RELATIONAL HEALTH

How healthy are your relationships?  Whether, those relationships are with a spouse, another family member, a friend, a neighbor, a co-worker or fellow student, even a church member, are they healthy?  Paul gives us some vital signs to check in Ephesians 4:30-32 that register our relational fitness.

1.  RELATIONAL COMMITMENT IS PRACTICED. “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” (v.30). There are many ways we can grieve the Holy Spirit.  A chief way is through our lack of commitment to those we love.  He has sealed us—that is the Spirit has come into the believer as a guarantee of salvation, and He has promised to be ever-present.  When we walk away from a relationship because it is difficult, He is broken-hearted, for He will never do that!

2.  RELATIONAL CANCERS ARE REMOVED. “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.” (v.31). If you are diagnosed with cancer, and the surgeon puts you under anesthesia and under the knife, the first question you will have for the doctor when you awake is, “Did you get it all?”  You know if any cancer remains, it will recur. Paul tells us to get rid of all relational malignancies.  These things will kill a relationship!

3.  REAL COMPASSION IS EXERCISED. “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” (v.32). Real compassion means I do acts of kindness toward others. It is felt in how I am tenderhearted toward others. Essentially, it is given in how I forgive others.  In this, I follow the example of my Lord.  Surely, if He has forgiven me so much, then I can forgive others who have done less in comparison!  Read the story Jesus told in Matt.18:21-35. We will study that later this week.

How did your relational vitals read?

WHEN ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE

 

Then the fifth angel sounded: And I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit.  (Revelation 9:1)

From time to time, someone will say to me, “I’m going through hell!”  They are suffering and I sympathize, but they are wrong.  The horrors of hell are far beyond anything we know in this world.  There is coming a day, however, when the world gets a foretaste of hell.  Because people reject the heaven God offers, He will give them the hell they deserve.

When we come to the eighth chapter of Revelation, six seals have been opened on the scroll, and this brings the climactic opening of the seventh seal.  Beneath the seventh seal is written the decree of seven trumpets of judgment that are to be sounded.  Four of these terrible outpourings of wrath are described in that chapter.  The last three will be so horrible that they are called the three “woes.”  We will consider two of these woes that come with the fifth and sixth trumpet blasts, as detailed in Revelation 9.

All hell breaks loose when the lid to the bottomless pit is lifted.  That abyss is the present prison of some extremely evil spirits.  They have been imprisoned there since they nearly led the human race into total annihilation in the days of Noah (2 Pet.2:4-5; Jude 6).  They are pressing against the prison door even now—straining with all their might—hordes of hell longing to be free from their torment that they might unleash torment on the world again.  That key is at last handed over to the star fallen from heaven (v.1).  Jesus holds the keys for He is Lord of all (Rev.1:18), but now He will allow Satan to take the key and loose his minions.

Out boils the smoke of the abyss (v.2).  The result is that the sun is darkened and the air is defiled.  The demons take on the form of monstrous locusts (v.3-12).  Throughout Bible history, the swarms of locusts were a sign of God’s judgment.  Those brought devastation to vegetation, but these will spare the grass and strike the godless (v .3-6).  Their mission is to inflict unbearable pain to all who do not have the seal of God (that is—the 144,000 witnesses and those converted by their testimony).  Sinners will scream—insane with pain—yet, be unable to die.  The duration of this affliction will be five months (v.7-12).  Even the demons’ form will be frightening and fiendish.

After the sounding of the fifth trumpet and the first woe which ascend from below the earth, the sixth trumpet signals the second woe that descends from above the earth (v.13-21).  The altar, meant to be a place of forgiveness for those who receive Christ, will become the source of fury for those who reject Him (v.13-15).  If we do not accept the sacrifice of Jesus to pay the price for our sins, then we will have to pay the debt ourselves!  Fallen angels are chained, but in that day loosed.  These are bound up at the Euphrates River—Babylon—which is the polluted fountain of all false religion.  They will be in the vanguard of an army 200 million strong (v.16-19).  These will gather for the great jihad against Israel, perhaps this army is Russia and her Muslim allies (see Ezek.38-39).  The most remarkable thing is that people still will not repent (v.20-21)!  Their hearts are so hard; they had rather suffer this hell than submit to heaven!

FROM THE GRAVEYARD TO GLORYLAND

even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)  (Ephesians 2:5)

When we are saved we move from the graveyard to Gloryland.  This truth is pictured in the Gospel story of the Gaderene demoniac.  He was a demon-possessed man who lived in a graveyard.  He was violent, uncontrollable, an outcast who was hopeless—but then Jesus came by—and everything changed.  Christ commanded the powers of darkness to leave.  The naked man put on clothes.  The crazed man came to his right mind.  He would leave the cemetery and head for home with a testimony of what Jesus had done for him.  He was a new man with a new mission.  This illustrates the Scriptural principles Paul is sharing in Ephesians 2. 

There is OUR STATE WITHOUT CHRIST (v.1-3).  One word summarizes our state without Christ: dead.  Paul doesn’t say this is the condition of some of us, but all of us.  It is the natural state of man.  Death means separation—not the end of existence.  As the demonized man lived in tombs apart from other people, so we are in a realm of death apart from God—the location Paul refers to as being, “in trespasses and sins.”  Apart from Christ we are like the world (v.2a).  This is the world system with its philosophies, practices, passions and pleasures apart from Christ.  We are like the world and of the devil (v.2b).  If we are not the children of God through a new birth, we are children of the Devil via our natural birth.  Apart from Christ we are like the world, of the devil, and in the flesh (v.3).  We are driven by fleshy desires.  Why does a dog bark and not meow?  What does a cat meow and not sing?  Why does a bird sing and not bark?  That is their nature.  We are by nature powerless to change—and so must be born again. 

Thankfully, there is OUR SALVATION BY CHRIST (v.4-9).  One word communicates the experience of salvation: delivered.  That’s what Jesus did for the demon-possessed man.  Observe, Jesus gave us love (v.4, 7-9).  We were children of wrath deserving Hell, but mercy means we do not get what we deserve—and God is “rich in mercy.”  It is His great love that moved Him to send His Son to save us.  He gave us life (v.5-6).  A resurrection took place.  We are united with the life of Jesus—all He is and where He is!

This leads to OUR SERVICE FOR CHRIST (v.10).  The one word that conveys our service is: disciple.  God call us to discipleship.  We aren’t saved by works (v.8-9), but are saved to work (v.10).  The man set free from demons was given a commission to witness to family & friends.  There is our resource.  God prepared His plan for us beforehand.  God gives grace—we work out what God works in.  The branch abides in Vine to bear fruit.  Our resource brings our response.  No wonder the man set free from thousands of demons wanted to follow Jesus!  “Workmanship” in the original language is “poema,” a life of rhyme and reason.  God has designed you with a special plan in mind.

Have your moved out of the graveyard and into Gloryland?  The work of grace is to move you from death to life.  Receive Jesus today!  He makes all the difference!