Central Church - Who We Are

Question: In Acts 14:19,20 after Paul was stoned by the mob, it says, they "dragged him out of the city, apparently dead. But as the believers stood around him, he got up and went back into the city." (NLT) Was Paul raised from the dead by God's power or did he just look dead, and was really not?

Answer: We are not told whether he died or not. But unless the people of Lystra were just really incredibly bad at stoning people, it is hard to believe that Paul did not come away from this at least badly injured. His ability to just get up and go back into the town seems a testimony to God's healing power in his life at this moment. It is interesting that it does not say the believers prayed over him but that they stood around him, but undoubtedly they were talking to God about this. Perhaps they thought he was dead and there was no need to pray. But God chose to heal Paul or maybe He actually raised him from the dead. In either case it seems to have been a miracle. Paul mentions in 2 Corinthians 11:25 a stoning he experienced and it is probably this one in Acts which is in view.

Randall Johnson

Question: What was the significance of Ruth laying at the feet of Boaz and why was he so impressed by it?

Answer: In the book of Ruth we are told that a Bethlehem family left their town and country of Israel to go to Moab during a famine. The sons married Moabite women but they and their father died in Moab. Naomi, the widow, and her two daughters-in-law, were parting but Ruth refused to leave Naomi and returned with her to Bethlehem. To take care of her mother-in-law she went to work in the fields. She so impressed Boaz, one of the owners of fields, that he encouraged her to work for him only and rewarded her for her devotion to her mother-in-law, a near relative of his. Naomi instructed Ruth at harvest time to wait until the men were sleeping and quietly go to Boaz and put part of his covering over her feet and lay there. This was apparently a customary way of asking a man to provide the protection of marriage.

Boaz was impressed, as he says, because in his estimation she could have had her pick of younger men, rich or poor, but was not motivated by a desire for wealth or excitement. Rather, she was loyal to her mother-in-law and recognized that Boaz, as a near relative, was the choice of integrity in line with the law of Moses, which said that the near relative of a deceased man was to marry his widow and raise up children to his name. This was a way of ensuring that the land he had inherited from God remained in his family.

As it turns out, the descendent of Ruth and Boaz was David, king of Israel. It was God who had engineered this coming together of two godly believers to produce the greatest king Israel ever had.

Randall Johnson

Question: In Deuteronomy 14:22-29 it says that the Israelites were to bring a tenth of their produce and flocks to the place God would choose for his sanctuary. Those who lived far away from that sanctuary could exchange their tithe for silver and travel with it to the sanctuary rather than bear the prohibitive cost or energy of transporting goods. It says in verse 26 that they could use the silver to buy whatever they liked (whatever their hearts desired, according to the New King James Version), including cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything they wished. Then they were to eat it in the presence of the Lord. Weren't the tithes supposed to be for the Levites and priests? How did having a family meal fit in with this? What about the use of alcohol?

Answer: In Numbers 18:21-29 specifies that the tithes are to be given to the Levites as those who maintain the Tabernacle and do not have their own land to support their families. This passage seems to be an additional perspective given by Moses that a portion of the tithe was to be used in a festal meal at the sanctuary to be shared in fellowship with family and, most importantly, with God. It would have been impossible for each family to eat the whole tithe. It is understood that only a small portion of the tithe was to be used for this meal. The rest would go to the Levites. The fellowship meal would be a way of celebrating God's goodness to the whole family (they did have to eat, after all, when they were at the sanctuary) and of acknowledging God's presence during their year of work and now as they celebrated. The use of alcohol is never prohibited in Scripture. In fact, it is encouraged as a blessing from the Lord to be used with joy and responsibly (Psalm 104:15; Isaiah 55:1; John 2:1-11). However, over-indulgence is prohibited. Drunkenness is considered an improper and foolish use of alcohol. See Genesis 9:21; 19:30-35; Proverbs 20:1; 23:20,21,31-35; Ephesians 5:18.

We are meant to treat food and wine sacramentally. That is, we are to treat them as holy objects of God's divine love. He has provided everything for us to enjoy. Instead, we tend to indulge. We cannot get enough of a good thing. Instead of rejoicing in the God who gave us that great tasting meal, we greedily swallow it down and look for more. The experience of the taste becomes more important than the giver of both taste and what tastes good. If we see the Giver of good things as more important than the gifts themselves, we may fulfill our hearts' desires and lustily worship the God of abundance and joy at our meals, our jobs, our parties, our church services, and every other part of our lives. He will be the focus of our enjoyment, not just His good gifts.

Randall Johnson

Question: Romans 8:1-2 says there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. My question is, if the guilt you feel when you sin, which leads you to repent, is not condemnation and not from God then what is the difference between guilt and condemnation? And what then is Judgment day?

