recognized that Saul had a gift that he did not have. New believers need shepherding care, but they also need teaching, and in this way Barnabas and Saul worked together in Antioch.

In the church of God we need each other, just as we need each part of our body. We can all work together in the Lord’s work.

“Who [the Lord Jesus] His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” (1 Peter 2:24).

When the Lord Jesus was on the cross, He bore the judgment for our sins in His own body. However, it is important to realize that while our verse uses the word “stripes” to describe the judgment for our sins, those stripes were not from the things man did to Him. It was not the stripes from the scourging, the sufferings from the crown of thorns, or the sufferings from being crucified, that put away our sins. No, it was His sufferings in the three hours of darkness, from the hands of God, that put away our sins. We do not know what happened during those three hours, for God made it dark so that no one could see what took place.

Sometimes the Bible uses a word that we can understand (like the word “stripes”) to describe something we cannot understand, for we cannot really know or understand what the Lord Jesus suffered during those hours of darkness.