On This Day: Patterns and Promises in Jesus’ Work

   So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:6-8)

   Two words of caution: first, that seeing patterns in Scripture is not authoritative. That is, unless God specifically teaches the pattern. What I mean is that it can be helpful to learn that there are patterns to the way God works, and we may sometimes see how a pattern in Scripture matches what we are going through, but we must not treat such observations as having the same authority as a specific revelation.

   For example, when I was going through John 4 about the Samaritan woman, I noticed a pattern. First Jesus would say something that looked like it was lifting her thoughts higher than she had experienced before, but then this was followed by a statement that made her look deeper inside herself at how she was doing. I have since seen this pattern in me and others many times, but it isn’t authoritative. No one else needs to see it. It isn’t binding. It may not always be the way God works. It is just something I found fascinating and sometimes it stands out that it appears God is still using that pattern as needed.

   On the other hand, when God clearly says in his word, “For the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7), that is a pattern God himself says he always uses. Whenever God was going to do something, he first told someone about it so that person would be his spokesman to the target audience. This tells us to pay close attention to what is written in the Scriptures because that is still God doing something through the “secrets of the kingdom” he revealed through his servants.

   Second, along with the caution that our observation of patterns in God’s work is not authoritative (even though very helpful), it is also necessary to caution ourselves that not all promises of God are for all believers for every scene of history. Some promises were time-sensitive (belonging only to a particular time) and people-sensitive (belonging only to particular people, sometimes individuals).

   This is important because we must distinguish between the promises of God that apply to all believers throughout all the end times, and the promises that were given to certain people for certain events.

   When Jesus promised the disciples that they would “receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you,” he was speaking of the unique event on the day of Pentecost ten days later. There are lessons and encouragements in this that can encourage us in our times and situations, but the promise was for those people at that time.

   On the other hand, the pattern and promise of God for the church throughout the end times is,

   And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. (Ephesians 5:18-21)

   The parallel passage in Colossians reads,

   Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:16-17)

   Being filled with the Spirit and letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly are commands and promises for all believers throughout the whole end times no matter where we live. They correspond with, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16) and “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25).

   God told his old covenant people to “walk in all his ways” (Deuteronomy 10:12 and many others). John wrote about believers in Revelation with the expression,

   And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,
“Great and amazing are your deeds,
    O Lord God the Almighty!
Just and true are your ways,
    O King of the nations! (Revelation 15:3)

   God does have ways of working, they sometimes show up in patterns, and they typically include promises. But we must reject any pendulum-extremes of too much or too little, while seeking to humbly and faithfully live “by every word that comes from the mouth of God” as recorded in Scriptures as “the word of Christ.”

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

 

On This Day: Living and Loving the King of God’s Kingdom

   In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. (Acts 1:1-3)

   I have had faith in Jesus Christ from a young age. This has grown from my earliest childish understanding, through my teenaged years of learning attachment, and on into maturing in “the obedience of faith”. Along the way, I have learned so many things that have helped my faith keep growing stronger.

   One of those big things was learning that the detailed descriptions of Jesus’ ministry, death, and resurrection were proclaimed and written about while many of the participants in those events were still alive. We can’t be eyewitnesses to Jesus’ activity from back in the day. But the fact that men like Luke would give so many details of what Jesus did and taught while people could talk to those involved, affirms that we have the “orderly account” of real life and can trust these writings as the very word of God.

   So, when Luke transitions from his “orderly account” of Jesus’ life and ministry up to the time of his ascension back into heaven, it stands out to me what he felt should be front and center in our thinking as he introduces us to Jesus’ work through his early church.

   Most notably, I was drawn to the emphasis that Jesus was “speaking about the kingdom of God.” This means that the gospel “of the kingdom” was not something Jesus taught to Israel only during his earthly ministry. His emphasis on the kingdom of God during those 40 days of resurrection appearances means that this is as much part of everyday church life now as it was then.

   What we call “the Great Commission” summarizes the “commands” Jesus gave the apostles. Matthew gives this focus:

   And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

   This means that going out into the nations to make and baptize disciples is all about the kingdom of God. That’s what the kingdom of God does, it extends the kingly authority of Jesus Christ throughout the world, calling people to repent, be baptized, and join the kingdom.

   Luke’s account of Jesus’ commands to the apostles was:

   “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” (Luke 24:46-49)

   Jesus sending his disciples out to the nations was the calling of his kingdom. Jesus is the King. We are his servants. We are his body. We proclaim to the nations the “good news of the kingdom” because we want them to repent and join us in living for Jesus Christ in these perverse times.

   My encouragement to you is, please consider how well you relate to Jesus and his word as “speaking about the kingdom of God.” Everything he teaches you from his word every day is to help you (and me) “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33) and pursue our kingdom-experience of the “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17).

   My wife and I both lament that we were not taught a “kingdom of God” mindset growing up in churches, during our Bible College years, and in our ministry ever since. The North American gospel is not the gospel of the kingdom, but the gospel of the individual. This is why churches are so child-centered (what God’s kids want to do, not what Father is doing).

   I do not have all the answers, and I grieve the damage done by people slandering us as being in a cult just because we prefer home church to all the institutionalism around us. But there are promises of God for those who seek first his kingdom and righteousness, and Luke’s spotlight on Jesus speaking about his kingdom must give us courage to do the same today in the hope of joining his work to seek and save the lost.

   The bottom line is that Jesus is “King of kings, and Lord of lords,” and our love for him as the King of his kingdom should override anything the world, the flesh and the devil have in mind for us today. And, by faith, we will have the victory in Jesus’ name.

 

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

 

On This Day: From Parting of Grief to Parting of Joy

   And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God. (Luke 24:50-53)

   There is great value in allowing our inner beings to attach to the realities described in God’s word, particularly when we are called to meditate on such extreme experiences as Jesus’ two partings!

