Two Ways Out of Joppa

A good woman had died. She is described in Scripture as “full of good works and charitable deeds” (Acts 9:36). Her fellow believers were of such faith, that after her body had been prepared for burial, they called for the apostle Peter to come from a nearby town to where they were – in Joppa, a town on the Mediterranean. Peter “arose and went with” the messengers who came to summon him. God uses the apostle to bring the woman back to life. As a result, “many believed on the Lord” (9:42). I’m struck by the contrast between Peter’s journey to Joppa and an earlier trip to this seaport in Scripture.

“Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.’ But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord” (Jonah 1:1-3).

(Almost as an aside, notice: for God, wickedness is the magnet for mission. Their exceeding wickedness is what God uses to bring the missionary, the command to “repent,” and salvation of that generation to Nineveh. Yes, the “nice” neighborhoods are filled with lost people who need Jesus, but God repeatedly speaks of the throne room of heaven echoing with the sounds of wickedness from notorious locales – Genesis 18:20; Ezra 9:6; James 5:4; Revelation 18:5. Sometimes He responds in His beautiful grace by sending a command to repent.)

Whereas Jonah, a “celebrity” preacher in his day (2 Kings 14:25), goes to Joppa to “flee...from the presence of the LORD,” the apostle Peter answers the call to Joppa for a cause seemingly even more hopeless than Nineveh’s spiritual deadness (Tabitha’s physical deadness). The result is an extension of earthly life for Tabitha and faith in Jesus Christ among many in Joppa. But that’s just a prelude to the real story: the fullness of God’s plan to save a people for Himself from out of all the peoples of the world, a plan going back to Genesis 9:26,26; 12:3.

“There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment, a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people, and prayed to God always. About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, ‘Cornelius!’ And when he observed him, he was afraid, and said, ‘What is it, lord?’ So he said to him, ‘Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God. Now send men to Joppa, and send for Simon whose surname is Peter. He is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea. He will tell you what you must do.’ And when the angel who spoke to him had departed, Cornelius called two of his household servants and a devout soldier from among those who waited on him continually. So when he had explained all these things to them, he sent them to Joppa” (Acts 10:1-8).

Peter then sees a vision while praying on the roof. The point of the vision? “What God has cleansed you must not call common” (10:15). How does God “cleanse”? He cleanses “hearts by faith” (15:9), regardless of the ethnicity, nationality, or sinfulness of those hearts. How does God bring that faith into lives so that their hearts can be cleansed? The sending of the preacher to proclaim “glad tidings of good things” contained solely in “the Word of God” (Romans 10:9-17).

After getting to Joppa, Jonah took a ship to go to (what was for him) the end of the world to escape God’s plan of salvation. Peter prayed to draw closer to God, and the doors to the fullness of the Age of the Gospel opened: “Now while Peter wondered within himself what this vision which he had seen meant, behold, the men who had been sent from Cornelius had made inquiry for Simon’s house, and stood before the gate. And they called and asked whether Simon, whose surname was Peter, was lodging there. While Peter thought about the vision, the Spirit said to him, ‘Behold, three men are seeking you. Arise therefore, go down and go with them, doubting nothing; for I have sent them.’ Then Peter went down to the men who had been sent to him from Cornelius, and said, ‘Yes, I am he whom you seek. For what reason have you come?’ And they said, ‘Cornelius the centurion, a just man, one who fears God and has a good reputation among all the nation of the Jews, was divinely instructed by a holy angel to summon you to his house, and to hear words from you.’ Then he invited them in and lodged them. On the next day Peter went away with them, and some brethren from Joppa accompanied him” (Acts 10:17-23).

For Jonah, it was Joppa to “the belly of Sheol...the moorings of the mountains...the pit” (Jonah 2:2,6). For the apostle Peter, it was the joy of being instrument and eyewitness to God’s grand work to redeem “to God by [Christ’s] blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9), in short, to bless “the families of the earth” (Genesis 12:3; Paul calls this the Gospel in Galatians 3:8).