Answer: Condemnation is an objective judgment from God resulting in some penalty being measured out against you for your sin. It could be some illness, death, loss of income and the ultimate condemnation is hell. For those who are in Christ Jesus, who have believed in him for life and forgiveness, the penalty we deserve from God he took for us and we no longer have to pay it. God now never responds to us in condemnation, but views us as righteous in his sight because of what Jesus did for us. He may discipline us, a response of love and favor to help someone become what they're supposed to be. Discipline is not punishment. It is a desire to instruct and reform. Punishment is only about getting justice, what you or I deserve. Discipline is all about growth in Christlikeness.

The guilt we feel when we sin is our conscience telling us that what we have done is wrong and an offense against our relationship to the Lord. It is a gift from God to help us move in the right direction rather than keep running away from him and what is best for us. If you feel, in your guilt, that you need to be punished for what you did, you have failed to grasp what Christ has done for you - taken your punishment for you completely. When you feel guilt you should acknowledge to God what you did wrong and ask His help to do better. It should never result in your feeling hopeless, even if this is a repeat of what you have done before. God is eager to mold you into the image of his son, Jesus (Romans 8:29) and he will not cease working toward this while we are alive. When Jesus comes back we will be made perfect in body and soul and never have to deal with our sinfulness and waywardness again. Those who do not know the Lord will experience Jesus' return as a day of judgment where they must answer for their sins and their unwillingness to receive Jesus' forgiveness. They will have to pay for their sins on their own by eternal separation from God.

Randall Johnson

Question: Is it my imagination of does Proverbs 26:5 directly contradict Proverbs 26:4? What's up with that?

Answer: Your imagination is playing tricks with you. Actually, many of our problems with interpreting Proverbs stem from our failure to understand what they are intended to communicate. There are three messages that wisdom in Scripture has for us:

(1) Wisdom is only acquired by those who want it bad enough to work for it (2:1-5). This means that all the meaning of what a proverb is saying is not always apparent on the surface. In fact, the way the proverbs are laid out (no apparent order, not topically arranged at all) means you have to really study them, meditate on them, to figure them out.

(2) Every issue has many sides to it (26:4,5). In the case of the proverbs you mention, responding to someone who is unreasonable is not a simple task. It requires wisdom to see that and not come with the same cookie-cutter approach to every problem.

(3) There are exceptions to some rules (10:4 and 13:23 plus the book of Job). Proverbs is not a book of promises, but wisdom and observation that tells us what is the norm in God's world. It tells us how He normally works, but it points out, as in the proverbs cited, that He does not always observe our rules.

In the proverb you cite, there is a time to answer a fool according to his folly and a time not to. Jesus talked about not casting our pearls before swine (Matthew 7). This describes a situation where the receiver of truth despises truth and it is not worth telling it to him and may even be dangerous to. Paul is an example, however, of answering a fool according to his folly when in 2 Corinthians he brags and boasts of his "accomplishments" to the Corinthians because it was the only way they could receive him (11:16; 12:11). The wise person will learn when and how to respond to the fool in the best way possible, though even then he or she may not know which way was best until he or she got into it.

Randall Johnson

Question: I need some guidance on Proverbs 24:27. It says, "Finish your outdoor work and get your fields ready; after that, build your house."

I'm having some trouble with this. It's in the middle of the Bible with no context as to what it means. It's just stuck in the middle of all of these other instructions. It can't be saying that your work is more important than your family right?

I interpret as two possibilities. First, it could mean that you spend your day taking care of work so that later in the day, you can spend time with family. Second, it could mean that while you're single you should build your fields so that later when you get a family, you can provide for them.

Either way I see it, it puts work before family and never changes the priorities to family over work. Any ideas?

Answer: Derek Kidner, one of my favorite commentators, says on this proverb: "The housebuilding probably means the founding of a family, a matter that must wait its turn till afterwards. AS, in a rural economy, well-worked fields justify and nourish the farmhouse, so a well-ordered life (in things material and immaterial) should be established before marriage." So I think your second interpretation is the best one, but I don't see how that elevates work above family, rather just the opposite. If "build your house" means begin and raise a family, it only makes sense that you would prepare yourself to do that by having a steady job or income. It's like Jesus' admonition to count the cost before you begin a project. In the past a man would get a job and be somewhat sure of how he could support a family before he got married. This assured that he would be able to provide the very best security for his family. That seems to be the sense of this proverb to me.

Randall Johnson

Question: I have videotape on the Old Testament. The speaker refers to the passage when Moses said "let my people go to serve their God". The speaker translated the word serve as worship. So he was saying, let my people go to worship their God. Someone questioned if that was an accurate translation or was that an interpretation? Do you have anything that could help me address that question?

Answer: The word is ebed (pronounced eh' ved) and means to work or serve, but when used of serving God, implies that one also worships him. In New or Late Hebrew the word means serve, perform acts of worship (according to Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon). The Arabic derivative means worship, obey (God). The NIV translates it "worship" in Exodus 7:16. I guess the simple answer to your question then is that it is an interpretive translation to express the fuller sense of what the word meant in that context. This is bolstered by Exodus 3:18, which says that when the Israelites got out into the wilderness they would offer sacrifices to God.

