Have You Three Friends?

“Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; … to mourn with him and to comfort him.” (Job 2:11-13)

Are you quite sure that you have three friends? Three friends who would come to you in your grief (or who would if only they could)? Three friends who would weep over you before the Lord until their eyes were red and their faces swollen because of their fellow-feeling? Have you three friends?

Now most of us have people who are somehow dear to us and we regard them as friends; but, while we believe we are their friend, are we quite sure that they are possessed of the same feeling toward us? No friendship is perfectly mutual, possessing an equal degree of give and take, or an identical height of affection. I often consider the friendship of David and Jonathan; it seems that David was almost always on the receiving end and Jonathan on the giving, but their friendship was unlike anything else either man would know in life.

My dad was often heard to say that if a person had one true friend in his whole life he was a lucky fellow. His definition of a true friend was somewhat, if not terribly, idealistic for sure. But we would think his definition idealistic only because we all pretty much know that to expect too much from our regular friends is to be unrealistic. He’s just a friend, someone might say. I’m sure just a friend or a regular friend and a true friend have to be entirely different.

When we call someone brother we acknowledge some sort of kinship. Most of us would suppose that some kind of friendship would suit such a relationship. Yet we all know of brothers who can’t stand each other. Just today I met a lady whose brother estranged himself from her for years and truly broke her heart. After a number of years of pain and hurt, they are trying to mend the relationship, but she knows that she will always be somewhat distrusting of him from now on. Sometimes a brother may make himself your enemy; being a brother means he’s already close enough to inflict harm. One reason it hurts like it does when such a relationship goes bad is that we initially place so many good expectations on a relationship with a brother (or sister).

Some friends are closer than natural relatives ever could be. We know this is true. None of us is surprised to find the Book of Proverbs telling us, “…there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother” (18:24). It would seem that “Job’s three friends” were such friends to him. He had known them for a long time, no doubt; they had all developed great interest in each other over time. It would seem that, even though they were often terribly wrong in what they would say about God and His ways, they struggled hard to make sense of all that had happened and they truly wanted Job’s trials to end and to see their friend entirely well again. They wanted to see their friend whole once more.

Have you three friends? Three. By some people’s thinking three is not nearly enough. I am thinking three friends is a really good start.

If you happen to be well and prospering and have an abundance of friends, remember Job. If ever you should wear his sandals, you may be surprised at how few friends you actually have. If you are not now in Job’s sandals, think about wearing the sandals of “Job’s three friends.” It is almost certain that, today, someone needs you to be the friend they think you are. –TSA

Jesus Himself…in the Midst

“And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.” (Luke 24:36)

As the locked door was opened to admit them, Cleopas and the other disciple who had walked the near seven mile trip in darkness to share with the other believers their own personal encounter with the risen Christ were greeted with the news, “The Lord is risen indeed and has appeared unto Simon.”

The first, excited report of the women who visited the empty tomb during the early hours of the first day of the week had been treated like a fabricated tale. The empty tomb itself had only generated questions for Simon Peter. But then, at some point later during that day, the Lord Jesus appeared to Peter. His report of Jesus’ resurrection was adequate to assure and thrill the others. “The Lord is risen indeed…”

Late that evening Cleopas and the other disciple brought to the gathered assembly additional eye-witness testimony to confirm that the Lord Jesus was indeed raised from the dead, telling how He had spent considerable time with them that afternoon, walking and talking and even reclining at table with them—then it was that they finally recognized Him. Prior to that moment their eyes had somehow been prevented from knowing Him, providentially they are sure—for they truly needed to hear every precious word He had said to them. And O how their hearts had thrilled as the crucified, risen Messiah opened to them the meaning of the ancient Scriptures concerning Himself—Scriptures they were certain that they already understood, but didn’t. Now they understand and they are absolutely convinced that all Jesus suffered, even unto death, was the centerpiece of the forever-plan of God to redeem His people from their sins.

