Holdin' on loosely

Here’s a good illustration of revelation subsequent to the fact. Paul writes in II Tim. 3:8, “Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.”

Jannes and Jambres is reference back to Exodus when Moses went before Pharaoh with his classic line, “Thus sayeth the Lord, let my people go!” He took his rod and cast it down and it became a snake.

Recalling the ever-famous account from the Old Testament, Jordan says, “I’ve thought about that a lot of times. If I’d have been Moses and had to go in and do that, you know, I’d be looking around and thinking, ‘Before I throw this down do I have the exit clear?!’

“Because if that rod had hit the ground and bounced up, I’d have grabbed it and been out the door! But it became a snake! Got Pharaoh’s attention, so he calls a couple of his religious leaders over and he says, ‘Okay you saw what he did, what can you do?’ And they said, ‘No problem!’ They threw their rods down and they became snakes.

"The point here is 'as Jannes and Jambres withstood the truth, so do these also resist the truth.’ You see the comparison? How did they do it? They counterfeited what Moses did and outdid him two to one.

“Did you ever feel like your ministry was being outdone? That everybody else seemed to succeed and you didn’t? That’s exactly how they resisted the truth: by counterfeiting. They looked like they were a success and Moses was a failure.

“Now you remember what happened. Moses’ rod hadn’t had lunch yet because it just became a snake and he ate up the other two guys’ snakes. And now they got none and he’s got one with two in his belly.

“What is it that’s going to give you the capacity to endure through that kind of resistance with the perils and the deception of the seasons around you and the dangers you face—the culture just fomenting all around you?

“The only thing that will get you through is preach that word. Stick with it. Don’t quit. In verses 10-12 of II Timothy 3, Paul continues, ‘But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience,
[11] Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me.
[12] Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.’

“Paul said, ‘Timothy, you know something about my passion and devotion for what was committed to my trust. You know something about that relentless focus. You saw it in me!’

“Those three cities mentioned—Antioch, Iconium and Lystra—are ones Paul visited in Acts 13 on his FIRST apostolic journey. Timothy is written at the END of his life. Paul isn’t at the end of his life going back and licking wounds that have taken place 35 years before. He isn’t holding a grudge. There’s something very specific and important that happened in Acts 13 and acts 14 in those cities.

“In one of those cities Paul was stoned and left for dead. Something revolutionizing took place in that man’s life when that happened. You read through the Book of Acts, and the account of Paul in Acts 13 and 9, and you read about his ministry where he’d go into a city, they wouldn’t take him and he’d just shake the dust of his feet and go to the next one.

“But the text in Acts says when they left him for dead then he rose up. Now if you’re left for dead by people who think they wanted to kill you, you probably can assume he was dead. Then he rose up, well that’s sort of like he came back to life.

“You remember in II Corinthians 12 he talks about, ‘I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth.’

“How you figure he wouldn’t know? Paul’s caught up into the 3rd heaven. He saw these things it’s not lawful to speak. And then the Lord sends him back.

“Now I don’t know about you, but I read that text and I think that’s always fascinated me because at that point in Paul’s life in Acts 14; from then on he lives like a suicidal maniac. Because the text says that after he rose up, he went back into the city where they just tried to kill him! What if it did kill him?! And from then on he doesn’t just, ‘Okay, you don’t wanna. . . ’ He goes constantly right back into the mouth of the lion!

“And you say, ‘Well, what would make him hold onto life that loosely?’ I read II Corinthians 12 and he says he was caught up into the 3rd heaven and saw things that weren’t lawful to speak and, if you were there and got to come back, what would your first thought be? ‘Maybe it’d be okay to go back’?

“The thing that’s going on there that’s in this text, is when you start out the Book of Acts, who is Satan persecuting? He’s persecuting the ‘little flock.’ You go through Acts 3-7 and it’s the Jerusalem church and it’s the apostles and, as late as Acts 12, he actually murders one of the 12 apostles James and he takes Peter, the head of the 12, and is going to kill him!

“But when you come to Acts 13 and 14, the persecution shifts from the ‘little flock’ to Paul, and from there on out he’s the object of satanic hatred. He’s the one with ‘the messenger of Satan to buffet me.’

“Now listen, preachers might not know when the program got changed, but the devil knew and it’s real clear when you read through Acts that the thing shifts from Israel and the ‘little flock’ to the persecution of just Paul.

“And Paul says to Timothy, ‘You know how what happened and you know that, in the face of all that, my doctrine, my manner of life, my purpose, my faith, my longsuffering, my charity, my patience’—aren’t those wonderful characteristics? He says, ‘The passion I had, the commitment I had to the message that was committed to my trust.’ Where would that come from? How do you have that kind of stick-to-itiveness in the face of the onslaughts, the persecutions, the afflictions?

“In Verse 12 Paul says, ‘Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.’ You need to take that verse under consideration. It doesn’t say all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall be a great success. It doesn’t fit into the mold of modern contemporary Christianity where you’re to go out and make the world happy with you under that mold.”