Randall Johnson

Question: I read 1 Corinthians 6. It was talking about lawsuits. I was confused at verses 9-11. Can salvation be lost? I don't think it can but needed some clarification.

Answer: The passage reads, "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."

It is clear that Paul is distinguishing between what the Corinthians were (the things listed in his hall of shameful disobedience) and what they had become in Christ. He did not believe that, as a whole, they would fail to get into the kingdom of God. But he is saying what he is saying for a reason. He wants them to be warned that the proof of their being washed and sanctified and justified in Christ is that they will not continue in such shameful behaviors.

There is no denying that the "wicked" will not inherit the kingdom. It is a place for those who obey the king, those who willingly submit to his sovereignty as ruler. But if one who calls him or herself a Christian, a follower of Christ, continues to live like one who does not submit to Christ's authority, then there is every reason to suspect that he or she is not a follower of Christ. There should be no self-deception. You cannot claim to know Christ and not do what he says. If you truly have been born again and have the Spirit of God in your life, you will not continue in sin (Galatians 6:7-8; Colossians 1:21-23; 2 Peter 1:3-11; 1 John 3:9).

We do not become kingdom members by good works, but we demonstrate that we have become kingdom members by good works. It is the Spirit of Christ who is enabling us to perform these works and only the true believer has the Spirit and has the ability to continue in good works. This does not mean we are always doing what we're supposed to do, but we are feeling conviction when we don't and we are finding his grace available to repent and do what is right. We are seeing the yoke of sin broken in our lives, however slow a process that might be. But the short answer to your question is that it does not teach that you can lose your salvation. It says that if you do not experience what he is talking about you never had salvation to begin with.

Randall Johnson

Question: My 7 year old asked me a question that I don't know how to answer, " Mom, the bible teaches us to forgive right, and we are supposed to forgive those who do bad things to us right? Are we supposed to forgive the devil?"

Answer: There are two kinds of forgiveness.

The first kind of forgiveness is our response to someone who comes to us and tells us they were wrong for what they did to us and should be punished for it, but they want our forgiveness. We tell them we are no longer holding what they did to us against them. We're no longer going to treat them as someone who is out to hurt us. We will start to learn to trust them and maybe even be friends if things go well. This is the kind of forgiveness God gives us when we come to him and tell him we were wrong for living our lives without him. He forgives us and does not hold it against us forever, because Jesus, his Son, took our punishment we deserved by dying in our place. If a person does not ask for this forgiveness, he or she does not get it.

The second kind of forgiveness is needed when someone is choosing to hurt us but he or she does not feel they need to be forgiven and does not ask for our forgiveness. They really are against us and still deserve to be treated with punishment for what they are doing. It is not our place to punish them. If they have broken a law by hurting us the law enforcers may punish him or her. But we have been taught by Jesus to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44). We are to hope and pray that they will realize how bad they are being and that they will ask for forgiveness. But until they do, we do not want to hate them and treat them as badly as they treat us. So we treat them with respect even though we know they will still try to hurt us. Jesus did this when on the cross he asked the Father to forgive those who were crucifying him (Luke 23:34).

We know that the devil is never going to ask for forgiveness. Jesus says he is eventually going to end up in the Lake of Fire, which was designed for him and those who are like him (Matthew 25:41). He will always be our enemy, trying to hurt us by encouraging us to disobey Jesus and live our lives without God. We can choose not to always hate him or be bitter against him. But there is no hope that he will ever change. So our "forgiveness" is that second kind which does not allow Satan to keep himself as the focus of our anger, but rather to see him as a real enemy whom only God can defeat. Our focus is to be on God.

Randall Johnson

Question: I've always heard the phrase "You should see yourself for who you are in Christ". I don't really have a good grasp on this phrase. I think if I had a better understanding and truly believed it, then my life would be different. I usually get plagued with everyday life and hearing lies and being deceived. I want to be humble but I don't want to have a low self worth. I get those two mixed up often.

Answer: One of Paul's most common phrases is "in Christ." He talks about us being blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ, being chosen in him, redeemed in him (Ephesians 1:3-7). He says we are accepted in him (Romans 14:3), alive to God in him (Romans 6:11) and sanctified in him (1 Corinthians 1:2).

All of this is because we have been joined to Christ when we believed in him (Ephesians 1:13). Now God views us as having had the same experience as Christ, crucified, buried and risen again (Romans 6). What is true of Jesus is true of us, as far as God is concerned. So when he relates to us he relates to us the same way he relates to his Son, Jesus. Consequently, there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). We are deemed as righteous as he is.

When we recognize that we have this position with God because of what Christ has done, we have greater confidence in our relationship to Him and a greater sense of His desire to work through us in the lives of others. It does not mean that we think we have arrived. On the contrary, it gives us a realistic sense of who we are. We are susceptible to great rebellion but in Christ we have One who can rein in our wayward hearts and who loves us no matter what. Even if we are in rebellion he loves us. We are people of great worth because of being in Christ and God will never give up on making us more like Christ.

Randall Johnson