   I find that my growing understanding of the Jewish mindedness of Jesus’ disciples helps me appreciate all the more what these people lost when Jesus died. I can’t think of a parallel in the Gentile (non-Jewish) world that corresponds to the expectations involved in Jesus’ first coming and the grief of witnessing it ending in such unexpected tragedy.

   Think of the shock to the system when the disciples saw these expectations and dreams utterly shattered with Jesus’ helplessness against the conspiracy to take him down, and his enemies’ success in destroying him as they had strategized. Think of the weight of grief and sorrow on these disciples that they could not even believe the wonderful news that angels appeared to the women and told them that Jesus was live. Jesus’ parting in death by crucifixion had not only killed him, but it had destroyed something in them!

   When I meditated on Luke’s concluding paragraph, and I considered how joyful the disciples were even though Jesus was leaving them again, I felt the weight of conviction regarding how the resurrection of Jesus Christ ought to be impacting me and the body of Christ in my community. Jesus is gone for us as he was for the disciples that day. It was a parting. He is no longer here in the flesh. Feeling his absence is real.

   However, those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in the “repentance for the forgiveness of sins” are the only people in the whole wide world who have faith in a living redeemer. Everyone else traces their beliefs back to the dead.

   On the other hand, the disciples were not only overwhelmed with joyful worship because Jesus was alive, but because everything they believed about him was still in effect. He was the Messiah after all. His Messianic kingdom had come as promised. It was not a military kingdom driving earthly despots out of the land. It was a spiritual kingdom delivering people out of the domain of darkness and transferring them into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins (Colossians 1:13-14).

   AND… there was the added reality that Jesus had promised that the Father’s promise was going to be fulfilled in Jerusalem very soon. What they had missed at his first parting (that they only had to wait a couple of days and he would be alive again) they were attaching to at his second parting. The Holy Spirit would be sent to empower the church for its mission in the world and they would wait for this in joyful expectation.

   Today, the mirror of God’s word calls me to look at how I am doing. Does the fact that my Redeemer lives impact me with joyful worship? And, is the activity of the Holy Spirit real in my life as I seek to “be filled with the Spirit” (Eph 5:18), to “walk by the Spirit” (Gal 5:16), to be “led by the Spirit” (Gal 5:18), to “live by the Spirit” (Gal 5:25), and to fellowship with “those who live according to the Spirit (who) set their minds on the things of the Spirit” (Romans 8:5)?

   Sometimes, the Scriptures do such a rapid Beatitudinal Journey on us that we find ourselves “hungering and thirsting for righteousness” and feel like we must have just rolled down the downside of the valley through “blessed are the poor in spirit… those who mourn… (and) the meek…”, leaving us at rock bottom looking up at what is next.

   For me, that means setting my mind on the realities of the resurrected Redeemer and his continuing work through the Holy Spirit. Even if it’s not as much as I might wish, I want it to be more than I have, and I will wait in expectation for God’s will to be done in me and his church as it is done in heaven. 

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: When Our Destination is an Open Door

   So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, but they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. (Luke 24:28-31)

   The older I get, the more patterns I see in God’s word. As threads in a tapestry create amazing scenes, these themes of Scripture teach us about life in our Creator’s kingdom.

   I have known for a long time that the bull’s eye of God’s work is our hearts. I have also learned that Larry Crabb was correct that, in the church, more people are committed to their self-protection than to knowing and doing the will of God.1 

   That being proven true too many sad times to count, it is evident that self-protection is a conflict with God. God is pursuing our hearts; we are doing everything we can to keep him and everyone else as far away from our inner beings as we can manage. 

   When I look back to my earliest experience of God, and I trace all the times it appeared that God was silent, or anything that fit this picture of a pause in God’s work, what did I learn about me in relation to him? How many times did I show my sarky and self-centered belief that I was a poor victim of God failing to keep his word, and how often did I feel in myself a hunger and thirst for the righteousness of knowing God better than I had ever known him before?

   And today (I would say “by accident”, but it was really “by divine appointment"), I looked up the Scripture about Gideon because he fit the theme of someone who had experienced a pause in God’s work in Israel and God invited him to look into his heart to know what he wanted. I realized that this Scripture had much more to say to me than I would have guessed.

   Gideon’s response to the LORD’s greeting was, 

   “Please, my lord, if the LORD (Yahweh) is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian” (Judges 6:13).

  There it was. Yahweh greeted Gideon and paused. Gideon knew immediately what was in his heart. It is the cry of so many people when God’s pauses are WAY… TOO… LONG!!! And when God drew this out of Gideon’s heart (which is feeling SO SIMILAR to what Jesus was doing with the two men on the road to Emmaus), God could begin telling him the divine plan and how Gideon would join God in his work.

   For me, this is one of the most gracious smacks upside the head (no, not really, but that’s what I think I need so often!) to get me to concentrate and look where the Holy Spirit is pointing. The divine pauses are often what I have made a destination but God is turning into an open door. Am I okay with Jesus moving on down the road while I get back to my normal? Or does my heart burn to know how I can know the Triune God better than I have ever known him/them before?

   Today, I repent for so easily losing heart and feeling sorry for myself. God has paused long enough for me to see I hate doing things my way, and he has renewed my hope that he will continue doing in my life what he did in the lives of those two men on the road to Emmaus, and Gideon in a winepress, and two pairs of brothers on a lakeshore mending their nets, and…

   Well, you get the picture. How have you felt God pause his work in your life so that you have struggled to know why you’re not experiencing things you thought he promised? Can you see that he is just waiting to see what you want to do when it looks like he’s carrying on without you?

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

1 Inside Out, Larry Crabb, The Navigators; 25th Anniversary ed. edition (June 5 2013)