God got Jonah to Nineveh, and the result was the repentance of a generation (Nineveh would be destroyed by God’s judgment against their sin in the following generation). Peter, who himself had a history of running from God (Matthew 26:69-75//Mark 14:66-72//Luke 22:54-62), by simply going when God said “go,” got to see God “save the world” (John 12:47).

The Lord still says, “go.” Which way out of Joppa will you take, Church?

The Desolation at the Waning of the Year

“They were come to the Desolation of the Dragon, and they were come at the waning of the year.”

- J.R.R. Tolkien, “The Hobbit”

It can be overwhelming. Before this Tolkien wrote, “it was a weary journey...there was no laughter or song or sound of harps...they knew that they were drawing near to the end of their journey, and that it might be a very horrible end. The land about them grew bleak and barren...” A lot of believers have this perspective as they look at sin’s effects in the world and in their own lives. However, the “desolation” is not the whole of the picture, especially for believers. Let’s sit at the feet of the apostle who himself saw the dragon in vision (Revelation 12:1-17; 20:1-3).

This is the message we have heard from Him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all...if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin...I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for His name's sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him Who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know Him Who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world - the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions - is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us...whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil...beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for He Who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error...we know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one (1 John 1:5,7; 2:12-19; 3:8; 4:1-6; 5:18,19).

Yes, John saw the dragon and his effects on the world. That wicked serpent has been lying and producing offspring in the world from the beginning (Genesis 3:1-15; John 8:44) – his work is not limited to the “end times” (did you notice that John said it was the “last hour” two millennia ago?). Throughout human history the desolation of the dragon has been wrought in every generation, every corner of the earth, every place in the human heart and mind. But this is not the whole of the story. As we walk through the Desolation of the Dragon in the waning of the year, may we walk in fellowship with the Father and the Son (and therefore each other). Let us walk in Christ’s victory over the works of the dragon. Let us walk in His light, His forgiveness. Let us walk in His protection from the love of the world, the false prophets, and the antichrists who rise up within the congregation and then go forth, cringing under the bright light of the truth of the Word of God. The song-less gloom is not the spirit of the saint redeemed and re-born in Christ, no matter how loudly the spin doctors of darkness tell us to be in fear.

Rejoice in the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ, walking in the light by the power of the Spirit of truth, walking together as the Church, walking in victory over the Desolation of the Dragon at the waning of the year.

Praise the Evangelist of the Whole World

“The LORD has made known His salvation; He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered His lovingkindness and His faithfulness to the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God” (Psalm 98:2,3).

He has done great things:

• “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. But I say, surely they have never heard, have they? Indeed they have; ‘THEIR VOICE HAS GONE OUT INTO ALL THE EARTH, AND THEIR WORDS TO THE ENDS OF THE WORLD [a quote from Psalm 19:4]’” (Romans 10:17,18).
• “Now to Him Who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen” (Romans 16:25-27).
• “We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints; because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth...and although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach - if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven” (Colossians 1:3-6,21-23).

Commit yourself by faith unto obedience (John 3:36; Romans 1:5; 16:26; Acts 6:7; 2 Thessalonians 1:8) in the power of His Holy Spirit - praise Him with great praise for the Gospel song of salvation He has sung (and keeps singing) over all the earth through His Church: “O sing to the LORD a new song, for He has done wonderful things, His right hand and His holy arm have gained the victory for Him...shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth; break forth and sing for joy and sing praises. Sing praises to the LORD with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody. With trumpets and the sound of the horn shout joyfully before the King, the LORD. Let the sea roar and all it contains, the world and those who dwell in it. Let the rivers clap their hands, Let the mountains sing together for joy” (Psalm 98:1,4-8).

As for Me and My House

The house of the world, Shift, where nothing is absolute: “She weigheth not the way of life: her paths are moveable: thou canst not know them...keep thy way far from her, and come not near the door of her house” (Proverbs 5:6,8, Geneva Bible).

The house of the unchangeable God (Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8; James 1:17), the Church, where the truth of His Word is absolute: “...the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth” (1 Timothy 3:15).

To which house to you belong?