Author: Scott Chafee
Scott serves on staff at King’s Grant Baptist Church in Virginia Beach.
Free Easter Resources
Thank you for visiting King’s Grant Baptist Church on Easter 2017! I trust these resources will help you better connect with God, and perhaps even connect you to King’s Grant Baptist Church.
While you’re here, take a look at these new message series by Ken Pruitt…
- Ministry 101
- Home-Life 101
- Worship on the Lawn – May 21 @ 10:30
Please let us know how we can better serve you or help you grow in your relationship with Jesus. We are also on Social Media, let’s connect…
Click below to download your resources.
A Woman is Preaching?
Do you know the Bible story of Huldah?
Many people have attended Sunday school and church for their entire lives, yet they have never even heard of her. Even those who went to a Christian grade school or college might be thinking, “Umm, in the Bible? Are you sure? Wasn’t that Hagar the Horrible’s wife’s name?” (Nope, that’s Helga). Many of you have spent thirty, forty, or eighty years in the church and still, you’ve never heard of Huldah. I have asked Christians who have all of the above credentials (and more) and generally, they have never heard her name or story.
She almost never shows up in children’s Bible story books. She does not appear in the majority of Sunday school curriculum. Huldah’s story is absent. I have attended church my whole life, all thirty-six years. I have listened to pastors preaching online, on the radio, in different churches, in different denominations, in this country, and overseas. And I have never once heard a pastor tell the story of Huldah or teach on the significance of her life.
And why not? She was arguably the most respected and influential prophet during the reign of King Josiah. Most of us know the story of King Josiah, a godly leader who was crowned as a young boy. So then, why have we not heard about Huldah, an important female prophet from the same period?
It is hard to say that her story is obscure, except that we have made it so by ignoring it. God used Huldah’s prophecy in a powerful way. Her work was followed by the most thorough religious renewal in the entire history of Judah. There were a few Southern kingdom monarchs who had turned away from idolatry in Judah’s history. But it was only under King Josiah in response to Huldah’s prophecy that every visible trace of idol worship was wiped out. Stone idols were even smashed and ground to powder so that no one could salvage a crumb and worship it. Of course, as soon as Josiah died, idolatry popped right up again. But under Josiah’s and Huldah’s leadership, it was completely forbidden.
So why is it that we have overlooked the story of Huldah—a story recorded twice in Scripture (2 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 34)? Why do most people not know her name? Why is she not remembered with other Bible women such as Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, and Esther?
Quite simply, Huldah’s story does not fit with the prevailing theology on women in ministry that is held by most evangelicals in America. There is really nothing to her story except that she preaches the word of God, quite authoritatively, to a group of men who happened to be the highest civic and religious leaders in the country. Even the high priest was there.
Imagining Huldah: this linoleum block and watercolor print was inspired by women depicted in ancient art from Egypt and the Aegean Sea people.
We cannot pull the focus of her story toward co-operative military leadership as we can with Deborah. We cannot put a magnifying glass over her childhood story, her musical talents, or her mistakes as we often do with Miriam. We cannot make her into a beauty contest winner as we can with Esther. Huldah really does only one thing. She preaches a sermon. And it was not sharing time at women’s ministry night. Her audience was men. In the Bible, that is really all that Huldah did. She held a respected position of spiritual leadership, and she clearly taught the word of God to men.
But you thought “ladies” weren’t supposed to do that! Huldah’s story raises difficult questions about why women today are not allowed to be spiritual leaders and religious teachers in the church.
In Jerusalem at the time of Huldah’s ministry, there were some very dark practices going on. There were prostitutes whose services were available right inside the temple of Yahweh. People thought that in order to keep the gods happy, the crops healthy, and the invading armies away, they needed to throw their children into the open jaws of the evil god, Molech. Their children were burned alive as human sacrifices. But all of that ended after King Josiah encountered the word of God. God spoke to the king in two ways, through the Book of the Law found in the temple (probably Deuteronomy) and through the preaching of a woman.
So, here’s my question today:
Would you like to see the church purified from its modern day idols? Would you like to see our “Molech” ground to dust?
Then let the women preach! Do not put up roadblocks of doubt and shame about what a woman can do for God’s people. Tell your daughters about Huldah. Encourage women who want to learn and teach God’s word. Invite them to share what God has taught them to women and men. In the humble footsteps of Josiah, seek out the wisdom of godly women in your church. Be prepared for God to speak in an unexpected way with an unexpected voice.
And remember:
“In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days and they will prophesy.” (Acts 2:17-18)
The Love and Wrath of God
I read an interesting article today, specifically saying that the substitutionary death of Christ is not a doctrine which is true to God’s character. If we embrace a substitutionary view of the cross, that teaching portrays God as a blood-thirsty, vengeful being satisfying his need for wrath and punishment of sin.
But we know that God is a loving Father, like we read in the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32). Jesus tenderly cares for his sheep as the Good Shepherd (John 10:11, 14). And we all know that “God is love” mainly because First John references this fact a few times.
- 1 John 4:7 – Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.
- 1 John 4:8 – But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
- 1 John 4:10 – This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
I have come to believe that any doctrine taken to its ultimate extreme will eventually lead to heresy. For example, the love of God taken to its ultimate conclusion leads to universalism, that all people will be saved in the end because the love of God would never punish anyone, and certainly a loving God would never send anyone to hell.