While the gathered disciples were speaking to one another of these thrilling realities in what had to be a wonderfully frenzied session, suddenly “Jesus himself stood in the midst of them.” How startling and pleasant and terrifying in the same awesome instant! The risen Lord calms their startled minds, raising recently nail-scarred hands as He bids them “peace.”

It was Jesus Himself. Here was no imagined Savior, nor phantom, nor spirit, nor apparition. It was the Galilean of Nazareth, “the Lamb of God,” who had been put to death “by wicked hands,” now risen from the dead. His resurrected body was the same body in which Jesus had suffered and died. It seems that His resurrected body possessed different qualities than the body of His humiliation, like possibly entering a room without using a door and certainly not a window. But this was the very same body with other, less-restricting properties. We would do well to remember that Jesus in His resurrected state retained His humanity and physicality, along with glorious and infinite and spiritual Person-hood.

As John will later say, “Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2 ESV). This would lead us to think that even as Jesus retained His humanity when He was raised from the dead so will we in “the regeneration” when all things are made new. As to many of the details, “it has not yet appeared.” But we do know this much about our glorious future in the presence of God, when Jesus appears in His Second Coming, “we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”

Further, it is the resurrection of Jesus that serves as God’s guarantee to all men that the Lord’s work of redemption at the cross was entirely pleasing to Him. His resurrection from the dead was the Father’s mighty and powerful way of proving that Jesus of Nazareth truly is the His one-of-a-kind, only-begotten, eternal Son. “Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead…” (Romans 1:3-4).

It will be “this same Jesus” who returns in sovereign power and unimaginable glory. Once again “Jesus Himself” will make a startling appearance. Count on it. –TSA

Did Ever Your Heart Burn Within You?

“And they said one to another, ‘Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?’” (Luke 24:32)

Surely there are times when Christ comes near and we do not readily recognize Him. Something prevents us from seeing, from recognizing Him for who He is. Because our hearts are sad our vision is almost blindness. The voice is like music and the words profound; His talk is persuasive and His tone understanding and helpful.

Then comes the moment when the eyes of our understanding are opened and we instantly know it has been our Lord speaking to us. It is He who caused our hearts to sweetly burn within us. His explanation, His expounding, His interpreting to us the things in the Scriptures concerning Himself is enough to make the very heart to warm with delight and insight, to say, “Now I see, for He has made the difficult things plain, the obscure things clear.”

The walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus was several miles. On that day part of the trip surely seemed shorter than usual, as Jesus joined them on the road and walked with them and explained to them what they thought they already understood, but didn’t. They had believed the Scriptures throughout their whole lives, no doubt; but Jesus told them that they had not believed “all that the prophets have spoken,” a serious charge and one that might easily offend anyone who was quite certain that they did believe in all the Scriptures.  Yet the prophets had surely written of both the sufferings of Messiah and His glory, but these two disciples had not believed what they (along with many others) failed to rightly understand. Far from offending them, Jesus’ explanation began to set their hopeless hearts aflame. In the course of that time listening to the risen Christ, hopelessness gave way to faith, belief in “all that the prophets have spoken.”

They began to see what happened in Jerusalem in an entirely new light. Far from the tragedy they had perceived, the death of Jesus the Messiah was what God had always intended—all for the redemption of sinners, to reconcile us His people to Himself through the atoning death of His Son. The resurrection, as Paul would later preach at the Areopagus, is absolute proof that God was and is entirely pleased with the sacrifice of His Son. The Sin-bearer’s sacrifice was accepted by the One to whom it was presented, as the Father of our Lord Jesus validated His pure success on the cross “by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:31).

As we now read the Scriptures of the Old Testament, let us be sure to open our eyes to see and understand that the prophets spoke many things concerning the Lord Jesus. Do you believe “all that the prophets have spoken?” If you were there on that day, you would have heard for yourself as “… beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). Did ever your heart burn within you? –Pastor TSA