Yet there must be a balance between the love of God and the holiness of God, because sin cannot be in God’s presence. So, how will sinful human beings come to the Father, unless the Father provides a solution to our sin problem? Some say we should just act more like Jesus, following his example (1 Peter 2:21), conforming to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). But if we fully embrace this teaching to its ultimate conclusion, it leads to a works righteousness. We can even leave the cross out of the picture and therefore the blood he shed is made irrelevant.
While we know that God is love, the New Testament also supports the concept of God as a God of wrath who judges sin. The story of the rich man and Lazarus speaks of the judgment of God and serious consequences for the unrepentant sinner (Luke 16:19–31).
John 3:36 says, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
Theologians (who have studied the Bible much deeper than your average Christian) have taught for generations that the one who believes in the Son will not suffer God’s wrath for his sin, because the Son took God’s wrath upon Himself when He died in our place on the cross (Romans 5:6–11). Those who do not believe in the Son, who do not repent and follow Jesus, will be judged on the day of wrath (Romans 2:5–6). Paul seems pretty clear.
Let’s get back to First John, where the apostle teaches point blank that Jesus is the propitiation for our sins…
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. (1 John 2:1-2)
The word “advocate” is “Paracletos,” one called alongside to help; or intercessor, and “propitiation” is the word “hilasmos,” meaning satisfaction, or the means of appeasing.
While I do not claim to be a Greek scholar, it seems to me that the cross of Jesus, the blood that was shed, somehow appeased or satisfied God’s wrath. Jesus took on the sins of the world but they must respond to his sacrificial death by means of faith in order for the sacrifice to be effectual in the believer’s life. Basically, Jesus died for the whole world, but forgiveness comes only to those who respond to God’s grace with faith (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Just as the incarnation teaches that Jesus was 100% God and 100% human (not half God and half man), the New Testament can also teach that God is both 100% love and 100% holy. After all, once we have God all figured out, he will cease to be God at all.
I suppose I will end with a quote from Peter…
If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; 18 knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. (1 Peter 1:17-19)
I still believe that we had a debt that we could not pay, and Jesus paid the debt he did not owe. The wrath of God is a fearsome and terrifying thing. Only those who have been covered by the blood of Christ, shed for us on the cross, can be assured that God’s wrath will never fall on them. “Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Him!” (Romans 5:9).
We cannot begin to understand God’s justice or wrath unless we first understand sin. Sin is lawlessness (1 John 3:4) and iniquity (Daniel 9:4-5; Micah 2:1; James 3:6). It embodies everything contrary to God’s holy nature and is offensive to him. So, sin is a crime against God and justice demands a penalty of death and separation from him for it (Romans 1:18-32; 2:5; 3:23). But God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to earth to pay that penalty for us (Romans 5:8-11; 6:23) and made salvation available to all who believe in his name (John 1:12; 3:15-17; 20:31).
Lord, Teach Us to Pray
This Easter we are planning a prayer strategy at church to intentionally pray for Easter: our services, guests, preacher, choir, Sunday School teachers, attendance, God’s presence, with an expectation that God can and wants to do great things in and through our church.
I found this e-mail devotion from Bible Gateway (March 2, 2017); may we seek to pray better, more effectively, more earnestly, more faithfully, with an expectancy not found in ordinary people.
My hunch is that of all spiritual disciplines, prayer is the one that people feel most guilty about. Somehow it seems that if we really love God prayer should flow out of us without effort or discipline. In fact, this was not the case even with Jesus’ first followers.
They had a front row seat to watch the greatest pray-er who ever prayed. And they noticed that things happened when he prayed. And they asked: “Lord, teach us to pray.”
This is a startling request because as Jews the disciples would have known all about prayers. They would have grown up with prayers offered through the day, before meals, at the beginning of Sabbath, and when they went to synagogue. They weren’t just asking what words to say. The disciples noticed Jesus looked forward to prayer and actually hungered for it. They saw that somehow prayer fed Jesus’ soul the way food fed their stomachs. They observed a richly interactive life between Jesus and his Father. They noticed that at crisis points—when Jesus was grieving over the death of John the Baptist, when he experienced need, when he was tired from ministry—his consistent response was to pray. They wanted to be nourished by prayer the way that Jesus was. So they asked him to teach them.
Here’s the lesson: Prayer is learned behavior. Nobody is born an expert at it. No one ever masters prayer.
Simple prayer is the most common type of prayer in Scripture. Jesus himself teaches it when he tells us to pray for our daily bread. Sometimes it looks amazingly non-spiritual, as when Gideon asks God to give a few more reasons why he should trust Him.
I have had to learn to be fully present when praying. I have had to learn to become aware of and speak with God about what is actually happening within me during prayer. Talking to God directly about what is happening has made prayer become a much more lively experience in my life.
Jesus often taught about intercessory prayer, and if his teachings could be summarized by a single word it would probably be “persistence.” He told parables about people who would not stop requesting—if persistence pays off even on the human level where we have to overcome resistance and apathy on the part of those we approach, how much more should we continue to persist when we approach a heavenly Father whose love and wisdom exceed our wildest imaginings?
Prayer, perhaps more than any other activity, is the concrete expression of the fact that we are invited into a relationship with God. In addition to all the other work that gets done through prayer, perhaps the greatest work of all is the knitting of the human heart together with the heart of God.
Sometimes people fail to learn more about prayer because they don’t reflect on what actually happens when they pray. Take time to reflect. Think of this as what we might do after a visit with a good friend. We spend a few moments alone and think about our time together.